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DANNEMARK N. - ENGLISH PORTFOLIO - Coggle Diagram
DANNEMARK N. - ENGLISH PORTFOLIO
ENCOUNTERS WITH INEQUALITY LEAD TO DEMANDS FOR TAXES ON THE RICH
Financial inequality has many effects on the poorest members of society, including lower quality of life and reduced life expectancy
SOUTH AFRICA; one of the most unequal country in the world
STUDY BY SANDS AND KADT
They find that people from neighbourhoods of low average socio-economic status are more likely to support a demand that the rich pay more tax if they are reminded of inequality
But less well studied is how people respond to reminders of inequality in real life.
In particular, such field studies have been lacking in countries outside the wealthy Western world
placed a luxury car on a busy street and asked passers-by to sign one of two petitions, randomly assigned. (in control conditions, the car was sometimes absent)
either one that demanded increased taxation on wealthy people in South Africa,
or one that petitioned to replace nuclear power with alternative energy sources
The researchers report two notable findings.
First, pedestrians are 9% less likely to stop and sign either petition in the presence of the car.
Second, when this ‘suppressive effect’ is controlled through statistical methods, those who stop are 11% more likely to sign the tax petition than the anti-nuclear petition if the car is present.
Sands and de Kadt conclude that the luxury car acts as a reminder of inequality that leads people to demand redress.
Sand and de Kadt’s study takes an innovative approach to answering an important question.
Wealth disparities are ubiquitous in unequal societies, and it is hard to determine experimentally exactly what will result in acts of resistance from the poor.
NEANDERTHAL DNA HIGHLIGHTS COMPLEXITY OF COVID RISK FACTORS
A key part of tackling COVID-19 is understanding why some people experience more-severe symptoms than do others.
a segment of DNA 50,000 nucleotides long was found to have a strong association with severe COVID-19 infection and hospitalization
this region is inherited from Neanderthals
Some 1–4% of the modern human genome comes from these ancient relatives (denisovans and neanderthals)
Many of the surviving archaic genes are harmful to modern humans, and are associated with infertility and an increased risk of disease.
But a few are beneficial (tibetan monks in high altitudes)
Zeberg and Pääbo report that a long sequence of DNA that is associated with severe COVID- 19 infection and hospitalization is derived from Neanderthals
The researchers therefore speculate that the Neanderthal-derived haplotype is a substantial contributor to COVID-19 risk in specific groups
Why has this haplotype been retained in some populations?
The authors posit that it might be protective against other ancient pathogens, and therefore positively selected for in certain populations around the world
But when individuals are infected with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, the protective immune response mediated by these ancient genes might be overly aggressive
As a result, a haplotype that at times in our past might have been beneficial for survival could now be having an adverse effect.
leading to the potentially fatal immune response observed in people who develop severe COVID- 19 symptoms.
It is fascinating to think that our ancestor’s genetic legacy might be playing a part in the current pandemic.
DEMOCRACY SUFFERS WHEN GOVERNMENT STATISTICS FAIL;
If we cannot be counted, we cannot be heard.
Democratizing Our Data: A Manifesto Julia Lane MIT Press (2020)
2020 is the first year that the United States’ decennial census has allowed households to respond online
The lack of innovation in federal statistical agencies such as the Census Bureau contributes to the slow, bureaucratic and hidebound nature of government
Lane has done path-breaking work to invent ways to measure the economic impact of public investments in science and technology
Lane asserts that the United States is failing to adequately track its population, economy and society. Agencies are stagnating
The census dramatically undercounts people from minority racial groups
There is no complete national list of households. The data are made available two years after the count, making them out of date as the basis for effective policymaking.
In the United States, there is no single national statistical agency
The process of gathering and publishing public data is fragmented across multiple departments and agencies, making it difficult to introduce new ideas across the whole enterprise
Both the US gross domestic product (GDP),
arguably the most important measure of national economic well-being
, and the national unemployment statistics are hopelessly flawed.
By contrast, the best private-sector companies produce data that are in real time, comprehensive, relevant, accessible and meaningful.
Longitudinal Employer–Household Dynamics program
This started as a university-based research project to measure economic returns from on-the-job training.
As it evolved, researchers — working in collaboration with the Census Bureau and the states — developed new measures of workforce dynamics as well as nifty visualizations
Over decades, this partnership between public officials and university researchers became a valuable national indicator of worker flows
HERE'S WHAT HAPPENS IF A US PRESIDENT REFUSES TO LEAVE OFFICE
Constitutional law scholars say there are protections in place to ensure that every president must leave office when his or her term is up
—and if those protections were to fail, the country would be facing a much bigger, constitutional crisis.
