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Archive for the 'Rage Against Doofosity' Category
Cargo Cult Quantum Factoring
Just days after we celebrated my wife's 40th birthday, she came down with COVID, meaning she's been isolating and I've been spending almost all my time dealing with our kids.
But if experience has taught me anything, it's that the quantum hype train never slows down. In the past 24 hours, at least four people have emailed to ask me about a new paper entitled "Factoring integers with sublinear resources on a superconducting quantum processor." Even the security expert Bruce Schneier, while skeptical, took the paper surprisingly seriously.
The paper claims … well, it's hard to pin down what it claims, but it's certainly given many people the impression that there's been a decisive advance on how to factor huge integers, and thereby break the RSA cryptosystem, using a near-term quantum computer. Not by using Shor's Algorithm, mind you, but by using the deceptively similarly named Schnorr's Algorithm. The latter is a classical algorithm based on lattices, which the authors then "enhance" using the heuristic quantum optimization method called QAOA.
For those who don't care to read further, here is my 3-word review:
No. Just No.
And here's my slightly longer review:
Schnorr ≠ Shor. Yes, even when Schnorr's algorithm is dubiously "enhanced" using QAOA—a quantum algorithm that, incredibly, for all the hundreds of papers written about it, has not yet been convincingly argued to yield any speedup for any problem whatsoever (besides, as it were, the problem of reproducing its own pattern of errors) (one possible recent exception from Sami Boulebnane and Ashley Montanaro).
In the new paper, the authors spend page after page saying-without-saying that it might soon become possible to break RSA-2048, using a NISQ (i.e., non-fault-tolerant) quantum computer. They do so via two time-tested strategems:
the detailed exploration of irrelevancies (mostly, optimization of the number of qubits, while ignoring the number of gates), and
complete silence about the one crucial point.
Then, finally, they come clean about the one crucial point in a single sentence of the Conclusion section:
It should be pointed out that the quantum speedup of the algorithm is unclear due to the ambiguous convergence of QAOA.
"Unclear" is an understatement here. It seems to me that a miracle would be required for the approach here to yield any benefit at all, compared to just running the classical Schnorr's algorithm on your laptop. And if the latter were able to break RSA, it would've already done so.
All told, this is one of the most actively misleading quantum computing papers I've seen in 25 years, and I've seen … many. Having said that, this actually isn't the first time I've encountered the strange idea that the exponential quantum speedup for factoring integers, which we know about from Shor's algorithm, should somehow "rub off" onto quantum optimization heuristics that embody none of the actual insights of Shor's algorithm, as if by sympathetic magic. Since this idea needs a name, I'd hereby like to propose Cargo Cult Quantum Factoring.
And with that, I feel I've adequately discharged my duties here to sanity and truth. If I'm slow to answer comments, it'll be because I'm dealing with two screaming kids.
Posted in Complexity, Quantum, Rage Against Doofosity, Speaking Truth to Parallelism | 68 Comments »
On form versus meaning
There is a fundamental difference between form and meaning. Form is the physical structure of something, while meaning is the interpretation or concept that is attached to that form. For example, the form of a chair is its physical structure – four legs, a seat, and a back. The meaning of a chair is that it is something you can sit on.
This distinction is important when considering whether or not an AI system can be trained to learn semantic meaning. AI systems are capable of learning and understanding the form of data, but they are not able to attach meaning to that data. In other words, AI systems can learn to identify patterns, but they cannot understand the concepts behind those patterns.
For example, an AI system might be able to learn that a certain type of data is typically associated with the concept of "chair." However, the AI system would not be able to understand what a chair is or why it is used. In this way, we can see that an AI system trained on form can never learn semantic meaning.
–GPT3, when I gave it the prompt "Write an essay proving that an AI system trained on form can never learn semantic meaning"
Posted in Nerd Interest, Procrastination, Rage Against Doofosity, The Fate of Humanity | 123 Comments »
The demise of Scientific American: Guest post by Ashutosh Jogalekar
Monday, January 3rd, 2022
Scott's foreword
One week ago, E. O. Wilson—the legendary naturalist and conservationist, and man who was universally acknowledged to know more about ants than anyone else in human history—passed away at age 92. A mere three days later, Scientific American—or more precisely, the zombie clickbait rag that now flaunts that name—published a shameful hit-piece, smearing Wilson for his "racist ideas" without, incredibly, so much as a single quote from Wilson, or any other attempt to substantiate its libel (see also this response by Jerry Coyne). SciAm's Pravda-like attack included the following extraordinary sentence, which I thought worthy of Alan Sokal's Social Text hoax:
The so-called normal distribution of statistics assumes that there are default humans who serve as the standard that the rest of us can be accurately measured against.
There are intellectually honest people who don't know what the normal distribution is. There are no intellectually honest people who, not knowing what it is, figure that it must be something racist.
On Twitter, Laura Helmuth, the editor-in-chief now running SciAm into the ground, described her magazine's calumny against Wilson as "insightful" (the replies, including from Richard Dawkins, are fun to read). I suppose it was as "insightful" as SciAm's disgraceful attack last year on Eric Lander, President Biden's ultra-competent science advisor and a leader in the war on COVID, for … being a white male, which appears to have been E. O. Wilson's crime as well. (Think I must be misrepresenting the "critique" of Lander? Read it!)
Anyway, in response to Scientific American's libel of Wilson, I wrote on my Facebook that I'll no longer agree to write for or be interviewed by them (you can read my old stuff free of charge here or here), unless and until there's a complete change of editorial direction. I encourage all other scientists to commit likewise, thereby making it common knowledge that the entity that now calls itself "Scientific American" bears the same relation to the legendary home of Martin Gardner as does a corpse to a living being. Fortunately, there are high-quality online venues (e.g., Quanta) that partly fill the role that Scientific American abdicated.
After reading my Facebook post, my friend Ashutosh Jogalekar was inspired to post an essay of his own. Ashutosh used to write regularly for Scientific American, until he was fired seven years ago over a column in which he advocated acknowledging Richard Feynman's flaws, including his arrogance and casual sexism, but also understanding those flaws within the context of Feynman's whole life, including the tragic death of his first wife Arlene. (Yes, that was really it! Read the piece!) Below, I'm sharing Ashutosh's moving essay about E. O. Wilson with Ashutosh's very generous permission. —Scott Aaronson
Guest Post by Ashutosh Jogalekar
As some know, I was "fired" from Scientific American in 2014 for three "controversial" posts (among 200 that I had written for the magazine). When I parted from the magazine I chalked up my departure to an unfortunate misunderstanding more than anything else. I still respected some of the writers at the publication, and while I wore my separation as a badge of honor and in retrospect realized its liberating utility in enabling me to greatly expand my topical range, I occasionally still felt bad and wished things had gone differently.
No more. Now the magazine has done me a great favor by allowing me to wipe the slate of my conscience clean. What happened seven years ago was not just a misunderstanding but clearly one of many first warning signs of a calamitous slide into a decidedly unscientific, irrational and ideology-ridden universe of woke extremism. Its logical culmination two days ago was an absolutely shameless, confused, fact-free and purely ideological hit job on someone who wasn't just a great childhood hero of mine but a leading light of science, literary achievement, humanism and biodiversity. While Ed (E. O.) Wilson's memory was barely getting cemented only days after his death, the magazine published an op-ed calling him a racist, a hit job endorsed and cited by the editor-in-chief as "insightful". One of the first things I did after reading the piece was buy a few Wilson books that weren't part of my collection.
Ed Wilson was one of the gentlest, most eloquent, most brilliant and most determined advocates for both human and natural preservation you could find. Under Southern charm lay hidden unyielding doggedness and immense stamina combined with a missionary zeal to communicate the wonders of science to both his fellow biologists and the general public. His autobiography, "Naturalist", is perhaps the finest, most literary statement of the scientific life I have read; it was one of a half dozen books that completely transported me when I read it in college. In book after book of wide-ranging intellectual treats threading through a stunning diversity of disciplines, he sent out clarion calls for saving the planet, for enabling dialogue between the natural and the social sciences, for understanding each other better. In the face of unprecedented challenges to our fragile environment and continued barriers to interdisciplinary communication, this is work that likely will make him go down in history as one of the most important human beings who ever lived, easily of the same caliber and achievement as John Muir or Thoreau. Even in terms of achievement strictly defined by accolades – the National Medal of Science, the Crafoord Prize which recognizes fields excluded by the Nobel Prize, and not just one but two Pulitzer Prizes – few scientists from any field in the 20th century can hold a candle to Ed Wilson. My friend Richard Rhodes who knew Wilson for decades as a close and much-admired friend said that there wasn't a racist bone in his body; Dick should know since he just came out with a first-rate biography of Wilson weeks before his passing.
The writer who wrote that train wreck is a professor of nursing at UCSF named Monica McLemore. That itself is a frightening fact and should tell everyone how much ignorance has spread itself in our highest institutions. She not only maligned and completely misrepresented Wilson but did not say a word about his decades-long, heroic effort to preserve the planet and our relationship with it; it was clear that she had little acquaintance with Wilson's words since she did not cite any. It's also worth noting the gaping moral blindness in her article which completely misses the most moral thing Wilson did – spend decades advocating for saving our planet and averting a catastrophe of extinction, climate change and divisiveness – and instead focuses completely on his non-existent immorality. This is a pattern that is consistently found among those urging "social justice" or "equity" or whatever else: somehow they seem to spend all their time talking about fictional, imagined immorality while missing the real, flesh-and-bones morality that is often the basis of someone's entire life's work.
In the end, the simple fact is that McLemore didn't care about any of this. She didn't care because she had a political agenda and the facts did not matter to her, even facts as basic as the definition of the normal distribution in statistics. For her, Wilson was some obscure white male scientist who was venerated, and that was reason enough for a supposed "takedown". And the editor of Scientific American supported and lauded this ignorant, ideology-driven tirade.
Ironically, Wilson would have found this ideological hit job all too familiar. After he wrote his famous book Sociobiology in the 1970s, a volume in which, in a single chapter about human beings, he had the temerity to suggest that maybe, just maybe, human beings operate with the same mix of genes that other creatures do, the book was met by a disgraceful, below-the-belt, ideological response from Wilson's far left colleagues Richard Lewontin and Stephen Jay Gould who hysterically compared his arguments to thinking that was well on its way down the slippery slope to that dark world where lay the Nazi gas chambers. The gas chamber analogy is about the only thing that's missing from the recent hit job, but the depressing thing is that we are fighting the same battles in 2021 that Wilson fought forty years before, although turbocharged this time by armies of faithful zombies on social media. The sad thing is that Wilson is no longer around to defend himself, although I am not sure he would have bothered with a piece as shoddy as this one.
The complete intellectual destruction of a once-great science magazine is now clear as day. No more should Scientific American be regarded as a vehicle for sober scientific views and liberal causes but as a political magazine with clearly stated ideological biases and an aversion to facts, an instrument of a blinkered woke political worldview that brooks no dissent. Scott Aaronson has taken a principled stand and said that after this proverbial last straw on the camel's back, he will no longer write for the magazine or do interviews for them. I applaud Scott's decision, and with his expertise it's a decision that actually matters. As far as I am concerned, I now mix smoldering fury at the article with immense relief: the last seven years have clearly shown that leaving Scientific American in 2014 was akin to leaving the Soviet Union in the 1930s just before Stalin appointed Lysenko head biologist. I could not have asked for a happier expulsion and now feel completely vindicated and free of any modicum of regret I might have felt.
To my few friends and colleagues who still write for the magazine and whose opinions I continue to respect, I really wish to ask: Why? Is writing for a magazine which has sacrificed facts and the liberal voice of real science at the altar of political ideology and make believe still worth it? What would it take for you to say no more? As Oscar Wilde would say, one mistake like this is a mistake, two seems more like carelessness; in the roster of the last few years, this is "mistake" 100+, signaling that it's now officially approved policy. Do you think that being an insider will allow you to salvage the reputation of the magazine? If you think that way, you are no different from the one or two moderate Republicans who think they can still salvage the once-great party of Lincoln and Eisenhower. Both the GOP and Scientific American are beyond redemption from where I stand. Get out, start your own magazine or join another, one which actually respects liberal, diverse voices and scientific facts; let us applaud you for it. You deserve better, the world deserves better. And Ed Wilson's memory sure as hell deserves better.
