Unconscionable

Today Alberta's UCP government announced most Albertans will have to pay for COVID-19 vaccinations starting this fall.

The government claims this is because over half of Alberta's supply wasn't used over the last couple of years. This isn't surprising, since premier Smith's government has consistently downplayed the severity of COVID-19 and refuses to properly publicize the availability of COVID-19 vaccines and booster shots.

Currently, Alberta has the highest rate of measles cases (per capita) in Canada. This is what happens when a government abdicates its responsibility to debunk anti-vaxxers and instead implicitly supports anti-vax messages through its policies. 

Anti-science, anti-intellectual, anti-vax thinking has brought measles back from the brink of extinction--a disease that can cause death and permanent disability. 

Just like COVID-19. 

Sylvia and I can and will pay for our booster shots. We have that privilege. But what about the majority of Albertans, living paycheque to paycheque, who can't afford a shot expected to cost over $100? I guess they'll just have to take their chances. 

And of course this makes life even more difficult and hazardous for the small minority of people who legitimately cannot be vaccinated for health reasons. These people are usually protected by herd immunity, but Alberta's COVID-19 vaccination rate has dropped down to around 13 percent. Herd immunity requires over 90% of any given population to be vaccinated to protect those who cannot be vaccinated. 

The UCP's decision to charge people for a life-saving vaccine could very well sicken and even kill scores of people. It will likely place immense strain on our already overworked health care providers.

Unconscionable. 

The Landscape of my Mind This Year

Creativity utterly shot. This world, I tell you . . . 
 

Hardware Store Interior

Having built several Old West buildings, I've now started using various odds and ends to give the interior spaces a little verisimilitude. The interior of this hardware store features some extra sledgehammers from Fallout: Wasteland Warfare and a collection of odds and ends left over from a variety of miniature kits. 
 

Professor Zarkov's Rocketship

 

Flotsam

 

Pop Culture

 I always thought these were "knee-highs." I blame Radar. 

Midnight Visitors

 

War of the Worlds: Canadian Front

 

The Bleak House of Blahs 90210

Months ago, I asked Bing Image Generator to craft a portrait of Ron, Allan, Carrie, and me mowing the lawn in front of the Bleak House of Blahs. I tried to describe our younger selves as accurately as possible, but Bing insisted in turning all of us into fitness models. Of course the faces are completely wrong, because I haven't modeled any of us; I need a far better computer for that, and of course even then I wouldn't without consent. 

That genie is probably out of the box, though. I'm sure it won't be long before anyone who's ever posted even a single photo of themselves on the internet will eventually find themselves artificially generated one way or another. Carrie herself, though, should be safe, as she's never had any social media presence. Good foresight! 

Note, too, how primitive these images seem compared to what generative AI is capable of now. The singularity approaches...

The Atari World Series

 

My Dinner with Aquaman

 

Rejecting the Replicator

 

Captain Kirk Deals with a Romulan Spy

Apply directly to the forehead! 
 

Mick's (UPDATED WITH APOLOGY)

Today I finished assembling and painting this Old West building. I decided to style it as a hole-in-the-wall bar, run by an Irish immigrant. 

EDIT: Sean rightfully points out below that "Mick" is often used as a slur against the Irish. I knew this, but had somehow completely forgotten it when I painted the building and blogged about it. I apologized for this embarrassing mistake in the comments, but I repeat it here for posterity: I'm genuinely sorry for my thoughtlessness. I'm leaving this post up as a reminder to myself to be smarter about this sort of thing. 

Tiefling Armed with Daggers

Not my best work. Oof. 
 

Encounter in Green Hell

 

Four Views of a Steel Brother

 

Three 7TV Trees

Final Fauna-tsy. 
 

Cave of Simple Mystery

3D printed in grey, underside primed in black, topside primed in dark grey, dry brushed with light grey. A very easy paint job, and I think it works for what it is. Thanks for printing this, Jeff! 
 

Teleportation Roulette

Imagine you're suddenly gifted with the ability to instantly teleport to random coordinates anywhere on Earth's surface. Just think; anytime you experience boredom, flex your will and you find yourself someplace else--faster than you can blink. This ability would be even handier whenever you find yourself in grave danger; with a thought, you could vanish instantly and appear somewhere else, leaving disaster behind. 

The drawback, though, is obvious; statistically, you're likely to wind up in a body of water 70% of the time--and even that might be better than blinking back into existence at the edge of a cliff, at the South Pole, or into the caldera of an active volcano. Of course, if you react quickly enough, you can teleport somewhere else, presumably someplace safer. 

Using this random generator of geographic coordinates, I ran ten trials of this power. Here's where I landed: 

1. Almost 12 km west of Tacuaritas, Argentina; a swamp

2. A little over 297 km west of Gambier, French Polynesia; the Pacific Ocean

3. 400 km south southwest of Ball’s Pyramid, New South Wales, Australia; the Pacific Ocean

4. 685 km south southeast of Christmas Island, Australia; the Indian Ocean

5. 301 km east of Woolgooolga, New South Wales, Australia; the Pacific Ocean

6. 126 km north of Cefalu, Sicily, Italy; the Tyrrhenian Sea

7. 1, 201 km north northwest of Cabo Verde; the Atlantic Ocean

8. 15 km north northwest of Avia Terai, Argentina; farmland

9. 81 km west of Oroek, Russia; tundra

10. 883 km south of St Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha; the Atlantic Ocean

In just one instance did I find myself anywhere at all pleasant; the farmland in northern Argentina. The Argentinian swamp, I suppose, is the second best result, and the Russian tundra in Siberia, the third. Predictably, I wound up in an ocean or sea seven out of ten times. Which tells me that to make this power at all useful, you should always teleport while wearing the best life jacket and wetsuit you can possibly afford. 

Do you dare wield this power for yourself? Try it on for size a few times and leave a comment to let me know where you end up. 

Bernadette

Here's Bernadette, a member of the French resistance during the dark days of World War II. I like her blue skirt and black turtleneck. I should have painted her beret white or red! 
 

Strange Way to Hold a Rifle

Love how the face turned out on this two-bit hood (as named by Pulp Figures). My basing technique, however, was clearly off this time around. 
 

Another Gyro Raider

"Hand over that gyro, prole!"

"Not one of you guys again," I sighed. I handed over my pita; it bulged with lamb, lettuce, onion, tomato, and tzatziki sauce. I gazed at my lunch longingly as the raider stuffed it into his mouth.

"Mffrr mgphm rmrugh miggh!" he said with his mouth full, fleeing into the distance. 

I vowed to start buying gyros at a different location. 
 

Dale Arden Takes Notes

Also makes a pretty good retro Lois Lane. 
 

Insectoid Coalition Monarch and Viceroys