By BY KATHERINE CUSUMANO AND ADRIANA BALSAMO from NYT At Home https://ift.tt/3mGi3tY
Saturday, 31 October 2020
This Election Week, Revisit the Constitution, Then Soothe Your Stressed Mind
By BY KATHERINE CUSUMANO AND ADRIANA BALSAMO from NYT At Home https://ift.tt/3mGi3tY
Quotation of the Day: Tracing Now All but Impossible as Outbreaks Tear Through U.S.
By Unknown Author from NYT Today’s Paper https://ift.tt/3kZEObX
Wisconsin: The state’s older voters wield power, and many are choosing Biden.
By BY KAY NOLAN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3mB0UBC
Don’t Give In to ‘Election Stress Disorder’
By BY KATHERINE CUSUMANO from NYT At Home https://ift.tt/35MM6Jy
Sean Connery: From Tentative Secret Agent to Suave Bond
By BY THOMAS VINCIGUERRA from NYT Movies https://ift.tt/3mzHNYK
Tap LinkedIn for Career Opportunities
By BY CHARLOTTE COWLES from NYT At Home https://ift.tt/2HPvOqX
Trump gets his best poll of the cycle. Here’s how to put it in perspective.
By BY NATE COHN from NYT The Upshot https://ift.tt/35L34b2
Learn the Etiquette of Virtual Weddings
By BY COURTNEY RUBIN from NYT At Home https://ift.tt/3kYrELW
Got Worries? Make Newspaper Dolls to Catch Them
By BY CHRISTY HARMON from NYT At Home https://ift.tt/3mSQFZV
Kids’ Graphic Novels That Turn the Superhero Genre on Its Head
By BY GENE LUEN YANG from NYT Books https://ift.tt/2GhcX7V
Texas: All of a sudden, a two-party election in the Lone Star State.
By BY MANNY FERNANDEZ from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2HVQrC4
‘They’re coming after our state,’ McSally warns Arizona Republicans.
By BY JENNIFER MEDINA from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/34IEQ1S
The Battlegrounds Within Battlegrounds
By BY KEITH COLLINS, TRIP GABRIEL AND STEPHANIE SAUL from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2TJBvJP
Celebrities lend Biden a hand in turning out the vote in Philadelphia.
By BY NICK CORASANITI from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3jPB3US
This Halloween, Witches Are Casting Spells To Defeat Trump
Jessalynn Keller, University of Calgary and Alora Paulsen Mulvey, University of Calgary
This Halloween, the witches are coming — to the ballot box.
Using the hashtag #WitchTheVote, witch-identified folks are encouraging others who have an interest in the occult to get informed about political candidates and cast their vote in the U.S. presidential election Nov. 3.
Originally launched by a group of witches from Salem, Mass., during the lead-up to the 2018 midterm elections, #WitchTheVote is a cross-media initiative that identifies and promotes — as one witch tells us — “witch-worthy” political candidates: those who are progressive and social justice oriented. It’s fitting political activism in a town known for the Salem witch trials and contemporary witch tourism.
Witching movements
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Stanford Study Seeks to Quantify Infections Stemming From Trump Rallies
By BY SHERYL GAY STOLBERG from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/35Pg9QV
Senator Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, facing opponents from both parties, embraces Trumpism.
By BY RICHARD FAUSSET from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3jH3O61
Police in North Carolina use a chemical spray to disperse a get-out-the-vote rally.
By BY MICHAEL LEVENSON from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/323ZGY2
George Shultz Speaks Out for Renewing U.S. Leadership Overseas
By BY PETER BAKER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3ecdy7r
Friday, 30 October 2020
With early voting underway in Florida, Democrats worry about Black and Latino turnout.
By BY KATIE GLUECK from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2JjOLTn
After Trump accuses doctors of profiteering, medical professionals push back.
By BY JACEY FORTIN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/34H0SSD
Larry Kudlow Says Trump Is ‘Pulling The Plug’ On Stimulus Deal — Again
The Trump administration is “pulling the plug” on stimulus negotiations, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Thursday.
