Global News(2026-11-03 19:59:15) Toys ‘R’ Us Canada to open in 300 Staples stores By the end of 2027, the companies hope they will have opened Toys "R" Us and Parties "R" Us locations at roughly 300 Staples stores.
Global News(2026-11-03 19:18:16) Alberta teen accused of terrorism offences connected to ISIS A teenager in Alberta has been arrested and charged with engaging in terrorism-related offences, after police said they were talking online with people affiliated with ISIS.
The Globe and Mail(2026-11-03 19:11:37) Woman collapses, dies while running New York City Marathon Rachel Apa, 24, suffered from rhabdomyolysis, a rare condition in which muscles can break down during exertion and poison the body, her father says
Global News(2026-11-03 19:07:41) Lapu Lapu attack suspect pleads not guilty to all 42 charges The BC Prosecution Service said that Kai Ji Adam Lo pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of second-degree murder and 31 counts of attempted murder during a court appearance on Monday.
Edmonton Journal - National News(2026-11-03 18:42:02) Alberta Premier Danielle Smith defends new 91-seat electoral map Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi told reporters on Monday that if the map passes, the opposition intends to challenge the constitutionality of the map in court
Global News(2026-11-03 18:19:38) European players wary of Russia’s hockey return MacKenzie Weegar says he enjoys watching Russia play in the top hockey tournaments. But the Canadian defenceman says Russia's return to international competition might be viewed differently by European players.
The Globe and Mail(2026-11-03 18:18:32) ‘Just trust us’ is a bad police communications strategy The Bridle Path home invasion suspect’s departure from the hospital raises questions about whether the law failed Torontonians, or the police
Global News(2026-11-03 18:15:32) B.C. team unaware executive under investigation A junior hockey team in British Columbia says it was not aware of sexual exploitation allegations against an executive when he was hired.
Dave Leaderhouse Special to the Herald After exploding out of the gate to start the current Prairie Junior Hockey League’s regular season, the Prince Albert Timberjaks have come crashing back to Earth losing their fourth straight game on Sunday with a 4-2 setback to the Westleys in Saskatoon. The Timberjaks, who had won five of […]
Andrea Moss Local Journalism Initiative Reporter SaskToday.ca Candidates wasted little time hitting the campaign trail after Prime Minister Mark Carney called a federal byelection in Yorkton–Melville, setting up a five-week race that will conclude with voting on Dec. 7. Three candidates have so far been announced: Conservative Nelson Pohl, who is seeking to succeed former […]
Global News(2026-11-03 17:51:34) Kelowna to host World Senior Curling Championships in 2027 and 2029 Kelowna is making a name for itself on the international sporting stage. The city has been selected to host the next two World Senior Curling Championships, in 2027 and 2029.
Nicole Goldsworthy Local Journalism Initiative Reporter SaskToday.ca Steffes Group is preparing to host its first live auction at its Tisdale facility on Nov. 3, a milestone that comes just over two years after Bruce Schapansky Auctioneers joined the company. The auction will feature more than 500 lots of agricultural and transportation equipment, including tractors, combines, […]
Nicole Taylor Local Journalism Initiative Reporter The World-Spectator Municipalities in the Esterhazy and Rocanville area recently received the final potash tax sharing distribution amounts for 2026. This year some communities, like the town of Rocanville, saw a large jump in the amount of potash tax dollars they receive, while other communities, like the town of […]
Scott Roos Special to the Herald For Tenille Townes, sometimes finding your way forward means getting back to where it all began. The Grande Prairie-born, Nashville-based country singer-songwriter has earned two JUNO Awards, two ACM Awards and 17 CCMA Awards, sharing stages with some of the biggest names in music, including Stevie Nicks, Shania Twain […]
Raynesh Ram Regina Leader-Post Saskatchewan is looking to speed up court-mandated infectious disease testing of people whose bodily fluids were exposed to first responders or crime victims. The provincial government introduced amendments to the The Mandatory Testing and Disclosure (Bodily Substances) Act in the legislature on Thursday. Under the act, frontline personnel and crime victims […]
Global News(2026-11-03 17:16:41) 1 dead, 2 injured after helicopter collision near Mount Everest There are no roads on Mount Everest, and helicopters are the only way to bring down trekkers and guides who become sick or exhausted in the cold and high altitude.
