Harold Jarche

If we don't help our human, social networks get smarter and able to make better decisions, who will? Interests include getting through this global mess we are in semi-intact. Blogging since 2004. I'm a maxi-vaxxer and the child of immigrants.
Header: Injured Canada goose successfully fending off a bald eagle (photo by Mervyn Sequeira)

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Last Notes

2026-10-18 13:06:36 UTC

My thoughts are with our comrades at CFB Wainwright. In the 1980s Wainwright was my second home at the PPCLI Battle School. Early reports look like it was a major disaster.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/livestory/cfb-wainwright-fire-live-updates-9.7385537

2026-10-16 06:49:27 UTC

The fact that some political parties are finally leaving the cesspool known as X is rather mute.
Ya shoulda left a couple of years ago, ya dupes
#nevent1q…68uj

2026-09-20 12:56:21 UTC

"For every 10cm of vehicle height, the odds of a pedestrian death rise by 11 per cent."
#nevent1q…a43m

2026-09-10 19:20:51 UTC

LAST CHANCE to fix #BillC22 surveillance powers that threaten Canadians' rights and privacy! Major companies and civil society groups are raising the alarm. Demand the Senate #ReformC22 now! 👉 https://openmedia.org/ReformC22-mtd @nprofile…yfp8

2026-09-09 00:41:18 UTC

In 2023, Google's C4 dataset scraped my blog for 350,000 tokens. I can only imagine how many other LLM have done the same since then.
So why do I not promote thieving #GenAI companies? I have never used these 'tools' and never will. If you do, I hope you appreciate all the stolen human work that went into them. We used to call people who stole honest work, 'scabs'.
https://jarche.com/2023/04/getting-scraped/

2026-08-16 20:45:10 UTC

We watched the migrating semi-palmated piping plovers just down the road from us. They eat many times their weight in krill shrimp before flying South. Today’s count was about 170,000
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/117/107/137/507/297/474/original/75a90c6be9cc1365.jpeg

2026-08-13 23:34:10 UTC

«When Rebecca Green arrived for her first appointment with a urologist, she was asked whether she consented to having the appointment transcribed by artificial intelligence #AI
She said yes without hesitation.
"I don't want to be in her bad books or be that annoying patient who takes up more of her time," she said.
But that decision would cause her a lot of stress, with the AI scribe making up the serious but false claim that Ms Green was taking illegal drugs.»
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-14/ai-medical-scribe-error-leaves-patient-devastated/107031672

2026-08-04 23:25:27 UTC

I don't use Uber. Or AirBNB. Nor Facebook. Nor IG. So f*ck you Gen Z etc. You do not understand the errors of your convenience. You will when it is too late.
https://jarche.com/2017/09/a-convenience-truth/
Nine friggin' years ago
Vive la #fediverse libre!

2026-07-29 02:21:25 UTC

F*CK CANADA
The genocidal killer almost flew over my house
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/netanyahu-flight-canadian-airspace-9.7288211
#CdnPoli

2026-07-27 16:17:06 UTC

"Despite over $40 billion invested globally, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) captures and stores less than 0.1% of annual global CO2 emissions, raising serious questions about its efficacy as a climate solution. ... case studies expose recurring patterns of cost overruns, suboptimal capture rates, geological uncertainties, and public liability transfer."
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2096249525000973
#FossilFuels #ClimateCrisis #CdnPoli

2026-07-20 23:04:38 UTC

Are you an anti-fascist in Alberta? This is the most-needed accessory
https://www.shopweirdneighbour.com/shop/p/a5izkrnunlt8h5o54k0cphq1ww24bw

2026-07-19 01:39:14 UTC

Glad to see mainstream media catching up on return to work mandates #RTO
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/study-remote-work-narcissism-9.7275176

