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Dave Vasilevsky

@vasilevsky.ca
1.1K followers 599 following 167 posts

SFF reader, programmer, cyclist. He/him

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Reposted by Dave Vasilevsky
⤵️ @bryce.lol · 27/09/2026
If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumber’d here While these visions did appear. And this weak and idle theme No more yielding but a dream, Gentles, do not reprehend: if you pardon, we will mend; And, as I am an honest Puck, Show is over, off you fuck.
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John Michael McGrath @jm-mcgrath.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
This might be the funnier YouGov poll: Canada's retaliatory tariffs are above water with US adults:
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Aricie | 아리시 🏳️‍⚧️ 🇨🇦 @parisien.cc · 23/05/2026
I made this website which shows the construction date of each building in Montreal as a colour gradient so one can easily explore when the different borough were built and such. map.parisien.cc
map.parisien.cc
Montreal building ages
Every parcel in Montreal, colored by year of construction.
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It's Jamie @sjamieit.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
The City of Ottawa posted the raw speed data from before and after Doug Ford banned speed cameras and the effect is so obvious it's not even necessary put a line marking when that happened. This chart shows the percentage of drivers going 15km/h or more over the posted limit.
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Warren Wells, AICP @warrenjwells.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
With alt text
Friday’s press gaggle. Barely exaggerated: at 12:03 PM, President Trump told reporters he wanted a ceasefire with Iran. At 12:05 he declared victory. At 12:07 he announced he was sending Marines. At 12:08 he said no boots on the ground. At 12:11 he said he did not want a ceasefire. At 12:16 he declared victory again. At 12:17 he asked for a ceasefire. At 12:23 he told NATO they were cowards. At 12:29 he said Iran was begging for a ceasefire. At 12:31 he said everything was perfect. At 12:36 he said $500 oil was a good thing. At 12:37 he demanded Iran open Hormuz. At 12:39 he said Hormuz was never closed. At 12:41 he said the US was not at war with Iran. At 12:42 he declared victory in Iran
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Andrés Fontecilla @andresfontecilla.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
1/5 💙 Michèle, le PEQ et 83% des québécois-es. Hir la firme Leger a divulgué un sondage commandé par l’UMQ et qui révèle que 83 % des québécois-es estiment que les personnes immigrantes qui occupent déjà un emploi et qui sont bien établies dans la province devraient pouvoir y rester.
Des ainés contre l'abolition du PEQ
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Dr. Word Person @drwordperson.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
@bretdevereaux.bsky.social Hi! Bronze Age specialist here (on the linguistic side) to say that I really enjoyed your post on the Bronze Age collapse, but I want to correct you on one of the points that you made (and then add something else I think is really cool). 1/
acoup.blog
Collections: The Late Bronze Age Collapse, A Very Brief Introduction
This week, by order of the ACOUP Senate, we’re talking about the Late Bronze Age Collapse (commonly abbreviated ‘LBAC’), the shocking collapse of the Late Bronze Age state system …
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Simon Willison @simonwillison.net · 15/02/2026
Short musings on "cognitive debt" - I'm seeing this in my own work, where excessive unreviewed AI-generated code leads me to lose a firm mental model of what I've built, which then makes it harder to confidently make future decisions simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/15/...
simonwillison.net
How Generative and Agentic AI Shift Concern from Technical Debt to Cognitive Debt
This piece by Margaret-Anne Storey is the best explanation of the term cognitive debt I've seen so far. Cognitive debt, a term gaining traction recently, instead communicates the notion that …
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 25/01/2026
Walz: "We have got children in Minnesota hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside. Many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank. Somebody is gonna write that children's story about Minnesota."
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Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
Someone has lifted the QuickTimeVR movie files from 1994's "Star Trek: The Next Generation Interactive Technical Manual", upscaled them then built an in-browser replica of the ITM's "Tour" module. mijofr.github.io/st-panorama/ #StarTrek
mijofr.github.io
Trekorama!
360° of Star Trek
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Jason Thorne @jasonthorne.bsky.social · 27/12/2025
“By reading this plaque, you have made a valuable addition to the number of people who have read this plaque” … an important heritage moment on the streets of Toronto (by artist Sarah Lazarovic).
A commemorative plaque titled "The Toronto Recursive History Project of Toronto's Recursive History," situated in a garden area. The plaque has text explaining its significance, stating it was commemorated on October 10, 2018, and states that by reading this plaque, you have made a valuable addition to the number of people who have read this plaque. To this day and up to the end of this sentence, this plaque continues to be read by people like yourself.
