COVID

In the US, looks like vaccine rollout building up steam. Hear reports about vaccines being available for everyone by the end of May. (In the backdrop of reports of rich countries hoarding vaccines)

Dispatches from UN Wire

Pandemic unlikely to end in 2021, WHO official says Global coronavirus case numbers increased last week after six consecutive weeks of decline as infections climbed in the Americas, Europe, Southeast Asia and the eastern Mediterranean, the World Health Organization reports. WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says that countries should not rely solely on vaccinations to control the spread of the virus,

Politics

Still?!

Yes, trying to get parents to spend more time on local issues we can actually affect. Fair Fight action:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vReh8YOEK1QGhXHikE-xIM-sFuqZReVMwBUg8ehuRME9qv4ZZ-t–fNcoudgHzhkYT8yIzE38IbUaxg/pub

The bill now heads to the state Senate, where a committee voted Monday to end no-excuse absentee voting, which would require most voters to cast ballots in person. That legislation could receive a vote in the full Senate within days.

Space

Mars looks pretty! The landing was so spectacular – I’m still so proud of the achievements of scientists and engineers the world over!!

Getting a building size object to belly flop was great.

Computer Travails

Had quite the scare the other day, where suddenly all USB-C ports on my laptop stopped working, which in this case meant my laptop stopped charging. Pretty anxiety-inducing to just watch the battery go down and not be able to charge it.

Apparently Lenovo had some issue where laptops would stop charging through usb-c port! I feel a little vindicated about my horrible issues with my old laptop. Which caused me to get new one under all the warranties (I’m sure for naught), and also as new (under Lenovo sale – the specs are awful, 128 GB hd / 8 GB ram, and I’ve just been tacking on components over time. Not sure how cost-effective it has been in the end, definitely not time-effective). I updated the firmware (surprisingly easy, download the .iso file from lenovo, extract into a .img, burn with e.g. etcher.io onto a USB, then boot from that USB).

I did investigate whether I can update through the new fwupdmgr but alas it was not to be. Otherwise the commands would have been:

sudo fwupdmgr get-devices
for d in system-manufacturer system-product-name bios-release-date bios-version
 do
 echo "${d^} : " $(sudo dmidecode -s $d)
 done
sudo fwupdmgr refresh --force
sudo fwupdmgr update

For my curiosity, X1 Yoga v2 before:

├─System Firmware:
│ Device ID: 123fd4143619569d8ddb6ea47d1d3911eb5ef07a
│ Current version: G5ET93WW (2.53 )
│ Vendor: LENOVO
│ Update Error: UEFI Capsule updates not available or enabled
│ GUID: 230c8b18-8d9b-53ec-838b-6cfc0383493a ← main-system-firmware
│ Device Flags: • Internal device
│ • Requires AC power
│ • Needs a reboot after installation

System-manufacturer : LENOVO
System-product-name : 20JDCTOIWW 
Bios-release-date : 10/15/2018
Bios-version : NINET43W (1.30)

X1 Yoga v2 after:

System-manufacturer :  LENOVO
System-product-name :  20JDCTO1WW
Bios-release-date :  11/03/2020
Bios-version :  N1NET52W (1.39 )

L390 before:

System-manufacturer : LENOVO
System-product-name : 20NT000GUS
Bios-release-date : 08/12/2019
Bios-version : R10ET39W (1.24 )

L390 after:

System-manufacturer : LENOVO
System-product-name : 20NT000GUS
Bios-release-date : 01/13/2021
Bios-version : R10ET48W (1.33 )

W530 –
System-manufacturer : LENOVO
System-product-name : 2447L81
Bios-release-date : 05/24/2013
Bios-version : G5ET93WW (2.53 )

Trustworthy W530… firmware from 2013 still going strong.

Canonical Naming

This is definitely coming up as I start applying to things… I kind of lost my chance to standardize my name after the beginning of Harvard. I wonder why I didn’t go with Rui. I s’pose my email address was chosen already. Maybe I just felt that Rui was too hard to pronounce. Now I have a pretty bad situation where I have a PI at MIT who knows me by one name… a PI at another school who knows me by another… and my website lists a third, since I don’t want certain people to be aware of this whole situation… I can’t say the confusion is likely to help me. I could trash one of the names now that I’m barely affiliated with Harvard it feels like. But it feels utterly wrong to go by Nancy there.

