Each week, BIV staff will share with you some of the interesting stories we have found from around the web.
Mark Falkenberg, deputy managing editor
For beleaguered Facebook brass, the week brought more bad press. Over a dozen news organizations published stories this week based on leaked documents chronicling the company’s alleged misdeeds, among them a report that CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally approved censorship demands by the government of Vietnam, and another that Facebook has tried to shore up use of Instagram by teens despite knowing the mental-health harm caused by the platform. – Business Insider
https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-papers-mark-zuckerberg-frances-haugen-leaked-docs-2021-10
Psychologist Emma Kavanagh notes that if small setbacks are getting under your skin more than they should, blame it on the latest stage of the pandemic.
“This phase we are in now, where everyone feels kind of on the edge but no one can really articulate why – is what happens when you survive a disaster. When you live through what we have lived through, the net result means being broken by tiny catastrophes.”
The good news: “It will pass. The research tells us that too. The brain is immensely adaptive and will figure out a way through this phase.” – The Guardian
Glen Korstrom, reporter:
Here’s some long and riveting reading – a report to the Chicago Blackhawks about alleged sexual misconduct by a former video coach on the team’s 2010 Stanley Cup winning roster. He allegedly coerced a potential player into sexual relations using his pipeline to the coach as leverage.
North Vancouver-born Kyle Beach earlier this week bravely showed his face as the “John Doe” named in the document as being behind the allegations, which are documented in depth, and come with accounts from him, his alleged perpetrator, his confidant, and a witness, who had her own story that diverged from others.
Why this matters? The alleged misconduct is really that of an abuse of power, and it is something that has been shown to be a problem in executive offices, and highlights why it may not be a good idea for managers and underlings to get intimate even if encounters are believed to be consensual.
Of course, in this instance, exactly what happened is unknown. – Jenner & Block LLP
My favourite installment so far in the family saga within the Rogers Communications board battle was this Globe and Mail scoop early on that revealed that it was a butt-dial from the CFO that alerted CEO Joe Natale to his adversaries’ nefarious intent. – Globe and Mail
Timothy Renshaw, managing editor:
The case against environmental alarmists, the pedlars of the apocalypse and the cultivators of depressive psychosis from journalist Michael Shellengerger, a longtime environmental activist.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50173134-apocalypse-never
Here's a description of a device whose time has come as drought concerns turn to crisis in the U.S. southwest and other regions of the world: an atmospheric water harvester. – Fast Company
Another good reason to restore whale populations around the world: they are extremely efficient CO2 consumers. Estimates in this article have whales absorbing upwards of 1.7 billion tonnes per year if they were returned to population numbers they had prior to being hunted close to extinction. Euronews.green
