There's battle lines being drawn.
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong.
Young people speaking their minds
getting so much resistance from behind

Friday, January 29, 2021

Linkee-poo Friday Jan 29

Cicely Tyson, and so it goes.

And the pendulum swings back… "The moon dictates the pushes and pulls of the tides, but it could also affect our sleep… As we head toward the first full moon of the year on Thursday night, take note: In the days leading up to a full moon, people go to bed later and sleep less, according to a study published in Science Advances on Wednesday."

Something new has been added… "Researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration believe they have identified a new species of whale in the Gulf of Mexico. The Rice's whale is a filter feeder that can grow to 42 feet. It's also critically endangered. There are believed to be fewer than 100 of them left."

"Avoid pain relief medications just before getting the COVID-19 vaccine, but they are 'perfectly fine' to take after, experts say."

"Some people got out of bed overnight to get vaccinated for COVID-19 to keep vaccines from going to waste… The clinics were set up when Kaiser Permanente had 1,600 doses that needed to be used by 5:30 a.m. Friday due to an issue that allowed the vaccine to become warmed."

"Johnson & Johnson’s long-awaited vaccine appears to protect against COVID-19 with just one shot – not as strong as some two-shot rivals but still potentially helpful for a world in dire need of more doses."

"The European Union's medicines regulator on Friday recommended authorizing the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine for use among its 27 member states, capping off a turbulent week which saw the bloc attack the drugmaker over delays to supply… The long-awaited decision from the European Medicines Agency came after several EU countries warned they were running out of vaccine doses, and as coronavirus deaths pile up across the continent." Running out of other vaccine does is not a good reason to approve a new vaccine.

"Germany's vaccine commission said the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine should not be given to people older than 65 years, amid a bitter dispute between the European Union and the drugmaker over delayed supplies."

"Joseph Mensah, who quit his job as a police officer in Wauwatosa, Wis., after shooting and killing three people in the line of duty over a five-year period, has a new job as a sheriff's deputy. Sheriff Eric Severson of neighboring Waukesha County says multiple authorities concluded Mensah's controversial use of force was both legal and in line with his training… In announcing the hire, Severson acknowledged that 'some have expressed concerns about Mr. Mensah's past uses of force.' But he said Mensah had gone through 'an extensive, thorough and exhaustive hiring process.'"

"The number of Americans who signed contracts to buy homes declined slightly for the fourth straight month, but it was still a record high for December."

"U.S. consumers slowed their spending by 0.2% in December, cutting back for a second straight month in a worrisome sign for an economy struggling under the weight of a still out-of-control pandemic."

"Total U.S. workers compensation rose 0.7% in the October-December quarter, an increase over the previous two quarters, the Labor Department said Friday. Growth was 0.5% in the second and third quarters, down from 0.8% in the first three months of the year." And how's your paycheck?

"A liquid nitrogen leak at a poultry plant northeast of Atlanta killed six workers and sent 11 more to the hospital Thursday. At least three of the people hospitalized are in critical condition, officials said." Fuck.

"In that spirit of low-grade confrontation, a few weeks before Americans cast their ballots in the 2020 election, NSA operators gave their Russian counterparts a little tweak: They sent individualized emails to specific Russian hackers, just to let them know U.S. cyber forces had their eye on them. It was an electronic version, in a sense, of that postcard that went to FireEye's Mandia… Did Nakasone's discussion of U.S. cyber capabilities inspire Russian hackers to do something epic just to prove they could? Kiersten Todt, managing director of the Cyber Readiness Institute, said that while that might have played a small role, Russian cyber forces hardly needed an excuse to try their hand at compromising American networks."

"The Reddit community's actions have had such an impact that TD Ameritrade took the extraordinary step earlier this week to limit share trading on Game Stop and AMC stocks, "out of an abundance of caution amid unprecedented market conditions." Nasdaq as well warned that it will halt trading on stocks it thinks are being manipulated by social media." Note trading companies have absolutely no problem with hedge funds manipulating prices with short sells and limited buy-ups, or any of the so-called business analysts broadcasting buy and sell calls. Are a lot of people going to be burned in this? Yes. Several hedge funds already have been burned (although probably not as much as they were, note the wild downward swings in the price as well, those more than likely were "sweetheart" deals to limit their losses).

"Short selling (is)… a common but controversial way of trading in financial markets. Let's say an investor decides a company's share price is overvalued and likely to fall… Markets provide a way to make that bet. The investor borrows shares of the company, normally from a broker… The short seller then quickly sells the borrowed shares into the market and hopes that the shares will fall in price. If the share prices do indeed fall, then the investor buys those same shares back at a lower price."

"The chair of Arizona's Republican Party has been a leading voice for false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen… Now Kelli Ward faces questions from her fellow Republicans about the state party's recent election of party leaders, and possibly her own reelection as party chair."

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took aim Thursday at Republican leadership, saying the GOP had ignored a wave of threats and comments by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., a promoter of QAnon and other conspiracy theories, and placed her on the House Education Committee despite her questioning of school shootings." She's been purging her social media accounts of prior postings. Whackaloon quotient remains sky high.

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