death ← Progressive Bloggers // Blogues progressistes

PostArctica: Dying Tree With Storm

Jun

3

2017

Don’t look back.

Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: A Racist Killing In Progress, in Canada

Mar

29

2017

A man with a group of people went looking to injure First Nations people, from their truck. "Barbara Kentner was the victim of a drive by assault on Jan 28th by a caucasian man who shouted “I got one” after throwing a trailer hitch" — Terrill Tailfeathers (@Terrilltf) March 29, 2017 Doctors tell #ThunderBay woman ...

mark a rayner: The void loves you

Mar

23

2017

The caption is perfect if you imagine it being narrated by Werner Herzog. Herzog continues to read: “The orange sky, like the creeping shadows that threaten to engulf our fictional protagonists, is a visual clue that this never happened beyond the void of imagination.” If this cause a full-on existential crisis, watch Herzog talk about ...

Dead Wild Roses: Larry Strangelove or How Lurking in a Haunted House Helped Alleviate My Existential Angst and Fear of Death

Oct

31

2016

“I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.” -Mark Twain, maybe I like this quote and I envy its author. It is rational, clear headed, and it makes all kinds of sense. Earlier this year ...

A Puff of Absurdity: On Justified Worry

Oct

28

2016

I’m going to be writing more personally for a bit. I have a lot to get off my chest. Literally. I’m getting a double mastectomy today and an oophorectomy for good measure (which sounds to me like something Willy Wonka might do), because I have all the fancy genes that make my body a ticking ...

Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: What’s Really Going On With Climate Change

Oct

21

2016

There are too many people espousing their uneducated, or simply malicious views about the problem of climate change. There are enough of them in some places as to have totally halted progress against one of the greatest threats facing not only our species, but countless others. It’s equivalent to having spotted an Earth-directed asteroid with ...

Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: As Humans Do

Oct

14

2016

Obituary: Great Barrier Reef (25 Million BC-2016). Killed by coal, ocean acidification and climate change: https://t.co/V4npCbP1yR — 350 dot org (@350) October 14, 2016 Idle conversation among strangers around the office printer: -“How are you today?” “Fine… aside from the problem that the world might end due to climate change one day.” -“Yes, I keep ...

mark a rayner: New fiction: The Real Primo

Oct

2

2016

Corvus Review just published a new short story that I’ve been noodling with for some time: The Real Primo. (pp. 59-67) If you’ve ever watched (and enjoyed) Groundhog Day, or read Friedrich Nietzsche’s difficulty concept of the Eternal Return, or have a passing familiarity with the “Eastern” concept of reincarnation, then this story will appeal ...

A Puff of Absurdity: On Dying and Grieving and Judgment

Oct

2

2016

My dad passed away this week. He was older than the hills: 93 and a half years old. I’m not sad about his passing; he lived a long and fulfilling life. But I am troubled by how he went, and our expectations around grief. At his 90th birthday party, he was jovially talking with old ...

Cowichan Conversations: For the countless Canadians humiliated by anti-gay policies, healing can finally begin

Aug

13

2016

Svend Robinson was Canada’s first openly gay MP. He is now based in Geneva with The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. Originally published in the Globe & Mail Read more…

A Puff of Absurdity: My Fiftieth Year

May

29

2016

How pivotal is that number? It seemed huge on the way in, and still lingers on the way out. A year ago (way back here), I lived with my three kids, and now I just have one left at home. The house is quieter and cleaner, and I talk to the older two about as ...

A Puff of Absurdity: My Fiftieth Year

May

29

2016

How pivotal is that number? It seemed huge on the way in, and still lingers on the way out. A year ago (way back here), I lived with my three kids, and now I just have one left at home. The house is quieter and cleaner, and I talk to the older two about as ...

Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Being a Cyborg Can Leave a Lot to Think About

Apr

25

2016

Pacemakers and Piracy: The Unintended Consequences of the DMCA for Medical Implantshttps://t.co/uGz68CtR7V pic.twitter.com/ZXFrZgRCBd — Cory Doctorow (@doctorow) April 25, 2016 “Today there are well over 3 million pacemakers and over 1.7 million ICD’s in use.” What should you do to close potential cybersecurity vulnerabilities in your wireless implantable design? For one, make device security an ...

