Soccer in the Square seems to be a hit at UBC's Wesbrook Village, drawing a pretty good crowd for France v. Senegal on the big screen (it was still 0-0 at time of photo).
New essay with @lauraknelson.bsky.social on AI and cultural sociology. Revisiting what made word embeddings so useful for cultural sociology, we argue that contemporary LLMs risk collapsing perspectival differences and discuss provisional solutions that might help recover cultural variation.
Very cool to see a new urban reserve in Fort St. John!
Not all are created this way (many reserves had cities grow around them, as across Metro Vancouver), but neat to see a municipality so welcoming of the switch in jurisdiction.
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Wild to remember that the US sanctions on Iran apparently about to be lifted (item 7) were how Canada got drawn into placing Huawei's Meng Wanzhou under sensationalized house arrest here in Vancouver (even though Canada wasn't party to the sanctions).
TFW you show up early to the "invasive species" conference, but you know you're still not the first one to get there.
"State Rep. Brent Money, a Greenville Republican who founded the Sharia-Free Texas Caucus..."
Seriously? That's his name? And from Greenville? Aside from everything else, it feels like the writers for this season of Texas are running on fumes at this point.
Nathan Lauster
New World Cup team about to drop
I'm really vibing with this collection of essays on the Future of Quantitative Social Science. It flat out has me buzzing.
As Kevin Munger says in Chapter 14:
"But AI will soon make it impossible for us to ignore the absurdity of the status quo..."
rohanalexander.github.io/notes_on_the...
Great to see Sen̓áḵw getting some love here, featuring @khelsilem.bsky.social along with lots of other great local housing voices (e.g. @1alexhemingway.bsky.social @tomdavidoff.bsky.social & @christineboyle.bsky.social) thrown into the mix.
www.nytimes.com/2026/06/15/o...
The first urban reserve in northeastern B.C. is now officially open in Fort St. John. It allows the Doig River First Nation to generate income by running businesses in the space while paying the city ...
A new Science study shows that bumble bees can position a ball underneath a fake “flower” to reach a reward, suggesting they can exhibit spontaneous problem-solving and challenging the notion that such advanced cognitive abilities are exclusive to large-brained vertebrates. https://scim.ag/4vs08dC
Video
Science Magazine
Since I haven't seen a post with all of it screenshotted and alt-texted in one place, here's the Iran MOU as hudson.org Adjunct Fellow Josh Block is reporting it on Twitter.
George Pearkes
A Muslim Texan hoping to participate in the state Republican convention left in tears after after being told explicitly that he should leave the country. bit.ly/4eo3nfd
bit.ly
Muslim delegates and attendees hoping to participate in the state Republican convention were shunned and rejected by members as they espoused themes of party unity ahead of the November election.
