COOS and CAWS, Jan. 16
Snippets of praise and/or gentle rebuffs from the editors about people, places and things.
COOS for demonflyingfox for creating and now posting online their extraordinarily beautiful and powerful video for this moment in time. Called the Greenland Defense Front – The Hungry Giant, the under-two-minute music video, both buoyant and haunting, offers a dazzling spectacle of pride, empowerment and resolve. The globally oriented creator from Berlin says, “I want to show what’s possible with AI”. Prepare to be moved.
COOs for scientists at the University of Guelph who understand the public wants its tax dollars to go toward supporting research that has meaning and relevance for the average person. Did someone say chocolate chip cookies? Food scientists have moved the needle forward in the quest to create the perfect CCC. Their creative methodology involves mathematical models to capture how cookies change in size, shape and moisture while baking. A warning that this is early-stage research. But there’s hope it will be a dough breakthrough worldwide in “consistent doneness, better texture, and most efficient energy use ever.” CAWs for whoever drank all the milk.
COOS for The Limestone District School Board (LDSB) for maintaining an upward trend in performance as shown by the latest EQAO results that measure achievement in reading, writing and math. Whatever one thinks of standardized testing (labels students, unfair to diverse learners, little value for the cost), it’s always nice to get documented proof of improvement. We agree with LDSB director Krishna Burra when he says the results “reflect the daily dedication of Limestone educators, educational assistants, program teams, and school leaders.”
CAWS for Toys R Us, which finally just sold in Kingston, for giving us a window into society’s blatant sexism through toys and how they are marketed. Walk into any store and you immediately know if you’re supposed to be shopping for a boy or a girl, i.e. dolls, play kitchens and makeup kits versus toy guns, cars and action figures. The messaging couldn’t be more blatant: nurturing, beauty and domesticity versus aggression and action. But why aren’t more girls going into STEM? Some stores world-wide eventually ditched ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ filters and went with a Let Toys Be Toys message.
COOS for the City of Kingston and local bird-lovers who contributed to Kingston’s recent qualification for entry-level status in a national bird protection program. As detailed in this week’s Crow, citizens flocked to events and programming put on by local organizations supporting Nature Canada’s Bird-Friendly City program, held throughout the past year to build interest in our feathered friends. This isn’t a one-off triumph; the city plans to work toward improving its rating for threat reduction measures when it applies for re-certification later this year.
CAWS for the federal Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon, who has said that Canada is not considering a ban on X, the social media sewage pipe used by our government. The announcement is even more gobsmacking given the recent proliferation of nonconsensual sexualized deepfakes created by the platform’s latest AI chatbot, Grok. And to make matters worse, the announcement was praised by X owner Elon Musk. You’ve got to hand it to him. Just when you think his global cesspool of a social media platform couldn’t get any worse, it does. But COOS for Philippe Dufresne, Canada’s Privacy Commissioner, who announced this week he’ll be expanding his investigation into X to include the AI company, also a Musk brainchild, that is responsible for Grok.
COOS for our fearless neighbours to the south, especially Minnesotans, who are taking a stand against the lawlessness and cruelty of their government’s anti-immigrant stormtroopers. Armed with little more than whistles and the courage of their convictions, citizens – many of whom have never protested before — are risking their lives to organize and document government-sanctioned abuses while protecting the vulnerable members of their community being targeted.
CAWS to Scotiabank, whose CEO Scott Thompson has been touting the “Trump Doctrine”, a reimagining of the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine as good for business. “Longer-term, this is a good thing for the Western Hemisphere. It’s a good thing for the U.S. It’s a good thing for the Bank of Nova Scotia,” he says. Promoting shareholder returns is one thing. But plugging a doctrine that disrespects sovereignty in favour of dominance as a business opportunity is way too Gordon Gekko.