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737 lines
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<title>06 September, 2021</title>
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<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<body>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Link Between Texas’s New Abortion Law and Its New Voting Laws</strong> - For decades, Republican strategists have seen exploiting both issues as a way to hang on to power. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-link-between-texass-new-abortion-law-and-its-new-voting-laws">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>It’s Still the Coronavirus Economy</strong> - A disappointing jobs report shows that mass vaccination hasn’t yet broken the link between the pandemic and our economic fortunes. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/its-still-the-coronavirus-economy">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Andrew Cuomo Left Behind a Rent-Relief Debacle</strong> - As many as a million households in New York qualify for pandemic rental assistance, but the state has failed for months to get the money out the door. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/andrew-cuomo-left-behind-a-rent-relief-debacle">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In the Northeast, Hurricanes Now Look Very Different</strong> - That I could have ever found such a visitation of chaos invigorating is amazing to me. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/in-the-northeast-hurricanes-now-look-very-different">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Manifold Threats of the Texas Abortion Law</strong> - It not only violates abortion precedents but also attempts to shield illegal statutes from the courts. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-manifold-threats-of-the-texas-abortion-law">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>What an enormous global study can tell us about feeling better during the pandemic</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="A drawing of a person on a balance board with a smiley face over one hand and a frown face over
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the other." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/l0g4M8gi_4oxkyLR61EGyziu8kM=/167x0:2834x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69821501/GettyImages_1318638817.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Cognitive reappraisal is a component of therapy that can encourage positive patterns of thinking and behavior. | Getty Images
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Hundreds of psychologists looked for ways to make people feel better during the pandemic — and they found one.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XzAyeV">
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During the pandemic, I’ve spent a lot of time alone. I live by myself. I work from home. At times, I experienced fits of fidgetiness and restlessness, contributing to feelings of burnout.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ecFANQ">
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Here’s what helped: reappraising the situation.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EYq4k0">
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What I was feeling was isolation, and the loneliness that comes with it. Instead of letting it gnaw at me, I tried to remember: <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/6/7/11844724/loneliness-explained">Loneliness is normal</a>, sometimes even <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/6/7/11844724/loneliness-explained">useful</a>. I remembered that sadness existed in part to remind me of something I really value, the company of other people. I knew, when the opportunity arose, I’d reorient myself to immersion with others. And when that time came, I’d embrace it; it was a reminder that I was still capable of feeling the joy I had been lacking. And as a consolation, that felt good.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JGIBYZ">
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Cognitive reappraisal — sometimes called cognitive reframing — is most commonly encountered in therapy, where it’s used to regulate emotions. It’s a component of cognitive behavioral therapy, a whole suite of strategies that can encourage positive patterns of thinking and behavior.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ltqBSH">
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Reappraisals are useful. But they’re not something people learn exclusively in the context of clinical care. It’s arguably a skill we all can benefit from. And by “we all,” I mean just about everyone, all across the globe.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PiKJMQ">
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Recently, hundreds of researchers in 87 countries <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01173-x">published the results</a> of the largest cognitive reappraisal study to date in <em>Nature Human Behavior</em>. They were asking a simple question: Could they make people feel better about the pandemic, if only for one moment in time, by teaching reappraisals? The study, which amassed data on more than 20,000 participants, came back with a resounding answer: yes.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4qgKHi">
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The new study validates the concept of reappraisal. But it also suggests that it could potentially be feasible to deploy as a large-scale global health intervention.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bggySM">
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It’s a simple skill, but it could help many people foster resilience in a chaotic world.
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt="A drawing of a person wearing a breathing mask, standing
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looking out of a window." src="https://cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/thumbor/Nwm4RkBAVm74q5nAOl7znS3_sZk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22821221/GettyImages_1252382026_1.jpg"/> <cite>Getty Images</cite></figure></li>
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</ul>
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<figcaption>
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During the pandemic, I was experiencing isolation and feeling the loneliness that comes with it.<strong> </strong>Instead of letting it gnaw at me, I tried to remember: Loneliness is<strong> </strong>normal, sometimes even<strong> </strong>healthy.
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</figcaption>
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<h3 id="H0l8ev">
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Cognitive reappraisal, explained
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MLmZ7s">
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The peer-reviewed paper in <em>Nature Human Behavior</em> is the most recent project from the <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/22360363/replication-crisis-psychological-science-
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accelerator">Psychological Science Accelerator</a>, a group of hundreds of researchers who combine their resources to pull off psychological studies with massive participant pools and an unusually rigorous methodology.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B5qW57">
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Near the start of the pandemic, the group put out a call for project proposals to test psychological interventions that could, simply, help people feel better.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C4yiLK">
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“The reason why we choose cognitive reappraisal is because it has been the most widely studied and well-understood strategy,” <a href="http://jenniferlerner.com/people/ke-wang/">Ke Wang</a>, the Harvard Kennedy School doctoral student who first proposed this massive project, explains. It’s also a strategy that people don’t always use <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24999912/">spontaneously on their own</a>: It helps to be taught.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rPLqBQ">
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(The group has two other papers testing different psychological interventions, on how public health messaging in the pandemic can influence behavior. Of note: They’re testing whether “<a href="https://psysciacc.org/studies/psacr-1-2-3/">loss aversion</a>,” an influential idea that suggests people respond more strongly when they think they have something to lose, encourages people to protect their health during a pandemic.)
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gy2alK">
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Cognitive reappraisal works because “there’s a link between our thoughts and our feelings,” <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=igOYGOYAAAAJ&hl=en">Kateri McRae</a>, a University of Denver psychologist who studies emotion and who was not involved in this study, says. “A lot of times, our feelings are preceded by certain thoughts.” So when we shift our thoughts, that can precipitate a change in our emotions.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OmQSQZ">
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It can be a strategy to cope with a bout of anxiety or depression, or it can just be used to foster mental health resilience. “Individuals who report greater amounts of well-being and daily positive emotion report using reappraisal more frequently than people who report daily negative emotion,” McRae says — though she adds that “there is a little bit of a chicken-and-egg thing here.” What comes first: Do positive people reappraise, or do reappraisers become positive people? “But I certainly think that most people consider it to be something that might serve as a buffer.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j08fPf">
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Once you get the hang of the technique, it’s easy to apply reappraisal thinking to many different situations. For instance, sometimes when I felt the excruciating boredom of the pandemic winter lockdown, I tried to reappraise the feeling of boredom as peacefulness, the absence of a bad thing. “I’m lucky to be bored,” I’d think. It would make the bitter pill go down more easily.
