Sir Thinksalot

Sunday is the last time most British Columbians will change their clocks — what you need to know | CBC News Most British Columbians will wake up Sunday having lost an hour of sleep — one that they'll never gain back come November, given the province will have shifted to permanent daylight time year-round. H...

BC is changing to permanent DST instead, but at least more provinces and states are opting to stop the mucking about with the clock:

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

If anyone wants to go shipwatching this Season, please do drop me a message - the more the merrier! Fishing and a nice pint are entirely possible bonus activities 😎⚓️

Straddling the ice shards melting into the canal, Bridge 21 is a lifting bridge made of steel trusses. The two asymmetrical vertical trusses have their mechanisms at their tops, while the horizontal truss is the usual 1920-1940 crescent-lile shape but with a small conductor's cabin in the centre, whence the workers control the mechanism. It is painted a light gray, almost matching the foggy weather. At left is a cluster of tall evergreen bushes - otherwise everything is late Winter monochrome, even the black reflections between the white melting ice. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Street_Bridge

A slightly askew view of Bridge 21 (1930) an interesting example of a vettical-lifting bridge whereupon the operator "rides" the truss in their conductor's cabin (centre). The mechanism lofts 130ft / 37m in about 90 seconds.

Behind the tree were multiple work crews, rushing to beat the early melt!

The ALGOMA BUFFALO at her winter mooring in the Welland Canal, with bloody stupid "antiterrorism" fencing that we all hate. The land and water (and view) are Commons since 1829 so the Crown should not be allowing the Seaway's ill-conceived security rules to prevent the people from accessing our Commons! Probably an "aquapelago" thesis in there for an aspiring grad student. Anyways, the ship - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Buffalo

MV ALGOMA BUFFALO (1978) badly in need of rustbusting & paint, especially now that she spends most of her time shipping salt from Cargill mines!

Also proof that the 2014 "security fence" is a nonsense obstruction to our Commons - shore, waterway, and view!

www.niagarathisweek.com/news/fencing...

A very foggy view of the wrecker's drydock and maritime scrapyard on the eastern side, taken from the western side at 20x zoom using the canalside railing for a tripod. Not bad for a phone! Dismantling began in January and the fog may veil the final few pieces of the MV CUYAHOGA, the eldest ship consistently sailing the Great Lakes until her 2023 fire underway.

The final few pieces of the SS CUYAHOGA (1938) in the scrapyard on the eastern side of the Welland Canal at Lake Erie.
For a lot of Great Lakes shipwatchers she was a fond sight, but her fire damage was too extensive to retire her as a museum ship. 2023 article:
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Bow-on view of the tugs VAC with JOHN D moored behind. You can learn about them on Vesselfinder or Shipspotting

Aft-on view of the tugs JOHN D with VAC moored ahead. You can learn about them on Vesselfinder or Shipspotting

Did a spot of local shipspotting yesterday - the early melt has left the Bridge 21 repair crew scrambling to finish for an early open!

Here are VAC (1942, icebreaking tugboat) and JOHN D (1954, tug workboat) at Port Colborne on the Weooand Canal (Lock 8, Lake Erie approach) & some final ice shards

Did anyone see if that Izvestia religion reporter had found a medieval Saint with an incongruously modern prohibition that could be relevant?
I'm convinced that reporter is either trolling, or their column is some sort of coded communication to Russia's intelligence assets or black fleet captains!

Helen Haynes, with many UK flag-emojis, writes: Toblerone USED to be one of my favourites, but now you have succumbed to making it halal, I will never buy it again. (punctuation hers lol) Zara Fahris responds: It's always been halal, Helen. You've been eating halal all this time. Melty chocolatey slabs of halal going "Allahu Akbar!" as each piece snaps from one to the next. The sweetness of Shari'ah running through your veins. #delicious

Bashing bigots with sarcasm, iftar edition.

(yoinked from Reddit by my brother, who converted and dreams of snacks lol)

In the style of a World War 2 propaganda poster on a yellow background in khaki text it says, "practice safe secs!" Below that text is picture of a smiling UK Home Guardsman who has his left hand splayed out and is using his right hand to point to his left fingers, which are labeled "Opsec, commsec, infosec, persec". below the soldier in yellow letters on a khaki background it says, "keep it under wraps!"

Your friendly Friday reminder to practise Safe Secs!

Your cloud storage (incl your phone backup) is NOT legally private and doesn't uaually require a search warrant.

The cloud provider can give your data to police voluntarily for any reason.

