Dr. Margrit Talpalaru
@memargrit.bsky.social
Mostly here to talk books & stories.
Mike Curato’s Gaysians is the epitome of a comfort read and I could not put it down. Do yourselves a favour, #BookSky friends, and pick up this balm of a story.
January 13, 2026 at 2:58 PM
Mike Curato’s Gaysians is the epitome of a comfort read and I could not put it down. Do yourselves a favour, #BookSky friends, and pick up this balm of a story.
First #BookSky accomplishment of the year: finishing The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M. Banks in spite of the short attention span documented here. I liked it so much, I’m actually going to start the Culture series from the beginning. (This was the last one).
January 12, 2026 at 9:05 PM
First #BookSky accomplishment of the year: finishing The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M. Banks in spite of the short attention span documented here. I liked it so much, I’m actually going to start the Culture series from the beginning. (This was the last one).
For all #SciFi and #SpecFic #writing folks, this IDEaS contest run by the Government of Canada might seem interesting: www.canada.ca/en/departmen...
Deadline: January 16, 2026, 12:00 pm ET
Deadline: January 16, 2026, 12:00 pm ET
IDEaS fictional intelligence contest: Polar paradigms 2045: Defending Canada’s sovereignty - Canada.ca
Think like an enemy. Disrupt like an innovator. Write like the future depends on it. This contest is a launchpad for game-changing ideas, arming military leaders with bold, mind-bending insights they ...
www.canada.ca
January 6, 2026 at 3:41 PM
For all #SciFi and #SpecFic #writing folks, this IDEaS contest run by the Government of Canada might seem interesting: www.canada.ca/en/departmen...
Deadline: January 16, 2026, 12:00 pm ET
Deadline: January 16, 2026, 12:00 pm ET
“The Renaissance is not a set of years, it’s our name for the idea that there was a period of change between medieval and modern, during which some special innovation, some new ingredient, some X-Factor, arrived and made the world different.”
Ada Palmer’s Inventing the Renaissance: 💎📙😎 #booksky
Ada Palmer’s Inventing the Renaissance: 💎📙😎 #booksky
December 29, 2025 at 1:42 PM
“The Renaissance is not a set of years, it’s our name for the idea that there was a period of change between medieval and modern, during which some special innovation, some new ingredient, some X-Factor, arrived and made the world different.”
Ada Palmer’s Inventing the Renaissance: 💎📙😎 #booksky
Ada Palmer’s Inventing the Renaissance: 💎📙😎 #booksky
“But nuance doesn’t sell. Pessimism does. It sounds smarter, more sophisticated, proof that you’re a clear-eyed realist... You get to be the prophet who saw it coming, brave enough to tell hard truths while collecting your advance and planning your next speaking tour.”
fixthenews.com/p/the-teleme...
fixthenews.com/p/the-teleme...
The Telemetry
All the news the headlines missed in 2025.
fixthenews.com
December 29, 2025 at 12:51 PM
“But nuance doesn’t sell. Pessimism does. It sounds smarter, more sophisticated, proof that you’re a clear-eyed realist... You get to be the prophet who saw it coming, brave enough to tell hard truths while collecting your advance and planning your next speaking tour.”
fixthenews.com/p/the-teleme...
fixthenews.com/p/the-teleme...
"That you can in fact free that space in your mind where you're obsessed with all those names and devote that space and time to something that's distinctively for you, and that's distinctively an expression of who you are rather than a reaction to someone else." www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/...
Polarizing times call for Nietzsche's practice of 'passing by' | CBC Radio
Nineteenth century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche offers us a method that can help us navigate the highly polarizing discourse that’s afflicting democracies today. IDEAS shares lessons on heal...
www.cbc.ca
December 24, 2025 at 5:28 PM
"That you can in fact free that space in your mind where you're obsessed with all those names and devote that space and time to something that's distinctively for you, and that's distinctively an expression of who you are rather than a reaction to someone else." www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/...
