Harold Jarche

If we don't help our human, social networks get smarter and able to make better decisions, who will? Interests include getting through this global mess we are in semi-intact. Blogging since 2004. I'm a maxi-vaxxer and the child of immigrants.
Header: Injured Canada goose successfully fending off a bald eagle (photo by Mervyn Sequeira)

Jarche.com (blog): https://jarche.com
Location: Sackville, NB, Canada
Personal Knowledge Mastery: [#PKMastery](https://mastodon.social/tags/PKMastery )

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Last Notes

2026-06-12 02:24:05 CEST

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This boomer left FB in 2010. Still feels good :)

2026-06-07 04:06:22 CEST

“As Canada’s AI Minister I’ve had several high level meetings with Palantir’s junior marketing intern,” Solomon continued, “and Delcie explained to me how important it is for Canada to voluntarily submit the North American surveillance state they’re nearly done building.”
https://www.thebeaverton.com/2026/06/carney-assures-canadians-that-ai-the-fastest-way-to-give-all-our-money-to-us-billionaires/
#CdnPoli #AI #satire

2026-06-02 01:08:21 CEST

RE: https://mstdn.ca/@teledyn/116652708401285794
"every single warning that paper made about large language models has now happened at scale"
1. The hallucination problem before anyone had a word for it.
2. Bias amplification
3. Environmental cost
4. Documentation — the training datasets being assembled were too large for anyone to actually audit
#AI #GenAI
#note12kw…eq8j

2026-06-01 00:32:56 CEST

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It's looking good so far https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadian-citizenship-ancestry-american-9.7216737

2026-05-15 18:21:27 CEST

“Recently, both experts and real experience have indicated that renewables, plus batteries (or other storage) can respond instantly, provide 24-hour delivery of electricity without fossil fuel usage — and do so much more cheaply. There is no demonstrated need for new gas.”
https://warktimes.com/2026/05/14/he-kept-us-in-the-dark-activists-attack-carney-power-strategy-and-leblancs-silence/
#CdnPoli #NBPoli #FossilFuel #ClimateAction

2026-04-17 08:44:47 CEST

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"There is one thing we can say for Trump’s attacks on Canada: they have finally given us the space to speak openly and honestly about many of the ways the U.S.-Canada relationship has not been working for us for a very long time — and the digital dimension of our lopsided economic integration is a massive part of that.
If Canada is to regain greater autonomy over its affairs and build a better society, we must get serious about reclaiming our digital sovereignty."
#CdnPoli

2026-04-17 08:43:00 CEST

"we’ve seen a rapid erosion in the government’s efforts to rein in U.S. tech companies. Shortly after Carney became prime minister, planned AI regulations were put on ice, along with the online harms bill that sought to address harmful behaviour in online spaces. That was in spite of concretely seeing how those platforms are used by bad actors to sow division within society as wildfires spread across the country again last summer."
https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2026/04/16/Every-Data-Centre-US-Military-Base/
#CdnPoli

2026-04-05 22:34:31 CEST

Did you know that a human hit by a car at 30 km/hr has a 90% chance of survival?
A person, hit by a car at 40 km/hr has a 60% chance of survival.
Your neighbour, hit by a car at 50 km/hr has a 20% chance of survival.
Your friend, hit by a car at 60 km/hr has no chance of survival.
The chances of survival are cut in half if hit by a large truck or SUV.
https://jarche.com/2021/11/active-transportation/
#cycling #traffic
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/353/999/928/877/858/original/84a0e9788a3b3e68.jpg

2026-02-26 22:58:42 CET

"There is only one form of government that cannot produce good writers, and that system is Fascism. For Fascism is a lie told by bullies. A writer who will not lie cannot live or work under Fascism.
Because Fascism is a lie, it is condemned to literary sterility. And when it is past, it will have no history, except the bloody history of murder."
—Ernest Hemingway address, American Writers Congress, New York City (1937)
https://archive.org/details/forwhombelltolls0000jose

2026-02-11 16:30:55 CET

"What the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the Canadian Constitution Foundation, SecondStreet.org, the Montreal Economic Institute and the Fraser Institute all have in common are direct links to the Atlas Network, the U.S. dark-money coalition of billionaire libertarian ideologues."
https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2026/02/10/Dark-Money-US-Think-Tanks-Canadian-TV-Network/
#CdnPoli

