another earth day – Harold Jarche

On the last Friday of each month I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds.

“Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect: like a man, who hath thought of a good repartee when the discourse is changed, or the company parted; or like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead.” —Jonathan Swift, via Ron Dyck

“If there’s one thing I wish I burn entirely to the ground and wipe away all traces and remnants of, its the misplaced notion that the productivity of Knowledge Work can be managed, measured, analyzed, and optimized as if all one needed to do was drip feed heroin up the arse of their hapless workers … In short, understanding Knowledge Work means understanding the human condition itself, and taking a dark look at how we managed to turn humans from a social equitable animal that has unlimited curiosity and a desire to help each other succeed into a raving, bloodthirsty mass of hyperindividualistic demons solely bent on hedonistic self exploitation at the expense of the other.” —@HazelWeakly

“All major positive change in people’s civic and labour rights have come from protest. You are enjoying the fruits of activists’ labour. So to speak of them as fringe or less than, while wanting to hold onto their gains is astonishing. I cannot believe how ungrateful so many comfortable middle class people are. Keep acting as a shill for the state, see what is left when you do. And keep disparaging activists, see who will be left to fight for your lazy ass.” —@LALegault

“Next time you’re on the highway, look at the vehicles around you. Chances are you’ll see plenty of ordinary cars. But that’s about to change: in 2008, 54% of new vehicles in Canada were cars, while in 2022 it was just 17%. As old vehicles die, we will soon be surrounded by behemoths, only trucks and SUVs.” —@MadeleineBonsma on Canada’s best-selling cars

“I think one of the major lessons that I learned from this pandemic is that there are long tails to pandemics. And yes, we can focus all we want on the acute phase, or the tip of the iceberg, but the reality is that there is a really much larger chunk of disability and disease beneath that tip of the iceberg.” —Dr Ziyad Al-Aly — COVID infections are causing drops in IQ and years of brain aging

The top spender for sponsored travel (2023) for Canadian Members of Parliament was The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) at C$335,264.99 — Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner