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 north of Oshawa

• I started using NotebookLM with Microsoft Word and I’m not going back. I could have used this in my last job. 
• The Painter of the Right. "Thomas Kinkade’s paintings show conservatives a world they have already won." Unfortunately, the documentary mentioned in the article doesn't appear to be available for streaming. 
• Remembering Descent, the once-popular, fully 3D 6DOF shooter. "Descent is a big part of gaming history, but not many people talk about it." 
• The death of the projection booth. "As movie theatres adapt new technology for screenings, the art of feeding film through a projector is fading to black."
• 12 Fresh Tomato Pasta Recipes We Can’t Stop Making. Our garden looks like it will produce a bumper crop of tomatoes this year, so I'm looking forward to trying some of these recipes.
• I took my e-book library back from Amazon with this self-hosted app. "BookLore turns ebook chaos into a modern, streamlined library you control completely." I might try this. I'm finding the Kindle app on my iPad Mini almost unusable for managing my books because the Collections view won't show a collection's contents in a list format. 
• Social media is dead – here’s what comes next. "A new information ecosystem is on the rise, featuring closer connections, cosy media and worker-owned websites, writes Annalee Newitz."
• Tom Lehrer, Musical Satirist With a Dark Streak, Dies at 97. "A mathematician by training, he acquired a devoted following with songs that set sardonic lyrics to music that was often maddeningly cheerful." Noted with sadness. 

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.

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.

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! 

Featured Links - July 22, 2025

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

Sunset along the 401

• Five days, 65 km, 86,000 steps — and one restless city: I walked all the way across Toronto. This is what I saw (archive link). I am waiting for the Eglinton Crosstown to open and plan to ride it across Toronto, perhaps with stops at some of the stations on the underground part of the line. 
• A Juicy Chronicle of the Fat Decades at Condé Nast (gift link). Empire of the Elite, by Michael M. Grynbaum, is a story of (mostly) insider-outsiders who helmed the glossiest American magazines in their heyday." I miss magazines and browsing the racks in stores like Lichtman's, now sadly defunct. 
• Why Did the Rich Pull Away from the Rest? 'This is Part I of Stone Center Senior Scholar Paul Krugman’s series “Understanding Inequality,” which originally appeared on his Substack newsletter.' This is an important series of articles and worth the time to read.
• Published Via Desktop. 'A list of programs from the all-too-brief golden era of desktop publishing that “didn’t make it.” The GUI’s killer app didn’t slay forever.' Out of the 10 programs listed in the article, I used two: Aldus PageMaker and Venture Publisher. 
• The Peptide Craze. "The Surge in Use of Off-Label and Non-FDA Approved Peptides." TANSTAAFL. 
• Terry Gilliam Reflects On ‘Brazil’ As Film Celebrates 40th Anniversary & The Challenges Of Getting Movies Made Today: “I Really Don’t Want Any More Fights” I really must rewatch Brazil; it's one of my favourite movies. 
• Alberta’s Book Ban Is a Blatant Act of Cultural Vandalism. "The push to sanitize school collections erases what literature is for: knowledge, discovery, the freedom to think." I am sad to see this happening in Canada. 
• The Em Dash Responds to the AI Allegations. "I would like to address the recent slander circulating on social media, in editorial Slack channels, and in the margins of otherwise decent Substack newsletters. Specifically, the baseless, libelous accusation that my usage is a telltale sign of artificial intelligence."
• Radical New Theory Rewrites the Story of the Earliest Universe. "A new theory promises to simplify our approach to the universe's earliest moments, but some cosmologists say further mathematical scrutiny is warranted." Simplification is good. 

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.

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.

Trucks on the 401

 

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. 

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.

• After 100 days of upheaval, what’s next for U.S. science? "Fights over research spending and pending court rulings loom large." 
• Will US science survive Trump 2.0? "President Donald Trump and his administration have gutted science agencies, terminated research programmes and cancelled billions of dollars in grants to universities. What are the long-term impacts for the United States and the world?"
• It’s too late’: David Suzuki says the fight against climate change is lost. '“We have failed to shift the narrative and we are still caught up in the same legal, economic and political systems,” said David Suzuki in an exclusive interview with iPolitics. “For me, what we’ve got to do now is hunker down.”'
• Climate Change is Trying to Kill Me. "It's here and it's personal." True for Nancy and me too. 
• 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.:
• ‘Could become a death spiral’: scientists discover what’s driving record die-offs of US honeybees. "Experts scrambling to understand losses in hives across the country are finally identifying the culprits. And the damage to farmed bees is a sign of trouble for wild bees too."
• It's not just about measles. "Measles is a canary in the coal mine. When measles reappears in a country like the U.S., it signals that something has gone seriously wrong. This is a disease we had essentially eliminated—thanks to one of the safest and most effective vaccines in the history of medicine. But the way things are heading, the U.S. is at risk of losing its elimination status this year. This is not just a failure to move forward—it’s the unraveling of decades of progress, representing one of the greatest public health achievements of our era."
• How the little-known ‘dark roof’ lobby may be making US cities hotter. "As cities heat up, reflective roofs could lower energy bills and help the climate. But dark-roofing manufacturers are waging a quiet campaign to block new rules."
• Deadly drug-resistant fungus spreading fast across US, WHO raises alarm. "A deadly, drug-resistant fungus, Aspergillus fumigatus, is spreading rapidly across the US, posing serious risks to people with weak immunity as climate change fuels its growth and resistance." If you think the planet is out to get us, you may be right.
• A 100 ft 'mega tsunami' could hit the US at any moment. And that’s only the beginning. "This could be the biggest disaster in US history, and it just got a whole lot worse." Look up the term "ghost forest" and what can cause them.