During any president’s term, there are two avenues for removing them from office.
— impeachment and the 25th Amendment, which allows lawmakers to remove a president who is sick or otherwise unable to fulfill his or her duties.
Neither of these would apply if someone tried to overstay their term, because that person would no longer be president;
U.S. presidents are limited under the Constitution to four-year terms that end on January 20 after an election year.
Here's why Constitutional provisions about transfer of power matter—and how it would apply this year
When Biden is sworn into the presidency on Inauguration Day, Trump will become a civilian.
If Trump attempted to remain, Biden would have the authority as the new commander in chief to order the military or Secret Service to physically remove Trump from the premises
What happens if the election is still contested?
Congress would be tasked to sort out the mess
and an acting president would step in temporarily under the Presidential Succession Act.
In 1947, Harry Truman signed the Presidential Succession Act that stands today:
Now, the speaker of the House is first in line for the presidency, followed by the president pro tempore of the Senate and the members of the Cabinet in order of when their department was established
The importance of norms
But why aren’t there any specific measures in place to prevent any president from staying past his or her term?
every legal system relies on a system of norms—such as conceding defeat and the peaceful transition of power—in order to exist.
If they have the president himself—not some marginal fringe group—telling the people that the system is rigged and the results can’t be trusted,
it’s an incredibly dangerous message to spread
MANK REVIEW; A ROSEBUD BY ANY OTHER NAME
Hollywood has reverently burnished and energetically debunked its own mythology
This isn’t hypocrisy; it’s show business.
David Fincher’s “Mank” is a worthy, eminently watchable entry in the annals of Hollywood self-obsession.
Fincher’s subject, more or less, is the genesis of “Citizen Kane”
or at least the writing of the first draft of the screenplay (called “American”) that will serve as the basis for Orson Welles’s debut feature
Hearst, the newspaper titan and political power broker who was the model for Charles Foster Kane, was hardly a stranger to Mankiewicz.
THE MAGA INSURRECTION WILL INSPIRE IMITATORS FOR YEARS TO COME
The MAGA mob stormed the U.S. Capitol
in Germany, many looked on with a sense of déjà vu
Germany, the stable democratic powerhouse at the heart of the European Union, experienced a similar scenario in August
when hundreds of protesters stormed the steps of the historic German parliament building, the Reichstag.
The Berlin protesters had gathered in opposition to Germany’s coronavirus lockdown laws, rather than to overturn a democratic election
As in D.C., the German protesters drew heavily from overlapping far-right and conspiracy theorist movements
with QAnon believers on the frontlines of the action
In both cases it's a mixture of extreme right and conspiracy ideologists
The “storming of the Reichstag” was triggered when a speaker falsely claimed the U.S. President had arrived in the German capital
fulfilling the QAnon prophecy that he would liberate the country from the clutches of the globalist “deep state”.
Every second they spent in [the Capitol Building] was a victory and will put them into hyperdrive radicalisation
They live in their own fantasy worlds and they see it as a victory
the incident would inspire greater radical acts by U.S. MAGA extremists
by pushing the boundaries of what was possible for the movement, and inspiring them to further action.
Germany’s far-right influenced conspiracist movement, with Wednesday night proving one of the busiest days on German-language QAnon Telegram channels
FRANCES MCDORMAND, THE UNEASY STAR WHO CAN'T AVOID HER CHARISMA
Played by Frances McDormand, Fern is the heart of Nomadland
a film heavily tipped to win Oscar honours this spring and to secure a third golden statuette for the actor.
Based upon the revelations of a 2017 nonfiction book of the same name
director Chloé Zhao’s film follows ageing travellers who lost a foothold on the financial ladder in the 2008 crash and for whom hope of a secure retirement has dissolved
By the time Zhao’s film finishes, its final dedication line “to the ones who had to depart” makes poignant sense.
Nomadland will surely join the great tradition of American road movies
McDormand’s Fern is a fictional heroine in a cast of real-life nomads and a few seasoned actors.
McDormand has starred in six of the Coen Brothers’ films and been married to Joel Coen
"My politics are private, but many of my feminist politics cross over into my professional life"
"Because I portray female characters, so I have the opportunity to change the way people look at them"
McDormand’s personal convictions also mark her out.
