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Can You Go to Canada if You Have a DUI?
Many Americans are surprised to learn that entering Canada with a DUI can be extremely difficult. This is because a DUI is a felony north of the border, and can consequently result in a visitor being considered “criminally inadmissible” and denied entry at the Canadian border. In December 2018, Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Government of […]
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Sports will be back, sort of
Posted June 25, 2020 by Anonymous
I think the realities of getting back to sports are becoming clearer as we begin to understand that Corona Virus is not going away any time soon.
Yes, we are going to be able to play and watch sports again!
But no, we won’t actually be able to watch the games in person — though maybe eventually we can as long as absolutely everyone wears a mask absolutely all the time. And no shouting!
Hmm — would that even work?
Or would the silence just be too creepy, like those bizarre photos of a chamber orchestra playing to a theatre full of plants?
I’ve been watching the Ultimate Tennis Showdown and its fun to see a newer, quicker version of tennis, though its a little odd to hear the fake crowd noises after each shot.
Likely when sports do get going again, each sport will have to deal with continual interruptions as individual athletes come down with COVID-19 and stop playing until they are well again.
There is one thing about the sports shutdown that I will miss — the #LifeCommentaries on twitter, when sports announcers kept themselves busy by posting videos narrating ordinary life as sporting events:
Dogging.#LifeCommentary #LiveCommentary pic.twitter.com/05A64OcSKP
— Twittbr3 (@Twittbr3) June 18, 2020
1500mm Heat#LifeCommentary #LiveCommentary pic.twitter.com/fmsIWfcfAK
— Nick Heath (@nickheathsport) April 14, 2020
Sooty looking for a clean sweep in the Regional Common Gymnastics pic.twitter.com/ycInWuMVTH
— Ladbrokes (@Ladbrokes) June 15, 2020
Commentators have been turning their hands (and socks) to absolutely anything lately! pic.twitter.com/xj86k27LUI
— Ladbrokes (@Ladbrokes) June 14, 2020
Some sports are slower. More about the strategy. pic.twitter.com/JMBaGJ1tSd
— Andrew Cotter (@MrAndrewCotter) April 9, 2020
International 4×4 Pushchair Formation Final. Live. #LifeCommentary #LiveCommentary pic.twitter.com/BGGh01m1k1
— Nick Heath (@nickheathsport) March 17, 2020
LIVE SPORT!
Today’s episode is based largely on me chasing our dog Yogi round the garden. Enjoy! 😂
Chin up people; hope you have a good weekend. 🐶😊#lifecommentary #goodboy #youbaddog pic.twitter.com/kvcgoYSr3N
— Andrew Coley (@Andrew_Coley) March 20, 2020
It was an honour to be asked to appear on this year’s unique USA @ESPYS show on @espn.
Among some incredibly poignant films, I helped provide a spot of levity as @mPinoe introduced my take on the likes of @rogerfederer @serenawilliams @lindseyvonn and @SebToots in lockdown. 🎙 pic.twitter.com/Jo1bptLV5z
— Nick Heath (@nickheathsport) June 23, 2020
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Norway’s Supreme Court to Decide on Climate Lawsuit Challenging Offshore Arctic Oil Drilling
Posted November 13, 2020 by Anonymous
Read time: 5 minsThe Supreme Court of Norway is set to rule in a high-profile climate change lawsuit challenging the Norwegian government’s licensing of new offshore oil drilling in the fragile and rapidly warming Arctic region. The forthcoming decisio…
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Saturday Stories: Is It Airborne?, Exhausted Experts, Sweden, Cancer During COVID, And Schools
Posted July 11, 2020 by Yoni Freedhoff
Apoorva Mandavilli, in The New York Times, with a discussion on whether or not SARS-CoV2 is airborne and what that actually means.
Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, covers the toll COVID19 has had on the “not ok” experts covering, studying, and managing it.
Peter S. Goodman, in The New York Times, with the cautionary lesson from Sweden that it’s the virus, not quarantines, that devastate the economy.
Bill Gardner, in the Incidental Economist, with his (first on this topic) blog post highlighting the realities he’s facing after being diagnosed with cancer, in Canada, during the time of COVID.
