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Gary Smith

@garysmith.bsky.social

Toronto, Ontario, Canada 🍁 Web development: garysmith.ca Writing: decompiling.ca Painting: citypainter.ca

369 Followers  |  274 Following  |  1,137 Posts  |  Joined: 16.12.2023  |  2.3068

Latest posts by garysmith.bsky.social on Bluesky

Here's another bit of conventional wisdom Zohran completely blew away: His speech was at well above a 10th-grade level. It was complex, erudite, punctuated by deep and fluent references. You don't have to condescend to voters with baby talk! Part of re-establishing norms is speaking like an adult.

05.11.2025 05:14 β€” πŸ‘ 14196    πŸ” 2315    πŸ’¬ 106    πŸ“Œ 162
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Radiohead play career-spanning set in first concert since 2018 ​British quintet draw from all but one of their studio albums as they perform in Madrid on first of 20 European tour dates

'β€œThere might not be another opportunity, Radiohead is pretty old at this point,” said Luka Arreaza, 20, prompting laughter from those waiting in line beside him.'

05.11.2025 04:21 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Screenshot text from The Atlantic: 

For now, money is still pouring into the AI industry. But there’s also something circular about these investments. To wit: OpenAI has agreed to pay $300 billion to Oracle for new computing capacity, Oracle is paying Nvidia tens of billions of dollars for chips to install in one of OpenAI’s data centers, and Nvidia has agreed to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI as it deploys Nvidia chips. Attempts to illustrate these circular investments have produced a series of byzantine charts that one software engineer referred to on X as β€œthe technocapital hyperobject at the end of time.” The consensus seems to be that although this is legal, it likely cannot go on forever.

Screenshot text from The Atlantic: For now, money is still pouring into the AI industry. But there’s also something circular about these investments. To wit: OpenAI has agreed to pay $300 billion to Oracle for new computing capacity, Oracle is paying Nvidia tens of billions of dollars for chips to install in one of OpenAI’s data centers, and Nvidia has agreed to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI as it deploys Nvidia chips. Attempts to illustrate these circular investments have produced a series of byzantine charts that one software engineer referred to on X as β€œthe technocapital hyperobject at the end of time.” The consensus seems to be that although this is legal, it likely cannot go on forever.

if not Ponzi, why Ponzi-shaped?

www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

03.11.2025 20:14 β€” πŸ‘ 663    πŸ” 178    πŸ’¬ 11    πŸ“Œ 17
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A deadly crash in Toronto raises questions about the dangers when things go wrong for EVs | CBC News An Oct. 24 crash involving an electric car that killed four people in downtown Toronto has raised concerns about the dangers when things go wrong for EVs.

Sounds almost identical to a Telsa fire a few blocks away from me in Toronto last year. Four people burned to death inside when rescuers could not open the doors. Horrifying.

03.11.2025 18:09 β€” πŸ‘ 15    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Saw a few of these guys walking around Syracuse today. Apparently the CitroΓ«n Ami is technically an electric "quadricycle."

I really appreciate the spectrum of cars in Italy. Very few people really need an F-150 to get around. This mignt not fly in Canada, but I'd love to see smaller hatchbacks.

03.11.2025 16:59 β€” πŸ‘ 19    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Doubt we'll see him in the 3rd. But I hope so.

02.11.2025 00:49 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
A screen grab of of text that reads:

'Tuchman: β€œWhen the gap between ideal and real becomes too wide, the system breaks down.”'

A screen grab of of text that reads: 'Tuchman: β€œWhen the gap between ideal and real becomes too wide, the system breaks down.”'

Anther book for my reading list, I think.
www.nathaneberline.com/blog/a-dista...

01.11.2025 14:31 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Blue Jays
Cody Houle ~ Anishinaabe
2025

31.10.2025 23:01 β€” πŸ‘ 560    πŸ” 172    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 8
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In 1861, Monet served in Algeria, where he was dazzled by North Africa’s blazing light. β˜€οΈ

He later said the β€œrichness of color” shaped everything he painted afterward.

29.10.2025 15:41 β€” πŸ‘ 86    πŸ” 13    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
a graphic showing the pantone numbers for the two core colors of the toronto blue jays. they are skydome blue (pantone 293) and Stieb Navy (pantone 282)

a graphic showing the pantone numbers for the two core colors of the toronto blue jays. they are skydome blue (pantone 293) and Stieb Navy (pantone 282)

a hat and canvas tote with the pantone number for Dodger Blue (294 C)

a hat and canvas tote with the pantone number for Dodger Blue (294 C)

I regret to inform everyone that my pedantic brain couldn’t let me live until I knew whether or not dodger blue and blue jays blue are the same blue. They are ONE PANTONE NUMBER APART.

29.10.2025 02:18 β€” πŸ‘ 4216    πŸ” 920    πŸ’¬ 111    πŸ“Œ 109

Imagine if we got money back from the tech corps every time our phones lied to us. Either we'd all be rich, or our phones would stop lying. Either outcome seems preferable to our current reality.

