Alan Pater
@alanpater.bsky.social
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vegan restaurateur | the profane buddha canada | the world
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Alan Pater
Camille Perrin
about 4 hours ago
Great op-ed by
@foodwatch-int.bsky.social
's Suzy Sumner. For too long, meat products like sausages, burgers, etc. have benefited from a misleading "naturalness" halo they simply don't deserve. foodwatch's new report sets the record straight.
www.brusselstimes.com/opinion/2182...
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While Europe debates ultra-processed food, the meat industry hides in plain sight
https://www.brusselstimes.com/opinion/2182753/while-europe-debates-ultra-processed-food-the-meat-industry-hides-in-plain-sight
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Wolfgang Blau
about 18 hours ago
News organisations who breathlessly cover the âbiggest IPO everâ without adding perspectives on who Musk is, what he did to the worldâs most vulnerable people by destroying USAID, or to democracy, have no compass, no ethics. This is not just another big IPO. This funds more damage to humanity.
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Green Party of Canada | Parti Vert du Canada
about 18 hours ago
"A Canadian East-West-North-South renewable electricity grid is possible. We must start by rejecting the limits of our current mind-sets." Elizabeth Mayâs latest Hill Times op-ed is a call to stop clinging to the past and start building the renewable future we need.
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Michael Grunwald
about 20 hours ago
Loved this Marc Gunther review of WE ARE EATING THE EARTH. He said itâs a âterrific bookâ so I guess I was inclined to love it. Also âscience-based, thoroughly researched, lively,â âa book every environmentalist should readâ and other nice words.
marcgunther.substack.com/p/a-book-eve...
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Feeding the world without frying it
Green groups and venture capitalists make mistakes. Some are whoppers.
https://marcgunther.substack.com/p/a-book-every-environmentalist-should?r=1l4e8&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true
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Timothy Caulfield
about 21 hours ago
â ď¸ Another problem with AI: makes us worse at spotting bunk! The consequences of relying on AI for accurate news
news.mit.edu/2026/consequ...
"...participants who relied on AI systems to verify facts actually got worse at detecting misinformation on their own when their chatbots were taken away."
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The consequences of relying on AI for accurate news
Research from the MIT Media Lab found that, over the course of a month, participants who relied on AI systems to verify facts actually got worse at detecting misinformation on their own when their cha...
https://news.mit.edu/2026/consequences-of-relying-on-ai-for-accurate-news-0609
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AI scores a 'C-' ...
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about 20 hours ago
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Randall Munroe
3 days ago
Planetary Science
xkcd.com/3255/
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Rebecca Solnit
3 days ago
Mary's opening:
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Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf
4 days ago
Do our politicians act like they are properly aware that their actions today are changing climate on Earth for thousands of years to come? Do they have sleepless nights and intensive exchange with experts over this huge responsibility?
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Wolfgang Blau
5 days ago
âThe real surprise from the OECDâs subsidy numbers is that it cost China less than $18bn in sectoral support over 15 years to build an industry that can now provide more clean power than the world can readily absorb.â
www.ft.com/content/b6ca...
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Wasting Chinaâs solar panel surplus is madness
Clean power is within our reach â yet factories sit idle
https://www.ft.com/content/b6cac184-75a4-47ab-94c5-5eb8c92cd407?shareType=nongift
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John Sanbonmatsu
6 days ago
Sycophantic AI decreases prosocial intentions and promotes dependence | Science
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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Sycophantic AI decreases prosocial intentions and promotes dependence
Despite rising concerns about sycophancyâexcessive agreement or flattery from artificial intelligence (AI) systemsâlittle is known about its prevalence or consequences. We show that sycophancy is wide...
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aec8352
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Alan Pater
Stockholm Resilience Centre
6 days ago
Our new handbook is out: Planetary Communications! âThis handbook is more than a guide â it is a call to action. If we are to secure a liveable future, we must transform how we engage the world with sustainability science,â says Johan RockstrĂśm.
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Richard Waite
6 days ago
"A good place to start would be agriculture, which takes up half of the riverâs flow. Most of that goes to alfalfa & other water-intensive grass hay. This cow food consumes more water than all cities, factories & data centers in the basin combined...about 20% of alfalfa grown is shipped overseas."
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World Resources Institute
6 days ago
Happy
#WorldEnvironmentDay!đ
The new series
#SolutionsInFocus
, spotlights stories of positive change around the world. These stories show not just what could work, but what already doesâĄď¸
go.wri.org/solutions-in...
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Paris Marx
7 days ago
A sober take from
@shachikurl.bsky.social
of Angus Reid Institute of how Canadians are not on side with Mark Carneyâs enthusiastic approach to AI or data centres. They arenât uninformed or illiterate; they simply experience the sides of AI the government prefers not to focus on.
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7 days ago
Marjane Satrapi 1969-2026
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Jathan Sadowski
8 days ago
Is a Microsoft Word document conscious? Why don't we treat Deepmind AlphaFold or IBM Watson as conscious beings? As Ted Chiang writes, "itâs simply the fact that LLMs emit grammatical sentences and we are accustomed to reading intention into sentences." Do not get taken by deepfake anthropomorphism.
