Lone Bacterium 🌻

I don’t think that there’s anything left in the Province that has not been made worse by the Ford government. Every publicly funded service is worse. I cannot think of one thing that he has improved. Not one.

67% of Crimea’s repression targets one people: Crimean Tatars. The US peace plan would hand them to Russia Crimean Tatars survived Stalin's deportation. Now they face Russia's repression.

From 2017 to 2025, 10,727 human rights violations were recorded in occupied Crimea, including 7,166 targeting Crimean Tatars

Meanwhile, the US peace plan reportedly includes recognition of Crimea as “Russian,” potentially legitimizing the occupation
euromaidanpress.com/2025/12/11/6...

I really really want to like Via Rail and wish it was a reasonable option for our yearly trip to Montreal, but it's both expensive and unreliable.

S.F. police seek help finding dog kicked by suspect who attacked 65-year-old man San Francisco police are looking for the dog of a 65-year-old man who suffered life-threatening injuries during an assault in the Tenderloin.

San Francisco police are looking for the dog of a 65-year-old man who suffered life-threatening injuries during an assault in the Tenderloin.

An elderly Black man with short gray hair and glasses smiles warmly at the camera. He is wearing a black tuxedo with a black bow tie, white dress shirt, and white pocket square. Around his neck is a wide red ribbon with white edges holding a large ornate medal featuring a green and gold emblem. The background is a soft neutral gray. Formal portrait lighting.

Howard McCurdy was a civil rights activist, a groundbreaking biologist, a Member of Parliament, and a vocal opponent of apartheid in South Africa.
When Nelson Mandela was released from prison, he personally thanked McCurdy.
This is McCurdy's story.

🧵 1/9

Wakefield: Police Appeal to Public for Help Locating 60-Year-Old Woman Reported Missing - Norwood News The NYPD is appealing to the public for help locating a 60-year-old woman who is reported missing from the Wakefield section of The Bronx.

Please share this. My mother has been missing since December 7th. She has severe dementia and we are just praying that she is found safely.
www.norwoodnews.org/wakefield-po...

This is illuminating. The Bloomberg article mentions that the previous president stepped down after a student protest and faculty no-confidence vote, but doesn't say what prompted that protest.

bsky.app/profile/gawk...

I understand that colleges have to make some impossible financial choices, but at some point we have to ask if anything is truly being saved. Once Townsley is done with it, will Albright be a liberal arts college in any meaningful sense? Ship of Theseus situation

‘For the Reinvention of Man’: How a Conservative Debating Society at Harvard Pushed Women From Its Ranks | News | The Harvard Crimson The John Adams Society began quietly excluding women from membership this semester, former and prospective affiliates told The Crimson. It is now effectively functioning as a single-sex organization.

The John Adams Society began quietly excluding women from membership this semester, former and prospective affiliates told The Crimson. It is now effectively functioning as a single-sex organization.

@abbysgerstein and @JackBReardon report.

www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Incredible to have an administrator just come out and say it

How Google Maps quietly allocates survival across London’s restaurants - and how I built a dashboard to see through it I wanted a dinner recommendation and got a research agenda instead. Using 13000+ restaurants, I rebuild its ratings with machine learning and map how algorithmic visibility actually distributes power.

I wanted dinner recommendations so I scraped 13,000+ London restaurants and accidentally discovered Google Maps is running a shadow economy. Anyway here's a dashboard and a political economy thesis: open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...

Canada’s privacy commissioner launches investigation into facial detection ads near Union Station The Star previously reported on the billboards that collected Torontonians’ biometric data. They’re now the subject of a privacy investigation.

Canada’s privacy commissioner launches investigation into facial detection ads near Union Station

people gotta talk about their shingles experiences. no one is going to enjoy this

My @politicshome.bsky.social story from the summer about the AI-generated "I rise to speak" phenomenon in Parliament has made it into @nytimes.com 🇺🇸

(sadly, without credit)

Close up of a paper dahlia

Jumble of paper curls/tubes

Petals of a paper dahlia, some open and some curled

Tis the season for… #ArtAdventCalendar!

Day 5️⃣

A shimmering paper dahlia

I pulled this one from the vault in honour of Frank Gehry’s passing today. I was in 💛 with his sinuous architecture.

The Indian Ocean disaster is a climate tragedy — and needs more attention A region unused to tropical cyclones has had three in a week. The world needs to ask why this happened, not look away.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The rise of deepfake pornography in schools: ‘One girl was so horrified she vomited’ The use of ‘nudify’ apps is becoming more and more prevalent, with hundreds of teachers having seen images created by pupils, often of their peers. The fallout is huge – and growing fast

The rise of deepfake pornography in schools: ‘One girl was so horrified she vomited’ www.theguardian.com/society/ng-i...

AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself Students use AI to write papers, professors use AI to grade them, degrees become meaningless, and tech companies make fortunes. Welcome to the death of higher education.

I finally got around to reading this. You should read it too.

"We are exporting the very labor of teaching and learning—the slow work of wrestling with ideas, the enduring of discomfort, doubt and confusion, the struggle of finding one’s own voice."

www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...

Russia carried out massive air strikes on residential areas of Slaviansk. Eight people were injured, including two children.

ChatGPT Told a Violent Stalker to Embrace the 'Haters,' Indictment Says A newly filed indictment claims a wannabe influencer used ChatGPT as his "therapist" and "best friend" in his pursuit of the "wife type," while harassing women so aggressively they had to miss work a...

OpenAI knows this is a problem. it knows hundreds of thousands of people are using their product to dig deeper into delusion and make the people around them miserable and unsafe. and it does not care www.404media.co/chatgpt-spot...

"Unpleasant Thought: You have wasted and squandered your many privileges.

Object Purchased: AIRism Stretch Cropped Pants, from Uniqlo."

Why gotta do that to me, McSweeney's?

See the influential paper and @undark.org commentary on Monsanto's ghostwriting by Alexander Kaurov & @naomioreskes.bsky.social: undark.org/2025/08/15/o... #pesticides #agtwitter

Have people just collectively forgotten that you were able to transport children by car before SUVs were popular????

Himbo Conclave could be a great band name

Russia and China being geographically large great powers is treated as a physical law of reality, they've been that way since time immemorial, and everything must be done to preserve the status quo because them shrinking or losing world standing risks consensus reality itself

Franklin's Canadian publisher seems none too pleased:
bsky.app/profile/kids...

Also, roadway salt. Also, it would be a major slipping hazard for pedestrians. I can keep going.

Aside from this ruining bike lanes for cyclists, Toronto doesn't get reliably cold enough in the winter for this to work. It would also ruin the asphalt faster. ALSO, bike lanes are already dangerous when they're not sufficiently separated from traffic. Now the suggestion is to make them slippery?!

Ya. My partner teaches at a university and has also noticed this. Reading comprehension, basic math and logic all at terrible levels. But on top of that some just never attend class but still expect a high grade.

one reason "great power competition" is a bad description of the emerging order is that an interlinked global kleptocracy does not care about national interests or rivalries