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</p>
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<aside id="1qzIL6">
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<div>
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</div>
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</aside>
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<h3 id="vxV7kc">
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Emotion regulation passes a massive worldwide test
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oSwAgi">
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Wang and the hundreds of other authors wanted to see if they could teach thousands of people around the world similar coping strategies, to help deal with the stress of the pandemic.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2HUH8x">
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They conducted a preregistered study — meaning a study where the methods and analysis plans are locked into place before data collection begins, to help ensure rigor — and tested two subtly different reappraisal methods, targeting negative emotions associated with living through the pandemic.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fGb5OU">
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The first method is called “refocusing.” It might be better described as “looking on the bright side.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8xphrm">
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Let’s say you’re feeling sad, staying home during a lockdown. You can refocus your thoughts to some of the more positive aspects of staying at home. Like: “Staying at home is not that bad,” as Wang explains. “You may find more time to spend with your family, or do things you may not have had time to do, such as cooking.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VCmbUE">
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Another is called “reconstruing.” This goes a little beyond just looking at the bright side of any particular burden, trying to find an overall less-negative narrative to tell ourselves about the pandemic. It’s less about finding the positive in our individual circumstances and more about looking at the big picture in a new light.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0BWGKE">
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In reconstruing the burdens of the pandemic, for example, you could think: “In the past, people have overcome many challenges that seemed overwhelming at the time, and we will overcome Covid-19 related challenges too,” as the study text suggested to participants.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ASVXPZ">
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This isn’t about becoming a blinkered robot that’s only allowed to think positive thoughts. “In our intervention, we’re not forcing them to feel positive all the time,” Wang explains. “We’re teaching them to use it to regulate emotions.” It’s about intervening when thoughts become distressing.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Va9TrY">
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It’s not about never acknowledging negative thoughts, either. “I think there’s a really delicate balance between acknowledging the reality, allowing people to sometimes sit with negativity, but also realizing that positive interpretations of things are possible,” McRae says.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fyzavV">
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In the study, participants were assigned to read about refocusing, reconstruing, or two control conditions. Participants took a survey before they learned the technique to assess their baseline emotional state. Afterward, they were measured again and asked to assess their feelings overall about the pandemic, and how they are responding to it.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QFYyLs">
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Notably, both techniques fared equally well in decreasing people’s negative emotions, and the effects, the authors report, aren’t just statistically significant — they seemed to make a big practical difference for people.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7ZYWBQ">
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The difference in feelings between those who learned reappraisals, compared to those who did not, was as big as the difference between people who had faced extreme hardships due to the pandemic, compared to those who had not. That’s a notable improvement. (Of course, the interventions are not “guaranteed” to work for any particular individual. The study reported changes on average.)
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SS8w04">
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Also, the interventions didn’t seem to decrease willingness to engage in Covid-safe behaviors like masking. “Some people may worry that if you improve emotions, people may be less cautionary,” Wang says. “But we don’t find that in our study.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aPskQb">
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Notably, too, the interventions — which were translated <a href="https://psysciacc.org/2021/08/02/releasing-the-results-of-the-psas-covid-rapid-
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project/">by a team of hundreds of people</a> into 44 languages — broadly worked in every country tested, though there was some variability. The interventions were most effective in Brazil, Germany, and Hungary, and they were least effective in Russia, Romania, and Egypt. “So far, we haven’t found anything that can systematically explain what country can benefit more or less,” Wang says. (The researchers didn’t have representative samples in all the countries studied, so there could be a lot of reasons why they found the variation.)
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt="A
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drawing of a face in profile with the main image smiling and the shadow image behind it not smiling." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/8gPQv7CVjbsjBkjlw6_e1-LZpyw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22821275/GettyImages_1270386565.jpg"/> <cite>Getty Images</cite></p>
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<figcaption>
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“A lot of times, our feelings are preceded by certain thoughts,” says Kateri McRae, a University of Denver psychologist. So when we shift our thoughts, that can precipitate a change in our emotions.
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<h3 id="7u98T5">
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A psychological finding you can trust
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eidVqY">
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The narrower conclusion of this study, that cognitive reappraisal works, is not super surprising. “The finding that reappraisal decreases negative emotion and increases positive emotion is something that has been replicated over and over and over ad nauseam,” McRae says. “I couldn’t just get that finding published if I really wanted to, because it’s been so well-established.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Hvcx6Z">
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But there were aspects of the study that are new and significant. “I think this scale, scope, and timeliness to speak to the crisis we’re in right now were the most impressive parts about it,” she says.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QUgxaN">
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There’s a burgeoning <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2019/9/17/20827011/teen-depression-
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anxiety-treatment-single-session">research movement in psychology</a> dedicated to testing out single-session interventions, delivered either online or remotely. Mental health care is often inaccessible and expensive, so the more psychological interventions that can be unbundled from a whole suite of intensive therapy, the more good they can potentially do around the world. Many people whose distress doesn’t rise to the level of a mental health diagnosis could still benefit, the study suggests.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p5sPYR">
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That said, there’s still more work to do here. Other researchers not involved in the project wish it had studied these participants over time, to see if the intervention had a lasting effect.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IGqcL1">
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“A study this large would have provided a particularly informative test of whether a single- session universal intervention could exert lasting, more generalized effects,” says Jessica Schleider, a Stony Brook University psychologist who specializes in studying single-session psychological interventions. “I do think it’s scientifically valuable to know that reappraisal can<em> </em>provide in-the-moment support this broadly, and it can be recommended as one coping option to try for folks in distress.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IXwNjH">
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The authors of the paper acknowledge this limitation, and some others. The study had people view photos reminding them of Covid-19 stresses, which “might not represent local situations for different groups of participants,” the authors report. It also doesn’t represent all the myriad emotional triggers we encounter living during a pandemic. But most of all, they see this work as foundational for other questions.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iGUpcW">
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The <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/22360363/replication-crisis-
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psychological-science-accelerator">Psychological Science Accelerator</a>, the group behind the massive undertaking of the paper, was launched in response to psychology’s “replication crisis.” Over the past decade, many famous psychological theories have collapsed under rigorous re-testing. As many as 50 percent of all psychology papers might not be replicable, though no one knows the true extent of the rot in the foundations of psychology. There have also been some high-profile cases of outright <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/9/19/17879102/brian-wansink-
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cornell-food-brand-lab-retractions-jama">data fraud</a><a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniemlee/dan-
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ariely-honesty-study-retraction"> related</a> to some of psychology’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/6/13/17449118/stanford-prison-experiment-fraud-psychology-replication">most popular findings</a>. The Accelerator, which operates on a shoestring budget (it reports that this study of tens of thousands of people cost only $17,000, much of which came from individual lab members), is seeking to rebuild the field on a firmer foundation.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pC2Dvu">
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It’s a “credibility crisis,” Patrick Forscher, a psychologist and member of the Accelerator who worked on the reappraisal paper, says. “Because there are more issues rather than just replicability. So my personal view is that you can look at a lot of psychological findings and just put a question mark on them — not that they’re definitely false. We know that some of the practices that were used to produce a lot of those findings are, themselves, not all that credible.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H7fu4X">
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The latest test of cognitive reappraisals puts the science of mental health interventions on a firmer foundation. Psychology encompasses a lot of flimsy ideas that claim to make your life better. Here’s one that seems to actually work.
