David Megginson

Former medieval philologist (Ph.D, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, 1993). Living on unceded Anishinabe Algonquin territory.

Header picture: Large reddish-orange letters spelling "Hintonburg", some lying flat on the sidewalk for use as benches.

Me: #tea #gardening #classicalGuitar #vegetarian #language #disabled #aviation #flightSim #slideRules #tech #Linux #Ottawa

Society: #socialJustice #nonViolence #aid #urbanism #accessibility #transit #standards #FOSS

Location: Ottawa, Canada
Politics: Humanitarian, non-partisan
Pronouns: He/him
Languages: English, français, español, Deutsch, etc. etc.

Public Key

npub1a8vslhe6nkpp0mwraupm5mch2jdh207lsechc06y9kr00fr0njqq29w88h

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david_megginson_at_mstdn.ca@momostr.pink

Profile Code

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Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

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npub1a8vslhe6nkpp0mwraupm5mch2jdh207lsechc06y9kr00fr0njqq29w88h

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Published at

2026-10-12T17:09:15Z

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Last Notes

2026-05-15 02:04:25 UTC

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But that doesn't mean setting up a website or legislating women's bodies. It means paid parental leave, food and shelter security, affordable daycare, universal healthcare, and financial support for post-seconday education.
The right talks the "family values" talk, but the left actually walks the walk by advocating for these things.

2026-05-15 01:58:01 UTC

Many people don't have kids (for various reasons), but every single one of us *was* a kid once.
So making it easier for people to care for kids just seems like the decent thing to do, whatever your own life path looks like.
#PayItForward

2026-05-06 16:12:22 UTC

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The maintenance on an EV is backloaded: the power train is simpler, but the extra weight wears out tires and suspension faster, and when the battery degrades, it's a very expensive replacement. You may still end up slightly ahead, though, over the life of a new vehicle
In our case, an EV just doesn't make sense. We live in the urban centre of Ottawa, and drive relatively little: we fill up our 50L tank maybe 1×/month (2× if we make a trip to Kingston or Montreal). The carbon costs of producing our 2013 Mazda 3 have been amortised long ago, and we don't drive enough that an EV would ever catch up, as long as we're able to keep this car roadworthy.
If we were driving every day to commute to work or take kids to sports practices, it might be a different equation.
@npub19ua…53cv @npub1lud…8056 [@virtuous_sloth](https://cosocial.ca/@virtuous_sloth )

2026-04-25 21:43:43 UTC

I am so ready to put out my tomatoes in a week or two. Beet, dill, cilantro, kale, and lettuce seeds are already in the ground. Chives, green onions, sage, oregano, and thyme are coming back on their own.
The greens in the long narrow tomato bed are softneck summer garlic that I originally planted in 2024 as a pest barrier. It has evolved to endure the Ottawa winter, and now keeps coming up on its own (it's small — sometimes just one clove — but very pungent). You can see a bit of the good hardneck winter garlic in the last bed on the right.
I plan to companion plant butternut squash between the tomatoes.
#gardening #Ottawa #tomatoes
https://cdn.mstdn.ca/media_attachments/files/116/467/505/199/920/643/original/2927227b7f8cc53c.jpg

2026-04-23 11:54:11 UTC

**"Late-stage capitalism"** is a clever -sounding phrase to drop into a fedipost, but it's nonsense: it implies a deterministic, teleological model of history, moving through known stages towards an inevitable goal.
In reality, each generation just muddles along as best it can, neither moving towards nor away from anything, but just making the best (or worst) of their moment on this planet. 🫤
#history #marxism #capitalism
*p.s. Marxists aren't alone in their fantasising: (liberal) Whig historians have their Myth of Progress, techo-utopians have their triumphalist history of the "Great Men" of Science, and conservative Christian Nationalists have their racist "Great Replacement" theory.*

2026-04-21 20:04:41 UTC

Eight of my tomato plants, just back from their first field trip to the backyard for hardening off.
(I grew all of these from seeds I preserved last fall: it's my first time not using seed packets.)
#gardening #ottawa #tomatoes
https://cdn.mstdn.ca/media_attachments/files/116/444/476/111/944/192/original/f22558913d30c94c.jpg

2026-03-21 00:22:24 UTC

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linked to an article saying
> It will have been more than three weeks since the US and Israel first attacked Iran when the first British warship finally arrives off the coast of Cyprus, a belated defensive deployment that has highlighted the lack of military capacity available to the UK.
And meanwhile, the most advanced aircraft carrier in the U.S. Navy was limping back to Crete, defeated by a laundry fire and clogged toilets.
The huge gap between hawkish politicians' chest-thumping rhetoric and the drab, depressing reality on military deployment isn't limited to just the UK.
#nonviolence #military