Hearing my parents speak about (trans)gender issues, I guess I always charitably thought my travails had nothing to do with my really strange choices around how to present myself. But maybe people in cities are probably pretty open-minded since they have to deal with so many strangers all the time, vs in the suburbs I just deal with the same few people all the time. eh.

Definitely still in denial, but tbh going by a totally new name makes it kinda hard. Oh well! Maybe I’m doomed to making small money in random jobs and a life of instability. Like, trying to keep perspective, but not sure which direction y’know?

Perspective

On the one hand, well, I managed to reach basically 30 without dying, which I didn’t expect. Hearing about someone I lived on a hall with in undergrad had gotten a nice career in NY, married, bought a house, move to the burbs, had a kid, and then committed suicide early on in the pandemic. Who had issues with depression I never knew about.

Life is unfair. So, practice being grateful every day.

‘specially the subject matter I’m working on. Now that I’m on health insurance, I should certainly see a therapist regularly. I don’t even know that I really believe it’ll help. I in fact think it will be really mentally exhausting. But it’s on the to-do list, y’know?

Choices

I made my choices this year feeling like I would not want to grow old and feel like I didn’t put the time in to do the right thing, with regards to the pandemic and the elections. But here I am on the other side and it still keeps going. Republicans are making it harder to vote, now that they’ve gotten it into their minds that fewer voters is better (which, what the hell? win on platform not attacking one of the pillars of democracy). Although in context I guess technically our country was founded like this from the beginning. And of course, on the other activist side, the pandemic just keeps going.

So was it worth it? I went to these fancy schools, but was it worth it? Would I be happier now if I just had boatload of money? Some days it sure feels like it. My friends my age are buying houses, I’m living with my parents, unemployed, constantly worrying about health insurance.

(I guess I have been rejected out of hand for an internship, so feeling a little low today. I know it should be rather an indicator that I’m applying to things at the right level. But it still hurts!)

Actually come to think of it, I’ve yet to receive a paper rejection, hah! Guess I’m not submitting enough papers. (Underlying it still, the feeling of not being a real Computer Scientist, despite now having my master’s degree in it. Since I haven’t done True Computer Science research according to my quals committee).

Grad students

Well I started writing this and accidentally turned it into a full email. So I’ll just copy it below.

Hi all,Some interesting very recent developments over at MIT I thought worthwhile to share to this list:

 We will soon have guaranteed transitional funding for all students across MIT who wish to leave an unhealthy advising relationship.
They describe it here at this link. Announced Feb 19 / goes into effect Mar 8, and I think they didn’t start petition until maybe 6 months ago, so super fast in institutional terms (cough thanks Harvard for taking two YEARS to get us a one-year contract).

More about RISE:

Reject Injustice through Student Empowerment (RISE) is a united effort of MIT grad students led by Graduate Students for a Healthy MIT, Black Graduate Student Association, and Graduate Student Council Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee.  Another to keep an eye on, FAARM, a policy-oriented approach which aims to use federal funding as a nation-wide lever to improve grad student mental health. Harvard Grad Council (which covers all grad students, not just SEAS) has actually already endorsed this.

FAARM objective: Mobilize the federal research funding agencies (FRFAs) and other leaders in U.S. R&D and higher education toimprove the advising and mentorship provided to graduate students.

You can sign up for their mailing list for progress updates, they also have a cool one-page summary over at their website.

Anyway, in other ways we’ve beaten MIT to the punch, we already have a grad student union. Our first contract (which Harvard appears to have signed in part when they realized COVID was going to be a big deal) was only a year-long contract and ends June 30, so we get to negotiate a new one again.
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2021/2/13/grad-student-union-second-contract/
I am unfortunately not technically a grad student right now (I’m just doing my research toward graduating unpaid, lol ), so you should join the union on my behalf! http://harvardgradunion.org/join/

Next post will be a little graphic of my goals – what will it take for me to be happy with having been unemployed for a year?

