I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Thursday, November 5, 2020

Linkee-poo Thursday Nov 5

"Parts of Central America could still see life-threatening flash flooding as Tropical Depression Eta continues to pummel the region with unrelenting rain before heading toward the US coast… Eta might have weakened to 30 mph winds, but the lingering tropical depression is still forecast to dump another 10 to 15 inches of rain in some areas. That means parts of eastern Honduras and eastern Nicaragua -- which have already been inundated by heavy rain -- could see up to 40 inches of rainfall total over the course of the storm."

"Those suspicions have now been borne out, as astronomers have watched a magnetar in our own galaxy sending out an FRB at the same time it emitted pulses of high-energy gamma rays. This doesn't answer all our questions, as we're still not sure how the FRBs are produced or why only some of the gamma-ray outbursts from this magnetar are associated with FRBs. But the confirmation will give us a chance to look more carefully at the extreme physics of magnetars as we try to understand what's going on."

Something new has been added. "Now, researchers from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS) have discovered a shrimp-like fossil with five eyes, which has provided important insights into the early evolutionary history of arthropods. The study was published in Nature on Nov. 4."

"The substance that makes some mushrooms 'magic' also appears to help people with major depressive disorder… A study of 27 people found that a treatment featuring the hallucinogen psilocybin worked better than the usual antidepressant medications, a team reported Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry." And it's long lasting.

"'I certainly wish the president had a more happy relationship with masks,' (Ohio Governor Mike) DeWine told NPR's All Things Considered. 'We know so much more today than we knew in March. We now know that these masks really work.'… Still, Ohio is experiencing some of its highest numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases just as temperatures have begun to drop." Hey, Mike, we also know that government mandates and shut downs also help. Maybe you also want to get a little tougher on that.

"The U.S. has reached another grim coronavirus milestone, surpassing 100,000 new confirmed cases in a single day for the first time since the pandemic reached the country more than nine months ago… The record 102,831 cases reported on Thursday by Johns Hopkins University tops the more than 99,321 cases set just days ago, on Oct. 30. The university reported 1,097 additional COVID-19 deaths for the same day." So much winning.

"There are 587 active COVID-19 outbreaks in Colorado that have happened everywhere from schools to offices to child care centers to a group bunco night… That's according to the latest outbreak data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), which releases a new list each Wednesday."

"A team of researchers and doctors has now reported the case of one woman with leukemia who had no symptoms of COVID-19 but 70 days after her first positive test, she was still shedding infectious SARS-CoV-2 particles." That's Not Good™.

"The world’s largest mink producer, Denmark, says it plans to cull more than 15 million of the animals, due to fears that a Covid-19 mutation moving from mink to humans could jeopardise future vaccines… At a press conference on Wednesday, the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said 12 people are already infected with the mutated virus and that the mink are now considered a public health risk." Rhut rho. Actually, again, this is normal. Although the main reservoir of human diseases (and where they tend to mutate) is swine.

"The U.K.’s central bank on Thursday held interest rates steady as England enters a fresh period of lockdown measures expected to hit the country’s economic recovery."

"You would think having decades of experience should help in a job search… Yet it’s holding many older unemployed workers back during the coronavirus pandemic." Fuck you, it's not just the pandemic. This has been true for the past 30 years.

"General Motors on Thursday reported third-quarter earnings that beat Wall Street expectations, thanks to its highly profitable trucks and SUVs in North America." Because Americans are stupid.

"Kosovo’s President Hashim Thaci, a guerrilla leader during Kosovo’s war for independence from Serbia in the late 1990s, resigned on Thursday and will face charges for war crimes and crimes against humanity at a special court based in The Hague."

"The United Nations has rebuked Israel for carrying out what it said was the biggest demolition of Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank for a decade… Some 73 people, including 41 children, were made homeless when their dwellings were knocked down in the Bedouin settlement of Khirbet Humsa, in the Jordan Valley, the UN said."

The Hidden Brain podcast with… "We typically divide the country into two distinct groups: Democrats and Republicans. But what if the real political divide in our country isn't between 'left' and 'right'? What if it's between those who care intensely about politics, and those who don’t?… This week we talk to Yanna Krupnikov, a political scientist at Stony Brook University, about an alternative way to understand Americans' political views."

"International observers monitoring the U.S. presidential race said America’s election system has passed 'an extreme stress test' but warned that President Trump is trying to undermine trust in it."

"A riot was declared in Portland, Oregon, and protesters took to the streets in Seattle on Wednesday as people demanded that every vote in Tuesday’s election be counted. Hundreds were protesting in both cities against President Donald Trump’s court challenges to stop the vote count in battleground states."

"If the president manages through some combination of good luck and legal challenges to win a second term, ash-in-mouth Democrats and their sympathizers will ask Trump voters in a spirit of recrimination, 'What the hell is your problem?'" I've been asking that question for the past 4 years. "Trump is on track to grow his popular vote total by millions of people, not one of whom could have been under any illusions about what they were voting for. Unlike 2016, there is no way to dismiss this as a flukish accident of democracy, or an illegitimate manipulation of democracy. His support was a robust expression of democracy." No, it's the appeal of authoritarianism in a world that is now changing faster than most people are comfortable. "When Democrats ask Trump voters 'What is your problem?' it is another way of asking themselves, 'What is our problem?'" That's a pretty early call for the circular firing squad, don't ya think?

"While much of the attention Tuesday night was focused on the as-yet-to-be-decided presidential race, there were thousands of races settled, from state legislative seats and ballot initiatives to senators and governors facing reelection. Here are a few of the big takeaways from 2020’s down-ballot races."

"President Donald Trump’s path to securing a second term now relies on defeating Democrat Joe Biden in Arizona, GOP strategist and pollster Frank Luntz told CNBC on Thursday." The AP has already called Arizona for Biden (that doesn't make it official, though).

Release the lawyers! "The Trump campaign says it is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in a case over counting ballots in Pennsylvania that were postmarked by Nov. 3, Election Day, but received later."

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