07.03.2026 21:07
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The snow we just got on the East Coast is particularly great snow for snowballs. This is because of the snow-to-liquid ratio. ❄️ spklr.io/6043Da4yB
🎤 🎞️: Marta Hill
📝: Stephanie Pappas
Graphic with the headline “Proportional Representation Gets Youth Represented.” Text states that proportional systems on average elect 5 percentage points more representatives under 35 than winner take all systems. Background shows illustrated young people standing in a field with raised hands. Source cites Stockemer 2018 study on age representation in parliaments.
Young people are told to vote, volunteer, and engage. But first-past-the-post makes it harder for young candidates to win in the first place.
Proportional representation lowers the barriers and brings youth voices into Parliament. That changes what gets prioritized.
Love that you can't always tell whether a wacky scheme mentioned in @xkcd.com is actually real or not. SNEWS is real!
xkcd.com/3208/
Self-Portrait (rotated), potential sketch for The Creation of Adam, by Michelangelo, late 15th//early 16th c
⚛️🧪In the #quantum double slit experiment, the famous #interference pattern disappears if we measure which slit the particle went through. Why does it disappear? It's often described in vague, mystical terms, but in fact it's conceptually straightforward: profmattstrassler.com/2025/04/03/d...
For #MuppetMonday, let's have some Sesame Street flashbacks! #2: GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS! Mixed media on 11 X 14" watercolor paper.
As I get ready for another cozy weekend of Olympics watching, I'm seeing lots of chatter about ice quality for different sports. As a Minnesotan and a science journalist, just wanted to reshare this video about why ice temps matter!
Graphic with a red and blue gradient background. At the top, bold text reads: The real takeaway is not who wins, but how our system works. A few ballots can decide which party, with vastly different priorities, becomes your only voice in Ottawa. In the middle is a mock Globe and Mail headline that reads: Supreme Court invalidates Liberal MP’s single-vote victory in Quebec riding. Below, text reads: Proportional representation would translate votes for Liberal, Bloc, Conservative, NDP, Green, and other parties into seats. Instead of one narrow winner speaking for everyone, Parliament would reflect the full range of views in Terrebonne and across Canada. At the bottom it says: Learn more at fairvote.ca.
Close elections are not the problem. The problem is a system where thousands of voters can be left without a voice because their party finished second.
In a proportional system, votes across Terrebonne would shape seats. No community’s voice would hinge on a single envelope.
This policy change is as well thought out as Brexit, which is to say not at all. Interesting read!
In an early version of the article, it uses 'In early 27 I renewed' in past tense, I believe that's meant to be 26.
After 19 long years, the Eglinton Crosstown LRT is finally open! While there’s cause to celebrate, we can’t forget just how drawn out and expensive this process was. The only way forward is full accountability from the provincial government.
Despite a policy shift away from #renewables from the #Trump administration, energy companies are still turning to the fast and cheap power of solar and wind #energy to provide power. The thing that’s actually changing? Their messaging. spectrum.ieee.org/trump-renewa...
Toronto's new Eglinton rail line shows the awakening of a new consciousness of what kind of city Toronto is. New from me: humantransit.org/2026/02/toro...
A close-up photograph of Saturn's rings, captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. The rings appear as wide, textured bands of beige, tan, and gold, stretching diagonally across the frame. To the left of the rings is the black void of space, featuring two tiny, bright white dots. In the upper-left corner, a much thinner ring of Saturn is visible.
This is an up-close photo of Saturn's rings, but it also shows so much more. Those two little dots are actually the Earth and Moon as seen from over 1.4 billion kilometers away by the Cassini spacecraft. Everything you know and love is on that dot.
#Astronomy ⚛️🧪
How Federal PR Can Strengthen Local Representation in Alberta
In Alberta, local representation matters deeply. Communities expect their elected representatives to understand regional priorities—whether urban growth, rural infrastructure, energy development, agriculture, or municipal services.…
Illustration of a hand placing a yellow ballot into a blue ballot box labeled “VOTE.” Text reads: “Countries with proportional representation have greater faith in their democracy.” A caption below explains that proportional systems increase the share of voters who feel represented and that feeling represented strongly predicts democratic satisfaction. The graphic promotes learning more at fairvote.ca.
