Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Owen Chevalier @owenc.bsky.social · 12d

Grant applications are crazy because why does it take several entire days to revise like 4 pages?

Owen Chevalier @owenc.bsky.social · 14d

At a conference in Netherlands in June an expat from Australia remarked that the first time he got really angry to be slowed down in NL by cyclists, he passed them agressively and then realized these little kids were in front and he was the problem. Car culture really doesn't encourage empathy.

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Owen Chevalier @owenc.bsky.social · 15d

Seeing an influx in AI medicine coverage in the news the past couple days which is poignant given the US Governments new official stance on autism. AI can certainly be a powerful tool for healthcare, but I wonder if it will always be correlated to anti-intellectualism.

Owen Chevalier @owenc.bsky.social · Sep 3

When the "idea" for bus lanes is just doing the same tired thing that people have been doing since the 50s which got us into this mess.

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Owen Chevalier @owenc.bsky.social · Aug 15

Presenting Dr. Billie Anderson!!!

B successfully defended her dissertation on Wednesday on monstrosity and disability in film. I've been blown away by her dedication and passion for this project, and I'm so excited to see where her research goes next.

Congrats @billieanderson.bsky.social

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Owen Chevalier @owenc.bsky.social · Jul 24

Not for any particular reason. Just that if you own a Toyota Rav 4, then there is literally no scenario in which you can envision yourself using the crosstown. That's why it should be underground away from you, and that's why all transit investment is a waste of money to you.

Owen Chevalier @owenc.bsky.social · Jul 24

Not a new thought probably but realizing a lot of transit decisions in TO boil down to the fundamental belief that car drivers will never be anything else. The crosstown wasn't built to be enticing to Forest Hill residents, but as an option to shuttle poor and homeless through to downtown.

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Owen Chevalier @owenc.bsky.social · Jul 23

I liked this article, and appreciate @paulbloomatyale.bsky.social pointing out that AI friends don't mean the end of human friends for everyone, but that some people who may otherwise have had friends will struggle. A more measured take in a polarizing field.
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

A.I. Is About to Solve Loneliness. That’s a Problem

The discomfort of loneliness shapes us in ways we don’t recognize—and we may not like what we become without it.

www.newyorker.com

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Owen Chevalier @owenc.bsky.social · Jul 9

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Owen Chevalier @owenc.bsky.social · Jul 9

So it turns out a handful of business owners CAN use free AI tools and handmade signs to completely dismantle a necessary transit improvement. No city as big as Toronto should be so easy to manipulate. Just embarrassing.

www.torontotoday.ca/local/transp...

City waters down RapidTO bus plan, limiting dedicated lanes to south of Bloor

Staff no longer recommend the Bathurst and Dufferin TTC routes get their own RapidTO lanes all the way to Eglinton

www.torontotoday.ca

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Reposted by Owen Chevalier

Matt Elliott @graphicmatt.com · Jun 19

Cool study from @bikewaysto.bsky.social detailing a traffic count on Bloor Street taken on June 11 with a camera at 412 Bloor West. During the peak of the afternoon rush, bikes outnumbered cars.

I repeat: bikes outnumbered cars.

drive.google.com/file/d/1ctd4...

Bar chart showing traffic counts on Bloor Street West in Toronto during the afternoon rush on Wednesday, June 11, 2025. For each hour from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., the number of bikes and motor vehicles (cars, trucks, motorcycles) was recorded. At 4–5 p.m., there were 643 bikes and 849 motor vehicles. At 5–6 p.m., 930 bikes and 832 motor vehicles. At 6–7 p.m., 919 bikes and 909 motor vehicles. At 7–8 p.m., 726 bikes and 935 motor vehicles. Bike counts exceeded car counts from 5 to 7 p.m. The chart was created by Matt Elliott for City Hall Watcher using data from the Toronto Community Bikeways Coalition.

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Owen Chevalier @owenc.bsky.social · Jun 16

I think the counterpoint to the "young people are lonely, lazy, and addicted to TikTok" rhetoric is that public services all over Toronto are seeing massive boosts in popularity. Young people want to be outside, social, and connected to their communities. Politicians should take note!

Observing The City @observingthecity.bsky.social · Jun 15

Well, that was fast. The daily trip record for Bike Share Toronto was just smashed yesterday as 44,000 trips were recorded. Bikes were free yesterday in a promotion with Tangerine Bank.

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Owen Chevalier @owenc.bsky.social · Jun 16

They need to have more philosophers on autocorrect development teams!

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Owen Chevalier @owenc.bsky.social · Jun 14

Loved getting the chance to speak at this conference and learn more about current research in epidemic injustice in psychiatry, lived experience expertise, and potential futures for the field that improve both its ethical and epistemic outputs.

