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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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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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UK Climate Diplomacy Staff Cut Again as Post-Brexit Links to Trump and US Deniers Strengthen
Posted November 24, 2016 by Anonymous
Read time: 3 minsWith Donald Trump set to become the President of the United States, the international climate change political scenery has shifted.
The president-elect’s stance on “quitting” the Paris Agreement seems to have softened in recent day…
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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: Complacency’s Price, and Minks
Posted November 7, 2020 by Yoni Freedhoff
Andre Picard, in The Globe and Mail, on the price we’re paying for complacency with COVID.Helen Branswell, in STAT, with some reassurance on Danish COVID minks. Yes minks.
Related StoriesSaturday Stories: The E…
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Celebrate
Posted July 5, 2020 by Anonymous
Trudeau’s uplifting message on Canada Day:
Canada is an amazing place to call home, and its people make it even better. We’re always there for each other – in good times and bad – and we always will be. And that’s worth celebrating. Happy Canada Day, everyone! https://t.co/SDC41cWOY0 pic.twitter.com/2OKNyxGEqe
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) July 1, 2020
Biden’s inspiring message on Independence Day:
Our nation was founded on a simple idea: We’re all created equal. We’ve never lived up to it — but we’ve never stopped trying. This Independence Day, let’s not just celebrate those words, let’s commit to finally fulfill them. Happy #FourthOfJuly! pic.twitter.com/1WrATlx8Xl
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 4, 2020
Here’s another good one, from Arnold Schwarzenegger:
Happy birthday, America. Thank you for letting me live the American Dream. We must fight every day to make sure that dream is as true for a Black child born in Minneapolis as it was for a white bodybuilder born in Austria. via @attn pic.twitter.com/rM95vb3twC
— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) July 4, 2020
And nothing in either of Trump’s speeches is worth repeating. But here’s a summary, in case you missed them both:
As Frederick Douglass delivered a swiff and swippy victory in Operation Desert Storm in Vietnam, protected against the oranges of totalittotalitotarianism, with super duper missiles and stock rocket records. God bless the United Schates and rid us of Obamanacare.#TrumpIsUnwell
— Trent Capelli 🇨🇦 (@TrentCapelli) July 5, 2020
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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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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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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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Trump Approved Shipping Tar Sands by Rail to Alaska. The Project’s Owners Are Banking on a Melting Arctic
Posted October 30, 2020 by Steve Horn
Read time: 9 minsOn September 28, President Donald Trump signed a presidential permit to ship Alberta’s tar sands oil via a proposed 1,600-mile private rail line across the U.S.-Canada border into Alaska.
The permit, given to the company Alaska-Alber…
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Take off, eh!
Posted May 30, 2020 by Anonymous
Dear Bob and Doug,Please take off, eh!
— Canadian Forces in 🇺🇸 (@CAFinUS) May 30, 2020
Not sure if anyone in the States will appreciate this but it’s AWESOME the #LaunchAmerica astronauts are BOB & DOUG 👊🤘#CanadaIcons in Canada from SCTV fame !! 🇨🇦🌏🪐🌙🚀🛰@Astro_Doug #Nasa #SpaceX
Take Off !! Eh. #LiftOff #TakeOff pic.twitter.com/nyZc6i39yi
— Kevin Smith (@Global_Smith) May 28, 2020
Dear SpaceX,Can you launch Trump into space instead?
Asking for America.
Thanks!#LaunchAmerica #SpaceLaunchLIVE #SpaceX Cape Canaveral International Space Station #LaunchDay #TrumpMeltdown #HadEnough #TwitterFactCheck #spacexlaunch #CarolynGombell Bob & Doug Challenger pic.twitter.com/3aPDEbN0TP
— Steve Rustad (@SteveRustad1) May 27, 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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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: 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
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Texas Regulators Failing to Act on Pollution Complaints in Permian Oilfields, New Report Finds
Posted October 21, 2020 by Sharon Kelly
Read time: 10 minsOver the past five years, environmental advocates with the nonprofit Earthworks have made trips to 298 oil and gas wells, compressor stations, and processing plants across the Permian Basin in Texas, an oil patch which last year hit r…
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Introducing DeSmog’s Agribusiness Database
Posted November 17, 2020 by Anonymous
Read time: 3 minsThis article was published as part of the launch of DeSmog’s Agribusiness Database, where you can find a record of companies and organisations’ messaging on climate change, lobbying around climate action, and histories of climate scien…
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More funny stuff
Posted August 14, 2020 by Anonymous
One of the things I love about Twitter is the funny people on it:
I ate a box of Thin Mints, didn’t get thinner. I don’t think they work 😡
— Hear Me Roar (@Stop_Trump20) August 12, 2020
Tucker Carlson thinks it’s cool to mispronounce Kamala Harris’s name.
