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 readingTag: bigotry
Accidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to end your week. – Amy Peng et al. examine the profound positive impact of mask mandates in reducing the spread of COVID-19 in Ontario. And Sheena Cruickshank warns about the avoidable harm we can expect as so many respond to the political and social signals to abandon
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Rachael Lyle-Thompson discusses how children are happier in countries with social safety nets which reduce the anxiety level around them. And Eric Galbraith et al. find that satisfaction levels in small-scale Indigenous societies may be just as high as in the wealthiest countries
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Assorted content to end your week. – Brent Appelman et al. study how mental and physical exertion in the midst of a COVID-19 infection can cause long-term damage. Tom Scocca discusses the devastating health and professional effects of his bout of COVID. And Nathaniel Weixel reports on the tens of
Continue readingwmtc: write for rights 2023: my fifteenth year #w4r2023
2023 marks the fifteenth year that I have participated in Amnesty Interntional’s Write for Rights. Fifteen years ago, I chose one case, one person. I wrote to officials about them, and wrote to them as well. I upped the ante a bit more every year, until the year (date unknown!)
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Andrew Nikiforuk discusses the 10 inescapable laws of pandemics – and the grim future they portend in light of our pitiful response to the social challenges posed by COVID-19. And Jessica Wildfire writes that the effects of repeated COVID infections on people’s immune
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Crawford Kilian reviews Ryan Meili’s A Healthy Future as an important account of the insufficient political response to the COVID-19 pandemic, while David Climenhaga calls out the absurdity of Preston Manning’s prescription for disaster in pushing for even to be done to protect
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: The UCP Goes "Hold My Beer" To The CPC
Author's Note: I started writing something about the UCP's policy resolutions in October, but it seemed redundant. Now that the UCP has held their AGM, and these have been voted on, it's time to take a look at the shape of the party that results from it. In September, the
Continue readingwmtc: from the archives: my journey to palestinian solidarity and the myth of the self-hating jew (a three-part story)
This seems like a good time to re-post this three-part series. It remains one of the best pieces I’ve written. Part one, my Jewish identity: my journey to palestinian solidarity and the myth of the self-hating jew Part two, my awakening: my journey to palestinian solidarity and the myth of the
Continue readingwmtc: a genocide is happening right now and nations are doing nothing to stop it
Right now the State of Israel is committing genocide against the people of Gaza. Many humans around the globe are horrified, grieving, raging. But people with the power to stop it are either defending it or remaining silent. And as we know, silence equals complicity. In this post, I have
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Ed Broadbent discusses how economic equality is a precondition to freedom for the majority of the population. Chris McGreal reviews Angus Deaton’s book on the role of the corporatist assumptions of economists in fomenting a war on the poor. And John McDonnell warns that
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Sigal Samuel discusses the potential to better target investments toward well-being – though it seems odd to criticize measures of health as a standard alongside GDP. And Cory Doctorow writes about Deb Chachra’s observation that we should view infrastructure as a form of
Continue readingwmtc: what i’m reading: delusions of gender: how our minds, society, and neurosexism create difference
When I was in library school, much ink was spilled discussing a “crisis” of “boys not reading”. Countless articles were written, studies were launched, hands were wrung. How do we get boys to read??? For a paper I was writing, I dug up the original study that launched this literacy
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Bruce Arthur discusses how last week’s rallies for bigotry are reflective of a broader social illness which is being encouraged by right-wing parties and politicians. And Charlie Angus writes about his experience on the receiving end of violent authoritarian rhetoric and personal threats.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Adele Waters writes about the large numbers of UK doctors who are suffering from long COVID as a result of their efforts to care for patients – but who have been abandoned to financial ruin as a result. Elizabeth Cooney examines the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Chris Hedges interviews Matt Kennard about the hostile corporate takeover of democracy. And Adam King highlights how Canada’s oil industry is profiteering at public expense while using the harm done by their own greed to promote the right-wing politicians in their pocket. – Jennifer
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Jamey Keaten and Seth Borenstein report on the World Meteorological Association’s finding that we’ve just had the hottest summer in recorded history. And Chelsey Harvey highlights how the combination of extreme heat and other climate calamities looks to be a harbinger of worse
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Amy Goodman interviews Peter Kalmus about the need to start treating the climate breakdown as an emergency, while Joelle Gergis points out that the extreme destruction from catastrophic climate-caused events in the summer of 2023 represents just a taste of what we can
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Sascha Pare reports on the growing recognition that methane emissions could trigger “termination” events which see tundra turn into tropical savannah. And Robson Fletcher reports on a drop in wheat production caused by drought which may make staple foods far more expensive. –
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Jessica Wong et al. study the risk of hospitalization and death from the Omicron strain of COVID-19, and conclude (contrary to the spin of denialist governments) that it was just as severe as the original version. And Lindsey Wang et al. find (PDF)
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