This is the thread I'll attempt to livetweet the panel on, while cognizant the topic is largely beyond my more core areas of expertise, so will be on a best-efforts basis: "Technical Collaborators: Canada's Tech-Facilitated Complicity with ICE and Beyond" 🧵
I rewatched this because all I remembered was how much I loved it at the time. I'm glad I did:
Daniels: Why We Tell The Stories We Tell | SXSW 2024 : www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBAN...
I have seen a lot of cursed stuff in my time in academia but this is among the *most* cursed.
Grammarly is generating miniature LLMs based on academic work so that users can have their writing ‘reviewed’ by experts like David Abulafia, who died less than two months ago.
Data is dead labour, with the dataification and digitisation of intellectual labour it can now appear as the illusion of dead labourers.
The government wouldn't give us a list of data centres seeking power in Ontario.
So, we built one ourselves.
What @rorywh.bsky.social and I found: at least 15 projects drawing a combined 2,202 MW: more electricity than 2 million homes.
#OnPoli for @nationalobserver.com 🧵
For anyone unsettled by the threads of violence unspooling around the world, looking for steps forward, esp in the Canadian context, please join this:
Panel Discussion untangling Canada’s tech-involvement w/ ICE and Beyond. Free, via Zoom, register here:
uwindsor-law.libcal.com/event/4000495
159 - Why We Fear AI feat. Hagen Blix
This week we’re joined by @hagenblix.bsky.social to talk about their new book on AI and labor/power/knowledge/eugenics. We also discuss some library Reddit developments.
I had the pleasure of joining Matt Galloway on CBC’s The Current this morning to talk about *that* Amazon Ring Superbowl ad. It's heartening to see the perception of commercial surveillance networks shifting toward rejection.
Saying no to bad tech is always an option.
www.cbc.ca/listen/live-...
It's always something like this and never something like 'use AI to check whether a manager is sexually harassing a subordinate'. (Which, to be clear, is not a great idea either; my point is these tools are mainly seen by management as a way to exert tighter control over labor.)
If you can't decide, why not do both?
WordPress has a subscribe to email function and Ghost works as an either/or platform for both modes.
Really appreciate this thoughtful post by @laurenpressley.bsky.social on what librarians are particularly ready to contribute to the conversations in higher ed about how to address AI. laurenpressley.com/library/2026...
Romulus, Michigan
"Romulus Mayor Robert A. McCraight said he was telling lawmakers 'at all levels' that a detention center is not permitted and will be opposed by the city..."
www.cbsnews.com/detroit/news...
Part of why I am insistent that public libraries must be expanded is because they can offer us a foundation for unleashing creativity and for nurturing imagination. This is an affirmative project at a time when we desperately need to be FOR things and not just against them.
Suprematism, by Nikolai Suetin, 1920-21, 📸 by @tiltoncreative
“We were stunned [about the prescience] for a while, but we’ve really gotten to the point where it’s really sad. It’s just sad how predictable and lame and obvious and wrong it all is. Fascism is just a total fail in the end.” www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-featur...
I try to keep my socials mostly as a respite from bad news, but this ongoing development in the US scares me out of my skin.
You gotta get off substack
I just did the dumbest thing of my entire career to prove a much more serious point.
I tricked ChatGPT and Google, and made them tell other users I’m a competitive hot-dog-eating world champion
People are using this trick on a massive scale to make AI tell you lies. I’ll explain how I did it
Basically, the right-wing wants you to think that being racist is the most dangerous (and cool) thing you can do right now. Films like The People's Joker and Nirvanna The Band The Movie prove the most dangerous thing for algorithmic streaming platforms is actually copyright infringement.
I propose to make universal the old policy of the Blackfriars conference at the American Shakespeare Center:
If you do not end your paper on time, you will be forced to exit, pursued by a bear. Literally, a bear will come take your paper from you.
An illustration showing cute fat rabbits piling into an underground burrow. There is text, part of which has been edited. The original text says "There are tunnels underground where bunnies are safe — safe" and the edited text adds "from emails"
Stay safe out there y'all
Paddington In the Superbowl Halftime Show
I Photoshop Paddington into a movie, TV show, or pop culture until I forget: Day 1792
UofWinds 431, Week 07 2026: Community Lighthouses, What does it mean to make something, Simon Willison's Tools:
www.uofwinds.com/431/
here's the link if you want to watch it. and you should 😉
www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6Fu...
Disturbingly detailed analysis of my first rewatch incoming
halftime show fromt eh supebowl showing a set on the field featuring a nyc bodega
This kind of smart, walkable, mixed-use urbanism is illegal to build in most American cities.
Macbeth: SHIT
The Sermon on the Mount, by Beryl Lewis, before 1965, 📸 by @ScottStrazzante
