If you want to establish a human city on Mars you need the core infrastructure: people, cheap inter-planetary transport, reliable communication, surface workers, and a means of getting around on the surface.

Mr. Musk now has:

There were 10 referendum questions on the ballot - with the last one widely understood as a referendum on separation from Canada. About 1.5 million people voted and split about 25:75 in favor of Alberta staying in Canada. Stephen Taylor has a detailed list of the questions and the votes here.

Truth is absolute within the context of the language or symbology used to express it: water is wet, 1+1 = 2; and so on. "Smart", however, is always relative to some set of goals or other evaluation criteria.

On an unrelated note: The news (if true) now (Thu Sep 17 14:30:09 MDT 2026) coming out of Iran suggests that Trump et al will sweep the mid-terms as Iran becomes an American allied democracy, peace becomes possible for Israel, and world energy markets settle down to wait for winter to finish off the Ukrainians - while Canada's prime minister, Mark Carney, who bet the country on Trump losing, can stick his thumb up his whatever and go away. Please God let it be so!

Back on topic

Canadian prime minister Mark Carney has launched his adventure in EU "associate" membership - right along with his special deal with China - under which Canadians could end up being sent off to die in support of the Ukrainian NAZIs, China gets to control the north-west passage, and western agricultural producers exporting to China can go suck it.

The Lindsay Clancy case laid bare, at least in my opinion, one of the major threads holding together the so-called "progressive" movement - specifically the urge to kill those seen as "useless eaters." In reality, of course, every sane person knows that killing children in general and your own in particular is irredeemably insane - with responsibility for what happened at the trial thus belonging to the Massachusetts legislators who thought juries would reliably distinguish real insanity from legal insanity.

UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena) are all the rage these days and, having made the mistake of watching some newly released U.S. government videos on youtube, I'm now inundated by UFO videos. I have no idea what motivates the frauds or how stupid you have to be to believe that aliens playing tourist in our atmosphere would turn on running lights - or that sasquatches are those same tourists in atmosphere suits - but there do indeed seem to be some reports or sightings that defy easy explanation.

Last week the American side announced that a trade agreement with Canada was all but wrapped up. In anticipation of the signing the United States paused implementation of 50% tariffs on non energy or critical mineral goods and services from Canada not covered under the USMCA agreement for three days.

Canada's prime minister, Mark Carney, then announced his refusal to sign and those tariffs are now in effect.

There are three things to notice about all this:

Ballad of the Dempster Run

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the folks who turn north for a lark;
Where the road runs thin through the gravel din
And the spruce stand black in the dark.
And this is the tale of a married pair
Who answered the long road’s call—
From Whitehorse north in a rented Ford,
Past Dawson and over it all.

Lessons from the politicalization of Covid