Submerged Servers Are More Efficient Than Landlubber Servers
A few years ago Microsoft decided to sink a data centre and see how well it performs. The short answer is: well, the underwater server farm did just fine. This…
2020
The hidden cost of cuts to a French campus in Alberta
University of Alberta Campus Saint-Jean sign on Rue Marie-Anne Gaboury. Photo from Wikimedia Commons. What does a budget cut for the University of Alberta have to do with honouring the…
Donald Trump Surrenders To Justin Trudeau. Again.
Donald Trump tried to bully Justin Trudeau from the moment they first met. And in early August he tried again, by slapping tariffs on Canadian aluminum. But if he thought…
Me in The Spec
…not, um, speculative. But grateful they pick up some of my stuff. #OPINION Aline Chrétien came from a small town, with humble roots. She loved people and people loved her.…
Head of State Debate
As a student of history, it’s always fascinated me how actions taken in the past still impact our present. Sometimes it’s the only way to make sense of certain things…
The Extinction Rebellion
The battle between people and capital continues. George Monbiot writes that, for the last forty years, capital has been winning. The problem is our first-past-the-post political system: Our system allows…
Socialism, Communism, and Liberalism
Watching American political dramas like their presidential elections is both entertaining and frightening. Yet it is also strangely educational. it has taught me a basic tenet: Americans as a people…
It’s all bad news for Jason Kenney.
If you had a Voodoo doll, would you call it Jason Kenney and stick pins in it? Well, somebody must be! Of all the business indices listed in the Toronto…
cpmvfsgu days 8 and 9: monday and tuesday on salt spring island; whether or not to leave a negative review for an airbnb
I’ve spent the last two days reading, blogging, scratching, and occasionally eating and sleeping. There were other things to do on Salt Spring Island, but I was too uncomfortable to…
Another Ontario lockdown won’t work. Too many people are well informed now.
There is increasing talk of lockdowns in Ontario, if not province wide then in specific hotspot areas like Peel Region. Well folks time for a reality check, further lockdowns won’t…
UCP or NDP? Depends on your age … and gender
Some surprising results in an Angus Reid survey of Albertans this week. The UCP and the NDP are tied in voter support, each at 38 percent. This is quite a…
New Ethnicity estimate at Ancestry
Less broad, more specific. Yes, nation names have nothing much to do with the ‘ethnicity’ of the people who lived on the land hundreds or thousands of years before. I…
Tuesday Night Cat Blogging
Upturned cats.
Everything I know about Britain I’ve learned from TV
As a forced-into-retirement man approaching senior citizenship, I watch a lot of TV. Actually, I’ve always watched a lot of TV. When I was a kid, when we had just…
"fine. biden. but this is bullshit."
I’ve said before and I’ll say it again: Donald Trump is the single greatest gift the Democratic Party could ever hope to receive. The Democrats have finally achieved their most…
Economic Theory & Reality: Revolution Now
Know this: we must understand and boldly address economics in fundamental ways, or there is no hope, in terms of justice, prosperity, the environment, democracy, freedom, or peace, but only…
Nowhere to Run To, Baby. Nowhere to Hide. America Comes to Grip With Climate Breakdown.
Some Americans are beginning to ask, “is it time for me to leave?” They’re rethinking the choices they made on where they wanted to live, decisions that now seem unfortunate.…
Wait, Why Did He Pick That?
Wait, why did he pick that? My newsletter is called OLDaily, which is short for ‘Online Learning Daily’, a title I ripped off from ‘Arts & Letters Daily’, which started…
Not Even One? Biodiversity Targets Unmet.
In 2010 the world community agreed that action was urgently needed to slow the loss of biodiversity, a growing risk to humanity itself. Following meetings in Aichi, Japan, 20 targets…
Who listens to Canada’s bankers?
Canada’s bankers admit that there is no fixed limit to Canada’s debt to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio but they think everyone should follow them in their customary caution. It…