Monthly Archives: August 2022

Finding Rest: After the desecration of grave sites and the forced eviction of an Ojibwe village more than a century ago, lands of Wisconsin Point in Superior have been returned to the Ojibwe people. Last Thursday, tribal, state and federal officials signed the lands back to the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. The celebration and ceremony transferring the sacred lands was held on the Fond du Lac reservation. An exhibit of images from Wisconsin Point were displayed. Among those attending were Fond du Lac Chairman Kevin Dupuis, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Superior Mayor Jim Paine, Superior City Council President Jenny Van Sickle and U.S. Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland. Jenny, the first Indigenous president of Superior's City Council, told Quinn Gorham of KBJR6

that while this does not fix the past, it sets a better future. Taking responsibility is difficult and not something we can do all the time, but something we can always work towards." Since before the arrival of Europeans to the area, Wisconsin Point hosted an Ojibwe community and burial sites. Many though not all remains in the site were removed about 1918-19 after U.S. Steel expressed an interest in building an ore dock there. Later the company decided against the location as too sandy to accommodate the docks, according to a history piece posted by the Catholic Diocese of Superior. Less obvious grave sites were left on the point and later a stone marker was placed and members of the Fond du Lac Ojibwe maintained the site. The removed remains, including those of Chief Joseph Osaugie, were placed on a hillside along the Nemadji River, part of the St. Francis Xavier cemetery. Descendants of Chief Osaugie (at the table in the photo) attended. Superior Mayor Jim Paine posted of the ceremony and celebration, "Moments ago I presented the deeds returning the Wisconsin Point cemetery and Nemadji burial site to the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. It may be the most important thing Ive ever done. Over a century ago, the City seized the cemetery from the Indigenous peoples of the Point, exhumed the bodies, and placed them in a mass grave by the river, where erosion stole away most of the remains. But now, thanks to the patient work of the Fond du Lac leadership, St. Francis Church, city staff, and especially the unstoppable Councilor Jenny Van Sickle, these people have come home. The Governors of Wisconsin and Minnesota, Senator Tammy Baldwin, Deputy Secretary of the Interior, and countless local elected officials and indigenous leaders came to pay their respects as we all made history. Im a bit overwhelmed at the magnitude and significance of it all but I mostly just feel humbled and grateful." Tribal Chairman Kevin Dupuis told WCCO, "The things they fought in the past, it's not a new fight. We just picking up where they left off and our job is to secure something here in present so we have a future for the unborn and that should be for everybody."

Say What??: Michigan Technological University doctoral student Ryne Rutherford made quite the discovery recently which made a lot of media headlines. Ryne discovered new-to-the-U.P. cacti growing in the heights of the Huron Mountains. Megacast did a video interview with Ryne, who says this isn't the first time cacti have been found in Marquette County's granite glades. Ryne explains his study by noting, "basically I'm doing an ecological study on granite bedrock glades in the Huron Mountains and my study includes insects, a lizard, lichens, and plants. It consists of a study of the microclimate on rock outcrops and the impacts of human recreational use on granite bedrock glades." There are places in the U.P. where the landscapes and climate conditions more resemble those out West, he says, "and in a couple of places, there are cacti." A small species the fragile prickly pear was known, but this most recent discovery may be the first example of theeastern prickly pear cactus found in the Upper Peninsula. Other stories on the discovery were from Liliana Webb of the Detroit Free Press andSheri McWhirter of MLive. Ryne tells Sheri that the eastern prickly pear has been spotted near Lake Michigan, but not in the Upper Peninsula.

Sharing Space: The wild rice harvest and the waterfowl hunting season will again overlap this year in September on the same waters, the DNRs in Wisconsin and Minnesota have noted in advisories this week. Wisconsin has newly "date regulated" four bodies of water with specific harvesting dates. Those are Chippewa Lake in Bayfield County; Island Lake in Vilas County; Minong Flowage in Douglas County; and Pacwawong Lake in Sawyer County. A full list of wild rice waterbodies and regulations for Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan can be found on the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission Manoomin (wild rice) site. "Taking precautions and keeping an eye out for other people in and near rice beds can keep everyone safe as they enjoy their time outdoors," the Wisconsin DNR notes. In Minnesota, wild rice waters on the reservations of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and White Earth Nation are closed to early hunting seasons for teal and geese. "Since wild rice is ripening at the same time as Minnesotas early waterfowl hunting seasons, over-water waterfowl hunters are urged to be aware of and cautious about wild ricers no matter where they hunt," the Minnesota DNR notes. Inland, the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa released an update Wednesday on the Nett Lake wild rice harvest forecast, anticipating harvest by the second week of September.

