Featured Links - February 25, 2026

Links to things I found interesting but didn't want to do a full blog post about.

The Ultra-Rich Are Different from You and Me. "Only the little people pay taxes, redux." We need to get back to the 1950s model of progressive taxation. 

11 steps to smarter Google account security. "Give yourself some added peace of mind by giving your Google account a thorough set of security reinforcements."

The state of dark mode. From the AskWoody newsletter, the state of dark mode in Windows 11 and some tips for enabling dark mode on some of the remaining features that don't yet support it. 

Some of the cracks had penetrated through': Chinese astronauts reveal new details about spacecraft that 'stranded' them in space last year. "Crew members of China's Shenzhou-20 mission recently detailed their reactions upon finding cracks in their spacecraft's viewport during the nation's first spaceflight emergency." 

'We almost did have a really terrible day.' NASA now says Boeing's 1st Starliner astronaut flight was a 'Type A mishap'. "This was a really challenging event in our recent history."

Lake Erie’s Storm Surges Become More Extreme (gift link). "Officials are designing new ways to protect the shorelines from sudden flooding and longer storm seasons."

The Perfect Storm. "When warnings are everywhere, and still no one moves."

The US versus Canada 11

It's been a while since I wrote on of these posts, though I have been following the news about Canada's relationship with the US pretty closely. In the past couple of weeks, I've seen more discussion about the possibility of a US invasion of Canada, something which I've posted about before  this. It  seems that people, including members of our government, are taking the possiblity more seriously. So I'll start this post with a couple of articles about that. 

How a US Invasion of Canada Would Really Unfold—And How We Fight Back. "American aggression is no longer theoretical." This article looks at lessons learned from Uktaine's response to the Russian invasion and applies them to Canada. 

Preparing for the Worst. Charlie Angus offers some concrete suggestions for fighting back against the US, even before an invasion. 

Donald Trump wants to make an example out of Canada. How will we prepare? (gift link) This article is cited in Charlie Angus's post and is also worth reading (as are most of Andrew Coyne's opinion pieces in the Globe and Mail). 

Saturday Sounds - Joni Mitchell - April 24, 1983, Wembley Arena, London UK

This week's musical treat is a rare video of a Joni Mitchell concert from April 24, 1983 at London's Wembley Arena.  It was filmed and broadcast on the BBC 2 network. Joni is supported by a crackerjack band that included The band for this tour included Michael Landau (guitar), Russell Ferrante (keyboards), Larry Klein (bass), and Vinnie Colaiuta (drums).

The poster didn't include a setlist, but the full concert setlist is included on setlists.fm. The hour-long video includes some of my favourite songs: "Free Man in Paris", "A Case of You" and "Amelia".  It looks like the original 4:3 video has been stretched to 16:9 but the audio is just fine. Enjoy.

The Most Dangerous Politician In Canada

I was going to include this post by Emmett Macfarlane in a Featured Links post next week, but after reading through it a couple of times, I decided it deserved it's own post.

If you've been paying any attention to Canadian politics recently, you'll likely have seen mentions of a growing separatist movement in Alberta (and to a lesser extent in Saskatchewan and British Columbia). That's always been an undercurrent in Western Canadian politics, but its become more prominent since the rise of the UCP in Alberta and the second Trump administration in the US. But what Alberta's Premier Danielle Smith is now proposing is more dangerous than plain separatism. As Macfarlane states in his post, she is now the most dangerous politician in Canada. 

We like to denigrate comparisons to Trump as lazy because Trump is distinct in so many ways. He tells more lies than any other politician. He actively and nakedly seeks unlawful self-enrichment. He is on multiple counts a criminal. He is monumentally stupid. In short, any other politician will always have attributes that distinguishes them from Trump. Smith is no criminal. She’s not stupid. But once we see that Trump is as much a symptom as he is the cause of America’s anti-democratic rot, we should recognize the same holds for people like Danielle Smith. She is the most dangerous politician in Canada, launching an agenda not only of fear and greed, but one that seeks to undermine the country, its federal structure, and its spirit of tolerance and compassion. It is nothing short of evil, and it must be fought on all fronts.

