This and that for your Thursday reading. – Patrick Wood and Mary Louise Kelly write that we still need to be managing COVID risk budgets to avoid contributing more to community transmission than necessary. Helen Branswell discusses some lessons learned through the pandemic so far. And Morgan Lowrie reports on
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The Disaffected Lib Mk. II: Left to Their Own Devices or Learning to Thrive Without America
Leaders of the Middle East may be rewriting their region’s history and, in the process, busting the myths of the West as their benefactor. The decline of American influence in the region has the locals talking – to each other. After years of looking abroad for answers, countries in the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib Mk. II: Karen – The Handmaiden of Decline
Readers of this blog will be familiar with my outsize focus on social cohesion and its role in societal collapse. A friend recently posted a video of an irate American woman on a jetliner who struck and spat on a crew member, all of it captured by other passengers
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib Mk. II: BC Closes Out the Year With Another Climate Blow
It’s been a tough year for British Columbians. Extremes of heat and cold, drought and floods. Heat so intense it killed off billions of sea creatures, the sort that anchor marine food chains. Heat so fierce it claimed hundreds of lives, killed off crops. Stuff that, in normal times
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Andre Picard discusses the need for people to avoid giving up in the battle to protect against the worst effects of a pandemic run amok. And Yasmine Ghania highlights what people with a positive rapid test need to do next. But contrary to
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib Mk. II: Aaron Wherry in Search of a Silver Lining
It’s hard to imagine much good coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic but the CBC’s Aaron Wherry sees a distant glimmer of hope. What, asks Wherry, if the pandemic embedded itself in the consciousness of our political caste? What if the ordeal paved the way for a new awareness
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib Mk. II: Okay, There’s the Heat. It Had to be Somewhere.
Nothing fuels skepticism about the climate emergency than cold snaps of the sort now affecting western Canada. In previous years it’s been the dreaded “polar vortex” that has plagued eastern Canada. One thing climate change has taught us is that, when it is unduly cold in one region, you
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Night Cat Blogging
Ornamental cats.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib Mk. II: Justin Didn’t See This Coming When He Decriminalized Marijuana.
Unforeseen consequences.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Michela Antonelli et al. study the disease profile of post-vaccination COVID, concluding that full vaccination helps to reduce both the number and duration of symptoms. But Elizabeth Yuko points out that the result is still a significant risk of debilitating long-term conditions.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib Mk. II: A Ray of Hope
Some day we might think of Omicron as the friendly Covid variant. English experts confirm that it is both milder and shorter-lived than its predecessors, the Alpha and Delta variants. Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at Oxford University and the government’s life sciences adviser, said that although
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib Mk. II: The Year in Climate. What We See and What We Don’t See.
Deutsche Welle has a recap of the global climate emergency in 2021. The summary touches on what I would call the “big ticket” events, the ten most costly climate disasters. The problem with these year-enders is that they fail to capture the low to mid-grade changes underway, the really dangerous
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Marieke Walsh and Carrie Tait report on Canada’s grim milestone of two million COVID cases recorded – even as the medical system braces for another wave to crest. And Betsy Powell reports on the push toward fourth vaccine doses in long-term care homes.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Nick Dunne interviews Colin Furness about the impact the Omicron COVID variant figures to have in schools – and the need to hold off on reopening after a holiday which has included grossly insufficient precautions. Alyson Kruger asks whether people are learning
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib Mk. II: A Lot of Canada’s Leaders are on Very Thin Ice.
Let’s put it this way. When called to rise to the occasion this year, Canada’s political leadership – the premiers and the prime minister – failed to distinguish themselves. First mistake was treating the Covid-19 pandemic as a political issue. Trying to balance the commercial interest against the public
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib Mk. II: And a Very Merry, Extremely Rare, White Christmas from the Wet Coast
I have exchanged greetings with friends and family from Ottawa, Stratford, Tottenham, Simcoe, Wheatley and Leamington today. They all painted the same story of dreary rain and damp cold. Now, that’s our weather. It’s what we are used to, accustomed, acclimated. It is one of the great challenges of living
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Musical interlude
Agnes – Here Comes the Night
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Katherine Wu, Ed Yong and Sarah Khang write that the Omicron COVID-19 wave is seeing governments make the same familiar mistakes in an accelerated time frame, while Umair Haque laments the continued combination of incompetence, ineptitude and indifference. And the Star’s editorial board
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib Mk. II: What a Year
It’s been a record-setting year in many places. Here in British Columbia we’ve had our hottest year ever recorded, our wettest year on record and, now, it looks like we’ll put 2021 in the books as our coldest year. It will also be the first full year under a
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib Mk. II: Is Omicron in Your Near Future?
The headline in the National Post speaks for itself: “It looks like we’re all going to catch Omicron.” Tristan Hopper’s column begins with two facts: 1. One in ten Canadians already have someone in their social circle who has contracted Omicron. 2. In the span of just two weeks,
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