Good buddy of mine spent 5 years in Calgary and has only good things to saw. The Tarsands really pushed things in that province out of joint.

I’d like to spend some time in Van. I was in Victoria for a few days and Nanaimo for a few more. But Van and Tofino were bridges too far on that trip.

Portland was the West Coast city that was outstanding to me. Victoria was cute. Seattle was excessive.

The first bit, living in Seoul, was youth and low cost of living in Seoul. I had debt, but my Thailand, China, and Australia trips were done on the cheap.

The next bit, living in Kuwait, was making oil money, zeroing out my debts, and having no mortgage and no kids. It was pretty sweet. But, still, I lived in the desert.

The next bit, living in Guate, was still no mortgage and no debt. My eldest was around for my last two years there. But, again, low cost of living and flying was a boon.

Since returning to Canada, I have only been to cities to which I can drive. I still pretty new to having a mortgage.

That said, I’m not planning any trips until sometime after 2037. If, yknow, there’s still a world then.

Montreal was a late addition.

It’s not that old, I’d agree. But, of Canadian cities that I could see as among the greatest in the world, it’s Canada’s nearest option.

Québec is older, over 400 years. But, Montreal is more of a world city.

TL;DR: Seoul, Korea. I loved living there.

I’ve not seen many cities on Earth. But, in making my choices, I’ll share what Im considering.

Caveat: I’ve never been to any place on the African continent. This is an admitted blind spot. I’ve also been to only three European cities.

Not New York, Toronto, San Fransisco, Ottawa, Portland, Las Vegas, Washington D.C., Miami, Québec, Atlanta, or Halifax (sorry Nova Scotia, we love you!)

Not London (UK). Not Frankfurt. Not Sydney (Aus). Not Beijing. Not Kathmandu. Not KL, KK, Bangkok, or Singapore. Not Dubai. Not Colombo, Male, Kuwait, Doha, or Muscat (sorry Oman, we love you!)

No La Habana, ni Santiago de Chile, Cali, Arequipa, Cusco, y no á ciudad de Guatemala (disculpame mis hermanos de Guate!)

I think that the greatest cities on Earth have DEEP histories, offer diversity, and have been at the crossroads of the human condition.

Of the cities I’ve spent at least a week in (in no particular order):

• La ciudad de México, México. (Pyramids, gardens, art, and food)

• Istanbul, Türkiye (Hagia Sofia, Bosphorus, history)

• Seoul, Korea (functionality, history, food, mountains, music)

• Cartagena, Colombia (music, seaside, fortress, art)

• Beirut, Lebanon [at least, when (2012) and how (with well-connected locals) I was there. Certainly, it’s faced repeated harms in the past 7 years.]

• Berlin, Germany (architecture, functionality, history, walking tour, art, festivals)

Ones I’ve not been to, but might list if I had:

• Tehran, Iran (history)

• Barcelona, Spain (Al-Analous)

• Mumbai, India

• Hong Kong

• Tokyo, Japan

The state within a nation that permits execution her refuses medical assistance in dying. That would be a cop-out; too soft a punishment.

They want her to die the way God intended, using a specific cocktail of drugs that knock her out, paralyze her, and then suffocate her in her sleep as a form of revenge. The state assumes this is the appropriate punishment, the words are on the paper; so it is written, so it shall be done.

The alleged rapists at many Ivy-league universities may be able to provide another source for a cocktail of effective drugs.

And, I think someone else mentioned that if the execution fails or is not complete on the same day, they need to provide care until the next attempted execution.

I did.

Do you me the Apocalypse wherein anyone ::: spoiler spoiler could be reprogrammed over a loudspeaker, or a telephone call ::: ?

As we lurch toward our own Apocalypse — take your pick between environmental, economic, technological, political, nuclear, or any combination thereof — it seems that Epstein-island espionage elicits ick in every instance.

That’s most of the series.

The Dollhouse.

A bunch of hyper-sexualized women held in coffins against their will in a state of childlike innocence. Intermittently, they have personalities downloaded into them, using computer technology, making them Alpha-powered super-assassins.

When one of them gets too woke, she is suppressed, coerced, and gaslit into buying back into the fascist agenda of the faceless corporation running the Dollhouse.

I was going to put a modifier in front of the adjectives… oh, well…

Thumbsucker, 2005 film. Good stuff.

Perhaps reporting these deaths using numbers as locations, instead of naming the street intersections, will raise awareness. The numbers 1 - 25 are way easier to remember than a series of 25 pairs of names.

Also, a memorial listing all of the fallen on an installation at each location. Each name stays on the list for exactly one year. When the number of deaths in a year reaches zero, the number is relocated or retired.

I got 200 pages into Gödel Escher Bach, meaning to pick it up again. And yet, still, it sits on my shelf daring me to read it.

It’s been 11 years.

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

From my review:

"This is one of those rare books that changes what I think a book can be.

