Amazon workers succeed in union effort

I was surprised and pleased that yesterday a majority of the 8,000 employees at one of the four Staten Island, NY Amazon warehouses voted in favor of forming a union by a margin of 2,654 to 2,131. A similar vote at a Bessemer, AL warehouse is too close to call at the moment. Even the latter stand-off is encouraging since Alabama is not a union-friendly region, unlike Staten Island.

Progressives hailed Friday’s unionization vote by employees at an Amazon warehouse in New York City as a historic victory for workers across the United States and an inspiring call to action for others seeking to organize.

“This is the catalyst for the revolution.”

In what’s being described as a “tremendous upset” of “David versus Goliath” proportions, employees at Amazon’s JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island—led by fired worker Chris Smalls—defeated a multimillion-dollar union-busting effort by one of the world’s largest and most powerful corporations and voted to form the Amazon Labor Union (ALU).

“It’s official,” ALU tweeted after the vote. “Amazon Labor Union is the first Amazon union in U.S. history. Power to the people!”

“This is the catalyst for the revolution,” Smalls, the ALU organizer and president, said while celebrating the vote.

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Dangerous food trends

It is quite astonishing to me how much attention some people pay to their diets, even if they have no medical condition that requires them to be careful about what they eat or drink. This feeling that certain diets can be the pathway to good health and longevity has been exploited by some to promote various fads that can, in fact, be dangerous. This article describes some popular fads that one should be very wary of.

This article warns that excessive fears about food, that come under the heading of ‘clean eating’, can lead to obsessive behavior and all manner of problems.
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TV Review: The Plot to Overturn the Election

The so-called ‘Big Lie’, the idea that Donald Trump actually won the 2020 election and that there was a major conspiracy to steal the election and give it to Joe Biden, is so preposterous that one has to be delusional to give it any credence. And yet, it seems like many Republicans have bought into it.

The excellent investigative journalism outfit ProPublica has combined with the PBS program Frontline to produce an absorbing 53-minute documentary in which correspondent A. C. Thompson (who has previously investigated hate groups) tracks down the origins of the Big Lie, the people behind it, and their goal of trying to rig future elections to get the results they want. Although I have been following this story closely, I learned a lot of new things about it.

The varied responses to the monk problem reveals important insights

I was a little surprised at the length of the comment thread in the post about the logic puzzle involving the monk Gaito going up and down a hill. On the one hand, I thought that there were some excellent explanations of why there had to be at least one instant where the monk was at the same location at the same time. These involved visualizing the situation in slightly different ways, such as instead of having one monk go up and down on two different days, having two monks going up and down on the same day or using graphs or films and so on.

But clearly these arguments were not persuasive enough for some and I have been trying to think why this might be so. In my teaching experience, it is often the case that what seems obvious to you as a teacher is by no means so to the student. It is no use repeating the same explanation more slowly or (worse) more loudly or (much worse) exasperatedly. There is clearly some opposing argument that the student finds persuasive that makes them reject your argument and yet they may not be able to identify and articulate what it is. Instead they feel that there must be some flaw in your reasoning that they cannot put their finger on. It is more fruitful as a teacher to try and figure out what their argument might be, rather than reiterating your own.
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Why are crazy and dangerous fads so appealing to some?

On The Daily Show, Desi Lydic explores the ‘raw water’ fad.

This is a classic ‘first world’ issue. Many millions of people around the world suffer terribly from the lack of easy availability of clean water and yet people in the US, fortunate to have water freely and plentifully available at the turn of a faucet, are willing to spend good money to spurn this luxury and buy water from springs in which all manner of disease-causing parasites may lurk. I was already astounded that people actually buy bottled water but this takes that absurdity to a whole new level.

It seems like all you have to do is throw around words like ‘natural’ to make people think it is better and words like ‘probiotics’ to make them think you have science on your side. And a big bonus is if you wear robes and act like some mystic guru because we all know that such people have access to divine truths, right?

You can read more about the raw water fad where you will learn that Mukhande Singh’s birth name is Christopher Sanborn.

The cowardly Alex Jones held in contempt for skipping depositions

The conspiracy theorist who created such acute distress for the families of those killed in the Sandy Hook massacre by spreading the lie that it was a hoax and thus inspired his rabid followers to persecute those families and make their lives a living hell, talks very tough. But it turns out that he is, like all bullies, a coward. He has been sued by the families and been ordered by the judge to attend a legal deposition and be questioned under oath but he did not show up, citing vague medical reasons, even though he was appearing on his show that same week. Jones is clearly trying to avoid a legal reckoning for his reckless and hateful instigation against the families. He has offered a settlement to the people suing him but they have refused, demanding that he appear in court.
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When did Earth begin to become oxygen rich?

When the Earth first formed into a solid sphere with an atmosphere, that atmosphere was deficient in oxygen. The question of when and how the planet became oxygen rich is an interesting and important one and recent research challenges some old ideas about the earliest appearance of oxygen.

The “Great Oxygenation Event” that infused the gas into our atmosphere is commonly thought to have occurred around 2.4 billion years ago, when a rise in cyanobacteria released a huge amount of oxygen through photosynthesis. But it’s been difficult to get any more precise in terms of dating the first appearance of this life-giving gas; after all, how are scientists supposed to detect such a small quantity of oxygen from so long ago?
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A little logic puzzle

Here is a little puzzle to think about.

The monk Gaito lives at the bottom of a hill just outside the ancient town of Huroko. One day, the monk leaves his home at 6:00am and makes his way up the hill along the narrow path that winds its way to the peak. The monk walks all day, occasionally stopping to rest and meditate, sometimes even retracing his steps for short distances, and arrives at the peak at 10:00pm. After spending the night fasting at the top, the monk starts the return journey at 6:00am the next morning and goes down the same narrow winding path, once again stopping occasionally or retracing his steps at various points along the way for contemplation. The monk returns to his home at the base of the hill at 10:00pm.
 
When you consider the monk’s two journeys, is it guaranteed that there will be at least one point along the path where the monk will be located at the same time during the day for both trips?

You can put your solutions and reasons in the comments.

Taking stock of the pandemic

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 to be a global pandemic. In the two years since then, we have passed one grim milestone after another. As of yesterday, there have been 483 million cases worldwide or 6.1% of the total population of 7.9 billion. There have been a total of 6.2 million deaths.

When one looks at the per capita death rates, apart from Peru (which has the highest rate), Brazil, and Chile, the rest of the top 20 countries for cases are in Europe or the US. In fact, the highest ranking country outside Europe and the Americas is at #35 with Tunisia. A similar pattern holds for infection rates.
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The awful Madeline Albright is dead

The first woman to occupy the position of US Secretary of State, that occurred during Bill Clinton’s presidency, died last week and there were many tributes to her for this achievement. While breaking down gender and other barriers is always a good thing, the fact is that Albright’s record was awful, though she fitted in perfectly with the Clintons’ neoliberal, so-called ‘liberal interventionist’, warmongering policies. Glossed over was her infamous comment in 1996 that the estimated deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children due to the cruel sanctions imposed by the US on that country was “worth it”. Here is the clip of her saying it, so casually and cold-bloodedly, that I will never forget it.

Jon Schwarz gives her the send-off that she really deserves by describing all that was wrong with her.
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