Yes, Millennials Really Are That Screwed New York Magazine. Re Silc comments: F*ck them. People working in afghani rug factories are screwed. People picking coffee in Guatemala are screwed. People breaking ships in Bangladesh are screwed. People selling cigs by the piece in Lagos are screwed. Americans make me sick.”
A new study has found that both improvised and surgical masks are ineffective in stopping the spread of COVID-19.
They found that “neither surgical nor cotton masks effectively filtered SARS–CoV-2 during coughs by infected patients.” They also “found greater contamination on the outer than the inner mask surfaces,” suggesting that any contact with a mask worn for a long time will likely mean the mask increases the chance of spreading the virus.
Their conclusion?
Woolworths is trialling a new system of surveillance to crack down on theft at self-service check outs. Customers were surprised to see themselves appear in an inconspicuous new screen in the corner of the store's self-serve checkouts. One customer took to social media after noticing a live recording of his own face on the check-out screen while buying his groceries at one of the supermarket's stores.[B]oth surgical and cotton masks seem to be ineffective in preventing the dissemination of SARS–CoV-2 from the coughs of patients with COVID-19 to the environment and external mask surface.
As Millennials Near 40, They’re Approaching Family Life Differently Than Previous Generations “As Millennials reach a new stage of life – the oldest among them will turn 39 this year – a clearer picture of how members of this generation are establishing their own families is coming into view. Previous research highlights not only the sheer size of the Millennial generation, which now surpasses Baby Boomers as the largest, but also its racial and ethnic diversity and high rates of educational attainment. This research also notes that Millennials have been slower than previous generations to establish their own households. A new analysis of government data by Pew Research Center shows that Millennials are taking a different path in forming – or not forming – families. Millennials trail previous generations at the same age across three typical measures of family life: living in a family unit, marriage rates and birth rates.
Living with a family is defined here as living with a spouse, one’s own child (or children) or both a spouse and child. Using this definition, Millennials are much less likely to be living with a family of their own than previous generations when they were the same age. In 2019, 55% of Millennials lived in this type of family unit. This compares with 66% of Gen Xers in 2003, 69% of Boomers in 1987 and 85% of members of the Silent Generation in 1968.
Millennials lag furthest behind in the share living with a spouse and child. Only three-in-ten Millennials fell into this category in 2019, compared with 40% of Gen Xers, 46% of Boomers and 70% of Silents when they were the age Millennials are now. At the same time, the share of Millennials who live with a spouse and no child is comparable to previous generations (13%), while the share living with a child but no spouse (12%) is the same as Gen X but higher than Boomers and Silents…”
YEP: COVID-19: China says Wuhan wet market was site of ‘superspreader’ event, not ground zero. Yeah, it leaked from the lab, didn’t it?
So here’s a thought: What elevated this in my mind from “oh, the annual rumors of a new disease outbreak in China” to “holy crap, better pay attention” was the Chinese government’s own rather dramatic response. Hypothesis: They knew it had leaked from the lab, but weren’t sure yet which infectious agent had leaked from the lab, hence the dramatic response, more appropriate to a much deadlier disease. Second hypothesis: From this, we can assume that there is a worse infectious agent in that lab. Or at least that there was.
Minister flags law review after Rio blows up 46,000-yr-old Aboriginal site
The caves in WA are the only inland site in Australia to showing evidence of continual human occupation through the last Ice Age.
Reuters: “U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to order a review of a law that has long protected Twitter, Facebook and Alphabet’s Google from being responsible for the material posted by their users, according to a draft executive order and a source familiar with the situation. News of the order comes after Trump threatened to shut down websites he accused of stifling conservative voices following a dispute with Twitter after the company decided to tag Trump’s tweets about unsubstantiated claims [note – this link references news on this incident posted by beSpacific] of fraud in mail-in voting with a warning prompting readers to fact-check the posts. The order, a draft copy of which was seen by Reuters, could change before it is finalized. On Wednesday, officials said Trump will sign an executive order on social media companies on Thursday.
The executive order would require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to propose and clarify regulations under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a federal law largely exempting online platforms from legal liability for the material their users post. Such changes could expose tech companies to more lawsuits. The order asks the FCC to examine whether actions related to the editing of content by social media companies should potentially lead to the platform forfeiting its protections under section 230…The draft order also states that the White House Office of Digital Strategy will re-establish a tool to help citizens report cases of online censorship. Called the White House Tech Bias Reporting Tool, it will collect complaints of online censorship and submit them to the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)…”
- See also Fortune: Still fuming over a fact-checked Tweet, President Trump expected to sign executive order aimed at social media platforms
This controversy involving President Donald Trump and Twitter
reveals several things, but two stand out.
