runsmooth

I still say this is part of the larger American scam for AI. AI's just a tool, and certainly not autonomous as the stuff of movies. US companies are just using the concept of AI to layoff workers, and they're trying to lock in their AI services contracts before the bubble bursts.

This article falls into the scam pile for me.

Plus I'm fairly certain Zuckerberg should be charged for Crimes Against Humanity, but that seems to be an issue for another day.

We shouldn't be surprised that these hate groups continue to roam around. I am alarmed by how these groups are creeping up on communities via gyms and local martial arts schools. These places are supposed to pass on values of health, self-defence, dignity, and mutual respect. But, somehow these hate groups have put out a new concept and market themselves into these spaces. It's a horror movie, and they're perverting these values in the deepest sense.

Worse, they know what they are doing, and they hide and prey on people. Some of the gyms, when advised, didn't know about these hate activities.

AntiHate has their own article on the subject, and the bottom links have a number of photos of other attendees.

Look this over, see if you can identify anyone and share the information. These people need help, and they need to be kept far away from any school or gym.

https://www.antihate.ca/everybody_attending_white_nationalist_conference_caught_on_film

https://www.antihate.ca/white_nationalist_organizing_exiles_golden_age_identify

Greg MacPherson, Winnipeg’s acting manager of community development and author of the report, said the intention is not to criminalize people but to manage public spaces more consistently.

Too late, but Manitoba isn't alone. Canada's criminalizing people across the country, dumping them through the Justice System like hiding things under a neglected rug, and then running news cycles about how it's reforming the books to be "tough on crime." Oldest and most cynical sleight of hand folks.

You know what might be painful and scary, but totally a solution to the problem? We have to stop the endless urban sprawl. We don't want to because land is supposed to be so affordable, and cars are what we damn near exclusively rely on. But this isn't sustainable, and endlessly sprawling out is not logical. We're spending more money building out so far that the maintenance costs are overwhelming.

The politicians could explore some mixed-used zoning to encourage development where people don't have to walk +10 km to the grocery store and other services, and spend +2 hours doing daily commutes. Heck we might have to just declare rings around the cities as park land to just control the situation and bring sense back into development.

Look at Canada's downtowns. There's a spectrum, I'm sure. But I think they are generally devoid of any potential to raise life, and are very clearly built with the obvious intent to cheap out on people and take from communities. They're desolate commuter zones.

There's a lot of potential to start projects with real, generational impact.

No interest, and no courage to do so. You know what's easy? Walking up to homeless encampments and bothering people. They don't have walls, and they can't stop you.

Mission accomplished!

I'm oversimplifying sure. But the homeless and the vulnerable are not the friction point here. It's the corporate land owners interests, and their refusal to be dynamic and invite change. And yes, they can hide on the 12th floor behind commercial grade doors, an assistant who screens their calls, and corporate security. They don't have to be bothered by politicians because that's what their lobby is for.

I think ActivityPub, a driver of the Fediverse, already serves as the mainstream protocol to enable these "platforms" to deliver content in the different ways that people have come to enjoy: such as Friendica, Mastodon, and so on.

Regardless of the front facing platform, I think what I want to see is deeper integration. Users from Mastodon or Friendica be more able to see posts and comments here on PieFed or Lemmy, and vice versa, as if we're a single universe delivered in different ways. I even want to see users of PieFed be able to one day transfer their data and posts seamlessly over to say Lemmy, or Friendica.

I want to see an ActivityPub where we can resist censorship by standing alone on single instances, but in the event of an attack, we can move to new ones or bigger ones for strength in numbers. If we want the right to disappear, great, no one should get in the way. But if we want to be seen or heard in the face of violence and oppression, there should be more options in place for instances to operate in blocs, and to allow servers to cache and preserve content under attack.

In recent days, Youtube was seen taking down hundreds of videos of content documenting what many legal experts conclude is genocide carried out by Israel. Regardless of where one stands on that, the idea that a single entity can erase the collective documented experience of humanity is too much power.

I want to see an ActivityPub that can let people share their cat photos, and enjoy their moments; and I also want it to allow people to resist in credible ways if they choose to document their lives. I also want a Fediverse, that can allow even the lowly single instance server to serve with a bloc to shield even a single user's content that might be forced down by violence.

I would swap for that Fediverse.