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>Why are these octopuses hurling shells at each other?</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="A common Sydney octopus, also known as the gloomy octopus, sits on the shell-covered ocean
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floor." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/IDMhY9NngNFt4AiWCuvoMFleVOk=/121x0:2910x2092/1310x983/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69819193/Octo_portrait_1864_PGS___new.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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New research that has yet to be peer-reviewed suggests that octopuses in Australia can launch debris at each other. | Courtesy of Peter Godfrey-Smith
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Don’t annoy an octopus or you might get a face-full of silt.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4rE2SS">
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In quiet waters south of Sydney, Australia, two octopuses are resting near each other on a bed of scallop shells. Then, seemingly without warning, one of them jets a stream of silt in the other’s face. Shrouded in cloudy water, the octopus that’s been hit inches back — like you might if someone hurled trash at you on a New York City sidewalk.
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</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mBPJUu">
|
||
The interaction was caught on camera, as were dozens of similar behaviors that show octopuses launching debris in a jet of water. In a new preprint <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.18.456805v1.full">study</a> based on the footage, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, scientists say these interactions reveal that octopuses “throw” things, sometimes at other octopuses or fish. In one case, the authors write, a female octopus repeatedly launches silt at a male that had been trying to mate with her.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Od6F8B">
|
||
These observations are a big deal because targeted throwing is rare in the animal kingdom, said Peter Godfrey-Smith, the study’s lead author and a professor of philosophy of science at the University of Sydney. <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1439-0310.1997.tb00152.x">Elephants</a>, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%252FBF02435518">monkeys</a>, and birds are among the few animals known to do it, but at times throwing has “been seen as distinctively human,” the authors write.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/wEeb86QHYlSQJV7s_UbIaIuj6Os=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22820039/giphy.gif"/> <cite>Courtesy of Peter Godfrey-Smith, David Scheel, Stephanie Chancellor, Stefan Linquist, and Matthew Lawrence</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
An octopus propels silt toward another octopus at a site in southeastern Australia.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kRPMHk">
|
||
But some experts don’t see this behavior as throwing, per se, and question whether the animals actually aim to hit other creatures. “If they were throwing, they would pick stuff up with their arms and throw it,” said Jennifer Mather, a renowned octopus expert at Canada’s University of Lethbridge who was not part of the study. More likely, she suspects, the octopuses are just jetting water toward nuisances — a behavior we’ve known about for decades — and sometimes the water happens to have “crud” in it. It’s not explicitly a social behavior, she said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RXN63Z">
|
||
In recent years, we’ve been utterly <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/1/31/18203959/octopus-factory-
|
||
farms">captivated by octopus intelligence</a>, and studies that <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/03/octopuses-humans-sleep-two-stages">draw parallels</a> between their behavior and our own have helped propel the animals to fame. It’s hard not to marvel at the idea of an <a href="https://youtu.be/0vKCLJZbytU">octopus dreaming</a> — or of a female rebuffing a male suitor, for that matter. But experts warn that we need to be careful when interpreting the results from studies like these because octopuses are nothing like us. In the end, we shouldn’t have to relate to an animal in order to respect it. It’s how they’re different from us that makes them so remarkable.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="FpvdVW">
|
||
Octopuses sometimes shoot ink at scientists who study them
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0HG6Dt">
|
||
Studying octopuses can be dirty work. They have tube-shaped structures on their bodies, known as siphons, which expel water to help them move around. But clever as they are, they can also use those siphons to shoot water, or even ink, at things that annoy them — including scientists.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FpkRMR">
|
||
“They will squirt ink out of the water and soil your clothes,” said Frank Grasso, an octopus researcher at the City University of New York.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QWuO6o">
|
||
That’s right: When kept in a lab, octopuses are known to<strong> </strong>poke their bodies out of the water and squirt unsuspecting researchers. On at least one occasion, an octopus has stained Grasso’s clothes, he said. Piero Amodio, an octopus researcher in Naples, Italy, says the animals have squirted water at him hundreds of times. “They take aim,” he said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ShASfI">
|
||
The most remarkable example of this behavior sounds almost too mischievous to be true: In at least two aquariums, Godfrey-Smith <a href="https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/octopuses-playful-choosy-
|
||
and-smarter-than-you-think/">has written</a>, octopuses “have learned to turn off the lights by squirting jets of water at the bulbs when no one is watching, and short-circuiting the power supply.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dmGp1r">
|
||
In the wild, octopus siphons also serve a variety of functions, Mather said. They use them to clear out debris from their dens, like a leaf- blower, and to discard food scraps. “If an octopus moves into a shelter that it thinks is a useful home, they’ll clean it out,” she said. They’ll also jet water at scavenging fish that follow them in search of leftovers, she said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LmHuXu">
|
||
All of which is to say: We know octopuses use their siphons as water canons. But are they also deliberately arming those cannons with debris?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/ouMzU0Fj4UxdEpTH76N7rVh5Uuw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22822310/octopolis.jpeg"/> <cite>Courtesy of Peter Godfrey-Smith</cite></figure></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Scientists collected footage of octopuses at a site in southeastern Australia called Octopolis. It’s home to an unusually high density of the animals, which have long been considered antisocial.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
|
||
<h3 id="oQy8p0">
|
||
Do octopuses really throw objects at each other?
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zdqGuT">
|
||
Octopuses are elusive creatures and difficult to spot in the wild — unless you find yourself in “Octopolis.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SpWlip">
|
||
Named by Godfrey-Smith, Octopolis is a small site off the coast of southeastern Australia that is home to an unusually high density of common Sydney octopuses (which are also known as gloomy octopuses). A few cameras at the site offer researchers a rare glimpse into interactions among these largely antisocial animals.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Z82ERx">
|
||
It’s footage from Octopolis that revealed the unusual siphon behavior with new clarity: Octopuses there commonly gather debris in their arms — silt, algae, or shells — “and then use the siphon to expel the material” up to several body lengths away, the authors write in the study.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/6GlJnbIt85DfNAmU00x85ZSNo9I=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22820889/F1.large__1_.jpg"/> <cite><a class="ql-link" href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.18.456805v1.full#ref-15" target="_blank">Peter Godfrey-Smith et al.</a></cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
In panel A, an octopus shoots silt and kelp toward another octopus. In panel B, the octopus receives a face full of silt and kelp. C and D panels show the mechanics.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TF0BUc">
|
||
To be sure, Godfrey-Smith acknowledges that “throw” is an imperfect term for describing the behavior. “Strictly speaking,” he said, “it’s just a very octopus-y way of propelling something.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GZ4jhg">
|
||
The researchers observed more than 100 such “throws” in less than 24 hours of footage from 2015. Often, the animals used their siphons to propel objects out of their dens or discard the remains of food, the authors write. But in many cases, they seemed to be launching debris toward a target.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="7EXHSq">
|
||
Octopuses seem to target annoyances. Is it intentional?
