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The Grey Literature

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A letter that I sent to my MP about climate change inaction, and you can too!

Dear Marie-Gabrielle Ménard, Like many Canadians, I've spent this summer watching videos of locomotive engines engulfed in flames, while our skies have been stained orange for days by wildfire smoke. Ask anyone from Lac-Mégantic, Lytton, or Fort McMurray. Whether through transporting fossil fuels or living with a warming climate, Canadians are increasingly paying the price Continue reading A…

The "it's all about generative AI" reading of Backrooms (2026) (spoilers)

Spoilers for Backrooms (2026). You've been warned. Also, I use some cuss words. In the following, I'm going to tell you why my first reaction to Backrooms (2026) was "This is all about AI, wasn't it?" The opening and closing monologue from Backrooms (2026) is a perfect description of the psychology of the user of Continue reading The "it's all about generative AI" reading of Backrooms (2026)…

An open letter against the National AI Strategy

The Rt. Hon. Mark Carney, P.C., M.P.Prime Minister of Canada The Hon. Evan Solomon, P.C., M.P.Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Dear Prime Minister Carney and Minister Solomon, I write with concern about the direction of the forthcoming National AI Strategy, as described in the spring economic update and the draft recently reported on Continue reading An open letter…

An open letter to my MP and Marc Miller re: youth social media bans

Dear Marie-Gabrielle Ménard and Marc Miller, I am writing as a constituent regarding the federal government's consideration of youth social media restrictions, currently under review by Minister Miller as part of a forthcoming online harms bill. I share the concern that motivates this debate. The harms that social media platforms visit on young people, including: Continue reading An open letter to…

A letter that I sent to Evan Solomon, Canadian minister for AI, and you could too!

To: evan.solomon@parl.gc.caCc: marie-gabrielle.menard@parl.gc.ca Subject: Proposal for Clear Legal Accountability and Transparency Framework for AI Systems in Canada Dear Evan Solomon,(Cc: Marie-Gabrielle Ménard, my MP) I am writing to urge you, in your capacity as the Member of Parliament responsible for advancing Canada’s approach to artificial intelligence policy, to consider legislation…

How to toggle horizontal and vertical window splitting in Emacs

I'm going to assume that the reader is an Emacs user and skip over a bunch of intro stuff. The reason you might want this is because sometimes the default behaviour of Emacs produces a window where the split is vertical and that makes the text unreadable or just against your preferences, or a window Continue reading How to toggle horizontal and vertical window splitting in Emacs

A plausible, scalable and slightly wrong black box: why large language models are a fascist technology that cannot be redeemed

When large language models (LLMs) get something factually wrong or make something ridiculous up, everyone makes fun of it online. Gemini told everyone to put glue on their pizza! (Hilarious!) A corporate chatbot invented a company policy that doesn't exist! (Uh oh!) There's gotta be about a million examples of LLMs spouting out nonsense that Continue reading A plausible, scalable and slightly…

Putting the signature above the reply in mu4e

I'm assuming you already know what mu4e is and how to edit your ~/.emacs file, otherwise you wouldn't be interested. I put the following in my ~/.emacs, and it works for me! And now when I reply, I get my signature above, and I don't have to copy it from below every time!

Zippercowl

Welcome back to Sewing with Garak, where we'll be sewing the future of fashion together (cyberpunk, queer, adversarial to straight aesthetics) on a sewing machine provided to me by the local socialist utopia (the public library). I'll skip to the end and show you the finished product, and then you can read on for the Continue reading Zippercowl

Putting the Trudeaupocalypse in some context

I've listened to a whole bunch of people giving their takes on why Trudeau fell from grace. Was it the carbon tax? Invoking the Emergencies Act? SNC Lavelin? Trump? And a lot of them lack basically any context. So here's my take on the rise and fall of Trudeau and why he's resigning now in Continue reading Putting the Trudeaupocalypse in some context