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At the Canada-U.S. border, smoke from a Canadian forest wildfire blows south while smoke from an American dumpster fire blows north

Smoke gets in your eyes

Smoke gets in your eyes published on

Those U.S. GOP state legislators who’ve been complaining about Canadian wildfire smoke affecting air quality south of the border have a point. I can’t believe nobody here has turned off the wildfire switch, or at least turned our giant fan so it blows somewhere else. (Usually that’s Randy’s job, but he’s been off on vacation at the cabin for the last month and a half.)

Meanwhile, those ambulance-chasing ghouls esteemed lawmakers may want to tune into a Canadian weather forecast for some perspective. Here, I’ll paste the latest alerts from Environment Canada:

“A mass of unstable political air and polarizing rhetoric is drifting up from the U.S., bringing with it attacks on women, immigrants, racialized and Indigenous people and queer and transgender communities. A tariff front will sweep in, and trade winds are likely to shift from north-south to east-west.

“The sunny outlook we’d been forecasting has been downgraded as authoritarian politics make their way north of the border, with Alberta the most affected but other provinces in the path as well. A disinformation alert is in effect throughout the country, with heavy flooding of bullshit likely in most communities. No relief is expected until at least November 2026.”

Paging David Pogue

Paging David Pogue published on 4 Comments on Paging David Pogue

If the planet came with a manual, I have to think it would carry some pretty serious warnings about certain activities:

Offshore petroleum drilling: THIS IS NOT A SUPPORTED FEATURE OF PLANET EARTH. Using this feature may void your warranty and may cause issues including – but not limited to – unavailability of the Plenty-O-Shrimp feature, increased beach viscosity and unexpected dolphin termination. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU BURN ANYTHING OBTAINED THROUGH THE USE OF THIS FEATURE. This can lead to your system running at dangerously high temperatures.

Added: Oh, curse of knowledge, you scamp. When I wrote this, it didn’t occur to me that people might not know David Pogue is the guy behind the absolutely wonderful Missing Manual series, published by O’Reilly Media.

Yes, West Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

Yes, West Virginia, there is a Santa Claus published on No Comments on Yes, West Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

Clean coal. Right up there with gluten-free arsenic.