Jennifer Couzin-Frankel, Gretchen Vogel, and Meagan Weiland, in Science, summarize the a bit all over the place data on reopening schools around the globe
Photo by Alex Valavanis / CC BY-SA
Related Stories
- Saturday Stories: No Heroes In Science, Selflessness, School Reopening, And Vaccine Developments
- Saturday Stories: Peer Review, #Masks4All, Talking To Kids, And The Public Health Of Protests
- Saturday Stories: COVID And Kids With Disabilities, Racist Statues, COVID Death Mysteries, And Virus Hunters
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The tweet of the year
Posted November 24, 2020 by Anonymous
This is from September: Aliens: “Take us to your leader.”Me: “I would wait.”— Jesse Lifson (@DoYouEvenLif) September 12, 2020 Turned out to be pretty good advice.
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Oh happy day
Posted November 8, 2020 by Anonymous
HEY, NEIGHBOUR
✌️❤️🇨🇦🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/9niMTfDPi8— Brittlestar (@brittlestar) November 7, 2020
#BestEpisode_EVER pic.twitter.com/n7oJx9BrhE
— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) November 7, 2020
You may want to mute this account for a while because I feel I may have to individually insult every member of the outgoing administration in crude and personal ways
— Hari Kunzru (@harikunzru) November 7, 2020
I drew this thinking of Georgia and Arizona. #Election2020 #TrumpIsLosing #TrumpMeltdown pic.twitter.com/5zBKjyDHwk
— Michael de Adder (@deAdder) November 7, 2020
People were ecstatic when Obama won too, but the energy was really different. That was like we were all on the cusp of a bright new future. This is more like we just beat the Nazis.
— Jan in the Pan (@mswhatsit) November 8, 2020
No joke: I’m in rural Mexico and cheers just erupted throughout the town
— Justin C. Cohen (@juscohen) November 7, 2020
From church bells in Paris to fireworks in London, Europe & beyond, America’s allies across the world are celebrating Donald Trump’s defeat and the election of President Biden and VP Harris! ❤️🎉🍾 pic.twitter.com/SYtIEgLTQ8
— Minh Ngo (@minhtngo) November 7, 2020
And finally, this:
Reminder: Hillary Clinton gets to cast one of the electoral votes that throws him out of office. 🙃https://t.co/yPlwzCgaJU
— Dennis Mersereau (@wxdam) November 7, 2020
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Saturday Stories: COVID Winter, Circular Errors, Mutations, And Obesity
Posted September 12, 2020 by Yoni Freedhoff
Irfan Dhalla, in The Globe and Mail, on COVID and the rapidly approaching Canadian winter.
Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, on the recurrent errors being made that hamper progress on COVID.
Edward Holmes, in The New York Times, covers the mutating SARS-CoV2…
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A Right-Wing Think Tank Is Behind the Controversial Great Barrington Declaration Calling for COVID-19 Herd Immunity
Posted October 26, 2020 by Anonymous
Read time: 12 minsAn open letter that emerged earlier this month opposing COVID-19 shutdowns and calling for a “herd immunity” approach to addressing the coronavirus — which already has claimed over 220,000 American lives — is one of the latest example…
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The Koch Operatives Behind the Trump Energy Department’s Renewables Research Censorship
Posted October 28, 2020 by Ben Jervey
Read time: 5 minsTwo Trump Energy Department appointees with deep ties to Koch Industries and the Koch donor network have been burying reams of agency research that looks favorably on renewable energy, according to an in-depth investigation by Grist an…
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Dumkirk
Posted September 7, 2020 by Anonymous
Yes, I know in the overall scheme of things, the sinking of some of the boats in Trump’s boating parade this weekend is pretty trivial.
But there’s nothing like trivial to make Twitter come alive.
The hashtag of the event is #Dumkirk:
Over the weekend, five boats sank at an event put on by Trump supporters near Austin, Texas. The traffic created choppy waters that submerged several boats. https://t.co/BUX5nDp1sK
— NPR (@NPR) September 7, 2020
This is the worst defeat the Confederacy has suffered in 155 years. https://t.co/VrpmNB0Zxq
— Charlotte Clymer 🏳️🌈 (@cmclymer) September 6, 2020
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) September 7, 2020
“Cascading failure through unintended consequences is a perfect metaphor for the Trump presidency.” https://t.co/9NuEzs8tjW
— Jacqueline Keeler (@jfkeeler) September 6, 2020
Boater fraud? https://t.co/yJZXlZGWkF
— Tea Pain (@TeaPainUSA) September 6, 2020
The new Trump ad needs work.#Dumkirk #TrumpBoatParade #BoatersForTrump #LakeTravis #BoatParade #sink #Texas #MAGA #laketravisboatparade #MAGAts pic.twitter.com/cWMlHiDGyZ
— John Óg (@johnogpdx) September 6, 2020
FUNNY ALERT
DEVONS ( MY SON) DAD IS MAGA , HE TOLD DEVON TO START GOFUNDME FOR SURGERY , HE’D HELP , HE DIDNT !!!
