“The difference between technology and slavery is that slaves are fully aware that they are not free.” — Philosopher and flâneur Nassim Taleb. Ah, the blue screen of death.Shortly after midnight on Friday, it popped up on millions of computers around the world.That’s when the global system experienced a grand enshittification event, to borrow a term coined by Cory Doctorow. One digital platform after another collapsed because of a single glitch in a security upgrade for Microsoft Windows software. About 70 per cent of the world’s computers operate on Windows. And so a routine event became a catastrophic one.

Source: Last Week’s Tech Meltdown Is a Wake-Up Call | The Tyee

As the election draws closer and the stakes become clearer, we should not forget the outsized influence of Big Tech in our country.  Not long ago, Facebook and Twitter emerged as key figures in U.S. elections when foreign propaganda, fake news and objectionable content became a part of the process. Since then, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X have become embedded in the fabric of American society, affecting democracy itself.  Everywhere we turn, there are ads, messages and promotions for products, positions, people and politicians — many of them dubious. While we should be wary of excess and abuse, it is nearly impossible to escape the ever-present reality and extensive reach of Big Tech in our society. Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google, sometimes referred to as Big Tech, have changed the world, but their business practices, sheer size and market dominance are a very big problem for society.

Source: It’s time to end Big Tech’s free ride 

Alcohol has long held a hallowed place in the consciousness of Canadian society. A more socially acceptable drug than some others, it’s associated with relaxation, socializing and celebration. As a result, alcohol has received an almost free pass when it comes to changes in policy and public opinion.Unlike other substances, alcohol is often present in our lives, filling spaces — social gatherings with family and friends or at the dinner table — where other drugs would possibly seem out of place.But we’ve also largely turned a blind eye to the cost of alcohol in Canada. Some might see alcohol taxes and sales as a source of revenue for governments, but they might not consider the full story: the public costs of drinking far outweigh the revenues.The public costs of alcoholFederal and provincial governments derive revenue from taxing alcohol and, in most provinces, selling it directly in publicly owned liquor stores. In the 2022-2023 fiscal year, governments earned $13.6 billion from the control and sale of alcohol.But those earnings were considerably less than public spending on health care and criminal justice, and the economic loss of production, caused by drinking across the country.My recent research published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs looked at the shortfall between spending and revenue between 2007 and 2020. This “alcohol deficit” is substantial and growing: it expanded by 122 per cent in real-dollar terms across the study period, beginning at $2.9 billion in 2007 and reaching an all-time high of $6.4 billion in 2020.

Source: Canada’s alcohol deficit: The public cost of alcohol outweighs government revenue

For the first time, the Canadian government has conducted a rapid analysis of a period of extreme heat and determined its connection to human-caused climate change.The analysis conducted by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) found that a heat wave in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada between June 17 and 20 was made two to 10 times more likely because of climate change. “In all regions, the event was made much more likely by the human influence on the climate,” Greg Flato, senior research scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said during a briefing for reporters.The analysis noted abnormally high daytime temperatures, high humidity and warmer-than-normal nighttime lows. Bathurst and Saint John, N.B., in particular set all-time records for the hottest temperature since data was first gathered in the 1870s.ECCC’s study is the start of a pilot project, where researchers will analyze weather data and climate model simulations to compare how these types of events have changed between today’s climate and the cooler pre-industrial one.

Source: Canada draws link between June heat wave and climate change in landmark study | CBC News

Kevin Roberts, the Heritage Foundation president and the architect of Project 2025, the conservative thinktank’s road map for a second Trump presidency, has close ties and receives regular spiritual guidance from an Opus Dei-led center in Washington DC, a hub of activity for the radical and secretive Catholic group.

Roberts acknowledged in a speech last September that – for years – he has visited the Catholic Information Center, a K Street institution headed by an Opus Dei priest and incorporated by the archdiocese of Washington, on a weekly basis for mass and “formation”, or religious guidance. Opus Dei also organizes monthly retreats at the CIC.

In the speech – which he delivered at the CIC and was recorded and is available online – Roberts spoke candidly about his strategy for achieving extreme policy goals that he supports but are out of step with the views of a majority of Americans.

Outlawing birth control is the “hardest” political battle facing conservatives in the future, the 50-year-old political strategist said, but he urged conservatives to pursue even small legislative victories – what he called “radical incrementalism” – to advance their most rightwing policy objectives.

