Link Roundup August 2021

The Dangerous Ideas of “Longtermism” and “Existential Risk”

To drive home the point, consider an argument from the longtermist Nick Beckstead, who has overseen tens of millions of dollars in funding for the Future of Humanity Institute. Since shaping the far future “over the coming millions, billions, and trillions of years” is of “overwhelming importance,” he claims, we should actually care more about people in rich countries than poor countries. This comes from a 2013 PhD dissertation that Ord describes as “one of the best texts on existential risk,” and it’s cited on numerous Effective Altruist websites, including some hosted by the Centre for Effective Altruism, which shares office space in Oxford with the Future of Humanity Institute. The passage is worth quoting in full:

“Saving lives in poor countries may have significantly smaller ripple effects than saving and improving lives in rich countries. Why? Richer countries have substantially more innovation, and their workers are much more economically productive. By ordinary standards—at least by ordinary enlightened humanitarian standards—saving and improving lives in rich countries is about equally as important as saving and improving lives in poor countries, provided lives are improved by roughly comparable amounts. But it now seems more plausible to me that saving a life in a rich country is substantially more important than saving a life in a poor country, other things being equal.”

His Name Was Emmett Till

But the way Till’s name exists in the firmament of American history stands in opposition to the gaps in what we know about his killing. No one knows, for instance, how many people were involved. Most historians think at least seven were present. Only two were tried: half brothers J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant. Another half brother, Leslie Milam, was there that night too. He lived in an old white farmhouse a few dozen steps from the barn, next to where Jeff Andrews’s house now stands. In 1955 an all-white, all-male jury, encouraged by the defense to do their duty as “Anglo-Saxons,” acquitted J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant.

PrEP, the HIV prevention pill, must now be totally free under almost all insurance plans

The guidance that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, along with the Department of Labor and the Department of the Treasury, sent to health insurers Monday indicated that insurers have 60 days to comply with the mandate. The rule says insurers must not charge copays, coinsurance or deductible payments for the quarterly clinic visits and lab tests required to maintain a PrEP prescription.

China divided as WeChat deletes LGBT accounts from platform

Dozens of such accounts, mostly run by university students, had been deleted on Tuesday night - sparking fears of a tightening control over gay content.

Coal miners are on strike in Alabama for the first time in four decades, but cable news is silent

The origins of the strike lie in the 2016 takeover of a failing coal company by newcomer Warrior Met, leading to profits for the buyer alongside lower pay and loss of benefits for the workers. The miners in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, who were caught up in the acquisition faced dramatic pay cuts and reportedly weaker safety measures for what is often ranked one of the nation’s most dangerous professions, leading to multiple charges of unfair labor practices levied against Warrior Met.

Cuomo urged to resign after probe finds he harassed 11 women

On one occasion, the probe found, Cuomo’s staff took action “intended to discredit and disparage” an accuser — Lindsey Boylan, the first former employee to publicly accuse him of wrongdoing — including leaking confidential personnel files and drafting a letter attacking her credibility.

LinkedIn blocks profiles from view in China if sensitive topics mentioned

J Michael Cole, an academic, also revealed earlier this month his account was being removed from view in China over prohibited content in the publications section of his profile. Cole, a senior fellow with the Global Taiwan Institute in Washington DC and the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, said he suspected it was related to the listed titles of books he had authored or co-authored, which include How China Undermines Global Democracy; Cross-Strait Relations Since 2016: The End of the Illusion; and Convergence or Conflict in the Taiwan Strait.

Student loan payment pause extended to Jan. 31, White House announces

In a statement, the Department of Education said that this would be the "final extension" and that it felt that a "definitive end date" would reduce the risk of delinquency and defaults once payments restart.

OnlyFans to Block Sexually Explicit Videos Starting in October

But sex work still has a stigma. And OnlyFans is trying to raise money from outside investors at a valuation of more than $1 billion. The company handled more than $2 billion in sales last year, and is on pace to more than double that this year. It keeps 20% of that figure.

Companies claim there’s a labor shortage. Their solution? Prisoners

In April, Russell Stover candy production facilities in Iola and Abilene, Kansas, began using prison labor through the Topeka correctional facility in response to staffing issues disrupting production lines. About 150 prisoners work at the plant, making $14 an hour with no benefits or paid time off, while other workers start at higher wages with benefits and paid time off. Kansas also deducts 25% of prisoners’ pay for room and board, and another 5% goes toward a victim’s fund. The prisoners also must pay for gas for the nearly two-hour bus ride to and from the plant.

Union advocates rally in New York to support striking Alabama coalminers

Workers say they took on a $6-an-hour cut in wages and reduced benefits in their 2016 union contract after Walter Energy, which eventually became Warrior Met Coal, declared bankruptcy in 2015. UMWA rejected a contract offered up by the company in April, just a few weeks after the strike began, which would have given workers a $1.50 pay increase over five years. Workers say they want pay and benefits to match what they were receiving before the contract that was signed in 2016.

New ‘Pro-Life Whistleblower’ Website Wants People to Snitch on Abortions

Under the new law, not only could abortion providers face ruinous lawsuits, but so could individuals who help pay for abortions or even drive patients to the clinic. More specifically, anyone who’s found to have “knowingly engages in conduct that aids or abets the performance or inducement of an abortion” against the Texas law could be liable, per the legislation. Abortions are permitted, however, in the event of a medical emergency.

OnlyFans Drops Planned Porn Ban, Will Continue to Allow Sexually Explicit Content

OnlyFans dropped plans to ban pornography from its service, less than a week after the U.K. content-creator subscription site had announced the change citing the need to comply with policies of banking partners.

