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By Scott Wiener, a California authorities legislator who represents San Francisco and bluish San Mateo County.
A specified time aft Elon Musk reactivated Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Twitter account, she tweeted that I’m a “communist groomer,” presumably due to the fact that I’m a cheery Jewish Democratic elected authoritative from San Francisco.
In the past erstwhile Greene has gone aft maine with homophobic oregon transphobic tropes, I’ve received accrued maltreatment connected societal media, but this was an escalation beyond what I’m utilized to. And that escalation, which was particularly pronounced aft the Club Q massacre, was owed little to Greene than to Twitter’s caller owner, Elon Musk.
Since finalizing his acquisition of Twitter, Musk has brought immoderate of the platform’s astir notorious banned users backmost to the flock. The reinstatement of these accounts, including Donald Trump and Kanye West, volition marque Twitter acold much toxic than it was before. And bringing them backmost not lone forgives their past behavior, it validates and enshrines their rhetoric arsenic pillars of Twitter’s level going forward. Read the afloat story.
What Shanghai protesters privation and fear
Nearly 3 years aft the pandemic started, protests person erupted successful cities and towns crossed China. People person taken to the streets to mourn the lives mislaid successful an flat occurrence successful Urumqi and to request that the authorities rotation backmost its strict pandemic policies, which galore blasted for trapping those who died.
It’s the largest grassroots protestation successful China successful decades, and it’s happening astatine a clip erstwhile the Chinese authorities is amended than ever astatine monitoring and suppressing dissent. However, portion discussions among foreigners person excessively often reduced the protests to the astir sensational clips, the world is much complicated. While each the protestors are against the zero-covid controls, their reasonings—and motivations—for pushing change vary wildly. Read the afloat story.
—Zeyi Yang
This communicative is from China Report, our play newsletter giving you the wrong way connected everything that’s happening successful the country. Sign up to person it successful your inbox each Tuesday.
How chemists are tackling the plastics problem
What’s happening: We thin to lump each plastics into 1 category, but h2o bottles, beverage jugs, ovum cartons, and recognition cards are really made from antithetic materials, meaning clip and wealth needs to beryllium invested into separating them astatine recycling facilities.
Now researchers person developed a caller process that tin alteration a substance of respective types of plastics into propane, a elemental chemic gathering artifact that tin beryllium utilized arsenic substance oregon converted into caller plastics oregon different products.
Why it matters: A large payment of the caller attack is that it works connected the 2 astir communal plastics utilized today: polyethylene and polypropylene. Coupled with policies and biology protections, reinventing recycling could play a relation successful preventing immoderate of the worst damages from plastics. Read the afloat story.
—Casey Crownhart
The must-reads
I’ve combed the net to find you today’s astir fun/important/scary/fascinating stories astir technology.
1 Twitter has scrapped its covid misinformation policy
It could unfastened the floodgates for adjacent much untrue claims astir vaccines and the virus. (WP $)
+ Twitter’s erstwhile information brag says Musk ignored his warnings. (WSJ $)
+ Left-wing activists accidental their accounts are being suspended. (The Intercept)
2 FTX spent millions of dollars connected cars and homes
And the close to sanction Miami’s nationalist hoops stadium, for immoderate reason. (FT $)
+ Black investors person been disproportionately stung by the crypto crash. (The Atlantic $)
3 It’s precise hard to foretell erstwhile we’ll autumn ill
And that’s not terribly adjuvant erstwhile we’re entering a wintertime of illness. (Vox)
4 Google isn’t delivering connected its termination extortion promises
Data that could assistance to prosecute radical is inactive being collected, contrary to the company’s pledges. (The Guardian)
+ Texas’ termination prohibition is weighing heavy connected doctors successful the state. (Slate $)
5 A cause has slowed Alzheimer’s cognitive diminution for the archetypal time
It slowed the progression of symptoms by a 4th aft 18 months of treatment. (BBC)
6 Chinese influencers are skirting YouTube’s propaganda ban
It’s been banned successful the state since 2009. (Rest of World)
+ Alibaba’s Jack Ma is surviving successful Tokyo. (FT $)
+ The metropolis of Zhengzhou has closed hundreds of buildings it’s declared precocious risk. (Bloomberg $)
7 Hollocaust survivors person been offered escaped DNA tests
It’s a bid to assistance them way down their families. (ABC News)
8 A hydrogen pitchy motor has been tested successfully
It could pave the mode to reducing aviation emissions. (The Verge)
+ This is what’s keeping electrical planes from taking off. (MIT Technology Review)
9 China’s astronauts person arrived astatine its abstraction station
They’ll unrecorded and enactment onboard for the adjacent six months. (Reuters)
10 Amazon wants to people your sleep
Tech and slumber don’t thin to beryllium accepted bedfellows. (NYT $)
+ I tried to hack my insomnia with technology. Here’s what worked. (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“There are 2 types of radical successful the world. People who cheque their telephone successful the bathroom, and radical who prevarication astir checking their telephone successful the bathroom.”
—Nir Eyal, an writer and lecturer who writes astir habits, explains the grade to which we can’t carnivore to beryllium separated from our devices to the Washington Post.
The large story
December 2021
For years, Beijing scenery designer Yu Kongjian was ridiculed by his chap citizens arsenic a backward thinker, partially acknowledgment to his absorption to dams, those symbols of powerfulness and advancement successful modern China.
Yu’s transgression: helium advised moving with water, alternatively than trying to power it. He’s astatine the forefront of a question that aims to reconstruct the ebb and travel of h2o to municipality environments.
His extremity is to make flexible spaces for h2o to dispersed retired and seep underground, some to forestall flooding and to beryllium stored for aboriginal use. And portion it whitethorn look radical, making abstraction for h2o successful populated areas is possible, and perchance our champion accidental astatine reducing aboriginal floods. Read the afloat story.
—Erica Gies
We tin inactive person bully things
A spot for comfort, amusive and distraction successful these weird times. (Got immoderate ideas? Drop maine a line or tweet 'em astatine me.)
+ Airports are ace expensive. Know your enemy.
+ The eclectic Assassin’s Creed soundtrack reflects its genre-bending gameplay perfectly.
+ If you’re starting your Christmas buying early, these music books each dependable fantastic.
+ I would besides similar to see this.
+ To think, we could’ve had glad Goombas!
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