Roy Brander🍁

Retired civil engineer and GIS programmer.
http://brander.ca - which has all my contact info.

Last Notes

2025-07-30 14:58:31 UTC

I get the weird impression that Trump opponents seem to think the Epstein story is about Trump being a perv or pedo.
The GOP doesn't care. They don't care about pastors or coaches; the didn't care that Trump went backstage at Miss Teen America. Just like the don't care about the frauds and cons and rape-proof and criminal convictions.
They only care about pedo stories on Dems. His ONLY betrayal would be protecting DEMS (in order to protect friends).
"Pedo Protector" is your protest sign.

2025-04-21 03:18:04 UTC

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This is the theme of the famous essay, and then book, by Adam Serwer:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/the-cruelty-is-the-point/572104/
...which notes that pictures of crowds taken at lynchings had thumbs-up, happy faces proud to be there. It's a bonding.

2025-03-23 16:34:16 UTC

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It's awkward when such triggering stories don't come with names or any other specifics.

2025-02-17 06:00:19 UTC

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I set this up for myself about 10 years back, when we moved to the retirement place, and I had to part with half my books first.
I asked a bespoke furniture company to look at it, and the guy researched up the single-track bronze wheels the page shows. It was ~$10K back then. Utterly worth it.
https://brander.ca/library/

2025-02-13 19:59:31 UTC

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I wrote my MP to ask that we consider a nuclear weapons program.
http://brander.ca/blog/nukes_please.html
...friends and chance encounter people (dentist, etc) are guarded but basically supportive "gotta look at it, at least".
It's the journalists and social media bloggers who write back as if I've gone nuts.
Mind you, that was yesterday, before the Ukrainian concessions, and the direct 51st-state message repeated.
Maybe today I'm not quite so ahead of the wave.

2025-02-10 23:42:29 UTC

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I've been a lefty peacenik anti-militarist all my life, a few weeks ago was griping about the stupid arbitary "2% of GDP" defence budget.
Today, I'm on a soc-med post-fest to promote a Canadian nuclear weapons program. (Preferably by sweetly asking America to sell us bombs or at least tech for defense against "rogue states"! That's the funny part...)
I can't escape the logic: if we can't depend on NATO, we're just Ukraine awaiting invasion. We need nukes.

2025-02-04 17:27:31 UTC

Can we spread the word that, whatever the government response, Canadians will just avoid American purchases and travel until Donald Trump stops speaking disrespectfully of our country.
All the 51st state crap, in particular.
I asked for a "boost" the other day, and was astonished to get responses that re-posted to over 15,000 people.
This is worth asking the same, again.
Just Say NO to America.

2024-09-02 00:40:21 UTC

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I went looking for an old Nat.Geog. article that showed Navaho women actually making circuit boards for Fairchild Semiconductor, because they could remember the complex patterns.
But I think that was the 1970s article "The Computer", and what I still have is the 1982 issue on "The Chip", and it contributes this semi-relevant picture.
"Semi", because that's NOT a rug, but a model; it's how they had to review chip designs before you could do CAD zoom-ins.
https://cdn.masto.host/urbanistssocial/media_attachments/files/113/065/169/163/127/973/original/ccaf2ab98ab2fb5e.jpg

2024-08-11 22:34:43 UTC

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The reality of the 1970s is not actually shown by the TV made in those years, because censorious "standards" removed not only the swearing from the language, but most of the smoke from the air.
About 3X as many people smoked back then as are shown in TV of the era.
You'd have to show teen smoking, too. My high school had a smoking room - for the students. In the basement, about 2X the size of a classroom, usually had 40 in it at lunch.
No, I'm not joking. 1976.