All Access: The beaches of Thunder Bay have a new ally for folks needing an extra lift on sandy terrain. The city has posted a photo with the Sleeping Giant in the distance and the new floating beach wheelchairs up front. The chairs are available at Boulevard Lake and Sandy Beach. "We are excited to offer all visitors access to our beaches, as well as the water," the Community Aquatics posted. "The float-able armrest and special tire feature allow easy transport from the beach into the water. One can float in the chair or easily slide off into the water. If you are interested in using our beach wheelchairs, please ask a lifeguard for assistance."

Make Plans: Here are a few events coming up soon to put on a fun-do list:

Monday, Aug. 29: Peter White Public Library in Marquette hosts a night of surfer rock with the band Ramble Tamble. Set up your umbrella and beach chair, slather on some sun screen, and hang 10 on the Front Street steps of the library.

Today, Aug. 25: Come join local musicians Steve Brimm and Erika Vye playing, as they say, Mostly Americana influenced songs you dont know by heart but should. They take the stage tonight at 7 p.m. in the Donnie Kilpela Memorial Park in Copper Harbor for the weekly Performances in the Park.

Thru Saturday, Aug. 27: These will be the last few days of the Grand Marais Art Colony's 7-5 Exhibition, part of its 75th anniversary celebration. Stop by Studio 21 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. until Saturday to see the works of seven incredible artists Leslie Smith III; Danny Saathoff; Mika Laidlaw; Tony Ingrisano; Jonathan Herrera Soto; Magdolene Dykstra and Mary Brodbeck. Each has five pieces in the show.

Friday-Sunday, Aug. 26-28: Esko hosts the 61st annual Lakehead Harvest Show with all things farm-related. There will be a petting barn, tractors (and a tractor pull) parades, harvest competitions and plenty of family friendly activities, food and fun. Gates open daily at 9 a.m. First prize at the raffle is a 1950 John Deere MT or a John Deere 110 Riding Mower from Moose Lake Implement.

Fridays: Renegade Improv is back on stage, 10:30 p.m. Fridays at Zeitgeist Teatro Zuccone in Duluth. Improv, of course, can be dangerously funny. Enter at your own risk.

Thru Sept. 2: Don't miss a ride on the Murder Train Express, pulling out of The Depot in Duluth for one more week. The North Shore Scenic Railroads Elegant Dinner Train promises a meal, mirth, merriment and mayhem on its "disoriented express." The trains leave the station at 6 p.m.

Today, Aug. 25: Head down to the latest Porchfest concert at the SS Meteor Whaleback Museum Ship in Superior to enjoy Hodag and Hooch starting at 6 p.m. You can also enjoy free tours of the Meteor and mocktails in the bar. Mystery Mobile Catering and Concessions will be on site.

Friday-Saturday, Aug. 26-27: The dragons have returned to Superior. The Lake Superior Dragon Boat Festival will liven up Barkers Island with opening ceremonies Friday evening and a full day at the races for the special dragon boats and the teams paddling them. Upwards of 90 teams of 20+ paddlers participate. There will also be vendors, food and outside fun.

Saturday, Aug. 27: Reel Livin Resort & Campground is sponsoring the 2nd annual Kilt Golf Outing & Fundraiser, held at the Spider Lake Golf Resort Course. This year Golfing for Gavin in Hayward will help with medical expenses for Gavin Gochenaur, injured while on a family skiing trip. Currently he has no sensation or movement below his neck and shoulders except for a little movement in one bicep. The family needs medical equipment and funds for other expenses. For the Saturday event, there are golf competitions plus a raffle for great prizes like Brewers tickets including tailgate party passes, fishing pontoon for a day, and fishing guide. beautiful hand carved bench and coat rack, bags set, and custom fire pit. Find details online.

