iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by William D. O'Connell

Dani Rodrik @drodrik.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Three things made the US a rich and powerful nation: the rule of law, its science & innovation system, and openness to foreign talent. Remarkable how Trump has taken a sledgehammer to all three. No enemy of this country could do more.

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Chris Sardo @mcsardo.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

We cannot speak with any sort of authority about the dangers of AI to democracy and the need for authentic communication if we're not willing to show through our actions that we value these things in our own work!

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Dr. Mike P. Moffatt @mikepmoffatt.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

"Do home prices need to come down?" has received a lot of love, and the question: What if wage growth goes up? A: It helps, but even if we could *double* real wage growth, Oakville will still need 19 years to hit 2005 affordability. Read here: www.missingmiddleini...

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Erin Lockwood @erinkaylockwood.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

Yes. Sometimes there will be lists of obviously fake books, but more often we won't notice it at all. AI detectors, zooming in to examine every image and video for "tells," counting on ChatGPT's quirk-of-the-week to out its use is a mug's game. The only solution is a political-epistemic one. 🧵

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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

An education in the arts was a sign of extreme privilege until very, very recently. Modern public universities making it accessible is unambiguously good for society and, apparently, business. Yet provinces continue to roll it back!

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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Provinces have been moving funding away from the things AI cannot replicate/replace (creativity, critical thought, writing) and towards what it can (complex mathematics, programming) and, in ten years, will wonder why Canadian productivity continues to lag.

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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Business leaders have been screaming this for several years, and yet Canadian provincial governments across the political spectrum continue to aggressively defund their universities' arts programs.

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Dr. Mike P. Moffatt @mikepmoffatt.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

Here's a cheat sheet, for those who claim that Canada's housing crisis is isolated to a few pockets of the country. There are substantial regional variations, but the pockets of unaffordability are very, very large. Raw data here: www.missingmiddleini...

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Dr. Mike P. Moffatt @mikepmoffatt.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

Latest at MMI. The government had a bad week on housing. The problem isn't a lack of message discipline but something larger and more structural: It lacks clear goals and objectives for middle-class housing, which is leading to poor policy. Read here: www.missingmiddleini...

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Alex Usher @alexusherhesa.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

Change in overall provincial government spending vs. total provincial government spending on post-secondary education, Canada, 2006-07 to 2025-26 (2006-07 = 100). It's not austerity, it's the choices.

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Dr. Mike P. Moffatt @mikepmoffatt.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

The new federal Housing Minister's stated goal for middle-class housing affordability is to keep home prices flat and let wages catch up. We ran the numbers - that would take up to 50 years in some parts of Canada. Read more here: www.missingmiddleini...

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Dr. Mike P. Moffatt @mikepmoffatt.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

If the federal government's position is that we don't need to lower the price of homes for the middle class, then I think they'll need to make some changes to the National Housing Strategy Act.

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Dr. Mike P. Moffatt @mikepmoffatt.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

Question for the federal government: The platform contained a lot of (IMO very good) measures, like reducing DCs, to lower the cost of homebuilding. Is the end goal of reducing homebuilding costs to reduce prices, or to increase developer margins?

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Blake E. Reid @chup.blakereid.org · 13/05/2025

Well, this is a hell of a metaphor for generative AI

A final note. Directly put, Plaintiff’s use of AI affirmatively misled me.
I read their brief, was persuaded (or at least intrigued) by the authorities that
they cited, and looked up the decisions to learn more about them – only to find
that they didn’t exist. That’s scary. It almost led to the scarier outcome (from
my perspective) of including those bogus materials in a judicial order. Strong
deterrence is needed to make sure that attorneys don’t succumb to this easy
shortcut.

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Mike De Souza @mikedesouza.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

More on Danielle Smith govt breaking access law in this report by @matthewblack.ca - Edmonton Journal: “McLeod’s investigation began in August of 2023 following reporting from the Narwhal and the refusal of all government departments to process a series of requests made by the Globe and Mail.”

edmontonjournal.com

Alberta government failed to follow access to information rules

A report from Information and Privacy Commissioner Diane McLeod found the province had improperly refused to process a number of requests.

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Jared Wesley @jaredwesley.ca · 10/05/2025

This is an appalling development with Bill 54. “McClure writes that some of the bill makes improvements, but other changes "will deteriorate the service provided to electors, compromise Albertans' trust in the democratic process, and remove elements of transparency and accountability."”

