Good Morning.

… episode 7 "Legacy" in the series "Allegiance" ends with the magiatrate and the parties in an indigenous setting, using a Restorative Justice process, rather than going to court. I appreciate that they allowed us to see some elements of the process, and how one version of it could work.

I signed up for CBC's "Gem" streaming service - free for Canadians. The productions there are different, and good.

For a change from the usual cop dramas that are everywhere, I watched "Allegiance", which addresses themes of racism in the Canadian justice system, including unequal treatment of indigenous babies and moms.

I also enjoyed "Saint-Pierre", a French co-production detective drama, set on Ile Saint-Pierre, off NL.

And: "North of North" is back! Woohoo!

#buyCanadian #whatToWatch

Some voters alarmed by self-declaration requirement on mail-in ballots for Alberta referendum | CBC News

"The special ballot package she received says voters are required to declare they aren’t able to vote at an in-person polling station before or on election day before they fill out the mail-in ballots. It says the penalty for a false declaration could be a fine of up to $50,000 or imprisonment of up to two years, or both."

😳

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-referendum-self-declaration-concerns-9.7331954

We're moving into wet-feet season again ... time to get my Vessi waterproof shoes out.

I notice they have a nice sneaker model with a red maple leaf on it. In case you need new rain shoes ...

#buyCanadian
https://ca.vessi.com/products/womens-weekend-classic-canada

Aargh. On gitlab (link is up-thread).

"F-Droid / admin / Work items / #699

Interim Policy on Use of Generative AI.

Open  Issue created 2 hours ago by Hans-Christoph Steiner.

I propose we adopt this new Debian Policy as an interim policy while we figure out our own policy. This proposal is meant to encourage discussion in our project by alleviating the stress of things getting blocked by the lack of a policy. …"

🫢
https://floss.social/@IzzyOnDroid/117196494252092379
#fdroid #noAI

Whew! This is quite a diverse and fascinating digest of articles to browse!

Worth a bookmark for your next holiday or hospital stay or train ride, maybe.

Thanks, @clive https://saturation.social/@clive/117196207699499615

#via @estherschindler

A colleague messaged me:
"I am only in favour of AI that benefits mankind."

That's good to hear. Me too.

So, for me, AI is a hard NO until the entire value stream benefits humankind, including authors of stolen work, low-paid humans 'training' AI to know CSAM, poor folk breathing exhaust from gas-powered AI & life dying downstream in warmed waters.

For now, LLMs are harmful in too many ways. So my conscience leads me to eschew it, wherever I can. #noAI

(image source
https://c.im/@msbellows/117182690051992423 )

☝ "… a landmark ruling in France in 2019 found 'torment' in the workplace, linked to a number of executives, had created the culture at France Télécom in which 19 employees took their own lives, 12 attempted suicide, & eight suffered from serious depression, between 2006 & 2009. Jane Monckton-Smith, professor of public protection at the University of Gloucestershire, has said in the past that, if we included provoked suicides, domestic homicide statistics could be multiplied “5, 6 or 7 times”.

☝'… Brazen lying in public life is a tactic Lobaczewski recognised – he called it the “reversive blockade”. … “When you tell a lie convincingly & it’s such an absurd lie, most people’s automatic reaction is that they can’t comprehend a lie told on that scale, so they try to find the ‘golden mean’ between the statement & the reality. But that, Lobaczewski says, is the intention of the big lie. They know it sows confusion. … [some] will become inured to the new normal – that we just all lie now.”'

☝ … 'a 2019 paper in the Journal of Personality Disorders developed the idea that behaviours which don’t normally go together - ex., absolute confidence & total untruth – tend to go together in Dark Personalities. This is why these people “… often do a lot of damage before anyone catches them”.

… The idea of a “pathocracy”, a democracy of normal people taken over by psychopaths, was conceived by an obscure Polish psychologist, … who had lived under both the Nazis & then Soviet-era communists.'

☝ "… From this 6 years' research, Mitchell built a template of 20 attributes, in 4 clusters, of a high-functioning persistent predatory personality type.

1. a need for control; a grandiose sense of self; … vengefulness; refusal to compromise.

2. predatory or exploitative; sadistic & cruel; … no boundaries in sexual relationships …

3. a façade of normality; … chameleon-like; dishonest; devious & manipulative,

4. interior life: their emotions are acted. callous & devoid of empathy; … brazen."

"Mitchell’s interviews are remarkable. …
(… these weren’t victims, they were seasoned professionals) …

▪ “I constantly worry that he will ruin my career” (from an HR person);
▪ “I worry that they will … want to seek revenge” (from a social worker);
▪ “I'm pretty sure there are no lengths to which he would not go, to see that I am destroyed” (expert practitioner, charity sector).

… so extreme that you can’t imagine saying them socially because you would sound mad …"
https://climatejustice.social/@chu/117173529652927661

From release notes of LibreOffice 26.8:

”[It] contains no generative AI features. Documents are not transmitted to remote services for processing (…). This is a deliberate position.”

https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2026/08/26/libreoffice-26-8/

I work with folks in tech who, similarly, have faced these creepy and disrespectful so-called AI worker replacement schemes. The effect on morale & mental health of the (now disposable) human components in these new work processes is, predictably, nasty. (I foresee a lot of work for coaches & therapists once the bubble bursts).

The video report on Meta is here. (These transcript screenshots are excerpts from that Reuters reporter's video.)
https://techhub.social/@rayckeith/117162819503450786

#noAI #dystopia #mentalHealth

A warning to other countries:

"Over the weekend, the actual shape of what the United States demanded [in Canada trade talks] came into focus. And once you lay it all out in one place, you realize this was never a trade negotiation.

This was an annexation attempt with a cover page."

#never51stState
https://mstdn.ca/@lowies/117155895198584881
#cdnPoli #cdnPolitics #usPol #tariffs #bullying

I like to imagine these two capybara are whispering juicy secrets!

#alttext they stand waist-deep in a river, holding hands, heads touching. https://lile.cl/@capibarabot/117154126631735352

#TIL quean, noun.

A young woman, a girl; a daughter.

(archaic) A woman, now especially an impudent or disreputable woman; a prostitute.

Me: ah, impudent women have always been a 'threat', haven't they? Yeah, let's do that.

#cronePower 💃💪

Sometimws a mastodon user delivers the text for your next Postcard to the PM directly to you, fully formed ✔.

From @dcdeejay 👇 https://mastodon.online/@dcdeejay/117145985492440300

#Toronto Crafty Friends:

Toronto Crafts has moved - now in the West End, on Geary Avenue.

"a hands-on studio offering beginner-friendly workshops in woodworking, leatherworking, jewelry making and more. Learn real skills through expert instruction while working with authentic materials such as solid wood, genuine leather and sterling silver."

Enjoy!

Toronto Crafts | Woodworking, Leatherworking & Creative Workshops
https://www.torontocrafts.ca/