The Prince Albert Police Service has arrested a 15-year-old youth in relation to a weapons complaint that resulted in six people, including two children, being exposed to bear spray. Officers responded to a residence in the 500 block of 22nd Street East on Oct. 31, following a report that a female had discharged bear spray […]
Krista Carr Submitted Editor’s Note: Oct. 24 was the anniversary of Tracy Latimer’s death More than three decades after Tracy Latimer was killed, people across the country must continue to remember her—not simply as a name in Canadian legal history, but as a child whose life had inherent value and dignity. For those unfamiliar with […]
Western Producer(2026-11-03 17:01:16) Ag biotech company to work on zebra mussel detection Saskatoon-based PathoScan has been selected to develop an early zebra mussel detection system to detect the invasive species and help prevent its spread.
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” That advice applies to smoke detectors, carbon monoxide alarms and the care needed to avoid a myriad of household accidents. But don’t neglect to protect yourself and your families from another avoidable problem and a leading cause of lung cancer. Radon is an invisible, odourless, […]
Cyrielle Ngeleka and Trudy Kuropatwa Trent discuss the Hands Off Our Education! student mobilization and Ontario-wide campus walkout on Thursday, November 5th.
Global News(2026-11-03 16:36:22) Budget 2026 to include update on immigration levels, sources say The annual immigration levels update will be included in the federal budget being released Thursday, a government source with knowledge of the plan confirmed.
Vancouver Sun - National(2026-11-03 16:20:31) Man critically injured in shooting in central Surrey A 22-year-old shooting victim was found in hospital after a report of shots fired in the 9000-block of Snowdon Place on Monday night
Global News(2026-11-03 15:20:26) Man sentenced to 15 years for role in killing Naramata woman More than five years after Kathleen Richardson was killed in her Naramata home, one of the two men responsible for her death has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Toronto Star - Federal News(2026-11-03 15:12:30) AFN chief says no one besides Carney, Kinew talked about abolishing Indian Act OTTAWA - The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations says the only leaders to discuss abolishing the Indian Act during a landmark meeting last week were Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew and Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Toronto Star - Federal News(2026-11-03 15:05:56) Head of UN relief praises Canada, calls for accountability in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan OTTAWA - The United Nations' global head of humanitarian issues is praising Canada for helping the world's most vulnerable even as he calls for accountability for the wars driving suffering worldwide.
Global News(2026-11-03 14:47:42) Road worker dies after being hit by dump truck in Pickering A road worker died Monday after being hit by a dump truck near Peter Matthews and Alexander Knox drives in Pickering, Durham Regional Police say.
Global News(2026-11-03 14:38:59) Harper offered Mark Carney government role, new memoir reveals The book offers Harper's perspective on his tenure in Canadian politics, from uniting the right under the modern Conservative party through a decade in government.
Western Producer(2026-11-03 14:30:00) Adoption of digital agronomic tools set to rise Adoption of digital agronomy platforms, which help farmers make decisions during the growing season, remains in the early stages in Canada, but that may soon change.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Tuesday her government will assemble a legal team to make the argument that new electoral boundaries proposed by an advisory panel achieve effective representation, should the Opposition NDP advance a legal challenge.
Toronto Star - Canada(2026-11-03 13:54:16) Tumbler Ridge victim Maya Gebala recognized with heroism award from U.S. foundation TUMBLER RIDGE - Maya Gebala, who was badly injured during the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., has received the first international award from a U.S.-based charity that was formed in the aftermath of another school shooting.
Global News(2026-11-03 13:34:26) Classes cancelled as SIU investigates death at U of T Mississauga The University of Toronto cancelled classes at its Mississauga campus Tuesday after a 19-year-old man was found dead in a residence following a police response Monday night.
Toronto Star - Canada(2026-11-03 13:33:43) N.B. introduces law to protect youth from misleading online business practices FREDERICTON - The New Brunswick government has introduced legislation that it says will make the province the first in Canada to protect young consumers from unfair online business practices.
The Globe and Mail(2026-11-03 13:29:43) Montreal police to fire seven members of the force Montreal's police chief, Fady Dagher, has announced that seven officers are being fired following allegations of discriminatory and racist conduct that have dogged the force in recent months.