When more voters see their views reflected in parliament, trust goes up.
Systems that turn votes into seats fairly give people a reason to believe participation matters.
That is a powerful argument for proportional representation.
Anyone talking up the prospect of multiple new LNG projects in BC needs to read this report.
The demand growth they're counting on from coal to gas switching only happens at prices where Canadian projects will lose money.
www.mckinsey.com/industries/o...
Close up of two closed pine cones with green needles emanating all around them, all dusted with fresh snow.
A dried up rose bush poking through a large pile of snow, with a drooping dried up rose that is caramel light brown in colour at the end of a stem, some snow dusting it. Two houses and bare trees out of focus in the background.
A close up of a tree trunk with snow dusting on the left side and a yellowish green lichen on the right side of it. Snow has piled up in front of it, a road, snow banks and houses in the background.
Deep set of footprints curving in about two feet high snow with a fresh dusting over them, the steps getting smaller as they get further.
Winter walk while the
snow was still fresh this morning. Dormant beauty lives. ❄️
The lead concentration in hair samples before and after the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency. It has steadily plummeted since the 1960s.
A small study found that exposure to lead—a dangerous heavy metal—has fallen by a factor of more than 100 since the 1960s.
However, the researchers warn that all the gains in lead exposure could be reversed if pollution policies change. bit.ly/4ryhLH2
📊: @unamandita.bsky.social
So Russia is sabotaging power lines between Romania and Moldova. Does this constitute an attack on a NATO country?
Process shots of my recent commission featuring a Muppet version of RETURN OF THE KILLER TOMATOES: pencils, inks, and watercolors/mixed media.
After losing his son to a high-voltage line accident, Barry Kropp worked to ensure it wouldn’t happen to anyone else. His company distributes specialized anti-induction suits designed to protect workers from high electric currents. spectrum.ieee.org/transmission...
Primordial black holes could have formed before the existence of atoms or stars. David Kaiser and Alexandra Klipfel, physicists at MIT, think a detector could have spotted a powerful neutrino from one of these ancient celestial bodies. www.quantamagazine.org/monster-neut...
Screenshot of a Sage Journals page from Comparative Political Studies (2025, Vol. 58(2), pages 261 to 290) titled “The Great Global Divider? A Comparison of Urban Rural Partisan Polarization in Western Democracies.” The image includes highlighted excerpts arguing that urban rural divides have grown more in majoritarian systems like the US, the UK, and Canada, and that European multiparty systems often have mainstream parties with geographically diverse support that buffer against extreme polarization.
New research links rising urban rural polarization to winner take all systems like first-past-the-post.
When politics is forced into two camps, geography turns into identity.
Proportional representation lowers the temperature by making more votes count.
ICYMI: I sat down with political scientist @samuel-bagg.bsky.social to discuss the crisis in our information environment and its roots in social identity.
A new formulation of string theory partially resolves one of its biggest flaws. www.quantamagazine.org/string-theor...
Let's have some fun, folks.
National Post comment editor Carson Jerema wrote a dreadful column about -- what else -- pipelines. I'm going to take it out to the woodshed.
nationalpost.com/opinion/cars...
Here's an article that I wrote for the Fair Vote Toronto January newsletter, with some great help from an editor, titled:
Why Public Support Isn’t Enough: Canada’s Election System Hinders Climate Action
www.fairvotetoronto.ca/why-public-s...
#cdnpoli #climate #proportionalrepresentation #onpoli
#GoodNews on #biodiversity, because we all need some
If Schrodinger’s cat epitomizes quantum mechanics, what metaphor or mind game could provide a way into the world beyond space-time? Explore our interactive dive into the thought experiments of the new physics era.
