Scientists Find New Genetic Variants for Obesity

Researchers believe they have discovered a new biological mechanism for obesity, pointing to rare variants on two genes that dramatically increase the risk of carrying excess weight.

Research published in the journal Nature Genetics on Thursday points to variants that raise the chance of being obese by as much as six times. Unlike other known variants that affect weight gain in children, these only appear to play a role in adults.

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Unraveling obesity’s mechanisms could help scientists develop new drugs, or tailor existing ones, for a condition that now affects one in eight people. For the first time, patients can now take highly effective medicines to shed unwanted weight. The revolution, led by drugmakers Novo Nordisk A/S and Eli Lilly & Co., carved open a market that could surpass $100 billion globally by 2030.  

Read More: Ozempic Gets the Oprah Treatment in a New TV Special

Using data from over 500,000 people, scientists from the Medical Research Council at the University of Cambridge found variants in two genes called BSN and APBA1 that increased the risk of obesity in adults. 

The variants in BSN, also known as Bassoon, were associated with an increased risk of diabetes and fatty liver disease. The Bassoon variants affect about 1 in 6,500 adults, the researchers said.  

The hypothesis is that as people who have these gene variants get older, neurons in their brain start to degenerate, removing “some of the key circuits within the brain controlling food intake and therefore you end up with obesity,” said Giles Yeo, one of the authors of the study and a professor at the MRC Metabolic Diseases Unit.

The Bassoon variant may one day help drugmakers develop preventive medicines, according to Yeo. The question would be, “can we actually slow down the process, prevent the process from happening to begin with, so that then we prevent more people from ending up with obesity, particularly in adulthood.” 

The researchers used the UK Biobank database and worked with AstraZeneca Plc to check that their findings applied beyond people of European ancestry, using data from Pakistan and Mexico.

Astra is one of the latest drugmakers to join the obesity race, having clinched a deal last year to buy an experimental pill that’s still in early-stage tests.

source https://time.com/6963455/genetic-variants-obesity/

How to Talk to Kids When a Parent Has Cancer

The U.S. is expected to hit a bleak milestone this year: For the first time, more than 2 million people will be diagnosed with cancer. More than 600,000 will die, according to projections from the American Cancer Society.

Yet when you consider how many people are affected by a single diagnosis, those numbers balloon. As people with cancer grapple with fears about their health, they often describe being equally anxious about how their news will affect their family. When Catherine, Princess of Wales, revealed on March 22 that she was being treated for cancer, she emphasized that she and her husband had “taken time to explain everything” to their three young children “in a way that is appropriate for them.”

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Whatever your treatment might entail, it’s helpful to know how to discuss your prognosis with your loved ones so you can prepare them for the road ahead, as variable and unknown as the future may be. That’s especially true with children, who are often more intuitive than you may realize. 

“Kids are incredibly perceptive on picking up that something is off,” says Dr. Amishi Y. Shah, a genitourinary medical oncologist and associate professor at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. “In general, being transparent about what’s going on with kids is a good policy.”

Of course, each family will talk about a cancer diagnosis with children differently. “There’s not necessarily a one-size-fits-all [approach],” says Amanda L. Thompson, chief of pediatric psychology and director of pediatric programs at Life with Cancer, a northern Virginia nonprofit providing support and education for people affected by cancer. “What you’re going to disclose is going to depend on the age of your child, their maturity, their own experience with or exposure to illness within the family or close friends, and more.” 

Here, cancer experts and mental health professionals share tips for approaching this conversation with care and compassion.

Read More: Kate Middleton Had to Tell Her Kids About Her Cancer Diagnosis. These Parents Know What That’s Like

Plan ahead

This probably isn’t the best time for an off-the-cuff, improvised conversation, notes Shannon Coon, children’s program coordinator at the cancer support organization CancerCare. “Write down what you want to say before the conversation happens, and practice prior,” she says. That might make it easier to speak in a calm and reassuring voice when the time comes, she says.

Think about who you might want to have with you, as well, Coon adds: Do you want to speak with your children individually? Do you want your partner to be there? Should any other adults in their lives be present?

