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Brian Lamb

@abject.ca
755 followers 541 following 110 posts

Against my better judgment... abject.ca

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Reposted by Brian Lamb
🔪🔪🔪bryan 🔪 🔪 🔪 @murderxbryan.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Anthropic comes out every few days and is like “Our system accidentally stole all of the classified government files from England” but it never comes out and says “Our system cured pancreatic cancer on accident” I think that probably tells us what they are planning to use it for
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
The Boosters say: AI is a thing, it's inevitable, it's imminent and it's going to solve all of our problems. The Doomers say: AI is a thing, it's inevitable, it's imminent and it's going to kill us all. >>
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Joanne Hammond @joannehammond.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
No deal. Negotiations didn’t fail, they captured exactly how far apart the positions are, how untrustworthy a partner the US has become, and how much Canadians are ready to bear to stand up against this fascist bullshit. Finally.
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Brenna Clarke Gray @brennacgray.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Really grateful to hear the @citationspod.bsky.social folks tackle inevitability discourse and AI in the most recent episode. I address this a lot in my talks lately because it pairs so conveniently with the “ethics aside” rhetorical move in the university. (Mini-thread incoming.)
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Brian Lamb @abject.ca · 31/07/2026
About ten years of this here… maybe Canada can rethink that 1-10 scale. But I guess ramping up profits for fossil fuel multinationals is a higher priority.
 air quality map centered on Kamloops, BC, dated July 30, 2026, 10:07 PM PDT. Most sensors in the West End, Lower Sahali, and Upper Sahali neighborhoods show dark red circles with readings in the low-to-mid 30s and low 40s, indicating very poor air quality (top of the color scale, 10+).
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Brian Lamb @abject.ca · 20/07/2026
Not only is my continent burning, now a fire at Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh. I actually know this stunning spot (did a rare elevation hike) and so sad to see it in flames. I hope the social media vids I am coming across are AI fakes. news.sky.com/story/fire-b...
news.sky.com
Fire breaks out at Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh
Firefighters are battling a blaze at the Scottish landmark after the fire and rescue service was alerted at 6.38pm on Sunday evening.
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Brian Lamb @abject.ca · 18/07/2026
Yet at this moment the air is fresh in Kamloops. Opening my windows for the first time in weeks and hoping I won’t regret cooling off overnight. I suspect I will.
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
A reminder: The US, by being the largest historical CO₂ emitter, has caused $10 trillion in global climate damage since 1990. A quarter of this impact is felt domestically, but it disproportionately affects poorer countries.
theguardian.com
US has caused $10tn worth of climate damage since 1990, research finds
US, top carbon emitter in history, has ‘a lot of responsibility’ for causing ‘substantial’ harm globally, scientist says
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Mike Flannigan @mikeflannigan.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Wildfire smoke war! The US is retaliating by sending smoke from fires in Oregon and Washington State into Canada. What do they say about smoke and borders? GOES-West geocolor loop below.
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Brian Lamb @abject.ca · 14/06/2026
I feel very grateful to have visited NYC a couple times, and to know some New Yorkers, because as crazy and impossible as it is (like most of my favourite cities) it is such an incredible mass collection of cool, fun and admirable people.
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Brian Lamb @abject.ca · 10/06/2026
I get the dunking on this guy, but he highlights a few things I've been thinking on: a) how quickly "deskilling" can happen, in part due to the b) alienation between the GenAI worker and their work and c) just how tenuous the economics of this all is within orgs. Boosters don't want to address this.
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Tariq Panja @tariqpanja.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
This will go down as a major stain on FIFA and its World Cup before a ball has even been kicked. Infantino has been banging on about the most inclusive World Cup and Africa’s top referee can’t even get into the country. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/08/w...
nytimes.com
U.S. Denies Entry to World Cup Referee From Somalia
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Brenna Clarke Gray @brennacgray.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Oh my god, if this doesn’t change risk assessment in procurement we really are cooked.
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Brenna Clarke Gray @brennacgray.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Hey maybe we get a compliance audit out of this lol just kidding
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Luke Waltzer @lukewaltzer.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Small pieces, loosely joined: still a good idea.
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Brian Lamb @abject.ca · 08/05/2026
Hours into catastrophic ransomware meltdown and Canvas URLs (at SFU and UBC) still posting that it's "scheduled maintenance". Instructure has more than 2000 employees, and nobody does comms? The old Simpsons image would be less insulting and unprofessional. Are they so owned they can't change it?
Canvas LMS scheduled maintenance page showing a cartoon rocket with two small robots floating beside it and the message "Canvas is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance — Check back soon."Cartoon "Technical Difficulties — Please Stand By" graphic from The Simpsons, featuring a wobbly cameraman holding a jug of moonshine next to a TV camera.
