Instantiating Serendipity
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72/5 on my birthday
January 25, 2024
Ingenuity Mars Helicopter The NASA Ingenuity mars helicopter has taken its last flight, on 18 January. It was designed for 5 flights, and managed 72. It was...
Left the old bar, found a new one
January 2, 2024
For those who saw my last post on Substack and are now reading this - welcome! The old bar was starting to have an unpleasant odour, one which the...
Turnaround Day
December 21, 2023
The winter solstice is later today. Getting to this point in the year always feels like a long, darkening slog. External world events haven’t helped....
Taking the fork in the road
November 26, 2023
'The expression "when you come to a fork in the road, take it" has been attributed to the baseball legend Yogi Berra, who used it as a humorous way of giving...
Mike Pinder was almost right...
November 3, 2023
My modification is “Training is the best way to travel”. My sweetie and I spent several hours on the VIA train Wednesday and again on Thursday. I hadn’t been...
Oppenheimer and Handler
September 19, 2023
Now that a few weeks have passed since I watched both movies, perhaps my first impressions have stabilized. We saw “Oppenheimer” (the movie) at a mini-IMAX...
There it was... Gone!
August 6, 2023
The Mont Blanc I inherited from my uncle is missing. When last I assembled all my implements for a group photograph, there it was – gone! It had always stood...
Time perspective
July 16, 2023
Today I am listening to music 247 years old. It is stored on vinyl 60 years old. The turntable and speakers are at least 50 years old. I’m reading poetry 168...
Peak Brain
July 3, 2023
We all have heard of “Peak Oil” and most have used the phrase “peak performance”. The first has probably passed, the second keeps increasing, judging by...
"The Gift" by Lewis Hyde - some thoughts
June 2, 2023
“A classic… If you want to write, paint, sing, compose, act, or make films, read The Gift.” That headline quote by Margaret Atwood was a significant...
My test of DALL-E produced crap.
April 5, 2023
The image above was the best result of 16 attempts, each with 4 variations. This one was in the very first set of 4. The prompt for this one was “space...
In a small minority
March 18, 2023
16% if you include the “Bad but getting better” group. The checkmark indicates for which option I voted. There are several negative factors to consider in...
Rudification
March 13, 2023
Pogo by Walt Kelly 1950 <rant ON> Corey Doctorow is credited with creating the word and concept of “enshittification” – the life cycle of social media (and...
Learning a Cakewalk
March 2, 2023
Cakewalk: “something accomplished with ease” Cakewalk: “a jazz composition by Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson”. Cakewalk: “a dance developed… …in the...
Stop calling it "AI"!
February 17, 2023
That turkey is far more intelligent than ChatGPT and all its ilk. All these so-called “intelligent chatbots” are certainly artificial by definition, and...
Seeing the Unseeable
February 5, 2023
This past week I’ve been slowly making my way through Ed Yong’s “An Immense World”. The subtitle is “How animal senses reveal the hidden realms around us.”...
...it's full of stars!
January 27, 2023
For the past few days I’ve been looking at the above image as my screen background. It is a very small section of the recently released NOIRLab survey of the...
Starlink can cause our extermination
January 22, 2023
Starlink is, so far, one of Elon Musk’s success stories. Thanks to the 3,300 and counting (target: 42,000) Starlink satellites now in orbit, people in 45...
The Door Into Summer 2023
January 18, 2023
This is my birthday view from the shop office's back door. Above the door is a sign inspired by the Heinlein novel of the same name: The Door Into Summer....
Is time really passing faster?
January 6, 2023
It may be just an aspect of the human condition, particularly among those of “a certain age”. Most people I talk with are almost guarantied at some point in...
Being recommended by Terry Fallis!!!
January 5, 2023
Well that was a major, and pleasant, surprise! Terry Fallis, my favourite non-SF writer (although in some passages I see potential…) just recommended this...
Thoughts on Hanon as background music
December 8, 2022
What makes a good background track for a promotional video? It needs to be unobtrusive, have low dynamic range, and provide continuity for the voiceover...