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gWKFWe">
|
||
In more than a dozen cases that the scientists observed, octopuses hit other octopuses with debris. The females tend to throw more than the males, said Godfrey-Smith, who is the author of <a href="https://bookshop.org/books/other-minds-the-octopus-the-sea-and-the-deep-origins-of-
|
||
consciousness/9780374537197"><em>Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness</em></a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VuaQyn">
|
||
“You’ll have a female that does this a bunch of times at one male over a period of several hours,” he said. “By the end of it, he’s kind of ducking. It is quite amusing.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="obRmco">
|
||
In another example, a male octopus was “rebuffed in a mating attempt,” the authors write, and then proceeded to throw something of a tantrum: “He threw a shell, changed color, and appeared to accelerate his breathing.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Brsaex2URAVoHNnZzN9R7buP8pY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22822339/giphy__1_.gif"/> <cite>Courtesy of Peter Godfrey-Smith, David Scheel, Stephanie Chancellor, Stefan Linquist, and Matthew Lawrence</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
An octopus launches silt at another octopus (on the right), which appears to duck.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w81KJD">
|
||
The octopuses also threw debris toward fish and toward an underwater camera that was close to their dens, the authors write. Before some throws, the animals even seem to orient their bodies toward the target, according to the study.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="26hCMB">
|
||
The authors say these behaviors suggest that octopuses are capable of deliberately launching objects at other animals, perhaps with the intention of hitting them. “Octopuses can thus definitely be added to the shortlist of animals who regularly throw or propel objects, and provisionally added to the shorter list of those who direct their throws on other animals,” they wrote.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LCqSm1">
|
||
But Mather and other outside experts aren’t convinced that octopuses pick up an item to launch at a target. They could just be sweeping out their den, for example, and accidentally hit another octopus in the process.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ndjV1R">
|
||
Amodio, meanwhile, says it’s likely that octopuses do pick up debris<strong> </strong>for the purpose of launching — but he has doubts about “the intention to hit the other individual with the object.” They might just propel the object in the general direction of a nuisance, he said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/J4VtBm-
|
||
hGGEyqoe0bdO_AhKyLOE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22822373/GettyImages_549410991.jpg"/> <cite>Reinhard Dirscherl/ullstein bild via Getty Image</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
A common octopus in Costa Brava, Spain.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="M7A4ec">
|
||
Godfrey-Smith, for his part, acknowledges that it’s challenging to work out whether or not hits are intentional. Nonetheless, he’s convinced that octopuses are, in fact, targeting each other. When a female octopus is repeatedly launching junk at a male, it’s hard to see it any other way. “You don’t need to clean your den that much,” he said, and the male is “expecting to be hit because he’s ducking.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="xAyeTh">
|
||
Why we care if<strong> </strong>octopuses can throw objects at each other
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lHGZgP">
|
||
Whether or not octopuses are intentionally hurling objects at each other — and whether or not we can really call it “throwing” — the study shows that octopuses can use their siphon in clever ways: to move debris, arrange a den, and perhaps even send a signal to other animals, including us.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qwevgu">
|
||
Does that mean they’re even more intelligent than we thought?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ygo6gF">
|
||
The question itself is fraught, as it suggests that there’s some universal idea of what it means to be intelligent. In our assessment of animals, intelligence is often measured using a human yardstick, as the primatologist Frans de Waal writes in his book <a href="https://bookshop.org/books/are-we-smart-enough-to-know-how-smart-animals-
|
||
are/9780393353662"><em>Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?</em></a><em> “</em>Every species deals flexibly with the environment and develops solutions to the problems it poses,” he writes. “Each one does it differently.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt="An octopus with its arms spread out seen from underneath
|
||
with the surface of the water overhead." src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/aAArrpBv_Kp5oh0Ce3HlvM9RXV8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22822368/GettyImages_635826712.jpg"/> <cite>David Fleetham/VW PICS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
A day octopus swims through the open ocean in Hawaii.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MDhjyR">
|
||
Octopuses, for one, are nothing like us. In fact, “when our two branches of the animal family tree diverged, backbones hadn’t been invented,” as Elizabeth Preston <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/08/science/heidi-octopus-sleeping.html">wrote</a> in the New York Times. “It makes sense to be cautious when we guess what’s going on in these animals’ minds.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="K6VtGA">
|
||
There is a benefit to our obsession with octopus intelligence: We show them more respect and compassion, which has implications for wildlife conservation, experts say. “You probably won’t conserve what you don’t respect,” Mather says.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hb2bEw">
|
||
Then again, what makes octopuses so marvelous is just how different from us they are. Case in point: Each of their eight tentacles has roughly 300 suckers, and each of those can have as many as 10,000 or so sensory neurons, allowing them to perceive touch and taste. “It’s alien,” Grasso said. “It isn’t human.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><strong>The “g-word” of urban policy</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/DgdIsImHADSj0prOW2Y7VL5Rox4=/0x0:2667x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69819068/GettyImages_497765130_copy.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
The Artist Studio Affordability Project capped a day of protest in front of the Brooklyn Museum in 2015 with a tongue-in-cheek installation of indoor furniture and signs decrying the displacement incurred by gentrification. | Andy Katz/LightRocket via Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The worst problems are in the neighborhoods that aren’t gentrifying.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="z9JElf">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lzQBXu">
|
||
“Was anyone really asking for a gentrified <em>Gone Girl?”</em> reads a one-line, half-star <a href="https://app5.letterboxd.com/comrade_yui/film/promising-young-woman/">review of<em> Promising Young Woman</em></a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zdDmOf">
|
||
“Graphic Novels Are Comic Books, But Gentrified” one <a href="https://jacobinmag.com/2019/12/graphic-novels-comic-books-gentrification">headline</a> to a Jacobin article proclaims.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="M6qjKv">
|
||
Gentrification appends so many words these days — “<a href="https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMRFNMTec/">graffiti</a>,” “<a href="https://twitter.com/kanaruaizawa16/status/1428459593781366793">rock music</a>,” “<a href="https://twitter.com/412goose/status/1428306759651897352">font</a>,” “<a href="https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMRFNufos/">thrifting</a>” — that it bears scant similarity to its original definition. In 1964, sociologist Ruth Glass coined the term gentrification. As Steven Thomson <a href="https://archive.curbed.com/2014/11/5/10028070/tracing-the-history-of-a-word-as-gentrification-turns-50">explained for Curbed</a>, Glass was describing a “class phenomenon … by adapting the British-ism ‘gentry’” to describe the process of “middle class liberal arts intelligentsia” moving into her primarily working-class London neighborhood.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CMHOQJ">
|
||
The term flew across the Atlantic and made its home in the United States, where similar trends would begin making their way through cities over the last few decades of the 20th century. Google Books <a href="https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=gentrification&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cgentrification%3B%2Cc0">data</a> shows the term “gentrification” didn’t really take off in the US until the late ’90s and has been steadily growing in use ever since.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ipm7MJ">
