UCP vaccine policies & rhetoric = deadly.
Alberta's flu season deadliest in recent memory as experts call for action www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
"250 Albertans have died ... vaccination rates remain low."
Vaccine "one of the most effective ways to reduce the risk of severe illness.”
A picture of PEW poll on global attitude survey, saying the % who rate the morality and ethics of people in their country as good vs bad, where the US has the worst rankings and Canada the best
Americans: we live in a fallen state—embroiled by sin, cheating, lying, and evil. You cannot trust anyone, not even those who claim to know you best
Canadians: I love my neighbors and my friends!
Behind the cowboy hats and grievance about equalization lies something far more serious: foreign influence, backed by the Trump government, aimed to use legitimate frustrations as a crowbar to split Canada and hand our oil, water, and minerals to the USA.
raybwilliams.medium.com/the-fifth-co...
We’ve known this since 2020.
“Covid was indeed behaving like a virus capable of reaching the brain. He’d seen the pattern before, with HIV, Ebola and SARS-CoV-1—infections that first appeared to target one organ system before revealing quieter, more lasting damage in the brain and elsewhere.”
Three Trumpeter Swans and many more Canada Geese rest on a frozen ice shelf on a northern river.
Today, I was delighted to see that all of the 10 Trumpeter Swans that I have been enjoying on the Bow River in #YYC for the past 2 mos, made it through our most recent cold snap with overnight temps nearing -30C. #birds
21.02.2026 22:19 — 👍 56 🔁 7 💬 1 📌 0
Wow 🤩 🚨: Today’s Ring of Fire solar eclipse in its stunning peak phase seen over Antarctica.
Aurora Borealis at the same time. #FridayFeeling
If you don't live in Alberta, let me explain Alberta politics to you.
1. *long sigh*
2. *incoherent mumbling*
3. *muffled tears*
4. *long sigh*
Thank you for listening.
A photo of an ice cream machine with a sign reading, "Anything is possible with ice cream." Beneath that is a hand lettered sign reading, "No ice cream".
2026 basically
18.02.2026 16:23 — 👍 40994 🔁 10914 💬 311 📌 339
A mannequin wearing a black silk dress with short sleeves. It is printed with a large red and cream rearing horse motif along one side of the dress, a 1940s design by Gilbert Adrian
Happy Lunar New Year! It is the year of the fire horse and so Gilbert Adrian’s 1945 Roan Stallion dress seems appropriately flame like as it rampages across the surface of black silk @metmuseum.org #FashionHistory 🗃️🪡
17.02.2026 12:53 — 👍 188 🔁 55 💬 7 📌 0
A portion of the Strøget pedestrian street in Copenhagen that widens into a grand people-place.
One of the most successful pedestrian streets in the world, the Strøget in Copenhagen, was filled with cars until a 2 year pedestrianization pilot project in 1962. The opposition argued “no cars means no business,” but the street has been a massive retail success, the city’s busiest shopping street.
15.02.2026 06:05 — 👍 1021 🔁 262 💬 23 📌 21
Bath Abby in Bath, Great Britain #WindowsOnWednesday #Photography #Monochrome #B&W #Architecture #Interiors 📷
12.02.2026 06:28 — 👍 4333 🔁 321 💬 86 📌 14
Sainte-Chapelle, Paris, 2023. It’s a dark and rainy day in Portland, Oregon, and I felt the need for some color in my life. I think this fits the bill. #Photography #Architecture #Interior #Paris #France 📷
08.02.2026 00:59 — 👍 6871 🔁 674 💬 193 📌 51
LET THE GAMES BEGIN
06.02.2026 22:32 — 👍 159 🔁 17 💬 11 📌 3
TL;DR: Alberta would need 11 hospitals in Edmonton and Calgary to be resourced to the Canadian average.
1/6 🏥 Why is Alberta’s healthcare system under such strain? It’s not "management"—it’s a numbers problem 40 years in the making. Let’s look at the data. 🧵 #AbLeg #CdnHealth
Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again.
#Pinks #ProudBlue
#ABleg #ABpoli #CdnPoli
Stéphane Dion: The secession process is dangerous
open.substack.com/pub/theline/...
This is, without doubt, my favourite subway stop in Milan.
It’s the Main Media Centre stop and it’s fantastic.