WELL .. YESTERDAY , HIS FECKING BOAT SANK IN LAKE TRAVIS ! 🤭🤭😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
TALK ABOUT GOOD KARMA
😂😂😂😂😂😂🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂💞!— CeCeResistance (@gumboqueen3030) September 6, 2020
I have never loved a picture more. pic.twitter.com/hrcZsuUJM6
— Lauren Hough (@laurenthehough) September 7, 2020
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Anti-pollution Advocates Cheer as Army Corps Reviews Formosa Plastics Permit in Louisiana
Posted November 5, 2020 by Julie Dermansky
Read time: 6 minsEnvironmental and community groups in Louisiana are elated after what they see as two back-to-back wins in their fight to protect fenceline communities from additional petrochemical industry pollution. This week, a key federal permit f…
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Biden’s Climate Change Plans Can Quickly Raise the Bar, But Can They be Transformative?
Posted November 13, 2020 by guest
Read time: 5 minsBy Edward R. Carr, The Conversation. Reposted from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.
The day Joe Biden becomes president, he can start taking actions that can help slow climate change. The question is whether he can …
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Biden Urged to Be #ClimatePresident by Taking These 10 ‘Game-Changing’ Steps in First 10 Days in Office
Posted November 9, 2020 by guest
Read time: 5 minsBy Julia Conley, Common Dreams. Originally published on Common Dreams under CC BY-SA 3.0 US.
With Democrats anxious about the probability that President-elect Joe Biden will be forced to grapple with a Republican-led Senate after taki…
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We’ve got a goddamn plan!
Posted August 22, 2020 by Anonymous
Chrystia Freeland is going to be a great Finance minister.
The first thing she will have to do it get a grip on the pro-Morneau leaks from her department.
Like the one this week about Trudeau Chief of Staff Katie Telford’s husband Ron Silver phoning up to see if the Finance Department would change some part of the pandemic benefit programs to benefit his employer:
The most bonkers part about this story isn’t the content itself (though it’s a legit thing). It’s that very few people could have provided the info. And the fact that they chose to, which burns (if indirectly) the PMO, is kinda … wow.
Someone is not happy with the boss. https://t.co/NVTk3eHOdo
— Matt Gurney (@mattgurney) August 21, 2020
At Routine Proceedings, Dale Smith writes:
For the past two weeks, as the leaks about Bill Morneau started coming out in advance of his departure, we also saw a number of warnings over social media about Liberals being their own worst enemies and that now was really not a good time for a civil war within the party. The fact that there were anonymous leaks to both VICE and the National Post about this incident shows that someone is suddenly awfully keen to talk, hoping to possibly embarrass PMO in some way, and considering that the leakers are showing how virtuous they were in standing up to Silver might make one assume that those leakers are loyalists of Morneau who are trying to, if not burnish his reputation, then certainly tarnish his detractors. I do wonder if this is a limited screw-you to Trudeau, because I haven’t yet seen camps loyal to Chrystia Freeland and François-Philippe Champagne forming and trying to oust Trudeau so that one of them can take over just yet. That said, this year has proven to be full of surprises, so we’ll see.
I don’t expect Freeland will have any difficulty with the Finance bureaucrats. Listen to her putting down David Akin for being annoyed on behalf of the opposition parties who are being forced to put up or shut up:
Global News reporter David Akin asks Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland why she hasn’t tabled a budget yet
I mean she has been Finance Minister for
48 Hours!
Plenty of time according to Akin #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/rEqbEm2LLH
— G.T. Lem (@gtlem) August 20, 2020
The next thing Freeland will do is get to work on Trudeau’s grand plan for Canada. I do believe there is an untold and unnoticed (by the WE-obsessed Canadian media) story of the Moreau resignation: Trudeau intends to use the COVID crisis to greatly improve Canada’s social welfare system. Moreau wouldn’t do it, but Freeland will.
I think the Morneau resignation, whether forced or not, provided an opportunity for Trudeau to make changes to Canada that he has long wanted to make — I wondered if Morneau was resisting these changes, and THAT, as much as the WE issue, was why he had to leave.
