Hasnain says:

““Almost every woman I know of at Blizzard has a story of either actual, literal sexual assault that they were afraid to go to HR about, or a man with power over her, undermining her and taking credit for her work, dismissing her, talking over her, being the last person to get promoted, despite being eminently capable,” said Jennifer Klasing, a former World of Warcraft quest designer who left the company in October 2020. “Almost every single woman I know that’s been there longer than a year has at least one of these stories.””

Hasnain says:

“Pro-Trump conservatives like Carlson, meanwhile, once more find themselves on the outside looking in, Trump’s political project having failed, unable to successfully manipulate the system in order to overturn last November’s election result. American conservatism is a hollowed, clapped-out venture in search of an idea, a movement completely consumed and its ideas subsumed by the all-encompassing culture war. To be “hated by all the right people,” as Carlson supposedly said of Orbán’s Hungary the other night, is not an ideology but rather a siege mentality. Pull back the curtain and there is nothing there save white rage and an unabashed admiration of those willing to channel it.”

Hasnain says:

“UKG, a payroll and time-management firm, found that shifts among hourly workers in those states grew at about half the rate as states that continued the benefit — the opposite trend of what one might expect.”

Hasnain says:

Wait so Apple has a way to disable encryption remotely?

“According to people briefed on the plans, every photo uploaded to iCloud in the US will be given a “safety voucher” saying whether it is suspect or not. Once a certain number of photos are marked as suspect, Apple will enable all the suspect photos to be decrypted and, if apparently illegal, passed on to the relevant authorities.”

Hasnain says:

“In effect, media coverage has run with the same reductive orientalist cliché peddled by the Congee Queen: that congee, just like Chinese culture itself, is rigidly traditional, exotic, and unfamiliar to America; that it is steeped in history; and that any change or adjustment is to be regarded as blasphemy. In propagating a narrative that slow-cooked rice and water is considered sacred by Asians, while leaving out the more colorful and trendy aspects of congee’s culinary identity, media coverage does a disservice to readers by failing to shine a light on how inaccurate Karen Taylor’s portrayal of Chinese congee really is, while also failing to explain the more insidious essence of cultural appropriation.

Viewed another way, the flattened story allowed defenders of Taylor to portray her critics as an “Asian mob” canceling a white entrepreneur in a case of overblown cultural gatekeeping.”

Hasnain says:

“State and federal officials should maintain the momentum by requiring vaccination to enter more public facilities and helping the private sector do the same by easing vaccination verification. Yes, some share of the population will never get vaccinated, but many merely need their apathy or hesitancy to become more inconvenient than getting a shot.

Bay Area officials also continued to take the lead Monday on another precaution by mandating masks indoors, which is appropriate until surging infections abate and vaccination rates increase. It’s also become clear that dropping most restrictions on gatherings, as California did in June, was a mistake. While lockdowns aren’t warranted or feasible, limiting indoor crowding would be wise in places where unvaccinated people are or might be present. Pretending the pandemic is over is no substitute for making it so.”

Hasnain says:

This is so terribly scary. They hosted some articles (rightly) critical of the CEO and suddenly eBay contractors were harassing them (sending bloody pigs heads and other deliveries), threatening them (tagging their fence, various tweets) and stalking them (flew to the area and drove by, tried to install a tracker on the car). Whew.

“In June 2020, federal prosecutors announced criminal charges against six former eBay employees and a contractor. The company apologized to the Steiners, and in a lengthy statement said it had conducted its own investigation that had resulted in terminating all of the employees charged by the government plus communications chief Wymer, who has not been charged.

The investigation also found that former CEO Wenig had made “inappropriate communications” but did not have advance knowledge of the harassment and stalking. Wenig, who was not charged, was allowed to resign in September 2019 with a compensation package worth $57 million; the Steiner scandal was a “consideration” in his departure, the company has said.”

Hasnain says:

This was a pretty insightful read on what the TPM role is and how they can help in large organizations. The article is great despite leaning into a lot of buzzwords (my mind glossed over all the synergies)

“The mission I set for my TPM team at DoorDash is to drive complex, cross-functional engineering initiatives. Their primary contributions include effective program management, lightweight and appropriate process definition, and ensuring program success metrics are understood and achieved. All of this is driven through the lens of a strong technical perspective, which allows the TPM to contribute directly to the program’s successful definition and execution by uncovering and solving for gaps rather than simply reporting progress given by engineers who are working on the program. A strong TPM will enable proactive and timely strategic decisions, clear alignment across teams and stakeholders, accountability and ownership, and successful execution of the program’s objectives.”

Hasnain says:

I’m just gonna steal this description I saw on Twitter because it’s quite apt. A lot of this is already bordering on slave labor, and, oof.

“1) let eviction moratorium expire in the middle of a surging pandemic & economic crisis
2) criminalize homelessness
3) put now homeless, newly incarcerated people to work for thirty cents an hour
4) PROFIT 💰💰💰”

Hasnain says:

“On Sunday, Tsimanouskaya reposted a statement from the Belarus Olympic Committee saying she had been removed from competition due to her “emotional and psychological state.”

“This is a lie,” she wrote.

Tsimanouskaya told Belarusian sports news outlet Tribuna that a senior coach in Minsk and another official had called to tell her to delete her earlier video from Instagram if she wanted to continue her athletic career. And she said the head coach of the national team, Yuri Moisevich, had suggested she should claim an injury and bow out of her race and the Games, as she was interfering with the team’s performance.”