Linkee-poo Friday March 11

Emilio "Luis" Delgado, and so it goes.

"Another grouping of 48 Starlink internet satellites soared into orbit Wednesday from Cape Canaveral aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, or what SpaceX’s launch director jokingly called an “American broomstick” in a jab at Russian space chief Dmitry Rogozin."

"The Expedition 66 crew continued preparing today for the first of two spacewalks set to begin next week to continue upgrading the International Space Station’s power system. Vein scans were also on Thursday’s schedule helping scientists understand how living in space affects the human body… In the station’s Russian segment, Commander Anton Shkaplerov and Flight Engineer Pyotr Dubrov evaluated an artificial gravity suit that counteracts the pooling of fluids in a crew member’s upper body. The lower body negative pressure suit expands veins and tissues in the lower body possibly preventing vision changes and head pressure in microgravity."

"Neighborhoods that were subject to redlining in the 1930s tend to have higher levels of air pollution many decades later, a new study has found… The paper's authors looked at air quality data from 202 U.S. cities and found a strong correlation between pollution levels in 2010 and the historical patterns of redlining. Their study was published this week in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters." Weird, right?

"For the first time during the long legal reckoning over the opioid crisis, members of the Sackler family who own Purdue Pharma heard directly from people who say their company's main product, Oxycontin, wrecked their lives… David Sackler, Richard Sackler and Theresa Sackler listened and watched during the roughly two-hour long hearing as people described surviving addiction and spoke of losing loved ones to the epidemic… The Sacklers spoke briefly to confirm their presence, but did not respond to the testimony." When you have no heart, there is no moving it.

"'These recombinants arise when more than one variant infects and replicates in the same person, in the same cells,' says Prof Lawrence Young, a virologist at the University of Warwick. 'Deltacron is a product of both the Delta and Omicron variants circulating in the same population.'… Experts have been quick to stress that recombinant variants are not uncommon, and that Deltacron is not the first and will not be the last to occur for Covid."

"Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the world has seen a dramatic improvement in infections, hospitalizations and death rates in recent weeks, signaling the crisis appears to be winding down. But how will it end? Past epidemics may provide clues."

"China on Friday ordered a lockdown of the 9 million residents of the northeastern city of Changchun amid a new spike in COVID-19 cases in the area attributed to the highly contagious omicron variant." Not over yet.

"The Transportation Security Administration is extending the mask mandate on public transportation until April 18, according to a White House official and a TSA official… The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will work with government agencies to help inform a revised policy framework for when the mask rules can be lifted during this time, said the White House official."

"Prices for gas, food and housing -- which are necessary rather than discretionary spending -- drove the February price increases… February prices rose 0.8%, adjusted for seasonal swings, a larger increase than in January." Those of us who had already switched to lower cost sources for necessaries are seeing much larger increases.

Meanwhile, on Bullshit Mountain… "Inflation hit a 40-year high in February, and the worst is yet to come as the U.S. economy barrels toward a recession, experts say."

"Americans say that they feel more anxious about inflation, global uncertainty and the war in Ukraine than they have reported feeling about any other issue in recent years, according to a new survey released Thursday from the American Psychological Association."

"An intense, closely guarded diplomatic effort by a core team of Biden energy and national security officials to raise global oil production amid surging prices from Russia's war in Ukraine has fostered a cautious sense of optimism inside the White House… The two main targets of the effort, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have had frosty relations with the US since Biden took office. Both countries are members of OPEC, the powerful bloc of 13 countries that together control 40% of global oil production. And both were on friendlier terms with the Trump administration."

"More than $1.5 billion has been spent to settle claims of police misconduct involving thousands of officers repeatedly accused of wrongdoing. Taxpayers are often in the dark."

"Six students on spring break overdosed on what appeared to be cocaine laced with fentanyl and were hospitalized in Fort Lauderdale Thursday, and one was in critical condition, CBS Miami reports. It happened at an Airbnb… Four went into cardiac arrest after ingesting the drug before two friends tried to help by performing CPR. That's when they were also exposed to the drug, the station says."

"Texas has opened nine alleged abuse investigations of minors receiving gender-affirming health care, Patrick Crimmins, a Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) spokesman, confirmed to CNN Thursday… Civil rights groups said in a court hearing last week they were aware of at least three families facing investigation. The Dallas Morning News was the first to report the state was investigating nine reports of alleged abuse."

"Amber Briggle says her long fight over gender-affirming care wasn’t a choice but her duty. Her Texas family is under investigation after state Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a legal opinion this year saying gender-affirming treatments for transgender children constitutes child abuse. Later, Gov. Greg Abbott instructed the Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate any reported instances of such treatments… The Briggles are now the target of such an investigation."

"India said Friday it accidentally fired a missile into Pakistan this week because of a 'technical malfunction' during routine maintenance, giving its version of events after longtime foe Pakistan warned the incident could have 'unpleasant consequences.'" Oopsie.

"Russia opened a criminal case against Facebook’s parent Meta Platforms on Friday and moved to designate it as an 'extremist organisation' after the social network changed its hate speech rules to allow users to call for violence against Russians in the context of the war with Ukraine." Biting the hands that feed… recursively.

"In a Twitter thread over the weekend, Andrey Kozyrev, who served as the foreign minister under President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s, put forward what he said were misjudgments by President Vladimir Putin in ordering the invasion… He suggested Putin had overestimated the Russian military — while Putin has dedicated billions of dollars to modernizing Russia's forces, this money, Kozyrev claimed, may have been lost to endemic corruption." (Grokked for John)

"Colleges across the U.S. are pulling students from study abroad programs in Russia, ending research partnerships and cutting financial ties as part of a global wave of condemnation over the invasion of Ukraine… At the same time, colleges have promised to support Russian students on their campuses, opposing calls from a few in Congress to remove them from the country as a sanction against their homeland."

"President Joe Biden will announce Friday that the US, along with the G7 and European Union, will call for revoking 'most favored nation' status for Russia, referred to as permanent normal trade relations in the US, sources familiar with the move tell CNN… The move requires an act of Congress."

"A thorough review of a four-hour, 21-minute security camera video of the attack reveals that Russian forces repeatedly fired heavy weapons in the direction of the plant's massive reactor buildings, which housed dangerous nuclear fuel. Photos show that an administrative building directly in front of the reactor complex was shredded by Russian fire. And a video from inside the plant shows damage and a possible Russian shell that landed less than 250 feet from the Unit 2 reactor building."

"The former Trump lawyer John Eastman – who helped coordinate the scheme from the Trump 'war room' at the Willard hotel in Washington – conceded in an email to counsel for then vice-president Mike Pence, Greg Jacob, that the plan was a violation of the Electoral Count Act." Well now, that moves us beyond the "intent to commit a crime" area.