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With a population of about 3 million people, Toronto is not only the biggest city in Canada, but also the fastest-growing urban centre in North America.

Its downtown core is a hub of activity but venture just a couple of kilometres northeast and you’ll find yourself in the Don Valley Brick Works, a former quarry that over the course of three decades has been transformed into a wetland. Fringed by houses and high rises, the marshlands and the valley that surrounds them are home to ducks, foxes, beavers and even the occasional deer.

The urban oasis is one of several spread across Toronto, which was recently recognized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as a model for other cities aiming to restore their natural spaces.

[...]there's another story to be told here — and it's older and, if possible, even sadder. Microsoft has simply never been any good at running game studios.

The waste — of time, money, and human potential — is incalculable. And it's a sadly familiar story. In 2006, Microsoft acquired the legendary British developer Lionhead, only to close it ten years later after forcing the studio to chase fads it was ill-suited to, like motion control and live-service games. Rare, acquired for a then-record-breaking $375 million in 2002, has seemed to skirt close to a similar fate several times as it searched for a place within the Xbox family that made sense and played to its strengths. Pirate game Sea of Thieves has kept the developer afloat in recent years, but how much longer can that last?

Microsoft's original sin in this arena was its handling of Bungie. The studio was an inspired early acquisition that almost single-handedly made Xbox's reputation among gamers with its Halo series. But Microsoft responded to this success by stifling Bungie's creativity with a forced march of sequel production that ultimately drove the studio away: It bought itself out in 2007. The Halo brand never recovered from the loss, and the mismanagement of the caretaker studio founded to take it over, 343 Industries (now Halo Studios), was arguably even worse. It was never allowed to develop its own identity, and saddled with tasks — including maintaining its own game engine, and turning Halo into an ill-defined forever game — that were clearly beyond its capabilities.

The truth is that much of Microsoft's decision-making as a publisher seems to come from a place of insecurity. Burned by its experiences with Bungie, Lionhead, and Rare, the company began a partial retreat from first-party development under previous Xbox boss Don Mattrick. When the resulting weakness of its slate of games became all too apparent, Mattrick's successor Phil Spencer began a massive overcorrection, buying studios left, right, and center.

If the goal of the spending spree was to turn Xbox into a first-party powerhouse with system-selling exclusives to rival Nintendo and Sony, Microsoft has failed — or, arguably, overshot the mark. The acquisitions of Bethesda and Activision Blizzard brought it properties like Call of Duty, Warcraft, and The Elder Scrolls that were too big to make exclusive. Combined with a strategic shift away from consoles and toward PC, subscriptions, and cloud gaming, Microsoft has become something quite different: the biggest game publisher the world has ever seen, bigger than any platform. In that context, nurturing vanity projects like Everwild or resuscitating old IP like Perfect Dark simply isn't a priority.

In the aftermath of the Eaton Fire that destroyed over 6,000 homes in Los Angeles’s Altadena area in January, another kind of potential crisis is unfolding. In a town once built by working families and craftsmen, the new face of development doesn’t carry a hammer or a blueprint—it carries a spreadsheet.

In the wake of natural disasters, families often face immense pressure to sell—whether from rising insurance costs, the emotional and logistical burden of rebuilding, or uncertain timelines for recovery. Into this vulnerable window steps a wave of acquisitions, often quiet and fast moving, led by companies with opaque ownership structures that capitalize on disrupted communities before they’ve had a real chance to regroup. In Altadena specifically, since the fire, nearly 150 damaged properties have been sold in this close-knit foothill community just northeast of Los Angeles, known for its mix of cottages, midcentury bungalows, and multigenerational households.

After combing through public records and deed filings, I discovered that of those post-fire home sales, at least 50 percent were purchased by corporate entities. This on its own isn’t inherently alarming, as individuals can purchase property through LLCs to limit legal exposure. But it is a rate that far exceeds the national average, where corporate buyers account for roughly 23 percent of single-family home sales. Even more striking, 42 percent of those sales are now held by just six companies, each of which has acquired four or more homes. While this sample size is limited, the concentration of ownership points to a pattern of land consolidation that warrants attention—particularly in a community still recovering from disaster. The paper trail leads to a small group of repeat buyers.

Let’s break down who they are. (None of the representatives associated with these companies responded to a request for comment by the time of publication.)

In the 2008 best seller Nudge, the legal scholar Cass R. Sunstein and the economist Richard H. Thaler marshaled behavioral-science research to show how small tweaks could help us make better choices. An updated version of the book includes a section on what they called “sludge”—tortuous administrative demands, endless wait times, and excessive procedural fuss that impede us in our lives.

