"Scientists have found something strange has been happening among sensitive bird species in the Brazilian Amazon in recent years… Not only were the birds declining in number, but their bodies were also shrinking in size."
"The Pacific Northwest saw another onslaught of heavy rainfall and high winds on Monday that forced evacuations and closed schools across the region… An atmospheric river walloped the area late last week, with nearly ceaseless rain, and its tail end is 'coming with one last strong push,' the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported."
"Heavy rain and flooding in a southern province in Egypt have left three people dead and more than 500 others hospitalized from scorpion stings, state-run media reported. Downpours, hail and thunder in the province of Aswan over the weekend forced local authorities to suspend school classes Sunday, Gov. Ashraf Attia said… The storms forced scorpions from their hiding places into many houses across the province, Attia added."
"Those are two crucial steps in a growing area of study known as 'suicide postvention.' Just as there's research on how to prevent mental health crises and interventions for people who are actively suicidal, research is also developing around the effective steps that can be taken after a suicide to help communities grieve, restore a sense of stability and limit the risk of more deaths."
"Across corporate America, relations between companies and their labor unions range from chilly to ice-cold. Not at Kaiser Permanente – the California-based healthcare giant. Kaiser has long been seen as having the nation’s best labor-management partnership. Now the partnership finds itself in crisis as 34,000 Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers prepare to strike on Monday, in what would be the largest walkout in this fall’s strike wave… Saying that its labor costs were far above its competitors, Kaiser initially proposed raises of 1% a year for three years and cutting the pay of new hires to 26% below those of its current employees."
"These days during the coronavirus pandemic, with the holidays fast approaching, jampacked container ships have gotten stuck in traffic at ports, which is choking the economy. Delayed containers have become both a symptom of and a contributor to global supply chain problems. But if one looks back, cargo has generally moved more easily and cheaply now than it did before these big boxes came around, making them almost indispensable to the global economy." The humble shipping container.
"Warehouses have become a key middle link in the country's supply chain. Couches, phones, floorboards and virtually everything else a shopper might buy passes through them. Today, the U.S. is dotted with more warehouses than ever. But they are overcome by the lack of workers to get stuff in and out fast, by the lack of truck drivers and rail cars to haul things away — and above all, by the extraordinary abundance of goods."
What supply chain problems? "Walmart (WMT) on Tuesday said sales at US stores open for at least one year increased 9.2% during the three months ending October 31 compared with the same period a year ago. The company raised its full-year sales guidance, expecting sales to come in above 6% for the year."
"U.S. shoppers accelerated their level of spending in October even as the prices of goods jumped at their fastest pace since the 1990s, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday… Retail sales, a measure of how much consumers spent on goods ranging across categories from autos to sporting goods and food and gas, increased 1.7% for October, compared with 0.8% the previous month."
"If markets were competitive, companies would keep their prices down in order to prevent competitors from grabbing away customers… But they’re raising prices even as they rake in record profits. How can this be? They have so much market power they can raise prices with impunity… Viewed this way, the underlying problem isn’t inflation per se. It’s lack of competition. Corporations are using the excuse of inflation to raise prices and make fatter profits."
"Germany's energy regulator has suspended the approval process for the controversial Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany… It said the pipeline's operating company needed to be compliant with German law before it would certify the €10bn (£8.4bn) project."
"The Russian military destroyed a defunct satellite on Monday, showering low Earth orbit with shrapnel and causing astronauts to shelter on the International Space Station as the debris cloud passed by… U.S. officials from the Pentagon, State Department and NASA condemned Russia’s anti-satellite weapon (or ASAT) test as 'reckless' and 'dangerous,' while U.S. Space Command confirmed that the test created more than 1,500 pieces of debris. The test destroyed the defunct, Soviet-era Kosmos 1408 spy satellite."
"A trademark lawsuit against the Cleveland Guardians Baseball Company, LLC baseball team brought by the Guardians Roller Derby has been resolved… When the suit was filed, it claimed, “Two sports teams in the same city cannot have identical names”… It turns out, they can and will."
"Reagan’s rightwing speechifying didn’t save Goldwater, but it did earn Reagan a glowing reputation among Republican groups in California, which led to his being recruited to run for governor of California in 1966. During that campaign, he wed his fringe politics to early dog whistle themes, for instance excoriating welfare, calling for law and order, and opposing government efforts to promote neighborhood integration. He also signaled blatant hostility toward civil rights, supporting a state ballot initiative to allow racial discrimination in the housing market…" An older Salon article, but well worth the reread. (Grokked from Laura J Mixon)
"Family members of some victims of 2012's Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting have won a court battle against right-wing media personality and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his Infowars website… A Monday ruling from a Connecticut court — which found Jones and the other defendants liable for defamation — brought swift reaction from an attorney representing the families Sandy Hook victims, high-profile politicians and those defending Jones in the suit."
"Talking to reporters after his court appearance, Bannon chalked the charges up to little more than a political witch hunt overseen by his political opponents… 'I'm telling you right now, this is going to be the misdemeanor from hell, for Merrick Garland, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden,' he said alongside his defense attorney David Schoen, who is perhaps best known for his representation of Trump during his second impeachment trial." Fuck Steve Bannon and his Nazi wannabe attitude.
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