Tuesday, August 19, 2025

Featured Links - August 19, 2025

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

Seven swans at the far side of Frenchman's Bay
Seven swans on the bay


Monday, August 18, 2025

2025 Hugo Award Winners

The winners of the 2025 Hugo Awards were announced at the Seattle Worldcon Saturday evening. These are the fiction winners.

  • BEST NOVEL: The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey, Hodderscape UK)
  • BEST NOVELLA: The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler (Tordotcom)
  • BEST NOVELETTE:  “The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea” by Naomi Kritzer (Asimov’s, September/October 2024)
  • BEST SHORT STORY:  “Stitched to Skin Like Family Is” by Nghi Vo (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 57) 
  • BEST SERIES: Between Earth and Sky by Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga Press)
  • BEST GRAPHIC STORY OR COMIC: Star Trek: Lower Decks: Warp Your Own Way written by Ryan North, art by Chris Fenoglio 
I have not read The Tainted Cup though I suspect Nancy will be interested in it. I am glad to see that Ray Nayler won the Best Novelette award for The Tusks of Extinction, which I have and will be reading soon. I am almost finished his first novel, The Mountain in the Sea, and recommend it unreservedly.

Sunday, August 17, 2025

Photo of the Week - August 17, 2025

This week's photo is another one of a farm north of Oshawa. I'm impressed by the industrial scale of some of these operations; something that most people don't associate with farms. I don't know what this complex is; my guess is that it's for processing corn. It was taken from our car with my Pixel 8 Pro, No, I was not driving!

Industrial farming north of Oshawa


Saturday, August 16, 2025

Saturday Sounds - Radiohead - Hail to the Thief (Live Recordings 2003 - 2009)

There was a time, about 20 years ago, when I was quite a big fan of Radiohead. Their music isn't what I typically listen to, but something about it clicked. I never did manage to see them live, which is probably just as well given the abysmal acoustics of the Air Canada Centre (now Scotiabank Arena). 

This week's musical treat is a just-released live album consisting of most of the tracks from Hail to the Thief recorded between 2003 and 2009. It definitely reminds me of why I liked them at the time. You can  read more about it in this article from Rolling Stone. (paywalled but the Reader View extension will show it to you if you are using Chrome). 


Thursday, August 14, 2025

We're Toast 62

This post is a collection of links that support my increasingly strong feeling that the human race (or at least our technological civilization) is doomed. 

A golfer on a hilltop swings his club while a city burns in the backghround
Golfing while the world burns

Note: I created the image above Microsoft's Copilot AI tool. I wanted an image of Trump golfing on the White House lawn while Washington burned. It refused to do that but offered sevral alternative suggestions of which this was one. 

  • He Asked a Chatbot How to Start a Pandemic. It Answered. "A former UN weapons inspector brought the results to the White House. The message: anyone can do this now."
  • Phoenix Is Facing A Heat Crisis. Here's A Glimpse of Our Climate Future. "Phoenix is experiencing record-breaking, prolonged extreme heat driven by climate change, pushing the city into uncharted territory with growing risks to health, infrastructure, and daily life."
  • Trump Administration Moves to Destroy Satellite That Monitors Greenhouse Gases. "The Orbiting Carbon Observatories have been a game-changer for agriculture and climate science. Now, NASA is under pressure to terminate them." Farmers use the information from these satellites to check on how well their crops are going. 
  • The Republican campaign to stop the U.S. EPA from protecting the climate. "An audacious effort to destroy climate regulations is likely headed for a showdown at the Supreme Court."
  • The Drying Planet. 'Now, a new study that examines the world’s total supply of fresh water — accounting for its rivers and rain, ice and aquifers together — warns that Earth’s most essential resource is quickly disappearing, signaling what the paper’s authors describe as “a critical, emerging threat to humanity.” The landmasses of the planet are drying.'
  • Scientists raise red flags after observing concerning new whale behavior: 'We're seeing conditions that suggest a continuation'. "So far this year, 47 gray whales have been stranded across California, Washington, and Oregon — already well above last year's total of 31, with peak migration not expected until the end of June. Cascadia Research reports that most of the stranded whales showed signs of malnutrition, including depleted blubber oil, missing fat reserves, and empty digestive tracts."
  • Rising Seas Could Displace Millions, Triggering Global Migration Crisis, Study Warns. "Scientists issue a dire warning that even the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming target is too high and will have catastrophic consequences for coastal populations."
  • Nuclear Winter Would Be Even Worse Than We Thought. "The consequences of nuclear catastrophe extend far beyond the initial explosion—it could dismantle global food security for decades to come, a new study suggests."
  • Tuesday, August 12, 2025

