Comments for a sibilant intake of breath

Comment on Carney caving on Keystone by .

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 16:17:59 +0000

Environmental groups say there’s a reason why the federal government quietly released its latest climate report, which finds that average temperatures in Canada are set to go up by at least 3.5 C by the end of the century.

The report, which analyzes the impacts of climate change in Canada, was posted to a government website with no fanfare on Thursday evening ahead of the Labour Day long weekend, without ministerial availability to the media, a protocol that was in place when the government released its first report in 2019. The second edition concludes the rise in temperature will have devastating impacts for communities, from coast to coast to coast.

Page 15 of the report’s summary reads: “Warming temperatures have driven wide-ranging, interconnected, and sustained changes across Canada. The changes include more extreme heat, less extreme cold, longer growing seasons, longer fire seasons, earlier peak stream flow, shorter snow and ice cover seasons, thinning glaciers, thawing permafrost, warming oceans, and rising sea level. Human-caused warming is the only explanation for the collective changes observed.”

Since coming into power, “Prime Minister Carney’s government has dismantled much of Canada’s climate progress,” wrote Julia Levin, associate director of national climate at Environmental Defence, which is why it attempted to “bury its own report.”

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2026/09/04/news/ottawa-burying-climate-report-worsening-impacts

Comment on Warning labels for booze by .

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 12:53:11 +0000

Cancer Deaths Attributable to Alcohol Rose 58% Over the Last 33 Years (cnn.com)

https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/09/05/0529236/cancer-deaths-attributable-to-alcohol-rose-58-over-the-last-33-years

Comment on Rivals: Experiential education on nuclear weapon proliferation by .

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 12:52:19 +0000

Syrian reactor could have been used for nuclear weapons if completed, UN says

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/07/syrian-reactor-could-nuclear-weapons-if-completed-un

Comment on Another sting from our terrible leaders by .

Wed, 02 Sep 2026 16:20:01 +0000

Ford’s bike lane removal likely to make Toronto traffic worse, more dangerous: analysis

Cloe Logan

A clearer picture of Toronto’s cycling network, shaped by expert interviews and a Canada’s National Observer analysis of City of Toronto documents, suggests the Ford government’s move to rip bike lanes from major city streets could lead to more congestion and collisions.

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2026/09/01/news/fords-bike-lane-removal-likely-make-toronto-traffic-worse-more-dangerous-analysis

Comment on Ologies on invisibility by .

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 21:00:34 +0000

Simon Weckert creates Digital Camouflage shirt to avoid AI video surveillance

https://www.dezeen.com/2026/08/25/digital-camouflage-shirt-ai-video-surveillance-simon-weckert/

Designer Simon Weckert has created a colourful camouflage shirt that cannot be detected using AI video systems.

Developed in response to a pilot project to use artificial intelligence (AI) video surveillance at Berlin’s Kottbusser Tor, which starts this month, the shirt was designed to stop the user being recognised as a person.

Named Digital Camouflage, the shirt aims to confuse the AI-powered object-detection system by subverting what the system recognises as a person.

Comment on Open thread: the global nuclear arms race by .

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 20:43:13 +0000

“There is a risk that in their efforts to develop capabilities that threaten their adversaries’ space assets, one of the main players could wind up with a temporary incentive to strike first in a crisis—even if it would prefer not to strike at all. If Russia, for instance, places nuclear weapons in orbit, which it appears interested in doing, it might attempt to use those weapons to wipe out satellites to blind the United States at the outset of a conflict. China may similarly develop dangerous methods for destroying large numbers of satellites, including ground-launched “pop-up” boosters that could loft a nuclear warhead into space and detonate it before U.S. defenses could respond. Chinese military scientists have already published models of such a nuclear detonation. The blast would damage any unshielded satellites in line of sight and, as a 1962 U.S. test demonstrated, leave behind a belt of radiation that would continue killing satellites for months. Because this kind of mass attack in wartime would very likely degrade U.S. nuclear command-and-control systems, Washington would have to take seriously the prospect that such a strike in space could be the precursor to a nuclear strike on Earth. The mere possibility of losing its critical space assets in a surprise attack could push the United States to use its forces early or to delegate launch authority in ways that raise the risk of an accident, to avoid the devastating consequences.”

Comment on Open thread: the global nuclear arms race by .

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 20:35:52 +0000

The United States, Russia, and China may not yet be in an arms race, but they are gearing up for one. Washington is building a new intercontinental ballistic missile, strategic bomber, and ballistic missile submarine. Russia is developing a heavy ICBM and a new warhead while planning upgrades to its submarines and bombers. China has dug more than 300 new missile silos and fielded air-launched ballistic missiles, and it is developing a new generation of submarines and a stealth bomber. All three countries are making decisions about modernizing their nuclear weapons programs that will bear fruit in the decades to come—a notable reversal after decades in which the United States and Russia dismantled thousands of nuclear weapons and China seemed content maintaining a minimal deterrent.

