If you’re not already following Dr. Popescu, you should be.
Stephen Reicher and John Drury, in the BMJ, on how adherence to COVID recommendations is reliant more on resources and less on motivation or energy.Gideon M-K, in Medium, with the plain truth …

The UK government has defended its decision to celebrate representatives of companies involved in Canada’s controversial tar sands industry as “Climate Champions”, ahead of the COP26 UN climate summit it is set to host later this year. A UK-Canada event last week praised 26 “exceptional individuals actively working to move Canada to net-zero emissions”, five […]

The post Government Defends Praising Tar Sands Industry Figures as COP26 ‘Climate Champions’ appeared first on DeSmog.

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…

And this happened here, in Saskatoon: Meanwhile in Canada:A 10-year old boy wanted to do something nice for the dogs in his neighborhood.So he built them a stick library.He now has two locations and is already expanding to more.🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/fzC4p…

Yeah, I know, but I just wasted an hour of my life watching a TV show that supposedly had the greatest Christmas commercials this year and they were all pretty awful. Here’s some better ones. My new favorite: This one is worth watching until the end: …

Stephen Maher, in Macleans, with the comprehensive story of Canada’s first year with the pandemic.
Emily Anthes, in The New York Times, on the end of overzealous cleaning.
Gregg Gonsalves, in The Nation, on what comes after the end of this stage of th…

Cartoon for @chronicleherald #trump #BidenHarrisInauguration #BidenHarris #TrumpTreason pic.twitter.com/t5Wm5V3OSX

— Michael de Adder (@deAdder) January 19, 2021

And so after four years as a failed president, tomorrow Donald Trump will return to his previous career as a failed businessman.

— Victor Laszlo (@Impolitics) January 19, 2021

It feels a bit like Christmas Eve, but you already know what you’ll get when you open the present. A restoration of American democracy, decency, and hope.

— Dan Rather (@DanRather) January 19, 2021

I’m like a little kid on Democracy Eve

— Tom and Lorenzo (@tomandlorenzo) January 19, 2021

would he settle for me launching water balloons filled with cat piss at him as he’s wheeled out of town in a garbage can https://t.co/QtqNmum4ri

— kilgore trout, brad r’s brother (@KT_So_It_Goes) January 15, 2021

It’s awards season, and DeSmog is getting in on the act. We are delighted to announce that we won Best Specialist News Site at this year’s The Drum Online Media Awards! The prize is recognition for all of the DeSmog team’s hard work over the past 12 months, bringing you groundbreaking investigations on the crossover […]

The post DeSmog Wins Best Specialist News Site appeared first on DeSmog.

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 “…

On March 5, 1963, 30-year-old singer Patsy Cline was killed in a plane crash – one of the first musical losses I can remember, though far from the last. Here is a pretty good documentary about Patsy Cline and her music:

Olivia Veira and Joshua M. Sharfstein, in JAMA, with a roundup of healthcare workers’ candid thoughts on caring for patients with COVID.
Maryn McKenna, in Wired, on the importance of talking about the vaccines’ side effects.
Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, …

Lauren Dobson-Hughes, in The Line, reflecting on Canada’s responses to COVID wonders if we are actually a country?Zeynep, in Insight, on the gaslighting of science.And in non-COVID writing, here’s my latest in Medscape How Dare There Be Effective Drug…

Scott Gavura, in Science Based Medicine, on the anti-vaxx campaign to erode confidence in COVID vaccines.Julia Belluz and Umair Irfan, in Vox, on the new South African COVID variant that may challenge current vaccines.André Picard and Adalsteinn Brown…

By Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams. Originally published on Common Dreams, CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. From fake oil spills in Washington, D.C. and New York City to a “people mural” in Seattle spelling out “Defund Line 3,” climate and Indigenous protesters in 50 U.S. cities and across seven other countries spanning four continents took to the streets […]

The post Climate and Indigenous Protesters Across 4 Continents Pressure Banks to #DefundLine3 appeared first on DeSmog.

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

Sarah Zhang, in The Atlantic, on the forgotten power of windows in a pandemic.
Luisa Beck, in The Washington Post, on the 1,200 new German words coined for the pandemic.
Aisha Lofter, in TVO, on the need for an anti-racist response to COVID.
 &#1…

Here are some of my favorite “Christmas” videos, the ones I listen to every year around this time:  This one is from one of the oddest Christmas specials ever:  Here’s my husband’s favorite – it reminds him of his own trips home at Chris…

Sorry my laptop is being looked at-all of a sudden the keyboard wouldn’t work. Not sure how long I will be without it. So – later, dude!

What a relief it is to just have normal politics-as-usual going on everywhere these days – blaming Trudeau for stuff that isn’t his fault, blaming O’Toole for stuff that IS his fault, watching Biden taking over the US government, its all good these day…

Enjoying his life to the fullest#dogs #dogsoftwitter #DogsofTwittter pic.twitter.com/HOq8cWKGyl— dog lover (@10_Ilovedogs) April 21, 2021 There are 2 types of dogs.. 😅 pic.twitter.com/RtyNme0rHe— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden_) May 10, 2021 If you’…

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 […]

Akiko Iwasaki, in Medium, on how vaccination might help COVID longhaulers.
Jennifer Murphy, in The New York Times, reflects on her experiences as a NYC EMT during the worst of their pandemic.
Jane Philpott and David Walker, in The Ottawa Citizen, disc…

Bill Gates, in his blog GatesNotes, explains the science of why 2021 promises many more advances in the treatment and prevention of COVID and science as a whole.
Gid MK, in Medium, busting 20 myths about COVID
Devi Sridhar, in The Guardian, on how the…

Helen Branswell, in STAT, with the questions experts still have about COVID.
Justin Ling, in Macleans, with the almost unbelievable story of Ontario’s science table and its recommendations versus what our government is doing. 
Julia Belluz, in Vo…

Angela Rasmussen, in Slate, on how we can’t rely on vaccines alone to end this pandemic (this is especially true right now in Canada where our vaccination program is barely off the ground)
Alice Lu-Culligan and Akiko Iwasaki, in the New York Times, on…

Facebook is “fuelling climate misinformation” through its failure to get to grips with misleading content, according to a new report that calls on companies to boycott the platform until significant action is taken. Campaign group Stop Funding Heat, which produced the report, warns that the problem is likely to escalate in the coming months as […]

The post ‘Overwhelming’ Evidence Facebook is Failing to Tackle Climate Misinformation appeared first on DeSmog.