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No, Artificial Intelligence Is Not Conscious
Taken to its logical conclusion, this line of thinking is absurdâand damning.
https://www.theatlantic.com/philosophy/2026/06/no-artificial-intelligence-is-not-conscious/687378/?gift=R2zbWGNBDp_xHqoa7Q8ZRp-EV6jGaHiamQBxQQlMJqI
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Angie Rasmussen
9 days ago
To be clear, weâve reached the manufacturing federal criminal charges against career government scientists for purely political reasons stage of fascism
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Punk Rock History
10 days ago
43 years ago today Talking Heads released their fifth studio album, Speaking in Tongues, June 1, 1983 It features the single "Burning Down the House," their only top ten single on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100
#talkingheads
#newwave
#speakingintongues
#burningdownthehouse
#punkrockhistory
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Timothy Caulfield
12 days ago
"LLMs generate fluent, authoritative-seeming outputs based on statistical patterns rather than true understanding, and they have limitations in reasoning, calibration, and transparency." Medicine as an Information Industry in the Age of AI
ai.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
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So why, exactly, is the Carney government enthusiastic about importing more Tesla EV's into the country?
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13 days ago
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c0nc0rdance
13 days ago
(sound on for full effect) Chapman State Park near Clarendon, PA is home to Chapman Lake, which is home to a group of energetic North American river otters (Lontra canadensis) that like to host a midnight rave / leaf frolic. Not sure where they plug the speakers in.
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The Walrus
13 days ago
Before âenshittificationâ became a rallying cry,
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C)
was a kid who watched the internet grow from a bedroom modem into something that kept sprawling. He once believed tech could liberate everyone. Now, heâs its sharpest critic.
https://ow.ly/Up5E50Z5osJ
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Alan Pater
Jimmy Thomson
15 days ago
"Is it currently raining?" "Wow great question! Yes, it is currently raining." "It's sunny though." "Ha ha my mistake. Sorry about that. No it's not raining."
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Alan Pater
Punk Rock History
15 days ago
Released 49 years ago today "God Save the Queen" the second single by the Sex Pistols
#punk
#punks
#punkrock
#GodSaveTheQueen
#sexpistols
#history
#punkrockhistory
#otd
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Rhi Faux
16 days ago
David Eby and Daniele Smith have more in common than they let on. Theyâre both doing all they can to advance fossil fuel development at the expense of the climate and peopleâs health. They just differ on which type of fossil fuel is best.
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Ed Zitron
16 days ago
Todayâs free newsletter is about how LLMs are the perfect grift to exploit an economy dominated by do-nothing managers and executives disconnected from any real work, and how the facade is crumbling as companies pay the true cost of AI.
www.wheresyoured.at/the-revenge-of-the-business-idiot/
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Revenge of The Business Idiot
If you liked this piece, you should subscribe to my premium newsletter. Itâs $70 a year, or $7 a month, and in return you get a weekly newsletter thatâs usually anywhere from 5,000 to 18,000 words, in...
https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-revenge-of-the-business-idiot/
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Alan Pater
Dave Vetter
17 days ago
"Anthropic is the clean coal of AI. And clean coal doesn't exist" - Karen Hao speaking at Hay yesterday.
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Applies to all creative fields, of course!
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17 days ago
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Brian Eno News
18 days ago
David Bowie: African Night Flight - from his 1979 album, Lodger; co-written by Bowie and Brian Eno; prepared piano and cricket menace by Eno
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq0M...
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African Night Flight (2017 Remaster)
YouTube video by David Bowie - Topic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq0MSbezTLs
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Alan Pater
Max Fawcett
17 days ago
There aren't many columnists in this country better than
@sproudfoot.bsky.social
, and she was especially good in this piece.
www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/opi...
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Grumpy Philosopher
18 days ago
Somewhat overstated, but yet again we see humans quicker to grant rights to rivers, mountains, ecosystems, or forests than to other animals. The river gets rights against being polluted by industrial chicken farming, the chickens themselves get ignored. Dispiriting.
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Helen Czerski
20 days ago
And TechCrunch are here to get you started:
techcrunch.com/2026/05/21/s...
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Six search engines worth trying now that Google isnât really Google anymore | TechCrunch
Google is about to look really different, and if you're not a fan of the AI overview feature, then you're not going to like what's coming.
https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/21/six-search-engines-worth-trying-now-that-google-isnt-really-google-anymore/
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Alan Pater
20 days ago
14 Liberal MPs sent a letter to Mark Carney telling him "the government's credibility will be seriously compromised" by his pipeline agreement with Alberta. More generally, they emphasized that
#ClimateChange
âremains the greatest threat of our time.â
#Canada
#CDNPoli
#BCPoli
#ABPoli
#NoPipelines
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14 Liberal MPs pen letter to Carney raising concerns over environmental backslide | CBC News
More than a dozen Liberal MPs sent a letter to the prime minister at the end of April, before he signed the latest agreement with the Alberta government, to offer some recommendations â but also to ex...
