Nine dead many injured in Vancouver car attack. ERIC killed. Indigenous Peoples call for return of archives from Hudsons Bay. Two days till the federal election. Carney highlights Liberal platform with Assembly of First Nations. McGill medical school closes DEI office.
I’m in a high pain day today so links aren’t added to the report yet. Getting the news round up posted before it becomes too dated. I know y’all are search engine savvy and can follow up if you want more info.
In life:
Awoke to the news of SUV driving into a crowd at Fillipino street festival in Vancouver overnight shortly after 8pm PDT. Details still emerging but apparently the suspect was known to the police. It hits close to me, an online colleague lives nearby and had just returned from getting food at the event. Once again heart broken at the state of the world.
Things remain on course for me. The weather is doing it’s indecisive thing as to weather we get winter or summer weather. We had 26C and sunny along with some rainy windy cold AF days because windchill.
Curmudgeonly aside: I refuse to call it “feels like” and contribute to the de-education of the population with a phrase that hides the name that says what it is. It’s a bit of weather gas-lighting as far as I’m concerned. Ditto the loss of “humidity factor” which gas-lights the math involved in weather modeling.
Today looks to be pleasant and yard work was planned. Sweetie may be called upon to do more than anticipated.
In infowars:
I lament the killing of ERIC, a best-in-kind “A&I” database as it’s known in library info sci land. That would be “abstracting and indexing” search engine. A misnomer in the current age since the A&Is have been providing full text content since the 90s. Legacy name notwithstanding, this began with the removal of indexed full text journals and grey literature as well as citations to works related to research in education.
ERIC has a best-in-class thesaurus which represents decades of development. I personally know people who have worked on it. Plus, vocabulary integration with info databases is my professional expertise.
ERIC has a lot of LIS related literature as a complimentary aspect to information science work (we’re interdisciplinary!). It’s a profound loss and once again data rescue efforts are in play.
My online colleague mentioned above is spearheading an initiative to take a broader look at Canadian independence from U.S. data/metadata/content sources at the upcoming Canadian Association of Information Science meeting. The U.S. hegemony is kicking our ass in LIS-land and requires a holistic response beyond data rescue. As you know I’ve been working in word management for SEO in library systems. I’ll be following this work as it grows beyond data rescue, word management, and emerging problems with coordination, integrated metadata, and digital preservation.
In culture:
Hudsons Bay company closes the six flagship stores that were initially spared the bankruptcy. It’s the final blow to one of our biggest colonialist symbols. Its archives represent a large chunk of the early European history of Turtle Island and includes much that should be within the care and keeping of the Indigenous communities to whom it belongs.
I’m not sad about its demise. Losing a colonialist icon can’t help but help with Canada’s Truth & Reconciliation. It’s another educational moment for settlers to reflect on our shared history collaborate on the “Truth” parts.
McGill University Medical School laid off three employees and closed their office. This after being censured for the minimal progress towards having the student body reflect the population. A damn shame when we need diversity in our health care providers more than ever.
In politics:
Canadians go to the polls on Monday to vote in our federal election. It’s no secret I’m voting Liberal despite the Greens and NDP being more in line with my values. Polls indicate they’re still ahead. Canadians took no chances and early voted in record numbers.
Carney is a Harvard and Oxford trained economist with significant world banking experience. That alone makes him the man for the moment. He’s attractive to everybody in the elbows-up way as Canadians overwhelmingly reject U.S. aggressive annexation threats. He’s poised to win with a steady temperament, commitment to fighting for Canadian sovereignty. As long as things don’t go tits up that is.
There has been disinfo and shenanigans on both sides where bad actors do sneaky shit in order to discredit the other side. See Liberal operatives laying out buttons and Conservative operatives counterfeiting official documents falsely accusing Liberals of courting prisoners. That constrasts with Conservative tough-on-crime stance.
Stay tuned, we will have the outcome by Tuesday.
Love and courage my friends!