2026-07-15 12:48:11 UTC

"APR doesn’t run a traditional power plant. It deploys trailer-mounted gas turbines and reciprocating diesel and natural gas engines that can reach full power in under 10 minutes and be installed in days rather than the years it takes to permit and build a fixed plant. The fuel is natural gas and diesel. This is fossil-fuel combustion, packaged to move."
https://electrek.co/2026/07/14/musk-buys-gas-turbine-company-apr-energy-grok/
#FossilFuels #AI

2026-07-14 21:20:35 UTC

“The promise of generative AI is that it can think for us. That is a truly fascist idea, the idea of outsourcing thinking; and so our power is in our ability to think with each other. To generate genuinely new ideas.” —Naomi Klein
In order not to become digital serfs we have ‘“think with each other”. It may not be on blogs but we have to find ways to connect human-to-human, without a disembodied AI-bot telling us what to do.
https://jarche.com/2026/07/bottoms-up/
#PKMastery #AI #democracy
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/920/415/522/063/869/original/ff1260fece306547.jpg

2026-07-12 00:34:17 UTC

"Of course we see the potential of LLMs. Why?" —Ed Zitron
There is no potential. The bubble will burst.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u0KeTC7jso
#LLM #AI

2026-07-07 01:10:33 UTC

"An LLM predicts the next word based on all the words before it. That is the whole story. There is no idea sitting underneath. The words are everything. For an LLM, words are the source, & any meaning is just a byproduct that falls out by accident.
But your brain works the other way around. First there is a concept, a feeling, an image, & then the words come out to describe it... For us, words are the byproduct of consciousness. For the LLM, it is completely backwards."
https://ranpara.net/posts/words-are-a-byproduct-of-consciousness/

2026-07-06 17:47:04 UTC

"Canadian taxpayers are bailing out American companies so they can keep cooking the planet."
#CdnPoli #FossilFuels
https://thewalrus.ca/avi-lewis-ndp-climate-plan/

2026-07-03 23:07:11 UTC

"Each summer for more than a century, American flags, hot dogs & patriotic songs have filled a small Danish town to celebrate July 4th.
This year, that tradition has taken a turn. For the first time, the largest Independence Day celebration outside the US will not allow US govt representatives to take part.
Local authorities gave Rebild National Park Society, the program organizers, a choice: exclude US officials from the event or lose public funds to run the event"
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/america-denmark-celebration-fourth-of-july-9.7258001

2026-06-22 13:14:19 UTC

"Head to your MP’s office on June 25th
On June 25th, one week before the proposed route for the West Coast pipeline is set to be announced, people from across Canada will take action at their local MP offices ... Our goal is to demonstrate widespread public opposition to the federal government’s recent actions to slash climate policies, gut environmental protection, and fast-track destructive fossil fuel projects."
https://350.org/mou/
#CdnPoli

2026-06-12 22:29:18 UTC

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@nprofile…xwug The Christian Science Monitor was our best source of unclassified news when I was an intelligence officer

2026-06-01 23:08:21 UTC

"every single warning that paper made about large language models has now happened at scale"
1. The hallucination problem before anyone had a word for it.
2. Bias amplification
3. Environmental cost
4. Documentation — the training datasets being assembled were too large for anyone to actually audit
#AI #GenAI
#nevent1q…pdzr

2026-05-19 11:09:59 UTC

"Dr Rasmussen sees that threat realized in Canada's loss of measles elimination status late last year. The disease is 'completely preventable', and the vaccine has been safe and effective for more than 50 years.
'That should be the biggest wake-up call of them all — that we are rejecting public health triumphs that have saved millions of lives, literally,'"
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/global-pandemic-world-not-ready-9.7203456

2026-04-20 20:43:33 UTC

"You stood by the man credibly accused of raping a 13 year old girl. A child. Let that sit in your mouth for a second. A child. And you shrugged it off like it was a bad Yelp review ... But a meme. A fucking meme. A picture of the spray-tanned foreclosure notice in a red tie sitting next to Jesus, and suddenly the penny drops? Suddenly you’re burning your MAGA caps on TikTok like you’ve just discovered fire and critical thinking in the same afternoon?"
https://substack.com/home/post/p-194276859

2026-04-05 23:04:55 UTC

Dear America: your President is completely unhinged. Do we have to come down and burn your White House again?
Just asking.

