Not a movie, but the game exists

You need to get outside and touch grass!

What? It’s Earth Day!

Wait, why did *you* think I meant something else?

Warming Stripes for Berkshire, UK

Looking for the latest warming stripes for over 1000 countries, regions and cities? #ShowYourStripes

Fully updated to 2025: www.ShowYourStripes.info

Even more specifically for terms of service fatigue:

-privacy and security fatigue

I had the great honour of discussing Automatic Noodle with @annaleen.bsky.social during the Vancouver stop of their book tour.

It is a wonderful novella with some big themes. And now it’s up for some well deserved awards. You should go read it.

Ah the Gregorian Chant phase. What was up with that?

My first year roommate was a 6’6” bald dude from the Southwest who made his own knives. Came home one day to find him laying on the floor, arms crossed, listening to Gregorian Chants. That music will always be linked to that image in my mind.

Eduardo Porter is Still Wrong About UBI and AI: A Response to The Guardian Universal Basic Income Isn’t a Job Replacement Plan—It’s an AI Dividend and Stable Income Floor That Protects Work, Wages, and Democracy Eduardo Porter’s new Guardian piece is built around a fam...

I wrote this to help people understand that universal basic income is not meant to permanently replace all jobs. It's meant to be a floor below which no one can fall, and a dividend that universally distributes a share of our economy. It's meant to provide the power to say no and freedom to choose.

Spouse and I are both Team Early to the Airport (ETTA) but within reason.

We diverge on when to board.

Lemme introduce you to my chariot, which moves 1 million butts per day.

Power without accountability: The Palantir manifesto The problems with our tech philosopher kings

New, from me: Take the Palantir manifesto seriously, if not literally.
It reveals that our tech philosopher kings want public money, but without public accountability. This creates a dilemma for governments unaligned with its techno-fascist vision. 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/palantir-w...

Honestly, this Karp book sounds like it is going to be badly written Henry Kissinger Meets Samuel Huntington fanfic. And who has time for that?

Also, the take-down below is giving me Good Will Hunting bar scene vibes.

Post-Doc Position in Energy Modeling:

My collaborator at SFU (not on Bsky) is hiring a post-doc for our joint project on modeling Climate, Land, Energy and Water systems for Canada. Come join the team.

www.sfu.ca/content/dam/...

Has anyone considered doing a CTR-ALT-DELETE on the BC NDP because they seem to be glitching

1 yr ago I wrote a massive thread on @iea.org huge AI / energy report.

WELL it's one year later and they've released an update, but notably, there is no chatbot. Well....I'm going to read it anyway, and you're all going to get spammed with notes :)

that's means a NEW ULTRATHREAD 🧵

And guess what happens once the Chinese have made enough electric freight trucks for themselves, paying off the cost of the factories? They will export them to the rest of the world at the cost of variable inputs
(materials, energy, labour), i.e., super cheap.

Do you want to see the "big picture" on climate change?

Here it is.

Emissions are on the left, and include CO2, CH4, N2O, and f-gases. Natural CO2 sinks (from healthy forests & oceans) are on the right. And carbon removal, what little there is, is on the right, too. All expressed as GWP100.

Maybe true but I’m not even seeing that in this picture!

Nice graphic (alt text next time please)

Wonder how it would work as an animated graphic over time (like the temp spiral). Would be powerful to see both the arrows on left getting bigger over time but also the Atmosphere box growing as the stock accumulates.

NBC news banner. Below that is a picture of three young white men. The caption reads “Hunter Stine; Hank Story; Ben Christianson. The Trump rally in Phoenix drew a diverse crowd of older and younger supporters.”

The NBC News caption writer is trolling us here, right?

Federal judge unloads on ‘unserious’ RFK Jr., says anti-trans policy showed his ‘cruelty’ Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai vacated the “Kennedy Declaration,” finding it unlawfully attempted to override medical standards and restrict care for transgender youth.

Breaking: HHS’s ban on gender-affirming care is struck down. Rarely have I read a ruling this sharply worded.

“This case is one of a long list of examples of how a leader’s wanton disregard for the rule of law causes very real harm to very real people.”

www.advocate.com/politics/nat...

And now might be a good time to figure out a new mechanism to do that. Or at least get an infusion of cash.

Not that windfall taxes will be easy. As pointed out below, the accounting issues are real. but doesn’t mean they are not solvable.

Bluesky has gone from bring down to something more interactive:

Me: please post this

Bluesky: No. Forbidden!

Me <hits post button again>: Please?

Bluesky: oh, ok. If you insist.

Cherry blossoms

But for a specific reason. When kid1 was a wee little one and on my shoulders they ended up dumping cherry blossoms on my head as we passed under the tree near our home.

Has become an annual tradition that continues well over a decade later.

Here’s an idea:

Windfall tax from current price spike earmarked for cleanup of orphan and likely to be orphaned wells.

Industrial carbon price eroding Canada's competitiveness: oil and gas leaders Leaders in Canada’s oil and gas sector say the industrial carbon levy would erode the country’s competitive edge at a time when the world is clamouring for a reliable energy supply. “We’re still talki...

More self-serving bullshit from Canada's oil and gas industry. Let's dig in and check some facts.

toronto.citynews.ca/2026/04/14/i...

"Close the lid, the monkey is dead" (“Klappe zu, Affe tot”)

One of the great pleasures of being with someone whose first language is different than yours is learning some amazing idioms. This is my new favorite.

If we’re going to be serious about climate change, we can see this moment as a potential inflection point and push on solutions that make sense for people and climate 👇🏼

Or double down on propping up an industry that should be downsizing.

Seeing far too much of the latter in this country.

Serial Failure Sal Khan Wants to Take Over Higher Education And anyone who cares about human-centered education should hope he fails.

Sal Khan is spinning up an alternative post-secondary credential in concert with the largest tech companies in the world. Anyone who cares about human-centered education should wish it nothing but failure. Thankfully, Khan has practice at that. www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

When I raised questions about the Canadian gov’s actual commitment to climate action early on I got:

Read the Liberal party platform!
Read Carney’s book!

Yeah, well then where’s the policy? Where’s the action? Because I’m with @shastingssimon.bsky.social here. I’m not seeing it.

Had a hard No AI policy in my course this term with an explanation of why. It was clear that some students appreciated both the policy and the explanation.

My own kids are highly sceptical of GenAI output.