John Semley

1 month ago | thespec.com | John Semley

“Do your own research.”It has become the catchphrase of a particular breed of skeptic, particularly in the years since the COVID-19 outbreak. It’s a challenge typically issued to those of us who are more-or-less content to accept scientific consensus, usually on the subject of vaccine efficacy. (And as I noted in the Star more than a decade ago, vaccine efficacy is about as settled as any science). Think vaccines are “good” because they “prevent illness”?

1 month ago | theguardian.com | John Semley

The average prepper isn’t some end-times fantasist, more of a resourceful planner. They know that having healthy stockpiles of all basic needs pays off in case of natural disasters, electricity outages, or even the more basic reality of precarious employment. From food and water, to blankets, batteries and romance paperbacks – their basements bulge with the just-in-case.

2 months ago | rollingstone.com | John Semley

O n Dec. 21, 1967 — the winter solstice, when the sun’s annual perambulations through the zodiac had reached their most southerly point — light was dimming on the Summer of Love. In an unassuming pad at 69 La Espiral St. in Orinda, California, just east of Berkeley, a half dozen hippies were finishing their breakfast. They polished off square portions of steak, eggs, and black coffee. No granola here. They required heartier sustenance to fuel the hard work at hand: mass-manufacturing LSD.

2 months ago | yahoo.com | John Semley

Credit: Illustration by BORIS SÉMÉNIAKOOn Dec. 21, 1967 — the winter solstice, when the sun’s annual perambulations through the zodiac had reached their most southerly point — light was dimming on the Summer of Love. In an unassuming pad at 69 La Espiral St. in Orinda, California, just east of Berkeley, a half dozen hippies were finishing their breakfast. They polished off square portions of steak, eggs, and black coffee. No granola here.

2 months ago | thenation.com | John Semley

Hold the powerful to account by supporting The Nation The chaos and cruelty of the Trump administration reaches new lows each week. Trump’s catastrophic “Liberation Day” has wreaked havoc on the world economy and set up yet another constitutional crisis at home. Plainclothes officers continue to abduct university students off the streets. So-called “enemy aliens” are flown abroad to a mega prison against the orders of the courts.