Britney Spears’ Father to Step Down From Conservatorship

James Spears filed legal documents saying he will step down after several lingering issues are resolved. The document gives no timetable for his resignation from his role helping oversee his daughter’s finances. Those matters include the next judicial review of the pop singer’s finances, which has been delayed by months of public and legal wrangling over James Spears' role and the legitimacy of the conservatorship.

Attack of the giant rodents or class war? Argentina’s rich riled by new neighbors

These vast Paraná wetlands stretch from northern Argentina to the River Plate and the Atlantic Ocean, but have come under attack from urban sprawl as well as cattle and soy mega-farmers who are partly responsible for the wildfires that have destroyed vast areas.

Gripped by Drought, Marin Considers Desalination, Water Pipeline Over the Richmond Bridge

Adrian Covert, senior vice president of public policy at the Bay Area Council, a business and industry group, recently evaluated desalination regionally and found that recycling water could have a large impact. “Every year, the Bay Area pumps about 500,000 acre feet of highly treated wastewater into the bay,” he said. “It's more than enough to meet the Bay Area's water demand through 2040. And because wastewater is cleaner than ocean water, treating it to potable standards is also about 20% cheaper than desalinating water.”

Thousands of low-level U.S. inmates released in pandemic could be headed back to prison

As officials scrambled last year to stem the spread of the coronavirus in prisons, the Justice Department let Fulton and more than 23,800 inmates like him serve their sentences at home. But as more people are vaccinated, thousands could be hauled back into prison to serve the remainder of their sentences, thanks to a little-noticed legal opinion issued by the Justice Department in the waning days of Republican former President Donald Trump's administration. Congressional Democrats and justice-reform advocates have called on President Joe Biden and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to reverse the opinion, but so far the new administration has not acted to rescind the memo.

The 'Missing Person Hierarchy' – Why Some Disappearances Get More Press Than Others

The initial fact of Chong’s vanishing didn’t provoke any viral social media posts, just as the two weeks between her disappearance and the discovery of her body didn’t see any urgently broadcast television appeals for information, or sustained media coverage. Aside from a few individual attempts to drum up publicity, and a brief notice on a local London news website, there was nothing – at least, until the missing persons case transformed into a murder inquiry.

In Defense Of Coronavirus Testing Strategy, Administration Cited Retracted Study

The abstract is in English, though the paper itself is in Chinese, and describes a test developed in China. That provenance in itself is notable, because the factoid about flawed tests has come up in response to questions about why the administration didn't ask to import tests the World Health Organization distributes, when it became evident the CDC was struggling to scale up its own test. The WHO has relied heavily on a test produced in Germany – not China.

Huge study supporting ivermectin as Covid treatment withdrawn over ethical concerns

Brown created a comprehensive document uncovering numerous data errors, discrepancies and concerns, which he provided to the Guardian. According to his findings the authors had clearly repeated data between patients. “The main error is that at least 79 of the patient records are obvious clones of other records,” Brown told the Guardian. “It’s certainly the hardest to explain away as innocent error, especially since the clones aren’t even pure copies. There are signs that they have tried to change one or two fields to make them look more natural.”

Pro-Democracy Protests Continue In Eswatini, Africa's Last Absolute Monarchy

Nearly two-thirds of the country's 1.2 million people live below the poverty line, according to the World Bank. Eswatini is also grappling with fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, which has caused nearly 700 deaths. But even as the government is struggling to pay teachers — something that led to protests earlier this year — the king and his 15 wives continue to live an opulent life.

Covid-19 Flares Up in America's Polluted ‘Sacrifice Zones’

Now researchers are studying whether air pollution makes Covid-19 illnesses more severe. They are especially concerned with so-called sacrifice zones, areas with pervasive exposure to toxic emissions.

Naomi Klein: how power profits from disaster

Shock tactics follow a clear pattern: wait for a crisis (or even, in some instances, as in Chile or Russia, help foment one), declare a moment of what is sometimes called “extraordinary politics”, suspend some or all democratic norms – and then ram the corporate wishlist through as quickly as possible. The research showed that virtually any tumultuous situation, if framed with sufficient hysteria by political leaders, could serve this softening-up function. It could be an event as radical as a military coup, but the economic shock of a market or budget crisis would also do the trick. Amid hyperinflation or a banking collapse, for instance, the country’s governing elites were frequently able to sell a panicked population on the necessity for attacks on social protections, or enormous bailouts to prop up the financial private sector – because the alternative, they claimed, was outright economic apocalypse.

For Unhoused LGBTQ Youth in San Francisco, a Spare Room Becomes a Lifeline

Nationally, it's been estimated that up to 40% of unsheltered people under the age of 25 identify as LGBT, and in San Francisco that count is nearly 50%, according to a 2017 report from San Francisco's Homeless Unique Youth Count and Survey.

Why Cops Are Driving a ‘Game Truck’ Around New York City

Seemingly its goal is to teach children about the NYPD by putting them in close contact with police officers through a shared interest in video games. This work is an obvious attempt to rehab a police department that for years has lost the trust of the communities it serves due to overpolicing, stop-and-frisk, and the violent dispersal of peaceful protests.

Microsoft will let devs keep every penny their Windows app makes — unless it’s a game

Microsoft is largely on the side of apps and games being different because its bottom line depends on it. During the Epic trial, the company testified that it sells expensive Xbox hardware at a loss and makes its profits from the 30 percent cut it takes of game sales and subscriptions. But it also seemed like Microsoft was saying that PC games were different: the company recently announced that it would lower its cut of game revenues in the Microsoft Store from 30 to 12 percent starting on August 1st.

Sask. First Nation announces discovery of 751 unmarked graves near former residential school

The Marieval Indian Residential School operated from 1899 to 1997 in the area where Cowessess is now located, about 140 kilometres east of Regina. Children from First Nations in southeast Saskatchewan and southwestern Manitoba were sent to the school.