For what it's worth, the Mayor doesn't have to defend anything. She's only being criticized for sharing what experts say.

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, already concluded genocide:

Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces committed four of the five genocidal acts defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, namely killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births.

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/israel-has-committed-genocide-gaza-strip-un-commission-finds

Almost sounds like fintech similar to what one might see in Singapore in their NETS system. I think this Konek system is designed to give Canadians an alternative payment system independent of Visa and Mastercard, while offering businesses and customers reduced transaction rates.

I'm not convinced that "AI" is even what it's meant to be. Worse, I think scenarios of success are already drawn up in stories and science fiction - and 2025 AI suggests we're not even close.

Now that more information is available concerning the US governments private recollections and thoughts surrounding their military activities in Afghanistan, I'm suspicious that this AI is a "campaign". It's simply another game of sleight of hand or pump and dump maneuver. The US remains a major currency reserve, but successive governments over the last 20 years have been incompetent, and the country has been mismanaged for far longer than anyone expected.

With the US signalling strongly that they are giving up competing with China on advanced technologies like renewables and batteries, there's little else left besides the promise that AI will somehow swoop in and fix it all. But as netizens already point out, capitalist corporations cannot "benefit" from AI without taking advantage of its promise - taking jobs away from humans.

Sadly "AI", or whatever you want to call it, is an interesting tool, but that still requires supervision or human oversight. AI is not the magic promised for all the countless billions spent, water burned, and energy depleted. I think the world is starting to grow suspicious, and the US faces a market correction due to fears of the AI bubble.

Perhaps AI's promise remains, but how its pursued gives the impression of another American scam.

I get a sense that people aren't against easy to understand ads - as in, one company produces a concept, markets, publishes the ad, and delivers it to you on behalf of their client.

But people are not going to agree to reading that article, and consenting to 500 advertising partners to track you indefinitely to sell your data points.

All this technology, energy, and money that's behind the surveillance economy, is the cost of turning you into the product.

What we the privacy concerned public would like to say is go make real products to help the world instead.

I think this is just outright UCP Ethical Fading when the government invites a recall process only to underfund Elections Alberta when it's applied to their own party members.

Where is the line drawn for when a political party basically disarms all rail guards for ethics and accountability so as to reduce, minimize, or deflect from the conduct of its members?

What's happening to the Auditor General is part of a larger pattern of behaviour that doesn't lead to anything remotely close to good governance.

This is not the first time the UCP has interfered with Elections Alberta. Back in 2020 when an investigation was done on the UCP leadership race, they did the same thing to Elections Alberta by preventing the elections officer from doing its job. Elections Alberta noted part of the problems included certain parties of interest who did not want to cooperate, and required multiple notices to appear before the commissioner, leading to a court order. But, the UCP, rather than granting additional time so as to prevent parties from essentially benefiting from bad behaviour or delay not caused by Elections Alberta, denied the request.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/elections-alberta-investigation-runs-up-against-three-year-time-limit-1.5829838

Here's one from South China Morning Post about HK students. I know it's not a movie length piece or anything, but it does touch on some statistics and a concerning trend of increased pressure and suicide rates.

https://youtu.be/OV9nqa1J1ic

Building on your comments, I just want to point out that Alberta's ridings need to be adjusted. At this point the regions are totally overweight against the cities, and they don't account for population growth. Those of us not in the democratic majority are already painfully aware that we're all probably being gated by the UCP, the very same party that has probably been captured or compromised.

Perhaps Canadians feel like we should be able to protect our house. But also understand we're fighting against people who have the powers of government, and are literally barring the doors shut behind them as best they can.

We are fighting a siege out here, and I've said as much elsewhere.

There's the recent news about the Auditor General getting canned. Plus the Unions pushing Operation Total Recall have Elections Alberta asking for more funding, and the UCP is basically slow dripping the money needed to slow the public backlash their party is experiencing.

https://kopitalk.net/post/32582?sort=new

For those following the story, this isn't an isolated incident. There's the 2003 "Lamb Roast" allegations, and who knows how many other allegations that have been settled or unreported over the decades.

Whether you feel the 2018 incident with "EM" is an open and shut case, the broader misogyny issue in Hockey Canada and Junior Hockey isn't over.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/names-given-halifax-police-2003-sexual-assault-allegations-world-juniors-1.6560536

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/hockey-canada-house-of-commons-committee-1.6533439