2026-01-02 00:49:46 CET

Why does this not surprise me from the province of personal public health, eugenics, more fossil fuels, ...
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/no-drop-in-calgarians-water-usage-despite-request-from-city-after-water-main-break-9.7031950

2025-12-24 23:11:56 CET

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Where can you find these? They are darn cute

2025-11-19 22:08:08 CET

RE: https://mstdn.ca/@atomicker/115578308694429133
"Tucked away deep in an annex to the 493-page budget document, the proposed change will stop the government from doing periodic evaluations of active pesticide ingredients registered in Canada. It comes as Health Canada is also planning to eliminate the requirement for most pesticide manufacturers to re-register their products every five years in its push to reduce 'red tape'."
#note1cjf…m2jp

2025-10-28 13:50:56 CET

Every time a government in Canada uses the Notwithstanding Clause it is thumbing its nose at democracy, our constitution, and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. #fascism
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-teachers-back-to-work-bill-9.6955558

2025-10-23 00:30:51 CEST

"The fascist strain in Silicon Valley, always an undercurrent as Big Tech worked hand-in-hand with the U.S. military, is now dominant. From Thiel to Musk to Zuckerberg to Bezos the power players are all in Trump’s pocket, and he’s in theirs. A deadly symbiotic relationship has formed, one that we have to disrupt if we want a decent future. At the center of this symbiosis sits #AI ..."
Warning: Substack
https://www.jphilll.com/p/ai-needs-fascism

2025-10-18 00:36:32 CEST

Not much is more lovely than Atlantic Canada in the Autumn, especially on a bike
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/391/895/384/449/975/original/9237791c308e60b6.jpeg

2025-08-21 22:12:09 CEST

Controversial B.C. RCMP unit to police opposition to fast-tracked resource projects ⋆ The Breach https://breachmedia.ca/rcmp-unit-controversial-police-opposition-fast-tracked-resource-projects/ “At a moment when governments across Canada are ramming through laws that sideline Indigenous rights and environmental protections, British Columbia is putting a disgraced policing unit in charge of enforcing them—turning struggles for Indigenous sovereignty and climate justice into criminal matters.” #CdnPoli

2025-08-13 03:58:06 CEST

I have to support my fellow veteran. This is government over-reach. A smoking ban would be fine, but not a walking ban. The bureaucrats always look for easy blanket solutions, like the 2m rules and one-way trails during pandemic knockdowns that seem ludicrous today when people can gather in any configuration without air filtration or masking in place.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/n-s-man-purposely-violates-ban-on-entering-woods-gets-handed-28k-fine-1.7606766

2025-07-27 01:12:23 CEST

Rod Stewart insults Donald Trump at Toronto concert https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/article/rocker-rod-stewart-shares-his-thoughts-on-51st-state-threat-with-toronto-crowd/. “51st state, my fucking ass” –Sir Rod Stewart

2025-06-30 22:56:00 CEST

“The US is on its last legs. They're crumbling from the inside out and they're at their most-dangerous. We should be removing their military bases from our soil, isolating them from trade, and choking them out, not fawning over their fascist leader in the hopes of catching some table scraps. If you embolden bullies, they only demand more.”
https://danielquinn.org/blog/not-our-friends/ #CdnPoli

2025-06-18 01:08:54 CEST

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We had 39C temps in Madrid. Not sure which is worse

2025-05-20 03:47:21 CEST

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Ours are mostly purple but we get several other colours

2025-05-20 03:44:54 CEST

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Ours come out in late June, just before high school graduation, where they usually decorate the prom

2025-05-12 15:12:21 CEST

7 Simple Ways to Help Birds
#2 Keep Cats Indoors
"Indoor cats live longer, healthier lives. Outdoor cats kill more birds than any other non-native threat."
https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/bring-birds-back

2025-05-12 01:54:33 CEST

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It's weird here. There is a female cardinal who only visits my neighbour across the street. Did I say something wrong? I feel ostracized @npub1x5a…pxfq