Lisa Bortolotti @lisabortolotti.com · Jun 12

Very interesting talks by Mahony and Chevalier, & by Stephen Gadsby, on lived experience and participatory research in the context of anorexia nervosa: to what extent does the pursuit of thinness or the anorexia diagnosis become part of the person's identity? #epistemicinjustice #philpsy #philsky

Chevalier and Mahony presenting their work

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Owen Chevalier @owenc.bsky.social · May 24

My conspiracy theory is that they’re using AI to write these things, which is both a fascinating and terrifying thought.

A new regime founded on LLM definitions for complex ideas.

D. J. Hicks @danhicks.bsky.social · May 24

Okay, the definition of Gold Standard Science. First point: We just got a bunch of definitions in the last section. Precisely none of the terms used here is defined up above. (Except for falsifiability, which is defined above in the research misconduct sense but used here in the Popperian sense.)

Gold Standard Science means science conducted in a manner that is:
(i) reproducible;
(ii) transparent;
(iii) communicative of error and uncertainty;
(iv) collaborative and interdisciplinary;
(v) skeptical of its findings and assumptions;
(vi) structured for falsifiability of hypotheses;
(vii) subject to unbiased peer review;
(viii) accepting of negative results as positive outcomes; and
(ix) without conflicts of interest.

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Owen Chevalier @owenc.bsky.social · May 24

Not the official death date printed on this Scarborough RT cardboard model 😭😭😭

Owen Chevalier @owenc.bsky.social · May 21

...the mandatory "Christian Ethics" classes were such a waste of time is that a teacher with a general B-Ed is not a theologian or an ethicist. Wondering if it would be helpful to have an expert engage in the challenging material in either case. Would that mitigate any of these testimonies?

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Owen Chevalier @owenc.bsky.social · May 21

This is super interesting! And I think important to consider as a broader, evidence-based response to the "Everyone could use therapy" ethos.
One question: Is part of the issue that teachers aren't qualified to teach mindfulness? Thinking back to my catholic school days that part of why...

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Owen Chevalier @owenc.bsky.social · May 21

To me this constitutes a pretty huge deal. If local consultation can’t even happen without AI disinformation campaigns how can we ever hope to have a reasonable democratic society again? Summerhill Market should face some kind of consequence for this.

Shawn Micallef @shawnmicallef.bsky.social · May 21

So: the “Protect Bathurst / Dufferin” astroturf campaign run by Summerhill Market had videos of a guy talking about the neighborhood & RapidTO proposal. Real grassroots feel. Took a screenshot & put it into google image search. Guess what?

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Owen Chevalier @owenc.bsky.social · May 14

I’m so exhausted.

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Owen Chevalier @owenc.bsky.social · May 13

These are things we can offer as instructors. So the question becomes: How can we fill that gap? My hypothesis is if I am approachable, open to discussion, clear with my feedback, and genuinely curious and interested in my students, then they might choose me sometimes over a chatbot.

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Owen Chevalier @owenc.bsky.social · May 13

At one point I just asked how my students were using chatGPT, and almost everyone listed things that didn't replace their thinking, but their relationship with an instructor. They use it for essay feedback, counterarguments, understanding concepts better.

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Owen Chevalier @owenc.bsky.social · May 6

My wife is only a cyclist because there are big bike lanes with enough space to make her feel safe with both e-bikes and cars. Building more of this infrastructure WILL convert non-cyclists into cyclists.

Madeleine Bonsma-Fisher, PhD @mbonsma.bsky.social · May 6

We should design for the future traffic we want. If we want to encourage a range of convenient micromobility options, we shouldn't micromanage who belongs in the bike lane. We should focus on reallocating space from cars and giving plenty of space for other uses.

nacto.org/latest/urban...

Text from a NACTO web page:

Protected bike lanes will attract more users because of their high comfort level. On streets without protected bike lanes, the existing bike volumes do not reflect potential demand. Design for the future, considering the existing and potential land use and transportation needs along the bikeway. Protected bike lanes designed to current volumes will likely reach capacity in the near future.

Design protected bike lanes with enough rideable width for all expected users to operate comfortably, ride side-by-side, or pass one another. Rideable width is the usable width of a bikeway for riding, excluding any shy distance, gutter pans, or other unrideable areas. Rideable width can extend beyond the marked bikeway to include parts of the buffer at the same level as the bikeway.

The minimum rideable width for one-way protected bike lanes is 6.5-7 ft (2-2.1 m) and the preferred width for one-way protected bike lanes is 8-12.5 ft (2.5-3.8).

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Owen Chevalier @owenc.bsky.social · May 5

First they came for my cars made partly in Canada, then they came for my movies that make Toronto look like New York.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Trump announces 100% tariffs on movies ‘produced in foreign lands’

President calls films ‘national security threat’ and claims he called on commerce department to immediately enact tariff

www.theguardian.com

Owen Chevalier @owenc.bsky.social · Apr 30

Also, as someone born and raised prairie who now lives out East, don’t confuse a general hatred of everything Toronto with a desire to be American. I’d venture to say many Sask folk would sooner call themselves REAL Canadians before they’d give up the country for the US.

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