In an interview with Fox News, Kudlow claimed that there is “no hope” that a pandemic relief bill will be negotiated before the November election. The White House adviser also suggested that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is to blame for the failure.
“Our team now believes that the Speaker has no intention of compromising on key issues,” Kudlow said. “She is going to hold up key assistance, like the PPP small business assistance and unemployment assistance. She is stringing us along and basically we think there’s virtually no hope.”
Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo reported that Kudlow said that the White House is “pulling the plug” on negotiations.
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RNC Chair McDaniel Tries To Spin Record Early Voting As Good For Republicans
RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel did her best to try to spin the record breaking early voting numbers we're seeing across the country as somehow being good for her party. As Reuters reported yesterday, over 80 million Americans have already cast ballots in the presidential election, a pace which is more than 58% of total 2016 turnout, which doesn't bode well for Republicans along with Trump's dismal poll numbers.
The early voting gap is narrowing in several battleground states, including Florida, so naturally Fox "news" and RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel have latched onto that news to spin the numbers as somehow being great for Republicans.
Here's McDaniel on this Friday's Fox & Friends, telling host Steve Doocy how swimmingly things are going for the Trump campaign, bragging about how he's helping Arizona Sen. Martha McSally, who Trump just humiliated at a campaign stop in her state on Wednesday, doing their typical fearmongering about socialism (even though there's not a one of them that would ever dare to openly oppose Social Security and Medicare) and wrapping things up by basically begging their voters to get to the polls this week.
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The puzzle isn’t complete. Pennsylvania is the last piece for Biden.
By BY NATE COHN from NYT The Upshot https://ift.tt/35S0yjh
What Keeps Facebook’s Election Security Chief Up at Night?
By BY CHARLIE WARZEL from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/3mQljTJ
Do Dunkin’ and Arby’s Go Together? Private Equity Group Bets $11 Billion They Do
By BY LAUREN HIRSCH from NYT Business https://ift.tt/2HL6XEK
A judge orders the Postal Service to take ‘extraordinary measures’ to deliver ballots on time in 22 districts.
By BY LUKE BROADWATER AND HAILEY FUCHS from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2HQCHbo
N.E.H. Funds Restoration of Statues Toppled During Protests
By Unknown Author from NYT Arts https://ift.tt/3eaLEIK
Trump, in Minnesota, lashes out at Democrats for limiting crowd sizes.
By BY ANNIE KARNI from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3mEgxIy
Nursing Homes, Racked by the Virus, Face a New Crisis: Isolation
By BY JACK HEALY, DANIELLE IVORY AND SERGE F. KOVALESKI from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2TCEnIb
TikTok stars got a judge to block Trump’s TikTok ban
TikTok has won another battle in its fight against the Trump administration’s ban of its video-sharing app in the U.S. — or, more accurately in this case, the TikTok community won a battle. On Friday, a federal judge in Pennsylvania issued an injunction that blocked the restrictions that would have otherwise blocked TikTok from operating in the U.S. on November 12.
This particular lawsuit was not led by TikTok itself, but rather a group of TikTok creators who use the app to engage with their million-plus followers.
According to the court documents, plaintiff Douglas Marland has 2.7 million followers on the app; Alec Chambers has 1.8 million followers; and Cosette Rinab has 2.3 million followers. The creators argued — successfully as it turns out — that they would lose access to their followers in the event of a ban, as well as the “professional opportunities afforded by TikTok.” In other words, they’d lose their brand sponsorships — meaning, their income.
This is not the first time that the U.S. courts have sided with TikTok to block the Trump administration’s proposed ban over the Chinese-owned video sharing app. Last month, a D.C. judge blocked the ban that would have removed the app from being listed in U.S. app stores run by Apple and Google.
That ruling had not, however, stopped the November 12 ban that would have blocked companies from providing internet hosting services that would have allowed TikTok to continue to operate in the U.S.
The Trump administration had moved to block the TikTok app from operating in the U.S. due to its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, claiming it was a national security threat. The core argument from the judge in this ruling was the “Government’s own descriptions of the national security threat posed by the TikTok app are phrased in the hypothetical.”