One, Trump is clearly going to keep pushing the limits, testing
to see just how much bite Twitter has behind its bark.
And, two, Twitter doesn’t have much bite.
A day after Twitter put a fact-check label on two of Trump’s
tweets about mail-in ballots, Trump lashed out at Twitter … on Twitter. Ironic,
eh? Trump tweeted:
“Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence
conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we
can ever allow this to happen. We saw what they attempted to do, and failed, in
2016. We can’t let a more sophisticated version of that …
“ … happen again. Just like we can’t let large scale Mail-In
Ballots take root in our Country. It would be a free for all on cheating,
forgery and the theft of Ballots. Whoever cheated the most would win. Likewise,
Social Media. Clean up your act, NOW!!!!”
He basically repeated the conspiracy that earned him the first
Twitter “fact-check” label and wasn’t fact-checked for those new tweets. This
was after Trump tweeted that Twitter was interfering in
the 2020 election and that Twitter was “stifling free speech.”
Then, later Wednesday, Trump tweeted, “Twitter has now shown that
everything we have been saying about them (and their other compatriots) is
correct. Big action to follow!”
What that “big action” could possibly be is unknown. White House
press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Wednesday that Trump is going to sign an
executive order about social media and internet companies. CNN’s Brian Fung looked at Trump’s possible options
(legislation, lawsuits, etc.), but Fox News contributor Andrew Napolitano
pretty much shot down that Trump can do anything to Twitter.
He told “America’s Newsroom’s” Sandra Smith,
“The First Amendment, which guarantees the freedom of speech and of the press
since it only regulates the government, does not regulate Twitter. Twitter can
take down, modify or correct any user it wants, including the president of the
United States.”
Besides, Trump is practically daring Twitter to censor him, as
he not only repeated claims about mail-in votes, but also repeated conspiracy
theories about MSNBC host Joe Scarborough. Trump has repeated baseless claims
that Scarborough had something to do with the death of a staffer in 2001. Even
the widower of that staffer has begged Twitter to remove Trump’s tweets, but
Twitter seems paralyzed to take any action.
By constantly piling on Twitter, Trump and other conservatives
have backed Twitter into a corner. Twitter seems helpless to fight back out of
fear that taking any aggressive action only would prove conservatives right
that Twitter is trying to censor them.
As CNN’s Chris Cillizza writes, “The point
here is that Twitter, for a lot of reasons — some of which are its fault and
some of which aren’t — has no chance in a fight over facts and truth with
Trump. Unless they are willing to use the nuclear option of suspending him from
the site, which brings its own massive set of complicated questions — and is
not a sure-fire solution anyway.”
About those fact checks
As far as Twitter having no bite, here’s another aspect:
Twitter’s so-called “fact-check” of Trump is a far cry from alerting viewers
that what Trump tweeted simply wasn’t true. It’s a weak finger-wag that might
go unnoticed if you didn’t know what to look for. The “fact-check” merely links
to other stories under the label, “Get the facts about mail-in ballots.”
In other words, if you didn’t know what Twitter was saying, you
… wouldn’t know what Twitter is saying. It’s a slap on the wrist that doesn’t
even hit the wrist. It’s practically meaningless because it doesn’t remove the
tweet or even really point out the problem with the tweet.
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More piling on
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway talks to reporters about the coronavirus, at the White House, Monday, April 20, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway blasted away at Twitter on
Wednesday, encouraging Fox News viewers to follow (and presumably bombard) Yoel
Roth, Twitter’s integrity chief. During her appearance on “Fox & Friends,”
Conway said, “He’s the head of integrity and his name is Yoel Roth, he’s
@yoyoel. Somebody in San Francisco, go wake him up and tell him he’s about to
get a lot more followers.”
In a statement to The Hill, a Twitter
spokesperson said, “No one person at Twitter is responsible for our policies or
enforcement actions, and it's unfortunate to see individual employees targeted
for company decisions.”
Brit Hume tweet of the day
This is becoming a regular feature: What dumb or tone-deaf thing
did Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume tweet today? On Wednesday he
linked to a Forbes.com story and tweeted the headline: “The Most Important
COVID-19 Statistic: 43% Of U.S. Deaths Are From 0.6% Of The Population.”
I think you could make a pretty good case that it’s not THE MOST
IMPORTANT COVID-19 statistic.
Taking the safe approach
Jeff Zucker. (John Nacion/STAR MAX)
Most of CNN’s employees will not return to their offices this
year. That’s according to a memo to employees from CNN boss Jeff Zucker. In the
memo, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter’s Jeremy Barr,
Zucker said some employees might be able to return around the “end of the
summer.”