Featured Links - February 18, 2026

Personal Note:  My eyes have improved enough that I can read comfortably (most of the  time) so I'm going to tyry to get back to a bit of blogging. 

Links to things I found interesting but didn't want to do a full blog post about. 

A foggy February

Medical Fan Fiction, National Consequences, and What Happens When We Lose the Shared Shield. "Measles, declining vaccination rates, and the revival of preventable disease." ... "This is what breaks my heart. We had the answer, we still have the answer, we are watching people try to throw it away and call that freedom. And I simply will not stand by this. I will not be quiet while preventable disease is welcomed back like it deserves a seat at the table. I will make my voice loud and known, and I hope you do the same."

In Cuba, wellies shed light on the island’s hardships as Canada suspends flights. (gift link) It's sad to see what Cuba and Cubans are going through right now, through no fault of their own. "The footwear, it turns out, is a symbol of the island’s hardships. Pandemic-related declines in tourism and six decades of U.S. sanctions – including embargoes tightened by the Trump administration in 2025 – have pushed the island’s economy to collapse. Staples such as clothing are hard to find. These days, rubber boots are cheaper and easier to find than leather shoes or sneakers. Many Cubans pair their wellies with colourful socks, a testament to their resilience and flair."

Is 2026 the year buttons come back to cars? Crash testers say yes.  "The requirements won’t go far enough for many, but it’s a start." It can't come soon enough for me. Putting all controls into a screen interface is a recipe for distracted driving. 

Consumptive Capitalism. "On MAHA and Expensive Suffering -- A Guest Post by Sara Silverstein. An essay exposing the similarities between the MAHA movement and the tuberculosis treatments of the early 20th century. ' MAHA depends on the “again,” the fantasy of a better past. But it also depends on the “America,” the notion that we are in some way exceptional. But we are as vulnerable as everyone else without investment in medical science and public health. Valuing profit above life undermines our progress, and doing so under misleading appeals to myth only makes matters worse.'

Your BMI can't tell you much about your health – here's what can (archive link). 'People classed as “overweight” according to BMI can be perfectly healthy. But there are better measures  of fat, and physicians are finally using them.' 

Inside the quest to build the ultimate nonalcoholic beer. "Scientists in Belgium—that celebrated bastion of ancient beer culture—are harnessing genetic breakthroughs and machine learning to reimagine how great booze gets built. Here’s how their revelations in the lab could transform the global beer industry." As a consumer of regular beer, I found this article quite interesting. A quality non-alcoholic beer would definitely get some of my money.

Saturday Sounds - Bradstreet and Keesee (Live in London)

Back in the 1970s, I lived in Hamilton, Ontario. Despite it's reputation as a working-class steel town, or maybe because of it, Hamilton had a flourishing folk music scene.

David Bradstreet was a regular on the folk circuit and I saw him perform several times. He is a first-rate cong writer and guitarist whose song "Renaissance" was made a hit by Valdy. In recent years, he's been performing around Ontario and this week's music treat is a concert recording from London, Ontario in 2025. He performed with his long-time musical partner, bassist Carl Keesee.  It's a lovely album and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. 

If you live in the Toronto area, he'll be performing with Keesee at Hugh's Room in Toronto on May 9. I'm hoping to be there.

 

2025 Locus Recommended Reading List

Locus, the newsmagazine of the science fiction and fantasy field, has published its recommended reading list for 2025. The list includes novels, short fiction, collections, anthologies, non-fiction, and illustrated and art books, and is an unofficial long list for field's major awards. 

I'm way behind on reading current fiction (reading anything actually right now, though my eyes are improving), so I've only read one book on this list: Where the Axe Is Buried, by Ray Nayler, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I will be starting Anna Lee Newitz's Automatic Noodle in the next few days.

There are a few other books I may look at.

• The Folded Sky by Elizabeth Bear 
• Picks & Shovels by Cory Doctorow 
• All That We See or Seem by Ken Liu
• Slow Gods by Claire North 
• Halcyon Years by Alastair Reynolds 
• When There Are Wolves Again by E.J. Swift
• Hole in the Sky by Daniel H. Wilson