we also really need to prevent the mindset that posting is a form of political action, short of actually going outside, because so many people think aggro'ing enemies online is the same as building a public, imo

if personnel is policy, then the most fundamental questions about an institution is not "what are the policy directives" but rather "what will get you promoted" vs. "what will get you fired"

The assumptions that "it's unrealistic to expect all students in Y to learn to code" and that "even if they knew how, bespoke solutions would be too labor-intensive" are absolutely load-bearing walls in academic and professional social structures.

10. We can only protect ourselves against threats we acknowledge.

So here’s the thing, folks - not everything is for you. The world is full of interesting people solving hard problems you don’t even know about yet! Isn’t that terrific? Every “What does that mean” thought you have is an opportunity to learn about a whole new world you didn’t realize existed!

Actually, Pagliacci is the clown; the creature is only referred to as « Pagliacci’s doctor »

People who want to get morally superior about how they hand-wash everything really gotta reckon with the fact that machine dish-washing uses considerably LESS water and emits considerably fewer greenhouse emissions than standard handwashing practices do. (And you save a lot of time...)

Funny Numbers xkcd.com/3184/

Who needs a village when you can have parking lots?

Happy holidays! Probably my favorite stop-motion from the past few years. Really enjoyed creating this one.

Year 1 data on congestion pricing in Manhattan… * Vehicle traffic: -11% * Foot traffic: +3.4% * Storefront vacancy: -0.9% * Pollution: -22% * Revenue for mass transit: $548M So YES this has been a huge success.

Fascism selects for people who think they see through the lie of liberal democracy but who are actually just too broken and malformed to eke out a reasonably satisfying life on conditions of general equality with their fellow citizens.

this is my usual approach. But as i understand it, it is some very expensive sand that pretends that a sentence is made up of triangles

“_Mix_ my breakfast cereals? Have you not listened to a word I’ve said? Let’s go over it again. There are _base_ cereals, and _toppings_ cereals. No, no, of course they don’t label them that way, it’s obvious. Now keep up. Your standard flake-based cereal, classic base, unless it’s very sweet…”

It's a good thing provinces don't have any responsibilities in Canada's system of government.

Peppermint bark is not the best thing Purdy’s makes, but I’m completely helpless around an opened box of it. Zero willpower. If I’m ever found dead of acute peppermint-chocolate toxicity, it’s because I figured out how to order a pallet of this and just ate it all.

"Is this a solution to the problem or is this an attempt to deffer on a trade-off decision?" remains unchallenged for parsing a lot of politics.

Anniversary of halifax explosion so obligatory "Hold up the train. Ammunition ship afire in harbour making for Pier 6 and will explode. Guess this will be my last message. Good-bye boys." - Vincent Coleman saved like 300 people on a train, and started the emergency response. Died for it

I think if Canada wants to have a strong cultural identity we need to go back to doing what we're best at, making the weirdest fucking TV shows you've ever seen

I will basically always support these; will also accept “comically large fiberglass statues of animals or mascot-like items”

Me, reading latest comms effort by an organization I desperately want to succeed but which itself apparently feels differently:

This is one of the purest encapsulations I've seen recently of someone who sees a city not as a destination but as something through which to drive. Imagine if there were popular stores? The horror

Our Councillors have appointed themselves Commisars of Small Business Virtue and are going block by block through the city deciding whether shops should be allowed at all and speculating which would be acceptible. Governance in this city is fucked, and needs massive restructuring.

US-RSE is heading to #SC25! 🎉 📍 Booth #3911 | Nov 16–21 | St. Louis, MO Stop by, meet fellow RSEs! Join our #RSE-HPC Workshop (Nov 16) and Topgolf Focus Group + Social Hour (Nov 18)! More at us-rse.org/rse-hpc-2025/ 🎯Email [email protected] to sign up for the workshops!

The password to the Louvre’s video surveillance system was “Louvre,” according to a museum employee

Dan says it right: this is a city, and we need leaders who will say so.

I wrote an op-ed on what I think about the fight for local neighbourhood retail (and the grousing about Badiali's) means for the urban vision of Toronto. Gift link here: www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

Rule 1: don’t talk about who said what Rule 2: DON’T TALK ABOUT WHO SAID WHAT Rule 3: If it’s your first time at Chatham House, you have to fight

Satan: welcome to hell. this is Gary, he'll be your demon for today Demon Gary: hi! me: he doesn't seem so bad Demon Gary: *tearing up* why would you say that? me: oh, no, I'm sorry, I didn't-- Satan: jesus, no wonder you ended up here

Whoops! All Saints

My theory is that anyone - certainly any introvert - who travels enough has a secret ideal breakfast routine that delights them and that they will move mountains to try to arrange.

As you go to work today to start another week, it may help to remember that Skeletor was often thwarted by his own inept henchman too

Wow. Harvard nuking its PhD programs - Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75% - Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60% - Social Sciences by 50–70% - History by 60% - Biology by 75% - The German department will lose all PhD seats - Sociology from six PhD students to zero

This is the thing about too much motorist misbehaviour. They convince themselves that - whatever infractions they commit - they're just following the 'unwritten rules of the road' and that the rules, and not them, are in the wrong. Speeding, rolling stops, running amber lights... the list goes on.

Anyone who designs a machine with knees is under 40 years old.

The Bell Riots is a utopian vision of society compared to the IRL 2020s

"We know how X is implemented" ≠ "We understand how X works"

When it comes to road deaths, we often put the onus on people doing the dying rather than people doing the killing.

“I know you work night shifts at a care home, but you need to prove you’re contributing to the community” objectively ludicrous position

Hundreds of first-year physics profs are currently downloading this video and sketching out the free body diagrams for an upcoming lecture

Sixteen years later, still the funniest piece of writing on the internet. I revisit it every year the way some people rewatch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown or reread A Christmas Carol. You’re either ready to reap this freaky-assed harvest or you’re not.

This is very good l on how co-op education is a deeply under appreciated tool for actually driving innovation: innovationdoctor.substack.com/p/students-a...

the 80s and 90s were such an amazing era for little kids watching movies that they absolutely should not have been watching

“Canadian pension plans are supporting US firms by investing in them” is true, but another true way of saying the same thing is “Canadian pension plans are pulling profits out of the US economy and redistributing them to Canadian retirees”

‘Star Trek: Deep Space 9’ was a seven-season exploration of the fundamental tension of two visions of Canada; the modern, messy, unsatisfying conception of The Federation, and the seductive, but ultimately correctly discarded, vision of a Dominion. In this essay, I will…

I honestly and truly believed that growing old would take a lot longer.

How your email finds me

Oh the shipping label was _created_! That’s fantastic, thanks for alerting me. Please text me when you change your toner cartridge too, that printer shit is super interesting to me.

I see grocery/takeout shaming discourse going around again, so this is your periodic historian reminder that cooking from scratch daily while working has never been sustainable, and for millennia everyone either relied on takeout & restaurants or ate in huge households w/ big dorm-like group dining.