Linkee-poo Monday April 12

The Duke of Edinburgh, and so it goes.

"Looks like we'll have to wait a bit longer to see a helicopter flying around on Mars. NASA has decided to push back the Ingenuity Mars helicopter's first experimental flight due to a safety alert during a high-speed spin test of Ingenuity's rotors, the space agency said Saturday. The flight, originally set for Sunday, will now happen 'no earlier than April 14,' a Wednesday, the space agency said in a statement. But the copter is 'safe and healthy,' NASA said." I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed.

"La Soufriere volcano fired an enormous amount of ash and hot gas early Monday in the biggest explosive eruption yet since volcanic activity began on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent late last week, with officials worried about the lives of those who have refused to evacuate." Your island is exploding, it's time to get the fuck off.

"The United States had administered 187,047,131 doses of COVID-19 vaccines and distributed 237,796,105 doses as of Sunday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said."

"The problem is that more than 75% of the US population isn't fully vaccinated, according to CDC data Saturday… Now the bad news: For the third straight week, new Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations are increasing, according to CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walenky."

"While lockdowns, curfews, and travel bans were being rolled out across the rest of the world, Swedish restaurants, stores, bars, museums, day cares, and elementary schools all remained open. People were encouraged to work from home and to reduce travel, but both were optional. Masks were not recommended and remained rare. Households could mix; until the end of March, even parties of up to five hundred people were allowed." So, how did that work out? A mixed bag, it turns out.

"Earlier this year, Grifols closed on a $146 million-deal to buy Alkahest, a company founded by Stanford University neuroscientist Tony Wyss-Coray, who, along with Saul Villeda, revealed in scientific papers published in 2011 and 2014 that the blood from young mice had seemingly miraculous restorative effects on the brains of elderly mice. The discovery adds to a hot area of inquiry called geroscience that "seeks to understand molecular and cellular mechanisms that make aging a major risk factor and driver of common chronic conditions and diseases of older adulthood," according to the National Institutes of Health. In the last six years, Alkahest has identified more than 8,000 proteins in the blood that show potential promise as therapies. Its efforts and those of Grifols have resulted in at least six phase 2 trials completed or underway to treat a wide range of age-related diseases, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's." Maybe vampires were on to something? Note: probably not. And this is mostly boomer mental disorders regarding "having to be young."

"Most cases of Parkinson’s disease are considered idiopathic – they lack a clear cause. Yet researchers increasingly believe that one factor is environmental exposure to trichloroethylene (TCE), a chemical compound used in industrial degreasing, dry-cleaning and household products such as some shoe polishes and carpet cleaners."

"A broad economic recovery is suddenly gathering speed, calling millions of Americans back to work. That's the message tonight of Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve. The 'Fed,' as it's known, regulates our economy by controlling the supply of money, setting interest rates and overseeing major banks. We sat down with Chairman Powell in his Washington headquarters this past Wednesday, one year after the COVID crash wiped out 22 million jobs."

"Authorities said a clerical error had caused Charles Schwab, a major financial services corporation, to deposit more than $1.2 million into her brokerage account when it only meant to transfer about $82 in February, nola.com reported. When the bank attempted to reclaim the money, the request was rejected because the money was not available, according to the sheriff’s office." As someone who has had to go to business and banks to get overpayments returned and dealt with the headaches and delays including being told that it would be used to cover future billing, which they then conveniently forgot about, I'm not so much on the side of Schwab here.

"Ankle-deep in thick black sludge, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky moves stealthily with his troops in single file through the warren of trenches and tunnels that form the tense front lines in the east of his country."

"Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday he was concerned about the number of Russian troops amassing on the Ukrainian border and warned Moscow that 'there will be consequences' for aggresive (SIC) behavior." The ruble must be down again. How's my Russian friends bank accounts holding up?

"Israel's army chief has appeared to hint at possible Israeli involvement in an incident at the Natanz nuclear site in Iran, which was described as "terrorist action" by the head of Iran's atomic energy agency… Iranian officials on Sunday confirmed an 'incident' at Natanz, an underground facility where uranium enrichment takes place. 'Fortunately, the incident did not cause any human injuries or leaks,' said Behrouz Kamalvand, a spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI). 'The causes of the accident are under investigation and further information will be announced later.'"

