"A penguin has found itself on the shores of New Zealand, at least 3,000 kilometres (1,864 miles) away from its natural habitat of Antarctica… The Adélie penguin, who has now been affectionately named Pingu by locals, was found looking lost on the coast." Brooklyn?! I'm dyin' over here.
"In 1858, sewage clogging London's Thames River caused a 'Great Stink.' A century later, parts of the famed waterway were declared biologically dead… The river today is 'home to myriad wildlife as diverse as London itself,' Andrew Terry, the director of conservation and policy at the Zoological Society of London, writes in a forward to the report published Wednesday. Terry points to 'reductions in pressures and improvements in key species and habitats.'"
"A new therapy, developed by researchers in the USA, has successfully reversed paralysis and repaired severe spinal cord injuries in mice. The animals regained the ability to walk only four weeks after a single injection of the treatment."
"Patients like LaDue have researchers scrambling to figure out why some people experience persistent, often debilitating symptoms after catching SARS-CoV-2. It remains unclear how often it occurs. But if only a small fraction of the hundreds of millions of people who've had COVID-19 are left struggling with long-term health problems, it's a major public health problem."
"A recent study in the United Kingdom found that COVID affects one in seven children months after they were infected. Symptoms can include headaches, anxiety, lung issues and fatigue… Katharine Clouser, a pediatric hospitalist, said her team is seeing an increase in the number of kids with long-hauler symptoms. Clouser and her team at Hackensack Meridian Health in New Jersey opened one of the first pediatric COVID recovery centers in the state last spring."
"In a TikTok video that has garnered hundreds of thousands of views, Dr. Carrie Madej outlined the ingredients for a bath she said will 'detox the vaxx' for people who have given into Covid-19 vaccine mandates." Sobs uncontrollably. (Grokked from John Scalzi)
"The country is still in a pandemic that's killing more than 1,000 Americans every day. And a body of evidence shows masking, in combination with other safety measures, effectively cuts COVID-19 transmission in K-12 schools. Masks are cheaper than renovating school buildings to improve ventilation or create outdoor learning spaces, and they're (still) easier to get ahold of than COVID-19 tests, which can also be used to preempt transmission."
"A group of 10 states has filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration and its requirement that health care workers in the U.S. to be vaccinated against COVID-19, saying the mandate is 'unconstitutional and unlawful.'" As a healthcare worker I am vaccinated up the wazzo against a host of diseases. To claim some special carve out for COVID-19 is farcical on it's face.
"A record 4.4 million Americans quit their jobs in September as the sheer volume of available jobs is empowering workers to have their pick… Workers are quitting in search for better pay or better jobs, representing a fundamental shift in America's labor market."
"The busy Christmas shopping season is almost here. Unfortunately, a lot of holiday merchandise is tied up in traffic, and Bonnie Ross is starting to sweat." Why, it's almost as if our economy was built in such a way that expansion became unsustainable because of the inequities built into the system.
"Elon Musk sold another block of Tesla shares Thursday… In two additional filings, Musk disclosed early Friday that he had sold another $687.3 million worth of the stock Thursday. That brings his sales of stock for this week to 5.2 million shares for a total of $5.8 billion… Last weekend, Musk conducted a Twitter poll asking the public if he should be selling 10% of his shares of the stock in order to increase the taxes he owed. He said he would abide by the results, and 58% agreed he should sell."
"Belarus has threatened to cut off its transit of gas supply to Europe if the EU imposes sanctions over a migrant crisis at its western border… The bloc has accused Russian-backed President Alexander Lukashenko of weaponizing the thousands of people currently gathered in freezing camps at the border with Poland to undermine EU security and distract from domestic political pressures, an allegation Belarus denies." He seems nice. Putin will let him go to the end of his chain and bark, and then reassure the EU that he won't cut off supply.
"'If we're going to start a precedent, starting yesterday, where we're going to bring high-profile members of the African American community into the courtroom to sit with the family during the trial in the presence of the jury, I believe that's intimidating and it's an attempt to pressure -- could be consciously or unconsciously -- an attempt to pressure or influence the jury,' attorney Kevin Gough said Thursday in court in Brunswick, Georgia… Gough the next day offered 'my apologies to anyone who might have inadvertently been offended' by the remarks." He totally didn't mean for his remarks to be taken as a racists statement by anyone who may not be a racist themselves.
"Buchan, an analyst at the British climate-advocacy group Stop Funding Heat, is part of a global team of activists and online researchers that has been tracking false and misleading claims about climate change while world leaders have met in Glasgow… The London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue, which has long studied online extremism and terrorism, led the effort."
"Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is facing a criminal referral to the justice department for contempt of Congress after he failed to appear for an immediate deposition on Friday morning before the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack."
"A federal appeals court Thursday granted former President Donald Trump's request to temporarily block the National Archives from turning over his White House records to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol."
"House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has watched in silence as Republican Rep. Paul Gosar tweeted a fantasy anime video depicting him killing a Democratic colleague and brandishing swords at President Joe Biden… He has kept his distance as some of the 13 House GOP lawmakers who voted last week for a bipartisan infrastructure bill have been targeted by the far-right, with one of them, Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, revealing that he received death threats." Paralyzed by the reality of the precarious position he's placed himself in. Don't worry, he'll over react and come out swinging in a few weeks causing destruction and discord.
"Donald Trump defended rioters at the Capitol on 6 January who threatened to 'hang Mike Pence', his vice-president, according to recorded remarks released on Friday… Trump was speaking to the ABC chief Washington correspondent, Jonathan Karl, for his book Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show, which will be published on Tuesday. The recording was released by Axios."
Friday, November 12, 2021
Thursday, November 11, 2021
Linkee-poo Thursday Nov 11
"A lobsterman made the catch of a lifetime off the coast of Maine last weekend. Bill Coppersmith trapped a 1-in-100 million iridescent lobster, also known as a 'cotton candy' lobster, CBS Boston reports." Cotton candy does not pair well with butter.
"The days are getting shorter and the months are getting colder, which means some are already bracing for an unwelcome holiday hindrance: seasonal depression."
"Richard Kronick, a former federal health policy researcher and a professor at the University of California-San Diego, says his analysis of newly released Medicare Advantage billing data estimates that Medicare overpaid the private health plans by more than $106 billion from 2010 through 2019 because of the way the private plans charge for sicker patients." Privatizing government functions costs us more? You don't say.
"More than 22 million infants across the globe didn't get their first measles vaccine dose last year, according to a joint statement Wednesday from the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."
"Scientists have evidence that SARS-CoV-2 spreads explosively in white-tailed deer, and the virus is widespread in this deer population across the U.S… Researchers say the findings are quite concerning and could have vast implications for the long-term course of the global pandemic."
"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced a recall of about 2 million at-home COVID-19 test kits made by the Australian-based biotech company Ellume… The federal regulatory agency says the test kits may produce 'false positives' due to a manufacturing defect. The company first informed the FDA about the defect in some lots in October."
"A federal judge has ordered a halt to Texas' efforts to ban mask mandates in state schools… U.S. District Court Judge Lee Yeakel ruled in Austin that the ban ordered by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott violated a federal law protecting disabled students' access to public education." It's like watching a tennis match.
"When a U.S. Supreme Court decision struck down a federal eviction moratorium many experts and housing advocates feared a tsunami of evictions would quickly follow. That isn't quite happening, but eviction filings are rising sharply in many parts of the country."
"But the strategy was terrible for the oil industry's bottom line. Drillers repeatedly oversupplied the market, careening debt-riddled companies from one price crash to another. The oil-and-gas sector was easily the stock market's biggest loser in the 2010s… Today, the world is completely different. Gasoline prices have surged to seven-year highs and Wall Street banks are warning that $100 or even $120 oil is on its way. Yet US oil companies are in no rush to come to the rescue, leaving the White House facing pressure from its own party to intervene in energy markets."
"Yet as any American who has bought a carton of milk, a gallon of gas or a used car could tell you, inflation has settled in. And economists are now voicing a more discouraging message: Higher prices will likely last well into next year, if not beyond."
"Oil and gas regulators at the Railroad Commission of Texas cleared the way on Wednesday for $3.4 billion to be paid to natural gas companies by raising bills for ratepayers… The $3.4 billion is part of the debt that gas utilities unexpectedly owed suppliers after gas prices skyrocketed during February's winter storm and blackout. The cost may be included on Texans’ gas bills for up to the next 30 years."
"If you want to honor veterans, then don’t call them heroes. That’s the easy way out… If you want to honor veterans, then live up to the ideals they fought to defend." I've told this story many times. I met a nice Lt Colonel who was a foremost expert on nuclear weapons. He could recite from memory, and quickly do the math, for a number of scenarios regarding "nuclear exchanges" (the nice way of saying we bombed each other with some of the most terrible weapons ever constructed). He could tell you the most probably outcomes of dropping a number of warheads in the various theaters of battle, both the immediate destruction, the long term effects, and the most likely response. After his lecture I asked him how he could stand to fill his head with such things. He told me he had kids, and he wanted to make sure they never had to think about these things. He is also why I will tell you with certainty there is no such thing as a "limited" nuclear exchange and the only way to "win" is to launch everything at once, which will ensure the end of human civilization in some thirty minutes. By now his kids are in the middle of their careers and he, most likely, is retired somewhere. I wonder if anyone else has his job.
"The Biden administration will announce a series of actions Thursday to help veterans who were exposed to burn pits and other contaminants while serving overseas, including making it easier for vets to prove that they were exposed and pushing to find links between exposure and potentially deadly diseases, administration officials said."
"The Chinese Communist Party has passed a "historical resolution", cementing Xi Jinping's status in political history… The document, a summary of the party's 100-year history, addresses its key achievements and future directions."
"The Kenosha County, Wis., judge presiding over Kyle Rittenhouse’s murder trial clashed with the lead prosecutor several times during the teenager’s cross-examination on Wednesday, while defense attorneys requested a mistrial alleging prosecutorial misconduct."
"Investigators are asking Uber for records as they investigate the theft of more than $700,000 from an 82-year-old Florida woman who apparently fell for a 'grandparent scam.'"
"Prosecutors have brought some of the most serious charges stemming from the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol against alleged members of the Oath Keepers, a far-right group that targets law enforcement and military veterans for recruitment. More than 20 suspected members of the Oath Keepers have been arrested, and some are facing charges of conspiracy. Now, an examination of hacked records - purportedly taken from Oath Keeper web servers - shows more defendants may have ties to the group than has been previously known."
"The days are getting shorter and the months are getting colder, which means some are already bracing for an unwelcome holiday hindrance: seasonal depression."
"Richard Kronick, a former federal health policy researcher and a professor at the University of California-San Diego, says his analysis of newly released Medicare Advantage billing data estimates that Medicare overpaid the private health plans by more than $106 billion from 2010 through 2019 because of the way the private plans charge for sicker patients." Privatizing government functions costs us more? You don't say.
"More than 22 million infants across the globe didn't get their first measles vaccine dose last year, according to a joint statement Wednesday from the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."
"Scientists have evidence that SARS-CoV-2 spreads explosively in white-tailed deer, and the virus is widespread in this deer population across the U.S… Researchers say the findings are quite concerning and could have vast implications for the long-term course of the global pandemic."
"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced a recall of about 2 million at-home COVID-19 test kits made by the Australian-based biotech company Ellume… The federal regulatory agency says the test kits may produce 'false positives' due to a manufacturing defect. The company first informed the FDA about the defect in some lots in October."
