Monday, November 29, 2021

The Greedy Doctor

 ‘Exposure Is Probably In The Thousands’: Starbucks Employee Tests Positive For Hepatitis A, Triggers Mass Vaccination Effort.


During the pandemic, some skiers have been doing just that. But does the romantic vision tally with the reality?

It was in May, while hiking along the forest trails and waterfalls of La Tièche, with views towards the snow-dusted peaks of the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc, that fitness coach Jessica Z Christensen decided to spend more time in the Swiss mountains.

The international regulars - a Swedish scientist, a French naturopath and a Czech start-up founder among them - are not alone in re-evaluating their life-work patterns during the pandemic. 

Moving up in the world: could you work from home in the Alps?




Aged care advisory council needs strong nursing voices

Gobsmackingly, the new National Aged Care Advisory Council has been formed without any nursing groups represented. 


As fall dips into winter in the Northern Hemisphere, the coronavirus has served up the holiday gift that no one, absolutely no one, asked for: a new variant of concerndubbed Omicron by the World Health Organization on Friday.

We Know Almost Nothing About the Omicron Variant


South African traveller in Howard Springs quarantine tested for new Omicron COVID variant, as Katherine moves from lockdown to lockout


Dirty Dollars: Money Laundering, Steel, and Toxins

Money launderers moved millions into America to buy steel mills — while elected leaders helped them fend off U.S. regulators and foreign competitors, leading to sick workers and mountains of hazardous waste.


Tim Draper, Who Tried to Break Up California, Now Wants to Break Up Unions New Republic


San Francisco’s out-of-town shit Yasha Levine While we are on the topic of Larry Summers, this is a domestic variant of his notorious “Send garbage to Africa” recommendation. 

 

It’s devastating’: how fentanyl is unfolding as one of America’s greatest tragedies Guardian. “And heard on NYC news weed found laced with it.”

 

Hedge fund known for cutting journalism jobs is seeking to buy more newspapers CNN

 

Hunger Action of Los Angeles v. County of Los Angeles. Over failure to process urgent applications for CalFresh (formerly known as food stamps) on a timely basis. 

 

Philosophers with no clothes: A Review of ‘The War Against Marxism’ MR Online



Money: “…Broach the salary question too soon, and an employer might view it negatively. Avoid the question or salary negotiations altogether, and you risk getting underpaid. It’s a delicate song and dance. But a new wave of laws, which are requiring private companies to fork over salary details, could end that rigamarole once and for all. 

In most hiring scenarios today, the employer holds all the cards, says C. Nicole Mason, a gender- and racial-equity researcher and CEO of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. “Many employees are at a disadvantage, especially women, when they go in to negotiate because they may not have information regarding pay at the company,” Mason says. Imagine instead if companies disclosed a tight salary range on the job listing so that you could know from the get-go if the interview process is worth your time and effort. 

Existing employees of the hiring company would also benefit from seeing publicly listed salaries and could use that information to equalize pay internally. Public sector workers have long enjoyed such perks. Now, similar rules are heading for the private sector, thanks to a new batch of labor laws, often referred to as pay- or salary-transparency laws or anti-secrecy laws. At least eight cities or states have recently enacted such laws, with more on the way. Even if they don’t come to your state or locality, you may stand to gain from their rippling effects. “Laws like this are overdue, in terms of thinking about how we might address issues related to the gender pay gap,” Mason says…” 

 

The Greedy Doctor Problem Jan Hendrik Kirchner (resilc). Today’s must read. Ignores another approach: do a lot of homework and maybe tell your doctors you are working on getting an MD (or alternatively, have a child/close relative working on said degree….). Before my surgery, my being buzzword compatible led both the internist assigned to my case and the MD on the orthopedic team who saw me the day my surgeon always works in CT to ask if I was “medical,” meaning somehow in the biz.

Adele Changed Spotify

 In a bid to shine a spotlight on their research and make it more accessible, academics around the world are following in the footsteps of their students and taking to TikTok to share videos. The trend is being highlighted by a team of researchers at the Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI) at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information. The researchers looked at the different ways academics, educators and scholarly communities are using TikTok, the popular social media platform that specializes in short-form user-generated videos, to share knowledge – from Gothic architecture explainers to weight loss tips. In particular, the researchers examined user behaviour, concerns about youth engagement, data and privacy implications, the technical features of the app and the visual aspect of scholarly contribution. “If watching YouTube is like sitting in a lecture, then using TikTok is like having a conversation,” says study co-lead JP King, a sessional instructor at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design who works as KMDI’s data visualization and graphic designer. “TikTok provides a fun place to create new forms of accessible learning shared outside of classrooms, textbooks, and conference halls…”



AAdele Changed Spotify This Weekend

She told Spotify to quit with the shuffle on albums - and "on Saturday, the streaming giant confirmed that it had agreed to the British superstar’s request to automatically play the music in the order an artist has curated." - Washington Post

