It’s time once again for news and views that you can peruse! It’s another Weekly Reader! As always, if you have something awesome you’d like to share, drop a link in the comments!
How the State Created Fast Food (from Current Affairs): “Because of—not despite—consistent government intervention in the industry, we might call fast food the quintessential neoliberal cuisine. Tracking how the world’s public institutions have lined up to aid the industry’s expansion, while at the same time having rolled back their support for the people they are responsible for protecting, can help us understand how one of the most destructive ideologies of our time has shaped our world.”
The forgotten oil ads that told us climate change was nothing (from The Guardian): “Why is meaningful action to avert the climate crisis proving so difficult? It is, at least in part, because of ads.”
More than 300 scientists have told Mark Zuckerberg they want access to Meta’s internal research on child and teen mental health because it doesn’t meet scientific standards (from Yahoo!): “The letter says Meta can commit to safeguarding teen mental health by introducing “gold standard transparency,” allowing outside researchers to scrutinize and participate in its research. It also says Meta can participate in external studies around the world, offering up its data voluntarily.”
A Much-Hyped COVID-19 Drug Is Almost Identical to a Black-Market Cat Cure (from The Atlantic): “The story of a drug first tested against Ebola (that failed), whose close cousin became a groundbreaking treatment for a cat disease (but only illegally), and that has been resurrected in the pandemic of an entirely new virus underscores the vagaries of drug development. To be clear, while remdesivir is in clinical trials, GS-441524 has not been tested in humans for safety or efficacy against COVID-19. The black-market formulations of GS-441524 are also incredibly expensive. A 12-week regimen for cats can cost upwards of $10,000, depending on the brand, type of FIP, and weight of the cat. Plus, there is no legal way to buy GS-441524 as medicine—not for cats, not for humans.”
“Debate me, bro!”: Debate challenges by science deniers in the age of COVID-19 (from Science Based Medicine): “Most of us who’ve followed Dr. Oz and his promotion of quackery going back to his days on The Oprah Winfrey Show as “America’s doctor”—or, as I coined the phrase, “America’s quack”—could only look on with a mix of amusement, contempt, and resignation (just look at the responses and quote Tweets if you don’t believe me) as Dr. Oz tried to milk this challenge to aid his fundraising campaign to win the Republican nomination for Pennsylvania Senator this year. Grifter that he is, Dr. Oz knows quite well that Dr. Fauci would never accept such a “challenge” and that he probably couldn’t accept such a challenge even if he wanted to given his high ranking position at the NIH. However, the marks from whom he’s trying to raise campaign cash don’t know that.”
Michigan GOP governor candidate says rape victims shouldn’t have abortions, baby might be ‘next president’ (from NBC News): “Soldano, a chiropractor running in a crowded Michigan race, said that he wants to promote a culture that inspires pregnant women to have their babies and lets them know “how heroic they are and how unbelievable that they are, that God put them in this moment. And they don’t know that little baby inside them may be the next president, may be the next person that changes humanity.””
Furry Panic Is the Latest Dumb GOP Attack on Public Schools (from The Daily Beast–a side note: there is a problematic subgroup of furries who are right wing): “In Pennsylvania, Maine, Michigan, and Iowa in recent months, school board meetings have been disrupted by allegations that educators are giving special treatment to furry students. While false, the widespread hoaxes play into a broader right-wing effort to discredit and demand further control over public education.”
Banned: Books on race and sexuality are disappearing from Texas schools in record numbers (from NBC News): “Her safe haven is now a battleground in an unprecedented effort by parents and conservative politicians in Texas to ban books dealing with race, sexuality and gender from schools, an NBC News investigation has found. Hundreds of titles have been pulled from libraries across the state for review, sometimes over the objections of school librarians, several of whom told NBC News they face increasingly hostile work environments and mounting pressure to pre-emptively pull books that might draw complaints.”
That’s all for today. But I’ll be back next time with more interesting reads for you. Until then, have a great rest of the week and happy reading!
Iacon East 