written by Matt Yglesias. added about 2 months ago by @icyflame ARCHIVES
It would of course be absurd to be satisfied with any of those interim outcomes, whether on health care or retirement security or civil rights, and it’s just the same with Unemployment Insurance. But successful movements claim victories as victories, highlight the ways in which their victories have helped people and debunked critics’ fears, and move on to build the case for new things. Politicians who do the spadework of getting things done should be praised and not ignored, and while journalists should of course highlight shortcomings, we should also bring perspective to bear. We had more articles written about benefit administration problems than we did about the reduction in poverty — that doesn’t make sense journalistically and it’s not politically constructive.
written by Conor Friedersdorf. added about 2 months ago by @icyflame ARCHIVES
vox media epistemology closure echo-chambers
The New York Times, New York, The Intercept, Vox, Slate, The New Republic, and other outlets are today less ideologically diverse in their staff and less tolerant of contentious challenges to the dominant viewpoint of college-educated progressives than they have been in the recent past. I fear that in the short term, Americans will encounter less rigorous and more polarizing journalism. In the long term, a dearth of ideological diversity risks consequences we cannot fully anticipate.
written by Patricia Cohen. added about 2 months ago by @icyflame ARCHIVES
epistemology media media-critique
Mr. Bartlett, who lost his job at the National Center for Policy Analysis, a conservative research institute, after accusing George W. Bush of betraying the Reagan legacy, said in an interview: “Every intellectual movement needs to constantly question itself; otherwise it becomes stale. But conservatives have sort of reached a position of intellectual closure. They don’t think there are any new ideas of particular interest to them. Their philosophy is fully formed. The only question is how best to implement conservative ideas in the political debate.”
added about 2 months ago by @icyflame ARCHIVES
Within minutes, the WTA’s chief executive, Steve Simon, called Duguid to salvage her participation. Simon, along with other tennis and tournament officials, eventually agreed to pause the tournament. “I have never, ever experienced the quickness and the united front for these leaders to come together on what was a very, very critical moment,” Stacey Allaster, the tournament director for the U.S. Open, said. It was an unmistakable display of Osaka’s power within the sport, an authority that is still heavily predicated upon winning.
added about 2 months ago by @icyflame ARCHIVES
america iraq warzone war-crimes
A prominent Iraqi lawyer, Tariq Harb, said, “It’s very painful to see the killers released.” “The fact is they were not punished because they killed Iraqis,” he said. “They were punished for violating the American rules of engagement.” Ali al-Bayati, a member of Iraq’s human rights commission, said the pardons were an indication that no country is serious about prosecuting war crimes. “This hurts us a lot,” Mr. al-Bayati said. “But the accused are American, and the law is American, and the president is American, and we can’t do anything.”
written by Reuters. added about 2 months ago by @icyflame ARCHIVES
hongkong china moving-away identity
the old Hong Kong, the one that had neon signs instead of LED lights everywhere, and where planes descended uncomfortably close to the city’s rooftops before landing on a tiny strip on the Kowloon peninsula rather than over the wilderness of Lantau Island where the new, modern airport was built. “When you look at it, you know that it was taken during that period, and it’s significant. It’s all changed,” Willie said of the picture. He preferred the old Hong Kong, he explained in a separate conversation. Its transformation into a glitzy finance hub makes it easier for him to leave. “When you ask me what I miss most about Hong Kong, well, it no longer exists,” he said.
written by Ramkumar Ramachandra. added about 2 months ago by @icyflame ARCHIVES
ubuntu open-source hackability
If someone really wants Windows, they should buy it; but they should not have to pay for it simply because there isn't a viable alternative. Windows is as bad as a sealed iPhone- there's nothing wrong with it, but curious people should have a choice to explore the richer world that we've created. They should have access to alarm clocks, radios, and software they can pry open. Ubuntu must become widespread- so much that every one of those curious kids has access to it. It should be marketed as a "viable alternative to Windows for the curious". I consider it a grave error in the educational system if a school adopts Windows instead.