You know how when you’re going through an intersection and someone runs the red but luckily they just click your bumper on the way past, and you are shaken but OK and you just drive on?
That’s how I feel about Trump’s defeat.
America has avoided fascism by the merest click.

— Cathie from Canada 🇨🇦 😷🏳️‍🌈 (@CathieCanada) November 8, 2020

Everyone needs to chill out please. They still have to count all of Hunter Biden’s laptops, Greenland, the lost city of Antifa and the hidden suburbs behind the revolving ObamaGate.

— Jesse Lifson (@DoYouEvenLif) November 13, 2020

Johnny Cash spent decades trying to warn us about this. https://t.co/EkqJhSUqdq

— Steve Reilly (@BySteveReilly) November 11, 2020

From the ‘Crap wildlife photography’ group on Facebook #womensart pic.twitter.com/pxMUG35LJT

— #WOMENSART (@womensart1) November 11, 2020

When you see your ex and try to play it cool.

📹: Imgur user anlyin pic.twitter.com/PSyXsmPZX3

— Paul Bronks (@SlenderSherbet) November 15, 2020

Ever since the owners got this trampoline, the dog spends more time on it than the kids
(viralhog) pic.twitter.com/ToBhFJM2ET

— ༺❆ᗙ Martin 🏳️‍🌈 ᗛ❆༻ Party time🍷 (@KlatuBaradaNiko) November 10, 2020

Obstacle course skills… pic.twitter.com/modMjqwTqK

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) November 9, 2020

This good boy thinks the guys throwing darts on the TV are playing fetch with him… pic.twitter.com/tcLNrKpn0Q

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) November 15, 2020

When you don’t have time for this crap. pic.twitter.com/JzfWuh8dEz

— 𝖠𝖺𝗋𝗈𝗇 𝖶𝗂𝖾𝗇𝖾𝗋 (@Wieneraaron) March 13, 2021

Never has there been a better introductory paragraph to a textbook, nor will there ever be. #higherEd https://t.co/e8TAuwJLGa pic.twitter.com/zp2HRmSszR

— Dr. Alec Couros (@courosa) March 7, 2021

Prince George and Princess Charlotte after the monarchy is abolished. pic.twitter.com/W8s984Ensq

— Rohita Kadambi 🍾 (@rohitak) March 8, 2021

And one more – its hilarious:

I’m never letting this video die pic.twitter.com/QAOXjNLAqk

— Best Videos 🎬🍿 (@30SECVlDEOS) February 7, 2021

Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, with a typically phenomenal piece (and sadly the last he’ll be writing for a while as he finishes up a book) where he discusses the pandemic’s year two.Kai Kupferschmidt, in Science, with what you need to know, and why people…

I’m back – turned out my keyboard had somehow disconnected itself from my laptop operating system and they needed to find each other again. Sorta like this: The great escapeNothing can keep this cat away from his best friend 😻 pic.twitter.com/6W3PP7L0…

Damien Cave, in The New York Times, on how Australia is maintaining near normalcy of life in the time of COVID19
James Hamblin, in the Atlantic, on the Brazilian variant that’s currently rampaging through a city that had been thought to be immune due …

Coal-fired power plants set to be built by companies part-owned by British multinational bank HSBC will contribute to tens of thousands of deaths worldwide due to air pollution once completed, new research suggests. A new study by researchers at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) estimates that the planned coal plants […]

The post New HSBC-backed Coal Plants Will Contribute to 18,400 Deaths Annually, New Study Estimates appeared first on DeSmog.

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.

Javed Anees, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Reid Wilson, in The Hill, on the world leading way in which Africa approached COVID treatment and prevention supplies. 
David Spiegelhalter, in the Guardian, on why you need not be terribly worried about rec…

When Trump doesn’t succeed on Wednesday to get Pence to “do something” about winning the election, I believe he is going to try to declare Martial Law, thinking that will stop Biden from being sworn in. It’s going to be a nightmare. We’re alr…

James Hamblin, in the Atlantic, on the promise of a single coronavirus vaccine which would protect us against SARS, MERS, COVID-19, and every other coronavirus-related disease, forever and ever.
David Robert Grimes, in Scientific American, on how COVI…

Michaeleen Doucleff, in NPR, explains how a small town in Brazil has tragically shown us that without vaccines, herd immunity is impossible.Derek Thompson, in The Atlantic, on the waste of resources and the disinformation that is hygiene theatreBrooks…

Campaigners are launching a High Court battle against the UK government’s “unlawful and irrational” support of oil and gas drilling in the North Sea. A medical student, the daughter of an oil worker and a former Esso employee are challenging the oil industry regulator’s strategy that aims to maximise economic recovery of oil and gas […]

The post Climate Campaigners Launch High Court Challenge Over North Sea Oil and Gas Drilling appeared first on DeSmog.

Plainly, 2020 has been an awful year.And I know that I haven’t been blogging, but it just feels wrong to be writing about nutrition, medicine, or weight management in the face of our tragic new realities.I do hope this post finds you and yours healthy…