"Work at all of the Kellogg Company's U.S. cereal plants came to a halt Tuesday as roughly 1,400 workers went on strike, but it wasn't immediately clear how much the supply of Frosted Flakes or any of the company's other iconic brands would be disrupted."
"Zanzibar-born novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah won this year's Nobel Prize in literature."
"Viking historian Nancy Marie Brown’s new book, The Real Valkyrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women, explores what life might have been like for the warrior woman of Bj 581. Using more evidence from the recent tests conducted on the remains, Brown traces her journey from Norway to the British Isles to Kiev then, finally, to Birka… She also explores the Viking sagas and contemporary sources with a new lens." Of importance to the WIP, and also to point out the specific ways we create our history. (Grokked from Kameron Hurley)
Something new has been added. "The new Arid meteor shower may be making itself known in early October 2021… It's not every day that we witness an outburst from a new meteor shower gracing the skies of the Earth. But that's just what may be in store this week for fortunate observers deep in the southern hemisphere, with the advent of the Arid meteors."
"Light Field Lab's SolidLight tech sounds like science fiction. They company is aiming to, basically, re-create objects in the real world with light, just like a sci-fi holodeck. The physics of how they're aiming to get this to work is actually rather simple. Well, simple in concept, definitely not simple in execution." While the story proudly proclaims "they're here", they aren't, while the video shows a demo.
Moisture farming… "The machine Ted Bowman helped design can make water out of the air, and in parched California, some homeowners are already buying the pricey devices." I wonder when they'll realize that this is an intensely selfish action?
"Water underground has become a scarce and regulated asset in the state. Farmers have pumped so much water from aquifers in this part of California that they've become depleted, threatening water supplies for agriculture and communities that depend on wells for their household water. A 7-year-old law, just now taking effect, strictly limits the amount that farmers can pump from those aquifers, and those limits could put some farmers out of business… Water-capturing basins like this one, however, offer farmers a way to survive. That's because the new law treats the underground aquifer like a bank account. If farmers deposit water into that account when water is plentiful, they can draw more water out when they need it, in years of drought. 'It really is the difference between our community surviving and not,' Fukuda says." The plan, of course, is not without its problems.
"The world's arsenal against malaria just got a fancy new bazooka. But it's not the easiest weapon to deploy, it only hits its target 30 to 40% of the time, and it's not yet clear who's going to pay for it… The weapon in question is the RTS,S vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline, which on Wednesday got the green light from the World Health Organization for widespread use."
"In the quest to get more Americans vaccinated, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: Vaccine mandates work."
"The number of U.S. children orphaned during the COVID-19 pandemic may be larger than previously estimated, and the toll has been far greater among Black and Hispanic Americans, a new study suggests."
"Jannique Martinez's home sits in a tidy cul-de-sac in Virginia Beach, Va., where she lives with her husband and kids and hosts the occasional bake sale. There's just one problem, and it's a loud one: a man who lives next door blares monkey sounds, banjo music and racist slurs at Martinez and her family — a situation that went on for months."
"But a supply crunch that initially put a question mark over the availability of luxury cars or whether there would be enough PlayStations under our Christmas trees is instead morphing into a full-blown crisis featuring a shortage of energy, labour and transport from Liverpool to Los Angeles, and from Qingdao to Queensland… All the problems are in one way or another tangled up in the surge of post-pandemic consumer demand, but taken together they threaten what one leading economist calls a 'stagflationary wind' that could blow the global economy off course."
"A growing number of shipments are stuck at sea because of supply chain issues, leading to growing concern that holiday shipments may not arrive in time. Container ships are crowding ports from New York to Los Angeles, where 250,000 containers are floating off the coast waiting to be unloaded."
"U.S. Coast Guard investigators have boarded a massive cargo ship as they probe what caused the rupture of an offshore oil pipeline that sent crude washing up on Southern California beaches… The Coast Guard is investigating whether a ship anchor might have snagged and bent the pipeline owned by Amplify Energy, a Houston-based company that operates three offshore oil platforms south of Los Angeles. The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the Rotterdam Express appeared to make a series of unusual movements while anchored in the closest spot to where the break in the pipeline happened, according to data collected by a marine navigation service."
"A federal judge has blocked enforcement of Texas' controversial new abortion law, granting an emergency request from the Justice Department… The department sought the preliminary injunction just days after it sued Texas over its new abortion law. Known as SB 8, the law bans almost all abortions in the state after about six weeks of pregnancy, even in cases of rape, sexual abuse and incest."
"Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday offered a short-term suspension of the U.S. debt ceiling to avert a national default and economic crisis until Democrats are able to pass a more permanent solution before the end of the year."
"Black residents in the rural south are nearly twice as likely as their white counterparts to lack home internet access, according to a new study from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies… The study… examined 152 counties… where at least 35% of residents are Black. Researchers found that 38% of Black residents in those counties do not have access to internet in their homes, compared to 23% of white residents in the same regions… The study also found that nearly one in four Black residents in the rural south don't even have the option to subscribe to high speed broadband, compared to just 3.8% of Americans nationwide."
"A Cumberland man allegedly killed his brother and sister-in-law in their Ellicott City home last week because his brother, a pharmacist, administered COVID-19 vaccines, according to charging documents filed Wednesday in a Howard County court… Jeffrey Burnham told his mother he had to confront his older brother, Brian Robinette, because he was poisoning people by administering the COVID-19 vaccine, telling his mother, 'Brian knows something,' according to the new charging documents filed against Burnham." Where was he radicalized? (Grokked from Jim Wright)
More guns make us safer… "An 18-year-old student opened fire during a fight at his Dallas-area high school on Wednesday, injuring four people and then fleeing before being taken into custody hours later, authorities said."
"Federal agents raided the offices Tuesday of a New York City police union, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, and the Long Island home of its bombastic leader, who has clashed with city officials over his incendiary tweets and hard-line tactics."
Jim Wright with some musing on the FB Armageddon… "Facebook went down without warning yesterday… To be honest, I was busy and didn't really notice until I started getting messages from various friends and family asking what was going on. Yes, I'm that guy. I've got a couple of degrees in CompSci and nowadays I make a living via the internet, so I'm the one in my circle people call when they're having problems with The Google."
"The damning Reuters report, published Wednesday, shows that AT&T helped fund and create One America News ― a right-wing network famous for its fawning coverage of former President Donald Trump, and for spreading lies about the 2020 presidential election that Trump lost." (Grokked from Tobias Buckell)
"Idaho Lieutenant Governor Janice McGeachin has again issued executive orders while Governor Brad Little is out of state. In May, she made a similar move and banned mask mandates while Little traveled to a different state… McGeachin issued an executive order effective Tuesday at 2 p.m., banning any state entity — including public schools and universities — from requiring a COVID-19 vaccine or test. She announced it on Twitter, writing she, 'fixed Gov. Little's Executive Order on "vaccine passports" to make sure that K-12 schools and universities cannot require vaccinations OR require mandatory testing.'"
"Senate Democrats on Tuesday introduced legislation aimed at restoring the power of the Voting Rights Act, reinvigorating their push to protect voting rights against a slew of voting restrictions enacted in Republican-led states… Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy introduced the bill Tuesday, saying that 'tens of thousands of Americans are being disenfranchised under the guise of state law.'"
"Legislation that would allow partisan actors to request an audit of elections in Texas counties passed out of the state Senate on Tuesday… The bill is not on Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's agenda for the current special legislative session, meaning it's not eligible for final passage, but Abbott could add it to lawmakers' to-do list if he chooses."
"The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday released a sweeping report about how former President Donald Trump and a top lawyer in the Justice Department attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election."
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