"A new quarter featuring legendary poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou and other trailblazing American women has officially started shipping to banks on Monday, the U.S. Mint announced. Angelou is the first Black woman to appear on the quarter."
"A team of astronomers led by the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) has now mapped the Local Bubble with the highest precision yet – and found that the Local Bubble was likely carved out of the interstellar medium by a series of supernova explosions millions of years ago."
"The past seven years have been the hottest ever recorded globally 'by a clear margin,' according to findings released Monday by scientists with the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service. Though 2021 was not quite as warm as other recent years, scientists warned that global greenhouse gas emissions are continuing to rise… Last year, the researchers said 2020 was 'effectively tied' for the warmest year on record — just behind 2016, which took first place. Now 2021 ranks fifth, sightly ahead of 2015 and 2018."
"A breeding colony of 60 million fish has been discovered in Antarctica's ice-covered Weddell Sea -- a unique and previously unknown ecosystem that covers an area the size of Malta."
"Conservationists and veterinarians are warning that plastic waste in an open landfill in eastern Sri Lanka is killing elephants in the region, after two more were found dead over the weekend."
"According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) was recently detected in a hunter-harvested deer in northwestern Alabama. This makes Alabama the 28t state CWD has been documented."
"Dozens of hospitals and trauma centers across the country say they're in dire need of blood donations after what the American Red Cross is now calling a nationwide blood crisis… The Red Cross said in a statement this week that the dangerously low blood supply levels are posing a concerning risk to patient care, resulting in medical staff making difficult decisions on who receives blood transfusions and who will need to wait until more blood is readily available."
"The Epstein-Barr virus has long been suspected of playing a role in development of MS. It’s a connection that’s hard to prove because just about everybody gets infected with Epstein-Barr, usually as kids or young adults -- but only a tiny fraction develop MS."
"The omicron surge is jamming up hospital emergency rooms with patients who are waiting long hours or even days to get a bed."
"A study looking at health data across the entire population of Scotland found that pregnant women who had not been vaccinated against COVID-19 and caught the disease were much more likely to suffer severe complications — for themselves and their infants — than those who had been vaccinated and got COVID. Yet despite the growing evidence, vaccination rates among pregnant women remained much lower compared to the general population."
"The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Biden administration's vaccine-or-test rule Thursday, declaring that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration had exceeded its authority… But at the same time, the court upheld a regulation issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that mandates vaccines for almost all employees at hospitals, nursing homes and other health care providers that receive federal funds." Their reasoning is a bunch of horseshit.
"Some of the compounds in cannabis may prevent the entry of the coronavirus into healthy human cells, according to a study published in the Journal of Nature Products… The research was conducted at Oregon State University and led by Richard van Breemen, a scientist with Oregon State’s Global Hemp Innovation Center, College of Pharmacy, and Linus Pauling Institute." Don't think it's gonna help legalize weed, but whatever. Plus I have a feeling that the amounts required to have an effect would be enormous.
"Retail sales fell much more than expected in December as surging prices took a big bite out of spending, the Commerce Department reported Friday… The advance monthly sales report to close out the year showed a decline of 1.9%, considerably worse than the Dow Jones estimate for just a 0.1% drop."
"One day after Prince Andrew lost his bid to quash a sex-abuse lawsuit, he has been stripped of his military affiliations and royal patronages, Buckingham Palace announced Thursday."
"Downing Street has apologised to Buckingham Palace for two staff parties in No 10 on the night before Prince Philip's funeral… The gatherings, first reported by The Telegraph, took place on 16 April 2021 and went on until the early hours… The PM's spokesman said it was 'deeply regrettable that this took place at a time of national mourning'… Boris Johnson was not at either party - but he faces questions over alleged Covid rule-breaking at No 10."
"Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the U.S. is planning 'things that we have not done in the past' if Russia invades Ukraine… His comments follow days of diplomatic talks and a deadlock on resolving the crisis brewing along the Ukraine-Russia border."
"Dozens of Ukrainian government sites have been hit by an ominous cyberattack, with hackers warning people to 'be afraid and expect the worst'…The attack took over websites of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cabinet of ministers and security and defense council, posting a message on screens in Ukrainian, Russian and Polish that read: 'Ukrainian! All your personal data was uploaded to the public network. All data on the computer is destroyed, it is impossible to restore it.'"
"The US has alleged Russia has already positioned saboteurs in Ukraine to carry out a 'false flag' operation to use as a pretext for a Russian attack, which Washington says could begin in the coming month."
"The loan servicing giant Navient has agreed to cancel $1.7 billion in student loan debts owed by roughly 66,000 borrowers, as part of a settlement announced Thursday with 39 state attorneys general… The settlement ends a years-long legal fight with states in which Navient faced two serious allegations. First, the company was accused of steering student borrowers into expensive forbearances instead of more flexible, income-driven repayment plans." They're getting off too cheaply.
"When the superintendent of Albuquerque Public Schools announced earlier this week a cyberattack would lead to the cancellation of classes for around 75,000 students, he noted that the district's technology department had been fending off attacks 'for the last few weeks.'"
"Florida State Board of Administration official killed in apparent road-rage shootout." Moar guns make us safer. And after a thorough investigation this story remains mostly the same, that's a fair use of the self-defense law. (Grokked from Chess)
"A Waukesha County judge has ruled that absentee ballot drop boxes are not allowed under Wisconsin law, a ruling that could potentially remove an option for voting ahead of the state's crucial midterm elections." Another pile of horseshit reasoning.
"Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer delayed votes on a pair of voting rights bills, pushing back a debate over the chamber’s rules that will decide the fate of election reforms the Democratic Party sees as vital to protecting U.S. democracy."
"Democrats in Washington are beginning to accept the reality that they do not have the votes to pass President Biden's long-shot effort to enact new voting rights bills… President Biden traveled to Capitol Hill on Thursday in an attempt to sway Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Joe Manchin, D.-W.Va., to agree to change the Senate filibuster in order to pass the legislation… Biden conceded after the closed-door meeting that his efforts likely were not enough." This is the way Democracy dies.
"The Republican National Committee has informed the Commission on Presidential Debates, which has hosted presidential and vice presidential debates for general elections for over three decades, that it will change its rules to prohibit the party's nominees from participating in CPD debates." If you can't win, leave.
"The Justice Department has charged 11 defendants with seditious conspiracy related to the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, including the leader of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes." Well well well. (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
And a CBS news story with more… "The Justice Department charged 11 people, including the founder of the right-wing militia known as the Oath Keepers, with 'seditious conspiracy' for their alleged roles in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the most serious charges brought to date relating to the riot."
"House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said publicly and privately in the days following the deadly riots at the US Capitol that President Donald Trump admitted personally bearing some responsibility for the attack -- one of several reasons why the select committee on January 6 wants to hear from the House's top Republican."
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