"A federal judge has ordered a halt to Texas' efforts to ban mask mandates in state schools… U.S. District Court Judge Lee Yeakel ruled in Austin that the ban ordered by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott violated a federal law protecting disabled students' access to public education." It's like watching a tennis match.
"When a U.S. Supreme Court decision struck down a federal eviction moratorium many experts and housing advocates feared a tsunami of evictions would quickly follow. That isn't quite happening, but eviction filings are rising sharply in many parts of the country."
"But the strategy was terrible for the oil industry's bottom line. Drillers repeatedly oversupplied the market, careening debt-riddled companies from one price crash to another. The oil-and-gas sector was easily the stock market's biggest loser in the 2010s… Today, the world is completely different. Gasoline prices have surged to seven-year highs and Wall Street banks are warning that $100 or even $120 oil is on its way. Yet US oil companies are in no rush to come to the rescue, leaving the White House facing pressure from its own party to intervene in energy markets."
"Yet as any American who has bought a carton of milk, a gallon of gas or a used car could tell you, inflation has settled in. And economists are now voicing a more discouraging message: Higher prices will likely last well into next year, if not beyond."
"Oil and gas regulators at the Railroad Commission of Texas cleared the way on Wednesday for $3.4 billion to be paid to natural gas companies by raising bills for ratepayers… The $3.4 billion is part of the debt that gas utilities unexpectedly owed suppliers after gas prices skyrocketed during February's winter storm and blackout. The cost may be included on Texans’ gas bills for up to the next 30 years."
"If you want to honor veterans, then don’t call them heroes. That’s the easy way out… If you want to honor veterans, then live up to the ideals they fought to defend." I've told this story many times. I met a nice Lt Colonel who was a foremost expert on nuclear weapons. He could recite from memory, and quickly do the math, for a number of scenarios regarding "nuclear exchanges" (the nice way of saying we bombed each other with some of the most terrible weapons ever constructed). He could tell you the most probably outcomes of dropping a number of warheads in the various theaters of battle, both the immediate destruction, the long term effects, and the most likely response. After his lecture I asked him how he could stand to fill his head with such things. He told me he had kids, and he wanted to make sure they never had to think about these things. He is also why I will tell you with certainty there is no such thing as a "limited" nuclear exchange and the only way to "win" is to launch everything at once, which will ensure the end of human civilization in some thirty minutes. By now his kids are in the middle of their careers and he, most likely, is retired somewhere. I wonder if anyone else has his job.
"The Biden administration will announce a series of actions Thursday to help veterans who were exposed to burn pits and other contaminants while serving overseas, including making it easier for vets to prove that they were exposed and pushing to find links between exposure and potentially deadly diseases, administration officials said."
"The Chinese Communist Party has passed a "historical resolution", cementing Xi Jinping's status in political history… The document, a summary of the party's 100-year history, addresses its key achievements and future directions."
"The Kenosha County, Wis., judge presiding over Kyle Rittenhouse’s murder trial clashed with the lead prosecutor several times during the teenager’s cross-examination on Wednesday, while defense attorneys requested a mistrial alleging prosecutorial misconduct."
"Investigators are asking Uber for records as they investigate the theft of more than $700,000 from an 82-year-old Florida woman who apparently fell for a 'grandparent scam.'"
"Prosecutors have brought some of the most serious charges stemming from the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol against alleged members of the Oath Keepers, a far-right group that targets law enforcement and military veterans for recruitment. More than 20 suspected members of the Oath Keepers have been arrested, and some are facing charges of conspiracy. Now, an examination of hacked records - purportedly taken from Oath Keeper web servers - shows more defendants may have ties to the group than has been previously known."
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
Linkee-poo Wednesday Oct 10
Dean Stockwell, and so it goes.
"Governments are poised to express 'alarm and concern' about how much Earth has already warmed and encourage one another to end their use of coal, according to a draft released Wednesday of the final document expected at U.N. climate talks." And they're very, very concerned.
"With many glaciers rapidly melting because of climate change, the disappearance of the ice sheets is sure to deal a blow to countries and communities that have relied on them for generations — to make electricity, to draw visitors and to uphold ancient spiritual traditions."
"People who trust Fox News Channel and other media outlets that appeal to conservatives are more likely to believe falsehoods about COVID-19 and vaccines than those who primarily go elsewhere for news, a study has found." I can't even pretend to be shocked about that.
"Inflation across a broad swath of products that consumers buy every day was even worse than expected in October, hitting its highest point in more than 30 years, the Labor Department reported Wednesday… The consumer price index, which is a basket of products ranging from gasoline and health care to groceries and rents, rose 6.2% from a year ago, the most since December 1990. That compared with the 5.9% Dow Jones estimate." Oh noes!
"Much of the upward pressure on prices is the result of a mismatch between booming demand and limited supply, as businesses struggle to find both parts and workers… Many employers have increased pay in order to attract more workers. But growing paychecks have quickly been eroded by the rising cost of gas and groceries."
"United Airlines is dropping 11 small US cities from its network as regional routes continue to feel the effects of the pandemic." And prices will continue to go up for those small markets.
"The U.S. government's road safety agency has paid more than $24 million to a whistleblower who reported that Hyundai and Kia moved too slowly to recall over 1 million vehicles with engines that could freeze up or catch fire."
"Congress has created a new requirement for automakers: Find a high-tech way to keep drunken people from driving cars… It's one of the mandates along with a burst of new spending aimed at improving auto safety amid escalating road fatalities in the $1 trillion infrastructure package that President Joe Biden is expected to sign soon." The value of your used car just went up.
"President Joe Biden is set to hold face-to-face talks with his fellow North American leaders next week in Washington, reviving a tradition that had been shelved during the Trump administration." Hey, can we end this stupid trade war with Canada, then?
"Karen Donfried, assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, told The Associated Press that senior Russian officials have been warned of potential consequences for any increased threat to Ukraine’s security from what she called 'unusual military activity near Ukraine.' She would not discuss specific consequences for Russia, but administration officials have in the past said boosting military support for Ukraine is one option."
"This week, Wilmington is marking 123 years since the massacre. In one event over the weekend, a procession and funeral were held at Wilmington's Pine Forest Cemetery to honor Joshua Halsey and Samuel McFarland, two of the few identified victims of the 1898 violence. Halsey's unmarked plot finally received a headstone."
"U.S. food banks already dealing with increased demand from families sidelined by the pandemic now face a new challenge — surging food prices and supply chain issues walloping the nation."
"At least 13 former Trump administration officials violated the law by intermingling campaigning with their official government duties, according to a new federal investigation released Tuesday." Of course nothing will be done about it.
And in the UK… "Conservative MP Sir Geoffrey Cox has said he did not break parliamentary rules by carrying out paid legal work in his House of Commons office… The ex-attorney general, who has made almost £900,000 in the last year as a barrister, apparently took part in a virtual meeting there on 14 September."
"South Dakota’s House launched an investigation Tuesday into whether the state’s attorney general should be impeached for his conduct surrounding a car crash last year that killed a pedestrian."
"President Sebastián Piñera was impeached Tuesday by the lower house of Chile's congress, setting up a trial in the nation's Senate over whether to remove him due to allegations he favored the sale of a family property while in office."
"A federal judge has denied former President Donald Trump's request to block documents from being handed over to a House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol… In a ruling issued Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan said the records, which are held by the National Archives, can be released to the panel overseeing the probe into Jan. 6."
"Governments are poised to express 'alarm and concern' about how much Earth has already warmed and encourage one another to end their use of coal, according to a draft released Wednesday of the final document expected at U.N. climate talks." And they're very, very concerned.
"With many glaciers rapidly melting because of climate change, the disappearance of the ice sheets is sure to deal a blow to countries and communities that have relied on them for generations — to make electricity, to draw visitors and to uphold ancient spiritual traditions."
"People who trust Fox News Channel and other media outlets that appeal to conservatives are more likely to believe falsehoods about COVID-19 and vaccines than those who primarily go elsewhere for news, a study has found." I can't even pretend to be shocked about that.
"Inflation across a broad swath of products that consumers buy every day was even worse than expected in October, hitting its highest point in more than 30 years, the Labor Department reported Wednesday… The consumer price index, which is a basket of products ranging from gasoline and health care to groceries and rents, rose 6.2% from a year ago, the most since December 1990. That compared with the 5.9% Dow Jones estimate." Oh noes!
"Much of the upward pressure on prices is the result of a mismatch between booming demand and limited supply, as businesses struggle to find both parts and workers… Many employers have increased pay in order to attract more workers. But growing paychecks have quickly been eroded by the rising cost of gas and groceries."
"United Airlines is dropping 11 small US cities from its network as regional routes continue to feel the effects of the pandemic." And prices will continue to go up for those small markets.
"The U.S. government's road safety agency has paid more than $24 million to a whistleblower who reported that Hyundai and Kia moved too slowly to recall over 1 million vehicles with engines that could freeze up or catch fire."
"Congress has created a new requirement for automakers: Find a high-tech way to keep drunken people from driving cars… It's one of the mandates along with a burst of new spending aimed at improving auto safety amid escalating road fatalities in the $1 trillion infrastructure package that President Joe Biden is expected to sign soon." The value of your used car just went up.
"President Joe Biden is set to hold face-to-face talks with his fellow North American leaders next week in Washington, reviving a tradition that had been shelved during the Trump administration." Hey, can we end this stupid trade war with Canada, then?
"Karen Donfried, assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, told The Associated Press that senior Russian officials have been warned of potential consequences for any increased threat to Ukraine’s security from what she called 'unusual military activity near Ukraine.' She would not discuss specific consequences for Russia, but administration officials have in the past said boosting military support for Ukraine is one option."
"This week, Wilmington is marking 123 years since the massacre. In one event over the weekend, a procession and funeral were held at Wilmington's Pine Forest Cemetery to honor Joshua Halsey and Samuel McFarland, two of the few identified victims of the 1898 violence. Halsey's unmarked plot finally received a headstone."
"U.S. food banks already dealing with increased demand from families sidelined by the pandemic now face a new challenge — surging food prices and supply chain issues walloping the nation."
"At least 13 former Trump administration officials violated the law by intermingling campaigning with their official government duties, according to a new federal investigation released Tuesday." Of course nothing will be done about it.
And in the UK… "Conservative MP Sir Geoffrey Cox has said he did not break parliamentary rules by carrying out paid legal work in his House of Commons office… The ex-attorney general, who has made almost £900,000 in the last year as a barrister, apparently took part in a virtual meeting there on 14 September."
"South Dakota’s House launched an investigation Tuesday into whether the state’s attorney general should be impeached for his conduct surrounding a car crash last year that killed a pedestrian."
"President Sebastián Piñera was impeached Tuesday by the lower house of Chile's congress, setting up a trial in the nation's Senate over whether to remove him due to allegations he favored the sale of a family property while in office."
"A federal judge has denied former President Donald Trump's request to block documents from being handed over to a House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol… In a ruling issued Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan said the records, which are held by the National Archives, can be released to the panel overseeing the probe into Jan. 6."
Tuesday, November 9, 2021
Linkee-poo extra late edition Tues Nov 9
Second post today.
Remember when I said 1.5C is a pipe dream? "The world is on track for 2.4 degrees Celsius of warming above pre-industrial levels, if not more, according to a new analysis -- despite countries' new and updated climate pledges, including those made at the COP26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland." That's why.
"The concern among health officials like Fauci is that winter holidays and cold weather will soon bring about more travel and indoor gatherings — where a respiratory virus will transmit more easily… So at this stage of the pandemic, what is the goal? Fauci offered a qualitative assessment."
