The World Leader & High Schooler Dilemma: Be Popular Or Be Scientific
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SEASONED NUTS: QUOTABLE
"You have people walking around with all the knowledge of humanity on their phone, but they have no idea how to integrate it. We don't train people in thinking or reasoning."
"Our work preferences and our life preferences do not stay the same, because we do not stay the same."
― David Epstein
Andressa Anholete via Getty Images
The Only Control Group They Approve Of Is A Group They Control
It's not rocket science, but it is science. And countries where coronavirus cases are increasing the fastest have leaders who reject scientific opinion while embracing conspiracy theories.
Brazil, Russia, Britain and the US all have populist male leaders who present themselves as anti-elite and anti-establishment. Jair Bolsonaro, Vladimir Putin, Boris Johnson and Donald Trump share what one pundit calls "radical right illiberal populism." Bolsonaro fired his Brazilian health minister and called for ending stay-at-home orders. Johnson's British government encouraged people to continue socializing even as other countries were locking down. President Trump rejected experts' views for almost two months, predicting the virus would simply disappear "like a miracle."
All refused to wear masks and continued shaking hands. The coauthor of How Democracies Die points out: "Very often [these leaders] rail against intellectuals and experts of nearly all types. [They] claim to have a kind of common sense wisdom that the experts lack. This doesn't work very well versus Covid-19."
Iran is fifth in recent case growth among countries with at least 50 million people. Its theocratic supreme leader eschewed warnings about reopening too quickly. Mexico is sixth. Its president is a left-wing populist whose government published posters declaring the virus isn't serious.
Delays in government reaction allowed Covid-19 to spread much faster. And arguing the necessity of reopening quickly to prioritize economic growth is the antithesis of the fastest way to actually return to economic normalcy: controlling the spread of the virus. "There's this false tension that exists between public health and economic health," said one epidemiologist.
It's worth noting that countries more successful in fighting the disease — like Germany, New Zealand and Taiwan — are all run by women.
We Have Enough To Worry About Already, Russia
Over 20,000 tons of diesel fuel leaked into the Ambarnaya River in northern Siberia last Friday, turning the water bright crimson and threatening to inflict significant damage to the Arctic environment. Oil leaked more than seven miles from the site; Greenpeace Russia immediately compared the discharge to the disastrous Exxon Valdez tanker spill in Alaska in 1989.
Norilsk Nickel owns the power plant where the fuel tank collapsed; the company said thawing permafrost had caused one of the tank's pillars to buckle. Norilsk Nickel is the world's largest producer of platinum and nickel, and is no stranger to environmental disasters.
In 2016 the company caused another "blood river" in Siberia, and one of its plants has belched so much sulfur dioxide — a major cause of acid rain — that it's surrounded by a dead zone of tree trunks and mud twice the size of Rhode Island.
President Putin learned of Friday's spill on Sunday, and after declaring a state of emergency on Wednesday, denounced company officials in a live broadcast videoconference. "Why did government agencies only find out about this two days after the fact? " Putin fumed. "Are we going to learn about emergency situations from social media?" He called for an investigation to assess how officials reacted to the accident. (NYT)
Chung Sung-Jun via Getty Images
Sing It In Key Or They'll Lock You Up And Throw Away The Key
Hong Kong's legislature has passed a law criminalizing parodies of China's national anthem. Poking fun at the national anthem has been a popular mode of protest. Now it's illegal to alter the lyrics of the anthem, or sing it "in a distorted or disrespectful way;" doing so is punishable by up to three years in prison and hefty fines.
The Beijing-backed anthem bill was first introduced early in 2019. But it wasn't approved until Thursday — the 31st anniversary of the night of June 4, 1989, when China's military killed untold numbers of civilians and students protesting for democratic and economic reforms in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Talking about that night is forbidden in China, but Hong Kong activists have held a rally every year for the last three decades to commemorate victims of the crackdown.
Passage of the anthem bill puts new limits on anniversary events, which in the past brought massive crowds to Hong Kong's Victoria Park. This year's rallies were officially canceled; police cited coronavirus prevention guidelines in denying organizers permission to congregate.
Still, risking fines and arrests, rally organizers encouraged people to gather in the park Thursday, and at least eight churches across Hong Kong also hosted commemorative events. (NPR)
Tiananmen Vigil Organizers Say They Will Defy Hong Kong Police Ban (NYT, $)
China May Sacrifice Hong Kong to Achieve its Goals (NYT, $)
Philippines' Duterte renews threat to kill drug dealers after big bust (Reuters)
Iran Frees U.S. Navy Veteran Michael White Who Was Detained For Nearly 2 Years (NPR)
Chinese, Iranian Hackers Targeted Biden And Trump Campaigns, Google Says (NPR)
India and Australia sign pacts to strengthen military ties as tensions simmer in South China Sea (CNN)
U.S. coronavirus cases have been slowly ticking up since Memorial Day (CNBC)
Singapore plans wearable virus contact tracing device for all (Reuters)
Jane Goodall: humanity is finished if it fails to adapt after Covid-19 (Guardian)
'Did I Miss Anything?': A Man Emerges From a 75-Day Silent Retreat (NYT, $)
Pandemic Lockdowns Lead to Less Traffic and Better Air (NYT)
Coronavirus in Sweden: Epidemiologist Admits Mistakes on Covid-19 (Bloomberg, $)
How Covid-19 is changing the world's children (BBC)
How the Coronavirus Is Changing Digital Etiquette (NYT, $)
Retailer Gap posts near-$1bn loss due to coronavirus (BBC)
Out Of The Frying Pan, Into The Fired
Businesses across America are reopening and people are being told to return to work. But thousands who have refused, for fear of being infected, are losing their jobs and/or being reported to the state to have their unemployment benefits potentially cut off. It's particularly bad in states with weaker labor protections. Alabama, Oklahoma and South Carolina are among several states that have told workers they cannot continue to collect unemployment if they turn down a suitable job offer. To continue getting unemployment in Tennessee, workers must either have a diagnosed case of Covid-19, be caring for a patient, or be confined by a quarantine.
