This and that for your Thursday reading. – Sara Reardon discusses new research showing that vaccination has only a limited effect on the prevalance of long COVID among people who wind up getting infected, while Cindy Harnett offers a reminder that the best way to limit the likelihood of long-term
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The Cracked Crystal Ball II: Gun Control – A Not So Modest Proposal
This post will no doubt annoy firearms aficionados – I don’t much care. In the last 2 weeks, the United States has experienced 2 mass shooting events that resulted in multiple deaths each – one approaching 10, and another over 20 dead. Uvalde, TX – a community of 13,000
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Aekkachai Tuekprakhon et al. study how the Omicron COVID-19 subvariants are evading both previous immunity and existing treatments. And Zak Vescera reports on Dr. Saqib Shahab’s recognition that misinformation and apathy are key factors keeping Saskatchewan’s vaccination rates low – though both government policy and
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: The Hits Keep Coming
Yesterday, a man picked up a gun and killed 18 students in an elementary school in Texas. This morning a candidate for the leadership of the CPC promised to burn Canada’s gun control laws. Wow – talk about not reading the room – at all. Possibly the worst hot take
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Nicola Davis reports on new research showing that the effects of long COVID include sustained damage to organs including the heart, lungs and kidneys. – Neal Wilcott and Sean Cleary discuss why businesses would be smart to plan for a net-zero emission
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to start your week. – The Associated Press reports on Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’s warning that the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over. Mary Papenfuss discusses how people living in Trump-supporting counties (with lower vaccination rates driven by COVID denialism) have thus far been twice as likely to die
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – Irelyne Lavery reports on the increasing number of Canadians needing medical attention for the flu as COVID-related protections have been scrapped. And Wallace Immen reports on some of the possibilities to try to improve a health care system which has been put under
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – William J. Barber and Tope Folarin write that the U.S.’ grim milestone of one million COVID-19 deaths already serves as a searing indictment of its policy choices and disregard for people living in poverty – and this before a combination of Republican cruelty
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Musical interlude
PVRIS – Old Wounds
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib Mk. II: Well, Kids, It’s Last Call.
It’s reached the point where it’s hard work to ignore our perilous reality. But our political leaders, bless their hearts, shun it as a vampire does the noonday sun. Jason “Dead Man Walking” Kenney went to Washington to pitch the beauty of Athabasca bitumen. Justin Trudeau, the national begging bowl
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Ed Yong discusses how we may have created a “pandemicine” era by fundamentally changing how viruses are able to mutate and spread. The Globe and Mail’s editorial board is rightly aghast that Canadian governments are doing nothing to respond to another approaching wave
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Two Days In Alberta Politics
It’s Friday – end of the week, and the last 2 days of politics in Alberta have been a whirlwind … on Wednesday, Kenney said he would step down after getting 51.4% support in a leadership review vote, and on Thursday, the UCP caucus voted to keep Kenney on as
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Pam Belluck reports on a new study showing that people who weren’t initially hospitalized for COVID make up over three-quarters of the U.S.’ long COVID cases, while Andrew Romano discusses the likelihood that people will face constant infection absent better vaccine protection
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Ross Barkan takes stock of the reality that the U.S. has allowed a million people to die of a disease whose transmission could largely have been prevented, while Alexander Quon reports on the latest data showing that official death totals in Saskatchewan significantly
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: You Don’t Think It’s Really Fascism?
If it’s not from Germany, it’s just sparkling authoritarianism, right? More seriously, way back when I first started this blog (in 2004), I wrote a piece about whether or not we were in an emerging Dark Age. That was 2 years before Canada elected a CPC government for the first
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Night Cat Blogging
Slumbering cats.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib Mk. II: That Other Virus
I came across an article in The Atlantic about a highly infectious virus that has crossed the Pacific from the US to reach the writer’s home, Australia. It has also reached Canada. This virus attacks the body, the body politic, democracy itself. In late 2021, as Australian cities were
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Xue Cao et al. find that infection with COVID-19 produces accelerated physical aging among its other alarming effects, while Jan Hennigs et al. discuss the development of respiratory muscle dysfunction as a product of long COVID. Which means – as noted by Moira Wyton
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On historical echoes
Ontario’s ongoing provincial election is presenting some interesting echoes from previous campaigns – particularly the 2015 federal election which similarly involved a seemingly vulnerable Conservative majority, an NDP official opposition and a Lib attempt to jump back into default-government status. At the outset, I’ll reiterate my longtime view that contrary
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