dr. qousqous tsziar 🇨🇦
@qousqous.bsky.social
parallel parking enthusiast, conscientious degenerate, MSG advocate, counterfeit consciousness. it is your responsibility to keep the moon safe. i find ftairs
New piece on the Last Ditch bar shenanigans and how it's remarkable that some people are still misattributing COVID-19 risk. gidmk.substack.com/p/the-last-d...
The Last Ditch Mask Fight: What Are The Risks of COVID-19 in 2026?
A discussion that we’re still somehow having
gidmk.substack.com
🏘️Small Lots & Strong Blocks OneCity is the only party who will fix and finish the Vancouver Plan: 4 Floors & Corner Stores everywhere, 6 Floors & Services near thoroughfares Legalize 25 ft. lots, 5 ft. setbacks, and courtyards Single-Stair everywhere for more house, cheaper, on smaller lots
Do you live in Vancouver, do you want a home of your own? What about just the dignity of renting without the fear of eviction? OneCity has a team and a plan for that, The Way Home & Housing for All www.onecityvancouver.ca/news/housing... #VanPoli
Since mask discourse is trending again, I thought I'd re-up this. Respirators remain a vital tool for people who need extra protection from respiratory viruses. Masks work! But there are good scientific reasons why population masking as an intervention was a good idea in 2020, but not in 2026.
Prof. Michael Fuhrer@michaelsfuhrer.bsky.social · last yr.Gather 'round Bluesky, while I tell the hoary tale of epidemic vs. endemic. How can it be that pandemic interventions that were vitally important in 2020 are marginally effective in 2025? Science will give us the answers! Follow me... 1/
Pompeii is a UNESCO world heritage site not because it was remarkable in its prime, but because it survived to our era untouched: one moment, preserved for all time. But future generations won't know what OUR world was like unless we do the same. This is why we MUST bury Toronto with a volcano
Why I implore people to pay attention to school board elections and VOTE in them. Even if you don't have kids.
Mel Woods@melwoods.me · 4d agoAs we sit on the precipice of another election in BC—particularly considering the climate with the Democrats in the U.S. right now—it's worth pushing progressive politicians to vocally affirm their support of LGBTQ2S+ folks (and particularly trans people), rather than accepting silence as support.
I urge everyone to vote OneCity across the board, but especially for School Board. No other party has put forward a slate this experienced. VSB schools have seen brutal cuts in services and an apalling lack of open engagement at the board level. Schools, teachers and our kids deserve better.
OneCity Vancouver@onecityvan.bsky.social · 4d agoMeet the entire OneCity School Board team👇 Running for Trustee to give families, workers, and kids a voice, a place, and a future in our public schools.
The easiest vote you can make is for @lucymaloney.bsky.social and @onecityvan.bsky.social
Vision Zero Vancouver@visionzerovancouver.ca · last wk.Our much-anticipated Vancouver City Council full term report card is here! 📝 We look back over 4 years of council votes and give the mayor and each councillor a grade, backed up by solid numbers. How did your favourite councillor do? visionzerovancouver.ca/2026/09/16/v...
It shouldn't require a lawyer to run for office with your given name. We're fighting for the right to use my given Chinese name 陶思穎 on the ballot. If you agree that candidates should be able to use their given names on the ballot, donate to my campaign so I can fight for fairer representation.
This week's update shows that all the early indicators for Covid-19 (positivity, ED visits, and wastewater RNA concentration) have peaked in the US. Positivity peaked 53% lower than summer 2025 ED visits peaked 62% lower than summer 2025 Wastewater RNA peaked 67% lower than summer 2025 More later!
Prof. Michael Fuhrer@michaelsfuhrer.bsky.social · 2w agoCovid emergency department visits (blue) have peaked in US, ~60% lower than summer 2025, which was ~40% lower than summer 2024. Wastewater RNA, positivity, hospitalizations, deaths show similar trend. Covid-19 decreasing year-on-year, and the decrease is accelerating. Unexpected good news! 1/
I think it's cool that all political parties like to go "I DON'T TRUST THE PUBLIC FACTS" when it's convenient to their narrative. We have reams of data from government and private sources, along with endless anecdotes of people negotiating down their rent over the last two years. but whatever man
This is, of course, an oversimplification and an unfair generalization, but... everyone has lost their minds.
