Apologies for the confusion then, I was following the rule to keep the original title and my comments in the body.

I guess it doesn’t help that the site is one of those live updating types with the headline adjusting.

The US is next door, and any conflict that arises would directly impact Canada across the board. Canada can expect displacement, logistical disruption, and economic consequences. I’d say these challenges would require responses from all levels of government.

Maybe as a good thought exercise, Canadians should turn their minds to what does American displacement even look like for us? Perhaps this can be categorized as emergency preparedness and disaster response.

Canada’s accustomed to dealing with diplomatic spats, difficult trade deals, or bad US foreign policy. But I’d suggest escalation of conflict in Venezuela, and domestically within the US, goes against the so called “firewall” strategy that North America had with the notion that the Oceans presented a natural and strategic defensive barrier. If American displacement actually happened due to regional conflict domestically, this would overturn a lot of existing assumptions.

What does absorbing large numbers of refugees even look like, would winter serve as a natural deterrent and how long, how many people can actually be taken in on an Emergency basis? Do we even have a means or criteria for returning displaced folks to the US?

We should confront these scenarios instead of dismiss them because the Americans appear to be steps away from them.

For those thinking about the switch, and happen to game, I understand that plenty of users are going to CachyOS or Bazzite as well.

If this were a terrible cake of mixed motives, one would be to throw out or damage the Epstein files in such a way that no one involved with those allegations can be tried.

Second, obtain war funding (Venezeula) to secure a coup, or to at least hold a significant portion of the the US indefinitely.

Third, in the event of complete failure, extort and move as much money out of the country that can resist tracing or recovery. Exit planning to leave the US on emergency basis.

I keep these three points in mind while looking at the Trump Administration.

From what I understand, Venezuela, Canada, and Russia are the primary suppliers of heavy crude. Even after so-called embargoes against Russia for the Ukraine-Russia conflict, ghost ships are still able to get product to market.

As for Iran, I’m not sure the US can even hold Iran, given their track record in Afghanistan and elsewhere. As it turns out, occupying another country requires huge troop deployments over decades.

Also, China’s built out relations through the Belts and Roads Initiative, meaning they’ve diversified the markets they can access.

One alternative plan, from an outsider’s point of view, is that the US has engaged in a long standing strategy of wealth transfer from its middle classes to its wealthy upper classes over decades. They’re in the process of breaking down their country for sale to its billionaire classes. While on paper it looks like a coup, the structure of the US suggests that the whole thing comes down with a whimper instead of a bang.

I suspect the billionaires are just waiting to see if they can get away with stealing the US, without the American people rising up and charging them for treason.

I’ll point out that others say similar things about Reddit.

https://kopitalk.net/post/179329#comment_818579

I see X users these days as the frogs in the slow boiling pots.

I sense that some of the people who remain in X had some rationales. Those who liked what they saw in terms of abuse or bad behaviour would naturally stay for more.

Perhaps others felt their voices would resist mis/disinformation, or contribute to greater discussion. But, those who chose to stay, regardless of reason, ended up conditioning themselves to receive or disregard abuse beyond all sense.

Now the platform clearly violates its members, and Musk has once again affirmed publicly that he is a white supremacist. Users - including government accounts - who remain have unwittingly become members of an extremist, white supremacist website that peddles CSAM materials.

I think it’s the stuff of movies, and something a villain, like the Joker, would have done.

I’m going to jump into a Meshcore rabbit hole here, potentially converting a Raspberry Pi into a repeater if I get further in.

After reading some more experiences, and watching a few more videos, I’ll be trying a WisMesh Tag with Meshcore.

If I slip into the rabbit trail, maybe I’ll build a repeater for fun. lol

Anyone have any experience with that meshtastic idea? Issues and hype?

Axon’s rep basically says that their mass surveillance cameras don’t see colour, just people. Then follows with the main factor is skin tone (??). A problem that was essentially noted as far back as…2019. What development in the technology is she talking about?

According to Ann-Li Cooke, Axon Enterprise’s director of responsible AI:

In response to the report, Cooke said there has been a development in the technology since 2019.

“There are gaps in both race and gender at that time,” she said. “As we did our due diligence on evaluating multiple models, we were also looking to see if there were race-based differences, and we found that in ideal conditions, that is not the case.

“Race is not the limiting factor today, the limiting factor is on skin tone. And so when there are varying conditions, such as distance [or] dim lighting, there will be different optical challenges with body-worn camera[s] — and all cameras — in detecting and matching darker-skinned individuals than lighter-skinned individuals.”

Also note that the facial-recognition technology seems to have a fatal flaw when it comes to women with darker skin.

However, Gideon Christian, an associate professor of AI and law at the University of Calgary, said the inequities attached to facial-recognition technology are too great to ignore and that he believes there is not enough recent research to suggest any significant improvement.

“Facial-recognition technology has been shown to have its worst error rate in identifying darker-skinned individuals, especially black females,” he said.

In some case studies, Christian said facial-recognition technology has shown about a 98 per cent accuracy rate in identifying white male faces, but that it also has about a 35 per cent error rate in identifying darker-skinned women.

You know what was a problem with the technology back in 2019? LLMs are coded by primarily white males, and their idea for “normal” hard codes bias into the models. These “AI” products essentially show their coders’ bias by discriminating what falls outside of that normal.

