Can you read English cursive? Ever wanted to volunteer from the comfort of home for a useful cause? Have I got an offer for you... The Newberry Library in Chicago is always in need of transcribers to help decipher historical handwritten documents. If this is you, learn more about it below:

Pour faire suite au petit billet "Marmotte" Que j'ai mis en ligne ce matin. Le grand-père : "De mon temps, on était aux prises avec la rougeole, la polio et les nazis." La petite fille (in petto) : "J'ai pas le courage de lui dire..."

Holy shit—never seen the hardcover of *An Editorial Cartoon* discounted so deeply ($12.15 CAD, when the list price is $44)! If you shop on Amazon, this would be a good time to grab a copy: www.amazon.ca/Editorial-Ca...

1 avril: seule journée de l'année où les gens prennent le temps d'analyser la véracité d'une nouvelle sur les réseaux sociaux. #oupas

...to work their thoughts out and explore the implications of their ideas. GenAI assumes that the goal of writing is to produce text, rather than to clarify ideas, solve problems, articulate complex concepts, and above all to communicate from one human mind to another."

Just watched this 30-minute video. Excellent!

Honoured to participate in the @who.int event tomorrow: Health Voices for Equitable Phaseout of Fossil Fuels 1 pm MDT Register here: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

OMG… Perfect. (Description: Mr. T. holds a sign that says ‘Department of Just-US)

Treat yourself to a few minutes of peace and beauty. Breathe.

As someone who edits government documents, I related to Jamila Savoy's story so much. She talks about the key things you need to advance plain language work in that environment. Episode 4: ingamelearning.com/top-of-their...

💡 Fun Fact: When Jan Is De Man paints his giant bookshelves, he doesn’t just invent random titles. He actually knocks on the doors of the people living in the building and asks for their favorite books, then paints those exact covers on the facade.

Jan Is De Man is a master of making buildings pretend to be something else. Here, a plain apartment block becomes an oversized bookshelf full of local favorites, and the entire facade suddenly feels warmer, smarter, and way more playful.

Applies to all writing. I make sure to tell my history students this as we work through essays. You wouldn't believe how much relief they show when you explain that it's part of the process and why you have them do a rough draft--so they can put ideas out there and get feedback before it counts.

Hey thanks for all the responses to this -- I've been enjoying it and feel free to keep them coming. Many things are bad but music is good.

This really resonates…

you say "i asked chatgpt" i hear "i asked [an improv comedy group]" an improv group wrote this report instead of a therapist i use an improv comedy group

Did not think it was possible for Canadian transparency laws to somehow get any worse but

Here’s your one-stop round-up of people on Bluesky making constructive posts about improving cities, courtesy of the Urban Truth Collective. Honoured to be included!

Great read! The comparaison with vegeterianism works! « I don’t want [these new AI features]. I want to write my own emails…to write my own (mediocre) software code…to learn and think and ponder with other humans, not with a text-prediction system built by consuming all the text on the internet. »

The “generative AI vegetarianism” metaphor is very useful if you want to explain to people why you don’t use generative AI. Sean breaks it down masterfully in this post.

A delightful break from all the stuff…

Yep. Married women have always worked. Many had jobs outside the home, many more did piecemeal work at home to supplement the family income. There are dozens & dozens of books by historians about this. I know because one of my comps fields was History of the American Family & I had to read them all

Merci pour le partage. Ravi de revenir à Montréal et de rencontrer Joanne Liu et Prativa Baral en personne. Au plaisir d’échanger avec vous à McGill — ou sur Zoom.

A friend sent me a few videos with the mention ‘For an accompanist’. He knows I loved to accompany singers in my previous life as a pianist! Listen to the amazing Beth Taylor & Hamish Brown: Edward Elgar, Sea Pictures - I esp. like the first song… youtu.be/oTC4C8-QpCs?...

I was just thinking that these days, Ottawa should be called the ‘city of a thousand lakes’… or Puddle Town! So much fun, to encounter a huge puddle in a middle of a long sidewalk, with a long pile of snow blocking an easy path to the street… Decisions, decisions!

Villa Marie-Mirande in Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, 1912. Full ceramic facade. Self-washing so always looking fabulous.

