iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Michael Brigham @michael-ames.bsky.social · 18m

though I often wonder what GO transit could have achieved land use wise in earlier decades if it had had much more imagination

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Michael Brigham @michael-ames.bsky.social · 22m

I mean I do want the city to have some additional revenue tools but you’re absolutely right that we like to pretend the 905 isn’t our fault

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Michael Brigham @michael-ames.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

there are many historical reasons why Chicago and Toronto are less similar than one might expect, but the latter’s de facto ban on dense housing for a huge chunk of the 20th century is surely one of the most significant

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Michael Brigham @michael-ames.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I should be spending more time wandering around with my mouth agape at the architecture and less time wondering if the reason everyone here looks happier and healthier is because housing is better, cheaper, and more plentiful

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Michael Brigham @michael-ames.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

feeling a little chagrined that instead of marveling at its many other charms, every time I find myself in Chicago all I can focus on is its volume of mid rise housing

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Stan Oklobdzija @stano.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

This is why I'm so in favor of accessory commercial units. Just getting people in the US used to **walking** for a cup of coffee or a sandwich in the neighborhood may finally do something to rid Americans of our terminal car brain.

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Spokane Rising @spokanerising.com · 29/09/2026

Send Stephen Miller to The Hague.

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tomwellborn3rd @wellborn.net · 27/09/2026

MLB officials toured Grand Teton this week scouting sites for a ballpark while the administration slashes park budgets and floats handing Yosemite land to developers. The White House claims it's not their priority, but their guy is out there measuring bear habitat for home plate.

thedailybeast.com

Trump Goons Scout ‘Ludicrous’ Site for MLB Ballpark

The MLB has pitched the Trump administration on building a ballpark in Grand Teton National Park.

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whet moser @whetmoser.com · 25/09/2026

i want nathan fielder to do undecided voter focus groups

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geoffrey @parsnip.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

i don't think people this disconnected from the reality of how regular people live should be making decisions for the rest of us

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Michael Brigham @michael-ames.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

he certainly has a fondness for Romulan aesthetics

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Better than Ezra Klein (1) @mr-sshhhhh.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

My kid and trans people across America are about to see $100 million worth of ads in the next two months about how they are what’s wrong with everything. Would it fucking kill a politician who’s supposed to be on their side to just be on their fucking side?

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s. e. smith @sesmith.lol · 08/09/2026

All else aside there is nothing I want or need genAI to do for me. I like reading. I like doing research. I like playing around in spreadsheets. I like interviewing people. I like writing. I like doing these things for myself because I take pleasure in the doing and they make me a better thinker.

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Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 07/09/2026

i really cannot maintain enough that my current theory of donald trump is that he is utterly gripped by the terror of death, and is desperately attempting to leave some mark on the world that history cannot erase--this is the point of the wars, the annexation threats, the dc vandalism

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Joshua Hind @joshuahind.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

It is entirely fair to ask Olivia Chow why the City isn't doing more to support vulnerable Torontonians. But their existence, however unpleasant it might be for the weak-kneed real estate speculators who pass for citizens in the 'berg to experience, does not on its face make the city "unsafe".

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Jonathan Ladd @jonathanmladd.com · 01/09/2026

Pretty outrageous that the Supreme Court increasingly plans to release its records only when the entire public that lived through the decisions are dead. Congress should pass legislation requiring all internal communication be preserved and then released 5 years after a justice's retirement.

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Anna Mehler Paperny @mehlerpaperny.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Ontario jails are getting deadlier and the government wants to stop investigating those deaths. www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

theglobeandmail.com

Ontario plan to stop mandatory inquests for inmate deaths a mistake, advocates warn

Province wants to replace hearings with annual reviews of prison fatalities

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Stacey Burns @wentrogue.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Jennifer Nelson’s entry to this year’s Minnesota State Fair crop art

A localized version of Guernica with a loon at the center and a person holding an ICE OUT sign

“My piece was inspired by Picasso's Guernica, a work that was his response to the Nazi's bombing of the Basque town. I thought there was a fitting parallel between these incidents about the high price paid by ordinary people when aggressive regimes try out new tactics of war, as well as a fitting juxtaposition of the darkness of living such an experience and the light we shone through it in our own resistance and care for one another. The patterns near Renee Good and Alex Pretti’s mouths are actually their last words in Morse code: ‘I’m not mad at you,’ and ‘Are you okay?’”

Jennifer Nelson

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Glyn Bowerman @glynbowerman.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

We Ontarians can’t really talk shit about Americans who voted for Trump when we’re apparently going to let this freezer-burned chicken nugget run the province until kingdom come: toronto.citynews.ca/2026/08/26/d...

toronto.citynews.ca

Doug Ford rebounds as PCs regain lead in new Liaison poll

The poll tested several measures Premier Doug Ford urged Prime Minister Mark Carney to consider in an Aug. 17 letter.

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✨ Hamish Steele ✨ Go-Man Vs. the Star Dragon OUT NOW! @hamishsteele.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Every drag show this weekend is going to have to make some very hard choices

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Micah @rincewind.run · 25/08/2026

dolly parton taught millions of children to read dolly parton raised millions of dollars for cancer research and disaster relief dolly parton stood by the lgbtq community her entire life dolly parton personally helped fund the moderna vaccine if there was a right side of something she was on it

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Kanchan @kayehm.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Democracy isn't only about elections. It is also about who gets to make which decisions, who is accountable for those decisions, & what recourse people have when their gov't acts against their interests. We need to ask whether democracy is functioning as well as we claim it is.