Friday, Aug. 26: Enjoy a safety conversation with "everyone's favorite redneck" Hurbert Rowland along with Kristen Almer at Heartwood Resort in Trego. ATV/UTV Safety Presentation starts at 4:30 p.m.

Today, Aug. 25: Star Wars fans converge on the Sault Ste. Marie Museum from 4-6 p.m. for its Night @ The Museum: Lego Star Wars. Enjoy the massive collection of Lego Star Wars sets on display from The Brickspace. These sets cover almost the entire Star Wars saga and go as far back as the theme's launch in 1999. Battle your way throughout the galaxy with SvennyMCG who will have some classic and modern Star Wars games on site. Or nibble Star Wars-themed donuts and beverages while supplies last. There will also be giveaways throughout the night. You are encouraged to dress up in your favourite Star Wars cosplay for a chance to win cool Lego Star Wars prizes. This event celebrates the 45th anniversary of Star Wars, the 90th anniversary of the Lego Brick and the 2nd anniversary of The Brickspace!

Friday-Sunday, Aug. 26-28: Ribfest, one of Thunder Bay's most popular and tastiest festivals, pairs the saucy creations from some of North Americas very best professional ribbers with talented local food vendors, artisans and live music. It's at the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition and proceeds go to Our Kids Count.

Notable: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is hosting three public scoping meetings for Enbridge's Line 5 Pipeline Tunnel project Environmental Impact Statement. A public scoping meeting is specific to the National Environmental Policy Act process where the lead federal agency gathers comments of the proposed project. Two sessions are virtual and one is in St. Ignace. The virtual sessions, limited to 1,000, are Sept. 1 from 5-8 p.m. EST and Oct. 6 from 1-4 p.m. EST. The meeting in St. Ignace will be on Sept. 8 from 3-8 p.m. EST in the the Little Bear Arena. In addition to allowing verbal public comments, the in-person meeting will also provide opportunity for attendees to comment in private to a stenographer and there will be live computer stations to submit comments via the Line 5 Tunnel Environmental Impact Statement website.

Photo & graphic credits: U.S. Indian Affairs; Nedahness Rose Greene Photography; Ryne Rutherford; Bois Forte Band of Chippewa; Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission; City of Thunder Bay; Peter White Public Library/Grand Marais Art Colony/Lake Superior Dragon Boat Festival/Sault Ste. Marie Museum

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Around the Circle This Week: August 25, 2022 - lakesuperior.com

Australias former Prime Minister (PM) Scott Morrison has created a political firestorm for having himself sworn in with five additional ministerial portfolios, mostly without the knowledge of the cabinet collectively or the individual minister concerned. The first of these was the health portfolio, done with the knowledge and concurrence of the health minister.

The justification was the realization that the declaration of a biosecurity emergency had transformed the health minister into a de facto dictator with the power to ignore Parliament and override all existing laws, including human rights protections against state excesses. Yet, the chief problem is the law itself that grants such sweeping power to one person and should thus be repealed or amended. Im not holding my breath.

The biggest mistake was to hand over control of the Covid agenda, in the name of The Science, to federal and (especially) state chief health officers who tend to be bureaucrats more than leading scientists engaged in cutting-edge medical research. In the blink of an eye, they morphed from obscure officials to petty tyrants.

The former federal chief medical officer Brendan Murphys footnote in history might yet be his refusal to define a woman in Senate hearings because its a very contested space. Timidity ensured he prioritized career ambitions over biological fact. Then again, Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) talks of pregnant people, so maybe Im the one who needs to get with the zeitgeist.

Australian authorities in effect copied New Zealand PM Jacinda Arderns doctrine of the health ministry as the single source of truth on coronavirus.The unavoidable consequence of this was attempts, with legacy and social media help, to marginalize and silence all dissenting voices. The more the latters warnings come true, the greater is the loss of trust in experts, institutions and ministers.

On August 13 the Australian Medical Professionals Society published a wide-ranging letter addressed to all Australian colleges and associations of health, medicine and science. Along with the attached report by Dr Phillip Altman, the letter is an authoritative catalogue of mistakes made in Australias pandemic management and the many harms resulting from it, the dubious science behind it, the limitations of vaccines, and the questionable efforts of regulators to come between doctors and patients.