2026-04-05 20:34:31 UTC

Did you know that a human hit by a car at 30 km/hr has a 90% chance of survival?
A person, hit by a car at 40 km/hr has a 60% chance of survival.
Your neighbour, hit by a car at 50 km/hr has a 20% chance of survival.
Your friend, hit by a car at 60 km/hr has no chance of survival.
The chances of survival are cut in half if hit by a large truck or SUV.
https://jarche.com/2021/11/active-transportation/
#cycling #traffic
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/353/999/928/877/858/original/84a0e9788a3b3e68.jpg

2026-03-27 17:37:44 UTC

"Today, the Public Health Agency of Canada website on #COVID transmission mentions breathing in particles that can linger in the air, a euphemism for airborne transmission. The section on preventing infection includes improving ventilation in indoor spaces, again only useful to prevent airborne transmission (by decreasing the concentration of aerosols).
But in all cases the word 'airborne' is strangely missing."
https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2026/03/27/Human-Cost-Failing-Name-COVID-Airborne/
#PublicHealth

2026-02-11 15:30:55 UTC

"What the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the Canadian Constitution Foundation, SecondStreet.org, the Montreal Economic Institute and the Fraser Institute all have in common are direct links to the Atlas Network, the U.S. dark-money coalition of billionaire libertarian ideologues."
https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2026/02/10/Dark-Money-US-Think-Tanks-Canadian-TV-Network/
#CdnPoli

2026-02-09 23:18:07 UTC

Born in 1959. Not sure if I ever had measles. Never had an MMR vaccine, even in the military. So got an MMR vaccination in 2024. If you are a Boomer or Gen X, think about getting it. It may save your life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMR_vaccine
#PublicHealth

2026-02-02 23:33:47 UTC

From our government:
"WorkSafe NB recommends that CO2 exposure less than 5,000 ppm for up to 8 hours, and below 30,000ppm for under 15-minutes, is considered safe."
If CO2 is over 1,000PPM I put on a N95 mask.
We are led by donkeys!
https://www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/en/corporate/promo/government-priorities/environment.html
#NBPoli #FossilFuel #PublicHealth

2026-02-01 12:54:46 UTC

"Most major tech companies in Canada are U.S. owned and controlled and subject to U.S. laws. Sixty per cent of cloud capacity is owned by three hyperscalers (large-scale cloud service providers that operate massive data centres to offer vast computing power, storage and networking capabilities to large customers): Amazon Web Services or AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud."
https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2026/01/29/Big-Tech-Spearheads-US-Threat-Canada/
#Canada

2026-01-19 23:39:59 UTC

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@nprofile…687k Chamberlain bought the UK a year to re-arm and prepare. He knew the cost of war.

2026-01-03 23:41:23 UTC

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@nprofile…jks6 And the alternative to Mr. Milquetoast is ...
https://hci.social/@tod/115833318323861916
#nevent1q…dagm

2025-12-25 01:03:20 UTC

Merry Christmas to all, and to all – who celebrate – a good night
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/777/509/785/762/449/original/b4c39cc1e95069b1.jpeg

2025-12-24 22:11:56 UTC

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@nprofile…2v53 Where can you find these? They are darn cute

2025-12-18 20:10:44 UTC

NB Power is spending $1billion on a methane gas powered generating station that they say will only operate 7% of the time. With that much invested would not the company use it to generate more revenue? The only cost would be to the local environment, water, and air quality which they have already decided have no value.
We are screwed.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/tantramar-gas-plant-swiss-army-knife-nbpower-9.7020638
#NBPoli #FossilFuels #ClimateCrisis

