How headlights got brighter, whiter, and more blinding after dark - Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/08/how-headlights-got-brighter-whiter-and-more-blinding-after-dark/

arstechnica.com

The blood donor clinic at the Blood Services in Ottawa was completely packed, which good news given the low blood levels available this summer. Nice to see Ottawans stepping up to the need, and many people there were first time donors from a blood drive by their company. It’s a challenge for me […]

[Apple Music link to Bryan Adams new song: 51st State] https://music.apple.com/ca/album/51st-state-single/6783056091

‘Our question is not on the referendum’: Forever Canadian founder pushes back against Danielle Smith’s claim flip.it/yHKmUX

‘Our question is not on the referendum’: Forever Canadian founder pushes back against Danielle Smith’s claim

What if your government spent millions of dollars on a citizen-initiated referendum that didn’t offer any questions initiated by Alberta citizens?

flip.it

If you run a mastodon instance and require a reason for joining when someone signs up, be on the lookout for signups that are copying the bio of (random?) existing accounts and using that as the reason for joining. I am seeing several per day attempting that.

My 315th FREE web app! MP4ever — Convert WebM, MKV, MOV, AVI, HEIC, and more into H.264 MP4 — the format every editor, platform accepts. Free alternative to CloudConvert or HandBrake. https://arcade.pirillo.com/mp4ever.html

MP4ever: Any video file, repackaged as the universal MP4

Convert WebM, MKV, MOV, AVI, HEIC, HEIC Live Photos, animated WebP, GIF, and more into H.264 MP4 — the format every editor, platform, and phone accepts. Files never leave your browser. Free alternative to CloudConvert and HandBrake.

arcade.pirillo.com

“Juneteenth has never been a celebration of victory, or an acceptance of the way things are. Instead, it's a celebration of progress. It's an affirmation that despite the most painful parts of our history, things do get better. America can change.” - Barack […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

It’s good to be reminded of why I stay alive: to play it cool and dig all jive. Thanks, Langston Hughes. #poetry #LangstonHughes

This is such sad news Buffy and Ted Lasso star Anthony Head dies at 72 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Anthony Head: Buffy and Ted Lasso actor dies at 72

The 72-year-old British actor also had roles in shows including Merlin and Little Britain.

bbc.co.uk

#AI #AIHustle #AIBubble #LLMs #TechBros #Anthropic

Staggering levels of corruption. They’re using every possible lever of power to enrich themselves and their friends and families. And the “party of fiscal responsibility” simply doesn’t care.

It occurs to me that Muppets are the anti-AI. AI personas look real, but have no soul. And, despite being made of complex technology, they generate uncanny valley reactions, when they’re visual and not just chatbots. Whereas Muppets look fake, but they have all the soul. They’re made of simple […]

Ahhh 🥰 Cycling in Paris is ok. But Netherlands 🇳🇱 is another level

Unicef Report on Child Happiness Index ranks #Canada 22nd. 1. Netherlands 2. Denmark 3. France 4. Portugal 5. Switzerland https://www.unicef.org/innocenti/reports/report-card-20

Since 2011 when CO2 concentration started causing significant global warming, large amounts of Sargassum has become a recurrent economic problem in the Caribbean Sea, in the Gulf of Mexico and tropical Atlantic. Harvesting the algae and pyrolyzing it into biochar can help us to reduce the […]

RE: https://kolektiva.social/@MHowell/116695233151696804 This is not superficial, I mean this sincerely. This is the most effective kind of protest. Project the core message onto an asset that clearly illustrates how the rich get a different kind of treatment. Don’t let them show their faces […]

There are two rarer pics from Tianamen Square showing how nothing happened OTD in 1989.

OTD in 1996, as per the Budapest memo guaranteeing their territorial integrity, Ukraine handed their final nuclear warhead to Russia. They also gave the entire command firing chain, delivery vehicles heavy bombers (Tu-22) & 1068 Kh-55 cruise missiles. Which have been fired at Ukraine in this war

Sci-fi author William Gibson coined the term "cyberdeck" in his 1984 novel, "Neuromancer," and people began building their own small computers when the Raspberry Pi was launched in the 2010s. Now, says @Techcrunch's Amanda Silberling, "these communities have exploded in popularity thanks to […]

I'm old enough to remember in 1998 when First Lady Hillary Clinton referred to a "vast right-wing conspiracy" and was roundly mocked by all the VSPs in Washington. Well, guess what? It was real then, and it's even bigger and more powerful now.

Meet the Shadowy Global Network of Right-Wing Think Tanks

For decades, the think tanks associated with the little-known Atlas Network have pushed to criminalize climate protest around the world.

newrepublic.com

Fedizens! Please send me your favourite meme which shows something important about the #Fediverse I'll go first:

#WWDC26 is next week, also known as Summer Stevemas, at Apple’s headquarters in California. There’s always a tagline in the announcement that obliquely references something being announced at the keynote on the first day, and this year the tagline is “All […] [Original post on ottawa.place]

RE: https://ottawa.place/@dan613/116642150826897620 I got my shoes!! It wasn’t a scam after all. The site is still pretty sketchy, though.

Dan Neuman 🇨🇦@dan613.ottawa.place.ap.brid.gy · 2mo ago

I think I've been scammed again. This time it was for shoes with a unique closure. But the shipping company says they haven't received the goods after two weeks. After some investigation, both the original site and the shipping company seem sketchy: * The web site is fairly new * The social […]

Homes with solar sell 20% faster and for 17% more, making it a profitable upgrade for sellers. The same will soon also be true for homes with EV charging stations too.

# Videogames If you are into Sims-like life simulators, maybe check out Paralife on Steam for PC and Mac. It's in early access, but the deal is that you don't pay for any future updates, while the price increases each time. So buying now gets you savings. I've been playing for a few hours so […]

I think I've been scammed again. This time it was for shoes with a unique closure. But the shipping company says they haven't received the goods after two weeks. After some investigation, both the original site and the shipping company seem sketchy: * The web site is fairly new * The social […]

A decade ago, analysts were calling Spain a cautionary tale. Too much solar, too fast! Today, Spain is rapidly on its way to having the cheapest power in Europe. Maybe this time, solar naysayers will learn... haha, jk, they'll just move the goalposts.

Spain just became one of Europe's cheapest power markets. Here is how.

How wind and solar quietly pushed gas off the margin, and the wholesale price followed.

janrosenow.substack.com