Новости за 29.01.2021

When Washington, D.C., announced that it would soon prioritize people who are overweight for the Covid-19 vaccine, experts and commentators were perplexed. Nate Silver tweeted that “there’s basically no prioritization at all.” Others questioned the utility of using such a crude measure as body mass index, with its checkered history, as an indicator of health. Some worried the policy would prioritize overweight young people and smokers over the elderly or those with more pressing conditions like diabetes. Читать дальше...

In December 2017, President Trump signed an executive order dramatically reducing the size of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah, opening the door to oil and gas drilling on formerly protected land. Last week, as part of a flurry of first-day executive actions, President Biden signed an order launching a review of those monuments’ boundaries. This is a niche policy story in the grand scheme of things, and the move attracted scant attention, save for the criticisms... Читать дальше...

The March for Life began in 1974—a year after the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade. It bills itself as the largest social mobilization of any cause in the world. But for the first time in 47 years, anti-choice protesters will not rally en masse in D.C. The march isn’t “canceled,” its organizers announced—it’s going “virtual.”

On January 11, just a few days after the Capitol riot, Fox host Mark Levin opened his show by outlining a grand conspiracy involving the Democrats, the media, Black Lives Matter, football and basketball players, Twitter, and Facebook—powerful forces that had schemed to “exploit” the riot and silence conservatives “in the most fascistic ways imaginable.”

A GameStop in a New Jersey mall was the first place I participated in a market. I’d beg my dad to drive me there so I could swap out old GameBoy cartridges for new ones, fetching whatever the going price for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 was in store credit and hoping it was high. After all, I’d have to make up the rest of the cost of the new game with my allowance or whatever I could shake down from him. The trade-in credit wasn’t real money. I couldn’t go next door to spend it at Bath and Body Works. Читать дальше...

In March of last year, Reddit user Oneawkwardpanda mentioned that the pandemic stay-home order had resulted in a “massive dip in productivity” for them and asked for advice. “How do you keep yourself accountable? How do you stop snacking?” Many others shared this anxiety about getting as much work as possible done from home; responses included setting up a home office, putting on a tie and shoes in the morning, and “parental controls on your laptop and phone or literally putting your TV in a closet.”... Читать дальше...

Not long after the attack on the Capitol, Republicans turned from spreading outrageous lies about the election to calling for “healing” and an end to division. “We must come together and put this anger and division behind us,” Senator Ted Cruz implored, the day after he helped lead the Republican efforts to object to the election results. Some conservatives, like Representative Tom Reed of New York, warned that impeachment would only further inflame the passions of the far right, which might sound... Читать дальше...