Link Roundup October 2018

[wepon]

The Neurontin Suicides

According to the DOJ, at various times Parke-Davis made a conscious decision to not seek approval for a new use because it would have required solid proof from clinical trials that could not be provided. Documents show that Parke-Davis even went to the trouble of determining how much could be made off Neurontin for a new approved use, compared to sales from marketing the drug off-label for the same use.

Detransition, Desistance, and Disinformation: A Guide for Understanding Transgender Children Debates

For example, authors often raise fears that some children (i.e., ones who are “really cisgender” in their minds) may be pushed into the “wrong” puberty, and thus may have to undergo expensive medical procedures to correct those bodily changes. But this precisely describes what a trans child would face if they were not allowed to transition until adulthood. If the former example concerns you, but the latter one doesn’t, then that’s a clear sign that you value cis bodies and lives over trans ones.

Massachusetts police tweet lets slip scale of leftwing surveillance

The bookmarks included a Facebook group for Mass Action Against Police Brutality (MAAPB); the Coalition to Organize and Mobilize Boston Against Trump (Combat); Facebook 413; Facebook MA Activism; and Resistance Calendar, which notes timings for canvassing for Democratic or progressive candidates and anti-Trump rallies.

Women who work at McDonald’s plan walkout Tuesday over sexual harassment

From 2005 to 2015, hotel and restaurant workers filed at least 5,000 sexual harassment complaints with the EEOC — more than any other industry, according to an analysis by the Center for American Progress. This number represents only a fraction of all complaints filed by restaurant workers, as only about half of the 85,000 sexual harassment complaints filed with the EEOC in that time frame designated a specific industry.

Male Birth Control Study Killed After Men Report Side Effects

But there's a little bit of a different risk-benefit analysis when it comes to men using a contraceptive. When women use a contraceptive, they're balancing the risks of the drug against the risks of getting pregnant. And pregnancy itself carries risks. But these are healthy men — they're not going to suffer any risks if they get somebody else pregnant.

Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father

By age 3, Mr. Trump was earning $200,000 a year in today’s dollars from his father’s empire. He was a millionaire by age 8. By the time he was 17, his father had given him part ownership of a 52-unit apartment building. Soon after Mr. Trump graduated from college, he was receiving the equivalent of $1 million a year from his father. The money increased with the years, to more than $5 million annually in his 40s and 50s.

Rough sleeping outlawed in Hungary as new law comes into force

Experts say Hungary has at least 20,000 people sleeping rough with only an estimated 11,000 places in state-run shelters.

Matthew Shepard Will Be Interred at the Washington National Cathedral, 20 Years After His Death

On Oct. 26, Mr. Shepard will be interred at the Washington National Cathedral, the neo-Gothic, Episcopal house of worship that is a fixture of American politics and religion.

The Big Hack: How China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies

One official says investigators found that it eventually affected almost 30 companies, including a major bank, government contractors, and the world’s most valuable company, Apple Inc. Apple was an important Supermicro customer and had planned to order more than 30,000 of its servers in two years for a new global network of data centers. Three senior insiders at Apple say that in the summer of 2015, it, too, found malicious chips on Supermicro motherboards. Apple severed ties with Supermicro the following year, for what it described as unrelated reasons.

Amazon eliminates bonuses and stock awards for hourly workers

The company announced Tuesday that it will raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour for all US employees. But tucked away in the announcement was the fact that Amazon will phase out its bonus and stock award programs for its hourly workers.

Ayn Rand killed Sears

William Lazonick, an expert on the American business corporation, has written about the rise of the conglomerate movement of the 1960s. At the time, shareholders were clamoring for rapid growth, so they pushed for big mergers and acquisitions. Once-successful firms were pressured to move away from their core businesses, often to terrible effects. In an email to me, Lazonick noted that “the ideology was that a good manager could manage anything, and that all the central office needed was performance statistics so that it could ‘manage by the numbers’." This foolishness "imploded," as Lazonick put it, in the 1970s. Evidently Lampert didn’t get the memo.

Monkeys’ cosy alliance with wolves looks like domestication

When walking through a herd – which comprises many bands of monkeys grazing together in groups of 600 to 700 individuals – the wolves seem to take care to behave in a non-threatening way. They move slowly and calmly as they forage for rodents and avoid the zigzag running they use elsewhere, Venkataraman observed.

'Wonderful People, Good Souls': The Victims Of The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting

Eleven people were killed on Saturday when a gunman entered Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue and opened fire on the congregants. The victims ranged in age from 54 to 97; eight were men, three were women. Two of them were brothers, and two were a married couple.

Texas voting machines changing some straight-party selections

Oldham tells us he recalls the problems for at least six years and says he's talked to the Secretary of State more than once about the problem. It has not been fixed aside from signs provided by the Secretary of State to warn voters to check their selections.

U.S. To End Cold War-Era Nuclear Arms Treaty With Russia, Trump Says

The end of the INF treaty "could spell doom" for the New START Treaty, as NPR's David Welna noted of the big remaining arms reduction agreement with Russia, which was signed in 2010. New START includes a limit to 1,550 nuclear warheads on deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles for each country.

A Hospital Giant Discovers That Collecting Debt Pays Better Than Curing Ills

Tenet’s practices have drawn backlash from patients and regulators for years. In June 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered (PDF) Conifer to pay $5 million in relief to consumers. The regulator said it failed to send consumers proper documentation and didn’t adequately respond when debts were disputed. The bureau has recorded 889 consumer complaints about Tenet since 2013, including 358 so far in 2017.

Oldest Brazilian human fossil Luzia found amid National Museum debris

The museum director, Alexander Kellner, told the Associated Press that a fossil named Luzia was recovered. Kellner said the fossil was broken and that 80% of its pieces had been found.

Trump Administration Eyes Defining Transgender Out of Existence

“Sex means a person’s status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth,” the department proposed in the memo, which was drafted and has been circulating since last spring. “The sex listed on a person’s birth certificate, as originally issued, shall constitute definitive proof of a person’s sex unless rebutted by reliable genetic evidence.”