Turns out I’ve never needed a news feed cleanse more than I did this winter. Heck, I needed a reason to hope again. And I’m an optimist. Best images and best 30 minutes of internet film I’ve seen in years. And I’ve been following NASA’s APOD photos for 1.5 decades. This set just caught me!
Not to mention the photography notes and the historical Easter eggs. All that slow panning and ambient music should be called the Zen Burns effect.
OK, I’m no space nerd, and I’m not convinced we should go to the moon much less Mars, but Artemis II surprised me with several images. Earthrise. The eclipse. The thin atmosphere. CK and her braids looking at Earth. This zen commentary by Hank Green hit all the feels.
youtu.be/oaXRREHVkHo?...
The combination of a very strong #ElNiño - which should reduce harvests across Asia, Australia, Africa, and parts of the Americas - with soaring fertilizer and fuel prices, owing to the ongoing closure of the Strait of #Hormuz, could make for a devastating year of food shortages and social unrest.
Please share. I'm recruiting a Funded Masters of Arts (Island Studies) position studying "Island Metabolisms and the Genesis of the Canadian Agri‑Food System."
This position offers up to 2-yrs of funding ($20,000/year) for a UPEI MA based in the GeoREACH Lab. Details at:
www.upei.ca/programs/isl...
Enjoy the new layer on GeoPEI, and take in the Island from 30,000 feet, or just above the tree line! www.upei.ca/GeoPEI
YYG airport grew and roads and parking lots paved almost everywhere (especially Capital Drive and Royalty Crossing areas in Charlottetown). Tourism infrastructure shifted (Winsloe, Marshfield, Cavendish, Stanhope). And suburban growth exploded (eg. Sherwood, Cornwall).
In some ways the Island hasn't changed, but in many other ways these sites are radically different today. Trains at full steam (see Summerside) and even some ships at full sail (Murray Harbour) are now long gone. So are the fox farms (Emerald, Victoria, Keppoch/Stratford).
This new layer adds a unique resource for historians studying Atlantic Canada's society and environment in the mid-20th century. The photos were taken by Paul's Flying Service circa-1950 captured a province at the beginning of the so-called Great Acceleration period in modern environmental history.
Thanks to the Acadiensis blog @acadiensis.bsky.social for sharing this reflection about an exciting new resource that my lab recently added to GeoPEI: the Prince Edward Island Historical Map Viewer. And thx to the Sharpe fam for sharing these with PEI!
acadiensis.wordpress.com/2026/04/07/m...
Am actually so pumped about this lil project!
And here's the and the Canadian History & Environment Summer School (CHESS) event on "Climate & History" via NiCHE (apply by 30 November!) niche-canada.org/2025/10/20/c...
Yes, the ACS falls right after the Canadian Historical Association (CHA~SHC), the Canadian Catholic History Association, and the Canadian History & Environment Summer School (CHESS) events, all held at UPEI the week prior. Look them up and join us for all 4, if possible! cha-shc.ca/announcement...
The call is hosted (and translated) thanks to Acadiensis, and the lovely poster is courtesy of ActiveHistory (the photo courtesy of PEI Govt -- it's sunrise on Opening Day of the PEI lobster fishery). Abstracts are due by 19 December.
Along with UPEI's Faculty of Arts and Robertson Library and colleagues from across the region, I am excited to share the call for papers for the 2026 Atlantic Canada Studies Conference which will meet in Charlottetown, PEI from 3-5 June.
journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/Ac...
Crystal Fraser and I are co-editing a series on environmental histories of Indian residential and day schools for @nichecanada.bsky.social. We chose to launch the series on Orange Shirt Day, in part, to remind historians of their responsibilities to Survivors and intergenerational Survivors.
Consider submitting a piece to The Oar, an exciting new popular history magazine by some really excellent New Brunswick scholars!
Later sessions are open and some may be joined virtually so feel free to reach out by email if you’d like to join. Our hybrid sessions will begin tomorrow with our first keynote by Natasha Simon and Lyle Vicare “Where Tides Meet: The Signitog Isthmus as a Nokumi zone and Mi’kmaq place of belonging.”
It’s a beautiful day to kick it off with walking tours (including at Fort Folly First Nation) and a welcome session this evening.
projects.upei.ca/geolab/event...
What’s at the other end of this bridge? Cape Jourimain, NB, the Chignecto Isthmus, and the second Gulf Ecologies conference: “Knowledge Beyond the Text,” to be held at Mount Allison University in Sackville.
New article from UPEI MA (Island Studies) candidate and member of the GeoREACH Lab, Barbara Rousseau, using #hGIS #envhist and other methods to examine how Prince Edward Island’s coastal dunes – and people’s perceptions of them – have changed over time. #cdnhist journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Funded Master’s Position in the History of Food Systems in Canada
@jamiemurton.bsky.social is looking for a graduate student to join his research team on the How Canadians Ate Project at Nipissing University
Start Dates: September 2025/September 2026
niche-canada.org/2025/06/23/f...
#cdnhist
The knave.
For more on the Charlottetown site’s significance see historicplaces.ca and for this station’s role in the history of mobility see my Story Map with Barbara Rousseau, “By Muscle, Mast, and Motor: A Transportation History of Charlottetown, PEI.”
projects.upei.ca/geolab/proje...
The Sackville station was moved to Acadian Heritage Village in Caraquet where it has been beautifully restored. tantramarheritage.ca/archive/hist...
These chateauesque stations were designed for Irving in the early 1930s by Acadian architect (and another son of Bouctouche) Samuel Roy. Here's the Souris station in 1942. (Source: Earle's PEI History, Facebook)
It does this Islander/historian’s heart good to see the Euston St gas station en route to preservation and repurposing for the community in Charlottetown. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
But with DQ and Starbucks waiting for him it would have been worth the trek, amirite? Explains the bowel pain anyway.
Also, the train was to Pictou, yes?
I'm giving a series of talks this summer/fall in the Maritimes on the burncentennial of the 1825 Miramichi Fire.
Thx, @mcgillqueensup.bsky.social, for the swag (are bookmarks swag?) & for the MQ25 25% discount code. www.mqup.ca/miramichi-fi...
#envhist #cdnhist #wildfire #forestfire #fire
Formation of the Canada History Collective | Collectif Histoire Canada
April 2025 marked the creation of the Canada History Collective | Collectif Histoire Canada, a pan-Canadian grouping of national, provincial and territorial historical societies.
niche-canada.org/2025/05/13/f...
#cdnhist