But with 40 million people currently out of work, a bleak job market, and other family members unemployed, many people feel powerless to refuse an order to return to work, or to question the safety practices at their jobs.
Being at higher risk doesn't matter either. A 71-year-old car salesman in suburban Detroit — with high blood pressure and a wife with heart trouble — who'd spent weeks working from home to avoid the virus, recently got an ultimatum from his dealership: Come to the office or consider a new job. (NYT)
Trump Campaign Looks at Electoral Map and Doesn't Like What It Sees (NYT, $)
Ousted Watchdog Says State Dept. Official Pressured Him to End Inquiry Into Pompeo (NYT, $)
Will Trump leave office if defeated? (Vox) & President Trump tried to register to vote in Florida using an out-of-state address (WaPo, $)
'He wears the armor of God': evangelicals hail Trump's church photo op (Guardian) &
Perspective | Trump's photo with his loyalists was a vulgar mess. And Ivanka brought a handbag. (WaPo, $)
Mark Zuckerberg Believes Only in Mark Zuckerberg (Wired, $) & Nine things we learned from leaked audio of Mark Zuckerberg facing his employees (The Verge)
She was the last American to collect a Civil War pension —$73.13 a month. She just died. (WaPo, $)
'I Can Breathe Now': After Days Of Nationwide Protests, George Floyd Is Eulogized (NPR)
US urged to address racial injustice or risk further instability in new report (Guardian)
Trump shares letter that calls peaceful protesters 'terrorists' (CNN)
Adam Serwer: A Nation Without Law, Order, or Justice (Atlantic, $)
An Interview with the Mayor of Minneapolis (NYT, $)
'This can't be happening': An oral history of 48 surreal, violent, biblical minutes in Washington (WaPo, $)
Movement to defund police gains 'unprecedented' support across US (Guardian)
The FBI Finds 'No Intel Indicating Antifa Involvement' in Sunday's Violence (The Nation)
Is it safe to protest during a pandemic? Experts answer our questions (Guardian)
White Defendant Allegedly Used Racial Slur After Killing Ahmaud Arbery (NPR)
What's Worse? Freshman-15 Or Covid-19
As more higher education institutions are announcing plans to shift to a predominately online learning environment for part of all of the next academic year, recent high school graduates who were headed for college are facing a tough choice: spend part or all of their freshman year maintaining social distancing and "attending" classes online, or blow off that dubious experience and take a gap year.
A survey conducted in April found that Covid-19 caused 17 percent of US students to change their college plans. Of those students, 16 percent said they would take a gap year, while 17 percent said they would wait until spring semester starts in January to enroll full time. Another one third said they would enroll on a part-time basis.
Taking a gap year is fairly common in parts of Europe, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. It's less common in the US, but attracted mainstream attention in 2016 when President Obama's daughter Malia took a gap year before attending Harvard. For those who were entertaining the idea of taking a gap year, most had planned to spend at least part of it traveling. But with the world still in the grip of Covid-19, the travel idea has dimmed.
The vast majority of students think the prospect of starting their higher education virtually isn't all that attractive, particularly since most institutions continue to charge full tuition fees. One student who'd planned to attend McGill University in Canada this fall said five months ago taking a gap year wasn't even on her radar. But after McGill announced most classes would be online, she wrote immediately and requested a deferral. (BBC)
U.S. schools lay off hundreds of thousands, setting up lasting harm to kids (Reuters)
What Will College Be Like in the Fall? (NYT, $)
Avoiding Covid-19 and Freshman-15: Lockdown and weight gain – should you worry? (BBC) & Identical twins compared a vegan diet with meat-eating and found the vegan diet led to fat loss and more energy (Insider)
Weekend Reads
Edward Hopper and American Solitude (New Yorker) We are fans of Hopper's paintings. Everyone knows Nighthawks but some other good ones include Room in New York and Sunlight in a Cafeteria.
Mukesh Ambani Won the World's Most Expensive Sibling Rivalry (Bloomberg, $)
Idea Generation (Sam Altman)
The Art of Being Alone (FS Blog)
Aphorisms tell philosophy's history as fragments, not systems (Aeon)
Is this the secret of smart leadership? (BBC)
Tesla's Elon Musk calls for breakup of Amazon in tweet (Reuters)
An article that was heavily recommended several weeks ago: When SimCity got serious: the story of Maxis Business Simulations and SimRefinery Essay categorySimulation category (Obscuritory)
This Sunday, 6/7/20, is when Daily Pnut will begin sending Sunday newsletters. This Sunday's newsletter will feature news from over the weekend and Daily Pnut's Tim will reflect on civil-military relations and an evaluation on US military generalship-leadership since post 9/11. Subscribers who have referred five other readers or who have made a donation will receive our Sunday newsletters.
Former Joint Chiefs Chairman Condemns Trump's Threat To Use Military At Protests (NPR)
A US lawmaker says using troops against protesters will harm the military's legitimacy (Vox)
Trump and the Military: A Mutual Embrace Might Dissolve on America's Streets (NYT)
Trump Agrees to Send Home Troops From Washington, Easing Tensions With the Pentagon (NYT)
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