First week of PollinateTO training and how nice to spend an (online) evening talking about pollinator insects. TIL that we have over 300 species of native bees in Toronto! Also, this is great resource for ppl interested in native trees/plants/shrubs www.toronto.ca/services-pay...

This bit from Azeem Banatwalla is amazing.

Some sane and pithy thoughts amidst the AI froth: mailchi.mp/rawsignal/no...

It's a Tom Petty/War on Drugs/matcha with ashwagandha type morning. Dog snoozing at my feet. Things are good in the bubble.

!!!!!!

"...I cannot stress enough how much this story is not really about the role of AI in open source software. This is about our systems of reputation, identity, and trust breaking down." This whole epic makes me realize how far behind the curve our 'institutions' are theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-...

"Obsession, craft, improvement, and learning are all inefficient parts of life. They are also the part of life where you are actually doing the living." Don't wholly agree with @annehelen.bsky.social's take on AI, but love this emphasis on the importance of friction www.patreon.com/posts/dont-l...

Adults love to talk about the impact of technology on kids, but we so rarely listen to the kids themselves. Next week's Wayfinding event is trying to change that: a panel of teenagers talking about their relationship with technology. Join us on Wednesday

Very happy to see this lovely little thing out in the world. It was fun to watch it come together in the past few weeks, from idea to garden. Kudos to @charlebois.info and @lexa.fyi 💜

Love this story in pictures by @thelocal.to about the infamous Eglinton Crosstown thelocal.to/understandin...

Wow.

3-ish weeks after the big snow here in Toronto, they finally plowed the counterflow bike lane on my street. At 11:30pm. Pro: safer biking for all! Con: 5-year-old woken up by crazy bobcat & backhoe combo and refusing to gtfbts 🥱

So when thousands of women (and children) were being duplicated--including in non-consensual AI porn--it was no big deal. But it took "only a 15-sec clip" of these two famous white men to draw outrage and fear. Gotcha. Cool cool.

I wrote a thing last week. Check it oot

Legends like Isaac Hayes, Bob Marley, BB King and more came to the Harriet Tubman Centre at St. Clair and Oakwood in the ’70s – a thriving hub for Black Torontonians. Its founder, Ken Jeffers, recalls its impact and finds in its undoing a familiar story. www.westendphoenix.com/stories/form...

"Paid advertising in AI search, and AI models generally, could look very different from traditional web search. It has the potential to influence your thinking, spending patterns and even personal beliefs in much more subtle ways." Are you paying attention yet? theconversation.com/could-chatgp...

Who took this photo? When? Where? You can answer these questions with cryptography. Read our new post to learn how: https://hypha.coop/dripline/who-took-this-photo/

Media coverage of Gaza has plummeted. So today on @thenation.com, we're doing something pretty special: we're only running pieces by people in and from Gaza. We're calling it "A Day for Gaza." You can find links to all of the incredible pieces here. Please read! www.thenation.com/article/worl...

Add this to your must-reads this week, yes?

Interesting post and thread about the loooong awaited community centre in my hood. Agree that Canadians generally have a consultation problem but the characterization of public input as 'loud neighbours' seems dismissive. Ultimately, it would be nice to get the darn thing built tho

*Looks outside* sNooooooooo

Toronto!! This is next week! I'm really excited about this conversation, Parker is very smart and has lots of interesting things to say that you should come listen to.

Speaking of a different kind of salt, Molly White's recap post is 🎯 www.citationneeded.news/the-year-of-...

THIS. Toronto's wanton salting makes me crazy. My anti-salt stance is partly stemming from former dog ownership (salty paws are sad paws) and partly from the no-brainer that salt is bad for gardens, fresh water, basically anything living.

Grief has come up in a number of recent conversations, and then I came across this apt quote: "Without grief and praise, life is only hate and mediocrity.” - Martin Prechtel, via open.substack.com/pub/solidari...

Given everything happening right now, I updated this article with options for weather apps, web forms, and translation services — along with some tweaks to existing categories. I hope it helps your transition off US tech!

Imagine if they put that money towards health care or education instead. What a crazy idea!!

"Your tastebuds are not deceiving you. Mangoes from independent grocers likely do taste better than those available at larger grocery chains." We took a look indie grocers in the West End and how they measure up against the chain store giants. www.westendphoenix.com/stories/chai...

I love everything about this post by @thelocal.to on the opening of the Finch West LRT - local reporting, talking to the people whose lives have been and are affected by this transit project, and their hopeful skepticism that just seems so Toronto thelocal.to/finch-west-l...

Lots of appreciation for shivani mehta bhatia's thoughts on conflict. Relevant to all of us (unless you live a life of solitude, in which case congrats). She brings much needed nuance to thinking about conflict because things are never as clear-cut as they seem shivanimehtabhatia.kit.com

*Sheds a little tear of happiness*

Giving Tuesday reminder. If you can, give. I donated to The Zaynab Project: GAZA Relief chuffed.org/project/zayn...

Today’s conference cat has gotten much more up close and personal #cooperativeAI

Second day, final session. @marcelovieta.bsky.social ‘s slide does a great job of capturing the complexity of AI #cooperativeAI

On the topic of co-ops, if you're part of one, please fill in the survey we're running this month on cooperative AI options: survey.cooperativeblueprint.ai/776588?newte...

Also, cats cats cats. This one came to hear the sessions in the morning #coopAI

First day, final session of the #coopAI conference in Istanbul. @trebors2025.bsky.social sharing his thoughts on the Solidarity Stack. Looking forward to tomorrow (+ being less jet lagged!)

I just drank a Lions Mane mushroom latte. You never know what the day will bring.

What's that, the Ontario government making tenancy more precarious in the midst of a housing crisis? Sounds about right. They might have backtracked on some of the proposed changes, but let's be clear: they still intend to criminalize poverty www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

This essay by @jasmine.bsky.social is 🎯 and also 🫠 jasmi.news/p/dictionary h/t @annehelen.bsky.social

Hear hear!

Also standing room only at this talk. And jokes about the women + stage being in a weird corner of a noisy conference. Heh.

Checking out #ElevateFestival for the first time. @averyswartz.com and Sarah Stockdale’s talk on AI are a study in contrast to other panels… human thoughts on a machine technology

We are, once again, in the time of peak scapegoating.

Listening to the live version of Eddie Vedder's 'No More' and am totally struck how hopeful and timeless it is. "No more terrorizing No more eulogizing No more No more evangelizing No more No more presidents lying No more war"

Q. Who aligns the aligners? A. alignmentalignment.ai Today I’m humbled to announce an epoch-defining event: the launch of the 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗜 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀.

Personalization at scale is an oxymoron

If Banksy'd used AI, this would never would have happened!

At least 105 Palestinians killed, including 32 aid seekers, as Israel pushes ahead with plans to seize Gaza City.