Fake news is as old as the Internet. From the 1990s, I remember spam, scams, and ghost ship "rolling" petitions that sailed the white-font-on-black-background PINE and LYNX seas -- almost as soon as the first e-list was compiled.

Spam couldn't easily penetrate Usenet -- the threaded online discussion Bulletin Boards, or BBSes that scientists used before email. When email lists proliferated, however, spamsters found ways to hop on board other people's trains, at open relays.

With all the manufacturing, management, academic and professional positions disappearing, the public is impatient for the digital economy to produce some real jobs. Uber and Airbnb are often held up as examples of a new "sharing economy," where individuals can earn money by sharing their homes or cars with strangers. Although sharing is not a typical Western society trait, debt is at high levels these days, and renting out a room or a ride may help make ends meet.   

This article is the second in a two-part series on chronic pain and the prescription opioid crisis.  Part one argues that chronic pain is not a given, it's a public health catastrophe. Read it here.

As more and more workers were injured by repetitive motion, and filed complaints, unions like the (US) AFL-CIO negotiated for ergonomic improvements to their workplaces. Some employers recognized that inefficient workplaces caused the workers' injuries.

Here's a new reason to be proud of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Environmentalists are inviting the courts to look at Section 7's guarantee of life, liberty and security of the person -- and read into that section, recognition of "green rights," the right to a healthy planet. Although Canada and the U.S. are not among the 180 nations that legally recognize environmental rights, their court decisions are already leaning that way. And that, says author and filmmaker Silver Donald Cameron, could be the key to saving the earth, and all our lives.