

DISPROVEN, NOT DISCARDED
I was recently looking for some statistics on iatrogenesis . That's just a fancy term for the medical system screwing up and causing harm rather than preventing or relieving it. Think: hospital acquired infections, adverse drug reactions , medical errors, psychological damage , and the like. However, as so often happens, I couldn't find what I was looking for but accidentally stumbled upon this extremely interesting study on the prevalence of ineffective medical treatments
Mar 283 min read


PRIVACY-DENIAL
PRIVACY At the airport. In a lounge between the gates and food court, a young British family alights on a circular couch. Mom is dealing...
Mar 281 min read


SAFE AND SAFER
I’ve been writing about this province's epidemic of overdose deaths and related themes for a while now. Just in recent times I’ve...
Mar 224 min read


FICTIONAL FLOTATION DEVICE
Nicholas Kristof — The New York Times Musk Said No One Has Died Since Aid Was Cut. That Isn’t True. Elon Musk says that no one has died because he slashed humanitarian aid. I went to South Sudan to check if that's true. It's not. Within an hour of starting interviews, I had the names of a 10-year-old boy and an 8-year-old girl who had died because of decisions by wealthy men in Washington. The visit that moved me the most was to a remote area that used to have no health car
Mar 1615 min read


THE WRETCHED BLEMISH
What’s the deal with the measles? ( Offered in the tone and tempo of Jerry Seinfeld, of course. ) Measles outbreaks are taking up a lot of time and space, even here in Canada, in the traditional and new press. Along with that, I keep reading that RFK Jr, the new head of America’s Health and Human Services, is promoting things backward and upside down as preventatives or cures and generally making everything worse, as he's always so determined to do. So what do you suspect I
Mar 1315 min read


SPIN-YUP
SPIN Four men, two probably in their 40s and two probably in their 50s or 60s, and a child of about seven or eight are sitting at a table...
Mar 121 min read


"SOCCER" is like "OKAY"
OKAY I’m a fan of etymology and semantics and, really, everything to do with language; still, somehow I never gave much thought to the...
Mar 118 min read


DOGBALL and NOFELLOW
DOGBALL A camper was parked with a guy working on it. The man's dog spotted me coming from almost a block away and, like we were old...
Mar 71 min read


RECORD RETURNS
The West Vancouver Streamkeeper Society was established in 2001. Their objective is to restore and sustain local aquatic wildlife...
Mar 31 min read


"PHYLOGENETICALLY DISTINCT"
Somehow I missed obelisks . Well, I suppose everyone missed it — or them . Discovered in human gut and oral bacteria, researchers...
Mar 22 min read











































































