iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Great! Now I can not use SI the same way I don't use AI...

Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

But where is @mark-carney.bsky.social in the running for that most coveted of distinctions, the FIFA Peace Prize™️? #canpoli

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Chris Turner @theturner.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Even moreso for those of us on the Anthropic claim whose meth dealer looted our garages for the supplies to cook their meth

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Stalin once said that historians are the most dangerous people; now Cheeto Ceauşeascu says that Canada is one of the worst countries in the world. As a Canadian historian I am, therefore, the most dangerous of the worst. QED. #cdnhist #canpoli

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Fun fact: as much as Paris, ON, likes to emphasize the French connection today, it was named for the plaster, not the French capital (tho' the plaster was, in turn, named for the City of Light). #cdnhist

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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

When Elon Musk's groups spent $20M+ on Wisconsin's 2025 Supreme Court race, his involvement backfired and his candidate lost by 10 points. Now his super PAC has quietly spent $14M+ on key midterm races, including the Texas Senate race. Would be a shame if people found out.

nbcnews.com

Elon Musk is flying under the radar in the Texas Senate race. Republicans want to keep it that way.

One Republican involved in the Texas Senate contest called Musk’s in-your-face campaigning in Wisconsin last year “a mis

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Wrong former Soviet republic, Donnie: everyone knows that Kazakhstan has more potassium than any other country (and they are not run by little girls). IYKYK.

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Do the Canadian thing: be painfully polite to their faces but make fun of them behind their backs. En français. #canpoli

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Albertans! Check this out if you can (some of your finest men and women in Ottawa make cameo appearances)! #abpoli #cdnhist

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Who wore in better, Weird Al (facetiously, obvs) or Raffi....?

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Up early to take my eldest to swimming practice, but at least I have an appropriate new t-shirt:

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

When Alaska's flag design was announced in 1927, William Simpson of New Westminster, BC, alleged Benson had plagiarized Simpson's design for a Cdn flag, published two years earlier. The intrepid Stroller White took up the case! (Seward Gateway, Jul 29, 1927) #cdnhist #alaskahistory #vexillology

Clipped headline from Seward Daily Gateway, Jul 29, 1927, reads "Did Bennie Benson Honswoggle Alaskan Solons Asks White"

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

A friendly reminder that most academics I've encountered (and I regularly cold-call) are more than happy to send you free PDFs of their articles on request. Not a perfect work-around, but always worth trying!

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Richard @rwpickard.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

You need to read THE ART OF LOOKING BACK, by @fishgottaswim.bsky.social. This memoir offers a wise and nearly unflinching look at the decades of consequences that can flow from being looked at as a young woman, and it's irreplaceable. #booksky 1/3 boughtbooks.blogspot.com/2026/09/ther...

boughtbooks.blogspot.com

Theresa Kishkan, The Art of Looking Back

Let me do the thumbnail first, because I've enough to say that frontloading the reviewiest bit about Theresa Kishkan's The Art of Looking Ba...

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Mid-career moments: realizing that my 1st scholarly article appeared 20 yrs ago. Research began even earlier, when I was still using steno pads for notes! There are some things I would change, but I think it's held up. Be the judge yourself (it's free-2-read): tinyurl.com/yc4dr5pr #bchist #cdnhist

Dense notes on the Grand Post of the Native Sons of BC fonds at the Nanaimo Community Archives, handwritten in pencil on yellow stenographer's paper.

Title of an article in BC Studies entitled "The Wondrous Story and Traditions of the Country: The Native Sons of British Columbia and the Role of Myth in the Formation of an Urban Middle Class," written by a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed third-year PhD candidate named Forrest D. Pass.

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Any weekend when I add a vintage N.L. Barlee to my library is a good weekend (IYKYK - and I K that @benbradleyca.bsky.social K's...) #bchist

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I see your real manatee and raise you the first book published by Winnipeg-based Harlequin Enterprises, now the world's largest romance publisher, in 1949. I'm including a copy in an exhibit in 2027! (Spoiler alert: no real manatees in this story). #InternationalManateeDay #CdnHist #CanLit (sort of)

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I was today years old when I learned of the existence of "tree kangaroos". And I approve.

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

The US administration consistently advancing its policy of Making Diarrhea Explosive Again....

