Not That Rick Scott 🇨🇦

@shadowspar.bsky.social

1034 Followers 184 Following

Travel nerd, language nerd, software nerd, systems nerd. Trying to make the world a better place. Available for hire! Looking for a remote devops, backend dev, or software testing role.

Article excerpt. Section heading: B.C. will keep working with U.S. counterparts: minister Text: Meanwhile, B.C. Forests Minister Ravi Parmar told CBC News that despite political rhetoric, wildfire fighters from B.C. will continue to work alongside those from the United States to tackle the problem. "Donald Trump's not involved so that makes it a lot easier," he said. "We have strong partnerships at an international level, with Washington, with Oregon, with California, with those that border our province, and fire don't respect boundaries. And we are going to continue to support them, just as they know they're going to continue to support us."
Two cabin air filters on the hood of a car. The old one is a cheap knock off brand; it's pretty beat up, and is filled with dirt, dead leaves, and other bits of junk. The new one is a mottled grey colour due to the activated charcoal within.
Google Maps screenshot: Driving directions from Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Sault Ste Marie, to the Hodder Ave Fire Station in Thunder Bay. Listed time & distance: 7h21; 684km. My trip was much slower going on account of driving through the night.
Open-plan office scene, Tokyo Metropolitan Government building. Two workers on the left converse. One wears a dark blue short sleeved collared shirt and tan knee-length shorts; the other, a navy blue polo and white shorts. In the foreground on the right, another worker looks down at a computer. Only his upper body is visible; he seems to be wearing a very lightweight short-sleeved dress shirt.
Larry A cat with a red, white and blue bow tie. Official portrait, 2016 Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office Incumbent Assumed office 15 February 2011 Serving with Freya (2012–2014) Monarchs Elizabeth II Charles III Prime Minister David Cameron Theresa May Boris Johnson Liz Truss Rishi Sunak Keir Starmer Andy Burnham
Travelmoose, a smol moose stuffie with Canada flag antlers, sits atop a pile of books, holding another book: The Psychology of Software Teams, by Dr Cat Hicks.
Football referee Mike Dean checking his wristwatch, looking sad.
Two Environment Canada weather alert notifications. 1: Sault Ste Marie - Yellow warning - air quality - ended. 2: Sault Ste Marie - NEW Yellow warning - air quality - in effect. Deux notifications de météo de Environment Canada (en anglais). 1: Sault Ste Marie - Alerte jaune - qualité de l'air - terminé. 2: Sault Ste Marie - À NOUVEAU Alerte jaune - qualité de l'air - en vigueur.
Small lake in the boreal taïga surrounded by a stand of thin, slow growing black spruce trees. They are impossibly reedy and seem almost bereft of foliage.
A stand of Black Spruce in Northern Ontario. They are closely spaced, impossibly thin, incredibly tall evergreen trees, with only a tiny bit of foliage near the top where it can reach the sun. A number of trees are currently in the process of falling over, attesting to the soft, swampy peatland they are growing in—a feature that will also slowly swallow any humans or equipment that try to harvest the trees.
A long chart, showing personnel and equipment mobilizations from Alberta to Ontario according to CIFFC. 15 July 2026 100, Equipment, Equipment, Fire Line Fire Pumps (medium capacity) 40, Personnel, Firefighters, Firefighter Type 1 (Initial Attack) 21, Personnel, Firefighters, Firefighter Type 1 (Expanded Attack) 19, Personnel, Firefighters, Firefighter Type 1 (Expanded Attack) 3, Personnel, Overhead - Operations, Task Force Leader 1, Personnel, Overhead - Operations, Division/Group Supervisor 1, Personnel, Overhead - Command, Agency Representative 6, Aircraft, Skimmer, AT-802 Amphibious 1, Aircraft, Birddog, Birddog 1, Personnel, Overhead - Logistics, Radio Operator 16 July 2026 2, Aircraft, Skimmer, CL-215T 1, Aircraft, Birddog, Birddog 17 July 2026 10, Personnel, Overhead (General), Technical Specialist 1, Personnel, Overhead - Operations, Task Force Leader
Screenshot of Sootoday webcam "Downtown at Queen and Bruce". An intersection is visible, with a few stopped cars, and buildings on the corners. However, the most striking feature is the colour of the sky, and really of the whole scene: a muddy yellow-brown, like the colour of the walls of a room where someone has been chainsmoking for 30 years.
