Hello, good afternoon, happy Friday. Today is Red (Taylor’s Version) day, and that is all that matters.
Merry Redmas to all
First this week, I know some of you are not familiar with the story of why Taylor Swift is re-recording all of her albums, and so here is a refresher:
Taylor Swift fans entered a state of grace on Friday thanks to the artist re-releasing one of her most beloved albums, 2012's "Red."
Why would one of the biggest names in music — who is already fairly busy releasing multiple albums over the last year and a half — re-record songs from a decade ago? It's because the pop star doesn't own the master recordings of the songs on "Red," which includes hits like "I Knew You Were Trouble," "22" and "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together." Swift doesn't own the masters of any songs on albums she recorded prior to 2019's "Lover."
By re-recording her hits, Swift will have to begin again on songs her fans know all too well so she can reclaim control over her masters. That's a tedious process, but also a savvy business move: It not only boosts Swift's streams and sales, but it also gives her control over her work — or at least the new "Taylor's Version" of them.
Red is my favorite album, and it originally released on my birthday, and I am just having a lovely day.
And now for something completely different
Sorry, I have rather bad news:
From the urban sprawl of Houston to the riverways of Virginia, air pollution from industrial plants is elevating the cancer risk of an estimated quarter of a million Americans to a level the federal government considers unacceptable.
Some of these hot spots of toxic air are infamous. An 85-mile stretch of the Mississippi River in Louisiana that’s thronged with oil refineries and chemical plants has earned the nickname Cancer Alley. Many other such areas remain unknown, even to residents breathing in the contaminated air.
Until now.
ProPublica undertook an analysis that has never been done before. Using advanced data processing software and a modeling tool developed by the Environmental Protection Agency, we mapped the spread of cancer-causing chemicals from thousands of sources of hazardous air pollution across the country between 2014 and 2018. The result is an unparalleled view of how toxic air blooms around industrial facilities and spreads into nearby neighborhoods.
I love the work ProPublica is doing, but wow, we are really being killed by corporations! Seems bad!
Irony poisoning
I feel like we are going to start seeing more stories of this nature:
In life, Dr. Christopher Foley was a beloved husband, father and grandfather. He cycled regularly, played handball and had a passion for Irish music.
As a physician who trained in internal medicine at the University of Minnesota and became a natural medicine doctor, Foley’s “passion lay truly in taking care of other people,” said his son, Logan.
But through his Vadnais Heights-based practice, Foley also spread falsehoods about the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines.
In blog posts over the past year, Foley wrote on his practice’s website that it was dangerous to wear masks and that the drug ivermectin was a proven treatment against COVID-19 — a drug he prescribed for patients even though the Food and Drug Administration warns against it. He reposted false claims about the vaccine made by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a well-known opponent of vaccines who has been banned from social media platforms.
These widely debunked claims run contrary to widely held best practices for treating and preventing COVID. But for some who believe them, misinformation has played a role in developing severe illness from the virus, or even dying.
That includes Foley, who died in October of complications from COVID-19. He was 71. At his funeral, Foley’s son Logan confirmed his father’s death from COVID and that he was unvaccinated. Foley’s death certificate says tobacco use played a role in his death.
Sunlight
This is a good and important response to a bad program:
Aldermen are gearing up for a long-promised hearing on Friday that will give them a chance to grill police leaders and other city officials over their use of a widely criticized gunshot detection technology. Representatives of the tech firm will also be on hand to defend their product.
City Council Committee on Public Safety chair Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29) has promised to hold a hearing on ShotSpotter since September, when Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35) introduced an ordinance (R2021-991) calling on city officials to consider ending the city’s contract with the California-based firm. But the committee is instead scheduled during a 1 p.m. meeting on Friday to take up an earlier resolution (R2021-644) filed by Ald. Raymond Lopez (15) prompting a wider review of the Chicago Police Department’s entire technology landscape.
Chicago in 2018 inked a three-year, $33 million contract with ShotSpotter, which distributes acoustic sensors designed to immediately pick up on gunshots and alert police intelligence officials. The initial deal was set to expire earlier this year, but city leaders in December 2020 exercised a renewal option to extend the contract through Aug. 19, 2023.
But two major public reports have since panned the sensor system as ineffective, kicking up a backlash among activists and some aldermen.
