Wednesday, April 24

Tag: safety

A Food Safety Researcher Explains Food Expiration Dates Don’t Have Much Science Behind Them – Here’s Another Way To Know What’s Too Old To Eat
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IN OTHER NEWS, WHAT'S GOOD

A Food Safety Researcher Explains Food Expiration Dates Don’t Have Much Science Behind Them – Here’s Another Way To Know What’s Too Old To Eat

Florida’s outbreak of listeria has so far led to at least one death, 22 hospitalizations and an ice cream recall since January. Humans get sick with listeria infections, or listeriosis, from eating soil-contaminated food, undercooked meat or dairy products that are raw, or unpasteurized. Listeria can cause convulsions, coma, miscarriage and birth defects. And it’s the third leading cause of food poisoning deaths in the U.S. Avoiding unseen food hazards is the reason people often check the dates on food packaging. And printed with the month and year is often one of a dizzying array of phrases: “best by,” “use by,” “best if used before,” “best if used by,” “guaranteed fresh until,” “freeze by” and even a “born on” label applied to some beer. People think of them as expiration dates, or the...
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The Rise Of Digital Handouts On Venmo And Cash App – What It Says About Our Fraying Social Safety Net
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CULTURE

The Rise Of Digital Handouts On Venmo And Cash App – What It Says About Our Fraying Social Safety Net

A college student pleading for grocery money. A driver in need of an unexpected car repair. A worker out of a job because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A single mom who needs to pay the internet bill to support her kids’ distance learning. In all of these cases, people turned to Twitter to ask for financial support during the pandemic. Not thousands of dollars. Just a few bucks. Whatever online followers could spare. As a consumer sociologist, I study digital culture and social media. I’ve noticed an uptick in these requests on Twitter, TikTok and Instagram, which are made possible by the growing popularity of peer-to-peer payment platforms like PayPal, Venmo, Cash App and Zelle. This diverges from traditional crowdfunding in which official online campaigns are set up for lofty fundraising ...
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How To Help Older Americans Given The Wrong Idea About Online Safety
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TECHNOLOGY

How To Help Older Americans Given The Wrong Idea About Online Safety

Recently, the U.S. Social Security Administration sent out an email to subscribers of its official blog explaining how to access social security statements online. Most people know to be suspicious of seemingly official emails with links to websites asking for credentials. But for older adults who are wary of the prevalence of scams targeting their demographic, such an email can be particularly alarming since they have been told that the SSA never sends emails. From our research designing cybersecurity safeguards for older adults, we believe there is legitimate cause for alarm. This population has been schooled in a tactical approach to online safety grounded in fear and mistrust – even of themselves – and focused on specific threats rather than developing strategies that enable them to ...
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Journalism

What To Know About CBD Products’ Safety

While just a few years ago, CBD oil and infused products were specialty items orderable primarily online, they are now filling shelves at local pharmacies. We hope you love these items as much as we did! GateHouse Media may collect a share of sales from links on this page. The acronym CBD dominates today’s headlines, billboards and advertisements. CVS, in fact, plans a rollout of CBD products in over 800 stores, reported NBC News in March. CBD, or cannabidiol, is just one of the compounds found in hemp, a variety of the cannabis plant. CBD oil is considered nonpsychoactive, essentially defined as not affecting the mind or mental processes. Projectcbd.org offers this explanation: “CBD and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) have similar molecular structures, but CBD does not directly stimulate CB1 a...
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Cellphones Might Be A Safety Risk – Cellphone Bans In The Workplace Are Legal And More Common Among Blue-Collar Jobs
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BUSINESS

Cellphones Might Be A Safety Risk – Cellphone Bans In The Workplace Are Legal And More Common Among Blue-Collar Jobs

Cellphone bans in the workplace are legal and more common among blue-collar jobs – they also might be a safety risk. Cellphones in the workplace can be a distraction – but they could also save your life. In the aftermath of a devastating tornado ripping through an Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois, on Dec. 10, 2021 – killing six employees – the online retailer is reportedly reviewing its policy over mobile phone bans during working hours. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, it was common for Amazon to require its employees to leave phones at home or in vehicles before setting foot on the factory floor. The policy was relaxed during the pandemic but was due to be reintroduced in January. Amazon has indicated that a ban was not in effect at the factory at the time the tornado hit, ...
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This Is What Is Important In On-Set Safety – Filmmakers Who Work With Firearms
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CELEBRITY NEWS

