On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams

Artemis II

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:25:14 GMT

I did NOT know how much I needed to see something like the Artemis launch until I did.

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Canada Day 158

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 13:40:57 GMT

As ever...

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Population Trends: Perception Vs. Probability

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 13:47:38 GMT

Yes, we're hitting the eight-billion mark in living humans this week. When I was starting grade school, I think we were at four billion.

Now, though, we have some debate over how difficult things are expected to become, how quickly, and in what ways exactly.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/8-billion-global-population-1.6646018

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Sun, 25 Sep 2022 22:15:16 GMT

To those among my friends here who observe: Shana tova.

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Electric Vehicles: A Pleasant Surprise? Maybe?

Wed, 29 Sep 2021 00:21:31 GMT

Looking at this for a few minutes:

https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2021/09/electric-cars-have-hit-inflection-point/620233/?utm_source=feed

I didn't think things were moving this quickly on the global scale in terms of cars and trucks. Yes, the manufacturing process is still messy as Hell. But are we making progress of some sort here? I think the answer to that question is "yes".

armiphlage, autopope, you might have some informed context to add here...? Anyone else?

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Rebuilding Urban Life

Mon, 05 Oct 2020 11:40:28 GMT

A couple of links of interest pointed out to me:

https://www.azuremagazine.com/article/design-is-more-important-than-ever-lets-make-it-official/

https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/3/22/cites-as-platforms-of-productivity

I want to revisit these at some point.

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CBC: Ideas - A Search for the Common Good

Mon, 07 Sep 2020 18:09:16 GMT

Listening to this one at the moment:

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/our-futurecestors-deserve-a-voice-in-today-s-decisions-says-author-1.5710902

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A Reason to Not Give Up on Mainland China

Tue, 18 Aug 2020 13:00:08 GMT

A bit of good news, I think, in play this morning for you to look at.

This is a reason worth holding onto, I think. A lot of people in that country see what's going on there for what it is.

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TV: Last Episode of Agents of SHIELD...

Wed, 12 Aug 2020 18:46:38 GMT

...at least, on ABC and CTV, anyway.

I have no idea what plans there might be for the characters that survive the end of this TV series, no idea what the comic book counterparts of the characters are in for either.

I am feeling somewhat sad. And worried.

Also, nostalgic.

When this series started, I helped my local SF club organize a party to celebrate the series' opening night at the Fox and Feather on Elgin Street. It was well-attended, we had fun, and we looked to the future.

Now? We can't meet again to mark the end of this era. Not in this Time of Pandemic. That hurts.

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Fri, 26 Jun 2020 23:35:14 GMT

Thanks to twistedchick for pointing this essay out to me:

https://longreads.com/2020/06/18/the-long-con-of-britishness/

Good on Laurie Penny for this. She's been good for sometimes brutal honesty about the worlds we live in - real and fictional - for a few years now. This is another aspect of that work of hers.

And this comes to mind in particular:

"If you love your country and don’t own its difficulties and its violence, you don’t actually love your country. You’re just catcalling it as it goes by."

Canada's existence in its present form is another consequence of that long con, and the people living here are dealing with being consequences of that as well. Consequences for each other. We are a mess right now. We can do better. We can be better.

Whether we end up with balkanization back into what the Indigenous nations had before first contact with the European nations whose leaders wanted empires built upon the burned bones and spilled blood of the locals; into a mix of Indigenous and Settler holdings; the next conquest of the American Trumpist fascism if that survives this November upcoming; or something else hopefully unified by freely made choice and better for its struggles to accept our own ugly truths and better angels...?

I don't know yet.

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Threat Assessment

Tue, 12 May 2020 19:34:04 GMT

Filed by Garrett M. Graff with Politico:

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/05/07/experts-knew-pandemic-was-coming-what-they-fear-next-238686

Call it stuff that civil defense planners, science fiction writers and citizens in general need to take interest in.

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TREK: First Contact Day

Sun, 05 Apr 2020 14:22:23 GMT

In forty-three years, in another universe near enough for our imaginations to reach out and envision, this will be the date of official First Contact between the peoples of Earth/Sol III and Vulcan/T'Khasi/40 Eridani A-II/Nevasa II.

I note this retroactive anniversary with hope and some degree of satisfaction.