Here’s Trudeau using a reporter’s question about government pandemic support to talk about his plans:
A winning message from @JustinTrudeau . If the opposition parties want to force an election this fall, this is the Liberal plan they will be objecting to. https://t.co/RTckSWqjIL
— Cathie from Canada 🇨🇦 😷🏳️🌈 (@CathieCanada) August 22, 2020
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School Daze
Posted August 8, 2020 by Anonymous
From Reddit: pic.twitter.com/QNLRl937V8
— Cathie from Canada 🇨🇦 😷🏳️🌈 (@CathieCanada) August 6, 2020
Oh dear, I think we’re in trouble now.
The Sask school plan is based on wishful thinking – it imagines that COVID is symptomatic, that students with symptoms can just stay home or go home, and that nobody else (teachers, parents, staff) will get sick.https://t.co/lh4Je7b64F— Cathie from Canada 🇨🇦 😷🏳️🌈 (@CathieCanada) August 5, 2020
I don’t have any children or grandchildren in school these days, and thank heavens for small mercies.
One thing that really impresses me about Saskatchewan is how consistently we’ve been able to come up with the worst plan in Canada on a broad range of policies, from suicide prevention to school reopening. Truly inspirational.
— glengarry glen busey (@birlios) August 5, 2020
I think this mom has it right:
After a lot of conversations & thinking, we have decided the safest thing we can do for our son is keep him home in Sept. He will be learning via the CBE online hub. I will have to give up my job as they require me back in person as of Sept, but I know this is the right choice.
— Lucy 🇨🇦 (@TheBlueGem3) August 7, 2020
The School Safe “plan” in Saskatchewan is based on wishful thinking:
What I don’t understand is why employers in the business sector are not demanding a better plan for schools. If their employees cannot be at work because they have to stay home with their kids, won’t that cause the economy to shut down again? #skpoli #sasked #covid19sk https://t.co/VOy9q6bhEc
— Maren Beaton (@maren_beaton) August 7, 2020
Parents aren’t happy:
What I am curious on (if it’s been mentioned anywhere, let me know) is what happens if one staff or kid tests positive? Is every single person in school that has come into contact with that one positive case going to be sent for testing and isolation till test results come back?
— Bort (@Kfb28) August 7, 2020
Neither are doctors:
Saskatchewan’s doctors press for safer return-to-school plan – Premier Moe says he’s open to changes: https://t.co/dHuAVThnNO @SMA_docs @keepskkidssafe @GordWyant Dr. Shahab @SaskHealth @CBCSask
— Dennis Kendel (@DennisKendel) August 8, 2020
I am concerned that the Sask Party seems to be reducing the whole School debate to a discussion of whether or not to make masks mandatory, while the Sask Medical Association is asking for a much broader look at school problems:
[SMA says]“Closed spaces with poor ventilation, crowded spaces with many people, and close-contact settings with close-range conversations are not uncommon in schools and these realities need to be front and centre in back to school plans.” Education Minister Gord Wyant said Friday that, in response to the association’s concerns and recommendations from the Public Health Agency of Canada, the province is looking at making masks mandatory.
And it is, of course, not just the schools themselves that are problematic. Its also the impact that COVID increases in schools would have on the rest of us.
I spent four months staying away from people, stores, restaurants, everything. So will I have to go back to that kind of life if there is community COVID spread here again? Yes, I’m afraid so.
I spent my evening sobbing in the park with my husband and mother-in-law about how it will now be unsafe to see our families as soon as schools reopen.
There is no plan.
Our province has failed.
— Amy (Lawson) Empringham (@lawsonames) August 5, 2020
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Detroit Knew: GM and Ford Were Aware of Climate Risks Decades Ago Too, Investigation Reveals
Posted October 28, 2020 by Anonymous
Read time: 10 minsGroundbreaking reporting this week by E&E News revealed that, similar to major oil companies like Exxon, American automakers Ford and General Motors (GM) engaged in early cutting-edge climate science research and that the companie…
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Saturday Stories: Vitamin D, The New England Journal of Medicine, Toxic Masculinity, And Super-Spreading
Posted October 10, 2020 by Yoni Freedhoff
Gid M-K, in Medium, tells us what we do and don’t know about Vitamin D and COVIDThe Editors of and in The New England Journal of Medicine, on with paragraphs of fire regarding the coming American election.Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, on how toxic masculi…
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Investigation: How Pesticide Companies Are Marketing Themselves as a Solution to Climate Change
Posted November 17, 2020 by Anonymous
Read time: 15 minsThis article was published as part of the launch of DeSmog’s Agribusiness Database, where you can find a record of companies and organisations’ current messaging on climate change, lobbying around climate action, and histories of clim…
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Environmental Groups Oppose Shell Request to Increase Air Pollution Limits for Pennsylvania Plastics Factory
Posted November 3, 2020 by Sharon Kelly
Read time: 5 minsCiting design changes, Shell Chemical Appalachia has asked Pennsylvania’s state regulators to issue air permits that would allow the company’s massive plastics manufacturing plant under construction outside Pittsburgh to emit significa…
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Thankful
Posted October 13, 2020 by Anonymous
This is the best public health messaging I’ve seen all year. #Covid19 pic.twitter.com/Oc5iMMJVx8— Gerald Butts 🇨🇦 😷🖐🧼🤚 (@gmbutts) October 9, 2020 Well, as a matter of fact I DO know what to do with a pencil and a cassette tape. But we survived our…
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just look on the sunny side of life
Posted October 5, 2020 by Anonymous
You have to be creative to stay in business during a pandemic. pic.twitter.com/cKmA1xXxrT— You Had One Job! (@_youhadonejob1) October 5, 2020 Lincolnshire Wildlife Park has recently been forced to remove five African grey parrots from the main p…
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We are the world
Posted June 6, 2020 by Anonymous
Its been quite a week, hasn’t it? Even here in Saskatoon, the George Floyd rally on Thursday was attended by hundreds of people, all races and colours.
