Lunch at the Labs

Various web links I found to be of interest recently.

• Share The Wealth As We Recover Health

  Joseph Stiglitz and Ray Dalio

  In this context, the massive taxpayer-financed cash infusion to save some of the largest companies that are otherwise viable may present a unique opportunity to more effectively tackle inequality by bolstering the assets of the less well-off. If the same taxpayers who are bearing the costs of the bailout also share an upside when we recover prosperity, wealth will be shared more fairly.

  This can be done by establishing a sovereign wealth fund, or national endowment, that pools the taxpayer's ownership shares from all the bailed-out companies and distributes regular dividends to all citizens. This is called "universal basic capital," as distinct from the idea of a universal basic income. Instead of only once again relying on redistributing income to close the gap after wealth has been created, the idea is that wealth should be shared upfront: "pre-distribution."

• The Deeper Anxieties of the Inflation Hawks

  Economist James K. Galbraith refutes Lawrence H. Summers fears of inflation.

  But deeper worries may be lurking beneath the surface of Summers's essay. One concerns that $2 trillion in savings. Through direct payments and expanded unemployment insurance, a fair amount of that sum went to working-class households - the first big chunk of change for many such families in decades. Having some cash could make them less likely to borrow - and thus less dependent on banks. Workers might even hold out for higher wages, creating the "labor shortage" of which Summers speaks (at least temporarily). More generally, when people have a bit of a financial cushion, they are harder to boss around.
  ...
  A second source of anxiety may be spotted in Summers's call for "clear statements that the United States desires a strong dollar." This is the secret angst of the hard-money men, an insecure lot who fret that their position on the global totem pole might not be entirely secure.

• How an Alzheimer's 'cabal' thwarted progress toward a cure

  In more than two dozen interviews, scientists whose ideas fell outside the dogma recounted how, for decades, believers in the dominant hypothesis suppressed research on alternative ideas: They influenced what studies got published in top journals, which scientists got funded, who got tenure, and who got speaking slots at reputation-buffing scientific conferences.
  ...
  Research focused on amyloid, and the development and testing of experimental drugs targeting it, have sucked up billions of dollars in government, foundation, and pharma funding with nothing to show for it. While targeting amyloid may or may not be necessary to treat Alzheimer's, it is not sufficient, and the additional steps almost certainly include those that were ignored, even censored.

• In Online Ed, Content Is No Longer King-Cohorts Are

  This gap between the grand promise of online education and its results has led to the rise of cohort-based courses (CBCs), interactive online courses where a group of students advances through the material together - in "cohorts" —-with hands-on, feedback-based learning at the core. The key difference between this phase of online ed and the MOOCs in the past decade? They are engaging and real-time, not just self-paced, and involve community-driven, active learning, as opposed to solo, passive content consumption. Cohort-based courses have a fixed start and end date, enforcing the real-time aspect and creating a scarcity within the abundance of content out there, and are often taught live. It's the equivalent of participating in a college discussion seminar - taught by an expert in the field, unconstrained by geography or school rank - as opposed to watching a static video. And, importantly, there's a built-in social contract in the form of the cohort.

• Colonial Pipeline investigation upends idea that Bitcoin is untraceable

  Given the public nature of the ledger, cryptocurrency experts said, all law enforcement needed to do was figure out how to connect the criminals to a digital wallet, which stores the bitcoin. To do so, authorities likely focused on what is known as a "public key" and a "private key."
  ...
  Federal agents could have seized DarkSide's private keys by planting a human spy inside DarkSide's network, hacking the computers where their private keys and passwords were stored, or compelling the service that holds their private wallet to turn them over via search warrant or other means.

• The Cost of Cloud, a Trillion Dollar Paradox

  However, as industry experience with the cloud matures - and we see a more complete picture of cloud lifecycle on a company's economics - it's becoming evident that while cloud clearly delivers on its promise early on in a company's journey, the pressure it puts on margins can start to outweigh the benefits, as a company scales and growth slows. Because this shift happens later in a company's life, it is difficult to reverse as it;s a result of years of development focused on new features, and not infrastructure optimization.

• Is Gerrymandering About to Become More Difficult?

  This year, for the first time, the Census Bureau has added random noise to its data that makes it slightly inaccurate at the smallest, most zoomed-in level, but accurate at an aggregate, wide-angle view. The approach, known as "differential privacy," aims to protect the anonymity of census respondents amid a glut of third-party online data that could otherwise make it possible to personally identify census respondents.
  ...
  But, in something of a surprise, Duchin also found that this noise might actually make it more difficult to do extreme gerrymandering in the new districts-which could actually complicate partisans' designs for the 2022 congressional maps.