2026-03-15 01:09:21 UTC

To me, the noun "professional" when applied to a person in the creative arts connotes…
#polls #language

2026-03-10 20:55:44 UTC

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They're doing the right thing by giving the testimonials, as long as they don't turn into a redemption narrative for preaching against vaccination until they were affected personally. 😕

2026-03-05 14:23:08 UTC

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In the end, I wimped out and instead of just thinning, separated my tangled seedlings carefully among 4 trays and 4 pots.
Now I have 40 viable Italian finger pepper (twisty chili) seedlings growing and room for max 2–4 chili plants in my garden when the spring comes (unless I abandon everything else), so I'm trying to find other suckers gardeners to take some from me.
I'm make a lousy heartless Greek or Norse god.
#gardening #Ottawa #peppers #chilis
https://cdn.mstdn.ca/media_attachments/files/116/177/007/398/159/648/original/7c40f425effa43ab.jpg

2026-03-04 02:59:44 UTC

> God-like, he decides
> Which sprouts may live, and which must die.
#gardening #poetry #doggerel
https://cdn.mstdn.ca/media_attachments/files/116/168/657/131/408/821/original/46262dc7fc167f85.jpg

2026-01-10 14:33:04 UTC

Which do you normally say?
#language #english #usage

2025-12-17 17:38:27 UTC

What smells make you happy? Choose all that apply, and feel free to add more in replies.
#polls #joy

2025-11-11 12:37:27 UTC

<li>U.S. government secretly cancels foreign journalist's visa in the middle of a visit.</li><li>ICE then arrests journalist for being in the country on an expired visa.</li><li>After suffering two weeks of ICE incarceration, journalist agrees to "voluntarily" leave the country.</li>Our southern neighbour is becoming a rogue state, like North Korea or Russia. And they wonder why Canadian tourists aren't coming any more. 😢
#SamiHamdi #USpolitics #ICE

2025-10-27 15:48:50 UTC

Are you annoyed by non-ligatured "fi" pairs in word processors and web typography? If so, feel free to mention why in the comments.
#polls #typography

2025-09-19 17:51:11 UTC

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You're entirely right. What they talk about is 100% unrelated to anything I read in the gospels when I was growing up. The teachings there are about supporting the oppressed, being tolerant of differences (religious, ethnic, etc), avoiding performative public prayer, separation of church and state, judging the sexual behaviour of women by the same standards as that of men, and other then-radical social ideas.
That's what made young Rabbi Jesus such a threat to both the Roman and Pharasaic establishments in Roman-occupied Palestine and Judea, until Saul/Paul of Tarsus (a Roman citizen, note) figured out how to co-opt his teachings after his death to invent a new rule-based establishment, as seen in his epistles. 🙁

2025-09-19 14:17:49 UTC

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Yes, I can't help but think their copies of the gospels are just for thumping, not reading. If anyone on the far right actually read what's in them, Jesus would lose his FCC license.
#religion #politics
@npub1673…fx9t

2025-09-19 13:46:51 UTC

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I'm sorry, @npub15am…hmr6 and @npub1673…fx9t — I know there are many millions of decent, caring Americans, including you — it's just that they don't hold any of the levers of power.
Keep resisting locally with kindness, empathy, and mutual support: they're like a bucket of water to the far right's wicked witch.

2025-09-19 13:17:32 UTC

Canada has traditionally distinguished itself from the U.S. mostly through the [narcissism of small differences](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism_of_small_differences ), because our cultures and day-to-day lives weren't really all that distinct
Now that we're diverging sharply — our southern neighbour has become a tinpot dictatorship where most people and orgs with public responsibility are abdicating it to try to anticipate the whims of a vain elderly kleptocrat and head off his wrath — instead of feeling vindicated ("look, we really *are* different!"), we just feel sad and uncomfortable.
Being genuinely different isn't as much fun as being pretend-different. 😢
#Canada #US #USpolitics

2025-09-18 11:12:56 UTC

"unprecedented warning"?? 🙄
Um, we've known this at *least* since 2018, when former PM Trudeau stopped even pretending to care about climate change and started buying pipelines for the tar sands.
#Canada #climateChange #CanPoli #pipelines #environment
https://cdn.mstdn.ca/media_attachments/files/115/224/966/227/572/666/original/be55a794fd8b7715.png

2025-09-02 19:22:51 UTC

#Tomatos off the vine, still warm from the sun, taste like summer.
That is all I wanted to say.
#gardening

