Bilow’s Law of Twitter: “No worthwhile ideas can be expressed in 140 characters, and even fewer in 280.” My public journalist Twitter account (@MikeBilow) was created in 2015 by which time Twitter was fairly mature, although still long before the 2016 election and 2020 pandemic that saw social media sink into a swamp of misinformation […]
[Listen to a podcast about this article: motifri.com/home/episode-2-michael-bilow] A few months ago, a friend of mine was killed by government policy. This may seem an extreme claim, but my friend was attending a house party, like those which happen all the time. Someone offered him cannabis, and he accepted. Laced with fentanyl, it killed him. […]
Today, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended a second booster dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (that is, either Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna) for everyone age 50 and older at least four months after their prior booster dose, with a strong recommendation for everyone […]
UPDATE: View our video recording of the full 45-minute event at motifri.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Ukraine-vigil.2022-03-26-720p-h264-crf35.mp4 An umbrella group calling itself “Rhode Islanders for Ukraine” announced a vigil in support of the Eastern European nation, now fighting against an invasion by Russia, to be held Saturday, March 26, at 4pm on the south side of the RI State House, […]
At Providence, rain Saturday with temperatures in the 40s until 4pm, with decreasing temperatures possibly causing a change to snow for a short time before ending 7pm. Flash freezing as temperatures drop to the low 20s overnight could cause slippery road conditions from wet surfaces. Median accumulation forecast is a fraction of an inch, with […]
As retail gasoline prices rise above $4.00 per gallon, a lot of misinformation and even disinformation is circulating purporting to explain this. Let’s try to get to the real reasons. The historical peak for retail gasoline was in 2008 when the consumer price reached what would be $5.20 per gallon today, adjusted for inflation, and […]
At Providence, snow is likely Wed 10am-9pm. Although the precipitation will fall as snow, in the metropolitan area temperatures several degrees above freezing are likely to reduce ground accumulation, and temperatures are not expected to fall below freezing until very late overnight shortly before Thu sunrise, rising to an afternoon high of 50F. Median accumulation […]
Under a new standing order, every person in RI with either Medicaid or private health insurance should be able to pick up COVID-19 rapid antigen test (RAT) kits from any pharmacy without having to pay up-front. Despite a federal government mandate that health insurers must cover up to eight kits per month for every covered […]
Neo-Nazi protesters waving flags emblazoned with a swastika, “SS” runes, and a “Totenkopf” (death’s head) disrupted an event at Red Ink Community Library on Cypress Street near Billy Taylor Park in Providence. The reading at 6pm on Monday, Feb 21, was intended to commemorate the 174th anniversary of The Communist Manifesto as part of international […]
English speakers are at a disadvantage trying to understand the Russia-Ukraine conflict as news media make an effort to clean up the vulgar language used by the parties. CNN published among the least sanitized versions of remarks to the press by Russian President Vladimir Putin (“Putin’s use of crude language reveals a lot about his […]