Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Alan Urban writes about the reality that establishment institutions are working on normalizing civilizational collapse – as well as the need to fight back against that process. And Cory Doctorow discusses the appalling results of the juxtaposition of predatory private equity and health
Continue readingTag: internet
THE FIFTH COLUMN: What is Wrong With The Internet ?
Yes, I know we could write a book, but essentially what is wrong with the Internet is the way we use it. The public changed has the way it uses the Internet to the benefit of a few monopoly tech companies and those that want to spread disinformation because laziness
Continue readingwmtc: another insidious bit of the digital divide: access to customer service for smartphones only
We need another word for it. The digital divide — the gap between those with access to modern information and communication technologies and those without — has been recognized since at least the 1990s. Attempts to narrow this gap are usually publicly funded, always operating from scarcity, or small concessions
Continue readingAlberta Politics: AlbertaPolitics.ca as its 17th year of publication begins: we need to talk, Dear Readers
This blog commences its 17th year of publication today, which makes it something of an institution in Alberta political commentary. The blogger in 2023 (Photo: Daniel St. Louis). On Christmas Eve, someone I don’t know called me “the hardest working blogger in Alberta,” which might be true, at least if
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Public health and corporate iniquity
Forty-one states and the District of Columbia have sued Meta, owner of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, accusing it of using features that hook children to its platforms even as it claims its sites are safe for young people. According to Phil Weiser, Colorado’s attorney general, “Just like Big Tobacco
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Peter Borg discusses how the climate breakdown is compressing planetary changes which would normally take millions of years into individual lifetimes – even as petropoliticians seek to increase the damage we’re doing to our living environment. And Edna Mohamed writes that climate
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Madeline Holcomb reports on new research showing that COVID-19 boosters are more effective when delivered to the same arm as previous vaccine doses. – Jessica Wildfire highlights how the war on remote work is the result of corporate landlords’ determination to sacrifice human health
Continue readingwmtc: re-setting expectations: let’s all stop apologizing for not being instantly available all the time
Long ago, when emailing first became widely used, I had several long-distance friendships that were conducted entirely by email. I noticed that almost every email began the same way: “Sorry I haven’t written in so long…” or “Sorry I’ve been out of touch…” or something similar. That’s when I instituted
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Matthew Oliver, Mark Ungrin and Joe Vipond write about the overwhelming evidence that masks offer protection from airborne viruses – even as anti-public-health forces attack them as part of their general denialist project. And Dan Diamond reports on expert warnings that in the
Continue readingmark a. rayner: Protected: After the Internet
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post. The post Protected: After the Internet appeared first on mark a. rayner.
Continue readingThings Are Good: The FBI Wants You To Block Ads
The FBI finally agrees with culture jammers. Online advertising has gotten so bad that the FBI now suggests everyone should make use of tracking blocking software, also known as ad blockers. During the last big consumerism celebration in December, the FBI noticed malicious actors paying for ads to solicit unaware
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Why Mastodon
So why did I open a Mastodon account and why do I think Mastodon can replace Twitter. I started looking for alternatives to Twitter soon after Elon Musk purchased it and sent it to hell in a hand basket. Of course, Twitter’s problems started much earlier than that. As soon
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Jessica Wildfire discusses how the U.S. and Canada are following the UK’s healthcare collapse due to a combination of public health negligence and destruction of existing health care institutions. And CBC News reports on how Quebec’s already-overburdened emergency rooms are again preparing to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Tom Frieden offers a primer on what we know about long COVID – and what we should be doing to avoid it. And Eric Topol interviews Linsey Marr about the importance of clean air to alleviate the spread of COVID-19 and other
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Zaina Hamza discusses new research showing how COVID-19 fatalities hit younger people and caused more loss of expected years of life in the second year of the pandemic than the first. Kenyon Wallace discusses why 2022 was the deadliest year of the pandemic
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your Boxing Day reading. – Robert Reich discusses the dangers of relying on – and indeed building a political and economic system to favour – the social costs of extreme greed. And the Canadian Press reports on the Trudeau Libs’ plan to take foreign aid even further
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: A Tale of Two Twitters
It is the best of the Internet, it is the worst of the Internet, it is the purveyor of wisdom, it is the purveyor of disinformation, it is the home of knowledge, it is the home of wilful ignorance. Beyond the literary allusion (words inspired by Charles Dickens) there do
Continue readingwmtc: so many left behind: the ever-widening digital divide
Last year, while attempting to get a parking pass during our vacation — without a phone, my phone having been fried by an update — I got caught in a circuitous and frustrating encounter with information and technology gaps. About a year later, navigating the brave new world of do-it-yourself airport screening,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Tom Brodbeck writes about the need to treat the victims of the COVID-19 pandemic as human beings, rather than mere statistics to be reported once and never thought of again. – Gabriel Favreau discusses how the pandemic (combined with a negligent government
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Jeremy Corbyn writes that the cause of workers remains the greatest force for hope that we have. And Hannah Appel discusses the prospect of uniting the aligned interests of workers seeking to reduce the abusive use of concentrated corporate power in the workplace,
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