2025-12-18 12:37:45 UTC

“Since innocently redeeming a compromised #Apple Gift Card can have serious negative consequences, we should all avoid buying Apple Gift Cards and spread the word as widely as possible that they could essentially be malware. Sure, most Apple Gift Cards are probably safe, but do you really want to be the person who gives a close friend or beloved grandchild a compromised card that locks their Apple Account? “
https://pxlnv.com/linklog/apple-gift-card-safety/

2025-12-16 19:44:07 UTC

"We find that aerosol transmission accounts for approximately half of all transmission events. This implies that measures to reduce transmission by contact or large droplets may not be sufficient to control influenza A virus transmission in households." (2013)
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3682679/
#influenza #PublicHealth

2025-12-12 02:01:34 UTC

"Just to sum it up, we are building the most powerful, inscrutable, uncontrollable technology that we have ever invented that's already demonstrating the rogue behaviors that we thought only existed in bad sci-fi movies.
We're releasing it faster than we've deployed any other technology in history and under the maximum incentive to cut corners on safety.
There's a word for this that I want everyone to just know, which is this is insane."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=675d_6WGPbo
#AI

2025-12-11 01:16:37 UTC

"The entire business model of silicon valley is surveillance." —Carol Cadwalladr
https://www.ted.com/talks/carole_cadwalladr_this_is_what_a_digital_coup_looks_like

2025-12-09 02:39:19 UTC

"Organized force can only be opposed by organized force. There is no other way." —Albert Einstein

2025-12-06 20:38:59 UTC

"Hidden in the federal government’s 634-page omnibus bill C-15, the Budget Implementation Act, is a measure that has so far escaped scrutiny. Under the pretext of regulatory efficiency, Prime Minister Mark Carney plans to grant cabinet ministers the power to exempt any individual or company from any federal law on the books — except for the Criminal Code — for up to six years. "
https://archive.ph/jSeo0
#CdnPoli

2025-11-18 00:11:39 UTC

Y'all better check which Constitution you are referring to here:
"in a lawsuit filed Nov 14, Burn 24/7 Canada Worship Ministries — the organizer of the Canadian events & the Canadian branch of Burn 24/7, which was founded by Feucht in the US — claims Quebec City violated "constitutional & quasi-constitutional guarantees” without reasonable justification, including freedom of religion, expression, opinion a&peaceful assembly."
+ we have a Notwithstanding Clause
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/sean-feutch-christian-worship-concert-cancellations-9.6982093

2025-11-17 16:39:25 UTC

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@nprofile…s67t We got a good price here on a used 2023 Kona Electric for $27K all-in
https://evnet.ca/buy/

2025-11-14 21:12:51 UTC

"...unfettered speculation, fuelled by global wealth looking for asset investments, drives Vancouver land costs up so high they erase savings that can be delivered by building many units on a parcel instead of a few.
That’s why, [Prof. Patrick] Condon says, new towers keep rising but their units cost the same as surrounding housing rather than pressuring price drops. If we don’t get a handle on land price super-inflation, he argues, we can’t deliver affordability."
https://spacing.ca/vancouver/2024/07/24/why-housing-costs-are-so-high/

2025-11-10 20:15:21 UTC

"... chatbots can produce coherent-sounding but inaccurate or fabricated content, referred to as hallucinations. When humans uncritically use this untruthful content, it becomes what we call botshit."
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0007681324000272?via%3Dihub
#PKMastery #AI #botshit

2025-11-10 00:36:39 UTC

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@nprofile…s67t Looking at that 368.37 km leg and thinking that my EV has a Summer max range of 425 km would make me worried

2025-11-03 13:22:06 UTC

«Gas companies have tried to present fossil gas, better known as natural gas, as a cleaner “bridge fuel” that can act as an intermediary between coal and renewable energy. However, because of methane leaks throughout the supply chain in addition to emissions from combustion, the climate impact of fossil gas is significant. Current analysis finds ...[that] gas is worse than coal when burned to generate electricity. »
https://environmentaldefence.ca/2025/01/20/canadas-clean-electricity-regulations-what-you-need-to-know/
#CdnPoli #NBPoli