"In traditional prescription drug cases, these are all markers of trouble. But — as Njoku's lawyers argued and two judges later agreed — they can also reflect the difficulty of getting addiction treatment, which is sometimes more challenging than obtaining illicit drugs."
"Big Bird ruffled some conservatives' feathers this weekend by announcing that he had been vaccinated against COVID-19… The beloved Muppet tweeted on Saturday that he had gotten the shot, which is newly available for Americans between the ages of 5 and 11. Big Bird has been a fixture of children's television since 1969 but is officially 6 years old." You know, when you go to war with Big Bird your party has officially jumped the shark.
"Singapore will no longer cover the medical costs of COVID-19 patients who are eligible to get vaccinated against the virus but choose not to, the country’s Health Ministry says."
There was this meme on twitter about "how soon is too soon to teach about race." "A new study suggests that people who face discrimination at a young age are more likely to develop behavioral and mental health problems later in life… And the risks may be cumulative; those who faced more incidents of discrimination had an even higher risk of future problems, researchers found." It's never too soon to teach people to be tolerant.
"October’s producer price index, which is one measure of inflation that measures what companies get for the goods they produce, rose 0.6% from September, in line with Dow Jones estimates and an indicator that inflation pressures are continuing to pressure the U.S. economy… Stripping out food, trade and energy prices, the index increased 0.4% month over month, slightly below the 0.5% estimate but an elevated pace from September’s 0.1% gain. On a year-over-year basis, core producer prices increased 6.2%."
"The Justice Department says authorities have indicted two men in connection with a wave of ransomware attacks that, among other targets, shut down a meat processing company and an internet software provider earlier this year… Attorney General Merrick Garland says one of the men, Yaroslav Vasinskyi, 22, a Ukrainian, was arrested when he traveled to Poland. The second man was identified as Yevgeniy Polyanin, a 28-year-old Russian. Garland says the U.S. seized some $6.1 million from Polyanin."
"The storied American company General Electric will divide itself into three public companies focused on aviation, healthcare and energy… The company, founded in 1892, has refashioned itself in recent years from the sprawling conglomerate created by Jack Welch in the 1980s to a much smaller and focused entity. It was heavily damaged by the financial crisis." No, it was heavily damaged by Jack Welch. It just took longer for the fractures he created to appear. And if you ask those who retired in the 90s and 2000s about it, many of whom were solely invested in GE stock, they will tell you the same story.
How the uber rich do it… "Credit, mostly. Musk and other uber-wealthy folks borrow substantially from banks, using their stock or other assets as collateral… In August, a Tesla filing revealed that some 88 million of Musk's Tesla shares have been pledged as collateral "to secure certain personal indebtedness." At the time, those shares were worth $63 billion."
"President Biden welcomed the reigning NBA champions, the Milwaukee Bucks, to the White House on Monday, making them the first NBA champions to visit since 2016." What happened in 2016 (he bats his eyes innocently)?
"A memorial site dedicated to the victims of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, was set on fire and damaged, launching an investigation… The onePULSE Foundation, which honors the 49 lives lost in the shooting and runs the memorial site, shared surveillance footage on Saturday showing an individual in a wheelchair light a fire on one of the memorial walls on Oct. 12 around 8:30 p.m. ET."
"A woman who was pushed out of the way as a car slammed into counterprotesters at a 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville described a scene of "complete terror" as she testified Monday to seeing her fiancé bleeding on the sidewalk and later learning a friend was killed… Marissa Blair took the stand in the third week of a civil trial in a lawsuit that seeks to hold the white national organizers of the Unite the Right rally accountable for the violence that erupted." Just a reminder that Jan 6 was a continuation of right-wing paranoia and violence.
"Former President Donald Trump's latest procedural attempt to keep secret documents from his presidency about the January 6 insurrection quickly failed overnight… Trump late on Monday night had asked Judge Tanya Chutkan of the DC District Court to block the records from being handed over to the House Select Committee investigating January 6 while he continues to fight in court."
"The Democratic-led House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has issued a new round of subpoenas to several ex-Trump administration officials and allies, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn and attorney John Eastman, who wrote a memo outlining ways former Vice President Mike Pence could reject Joe Biden's electoral count victory."
"A US man who faces criminal charges for participating in the 6 January riot at the US Capitol is seeking asylum in Belarus, the country’s state TV has reported in a development likely to heighten tensions between the turbulent ex-Soviet nation and the United States."
Remember when I said 1.5C is a pipe dream? "The world is on track for 2.4 degrees Celsius of warming above pre-industrial levels, if not more, according to a new analysis -- despite countries' new and updated climate pledges, including those made at the COP26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland." That's why.
"The concern among health officials like Fauci is that winter holidays and cold weather will soon bring about more travel and indoor gatherings — where a respiratory virus will transmit more easily… So at this stage of the pandemic, what is the goal? Fauci offered a qualitative assessment."
"In traditional prescription drug cases, these are all markers of trouble. But — as Njoku's lawyers argued and two judges later agreed — they can also reflect the difficulty of getting addiction treatment, which is sometimes more challenging than obtaining illicit drugs."
"Big Bird ruffled some conservatives' feathers this weekend by announcing that he had been vaccinated against COVID-19… The beloved Muppet tweeted on Saturday that he had gotten the shot, which is newly available for Americans between the ages of 5 and 11. Big Bird has been a fixture of children's television since 1969 but is officially 6 years old." You know, when you go to war with Big Bird your party has officially jumped the shark.
"Singapore will no longer cover the medical costs of COVID-19 patients who are eligible to get vaccinated against the virus but choose not to, the country’s Health Ministry says."
There was this meme on twitter about "how soon is too soon to teach about race." "A new study suggests that people who face discrimination at a young age are more likely to develop behavioral and mental health problems later in life… And the risks may be cumulative; those who faced more incidents of discrimination had an even higher risk of future problems, researchers found." It's never too soon to teach people to be tolerant.
"October’s producer price index, which is one measure of inflation that measures what companies get for the goods they produce, rose 0.6% from September, in line with Dow Jones estimates and an indicator that inflation pressures are continuing to pressure the U.S. economy… Stripping out food, trade and energy prices, the index increased 0.4% month over month, slightly below the 0.5% estimate but an elevated pace from September’s 0.1% gain. On a year-over-year basis, core producer prices increased 6.2%."
"The Justice Department says authorities have indicted two men in connection with a wave of ransomware attacks that, among other targets, shut down a meat processing company and an internet software provider earlier this year… Attorney General Merrick Garland says one of the men, Yaroslav Vasinskyi, 22, a Ukrainian, was arrested when he traveled to Poland. The second man was identified as Yevgeniy Polyanin, a 28-year-old Russian. Garland says the U.S. seized some $6.1 million from Polyanin."
"The storied American company General Electric will divide itself into three public companies focused on aviation, healthcare and energy… The company, founded in 1892, has refashioned itself in recent years from the sprawling conglomerate created by Jack Welch in the 1980s to a much smaller and focused entity. It was heavily damaged by the financial crisis." No, it was heavily damaged by Jack Welch. It just took longer for the fractures he created to appear. And if you ask those who retired in the 90s and 2000s about it, many of whom were solely invested in GE stock, they will tell you the same story.
How the uber rich do it… "Credit, mostly. Musk and other uber-wealthy folks borrow substantially from banks, using their stock or other assets as collateral… In August, a Tesla filing revealed that some 88 million of Musk's Tesla shares have been pledged as collateral "to secure certain personal indebtedness." At the time, those shares were worth $63 billion."
"President Biden welcomed the reigning NBA champions, the Milwaukee Bucks, to the White House on Monday, making them the first NBA champions to visit since 2016." What happened in 2016 (he bats his eyes innocently)?
"A memorial site dedicated to the victims of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, was set on fire and damaged, launching an investigation… The onePULSE Foundation, which honors the 49 lives lost in the shooting and runs the memorial site, shared surveillance footage on Saturday showing an individual in a wheelchair light a fire on one of the memorial walls on Oct. 12 around 8:30 p.m. ET."
"A woman who was pushed out of the way as a car slammed into counterprotesters at a 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville described a scene of "complete terror" as she testified Monday to seeing her fiancé bleeding on the sidewalk and later learning a friend was killed… Marissa Blair took the stand in the third week of a civil trial in a lawsuit that seeks to hold the white national organizers of the Unite the Right rally accountable for the violence that erupted." Just a reminder that Jan 6 was a continuation of right-wing paranoia and violence.
"Former President Donald Trump's latest procedural attempt to keep secret documents from his presidency about the January 6 insurrection quickly failed overnight… Trump late on Monday night had asked Judge Tanya Chutkan of the DC District Court to block the records from being handed over to the House Select Committee investigating January 6 while he continues to fight in court."
"The Democratic-led House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has issued a new round of subpoenas to several ex-Trump administration officials and allies, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn and attorney John Eastman, who wrote a memo outlining ways former Vice President Mike Pence could reject Joe Biden's electoral count victory."
"A US man who faces criminal charges for participating in the 6 January riot at the US Capitol is seeking asylum in Belarus, the country’s state TV has reported in a development likely to heighten tensions between the turbulent ex-Soviet nation and the United States."
Linkee-poo Tuesday Nov 9
Craxzy day, so a shortened post.
"'The precision required to get the Great Red Spot's gravity during the July 2019 flyby is staggering,' says Parisi. The findings from the gravity observations complemented Bolton's earlier microwave measures, concluding the storm penetrates some 300 miles into Jupiter's atmosphere."
"Political appointees in the Trump administration relied on faulty science to justify stripping habitat protections for the imperiled northern spotted owl, U.S. wildlife officials said Tuesday as they struck down a rule that would have opened millions of acres of forest in Oregon, Washington and California to potential logging." You don't say.
"A federal court in Texas has handed United Airlines a win, for now… A group of United employees sued the airline over its policy that puts unvaccinated workers on unpaid leave if they have been granted religious or medical exemptions to its vaccine mandate. The employees claimed it would cause them irreparable harm."
"Philadelphia councilmember Isaiah Thomas remembers when he was pulled over by police while his young son was in the car — for what he says was an unjustifiable reason… That memory is part of why he drafted new legislation to ban police officers from pulling drivers over for minor traffic violations. He says the law is rooted in his duty to his constituents in Philadelphia — but also in his personal experiences as a Black man."
"Police at three elite Ivy League universities in New York and Rhode Island gave the all clear and said activities could resume normally at the schools on Sunday after each received separate bomb threats."
After Columbine, the NRA held a strategy meeting. "The tapes of the NRA discussions were recorded secretly by a participant and shared on the condition that the participant's name not be divulged. NPR has taken steps to verify the tapes' authenticity, including by confirming the identities of those speaking on the tapes with two sources and comparing the voices on the calls with publicly available audio."
Remember the argument around intimated gun violence perpetrated by the Republicans against their Democratic opponents in the late 2000s and early 2010s? How is was dismissed of "oh, that's not what they're really saying." Rep. Gosar just said, "Hold my beer." "More than half a dozen House Democrats, one House Republican and scores of critics have condemned and called for action against Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) Monday after he posted a doctored anime video that depicts him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)… Gosar tweeted an edited version of the opening credits of the Japanese anime series “Attack on Titan” showing himself as the main character who then slashes the neck of a foe with Ocasio-Cortez’s face. He also swings his swords at an enemy with President Joe Biden’s face superimposed on it." Well, the ball is in your court now, Kevin McCarthy. Your actions and how you deal with this will determine the road forward from conservatism. And yes, I fully expect you to cave and do nothing instead of being a leader.
