Welcome to the Overnight News Digest (OND) for Tuesday, April 05, 2016
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing near 12:00AM Eastern Time. Creation and early water-bearing of the OND concept came from our very own Magnifico - respect is due.
This diary is named for its "Hump Point" video: Reunion Blues by Oscar Peterson
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Top News |
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Why North Carolina’s New Anti-LGBT Law is a Trojan Horse
By Nina Martin
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. . .
As has been widely reported, the North Carolina legislature rushed last month to pass HB2, the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, which requires transgender people (and everyone else) to use public restrooms according to the biological sex on their birth certificate. It also bars local governments from passing ordinances like Charlotte’s.
The legislation doesn’t stop there, however. Tucked inside is language that strips North Carolina workers of the ability to sue under a state anti-discrimination law, a right that has been upheld in court since 1985. “If you were fired because of your race, fired because of your gender, fired because of your religion,” said Allan Freyer, head of the Workers’ Rights Project at the N.C. Justice Center in Raleigh, “… you no longer have a basic remedy.”
. . .
Winston-Salem attorney Robin Shea, had a different take: “We expect to see a flurry of summary judgment motions and motions to dismiss wrongful discharge claims based on this amendment.” Shea, partner in a firm that represents employers, called the change a “bomb.”
. . .
The passage affecting discrimination lawsuits amends the North Carolina Equal Employment Practices Act (1977), which declares that it is against the state’s “public policy” to discriminate in employment “on account of race, religion, color, national origin, age, sex or handicap.” The act — which applied to businesses with 15 or more employees — did not contain explicit language allowing alleged victims of job bias to sue. But since the mid–1980s, North Carolina courts have held that the “public policy” doctrine does give people who are wrongfully fired because of discrimination the right to recover damages under common (non-statutory) law. In the space of the 12-hour special session, HB2 “wiped out this entire body of law that’s been in place for the last 30 years,” said Chapel Hill lawyer Laura Noble.
. . .
HB2 “is more evidence that the forces behind this backlash have a larger agenda than simply attacking marriage rights for same-sex couples,” said Katherine Franke, director of Columbia Law School’s Center for Gender and Sexuality Law. “They also seek to unravel protections against race discrimination in public accommodations and other contexts.”
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Is Swearing a Sign of a Limited Vocabulary?
By Piercarlo Valdesolo
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. . .
Results from Study 1 showed that participants generated 400 unique taboo words (see the Results for some of the more colorful entries) and, as the researchers predicted, fluency in generating these words correlated positively with performance on the COWAT. This finding was replicated in Studies 2 and 3, using a written version of the tests as well. The more taboo words participants could generate, the more verbally fluent they were in general.
. . .
That said, these results need to be taken with a grain of salt. Knowledge of taboo words and the regular use of those words are two very different things. I might very well have an encyclopedic knowledge of vulgarity, but I might also have the tact necessary to regulate my language in social situations. In other words, just because verbally fluent people have the ability to cuss with the best of them, does not mean that they will do so. This presents a bit of a problem with the current research since the authors do seem to want to make the claim that their results inform what kinds of people actually curse in the real world. . .
In 1977 Norman Mailer confronted Gore Vidal at a party after Vidal poorly reviewed one of Mailer’s books. Mailer’s anger boiled over and he sent Vidal to the ground with a punch. From the floor, Gore Vidal looked up and famously quipped: “Once again, words have failed Norman Mailer.” No doubt, Vidal could have unleashed a string of profanities at his aggressor. He surely had a mastery of taboo language comparable to his mastery of language in general. But his verbal fluency allowed him to craft an even wittier response. And had words not failed Mailer, perhaps he too would have reacted less crassly.
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LA Will Face Blackouts This Summer Due to Its Gigantic Natural Gas Leak
By Alissa Walker
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. . .
This technical assessment finds that if no gas can be withdrawn from Aliso Canyon during the coming summer months, a significant risk exists of natural gas curtailments during up to 16 days this summer. These curtailments could interrupt service and affect millions of electric customers during as many as 14 summer days.
. . .
The report goes on to list 18 recommendations for ways that Los Angeles can potentially avert the impending energy crisis. This prompted a statement from LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, who said the city is already planning a long-term move away from a reliance on natural gas, but will make a series of short-term energy-saving adjustments. “We will announce rebates and other programs in the coming weeks to help residents and businesses save energy and money—while improving air quality, creating green jobs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” he said. “I will direct all City facilities to improve energy efficiency and decrease power use, especially at times of high demand.” Another major concern on the horizon is that as more natural gas storage facilities are inspected in the wake of this disaster, more plants will be forced to be taken offline. This is, of course, the way that Southern California should be headed in the future—replacing fossil fuels and natural gas with renewable energy sources—but without those new energy sources in place, taking any facilities away will continue to strain the grid.
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Privilege and the Panama Papers
By Iason Athanasiadis
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. . .
