Hasnain says:

“Producing good data and validating data-sets are the kind of unsexy, undercompensated maintenance work that all infrastructure requires – and, as with other kinds of infrastructure, it is undervalued by journals, academic departments, funders, corporations and governments.

But all technological debts accrue punitive interest. The decision to operate on bad data because good data is in short supply isn't like looking for your car-keys under the lamp-post – it's like driving with untrustworthy brakes and a dirty windscreen.”

Hasnain says:

“The failure to consider only the safety of people inside of vehicles is one likely reason why overall traffic fatalities have been going down for a decade while deaths of people walking have hit levels not seen in 30 years. We simply don’t consider their safety.”

Hasnain says:

“After basic training and advanced individual training, LaGroon was at Fort Polk in Vernon Parish, La. in 2004 when he witnessed a white superior discipline a Latino soldier for being late. A white soldier showed up even more tardy, and received no punishment. LaGroon says that after the incident, other soldiers discussed what they had witnessed and concluded that the junior white soldier was not disciplined because both he and their superior were white.

"Now, whether that's true or not, that's the perception and the perception is the reality," LaGroon says. "It's what I took from it. It's what others around me of different races took from it."”

Hasnain says:

“Race data was only available for 27%, or 89 of the defendants. And of that number, 52% were identified as Black. Of the Black defendants, 91% were identified as male.

"The known proportion of Black defendants compared to the proportion of Black people in the United States, per the latest census data, indicates that Black defendants were dramatically overrepresented," the report stated.”

Hasnain says:

He’s not wrong though?

““Just like you can’t ask toddlers to specify their own lunch, you can’t really have single-family homeowners design a city,” he said at the meeting, advocating for a plan to accommodate concerns from both homeowners and newcomers. “To homeowners out there, I hate to say it, (but) density is coming. But we need to manage the transition.””

Hasnain says:

“Employers have tried a variety of tactics to ease the transition back into offices. Some, like law firm Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt PC, based in Portland, Ore., have held soft reopenings, giving workers a chance to get accustomed to commuting, wearing dress clothes and interacting with colleagues in person again. “It takes a lot longer” to prepare for work than many may remember, said Graciela Gomez Cowger, the firm’s CEO. “You’re out of practice. Just putting on a good shirt and getting dressed is a thing.””

Hasnain says:

“Yesterday's newsletter detailed how the media is largely overlooking voices that supported Biden's decision to withdraw from Afghanistan. Instead media reports are almost exclusively highlighting criticism of the withdrawal — often from people complicit in two decades of failed policy in Afghanistan.

We have reason to believe that this is not an accident. On Wednesday, Popular Information spoke to a veteran communications professional who has been trying to place prominent voices supportive of the withdrawal on television and in print. The source said that it has been next to impossible”

Hasnain says:

They burned people’s passports?!?!

“Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul had concluded on Friday that they had no choice but to shutter America’s diplomatic outpost. They directed personnel to immediately begin the “emergency destruction” of all sensitive documents and materials.

That included incinerating American flags and other U.S. government logos “which could be misused in propaganda efforts,” according to a memo issued to embassy personnel. And, according to Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), passports of Afghan citizens who had applied for American visas were among the documents burned — making it almost impossible to identify them as they seek to leave the country in the coming days.”

Hasnain says:

“The media tends to bend over backwards to ‘both-sides’ all of their coverage, but they made an exception for this,” said Eric Schultz, a deputy press secretary under President Barack Obama. “They both-sides coverage over masks, and vaccines, and school openings and everything else. Somehow [the Afghanistan withdrawal] created a rush to judgment and a frenzy that we haven’t seen in a long time.””

Hasnain says:

In what world does it make sense to destroy millions of tests in the middle of a pandemic?!

“Abbott’s decisions have ramifications even beyond the United States. Employees in Maine, many of them immigrants from African countries, were upset at having to discard what might have been donated. Other countries probably could have used the materials, according to Dr. Sergio Carmona, chief medical officer of FIND, a nonprofit that promotes access to diagnostics.

“This makes me feel sick,” he said of the destruction, noting that more than a dozen African nations have no domestic funds to buy Covid tests.”