The whole idea of sludge struck a chord. In the past several years, the topic has attracted a growing body of work. Researchers have shown how sludge leads people to forgo essential benefits and quietly accept outcomes they never would have otherwise chosen. Sunstein had encountered plenty of the stuff working with the Department of Homeland Security and, before that, as administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. “People might want to sign their child up for some beneficial program, such as free transportation or free school meals, but the sludge might defeat them,” he wrote in the Duke Law Journal.

The defeat part rang darkly to me. When I started talking with people about their sludge stories, I noticed that almost all ended the same way—with a weary, bedraggled Fuck it. Beholding the sheer unaccountability of the system, they’d pay that erroneous medical bill or give up on contesting that ticket. And this isn’t happening just here and there. Instead, I came to see this as a permanent condition. We are living in the state of Fuck it.

Some of the sludge we submit to is unavoidable—the simple consequence of living in a big, digitized world. But some of it is by design. ProPublica showed in 2023 how Cigna saved millions of dollars by rejecting claims without having doctors read them, knowing that a limited number of customers would endure the process of appeal. (Cigna told ProPublica that its description was “incorrect.”) Later that same year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered Toyota’s motor-financing arm to pay $60 million for alleged misdeeds that included thwarting refunds and deliberately setting up a dead-end hotline for canceling products and services. (The now-diminished bureau canceled the order in May.) As one Harvard Business Review article put it, “Some companies may actually find it profitable to create hassles for complaining customers.”

Sludge can also reduce participation in government programs. According to Stephanie Thum, an adjunct faculty member at the Indiana Institute of Technology who researches and writes about bureaucracy, agencies may use this fact to their advantage. “If you bury a fee waiver or publish a website in legalese rather than plain language, research shows people might stay away,” Thum told me. “If you’re a leader, you might use that knowledge to get rid of administrative friction—or put it in place.”

Fee waivers, rejected claims—sludge pales compared with other global crises, of course. But that might just be its cruelest trick. There was a time when systemic dysfunction felt bold and italicized, and so did our response: We were mad as hell and we weren’t going to take it anymore! Now something more insidious and mundane is at work. The system chips away as much as it crushes, all while reassuring us that that’s just how things go.

The result: We’re exhausted as hell and we’re probably going to keep taking it.

Australians using search engines while logged in to accounts from the likes of Google and Microsoft will have their age checked by the end of 2025, under a new online safety code co-developed by technology companies and registered by the eSafety Commissioner.

Search engines operating in Australia will need to implement age assurance technologies for logged-in users in "no later than six months”, under new rules published on Monday.

While only logged-in users will be required to have their age checked, many Australians typically surf the web while logged into accounts from Google, which dominates Australia’s search market and also runs Gmail and YouTube; and Microsoft, which runs the Bing search engine and email platform Outlook.

If a search engine’s age assurance systems believe a signed-in user is “likely to be an Australian child” under the age of 18, they will need to set safety tools such as “safe search” functions at their highest setting by default to filter out pornography and high impact violence, including in advertising.

Currently, Australians must be at least 13 years of age to manage their own Google or Microsoft account.

Flint, Mich. – A decade after lead contaminated water was found in Flint, Michigan’s water system, the legal battle to replace lead water pipes is finished, a landmark milestone for a city defined by its dangerous water. Today the State of Michigan submitted a progress report to a federal court confirming that, more than eight years after a court-ordered settlement required Flint officials to replace pipes and restore property damaged in the process, nearly 11,000 lead pipes were replaced and more than 28,000 properties were restored. There is no safe level of lead exposure.

“Thanks to the persistence of the people of Flint and our partners, we are finally at the end of the lead pipe replacement project. While this milestone is not all the justice our community deserves, it is a huge achievement,” said Pastor Allen C. Overton of the Concerned Pastors for Social Action. “We would not have reached this day without the work of so many Flint residents who worked to hold our leaders accountable. I have never been prouder to be a member of the Flint community.”

Women in Wisconsin will continue to have access to abortion services under a new ruling from the state's highest court that invalidates a 176-year-old state law that had banned abortions in nearly every situation.

In a 4-3 ruling July 2, the liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed a lower court's previous decision that overturned the 19th Century law.

The decision ends three years of tumult over the issue following the 2022 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade, which had provided women nationwide with a constitutional right to abortion.

Writing for the court's liberal majority, Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Dallet said the Wisconsin state Legislature had effectively repealed the 1849 law when it enacted additional laws regulating access to abortion.

"... this case is about giving effect to 50 years’ worth of laws passed by the legislature about virtually every aspect of abortion including where, when, and how health-care providers may lawfully perform abortions," Dallet wrote. "The legislature, as the people’s representatives, remains free to change the laws with respect to abortion in the future."

archive.is link

Former Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan is weighing a run for higher office as a Democrat. But is the party ready for him?

In a conversation with the “Politically Georgia” podcast airing today, Duncan, an AJC contributing opinion columnist, expressed his ongoing exasperation over the direction of the Republican Party under President Donald Trump. He called the “big, beautiful” bill moving through the Senate this week “an abomination of any sort of conservative values.”

