I hadn't thought of #AI as an attempt to enclose and commodify intelligence, but it's a framing that makes a lot of sense
Make ‘em dumb, sell ‘em smarts, from @parismarx@mastodon.online
Tyler Smith
@plantarum@ottawa.place
I'm a botanist and conservation biologist in Ottawa. My work focuses on crop wild relatives and wild-harvested species, particularly berries; and invasive plants. I am trained as a plant taxonomist and community ecologist.
All opinions expressed are my own, and do not reflect those any of my employer(s) past, present or future.
My interests include photography, woodworking, kayaking, swimming, hiking and natural history.
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Joined December 03, 2022
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Tyler Smith
@plantarum@ottawa.place
I'm a botanist and conservation biologist in Ottawa. My work focuses on crop wild relatives and wild-harvested species, particularly berries; and invasive plants. I am trained as a plant taxonomist and community ecologist. All opinions expressed are my own, and do not reflect those any of my employer(s) past, present or future. My interests include photography, woodworking, kayaking, swimming, hiking and natural history.
ottawa.place
Tyler Smith
@plantarum@ottawa.place
I'm a botanist and conservation biologist in Ottawa. My work focuses on crop wild relatives and wild-harvested species, particularly berries; and invasive plants. I am trained as a plant taxonomist and community ecologist. All opinions expressed are my own, and do not reflect those any of my employer(s) past, present or future. My interests include photography, woodworking, kayaking, swimming, hiking and natural history.
ottawa.place
@plantarum@ottawa.place
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1d ago
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Tyler Smith
@plantarum@ottawa.place
I'm a botanist and conservation biologist in Ottawa. My work focuses on crop wild relatives and wild-harvested species, particularly berries; and invasive plants. I am trained as a plant taxonomist and community ecologist. All opinions expressed are my own, and do not reflect those any of my employer(s) past, present or future. My interests include photography, woodworking, kayaking, swimming, hiking and natural history.
ottawa.place
Tyler Smith
@plantarum@ottawa.place
I'm a botanist and conservation biologist in Ottawa. My work focuses on crop wild relatives and wild-harvested species, particularly berries; and invasive plants. I am trained as a plant taxonomist and community ecologist. All opinions expressed are my own, and do not reflect those any of my employer(s) past, present or future. My interests include photography, woodworking, kayaking, swimming, hiking and natural history.
ottawa.place
@plantarum@ottawa.place
·
2d ago
#Ontario #NDP is now pushing to #BanPredatoryPricing:
https://banpredatorypricing.ca/
Following up on Wab Kinew doing this in Manitoba, and the Avi Lewis pushing this federally:
https://www.ndp.ca/news/ndp-moves-ban-surveillance-pricing-gouging-canadians
Here's hoping this leads to more momentum for the NDP!
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Tyler Smith
@plantarum@ottawa.place
I'm a botanist and conservation biologist in Ottawa. My work focuses on crop wild relatives and wild-harvested species, particularly berries; and invasive plants. I am trained as a plant taxonomist and community ecologist. All opinions expressed are my own, and do not reflect those any of my employer(s) past, present or future. My interests include photography, woodworking, kayaking, swimming, hiking and natural history.
ottawa.place
Tyler Smith
@plantarum@ottawa.place
I'm a botanist and conservation biologist in Ottawa. My work focuses on crop wild relatives and wild-harvested species, particularly berries; and invasive plants. I am trained as a plant taxonomist and community ecologist. All opinions expressed are my own, and do not reflect those any of my employer(s) past, present or future. My interests include photography, woodworking, kayaking, swimming, hiking and natural history.
ottawa.place
@plantarum@ottawa.place
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2d ago
Is #substack really the only option for #IndependentJournalists? It seems pretty horrible, but there are a lot of people I'd like to support that use it as their main/only web presence
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Tyler Smith
@plantarum@ottawa.place
I'm a botanist and conservation biologist in Ottawa. My work focuses on crop wild relatives and wild-harvested species, particularly berries; and invasive plants. I am trained as a plant taxonomist and community ecologist. All opinions expressed are my own, and do not reflect those any of my employer(s) past, present or future. My interests include photography, woodworking, kayaking, swimming, hiking and natural history.
ottawa.place
Tyler Smith
@plantarum@ottawa.place
I'm a botanist and conservation biologist in Ottawa. My work focuses on crop wild relatives and wild-harvested species, particularly berries; and invasive plants. I am trained as a plant taxonomist and community ecologist. All opinions expressed are my own, and do not reflect those any of my employer(s) past, present or future. My interests include photography, woodworking, kayaking, swimming, hiking and natural history.
ottawa.place
@plantarum@ottawa.place
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5d ago
@ShaulaEvans Richard Wagamese is one of my favourite authors. I've read four or five of his novels, all amazing.
