BenSchmidt
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benschmidt.bsky.social
BenSchmidt
@benschmidt.bsky.social
PEng, MBA • Technology Sherpa • Digital Strategist • Stargazer
Imagine highschool geometry classes where students used 3D printers to perform experiments like these… #ReuleauxTriangles

Video via Science Girl, twitter.com/gunsnrosesgirl3
November 5, 2025 at 5:55 PM
My AI Learning journey: new addition for a gentle, page-turner intro to genAI:
You Look Like a Thing and I Love You: How Artificial Intelligence Works and Why It's Making the World a Weirder Place (2019) by Janelle Shane—a look at how AI works & why it often behaves unexpectedly.
October 14, 2025 at 2:08 AM
My AI Learning Roadmap: 1st reads…
•Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans (2019)—Intro to neural networks, learning algorithms, & natural language processing
•Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence (2018)—how AI’s predictive power impacts business models
September 10, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Age is just a number — Curiosity has no expiry date.

Grace Hopper began computing at 38, completed the first compiler at 46, helped shape COBOL at 53, kept developing COBOL for the Navy in her 70s, retired at 80 & then became a consultant for Digital Equipment Corporation. Credit: @MIT_CSAIL
July 28, 2025 at 4:57 PM
IIn the late 90s, 🇨🇦's mobile scene was dominated by Bell & Rogers selling locked CDMA phones. Fido was the 1st 🇨🇦 carrier to offer GSM, enabling SIM swaps. This Nortel handset (1997) added cutting-edge audio developed by BNR/Nortel’s Ottawa acoustic lab, under David Cuddy. #mobilephones #TechHistory
July 28, 2025 at 2:41 PM
June 27, 2025 at 12:33 PM
Switzerland's Federal Office of Transport (FOT) is trialing solar panels between tracks in Buttes, where trains run at 70 km/h, to assess wear & tear, and the challenges of maintaining rail infrastructure. A brush placed on the end of trains, keeps the panels clean. www.swissinfo.ch/eng/climate-...
Cool beans in Switzerland!
Solar panels between railroad tracks could provide up to 2% of the country's electricity needs!
www.swissinfo.ch/eng/climate-...
June 17, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Consumers Distributing (1957–1996), a nostalgic 🇨🇦 experiment in “Internet shopping before the Internet”:
•flip through catalogue at home—circling toys, electronics & jewelry
•grab a clipboard & stubby pencil to fill out a form w/ item numbers
•wait for the conveyor belt to bring items from the back
May 21, 2025 at 4:20 PM
This morning’s philosophical reflection:
«No man ever eats the same cookie twice, for it's not the same cookie and he's not the same man.»
—Heraclitus
May 19, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Making new friends at Day 1 of DPI-Canada.com 2025. Ameca is the world’s most advanced facial expression robot, successfully crossing « the Uncanny Valley » #DPI2025 #DPIPDW
May 6, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Tomorrow, Monday April 28, 2025 is election day in 🇨🇦. In 2021, just 62% voted. Ask family, neighbours & co-workers to vote!
Find your Polling station: elections.ca/Scripts/vis/...
#ElbowsUp #CdnPoli
April 27, 2025 at 8:14 PM
April 11, 2025 at 8:36 PM
A decade ago, Toronto doctor & uToronto.ca prof, 🇨🇦 Dr. Danielle Martin, schooled a partisan U.S. Senate committee on Canadian health care, and on why private (or as #NeverPoilievre promotes it) "hybrid" healthcare exacerbates waittimes, diverting resources to the wealthy. www.cbc.ca/news/world/d...
April 3, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Yesterday, Trump's admin trampled yet another symbol of Canada/US friendship 🇨🇦/🇺🇸— terminating 120 years of access enjoyed by Canadians to the Haskell Free Library, built by 🇨🇦 Martha Haskel, on the US/Canada border, to memorialize her love for her late 🇺🇸 husband Carlos. www.ctvnews.ca/montreal/art...
U.S. authorities closing Canadian access to library that straddles Quebec-Vermont border
A small town in southern Quebec says American authorities have decided to close the Canadian access to an historic library that sits on the border between the two countries.
www.ctvnews.ca
March 21, 2025 at 2:13 PM
If you are not wearing these boot covers, the only other way onto the Jupiter 2 is as a stowaway—I'm looking at you, you trouble-maker Dr. Smith! 🚀 🪐
March 17, 2025 at 1:08 PM
A total LUNAR eclipse on March 13-14, 2025, starting just before midnight Thursday, with totality, in Ottawa, between 2:30 a.m. & 3:30 a.m. EDT.

Don't bother w/ eclipse glasses from April 8, 2024's SOLAR eclipse. LUNAR eclipses are safe for eyes or binoculars 😄 credit: @museumofscience.bsky.social
March 12, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Thank you @jamestaylor-com.bsky.social. When convicted felon & president, Trump, keeps getting us down…

🎶 …we all wish we could climb way up to the top of the stairs onto the roof where the world can't bother us …where at night the stars put on a show for free. And share this all …up on the roof 🎶
"I always hesitate to bring my political beliefs into this space. I don’t think my listeners would expect that from me and some of you will find it disappointing: not what you were looking for... "

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February 22, 2025 at 3:29 PM
We ❤️ and support our American neighbours. It's bullying and attacks on our right to exist as a country 🇨🇦 — by Trump, his handlers, and his GOP enablers — which we cannot abide. 🇨🇦
February 21, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Respect for Illinois Governor @jbpritzker.bsky.social.
"The best way to spot an idiot? Look for the person who is cruel …the kindest person in the room is often the smartest." x.com/GovPritzker/...
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker's commencement speech at Northwestern University - 2023
YouTube video by To The Moon And Back Again Productions
www.youtube.com
February 21, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Happy Valentine's Day. Thankful it didn't fall on a Wednesday. 😜 ❤️
February 14, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Thank you @thedailyshow.com #Trade #Tariff #Tarif 🇨🇦

…Convicted felon and president, Trump, wonders who made the terrible deal with Canada 😉
February 7, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Thx to @ajamesmccarthy.bsky.social, for sharing his image of the entire "Planetary Parade," using his 11" telescope, combining everything into one composite photo that stays true to the angular scale of these objects.

PS. An illustration by Sam Brown, "How to use your Telescope" (1959) #astronomy
January 26, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Habitually standing while leaning forward can be a symptom of several medical conditions.
#PSA: If you or someone you know is experiencing this, it might be helpful to consult a healthcare professional for a thorough evaluation and appropriate management. #unfit
January 26, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Wow! A recording of an actual meterorite impact last summer. And in Charlottetown, Canada! 🇨🇦 cc @ambermac.bsky.social

I must have been living under a rock or 🎶 on a planet that's revolving at nine hundred miles an hour and orbiting at nineteen miles a second 🎶🙂
skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-ne...
January 23, 2025 at 2:44 PM
A powerful graphic on housing affordability across Canada, shared by @abetterottawa.bsky.social. Minimum wage also varies across Canada. www.retailcouncil.org/resources/qu...
January 23, 2025 at 2:23 PM