The second part of my series on conversational gambits and habits that are annoying, funnily enough, happened in the first Gambits post I made. Go check out the comment section as I will be pulling my example for this post directly from the text of a commentor. “Guilt by
Continue readingTag: Education
A Puff of Absurdity: No Ragrets
The frustrating experiences that linger with me the longest are the times I was able to make a difference in my tiny corner of the world or have some kind of effect or even have the potential to have an effect, and then it was derailed, often by a well-meaning person
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Aaron Wherry discusses the deadly-serious consequences of climate denialism which is driven by frivolous rhetoric. And Andre Mayer points out the numerous ways in which the climate breakdown is actually responsible for the increased cost of living which is being used as an
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Suing Social Media Giants
A collection of school boards are suing a collection of social media sites for allegedly deliberately hurting students. That’s from the Toronto Star headline, but deliberate harm?? I’m not sure what the lawsuit actually says, and I’m not a lawyer, but I would think that a charge of deliberate harm means they’d have
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The most important history lesson
Alberta’s pursuit of a new K-12 public school curriculum has been a long slog. An ambitious curriculum re-development project was initiated by a Progressive Conservative government in 2008. The project was continued by the NDP government after it defeated the Conservatives in 2015. With the defeat of the NDP in
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Reading: Cynical Theories
I’m up to Chapter 3 so far and would highly recommend this book to those who want understand the ‘why & how’ of what is happening in our society. Understanding post-modernism is the first step. This is a short summary gleaned from ‘Goodreads’ is a part of what the book
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Brishti Basu reports on the ill effects of WorkSafeBC’s decision to push people back to work while they continue to suffer from long COVID. And Alex Skopic calls out the CDC’s choice to direct people back to work while they’re still infected
Continue readingeaves.ca: Connie Eaves, mother in life and science
A trailblazer who eschewed politics, identity and recognition in favour of a tenacious pursuit of life’s secrets Like many women of her age, Dr. Connie Eaves’s career in science was filled with barriers— some that come with the discipline, others of her era. In 1970, when she first walked into
Continue readingThe Maple Monarchists - Blog: Should the Provincial Loyalist Days be Celebrated on the Same Date?
The Loyalists usually only get the briefest of mentioned when the history of Canada is discussed. This is a tad unfortunate as the arrival of the Loyalists forever altered the trajectory of British North America and laid a solid groundwork for a uniquelyCanadian take on governance. They really should be discussed more. That said, this article
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Trans enters the culture wars
Pierre Poilievre states that biological men should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports. I agree. But then I’m not aware of any biological men attempting to compete in women’s sports. Some transwomen are, but transwomen are … well, women, not biological men. According to my layman’s understanding, these
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Gender Affirming Care is NOT Evidence Based
Letter to the PM and Premier Doug Ford on the danger of “gender affirming care”. Share widely.
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Plague Update: Exploding Measles Threat
No, the latest measles don’t make you explode, I meant the threat is rising thanks to anti-waxxer ignorance spreading across the globe. And war, that’s infamously good at helping disease take hold of the population. Many of the people in charge of stopping health ignorance and control of diseases, have
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Roland Fryer on Adversity, Race, and Refusing to Conform
Speaking the truth can be disastrous for your academic career. Lying to appease the ‘acceptable’ narrative costs you your integrity and soul.
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Infection Control Measures Work
A Lancet study found that there’s little Covid transmission in schools WHEN infection control measures were in place. Since we stopped all mitigation efforts, hospitalizations for Covid in Ontario have increased year-round. We don’t need lockdowns for Covid, but we do still need N95s until we can clean the air.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to end your week. – Amy Peng et al. examine the profound positive impact of mask mandates in reducing the spread of COVID-19 in Ontario. And Sheena Cruickshank warns about the avoidable harm we can expect as so many respond to the political and social signals to abandon
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: The Motivating Annoyance of Willful Ignorance
I’ve been thinking about my old students today as I read the news. I taught about the Israeli occupation in Palestine for a good 20 years, under the media bias and propaganda curriculum section of my course. I had been reading about genocidal types of activity since my professor told
Continue readingThe Maple Monarchists - Blog: In Defence of the Nutmeg Crown
On February 7th Grenada celebrated its 50th year since independence. This was briefly mentioned in my last post but I wanted to return to the topic as there was one other notable event concerning the monarchy that occurred; a group of Grenadians have come together to form a monarchist league. Back in 2016 I noted a lack of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Cordell Jacks writes about the need for an economic model which evolves beyond the short-term exploitation of people and the planet. And Jessica McKenzie interviews Charlotte Kukowski about the importance of reprioritizing in the context of readily-apparent feedback loops between inequality and the
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