Mark Hamilton
banner
gmarkham.bsky.social
Mark Hamilton
@gmarkham.bsky.social
1.1K followers 900 following 2.5K posts
Retired from years of journalism and teaching and living in Vancouver. Words to live by: “When we play music, immediately everything is nice.” — Evgenios Voulgaris. Current project is a blog featuring a rebetiko song of the day and more: www.tamark.ca/wp
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
It’s time for our elected reps to start saying no.
Some breaking news: in a special Vancouver Police Board meeting only announced over the weekend, the police board has requested a $50 million increase to their budget for 2026.

This comes as other departments across the city are trying to cut staff to ensure a property tax freeze for next year.
This is why Bruce Arthur is one of the best writers on sports (and other things, too) on the continent.
They say baseball breaks your heart, and the Blue Jays are a Hall of Fame what if team, now. So what does it mean to watch your team lose the World Series in one of the greatest games ever played? It means you got to feel something; you just didn’t get to choose what. www.thestar.com/sports/blue-...
Bruce Arthur: These Blue Jays are a Hall of Fame ‘what if’ team. The World Series loss just makes the heartbreak worse
This World Series will echo across Canada for decades, because Toronto lost the MLB championship in one of the greatest baseball games ever played.
www.thestar.com
I'm re-reading a book of essays by E.B. White, and while there is a touch of the old-fashioned to him, I'm underlining something on almost every page, and stopping often to savour the way he has strung together his thoughts and words.
Having worked in a university setting where my dean, department head and the majority of faculty council were women, I am calling absolute bullshit on this claim.
I don't have a hat, but I do have a Tilley jacket that I bought in 2004 that i have worn pretty much steadily since then. It's showing few signs of wear and tear.
Reposted by Mark Hamilton
team of Canadian engineers on October 28 unveiled a fully electrified home

The project combines a system that eliminates fossil fuel use and dramatically reduces energy costs and emissions.

Canada’s self-powered solar home cuts energy use, emissions by half share.google/uDA643ogROMR...
Canada’s self-powered solar home cuts energy use, emissions by half
Engineers in Canada have built a fully electrified solar-powered home that cuts electricity bills by 45% and carbon emissions by 55%.
share.google
Reposted by Mark Hamilton
The most insanely frustrating thing about the #ClimateCrisis is how the breakthrough we so clearly need isn’t technological. It’s just a collective willingness, a determination even, to change in ways that would clearly be SO MUCH BETTER than the clear and obvious consequences of NOT changing.
And I thought we only had to worry about his destruction of the U.S. Christ.
The NDP have no leader, the Conservatives have an increasingly wounded leader and the Quebec-first parties have no sway outside their province. I’ve seen misguided political pronostication but this denies reality.
1) Public pressure works. 2) I am so happy to live in a country that values ALL of its residents.
The federal government is currently making an announcement about new funding for women and 2SLGBTQIA+ organizations. This pre-budget announcement (and the new funding) is happening *entirely* because of all the public outcry and pressure we've mounted over the last few months re: cutting WAGE by 81%
Reposted by Mark Hamilton
IMPORTANT: The Dutch invest €595 million annually on urban biking, resulting in €19 BILLION saved in public health care costs alone. That’s how smart governments do the math on investing in better mobility.

Let’s be clear— it wastes public money to NOT do it.

#CityMakingMath HT @modacitylife.com
Reposted by Mark Hamilton
Did you know there’s a French village off the coast of Canada?

Anyways it’s set to be underwater due to climate change
Trump doesn’t need a third term: America will be all but destroyed before that.
Well, that's gotta sting.
Enten: "Canada is far more popular than Donald Trump is here in the United States. The net popularity of Canada is +49. Trump is -10. We're talking about Canada coming out nearly 60 points ahead on the net popularity ratings versus Donald Trump here in the US"
The prevailing American ethos appears not to be rugged individualism, but knee-trembling cowardice.
Reposted by Mark Hamilton
It just got 10% dumber.

Not a joke: Trump just imposed an additional 10 percent tariff on Canada because he still doesn't understand that Reagan was a vehement free trader. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
"Mate, I can't do anything but tell it to you straight. This Canada thing is literally the dumbest thing I've ever heard. The Canadians ran an advertisement showing Ronald Reagan being against tariffs. Guess what? Ronald Reagan was against tariffs."
Reposted by Mark Hamilton
Trump is posting on Truth Social that he's terminating negotiations with Canada over a "fake" ad criticizing tariffs (that was run by Ontario, and which isn't fake.)

It's all theatre. There was never a deal to be gotten. Trump just wants to claim victory. #giftlink www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...
Christ America, when will you replace Trump with an actual adult?
Put him on a plane and take him to Portland. The cognitive dissonance will break what’s left of his brain.
Reposted by Mark Hamilton
Another must read.

"For Americans especially, the deeper psychic shock lies in the recognition that modernity is no longer something they authored and others merely inherit. That story has outlived its usefulness."
The Great Reckoning - The Ideas Letter
The world feels unsettled, as if history itself were changing tempo. The familiar landmarks of the modern age are blurring, slipping away, and the stories we once told ourselves about…
www.theideasletter.org
It's a doorstopper and her style is perhaps a little too flippant at times for some. It's packed full of not only the history of the Renaissance (and the people) but a lot about the history of histories, how we do history and what everything (might) mean. I'm really enjoying it.
Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer (enjoyable read; much to chew on) and A Summer with Montaigne (short essays) by Antoine Compagnon.