Naervaer, the Danes do everything right.
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Donāt know if this has made it to the US/Canada yet, but they have been using AI-assisted facial recognition to try to catch shoplifters in the UK with mixed results.
Lots of false-positives as you can imagine.
The blind faith in the technology sounds similar to the British Post Office Scandal.
So, I mentioned in another thread that Iām visiting Toronto. Primary purpose of this trip is to pick up a few more records to support my Canadian citizenship by descent application, as the powers-that-be have, um, clarified in a rather picky way what they want to see in such applications (now that there are 120k+ in the queue).
The Archives of Ontario are on the campus of York University. So, after schlepping all the way out to campus, I spent a few hours playing around with their microfilm readers (havenāt done that sine the 1980ās, and BOY have things changed), I did the infamous ārestaurants near meā search on Google Maps, and discovered multiple chain fast food places in what seems to be the York University student union.
That place is a somewhat nice small mall / food court, with the restaurants I peeked into all accepting student meal plan credits in addition to cash and plastic.
Now, I know that dining options at my alma matter have become lessā¦institutional since I attended UIUCā¦but even so, that place was really nice if I dusted off my memory of a college student. I would have LOVED to have that on campus when I was in school.
Of course, I did go to school at a time when doing so wouldnāt incur a massive debt burden (I assume still not a concern at public univiersities in Canada), so maybe the character-building trade off was a better deal.
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I havenāt lived in Toronto for almost 25 years but I think the subway system extends out to York U now so that is the best way to go downtown if you are so inclined. Toronto traffic is awful!
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Iām transit-only this trip. Iām not masochistic enough to drive in Toronto if I donāt have to.
Of course, since Iām paying for this trip rather than expensing it, Iām not staying in downtown hotels. Iām out in generic sprawlā¦and the price for that was a 30-40 minute bus ride in addition to going 5 stops on Line 1, and being unable to coax an Uber driver to take me from Billy Bishop at 10:30pm.
(In my defense, this hotel is the closest non-scary hotel, as measured by transit travel time, to the Presbyterian Church archives, which Iāll be going to tomorrow. However, when I do camp out in the office tomorrowā¦it looks like itāll be 75 minutes by bus and subway.
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Youāre not too far from Jane & Finch, which is a sketchy part of TO. Iām glad youāre at a non-scary hotel. There is the Cheesecake Factory down at Yorkdale Mall!!
Hotel is a bit southwest from where 401-Don Valley interchange. The immediate area is a bit of a stroad / strip-mall hellscape, but this seems to be a reasonably OK middle-class area. Not āniceā, but āokayā and Iām only uncomfortable when I have to cross one of these stroads to get between a bus stop and the hotel (right-turning traffic does NOT yield to pedestrians and bikes in the crosswalk!)
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Don Mills >>>>>>>>> Jane/Finch!! 
The Presbyterian Church archives are at 50 Wynford Drive, right? That is just across the road from 49 Wynford Drive where I worked from 1979 to 1988 at the worldwide HQ of Bata Shoe. I used to nip over to the Presbyterian Church building at lunch hour as, in their basement, they had the only food outlet within walking distance of my office.
Bata sold 49 Wynford Drive to the Aga Khan Foundation (the Batas and the Aga Khan were friends as they were long time neighbours in St. Moritz). The Ismailis built some magnificent buildings on the property and several of my Ismaili friends recommended visiting the Aga Khan Museum there. I did so on a recent trip to Toronto and it was well worth it.
So if you have time after perusing the Presbyterian archives, I highly recommend walking across the road to visit the Museum and wander the grounds. The buildings and gardens are spectacular. The Museum also has a lovely restaurant.
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Lotta fries this weekend.
I just spent the morning prepping 15lbs of french fries for this weekend. Spouse and I headed to Eastern Ontario.
Saturday lunch, Amherst Island in the St. Lawrence river. Fish and chips.
Saturday supper. Leave the island, head back to my sisters place. Poutine for family supper.
Sunday morning, head to my friendās motherās place for ādriveway fish and chipsā Sheās way old, and doing something like this in her house would be overwhelming, so her son (my bff) comes to visit, I back into her driveway and do the whole fish and chips shenanigans right in her driveway. She gets a bit of excitement, sees her son and I (and I think also, she enjoys seeing her son and I together). This is the ā4th annual (her name) driveway fish and chip lunchā lol. I should get t shirts made up.
Itās a bit much lol.
Fortunately Iāve got a complete camp kit I built for hunting so I have everything I need in the back of my truck to run a fish and chip dinner, dishes, pots, burners, etc. Drop the tailgate down and start cooking.
My mom had a kitchen fryer, but I think she thought it was too much of a pita to use it much. And I think I inherited that from her and fries are something Iād never do at home. Iād never thought about it, but I guess things may be different in the land of poutine? Are fryers standard equipment up there?
Lol no they are not. Fish frys are my āthingā.
Iāve got a 225k btu three burner camp stove, a commercial fry cutter and heavy and thick aluminum pot and spiders (like a strainer). and we buy canola oil by the 5 gallon jugs. Or more likely, 20l.
I cut and soak the potatoes. Then I boil until just before getting soft. Then in the freezer for an hour. Then in oil at 325, then back in the freezer. Then final step, at 375 til crisp.
Who decided phlegm should be spelled like that? Did they have a special love of silent consonants?
they spelled it while spiiting
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It would require a whole new paradigm to explain it.
I think it was the ka-nig-its who say āEkke-ekke-ekke-ekke-ptang-zoo-boingā
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I am having a bit of deja vuā¦
We just had a bat fly into our house, which freaked out some of our cats, and one of them (the youngest) bit my wife by accident as it was scared. So now are getting some antibiotics for the wound as it looks infected.
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I decided I didnāt want to distract in the RIP thread, soā¦
Can we make September 25th a national holiday for Dolly Parton and give all office workers the day off? Where did the 9-5 workday go? I have never had that. I started with 8:30-5 or was it 8-4:30 where the company gave you an hour for lunch and paid you for half of it. Now it is theoretically 8:00 to 5:00 with an hour unpaid lunch.
RIP Dolly very amazing woman.
My first real job I was able to work 7-3:10 with last hour study time during exam season.