MIT Technology Review Explains: Let our writers untangle the complex, messy world of technology to help you understand what’s coming next. You can read more from the series here.Last week, Amazon trumpeted that it had purchased enough clean electricity to cover the energy demands of all the offices, data centers, grocery stores, and warehouses across its global operations, seven years ahead of its sustainability target. That news closely followed Google’s acknowledgment that the soaring energy demands of its AI operations helped ratchet up its corporate emissions by 13% last year—and that it had backed away from claims that it was already carbon neutral.If you were to take the announcements at face value, you’d be forgiven for believing that Google is stumbling while Amazon is speeding ahead in the race to clean up climate pollution.

Source: Google, Amazon and the problem with Big Tech’s climate claims | MIT Technology Review

Trump comeback could see familiar faces re-emerge — and they may spell trouble for Canada

The moderates are out, the true believers are in — and some have picked fights with Canada

Evan Dyer · CBC News · Posted: Jul 26, 2024 1:00 AM PDT | Last Updated: 7 hours ago

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Canadians are watching the U.S. election campaign with more than their usual mix of trepidation and fascination, as it careens from a near-miss assassination attempt on one candidate to an unprecedented step-aside from the other.

Two-thirds of Canadians say a second Donald Trump term would be either ‘”bad news” or “terrible news” for Canada, according to a poll of 1,435 adults conducted by the Angus Reid Institute.

(The online poll was conducted over the four days following the shooting in Butler, Pa., and has a margin of error of +/- 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.)

“It’s not just about the Canada-U.S. relationship, although there’s a significant amount of anxiety and pessimism around that,” pollster Shachi Kurl told CBC News.

“There’s also the prospects for what happens in the United States, what happens around Ukraine and U.S. support for Ukraine and the broader NATO relationship. Does that continue to hold together or does it come apart? [There are also] issues around the continuing fight on curbing greenhouse gas emissions.”

A majority of respondents said a second Trump term would be negative for global stability (68%), U.S.-Canada relations (65%), the unity of the United States (67%), the fight against climate change (67%) and Canada’s economy (60%).

“So across a number of domestic Canadian, U.S. and international issues, there is that sense of anxiety and unease,” said Kurl.

“The word we used is dread, and it is palpable among Canadians.”

Modern Quebec has a history of political violence, starting with the Front de libération du Québec bombing, kidnapping and killing spree that terrorized the province in the 1960s and 1970s.

Source: Modern Quebec has history of political violence, starting with FLQ terrorists | Montreal Gazette

Google’s goal of lowering its carbon footprint is in trouble as the technology company’s energy consumption has increased due to the amount of power needed for artificial intelligence (AI) data centers.According to the internet giant’s annual environmental report, its greenhouse gas emissions have increased by 13 percent in the past year, due mostly to the AI data centers and supply chains, reported The Guardian. The report said its 2023 emissions had reached 14.3 metric tons.“As we further integrate AI into our products, reducing emissions may be challenging due to increasing energy demands from the greater intensity of AI compute, and the emissions associated with the expected increases in our technical infrastructure investment,” the report said.The internet company has a goal of cutting its total greenhouse gas emissions by half by the end of the decade and using carbon removal to tackle its remaining emissions output, The Hill reported.Since 2019, Google’s emissions have risen by 48 percent, the report said.“Reaching net-zero emissions by 2030 is an extremely ambitious goal and we know it won’t be easy. Our approach will continue to evolve and will require us to navigate significant uncertainty — including the uncertainty around the future environmental impact of AI, which is complex and difficult to predict. In addition, solutions for some key global challenges don’t currently exist, and will depend heavily on the broader clean energy transition,” the report stated.

Source: AI Energy Demand Drives Google’s Emissions Up 48% in Five Years – EcoWatch

The next president of the United States could be a confirmed climate hawk who supported the Green New Deal, ran lawsuits against oil and gas companies, sponsored climate equity legislation, and lent her support to a “first-ever international coalition to manage the transition away from fossil fuel production,” after Vice President Kamala Harris quickly emerged as the odds-on favourite to win the Democratic nomination in this fall’s general election.

Source: Harris Brings History of Green New Deal Support, Fossil Fuel Lawsuits to White House Bid