View full thread on ottawa.place
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Tyler Smith
@plantarum@ottawa.place
I'm a botanist and conservation biologist in Ottawa. My work focuses on crop wild relatives and wild-harvested species, particularly berries; and invasive plants. I am trained as a plant taxonomist and community ecologist. All opinions expressed are my own, and do not reflect those any of my employer(s) past, present or future. My interests include photography, woodworking, kayaking, swimming, hiking and natural history.
ottawa.place
Tyler Smith
@plantarum@ottawa.place
I'm a botanist and conservation biologist in Ottawa. My work focuses on crop wild relatives and wild-harvested species, particularly berries; and invasive plants. I am trained as a plant taxonomist and community ecologist. All opinions expressed are my own, and do not reflect those any of my employer(s) past, present or future. My interests include photography, woodworking, kayaking, swimming, hiking and natural history.
ottawa.place
@plantarum@ottawa.place
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6d ago
> You have read 24 articles so far this year
ok, fair enough #TheGuardian, take my money!
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Tyler Smith
@plantarum@ottawa.place
I'm a botanist and conservation biologist in Ottawa. My work focuses on crop wild relatives and wild-harvested species, particularly berries; and invasive plants. I am trained as a plant taxonomist and community ecologist. All opinions expressed are my own, and do not reflect those any of my employer(s) past, present or future. My interests include photography, woodworking, kayaking, swimming, hiking and natural history.
ottawa.place
Tyler Smith
@plantarum@ottawa.place
I'm a botanist and conservation biologist in Ottawa. My work focuses on crop wild relatives and wild-harvested species, particularly berries; and invasive plants. I am trained as a plant taxonomist and community ecologist. All opinions expressed are my own, and do not reflect those any of my employer(s) past, present or future. My interests include photography, woodworking, kayaking, swimming, hiking and natural history.
ottawa.place
@plantarum@ottawa.place
·
6d ago
@pluralistic
When the endangered species people, the pollution people, the urban sprawl people, etc, all united under the banner of environmentalism, their individual movements grew in influence.
We need to do that again.
View full thread on ottawa.place
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Tyler Smith
@plantarum@ottawa.place
I'm a botanist and conservation biologist in Ottawa. My work focuses on crop wild relatives and wild-harvested species, particularly berries; and invasive plants. I am trained as a plant taxonomist and community ecologist. All opinions expressed are my own, and do not reflect those any of my employer(s) past, present or future. My interests include photography, woodworking, kayaking, swimming, hiking and natural history.
ottawa.place
Tyler Smith
@plantarum@ottawa.place
I'm a botanist and conservation biologist in Ottawa. My work focuses on crop wild relatives and wild-harvested species, particularly berries; and invasive plants. I am trained as a plant taxonomist and community ecologist. All opinions expressed are my own, and do not reflect those any of my employer(s) past, present or future. My interests include photography, woodworking, kayaking, swimming, hiking and natural history.
ottawa.place
@plantarum@ottawa.place
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6d ago
@pluralistic
Cory also argues, in other posts, that an open internet isn't the single defining issue of our time. But if we lose it, we lose our ability to fight the many other problems we face.
Which I think is entirely consistent with Naomi Klein's (I think, and doubtless others) position that all struggle for justice is rooted in climate action. (or maybe it was the other way around).
The oligarchs are counting on us acting as individuals whose only agency is choosing what to buy. And failing that, that they can partition our resistance into silos of limited scope (and ideally opposing goals): surveillance capitalism, racial equity, gender equity, climate action.
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Tyler Smith
@plantarum@ottawa.place
I'm a botanist and conservation biologist in Ottawa. My work focuses on crop wild relatives and wild-harvested species, particularly berries; and invasive plants. I am trained as a plant taxonomist and community ecologist. All opinions expressed are my own, and do not reflect those any of my employer(s) past, present or future. My interests include photography, woodworking, kayaking, swimming, hiking and natural history.
ottawa.place
Tyler Smith
@plantarum@ottawa.place
I'm a botanist and conservation biologist in Ottawa. My work focuses on crop wild relatives and wild-harvested species, particularly berries; and invasive plants. I am trained as a plant taxonomist and community ecologist. All opinions expressed are my own, and do not reflect those any of my employer(s) past, present or future. My interests include photography, woodworking, kayaking, swimming, hiking and natural history.
ottawa.place
@plantarum@ottawa.place
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6d ago
@pluralistic@mamot.fr Don't Be Evil (11 Apr 2026)
Cory is addressing the #Internet in this piece. But the message is increasingly urgent in all aspects of our lives: we need to come together to build, maintain, and defend our communities. Too many evil fuckers are counting on us to buy the company line that we're all just self-interested, rugged-individualists, and that we won't notice that *their* self-interests are burning the world down.