And its been like this all around the world. Yes, we have seen Black Lives Matter and police abuse protests before, but this time it feels different. I am amazed that protests about the Floyd homicide have been continuing day after day, and that they have spread so far, so fast.
So now I am wondering if our shared COVID-19 pandemic experience has changed us in ways we could not have predicted.
For the first time in history, all of the peoples of the world shared the same experience – a two-month shutdown that was virtually unique in our human experience.
Yes, we were forced to be alone and isolated. We couldn’t go out, we couldn’t see our family and friends. But everyone around the world was, for the first time ever, dealing with the same emotions, the same fears, the same questions and concerns, the same depths of despair, the same glimmers of hope.
After this experience, I think the peoples of the world understand each other in a more profound way than we ever did before.
And perhaps this is why now millions of us are on the same side of these protests. We get it.
People are standing up in solidarity for Black Lives Matter and against police brutality, in numbers I have never seen before – generals are apologizing for ever working with Trump, sports leaders like Sydney Crosby are speaking up, Harry and Meghan are too, bike manufactures are suspending sales to police, corporations are making statements, even the NFL is apologizing for the way they treated Kaepernick.
Wow. Its truly remarkable. This is the way the world changes.
I’ve been watching politics closely for a long time, and I’ve never seen any entity get its ass kicked as badly in a PR/political battle as the country’s metro police are right now.
Only rival is the Catholic Church, and both relied on their wide popularity for their power.
— Martin Longman (@BooMan23) June 5, 2020
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Trump is unwell
Posted June 14, 2020 by Anonymous
After yesterday’s West Point debacle – the water glass, the inability to say “McArthur”, the ramp, the tweet ABOUT the ramp – #TrumpIsUnwell is trending this morning on twitter.
Along with all the jokes, there is this:
The media’s failure to meaningfully cover Trump’s cognitive and physical decline after obsessing about Hillary’s health is evidence of open misogyny at this point.
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) June 14, 2020
Personally, I believe that Trump has a minor stroke last November – remember the fast and unscheduled “tour” of Walter Reed? – and he still has impairments on his right side.
On a lighter note, #ObamaDay is also trending twitter:
You’d think Republicans would be more worried about protecting the Constitution.
It’s the only thing preventing Barack Obama from being president again.#ObamaDayJune14th
— Middle Age Riot (@middleageriot) June 14, 2020
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‘Historic’ Court Ruling Will Force France To Justify Its Climate Targets
Posted November 20, 2020 by Anonymous
Read time: 5 minsA French court this week issued what climate campaigners are calling a “historic decision” in the fight to hold national governments accountable for insufficient action to address the climate crisis.
Tags: Franceclimate lawsuitPar…
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New ‘No Corporate Cabinet’ Campaign Pushes Biden to Pick People Who Will Advance Public Good
Posted November 21, 2020 by guest
Read time: 5 minsBy Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams. Originally published on Common Dreams under CC BY-SA 3.0 US.
