Wednesday, October 13, 2021

And another day of mass walkouts, incarceration, 650,000 emails, ‘Brown Sugar,’ heating bills increasing, the higher education system doesn’t make sense, ranking elementary schools, a bow and arrows, and salt comes to a close:

“Change before you have to.” -- Jack Welch

Deaths

US: 739,762 (+2178)

World: 4,888,708 (+7221)

Cases

US: 45,546,217 (+115,050)

World: 239,906,714 (+434,000)

US to reopen land travel from Canada, Mexico. New rules will allow fully vaccinated foreign nationals to enter the U.S. regardless of the reason starting in early November. Unlike air travel, for which proof of a negative COVID-19 test is required before boarding a flight to enter the U.S., no testing will be required to enter the U.S. by land or sea, provided the travelers meet the vaccination requirement.

Trans Netflix staff plan mass walkout after CEO refuses to back down on Dave Chappelle. The walkout, scheduled for 20 October, is being organised by Netflix’s internal trans employee resource group in response to a statement by co-CEO Ted Sarandos defending Chappelle’s The Closer, according to The Verge. The comedy special has been widely criticised for its anti-trans content.

Black Americans are incarcerated at nearly five times the rate of Whites, a new report on state prisons finds. The report found that one in 81 Black adults per 100,000 people in the United States is serving time in a state prison, using data and projections from recent years from the US Census, the US Bureau of Justice Statistics and information provided directly from some states.

Jon Gruden’s grubby bigotry could be just the start of the NFL’s problems. But this is still a league – and a country – where a coach with a history of alleged racist comments can find a job. Where fans boo a moment of silence to acknowledge that, on balance, inequality is probably a bad thing. Where there were three Black head coaches in 2003 when the Rooney Rule was adopted and where there are now … three. Where a team changes its racist nickname only after pressure from sponsors. Where there are rumors that the emails were leaked to the Times and Journal by someone within the NFL not because they were bigoted, but because Gruden insulted Goodell. We may soon discover whether Gruden is an outlier soon enough anyway. The emails were among 650,000 reviewed by the NFL during an investigation into misconduct at the Washington Football Team.

Rolling Stones pull 'Brown Sugar,' song with lyrics about slavery, from live performances. The Rolling Stones dropped "Brown Sugar" from their concert setlist, saying they fear 21st century fans won't grasp that the tune is about "the horrors of slavery" and not celebrating it.

The U.S. government says it expects household heating bills to jump as much as 54% compared to last winter. Prices are surging worldwide for heating oil, natural gas and other fuels.

Our System of Higher Education Doesn’t Make Any Sense. But our education system, particularly our postsecondary education system, is, in reality, a great sorting and selecting process that primarily serves to reinforce and even expand already extant inequality…The entire mechanism is entirely separate from any kind of mission around access and inclusion. That work is left for the nonselective institutions, which are, in turn, provided a fraction of the resources of highly selective institutions because they do not compete in the metrics that matter…We can’t claim that postsecondary education is a great equalizer when our model institutions are expected to compete on metrics like prestige, which are driven by exclusivity and scarcity, and when the single most important indicator of admission is having a relative who previously attended…Looking at where resources and attention go when it comes to higher education in this country, you cannot conclude anything other than we’ve created a great sorting system where being wealthy and white convey a significant starting advantage…None of this is hidden or mysterious.

U.S. News Ranks Elementary and Middle Schools for the First Time. Today, for the first time, U.S. News published rankings of public elementary and middle schools. Like our annual Best High Schools rankings, we hope these statistical assessments are a useful resource for parents in conjunction with the accompanying data we publish on school characteristics. — Stop. Just stop. They ranked only by math and reading scores. As an educator, I know student learning is influenced by many factors, the least of which is actually “education.” 

Assailant kills several people with bow and arrows in Norway. A man armed with a bow and arrows killed several people and wounded others Wednesday near the Norwegian capital of Oslo before he was arrested.

FDA spells out lower sodium goals for food industry. Food companies are coming under renewed pressure to use less salt after U.S. regulators spelled out long-awaited guidelines aimed at reducing sodium levels in dozens of foods including condiments, cereals, french fries and potato chips. The voluntary goals finalized Wednesday for 163 foods are intended to help lower the amount of salt people eat. A majority of the sodium in U.S. diets comes from packaged or restaurant foods -- not the salt added to meals at home -- making it hard for people to make changes on their own.

William Shatner, TV’s Capt. Kirk, blasts into space. Shatner became the oldest person in space, eclipsing the previous record — set by a passenger on a similar jaunt on a Bezos spaceship in July — by eight years. The flight included about three minutes of weightlessness and a view of the curvature of the Earth.

Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.

Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.