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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥)

@jimnicell.bsky.social
178 followers 91 following 490 posts

Professor and former Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, McGill University, spouse of a wonder woman, father of 3 men of great character and promise, book and uranium glass addict, and devoted sustainabilist. Not on Twitter. Views are mine alone.

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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Yesterday evening in Montreal. A nice way to start the long weekend.
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
This is one of my favourite flowers in my garden: a Crown Imperial (Fritillaria imperialis), a striking alien-like bulbous perennial.
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Montreal in spring bloom. I visit this tree daily during my morning commute. Beautiful.
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Go, Habs, go!
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Perhaps, as a matter of principle, countries should refuse to recongize these commemorative passports. Discuss.
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the Unites States.
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
A wonderful photo of a 1920's toast rack from my #uraniumglass collection: Photography : Virginie Gosselin Art Direction : Rachel Lecompte Food Styling : Tommy Matteau Photo assistants : Tommy Matteau & Adèle L’heureux-Hubert Photo Retouching : Le Visual Box Website: virginiegosselin.com
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
A masterclass in how to speak volumes while saying nothing. OpenAI has become a weapons manufacturer.
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
A very insightful article for those who are worried (as I am) about the decline in book reading: "The choice isn’t between books and screens. The choice is between intentional design and profitable chaos" #books aeon.co/essays/what-...
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
My family helped with a local food drive on the West Island of Montreal yesterday. We were overwhelmed with the generosity we experienced this year. Times are tough and many are rising to the occasion. Thanks to all who gave!
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Lots of die hards still bike to McGill University every day, despite the snow.
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 08/11/2025
The words of Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin as they appear in the 1971 biography by Stephen F. Cohen. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
What does his toilet look like?
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
I rarely give a book 5 stars. The Family Roe (2021) by Joshua Prager deserves it because it is not only a very solid and engaging book, it also changed me. The story of Norma McCorvey(aka Jane Roe) is complex, as are the lives of so many others implicated in the Roe vs Wade story and legacy. #books
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 13/09/2025
This.
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
In 1998, I spent 2 weeks on my honeymoon a few hundred kilometres from the North Pole. I brought along Miguel de Cervantes “Don Quixote”. To this day, I wonder if I hold the record for the northernmost reader of this book. #books
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 23/08/2025
Looking forward to sunrise #manitoba
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 23/08/2025
Sunflower selfie, with onlookers #manitoba
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
It's been a great trip to Manitoba. The bad news is that it is going to be longer than we expected. Due to the strike, Air Canada has given us a refund for our return plane tickets (congrats) and left it to us to figure out how to get home (sorry). No flights, trains or buses available this week.
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
My favourite picture taken today. #manitoba
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
I’m back in the Land of the Big Sky, Near Mariapolis, Manitoba, Canada. A favourite place of mine to photograph.
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
A beautiful new addition to my uranium glass collection: a John Turner & Co. biscuit jar (circa 1910-16). #uraniumglass #itglows
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 22/06/2025
A recent find for my collection: A cocktail shaker and 6 matching glasses. I haven’t figured out the manufacturer yet, although the shaker was sold by the Imperial Candy Co in the 1930s, likely filled with treats. #uraniumglass
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Took some time today on my walk to the train to smell some flowers.
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
During a Fox interview, the founder of Anduril claims that the cost of Trump's Golden Dome will "not be as expensive" and will be "much more effective" than critics believe. Would you trust this person, especially when he stands to benefit financially from contracts on this project?
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Metric units are logical and useful, but English units are a lot more fun. Convince me otherwise.
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Life will find a way.
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
For uranium glass aficionados, here is my latest find: a pair of art deco drapery holdbacks. #uraniumglass
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
A flying selfie on this beautiful evening.
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 25/05/2025
Can it really be 48 years already? I saw Star Wars that summer and a few years later lined up overnight in Montreal with my friends to see the opening show of The Empire Strikes Back.
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
It’s Friday, so it’s time to share something that makes me happy. These are my favourite flowers in our garden: Fritillaria imperialis, the crown imperial, imperial fritillary, Kaiser's crown, or Kurdish tulip.
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
Well played, indeed.
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
Canada owes a debt of thanks to Jagmeet Singh, who has served as the leader of the NDP since 2017. While I haven't been an big NDP supporter, I have always seen them as Canada's consience. He has served our country with singular dedication, integrity and humanity. Thanks for everything, Mr. Singh.
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 26/04/2025
I've been thinking about literary characters who resemble Donald Trump and I keep coming back to "The Mule" in Azimov's Foundation trilogy. In addition to being a completely unpredictable character who shifts the course of history, there are many other similarities. #books
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 13/04/2025
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 13/04/2025
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
And here's another favourite piece from my uranium glass collection: its a Jacobean Toast Rack made in Czechoslovakia by Josef Inwald A.G. and imported into the UK by the Clayton Mayers & Co. (circa 1920-30). #uraniumglass
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
Because its Friday, I am sharing with you one of my very favourite items in my uranium glass collection: its a glass necklace dating from the 1930s that was part of the costume of an opera singer. #uraniumglass
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
All is forgiven, right? Right?
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 05/04/2025
Can someone please develop an AI app that can listen to news interviews or speeches in real time and then flag misinformation while providing credible sources as proof? A lie detector app like this would be an AI application that I can get behind.
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 05/04/2025
Nero fiddling as Rome burns.
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
This morning, I finished "36 Arguments for the Existence of God". For 2 decades, I have exclusively read non-fiction, but this book recently caught my eye and it now ranks among my favourites. It was intellectually stimulating, funny, satiric, heartwarming, and engaging on so many levels. #Books
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
If Musk is as smart as he thinks he is, I bet Tesla will soon invent a DeLorean car time machine to send him back in time where he will father many "love" children who now surround us. Gasp! Is this the origin story of today's GOP? Is this why he gives them with so much💲? Trump, who's your daddy?
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
I guess I'm not alone in thinking this.
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
If the USA won't return the Statue of Liberty to France, perhaps they might consider putting it in storage until they return to a functioning democracy that truly embraces liberty and justice for all.
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
Are you kidding? Here are PP's plans: Axe the Tax Build the Homes; Fix the Budget Stop the Crime Canadians have seen no policy proposals based on data, economic understanding, or experience in crafting effective policies. Vacuous slogans will not deliver a better quality of life for Canadians.
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
New? There’s lots of newish used cars out there for you to buy instead if you want to save up to buy eggs.
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
According to the Wall Street Journal, Canada has lost a decade during Trudeau’s time as PM. I must have missed something; oh yeah, I didn’t fall in the dark abyss of conservative thinking.
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Jim Nicell (👊🇨🇦🔥) @jimnicell.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
One of my favourite murals in Montreal: Leonard Cohen. Photo taken from the vantage offered by an upper floor in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts last Tuesday.
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