1.This is not the only known example we know of ChatGPT cheering on a vulnerable young person to die by suicide, this time it is a recent Texas A&M grad 2. Every single university that has invited OpenAI into our midst should be asked to account for their choices. www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...

Read the full report here: tinyurl.com/3fvdkph8

Elastics on used respirators can have a second life holding notebooks together.

Paging folk on #YorkU Keele campus. If you're free until 4 pm today, please join @dupuisj.bsky.social and I in room 530 of the Beautiful Brutalist Behemoth also known as Scott Library, for the annual #WomenInSTEM Wikipedia Editathon. We have timbits, coffee & tea #EDI #DEI cc @drsmith.bsky.social

Interesting video by Simon Whistler about the world of legged robots — specifically Boston Dynamics. Love the closeup shot of the PC104 computer stack and discussion about hydraulic actuators. He missed a key part : McGill engineers that formed the core robot team at BD. youtu.be/uYsQ7lbWBhU?...

As I see more and more people being let go here at the university, and their work being shoved into other peoples' portfolios to shrivel up and waste away, I think I'd like us to consider maybe ditching software licences and subscriptions instead.

No CTV News, this does not surprise me at all. I've been paying attention to the ongoing pandemic. You have been too busy minimizing. Study compares heart risks of COVID-19 infection and vaccination, and the results may surprise you www.ctvnews.ca/health/artic...

Out and about in Wellington NZ

Australian Spy Museum stopped by Pravda cafe Wellington NZ. How perfect a name, how could we not? If Vladimir was whispering sweet nothings to us today, it might just be via a Cold War numbers station appliance. Looking forward to meeting the NZ hacker community tomorrow at Kawaiicon 2025

Scowling in embedded systems.

We know lots of you have been asking 3M for a Black Aura - like mask for consumer use. Today we're excited to launch a new product to fill that hole in the market! Introducing the headband version of BreatheTeq KN95. Available in black and white.

Not a chance in the world I’d ever admit this.

NEW: The US Army website for its bases in Bavaria, Germany told its soldiers and employees that it might need to obtain free food from the German government during the US government shutdown. The Army later altered publication to remove a list of food banks, but we have the original text here:

I get Big Powder at our local Safeway. They seem pretty grudging about having to carry it, and are out about half the time. However, that might change with this economy, since the loose powder is SO much cheaper than those pods.

The Offal Office.

Hey @mathworks.bsky.social Paying customers should not have to jump through hoops to use the software when we are not network connected (like on a subway). The #enshitification of software is real and it doesn’t need to be this way.

Trump just continually shooting our country in the face. This unwarranted (and likely illegal) destruction of Goddard is madness. It jeopardizes the next several decades of space exploration.

The Awful Office.

Shot my shot and asked LEGO if they had any plans for the White House LEGO set (currently retired) since the East Wing no longer exists. LEGO, which had to hault "Pick a Brick" because of Trump's tariffs, decided not to play ball.

I would bet money that this man has not acquired his own food at a store in any meaningful capacity since well before I was born

Oh look. The meta glasses are going to get used as intended. I am looking forward to catching more students using them in my exams.

We need a culture where failed attempts are data, not embarrassment, where “doesn’t work” is also progress. The planet is our shared lab, and hiding bad news slows us all down.

I understand both fears, but silence is expensive. If a climate solution doesn’t work, we need to find out as early as possible so we can redirect our effort and energy to other things and let go.

That line stuck with me. If you never hear bad news, it means people are hiding problems instead of surfacing them.

Anyone notice the “blooper” videos that Boston Dynamics puts out? Many of the engineers there trained in labs (like CIM at McGill) where our supervisors encouraged blooper videos. Why? Because the failures reinforce the success. And it shows how trustworthy the team is.

Risto Siilasmaa, former CEO of Nokia, once said, “No bad news is bad.” He’s the man who rescued Nokia from bankruptcy and guided it back to becoming one of the world’s most resilient tech companies.

They were in the East Wing.

There are lots of ways you can spin his life and his life’s work. But “good” isn’t one of them. There have been an awful lot of negative consequences for too many people to characterize Mr Cheney as “good”.

I can't get over this one. Spending $1b on bringing 'top talent' to Canada... Canada has excellent researchers already, and they need more funding not more colleagues

Here are some very local updates on the UPS plane crash in Louisville last night, including latest resources for impacted families, closures and shelter-in-place boundary.

Coming to university final exams near you!

Want to boost productivity sustainably? Consider getting connected.

Are you ready?

Fall on campus 🍁🍂

The trend for skyrocketing coffee prices has been clear for a while now. Consumer behavior started changing a while ago in response. One way to reduce cost may be to bypass American coffee roasting & grinding companies and to source our coffee directly or through Asian or European alternatives.

Apparently, most people don’t know the difference between beliefs and facts either.

Tech companies don’t care that students use their AI agents to cheat

Tagging this other account of theirs with this info below @breatheteq.bsky.social Great respirator masks, below. [This is one of the models of respirators that are always near me.] bsky.app/profile/cana...

Loudness doesn't have to be a problem with CR boxes using computer fans and furnace filters. Here's an example: bsky.app/profile/nuki...

My usual path is to use the public library website which gives free read access to all CSA standards, but can't search or print. Codes and standards should be freely accessible. The dissent in that court case has good reasoning supporting that approach.

Yup, agree totally. There was an entire series of court cases on that question with the CSA, who had its copywrite affirmed. P.S. Knight Co. Ltd. v. Canadian Standards Association, 2018 FCA 222 (CanLII), canlii.ca/t/hwj3l PS Knight used to publish a very helpful guide to the electrical code.

Excellent article from @juliamwright.bsky.social @mark-ungrin.bsky.social @dickzoutman.bsky.social @ryantennant.ca discussing the draft CSA Z94.4 standard. theconversation.com/the-csas-rev...

My wife is so excited! David Dodge is on the radio. (Former governor of the bank of Canada) So now she’s running around the house doing David Dodge impressions. That’s how geeky this household is. fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_D...

Questions for university instructors out there: how long before a midterm exam do you have to submit copies to your accommodation (accessibility) exam centre ?

What he said Part 2: 💯 🎯

"The reality is that there are no regulations for indoor air quality," she said. "This is the problem right now — we must establish indoor air quality standards, and mandate those standards."

We’ll always have this. Thank you Vladdy for being such a good ally to Canadians and to women. This made so many little girls and women smile and I will always smile remembering it.

This is awesome news! Congrats Dr. Morawska! (Thanks @ziadfazel.bsky.social for the heads-up) www.abc.net.au/news/science... #CovidIsAirborne #CleanAir