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Facebook’s ‘cult-like’ workplace, where dissent is discouraged and employees pretend to always be happy

Facebook’s ‘cult-like’ workplace, where dissent is discouraged and employees pretend to always be happy

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CNBC reports: At a company-wide town hall in early October, numerous Facebook employees got in line to speak about their experiences with sexual harassment. The company called the special town hall after head of policy Joel Kaplan caused an internal uproar for appearing at the congressional hearing for Judge Brett Kavanaugh. A young female employee was among those who got up to speak, addressing her comments directly to COO Sheryl Sandberg. “I was reticent to speak, Sheryl, because the pressure…

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The periodic table is 150 – but it could have looked very different

The periodic table is 150 – but it could have looked very different

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Theodor Benfey’s spira table (1964). DePiep/Wikipedia By Mark Lorch, University of Hull The periodic table stares down from the walls of just about every chemistry lab. The credit for its creation generally goes to Dimitri Mendeleev, a Russian chemist who in 1869 wrote out the known elements (of which there were 63 at the time) on cards and then arranged them in columns and rows according to their chemical and physical properties. To celebrate the 150th anniversary of this pivotal…

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The blind spot of science is the neglect of lived experience

The blind spot of science is the neglect of lived experience

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Adam Frank, Marcelo Gleiser, and Evan Thompson write: The problem of time is one of the greatest puzzles of modern physics. The first bit of the conundrum is cosmological. To understand time, scientists talk about finding a ‘First Cause’ or ‘initial condition’ – a description of the Universe at the very beginning (or at ‘time equals zero’). But to determine a system’s initial condition, we need to know the total system. We need to make measurements of the positions and…

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U.S. carbon emissions surged in 2018 even as coal plants closed

U.S. carbon emissions surged in 2018 even as coal plants closed

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The New York Times reports: America’s carbon dioxide emissions rose by 3.4 percent in 2018, the biggest increase in eight years, according to a preliminary estimate published Tuesday. Strikingly, the sharp uptick in emissions occurred even as a near-record number of coal plants around the United States retired last year, illustrating how difficult it could be for the country to make further progress on climate change in the years to come, particularly as the Trump administration pushes to roll back…

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The suicide of a great democracy

The suicide of a great democracy

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George Packer writes: A constant theme runs throughout Lincoln’s writings, from his years as a young Illinois politician to the last great speeches of his life: the supreme value of self-government. Everything depended on this idea, “our ancient faith,” which itself was “absolutely and eternally right.” But its endurance was never guaranteed. From the start of his career, Lincoln foresaw how American democracy might end—not through foreign conquest, but by our own fading attachment to its institutions. “If destruction be…

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Trump was just handed a chance to supercharge voter suppression in 2020

Trump was just handed a chance to supercharge voter suppression in 2020

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Slate reports: In a short unpublished opinion so far garnering only slight media attention, the United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit decided on Monday what may be one of the most consequential cases poised to affect the 2020 elections. The circuit upheld a district court decision ending a court order in effect since 1982 barring the Republican National Committee from engaging in “ballot security” measures designed to intimidate minority voters from voting at the polls. With Trump…

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Apocalypse in America: The smell of fascism in the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy

Apocalypse in America: The smell of fascism in the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy

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Alexander Reid Ross writes: Emerging from the fever swamps of 4Chan and YouTube in November 2017, the QAnon conspiracy theory community has spread rapidly from the lunatic fringe to the lunatic mainstream. Some commentators suggest it has all the hallmarks of a secular political cult. It promises ultimate salvation to its followers – the creation of a utopia of human togetherness, peace and love, brought about through a brutal military crackdown against the “Deep State.” And although it may seem…

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Erdoğan chides Bolton and calls on U.S. to hand over Syria bases

Erdoğan chides Bolton and calls on U.S. to hand over Syria bases

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The Guardian reports: Turkey has asked Washington to hand over its bases in Syria as the Trump administration appeared to reverse plans to withdraw from the country’s north-east on Tuesday, jeopardising Ankara’s plans to launch a widespread military operation targeting Kurdish groups. The fresh row between the two Nato allies broke out as the US national security adviser, John Bolton, visited Ankara to row back on a surprise announcement by Donald Trump in December that US forces would leave Syria…

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Netanyahu, feeling the heat, grabs the spotlight to assail a ‘witch hunt’ investigation

Netanyahu, feeling the heat, grabs the spotlight to assail a ‘witch hunt’ investigation

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The New York Times reports: The announcement set Israel abuzz with suspense late Monday afternoon: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a “dramatic statement” to deliver at 8 p.m., at the start of the most heavily watched news hour. Would it be about Iran? Hezbollah? Hamas? The Trump peace plan? The subject, it turned out, was an existential threat not to Israel, but to Mr. Netanyahu’s career. For seven minutes on live television — enormously valuable exposure with elections only three…

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Brexit with a smile: UK launches EU exit preparedness campaign

Brexit with a smile: UK launches EU exit preparedness campaign

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Reuters reports: A smiling construction worker, a grinning farmer and a jolly pensioner: these are the cartoon faces the government is using to try to reassure Britons that the country can cope with a no-deal Brexit. A cheery illustrated banner on a new government website sits atop links to information on how to prepare for a no-deal Brexit that critics have said could cause food and medicine shortages, long border delays and widespread economic disruption. On Tuesday, the government launched…

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Trump was never a great dealmaker. The shutdown proves it

Trump was never a great dealmaker. The shutdown proves it

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Timothy L. O’Brien writes: President Trump’s supporters elected him, in part, because they saw him as a wily tycoon and deft dealmaker who could shake up Washington and bring decades of business know-how to the Oval Office. He was always ready to tap into those beliefs. “We need a PRESIDENT with strength, stamina, heart and incredible deal making skill if our country is ever going to be able to prosper again!” he tweeted a few months after launching his presidential…

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When Mueller issues a report, Trump may try to suppress some of it

When Mueller issues a report, Trump may try to suppress some of it

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Bloomberg reports: The White House may try to block portions of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s final report from being shared with Congress and the public in a fight that could end up before the Supreme Court. Mueller may submit his findings on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign to the Justice Department as early as February, according to one U.S. official. After that, things could get messy. Democrats who now control the House have said they’ll demand that the…

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Disruption for thee, but not for me

Disruption for thee, but not for me

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Cory Doctorow writes: The Silicon Valley gospel of “disruption” has descended into caricature, but, at its core, there are some sound tactics buried beneath the self-serving bullshit. A lot of our systems and institutions are corrupt, bloated, and infested with cream-skimming rentiers who add nothing and take so much. Take taxis: there is nothing good about the idea that cab drivers and cab passengers meet each other by random chance, with the drivers aimlessly circling traffic-clogged roads while passengers brave…

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The hidden resilience of ‘food desert’ neighborhoods

The hidden resilience of ‘food desert’ neighborhoods

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Barry Yeoman writes: Even before Ashanté Reese and I reach the front gate, retired schoolteacher Alice Chandler is standing in the doorway of her brick home in Washington, D.C. She welcomes Reese, an anthropologist whom she has known for six years, with a hug and apologizes for having nothing to feed us during this spontaneous visit. Chandler, 69 years old, is a rara avis among Americans: an adult who has lived nearly her entire life in the same house. This…

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