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Analyzing the Sony Controversy
Some of Sony’s recent business decisions have caused an uproar on the internet. This has provided both an opportunity both for learning, and potentially updating consumer protection laws. The Situation Around June 25, 2026, multiple individuals on social media posted messages they received from Sony stating: “Dear (Name) As of 1 September 2026 due to our contract licensing arrangements, you will no longer be able to watch any of your previously purchased Studio Canal cont
Alex Vezina
5 days ago10 min read
The 2026 Heat Wave in Europe
As of June 29, 2026, the death toll from the current heat wave in Europe has risen above 1,300. Some Chinese citizens on social media are posting videos of pigs and dogs with multiple air conditioning units, juxtaposing the situation. It is being fairly often commented that a Chinese pig or dog live better than a European. On the other side, some Europeans are arguing that the global warming caused by carbon emissions from China and the United States is the cause for their he
Alex Vezina
5 days ago6 min read
Bricks and Minifigs Scandal - Follow-Up
This article is a follow-up to the previous article titled: $200,000 Lego theft that risks and entire police department. Where this was last left off: Reckless Ben (RB) was released on bail and then was notified that there was a warrant out for his arrest. This was noted as #29 in the timeline of events in the previous article. In the spirit of that, before getting into the more in-depth analysis of one of the particular timeline points, here is a brief update of what has hap
Alex Vezina
Jun 2211 min read
2026 Global Energy Show in Calgary
We went to the 2026 Global Energy Show in Calgary. Here are some observations and analysis which people may find interesting. For those who are unfamiliar with the energy industry, the energy industry is basically: Power companies. Chemical companies that are involved in power generation. This includes mining, oil and gas, fertilizer/agriculture, propane, and many more. Other organizations which support the above. This conference happens every year in Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Alex Vezina
Jun 223 min read
The $200,000 Lego Theft that Risks an Entire Police Department
Strap in, this is going to be a wild ride. The possibly alleged theft of a $200,000 collection of Legos has escalated into a corruption investigation into an American local police force, a national toy retailer, and a Mormon cult. Possibly alleged is being used because parts of this have yet to finish their court process, but at least one portion of this $200,000 amount was already found for the original owner in a default judgement in small claims court for $10,000. But this
Alex Vezina
Jun 410 min read
Guaranteed Annual Income
Cost of living is usually the single most important issue to people, either indirectly or directly. Terms like Universal Basic Income (UBI) and Guaranteed Annual Income (GAI) are being thrown around, while usually being presented with extreme amounts of bias and personal agendas built into their explanation. Today we will endeavour to provide a baseline, to talk about the gargantuan policy that is UBI or GAI. UBI and GAI are defined any number of ways and are used interchange
Alex Vezina
Jun 15 min read
An Introduction to Decision Theory
I recently had a conversation with a student that yielded an interesting case that could be used as an introduction for people to decision theory. With that in mind we made a video and this article to do just that. What is decision theory? Decision theory is basically a tool people can use to make better decisions. It usually is not used in short-term time sensitive decisions (although it can be). World leaders, Chief Executive Officers, and leaders that make big decisions in
Alex Vezina
May 255 min read
The Future of Emergency Management
Analysis on a particular reddit post from r/EmergencyManagement was requested. The post is as follows: “I’m curious how emergency management consultants have been impacted by everything that’s happened since January 2025. I’m not only talking about the massive hits to FEMA and the federal funding cuts and disruptions, although those are huge. I’m also talking about things like AI being increasingly more widely adopted and how that impacts what clients are willing to pay for s
Alex Vezina
May 129 min read
The Greatest Movie of All Time?
