"Cathedrals often took more than a century to build in medieval times, a process that sometimes spanned the lives of several monarchs… So French President Emmanuel Macron's pledge Tuesday to restore fire-devastated Notre Dame within five years was at odds with experts who predicted restoring the jewel of Gothic architecture would likely take much longer." The difference is we have power tools and the plan is decided. The questions for this renovation is do they have the financial support for the long run, what damage did the fire do to the limestone, the direction of the renovation (restore or renew) and will the plan experience scope creep.
"The first meteor to hit Earth from interstellar space — and the second known interstellar visitor overall — may have just been discovered, a new study finds."
"Crucially for the experiment, the LED emits no light when the voltage is reversed, as the electrons cannot go over the ramp in the opposite direction. In fact, reversing the voltage also suppresses the device’s infrared radiation—the broad spectrum of light (including heat) that you see when you look at a hot object through night vision goggles." Did they… did they just reverse the tachyon flow out of the main reflector dish? This was blink promoted in my timeline. The physics doesn't "feel" right to me, but I thought it was interesting.
"For example, NPR has learned that a U.S. CRISPR study that had been approved for cancer in at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia has finally started. A university spokesman Monday confirmed for the first time that two patients had been treated using CRISPR." Brave, new world. I hope this doesn't go like some of the previous gene editing studies. There's a lot of "happy happy" language and "this will cure EVERYTHING" going on in the article. Just realize that this is never the case. Also, these aren't the first actual studies, it's just becoming more common.
"Workplace wellness programs — efforts to get workers to lose weight, eat better, stress less and sleep more — are an $8 billion industry in the U.S.… But no one has been sure they work. Various studies over the years have provided conflicting results, with some showing savings and health improvements while others say the efforts fall short." It depends on what you think the Wellness Programs are actually designed to do.
"Sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Brigham Young University is known for its adherence to church teachings and for its strict Honor Code, which regulates everything from beards to premarital sex. Student protest is uncommon… Students allege that the university is mistreating victims of sexual assault and harassment, especiallyy women and LGBTQ students."
"This year, US retailers have announced that 5,994 stores will close. That number already exceeds last year's total of 5,864 closure announcements, according to a recent report from Coresight Research." Everything is fine here, we're all fine. How are you?
"More than a dozen school districts in Colorado are closed Wednesday after the FBI and local law enforcement warned of an 18-year-old white woman who is "armed and dangerous" in the Denver metropolitan area."
"On the eve of the Alberta election, Twitter suspended numerous outspoken critics of the United Conservative Party (UCP) and its leader, Jason Kenney." Whispers, "Twitter is taking sides." I can't find this story elsewhere, so I'm not (Grokked from Mur Lafferty)
"Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg oversaw plans to consolidate the social network’s power and control competitors by treating its users’ data as a bargaining chip, while publicly proclaiming to be protecting that data, according to about 4,000 pages of leaked company documents largely spanning 2011 to 2015 and obtained by NBC News… In some cases, Facebook would reward favored companies by giving them access to the data of its users. In other cases, it would deny user-data access to rival companies or apps." Hello anti-trust action (well, if we had a functioning government). (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)
"Accelerationism is a term white supremacists have assigned to their desire to hasten the collapse of society as we know it. The term is widely used by those on the fringes of the movement, who employ it openly and enthusiastically on mainstream platforms, as well as in the shadows of private, encrypted chat rooms. We have also recently seen tragic instances of its manifestation in the real world." And now you know why the white nationalists support the efforts of Russia to disrupt our elections. It is the belief that underpins terrorism, to attack the social contract directly spur the general populace into revolt. (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)
"After allegations of a toxic workplace culture that discriminates against women and people of color, the Southern Poverty Law Center is trying to emerge and chart a way forward. Turmoil in the civil rights organization last month resulted in the firing of its famous founder, and the resignations of its longtime president and legal director."
"President Donald Trump issued the second veto of his presidency Tuesday, stopping a congressional resolution that would have sought to end US involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen."
"Hundreds of migrants are being held for days in an emerging tent city at a Border Patrol station in a preview of what the Trump administration is reportedly considering to absorb a surge on the border." (Grokked from George Takei)
"The Trump administration will allow lawsuits in U.S. courts for the first time against foreign companies that use properties confiscated by Communist-ruled Cuba since Fidel Castro’s revolution six decades ago, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday." I don't see how this could possibly go wrong.
"The United States special representative for North Korea is headed to Moscow amid rumors in South Korean media that Kim Jong Un is planning to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin soon."
This story has been making the rounds in advance of Thursday's "redacted" Mueller Report release. "On Friday the thirteenth October 1989… news leaked of a legal memo authored by William Barr… (which) concluded that the FBI could forcibly abduct people in other countries without the consent of the foreign state… Members of Congress asked to see the full legal opinion. Barr refused, but said he would provide an account that 'summarizes the principal conclusions.'… What’s different from that struggle and the current struggle over the Mueller report is that we know how the one in 1989 eventually turned out… When the OLC opinion was finally made public long after Barr left office, it was clear that Barr’s summary had failed to fully disclose the opinion’s principal conclusions." (Grokked from Laura J Mixon)
"'The attorney general has created an environment that has caused a significant part of the public … to be concerned about whether or not there is full transparency,' U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton said during a hearing Tuesday afternoon on a Freedom of Information Act suit demanding access to a report detailing the findings of special counsel Robert Mueller."
2 comments:
It is interesting to see the study on workplace wellness programs and the lack of clear benefits. The odd part is how the companies are focusing on the employees making changes and effort, and there is no mention of anything that employers are doing to make the workplace less stressful, since we all know that stress can have such a large impact on human health.
Some companies also offer mindfulness meditation, and at least one source has pointed to how corporations have co-opted the practice to try to make employees more compliant in accepting unacceptable situations. See: http://theconversation.com/how-corporates-co-opted-the-art-of-mindfulness-to-make-us-bear-the-unbearable-47768
Another question that remains unanswered is why corporations are continuing to reap nearly all of the benefits of worker productivity, without sharing economic benefits with the workers. See the graph showing decoupling of worker productivity and worker wages, such as the one published here: https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/
Better worker health is better for everyone, but if we were really serious about making that happen in the USA, we would have universal health care and better working conditions, with more flexibility for workers and less stress (both in terms of workplace environments and in terms of management practices).
Hey Sheila, I completely agree. Mostly these wellness programs are just a way for companies to gain health information on their employees and attempt to get discounts on insurance (both the health insurance and liability insurance). What needs to happen is a rethink of our business models and corporate culture with encourage and reward sociopathy, abusive behaviors, and self-destructive behaviors on the part of employees. If my employer wants me to work out, they have to help me lead a life that allows that, not expect me to find some way to get it done. That means not expecting me to work 50+ hours a week and pay me enough to live close to work, and to have a house or an arrangement where I could get exercise. But that would also require a huge social shift and the destruction of many cultural myths. But doing that would also help with some of the other issue you mention. It would, however, make the rich less rich and expose them to more risk.
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