The populism of the coronavirus.
We live in an age of populist political solutions but we never expected to have to deal with a populist pandemic. The problem is that a populism pandemic is blind.…
April 2020
Calgary author Vivek Shraya tops independent bookshops’ Alberta Fiction Bestseller list with The Subtweet
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, April 12, 2020. The lists are compiled…
Stages of Grief
Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Depression. Acceptance.These are the stages of grief and I’ve been through them all since the COVID19 lockdown began. I think everyone else has going through them too.…
Musical interlude
Matthew Good Band – Deep Six
The Death of Modern World – Or the Death of the Planet & the Human Species
“The causality of the One was frequently explained in antiquity as an answer to the question, ‘How do we derive a many from the One?’ Although the answer provided by…
Why The Cons Should Now Be Known As The Trump Party
As I'm sure you all know, I have long believed that Andrew Scheer and his Cons are more American than Canadian.And now we have yet another example of how low…
Why We Are Winning The War Against Covid-19
I haven't felt much like blogging recently. The greyness of these Covid times, and worrying about my friends risking their lives on the front lines of the pandemic, has practically…
current favourite instapot recipe: orange beef and rice (adapted from the instant pot bible)
It doesn’t look anything like this. When I mentioned on Facebook that I was making this, many people were interested in the recipe. So here it is, adapted from the…
April 17 COVID News
The following COVID-19 resources may be useful to many of you; if you know of similar resources not on this list, send me an email and let me know. i…
Toward a More Caring Society: Practicing Empathy During a Pandemic
It is very difficult for vulnerable people to practise social distancing in the crowded Downtown Eastside in Vancouver, advocates say. Photo by Nick Procaylo. As COVID-19 continues to take its…
Democracy Amid COVID
As COVID-19 advances around the world, political opportunism is not far behind. This is to be expected. The pandemic, like all crises, presents a combination of circumstances that is ripe…
Prioritizing Collective Responsibilities in the Response to COVID-19
Ryoji Ikeda’s installation, test pattern . Photo by Liz Hingley. At the same time as the climate crisis movement was gaining momentum in the wake of youth voices such as…
Coronavirus & Common Sense
“We were once distressed by crimes: now, by laws”, wrote Tacitus. How relevant is that today? Extremely so; but the sheep are trained not to think; and see, therefore, only…
Questions on Assessment
Responding to an enquiry about assessment. – what about the practical work that must be done in the laboratory? It depends on the laboratory, but mostly, students will not be…
Trump’s coronavirus plan: “a total, complete, absolute clusterfuck”
When Trump lies, someone dies. Rolling Stone’s shocking story, here. If you were to write a playbook for how not to prevent a public-health crisis, you would study the work…
Covid Journal, April 17, 2020
A few small updates today, quoting Mark Carney and others, focusing on speculation about the how the world will look economically, socially and politically. What’s your take on what might…
This Is Absolutely Ghoulish
First it was Dr. Oz betraying his Hippocratic Oath. Now Dr. Phil has joined the movement as he and the ever-compassionate Laura Ingraham discuss why the lockdown should end. Start…