"'Extremely dangerous' Hurricane Laura made landfall overnight near Cameron, Louisiana, bringing 'catastrophic storm surge, extreme winds and flash flooding' to portions of the state, the National Hurricane Center said early Thursday. The storm had intensified rapidly into a Category 4 hurricane before slamming into the Gulf Coast near the Louisiana-Texas border."
"Flash flooding in Afghanistan's Parwan province has killed at least 86 people and injured at least 106, according to Rahmatullah Haidari, deputy spokesman for the governor of the province… Officials in in the disaster management ministry said that torrential rain earlier this week triggered flash flooding in the country's Parwan province -- which borders Kabul -- Reuters news agency reported."
"On Wednesday, new research from the Tanpopo team was published in Frontiers in Microbiology that details how multiple species of Deinococcus bacteria survived three straight years of exposure to the hostile space environment. This type of bacteria is renowned for its unusual ability to resist genetic damage from high doses of ultraviolet radiation, which classes it among other so-called “extremophiles” like tardigrades. But researchers weren’t sure exactly how it pulled off this feat."
I'm catching up on some podcasts, this is from April… "As the coronavirus continues to devastate communities across the globe, the Trump administration and right-wing propagandists work to recast the White House response and redirect the blame. This week, On The Media considers partisan revisionist history in the White House briefing room and beyond. Plus, a peek inside the thorny world of infectious disease modeling."
"A sudden change in federal guidelines on coronavirus testing came this week as a result of pressure from the upper ranks of the Trump administration, a federal health official close to the process tells CNN, and a key White House coronavirus task force member was not part of the meeting when the new guidelines were discussed… 'It's coming from the top down,' the official said of the new directive from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."
"A Kentucky man accused of breaking Canada's coronavirus rules — twice — could be forced to pay a $569,000 fine ($750,000 Canadian), spend up to six months in prison, or both."
"To answer this question (about COVID exploiting the existing fractures in our society, bot causing them), we talked to Ed Yong, a science writer for the Atlantic who has spent the past seven months covering COVID-19. In his September cover story for the magazine, titled 'How the Pandemic Defeated America,' he says it's the inequities that have been with us for generations that made the U.S. so vulnerable to the virus. Below is an excerpt from our conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity."
"Devices like those are nothing new, but the pandemic-borne surge of interest in them is raising alarms, because UVC light is a known carcinogen, and even a few moments of direct exposure can be hazardous to the eyes and skin… Now, as research into UVC and the coronavirus continues, regulators, industry leaders and safety science professionals are urging caution. Here's what you need to know -- the science, the safety risks and everything experts say you should take into consideration before bringing any UVC-powered light source into your home." I'm not sure if I shared the "UVC light is a safe alternative" story that was out about a month ago (the premise being that UVC can't penetrate that far into the skin). No it's not. There are 3 components to the dangers of ionizing radiation (that is, radiation that can change the valence of atoms, knocking electrons off of the outer and inner shells); wavelength (the physical property of the energy), voltage (measured in kVp or "kilovoltage potential" for generation, this regulates how far the radiation can penetrate and can also affect wavelength, the higher the kVp, the shorter the wavelength), and time (for x-rays we measure in milliseconds). Those are all generalizations. Is is possible to create ionizing radiation that doesn't penetrate too far? Yes. Radiation with lower voltage doesn't penetrate too far. When we create x-rays we generate them at a lot of voltage ranges (that's the "potential" part). For diagnostic x-rays we shield/filter the beam to eliminate these low-end rays because they're not diagnostic, they don't penetrate to our detector/film through the body, and all they do is deposit energy into the tissues of the patient. That energy is harmful, so we try to eliminate it. What the proponents of far-UVC light are saying (hoping) talks about transmission windows. That the specific wavelength of their light does not transmit through the skin or water covering of the eye. And that might be true, however that means all of the photon's energy is being deposited in the area that is attenuating the beam (basically, whatever is blocking the light will absorb all it's energy, this is why items that are black warm up faster in sunlight than items that are white). So let's say water is the idea block for far-UVC (which it would appear), your outer skin does not have a lot of water, so that energy is penetrating deeper than they are thinking. With x-ray radiation we use lead as shielding. Why? Because lead is ideal, the inner shell of electrons has the right valence to absorb the wavelengths and energies we use in diagnostic x-ray. Is it perfect? Not in the slightest (gold is actually better), but lead absorbs most of the energy (you can read that thinking some of the x-rays make it through the lead shield) without producing too much scatter radiation (lead is also used because it's cheaper). Now you can translate what people are saying about far-UVC.
"So they brought her to the University of Virginia's hospital for a complete pulmonology and cardiac work-up and a VO2 max test. The result? Reese learned she did have exercise-induced asthma, but she also had a lesser-known condition that affects how much air you inhale. It's called exercise-induced laryngeal obstruction or EILO… The condition often strikes young athletes and is frequently misdiagnosed as asthma."
"The suspect in the Kenosha, Wisconsin, fatal shooting is a former member of a youth police cadet program with an affinity for guns, according to police and online profiles."