Update (from Scott): See here for the Hacker News thread about this post. I was amused by the conjunction of two themes: (1) people who were uncomfortable with my and Ashutosh's expression of strong emotions, and (2) people who actually clicked through to the SciAm hit-piece, and then reported back to the others that the strong emotions were completely, 100% justified in this case.
Posted in Obviously I'm Not Defending Aaronson, Rage Against Doofosity | 200 Comments »
Was Scientific American Sokal'd?
Here's yesterday's clickbait offering from Scientific American, the once-legendary home of Martin Gardner's Mathematical Games column:
Why the Term 'JEDI' Is Problematic for Describing Programs That Promote Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
The sad thing is, I see few signs that this essay was meant as a Sokal-style parody, although in many ways it's written as one. The essay actually develops a 100% cogent, reasoned argument: namely, that the ideology of the Star Wars films doesn't easily fit with the new ideology of militant egalitarianism at the expense of all other human values, including irony, humor, joy, and the nurturing of unusual talents. The authors are merely oblivious to the conclusion that most people would draw from their argument: namely, so much the worse for the militant egalitarianism then!
I predict that this proposal—to send the acronym "JEDI" the way of "mankind," "blacklist," and, err, "quantum supremacy"—will meet with opposition even from the wokeists themselves, a huge fraction of whom (in my experience) have soft spots for the Star Wars franchise. Recall for example that in 2014, Laurie Penny used Star Wars metaphors in her interesting response to my comment-171, telling male nerds like me that we need to learn to accept that "[we're] not the Rebel Alliance, [we're] actually part of the Empire and have been all along." Admittedly, I've never felt like part of an Empire, although I'll confess to some labored breathing lately when ascending flights of stairs.
As for me, I spent much of my life opposed in principle to Star Wars—I hated how the most successful "science fiction" franchise of all time became that way precisely by ditching any pretense of science and fully embracing mystical woo—but sure, when the chips are down, I'm crazy and radical enough to take the side of Luke Skywalker, even if a team of woke theorists is earnestly, unironically explaining to me that lightsabers are phallocentric and that Vader ranks higher on the intersectional oppression axis because of his breathing problem.
Meantime, of course, the US continues to careen toward its worst Constitutional crisis since the Civil War, as Trump prepares to run again in 2024, and as this time around, the Republicans are systematically purging state governments of their last Brad Raffenspergers, of anyone who might stand in the way of them simply setting aside the vote totals and declaring Trump the winner regardless of the actual outcome. It's good to know that my fellow progressives have their eyes on the ball—so that when that happens, at least universities will no longer be using offensive acronyms like "JEDI"!
Posted in Obviously I'm Not Defending Aaronson, Rage Against Doofosity, The Fate of Humanity | 71 Comments »
Please cheer me up
Update: Come to think of it, let's circle back to the thing about kids under 13 getting banned from taking the SAT, as a ridiculous unintended consequence of some federal regulation. I wonder whether this is a campaign this blog could spearhead that would have an actual chance of making a positive difference in the world (!!), rather than just giving me space to express myself, to vent my impotent rage at the tragic failures of our civilization and the blankfaces who sleep soundly despite knowing that they caused those failures. What if, like, a whole bunch of us wrote to the College Board, or whatever federal agency enforces the regulation that the College Board is worried about, and we asked them whether a solution might be found in which parents gave permission on the web form for their under-13s to take the SAT, given how memorable this opportunity was for many of us, how it was a nerd rite of passage, and how surely none of us have any wish to deny that opportunity to the next generation, so let's work together to solve this?
I'm depressed that, all over the world, the values of the Enlightenment are humiliated and in retreat, while the values of the Taliban are triumphant. The literal Taliban of course, but also a thousand mini-Talibans of every flavor, united in their ideological certainty.
I'm depressed that now and for the future, the image of the United States before the world—deservedly so—is one of desperate Afghans plunging to their deaths from the last airplanes out of Kabul. I'm depressed that, while this historic calamity was set in motion by Donald Trump, the president who bears direct, immediate moral responsibility for it is the one I voted for. And knowing what I know now, I'd still have voted for him—but with an ashen face.
I'm depressed that, on social media, the same people who seven years ago floridly denounced me, because, while explaining how as a young person I overcame the urge to suicide and finally achieved some semblance of a normal life, I made a passing reference to a vanished culture of arranged marriages, to which I seemed better-adapted than to the world of today—these very same people are the ones sagely resigned to millions of Afghan women and girls actually forced into unwanted marriages, tortured, and raped, who explain that there's nothing the US can or should do about this, even that it was folly to imagine we could impose parochial Western values, like women's rights, on a culture that doesn't want them. These are the people who saw fit to lecture me on my feminist failings.
I'm depressed that there's an exceedingly good chance that both of my kids will get covid, as they've returned to school and preschool in Austin, TX, where the Delta variant is raging out of control, new reports of cases among the kids' schoolmates come almost every day, Daniel has been quarantined at home for the past week because of one such case, there's no vaccination mandate (and a looming battle over mask mandates), and—crucially, tragically, incredibly—the FDA has not only slow-walked approval of covid vaccines for children under 12, but has pushed back the approval even further than it previously planned, ignoring unprecedented public objections from the American Academy of Pediatrics. The FDA blankfaces have done this in spite of the reality, obvious to anyone with eyes and a brain, that they're thereby consigning thousands of children to their deaths, that whatever ultra-rare risks the vaccine poses to children are infinitesimal compared to the overwhelming benefit.
Since I worry that I wasn't clear enough, how about this: in a just world, the FDA in its current form would be dismantled, and all those who needlessly delayed the delivery of covid vaccines to children would be tried for manslaughter [while I still think the case for authorizing covid vaccines for kids right now is overwhelmingly clear, I hereby retract this particular remark, which was based on a factor 5-10 overestimate of the covid mortality risk for kids—for more, see this comment]. The blankfaces have already killed more people through pointlessly delaying the approval of covid vaccines than their agency could plausibly have saved through its entire history: do they need to take the children as well? As far as I'm concerned, those who defend the status quo—those who meet the on-the-ground reality of overflowing pediatric hospitals with obfuscatory words about procedures and best practices and the need for yet more data—are no better either morally or intellectually than the anti-vaxx conspiracy theorists, their rightly-reviled cousins.
As icing on the cake, I'm depressed that the College Board is no longer administering the SAT to children under 13, apparently because of federal regulations—-which means that Johns Hopkins CTY's famed Study of Exceptional Talent, a program that made a big difference in my life three decades ago, has been suspended indefinitely. Imagine being a nerdy 11-year-old in 2021: no more tracking, no more gifted programs, no more magnet schools, no more acceleration, no getting vaccinated against deadly disease (!!), … oh, and if perchance you felt the urge to take the SAT, just to prove that you could outscore the grownups who decided to impose all this on you, then no, you're no longer allowed to do that either.
The one bright spot in the endlessly bleak picture is that Daniel, my 4-year-old son, now plays a pretty mean chess game, if not quite at the level of Beth Harmon. Having just learned the rules a few months ago, Daniel now gives me and Dana (admittedly, no one would mistake either of us for Magnus Carlsen) extremely competitive matches; just yesterday he beat several adults in a park. Daniel has come to spend much of his free time (and now that he's quarantined, he has a lot) playing chess against his iPad and watching chess videos. To be clear, he has very little emotional maturity even for a 4-year-old, and unlike me at the same age, he has no overwhelming passion for numbers or counting, but with chess I've finally found a winner. Now I just need to hope that they don't ban chess-playing for children under 13.
So that's it, it's off my chest. Commenters: what else have you got that might cheer me up?
Posted in Obviously I'm Not Defending Aaronson, Rage Against Doofosity, The Fate of Humanity | 172 Comments »
On blankfaces
Monday, August 2nd, 2021
For years, I've had a private term I've used with my family. To give a few examples of its use:
No, I never applied for that grant. I spent two hours struggling to log in to a web portal designed by the world's top blankfaces until I finally gave up in despair.
No, I paid for that whole lecture trip out of pocket; I never got the reimbursement they promised. Their blankface administrator just kept sending me back the form, demanding more and more convoluted bank details, until I finally got the hint and dropped it.
No, my daughter Lily isn't allowed in the swimming pool there. She easily passed their swim test last year, but this year the blankface lifeguard made up a new rule on the spot that she needs to retake the test, so Lily took it again and passed even more easily, but then the lifeguard said she didn't like the stroke Lily used, so she failed her and didn't let her retake it. I complained to their blankface athletic director, who launched an 'investigation.' The outcome of the 'investigation' was that, regardless of the ground truth about how well Lily can swim, their blankface lifeguard said she's not allowed in the pool, so being blankfaces themselves, they're going to stand with the lifeguard.
Yeah, the kids spend the entire day indoors, breathing each other's stale, unventilated air, then they finally go outside and they aren't allowed on the playground equipment, because of the covid risk from them touching it. Even though we've known for more than a year that covid is an airborne disease. Everyone I've talked there agrees that I have a point, but they say their hands are tied. I haven't yet located the blankface who actually made this decision and stands by it.
What exactly is a blankface? He or she is often a mid-level bureaucrat, but not every bureaucrat is a blankface, and not every blankface is a bureaucrat. A blankface is anyone who enjoys wielding the power entrusted in them to make others miserable by acting like a cog in a broken machine, rather than like a human being with courage, judgment, and responsibility for their actions. A blankface meets every appeal to facts, logic, and plain compassion with the same repetition of rules and regulations and the same blank stare—a blank stare that, more often than not, conceals a contemptuous smile.
The longer I live, the more I see blankfacedness as one of the fundamental evils of the human condition. Yes, it contains large elements of stupidity, incuriosity, malevolence, and bureaucratic indifference, but it's not reducible to any of those. After enough experience, the first two questions you ask about any organization are:
Who are the blankfaces here?
Who are the people I can talk with to get around the blankfaces?
As far as I can tell, blankfacedness cuts straight across conventional political ideology, gender, and race. (Age, too, except that I've never once encountered a blankfaced child.) Brilliance and creativity do seem to offer some protection against blankfacedness—possibly because the smarter you are, the harder it is to justify idiotic rules to yourself—but even there, the protection is far from complete.
Twenty years ago, all the conformists in my age cohort were obsessed with the Harry Potter books and movies—holding parties where they wore wizard costumes, etc. I decided that the Harry Potter phenomenon was a sort of collective insanity: from what I could tell, the stories seemed like startlingly puerile and unoriginal mass-marketed wish-fulfillment fantasies.
Today, those same conformists in my age cohort are more likely to condemn the Harry Potter series as Problematically white, male, and cisnormative, and J. K. Rowling herself as a monstrous bigot whose acquaintances' acquaintances should be shunned. Naturally, then, there was nothing for me to do but finally read the series! My 8-year-old daughter Lily and I have been partner-reading it for half a year; we're just finishing book 5. (After we've finished the series, we might start on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality … which, I confess, I've also never read.)
From book 5, I learned something extremely interesting. The most despicable villain in the Harry Potter universe is not Lord Voldemort, who's mostly just a faraway cipher and abstract embodiment of pure evil, no more hateable than an earthquake. Rather, it's Dolores Jane Umbridge, the toadlike Ministry of Magic bureaucrat who takes over Hogwarts school, forces out Dumbledore as headmaster, and terrorizes the students with increasingly draconian "Educational Decrees." Umbridge's decrees are mostly aimed at punishing Harry Potter and his friends, who've embarrassed the Ministry by telling everyone the truth that Voldemort has returned and by readying themselves to fight him, thereby defying the Ministry's head-in-the-sand policy.
Anyway, I'll say this for Harry Potter: Rowling's portrayal of Umbridge is so spot-on and merciless that, for anyone who knows the series, I could simply define a blankface to be anyone sufficiently Umbridge-like.
This week I also finished reading The Premonition, the thrilling account of the runup to covid by Michael Lewis (who also wrote The Big Short, Moneyball, etc). Lewis tells the stories of a few individuals scattered across US health and government bureaucracies who figured out over the past 20 years that the US was breathtakingly unprepared for a pandemic, and who struggled against official indifference, mostly unsuccessfully, to try to fix that. As covid hit the US in early 2020, these same individuals frantically tried to pull the fire alarms, even as the Trump White House, the CDC, and state bureaucrats all did everything in their power to block and sideline them. We all know the results.