2025-11-02 20:53:56 UTC

"Twenty countries in the world contain 94% of the world's remaining wilderness. Canada is #2 on this list. We are a major player on the world stage for nature conservation. One in five species in Canada is at some level of risk, from butterflies and sea stars to the iconic boreal caribou.
Our economies are embedded in nature, not external to it. We must start acting as such, and recognize and value nature's contribution to our society, our economy."
https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/biodiversity/canada-2030-nature-strategy.html
#CdnPoli

2025-10-31 19:12:12 UTC

A lovely walk during a break in the rain that is the remnants of Hurricane Melissa
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/470/364/236/445/506/original/b9df7d9746d4d38c.jpeg

2025-10-28 12:50:56 UTC

Every time a government in Canada uses the Notwithstanding Clause it is thumbing its nose at democracy, our constitution, and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. #fascism
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-teachers-back-to-work-bill-9.6955558

2025-10-21 15:20:03 UTC

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@nprofile…s67t Just got mine today. Lucky that I can walk to the pharmacy

2025-10-17 22:36:32 UTC

Not much is more lovely than Atlantic Canada in the Autumn, especially on a bike
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/391/895/384/449/975/original/9237791c308e60b6.jpeg

2025-10-17 11:33:23 UTC

"– This shows that if Israel, with the whole world watching, can treat a well-known, white person with a Swedish passport this way, just imagine what they do to Palestinians behind closed doors." —Greta Thunberg
https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/25LgKq/greta-thunberg-they-kicked-me-every-time-the-flag-touched-my-face

2025-10-09 19:54:27 UTC

«The new white nationalist and white supremacist groups are "as virulent and as dangerous and as flagrant" as the Ku Klux Klan was in its heyday, and should not be dismissed, he said.
"There is, I think, an argument for a seam of hate in Canadian society that's never really gone away. Sometimes it flows very clearly, other times it recedes. But it's been there for a very, very long time."»
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/sunday/the-sunday-magazine-for-november-22-2020-1.5807350/the-rise-of-the-ku-klux-klan-in-canada-and-why-its-lasting-impact-still-matters-1.5807353
#Canada

2025-05-12 13:12:21 UTC

7 Simple Ways to Help Birds
#2 Keep Cats Indoors
"Indoor cats live longer, healthier lives. Outdoor cats kill more birds than any other non-native threat."
https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/bring-birds-back

2025-05-12 02:36:56 UTC

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@nprofile…wuyc Since the pandemic? Is it over?

2025-05-10 23:14:40 UTC

My mother, at 14, became one of the 2 million refugees during the evacuation of East Prussia in 1945. Her mother took her 6 children from Kolberg [Kolobrzeg] to Celle, outside Hanover in Western Germany. I am not sure exactly when my mother fled as she did not talk much about it. It was likely during the last week of the war, 80 years ago. I do know that some of the trip was by boat, which was part of Operation Hannibal, one of the largest naval operations in history.
https://jarche.com/2021/10/all-for-nothing/

2025-05-09 22:49:49 UTC

If you are sharing a link with ? UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) in it then you are enabling tracking and surveillance to those who share or click that link. So please do not do it. Remove that string of crap before sharing the link.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTM_parameters
#CleanLinks

2025-05-08 23:01:45 UTC

Fellow Canadians: Do not travel to the USA. It only takes one rando police officer to ruin your trip.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-woman-arrested-jailed-in-u-s-for-driving-with-a-canadian-licence-1.4648561

2025-05-04 03:03:52 UTC

Stupid is as stupid does.
"The Louisiana Department of Health has ended all vaccine events and instructed staff not to encourage immunizations, according to an internal memo that was sent to staff Thursday and obtained by WWNO/WRKF."
#PublicHealth
https://www.wwno.org/public-health/2025-02-14/louisiana-department-of-health-officially-ends-all-vaccine-promotion-events

