Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Mark Lipsitch et al. examine the current state of knowledge about COVID breakthrough infections and the public health measures still needed to avoid…
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Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Bruce Arthur writes about the need for governments’ responses to COVID to adapt to the increased risk posed by the Omicron variant.…
Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Philip Bump discusses how partisan resistance to public health measures is making it harder for the U.S. to count on vaccinations to limit…
Return of the Talking Head
I appeared on CTV’s News at 5 with Matt Young today, around 24:00 in this show. And of course, there were a few points I didn’t make in the process,…
Does spat between once-simpatico columnist and Jason Kenney signal the end of the road for Alberta’s premier?
Et tu, Brute? Was political columnist Rick Bell’s news conference question yesterday about allegations of cash being funnelled from political action committees to Jason Kenney’s supporters in advance of this…
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Eric Topol writes about the new wave of COVID-19 decimating Europe – and the level of denial required to pretend that the U.S.…
How to Avoid Billionaire Trolls
Figure 1 from Cook, Ellerton, and Kinkead 2018. CC BY 3.0 The biggest trolls in the world are also the richest. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp fame and Elon Musk of…
Edmonton officials want another $3-million sole-source advertising deal with Postmedia – they should do better
With the implication there’s no alternative solution, Edmonton’s city administration has asked City Council’s Executive Committee to ratify a $3-million sole-source contract with Postmedia tomorrow to provide print and digital…
This Makes Me Sad, Fire Takes Landmark From Corner Gas
Fire destroys iconic grain elevator from TV show Corner Gas https://t.co/N6nWCPsVoe — CBC Saskatchewan (@CBCSask) November 5, 2021
On Alberta’s anti-equalization referendum, BQ’s Blanchet tells UCP’s Kenney: Bring it on!
As the folk wisdom goes, be careful what you wish for, you might just get it. Jason Kenney got his wish yesterday when Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet told him,…
Sorting fact from fiction in Allan Inquiry commentary and coverage: That $1.3-billion fib explained
The United Conservative Party and its allies are not being truthful when they say, “The public inquiry into anti-Alberta energy campaigns has confirmed that foreign donors gave $1.3 billion to…
On The Use & Abuse Of History
A typical account of history is presented in the video linked below, and here are some reflections on it, and on the general practice, or malpractice, of professional historians, and…
Dismissed by CBC Ombudsman, Commissioner’s complaint about story shows ‘Alberta Inquiry’ all but down for the count
One Alberta story that didn’t get nearly enough attention in the past few days, and none at all from mainstream media, was Alberta Inquiry Commissioner Steve Allan’s risible complaint to…
The difficult journey upstream
One of the signature messages of Ryan Meili’s work in activism and politics has been the concept of upstream thinking – described in extremely brief form here: To imagine a…
#ELXN44: Legault, My Ego
Some notes and thoughts about Legault’s interference in the federal election; 9/11 and media bailouts. None of it has to be this way. The post #ELXN44: Legault, My Ego first…
Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – The Globe and Mail’s editorial board discusses the need for far more Canadians to be vaccinated as part of any realistic plan to…
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…
Where did CTV’s story attacking physician Joe Vipond, advocate for stricter COVID-19 testing and tracing, come from?
Between 2005 and 2011, CTV Television Inc. donated nearly $10,000 to the Alberta Conservatives. This interesting information can be found on Elections Alberta’s website using the provincial election agency’s contributor-search…
Reconciliation is a sham to our political leaders
Our political leaders have a deficient understanding of reconciliation. What they want to reconcile are the contradictory interests between Capital and Indigenous self-determination. Ultimately, our political leaders, embodied by the…