“Hype is seldom based on concrete promises,” explains Stewart. “It is, by design, a speculation boom: it generates a narrative of innovation and future value, but it is driven by logics of business and media, not education or the public good. Hype’s purpose is to generate investment.”
my campus news put out a piece on the 'AI hype awareness' work i've been doing lately, from a higher ed perspective.
we need to understand that we are being sold a bail-out for billionaires, not an educational future.
www.uwindsor.ca/news/2025-11...
we need to understand that we are being sold a bail-out for billionaires, not an educational future.
www.uwindsor.ca/news/2025-11...
What goes up must come down: Education prof explores the AI hype cycle
www.uwindsor.ca
November 19, 2025 at 3:30 AM
“Hype is seldom based on concrete promises,” explains Stewart. “It is, by design, a speculation boom: it generates a narrative of innovation and future value, but it is driven by logics of business and media, not education or the public good. Hype’s purpose is to generate investment.”
“The report, released this week, says every dollar invested by the federal government in arts and culture generates $29 in economic activity”
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Arts sector contributes billions to Canadian economy, but funding challenges remain, report says | CBC News
Canada's arts and culture sector contributed $65 billion to the economy last year, but an increase in public investment is needed to offset a drop in private funding and a rise in costs, says a new re...
www.cbc.ca
October 31, 2025 at 8:53 PM
“The report, released this week, says every dollar invested by the federal government in arts and culture generates $29 in economic activity”
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
“Nearly nine in ten Canadians (88 per cent) say they are concerned about AI deception in the news, with over half (52 per cent) “very concerned.””
cjf-fjc.ca/digital-dece...
cjf-fjc.ca/digital-dece...
Digital deception now a ‘daily reality’ for nearly half of Canadians, new survey reveals – Canadian Journalism Foundation
cjf-fjc.ca
October 30, 2025 at 8:03 PM
“Nearly nine in ten Canadians (88 per cent) say they are concerned about AI deception in the news, with over half (52 per cent) “very concerned.””
cjf-fjc.ca/digital-dece...
cjf-fjc.ca/digital-dece...
“Instead of telling their own stories, creatives are funneled into pre-existing IP, often with corporate-issued limitations on what kind of stories they can tell.”
#BookSky
reactormag.com/with-the-ser...
#BookSky
reactormag.com/with-the-ser...
With the Serial Numbers Filed Off: The Problem with Trad Pub Fanfic - Reactor
Jenny Hamilton looks closer at three Dramione fics-turned-novels publishing this year.
reactormag.com
September 28, 2025 at 10:52 AM
“Instead of telling their own stories, creatives are funneled into pre-existing IP, often with corporate-issued limitations on what kind of stories they can tell.”
#BookSky
reactormag.com/with-the-ser...
#BookSky
reactormag.com/with-the-ser...
“I wonder if the emerging threat of AI is restoring a sense of vitality to the humanistic mission... the humanities enable people to feel whole within themselves...[they] help us form coherent narratives…out of the contradictions, challenges, and terrors of daily life. thelocal.to/humanities-i...
The Humanities Aren't Dead Yet | The Local
Enrollment in the liberal arts has been in freefall for years. But despite apocalyptic declarations about the end of the humanities, in my own classroom I see signs of life.
thelocal.to
September 25, 2025 at 2:35 AM
“I wonder if the emerging threat of AI is restoring a sense of vitality to the humanistic mission... the humanities enable people to feel whole within themselves...[they] help us form coherent narratives…out of the contradictions, challenges, and terrors of daily life. thelocal.to/humanities-i...
“Moral convictions & emotions play a critical role in escalating disagreements. The damage caused when civil arguments are subtly replaced with moral convictions & moral emotions can impact how we co-operate & interact with one another, even in our day-to-day conversations with families & friends.”
How discussion becomes discord: Three avoidable steps on the path to polarization
How discussion becomes discord: Three avoidable steps on the path to polarization
New research examines how people become entrenched in polarizing positions and how we can prevent debates from devolving into heated arguments.
theconversation.com
June 18, 2025 at 6:56 PM
“Moral convictions & emotions play a critical role in escalating disagreements. The damage caused when civil arguments are subtly replaced with moral convictions & moral emotions can impact how we co-operate & interact with one another, even in our day-to-day conversations with families & friends.”
