Martin Monkman 🇨🇦
@monkmanmh.bsky.social
#datascience (or is it #statistics?): all day, every day, in any context. #rstats #tidyverse #dataviz #ISO8601 #yyj #canada RT != endorsement martinmonkman.com
Google is bad. On purpose.
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C)@doctorow.pluralistic.net · 9h agoWhen Google's users searched for airlines' toll-free phone numbers, Google directed them to phones that rang in the scammers' boiler room, where they were tricked into giving up their passport info and credit card numbers to boiler-room thieves: www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-ne... 20/
For all the recent buzz about the fiction of @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social (2 books on Blackwell's bestseller list including the no.1 "Everything Will Swallow You"), don't neglect the non-fiction "21st Century Yokel", "Notebook", and the hare-infused "Ring the Hill". Plenty of more at www.tom-cox.com
Tom Cox@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 2d agoTHREAD/ORIGINAL ART GIVEAWAY This hare linoprint is by my mum, Jo. I'll be sending an original of this to one randomly chosen person who reposts this link to my recently updated website & pops a reply below. www.tom-cox.com The offer is open worldwide. I also have some more art to give away...
Running out of body bags, using forklifts to transfer corpses into makeshift morgues, a mortician conducting 200 funerals in a month when he usually does 30, crematories running at double capacity… And these senators just want to memory-hole it all www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/n...
‘We Ran Out of Space’: Bodies Pile Up as N.Y. Struggles to Bury Its Dead (Gift Article)
The coronavirus crisis is overwhelming New York’s system for burying the dead.
nytimes.com
I am probably the only person in Toronto who is seriously considering the artistic merit of the blobs of paint that the city uses to cover graffiti. But ... like ... c'mon! Look at what's happening on the side of Keele Station!
From the perspective of a cynical AI investor, the question isn't, "Can AI do your job?" The question is, "Can an AI salesman convince your boss that an AI can do your job?" 23/
TIL I learned about Bar Nunn, WY, a suburb of Casper which: a) Is named for a livestock brand, itself a pun on a family name b) takes its urban form from the fact that it used to be an airport and the neighborhoods were laid out along the runways. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_Nun...
Someone said to me, "I'm sorry but I got your book from a library." Nobody should ever apologise for that. You read my book! That's brilliant! I grew up hanging out in libraries and the idea of a world without them fills me with dread. Without libraries, authors, like readers, will only suffer.
Yes, all of this. Use your library! It's an unmitigated good in the world!
Tom Cox@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 2w agoSomeone said to me, "I'm sorry but I got your book from a library." Nobody should ever apologise for that. You read my book! That's brilliant! I grew up hanging out in libraries and the idea of a world without them fills me with dread. Without libraries, authors, like readers, will only suffer.
One would hope that this doesn't need saying, but apparently it needs saying (over and over): This is not isolated to whatever city the latest editorial comes from (today Boston, tomorrow Toronto, next week Victoria). Car-centric culture is pervasive and pernicious.
Gravel Influencer@gravelinfluencer.bsky.social · 2w agoThis is peak both sides bullshit, because bike lane opponents don't care about "creating safe streets for everyone." They care about parking and being able to speed. And they draw false equivalences between drivers and bikers that car-brained pundits like Joan Venocchi lap up eagerly. Such garbage.
Could Excel be conscious? We surveyed more than Jan 1 1900 people to find out.
I had replied to the below: Paper maps are great. Never run out of juice, let you see the close-up detail and the big picture at the same time (because they're three feet wide, unlike your phone), and the more you use them the more you learn your way around without them, unlike obeying a machine.
Michael D. Green, PhD@michaeldgreen.phd · 4w agoCan’t lie, the fact that y’all were driving with PAPER maps is insane. Even worse, you had to ask random strangers for directions??
Placed my pre-order... ...and have to ask will there be an ebook version? I would happily pay for one of those, too. @breakthroughbook.bsky.social
Tom Cox@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 4w agoBIG NEWS: I have a new short story collection coming out in September & I'm doing it a different way, publishing it in collaboration with the new collective @breakthroughbook.bsky.social. You can read about it - & assist with printing costs by ordering a copy - here: www.tom-cox.com/my-next-book...
The Conoid Cushion lounge chair (1976) designed by George Nakashima and produced by Nakashima Studio germanpostwarmodern.tumblr.com/post/8216688...
The best date format is yyyy/mm/dd & we should all get with the program: - automatically puts itself in chronological order in an alphabetical list - useful to know vaguely when we're talking about first rather than know exactly what day of the month something happened before I know which century
Please do as he asks (both here and in the alt text). With enough of us acting in concert, a critical mass will be achieved and @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social can spend less time on social media and more time writing the things we want to read.
Tom Cox@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · last mo.I'd appreciate if you read the alt text on this. Thank you. www.tom-cox.com
Me reading a poem from Everything Will Swallow You just now, with added Jim (who is a big fan of the oral storytelling tradition and can be relied upon to turn up from wherever he’s been hanging out any time I read aloud).
This natural experiment started in 1992 when three shipping containers lost about 30,000 rubber ducks in the middle of the ocean. Over the years the ducks were sighted across the globe allowing scientists to better understand ocean currents. Source: buff.ly/2t5VPuk
a very bluesky thing is having books you've been meaning to finish reading, and then the authors keep showing up in your notifications 😂
I've taken the paywall off this piece I wrote about the wonderful art my mum and dad have been making in their 60s and 70s, which is also about the general (underacknowledged) concept of late-blooming creativity. I hope a few of you might find a moment to read it. www.tom-cox.com/the-magic-ro...
THE MAGIC ROOM
Subscribe now This is a free post, but if you'd like to support my writing with a subscription, you can do so here and get access to everything I post, including this week's upcoming paying-subsc...
tom-cox.com
Did you know? There are Red Chairs placed in all National Parks from coast to coast to coast in #Canada, this website shows you their locations. Enjoy the breathtaking beauty of our country on Canada Day. 🇨🇦🍁 🌲 parks.canada.ca/voyage-trave...
Parks Canada red chairs
Find Parks Canada red chair locations placed in peaceful and breathtaking spots across Canada.
parks.canada.ca
If vehicles keep swelling, cities “could lose between 8.5-14% of their on-street parking capacity by 2040. London and Berlin alone are each projected to shed around 100K spaces…in dense cities, it’s a major issue worldwide.” #Carspreading pushes out more than parking spots. Tax cars by the inch.
Researchers Want To Tax Cars By The Inch To Stop Carspreading | Carscoops
Researchers argue that stopping vehicle growth could save lives, space, and billions in energy costs
carscoops.com
Love this story following a Vancouver server for the day as she works a World Cup shift. She clocks nearly 16 km and her heart rate never goes under 80 bpm. She even chases down some attempted dine and dashers www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...
A day in the life of a Vancouver server on World Cup game day
For 12 gruelling hours, The Globe shadowed Kaylee Banks, tracking her heart rate and step count as she worked through a marathon shift
theglobeandmail.com
Maximum temperature anomalies over the UK for the last two days. If you're wondering whether we need a new colour scale... you're not wrong. These anomaly maps are relative to the 1991-2020 average. (Based on HadUK-Grid dataset and produced by the Met Office National Climate Information Centre)
You've, tragically, hipped your last
Stephen Wild@stephenjwild.bsky.social · last mo.You've found a pearl in your jam
