If I may redirect your attention north of the border to our own disturbing uses of power: this is, to use @amberbracken.bsky.social's phrase, chilling.

Back in the early 1990s, the UVic Fine Arts computer lab had Sun SPARC workstations, incredibly advanced tech at the time. And so I used it to play Netrek (the guy in the back corner of the lab built a company he eventually sold to IBM) youtu.be/UYTfVMNx4-8?...

I was contacted by someone via my website. They played the Star Trek mainframe game on an actual computer at a university - one with no screen. He still has the printouts form one of his games, some of which can be seen here. A fascinating piece of gaming history.

TBH I have pretty much endless empathy for a kid screaming in A shopping cart, as well as the parent who is merely trying to squeeze in a grocery run. It's also better to focus on policy rather than personality, because this "Blue Liberal" government is basically stealing from Poilievre's policies.

When I hear about the new Simpsons movie and realize it will be released 40 years later

Banned from Canada, but vindicated by the UK courts.

New fad in Japan: Wearing T-shirts with EVIL (悪) printed on the back. (These are among the 59 residents of Akusekijima, or 悪石島, an island in the Tokara island chain in now in Kagoshima, but formerly part of the Ryuku Kingdom, in far southwest Japan.) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akuseki...

Dogo Onsen Main Building, Ehime, Japan #Japan #Nippon

The Golem (1920)

The real generational divide is people who refuse to watch a video if it could be an article versus people who refuse to read an article if it could be a video

Yeah, everyone hates the AI subway ads as much as you do nygroove.nyc/ai-subway-ads/

I started reading in the 70s and I definitely remember this book, and others like it (plus any and all books about UFOs, which led me to briefly becoming a UFO truther in the early 90s). This image has stayed burned in my brain for my entire life. hauntedgeneration.co.uk/2019/12/30/w...

Shinto-related Japanese dancer in traditional costume, with a yoke on her shoulder. 1930, Japan. Image from nationaal archief of Flickr

I may be being cranky, but I while I grudgingly observe the relatively new etiquette of "no spoilers", I do not understand why there should be a "no spoilers" rule in online forums devoted to seriously discussing cinema. #filmsky

Episode 1 of Flavor Forward dropped @americastestkitchen.com please give it some love youtu.be/l9iBV7mKh0w

I've often wondered about this. Google Home works very simple algorithmic natural language patterns... Which regularly get "confused." Why can't making requests be updated to some sort of LLM? (I just want to listen to Internet radio)

My emphatic answer? Yes! I have been tricked so many times into watching mid Netflix and Apple TV shows. www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

It’s the 37th season of the Simpsons tonight. This Meta AI slop seems appropriate

NGC 281, Pacman 2600MC Duo, Carbonstar 150, 60 second subs for a total of 20.5 hours integration. No filter I'm in a Bortle 6/7 zone #astrophotography #astronomy #photography

Before we panic about government spending, @iglikaivanova.bsky.social examines what really created BC’s current fiscal challenge. The numbers tell a clear story she says. #bcpoli

A Touch of Sin from 2013 seems like it is going to be super relevant in the near future. #filmsky

it may feel a little like homework, but i genuinely think people should read the lincoln-douglas debates to see what the practical politics of anti-slavery looked like in an environment where the public was neutral to hostile to the question of emancipation

I get that Roblox as a platform is problematic in a variety of ways, but is it truly correct to call it "addictive"??? www.timescolonist.com/local-news/r...

Sort of reminds me of sokushinbutsu, 'the practice observing asceticism to the point of death, entering mummification while alive.' I visited one of the most famous sokushinbutsu twice, at Daichibo-ji, outside Tsuruoka. But this would have been a guided practice. www.penn.museum/sites/expedi...

Good examples of developers using local LLM models in iOS 26 to provide AI features in their apps without having to pay for cloud services. Developers who want cutting edge models or need to also support Android will give this a pass but it does seem like a good step in democratizing AI development

It’s go by bike week in my city!

When asked if Jesus “will return to Earth someday,” more than half of all U.S. adults (55%), including three-quarters of Christians, said this will happen. www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

This is a live webcam (you’ll have to click through though) of Wajima on the Noto Peninsula. The green fields used to be a bustling town until January 1st, 2024, when a massive earthquake toppled buildings and started a massive fire. I visited Noto last year. No rebuilding being done. Forgotten.

Shinjuku Kabukicho Crossing, Tokyo, Japan #Japan #Nippon

Source #Japan #Nippon

I remember when my wife was pregnant with our first kid around 2000, there was also sorts of woo woo stuff, like, "take folic acid tablets", plus the doubts about immunization thanks to the then-recent Wakefield misinformation. My point being that there is a steep learning curve, with bad info!

#Alphabetchallenge #WeekMForMemories Creating memories of the same tree throughout the year

New guest essay for Stop Caring is live! Please read and share! Boen Wang writes about Gran Turismo 7, how the game serves as a museum of car culture, and the ways the game omits the automobile's ties to militarism, fascism and global warning

new translator aspiration just dropped www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

#Global 🌐 A recent article written by Tactical Tech and published by @globalvoices.org warns of the way technology is being used to supercharge monitoring and control in education, work, healthcare and beyond. buff.ly/E6DH7UD

Henry Jaglom, maverick indie filmmaker and Orson Welles' confidant, dies at 87

Kawazu River in Izu, Japan. #Japan #Nippon

Whether you agree with these ideas or not, it's good to see someone sharing something new. There is a lot of economic hardship, particularly among younger people, and so far the far-right has been the only voice addressing it.

TBH a rolled up umbrella works well. Or a shopping cart in a parking lot. People have no problems running you down, but hate to contemplate mussing up the paint.

tired: defensive walking wired: offensive walking

Have to say that here in Victoria, motorists with Ontario plates are exceptionally dangerous.

I used to hate shorter days in autumn until I took up #photography

Theoretically, we've been here for awhile. I remember having long conversations in my Philosophy of Technology course about how things like online dating and MySpace/Facebook were creating these curated realities where you could pick and choose how your world was presented.

I was a Junior in Wooster High School in Ohio. I was in a class where we were taught to create Crystal Radio sets, requiring an antenna and earphones. I plugged my set in and the first thing I heard was “Kennedy has been shot.” I dropped the earphones; afraid I had made the radio incorrectly.

Osaka City, Japan #Japan #Nippon

9/ I had launch with Paulina Borsook last month in Oakland. Her life is hard, but she still has a lot to say! She's trying to raise funds to get a new version of the book reissued on the Internet Archive. Some of her friends have a running GoFundMe to support her: www.gofundme.com/f/support-fo...

Wars of the Roses is a great example of how primogeniture does not exist, it's always been some random guy with an army who claims the crown. Laws do not exist.

As a kid in the 70s and the 80s, every time I turned on the TV I really hoped I would be greeted by a program about great white sharks, some sort of gigantic whale, or giant squid. Living in the future.