I actually think the boycotts and sustained bad press about Loblaws might be helping more than this grocery code of conduct, whatever it’s supposedly doing.

But good news, everyone!

Amendments were made in December to the Competition Act that should help, eventually.

Here are some details you never asked for but I’ll post anyway.

I read a good blog post about it on Lemmy somewhere, but I can’t find it now unfortunately.

The gist is, from memory:

• the act was originally written to protect the Canadian economy from being overtaken by foreign competition (I.e. US especially).
• it would favour Canadian companies provided that it would benefit the country economically overall, regardless of the harms to Canadians in terms of the lack of competition (artificially high prices, lack of coverage, access, etc).
• these companies were protected from civil suits for those harms.
• the result was the best possible conditions for the consolidation of market share to the very few Canadian companies and too much cost or difficulty for foreign companies to bother competing with. Very often, these became family dynasties (The Westons, Rogerses, Sobeys’ owners - Irving?, etc).

But some of the changes in December basically alter those considerations about harms and these companies are legally exposed to civil suits if the harms are realized. This could help.

In some ways, I suppose we should be grateful for Loblaws’ exceptional greed of late because maybe nothing would change if we weren’t angry and focused enough on these problems.

I see this as a very long long overdue reaction to the telecom and grocery chain debacles. It’s hard to know for certain because these commercial dynasties are very tight with the political dynasties. It seems like they don’t really want anything to change. Just posturing for the cameras and then let things go back to “normal”.

Take the Internet, since its inception in Canada. One of the highest prices in the world. Same with wireless. Lately, the CRTC has helped kill almost all independent ISPs through long drawn out reviews and delay tactics on wholesale fiber rates, even after the lobbyist as Head was replaced with someone less duplicitous; someone who started with the mandate to focus policy on consumer benefits and protections as opposed to the industry. Still going on.

And of course, allowing Rogers to buy Shaw and Freedom Mobile. Selling off to videotron doesn’t help as much as a viable fourth player would have.

And now it feels like they’re sabre rattling about grocery regulations, encouraging Loblaws to drop prices until we forget about it but leave the door open for these problems to happen again. Then run around again trying to woo a foreign company/investment to come to Canada just like Wind Mobile, fail due to favouritism of Canadian incumbent companies and get bought and sold in 10-20 years. I don’t blame these foreign companies for avoiding Canada. Too risky.

The government is very conflicted right now it seems. But I’m hoping the changes to the act will turn this around for future industry decisions.

An AI-powered Clippy… have we learned nothing from Star Trek Lower Decks about what can go wrong with this??

Arthur Grand Wizard Technologies

This isn’t the first time he’s been attacked.

Yes exactly, a game changer for me as well.

I used to use tap water too. I have to highlight why distilled or boiled water is important though. Tap water isn’t sterile and there have been cases of microbes creating infections when used with Neti pots.

Naegleria fowleri is a brain-eating amoeba that has been linked to tap water usage in Neti pots, among other scenarios.

These cases are rare, to be fair, but still worth avoiding with distilled or boiled water. There could be other less fatal microbes junking things up, after all.

I gotta clarify, boiled but then cooled water for use in your Neti pots!

I have nasal congestion due to allergies every morning so here’s some advice that might help you.

You can try a Neti pot morning and night. The NeilMed ones at Costco pharmacies are good.

Use distilled water or boil your own for 1-3 minutes depending on the elevation in the area.

Once the packets run out you can measure 1/8 tsp baking soda, 1/8 to 1/4 tsp non-iodized salt (e.g. sea salt).

For prescriptions, Omnaris might work for you too. Gets things moving and doesn’t have the congestive rebound effect that over-the-counter nasal decongestants do.

All the other advice about controlling allergens is on point too. You can try an anti-histamine (e.g. Aerius) for a week to see if your congestion goes away but allergy meds dry you out a bit by design and gum you up so maybe this won’t have the effect you’re seeking.

You can get a sleep study for apnea but I’d say only if you’ve had actual fatigue related symptoms, not just what you’ve described here.

You could get a breath test for your lungs. Maybe there’s mold at your place. That tightness should be enough reason to get checked out, tbh.

Best of luck!

To try and thwart malicious scripted login attempts, some sites expect a manual keyboard action on the username and/or password fields.

You can use your password manager to populate the fields but then click each and add then remove a character. That usually handles it.

Tenet. I’ve watched it probably four times. Got my sister onto it and I think she’s seen it like seven times now.

Very rewatchable. It can make sense but I’d say it takes you at least two viewings to follow along. Probably three.

I wish there was a sequel but I don’t think that’s Christopher Nolan’s style.

I see other Nolan movies listed here. There’s definitely a theme in them with time, story order and apparently, dead wives?

eBooks.com

For audiobooks, try Libro.fm (they can sell through or donate to your local bookstore).

Most (mega) publishers list their wares on their sites (e.g. Penguin) and will link out to where you can buy.

I think Apple Books has gotten better (fair) since they got slapped for price fixing on publishers. They’re also looking at AI generated audiobooks as an attempt to compete and pull market share away from Amazon/Audible, as far as I can tell. That’s good for the market perhaps but perhaps raises concerns for pushing not famous voice actor/narrators out of work. A concern about AI overall though, I suppose.

Anyway, my preference for either format is my library online. I recommend that option over anything else.

Tenacious D did the cover I’m most familiar with.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UiDo22khPrk

Yes this is the same issue I’ve noticed. I’ve been playing Vampire Survivor exclusively for some time so I’m not sure if the problem is game specific or SteamOS. Probably the latter. I can run a different game later and see or maybe you can let me know.

I’ve noticed a black screen after exiting a game lately but just thought it was a problem with the specific game. I have to press the back button to get out of it and back to where you’d normally land after exiting a game, the game selection page/menu from the library in steam (there’s probably a better name for it).

Is that what you mean?