Also don't miss the post from late yesterday.
"Chinese President Xi Jinping insisted the country will win the fight against the coronavirus outbreak, saying he will adopt more decisive measures to contain the spread." Uh, yeah, Bob. The problem with the novel coronavirus (and SARS/MERS) isn't so much "combatting" the disease as it is a warning sign. The novel coronavirus is now in the population, quarantine will only help so much. It's doubtful we will find a "cure" (but hopefully a successful standard of treatment), although a vaccine would be nice. But for the time being novel coronavirus will burn through the population in Wuhan, and hopefully we can "contain" it's spread. But it will spread. The big question, however, is how do we prevent these outbreaks from occurring and how can we stop the spread early. I'll just note here that the NSC no longer has a team dedicated to the spread of contagious diseases and the CDC's budget for operations outside the US has been drastically cut.
"A study published Friday in the medical journal JAMA found that 41% of the first 138 patients diagnosed at one hospital in Wuhan, China, were presumed to be infected in that hospital." Rhut rho.
"The head of the World Health Organization is warning that a few cases of the novel coronavirus that have been spread by people who never traveled to China could be 'the tip of the iceberg,' as officials reported the highest single-day death toll since the epidemic began."
"A completely passive solar-powered desalination system developed by researchers at MIT and in China could provide more than 1.5 gallons of fresh drinking water per hour for every square meter of solar collecting area. Such systems could potentially serve off-grid arid coastal areas to provide an efficient, low-cost water source."
"Krauss tested hundreds of configurations on his path to self-contained ion powered flight, gradually downsizing the power components so that they could be carried aloft… It took about a decade of work for Krauss to build the first ever ion craft that could fly with the power supply onboard instead of tethered to a battery on the ground."
Trigger warnings for domestic abuse. "'I didn't know it was abuse until I nearly died'" For help in identifying the issue, how abusers control the abused, and how the British police system found a solution to the "problem" of victims withdrawing charges and relapsing into the state of being controlled by the abuser.
"A New York City police lieutenant was shot in the arm Sunday morning after an armed suspect opened fire inside a Bronx precinct about 12 hours after another officer was shot in the head while on patrol nearby, police authorities said."
How goes Brexit? "The UK is 'open to global talent', the government declared last week, with a new visa designed to woo the best overseas researchers. But angry academics say their protests about the Home Office’s 'shocking' refusal to grant residency to Dr Asiya Islam, an 'unequivocally superb' Indian sociologist at Cambridge University, have fallen on deaf ears." Not exactly Brexit related, but insight into the broken systems of immigration beginning to take hold around the world.
"Heavily-armed police and soldiers in El Salvador have forced their way into parliament, demanding the approval of a $109m (£85m) loan to better equip them… They entered the building as President Nayib Bukele was about to address lawmakers. Earlier, he gave them seven days to back his loan plan." You know, totally normal.
About that "blue-collar boom" the president is touting. "But the operative word here is nominal, which means not adjusted for changes in the cost of living. Once you factor in inflation, the picture changes drastically. And far from representing a “blue collar boom” – as the president put it in his State of the Union address – the real, inflation-adjusted data show most U.S. workers have not benefited from the growing economy."
"President Trump will propose $4.4 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade in his budget for fiscal year 2021 — a document that is expected to be quickly dismissed by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives." Don't worry, I'm sure the Navy will get the extra 30% to build all those new ships the president promised.
"A Florida man was arrested Saturday and accused of driving his van through a tent where a local Republican group was registering voters, authorities and officials said."
"It's not just the chaos in Iowa or the newly bitter tone of the campaign in New Hampshire that's to blame for the angst gripping the Democratic Party in recent days… It's the realization that the primary on Tuesday may do nothing to resolve the discord." Because media loves a conflict because of the ease of the reporting and the ratings they get for it. But remember just two weeks ago when all the hand wringing was about "Should we really have Iowa and New Hampshire picking the candidate?" Now it's "OMG, we don't have a clear front runner!" And while I agree that it's bad from the fund raising side of things, I don't see much else of a downside not having a clear front runner heading into Super Tuesday. Don't worry, the media handwringing shows no sign of dissipating before November 3rd.
"Donald Trump is moving fast in the wake of his impeachment trial to use the government to punish his enemies and pursue his political ends, underlining how his acquittal has helped make him one of history's most powerful modern Presidents." Did we really expect anything else?
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