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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦

@dbcurren.bsky.social
7K followers 6.7K following 28K posts

writer/blogger, formerly journalist at WSJ, Dow Jones, Reuters, others. #economics #markets, #music, #philosophy, #books, #technology, #photos, etc. (ie hopelessly eclectic) Toronto. May not respond to DMs. Blog at: doncurren.blogspot.com

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Reposted by Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦
Brían Hanrahan @hanrahanistan.bsky.social · 9h
also this documentary, in its own right, is quite astonishing youtu.be/wma61_wfHqg?...
youtu.be
VOLCANO: AN INQUIRY INTO THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MALCOLM LOWRY | Full Documentary | NFB
YouTube video by NFB
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adellarumppella.bsky.social @adellarumppella.bsky.social · 8h
Fitness influencer disqualified from Berlin Marathon after hitching ride on bike www.nytimes.com/athletic/766...
nytimes.com
Fitness influencer DQ'd from Berlin Marathon after hitching ride on bike
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 8h
“Dawn Bowdish, #Canada #research chair in ageing and #immunity at #McMasterUniversity in Ontario, says that clinical signs are visible. ‘For people who test positive for #covid-19, there’s an uptick in antibiotic prescriptions,’ she says” www.bmj.com/content/390/...
bmj.com
Why scientists are rethinking the immune effects of SARS-CoV-2
“Immunity debt,” a theory to explain the global surge in non-covid infections since pandemic restrictions were lifted, is increasingly being challenged by emerging evidence. Nick Tsergas reports Myco...
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Viola Tricolor @kaffeehaus.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
«A growing number of scientists believe that the SARS-CoV-2 virus may instead be subtly altering our immune systems. If correct, their hypothesis will change how we understand everything from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) to shingles to sepsis.»
bmj.com
Why scientists are rethinking the immune effects of SARS-CoV-2
“Immunity debt,” a theory to explain the global surge in non-covid infections since pandemic restrictions were lifted, is increasingly being challenged by emerging evidence. Nick Tsergas reports Myco...
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 12h
Phone says #ChineseHibiscus, which seems appropriately exotic. Mid-town #Toronto #TOphoto #flower #FlowerSky #bloomscrolling
A big and kind of weird mostly orange flower.
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 12h
C’est vrai. I haven’t seen many like them this summer.
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 12h
“If you don’t like it, take your dead ass home, you know? [Laughs] Shit, I still love that stuff. I love playing it. When I do, I pull out the best equipment, so that whatever I use will be louder and funkier. “ #KiddFunkadelic #MichaelHampton #Funkadelic #GuitarSky #music
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 13h
The West is still rising! Beautiful roses.
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Kate Armstrong @brainchain.ca · 13h
In the #WaroftheRoses we haven’t often had cream ones so here we go, @dbcurren.bsky.social . Happy Canadian Thanksgiving with a side of floral warfare.
A large cluster of white roses in profile on a front lawn with very defined petals in the background there is a brown wood wooden fence and a green front lawn
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 13h
“Once I got in the #band and out on the road, I just practiced and played,” Hampton says. “When we got into the #studio, maybe I’d bump into a few beers and just kick it and have a good time.” www.guitarworld.com/artists/guit... #MichaelHampton #KiddFunkadelic #Funkadelic #music #guitar #GuitarSky
guitarworld.com
“We were using Aerosmith’s old equipment. I don’t know how we got it. I don’t wanna drop any names…” Michael Hampton, aka Kidd Funkadelic, on the making of the band’s mysterious 1975 classic
Funkadelic history is a little fuzzy. The credits are disputed. But Hampton was there. He takes us back to 1975 to revisit the making of Let’s Take It to the Stage
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 13h
I am so glad you enjoyed it! I hope the rest of your trip goes well - and that you don’t see any more cybertrucks.
