Notices by Brian Gettler (brian_gettler@mas.to)

If you're in or near Toronto, you may want to sign this petition contesting the expansion of a data centre in Scarborough Southwest.

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/the-danforth-data-centre-i-am-taking-action-at-city-hall

#Toronto #TOPoli

@jnl The imperfection is sacred. It's what makes, and has always made, great art. It's the jagged, jarring edges of the-best-we-can-do, not the superficially flawless product - achieved by LLM, auto-tune, or whatever - that makes human creation so special. It's celebration, commiseration, resistance, inception, and so much more. Give me imperfection, always striving to improve while understanding nothing is ever perfect, or nothing at all (which, of course, is exactly what Chat et al. generate).

Annual reminder to Canadian citizen/permanent resident authors, editors, translators, photographers, illustrators, and narrators: if you've published a book in the last 5 years, you may be eligible for the Public Lending Right Program from the Canada Council for the Arts. The program pays $50 to $4,500 based on the number of books you have at Canadian lending libraries. I've always earned more from PLRP than I have in royalties.

Registration opens later this month.

https://publiclendingright.ca/

Also, it's always sobering to see just how many fewer languages North American applicants have than those from other parts of the world.

I'm reading PhD applications today - a moment that's always a mix of hope and a feeling of futility. Some applications aren't great but many are seriously fantastic. Of course, this means that more than one strong candidate with an excellent file and an exciting project won't get in.

If you have a Liberal MP, you might consider writing to or calling them to let them know this is insane (for any number of very good reasons - you pick). As an historian, I can tell you that the archives are full of angry letters to MPs, cabinet members, and PMs and that at certain times waves of correspondence moving in the same direction have changed policy.

You might consider demonstrating too. A similar observation applies.

#cdnpoli #canpoli

Elect a central banker, get austerity politics. Huh. Who'd a thunk it?

#cdnpoli

This generation of young'uns has a superpower: they can spend hours staring at their phone and never once notice the string of texts from their parents.

@D_J_Nathanson Yeah. Here's to hoping everyone who receives this thing chucks in the trash on sight.

Well this is a mass-mailer I've never received before. #HigherEd

My faculty association's response to the university's recent letter to students:

"The Administration appears to believe that with the stroke of a pen it can transform freedom of expression from a fundamental right, the protection of which is the sine qua non of the University, into a privilege that the Administration may confer or deny at its pleasure. This cannot stand."

https://www.utfa.org/sites/default/files/2024-04-30_utfa_letter_re_demonstrations.pdf

#UofT #HigherEd #cdnpoli #CampusProtests

For #TuneTuesday #BangersAndFiller - your least favorite track on your favorite album - I'm tempted to name albums - "If You're Feeling Sinister," "Exile in Guyville," "What's Going On," "The Shape of Punk to Come" - that have no filler. But that's not fair play, so instead, here's one with a single song I could do without:

The Replacements, "Let it Be" (1984) is magnificent (even the Kiss cover's great!), but "Gary's Got a Boner" misses the mark. https://youtu.be/DXjzcbLcEBo

Since the theme of #JukeboxFridayNight is #FiftyYearsOfHipHop, I think I'll post a sampling of tracks from various places, in various languages that have had an effect on me over the years. The first is from the UK and combines great flow with Clint Mansell/Kronos Quartet's excellent Requiem for a Dream theme.

Skitz, "Requiem of the Gods," ft. Orifice Vulgatron, Mr Ti2bs, Dynamite MC, and Harry Shotta (2010)

https://daddyskitz.bandcamp.com/track/requiem-of-the-gods-ft-orifice-vulgatron-mr-ti2bs-dynamite-mc-harry-shotta

Could we please, please stop framing issues uniquely as "a problem of poverty" to instead frame them as problems caused by wealth?

For this week's #JukeboxFridayNight, the theme is #OutOfControl, an economic take from one of my all-time favorite #Québec bands. #musique #QC

S'endetter pour toujours,
Sans penser à demain
...
L'avenir n'est que trop incertain
Alors, pourquoi en garder pour demain
Quand on peut tous les jours
Manger plus qu'à sa faim
S'il y a de l'espoir, s'il y a de la vie
Il y a sûrement moyen

WD-40, "Vivre au-dessus de ses moyens" (2001) https://youtu.be/RLJ8-Ia8TpU

@evan @histodons Cool! J'ai fouillé un peu, mais comme je n'ai rien trouvé j'étais convaincu que ça n'existait pas. I stand corrected.

L’imagination débordante des #Français à l’égard du #Québec n’est pas nouvelle. Voici un "Tramway à patins," paru dans le journal parisien le Nouveau-Monde (1883). Si l’on a cru à #Paris, on n’en a jamais vu la trace à #Montréal. #histodons #histoire @histodons

Source: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k445682h

@forteller Pedro the Lion's nostalgic "Yellow Bike" is my current favorite ("my kingdom for someone to ride with"): https://youtu.be/z478uKbsYf8

With ERs overflowing in #Québec, #Ontario, and elsewhere due to #COVID, #influenza and other respiratory illness and calls for mandatory #masking growing again, we could do worse than think about resistance to seat belt laws in the #1970s. In Jan. 1978, the VP and general manager of Ford #Canada, while objecting to new, costly safety measures (such as airbags), argued that drivers ought to be required to use existing low-cost technology - that is, seat belts. #history #histodons @histodons