Alan Pater

I've moved back to Vancouver, to a different neighbourhood this time. So it's been great exploring the new and newly changed in the city!

The more powerful our AI, the more devastating its consequences, the larger our potential market cap.

The Wikipedia community has built a tool that makes it possible to embed our interactive Our World in Data charts right in any Wikipedia page. I have always admired Wikipedia and all the people contributing to it. And I'm very happy that our work now can get used this way!

Solar has overtaken nuclear. A decade ago it supplied 1% of the world's power. In 2025 it met three quarters of global demand growth. Almost nobody saw it coming. I spoke to Jocelyn Timperley at BBC Future about why. www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...

Lol. Fascist losers are poor losers.

¡¡LULA!!

Lula Goes HARD

Farmer Brown froze in his tracks; the cows stared wide-eyed back at him. Somewhere, off in the distance, a dog barked.

por fin some good news!!!!

In much, much, MUCH happier election news... www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

Eby: "I accept full responsibility for that outcome.”

It would be grand, then, if the Government of Canada would terminate any use of X/Twitter. And don't say, "Oh, we need it to get our messages out," because then you are "caught in a situation where we are reliant on one provider."

Enormous news. A melanoma vaccine, one of the most deadly cancers out there. Science is good and helpful and there should be more of it. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/...

This is (a) abhorrent, (b) not going to work, and (c) abhorrent 🧪

Which is to say, of COURSE such a lobbyist thinks "all of the above energy" is good for the climate. Unfortunately the @IPCC_CH said in 2023 that we already had too much fossil fuel infrastructure to halt global heating at 2°C. That's the hard real of climate policymaking, which is being ignored.

Son’s friend (13y) just told me about a cool new band called The Cure. Might check them out

Did you know? BC has a revenue problem, not a spending problem. Deep personal and corporate tax cuts in the early 2000s, the elimination of the carbon tax and declining natural resources revenues have all contributed to eroding BC’s fiscal capacity

Instead, let's chose "a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals".

"You shoot your arrow and then you paint your bulls eye around it, and therefore you have hit the target dead centre." - Brian Eno #quote

I'm in!

Eating Raoul for Tax Purposes

The bottom line is that the world needs to make a lot more food with less land and less mess. The eating-the-earth problem is a very hard problem, and we ought to start trying to solve it.

"What is irrational is continuing down the road of fossil fuels," McKenna added. "That's irrational on the costs, the risks, the impacts. It's an old technology." www.dw.com/en/climate-l...

Sounds like we need to change this.

"The infections are linked to a large seafood market where it is believed some exotic animals were also sold for consumption." www.statnews.com/2020/01/04/m...

If an individual or organisation says "I/we find Generative AI useful and don't care about the costs", at least they are articulating a coherent position. What I can't stand is the mealy mouthed "use Gen AI ethically and responsibly" bollocks. It can't be done!

... the current, "theory-free AI" finds all the instances in which A seems to cause B, but has no internal representation of why A causes B. This is true even when we know why A causes B! pluralistic.net/2026/10/06/n...

Suckers! thebullshitmachines.com

A major exposé of labor and environmental harms of intensive aquaculture. Major reports from UN, World Bank, OECD, and big sci journals don't paint this picture. The sector has big under-investigated problems & seems to be expanding faster than it can resolve them www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

There's only one tax plan that taxes wealth, not work. Be bold, join the BC Greens and let's build the province we deserve. #bcgreens #wealthtax #fairsharetaxact

Nice to see that less than a week after the launch the Oxford Martin Electrification Accelerator already made it into Canada's National Observer! @oxmartinschool.bsky.social @ecioxford.bsky.social @smithschool.ox.ac.uk @blavatnikschool.bsky.social @oxfordlawfac.bsky.social

AI as Normal Technology: An alternative to the vision of AI as a potential superintelligence By Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor knightcolumbia.org/content/ai-a... 'To view AI as normal is not to understate its impact; it is in contrast to both utopian and dystopian visions of the future of AI.'

We share some thoughts on: - Prepping for when the AI bubble pops (nationalize and euthanize) - Why centrists are less willing to call fascism by its name under Trump II (hint: now the whole economic system is implicated) - Why the real “rupture” was Gaza not Trump www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlKy...

“A Vengeful God … gave me cancer to punish me for my years of sin and slutitude.” In an excerpt from her posthumous memoir, Ellen Vanstone recounts the absurdly funny reality of receiving a call about her potential cancer diagnosis in a doggy daycare parking lot. thewalrus.ca/the-cosmos-broug...

The global fishing industry kills at least 1 trillion fish every year, even though it produces only about 1% of the world’s food. About half the fish it catches become feed for industrial animal operations, including aquatic ones 🔗⬇️

New working paper: the Norwegian wealth tax was a huge success. The "exodus" of wealthy people never happened (less than 100 individuals left). Tax revenue increased by 71.5%. No changes in business activity or investment. www.nber.org/papers/w35854

No more pipelines, a petition. share.nwmd.social/s/s8yS1oJA

'Prominent climate leaders have called on governments, businesses, institutions and the public to make a push for solar power before the decade is out, repowering the world with cheap, clean energy': #Canada #CDNPoli #ClimateCrisis #NoPipelines #Renewables #Solar

Who is to blame for the crisis? The dealer? Or the user?

This is true, I have my appointment booked already as well.

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover.

We murdered four more people in a boat today

For the record: enteric fermentation occurs in the rumen, which is the first and largest compartment of the ruminant stomach. The methane produced is primarily belched, not flatulated. You're welcome.

A few years ago, on my walk to work in Paris, I’d pass a group of doctors and nurses smoking outside one of Europe's leading cancer treatment and research centers. I don't see them anymore. That seems like progress.

"The escalating demand for electricity in the world is being met through these fossil free energy systems but we're not getting off coal, oil and gas fast enough. That's the dilemma," says PIK's Johan Rockström in the BBC's The Climate Question. Full episode: www.bbc.com/audio/play/w...