A Canadian academic who studies violent conflict warns that Canada may soon have to deal with a large and powerful fascist neighbor.

Big Pharma raised the price of 440 drugs at the start of the year.

The companies were making big profits already, but they saw the opportunity to make even more, because of the lack of competition. Partly (for the generic drugs) that is caused by failure to block mergers.

Partly it's because of too much patent power. The power of patent holders has been increased in many ways, when companies argue, "If we don't make even more profits than now, we won't have enough incentive to bother."

I advocate abolishing patents entirely.

Dating apps have created a sick world in which people are mortified by the idea of going out with anyone they have friends in common with.

When asking for a date with someone you barely know, and have no social relationships in common with, whatever you say will inevitably be strained. You'll be publicly shamed for that -- but it's unreasonable to demand anything else under those circumstances,

Besides which, you're probably dealing with a user of Facebook, who has learned to think of life as an image to be "curated" rather than a reality.

*Humanitarian Exemptions to Crushing U.S. Sanctions Do Little to Prevent Collapse of Afghanistan’s Economy.*

Protesters are compelled to cause some sort of disruption because the mainstream media have learned to ignore other forms of protest.