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Brian Lamb @abject.ca · 28/04/2026
“The videos appear to be scraped from Canvas, ASU’s learning management system where lecture materials and class discussions are made available to students.” Faculty at my university worry about this scenario. ASU is frequently cited as a model for innovation in AI. I muddle through another day.
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Nolan Void @wolter.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Oh so now copyright matters.
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paulseesequasis @pseesequasis.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
I find airport hotel restaurants fascinating, ideal for people watching, the multitasking person on their phone and laptop for hours, the young couple kissing by the bar, another couple sitting, not looking at each other, the ridiculously overpriced food and drinks, the impermanence of it all.
I find airport hotel restaurants fascinating, ideal for people watching, the multitasking person on their phone and laptop for hours, the young couple kissing by the bar, another couple sitting, not looking at each other, the ridiculously overpriced food and drinks, the impermanence of it all.
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Brian Lamb @abject.ca · 14/03/2026
Meanwhile, in Canada… 🦗🦗🦗
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BillThePony @billthepony.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
"the only minority ruining this country is billionaires" *NARRATIVE DETECTED!*
media.tenor.com
a neon sign that looks like a maze with the number 047037 on it .
Alt: a neon sign that looks like a maze with the number 047037 on it .
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🔪🔪🔪bryan 🔪 🔪 🔪 @murderxbryan.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Not a single one of these psychos cares even a little bit about the people being bombed. I hate them all
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Brian Lamb @abject.ca · 27/02/2026
Chat GPT presents "as a friend to confide in. One who never says you’re wrong, who will validate your most intrusive thoughts, and who will delete your account to distance itself legally from your actions — but won’t help you deescalate or find your way to real world help."
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Brian Lamb @abject.ca · 22/02/2026
Today was another reminder. I’ve managed to learn one thing. May I somehow find wisdom in other things…
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Jen St. Denis @jenstden.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that ChatGPT conversations from the Tumbler Ridge teenager who carried out a horrific school shooting were flagged by employees at OpenAI. They raised their concerns but the company ultimately did nothing, according to the reporting. archive.is/GUweE#select...
archive.is
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Brian Lamb @abject.ca · 11/02/2026
One of our team has picked her son up at school early a few times lately because of reported threats. She told us a shooting was her great fear and a reason she came to Canada instead of the US. I wanted to tell her these shootings were rare in Canada and those threats likely pranks. Glad I didn’t.
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Brian Lamb @abject.ca · 09/02/2026
I enjoyed the cultural frisson of the two “competing” half-time shows tonight. Will watch Pat Finnerty’s watchalong of Kid Rock’s lip-synced set. I’m old enough to remember the truly, madly, deeply awful halftimes of my youth. I saw multiple Up With People shows. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_with...
en.wikipedia.org
Up with People at the Super Bowl - Wikipedia
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Brenna Clarke Gray @brennacgray.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
I started sabbaticast.brennaclarkegray.ca this month as a way to track and report out on my sabbatical in the open, because I think open scholarship helps all of us who spend a lot of time thinking, "Am I doing this right?"
sabbaticast.brennaclarkegray.ca
The Sabbaticast – A Podcast and Research Blog
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Jeet Heer @jeetheer.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
1. This 2016 exchange between Jeffrey Epstein and Peter Thiel is so essential, really gets to the heart of Epstein's project. Epstein: brexit, just the beginning. Thiel: Of what? Epstein: return to tribalism... finding things on their way to collapse , was much easier than finding the next bargain
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Joel Wood 🇨🇦 @joelwwood.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
This is a tremendous read from @mattgurney.bsky.social
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 19/11/2025
“Closeups show human faces distorted beyond recognition, sprouting extra appendages. The bodies of what appear to be dogs horrifically merge with human figures. Happy holidays indeed.”
futurism.com
Town's Huge Christmas Mural Was Generated Using AI, Resulting in Ghastly Chthonic Horrors
An enormous new mural near London, depicting a crowded Christmas scene, has drawn outrage and mockery from passersby.
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Brian Lamb @abject.ca · 18/11/2025
Now THIS is how you do a "war against Christmas". I mean, you can say "Happy Holidays" all you want but this is the real deal.
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Brian Lamb @abject.ca · 14/11/2025
This is a great day for one of the bravest and most committed people I know. I’m so grateful he can get on to doing exceptional learning technology work… and, you know, with his life.
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Brian Lamb @abject.ca · 08/11/2025
Spent the past hour remembering and websearching some people I connected with via blogging ~25 years ago. Down some sad paths, people passing, and more just vanishing. And archive.org captures of that time seem to be decaying. ISPs blocking. Images disappearing. The web like an aging mind, fading.
