Une préoccupation constante.

This is unusual, maybe even unprecedented. This presents obvious potential conflicts of interest.

Why is the City Of Toronto buying advertorial, featuring chief planner @jasonthorne.bsky.social, in the Star? www.thestar.com/sponsored-se...

I met Paulina on the tour for “Cyberselfish,” cited her in my own book, and never forgot her gimlet-eyed take on the SF scene. It’s high past time to belatedly recognize her prescient warnings on what Silicon Valley was and what it would become. She was there, she saw it, and no one has any excuse.

Taps sign:

Canadian MP Soraya Martinez Ferrada is running for mayor in Montreal. She is her own woman, but in terms of housing, she is like John Tory and Ana Bailão in Toronto: eager to be seen as active on the urban housing file, yet cruel and automatically keen to destroy encampments.

Will @thelogic.co cover Toronto Public Library’s “Digital Expo 2025: Bridging the AI Divide”? I ask because the descriptor is very cute and positive: “Where tech enthusiasts ... unite to explore the future of AI for all!” I also ask because Competition Bureau Canada and Telus Wise will be present.

This is Canada.

This staff report makes excuses for *waste* trucks in parks, bad enough. It avoids any mention of other kinds of trucks. They are in parks constantly.

Every truck in a city park is a sign of disrespect and sloppiness. City parks staff are constantly damaging the very public space they’re supposed to care for. Apparently they don’t have to answer for it. secure.toronto.ca/council/agen...

The Mayor’s very explicit refusal to exercise strong mayor powers is fully documented. Council (and I) appreciate that commitment to our local democracy. This is disappointing.

True: CBC reporters need to up their game. If Canadian journalism—writ large—had public editors and media critics, this would be less of an issue or mystery. Also true: Sadly, Canadian mayors—from Sutcliffe to Chow—do not use the powers they have to improve the quality of life of their residents.

The first paragraph of this article is more-or-less a single sentence. Branded content “magazines” like Wallpaper need to improve on their ability to paraphrase press releases.

Yes and yes. Great thread.

My progressive and conservative colleagues were fond of “the ravers”, the countercultural types elevated in design museums, hacker clubs, and cyberfeminist circles.

The other day, @glindsay.bsky.social was telling me about Paulina Borsook. A thread:

I get the feeling the AI task force will all be AI boosters whose own brains have been thoroughly cooked by using it rather than people who say things like "the best current use case of this technology is scams, maybe we should do something about that."

His mandatory positivity is most concerning.

Or just read Morozov from 11 years ago. www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/evgen...

Some relevant reading in advance of this upcoming announcement. Open access. “Letting the solution define the problem: Canada’s COVID Alert app as a case of failed policy” www.jstor.org/stable/jj.18...

Schubert est au menu.

Un bâtiment rare.

I’m bookmarking @touloumi.bsky.social's book, Assembly by Design: The United Nations and Its Global Interior. It paints a complex picture of who designed the headquarters and why: for photography and television. Published by @uminnpress.bsky.social.

YouTube is so cooked.

At @cfr.org yesterday, Prime Minister Carney remarked: “Bob [Rubin] taught me everything about foreign relations ... how to make decisions under uncertainty.” I hope that was baseless flattery because Rubin’s ignorance and inaction at Citigroup was at the heart of the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

We knew they were anti-democratic decades ago. This column is so little, so late.

I love Wired, but this is some weak ass tea. It's far too late for this mealy-mouth head-scratching from editor emeritus Rip Van Winkle. The cyberlibertarian to cyber-fascist trajectory is well understood at this point.

Daron Acemoglu. Philippe Aghion. Tim Besley. Francesca Bria. Diane Coyle. Joseph Stiglitz. Et autres :

À la galerie Bradley Ertaskiran, jusqu’au 1er novembre.

Entre l’est et l’ouest.

A press photographer was taken to hospital.

Adam Vaughan is on the left. Photograph by Cole Burston.

Je me souviens.

Welcome negative energy into your country with sweet grass and a soft spot for terrible ideas like private spas and anti-democratic “smart” cities on the waterfront.

Do not put pictures of your children on social media.

Tout va bien chez Meta. Vraiment merci Zuckerberg, de rendre la société plus apaisée grâce à vos applications. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Au @ccaconversations.bsky.social jusqu’au 12 octobre.

Une opinion signée Phyllis Lambert.

This is in part why no one reads Maclean’s anymore.

If I was in Ottawa, I would go to this.

“‘One issue with the current cloud market that we have is that it is highly concentrated. There are only a very few companies offering these services,’ [Guillaume] Beaumier said.”

Ditto for social infrastructure, something that distinguishes Canada from the US. Why innovations in social services, something that Canadians value, is not on the agenda is beyond perplexing.

So much of what @bhaggart.bsky.social says here has been on my mind. Canada can't manufacture and pipeline itself away from what is happening south of the border. And using AI tools to increase public sector "production" is not going to solve things either.

The threat is political and cultural.

The Carney government’s entire strategy is based on the premise that the US threat to Canada is purely economic. It is unsuited to protecting Canada and Canadians from the US descent into authoritarianism and fascism. The government needs to course-correct immediately. What would that look like?

Behind tradwives’ positive veneer of smiles, happiness, and serenity lies something else: rage. By @sarareinis.bsky.social and Sarah Banet-Weiser:

I’m young enough to remember when artists were no longer “artists” with IP rights under copyright acts and instead transformed into content “creators” on platforms riding the pivot-to-video trend. This transformation was touted as freedom! Everybody loved it, looked away, and here we are. #lolsob

At @macmontreal.bsky.social until March 8, 2026.

I’m re-reading this.

I’m bookmarking this.