This Is What Is Important In On-Set Safety – Filmmakers Who Work With Firearms

Christopher Gist, University of South Australia and Sarah Mayberry, The University of Melbourne In a horrendous accident, a cinematographer has died and a director has been injured after Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun while filming in New Mexico. When shooting a film with guns, there are many choices to make: each prop needs to be appropriate for the character, and appropriate for the scene. There is also the choice of whether you will use replica weapons, real weapons, or a mix. But most importantly, everyone on set needs to know how to work alongside guns. A gun with no ammunition – that is, a gun with neither a bullet nor blanks – is not dangerous. But even so, on set there is always an armourer, a safety officer, and a stunt coordinator: at least three people who always have an eye ...
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New Research Shows Apple’s Child Safety Feature Warnings Can Increase Risky Sharing
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TECHNOLOGY, VIDEO REELS

New Research Shows Apple’s Child Safety Feature Warnings Can Increase Risky Sharing

Bennett Bertenthal, Indiana University; Apu Kapadia, Indiana University, and Kurt Hugenberg, Indiana University Apple’s plan to roll out tools to limit the spread of child sexual abuse material has drawn praise from some privacy and security experts as well as by child protection advocacy groups. There has also been an outcry about invasions of privacy. These concerns have obscured another even more troublesome problem that has received very little attention: Apple’s new feature uses design elements shown by research to backfire. One of these new features adds a parental control option to Messages that blocks the viewing of sexually explicit pictures. The expectation is that parental surveillance of the child’s behavior will decrease the viewing or sending of sexually explicit photos, b...
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It’s Not The Whole Story But Safety Net Policies Are Helping Reduce The Number Of Americans Below The Poverty Line
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Journalism

It’s Not The Whole Story But Safety Net Policies Are Helping Reduce The Number Of Americans Below The Poverty Line

On The Record Elena Delavega, University of Memphis CC BY-ND The share of Americans living in poverty shrank to an estimated 9.2% in 2020, according to the Urban Institute, a think tank that closely tracks this rate with a widely used model. There were 29.3 million Americans living below the poverty line, the institute’s researchers found. Another 10.3 million appear to have been kept out of poverty through government efforts to cushion the blows from massive economic upheaval triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. This new estimate contradicts many prior predictions and is significantly lower than the 10.5% of the U.S. population the U.S. Census Bureau said was in poverty in 2019, the most recent official data available. If confirmed when the government agency releases official 2020 numbe...
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Safety Is Still Nuclear Power’s Greatest Challenge, 10 Years After Fukushima
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ENVIRONMENT, VIDEO REELS

Safety Is Still Nuclear Power’s Greatest Challenge, 10 Years After Fukushima

Ten years ago, on March 11, 2011, the biggest recorded earthquake in Japanese history hit the country’s northeast coast. It was followed by a tsunami that traveled up to 6 miles (10 kilometers) inland, reaching heights of over 140 feet (43.3 meters) in some areas and sweeping entire towns away in seconds. An International Atomic Energy Agency investigator examines Reactor Unit 3 at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant, May 27, 2011. Greg Webb, IAEA/Flickr, CC BY-SA This disaster left nearly 20,000 people dead or missing. It also destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station and released radioactive materials over a large area. The accident triggered widespread evacuations, large economic losses and the eventual shutdown of all nuclear power plants in Japan. A decade later, the nucl...
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Venmo and Cash App – The Rise Of Digital Handouts, What It Says About Our Fraying Social Safety Net
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TECHNOLOGY

Venmo and Cash App – The Rise Of Digital Handouts, What It Says About Our Fraying Social Safety Net

A college student pleading for grocery money. A driver in need of an unexpected car repair. A worker out of a job because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A single mom who needs to pay the internet bill to support her kids’ distance learning. In all of these cases, people turned to Twitter to ask for financial support during the pandemic. Not thousands of dollars. Just a few bucks. Whatever online followers could spare. As a consumer sociologist, I study digital culture and social media. I’ve noticed an uptick in these requests on Twitter, TikTok and Instagram, which are made possible by the growing popularity of peer-to-peer payment platforms like PayPal, Venmo, Cash App and Zelle. This diverges from traditional crowdfunding in which official online campaigns are set up for lofty fundraising ...
Read More