Новости за 04.12.2020

When I plug my information into models predicting when I might get the Covid-19 vaccine, I have to scroll almost to the end, past 268 million or so other Americans, until I see my place in line. Health workers and those working and living in care facilities will be the first to receive the vaccines, if states follow the recommendations issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this past week (most say they will). Next, the vaccine will likely go to those with vulnerable health conditions... Читать дальше...

Salesforce is paying $28 billion to purchase Slack, the intraoffice texting service that has turned the American workplace into a dystopian micro-Twitterverse. Sold as a tool to improve communication and promote teamwork, Slack has in fact made office life miserable, especially during the Covid-19 lockdown.

The frightening power of Big Tech is one of the few issues Democrats and Republicans still agree on, even if they don’t agree on the specifics. Conservatives often claim to be victims of a type of social media censorship that doesn’t exist, while Democrats tend to focus on corporate power and monopoly. But amid the faintest outlines of bipartisan consensus, it seems possible that our political leaders may soon take a more aggressive posture toward these companies. Even President-elect Joe Biden... Читать дальше...

Earlier this year, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote one of the finest opinions in the Supreme Court’s recent history. His majority ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma recognized that a large swath of that state is still tribal land. It displayed the moral and legal clarity that Americans expect from the high court. Gorsuch and four other justices rejected arguments that Oklahoma’s century of disregard for tribal sovereignty had effectively invalidated it. “That would be the rule of the strong, not the rule of law,” he wrote. Читать дальше...

The quest for authenticity is perhaps the central obsession of modern food culture. Food today is a vehicle not only for sustenance or pleasure, but for a certain type of truth—for tastes and sensations that are true to their place and the experience of their creators. It would be a mistake to regard this quest as novel. In 1654, Nicolas de Bonnefons, a valet at the court of Louis XIV, published The Delights of the Country, a work of gastronomic philosophy containing a simple but revolutionary principle. Читать дальше...

On Wednesday, for 46 minutes, President Trump gave perhaps the most deranged speech of his political career—which means it was arguably the most deranged speech of any presidency since a drunk Andrew Johnson made a shamefaced Abraham Lincoln sit through his slurry vice presidential inaugural address. “This election was rigged. Everybody knows it,” Trump said in a video posted on social media. “I don’t mind if I lose an election, but I want to lose an election fair and square. What I don’t want... Читать дальше...