"What we're going to see is a growth in the economy around hate and disinformation."
www.cbc.ca/news/enterta...
www.cbc.ca/news/enterta...
As disinformation and hate thrive online, YouTube quietly changed how it moderates content | CBC News
YouTube, the world's largest video platform, with 20 million videos uploaded each day, appears to have changed its moderation policies to allow more content that violates its own rules to remain onlin...
www.cbc.ca
June 14, 2025 at 3:47 PM
"What we're going to see is a growth in the economy around hate and disinformation."
www.cbc.ca/news/enterta...
www.cbc.ca/news/enterta...
“In short, these models are very good at a kind of pattern recognition, but often fail when they encounter novelty that forces them beyond the limits of their training, despite being, as the paper notes, “explicitly designed for reasoning tasks”
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
When billion-dollar AIs break down over puzzles a child can do, it's time to rethink the hype | Gary Marcus
The tech world is reeling from a paper that shows the powers of a new generation of AI have been wildly oversold, says cognitive scientist Gary Marcus
www.theguardian.com
June 10, 2025 at 1:15 PM
“In short, these models are very good at a kind of pattern recognition, but often fail when they encounter novelty that forces them beyond the limits of their training, despite being, as the paper notes, “explicitly designed for reasoning tasks”
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Back to my regular #BookSky posting:
I loved Woodworking by Emily St. James for its loving portrayal of different White trans women’s experiences, and the reversal of the generational flow of wisdom.
I loved Woodworking by Emily St. James for its loving portrayal of different White trans women’s experiences, and the reversal of the generational flow of wisdom.
June 8, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Back to my regular #BookSky posting:
I loved Woodworking by Emily St. James for its loving portrayal of different White trans women’s experiences, and the reversal of the generational flow of wisdom.
I loved Woodworking by Emily St. James for its loving portrayal of different White trans women’s experiences, and the reversal of the generational flow of wisdom.
“Biderman herself doesn't have any illusions that the likes of OpenAI will […]start being paragons of ethical data sourcing. But she hopes her work will at least get them to stop hiding what they're using to train their AI models.
"Even partial transparency has a huge amount of social value"
"Even partial transparency has a huge amount of social value"
News: “The Tech Industry Said It Was "Impossible" to Create AI Based Entirely on Ethically-Sourced Data, So These Scientists Proved Them Wrong in Spectacular Fashion”
futurism.com/ai-built-eth...
This was an uplifting and interesting read on #GenAI #ArtificialIntelligence
futurism.com/ai-built-eth...
This was an uplifting and interesting read on #GenAI #ArtificialIntelligence
The Tech Industry Said It Was "Impossible" to Create AI Based Entirely on Ethically-Sourced Data, So These Scientists Proved Them Wrong in Spectacular Fashion
A team of researchers have created a dataset using only openly licensed or public domain content and used it to train an AI model.
futurism.com
June 8, 2025 at 3:23 PM
“Biderman herself doesn't have any illusions that the likes of OpenAI will […]start being paragons of ethical data sourcing. But she hopes her work will at least get them to stop hiding what they're using to train their AI models.
"Even partial transparency has a huge amount of social value"
"Even partial transparency has a huge amount of social value"
“OpenAI’s push to A.I.-ify college education amounts to a national experiment on millions of students.
The use of these chatbots in schools is so new that their potential long-term educational benefits, and possible side effects, are not yet established.”
The use of these chatbots in schools is so new that their potential long-term educational benefits, and possible side effects, are not yet established.”
Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/07/t...
Welcome to Campus. Here’s Your ChatGPT.
www.nytimes.com
June 8, 2025 at 1:42 AM
“OpenAI’s push to A.I.-ify college education amounts to a national experiment on millions of students.
The use of these chatbots in schools is so new that their potential long-term educational benefits, and possible side effects, are not yet established.”