That hypothetical risk was unable to be stated by the government, the judge argued, to be such a risk that it outweighed the public interest. The interest, in this case, was the more than 100 million users of TikTok and the creators like Marland, Chambers and Rinab that utilized it to spread “informational materials,” which allowed the judge to rule that the ban would shut down a platform for expressive activity.
“We are deeply moved by the outpouring of support from our creators, who have worked to protect their rights to expression, their careers, and to help small businesses, particularly during the pandemic,” said Vanessa Pappas, Interim Global Head of TikTok, in a statement. “We stand behind our community as they share their voices, and we are committed to continuing to provide a home for them to do so,” she added.
The TikTok community coming to the rescue on this one aspect of the overall TikTok picture just elevates this whole story. Though the company has been relatively quiet through this whole process, Pappas has thanked the community several times for its outpouring of support. Though there were some initial waves of “grief” on the app with creators frantically recommending people follow them on other platforms, that has morphed over time into more of a “let’s band together” vibe. This activity coalesced around a big swell in voting advocacy on the platform, where many creators are too young to actually participate but view voting messaging as their way to participate.
TikTok has remained active in the product department through the whole mess, shipping elections guides and trying to ban QAnon conspiracy spread, even as Pakistan banned and then un-banned the app.
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Cough-scrutinizing AI shows major promise as an early warning system for COVID-19
Asymptomatic spread of COVID-19 is a huge contributor to the pandemic, but of course if there are no symptoms, how can anyone tell they should isolate or get a test? MIT research has found that hidden in the sound of coughs is a pattern that subtly, but reliably, marks a person as likely to be in the early stages of infection. It could make for a much-needed early warning system for the virus.
The sound of one’s cough can be very revealing, as doctors have known for many years. AI models have been built to detect conditions like pneumonia, asthma and even neuromuscular diseases, all of which alter how a person coughs in different ways.
Before the pandemic, researcher Brian Subirana had shown that coughs may even help predict Alzheimer’s — mirroring results from IBM research published just a week ago. More recently, Subirana thought if the AI was capable of telling so much from so little, perhaps COVID-19 might be something it could suss out as well. In fact, he isn’t the first to think so.
He and his team set up a site where people could contribute coughs, and ended up assembling “the largest research cough dataset that we know of.” Thousands of samples were used to train up the AI model, which they document in an open access IEEE journal.
The model seems to have detected subtle patterns in vocal strength, sentiment, lung and respiratory performance, and muscular degradation, to the point where it was able to identify 100% of coughs by asymptomatic COVID-19 carriers and 98.5% of symptomatic ones, with a specificity of 83% and 94% respectively, meaning it doesn’t have large numbers of false positives or negatives.
“We think this shows that the way you produce sound, changes when you have COVID, even if you’re asymptomatic,” said Subirana of the surprising finding. However, he cautioned that although the system was good at detecting non-healthy coughs, it should not be used as a diagnosis tool for people with symptoms but unsure of the underlying cause.
I asked Subirana for a bit more clarity on this point.
“The tool is detecting features that allow it to discriminate the subjects that have COVID from the ones that don’t,” he wrote in an email. “Previous research has shown you can pick up other conditions too. One could design a system that would discriminate between many conditions but our focus was on picking out COVID from the rest.”
For the statistics-minded out there, the incredibly high success rate may raise some red flags. Machine learning models are great at a lot of things, but 100% isn’t a number you see a lot, and when you do you start thinking of other ways it might have been produced by accident. No doubt the findings will need to be proven on other data sets and verified by other researchers, but it’s also possible that there’s simply a reliable tell in COVID-induced coughs that a computer listening system can hear quite easily.
The team is collaborating with several hospitals to build a more diverse data set, but is also working with a private company to put together an app to distribute the tool for wider use, if it can get FDA approval.
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Democrats' Senate Map Is Looking Hopeful In Some Unlikely Places
If you're seeking evidence that the Senate map is expanding, not contracting, for Democrats, look no further than Cook Political Report's ratings change in the Mississippi Senate race from "solid" to "likely" Republican. Republicans will most likely hold that seat on election night, but the idea that things are loosening even a tad in a state like Mississippi is somewhat astonishing.