Free market legislation and global logistical networks have prised open economies, collapsed distances, extracted value from vulnerable locales, and redirected it to geopolitically powerful centres, all at unmatched speeds. The new global elite whose misdemeanours the Panama Papers document are the creation of this quickest of wealth transfers.
In becoming history's first truly universal platform, the Internet annuls all the local replications in the service supply chain that allowed local communities at regional and local level to benefit from the trickle-down effect.
. . .
Being able to assess, reward and penalise the wasteful or modest among us is important in a post-nation-state age in which the value attached to people and the ease with which they travel ought finally to be delinked from the country in which they happened to be born. The system, which would be global, would surpass any existing electronic tax system by assessing participants not just on their income or free market-dictated expenditures, but on their environmental impact too. Penalising consumerism
The potential for developing this into a tool for checking privilege and anti-ecological behaviour is huge. And given that the infrastructure for the Internet of Things is already largely there, setting up a system that rewards those who live modestly by nourishing themselves locally while taxing the privileged who don’t think twice about jumping on to a transpacific flight, feasting on imported foods or having a high-meat diet, is not a stretch. A carbon credits system similar to what countries already comply with could similarly be widened to include individuals.
If handled well, this could tip the balance of technology away from regulating populations and towards empowering them. Opposition is likely from countries unwilling to forsake power over their citizens. But the Panama Papers are the clearest warning bell that the system is broken and that a mechanism for monitoring privilege is essential at this stage of global integration.
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International |
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'Anti-vax' mother's regret over whooping cough 'nightmare'
By (BBC)
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An Australian mother has said she regrets refusing the whooping cough vaccination during pregnancy after she passed the potentially fatal infection to her newborn baby.
Cormit Avital said she had turned down the vaccination because she was a "healthy, fit, organic woman".
. . .
Within two weeks, Eva's cough "became pretty scary, horror movie, coughing to the point of going blue, flopping in my hands, can't breathe," she said.
"For a moment there you think they're dead in your hands. [It's] a lot of suffering for a tiny little cute thing you love so much." . . .
"There's always a feeling of pregnancy being this special state and you don't want to put anything into your body, but what's really bad for your baby is to get whooping cough or influenza", Dr Buynder added.
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USA |
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'Hello governor, I have my period': Abortion bill protests go viral
By (BBC)
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"Good Morning, I just wanted to inform the governor that things seem to be drying up today. No babies seem to be up in there. Okay?"
For the past week, Indiana Governor Mike Pence's office has been bombarded by calls, emails and Facebook posts like these in protest of a recently introduced anti-abortion bill.
The bill focuses on limiting abortions based on foetus characteristics including foetal abnormalities, gender, race or ancestry. It also requires that fetal remains be buried or cremated.
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"Fertilized eggs can be expelled during a woman's period without a woman even knowing that she might have had the potential blastocyst in her. Therefore, any period could potentially be a miscarriage without knowledge. I would certainly hate for any of my fellow Hoosier women to be at risk of penalty if they do not 'properly dispose' of this or report it," wrote the site's author.
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Welcome to the "Hump Point" of this OND.
News can be sobering and engrossing - at this point in the diary, an offering of brief escapism:
Random notes related to this video:
. . .
OSCAR PETERSON: For over 20 years I’ve had trios of one type of another. And as much as I’ve enjoyed them, it’s quite a long time to spend with one format. With Jazz being the creative and improvisational music it is, the solo [performance] gives me a chance to do whatever I feel like doing at the piano without having to worry about somebody coming with me. I’m not saying this to deride any of the trios, because I have loved each one for various reasons. The solo setting is selfish but it gives me a chance to really get with my instrument and do my own personal thing.
. . .
TW: Bobby Lyle maintains that the Fender Rhodes has a very locked-in sound.
OP: He’s right. That’s the problem with electric piano. You’re dealing with so many overtones and they are forever there. The acoustical piano has a much cleaner deliverance from an audio standpoint—when you hit a note, you hear the note. When you hit a note on an electric piano, it can filter off into other overtones and will roll on you, so to speak. No matter what you do it has a tremendous layover, note for note, that you don’t have on the acoustic piano unless you make it play that way. I feel I can do a lot more with the deviation of sound with an acoustic. As I say, I have nothing against the electric piano; once in a while it’s a nice change and it’s fun to play. They’re fine for the pop players who just use it for certain effects, but not for continual, serious playing in a jazz group.
. . .
TW: Leroy Jenkins came through town a while back and said that, to him, everything is passé except new, free jazz. I mentioned Ellington and he stopped and admitted that Ellington was perhaps the one exception.
OP: He said, “Everything”?
TW: It was a blanket statement that, for him, almost all jazz from the past is passé.