Entirely wrapped with facts and figures and photos of figure skating, speed skating and hockey.
3 tables showing total expected hospitalizations since Dec 2/21 by province (error range -/+ 10%), total expected ICU admissions since Dec 2/21 by province (error range -/+ 10%), and total expected deaths since Dec 2/21 by province (error range -/+ 10%) Tables available at: https://covid19resources.ca/covid-hazard-index Page 19 (Reported deaths, ICU, hospitalizations by age)
Graph showing Estimated new daily infections resulting in daily life activity-limiting symptoms lasting >3 months, by province, since Dec 2021. (5 week rolling averages) Graph available at: https://covid19resources.ca/covid-hazard-index Page 13 (Long COVID)
Infections in Canada this week are expected to result in 5,400 hospitalizations, 800 premature deaths (people who die at least 1 year earlier than they would without COVID) and 15,000 new long COVID cases serious enough to limit daily life activities.
03.02.2026 23:15 — 👍 28 🔁 16 💬 1 📌 2
How learning handwriting trains the brain: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
"Research has consistently shown that handwriting is more challenging and stimulating to the brain than is typing."
Interesting. I LOVE writing. Often mapping ideas with a (too fancy) fountain pen my first step...
A grizzled woodchuk (groundhog) sits in the crotch of a small oak tree on a sunny day with its dark brown tail curled behind the branch.
Your annual reminder that groundhogs are squirrels, and pretty darned good at climbing trees. #mammals 🌿 #GroundhogDay
02.02.2026 19:33 — 👍 198 🔁 28 💬 3 📌 3
Black-and-white photograph of David Milgaard indoors, seated or leaning forward with his forearms crossed over a metal bed frame. He wears a long-sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up. His dark, wavy hair falls to about ear length. He looks directly at the camera with a neutral expression. Behind him are metal bed frames and a plain wall, suggesting a dormitory or institutional room.
On Jan. 31, 1970, 17-year-old David Milgaard was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Gail Miller.
He spent 23 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, but his mother never gave up and fought for his release.
This is his story.
🧵 1/12
deadder.substack.com
31.01.2026 15:01 — 👍 1737 🔁 405 💬 79 📌 77
"There’s been some mistake. Paperwork was lost, signatures fraudulently affixed, a wrong address was recorded, some comedy of errors have taken place, and for the first time, in a situation involving Ms. O’Hara, I’m not laughing."
30.01.2026 21:34 — 👍 598 🔁 71 💬 24 📌 5❤️
30.01.2026 19:57 — 👍 28072 🔁 9225 💬 362 📌 760
Man who wouldn’t wear mask to protect people fine wearing mask to shoot them
27.01.2026 22:30 — 👍 1125 🔁 364 💬 11 📌 17
A bird's-eye view of a former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp showing a wide dirt pathway flanked by parallel rows of barbed-wire fences. Groups of visitors walk along the path, surrounded by the remnants of brick structures and barracks, now reduced to foundations. Green grass contrasts with the somber history of the site, as the path leads toward a guard tower in the distance.
Auschwitz was at the end of a process. We must remember that it did not start from gas chambers.
This hatred gradually developed: from ideas, words, stereotypes & prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanization & escalating violence... to systematic and industrial murder.
Auschwitz took time.
A full-colour political map of Canada showing provinces and territories in different colours. Labels identify Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador. Major cities such as Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and Halifax are marked. Surrounding bodies of water are labeled, including the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Arctic Ocean, Hudson Bay, and Labrador Sea. Alaska, Greenland, and the northern United States appear at the edges for geographic context.
Across Canada, some provincial borders are defined by geography.
Some along meridians and parallels.
And some due to provincial and international arguments.
Through the next week, I will explore the history of our provincial borders.
Today, it is Alberta.
🧵 1/7
My latest Substack on what we as Americans can learn about courage and resistance from Prime Minister Carney’s speech at Davos open.substack.com/pub/asharang...
24.01.2026 16:30 — 👍 520 🔁 146 💬 26 📌 9
#1: September 12, 2001 First use of treaty's cornerstone Article 5 NATO invokes mutual defense, stands by U.S. Arizona Daily Star, September 13, 2001. Page 2.
Headlines from every single time NATO invoked Article 5
23.01.2026 02:44 — 👍 212 🔁 66 💬 3 📌 2