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Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

JUST NOW: A federal judge ordered the immediate release of Rumeysa Ozturk, the Tufts PhD student who was taken on the street in Massachusetts by masked immigration authorities. Ozturk has been detained in Louisiana for the past 6 weeks. But today, the judge ordered that she be allowed to go home.

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Daniel McDowell @danielmcdowell.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Technology is melting our college students' brains. Link: www.msn.com/en-us/news/t...

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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Wow! Congratulations Salam! Extremely well deserved.

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Erin Lockwood @erinkaylockwood.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

I think it's worth working through the logic of how the AI cheating mess is symptomatic of a broader epistemic and economic crisis, in which the tenuous bargain higher ed struck with to society to credential job applicants in exchange for being allowed to exist has completely eroded. 🧵

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Erin Lockwood @erinkaylockwood.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

Students are AI-cheating their way through college because they are rightly terrified of economic precarity and doing everything they can to avoid it, which means getting a college degree because they've been told that a degree is necessary for a reasonably well playing job. And they're not wrong!

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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

Imagine wanting to be the David Cameron of Canadian politics.

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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

There is something particularly insidious and divisive about insisting you don't support secession while actively working to make it possible.

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I Younan An @iyounanan.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

Happy to announce that I accepted a Visiting Fellow position with the Centre for Development Economics and Trade at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute (CDRI). CDRI is a leading policy research institute in Cambodia. I’m excited to support their research initiative and research network 🙂!

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Frédéric Mérand @fredericmerand.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

In this response to the 15 scholars who reacted to my original essay on Canada’s EU membership, I sketch out a roadmap for Canada’s pivot to Europe. www.ecsa-c.ca/post/canada-...

ecsa-c.ca

Canada’s Pivot to Europe

Frédéric Mérand, Université de Montréalfrederic.merand@umontreal.ca May 1, 2025 Although not everyone thinks it possible or even desirable to turn Canada into the 28th member of the European Union, al...

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Erin Lockwood @erinkaylockwood.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Look, I fundamentally refuse to buy into the near-consensus in higher ed that we must train our students to be good users of AI (as if we even know what that means) so that they can do shit like this in their future jobs. I want no part of it.

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Stephanie Carvin @stephaniecarvin.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

This is really excellent analysis by @jrobson.bsky.social - electoral ridings most exposed to Trump tariffs tended to vote CPC/BQ, not Liberal - which leads to some interesting policy and political implications for the Carney government. #elxn45 #cdnpoli

Picture of text: The truth is that the party that was most willing to sound the alarm bells about the risks posed to Canada by Donald Trump has ended up with few MPs in caucus who will be most likely to have the qualitative, touchy-feely, front porch conversations with constituents who are directly affected by trade disruptions. The LPC government will need to find other ways to stay in touch with the individual Canadian workers, residents, and voters on the front lines of the ongoing U.S. trade crisis.
I don’t mean government public opinion research.
I mean making efforts to go places where Liberals may not immediately feel welcome. I mean reaching out to opposition MPs to consult, not just offer stage-managed technical briefings once policy choices are fully baked. Most of all, I mean welcoming diverse and sometimes contrarian views into the decision-making apparatus of government. Efficient decisions are desirable, sure, but not at the expense of effectiveness. The work of reconciling the contrarian views in Canada — for example, communities that are highly exposed to Trump turmoil but vote for parties that don’t want to talk about it — is the eternal mission of government in our big, beautiful country.

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Jacob Winter @jacobawinter.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

It's out! My favourite unexpected finding: the best month to make a deal with the World Bank is June.

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Erin Lockwood @erinkaylockwood.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

Some much damage has already been done and this doesn't touch on the unlawful detentions of students for pro-Palestinian advocacy, but this is still very good news. Challenge everything. They're not invincible.

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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

There has been a lot of talk about the Trump admin's hostility to international students as eroding a key source of American soft power. The same applies here, where providing Anglo-Canadians the opportunity to experience Quebec's distinct society seems likely to engender more, less not, sympathy.

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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

As I wrote, my experience living in Quebec led me to spread the gospel of its importance and uniqueness to an increasingly less receptive English Canada. The government claiming out-of-province students are extractive and harmful to Quebec society is both inaccurate and insulting.

