Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him
@ppival.bsky.social
YYC, cyclist, mostly road but some gravel and CX too. Librarian at UCalgary. Husband of a knitter. Father of 2 + 2 dogs. Feeling kinda old these days.
Wow! How an Underscore Sent an Innocent Man to Jail ablawg.ca/2026/08/04/h...
How an Underscore Sent an Innocent Man to Jail
By: Gideon Christian Decisions commented on: R v Klayme, 2024 NSPC 4 (CanLII) and R v Klayme, 2026 NSCA 59 (CanLII) PDF Version: How an Underscore Sent an Innocent Man to Jail It all began when a m…
ablawg.ca
University of Calgary Medical study provides new insights on sepsis. Researchers develop innovative method to analyze immune cell response during severe infection. ucalgary.ca/news/sepsis-... #UCalgary #AbSci #science #medicine #SciChat
Medical study provides new insights on sepsis
Researchers develop innovative method to analyze immune cell response during severe infection
ucalgary.ca
Seeing lots of COVID minimizing / memory-holing in the U.S. lately. A reminder of what it was like at its worst here in Alberta: "The deadliest week came right around Christmas [2020]. From Dec. 21 to 27, the novel coronavirus was claiming 24 lives per day across the province. One death per hour."
What it’s like to die from COVID — and how it feels for those left behind
Marlene Ducommun realized she was going to die and was angry for about 15 minutes. She’s one of nearly 2,000 Albertans who lost their lives to the disease in the past year.
newsinteractives.cbc.ca
Federal lawsuit accuses four major publishers of extorting article processing charges – Retraction Watch retractionwatch.com/2026/07/31/f...
My brother, Aaron Edward Eaton, is missing. If you can, please share the missing person announcement. If you have any information, please contact the RCMP at 403-406-2300
A landmark AI copyright ruling from India: training ChatGPT on news articles is prima facie fair dealing. Foundation for the decision? Canada's CCH Supreme Court case and its emphasis on user rights. My post on the ruling and what it means for Canadian AI policy. www.michaelgeist.ca/2026/07/from...
From CCH to ChatGPT: How Canadian Copyright Law Played the Key Role in Deciding a Leading AI Training Data Case in India - Michael Geist
The Delhi High Court has released what may be one of the most consequential copyright decisions yet on artificial intelligence, ruling in ANI Media Pvt. Ltd. v. OpenAI that OpenAI’s use of copyrighted...
michaelgeist.ca
"Yet with traffic deaths climbing in both cities, the province didn’t build a portal for people to report dangerous intersections or reckless driving. It built one for bike lanes." Via @cailynn.bsky.social: www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...
Opinion: Alberta’s bike lanes aren’t a problem to be solved – they’re how people get around
I bike most days in Calgary, often with my two children
theglobeandmail.com
Alberta electricity industry expects tripling of power prices from data centres www.nationalobserver.com/2026/07/20/a... Waiting to hear back from my original installer on options for adding additional solar panels...
Alberta electricity industry expects tripling of power prices from data centres
In Capital Power's latest earnings call, the company's CEO, Avik Dey, told analysts that he couldn't rule out prices of "$80 or $90" per megawatt hour of electricity by early 2028. By 2029, rival…
nationalobserver.com
Former Smith advisers awarded $300,000 referendum contract by Alberta government www.nationalobserver.com/2026/07/21/n... #ABPolitics #Grifting
Former Smith advisers awarded $300,000 referendum contract by Alberta government
The contract was for the creation of a website, albertareferendum2026.ca, which belongs to the Government of Alberta and provides information on the province's upcoming referendum.
nationalobserver.com
I just ordered a mail-in ballot. Took all of 1 minute to do so. #VoteCanadian
Jared Wesley@jaredwesley.ca · 2w agoGiven that long waits prompt would-be voters to leave the lines (that's part of the UCP's strategy for urban areas), conventional get-out-the-vote strategies fall short if they don't encourage people to use advance polls and mail-in ballots. +
hey AB peeps - you can request a mail in ballot (no special reason needed) from Elections Alberta: www.elections.ab.ca/resources/me...
Special Ballot Requests Now Open for October 19 Referendum - Elections Alberta
EDMONTON, AB – Online applications to Vote by Mail are now open for the October 19, 2026, Referendum. Vote by Mail, also known as a Special Ballot, is available to all eligible Alberta electors. Elec...
elections.ab.ca
21 years ago today, Canada became the 4th country in the world, and 1st outside of Europe, to legalize same-sex marriage. The sky didn’t fall. Hell didn’t break loose. Only Canada’s capacity for love and acceptance increased. Now over 30+ countries have followed Canada’s lead.
These Maine librarians are helping patrons resist AI and Big Tech www.bangordailynews.com/2026/07/02/m... “Generative AI doesn’t generate information,” Cyrus said. “It generates words.”
