Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

Racism Impoverishes the Whole Economy – The New York Times

An important principle suggests that the person who can produce a product or service at a lower opportunity cost than his or her peers has a comparative advantage in that activity. Recent research calculates the effects of the discriminatory practice of placing highly skilled African-American workers, who might have flourished as, say, doctors, into lower-skilled occupations where they had no comparative advantage. Such practices 50 years ago — which linger, to a lesser extent, today — have cost the economy up to 40 percent of aggregate productivity and output today.

I have thought and written a lot about remedies. Here are a few ideas aimed at addressing discrimination in the innovation economy. First, we need more training in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), like the extensive and highly successful program once sponsored by Bell Labs to encourage participation in these fields by women and underrepresented minorities

STEM fields should not be the sole target, however, because the innovation economy encompasses more than this narrow set of subjects. Two of the last three people I’ve talked to at tech firms have a B.A. in international relations and a Ph.D. in political science. Clearly, problem-solving skills matter, but these skills are not unique to the STEM majors.

Second, there is substantial evidence of systemic racism in education, which needs to be addressed. Research shows that professors are less likely to respond to email inquiries about graduate study from Black, Hispanic and female students than from people who are discernibly white and male. A system of incentives — and penalties — could hold those responsible accountable at every level of the education and training process.

A New Study Questions Whether Masks Protect Wearers. You Need to Wear Them Anyway. – The New York Times (read below)

Critics were quick to note the study’s limitations, among them that the design depended heavily on participants reporting their own test results and behavior, at a time when both mask-wearing and infection were rare in Denmark.

Critics were quick to note the study’s limitations, among them that the design depended heavily on participants reporting their own test results and behavior, at a time when both mask-wearing and infection were rare in Denmark.

Majority of travellers entering Canada during COVID-19 given OK to not quarantine | CBC News (mistake will cause Covid-19 spikes)

More than five million arrivals into Canada have been allowed to skip the 14-day quarantine requirement put in place when the country closed its borders to non-essential travel in late March, the Canadian Border Services Agency estimates.

Source: Majority of travellers entering Canada during COVID-19 given OK to not quarantine | CBC News

Covid-19 mink variants discovered in humans in seven countries | Environment | The Guardian

Denmark, the Netherlands, South Africa, Switzerland, the Faroe Islands, Russia and the US have all reported cases of mink-related mutations.

Despite a political backlash the cull has continued, and farmers have until midnight on Thursday to cull all mink in the country. However, the row over the cull has forced the resignation of the Danish agriculture minister, Mogens Jensen.

“We knew there were these mink variants in seven countries, but we only had about 20 genomes of each, which is very few. Then last week the Danes uploaded 6,000 genome sequences and with those we were able to identify 300 or more of the mink variant Y453F in viruses having infected humans in Denmark,” said University College London (UCL) Genetics Institute director Francois Balloux.

Asked about the implications of the findings, Balloux said it was an indication of the need to cull farmed mink. “A bigger host reservoir means more infections in humans. The main point here, I think, is that although the mutation might not be scary, there is still very good reason to get rid of the mink reservoir. We just don’t need it.” In Denmark, he added, they have a lot of mink, “over three times more than humans”.

Source: Covid-19 mink variants discovered in humans in seven countries | Environment | The Guardian

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott won’t order lockdown as coronavirus cases rise | The Texas Tribune

“We need the state to step in and lead or get out of the way and let us lead,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo told reporters Tuesday.

Public health experts and elected officials acknowledge they are up against a stronger sense of “COVID fatigue” than ever — a malaise that appears to be reflected in the state response.

In recent days, Texas has reported daily new case tallies on par with where the state was during its summer spike. A record 10,826 new cases were reported Tuesday, surpassing the previous high of 10,791 in mid-July.

Exhibit A in the state-local tensions is hard-hit El Paso County. Attorney General Ken Paxton has gone to court to stop the shutdown order that County Judge Ricardo Samaniego issued late last month, saying it oversteps Abbott’s statewide rules. A state appeals court blocked the order for a second time Friday.

Abbott blasted the order shortly after it was issued, saying Samaniego “failed to do his job” enforcing existing rules to slow the spread of the virus “and is now illegally shutting down entire businesses.”