Screenshot from purpleair.com, showing the air quality sensor just outside the grounds of the Kincheloe Airport -- south of Sault Ste Marie Michigan; between the towns of Dafter, Rudyard, and Pickford. The reading is a dark red circle with the number 666 in the middle.
Air Quality Index map from purpleair.com for the Sault Ste Marie region. The best reading is an outlier from a sensor out in Brimley, with a reading of 477. Everything else reads between 786 and 1301, including sensors near the Sault Canada airport (1041), the Kincheloe airport (1105), and several in Sault Ste Marie on both sides of the border (786 to 1097).
Screenshot of Air Quality Ontario website for Sault Ste Marie. Current Air Quality Health Index: "503 Service Temporarily Unavailable".
Forest Fire danger map of Ontario. Yellow means "High"; Red means "Extreme". Basically all of Northwestern Ontario, from Thunder Bay to Kenora, and north to Kasabonika or so, is a huge zone of Extreme. In the Northeast, there is another large Extreme hazard area from Marathon to Sault Ste Marie and Sudbury, north through Timmins all the way up to Moosonee. The rest of the province is "only" a High hazard rating.
Two glasses of kir, a French cocktail made from white wine and crème de cassis (blackcurrant liqueur). On the table is also a small cheese plate; in the background is an open window leading out to a streetscape. In the bottom right of the frame is the (in)famous graphic "pausa de hidratación".
Sidewalk cafe, with two croissants on the table, and two coffee beverages -- one looks like a latte; the other has a huge head of whipped cream. Caption: pausa de hidratación.
A woman with long blonde hair (specifically, Demi Burnett from Season 5 of The Bachelor) uncorks a champagne bottle and raises it towards the viewer as if to say "cheers!". Overlaid is the now (in)famous text "pausa de hidratación" -- "hydration break".
Michelle from Derry Girls holding a tray of flaming shots in her famous "Slainte, Motherfuckers!" scene. Caption: "pausa de hidratación".
Lionel Messi, looking out over a football field, drinking yerba mate. In the bottom right corner of the image is the now (in)famous graphic "pausa de hidratación" -- "hydration break".
A glass of "tinto de verano", a Spanish cocktail that's roughly half red wine and half lemon soda. The glass also containce ice and a couple of orange slices. It's clearly set on an oceanside beach somewhere. Near the bottom of the frame is the (in)famous "pausa de hidratación" caption.
Chalice of Westmalle Tripel, a Belgian trappist beer, being poured. Inset at the bottom is the logo made infamous by the 2026 FIFA World Cup: "Pausa de hidratación" (Hydration break).
Viking-looking dude, sitting in a wooden longboat. He holds a bottle of akavit in one hand and a drinking horn in the other. The caption in the middle of the picture says "Skål!" (Cheers!) Inset at the bottom is the logo made infamous by the 2026 FIFA World Cup: "Pausa de hidratación" (Hydration break).
Official FIFA World Cup 2026 collared shirt with the text "Italia", a knock-off logo, and arguably the wrong colours for the Italian team, who isn't in the World Cup this go round anyway.
Simpsons meme: "Good Lord, what is happening in there?". Badly photoshopped into the meme behind principal Skinner is the final score of the Türkiye - USA match: USA loses 3 to 2.
Drake meme. No: Cristiano Ronaldo. Yes: Christine Sinclair.
A hank of local alpaca sock yarn in a cool tonal blue/teal colorway. 60% alpaca, 20% merino, 20% nylon for durability. From Meadowview Alpaca Farm in Bruce Mines, Ontario, Canada.
"Pain Scale" graphic with thermometer. Starting from the bottom: • no pain • headache • toothache • migraine • childbirth • kidney stones • (much higher up) football player whose shin has been lightly touched by an opponent's boot
RDS (Canadian French-language sports broadcaster) presenting "La mi-temps Coca-Cola" (Coca-Cola halftime) during Scotland-Morocco. Three sports journalists sit at the desk discussing the match. Each has a glass bottle of Coca-Cola in front of them, but none are uncapped.
Crowd shot from the Qatar-Switzerland match at the 2026 World Cup. A group of Qatar supporters, dressed in thawb, ghutrah, and agal, are merrily banging away at various kinds of drums: at least three large frame drums (bendir?), a conga, and a smaller drum of some kind that looks like a single bongo.