written by Unknown. added about 2 months ago by @icyflame ARCHIVES
At the end of two weeks, we were all formally introduced to the senior residents of RK Hall in an exciting program call the Freshers’ Intro, where we were allowed to show our skills at singing, dancing, acting, etc. After the program was done, we found we had made several friends — our own batchmates, who had endured the weeks together, and our seniors, who we no longer had to call “Sir”. Ragging was officially prohibited, and the experience we went through made us stronger and made us friends. It was never taken to an extreme (unless you consider being stared by a smoking, smiling Partho Swami as an extreme — but he became a good friend from whom several of us learnt a lot!).
written by Nate Silver. added about 2 months ago by @icyflame ARCHIVES
america elections trump election-analysis
By contrast, Clinton struggled (relatively speaking) in majority-minority communities with lower education levels. Among the 19 majority-minority countries where 15 percent or less of the population has a bachelor’s degree, she won by an average of only 7 percentage points, less than Obama’s 10-point average margin of victory in 2012. We need to be slightly careful here because of the potential ecological fallacy — it’s not clear if minority voters shifted away from Clinton in these counties or if the white voters who live there did. Still, Trump probably gained overall among Latino and black voters compared to Romney, and it’s worth investigating divisions within those communities instead of treating their votes as monolithic.
written by Ben Dooley, Hisako Ueno. added 2 months ago by @icyflame ARCHIVES
japan business economics survival risks management
The Japanese companies that have endured the longest have often been defined by an aversion to risk — shaped in part by past crises — and an accumulation of large cash reserves. It is a common trait among Japanese enterprises and part of the reason that the country has so far avoided the high bankruptcy rates of the United States during the pandemic. Even when they “make some profits,” said Tomohiro Ota, an analyst at Goldman Sachs, “they do not increase their capital expenditure.”
added 2 months ago by @icyflame ARCHIVES
india voting nri overseas postal
The Commission has requested the government to make necessary amendments at the earliest “which will go a long way in not only facilitating the exercise of the right of overseas electors but also further boosting the image of the country internationally.” A bill to extend the facility of proxy voting to overseas Indians had lapsed following the dissolution of the 16th Lok Sabha in 2019.
written by Christopher Bloomstran. added 2 months ago by @icyflame ARCHIVES
Our example has Tesla’s market cap growing over the next decade at “only” 10% per year to a like $2T. Car companies, with the exception of Ferrari, which makes three cars per year, don’t trade for one times sales. They trade for less. 42/ Toyota, which earns a 6% margin and 6% on capital, trades itself at an all-time-high $215B on revenues of $280B in 2019, less in 2020. 43/ Auto manufacturers trade for less than sales because they make ~3% net margins and earn that same ~3% on capital and revenues grow at ~3%. We can call the industry 3x3x3 (new material here folks). The car business is a bad business, and that’s what Tesla is trying to disrupt? 44/ The best case for shareholders: If Tesla grows the aforementioned sales for the next decade by 28% to $335B (it won’t), the stock will trade for no more than 1x sales, because it’s a CAR company. 45/
added 3 months ago by @icyflame ARCHIVES
america covid19 government mismanagement
"So the bottom line is if it is more infectiouness [sic] now, the issue is who cares?" Alexander wrote in a July 3 email to the health department's top communications officials. "If it is causing more cases in young, my word is who cares…as long as we make sensible decisions, and protect the elderely [sic] and nursing homes, we must go on with life….who cares if we test more and get more positive tests." "How can this be researched and proven true or false?" Caputo asked Alexander in one July 25 email exchange, after Alexander had emailed Hahn and nine top communications officials across HHS and FDA about the value of herd immunity. Alexander wrote back with data that he said he'd pulled from several studies, including a link to a June 30 Quanta Magazine article about the "tricky math" of herd immunity.