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Tyler Smith
@plantarum@ottawa.place
I'm a botanist and conservation biologist in Ottawa. My work focuses on crop wild relatives and wild-harvested species, particularly berries; and invasive plants. I am trained as a plant taxonomist and community ecologist. All opinions expressed are my own, and do not reflect those any of my employer(s) past, present or future. My interests include photography, woodworking, kayaking, swimming, hiking and natural history.
ottawa.place
Tyler Smith
@plantarum@ottawa.place
I'm a botanist and conservation biologist in Ottawa. My work focuses on crop wild relatives and wild-harvested species, particularly berries; and invasive plants. I am trained as a plant taxonomist and community ecologist. All opinions expressed are my own, and do not reflect those any of my employer(s) past, present or future. My interests include photography, woodworking, kayaking, swimming, hiking and natural history.
ottawa.place
@plantarum@ottawa.place
·
Apr 10, 2026
Today's #Bash lesson:
`basename` doesn't accept `stdin`, so you can't use it in a pipe (without resorting to `xargs`). This doesn't work:
ls path/to/*fq.gz | basename
But with the `-a` flag, `basename` will accept multiple arguments:
basename -a path/to/*fq.gz
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Tyler Smith
@plantarum@ottawa.place
I'm a botanist and conservation biologist in Ottawa. My work focuses on crop wild relatives and wild-harvested species, particularly berries; and invasive plants. I am trained as a plant taxonomist and community ecologist. All opinions expressed are my own, and do not reflect those any of my employer(s) past, present or future. My interests include photography, woodworking, kayaking, swimming, hiking and natural history.
ottawa.place
Tyler Smith
@plantarum@ottawa.place
I'm a botanist and conservation biologist in Ottawa. My work focuses on crop wild relatives and wild-harvested species, particularly berries; and invasive plants. I am trained as a plant taxonomist and community ecologist. All opinions expressed are my own, and do not reflect those any of my employer(s) past, present or future. My interests include photography, woodworking, kayaking, swimming, hiking and natural history.
ottawa.place
@plantarum@ottawa.place
·
Apr 06, 2026
@pluralistic@mamot.fr Your boss wants to use surveillance data to cut your wages (06 Apr 2026)
https://pluralistic.net/2026/04/06/empiricism-washing/
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Tyler Smith
@plantarum@ottawa.place
I'm a botanist and conservation biologist in Ottawa. My work focuses on crop wild relatives and wild-harvested species, particularly berries; and invasive plants. I am trained as a plant taxonomist and community ecologist. All opinions expressed are my own, and do not reflect those any of my employer(s) past, present or future. My interests include photography, woodworking, kayaking, swimming, hiking and natural history.
ottawa.place
Tyler Smith
@plantarum@ottawa.place
I'm a botanist and conservation biologist in Ottawa. My work focuses on crop wild relatives and wild-harvested species, particularly berries; and invasive plants. I am trained as a plant taxonomist and community ecologist. All opinions expressed are my own, and do not reflect those any of my employer(s) past, present or future. My interests include photography, woodworking, kayaking, swimming, hiking and natural history.
ottawa.place
@plantarum@ottawa.place
·
Mar 28, 2026
@typotheque
Cool, but what does "expressive" mean in this context? Do we have a shared understanding of what that means?
It's easy enough to pick my favourite from each font pair, is that what you're looking for? Or which would be most eye-catching as a heading, or pleasing to read as body text, or do you want to know which font looks more unusual?
View full thread on ottawa.place
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Tyler Smith
@plantarum@ottawa.place
I'm a botanist and conservation biologist in Ottawa. My work focuses on crop wild relatives and wild-harvested species, particularly berries; and invasive plants. I am trained as a plant taxonomist and community ecologist. All opinions expressed are my own, and do not reflect those any of my employer(s) past, present or future. My interests include photography, woodworking, kayaking, swimming, hiking and natural history.
ottawa.place
Tyler Smith
@plantarum@ottawa.place
I'm a botanist and conservation biologist in Ottawa. My work focuses on crop wild relatives and wild-harvested species, particularly berries; and invasive plants. I am trained as a plant taxonomist and community ecologist. All opinions expressed are my own, and do not reflect those any of my employer(s) past, present or future. My interests include photography, woodworking, kayaking, swimming, hiking and natural history.
ottawa.place
@plantarum@ottawa.place
·
Mar 23, 2026
"We did this with #AI" has become a synonym for "We don't care if this is done well":
@pluralistic@mamot.fr : Understaffing as a form of enshittification (23 Mar 2026)
https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/22/nobodys-home/
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