I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Friday, March 25, 2022

Linkee-poo Friday March 25

Steve Wilhite, and so it goes.

"Three bodies were found Thursday in a submerged vehicle, authorities said, after a powerful storm dumped record rain amounts in Alabama… The bodies of a 72-year-old man along with two women ages 53 and 42 were recovered from an SUV in Holt, Alabama, after stormwater receded, the Tuscaloosa Police Department said in a statement. Officials have not released their names."

"Microplastic pollution has been detected in human blood for the first time, with scientists finding the tiny particles in almost 80% of the people tested… The discovery shows the particles can travel around the body and may lodge in organs. The impact on health is as yet unknown. But researchers are concerned as microplastics cause damage to human cells in the laboratory and air pollution particles are already known to enter the body and cause millions of early deaths a year." (Grokked from John)

"Independent testing of more than 100 packaging products from US restaurant and grocery chains identified PFAS chemicals in many of the wrappers, a Consumer Reports investigation has found… The potentially dangerous 'forever chemicals' were found in food packaging including paper bags for french fries, wrappers for hamburgers, molded fiber salad bowls and single-use paper plates."

"Snakes that constrict and then swallow enormous prey have evolved a way to keep themselves from suffocating while they do it… When the scaley coils closest to the snake's head are super busy squeezing its dinner to death, the reptile can simply change how it breathes so that it uses ribs and muscles farther down the length of its body." Clever girl.

"Two astronauts on a spacewalk completed several maintenance tasks outside of the International Space Station, despite getting off to a slow start due a wardrobe malfunction."

"Billionaire philanthropist and novelist MacKenzie Scott has donated $275 million to the reproductive health care nonprofit Planned Parenthood — the largest-ever gift made to the organization… In an announcement Wednesday in a Medium post, Scott detailed her latest donations to 465 organizations and institutions, including Habitat for Humanity, Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Urban Teachers." Well at least someone is making good use of that money.

"Although overall COVID-19 case rates remain relatively low, the BA.2 subvariant of the virus was continuing to spread in Los Angeles County, with health officials reporting a sharp rise in the percentage of cases on Thursday attributed to the offshoot of the Omicron variant, which fueled a winter surge in infections." Ta-da!

"A group of CEOs from all major airlines in the U.S. is calling on President Biden to drop the federal transportation mask mandate along with the international pre-departure COVID-19 testing requirement… In an open letter released by the travel-industry lobbying group Airlines for America, the group is calling on the Biden administration to 'sunset federal transportation travel restrictions.' The group argues that the restrictions no longer reflect the 'realities of the current epidemiological environment.'" I wonder if their employees agree?

"Oil prices slipped on Friday, with some supply concerns easing on expectations that crude exports would resume from Kazakhstan’s CPC terminal, while the European Union remained split on whether to impose an oil embargo on Russia… Brent fell $1.28 to trade at $117.69 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude slid $1.74 to $110.60 a barrel, after both had dropped more than 2% the previous session."

"With gasoline prices topping $4 a gallon, many drivers are looking for a car that will go farther on a gallon of gas, or maybe one that doesn't use gasoline at all… Finding such a car, though, is not easy… Electric cars and gas-electric hybrids are in short supply, and prices have been climbing rapidly. Smaller gasoline-powered cars are also scarce, as automakers have focused on building more lucrative pickup trucks and SUVs." Same as the last time gas was this expensive.

"New Yorkers looking to catch an Uber may soon find themselves sitting in the back of classic Yellow Cab… The ride-hailing giant has announced it will list all New York City taxis, including the iconic yellow cabs, on its app starting later this Spring. The agreement, first revealed by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, represents one of the most significant partnerships between New York’s taxis and Uber since the company first arrived in 2011. But remember, Uber says it’s totally not a transportation company. Right."

Trigger warning… "'We would see death and graphic, graphic pornography. I would see nude underage children every day,' Velez said in an interview. 'I would see people get shot in the face, and another video of a kid getting beaten made me cry for two hours straight.'… Velez worked for TikTok from May to November 2021, one of some 10,000 content moderators worldwide who police videos on the platform, making sure it remains an endless feed of lighthearted content, rather than a cesspool of violent and disturbing videos… Now, Velez and another former TikTok moderator, Reece Young, have filed a federal lawsuit seeking class action status against the video-sharing app and its parent company, ByteDance."

"Hackers backed by North Korea's government exploited a critical Chrome zero-day in an attempt to infect the computers of hundreds of people working in a wide range of industries, including the news media, IT, cryptocurrency, and financial services, Google said Thursday."

"A leaked document has revealed that China and the Solomon Islands are close to signing a security agreement that could open the door to Chinese troops and naval warships flowing into a Pacific Island nation that played a pivotal role in World War II."