2025-05-12 01:52:08 CEST

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I have one male cardinal who comes by but only eats off the ground. My platform feeders are filled with a variety of finches and of course we have chickadees, our Provincial bird @npub1x5a…pxfq

2025-05-12 01:48:55 CEST

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We have American Red Squirrels here and they are not as voracious as your Eastern Gray Squirrel
@npub1x5a…pxfq

2025-05-12 01:46:35 CEST

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option #2 — make a squirrel feeder
@npub1x5a…pxfq

2025-05-11 02:10:48 CEST

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I don't paint all with the same brush, though I am confused why millions don't care

2025-05-11 01:09:27 CEST

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Being so lax in caring about democracy and letting trump win the election seems even more stupid, but I am looking from the outside

2025-04-16 00:32:52 CEST

What is America?
«America could not bear to take a hard look at itself, especially the inconvenient truths of slavery, dispossession and genocide. Religion and profit, ‘jumping together,’ had little time for introspection. The slaveholder, the frontiersman and the fundamentalist all hated the historian — and anti-intellectualism has been a strong force ever since.»
https://jarche.com/2009/04/what-is-america/
#USPoli #democracy
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/344/349/585/933/896/original/aaaa2b3ce2c80129.jpg

2025-04-10 21:18:08 CEST

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I assume that Leader of the Opposition would normally require a Top Secret clearance?
@npub1gay…58lq @npub1z4u…8h8f

2025-03-29 16:17:36 CET

Paul Parker, recording clerk for Quakers in Britain, said: “No-one has been arrested in a Quaker meeting house in living memory.
“This aggressive violation of our place of worship and the forceful removal of young people holding a protest group meeting clearly shows what happens when a society criminalises protest.
“Freedom of speech, assembly, and fair trials are an essential part of free public debate which underpins democracy."
https://www.quaker.org.uk/news-and-events/news/quakers-condemn-police-raid-on-westminster-meeting-house
#democracy

2025-03-27 23:36:44 CET

“How much will it cost to house the illegal border crossers in hotels in the coming year?” [Poilievrd] repeatedly asked during a parliamentary committee hearing, criticizing the Liberal government for helping shelter thousands of asylum seekers who had entered the country through Roxham Road in Quebec.
“Who will pay for it?”
Two months later, the Conservative leader’s own uncle-in-law crossed Roxham Road on foot.”
https://breachmedia.ca/hypocritical-pierre-poilievre-slammed-illegal-border-crossers-relative-crossed-conservatives/ #Cdnpoli

2025-03-23 01:30:49 CET

«Hello folks. Jim Cuddy here. Due to our troubles with our neighbours in The States, I was inspired to write a little song. It’s called “We Used to Be the Best of Friends”»
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5jgJZWG7aY
#Canada #USPolitics

2025-03-22 00:00:11 CET

It's been a year since I got my MMR booster vaccination. Damn good decision.
#measles #PublicHealth

2025-03-19 13:23:38 CET

"To put things into perspective: I had a Canadian passport, lawyers, resources, media attention, friends, family and even politicians advocating for me. Yet, I was still detained for nearly two weeks.
Imagine what this system is like for every other person in there."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-detained-us-immigration-jasmine-mooney
#CdnPoli #USPol

2025-03-16 00:10:46 CET

OH at LinkedIn, "If your fighter jet can be disabled by a guy with a grudge and a golf cart, it’s not a weapon.
It’s a hostage."
#CdnPoli

2025-03-08 01:14:00 CET

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I don't drink bourbon but this is made in Canada
https://okanaganspirits.com/products/whisky/bourbon-style/brbn/

2025-03-07 01:45:06 CET

In 2018 I asked, why do younger people generally think it is less essential to live in a democracy?
I guess many will soon find out.
https://jarche.com/2018/12/saving-democracy/
#democracy
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/118/373/516/519/796/original/cba31d6edb3eeaa8.png

2025-02-18 14:27:18 CET

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Lovely photos. I am sorry your experience was so alienating

2025-02-16 03:15:15 CET

We always knew that Elon was a crazy fascist. You Tesla owners just weren't paying attention.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-tesla-owners-1.7460386

