Steve Randy Waldman wonders: what if one person could hire another to age for them
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Expect More Worrisome COVID Variants After Omicron, Scientists Say
Huff Post reports: Every infection provides a chance for the virus to mutate, and omicron has an edge over its predecessors: It spreads way faster despite emerging on a planet with a stronger patchwork of immunity from vaccines and prior illness.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom expects widespread infections: Tedros said he’d like to see 70% of people in every country vaccinated by mid-year.
Harris pushed hard for voting rights — then hit a brick wall
Harris’ elevated role also thrust her into a legislative initiative that is seemingly going nowhere. During an interview on Thursday, she made an impassioned plea for voting rights legislation, pointing the blame at both Republicans and members of her own party for standing in the way of changing the Senate rules to get election reform passed by simple-majority vote.
A massive volcano erupts near Tonga, causing tsunami waves as far as the West Coast
NPR Reports:
The first U.S. state to feel the effects of the eruption was Hawaii, where waves over a foot were reported in Kauai and nearly three feet tall in Hanalei. “We are relieved that there is no reported damage and only minor flooding through-out the islands,” the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.
How the Library of Alexandria obtained new “books”
In Connections Episode 2, James Burke describes how the Library of Alexandria got such a large collection of books — if you came to Alexandria on a boat and you owned a book you had to lend it to the library to be copied
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Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen testifies before Senate Commerce Committee
Francis Haugen testified that: Facebook has put profits ahead of people
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The Facebook Whistleblower says that Facebook is not open to making significant changes: At least not when that would result in losing eyeballs on posts or decreasing their ad revenues
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According to Ms. Haugen:
Facebook knows that its amplification algorithms, can lead children from very innocuous topics like healthy recipes, all the way from just something innocent like healthy recipes to anorexia promoting content over a very short period of time.
She even says that Facebook even encouraged
teens to create second accounts they can hide from their parents.
Frances Haugen Facebook Tests
Frances Haugen said: IT MIMICS THE GRIEF CYCLE
Facebook is not interested in making significant changes to improve kids safety on their platform. At least not what it would result in losing eyeballs
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Facebook Testimony: Richard Blumenthal
Richard Blumenthal testified:
THE COMPANY REPEATEDLY IGNORED THOSE RECOMMENDATIONS FROM ITS OWN RESEARCHERS
James Burke: an Interconnected World
James Burke contends that one cannot consider the development of any particular piece of the modern world in isolation. Rather, the entire gestalt of the modern world is the result of a web of interconnected events
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El-Erian Sees ‘Trifecta’ of Risks Facing U.S. Economy
Mohamed El-Erian, a Bloomberg Opinion columnist says: what doesn’t work is when you have a global inflationary environment and you try to do that because ultimately what you’re going to do is hit the most disadvantaged segments of the populations in two ways first by inflation