And he expressed frustration with the field running for Georgia governor so far from both parties. That includes two Republicans, Attorney General Chris Carr and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who is expected to announce his campaign later this summer, and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and state Sen. Jason Esteves for the Democrats.

“From the right, I’ve got everybody embracing Donald Trump and that’s just an unacceptable strategy for me for a number of reasons,” he said of the 2026 field. “And on the left, I just personally don’t believe Mayor Bottoms is positioned well to beat a Republican.”

Duncan has been the subject of wide speculation as a potential candidate for governor. Asked if he’s considering a run, he said, “I’ve certainly heard the rumor. And, I’m certainly fielding phone calls from folks across the state that are asking the same question.”

He noted he’s getting calls from people across the political spectrum, but that his days as a GOP candidate are likely over.

“I’m certainly not going to run as a Republican. I’ve given up on them as much as they’ve given up on me,” he said.

The Steam Sale started a few days ago and people have been doing their recommendations. The Adventure Games Podcast has a nice page with their recommendations, Miri Teixeiri has a good recommendation thread on bluesky, but now I want to do one because that’s what blogs are for. As usual, I also think you should consider buying games on Itch.io but they’re not doing a sale right now. I’m also missing a ton of stuff because I can only write so much, so if you enjoy these then keep looking around. Despite the occasional discourse about it being dead, there’s constantly new games coming out and I even wrote a post a few weeks ago about all the releases this year. So in no order really, here’s a list of recommendations that are more focused on recent releases.

Another win for freedom to read legislation on the West Coast this week, as Oregon’s state House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 1098 on Monday, a bill that will protect access to books in school libraries. It’s great news: books can no longer be banned solely because they discuss sexuality, religion, or other topics, nor can books be removed because they are written by someone from a protected class. SB 1098 now goes to the governor, who is expected to sign it into law.

The successful legislative effort got a big lift from a coalition of advocates and citizens, including the ACLU of Oregon, Basic Rights Oregon, and Authors Against Book Bans, a organization with a great track record in fights like these.

from the "Pre-emptively Answered Questions" page

What made you go and do this?

Okay so on Trans Day of Visibility 2025, Checkpoint Gaming published what they called the "definitive list" of trans games throughout history. While it highlighted a great deal of excellent titles featuring trans representation and trans developers from the last decade or so, it could hardly be described as definitive or throughout history. Out of the whole list, only two games were older than 2010, one by a trans woman (M.U.L.E by Danielle Bunten Berry), and one with a prominent trans character (Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door). This honestly cheesed me off big time because we've always been here. of course we have, but articles like this risk implying the transphobic narrative that we're some kind of trendy social contagion invented by Joe Biden to sell more Cloud Atlas tickets or fucking whatever. So I decided fuck it. I'm making my own list. a list of as many games as possible from before 2010 which we know for a fact had a trans person on the dev team. We've probably touched way more games than you think.

Why the 2010 cutoff?

Couple of reasons. First of all, as said above, I was specifically looking for older games and Fifteen Years Ago seems like a good dividing line. It's where the Checkpoint list ran dry.

Also, the later we go the more that larger studios tend to balloon in size to the point where it would get statistically REALLY weird if it was all-cis teams. Like, case in point, did you know that there was at least one trans person on the GTA 5 dev team? (And there is btw. I know someone who knows her). That isn't nessecarily something people would KNOW know, but it's also just not an interesting fact at that kind of scale.. Rockstar North in Scotland alone had over 360 employees at the time of GTA 5's release, and thousands more people worked on the game across ALL of Rockstar's studios. Even if you take the most conservative estimate of what percentage of people are trans, and ignore the fact that a relatively high amount of trans people end up in tech, it would STILL be a hell of a statistical anomaly if absolutely NONE of those thousands of people had at least SOMETHING a bit gendery going on. So yeah it would basically get to the point where you could probably just list Every "AAA" Game.

Is that the page finished then?

Oh HELL no. I've still got to add a whole bunch of screenshots and descriptions and links about the various games. Heck, there's a bunch I've still got to get around to actually playing. ALSO I keep finding out about more games and more trans people. I swear I didn't think this was going to be as long a list as it is. You'd think I'd have learned not to underestimate other trans people by now but here we are.

Hey you missed a game/developer.

Brilliant! I want to know about this. Probably the best way to contact me right now is on the Fediverse so yell at me there about it. You can find me at https://chitter.xyz/@DotMaetrix

The list seems awfully transfem heavy. Aren't there more (or heck, any) trans men that have done videogames?

Probably. Once again, if you know about any, I REALLY want to know. TBH I think one of the side effects of the games industry being a bit of a Boys Club is that a lot of trans developers will have either got their starts while they were still presenting as men, or living stealth as men.