    Featured Links - August 12. 2025

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

    Summer flowers looking a bit wilted

  • Bullets in the windows. "Until now, it was only a metaphor." This is horrifying and should have had more prominence in the news. 
  • Scientists reveal Alaska could get up to two minutes’ warning before the next big quake. "A new study suggests Alaska could get 10–120 seconds of warning before major quakes, with more seismic stations adding up to 15 extra seconds. Researchers emphasize challenges like harsh winters, remote sites, and alert transmission delays, but say the benefits could be lifesaving."
  • The War for the Web Has Begun. "One of the internet's biggest gatekeepers has accused a rising AI star of breaking the web's oldest rules. The explosive feud could change how we all get information online."
  •  A Valid HTML ZIP Bomb. "Many sites have been affected by the aggressiveness of web crawlers designed to improve LLMs. I’ve been relatively spared, but since the phenomenon started, I've been looking for a solution to implement. Today, I present a zip bomb gzip and brotli that is valid HTML."
  • 2025 Aurora Awards. "The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (CSFFA) today announced the winners of the 2024 Aurora Awards for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror in an online awards ceremony."
  • Why Are We Funding This? "People often wrongly believe that scientific progress is made by a few “great geniuses” working on a few “big questions,” and that those geniuses have some sense in advance of what the answers are going to be. In reality, knowledge is advanced by many independent teams of people working on chipping away at the boundaries of knowledge a little bit at a time. Sometimes doing so leads to a world-changing discovery. Other times it just tells us one more thing that doesn’t work, a vital step toward eventually learning what does work."
  • Saturday, August 09, 2025

    Saturday Sounds - Go Ride the Music - Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service

    This week's musical treat is another trip back to the 1970s featuring two of San Francisco's greatest bands: Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service. The video was originally broadcast on PBS in December 1970 and features songs from both bands. 

    I watched it on a black-and-white TV when I was in university. I tried recording the audio with a mike in front of the TV using a portable reel-to-reel from the student radio station where I was a DJ but unfortunately misthreaded the tape. In any case, I've had an audio bootleg of it for years, but this is the first time I've seen original video. 

    There are very few good recordings of the Airplane playing live, even if it was in a recording studio, so this one is special. Quicksilver were past their prime by this time, but still enjoyable. The audio quality is very good but the video could use some upscaling. 

    I have a request: If you have some across a recording of the Airplane's performance at the East Towne Theatre in Detroit in November 1969, please let me know where I can find it. 


    Sunday, August 03, 2025

    Featured Links - August 5, 2025

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

    A farm north of Oshawa with a large silo complex
    A farm north of Oshawa

    Saturday, August 02, 2025

    Off for the Long Weekend

    It's another long weekend up here in the Great Green North, this one known as Simcoe Day in Ontario. July was ridiculously hot and humid with episodes of wildfire smoke, so enjoying the outside was difficult. This weekend looks more pleasant so I'm taking the weekend off to enjoy it and give my heat-stressed yard some TLC. I'll be back here on Tuesday.

    In the meantime, here's a photo of another farm north of Oshawa baking in the hot July sun. I hope they've gotten enough rain because it's been pretty dry here.

    A farm with a silo, barn, outbuildings looking very dry.
    A farm north of Oshawa


    Friday, August 01, 2025

    Review: The Lion King

    Nancy and I went to see The Lion King in Toronto last night at the Princess of Wales Theatre. I am not a big fan of the original cartoon and I haven't seen the live action remake, but the stage musical is wonderful. The story line is standard Disney, warmed over fairy tale, with African elements but the staging and production raises it to another level. It's by far the most complex show I've ever seen staged and it's beautifully done.

    Our seats were up in the balcony so it wasn't be best experience for me as far as seeing the details of the costumes and sets, but it was good for appreciating the staging. The actors, the music, and the sound were all first rate and the costuming and puppetry were exceptional.

    It's showing until the end of August and tickets are still available. The lady sitting next to us got same day rush seating. I suspect most of the floor seats are taken by now, but the theatre isn't that big and balcony seats are fine.

    The Lion King actors on stage for the curtain call
    The Lion King curtain call



    Movie and TV Reviews - July 2025

     Movies and TV shows that Nancy and I watched in July. I do these posts mainly so I can keep track of what we've been watching, so the reviews are cursory. Now that it's baseball season, there will probably be fewer items here.