The whole point of saying that something is a human right is that it's saying ALL humans have a right to it. Not just some. Not just the ones you like or who look like you or who come from the same place as you or even the ones who aren't violent or mean or commit crimes. EVERY. HUMAN.

Sometimes a poem doesn’t answer anything. Sometimes it just sits with the truth a little longer than we usually allow. Either way, here are some new poems. 💙💙💙 #poetry #blueskypoets #writingcommunity #BlueSkyPoetry #SkyPoet

A few thoughts about a recent GOOD customer service interaction with Kanopy/Overdrive. Context: I love the Kanopy platform, available for free through my local library! I’ve used it to watch tv series in Italian and German, short films, etc. Each month, you get a certain number of tickets. /1

Cool! Didn’t know this news about BC ending the time-change tradition.

Once again, we did not invent concepts like international law and rules of engagement because we’re woke pansy wimps We developed them because we learned the very worst way, that even the strongest are less safe without them

Posting about something other than The Big Event Of The Day does not mean you are unaware or unconcerned or unconsumed. It often means you are striving to remain stable and sane.

Très intéressant! À propos de la transmission de virus comme la covid et la grippe.

´I don't believe sweeping change is only top down. Sometimes it's bottoms up... [or] both. Which is why it's always driven me nuts that we celebrate the people who work at scale, but not the people who weave together all of the smaller interactions and shifts that also make broader change possible.´

Breathe. Relax. Enjoy this beauty. Cc : @stephenbheard.bsky.social , for the plant names!

Tonight, in the exciting life of a parliamentary translator: From big stress to big relief!!! Stress at learning, Wed. PM, that the House of Commons might be sitting until 2 AM that night… Meaning long hours of debates, gazillions of words to translate, working laaaate (possibly til sunrise)…

Tonight, in the exciting life of a parliamentary translator: From big stress to big relief!!! Stress at learning, Wed. PM, that the House of Commons might be sitting until 2 AM that night… Meaning long hours of debates, gazillions of words to translate, working laaaate (possibly til sunrise)…

Ummmmm… *Somebody*—I strongly suspect somebody here??—nominated *After the Feast* for the 2026 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards under the free book category. So if that's you, thank you! This was totally unexpected. I'm so touched. 😭

I'm constantly trying (/failing) to get this point across. If you're a trained expert in a field, then it may be worthwhile to question the scientific consensus of your peers. If you're not, the scientific consensus is absolutely the best you can do and it's arbitrary foolishness to disregard it.

As a Canadian I'm intrigued by NYC paying hundreds/thousands of human snow shovelers to clear sidewalks after a blizzard. We basically have two modes: "clear mostly with equipment" and "Toronto calling in the army in 1999." (Obviously, NYC gets less snow, so I am not judging, I just think it's neat)

OMG. What a fun, silly, unexpected story! A delightful 12 minute, 2026 Oscar-nominated short film: Jane Austen’s Period Drama. youtu.be/dxpjzOLVRR0?...

Treating a topic as "up for debate," "just asking questions," is like saying "Let's just bring this animal into your house to see if it would make a good pet." This is reasonable with a bunny, often a cat or a dog, but never a hyena or a tiger. "Do some humans deserve fewer rights" is a goddam tiger

This quote from @aworkinglibrary.com, whew: aworkinglibrary.com/writing/desi... #AI #labour (via @sameervasta.bsky.social)

OMG. What a fun, silly, unexpected story! A delightful 12 minute, 2026 Oscar-nominated short film: Jane Austen’s Period Drama. youtu.be/dxpjzOLVRR0?...

Getting shown up in the arena of elite impunity by *the British monarchy* is an incredible “America at 250!” achievement

There I fixed it

When the going gets cold, the Finns keep cycling. Illuminated bike paths on compacted and textured snow in Oulu, #Finland. Thanks to @harrivaarala.bsky.social for the video!

As 2025/26 has proved, rumors of the death of winter are greatly exaggerated. That's a big problem for sustainable transportation in North America. I believe *not* planning for severe winters links breakdowns of the REM light-metro in #Montreal ... 🧵