đ Articles: Wednesday 24.Apr.2024
The New Yorker: Why You Canât Get a Restaurant Reservation
How bots, mercenaries, and table scalpers have turned the restaurant reservation system inside out.
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I thought I just had bad luck, until a conversation with Resy’s C.E.O., Pablo Rivero, clarified things. Over dinner at Txikito, a buzzy Basque restaurant in Chelsea, he explained that I would likely always be near the bottom of the Notify queue. After American Express acquired Resy, in 2019, anyone with a fancy Amex card â Centurion, Platinum, Reserve, or Aspire â has an advantage. If you have one of these cards (Centurion: ten-thousand-dollar initiation fee, five thousand dollars per year), Rivero said, “You will get a Resy notification before other people do.” (He also said, somewhat puzzlingly, “What we are trying to do is, honestly, democratize dining a bit more.”)
Some restaurants sort their virtual waiting lists themselves, without help from Amex. These managers cherry-pick V.I.P.s and regulars from their Notify queues. SevenRooms, Resy’s newest competitor, has a tool that has largely automated that process: an algorithm picks which diners get priority push notifications about late openings. The criteria include how often a diner visits, how big his or her tabs are, how much wine and dessert are ordered, and tip size.
TorStar: Blame, regret in collapse of Yorkâs âbiggest mafia takedownâ
Defence lawyers argued the charges should be stayed due to police misconduct. For police, the decision to abandon the prosecution caused âheartache.â
TorStar: âUptickâ in cottage listings expected on capital gains rules
A couple who inherited their waterfront property from parents in the early 1980s when the average cost of a cottage was around $75,000, could have a property with a fair market value today of over $1,000,000, according to Royal LePageâs 2024 spring recreational property report. That would represent a $925,000 capital gain upon disposition of the cottage in a sale or even by gifting the cottage to the kids, resulting in a total taxable income of $533,475. Taxed at the higher rate, the change could add an extra $70,000 to an inheritorâs tax bill.
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âWeâll definitely see an uptick of listings,â he said. âWhether that equates to sales is the bigger question. Thereâs double the amount of inventory in Ontario now compared to a year ago and theyâre spending double the amount of time on the market.â
Globe: Ontario to permanently raise speed limit on 10 sections of highways across province
The increased speed limits will cover 860 kilometres, or about 36 per cent, of Ontarioâs highways.
Globe: Welsh reversal of lower speed limits marks latest U-turn on U.K. green policies
Last week the Scottish government abandoned its flagship target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 75 per cent by 2030, citing budgetary pressures. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has also scrapped or delayed several green pledges, including the phasing out of gasoline-powered cars, out of concern the measures would hit taxpayersâ pocketbooks too hard. And London Mayor Sadiq Khan has faced growing discontent over the cityâs extension of its ultralow emission zone, which charges drivers ÂŁ12.50 a day ($21.13) if their car fails to meet emission standards.
The Welsh government announced the lower speed limit last September with great fanfare.
Months of testing and a host of studies showed that a 20 mph limit would reduce the number of accidents by 40 per cent annually and save as many as 10 lives a year. It would also improve air quality because driving dynamics at lower speeds make cars more efficient.
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The turnaround has not been universally welcomed. Cardiff Cycle City, which promotes more bike lanes, said it was alarmed by Mr. Skatesâs announcement. âLowering the speed of motor vehicles in our communities is a fundamentally good thing to do. It makes sense environmentally and from a road safety perspective,â the group said in a statement. âIt appears that Mr. Skates has succumbed to pressure from a tiny but vocal political minority.â
Globe: Letters for April 24: New Prescription
New Prescription
The provision of health care in Canada is a provincial responsibility.
In Ontario, for example, it is because of the health care policies of successive governments that there is a major shortage of family physicians and nurses and a low level of care for the elderly; that among regions of countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Ontario has one of the lowest number of hospital beds per capita and one of the lowest financing levels of health care.
