Photo of the Week - October 4, 2026

This week's photo is of a display of garden mums at a local supermarket. I was struck by the vibrant yellow colour. Taken with my Pixel 8 Pro. 

Mums for sale

 

Saturday Sounds - Kamasi Washington - Lazarus

Today's musical treat is a 2025 release from the great saxophonist, Kamasi Washington. Lazarus is the soundtrack album for the Adult Swim original series of that name. I haven't seen it so I don't know how well Washington's mix of jazz, blues, funk, and prog rock fits into the show, but I like it. I'd probably watch it just for the music, but it's on a service I don't subscribe to. Enjoy. 

What Would Happen If Yellowstone Erupted

Although the risk is low, volcanologists continue to monitor the Yellowstone caldera for signs that an eruption might be imminent. That's because the scale of such an eruption would be unprecedented in human history. Phys.org has published an article that describes the effects that such an eruption would have. It wouldn't be pleasant. 

 Despite the scale, no known human witnessed the cataclysm. As far as we know, early humans had not yet reached the continent. Across oceans, perhaps early humans wondered at the hazier skies and unusually vivid sunsets. Volcanic particles circulating in the sky cooled their climate and likely affected their weather patterns and lives. Whether they noted these changes—or connected them to any distant event—is unknowable.

Today, humanity would certainly notice. We already know that a super-eruption on this scale would threaten civilization as we know it. So what exactly would we experience if Yellowstone erupted? We are experts in disasters and volcanoes, and what follows is a thought experiment into what might happen in the worst-case scenario. We've based our hypothesis on research and an examination of how countries have dealt with disasters in recent years.

If you want a fictional portrayal, check out Harry Turtledove's Supervolcano trilogy (Eruption, All Fall Down, Things Fall Apart). I read this a few years ago and it' matches the phys.org article quite closely.  

 

Movie and TV Reviews - September 2026

Short reviews of movies and TV shows I watched in September.

Movies

• Mayday: Jingoistic silly junk riding on the coat tails of Top Gunn. (Apple TV)

TV Shows

• Silo (season 3): We finally learn more about the origin of the Silos, but the rest of the storyline was muddled and hard to follow. I lost interest halfway through. (Apple TV)
• Gone: A tight-lipped school headmaster is accused of murdering his wife. It's reasonably well done, but never quite takes off. (BritBox)
• A Woman of Substance: A period drama that jumps between the 1910s and 1960s following the life of a housemaid with big ambitions. Worth watching just for the performance of Brenda (Vera) Blethwyn. (BritBox)
• Reacher (season 4): Nothing new here. I think they've pushed the invincibility of Reacher about as far as they can take it, and it's getting a bit silly. (Amazon Prime)
• The Gentlemen (season 2): The second season escalates the mayhem even further. If you like Guy Ritchie, don't miss this. (Netflix)
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (season 4). It's well past time to retire the Star Trek franchise. Out of the 10 episodes this season, only three were watchable. (Paramount+)

 

Hyundai IONIQ 5 EV One Month Review

A month ago we replaced our 8-year-old 2018 Hyundai Elantra GT with a new 2026 Hyundai IONIQ 5 (Preferred Long Range AWD) EV. 

TL; DR: We love it.

Note: I don't drive, so comments about driver-specific features are based on what my wife, Nancy, has told me.

Why an EV?

The main reason we went to an EV was the cost of gas. Our daughter lives about 75 km. away and last year our gas bill averaged $250/month. Since Trump's war started, gas prices have gone up almost 50 percent, and I don't see them coming down much for quite a while, if they ever do. At the overnight rate of $.06/kwh a round trip to our daughter's costs us $1.80. In our Elantra, that trip would cost about $27.  We had to pay for the charger and installation, but the payback period on that is short, probably about six months. 

Then there's the cost of maintenance on a gas-powered vehicle, which was running us a couple of thousand dollars a year on average. EVs don't need oil changes and tune ups. They have other costs (increased tire wear is probably the biggest), but that's offset by less maintenance on the brakes because of regenerative braking. 