Trashy's World: The death of a newspaper

Feb

11

2016

I have never been the biggest fan of the Ottawa Citizen. Ever. Preaching, self-righteous columnists like David Warren turned me off the paper years ago. Their coverage is usually biased, overtly partisan and sometimes poorly written. However. And it is a big “however”. Those are my opinions, and I am entitled to them. Others think ...

Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Brad Wall Makes News Again

Nov

16

2015

.@PremierBradWall Very unhappy that you're using terrorists' crime to dictate Canada's refugee humanitarian strategy. #skpoli #cdnpoli — John Klein (@JohnKleinRegina) November 16, 2015 Brad Wall in September, before the CPC leadership opened up. Globe and Mail: https://t.co/cma3ImnWYG #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/1F2NcS5uxK — Mike Gibbs (@Mikeggibbs) November 16, 2015 That was following this tragedy highlighted in the world media. ...

Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Too Fast To Be Absorbed

Nov

3

2015

The scandalous details are piling up too quickly to take in. Or, did my blog post title mean that the CO2 is being injected too quickly to be sequestered? We may never know. Aquistore will permanently sequester only 350,000 tonnes, or 1.2%, of the of 30-million tonnes which will be captured at BD3. Of the ...

A Puff of Absurdity: On Childhood Angst

Oct

31

2015

Can children be existentialists? What I’m asking isn’t so much whether or not it’s possible, but should we allow it? If I dare to claim to define some central ideas here, the part about living authentically and embracing the freedom that comes with taking responsibility for all our choices with no excuses, that side of it ...

The Political Road Map: Buying a Gun

Oct

2

2015

Right about now in America, a gun store owner is unlocking his door, a hot coffee sits by his cash as he begins a new day. Not to long after, customers will begin pouring in to look at and begin the process of purchasing a gun. No doubt that some if not the majority of ...

The Political Road Map: Buying a Gun

Oct

2

2015

Right about now in America, a gun store owner is unlocking his door, a hot coffee sits by his cash as he begins a new day. Not to long after, customers will begin pouring in to look at and begin the process of purchasing a gun. No doubt that some if not the majority of ...

The Political Road Map: Buying a Gun

Oct

2

2015

Right about now in America, a gun store owner is unlocking his door, a hot coffee sits by his cash as he begins a new day. Not to long after, customers will begin pouring in to look at and begin the process of purchasing a gun. No doubt that some if not the majority of ...

A Puff of Absurdity: On Achievement and Death and Stuff

Sep

7

2015

First, a bit about boredom: “Boredom may lead you to anything. After all, boredom even sets one to sticking gold pins into people…one may choose what is contrary to one’s own interest…one’s own fancy, however wild it may be…desire what is injurious to himself, what is stupid, very stupid – simply in order to have ...

Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Dead Boy In The Sea

Sep

3

2015

Wednesday’s Twitter feeds were jammed with the body of a young corpse of a boy facing down in the sand as an authority stood over the body and soon picked him up to carry his body away. I realized the boy was from a refugee family that didn’t make a boat crossing. He was a ...

Things Are Good: India Drastically Reduces Deaths from Tetanus

Aug

31

2015

India has an amazingly large population and I can only imagine the challenges with delivering health care to that many people. India has it somewhat figure out and they keep getting better at it. Recently the country has reduced the number of deaths from tetanus to an all time low and to a level that ...

Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Addictions and Mental Illness

Aug

27

2015

Watched a TED talk about addiction, and then heard the same concepts being discussed in this Regina news story about a man who committed suicide last week.

Things Are Good: The Future of Green Burials Lies in the Past

Aug

19

2015

The modern funeral industry took something that was natural and safe and converted it into a toxic-filled death. When people die we need to dispose of the body in an appropriate way to ensure diseases don’t spread, human civilizations have been doing this for millennia. However, in the past hundred years we have started taking ...