Parksville is likely far more commercial and developed than you recall.

But the beaches remain.

Here are some suggestions with a kids lens:

Vancouver Island

• get mid Island then over to the west coast

• Parksville - large sandy beaches to dig in

• ferry to Denman Island and then to Hornsby Island - fossils! https://hornbynaturalhistory.com/category/fossils/

• Qualicum Beach - gravelly and lots of seniors, but a great place to see bald eagles picking up clams and oysters, dropping them to break them open and diving to eat.

• Cathedral grove on Hwy to Port Alberni, accessible old growth forest

• Alberni - old forestry interpretation site with a logging train in the Cherry Creek area

• Drive to Tofino - an adventure in itself

• Long Beach

• whale watching

If you go to Vancouver, many of the classic stops are worth it

• the Aquarium
• Whale watching
• Grouse mountain gondola and mountain top
• Capilano suspension bridge and the fish hatchery and environs
• Seabus
• UBC museum of anthropology

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Mapping and confirming the existence of a system larger than the world renowned Castleguard Cave system is the story here.

Well, there was something of the kind of CANZUK sharing earlier. But that included SA and India in a kind of outer layer with less complete access.

There’s absolutely no incentive to log in to YouTube now that subscriptions and bells do nothing to control your feed. End stage enshittification.

I do know about the latter. Knew some folks that taught there.

Few courses are taught by tenured faculty at the Ivies. Junior faculty have to justify final grades, PhD students and sessional have to justify any grades lower than B- on any assignment.

Coupling that with the ‘legacy admissions’ where children of alumni have a lower bar to admission, anyone with a B- average has a questionable degree.

No matter how good their programs are, for the lowers tier of students, they’re just institutions of transmitted privilege. Which is why the complaints about DEI mechanisms to balance that are so suspect.

I wasn’t aware whether UPenn was on the same system but it’s a huge thing for private universities reliant on tuition fees and big alumni donations.

It’s interesting how California is shutting down the practice of legacy admissions, and Stanford and USC are feeling the sting.

But Trump was able to graduate?

Is Wharton one of those US schools (like Harvard) where anyone lower than a tenured professor has to write justifications to file anytime they give a student less than a B-?

Both Trump and Musk have degrees from the supposedly reputable Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

If these two are evidence of their quality of graduates, it really raises questions about whether it was another US institution where ‘legacy’ and money buy admissions and it’s impossible not to graduate.

You can join communities on other instances too if you have specific interests.

There’s currently an Redexit of Canadians who are looking to get off US-controlled social media.

Lemmy.ca has had a huge spike in enrolment as it’s the one that was most prominently promoted in r/BuyCanadian. Apparently, it’s had over 9k signups in the past day.

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I first heard of the sweater curse more than 30 years ago.

It’s been a thing in knitting circles for generations as far as I can tell.

Experienced it.

The curse is likely based on the item being too much pressure on a relationship that’s not ready for it.

If you’re a really experienced and fast knitter that’s regularly knocking of sweaters for yourself and perhaps have done small ones as gifts for friends kids, it wouldn’t be the same.

But if you’re looking for love to motivate you through your first big project, it’s a disaster waiting to happen. All the more so if you’re toting your project with you and knitting in public.

Short Treks season 1.

Should be available on Paramount+ but you may need to hunt for it.

Actually no. And it kind of would fly in the face of what I get out of the activity.

I don’t knit or crochet to any target, I just like the experience of the activity. It’s soothing. I have a few different projects on the go that give me different kinds of experiences.

When used to sew clothes for myself, I would parcel out the expected hours for the specific type of project if I needed to have something done for a particular event, but not with knitting, crochet or needlepoint.

You are so missing out on the wonder that is Sam Kirk.

SNW has a lot delightful surprises, but adding the insouciance of Sam Kirk, but having brothers Kirk spar when Jim shows up on occasion, is truly inspired writing.

Not to mention he really gets under Spock’s skin.

Just to say the way the role is presented kn television doesn’t highlight the sensitive roles such as being the senior NCO responsible for oversight of enlisted personnel performance evaluations or communications with command.

It would be very senior AO role on a capital ship, but she mainly comes by to get the captain to sign stuff.

It absolutely is confusing.

Roddenberry gave conflicting direction on this. By the time TNG rolled out, his position was that most of the crew were officers.

But it was a long and confusing evolution. After intervention by the network after the TOS pilot, turned Janice Rand’s yeoman role, which is one of the most senior NCO roles on a naval ship, into what seemed to be a personal secretary. NBC was no more ready for a senior NCO who was a woman than they had been to have a female first officer Number One.

Discovery makes things murkier by mixing in ‘Chiefs’ as a title for department heads but never actually saying who is chief medical officer or chief engineer.

Lower Decks seems to have ensigns being hazed with junior enlisted tasks. However, Prodigy has introduced warrant officers as another career pathway outside the Academy.