28.10.2025 21:22 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
a photo of marines flying flags including a canadian flag that is flying upside down

a photo of marines flying flags including a canadian flag that is flying upside down

a tweet by jamie campbell that shows a world series display and the toronto blue jays logo is upside down

a tweet by jamie campbell that shows a world series display and the toronto blue jays logo is upside down

1992 Atlanta 🀝 2025 Los Angeles

26.10.2025 22:58 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0
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Pope Leo laments U.S.-Canada 'difficulties' after Trump ends trade talks | CBC News Pope Leo lamented on Friday the frictions roiling relations between the United States and Canada, in a likely reference to U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to cut off trade talks.

Now look what you've done. You've made the Pope lament.

25.10.2025 02:03 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
La nuit, le long du mΓ©tro, par la fenΓͺtre, la vitesse trace des lignes devant les bΓ’timents.

La nuit, le long du mΓ©tro, par la fenΓͺtre, la vitesse trace des lignes devant les bΓ’timents.

La nuit / MΓ©tro

πŸ“· #MobilePhotography

25.10.2025 00:59 β€” πŸ‘ 40    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Today In 1992: The Toronto #BlueJays become the first team from #Canada to win the World Series! #MLB #History #WANTITALL #WorldSeries

24.10.2025 12:54 β€” πŸ‘ 42    πŸ” 10    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1
A graphic that says "You've got wheels. They've got heels." With images of a scooter, e-bike, bicycle, and cargo bike.

A graphic that says "You've got wheels. They've got heels." With images of a scooter, e-bike, bicycle, and cargo bike.

Toronto’s sidewalks are for pedestrians 🚢, so don’t ride on them!

E-bikes & other rideables (excluding assistive mobility devices) on sidewalks endanger pedestrians, especially seniors, children, & people with disabilities.

Learn the rules at: toronto.ca/Rideables

24.10.2025 13:20 β€” πŸ‘ 11    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 1

Too bad that place selling steamship tickets at the lower right isn't still there, I'd like to ride on a steamship.

19.10.2025 02:00 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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On Sunday I'm giving a gallery talk then neighbourhood walk at Koffler Gallery on Shaw Street. Very cool exhibition by Berlin artist Tracey Snelling. If you dig cities you gotta see it.

www.kofflerarts.org/more/public-...

17.10.2025 21:45 β€” πŸ‘ 27    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 1

When the Jays win the next two at home and go to the World Series, we'll stop talking about this real fast.

18.10.2025 20:22 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Enchanting Imposters - JSTOR Daily Johns Hopkins University’s Bibliotheca Fictiva Collection of Literary and Historical Forgery shows that humans have been creating fan fiction and fake news for millennia.

This course at Johns Hopkins should be mandatory for all of us before we are allowed to use the internet.

18.10.2025 17:44 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Dear Toronto: We will stop scoring runs this game if Doug Ford agrees to stop tearing out bike lanes. Until then, the runs will continue.

13.10.2025 23:43 β€” πŸ‘ 1006    πŸ” 163    πŸ’¬ 29    πŸ“Œ 27

Pitching was fine yesterday. They did their jobs. 3 ER over 9 should be a win. The sleeping offense was the problem.

13.10.2025 16:43 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

This is rather scathing, isn't it.

13.10.2025 16:38 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Bixi bike-sharing program among the top 25 inventions in 25 years, TIME Magazine declares The list also includes the iPhone and the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest particle accelerator.

Begun in 2009, Bixi was commissioned with the support of public money by the City of Montreal. Just this week it was named by Time Magazine as one of the top inventions since 2025. The bike system can be found in NYC, London, DC, Rio, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Barcelona, Dubai, Monaco, and more.

13.10.2025 16:28 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Fragility Is Getting Scary The opposite of risk management.

"It is the result of a very long epidemic of selfishness and cowardice in public life, a hollowness at the heart of our rhetoric about democracy that has, at last, ushered in a chaos agent that will make us pay for all of it at once."

13.10.2025 16:27 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Use the janky tools nobody asked for to speed up the building of a thing nobody wants, or you're fired.

10.10.2025 16:29 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
A scan of a paper map of Toronto from 1926 titled "Canada's most beautiful summer city -- Toronto"

A scan of a paper map of Toronto from 1926 titled "Canada's most beautiful summer city -- Toronto"

"The Points of Interest of Beautiful Toronto are best seen from the Palatial Coaches of the Toronto Transportation Commission" (1926)

09.10.2025 19:53 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

anyway I'm off to go dump all my deepest secrets into an AI therapist bot run by a sociopathic technofascist

09.10.2025 16:03 β€” πŸ‘ 67    πŸ” 8    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 1
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Creatures buried in soil for over a century burst back to life in Toronto waterfront A project to restore coastal wetland leads to astonishing discoveries of a host of life: seeds and plant scraps, as well as water fleas, worms, larvae and plankton

This is a great story. I wish they added few photos of the new Biidaasige Park, too.

09.10.2025 13:11 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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The Venn diagram of urban density and average household GHG emissions is pretty much a circle. Interesting study on β€œMapping household GHG emissions in the Greater Golden Horseshoe” from the University of Toronto School of Cities schoolofcities.utoronto.ca/mapping-hous...

06.10.2025 11:09 β€” πŸ‘ 226    πŸ” 79    πŸ’¬ 5    πŸ“Œ 21

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