This and that for your Tuesday reading.
- Matthew Oliver, Mark Ungrin and Joe Vipond write about the overwhelming evidence that masks offer protection from airborne viruses - even as anti-public-health forces attack them as part of their general denialist project. And Dan Diamond reports on expert warnings that in the absence of precautions, the U.S. may face another massive COVID wave in the next couple of years even from a far higher baseline.
- Matthew Rosza offers a grim look at what humanity's next century looks like if we don't avert a climate breakdown. Michael Barnard discusses the absurdity of Alberta's establishment refusing to mention fossil fuels as a cause of devastating wildfires - while the anti-science movement stoked by the people profiting off ignorance is turning its denialism to those as well. Geoffrey Diehl writes about the illusion that fossil fuels are a necessary part of our social and economic fabric, rather than an avoidable source of damage to both. And Mitchell Beer notes that far too many people are already facing energy poverty, and stand to benefit immensely from a shift to less dependence on dirty and volatile fuel sources.
- Meanwhile, Nikki DeMarco reports that Florida's sacrifice of citizens' health to corporate interests has reached the level of allowing corporations to use radioactive waste in road construction. And Michael Grabell examines the price of tires as a case study in the factors which have caused inflation - with corporate concentration and price gouging of consumers who lack any practical choice as a major piece of the puzzle.
- David Moscrop interviews Cory Doctorow about tech giants' deliberate enshittification of the Internet.
- Finally, Dru Oja Jay discusses how a strong public sector workforce produces spillover benefits for the population as a whole.
The public sector professors publish better nanotech than textbooks. To not alarm the world I'm giving India nanotech over two centuries or whenever. It is carbon black and copper nanoparticles arranged to be coated by fecal matter suspended or flocculated in dirty water. The idea is to melt away the dried waste organics (I'd use laser but use whatever lower than Cu nanoparticle melting temp) and reuse it. The particles might be visible by good light on contrast background. They are lasered and pushed together. Probably the 2nd half of this century to give away the equipment for such. It should be a growth area for many ground contaminants. Like cheap STMs made in the oughties for schools, cheap analysis equipment can be developed for sale at cost to perform metrology or attempt some customization. The latter may be too bulky for an embassy.
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