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Rine Vieth @rinewithoutacat.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
If you have a couple of bucks spare, someone who is very very cool (a friend) is organizing a fundraiser for an org that gives food to Montréalers—delivering it door to door, for those most in need. Santropol Roulant is a gift to the city, please share this fundraiser! www.zeffy.com/en-CA/donati...
zeffy.com
Allison Chase's Fundraiser for Santropol Roulant
Dear friends of Allison,  Thank you for choosing to join Alli in supporting food security and social inclusion in Montreal!As we mark Santropol Roulant's 30th anniversary, the generations of Roulanter...
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Reposted by Dave Vasilevsky
André Picard @picardonhealth @picardonhealth.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
What both grows and shrinks at the same time? The never-ending riddle of Canadian health spending, by @picardonhealth.bsky.social www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/0fc7a92... via @theglobeandmail.com
theglobeandmail.com
The never-ending riddle of Canadian health spending
Annual costs have climbed to $400-billion, yet we struggle to provide timely care
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noé @celechii.itch.io · 29/11/2025
last week i remembered that macOS lets you set your own icons and that *I* have the power to delegitimize the professionalism of the software that runs on my machine, so here's a thread of the 16 new icons i've made so far i really forgot how fun it was to just sit down and make art for myself :')
comparison between apple's finder icon and mine. apple's is the split blue and white smiley face, mine is two blue and white anime girls making outcomparison between discord's icon and mine. mine is like a screaming cat on a blue/purple slimy backgroundcomparison between celsys's clip studio paint icon and mine. mine is similar but rotated with some comic styling and pink and blue highlightscomparison between mozilla's firefox icon and mine. mine is similar but looks closer to the old firefox icon and brings back the little arm and gives the fox a cute little smiley face
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Internet Archive @archive.org · 22/10/2025
We are deeply saddened by the loss of Greg Newby, who led Project Gutenberg ( @gutenberg.org ) with passion and purpose. Greg’s belief in free and open access to knowledge continues to inspire us and so many others working to preserve our shared culture online. gutenberg.org/about/newby....
Greg Newby
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Dave Vasilevsky @vasilevsky.ca · 16/10/2025
@mikepmoffatt.bsky.social Any thoughts on these replies? Would love your opinions on what would really help, and what would just get in the way.
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Toula Drimonis @mtltoula.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
“There are many living witnesses to what happened,” Mastromonaco says. “But it’s either not broadly acknowledged or it’s trivialized, perceived as anecdotal and insignificant. But it wasn’t anecdotal, and it wasn’t insignificant.” @thewalrus.ca thewalrus.ca/were-immigra...
thewalrus.ca
Were Immigrant Kids Barred from Quebec’s French Catholic Schools? | The Walrus
Former students say yes, historians say no. A new investigation is forcing the province to confront its past
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Jess Davis @jessmarindavis.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
🚨Today we have a special edition of Insight monitor, where on a Friday morning I woke up and chose data. I take a close look at claims of rising left wing terrorism in the US: open.substack.com/pub/insighti...
open.substack.com
Is left-wing terrorism on the rise in the US?
And how does this compare to trends in Canada?
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Dave Vasilevsky @vasilevsky.ca · 17/09/2025
Quebec giving up on illness prevention, as usual
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Free DC @freedcproject.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
People from all over are showing up for DC. This is not a moment. It’s a movement. We are united in our demands. We are all DC! #FreeDC
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 31/08/2025
Multiplexes are coming! But more slowly in some places than others. Why? @jensvb.bsky.social & I highlight our recent (open access) paper w/ Tsur & @tomdavidoff.bsky.social comparing multiplex reforms in Kelowna & Coquitlam & also look at Vancouver so far. homefreesociology.com/2025/08/29/m...
homefreesociology.com
Multiplex Reforms: The Details Matter
Co-authored by Jens von Bergmann and cross-posted at MountainMath Many Canadian municipalities are implementing reforms to allow multiplexes in formerly single family areas. These initiatives are d…
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Dave Kaufman @davekaufman.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
Irwin Cotler, Charles Bronfman sign open letter calling for Israel to end the war in Gaza www.lapresse.ca/actualites/2...
lapresse.ca
Gaza | Irwin Cotler et des personnalités juives demandent à Israël de mettre fin à la guerre
L’ancien ministre libéral de la Justice Irwin Cotler s’est joint à des milliers de Juifs qui ont appelé le premier ministre israélien, Benyamin Nétanyahou, à mettre fin à la guerre et à la famine à Ga...