It's no surprise that, in Lewis's telling, Trump and his goons come in for world-historic blame: however terrible you thought they were, they were worse. It seems that John Bolton, in particular, gleefully took an ax to everything the two previous administrations had done to try to prepare the federal government for pandemics—after Tom Bossert, the one guy in Trump's inner circle who'd actually taken pandemic preparation seriously, was forced out for contradicting Trump about Russia and Ukraine.
But the left isn't spared either. The most compelling character in The Premonition is Charity Dean, who escaped from the Christian fundamentalist sect in which she was raised to put herself through medical school and become a crusading public-health officer for Santa Barbara County. Lewis relates with relish how, again and again, Dean startled the bureaucrats around her by taking matters into her own hands in her war against pathogens—e.g., slicing into a cadaver herself to take samples when the people whose job it was wouldn't do it.
In 2019, Dean moved to Sacramento to become California's next chief public health officer, but then Governor Gavin Newsom blocked her expected promotion, instead recruiting someone from the outside named Sonia Angell, who had no infectious disease experience but to whom Dean would have to report. Lewis reports the following as the reason:
"It was an optics problem," says a senior official in the Department of Health and Human Services. "Charity was too young, too blond, too Barbie. They wanted a person of color." Sonia Angell identified as Latina.
After it became obvious that the White House and the CDC were both asleep at the wheel, the competent experts' Plan B was to get California to set a national standard, one that would shame all the other states into acting, by telling the truth about covid and by aggressively testing, tracing, and isolating. And here comes the tragedy: Charity Dean spent from mid-January till mid-March trying to do exactly that, and Sonia Angell blocked her. Angell—who comes across as a real-life Dolores Umbridge—banned Dean from using the word "pandemic," screamed at her for her insubordination, and systematically shut her out of meetings. Angell's stated view was that, until and unless the CDC said that there was a pandemic, there was no pandemic—regardless of what hospitals across California might be reporting to the contrary.
As it happens, California was the first state to move aggressively against covid, on March 19—basically because as the bodies started piling up, Dean and her allies finally managed to maneuver around Angell and get the ear of Governor Newsom directly. Had the response started earlier, the US might have had an outcome more in line with most industrialized countries. Half of the 630,000 dead Americans might now be alive.
Sonia Angell fully deserves to have her name immortalized by history as one of the blankest of blankfaces. But of course, Angell was far from alone. Robert Redfield, Trump's CDC director, was a blankface extraordinaire. Nancy Messonnier, who lied to stay in Trump's good graces, was a blankface too. The entire CDC and FDA seem to have teemed with blankfaces. As for Anthony Fauci, he became a national hero, maybe even deservedly so, merely by not being 100% a blankface, when basically every other "expert" in the US with visible power was. Fauci cleared a depressingly low bar, one that the people profiled by Lewis cleared at Simone-Biles-like heights.
In March 2020, the fundamental question I had was: where are the supercompetent rule-breaking American heroes from the disaster movies? What's taking them so long? The Premonition satisfyingly answers that question. It turns out that the heroes did exist, scattered across the American health bureaucracy. They were screaming at the top of their lungs. But they were outvoted by the critical mass of blankfaces that's become one of my country's defining features.
Some people will object that the term "blankface" is dehumanizing. The reason I disagree is that a blankface is someone who freely chose to dehumanize themselves: to abdicate their human responsibility to see what's right in front of them, to act like malfunctioning pieces of electronics even though they, like all of us, were born with the capacity for empathy and reason.
With many other human evils and failings, I have a strong inclination toward mercy, because I understand how someone could've succumbed to the temptation—indeed, I worry that I myself might've succumbed to it "but for the grace of God." But here's the thing about blankfaces: in all my thousands of dealings with them, not once was I ever given cause to wonder whether I might have done the same in their shoes. It's like, of course I wouldn't have! Even if I were forced (by my own higher-ups, an intransigent computer system, or whatever else) to foist some bureaucratic horribleness on an innocent victim, I'd be sheepish and apologetic about it. I'd acknowledge the farcical absurdity of what I was making the other person do, or declaring that they couldn't do. Likewise, even if I were useless in a crisis, at least I'd get out of the way of the people trying to solve it. How could I live with myself otherwise?
The fundamental mystery of the blankfaces, then, is how they can be so alien and yet so common.
Update (Aug. 3): Surprisingly many people seem to have read this post, and come away with the notion that a "blankface" is simply anyone who's a stickler for rules and formalized procedures. They've then tried to refute me with examples of where it's good to be a stickler, or where I in particular would believe that it's good.
But no, that's not it at all.
Rules can be either good or bad. All things considered, I'd probably rather be on a plane piloted by a robotic stickler for safety rules, than by someone who ignored the rules at his or her discretion. And as I said in the post, in the first months of covid, it was ironically the anti-blankfaces who were screaming for rules, regulations, and lockdowns; the blankfaces wanted to continue as though nothing had changed!
Also, "blankface" (just like "homophobe" or "antisemite") is a serious accusation. I'd never call anyone a blankface merely for sticking with a defensible rule when it turned out, in hindsight, that the rule could've been relaxed.
Here's how to tell a blankface: suppose you see someone enforcing or interpreting a rule in a way that strikes you as obviously absurd. And suppose you point it out to them.
Do they say "I disagree, here's why it actually does make sense"? They might be mistaken but they're not a blankface.
Do they say "tell me about it, it makes zero sense, but it's above my pay grade to change"? You might wish they were more dogged or courageous but again they're not a blankface.
Or do they ignore all your arguments and just restate the original rule—seemingly angered by what they understood as a challenge to their authority, and delighted to reassert it? That's the blankface.
Posted in Nerd Interest, Rage Against Doofosity | 141 Comments »
The easiest exercise in the moral philosophy book
Peter Singer, in the parable that came to represent his whole worldview and that of the effective altruism movement more generally, asked us to imagine that we could save a drowning child at the cost of jumping into a lake and ruining an expensive new suit. Assuming we'd do that, he argued that we do in fact face an ethically equivalent choice; if we don't donate most of our income to save children in the Third World, then we need to answer for why, as surely as the person who walked past the kid thrashing in the water.
In this post, I don't want to take a position on Singer's difficult but important hypothetical. I merely want to say: suppose that to save the child, you didn't even have to jump in the water. Suppose you just had to toss a life preserver, one you weren't using. Or suppose you just had to assure the child that it was OK to grab your life raft that was already in the water.
That, it seems, is the situation that the US and other rich countries will increasingly face with covid vaccines. What's happening in India right now looks on track to become a humanitarian tragedy, if it isn't already. Even if, as Indian friends tell me, this was a staggering failure of the Modi government, people shouldn't pay for it with their lives. And we in the US now have tens of millions of vaccine doses sitting in warehouses unused, for regulatory and vaccine hesitancy reasons—stupidly, but we do. We're past the time, in my opinion, when it's morally obligatory either to use the doses or to give them away. Anyone in a position to manufacture more vaccines for distribution to poor countries, should also immediately get the intellectual property rights to do so.
I was glad to read, just this weekend, that the US is finally starting to move in the right direction. I hope it moves faster.
And I'm sorry that this brief post doesn't contain any information or insight that you can't find elsewhere. It just made me feel better to write it, is all.
Posted in Rage Against Doofosity, The Fate of Humanity | 52 Comments »
Stop emailing my utexas address
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2021
A month ago, UT Austin changed its email policies—banning auto-forwarding from university accounts to Gmail accounts, apparently as a way to force the faculty and other employees to separate their work email from their personal email, and thereby comply with various government regulations. Ever since that change, the email part of my life has been a total, unmitigated disaster. I've missed (or been late to see) dozens of important work emails, with the only silver lining being that that's arguably UT's problem more than it is mine!
And yes, I've already gone to technical support; the only answer I've gotten is that (in so many words) there is no answer. Other UT faculty are somehow able to deal with this because they are them; I am unable to deal with it because I am me. As a mere PhD in computer science, I'm utterly unqualified to set up a technical fix for this sort of problem.
So the bottom line is: from now on, if you want me to see an email, send it to scott@scottaaronson.com. Really. If you try sending it to aaronson@cs.utexas.edu, it will land in a separate inbox that I can access only with great inconvenience. And if, God forbid, you try sending it to aaronson@utexas.edu, the email will bounce and I'll never see it at all. Indeed, a central purpose of this post is just to have a place to point the people who contact me every day, shocked that their emails to me bounced.
This whole episode has given me immense sympathy for Hillary Clinton, and for the factors that led her to set up clintonemail.com from her house. It's not merely that her private email server was a laughably trivial reason to end the United States' 240-year run of democratic government. Rather it's that, even on the narrow question of emails, I now feel certain that Hillary was 100% right. Bureaucracy that impedes communication is a cancer on human civilization.
Update: Thanks so much to commenter Avraham and to my colleague Etienne Vouga, who quickly gave me the crucial information that tech support would not, and thereby let me solve this problem. I can once again easily read emails sent to aaronson@cs.utexas.edu … well, at least for now! I'm now checking about aaronson@utexas.edu. Again, though, scott@scottaaronson.com to be safe.
Posted in Announcements, Rage Against Doofosity | 58 Comments »
Brief thoughts on the Texas catastrophe
This past week, I spent so much mental energy worrying about the fate of Scott Alexander that I almost forgot that right here in Texas, I'm surrounded by historic scenes of Third-World-style devastation: snowstorms and sub-freezing temperatures for which our infrastructure was completely unprepared; impassable roads; burst gas and water pipes; millions without electricity or heat or clean water; the UT campus a short walk from me converted into a giant refugee camp.
For all those who asked: my family and I are fine. While many we know were without power for days (or are still without power), we lucked out by living close to a hospital, which means that they can't shut off the electricity to our block. We are now on a boil-water notice, like all of Austin, and we can't take deliveries or easily go anywhere, and the university and schools and daycares are all closed (even for remote learning). Which means: we're simply holed up in our house, eating through our stockpiled food, the kids running around being crazy, Dana and I watching them with one eye and our laptops with the other. Could be worse.
In some sense, it's not surprising that the Texas infrastructure would buckle under weather stresses outside the envelope of anything it was designed for or saw for decades. The central problem is that our elected leaders have shown zero indication of understanding the urgent need, for Texas' economic viability, to do whatever it takes to make sure nothing like this ever happens again. Ted Cruz, as everyone now knows, left for Cancun; the mayor of Colorado City angrily told everyone to fend for themselves (and then resigned); and Governor Abbott has been blaming frozen wind turbines, a tiny percentage of the problem (frozen gas pipes are a much bigger issue) but one that plays with the base. The bare minimum of a sane response might be, I dunno,
acknowledging the reality that climate change means that "once-per-century" weather events will be every couple years from now on,
building spare capacity (nuclear would be ideal … well, I can dream),
winterizing what we have now, and
connecting the Texas grid to the rest of the US.
If I were a Texas Democrat, I'd consider making Republican incompetence on infrastructure, utilities, and public health my only campaign issues.
Alright, now back to watching the Mars lander, which is apparently easier to build and deploy than a reliable electric grid.
Posted in Adventures in Meatspace, Rage Against Doofosity | 68 Comments »
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text:
Biden's Unserious Border 'Solution' — Mass Amnesty for All Illegal Immigrants
By Mark Krikorian on December 28, 2022
Talk about using people as political pawns.
The White House complained Monday about Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's latest busload of migrants dropped off at the vice president's doorstep on Christmas Eve. But the administration's response was to use the 100 or so illegal immigrants as an argument for its mass-amnesty legislation, a bill so radical even Speaker Nancy Pelosi wouldn't bring it up for a vote.
Abbott reported Monday that Texas over the past several months had bused nearly 16,000 illegal border-jumpers to the sanctuary cities of Washington, New York, Chicago and Philadelphia. This may sound like a lot but it's really just two days' worth of illegal-migrant "encounters" at the border.
The purpose of these voluntary, state-funded bus trips is twofold: First, they offer some relief to the small border communities groaning under the burden of President Biden's mass illegal-immigrant releases, and, second, they force a reluctant national media to cover a border disaster they'd prefer no one notice.
[Read the whole thing at the New York Post]
Topics: Biden Border Crisis, Amnesty and Comprehensive Immigration Reform

