Link Roundup January 2023

[wepon]

Is 'Race Science' Making A Comeback?

And that goes for many illnesses or diseases that we think about as being racialized. Black Americans are more likely to die of almost everything than white Americans. The life expectancy of a black American is lower than a white American. It is perverse to assume that this must be genetic. Are black Americans so genetically disadvantaged that even infant mortality would be higher in black Americans? It just doesn't make any sense. In the U.K., where I live, we see this life expectancy gap between the rich and the poor. It is exactly the same in America, but in America, it is treated as racial because socioeconomic circumstances run along racial lines.

After Months Of Protest, Google Search Quality Raters Finally Get A Raise

The raises will lift pay to $14 and $14.50 per hour—as high as a 45% increase for some—for workers at Appen, a contracting company that works with Google to provide raters, according to emails announcing the increase that were viewed by Forbes. The increases were announced at the end of December and went into effect January 1st. Previously, raters at Appen made $10 to $12 per hour.

US farmers win right to repair John Deere equipment

Previously, farmers were only allowed to use authorised parts and service facilities rather than cheaper independent repair options.

New label law has unintended effect: Sesame in more foods

Instead, some companies have taken a different approach. Officials at Olive Garden said that starting this week, the chain is adding “a minimal amount of sesame flour” to the company’s famous breadsticks “due to the potential for cross-contamination at the bakery.” Chick-fil-A has changed its white bun and multigrain brioche buns to include sesame, while Wendy’s said the company has added sesame to its French toast sticks and buns. United States Bakery, which operates Franz Family Bakeries in California and the Northwest, notified customers in March that they would add a small amount of sesame flour to all hamburger and hot dog buns and rolls “to mitigate the risk of any adverse reactions to sesame products.”

Companies Are Desperate for Workers. Why Aren’t They Doing the One Thing That Will Attract Them?

That resistance to adapting to new conditions seems to lie at the heart of what’s happening in the market. Employers are still operating like they did a decade ago, without considering how they might need to change—to raise offers, increase benefits, and generally make themselves a more attractive place to work.

The Remarkable Story of a Woman Who Preserved Over 30 Years of TV History

Stokes was no stranger to television and its role in molding public opinion. An activist archivist, she had been a librarian with the Free Library of Philadelphia for nearly 20 years before being fired in the early 1960s, likely for her work as a Communist party organizer. From 1968 to 1971, she had co-produced Input, a Sunday-morning talk show airing on the local Philadelphia CBS affiliate, with John S. Stokes Jr., who would later become her husband. Input brought together academics, community and religious leaders, activists, scientists, and artists to openly discuss social justice issues and other topics of the day.

EXCLUSIVE: U.S. airline accidentally exposes ‘No Fly List’ on unsecured server

Analysis of the server resulted in the discovery of a text file named “NoFly.csv,” a reference to the subset of individuals in the Terrorist Screening Database who have been barred from air travel due to having suspected or known ties to terrorist organizations. The list, according to crimew, appeared to have more than 1.5 million entries in total. The data included names as well as birth dates. It also included multiple aliases, placing the number of unique individuals at far less than 1.5 million. 

WTF Is Going on With Absurd Egg Prices? Corporate Greed, Group Tells FTC

Feed and fuel costs also went up between 2021 and 2022 by about 22 percent, according to an investor call from Cal-Maine this month, but you would hardly know it from the company’s ten-fold increase in profits, which went from $50 million to $535 million in 2022. Its gross margins—the money leftover after paying for direct costs—likewise went up 40 percent.

The hunt is on for a tiny radioactive capsule missing in Australia

The radioactive source of the capsule, Caesium-137, emits potentially fatal amounts of radiation, almost equivalent to receiving 10 X-rays in an hour and prolonged exposure can even cause cancer. It takes Caesium-137 almost 30 years to decay by half.

I Cut the 'Big Five' Tech Giants From My Life. It Was Hell

An Ivy League professor tells me he regularly employs a Google blocker. “I had to disable it when I paid my taxes because they have Google Analytics on the IRS website,” he says. “It was kind of horrifying.”

UBC scientists discover entirely new branch on the tree of life — and they are likely to ‘nibble’

Related creatures on the tree of life have similar genetics — for example, the human “18S rRNA” gene is only six nucleotides away from its guinea pig equivalent, Keeling said. When he tested the same gene in the microbes, however, he found a staggering difference of up to 180 nucleotides.

Comments

[conuly]

Are black Americans so genetically disadvantaged that even infant mortality would be higher in black Americans? It just doesn't make any sense.

Actually, that would be a logical conclusion from that premise. The premise is false (and so is the corresponding premise that black people (and also poor people who aren't black) have lower health outcomes due to their own poor choices) but that conclusion makes sense if that's our starting point.

[wepon]

I'll be honest, I'm not sure why you posted this. I don't think Angela Saini was making a point about mathematical logic.

[conuly]

If you make a valid point, but then try to hang it on an invalid claim, it makes people doubt the point itself.

I already agree with her point, because that's obviously what all the data says. And I suppose if she figures the only people reading her already agree with her then it doesn't matter.

[wepon]

If you're determined to argue this point with her, her website is here: https://www.angelasaini.co.uk/

I'm not her and don't know what she'd say, but my guess is something like:
the construction of this paragraph is [statement of facts] [statement of bad thesis one might assume from facts] "It just doesn't make any sense." [additional fact that goes against the bad thesis] [replacement of bad thesis with different thesis].

I remain confused as to why you responded to this particular part in this particular way.

[conuly]

Bad arguments taint good arguments and turn them bad. I remain confused as to why anybody would make a bad argument or quote one.