written by Casey Newton. added 3 months ago by @icyflame ARCHIVES
facebook zuckerberg management ownership platforms
So I turn it down, and our board was super upset. Our whole management team basically quit. [laughter] So once you can get through that, if you’re like — when you’re like 21 or 22 and all these experienced people around you say that you’re going to regret the decision that you’re making for the rest of your life, and they all quit and walk out and then you basically have no team and you get through that, that leaves you with a lot of confidence that you — [laughter] that you can make long-term decisions and that they can work out over time. So I mean ... I think I am lucky because of the structure that we have. I think some people don’t have the flexibility to focus on what they think is right over the long term because there really are near-term constraints…
written by Derek Thompson. added 3 months ago by @icyflame ARCHIVES
covid19 spreading panemics theater
By funneling our anxieties into empty cleaning rituals, we lose focus on the more common modes of COVID-19 transmission and the most crucial policies to stop this plague. “My point is not to relax, but rather to focus on what matters and what works,” Goldman said. “Masks, social distancing, and moving activities outdoors. That’s it. That’s how we protect ourselves. That’s how we beat this thing.”
written by मोहम्मद ताहिर शब्बीर. added 3 months ago by @icyflame ARCHIVES
delhi covid19 india tablighi-jamaat media fake-news-generators
इस पूरे प्रकरण में पुलिस की भूमिका पर भी कई सवाल उठ रहे हैं. एक सवाल यह भी है कि जब12 मार्च को ही दिल्ली सरकार ने एडवाइज़री जारी कर दी थी कि 50 से ज्यादा लोगों के किसी भी आयोजन की इजाजत नहीं है फिर भी 13 से 15 मार्च के बीच इतने बड़े पैमाने पर लोग इकट्ठा हुए, धारा 144 का उल्लंघन किया. मरकज से चंद कदम की दूरी पर ही पुलिस थाना है. देशव्यापी लॉकडाउन 23 मार्च को घोषित होने के बाद मरकज के भीतर इतनी बड़ी संख्या में लोगों को रहने दिया गया जिसे 31 तारीख यानि आठ दिन बाद निकालने की कार्रवाई शुरू हुई. इससे स्थिति और ज्यादा बिगड़ गई.पिछले 4 दिनों में देश में कोरोना पीड़ितों की संख्या दोगुनी हो गई है.
written by parkerk18. added 3 months ago by @icyflame ARCHIVES
tesla bad-business electric-cars financials
So what is Tesla’s alternative business strategy? Well for one by asking consumers to put a deposit down on vehicles before they have even begun production allows Tesla to acquire valuable financial capital. 400,000 consumers already made $1,000 deposits on the Model 3 giving Tesla an extra $400,000,000 in financial assets
written by pburnett. added 3 months ago by @icyflame ARCHIVES
masks pandemics 1918-spanish-flu
This was not simply a question of “mask or no mask,” but of design, construction, supply, and use. The wearer needed to use a well-designed mask properly, and change masks frequently. Therefore, most of the expert complaints about masks around the Spanish Flu pandemic in the US seemed to be about the users and reliable access to steady supplies of properly constructed masks, not the concept of wearing a mask.
written by Matthe Stewart. added 3 months ago by @icyflame ARCHIVES
america aristocracy meritocracy money economy
In Trump, the age of unreason has at last found its hero. The “self-made man” is always the idol of those who aren’t quite making it. He is the sacred embodiment of the American dream, the guy who answers to nobody, the poor man’s idea of a rich man. It’s the educated phonies this group can’t stand. With his utter lack of policy knowledge and belligerent commitment to maintaining his ignorance, Trump is the perfect representative for a population whose idea of good governance is just to scramble the eggheads. When reason becomes the enemy of the common man, the common man becomes the enemy of reason.
written by Barack Obama. added 3 months ago by @icyflame ARCHIVES
The actual writing remained a painful process, requiring him to really “work at it” and “grind it out.” “This is a really important piece of business that I’ve tried to transmit to my girls and anybody who asks me about writing,” he says. “You just have to get started. You just put something down. Because nothing is more terrifying than the blank page.”
Cutouts is an open source application. Code licensed under the MIT license. Copyright 2018 Siddharth Kannan