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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦

@virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy
38 followers 4 following 1.9K posts

I AM a Luddite. There are always alternatives, not "there is no alternative". Believer in the Politics of Care. Married to a wonderful wife w/ 2 adult sons in […] 🌉 bridged from ⁂ cosocial.ca/@virtuous_sloth, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 1h
There is bullying in the story portion of the original, BTW.
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 1h
The choreography for Storm is mesmerizing and this (abbreviated) live performance at the MTV Music Awards is even better than the original video. www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6_mbnsh6VU (two no-volume cutouts due to (self-) censorship, unfortunately). Here is the original video with the […]
cosocial.ca
Original post on cosocial.ca
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 17h
"Canada need not come under the domain of the Stars and Stripes for American to achieve the security that it needs. But the American government should seriously consider support for Canadian separatist movements, and – if necessary – Canada’s western regions should be territorialized by the […]
cosocial.ca
Original post on cosocial.ca
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 17h
My neighbour is raking his lawn in the dark with the back door light and a headlamp on. It’s 10:18 pm. He often is going back and forth from his house to car in the driveway at 12:30 - 1 am. Odd duck.
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 18h
@AmeliasBrain I’m buying my winter wheels elsewhere and they are putting them on in 3 weeks. I’m not naive. I just didn’t want to deal with adjusting the service.
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 22h
First scheduled preventative maintenance (at 8,000 km / 6 months) on the EV was a doddle at 0.6 hours labour. Rotating tires was the biggest part (which I could have told them to not bother with since we'll be swapping winter wheels on in 3 weeks). Almost entirely inspection tasks.
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 23h
@bagder When do you think the backlog of bugs will be largely mined? I didn't see your recent talk but did go over the slides and I recall seeing a graph showing the age of bugs (i.e. when was the buggy code committed) going up over time, which to me implies eventually all the old code will be […]
cosocial.ca
Original post on cosocial.ca
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 07/10/2026
One thing I notice about myself is how easy it is to see a behaviour in others, especially other drivers, that I judge negatively but also am guilty of doing myself. Every time it happens I try to internalize improving my behaviour and being more accepting and less judgy.
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 06/10/2026
It is quite human to be a different person with different people.
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026
Move along, nothing to swee here... arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/rese…
arstechnica.com
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026
Minority rule... video.canadiancivil.com/w/exS4cYTSV…
video.canadiancivil.com
Time To Stop Voting Like Americans
How we choose as our leaders matters. In Canada though, our politicians have chosen us. Implementation of electoral reform should be in every politician's platform, not a referendum hurdle. If Wale...
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 04/10/2026
@mpjgregoire @evan Yes, the article calls back to that book. In addition to the economic pressures causing such changes, there is the rise of car-dependent city design in the last century. It ruins community, in my opinion (and a lot of urbanists' opinions). When you think about the […]
cosocial.ca
Original post on cosocial.ca
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026
These poll questions discussed in a recent Atlantic magazine article remind me of @evan polls. I assume the article is about the atomization of American society under neoliberalism (I barely skimmed the page)
Two graphs of percentage of Americans social activities over the last 50 years.

