iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

If the "reduced sodium' version of Lipton chicken noodle soup warrants a government 'high in sodium' warning, should the regular product even be legal? Soupe Nutri Soup® / Unilever

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Anyone else's BS detector beep and flash when they see the word 'adjustments'? Metrolinx+Via used it recently to describe service cuts. And, a while back, a utility bill came with a 'rate adjustments' notice, likely aimed at easing the blow of a rate hike. Is this stuff they teach in PR schools?

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A @bluhue123.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

He actually said that 👇

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Maybe the two should go for a skate together, for the cameras.

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

I still want to know whether the USAF backed out of this air show or was uninvited. There's a story there.

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

The rules No Halloween decorations before Thanksgiving All Halloween decorations should be down by Nov. 7 No Christmas decorations before Dec. 1. All Christmas decorations should be down by Feb. 2 (whether you call it Groundhog Day or Candlemas). Thank you for your attention to this matter!

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

If Ford is honest about his professed aim of moving bike lanes to parallel side streets, he needs to install them before any existing lanes go. When he was on council and Rob was mayor, the Sherbourne lanes were almost finished before the Jarvis ones came out. Rob even cut the ribbon on Sherbourne.

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

And if Ford is being honest about his professed aim of moving bike lanes to parallel side streets he should produce those plans and commit funding to them BEFORE removing anything from the main streets.

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

TTC has spoken of linking Coxwell 22 to 70 O'Connor from O'Connor on Line 5, via Michael Garron hospital (the old east end's top trip generator), down via Coxwell stn Line 2 to Ashbridge's Bay. Big benefits could kick in with a GO RER Coxwell stop and help for O'Connor bridge bottleneck at Woodbine.

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CrummyBiscuit.bsky.social @joylessbiscuit.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

commemorative mega fucking loser coin

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James Downie @jamescdownie.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

"The heads of the Army, Navy and Air Force and the four-star commanders overseeing U.S. operations throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America," in a classified document earlier this month, "advised Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that prolonging large-scale operations against Iran is unsustainable."

wapo.st

Military leaders warn Hegseth against extending Iran war operations

A recent classified assessment advised that prolonged large-scale operations in the Middle East risk weakening U.S. capabilities elsewhere.

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My friends call me Paddy @swordfishtrombones.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

This is why we have to stop using US-based data sources.

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Even for its Ontarian customers who log in with Canadian-based devices, which is probably close to all of them, @hydrooneofficial.bsky.social's outage map is calling Lake Ontario 'Lake America'.

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Maybe the Canadian International Air Show should disinvite the USAF and invite our NATO allies from Sweden to show off their Saab Gripens over the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto. #lakeontario #lakeamerica @mark-carney.bsky.social

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Is the Canadian National Exhibition still looking to have the U.S. military fly in its air show over the Lake Ontario waterfront in Toronto next week? #cne #usaf #lakeontario #lakeamerica #tradewar

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Cars are just as lethal as guns, and testosterone impairs just as effectively as alcohol and drugs.

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Serious/credible law-and-order advocates would be up in arms about repeat offenders getting bail, even when their choice of weapons is a car instead of a gun. Too many people ignore the fact that testosterone impairs drivers just as effectively as alcohol and drugs. www.thestar.com/news/gta/her...

thestar.com

Her husband was killed by an alleged Ontario stunt driver. Her life can’t move on — but he keeps driving

"He was gone, and I was alive." Preetha Varma lost her husband in a car crash in November 2024 that left her with permanent, life‑altering injuries.

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

My sample's tiny but the sentiment may be big in the Beaches-East York by-election: I've had 3 people, all 40 or older, tell me they'll vote NDP for the first time in their lives because of Carney's 'half-hearted stand' on Billy Bishop airport expansion. Is it a safe Liberal seat sans Erskine-Smith?

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

It's like a pro-wrestling narrative in which Captain America turns heel.

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Or, how about a 15th issue: Let's ban partisan advertisements on the public dime (a, wasteful, irritating and unethical program that the federal Liberals have also emulated). Learn how to build before you tell us you're doing it. www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

thestar.com

Shawn Micallef: 12 ideas Ontario Liberals should be talking about during their leadership race

The Ontario Liberals have struggled to get off the ground with their past two leaders, so why not be bold?

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

1. I'd add a 13th issue, ignored thru the 2022 and 2025 elections: 10 months into Ford's first term, it was clear Metrolinx was unfit to deliver his transit plans. A no-holds-barred public inquiry would be a start in fixing/restructuring a broken, secretive agency. www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Wow! That's the whole line. That's a lot of shuttle buses (coming from other routes). I want to know details about this 'communication' issue.

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

People in Ontario might even talk about this subway cost issue for a day or two before burying their heads in the sand again. I haven't been attacked by serpents yet, but I have a sense how Lacaoön felt after his warnings about the Trojan horse. rccao.com/research/fil...

rccao.com

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

The spread of light cycles that force pedestrians to beg for a walk signal is also a sad development. It's not so bad for me personally since my knee healed and sidewalks aren't icy, but having to run to push a button to cross the street sucks. Big change in my hood is more people breaking the law.

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Actually, the engineering and construction companies have been outperforming the broad-based indexes and exchange-traded funds by a huge margin in recent years. When I mentioned this to a retired executive in the field a few years back, he replied: "And that's after they've paid out big kickbacks".