With two months until Inauguration Day and President Donald Trump apparently hellbent on lighting more figurative fires on his way out of …
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Climate Deniers Boost Pro-Trump Efforts to Cast Doubt on US Election
Posted November 7, 2020 by Sharon Kelly
Read time: 5 minsIn unusual remarks made during a corporate earnings call today, Friday, November 6, Continental Resources founder and executive chairman Howard Hamm referred to counting “all legal votes” — a phrase used by President Donald Trump to su…
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Of course its a matter of confidence
Posted October 20, 2020 by Anonymous
Promoting the conceit that setting up a “corruption committee” to harass the Trudeau government isn’t really an issue of confidence in the government is just silly. Of course it is. The Tories had initially billed the committee as one focused on “…
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Saturday Stories: 7 Months In, Magical Thinking, Long Haulers, And Weighing Kids In School
Posted August 22, 2020 by Yoni Freedhoff
Andrew Joseph, Helen Branswell, and Elizabeth Cooney, in STAT, review all that we currently know about COVID-19 and the pressing questions that remain
Gregg Gonsalves, in The Nation, on the mortal need to resist magical thinking.
Ed Yong (god he’s fantastic), in The Atlantic (who can’t be paying him enough), on the need to understand the COVID long haulers to truly understand the pandemic.
Me, in Medscape, on why I think it’s an incredibly awful idea to weigh kids in schools (as is the plan in the UK) to track their COVID gains.
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Polling Shows Growing Climate Concern Among Americans. But Outsized Influence of Deniers Remains a Roadblock
Posted October 22, 2020 by Anonymous
Read time: 9 minsMore Americans than ever before — 54 percent, recent polling data shows — are alarmed or concerned about climate change, which scientists warn is a planetary emergency unfolding in the form of searing heat, prolonged drought, massive w…
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Affordable Housing Developers Set their Sights on Former Toxic Oil Fields in LA
Posted October 24, 2020 by Anonymous
Read time: 14 minsPhotography by Peter Bennett
On a busy corner in Vista Hermosa, a neighborhood just west of downtown Los Angeles, early signs of construction have begun on a 7-story, 64-unit apartment building called Firmin Court. The project’s deve…
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Automakers Show ‘Concerning’ Lack of Engagement on Human Rights and Climate, Analyses Reveal
Posted November 19, 2020 by Anonymous
Read time: 8 minsThe world’s leading automakers are not doing enough to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with international climate targets and are failing to address or even report on human rights issues, according to new assessments released b…
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Faculty and Alumni Demand that University of Arizona Kick Koch Money Off Campus
Posted October 31, 2020 by Anonymous
Read time: 5 minsThis week, Kochs Off Campus!, a grassroots organisation of faculty members and alumni at the University of Arizona and local Tucson residents, staged a day of action to highlight the encroachment of corporate influences on public insti…
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Saturday Story: Just One This Week. A Must Read If You Haven’t Yet
Posted August 8, 2020 by Yoni Freedhoff
Ed Yong, in the Atlantic, with the sadly all too believable (yet still unbelievable) story of how SARS-CoV2 defeated America
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- Saturday Stories: COVID Orphans, A Must Read Piece, The Currency of Risk, And COVID19 Vaccine Side Effects
- Saturday Stories: Herd Immunity Is Up To Us, #SchoolsBeforeBars, Another Pandemic, And The American Dumpster Fire
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Voting for delusion
Posted September 12, 2020 by Anonymous
As I read this short piece at No More Mister Nice Guy, I felt increasingly horrified:
It’s often said that Trump’s approach to everything is “transactional.” I think Trump’s approach to reality is transactional. The truth is the truth when it serves his purposes. In those moments, Trump believes in reality. But in other moments, not only does he walk out to a podium and contradict reality, he does so without necessarily believing that he’s lying. As I’ve said in the past, Trump doesn’t believe in truth. There are (as we see them) facts, lies, and true and false interpretations of reality, but to Trump they’re all equally valid. He’ll use any of them to shape reality, and he’ll believe whatever he’s saying at the time, even if it contradicts what he said six hours ago. In part this is because, as Yastreblyansky says, he believes in the Power of Positive Thinking and therefore thinks confidence can shape reality. In part it’s because it’s important to him to be his audience’s daddy, someone who dominates us the way his father dominated him.
This is the man that millions of Americans voted for. And will vote for again.
I’m reading more stories now about Americans who don’t believe COVID is actually real – they think its all a Democratic plot, and that millions of Americans are just getting the flu, and hundreds of thousands are dying of something they already had like heart disease.
I don’t know what they think people are getting sick from in other countries around the world, but probably they aren’t even aware that other countries actually exist.
And I’m reading stories now about how people in small towns in Oregon and Washington and California think that Antifa, not campers or lightning, is the cause of the fires that are destroying their homes.
