"A 3,500-year-old clay tablet that was looted from an Iraqi museum 30 years ago is headed back to Iraq… Known as the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet, it was acquired by the company Hobby Lobby in 2014 for display in the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. U.S. authorities seized it in 2019, saying it was stolen and needed to be returned."
"In a significant change with implications for future exploration missions, NASA will announce today that it is splitting the duties of its human spaceflight office into two segments."
"All evidence points to the fact that Mars once had flowing water, but numerous flybys, orbiters, landers and rovers have confirmed one undeniable fact — any liquid water that was once on its surface is now long gone… A study out of Washington University in St. Louis might have found the reason: Mars, which is about half the size of Earth, and just over one-tenth the mass of our own watery world, might just be too small."
"The delta surge appears to be peaking nationally, and cases and deaths will likely decline steadily now through the spring without a significant winter surge, according to a new analysis… by a consortium of researchers advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention… The most likely scenario… is that children do get vaccinated and no super-spreading variant emerges. In that case, the combo model forecasts that new infections would… drop from about 140,000 today now to about 9,000 a day by March… Deaths from COVID-19 would fall from about 1,500 a day now to fewer than 100 a day by March 2022." Yeah, Bob. I'll believe it when I see it. While Delta is horrible, it is not the worst variant. It is, however, able to out compete those other variants for now. Also, there's a huge uncertainty interval there and a lot fo assumptions being made which, so far, haven't proven out. Also note the projections for the long term about SARS-CoV2.
"A new study has shown that the symptoms that the (SARS-CoV2 Delta) infection presents have also changed. According to the World Health Organization, the most common symptoms of COVID are…" As someone in the healthcare industry, let me tell you that while "A fever or raised temperature" (ie over 100°F) is a sure giveaway (now being mitigated by other diseases), most COVID-19 patients do not have fever.
"If I am the only person wearing a mask in a store or other indoor location, am I really protected from infection?" The answer is "mostly", although protection would be greater if everyone wore a mask.
"President Biden is set to announce on Wednesday that the United States is buying 500 million more doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to donate to countries around the world, a pledge that will bring the total promised U.S. vaccine donations to more than 1.1 billion." Good.
"Sales of previously owned homes declined 2% in August from July to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 5.88 million units, according to the National Association of Realtors… Sales were 1.5% lower than August 2020 for the first annual decline. Sales, however, are still above pre-pandemic levels."
"The Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced Monday that it will prioritize inspections on hot days, target high-risk industries nationally, and, as reported earlier this summer, begin developing a federal rule to protect workers from heat-related illnesses, a move long sought by worker advocates."
"Two weeks after the 61-foot-tall statue of Robert E. Lee was removed in Richmond, Va., the former confederate capital city will become home a new statue, this one commemorating the abolition of slavery."
"Fewer than one-third of Americans want to see the Roe v. Wade decision overturned, according to a set of three polls released over the past week, with key elements of Texas' restrictive new abortion law also garnering relatively little support in the polls." Unfortunately that 20% includes a majority of SCOTUS.
"Abortion-inducing drugs in Texas will now be harder to obtain after the state's Republican governor recently signed restrictive legislation into law, weeks after another strict abortion law went into effect in the state." In case you didn't go to that Hill link the other day.
"When residents and city officials pressed ENO about the catastrophic power failure, company executives explained that the outages could not have been avoided during a big storm like Hurricane Ida. But an investigation by ProPublica and NPR finds that the utility, along with its parent company, Entergy, failed to take the necessary steps to protect its power grid and customers against outages, despite opportunities to rebuild with more resilient systems after several big hurricanes." The company made $1.4b in profit in 2020, but is seeking federal grants to upgrade the system the residents/users have already paid for. This kind of shit will only stop when we start putting corporate executives in jail for fiduciary failures. We had a similar problem with FirstEnergy when I was a councilman. It took us putting the village's power payments into escrow to get their attention. They new 20 years previous to that time they had to upgrade our supply line and had to do it by 10 years previous to that date. It took us 7 years to get an updated supply, and we had to threaten to use the escrow account several times to force movement. It shouldn't require that.