Wait I guess technically I’ve only been unemployed for 3 months right now, so maybe more like… unemployed for half a year, living at home for 1.5 years. (oh god) (remember to be grateful)

all the trigger warnings

no seriously

i guess the only the most egregious / likely to win cases get prosecuted. but still depressing

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https://sherloc.unodc.org/cld/case-law-doc/traffickingpersonscrimetype/usa/2015/case_0715.html?lng=en&tmpl=htms

Case 0715 United States of America Sentence Date: 2015-07-01

[] admitted that although he never personally recruited, groomed, or coerced any of the victims, he benefited financially from the sex trafficking operation. …. [] would charge the pimps and sex trafficking co-conspirators higher rates than other motel guests, … learned that members of the sex trafficking conspiracy physically assaulted women they prostituted, including one instance in which a co-conspirator brutally beat one woman with a large piece of wood while she screamed for help, leaving her with multiple lacerations and what appeared to be a broken arm … [] also saw the damage that a co-conspirator caused to a motel room during a beating, including a broken toilet, a damaged sink, and blood on the walls …. [] agreed not to call the police after the co-conspirator paid him for the damage to the room.

Who came in to clean up the blood…?

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From human trafficking textbook: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Wendy_Stickle_Human_Trafficking?id=RLacDwAAQBAJ

“The spread of HIV/AIDS … offers another significant example of how demand influences the portrait of human trafficking. In those regions where HIV/AIDS is still widespread, the demand for younger and younger girls continues to grow.”

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From trafficking conference presentation: https://www.traffickingconference.com/

Nazmia Comrie et al.: Hospitality Trafficking: King Case (Florida, 2007)

– Eastern European students on J-1 visas exploited in five-star Hilton resort in Florida Panhandle
– Students had been promised jobs at Disney World
– Instead taken to North Florida and worked as maids in Hilton resort for $2 to $3 an hour
– Perpetrators were Russian organized crime operating with U.S. citizen front man
– Students “recycled” every three to four months
– Hilton places all legal blame on its subcontractor

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Then there’s the RM reviews which are also quite awful. One from 2014 was like… “The girl wasn’t enthusiastic about it, and I only got a HJ (handjob) from her. Not recommend.” — and the review indicated he didn’t even pay a tip.

The filthy entitlement of it.

---

The remaining parts below are less graphic and more just depressing.

I’ve been trying to read up more on labor trafficking cases, since y gut instinct is they might be understudied. https://humantraffickinghotline.org/sites/default/files/Labor%20Trafficking%20Cases%20by%20Industry%20in%20the%20US%20Fact%20Sheet%20FINAL_1.pdf

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https://www.urban.org/research/publication/understanding-organization-operation-and-victimization-process-labor-trafficking-united-states Case studies

workers who were paid through a subcontractor often didn’t realize that something was wrong until they received their first paycheck and saw deductions for housing, food, transportation, and in some case medical insurance, and were often left with so little that their earnings would barely make a dent in their debt back home.

also, in many cases, victims had accrued a debt back home (e.g.,bank loans, property collateral)to come to the United States and would face a host of consequences if they were deported and unable to pay that debt back. >>> I’m sure this makes it harder to prosecute..

rather, law enforcement arrived at the traffickers’ household and chose to believe the perpetrators instead of the… The security people show up and of course they’re under orders. … They can stay on the street, but they can’t step over the curb into the curtilage of the residence. So they only stood at the curb … essentially believed everything that he [the trafficker] was telling them. And then they go back in [the] house,and it was that night that he lost his temper and started beating the crap out of her and wound up breaking her finger. … I was like, “Did you ever think about calling the sheriff’s office?” And then he goes. . . “We have to have the homeowner’s permission.” No, you don’t. >>> Well, just, depressing.

of these victims, 46 percent were single and 45 percent were married. Sixty-four percent of the victims had children. >>> Definitely changed my perspective of who is trafficking

With the exception of one worker who was an American citizen, the farm workers were Mexican citizens who entered the country legally in 2019 as H-2A visa holders on a contract to work at Windy Prairie Farm. Plaintiffs’ attorneys said the workers routinely worked long hours but were paid little or nothing and were never reimbursed for pre-employment travel or related expenses. … including allegations that he threatened to strangle the person who complained to the DOL. https://www.theindianalawyer.com/articles/farmworkers-awarded-460k-in-wage-theft-labor-trafficking-judgment >>> The extent that a lot of legal visas are used surprised me. One case read “oh, the visa renewal was denied due to low wages specified. then law enforcement went in, investigated, and arrested the workers”…

had no previous encounters with law enforcement in their home countries or in the United States and were law-abiding individuals. Thus, the threat and fear of deportation, or the mere mention of law enforcement or ties to law enforcement, were enough to keep victims from running away or seeking help. >>> this rings true… what is the case for law enforcement to become known in their communities as positive forces?