OP: Well, that’s a stupid statement. You can’t wipe away all that talent by saying that. That shows an inadequacy in his own make-up. One thing I teach new players is to respect those who have gone before them. They never would have arrived if the others hadn’t first paved the way. The easiest way to become a talented artist, if you have that kind of talent, is to be very open and receptive to what has gone before you. That gives you a bigger vocabulary and a larger understanding. When I had the Jazz School we insisted that all of the students listen to what had gone on before, whether it be Miles or Bird. You can’t negate a talent like Charlie Parker or Dizzy Gillespie and say it’s passé. It’s the fundamentals of jazz! And to be ignorant enough to say that this is passé … [long pause] You know, it’s people like that I can’t tolerate. I get very upset about that because it’s a form of musical racism that doesn’t exist with true artists. If you were to talk with any of the greats, certainly Duke Ellington or Dizzy Gillespie and so forth, they don’t look around and say, “This isn’t any good from here to here.” They just won’t do that. They are very intelligent and discerning in their likes and dislikes, and I think that’s what helps to make them great artists.
Back to what's happening:
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Environmental |
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21 countries shrank their carbon pollution while growing their economies
By Clayton Aldern
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The WRI analysis lends further support to a trend at the global level of decoupling emissions from economic growth. Last month, the International Energy Agency (IEA) announced that energy-related emissions stayed flat in 2015 for the second year in a row, while global GDP had continued to grow at about 3 percent. In the U.S. alone, there was a 6 percent drop in energy-related carbon emissions and a 4 percent increase in GDP from 2010 to 2012.
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Science and Health |
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The Race to Turn Gassy Hydrogen into Solid Metal
By Matthew Gunther
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. . .
The concept of a hydrogen metal was first proposed in 1935 by Eugene Wigner and Hillard Bell Huntingdon, who theorised that under immense pressures a molecular hydrogen lattice will break apart into atomic hydrogen with electrons flowing freely through the material. Both agreed this state would only reveal itself if hydrogen was placed under a pressure of at least 25GPa.
. . .
Researchers have uncovered several phases of solid hydrogen so far. For the most part, these structures look like the common crystal arrangements of heavier compounds. Up to pressures of around 180GPa, at room temperature, rotating hydrogen molecules fall into a loose hexagonal lattice known as phase I hydrogen. Phase III forms after a slight compression beyond 180GPa and covalent bonds anchor the molecules into hexagonal trimers. If you’re able to bear down on it even further, phase IV will emerge at 230GPa and freely rotating hydrogen molecules will slide in between the trimer layers. But all of these phases are molecular arrangements that bear no relation to a metallic material.
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It remains to be seen whether the community can confirm this new phase. But dealing with such uncertainty is a difficult task and, given the extreme conditions in a diamond anvil, it’s hard to verify results, according to Gregoryanz. ‘It’s extremely difficult to replicate—there aren’t many groups who can load hydrogen into a DAC,’ he says. ‘Then, you have to have an extremely good quality optical setup.’
. . .
If metallic hydrogen is a superfluid, researchers may have a material on their hands that defies understanding. ‘All of the superconductors that we know [of] are solid … and all superfluids are insulators,’ comments Gregoryanz. ‘This liquid hydrogen would be a superconductor and superfluid at the same time—nothing like this has ever been observed.’
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Technology |
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China's 'Great Firewall' blocks its creator
By (BBC)
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The designer of China's "Great Firewall" has been mocked online after he reportedly had to bypass the censorship system that he helped create during a public event.
Fang Binxing was giving a speech on internet security at the Harbin Institute of Technology when he tried to access a South Korean website, but was blocked by the system, according to the Hong Kong-based Ming Pao website. To continue with his speech, he was forced to set up a virtual private network (VPN) - a common practice used to skirt state censorship - in full view of the audience. Perhaps to avoid embarrassment, the university scrapped a scheduled question-and-answer session.
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As "father" of the Great Firewall, Mr Fang has long been a controversial figure among Chinese internet users, and this latest incident quickly drew ridicule on social media. "Blocked by his own system… This is just too hilarious," one Sina Weibo user writes. Another mocks Mr Fang for being so dedicated to his work that he didn't leave a back-door in the system, "even for himself".
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Cultural |
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White Teachers Think Pretty Poorly of Their Black Students
By (Kevin Drum)
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. . . White students didn't suffer from having a teacher of another race. Expectations of dropping out were the same and expectations of getting a college degree were actually higher. Hispanic students were modestly affected. Teachers of other races thought Hispanic students had a slightly higher chance of dropping out and the same chance of completing college.
But black students were enormously affected. Compared to black teachers, teachers of other races thought their black students had a far higher chance of dropping out and a far lower chance of completing college. . .
. . . The general finding of systematic biases in teachers’ expectations for student attainment indicates that the topic of teacher expectations is ripe for future research. Particularly policy relevant areas for future inquiry include how teachers form expectations, what types of interventions can eliminate biases from teacher expectations, and how teacher expectations affect the long-run student outcomes of ultimate import. . .
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Meteor Blades is known to offer an enlightening Evening Open Diary - you might consider checking that out tonight if you haven't already.