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


You can watch the Bafana Bafana players arrive at the Durban airport to prepare for their Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Libya.
Safa wants fans to know that tickets for the qualifier have been on sale since last week and fans in and around Durban are urged to make their way to various computicket, Shoprite and Checkers stores to book their seats at the Moses Mabhida Stadium to rally behind the boys.
Those of you who can't make it, can follow our commentary live on Goal while even watching it on television.


text:
You are here: Home » cutoff low
Severe thunderstorms and torrential rainfall for parts of central and western Mediterranean this weekend
A very dynamic patter is unfolding over the central and western Mediterranean this weekend, bringing severe thunderstorms and torrential rainfall to parts of southern France, the Balearic Islands, Corsica,...
Major torrential rainfall event and floods in parts of eastern Spain in the next 48-72 hours
The cutoff low over the western Mediterranean persists and brings more unsettled weather, including large amounts of rainfall and severe thunderstorms to the region. Parts of eastern Spain will...
Torrential rainfall and floods in the western Mediterranean and parts of Spain this week
A cutoff low will persist over the western Mediterranean and the Iberian peninsula for much of the week, bringing unstable weather and persistent rainfall to the region. Local flooding...
Torrential rainfall for north Italy, northwest Slovenia, northwest Croatia in the next 24 hours
A cutoff low will push across the northern Mediterranean / southern Alpine region today. Combined convective and orographic rainfall is expected, with peak 24h cumulatives locally above 100 mm....
UPDATE on the major rainfall event and expected flooding in the western Balkans this week
The extended major rainfall event over the western Balkans and parts of the Apennine peninsula has already started – up to 300 mm or more rainfall is expected locally...
Major rainfall across parts of the western Balkans in the next 5-7 days
A major rainfall event is becoming increasingly likely for parts of the western Balkans early next week. Rainfall totals suggest flooding is likely, and it may be quite significant...
Saharan dust blows across the Mediterranean into Europe: first reports
The large cutoff low over the western Mediterranean is pushing large amounts of Saharan dust into Europe. First reports from various parts of Europe are coming in. Satellite images...
UPDATE on the massive Saharan dust event for western, central and southern Europe: from UK and France to Poland and Greece!
Massive amounts of Saharan dust will be pushed into Europe in the next several days. Dusty skies are expected on Sunday over parts of Spain, France, Switzerland, south Italy,...