2025-08-20 21:21:31 UTC

**Random advice:** If the cilantro in your garden is bolting, harvest some of the seeds while they're still green. They're juicy, delicious, and pop in your mouth.
They're also something that (AFAIK) you can't buy in stores, so pat yourself on the back for being a gardener. Use them in salads, as a garnish, or however you want.
#advice #gardening #lifeHacks

2025-08-19 12:37:03 UTC

Even if there weren't a trade dispute with the U.S., I don't see why Canada *ever* considered buying the F-35, a limited-range, single engine fighter that has a history of problems operating in cold weather. 🤦‍♂️
As the saying goes, fighter jets just are machines for converting tax dollars into noise and smoke. That was already true in the ICBM age when Dief cancelled the pointless Avro Arrow, and it's even more true in the drone-swarm age now.
Unlike (say) military transport or patrol aircraft, fighters serve little purpose in 2025.
#military #trade #aviation #F35

2025-08-16 18:59:33 UTC

(This post is for non-Americans.) Folks, it's time to stop agonising over everything the Americans do, and focus instead on building a world that works without them. Let's accept that we can no longer rely on them for *anything:* trade, global security, aid, medical research, a model of democracy, tech innovation … anything.
Even if the U.S. somehow achieves peaceful democratic transfers of power in 2026 and 2028 — and there are many good Americans fighting hard for that — there''ll be years or decades of cleaning up and rebuilding shattered democratic institutions from the ground up. Write them out of the global script for now and move on.
#USpolitics #trade #war #science

2025-08-08 15:13:16 UTC

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The *only* solution is to refuse to sell any weapons to Israel, and any weapons or parts to countries who sell weapons to Israel. In fact, I'd boycott all non-humanitarian exports to Israel as long as the genocide continues (that boycott wouldn't include food or medicine, of course).

2025-08-08 15:11:07 UTC

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Big change for optics, but hypocritical and meaningless in practical terms.
Even if the IDF fully honours the terms, they can just shift *other* weapons to the Gaza genocide and replace them with the German ones, so the result is the same (except that the bombs actually killing Gazans will no longer say "Hergestellt in Deutschland"). 😕

2025-08-07 14:40:42 UTC

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And selfishness. They don't want anyone else to have the good fortune they have because their own ancestors immigrated.

2025-08-07 11:40:47 UTC

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In the photo from the Wikipedia article — "The Steerage" (1907) — note the more affluent passengers on the upper deck gawking over the railing at the steerage passengers below as if they were exhibits in a zoo. 😢

2025-08-07 11:34:07 UTC

If your ancestors migrated from Europe or Asia to North America 100+ years ago, odds are that they traveled packed into steerage, with little privacy, poor sanitation, and rampant disease. At least by the early 20th century, (very basic) food and bedding was provided: before that, you had to bring your own, or tough luck.
Be as kind to today's migrants as you hope some people were to your ancestors. Nobody puts themself through this nightmare because they *want* to leave their homes, families, and friends.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steerage
#history #migration #refugees

2025-07-31 20:53:38 UTC

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No disguise needed: the federal Liberal Party has *always* been centre-right (the last huge cuts to the public service happened under Chrétein-Martin, and they used aggressive austerity and privatisation to balance the budget, before PM Harper ran up the deficit again). That helps explain why the federal Conservatives veered to the wacko Fox-News-style far right, just to try differentiate themselves somehow.
In Ontario, the PCs wisely held onto the traditional conservative centre-right space, which is why the Ontario Libs are lost in the political wilderness (the NDP already occupies the very slightly left-leaning centre, so the ON Libs can't move either way).
It's also why Premier Ford's cottage invitations go to PM Carney instead of Pierre Poilièvre: they're in the same political space, despite the confusingly-different party labels. 🤷
#CanPoli
@npub1hp7…etwp @npub1rwf…rcwx

2025-07-20 22:16:35 UTC

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Interesting -- thanks for sharing!
So for the words relating to "speaking", is the root form in the Dene Tanacross langauge "x..h..", and then you form different persons and tenses by adding syllables between and after them?
@npub146a…5f0t @npub1vpu…my9f
#language

2025-07-10 13:57:23 UTC

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Last I heard, it wasn't a case of political neglect. Despite the NOAA downsizing nationally (which could have serious long-term effects), the nearest weather offices had temporarily surged their staffing far above normal levels because of the weather alerts, nearby weather balloon launches went out on their old schedules (even though they're down nationally), etc.
My concern is the Dems trying to exploit this for political gain the same way the GOP tried to exploit the California wildfires. Sometimes a tragedy is just a tragedy, not an opportunity to score points against the opposition.

