K. R. Wilson 🇨🇦

Cover image of Peter Watts’ novel Blindsight, with a fragile-looking spacecraft above a menacing-looking cluster of dark tendrils.

Just now discovering Peter Watts. (Better late than never.) Blindsight is an intricately imagined, deeply contemplative, psychologically rich and spectacularly realized first-contact tale about a crew of tech-enhanced/tech-bred misfits sent to investigate an uncanny new arrival to our solar system.

Maybe we should be clearer. Jobs aren’t at risk from AI. They’re at risk from amoral shitbag short term spec capitalists using AI against a weakly unionised workforce and broken government.

This is incredibly on point.

Spot oil prices grab the news, but it’s the impact we’re about to witness to petrochemical and derivative production that should really scare the shit out of folks.

It’s the sort of shock that could ripple through our global industrial economy for many months.

One of the oldest narratives in European culture begins with...

"Sing, Goddess, of the rage of Achilles."

From time to time, we, as a society regard male anger as a background hum. Bad things inevitably happen when we do.

Available now:

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

Is it really a war?

Play along with Andrew Heaton's new game show.

It does feel like we can't have an utter refusal to wear masks AND tell everyone to get offline.

I'm not risking crippling illness or death just to make your brunch feel more lively.

I get yelled at for saying this but for many hundreds of years people went to university not to get diplomas or be employable but because immersion in the humanities was considered foundational to a good life, and school must return to its original purpose: the joy of learning.

I’m old enough to remember when words meant things.

"If you don't understand how human consciousness works, you can't say AI isn't conscious" is absolutely no less stupid an argument than "If you don't understand how the human respiratory system works, you can't say my dad *hasn't* stolen my nose".

Every Covid-19 infection can lead to cardiovascular conditions and symptoms.

Data Reference: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39915795/

#LongCovidHeartbeats #LongCovid #ILCAD2026 #LongCovidAwareness #hearthealth

MAID applicants should have more mental health support, says Quebec coroner MONTREAL - A Quebec coroner is calling for better mental health support and resources for people who apply for medical assistance in dying, in response to the case of a

MAID applicants should have more mental health support, says Quebec coroner. Report details case of a 91-year-old Montreal-area man who died by suicide last year shortly after his MAID request was refused, by Morgan Lowrie www.thecanadianpressnews.ca/health/maid-... via @cdnpress.bsky.social

there's so much bad in the world but there's also people who lift up and carry an elderly bat around every day so he can pretend he's flying again, and that's the part of the world I think is worth fighting for

The McCartney LP got to no2. Ram got to no1. Yeah, sounds like everyone hated him to me. They mean the critics don't they, certain critics? The rawk guys. Yeah they thought the Beach Boys were risible too, because something something Monterey...not Greg Allman something something Jerry Garcia...

me in ~2006: "I'm a computer science major, why do I have to take a class on ethics?"

me in 2026: "ah"

People with the least political knowledge tend to be the most overconfident in their grasp of facts People often misjudge their understanding of verifiable political facts. A new study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied provides evidence that individuals with the least actu...

"This tendency to be overconfident appears most common among individuals who actually know the least about politics and those who lean conservative."

www.psypost.org/people-with-...

We could end homelessness and hunger tomorrow if we wanted to.

We could agree that everyone should be fed and housed.

We could admit that being disabled, poor, homeless or unemployed is not a moral failing.

That society would be better off if everyone’s basic needs were met.

these were called 'record stores'

Start bringing in the Renault 4 and Renault 5. Surely that could be part of our trade discussions with the EU.

Thx, rage politics.

"The U.S. was the only country surveyed where a majority had such negative views of their countrymen."

US: 53% say their fellow citizens are morally BAD.

Canada: 92% say fellow Canadians are GOOD. ❤️

wapo.st/4d4DgLi via @pewresearch.org @washingtonpost.com

Local residents like the airport? So what? They would like this better, if anyone had the guts to offer it. An easily accessed 210-acre Toronto Island Park that's almost as big as Central Park.

If Ford actually wants to do something visionary, it is this.

www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/toron...

move slow and repair things

Doug Ford is handing tax dollars out to his friends while blowing $billions on an unnecessary convention centre on a magical island and his 401 tunnel vision. We need to focus on actual priorities, including healthcare, education, jobs, housing affordability and transit.

Are we falling out of love with nonfiction? In the early 2020s, readers flocked to books to explain political turbulence. But is the world now too grim to read about – and are podcasters taking the place of authors?

It's also the problem that is plaguing industries like podcasting and whatnot, that so much of Big Non-Fiction™ is celebrity driven which creates impossible metrics for anyone else to replicate. But non-fiction on the whole also seems to be doing okay?

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/d...

The Short Story Anthology That Will Haunt You Long After The Last Page A haunting short story anthology, Breathing is How Some People Stay Alive by Alison Gadsby explores trauma, loneliness, and the darkest sides of human emotion. Read our full review.

LOVE it! "Breathing is How Some People Stay Alive," by Alison Gadsby, "...feels more like a twisted version of Chicken Soup For The Soul."🙏Shirin E. from Fully Booked and @riverstreetwriting.bsky.social Review below.
fully-booked.ca/reviews/brea...

they double bombed an elementary school for girls

cover of Lucy E.M. Black's novel A Quliting of Scars - sepia-toned photo of two men in a field wrangling or otherwise attending to a horse

This week on GET LIT we talk to author Lucy Black about her latest, A Quilting of Scars. Tune in!

1230pm on 93.3 / cfmu dot ca or anytime on pods and here: tinyurl.com/2dsdm2nx

FT comments section this morning - saying what everyone else is thinking, right?

Iris Gorfinkel: We’re blaming our overstuffed ERs, excruciating surgery waits and family doctor deserts on exactly the wrong people As wait times soar and millions struggle without a family doctor, the old “blame the immigrants” narrative has made a comeback in Canadian politics and media. This kind of rhetoric

We’re blaming our overstuffed ERs, excruciating surgery waits and family doctor deserts on exactly the wrong people. The old “blame the immigrants” narrative has made a comeback, by @drgorfinkel.bsky.social www.thestar.com/opinion/cont... via @thestar.com

Long-COVID Sufferer Awarded Nearly $1M After Employer Refused to Let Her Work From Home | Law.com A jury in Nassau County awarded $954,000 to a longtime employee of Stony Brook University Hospital Blood Bank.

A woman with Long Covid won almost one million dollars in a lawsuit against her employer who refused to allow her work from home accommodations.

May this set a precedent.

Remote work should be accessible to all who need it.

It’s a game changer for people with disabilities.