Why Yes #2

Why Yes #2

Looking at one more reason to vote yes for Scottish Independence at the next available opportunity. An escape from incompetent corruption and a chance for forward progress.

Spotify’s Misinformation Dilemma

Spotify’s Misinformation Dilemma

In the wake of high-profile departures and heated discussion, Spotify have now announced their plans to combat misinformation on their streaming platform. On Monday, the company announced the addition of advisory labels on programming that discusses topics of health, policy, and science with some controversial viewpoints. Arriving late to the party—Spotify are far from the first platform to have to deal with the issue. Amongst the many problems of the pandemic, one of its more arguably positive benefits has been…

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Lies, Damn Lies, and Advertising

Lies, Damn Lies, and Advertising

Getting away with blatantly bad advertising is harder than you’d think. Car mileage, credit cards, and vacuum cleaners flagrantly twist the rules into knots, but their facts and figures are rarely made up out of nothing. More often than not, their fine print is thick with disclaimers and messages which give the ‘real’ numbers underneath. The reason that these companies stick so close to the real-life numbers isn’t because of their outstanding morals or ethics, it’s the law. There are…

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As Seen on BBC News!

As Seen on BBC News!

Perhaps someone at the BBC thought a mid-week feel-good story was just the ticket at a time of global misery. Perhaps they thought a rags to riches, pull yourself up by the bootstraps tale would be heart-warming motivation to get us through a bleak midwinter Wednesday in lockdown. How and why that story was spun, is more interesting than the tall tale itself. The BBC front page led with the interesting story of Ben Gulliver. A 20-year-old ‘entrepreneur’, Ben started…

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The Things We can(‘t) Afford

The Things We can(‘t) Afford

The economy is a bizarre thing. The word alone is as useful as a magic spell is to a movie franchise superhero. It’s brought into action by politicians and pundits to justify everything from the atrocious to the strange. Stick on a channel, any channel, and you’ll very often hear—we simply can’t afford adequate (one week) foodbank stocks right now. We just don’t have the money. Healthcare, justice, policing, and education have been wrung-dry for over the last decade for…

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Several Ways to Defeat a Pandemic

Several Ways to Defeat a Pandemic

The language we use in talking about COVID is difficult to get right. Do we borrow the military dictionary—already co-opted for medical use in cancer treatments and unrelated illnesses—describing our efforts as a ‘battle’ against an invisible ‘enemy’? Rhetoric which was counterproductive, unhelpful, and outdated two decades ago may be a poor choice for this particular diagnosis. The pandemic might be more accurately described as a natural disaster instead. Fitting more appropriately in a list which includes hurricanes such as…

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