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The Chattanooga, Tennessee-based Austin Hatcher Foundation for Pediatric Cancer is in its fifth year as a "Proud Charity" of IMSA. This dynamic partnership has dramatically raised awareness for the foundation's admirable mission: to erase the effects of pediatric cancer on young patients and their families. The partnership facilitates a variety of opportunities for fan-friendly fundraising activities at circuits that host both IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge events.
The foundation is a national 501(c)3 public charity founded by Dr. Jim Osborn and his wife Amy Jo Osborn, after they lost their infant son, Austin Hatcher Osborn, to an aggressive form of pediatric cancer in the autumn of 2006. Jim Osborn serves as the foundation chairman while Amy Jo Osborn serves as the foundation president, both as volunteers.
Since its establishment, the Austin Hatcher Foundation has provided programs and services to over 70,000 children and their family members in 38 hospitals across 28 states. Programs and services expanded in 2017 as the Austin Hatcher Foundation opened the door to its new Education Advancement Center.
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To partner with the Foundation or for more information visit www.hatcherfoundation.org.


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Jan Novák (* 29. dubna 1975 Ostrava-Vítkovice) je český politolog a kariérní státní úředník. V letech 2006 až 2010 působil jako vedoucí Úřadu vlády České republiky. Pracoval v Kanceláři prezidenta republiky za Václava Havla a Václava Klause. Působil jako náměstek ředitele Národního bezpečnostního úřadu. Od roku 2015 byl ředitelem Sekce administrativní Kanceláře prezidenta republiky. Na základě výběrového řízení byl v lednu 2023 jmenován ředitelem Správy Pražského hradu. Funkce v Kanceláři prezidenta republiky zastával do března 2023. Psalo se o něm jako o příteli Mirka Topolánka a Marka Dalíka. Janu Fischerovi vedl prezidentskou kampaň. Věnuje se otázkám české státnosti, státní symboliky a vyznamenání. Je odborníkem v oblasti vnitřní bezpečnosti.

Politická kariéra
V letech 1994–1995 pracoval jako stážista v Kanceláři prezidenta republiky. Později zde působil v sekretariátu kancléře Ivana Medka jako specialista pro oblast vnitřní bezpečnosti a tajemník komise pro státní vyznamenání. V letech 1999–2003 pracoval v Politickém odboru KPR. V roce 2003 byl jmenován ředitelem Bezpečnostního odboru a bezpečnostním ředitelem Kanceláře prezidenta republiky. Jako vedoucí Úřadu vlády ČR nastoupil 5. září 2006 za vlády Mirka Topolánka. V pozici pokračoval za vlád Jana Fischera a Petra Nečase. Byl členem Výboru pro zpravodajskou činnost. Funkci ukončil 31. července 2010.

V letech 2010–2012 pracoval jako náměstek ředitele Národního bezpečnostního úřadu. Byl zodpovědný za státní dozor, oblast fyzické a administrativní bezpečnosti a za kancelář ředitele NBÚ. Byl držitelem nejvyšších bezpečnostních prověrek České republiky a NATO. Ty si však již neobnovil, protože pro výkon jeho současné funkce je předepsán stupeň Vyhrazené a podle zákona lze o prověrku žádat pouze, pokud ji osoba potřebuje k výkonu funkce.

Vedl politickou kampaň na prezidenta ČR Janu Fischerovi.

V letech 2014–2015 působil jako externí poradce Kanceláře prezidenta republiky a spolupracoval s analytickým odborem Pražského hradu. Od 1. dubna 2015 byl ředitelem Sekce administrativní Kanceláře prezidenta republiky. Řídil mimo jiné útvar pro styk s veřejností, Odbor památkové péče, Oddělení personální, Archiv Pražského hradu a Archiv Kanceláře prezidenta republiky. V letech 2015 až 2022 byl zároveň pověřen řízením Odboru bezpečnostního Kanceláře prezidenta republiky (vyjma oblasti utajovaných informací, za které odpovídá bezpečnostní ředitelka KPR L. Nováková, podřízená podle zákona přímo vedoucímu KPR).

Dlouhodobě se věnuje otázkám české státnosti, státní symboliky a vyznamenání: V letech 2000–2001 organizoval výstavu na Pražském hradě, kde byla poprvé vystavena vyznamenání všech prezidentů od roku 1918 a všechny historické podoby Řádu Bílého lva. V roce 2009 byl spoluautorem výstavy v Hrzánském paláci v Praze, kde se soustředila současná vyznamenání všech členských zemí Evropské unie . Dal námět k výstavě Doteky státnosti v Jízdárně Pražského hradu a podílel se na její realizaci u příležitosti 100. výročí republiky . Účastnil se příprav expozice V základech státnosti, která v lednu 2018 představila v Císařské konírně Pražského hradu originály archiválií a předmětů z počátků našeho státu . Podílel se na výstavě českých korunovačních klenotů v roce 2018 .

Je spoluautorem a hlavním editorem knih Veritas Vincit (o 100 letech KPR), Státní symboly na Pražském hradě a Pražský hrad – srdce českého státu.

Je hlavním autorem Muzea Řádu Bílého lva, které otevřel v reprezentačních prostorách Pražského hradu v roce 2022 prezident republiky u příležitosti 100 let od založení nejvyššího státního vyznamenání ČR.

Byl předsedou správní rady obecně prospěšné společnosti Dny české státnosti, která ve spolupráci se státními institucemi, médii a soukromými subjekty pořádá oslavy státního svátku 28. září.

Jako vedoucí Úřadu vlády inicioval a v letech 2006–2009 vedl rekonstrukci vily Hany a Edvarda Benešových v Sezimově Ústí do původní podoby. Vila byla zpřístupněna veřejnosti.

Podílel se na dalších výstavách a projektech: mj. Karel a Naděžda Kramářovi doma (Kramářova vila, 2007), Symboly republiky – historické kořeny oficiální české státní symboliky (Hrzánský palác, 2007), Jedni z nás… političtí vězni 50. let (putovní výstava, 2008), Projekt Česká státní hymna (2008), Projekt Prodaná nevěsta – česká opera oper (Národní divadlo, 2009), Vojáci republiky v poli 1914 – 2010 (Strakova akademie, 2010), Cesty české ústavnosti (Hrzánský palác, 2010), Symboly republiky – pilíře české státnosti (od 2010 stálá expozice v Hrzánském paláci), Projekt obnovené premiéry filmu Svatý Václav (Rudolfinum, 2010), Česká měna – české bankovky 1993 až 2011(kniha a divadelní představení, Národní divadlo, 2011), Vzkazy domů (kniha a divadelní představení, Národní divadlo, 2012),Pozor, vysíláme! (kniha, 2013), Můj stát – státní symboly pro žáky škol (kniha a výstavy, 2014 a 2015).

Je držitelem Záslužného kříže, III. stupně (Ministerstvo obrany České republiky), Pamětní medaile Vojenské kanceláře prezidenta republiky nebo Pamětního odznaku Hradní stráže.

V lednu 2023 jej vedoucí Kanceláře prezidenta republiky Vratislav Mynář jmenoval do funkce ředitele Správy Pražského hradu, a to na základně doporučení výběrových komisí, které fungovaly v rámci otevřeného výběrového řízení. Příspěvkovou organizaci Správa Pražského hradu přitom vedl již od října 2022, kdy byl odvolán tehdejší dlouholetý ředitel Ivo Velíšek a Novák byl řízením organizace dočasně pověřen. V polovině března 2023, týden po nástupu nového prezidenta Petra Pavla, oznámil, že dal k dispozici svou funkci šéfa administrativní sekce Kanceláře prezidenta republiky a požádal i o uvolnění z funkce ředitele Správy Pražského hradu, a to z důvodu dlouhodobého pobytu v zahraničí. Post šéfa Správy Pražského hradu opustil konkrétně k 17. březnu 2023.

Kontroverze
Jan Novák figuroval jako svědek v kauze Promopro, neboť podepsal smlouvu s firmou Promopro za Úřad vlády ČR. Od začátku trval na tom, že odpovědnost za výběr dodavatele a kontrolu plnění nesla v kauze Promopro podle organizačního řádu a platných směrnic Úřadu vlády ČR sekce přímo řízená vicepremiérem Alexandrem Vondrou. V případu nebyl obviněn a vystupoval jako svědek.

Zároveň podle neprokázaného tvrzení Karla Randáka z období prezidentské kampaně figuruje v kauze nákupů obrněných transportérů Pandur, neboť měl Dalíkovi o tomto obchodu sdělovat utajené informace. Novák to odmítá. V případu nebyl vyšetřován ani obviněn.

Osobní život
V roce 2009 média informovala o tom, že žije v registrovaném partnerství s Gustavem Slamečkou.

