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The "I Have Zero Faith In Humanity" Thread

eric strt6

Resident Curmudgeon
Sep 8, 2001
23,306
13,592
directly above the center of the earth
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IRS awards multimillion-dollar fraud-prevention contract to Equifax
The no-bid contract was issued last week, as the company continued facing fallout from its massive security breach.


By STEVEN OVERLY and NANCY SCOLA


10/03/2017 03:52 PM EDT


Updated 10/03/2017 07:24 PM EDT

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The IRS will pay Equifax $7.25 million to verify taxpayer identities and help prevent fraud under a no-bid contract issued last week, even as lawmakers lash the embattled company about a massive security breach that exposed personal information of as many as 145.5 million Americans.

A contract award for Equifax's data services was posted to the Federal Business Opportunities database Sept. 30 — the final day of the fiscal year. The credit agency will "verify taxpayer identity" and "assist in ongoing identity verification and validations" at the IRS, according to the award.


The notice describes the contract as a "sole source order," meaning Equifax is the only company deemed capable of providing the service. It says the order was issued to prevent a lapse in identity checks while officials resolve a dispute over a separate contract.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle blasted the IRS decision.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/03/equifax-irs-fraud-protection-contract-243419
 

syadasti

i heart mac
Apr 15, 2002
12,690
290
VT
Shouldn't that be in the 'it's not all bad news' thread? You are all conflated today.
People continuing to fund this misinformation that harms children isn't a good thing. There are confused parents that will take this as reason to skip out on important vaccinations.
 

syadasti

i heart mac
Apr 15, 2002
12,690
290
VT
But getting called out on it is.
That's not stopping them, this is the second retraction and they plan to try again. It would be good news if they were banned from submitting due to misconduct.

Many EU nations have taken more definitive steps to stop the harm from misinformation campaigns, not like with Trump given his support for antivax non-experts like RFK Jr.

Even small hesitancy from a false controversy (similar to doing something about settled climate science) can be a significantly harmful/costly problem:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/measles-cases-could-triple-even-with-small-decline_us_59829c48e4b0396a95c874cb
 
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syadasti

i heart mac
Apr 15, 2002
12,690
290
VT
So now we have "low fat" avocado's.
Yeah that counts as a no faith in humanity item.....

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41594264
Green/Florida/Dominican/Choquette avocados have been around forever but they're not as good as Black/California/Hass. This is just a marketing push to sell bad avocados (much worse than re-branding Chinese Gooseberries):

Just to make things a little bit more confusing, you may have seen something labeled a “lite” avocado at the store. This isn’t really anything new. It’s just a new marketing spin that some clever Florida avocado growers came up with. Seeing as Florida varieties are lower in fat, they thought they’d play up that advantage by rebranding Florida avocados as “lite” avocados. But buyer beware: Ounce for ounce, Florida avocados are lower in calories, but you have to remember that they’re also twice as big. If you’re going to eat the whole thing, you’d actually be far better off eating a California avocado.
http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/health-fitness/healthy-eating/what’s-the-difference-between-california-and-florida-avocados

More types shown here: http://www.foodrepublic.com/2012/10/18/know-your-avocado-varieties-and-when-theyre-in-season/