Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Ajit Niranian discusses Europe's unprecedented spring heat wave which is putting large number of lives at risk, while Neha Bhatt reports on the even more extreme and dangerous heat engulfing India. And Seth Borenstein reports on new projections from the World Meterological Organization to the effect that there's far worse on the way in the next five years. 

- Susan Racine makes the case for oil companies to start compensating the world for the damage they've done to our living environment (while concealing or lying about it). 

- David Powell writes about the land grab which is seeing tech giants take over large and environmentally sensitive tracts of UK wilderness in order to slap up data centres. And Bradley Olson notes that the corporations who are supposed to represent the source of long-term revenue for AI providers are recognizing they're not seeing returns worth anything close to the actual price of artificial intelligence. 

- Robert Shpiner offers a reminder that the American health system model which Canadian conservatives are so determined to copy costs twice as much as the average for comparable countries while leaving large numbers of people without care. 

- Meanwhile, Andrew Gregory reports on a breakthrough research injection which has the potential to eradicate entire cancerous tumours in three doses.  

- Finally, Cory Doctorow discusses how Mark Carney epitomizes Third Way liberalism in the most derogatory of ways. 

Musical interlude

Elderbrook - Is It Over Now?

 

Thursday Night Cat Blogging

Observant cat.

Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Beth Kowitt discusses how the inequality and exclusion deliberately exacerbated by the wealthiest few are only ensuring that CEOs have no idea how angry the public is with them. David Higginbottom writes about the capital class' increasingly sophisticated and thorough extraction of labour and value from the rest of us. And Nora Loreto discusses how the Libs have always been on the side of capital rather than the environment. 

- Madison Mills notes that the businesses who have poured the most faith and funding into AI are starting to realize that they're not getting anything close to the value promised by its purveyors. And Patrick Galey delves into the lies which have been used to lure them in. 

- Raphael Satter reports that the U.S. government's neglect of personal privacy and data protection has reached the point where its own troops are being targeted thanks to information handed to unscrupulous data brokers.  

- Jonathan Liew rightly questions why anybody who considers themselves progressive would want to contribute content and eyeballs to a Nazi recruitment tool like X.  

- Finally, James Goldston and Natasha Arnpriester write that the Trump regime's dehumanization of refugees and asylum claimants is utterly intolerable - and needless to say the same should go for any other country's willingness to pretend that the U.S. is a safe landing place for immigrants. 

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Bill McGuire discusses what the next few decades figure to look like as what's currently considered extreme heat becomes all too normal. And Andrew Gregory reports on the growing recognition that the damage caused by the climate breakdown includes the accelerated spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.  

- Stella Levantesi writes about the myth of "green oil" promulgated by Norway's oil industry - which applies equally to greenwashing in Canada's fossil fuel sector. And the Sierra Club points out that a strong plurality of Canadians want to see stronger climate action including a strengthened industrial carbon price - even as Mark Carney goes in the opposite direction. 

- Chris Hoffman discusses the problems with online age verification requirements even in the hands of well-meaning organizations and officials. And Matt Novak writes about new polling showing strong U.S. public opposition to surveillance pricing.  

- Nico Schmidt, Ella Joyner and Conor O'Carroll highlight how tech giants have lobbied to conceal basic facts about the environmental damage done by data centres. And Don Moynihan writes that the Trump regime's sense of entitlement to total secrecy and impunity has reached the stage of demanding a non-disclosure agreement from every single U.S. federal employee. 

-  Finally, Wes Streeting rebuts Blair's demand that human well-being be left entirely in the hands of distorted and irrational markets rather than being a crucial purpose of democratic government.