The Covid report from New South Wales Health for the week of July 1016 said: The minority of the overall population who have not been vaccinated are significantly overrepresented among patients in hospitals and ICUs with Covid-19. Just two pages later, the same report gave the number of unvaccinated people admitted to hospital and ICU as zero.

The sentence is repeated verbatim in the latest weekly report for August 713, with the number of unvaccinated people admitted to hospital just one and to ICU zero. By contrast, of those whose vaccination status was known, 98.7 percent of Covid patients admitted to hospital and 98.2 percent admitted to ICU during the week (and 84.8 percent of the dead) had received two or more vaccine doses.

Even by the standards of public health authorities across the world gaslighting the people in order to nudge them into docile and often performative compliance with official edicts, this level of internal contradiction of narrative with data is breathtaking.

Covid vaccines are undeniably leaky. Their real-world effectiveness lasts a disappointingly short time. One explanation could be that with mass infections and the resulting naturally-acquired immunity, the vaccinated have lost their competitive advantage. Mass vaccination campaigns in the middle of a pandemic can possibly also give anevolutionary advantage to mutations with greater vaccine escape properties.

Professor Kenji Yamamoto of the Okamura Memorial Hospital reinforced a warning from the European Medicines Agency of the potential for frequent booster shots to harm the immune system. Another study in the New England Journal of Medicine shows infections among double-vaccinated and boosted people can last somewhat longer. An Icelandic study showed a significantly higher probability of reinfection of the boosted. The Epoch Times reported on studies showing successive doses of mRNA vaccines can desensitize the body and teach it to become more coronavirus spike protein-tolerant.

Conversely, breakthrough reports in the mainstream media of evidence of the deadly long-term harms of lockdowns themselves are growing. On August 18 the UK Telegraphs science editor Sarah Knapton reported official statistics indicate that The effects of lockdown may now be killing more people than are dying of Covid.

The causes are exactly what many had predicted from the start:

Even now, however, as Will Jones points out, there is a great reluctance to discuss the serious adverse events, including deaths, associated with and caused by vaccines themselves. Concerning safety signals continue to grow. For example, a preprint study in June by several experts analyzed data from Pfizer and Moderna Covid vaccine trials. They found that the risk of hospitalization from a vaccine-related adverse event was higher than the risk of hospitalization from Covid itself. Until such time that these are properly investigated, we will lack accurate and reliable data on the scale and severity of the problem.

Australias relative success in 202021 was helped by fortuitous circumstances. Being an isolated island country, geographically distant from the worlds major international traffic hubs and population centres, made border controls easier to institute, police and enforce. The international and domestic restrictions on travel, movement and activities kept Covid-related deaths to around 1,000 until September 2021.

Then they exploded (Figure 1). In 202021, the governments response to the harsh international spotlight on the curtailment of many freedoms was to point to results. By now the performance-based international comparison has lost lustre. Australias rate of cumulative Covid cases per million people has surpassed the US, UK and EU rates. Both case and mortality figures track the rise in the boosted since mid-December 2021. To be fair, though, the death toll is still well below the European, British, US and South American figures (Figure 2).

Its worth looking more closely at the change from 202021 (Figure 3) to the trajectory this year (Figure 4).

Until the end of last year, European, North and South American countries experienced the worst of Covid-19-related fatalities while the Asia-Pacific was mostly clustered towards the bottom. This year, by contrast, despite Omicron not being as deadly as the earlier variants, this region has suffered quite badly, as can be seen in the shift of the eleven countries death totals from Figure 2 to Figure 3.

Once again, this is suggestive of the intuition that virus gonna virus and waves are regional and policy-invariant. Even for Japan, the cumulative death rate for 7.5 months this year has already reached its total death rate for 22 months until the end of 2021.

The mantra that vaccines are safe and effective has become a tiresome cliche. They are partially protective for a limited time, certainly not effective and may not even be all that safe. The best pathway to herd immunity was through the combination of natural immunity from prior infection and vaccines.

Countries that avoided mass infection through strict isolation measures built up an immunity debt that left their populations more vulnerable once they reopened to globally circulating pathogens.

