I also hate attack ads, but… Is it really an attack ad if you simply play the recording of what someone else said without editing it to make it worse (because it’s already sufficient bad in its whole, truthful self)?

I’m saying everyone should have equal freedom to wear the headwear they want to wear or not wear, regardless of whether it’s for fashion, cultural, or religious reasons.

As bad as American prisons are, they are not on the scale as being deported (is that even the right word in this case?) to what amounts to a concentration camp in a foreign country without any process.

A little over a year ago, a guy tried to ask me out and I’m the process said a few dumb things in an attempt to impress me. The dumbest of them all was that he was planning to buy a Cybertruck as his next vehicle. By the time he’d said this, I’d already long made up my mind about this guy. Mind, this was the period of time when Elon was just an asshole and hadn’t gone full Nazi yet, but even then, this dude’s choice of vehicle told me I’d made the right choice.

Theseadays I wonder if that guy ever got his idiot truck, and, whether he did or not, if he’s changed his mind about it.

The lesson here isn’t “they shouldn’t be able to wear headwear, either”, but “I should be able to wear headwear, too”.

Yikes, I’m wondering how many people looked at and approved the ad through its different stages. This is an example why you need to get fresh eyes on things before publishing, people who are too close to a project have a skewed perspective.

This is just one example of why Canada should not cozy up to China, as some have suggested in recent weeks. China is not an ally to Canada, to freedom, to democracy, or to human righta. We should never forget that their government held Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig hostage. That’s just what they’ve done to specific Canadians, they’ve done much worse to other people groups (Tibetans, Uighur) and their own citizens. As far as feasible, we should be avoiding China the way we are avoiding the USA. China is more enemy than friend.

I don’t believe nothing will change. I do believe Musk will capture communications and use it to monitor people he believes are his biggest enemies, then use it to best-case blackmail them, worst-case have them arrested in trumped-up (no pun intended) charges.

Random unknown people are being kidnapped, tortured, and sold internationally as slaves by the government. These are the cases we know about because they are getting to the media. How many are not getting through the Right-supporting media? Do we really think actual opponents aren’t just waiting targets?

Librarians go to school to learn how to manage information, whether it is in book format or otherwise. (We tend to think of libraries as places with books because, for so much of human history, that’s how information was stored.)

They are not supposed to have more information in their heads, they are supposed to know how to find (source) information, catalogue and categorize it, identify good information from bad information, good information sources from bad ones, and teach others how to do so as well.

I had to tell a bunch of librarians that LLMs are literally language models made to mimic language patterns, and are not made to be factually correct. They understood it when I put it that way, but librarians are supposed to be “information professionals”. If they, as a slightly better trained subset of the general public, don’t know that, the general public has no hope of knowing that.

I never really got into tea because I always found the flavour disappointing compared to its aroma. But I recently tried yerba maté, which isn’t a tea but definition, but is similar. It’s made from the leaves and stems of Holly and has a strong, bitter flavour that definitely does not disappoint. It’s enjoyed in places like Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Brazil. Now I start my day with a mug of coffee, then sip on maté the rest of the day.

This is insanity. I’m glad she’s safe here in Canada and edit: HOPE she will be granted status to stay and complete her PhD that she’s almost done. It sounds like Srinivasan is the kind of person we want to welcome here: intelligent, hard working, slides with justice.

I hope Canada will continue to be a safe place for people who work hard for a better life not just for themselves, but others also.

Personally, I’m not sure we can assume there will be an election in four years. Or if there is one, that it won’t be an “election”, like in Russia.

(Likewise, if the US ever did take over Canada by force, I’m sure we would be a territory like Puerto Rico and not have a vote.)

Dogs taking away jobs from humans? What a disgrace! Surely dogs are DEI hires, if I ever saw one. They’re not even people!

There are very many normal human sounds that are not speech, including, but not limited to: laughter, crying, yelling/screaming/yelping (in surprise, pain, fear), groaning, moaning, yawning, sneezing, coughing, vomiting, singing, whistling.

What constitutes human speech? There are languages that have sounds that don’t exist in other languages (said as someone still trying to get a hold on rolling my Rs).

In any case, we should all learn some sign language. Seriously, it’s useful to be able to communicate silently or just visually (e.g. Across a noisy room), plus it makes life way more inclusive for Deaf people.

Wow, the Russian (probably) movement went hard on that one.

My respect to you for going back and checking it out.

This is the first I’ve heard of it. Can you share your source, please? I want to see it myself whether it’s reputable before I form an opinion.

Zarqa, the funniest thing I’ve ever watched. A spiteful, middle-aged, Pakistani Muslim divorcee in Regina tries to manage/rehab her reputation and ego… With disastrously hilarious results. It’s a short mini-series that can be watched in about two hours.

I just stumbled upon Gangnam Project. It’s about two biracial Korean-Canadian teens who go to S. Korea to connect with their roots and get all caught up in the K-Pop making machine. It’s meant for the tween market, but it’s just so different than anything I’ve seen (maybe I haven’t seen much) that I find it interesting. Plus who doesn’t live an eternally optimistic lead when the real world is crazy times? Obviously it’s dramatized, but I am kind of peripherally aware that idol-culture is a very serious deal in Asia, esp Korea. (Last year some K-Pop star publicly apologized for having a boyfriend?!) I wonder how much of it is based in reality and how much is just made up.

DEI can still be achieved without using that terminology directly.

I agree that not longer having a policy or metrics around diversity doesn’t mean that the people in a company won’t still value it. I’m a part-time student and the school’s director recently did an AMA. He said an upcoming event was renamed to avoid the threats that are being directed at “DEI”, but the event itself is still about cultural diversity. I forget what the new name was, something about the stories of our people or something like that.

I absolutely agree that Internet should be a nationalized service, with the option of private players. Saskatchewan has (for cellphones) Sasktel by the government, and all prices are lower even from the for profit companies. We should have crown corps + private enterprise for everything that is an essential service. Mail has Canada Post + private couriers.

The nationwide Rogers outage… When was that, a year ago? Put all kinds of businesses, banking, local payment systems, etc. on hold. How is it acceptable to the nation that essential infrastructure is entirely private?