Luke Andrews

Fascinating and beautiful visualization of Toronto neighbourhoods clustered into 5 political archetypes 👀

Ontario, a province governed by a premier and a political party obsessed with making it easier to die, whether on bike or on foot, in a speeding car, through unsafe drug use, or by addiction to gambling. Enraging.

I for one am ready for Celsius ovens and 500 g packages of butter.

…decks of cards 🃏

Terrific and uniquely humanizing reporting by @jasmine.bsky.social on data center politics in small town Wisconsin. There’s undoubtedly misinformation involved, but far more apparent is the clumsy and secretive approach of the big companies involved.

some days I just feel so alive www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...

I saw The Odyssey on Monday, then a remastered version of the 1992 Spanish film Jamón Jamón last night. @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social’s insightful essay helped me realize which one more closely echoes the humour, cruelty, and misogyny of classical Greek mythology.

Truly Maple-Leafs-assed ending to this game

This semifinal is like the New England Patriots vs the Toronto Maple Leafs. Hard to cheer for anyone. But Bellingham seems like a good chap on top of his talent, and England doesn’t seem to have FIFA tilting the scales, so, uh, rule Britannia?

I'm so disillusioned, I almost don't even care who gets the FIFA Peace Prize next year

Great thread about progressive city council candidates worth supporting in the upcoming Toronto election. If you donate, you get a large % of the money back as a rebate. (Albeit after some paperwork and a pretty lengthy delay.)

In the Toronto Star, @stephenmaher.bsky.social pulls no punches drawing parallels between the USA of 1776 and of you know who

Canada may have lost today’s game, but we collectively got to boo Gretzky on the screen, so it’s still a moral victory.

When it’s time for penalties

The “referee view” camera shots in the World Cup broadcasts are such a novel idea in theory and such a motion sickness nightmare in practice. 🤢

Nothing like watching the Mets try to field a routine single to make you feel better about the Blue Jays

7 local democracy hacks to not feel totally helpless in Doug Ford (& cipher-like Liberal MP caucus) Toronto. Finished on the throne of representative democracy for the people. My weekend @thestar.com column.

Random reminder that Toronto Council timidly suggested once that they might, might trim the police budget and in response the police implemented a decade-long refusal to enforce traffic laws.

World Cup game day prep.

Political ideology is the strongest predictor of Messi-Ronaldo preference. Authoritarians who like short-form video are more likely to think Ronaldo is the GOAT.

has anyone lived the dream more than this guy?

Hard to disagree with anything the NDP leader is saying here.

I too watched The Matrix with my adolescent son recently, and he asked, clearly a little spooked, “How did they know about AI in 1999?”

“Your Appliances Got Worse On Purpose” — including the wild stat that Americans spent 43% more on appliances in 2023 than 2013 (inflation-adjusted!), because appliances are so much less reliable.

“What if ranch dressing really is delicious?” On the weirdness of the USA through the eyes of others. flaminghydra.com/issue-583/?g...

💀

Smart stuff from @vassb.bsky.social about AI shopping. They promise to remove the hassle and get you deals, but the agents don't actually have to prioritize your best interests. It's very obviously a bait-and-switch, but what are we going to do about it? thewalrus.ca/ai-shopping-...

The risk from AI is not that it will become super-intelligent and plot to destroy humanity. The risk is that it has no intelligence at all, and yet people will offload responsibility to it for important decisions before it’s ready, without adequate safeguards.

The whole city breaths a huge sigh of relief. Esti has been found! (Please take down all pictures, let’s leave the kid alone.)

In which @shawnmicallef.bsky.social offers righteous fury about our city’s often infuriating smallmindedness

It’s a lovely palate cleanse to read an article about children and San Francisco that barely mentions AI. As in her great book, Uncanny Valley, Anna Wiener demonstrates her talent for evocative cultural observations. (And as a parent of similar-aged children, I found it all very relatable!)

My first extremely literally blue sky post, repeating some photos from the bad place while trying out @flashes.blue

Asking for a friend — how do designers ever finish redesigning their website without accidentally spending the rest of the day browsing typefaces?