iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Folks here like to complain about curb extensions at intersections because they need space to turn, and meanwhile I have watched fire trucks take those same corners like it’s nothing. I’m not sure that they know the wheel turns past 1/4 turn.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Thinking back to Usenet fandom groups and games groups in the 1990s and all of the toxic assholes who abounded in them.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Remembering some of the Usenet fandom groups from the 1990s gives me no option but to agree.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Drivers were generally well behaved in our presence, though also bemused.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Took part in my first #yegbike Critical Mass ride last night honouring Dr. Darren Markland, which involved riding some of downtown’s most miserable stroads, including 104 Ave, 101 street, Jasper Ave and 109 street. Participation was at least 120. Will ride again.

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Reposted by Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️

Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 22/09/2026

Tyrannosaurus xkcd.com/3300/

Comic. [Person with long hair pointing to diagram with Tyrannosaurus Rex standing next to a person.] PERSON: We now believe the primary prey of Tyrannosaurus Rex was these humans who kept standing next to it for scale.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

There was a time when they would just put their myriad Prince Failsons into the cockpit but I guess they are running low.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

On MUPs the number of pedestrians often means lower speeds feel wise. In dedicated bike lanes I am mingling with a lot of people on unpowered bikes with varying skills. They’re still often the quicker route due to steadier flow.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Yeah. In practice I seem to do a lot of cruising at ~20km/h unless I am somewhere pretty open or having to take the lane in traffic.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

The cat who I saved from coyotes is simultaneously very snuggly and very bad at it from an ergonomic standpoint. I am posting this at 0316 for no particular reason.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

The folks who voted Tory over the UCP weren't interested in strategic voting to try to block the NDP. If the Tories didn't have a candidate in it, these voters would've at best (for the UCP) stayed home.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I don't really buy the notion of "vote splitting" in the #ABElection by-election in Calgary-Shaw. People were voting for the Tories because they didn't want to vote UCP. UCP vote greatly collapsed since Rebecca Schulz won that riding.

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Reposted by Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️

beetle moses @beetlemoses.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Three panel comic. Panel 1: a man is standing in front of an older gentleman walking his dog in the park. The man, making a friendly gesture towards the little white dog, asks, “does he bite?” The older man replies, “no.” Panel 2: the little dog grabs the first man’s hand with his paw and gives the back of his hand a sensual smooch. Panel 3: the man pulls his hand back in disgust.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Silicon Valley reinvents Superfund sites.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Yeah. And in Alberta the US category doesn't just get beaten by Europe, but "both equally". I suspect that the age breakdown heavily influences our results here.

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Reposted by Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️

beetle moses @beetlemoses.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Three panel comic. Panel 1: a guy is being interviewed in an office. The interviewer, pointing to his computer display, asks, “can you explain this gap in your resume?” The interviewee replies, “uh…” Panel 2: out of thin air a portal emerges between the two men. Rocketing out of the portal is a time traveling dodo bird wearing futuristic gear. The dodo exclaims, “I’m back! I saved us from extinction!” A coffee cup is knocked over. Panel 3: at the edge of the desk, the dodo takes a knee, staring futilely out the window to a metropolitan city. It says, “No… NO!!” The two men observe, nonplussed.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

18-29s have the highest affinity for EU, and those who say US are only 8%, which is less than half of all other age categories.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

It’s actually SK/MB which has the highest geographic support for US at 26%, but 51% still say EU. Except Atlantic and SK/MB, both equally exceeds the US. Atlantic stands out for having more unsure than US.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

There’s no alt text on this, but basically in every region of Canada, including Berduh, more people feel Canada has more in common with Europe than with the US. Nationwide, 56% say Europe, 20% say equal, 16% US. 8% unsure.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

But we spent so much less and got so very much more in terms of actual revitalization by much more modest mean

Trees canopy a very human-sized street with brick buildings, patios, and a street market.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

This isn't to say that it's all bad. It did grow the tax base. It has a mixed use aspect and brought another grocery store. It has a place to skate in the winter. And it replaced a bunch of crappy parking lots and that terrible casino.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

And it brings a lot of noise, public drunken antisocial behaviour, and of course the traffic, which isn't great for actually living downtown. So I doubt the north end of 104 Street will ever develop the way that the block between Jasper and 103 Ave did.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

18,500 people dropping in briefly every few days mostly in the winter has an effect, but it's very different from having 8000 more people live there, especially when the venue is itself a huge competitor for local business.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

And the crowd is going to heavily aspect towards particular businesses. The giant Molson's Canadian Icehouse in the Ice District will walk away with much, much more than a cozy little tapas place like Bundok would, especially if the locals stay in because it's game night.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Some of it does spend money in the local neighbourhood. But when you're dealing with a short, immense pulse like that, a business is limited by space as to how much it can capture. For a restaurant it's usually a single sitting. Then the doldrums hit.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

But isn't a bigger pulse good? Well, that depends upon the pulse. If it's big and car-centric enough, it can generate negative externalities. Trying to do anything downtown on game night can be... a lot. It's giant surge, especially of cars.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

It fills up event nights, but most of the time it's a void, with traffic flying by on the adjacent stroad. It's hardly our only dead zone building. The Winspear and Citadel can be similar. But they generate much more modest pulses of activity when active.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Anyhoo. I have digressed a bit, but it's with a point. The arena opened in 2016, and what's downtown's population? About 13K. We haven't really added any people. And most of the time the arena is just this empty space.

