This is an excellent analogy, because my recollection from grade school is that the pen on the right looks fun and exciting, and then you play with it for a few minutes and realize it's not actually useful for anything and in fact makes some tasks more cumbersome, and never think about it again.

BWAHAHAHA

As I witnessed shadowing a delivery person for a night, there is a real dehumanized disconnect. As if it’s all tech no flesh.

Let's talk about generative AI, contaminated information, and rhubarb. Once upon a time, Europe was at war. Food was scarce, and the government of the quote-unquote United Kingdom looked for alternatives. 1/

I’m a huge fan of Godmachine’s work, and his attitude to commissions only reaffirms it. Artists, know your worth 🤘

Rory's banished to the dining room tonight. Fortunately, Colin the House Dalek is on hand again this year to keep watch. (and definitely not exterminate Santa) #DuvetKnowItsChristmas #DoctorWho www.gofundme.com/f/duvet-know...

I kind of like this whole “We won’t buy your liquor but we will air your state-suppressed news stories” niche that Canada’s apparently carved out.

Spoiler for tomorrow’s episode, which gets, uh, *heated*. WHAT HAPPENED NEXT is presented by @thewalrus.ca Find it at all the podcast places. thewalrus.ca/podcasts/wha...

Funny animal videos no longer being trustworthy just fucking sucks all around. I love the wonder of animal behavior and what it says about the experience of being alive. It's because it happened in reality that it's so fun. It's not fun if it was just made up. There's no wonder there.

'Let it Snow' with all the positive lines removed

I am trying my damndest to shop local for gifts, and if it needs to be shipped, avoiding Amazon and buying direct. Except the past three direct buys from stores automatically fulfilled and shipped my order using Amazon. There is no winning at this game, is there.

A play about science actually transformed science! Oh the humanities. #humanities

As someone said, they fell for it because the US ambassador has been saying really crazy real stuff, so it didn's sound far-fetched.

Canadians! You can now vote for the Canadian Word of the Year! (If we had the option to choose a Canadian WOTY in French as well, I'd suggest the gender-neutral pronoun "iel" which has been in the news a lot in Quebec this year, but probably not applicable since this is an English dictionary)

This is the way.

My favorite piece of content today.

Google should be formally stripped of its status as a verb now anyway.

Noooo. I missed the @literaryhub.bsky.social bracket vote BY NINE MINUTES. (It seems that work overrode distractions on this Wednesday, which is… weird.)

Today I learned about a dog named Mildred Vanilla—or Milli Vanilli for short, and I have been intermittently cackling ever since.

Welp, there goes my work productivity for the week.

Patti Smith released her debut album and the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior 50 years ago today

In a nearby galaxy the battle has resumed over the placement in books of citational notes—which of course go in the back; only adorable digressions are set as actual footnotes—and I am STAYING OUT OF IT.

Up until now, I’ve made my book design students figure out a cover concept based on the themes in Frankenstein. You wouldn’t believe how many realized this idea after *actually* reading the text.

There are layers to this

And we have now progressed from data analysis to policy recommendations. I told her that we'd calculate the cash value of her candy haul, that I'd ask her to raid her piggy bank and donate 1/3 the candy cash value to a local food bank, and that I'd add on a 5X match.

We have progressed from data collection to data analysis.

I regret to inform everyone that my pedantic brain couldn’t let me live until I knew whether or not dodger blue and blue jays blue are the same blue. They are ONE PANTONE NUMBER APART.

We are back. We missed SO MUCH. 6-1!?!

Aaaand Sportsnet has conked out on us.

Ohtani is out. Nice.

“❤️ just collapsed into a stupor”

At Yonge & Dundas Jays fans are obeying the pedestrian scramble, as is the custom & returning to sidewalk each light cycle.

And Toronto erupts. Even the dogs are howling. #baseball

⚾️

My weekend afternoons shown by two art books: Saturday book launch for Louis de Niverville: Pentimenti (designed by me!), and Sunday lecture by Jeff Wall in honour of his solo retrospective at MOCA Toronto.

It's Ada Lovelace Day, so worth noting that the era during which coders were mainly women (starting with her machine-language explication of the Bernoulli sequence in 1843) lasted about 130 years whereas the male-dominated period has lasted less than half that long

One other minor thing about this is it sorta takes back the noble frog from that far right meme.

Thank heavens. That whole “you can’t leave the US we killed your flight booking” was scary.

Dolly Parton announces "I ain't dead yet" after sister sparks concern with Facebook post requesting prayer for the music legend

My favorite new initialism: AI;DR I'll be using this a lot from here on out.

Just heard the very sad news that Nobuo Kubota has left us. Here is a wonderful 1982 film portrait of him. www.nfb.ca/film/kubota/

This is good, you should read this.

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.

I, too, am proud to share this quite exciting finding with you: Europe's oldest mineral blue pigment. It's azurite and we found it on a legacy object that had long languished in a storehouse. New analysis bring new insights :) #palaeolithicblues

WTF? Canadians know this one (all too) well also!

Happening tomorrow, Toronto peeps! I'll be reading from RADIOLAND (and signing books) at the next Drunk Fiction reading event at The Caledonian, hosted by Emily Weedon (launching her next novel)! There will be authors aplenty and a wide array of ales and whisky. Hope to see you Tuesday @ 6pm!

(Set in Le Monde Journal) bsky.app/profile/mark...