Odkazy

Reference

Externí odkazy
 ČSSD se chce zbavit šéfa úřadu vlády

Čeští politologové
Vedoucí Úřadu vlády České republiky
Zaměstnanci Kanceláře prezidenta republiky
Nositelé Záslužného kříže ministra obrany České republiky
Absolventi Fakulty sociálních věd Univerzity Karlovy
LGBT Češi
Narození v roce 1975
Narození 29. dubna
Narození v Ostravě
Žijící lidé
Muži

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
'Temporaries' find short-term jobs offer experience, variety
By Victoria Irwin Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Karen a recent college graduate, works as a temporary worker to help support herself until she lands a job in her field. Dean is retired from his job as a car salesman, but he likes work and enjoys the extra money he brings in as a temporary worker.
Both Karen and Dean get work through a temporary service that hires employees and sends them out to various firms that need help during vacations and busy seasons.But retirees like Dean and recent high school and college graduates such as Karen make up just a part of the ranks of temporary workers.
"Temporaries" include teachers and students seeking summer employment, recent transplants to a city testing the job market, persons between jobs, displaced homemakers about to reenter the job force, mothers who only want to work a few days a week, moonlighters who seek additional income, and persons with careers such as painting that don't always mean full-time employment.
Temporary workers make up 7 percent of office workers and 2 percent of the total work force, according to the National Association of Temporary Services (NATS). And there seems to be plenty of jobs for temporary workers; most services report more jobs than workers. Changes in the field of temporary work have helped it to blossom.
"Ten years ago the accurate perception of a temporary job was one of office and clerical work," says Charles Deale, director of public affairs for NATS in Washington, D.C. "Only 12 to 15 percent were industrial [or other] jobs."
Today, although clerical work still makes up around 60 percent of temporary work, health care and data processing are growing fast as areas where temporary workers are needed.There is much more specialization. This is evidenced by the listings under "Employment contractors -- temporary help" in the Yellow Pages. There are temporary services specializing in secretarial, designer consulting, technical services, housecleaning and party assistance, homemaking, health and child care, industrial, data processing, executive, legal work, accounting and bookkeeping, truck driving and warehouse, and insurance jobs.
And every temporary service tells of unusual jobs, such as sorting screws from a huge pile or spending weekdays as department store Santa Clauses. Adia Temporaries recently provided people to demonstrate the advantages of kiwi fruit in supermarkets.
The breadth of the temporary assignments has changed somewhat. Not all are merely one day or one week -- they can last one month or more.
"People are hired temporarily for special projects, such as tax preparation or inventory," says Mr. Deale. In fact, some temporary services say they sometimes have a hard time getting work for people who only want to work several days a week.
"We can assign them to one- and two-day jobs, but we can't predict how much we will keep them busy," says Evelyn Cook of Adia Temporaries in Valley Forge, Pa.
Pay varies with skill and the market.
"In the higher skills jobs, pay is excellent, if not equal to an equivalent permanent job," says Mr. Deale. "In the lower skills jobs, a person will get somewhat lower pay than an equivalent permanent job."
Most temporary workers do not mind. While some do temporary work to get themselves out of financial tight spots, one survey indicates more people do temporary work for the freedom it offers than for any other reason.
"People know they can take off time to travel or go back to school," says Charles Deale. Others say they like the variety of work.
"I just like to be doing something a little different," says a social workers who does temporary work on his days off.
Some come for the experience they gain.
"These people want to build up skills and feel more confident before they look for permanent jobs," explains a representative of one temporary service.
Sometimes temporary work can lead to a permanent job. One man got a job at a consulting firm after working as a temporary and a woman landed a job at an accounting company.
But others have given up temporary work. Some women complain they never get career direction from a temporary service, because assignments for women are almost always crelical jobs. One career seeker, who knows she doesn't want to do secretarial work, quit "temping" after deciding she just didn't like many of the assignments. She lasted four days as a cashier at a university book tore and turned down an offer as a temporary model at a camera company.
People who do not have good typing and office skills find they are at a disadvantage. One temporary worker found the service couldn't always place him because he was not a good typist.
Others resent the fact that temporary workers are expected to know everything right from the start.
"I was given five minutes training on the telephone, and then expected to run the whole operation," says one woman who worked a switchboard. And although some temporary workers get assignments that last several months, others find short-term assignments do not allow them to build friendships or job contacts.
Though agencies say they have more jobs than people to fill them, most admit that the reason is because people do not have the training for the specialized jobs that companies now want filled temporarily. As a result, some agencies, such as Kelly Services, are putting more and more emphasis on free training and education for temporary workers. This attracts workers while helping to solve a shortage of technically trained workers.
Another carrot that a few services are begining to offer is increased benefits. Adia Temporaries recently began providing both health and life in surance after a survey indicated temporary workers were more interested in benefits than higher pay. Temporary Inc., a national firm, offers health insurance, paid vacations, and a credit union for temporary workers along with the mandatory social security and unemployment insurance coverage. None offer retirement plans.
Both Karen, the college graduate who is job hunting, and Dean, the retiree of who enjoys part-time work, say they will continue to do temporary work. Dean likes the chance to meet new people and earn pocket money, and Karen enjoys financial security while she searches for a good job in her field.
"I'd rather get a job I feel good about than have to scramble to take the first one that comes around because of economics ," says Karen.
Indie workers: Is self-employment the new norm?
Why the Supreme Court is hearing a UPS pregnancy case
More and more, cities opt for innovative temporary uses of vacant spaces


The challenges internationally in terms of sourcing suitably qualified and experienced aviation skills in the civil markets is mirrored to a large extent in special mission and space spheres. Whereby OEM support programs rely more and more on skills from the civilian environment to fulfil R&D, operational and training requirements, Resource Group are uniquely experienced and positioned in supporting space operations and activity.
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We are able to provide resourcing solutions for engineering, technical staff for production and maintenance and senior management recruitment assignments anywhere in the world.


Fighter and grinder. Plays flat-footed on impact and can anchor. Secures his down blocks with purpose and tries to collapse them. Sinks hips and times his punch in pass protection. Keeps his head out of the pass protection and uses good posture. Nasty. Has the play demeanor that offensive line coaches love. Has necessary sand in his pants to stalemate against power and does a good job of getting his feet in position to wall off defenders. Very good functional strength. Can sustain power blocks.
Gets a little bit high out of the snap. Linebackers have ability to slip his blocks when he climbs to the second level. Limited athletically and loses a great deal of his effectiveness outside of his snap area. Will spend too much time securing first space when asked to pull.
Gallik won't win many footraces and he might not look as good in the uniform as some others will, but he's a street fighter in knee braces and he has the power to handle himself when covered by a 3-4 front. Starting-caliber center in a power running game.


text:
Stacey Dash Slams Kanye West's 'Rape' Comment
by Thomas Chau July 10, 2014 12:19 PM | PopCrush
Larry Basacca / Rick Kern, Getty Images
Stacey Dash isn't too pleased about Kanye West's use of the word "rape" when it comes to him describing the paparazzi.
The former 'Clueless' star and current Fox News contributor shared her thoughts on Fox News' 'Outnumbered' after West expressed outrage over the media and his treatment using the words "rape" and "violation."
On July 4, West performed at the Wireless Festival in England where he was met with boos from the crowd while going on an almost 20-minute rant during one of his sets.
"I want to bring my family to the movies without 30 motherf—ers following me," he said on stage. "Sex is great when you and your partner are like, 'Hey, this is what we both want to do.' But if one of those people don't want to do that, what is that called? That's called rape. That is called violation."
Here's Stacy's response:
"For Kanye to say 'rape,' maybe he needs to spend some time on Rikers Island, go to Rikers for a little while, and then he'll know what rape is," she said (quotes via Huffington Post). "I don't get celebrities not understanding that the paparazzi are doing their job … I don't think [celebrities are] out of touch, I just don't think they're understanding what the business is."
Next: A History of Kanye West + Kim Kardashian Wearing Matching Outfits
Source: Stacey Dash Slams Kanye West's 'Rape' Comment


Beautiful 3 bedroom fully finished 2 stories with an exceptional value in the desirable community of TARADALE.just steps away from schools, shopping, YMCA, LRT. The main floor features are absolutely wonderful, large living room, spacious kitchen, island, dining, pantry, loads of storage and a conveniently located 2 pcs bath and laundry room. The second floor boasts of 3 bedrooms with the bright Master Bedroom serviced by a walk-in closet and 5 pcs en-suite. Two other good size bedrooms and huge bonus room. Fully Developed Lower Level w/ Separate Entrance (Walk-up) features a family room, kitchen, laundry room & 4pc Bath. Fully Landscaped & Fenced Backyard.


The first outreach team to come to Bristol came in September from YWAM Harpenden's July DTS. 8 people from 6 different nations came for 2 weeks to bless and encourage us, and that's exactly what they did. We felt led to connect them with a church in south Bristol, Victoria Park Baptist church as we wanted to invest in that part of the city. Like many churches in Bristol, Victoria Park Baptist church is a lovely church with wonderful people. It was great to be able to partner with and encourage them.
It was a fantastic couple of weeks with such a mixture of ministry. The team served local people through gardening projects, did street evangelism, helped to lead the church youth groups, served at the churches food-bank and toddler groups, took part in the church services, invested in prayer walking of the area, and ran a day's activities for young people who had a teachers training day at their school and so had no school for a day!
As this was our first team one of the ways we wanted to use them was to try out different types of ministry in Bristol to see what is effective. A few times we simply spent time in worship together before asking God what He would have us do. It was wonderful to see what happens when we are available to the Lord. God used us. Whether it was through giving out roses and praying with people, blessing someone with a voucher for a cafe, or simply asking students what love is. The team was wonderful, they really gave themselves to the city and poured themselves into the lives of the young people connected with the church. As for us at YWAM Bristol, we learnt a lot through them about hosting outreaches in Bristol and are really looking forward to hosting more.


