In 1927, Vera Menchik became the first Women's World Chess Champion at age 21 & is the longest-reigning women's champion in #chess history. She defended the title 7 times, held it undisputed until her tragic death in 1944 at age 38 in a V-1 rocket bombing during #WWII. She was born #OTD in 1906.

On grey & dank days, with rain stottin' off pavements and steam gatherin rivulets down cafe windaes, Edinburgh streets entice me to their glowing embrace #WestEnd #Edinburgh stot: bounce or cause to bounce against a surface (Scots)

'Queen of Chess': Netflix is giving another boost to chess with this new fast-paced documentary (available Feb. 6) about Judit Polgár, the highest-ranked female player of all time. 1/2 🧵

why not head over to the National Film Board of Canada’s website or app and watch Montreal stop-motion innovators Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski’s gorgeous animated short The Girl Who Cried Pearls, a Colm Feore-narrated fable about the true value of objects, currently nominated for an Oscar?

“With their resistance to violent authoritarianism, the people of Minneapolis have renewed the spirit of Dr. King’s call for ‘the positive affirmation of peace.’” — The Nation

Remember when everyone said 'Mention Hitler or the Nazis means you've lost the argument"? How times have changed!

Fascinating article describing a meticulous urban choreography of civic protest. You see it in the identical whistles, in the chants, in the way ICE agents are followed but never blocked from detaining people. Thousands have trained as legal observers, taking part in role-playing exercises

The thing about being an avid reader Is my vocabulary is full of all these words, which I know what they mean, I know how to use them I for the life of me, have zero freaking clue how they are pronounced a lot of the time

In 1775 the USA was still getting itself together. But already they had decided to invade a neighbor. "The newly formed 'Continental' Army ... failed because the inhabitants set aside their differences when faced with the American threat." Read all about it at www.dundurn.com/books_/t2211...

New neighbor has moved in - a Barred Owl.

Thistle August 19th 2024

'Copperbelt', written by and starring Natasha Mumba, is big, colorful, furious and fast. I lived and worked in Zambia's Copperbelt in the late 1970s, so it was a delight to experience again the relish with which Bemba people confront life. nac-cna.ca/en/event/38314

In the difficult years ahead, we should remember that the snows of Olympus lie silent beneath the stars, waiting for our grandchildren. - Arthur C. Clarke

Bracing clarity from Andrew Coyne here. Say hello to Occam's kazoo, in which the stupidest explanation is the most likely one. www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

Reached a new high chess rank of 1200 today. Thinking that I can now relax for the rest of the year.

The National Art Gallery is presenting an impressive, extensive and beautiful exhibition of art works, most romanticizing winter. It is a lovely escape from the reality of a winter day in Ottawa. 1/2 🧵

Solstice celebration: setting sun bracketed by enormous sundogs, so bright they are reflected on the river ice.

Reason to Hope open.substack.com/pub/dgardner...

Our brittle cashless present. During a storm videos of survivors desperate to charge their phones go viral. "Without my phone, I cannot even buy bread" www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

Canada Mobilizes a People's Army open.substack.com/pub/charliea...

Early winter drama on the Ottawa River 🧵

For the first time, humans have tracked an individual butterfly, as shown in the Monarch migration of north America. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/s... @savebutterflies.bsky.social @bc-suffolk.bsky.social

Leonard Cohen recites “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae | Legion Magazine youtu.be/cKoJvHcMLfc?... #RemembranceDay #LestWeForget

Human creativity: We’ll miss it when it’s gone. Whether we’ll miss it enough to limit AI’s ability to cannibalize the work of humans isn’t clear. Nor is it clear that the value of human artists can offset the lure of apparently cheap, instantaneous content. stackoverflow.blog/2025/11/05/t...

Absolutely typical November 1st here in Ottawa: roses blooming in the sunshine.

@julietoneill.bsky.social video of @satellitebirdhouse.com performing "Harvest Moon" at SAW gallery on Sunday. Months ago, in the height of summer, wandering in the Byward Market, we were beguiled by these two performing Neil Young's classic in the midst of the traffic. Great to hear them again.

Received my 8th COVID19 vaccination. Not only super effective against COVID with no bad side effects, recent studies show it revs up the immune system against other challenges, including cancer. www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...

Visited the Museum of History in Gatineau yesterday and saw this new piece - their residential school memorial - and it’s really striking.

I read a lot about people getting 10x more productive through AI assistants (for Code and other work products). And I wonder how that works given that you need to doublecheck every generated line, phrase or paragraph for correctness. Like _how_ inefficient and unproductive were these people before?

Scary & plausible. The response proposed sounds good, in the long term. But will Canada actually do, on Oct 13th, if a USA submarine surfaces off Iqaluit?

“We had to choose between the English of Boston and the English of London. The English of London were farther away and so we hated them less.”

As the leaves turn - on the train to Agawa Canyon

"If you let AI do your reading, thinking and writing, you might pass your courses; you might get a piece of paper that says you are an educated person. But you’ll have missed the point of an education entirely." www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

An M.I.T. study found that 95% of companies that had invested in A.I. tools were seeing zero return. It jibes with the emerging idea that generative A.I., “in its current incarnation, simply isn’t all it’s been cracked up to be,” johncassidysays.bsky.social writes.

A smooth landing… 🛬 🦢 #bluesky #swan

This bird has more IQ then most humans… Can it solve the puzzle… 🧩 🐦‍⬛

Pretty sure someone here needs to watch a baby monarch caterpillar hatching from an egg that I filmed this morning! No, not a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis. BABY CATERPILLAR!! 🎶 Shark Attack Theme, The Life Aquatic

PROGRAMMER: I've saved so much time! NARRATOR: They did not save any time whatsoever. In fact, they spent as much time as they claimed to have saved. Again. bsky.app/profile/metr...

Reached 21,000 reputation points on stackoverflow today. It has become much harder to gain reputation since the plagiarism machines ( a.k.a AI ) have begun skimming off traffic. stackoverflow.com/users/16582/...

If the protocol requires Ottawa to fly the flag of a neighbour that is trying to undermine our sovereignty and economy then maybe the protocol needs to be changed www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic...

Despite AI's unpromising start, it is a conceivable future where machines can fake better than you any work you might turn to. What to do in that future? 1/2

My father, grandfather and afaik all my ancestors were woodworkers, handcrafters, they worked with basic tools and created beautiful things. I did not follow the family tradition... but instead I enjoy handcrafting code. Compiled some hammers I found in my workshop, I'm restoring some of them... ♥️

Scientists have been studying remote work for four years and have reached a very clear conclusion: "Working from home makes us happier." A 4-year Australian study found that remote work boosts happiness, health, and productivity. Especially when chosen. It saves time, improves sleep, diet...

“Iran’s leaders want this war. It lets them cloak their repression in nationalism and their failures in external blame. The regime that massacred protesters during the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising now wraps itself in the flag of resistance. This war gives them cover to crack down even harder.”

A singular act of defiance that will never go out of style.

Email tip for PhD applicants ... and everyone else.

So, #vibecoding is when you use a #LLM to write code, and you debug it. Must be for people who hate writing code, but love debugging. I've never met such a person, but it seems there must have been thousands hiding up till now. 1/2

Botshit - the output from a LLM. My nomination for word of the year.

Anyone choosing to use a LLM risks enormous reputation loss. Plagiarism machines ( #chatgpt, #copilot, #gemini ... ), when they can find nothing to copy, output nonsense. www.cbc.ca/news/world/c...