    Movies

    • Mickey 17: I had high hopes for this one, having heard the book was good, but about halfway through it pretty much fell apart. (Amazon Prime)
    • Heads of State: Quite reminiscent of the "x Has Fallen" series, but even worse. Well made, but dumb, cliché ridden, and jingoistic. (Amazon Prime)


    TV Shows

    • The Art Detectives: A police procedural about art theft and fraud. Definitely on the lighter side of the genre but enjoyable. (The documentary series, Art Dectives, is etter.) (Acorn TV)
    • Severance (season 2): Even more confusing that season 1 but watchable until about halfway through the season. I lost interest by the end. Kudos to the production's team for the quality of the cinematography and Apple TV+ for the streaming quality, which is the best of any of the services we subscribe to. (Apple TV+)
    • The Librarians: The Next Chapter. Light fantasy about a library of supernatural objects and the librarians who are tasked with keeping them secure. (Crave) Shot in Belgrade so the settings are interesting. 
    • Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (season 3). It's getting time to retire the franchise, I think. It's gotten too self referential and the stories are getting buried in glitzy effects. (Paramount+)

    Tuesday, July 29, 2025

    Featured Links - July 29, 2025

    Links to things I found interesting but didn't want to do a full blog post about. This post is (mostly) politics-free.

    A farm with several buildings
    A farm north of Oshawa

    Saturday, July 26, 2025

    Photo of the Week - July 27, 2025

    This week's photo is a picture of the interior of the now closed and empty Saks Fifth Avenue OFF FIFTH store at the Shops at Pickering City Centre mall. The store closed earlier this year as part of the collapse of the Hudson's Bay retail empire. I'm surprised the lights were still on but it did make for an interesting composition. This was taken with my Pixel 8 Pro.

    The empty interior of the Saks Fifth Avenue OFF FIFTH store in Pickering Ontario
    Sad Saks


    Saturday Sounds - The Strawbs

    Today's musical treat was inspired by news of the death of Dave Cousins, a founding member of The Strawbs, a British band who had a couple of hits in the 1970s. Their music had a mix of progressive rock and that I found (and still find) quite appealing. I saw them perform only once, in Hamilton in 1973, where they opened for King Crimson. Their song, "Part of the Union" was a big hit there at the time. They played Hugh's Room in Toronto a few times but I never managed to catch one of those gigs.  

    They released many albums over a 50 year span. I'm going to include two of the early ones here: Bursting at the Seams and Hero and Heroine. Enjoy.


    Friday, July 25, 2025

    The USA versus Canada 9

    Just two stories to note this time; both of them important.

    First, in Quebec in Canadian waters north of Lake Champlain, a fisherman was abducted by the US Coast Guard. His boat was rammed and he almost drowned before being plucked from the water and being detained for a couple of hours before being released. 

    This wasn’t ambiguous. This wasn’t a high-speed chase. This wasn’t a drug cartel sting. This was a 60-year-old Quebecois fishing off a borrowed boat — in Canadian waters, near Venise-en-Québec, 15 kilometres north of the U.S. border.

     It’s unclear if Canadian authorities were notified before or after the incident. It’s also unclear what the Carney government intends to do about the incident — but silence is complicity.

    If Trump’s administration is detaining Canadians in Canadian territory, then we have a serious diplomatic emergency — not an “unfortunate misunderstanding.”

    This story should be getting more attention than it has been so far. If Mr. Lallemand was anywhere near where he said he was, then the US Coast Guard had no business being there. Our government needs to push back, hard, on this. Is the St. Mary's River now going to become a danger zone for Canadian boaters and fishers? Or Whitefish Bay? 

    Second, the boycott of US products by Canadians has finally caught the attention of US media and Trump's MAGA followers

    It isn’t a negotiating tactic. It wasn't organized, planned or led by anyone. The boycott is the result of an instinctual response from ordinary Canadians across the country to defy the threats and disrespect of Donald Trump.

    And Trump can't do anything about it. His understanding of politics is that of a zero-sum game. He not only believes in a world defined by winners and losers but also uses his power to humiliate and degrade those he considers lesser.

    From politicians and potential rivals, he demands public concessions and makes them genuflect in public.

    But Donald Trump is powerless against the determination of ordinary Canadians. As powerless as Mr. Boycott, as powerless as the English overlords in India, as powerless as the racist state in Alabama, by a people who are united in nonviolent non-co-operation.

    Finally, as a very pleasant aside, the Toronto Blue Jays are in sole possession of first place in the American League. Elbows up, Blue Jays! 

    Tuesday, July 22, 2025

    Featured Links - July 22, 2025

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

    The sun sets as an orange ball in a hazy sky along the 401
    Sunset along the 401

    Monday, July 21, 2025

    Saturday Sounds - Kamasi Washington - Heaven and Earth

    This week's musical treat is a double album from Kamasi Washington, one of my favourite modern jazz musicians. He's a saxophonist much in the tradition of Pharoah Sanders, capable of everything from quiet melodic runs to blasting, braying honks. His albums run the gamut of jazz genres and mix in rap, hip hop, rock, and orchestral music. I've only seen him perform once, in 2018, and wish he'd come back to Toronto in a hall that had seats. 