When the highly infectious if less lethal Omicron variant struck, vaccines developed to combat the original Wuhan strain proved unfit for purpose in controlling the spread.

Meanwhile Denmark has banned vaccines for anyone under 18 unless prescribed by a doctor based on an individual assessment of high risk. Similarly, people under 50 will no longer get a booster unless recommended by a doctor.

Bowing to the growing body of studies and the weight of accumulating data, on August 11 the globally influential CDC issued new guidance. It marks a quiet yet major retreat from previous Covid management, based on the triple acknowledgment of transient protection from vaccination and boosters against infection and transmission, breakthrough infections among vaccinated, and naturally-acquired immunity through infection. The CDC also quietly dropped the false claim that the mRNA and spike protein do not last long in the body.

The guidelines have moved sharply away from social distancing, quarantining, track-and-tracing, asymptomatic testing and even vaccine requirements, abolishing the distinction by vaccination status for most settings. Their net threefold effect is to transfer much of the responsibility for risk reduction from institutions to individuals, to prioritize preventing severe illness over slowing transmission, and to switch from sweeping population-wide precautions to targeted advice for vulnerable populations.

If this looks similar to the much-reviled Great Barrington Declaration of October 2020 that merely restated the pre-Covid-19 medical-scientific consensus, thats because it is.

This is a revised and updated version of an article first published in The Weekend Australian on August 2021.

Ramesh Thakur, a former United Nations Assistant Secretary-General, is emeritus professor in the Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.

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Australias Lockdown and Vaccine Narrative Has Fallen Apart - Brownstone Institute

On a mundane Saturday night during lockdown last year, I was tapping through Instagram Stories to pass the time. Like so many millennials, I turn to the app mostly to send my friends memes and screenshots that sum up universal truths about our late-twenties lifestyle. A tweetmade into an Instagram postby Canadian author Jonny Sun caught my attention. It read:

Im an ADULTwhich means I dont have any HOBBIESIf I have any FREE TIME AT ALLI will go LIE DOWN

I came to a stark realization: I dont have any hobbiesand nobody else I knew seemed to either. It had been nearly a decade since I played the piano. Aside from the dodgeball league I joined impromptu at the height of unemployment one year, I never fostered the time and commitment toward a joyful activity when I wasnt on the clock.

In the first several months of the pandemic, I remember calculating the weekly hours I saved by not commuting and asking myself how I could use that time more effectively. Naturally, I relied on Instagram trends to help with my identity crisis. I started by aggressively completing an adult colouring book while everyone around me made body-shaped candles. Photos of sourdough baking and people concocting at-home quarantinis cluttered my timeline. While these activities captured the zeitgeist of the pandemicespecially in those early monthsI allowed myself to believe that in the midst of those hours between solving puzzles and baking bread, my hobby would miraculously turn up. Surely, if everyone was struggling with the long and dark days of the pandemic, posting an Instagram Story would make me feel less alone. I found myself leaning into all of my online community, determined to share my DIY renovations with my small but loyal audience. At the peak of my crafting phase, I painted my bedroom walls purely out of boredom. Ever since that accomplishment, I have been possessed by a certain kind of hubris and invincibility. What handy task will I do next?

But the popularity of these social mediadriven pastimes also faded. And therein lies the problem: I had sought the help of an algorithm to help me figure out how to spend my free time. In my mind, it was easier to get lost in a rabbit hole of content than take the time to discover what might actually interest me. But amid all this pressure to find my hobby, Ive been asking myself: What does it actually mean to have one, especially at a time when were living so much of our lives online?

When I asked Robert Stebbins, a professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Calgary who specializes in leisure studies, about whether any of my pandemic pursuits added up to a hobby, he told me that hes been contemplating questions on the subject for the better part of fifty years. Leisure, in a common-sense version of it, is fundamentally not work, he told me over the phone. It doesnt define anything. It defines what its not.

So, then, what is it?

Few people in sociology seem to find this a remarkable or regrettable deficiency in the field, Stebbins tells me. Serious leisure, a term he coined, is the systematic pursuit of an activitylike rock climbing or singingthat usually requires a special skill. In other words, we need to put serious effort into a hobby in order to reap its rewards over time. Just like we dedicate our time and energy toward a career, committing ourselves to a serious leisure activity is one of the keys to achieving a fulfilling life, he says.