"'The precision required to get the Great Red Spot's gravity during the July 2019 flyby is staggering,' says Parisi. The findings from the gravity observations complemented Bolton's earlier microwave measures, concluding the storm penetrates some 300 miles into Jupiter's atmosphere."
"Political appointees in the Trump administration relied on faulty science to justify stripping habitat protections for the imperiled northern spotted owl, U.S. wildlife officials said Tuesday as they struck down a rule that would have opened millions of acres of forest in Oregon, Washington and California to potential logging." You don't say.
"A federal court in Texas has handed United Airlines a win, for now… A group of United employees sued the airline over its policy that puts unvaccinated workers on unpaid leave if they have been granted religious or medical exemptions to its vaccine mandate. The employees claimed it would cause them irreparable harm."
"Philadelphia councilmember Isaiah Thomas remembers when he was pulled over by police while his young son was in the car — for what he says was an unjustifiable reason… That memory is part of why he drafted new legislation to ban police officers from pulling drivers over for minor traffic violations. He says the law is rooted in his duty to his constituents in Philadelphia — but also in his personal experiences as a Black man."
"Police at three elite Ivy League universities in New York and Rhode Island gave the all clear and said activities could resume normally at the schools on Sunday after each received separate bomb threats."
After Columbine, the NRA held a strategy meeting. "The tapes of the NRA discussions were recorded secretly by a participant and shared on the condition that the participant's name not be divulged. NPR has taken steps to verify the tapes' authenticity, including by confirming the identities of those speaking on the tapes with two sources and comparing the voices on the calls with publicly available audio."
Remember the argument around intimated gun violence perpetrated by the Republicans against their Democratic opponents in the late 2000s and early 2010s? How is was dismissed of "oh, that's not what they're really saying." Rep. Gosar just said, "Hold my beer." "More than half a dozen House Democrats, one House Republican and scores of critics have condemned and called for action against Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) Monday after he posted a doctored anime video that depicts him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)… Gosar tweeted an edited version of the opening credits of the Japanese anime series “Attack on Titan” showing himself as the main character who then slashes the neck of a foe with Ocasio-Cortez’s face. He also swings his swords at an enemy with President Joe Biden’s face superimposed on it." Well, the ball is in your court now, Kevin McCarthy. Your actions and how you deal with this will determine the road forward from conservatism. And yes, I fully expect you to cave and do nothing instead of being a leader.
Monday, November 8, 2021
Linkee-poo Monday Nov 8
"The 2021 World Fantasy Awards Winners."
"Archaeologists have uncovered a room at a villa just outside Pompeii containing beds and other objects that shed light on the living conditions of slaves in the ancient Roman city buried by a volcanic eruption… The room, in an excellent state of preservation, contains three wooden beds and a series of other objects including amphorae, ceramic pitchers and a chamber pot."
"There was so little water this year that farmers who use water from the Dolores River to irrigate their fields got a fraction of what they usually get. Those farmers are forced to gamble on a future that's becoming less and less likely to predict."
"That's the global climate change goal world leaders agreed to strive for. By limiting the planet's warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, by 2100, the hope is to stave off severe climate disruptions that could exacerbate hunger, conflict and drought worldwide." That's pretty much a pipe dream now.
"And no wonder nurses are walking away from a profession they loved. As we show up time and again to fight against all odds to save lives, we are frustrated by those who have rejected clear data-driven guidance in this preventable fourth wave of the pandemic. Day after day, we lose patients who didn’t have to die. More than 90 percent of people hospitalized for COVID are not vaccinated. Those unnecessary losses take an indescribable emotional toll on nurses. And our grief is compounded by abuse. Once, we were honored as heroes. Now, we are mistrusted, insulted and even attacked. We have been pushed beyond the brink. This cannot continue." Now ask about how they feel about hospital administration and management competency. Go on. I dare you.
"A federal appeals court on Saturday temporarily halted the Biden administration's vaccine requirement for businesses with 100 or more workers… The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted an emergency stay of the requirement by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration that those workers be vaccinated by Jan. 4 or face mask requirements and weekly tests."
"'Sesame Street' puppet Big Bird announced his coronavirus vaccination on Twitter – and drew fire from conservatives such as Ted Cruz, who dismissed the vaccine pitch as 'government propaganda.'" Conservatives are now at war with Sesame Street.
"It's highly unlikely that the United States, let alone the world, will be able to completely eliminate the coronavirus that causes Covid-19… But there will come a day when it's no longer a pandemic, when cases are no longer out of control and hospitals aren't at great risk of overflowing with patients. Many experts predict the spread of coronavirus will look and feel more like seasonal influenza."
"The U.S. lifted restrictions Monday on travel from a long list of countries including Mexico, Canada and most of Europe, allowing tourists to make long-delayed trips and family members to reconnect with loved ones after more than a year and a half apart because of the pandemic."
"'It's all very curious, like, huh, you know, when this particular option went away and your profits went up nearly 80% from the more expensive drug,' he says… Then, in September, Endo told the FDA it stopped making Vantas for good… When Endo investigated its Vantas manufacturing problem, it wasn't able to find 'a suitable corrective action that resolves the issue,' Zoumas Lubeski says." Funny how a lot of these cheaper (and sometimes more effecting) pharmaceutical alternatives have suddenly become unavailable in the past 2 decades.
"A Polish hospital has said that doctors and midwives did everything they could to save the lives of a pregnant woman and her foetus in a case that has put the spotlight on the country’s new stricter abortion law… The 30-year-old woman died of septic shock in her 22nd week of pregnancy. Doctors did not perform an abortion, even though her foetus was lacking amniotic fluid, according to a lawyer for the family." The cost of the anti-abortion movement. (Grokked from Tania)
"Staff shortages have long been a challenge for prison agencies, given the low pay and grueling nature of the work. But the coronavirus pandemic — and its impact on the labor market — has pushed many corrections systems into crisis. Officers are retiring and quitting in droves, while officials struggle to recruit new employees. And some prisons whose prisioner populations dropped during the pandemic have seen their numbers rise again, exacerbating the problem." And they focus on the fears of contracting COVID from a mostly unvaccinated population, and the vaccine mandate in the very next paragraph.
"Houston's Astroworld Festival is now considered one of the deadliest concerts in U.S. history… Eight people are dead and many more injured after the crowd surged as the festival's headliner, Travis Scott, performed Friday night. Scott launched his Astroworld Festival in 2018."
"Polish authorities accused Belarus of trying to spark a major confrontation on Monday as footage on social media showed hundreds of migrants walking towards the Polish border."
"The failed assassination attempt against Iraq’s prime minister at his residence on Sunday has ratcheted up tensions following last month’s parliamentary elections, in which the Iran-backed militias were the biggest losers."
"The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments Monday in a case involving an FBI undercover operation at a mosque in California. Area Muslims are suing the FBI over a nearly year-long surveillance program that, at least publicly, yielded no results and proved a huge embarrassment to the bureau."
"A teenager who went missing in the US has been found after she used hand signals that went viral on TikTok to show she was in danger… The girl had been reported missing by her parents in North Carolina on Tuesday morning, and was spotted inside a car in Kentucky two days later."
"But by Saturday morning, Biden could not contain his ebullience, celebrating a major legislative victory: a long-stalled $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill had passed with bipartisan support." It's infrastructure week everyone!
"Voting rights advocates are urgently warning that the absence of federal voting rights protections is having a devastating impact on representation for communities of color, erasing decades of hard-fought gains for once-disenfranchised groups and preventing fast-changing demographics from leading to a shift in political power, particularly in the South."
"Archaeologists have uncovered a room at a villa just outside Pompeii containing beds and other objects that shed light on the living conditions of slaves in the ancient Roman city buried by a volcanic eruption… The room, in an excellent state of preservation, contains three wooden beds and a series of other objects including amphorae, ceramic pitchers and a chamber pot."
"There was so little water this year that farmers who use water from the Dolores River to irrigate their fields got a fraction of what they usually get. Those farmers are forced to gamble on a future that's becoming less and less likely to predict."
"That's the global climate change goal world leaders agreed to strive for. By limiting the planet's warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, by 2100, the hope is to stave off severe climate disruptions that could exacerbate hunger, conflict and drought worldwide." That's pretty much a pipe dream now.
"And no wonder nurses are walking away from a profession they loved. As we show up time and again to fight against all odds to save lives, we are frustrated by those who have rejected clear data-driven guidance in this preventable fourth wave of the pandemic. Day after day, we lose patients who didn’t have to die. More than 90 percent of people hospitalized for COVID are not vaccinated. Those unnecessary losses take an indescribable emotional toll on nurses. And our grief is compounded by abuse. Once, we were honored as heroes. Now, we are mistrusted, insulted and even attacked. We have been pushed beyond the brink. This cannot continue." Now ask about how they feel about hospital administration and management competency. Go on. I dare you.
"A federal appeals court on Saturday temporarily halted the Biden administration's vaccine requirement for businesses with 100 or more workers… The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted an emergency stay of the requirement by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration that those workers be vaccinated by Jan. 4 or face mask requirements and weekly tests."
"'Sesame Street' puppet Big Bird announced his coronavirus vaccination on Twitter – and drew fire from conservatives such as Ted Cruz, who dismissed the vaccine pitch as 'government propaganda.'" Conservatives are now at war with Sesame Street.
"It's highly unlikely that the United States, let alone the world, will be able to completely eliminate the coronavirus that causes Covid-19… But there will come a day when it's no longer a pandemic, when cases are no longer out of control and hospitals aren't at great risk of overflowing with patients. Many experts predict the spread of coronavirus will look and feel more like seasonal influenza."
"The U.S. lifted restrictions Monday on travel from a long list of countries including Mexico, Canada and most of Europe, allowing tourists to make long-delayed trips and family members to reconnect with loved ones after more than a year and a half apart because of the pandemic."
"'It's all very curious, like, huh, you know, when this particular option went away and your profits went up nearly 80% from the more expensive drug,' he says… Then, in September, Endo told the FDA it stopped making Vantas for good… When Endo investigated its Vantas manufacturing problem, it wasn't able to find 'a suitable corrective action that resolves the issue,' Zoumas Lubeski says." Funny how a lot of these cheaper (and sometimes more effecting) pharmaceutical alternatives have suddenly become unavailable in the past 2 decades.
"A Polish hospital has said that doctors and midwives did everything they could to save the lives of a pregnant woman and her foetus in a case that has put the spotlight on the country’s new stricter abortion law… The 30-year-old woman died of septic shock in her 22nd week of pregnancy. Doctors did not perform an abortion, even though her foetus was lacking amniotic fluid, according to a lawyer for the family." The cost of the anti-abortion movement. (Grokked from Tania)
"Staff shortages have long been a challenge for prison agencies, given the low pay and grueling nature of the work. But the coronavirus pandemic — and its impact on the labor market — has pushed many corrections systems into crisis. Officers are retiring and quitting in droves, while officials struggle to recruit new employees. And some prisons whose prisioner populations dropped during the pandemic have seen their numbers rise again, exacerbating the problem." And they focus on the fears of contracting COVID from a mostly unvaccinated population, and the vaccine mandate in the very next paragraph.
"Houston's Astroworld Festival is now considered one of the deadliest concerts in U.S. history… Eight people are dead and many more injured after the crowd surged as the festival's headliner, Travis Scott, performed Friday night. Scott launched his Astroworld Festival in 2018."
"Polish authorities accused Belarus of trying to spark a major confrontation on Monday as footage on social media showed hundreds of migrants walking towards the Polish border."
"The failed assassination attempt against Iraq’s prime minister at his residence on Sunday has ratcheted up tensions following last month’s parliamentary elections, in which the Iran-backed militias were the biggest losers."
