Richard
@rwpickard.bsky.social
Reader, tree-hugger, teacher, preserver of foodstuffs. Canadian.
Deleter of rwpickard from Twitter/X.
http://boughtbooks.blogspot.com
Deleter of rwpickard from Twitter/X.
http://boughtbooks.blogspot.com
Pinned
Richard
@rwpickard.bsky.social
· Aug 30
Neighbourhood radical: A story about "AI"
Last night, at a kind neighbour's gentle garden party, I found myself calling for revolution and telling someone to choose which side they'd...
boughtbooks.blogspot.com
Re-upping this post, just to make my feelings about AI unmistakeable. #noAI #againstAI
boughtbooks.blogspot.com/2025/05/neig...
boughtbooks.blogspot.com/2025/05/neig...
Reposted by Richard
"We talked about how writing came to us, still comes if we’re lucky, and the server kept filling my coffee cup. None of us wanted to leave, the talk important, the view changing as the light changed."
theresakishkan.com/2025/12/06/t...
Alt Text: bare tree branches near blue water, lights along a footpath
Alt Text: bare tree branches near blue water, lights along a footpath
“The edge of the light” (Gary Snyder)
When I opened the curtains and then the balcony door early yesterday morning, I saw the lights and shadows of False Creek, smelled the sting of salt air. Gulls cried. A couple of sculls paused mid-…
theresakishkan.com
December 7, 2025 at 12:02 AM
"We talked about how writing came to us, still comes if we’re lucky, and the server kept filling my coffee cup. None of us wanted to leave, the talk important, the view changing as the light changed."
Reposted by Richard
And here I've been studying labels at the grocery store because, you know.
thetyee.ca/Opinion/2025...
thetyee.ca/Opinion/2025...
A Canadian Company Is Supplying Armoured Cars to ICE | The Tyee
The Canadian government should consider companies’ complicity in US human rights violations when sourcing contracts.
thetyee.ca
December 4, 2025 at 4:01 PM
And here I've been studying labels at the grocery store because, you know.
thetyee.ca/Opinion/2025...
thetyee.ca/Opinion/2025...
I'm not sure why I'm consistently finding someone working in art history such an incisive, useful, generous writer on the meaning of human agency in this time of alleged AI, but here we are. Yet another wise post/piece from @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social! #resistAI
The narrow answer to "why can't computer vision see the past?" is bc CV is linear algebra & I reject the premise that math is sight. But the big answer is that the data extraction industry is leveraging computer vision to engineer an anti-human future.
sonja-drimmer.squarespace.com/blog-1/2025/...
sonja-drimmer.squarespace.com/blog-1/2025/...
How to See the Past Seeing the Past — Sonja Drimmer
When I ask the question, "why can't computer vision see the past?" the narrow answer is because computer vision is linear algebra, and as an art historian I reject the premise that math is sight. ...
sonja-drimmer.squarespace.com
December 6, 2025 at 4:09 PM
I'm not sure why I'm consistently finding someone working in art history such an incisive, useful, generous writer on the meaning of human agency in this time of alleged AI, but here we are. Yet another wise post/piece from @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social! #resistAI
And THIS is why I don't give up, and why I keep objecting and pushing back and haranguing.
Framing GenAI as a battle between teachers and students is a red herring. Students and educators are on the same side. The real opposition are the data extraction firms and brokerages and their allies among the managerial class.
December 6, 2025 at 5:23 AM
And THIS is why I don't give up, and why I keep objecting and pushing back and haranguing.
Reposted by Richard
it’s weird to have people — students, colleagues, randoms — tell me that genAI is inevitable so why bother helping people understand how bad it is. like are you not fighting or shouting about, I dunno, climate change? fascism? do you not understand how genAI is aligned with both? get a fucking clue
December 5, 2025 at 11:47 PM
it’s weird to have people — students, colleagues, randoms — tell me that genAI is inevitable so why bother helping people understand how bad it is. like are you not fighting or shouting about, I dunno, climate change? fascism? do you not understand how genAI is aligned with both? get a fucking clue
Reposted by Richard
This is depraved
Soon, CNN will run live odds on world events where its viewers can gamble on them in real time on their smartphones. One recent Kalshi betting market that allowed people to bet on whether Palestinians in Gaza would suffer mass starvation.
