“Stop saying the problem is just a few bad apples. It’s not an apple problem — it’s an orchard problem. If you went apple picking and the guy who ran the orchard said, “There are a few bad apples out there,” and you said, “How bad?” and they said, “Kill you bad,” you’d say, “This is a bad orchard.”
— Seth Meyers
From an article about New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (The New Leader of the Free World)
Americans don’t have decent healthcare, retirement, education, incomes, governance. Trust and happiness have plummeted, and suicide and hopelessness are skyrocketing. Freedom became free-dumb in America. But in places like New Zealand, it evolved. It became the idea that we are freer when we all have expansive public goods, like healthcare, education, retirement, and so on. […] Americans are regressing backwards in time at light-speed — fast becoming a nation of “low-wage service workers”, an economists’ euphemism for “servants.”
“La Colombe, a Philadelphia-based coffee chain, is taking pages out of the airport and pharmacy handbooks in retrofitting 30 of its cafes in six cities for safety. Customers line up outside, where a greeter takes orders at the door “to keep fingers off of touchscreens.” Once inside, patrons, who must wear masks, move through a line. Rather than use the ribbon tape that creates a maze at an airport check-in, La Colombe has installed acrylic panels to frame the lines. Customers must wait six feet apart, and may add food from the grab-and-go case while waiting in line. Inside seating is still prohibited by law.”
Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer
“If a vaccine against coronavirus becomes available to the public, 49% say they plan to get vaccinated, and 20% say they will not. Another 31% are not sure.”
“Pescetarianism is the practice of adhering to a diet that incorporates seafood as the only source of meat in an otherwise vegetarian diet. Most pescetarians are ovo-lacto vegetarians who eat seafood along with dairy products and eggs.”
“A common reason for adoption of pescetarianism is perceived health, such as fish consumption increasing intake of omega-3 fatty acids which are associated with reduced risk of cerebrovascular disease. Fish and plant food consumption are parts of the Mediterranean diet which is associated with lowered risk of cardiovascular diseases. In one review, pescetarians had relatively low all-cause mortality among dietary groups.” (Wikipedia)
“The first step is to tone down the prophecies of doom and switch from panic mode to bewilderment. Panic is a form of hubris. It comes from the smug feeling that one knows exactly where the world is heading: down. Bewilderment is more humble and therefore more clearsighted. Do you feel like running down the street crying “The apocalypse is upon us”? Try tellng yourself, “No, it’s not that. Truth is, I just don’t understand what’s going on in the world.”
— 21 Lessons for the 21st Century (Yuval Noah Harari)