01/16/2022 – Santa Rosa Press-Democrat ‘Doing our part’ EDITOR: Dave Stein reduced home-based solar generation to costs (“Solar power costs,” Letters, Wednesday). He misses one of the basic reasons many of us did invest in solar: to reduce greenhouse emissions. It is the same reason we invested in insulating the attic, installed energy-efficient windows and … [Read more…]
In the Atlantic, Ed Yong writes about the impact of the current COVID variants and the state of the health care system. There is a lot to take in here and his summary is most telling: “Some experts are hopeful that Omicron will peak quickly, which would help alleviate the pressure on hospitals. But what … [Read more…]
In the NYT, an interview with Ms. Menker: The Ethiopian entrepreneur Sara Menker founded Gro Intelligence, which uses artificial intelligence to forecast global agricultural trends and battle food insecurity. When toilet paper shortages happened during Covid and everybody was running to stock up, I was like, “I don’t know why you’re stocking up. I have … [Read more…]
In the Guardian: America is now in fascism’s legal phase Jason Stanley is Jacob Urowsky professor of philosophy at Yale University. He is the author of How Fascism Works. Wed 22 Dec 2021 “The history of racism in the US is fertile ground for fascism. Attacks on the courts, education, the right to vote and … [Read more…]
Linda McAlister, Philosopher and Founder of Feminist Journal, Dies at 82 [NY Times Obituary – paywall] She was among a collective of philosophy professors who started Hypatia, the first major scholarly publication to view the discipline from a feminist lens. By Penelope Green Dec. 14, 2021
Shirley McBay, Pioneering Mathematician, Is Dead at 86 [NY Times Obituary – paywall] The first Black student to receive a doctorate from the University of Georgia, she devoted her life to advocating for diversity in science and math education. By Clay Risen Dec. 14, 2021 “Left unattended, the resulting resegregation of U.S. education will ensure … [Read more…]
In the Washington Post today was this historical essay: First U.S. vaccine mandate in 1809 launched 200 years of court battles (subscription paywall). Jess McHugh recounts the history of the smallpox vaccination from 1809 through a Supreme Court review of Massachusetts’s vaccine mandates. Just as at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, a … [Read more…]
In the 11/25/2021 Guardian “Long Read” is Jill Lepore on post covid society, a summary of the modern social fabric, with her usual historical detail. “Other scholars see more continuity, an unbroken tradition of liberal and social democracy on the left, from early 20th-century progressivism down to the 21st-century version. But no one disputes that … [Read more…]
San Francisco Call, 6 January 1919 1918 LYNCHINGS ACCORDING to the records compiled by Monroe N. Work, in charge of Records and Research of the Tuskegee Institute, there were 62 lynchings in 1918. This is 24 more than for the year 1917. Of those lynched, 58 were negroes and 4 were whites. Five of those … [Read more…]
On Ars Technica, there is an article Dubious $56,000 Alzheimer’s drug spurs largest Medicare price hike ever. I wrote this comment after reading the article and a lot of the comments which followed it: Auguste_Fivaz Ars Centurion et Subscriptor Nov 15, 2021 9:05 PM I’m on medicare part B with a gap policy. I also … [Read more…]