Rogers Place looming ominously over the north portion of 104 Street on a winter evening, in a manner reminiscent of of a Simon Stahlenhag painting.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

And there is just a community building aspect. For all that people characterize big cities as impersonal, that changes once you get people out of their cars. It's not an uncommon thing that when I am out, I run into people I know, because it's basically a town within a city.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

More eyes on the street has a deterrent effect upon crime. More pedestrians on the sidewalks and crossing the streets slows down traffic and reduces the likelihood of people getting hit. It doesn't just dilute those odds, but it changes driver behaviour.

sciencedirect.com

How do drivers allocate visual attention to vulnerable road users when turning at urban intersections?

Drivers turning at urban intersections pose a high risk to Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs), such as cyclists and pedestrians. In vehicle collisions with …

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

That flow on foot is important not just for the money people spend (and I am much more likely to step into a new cafe I walk past than I am to stop the car for one), but it directly improves the quality of the neighbourhood.

A retail space with a sign saying "The Larder". Prominently, two life sized sheep statues are in the window. My other half and I kept walking by here specifically because we saw those sheep while out for a walk.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Having actual people who choose to be somewhere and aren't just forced to be there until they can escape from their bleak cubicle maze is a game changer, and not just because there's money being thrown around, but because there is LIFE.

A bunch of people skating out front of City Hall in Downtown Edmonton on a Saturday afternoon in winter. The skaters have varying levels of proficiency, and many are adults who are using supports while they work.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Wîhkwêntôwin added another 7K easy, and barriers to flow between it and downtown went away with the demolition of the 105 Street overpass and the CPR yard west of 109th. So we had a combined pop of 30K in an area a lot of folks can just walk across. And those people tend to spend local.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

This was real revitalization of downtown. In the 2000's, with the redevelopment of the CPR station lands and 104 Street, people started to actually live in downtown again. We grew the pop from ~5K to over 13K by 2014.

A chart of population over time for Downtown Edmonton. Through the 1980s and 1990s it remains in the low 5,000 over three separate census. It breaks 6,000 in 2001. In 2005, it breaks 9,000. By 2014, it breaks 13,000.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

My other #yegdt hot take is that the arena was a bit underwhelming as far as revitalization went, especially relative to its cost. This isn't surprising, because this is the usual result, especially in North America. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.com

Do local businesses benefit from sports facilities? The case of major league sports stadiums and arenas

We use daily mobile foot traffic data covering major league sports facilities and the surrounding commercial establishments in the US to pin down the …

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

The business should've been wearing high vis.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Buying a bicycle is a much more tolerable experience.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Cassia has reached the exploring stage and enjoys our many window views. But she has developed an affinity for this window.

A living room with book shelves, and an art deco cabinet that was originally made for a record player, flanking a ~100L cube aquarium on a quirky mid-century end table/chest of drawers. The aquarium is rather lushly planted and has a very natural sand and rock hardscaping. A little dark tortie cat with dashes of cinnamon colours along her side and an absurd cream-coloured reflector on the tip of her tail has her paws up on the edge of the cabinet and is looking keenly into the aquarium.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I know we have a LOT of geography to work with, but an actual east-west rail renaissance is a no-brainer, especially if we're moving trade away from you-know-who. High speed isn't realistic (not right away), but bringing back trains that actually work would be a game-changer.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

CN is already actively working to increase speeds and capacity between Edmonton and Vancouver, but it's at least as important of a project as expanding pipeline capacity to the coast. It's also actual climate action to shift transportation from road to rail.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

A reliable, frequent train between Edmonton and Calgary would actually make me not hate going to Calgary. But the Edmonton-Jasper line is already mostly double-tracked and mostly designed for speeds over 100km/h. It's low-hanging fruit.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

The Canadian has a 3 hr station stop in Jasper that is mostly to get it back on schedule. A dedicated train from Edmonton to Jasper that reliably got there in 4.5 hrs is something I would take 100% of the time and I would go to Jasper more often, especially in the shoulder seasons.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I'm in Edmonton and the station is in walking distance of me if someone would build sidewalks. It's a 12+ hour drive to Vancouver, which should allow for some kind of night train. It's a 3hr 45m drive to Jasper, but we effectively have a night train to there a couple days per week.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Like if it ran regularly, wasn't interminably slow west of the corridor, held a schedule and would price similar to flying, and it had decent amenities that I didn't need some kind of Habsburg-class ticket to access, I would take it all of the time.

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Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️ @coprolithic.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I'm thrilled that VIA Rail is getting an equipment update, and is moving away from US equipment. But it seems strategically important to Canada in this fuel crisis to have intercity trains that run more than twice per week and aren't a third the speed of driving. #viarail #trains

canada.ca

Passenger Rail Locomotive Assembly Returns to Canada Through a $1.95 Billion Government of Canada Investment

Rail helped build Canada, connecting people and communities across vast distances and helping unite the country. Today, a modern and resilient passenger rail network is essential to supporting economi...

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Reposted by Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️

SwiftOnSecurity @swiftonsecurity.com · 09/09/2026

INSIDE YOU THERE ARE TWO OUTLOOKS
NEITHER ARE WORKING

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