Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Sascha Pare reports on the growing recognition that methane emissions could trigger “termination” events which see tundra turn into tropical savannah. And Robson Fletcher reports on a drop in wheat production caused by drought which may make staple foods far more expensive. –
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Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Jessica Wong et al. study the risk of hospitalization and death from the Omicron strain of COVID-19, and conclude (contrary to the spin of denialist governments) that it was just as severe as the original version. And Lindsey Wang et al. find (PDF)
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Complementary Videos
I think the readers of this blog will have no problem understanding why the second video naturally follows the first one: NowThis @nowthisnews ‘He wants to create a kind of passive, ignorant population’ — Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat is sending out a warning about FL Gov. Ron DeSantis, comparing him to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – John Dearing, Gregory Cooper and Simon Willcock discuss the doom loop which is seeing worse-than-predicted effects of the climate breakdown resulting in vicious cycles of ecosystem collapse. J. Besl writes about new research showing that coastal flooding may be faster and more severe
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Steve Turton writes about the dangers of global temperatures which were far exceeding recorded highs even before the start of an El Nino cycle. And Denise Chow reports on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s warning that a spike in ocean temperature will likely linger
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Nippon.com discusses a new survey indicating that a large majority of people in Japan continue to mask regularly to protect their own health and that of others. But Richard Woodbury reports that Nova Scotia (like other Canadian jurisdictions) is seeing significant unexplained excess mortality
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Matthew Cunningham-Cook and Andrew Perez highlight how Suncor and other dirty energy giants have poured loads of windfall profits into stock buybacks while simultaneously repudiating their environmental promises and obligations. – Jonathan Barrett discusses how Australia has seen the same spate of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Piers Forster reports on new research showing that both greenhouse gas emissions and temperatures continue to push past all recorded records. Andrew Freedman adds sea surface temperatures to the list of indicators setting off alarm bells for anybody bothering to pay attention. And Shannon
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Thom Hartmann offers a reminder of the broad-based growth and social progress which is possible when capitalists are required to pay reasonable tax rates. And conversely, Cory Doctorow examines the utterly destructive practices of private equity – which is being catered to
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Lesson For All Of Us
Some ‘religious’ people will undoubtedly find this teaching from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hard to accept. Republicans have good reason to fear this woman, because her ability to cut through their BS is a master class in the art of political engagement. She absolutely understands how to sell a values driven argument
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: How Did We Get Here
Let me tell you a story about my early days working for the House of Commons in a non-partisan position serving all Members of Parliament and all Canadians. While we all had our own political opinions, that ranged from right to left, we all worked professionally and in a non-
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Of Campaigns, Bigotry, and Dog Whistles
So, with UCP leader Danielle Smith regularly playing dodge-em with her own statements in the past, it shouldn’t come as any big surprise that something would come bubbling to the surface from one of the UCP candidates. This week’s entry into the bigot olympics comes via the UCP candidate
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Alex Fulton discusses the lessons we should be learning from the response to COVID-19 in preparing for the next pandemic. Richard Payerchin highlights how physicians recognize the need to diagnose and treat long COVID as it afflicts an increasing proportion of the population,
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 readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Robert Reich discusses how the concentration of power in the hands of the U.S.’ capitalist class has reached levels not see since the gilded age – and how improvements in general access to consumer goods (driven in part by increased work participation and
Continue readingwmtc: "you guys" revisited: further thoughts on the language police
If you know, you know. In October 2020, I wrote a post about the expression you guys, and whether or not using guys as a gender-neutral term excludes transgender people: “you guys”: change language, do no harm, but can we please leave space for learning and growing? In that post, I
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Teresa Wright sets out the wish list of ER doctors who have been dealing with avoidable COVID waves for years. Tiffany Hsu discusses the dangers of COVID-19 misinformation both in the course of the ongoing pandemic, and in its spillover effects as to public perception
Continue readingwmtc: worlds collide: more notes on "gods of the upper air"
Gods of the Upper Air, by Charles King, which I recently wrote about, highlights several books that were highly influential in their time, for good and for ill. In The Passing of a Great Race, published in 1916, a man named Madison Grant foretold the extinction of the “Nordic” race and their
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Angella MacEwen discusses how the Bank of Canada is fighting a class war on the side of the rich by pushing to reduce employment and wages while corporations continue to profiteer off the backs of the public. And Armine Yalnizyan interviews Tiff
Continue readingwmtc: something new: in which i defend pit bulls challenge bigotry without losing my cool
I was at a nail salon. Not an upscale spa, a loud, basic, ramshackle kind of nail salon. Two women sitting side by side for pedicures were speaking loudly and drowning out all the other noise. Loud Woman One was telling the whole salon about her upcoming trip to San
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