"Videos, including of glasses-wearers using the toilet or having sex, are sometimes reviewed by a Kenya-based Meta subcontractor, according to Swedish newspapers Svenska Dagbladet and Goteborgs-Posten.
'We see everything - from living rooms to naked bodies,' one worker reportedly said."
It's amazing people will claim "Canada and the USA have the same culture" and then on something as fundamental as "do you trust your fellow citizens to be good" we are further apart than any other two countries
If that sounds interesting, please join me on March 17 at noon!
Register here to receive the Google Meet link: forms.gle/cVimuqCMKMZy...
(And if there are any specific topics you'd like to me address, leave a comment here and I will do my best to add it to the session. 🙂 )
Slide depicting two tweets from former Alberta government officials. On the left, a misleading chart from former premier Jason Kenney is annotated. On the right, is another chart from a former issues manager on the same topic. Can you spot all of its misleading elements? We'll go over this during the session!
This one is aimed at the "data-curious": non-experts interested in how to think more clearly — and critically — about facts & figures & charts & graphs.
Here's a sneak peek at one of the slides. (The misleading part of the chart at left is annotated. Can you spot the issues with the other chart?)
How to Think Critically About Data (Even if you're not a data nerd like me) A free 45-minute Lunch & Learn session with Robson Fletcher, Data & Storytelling Strategist. Topics include: - How statistics & data visualization can mislead -- intentionally or accidentally - Practical tips for evaluating data you are presented with - Why feelings DO matter when it comes to facts Tuesday, March 17 12:00 p.m. to 12:45 p.m. Via Google Meet (pre-registration required)
I'm no longer a data journalist but, as an independent practitoner, one of my goals is still to help people make sense of the daily deluge of data we're all swimming in.
To that end, I'm hosting this free online session on March 17.
You don't have to be a nerd to come nerd out with me... 🤓
🧵
The Alberta government is taking $461 million more from Calgary property and business owners this year than it did in 2023-24.
That's a 59% increase in just three years.
"A B.C. Supreme Court ... ruled that Dennis Modry, co-founder and former CEO of the Alberta Prosperity Project, misappropriated the money from the joint bank account of his aunt and uncle who suffered from Alzheimer’s and dementia, respectively, and ordered him to pay the money back with interest."
It's a fine balance. One I'm still perfecting.
I had to go digging through industrial recycling bins at Halloween for costume material. 🤦♂️
So much of fatherhood is breaking down cardboard boxes
had a death in the family and was almost completely off the internet for a few days & my observation is that there is too much happening too fast such that basic facts abt the world are difficult to ascertain unless you are mainlining info all the time & doing that seems to drive people insane
“We’re pretending as though this system is one where we can do good journalism, litigate good politics and be helpful neighbours, but in fact, [the system] is slowly making us crazy,” Ling told the Calgary Journal.
“We need to unplug from the systems that are making us crazy.”
Gotta enjoy a three-scenario forecast that spans utopia, annihilation and a slight deviation from the status quo.
Line chart titled: 'AI could end scarcity, end humanity - or boost trend growth by 0.2 percentage points' It depicts US real GDP per capita on a logarithmic vertical axis under three scenarios. In the first scenario, AI ends scarcity and real GDP per person increases 10x in a matter of years. In the second scenario, AI results in human extinction and real GDP shrinks to effectively zero in about a decade or so. In the third scenario, real GDP grows slightly faster than its current rate.
Fun chart from the FT. Come for the log scale, stay for the, um, wide range of scenarios being modelled.
'AI could end scarcity, end humanity - or boost trend growth by 0.2 percentage points'
🔗: www.ft.com/content/60df...
When Danielle Smith claimed 80% of federally picked judges had donated to Liberals, that was way higher than any figure I'd researched.
I dug into it. Could confidently write here:
"It is not true. The single media source Smith got that fact from has since corrected it."
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Ooooooof this from Hellebuyck is not landing well with Winnipeg Jets fans though.
(Especially as fellow Jet, Kyle Connor, was among the five US players who did not go to the White House with the rest of the team.)
Jets Reddit reaction is a combination of disgust and a sense of betrayal.
Fascinating! (Although I don't think I quite understand what's going on in the third one.)
Winnipeggers definitely know how great he is. 🙂
Still feels weird for him to be on the opposing team.
As the official Jets account just posted on TikTok: "Congrats, Helle! 🥇 😭"
Watching the game at Bowness Pub in Calgary and every time the US goalie makes yet another amazing save a dude here yells at the top of his lungs, "Fuck you Hellebuyck, you magnificent bastard!" and as a lifelong Winnipeg Jets fan, man, I get it.
SCOOP: Alberta Health Services destroyed roughly half of the children's medication imported from Turkey, paying $718,000 to dispose of the hazardous waste.
www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alber...
Fun post about how Google *can* detect fake images generated by Google AI, but only if you know the obscure way to do it.
The mainstream Google tools, meanwhile, claim the image is genuine.
(TLDR: Within Gemini, upload an image & start your prompt with '@synthid' to use the little-known tool)
"Mr. Carney’s speech went beyond diagnosis, though. It also gestured toward a way out. The U.S. president left Greenland alone in part because Denmark and its allies put more troops there...
"The lesson: America might be pointing a gun at you, but it can be made to behave if you point a gun back."
Twitter's influence never lay in numbers, but in its capacity to shape what the chattering classes talked about. And now, "mainstream" pundits are arguing with people who will proudly wear the mantle of "racist" about policy. It has to have a corrosive effect.
Elon Musk last year: "Epstein tried to get me to go to his island and I REFUSED"
Musk to Epstein emails:
• “What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?”
• "I really want to hit the party scene"
• "Is there a good time to visit?
Story: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/u...
KINEW: "I'm all for protecting us from the threat of the Trump tariffs. But at the same time, I'm not going to put my hand in my pocket to check how much money I have before I say something about what happened to Mr. Pretti or Ms. Good."
Our analysis at @bellingcat.com on the killing of Alex Pretti breaks down the video evidence.
He never reached for his gun.
Agents sprayed/tackled him while his hands were up.
He was disarmed before he was shot.
The first shot came from an agent firing at him.
www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/01...
"Recent events have brought Trump’s governing style into sharper focus. Fascist best describes it, and reluctance to use the term has now become perverse," writes Jonathan Rauch in The Atlantic.
Gift article link:
Regarding the ongoing signature collection in Alberta for a referendum on separation, @piosmo.bsky.social writes in Le Monde:
"The MAGA ecosystem has seized on this political moment – the signature drive is scheduled to continue until early May – in an attempt to destabilize Canada."
So important. What they say is not the story. That is never the story. What happened is the story. Write what happened.
Videos verified by The New York Times show Alex Jeffrey Pretti, the man federal agents shot and killed in Minneapolis on Saturday, was holding a phone, not a gun, when the agents took him to the ground and shot him. In total, at least 10 shots appear to have been fired within five seconds.
Statement from Michael and Susan Pretti Parents of Alex Jeffrey Pretti “We are heartbroken but also very angry. Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not throw around the ‘hero’ term lightly. However, his last thought and act was to protect a woman. The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He had his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down, all while being pepper sprayed. Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you.
Kare 11 local news just read, in full, this statement from Michael and Susan Pretti, the parents of Alex Pretti.
"Please get the truth out about our son."