I hear from friends in Oregon that, per local media, some claims ‘antifa is starting forest fires’ have been traced to magabros hearing ‘blm’ on radio scanners and not realizing it means Bureau of Land Management
— David Burbach (@dburbach) September 11, 2020
Its absolutely crazy.
Anyone else make this mistake recently? 😳#climatechange #wildfires #apocalypse2020 #motordumb #yycbike pic.twitter.com/Gn1TljmSgu
— REWORKS (@ReWorksYYC) September 12, 2020
Apparently AP style now says you can use “less” even when “fewer” is correct and so 2020 continues to plumb new depths.
— Jonathan Gitlin (@drgitlin) September 11, 2020
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Saturday Stories: Antarctically Cold Vaccines, Cancelling Thanksgiving, And How Vermont Succeeded
Posted November 21, 2020 by Yoni Freedhoff
Selinia Simmons-Duffin, in NPR Shots, on why Pfizer’s vaccine needs to be kept at temperatures lower than an Antarctic winter.James Hamblin, in The Atlantic, on honouring the meaning of the Thanksgiving holiday by cancelling it this year.Julia Belluz,…
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Saturday Stories: Peer Review, #Masks4All, Talking To Kids, And The Public Health Of Protests
Posted June 27, 2020 by Yoni Freedhoff
Simine Vazire, in Wired, on the failings of scientific peer review
Kimberly A. Prather, Chia C. Wang, and Robert T. Schooley, in Science, on how to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV2 (tl;dr – wear a mask)
Kate Julian, in The Atlantic, on how to talk to kids about the sad, scary, and unjust issues permeating society today.
Tara Haelle, in Forbes, on why public health experts support Black lives matter protests.
Photo By Mike Shaheen – https://www.flickr.com/photos/63015897@N02/49979513917/, CC BY 2.0, Link
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Saturday Stories: We Know How To Control The Virus, There Is No Casedemic, And There Won’t Be Natural Herd Immunity
Posted November 14, 2020 by Yoni Freedhoff
Tomas Pueyo, in Medium, explains what could be done by countries like Canada and the US to control the virus if they actually wanted to do so as evidenced by the successes of Japan, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, New Zealand, Austra…
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How Canadian is this scandal, really?
Posted July 13, 2020 by Anonymous
So I guess the Globe and Mail thinks we’re supposed to be outraged now that prominent Canadians have raised money for an outstanding charity?
What a typically Canadian scandal this is.
I guess only non-entities like me are ever supposed to raise money for charities – over the years I have given a few bucks to the Saskatoon Food Bank and the Canadian Wildlife Federation, and I went door-to-door for the Heart and Stroke Foundation, and for Diabetes Canada.
So as far as the Globe and Mail is concerned, that’s OK as long as I never achieve any public prominence or get active in politics years after.
Because hey, how dare people like Katie Telford and Seamus O’Regan, back in 2010, years before they were involved in politics, volunteer to work on creating artworks in developing countries, to support a charity then called Free The Children which later morphed into WE Charity and then later still got money from the feds to run a gigantic volunteer effort to give Canadian university students some support during COVID summer.
Can’t have that. This corruption must be STOPPED I tell you! And The Globe and Mail is ON IT!
I guess if I ever do become a cabinet minister or something, I’ll have to make very very sure that I never never have anything to do with any decisions around funding for, say, the Heart and Stroke Foundation. After all, I could be charged with having an awful and corrupt conflict of interest, I guess.
What I learned about Canadian politics this week: charities that administer services to young people bear a level of scrutiny that a pipeline company given billions from the Alberta taxpayer for Keystone (which will never be built) doesn’t have to face#cdnpoli
— DJ Chocolate Milk (@DJChocolateMLK) July 11, 2020
I would think that sometime next week, or maybe the week after, we will start seeing news stories with Conservatives and NDP expressing deep deep concern for the horrible situation of Canadian post-secondary students, with lots of hand wringing about what in the world they are going to do for money to pay tuition this fall. Somehow, its all going to be Trudeau’s fault again of course.
Oh gag me with a spoon.
Trudeau’s Canada Student Service Grant idea was a good one, innovative and useful, another Trudeau success.
Oh, can’t have that. Not during a Conservative leadership campaign, when they were all just desperate to knock the Liberals off their perch at a time when Trudeau is so popular across Canada and around the world. It had to be trashed, and trashed it has been.
Of course they had to trash an outstanding Canadian children’s charity while they were at it, but can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs.
So what can be done now? Well, nothing. I might be wrong but I think its too late to fix it this summer.