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

File under "Seemed like a good idea at the time": this Canadian National Railways slogan is a little cringeworthy today.... (From CNR fonds, @library-archives.canada.ca)

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

I trust it'll be a cold day in Hell (and not just a cold December night) before @bluerodeo.bsky.social changes the lyric to "Out in the middle of Lake America..." #canpoli youtu.be/oMt0skVPC0o?...

youtu.be

Blue Rodeo - Hasn't Hit Me Yet (Official Music Video)

YouTube video by Blue Rodeo

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Who wants to tell Cheeto Ceauşescu that the name "Lake Ontario" loooooong predates the Province of Ontario, and that he carried Ontario County, New York, by healthy margins in 2016, 2020, and 2024? #canpoli #cdnhist #onthist

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

And this on (checks notes) the 212th anniversary of the burning of the US Capitol during the War of 1812... #cdnhist

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

A pleasure to chat with @cfrangou.bsky.social for this piece in @thewalrus.ca (and ICYMI, here's my Canada Day display this year, to which she refers!) #vexillology #abhist #abpoli

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

My name is Indigo Buntoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die. #IYKYK

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Trade War Diary, Day 2: back from vacation and hit the Ottawa Farmers' Market. Fresh, local Canadian Produce: fending off foreign foes AND explosive diarrhea since 1867... #BuyCanadian #cdnpoli

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Lately men forget the name of Billy Green, the scout... #cdnhist m.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z7m...

m.youtube.com

Billy Green

YouTube video by Stan Rogers - Topic

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Quisling's gonna quisle, quisle, quisle... #cdnpoli #abpoli

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Mad (Social) Scientist 🇨🇦 @jemburch.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Tonight's trade news had me shouting for the rest of household to come read Carney's statement. 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦 #ElbowsUp #BuyCanadian #CNDPoli

A #BuyCanadian riff on the WW2-era British motivational poster, which reads 'keep calm and check labels.'

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Soooooo... no US liquor on Canadian shelves, I guess? Not that I'd be tempted by their plonk anyway...

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Before WWI, when other provinces (BC, MB, ON, and NB) legislated school flag-flying, AB declined to do so, feeling that hanging the flag inside the classroom was more meaningful. Now all those other laws are dead letters, and AB catches up? #cdnhist #abpoli #vexillology (1/2)

cbc.ca

Alberta government to delay adopting new limits on flags at schools | CBC News

The provincial government will delay incoming new rules about which flags schools can fly or display, as well as a requirement to play the Canadian national anthem weekly.

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

"A public library, a museum, a superstore, and a hotel with a pool." Civilization!

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

"A public library, a museum, a superstore, and a hotel with a pool." Civilization!

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Heraldically, of course, this was no change at all: every shade, every Pantone code recognizable as "blue" is blazoned "Azure" (same for "red" and "Gules")... #heraldry #vexillology

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

The same view this morning, sixty-six years later (M.V. Malaspina Sky instead of the long-decommissioned M.V. Quillayute). #bchist

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Marking #InternationalCatDay with one of my greatest hits... or at least my earliest 'skeet. Kitties and #Egyptology and #cemeteries and #canlit and #bookhistory all in one cornucopopia of awesomeness...

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

A great piece, made even more so by satirical #heraldry 😀

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

I'm not gonna lie: the August edition is devillishly hard...

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

A previous passenger in 15A had strong opinions on this story in the Porter Airlines in-flight magazine (luckily, they didn't use that same pen to sully the Mr. Porter spot-the-difference, my favourite part of flying)...

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Feeling very seen with the national capitals and flags comment... (tho' in my household, I'm the more voracious reader)...

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

The flags in question at this white-supremacist gathering seem to include provincial flags and the Canadian Red Ensign. Some deep background on the latter emblem's use by the far right: activehistory.ca/blog/2023/02... #cdnhist #vexillology

activehistory.ca

Is the Canadian Red Ensign an extremist symbol?

Forrest Pass Fifty-eight years ago today, the Canadian Red Ensign ceased to be the national flag. Yet in 2022, the Ensign unexpectedly became a subject of public discussion again. Its occasional a…

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Forrest Pass @forrestpass.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

To the Canadian reader "d'un certain age," this sounds a lot like a tired old man living inside a broken mainframe computer, subsisting on jar after jar of blackberry jam. IYKYK. #canlit www.thenerve.news/p/cory-docto...

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