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25 Oct

At the UN climate summit next week, the focus will be on one crucial number: How many degrees hotter will the Earth get? And how do we keep that as low as possible?

Here's what's been done so far — and why scientists say far more drastic action is needed. nyti.ms/3pJuaLg

In 2014, before the Paris climate agreement, the world was on track to heat up nearly 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century. That outcome was widely seen as catastrophic. nyti.ms/3pJuaLg

Now, thanks to rapid growth in clean energy, humanity has started to bend the emissions curve.

Current policies put us on pace for roughly 3 degrees Celsius of warming by 2100 — a better result, but still devastating. nyti.ms/3pJuaLg

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The New York Times

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25 Oct

Exclusive: The gravest problem with the way Amazon treats employees may be one you’ve never heard of. As the company hit record profits, it fired and underpaid employees who sought leaves for medical issues, new parenthood and life crises.
nyti.ms/3B9L5c5

A year ago, Tara Jones, an Amazon warehouse worker, looked at her paycheck and noticed she was underpaid by a significant chunk: $90 out of $540.

The mistake kept repeating after she reported it. She grew so exasperated she wrote an email to Jeff Bezos.
nyti.ms/3jAblX3

Her message triggered an internal investigation and a discovery: Jones was far from alone. Amazon had been short-changing new parents, patients dealing with medical crises and other vulnerable workers on leave, according to a confidential report. nyti.ms/3jAblX3

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The New York Times

@nytimes

25 Oct

Facebook's foundational features, including its Like and share buttons, helped attract billions of people to the platform. But internal documents show the company repeatedly grappling with what it created — and reckoning with the consequences.
nyti.ms/3Gj4oDO

Many of Facebook's findings about its key features have been far from positive, the documents show. Researchers discussed hate speech and misinformation on the platform, and said it was the basics of how the product worked that let that content flourish. nyti.ms/3bafUTo

It may be difficult for Facebook to simply tweak itself to become a healthier social network, especially when so many problems trace back to key features, said a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy Shorenstein Center who studies misinformation.
nyti.ms/3bafUTo

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The New York Times

@nytimes

23 Oct

India is Facebook's largest market, where 340 million use the company's social media platforms. Its problems there are an amplified version of the issues it faces around the world, internal documents show. nyti.ms/3vDD6Ty

In 2019, a researcher created a new Facebook account to see what it was like to experience the platform in India, following recommendations generated by Facebook's algorithms.

The result: an inundation of hate speech, misinformation and violence.
nyti.ms/3jsi1Xu

Dozens of reports written by Facebook employees provide stark evidence of one of the most serious criticisms levied against the company: It moves into a country without fully understanding its impact, and fails to act on issues once they occur. nyti.ms/3jsi1Xu

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The New York Times

@nytimes

23 Oct

The U.S. has suffered through five waves of the pandemic — and now the Delta surge is subsiding.

Experts say what comes next is hard to predict. But looking back at previous outbreaks can provide clues about the future of the pandemic in the U.S. nyti.ms/3B3fuIZ

Covid-19 infections are declining, down 50% from their peak during the Delta surge. We examined what previous Covid-19 waves tell us about the virus now: nyti.ms/3b2aQAv

Early stay-at-home orders and widespread, drastic behavioral changes during the first U.S. outbreaks flattened the curve, preventing the virus from rippling across the country in waves, the way it would in later surges. nyti.ms/3b2aQAv

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The New York Times

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22 Oct

Facebook employees repeatedly flagged misinformation and inflammatory content about the U.S. election, though leadership has publicly placed the blame elsewhere. Documents obtained by The New York Times give new insight into what went on behind the scenes. nyti.ms/3pulJU0

Sixteen months before last November’s U.S. presidential election, a researcher at Facebook described an alarming development. She was getting content about the conspiracy theory group QAnon within a week of opening an experimental account. nyti.ms/3pulJU0

On Nov. 2, the day before the election, another Facebook employee posted a message alerting colleagues that comments with “combustible election misinformation” were visible below many posts. nyti.ms/3pulJU0

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