Musical interlude

Disaster Pony - Dead Neon & The Noon Sun

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Oshan Jarow discusses Sapien Labs' work measuring mental health levels around the globe - and the resulting conclusion that "conveniences" including smartphones and ultra-processed foods may contribute to a lower level of mental wellness. And Michelle Gamage writes about the plummeting life expectancy of Indigenous people in British Columbia, along with the solutions based in ethics of care and community. 

- Julia-Simone Rutgers writes about the damage global warming is causing to the ice roads which have historically served as vital lifelines for Canada's North. And Arthur Zhang and Anna Kanduth discuss the readily-available options to shift Canada to a cleaner electrical grid and reduce our ongoing carbon pollution. 

- Meanwhile, Charles Rusnell reports on the lengths the UCP is going to to prevent Alberta from knowing how little support their is for their plan to hijack CPP funds to be handed to dirty energy operators. 

- Brittany Trang discusses a new study showing how nursing home operators are able to hide the majority of their profits in order to paper over higher prices and deteriorating care. And Cory Doctorow calls out the NHS' choice to pay massive amounts of money to corporate operators - and share of sensitive personal health information with them - rather than setting up secure open-source research databases. 

- David Moscrop offers a warning about Pierre Poilievre's intention to impose "ordered liberty", with the primary intention and effect of ensuring the freedom of those with more wealth and power to control and exploit anybody with less privilege. 

- Finally, Linda McQuaig makes the case for Canada to support and sign onto the G20's plan to ensure billionaires can't avoid paying taxes. 

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Basket case cat.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Julia Doubleday highlights how the continued unmitigated spread of COVID-19 is collapsing hospital systems around the globe. Priyanjana Primanik examines how the coronavirus leads to long-lasting cognitive deficits, while Isabella Cueto discusses new research confirming a connection between COVID and autoimmune disease (which is partially ameliorated by vaccination). 

- But then, Richard Luscombe examines how Florida's anti-science response to the pandemic is resulting in the spread of measles and other easily-preventable diseases as quackery replaces any pretense of public health policy.  

- Rochelle Baker reports on the growing calls to at least limit how fossil fuel corporations lie to us about their contribution to the climate breakdown. But Markham Hislop notes that Danielle Smith (among other petropoliticians) is an eager participation in the misinformation campaign intending to promote the continued spewing of carbon pollution over any clean energy transition. 

- Meanwhile, Frederic Cyr points out that the list of alarming effects of the climate crisis now includes radical changes to seasonal patterns of ocean algae blooming. 

- Pete Wilde discusses the largest-ever review of the effects of ultra-processed foods, with the result being a stark connection between UPFs and numerous health problems.

- Finally, Adam King points out how governments are interfering with collective bargaining (particularly in the public sector) to prevent workers from achieving gains for themselves and the people who depend on them.

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Alan Urban writes about the reality that establishment institutions are working on normalizing civilizational collapse - as well as the need to fight back against that process. And Cory Doctorow discusses the appalling results of the juxtaposition of predatory private equity and health care.

- Akielly Hu and Joseph Winters write about the impossibility of decoupling a growth-based economic model from increasing carbon pollution, while Science X points out the warning from the UN Environment Programme's International Resource Panel that resource usage is projected to surge from an already-unsustainable starting point. But while trying to graft care for our living environment onto the ideology of the cancer cell is futile, Deborah de Lange notes that a focus on renewable energy development and innovation produces improved better economic outcomes.

- Marina von Stackelberg reports on the demand from communities for support in dealing with increasingly frequent and severe climate disasters. And Sarah Miller and Zach Carriere comment that we need to direct new housing development to areas which steer clear of the most imminent risks. 

- Sarah Wild writes that over two millions research papers have disappeared from the Internet - meaning that the store of real knowledge is eroding even as AI-generated junk proliferates. And Glyn Moody points out that copyright laws are among the structural factors driving an insufficient policy response to climate change, as scientifically-accurate studies are ignored in favour of more-accessible fossil fuel propaganda. 

- Finally, David Wren discusses how Google's business model relies on shaking down governments and refusing to contribute to the jurisdictions which provide it with its profits. And Natasha Bulowski highlights how even after decades of lessons in the effects of corporatism, the Libs are continuing to lock Canada into "free trade" agreements which give corporate profits precedence over people's health and well-being.