2025-04-29 23:27:44 UTC

"In short, the US is becoming a place no one would want to live in unless they had to, & a place they certainly wouldn’t want to move back to. It is unlikely that we will be able to elect someone willing to try to fix the problems we are creating now ... America will be a country where quality of life, quantity of life, and economic opportunity is crippled for decades, & probably the rest of our working lives."
https://www.damemagazine.com/2025/04/29/why-i-am-leaving-the-usa/

2025-04-24 21:09:21 UTC

When a technology’s properties are pushed to its limits there is a potential for unintended consequence. A technology can have more than one. When developing a new technology, or deciding whether to regulate one in our society, it would pay to have some deep conversations about these effects.
Just because these consequences are unintended does not mean they are unknown.
https://jarche.com/2024/11/unintended-but-not-unknown/
#media #sensemaking #technology
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/394/964/845/984/105/original/6d708d0a7cdfc8e7.png

2025-04-24 17:11:39 UTC

"A new study in BMJ Global Health across 13 middle- and high-income countries reveals that 25% of patients reported symptoms of long #COVID after symptomatic COVID-19, and long COVID is significantly more prevalent in participants from less wealthy nations and in patients of Arab or North African ethnicity."
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/studies-across-14-nations-show-25-30-rate-long-covid

2025-04-23 20:10:28 UTC

#Diversity is our secret weapon to deal with complexity and ambiguity. In the book Future Perfect, Steven B. Johnson discusses the work of Scott E. Page who states that, “Diversity trumps ability”.
Diversity is how we can become collectively smarter.
Now you know why the fascists are axing #DEI initiatives. It's harder to control smart groups of people.
https://jarche.com/2019/12/diversity-trumps-ability/
#USPol #CdnPoli #PKM #PKMastery
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/389/078/452/800/978/original/eea7e290d8aacb1a.png

2025-04-21 19:40:46 UTC

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@nprofile…dc6s They are studying it I see https://news.oregonstate.edu/news/scientists-studying-impact-painting-wind-turbine-blade-black-reduce-bird-collisions

2025-04-21 19:34:38 UTC

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@nprofile…dc6s Just climb up that turbine and paint one of the blades black

2025-04-15 22:32:52 UTC

What is America?
«America could not bear to take a hard look at itself, especially the inconvenient truths of slavery, dispossession and genocide. Religion and profit, ‘jumping together,’ had little time for introspection. The slaveholder, the frontiersman and the fundamentalist all hated the historian — and anti-intellectualism has been a strong force ever since.»
https://jarche.com/2009/04/what-is-america/
#USPoli #democracy
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/344/349/585/933/896/original/aaaa2b3ce2c80129.jpg

2025-04-12 22:26:45 UTC

“I feel like returning to the US under the current administration would be the equivalent of going back for your hat after escaping a devastating house fire,” says the reader, an Australian citizen who asked not to be named. “I have no wish to be burnt again.”
https://www.smh.com.au/traveller/travel-news/an-australian-was-denied-us-entry-for-bizarre-reasons-he-s-not-alone-20250403-p5lov8.html

2025-04-11 02:18:14 UTC

Some (most) Canadians wonder if the Conservatives can be trusted. Probably not.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/do-you-believe-the-polls-poilievre-supporters-ask-1.7507437
#CdnPoli

2025-04-10 13:53:07 UTC

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@nprofile…wuyc
I am sure that Carney and Trudeau had 'conversations'
@nprofile…884k

2025-04-08 01:57:39 UTC

"Does this sound familiar: super-rich tech guys connected to a media empire get close with a conservative political candidate and propose to remake society? ... With both Poilievres snuggling up to Canada’s tech and political elites, a Conservative government could look pretty similar to the U.S. administration."
https://www.thegrindmag.ca/poilievres-elite-circles/
#CdnPoli

2025-04-08 00:18:31 UTC

If you give an asshole lots of money and power ... he is still an asshole
https://www.theverge.com/news/644943/shopify-ceo-memo-ai-hires-job
#capitalism

