Interesting

[conuly]

Amazon, for some reason, has had trouble with the payment for this last order. It seems to think it goes to the canceled card instead of the gift card balance, so I've had to manually fix it.

That's not the interesting part. The interesting part is that the email suggested I check to make sure, among other things, that my cc's expiry date is correct. I know this is a Britishism. What's really unusual is that on their add a new card page they definitely use expiration date. Different copyeditors, I guess.

*****************

This Algae Species is Like a Living Opal

The Rise and Fall of the Hormel Girls, Who Sold America on SPAM

The evolution of the frozen pizza, the ideal form of sustenance for people who have an oven, a microwave, or an aversion to delivery. (Possibly all three.)

The Sky Was No Limit: The WASP Women Pilots of WWII

One of the great struggles of writing a history of gender identity is understanding people’s internal lives. How should we talk about those who dressed as men and went to war?

Later middle school start times tied to longer sleep for kids

The Restaurant Industry Ran a Private Poll on the Minimum Wage. It Did Not Go Well for Them.

Grocery Stores Get Mostly Mediocre Scores On Their Food Waste Efforts

How South Sudan's Farmers Are Adapting to Fight Hunger

Far more than 87m Facebook users had data compromised, MPs told

White Supremacy Is the Achilles Heel of American Democracy

Miguel Diaz-Canel named Cuba's new president

Why are Armenians protesting against the new prime minister?

Populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban Wins Third Consecutive Term in Hungary (And control of the constitution....)

‘Our First Mistake Will Be Our Last’: Pakistani Rights Movement Defies Army

A Louisiana Bill Would Give Public Defenders More Funding. Public Defenders Aren’t Happy.

A gang of teen hackers snatched the keys to Microsoft's videogame empire. Then they went too far.

Why the West, amid horrors of modern war, is struggling to set red lines

After an 11-year-old Navajo girl was kidnapped, her family and friends sprang into action to find her. Why did it take so long for law enforcement to join them?

The inside story of a murder that tarnishes Europe

Comments

[gatheringrivers]

I hate to ask, but are you sure that wasn't a "phishing" attempt?

[conuly]

I'm certain. I logged into Amazon as I typically do and went to my orders from there - not by link clicking.

[siderea]

The Restaurant Industry Ran a Private Poll on the Minimum Wage. It Did Not Go Well for Them.

This article is a bit head-desky. The fact survey respondants say they want the minimum wage increased even if it increases costs to restaurant customers does not at all mean to the restaurant industry what the authors of the piece seem to think it means.

All it means to the restaurant industry is "the vast majority of people don't care if a bunch of restaurants go out of business." (I'm not saying that is what will happen, I'm saying that's what the restaurant industry believes will happen, and how they consequently construe the results.) Which is a seriously "In other news: water is wet" sort of result from their perspective.

Survey respondants saying they support increasing the minimum wage even if it raises restaurant prices is not even remotely the same thing as:

• Survey respondants saying they expect that if prices went up they would still eat the same amount in restaurants;

• Survey respondants promising they would support the restaurant industry by not dropping their level of patronizing restaurants that paid more;

• Customers actually demonstrating price insensitivity in their restaurant-patronizing behavior.

Restauranteurs have every reason to believe that if prices go up patronage goes down. That's, like Economics 101, on the second day. (Literally. I am remembering this from H.S.) Restauranteurs believe that if they have an increase in costs (such as an increase in labor costs because of an increase in the minimum wage) and they pass that cost along to consumers in the form of a price increase, that it will result in less business.

So when they hear that a bunch of randos replied to a survey saying, "Sure, we support restaurant costs and prices going up", what they hear is – and maybe not incorrectly – "We think it's for the greater good if this thing happens that results in restaurant costs and prices going up, so we're okay with the bad consequences for restaurants." That's not an unfair paraphrase of the pro minimum wage increase position - heaven knows, that that's basically my position on it: it's more important to me that people working in restaurants can afford to eat than that I get to eat in restaurants. It is, in fact, okay with me if a bunch of restaurants go out of business in exchange for the people who work in the remaining ones getting a living wage, even though I would be sad to have less choice in restaurant, or to be priced out of going out except on very rare special occasions.

Restauranteurs, naturally, are not thrilled with this. They would like their businesses not to fail. So when they hear that a lot of people have something that looks like my attitude, which treats their financial viability as not as important as some other principle, they're not surprised – they don't expect the general public to cherish their businesses as they do – but they certainly don't think, "Oh, well, then increasing the minimum wage is okay then, because the customer pool is okay with it."

[conuly]

Off-topic, but I thought you might be interested in this.

[steorra]

"I know this is a Britishism."

One of those shared by Canadians, apparently. It sounds perfectly normal to me.

[archersangel]

about the woman who dressed as men & went to war link; i read about albert cashier in they fought like demons: women soldiers in the american civil War by deanne blanton & lauren m. cook.
they speculated that cashier continued to live as a man because of better rights & freedoms. they estimated that at least 400 women fought as men in the war, but it's probably more since many were never discovered.

[mommy]

On one hand, passing the AMBER Alert in Indian Country Act might be the only useful thing the current Senate has managed to pass. On the other hand, increased federal participation in tribal affairs tends to end badly for the people in those tribes. It's a bad situation all around.

[conuly]

Yeah, I don't know the right thing.

[siderea]

Oooh! Yes, thank you! Delightful – and pleasing. I think most beliefs about "tribalism" are nonsense, and it's nice to see that one of the "classic" experiments demonstrating that nonsense was not only staged, but a previous version demonstrated precisely how it was nonsense.

Two moral modes, I tell you.