Eric Lawton

Overnight, Meta deleted all her accounts. AI customer service won’t let her reach a human | CBC News

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/meta-accounts-deleted-ai-customer-service-9.7364543?cmp=rss

Toronto resident Jasmine Ault says Meta disabled her accounts overnight, without giving her a reason, and that she's been unable to get past their AI chatbots to speak to a human to resolve the error. Experts say without regulation enforcing the right to speak to a human, this will keep happening.

Yes we need this for corporations in general, but for corporate social media, we need to abandon them altogether.

Starting with all government accounts.

Ontario is launching free flu and COVID-19 shots next week as vaccination rates decline

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/ontario-is-launching-free-flu-and-covid-19-shots-next-week-as-vaccination-rates-decline/article_11a300ef-cc7f-41ac-8f2e-a41e9f3f216c.html

Starting Sept. 28, high-risk individuals, including hospital patients and workers, long-term care residents and staff, and people aged 65 and older will be able to get flu and COVID-19 shots.

I'll be in line at my local pharmacy.

I hope they'll be available for everyone else soon after.

Israel’s Chief Rabbi says Palestinians are not a people and have no rights

https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/8/22/08-22-26-israel-rabbi-palestinians-clip?traffic_source=rss

Israel’s Chief Rabbi denied Palestinians are a people, claimed Gaza for Jews and called for its destruction and return.

Pure evil

#Gaza

Why is the Trump administration calling bike lanes ‘DEI’? | Dave Schilling | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/13/trump-administration-bike-lanes-dei

The government apparently has an issue with paths for cyclists. Take it from someone who can’t ride a bike: this makes no sense

And Ontario's Doug Ford is the same.

He's only anti-Trump in wanting himself to be in charge, not Trump

#NeverVoteConservative #ONpoli

Trump super intelligence: Will the president’s attempt to rebrand AI work? - BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqy4z9pv4w0po Only DJT could look at an error-prone dangerous chatbot and think its intelligence far exceeds his own.

Why do I ridicule Trump, the rest of the Epstein class and their deluded followers? Because some wavering supporters are more likely to change if they think they're being made to look foolish than they are by reason.

We didn't want the Green Belt paved over We didn't want to buy his personal jet We didn't want the waterfront airport expanded We didn't want species at risk in even more danger We don't want Doug Ford.

@blogdiva@mastodon.social

At least the banks could argue that¹ the failure of banking system would be a huge inconvenience.

If AI™fails, the impact would be far less, even if the models all shut down. In five years, that may no longer be the case as we lose the skills to do without.

---

1. Except that the infrastructure and workers would still be there without the owners.

Canadians overwhelmingly demand wealth tax after Kevin O’Leary says it will make him move away

https://www.thebeaverton.com/2026/08/canadians-overwhelmingly-demand-wealth-tax-after-kevin-oleary-says-it-will-make-him-move-away/

OTTAWA - Pollsters report a split among Canadians over the idea of higher tax on the assets of wealthy individuals, though support skyrockets after noting that Kevin O'Leary has vowed that he will respond to a wealth tax by moving far away.

(Apparently I need to point out that The Beaverton is a Canadian satirical magazine.)

Holly is having a good think, in the dappled shade from the wild grape vine. She decided it was snack time and went in. #Caturday

Breadmaggedon A vignette from my short career as a bread factory worker, in which a co-worker accidentally destroyed a lot of bread. And a bad-tempered man was stunned into silence. http://ericlawton.org/2026/08/02/breadmaggedon/

Linda McQuaig: Don’t be fooled, Big Oil is calling the shots, not Carney

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/dont-be-fooled-big-oil-is-calling-the-shots-not-carney/article_66e5bff8-0a55-43bc-ac51-163758734f00.html

Big Oil demands Ottawa help them squeeze every dollop of bitumen from the ground — no matter how wildly fires rage across the country and how Trumpishly orange the skies

Carney is going along with Big Oil’s plans, not because he fails to grasp the severity of the climate threat, but because he’s been outsmarted and outmanoeuvred by Big Oil, which makes its demands through the Alberta government, which it effectively controls.

#climate #CDNPoli #CanPoli #BigOil

Detained Gaza doctor almost unrecognisable after injuries in Israeli jail, lawyer says | Gaza | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/06/detained-gaza-doctor-almost-unrecognisable-injuries-israeli-jail-hussam-abu-safiya

Hussam Abu Safiya faces ‘tangible danger to his life’ following 18 months in prison without charge or trial

#Gaza #Palestine

@sundogplanets@mastodon.social Who gave some American regulator authority and control over space? This, along with any other objects launched into orbit, is imperialist aggression. The fact that it orbits for a while before falling to ground is little different from launching a ballistic missile through space. We need a global body to regulate this.