|
||
There isn’t an agreed-upon empirical definition of gentrification among scholars, which makes it difficult to talk about it with any certainty. But talk we do: From <a href="https://www.indystar.com/story/news/local/2021/08/05/indianapolis-martindale-brightwood-neighborhood-
|
||
gentrification-housing-real-estate/5400399001/">Indianapolis</a> to <a href="https://www.insider.com/photos-east-austin-
|
||
cooleast-neighborhood-changed-gentrification-
|
||
holly-2019-11#:~:text=Holly%20is%20in%20the%20accelerated,pricing%20out%20low%2Dincome%20residents.">Austin</a>, on a <a href="https://www.ourhomes-ourvotes.org/post/joe-biden-gentrification-foe-has-a-housing-plan">presidential debate stage</a> and on a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnH6zf3CLP8">panel on bike lanes</a>, and of course, on <a href="https://twitter.com/humancomedian/status/877652828000575488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E877652828000575488%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmashable.com%2Farticle%2Fbehind-
|
||
tweet-gentrification-ebt-humancomedian">Twitter</a>. Any time we talk about housing, the g-word inevitably pops up.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt="A chart showing the rise of the term “gentrification” in books scanned by
|
||
Google, spiking in the year 2000 and after." src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/0UMj0c3-SlSDMUK8xA0CL3jLGsY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22822361/Screen_Shot_2021_09_02_at_9.30.58_AM.png"/> <cite>Google Books</cite></p>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pNhqlN">
|
||
Our focus on gentrification might lead people to believe that it is the dominant form of inequality in American cities (our outsized focus on the phenomenon may be due in part to the fact that gentrification scholars, journalists, and consumers of digital media tend to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-08-08/how-many-gentrification-critics-are-actually-gentrifiers-
|
||
themselves">live in gentrifying neighborhoods themselves</a>). But the core rot in American cities is not the gentrifying neighborhoods: It is exclusion,<strong> </strong>segregation, and concentrated poverty.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZI1b49">
|
||
White, wealthy neighborhoods <a href="https://www.vox.com/22335749/housing-prices-connecticut-segregation-
|
||
zoning-reform-democrats-adu-parking-minimum">that have refused class and racial integration</a> have successfully avoided much scrutiny as gentrification has taken center stage in urban political fights. On the other hand, predominantly Black and brown neighborhoods often don’t<em> </em>gentrify due to disinvestment and <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/12/4/20953282/racism-housing-discrimination-keeanga-yamahtta-taylor">centuries of racist and classist policies</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YF7tb2">
|
||
And yet, gentrification captures our imagination, providing the visual juxtaposition of inequality. While stagnant, segregated neighborhoods are an accepted backdrop of American life, fast-changing, diverse neighborhoods and the culture clash that accompanies gentrification are the battlefield where all the disagreements come to the forefront.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="nScvrk">
|
||
Gentrification as the juxtaposition of the haves and have-nots
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UKMxaS">
|
||
In his 2019 paper “<a href="https://academic.oup.com/jah/article-
|
||
abstract/106/2/390/5545787">Hoboken Is Burning: Yuppies, Arson, and Displacement in the Postindustrial City</a>,” Princeton historian Dylan Gottlieb documented the violent displacement Puerto Rican residents faced between 1978 and 1983 as the city of Hoboken, New Jersey, gentrified. As thousands of young professionals flooded into Hoboken, the potential sale or rent price for converted units rose precipitously, and “property owners faced powerful incentives to displace low-income tenants.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5t5Cbt">
|
||
As a result, “nearly five hundred fires ripped through tenements and rooming houses in the square-mile city,” Gottlieb writes. “Most [displaced residents] never returned to Hoboken. Nearly every fire, investigators determined, had been the result of arson.” In sum, 55 people died and over 8,000 were made homeless.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DmVzTd">
|
||
Today, this sort of violent displacement is not what most people mean when they talk about gentrification. But what, exactly, they’re talking about is less clear, and the muddled debate often produces muddled policy goals.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<aside id="N451iQ">
|
||
<div>
|
||
|
||
</div>
|
||
</aside>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TpeZit">
|
||
A <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/realestate/black-homeowners-gentrification.html">recent New York Times article</a> features a Black Brooklyn homeowner who went to talk to a new white neighbor and was mistaken as a panhandler: “I went over to strike conversation and before I could finish a sentence, he told me that he didn’t have any money,” the man told the Times. Stories like this of Black homeowners watching their neighborhoods change around them abound, often with the earlier residents experiencing culture shock as the new entrants treat them or longstanding cultural markers with disdain.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fj0bgP">
|
||
In a Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/ericabuddington/status/1428006088104980481">thread</a> about the article, educator and historian Erica Buddington recounted how when a package was mistakenly delivered to her new neighbor’s house and she went to retrieve it, the neighbor immediately assumed she was a salesperson and shut the door in her face.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Zeh6Fd">
|
||
Beyond these frustrating and racist microaggressions is the concern about displacement and harms that might befall those who stay. A 2020 <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1111/cico.12473">study</a> by then- University of Florida sociologist Brenden Beck showed that “on average, calls to the police increased after a neighborhood’s middle-class population grew.” While Beck did not find that those calls translated into more stops or low-level arrests, he did find that “police made more order-maintenance and proactive arrests following real estate market growth.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div id="X8W2WL">
|
||
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
|
||
This is absolutely the way my new neighbors are. My package was delivered to the wrong house, and a guy answered the door and said, “I don’t want anything your selling.” <br/><br/>When I told him that I was looking for a package, he said, “What the post office does isn’t my problem.” <a href="https://t.co/Qtmm8OWdS2">pic.twitter.com/Qtmm8OWdS2</a>
|
||
</p>
|
||
— Erica Buddington</blockquote></div></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<ol class="example" type="1">
|
||
<li><a href="https://twitter.com/ericabuddington/status/1428006088104980481?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 18, 2021</a>
|
||
</li>
|
||
</ol>
|
||
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wcIqID">
|
||
Yet while gentrifying neighborhoods create those types of interactions between neighbors or heavier “order maintenance” policing, the gentrification isn’t the root issue. Segregating neighborhoods does not get rid of these sentiments or the harms they cause: it simply hides them. In a wealthy, white enclave like the Upper East Side, there aren’t somehow fewer people who assume any Black person on their street is begging for money than there are in gentrifying neighborhoods. In fact, there are <a href="https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/man-behind-upper-east-side-racist-rant-offers-apology/2531928/">likely more</a>. Gentrifying neighborhoods pull back the veil and allow for these worlds to collide, displaying the vast differences in income, access to education, and government protection and investment.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2JxlmE">
|
||
All of the problems people worry about when they invoke gentrification — displacement, police action against people of color, lack of investment, predatory landlords — are also present in segregated neighborhoods, <a href="https://now.tufts.edu/articles/how-racial-
|
||
segregation-and-policing-intersect-america">often even more so</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pJTrVd">
|
||
As George Washington University professor Suleiman Osman wrote in his 2011 book <em>The Invention of Brownstone Brooklyn</em>: “Stories abounded of renters [in Brooklyn] being pressured by landlords to leave revitalizing areas. But non-revitalizing blocks with high rates of abandonment and demolition saw rates of displacement that were just as high.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="ZRlwWJ">
|
||
What is gentrification?