Gatsden-style flag, except instead of a snake, it has an angry Canada Goose rearing up with its wings spread. Caption: "Fuck Aboot and Find Oot".
Screenshot from CPSC web page "Products Under the Jurisdiction of Other Federal Agencies". Agencies: US Department of Homeland Security (DHS); Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Area of responsibility: Natural disasters
Grassy area outside Anhalter Bahnhof in Berlin. In the background are trees and shrubberies; in the foreground is a beautiful rose bush next to a small orange garbage can. Written on the garbage is "Eimer liebt dich ❤️".
Me standing next to statues of Karl Marx and Friedreich Engels, carefully lined up to make it look like we are all standing in a row and looking off into the distance, like some Communist-era propaganda poster. I am sporting a large, very obviously photoshopped-on moustache and beard to match Marx and Engels. Location: Marx-Engels-Forum, Berlin, Germany.
Screencap from Slack, where the theme has suddenly switched to dark grey text on a black background, making everything basically unreadable. A 📣 emoji marking a channel section can be seen clearly, but all the the channel and section names (politics, immigrants, middle-east-conflicts, politics, politics-cage, radical-politics, background, Starred) can barely be made out.
Demolition of the former Lambton coal-fired generating station. Voiceover: "Blast imminent in 10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… fire." Two series of small explosions rip across the supports on the first floors of the four power generating buildings. They sag slightly forward as they crumble to the ground in turn. As the last one drops, two large smokestacks behind them also begin to fall. Two more loud blasts are heard; an auxiliary building to the rear collapses downward, and the final, largest smokestack also begins to tip over. After a long delay of falling in what seems like slow motion, it finally hits the ground with a satisfying THUD.
Excerpt from Surah 2:64 of the Quran, alongside an English translation. ٦٤ ثُمَّ تَوَلَّيْتُمْ مِنْ بَعْدِ ذَٰلِكَ ۖ فَلَوْلَا فَضْلُ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَتُهُ لَكُنْتُمْ مِنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ "Had it not been for Allah’s grace and mercy upon you, you would have certainly been amongst the losers."
Travelmoose (a small plushie with Canada-flag antlers) is sitting on the couch, surrounded by four books: • The World For Sale, by Javier Blas and Jack Farchy. • Because Internet, by Gretchen McCulloch. • How Big Things Get Done, by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner. • Elements of Journalism (4th Edition), by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel.
Screenshot from the previous video. Text in Akkadian cuneiform, transliterated as "lā amaḫḫaruka talammad", followed by translation into English: "May this be how you learn that I will not accept bad-quality copper from you."
Anpanman, a cartoon character with a large round head. He has a perfectly circular nose and two eqally large round dimples on his face, all equally rosy. He is dressed in a red and yellow superhero costume with a brown cape.
Snippet from article: “If you ever want to solve the debate on whether Popeyes or Chick-fil-A is better ... well, nobody ever broke into a Chick-fil-A and stopped to eat,” Chad Holleman Robinette posted.
Jungkook from BTS, mock-yelling towards the camera with his hand held to his mouth. Caption: "go to therapy"
Bag of rice on sofa: Sunsui Premium Sushi Rice, Product of Taiwan, 6.8kg / 15lb.
"Pointing Rick Dalton" meme: Leonardo DiCaprio is sitting in a chair watching TV. He holds a beer and a cigarette in one hand. He springs forward and points at the TV with the other hand, as if to say, hey! I recognize that guy!
Radar map screenshot of Northeastern Ontario, roughly from Nakina to North Bay. The location of the Montreal River weather radar (CASMR) is marked, about halfway between Sault Ste Marie and Wawa. There is a strip of missing coverage, maybe 50 to 100 km wide, stretching from north of Sault Ste Marie northwest to Nakina.
Furthermore, interest in EVs appears to have become decoupled from political leanings, the Redbridge polling suggests, with significant implications for right-leaning parties. It shows, unsurprisingly, some 96 per cent of Greens voters say they are "very/somewhat likely" to make their next vehicle an EV, followed by 92 per cent of Labor voters. More notable is that Coalition voters are close behind, with 87 per cent mulling an EV. And most surprising of all? Nearly three in four (72 per cent) of One Nation voters are eager to buy one.
A row of conifers silhouetted by the fading light of the day. An incredibly loud chorus of Spring Peeper frogs can be heard making their characteristic call.