Create a welcoming environment for the conversation

Choose a calm, safe space and time to bring up your diagnosis with childrens. Make sure you have plenty of time to answer questions without having to rush off to another part of your day, says Thompson.

Picking your moment counts in other ways too. It might help to identify when your family already comes together in a way that feels “connected, comfortable, and normal,” says Max McMahon, a licensed independent clinical social worker at the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. “Is the dinner table when good conversations happen? Is it when you go out for bagels on Saturday mornings? When do your kids seem to want to talk about things or process their day?” he asks.

Whatever the setting, your goal should be to welcome discussion. “We’re creating an environment where it’s OK to talk about the hard things out in the open,” Thompson says.

Stick to age-appropriate terminology

Tailor the language you use based on the age of the child you’re talking to. For a young child, that might look like: “‘Mommy is sick. She has something called cancer. The doctors are doing everything in their power,’” Coon says. You might even point to the sides of your back and explain the cancer is in your kidneys.

Older children will be able to understand more, so the conversation may be more detailed, but they’re also in a different emotional space. “I’ve found the most difficult [scenario] is when the kids are teenagers,” says Dr. Toni K. Choueiri, director of the Lank Center. “They’re going through a lot of changes, and now you add to it.”

Use concrete language

It can be tempting to gloss over unnerving topics, but using the word “cancer” can actually help defuse the situation, Thompson says. “Harry Potter said ‘Voldemort.’ He gave the big bad villain his name to take away some of his power. We have to use that word matter-of-factly. It is important for children to know it’s something they’re going to hear.”

Similarly, it’s helpful for children to hear clear language about death, “even though it is incredibly difficult … especially if you’re the parent who is ill and facing your own mortality,” she adds.

That doesn’t mean you have to state simply, “I’m dying,” McMahon says. You might say something like, “This is a serious, advanced disease, and I’m getting treatment for it, [but] this disease can’t be cured, and I will die from it,’” he says.

Using euphemisms or otherwise prettifying language can lead to children interpreting things too literally. “Sometimes children think ‘heaven’ is a place they can visit,” Coon says, or that they can go find a loved one who has been “lost,” Thompson adds.

Discuss visible physical changes

Immunotherapy and targeted drug therapy for cancer can cause side effects like joint and abdominal pain, diarrhea, loss of appetite, and fatigue, all of which children might notice. And if they do, it’s better to be upfront about it. “Otherwise, they’re wondering in silence,” McMahon says.

Some changes will be more obvious than others. For example, Choueiri says, if you’re dealing with diarrhea and your home has only one bathroom, it would be nearly impossible to hide the fact that you’re using it every hour.

But even if side-effects are more nuanced—maybe you’re walking more tenderly because you’re in pain, or you’re losing weight because you’re not hungry—embrace opportunities to explain where you can. You might try: “‘Dad is in pain. Do you want to know what’s happening inside Dad’s body?’” McMahon advises. Some parents worry this will create more anxiety for a child, “but kids often have anxiety about what they don’t know, so information is helpful for most children.”

Read More: Kate Middleton Is Receiving Preventative Chemotherapy. Here’s What That Is

Explain how their lives may change

Consistency generally makes children feel secure, and cancer can certainly disrupt your schedule. Aim to explain to children what you expect to shift in your routine. “They’re going to want to know, ‘What does this mean for my family and what we do? Does this mean someone else picks me up from school? Are we still going on the trip we take every year?’” Shah says.

Reassure kids that even if someone else will handle school pick-up, their needs will be met and they’ll still be cared for and loved. Consider sharing your treatment calendar with older children, so they can anticipate some of those changes on a weekly or monthly basis.

Answer questions honestly

After you’ve disclosed your diagnosis for the first time, lean on a child’s curiosity to shape your ongoing conversations. Answer questions as they come up, then pause for a moment to see what other questions arise (if any). Kids will likely come up with questions about a parent’s cancer that you don’t know the answers to. “The reality is, we probably won’t have all the answers. Often our physicians don’t even have all the answers,” Thompson says.

In those cases, it’s OK to tell a child you don’t know. “Let them know that when you do know, you’ll get back to them as soon as possible,” Coon says. You can show them you mean it by keeping a running list of unanswered questions and bringing it to your next visit with your oncologist.

