Hasnain says:

“Volcanic explosions as fearsome as Krakatau’s and Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai’s are extraordinarily infrequent on human timescales. And so far, it seems as if such monstrous bellowing is incapable of causing severe wave peaks worldwide. When it comes to tsunamis caused by the atmosphere, “weather-driven meteotsunamis are still really what we’re concerned with from a public safety standpoint,” said Dusek.

Tonga’s marine manifestation wasn’t a horror show. But it did remind scientists that nature’s deployment of even the smallest quirks of physics can lead to global consequences.”

Hasnain says:

No words for this one. Holy crap.

“The Marshall Project and NPR have found that in at least 36 states and Washington, D.C., state foster care agencies comb through their case files to find kids entitled to these benefits, then apply to Social Security to become each child's financial representative, a process permitted by federal regulations. Once approved, the agencies take the money, almost always without notifying the children, their loved ones or lawyers.”

Hasnain says:

The rate of change here is really scary.

“Otherwise, teachers warn they and their colleagues won’t stay in the profession long-term.
“Our experiences are so universal, and it sounds like we’re complaining,” said Dina Ley, 39, a high school English teacher in Pennsylvania who is considering leaving at the end of the year. “We’re not complaining, we are hurting. … Teachers truly, truly love their jobs. It’s sad to see how many of us are so disillusioned with it all.””

Hasnain says:

The scale of fraud here is impressive. Examples include billing the government for a woman with prostate cancer (because they would just bill both people in a marriage for each condition…).

“In 2017, the Justice Department intervened in a case against UnitedHealth, the largest Medicare Advantage provider. It sued Anthem in 2020. A whistleblower suit against Cigna was also unsealed that year. The companies are fighting the cases and have disputed allegations of wrongdoing. CVS Health and Humana have also both disclosed investigations into their risk adjustment practices and said they’re cooperating with the probes. UnitedHealth and CVS declined to comment for this story. Representatives for Anthem, Cigna and Humana didn’t respond to requests for comment. The Department of Justice declined to comment.”

Hasnain says:

“"So like with the Titanic, you think, 'What's the safest way to possibly send this book to America - surely the unsinkable ship is the safest way to send it?' And so this book kind of consciously conspires against you and the more you try, the worse the result."”

Hasnain says:

Absolutely fascinating human interest story on a so called expert on serial killers who - depending on your perspective - made it all up, or faked it till he made it. Goes into the psychology behind such a person, serial killers, and investigations of fraud.

“A person who was once close to Bourgoin told me that he was an “excellent actor” and “extremely convincing, because, when he lies, he believes it very strongly, and so you believe it, too.” At the table, though, Bourgoin was diffident. He didn’t seem to be putting much effort into making me—or, possibly, himself—believe what he said. Or maybe he believed it so deeply that the delivery was no longer relevant. When I asked how many killers he had actually interviewed, he replied, in English, “It depends. Each time I was going to a jail, I asked to meet serial killers other than the ones I was authorized to film or interview. So sometimes at Florida State Prison I met in the courtyard during the promenade—I don’t know, two? five?—other serial killers.” He was just as evasive on other subjects.”

Hasnain says:

“In a society more open to letting evidence guide policy and less invested — financially, culturally, psychically — in police as a civic cure-all, the reaction to Tuesday’s tragic events might have unfolded differently, with greater circumspection. Instead, New Yorkers and the country got to watch in real time, as a story about a tragedy that the police were powerless to prevent was speedily reframed as a story about the need for even more police.”

Hasnain says:

“Let women of color do the technical work they were hired to do. Provide administrative support if they’re recruiting speakers for employee resource groups or other diversity efforts. Hire an office manager to restock office supplies, or establish a rota system. Don’t ask computer scientists to play HR.

And at a minimum, pay them for their extra work.”

Hasnain says:

So glad this is being written about - the more I read about the subway shooting the more I think it’s the perfect argument for defunding the police. The NYPD gets 10 billion a year (if it was a military, it would be the 24th largest in the world) and has 3500 cops on subways. Yet:

- the cops at the station failed to stop the shooter or identify him
- They claimed they have 10k cameras all over the city in stations and the three on the station in question were the only ones broken that day
- A cop failed to follow protocol, letting the shooter get away
- radios weren’t working so a cop asked people to call 911 instead
- they only identified the shooter because he dropped his credit card and keys at the scene
- the shooter called in his location and cops failed to show up until a security camera installer found him and called him in (go Zach!)
- this location was just a block away from where the counter terrorism unit was harassing homeless people

I could go on and will edit in a few more things, but… sigh.

“And New Yorkers see this daily. We see police playing on their phones while they lounge around subway stations; we see them unmasked in our stores; and we see them parked in our bike lanes, always ignoring our requests to change their behavior. So when the Mayor says he plans to double the number of police officers in the subway, New Yorkers are right to be skeptical. We know too well how they don’t keep us safe, from mass shootings or otherwise. And we know that real answers like housing, mental health provisions, and education might actually help us build a safer, less violent world.”

Hasnain says:

“"I think that we're dramatically undercounting cases. We're probably only picking up one in seven or one in eight infections. So when we say there's 30,000 infections a day, it's probably closer to a quarter of a million infections a day," FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said during an appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "They're concentrated in the Northeast right now. And that's because a lot of people are testing at home, they're not presenting for definitive PCR tests, so they're not getting counted."”