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Brian Lamb @abject.ca · 02/11/2025
Far more than philosophy or the arts, it is following sports that has taught me about the pitiless nature of existence. Hints of things like destiny shimmer up, but they are an illusion. Nothing is going to happen just because, no matter how perfect it might be.
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Brian Lamb @abject.ca · 31/10/2025
I somehow missed that my favourite mimic does this incredible Watts.
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Brian Lamb @abject.ca · 28/10/2025
A quick spin through Grokipedia, and every entry turned up laughably-sourced toxic misinformation. I've re-started my monthly donation to Wikipedia. "Meanwhile, you turned your information environment into a hypercapitalist post-truth digital snuff film." www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/hi-...
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Brian Lamb @abject.ca · 25/10/2025
I love the weird shit that comes out when a team is on an improbable run.
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ℳatt @matttomic.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
At the 12 second mark, that camera operator called an audible and just said "fuck it, the lane is clear, no tripping hazards, I'm winning a Sports Emmy for cinematography right now"
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Brian Lamb @abject.ca · 18/10/2025
Imagine coming home after "a good day's work" doing this.
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Joanne Hammond @joannehammond.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
a note about the nomenclature
Two versions of a sign in stereotypical western roadside heritage plaque of dark green and cream painted cast iron, mounted on a wooden post.
The one on the left is titled THE MAP-MAKER and says:
It was May, 1808, when David Thompson, “the greatest land geographer”, sought a fur-trade route along the opposite shore. Thomposon’s route became the busy Walla Walla Trail when gold was discovered in the Kooteneays in 1864-65. Over it moved long pack trains from southern Washington to the goldfields. The course Thompson mapped serves us today”
The sign on the left is digitally modified and is titles the MYTH-MAKERS, and reads:
“David Thompson never saw the river system that now bears his name. Simon Fraser travelled his eponymous river just once, thinking it was the Columbia. In acts of hubris and convenience, the two men named these rivers after each other, then left the west behind. Unsanctioned and hollow, this renaming erased millennia of Indigenous relationships with these waters and rewrote history for the settler conscience.”
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Ben Williamson @benpatrickwill.bsky.social · 11/10/2025
The alarming aspect of this deliberate "anti-woke" algorithmic biasing of LLMs from an educational perspective is our institutions all bought in to an imaginary of innovation, then got locked in to enterprise contracts, and now the models are being recoded so they undermine educational values
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Brenna Clarke Gray @brennacgray.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
My favourite thing about this project has been learning about education from folks in the trenches of K-12. Those of us working in higher ed have much to take on board! And any time I get to talk to @edifiedlistener.bsky.social is a good day. I hope you all enjoy Episode 2.
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Brian Lamb @abject.ca · 09/10/2025
Steven Pinker isn’t spending leisure time on Epstein Island anymore, so why not pop back up to Canada to spread his idiotic concern trolling about the discourse. universityaffairs.ca/news/parliam...
universityaffairs.ca
Parliament reviews EDI for research grants - University Affairs
Witnesses testify for and against applying diversity criteria to scientific funding.
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Brian Lamb @abject.ca · 30/09/2025
It seems like the default choices for those lucky enough to still have music education haven't changed since I was in primary school (in the pre-WW II era). But just to recap: Ukeleles to kids: adorable, fun and might lead to the guitar. Recorders to kids: must be outlawed and explains sociopathy.
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Brian Lamb @abject.ca · 19/09/2025
I just watched Monterrey Pop on the Criterion Channel (ahem) and my review is: “my, those hippies sure made quite a spectacle of themselves.”
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Brenna Clarke Gray @brennacgray.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
The first feature-length episode of Community of Praxis is out! I got to have a long chat with @cjdenial.bsky.social about kindness, ungrading, and the radical act of actually trying to assess learning. Please listen and share! www.wlupress.wlu.ca/Scholarly-Po...
The view of Community of Praxis in a podcatcher app. This has the stylized art of people talking with Cate Denial’s picture inset in a circle. Text reads:  
Episode 1a: CoP Interview: A
Pedagogy of Kindness with Cate
Denial
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Patrick Monahan @pattymo.com · 25/07/2025
If you’re not familiar (or if you are), you are welcome youtu.be/sAwh1_lKZnYm
youtu.be
Tom Scharpling & Paul F. Tompkins on The Gathering of the Juggalos (2009)
YouTube video by The Best Show with Tom Scharpling
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Brian Lamb @abject.ca · 27/06/2025
I was thinking of re-watching this tonight, but the premise of needing to genetically re-make Hitler to bring back Nazism is just too much.
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