Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Sesame Street Was Always Political

 MakeUseOf: “Your daily habits have a massive influence on your workday. The activities and behaviors you perform routinely become subconscious habits that’ll  affect everything in your life. Sometimes, you might intentionally incorporate an activity to enjoy a specific result, for example, going to the gym to grow muscles. Other times, however, life compels you to do so. You might have picked up some unproductive habits when you embraced remote work overnight. That said, it is time to replace them to regain your productivity…”


MakeUseOf 6 Bad Remote access Work Habits That Ruin Your Productivity, and How to Fix Them


A Lesson In Real Realism Andrei Martyanov


A Domestic Newspaper Warns of the Russian Space Program’s ‘Rapid Collapse’ ars technica

 

The 30th anniversary of the fall of the USSRBrookings 



Sesame Street Was Always Political


Depressed by the press: journalism bows to the authoritarians

Weakened by commercial and political pressures, legacy media are struggling to counter the antagonism of vested interests, writes Lucy Hamilton.

Lesson From The Tax Court: Taxpayers Behaving Badly (2021)

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NY Times Op-Ed: I’m Not Ready For Christmas


Voice of the Workforce: What Employees Say They Really Want


PRNewswire — isolved Connect — “As employers scramble to recruit and retain talent in a candidate-driven market, human resource leaders and hiring managers seek to uncover the “why” behind employees staying or leaving. While the number-one motivation for starting a new job is still salary, there is more to the story according to isolved’s latest research, “Voice of the Workforce: What Employees Say They Really Want“. In its survey of over 1,000 full-time employees in the U.S., whose positions are performed from an office (home or company) and a desk, isolved found several non-compensation areas to be key motivators for starting a new position.
 Fifty-eight percent of respondents said location flexibility (including remote) is the biggest motivator for accepting a new job offer, followed by interest in the role (57%) and work-life balance (52%). Surprisingly, workplace diversity was the least-likely reason for a candidate to accept a new position.  “If a company finds itself unable to compete for talent on compensation alone, they may find solace in the fact that there are other non-financial motivators candidates and employees value meaningfully,” said Amy Mosher, chief people officer at isolved. “Total-reward strategies that include employers offering flexibility in location and schedule and greater alignment with career interests, stand a better chance at not only hiring new talent but also keeping them engaged for longer too.” 
The research, however, shows some new hires are tempted to leave before even getting started. Fifty-one percent of full-time employees said they have considered leaving a job immediately due to the onboarding experience (e.g., limited transitional training, unorganized first day). Some things as standard as having a computer on the first day of work is not always the case.  
For those employees who do stay despite a bumpy start, they likely have negative feelings about the employee experience in general as 85% of respondents said the onboarding experience is important. Perhaps it’s the length of onboarding that is the problem. Fifty-two percent of full-time employees think the onboarding experience should last over four weeks. Breaking down those figures further, 23% think onboarding should be two months or longer…”

Select Subcommittee Releases Further Evidence of Trump Officials’ Pursuit of ‘Herd Immunity’ Strategy, Interference in Public Health


Select Committee on the Coronavirus: More Effective More Efficient More Equitable. Overseeing an Improving &Ongoing Pandemic Response – “The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis was established by the U.S. House of Representatives on April 23, 2020. Modeled after the Truman Committee that saved lives and taxpayer dollars by preventing waste, fraud, and abuse during World War II, the Select Subcommittee is charged with investigating the effectiveness, efficiency, equity, and transparency of the nation’s response to the public health and economic crises caused by the coronavirus pandemic. 
This report details key findings from the Select Subcommittee’s work over the course of 2021. This year, the Select Subcommittee has sent more than 100letters, reviewed more than 430,000 pages of documents, conducted ten transcribed interviews of key officials involved in the pandemic response, published seven staff reports detailing its findings, and held 14hearings and public briefings with senior Administration officials, experts in public health and economics, Americans personally impacted by the pandemic, and other important witnesses.
The Select Subcommittee has continued and expanded on many of the investigations that it began in 2020, while also opening multiple new investigations…The Select Subcommittee’s staff report contains new evidence from its ongoing investigations, shedding additional light on the Trump Administration’s failed coronavirus response and further exposing its staggering pattern of political interference that jeopardized Americans’ health and safety…”