A zoomable map of 11th-12th century trade routes for Europe, Northern Africa, Middle-East, and Asia. (Grokked from S.A. Chakraborty I think)
"'Showing up is the act of bearing witness to people's joy, pain and true selves,' Rachel Wilkerson Miller writes in the first chapter of her new book The Art of Showing Up: How to Be There For Yourself and Your People. '[It's] validating their experiences, easing their load, and communicating that they are not alone in this life.'… Miller walks us through the do's and don'ts of showing up for your people."
"The coronavirus pandemic has forced countries around the world to enact strict lockdowns, seal borders and scale back economic activities. Now, an analysis published Tuesday finds that these measures contributed to an estimated 17 percent decline in daily global carbon dioxide emissions compared to daily global averages from 2019." That's with most of us staying home, not buying things, not traveling, basically cutting everything that the corporatists tell us we should cut because it's a consumer problem, not a manufacturing/supplier problem. Seventeen percent is nothing to sneeze at, but it shows you just how much of this is the consumers' actions and how much is industry and fossil fuels.
"A rain-swollen river has flooded fields and streets in parts of mid-Michigan after breaching two dams, forcing evacuation orders for thousands amid a coronavirus pandemic that's posing safety challenges Wednesday for officials trying to provide shelter." Stay safe my Michigan friends.
"Cyclone evacuation efforts in India and Bangladesh are being complicated by the coronavirus pandemic, as relief teams grapple with how to get millions of people to safety while also protecting them against the risk of Covid-19."
"Astronomers believe they may have found the first direct evidence of a new planet being born… A dense disc of dust and gas has been spotted surrounding a young star called AB Aurigae, about 520 light years away from Earth."
"NASA's head of human spaceflight has abruptly resigned just one week before a historic test flight to send astronauts up in a new space capsule developed by the rocket company SpaceX." Insert dramatic music here.
"A federal judge in Virginia has ruled that a salvage firm can retrieve the Marconi wireless telegraph machine that broadcast distress calls from the sinking Titanic… The order is a big win for RMS Titanic, the court-recognized salvor, or steward, of artifacts from the doomed ocean liner." Eye-roll. This isn't about contributing "to the legacy", but about voyeurism and selling tickets to see it (or selling it to the highest bidder).
"'Captain Tom' Moore, the war veteran who raised almost £33 million ($40 million) for the UK's National Health Service (NHS) by taking laps of his backyard, is to receive a knighthood after a special nomination from Prime Minister Boris Johnson."
"The President, who has consistently tested negative for coronavirus, appeared to suggest he was taking the drug as a way to prevent getting infected, something he claimed frontline health workers are doing as well… 'You look at doctors and nurses. A lot of them are taking it as a preventative,' Trump said." Narrators voice, no they aren't.
"The CDC now says that COVID-19 spreads from person to person contact, and then lists touching infected surfaces under a section titled, 'The virus does not spread easily in other ways.' The CDC adds: 'This is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads, but we are still learning more about this virus.' The language is a subtle change from the organization’s warning in early March, when it wrote simply that it 'may be possible' to spread the virus through contaminated surfaces." Keep washing your hands.
"Florida and Georgia, two states that were among the first to announce the reopening of businesses and public spaces amid the health crisis, have come under scrutiny for their reporting on Covid-19 cases.">Georgia actually shuffled the dates in a chart to be on-linear to show infections going down. Does anyone think any of these statistics are actually good?
"Rebekah Jones, an official at the Florida Department of Health who oversaw the state's public COVID-19 'dashboard,' has been removed from managing the data and cautioned that the decision could negatively impact transparency about infections."
"The scientist who created Florida's COVID-19 data portal wasn't just removed from her position on May 5, she was fired on Monday by the Department of Health, she said, for refusing to manipulate data."
"A man who initially said he believed the coronavirus was a 'fake crisis' that was 'blown out of proportion' is now hospitalized with the virus, along with his wife, and has a warning for others." It's all fun and games until it's your throat their shoving the endotracheal tube into (or a loved one, I'm glad he thinks his wife forgives him).
"In interviews with CNN, CDC officials say their agency's efforts to mount a coordinated response to the Covid-19 pandemic have been hamstrung by a White House whose decisions are driven by politics rather than science."
"As the coronavirus outbreak eases in Western Europe and parts of the U.S., cases are rising steadily in Russia in a crisis that has damaged President Vladimir Putin’s standing and stirred suspicion that the true death toll in the country is being concealed." Stay safe my Russian friends. I hear there's this thing called hydroxychloroquine that could help out.
"Johnson & Johnson announced Tuesday that it will discontinue sales of its talc-based baby powder in Canada and the United States. The company has faced thousands of lawsuits alleging the powder contains asbestos, a claim the company denies."
"Taiwan cannot accept becoming part of China under its 'one country, two systems' offer of autonomy, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Wednesday, strongly rejecting China’s sovereignty claims and likely setting the stage for an ever worsening of ties." Must be time for another arms sale.
"In a letter Monday to the director-general of WHO, Trump said that his administration's review of WHO's response to the outbreak found that the organization ignored 'credible reports of the virus spreading in Wuhan in early December 2019 or even earlier, including reports from the Lancet medical journal.'… The Lancet, however, said Tuesday 'this statement is factually incorrect' and that it 'published no report in December, 2019, referring to a virus or outbreak in Wuhan or anywhere else in China.'" I know they had to refute it, but it's been 3 years and it still astounds me that people think Trump can tell any truth and get any facts correct.
"President Donald Trump is set to unveil rules Tuesday for a $19 billion coronavirus farm aid package covering a broad swath of American agriculture that producers can begin claiming by next week." Instead the president was ore concerned about farmers not being able to get guns to protect their potatoes.
There's this thing in conservative circles where the read documents the way they read the Bible. All the words are there, but if they switch up the order, they can make it say whatever they think they want it to say. "Now the full text of (Susan Rice's) email has been declassified, and POLITICO reviewed it. It says that then-FBI Director James Comey worried about sharing classified information with the Trump team because of incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn’s frequent conversations with the Russian ambassador but that Comey had no knowledge of Flynn sharing classified information with the envoy." So while the contents seem very much with in line with President Obama keeping hands off, telling subordinates to follow the rules, and shows how a functioning White House works, the Trump administration is trying to spin this in all sorts of ways.
"President Donald Trump announced Wednesday his intention to block federal funding to Michigan if election officials there do not retreat from measures meant to facilitate mail-in voting… The threat from the White House comes as Michigan, a state crucial to Trump’s reelection chances later this year, combats the fallout from a particularly severe coronavirus outbreak." There is no legal mechanism for the president to withhold funds because of how states run their elections. Especially emergency funds to help with the flooding.
"Michigan's secretary of state, Jocelyn Benson, said Tuesday that all of those registered voters will be mailed applications for absentee ballots for the state’s elections in August and November — not the absentee ballots themselves… Trump said the move was done 'illegally and without authorization from a rogue secretary of state.'" IANAL, but I'm pretty sure the Secretary of State (for the individual states) are the top election official in most states. There is no one else to get "authorization" from. Sure, the sending out of ballots is handled by the county officials, but nothing stops the state from sending out the applications (or reminders). In Ohio, they do it all the time. Also note the intention confusion between the ballot and the application for a mail-in-ballot.
"Almost immediately after special counsel Robert Mueller closed his investigation last year, Attorney General William Barr was huddling with the prosecutor he assigned to re-examine the Russia probe -- in a series of meetings that haven't been previously known and appear to highlight Barr's drive to rewrite the legacy of the Mueller investigation."
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