Today in the Land of Crazy
I heard something curious on NPR radio this morning. It was Donald Trump announcing that America would be sending no longer needed medical equipment and supplies to Italy and Spain…
2020
Folding@Home now Faster Than Fastest Supercomputer
Scientists can use your help folding. In particular they could use your computer to help understand how proteins fold. In order to understand viruses and ways to fight them it…
Listening To Our Better Angels
Readers of this space know that I have had little good to say about Doug Ford. But Martin Regg Cohn — who also has seen little to praise in Ford’s…
Talking Living in the Age of Covid-19 with Kristy Cameron
Yesterday I joined Kristy Cameron on CFRA’s “Ottawa Now” along with Katlyn Harrison and Lindsay Maskell on the “Political Heat” panel. We talked about the latest developments on Covid-19, the…
Dougie dumbs it down.
You get the impression that our Ontario premier goes to the office each day hoping to find new things to screw up for Ontario residents. Despite the tantrum he threw…
War Room will return, vows energy minister Sonya Savage, after government slashes propaganda unit’s budget for three months
Is it possible the United Conservative Party has a conscience? I know, I know, this seems highly unlikely. Even if it were true, like the Grinch’s heart, it’s bound to…
a reading plan for 2020: the (second) year of the biography plus… more?
On the final day of 2017, I wrote a short list of books of people and topics I wanted to know more about, authors I wanted to sample but somehow…
Francis Fukuyama – On Paper, America Has What It Takes. Except For One Thing.
Political historian Francis Fukuyama writes that America has what it takes to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. Except for one critical factor that it cannot succeed without – trust. A democracy…
Why America’s Healthcare System is Structurally Incapable of Handling Covid-19
The problem certainly isn’t lack of money. Americans already spend far more per capita than people in other developed countries on healthcare. Robert Reich says America’s healthcare system can’t respond…
Guilty Bystander on Mubi.
Ex-cop turned detective Max Thursday
March 30 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…
Much stronger conditions needed on federal wage subsidy program
The federal government has announced it is prepared to pay wages subsidies of up to 75% of employee wages for ALL private businesses and other employers, including non-profits, partnerships and…
Here’s something you don’t see every day
See that guy? That’s Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario. Dental Brands, a company in Markham, texted him to say they were donating 90,000 masks to hospitals in Ontario. Ford drove…
Defining a Space for Resistance: Countering the Disempowering Effects of Social Distancing
A floor sticker recommending social distancing at a London Drugs store in Vancouver. Photo from Flickr. In the midst of the disorienting crisis that is COVID-19, “social distancing” has taken…
Food Security. It’s Now a Thing. Finally.
A few years ago I did a spate of online courses on topics ranging from climate change to warfare in the 21st century to global food security. Of them all,…
Alberta government makes moves to lay off more public employees — this time provincial public service members
No one should assume Saturday’s mass layoff of 26,000 substitute teachers, teaching assistants and non-essential support staff at schools throughout Alberta is the last such action planned by the United…
Covid Journal, March 30, 2020
What are we doing to protect our food network and other necessities of life?
Grow a Garden to Alleviate Pressure on Food Supply Lines
People panic buying at grocery stores have messed up with the normal operations of industrial supply chains, including food. Not to worry though as toilet paper is still being made…