Explanation of the irony that the Quebec government implemented its tuition hike to preserve the sanctity of the French language, when what this policy does is destroy the sympathy the rest of Canada may have for achieving this goal. I have personally advocated for the preservation of French and Quebec culture in Canada in part due to my experience living in Quebec, and this policy ensures others will not be able to follow in spreading the gospel elsewhere.

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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

I wrote about this policy when it was first announced 18 months ago. I argued it is a major self-own that harms the province's post-secondary sector without protecting the language. As a proud alumni of @ubishops.bsky.social, the government's justification felt deeply personal.

theglobeandmail.com

Opinion: Quebec’s out-of-province tuition hike is a major loss for the province and country

Quebec has announced it would be doubling tuition for out-of-province students at English speaking universities, meaning McGill, Concordia and Bishop’s

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Erin Lockwood @erinkaylockwood.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

Just got my copy of Ineffective Policies, a new book in which I have a chapter on the Volcker Rule, the part of Dodd-Frank which bans proprietary trading by commercial banks -- a noble goal but one continually undercut by the Rule's attempt to preserve US banks' access to capital markets.

Cover of book entitled Ineffective Policies: causes and consequences of bad policy choices, edited by Ian Roberge, Heather McKeen-Edwards, and Malcolm Campbell-Verduyn. The cover depicts a hammer and a series of bent nails ineffectively hammered into a board.

Image shows a book opened to a chapter entitled "Death by a thousand cuts: how the Volcker Rule's inevitable.ambiguoty makes it easy to erode and hard to defend while leaving the power of banks unchecked l" by Erin Lockwood.

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Molly White @molly.wiki · 24/04/2025

Someone just spent $8 million on $TRUMP memecoins after the president announced that the top holders would be invited to join him at a private dinner at his DC golf club. The purchases were funded by a Binance account, suggesting the wallet owner is not based in the US.

Solscan screenshot showing four purchases of a total of 655K TRUMP tokens for approximately $8 million

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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

Note that the contingent funding here is relatively small, and there are no promises of future increases if compliant. No reallocation to improve other programs, just cut-cut-cut!

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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

In practice, "program modernization, revitalization and rationalization" means the same thing the Trump admin is demanding: gutting the arts and humanities programs which are essential for fostering critical thinking skills and imagining a better future.

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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

Government intervention in the minutiae of university teaching: not just an American problem! Defunding universities, and then using the resulting financial problems as a pretext to intervene in their governance is dishonest and harmful.

cbc.ca

New university funding deals include tuition freeze for Nova Scotia students | CBC News

New bilateral funding agreements between the provincial government and universities will freeze tuition at current levels for Nova Scotia undergraduate students, but they also appear to represent a ma...

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Dr. Mike P. Moffatt @mikepmoffatt.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

A significant portion of the costings in all the party platforms is sourced from the Parliamentary Budget Office. Some of these are reasonable, some of them are bananas, and in *none* of them do the PBO actually show their work. A problem. www.pbo-dpb.ca/en

pbo-dpb.ca

Home - Parliamentary Budget Officer

The PBO provides independent economic and financial analysis to Canada's Parliament.

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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Beyond the wild accounting there is also this bananas policy:

Passing legislation banning tax increases or new taxes without a referendum

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Dr. Mike P. Moffatt @mikepmoffatt.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

The Conservative plan is out and, ooof, is this costing a disaster. There's a whole bunch of phantom revenues booked here, and the GST housing pledge is costed at under $2B. Given their proposed eligibility criteria, it should be more in the 4-6B range.

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Nihil Dev 🇩🇰🇬🇱🇺🇦🇨🇦🇵🇸 @nihildev.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

Ever wonder how many lives have been saved by NIH-funded research - including your own? Enter any medical condition and instantly see how your tax dollars transformed science into survival. www.ourhealthroi.com

ourhealthroi.com

Our Health ROI

Explore how your tax dollars fund life‑saving medical research.

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Benjamin Braun @benbraun.social · 21/04/2025

Three months ago not a single one predicting a recession? Frankly, lmao.

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Daniela Gabor @danielagabor.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

You know it's an American newspaper from the premise of education as a private funded enterprise and the language of 'dependency'.

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jon ben-menachem @jbenmenachem.com · 19/04/2025

Senators are fighting back this morning with an email blast alleging the University is conducting a power grab, and calling for an investigation of the Trustees and who they’re accountable to.

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