iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 26/09/2026

Seriously, Helen’s out here just casually posting like,

River in Firefly saying “Also, I can kill you with my brain.”

Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 24/09/2026

A letter from my union to Dalhousie’s senior leadership regarding the no-confidence vote. One hopes it will be addressed in Senate; fewer than 1 in 10 profs, librarians, and counsellors being willing to say they have confidence in senior leadership should be recognized as a significant issue...

The first page of a letter on DFA letterhead that reads:

Dear President Brooks, Dr. Merrit and Ms. Fraser,
At our Annual General Meeting in May 2026, DFA was tasked with conducting a vote of non-confidence.
During that meeting, and in a recent town hall with our members, there was much discussion about various examples of leadership and decision-making that motivated the desire to conduct such a vote.
The DFA recently polled our members to gauge their level of confidence in the Dalhousie leadership - specifically the President, Provost/VP Academic and Chair of the Board of Governors - between July 2024 and June 2026.
A total of 592 members participated in the vote, representing 52.8% of our membership. Of those, 424 (71.62%) expressed a lack of confidence. A further 77 (12.92%) abstained. Only 15.37% of those who voted said they have confidence in Dalhousie's leadership.
In conversations with our members over the past 18 months, several significant failures of Dalhousie's leadership were identified:
Dalhousie's leadership locked out DFA Members while we were voting on the Administration's offer leading to the first of three complaints to the Labour Board and the first lockout of faculty at a U15 institution in Canadian history. This significantly disrupted the academic year, undermined Dalhousie's reputation, and led to challenging labour-management relations that persist to this day:
• Dalhousie's senior leadership has not spoken out publicly against significant recent government overreach: institutional autonomy has been eroded through the imposition of government priorities in Dalhousie's bilateral funding agreement with the province, and the Schedule H program review;
serious concerns were raised about Dalhousie's partnership with the provincial government on the

(Alt-text continues on next image: character limit exceeded)

(The following text is from previous) "Subsurface energy R&D Investment Program" in terms of research ethics, engagement with Mikmaw communities, and alignment with Dalhousic values; and
the imposition of a hiring freeze is inconsistent with the DFA/Board Collective Agreement, and has negatively impacted academic quality, threatened the viability of smaller academic programs, and increased workloads for our members.

The DFA calls on Dalhousie's current leadership to respond through transparency, accountability, enhanced communication with the DFA, decision-making that places a value on the academic mission of the university and a renewed commitment to collegial governance.

(The following text is from current image): Should you wish to discuss any of these issues further with the DFA, please reach out to me at dsilvio@ dal ca and we can arrange a meeting.
Regards.
Dominic Silvio
DFA President, 2026-2027

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 21/09/2026

Looks like gramps took the brown acid again:

A jumble of nonsense that Donald Trump vomited on Truth Social that reads as follows:

"Supreme Intelligence," probably because of its relationship to the Supreme Court, is losing badly to both "Superior" and "Extreme Intelligence." Therefore, we are going to take "Supreme
Intelligence" OUT, deleting it as a qualifier, and let you vote for the Final Two: Superior Intelligence, or Extreme Intelligence. A fresh Vote begins now! President
DONALD J. TRUMP

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 19/09/2026

Switching up the early weeks of the SF Foundations course to include Byron's "Darkness" and so spent a solid chunk of my day on this slide...

A slide that says, in the middle, “The Dark Side: The Gothic, Dystopia, and Proto-Science Fiction LORD BYRON AND EDGAR ALLAN POE”; on the left is an image of Darth Vader with Byron’s face; on the right is Poe Dameron in a flight suit, but with Edgar Allan Poe’s head.

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 18/09/2026

Quick after-work stroll at the pond did not disappoint. #birds #deer

A great blue heron standing on a rock in a pond surrounded by green plants

A young white-tailed deer looks straight at the camera

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 18/09/2026

Accidentally flushed this giant Great Blue Heron when I walked down a short path to check out a little spot on the other shore--where it landed--that herons frequent as Fall approaches. When it lifted off, I was three feet away. Scared the bejeebus outta me. Frog Pond #Halisky Sept 16 #birds #herons

Great Blue Heron flying low over a pond near shore, from the right to left of the picture.

Had to edit this carefully because my settings were all off, having nearly fallen into the pond when I heard this giant ****er lift off just to my right.

