This is a tremendous read from @mattgurney.bsky.social

“Closeups show human faces distorted beyond recognition, sprouting extra appendages. The bodies of what appear to be dogs horrifically merge with human figures. Happy holidays indeed.”

Now THIS is how you do a "war against Christmas". I mean, you can say "Happy Holidays" all you want but this is the real deal.

This is a great day for one of the bravest and most committed people I know. I’m so grateful he can get on to doing exceptional learning technology work… and, you know, with his life.

Spent the past hour remembering and websearching some people I connected with via blogging ~25 years ago. Down some sad paths, people passing, and more just vanishing. And archive.org captures of that time seem to be decaying. ISPs blocking. Images disappearing. The web like an aging mind, fading.

Far more than philosophy or the arts, it is following sports that has taught me about the pitiless nature of existence. Hints of things like destiny shimmer up, but they are an illusion. Nothing is going to happen just because, no matter how perfect it might be.

I somehow missed that my favourite mimic does this incredible Watts.

A quick spin through Grokipedia, and every entry turned up laughably-sourced toxic misinformation. I've re-started my monthly donation to Wikipedia. "Meanwhile, you turned your information environment into a hypercapitalist post-truth digital snuff film." www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/hi-...

I love the weird shit that comes out when a team is on an improbable run.

At the 12 second mark, that camera operator called an audible and just said "fuck it, the lane is clear, no tripping hazards, I'm winning a Sports Emmy for cinematography right now"

Imagine coming home after "a good day's work" doing this.

a note about the nomenclature

The alarming aspect of this deliberate "anti-woke" algorithmic biasing of LLMs from an educational perspective is our institutions all bought in to an imaginary of innovation, then got locked in to enterprise contracts, and now the models are being recoded so they undermine educational values

My favourite thing about this project has been learning about education from folks in the trenches of K-12. Those of us working in higher ed have much to take on board! And any time I get to talk to @edifiedlistener.bsky.social is a good day. I hope you all enjoy Episode 2.

Steven Pinker isn’t spending leisure time on Epstein Island anymore, so why not pop back up to Canada to spread his idiotic concern trolling about the discourse. universityaffairs.ca/news/parliam...

It seems like the default choices for those lucky enough to still have music education haven't changed since I was in primary school (in the pre-WW II era). But just to recap: Ukeleles to kids: adorable, fun and might lead to the guitar. Recorders to kids: must be outlawed and explains sociopathy.

I just watched Monterrey Pop on the Criterion Channel (ahem) and my review is: “my, those hippies sure made quite a spectacle of themselves.”

The first feature-length episode of Community of Praxis is out! I got to have a long chat with @cjdenial.bsky.social about kindness, ungrading, and the radical act of actually trying to assess learning. Please listen and share! www.wlupress.wlu.ca/Scholarly-Po...

If you’re not familiar (or if you are), you are welcome youtu.be/sAwh1_lKZnYm

I was thinking of re-watching this tonight, but the premise of needing to genetically re-make Hitler to bring back Nazism is just too much.

So cool to listen to these people, and an opportunity to join the conversation.

These young Californians have something to say. I hope you’ll listen. “The kids in the Cages” by The Neighborhood Kids @theneighborhoodkidsmusic

I'm no pundit, but fairly sure that Trump and Musk will mostly make up and restore their alliance. Each of them can harm the other, but not as much as they can help each other. Neither has a substitute who can help them as much. Whatever crazy shit they say, they will shrug it off like they do.

Bill C-2 has enormous implications for the privacy of Canadians. Buried toward the end is a law enforcement wish list that includes warrantless disclosure of information about Internet subscribers and unprecedented access to Internet provider networks. bsky.app/profile/mgei...

A solid use case that goes beyond cheating on term papers.

Freak #folk legend Michael Hurley remembered by fellow freak folk legend & collaborator Peter Stampfel (Holy Modal Rounders) www.furious.com/perfect/mich... #Folkmusic

Few tech critiques have aged as well as Phil Agre saying "Oh come on. Face recognition will work well enough to be dangerous, and poorly enough to be dangerous as well." Obviously lands well beyond face rec.

Lots happens in a year! The TRU Library Makerspace Librarian’s Report – 2024-2025 Academic Yearhttps://makerspace.trubox.ca/2025/05/13/tru-library-makerspace-librarians-report-2024-2025-academic-year/

What about big tough boys and their big tough trucks?

"Even the sensible uses of artificial intelligence are over priced and possess unsustainable valuations. This isn’t an industry that takes market humblings in stride, and will shift their focus to where money can be made."

Inside of you are two Canadian classic rock songs

i can't stop thinking about this book, so poorly aged before it even released. imagine complaining about diversity or inclusive language or whatever being the real threat to science. & not even now, but months from now! humiliating for all involved

This, by Klein and Taylor, came out a while ago but is worth a re-up: "This is the last great heist, and they are getting ready to ride out the storms they themselves are summoning – and they will try to defame and destroy anyone who gets in their way." www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

“Perhaps what’s changed are the aesthetics? Perhaps what’s shifted are the politics? And these options seem far more foreboding.”

“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”

Rosemary Barton also very concretely placed the blame: "There were not altercations between journalists inside... these were right-wing people who publish their own agenda websites who confronted journalists... these are people who the commission decided to accredit."

So many things suck about aging. But turning your son on to “Repo Man” is not one of them. Great night of curry and flicks. youtu.be/xcJXT5lc1Bg?...

In a $1.6B lawsuit, Meta is accused of helping incite ethnic cleansing in Ethiopia. If the case succeeds, writes @tekendra-parmar.bsky.social, it could open the door to real accountability for platform-enabled violence worldwide. www.compiler.news/kenya-lawsui...

The lawsuit, brought by @marthadark.bsky.social and team at Foxglove alongside its Kenyan partners, claims Meta not only failed to remove incitements to violence—it amplified them. And it gave African users less protection than others, violating Kenya’s constitutional guarantees.

canada spends almost $30 billion a year on its military almost all of its hardware is purchased from u.s. companies 158 canadian service members died in the war in afghanistan

"All rivers lead to the same ocean: find your form of resistance, no matter how small, and go hard. It's now or never. Together we can prevent the annihilation of the memory of the world." UbuWeb is back! ubu.com

Canada is getting its own version of the treatment that every country that’s been singled out for destruction by the USA gets. It is jarring for Canadians to learn how few of the people we thought were friends seem to have a problem with our violent subjugation. But we are just the latest to learn.

That’s it. robhorning.substack.com/p/tastes-of-...

I’m genuinely curious what the effect of scenes like this is on peoples’ consciousness.

If Canada ends up going through with buying F-35s after all this shit I will be ungovernable. If we can’t back out now…

Perhaps the only way to elevate the reputation of J. Edgar Hoover and the people who delivered COINTELPRO. The pervasive surveillance dystopian version coming down will really be something.

Are the proponents of "thoughtful" or "ethical" use of AI commenting on how it is increasingly being applied in the real world? I'm not seeing much informed critique from the thought leaders, so I presume this is what they have in mind for the future of education as well.

My fave part of this screenshot is how the anecdote showing the AI doing something dumb and harmful is broken up by the newspaper link urging you to stop reading and use its AI.