Live From New York, It\u27s the Fake News! Saturday Night Live and the (Non)Politics of Parody

Though Saturday Night Live\u27s “Weekend Update” has become one of the most iconic of fake news programs, it is remarkably unfocused on either satiric critique or parody of particular news conventions. Instead, the segment has been shaped by a series of hosts who made a name for themselves by developing distinctive comic personalities. In contrast to more politically invested contemporary programs, the genre of fake news on Saturday Night Live has been largely emptied to serve the needs of the larger show, maintaining its status as just topical, hip, and unthreatening enough to attract celebrities and politicians, as well as a mass audience

Treatment of Primary Pulmonary Aspergillosis: An Assessment of the Evidence.

Aspergillus spp. are a group of filamentous molds that were first described due to a perceived similarity to an aspergillum, or liturgical device used to sprinkle holy water, when viewed under a microscope. Although commonly inhaled due to their ubiquitous nature within the environment, an invasive fungal infection (IFI) is a rare outcome that is often reserved for those patients who are immunocompromised. Given the potential for significant morbidity and mortality within this patient population from IFI due to Aspergillus spp., along with the rise in the use of therapies that confer immunosuppression, there is an increasing need for appropriate initial clinical suspicion leading to accurate diagnosis and effective treatment. Voriconazole remains the first line agent for therapy; however, the use of polyenes, novel triazole agents, or voriconazole in combination with an echinocandin may also be utilized. Consideration as to which particular agent and for what duration should be made in the individual context for each patient based upon underlying immunosuppression, comorbidities, and overall tolerance of therapy

A Holographic Quantum Critical Point at Finite Magnetic Field and Finite Density

We analyze the phase diagram of N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory with fundamental matter in the presence of a background magnetic field and nonzero baryon number. We identify an isolated quantum critical point separating two differently ordered finite density phases. The ingredients that give rise to this transition are generic in a holographic setup, leading us to conjecture that such critical points should be rather common. In this case, the quantum phase transition is second order with mean-field exponents. We characterize the neighborhood of the critical point at small temperatures and identify some signatures of a new phase dominated by the critical point. We also identify the line of transitions between the finite density and zero density phases. The line is completely determined by the mass of the lightest charged quasiparticle at zero density. Finally, we measure the magnetic susceptibility and find hints of fermion condensation at large magnetic field.Comment: 29 pages, 8 figure

Hallucinogenic Neoshamanism as Antimodernism: Development and Ethical Considerations

Humans have been using hallucinogenic plants and fungi for thousands of years. Historically, people around the world have made use of these substances to aid in their spiritual development. Studies of the usage of hallucinogens in indigenous societies often use the term “shamanism” to characterize the associated system of belief and ritual practices. In popular understanding, shamanism is a religious system that features highly ritualized performances in which a practitioner (shaman) utilizes an altered state of consciousness to gain access to realms inhabited by spirits with the intent of recruiting their help to resolve a problem, cure a patient, correct a misfortune, or predict the future among other things. As it was historically used as a catch-all term for a variety of indigenous religious systems, it has been criticized as an overgeneralization at its best and racism at its worst. However, this has not stopped its growing popularity as a spiritual technique among Western spiritual seekers, a phenomenon referred to as neo-shamanism. While not all and perhaps only a minority of neo-shamanic practitioners utilize hallucinogens in their rituals, many Western users of hallucinogens such as ayahuasca, peyote, and psilocybin mushrooms utilize ritual techniques and belief systems that are borrowed from indigenous spirituality. Western seekers are also attracted to places such as South America to participate in what they consider to be authentic shamanism. The growing interest in hallucinogens has also affected the medical establishment with a growing number of studies suggesting a psycho-pharmacological potential for these compounds. In this study, I examine the existing points of tension between indigenous hallucinogen use, neo-shamanic practices that borrow from the former, and the increased medicalization of these compounds through a critical review of the relevant literature

Press Freedom and the Espionage Act: A Critical Juncture

Historically, the number of media leak prosecutions under the Espionage Act have been infrequent. The number of prosecutions, however, has been rising in recent years. This Note details the 2019 indictment of Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange. Thompson proposes a statutory framework that aims to balance the government’s legitimate interest in protecting classified information with the public benefit resulting from the disclosure. Thompson’s proposal would allow courts to distinguish espionage and acts that threaten U.S. Security from leaks that serve the public interest. This Note analyzes the history of the Espionage Act, the critical juncture determining how future prosecutions under the Espionage Act will be conducted, and proposed policy and legal recommendations to protect the freedom of the press and allow news outlets to perform their vital democratic function of keeping the public informed of government action

Short-distance and short-time structure of a unitary Fermi gas

We consider the operator product expansions for unitarity fermions. We compute the dynamic structure factor S(q,w) at large frequency and wavenumber away from the one-particle peak. The overall normalization of S(q,w) is determined by Tan's contact parameter, and the dependence on q and w is obtained in closed analytic form. We also find energy deposited into the system by small, rapid variations of the inverse scattering length.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figure

Nurse Unions and Patient Outcomes

We estimate the impact of nurse unions on health care quality using patient discharge data and the universe of hospital unionizations in California between 1996 and 2005. We find that hospitals with a successful union election outperform hospitals with a failed election in 12 of 13 nurse sensitive patient outcomes measures. We also find that hospitals with a unionization drive are establishments with declining quality as measured by patient outcomes. When such declines are accounted for using hospital-specific trends, we find that unionized hospitals also outperform hospitals without any union election in the same 12 of 13 outcome measures. The timing of the quality improvement is consistent with a causal impact: the largest changes occur precisely in the year of unionization. The biggest improvements are found in the incidence of metabolic derangement, pulmonary failure, and central nervous system disorders such as depression and delusion, where the estimated changes are between 15% and 60% of the mean incidence for those measures. Dynamic estimates confirm that the improvements in health care outcomes occur within the first two years following nurse unionization