Tony Florio
@tonyflorio.bsky.social
I love cycling, music, technology and sleeping. Communications guy, but my opinions are my own.
Violent crime is most committed by people aged 18-24. The largest demographic in Canada (Millennials) just grew out of this age bracket. It'll be interesting to see if these numbers plateau, reflecting the slightly smaller size of Gen-Z, then falls (Gen-Alpha that follows is about half the size.)
Police-reported violent crime rate grew in Canada as it dropped in the U.S.: report
OTTAWA - The gap between Canada and the United States on police-reported violent crime has narrowed in recent years, driven by a rise in the rate of major assaults here.
www.thecanadianpressnews.ca
October 10, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Violent crime is most committed by people aged 18-24. The largest demographic in Canada (Millennials) just grew out of this age bracket. It'll be interesting to see if these numbers plateau, reflecting the slightly smaller size of Gen-Z, then falls (Gen-Alpha that follows is about half the size.)
The suggestion here that CBC offer a national streaming service with French/English captions or dubbing makes a LOT of sense. What better way to meet its mandate than share original French-language productions with English Canada?
August 15, 2025 at 10:11 PM
The suggestion here that CBC offer a national streaming service with French/English captions or dubbing makes a LOT of sense. What better way to meet its mandate than share original French-language productions with English Canada?
Interesting take on the business of gen-AI.
Newsletter: This is the Hater's Guide To The AI Bubble: genAI is nothing like Uber or Amazon Web Services, there are no profitable genAI companies, agents do not and cannot exist, there is no AI SaaS story, and everything rides - and dies - on selling GPUs.
www.wheresyoured.at/the-haters-g...
www.wheresyoured.at/the-haters-g...
The Hater's Guide To The AI Bubble
Hey! Before we go any further — if you want to support my work, please sign up for the premium version of Where’s Your Ed At, it’s a $7-a-month (or $70-a-year) paid product where every week you get a ...
www.wheresyoured.at
July 22, 2025 at 10:58 PM
Interesting take on the business of gen-AI.
Reposted by Tony Florio
The audio version of this week’s No Mercy / No Malice, as read by @georgehahn.com
open.spotify.com/episode/1aek...
open.spotify.com/episode/1aek...
July 12, 2025 at 10:15 PM
The audio version of this week’s No Mercy / No Malice, as read by @georgehahn.com
open.spotify.com/episode/1aek...
open.spotify.com/episode/1aek...
It's getting really hard to tell what's just stupid news and what is satire these days. Unfortunately, this one is the former.
Wisconsin and Minnesota Republicans call on Canada to curb wildfire smoke
WASHINGTON - Six Republican lawmakers have sent a letter to Canada's ambassador calling for action on the wildfires sending smoke billowing across the international border into their states.
www.thecanadianpressnews.ca
July 10, 2025 at 12:15 PM
It's getting really hard to tell what's just stupid news and what is satire these days. Unfortunately, this one is the former.
“Most of us have strong, strong faith in the myth of technological progress. Most people associate thinking about collapse with pessimism because you’re questioning the orthodoxy of our modern religion, which is faith in progress.”
On r/collapse, people are ‘kept abreast of the latest doom’. Its moderators say it’s not for everyone
On r/collapse, people are ‘kept abreast of the latest doom’. Its moderators say it’s not for everyone
A subreddit tracking apocalyptic news in a calm, logical way comforts users who believe the end times are now
www.theguardian.com
June 26, 2025 at 12:37 PM
“Most of us have strong, strong faith in the myth of technological progress. Most people associate thinking about collapse with pessimism because you’re questioning the orthodoxy of our modern religion, which is faith in progress.”
This is how all companies behave in the absence of effective competition. It's bad for users and ultimately bad for innovation.
How underground brokers use their connections inside Meta to profit from hacked accounts
When your Facebook or Instagram account gets hacked, social-media giant Meta offers little support. Intermediaries and insiders can help you get back online – but it will cost you
www.theglobeandmail.com
June 14, 2025 at 1:59 PM
This is how all companies behave in the absence of effective competition. It's bad for users and ultimately bad for innovation.
There may be a huge opportunity to think about lanes in terms of size, weight and speed to encourage innovation at the small, light, zero emissions part of the vehicle mix. Don't we want more of this in crowded urban areas?
*Michael Longfield, executive director of Cycle Toronto, reminded the committee to stay focused on the fact that cars and trucks are the biggest threat to pedestrians and cyclists on Toronto streets. He said there is a difference between frustration and safety."
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Toronto needs a single set of rules for what vehicles can use bike lanes, says council committee | CBC News
Toronto needs a single set of rules for bike lanes in the city, a council committee decided on Wednesday.
www.cbc.ca
June 12, 2025 at 11:51 AM
There may be a huge opportunity to think about lanes in terms of size, weight and speed to encourage innovation at the small, light, zero emissions part of the vehicle mix. Don't we want more of this in crowded urban areas?
Reposted by Tony Florio
In April, President Trump and Salvadoran President Bukele shook hands in the Oval Office to celebrate a deal to ship gang members to the notorious CECOT prison.