The use of these chatbots in schools is so new that their potential long-term educational benefits, and possible side effects, are not yet established.”
Reposted by Dr. Margrit Talpalaru
Today marks the final day of Congress@GBC, and we couldn’t be prouder to be the 1st college ever to host Canada’s largest academic gathering! For over a week, we've welcomed colleagues from across Canada & the world for the 94th Annual Congress of the Humanities & Social Sciences. @federationhss.ca
June 6, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Today marks the final day of Congress@GBC, and we couldn’t be prouder to be the 1st college ever to host Canada’s largest academic gathering! For over a week, we've welcomed colleagues from across Canada & the world for the 94th Annual Congress of the Humanities & Social Sciences. @federationhss.ca
Reposted by Dr. Margrit Talpalaru
Limberlost Campus lit up with vibrant dances by the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation for National Indigenous History Month and Congress @ GBC! Thank you to everyone who joined us in honouring Indigenous knowledge through meaningful, embodied learning. @federationhss.ca #Congressh
June 4, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Limberlost Campus lit up with vibrant dances by the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation for National Indigenous History Month and Congress @ GBC! Thank you to everyone who joined us in honouring Indigenous knowledge through meaningful, embodied learning. @federationhss.ca #Congressh
“What stories can you read that change you and how you operate?” Asks @jaelrichardson.bsky.social at the Care of Togetherness Big Thinking as a way to practice care. #Congressh
June 3, 2025 at 10:03 PM
“What stories can you read that change you and how you operate?” Asks @jaelrichardson.bsky.social at the Care of Togetherness Big Thinking as a way to practice care. #Congressh
Reposted by Dr. Margrit Talpalaru
“Care is one of those practices that we carry out often without any kind of robuste theoretical framework, it preceeds thoughts in many ways.” - Billy-Ray Belcourt #congressh
June 3, 2025 at 9:52 PM
“Care is one of those practices that we carry out often without any kind of robuste theoretical framework, it preceeds thoughts in many ways.” - Billy-Ray Belcourt #congressh
Reposted by Dr. Margrit Talpalaru
"Each person in this room has a responsibility to the land which we live on. It's no coincidence that the land was found in such a beautiful state when settler colonialism began. Climate change is because of colonialism." - Melina Laboucan-Massimo #congressh
June 2, 2025 at 4:32 PM
"Each person in this room has a responsibility to the land which we live on. It's no coincidence that the land was found in such a beautiful state when settler colonialism began. Climate change is because of colonialism." - Melina Laboucan-Massimo #congressh
Michael Hirsh underscores the similarities between the experimental film culture of the 1960s-1970s and the YouTube creator culture of the past decade, in terms of DIY methods and finding an audience #congressh
June 1, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Michael Hirsh underscores the similarities between the experimental film culture of the 1960s-1970s and the YouTube creator culture of the past decade, in terms of DIY methods and finding an audience #congressh
Ryan Morrison: How do we slow it down?
Heather Krause: We focus on the fact that it wasn’t everybody, but only a few, and amplify it. #congressh
Heather Krause: We focus on the fact that it wasn’t everybody, but only a few, and amplify it. #congressh
“One thing that’s really important to remember is that the pace of AI doesn’t have to be the pace we follow. It’s not the way it has to be. There are many priorities that AI can be used for.” Heather Krause.
#congressh
#congressh
June 1, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Ryan Morrison: How do we slow it down?
Heather Krause: We focus on the fact that it wasn’t everybody, but only a few, and amplify it. #congressh
Heather Krause: We focus on the fact that it wasn’t everybody, but only a few, and amplify it. #congressh
Reposted by Dr. Margrit Talpalaru
“To me, AI is a very helpful tool to complement your existing critical thinking and existing work.” - Debra Lam.
#congressh
#congressh
June 1, 2025 at 4:45 PM
“To me, AI is a very helpful tool to complement your existing critical thinking and existing work.” - Debra Lam.
#congressh
#congressh