Check in

Just as you’ll need more than one visit with your oncologist over the course of treatment, you’ll likely need more than one conversation with a child to fully discuss their feelings about your prognosis. Touch base with specific questions that welcome their curiosity rather than broad questions like asking how they’re doing, suggests the American Cancer Society. You might start with a question like, “‘What changes have you noticed with Dad lately?’” Choueiri suggests, or “‘You’ve noticed Mom has had to go to the hospital more. Do you have any questions about that?’” McMahon says.

Older children can take even more ownership in shaping these conversations. “I often recommend asking how they want to be updated along the way,” Thompson says. “Do they want to know the details? Do they want to talk about it in the morning or the evening? What would be most helpful for them?”

Lean on the services meant to help

Your medical team can likely connect you with support services at your treatment center to assist you in navigating these difficult conversations. You might have oncology social workers, nurse navigators, and other experienced staff members available to you and your children. “It’s our job to guide you to the resources that can help. You don’t have to do it alone,” Shah says.

That’s especially true if children start exhibiting any signs that they need more support than you’re equipped to give them, such as experiencing changes in sleeping or eating patterns, social withdrawal, fighting with their siblings or friends more often, or more frequent bedwetting.

Organizations like the American Cancer Society have information and support groups for parents and caregivers. Nonprofits like CancerCare offer children’s programs free of charge. And there are even Facebook groups for people with specific types of cancer where you can find comfort in knowing you’re not alone.

Talking about a parent’s cancer with children is never easy, but it’s helpful for your kids and your relationship. “In general, know it’s going to be difficult and emotional in the moment,” Coon says, “but it’s so important to have open and honest conversations throughout the cancer journey.”

source https://time.com/6963338/how-to-talk-to-kids-about-cancer/

Here’s Why Taiwan Is So Exposed to Earthquakes

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan was struck Wednesday by its most powerful earthquake in a quarter of a century. At least nine people were killed and hundreds injured, buildings and highways damaged and dozens of workers at quarries stranded.

Taiwan is no stranger to powerful earthquakes yet their toll on the high-tech island’s 23 million residents has been relatively contained thanks to its excellent earthquake preparedness, experts say.

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Here is a closer look at Taiwan’s history of earthquakes:

Why are there so many temblors?

Taiwan lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” the line of seismic faults encircling the Pacific Ocean where most of the world’s earthquakes occur.

The area is particularly vulnerable to temblors due to the tension accumulated from the interactions of two tectonic plates, the Philippine Sea Plate and the Eurasian Plate, which may lead to sudden releases in the form of earthquakes.

The region’s mountainous landscape can magnify the ground shaking, leading to landslides. Several such landslides occurred on Taiwan’s eastern coast near the epicenter of Wednesday’s quake near eastern Hualien County, when falling debris hit tunnels and highways, crushing vehicles and causing several deaths.

How well equipped is Taiwan to handle earthquakes?

Wednesday’s earthquake measured 7.2, according to Taiwan’s earthquake monitoring agency, while the U.S. Geological Survey put it at 7.4. It damaged several buildings in Hualien but caused only minor losses in the capital Taipei despite being strongly felt there.

The earthquake hit in the middle of the morning rush hour yet only slightly derailed the regular commute. Just minutes later, parents were again walking their children to school and workers driving to offices.

“Taiwan’s earthquake preparedness is among the most advanced in the world,” said Stephen Gao, a seismologist and professor at Missouri University of Science and Technology. “The island has implemented strict building codes, a world-class seismological network, and widespread public education campaigns on earthquake safety.”

The government continually revises the level of quake resistance required of new and existing buildings — which may increase construction costs — and offers subsidies to residents willing to check their buildings’ quake resistance.

Following a 2016 quake in Tainan, on the island’s southwestern coast, five people involved in the construction of a 17-story high-rise apartment building that was the only major structure to have collapsed, killing dozens, were found guilty of negligence and given prison sentences.

Taiwan also is pushing quake drills at schools and workplaces while public media and cellphones regularly carry notices about earthquakes and safety.

