Dating myself here, but this reminds me of old school Flash animation slop on Newgrounds or Albino Blacksheep. Although that had the excuse of being made by 15-year-olds drawing with a computer mouse. I guess Y2K really is back.

✨ Join the Jackman Humanities Institute’s Circle of Fellows in 2026-27! Apply for our Visiting Public Humanities Faculty Fellowship 🧩 Annual Theme: Doubles, Doppelgangers 📅 Deadline: Nov 25, 2025 | 4pm EST 🔗 Details & FAQs: uoft.me/vph26-27 #PublicHumanities #ResearchFellowship

AI-powered searches continue to co-opt and corrupt much more substantive, moderated sources of knowledge. www.404media.co/wikipedia-sa...

📣🧪📚 The CFP for EASST 2026 is now open!

📣🎮🍁 Attention Canadian video game nerds! The CFP for CGSA 2026 has been released.

The 5th annual DURF Jam has begun! ✨ itch.io/jam/durf-jam...

It seems like every day Adobe is shoving another AI feature into Acrobat's interface that is enabled by default. I can't even search for words in a PDF without an AI suggestion now.

These stores were always more of a marketing stunt for Loblaws than a real business venture. I'm not surprised to see them go. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

The physical infrastructure of the Internet is so fascinating. I was talking to my students this morning about how we tend to imagine technology through big metaphors like "the cloud," but at the end of the day, it's all wires and boxes.

Stumbled into a PizzaForno vending machine on my way back from a wedding in Barrie last month. Most of these machines have disappeared from downtown Toronto, but they're still deploying them in more rural areas of Ontario.

📢🍁📚 The call for papers for the Canadian Communication Association's annual conference is live! Submissions are due December 1. Great to see this event is continuing on in 2026 even though Congress is on hold for that year.

Congratulations to ICCIT Professor Julie Yujie Chen for being awarded a @utm.utoronto.ca Annual Research Prize. This award recognizes outstanding early career faculty members from the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. www.utm.utoronto.ca/research-inn...

Reference librarian Eddie Kristan said lenders at the library where he works have been asking him to find books that don’t exist without realizing they were hallucinated by AI. 🔗 www.404media.co/librarians-a...

I'm happy to announce the launch of 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕'𝒔 𝑵𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝑱𝒂𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒓? - an interactive resource that provides post-jam guidance to game jammers! I worked with @jimmunroe.net at GAIN to create this toolkit, which provides advice for jammers interested in commercial, artistic, or experimental development paths.

So much of the value of Wikipedia is that it's rigorously reviewed and updated by humans. Leaning on AI would lead to an erosion of current standards. www.404media.co/jimmy-wales-...

I'm pleased to announce that I will be serving as a graduate fellow with the Centre for Culture and Technology for the 2025-2026 academic year! 📚✨ www.cultureandtech.utoronto.ca/programs#gra...

"...[H]ikers use artificial intelligence to help them discover a route, only to discover that the trail is not safe. 'Since about one year ago, many people have begun to think everything on ChatGPT is correct...[i]t is not a tool for mountain advice, for routes, or for planning.'"

What's up, fellow docs? Today, I defended my PhD on Twitch livestreaming & the platform of playing-at-home! Waves of thanks to all who got me over the finish line: my valiant committee, my pals & anyone who let me watch them play a game 🎮 (1/2)

🧙📚✨ I'm still working on my silly Little Free Library RPG, and now it's available in Portuguese! Thank you to Freddy Pavão for providing the translation. mammothisland.itch.io/spellbinder/...

If you haven't heard, the next meeting of the Canadian Communication Association will be held from June 2-4, 2026 at the University of Windsor. Great to hear that we're moving forward independently when Congress is on hiatus.

My faculty is hiring... again! The Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto is looking for an Assistant Professor (Tenure Steam) in Knowledge Systems, Infrastructures, Communities, and Cultures. jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...

Your periodic reminder that there is a Labour & Technology Scholars starter pack! Message me if you'd like to be added. go.bsky.app/UMaa7T3

I feel like I've been posting nothing but jobs lately, but it's that time of year! My faculty is hiring an Assistant Professor in Public AI and Cultural Institutions. jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...

The ICCIT is hiring! Our faculty is inviting applications for an Associate or Full Professor position in Organizational Studies, with an anticipated start date of July 1, 2026. jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Mississa...

