Bigger than a xweet. Smaller than a blog post.
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Reblog of Dan Gillmor:
Reblog via Dan Gillmor
Are we paying attention yet‽
The only reason for the US government to surveil and interrogate travelers before they arrive in the US is in order to try control their departure from foreign countries. This is an impermissible assertion of extraterritorial jurisdiction, an attempt at prior restraint of the right to travel by common carrier, and an attempt to foreclose asylum claims before asylum seekers can leave a place of persecution or reach a place of potential sanctuary.
https://papersplease.org/wp/2025/12/10/cbp-wants-all-visitors-to-install-and-use-its-smartphone-app/
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The older I get, the more I realize that other people around me are so much less observant than I am.
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Did anyone else you use this beast of a Cable modem?
Videon (Winnipeg’s pre-Shaw acquisition cable TV provider) was renting these for a reasonable price in the mid-90s for a reasonable monthly fee. Despite some claims these cost $18,000 in 1990.
If you’re looking for a very expensive nostaglic paper weight, someone is selling one on eBay for a cool US$2859.
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Oh, I think I’ve got my fediverse posting sorted.
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Buy Canadian Vegans
By now, buying Canadian is a real movement.
Reddit keeps showing me posts from r/BuyCanadian. Some of the comments in that sub remind me a lot about discussions surrounding veganism.
A lot of posters are proposing going full vegan. If there’s any hint of US ownership, you must totally avoid the product. The means MEC – not Canadian – because it’s owned by a US-based hedge fund. Old Dutch Potato chips – not Canadian – it is a subsidiary of the US brand.
If buying Canadian is about mitigating economic harms, then IMHO going full vegan is useless at best and maybe harmful at worst.
If a company is solely staffed by Canadians, uses Canadian ingredients, that’s basically fine. Sure percentage of profits are sent back to the USA as royalties, licensing or franchising fees, etc. But the benefits of employing all those Canadians, paying all those taxes locally, etc. surely outweigh the cost of sending a dues back to the USA.
So most fast food chains are “fine.” Pepsi, Coke, Budweiser, etc bottled Canadian plants, also fine.
I guess I would draw the line at things that are merely repackaged in Canada (like many soups, sauces, etc) and things directly imported from the USA (like produce).
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What is a “Note”?
A note is a sort of short blog post. But not really a blog post.
I’ve been getting hung up trying to write these long, well researched blog posts and they just get stuck in draft for ages. Sometimes unpublished entirely.
Notes are going to be these little thoughts.
Silly lists, or semi-ephemeral things. I dunno. We’ll see how it goes.
Tech-wise, they’re just a WordPress category, so they have a category feed like every other category.
Maybe I can find something interesting to do with that 🤷♂️