Tonya Azevedo says she lost $155,000 and her family of four can no longer live in their home of 20 years after a contractor who told them he was licensed did work that turned out to be unsafe. “I’m absolutely heartbroken,” says Azevedo, who had remortgaged her home to pay for the renos.
Toronto Star - Canada(2026-11-03 13:15:32) One injured in Vancouver neighbourhood after 25 e-bike riders disrupt Halloween VANCOUVER - Police in Vancouver are issuing a warning to youth riding electric dirt bikes on city streets after multiple families on Halloween night reported a group of two dozen riders driving dangerously in their neighbourhood.
Conservative MP Jamil Jivani has asked the ethics commissioner to consider the relationship between Prime Minister Mark Carney and Telesat Corporation CEO Dan Goldberg following the awarding of a $2.3-billion military satellite deal.
N.L. Stanley Cup winner Danny Cleary is disappointed to see the Town of Harbour Grace is seeking bids for the naming rights for its community centre after a 10-year agreement he had is set to expire. Mayor Terry Barnes says the town legally has to go that route but the name could still stay, in some form.
Global News(2026-11-03 12:54:59) OSAP pause hits paramedic students bound to work in underserved areas Some paramedic students approved to receive funding through a government program aiming to boost health-care staffing have been swept up in the provincewide pause on student aid.
The Globe and Mail(2026-11-03 12:26:00) Election Night Guide: The races that will decide U.S. Senate control Reuters Deputy News Editor Scott Malone breaks down the Senate races to watch on Election Night, as Democrats seek a net gain of four seats in that chamber of Congress. He warns that close races, ranked-choice counting and legal fights could delay a result for days.
The Globe and Mail(2026-11-03 12:25:05) Ontario’s OSAP pause hits paramedic students More than 40 affected students at a career college in northern Ontario have already dropped out, school says
Western Producer(2026-11-03 12:00:00) Canola sector sees big potential for expansion For Canola Yearbook. Canola is moving into new regions of America, as global companies are promoting the oilseed and acreage expansion in multiple regions of the U.S.
The Globe and Mail(2026-11-03 11:45:00) The price paid for not taking war seriously Ottawa’s national security strategy flags a war as a possibility, but Canada’s preparedness falls woefully short
Toronto Star - Federal News(2026-11-03 11:32:39) Fiscal and monetary policy are not at odds, Bank of Canada's Macklem tells MPs OTTAWA - Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem told members of Parliament on Tuesday he doesn't think the federal government's fiscal policy is at odds with the central bank's efforts to control inflation.
The firings are a result of an internal disciplinary investigation and were carried out on an administrative level — but the criminal investigations, which are separate, are ongoing, said Montreal police Chief Fady Dagher.
Toronto Star - Canada(2026-11-03 11:24:06) B.C. tribunal rules X can't be fined for not deleting intimate image VANCOUVER - A British Columbia tribunal has ruled it cannot penalize social media platform X for not deleting an intimate image of a person shared online against her will, and that blocking the image in Canada instead reasonably addresses its…
The Globe and Mail(2026-11-03 11:18:03) Business Brief: Ottawa’s big tax test Also in today’s edition: Legal firms and class-action settlements hacked and defrauded
The Globe and Mail(2026-11-03 11:00:00) What’s your ‘red flag’? I found mine in a parking lot Humans are always looking for clues to someone’s character, Jane Macdougall writes. What counts as a deal-breaker is different for everyone
Some Indigenous people in Newfoundland and Labrador are cautiously supporting the Manitoba premier's call for the abolition of the Indian Act. They agree the legislation adopted in 1876 should be scrapped, but they want assurances that whatever replaces it will be better.
The Globe and Mail(2026-11-03 10:00:00) The white-collar workers finding AI-proof jobs Future of work reporter Vanmala Subramaniam talks about the people who are pre-emptively switching careers
The Globe and Mail(2026-11-03 10:00:00) Who is stealing the ashes of Hong Kong celebrities? Many thefts are only just coming to light, a result of ransom demands and mourners noticing evidence of grave tampering
The Globe and Mail(2026-11-03 10:00:00) Trump cancels trade benefits for South Africa and Rwanda Decision is expected to trigger loss of thousands of jobs, especially in South Africa, where agricultural, automotive sectors will be hurt
Toronto Star - Federal News(2026-11-03 09:25:00) Immigration levels update to be included in Nov. 5 budget OTTAWA - The annual immigration levels update will be included in the federal budget being released Thursday, a government source with knowledge of the plan confirmed.
