Various web links I found to be of interest recently.
The theme of this year's Conservative Political Action Conference
(CPAC) was "uncancel America." But when news broke that one
of the speakers, a hip hop artist named Young Pharoah, had called
Judaism "a complete lie," CPAC cancelled him. Which led Young
Pharoah to denounce CPAC for practicing "cancel culture," which
just goes to show: Denouncing "cancel culture" is a lot easier
than defining what it actually is.
...
Since almost everyone agrees that some views deserve cancellation,
the "cancel culture" debate largely boils down to an
argument over which views should be beyond the pale. Progressives
generally take a harder line when it comes to racism, sexism and
homophobia: For instance, punishing white people for using the
N word. Conservatives generally take a harder line when it comes
to patriotism: For instance, punishing professors for saying the
United States deserved the 9/11 attacks. Establishing a consistent,
non-ideological, standard for what should be cancelled is impossible
because what people consider unacceptable is inextricably bound up
with what they believe.
AARP bills itself as a nonprofit organization "dedicated to
empowering Americans 50 and older." But behind closed doors,
it argues something else entirely. In response to a recent lawsuit
alleging AARP has been overcharging seniors for Medigap insurance
coverage, AARP argued that it was under no obligation to "act
with the interests of [its senior members] in mind."
So, if AARP isn't acting in the interests of its members, who does
it answer to? One need only examine the organization's financials
to discover the truth-AARP is beholden to UnitedHealth Group,
the parent company of the very PBM that Ohio's Attorney General is
investigating. Practically an open secret in Washington, D.C., AARP
provides UHG with the exclusive right to brand medical insurance
policies with the nonprofit's name and logo-effectively their
stamp of "senior" approval. In return, UHG pays AARP royalties of
4.95 percent of its sales of these products off the top-kickbacks
worth billions.
...
That financial conflict played out in 2011, when AARP secretly
lobbied against changes to Medigap insurance-without disclosing
its financial conflicts to Congress. … In total, these changes
would have lowered Medigap premiums so dramatically that most
seniors would have saved significant sums, even after paying
the new co-payments out-of-pocket."
According to various estimates, between 20 and 45 percent of the people
who get Covid-19 - and possibly more, according to a recent study from
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - sail through a
coronavirus infection without realizing they ever had it. No fever
or chills. No loss of smell or taste. No breathing difficulties.
They don't feel a thing.
...
The prevailing theory is that their immune systems fight off the virus
so efficiently that they never get sick. But some scientists are
confident that the immune system's aggressive response, the churning
out of antibodies and other molecules to eliminate an infection,
is only part of the story.
These experts are learning that the human body may not always wage
an all-out war on viruses and other pathogens. It may also be capable
of accommodating an infection, sometimes so seamlessly that no symptoms
emerge. This phenomenon, known as disease tolerance, is well-known in
plants but has only been documented in animals within the last 15 years.
How is depression like sleep, and why does sleep deprivation treat depression?
Melancholic depressive patients report that they feel worst in the morning, just after waking up, get better as the day goes on, and feel least affected in the evening just before bed. Continue the trend, and you might wonder how depressed people would feel after spending 24 or 36 or 48 hours awake. Some scientists made them stay awake to check, and the answer is: they feel great! About 70% of cases of treatment-resistant depression go away completely if the patient stays awake long enough. This would be a great depression cure, except that the depression comes back as soon as they go to sleep.
Taking into account other scientific studies, the results indicate that vegans intake fewer nutrients that are relevant for the skeleton and are mainly found in food of animal origin. Further studies are needed for clarification.
Former President Donald Trump was often accused of having a complete
disregard for the truth. Yet some of his predecessors' falsehoods ranged
from the bizarre to the horrifying. So how does Trump truly compare?
...
Prof Ginsberg says "whoppers" that lead to military action are the most
harmful of all, and that Trump is not as blame-worthy as some of his
predecessors in this respect.
After getting $500 per month for two years without rules on how
to spend it, 125 people in California paid off debt, got full-time
jobs and reported lower rates of anxiety and depression, according
to a study released Wednesday.-
...
When the program started in February 2019, 28% of the people slated
to get the free money had full-time jobs. One year later, 40% of
those people had full-time jobs. A control group of people who did
not get the money saw a 5 percentage point increase in full-time
employment over that same time period.
In October 2020, Miami-based art collector Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile spent almost $67,000 on a 10-second video artwork that he could have watched for free online. Last week, he sold it for $6.6 million. The video by digital artist Beeple, whose real name is Mike Winkelmann, was authenticated by blockchain, which serves as a digital signature to certify who owns it and that it is the original work. It's a new type of digital asset - known as a non-fungible token (NFT) - that has exploded in popularity during the pandemic as enthusiasts and investors scramble to spend enormous sums of money on items that only exist online. Blockchain technology allows the items to be publicly authenticated as one-of-a-kind, unlike traditional online objects which can be endlessly reproduced.