    Heaven and Earth is a double album that was released in 2019 and somehow blew right by me. I recently heard a track on SiriusXM thinking it was new trak and was surprised that it came from a six-year-old album. The track was "Tiffakonkae" and would be a good one to check out if you don't have time for the whole album. Enjoy.

    Sunday, July 20, 2025

    Photo of the Week - July 20, 2025

    This is a grab shot from the (passenger seat) of our car driving along the 401 earlier this week. There was an accident in the other side of the highway and traffic was backed up for more than a kilometer. It does make one wonder about the dependance of our modern economy on truck traffic and the failure of modern railway systems to take more of that business. Taken with my Pixel 8 Pro and cropped in Google Photos.

    A kilometre long (or more) line of trucks on highway 401, backed up because of an accident.
    Trucks on the 401

     

    Friday, July 18, 2025

    We're Toast 61

    This post is a collection of links that support my increasingly strong feeling that the human race (or at least our technological civilization) is doomed. 

    An AI created image of an ostrich with a head in the shape of the continental US burying its head in the sand.
    US climate change policy 

    Note: I created the image above Microsoft's Copilot AI tool. It took about three minutes and three prompts to get something close to what I wanted.

    Tuesday, July 15, 2025

    Featured Links - July 15, 2025

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

    A large patch of daisies
    Summer daisies

    Sunday, July 13, 2025

    Photo of the Week - July 13, 2025

    This week's photo is of a couple of roses in our front yard. When we bought the house, there was a bush of these beautiful peachy pink roses in the front. One bad winter killed it off, or so we thought. It came back a year later, but with a different colour of flowers. We found some of the original variety of roses and planted a new bush that has since thrived and flowered.

    I'm not sure of the variety of rose. Google Lens suggests Rosa Veranda. If you know the variety, please let me know in the comments.

    This was taken with my Pixel 8 Pro, which works quite well for flower pictures. 

    Two peachy pink roses
    Roses




    Saturday, July 12, 2025

    Saturday Sounds - Bruce Srpingsteen - Tracks II: The Lost Albums

    This weeks musical treat is the latest and massive release from Bruce Springsteen: Tracks II, The Lost Albums. It consists of seven albums worth of music that Springsteen recorded between 1983 and 2018 but never released.  

    •  LA Garage Sessions '83
    • Streets of Philadelphia Sessions
    • Faithless
    • Somewhere North of Nashville
    • Inyo
    • Twilight Hours
    • Perfect World 
    So far, I've only listened to the first two discs and sampled a few tracks from the others. Though I am a fan of Springsteen's music, I'm a bit underwhelmed. I will probably go through it and set up a playlist of the songs that I like. Still, there are good songs in here and it's worth a listen. 

    Friday, July 11, 2025

    Detecting and Fighting Disinformation

    I was going to do yet another blog post with articles pointing out examples of misinformation and disinformation (there's just SO much of it right now), but instead I wanted to highlight some sites and tools that you can use to detect disinformation. 

    Note: Although I use the term "disinformation" for simplicity in this and other posts, you can assume everything here applies to misinformation. 

    • 20 Helpful Verification Tools for Journalists. Although aimed at journalists, the tools linked in this article will be useful to anyone. Verify location, whether an image has been modified, spot AI-generated content, and more. 
    • Wikipedia's list of fake news websites. "Fake news websites are those which intentionally, but not necessarily solely, publish hoaxes and disinformation for purposes other than news satire. Some of these sites use homograph spoofing attacks, typosquatting and other deceptive strategies similar to those used in phishing attacks to resemble genuine news outlets."
    • Disinformation Designed to Ingrain Erroneous Beliefs and Lies. "Google search can bring results that confirm disinformation, not debunk it." Tips on how to spot disinformation in Google Search results. 
    • Joint Advisory: Cyber officials warn Canadians of malicious campaign to impersonate high-profile public figures, from the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. "Cyber security officials in the Government of Canada are warning Canadians about a spike in malicious cyber activity, where threat actors are using text and AI-generated voice messages impersonating senior officials and prominent public figures to steal money and information." Includes tips, guidelines, and links to useful resources.
    • How to Spot and Combat Health Misinformation. 'While recent events have magnified the problem, misinformation “is not necessarily a new phenomenon. It has been around for centuries,” said Kylie Hall, M.P.H., Operations Director for the Center for Immunization Research and Education at North Dakota State University, during a session at ASM Microbe in June 2022. Misinformation gains traction in periods of uncertainty, as people try to make sense of events when verified facts are lacking. Various factors, including social media, contribute to the dissemination of misinformation. Learning how to spot and correct it—and help others do the same—can slow the spread of misinformation now, and in the future.'