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text:
PlayStation Mobile signs MarvelousAQL, Nippon Ichi, Q entertainment and more as third party developers
All the developers revealed
By Tracey Lien Aug 15, 2012, 9:50pm EDT
Source Sony Computer Entertainment
Share All sharing options for: PlayStation Mobile signs MarvelousAQL, Nippon Ichi, Q entertainment and more as third party developers
PlayStation Mobile announced that it has signed 85 developers and publishers to create games for its mobile gaming platform, which will launch this fall.
The service will be available in nine countries at first (Japan, USA, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Australia) with more countries to follow.
There will be approximately 30 game titles available at launch ranging from adventure games to action games, puzzle games, and sports titles.
A total of 46 developers and publishers from Japan have signed on to make games for the service, including Nippon Ichi, MarveousAQL, SEGA, Q Entertainment, and Tecmo Koei Games, and 39 companies in Europe, PAL regions, and North America are also creating content for the platform, including Action Button Entertainment, Muteki Games, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, THQ, Vlambeer, and Team 17.
The full list of developers and publishers can be viewed here.
The PlayStation Mobile brand was officially announced at E3 2012, a rebranding of Sony's PlayStation Suite.


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Fontana Mazda Shoppers Compare
The 2020 Mazda3 vs 2020 Toyota Corolla
The 2020 Mazda3 is a compact car that comes in sedan and hatchback body styles. The Mazda 3 excites Fontana Mazda shoppers with its beautiful exterior styling, upscale interior and unparalleled driving dynamics. This is a vehicle that is truly fun to drive. The 2020 Toyota Corolla competes with the Mazda3. Like the Mazda, it's offered in sedan and hatchback variants. Some buyers who are considering buying the Toyota Corolla may also be thinking about purchasing the Mazda3, so we provide this head-to-head comparison. Read on to learn which model will come out ahead.
The Mazda3 Performance vs Corolla Performance
The Toyota Corolla has a choice of two gasoline engines, a 1.8-liter four-cylinder that makes 139 hp and 126 lb-ft of torque and a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine that develops 169 hp and 151 lb-ft. According to the Mazda dealer near Fontana, the Mazda3 is equipped with a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine that's more powerful than either of the Corolla's engines, with 186 hp and 186 lb-ft of torque. The Mazda3 Premium trim hatchback model with front-wheel drive can get a six-speed manual transmission. The Mazda3 is one of the few cars that offer a manual transmission, something you won't find on the Toyota Corolla.
View Mazda3 Inventory
Compare Handling and Drive Line
The Mazda3 has an optional all-wheel drive to provide traction on slippery road surfaces, such as roads that are covered with ice and snow. The Toyota Corolla doesn't offer all-wheel drive.
The Toyota Corolla handles well, but not nearly as well as the Mazda3. The Mazda3 has engaging and sporty handling that allows it to carve curvy roads effortlessly. The Mazda3 features G-Vectoring Control Plus, which applies light braking force when the Mazda3 corners, shifting the vehicle's weight forward to provide more traction. The Toyota Corolla doesn't have a similar system.
While Toyota has made some progress transforming the Corolla from its econobox origins, its styling doesn't come anywhere near the level of the Mazda3.
The Mazda3 has more room for passengers to stretch out and stay comfortable, with a total passenger volume of 92.8 cubic feet. The Corolla only provides 88.6 cubic feet of passenger space. The Mazda 3 sedan has .2 inches more rear headroom, .3 inches more rear legroom, 1.6 inches more front hip room, .9 inches more front shoulder room, and 7 inches more rear hip room than the Corolla.
The 2020 Mazda3 sedan and the 2020 Toyota Corolla sedan are about evenly matched when it comes to cargo space. The Mazda3 sedan has 13.2 cubic feet of space in the trunk, while the Toyota Corolla has 13.1 cubic feet. When we compare the two hatchback variants, the difference is more pronounced, with the Mazda3 hatchback providing 2.3 cubic feet more space than the Corolla.
The Mazda3 offers several safety features that are unavailable on the Toyota Corolla, including Rear Smart Brake Support, an available 360-Degree Monitor, and a cross-path warning system. The Last
While the 2020 Toyota Corolla is a good compact car that many people like, it just doesn't measure up to the 2020 Mazda3. The Mazda3 has a more powerful engine, offers a manual transmission and all-wheel drive, provides better handling, has more room for passengers and cargo, and gets safety features that aren't available on the Corolla.
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This 5 light Chandelier from the Apollo collection by Savoy House will enhance your home with a perfect mix of form and function. The features include a Polished Chrome finish applied by experts. This item qualifies for free shipping!


VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Nov. 24, 2008) - NovaGold Resources Inc. (the "Company" or "NovaGold") (TSX:NG)(AMEX:NG) today released an update on its financial outlook and its Rock Creek gold mine near Nome, Alaska.
The Company has been actively seeking additional financing to allow it to repay a bridge loan due December 29, 2008 and to fund its existing operating commitments for the Donlin Creek LLC and the Galore Creek Partnership. The Company has spent approximately US$30 million on its Rock Creek gold mine since August 31, 2008 and is approximately US$20 million over its most recent budget. Since August 31, 2008, the Company has been unsuccessful in realizing further cash proceeds from existing assets.
As a result of these unbudgeted expenditures, the Company's inability to arrange bank financing to repay its bridge loan and realize additional cash from existing assets and the delay in commissioning of the mill and achieving commercial production at Rock Creek, NovaGold's unconsolidated cash position has decreased to approximately C$10 million. As previously announced, NovaGold entered into a secured bridge loan in September 2008 in the amount of US$20 million maturing on December 29, 2008. NovaGold is continuing to review strategic alternatives with its advisors including raising additional equity and debt financing, the sale of assets and other restructuring alternatives. Under the terms of the secured bridge loan, any additional funds raised through debt or equity must first be used to repay such obligations. There can be no assurance that any strategic alternative or transaction will be successfully completed. If NovaGold is not able to raise additional cash in December, it will not have sufficient cash to meet its obligations.
NovaGold has a cash call for its Donlin Creek project of approximately US$3.9 million due on or about November 27, 2008. NovaGold intends to make this payment when due. NovaGold has received a cash call for the Galore Creek Partnership, the entity which owns the Galore Creek project, for approximately C$1.9 million which is due on November 24, 2008. NovaGold does not intend to make this payment on November 24th and will be approaching Teck Cominco to discuss alternatives relating to the settlement of the amount due. If NovaGold does not reach alternative arrangements with Teck Cominco or does not make the payment within five business days of receiving notice of such non-payment, its interest in the Galore Creek Partnership may be diluted to approximately 49.8% from its current 50% interest.
The Rock Creek gold mine received regulatory authorizations and began commissioning start-up in September 2008. NovaGold was required to complete a number of additional environmental and operational tasks in the following weeks and months to ensure compliance with environmental requirements for the mine. Complications have arisen in meeting these regulatory requirements and the federal and state regulators have provided notice that certain conditions in the previously granted permits have not been fully met. Though the Company continues to work with state and federal regulators to resolve these matters, if such issues are not addressed to the satisfaction to the regulators, NovaGold's subsidiary could face financial penalties or have additional mitigation or monitoring requirements imposed. The Rock Creek mine has experienced unanticipated mechanical problems including an electrical failure with the milling circuit and the Company has ongoing concerns with the efficiency of the process and recovery circuit. These issues have been compounded by the effects of extreme arctic weather conditions experienced in Nome, Alaska. In mid October, NovaGold foresaw cash flow in 2009 from the Rock Creek mine of over C$25 million at the then prevailing gold price and exchange rates. The Company now does not expect the Rock Creek mine to generate significant net cash flow over the next six months using a gold price of US$750 per ounce and current exchange rates. As a result of expected further capital requirements and increased operating costs together with the uncertainty regarding the operation of the project and the resulting cash flow, the Company has decided to suspend operations at the Rock Creek mine. The cash flow from Rock Creek which the Company had intended to use to fund its ongoing obligations will therefore not be available. The regulatory consequences of a suspension are uncertain, however existing environmental requirements will continue to be met during this suspension. As part of its requirements under Canadian GAAP, the Company will be reviewing impairment testing for the project.
"Though this has been a difficult decision with Rock Creek, based on the current economic conditions, and the challenges associated with meeting environmental requirements compounded by working through the arctic winter we believe these actions are in the best interest of the Company at this time," said Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse, President and CEO. "NovaGold will focus most of its resources and efforts on its Donlin Creek property while continuing to seek sources of cash and to take steps to reduce costs."
The Company has accepted the resignation of Carl Gagnier, the Vice President, Operations effective December 31, 2008.
NovaGold is a precious metals company focused on exploration, development and mining, with properties in Alaska and Western Canada. NovaGold owns 100% interest in the Rock Creek, Big Hurrah and Nome Gold deposits in Nome, Alaska. NovaGold has a 50/50 partnership on the Donlin Creek gold project in Alaska, one of the world's largest gold deposits, with Barrick Gold (NYSE, TSX: ABX). The Company also has a 50/50 partnership on the Galore Creek copper-gold-silver project in British Columbia with Teck Cominco (NYSE, TSX: TCK). NovaGold has one of the largest resource bases of any junior or mid-tier level producing gold company. NovaGold trades on the TSX and AMEX under the symbol NG. More information is available online at www.novagold.net or by e-mail at info@novagold.net.
This press release includes certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding intentions with respect to obligations due for various projects, strategic alternatives, timing of permitting, construction and production and other milestones, and NovaGold's future operating or financial performance are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from NovaGold's expectations include uncertainties involving the need for additional financing to explore and develop properties and availability of financing in the debt and capital markets; uncertainties involved in the interpretation of drilling results and geological tests and the estimation of reserves and resources; the need for continued cooperation with Barrick Gold and Teck Cominco in the exploration and development of the Donlin Creek and Galore Creek properties; the need for cooperation of government agencies and native groups in the development and operation of the Rock Creek property and other properties; the need to obtain permits and governmental approvals; risks of construction and mining projects such as accidents, equipment breakdowns, bad weather, non-compliance with environmental and permit requirements, unanticipated variation in geological structures, ore grades or recovery rates; unexpected cost increases, fluctuations in metal prices and currency exchange rates, and other risks and uncertainties disclosed in NovaGold's Annual Information Form for the year ended November 30, 2007, filed with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities, and NovaGold's annual report on Form 40-F filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and in other NovaGold reports and documents filed with applicable securities regulatory authorities from time to time. NovaGold's forward looking statements reflect the beliefs, opinions and projections on the date the statements are made. NovaGold assumes no obligation to update the forward looking statements of management beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors should they change.