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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
The housing shortage isn’t just about homelessness. It’s also the young person who can’t afford to move out. It’s the couple who can’t get a place big enough to have children. It’s the people stuck with roommates (or even in abusive relationships) because they can’t get a place of their own.
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Heather Hogan @heatherhogan.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
This is incredible. This computer science professor makes his students play a game that simulates the risks and repercussions of getting Long COVID, and then he's like, hey anybody want a mask? And: "approximately 95 to 100% of students who’ve played the game now wear masks in his classroom."
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Jens von Bergmann @jensvb.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
Live version and code, plus some additional graphs and details, on my blog. (This is adapted from @karimdouieb.bsky.social's iconic animation of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election.)
doodles.mountainmath.ca
Elections fun - 2025 edition – Mountain Doodles
Playing with Canadian 2025 federal elections data.
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Phil Smith @philsmith26.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
I invite you to read my new Substack paper called "Measuring improvements in Canadian standards of living" at the following URL: philip635.substack.com/p/measuring-...
philip635.substack.com
Measuring improvements in Canadian standards of living
How much has the standard of living of Canadians improved over the last half century or so?
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Adam Bonica @adambonica.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
With Yoon removed from office today, by my count that makes 34 democratic leaders convicted since 2010. Only one—Trump—faced no real consequences. Trump's actions weren't uncommon. What was exceptional was how our institutions failed to hold him accountable.
A table titled “Convicted World Leaders” with columns: Name, Country, Role, Year, Reason, Status, and Consequence. It lists political leaders from various countries who were convicted of crimes ranging from corruption and bribery to abuse of power and attempted coups. Most rows have a red background, signaling convictions with prison time or bans. One row is highlighted in green and features Donald Trump (USA, President), listed as convicted in 2023 for Jan 6, Corruption, Abuse of Power, Documents, Election Interference, with the consequence noted as No formal ban or sentencing/Granted Immunity.
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Dave Vasilevsky @vasilevsky.ca · 04/03/2025
Firefox 136 shipped with my new feature: LZMA compression for .dmg downloads blog.nightly.mozilla.org/2025/01/23/f...
blog.nightly.mozilla.org
Firefox on macOS: now smaller and quicker to install! – Firefox Nightly News
Firefox is typically installed on macOS by downloading a DMG (Disk iMaGe) file, and dragging the Firefox.app into /Applications. These DMG files are compressed to reduce download time. As of ...
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Dave Vasilevsky @vasilevsky.ca · 19/02/2025
And done! Try exporting your Paper docs with my new tool: www.npmjs.com/package/drop...
npmjs.com
dropbox-paper-export-2020plus
## A command-line tool to export your Dropbox Paper docs. Latest version: 1.0.1, last published: 10 hours ago. Start using dropbox-paper-export-2020plus in your project by running `npm i dropbox-paper...
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Dave Vasilevsky @vasilevsky.ca · 10/02/2025
Hmm, looks like Dropbox just upgraded me to a new API version, exciting! But it apparently also means I can't bulk-export my Dropbox Paper docs anymore!? And now have to export all of my hundreds of docs, one at a time!?! Welp, I guess it's time to write a bulk-doc-exporter tool.
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Dave Vasilevsky @vasilevsky.ca · 03/02/2025
Filesystems are fun! I figured out how to mount Clonezilla backups as directories, so I can look at just one or two files inside: gist.github.com/vasi/b6285221a
gist.github.com
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Gina C. Pieters, PhD @ginapieters.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
As someone trained as a trade economist, it is my duty to share the 1929-1933 Kindleberger Spiral, showing the month-month decline in global trade due to the combined factors of the (global) Great Depression and retaliatory tariffs. Smooth Hawley is implemented mid-June 1930.
Kindleberger Spiral is an inward spiral, visualizing the steady collapse of world trade.
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Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
Curious why we don't see much Broken Windows Theory applied to police You let cops get away with little crimes like parking illegally and passing out “get out of traffic ticket” cards to friends & family. Next thing you know they’re killing unarmed civilians and abusing their spouses at high rates
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Policy Options / Options politiques @policyoptions.irpp.org · 09/01/2025
The truth about asylum in Canada 🌎 Yvonne Sue explains that the moral panic around asylum seekers, particularly international students, ignores reality: Asylum is not automatic, and many claims are rejected. Read more here: policyoptions.irpp.org?p=115144
policyoptions.irpp.org
The truth about asylum in Canada
The moral panic around asylum seekers, particularly international students, ignores reality: Asylum is not automatic, and many claims are rejected.