Great Blue Heron on a granite boulder on the shore of a pond, with green bushes behind. The heron has its beak open, and you can see its tongue sticking up.

Here the heron is on the spot I had wanted to check, standing on one of the rocks near the shore that they often go to during the day.

Great Blue Herons often keep their beaks open and practice, what I've unfortunately learned is called, "gular fluttering" to cool down on hot humid days, which this was. Frog Pond, Sept. 16

A zoomed-in shot of the Great Blue Heron in the same pose as the previous picture, again practicing gular fluttering.

"Gulular. Fluttering." Sounds like a terrible James Bond character.

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 16/09/2026

Oops: I forgot--some not-great photos of the hard-to-capture Common Nighthawks (I understand they're easier to spot at diners...)

A common nighthawk, with its wings down, flying upward

A common nighthawk, directly above the camera

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 16/09/2026

Last but not least, some more seals in Point Pleasant Park in #Halisky.

Two seals sad about having separate rocks. A Cormorant and an Eider are trying--unsuccessfully--to cheer them up.

A seal in the classic "paint me like one of your french seals" pose, but no one is around to see.

A seal in the same pose, clearly shouting "PAINT ME LIKE ONE OF YOUR FRENCH SEALS!" to the other, somewhat exasperated seal, who's just trying to climb back up on the other rock.

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 16/09/2026

Next up: find someone who looks at you the way a Pileated Woodpecker looks at anything that might be even vaguely edible. Actually... don't do that. All from Point Pleasant Park in #Halisky.

A Pileated Woodpecker almost in a Kubrick-stare pose, looking manically at the dirt.

A Pileated Woodpecker looking manically at ... nothing. (If you know Point Pleasant Park in Halifax well, then zoom on his eye; you'll likely recognize the tree and be able figure out roughly where we were)

A Pileated Woodpecker hopping from one rotting log to another searching for food (the weirdness around the beak's tip is an illusion caused by poor depth: the white bits are feathers on its breast).

A Pileated Woodpecker manically practicing its levitation.

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 16/09/2026

A short 🧵 of pictures from the final days of (technical) summer. In this first post, some #birds and #squirrels from Frog Pond in #Halisky

A cedar waxwing on a branch with its back to the camera showing its yellow tail feathers and bit of red "wax" droplets on its wings.

A hairy woodpecker on a tree, looking intently at the next tree over.

A red squirrel eating a mushroom bigger than its head.

An albino red squirrel in superhero-landing pose on a granite boulder.

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 15/09/2026

Vince Gilligan’s writing #Emmy is a long-overdue correction to the most obvious oversight in his career: The Lone Gunmen deserved all the #Emmys, and you all know it.

An image of the main characters from the tragically under-appreciated X-Files spinoff, “The Lone Gunmen.”

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 06/09/2026

I shouldn’t make our grocery list.

An item on a list that says “Dental floss (Lisa needs braces!)

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 01/09/2026

Saying good-bye to summer at Point Pleasant Park in #Halisky yesterday. #Birds #Deer #WildlifePhotography

Pileated woodpecker displaying wings in an attempt to scare off a squirrel.

Pileated woodpecker smiling for the camera!

I just messed up my settings on this, but like the result. Pileated Woodpecker in silhouette.

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 30/08/2026

Why does this country always assume that “talent” comes primarily from “elite” schools south of the border? In this moment of “buy Canadian” and “protecting Canadian workers,” why aren’t universities and university workers included?

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 29/08/2026

🎵 It’s the most wonderful time of the year 🎵

Three cans of local pumpkin ale. From left to right: Propeller Pumpkin Ale; Breton Brewing Spiced Up Pumpkin Ale; and Garrson’s Oh My Gourd Pumpkin Ale (for basic witches)

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 29/08/2026

Red-breasted nuthatch, a lightly out-of-focus Black-and-white warbler, and Grey catbird, all from Frog Pond in #Halisky over the past few days. #birds

A red-breasted nuthatch on the side of a stump, looking down at a granite boulder.

A red-breasted nuthatch on a granite boulder, looking at a stump on the left-hand edge of the picture.

A black-and-white warbler on a thin branch with a grub in its beak.

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 22/08/2026

Canada just called off all trade negotiations with the US, and according to the CBC our PM is promising dollar-for-dollar tariffs. Life’s about to get interesting. (Note: my image is funny, but to hell with the current US government, both the fash and the quisling enabling centrists, alike.)

