Assorted content to end your week. – Linda McQuaig discusses how the Biden administration is providing the Trudeau Libs with an example to follow in ensuring that the ultra-wealthy contribute something closer to their fair share of the cost of a functional society. And Alexandria Nassopoulos highlights the realities facing
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Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Dave Hansen et al. discuss the attempt in progress by publishers to attack the Internet Archive in order to restrict access to materials. And Walled Culture examines the problem of trying to preserve any “public domain” at all when the profit motive
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – The John Snow Project calls out the dangers of labeling COVID-19 infection as an immune-boosting mechanism, rather than an unequivocal harm to individual health. Jake Miller discusses new research on the groups at particular risk of long COVID. And Remember Rebuild SK has
Continue readingAnti-Racist Canada: The ARC Collective: Diagolon and Trolling: How To Minimize Platforming the Far-Right and Instead Provide Context
Over the years there has been a lot of discussion about the danger of platforming right wing extremists. It's an issue that I've wrestled with for years myself here on the blog and also on Twitter. On the one hand I've always believed that it was important to share information
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: You Do NOT Roll Over For Fascists
So, on Saturday, Jen Gerson published a column in the Globe and Mail titled “The Backlash Against Drag Artists Is Unfair, But It’s No Mystery Why It’s Happening”. I read it on Saturday, it’s taken me the last couple of days to calm down enough to write a response to
Continue readingAnti-Racist Canada: The ARC Collective: Neo-Nazi Kevin Goudreau is a Symptom of a Larger Problem
Those of you how have followed the blog for years know that Kevin Goudreau, a neo-Nazi active now for more than 30 years, has been covered on these pages mostly in the spirit of how he deserves to be treated. As a joke whom even other right wing extremists who
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your weekend reading. – Alejandro de la Garza writes about the devastation continuing to be wrought by COVID-19 in Lamb County, Texas even as the powers that be pretend the pandemic is in the past. And John Michael McGrath discusses why Ontario shouldn’t count on the Ford
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Musical interlude
Bob Moses – Hanging On
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Al Shaw, Irena Hwang and Caroline Chen discuss how forest loss and changing interactions between people and wildlife could be the trigger for a future pandemic. Christian Elliott points out that thawing permafrost is likely to release neurotoxic methylmercury in addition to a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Rosemary Boyton and Daniel Altman discuss how any immunity from prior COVID-19 infection is waning as time passes and ever-changing variants circulate for want of any attempt to limit their spread. Bobbi-Jean Mackinnon reports on the rising number of COVID-related workers’ compensation
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Kevin Jiang reports on the reality that COVID-19 has resulted in a crash in life expectancy (which has already been stagnant due to the failure to reduce the harm of the drug poisoning crisis). And Victoria Wells points out that even ruthlessly selfish
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Night Cat Blogging
Hibernating cats.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Aria Bendix examines the state of current knowledge as to how likely people are to suffer from long COVID after being infected – with a seemingly declining risk for any given infection being more than counterbalanced by the threat from repeated reinfection.
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Ethics In Artificial Intelligence
The emergence of “large language model” chatbots like ChatGPT and others raises major philosophical and ethical questions that we need to start talking about now. Back in 1950, Alan Turing attempted to open this discussion with the proposal of what became known as the “Turing Test“. Today’s ChatGPT looks
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Musical interlude
CHVRCHES – Final Girl
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Camille Bains reports on Dr. Mona Nemer’s warning that long COVID represents a mass disabling event with potentially devastating social and economic consequences. And Zeynep Tufecki examines the evidence showing the importance of masking in reducing the spread and severity of COVID-19. –
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Luke Savage points out that even biased right-wing polling is finding broad support for stronger social programs and limitations on corporate domination in Canada and the U.S. But Jake Johnson writes that the Biden administration is instead increasing military funding while putting
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Dyani Lewis writes that we know enough to ensure clean indoor air if we care enough to work on limiting the spread of COVID-19 and other viruses. – Jane Philpott and Danyaal Raza observe that the Libs are endangering both the short-term affordability of
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