    Wednesday, July 09, 2025

    2025 World Fantasy Award Finalists

    The ballot for the 2025 World Fantasy Awards has been announced. The awards are voted on by a panel of judges and will be announced at the World Fantasy Convention later this year.

    These are the finalists for the best novel award.

    • The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey/Hodderscape)
    • The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo (Henry Holt & Co./Quercus)
    • The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister (Counterpoint Press/Titan Books)
    • The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman (Viking/Del Rey)
    • The Wings Upon Her Back by Samantha Mills (Tachyon Publications)
    I've not read any of the nominees and given my preference for science fiction over fantasy, it's unlikely that I will. 

    Monday, July 07, 2025

    Featured Links - July 7, 2025

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

    A white hydrangea
    A hydrangea in our backyard

    Sunday, July 06, 2025

    Photo of the Week - July 6, 2025

    We're having a blooming great summer right now up here in the Great Green North. This is a clump of daisies in our front yard. If we had a bigger front yard, I'd plant some tomatoes as it gets a lot more sun than the backyard. But the daisies are prettier and they sure do glow in the sunlight. Taken with my Pixel 8 Pro.

    A clump of daises glowing in the sunlight.
    Daisies



    Saturday, July 05, 2025

    Saturday Sounds - Blackie And The Rodeo Kings at Shrewsbury Folk Festival 2022

    I've posted here before about Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, a Canadian roots music supergroup whose members include Colin Linden, Stephen Fearing, and Tom Wilson. They started as a project to record a tribute album to the late Willie P. Bennett and ended up becoming a hugely successful group.  

    I've seen them perform a couple of times, most recently last night at an outdoor concert promoted by Music by the Bay Live in Uxbridge at their "Blues Holler" site. Both performances were outstanding and among the best I've seen in the last decade. Last night's concert was about as perfect an evening of music as one could hope for: perfect weather, excellent sound, great music, and a beautiful outdoor setting.

    Blackie and the Rodeo Kings on a small outdoor stage
    Blackie and the Rodeo Kings

    The Blues Holler, an outdoor concert stage in a wooded backyard
    The Blues Holler

    So this week's musical treat is Blackie and the Rodeo Kings' performance at the  Shrewsbury Folk Festival in the UK in 2022. (Setlist here). It's an official recording from the festival, who put many of their concerts up on YouTube and features first-rate sound and pro-shot video. And of course the music is wonderful.

    Unfortunately, YouTube has blocked playback on other sites, so I can't embed it here. You'll have to click this link. Trust me, it's worth it.

    Wednesday, July 02, 2025

    Movie and TV Reviews - June 2025

    Movies and TV shows that Nancy and I watched in June. I do these posts mainly so I can keep track of what we've been watching, so the reviews are cursory. Now that baseball season has started, there will probably be fewer items here.

    I may have missed a couple of items; I accidentally overwrote the original post. 

    Movies

    • The Accountant: A thriller about an autistic accountant who serves bad guys. Quite well done.
    • The Accountant 2: Not as good as the original. If there's another one, we won't bother. 

    TV Shows

    • Injustice: A lawyer gets called up to defend an old friend. Who's the guilty one? Quite twisty and well written. (Acorn TV)
    • Hinterland (seaons 1-3): A police procedural set in rural Wales. I don't know which is grimmer: the landscape, the weather, or the inhabitants. Well done but dark. 
    • Antiques Road Trip (season 9): Our journey through England in search of treasure continues. (Acorn TV)

    Tuesday, July 01, 2025

    Happy Canada Day

    It's Canada Day up here in the Great Green North. The flowers in our backyard are loving the warm weather though I suspect they would like a bit more rain. The garden is happy and with any luck we might get some tomatoes this year. 

    So a BBQ, beer, and fireworks today as we celebrate all things Canadian. 

    Here's some colourful natural fireworks from our backyard.

    Two bushes of small yellow and purple flowers
    Backyard flowers


    Monday, June 30, 2025

    Featured Links - June 30, 2025

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

    This week's post is shorter than usual. We have a kitchen reno coming up in a week and I'm pretty busy right now. And there's a yard and garden to take care of. So posts here are going to be shorter and/or sparser than usual for a while.

    A flock of birds on and over a nesting platform in a marsh
    Birds in the hydro marsh

    Sunday, June 29, 2025

    Photo of the Week - June 29, 2025

    Nancy and I walked down to the lakefront Friday evening and there were a couple of swans in the marina lagoon. I managed to get a picture of one flapping it's wings  before it ducked underwater in search of food. Taken with my Pixel 8 Pro. 