Serenity “define interesting” “oh god oh god we’re all gonna die”

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 18/08/2026

I witnessed a pretty fishy murder in Cardiff Bay a few weeks ago. The Great Crested Grebe has an alibi though--it was on lunch. #Birds #Wales #NaturePhotography

A great crested grebe looks into the camera while a fish, suddenly in the grebes beak, wiggles its tail at the camera

The grebe obliges the photographer by turning its head so the fish can also get its face on camera. The fish's smile seems... forced.

Still with the grebe and fish facing the camera, but the fish seems ... under pressure, with its eyes somewhat ... bulging.

Pretty sure this is when the fish realized its day was taking a turn...

The grebe demurely turns the fish parallel to its gullet in preparation for an easy snack, looking at the camera as if to say "nothing to see here, folks."

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 10/08/2026

Swans outside our hotel just dropped the best album cover of the year.

One adult swan in the foreground on a greenish pond, with four very large juveniles flanking it in the background with a cement dock behind them.

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 04/08/2026

Happy (?) "There Will Come Soft Rains" day to all who celebrate! (Pics are from my Broadview Anthology of SF). broadviewpress.com/product/the-... @broadviewpress.bsky.social

The first and beginning of the second paragraph of Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains," continued in the next picture.

The second and third paragraphs of "There Will Come Soft Rains," indicating that the story begins on August 4, 2026.

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 31/07/2026

Obligatory “we could have taken the train home?!” joke.

UK train-departure board listing Halifax as a destination.

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 30/07/2026

Hull (the UK one, not the QC one) put in a series of fish carvings throughout the Old Town, and to get to our hotel—and I swear this is true—we have to walk down an entire string of red herrings. As allegories for our times go, it’s not bad, really.

A carving of a herring on a red-brick cobblestone.

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 28/07/2026

What’s a trip without a shoe/boot purchase?

A pair of red Doc boots that are almost not too painful to wear.

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 28/07/2026

So far, the only thing Masters of the Universe is missing is Brian Blessed shouting “He-Man’s alive?!?!”

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 27/07/2026

The Hull Minster (we’re staying next door, and the bells tonight are nice but … a lot) and, in its square, a statue of local celeb Andrew Marvell, with an inscription (not pictured) from his poem, “To His Coy Mistress”—as a choice for the location I think I approve?

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 22/07/2026

Good day at Belcher's Marsh in #Halisky. This doe and two fawns crossed the trail just as we arrived. The doe was protective, but (unfortunately) not too skittish around people. (100-500 mm lens, from well across the trail, with multiple directions for the deer to run to) #Deer #WildlifePhotography

A young fawn stands in the background, seemingly auditioning for Bambi, with two trees framing on both sides, blurred in the foreground.

The same young fawn takes a serious picture in the same pose, sans tongue, presumably for the formal school photo for the yearbook.

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 20/07/2026

Went out for dinner with some visiting friends and ordered a fancy cocktail without realizing.

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 17/07/2026

Me watching Trump’s address and thinking “they owe Star Trek royalties”

A scene from the Star Trek TOS episode “Patterns of Force” where a barely alive, drugged-up Nazi, being used by other Nazis, addresses the nation before dying in disgrace like all Nazis eventually do.

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 09/07/2026

Offered without comment, which is taking effort.

An email from Dalhousie's president, saying:

"Dr. Wanda Costen to conclude term as Provost and Vice- President Academic
A message from Kim Brooks, President and Vice- Chancellor
Thursday, July 9, 2026
Dr. Wanda Costen and I have agreed that she will conclude her term as Provost and Vice-President Academic this summer. I am grateful for her leadership and service to Dalhousie during a period of significant change and challenge."

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 07/07/2026

Leaving my old printer out in the hallway. Same, printer, same.

An old inkjet printer with a typed sign saying:

I'M BROKEN AND DON'T KNOW IF 1
WILL EVER WORK AGAIN.

IF YOU WANT TO TRY TO FIX ME, THAT'S ON YOU.

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 03/07/2026

“The future of the firm is a learning loop in which human capital and token capital compound." Sounds like nothing so much as an ad for Soylent Green. (And, yes, I know what this “sentence” is striving, albeit painfully, to say; and, yes, it amounts to little more than the Torment Nexus meme.)