"In another video recorded before the shootings, a teen who appears to be Rittenhouse says, 'I'm Kyle,' and describes himself as a member of a local 'militia' that was effectively protecting businesses in Kenosha… A third video again shows the teen armed with a gun and strolling among what appear to be uniformed police officers… In that video, the law-enforcement personnel thank the teen and others in plainclothes and toss them bottles of water from a circular door that pops open from the top of an armored vehicle… 'We appreciate you guys, we really do,' a man says to the group through a speaker on the armored truck."
"On Wednesday, the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks decided not to play their playoff game against the Orlando Magic to protest Sunday's police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man in Wisconsin. Following the Bucks' decision, the NBA announced all three playoff games scheduled for Wednesday were postponed."
"Officials in Kalamazoo have apologized for the arrest of a Black reporter who was covering a Proud Boys rally and counterprotests on Saturday, according to affiliate reports… In video taken by Robinson, the journalist could be heard telling officers several times that he was a member of the media as he was arrested with his identification lanyard around his neck."
"The number of Americans who filed for unemployment benefits for the first time came in above 1 million for the 22nd time in 23 weeks as the economy struggles to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, the Labor Department said Thursday."
"Now, Realtor.com has become the first site to disclose information about a home's flood risk and how climate change could increase that risk in the coming decades, potentially signaling a major shift in consumers' access to information about climate threats." Goodbye Florida real estate market.
"Now, the Department of Housing and Urban Development says it will extend a ban on evictions in single-family houses with mortgages issued by the Federal Housing Administration, Politico reported this week. Indeed, that protection would be far narrower than the now-expired eviction moratorium in the CARES Act, which also included properties backed by government-sponsored lenders Fannie May and Freddie Mac, and was estimated to have covered nearly a third of the country’s rental units."
"Sprinkled throughout the Midwest, including in remote areas — O.U. is in southern Ohio, in the foothills of Appalachia — these schools were built to educate locals and serve as regional economic engines. But after seeking national profiles to attract out-of-state students in a bid for more tuition dollars — and financial survival — there is now 'a lot of hand-wringing around "what are we supposed to be?"' said Christina Ciocca Eller, an assistant professor of sociology and social studies at Harvard University who studies regional public universities. 'There is big tension over purpose and identity.'" Whispers, it's not just the small colleges and universities. The rise of the MBA into all management positions is still the drain on the economy.
"U.S. Postal Service customers across the country have been receiving a notification that often alarms and perplexes them: The message says packages they expected delivered to their home or business are being held at a post office 'at the request of the customer.'… But customers who are receiving these notifications never requested that their mail be held."
"Ammon Bundy, who led an armed standoff against federal agents in Oregon in 2016, was arrested at the Idaho state Capitol for trespassing and other charges after a protest Tuesday afternoon."
"Authorities in Russia are reportedly moving forward with an investigation into the suspected poisoning of prominent opposition leader and outspoken Kremlin-critic Alexei Navalny." They're beginning the hunt for someone to fall (or be pushed) on their sword.
"The Russian and US governments have blamed each other for a collision between Russian and US armoured vehicles in north-eastern Syria in which several US troops were injured… Video of the collision was broadcast by a Russian nationalist website, Rusvesna.su, then widely retweeted."
"President Trump, in a tweet Tuesday, said he will nominate Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, to be DHS secretary… The announcement comes less than two weeks after the Government Accountability Office concluded that Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli, the senior official performing the duties of DHS deputy secretary, were not appointed through a valid process. They have been serving in their roles since November without Senate confirmation."
"CNN correspondent Brian Stelter says President Trump's 'cozy' relationship with Fox News is 'like nothing we've seen in American history.'… In his new book, Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth, Stelter describes the president as a 'shadow producer' to Fox News host Sean Hannity — who, in turn, acts as a 'shadow chief of staff' for Trump."
"Ask any Republican strategist about the state of their party in 2020 and you'll get an answer something like this from GOP consultant Antonia Ferrier. 'This is Donald Trump's party,' she said, 'and I don't think that should be much of a surprise.'… To underscore the point, the Republican National Committee decided not to write a new party platform this year. Instead, ahead of this week's GOP convention, the committee unanimously approved a resolution stating that the party 'will continue to enthusiastically support the President's America-first agenda.'" It's a cult.
"The president reiterated that the 'only thing' he’s concerned about are 'unsolicited ballots, where they're going to send 80 million unsolicited ballots to people that they don't even know if they're alive or if they're living there. I think it is a catastrophic disaster for this country.'" Reporters missing the forest for the trees.
"The 'S' word is a charge Republicans have leveled against Democrats for decades, says Thomas Alan Schwartz, a Vanderbilt University history and political science professor… 'Democrats have tended, through regulation and other ways, to be more empowering of the federal government and in regulating the economy than the Republicans,' Schwartz says, 'and this has been called socialism.'" Socialism is not the "S" word (severe eye roll).
"US President Donald Trump has called for himself and Democratic challenger Joe Biden to submit to drug tests before their first debate next month… Mr Trump told the Washington Examiner he had noticed a sudden improvement in Mr Biden's performance in the Democratic TV debates… The president offered no evidence his rival might be on drugs other than to say: 'I'm pretty good at this stuff.'" He should be (given all the rumors of the president's use of Adderall).
"So at the shape-shifting Republican National Convention on Wednesday, Trump's most loyal subordinate Vice President Mike Pence had little option but to do what he does best. He twisted the facts, spun a more pleasing alternative national reality and showered his boss with praise." When all you've got are lies…
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