I think masks separate us like the families in Tolstoy’s famous opening line of Anna Karenina. You know the one: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Everyone I’ve met who wears a mask does it for more or less the same reasons:
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Accidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Erin Durkin writes about the failure of the U.S.’ government to deal with the growing impact of long COVID – and the likelihood that matters will only get worse with Republicans able to unilaterally refuse funding. And Lisa Young wishes that Alberta’s government
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your year-end reading. – Allison Maher et al. study how COVID-19 causes fundamental changes to a person’s immune system, resulting in far greater vulnerability to other infections. Spencer Kimball reports on the rapid spread of the XBB.1.5 COVID-19 variant – which appears to be rendering previous types
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Migration in progress
After using Twitter as my main political social media outlet for years, I’ve joined the many in the process of shifting to Mastodon. You’ll find a link to my account in the right sidebar – and hopefully the new year will see the continued development of communities which better serve
Continue readingmark a. rayner: The Dumpster Fire that Is Twitter
Stephen Fry just left Twitter, moments before I started writing this. As recently as a few weeks ago, I would have thought this would be… The post The Dumpster Fire that Is Twitter appeared first on mark a. rayner.
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Viral about that Virus
I posted a mini thread yesterday that exploded: It’s nearing a million impressions and it’s still going strong. I’m so glad I turned off comments early on after I got slaughtered by trolls on a different post yesterday – almost 500 random comments mainly from people with fewer than 10 followers
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Jonathan Haidt – Strategies for Keeping Democracy Viable in the Digital Age.
The hopeful bits from Haidt’s essay in the Atlantic called Why The Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid : “Redesigning democracy for the digital age is far beyond my abilities, but I can suggest three categories of reforms––three goals that must be achieved if democracy is
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: A Letter to UCP MLAs
Dear UCP MLAs: I’m a constituent without an MLA because your new leader decided I don’t need one. Apparently urban issues (unlike rural issues) are the same all across the city and I can take my concerns to the UCP MLA in the next riding. Anyway I’m just checking in
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 readingSusan on the Soapbox: Kenney’s Legacy: Lessons from Alice
Alice laughed. ‘One can’t believe impossible things.’ ‘I dare say you haven’t had much practice,’ said the Queen…’Why, sometimes I’ve believed in as many as six impossible things before breakfast.’—Lewis Carrol, Alice Through the Looking-Glass Jason Kenney is on the final lap of his political career. He’s working hard to
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 readingA Puff of Absurdity: Pandemic Amnesia
Someone told me that we need to adapt to Covid faster, and get used to masks and checking air quality much faster for our own survival. They think our problem is our inability to adapt to this new environment. I said that I think we have adapted quickly, but we’ve done
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Andre Picard highlights how the response to COVID-19 has been complicated – if rendered all the more important – by the recognition that people can expect to be reinfected if exposed to it. Lena Sun, Dan Keating and Joel Achenbach discuss how the U.S.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – The Associated Press reports on the continued disparity in COVID-19 vaccinations between countries which is exacerbating the risk of new and more severe variants for everybody. – David Moore and Donald Shaw report on the threat of industrial chemicals at risk of being
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Dan Diamond reports on the shortage of health care workers as the fifth wave of COVID crests in the U.S., while Carl O’Donnell and Ahmed Aboulenein report on the escalating number of children being hospitalized with the coronavirus. Robyn Urback warns that our
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Ben Cohen points out some of the ways the Omicron variant deviates from what we’ve come to assume about COVID-19. And Colin Horgan writes that we should draw lessons from the pandemic in exposing some of the ways our social system is built
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – The Canadian Medical Association calls for Scott Moe to finally reinstate public health rules to prevent Saskatchewan’s already-catastrophic fourth wave of COVID-19 from completely collapsing our health care system. And Phil Tank reports on Saskatoon’s lonely efforts to start applying necessary measures at the
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Dealing With Lemmings, and The Delusional
“Never underestimate the power of denial.” – American Beauty” Cowards can never be moral.” – Gandhi “The world is a dangerous place, not because evil people do terrible things, but because millions of people let them.” – Einstein “Just because you bury your head in the sand, doesn’t mean the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: #Elxn44 Roundup
News and notes from Canada’s election campaign. – Mohy-Dean Tabbara and Garima Talwar Kapoor examine what the parties are offering to combat poverty, while noting the need for more ambition in the effort. – Alex Hemingway points out that while the NDP’s platform offers a start, there’s plenty of room
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Stressed? Read This. Amygdala Highjacking – A Few Brief Thoughts
When under great stress, or when in great fear, our biological fight or flight response is triggered strongly, the amygdala is highjacked, which then highjacks our frontal cortex and our brain, and destroys both our peace, and also our capacity for rational thought. Knowing how to respond to, or better,
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