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You Won’t Believe This: Researchers Trying To ‘Inoculate’ People Against Misinformation (Maria)
The author writes, “As head of the Social Decision-Making Lab at the University of Cambridge, Prof. Sander Van der Linden is studying the power of lies and how to keep people from believing them. He has become academia’s biggest proponent of a strategy pioneered after the Korean War to ‘inoculate’ humans against persuasion, the way they are vaccinated against dangerous infections. The recipe only has two steps: First, warn people they may be manipulated. Second, expose them to a weakened form of misinformation. … ‘The goal is to raise eyebrows (antibodies) without convincing (infecting),’ Van der Linden and his colleague Jon Roozenbeek wrote recently in JAMA.”
More Than Half Million Early Voters in Georgia Didn’t Vote in 2020 (Reader Steve)
From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “More than half a million people in Georgia who didn’t vote in the presidential election four years ago cast a ballot this month during early voting, according to an analysis by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and GeorgiaVotes.com. As of Wednesday morning, those 613,000 voters include new residents, Georgians who weren’t old enough to vote four years ago, as well as residents who have moved back after a time living in other states and voters who were registered for decades but just skipped 2020.”
Meet the Gun-Toting Brits Who Will Vote for Donald Trump (Al)
From Politico: “British Trump voters in Georgia canvassed by Politico said their experiences living in America under Democrat rule had made up their minds. Trump-backing Brits typically cite the economic woes they experienced under the Joe Biden administration, including rampant consumer and business inflation, as reasons to cast their ballots for the Republican. Abortion, foreign affairs and the gender debate come up in conversation too — not to mention Trump’s perceived mistreatment at the hands of the media and the so-called Washington elite.”
Progressives Gear up for Their First Big Fight if Harris Wins: Protecting Lina Khan (DonkeyHotey)
From NBC News: “Anxious liberals have held their fire as Vice President Kamala Harris tacks to the center, but recent calls from some allies that she part ways with a popular, progressive financial regulator if she wins the White House has sparked warnings from her party’s left flank of a potential ‘out and out brawl.’ For many in the progressive movement, the question of whether to keep Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan represents a pivotal question about the party’s future: whether it will double down on taking on big corporations and breaking up monopolies and concentrations of power, or walk away from the cause.”
‘We Are Essentially in a New Gilded Age’: As Workers Get Laid Off, CEOs and Shareholders Gobble Up Hundreds of Billions in Profits (Reader Jim)
The author writes, “Taking a modern-century spin on ‘Let them eat cake,’ shareholders are having the whole cake, and eating it too. It’s no shock the boardroom is able to stay above the fray as wealthy members are more equipped to weather economic downturns. But it turns out CEOs and shareholders are walking away with an even greater slice of profits than one might think.”
‘I Panic When I Hear Rain’: New York’s Deadly Basement Apartments Face Growing Flooding Risk (Laura)
The author writes, “In September 2021, Hurricane Ida deluged New York City with floodwaters and record rainfall — and killed 13 New Yorkers, including 11 who drowned in basement homes. … The tragedy highlighted the flood danger of the underground dwellings — estimated at about 100,000 in 2008 — and supercharged a movement to make basements a safer housing option.”
Meet Hawaii’s ‘Jewels of the Forest’ — Some of the Rarest Animals on Earth (Dana)
From NPR: “When Hurricane Douglas came barreling toward Oahu in 2020, David Sischo quickly packed up and drove to higher ground. But he wasn’t evacuating his family. He was evacuating snails. Sischo works with some of the rarest endangered species on the planet, kāhuli — Hawaii’s native tree snails. The colorful, jewel-like snails were once so abundant, it’s said they were like Christmas ornaments covering the trees. Almost all of the 750 different species were found only in Hawaii. Today, more than half of those species are gone, the extinctions happening in the span of a human lifetime.”