2025-06-25 23:18:36 UTC

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wrote
> you posted this twice, is your instance still having trouble?
Yeah. I'm getting a lot of 502 errors when I try to post today. I guess one post went through, but Mastodon thought it hadn't and left the form open.
#mstdnCa
@npub1uph…ulz6 @npub170y…28tz

2025-06-25 18:04:06 UTC

For Canada, the trick to the (absurd) 5% GDP NATO commitment will be reclassifying lots of stuff as "military spending".
Canada Border Services? Military spending.
Air Traffic Control? Military spending.
Ice breaking in shipping lanes? Military spending.
Arctic research? Military spending.
Mapping and geo surveys? Military spending.
CSIS? Military spending.
High speed rail? Military spending (infrastructure to move troops quickly).
See if I'm wrong.
#NATO #military #CanPoli

2025-05-30 13:56:33 UTC

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Everything you say is true — education in Ontario is massively underfunded, and teachers are overworked and treated unfairly — but it's also true that many/most of those parents were trying to work another full-time job *in addition to* watching and educating their kids.
We can boost teachers without downplaying what parents went through.

2025-05-21 20:12:45 UTC

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Yeah. I get that it's probably just a Realpolitik maneuver in a complex political strategy that PM Carney has mapped out, but I'm not a huge fan of that kind of thing.

2025-05-14 16:16:10 UTC

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We have viable third/fourth parties at the national level, and usually they get a significant number of seats (even though they don't form a government). This election was an exception, because of the polarising actions of the U.S. president and the perception that the Conservative leader was too closely aligned with him, but even now, PM Carney has to cooperate with them.
Imagine how different U.S. politics would be if a third party held even 5–10 seats in the Senate.

2025-05-14 13:55:23 UTC

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Sad, but not surprising
Voters flocked to PM Carney's Liberal party only because the main alternative, the Conservatives, had chosen a scary leader who reminded them too much of MAGA down in the U.S., with his anti-"woke" rhetoric and flirtations with far-right groups.
I don't think many voters actually believed PM Carney was progressive (at least, I hope they didn't). He's a Goldman Sachs alumnus and a classic free-market economist, after all.
#CanPoli

2025-05-08 02:00:10 UTC

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Every apparently omnipotent politician or billionaire is no better than the Bizmarck: it just takes one slow, weakly-protected Stringbag to jam their rudder and leave them helpless.

2025-05-08 01:51:28 UTC

One of the most-interesting stories from #WW2 is how the world's most-powerful and technically-advanced battleship was rendered unnavigable through an attack by fabric-covered biplanes.
The biplanes flew so slowly and jigged around so much that the German gunners didn't even know how to track them.
The life lesson here (outside of war) is that *more powerful* doesn't always mean *more successful.* Apparent weakness can be a strength of its own.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_battleship_Bismarck#Chase
#aviation #resistance
https://cdn.mastdn.ca/media_attachments/files/114/469/683/894/482/015/original/5a24bb36cd0e785b.png

2025-05-06 13:40:56 UTC

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Yes, "Libertarian" in partisan politics generally means "I can do whatever I want", not "You can do whatever you want." 😕
There are undoubtedly true libertarians in the world (for better or for worse), but they rarely enter politics. Political conservatives are typically LINOs, who are big on anti-libertarian measures like overpolicing, restricting free movement across borders, and regulating people's bodies.
@npub1pz3…dwqw [@Sir_Osis_of_Liver](https://beige.party/@Sir_Osis_of_Liver )

2025-05-02 14:52:14 UTC

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And here, once again, is how that diagram translated into reality.
https://cdn.mastdn.ca/media_attachments/files/114/438/794/733/190/554/original/646a00d11af93002.jpeg

2025-05-02 14:49:03 UTC

This is the plan for the accessible garden that I designed and built last year, with aisles wide enough for a wheelchair or walker, and most of the garden easily reachable while kneeling on the edge.. Most of it is in full sun, but the northeast corner (top left) has partial filtered shade, which is better for growing greens.
Each square represents 1 ft² (3x3 squares =~ 1m²).
#gardening #accessibility #Ottawa
https://cdn.mastdn.ca/media_attachments/files/114/438/767/640/051/774/original/513b642446f301f2.jpg

2025-05-01 11:31:24 UTC

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Here, the squirrels will just go into a garden bed and dig up every single seedling, leaving them scattered around holes like mini bomb craters.
Perhaps that's the reason my North American ancestors had "squirrel guns" rather than "rabbit rifles." 🤷
#Ottawa #gardening

