Chris Garbutt 🇨🇦 🐢 🏝

21h

I mean, he's not wrong.

21h

So glad we stopped this practice in Canada last year.

The Onion@theonion.com

Election Officials Warn That Ballots Tied To Stray Cat Unlikely To Arrive In Time https://theonion.com/election-officials-warn-that-ballots-tied-to-stray-cat-unlikely-to-arrive-in-time/

#Vote today Toronto! (And everyone in Ontario). To those of you with landlines, I hope you survived the robocall apocalypse yesterday!

Robocalls will not work on me. Stop it.

zeffy.comHYPERSCALE in TORONTO: an evening with author Paris Marx + local AI data centre organizersJoin us for “HYPERSCALE” — an evening with author Paris Marx and local organizers confronting the rapid growth of AI data centres and the corporate power…

Just got tickets for this. Excited to hear from @parismarx.com and @desmondcole.bsky.social! www.zeffy.com/en-CA/ticket...

I was at the anti-capitalist book fair once and was horrified that they were sharing materials about communism!!

Shawn Micallef@shawnmicallef.bsky.social

Saw a reel from University Rosedale council candidate where she talks about going to the Anarchist Book Fair on the weekend and seeing....anarchist material. Like some surprise! Tries to connect it to Chow & Layton (the latter she's running against) & objects to anti-police message.

Dear Toronto, please vote Monday!

Vote on Monday, Toronto!

If my car would clean my house, sure but I think it just wants to get my groceries

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Vote Oct 26 #topoli

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C)

Looks ... busy. :)

CalgaryK@calgaryk.bsky.social

Was a little worried about the wind and the roadworks, but as long as you don’t mind a little gravel and route finding, it’s worth the trip down to Fish Creek. #yycbike

Chris Garbutt 🇨🇦 🐢 🏝 reposted

@doctorow.pluralistic.net

Replying to @doctorow.pluralistic.net

You can be forgiven for rolling your eyes when the subject of "digital sovereignty" comes up. Rhetorically, "digital sovereignty" is a coded way for a politician to say, "We should build a fuckton of AI data-centers while bypassing any environmental review": datacentremagazine.com/technology-a...

datacentremagazine.comKeir Starmer’s £2bn Pledge: How the UK Plans to Advance AIUK government commits £2bn to AI infrastructure expansion, eager to target data centre growth and digital skills development in a bid to get ahead in AI

People say we need more cops, and then the cops send out a huge squadron to save us from ... checks notes ... bike lanes.

All of the Bikes@allofthebikes.bsky.social

This photo from Toronto... For removing a bike lane... Why are things like this man? I feel like I'm losing my damn mind. (Photo Cred: www.reddit.com/r/toronto/s/...)

A lot of people think I'm kind of a boring guy but I just went to the self checkout and paid cash! I have never felt more alive.

I honestly don't see how self driving is scalable

Katja Diehl@katjadiehl.bsky.social

None of them are barrier-free! But german guys are in love. "testing remains concentrated in a small set of urban environments, leaving rural roads, under-represented populations, and less common traffic behaviors underexposed in the data that shapes how autonomous systems perceive the world."

Toronto elections are so awesome. Each councillor rerpesents MORE THAN 100,000 PEOPLE. And yet you have to work really hard to find out who is running. And then there is the School Board Trustee - how do you find out anything about them? #Toronto #toelxn #topoli

View full thread

Can you name your school trustee? Can you even figure out how to know who it is? Can you even figure out what school board ward you're in? I will find out eventually, but it shouldn't take the research skills of a PhD to do so.

Chat: How do I go about voting in a municipal election? Response: shrug emoji.

And sorry for yelling but: THEY NUMBER THE SCHOOL BOARD WARDS DIFFERENTLY FROM THE CITY WARDS. Oh, it's because they cover two wards? Oh goody, one trustee for a quarter million people.

This would be great in Toronto.

Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani@mayor.nyc.gov

NYC is opening 160 car-free (but treat-filled) streets and plazas to enjoy fun and safe fall festivities this spooky season. Find one near you at nyc.gov/trickorstreets.

Chris Garbutt 🇨🇦 🐢 🏝 reposted

Paris Marx

@parismarx.com

Replying to @parismarx.com

honestly lost so much respect for so much left media over the past few weeks seeing how eagerly they’ve jumped on sensationalist bullshit claims from tech industry cultists. not calling out the nation specifically; they’re basically all at it.

Fantastic thread. Regulate LLMs now!

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nytimes.comOpinion | Bernie Sanders, Steve Case and Others on What Washington Should Do Now on A.I.How can the government reel in the technology? Here are six ideas.

Toronto should aspire to be on this list

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Chris Garbutt 🇨🇦 🐢 🏝 reposted

Erik Noonan

@eriknoonan.bsky.social

Cities should be paying people to bike. Cities should be buying people e-bikes. Cities should be rewarding people for convincing neighbors to ride bikes. Every trip by bike is a net financial gain socially. And it compounds, the more people who do it.

Chris Garbutt 🇨🇦 🐢 🏝 reposted

jamelle

@jamellebouie.net

21 Sept

one thing that is worth remember apropos this useful piece is that novel technologies do not necessarily require novel political solutions. americans have had to deal with fast-moving, disruptive technological change in the past, and they did so through collective, democratic action.

@livingstreets.bsky.social

16 Sept

AI "experts": AI is capable of killing us all. Also AI "experts": Therefore, we must build AI infrastructure as fast as.possible!

