A while back on Reddit I saw a post asking about this stuff. Companies don’t need to “listen” anymore, they have much more sophisticated options now. This example will use 3 people: A (wife) B (husband) and C (wife’s old friend from school).

The question: A goes to the store without B, and runs into C, who proceeds to tell A about this cool gaming chair he just got. After the conversation, A puts the interaction aside and never mentions it to B. B later gets ads for the gaming chair. If B never had any interaction whatsoever about the chair, and A never even talked about it to B, how does B get the ads?

The answer: A goes to the store, and her phone knows this through location data. The algorithm knows A is at the store, and now picks up that C is also at the same store. The algo then finds a connection through social media that A and C know each other, and maybe even knows spending habits and sees A and C buy similar things. The odds are good that A and C will interact at the store.

C has been searching about this gaming chair for months, has just recently bought it, and talks about it constantly on socials. Odds are good that if A and C interact, C will talk about the chair.

A has no interest in gaming or tech, but B does. The algo knows A and B are married, and B would be interested in the chair C just bought. There is now a vector to send ads from the interaction of A and C directly to B, even though A never mentioned anything about the chair to B, and B has never even met C.

Nothing is free. If you don’t pay for the product, you are the product.

Privacy (different from anonymity) has become more and more important to me, and Google had access to nearly every part of my life in one way or another. I’ve cut out Musk, Zuck and Bezos, and I’m now nearly completely Google free as well.

I’ve often heard “why do I care if Google reads my emails? I’ve got nothing to hide”. 2 great answers:

1. Unlock your phone and give it to me for an hour. Just because you have nothing to hide doesn’t mean you don’t want privacy. Google does exactly that.

2. Speaking of privacy, why bother closing the stall door in a public washroom? You’re not doing anything wrong in there.

Bill Nye: “Everyone you’ll ever meet knows something you don’t”

Charlie Angus the other day: “Donald Trump, I’m going to say this once—and I might never say it again—I want to thank you. I want to thank you for bringing Canada together.”

“It took a malignant narcissistic slug like you to make us put aside all our differences—all our regional fights, all our concerns with one another—and realize we actually had to stand up for something better: standing up for the rule of law, for democracy, for decency.”

Angus went on to hit out at Trump and his “incel gang” who are terrified of diversity, equity and inclusion, adding, “Your DEI nightmare? Well, we are your DEI nightmare, Donald. Canada will always be a country of diversity. We will always be a country of equity. We will always be a country of inclusion. And we will defend the rule of law.”

Edit: Source

Yep, and there’s no way Musk, Trump, and Putin aren’t trying to rig that vote. A Papal blessing would go a long way to speeding up their march.

For now. Conservatives have been inching further right for decades and if the US is any indication, they’re gonna start speeding up. Especially if they win this one.

I’m sure there are a lot of other people who are thinking the same thing. This is why progression takes so long.

If you and the others like you vote, you may not change anything, true. However, you may increase the numbers enough to turn the tide in the next election. All votes matter. It’d be interesting to see the results if the 40% of Canadians who didn’t vote last election do this time, or did last time.

There are people who strive to make you believe your vote doesn’t matter. Sounds like they were successful.

Same. I went around 3pm and they said it’s been like that since they opened at 9. Great to see.

He got the highest marks!

Trudeau’s Liberals increased defense funding from Harper’s Conservative gov’t and Carney’s Liberals just bought a $6bil state-of-the-art early warning radar defense system from Australia. Seems the Libs take defense more seriously than the Cons.

I’m sure Canada would just become a territory and wouldn’t have voting rights.