Canada needs to do this too. Get out from under the clutches of US oligarchs.

Mayors and councillors from across Canada say ‘Elbows Up for Climate’ in an open letter to party leaders - Elbows Up For Climate / Retroussons-nous les manches The Elbows Up for Climate campaign launched today with an open letter signed by more than 100 mayors and councillors from coast to coast to coast, urging all party leaders to advance Canada’s economic...

I just signed up to Elbows Up for Climate, chaired by former mayors David Miller (Toronto) and Valérie Plante (Montréal). elbowsupforclimate.ca/mayors-and-c...

It has been a complete PR victory for the tech industry that they have muddied the term ‘AI’ so completely that many people think that any valid application of ML = ‘we asked an LLM’

Yeah it went away.

My profile shows the text “invalid handle” but I didn’t put it there.

Can someone tell me what “invalid handle” means and if I should do something about it?

Right ballpark I think. Nice.

I hope we can enjoy thinking about our amazing planet without either trivializing the global situation or preaching about it. Ideally, people will attain not only with a little more understanding about the earth system, but with a renewed curiosity and enthusiasm to learn more and speak more!

I think we need to find ways to enjoy talking about our global situation. When a friend suggested a "Trivia Night" format I thought it was a great idea. I'm hoping to pull together some puzzles that are interesting enough to stir up some discussions among the participants.

I think it still is fascinating, even as it has become surprisingly threatening. (Nobody thinking about climate in the 80s and 90s thought things would get so badly out of hand!) The world, even in its compromised state, is still beautiful and fascinating.

Those of us who became focused on the world as a physical system a few decades ago did so because we found it fascinating, not terrible or threatening.

While the reasons for this are clear, it's also clear we need to better inform ourselves about our collective global situation. Is there some way to make the conversation more engaging, more (dare I say it) fun?

I was at a folk festival a few years ago hanging around the campground, when a young fellow asked me what I did for a living. "I'm a climate scientist" I said. He hrrumphed, said "That's a real buzz-kill" and without another word walked away.

There's a well known reluctance to discuss environmental issues socially. It is seen as controversial, as trouble-making, and as burdensome.

Seeking interesting environmentally related "trivia" ("significa"?) questions. I will be holding an Earth Day Trivia event and am open to suggestions.

Please DM if you have any explicit suggestions. Thanks!

This project may live on if it succeeds.

Motivation follows.

Staring at this in Canadian.

The green transition is 'cult-like,' says head of Canadian Gas Association at right-wing summit At a summit in Hungary last month organized by the right wing Heritage Foundation and Danube Institute, head of the Canadian Gas Association Timothy Egan delivered a pro-fossil fuel, anti-climate chan...

Great point. And gross. Similarly, Hungary played a big role convening fossil fuel shills - though the Venn diagram with the right-wing extremists is close to a circle. For example (you are probably aware), the Orban-aligned Danube Institute hosted fossil lobbyists (and another time, Con MPs).

For the first time ever migratory pressure has reversed across the US - Canada border despite the paper growth in the US. And it’s not (yet anyway!) because of the weather.

What is growing is not real.

There’s no sign that a rapid increase in what economics calls aggregate wealth leads to an aggregate increase in well-being.

There’s plenty of evidence of the opposite.

Per capita GDP has gone rapidly up in the US, while life expectancy has plummeted. Unlike Canada.

The cornucopian tech bros never get around to proposing how to distribute the immense wealth they tell themselves they are creating.

(Actually, they are essentially allocating, not to say confiscating the wealth of others. Uber is the model case.)

But even if there were wealth created, what then?

The imagined scarcity is so pervasive and the resilting panic so intense that the system is on the verge of recreating the scarcity it assumes.

We live in a world of stunning wealth that is based on a system of scarcity and doesn’t know how to maintain itself without the illusion of scarcity.

So we end up slaving at “jobs” that at best deliver amusing fantasy (entertainment) but commonly advance pointless churn and often wealth destruction

While I think the “information economy” is a mirage, I agree that economics is absurdly focused on manufacturing.

There are lots of apllication of machine learning that aren’t chat engines. The people building the ridiculously expensive chat engines want you confused about that.

Newly released cleaned up Robert Johnson recording!

youtu.be/gmnNi8oPsrQ?...

I see a million tech moguls complaining that media coverage has become "anti-tech" like some kind of spontaneous vibe shift, and regrettably few wondering if, maybe, the issue is that a bunch of the tech industry became less worthy of being positive about over the past several years.

Started in the 90s.

Your Backpack Got Worse On Purpose In 1986, a corporation that made women's lingerie bought every backpack brand you've ever trusted.

Folger’s. Hewlett-Packard. etc. Reputation mining.

www.worseonpurpose.com/p/your-backp...

"Late Evening" - my oil painting

Climate Risk Modeling Lead, Senior Vice President (Hybrid) | Citi Careers Learn more about applying for Climate Risk Modeling Lead, Senior Vice President (Hybrid) at Citi. Learn more about potential responsibilities, qualifications and career paths.

it's happening

"PhD degree in Climatology or Atmospheric Sciences"
"Deep knowledge of the mortgage business"

Surprised to learn this afternoon that CIBC is now the name of the famed Schubert Theater in Chicago on account of being bought out by my bank, but not as surprised as by finding out that my CIBC branch bank and my online banking are down.

The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Theater[sic]. hrmph.