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Gary Smith

@garysmith.bsky.social

370 followers 270 following 1.1K posts

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

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Gary Smith @garysmith.bsky.social · Aug 29

I have officially migrated my free newsletter from the Nazified Substack to self-hosted Ghost. This is the morally correct thing to do, but it might prove disastrous for growing my meagre readership. Time will tell. Do free to subscribe if any of my ramblings interest you. www.decompiling.ca

A newsletter about history, travel, art, music, and the fuzzy lines that connect these topics.

www.decompiling.ca

Gary Smith @garysmith.bsky.social · 16h

I often have interesting IL-worthy injuries such as "sprained by knee tying my shoe" and "bruised by hip walking into a table that's been in the same spot in my living room since 2005"

Gary Smith @garysmith.bsky.social · 16h

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

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

Reposted by Gary Smith

Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 19h

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

Gary Smith @garysmith.bsky.social · 22h

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

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

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Gary Smith

Jason Thorne @jasonthorne.bsky.social · 4d

The Venn diagram of urban density and average household GHG emissions is pretty much a circle. Interesting study on “Mapping household GHG emissions in the Greater Golden Horseshoe” from the University of Toronto School of Cities schoolofcities.utoronto.ca/mapping-hous...

Reposted by Gary Smith

Mike Wilner @wilnerness.bsky.social · 1d

Start spreading the news, bitches!" - John Schneider.

#Bluejays

Reposted by Gary Smith

Build Toronto @buildtoronto.com · 1d

Toronto's digital services are stuck in the past – a patchwork of portals, paper forms, and outdated processes.

From paying taxes to renewing permits, residents face a maze of separate logins, different formats, or long wait times.

Gary Smith @garysmith.bsky.social · 3d

Everything you need to do, in one place! We call it America Online. Welcome to the World Wide Wow!

Gary Smith @garysmith.bsky.social · 5d

Doctorow's 'Enshittification' theory may soon need an update. Enshittifimplosion? Or maybe we're just in plain old-fashioned deep shit. Being right is a small consolation when your retirement investments are wiped out.

Cory Doctorow Says the AI Industry Is About to Collapse

Famed sci-fi author and tech journalist Cory Doctorow has a spectacularly grim warning about the coming AI-fueled economic disaster.

Gary Smith @garysmith.bsky.social · 6d

Anyway, this is the ongoing state of the glorious new technology that is destroying education, bankrupting artists, inflating the stock markets, and soon taking your job. Have a great weekend.

Gary Smith @garysmith.bsky.social · 6d

The final time I Googled the same Neil Young Lyrics, AI Overview decided once again they were from Beyoncé, this time collaborating with Post Malone on a song called "My House". She does have a song by that name, but Post Malone didn't sing on it, and its lyrics are completely unrelated.

A screen shot of an Google AI Overview response that suggests some Neil Young Lyrics are from a Beyoncé and Post Malone collaboration song, along with a backstory.

Gary Smith @garysmith.bsky.social · 6d

The third time I Googled the same Neil Young Lyrics, AI Overview decided they were from a Miley Cyrus song, linking them thematically to Hurricane Harvey. She does apparently have a song containing the line "the sky is falling" though that's not the actual name of the song.

A screen shot of an Google AI Overview response that suggests some Neil Young Lyrics are from a Miley Cyrus song, along with a backstory.

Gary Smith @garysmith.bsky.social · 6d

In a new tab, I Googled the same lyrics again. AI Overview generated a new hallucination, this time decided the lyrics were from a song by My Chemical Romance. They do have a song sort of by that name, but it doesn't seem to contain those lyrics. They again come with some made-up lyrical analysis.

A screen shot of an Google AI Overview response that suggests some Neil Young Lyrics are from a My Chemical Romance song called "Black Parade", followed by some speculated meanings of the lyrics.

Gary Smith @garysmith.bsky.social · 6d

I Googled a snippet of lyrics from a 1985 Neil Young song called "Misfits" and AI Overview piped up and insisted the lyrics are from a Beyoncé song that does not seem to exist. Okay, weird. Then it hallucinated some nonsense about what she meant by the lyrics.