Hmmm. What sounds like “Tucker”?
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) August 12, 2020
Check me out guest hosting @JimmyKimmelLive tonight 🤯 pic.twitter.com/4vVsbT579x
— Sarah Cooper (@sarahcpr) August 12, 2020
A priest, a minster, and a rabbit walk into a bar. The rabbit says, “I think I’m a typo.”
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) August 6, 2020
If you voted for trump because “he’s not a politician”, then I hope your next colonoscopy is done by a plumber.
— Mo Bella🌊 🌊 🌊 🌊#VoteBlueToSaveAmerica (@Mocraig13) August 6, 2020
Feeding 10 dogs at once is like going through Game of Thones every single day with the plots and betrayals and double-crosses and backbiting and frontbiting and dominance and submission and a finale that feels rushed and leaves everyone dissatisfied.
— William K. Wolfrum (@Wolfrum) August 5, 2020
They catch the fish and then let it go. They don’t want to eat the fish, they just want to make it late for something.
— mitch hedberg (@mitchhedbot) July 31, 2020
— Scrappy McBuckyball (@ScrotieMcB) August 14, 2020
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Court Tosses Youth Climate Lawsuit Against Canada
Posted October 30, 2020 by Anonymous
Read time: 5 minsThe Federal Court of Canada has decided to dismiss a climate lawsuit based on constitutional rights and brought by 15 young Canadians against the federal government. The decision, issued October 27, effectively denies the youths the ch…
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Journalists under attack
Posted June 1, 2020 by Anonymous
In his daily CNN newsletter, Brian Stelter gives a summary of some of the attacks made on journalists over the last few days in the George Lloyd protests across the US:
[there have been a] shocking number of cases of reporters being assaulted and arrested while covering the unrest. This wasn’t just a stray rubber bullet here or there — it seemed, to a lot of people, like targeting of journalists, by both police and in some cases by unruly protesters.
Bellingcat identified “at least 50 separate incidents where journalists have been attacked by law enforcement. In these examples journalists have been shot with rubber bullets, targeted with stun grenades, tear gassed, physically attacked, pepper sprayed and arrested.”
>> CBS’ Michael George tweeted: “I’ve covered protests for 15 years across the US. This is the first time I’ve ever seen police actively and intentionally target the press with rubber bullets, tear gas, and arrests. Scenes reminiscent of China, Iran. We remain determined to show the country what’s happening here…”
>> On Sunday morning I interviewed LA Times reporter Molly Hennessy-Fiske, who described the moment when Minneapolis police fired rubber bullets Saturday night: “We were shouting ‘press’ and I was waving my notebook at them. They just kept following us and firing at us…“
…
As Baltimore Sun media critic David Zurawik wrote in this column, “the question that remains is why we are seeing more physical attacks on the press than we did, say, in 2015 in the uprising in the wake of the death of Freddie Gray.” Echoing what he said on CNN, Zurawik wrote, “There are a lot of reasons for the rise, but here’s the one I think making the greatest difference: almost four years of the president of the United States demonizing the press, calling reporters ‘enemies of the people’ and ‘scum,’ and encouraging rallygoers at his events to intimidate them…”
I am wondering if some police are also blaming the media for what is happening, in a “shoot the messenger” reaction — maybe they have the idea that they could beat people up any time they wanted, if it weren’t for cell phone cameras and reporters publicizing it when they do.
The actual problem, of course, is that police are beating people up.
And journalists keep on reporting it when it happens.
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Saturday Stories: Considering Risk and Great Fences
Posted September 19, 2020 by Yoni Freedhoff
Aaron E. Carroll, in The New York Times, with a useful read on how most of us have been considering and responding to risk backwards.