At the turn of the twentieth century, the monotony of specialized industrial work and increasing urban expansion led workers to demand more time away from the bustle of the city. In response to the rapid industrialization that followed the American Civil War, when the emerging labour movement advocated for reduced work hours, eventually leading to the eight-hour workday and the five-day workweek, there was finally time for leisure.

Over the next century, as lavish Silicon Valley headquarters, pizza stations, and in-office gyms became the new norm, work culture blurred the lines between our professional and personal lives. Somewhere along the way, many people within my Y2K cohort took work merch and free booze to compensate for long hours and unpaid vacation. For a lot of us, the rise of precarious employment and job insecurity created a toxic relationship with work that left little time or energy for anything else.

Millennials have been dubbed the lost generation, destined to be poorer than those who preceded us. As numerous studies have shown, even the best-off millennials, who are generally more educated than their parents, suffer from high unemployment rates and stagnant earnings trajectories. Unfortunately, as many in my generation slogged their way through the Great Recession, overpriced avocado toast in hand, they proved those miserable studies true. Its no wonder the number of young adults staying or returning home has steadily risen, especially at the peak of the pandemic. A meme that keeps cropping up on my timeline sums up the predicament perfectly. It reads: Im 1st world poor. Which means I own a smart phone and an expensive laptop so I can go online and check that I have no money in the bank.

As a cohort, were constantly being told to have side hustlesmasked as hobbiesin order to have multiple streams of income in todays gig economy. It can be hard to foster new skills that have nothing to do with a pay cheque when were constantly being told well never afford a house. According to Rentals.ca, the average rent for all Canadian properties listed on the site in March 2022 was $1,818 per month. Considering that the national average annual market income was about $55,700 in 2020, for many people, this works out to approximately one-third of their monthly pay cheque. If the purpose of a hobby is to fulfill me outside of my professional life, how can I attain some level of satisfactionor, better yet, happinesswithout the pressure of needing to monetize it looming over me?

Im not the only one struggling with this question. For proof, look no further than Etsy, where you can find local artisans selling everything from wedding face masks to seed kits. According to its 2020 Seller Census report, the mean age of the almost 200,000 active Etsy sellers in Canada is 38.7an older millennial. Of those surveyed, over 70 percent said that their small businesses provide an important source of supplemental incomeon average, nearly 10 percent of their household earnings. This monetization of hobbies demonstrates where the future of work might be headed: its not hybrid, its asynchronous. So what does this mean for how we think about hobbies?

According to Sarah Frier, the author of No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram, hobbies arent dead; our definition of what they are is just changing. More often than not, she says, millennials are now finding visual hobbies online. Pandemic obsessions like cross-stitching and at-home bartending became desirable skills because we kept seeing posts that endorsed them. Whether or not we consider ourselves to be influencers or curators, the very nature of Instagram teaches us to be. The actual design of the app encourages us to perform for others, says Frier. Even something like reading, which isnt an inherently visual hobby, has been turned into a kind of aesthetic. As of July 2022, a quick Instagram search under the hashtag #bookstagram yielded a casual 79 million posts. Each score we get on a post teaches us how to make our next one gain more likes, comments, and shares. Thats a feedback cycle that encourages us to go after these really visual hobbies, says Frier.

Its impossible to ignore the cultural weight we put on our online personas. Even those who dont actively use social media cant avoid its impact, since the items we buy and the vacations we take are often influenced by the app, says Frier. For better or worsebut mostly for worseour personal brands require continued upkeep and innovation at great emotional expense. Unlike TikTok and Snapchat, which value consumption and entertainment, Instagrams focus has always been on displaying the version of yourself you want others to see. Simply put, Instagram has become a resume for how interesting you are.

During my identity crisis over the past two years, Ive become a cyclistbecause its not enough to enjoy cycling, I must be a cyclist. In the fall of 2020, I ordered a lavender beach cruiser on Amazon. My best friend came over and helped me assemble the bike, which became my raison dtre in real life and online. I tracked my progress on Strava and photographed my fall rides every day for thirty daysboth of which I regularly shared on my Instagram profile.