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RYIHAz">
|
||
Defining gentrification is hard, even for the experts.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mZe4Wb">
|
||
The Urban Displacement Project, a research and policy group at the University of California Berkeley, defines it as:
|
||
</p>
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AMBSvn">
|
||
a process of neighborhood change that includes economic change in a historically disinvested neighborhood — by means of real estate investment and new higher-income residents moving in — as well as demographic change — not only in terms of income level, but also in terms of changes in the education level or racial make-up of residents.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WfZVhb">
|
||
While this covers the conceptual ideas, determining which neighborhoods are gentrifying has been difficult for researchers. Not for lack of trying:<strong> </strong>MIT urban studies PhD candidate Benjamin Preis and his study co-authors <a href="https://benjaminpreis.com/publication/2020-01-01_mapping_gentrificati/">compared four different models</a> of gentrification and displacement risk and found “striking differences between the models.” For instance, one weighted “access to public transit” as a gentrification risk factor while the others didn’t, and another didn’t include data on racial composition.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="G1684q">
|
||
The researchers applied all of the models to Boston and found that there are “only seven [census] tracts that all four models agreed were either gentrifying or at risk of gentrification or displacement.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="68So2P">
|
||
“[The models] disagree on the front end, they disagree on what we call gentrification, and then not surprisingly, they really disagree on the back end to actually map out what those neighborhoods are,” Preis told Vox. “You end up with radical disagreement. One method identified nearly 120 tracts facing displacement pressure and another had just 39.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vemi8i">
|
||
As Columbia University researcher Brett McMillan <a href="https://shelterforce.org/2021/06/18/a-case-to-stop-saying-gentrification/">explains</a> in the publication Shelterforce, while people often assume that gentrification happens predominantly in overwhelmingly Black or brown neighborhoods, that is not actually the case. He details research finding “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0003122414535774">Chicago neighborhoods with Black populations of greater than 40 percent</a> experienced significantly lower rates of gentrification” and “<a href="https://www-jstor-
|
||
org.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/stable/24541839?pq-origsite=summon&seq=6#metadata_info_tab_contents">white ‘invasion’ into census tracts</a> with Black populations of 50 percent or more has been a relatively infrequent phenomenon.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NkDfn2">
|
||
The other big issue with defining gentrification is attempting to quantify physical displacement. Widely viewed as the most pernicious byproduct of gentrification, the evidence that gentrification causes physical displacement is a mixed bag.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DUTaz8">
|
||
Displacement is another phenomenon that is difficult to define. The reasons people move are not cataloged in any database, and poor Americans are notably transient due to financial insecurity.<strong> </strong>Additionally, defining “forced” displacement is difficult — if someone can afford a one-bedroom apartment in their community but not a larger home, are they being displaced if they have a kid and move to a more affordable neighborhood? People move for a variety of reasons: In 2015, FiveThirtyEight <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-many-times-the-average-person-moves/">calculated</a> that the average American moved more than 11 times in their lives, indicating that there are very few “longtime residents” of anywhere.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RH0mfZ">
|
||
Importantly, <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/mdesmond/files/desmondgershenson.ssr_.2016.pdf">research</a> by preeminent eviction scholar Matthew Desmond “found no evidence that renters residing in gentrifying or in racially- and economically-integrated neighborhoods had a higher likelihood of eviction.” But perhaps increasing rents can cause displacement without evictions. (The way to avoid that would be to keep rents low by building more housing and preserving existing affordable housing, but more on that later.)
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7xIXck">
|
||
While the arson in Hoboken was a clear-cut case of forced displacement, measuring the insidious ways that financially insecure Americans could be nudged out of their neighborhoods is extremely difficult.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gd8ypd">
|
||
The research literature in this space is mixed. Some researchers have <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01944360408976337">found</a> that “rather than rapid displacement, gentrification was associated with slower residential turnover among [disadvantaged] households.” Other <a href="https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1010.9471&rep=rep1&type=pdf">research</a>, however, found that “between 8,300 and 11,600 households per year were displaced in New York City between 1989 and 2002 … between 6.6 and 9.9 percent of all local moves among renter households.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UEBPzU">
|
||
Overall, the research literature leans toward the view that gentrifying neighborhoods can lead to displacement, but they don’t have to. Gentrification can<strong> </strong>bring with it the promise of integration and sorely needed investment that can increase residents’ quality of life — but only if disadvantaged residents are set up to take part in the benefits of increased investment.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="7YnmSu">
|
||
Most urban dwellers live in poor neighborhoods that stay poor, or in higher- income neighborhoods doing their damnedest to stay that way
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TAs7XB">
|
||
The cry of “fire, fire, gentrifier” spread through city neighborhoods last year during some of the racial justice protests. The battle lines in these neighborhoods are not clear but the anger directed at the yuppies brunching on the sidewalks was palpable. The group that conspicuously gets to avoid this conflict? Wealthy (often white) urban and suburban homeowners who have long refused to allow either integration or even yuppies to live in their segregated neighborhoods.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div id="03IbW8">
|
||
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
|
||
Chants of “Fire fire, gentrifier. Black people used to live here!” as the crowd makes their way through Logan Square this evening in Chicago <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Chicago?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Chicago</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AdamToledo?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AdamToledo</a> <a href="https://t.co/04S1qHUQvU">pic.twitter.com/04S1qHUQvU</a>
|
||
</p>
|
||
— Brendan Gutenschwager (<span class="citation" data-cites="BGOnTheScene">@BGOnTheScene</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/BGOnTheScene/status/1383222382786060294?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 17, 2021</a>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xTiRl5">
|
||
While there are very real harms that accompany gentrification, it’s important not to lose the forest for the trees.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RKwtz9">
|
||
Gentrifying neighborhoods are “very tiny pieces of the story,” says UC Berkeley professor of city and regional planning Karen Chapple, who leads the school’s Urban Displacement Project (UDP), which has worked to map gentrification in several US cities.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Kpg3yW">
|
||
When Chapple was doing her first map of the Bay Area in 2005, she says, “about 10 percent of the neighborhoods were gentrifying but about 40 percent were just getting poorer over time. And it wasn’t the story that anybody wanted to hear. … Systemic poverty and racism is so hard … and [gentrification] is also much more visible.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a3PDWI">
|
||
Looking at UDP’s work in <a href="https://www.urbandisplacement.org/los-angeles/los-angeles-gentrification-and-displacement">Southern California</a>, they find that in San Diego County only “7 percent of tracts experienced risk of or ongoing gentrification/displacement.” In Chicago, they <a href="https://www.urbandisplacement.org/chicago/chicago-
|
||
gentrification-and-displacement">find</a> that only 18 percent of low-income households “live in low-income neighborhoods at risk of, or already experiencing gentrification and/or displacement.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1FQrHs">
|
||