    A swan flapping its wings preparing to dive
    A swan flapping its wings preparing to dive


    Saturday, June 28, 2025

    Saturday Sounds - Tyreek McDole - Open Up Your Senses

    This week's musical treat is a new album from a young performer who is new to me, Tyreek McDole. I was listening to SiriusXM and heard what I first thought was Pharoah Sanders' "The Creator Has a Master Plan", but it wasn't Pharoah's version, a piece of music I've been listening to for more than 50 years. Instead, it was a track from McDole's debut album, Open Up Your Senses

    From the label's press release announcing the album:

    At just 25 years old, the Haitian-American, New York-based baritone has already earned significant acclaim, including winning the prestigious Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition in 2023 — one of only two male vocalists to achieve this honor in the competition’s 12-year history. Jazz scholar Will Friedwald, who also contributes liner notes to the project, referred to McDole as “the leading jazz voice of his generation” and acclaimed DJ Gilles Peterson said “it is refreshing to hear a new voice that is so clearly connected to the tradition but also pushing it forward with such strong energy. This is a brilliant opening statement from someone I reckon will be around for some time.”

    Open Up Your Senses is a bold statement from a young artist who masterfully blends tradition with innovation. Featuring standout performances by pianist and arranger Caelan Cardello and saxophonist Dylan Band, McDole’s debut evokes the legacy of jazz greats while forging his own distinctive path.

    The album’s repertoire highlights McDole’s penchant for spiritually resonant and philosophically rich material. His stirring rendition of Leon Thomas’ “The Creator Has a Master Plan” features a powerful solo from Tomoki Sanders, progeny of saxophone legend Pharoah Sanders. Meanwhile, his interpretation of Thelonious Monk’s “Ugly Beauty” (with lyrics by Mike Ferro) is enhanced by a special guest appearance from legendary pianist Kenny Barron.

    I'm not usually a big fan of jazz singers, but I like this album a lot. The tracks feature a talented group of musicians playing in a variety of styles and McDole is a compelling singer. Enjoy. 


    Wednesday, June 25, 2025

    The USA versus Canada 8

    The relationship between Canada and the US is and contin
    uing to change. It's clear that Prime Minister Mark Carney is determined to reduce Canadian dependence on the US and he seems to have the support of most Canadians and Parliament. Here are some articles covering what's happened over the last month. 

    Request: I am curious to know how much of this is being reported in US media. I'd appreciate comments with links if you can provide them. 

    The Gordie Howe International Bridge between Detroit and Windsor
    Gordie Howe International Bridge between Detroit and Windsor

  • Nation-Building in the North from science fiction author and futurist, Karl Schroeder. "Canada is reconfiguring itself as a strategic global power. How does that work?" I hope that people in Carney's administration are reading Schroeder. (As an aside, the leader of the Bloc Quebecois reads Robert J. Sawyer.)
  • Republicans say tax retaliation proposal could be cut from Trump bill if international deal can be reached. "The provision would impose a progressive tax burden of up to 20 per cent on foreign investors’ U.S. income, raising concerns on Wall Street about the attractiveness of U.S. investments." If dividend income from US stocks held by Canadian investors starts getting taxed, there is going to be a big sell-off here. 
  • Trump's 'revenge tax' on other countries could hit U.S. "Tax that could hit Canadians comes with risk to U.S. revenue, investments."
  • American Climate Scientists Have a New Canadian Hero. "How McGill professor Juan Serpa created SUSAN, the online forum helping U.S. researchers protect their data from Trump."
  • Last Year's Move to Toronto And This Year's Politics (video and commentary) from historian and author, Timothy Snyder, one of the many academics who have moved from the US to Canada. 
  • The US Badly Needs Rare Minerals and Fresh Water. Guess Who Has Them? "As China tightens its grip on critical resources, Trump eyes Canada’s riches."
  • Canada Torches the Trump Umbilical Cord: Bill C-5 Passed, EU Trade/Security Partnership Signed, and Our Democratic Break From America Begins. "A Historic Pact with the EU Signals Canada’s Rise as a Sovereign Power—and a Sharp Rejection of Trump’s Tariff Bullying and War-First Chaos." Blundell can be a bit hyperbolic (a friend described him as 'shouty') but if you are interested in this subject, he's worth following. 
  • Fact Checking "Cosplay Kristi" Noem's Latest Canada Smear. "No, Governor Noem—Canada Isn't a Narco-State, Trudeau Never Worked With You, and Fentanyl Isn’t Flowing North."

  • 2025 Locus Awards Winners

    The winners of the 2025 Locus Awards Winners have been announced. The awards are voted by subscribers and readers of Locus Magazine, the SFF field's long-running newsmagazine.