The movement in such an unlikely state also suggests Democrats are very much in the running to bring home some of the lower-tier Senate races. One of Democrats' best chances for a pickup in a state that initially fell below the radar appears to be Montana, where Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock is in striking distance of unseating GOP Sen. Steve Daines.
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Voters suing Minnesota over a mask mandate are asking the Supreme Court to intervene.
By BY JACEY FORTIN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2JeAC9Y
Time Running Short, Trump and Biden Return to Northern Battlegrounds
By BY THOMAS KAPLAN AND ANNIE KARNI from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3eeng93
Woman Who Mailed Threat to Susan Collins Gets 30 Months in Prison
By BY JOHN ISMAY from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/31XgW0Z
¿Quién ganará Florida, Biden o Trump? Esto dicen las encuestas
By BY GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO from NYT en Español https://ift.tt/2JnWsbi
Political Satire Isn’t Dead. It’s Been Turned Into Horror Stories.
By BY ANNALEE NEWITZ from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/3jGKgP9
Glimmers of Hope for a Winter With Tropical Travel
By BY CATHERINE PORTER from NYT World https://ift.tt/2HN23qM
Thursday, 29 October 2020
Amazon pegs COVID-19 costs at an estimated $4 billion next quarter
Amazon expects to incur $4 billion in COVID-related costs next quarter, an estimate that provides a bellwether for other businesses, large and small, trying to stay operational and control expenses amid the pandemic.
The upshot: Amazon is planning for COVID to remain an unwelcome companion through the end of the year with costs higher than the previous quarter.
The company said Thursday in its third-quarter earnings call that it logged $7.5 billion in COVID-related costs since the disease took root earlier this year. Amazon previously said its COVID costs were about $600 million in the first quarter and more than $4 billion in the second. The company’s COVID costs in the third quarter were about $2.5 billion, CFO Brian Olsavsky told an analyst during an earnings call. While Amazon was able to lower its costs in the third quarter due to efficiencies that number is on rise for next quarter.
Olsavsky said the majority of the increase in costs is due to the expansion of its operations. Amazon has hired 100,000 new workers in October.
COVID-19 along with other uncertainties related to the economy, holiday sales and even weather patterns weighed on its guidance for operating income in the fourth quarter. Amazon provided a wide-ranging guidance of between $1 billion and $4.5 billion in operating income in the fourth quarter compared with $3.9 billion in the same period last year. This guidance assumes about $4 billion of costs related to COVID-19.
But what is most telling is that even after providing a lengthy list of possible uncertainties in the fourth quarter, Olsavsky noted that COVID still trumps them all.
“So there’s a whole host of issues that generally come to bear in Q4,” Olsavsky said. “I think the fact that COVID is dwarfing all of those is causing us a lot of uncertainty on our top line range.”
Olsavsky said costs were related to productivity losses caused by changing how it operates as well as expenses related to personal protective equipment and other upfront costs.
“The largest portion of these costs relate to continuing productivity headwinds in our facilities, including process revisions to allow for social distancing and incremental costs to ramp up new facilities, and the large influx of new employees hired to support strong customer demand also includes investments in PPE for employees and enhanced cleaning of our facilities,” Olsavsky said during Thursday’s earnings call.
Amazon said Thursday it also continues to ramp up its in-house COVID-19 testing program with capacity reaching 50,000 tests a day across 650 sites by November.
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WH Tried To Use Taxpayer's $250M On Covid Ads To Boost Trump 2020
New documents released Thursday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee reveal that Trump administration officials explicitly attempted to use a $250 million taxpayer-funded "public advertising and awareness campaign" to put a rosy spin on President Donald Trump's disastrous coronavirus response and boost his effort to win reelection.
In early September, the Department of Health and Human Services doled out a lucrative contract to the Washington, D.C. consultancy firm Fors Marsh Group to help the administration with an ad blitz framed as an attempt to "defeat despair and inspire hope" in the fight against the coronavirus, which has killed more than 227,000 Americans on Trump's watch.
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