Tomorrow is BC Book Day! And this weekend is Canadian Independent Bookstore Day! Lots of things going on at your local bookstore. (Image from Read Local BC)

What I Learned About Billionaires at Jeff Bezos’s Private Retreat For the richest men on Earth, everything is free and nothing matters.

"These men no longer feel the need to change the world in order to succeed, because their success is guaranteed, no matter what happens to the rest of us." (and notice, it is all men) www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Meltdown - University of Alberta Press In Meltdown, Sarah Boon tells us about field adventures in snow and ice, the tough decision of choosing an academic career over that of a writer, and the cha...

Hello new followers! I skeet about nature, writing, politics, women in society/science and more. My book, Meltdown: The Making and Breaking of a Field Scientist is a finalist for the BC/Yukon Book Prizes and the Foreword Indies Book of the Year Award. ualbertapress.ca/978177212791...

Saw my first garter Snake of the season, sunning themself on the road. Thank goodness they slithered across the road so they wouldn't be run over.

AI Drafting My Stories? Over My Dead Body AI-assisted writing is creeping into newsrooms under the guise of efficiency. But the trade-off may be more profound than publishers are willing to admit.

"...if the form of “ai-assistance” that includes actual writing catches on, we will all be impoverished by the loss of the human voice. Not to mention the soul." www.wired.com/story/backch...

Disaster Capitalism in Higher Education | Los Angeles Review of Books What happens to local economies when universities downsize or shutter?

On the decline of higher education lareviewofbooks.org/article/disa...

Rusting Rivers: Alarm Grows Over Uptick in Acidic Arctic Waters Climate change has thawed permafrost and increased rainfall in the Far North, producing sulfuric acid that is turning rivers and lakes yellow or rusty orange. Scientists are scrambling to parse the im...

Climate change is increasing the acidity of northern rivers, causing low pH values and orange rivers. Ed Struzik in Yale E360 e360.yale.edu/features/rus...

What do I do when I'm not writing? Check it out at the Masters Review mastersreview.com/writers-on-n...

How the American oligarchy went hyperscale The AI boom is fueling a literal and metaphorical power grab by tech billionaires—and forcing a reckoning.

—
“It is no longer novel or even particularly accurate to note that the richest Americans control a greater share of resources than they did during the Gilded Age.

They are about three times wealthier.

That wealth is increasingly concentrated in a single industry, consumed by a singular purpose.”

This needs to be taken seriously. Along with underfunding, Doug Ford is destroying the university system. And yes, this latest move is 100% in line with what we've seen happening by state-level MAGA-hats in the US.

Podcast Launch: History of Hydrology Interviews “The number one piece of advice I would give anybody is to pick a problem and go after that problem. Ideally, you should pick a problem that requires a lifetime to solve.”  Prof. Siva Sivapalan, episo...

We’re excited to launch our new podcast on the History of Hydrology! 🎙️
This series brings together expert interviews to explore how hydrological science has evolved over time— & how past insights continue to shape today’s water challenges and solutions.

blogs.egu.eu/divisions/hs...

Totally!

I should clarify - top ten Alberta books. That's a bit different!

That's so good to hear. Thanks for letting me know.

Hurrah for libraries! Meltdown is one of the top ten most borrowed books in Alberta libraries! @ualbertapress.bsky.social

REVIEW: The Possibility of Tenderness: A Jamaican Memoir of Plants and Dreams by Jason Allen-Paisant | Hippocampus Magazine In The Possibility of Tenderness: A Jamaican Memoir of Plants and Dreams, Jason Allen-Paisant juxtaposes his childhood with his current middle-class life in Leeds, UK.

My latest book review for Hippocampus: Jason Allen-Paisant's The Possibility of Tenderness www.hippocampusmagazine.com/2026/04/revi...

So sad. Amy and Dave Freeman canoed the Boundary Waters to raise awareness about their plight and wrote A Year in the Wilderness: Bearing Witness in the Boundary Waters. That was published in 2018 - and the area was already threatened. Now the floodgates have opened to resource development.

I've been watching this one closely. Ocean circulation is critical for climate.

THE SENATE IS VOTING ON THE BOUNDARY WATERS RIGHT NOW!

Tonight, while most people are watching TV or putting their kids to bed, the U.S. Senate is taking a vote that could permanently end protections for one of the most beloved wilderness areas in America.

Congrats to @snowhydro.bsky.social, @fox-e-laurence.bsky.social, and all the other finalists for the BC and Yukon Book Prizes this year!

Thanks @evaholland.bsky.social !

Thanks Joanna!

Congratulations to @snowhydro.bsky.social for bring on this shortlist!!

Vancouver Island authors in the running for B.C. and Yukon Book Prizes The West Coast Book Prize Society announced the shortlist of nominees on Tuesday, including more than a dozen with ties to Vancouver Island.

Good list of Vancouver Island authors on the BC and Yukon Book Prizes shortlist www.timescolonist.com/entertainmen...

a rectangular grid mosaic of book covers that are nominated for various 2026 BC and Yukon Book Prizes. Across the top of the image it reads: Congratulations to the 2026 finalists.

Hooray to @snowhydro.bsky.social on the nomination of Meltdown for the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize. Very exciting!

More info on Meltdown: The Making and Breaking of a Field Scientist here:
ualbertapress.ca/978177212791...

Congratulations to all the nominees!

Thanks!

Very excited to share that I'm a finalist in the nonfiction category of the BC/Yukon Book Prizes! quillandquire.com/omni/finalis...

Thanks Theresa - it's so exciting!

Pete Hegseth Is Trying to Resegregate the Military “Color-blind and merit-based” now seems to be anything but.

"Bigotry isn’t just inefficient, as the U.S. military discovered in the 1940s. It also makes you stupid." On Pete Hegseth's military - no women, no people of colour. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

"the love I’d thought was damaged, gone, is still there, resilient (in a way I never realized it could be), and I am so grateful not to have given up completely."