Claude, ChatGPT: AI labs buy, scan, shred millions of rare books | news.com.au — "Once that information has been extracted and encoded into an AI model, the delivery mechanism has served its purpose." So the purpose of a book is to enrich Big Tech? 😡 Anthropic described the project as “our effort to disruptively scan all the world’s books” in an internal memo, which noted “we do not want it to be known that we are pursuing this project”. I guess not. https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/internet/ai-labs-buy-scan-shred-millions-of-rare-books/news-story/0c3b45a67093ab462a587a0348538ce9 #LLM #BigTechThieves

@wendythedruid@thistlenfern.org Possible scenario? ↓ Military Industrial Complex: "We need to use up all our old weapons so we can rake in the profits from making an entire new arsenal". Trump: "OK, where do you want the war?"

@adub@beige.party I've been in emergency several times in the last 18 months. Mostly on stretchers in the corridor. That means more patients, same number of doctors. One said "you're really good at self-advocacy". I laughed and, thinking it was a euphemism, said "I don't mean to take too much of your time" He laughed and said, "no, it saves time, you tell me what I need to know without having to ask a lot of questions".

"Trump discloses 327 unreported stock trades made a day before his first tariff pause "The disclosure, more than 14 months after the purchases occurred, is the latest revelation to fuel calls for greater scrutiny of the president’s financial assets" The calls should be for impeachment. https://www.nbcnews.com/business/markets/trump-stock-trades-before-tariff-pause-rcna352723

‘In stories like this, the data and the methodology are key’: when private equity meets public service journalism | Data journalism | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/membership/2026/jul/05/in-stories-like-this-the-data-and-the-methodology-are-key-when-private-equity-meets-public-service-journalism

A team from across the Guardian set out to investigate the full extent of private equity’s stake in Britain’s public and essential services. The scale and opacity posed many challenges

Private equity is one of the biggest threats to #democracy

Private control with no accountability.

Frequently using asset-stripping to gut public services for a quick profit.

Mark Carney calls carbon emissions targets a ‘not sustainable’ threat to national unity

https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/mark-carney-abandons-trudeau-era-carbon-emissions-targets/article_89b35724-50db-4038-8702-0073af1016a6.html

downgrading the country’s climate-change ambitions is necessary for global stability

Is this satire?

How will wrecking the #climate, causing mass migration, heat, drought, hurricanes, sea-level rise, … promote “global stability”?

#CDNPoli #CanPoli

Europe is burning – and if Trump’s war on the climate is not met with sanctions, things will only get worse | Alexander Hurst | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/30/europe-burning-trump-war-climate-sanctions-white-house

The White House seems committed to ecocide. The EU should harness the power of the single market to force it to change course, says Guardian Europe writer Alexander Hurst

#climate #StopOil #stopTrump

Israeli crackdown in occupied West Bank intensifies, settlers cause mayhem

"Crackdown"?

Or state terrorism?

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/26/israeli-crackdown-in-occupied-west-bank-intensifies-settlers-cause-mayhem?traffic_source=rss

The surge in violence comes after four Palestinians and two soldiers were killed in a gunfight on Friday.

@inthehands@hachyderm.io I did the same for the Alberta Provincial Archives. Same conclusion. Most of their material was on microfilm, which was beginning to perish. Early 1980s.

@jaark@infosec.exchange Exactly. The corporation running the software is liable. If they didn't intend to break in, it's negligence, possibly criminal. They're floating all these "what if it's an agent" trial balloons for publicity. @zackwhittaker@mastodon.social @lorenzofb@infosec.exchange

Yesterday's clear blue sky has been exchanged for a dark brown-orange, smelly sky. On the other hand it's a little cooler than yesterday. #wildfire

Hate “The Algorithm?” RSS Is One of the Tools You’ve Been Looking For

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/06/hate-algorithm-rss-one-tools-youve-been-looking

Since at least the moment Facebook introduced (and apologized for) its News Feed, “the algorithm” has been shorthand for the ways the tech giants control what we see and when we see it. In the age of enshittification, there is a push to reclaim our feeds and networks. Good news: there’s a tool that’s been around for decades that can help wrangle many of your feeds into something manageable: Really Simple Syndication, more commonly known as RSS.

I use RSS every day, Facebook never.

Israeli settlers set fire to mosques, cars and farm land in West Bank, Palestinians say

There is something seriously wrong with "Western" governments supporting state-backed terrorism in our name.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjrv77gl4deo

The latest attacks come two days after a clash between settlers and Palestinians near the village of Tell, which left four Palestinians and two Israelis dead.