"The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments Monday in a case involving an FBI undercover operation at a mosque in California. Area Muslims are suing the FBI over a nearly year-long surveillance program that, at least publicly, yielded no results and proved a huge embarrassment to the bureau."
"A teenager who went missing in the US has been found after she used hand signals that went viral on TikTok to show she was in danger… The girl had been reported missing by her parents in North Carolina on Tuesday morning, and was spotted inside a car in Kentucky two days later."
"But by Saturday morning, Biden could not contain his ebullience, celebrating a major legislative victory: a long-stalled $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill had passed with bipartisan support." It's infrastructure week everyone!
"Voting rights advocates are urgently warning that the absence of federal voting rights protections is having a devastating impact on representation for communities of color, erasing decades of hard-fought gains for once-disenfranchised groups and preventing fast-changing demographics from leading to a shift in political power, particularly in the South."
Friday, November 5, 2021
Linkee-poo Friday Nov 5
"The number of people getting COVID-19 vaccine boosters in the U.S. is now far outpacing the number getting their first shots, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." That's because more people are vaccinated than are not, and those who have already gone through the vaccination two-step more than six months ago are people who know it can protect us.
"British scientists have identified a version of a gene that may be associated with double the risk of lung failure from COVID-19, a finding that provides new insights into why some people are more susceptible than othersto severe illness and which opens possibilities for targeted medicine."
"For many weeks, declining cases and hospitalizations have offered hope ahead of the holiday season, when Americans travel and spend more time indoors, but progress has stalled recently, with cases rising or plateauing in more than 20 states."
"As the Delta variant became the dominant strain of coronavirus across the United States, all three COVID-19 vaccines available to Americans lost some of their protective power, with vaccine efficacy among a large group of veterans dropping between 35% and 85%, according to a new study."
"By combining five different datasets and applying them to the same mathematical model, the researchers observed that the mechanism controlling the rate of progression in Alzheimer’s disease is the replication of aggregates in individual regions of the brain, and not the spread of aggregates from one region to another."
"There are a lot of reasons why we may have to get up early. Maybe it's for work, maybe to get your kids ready for school or take care of a family member. Maybe you just want some time to work on your hobby or take care of errands before a busy day… But if you're not naturally a morning person, how much room do you have to change your wake-up schedule?" This article reads like it was written by a morning person. Also, random quote from the workplace, "Oh honey, melatonin is for beginners."
"A strong rebound in job growth in October is raising hopes that a long-awaited recovery in the labor market is underway. But millions of workers still remain on the sidelines — and the economy needs them back… The Labor Department reported Friday that U.S. employers added 531,000 jobs last month. Job gains for August and September were also revised upward. The unemployment rate fell to 4.6%." I wonder when economists and their statisticians will realize that the Boomer generation is retiring and for the first time the "employable age" population is shrinking?
"The U.S. Department of Education says it will reach out to federal student loan borrowers who may have been prematurely denied loan forgiveness under the revamped Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program and will reprocess their applications… The move comes after an NPR review of borrower documents, as well as information provided by people familiar with the rollout, revealed that FedLoan Servicing, which manages PSLF, continued to operate under the loan forgiveness program's old rules for weeks after the overhaul's Oct. 6 rollout. As a result, for at least three weeks, the servicer rejected the applications of some borrowers who appear to qualify for forgiveness under the new terms."
"The Federal Aviation Administration says it has referred 37 cases since August involving unruly airline passengers to the FBI for possible criminal prosecution since the number of disruptions on flights began to spike in January… FAA and Justice Department officials said Thursday that in the last three months they developed a process for the FAA to regularly send cases to the FBI, which forwards those worthy of prosecution to field offices for investigation."
"After summonses went out to 1,000 people and attorneys questioned potential jurors for more than two weeks, a panel has finally been selected in the trial of the three men facing murder charges for the killing of Ahmaud Arbery… But the racial makeup of the jury has been stirring controversy since it was finalized on Wednesday: Only one juror is Black, while the other 11 are white."
"Civil rights groups on Thursday filed a lawsuit against a Tennessee law that restricts transgender students’ participation in sports, arguing that the law is discriminatory and unconstitutional."
"After a North Carolina high school student reported that a classmate had sexually assaulted her, the school suspended her—and is requiring her to attend a class called 'Sexual Harassment is Preventable,' according to a local news report from WBTV." The fuck?
"The Navy said Thursday it fired the two senior officers of a nuclear-powered attack submarine that was damaged in an underwater collision last month in the South China Sea. A sailor who served as a senior enlisted adviser to the commander and the executive officer was also removed from his position."
"Two 16-year-old high school students have been arrested and charged with murdering a Spanish teacher at their school, authorities said Thursday. Nohema Graber had been reported missing several hours before her body was discovered in a nearby park."
"Leaked records purportedly from a far-right organization suggest that its effort to recruit law enforcement officers has found some success in America's largest cities. Investigations by NPR and WNYC/Gothamist show active officers in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago on the Oath Keepers membership roster, with Chicago showing the greatest representation of the three."
It's a cult. "On Tuesday morning, hundreds of QAnon followers gathered on the grassy knoll in Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, believing they were about to see John F. Kennedy reappear… But for many, the cost and effort it took to get to Dallas were not wasted, because even though they didn’t see JFK, many of them did get to meet the man they view as the manifestation of God on earth." But the best line in this story… "When JFK failed to materialize in Dealey Plaza on Tuesday, Protzman and many of his followers went to a Rolling Stones concert, where many claimed they met Michael Jackson in disguise." (Grokked from Xeni)
"The chief law enforcement officials for Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio are challenging the Biden administration's mandate requiring that federal contractors get the COVID-19 vaccine… The Republican attorneys general in these three states said they filed their lawsuit against the federal government Thursday — just hours after the White House rolled out new rules covering more than 100 million workers in the U.S." In the politics section because this is pure politics. These attorneys general are wasting the public's money.
"The Biden administration is suing Texas over the state's restrictive voting law that was signed into law in September and is set to got into effect Dec. 2… The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in a federal court Thursday claiming that the Republican-led law contains several provisions that 'will disenfranchise eligible Texas citizens who seek to exercise their right to vote.'"
"A real estate agent from suburban Dallas who flaunted her participation in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol on social media and later bragged she wasn't going to jail because she is white, has blond hair and a good job was sentenced on Thursday to two months behind bars."
"British scientists have identified a version of a gene that may be associated with double the risk of lung failure from COVID-19, a finding that provides new insights into why some people are more susceptible than othersto severe illness and which opens possibilities for targeted medicine."
"For many weeks, declining cases and hospitalizations have offered hope ahead of the holiday season, when Americans travel and spend more time indoors, but progress has stalled recently, with cases rising or plateauing in more than 20 states."
"As the Delta variant became the dominant strain of coronavirus across the United States, all three COVID-19 vaccines available to Americans lost some of their protective power, with vaccine efficacy among a large group of veterans dropping between 35% and 85%, according to a new study."
"By combining five different datasets and applying them to the same mathematical model, the researchers observed that the mechanism controlling the rate of progression in Alzheimer’s disease is the replication of aggregates in individual regions of the brain, and not the spread of aggregates from one region to another."
"There are a lot of reasons why we may have to get up early. Maybe it's for work, maybe to get your kids ready for school or take care of a family member. Maybe you just want some time to work on your hobby or take care of errands before a busy day… But if you're not naturally a morning person, how much room do you have to change your wake-up schedule?" This article reads like it was written by a morning person. Also, random quote from the workplace, "Oh honey, melatonin is for beginners."
"A strong rebound in job growth in October is raising hopes that a long-awaited recovery in the labor market is underway. But millions of workers still remain on the sidelines — and the economy needs them back… The Labor Department reported Friday that U.S. employers added 531,000 jobs last month. Job gains for August and September were also revised upward. The unemployment rate fell to 4.6%." I wonder when economists and their statisticians will realize that the Boomer generation is retiring and for the first time the "employable age" population is shrinking?
"The U.S. Department of Education says it will reach out to federal student loan borrowers who may have been prematurely denied loan forgiveness under the revamped Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program and will reprocess their applications… The move comes after an NPR review of borrower documents, as well as information provided by people familiar with the rollout, revealed that FedLoan Servicing, which manages PSLF, continued to operate under the loan forgiveness program's old rules for weeks after the overhaul's Oct. 6 rollout. As a result, for at least three weeks, the servicer rejected the applications of some borrowers who appear to qualify for forgiveness under the new terms."
"The Federal Aviation Administration says it has referred 37 cases since August involving unruly airline passengers to the FBI for possible criminal prosecution since the number of disruptions on flights began to spike in January… FAA and Justice Department officials said Thursday that in the last three months they developed a process for the FAA to regularly send cases to the FBI, which forwards those worthy of prosecution to field offices for investigation."
"After summonses went out to 1,000 people and attorneys questioned potential jurors for more than two weeks, a panel has finally been selected in the trial of the three men facing murder charges for the killing of Ahmaud Arbery… But the racial makeup of the jury has been stirring controversy since it was finalized on Wednesday: Only one juror is Black, while the other 11 are white."
"Civil rights groups on Thursday filed a lawsuit against a Tennessee law that restricts transgender students’ participation in sports, arguing that the law is discriminatory and unconstitutional."
"After a North Carolina high school student reported that a classmate had sexually assaulted her, the school suspended her—and is requiring her to attend a class called 'Sexual Harassment is Preventable,' according to a local news report from WBTV." The fuck?
"The Navy said Thursday it fired the two senior officers of a nuclear-powered attack submarine that was damaged in an underwater collision last month in the South China Sea. A sailor who served as a senior enlisted adviser to the commander and the executive officer was also removed from his position."
"Two 16-year-old high school students have been arrested and charged with murdering a Spanish teacher at their school, authorities said Thursday. Nohema Graber had been reported missing several hours before her body was discovered in a nearby park."
"Leaked records purportedly from a far-right organization suggest that its effort to recruit law enforcement officers has found some success in America's largest cities. Investigations by NPR and WNYC/Gothamist show active officers in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago on the Oath Keepers membership roster, with Chicago showing the greatest representation of the three."
It's a cult. "On Tuesday morning, hundreds of QAnon followers gathered on the grassy knoll in Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, believing they were about to see John F. Kennedy reappear… But for many, the cost and effort it took to get to Dallas were not wasted, because even though they didn’t see JFK, many of them did get to meet the man they view as the manifestation of God on earth." But the best line in this story… "When JFK failed to materialize in Dealey Plaza on Tuesday, Protzman and many of his followers went to a Rolling Stones concert, where many claimed they met Michael Jackson in disguise." (Grokked from Xeni)
"The chief law enforcement officials for Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio are challenging the Biden administration's mandate requiring that federal contractors get the COVID-19 vaccine… The Republican attorneys general in these three states said they filed their lawsuit against the federal government Thursday — just hours after the White House rolled out new rules covering more than 100 million workers in the U.S." In the politics section because this is pure politics. These attorneys general are wasting the public's money.
"The Biden administration is suing Texas over the state's restrictive voting law that was signed into law in September and is set to got into effect Dec. 2… The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in a federal court Thursday claiming that the Republican-led law contains several provisions that 'will disenfranchise eligible Texas citizens who seek to exercise their right to vote.'"
"A real estate agent from suburban Dallas who flaunted her participation in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol on social media and later bragged she wasn't going to jail because she is white, has blond hair and a good job was sentenced on Thursday to two months behind bars."
Thursday, November 4, 2021
Linkee-poo Thursday Nov 4
Ronnie Wilson, and so it goes.