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It’s kind of tiring to deal with this stuff and then on the other hand read about cases that get dismissed by judges who I assume, charitably, don’t deal with this day-in and day-out and can’t see the patterns.

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The following bits are a bit more scattered, I really just wanted to vent above. Now just jotting some general thoughts that are criss-crossing my mind.

A lot of the more egregious examples are made possible because of poverty. I guess honestly in my heart I feel the solution to these extremes is figuring out how to get people out of poverty. Reading about all the people involved fighting so hard just makes it so tiring to think about. But if the economic factors can be fixed… I think witnessing and reflecting China’s growth in my pretty short lifetime really drives that optimism. From hand-pulled rickshaws to gleaming metropolis. Plenty of issues but the sheer economic growth and increased standard of living in the last 15-20 years (from when I spent summers with my grandma in elementary school, to visiting post-undergrad undergraduate) is insane.

When I feed the hungry, they call me a saint. When I ask why people are hungry, they call me a Communist

Dom Helder Camara, Brazilian archbishop, as quoted in Peace Behind Bars : A Peacemaking Priest’s Journal from Jail (1995) by John Dear, p. 65; this is a translation of “Quando dou comida aos pobres chamam-me de santo. Quando pergunto por que eles são pobres chamam-me de comunista.” https://quotes.yourdictionary.com/author/quote/549026

An interested podcast this week (quite short) on this, as part of Black History Month. I really liked the insight.

Peter says that Lewis’s insight [dual-sector model of development] changed our understanding of the ways that poor countries can raise living standards for their citizens

https://www.npr.org/2021/02/16/968412484/unsung-economists-arthur-lewis.

There’s also a brief phrase that resonates with my experience. Not quite same in transcript, recommend listen.

HENRY: Between 1978 and 2014, when China was going through the most miraculous period of economic growth in history

Also reflecting on my changing views on Africa. I forgot that as a kid, Africa seemed like this continent beset by never-ending amounts of civil wars and then the HIV/AIDS epidemic. To where it is now, a promising candidate for growth. As opposed to the stasis and decay of the last years in the United States, looking at Africa now feels optimistic.

Infrastructure a bigger problem than corruption. The need for agriculture tech vs. current sustenance farming. The hope for the model that drove economic growth in China (cheap labor for manufacturing), interrupted by automation (robotics allowing for manufacturing to return to US / may skip Africa).

Although overall my mood is okay, compared to the bottoms of 2016, as the 1 year anniversary of moving out comes up, with no end in sight still, I’ve definitely felt a little mopey. I want my parents to get the vaccine, and I want to be paid.

It weighs on my mind that I sit in a room of presumably well paid corporate people, while being unpaid, and because i was the one who brought up oh maybe there are some ethical considerations here, now I am the one who is tasked with writing about it. I guess I have been paid with (access to) data. But the irony is the data is about Asian massage parlors* . So here I am, unpaid while the men in the room are paid, being asked to spend my time writing about the ethics of studying a topic that ultimately involves the power imbalance between men and women.

* which let me tell you, the amount of entitlement in that dataset really makes you feel as you are treading through the muck of civilization

Am I being paid enough for this? Somehow I have both had the privilege to choose my position of continuing my PhD, without being paid, yet also I feel the situation is unjust in some way that’s hard to put my finger on. There is no funding on this topic in academia, compared to e.g. supporting entire labs studying haptics in robotic touch. I don’t ask for industry levels of pay. I would just like to be paid enough to feel comfortable renting a room in Boston.

I don’t know, life is absurd sometimes. It’s no use being too mad about it all the time. Too close scrutiny about power imbalances may just ingrain those power imbalances. Best to just make sure I can rapidly exit this situation in less than 1.5 years.