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Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · 18/08/2026

One reason for this is that a lot of accessibility tech isn't designed to help create accessible spaces, but to make people feel like we don't have to

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Michael Brigham @michael-ames.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

absolutely. Mostly ‘his attention has been elsewhere’ but maybe a little dash of ‘if he can overreach in Toronto, what’s stopping him from doing the same to you’

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J. Kelly Nestruck @nestruck.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

The real problem is that cities have no real powers in Canada. This is disenfranchisement. Torontonians should be able to decide these things for themselves at the municipal level. Have not seen any politician other than @joshmatlow.bsky.social grapple with this. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

cbc.ca

Ontario appeal court says Ford can rip out Toronto bike lanes | CBC News

Premier Doug Ford’s government can rip out 19 kilometres of protected bike lanes in Toronto, the Court of Appeal for Ontario has ruled in a decision released Friday, reversing a lower court decision m...

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Ontario Traffic Man @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Or more applicably, organize rush hour "bike buses" on Bloor, with volunteers driving cars at cycling speed to protect a group of people cycling in front.

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Brendan Dawe @dawe.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

What we’re seeing nation wide is that the events have conspired to give cities “breathing room” on housing and they are going to mostly squander it across all political tendencies

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Cheryl Lynn Eaton @cheryllynneaton.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

It sounds hokey. It sounds ridiculous. But the best way to win over moderates--over people motivated by bigotry, tbh--is to show them a path to feeling good about themselves and about America that does not rely on hate. And to show them that America has a place of respect and dignity for them.

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Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 12/08/2026

I'm going to keep saying this until it's rote practice: If you are in official connection with let alone in charge of an archive of data, if is your professional & moral responsibility to secure that archive, as a backup or otherwise, against just such an emergency, so we're not Hoping some kid did.

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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

The @nytimes hasn't written a single article asking if "voters will think Tom Tiffany is too radical" because he is an election-denying, pro-ICE, authoritarian extremist. Somehow, his position on the political spectrum has disappeared completely from the National and State Conversations™️

nytimes.com

Will Wisconsin Voters Think Francesca Hong Is Too Radical? Here’s Where She Stands.

The democratic socialist is the front-runner to win the Democratic primary for governor of Wisconsin on Tuesday.

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Phil @philmarfisi.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

The federal government needs to get more strict with premiers who whine about not having money for anything while senselessly cutting their own revenue sources. We won't have this as long as our entire political class fails to grasp that our funding choices are going to get harder, not easier.

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Chris Conroy @conroyforreal.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

I would like someone to explain to me how I am supposed to just keep going about my day after seeing this headline.

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august 🍂 @auguststreet.ca · 06/08/2026

we need to bring this same energy to the actual most dangerous devices to ever ply our north american roads, the oversized pickup/SUV

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Steffen Rayburn-Maarup @rayburnmaarup.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

I don't think people are ready for this kind of joke yet.

A town sign seen through a train window.

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Colleen @cbailey6.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

$15 million in revenue? I guess if the suburbs want low taxes and windrow clearing, they need to aspire to be a world class city like Edmonton and allow multiplexes up to eight units per lot. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie, who represents Ward 25, Scarborough-Rouge Park, said her residents have told her during consultations that they're against the cut.

"I think we have to find $16 million to save that service," she said. "I think that residents across the city have spoken loud and clear in the last week that it is an important service that they rely upon."

Windrow plowing is done primarily in Etobicoke, North York and Scarborough where streets and boulevards are larger. The proposed cut will not affect the service for this winter season, staff say

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Michael Brigham @michael-ames.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

are you imagining that this notifies/provides feedback directly to the user? or pings friends/family/provider at certain thresholds? or is this just for retrospective pattern identification?

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Sammy Roth @sammyroth.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Insane new research. Scientists gave asthma patients free electric stoves to replace their gas stoves, then checked to see if symptoms improved. Not only did symptoms improve, ditching gas was *better than medicine.* Details in today's newsletter: www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/electric-s...

climatecoloredgoggles.com

Researchers used electric stoves to treat asthma. It worked.

The latest evidence that gas is bad for your health.

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Michael Brigham @michael-ames.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

best succinct explanation of the city I’ve seen

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Screamer Jim @screamerjim.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

If only there was some plot device that would have permitted Dickens to explore Scrooge’s earlier life

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Innsmouth Looksmaxxing @gonebabygone.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Every time trans people make this point people get defensive and imply that these "purity tests" make the candidate of harm reduction lose, but that's getting it backwards: it's the sweaty unprincipledness of someone already fated to lose that leads to this sort of triangulation

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Oliver Willis @owillis.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

“The left is going to lose these elections for us,” say the people who lost 2000, 2002, 2004, 2010, 2014, 2016, 2024 — often because they were fixated on the “winning” strategy of punching left and wooing center right voters

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Michael Brigham @michael-ames.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

would love to live in a climate where an outdoor stove/wok burner would make sense

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ceej @ceej.online · 07/02/2026

production of The Muppet Show should not be dependent on petty vulgarities like “ratings” or “revenue.” it should be preserved as a vital function of american culture. it should have a taxpayer-funded budget rivaling the CIA

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Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started @gothamgirlblue.com · 18/07/2026

Before sports betting was legalized everywhere, I was neutral about it, thinking that it was a personal choice. Now that it exists everywhere I have been radicalized against it like a 19th century suffragette

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Michael Brigham @michael-ames.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

in this new era of doubting the veracity of everything we see, being able to compare search results — or even count them! — is perhaps more important now than ever before

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Michael Brigham @michael-ames.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

I've always had trouble getting excited about improved search because I felt no one was sticking up for the serendipity/accidental discovery of browsing. But this new tunnel vision represents a threat of an entirely different kind.

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Cyd Harrell @cydharrell.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

an idea's been rolling around in my head about how what we lose with assuming everyone wants "answers" & not search results is similar to what we lose when "route" is the only kind of map we encounter I won't get the academic terms right, but it's some version of skipping an essential abstraction

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