2025-05-01 10:29:59 UTC

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There's no height that would keep out the squirrels here. The bunnies are welcome to their tithe, but the squirrels just dig up and destroy things for no reason. 😕

2025-04-30 21:31:28 UTC

The accessible garden is turned over, composted, raked, staked, and ready for May!
#Ottawa #gardening #zone5
https://cdn.mastdn.ca/media_attachments/files/114/429/037/831/154/031/original/f21d9d6191f9537b.jpeg

2025-04-30 16:57:11 UTC

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The difference is that in the U.S., it's the gun owners themselves rather than a foreign invader who are massacring innocent civilians by the tens of thousands., so any implied analogy doesn't hold up.
After France fell, British SOE and other Allied groups dropped over 2,500 tons of armaments for the various French Resistance groups, including more than 100K small arms. It's unlikely a few rusty old shotguns hidden in farmhouses had much effect.
#gunControl #WW2 #history

2025-04-29 11:29:42 UTC

**Canada's Got Talent, election edition**
3rd 🥉 — Carney's happy dance to Down with Webster.
2nd 🥈 — May's sweet musical duet with her husband.
1st 🥇 — Poilièvre's gracious concession speech.
It was reassuringly normal: he thanked his supporters, acknowledged the legitimacy of the result, congratulated Carney, and called for unity.
We used to take this bit of political ritual for granted, but down in the U.S. recently we've seen how bad things get it if doesn't happen.
#CanPoli #elxn45

2025-04-24 13:20:38 UTC

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The important take-away for those of us in the rest of the world is to remember that none of this has any logic behind it. We can make a deal today, and it's gone tomorrow, so there's really no point trying to placate or make concessions.
Some world leaders still think they can somehow negotiate with a random walk.

2025-04-24 12:04:02 UTC

**Thought experiment:** if you put a monkey in front of a bank of buttons with labels like "apply tariffs", "suspend tariffs", "threaten sovereignty", "back off on threats", "fire someone,"and so on, talking heads at outlets like Fox News would shout at us about the brilliant strategy hidden behind the monkey's apparently-random button pushes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_walk
#politics #media

2025-04-17 18:50:51 UTC

Every sunny afternoon when the temperature climbs above 10°c, my seedlings get a field trip to the backyard.
#Ottawa #gardening
https://cdn.mastdn.ca/media_attachments/files/114/354/789/817/526/197/original/b2deee1d11a949ea.jpeg

2025-04-11 21:16:05 UTC

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wrote
> Another LinkedIn influencer explaining that if you write using em-dashes, he'll ignore you because you obviously used AI.
Seriously? This is a thing? I've been using en-dashes and em-dashes correctly since the 1980s.
On the other hand, being ignored by a LinkedIn "influencer" does seem like a benefit, so maybe I'll just stay quiet about it.
#AI #LinkedIn

2025-04-11 21:04:33 UTC

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wrote
> We haven't received our voting cards for the election
We haven't either, but they're not required to vote. I don't think I ever got one for the provincial election.
You can confirm that you're registered to vote here:
https://ereg.elections.ca/en/ereg/index
#canPoli #elxn45 #Canada #voting

2025-03-26 21:59:04 UTC

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For Vancouver ...
Sit on a log and enjoy sunset with the nightly crowd at English Bay beach.
Watch the Harbour Air floatplanes take off and land in Coal Harbour.
Rent a tandem bike and cycle around Stanley Park with a friend.
Take a ride in a water taxi, but skip Granville Island (crowded and overrated).
That's all I've got; I've visited the city only a couple of times. 🙂. @npub19ua…53cv might have better suggestions.
Enjoy!
#YVR #Vancouver

2025-03-25 12:36:07 UTC

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Just so. I was ok with old-school conservatives, who still respected the government and constitution, but the current CPC has become a populist party in the U.S. style, performative anger and all, and its current leader seems highly unprincipled (I support the convoy. I never supported the convoy. I'm with you, extremist group. No, I'm moderate, really! etc.).
He seems much less trustworthy than an average party leader, and that's already a low bar.
@npub1pz3…dwqw @npub19ua…53cv

2025-03-25 00:00:22 UTC

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I find that there's a very big liberal (small ell) presence here, which is certainly not left or progressive. There's also a small-but-significant left/alternative/anarchist contingent (they overlap).
Traditional conservatives are underrepresented, but that's true in real life as well, where they've largely been pushed out by populists like Trump, Poilièvre, Le Pen, Orban, etc. (there's little room for an Erin O'Toole or John McCain any more).
@npub19ua…53cv @npub1pz3…dwqw