Chris Garbutt 🇨🇦 🐢 🏝 reposted

Living Streets

14 Sept

Our pavements are not for sale. Four in five Brits think delivery robots could cause issues for blind people and those with mobility issues. Tell the Government: pavements are for people, not vehicles. 👉 https://pavementoverload.com/

thestar.comLoblaw’s late-night drone show in downtown Toronto sparks debate about ads in our skies

13 Sept

I am really curious about how this went down. This is a very large scale pseudo-guerilla marketing tactic and would have taken a lot of work to plan and execute. And it's so dumb. Everyone hates it. Surely someone in the room said, hey, are we sure about this?

Toronto Star@thestar.com

A large LED aerial drone display appeared over Toronto’s skies late Thursday night advertising Loblaw’s health services app, sparking heated discussion online about the use of airspace for promotional material.

13 Sept

Of course, corporations seem to have developed a business model based on contempt for their own customers, so maybe everybody thought it was genius.

13 Sept

Furthermore, "sparks debate" lolllll

cp24.comOntario Science Centre laying off entire science departmentThe Ontario Science Centre has laid off 30 workers including the entire science department, The Canadian Press has learned.

"The Ontario Science Centre has laid off 30 workers including the entire science department" How do you even react to this?

11 Sept

I keep thinking about this. It's the kind of story that I'd expect from The Beaverton. @thebeaverton.com

thelocal.toDoug Ford vs. Toronto | The LocalGood news: your community elected a councillor and even a mayor who share your vision for the city. Then the province steps in.

Great piece from @thelocal.to. I have two things to add to this: thelocal.to/toronto-city...

View full thread

Second, don't think that you will solve the problem of provincial overreach by voting for a different party. They all do this.

I do wonder if it's time for a constitutional convention. Canada was formed as an agrarian economy, with a constitution designed as such. The Charter updated that, but didn't really do much about improving representation.

thelocal.toDoug Ford vs. Toronto | The LocalGood news: your community elected a councillor and even a mayor who share your vision for the city. Then the province steps in.

Great piece from @thelocal.to. I have two things to add to this: thelocal.to/toronto-city...

First, while the writer emphatically plans to vote, there's a hint in this article that voting feels pointless at the municipal level, because the province can basically veto anything a council decides. But municipal councils are very often proving grounds for people seeking higher office.

Chris Garbutt 🇨🇦 🐢 🏝 reposted

A.R. Moxon

@juliusgoat.bsky.social

6 Sept

Replying to @juliusgoat.bsky.social

"Why should my tax dollars go to giving houses to people who can't afford them?" Why should MY tax dollars should go to satisfying your desire to see desperate people living desperate lives? I'd rather save money and solve the problem, rather than spend money to exacerbate it.

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C)

4 Sept

Nightmare

Adam Tranter@adamtranter.bsky.social

I really don’t understand why the Government is so eager to let private companies bring these to UK pavements.

Chris Garbutt 🇨🇦 🐢 🏝 reposted

@doctorow.pluralistic.net

4 Sept

Amazon's own balance sheet presents the most compelling evidence that we are stuck in the Enshittocene, the era in which everything is turning into a pile of shit, because the worst ideas of the worst people now make the most money. 1/

Chris Garbutt 🇨🇦 🐢 🏝 reposted

Urban Truth Collective

@urbantruth.bsky.social

2 Sept

No matter what they claim, the REAL “war” that’s been going on in our cities has been a WAR ON WALKING. And it’s been going on for a century. #UrbanTruth

1 Sept

It's so beautiful!

Cycle Toronto@cycletoronto.bsky.social

Sometimes pictures speak louder than words. Thank you to everybody who showed up to defend our bike lanes ✊ 📸: @jserwylo

30 Aug

Exactly 💯

estarianne@estarianne.bsky.social

Think about who gets to define merit ("worthiness") and how it's defined. Think about how this leads us to see those with power.

27 Aug

Ok let's rename the big lake to Lake Superior Canada

techcrunch.comSprains, pain and whiplash: Waymo and Zoox test drivers are getting hurt as robotaxis scale | TechCrunchTest drivers for Waymo and Zoox sustained more than two dozen injuries in 2024 and 2025 from hard braking or other sudden movements made by the autonomous vehicles, according to a TechCrunch review of...

27 Aug

I keep saying these things are unscalable. They aren't even really self-driving. Still waiting to be proven wrong.

Sean O’Kane@okane.fyi

New investigation from me: Waymo and Zoox test drivers were injured dozens of times across 2024/2025 as a result of harsh braking -- often for no apparent reason -- or erratic movement by the autonomous vehicles. More on @techcrunch.com but a short thread below. techcrunch.com/2026/08/27/s...

wnycstudios.orgDolly Parton's America : Episodes | WNYC Studios | PodcastsThe story of a legend at the crossroads of America’s culture wars.

26 Aug

Just gonna leave this here if, like me, you are in your feels about Dolly: www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/dol...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=plUD...

26 Aug

youtube.comDolly Parton - Shine (Official)YouTube video by DollyPartonVEVO

Chris Garbutt 🇨🇦 🐢 🏝 reposted

Reece Martin

@rmtransit.bsky.social

25 Aug

I wish a Toronto pol would run on fixing the TTC

Chris Garbutt 🇨🇦 🐢 🏝 reposted

The Beaverton

@thebeaverton.com

25 Aug

BREAKING: Doug Ford challenges Donald Trump to a corruption fight in the school parking lot

thebeaverton.comBREAKING: Doug Ford challenges Donald Trump to a corruption fight in the school parking lotQUEEN’S PARK - Ontario’s premier has officially challenged the President of the United States to a corruption fight in a parking lot behind a local Etobicoke high school.