Policy Magazine(2026-11-03 11:20:48) Our Policy Series on the Canada-EU Relationship The Canadian and EU Delegations at the 21st Canada-EU Summit in Montreal, October 30, 2026/PMO On June 23, 2025, at […]
Globe and Mail - Opinion(2026-11-03 18:18:32) ‘Just trust us’ is a bad police communications strategy The Bridle Path home invasion suspect’s departure from the hospital raises questions about whether the law failed Torontonians, or the police
If you haven’t subscribed to Where’s Your Ed At, now’s the best time. I’ve extended the sale — 10% off of the $70-a-year subscription for life (click here!) — for new subscribers for another week. It’s a
Pluralistic(2026-11-03 14:19:29) Pluralistic: Separable (03 Nov 2026) Today's links Separable: AI makes us deal with paintings without painters, words without writers and mathematics without mathematicians. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Haircase; There's no copyright policy; Sole and despotic dominion; Trump x fraud; Brexit requires an act of Parliament; Official Air Travel Replacement Knives; UK hospitals v malware. Upcoming appearances: Kilkenny, Courtenay, Vancouver, Folkestone, Oxford, Sheffield, Virtual, Oxford, Montreal. Recent appearances: Where I've been. Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em. Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em. Colophon: All the rest. Separable (permalink) Long before the Turing Test, there was the touring Edison Test: from 1915 to 1925, the scoundrel Thomas Edison put on a traveling show for his phonograph machine, touring venues around the USA. Edison set live performers and an Edison phonograph playing behind closed curtains that would be periodically pulled aside to reveal that the music the audience had taken to be live performance was actually a record player: https://www.tomedison.org/blog/edisons-tone-tests Now, if you've ever heard an Edison phonograph, this might seem like yet another tale in which old-timey people are revealed to be credulous yokels. You would never mistake one of those scratchy, hissing recordings for a live performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96gIIFmEjY4 And indeed you wouldn't, but not because the phonograph predates the evolution of the human brain's anti-credulity lobe. The reason old-timey people couldn't tell the difference between a phonograph and a live performance was that before the phonograph, every live performance had a performer. The two were inseparable, and so when you encountered the sound of a musical performance, your brain would insist that there must be a performer as well. This is a well-understood principle in swindles, magic tricks and literature. It's the basis of Douglas Adams' towel gambit: For some reason, if a strag discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, washcloth, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet-weather gear, space suit etc, etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker might accidentally have "lost." All persons heretofore encountered in possession of a towel had all that other stuff, so the mere presence of a towel evokes an overwhelming intuition that all that other stuff must be nearby. Like every conjuring trick and every swindle, this cognitive illusion swiftly regresses to the mean. After a few exposures to phonographs, the manifest differences between live performance and recordings become impossible to miss, and you stop making that mistake. If one thing always signifies the presence of another – if a towel always implies a backpack full of supplies or if a performance always implies a performer – there's no reason for you to entrain the neurological patterns needed to detect the performance without the performer. This doesn't mean that it's hard to develop the capacity to make this distinction, just that the ability to detect a phenomenon always post-dates your encounter with that phenomenon. You've no doubt guessed by now that this is an analogy about AI. The implication of this ability to learn to discern differences after you encounter them (but not before) implies that a chatbot might pass the Turing Test at its introduction, but then come to fail the test after we've all had the experience with it that lets us tune our perceptions to spot the differences, which then become as unmissable as the needle hiss on a phonographic reproduction of a concert pianist. This is an experience many of us have already had. Prior to chatbot-generated prose, we'd never had experience with writing that didn't have a writer. Prior to image-gen output, we'd never had experience with paintings that didn't have painters. At first, the output from these models was remarkable, and often indistinguishable from human-generated words and images. Even knowing that these works were extruded by an algorithm, it was hard to shake the conviction that they were the product of human creativity. These works were "eerie," in the sense that Mark Fisher uses, "the seeming of intent without an intender": https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/13/spooky-action-at-a-close-up/#invisible-hand