2025-03-22 13:50:19 UTC

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For now we've lost faith in your country and government, @npub15am…hmr6 , but speaking at least for myself, I haven't lost faith in the American people. I think you will all find your way out of this.
It won't be the same as before, but if your fellow Americans have learned from past mistakes in configuring U.S.A. v.1 (1789–1861) and U.S.A. v.2 (1865–2025), maybe U.S.A. v.3 (some time next decade, after the dumpster-fire smoke clears?) will live up to the "freedom" rhetoric. 🤞
@npub1z92…fdqa

2025-03-22 13:02:48 UTC

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wrote
> this post is about the broader point that the world is currently a dumpster fire and I wish we all had smaller problems.
I agree: little things *do* matter.
When you're stuck in the middle of a burning dumpster looking out, it must seem like the whole world's a dumpster fire, but actually we're not. Most other countries are coping okay. It's hard watching our good friend crawl into a dumpster with matches and a can of kerosene, but we realize it's time to move on. 😕

2025-03-19 12:49:33 UTC

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It's like this old aviation joke.
Q. How can you find a pilot in a big crowd?
A. Just stand still. They'll come over and tell you.
#jokes #aviation

2025-03-16 17:52:43 UTC

OK, it's time for the seed inventory: which are still viable, and which need to be replenished?
Nightshade seedlings start today above a heat mat. I'm planning<li>Sweetie cherry tomatoes</li><li>Mid-sized yellow tomatoes</li><li>Some kind of large heirloom tomato (I'll see what's available at Home Hardware 🍁 )</li><li>Black Beauty eggplants</li><li>California Wonder bell peppers</li><li>Italian finger peppers (from seeds I've saved myself)</li>
#gardening #Ottawa #zone5b
https://cdn.mastdn.ca/media_attachments/files/114/173/379/679/608/529/original/910c9c2eacb0c339.jpeg

2025-03-12 12:50:07 UTC

It's wild reading 1930s novels and seeing how reliable rail travel once was in the UK.
"The ship leaves Liverpool for Spain at 7:00 pm."
"There's a train that gets in at 6:25."
"That will allow more than enough time for the five of us to arrive at the station with all our steamer trunks, arrange taxis, and get onboard."
😳
#rail #trains #novels #1930s

2025-03-11 22:31:12 UTC

I think I'll start my seedlings indoors (at least for nightshades like tomatoes and peppers) around the Ides of March this year. That means I'd better get hopping to check my seed inventory and set up my seedling shelves and grow lights.
#gardening #Ottawa #zone5b

2025-03-07 21:02:38 UTC

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Interesting. Mr Carney has associations with a few places, but he lives in Ottawa now, and at least in the past has lived in Rockcliffe Park (which is in Ottawa-Vanier), so he wouldn't feel like a parachute candidate.
In any case, he'll want a very safe seat. The Libs could run a Pet Rock in Ottawa-Vanier or Orléans (just to the east) and still win by a landslide. Gotta love partisan politics. 😞
@npub1jay…80k8

2025-03-07 20:51:54 UTC

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Yes. If Mr Carney wins, watch for someone in a safe Liberal riding (Ottawa-Vanier?) to get a plum diplomatic or senate appointment, opening up a vacant seat. That's a big advantage that the party in power has over opposition parties.

2025-03-07 12:47:03 UTC

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The sad thing is that the aviation world had a fully-functional land-based radio-navigation system of VORs, NDBs, ILS, etc, until ~10 years ago, when we started dismantling much of it for cost savings because GPS apparently didn't need a backup.
And now, atomic clocks in planes?!?!?
#aviation #GPS #navigation

2025-03-05 23:17:38 UTC

#OurAirports now lists the Paracel Islands as a separate disputed territory. China de-facto operates all of the aerodromes in the islands (two airports and a few heliports), but Vietnam and Taiwan also claim the islands.
It's about the possible oil and gas reserves (isn't it always?).
https://ourairports.com/countries/XP/
#gis #geopolitics #airports #resources

2025-02-26 13:08:35 UTC

English mystery novels of the 1920s sometimes refer to chemical fertiliser as "artificial manure." Let's revive that!
#language #gardening #reading

2025-02-25 14:58:25 UTC

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I had you in mind especially as I posted this. 🙂

2025-02-25 14:13:32 UTC

I acknowledge the problematic original distribution channel of this video through one of the big, evil social-media sites, but still, 😆.
#CanPoli #language #French
https://cdn.mastdn.ca/media_attachments/files/114/064/914/693/178/574/original/7442e53dd868b12f.mp4