These Maine librarians are helping patrons resist AI and Big Tech
Despite breathless reporting on how AI is going to change the world, Hannah Cyrus, a Bangor librarian, said that, in her experience, most library patrons aren’t finding it helpful.
bangordailynews.com
"Bottom line, we're likely to see oilsands emissions continue to rise over the next five, 10, 15, 20 years...Nothing that's been announced ... suggests that there's a real attempt to constrain oilsands emissions and see them reduce over time." www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Oilsands emissions on track to outpace reductions from Pathways project: economist | CBC News
Increased oilsands production from a new pipeline to the West Coast would lead to an average of 20 megatonnes in new emissions per year, the Canadian Climate Institute projects.
cbc.ca
Thinking about how most of the country is covered in wildfire smoke, much of Eastern Canada is under a heat dome, Toronto has the worst air quality in the world this morning, and federal and provincial politicians want to spew out more carbon for the sake of a few fossil fuel and AI companies.
Wow, removing 150 tonnes of CO₂ per year out of thin air! That's a time machine that takes a year to bring us back to an atmosphere we had 0.1 second ago (i.e., less time than it took to read this post).
Ucaneo opens Germany's largest direct air capture plant
Berlin start-up Ucaneo has opened Germany's largest direct air capture plant — 150 tonnes of CO₂ a year, filtered with electricity. Why it matters for Power-to-X.
power-to-x.swiss
Great summary in The Hub of our newly launched initiative: the Western Transmission Catalysts! thehub.ca/2026/07/14/t...
The missing link in Canada’s electrification push
Why Western Canada is betting on interprovincial power lines—and an Indigenous-led model to build them
thehub.ca
Not actually very surprising, but TIL moorfires smell different than forest fires. #Manchester
UCP referendum questions on immigration are illogical, deceptively worded and tainted by racism - Alberta Politics albertapolitics.ca/2026/07/ucp-...
UCP referendum questions on immigration are illogical, deceptively worded and tainted by racism - Alberta Politics
The ballot questions on immigration aim to create conditions that would allow human rights violations and intrusions into federal jurisdiction Let’s take a look today at some of the “referendum…
albertapolitics.ca
Dang, apparently this is an unauthorized copy of the Windows version, with no affiliation with the developer. Guess I won't install it on my new machine. osxdaily.com/2026/05/05/n...
Notepad++ for Mac is Here as a Free Download (Update: Unauthorized Clone) - OS X Daily
Update: Apparently NotePad++ for Mac is unofficial and not associated with the Windows version or developer. According to a blog post by the Windows developer Don Ho, the Mac release has “nothing to d...
osxdaily.com
Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him@ppival.bsky.social · 3mo agoBeloved Windows text editor Notepad++ now on Mac boingboing.net/2026/04/28/b... I've been happy with Smultron, but I appreciate Notepad++ so much on Windows that I'll give it a go on macOS, too! #OpenSource
Castle Map — Explore 2,400 Castles, Fortresses & Palaces Worldwide thecastlemap.com #GIS
Castle Map — Explore 2,400 Castles, Fortresses & Palaces Worldwide
A free interactive map of 2,400 great castles, fortresses and palaces across 131 countries — each pinned with its photo, founding century and story.
thecastlemap.com
See also: pluginsolarpower.ca
Plug-In Solar for Canada
Over 5 million European households cut their power bill with a balcony solar kit, plug it into a wall outlet. Canada hasn’t legalized it yet. We’re working to change that, province by province and fed...
pluginsolarpower.ca
Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦@shastingssimon.bsky.social · 4w agoReally interesting approach to looking at the regulation preventing plug in solar - compare the barriers to level of regulation for gas and diesel generators cleanenergy.org/resource/plu...
Puffer 2-min inflatable tent blends A-frame and tunnel styles I like it!
2-minute tent throws some curvy air arches into classic A-frame design
Part A-frame and part tunnel tent, the all-new Puffer tent is designed to seamlessly blend convenience, style and comfort into a breezy package that carries easily into the great outdoors. The…
newatlas.com
New blog post: Saying goodbye to my Meta Ray-Bans – The Distant Librarian distlib.pival.me/saying-goodb... #distlib #Meta #privacy #wearables
Saying goodbye to my Meta Ray-Bans – The Distant Librarian
The Distant Librarian
distlib.pival.me
Someone's got some 'splainin' to do!: 96,477 "private" chats went public in 2026 www.digitaldigging.org/p/96477-priv... Nothing was hacked to make that page. Someone clicked share meaning to hand a link to one person and made a public document instead. The leak isn't in the server. It's in the word
96,477 "private" chats went public in 2026
It is not just ChatGPT, but also Claude, Gemini, Grok, Copilot and DeepSeek
digitaldigging.org
How to opt out of Meta using your Instagram posts to make AI images boingboing.net/2026/07/09/h...
How to opt out of Meta using your Instagram posts to make AI images
The images posted by anyone with a public Instagram account are fair game for Muse to use.
boingboing.net
Farmers Finally Get a John Deere Right to Repair Agreement That Doesn’t Screw Them Over ino.to/ngMcrQi Some good news!
Farmers Finally Get a John Deere Right to Repair Agreement That Doesn’t Screw Them Over
The FTC's settlement with John Deere actually has teeth, unlike previous settlements that largely maintained the status quo.
ino.to
If you build it: Six world-changing innovations with #UCalgary origin stories www.ucalgary.ca/news/if-you-...
If you build it: Six world-changing innovations with UCalgary origin stories
Sixty years of major inventions in energy, health care and technology
ucalgary.ca