2025-03-29 15:29:12 UTC

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@nprofile…dc6s But at least Chamberlain bought a year for Britain to re-arm and go on to win the Battle of Britain and then the war.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_%E2%80%93_The_Edge_of_War

2025-03-29 15:17:36 UTC

Paul Parker, recording clerk for Quakers in Britain, said: “No-one has been arrested in a Quaker meeting house in living memory.
“This aggressive violation of our place of worship and the forceful removal of young people holding a protest group meeting clearly shows what happens when a society criminalises protest.
“Freedom of speech, assembly, and fair trials are an essential part of free public debate which underpins democracy."
https://www.quaker.org.uk/news-and-events/news/quakers-condemn-police-raid-on-westminster-meeting-house
#democracy

2025-03-28 00:12:52 UTC

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@nprofile…d6r2 My mother, as a child, lived through the after-effects of this
https://jarche.com/2021/10/all-for-nothing/
All for nothing, once again

2025-03-24 21:44:15 UTC

"The head of Elections Canada says he has been in touch with social media platforms in an effort to address concerns about misinformation as Canada wades into an election campaign."
I highly doubt they contacted the hundreds of Mastodon admins, because ... there was no need. Vive le Fediverse libre!
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/elections-canada-misinformation-social-media-1.7491567
#CdnPoli

2025-03-23 00:30:49 UTC

«Hello folks. Jim Cuddy here. Due to our troubles with our neighbours in The States, I was inspired to write a little song. It’s called “We Used to Be the Best of Friends”»
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5jgJZWG7aY
#Canada #USPolitics

2025-03-21 23:04:38 UTC

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@nprofile…dc6s I used to be a small arms weapons instructor. Not sure I want to go back there or if weapons training is the answer to anything.

2025-03-21 23:00:11 UTC

It's been a year since I got my MMR booster vaccination. Damn good decision.
#measles #PublicHealth

2025-03-19 17:21:11 UTC

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@nprofile…wuyc Still does not mean I will go there. I like good coffee

2025-03-19 12:24:41 UTC

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"The reality became clear: ICE detention isn’t just a bureaucratic nightmare. It’s a business. These facilities are privately owned and run for profit."

2025-03-19 12:23:38 UTC

"To put things into perspective: I had a Canadian passport, lawyers, resources, media attention, friends, family and even politicians advocating for me. Yet, I was still detained for nearly two weeks.
Imagine what this system is like for every other person in there."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-detained-us-immigration-jasmine-mooney
#CdnPoli #USPol

2025-03-18 21:47:40 UTC

I find it hard to believe that our government is still advising that travel to the USA is safe. Safe for whom?
https://travel.gc.ca/destinations/united-states
#CdnPoli
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/185/622/079/088/812/original/c443c8e791ed82e8.png

2025-03-18 16:39:09 UTC

1.3 million views in two weeks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8peiLVFsLdw&t=1s
#Canada

2025-03-18 16:14:26 UTC

Seen on LinkedIn. A post about generative #AI in education.
"The problem isn’t that students will stop thinking. They won’t.
It’s that assessments in education have largely confused writing with reasoning, structure with substance, and compliance with curiosity." —Jeppe Klitgaard Stricker
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jeppestricker_higher-education-doesnt-need-more-prompt-activity-7288277924057640961-IPq4
#PKMastery

2025-03-17 23:00:35 UTC

"The fake photo was amplified by large accounts outside Canada, including by a French conspiracy theorist affiliated with a conspiratorial media outlet that has hosted Éric Zemmour and figures from his far-right Reconquête party, as well as a media personality from a British far-right conspiracy outlet."
https://pressprogress.ca/this-photo-of-mark-carney-and-tom-hanks-on-epstein-island-is-going-viral-the-photo-is-completely-fake/
#MediaLiteracy #PKMastery #CdnPoli

2025-03-15 23:10:46 UTC

OH at LinkedIn, "If your fighter jet can be disabled by a guy with a grudge and a golf cart, it’s not a weapon.
It’s a hostage."
#CdnPoli

