Alex

Now we just have to hope it never gets hot in May!

I asked @juliedzerowicz.bsky.social before the election whether the feds approve U.S. military participation in the Toronto Airshow. Her office just replied saying they can’t answer because Cabinet hasn’t been named, and to ask again “in a few months” (after the airshow?)

They have been doing that for a long time. Early versions of GPT used Reddit comments sections to judge the quality of a response during model training.

Although this is recommended, it’s actually not allowed for a car to run over a pedestrian because they aren’t pointing.

Cars are significantly heavier than bicycles, and bring several orders of magnitude more energy into a collision even at the same speed as a bike.

Provinces can’t unilaterally secede - see here: www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/do...

“secession of a province "under the Constitution" could not be achieved unilaterally, that is, without principled negotiation with other participants in Confederation within the existing constitutional framework.”

The "leading" numbers really don't mean much. This is evidence of that

You’re absolutely right about how image “generation” works but it is a little different for text since it’s word by word. The quoted post is right, though, LLMs are trained to predict sequences of words that seem likely - nothing to do with truthfulness

It’s like delivery bike riders are completely invisible. Saying “it’s all delivery e-bike riders” as if that means it’s not worth it - okay, is everyone going to stop using DoorDash too?

its amazing how chatgpt knows everything about subjects I know nothing about, but is wrong like 40% of the time in things im an expert on. not going to think about this any further

Philip Mai PoliDashboard Making the Invisible Visible Civic Tech TORONTO Hacknight #488 IN PERSON AND ONLINE Tues April 8 → 7pm

Next Tuesday, see @philipmai.com talk about PoliDashboard!

Discover how political advertisers in Canada are chasing your clicks on Facebook and Instagram, and how political ads can be weaponized to manipulate, or interfere in an election.

8 April 7pm, in person/online

guild.host/events/civic...

From News to Action: How The Green Line's Documenters Are Changing Civic Engagement.

Anita Li and Sebastian Tansil discuss how local news can empower communities to take action.

Plus our usual breakouts for projects and discussions!

March 18th 7pm: in person and online

guild.host/events/civic...

Removing bike lanes will likely worsen gridlock, lead to more collisions: government documents Engineering report prepared for province estimates Queen's Park's plan to remove Toronto bike lanes could increase collisions by 54 per cent

Documents unearthed as part of a legal challenge show the Doug Ford government received expert evidence that planned bike lane removals could worsen traffic congestion in Toronto and lead to injuries.

#BikeTO #ToPoli #OnPoli

There is also an incredible amount of talent specifically focused on civic tech — technology that seeks to make the city work better — with a Civic Tech Toronto group meeting weekly to show off cool independent projects, often built using city hall’s generally unheralded but very useful Open Data department.

Great to be mentioned in the Toronto Star this morning - thanks @graphicmatt.com!

www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

It is!

hey if you aren't american i'd strongly reconsider traveling to the US for any sort of convention

Etobicoke-Lakeshore live Ontario election results Etobicoke-Lakeshore live Ontario election results

Hogarth was an explicit anti bike lane candidate, there at the Bloor west announcements to kill them, quite visible. And she lost. Bike lanes are a settled issue in Toronto. In the last mayoral election the anti bike lane candidates lost.

www.thestar.com/politics/ele...

person with black hat and shirt photographed from behind with raised fist.

Got my votin' shirt on, thanks @jameskingsley!

Leave work early, do whatever you have to to get to the polling station and send as many of these goons packing as we can.

Email screenshot Why is the Region of Waterloo still posting to X? Dear Regional Councillors, I don't need to tell you that Canada is facing unprecedented and unprovoked economic aggression from our southern neighbours. So it is so jarring to see my Regional government still sharing its updates on X (formerly Twitter). That platform is not just owned by Elon Musk — one of Trump's most active lieutenants — but as a platform it is being used to advance Trump's political interests. Even before the election, the algorithms on X were tuned to boost some of the vilest and most hateful content (racism, sexism, homophobia, etc.), and the site now feeds on fighting. It has long ceased to be a relatively neutral platform to share information. It's also not a platform that has much reach for an organization like yours. Governments want to share information usually via links to their own sites — but the algorithms on X (and Facebook for that matter) are designed to keep users in a walled garden. Many readers have left, but the ones that are still there largely see the content from the algorithm, which generally skips over posts with links. And for X, Facebook, and Instagram, people need to have an account and be logged in to see your updates. Please consider asking staff to wind down their presence on X for the various accounts of the Region of Waterloo. Fortunately, there is a good and growing alternative in Bluesky, which is a quite neutral platform, is open in the way it's built, is publicly accessible without an account, does not penalize links, and has useful curation features. E.g. the Region of Waterloo could have a starter pack of all official accounts, or it could have topical feeds (to which people can subscribe) sharing content from multiple accounts or from an event. But even if you're not setting up a presence elsewhere, I implore you to do what you can to reduce or end the Region's presence on X. With appreciation, Michael Druker Kitchener

What are you doing on your Sunday evening? I'm emailing my local elected officials to get our local governments off the Musk/Trump platform

Great email! I just sent a version based on yours to my councillor in Toronto.

ANALYSIS: The government just got a pile of bad booze news. Will voters care? | TVO Today The Financial Accountability Office reported the cost of expanded alcohol sales could reach nearly $2 billion.

"That’s $612 million in additional costs to accelerate the roll-out of corner store beer and wine by 483 days, or $1.2 million per day." — @jm-mcgrath.bsky.social #onpoli

For those who missed this great presentation by @mbonsma.bsky.social - it's now on our Youtube channel. Enjoy!

And if you were there - enjoy it again!

youtu.be/peqhxVXKfps?...

Think about what a $200 cheque from Doug Ford could do.

www.200cheque.ca

Yumi Numata and Kelsi-Leigh Balaban present The Yellowhead Treaty Map - an accessible introduction to Indigenous perspectives on treaties.

🚀 Tues Jan 21st at 7pm, online and in person: Civic Hacknight #477

guild.host/events/civic...

#civictech

There are a bunch more Star Trek cameos to come. I’m also pretty sure that Frakes directed some of the episodes

Orville time

I guess if we want to get into the weeds, after that is when the Star Trek timeline Really diverges with reality (WW3 in the 90s and stuff) so they can’t acknowledge events/culture so easily.

Maybe it’s retro, like Tom Paris’ Chevrolet Camaro

Come see the fabulous @mbonsma.bsky.social talk about advocacy, citizen science, and the latest research on cycling in Toronto. Online and in person.

🚀 Jan 14th at 7PM: Civic Hacknight #476: From Bacteria to Bikes – Quantitative Cycling Research in Toronto

Check it out 👉 guild.host/events/civic...

🚀 New year, new Youtube uploads of Canadian parliamentary proceedings!

Jan 7th 7pm, in person and online – Matt Malone introduces HansardTube, to automatically upload Canadian parliamentary videos to YouTube, so people can use its language and accessibility features.

👉 guild.host/events/civic...