Of course, my physical and mental well-being has improved thanks to cycling. But attaching these listicle-friendly identifiers to our social media bios obscures a muddier truth. My time on the internet has certainly blurred the distinction between my online identity and my offline personhood. Ive placed a lot of value on metricson numbers that are meant to determine how funny I am, how insightful, how attractive, how talented. But I would not genuinely invest in these things if I had not, on some level, agreed that I am my social media profile.

As we reemerge into the world, hopefully feeling a little more grounded in the newer versions of ourselves, I sense many of my peerslike meare starting to rethink how they spend their free time. Over the past two years, being stuck indoors allowed me to pause, to reevaluate how I can enrich my life without the scrutiny of an online audience all the time. That doesnt mean these apps have become less relevant. Instagram, and social media in general, is a tool at best. Ive embraced the ways it has allowed me to learn more about social justice issues, connect with other writers and, of course, to try new things.

Im still figuring out what hobbies Id like to pursue, but Im not on a deadline. Maybe I wont find my next great hobby on the app, or maybe I wont find one at all. But learning about myself has no expiration date. That could be a hobby in itself, right?

Alisha Sawhney is a writer, editor, and podcaster based in Toronto. She has written for the Opinion section of the New York Times and for Macleans, among others. She was previously a staff editor at HuffPost Canada.

Isabella Fassler is a Toronto-based illustrator with a BAA in illustration from Sheridan College.

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Why Dont Millennials Have Hobbies? - The Walrus

Were a nation of drivers, acquiring more cars with bigger engines and driving them further every year. But, despite our emissions crisis and congestion problems, the worlds bestselling and cheapest EVs arent allowed on our roads and the transport minister says thats not changing any time soon.

The worlds most popular EV isnt available in New Zealand. The Wuling Hongguang Mini EV jointly developed with US car giant GM sells for between US$4,000 and US$6,000.

If it was available in Aotearoa and attracted the clean car discount you could pick one up for less than the price of an e-bike or possibly even for free. No doubt its that super low price that saw it nudge the Tesla Model 3 from the top-selling EV spot in March last year.

So, what do you get for that bargain-basement price? A boxy, four-seater car with a top speed of 100km/h and a range of 120km.

And China is far from alone in having micro-EVs on offer for under NZ$12,000. The Citroen Ami sells for 7,300 (NZ$11,660). With a top speed of 45km/h and just two seats, the Ami is not technically a car and therefore can be driven by anyone over the age of 14.

The micro-car was Citroens biggest-seller last year and is popular not only in Frances cities but in rural areas.

The Ami is the first of what promises to be a new category of micro-EVs in Europe. The very funky, BMW Isetta-inspiredMicrolino goes into production in Switzerland in the coming months.The Ami and Isetta are classified as quadricycles rather than cars, but in terms of urban transportation they provide many of the benefits of a car for a fraction of the price. The problem is they cant be legally driven on our roads.

The Wuling is currently in a grey zone with a Waka Kotahi spokesperson saying it would probably also be classed as a quadricycle. However, a Lithuanian-produced model of the Wuling recently went on sale in Europe as a fully-fledged motorway-capable car and European safety regulations are every bit as stringent as New Zealands.

Transport minister Michael Wood says he saw an Ami on a recent trip to Oslo and has been lobbied about allowing quadricycles on our roads but isnt yet convinced theyre right for New Zealand. The appropriateness of micro-vehicles for New Zealand conditions was identified as an area that needed attention under the Emissions Reduction Plan, he says, but was unlikely to be done before the end of 2023 or 2024.

Its a dialogue weve had and clearly there are some benefits on the electrification side but were pretty successfully electrifying our fleet anyway. The other argument is about road space which is more of a congestion argument than a decarbonisation argument.

The key tradeoff and regulatory issue is around safety, he says. They almost all inevitably rate at the lowest safety rating of zero to one star. So thats the policy challenge.

Paradoxically, Wood says the potential popularity of micro-EVs could be in conflict with the governments commitment to reducing the kilometres travelled by privately owned automobiles conversely encouraging people who walk, cycle or take public transport to use a micro-EV instead.

