Andrew Wahl 🇨🇦

Introduce yourself with the last five concerts you attended:

Kathleen Edwards
The Sadies
Jeremie Albino
Cuff The Duke
Lowest of the Low / Danny Michel

Also: Fiddlestix (backyard party)

Next: The Black Keys in two weeks.

I’m definitely using this trick on Zoom / Teams / Webex / Google Meet / FaceTime meetings when I’m not really listening.

(I am, in fact, already quite conscious of moving my head and changing my facial expressions in a way that is distinct from my mannerisms an in-person meeting.)

I’m biased — my wife is half-Danish and her relatives have been incredibly kind and welcoming to me — but I really do like Denmark.

It ain’t perfect! Racism / anti-immigrant prejudice is a thing. But it generally seems to be thoughtful and generous about solving societal problems.

Or more likely, DJT signed it for her. “No one will know it was me!” Stable genius, etc.

Your dog is right. You shouldn’t care either.

Epically on point.

Thank you @benjedwards.com for reminding us that responsibility/blame for harmful A.I. falls on the engineers and companies that build and release these software tools, not some mysterious intelligence with agency.

/3
“Yet underneath, it's still deterministic software following mathematical operations. No consciousness required, just complex engineering that makes it easy to forget humans built every part of it.”

/2
“But the truth is simpler: These systems take inputs and process them through statistical tendencies derived from training data. The seeming randomness in their outputs—which makes each response slightly different—creates an illusion of unpredictability that resembles agency.”

/1
“In a way, AI models launder human responsibility and human agency through their complexity. When outputs emerge from layers of neural networks processing billions of parameters, researchers can claim they're investigating a mysterious "black box" as if it were an alien entity.”

I'll say it a thousand times -- any account of the past that only celebrates the good parts of a nation without reckoning with the bad is not what we call "history"

It is propaganda, pure and simple.

Is Canada ready for a fiery future? We tallied up all of its water bomber planes to find out | CBC News A wildfire season like no other has tested Canada’s airborne firefighting capacity, revealing that one of the most forested countries in the world may be ill-equipped to deal with fires raging simulta...

@mark-carney.bsky.social needs to establish a national fleet of water bombers NOW rather than letting Canada burn to the ground.

Ordering today still means waiting in line until 2030 because Europe has already planned ahead.

#cdnpoli #canada #climate #wildfire
shorturl.at/BT8eI

Hamilton woman says cooking business erased 'from existence' after Instagram account shut down by Meta | CBC News A Hamilton entrepreneur is scrambling to get her five social media accounts back after Meta suddenly disabled them over three weeks ago for no apparent reason, putting her home cooking business on hol...

Yes, this must suck for her.

Also, don’t base your “existence” on the whims of a free, unaccountable platform.

(Not entirely sure why the CBC felt this was important to cover. It’s hardly “news”.)
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

That’s some great Canadian music trivia.

(As is your bsky account name. Respect.)

My first album (well, cassette tape). Still one of my all-time favourite summer road trip start-to-finish listens.

I didn’t get to see him live for my first concert until his forgettable follow-up album, Into The Fire. At least it was at Maple Leaf Gardens.

really don't love that AI companies keep aggressively violating foundational norms and making the internet worse

There used to be this deal between Google (and other search engines) and the Web: You get to index our stuff, show ads next to them but you link our work. AI Overview and Perplexity and all these systems cancel that deal.

What I call Serfdom of the Self is when our identities, attention, and even emotions become dependent on digital systems we don’t control. We hand over more of our inner lives to these systems, and in return they decide the conditions of our existence.

Jon Williams from @rorypecktrust.bsky.social : "The murder of 6 journalists in a single incident is one of the worst attacks on journalists ever... killing and targeting journalists is a war crime"

As electric bills rise, evidence mounts that data centers share blame. States feel pressure to act Amid rising electric bills, states are under pressure to insulate regular household and business ratepayers from the costs of feeding Big Tech’s energy-hungry data centers.

One study concluded 70% of increased electric cost across US due to AI data centers.
apnews.com/article/elec...

A core use case for bots’ emotional resonance with the user is psychological addiction.

Human interaction is often messy and emotionally painful.

Bot interaction, if coded properly, can feel less painful—even soothing—to the user, making it addictive.

Addiction is profitable.

Has it been that long? 😢

Even if there isn't a ban. Don't be a dumbass who costs someone their home.
No fireworks until this breaks.
No fires.
Hose down the area before a BBQ.
No fires.
Don't smoke over parched landscaping, don't throw matches or butts on the ground.
No fires.
Shouldn't have to tell you people this stuff.

Not ironic. It’s by design—a feature, not a bug.

But it’s fine, definitely need a law preventing any regulatory oversight of AI for ten years. It’s going to be *just fine*.

Kudos to Brooks for opening up about all of this. Scary stuff.

Trump: "The crime numbers [in D.C.] get worse."
Official statistics: Violent crime in D.C. is at a 30-year low.
The Trump regime is inventing lies to justify military control over our cities. It's what dictators do.

Opinion | ‘Acute, Sustained, Profound and Abiding Rage’: Canada Finds Its Voice

I hope so, but I’m having doubts about whether this mood is guiding our leaders. I’m seeing more defensive placating than united offense. Far too little rallying of all Canadians to the cause.

‘Acute, Sustained, Profound and Abiding Rage’: Canada Finds Its Voice 🎁 www.nytimes.com/2025/08/10/o...

Incredible how successful the decision of most Canadian provinces to stop selling US alcohol has been.

If you can find any.

Sure, just use “AI” to “analyze”intercepted phone calls to pick the next person and/or family to kill or shelter and/or hospital to bomb.

What could be wrong with that? Just an excellent use of the technology’s supposed productivity enhancements.

#dystopianAF