"About 300 people were killed in the Russian airstrike last week on a Mariupol theater that was being used as a shelter, Ukrainian authorities said Friday in what would make it the war’s deadliest known attack on civilians yet."

"Ukraine has lost at least 74 tanks—destroyed or captured—since Russia widened its war on the country starting the night of Feb. 23… But Ukraine has captured at least 117 Russian tanks, according to open-source-intelligence analysts who scrutinize photos and videos on social media." (Grokked from John)

"Speaking in Brussels alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Biden said Russia was using its supply of oil and gas to 'coerce and manipulate its neighbors.' He said the United States would help Europe reduce its dependence on Russian oil and gas, and would ensure the continent had enough supplies for the next two winters. The announcement came just before Biden departed Brussels for Poland."

"Russia wants 'unfriendly countries' to pay for Russian natural gas in rubles. That's a new directive from President Vladimir Putin as he attempts to leverage his country's in-demand resources to counter a barrage of Western sanctions." Sure, Vlad, but first let's price it in rubles.

U.S. assistance to Ukrainian biological labs has been targeted at strengthening public health measures. Both the U.S. and Ukraine have also signed a treaty vowing never to produce or use biological weapons… But unlike most Russian efforts to spread false narratives justifying its invasion of Ukraine, this one found a receptive audience in the United States among far-right social media channels, Fox News and followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory." The very funny part about this is that if Ukraine and the US set up these labs to produce weapons, that would have been done under the Trump administration as well.

"Russian troops have been unable to advance on the capital of Kyiv… The war has displaced more than half of Ukraine's children… Almost 3.7 million people have fled Ukraine…"

"Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., announced Friday he plans to vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, praising her 'exemplary' record and career and labeling her 'supremely qualified' to be a justice."

It's the Daily Beast, so… "But Cawthorn did something far worse, at least for his own political prospects, and it may cost him his seat: He left his constituents—and then was forced to return to them, hat in hand, after the courts predictably struck down the state’s new map, and eliminated the district he left to run in, on Feb. 23."

"A misleading line of attack from Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., helped fuel online discussion, some of it violent, linking Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson to concerns about pedophilia… Hawley used much of his question time during Jackson's confirmation hearings this week to distort her sentencing record in cases related to child pornography."

"A prosecutor who had been leading a criminal investigation into Donald Trump before quitting last month said in his resignation letter that he believes the former president is 'guilty of numerous felony violations' and he disagreed with the Manhattan district attorney's decision not to seek an indictment." But it doesn't look like the criminal case will go forward, at least at this time.

"Former President Donald Trump has filed a sweeping RICO lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee and others, alleging that they "maliciously conspired to weave a false narrative that [Trump] was colluding with a hostile foreign sovereignty [Russia]" to try and rig the 2016 election." It'll be dropped before it gets there (this is mostly a fundraising gimmick), but man the discovery is going to be wild (both sides can get discovery on the other side).

"With schools boards all over the country finding themselves embroiled in controversy, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the right of a community college board to censure one of its own members."

"Republican Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska was found guilty on Thursday of concealing information and making false statements to federal authorities in regard to an investigation looking into illegal campaign contributions in his 2016 reelection campaign, the US Attorney's Office of the Central District of California said."

"The messages, which do not directly reference Justice Thomas or the Supreme Court, show for the first time how Ginni Thomas used her access to Trump's inner circle to encourage and seek to guide the president's strategy to overturn the election results — and how receptive and grateful Meadows said he was to receive her advice. Among Thomas' stated goals in the messages was for lawyer Sidney Powell, who promoted incendiary and unsupported claims about the election, to become 'the lead and the face' of Trump's legal team."

"On how the texts show relationships across different branches of the U.S. government… It's extraordinary. This is a pipeline between the spouse of a Supreme Court justice and the chief of staff at the White House, one of the top executives and officials in the executive branch, and they're communicating at times about the legislative branch — Congress."

"The Democratic-led House select committee investigating the Capitol attack will vote on Monday to hold two former Trump White House advisers, Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino Jr., in criminal contempt of Congress."

"Voters in Ohio are supposed to be able to vote in the state's May 3 primary — up and down the ballot — but with just six weeks to go, the voting districts for the state legislature haven't been decided… Most states are wrapping up their redistricting process, but Ohio's Supreme Court has rejected the Republican-drawn state legislative maps three times for being unconstitutional, leaving candidates, voters and the state's entire voting infrastructure confused about what comes next." If only the GOP could do it's job instead of having to rig everything about elections, we wouldn't be in this mess.

"But there is one simple truth when it comes to the former president's political support: Donald Trump giveth, and Donald Trump can taketh away… That's what Brooks — who, despite the endorsement, had been struggling in polls of the race — learned Wednesday, when Trump withdrew his support." Mo Brooks committed the one cardinal sin in authoritarianism, he thought he was more important the the head honcho.

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