Past issues Subscribe

May 21 2023

BQ’s boss. Smith fear. DarkBERT debuts.

May 21, 2023
David Akin's Roundup
Clippings of #cdnpoli, #media, and #tech content aimed at those with an interest in Canadian politics and policy. And sometimes Canadian postage stamps.
Canada

Yves Giroux said his team’s conclusions were never questioned by Steven Guilbeault's own department until Guilbeault criticized the report. [National Post]
Le doyen du Bloc Québécois, Louis Plamondon, croit qu’Yves-François Blanchet a «littéralement sauvé le parti» en 2019, alors que le parti vivait des heures sombres et n’avait plus d’argent. [Journal de Montreal]
People's Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier is running in the by-election in the riding of Portage-Lisgar in southern Manitoba. He opened his campaign by declaring he would introduce legislation restricting abortion access rights. This is a big change for Bernier and the PPC who, by and large, have stayed away from social conservative issues and preferred more libertarian stances on everything from abortion to same-sex marriage to medically-assisted dying. No longer apparently. This link takes you to the text of a speech Bernier apparently gave that was published by the PPC. I was not present for the speech and cannot verify that these were the words he actually spoke. But this is a PPC document. - DA [People's Party of Canada]
From the provinces
‘Everyone’s afraid of Danielle’: UCP canvassers recruited at Take Back Alberta events
New audio recordings from a Take Back Alberta event reveal what United Conservative Party canvassers are hearing at the door, and the steps being taken to get the party re-elected. [Global]
Take Back Alberta bringing Jordan Peterson and Tea Party politics to Alberta
A controversial right-wing media personality with a huge online following will soon be entering the election fray. Toronto psychologist Jordan Peterson is making three speaking tour stops in Alberta next week and will almost certainly provide fodder for local conservative media columnists to chew on. [Daveberta]
The forecast is also calling for thunderstorms for both Saturday and Sunday, and BC Wildfire says crews are on the watch for dry lightning. [Global]
Click to donate $3 a month to support this newsletter!
Elsewhere
G7 countries say they will lessen dependence on China
The G7 nations have declared their intentions to decrease their dependencies on China, but their leaders say they don't plan to part ways with the world's second largest economy. [Global]

President Zelensky's appearance has dominated the meeting - but leaders also take aim at China. [BBC]
The Ukrainian leader met with President Biden, who promised a $375 million tranche of military assistance on the last day of the Group of Seven gathering. [WaPo]
Italy’s far-right Premier Giorgia Meloni on Sunday rejected criticism from her Canadian counterpart at the G7 Summit about her government’s stance on LGBTQ+ rights. [AP]
Click and donate $5 a month to support this newsletter!
Media
The findings in two new reports raise fresh concerns over how artificial intelligence may transform the misinformation landscape online. [NYT]

With Musk at the helm, here are four facts about how adult Twitter users in the United States are using the site. [Pew]
Tech
Stunning 3D images of Titanic give unprecedented glimpse of doomed ship
Astonishing 3D images show what the RMS Titanic would look like resting on the ocean floor if the water around it were removed. [Global]

The temperature analysis schema was defined in the late 1970s by James Hansen and the complete analysis and method are documented in Hansen and Lebedeff (1987). To put it simply [this] is a method of global temperature change that is used for comparison with one-dimensional global climate models. [TomazTsql]
Recent research has suggested that there are clear differences in the language used in the Dark Web compared to that of the Surface Web. As studies on the Dark Web commonly require textual analysis of the domain, language models specific to the Dark Web may provide valuable insights to researchers.  In this work, we introduce DarkBERT, a language model pretrained on Dark Web data. [Computation and Language]
Issued this day ...
.. in 2008: Scott #2272: Art Canada: Yousuf Karsh. Design: Hélène L’Heureux. 
From 1988 to 2002 , Canada Post issued one stamp in its “Masterpieces of Art” series. All of those issues featured one work — a painting or a sculpture — by a Canadian ‘master.’ That series gave way to an annual series from 2004-2010 called an “Art Canada” series in which Canada Post would issue a souvenir sheet and a stamp or two featuring the work of single artist.

This stamp — Sc 2272 — is one of a trio issued to honour the photography of Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002). Sc 2272 features a 1956 portrait Karsh made of the film star Audrey Hepburn. Terrific, eh?

Of some note: Karsh’s work is featured on other Canadian stamps including some of the portraits of Queen Elizabeth II.

Previous Issues

Load More