How Kickstarter works – a Creator’s Perspective
November 29, 2022
Several years ago I ran a Kickstarter project. It was unsuccessful. In the words used on the site, “funding goal was not reached”. I am currently in the pre-...
A short story
September 28, 2022
The family reunion So every few years the Bunyan family would have a reunion. Paul and Babe would leave their canyon and head to Africa. Cousin Paul Bunion...
Return to programming
April 11, 2022
A couple of weeks ago I purchased a FitBit Sense after neighbor Grant showed me his. FitBit was having them on deep discounts, probably because of their...
Inunnguat - Science and Technology
March 30, 2022
Each of the aspects of the Inunnguat project will require advancements in technology to one extent or another. Some will require advancements in the...
Inunnguat - Environment
March 22, 2022
The Inunnguat cities must all have minimal impact on their local environment. Furthermore, they must have minimal impact on the global environment, not only...
Inunnguat - Employment
March 18, 2022
Development of Resolute would require a huge infusion of dedicated and talented workers. The first requirement would be for planning, which would of course...
Inunnguat - First Nations and Inuit
March 15, 2022
Although the area around Resolute Bay was only sporadically occupied before 1953, there is archaeological evidence of earlier habitation before 1000 AD. The...
Inunnguat - Transportation
March 7, 2022
Transportation will be discussed in two distinct aspects – internal and external. Within the city, much transportation could be by foot and bicycle. Most...
Inunnguat - Food
March 1, 2022
Food supply is a problem in the north. The current practice is for perishables to be flown in, and non-perishables to arrive by sea freight in summer, or ice...
Inunnguat Energy
February 22, 2022
Energy Sources & Technology For a city in the far north, with onsite agriculture and industry, the most viable option for electricity and heat is a nuclear...
Inunnguat Structure
February 18, 2022
The biggest impediment to occupying Canada’s North is the climate. It’s so obvious it sounds stupid to say, and yet with appropriate technological tools,...
Inunnguat Location
February 15, 2022
Resolute, Nunavut is the first choice for the first Innunguaq city. The Wikipedia article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resolute,_Nunavut gives a brief...
Inunnguat - Aspects
February 8, 2022
This Proposal will impact many areas of Canada’s social and economic life. These include: Location: one of the primary purposes of this Proposal is to...
Today's view from my Door Into Summer
February 3, 2022
My workshop has two rooms. The larger holds the power tools - the big, noisy equipment which assist me in making things from wood. The smaller room was...
Inunnguat - Intro
February 1, 2022
This Proposal is to build, in co-operation with Inuit and other First Nations, a permanent, self-contained, self-sufficient city in Canada’s far north. As a...
Something I came up with a few years ago
January 26, 2022
A few years ago I was thinking about what it would take for Canada to have a vibrant new frontier, avoid environmental disaster, and help relocate...
Mozart and Beethoven
January 18, 2022
For the better part of the past year I’ve been playing out of 3 books. I start with Hanon, then move to Mozart. His early works are surprisingly complex. So...
In these times of cynicism and despair, is 'hopepunk' the perfect antidote?
January 14, 2022
This morning I read a very encouraging article on the BBC Online. The author, David Robson, proposes that a new SF genre known as “Hopepunk” presents a...
I had a dream
January 12, 2022
Carrie Newcomer posted a question this morning. Here’s an attempt at a partial answer, strictly from my own perspective. Her question was (in part) “Are...
What's My Melodic Line?
January 10, 2022
Often when I’m deep into the first 38 of the Hanon exercises, I think of Peter Schickele. One of the more memorable cuts from Disk 1 of the 2 disk set “The...
Aliens Among Us?
January 9, 2022
Just about anyone in the Western world will see this image and know what it implies. The myth of Roswell and Area 51 is incredibly resistant to logic and...
Is Coding Writing?
January 7, 2022
Everywhere you turn these past few years, young (and not-so-young) people are being encouraged to “learn to code’. Is this helpful? If so, what is the aim?...
Thoughts on Hanon
January 4, 2022
About a year ago I started working my way through Hanon. I purchased the complete 2nd edition, the one with the Matisse on the cover, quite a few years ago....