In an interview, Samaniego said the criticism from Abbott felt politically motivated and failed to address the biggest issue El Paso faces — that people are getting sick, being hospitalized and dying at staggering rates. Samaniego said he did everything within his power to limit the spread of the virus. He, like other local officials, wants more authority to take precautions in his county.

“It was about saving lives, not about whether I was right or wrong or he was right or wrong,” he said.

Source: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott won’t order lockdown as coronavirus cases rise | The Texas Tribune

Coronavirus: States impose targeted lockdowns, curfews, mask mandates ahead of Thanksgiving

  • Without a cohesive federal plan, state and local officials are reinstituting some of the stay-at-home orders, curfews and other public safety measures.
  • Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, announced a “two-week” freeze Friday on most activities and nonessential businesses across the state.
  • Even Republican governors, many of whom have long resisted statewide lockdowns and mask requirements, are now imposing curfews and starting to order residents to wear face coverings in public.

Source: Coronavirus: States impose targeted lockdowns, curfews, mask mandates ahead of Thanksgiving

Pro-Netanyahu protesters picket family of fallen IDF soldier – The Jerusalem Post – (division to this extreme is hard to understand)

Protesters supporting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gathered Tuesday night outside the home of the parents of Capt. Tom Farkash, who was killed in action in the Second Lebanon War, Israeli media reported. The protesters were objecting to the Farkash family allowing anti-Netanyahu protesters to use their rooftop for protests, according to Maariv.

Those protesting the Farkash family could be heard saying “just because you lost a son doesn’t give you the right [to host protesters]” and “as long as you host anarchists on the roof of your home, we won’t give you the freedom of speech you are used to.” Source: Pro-Netanyahu protesters picket family of fallen IDF soldier – The Jerusalem Post

2,084 Virus Cases, 13 Deaths in One Day in Lebanon — Naharnet

Lebanon on Wednesday reported 2,084 new coronavirus cases and 13 deaths, five days into a two-week lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of the virus.

The new cases raise the country’s overall tally since February 21 to 110,037 while the fatalities take the death toll to 852.

According to the Health Ministry, 260 of the new cases were recorded in Baabda district, including 69 in Haret Hreik. 159 cases were meanwhile recorded in Northern Metn, 155 in Baalbek district, 140 in Zahle district and 114 in Beirut.

Source: 2,084 Virus Cases, 13 Deaths in One Day in Lebanon — Naharnet

Once again, Americans are drinking the Kool-Aid, with predictably tragic results – Chicago Sun-Times

The Jonestown nightmare is still the kind of story that can stop you suddenly in the middle of writing a laundry list; a remembrance of a field of bodies — one third of them children —clothed in a T-shirt rainbow of colors, bodies of babies bloating in the hot Guyanese sun.

Rotting in what had become the City of the Dead, the bodies of 900 people were tagged and body-bagged for transport back to the U.S. on jumbo military airplane transports.

Yet, it’s hard not to compare it to televised scenes of body-bagged victims of COVID-19’s tortuous death resting in cooler trucks outside our hospitals … and the nightmare of “Mother, Mother, Mother” screams by the dying nearly a half century ago to today’s pandemic deaths without family around.

In an almost cultish fashion, millions of Americans still listen to politicians refusing to take the coronavirus seriously; refusing to issue mask mandates, stay-at-home advisories and listening to a president who rarely wears a mask in public; conducted maskless events at the White House and political rallies; and kept saying it’s gonna be OK. Follow me. Follow my instructions. 

Source: Once again, Americans are drinking the Kool-Aid, with predictably tragic results – Chicago Sun-Times

Illinois coronavirus: Death toll passes 11,000 – Chicago Sun-Times

The coronavirus has claimed another 140 lives across Illinois, raising the state’s pandemic death toll to 11,014, public health officials said Wednesday.

And with an additional 8,922 cases of COVID-19 reported statewide, a total of nearly 607,000 people have contracted the virus over the past eight months, according to the Illinois Department of Health. That’s about 4.8% of the state’s population.

Source: Illinois coronavirus: Death toll passes 11,000 – Chicago Sun-Times