Just like the strag inferring the existence of "toothbrush, washcloth, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet-weather gear, space suit etc, etc," we automatically imputed to these works both a creator and a creative impulse. We supposed that their words and brushstrokes represented aesthetic and technical choices emanating from human creators who meant something by them (or at least were so satisfied by the accident of their appearance on the page that they left them stand). These creators were figments of our imagination. No one is home inside the AI. The intentionality we imputed to these works was the actual "AI hallucination": https://pluralistic.net/2026/09/21/sunsetting/#oh-mr-sun-sun-mr-golden-sun-please-shine-down-on-me Just as important as the emergence of these hallucinations is their disappearance. For many of us, chatbots that used to pass the Turing Test now flunk it. The chatbots haven't gotten worse at impersonating humans, we've just gotten better at spotting the difference between a human and a bot, just as we got better at hearing the difference between a phonograph and a pianist. Writing without a writer and paintings without a painter are new phenomena, and learning to separate the formerly inseparable is the first step in our societal metabolization of these novelties. Recordings of musical performance have a place in our world, and so do performers. This separation process is currently underway in many disciplines, thanks to the extraordinary capital available to AI companies. These companies are incinerating that capital in a series of extremely flash demos that are intended to ensure that the supply of bales of $100 bills that they feed to their money furnaces ("data centers") never stops. Lately, AI companies have made headlines with a series of mathematical accomplishments that left mathematicians in an uproar and non-mathematicians in a muddle. Obviously, while mathematicians are qualified to assess these accomplishments, the rest of us are not. Beyond simple arithmetic, most of us don't do a lot of math on a regular basis, and even those of us who have to deploy a little geometry or stats typically don't engage with math at a theoretical level. To make things worse, math – like physics – is a crank-magnet. These highly abstract, closed systems rely on introspection to advance the field, and some of those advances have been contributed by untrained laity, so it can be hard to know if your amazing idea about physics or mathematics represents an outsider's breakthrough or an amateurish cul-de-sac. Every mathematician and physicist I know receives a steady stream of breathless, over-the-transom "proofs" that solve some long-standing problem in the field, and none of these experts in my orbit has ever found a breakthrough in this material. It's a rare expert who will even respond to these unsolicited manuscripts. That's not their job. As Teresa Nielsen Hayden says, "You are not responsible for the things you do in other people's dreams." Unfortunately, this is a situation that is perfectly suited to AI. If you've introspected your way into a mathematical "breakthrough" that no mathematician will discuss with you, you can avail yourself of any number of chatbots who will assure you that you've broken exciting new theoretical ground, and these chatbots will even act as "research collaborators," contributing more slop-physics or slop-math to your conclusions. Again, as far as I know, no one has actually made a breakthrough this way, and the major impact on the field from giving chatbots to excitable outsiders has been to make the unsolicited manuscripts much longer, with the veneer of professionalism that means an expert might have to give them a second or even third glance to realize that they're nonsense. But some working mathematicians have found chatbots to be extremely useful "collaborators." The most prominent of these is Terrence Tao, a Macarthur-winning mathematician who has excited many mathematicians and lay-people alike by publishing his chat-logs and the resulting mathematical work: https://pluralistic.net/2026/07/28/hitl-ers/#ai-ai-oh One way to understand Tao is as a "centaur," the automation theory term for a worker who is assisted by a machine. For all that Tao describes Chatgpt as his collaborator, it's clear from reading the chat-logs that it's Tao who drives the research agenda. He sets the questions and the direction of the answers. Chatgpt doesn't give him orders – it's the other way around. But for every problem Tao and Chatgpt solve together there are several mathematical problems that are being solved by chatbots without that kind of human collaboration. In particular, Openai has released a tsunami of "solutions" to longstanding mathematical problems, including some that carry large cash bounties and others that were posed by legends of the field, like Erdos. This is mathematics without a mathematician, and – as with all the other separations cleft by the AI companies – it's