Longer Looks: Child Abuse; Social Media And Loneliness; And The Enduring Power Of Asperger’s

Each week, KHN finds interesting reads from around the Web.

NBC News/Houston Chronicle: Doctors Trained To Spot Child Abuse Can Save Lives. But When They Get It Wrong, Families Are Torn Apart.

A panicked voice jolted Ann Marie Timmerman awake around 3 a.m. “There’s something wrong with Tristan. ”Her husband, Tim, stood over her, wide-eyed, holding their 4-month-old boy. Tim had been sitting up with the baby in another room, letting his nursing wife catch up on sleep. Now the infant was limp in his arms, pupils rolling back in his head. (Hixenbaugh and Blakinger, 9/19)

The Atlantic: What Your Tweets Say About Your Mood

For some people, posting to social media is as automatic as breathing. At lunchtime, you might pop off about the latest salad offering at your local lettucery. Or, late that night, you might tweet, “I can’t sleep, so I think I’m just going to have a glass of wine” without a second thought. Over time, all these Facebook posts, Instagram captions, and tweets have become a treasure trove of human thought and feeling. People might rarely look back on their dashed-off online thoughts, but if their posts are publicly accessible, they’re ripe for analysis. And some psychologists are using algorithms to figure out what exactly it is we mean by these supposedly off-the-cuff pronouncements. (Khazan, 11/6)

Wired: The Enduring Power Of Asperger's, Even As A Non-Diagnosis

Sixteen-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg is the symbol of a climate change generation gap, a girl rebuking adults for their inaction in preventing a future apocalypse. Thunberg’s riveting speech at the UN's Climate Action Summit has been viewed more than 2 million times on YouTube, and she was considered a viable contender for the Nobel Peace Prize. In a tweet, Thunberg explained what made her so fearless: “I have Aspergers and that means I’m sometimes a bit different from the norm. And—given the right circumstances—being different is a superpower. #aspiepower.” (Marill, 11/7)

The New York Times: Happy Friday! What If You Always Had It Off? Why Don’t You?

Nixon predicted it. Workers have asked for it. And businesses and governments have experimented with it for decades. The world has been talking about the four-day workweek for half-a-century, so what’s taking so long? The idea pops up every so often in expectant headlines. Just last week, Microsoft Japan inspired a flood of stories after reporting that, in a trial, shortened weeks had boosted productivity by about 40 percent. Yet the four-day workweek is the flying car of labor: a profound advancement that has seemed just around the corner for decades. (Chokshi, 11/8)

Reveal: The U Visa Is Supposed To Help Solve Crimes And Protect Immigrants. But Police Are Undermining It

Undocumented immigrants often are afraid to interact with law enforcement, for fear of being deported. The visa is meant to encourage them to report crimes so that criminals can’t strike with impunity. For Alcantara, the U visa would mean she could gain temporary status and someday apply for a green card. She could get a driver’s license and drive her kids to school when they were older. But after Alcantara’s months of cooperation, Miami police declined to verify that she helped investigators. (Morel, 11/7)

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