Is Sherrelwood the best Colorado city for your business?
Now you can skip hours of internet research and jump straight to getting answers with our meaningful at-a-glance Demographics Spreadsheet Report. With the most current & most popular demographic data, it's the perfect starting point for your research about Sherrelwood and the rest of Colorado.
All Sherrelwood population data above are from the US Census Bureau.
The population data for Sherrelwood are from the Census' American Community Survey 2017 5-year estimates and the Census' 2017 Population Estimates. The demographic data for Cimarron Hills, Durango, La Salle, and Nunn are the most current, comparable demographics available from the US Census Bureau, are from the American Community Survey 2017 5-year estimates, and were downloaded on 6 December 2018. Check out our FAQ section for more details.
With 18,616 people, Sherrelwood is the 40th most populated city in the state of Colorado out of 452 cities. But watch out, Sherrelwood, because Cimarron Hills with 17,744 people and Durango with 17,986 people are right behind you.
The largest Sherrelwood racial/ethnic groups are Hispanic (63.5%) followed by White (33.3%) and Asian (1.1%).
In 2017, the median household income of Sherrelwood residents was $52,379. Sherrelwood households made slightly more than La Salle households ($52,269) and Nunn households ($52,303) . However, 11.8% of Sherrelwood residents live in poverty.
The median age for Sherrelwood residents is 34.9 years young.
Looking for Sherrelwood, CO Starter Report PDF? Click Here.


The current Indian batting sensation who has made the bowlers go for run every time he comes to the crease to bat. Well, the ace cricketer has very good taste of cars as well and has selected the best technology that is German for sure to be his companion.
Virat Kohli drives an Audi R8 V10 super car which is known for to get accelerated from stand still position to the 100 km/h in just 3.6 seconds. It's monstrous 5.2 Litre V10 engine produce 541 bhp power and 540 Nm of torque as well.
Any talk of cricket can't get completed without mentioning the living legend or better know as "God of Cricket" Sachin Tendulkar. Everybody is aware of his love for automobile and his possession of Ferrari which was gifted to him by famous F1 racer Michael Schumacher. But these days, the batting maestro owns a Nissan GT-R.
The car is powered by a 4.4 Litre Twin Turbo V6 powerhouse that produces 530 bhp power with hitting the 100 km/h mark in about 3.2 seconds before reaching the top speed of 300 km/h.
Now who isn't aware of the bike love of Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni aka Mahi. He has best bikes around the world in his fleet, but he's not shy of super cars well. Mahi owns a Hummer and a Ferrari 599GTO as well along with many other options.
The Ferrari 599GTO super car Dhoni owns is basically a 599XX car which has been modified for the to make it a road going car. This runabout is powered by a v12 beast producing 665 bhp power and 620 Nm torque. It hits the 100 km/h in just 3.35 seconds and has the wind-talking top speed of 335 km/h.
There absolutely is no doubt that the cricketers do love these super cars and apart from the above mentioned one, there are many more names still to be written. Well, they just can't appear in one list, but we'll find a way to share them with you. Till then, stay tunes with us for more of such blogs.


text:
Q: Nested for loop I am trying to list files in a nested zip as below.
It is not listing files in second level.
For example:
abc.zip contains test1.zip, test2.zip, test3.zip
pqr.zip contains test4.zip, test5.zip, test6.zip
for f in *.zip
do
  unzip -l ${f}
  for p in ${f}
  do
    unzip -l ${p}
  done
done

A: With a combination of libarchive's bsdtar and GNU tar, you can list the contents of those nested archives without having to extract them on disk:
for f in *.zip; do
  bsdtar -cf - --include='*.zip' "@$f" | tar -xf - --to-command='bsdtar tvf -'
done

GNU tar can pipe members of archives to commands upon extraction with --to-command but only supports tar archive formats.
bsdtar supports all sorts of archive formats beside tar ones (including zip ones), doesn't have the equivalent of GNU tar's --to-command (AFAIK), but can convert archive formats on the fly.

A: You can't do it without actually unzipping the top files in a sub-folder.
Something like this:
set -e
for f in *.zip
do
  n=`basename -- "${f}" .zip`
  mkdir -- "${n}"
  cd -- "${n}"
  unzip ../"${f}"
  for p in *.zip
  do
    unzip -l -- "${p}"
  done
  cd ..
  rm -rf -- "${n}"
done

You should probably verify whether ${n} already exists and if so generate an error. You could also use a temporary filename for the sub-directory:
dir=`mktemp -d zip-files.XXXXXX`

Then do cd "${dir}" and rm -rf "${dir}" once done.
Updates:
The set -e is used to make sure that if something goes wrong then the script stops. Especially, if the mkdir -- "${m}" fails, the cd -- "${m}" will fail too and thus the cd .. would get you at the wrong directory level and that's where the rm -rf -- "${n}" becomes dangerous.
Another way to make the cd .. statement safer is to memorize that directory before the for loop and use that path like so:
topdir=`pwd`
for ...
do
  ...
  cd "$topdir"   # instead of `cd ..`
  ...
done

That way the rm -rf -- "${n}" will only operate in $topdir.
The use of the temporary directory will also make things a lot safer since that way whatever the filenames in the top zip file, the directory creation/removal will work as expected.

A: If GNU Parallel is installed:
extract_list() {
  mkdir "$1"
  cd "$1"
  unzip ../"$1".zip
  parallel unzip -l ::: *.zip
  cd ..
  rm -rf "$1"
}
export -f extract_list

parallel extract_list {.} ::: *.zip

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Болтово — деревня в Великолукском районе Псковской области России. Входит в состав сельского поселения «Пореченская волость».

Расположена на юге волости (юго-западнее озера Одгаст), в 45 км к югу от райцентра Великие Луки и в 5 км к югу от волостного центра Поречье.

Население
Численность населения деревни составляет на 2000 год 1 житель, на 2010 год — постоянное население отсутствовало.

История
До 2005 года деревня входила в состав ныне упразднённой Урицкой волости.

Примечания

Ссылки
 Сайт Великолукского района. Пореченская волость

Населённые пункты Великолукского района


text:
RETROREPORT.ORG
Explore the history behind the headlines
Karen M. Sughrue
Karen Sughrue is a senior producer at Retro Report. Karen has worked as a producer at 60 Minutes, where her stories included the growing knowledge gap with American boys falling behind girls in school, an exposé of the U.S. military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and the impact of the one-child policy on Chinese society today. Karen also served as Executive Producer of CBS News Face the Nation and Berlin Bureau Chief covering the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union
@KarenSughrue
"No" on Impeachment Unites Today's GOP. In the 1950s, a Renegade Dared to Break Ranks
Breaking with party unity can be costly. In the 1950's, Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine faced backlash after she condemned Joseph McCarthy, a fellow Republican. politics Emily Gottsman Heru Muharrar Karen M. Sughrue Noah Madoff
She Rocked the Pentagon
After a sexual assault scandal at the Tailhook convention rocked the Navy in 1991, one female officer, Paula Coughlin, launched a campaign to change military culture. sex-gendermilitary Kristen Nutile Karen M. Sughrue Olivia Katrandjian
The Modern Bystander Effect
Why don't people intervene when they encounter violence streaming live online? criminal-justicepopular-culture Sandrine Isambert David Feinberg Catherine Olian Karen M. Sughrue Noah Madoff Olivia Katrandjian
This Snake Is Eating the Everglades
Burmese pythons released into the wild by well-meaning pet owners have created a reptilian nightmare in the Everglades. environment Anne Alvergue Karen M. Sughrue Sarah Weiser
Trump Administration Sued for Torpedoing Enforcement of Landmark Housing Law
Ben Carson, Secretary of HUD, is being sued for not enforcing the Fair Housing Act -- landmark legislation that was passed 50 years ago during the Civil Rights era. civil-rights Karen M. Sughrue
What History Can Teach Us About Mass Killings
A century ago, a culture rid itself of the problem of mass murder. How did that happen and what can the modern-day world learn from it? criminal-justice Anne Checler Karen M. Sughrue Erik German
Mini-doc
Trump's Medicaid Positioning Echoes the Controversial Welfare Reform of the 90s
During his campaign, Donald Trump vowed not to cut to entitlements, including Medicaid. But now he's reversing himself and additionally plans to turn more control of the program over to the states. We take a look at what happened to another entitlement, welfare, when the states took over. law-policy Karen M. Sughrue
Has the government done enough to stop housing discrimination? politicscivil-rights Karen M. Sughrue
Welfare and the Politics of Poverty
Bill Clinton's 1996 welfare reform was supposed to move needy families off government handouts and onto a path out of poverty. Twenty years later, how has it turned out? civil-rightslaw-policy Sandrine Isambert Karen M. Sughrue Sarah Weiser
Crime and Punishment: Three Strikes and You're Out
After the 1993 murder of a California child, many states passed laws to lock up repeat offenders for life, but today those laws are raising new questions about how crime is handled in America. criminal-justice Anne Alvergue Karen M. Sughrue Scott Michels
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