2025-02-15 16:51:50 CET

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I picked up some onions today at Loblaw and they are from Peru. Local onions were not available at the farmers' market. Oranges came from Morocco

2025-01-31 01:57:34 CET

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The helicopter it seems was flying at the wrong altitude. With two sets of eyeballs the helo pilots should have been able to clearly see the plane. The helo was much more maneuverable and should have been able to break away quickly

2025-01-31 01:53:36 CET

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I worked in aviation for several year, helicopters specifically, and this incident is SO weird

2025-01-30 01:03:13 CET

I am watching what is happening with our neighbour to our South and I am seeing more and more Americans surprised by the turn of of events. It was obvious. He said what he would do. He is doing it. What the heck did you expect?

2025-01-28 15:43:16 CET

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finally got registration notice today

2025-01-27 22:24:30 CET

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Just tried. Says that this email is already in use. Still no confirmation from LPC. Checked all the spam folders

2025-01-27 22:10:52 CET

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I registered and nothing happened. No confirmation

2025-01-25 14:02:27 CET

One more reason not to be on X
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/cbc-ads-fake-investment-scheme-1.7439812

2025-01-06 01:29:06 CET

@npub18x7…p6e7 we play cribbage here and our board dates from the 1950s. Made by those nasty ACME dudes :)
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/778/573/327/342/832/original/170b1af5c9d95ebd.jpeg

2025-01-05 21:36:31 CET

"In fact, you could argue that much of the F*ck Trudeau movement — designed to give rise to the far right in Canada — emerged from exploitation of the resistance against pandemic restrictions. This cause was aided tremendously when (less than two months after the end of the trucker convoy) Elon Musk acquired Twitter and turned the platform into a far-right social network where misinformation and hate speech are allowed to live and spread unchecked."
https://cultmtl.com/2025/01/anger-towards-justin-trudeau-always-comes-back-to-the-pandemic/
#CdnPoli

2024-12-27 14:19:02 CET

On the last Friday of each month I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media (Mastodon). I call these Friday’s Finds.
https://jarche.com/2024/12/in-the-bleak-midwinter/

2024-12-26 20:44:26 CET

Roald Dahl on his daughter contracting #measles — 1962.
“I was sitting on her bed showing her how to fashion little animals out of coloured pipe cleaners,” Dahl later wrote, “and when it came to her turn to make one herself, I noticed that her fingers and her mind were not working together and she couldn’t do anything.”
Dahl asked Olivia if she was feeling all right.
“I feel all sleepy,” she said.
An hour later, she was unconscious. Twelve hours later, she was dead.
https://theconversation.com/how-roald-dahl-became-a-passionate-vaccine-advocate-155725

2024-12-17 18:57:40 CET

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just like New Brunswick :(

2024-11-30 01:54:14 CET

Physicians resisted hand washing for about a century. I sadly think that they will resist wearing masks or cleaning air for another century, but by then it will be too late. At least they will remain confident in their knowledge.
"He continues quick and dull in his clear images;
I continue slow and sharp in my broken images.
He in a new confusion of his understanding;
I in a new understanding of my confusion."
—Robert Graves, In Broken Images
#PublicHealth #CovidIsAirborne #CleanTheAir

2024-11-27 16:21:07 CET

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Not cheap but it sounds like the investment is worth it. I have not even seen HEPA filters in any public places

2024-11-18 03:15:50 CET

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Well done!
I really dislike stationary bike riding, so I do not do it, but I have done 24K miles on the bike in the last 8 years. All on roads :) And we get snow and ice here.
I'm sure your total mileage is more than mine, and at age 65, I take what I can get.
Keep on riding!