2025-02-24 15:27:06 UTC

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wrote
> One word that is interesting is 'knife' Middle English pronounces the 'k'! K NiF Ah something like that
Blame the Danelaw. The Anglo-Saxons had a perfectly good word that was right in their name ("sax"/"seax"), but people just *had* to replace it with the Scandinavian word "knifR". 😕
@npub1jay…80k8 @npub1cqk…r770

2025-02-21 11:31:36 UTC

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wrote
> Almost everyone who thinks they know what Jesus said, including most atheists, are annoyingly wrong.
Just so. The religious right ignores that Jesus said not to mix religion with politics, pray in public, commercialise the church, or pass moral judgment on people (especially women). The part about wealthy people not getting into heaven must also be uncomfortable for them.
And let us not forget that Jesus was a refugee when he was young.
#religion #christianity

2025-02-17 21:38:25 UTC

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Great to hear!
#DEI isn't charity — it makes organisations stronger and smarter by bringing in a bigger range of views and life experiences. There's only so much additional benefit an org can squeeze out of the 1,001st able white cis male Ivy Leaguer it hires. 😕

2025-02-16 20:57:55 UTC

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Where are you in the city? Clearing in our neighbourhood in the urban core (near Holland and Wellington) has been pretty good, but we get *lots* of outside visitors for our shops and restaurants, and locals tend to walk more than drive (most kids walk to school instead of bussing, for example).
I've heard that residential suburbs, with fewer pedestrians and outside visitors, don't get the same level of attention.

2025-02-16 12:40:07 UTC

There is a winter street parking ban in Ottawa effective 10:00 am today (Sunday) until further notice. Bylaw handed out nearly 3,000 tickets in the last one, up to $125 each. If able, leave your car at home and walk or transit (or ski?).
#Ottawa #ONstorm #cars

2025-02-12 20:32:26 UTC

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But why would you care about something as unimportant as a human candidate, when there's the party's BRAND to vote for?
🤦‍♂️

2025-02-12 14:46:15 UTC

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Exactly. The problem is that no one says "semi-weekly," so there's no colloquial alternative to making "semi-weekly" ambiguous.

2025-02-07 01:58:02 UTC

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I'm hoping our lost opportunity for a great mayor will become our new opportunity for a great MPP. I was a huge fan even before all the things they did to support people during the convoy occupation.

2025-02-07 01:50:57 UTC

*Q:* How do you put up a lawn sign when the ground is frozen as hard as concrete?
*A:* You build a SNOW PLINTH!
#Ottawa
https://cdn.mastdn.ca/media_attachments/files/113/960/084/363/653/756/original/d62701450aca2ce9.jpeg

2025-01-31 11:31:23 UTC

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Now that I'm in semi-retirement, I'm spending 2 hours/day on classical guitar in 4×30-minute sessions.
John Williams and Sharon Isbin will never have nothing to fear from me, but at least my playing is getting less cringe-worthy in the smaller details.

2025-01-31 03:43:19 UTC

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I hope the recent piano tuning leaves you well-tempered (sorry for the Bach pun).

2025-01-31 03:26:51 UTC

Every week or so I discover a new clue about my recently-acquired guitar. I'm fairly confident now that it's part of a small series of very-rare experimental guitars that José Ramírez IV had produced by hand in his Madrid workshop in the early 1990s, the prototypes for his *Especial* and Amalia Ramírez's later SP(R) series.
What a find, just hanging from a music-store wall on consignment (and *very* cheap b/c of the cosmetic damage). It sounds like a $10K guitar.
#classicalGuitar
https://cdn.mastdn.ca/media_attachments/files/113/920/825/127/029/860/original/bb3bc71892d35476.jpeg

2025-01-21 18:22:55 UTC

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wrote
> I wish kindness was enough to save us from what's coming.
It is, but it's a long game.

2025-01-21 13:20:11 UTC

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-16c must be brutal if you live somewhere that's not used to it. I'm guessing the lesser roads and sidewalks aren't being regularly salted and sanded, the houses aren't well insulated (at least not the way they'd be in Canada), and people don't have thick parkas, winter boots, toques, and insulated mittens.
We talk tough about the cold here, but we're also well prepared for it, which makes it easier to handle.
@npub1v5a…ny6w

2025-01-19 12:45:43 UTC

I might pause reading or listening to the news until Tuesday.
It will be fixating on something fully predictable — a flashy transfer-of-power ritual in a big, rich, self-obsessed country — and burying the genuinely newsworthy events happening in the rest of the world.
#news #media

2025-01-18 20:59:00 UTC

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I agree!
For most desk jobs, employees can get as much (or more) done in four days as in five, so there's no downside, even for the employer.
My only concern is that we increase the equity gap between desk jobs and jobs that require physical presence (e.g. nurse, store clerk, truck driver, line cook, security guard). They already don't get to telecommute, and unlike office workers, they can't compress 5 days into 4.
I'm sure we can figure it out. Just let's not forget about them.