Late last month, Zucker told employees that most of them would
be out until at least early September. But now he has shifted that timeline
back.
“We expect that the majority of you will not be able to return
to our offices this calendar year,” Zucker’s memo said. “What happens after
that is still a question mark, as well. No doubt the world, and our
understanding of the way COVID-19 continues to shape our lives and our work,
will change countless times between now and then. But I know it is important as
you all make decisions for your own lives and your families that you are
equipped with the most honest and transparent information we can give you.”
Right now, about 15% of CNN’s employees are working from the
office and a few more could return in the next couple of weeks. Zucker said,
“When you consider physical distancing requirements, we simply cannot put the
same number of people back into our workspaces that were there before the
pandemic. So we need to make some tough decisions.”
Seems like the smart move. After all, CNN (like most news
organizations) continues to produce an excellent product even with most staff
working from home.
Two hosts go at it
CNBC’s “Squawk Box” certainly lived up to its name Wednesday as
two of its hosts got into a shouting match over the economy and the
coronavirus. In a segment that was simultaneously must-see TV and
uncomfortable to watch, Andrew Ross Sorkin and Joe Kernen lobbed
accusations at one another, with the most damning coming from Sorkin, who
accused Kernen of carrying water for President Trump while 100,000 died.
The discussion started toasty as the two talked about a recent
rise in the stock market. Then it quickly exploded. The two began yelling then
started to calm down before Kernen said, “You panicked about the market,
panicked about COVID, panicked about the ventilators, panicked about PPE,
panicked about ever going out again.”
Sorkin shot back, “Joseph, you didn’t panic about anything!
Joseph, 100,000 people died!”
Just for a moment, that seemed to slow Kernan, who said, “I
understand that.”
Sorkin kept going, “100,000 died, Joe, and all you did was try
to help your friend, the president. That’s what you did. Every single morning
on this show. You used and abused your position, Joe!”
Kernen fought back by saying, “That’s totally unfair! I’m trying
to help investors keep their cool! Keep their heads! And as it turned out,
that’s what they should’ve done!”
The two kept at it until Sorkin asked and even begged Kernen to
just do the news.
“I wasn’t arguing to go sell your stocks, Joseph!” Sorkin said.
“I was arguing about people’s lives! … Do the news, Joseph! I’m begging you! Do
the news!”
A victory for Fox News and the First Amendment
A Seattle judge said that an advocacy group's intention behind a
lawsuit to stop Fox News from spreading misinformation about the coronavirus
was “laudable,” but that judge dismissed the suit because it “runs afoul of the
protections of the First Amendment.”
A group called the Washington League for Increased Transparency
and Ethics — better known as WASHLITE — filed suit in April because, it
claimed, some Fox News hosts questioned the seriousness of the coronavirus and
it wanted the network to stop “publishing further and false and deceptive
content.”
But even some of Fox News’ TV rivals came to the network’s
defense. The Internet and Television Association, a trade organization that
represents CNN and MSNBC, claimed Fox News was protected by First Amendment
rights. Washington Superior Court Judge Brian McDonald agreed.
In a statement, Fox News said, “Using a false portrayal of FOX
News Channel’s commentary, WASHLITE attempted to silence a national news
organization to settle a partisan grievance. This was not only wrong, but
contemptuous of the foundation of free speech and we are both pleased the court
dismissed this frivolous case and grateful to the First Amendment community
that rallied to our side.”
CBS News layoffs
Layoffs at CBS on Wednesday include the newsroom. The number of
CBS News employees let go is not publicly known, but in a note to staff, CBS News president Susan Zirinsky said,
“Working with reduced budgets, we have had to make some extremely difficult
decisions. I’m sad to report today that some of our colleagues and good friends
will be leaving the company. These decisions are particularly painful for our
entire organization, which has performed at the highest level during the
COVID-19 pandemic, overcoming so many obstacles. But this restructuring is
necessary to ensure CBS News remains strong long into the future.”
Hot type
- Powerful photos from The (Minneapolis) Star Tribune’s Carlos Gonzalez, Elizabeth Flores and Richard Tsong-Taatarii capturing the protests of the death of George Floyd, an African American man who died in police custody. And for more about Floyd’s death, check out Minnesota Public Radio’s coverage.
- Excellent hustle by the Tampa Bay Times’ Steve Contorno, who showed that White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany — who has defended President Trump’s criticisms about mail-in voting — has, herself, voted by mail 11 times in 10 years.
- The Washington Post’s William Wan and Carolyn Y. Johnson with “Coronavirus May Never Go Away, Even With a Vaccine.”