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberal-mp-react-alberta-deal-carney-9.7208157
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Seth Klein
21 days ago
A first for me today. Glad to have this piece in The Guardian. Figured it was time more of our international friends heard some hard truths about how things are going here in đ¨đŚ:
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
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Canadian prime minster Mark Carney is not the climate guy you thought | Seth Klein
While Canada may be clinging to fossil fuels, much of the world is moving on
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/21/mark-carney-climate-canada?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
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Michael Grunwald
21 days ago
Loved this Progressive Farmer review of WE ARE EATING THE EARTH: âLike them or hate them, theyâre ideas well worth grappling with.â
www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/...
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To Save the Climate, He Says, Grow More Food on Less Land
Michael Grunwald's
https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/news/article/2026/05/20/save-climate-says-grow-food-less
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David Ho
23 days ago
Hereâs why your take on RCP8.5 is terrible⌠đ
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No punches pulled. Congrats Al Jazeera!
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23 days ago
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Michael Bishop â
23 days ago
It was quite clear many years ago and now overtly obvious that politicians and corporations have no intent to address climate change. Anyone expecting them to change is foolish. For us to curb the current trajectory of climate change we must attack it from the individual + collective level.
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Veronika Meduna
25 days ago
Entanglement in fishing gear is the "leading cause of large-whale mortality worldwide, claiming the lives of many hundreds of animals every year", stranding experts say. The high-profile rescue changed nothing about the root cause. My latest for
@forbes.com
www.forbes.com/sites/veroni...
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Humpback Whale Found Dead Two Weeks After Controversial Rescue Mission
Danish authorities confirm a dead humpback whale is the one that had been towed out to sea in a controversial rescue mission after repeated strandings.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/veronikameduna/2026/05/16/humpback-whale-found-dead-two-weeks-after-controversial-rescue-mission/
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David Ho
25 days ago
Color me shocked
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Nearly all climate claims by meat and dairy firms amount to greenwashing: Study
Meat and dairy production are significant drivers of deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions. Many companies claim to be tackling this, but nearly all these claims, 98%, could be considered greenwa...
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/nearly-all-climate-claims-by-meat-and-dairy-firms-amount-to-greenwashing-study/
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UN Environment Programme
27 days ago
More than a decade after the Paris Agreement, greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, accelerating climate change. Humanity still has time to act #NowForClimate and curb these emissions. Ahead of #WorldEnvironmentDay, here's how you can take action
https://ow.ly/MjvP50Z02x8
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Rebecca Solnit
28 days ago
Wrote a thing, and my newsletter always has visuals and this time it has the glorious art of Tino Rodriguez (and it's topical).
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We Are Crashing Into the Future (Or It Is Crashing Into Us)
The Autumn of the Patriarchs One common and inaccurate picture of change assumes this thing so obvious, so potent in the present, will just continue to expand and the future will be like the present...
https://www.meditationsinanemergency.com/we-are-crashing-into-the-future/?ref=meditations-in-an-emergency-newsletter
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I don't have a car.
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29 days ago
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David Ho
30 days ago
As Wittgenstein wrote in PI: âLook at a stone and imagine it having sensations.-One says to oneself: How could one so much as get the idea of ascribing a sensation to a thing?âŚAnd now look at a wriggling fly and at once these difficulties vanish and pain seems to get a foothold hereâŚâ
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Donât reach for the bug spray: crickets stroke a sore antenna, as cues suggest insects feel pain
The behavioural cue of âflexible self-protectionâ is a way to establish whether an animal feels pain, scientists say
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/13/insects-feel-pain-research?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky&CMP=bsky_gu_env
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Philipp Markolin
30 days ago
We also know that the pandemic did not start as a lab leak; ...and that people who claim to know otherwise are either liars, grifters, idiots, victims or otherwise useful idiots of multiple manipulation campaigns from people who piggybag on this narrative for profit
www.amazon.com/Lab-Leak-Fev...
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Lab Leak Fever: The COVID-19 origin theory that sabotaged science and society
Lab Leak Fever: The COVID-19 origin theory that sabotaged science and society - Kindle edition by Markolin, Philipp. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Lab Leak Fever: The COVID-19 origin theory that sabotaged science and society.
https://www.amazon.com/Lab-Leak-Fever-COVID-19-sabotaged-ebook/dp/B0FKK9Q4D3
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani
30 days ago
When we took office, NYC had a $12B deficit. Today itâs zero. And we didnât close that gap on the backs of working people. We closed it while funding parks, libraries, safer streets, & public housing. Call it Pothole Politics or Democratic Socialism: We are government that delivers for the people.
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Project Drawdown
30 days ago
With so much attention given to COâ and fossil fuel production and consumption, some of the biggest opportunities are often left out of the climate solutions conversation. New charts by
@globalecoguy.bsky.social
&
@jamesgerber.bsky.social
show the full picture. đ
https://bit.ly/42ghOg3
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The Walrus
about 1 month ago
France is phasing out Zoom and Microsoft tools by 2027 over data-access risks tied to the US Cloud Act, which allows American firms to seize data stored anywhere. Legal scholars warn Canadaâs digital future is at serious risk, but political will to act remains tepid.
https://ow.ly/nM6M50YXuLC
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