CNN Partners With a Gambling App That Lets You Wager on Starvation in Gaza
The app company’s two biggest investors are also heavily invested in the Israeli military.
buff.ly
December 5, 2025 at 8:32 PM
This is depraved
Meanwhile, at #uvic, it has been roughly a year since the heat worked in our offices, making this the second wet-cycling season that they've deliberately made our working lives measurably worse. Couple that with the rumoured interest in electronically monitoring presence in the office, and gosh.
December 5, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Meanwhile, at #uvic, it has been roughly a year since the heat worked in our offices, making this the second wet-cycling season that they've deliberately made our working lives measurably worse. Couple that with the rumoured interest in electronically monitoring presence in the office, and gosh.
Reposted by Richard
To build their model, the Heiltsuk used knowledge of bear movements garnered from DNA samples of bear fur collected across the territory, community interviews, and the Heiltsuk Traditional Use Study, which started gathering oral histories and traditional knowledge from Heiltsuk elders in the 1990s.
Charting a Course Through Bears’ Eyes
In British Columbia, stewards from the Heiltsuk First Nation are using computational models and Indigenous knowledge to protect bears’ access to salmon.
by @tjanepalmer.bsky.social
www.biographic.com/charting-a-c...
In British Columbia, stewards from the Heiltsuk First Nation are using computational models and Indigenous knowledge to protect bears’ access to salmon.
by @tjanepalmer.bsky.social
www.biographic.com/charting-a-c...
Charting a Course Through Bears' Eyes - bioGraphic
In British Columbia, First Nation stewards are using computational models and Indigenous knowledge to protect bears’ access to salmon.
www.biographic.com
December 4, 2025 at 5:49 PM
To build their model, the Heiltsuk used knowledge of bear movements garnered from DNA samples of bear fur collected across the territory, community interviews, and the Heiltsuk Traditional Use Study, which started gathering oral histories and traditional knowledge from Heiltsuk elders in the 1990s.
Oh, Time Magazine, you were SO CLOSE with this, and then the pop-up ruined everything. #resistAI time.com/7338205/rage...
December 4, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Oh, Time Magazine, you were SO CLOSE with this, and then the pop-up ruined everything. #resistAI time.com/7338205/rage...
Reposted by Richard
Legend has it that if he sees his shadow, we'll get 3 more years of NDP government
Conservative house leader Á’a:líya Warbus says the caucus is working things out internally and will put out a press release by the end of the day
Press gallery reporters are waiting outside Rustad's office on the assumption he's in there but might emerge
Press gallery reporters are waiting outside Rustad's office on the assumption he's in there but might emerge
December 3, 2025 at 9:48 PM
Legend has it that if he sees his shadow, we'll get 3 more years of NDP government
On the day that John Rustad may or may not have been removed as leader of the BC Conservatives, if you're not watching BC legislature question period live, are you even participating in #bcpoli Bluesky discourse? www.leg.bc.ca/parliamentar...
Legislative Broadcasting and Webcasting | Legislative Assembly of BC
www.leg.bc.ca
December 3, 2025 at 9:57 PM
On the day that John Rustad may or may not have been removed as leader of the BC Conservatives, if you're not watching BC legislature question period live, are you even participating in #bcpoli Bluesky discourse? www.leg.bc.ca/parliamentar...
Their constitution says the possible reasons for booting out the leader are "resignation, death, incapacitation, or ... leadership review vote." They've reinterpreted "incapacitation" interestingly. #bcpoli
The BC Conservative leader has been declared "professionally incapacitated" by his caucus
December 3, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Their constitution says the possible reasons for booting out the leader are "resignation, death, incapacitation, or ... leadership review vote." They've reinterpreted "incapacitation" interestingly. #bcpoli
What the heck is "professionally incapacitated"? #bcpoli
Whelp! The BC Conservative party's Twitter account says Rustad has been removed as leader because he is "professionally incapacitated"
Unclear whether that's actually in line with the party constitution
Per the release, Trevor Halford selected to serve as interim leader #bcpoli
Unclear whether that's actually in line with the party constitution
Per the release, Trevor Halford selected to serve as interim leader #bcpoli
December 3, 2025 at 9:40 PM
What the heck is "professionally incapacitated"? #bcpoli
Like I've been saying for a while, sometimes the moment comes where you need to choose a side. UCSD has made its choice, and it's not on the side of humans, humanity, or the humane.