What’s happening in the rest of the neighborhoods? Segregation and/or concentrated poverty, which have been constant companions to disadvantaged communities.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pgRBku">
|
||
In Denver, Colorado, they <a href="https://www.urbandisplacement.org/denver/denver-gentrification-and-displacement">find</a> that only “17 percent of neighborhoods were at risk of gentrification,” and “45 percent of Denver’s moderate-to-high-income neighborhoods demonstrated risk of or ongoing exclusion of lower-income households.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SU9k2P">
|
||
Racial and income segregation locks low-income people in <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/6/6/11852640/cartoon-poor-neighborhoods">a trap of concentrated poverty</a>. The best schools are relegated to the highest-income neighborhoods, good jobs often exist in either exclusive or gentrifying neighborhoods, and businesses are less willing to take root in an area of concentrated poverty because there are fewer customers. All of this is a vicious cycle that traps low-income Americans. It also hinders their ability to foster growth on their own because financial insecurity makes people transient and lacking in time and energy to build community.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="l3aP2c">
|
||
Meanwhile, homeowners in well-off neighborhoods have cemented systems of local control through rules like exclusionary zoning to keep their neighborhoods prohibitively expensive for lower-income Americans, including many Black and brown Americans.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bdhGDv">
|
||
Zoning laws are the rules and regulations that decide what types of homes can be built where. While this can sound innocuous, exclusionary zoning is anything but. These rules have a <a href="https://www.vox.com/22252625/america-racist-housing-rules-how-to-fix">dark history in the United States</a> as a tool of racial and economic segregation, used explicitly to keep certain races, religions, and nationalities out of certain neighborhoods. And while the explicit racism has been wiped from the legal text, the effect of many of these rules remains the same: keeping affordable housing and the people who need it away from the wealthiest Americans.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bItWAF">
|
||
City by city, the message is clear: Segregation and concentrated poverty are the true blights of urban life, despite our fascination with gentrification.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div id="lf3PYY">
|
||
<div class="volume-video" id="volume-placement-201">
|
||
|
||
</div>
|
||
<div class="caption">
|
||
Local zoning rules often keep affordable housing and the people who need it away from the wealthiest Americans.
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<h3 id="HVi6eY">
|
||
How to ethically create integrated neighborhoods
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PaGCwt">
|
||
Gentrification does carry with it real harms, but there are ways to reduce those and to provide a pathway for integrated, equitable cities.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fOm97b">
|
||
Integration is not a panacea, but research <a href="https://www.philadelphiafed.org/-/media/frbp/assets/working-
|
||
papers/2019/wp19-30.pdf?la=en">shows</a> that following gentrification, “children benefit from increased exposure to higher-opportunity neighborhoods, and some are more likely to attend and complete college.” Further, gentrification can allow existing homeowners in a community to benefit from the rising property values, as long as anti-displacement policies exist to ensure property tax payments don’t price people out.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8lHUh1">
|
||
There are a few other policies the US could pursue to mitigate the harms that accrue to disadvantaged communities.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZBmMUb">
|
||
First, the economic literature is clear that increased housing production reduces rents. It also ensures<strong> </strong>that new entrants don’t bid up the price of existing homes but rather turn to new construction for their housing needs. The evidence that does exist showing that modern-day gentrification leads to displacement links that displacement to rising rents. Reducing that pressure is paramount to stopping unwanted displacement. In Hoboken, New Jersey, during the violent evictions and arsons, the vacancy rate fell below 1 percent by the start of the 1980s. This supply crunch contributes to the incentive for property owners to push out lower-income tenants.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ff20OA">
|
||
Second, tenant protection policies could help forestall some evictions. A <a href="https://www.law.georgetown.edu/poverty-journal/blog/who-
|
||
deserves-a-lawyer-the-case-for-a-right-to-counsel-in-housing-proceedings/">right to counsel</a> in housing proceedings, for example, would rebalance power between low-income tenants and property owners seeking to evict due to potential profits from selling or converting the property for higher-income use. It’s also important for cities to work to <a href="https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/preserving-affordable-housing-what-works">preserve existing affordable housing</a>, especially as new housing gets built.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6DgYu0">
|
||
Third, rezoning of wealthy white segregated neighborhoods could slow the speed at which gentrifying neighborhoods change, and help tackle segregation. Slowing gentrification can ensure that local officials can respond to protect existing residents while also allowing the benefits of the phenomenon to accrue.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="crz1fs">
|
||
These types of interventions can provide a roadmap for how to ethically integrate urban neighborhoods.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wYbVHB">
|
||
None of this is to undermine the very real cultural conflict that gentrification brings. Even if you’re able to stay in your neighborhood and your home, watching store after store pop up that doesn’t serve your community or isn’t available to you at your income level can be deeply alienating. It’s no wonder that people who have faced centuries of disinvestment grow angry as public and private money flows into their neighborhoods only after high-income, college-educated people choose to move there. Even if those people are not wholly responsible for the inequality, the blatant injustice is hard to ignore.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i6BnRK">
|
||
Taken all together, it becomes clear why we focus on gentrification while the unseen culprits (segregated enclaves) are able to avoid controversy: Gentrification is the most visual manifestation of inequality in urban life.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Zh23W9">
|
||
“Gentrification is a cultural sphere to work out feelings of resentment around inequality. … Those feelings aren’t to be discounted,” Gottlieb argues. “This is a manifestation of a long-running sense of ‘I am not welcomed in the city, I don’t have a right to the city.’ Sometimes those feelings can be worked out in the cultural terrain of gentrification, even indeed if the people moving in aren’t the proximate cause for them leaving.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uH15bc">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Eng vs Ind | England 131/2 at lunch on day 5</strong> - Haseeb Hameed and Joe Root at the crease for England, who are chasing 368.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Misbah, Waqar resign as Pakistan’s head coach and bowling coach ahead of T20 World Cup</strong> - The sudden changes coincide with the induction of former Test captain Ramiz Raja as the new Chairman of the board on September 13.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ravi Shastri, two others tested COVID-19 positive in RT-PCR, not travelling to Manchester</strong> - The Hindu understands that with all the coaches starting to develop mild symptoms, all of India’s squad members underwent a lateral flow test.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Eng vs Ind | Jasprit Bumrah nominated for ICC ‘Player of the Month’ award</strong> - Besides Bumrah, the others in the men’s category included England Test skipper Joe Root and Pakistan pacer Shaheen Afridi.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Javelin thrower gets timely help</strong> - DPS secretary promises to provide him aerodynamic javelin</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Land grab charge against MLA: BJP MLC supports re-survey of land</strong> - Finds fault with Minister for questioning official</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Vijayawada’s B.R. Ambedkar memorial park with 125 feet statue set to complete by April next year</strong> - The State government intends to inaugurate the park on April, 14, 2022 the 131st birth anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Minister clarifies on regularisation of constructions in Kodaikanal</strong> - Housing and Urban Development Minister S. Muthusamy informed the State Legislative Assembly that Tamil Nadu government would take action on pleas seeking regularisation of constructions in Kodaikanal</p></li>
