voluble

PP is going ‘young, hip’

Such a laughable turn. I think it's a marker that literally anybody could be in his shoes, doing and saying anything at all, and they'd be polling well.

Freeland is incredibly capable - but can be tied, hand in glove, with everything Trudeau

Yep. Liberals are zugzwanged.

CBC - Indian officials linked to homicides, violence in Canada, and pose threat to public safety, RCMP alleges

FWIW, in terms of % of the popular vote in 2021, Alberta voted NDP at a higher rate than Ontario. So I think the results of a FPTP election obscure the diversity of views in Alberta.

What I mean to say is not that the LPC's choice for leader would be bullshit, but that, whatever their choice is, it's hard to imagine how they would be able to credibly separate themselves from what has made the LPC so unpopular.

So for that reason, I'm not sure why Freeland would be the obvious choice. If the Liberals want to win a federal election, I think she'd be a poor choice for party leader. Any barbs that could be directed at Trudeau could be easily directed at Freeland. From an optics standpoint, I don't think it's possible to differentiate Freeland from Trudeau, and the Liberal party of the past decade. That's a problem that I think would override who she is or her credentials, at least in the public eye.

Even if the Liberals somehow manage to find a credible, electable leader that doesn't end up being a Michael Ignatieff 2.0, I see no reason to trust that they won't deliver more of the same bullshit.

When it comes to leadership in American politics, it's said that democrats fall in love, and republicans fall in line.

I don't want to fall in love. The past decade of Canadian politics has been a parade of 'charisma' and it hasn't gotten us anywhere. I want a sincere and straightforward leader, who won't get embroiled in scandals, has a strong stance on foreign policy, a plan for foreign interference, the housing & affordability crisis, and an ability to deal with issues in a straightforward and policy-focused way. I guess what I'm trying to say is I want a prime minister with a short skirt and a long jacket.

An election must be in the air, he's saying the thing again.

I know Bruichladdich has said they do this for the Laddie Classic (a bottling I really love). Source: just trust me bro. I don't recall when or where I heard that. Possibly they do it with other bottlings, and surely other distilleries are doing the same thing. Bruichladdich didn't invent the process. But it's not a well studied, documented, or promoted element of whisky ageing, because, I think, it's not as sexy as infusion and evaporation. Among other reasons. If you're curious, I could spin a yarn.

Any distillery that chooses to do this, certainly does it for a reason. Disgorging and re-casking a batch is a massive pain in the ass, and holds up warehouse space & production timelines - two things a bean counter with no sensitivities to flavour would be happy to cut out.

Could be! From my experience, high strength Bourbon is better a couple weeks after being opened. From a flavour standpoint, gin also benefits greatly from resting for a few weeks after distillation.

In fact, one of my favourite Scotch Whisky distilleries will blend a production batch, and then re-barrel the blended volume in casks and let it rest for 6 months to allow the flavours to harmonize.

There is definitely some magic that happens after spirits are blended/bottled, and it's not very well understood, but the changes are detectable, and in general, they're positive.

What we know as whisky maturation is a dance between 4 interrelated processes - infusion, evaporation, oxidation, and other chemical reactions. These all happen together, and very nicely, when whisky sits in oak barrels for an extended period of time.

Colour, and oak flavour are infused into the whisky simply by sitting in the barrel. The whisky will slowly evaporate while inside the barrel as well. Volatile compounds evaporate, making the whisky smoother, deeper, and more complex with age. Fascinating chemical reactions happen between compounds in the wood, and in the whisky. As ethanol degrades lignin, for example, it creates new compounds, which themselves interact with other molecules and compounds in solution.

The age statement on a bottle of whisky refers to the time it spent in a barrel, doing those lovely things.

Common wisdom is that the whisky is done changing when it goes into glass. Certainly, infusion and evaporation are finished. But! Oxidation, and reactions between compounds in the whisky itself will continue, even in a sealed glass bottle. Usually this happens too slowly to notice, or the bottle gets drank before a change can be observed, but change certainly happens.

Long story short - whisky won't go bad. In fact, sometimes it even goes 'good'! I had the chance to try a young single malt, that was bottled in the 1970s. It was wonderful, and had signature aroma and flavour characteristics of a very old whisky. This is due to slow oxidation, and the glacial interaction between esters and congeners over time, which will happen no matter what vessel the whisky is in.

Whisky that has been exposed to too much oxygen, like if the bottle sits nearly empty for a long time, or has a bad seal, will often end up tasting flat and bland. But 'good' or 'bad' at this point, is a subjective matter. Only one way to find out!

This is the sort of thing that the old internet could really deliver on. Chances are, a search query could lead you to some guy's hoodie blog, and he just liked hoodies, and posted honestly about them.

Now, it's all a mess of SEO pumped affiliate link lists filled with crapware. If the query is even thinkable, there will be AI generated pages stuffed with sponsored links, ready and waiting for you. And with search engines preferring recent results, that's the type of page you'll be served.

I've had decent luck using marginalia search to seek out some of those old internet type results. Obscurity works as a barrier to corporate infiltration. Plus you get page results that don't have a million tracking and analytics scripts running on them, which is refreshing.

Also, I can see from the NDP perspective, the view that the Liberals weren't holding up their part of the deal to advance NDP policy. In this circumstance, it's not like quitting a job. Trudeau wasn't Singh's boss. They had an agreement that the NDP said was mutable from the start based on their discretion. For Trudeau to bellyache about it all now is, I think, a bit silly, considering the essentially cost-free benefit his party gained from the agreement for years.

You're making personal assumptions about me, and the internal mental states of others that I think are unfair.

I don't want to see overdoses in the street, nobody should. Not because I want it to happen in private, but because I don't want it to happen. For the record, and not that you asked, but, I've also never said that I'm an advocate for mandatory rehab, or that it's some kind of magical cure-all. I'm not here carrying water for these initiatives. All I'm saying is that there's a serious problem, and a need for solutions and sincere discussion. I don't think anything is gained for any position by browbeating others and fabulating their inner thoughts.

This was course material to a post grad university course on the subject of addiction and recovery taught THIS MONTH. It discusses the entire history of opiods.

Interesting. Can you link the course? I'd be curious to see the syllabus and learn more.