Don’t get complacent
Speaking of the world burning:
“No matter what he says today,” climate activist Lauren MacDonald said through tears in her opening lines at the TED Countdown panel in Edinburgh. “Remember, Shell has spent millions covering up the warnings from climate scientists, bribing politicians, and even paying soldiers to kill Nigerian activists fighting against them, all whilst rebranding to make it look as though they care, and that they have the intention of changing.” She said this even though the TED conference’s organizers had spent four hours pushing her to be more genteel, more “neutral.” She said it even though the man she was talking about, Shell CEO Ben van Beurden, was sitting on the stage with her. When he faltered in his response, MacDonald would not share the stage with him any longer and walked out along with dozens of other activists.
In the aftermath of the TED bust-up, van Beurden went home, opting not to attend COP26 because he said he felt “unwelcome.” At the same time, activists occupied London’s Science Museum to protest its many sponsorship deals with fossil fuel companies. And in the United States, youth climate activists began what would become a two-week hunger strike to demand real climate action from the Biden administration. That strike ended when the group secured various promises from Democrats that a deal on climate policy would be reached—only to have Senator Joe Manchin once again argue that Biden’s Build Back Better bill is just too expensive, demanding that it be run through a thorough analysis by the Congressional Budget Office before he votes on it. Last week, those same activists, still weak from their hunger strike, joined a crowd to swarm Manchin as he drove out of a Washington, D.C., parking garage in his Maserati.
Brexit
I support this, personally:
LGBTQ employees are quitting the BBC because of how it handles stories related to LGBTQ people, VICE World News has learned.
Five former members of staff spoke of how they felt “hidden” and “ashamed” during their time at the BBC, which eventually led them to quit. The most recent resignation was last week.
In a listening session held over Zoom on Monday the 8th of November exclusively for members of the BBC’s Pride network – a group for LGBTQ staff from across the BBC – current employees also talked about being “disappointed and frustrated” by recent issues which have come about in the corporation.
Seems bad
Jes Staley exchanged 1,200 emails with Jeffrey Epstein over a four-year period with content that included unexplained terms such as “snow white”, according to people familiar with the correspondence between the former Barclays chief executive and the convicted sex offender.
Staley resigned from Barclays last week after seeing preliminary conclusions of an investigation by UK regulators, which examined whether he had mischaracterised his relationship with Epstein as purely professional. He has said he will contest the findings.
Central to the probe was a cache of emails first provided to US regulators by JPMorgan, where Staley worked for more than 30 years in various roles including head of the private bank where Epstein was a client.
Big brother
Conservatives like to talk a lot of shit about a “surveillance state” while carrying iPhones around gleefully, but here is an important article about Truly Bad Shit:
Camille Anidi, an attorney on Long Island, quickly understood the flaws of the facial recognition software her employers demanded she use when working from home. The system often failed to recognize her face or mistook the Bantu knots in her hair as unauthorized recording devices, forcing her to log back in sometimes more than 25 times a day.
When she complained, she said, her bosses brushed it off as a minor technical issue, though some of her lighter-skinned colleagues told her they didn’t have the same problem — a common failing for some facial recognition systems, which have been shown to perform worse for people of color.
So after each logout, Anidi gritted her teeth and did what she had to do: Re-scan her face from three angles so she could get back to a job where she was often expected to review 70 documents an hour.
Company down under
Let’s check in on Ozy Media:
Insurance company Clear Blue filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging Ozy Media "misrepresented certain material facts" when applying for an insurance policy from the firm earlier this year.
The suit, filed in a Northern California court by Clear Blue Specialty Insurance company, lists Ozy Media Inc., Ozy Media Cofounders Samir Rao and Carlos Watson, former Ozy Media Chairman Marc Lasry, and Ozy Media investor LifeLine Legacy Holdings LLC as defendants. LifeLine filed a separate lawsuit against Ozy Media, Rao, and Watson in October this year, which claimed Ozy "failed to disclose material information" about its business when soliciting investment from the firm.
The Clear Blue legal case marks the latest challenge for the embattled media company, which imploded in dramatic fashion after the publication of a bombshell New York Times report that raised questions about its business practices. The article included a revelation that Ozy's COO Samir Rao had impersonated a YouTube executive on a February, 2021 conference call while seeking investment from Goldman Sachs.
Whoops!
You deserve some good animal content
Have a good weekend.
Addendums
Amazon’s Spinmasters: Behind the Internet Giant’s Battle With the Press. D.C. Extends Program Diverting Mental Health Calls From Police. On Rikers Island, a Doctor Who Tends to the Oldest and Sickest. Shailene Woodley’s Aaron Rodgers Defense Is Pure Clownery. 'I have seen this job take a life': Hollywood salary and work diaries from an actor, TV editor, and showrunner's assistant.