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 14h
#Videodrome is also one of the all-time great #Toronto films …
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Emmaeli @emmaelie.bsky.social · 14h
"Human beings are not meant to look too intently at the Medusa head of history —its rage, death, endless suffering ... our reluctance to let history's realities petrify us underlies much of what makes human life bearable: our poetic imagination, our storytelling, our delight in beauty and nature."
glide of geese in silhouette, small pond deep morning fog  January
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 14h
“ #Videodrome not only anticipated the depraved race to the bottom that #media #technologies, helmed by unscrupulous executives, would facilitate, but so effectively communicate the feeling of being simultaneously transfixed, repulsed, and addicted to the #content that would spew forth as a result.”
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 14h
“What makes this a good #Luddite #horrorfilm is that our chief protagonist, Laurence Fishburne’s Captain Miller, takes one look those tapes and makes the correct moral decision to fire every missile he can at the #EventHorizon.” open.substack.com/pub/bloodint... #films #horrorfilms #technology
open.substack.com
The 15 best Luddite horror films
From Godzilla to Pulse to the Terminator, these are the best films that register an aggressive critique of technology.
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Greg Sanderson @gregsanderson.bsky.social · 14h
President Zelenskyy is exactly right. That first sentence is exactly right. Donald will never put any pressure on Putin. Putin knows this and will take full advantage of his weakness.
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AndrewMissesPogo @andreworangecounty.bsky.social · 14h
The Pacific Ocean has flooded Newport Beach thanks to Tropical Storm Rachel. www.ocregister.com/2026/10/09/o...
ocregister.com
Ocean floods into Newport Beach; streets fill with salt water
Both Newport Beach and Laguna Beach saw road closures as the waves and high tides reached the roads, with little sand buffer to hold the ocean back.
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 14h
That’s no disgrace - it’s a honest and forthright expression of good taste. Are you visiting Toronto?
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 14h
😆😆😆🤣
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 15h
That is an encouraging thought. Thanks!
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 15h
Yes, I think there’s one living a few blocks down the hill from us. I generally see them about once a month, so seeing two in one day was particularly unpleasant.
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 15h
Slightly stressful day today exacerbated by a for me hitherto unprecedented experience in #Toronto: two separate #cybertruck spottings.
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Dominic Holland @dominicholland.bsky.social · 16h
"Trump Administration Hits International Criminal Court With Severe Sanctions U.S. officials announced the new, sweeping punishments just hours after the Nobel Peace Prize committee gave its annual honor to a former court judge." Is America great or what?
nytimes.com
Trump Administration Hits International Criminal Court With Severe Sanctions (Gift Article)
U.S. officials announced the new, sweeping punishments just hours after the Nobel Peace Prize committee gave its annual honor to a former court judge.
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 16h
Well, we’ve rallied in the past. Maybe in a position to do some ammunition-seeking sorties this afternoon, or maybe Saturday.
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 19h
“The immediate #risk from #agents is not a #rogue #superintelligence, but millions of small, untraceable #harms to people who never knew an agent was involved.” app.cyberimpact.com/newsletter-v... #AI #AIagents
app.cyberimpact.com
Should Your AI Agent Be Able To Hack For You?
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 19h
The second in particular is a rough ride.
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 20h
It should perhaps be noted that in the next book #of Octavia Butler’s duology, #ParableoftheTalents, Canada and the US are at war …
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 20h
Status report from the East End: munitions low, morale shaky, supply lines stretched/fragile.
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 22h
A very good book which I read a very long time ago, and should probably read again, judging by your description.
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Le Monde in English @english.lemonde.fr · 08/10/2026
Canadian writer Anne Carson awarded 2026 Nobel Prize in literature
lemonde.fr
Canadian writer Anne Carson awarded 2026 Nobel Prize in literature
The Canadian writer received the Swedish Academy's highest honor on Thursday, October 8. A master of textual deviation, Carson, who began as a classical philologist, blends poetry and popular culture, prose and verse, with both humor and erudition.
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
It is, and a beautiful spot that day. Unfortunately the pic doesn’t quite capture how glorious it was.
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Basically, yes. Canada’s banks are sound, solid institutions. They survived the financial crisis without a single collapse - in part because they’re almost an oligopoly - banking is much less competitive than in the States, but also because they’re usually pretty well managed, especially RBC.