"But Biden has now been pulled into a global trade dispute over the fate of lithium ion battery factories in Georgia that threatens his electric vehicle goals for the United States and the Democratic Party's fragile success in the key swing state." When I mentioned the coming battery wars you may have thought I was being hyperbolic, I wasn't. This is going to be a serious fight to determine who will control the future. For my money, it shouldn't belong to one company.

"Domino's and Nuro announced Monday that the latter's autonomous car will report for pizza delivery duty this week. It's only for customers in the vicinity of a single pizza shop in the Houston area, but still -- this is wild. On certain days and in blocked-out periods of time, customers can request their pizza for delivery via a Nuro R2 if they place a prepaid order online. Domino's will select a customer at random to carry out the delivery order, and the customer will receive text message notifications saying where the little robocar is. They'll also get a PIN that'll let them access their order when it arrives." What's the standard tip for a robocar?

"Dr. Martin Tobin, a pulmonary specialist who works in critical care, testified Thursday that George Floyd died from a lack of oxygen, bolstering the prosecution's argument that former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin caused Floyd's death last May… "It's extremely significant," the doctor said, 'because one of the things in this case is the question of fentanyl.' If that opiate was affecting Floyd, he said, it would have dropped his respiratory rate to around 10 breaths… Asked by the prosecutor if he saw a depressed breathing rate in Floyd, Tobin replied, 'No. It's normal.'"

"Gutierrez — whose employment with the department has since been terminated following an internal investigation — and his partner Daniel Crocker are now the defendants in a lawsuit arguing that they violated Nazario's constitutional rights through the use of excessive force and unlawful search and seizure."

"Police shot and killed a Black man on Sunday during a stop for a traffic violation, sparking protests and unrest in a suburb just miles away from where George Floyd was killed during an arrest in Minneapolis last May… The state mobilized the National Guard after crowds gathered in front of the Brooklyn Center Police Department on Sunday evening, and a curfew was ordered through Monday morning."

"Federal prosecutors now allege that Nordean, 30, along with fellow Proud Boy Joe Biggs, 37, saw former President Donald Trump's calls to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election as justification to launch a conspiracy to bring violence and chaos to the Capitol on Jan. 6. After years of the Proud Boys largely escaping scrutiny from law enforcement, the cases brought by the government could result in prison time for leading members of the group."

"In semi-private, encrypted chats, neo-Nazis and other far-right extremists planned rallies in dozens of cities Sunday to promote their racist movements and spread their ideologies to larger audiences… Hyped by organizers as events that would make 'the whole world tremble,' the rallies ran into a major problem: Hardly anyone showed up." Apparently all the dipshits had to mow the yard or something. But the problem is, they'll learn from this. That's the difference from previous "uprisings."

But it's good to know that Republicans still can learn from their mistakes. "It was supposed to be a unifying weekend for a Republican Party at war with itself over former President Donald Trump’s divisive leadership. But Trump himself shattered two days of relative peace in his closing remarks to the GOP’s top donors when he insulted the party’s Senate leader and his wife… Ahead of the invitation-only speech at Trump’s new home inside his Mar-a-Lago resort, the former president’s advisers said he would emphasize his commitment to his party and Republican unity."

And concerned republicans are, once again, concerned… "Several Republican leaders on Sunday expressed concern at incendiary comments made by former President Donald Trump during a speech Saturday night at a Republican National Committee donor retreat."

"Rep. Matt Gaetz, who's facing a federal investigation into sex trafficking allegations, was recently denied a meeting with Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate as the ex-President and his allies continue to distance themselves from the Florida congressman." Insert dramatic music here.

"John Boehner says he couldn't win an election as a Republican these days… 'I think I'd have a pretty tough time,' he says. 'I'm a conservative Republican, but I'm not crazy. And, you know, these days crazy gets elected. On the left and the right.'" Nope, it's pretty much just on the right, John. Oh, and fuck you. There's this joke about a "leader" getting a shave as a parade goes by, suddenly he jumps out of the chair and shouts, "Those are my people, I must go lead them." To wit: "'And even though I didn't really want to go the direction where the team's going, they were the ones who elected me to be the leader and I had an obligation to go lead them,' Boehner tells NPR. 'So that means I had to go jump out in front of them, even if I thought what they were trying to do really made not a whole lot of sense.'" No, John, that's not leadership.