"Flowers Foods, the maker of Tastykake goods, said the treats could have tiny fragments of metal mesh wire in them." That ain't tasty.
"This year for the first time, the World Trade Center has been lit with a digital mural in celebration of the holiday, organized by the South Asian Engagement Foundation, along with a livestreamed fireworks show on the Hudson River… Also known as the festival of lights, Diwali is part of a five-day celebration that honors Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth."
"The biggest animals to have ever lived on Earth gobble up much more food than scientists thought, according to a new study of filter-feeding whales that reveals just how important their eating habits could be for recycling nutrients in the ocean… Baleen whales such as blue, fin, minke and humpback whales consume, on average, around three times more each year than previous estimates suggested, researchers report in Nature. A blue whale in the eastern North Pacific, for example, might eat between 10 and 20 tons of food a day."
"California condors, a critically endangered species, can reproduce without mating, according to a study by conservation scientists at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance." Even when it doesn't have too, nature finds a way. (Grokked from Dan)
"A new report by the United Nations says that some impacts from climate change are already irreversible, and our efforts to adapt are lagging… Meanwhile, a gap is growing between the amount of money that's available — and what's needed — to protect communities from rising seas, hotter temperatures and worsening storms."
"It was one of the more impassioned speeches of the summit's opening day. But Johnson failed to mention that even as the United Kingdom hosts the U.N. climate summit, it is also considering plans to open a new coal mine, the country's first in decades."
"What are we losing, in terms of our spiritual connection to the land, as the climate rapidly changes?… This is the question Ella Morton seeks to answer with her project, The Dissolving Landscape, a series of experimental analog photographs and short films that examine climate change in the Arctic and Subarctic landscapes of Canada and Nordic Europe."
"But it's quite possibly the largest potato on record. When the couple lugged it into their garage and put it on their old set of scales, it weighed in at a remarkable 17.4 pounds. That's equal to a couple of sacks of regular potatoes, or one small dog." Doug?
"Cervical cancer cases plummeted among British women and girls who received a vaccination against the human papillomavirus (HPV), according to a new study… The results published in The Lancet medical journal on Thursday said that women in their 20s who were jabbed against HPV between ages of 12 and 13 with a GlaxoSmithKline product called Cervarix had up to an 87 percent lower risk of developing cervical cancer linked to the virus compared with unvaccinated women."
"On Thursday, the administration rolled out two of those steps — two different vaccine rules covering more than 100 million workers… Here are the details…"
"Daily coronavirus cases and deaths in Russia remained at their highest numbers of the pandemic Wednesday as more regions announced they were extending existing restrictions in an effort to tame the country’s unrelenting surge of infections." Stay safe my Russian friends.
"England's deputy chief medical officer said Wednesday that too many people believe the pandemic is over, warning that the U.K.'s very high coronavirus rates and rising deaths mean that there are 'hard months to come in the winter.'" Same here.
"The APA, an organization that has been around since the late 1800s, issued a lengthy statement on Friday apologizing not only for the APA's role in perpetuating systemic racism, but for the role psychology, as a field of study, has also played in systemically harming people of color for decades."
"The U.S. unemployment picture improved again last week, with initial filings for unemployment insurance falling to another pandemic-era low… First-time claims dropped to 269,000 for the week ended Oct. 30, down 14,000 from the previous period and better than the Dow Jones estimate for 275,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday."
Since I also passed on this twitter thread. "You wouldn't expect a Twitter thread all about shipping logistics and ports to go viral, but that's what happened recently to Ryan Petersen, the founder of the freight-forwarding tech company Flexport."
"It was not a surprise to economists that China, with its endless supply of cheap labor, killed American manufacturing jobs. But most economists, like most American leaders, had believed that workers would adapt somewhat smoothly to economic change and that they would find solid places to work in other sectors. 'We had this notion that the American economy is this incredibly dynamic place,' says Hanson, an economist at Harvard Kennedy School. 'We create millions of jobs every year, and we destroy millions of jobs every year. We thought we could handle moving a couple of million manufacturing workers from one sector to another.'"
"Police in Thailand announced Wednesday the arrest of the head of a company suspected of cheating overseas buyers of millions of dollars they paid for undelivered medical rubber gloves during the coronavirus pandemic." Now do it here in the US.
"Owen Paterson has resigned as an MP after a row over his conduct led to a government U-turn… The Conservative was found to have broken lobbying rules and was facing suspension - until Tory MPs blocked it by calling for an overhaul of the MPs' standards watchdog instead… They initially had the backing of No 10, but Downing Street reversed its decision after a furious backlash… Mr Paterson said he now wanted a life 'outside the cruel world of politics'." Or, ya know, you could be less of a dick.
It's from 2006, but is slightly relevant… "As governor and viceroy of the Indies, Columbus imposed iron discipline on the first Spanish colony in the Americas, in what is now the Caribbean country of Dominican Republic. Punishments included cutting off people's ears and noses, parading women naked through the streets and selling them into slavery… 'Columbus' government was characterised by a form of tyranny,' Consuelo Varela, a Spanish historian who has seen the document, told journalists."
"The real estate company Zillow announced it's throwing in the towel on a program in which it bought, renovated and resold homes itself… The iBuying, or instant buying, service called Zillow Offers had recently been bogged down by a backlog of renovations and closings caused by labor and supply shortages in the U.S. housing market."
So why did some conservative lawmakers continually deny funding for gun violence studies? "According to the study, which looked at county-level data nationwide over a 17-year period, when the number of gun dealerships within 100 miles of a given area went up, the number of gun homicides in that area also increased in subsequent years—even as nongun killings declined overall (see graphic). Majority-Black communities bore the brunt of that violence, the study found." I don't have a clue.
"Giffords, the gun-control nonprofit founded by former Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords, has filed a federal lawsuit accusing the National Rifle Association of violating campaign finance laws dating back to 2014… The lawsuit alleges that the country's leading gun rights group used shell companies to funnel 'as much as $35 million in unlawful, excessive, and unreported in-kind campaign contributions' to Republican candidates for federal office, including Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign."
"Republican Glenn Youngkin made schools, and particularly parental control, his closing issue in his upset win over Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia governor's race. Between September and October polls, education rose 9 points to be the top issue for voters going into the race, according to a Washington Post-Schar School poll. Parents who wanted more voice in schools broke for Youngkin by a large margin in exit polls." Well, it's a well-run campaign, midget and broom and whatnot.
"As Democrats in Congress tried to make sense of Tuesday's election results, members of the party's moderate wing on Wednesday said they warned their colleagues of potential election losses by holding up the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill… The Democratic losses, in Virginia and elsewhere, were especially poignant for Tim Kaine and Mark Warner — both former Virginia Democratic governors and now senators. They say they issued warnings to their colleagues." It's time to end game theory planning.
"CBS News has projected that New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy will win a second term. He is the first Democratic governor to win reelection since 1977, but Murphy's thin margin of victory, currently about one point, in what was considered a safe blue state is raising red flags for Democrats around the country." Kinda wrecks that "doom and gloom" reporting yesterday, doesn't it.
"New York voters soundly rejected constitutional amendments that would have allowed for same-day voter registration and universal absentee voting in future elections… If approved, the proposals would have removed language in the state constitution that currently prevents no-excuse absentee voting and same-day registration, allowing lawmakers to then expand ballot access."
"He is one of several pro-Trump Republican candidates in secretary of state races in swing states like Georgia, Arizona and Michigan who have embraced falsehoods about the systems they now want to oversee — attacking the 2020 election results and spreading misleading claims about voting machines and absentee ballots." The Big Lie is going to have long legs into our election system.
"Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin is objecting to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's decision to add paid family and medical leave back into the Democrats' social spending bill, saying that 'I don't think it belongs in the bill.'" The call is coming from inside the house.
"The Associated Press set out to examine the paths and mechanics of radicalization through case studies on two continents: a 20-year-old man rescued from a Taliban training camp on Afghanistan’s border, and an Iowa man whose brother watched him fall sway to nonsensical conspiracy theories and ultimately play a visible role in the mob of Donald Trump loyalists that stormed the Capitol."
"Where Tucker Carlson goes, Fox News and its viewers follow… In the series, Carlson strongly suggests that the (Jan 6) insurrection was not orchestrated by Trump's fans but by his foes, including the violent leftist group Antifa and even in the FBI and other national security divisions. He plants the idea that the siege was a "false flag" operation to discredit Trump supporters."
"A grand jury indictment issued in federal court in Virginia charges Igor Danchenko with five counts of false statements. The case was brought as part of special counsel John Durham's investigation into the origins of the FBI's probe into ties between Russia and Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign."
"A federal judge expressed deep skepticism of former President Donald Trump's arguments that he can keep documents from his White House secret, in the first minutes of an historic court hearing on Thursday related to the January 6 riot… Judge Tanya Chutkan pressed Trump's lawyers on why, as a former President, he has any right to control the public access to hundreds of pages of records, especially as the House of Representatives investigates the insurrection."
"Flowers Foods, the maker of Tastykake goods, said the treats could have tiny fragments of metal mesh wire in them." That ain't tasty.
"This year for the first time, the World Trade Center has been lit with a digital mural in celebration of the holiday, organized by the South Asian Engagement Foundation, along with a livestreamed fireworks show on the Hudson River… Also known as the festival of lights, Diwali is part of a five-day celebration that honors Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth."
"The biggest animals to have ever lived on Earth gobble up much more food than scientists thought, according to a new study of filter-feeding whales that reveals just how important their eating habits could be for recycling nutrients in the ocean… Baleen whales such as blue, fin, minke and humpback whales consume, on average, around three times more each year than previous estimates suggested, researchers report in Nature. A blue whale in the eastern North Pacific, for example, might eat between 10 and 20 tons of food a day."
"California condors, a critically endangered species, can reproduce without mating, according to a study by conservation scientists at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance." Even when it doesn't have too, nature finds a way. (Grokked from Dan)
"A new report by the United Nations says that some impacts from climate change are already irreversible, and our efforts to adapt are lagging… Meanwhile, a gap is growing between the amount of money that's available — and what's needed — to protect communities from rising seas, hotter temperatures and worsening storms."
"It was one of the more impassioned speeches of the summit's opening day. But Johnson failed to mention that even as the United Kingdom hosts the U.N. climate summit, it is also considering plans to open a new coal mine, the country's first in decades."
"What are we losing, in terms of our spiritual connection to the land, as the climate rapidly changes?… This is the question Ella Morton seeks to answer with her project, The Dissolving Landscape, a series of experimental analog photographs and short films that examine climate change in the Arctic and Subarctic landscapes of Canada and Nordic Europe."
"But it's quite possibly the largest potato on record. When the couple lugged it into their garage and put it on their old set of scales, it weighed in at a remarkable 17.4 pounds. That's equal to a couple of sacks of regular potatoes, or one small dog." Doug?
"Cervical cancer cases plummeted among British women and girls who received a vaccination against the human papillomavirus (HPV), according to a new study… The results published in The Lancet medical journal on Thursday said that women in their 20s who were jabbed against HPV between ages of 12 and 13 with a GlaxoSmithKline product called Cervarix had up to an 87 percent lower risk of developing cervical cancer linked to the virus compared with unvaccinated women."
"On Thursday, the administration rolled out two of those steps — two different vaccine rules covering more than 100 million workers… Here are the details…"
"Daily coronavirus cases and deaths in Russia remained at their highest numbers of the pandemic Wednesday as more regions announced they were extending existing restrictions in an effort to tame the country’s unrelenting surge of infections." Stay safe my Russian friends.
