SpankyMcFarland

Long before PC there were such things as good manners, courtesy and respect. Make sure you keep them.

Firstly, do we agree that there is a maximum number of migrants that can reasonably be accommodated by Europe? If so, it's a matter of figuring that number out. Erdogan is a dreadful person. He is trying to extort concessions from Europe.

The Sleep Revolution by Arianna Huffungton. The tone is a little shrill but it highlights our pressing need for more sleep.

What about insect-sized drones or smaller?

The health metrics are in Norway's favour but that's not a fair comparison. They have run their nation's finances better than we have.What countries do you think are better run? This is all a tad off-topic.

Canada is well run, one of the best. That does not mean its voting system cannot be improved or is already perfect. I would say Norway has been better run for starters.

You assume there will be other jobs for these people. That has been true so far since the Industrial Revolution but looks like a much dodgier bet in the future. Freeing people to do other things sounds nice as long as the guys with the gold are willing to share it.

It's reasonable to be cautious. I will give you that. Every system does have flaws. From the FPTP defenders, I just don't see enough thought devoted to remedying those flaws.

Most good news stories in cancer come from new treatments. Recently, however, pathologists have decided that one cancer isn't as bad as they thought. The tumor in question is one type of follicular variant papillary carcinoma of thyroid (EFVPTC). In the authors' opinion, it should no longer be called carcinoma. The authors suggest another long-winded term to replace the old one - NIFTP or non-invasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillary-like nuclear features. Over the past thirty years, this tumour type has seen a massive increase in incidence because of more radiology imaging of the gland and subsequent biopsies, but overall mortality has not increased. Many people live for decades unaware they have such a tumor in their thyroid and die of other causes. http://oncology.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2513250 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/15/health/thyroid-tumor-cancer-reclassification.html?_r=0 The usual caveats apply. The findings will have to be confirmed and it will be a while before any official change happens. Some thyroid tumors are highly malignant. One message from all this is that the term 'cancer' can be quite misleading because it covers such a diverse group of disorders. I would like to see 'neoplastic disease' replacing it which is I think more accurate. One could then divide the condition into the following categories: mild, moderate or severe; and localized or generalized. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/health/cancer-by-any-other-name-would-not-be-as-terrifying.html?version=meter+at+2&contentId=&mediaId=&referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mapleleafweb.com%2Fforums%2Ftopic%2F25797-a-cancer-gets-a-downgrade%2F%3Fp%3D1161703&priority=true&action=click&contentCollection=Health&module=RelatedCoverage&region=EndOfArticle&pgtype=article I see that at the University of Pittsburgh they are going to go back through the files and inform everyone who has one of these lesions that they do not have cancer and no longer require follow-up. That will be quite the job if done across the world.

That was true in the past but many non-traditional degrees are much less valuable now. Youth unemployment is considerably higher than 7% and job security has declined. Many of the smaller towns are being hollowed out once traditional industries leave so there is not much point buying property there unless you are retired.

I don't support ranked balloting. I do believe that any proposed change should be put to a referendum. The status quo has a big advantage because people naturally fear what would be a big change and are busy. In any case, electoral reform is not exactly the most serious problem we face in the country. The last federal election had a powerful motivator for turnout in the shape of the incumbent. To his credit, he was probably the most polarizing figure since PT. I doubt if we will see those numbers again for a nice while. Around the world, politicians are unable to solve the big problems of the day. Ask any young person about what is happening to jobs, student debt and house prices.

Here are some recent proposals to fight this growing problem, potentially a new 'dark age' in medicine: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/may/19/no-antibiotics-without-a-test-says-report-on-rising-antimicrobial-resistance http://amr-review.org/sites/default/files/AMR%20Review%20Paper%20-%20Tackling%20a%20crisis%20for%20the%20health%20and%20wealth%20of%20nations_1.pdf I think governments are going to have to invest substantially in this area. We must respect our opponent. Bacteria have been in the resistance business for something like 3 billion years, and they are ready to resist antibiotics they have not even been exposed to. For example, Clostridium species isolated from the bowel of a Franklin expedition member, frozen in the ice for 120 years, were found to be resistant to antibitiotics developed in the twentieth century. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1980&dat=19881026&id=YYUiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9akFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4063,4308629&hl=en

Many nations do - or have done when kings mattered.

You are going to have to do better than that to convince me.

Rue, I think I'll start a list of Russians killed in WWII to show you what a proper-sized list looks like. On a Canadian website, this is ridiculous. Provide a link to all this verbiage for those who want to read it.

Maybe there is a strategic direction to all this, replacing one leader with a more reasonable one. Let's hope there is some thinking going on that will get the soldiers out of there. I don't see the Taliban as a big international problem right now.

Well, a Palestinian did. I haven't seen convincing evidence of a larger plot.

I don't. I am saying that if there were one, which there should be, the status quo choice would have a big advantage. I can't see most people getting excited about it. Politics is increasingly irrelevant to most people.

In a referendum, I can't see reform winning. We are stuck with the constitutional and electoral framework we have until something really dramatic happens.

A government supported by more people is more legitimate in my view. I would like to see you defend the 1993 federal election result in Canada https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_federal_election,_1993 Look at the percentage of votes for each party and the seats won. or the recent UK result. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2015 FPTP gives a massive advantage to regional parties over national ones, a fundamental flaw in the system, creates too many safe seats, encouraging voter apathy, and shuts voters out of choosing party candidates. With all that said, I must say the government has not chosen a wise path to introduce such a major change. The process should be as open and democratic as possible, obviously.

I think the Supreme Court should have given Parliament more time to get this done. It is fiendishly difficult. There are certain categories I am uncomfortable to see doctors involved with: minors; the mentally ill; and certain patients with lifelong disabilities. With the last group, in particular, I worry about the pressure they might come under to do 'the decent thing' and cease to be a 'burden on the family'. We must be vigilant to avoid the eugenics of the fascists and many other like-minded thinkers in this regard. For myself, I would be more than happy to see a doctor step in and help me exit if I needed it.

As an immigrant to this country, I believe there is a finite number of refugees that can be assimilated in Canada per year. We should at least seek to clarify how many we can reasonably take. Events since 9/11 have shown the importance of cultural assimilation. Immigrants should want to embrace our values and should be informed that this is expected. If you don't want to become Canadian, go elsewhere. There are lots who do.

Iran has a long way to go. It's an authoritarian religious dictatorship that treats everybody badly but particularly non-Muslims, Sunnis, Muslims who are considered heretics and Shia from Afghanistan who do not not 'look like' Iranians i.e. racism of a particularly nasty kind that resembles apartheid in some ways. The process of secularization may take many decades but I think the tradition of Iranian civilization that sustained Western Asia for a millennium gives us cause to be cautiously optimistic.

Well, with all due respect, I would still like to whine about it now that a lefty government that I voted for is in power. I would prefer a govt supported by a majority of the electorate.

Why not just have one party, then, and be done with it? That would do away with all these risks.