    These are the winners of the fiction awards.

  • Science Fiction Novel: The Man Who Saw Seconds, Alexander Boldizar 
  • Fantasy Novel: A Sorceress Comes to Call, T. Kingfisher
  • Horror Novel: Bury Your Gays, Chuck Tingle 
  • Young Adult Novel: Moonstorm, Yoon Ha Lee 
  • First Novel: Someone You Can Build a Nest In, John Wiswell 
  • Novella: What Feasts at Night, T. Kingfisher
  • Novelette: “By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars“, Premee Mohamed 
  • Short Story: “Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole“, Isabel J. Kim

  • Someone You Can Build a Nest in won the 2024 Nebula Award for Best Novel. Back in April, I said that I would be disappointed if “Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole“ didn't win the Short Story Hugo Award. It may yet and I'm not at all surprised that it has won a Nebula Award and now a Locus Award. It's a remarkable story that works on many levels. 

    Monday, June 23, 2025

    Featured Links - June 23, 2025

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

    Red and purple flowers in a flower basket
    Flowers in our backyard
  • The MAGA Debt Bomb. "How Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” Turns America’s Fiscal Crisis Into a Weapon for Authoritarian Looting." The adults in the financial world are getting worried.
  • FEMA is unprepared for the next Hurricane Katrina, disaster experts warn. "Cuts, chaos, and climate change are converging to leave Americans more vulnerable to disaster than they were in 2005." 
  • How the Grateful Dead built the internet. "Before the the internet took over the world, psychedelic rock band The Grateful Dead were among the first – and most influential – forces at the dawn of online communication." Fascinating history showing how music an culture intersected with the early digital revolution, focusing mostly on The Well. I was never on The Well but made extensive use of rec.music.gdead on Usenet once I got onto the real internet in the early 90s. 
  • 'They quit after a few hours': Farmers admit they can't find American workers. "In a deep dive focusing on one farmer who voted for Trump, 36-year-old J.J. Ficke of Kirk, Colorado, the Washington Post is reporting that he along with other farmers are facing possible ruination now that the round-up of immigrants have begun in earnest and promised helpis uncertain."
  • New study suggests Long COVID is now most common childhood chronic health problem. "In a summary of the study's findings geared to the general public and published on the JAMA Pediatrics Patient Page, three of the authors of the longer study state that Long COVID is common, and, based on the larger study's finding, estimate that up to 10 to 20 percent of children who have had COVID-19 — even "mild" or asymptomatic initial infections — develop Long COVID. This translates to about six million children with Long COVID, which, the authors explain, "is higher than the number of children with asthma, the most common chronic health problem in children."'
  • 1 psychedelic psilocybin dose eases depression for years, study reveals. "Half a decade after receiving a psychedelic treatment for depression, two-thirds of patients in a new study remained in remission."
  • New theory proposes time has three dimensions, with space as a secondary effect. "Time, not space plus time, might be the single fundamental property in which all physical phenomena occur, according to a new theory by a University of Alaska Fairbanks scientist. The theory also argues that time comes in three dimensions rather than just the single one we experience as continual forward progression. Space emerges as a secondary manifestation."
  • Interview: Craig Federighi Opens Up About iPadOS, Its Multitasking Journey, and the iPad’s Essence. As a new iPad user, I found this quite fascinating. 
  • How should we respond to people “doing their own research?”. "It’s become a punchline—but it points to something broken in how we share health information."
  • Narrative Theory for Science Communication by author Mary Robinette Kowal. "In this workshop, we learn how to use the foundations of storytelling to help you be more successful with science communication. Pretty much every story, fictional or nonfictional, can be explained through a fairly simple organizational theory. Together, we learn how to use these tools to connect more effectively with your audiences."
  • Sunday, June 22, 2025

    Photo of the Week - June 22, 2025

    It looks like the switch from (a somewhat cool) spring to a (hot) summer has finally been thrown and everything outside is in bloom or growing. These are some flowers in my backyard. Taken with my Pixel 8 Pro.

    Three yellow buttercups in a bunch of purple geraniums
    Geraniums with buttercups

    Saturday, June 21, 2025

    Saturday Sounds - Aysanabee - Edge of the Earth

    This week's musical treat is a new album from Canadian indigenous artist Aysanabee. 

    The Globe and Mail has this to say about it: 

    Aysanabee has been a staple of Canadian rock radio since his debut LP Watin and follow-up EP Here and Now came out in 2022 and 2023 respectively, bringing with them inescapable songs, including Nomads and Somebody Else. With his sophomore LP on the horizon, the Oji-Cree musician is poised to become a household name, if songs such as Home and the title track get the listeners they deserve.

