The Buzz 05.07.20

FREE SPEECH

Across the world, tension between personal liberty and government control are especially pronounced as health officials curtail movement and commerce in an effort to slow the spread of Covid-19. In the U.S., we are accustomed to lots of personal freedoms, codified in our Constitution – which also protects freedom of the press. So it’s a perfect time to pause and note that tension with World Press Freedom Day, which was May 3. The day, according to UNESCO, “acts as a reminder to governments of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom and is also a day of reflection among media professionals about issues of press freedom and professional ethics.” In honor of the occasion, UNESCO published an 18-page guide to press freedom and Covid-19, which quotes UN Secretary-General António Guterres warning, “our enemy is also the growing surge of misinformation.” The report looks at several studies that reveal alarming conclusions: 42 percent of over 178 million tweets related to Covid-19 were produced by bots; in the month of March, Facebook identified 40 million “problematic posts” and put warnings next to them.

OVERHEARD

“OK, so nobody wants free toilet paper today?”
-A man at a May 1 protest to reopen from the shelter-in-place order who was holding toilet paper and a sign offering free toilet paper; no one requested a roll.

GOOD WEEK / GREAT WEEK

GOOD:

Are you passionate about the insignia of Bulgarian aircraft in the early 20th century? Well, some people are, and they were lucky enough to have a dedicated quarterly journal published out of Carmel Valley for over 40 years. In print until 2018, Small Air Forces Observer covered military aviation outside the mainstream of countries like the U.S., Russia, Japan and France. The publisher, James Sanders, a retired professor of acoustics at the Naval Postgraduate School, recently received an exciting letter: The entire run of SAFO has been accepted into the archives of the Smithsonian Institution. Available through the National Air and Space Museum Library, the back issues will be invaluable material for aviation researchers. “The number of subscribers has varied over the years as the Cold War ebbed and flowed but never dropped below 300 in 36 countries,” Sanders told Carmel Valley Voice.

GREAT:

Hartnell College is churning out celebrated scholars. For the second year in a row, a Hartnell student is the recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship, which comes with $40,000 a year to cover educational expenses at a university and $75,000 toward a graduate degree. This year’s winner is Jenel Fraij of Salinas, a 2020 Hartnell graduate completing degrees in mathematics and physics. She’s bound for UCLA in the fall. Fraij was selected from among 461 semifinalists that included two other Hartnell students: Kenya Burton and Estefania Villicana. Fraij immigrated with her family from Syria in 2016 and graduated from Everett Alvarez High School in 2018. She learned about the Cooke scholarship after reading about last year’s winner, Mariluz Leon, a Hartnell graduate who is now attending Yale University.