Wednesday Rewind: follow-up on recent stories
Over the last several months, we’ve covered some interesting topics that continue to make news. Below is a follow-up on a few of them.
Now You’re Not Cooking With Gas, New York
Last year, The Critical Reader published an opinion piece about gas stoves potentially being banned. Despite reassurances from agencies that the U.S. had no interest in banning gas stoves and furnaces, the push appears to be on.
In early May, New York became the first state to ban natural gas hookups in new buildings. According to CNN, “The law bans gas-powered stoves, furnaces and propane heating and effectively encourages the use of climate-friendly appliances such as heat pumps and induction stoves in most new residential buildings across the state. It requires all-electric heating and cooking in new buildings shorter than seven stories by 2026, and for taller buildings by 2029.”
New York City’s restaurant industry is not happy. Most restaurants use gas stoves to cook quickly and evenly. Chefs in New York City argue that switching from gas to electric stoves will negatively affect the quality of their food.
Asian cooking could be especially hard hit. Many Asians dishes are prepared in a wok. The flame from a gas stove evenly heats all sides of the wok. As Genevieve Yam, a culinary editor at Serious Eats, explained, “There are just some things that you can’t really replicate in a Dutch oven or a cast-iron skillet or a nonstick pan — simply just because those vessels don’t conduct heat in the same way.”
Hurry and Read This Before It’s Too La—
Don’t panic, but even experts think AI is bad for humans.
Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, was among dozens of tech leaders to sign this brief statement:
Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.
Yeah, that’s extinction… of humans.
The Critical Reader sounded an alarm about the dangers of AI, but we weren’t equating it with nuclear war.
How exactly are we supposed to mitigate the risk of extinction from AI? Right now, we’re getting warnings without answers. Maybe we should ask ChatGPT.
MLB Players Voice Concerns About Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were invited, uninvited, then re-invited to Dodgers Pride Night on June 16. After the final decision to have the controversial organization take the field, some Catholics decided to boycott the Dodgers, but they were left wondering if anyone within the MLB would go to bat for them.
Washington Nationals pitcher Trevor Williams decided to take one for the Catholic team. He tweeted, “To invite and honor a group that makes a blatant and deeply offensive mockery of my religion, and the religion of over 4 million people in Los Angeles county alone, undermines the values of respect and inclusivity that should be upheld by any organization.”
Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw pushed for his team to quickly announce Christian Faith and Family Day at the ballpark, which will be held July 30. A Christian, Kershaw said his only beef with Pride Night was re-inviting the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. “I don’t agree with making fun of other people’s religions,” he said.
So far, Kershaw and Williams have not faced backlash for their comments. But Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Anthony Bass had to apologize for posting a video on Instagram about what he considered a biblical basis for boycotting Target and other companies that are promoting Pride Month to children and adults.
Bass made a very tense, scripted, monotone statement at the Blue Jays Stadium, in which he apologized to members of the Pride community whom he offended. He said he is using “the Blue Jays resources to better educate myself and to make better decisions moving forward.”