Lunch at the Labs

Various web links I found to be of interest recently.

• Want to Fight 'Cancel Culture?' Start with the Israel Debate

  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.
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  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.

• The AARP's Unholy Alliance with Insurance Companies

  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.
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  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."

• Why Do Some People Weather Coronavirus Infection Unscathed?

  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.
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  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.

• Sleep Is The Mate Of Death

  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.

• Does a vegan diet lead to poorer bone health?

  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.

• Who truly was the most dishonest president?

  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?
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  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.

• Study: Employment rose among those in free money experiment

  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.-
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  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.

• How a 10-second video clip sold for $6.6 million

  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.