"England's deputy chief medical officer said Wednesday that too many people believe the pandemic is over, warning that the U.K.'s very high coronavirus rates and rising deaths mean that there are 'hard months to come in the winter.'" Same here.
"The APA, an organization that has been around since the late 1800s, issued a lengthy statement on Friday apologizing not only for the APA's role in perpetuating systemic racism, but for the role psychology, as a field of study, has also played in systemically harming people of color for decades."
"The U.S. unemployment picture improved again last week, with initial filings for unemployment insurance falling to another pandemic-era low… First-time claims dropped to 269,000 for the week ended Oct. 30, down 14,000 from the previous period and better than the Dow Jones estimate for 275,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday."
Since I also passed on this twitter thread. "You wouldn't expect a Twitter thread all about shipping logistics and ports to go viral, but that's what happened recently to Ryan Petersen, the founder of the freight-forwarding tech company Flexport."
"It was not a surprise to economists that China, with its endless supply of cheap labor, killed American manufacturing jobs. But most economists, like most American leaders, had believed that workers would adapt somewhat smoothly to economic change and that they would find solid places to work in other sectors. 'We had this notion that the American economy is this incredibly dynamic place,' says Hanson, an economist at Harvard Kennedy School. 'We create millions of jobs every year, and we destroy millions of jobs every year. We thought we could handle moving a couple of million manufacturing workers from one sector to another.'"
"Police in Thailand announced Wednesday the arrest of the head of a company suspected of cheating overseas buyers of millions of dollars they paid for undelivered medical rubber gloves during the coronavirus pandemic." Now do it here in the US.
"Owen Paterson has resigned as an MP after a row over his conduct led to a government U-turn… The Conservative was found to have broken lobbying rules and was facing suspension - until Tory MPs blocked it by calling for an overhaul of the MPs' standards watchdog instead… They initially had the backing of No 10, but Downing Street reversed its decision after a furious backlash… Mr Paterson said he now wanted a life 'outside the cruel world of politics'." Or, ya know, you could be less of a dick.
It's from 2006, but is slightly relevant… "As governor and viceroy of the Indies, Columbus imposed iron discipline on the first Spanish colony in the Americas, in what is now the Caribbean country of Dominican Republic. Punishments included cutting off people's ears and noses, parading women naked through the streets and selling them into slavery… 'Columbus' government was characterised by a form of tyranny,' Consuelo Varela, a Spanish historian who has seen the document, told journalists."
"The real estate company Zillow announced it's throwing in the towel on a program in which it bought, renovated and resold homes itself… The iBuying, or instant buying, service called Zillow Offers had recently been bogged down by a backlog of renovations and closings caused by labor and supply shortages in the U.S. housing market."
So why did some conservative lawmakers continually deny funding for gun violence studies? "According to the study, which looked at county-level data nationwide over a 17-year period, when the number of gun dealerships within 100 miles of a given area went up, the number of gun homicides in that area also increased in subsequent years—even as nongun killings declined overall (see graphic). Majority-Black communities bore the brunt of that violence, the study found." I don't have a clue.
"Giffords, the gun-control nonprofit founded by former Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords, has filed a federal lawsuit accusing the National Rifle Association of violating campaign finance laws dating back to 2014… The lawsuit alleges that the country's leading gun rights group used shell companies to funnel 'as much as $35 million in unlawful, excessive, and unreported in-kind campaign contributions' to Republican candidates for federal office, including Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign."
"Republican Glenn Youngkin made schools, and particularly parental control, his closing issue in his upset win over Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia governor's race. Between September and October polls, education rose 9 points to be the top issue for voters going into the race, according to a Washington Post-Schar School poll. Parents who wanted more voice in schools broke for Youngkin by a large margin in exit polls." Well, it's a well-run campaign, midget and broom and whatnot.
"As Democrats in Congress tried to make sense of Tuesday's election results, members of the party's moderate wing on Wednesday said they warned their colleagues of potential election losses by holding up the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill… The Democratic losses, in Virginia and elsewhere, were especially poignant for Tim Kaine and Mark Warner — both former Virginia Democratic governors and now senators. They say they issued warnings to their colleagues." It's time to end game theory planning.
"CBS News has projected that New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy will win a second term. He is the first Democratic governor to win reelection since 1977, but Murphy's thin margin of victory, currently about one point, in what was considered a safe blue state is raising red flags for Democrats around the country." Kinda wrecks that "doom and gloom" reporting yesterday, doesn't it.
"New York voters soundly rejected constitutional amendments that would have allowed for same-day voter registration and universal absentee voting in future elections… If approved, the proposals would have removed language in the state constitution that currently prevents no-excuse absentee voting and same-day registration, allowing lawmakers to then expand ballot access."
"He is one of several pro-Trump Republican candidates in secretary of state races in swing states like Georgia, Arizona and Michigan who have embraced falsehoods about the systems they now want to oversee — attacking the 2020 election results and spreading misleading claims about voting machines and absentee ballots." The Big Lie is going to have long legs into our election system.
"Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin is objecting to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's decision to add paid family and medical leave back into the Democrats' social spending bill, saying that 'I don't think it belongs in the bill.'" The call is coming from inside the house.
"The Associated Press set out to examine the paths and mechanics of radicalization through case studies on two continents: a 20-year-old man rescued from a Taliban training camp on Afghanistan’s border, and an Iowa man whose brother watched him fall sway to nonsensical conspiracy theories and ultimately play a visible role in the mob of Donald Trump loyalists that stormed the Capitol."
"Where Tucker Carlson goes, Fox News and its viewers follow… In the series, Carlson strongly suggests that the (Jan 6) insurrection was not orchestrated by Trump's fans but by his foes, including the violent leftist group Antifa and even in the FBI and other national security divisions. He plants the idea that the siege was a "false flag" operation to discredit Trump supporters."
"A grand jury indictment issued in federal court in Virginia charges Igor Danchenko with five counts of false statements. The case was brought as part of special counsel John Durham's investigation into the origins of the FBI's probe into ties between Russia and Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign."
"A federal judge expressed deep skepticism of former President Donald Trump's arguments that he can keep documents from his White House secret, in the first minutes of an historic court hearing on Thursday related to the January 6 riot… Judge Tanya Chutkan pressed Trump's lawyers on why, as a former President, he has any right to control the public access to hundreds of pages of records, especially as the House of Representatives investigates the insurrection."
Wednesday, November 3, 2021
Linkee-poo Wednesday Nov 3
"That's why Oxford Languages, the creator of the Oxford English Dictionary, chose 'vax' as its 2021 Word of the Year."
"Word nerds FTW! Merriam-Webster has added 455 new words and definitions to the dictionary — including nods to online culture, food favourites and the pandemic — to reflect our ever-evolving language." (Grokked form Dan)
"There are five big publishing houses in the United States right now, and one of them, Penguin Random House, wants to buy Simon & Schuster, one of its most robust rivals, for $2.75 billion dollars. But that presents a problem, says U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. He said the merger would create a "publishing behemoth," in a statement released by the U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday." It's interesting that the complaint is written from an author's point of view instead of a consumer's point of view.
"On Monday, NASA announced that the Hubble Space Telescope's science instruments were in an extended shutdown after problems appeared in late October. The issues arose as failed internal communications caused the science instruments to switch into safe mode twice over a two-day period. Everything outside the instruments is behaving normally, so the telescope is not at risk." Have you tried unplugging it and plugging it back in again? (Grokked from John)
"An international team of space researchers working with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center has found previously unknown organic molecules on Mars using a new experiment aboard the Curiosity rover. The results are published in the journal Nature Astronomy."
"The Biden administration is proposing stricter regulations to reduce leaks of methane from oil and gas industry operations. It comes as world leaders at the U.N. climate meeting in Glasgow are pushing countries to join a global pledge to cut methane, a climate warming gas that's even more potent than carbon dioxide."
"Greenland's ice sheet, the biggest ice sheet in the world behind Antarctica, has melted so much in the past decade that global sea levels rose by 1 centimeter, and trends predict sea levels can rise nearly a foot higher by the end of the century." We're boned.
"So Umashankar came up with an idea. Instead of using charcoal to heat up the irons, the vendors could use something abundantly available in India: the power of the sun. Over the span of six months in 2019, when she was just 12 years old, she designed a cart that had solar panels to power a steam iron. She pored over college-level physics textbooks to get an understanding of how solar panels work. Then, she submitted her concept to the National Innovation Foundation, run by the Indian government. Engineers there helped her build the full-scale working prototype and apply for a patent."
"I had my first symptom of breast cancer when I was 25 years old. As a nurse, I knew that the nipple discharge I was experiencing wasn't normal. I went to the doctor, but I was told not to worry about it - I was too young for breast cancer. Come back if the discharge becomes bloody, they said… Over the next six years my symptoms escalated, but still my treatment was either denied or delayed. I had painful periods and more nipple discharge. I was diagnosed with a dilated breast duct but told it wasn't anything to be concerned about… I had stage 4 metastatic breast cancer." Sometimes the hoof beats are fucking zebras.
"The agreement announced Tuesday would allow Medicare Parts B and D to negotiate prices directly with drug manufacturers on certain drugs and cap out-of-pocket spending for seniors at $2,000 per year, the first innovation of its kind in the program's history."
"Earlier this year, researchers found that many wild deer in Michigan had antibodies that suggested the animals had been exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. It was a significant cause for concern, as a large population of susceptible animals could act as a reservoir that allows the virus to spread back to humans." Rhut rho.
"The CDC issued formal recommendations Tuesday for children as young as 5 years old to get vaccinated against COVID-19, clearing the final regulatory hurdle for younger kids to start receiving Pfizer's vaccine this week."
"Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva warned Tuesday of a possible public safety threat due to a "mass exodus" of deputies from the department and blamed the county's vaccine mandate… Villanueva accused the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors of poor policy-making and pointed to an executive order issued by the chair of the board in August that required all county employees to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 no later than October 1." Why won't the police comply with lawful orders?
"A reexamined autopsy ordered by the FBI in the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene has rejected the Louisiana State Police claim that a car crash caused his fatal injuries, narrowing prosecutors' focus on the troopers seen on body camera video beating, stunning and dragging the Black motorist."
"Inflation has climbed to its highest level in three decades as Americans have gone on a spending spree that has sparked widespread shortages… For now the Fed is straddling a middle line as it navigates the uneven economic recovery." It's time for rates to go up.
"Thousands of workers across the U.S. are currently on strike, demanding better wages, better working conditions and more benefits… In what some have called 'Striketober,' workers in factories as well as the health care and food industries have either started or authorized strikes in the past month…It comes after more than a year of working during the pandemic, and as millions of workers are quitting in what has been named the 'Great Resignation'." The disrupted status quo.
"Like many PhD students, Aimée Lê needed her hourly paid job – as an English lecturer – to stay afloat. But what her students never guessed was that for two years while she taught them she was living in a tent… Lê decided to live outside as a last resort when she was faced with a steep rent increase in the third year of her PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London, and realised she would not be able to afford a flat and cover all her costs on her research and teaching income." Now do the Adjunct Faculty in the US.
"But labor issues are making that sustenance hard to find, triggering the worst supply chain headaches schools have faced in decades. Sourcing is a nightmare. Some staples of school dining, like chicken, can be hard to come by, and your kid's lunch might have to be served on a plastic nacho tray lid, according to nutritionists and school district officials NPR interviewed."