Our dept @iccit-utm.bsky.social is hiring an associate or full prof of organizational studies! ICCIT is a great place to teach and research. I adore my colleagues and our brilliant, ambitious students. More details here: jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Mississa... @utoronto.ca @uoftmississauga.bsky.social

UofT’s ischool is running a search for an assoc prof - Public Memory & Public Histories universityaffairs.ca/search-job/?...

Big new job posting at the Faculty of Information. We're hiring an Assistant Professor (Tenure Stream), Digital Curation and Cultural Heritage. jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...

Sort of expected there would be some maple-washing shenanigans. It's always been tricky to determine if grocery items are truly produced in Canada. www.cbc.ca/news/busines...

I've written about the dangers of dynamic pricing in grocery stores, but airlines have always been the most predatory and opaque about their price tags. www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/pe...

It'll be a difficult transition, but I think this is ultimately the way to go. www.cbc.ca/radio/costof...

Join us July 31 and August 1 for the free, online @civicsoftech.bsky.social conference with keynotes from Audrey Watters and Chris Gilliard; hands-on resistance workshops; community case studies and non-profit work; classroom practice; and youth and caregiver voices. Read more about the conference:

The Open-Source Software Saving the Internet From AI Bot Scrapers 🔗 www.404media.co/the-open-sou...

Hey look, my Little Free Library RPG is now available in Dutch.🧙🇳🇱✨ Special thanks to Sarah Torfs for providing the translation. mammothisland.itch.io/spellbinder/...

The Internet is set to be reduced to one AI-powered app. Everything else we put online will simply be grist for the AI mill. www.bbc.com/future/artic...

Some sad news - Bradley Clements one of my colleagues at U of T and all around one of the kindest and loveliest people I have ever met has been diagnosed with cancer. A mutual friend, Megan Hull has set up this GoFundMe. gofund.me/0dfe1fe2

All the promotional images for corporate micro-markets have Hide the Pain Harold energy.

Been diving into some documentation for the Aisle 24 unstaffed convenience stores that have been popping up across Canada. One of the big pitches is that you can own and run a franchise with a time investment of less than 20 hours a week, and a lot of that work will be remote monitoring.

ChatGPT May Be Linked to 'Cognitive Debt,' New Study Finds 🔗 www.404media.co/is-chatgpt-r...

We're sad to say that Toronto Games Week 2025 has come to a close! But what a week it was! #TGW25 We were so glad to share in the love of gaming and playful culture with everyone! Thank you all for your support, and we hope you'll join us again next year!

Dipping my toes into Canadian AI/data regulation. My main takeaway thus far is that we certainly do let a lot of important legislation die on the floor of parliament in this country.

I switched search engines a few months back to avoid these AI summaries. Even if they are correct, they clutter your experience and discourage you from finding information (and sources!) for yourself.

It was fun presenting at @torontogamesweek.com last Thursday about my weird Little Free Library project. Thanks to everyone that showed up! 🧙📚🍁

Happy Friday, Toronto! 🎉 It's Day 2 of Toronto Games Week! #TGW25 Check out the schedule on our website for more details about all of today's upcoming events: torontogamesweek.com/schedule 🕹️

This evening as part of @torontogamesweek.com I will be talking about urban games, Little Free Libraries, and wizards. 🧙

Toronto Games Week officially STARTS RIGHT NOW! Check out the schedule online at torontogamesweek.com/schedule 🗓️ Each event has its own sign up & ticket requirements, so make sure to check the details on the full schedule to confirm! #TGW25

Been sitting on this for a while! I'm excited to work with this cohort of graduate fellows through 2025-2026.

I have some old and new work on display for @cgsaacej.bsky.social this year! I've also scattered some Spellbinder zines about. 🧙‍♂️

"Linas Beliūnas... recently exposed that Builder.ai lacked true AI, instead utilising a group of Indian developers who were merely pretending to be bots writing code." www.ibtimes.co.uk/builderai-co...

I'll also be presenting with the super cool @hanine.bsky.social, @alexcustodio.com, @srirachanikorn.bsky.social, and Jules Maier-Zucchino!

the Media Archaeology Lab is shifting the theme of its pop-up space on campus to "Media Before Media". it'll include artifacts from the long history of A.I. (automatons! early chat-bots!) plus 19th century optical toys, magic lanterns, wire recorders, etc. othernetworks.net/2025/06/03/f... 1/2