• Six Great Ideas from Adam Grant's 'Think Again'

  A review of Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know by Adam Grant.

  • Recognize the problem
    "You must not fool yoursel - and you are the easiest person to fool," said Richard Feynman
    
  • Think more like a scientist
    What evidence would convince me otherwise? This focuses our own inner debates on causal connections instead of prior commitments, on facts instead of feelings.
    
  • Persuade by listening
    We can be more effective by helping others see the cracks in their own overconfidence and pointing them to the sledgehammer than by attempting the demolition ourselves.
    
  • Acknowledge complexity
    Aristotle acknowledged complexity, and that signals to readers that he was paying attention, that he was looking not just for ideas confirming his own views or convenient foils to them, but for all evidence and contrary opinions.
    
  • Find challengers, not followers
    "We learn more from people who challenge our thought process than those who affirm our conclusions," writes Grant.
    
  • Lead by transparency
    "Research shows that when we have to explain the procedures behind our decisions in real time, we think more critically and process the possibilities more thoroughly."
    

Some links with thoughts about the recent Israel Palestine Conflict.

• If Israel Eliminated Hamas, Nothing Fundamental Would Change

  Peter Beinart

  My point isn't normative: Nothing justifies Hamas' rockets against Israeli civilians, which may constitute a war crime. It's descriptive. Eliminating Hamas won't eliminate Palestinian violence any more than eliminating the ANC or IRA would have eliminated Black South African or Irish Catholic violence in the 1980s. The only way to stop oppressed people from responding to the violence of oppression with violence of their own is to end their oppression. When Black South Africans and Irish Catholics gained political equality, the ANC and IRA ceased committing acts of violence-not because their leaders became saints but because they now enjoyed the basic freedoms that allowed them to pursue their people's interests in a peaceful way.

  Fundamentally, Israel doesn't have a Hamas problem. It has a Palestinian problem. It dominates and brutalizes another people. Until that domination and brutalization ends, every cease-fire will be merely an interval until the next war, regardless of which parties lead the Palestinian struggle. Most Washington politicians, and most American Jewish leaders, don't want to reckon with that. So they keep talking about Hamas.

• How Biden Can Be a Leader in an Israeli-Palestinian Conflict That Has None

  Daniel Kurzer the former ambassador to Israel under President George W. Bush and Aaron David Miller a former State Department Middle East analyst.

  Start an honest dialogue with Israel on the steps Israel must take even as the Gaza mini-war winds down: cancel home evictions of Palestinians in Shaikh Jarrah; stop demolishing houses, especially in Jerusalem; give Palestinians permits to build or add to their homes; control Israeli extremists and punish them when they break the law by provoking and assaulting Palestinians; stop expanding settlements in Jerusalem to preserve the idea of two capitals for two future states.
  ...
  Press the Palestinian Authority to stop its authoritarian practices and human rights violations such as arbitrary arrests. Urge them to hold elections recently canceled by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and to stop incentivizing and inciting violence.

• US funds make Israel's bombardment of Gaza possible.

  Indeed, that discriminatory logic is on full display especially in Sheikh Jarrah, the East Jerusalem neighborhood where Israeli settlers are trying to evict several Palestinian families from their houses. These eight families, who fled their original homes during the war of 1948, have lived in the neighborhood for more than half a century. Now, Israeli settler organizations - funded significantly by American Jewish donors - are claiming that because such homes were once owned by Jewish groups, the Palestinian families must be forced out. Yet no reciprocal right exists for Palestinians seeking restitution for properties they left behind during the Nakba, when roughly 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled their homes during the 1948 war. Under Israel's Absentee Property Law, the property of Palestinian refugees is controlled by the Israeli state.

• The Wars Will End When Palestinians Can Return

  Peter Beinart

  In so doing, Biden helped create the current violence. His administration could have pressured Israel to stop evictions in East Jerusalem. It could have pressured Israel to allow Palestinians in East Jerusalem to vote, which would have made it harder for Abbas to cancel Palestinian elections. It could have let Israeli voters know there would be a price to pay for continuing to elect governments that entrench Israeli control over millions of Palestinians who lack basic rights. It did none of this. Instead, the Biden administration spent its first few months pumping the political equivalent of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere with its unconditional support for Israel while hoping those gasses wouldn't create a disaster. Now they have.