“A beautiful meditation on the human condition as coupled to the — so-called — “Overwatch Effect.” It took me a while to catch the rhythm of the book, but once I was in, I was in.”

I read it just after it won the Booker Prize. But, I didnt know it had won the Booker Prize when I read it.

Someone handed me Gravity’s Rainbow after finding out I’d read Blood Meridian. He said the words, “only you” after handing me the book as he was leaving the country.

I tried. Fuck me I goddam tried.

That really is too bad. Dukat is an excellent antagonist.

• Character: Frank Underwood

• Actor: Kevin Spacey

He really was just playing himself. Power is the only language they speak.

• Character: Wonder Woman

• Actor: Gal Godot

A cold, invulnerable, classic beauty whose persona screams “I’m better than everyone.” Not sure whether I’m talking about Diana Prince or Gal Godot.

Finally…

As much as Rogan annoys me, I encountered his character on NewsRadio before I encountered him on the podcast. He was supposed to be a blunt object to contrast the others’ as radio personalities, businesspeople, and reporters.

A question, then. To whom were enslaved persons being sold? Within Africa, it was expensive in terms of time and resources. No plantations, no national- or international-scale socioeconomic reinforcing the institution.

The biggest slave traders were from Africa

That, my friend, was not on an industrial scale until the Europeans created a transnational market for it.

Yes, slavery is a part of many histories. Prisoners of conflicts, poverty, inter-family disputes, etc. led to people being enslaved. It was also normal, to the point of socially reinforced, to free slaves. This was known as manumission.

The transatlantic trafficking in humans, and the perpetual enslavement of their descendents was on a scale unlike anything before. They were the “biggest” slave traders only if/when you neglect all the descendents born into bondage. That is a virtually unique stain on human history.

Further, in virtually every society on earth, it was not “race-based” bondage. It was debt-bondage or honour-bondage as an alternative to being killed in battle. There was a path to freedom, and a comparatively short one compared to institutionalized slavery.

This is monstrous, but the first Europeans going to Western Africa to enslave people. It must have been clumsy, awkward, brutal, violent, and coercive. In short, one of humanity’s most callous, idiotic moves.

If I could interact (using modern tech), I’d sink every one of those ships with mines and drones. I’d monitor boats from space. I’d send a few of the slavers back knowing — and telling — only that enslavement will destroy them and Africa is not theirs to exploit.

The rest who survive would be taken care of, taught the strengths of diversity, other cultures, and West African ways of living. They would be the welcome wagon for any Europeans to return. Their tasks: stave off invasion, disrupt slaving activity, open negotiations with Europe. Undo the scourge of that institution and the attendant supremacy that followed.

Then, I’d set the same protections for the Americas. Unfortunately, Asia is accessible over land and contact predates my selected moment.

IDGAF if — as consequence — it sets human development back by 400 years of labour, resource exploitation, and “progress”. It’s worth it.

If you really want some solid Graeber, who tag-teamed with archaeologist David Wengrow, read The Dawn of Everything.

The cake is a lie and hierarchy is horseshit. Humans have left exploitative social structures (read: empires, Capitalism) and reorganized society before and we can do it again. There is physical evidence for thousands of years.

Number 11 is my fave. But, still, number 8 was perfect.

Not that I’m aware of. However, there was that one giraffe, Gracie, who escaped in Texas. Fortunately she was found, weeks later. Then, someone took it upon themself to dig into the story.

"Sometime during the day on June 12, she “put on her rock climbing shoes,” said Johnson, and scampered across the cliff face to freedom.

"Gracie’s natural camouflage perfectly suited the area’s dense mix of cedars and brush.

"Then, fifteen days after her disappearance, Gracie was spotted, “fat and happy,” a few miles from her home—first on a neighboring ranch’s game camera and then by helicopter. So began the hard work of capturing and relocating her. As Johnson put it, “You don’t just push a giraffe into your pickup.”

"She was **lightly sedated from the air via tranquilizer dart. ** The team then attached a halter line, eye mask, muzzle, and earplugs (befitting her “rounded ears,” which became a fascination to those following online) and loaded her into the trailer, which was carefully towed by a Jeep through goat trails, rivers, and ravine crossings and under low-hanging branches cut by the team as they drove. Once loaded onto the main giraffe trailer, she made it back to Cedar Hollow, her odyssey complete.

“Jones called me the morning before with the news that Gracie’s owner had stepped in. This owner “has never told me how to run this ranch,” explained Jones, but when they heard a writer was coming out, they instructed Jones to proceed with “extreme caution,” seemingly due to the overwhelming attention recently heaped on Cedar Hollow.”

I admit I’m cherry-picking. But, still.

All I’m saying is that if I was Gracie, in that situation, I’d want the option. Being bagged and tagged in Texas, imprisoned in a place that heaps tragedies, held captive in a country not my own, one that deports its refugees with glee… yeah. No thanks. As a theee-year old giraffe I’d want out.

Even permanently.