Self-described micro-car evangelist Toa Greening says safety concerns are overblown when compared to the risk posed by e-scooters which can be legally driven on our roads without a helmet. Hes sceptical of Woods suggestion that micro-EVs could see a modal shift from active and public transport modes to micro-EVs. As a casual cyclist I really doubt it, as we cycle in part for the enjoyment of it.

Greening has been banging on about micro-EVs for the best part of a decade. He made it on toCampbell Live back in 2014 when he imported a Tango 600 to try to drum up interest in mass producing the US-designed micro-EV in New Zealand. Its a very narrow, very fast micro-EV that made headlines around the world when actor George Clooney bought one in 2005.

In 2018 Greening launched a Pledge Me campaign seeking half a million dollars to fund the setting up of a micro-car leasing programme. Just $2,000 was pledged possibly because the Tango 600 wasnt and isnt road legal in New Zealand.

Greening is convinced the Tango 600 ticks off the biggest two challenges facing transport in the 21st century: congestion and emissions.

If youre wondering how any car can help reduce congestion, the answer, according to Greening, is in the Tango 600s width. Its narrow enough that, in theory, you could fit two side-by-side in a single lane.

The Tango 600 like Elon Musks Tesla aimed to attract car drivers over to EVs with the promise of high-speed and high-performance vehicles that could hold their own against top-of-the-line ICE (internal combustion engine) competition.

With a top speed of more than 240km/h, the Tango 600 is more an enclosed superbike than the electrified shopping trolley that is the Citroen Ami. Greening says micro-EVs are the perfect replacement for a familys second car: ideal for trips to the supermarket, school drop-offs and city commuting.

Greening has estimated that a fleet of 280,000 micro-EVs similar to the Tango 600 would reduce Aucklands carbon emissions by 2.1 million tonnes per year. In 2018, transport contributed 4.3 million tonnes of carbon emissions to Aucklands total.

Greening calculated that 1.3 million tonnes of carbon emissions would be saved from the switch from petrol and diesel cars to EVs, and 0.8 million tonnes from a reduction in congestion due to vehicles like the Tango being able to drive two abreast in a single lane.

Congestion increases emissions simply because traffic is slowed and cars spend longer on the road.

Micro-EVs might be a new concept in New Zealand, but micro-cars arent.

The Fiat 500, better known in New Zealand as the Bambina, weighed in at just under 500 kilos, about the same as the Citroen. More than 5000 of the tiny cars named for its CC rating, not its weight were assembled locally and in 1960 you could buy one for just 499.

The contrast with its direct descendant, the Fiat 500 Dolcevita, encapsulates the story of motorcars over the last half century. While still one of the smallest cars on the road, the Dolcevitas 1.2 litre engine is more than twice the size of the Bambinas. The new model is nearly double the Bambinas weight, and its grown in length by more than half a metre.

The Bambinas price tag adjusted for inflation comes to just under $25,000 about what you would pay for the Dolcevita.

There have been numerous safety and performance improvements over the years, but the one metric thats barely changed is its fuel efficiency and therefore its carbon emission. The newer car manages 4.8 litres per 100km compared to 5.1 litres for the original.

Sixty years of technological improvements have barely moved the petrol, or emissions, gauges. (The Bambinas fuel efficiency would see it qualify for a clean car discount.) The Dolcevitas 1.2 litre engine is about half that of the average car sold in New Zealand, where the number of vehicles per person trebled between the 1950s and early 2000s. And between 1980 and 2000, total annual vehicle kilometres travelled in New Zealand more than doubled, from 18.52 billion to 37.33 billion. Engines have also grown in size. By 2006, the average engine size of a vehicle in NewZealand was more than 2.2 litres, up from 2 litres at the beginning of the decade.

It would be a stretch to say the Bambina was an expression of the motoring zeitgeist of the time its production run coincided with the height of the yank tank phase in the US but it offered an alternative vision that was in line with the nascent environmental movement of the 1960s and 70s.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction, E.F. Schumacher wrote in the 1973 bestseller Small is Beautiful.

Only time will tell whether New Zealand has the courage to embrace the micro-EV trend being embraced from Beijing to Paris.

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Cheap, green vehicles are taking off overseas. Why are they banned here? - The Spinoff