sphinx-sphanx-sphunx

[sphinx-sphanx-sphunx]

They're like evil genies popping up as soon as someone says "I wish", ready to ruin everything.

Today's AI plug that made me boil with rage:

I type "I can only imagine" to a friend in an Instagram chat and as I finish the word imagine, a prompt to use AI image gen automatically pops up.

I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU you are trying to assassinate creativity

[sphinx-sphanx-sphunx]

A non-profit group that abruptly lost its contract with the province to run two shelters in the Halifax area says it was caught off guard and is left speculating about the reasons why. Eric Jonsson, vice-chair of the board for Out of the Cold Community Association, said he and two others with the group were called to a meeting with provincial staffers Tuesday morning where they were handed a letter that said Out of the Cold would no longer be involved in operating two modular supportive housing sites. One is on Cogswell Street in Halifax and the other on Church Street in Dartmouth. Together they house more than 60 people. Jonsson said they were given 30 minutes to leave the property, escorted by security personnel — an experience he described as surreal and insulting. "It is my job as a board member to kind of oversee the big picture. And we didn't see this coming," Jonsson said in an interview Thursday.  He said he feels some responsibility for not anticipating the move, although he does not fully understand the province's decision or the way it carried it out. "I've heard of places being, you know, service providers being replaced, but it's never within like a half-hour notice. You give people a month or two to kind of tidy things up to ensure a smooth transition." Scott Armstrong, the minister of opportunities and social development, said the contract with Out of the Cold was coming up for renewal in early August, and his department decided to end it early and change service providers because of concerns that he said had been brewing for several years. The group has run the two shelters since they opened in 2022 in response to surging rates of homelessness, rising rents and a low vacancy rate.

Continue

So a harm reduction shelter group in my city has been running two module shelter sites that the province set up for the past three years, this past Tuesday members of their board were called into a meeting where they were told they were being replaced as service providers and had 30 minutes for staff and volunteers to leave the properties (with security)

The province is claiming that it's over concerns regarding how Out of the Cold was running the sites and says it's not the harm reduction practices but has declined to say what it is or why it was so time sensitive to give no notice to staff or residents.

@allthecanadianpolitics maybe the kind of thing relevant to your blog

[sphinx-sphanx-sphunx]

The vagueness of "discouraging the general public from using or moving through public space" and "setting up temporary structures" sounds as if these plans were intended to be used to target homeless people as well as protestors, especially encampment protests like many of those at universities seeking divestment from Israel.

It's probably a lot easier to sell a policy to voters by (falsely) claiming it will eradicate homelessness than by telling them it will curtail protest rights.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-public-order-dismantle-encampments-1.7516297

Legally kidnap people for setting up homeless encampments and having no where else to go instead of giving them affordable housing? Fuck PP! No compassion.

[sphinx-sphanx-sphunx]

It’s pączek time

[sphinx-sphanx-sphunx]

It's very true, but it also makes me think of that WW3 draft card that tvguts' brother made. Amusingly visceral takes on the state of the world being fucked.

job search

[sphinx-sphanx-sphunx]

This after announcing they would eliminate the communications department of the provincial government. Concerning for a man who already shows disdain for journalists and frequently refuses interviews.

[sphinx-sphanx-sphunx]

it sounds stupid but nobody talks about how many years of joyful swimming transphobia and dysphoria take away from you

[sphinx-sphanx-sphunx]

finally, someone for tumblr

[sphinx-sphanx-sphunx]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEWTWO! 

[sphinx-sphanx-sphunx]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEWTWO! 

[sphinx-sphanx-sphunx]

It'd be great if any NDP party leader directed people to do more than just donate money or buy tickets to sit in a room with Jagmeet. Can't promote any organizations making local impactful change because people might donate to them instead.

Closest they do is get volunteers to knock on doors, but that's only ever after an election has been declared. Frequently the folks they nominate for a given riding are doing other work, but there only seems to be a connection to the NDP during the election period. If they don't win, toss them aside and hope there's someone else next time.

Forever annoyed Jagmeet Singh took the NDP leadership in one round of voting. To think we could have had Charlie Angus.

[sphinx-sphanx-sphunx]

canadian school starter pack

[sphinx-sphanx-sphunx]

Maybe sometime in the next decade we'll get a good Airachnid toy that isn't 3rd party to complete the Prime villain line-up. Or a Knock Out that looks accurate and transforms.

Transformers fans mixing and matching different versions of the same robots from twenty different iterations of the franchise trying to find a lineup that doesn't suck:

[sphinx-sphanx-sphunx]

[sphinx-sphanx-sphunx]

Canada Post said Friday its financial situation is so grim it could run out of operating funds in less than a year, after the Crown corporation posted another whopping pre-tax loss of $748 million in 2023.

In its annual report released late Friday afternoon, the company predicts "larger, unsustainable losses in future years" without major changes to its operating model.

"Even with Canada Post's recently proposed stamp price increase, the Corporation projects that, without additional borrowing and refinancing, it will fall below its required operating and reserve cash requirements by early 2025," the report says.

Canada Post has been losing money since 2018. In the last six years, its losses have totalled $3 billion. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @newsfromstolenland, @vague-humanoid

[sphinx-sphanx-sphunx]

I've been seeing a lot fewer of this style of fibre sheet webbing around my neighbourhood this year, and more large webs with individual ropes for threads. Seems like a much safer option for wildlife, less of a pain in the ass to install and clean up, and more durable so you don't need to buy more every year. Hopefully that trend continues or spreads.

All of my friends that work at wildlife rehab centers have had to untangle animals from this stuff, or had animals brought in that died in it. This is especially nasty for small owl species.

[sphinx-sphanx-sphunx]

My dad had a copy of this book and taught me chess with it when I was a kid. Not only is the artwork fantastic, but the language is evocative and accessible, painting a strong mental image of the story of a chess match. Highly recommended!

Just today I got to see a chess book that I remember reading as a little kid. While it didn't give me a lifelong passion for chess, it did give me a lifelong passion for fantasy for its artwork.

The book is "Chess for Young Beginners" from 1975, and here's some of the artwork:

Like, this artwork goes hard. I especially appreciate the colour scheme for the black pieces, with its browns, bronzes, reds and oranges.

This artwork is amazing, evocative, exciting and dramatic. I recommend giving it a look if you have a chance - you can probably scrounge up a PDF of this thing with a bit of searching.