For example, from “How tech’s white male workforce feeds bias into AI”, by Aimee Picchi:

The report highlights several ways AI programs have created harmful circumstances to groups that already suffer from bias. Among them are:

An Amazon AI hiring tool that scanned resumes from applicants relied on previous hires’ resumes to set standards for ideal hires. However, the AI started downgrading applicants who attended women’s colleges or who included the word “women’s” in their resumes.
Amazon’s Rekognition facial analysis program had difficulty identifying dark-skinned women. According to one report, the program misidentified them as men, although the program had no problem identifying men of any skin tone.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ai-bias-problem-techs-white-male-workforce/

Purchases by federal agencies are generally exempt from tariffs.

US Tariffs - just on the stuff normal people have to live on.

Another Asian being harassed by Westjet? This time their elderly father takes a hit in the eye?

I suppose Charlet Chung received the Westjet star treatment since they didn’t strike her or any of her party.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgKErAzKWgA

I sense that these Crown Corps need to evolve to be insulated against basically unregulated politicians. Perhaps there’s a more aggressive model where the Crown Corps can become a fully private entity with strict obligations of reporting to the public, and consistent obligations of stakeholder consults. But hard baked restrictions - like the judicial branch - requiring the Corps staff to fully disassociate from political parties: fully recorded communications, no donations, no public support of any political party.

Unleash them with the sole objective of providing a whatever public good they’re supposed to, but without the political interference and the risk of politicians being captured by lobbyists.

Depends on your definition of “significant positive legacy”.

If you’re drawn to the fame and notoriety of public figures as a template for this legacy, then I’d say these types of people already put their lives out in public for you to follow as a template. You will likely be seen as a narcissist in some circles.

On the other hand, many games and thinkers instill the rationale that you are the sum of your choices. Your karma - or action logic perhaps - will ripple around you with consequences - intended or not. These choices raise a new legacy of being an example.

A lot of people want to just live their lives in their own peace, make a living, do what they can to support their people. Such folks receive no fame, and no notoriety. They do everything necessary. There’s no thanks expected. But they make human life worth it. I’d rather be a part of this example.

Together
Everyone
Accomplishes
More

In many ways, we all entered the same game with the same example of team. We all wake up, work, transit. Everything has to come together in order for us to get back home safely. It has inherent value, and is a “legacy”. What I think of as “legacy” is also your heritage and your birthright. You inherited someone’s legacy to be possible and to be here.

There are forces that threaten this example. People who want to do violence to it, destroy it, pillage it, profit from it, you have to choose to protect it. They don’t want you to see your own worth. They don’t want you to see the value in others. They want you to stay small, and deny your heritage. How you protect this example, and the vulnerable, is up to you.

EDIT: I’m just using the terms you and they in a generic sense. I don’t literally mean you to single any specific person out. Similarly, I’m not literally talking about “they” like some kind of secret cabal reference. They is an ever changing reference to any kind of opposing force - be it person or system or effect.

What’s really concerning is that apparently the Italians had already “neutralized” the operation that ran this terrifying human safari. But surely they would also have records of who engaged such services?

Canadians are already familiar with private health care. Anyone with a pet who needed medical attention knows the gut wrenching pain of going to a vet, expecting a standard level of care and pricing, only to learn from friends and family that they’ve been fleeced at 2 to 5 times the price. But you needed help at the time and it was meant to happen is what we tell ourselves.

It’s the invisible hand right?

You know…the one you see making jazz hands providing below average care and attention to your pet, and the other that basically steals your wallet and uses you like a piggy bank?

I write from experience, but I’m not the only one. So now you just want to switch pets to humans?

Call the election, UCP. Alberta will see you out.

Some folks - myself included - don’t even believe that “AI” as currently described matches even the hype.

Canadians should be ready to go full into cash. We’ll wait for the explosion and buy up the fancy server racks, chips, hard drives, and other hardware at pennies on the dollar to set up our own data centres that will actually do real tasks besides AI slop.

Dr. Ken Cheung struggles for a few seconds to describe how he views himself within Alberta’s rapidly privatizing health-care system.

“I feel like I’m a conscientious objector,” said Cheung, an anesthesiologist for 25 years at Calgary’s Foothills Medical Centre.

As a supporter of public health care, Cheung said he objects to a policy that requires him to work in one of Alberta’s private, for-profit chartered surgical facilities, or CSFs.

Those CSFs are now churning out tens of thousands of surgeries, mostly in Calgary and Edmonton, every year under a United Conservative Party government.

For years, the UCP have played word salad about how they’re going to open X beds, and facilities will be built in some regional point. For years, everyone has asked the obvious question of how these places are going to be staffed. Well, now we know the answer, don’t we? They’re forcing public healthcare staff into the private sector…at higher costs to society.

This is basically Loblaws showing up raising the price of bread and telling people to suck it - then providing their pennies on the dollar gift card and calling it a day. Alberta is getting thugged and shaken down by the UCP when they’re sick and most vulnerable.

I’d like to piggyback off these remarks to add that Canada did have a secure digital communication system in Blackberry. I point out that system was criticized for being closed and “slow” to adapt to the changes brought by Apple.

But I’d simply take the view that Canada gave up on Blackberry. Blackberry’s entire reputation was based on secure communications catered towards corporate and enterprise environments - whether we liked it or not. Canada just gave way to less secure, more convenient American competitors. In so doing, we gave up a real option to American digital communications. Oh and by the way, the Americans still don’t have an answer to having all their telecommunication back doors getting hacked open.