COVID-19 Pandemic
Fig. 1. Photograph by author, November 8, 2022.
Ciara Linnane, “Leading infectious-disease expert says COVID-19 is now endemic, but Americans are divided on whether pandemic is over,” MarketWatch, March 10, 2023, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/leading-infectious-disease-expert-says-covid-19-is-now-endemic-but-americans-are-divided-on-whether-pandemic-is-over-cc391dec?g=ef386d39-3a07-4fb1-997f-4e6eb5e975aa
Gilead
White Christian nationalism (Trumpism)
Fig. 2. In terms of geographic area, Pennsylvania is very much a white Christian nationalist kind of place. Photograph by author, January 5, 2023.
There is a new blog post entitled, “A new taxonomy of conservatism?”
Fig. 3. “Elon Musk shared a video of his entrance on his Twitter account.” Photograph attributed to Elon Musk, October 26, 2022, via the New York Post,[1] fair use.
Reports from online technology news sites this week are saying that Twitter’s daily revenue is down 40 per cent against the same period last year; as are its adjusted earnings.
An internal staff meeting was also reportedly told fourth-quarter revenue last year was down 35 per cent and that more than 500 advertisers have left the platform. That fits with external research that found more than 70 of the top 100 advertisers before Musk’s $US44 billion ($65 billion) acquisition of the social media platform have ceased spending on it.[2]
Stephen Bartholomeusz lays a lot of blame on Elon Musk’s commitment to so-called “free” speech, of the hate speech variety, even using quotation marks as I have used them here. It more than exacerbates an already “challenging” debt situation.[3]
Clare Duffy, “Twitter hit with one of the biggest outages since Elon Musk took over,” CNN, March 6, 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/06/tech/twitter-website-down/index.html
Ryan Tracy, &ldqo;FTC Twitter Investigation Sought Elon Musk’s Internal Communications, Journalist Names,” Wall Street Journal, March 7, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/twitter-investigation-ftc-musk-documents-db6b179e
Stephen Bartholomeusz, “Elon Musk’s Twitter is on the road to nowhere,” Sydney Morning Herald, March 7, 2023, https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/elon-musk-s-twitter-is-on-the-road-to-nowhere-20230307-p5cpxp.html
Work
Fig. 4. Yeah, this is me. The sign says, “If you’re whining about a labor shortage, STOP ignoring my job applications!” And the QR-code leads here. Photograph by author, January 16, 2023.
This story[4] fills in a few details of what I’ve been hearing, very, very occasionally from nurses who’ve been my passengers. It’s surely safe to say this is certainly not by any means just an Altoona problem.
Ryan Deto, “UPMC nurse lost job for speaking publicly about staffing shortages, labor complaint says,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, March 10, 2023, https://triblive.com/local/regional/upmc-nurse-lost-job-for-speaking-publicly-about-staffing-shortages-labor-complaint-says/
- [1]Thomas Barrabi, “Elon Musk barges into Twitter HQ as deal nears: ‘Let that sink in,’” New York Post, October 26, 2022, https://nypost.com/2022/10/26/elon-musk-barges-into-twitter-headquarters-as-deal-nears/↩
- [2]Stephen Bartholomeusz, “Elon Musk’s Twitter is on the road to nowhere,” Sydney Morning Herald, March 7, 2023, https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/elon-musk-s-twitter-is-on-the-road-to-nowhere-20230307-p5cpxp.html↩
- [3]Stephen Bartholomeusz, “Elon Musk’s Twitter is on the road to nowhere,” Sydney Morning Herald, March 7, 2023, https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/elon-musk-s-twitter-is-on-the-road-to-nowhere-20230307-p5cpxp.html↩
- [4]Ryan Deto, “UPMC nurse lost job for speaking publicly about staffing shortages, labor complaint says,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, March 10, 2023, https://triblive.com/local/regional/upmc-nurse-lost-job-for-speaking-publicly-about-staffing-shortages-labor-complaint-says/↩