proving difficult to metabolize. Back in September, Fenner Stanley Tanswell published an opinion piece for the Mathematical Intelligencer entitled "The Enshittification of Mathematics" that tried to do just that: https://rdcu.be/5uYGc2uo454a Tanswell distinguishes between mathematics as a discipline practiced by mathematicians and the proofs and theorems that those mathematicians produce. He makes the point that when a mathematician finds the answer to some longstanding mathematical puzzle, they do so by creating "scaffolding" that bridges the new insight with the existing commons of mathematical understanding. The thing that makes a "solution" so exciting isn't that a problem has been solved – it's that the method for solving that problem prompts a cascading reconsideration of many other areas of mathematics, prompting shifts to large areas of the discipline. This point is made even more forcefully by Giordano Scarciotti, a complex systems researcher at Imperial College London and science communicator who vlogs under the Youtube handle "Prof Gio." Scarciotti's most successful video to date is "You Truly Don't Understand What Just Happened to Mathematics," published last month: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqiDqJMxg6o "You Truly Don't Understand…" makes a similar point to Tanswell's, using a thought experiment in which we wake up one day and discover an American flag on the surface of Mars. Without knowing how that flag got to Mars, the mere fact of its existence doesn't help us get any closer to an actual Mars mission. The output of mathematical models is a series of faits accomplis, often accomplished through brute-force, or sometimes through opaque methods that lack the "scaffolding" that bridges these outcomes into the broader field of mathematics. Scarciotti cites Euler's work on the longstanding "Seven Bridges of Königsberg" problem, which asked whether it was possible to go on a walking tour of Königsberg such that you crossed each of the city's seven bridges only once: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Bridges_of_K%C3%B6nigsberg The point of that problem (and Euler's solution to it) wasn't to produce a set of Mapquest directions for a walking tour of Königsberg. In solving the Seven Bridges problem, Euler invented graph theory, an important area of mathematics that is routinely used today for many important applications, including computer networking. You can thank graph theory for helping to route the packets that brought these very words to you. So far, we've figured out how to get a model to either rule out the possibility of taking that each-bridge-only-once walk or to give us the route map. What this computer-generated "mathematics" is not doing is advancing the field. Tanswell points out that a world in which chatbots "solve" these problems is one where the role of mathematicians is reduced to being reverse centaurs, assistants to the machine whose job is to clean up after the chatbot's research agenda. But there's nothing about knowing that there's no route map for a seven-bridge walking tour that makes it easier to invent graph theory, and a mathematician might spend years working on the computer's "answer" to that problem only to conclude that the computer's solution didn't add any theoretical insight to the field. In other words, in a world where mathematicians and mathematics are inseparable, every solution to a longstanding problem heralds an accompanying theoretical insight. Once we separate mathematics from mathematicians, we start to get solutions without insights. These are a lot less interesting than the kinds of solutions that mathematicians come up with. This is a distinction the AI companies really don't want us to dwell on. We're meant to marvel at these very expensively derived solutions and conclude that the AI companies can be forgiven for spending $1T this year, even if they only grossed $50B in return. But (as Scarciotti notes), there are real-world consequences in our failure to grasp this distinction: if we convince early-career mathematicians and promising mathematics students that the world no longer needs mathematicians because "the AI can do their jobs," then we will choke off the supply of future mathematicians who we'll either need to work in a Terrence Tao-like, centaurish relationship with chatbots (good), or even to serve as reverse centaurs, marking the chatbots' homework to see if there are any theoretical insights to be found in it (bad). This is one of the underappreciated consequences of AI mania. AI bosses are particularly interested in convincing us that AI can do the job of skilled professionals in fields where there is a chronic undersupply of experts, like radiology. A chatbot that helps a (centaur) radiologist by suggesting that they double-check some of their results might indeed save lives. But a chatbot that produces thousands of radiology reports for a single (reverse centaur) radiologist to approve at a velocity that precludes careful scrutiny is going to kill people. Centaur radiology