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
2 Bloomberg #Canada Daily: … and abroad has pushed the #Canadian lender into the upper ranks of North America’s most valuable #banks. RBC’s #marketcapitalization, converted into #US dollars, briefly overtook Goldman’s earlier this week.
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
You’re welcome.
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
1 Bloomberg #Canada Daily: #RoyalBankofCanada has climbed into the same #market-value tier as #GoldmanSachs and is worth more than #WellsFargo and #Citigroup, underscoring how a decade of expansion at home … 🧵 #banks #financialinstitutions #RBC #CanadaSky
Bloomberg chart showing RBC is currently the 5th largest North American Bank by market cap.
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
“instead of answering MAGA’s extremism with a #culturewar of their own, the #Democrats should follow Mamdani’s example and concentrate on the #economy.” www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/d...
project-syndicate.org
MAGA’s Self-Destructive Culture War
Ian Buruma thinks the key to Democrats' electoral success is to resist provocation and concentrate on the economy.
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
😆😆🦵🦵🍗🍗
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
“This truly terrifying #horrormovie sees a woman struggling to find someone decent on the modern dating scene strike gold by meeting a seemingly normal guy … As it turns out, this guy is actually trying to harvest her as part of an elaborate #cannibalism scheme” reactormag.com/horror-movie...
reactormag.com
Horror Movies That Prey on Your Everyday Fears - Reactor
The movies that know that little thing that terrifies you and how to exploit it
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
“Readers depressed by Butler’s plot may take comfort from the fact that, to paraphrase William Gibson, #apocalypse is unevenly distributed. The doom spiral is very much an #American phenomenon in the novel; #Canada is just fine” reactormag.com/five-sf-nove... #books #scienceFiction #BookSky
reactormag.com
Five SF Novels That Ask, "What If This Trend Continues Indefinitely?" - Reactor
What happens when certain trends — from technology to pollution to wealth inequality — are left unchecked?
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FinTwitter @fintwitter.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
OPENAI ANNUALISED REVENUES $20 BLN LESS THAN PREVIOUSLY SIGNALLED - FT
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How You Like Me Now?... @1bigbullshitbill.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
“ #Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry. When we consider a #book, we mustn’t ask ourselves what it says but what it means.” - #UmbertoEco
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Tabatha Southey🇨🇦 @tabathasouthey.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Canadian poet Anne Carson has won the Nobel Prize ] ] ] in Literature.
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Charlie Angus @charlieangus104.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Canadian poet Anne Carson has won the Nobel Prize for literature. What a great honour. Congratulations.
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Chris Steller @chrissteller.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
You are probably wondering where Canadian Anne Carson ranks among recent Nobel Laureates for Literature *for the northerliness of her birthplace*. Below Bob Dylan! (1/2)
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The Wolfpack @wolfpack11720.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
“This #quantified, #self-optimizing #self that #AI companies tap into is part of the broader #subject-formation that #SiliconValley has long built its #businessmodels on, seen in everything from sleep apps to smartwatches.”
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
“ #AI companies have figured out how to turn “mere” tools into something closer to companions, and so to turn the use-value of being helped by an instrument into the feeling of being understood by a particular someone.” open.substack.com/pub/victorsh...
open.substack.com
The Tamagotchification of AI
Other people’s AI outputs often feel strangely hollow. Silicon Valley has figured out how to bind us to our increasingly personal chatbots, digital “pets” we are meant to keep feeding with our data.
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
“But today’s cost-push #inflation is dwarfed by the wealth-effect driven #assetpriceinflation that has so enriched the already-rich.” annpettifor.substack.com/p/the-bond-m...
annpettifor.substack.com
The Bond Market’s Premonition: High Rates, Defaults, Slump & War
The K-shaped global economy that enriched the rich and impoverished the rest now threatens collapse.
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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Bloomberg: #Samsung reported an almost nine-fold rise in quarterly profit and #TaiwanSemiconductor’s sales jumped 51%, reflecting the spoils of relentless spending on #AI infrastructure. Both #stocks fell. #markets
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