“These measures have significantly enhanced Taiwan’s resilience to earthquakes, helping to mitigate the potential for catastrophic damage and loss of life,” Gao said.

The 1999 earthquake was a wake-up call?

Taiwan and its surrounding waters have registered about 2,000 earthquakes with a magnitude of 4.0 or greater since 1980, and more than 100 earthquakes with a magnitude above 5.5, according to the USGS.

The island’s worst quake in recent years struck on Sept. 21, 1999, with a magnitude of 7.7. It caused 2,400 deaths, injured around 100,000 and destroyed thousands of buildings.

It was also a major wake-up call that led to key administrative reforms to improve emergency response and disaster reduction, according to Daniel Aldrich, professor of political science and public policy at Northeastern University.

“Observers strongly criticized Taiwan’s response to the 21 September 1999 earthquake, arguing that it took hours for emergency medical response teams to arrive, that rescuers lacked training, and that the operations between government agencies were not well coordinated,” he wrote in an email. As a result, the government passed the Disaster Prevention and Protection Act and set up two national centers to handle coordination and training for earthquakes.

“I think we’re seeing the results in this most recent shock,” he said.

source https://time.com/6963097/taiwan-earthquakes/

New York Inmates Suing to View the Solar Eclipse Due to Prison Lockdowns

Six New York inmates have filed a lawsuit against the state’s corrections department after the department announced a statewide prison lockdown on April 8 that would bar them from seeing the total solar eclipse, which they allege violates their religious freedom. 

The six plaintiffs—of which there is a Christian, Muslim, Santerian and atheist—have each “expressed a sincerely held religious belief that April’s solar eclipse is a religious event that they must witness and reflect on to observe their faiths,” the complaint says. 

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The case was filed in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of New York court on March 29. The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) told TIME it does not comment on pending litigation.

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DOCCS Acting Commissioner Daniel F. Martuscello III previously issued a memo saying that all 44 prisons in the state would have to remain in their housing units from 2 to 5 p.m. on April 8. Of that group, 23 facilities that fall in the path of totality were directed to be closed to visitation all day. A partial eclipse is expected to begin shortly after 2 p.m., with totality starting at 3:18 p.m. in upstate New York, according to NASA.

Plaintiff Jeremy Zielinski, an atheist, says that he requested special permission to view the eclipse. His initial request was granted but later revoked because of the lockdown order, he says in the lawsuit. 

“Mr. Zielinski firmly believes that observing the solar eclipse with people of different faiths is crucial to practicing his own faith because it is a central aspect of atheism to celebrate common humanity and bring people together to encourage people to find common ground,” the complaint reads. 

The DOCCS says the lockdown is a “proactive approach to ensure the safety” of the prisoners and staff. “Recognizing the surge of visitors expected in the region during the eclipse, the Department is working with the New York State Eclipse Interagency Task Force to ensure DOCCS visitors and staff are not stuck in traffic or otherwise stranded,” a DOCCS spokesperson told TIME. “For this reason, visitation will be suspended at all DOCCS facilities in the path of totality on Monday, April 8, 2024 and will resume on Tuesday, April 9.”

The department will also be providing solar eclipse glasses to staff and inmates who may be able to view the eclipse from their unit. 

DOCCS added that all religious requests related to the eclipse are currently under review.

source https://time.com/6963044/solar-eclipse-new-york-prisons/

Republicans Worry They Could Lose the House—Before the Election

When Republicans gained control of the House in November 2022, many in Washington wondered how they would be able to govern effectively with one of the slimmest majorities in history. Some Democrats even speculated if they might be able to take back the House before the term ended.

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Sixteen months later, as the Republican majority has shrunk even further, House Speaker Mike Johnson is admitting that possibility. He told Fox News on Monday that there is a slim chance he could lose the speakership to Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries in the next few weeks amid a wave of early retirements. “That’s a risk,” Johnson said of Democrats taking control of the House.

Already three Republican lawmakers have resigned from their posts mid-term—Reps. Kevin McCarthy, Bill Johnson, and Ken Buck. A fourth Republican, Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, is expected to step down in mid-April, bringing the party’s former nine-seat majority down to just 217-213 as Republicans lost a fifth seat after George Santos was expelled from the House.