2025-01-18 20:49:33 UTC

I'm in a coffee shop, directly facing a table with two young guys who seem to be on a first date. They're both nervous, but one is showing it by talking too much, and one, by talking too little.
I can't hear what they're saying (and wouldn't try), but when I glance up it's clear that they're both overdoing the eye contact and smiling awkwardly at the wrong times.
Real life is much sweeter than reality TV. ❤️
#dating

2025-01-18 18:20:35 UTC

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Yes, I've been doing the latter, but it gets tiring for hundreds of accounts (I mute boosts from each one as soon as I see uninteresting boosts from someone). I'll look into the grouping -- thanks!

2025-01-18 01:29:57 UTC

Is there a way in (Glitch-flavoured) Mastodon to hide all boosts from my timeline?
I do follow a few people whose boosts are actually interesting (and not overdone), but the vast majority of boosts are just spam clogging my timeline, and I'm getting tired of hiding boosts from one user at a time.
(Also, fellow fedizens, *please* stop overboosting. A boost is not a "like.")
#Mastodon #boosts #fediquette

2025-01-13 23:55:59 UTC

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wrote
> yep, never seen anything that's "stereotypically boomer" so far 😊
Thank you both. ❤️
And is that a dare???
@npub1x7n…rzwr

2025-01-13 23:48:11 UTC

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I mean, I'm a white cishet male boomer, so I've got as many opinions as McDonald's has McNuggets (I hope mine are *slightly* less toxic). 😉

2025-01-13 23:43:31 UTC

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I expire most of my posts after a month or so — I don't think they have all that much value for posterity.
I bookmark anything I think might be genuinely useful to someone in the future (vs just me spouting opinions), so that it won't expire.

2025-01-12 03:37:59 UTC

Remember when you checked your spambox every day to make sure you hadn't missed anything important?
Or perhaps you weren't born yet when doing that still made sense. 🙂
#internetHistory #email #spam

2024-12-28 22:53:57 UTC

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After the peace in 1815, I think it's possible that some readers might have been more sympathetic towards reading through a revolutionary lens again (definitely after the 1819 Peterloo Massacre).

2024-12-28 22:51:49 UTC

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Interesting reading through a revolutionary lens.
Austen wrote the original draft *First Impressions* around 1799. If it had been a few years earlier, it's possible that radical English readers would still have been sympathetic towards revolutionary ideas, but by 1799 disillusionment with the failure of the French Revolution (first the Reign of Terror, massacring tens of thousands of innocent civilians, then Napoleon's moves towards dictatorship) would make that unlikely.

2024-12-22 12:04:00 UTC

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Unlike Iran, the U.S. doesn't limit its foreign misadventures to a single geographical region. Go big or go home. 😕

2024-12-21 22:40:59 UTC

I'm gingerly walking the tightrope between loving #emacs for the past 35 years and loathing the behaviour of #RMS over the same period of time.
It requires a very long pole to keep from losing my balance.
#FOSS #harassment

2024-12-15 02:04:34 UTC

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Exactly. My pedantic nitpicking in no way invalidates your key point. 🙂 That's way too much valuation for 5 companies.
Either the valuations are massively overblown by stockmarket hype, or the companies have genuinely cornered that much of the world's business. Either way, something's rotten.

2024-12-15 02:01:33 UTC

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That's probably not the best comparison, since GDP is annual economic activity while valuation is total value/wealth.
If you compare those companies' combined valuations to countries' [national wealth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_wealth ), they'd come in 13th place, just behind Spain, which is still absolutely bonkers.

2024-12-07 22:34:25 UTC

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Just so. And other Arab words also made their way on into English, like algebra, (*al jabr*) and admiral (*emir al …*).
The sudden explosion of scholarship in medieval western Europe's 12th/13th century renaissance was largely the result of Arab and Jewish learning making its way into the nascent Christian universities in places like Oxford and Paris and cathedral schools in places like Canterbury.
#MiddleAges #history

2024-12-07 20:25:39 UTC

Arabic *oud* == "wood"
Arabic *al oud* == "the wood"
*lute,* *luth,* etc == Medieval Christian Europeans misunderstanding the name of the wooden stringed instrument North African Muslims and Jews introduced to Western Europe through Spain (along with science, math, medicine, and a bunch of other useful stuff).
#language #MiddleAges #music