…

Golden Dome aims to shield the entire United States from all missile threats launched from anywhere, including from Russia and China. This aspiration will shape the brewing arms competition more than anything else. Whether or not the so-called dome ever materializes, the decision to pursue this defensive buildup has likely already compelled Russian and Chinese planners to rethink their countries’ nuclear force structure. Given the long timelines of weapons development, they cannot risk doing otherwise. Both Moscow and Beijing will now plan for larger offensive forces—more missiles, more warheads per missile, more decoys, and more exotic delivery systems designed to fly under or around space-based interceptors—as well as weapons to attack the interceptors and sensors themselves. This will accelerate an arms race as each side fears losing its ability to retaliate, a fundamental requirement of nuclear stability. If the United States is to head off this dangerous cycle now, it needs to relearn a lesson that helped stabilize the U.S.-Soviet competition in the 1960s: arms control works only when countries agree to place limits on their defenses.

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/powder-keg-outer-space

Comment on Another sting from our terrible leaders by .

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 16:51:24 +0000

Doug Ford is hiring contractors to remove Toronto’s major bike lanes, as advocates warn of bidding ‘minefield’

The province is a step closer to tearing out bike lanes on Toronto’s busiest streets after a victory at the Appeal Court earlier this month.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/ford-government-begins-process-of-removing-bloor-yonge-and-university-bike-lanes/article_3a71cb50-0623-42cf-9119-0c924cfc4768.html

Comment on Another sting from our terrible leaders by .

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 15:53:34 +0000

Ford government to begin ripping out, reconfiguring Toronto bike lanes following court of appeal ruling

Vehicle lanes on sections of Bloor Street W. to be ‘immediately’ restored, province says

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ford-government-toronto-bike-lanes-9.7327751

Comment on Some large language model pathologies by .

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 14:59:03 +0000

Computer systems that use generative AI may produce output that looks very convincing, but the results may not be correct. Errors may not be apparent and information that is presented as factual may not be. Techniques that humans use to detect mistaken or deceitful content may not apply to content created by generative AI. A generative AI system can produce subtly or even completely mistaken results without exhibiting any signs of deceit, carelessness, inexperience, or any other indications that humans might show.

Results produced by generative AI systems should be carefully checked before use, even if they seem convincing. AI systems may invent results, sources, and even authors or researchers to better satisfy your query, or they may skew, bias or interpret results in ways that may better fit your request or expectations.

…

Generative AI systems can be used to create fictional or fraudulent content that looks genuine. The result is easily created, highly convincing misinformation:

Digital forgeries can now be created by anyone and no longer require expertise.

Photos and videos can be created of people who do not exist or real people doing things they never did.

Written and spoken text can be created that can match anyone, living or dead, and have that person saying anything.

As AI-powered computer systems can create false content that is difficult to distinguish from the real thing, it’s easier to commit fraud, and humans may no longer be able to distinguish between content fabricated by computers and content created by humans. To protect yourself from misinformation:

Use secure trusted systems and sources.

Use appropriate in-person human systems to verify claims, identities and validate transactions.

Beware of unverified internet-sourced information.

https://security.utoronto.ca/governance/guidelines/use-ai-intelligently/

Comment on Trump ending the postwar security order by .

Sun, 30 Aug 2026 16:52:06 +0000

“In that world of constrained global trade, we wouldn’t expect some apocalyptic total economic collapse. But some goods that are commonly available – out-of-season or out-of-climate fruit, for instance – might mostly vanish from store shelves. Goods in advanced economies would become more expensive and living standards would decline, as wealthy countries would – on the margin – have to ‘on-shore’ low value-added industries which would pay worse wages, while at the same time the products themselves (imported or domestically made) got more expensive. Autarky – the effort to make most or all of a country’s needed goods domestically – is and always will be a losing economic strategy, because it forgoes comparative advantage. But a marked increase in the cost of trade, a reduction in the availability of imported goods will push wealthy countries in that direction and their economic growth will slow as a result.

What is inconvenient for rich countries, however, will arrive as catastrophe to poor countries who, as noted above, will find their opportunities for development curtailed and their access to affordable necessities limited.”

Comment on Trump ending the postwar security order by .

Sun, 30 Aug 2026 16:48:47 +0000

“The United States is retrenching and in some cases is even becoming actively hostile to the global international order. Consequently, every other country in the world must confront the possibility of a future in which the United States Navy does not guarantee the global maritime system. In the period from 1914 to 1945, as Great Britain increasingly found that it lacks the economic resources to maintain its role as the global guarantor of that system, the United States was both ready and willing to act, first as a partner (from 1918 to 1945) and eventually as the primary guarantor. There was a country to pass the baton to.

What the above analysis is meant, in part, to show is that there is no country to pass the baton to now, nor does one appear likely to emerge soon. The PLAN is, as noted, likely many years away from being able to pick of the mantle, but more to the point it is not clear that the PRC is interested in doing so. The PRC’s policy in its nearer seas has not been ‘a rising tide lifts all boats,’ but a mix of dominance politics and beggar-thy-neighbor revanchism. When disaster strikes coastlines, the United States Navy has, historically, been a key player in humanitarian relief efforts, the PLAN much less so. When in 2013 a major typhoon hit the Philippines, the United States sent $37m in disaster relief and a humanitarian relief force that included numerous ships including a complete carrier-strike group. Those fleet carriers are useful for projecting firepower ashore, but they’re also really useful for delivering humanitarian aid in conditions where ports, roads and railroads may be inoperative. By comparison, the PRC sent $200,000 and one hospital ship.”