Six of the seven samurai (all except Okamoto Katsushirō, the youngest apprentice), standing in a field looking into the distance.
Quoted passage from article:  "Governments are not doing [the energy transition] necessarily for climate reasons," says Leo Roberts of the climate nonprofit E3G. "They're doing it because it is cheaper and more effective to move your economy away from fossil fuels — and it's safer and more secure."
Travelmoose, a smol moose stuffie with Canada flag antlers, sits atop a café table. In front of him are a double cappuccino and a slice of mixed berry cheesecake.
Leading paragraph from the article. Highlighted passage: "Traders of oil futures are a sunny bunch." Rest of para: "On April 17th, after Iran’s foreign minister declared the Strait of Hormuz “completely open”, the price of Brent crude fell by 10%, to $90 a barrel. Within hours Iran reversed course and attacked an Indian tanker. The next trading day the global benchmark rose by just 5%. It has gone back up above $100 since but remains around $15 below its high in late March, even though an American blockade has trapped even more oil in the Gulf."
Roadside advertising sign with huge day glo all caps letters. Text: "Due North Cannabis Co. Did you forget your WEED?? Free same day delivery"
Motivational-image style composition. An empty rowboat sits on a pebble shore, with a wharf visible off to the right, and a blue-green lake stretching off into the distance under somewhat unsettled skies. Text: In a river mist, if another boat knocks against yours, you might yell at the other fellow to stay clear. But if you notice then, that it's an empty boat, adrift with nobody aboard, you stop yelling. When you discover that all the others are drifting boats, there's no one to yell at. And when you find out *you* are an empty boat, there's no one to yell.
Screenshot of Ontario 511, centered on Northeastern Ontario. The map is absolutely strewn with "Incident" and "Road Closure" markers, almost all of which are due to flooding. There are a few near Thunder Bay, one up north of Cochrane, and then more than a dozen from Wawa and Sault Ste Marie, east through Sudbury and North Bay, as far as Mattawa or so.
Screenshot of a post from the Hwy 129 and Ranger Lake Road Updates facebook group. There is a washout across the Ranger Lake Road, about a meter wide and close to a meter deep. One pickup truck has its front wheels dropped into the washout; another is trying to pull it out, all while a beautiful Golden Retriever looks on.
Brita meme. Top caption: I can excuse the numerous strategic, organizational, and policy problems with the NDP Bottom caption: but Sharon posting "Hey guys let's fix the problems :)" is where I draw the line
Tweet from Masoud Pezeshkian, the President of Iran: His Holiness Pope Leo XIV (@Pontifex), I condemn the insult to Your Excellency on behalf of the great nation of Iran, and declare that the desecration of Jesus, the prophet of peace and brotherhood, is not acceptable to any free person. I wish you glory by Allah. Posted at 9:19 AM EDT (UTC-4), Apr 23, 2026.
Tweet from Masoud Pezeshkian, the President of Iran: His Holiness Pope Louis XIV (@Pontifex), I condemn the insult to Your Excellency on behalf of the great nation of Iran, and declare that the desecration of Jesus, the prophet of peace and brotherhood, is not acceptable to any free person. I wish you glory by Allah. Posted at 8:53 AM EDT (UTC-4), Apr 23, 2026.
Six-panel comic from Mad Magazine. Title: The Bush Campaign's TV Commercial if he was running against Jesus. Subtitle: The Bashin' of the Christ Dept. Each panel has a picture of Jesus in the background, which slowly zooms in and fades to black & white. First Panel: Jesus of Nazareth says, "Give to him who begs from you, and do not refuse him who would borrow from you." Caption: Jesus favors more government handouts for welfare cheats. Second Panel: Jesus of Nazareth says, "Judge not, that you be not judged." Caption: Jesus is soft on crime. Third Panel: Jesus of Nazareth says, "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's." Caption: Jesus will raise your taxes. Fourth Panel: Jesus of Nazareth says, "Do not resist one who is evil. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other." Caption: Can we trust Jesus to fight the War on Terror? Fifth Panel: Jesus — Wrong on social services. Wrong on crime. Wrong on defense. Wrong for America. Sixth Panel: [shift to a photo of George W. Bush waving.] Caption: I'm George W. Bush and I approve this message. Icon: Bush/Cheney '04. Artist: Scott Bricher Writer: Don Vaughan