    I like this album a lot. He mixes traditional indigenous musical themes with a modern pop sensibility to create gorgeous soundscapes with anthemic melodies and powerful lyrics. It's going on my favourites playlist.  


    Thursday, June 19, 2025

    SpaceX Blows Up a Starship

    SpaceX just had a big oops. The Starship second stage blew up on the test site, just before a static fire test. From the video, it looks like the failure occurred in the upper part of the ship with propellant venting at the top, then igniting resulting in a very  impressive fireball and complete destruction of the ship. No one was injured at the test site but the ground equipment is probably toast.

    This is going to set the launch program back for quite a while and probably means they won't be able to launch to Mars in 2027.


    Tuesday, June 17, 2025

    The Soft Apocalypse is Coming to Hurricane Country

    From Mary Geddry's excellent Substack newsletter on Sunday . 

    "And while all of this unfolded, assassination, war, economic sabotage, and political theater, yet another quietly catastrophic story slipped into view. The Trump administration fumbled NOAA’s contract renewal for the Saildrone hurricane forecasting fleet, eliminating a key tool used to predict storm intensity just as the U.S. heads into what could be a record hurricane season.

    Because of bureaucratic delay and staff cuts, these drone boats, which had provided real-time, in-storm ocean-level data for four years, won’t be deployed. NOAA scientists are scrambling to replace them with airborne tools, but they admit: nothing else gives the same surface-level, loitering data that helps sharpen evacuation warnings and save lives. The kakistocracy fails again!"

    Quietly catastrophic, indeed. 

    There's more details about the sail drones and the contract not being renewed in this article.

    There was a science fiction novel that came out a decade or so ago that reminds me of what's going on now, Soft Apocalypse by Wil McIntosh. The apocalypse it envisions is very much like what we're going through now. The title seems prescient, except that the apocalypse won't be soft for those in hurricane country.


    Monday, June 16, 2025

    Featured Links - June 16, 2025

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

    A bearded iris
    A bearded iris in our garden
  • Imperial ouroboros. "Andor's second season is a powerful look at the fragility of oppressive ideologies." This is the best article I've read about the series and reveals just how remarkable an achievement it was. There's a master's thesis waiting for someone who wants to explore the revolutionary themes in Andor, The Expanse, and Babylon 5
  • This 1999 email from a tech pioneer helped me think about Apple’s WWDC. "Jef Raskin instigated the Mac project in 1979. Twenty years later, he was dismayed with the state of personal computing. What would he think today?"
  • RIP to the almost future of computing: Apple just turned the iPad into a Mac. "We didn’t need 15 years to get back to where we started." I will probably not use the new interface on my iPad Mini, but may on the bigger iPad Air. 
  • Teachers Are Not OK. 'AI, ChatGPT, and LLMs "have absolutely blown up what I try to accomplish with my teaching."'
  • 432 Chinese robots moved an entire 7,500-ton neighborhood before returning it to its original spot to build a subway. Metrolinx, are you paying attention to what's going on elsewhere in the world?
  • 50 Rare Vintage Pictures Showing The Everyday Grit Of Working Class Americans Back In The Day. This is a fascinating collection. I wonder what an equivalent series of photos would show today.
  • Neanderthals Spread Across Asia With Surprising Speed—and Now We Know How. "A new study suggests our prehistoric cousins likely traveled through the Ural Mountains and southern Siberia."
  • The Core of Fermat’s Last Theorem Just Got Superpowered. "By extending the scope of the key insight behind Fermat’s Last Theorem, four mathematicians have made great strides toward building a “grand unified theory” of math."
  • What It Took to Build the Death Star. "We know so much about the theft of its plans, and its final destruction over the Yavin system—but building the Death Star was a project decades in the making." Taking Star Wars seriously. 
  • 20 hidden features in Apple’s upcoming 26-branded software. "Everything from iOS 26 to watchOS 26 is getting fun new features." I'm looking forward to trying out the new iPadOS later this year.
  • The semicolon defended by its advocates. I remember arguments about semicolons in my university English classes more than 50 years ago. 
  • Cart Cartoon Network Trolls Homophobes Hard For Melting Down Over Pride Month Fan Art. "The cable channel's Instagram account share oon Network Trolls Homophobes Hard For Melting Down Over Pride Month Fan Art. "The cable channel's Instagram account shared several pieces of fan art depicting characters from beloved shows to celebrate Pride Month—and trolled several homophobes who sounded off in the comments." Good. 
  • What the Fastest-Growing Christian Group Reveals About America. (archive link) "Instead of killing off faith, modernity has supercharged some of its most dramatic manifestations."