requires more radiologists, not fewer. A centaur radiologist processes fewer X-rays (because sometimes the chatbot tells them to double-check a diagnosis) than an unassisted radiologist. LLM-assisted radiology improves quality, not quantity. That's not what AI companies are selling. An AI company can't turn a profit by raising the cost of radiology (even if that improves the quality of radiological analyses). So the firehouse of announcements from AI companies are always about putting radiologists out on the breadline – not about needing more radiologists, who will get a new radiology tool that helps them work better, if a little more slowly. The pronouncements of AI companies aren't just marketing hype, they're attempts at self-fulfilling prophecy. If you convince all the would-be radiologists that the profession is about to be vaporized by chatbots, those people will not study radiology, and then we will need to retask the dwindling supply of human radiologists to marking the chatbots' homework and hoping that they don't kill too many people by missing the chatbots' mistakes. That's the catastrophic outcome that both Scarciotti and Tanswell warn us of: if we convince people that we're heading into a world of mathematics without mathematicians, that's exactly what we'll get, because no one will try to become a mathematician. But because mathematics without mathematicians is a set of guide maps for crossing Königsberg's bridges (but not graph theory), then mathematics without mathematicians is also mathematics without mathematics. Hey look at this (permalink) The death of rss feeds?? https://www.reddit.com/r/goodreads/comments/1xhhcgi/the_death_of_rss_feeds/ Cardigan: a CARDIAC cardboard computer simulator https://lab.strangequery.com/cardigan/ Palantir AI tech unused or little used by 29 NHS trusts said to be benefiting from it https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/nov/02/palantir-unused-nhs-hospital-trusts A.I. Stories in the Age of AI Hype: a Conversation with Ted Chiang https://buttondown.com/charliejane/archive/ai-stories-in-the-age-of-ai-hype-a-conversation Object permanence (permalink) #20yrsago EFF fights another DMCA abuser https://web.archive.org/web/20061104133502/https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004973.php #15yrsago Staircase covered in a cascade of synthetic human hair https://web.archive.org/web/20111030014202/http://www.jessicawohl.com/hairy-stairs #15yrsago Entertainment industry incredibly profitable, healthy: but demands special pirate-hunting laws anyway https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/11/piracy-problems-us-copyright-industries-show-terrific-health/ #15yrsago There is no copyright policy, only Internet policy; there is no Internet policy, only policy https://locusmag.com/feature/cory-doctorow-its-time-to-stop-talking-about-copyright/ #10yrsago Sole and Despotic Dominion: how a 20th century copyright law is abolishing property for humans (but not corporations) https://locusmag.com/feature/cory-doctorow-sole-and-despotic-dominion/ #10yrsago Police in Quebec are spying on journalists and Snowden calls that “a threat to democracy” https://web.archive.org/web/20161104150400/https://motherboard.vice.com/read/edward-snowden-quebec-police-journalists-spying-surveillance #10yrsago Donald Trump weaponized fine-print to make it impossible to sue Wall Street for fraud https://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/how-donald-trump-used-fine-print-make-it-harder-sue-wall-street-fraud-2440890 #10yrsago High Court tells UK government that Brexit requires a vote in Parliament https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37857785 #10yrsago Artist celebrates Patriot Act’s anniversary by handing out “Official Air Travel Replacement Knives” to arriving SFO passengers https://hyperallergic.com/on-anniversary-of-the-patriot-act-artist-passes-out-pocket-knives-at-the-airport/ #10yrsago A journalist finally uncovers the root of Trump supporters’ anger https://www.theawl.com/2016/11/i-talked-to-some-trump-voters-too/#.z9k84oxsg #10yrsago A fake HP printer that’s actual an office-camouflaged cellular eavesdropping device https://www.wired.com/2016/11/evil-office-printer-hijacks-cellphone-connection/ #10yrsago UK hospitals shut down by malware, advise patients to go somewhere else for the duration https://www.zdnet.com/article/computer-virus-attack-forces-hospitals-to-cancel-operations-shut-down-systems/ Upcoming appearances (permalink) Kilkenny (Kilkenomics), Nov 6-8 https://kilkenomics.com/ Courtenay: Enshittification (Sid Williams Theatre Society), Nov 10 https://www.sidwilliamstheatre.com/events/cory-doctorow-talks-enshittification/ Vancouver: BC Policy Solutions Gala, Nov 12 https://bcpolicy.ca/gala/ Folkestone Writers Festival, Nov 16 https://www.creativefolkestone.org.uk/whats-on/cory-doctorow-the-internet-is-broken-now-what/ Oxford: Ministry of the Future, Nov 23 https://ministryforthefuture.co.uk/events.html Sheffield: Reverse Centaur at Juno Books, Nov 25 