The spate of early departures means that Republicans can soon only afford to lose one single vote when all lawmakers are present and voting, since 216 votes would constitute a majority. The shrinking Republican majority has raised concerns among some in the party about the potential for an unprecedented shift in power mid-Congress. “It’s very feasible that Democrats will be running the House before the election,” says Brian Darling, a GOP strategist and former counsel to Sen. Rand Paul. “It’s time for Republicans to have a team meeting and say, ‘okay, guys, this majority is falling apart and if you keep acting like this, we’re not going to have a majority.’”

As Republicans grapple with the ongoing wave of early retirements, party leadership has little room for error as even a single additional departure could tip the scales in favor of the Democrats, which has never happened in the middle of a congressional term. Buck, who stepped down in March due to what he called growing dysfunction in Congress, has hinted that Republicans could see more resignations in the coming months if bitter divisions inside the GOP continue to escalate.

“Republicans would be smart to be worried,” says Matthew Green, a politics professor at Catholic University. “I don’t think the odds are very high that the Republicans will lose their majority, but it is a much bigger possibility now than it’s ever been. And I think it’s clear that the Republican leadership is worried about it.”

Green adds that if another Republican resigns or experiences an unexpected health crisis leading to their absence from voting, then Democrats could secure the majority before the November elections. It would be the first time such a shift has happened in the House mid-term, with the closest parallel coming in 1930 when Republicans lost their slim majority before the session began after several members died and Democrats won special elections to replace them. 

Complicating matters, some Republicans are already considering strategies to remove Johnson from his leadership position and trigger a vote for a new Speaker of the House. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right Georgia Republican, filed a surprise motion to vacate the speakership on March 22 after Johnson had to rely on Democratic votes to pass a critical government funding package. The move could set up a risky leadership vote that would test the unity of the Republican conference. “If we vacated this speaker, we’d end up with a Democrat,” Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, warned immediately after Greene triggered the motion, adding that he believes some Republicans would vote for Jeffries. 

Read More: How Marjorie Taylor Greene Became a Biden Campaign Punchline

The current tumult within the Republican Party has Democrats cautiously optimistic. While the tantalizing prospect of wresting control of the House mid-Congress appears unlikely, it is becoming a more plausible dream for Democrats. “Slowly but surely, House Republicans are catastrophically mismanaging their own majority out of existence,” New York Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Democrat, said in December.

But even if Democrats do manage to gain control of the House, they would face some of the same challenges that plagued Republicans trying to govern with a razor-thin margin. “Democrats will have to ask themselves if they could have a majority, would they necessarily want one?” Green asks. “Is it worth it to go through the whole process of picking a new Speaker with maybe four months, at most, to be able to get something done? It’s not clear what the answer to that question is.”

In 2023, the Republican-led House passed only 27 bills that became law, despite holding a total of 724 votes. It was one of the least productive years in Congress in the last decade, shedding light on the ongoing challenges faced by Republicans—including their slim majority necessitating near-unanimous support for legislative progress, significant party fractures, and a far-right faction that has been a thorn in the side of party leadership.

“Republicans have completely mismanaged the majority, and it started when they kicked George Santos out of the caucus,” says Darling, the GOP strategist. Santos, who faces nearly two dozen federal criminal charges, was expelled from Congress in December, with 105 Republicans voting for his removal. Democrat Tom Suozzi won his seat in a special election in February. “I understand why they did it, but ultimately they were giving away a seat that put them a little bit closer to giving away the majority.”

source https://time.com/6962988/republicans-house-majority-election-democrats/

Trump Built His Brand Bashing Obamacare. Now it’s More Popular Than He Is.

This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox.

A decade and a half ago, the Affordable Care Act set the stage for Donald Trump’s White House victory. The conservative backlash to Democrats’ massive and agenda-setting health care proposal was so strong that it gave rise to a newly empowered far-right faction in Congress, inspired a whole generation of angry political neophytes, and almost made Barack Obama a one-term President. Now, a solid 14 years later, those same rabble rousers seem to have convinced Trump, who spent years raging against the law informally known as Obamacare, that it might be good politics, if not also good policy.