Featured Links - July 15, 2025

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

Summer daisies

• The Day Grok Tried to Be Human. "xAI’s chatbot spiraled into chaos after trying to sound more human. The fix reveals just how fragile truth-seeking AI really is." Like father, like son.
• Collapse of key Atlantic currents may be held off by newly-discovered back-up system, study finds. "Rising temperatures in the North Atlantic are slowing vital currents, but a new process in the Arctic could save the day, scientists say." Let's hope this is true. 
• Commentary: Cory Doctorow: Rubber-Hose Cryptanalysis. "In a technologically advanced society, where your health, life and livelihood are all dependent on encryption, and encryption is dependent on the rule of law, authoritarianism represents an existential threat. When a border guard, an immigration enforcer, a federal of­ficer, or the cop on the beat can use rubber-hose cryptanalysis to compromise the security of our otherwise impregnable cryptosystems, the entire basis for trusting in the integrity of our computerized world crumbles."
• Ukraine Infantry Adapts to More Menacing Drones. "For an elite unit, rapidly evolving drone warfare makes the “toughest job in the army” both easier and more perilous." Shades of The Terminator.
  
• Algoma Steel announces historic first arc at new electric furnace. "Michael Garcia, Algoma's president, described today's news as a landmark development in the 'largest industrial decarbonization project in Canada'" Good news for the Sault and for meeting Canada's carbon emission goals.
• Canada's second-tallest structure is being demolished in Ontario. "The Superstack — designed to better disperse smelting gas from Vale's Copper Cliff Complex — has stood as the tallest chimney in the Western Hemisphere throughout its existence." I have driven past that stack many times. 
• Work-from-home starting to look more remote as companies get stricter on office time. During my last few years at the TSX, I was able to work from home two or sometimes three days a week and loved it. I was more productive and had more energy because I wasn't commuting 90 mintues each way. 

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. 

Roses

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. 

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.'

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. 

Featured Links - July 7, 2025

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

A hydrangea in our backyard

• 745 km from civilization: Exploring North America's most isolated road. "Quebec's Trans-Taiga Road ends at a point so remote that a broken tire might require an emergency plane landing to deliver a replacement." This definitely not a trip I will be making. 
• The Anti-Autocracy Handbook: A Scholars' Guide to Navigating Democratic Backsliding. "The Anti-Autocracy Handbook is a call to action, resilience, and collective defence of democracy, truth, and academic freedom in the face of mounting authoritarianism. It tries to provide guidance to scholars navigating the growing global trend of democratic backsliding and autocratization, in particular in the U.S." This may be useful to more than scholars. 
• “This Plane Just Did the Impossible”: Historic Supersonic Flight Silences the Sky with Zero Sonic Boom for First Time Ever. "The aviation industry witnessed a monumental breakthrough on February 10, 2025, as Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 aircraft accomplished what many experts deemed impossible. Flying over the Mojave Desert at speeds exceeding the sound barrier, the aircraft achieved something unprecedented in aviation history: supersonic flight without generating a sonic boom. This revolutionary achievement has opened new possibilities for the future of air travel." 
• A London Dentist Just Cracked a Geometric Code in Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man. "A hidden triangle in the vitruvian man could finally explain one of da Vinci's greatest works."
• A Runestone That May Be North America’s Oldest Turns Up in a Canada Forest. "Researchers spent years quietly studying a stone carved with 255 runes and the image of a boat found in Ontario. Now, revealing the stone’s existence, they’re asking the public for help."
• Bogged down (gift link). "Ireland’s peat trade fuels conflict with Europe over climate and conservation." Excellent and well illustrated article. 
• Why Pasta Tastes Better at Restaurants, According to a Former Line Cook. "No need to reach for more salt or even fat to achieve restaurant-quality pasta at home; instead, follow these simple yet effective steps for perfect pasta." I have yet to cook the perfect pasta meal, but I will keep trying.
• Britain’s Three Week Failure to Fix Stranded F-35 in India Provides an Opportunity For Russia’s Su-57 Stealth Fighter. I think it would be a very good thing if Canada scrapped plans to buy any F-35s, 

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.

Daisies

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

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.

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)

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.

Backyard flowers