 Chinese LLMs have been scraping my website. The country appeared in my analytics three weeks ago for the first time in four years and they sped up to number two spot in ranking. It’s made me think of the writing I do here as a weekly treat for a Chinese machine — every seven days something new for them to gobble. I don’t know how many of you know that the internet has turned into the underbelly of Vegas. It’s weird to think my work can be taken and I also know that most of creation is temporary. I’m talking to my hosting and website companies. The security solutions cost big money (and are built for large brands). I’ve been trying to sort out if the same thing is happening on big blogging platforms — or have they made a back room deal with American AI. The class action lawsuits in this sphere will grow and I hope they are painful for the takers. It’s only discouraging if I let it be that way. Nothing will stop me from creating. *** I watched this Fifth Estate investigation on an addiction treatment centre and I could not shake it — there was no plan to write this. There are several shocking moments, but the allegations that they were taking clients who were detoxing with no medical staff on hand should be criminal. “Attempting a cold-turkey or at-home detox from alcohol, opioids, or benzodiazepines can be dangerous and even life-threatening.” It demonstrates a lack of care that makes me long for a landmark ruling with a penalty high enough to send shockwaves through Canadian recovery and treatment providers, who are not responding to repeat wake-up calls. I have sat with a few women in emergency rooms waiting to be seen on the first stop to detox. I have dropped essential items off for friends during their three days stay. I’ve spoken in several women’s detox centres, and have attended meetings in treatment facilities. As a participant, a complete neophyte, I know that the first three days of recovery are tenuous. Getting clean is hard. Have you seen someone in an alcohol-induced seizure? Do you know how many alcoholics die choking? Having no medical staff on site because the feds and the province don’t monitor it makes my blood boil. The allegations of misrepresentation by this facility are breathtaking. What is clear from the investigation is that it is the wild west out there, and it’s not limited to one facility or British Columbia. I have been a long time sober, and you can’t imagine the work I’ve have done to get well enough to write this. And there is still more for me to do. I worry any time I hear a newly recovered alcoholic/addict express interest in working in recovery — less than one percent will be suited to it and some will never get certified. Substance abuse recovery is not meant to become a whole life. Only a precious few can handle it (it says that right in the blue book). As an act of service, this is my first pitch for legislation and mandatory certification for all substance abuse treatment centres, administrators, sobriety coaches, and interventionists in Canada. You can tell watching this there will be pushback. Only professionals insist on professional conditions. *** This story on Punjabi Disco from the BBC is all kinds of fantastic — forty minutes of wholesome fun. Hearing this man talk of having his dreams come true while playing music with his mother is delicious. The salmon were running up the Humber this week. I try to imagine what the run would have looked like over millennia. I took the header image in an alley in Parkdale. Do you know the name of the artist? I was out on a Stroll with Shawn Micallef — master of words and walking — a Toronto urban advocate and flaneur. *** Some of the sounds of the last seven days. 20252019Comments are closed.
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