2024-11-11 03:21:51 CET

Brandolini's Law is going to sink us. There is just too much BS
https://sketchplanations.com/the-bs-asymmetry-principle
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/461/920/550/379/914/original/9bbb06a3a0a7a61d.webp

2024-11-11 01:59:24 CET

Pluralistic: #Bluesky and enshittification
"I will never again devote my energies to building up an audience on a platform whose management can sever my relationship to that audience at will." —Cory Doctorow 2024-11-02
+1
https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/02/ulysses-pact/

2024-11-11 00:21:27 CET

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I think many people just skim and react

2024-11-07 21:36:10 CET

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Look at how much it cost Germans to understand this

2024-11-01 20:43:26 CET

Public Health declares #measles outbreak in western New Brunswick
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/measles-oubreak-western-new-brunswick-1.7371053
“Current evidence suggests that immunity after the disease is life-long, whereas the response after two doses of measles-containing vaccine declines within 10–15 years.”
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8189124/
#PublicHealth #VaccinesSaveLives #NBPoli

2024-10-31 23:53:10 CET

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I suffer from this. It's because your thigh muscles are too strong and they tighten the IT band. May be worth looking into https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21967-iliotibial-band-syndrome

2024-10-30 04:11:45 CET

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I have not seen one yet, nor a Canadian Conservative

2024-10-30 02:19:07 CET

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they went with patreon — nope

2024-10-30 01:40:46 CET

“When monopolies succeed, the people fail …”, Henry Demarest Lloyd, 1881, denouncing Standard Oil.
The robber barons of the 21st century are the platform owners.
Musk — with his behaviour verging on sociopathic — has shown the world the inherent anti-democratic nature of consumer social media platforms. He has done us a favour by giving a loud and clear wake-up call. Cooperation may be finally rising and pushing back the free-for-all of market capitalism.
https://jarche.com/2022/12/platform-collapse/
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/393/579/964/616/252/original/697a9e00a76536aa.jpg

2024-10-22 00:27:11 CEST

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I hope so, but it's not a given that we will lose this COR party relic

2024-10-21 01:41:01 CEST

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It's like MSM are the band playing on the deck of the Titanic

2024-10-20 00:26:46 CEST

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Canadian media have bought into the dark money funded disinformation and misinformation campaigns because the media ecosystem with its advertisers, deadlines, and hype-first approach have made journalists lazy, or at least incompetent

2024-09-28 17:01:45 CEST

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Ah, yes, I remember the days of the SoCreds. I left BC in 1985

2024-09-28 06:51:57 CEST

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all money, no brains?

2024-09-28 06:50:15 CEST

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I'm in Victoria this week and amazed at the number of Conservative signs posted on public land. Few on private property. It seems they have a lot of money to just plaster signs all over the place.

2024-09-18 01:12:44 CEST

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I think he had one as a member of the Privy Council a few years back

2024-09-18 00:50:16 CEST

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Many years ago I had a top secret security clearance. It took a year to get. They go through all your dirty laundry. I guess that's why PP does not want to renew his clearance.

2024-09-14 03:32:09 CEST

My grandfather was in the Reichswehr (look it up). He served 9 years & then served in the German postal service. Hitler took power in 1933. My grandfather refused to join the Nazi party & would not get a ration card for his family. They went hungry but he fished for eel. There was never a photo of Hitler in the home, against regulations. I am seeing the same situation my grandfather did.
Grandfather died in 1958 saying that all Germans should wear black because of the shame of WWII. It repeats

2024-09-09 01:40:49 CEST

Seen in passing
#Hfx #cycling #walking
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/104/570/244/374/715/original/e548f67c12ea71ff.jpeg

2024-09-07 02:43:16 CEST

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I was invited to speak (paid) at a conference in London last year. I replied that it made little sense for me to cross the Atlantic and speak for one hour. They did not accept a virtual presentation. I did not travel to this conference and have not traveled for speaking gigs since 2019. It does not make sense

2024-08-25 04:40:08 CEST

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2024-08-24 00:56:23 CEST

"Air purifiers of various sizes and types were placed in two of the city's daycare centres during cold and flu seasons.
The initial results from the first year of research are promising, according to researcher Enni Sanmark, from HUS Helsinki University Hospital.
"Children were clearly less sick in daycare centres where air purification devices were used — down by around 30 percent," Sanmark explained."
https://yle.fi/a/74-20062381
#covid #PublicHealth

2024-08-09 03:00:17 CEST

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There is pretty solid evidence on the benefits of ventilation in education
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ef3652ab722df11fcb2ba5d/t/60a3d1251fcec67243e91119/1621348646314/Safe+Work+TF+Desigining+infectious+disease+resilience+April+2021.pdf
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/929/339/841/177/842/original/f7f5bf602d7d5ef1.png