A screen shot of an Google AI Overview response that suggests some Neil Young Lyrics are from a Beyoncé song called "Houston", along with a backstory.

Reposted by Gary Smith

Petra Meier @pmeierprof.bsky.social · 6d

35 years ago today this happened. I’d grown up in the belief it could never happen, but then it did. It’s not been easy and even now reunification is an ongoing process. However, it makes me wonder what good things may be just around the corner that we currently think are impossible.

Gary Smith @garysmith.bsky.social · 7d

I had a friend who destroyed his finances after high school on Proline when that first appeared. The perfect victim, a 20-25ish male who thinks he knows everything. By the time they realize they don't, the damage is done. Reminds me of cigarette marketing. And it ruins the fun of sports, too.

Gary Smith @garysmith.bsky.social · 7d

'In Morris Lum’s photographic archive of Chinatowns, change is the only constant.'

A photographer traveled across North America’s Chinatowns. Here’s what he saw | CNN

Capturing culture and commerce in over 20 Chinatowns, Morris Lum has compiled a living archive of migration patterns, diasporic trends and urban gentrification.

Gary Smith @garysmith.bsky.social · 8d

General strike against 13-hour work day brings Greece to a halt

Transport systems, hospitals and schools hit, as workers say laws kill hopes of work-life balance

www.theguardian.com

Gary Smith @garysmith.bsky.social · 8d

Investigadores de la Universidad de Cádiz sacan a la luz un dolmen de más de 5.000 años en Teba (Málaga)

Investigadores de la Universidad de Cádiz sacan a la luz un dolmen de más de 5.000 años en Teba (Málaga)

Gary Smith @garysmith.bsky.social · 10d

"The rewriting of slogans, the insidious conspiracies invoked to explain anything that goes wrong, the propaganda chief convincing the other animals that things they saw with their own eyes didn’t happen or happened very differently: The parallels are all over the place."

‘Animal Farm’ Never Gets Old

Orwell’s classic turns 80.

www.thebulwark.com

Gary Smith @garysmith.bsky.social · 11d

Sugar Beach was glorious and crowded this morning. Summer in September. Also lots of anxious Blue Jays fans with tickets, killing time til first pitch a few blocks west.

A photo of about a dozen silhouetted people on a sunny fall day, all gathering beneath yellow and green trees, with a sparkling blue lake in the distance.

Gary Smith @garysmith.bsky.social · 12d

Those radical doomer lefties at, uh, Deutsche Bank are now warning that the AI boom is a bubble, and also the only thing holding the US economy from recession. Are you reassured yet?

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 12d

"The AI bubble is the only thing keeping the US economy together, Deutsche Bank warns. When the bubble bursts, reality will hit far harder than anyone expects." www.techspot.com/news/109626-...

The AI bubble is the only thing keeping the US economy together, Deutsche Bank warns

According to a research note recently sent to clients by Deutsche Bank, the AI boom is currently helping the US economy avoid a recession but it cannot...

www.techspot.com

Gary Smith @garysmith.bsky.social · 12d

These sorts of stories never appear solo, they go from 0 to 10 related stories in a day. Media Outlet A raises a contrived "concern" that's not really a concern, then Media Outlet B reports on how the accused is now 'defending' themselves from that concern, and voila, a "scandal" is born.

Gary Smith @garysmith.bsky.social · 12d

Google News is a window into the way conservative Canadian media coordinates their attacks on the Liberals. Every week they pick a theme and pile on. This week it's a ludicrous insinuation that Carney is doing something wrong by, gasp, using a plane to travel internationally to meet foreign leaders.

Two Google News headlines. The first, from CTV News, says "Mark Carney's globe-spanning travel schedule draws both criticism and praise". The second, from the Globe and Mail says "Carney defends trips abroad, says visits further agenda on trade, investment".

Reposted by Gary Smith

Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 13d

A pattern is developing where everyone who fights back against a Trump attack inevitably wins with their reputation much better than before, and everyone who caves to him looks like shit and has Trump coming back for more a month later.