Smoke

Hey y'all, a quick and late note here to remind you of a few things you can do to improve your health and safety as so many of us are in the path of heavy, dangerous smoke plumes from the Canadian wildfires (more appropriately called the Exxon/Shell 2026 wildfires). If you live in the northeast quarter of the United States/North America, this letter is for you.

First things are obvious: avoid exposure. Limit your time outdoors, wear a mask when you are outdoors. Recirculate the air in your car if you're driving to avoid introducing more smoke-filled air. As we are also currently experiencing dangerous heat, you hopefully have an air conditioner and it is already filtering your household air (so check and replace your AC air filter).

Taking things a step further: if you've got a fancy air purifier, great, use it. If not, you can pick up a box fan and four box-fan-sized air filters for less money and build a Corsi-Rosenthal box by creating a cube out of the filters and fan, taping them together in a cube shape, and cutting out a "shroud" of cardboard to place over the back of the fan around its edges. You can also go much simpler and boil a large pot of water on the stove, which will cause the ash particles to bind with the steam and purify (though muggify) the air.

This is life going forward, y'all. There's no reason to hem and haw about it. It will continue to be this hot, this fiery, this awful, for the rest of our lives. The thing to do is survive, help others survive, and turn this ship around for the people younger than us. Stay alive and healthy so you can fight the people who did this to us.