Linkee-poo Thursday April 29

Michael Collins, and so it goes.

"The mysterious Plain of Jars in northern Laos — a landscape dotted with massive stone jars hewn from sandstone thousands of years ago — was likely used as a burial site for much longer than previously suspected, and perhaps for up to 2,000 years, according to new research… The massive jars, which were likely used to expose the dead to the elements until only their bones were left to be buried, could be more than 3,000 years old, new tests suggest."

Opening up a whole new orbit… "SpaceX today was granted permission to use a lower orbit for Starlink satellites, as regulators agreed with SpaceX that the change will improve broadband speed and latency while making it easier to minimize orbital debris." (Grokked from John)

"As demand for electric vehicles heats up, there's concern about a shortage of the key minerals needed to make them. The Biden administration has called for boosting domestic production of such minerals, including lithium for the lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles. And that has many hoping for big business in a desolate spot of California's Imperial Valley."

"The U.S. Senate has taken a step toward more vigorously regulating climate-warming methane leaks from the oil and gas industry, a move supporters say is key to achieving President Biden's ambitious climate goals… Senators on Wednesday reversed a Trump rollback by voting on a resolution under the Congressional Review Act, which gives them the ability to undo agency rules passed in the last months of the previous administration."

America is so advanced socially… Hold my beer. "Dozens of human skulls of Black people — some hundreds of years old — will be returned to their communities of origin for reburial, according to a commitment by the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archeology and Anthropology… Last week, the Penn Museum issued both an apology for possessing the skulls in its historic Morton Collection, and outlined a plan to repatriate them."

"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says people who are fully vaccinated do not need to wear a mask when they're outdoors unless they're in a crowd, such as attending a live performance, sporting event or parade." Ugh. Bad Idea™. The American Public, by and large, doesn't do conditionals or nuance.

"New York City will fully reopen on July 1, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday."

"But rampant myths and unnecessary concerns stand in the way (of vaccination). Here are some of the most popular arguments for not getting vaccinated and why doctors want to set the record straight…"

"The Amish communities of northeast Ohio engage in textbook communal living. Families eat, work and go to church together, and through the pandemic, mask wearing and social distancing have been spotty. That has meant that these communities have experienced some of the state's highest rates of infection and deaths."

There's the good news that with the mask wearing the flu season was unusually light. And then there's the flip side… "COVID-19 has overwhelmed health-care systems and disrupted TB care all over the world. Peru in particular has struggled to secure sufficient personal protective equipment and continue medical services during the pandemic."

"On Tuesday, the city of Alameda, Calif., released police body camera footage of an interaction with a 26-year-old man who died after police pinned him to the ground for at least five minutes… Mario Gonzalez of Oakland died April 19 after what police previously called a 'scuffle' with officers. The Alameda Police Department said Gonzalez suffered some sort of 'medical emergency' after an interaction with police." Police who lie on their reports should be prosecuted.

"'He's unarmed. He's just got a comb. He's been combing his hair and he's been loitering there for half an hour,' she told NPR's Eric Westervelt. 'Why this required a law enforcement response right at that moment is beyond me.'… Sherwin said officers never told Gonzalez why he was under arrest before they attempted to handcuff him."

"Three men were indicted on hate crime and attempted kidnapping charges by a federal grand jury in Southern Georgia in connection with the death of Ahmaud Arbery, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday."

"President Biden will propose a capital gains tax increase for households making more than $1 million per year. The top rate would jump to 39.6% from 20%… These changes may hit homeowners looking to sell in hot markets." What complete bullshit. This is like "we want to eliminate the inheritance tax to help the poor farmers" canard. OMG, selling my house I might make one-million dollars (Dr Evil pinkie to lips gesture) which might put me in jeopardy here, oh noes! Yeah. Not gonna happen. The article does go on to point out exactly why this really won't happen (standard deductions for example), but then tries the old, "but it could happen!" "For example, let’s say a single home seller earns $200,000 per year. If they bought a home for $250,000 and sold for $1.5 million, they could have annual income above the $1 million threshold, even with the $250,000 exclusion." How many people fall into that category?

"The reopening economy surged in President Joe Biden's first 100 days, with U.S. gross domestic product hitting 6.4 percent, the best quarterly reading since 2003… U.S gross domestic product, or GDP, a measure of the total amount of goods and services produced, hit 6.4 percent in the first quarter of 2021, according to advance estimates released Thursday from the Commerce Department."

"The Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday that it will propose a ban on menthol-flavored cigarettes in the United States, which would be a huge blow for future tobacco sales… Menthol is the last allowable flavor for cigarettes. According to the FDA, menthol cigarettes have been disproportionately been used by youth, people of color and low-income communities. The vast majority of Black smokers favor menthol cigarette brands, and Black men currently have the highest rates of lung cancer in the country."

How goes Brexit? "European Union leaders, their British counterparts and European businesses expressed hope Wednesday that the final ratification of the post-Brexit trade deal will open a new, positive era of cooperation despite the many divisive topics remaining between the former partners."

"Britain’s political spending watchdog said Wednesday it was scaling up an investigation into Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s finances, saying there were 'reasonable grounds' to suspect an offense had been committed over the pricey refurbishment of the prime minister’s Downing Street residence."

"In another reversal of Trump administration immigration enforcement policy, the Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday that federal agents would no longer be permitted to arrest people in or near courthouses for most immigration violations." Good.

"Facing its biggest student speech case in a half century, the Supreme Court seemed to be looking for a narrow exit door on Wednesday… At issue was whether schools may punish students for speech that occurs online and off campus but may affect school order."

"When we think of deepfakes, we tend to imagine AI-generated people. This might be lighthearted, like a deepfake Tom Cruise, or malicious, like nonconsensual pornography. What we don’t imagine is deepfake geography: AI-generated images of cityscapes and countryside. But that’s exactly what some researchers are worried about." I would like to say governments won't be faked or have problems because of open sourced data (because governments can generate their own trusted data), but it's already happened. Also, the first Desert Storm, our commanders were buying old National Geographics to get the maps included because we didn't have current and accurate maps of Iraq. (Grokked from John)

"The massive package -- which Biden is calling the American Families Plan -- is the second half of his effort to revitalize the nation and ensure a more equitable recovery. The proposal would also extend or make permanent enhancements to several key tax credits that were contained in the Democrats' $1.9 trillion rescue bill, which Biden signed into law last month."

"Several former members of the Red Brigades – a violent radical-left Italian terrorist group that was active in the 1970s and 1980s – were arrested Wednesday in France after years of living under de facto asylum, the French government said in a statement." Good.

"Federal agents executed search warrants Wednesday at the Manhattan apartment and office of Rudy Giuliani, his attorney said, advancing a criminal investigation by federal prosecutors that has been underway for more than two years." Whelp.

"A New York City man charged with making online threats to murder members of Congress told a jury on Tuesday that the threats weren't meant to be taken seriously… Brendan Hunt acknowledged he had written the online statements but dismissed them as 'blather' produced under the influence of marijuana and alcohol." See, he was "just joking." Narrator: no he wasn't.

"The fanatical Donald Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol in January are facing an unexpected obstacle to their freedom: Trump himself… Trump’s refusal to accept the reality that he lost the 2020 election — reflected in a torrent of recent statements renewing discredited claims about a 'rigged' vote — has become a feature of prosecutors’ latest attempts to jail Capitol riot defendants they deem too dangerous to release pending trial." Not sorry.