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Marie LeBlanc Flanagan @omarieclaire.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
Toronto Star interview is up! www.thestar.com/news/gta/vid...
thestar.com
Video game captures the ‘abject terror’ of cycling in Toronto. Welcome to ‘Loser Lane’
Creator Marie LeBlanc Flanagan, frustrated with Doug Ford’s plan to remove bike lanes in Toronto, coded the impossible-to-beat video game in just two weeks.
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André Picard @picardonhealth @picardonhealth.bsky.social · 04/01/2025
Boutique primary care clinics are making the family doctor shortage worse, by @ritamc.bsky.social healthydebate.ca/2024/12/topi... via @healthydebate.bsky.social @christinebirak.bsky.social #PrimaryCare
healthydebate.ca
Boutique primary care clinics are making the family doctor shortage worse - Healthy Debate
Boutique clinics are not the future of health care. They are a step backward and are making primary care access worse.
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Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 01/01/2025
Looks like Montreal will come in at about 1.66 murders / 100k population for 2024, about half the rate of NYC or Toronto and 1/20 the rate of a bunch of US cities. I do love the combination of living in a big vibrant city that's also very safe.
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The Narwhal @thenarwhal.ca · 30/12/2024
Across northern Ontario, 24 First Nations that previously relied on diesel generators for power are now connected to the provincial electrical grid. In the communities, the culmination of this decades-long project is cause for celebration:
buff.ly
This 1,800-km transmission line brings clean, reliable power to 24 remote First Nations — who also own most of it | The Narwhal
Two decades in the making, Wataynikaneyap Power is majority-owned by 24 nations, allowing them to get off diesel and build economic independence
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
People sometimes make fun of science that sounds stupid and random. Meanwhile, a study of lizard saliva turned into a peptide medication, which was turned into a diabetes medication, which was turned into a GLP1 weight loss drug, that just became the first therapy every approved for … sleep apnea
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Trevor Tombe @trevortombe.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
With all the goings on, there's probably no interest in why the 2023-24 deficit grew from $40B to $62B. Just in case: ~75% due to contingent liabilities related to Indigenous rulings/awards; rest due to lower tax revenues. Details: budget.canada.ca/update-mise... #cdnecon #cdnpoli
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Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
"Backsliding is less a result of democracies failing to deliver than of democracies failing to constrain the predatory political ambitions and methods of certain elected leaders" www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/mis...
journalofdemocracy.org
Misunderstanding Democratic Backsliding | Journal of Democracy
If democracies did a better job “delivering” for their citizens, so the thinking goes, people would not be so ready to embrace antidemocratic alternatives. Not so. This conventional wisdom about…
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Dave Vasilevsky @vasilevsky.ca · 14/12/2024
@b0rk.jvns.ca re Globbing in the Shell, I just learned that `ls /boot/*(D)` in zsh magically matches dotfiles too! "Glob qualifiers" like this are cool! (But there's no way I'm ever remembering them all)
jvns.ca
`**` works for globbing in the shell
`**` works for globbing in the shell
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Mark Downie @poppastring.com · 10/12/2024
A #starterpack of tech writers who still share ideas via RSS. I am missing a bunch of folks I know I subscribed to in the past, so please ping me if you want to be included. go.bsky.app/Dq1a94w
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Dave Vasilevsky @vasilevsky.ca · 10/12/2024
Another sabbatical micro-project: Declarative package management for OpenSUSE! @opensuse.bsky.social
github.com
GitHub - vasi/zyppkeeper: Declarative package management for OpenSUSE's zypper
Declarative package management for OpenSUSE's zypper - vasi/zyppkeeper
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Preskton @esk.lol · 30/11/2024
When I'm not doing $WORK, I help the Hachyderm infrastructure team run hachyderm.io, a large Mastodon instance (55k users/11k MAU). Today, we published an analysis of our tech stack to prepare for access and resilience risks from the incoming US government. community.hachyderm.io/blog/2024/11...
community.hachyderm.io
Ensuring Hachyderm's Future: Improving Safety & Resilience through Strategic Placement of Infrastructure
Updates about Hachyderm infrastructure and security plans, risk assessments, etc. for the new year.
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
it is funny how much the politicized version of immigration economics discourse is "Immigrants supply labor but do not demand labor, thus lowering wages for Americans. Except in the housing market, where immigrants demand housing without supplying it, thus driving up prices for Americans"
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