Peter Russell’s forthcoming book

In a recent briefing on Canada, The Economist discusses my committee member Peter Russell’s forthcoming book:

After Britain wrested control of Quebec from France in 1763 its new French-speaking subjects resisted assimilation. So did Canada’s indigenous groupings: Inuit, First Nations and mixed-race Métis. Such resistance was sometimes met with oppression and cruelty, and Canada’s treatment of its indigenous peoples has been atrocious in some times and places. But as Peter Russell, a Canadian historian, argues in a forthcoming book, their “incomplete conquests” forced Canada’s overlords into habits of accommodation that have shaped the country ever since. “Diversity is our distinctive national value,” he says.

The book Canada’s Odyssey: A Country Based on Incomplete Conquests is coming out in early January, and was refined in part by a series of seminars taught on each chapter in progress. I am looking forward to seeing the finished text.

It’s interesting to see Dr. Russell described as a historian, given that he was long on the faculty of the political science department and is not a professor emiratus in that field.

Anticipation of the solstice

Oddly, two days after my last Judo class of the year this Sunday (a visit to the Annex Judo Academy) my Judo aches seem more acute than during ordinary class-to-class time since September. Between September and now I only missed two classes: one optional Thursday session which conflicted with another obligation and the final (extra, post-term) Saturday class because I just hadn’t had enough sleep.

Perhaps the elevated aches now that the pressure is off are because my philosophy has been to keep going with it, often taking special care to avoid further injury in one place or another, rather than taking breaks and missing classes.

Having ribs heal, in particular, is a multi-week issue, as a number of the more experienced students have reinforced for me. I hope the repetitive stresses of Judo will eventually make them stronger, and that I will eventually develop a layer of muscle between them and my skin.

Tomorrow includes the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere: the moment when we are tilted most away from the sun and the astronomical beginning of winter. I hope the winter will be a productive one: my PhD puzzlement will resolve into the elusive puzzle and I will come up with a way to keep being useful in the climate fight during these challenging times.

I will be getting out a bit into the High Park woods tomorrow.

Google’s AdWords suck for internet security AND content generators

Having ads on this site is pretty awful for several reasons.

The site is plugged into Google via both analytics and advertising. For people not running an ad blocking plugin, this often leads to ads which are unappealing and often offensive.

If you don’t want Google to know everything you (or everyone with access to your machine) do online, you’re going to need to make a big effort and do a lot of research into, like, cryptographic and technical means of confounding state surveillance.

If you would pay one cent a year or more to support an ad-free site, please leave a comment.