Trudeau should just expand CERB eligibility to anyone who intends to go to school in the fall. Move the Student Service Grant funds into the CERB budget, and let students claim the benefit for July and August, and just be done with it. I think they would each get about $4,000, which would be something.
And he can urge them to volunteer somewhere, too. Maybe the service grant program can continue in the fall and winter, when government staff will have the time to run it.
Ending this post on a more cheerful note, here’s some funny:
REASONS TO NOT WEAR A FACE MASK pic.twitter.com/Ah75mzSF24
— Brittlestar (@brittlestar) July 10, 2020
This is how the evolution of the desk works pic.twitter.com/1NcmZ17epV
— I Didn’t Know That (@lDidNotKnowThat) July 12, 2020
— NotHereForYourBS🇨🇦🇬🇧🏴🦄🌈📚🎧☕️ (@1peculiarchik) July 13, 2020
You need this. We all need this. #LoveWins#FreshTweets @thegoodgodabove TY
— Southern Sister Resister (@ResisterSis20) July 10, 2020
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Hurricane Zeta Leaves Thousands Without Power, Oily Mess On Heels of Laura and Delta in South Louisiana
Posted October 31, 2020 by Julie Dermansky
Read time: 7 mins“I will evacuate next time a hurricane is forecast to hit the area,” Traditional Chief Shirell Parfait-Dardar of the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi- Chitimacha-Choctaw Tribe told me the day after Hurricane Zeta hit Louisiana’s coas…
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RDs! We’re Hiring! Looking To Fill A Full-Time Permanent Position With My New Venture Constant Health (Telecommuters Welcome!)
Posted October 22, 2020 by Yoni Freedhoff
Since 2004, Constant Health’s expert team has been at the forefront behavioural weight management, and now, by leveraging the best that technology has to offer, the goal is to share that expertise while eliminating geographic boundaries. Our headquart…
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End of August Doldrums
Posted August 31, 2020 by Anonymous
What a strange week!
I’ve been trying to decide what to post here for this week, and haven’t really got anything organized.
Down South, the Republican Convention came in like a lamb and left like a lamb too, and nobody seems to really remember anything about it.
Hurricane Laura came and went too, leaving death and destruction in its wake. Two more hurricanes are on their way. Oh, great!
More Black people were shot needlessly, and more protests are underway, and now Trump is talking about going to Wisconsin and nobody wants to see him there. I wonder if he ever gets embarrassed by how useless he is at any kind of leadership?
Following the example of the Kenosha shooter – who was just “helping the police” by killing two people and wounding a third – we are seeing more MAGA people driving their pickup trucks and waving their flags at the protests, and so more people are getting shot. This isn’t going to end well.
As Twitter keeps mentioning, it’s bizarre for Trump to be talking about how the protest violence is Biden’s fault, when it is happening under Trump’s watch. Of course, Trump never takes responsibility for anything so why would he ever take responsibility for the violence of his own supporters?
And here in Canada we have a new Conservative leader — Erin (AKA Eric) is not making a good first impression as he refuses to confront the haters in his own party. You know, I seem to remember that it was Trudeau, who is supposedly just a whimpy drama teacher according to the Cons, who didn’t hesitate to boot people out of the Liberal caucus for any accusation of misconduct, and who refused to let anyone run under the Liberal banner if they were not pro-choice, and who refused to give federal money for student employment to any organizations that preached against abortion.
O’Toole doesn’t seem to realize that a leader who goes along with jerks and assholes because he doesn’t want to offend anyone is not a leader that Canadians will respect or support.
And now school is getting underway, and it will be a disaster. Give it a week or two, for COVID to start passing between children and teachers and the families, infecting and killing across Canada.
COVID is the honey badger – it don’t care.
Everybody basically KNOWS this is going to happen. But we all seem to be in some sort of mass-hypnosis fugue Tinker Bell state where we think if we just BELIEVE hard enough and WISH hard enough and HOPE hard enough then everything will be JUST FINE.
Yesterday the Saskatchewan’s chief medical health officer said we have to change our “summer bubbles” when school starts — basically, what he was saying in an incredibly convoluted and indirect way, is that Grandma and Grandpa have will have to stop seeing the grandkids once they go back to school.
Oh, what a week!
But then I watch this:
Some things you need to stand back and just watch. Bald eagle 🦅 being released back into the wild. 🤩 pic.twitter.com/HgziUJ2Dbo
— Jim Osman (@EdgeCGroup) August 8, 2020
and this
I’m melting seeing them. pic.twitter.com/JlJ5IeccLX
— Life on Earth (@planetpng) August 22, 2020
Now I feel better.