This piece is an add-on or ‘bonus’ to the previous article: Overdependence on AI Art. That article explored a response to a reader’s question and one challenge identified in a particular risk was determining how to objectively define what ‘good’ is within the context of ideal art that should be protected. For further context please see the previous article. Here is a breakdown of the five potential ways ‘good’ could have been defined using movies as an example. For the purpos
Alex Vezina
May 74 min read
Overdependence on AI Art
Received a question relating to a previous piece on AI art. The question is as follows: “What a great discussion. This is a topic I wish I understood better. One point I’ve seen raised is that if AI has to train on human work, but that human work is washed out by a much greater abundance of AI-generated content, which then trains off this derivative, the work will deteriorate over time and generations of training. What do you make of this? Is that something people are thinkin
Alex Vezina
Apr 274 min read
What Police do During a Disaster
We received a question on one of our most recent videos. The question actually covers multiple areas but the one we will focus on in this article is the role of police during disasters. The question is: “I don’t know if the Canadian police work/are trained differently from the American police, but if they are remotely close to what the American police are then what the (expletive) are police going to do during a natural disaster. Yeah, you’re going to need more than usual bec
Alex Vezina
Apr 205 min read
Iran as the 4th Great Power
There is conflicting expert analysis on the 2026 Iran war. One that has garnered particular attention in the last week has been provided by Professor Robert Pape. His take on the situation is fairly nuanced but provides an interesting perspective on the ongoing conflict. There are also potential disagreements which other experts have with his perspective. Pape’s perspective and analysis: Similar to the Vietnam war, the USA is once again involved in a conflict where it cannot
Alex Vezina
Apr 166 min read
Rules Based International Order
This article is going to be a background on what the Rules Based International Order (RBIO) is and what sorts of arguments people are having about it. In addition to RBIO, sometimes this is also referred to as LIO (Liberal International Order). For the purposes of this article, the distinction between them is irrelevant and they can be used interchangeably. The arguments made about the RBIO are central to multiple contentious and polarized topics in the current political clim
Alex Vezina
Apr 74 min read
The Maximal Approach to Climate Change
Someone asked us an interesting question. Here is the question verbatim:“Maybe this is me being a bit naïve, but if we all agree that climate change is ‘a’ problem, but we don’t agree on ‘how big’, isn’t the correct course of action to just take the maximal approach?” They follow up this question with something that speaks to the underlying logic or premise: “If the effect is minimal and we take the maximal approach, we’ve guaranteed that the worse case scenario doesn’t happe
Alex Vezina
Apr 76 min read
Basic Disaster Planning for Families
We are going to start a new series on how to plan for a variety of disasters. Future installments into this series will focus on specific disasters and the unique things that apply to them. This initial piece gives a broad overview for the things that should be considered for virtually every disaster. These are the sorts of things that are the ‘best bang for one’s buck’ or are the most efficient, as they apply to everything. Doing these first and then focus on specifics late
Alex Vezina
Mar 263 min read
Expert Advice Versus Politics
I would like to explore why it is so difficult for many people to have productive conversations about policy, change, or just ideas in general. It appears that: 1. Almost everything of consequence is grouped under the umbrella of ‘politics’. 2. Politics is either not something that should be discussed in polite conversation or results in a large number of people acting in bad faith or being unproductive. 3. A = B, B = C, thus C = A. This would mean that almost everything is
Alex Vezina
Mar 176 min read
Exploring the Risks of AI Art – Part 2
The continuation of last weeks piece on the risks of AI Art. This week focuses on the other two sections previously referenced: Resource use, and the terminator problem. Resource Use The two main resources that are most commonly looked at involving increased AI usage are power/energy/electricity and water. In both cases, AI primarily represents a challenge with increased demand. It is not utilizing the resource in a way that is particularly environmentally problematic compare
Alex Vezina
Mar 123 min read
Exploring the Risks of AI Art
It was requested that I give a breakdown of my thoughts on AI art. Here is a breakdown of the four main aspects that I most commonly hear about associated with AI art and thoughts on them. The aspects are: job security, intellectual property (IP), resource use, and the terminator problem. This article will be part one looking at Job security and intellectual property, next week will cover the other two. Job Security One concern raised around AI is that it will replace jobs. S
Alex Vezina
Mar 64 min read
Are women dying because men are afraid of breasts?
Apparently, the fear of breasts is resulting in women receiving inferior CPR and is endangering lives. Something different is actually going on, here is information on the case. There is a petition in the United Kingdom to “Require female CPR manikins in all certified first aid training programs”. The problem this petition is claiming to solve is to make the public more comfortable with female anatomy so that CPR can be more reliably effective on both men and women. This pet
Alex Vezina
Feb 248 min read
What is Global Warming?
Slightly embarrassed, a young reader asked “what is global warming?”. It is possible that while much of science has determined it to be a basic reality, there may be a transition towards no-longer explaining the reasoning behind it. With that in mind, here is a breakdown of the basics of global warming and some of the science that informs said basics: Firstly, what is global warming broadly? Global warming broadly refers to how a planet (the Earth in our case) has a worldwide
Alex Vezina
Feb 194 min read
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