Tomás Pueyo, also in The New York Times, on the need for great fences.
Photo: Ongayo / CC BY-SA (https://creativeco…
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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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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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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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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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Saturday Stories: Kids And School, The Immune System, Russian Vaccines, And Sharpies
Posted August 15, 2020 by Yoni Freedhoff
Zoë Hyde, in a pre-print in The Medical Journal of Australia, with a review article covering what we do and don’t know about the risks of kids, COVID, and school.
Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, with what we do and don’t know about our immune systems and COVID.
Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, in The Guardian, with what we do and don’t know about the new Russian COVID vaccine.
Jen Coleman, in McSweeney’s, writes about Sharpies (don’t miss this one)
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Saturday Stories: The Election, The World Series, And The Expectations
Posted October 31, 2020 by Yoni Freedhoff
Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, predicts what the future of COVID in America will look like following a Biden or a Trump election win.Jeff Passan, in ESPN, discusses how this year’s World Series was a metaphor for 2020 America.Helen Branswell, in STAT, on h…
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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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Farewell to the United States
Posted September 19, 2020 by Anonymous
Its difficult to realize that a governmental system that seemed to be so strong and healthy is actually so weak and brittle that the election of one man and the death of one woman could destroy it. But that’s the way I feel right now about t…
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Massachusetts Locals Accuse Town Mayor Of ‘Colluding’ With Enbridge Over Controversial Natural Gas Project
Posted November 11, 2020 by Anonymous
Read time: 13 minsResidents of Weymouth, Massachusetts, are raising questions about a deal made between the city and multi-billion dollar Canadian energy pipeline company Enbridge, Inc., with some calling the situation a “complete sell-off” that could …
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Saturday Stories: Herd Immunity Is Up To Us, #SchoolsBeforeBars, Another Pandemic, And The American Dumpster Fire
Posted July 18, 2020 by Yoni Freedhoff
James Hamblin, in The Atlantic, with an explainer on how herd immunity might only require 20% of us to be immune (whether by vaccine or infection) if we are diligent with our behaviours.
Paul Krugman, in The New York Times, on how the rush to open bars before schools threatens our kids’ education.
Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, considers what might happen were we to be facing another pandemic before we’ve figured out how to deal with COVID
Helen Branswell, in STAT, on how to fix the American dumpster fire that is their response to COVID to date.
U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Levi Riendeau / Public domain
Related Stories
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- 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
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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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‘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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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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State Backers of Anti-Protest Bills Received Campaign Funding from Oil and Gas Industry, Report Finds
Posted October 31, 2020 by Sharon Kelly
Read time: 9 minsPoliticians responsible for drafting laws criminalizing pipeline protests in Louisiana, West Virginia, and Minnesota did so after receiving significant funding from the fossil fuel industry, according to a new report by the Institute f…
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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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An Outstanding UN Speech from Trudeau
Posted September 26, 2020 by Anonymous
Trudeau addressed the United Nations today and his speech was simply outstanding: Other people have posted, but ICYMI10 minutes worth watching. Headline Politics: PM Trudeau Addresses UN General Assembly – September 25, 2020 | CPAChttps://t.co/M4CO0c9q…
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Politicians Try to Rally Support for Coal Despite Economics and Biden Presidential Win
Posted November 12, 2020 by Anonymous
Read time: 10 minsThe election results are a stark reminder of just how divided the country remains on many issues. However, in the days since the results were announced November 7, two senators from both parties are finding common ground in a familiar…
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Messenger of the gods
Posted July 19, 2020 by Anonymous
The last time Comet NEOWISE was visible in our sky, Stonehenge had not yet been built.Comets used to be seen as messengers of the gods, sent to tell us something important. This time, maybe its just “wear a mask and keep your distance!”
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Book Review | The Crash of Flight 3804: A Lost Spy, a Daughter’s Quest, and the Deadly Politics of the Great Game for Oil
Posted October 23, 2020 by guest
Read time: 9 minsBy Frank Kaminski. Originally published by Resilience.
The Crash of Flight 3804 is a triumph on two fronts. First, it’s a comprehensive history of U.S. involvement in the Middle East that manages the uncommon feat of placing this hist…
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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,…