One shows declining percentages of people who do various activities 12 times per year (ie monthly). The other shows increasing percentages of people who do the activities zero time in the year.
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026
@evan None of them have internal models of how these technologies work, beyond the barest surface-level of their active user interfaces. This is spite of me trying to get them to have deeper working models in their heads. They just aren't interested in putting in the effort to form those […]
cosocial.ca
Original post on cosocial.ca
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026
@evan My 30ish-year old sons are experienced with technology as users, but are in no way what I'd call "power users". My 83-year-old mom used computers in work and uses an Android phone and a Chromebook today, but when I ask her to describe what she sees on the screen when I'm trying to […]
cosocial.ca
Original post on cosocial.ca
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026
Our neighbour is 40ish & moved to Calgary when she was eight, living with her Aunties. Her husband is a more recent immigrant (10-15 years ago?), both from Ethiopia. They have two kids, a girl of 4-5 & a boy 2-3. Gramma came from home to join them a couple years ago. She watches the son while […]
cosocial.ca
Original post on cosocial.ca
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026
Surprise guest at the front door! Heard a voice and the dogs ran, so I ran to the door. It was cracked and I could see a face and hear her voice. It was our neighbour's Mom! She had got locked out of their house. I didn't know that at first since she doesn't speak a word of English and the […]
cosocial.ca
Original post on cosocial.ca
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Reposted by Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦
Panicz Maciej Godek @paniczgodek.functional.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026
I just learned that my Onward! essay, "Programs Should Be Comics, Their Execution -- Animation", has been published in the ACM Digital Library (Open Access): dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3840586.3843… Many thanks to everyone involved!
A drawing of myself holding the front page of my essay and pointing to it enthusiastically
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2026
@mpjgregoire If that’s true, perhaps that suggests a rough for honestly good politicians. Would Mandani count? He seems to not actually make many mistakes.
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2026
@mpjgregoire Theory: people are more tolerant of errors and mistakes from politicians who speak frankly, especially about subjects that elites and the politicians that serve them constantly lie about. That covers Doug, Rob, and Trump. Maybe?
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2026
I think part of the reason why politics is so bad is that we, as an electorate, are not willing to tolerate mistakes, errors, or uncertainty from our candidates. The exact type of people whose judgement is best are likely to be the ones who are willing to make and admit mistakes and to express […]
cosocial.ca
Original post on cosocial.ca
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2026
@jfmezei It definitely wasn’t anywhere near 40.
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2026
Watching season (series) 6 of Slow Horses.
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2026
Via Tom Scott's England series a video currently available on Nebula.tv and next week on YouTube... I learn of Tim Hunkin, then find his Youtube channel, and now I've learned that "mangle" can be a noun and a "teasmade" is a thing. So much learning in so little time! […]
cosocial.ca
Original post on cosocial.ca
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026
@lowqualityfacts You need a BARELY FUNCTIONAL next.
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026
If you like dry stand-up comedians providing financial analysis, you'll love this explanation of the finance story behind what apparently amounts to what, a third of the western world's economies, at least according to "the market". www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-oXyXwD6sE #finance #ai
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 23/09/2026
RE: mas.to/@SmudgeTheInsultCat/11732156… Ok, literally LOL
mas.to
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 23/09/2026
Level 23 is the next hard one and it is significantly harder. 443 arrow vs 366, but more importantly it has double-headed arrows, which means if you don’t look at the whole arrow (it goes around the corner) you rush there being another head that is blocked. The […] [Original post on cosocial.ca]
Screenshot of cube/arrow game. Hundreds of intertwined arrows occupy the surface of a cube. The arrows have orthogonally-bent shafts that snake around an invisible grid.
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026
@mick The less-extreme polity of the EU embraced neoliberalism to one extent or another over the last 40 years, even if not to the same extent as the US and Britain.
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026
Scott Jenson's ideas about experimenting with the desktop computer interface by adding context, addressing a person's working memory and how we naturally manage memories (spatially, temporally, and associatively), are truly innovative in my opinion. You could probably jump to 25:51 for the […]
cosocial.ca
Original post on cosocial.ca
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026
@mpjgregoire It is probably fair to say that commodity projects and commodity services are less unfair targets for contracting, although I will add that that should only be true if labour markets are fair and competitive, including accounting for information asymmetries between organizations and […]
cosocial.ca
Original post on cosocial.ca
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026
@mpjgregoire Is a project manager executing control or pouring concrete? Is control not part of governance?
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026
@mpjgregoire Also, we are seeing that governments in Canada have clearly lost much capacity to govern capital projects, resulting in public infrastructure costs ballooning beyond all reason. This is precisely because the top layers of public construction are private contracts. Incentives don't […]
cosocial.ca
Original post on cosocial.ca
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026
@mpjgregoire Specifically, every outsource contract I was aware of severely degraded service, at the expense of costs, lowering efficiency in the process. That last point says everything.
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026
@mpjgregoire "decides what they want built", especially the word "what", is doing a lot of work in that sentence. Details matter and I would argue it should be a transition from principles to priorities to policies on down. Ultimately, priorities are transmitted down using budgets and budgets […]
cosocial.ca
Original post on cosocial.ca
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026
RE: cosocial.ca/@Chigaze/11730980534398… Conservatives setting a budget and tendering contracts is effectively declaring "we do not know how or do not want to manage or provide public services". That is "we do not want to govern".
cosocial.ca
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 20/09/2026
Victoire!
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 19/09/2026
I’ve been playing this puzzle game on my phone called Cube Away 3D Puzzle and I’m really enjoying it. However, level 18 is the bane of my existence.
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 18/09/2026
Crazy orange recycling his electricity/shark dilemma.
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 17/09/2026
@evan I'm here for it too!
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 17/09/2026
Between threatening Canada and Europe for talking about cooperating and threatening China and India for buying Russian and Iranian oil and gas, Trump is burning the candle at both ends trying to de-dollar the world economy.
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 15/09/2026
@mpjgregoire In other words, your position runs into two uncomfortable facts of Canada. One is that municipalities are purely creatures of provincial governments and live purely within that constraint. The other is that for many years provincial governments have been abandoning their […]
cosocial.ca
Original post on cosocial.ca
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 15/09/2026
@mpjgregoire What about the opposite? One level of government constantly downloading responsibility to a lower level of government while simultaneously starving that level of the resources or ability to raise resources?
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 15/09/2026
If you are sometimes down on provincial politics and progressive issues in Alberta, here is a small win. Expansion and regularization of recycling province-wide: www.andrewyule.ca/post/blue-cart-up…
andrewyule.ca
Blue Cart Changes: Calgary's Recycling Program Is Expanding
Starting October 1, 2026, Calgarians will be able to recycle more of the packaging we use every day. Blue carts and community recycling depots will begin accepting a wider range of materials, including food and bodycare tubes, aerosols cans, flexible plastic bags and wrappers, and styrofoam packaging. This change is part of a province-wide shift in how recycling works in Alberta.Why Are Things Changing?These updates are part of the second phase of Alberta's Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 15/09/2026
Huh, who knew that Alberta had a transportation forward-thinking municipality? I didn't. It's too bad it is in a place with such high housing costs. If only Calgary would learn from them. Canmore. It's Canmore. www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAE5DNHWT4g #ableg
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 15/09/2026
The American bourgeoisie has been the biggest champions of neoliberalism for the past 40-50 years. 1.7 million people with more than $10+ million each. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/09/e… cosocial.ca/@virtuous_sloth/1172703… of […]
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 14/09/2026
Come for the lecture on The Culture of Contentment, stay for Galbraith's First Law of Executive Intelligence. www.c-span.org/program/public-affai…
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 13/09/2026
"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" Social media, para-social relationships, and being human in the the system of the modern age. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqh17U3tymU
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 13/09/2026
RE: zeroes.ca/@Geoffberner/117259648071… Hear hear!
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Bruce Elrick 🇨🇦 @virtuous-sloth.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 13/09/2026
The whole ‘we need to slow down our model development because they are getting too good too fast and are dangerous’ reeks of ‘how do we deflate the bubble without popping it?’
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