A LinkedIn post from Satya Nadella, Chairman (one assumes the “man” part must be important for some reason) and CEO at Microsoft, which reads:

“The future of the firm is a learning loop in which human capital and token capital compound.
With our new Frontier Co., our ambition is to help every enterprise build its own Al capability, and to help create a frontier ecosystem where every organization can turn its knowledge, workflows, and judgment into its own Al systems that continuously improve.”

Followed by a link to a Microsoft Frontier Company pitch.

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 29/06/2026

Amazing not only to see a fledgling crow today, but to see it being fed, all just outside my house.

On the right, the fledgling with beak wide open waiting for food, on a green lawn.

The adult on the left feeding the fledgling on the right.

The fledgling was not happy, likely about the amount. The adult seems exhausted by it all...

Ok, fine, the adult says, and feeds the fledgling again.

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 27/06/2026

Here’s my official entry for the redesign of 24 Sussex

Mr Dressup with Casey and Finnegan in their tree house.

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 20/06/2026

Advertise your BlueSky account with a Simpsons GIF.

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 20/06/2026

Finally: a local snapping turtle. Traffic stopped both ways waiting for this big beggar to cross the road. As with the geese, I used a telephoto here.

A snapping turtle faces the camera from underneath a rock, looking nothing so much as a sad Kermit the Frog down on his luck.

A stretch out snapping turtle's neck, looking like I do the day after a night out when I forget to drink water and moisturize before bed. Sigh.

Shot of the snapping turtles full body, with shell and dinosaur tail, next to a fallen birch tree.

Snapping turtle makes its way to the pond, climbing over a rock.

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 20/06/2026

Next, Red Squirrels, including local celebrity, an albino Red Squirrel, doing a helluva Churchill impression in one photo. #WildLifePhotography #Squirrels

A red squirrel sitting on shore at the edge of a pond, with its tail in the water, eating something and seeming to smile at the camera (probably just gas, though...)

An albino red squirrel sitting on a rock impersonating Churchill about to deliver a scathing rebuke of the opposition benches. Frog Pond, May 13th

Albino red squirrel, Frog Pond, May 13th

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 20/06/2026

This past 12 months has really eaten into my time on the trails, but I finally found some time, and now some more to look through photos. Those in this thread are from about 6-weeks to a month ago. First up: fuzzies #birds #turtles #WildlifePhotography

8 fuzzy yellow mallard ducklings following mom in the pond. Frog Pond in Halifax, May 6, 2026

Belchers Marsh, May 9th; there were two separate sets of goslings being protected, likely from the Osprey overhead (don't worry: I was far enough away and using a telephoto, as evidenced by the fact that the Murder Honkers didn't murder me...)

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 09/06/2026

My latest publication on Delany actually predates some others in terms of when it was written, but I'm happy to see it out in the world: muse.jhu.edu/article/991653

A snip of the title page for my article, "Ellison, Delany, and the Forgetting of Things Future"

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 06/06/2026

I don’t remember McGill having bunnies when I was a student.

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 05/06/2026

Pretty much every response I’ve seen, from across the spectrum of #cdnpoli, to the new AI strategy:

Slap Shot scene: one hockey player turns to another and says “It’s fucking embarrassing.”

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 30/05/2026

www.facebook.com/share/p/1ENZ...

An Aislin cartoon showing a man with his arms up in full Habs gear and face paint, with the caption “Merci à nos Habs, for the most exciting hockey here in years...”

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 24/05/2026

Hoping to dig into my copy soon!

A picture of the cover of TERRA NOVA SCOTIA

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 17/05/2026

Fantastic @tricon-hfx.bsky.social this weekend! I was lucky to be part of great panels on new critical voices and labour issues in SF. Wonderful to see Charles Saunders’ memory & work celebrated, too! Picked up some great books (and handed out some postcards of my own!) @broadviewpress.bsky.social

A picture with my tri-con name tag flanked by postcards for the Broadview Anthology of SF, and copies of Green Fuse Burning by Tiffany Morris, and Thyme Travellers: An Anthology of Palestinian Speculative Fiction, edited by Sonia Sulaiman

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Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · 16/05/2026

This might me my favourite new (to me) album. Definitely going into regular rotation. #NowSpinning

In the foreground on the left, the cover of Lou Reed’s “I'm So Free: The 1971 RCA Demos”; in the background on the right a black vinyl album spins on a player.

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