William Azaroff announced today that he's ending his campaign for mayor. I'm disappointed, but I'm still super energized by the chance to stack Vancouver's leadership with OneCity's progressive, pro-housing councillors like superstar Lucy Maloney.
diluez! diluez! ok!@tds.xyz · 3w ago✋ i think william azaroff would be a good mayor. in fact, a better mayor than anyone else who's running. i think he's got a great policy book, i think he understands the pressures on creatives and young families in this city, i think he's got a great track record of leadership on important problems
TODAY is the last day to tell the city you want to see Granville stay open for people and closed to traffic! Make sure to fill out the survey, every positive response builds a stronger case for vibrant car-free streets in Vancouver.
Brent Toderian@brenttoderian.bsky.social · 4w agoIMPORTANT: If you support how GRANVILLE STREET in downtown Vancouver was transformed this summer into a PEDESTRIAN STREET & PEOPLE-PLACE, THEN TELL CITY HALL! They have a short survey below going on until Monday Sept 7th asking how u felt about it. The survey will be open until Monday September 7th!
Both OneCity and COPE have been announcing some really excellent policies and plans for this election. The parties have their differences but I really hope they can work together on things like this (and that Sim and ABC are sent packing, ofc)
William Azaroff@wazaroff.bsky.social · 3w agoA vibrant arts scene doesn't start at the Orpheum – it starts in small DIY venues that are all too often at the margins. Today we're announcing Backstage Pass: our Arts & Culture Action Plan to legalize small venues, protect spaces at risk & take the politics out of arts funding decisions. 1/7🧵
This is the plan I’ve been waiting to see. This is what we need to keep art and culture thriving in Vancouver, and I say this both as the managing director of a 45-year old established theatre company and venue, and as a burlesque performer on the independent cabaret scene
William Azaroff@wazaroff.bsky.social · 3w agoA vibrant arts scene doesn't start at the Orpheum – it starts in small DIY venues that are all too often at the margins. Today we're announcing Backstage Pass: our Arts & Culture Action Plan to legalize small venues, protect spaces at risk & take the politics out of arts funding decisions. 1/7🧵
Some of the discourse on USAID has reminded me of this.
It was lovely to work on this article with @meghansmiller.bsky.social and @ahusker.bsky.social. Hopefully it will help answer some of the ongoing questions about the recent destructive earthquakes. theconversation.com/are-earthqua...
Are earthquakes becoming more common? Here’s what the numbers say
Scientists have been able to catalogue the largest earthquakes for a very long time.
theconversation.com
Vancouver's weekend storm was the biggest lightning event recorded in the city
Vancouver's weekend storm was the biggest lightning event recorded in the city
There were between 1,700 and 1,800 lightning strikes within 50 km of Vancouver.
dlvr.it
funniest pro-AI argument I've seen is someone being like "if you're so anti-AI if ChatGPT, Claude, etc. disappeared suddenly what would you do?" like babes, literally nothing. the biggest change in my life would be an immense relief.
See NYT asked me for an op-ed on the Colorado River water issue. So that's what I told them. And the editors panicked & cancelled the piece. In case we're wondering why "nobody can figure out how to solve this difficult issue." We absolutely can, a lot of our professional talkers are just cowards.
Vague Pariah@vaguepariah.bsky.social · last mo.Maybe just start by charging a market rate for water instead of using prior appropriation
Like, a lot of us right now have a prior assumption that "AI is driving water shortages." And no, it absolutely tf is not. It's agriculture. It's always been agriculture. Most of us have spent our whole lives not seeing it. We need to stop that ag water blindness before it screws us all over.
This is a really good framing for trying to force developers to build/fund infrastructure.
Brendan Dawe@dawe.bsky.social · last mo.What you end up doing is financing public goods at mortgage rates of interest and with considerable added friction
we're at the "they're arming unaccountable masked men with electric torture gloves" stage of fascism
Humans respond to danger by searching for patterns to find how to be safe. We find patterns in random distributions b/c it makes us feel safer. Feeling out of control increases illusory pattern perception. Earthquakes make most of us feel we lack control. psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1126/...
Lacking Control Increases Illusory Pattern Perception
We present six experiments that tested whether lacking control increases illusory pattern perception, which we define as the identification of a coherent and meaningful interrelationship among a set of random or unrelated stimuli. Participants who lacked ...
psycnet.apa.org
Outside of local triggering (eg., aftershocks), the global distribution of big earthquakes is random in time. That means there is an average rate (15 M7+ evets/yr) but the time since the last event doesn't matter. Sometimes we see clusters - if there were no clusters, it woldn't be random.