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It may be hard to remember now but Trump built his 2016 campaign on the twin cornerstones of the false and racist claims that Obama was not born in the United States and an unflinching scorn for Obamacare. He rarely passed up an opportunity to decry the law as a “disaster” or proclaim that it “sucks,” and repeatedly said a new effort was just “two weeks” away. As recently as a few months ago, he was vowing to destroy it if granted a second term. “We should never give up!” he declared in a Truth Social post in November.

A funny thing has happened in the last few years, though. Obamacare’s popularity has grown as more and more Americans interact with a health care system fundamentally rebooted in bite-sized pieces, and the potency of the hatred toward the Obamas has faded. (Some ugly comments, however, continue to crop up.) The result is the jabs against the 44th President’s legacy-worthy legislation no longer land with the same thwack, crackling barely as a thud.

Now, in 2024, it seems Obamacare will not be detonating, but maybe even stand to be firmed up if Trump wins a return to the White House. In a new series of messages, the former President is telling voters… Well, here is one of his social media musings in all of its glory:

I’m not running to terminate the ACA, AS CROOKED JOE BUDEN DISINFORMATES AND MISINFORMATES ALL THE TIME, I’m running to CLOSE THE BORDER, STOP INFLATION, MAKE OUR ECONOMY GREAT, STRENGTHEN OUR MILITARY, AND MAKE THE ACA, or OBAMACARE, AS IT IS KNOWN, MUCH BETTER, STRONGER, AND FAR LESS EXPENSIVE. IN OTHER WORDS, MAKE THE ACA MUCH, MUCH, MUCH BETTER FOR FAR LESS MONEY (OR COST) TO OUR GREST AMERICAN CITIZENS, WHO HAVE BEEN DECIMATED BY BIDEN, HIS RECORD INFLATION, BAD ECONOMY, AFGHANISTAN CATASTROPHE, AND JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING ELSE. CROOKED JOE BIDEN IS, BY FAR, THE WORST PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES! MAGA2024

This typo-laden turnaround—if that’s what it in fact is—was not always guaranteed. When the law was still taking shape, opponents convinced true believers that it would yield a rationing of health care services and perhaps even “death panels” that would do a cost-benefit analysis of treatments. Ultimately, after months of legislative hoop-jumping, the bill cleared Congress without a single Republican vote in support in March of 2010, and 34 House Democrats were against its final passage.

Polling immediately found the overall package to be an electoral clunker. A plurality 44% of voters held an unfavorable opinion of it in May of 2010, and those numbers didn’t really move all the way through Election Day that November, when Democrats suffered a seven-seat net loss in the Senate and dropped 63 seats in the House—the biggest wave since 1948. The unfavorable view of Obamacare was shared by 85% of Republicans that May, according to Kaiser Family Foundation polling. Months of Democratic explaining only shaved that number to 79% as voters headed toward the ballot box,

Put plainly: Obamacare might have been good policy, but it was lousy politics. The 14-month slog to pass the law left even its defenders with a bit of a chip on their shoulders. It wasn’t until fall of 2013 that people were able to sign up for private health insurance through the federal portal that was mired in glitches and bad P.R. For a long stretch there, Obamacare only brought ailments and not ointment. That’s where Trump picked up his initial instincts to seize on an often overlooked portion of the GOP’s base and feed the distrust. 

And that tactic worked, at least until the upsides of the law kicked in. Over time, the polling got better. Parents of young adults realized their children could stay on their health plans as they got their careers going. The price tag for health care hasn’t exactly shrunk; the numbers tell the opposite story, actually. But the patient experience has gotten better even as medical bankruptcies and debts remain high. Still, there has not been a harsh rationing of care, and killing a regime that touches 45 million people—or roughly two-thirds of the size of all Social Security programs—is not a political winner.

That wasn’t necessarily the understanding when Trump and his nominal allies took over Washington in early 2017. Then, nixing Obamacare was atop their agenda. Trump unfurled executive actions—that later were rejected by the Supreme Court—and cajoled allies at the Capitol to move on his demands. But a revolt among moderates and GOP lawmakers in at-risk seats put that sect of the party on a collision course with the conservative ideologues. Party leaders pulled down the whole effort. Trump vowed revenge on those in the party who viewed as traitors.  

