"Artificial intelligence is being used to create new songs seemingly performed by Frank Sinatra and other dead stars. 'Deepfakes' are cute tricks – but they could change pop for ever."
"Scientists may have caught the blinding flash of two dense neutron stars colliding to form a strange magnetic star."
How Mars lost its water. "Scientists using an instrument aboard NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, or MAVEN, spacecraft have discovered that water vapor near the surface of the Red Planet is lofted higher into the atmosphere than anyone expected was possible. There, it is easily destroyed by electrically charged gas particles — or ions — and lost to space."
"Even if human-caused greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced to zero, global temperatures may continue to rise for centuries afterward, according to a scientific study published Thursday… 'The world is already past a point of no return for global warming,' the study authors report in the British journal Scientific Reports. The only way to stop the warming, they say, is that 'enormous amounts of carbon dioxide have to be extracted from the atmosphere.'" Alarmist? Possibly. But now we restart the arguments over modeling, which may have been this paper's purpose.
How's that other medical crisis getting on? "The number of overdose deaths in Trumbull County is on pace to be more than last year and possibly more than the recording breaking year of 2017." Overdoses are now routine.
"When it comes to worries about high health care costs, having health insurance doesn't necessarily spare you, according to a study recently published in JAMA… Despite the gains in insurance coverage brought by the Affordable Care Act, high health care costs continue to plague many Americans, researchers found. Around 11 million Americans experienced 'catastrophic medical expenses' in 2017, the last year the study covered — and privately insured people represented more than half of those." The study found that the levels decreased, especially with people on Medicaid, but not so much for people with private insurance.
"Imagine going to a hospital so overwhelmed, doctors and nurses with COVID-19 are allowed to keep working… Or having a heart attack and getting rushed to a hospital, only to learn there's not enough emergency care for you… These scenarios have already turned into reality. The U.S. has more people hospitalized with COVID-19 this week than at any other point in the pandemic." If we're exposed (unprotected contact with a positive patient), we have to wear a mask (we already have to wear a mask, so there's also little chance of qualifying for exposure), but unless we develop symptoms we're still required to report for work.
The US has added more than half a million new Covid-19 cases since hitting 10 million on Monday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University… At this rate, the number should pass 11 million in the next four days, making for the fastest addition of another million yet, John Hopkins data show… November already was crippling for American communities battling Covid-19 spikes in cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Experts warn it will likely get worse before it gets better."
"Pfizer announced Monday that its coronavirus vaccine demonstrated more than 90% effectiveness and no serious bad reactions in trial results — an outcome that should enable the company to obtain an emergency authorization soon… But Pulitzer Prize–winning science writer Laurie Garrett wrote… that even if this vaccine works as advertised, there are still plenty of reasons to worry about much good it can do. In this (On the Media) podcast extra, Garrett tells Brooke about what she views as caveats to the potential breakthrough." There's a chain of many steps that has to go right for this to even have a chance of success. And now there are questions about what the data actually show.
Meanwhile, on Bullshit Mountain… "'People couldn’t be with their loved ones in their final moments on this earth, families couldn’t hold funerals and grieve together, churches were closed under threat of penalty, but Lori Lightfoot can flout all the rules and scream into a megaphone,' radio host Dana Loesch reacted." Mayor Lighfoot tweeted, "Stay home unless for essential reasons, Stop having guests over — including family members you do not live with, Avoid non-essential travel, Cancel traditional Thanksgiving plans." So of course that ::checks notes:: is hypocritical.
"'The pandemic has resulted in previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty,' (SCOTUS Justice) Alito said in an address to the conservative Federalist Society, which is holding its annual convention virtually because of the pandemic… But he said it is an 'indisputable statement of fact' that 'we have never before seen restrictions as severe, extensive and prolonged as those experienced for most of 2020.'" He went on to discuss how the restrictions "'blatantly discriminated against houses of worship' and he warned that 'religious liberty is in danger of becoming a second-class right.'" One, that's utter bullshit and two, now you know what the next fight will be.
How goes Brexit? "The UK is deep in its second wave of Covid-19 at the same time as Brexit enters its final act. This might seem enough to keep its leadership occupied… But the government of Boris Johnson is now engulfed in a political power struggle that is very publicly playing out on the newspaper front pages -- and could, some Conservatives hope, signal a shift in influence on the Prime Minister." The word you're searching for is internecine.
"A wooden boat carrying migrants bound for Europe capsized off the coast of Libya and 20 of them drowned, an international humanitarian group said. The statement from Doctors Without Borders late Thursday came just hours after it was revealed that another shipwreck had claimed the lives of at least 74 migrants in the Mediterranean Sea."
"Reports of the mass killing of civilians in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region "would amount to war crimes" if confirmed, the UN human rights chief has warned… Michelle Bachelet called for an inquiry into reports that scores and maybe hundreds of people had been stabbed and hacked to death in one town."
"Former federal prosecutors used "poor judgment" in crafting the 2008 nonprosecution deal for Jeffrey Epstein but didn't commit professional misconduct or break the law, the Justice Department announced Thursday… The Office of Professional Responsibility's investigation, which lasted more than a year, focused on the role of President Trump's former labor secretary, Alexander Acosta, and other attorneys involved in crafting Epstein's nonprosecution agreement." Just business as usual, huh? Yet another reason to burn it to the ground and start over.
"Two senior Department of Homeland Security officials have been forced to resign by the White House, according to sources familiar with the resignations… Among them was a top official in DHS's cyber arm, who resigned amid a national security shakeup by the Trump administration. Bryan Ware served as assistant director for cybersecurity at DHS' Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)… DHS assistant secretary for international affairs Valerie Boyd also resigned amid pressure from the White House, officials tell CNN."
"There is 'no evidence' the Nov. 3 election was compromised, committees within the Department of Homeland Security that worked on protecting U.S. voting systems affirmed Thursday. In a statement, they also called the 2020 election the 'most secure in American history.'"
"The Trump administration's stonewalling of President-elect Joe Biden's transition team poses a serious risk to the U.S. – particularly during a deadly crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic, according to John Podesta, who co-chaired former President Barack Obama's transition team from 2007-8."
"While his adult sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, are gung-ho, leading the charge for the President to stay in the fight, daughter and White House adviser Ivanka Trump has emerged as someone looking for a way for the President to save face as he considers his next steps, sources tell CNN."
"Former President Barack Obama took aim at Republicans who have been 'humoring' President Trump’s bogus claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election… 'They appear to be motivated, in part, because the president doesn't like to lose and never admits loss,' Obama responded, adding, 'I’m more troubled by the fact that other Republican officials who clearly know better are going along with this, are humoring him in this fashion.'"
Whither the stimulus? "'Stop the circus and get to work on what really matters to the American people,' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said during a press conference on Capitol Hill. 'It is most unfortunate that Republicans have decided that they will not respect the will of the people.'"
"Now, Biden is facing high expectations from one big and especially diverse segment of that coalition — young voters who appear to have turned out for him in record numbers, particularly young progressives who now say they want to see him deliver on their priorities." Dear youngs, you have to keep the pressure up. Keep reminding the olds of what your priorities and needs are. Don't assume you'll get what you want just because Biden won with your help.
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