But a new ProPublica investigation found there’s more to the story. 🧵👇
But a new ProPublica investigation found there’s more to the story. 🧵👇
June 12, 2025 at 11:06 AM
In April, President Trump and Salvadoran President Bukele shook hands in the Oval Office to celebrate a deal to ship gang members to the notorious CECOT prison.
But a new ProPublica investigation found there’s more to the story. 🧵👇
But a new ProPublica investigation found there’s more to the story. 🧵👇
So glad I saw a chance to see him play a few years ago. There is such a bittersweet innocence in so many of his tunes that he wrote as a young man that still resonated -- perhaps in a different way -- as he played them as an older man. He will be missed.
June 11, 2025 at 5:26 PM
So glad I saw a chance to see him play a few years ago. There is such a bittersweet innocence in so many of his tunes that he wrote as a young man that still resonated -- perhaps in a different way -- as he played them as an older man. He will be missed.
I think that America has shifted from creating value to extracting value -- akin to what @pluralistic.net.web.brid.gy calls the 'enshitification' of tech platforms. 🧵
June 11, 2025 at 12:21 PM
I think that America has shifted from creating value to extracting value -- akin to what @pluralistic.net.web.brid.gy calls the 'enshitification' of tech platforms. 🧵
Good read, putting Trumpism within the great American tradition of televangelists, pyramid schemes, hucksters and snake oil salesmen.
"Go to the nicest golf course you can find, track down the guy with the worst clubs, and ask him why he’s paying more than he can likely afford to be there. That’s Trumpism. That’s the masculinity crisis. That’s the whole thing." @ryanhatesthis.bsky.social www.garbageday.email/p/the-united...
The United States of Mar-A-Lago
Read to the end for a good post about aliens
www.garbageday.email
May 29, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Good read, putting Trumpism within the great American tradition of televangelists, pyramid schemes, hucksters and snake oil salesmen.
I think the reason it works -- why cons in general work -- is they know we truly *want* to believe them. They promise easy, magic-pill answers to really challenging, complex problems. Your commute is contributing to climate change? No problem: buy this EV and you can read on the way to work!
Great story on the simples reason Elon Musk shouldn't be in business or politics: he's a shameless liar, and nobody should believe a single thing he says.
Someone with this record of blatant lying to investors shouldn't be able to get a credit card.
www.wired.com/story/theres...
Someone with this record of blatant lying to investors shouldn't be able to get a credit card.
www.wired.com/story/theres...
There’s a Very Simple Pattern to Elon Musk’s Broken Promises
The entrepreneur’s habit of overpromising on deadlines may be frustrating for investors—but for those looking to see whether a Musk pledge will come good, there’s a key phrase to watch out for.
www.wired.com
May 27, 2025 at 4:30 PM
I think the reason it works -- why cons in general work -- is they know we truly *want* to believe them. They promise easy, magic-pill answers to really challenging, complex problems. Your commute is contributing to climate change? No problem: buy this EV and you can read on the way to work!
"Ottawa has historically funded about 40 percent of NORAD investments ... and is putting $38B into the command to add new radars in the north over the next two decades. Without those investments ... officials believe the U.S. will have trouble putting together a credible North American air defense."
Bad news for Trump’s Golden Dome: He can’t build it without Canada
The president would need to rely on Ottawa to track Chinese and Russian missiles that could come at the U.S. from over the horizon.
www.politico.com
May 24, 2025 at 5:48 PM
"Ottawa has historically funded about 40 percent of NORAD investments ... and is putting $38B into the command to add new radars in the north over the next two decades. Without those investments ... officials believe the U.S. will have trouble putting together a credible North American air defense."
These precedents mean that long after Trump, the US will struggle with stability and reliability as an ally. Every election will mean a whole bunch of things can change by fiat.
...no Congress can make a credible commitment around work conditions for future public servants. Your employment is, at best, for a four or eight year term before the next President comes in and kicks you out.
May 22, 2025 at 9:54 PM
These precedents mean that long after Trump, the US will struggle with stability and reliability as an ally. Every election will mean a whole bunch of things can change by fiat.
Damning portrait of what the US presidency has become. A system that consistently creates these kinds of results cannot be relied on by Canada. Let's be friendly, but realistic. We need to quickly build capacity and find a range of reliable partners.
Opinion | All the President's Enablers
Three books on Joe Biden’s presidency jointly paint a devasting portrait of an ailing, geriatric leader surrounded by mendacious aides and grasping family members.
www.politico.com
May 20, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Damning portrait of what the US presidency has become. A system that consistently creates these kinds of results cannot be relied on by Canada. Let's be friendly, but realistic. We need to quickly build capacity and find a range of reliable partners.
Interesting Canadian company working on practical diesel-electric hybrids for heavy-duty trucking. They have a great social media presence as well: a great down-to-earth hoser attitude, trying to develop practical tech for logging applications.
The truckers in a shed beating Tesla with 100-yr-old EV tech
YouTube video by The Drive
youtu.be
May 18, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Interesting Canadian company working on practical diesel-electric hybrids for heavy-duty trucking. They have a great social media presence as well: a great down-to-earth hoser attitude, trying to develop practical tech for logging applications.