“Obamacare unfortunately will explode,” Trump said in March 2017, trying his best to put shine on a loss. “It’s going to have a very bad year.”

Trump’s predictions of collapse proved faulty and now he’s hoping a national amnesia that has excused so many of his reversals carries into this realm. By this point, most Americans are numb to his flip flops; no one was truly surprised when Trump voiced support for TikTok not long after trying to ban it as President. But a TikTok ban was not integral to Trump’s political brand. For years, opposition to Obamacare was, almost as much as his support for a border wall.

It seems Trump has finally wised up to the fact that the health care law—while far from perfect—is doing good work for millions of Americans, perhaps becoming as sacrosanct as Social Security. The Supreme Court has repeatedly rejected efforts to scrap the law. Kaiser’s polling has 59% of Americans holding a favorable view of the Affordable Care Act, including 33% of Republicans. One report, released March 22, shows 45 million Americans benefiting from some aspect of the law. The days of “repeal and replace” seem to have faded as Trump finally realizes that even the law’s loudest critics lack a backfill program.

Republicans have quietly been positioning their most vulnerable members in this way, telling them that ending a program that has so quickly become enmeshed with day-to-day lives is a losing promise. Forty states, including some Republican-led ones, and the District of Columbia are participating in the Obamacare Medicaid expansion programs. Even weeks ago, as Trump was again thumping his ideas for canceling his loathed predecessor’s legacy law, Republican lawmakers were telling Trump he was on his own with no pals to “walk the plank” with him.

Biden seems eager to goad Trump to either defend his longstanding position or cop to a monumental flip-flop. In his State of the Union speech, the current President poked the former with plenty of pluck: “My predecessor, and many in this chamber, want to take those prescription drugs away by repealing the Affordable Care Act. I’m not going to let that happen. We stopped you 50 times before, and we’ll stop you again.”

For his part, Trump seems to finally realize the 51st time could be the most consequential to him yet: his own campaign this fall. So strong is his desire to reclaim power (and perhaps shut down some federal prosecutions against him), he will set aside more than a decade of anti-Obamacare language with barely a blink.

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source https://time.com/6962662/donald-trump-obama-health-care/

Side Hustle or Scam? What to Know About Data Annotation Work

On TikTok, Reddit, and elsewhere, posts are popping up from users claiming they’re making $20 per hour—or more—completing small tasks in their spare time on sites such as DataAnnotation.tech, Taskup.ai, Remotasks, and Amazon Mechanical Turk.

As companies have rushed to build AI models, the demand for “data annotation” and “data labeling” work has increased. Workers complete tasks such as writing and coding, which tech companies then use to develop artificial intelligence systems, which are trained using large numbers of example data points. Some models require all of their input data to be labeled by humans, a technique referred to as “supervised learning.” And while “unsupervised learning,” in which AI models are fed unlabeled data, is becoming increasingly popular, AI systems trained using unsupervised learning still often require a final step involving data labeled by humans.

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There are no precise estimates of how many people engage in data annotation work. A 2022 Google Research paper approximates the number to be in the millions, and that in future that could grow to be billions. A 2021 study estimated that 163 million people have made profiles on online labor platforms, 14 million of whom have obtained work through the platform at least once, and 3.3 million of whom have completed at least 10 projects or earned at least $1,000. (Though this number is likely to be an overestimate for data annotation, because not all work carried out on online labor platforms is data annotation work.)

Data annotation sites, often subsidiaries of larger companies, can offer legitimate avenues for earning money. As the AI industry continues to grow, demand for human labellers has grown with it. But potential users should be aware that the data labeling industry is poorly regulated, and because the industry is opaque, it can be difficult to navigate. Here’s what to know.

How does someone get started in data annotation?

To qualify for the programs, workers must begin by completing an assessment. The duration of the initial assessment can vary, but users commonly report times as short as an hour and as long as three hours. If a user passes the assessment, they should start to receive invitations for paid work through the site. If the user isn’t accepted into the program, they typically don’t hear anything after completion of the assessment. 