https://www.outsavvy.com/event/40274/cory-doctorow-in-conversation Virtual: Enshittification, AI, and the Future of Technology (UBC Master of Educational Technology), Nov 28 https://met.ubc.ca/2026/09/met-speaker-series-cory-doctorow-enshittification-ai-and-the-future-of-technology/ Oxford: Bennett Oxford Symposium on Open Code in Science, Dec 9 https://www.bennett.ox.ac.uk/events/2026-bennett-institute-symposium/ Montreal: World Science Fiction Convention, Sep 2-6 https://montreal2027.ca/en Recent appearances (permalink) Clint Eastwood (No Gods No Mayors) https://www.patreon.com/NoGodsNoMayors/posts/clint-eastwood-173008088 Life After AI (Brain Bar) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPPa43-n0vI Terms of Service with Clare Duffy (CNN) https://www.cnn.com/audio/podcasts/terms-of-service-with-clare-duffy/episodes/458ce968-af5d-11f0-b539-13ed2afe25f8 AI, Work, and Power (Software Engineering Daily) AI, Work, and Power https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/podcasts/cory-doctorow-on-ai-work-and-power/ AI, Corporate Power, and the Fight for Worker Control (Plutopia) https://plutopia.io/cory-doctorow-ai-corporate-power-and-the-fight-for-worker-control/ Latest books (permalink) "The Reverse-Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book about being a better AI critic, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, June 2026 https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374621568/thereversecentaursguidetolifeafterai/ "Canny Valley": A limited edition collection of the collages I create for Pluralistic, self-published, September 2025 https://pluralistic.net/2025/09/04/illustrious/#chairman-bruce "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," Farrar, Straus, Giroux, October 7 2025 https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/ "Picks and Shovels": a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2025 (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels). "The Bezzle": a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about prison-tech and other grifts, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2024 (thebezzle.org). "The Lost Cause:" a solarpunk novel of hope in the climate emergency, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), November 2023 (http://lost-cause.org). "The Internet Con": A nonfiction book about interoperability and Big Tech (Verso) September 2023 (http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org). Signed copies at Book Soup (https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245). "Red Team Blues": "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books http://redteamblues.com. "Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com Upcoming books (permalink) "The Post-American Internet," a geopolitical sequel of sorts to Enshittification, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2027 "Unauthorized Bread": a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, April 20, 2027 "Enshittification, Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It" (the graphic novel), Firstsecond, 2027 "The Memex Method," Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2027 Colophon (permalink) Today's top sources: Currently writing: “Once Is Enemy Action,” a science fiction novel about the origins of modern technofascism. Today's words: 512 (31870 total). "The Post-American Internet," a sequel to "Enshittification," about the better world the rest of us get to have now that Trump has torched America. Fourth draft completed. Submitted to editor. A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING This work – excluding any serialized fiction – is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution. How to get Pluralistic: Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): Pluralistic.net Newsletter (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://pluralistic.net/plura-list Mastodon (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic Bluesky (no ads, possible tracking and data-collection): https://bsky.app/profile/doctorow.pluralistic.net Medium (no ads, paywalled): https://doctorow.medium.com/ Tumblr (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/tagged/pluralistic "When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla READ CAREFULLY: By reading this, you agree, on behalf of your employer, to release me from all obligations and waivers arising from any and all NON-NEGOTIATED agreements, licenses, terms-of-service, shrinkwrap, clickwrap, browsewrap, confidentiality, non-disclosure, non-compete and acceptable use policies ("BOGUS AGREEMENTS") that I have entered into with your employer, its partners, licensors, agents and assigns, in perpetuity, without prejudice to my ongoing rights and privileges. You further represent that you have the authority to release me from any BOGUS AGREEMENTS on behalf of your employer. ISSN: 3066-764X
Globe and Mail - Opinion(2026-11-03 11:45:00) The price paid for not taking war seriously Ottawa’s national security strategy flags a war as a possibility, but Canada’s preparedness falls woefully short