Joe George at startrek.com has some thoughts on the subject, given this year's context.

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Futures, Tenser

Sun, 29 Mar 2020 00:33:25 GMT

Trump's gambling that he can leverage this mess to ensure his future remains locked into the White House.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/27/opinion/trump-coronavirus-response.html

Many object to having their lives redefined as acceptable collateral damage to achieve such ends.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/3/28/1932073/-All-of-us-are-now-viewed-as-collateral-damage-in-Trump-s-re-election-strategy

David Brin speculates - as you'd expect an SF author to do - on where this might lead for the US in particular.

https://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2020/03/where-might-this-all-lead-unexpected.html

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MOVIES: Christopher Nolan Thinking Ahead

Sat, 21 Mar 2020 20:37:18 GMT

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2020/03/21/christopher-nolan-says-movie-theaters-need-our-help/

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CBC: Unreserved - Language Preservation and Revival

Tue, 25 Feb 2020 18:09:06 GMT

Just got back in the house from the job interview. While I'm winding down from that and winding up for the sleep clinic tonight? Waubgeshig Rice guest-hosted this week's installment of CBC Radio's Unreserved series, and there's some things of interest to me (and probably other listeners as well):

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/unreserved/from-immersion-camps-to-podcasts-innovation-attracts-new-indigenous-language-speakers-1.5470178

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Rachel Maddow on the Thoughts of Gessen and Snyder

Fri, 14 Feb 2020 00:39:13 GMT

When you have half an hour to spare. Rachel Maddow goes over some of the advice of Masha Gessen and Timothy Snyder, as a refresher for us all across the planet.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/with-the-rule-of-law-failing-under-trump-just-diagnosing-the-problem-isn-t-enough-78691397989

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MAPS/RAIL: Ambitions, Published in 2013

Mon, 06 Jan 2020 19:57:19 GMT

Crossposted from viarail_fandom

This is a six-year-old project. Call it mapping of ambitions. I doubt that the Canadian government of 2019 shares them, but here they are.

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MAPS: A future of rail in need of rebuilding

Tue, 03 Sep 2019 17:49:10 GMT

A project I've left unattended since 2013, in need of some additional detailing and cleaning up.

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Vertigo comics question

Sun, 24 Feb 2019 16:10:23 GMT

Why has no one mentioned High Level to me? I'm looking at Warren Ellis' latest weekly newsletter at the moment, and the sample map from High Level he's included with it?

Moose Jaw, Battleford...Manitoba Sea...Winnipeg Isles...Calgari...?

We're talking the lands of my childhood and adolescence here.

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New Year's Eve 2018 is Here...

Tue, 01 Jan 2019 03:57:41 GMT

So I'm home tonight. Listening to the Top 100 Canadian Music Countdown of 2018 on CBC Radio One, Rich Terfry and Angeline Tetteh-Wayoe hosting. Seems like the thing to do at the moment.

In case you're wondering: I'm not making any resolutions for 2019 Gregorian. I doubt my ability to keep to any of them right now.

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Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Sat, 01 Dec 2018 03:21:29 GMT

Apparently, we have a 70th Anniversary for a Very Important Document coming up. A Document whose content and intent are still getting more disrespect than they ought to.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights

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About the US elections of 2018

Tue, 06 Nov 2018 11:06:04 GMT

If you can legally do so and haven't already done so, please vote.

Saving yourselves might save me too.

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And For Contrast, Carbon Pollution Shrinkage in Canada

Mon, 10 Sep 2018 23:46:59 GMT

I count this as very good news. That there are people actively seeking to reverse it...it frightens me, but still. Good news.

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2018/09/10/news/canadas-carbon-pollution-dropped-2016-economy-grew

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CBC Radio: Ideas - Maximum Canada

Mon, 02 Jul 2018 19:44:38 GMT

Does Doug Saunders have an intelligent point to make?

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/maximum-canada-how-big-is-enough-1.4728172

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The value of outsourcing national defence?

Thu, 14 Jun 2018 22:07:25 GMT

I had a look at this during the ride home from work. I think Mr. Gurney might need to have a conversation with Madeline Ashby and Shannon Gormley about his capacity for optimism. That aside...

https://globalnews.ca/news/4272091/commentary-still-think-outsourcing-our-national-defence-is-a-good-idea/

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