Known to friends and colleagues as Fran, she never wears makeup off set and hates the showbiz fashion for cosmetic procedures
She has refused to attend most press events since Fargo and has an idiosyncratic stance on selfie requests from fans
HOW REDUCING FOOD WASTE CAN HELP SOLVE THE CLIMATE CRISIS
Across the U.S. food supply in 2019, 35% of it — some 80 million tons of food — went unsold or uneaten.
That’s a nearly 12% increase in the U.S. since 2010
Wasted food has tremendous environmental and economic impacts. It accounts for about 4% of greenhouse gas emissions and 2% of U.S. gross domestic product.
Think about it this way: We are tossing out nearly 125 billion meals a year while a projected 45 million Americans are struggling to put food on the table.
The Biden administration has made climate change a centerpiece of its agenda, and ending food waste is a top solution to tackling this global crisis.
the national nonprofit ReFED completed an analysis of the types and causes of food waste and identified more than 40 solutions
to help the U.S. reach the 2030 goal of a 50% reduction in food waste.
SOLUTIONS
One example is demand-planning software developed in 2017 that helps retailers predict what they will sell.
Today, technologies can comb through sales data and forecast with astonishing accuracy how many bananas will sell on a rainy Monday in Los Angeles
Restaurants could nearly double that impact by reducing portion sizes
Some solutions, like building composting infrastructure, don’t offer quite the same return on investment but are critical nonetheless
HOW GOOD SOCIAL MOVEMENTS CAN TRIUMPH OVER BAD ONES
Social scientists have identified factors shaping the likelihood that emancipatory social movements will succeed in bringing tangible change
In June 2015, a white supremacist opened fire inside the historic African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina
The massacre sparked a crescendo of anti-racist protest
Two years later, a coalition of white nationalists arrived in Charlottesville, Virginia, to protest against the decision to remove a statue of a confederate general
there were also civil rights activists who sought to support the city’s resolve in removing the statue, and to press for further reforms aimed at dismantling institutional white supremacy
President Trump commented that there were “very bad people ... and very fine people on both sides.”
How, then, can we judge which movement was the “good” one and which the “bad?”
The answer can be found in the sociological study of social movements
Only by assessing the goals, tactics and outcomes of movements as collective phenomena can we begin to discern the distinction between “good” and “bad” movements.
Their works analyzing “large” historical processes provided later social scientists with three working propositions.
First, the morality of a movement is measured by the type of change it seeks.
Bad” movements tend to be reactionary
“Good” movements are emancipatory
second; large-scale institutional changes that broaden freedom or advance the cause of social justice are rarely initiated by institutional authorities or political elites
Rather, most social progress is the result of pressure exerted from the bottom up, by ordinary people who press for reform by engaging in collective and creative disorders outside the bounds of mainstream institutions.
And third, good intentions—aspiring to achieve emancipatory goals—by no means guarantee that a movement will succeed.
Successful movements must define their goals clearly and target the institutions that have the power to make the changes they are demanding.
AFRICAN FOREST MAPS REVEAL AREAS VULNERABLE TO THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
An analysis of six million trees reveals spatial patterns in the vulnerability of Central African rainforests to climate change and human activities.
The maps generated could be used to guide targeted actions across national boundaries
The Central African rainforests are the second largest area of continuous rainforest in the world, after the Amazon rainforest.
Human activities, notably logging and over-hunting, facilitated by an expanding road network, pose a serious threat to Central African rainforests and their value for society.
The authors had access to an impressive commercial forest-inventory data set from 105 logging concessions
(designated areas in which commercial operators are allowed to harvest timber), across five Central African countries
the authors generate maps of floristically unique forest types — forests characterized by distinct sets of tree species.
By combining their approach with a method called cluster analysis
Réjou-Méchain and colleagues show that the Central African rainforests are not a single bloc of forests
but instead encompass at least ten distinct forest types
the current climate niches associated with the ten forest types they have identified might disappear
What do these findings mean for the future, and how can we manage the forests to minimize the threat from climate change?
To provide an answer, the team looked at three components that characterize the vulnerability of forest communities to warming:
their sensitivity, exposure and adaptive capacity
authors conclude that some areas are more sensitive than others, which means that the dominant tree species in some forest types will be less able to tolerate environmental change than will those in other areas
This finding suggests priority regions for targeted actions to protect forests from environmental changes