Our World
Cost of divorce keeping Canadians in unhappy marriages longer, survey finds
For some Canadians, the decision to end a marriage isn’t being driven solely by the state of the relationship – it’s also being shaped by the state of their finances.
A new survey from BMO suggests the rising cost of living and broader economic uncertainty are influencing when Canadians choose to separate, with many delaying the decision because they simply can’t afford the financial fallout.
The survey found that nearly two-in-five (37 per cent) divorced or separated Canadians said that the financial cost of divorce or legal separation kept them in their marriage longer that they wanted.
Conrad Black: If bitter enemies can bury the hatchet, there’s hope yet for this country
One of the benefits of advancing years is that some of the people with whom one has had disputes, even strenuous and at times vitriolic disputes, may develop a form of comradeship of vanished animosity. It isn’t necessary for either party to change the opinion or attitude that led to past abrasions, but time does heal most wounds and sometimes former adversaries see the whimsical or even amusing aspects of former disagreements and develop a respect for each other. One such person with whom I crossed swords many times but have lately come to like is the well-known and highly successful Montreal money manager Stephen Jarislowsky.
SpaceX IPO makes Elon Musk the first trillionaire. Here’s how to properly hate him
Now that the SpaceX initial public offering has made Elon Musk all but officially the world’s first trillionaire, is it okay to despise him just for being one? To broaden the question, are the billionaires associated with widening inequality a bad look for capitalism?
There are competing schools of thought about the accumulation of wealth, among them the anarchist claim that “property is theft” and the Gordon Gekko theory of greed as a star-spangled virtue.
🚨 BREAKING — IT'S OFFICIAL: Elon Musk becomes the world's first TRILLIONAIRE as SpaceX goes public
This is absolutely MONUMENTAL. Congratulations @ElonMusk!
To the moon! 🚀$SPCX is set to start trading at $135 per share imminently, valuing the company around $1.8 TRILLION. pic.twitter.com/hyyMcHC4Rc
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) June 12, 2026
Elon Musk becomes world’s first trillionaire as SpaceX shares soar on stock market debut
h/t Mauser
The year of cosmic shock – We’re living through a new Copernican Revolution
President Trump jokingly posts a doctored photo of himself leading an alien in chains out of Area 51, while, on a more serious register, his administration releases a huge tranche of previously undisclosed photos and information about UFOs. Elon Musk muses about human beings becoming an interplanetary species. Bryan Johnson preaches immortality through medicine. Markets panic when Claude’s Mythos AI proves — or appears — to be capable of hacking into some of the globe’s most secure digital systems. And we aren’t even halfway through 2026.
Trump just posted a photo of himself walking with an Alien on Truth Social 👽
We have never been closer to the truth. https://t.co/MEA9T4H1cf pic.twitter.com/0Gw9fdN253
— Interstellar (@InterstellarUAP) May 17, 2026
The young are trapped by hideously low expectations
Virtually everyone who is concerned about the future of the United Kingdom is worried about the recent news that more than one million young people – around one in eight 16- to-24-year-olds – are not in education, employment or training (NEET). The number of NEETs has grown by 195,000 over the past two years.
I am here … endeavoring to perservere
Howdy Y’all!
I am as busy as a bee well as much as Xavier will let me be.
Big changes afoot and much to research before making a leap to a new host.
Looking at providers, seeing if generic host firewalls can provide enough protection against the evil hordes that beset us daily or if I will have to maintain an outside provider.
Back to work I go!
PS Would Simus please check his email!
The Battle Over Britain’s Lost Youth
In psychology there is a concept known as agentic living: the idea that we have some sort of agency over our own lives. At heart it is a throwback to the age-old philosophical question: are we determinists who believe we live at the mercy of a fate already written, or do we, as Augustine hammered out, have freewill? On reading Alan Milburn’s excoriating interim report into ‘the moral crisis’ of one million 16–24 year-olds who are not in work or education (NEETs), it becomes obvious there is a sharp dividing line between determinists and those who attempt to exert agentic freewill.
Born in the ‘50s and ‘60s? Turns out we had it good
There are countless individual factors that could make anyone’s life less than enjoyable.
And all of us go through various hard times. I myself am going through a very rough patch now, between my health and that of others close to me.
That said, I will make the claim that those of us born in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s won life’s lottery.
Ancient Rome’s Benefits Doom Loop
The Roman Empire grew rich off the backs of other nations. There’s no question about that. War and conquest, but also bequests, made Rome the richest state in the ancient world by the second century BC, a time when wealth was all about gold, silver, land and food production, and slaves.
Rome was also lucky. The death of Alexander in 323 BC saw his vast empire fragment into the Hellenistic kingdoms, mainly of Macedonia, the Seleukid kingdom of Syria, and Ptolemaic Egypt. They enervated themselves over decades of inconclusive wars and were easy pickings for Rome. The people who lived there, exhausted by and sick of endless fighting, acquiesced easily into Roman rule. The Eastern Mediterranean grew richer than had ever been thought possible.