Reposted by Tony Florio
In the dead of night, the UCP passed the most comprehensive set of anti democratic reforms in Alberta history.
No public consultation. No meaningful debate.
How bad is Bill 54?
Not horrible if you like Trump-style democracy.
open.substack.com/pub/drjaredw...
No public consultation. No meaningful debate.
How bad is Bill 54?
Not horrible if you like Trump-style democracy.
open.substack.com/pub/drjaredw...
Danielle Smith's Electoral Reforms Are Straight from the Trump Playbook
And it's no accident they were released today.
open.substack.com
May 15, 2025 at 2:43 PM
In the dead of night, the UCP passed the most comprehensive set of anti democratic reforms in Alberta history.
No public consultation. No meaningful debate.
How bad is Bill 54?
Not horrible if you like Trump-style democracy.
open.substack.com/pub/drjaredw...
No public consultation. No meaningful debate.
How bad is Bill 54?
Not horrible if you like Trump-style democracy.
open.substack.com/pub/drjaredw...
Reposted by Tony Florio
Once again, the oligarchs have said the quiet part out loud.
May 13, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Once again, the oligarchs have said the quiet part out loud.
Interesting read. Lewis Mumford was well ahead of his time.
Seventy years ago, the writer Lewis Mumford warned that urban highways would be a disaster:
“This is pyramid building with a vengeance, a tomb of concrete roads and ramps covering the dead corpse of a city.”
He was right. We just didn’t listen.
Me, in CityLab 🧵
“This is pyramid building with a vengeance, a tomb of concrete roads and ramps covering the dead corpse of a city.”
He was right. We just didn’t listen.
Me, in CityLab 🧵
The Dark Prophet of Car-Clogged Cities
70 years before congestion pricing landed in New York City, Lewis Mumford sounded the alarm on letting automobiles run amok in America’s downtowns.
www.bloomberg.com
May 12, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Interesting read. Lewis Mumford was well ahead of his time.
Reposted by Tony Florio
Trump will destroy world trade, but democracies can defend themselves – and each other | Anders Fogh Rasmussen
Trump will destroy world trade, but democracies can defend themselves – and each other | Anders Fogh Rasmussen
We need a trade block, a D7, that would mirror Nato. An economic attack on one would be an attack on all, says former Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen
www.theguardian.com
May 11, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Trump will destroy world trade, but democracies can defend themselves – and each other | Anders Fogh Rasmussen
Reposted by Tony Florio
Can the term ‘cloud fascism’ help us understand – and resist – the hard right?
Ece Temelkuran www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Ece Temelkuran www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Can the term ‘cloud fascism’ help us understand – and resist – the hard right? | Ece Temelkuran
Like clouds, far-right ideology moves here then there with absolute randomness. The danger is that those who can, shrink under their umbrellas, warns political commentator Ece Temelkuran
www.theguardian.com
May 10, 2025 at 11:02 AM
Can the term ‘cloud fascism’ help us understand – and resist – the hard right?
Ece Temelkuran www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Ece Temelkuran www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
"The Liberals were 44 votes behind the Bloc Québécois in Terrebonne, 77 votes behind the Conservatives in Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore and 77 votes behind the NDP in Nunavut. If the Liberals had found just 201 more voters across those three ridings, they would have" achieved a majority.
Opinion: Mark Carney’s trip to Washington is already a winner
If the only result of the meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump is that nothing bad happens, Canadians will see the Prime Minister as having scored
www.theglobeandmail.com
May 5, 2025 at 11:53 PM
"The Liberals were 44 votes behind the Bloc Québécois in Terrebonne, 77 votes behind the Conservatives in Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore and 77 votes behind the NDP in Nunavut. If the Liberals had found just 201 more voters across those three ridings, they would have" achieved a majority.
Which is a huge red flag for me! Complaints and excuses don't solve problems.
It's not just you know who. Hostility to judicial oversight is now a common theme, as the political right gets increasingly frustrated with constraints of liberal democracy. #DougFord
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Ford rants about 'bleeding-heart judges' who are 'overruling the government' | CBC News
Ontario Premier Doug Ford went on an extended rant about some of the province’s judges Wednesday, arguing they are soft on crime, interfering in municipal issues based on ideology, and even floating t...
www.cbc.ca
May 5, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Which is a huge red flag for me! Complaints and excuses don't solve problems.
This is awful. A non-partisan judiciary is what stops democracy from turning into a mob rule. If Ford doesn't like the ruling, then come back with legislation that follows the rules! Corrosive that he even said this; I hope he walks this back.
Ontario premier who keeps trying to be mayor of Toronto angry that judges don't "have anything better to do than worry about if we‘re taking out bike lanes"
www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...
www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...
Ontario Premier Doug Ford calls for U.S.-style elected judges
Ford calls judicial independence a ‘joke,’ suggests Ontario should take over responsibility for the Criminal Code
www.theglobeandmail.com
April 30, 2025 at 5:43 PM
This is awful. A non-partisan judiciary is what stops democracy from turning into a mob rule. If Ford doesn't like the ruling, then come back with legislation that follows the rules! Corrosive that he even said this; I hope he walks this back.