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Cost is clearly not an object for the people running Ontario, Metrolinx and IO. Even after adjusting for inflation, we’re paying more for 3 km of tunnels and 2 stations (not including track, signalling systems and trains) than the all-in cost of the 8 km Line 1 extension to Vaughan, with 6 stations

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Got a great reminder on Saturday night how spectacularly beautiful Toronto can be for a cyclist on a warm summer evening (if you're wearing lots of lights, a reflective vest and a helmet). Went to see a fun band (The Mid Century Modernes) between two lovely and lengthy lakeside rides. What a night.

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

A repost for you, if you're into Toronto streetcar speeds and the causes of delays. Some day we'll solve the great mystery of why the Spadina 510, despite its right-of-way, remains the TTC's slowest north-south route. I was trolled heavily and called a right-wing shill for writing about this in 2005

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Tossup between 'Jaws' and 'One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest'.

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

I wonder how recent changes have affected speeds on the Bathurst 511 and Spadina 510. For a 2005 Globe and Mail story, we did a three-month comparison of trips from Bloor to Front. Despite the 510's then-much-ballyhooed right of way, the 511 was 3 minutes and 11 seconds faster on average.

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

It matters when a political leader is caught disseminating clearly false info. I can't say Doug Ford is lying in this instance, but if he isn't he is relying on unreliable sources, which isn't that much better.

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rudy.ca @rudydotca.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

what's the difference between ignorance and apathy? i don't know and i don't care

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Sean Marshall @seanyyz.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

I'm going to update my intercity transport map in the next few days, please let me know if I am missing anything or if you have any suggestions! seanmarshall.ca/transport-map/

seanmarshall.ca

Canada Intercity Transport Map

All of Canada’s transport links, in one map This map depicts all intercity and regional bus and rail connections in Canada. Information for each transit agency and intercity carrier is availa…

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

You just know Trump was on the phone in dying minutes against Belgium, telling Infatino to "find me 3 goals". #fifa #fifaworldcup

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Shannon Proudfoot @sproudfoot.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

New from me. Mark Carney’s Oprah giveaway day, and a vexing question: if a new pipeline is a money-printing machine, why does no private company want to build it so that taxpayers have to? #cdnpoli www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/opi...

theglobeandmail.com

Opinion: Welcome to the Mark Carney major projects sweepstakes

You get a port! And you get a tunnel! And everybody gets a pipeline, whether or not they want one!

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Mikel 🇺🇦 @mikelking.com · 02/07/2026

When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent. ~ Issac Asimov #ThoughtfulThursday

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Air Conditioning is, obviously, an essential survival tool for modern civilization, but we'd better learn fast to create viable air-conditioning technologies that aren't net contributors to global warming. Timely piece here, even if it's two years old. news.climate.columbia.edu/2024/08/28/a...

news.climate.columbia.edu

Air Conditioning Poses a Climate Conundrum

The more we cool ourselves, the more we warm the planet. Is there a way to fix this?

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

For a long time I was the proud owner of rolled-up poster featuring King Kong on the CN Tower (a reproduction from a Toronto Star April Fool's Day prank). I had long intended to get it framed. It probably went to landfill in the 90s. Kinda wish I still had it.

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

I recall watching midnight fireworks from the Star building at One Yonge. (My shift in those days was midnight to 8:40 a.m.). Pages of the Star's news and sports sections were still produced in hot lead in 1976.

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JackTatt 🇨🇦 @jacktatttran.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

These sleepers don’t look right here. Should I tell GO Transit? Two of the sleepers north of the rail (picture taken facing south at Mimico Station Platform 1) don’t seem to even exist or are hidden by the ballast. There’s even a loose chunk of wooden tie. @wb62.bsky.social @gotransit.bsky.social

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Rare bits of transparency from #Metrolinx via the annual report (this time The Trillium didn't have to rely on leaks). The inability to get costs under control on transit projects within Toronto put the agency over budget and forced it to save elsewhere. www.thetrillium.ca/news/municip...

thetrillium.ca

Metrolinx writes off more than $500M in upgrades, cuts GO expansion spending

Plan to massively increase GO train service facing ‘uncertainty’: annual report

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Extreme Temperatures Around the World @extremetemps.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

It's hard to fathom what Europe will live next week. Thousands of records will be brutalized in Spain,France,UK,Benelux,Germany,Swiss,Austria and than the East Paris might record 4 consecutive days 40C UK will ridiculize its June national record Germany 10 days 37C+ This is CRAZY

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Interesting piece (not even paywalled) about a Canadian artist's project in London (England) exploring largely overlooked records, issues and factors in mainstream historical interpretations of the American Revolution. Thank you, FT. www.ft.com/content/2fdd...

ft.com

The Canadian artist fact-checking US military history

Terence Gower has delved deep into public records for a sound installation interrogating the 1775 invasion of Quebec

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🇨🇦 Stephen Wickens 🇨🇦 @stephenwickens.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

For the umpteenth time ... We are so badly in need of a no-holds-barred inquiry into Metrolinx. Special thanks to journalists pursuing this mess. www.thetrillium.ca/news/municip...

thetrillium.ca

Engineers warned Metrolinx of ‘fall hazard’ months before GO train passenger fell and died

Cracked, uneven platform contributed to woman falling, being hit by train: leaked report

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Investigative Journalism Foundation @theijf.org · 13/04/2026

What’s behind a surge in government secrecy? Dean Beeby explains why Ottawa and some provinces are suddenly making it harder for you to know what they’re doing. zurl.co/MaVh9

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