#Palestine #stateTerrorism

How can people get so angry at immigrants because they think they're "taking our jobs", but admire tech bros and their AI™s who openly admit they're taking our jobs? Against people who have different cultures but for machines with no culture at all. Against people who have different colours of skin but for machines with no skins at all. #racism

We Shouldn’t Assign Attributes For Life Only immutable and permanently important facts about the event of your birth should be assigned and recorded on your birth certificate. That excludes race, sex and number of fingers. #sex #gender #bigotry http://ericlawton.org/2026/07/22/we-shouldnt-assign-attributes-for-life/

Mark Carney spent a year gathering political capital. Now he’s spending it — along with billions of taxpayers’ dollars They are NOT "taxpayers' dollars". Why do the media and others keep using this phrase. It belongs to the general public. Nobody claims that when corporations spend money that it's "customers' money". The phrase implies that it's been illegitimately taken from people, as if thieves spent their "victims' money". https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/mark-carney-spent-a-year-gathering-political-capital-now-hes-spending-it----along-with-billions-of-taxpayers-dollars/article_aca7aa58-23bf-4073-a293-a78dcb75a65f.html #taxpayers #wordsMatter #Propaganda

@newsguyusa@flipboard.social In 2028, the summer Trump Games will be hosted by the USA, featuring cage matches. Trump will adjudicate all games and all three spots on the podium will be occupied by US citizens. Trump will win the cage matches.

Banning transgender girls from school sports affects all children – why allowing strangers to scrutinize children’s bodies may put all girls at risk of harassment https://theconversation.com/banning-transgender-girls-from-school-sports-affects-all-children-why-allowing-strangers-to-scrutinize-childrens-bodies-may-put-all-girls-at-risk-of-harassment-285559 And it normalizes transphobia, putting all trans people at risk. And by normalising division and hate, it harms everyone's mental health and the cohesion of our institutions. #antiTransNonsense

Canada’s citizenship study guide has glaring omissions. Critics say it sanitizes the past

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/canadas-citizenship-study-guide-has-glaring-omissions-critics-say-it-sanitizes-the-past/article_c59aabc2-6e2f-4958-85a1-bc68aafa52da.html

The official source before taking the citizenship test has come under fire for the way it deals with Indigenous Peoples.

It expects new Canadians to adopt the same shameful attitudes to Indigenous people as those born here.

Appalling.

#CDNPoli #CanPoli

Another one, in the same issue. The real menace to society isn't LGBTQ+ people, but straight, cis men. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/26/polygamous-sect-leader-convicted

@adub@beige.party Will Doug Ford be inclined to override, while still in a snit over the airport?

@adub@beige.party In my home library, I am both of these characters.

"Without us, they are doomed’: volunteers save fish from French rivers drying up in heatwaves https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/25/france-rivers-heatwaves-water-levels-drop

@PallasRiot@social.treehouse.systems FWIW: We used to get large wasps' nests hanging very close to our front door. My wife is severely allergic to their stings. So we hung paper decoy nests close to our doors. Problem solved. Haven't had one near the house, since, for ~10 years. YMMV: this person disagrees https://askentomologists.com/2020/07/14/do-wasp-nest-decoys-work/

Instant access to Trump’s thoughts now costs $100,000 a month

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/07/instant-access-to-trumps-thoughts-now-costs-100000-a-month/

Truth Social—where the president often moves markets—is offering faster access at a very high price.

Trump guarantees that he can post content elsewhere, provided he posts it on Truth Social six hours before he posts it anywhere else.

#TrumpCrimes

Related: "The UK gets its seventh prime minister in 10 years" The UK political system is broken. The process and qualifications for getting Prime Minister's job are unrelated to the ability to do the job.

Trump, not Iran, is the world’s greatest danger. He’s a one-man weapon of mass destruction | Simon Tisdall | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/18/donald-trump-iran-world-danger-bombing-us

As the bombing starts again, it’s clear the president has dragged the US into a limitless fiasco – and the world into an economic quagmire, says Guardian foreign affairs commentator Simon Tisdall

@avilewis@mstdn.ca In case anybody has any doubts about where Carney's interests lie: “Carney is scrapping the luxury tax on yachts and private jets.” https://toronto.citynews.ca/2025/11/08/carney-is-scrapping-the-luxury-tax-on-yachts-and-private-jets-heres-how-people-are-reacting/

@Rickd6@mstdn.ca Lettuce hope Burnham is better. 😀 (Disclosure, I'm originally from Bolton, now in Greater Manchester)

@stephaniewalter@front-end.social AI™ is not a "new kind of user". It's not any kind of user, its a tool for owners of corporations to take content. Personally, I don't want corporate thieves on my site at all. I do want to make it accessible to all humans.

@noybeu@mastodon.social Canada needs to coordinate with Europe.

Shawn Micallef: Doug Ford’s attacks on Toronto got you down? Try these seven local democracy hacks to feel less helpless

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/doug-fords-attacks-on-toronto-got-you-down-try-these-seven-local-democracy-hacks-to-feel-less-helpless/article_b238cdc0-3bd1-443c-a861-ba55db60f503.html

There effective ways to overcome the feeling of helplessness as a result of recent moves to take away local democracy in the province.

But quickly before Ford transfers all the powers that should be local, to himself.

“There are Kafkaesque government moves like Ford banning speed cameras, with latest figures showing this has led to a surge in speeding of over 400 per cent on some Toronto streets. Minister of Transportation Prabmeet Sarkaria said that to make streets safer “we need to install infrastructure like speed bumps,” yet his own government is preventing cities from installing safe infrastructure like bike lanes.”

#ONPoli #NeverVoteConservative