2025-03-15 22:43:20 UTC

When will Canadian politicians and government agencies leave the toxic social media platform X? Not soon enough.
#CdnPoli

2025-03-13 12:54:41 UTC

"Canada is the largest economy in the Commonwealth, yet it behaves like a passive participant rather than a leader. That must end.
The Northern Sea Route is the next frontier in global trade. As Arctic ice recedes, new shipping lanes are emerging according to the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment, but Canada is behind in preparing its ports, transport networks and trade policies ...
If Canada does not lead, China will"
https://bylines.scot/politics/world-politics/commonwealth-infrastructure-scotland-and-canada-must-lead/
#CdnPoli

2025-03-10 00:11:29 UTC

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@nprofile…wuyc
Good to know that some people understand our system of governance , Chris :)
@nprofile…prw2

2025-03-05 23:44:03 UTC

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@nprofile…wuyc We hear him every afternoon when we are in Nova Scotia :)

2025-03-02 01:57:45 UTC

My grandfather served 9 years in the Reichswehr in Germany between the wars. He was later drafted into the Wehrmacht after the Nazis took power. He refused to join the party and as a result never got a ration card for his family of 6 children. They fished for eel on the Baltic Sea to stay fed.
Fuck fascists!
The last fascist takeover was in 1933. It starts again in 2025.
https://jarche.com/2021/10/all-for-nothing/
#democracy

2025-02-27 02:19:05 UTC

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@nprofile…wuyc Yeah, I'm leaning toward Freeland. I think Gould is great but would not be able to take on PP and DJT. And I'm a voting Lib

2025-02-26 00:10:34 UTC

"[Gen #AI] is being forced on people at scale by corporations desperate to seem futuristic without any real understanding as to why they need it, & whatever use cases may exist for #LLM are dwarfed by how utterly unprofitable this whole fiasco is.
I want you to remember the names Satya Nadella, Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, & Sundar Pichai, because they are the reason that this farce began and they must be the ones who are blamed for how it ends"
https://www.wheresyoured.at/wheres-the-money/

2025-02-18 21:46:48 UTC

"But the bigger issue is that they [ #AI CEOs] don’t have to be successful to be dangerous. Because along the way, these companies get to steal our work and sell it back to us, lower our wages, de-skill our field, bury us in slop, and mire us in algorithmic bureaucracy. If the long-term space god thing doesn’t work out, at least they can make a profit in the short-term.
... these are not tools designed for us to benefit from, but tools designed to exploit us."
https://www.miriamsuzanne.com/2025/02/12/tech-ai-wtf/

2025-02-18 13:27:18 UTC

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@nprofile…d6h6 Lovely photos. I am sorry your experience was so alienating

2025-02-14 22:33:28 UTC

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@nprofile…wuyc Racism? Not sure, but we have been so focused on the US relationship that we have lost sight of anything else. But I did buy bell peppers from Mexico today :)

2025-02-06 21:18:38 UTC

Attended a trade show in LA late September 2001, a few weeks after the 9/11 attacks. We flew through Newark airport & during our stopover had a clear view of the smoking Twin Towers. It was eerie & quiet.
Our trade pavilion was hosted by the New Brunswick government. On arrival we attended a reception by the Canadian consulate & each person was given a lapel pin with crossed US & Canadian flags which we all gladly wore in solidarity with our American neighbours ...
https://jarche.com/2025/02/learning-is-not-something-we-got/

2025-02-03 16:20:57 UTC

"In the US, Generative #AI consists of half a dozen Big Tech companies all pursuing identical strategies that require huge capital outlays, accelerate climate change, deplete precious fresh water supplies, steal all copyrights, invade everyone’s privacy, and take jobs from millions of creative people. The problem is that industry revenues are tiny … and there has been real doubt that the products would create enough value to support one player, much less six."
https://broligarchy.substack.com/p/artificial-ignorance

2025-02-02 00:19:03 UTC

It is seriously time for Canada to apply for EU membership.
#CdnPoli