Sameer Vasta

Marco Rubio’s celebration of Western Culture and how distinct it is from the rest of the world, and how appalling mass migration is, would be a bit more convincing to me if the United States wasn’t a product of Mass Migration and many of the achievements of said civilization weren’t multi-cultural.

Lobster, scallops, baguette, Caesar salad, and a bottle of Mason Vineyards brut rosé — and finished with some molten chocolate lava cakes for dessert. A lovely, quiet Valentine’s Day dinner at home.

What's so amazing about Jim Henson as a puppeteer is that he could literally be explaining that Kermit is made out of felt and ping pong balls and yet Kermit still feels alive the whole time he's doing it

Cartoon. Person says to other person „We invented a robot that answers questions.“, adding, „we just have to feed it 10 baby giraffes a day“. The other person asks „But it answers the questions correctly?“ Person responds „Oh my goodness, no. No no no no no.“ By Aram J. French Appropriated due to missing alt text

We go to Thomas Bros weekly during its open season; I had no idea the area around it was called Tempo! Thanks for the great newsletter.

I know! When the baristas feel like friends, it’s especially sad to see it all shut down.

Just DMed you. :)

*staring directly at the current Canadian federal policy agenda*

Just heard that one of my favorite coffee shops is closing at the end of this month — just wasn’t feasible to keep it going because of financial considerations — and I’m extremely bummed out about this.

“I’ve reviewed over 50 sticky toffee puddings” is an incredibly powerful way to begin a video

No one has seriously said LLMs aren’t important or that AI is categorically junk.

Some of us have said that there is something bigger than tech. It’s called power — governance, civic norms, etc — & refusal is absolutely part of how we think soberly about that power. Who has it & how they use it.

Not so secret if you live here. :) Hope you’re having a good trip!

idk i think in a time when it feels like nothing matters & all is futile it might actually be time to double down and write your stories & make your paintings & sing your songs & do your art. create the things that make us human and share them.

I've been back in Fake London for a few days... and let me tell you how bonkers it is to have residential roads signed at 40 km/h, and roads that connect them are four lanes stroads with 60 km/h limits. It feels chaotic, expensive, and frustrating to exist in a city where car ownership is mandatory.

AI Doesn’t Reduce Work—It Intensifies It One of the promises of AI is that it can reduce workloads so employees can focus more on higher-value and more engaging tasks. But according to new research, AI tools don’t reduce work, they consistently intensify it: In the study, employees worked at a faster pace, took on a broader scope of tasks, and extended work into more hours of the day, often without being asked to do so. That may sound like a win, but it’s not quite so simple. These changes can be unsustainable, leading to workload creep, cognitive fatigue, burnout, and weakened decision-making. The productivity surge enjoyed at the beginning can give way to lower quality work, turnover, and other problems. To correct for this, companies need to adopt an “AI practice,” or a set of norms and standards around AI use that can include intentional pauses, sequencing work, and adding more human grounding.

The premise here—that we can developed shared practices to prevent being taken in by the design patterns that AI imposes—obscures the reasons those patterns exist in the first place, who made them, and what they aim to do. https://hbr.org/2026/02/ai-doesnt-reduce-work-it-intensifies-it

it's like our entire sense of morality has been filtered through the act of consumption, and the highest good we can imagine is feeling good and clean and pure as individuals, unpolluted by the obvious evil are around us

meanwhile, real change requires the kind of work you need a drink after

I just never, ever get over thinking: Which is easier, figuring out how to live on the moon, or figuring out how to make it so we can continue living on earth? If you’re truly a visionary, why not do the second one?

Disturbingly detailed analysis of my first rewatch incoming

email from the school district sending me to the parentvue login to get redirected to the public website where there is a link to the pdf of the monthly newsletter

I love that this man knows how to communicate a civics lesson. 😍

Illuminate Black: Shining Light on the Black Presence in Ontario - Archives of Ontario On February 23, we’re launching a new exhibit on the rich and complex histories of Black communities across the province. Illuminate Black: Shining Light on

February is Black History Month!

Illuminate Black: Shining Light on the Black Presence in Ontario

www.archives.gov.on.ca/illuminate-b...

This was great and very well thought out. Consideration before participation should be a driving force in how we build things online.

Just got these from the post office today! Excited to send them out.

Hope you feel better soon!

Awash with glitter - Flashing Palely in the Margins Sameer Vasta is an epistolarian, anthropologist, urban explorer, and over-user of the discretionary comma.

“Enough small delights make for a season of warmth, even when the world is cold outside.”

I collected a few excellent links from around the web, and shared them here along with a short rumination and a poem: www.inthemargins.ca/glitter-outs...

Most of the folks whose brains I trust repeatedly emphasize that internal trade barriers are not actually a huge issue - rather, the issues are usually political will and unwillingness to partner - and that what we’ll actually see is a race to the regulatory bottom.

The snowflakes drifting off our roof are so fine and delicate, and mirror the bright sunlight so scintillatingly, that it feels like I am surrounded by a whirlwind of glitter when I stare out the back window.

There is no "immigration problem"

There is no migrant problem

There is no problem with illegals

There is no border crisis

Only a problem of the border and the machinery of death that upholds it.

Thanks for the shoutout in your recent retro. For what it’s worth, I’ve loved all your retros, no matter the format.

I pay taxes so my government can feed people with dignity, not so they can stand in a fucking breadline.