Industrial farming, golf courses, and some industries all contribute an incredible amount of nutrient runoff that enters our waterways. This influx of unexpected nutrients can cause algae blooms and otherwise damage the local ecosystem. To combat this damage from runoff a team from the Florida International University created a floating
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A Puff of Absurdity: The Motivating Annoyance of Willful Ignorance
I’ve been thinking about my old students today as I read the news. I taught about the Israeli occupation in Palestine for a good 20 years, under the media bias and propaganda curriculum section of my course. I had been reading about genocidal types of activity since my professor told
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Meghan Bartels interviews Maria Van Kerkhove about the continuing and emerging threats in the fifth year of a pandemic which most of the powers that be have long since disappeared from any discussion. And Crawford Kilian talks to Ziyad Al-Aly about the unconscionable lack of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your 2023. – Shannon Hall discusses new research showing that the positive effects of COVID-19 vaccination include a reduction in long COVID in children. And Erin Prater warns about the building Pirola wave which is already causing record-high infection levels in some countries. – Meanwhile, Carly
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jessica Wildfire offers a reminder of the breadth and depth of harm continuing to be caused by COVID-19. Julia Doubleday calls out the role of the media in normalizing perpetual reinfection, while Arijit Chakravarty and T. Ryan Gregory discuss the importance of naming
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Adam King discusses how governments and employers have memory-holed some of the most important lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic as to the need for paid sick leave to ensure workplaces don’t exacerbate the spread of dangerous diseases. – Debbie Cenziper, Michael Sallah
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Taming plastics
What would we do without plastics? Perhaps the greatest material humanity ever invented. They are used for everything from furniture to DVDs to heart valves to wind turbines, widely used in practically every sphere of life. One wonders how the medical profession ever functioned without them. Or how you and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Elizabeth Payne reports on yet another COVID-19 wave in Ottawa which is far exceeding both the case numbers and harmful effects of seasonal viruses. And Brian To-Dang et al. confirm that the lasting coronary artery impacts of a COVID infection. – Nicole Mortarillo
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Putting the Brakes on Car Culture
I’m sure I’ve used that title before!. It’s a funny time of year for this, but lots has been reported recently on the trouble with cars. Part of it may have started from this video put out by the RCMP, depicting the car fatality issue as if it’s equally a problem caused
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Greenwash, Lithium & Eco-Fascism
Proved: Greenwash Is Ecoterrorism, Eco-Fascism – and High-Tech, Neo-Feudal “Green” Imperialism Indigenous cultures in the “lithium triangle” of Chile, Argentina and Bolivia are being robbed, subjugated, poisoned and plundered, to make Teslas and cell phones. Corporate-state violence is the continuing norm, in response. Welcome to “Green” Imperialism. Cell phones, tablets,
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 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: 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: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – John Woodside weighs in on the UN’s recognition of the need to stop our dependence on dirty energy. And Jillian Ambrose reports on the International Energy Agency’s projections which foresee the beginning of the end of fossil fuel use. – Leo Collis points
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Hanwen Zhang highlights yet another rise in COVID cases – albeit paired with obviously-unwarranted minimizing of the risks involved. – Jessica Wildfire pushes back against the establishment demand that people somehow evolve to become cacti in order to survive a climate breakdown,
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Cleaning Air
When the air quality was particularly bad from the smoke from so many fires, my son decided it would be a great time to fry up some burgers on the stove top. I don’t have a BBQ because I mainly don’t eat meat, so we fry burgers. But he heated
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Qiulu Ding and HanJun Zhao study the long-term effects of COVID-19 on the brain, including lasting effects on function and memory. Ida Mogensen et al. find that the younger people who were so frequently declared to be “low-risk” are entirely vulnerable to long
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Joseph Puthussery et al. study the feasibility of real-time, location-based air sampling to identify the presence of COVID-19, while Jennifer La Grassa reports on the efforts of scientists to ensure the powers that be don’t scrap what few remaining monitoring efforts are
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Michael Marshall discusses the growing body of knowledge about the persistence of long COVID – with people still suffering symptoms after a year tending to suffer from it as a chronic condition thereafter, and no effective treatment available once long COVID sets in.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Umair Haque discusses the absurdity (and manufactured idiocy) that results in us continuing with extractive business as usual as we enter a palpable age of extinction. And Richard Eskow writes about the reasons why billionaires can’t tolerate the prospect that most people
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