This makes my day. I have admired @fabulavancouver.bsky.social ever since she mentored me as a student reporter at
The Vancouver Sun in the 90s.
Now, our city’s most clear-eyed observer is running for city council. She’s just the combo of pragmatic, compassionate and honest we need.
How TikTok and other social media platforms reward creators for inflaming division:
Wanna make a load of cash on TikTok? Just use AI to make fake videos of social unrest. Go ahead, inflame both sides. The outrage is the product. open.substack.com/pub/techands...
WATCH: If you STILL don’t understand how car-dependent suburbia is HEAVILY SUBSIDIZED by downtown and all the urban parts of your city, watch this EXCELLENT video by #NotJustBikes with #Urban3 & @strongtowns.bsky.social. And PLEASE SHARE it as much as possible.
I’ve sent it to a LOT of politicians.
Studies show that connecting with strangers:
-makes us happier
-makes us more open to other points of view
-boosts belief that other people are generally kind
👉 Designing for connection is good for individuals AND society! @greatergoodmag.bsky.social
greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item...
This is gorgeous.
The richest man owns X.
The second and third richest men control Google.
The fourth richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
The fifth richest man owns The Washington Post.
And now the sixth richest could soon take over both Paramount and Warner Bros.
See the problem here?
A 'Tiny Minority' of Social Media Accounts Drive Canadian Conspiracy Content via @thetyee.ca thetyee.ca/News/2026/02...
Where would you travel if you could not take or post photos? How would you travel?
Bluesky is the new science Twitter, new study by @whysharksmatter.bsky.social and Julia Wester concludes!
"Results show that for every reported professional benefit that scientists once gained from Twitter, scientists can now gain that benefit more effectively on Bluesky than on Twitter."
Meta's plan for launching glasses that people can use to secretly identify strangers on the street is to do it "during a dynamic political environment" when people who care about why that's bad are "focused on other concerns."
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/t...
"The tendency to perceive AI as a conscious agent is strongly correlated with a user’s ... propensity for apophenia (finding patterns in random events)."
Upshot: conspiracy-mined people more likely to believe that AI is conscious.
@collectiveintel.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/collecti...
"The most important design question is this: Can AI help make cooperation rewarding, not self-sacrificing?”
Powerful words from David Sloan Wilson, quoted in "The AI Cooperation Test" by @socialcohesiontech.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/techands...
Design broke the social contract. We can demand designs that uphold it.
Social apps may have to stop giving kids the "infinite scroll"
www.platformer.news/social-media...
This is Team Canada.
Only one Vancouver political party is letting its members choose its mayoral candidate through an open primary. The candidates will debate online tonight:
Amigos chilangos!
Pueden ayudar mi paisano Denis? Esta buscando líderes en activismo para tránsito público en CDMX.
@guillermobernal.bsky.social
@peatonito.bsky.social
❤️
The next time an architect tries to sell you an AI-rendered vision of paradise, you might want to run it theough this brilliant Anti-render machine to see what the place might look like on a crappy November morning.
antirender.com
I encourage you to read Chetty’s research.
One of the most powerful things we can do to improve the lives of poorer children is let them live amongst wealthier people.
Raj Chetty’s research points the way.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/o...
This is a fascinating analysis of the Minnesota ICE raids pushback: How a community rejected violent extremists' attempt to define the American in-group.
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/anatomy-of-e... #Extremism #Fascism #ICE #Immigration via @mitpress.bsky.social
When AI Can Fake Majorities, Democracy Dies Quietly
open.substack.com/pub/powerofu...
It appears that TikTok USA is being configured as a state surveillance operation.
In 2025, City Hall paralysis blocked 6 key sites from being developed. Ken Sim couldn’t build the majority required to get things done.
Enough. I’m moving to immediately unlock these sites for 4,000 affordable homes. No more excuses. #VanPoli #HousingNow
Hey Canadians,
Here's a smart essay from the brilliant @khelsilem.bsky.social on the purpose, limits and misuse of "land acknowledgements"
Dial down the performance and crank up the pragmatism. Really worth reading.
open.substack.com/pub/khelsile...
This report is aimed at business, institutional and NGO leaders. It doesn't address some of the key issues of democratic decline and inequity of our time. But it is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the trust divide. www.edelman.com/sites/g/file...
From half to a third of respondents to the Edelman Barometer also say they won't help colleagues with different values.
And people with this 'insular trust mindset' are less likely to trust leaders or journalists. In other words, suspicion about people outside our social groups seems to be reducing trust in institutions themselves.
But the Edelman Trust barometer offers scary news about Insularity. 70pc of people in its 28-nation survey say they are unwilling or hesitant to trust people who are different than them.