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||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Section 144 imposed in Karnal ahead of farmers’ protest call over lathicharge</strong> - Mobile Internet suspended in Karnal ahead of farmers’ mahapanchayat & gherao of mini-Secretariat</p></li>
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||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A number of steps taken to develop higher education, says Prakash Javadekar</strong> - ‘More than 2,000 Atal Tinkering Labs established with a vision to develop innovators’</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
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||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
||
<ul>
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||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Belarus jail terms for opposition figures Kolesnikova and Znak</strong> - Maria Kolesnikova receives 11 years in jail and Maxim Znak 10 on charges of trying to seize power.</p></li>
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||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Montenegro clashes as Serb Orthodox Church leader installed</strong> - The fierce protests reflect tensions in the country, which broke away from Serbia in 2006.</p></li>
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||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Finnish teenagers jailed for boy’s murder</strong> - Three boys are sentenced to 10, nine and eight years over the “brutal” death of one of their peers.</p></li>
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||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>EU and AstraZeneca reach deal to end vaccine row</strong> - AstraZeneca agrees to deliver 200 million doses by next spring, ending the threat of court action.</p></li>
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||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Jean-Pierre Adams: Former France international dies after 39 years in coma</strong> - Former France footballer Jean-Pierre Adams, who had been in a coma for 39 years, has died at the age of 73.</p></li>
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||
</ul>
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||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Life is Strange: True Colors hands-on preview: Not afraid to make you sad</strong> - Tapping into emotion auras feels like the most genuine series reinvention yet. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1792128">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>21st-century storms are overwhelming 20th-century cities</strong> - Infrastructure that wasn’t built to handle warmer, wetter climate is increasingly risky. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1791948">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>BMW’s i Vision Circular concept thinks about sustainable car-making</strong> - The concept is informing BMW’s next Neue Klasse, due in 2025. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1792295">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Review: Candyman turns singular slasher into a timeless avatar for Black trauma</strong> - “Candyman ain’t a he. Candyman is the whole damn hive.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1790459">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Investor overconfidence linked to selective memory</strong> - Investors inflate their wins, forget about their losses. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1791984">link</a></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
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||
<ul>
|
||
<li><strong>All countries will get the corona virus eventually…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
China just got it right off the bat…
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/RufflezAU"> /u/RufflezAU </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/piqgzw/all_countries_will_get_the_corona_virus_eventually/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/piqgzw/all_countries_will_get_the_corona_virus_eventually/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>It’s Mikes first day of prison.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
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He walks into his cell, and his cellmate is sitting on the edge of the bed shirtless.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Listen, first thing you need to know is that this is going to happen. Your only choice is whether is happens with spit or without spit,” says the shirtless celly.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Well, I don’t want this to happen at all, please don’t make me,” Mike pleads.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The shirtless man just looks at Mike and repeats himself “It can happen with spit or without spit.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Shit, ok well I guess with spit,” says Mike.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Cool,” the celly says, and then calls out “HEY SPIT GET IN HERE HE SAID YOU CAN COME TOO.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/MailmanJim92"> /u/MailmanJim92 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/pinfjc/its_mikes_first_day_of_prison/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/pinfjc/its_mikes_first_day_of_prison/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>Quarantine has really put a damper on comedy.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
For months nobody has walked into a bar.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/DennySmith62"> /u/DennySmith62 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/pioq9h/quarantine_has_really_put_a_damper_on_comedy/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/pioq9h/quarantine_has_really_put_a_damper_on_comedy/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>An engineer and an anti-vaxxer were walking through the woods.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
An engineer and an anti-vaxxer were walking through the woods when they came upon a bridge across a crocodile infested river.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The anti-vaxxer asked the engineer “What are the odds of us making it across that bridge safely?” The engineer took out his calculator and his tape measure, did a structural analysis and said "99.97% chance we’ll make it across that bridge safely.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The anti-vaxxer responded, without even thinking “Forget that, I’m swimming!”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/liquidporkchops"> /u/liquidporkchops </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/piinzq/an_engineer_and_an_antivaxxer_were_walking/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/piinzq/an_engineer_and_an_antivaxxer_were_walking/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>3 stoners buy a horse</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
They go home with the horse and make it stay in the living room.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
One of the friends pull out a bong and they all take hits until they’re stoned.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
While stoned they come up with an idea to have fun with the horse.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
They attach a feeding muzzle onto the horse and funnel in smoke from the bong.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Eventually, they detach muzzle the horse and the horse’s eyes get bloodshot, it is visibly high.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
As a consequence, the horse starts talking:
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“You have awakened me”, the horse says.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The stoners, shocked, reply, “whoa, you can talk?” In unison.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The horse proceeds to tell them that they must jerk him off or die.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The first stoner says “nuh-uh, i aint like that”, and the horse mauls him and chews his face, killing him slowly.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The second stoner tries to escape, screaming “Id rather die than jerk off a horse!”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The horse opens a safe, takes out a shotgun, and unloads a shell into the second stoner, making him slowly bleed out to death.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The third stoner, horrified, approaches the horse and fulfills the act until the horse is finished. The horse then spares the third stoner, and leaves him a diamond worth a great fortune.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why you should get off your high horse.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Reeceqld"> /u/Reeceqld </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/pix87s/3_stoners_buy_a_horse/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/pix87s/3_stoners_buy_a_horse/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
|
||
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