Patrick Reyntiens, Who Worked Miracles With Stained Glass In Britain’s Bombed-Out Cathedrals, Dead At 95

While he did a great deal of high-quality work, his most admired projects were in two modern monuments which replaced medieval landmarks destroyed in World War II: Coventry Cathedral (the baptistry) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral (the lantern tower.) - The Guardian

Natural Landscape Photography Awards 2021 Results Announcement. We’re excited to announce the results of the 2021 Natural Landscape Photographer of the Year Awards! You can browse these and more in the competition gallery and learn more about our judging process here


The phone for dementia and Alzheimer’s. The one-touch dial picture phone is relentless in its focus on simplicity. It consists of one primary screen, and one screen only. The screen includes 3 elements:

  • Pictures and names of up to six contacts (with an option for up to twenty-four);
  • A button to call 911;
  • Alternative RAZ Emergency Service to avoid unwanted 911 calls (requires subscription);
  • Time, battery power and signal strength.
  • Verizon, AT&T and other wireless providers

That’s it! There are no applications or settings to cause confusion. No notifications or operating system updates. No voicemail. No distractions. Simply tap the picture of the person you wish to call…” [Note – this post is not an advert nor am I working with the product or the manufacturer.]

Kamakazi Politicians and Managers Have Arrived

One size policy of return to offices fits all 

Our attention now turns to the transition back to our usual workplaces in a COVID-safe manner as restrictions are eased for workplaces,” Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Phil Gaetjens and Australian Public Service Commissioner Peter Woollcott said in an open letter to 155,000 federal public servants last week.

“Returning to our usual workplaces is a positive milestone and a shift towards some normality for all of us. It’s an opportunity to reconnect with colleagues and return to our team environments,” the two public servant leaders said.

But flexible working is being framed as a personal issue rather than being promoted as a sector-wide policy, with individual agency heads responsible for making decisions concerning flexible working arrangements, including working from home.

They said flexible work would remain important for the APS “in continuing to take individual circumstances into account, as well as supporting the transition back”.

Under the current settings in NSW, state public sector agencies must continue to allow employees to work from home, if reasonably practicable, until December 1, when all offices are open at full capacity.

Public servants at Agriculture and Education departments rushed back to offices after minister Ben Morton's work-from-home warning


C.E.O.s are eager for employees to return — and afraid of alienating those who have grown accustomed to working from home.


When the truth is inconvenient: how lying allows politicians to propser

The truth is becoming increasingly unimportant in our politics and Parliament — and this bodes ill for civilised society and the survival of democracy.  



If you thought Covid was all over now might be the time too think again

I think it fair to say that I have never been a Covid optimist. Since February 2020 I have felt that those believing that Covid
Read the full article…


Video interview: Eric Topol on the Omicron variant Noahpinion

Specifically, at 3:48, Topol having just depicted Delta as unanticpated, says of Omicron that it was even more unanticipated because it is chock full of mutations.

Having heard years of “Whocoulddanode?” after the global financial crisis, it’s galling to hear that excuse for elite failure trotted out again. 

As we quoted GM on November 19, based on an e-mail of November 13 that codified some things he’d been saying in bits and pieces over the preceding weeks:

The most likely future major developments of the pandemic fall into one of these three scenarios:

1. We get a second-generation Delta variant that has a major advantage over all other Delta lineages. This is the most likely one simply because right now 98% of the virus circulating around the world is Delta and Delta was the most fit variant to begin with.

2. We get a second-generation variant from one of the lineages that have still survived the Delta sweep that is capable of competing against Delta. Eyes are on Lambda/C.37 and Mu/B.1.621 and possibly P.1, because those are the only first-generation variants that still circulate in significant numbers in South America

3. Something new appears out of nowhere that is fitter than the rest. This will most likely come from Africa– there is no surveillance in the depths of the continent and there is no knowing what is brewing there.

 

New ‘Omicron’ Variant Stokes Concern but Vaccines May Still Work New York Times The future’s so bright I’m gonna have to wear shades….


The Kyle Rittenhouse acquittal on all counts is in the news.  Acquittal or conviction (on some or all counts) was sure to become a political charged phenomenon.  I don’t deal with the political issues here. I respond to a question I was asked yesterday as to whether Rittenhouse’s acquittal absolves him of potential civil liability related to the same conduct for which he was acquitted and specifically address the criminal tax analog of the phenomenon.

For a discussion of the nontax answer, I point readers to this discussion:  Euguene Volokh, Could Kyle Rittenhouse Be Sued for Negligence?(The Volokh Conspiracy 11/20/21), here.  Professor Volokh answers the question succinctly at the beginning of the blog post

Civil Liability for Conduct that is Acquitted in Criminal Case



The author of a new parliamentary inquiry report into public service capability has ripped into the consulting and contract 

APS politicised, beholden to management consultants, labour hire firms: Senate report


Data and research on tax including income tax, consumption tax, dispute resolution, tax avoidance, BEPS, tax havens, fiscal federalism, ...