Tasks on the assessment can vary in nature. There is a trend towards more highly-skilled data annotation work, says Sonam Jindal, who leads the AI, Labor and the Economy program at the Partnership on AI, a nonprofit. “We’re going to start seeing that as you have a need to have higher quality AI models, you also need higher quality data,” she says. “We can figure out if something is a cat or a dog, that’s great. Moving on to more advanced tasks—to have more advanced AI that is useful in more specialized real world scenarios—you will need more specialized skill sets for that.”

How much money does the work pay? 

In the U.S., sites often offer around $20 per hour for tasks such as labeling photos and completing writing exercises. More specialized data annotation work can provide higher pay. For example, DataAnnotation.tech offers $40 for coding tasks, and Outlier.ai offers $60 per hour for chemistry tasks.

Outside of the U.S., data labellers are typically paid a lot less, says Jindal. But despite the higher price tag, there are reasons companies may prefer U.S.-based workers, such as tasks that require specific cultural knowledge or skills that are prevalent in the U.S. 

What have people’s experiences been like? 

On online discussion boards, users report a wide range of experiences with data annotation work. Many describe positive experiences—straightforward onboarding processes, an ample supply of tasks, and good pay.

“I have been working at [DataAnnotation.Tech] for almost 2 years,” one user writes. “You make money by the task or by the hour, depending on the project. They pay via PayPal. I have only worked very part-time in the past couple of years and am nearing the $3k mark. In all honesty, I quit for quite a while during my full-time job, but am back at it. I am currently working on two projects, one for $20 per hour and one for $25 per hour. I am making about $400-$500 a week. This is not permanent, as tasks come and go, but it is a great side income to work on if you needed extra work from a laptop or computer.”

Read More: The Workers Behind AI Rarely See Its Rewards. This Indian Startup Wants to Fix That

But some report less positive experiences, such as being told they had passed the assessment, but then never being offered any tasks. More worryingly, some users report their accounts being deactivated with large amounts of earnings yet to be paid out. One user writes that their account was deactivated with $2,869 worth of work unpaid, and that they emailed the companies’ support contacts, but did not hear back.

Data annotation sites often use algorithmic management to keep their costs low, which can result in the poor treatment that many workers experience, says Milagros Miceli, who leads the Data, Algorithmic Systems, and Ethics research group at Weizenbaum-Institut in Berlin. And because the data annotation industry is poorly regulated, companies rarely face consequences for substandard treatment of workers, she says.

What is the data used for?

Some companies, such as Amazon Mechanical Turk and Upwork, operate in a relatively transparent manner, with the same brand for both purchasers of data labeling labor and for workers. But others don’t. Remotasks is the worker-facing subsidiary of data labeling provider Scale AI, a multi-billion dollar San Francisco-based business with clients including OpenAI, Meta, and the U.S. military. Similarly, Taskup.ai, DataAnnotation.tech, and Gethybrid.io are reportedly subsidiaries of Surge AI, another data labeling provider that serves clients including Anthropic and Microsoft.

Companies say that this secrecy is required to protect sensitive commercial information, such as new product development plans, from leaking, says Miceli. But they also prefer secrecy because it reduces the chances that they will be linked to potentially exploitative conditions, such as low wages and exposure to traumatic content.

A Scale AI spokesperson directed TIME to a blog post that says that Remotasks was established as separate to Scale AI to protect customer confidentiality and cites examples of steps Scale AI has taken to ensure workers are treated fairly. The spokesperson also said that “Remotasks does not engage in projects that require exposure to sensitive images / videos, and in the event such content appears in a dataset it can be reported and removed from the workstream.”

Surge AI, Taskup.ai, DataAnnotation.tech, and Gethybrid.io did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

Data work is fundamentally undervalued, argues Jindal, suggesting that data workers could be paid royalties on the products that they help create. 

“Their knowledge and information is being captured in data and used to train these AI models that are called artificial intelligence,” she says. “It’s actually their human intelligence—our collective human intelligence—that’s being embedded in these models.”

source https://time.com/6962608/data-annotation-legit-tech-jobs-ai/