And we aren't spewing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. BTW, most of our power in Ontario comes from nuclear power plants or hydro, so no greenhouse gas  emissions there either. 

We considered a hybrid but the fuel savings from a standard hybrid aren't that great given our driving patterns and plug-in hybrids still have most of the drawbacks of an ICE vehicle. 

What We Like

The IONIQ has a more comfortable and smoother ride than our Elantra. It's a bit bigger, which was a consideration because we need to be able to easily fit a baby seat into the back. Acceleration is good, even in ECO mode, which is the one Nancy uses most of the time. Being an EV, it's quiet though not completely silent; there is a noticeable whine from the regenerative braking when slowing down. Nancy adapted quickly to using one-pedal driving and she likes the adaptive cruise control and lane keeping features when driving on the highway. 

We like having wireless Android Auto, which we use instead of the built-in navigation, mostly because Nancy is used to it. (We will use the built-in navigation if we need to find chargers, though we haven't needed to do that yet.) There are more USB ports than on the Elantra, which is good.  The IONIQ has a glove compartment and a rear windshield wiper, features that seem to be missing from most other EVs we considered. Hyundai has thankfully kept some buttons and knobs for the climate control and infotainment system. We have yet to explore all the features available through the screen interface; there are many more than on the Elantra.

What we don't like

The sound system is just OK. We had to adjust the equalization as the default sound was rather thin and trebly. I'll fiddle with that soon to see if I can punch it up a bit. We mostly listen to SiriusXM and at low volume; it may sound better when cranked up a bit. 

The back lift gate is heavier than that on the Elantra and is difficult to close with one hand. We don't have the powered lift gate and I now understand why people want it. 

The MyHyundai BlueLink app is not great. It does give you control over some car functions but the reporting features are pretty basic. I've thought about getting an OBD dongle, but will hold off until EV Dashboard has an Android version.

I don't like the pop out feature of the door handles. Nancy and I differ on that one so I'll just have to live with it. 

What we miss having

Some of the features in the Premium trim, which was out of our price range, are pretty glitzy and not to our taste (coloured ambient lighting, sunroof). Others, like the powered lift gate, would be nice to have.

The only missing feature that I consider essential is vehicle to load (V2L), which lets you use the car's big battery to power external devices (a shop vac, for example) from a standard outlet in the car. We don't have that. Hyundai does sell a V2Ladapter, and I will probably buy one at some point.  We have had a few multi-day power outages and having the ability to run our freezer or fridge from the car's battery would be good. 

That will do for now. I may post an update in a few months after we've had more time with the car. 

Photo of the Week - September 27, 2026

I took this picture yesterday, late in the afternoon, looking west onto Frenchman's Bay. I had to walk along the shore for a couple of minutes to get the swan in the path of the setting sun. I'm surprised it turned out, considering how hard it was to compose the shot shooting into the sun on my phone, I straightened the horizon in Google Photos and applied the Dynamic filter for a bit more contrast. It is a colour photo, BTW. 

Swan swimming into the sunset

Saturday Sounds - MOSHPIT

Today, instead of featuring a single recording or performance, I'm featuring a website. And it's a good one.

MOSHPIT  is an archive of live music performances from a variety of sources including the Newport Folk and Jazz Festivals, Bill Graham Presents, the King Biscuit Flower Hour, and several other syndicated programs. It's huge.  They claim to have over a quarter million recodings from over 11,000 performers with performances (and some interviews) from the 1950s through into the 2020s.

Unlike the Internet Live Music Archive, most of the recordings are professionally recorded concerts with decent to excellent sound. The site is searchable and you can browse by performer or through their catalogs of sources like the King Biscuit Flower Hour, which includes over 1600 performances alone. Performances are playable track by track and web pages include links to other performances as well as interviews. 

I do wish they had an Android app for it though. 

I'm going to include links to three performances that I picked, more or less at random. 

• Richard Thompson Band, The Music Hall, April 22, 1994
• Miles David Quintet, Newport Jazz Festival, July 4, 1966
• William Prince, Paste Studio ATX, March 16, 2023

That's just a very small sample. I'm gong to be spending a lot of time browsing through MOSHPIT.