Watergate revised: Prosecutor cover-up alleged.

It’s taken decades of work, but a former aide’s campaign to clear Richard Nixon’s name in the 1972 Watergate scandal has finally reached the Justice Department, with the aide seeking an investigation into allegations of prosecutorial misconduct and a “deep state” conspiracy to take Nixon down.” . . .

Shepard’s credibility is hard to challenge. He was an insider who turned on Nixon after hearing one of the most critical secret tape recordings in the Watergate case. In fact, he is credited with dubbing the tape the “smoking gun” because he believed it tied Nixon to the Watergate cover-up.

Only later did Shepard change his mind when he realized that Nixon was running through options in the scandal, not approving a hush payment in the case.

And more recently, he forced the release of the secret prosecutor’s “road map” used to convince a grand jury to indict key Watergate figures and egg on the impeachment inquiry that turned out to be a hoax, somewhat similar to the “dossier” used to spark the FBI investigation of former President Donald Trump.

“They knew it was a lie, and they made it up,” Shepard said. That road map, however, was never revealed to Nixon’s defense team and was sealed until 2019, when Shepard got it released. It is a central piece of his latest book, published by Bombardier Books.

He also found out that several members of the Watergate Special Prosecution Force, then headed by prosecutor Archibald Cox, improperly left the group with their documents. In some, they described how they worked with the anti-Nixon judge in the case, John Sirica, to get Nixon — a big legal no-no.


 RAYMOND IBRAHIM: How Muslim Racism and Inferiority Complexes Fuel the Jihad.


 FBI e-mail system breach
Reuters
 Do-It-Yourself artificial pancreas given approval by team of experts
MedicalXpress.com
 International Space Station nearly struck by Chinese satellite debris
JPost
 DoS Sabotage by Telegram
Bertrand Meyer
 Palestinians Were Targeted by Israeli Firm’s Spyware, Experts Say
NYTimes via Jan Wolitzky
 Congress mandates new car technology to stop drunken driving
techxplore.com
 Thermal Grease Degradation is an underappreciated hazard
Bob Gezelter
 Unconsidered automatic filtering creates damaging side-effects
Bob Gezelter
 QR codes, URL's, and restaurants
Jerry Leichter
 "Political Ads During 2020 Presidential Election Cycle Collected Personal Information, Spread Misleading Information"
UWash
 Algorithmic Tracking 'Damaging Mental Health' of UK Workers
Dan Milmo
 Scammers impersonate guest editors to get sham papers published
Nature
 Ransomware operators have a compliance department
Matt Levine
 Bipartisan bill would force Big Tech to offer algorithm-free feeds, search results
Ars Technica via Lauren Weinstein
 Edge and Windows 11 ” the return of Microsoft's IE fiasco?
Computerworld
 Google 2021 AI Principles Progress Update
Googleleapis
 You've Got an Enemy at Chase!
Paul Robinson
 UK regulator seeks to improve the privacy of video conferencing
Peter Houppermans
 Cryptocurrency, NTFs or other such digital assets faces a quantum computing problem
CNET
 Security Vulnerabilities in Computer Memories
????
 These Parents Built a School App. Then the City Called the Cops
WiReD
 Cars Are Going Electric. What Happens to the Used Batteries? 
WiReD
 Open Source Doesn't Mean More Software Is Better Software
WiReD
 The Era Of D.C.’s New (771) Area Code Has Begun
DCist
 Hackers Targeted Apple Devices in Hong Kong for Widespread Attack
WiReD
 This Company Tapped AI for Its Website”and Landed in Court
WiReD
 Contract lawyers face a growing invasion of surveillance programs that monitor their work
WashPost
 The next normal: Algorithms will take over college, from admissions to advising
WashPost
 Google loses appeal against $2.7 billion antitrust fine over its comparison-shopping practices in Europe
Fortune
 Caller ID fun
Comcast
 Debris From Test of Russian Antisatellite Weapon Forces Astronauts to Shelter
NYTimes
 Apple announces-Self Service Repair
Apple via Gabe Goldberg
 Re: Trojan Source Bug Threatens the Security of All Code
Henry Baker
 Re: SpaceX Under Fire After Autonomous Rocket Hits Pedestrian
Mark Brader Scott Dorsey
 Re: spider bites, or Using Google search to deliver customers or worse
John Levine
 Facebook 3rd party single-sign-on failure
Paul Robinson
 After a pandemic, fire season, and now floods, are you ready to get trained for emergencies and disasters?
Rob Slade
 Info on RISKS (comp.risks)