"Many Haitian migrants camped in a small Texas border town are being released in the United States, two U.S. officials said, undercutting the Biden administration’s public statements that the thousands in the camp faced immediate expulsion."
"The FBI has confirmed that remains found in Wyoming Sunday are the body of 22-year-old Gabrielle Petito. The mystery around the death of the photogenic young white woman with a carefree social media presence has been headline news across the country… And that's frustrating to people who say the media ignores an epidemic of missing and murdered Native American women in the state." Not to mention the number of POC who are missing.
"In On These Grounds, an expansive, insightful and infuriating documentary about police brutality in the public education system, former school resource officer Ben Fields makes his case. Fields, a hulking and defensive white cop, meekly looks at the camera, clinically explaining away his actions when confronting a 16-year-old Black student identified as Shakara at Spring Valley high in South Carolina. The violent incident caught on multiple videos immediately went viral and led to his dismissal." (Grokked from Kelly Link)
"After the FBI seized Joseph Ruiz’s life savings during a raid on a safe deposit box business in Beverly Hills, the unemployed chef went to court to retrieve his $57,000. A judge ordered the government to tell Ruiz why it was trying to confiscate the money… It came from drug trafficking, an FBI agent responded in court papers… The FBI was wrong. When Ruiz produced records showing the source of his money was legitimate, the government dropped its false accusation and returned his money… Ruiz is one of roughly 800 people whose money and valuables the FBI seized from safe deposit boxes they rented at the U.S. Private Vaults store in a strip mall on Olympic Boulevard." It's way past time to reform the process of civil forfeitures. (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
"The top U.S. military officer met with his Russian counterpart Wednesday, against the backdrop of U.S. struggles to get military basing rights and other counterterrorism support in countries bordering Afghanistan — a move Moscow has flatly opposed." Because, again, that's part of his actual job.
"Former US president Donald Trump has sued his estranged niece and The New York Times over a 2018 story about his family’s wealth and tax practices that was partly based on confidential documents she provided to the newspaper’s reporters."
"President Joe Biden's failure to name someone to lead the Food and Drug Administration, more than 10 months after the election, has flummoxed public health experts who say it's baffling for the agency to be without a permanent leader during a national health crisis."
"The House passed a bill Tuesday that would both prevent a government shutdown and suspend the debt limit in a step toward preventing possible economic calamity… The chamber approved the plan in a 220-211 vote. All Democrats voted for it and all Republicans opposed it… Congress has to pass a funding plan by Sept. 30 to prevent a shutdown. Separately, the U.S. will exhaust all of its options to keep paying its bills sometime in October, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has told congressional leaders." Here we go again.
"Missouri’s chief disciplinary counsel is asking the Missouri Supreme Court to suspend the law licenses of Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the couple who waved guns at Black Lives Matter protesters in St. Louis last year… In filings with the court, the chief disciplinary counsel, Alan D. Pratzel, cited the couple’s guilty pleas to misdemeanors stemming from the incident."
"A rush of new and shocking behind-the-scenes disclosures about how then-President Donald Trump sought to thwart the Constitution and the will of voters makes a clear case that America came closer to a coup earlier this year than previously known… The fresh evidence also shows what many people in Trump's inner circle knew in January: His case to stay in power was meritless, but an unchained commander in chief chose to listen to acolytes pushing wild conspiracies. Some of those who knew the truth refused to speak up, even as American democracy came under attack."
"Two veteran Republican campaign operatives — including one who got a pardon from then-President Donald Trump one month before he left office — are charged in a new federal indictment with funneling $25,000 from a Russian national into the Trump campaign in 2016… Jesse Benton, 43, and Doug Wead, 75, made brief appearances Monday at a video hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington, pleading not guilty to six felony charges including facilitating a campaign contribution by a foreign national, acting as a straw donor and causing the filing of false campaign finance reports." Man, Russians are still falling out of the trees.
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