Yes, the Canada Health Act should be reviewed and renewed. That, however, will require tough negotiating with pharmaceutical and health insurance corporations, as well as the Canadian Medical Association and Canadian Dental Association, whose priorities, I believe, are in maintaining wealth and power.
The problems are clear to me. Aligning national, provincial and sectoral interests and responsibilities will be difficult and drawn out, but we should make a start.
**Mervyn Russell **Oakville, Ont.
CBC: Poilievre visits convoy camp, claims Trudeau is lying about ‘everything’
In video filmed by the protesters, who have been living at the site for three weeks, Poilievre tells the group to “keep it up” and calls their protest “a good, old-fashioned Canadian tax revolt.”
“Everyone hates the tax because everyone’s been screwed over,” Poilievre is heard saying in the video, which shows protesters with “Axe the tax” and “F–k Trudeau ” signs and flags. A car with ‘Make Canada Great Again’ scrawled on the rear window is seen parked at the site.
“People believed his lies. Everything he said was bullshit, from top to bottom.”
Yes, very prime ministerial.
Tomâs Guide: My favorite show of the year is No.1 on Netflix â and it’s 100% on Rotten Tomatoes
Itâs been a strong year for new TV shows so far with the likes of Fallout, Shogun and Mr. & Mrs. Smith all earning well-deserved critical acclaim and plenty of audience attention. But Netflixâs “Baby Reindeer” has surpassed them all to become my favorite show of 2024 yet. Thatâs a testament to the quality of this dark thriller.
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Not only is Baby Reindeer a hit with viewers, but critics are raving about this one too. The Show currently holds a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes with the site’s âcritics consensusâ stating, â*Baby Reindeer*can be a punishing watch but richly rewards viewers with its emotional complexity and excellent performances.â
Listeners are tuning out. Sponsorship revenue has dipped. A diversity push has generated internal turmoil. Can Americaâs public radio network turn things around?
Amazon: Texfake: An Account of the Theft and Forgery of Early Texas Printed Documents
Texfake is the result of three years of investigation into the scandal surrounding the 1988 discovery of forged copies of the Texas Declaration of Independence. The New York Times, Texas Monthly, and The New Yorker all carried articles on the affair, but this is the definitive account of the history and impact of the Texas forger and his wares.
Austin rare book dealer Taylor lays out the facts concerning the forgeries: who made them; when and how they were made; how they were discovered; and whether or not the dealers involved know what they were selling. He also reveals for the first time the devastating impact of the looting of Texas libraries by thieves in the 1960s.
WheresYourEd.at: The Man Who Killed Google Search
A day later, Gomes emailed Fox and Thakur an email he intended to send to Raghavan. He led by saying he was âannoyed both personally and on behalf of the search team.â in a long email, he explained how one might increase engagement with Google Search, but specifically added that they could âincrease queries quite easily in the short term in user negative ways,â like turning off spell correction, turning off ranking improvements, or placing refinements â effectively labels â all over the page, adding that it was âpossible that there are trade offs here between different kinds of user negativity caused by engagement hacking,â and that he was âdeeply deeply uncomfortable with this.â He also added that this was the reason he didnât believe that queries were a good metric to measure search and that the best defense about the weakness of queries was to create âcompelling user experiences that make users want to come back.â
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Five months later, a little over a year after the Code Yellow debacle, Google would make Prabhakar Raghavan the head of Google Search, with Jerry Dischler taking his place as head of ads. After nearly 20 years of building Google Search, Gomes would be relegated to SVP of Education at Google. Gomes, who was a critical part of the original team that made Google Search work, Google would make Prabhakar Raghavan the head of Google Search, was chased out by a growth-hungry managerial types led by Prabhakar Raghavan, a management consultant wearing an engineer costume.
A quick note: I used “management consultant” there as a pejorative. While he exhibits all the same bean-counting, morally-unguided behaviors of a management consultant, from what I can tell Raghavan has never actually worked in that particular sector of the economy.
Last Updated: 24.Apr.2024 23:59 EDT