lenaitch
Senior Member
And that seems to be a big part of the problem.
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What print or online publications/news do you subscribe (pay) for?
- Thread starter Admiral Beez
- Start date
afransen
Senior Member
I find The Economist worth paying for, and I actually consume most of it most weeks (80% or so). Most other publications I read I am only skimming and reading a small number of pieces I find interesting. I don't specifically read any local media and it is generally poor quality journalism. I absolutely do not care who got stabbed or shot or which house burned down. If no one except those immediately affected are going to remember an event in a year, I don't really consider it worth reading about.
I get a lot of my news through various aggregators and may dig deeper if I find something interesting. The thing I like the about The Economist is that they go reasonably in depth on topics most print media only skim the surface on and it gives good perspective on international news, so I pick up on things I would not know about through more NA-focused aggregators and blogs.
I get a lot of my news through various aggregators and may dig deeper if I find something interesting. The thing I like the about The Economist is that they go reasonably in depth on topics most print media only skim the surface on and it gives good perspective on international news, so I pick up on things I would not know about through more NA-focused aggregators and blogs.
Towered
Senior Member
I mainly use the CBC app for domestic, and the BBC app for international. I also use DW and ORF. None of these charge a fee, which isn't my fault.
SunriseChampion
Senior Member
I always grab Food and Drink because it's cocktail porn.
SunriseChampion
Senior Member
I always sit down with it and tell myself that I'm going to skip articles that have seem to be of no interest to me on their surface.....it's a lie....I read the whole thing.
Even any rare articles about Canada only because it's interesting to get an outsider's perspective.
hahaha, harsh but fair. I have to read about stabbings and shootings because I'm half expecting it to be someone I know every bloody time. Sad, but true. Comes with growing up poor in a poor neighbourhood and keeping lifelong acquaintances and friends.
Yeah, absolutely love the long-form articles they have as well as the reporting from various countries I'd never find news on elsewhere (I mean, except maybe that specific country's news sources). And their special reports are like Christmas for me!
Do you read their sister publication 1843 at all?
SunriseChampion
Senior Member
yooooo, good call....didn't think of that. Gonna add to my stable of places to throw my eyeballs.
I was doing DW and CT24 with some RTVS.....aka the north Slavic bits of the old empire.
afransen
Senior Member
I always sit down with it and tell myself that I'm going to skip articles that have seem to be of no interest to me on their surface.....it's a lie....I read the whole thing.
It's kind of a big time commitment unless you are a speed reader. I listen to the audio/ebook version when doing other stuff. I have conditioned myself to be able to listen to their sedate newsreaders at 2.5x speed in my audiobook app and I can follow pretty well, though I occasionally have to back up when I hear something surprising. At their own pace each week is about 6-8 hours.
They seem to have a Canada article every two weeks or so. Canada is, for better or worse, rather unexciting. I swear half the time the writing is a Canadian trying to explain the latest local triviality to outsiders.
A bit harsh, but maybe a defense mechanism. It wears on me to hear the local personalized misery. In my family group chat, my sister shared a story about a death of a young boy who slid on a toboggan down a roadside slope into the street and was hit by a pickup and killed. Negligent parents. Misery all around. I can pay attention to it and be numbed by it or try not to desensitize myself.
No paywall:
Paywall with the scene of the incident.
Boy, 4, dies in Lincoln tobogganing crash
Niagara Regional Police are investigating after child on a sled entered a roadway in Beamsville and was hit by a passing pickup truck.
www.niagarathisweek.com
Never read it. I see it went digital only recently.
Admiral Beez
Superstar
I’m even worse when it comes to free news sites that depend on ad revenue, as I’ve been running Adblock for years. News aside, it’s made YouTube a far better experience. Since I refuse to see ads, I don’t mind paying for my news sites directly.
lenaitch
Senior Member
Yup. Fair point.
Admiral Beez
Superstar
When I see that magazine and the other heavy marketing the LCBO does my default thought is, you have a near monopoly on booze, you don’t need to advertise. Lower the prices instead.
SunriseChampion
Senior Member
It's not advertising, it's cocktail porn!
You're not a cocktail guy, are you?
There's a decent reason why there are minimum pricing standards. Now, whether or not minimum pricing is good harm reduction policy is the real question.
And given the absolute dearth of actual harm reduction in regards to alcohol use, I'm going to go ahead and say that minimum pricing is the most cynical attempt at harm reduction ever.
It's basically just a money grab disguised as harm reduction.
Admiral Beez
Superstar
No. Though I almost always order a martini (always straight, always gin) at the airport bar before I board. Otherwise it’s Glenfiddich, various stouts and whatever non-domestic red wine the LCBO has on sale that day for under $10. I don’t need a book, but I’d like lower prices.It's not advertising, it's cocktail porn!
You're not a cocktail guy, are you?
SunriseChampion
Senior Member
*nods approvingly*
Yeah, I don't need a book either, I just grab it for cocktail ideas. As I said about the lower prices though......it would take a serious re-working of drugs policy in this country, which we don't seem to have the political will for in most corners.
What prices do you find too high? You're buying wine for under a tenner...that's bloody cheap.
Increasing access to alcohol without providing proper harm reduction resources to go with it is not a good idea. Alcohol is a highly toxic, highly addictive, and highly destructive drug. You can't on one hand push down the price of booze whilst trying to tax out of existence tobacco, for example. I mean, you can, and you do in a world where drug policy is completely bereft of logic and reason, as our is.
But we need to move away from the irrational and destructive drugs policies in this country. Lowering the price of alcohol without any other measures put in place, especially harm reduction policy in regards to alcohol use is not that.
It's pandering to people who don't know any better, no offense.
afransen
Senior Member
I find most cocktails disappointing as they usually involve sugar. I've mostly conditioned myself not to like sugar alcoholic beverages (same with coffee/tea). So I can enjoy a Caesar and whatnot, but mostly I just drink wine, whiskey, gin (with soda) etc. I do like the Jameson Cold Brew (coffee infused) whiskey, as a flavoured alcohol goes. The sweetened ones I have a hard time enjoying.
SunriseChampion
Senior Member
My man....you need to come by some day. Sugar? Never heard of it!
Ok, fine, some of my cocktails involve sweet additions like Campari, but the end product is anything but and there's no sugar added by yours truly.
You've never had a Hanky Panky, eh? Gin, Fernet Branca, and vermouth, for example. Bitter and earthy. Or one of my gin and tonics with angostura. Heavy on the gin, of course.
I feel ya though, I don't use sugar in my tea and the rare times I do drink fruit juice, say, I dilute it with mineral water.
I prefer bitter cocktails, like the psychopath that I am.*
*--Apparently the enjoyment of bitter foods is somewhat correlated with psychopathy.