At this time I would council students to avoid institutions making these kinds of investments. It's a signal that they are eager to move away from human contact and interpersonal exchanges and outsource it to generative AI. They are declaring their values. today.ucsd.edu/story/triton...
TritonGPT is Here and Ready to Help
The latest innovation developed at UC San Diego, TritonGPT is redefining how students, staff, faculty and researchers work together. Its suite of artificial intelligence assistants act as helpers, tut...
today.ucsd.edu
December 3, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Like I've been saying for a while, sometimes the moment comes where you need to choose a side. UCSD has made its choice, and it's not on the side of humans, humanity, or the humane.
Reposted by Richard
Will continue to bang this drum: this is the system university admins are cramming into every aspect of education. This is the system we are told “isn’t going anywhere” so we all have to adjust to it.
New from 404 Media: ChatGPT told a violent stalker to continue running his misogynistic and threat-filled podcast despite the “haters,” and to visit more gyms to find women. The man stalked women in multiple states, including touching and following from work
www.404media.co/chatgpt-spot...
www.404media.co/chatgpt-spot...
ChatGPT Told a Violent Stalker to Embrace the 'Haters,' Indictment Says
A newly filed indictment claims a wannabe influencer used ChatGPT as his "therapist" and "best friend" in his pursuit of the "wife type," while harassing women so aggressively they had to miss work a...
www.404media.co
December 3, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Will continue to bang this drum: this is the system university admins are cramming into every aspect of education. This is the system we are told “isn’t going anywhere” so we all have to adjust to it.
Reposted by Richard
Agreed. Best yet on the utter disaster university administrators and AI oligarchs have enacted.
December 3, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Agreed. Best yet on the utter disaster university administrators and AI oligarchs have enacted.
"No longer content to voice their opposition to equality and societal fairness strictly at dinner parties...." 😂 #bcpoli
Wondering why Dallas Brodie and Frances Widdowson got kicked off the UVic campus today?
Gitxan journalist Jerome Turner attended one of their unsanctioned events, and wrote about it.
Here’s what academic Sean Carleton told Jerome about their movement.
Read more: ricochet.media/indigenous/w...
Gitxan journalist Jerome Turner attended one of their unsanctioned events, and wrote about it.
Here’s what academic Sean Carleton told Jerome about their movement.
Read more: ricochet.media/indigenous/w...
December 3, 2025 at 12:58 AM
"No longer content to voice their opposition to equality and societal fairness strictly at dinner parties...." 😂 #bcpoli
I'm embarrassed to say that it wasn't until I saw her thoughtful, respectful email just now to the whole campus community that I realized these people had probably targeted UVic because its acting president is an Indigenous woman. Glad I was protesting! news.uvic.ca/2025/healing...
December 3, 2025 at 12:01 AM
I'm embarrassed to say that it wasn't until I saw her thoughtful, respectful email just now to the whole campus community that I realized these people had probably targeted UVic because its acting president is an Indigenous woman. Glad I was protesting! news.uvic.ca/2025/healing...
Reposted by Richard
"In the midst of this nonsense, we must nourish hope in shared values" 👏👏👏
Finally, we end on:
"The future [under the sway of AI risks being] a constant rehashing of the past, wherein human creativity and communication are not only mediated by but controlled by companies. In the midst of this nonsense, we must nourish
hope in shared values"
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
8/
"The future [under the sway of AI risks being] a constant rehashing of the past, wherein human creativity and communication are not only mediated by but controlled by companies. In the midst of this nonsense, we must nourish
hope in shared values"
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
8/
December 2, 2025 at 3:41 PM
"In the midst of this nonsense, we must nourish hope in shared values" 👏👏👏
English prof here: "Have you read [classic or famous book that I've inexplicably never read]?"
What’s the worst question someone can ask after you tell them your profession? For linguists, it’s definitely “how many languages do you speak?”, but I’m curious what else is happening to the rest of y’all out there?!
December 2, 2025 at 4:51 PM
English prof here: "Have you read [classic or famous book that I've inexplicably never read]?"
Please share and click through: my friend Marvin's older sister has been missing from Kamloops since Wednesday, Nov 26, after leaving home to babysit her grandchild (and never arriving). The family is desperate with worry. #missing
December 1, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Please share and click through: my friend Marvin's older sister has been missing from Kamloops since Wednesday, Nov 26, after leaving home to babysit her grandchild (and never arriving). The family is desperate with worry. #missing