Use this March Break time to de-cloud & de-google 😎

Bollards! A congestion charge just prevents poor taxpayers from using roads they may have a good reason to use - whereas preventing all cars for using the roads for the duration of the game is equitable, and makes good material for @worldbollardassoc.bsky.social

Her-storical documents: 2 Esther scrolls copied by female scribes celebrate Jewish resilience The only two known ancient megillahs written by women are part of a new exhibition at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, whose opening has been postponed due to the Iran war

"The Girl Who Writes" exhibition is postponed for the Duration, but seems like a visit-worthy boutique exhibit when it finally opens! #library #archive #Renaissance #EarlyModern #art #history #Italy #Israel #museum #Judaism #women #herstory

www.timesofisrael.com/her-storical...

YouTube video by What's Going on With Shipping? US Flagged Tanker Stena Imperative Hit in Bahrain | One Dead and Two Injured | Crew Evacuated

I really encourage everyone interested in the #Iran crisis to watch @mercoglianos.bsky.social 's timely updates with expert explanations!
Sal was a merchant mariner & has good #history to share in his videos too. #logistics

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g7l...

😽💕

whenever this happens, I find it helps to look here:

old.reddit.com/r/cathostage

You're a cat hostage, totally valid reason to remain in place 😽

Why are you helping to spread his bullshit message by posting a picture of it?

Boomers have always been the "me" generation and obsessed with never growing old. Grace is not among their virtues.
(Before a Boomer turns up to say "not all Boomers", I'm old enough to remember when they were annoying neocon yuppies pulling the ladders up behind them so sod your anecdotal excuses.)

He's a white man over 60, audacity is all they've ever done.

Which is just a lack of ethics and spine, really.

Serious question - can you please link to a list, or to the DoJ document in which they're named?
The only one we know about was Musk, who was too weird to get an invitation despite begging for one 🤢

Really only RFI, Deutsche Welle, and the BBC World Service (not the BBC in the UK) are worthwhile. "The Rest is Politics" has useful livestreams for big news.

NYT has even more problems than CBC in reporting factual news (though I support the CBC for fostering Canadian comedy and rural outreach).

Well said!

Lots of such accounts - I don't say "people" because many appear to be bots - are pushing IRGC propaganda as if it's fact while using appeal-to-emotion and/or whataboutism to engage in bad-faith debating.

For lurkers reading here, a helpful tool:

www.yourlogicalfallacyis.com

a sign that says days without nonsense hangs on a door ALT: a sign that says days without nonsense hangs on a door

We have a Prime Minister, not a president. US education system didn't do much for you eh?

If you're going to insert yourself into a Canadian discussion about Canadian politics and try to make it about yourself, at least learn one basic thing about the politician whose post you're trying to derail.

Duw bendithio ac Blodyn Mawrth! 🌾🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

(There's not a daffodil emoji on my disabled software yet so yes, that's a wheat sheaf doing double duty as a Blodyn Mawrth!)

Lots of medieval German "forest glass" versions at the Corning Museum of Glass - it just seems like someone invented a good anti-slip shape with knobs on and everyone began to use it.
Something this nice? Clearly whoever owned it figured it could survive an officer's life (no regular pbi had this).

YouTube video by What's Going on With Shipping? Ships Stranded at Hormuz: 1 March 2026 Update | Is the Strait Open or Closed?

20 very educational minutes with Sal @mercoglianos.bsky.social with logistics news that matters! ⚓️🫶

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcdN...

Iran’s Islamist Proxies in the Middle East

Take a seat, sir.

www.wilsoncenter.org/article/iran...

And don't help spread their bigotry in Bluesky; just describe it without links/photos that spread their poison.

Nobody needs to see the Daily Heil or The Scum on their feed here.

Folks often don't realize how hurtful it is to the people targeted when they show that crap, even in an outraged way.

For every fascist who plans to attack Drag Queen story hour, there are 3 anti-fascists ready to defend it; for every boss who harasses you, there are 10 workers who will back you up; for every judge who seeks to ban abortion, there are 20 collective stockpiling mifepristone and mesopotristal; for every cop who's paid to enforce transphobic legislation, there are a 100 gender outlaws determined to defy them with you; for every politician who tries to prohibit talking about gender at school, there are a 1000 students charting their own path beyond the binary; for every bigot who wants to etch their bias on stones, there is a movement already changing the world; for every person that takes one step towards freedom, there is another person who finds the road to liberation becomes easier.

This weekend has been hectic for a lot of you, but please - keep it up!

This and many more helpful gender (and anti-ICE) resources here:

crimethinc.com/tools

1. Civilization was not strictly an Iranian phenomenon - there were 6 cradles. Also, Mesopotamia included present-day Iraq.

2. Modern Israel and Iran were creations of Britain.

3. Israel supported Iran during the Iran-Iraq War.

Just be honest about the fact you're a bigot & an ignoramus.