Jen Raso

"Something needs to be done differently. We are stuck in a loop expecting something different. I do not think engaging with a performative, pre-determined public consultation process is it." 💯 That the govt is forcing a "sprint" precisely where there is the greatest need to slow down, says it all.

Their effectiveness at equally applying speed limits to all is one of the reasons that speed cameras struck a chord with students in my law and technology class at U of A Law. Nearly all felt the cameras were unfair, though they also acknowledged that speeding was against the law and dangerous.

Speed cameras are a revenue source, sure. But they're also pretty effective at enforcing speed limits via fines, which is why drivers who feel entitled to speed hate them. In some cities, like Edmonton, they've even inspired creative counter-strategies, detailed here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Don’t know who needs to hear this but…an increase in class enrollment caps without an increase in teaching staff is an increase in production without commensurate pay.

I.e. it’s a pay cut.

Pass it on.

Something not discussed enough is the demoralization experienced by profs who dedicate yrs of study to obtain a PhD only to read automated essays that the uni in its embrace of AI expects them to accept as actual knowledge production.

It may be that the future isn't jobless, but it's worth asking which jobs persist, who performs them, where, under what conditions. And importantly which types of *labour* are maintained, intensified, devalued, etc. Often, AI/tech create more labour, but not necessarily in the form of paid jobs.

Great resource @eidlin.bsky.social . I would add that "tech" changes not just paid jobs but labour too. AI and other tech may eliminate some paid work. But they also push labour elsewhere: to unpaid system maintainers, to low-paid data and algorithm refiners in the majority world/global south, etc.

Long Covid Risk for Children Doubles After a Second Infection, Study Finds

NEW: Long Covid risk for children doubles after a second infection, study finds www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/h...

Drimonis: I’m not a guest here. This is my home. It’s Kim Thúy’s home too We all have the right to both love and criticize Quebec.

“Thúy has been a Quebecer longer than Bock-Côté has been alive. Why is she being treated by him as a foreigner, branded as ungrateful the minute she criticizes policies & rhetoric that deeply impact Quebec’s reputation and many Quebecers’ sense of belonging?”
www.montrealgazette.com/opinion/colu...

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin ✨ figured out what stars are made of ✨ when she was just 25. 🔭🧪

Her PhD thesis basically established the Harvard astro department — at a time when Harvard didn't officially allow woman students.

I wrote this little profile to mark the 100th anniversary of her thesis:

hey, i'm gonna say more tomorrow, but i'm starting a reading group for "AI skeptics" - it's called "AI Skeptics Reading Group"

i am not great at names; please suggest alternatives if you're creative.

i'll be sending an email tomorrow, but here are a few things to get you started

If it wasn’t already clear the direction AI policy was going under Mark Carney and Evan Solomon, this task force makes it clear.

The inclusion of the chair of Build Canada, whose members openly pushed for a Canadian DOGE and Poilievre government earlier this year, is just one of many examples.

Shiro Kasamatsu (1898-1991) was a prominent Japanese woodblock print artist

the post office is a public service. it doesn’t need to make money. public transit doesn’t need to make money. the library doesn’t need to make money. some things exist for the public good and we desperately need lawmakers to stop thinking about them in terms of capitalism. these are not businesses.

Imagine comprendre ça.

So much this 👇👇👇. It should not be that only the most privileged families can find appropriate and supportive schools for their neurodivergent kids. I would add, this is why so many parents are in burnout too.

photo of paulina borsook

1/ A longtime Wired editor just wrote a mush-brained essay about how he totally missed the political rot of Silicon Valley (& still doesn't get it).

But in the late 1990s, a Wired journalist warned of a toxic ideology bubbling up from tech. Paulina Borsook has largely been erased. Let's change that

High-level multi-stakeholder informal meeting to launch the Global Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence Governance The high-level informal meeting is convened pursuant to General Assembly resolution 79/325, which established the Global Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence Governance as a follow-up to the Pact for t...

LIVE NOW: AI Now’s @ambakak.bsky.social joins UN Secretary General António Guterres, President of the General Assembly Annalena Baerbock, UN Tech Envoy Amandeep Gill, and nation leaders to launch a Global Dialogue on AI Governance on the floor of the UN.

Livestream: webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1p...

I know I’ve been posting a lot about this, but it’s telling of how this government looks at society that at the very moment Mark Carney can’t stop talking about nation-building projects, he’s throwing the biggest nationwide service-delivery network on the scrap heap because it doesn’t make money.

What an immense loss. Dr. Markland was a beacon of hope, energy, and laughs during very dark days for healthcare workers and anyone concerned about some of our most marginalized community members. Not to mention #YEG coffee outside. Thanks to @jvipondmd.bsky.social for sharing. 💔

One of my favorite poems since childhood, and a poem I share every #autumnequinox.
By the 12thc warrior poet Xin Qiji 辛棄疾, sidelined during peacetime, demoted, drifting through a decade of minor posts in remote lands.
Poetry, then, is that which is left unsaid.
“My, what a cool and lovely autumn.”

It ys the seasoun of decoratif gourdes, O knaves

So tiring.

I had a chance to talk face to face with ppl in power positions who by default thought my gender & critical thought imply I know nothing about AI. Within 10 min they realise they know nothing about AI.

Why do women need to always do massive meta-labour to even get an ounce of respect

It's not just people who caught it in 2020. It's 2021, 2022, 2023,2024, 2025, and forever into the future.

I can confirm there's chaos at Berlin Brandenburg! Everyone has to be checked in by hand (taking 10-15 mins per passenger). Rumours of hand written boarding passes.

We need a cyber security expert to comment on the interreliance and vulnerability of these check in systems!

Canada's parliament started the week giving a standing O for free speech and the memory of Charlie Kirk.
They ended it by joining Orban's Hungary and Trump's America in targeting @kneecapceol.bsky.social an Irish hip hop group for challenging the genocide.
Not our finest hour.

I wanted to get a video of this ghost crab but every time I got close to their hole they scuttled back in, so I tried getting clever with it. I made a little sandcastle and shoved my phone into it, hit record, and walked away. Crab was VERY suspicious of this addition to their environment.

My goodness. 🫢

Ugh, this is totally awful. We will likely be faced with the same at our kids' school in the near future...

The disregard for the long-term health of the next generations of québecois(es) is astounding, especially in a nationalist province.