"Ford built the vehicle to showcase its new 'e-crate motor' that’s now on sale online and at its dealerships. Such 'crate' engines or motors are assembled by the company but are available for general purchase for building, fixing or customizing vehicles… Each of Ford’s e-crate motors produces 281 horsepower and 317 foot-pounds of torque and is street-legal in all 50 states, according to the company. Ford said the motor will retail for $3,900." I'm doubting that includes a battery pack.
"An undersea collision that injured 11 crew members of a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine last month was caused by an uncharted seamount (an underwater mountain), the U.S. Navy says." Oopsie.
"The Taliban has banned the use of foreign currencies in Afghanistan, a move that could further disrupt an economy on the brink of collapse… 'The economic situation and national interests in the country require that all Afghans use Afghani currency in their every trade,' the Taliban said." That's gonna leave a mark.
"A Torah belonging to a George Washington University fraternity was desecrated over the weekend, fraternity and university officials said… Members of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity and top school authorities have condemned what they're calling an antisemitic attack."
"NSO Group has been placed on a US blacklist by the Biden administration after it determined the Israeli spyware maker has acted 'contrary to the foreign policy and national security interests of the US'… The finding by the commerce department represents a blow to the Israeli company and reveals a deep undercurrent of concern by the US about the impact of spyware on national security interests."
"Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is asking the state's association of school boards to 'ensure no child is exposed to pornography or other inappropriate content in a Texas public school,' in the latest Republican attempt to dictate what can and can't be taught in classrooms." And while the governor didn't include examples, "Texas state Rep. Matt Krause… a candidate for attorney general"sent a letter that did. "Krause attached a 16-page list of roughly 850 book titles, most of which appear to be related to gender identity, sexuality, race and sexual health. They were published between the 1960s and this year, and several have won awards. An analysis from The Dallas Morning News found that 'of the first 100 titles listed, 97 were written by women, people of color or LGBTQ authors.'" It's like the 80s all over again.
"David Wilson was elected as a trustee on the Houston Community College board, but he soon was at odds with other board members, blasting them on robocalls, on the radio, on his website, and filing four lawsuits against the board, which the trustees said cost the public $300,000 in legal fees. He even hired a private investigator to see if a fellow board member really lived in the district she represented. Eventually, the board voted to censure Wilson for his behavior and it limited some of his board privileges." And now that power to censure it at SCOTUS.
"Republican Glenn Youngkin pulled off the upset in Virginia, defeating Terry McAuliffe in the governor's race. And in perhaps an even bigger stunner in New Jersey, Republican Jack Ciatarelli was within a percentage point of incumbent Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy… The New Jersey race could be headed for a recount, but just the fact that the election was this close shows how much energy Republicans had on their side heading into Tuesday night. Both results are sending shockwaves through a Democratic political establishment that has had little good news over the last few months." It's always bad news for the Democrats.
"Minneapolis voters ousted at least two incumbent council members Tuesday in an election that largely hinged on the future of policing after the murder of George Floyd and how best to address rising violent crime in the city… Candidates who opposed the failed public safety charter amendment — which would have replaced the Minneapolis Police Department with a Department of Public Safety and eliminated a requirement for the city to have a minimum number of police officers — appeared to have leads in several key wards."
"Sen. Joe Manchin has announced he cannot yet support the $1.75 trillion framework for President Biden's social spending package that congressional Democrats were hoping to push through this week." Dear Democrats, Sen. Manchin is a no. He has been not negotiating in good faith. He never intended to support the bill. It's time to go big and let Sen. Manchin (and Sinema) that you will sell this as the solution, and if they do sink the bill, you will hang it around their neck like the preverbal albatross and support primary contenders in their states. So they can get on the bandwagon and help their constituents, or they can start drafting their concession speech.
"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in a major shift, announced on Wednesday that four weeks of paid family and medical leave will be added back into the social spending bill, after Democrats had previously scrapped the provision from the package."
"Serious politician that he is, Fox News invited (Arizona Attorney General Mark) Brnovich on the air Monday to discuss what could happen to parents who are voicing their objections to mask mandates and critical race theory at school board hearings… 'Joe Biden and Merrick Garland essentially want to weaponize the Department of Justice,' Brnovich said. 'Just because parents are exercising their First Amendment rights to speak out against critical race theory or even vaccine mandates does not make them domestic terrorists. If we allow the Biden administration to continue this, God forbid, you’re going to end up with mom and pop at Gitmo. Think about how outrageous that is, Harris.'" Whackaloon quotient remains stratospheric. (Grokked from John)
"Word nerds FTW! Merriam-Webster has added 455 new words and definitions to the dictionary — including nods to online culture, food favourites and the pandemic — to reflect our ever-evolving language." (Grokked form Dan)
"There are five big publishing houses in the United States right now, and one of them, Penguin Random House, wants to buy Simon & Schuster, one of its most robust rivals, for $2.75 billion dollars. But that presents a problem, says U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. He said the merger would create a "publishing behemoth," in a statement released by the U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday." It's interesting that the complaint is written from an author's point of view instead of a consumer's point of view.
"On Monday, NASA announced that the Hubble Space Telescope's science instruments were in an extended shutdown after problems appeared in late October. The issues arose as failed internal communications caused the science instruments to switch into safe mode twice over a two-day period. Everything outside the instruments is behaving normally, so the telescope is not at risk." Have you tried unplugging it and plugging it back in again? (Grokked from John)
"An international team of space researchers working with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center has found previously unknown organic molecules on Mars using a new experiment aboard the Curiosity rover. The results are published in the journal Nature Astronomy."
"The Biden administration is proposing stricter regulations to reduce leaks of methane from oil and gas industry operations. It comes as world leaders at the U.N. climate meeting in Glasgow are pushing countries to join a global pledge to cut methane, a climate warming gas that's even more potent than carbon dioxide."
"Greenland's ice sheet, the biggest ice sheet in the world behind Antarctica, has melted so much in the past decade that global sea levels rose by 1 centimeter, and trends predict sea levels can rise nearly a foot higher by the end of the century." We're boned.
"So Umashankar came up with an idea. Instead of using charcoal to heat up the irons, the vendors could use something abundantly available in India: the power of the sun. Over the span of six months in 2019, when she was just 12 years old, she designed a cart that had solar panels to power a steam iron. She pored over college-level physics textbooks to get an understanding of how solar panels work. Then, she submitted her concept to the National Innovation Foundation, run by the Indian government. Engineers there helped her build the full-scale working prototype and apply for a patent."
"I had my first symptom of breast cancer when I was 25 years old. As a nurse, I knew that the nipple discharge I was experiencing wasn't normal. I went to the doctor, but I was told not to worry about it - I was too young for breast cancer. Come back if the discharge becomes bloody, they said… Over the next six years my symptoms escalated, but still my treatment was either denied or delayed. I had painful periods and more nipple discharge. I was diagnosed with a dilated breast duct but told it wasn't anything to be concerned about… I had stage 4 metastatic breast cancer." Sometimes the hoof beats are fucking zebras.
"The agreement announced Tuesday would allow Medicare Parts B and D to negotiate prices directly with drug manufacturers on certain drugs and cap out-of-pocket spending for seniors at $2,000 per year, the first innovation of its kind in the program's history."
"Earlier this year, researchers found that many wild deer in Michigan had antibodies that suggested the animals had been exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. It was a significant cause for concern, as a large population of susceptible animals could act as a reservoir that allows the virus to spread back to humans." Rhut rho.
"The CDC issued formal recommendations Tuesday for children as young as 5 years old to get vaccinated against COVID-19, clearing the final regulatory hurdle for younger kids to start receiving Pfizer's vaccine this week."
"Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva warned Tuesday of a possible public safety threat due to a "mass exodus" of deputies from the department and blamed the county's vaccine mandate… Villanueva accused the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors of poor policy-making and pointed to an executive order issued by the chair of the board in August that required all county employees to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 no later than October 1." Why won't the police comply with lawful orders?
"A reexamined autopsy ordered by the FBI in the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene has rejected the Louisiana State Police claim that a car crash caused his fatal injuries, narrowing prosecutors' focus on the troopers seen on body camera video beating, stunning and dragging the Black motorist."
"Inflation has climbed to its highest level in three decades as Americans have gone on a spending spree that has sparked widespread shortages… For now the Fed is straddling a middle line as it navigates the uneven economic recovery." It's time for rates to go up.
"Thousands of workers across the U.S. are currently on strike, demanding better wages, better working conditions and more benefits… In what some have called 'Striketober,' workers in factories as well as the health care and food industries have either started or authorized strikes in the past month…It comes after more than a year of working during the pandemic, and as millions of workers are quitting in what has been named the 'Great Resignation'." The disrupted status quo.
"Like many PhD students, Aimée Lê needed her hourly paid job – as an English lecturer – to stay afloat. But what her students never guessed was that for two years while she taught them she was living in a tent… Lê decided to live outside as a last resort when she was faced with a steep rent increase in the third year of her PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London, and realised she would not be able to afford a flat and cover all her costs on her research and teaching income." Now do the Adjunct Faculty in the US.
"But labor issues are making that sustenance hard to find, triggering the worst supply chain headaches schools have faced in decades. Sourcing is a nightmare. Some staples of school dining, like chicken, can be hard to come by, and your kid's lunch might have to be served on a plastic nacho tray lid, according to nutritionists and school district officials NPR interviewed."
"Ford built the vehicle to showcase its new 'e-crate motor' that’s now on sale online and at its dealerships. Such 'crate' engines or motors are assembled by the company but are available for general purchase for building, fixing or customizing vehicles… Each of Ford’s e-crate motors produces 281 horsepower and 317 foot-pounds of torque and is street-legal in all 50 states, according to the company. Ford said the motor will retail for $3,900." I'm doubting that includes a battery pack.
"An undersea collision that injured 11 crew members of a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine last month was caused by an uncharted seamount (an underwater mountain), the U.S. Navy says." Oopsie.
"The Taliban has banned the use of foreign currencies in Afghanistan, a move that could further disrupt an economy on the brink of collapse… 'The economic situation and national interests in the country require that all Afghans use Afghani currency in their every trade,' the Taliban said." That's gonna leave a mark.
"A Torah belonging to a George Washington University fraternity was desecrated over the weekend, fraternity and university officials said… Members of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity and top school authorities have condemned what they're calling an antisemitic attack."
"NSO Group has been placed on a US blacklist by the Biden administration after it determined the Israeli spyware maker has acted 'contrary to the foreign policy and national security interests of the US'… The finding by the commerce department represents a blow to the Israeli company and reveals a deep undercurrent of concern by the US about the impact of spyware on national security interests."
"Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is asking the state's association of school boards to 'ensure no child is exposed to pornography or other inappropriate content in a Texas public school,' in the latest Republican attempt to dictate what can and can't be taught in classrooms." And while the governor didn't include examples, "Texas state Rep. Matt Krause… a candidate for attorney general"sent a letter that did. "Krause attached a 16-page list of roughly 850 book titles, most of which appear to be related to gender identity, sexuality, race and sexual health. They were published between the 1960s and this year, and several have won awards. An analysis from The Dallas Morning News found that 'of the first 100 titles listed, 97 were written by women, people of color or LGBTQ authors.'" It's like the 80s all over again.
"David Wilson was elected as a trustee on the Houston Community College board, but he soon was at odds with other board members, blasting them on robocalls, on the radio, on his website, and filing four lawsuits against the board, which the trustees said cost the public $300,000 in legal fees. He even hired a private investigator to see if a fellow board member really lived in the district she represented. Eventually, the board voted to censure Wilson for his behavior and it limited some of his board privileges." And now that power to censure it at SCOTUS.
"Republican Glenn Youngkin pulled off the upset in Virginia, defeating Terry McAuliffe in the governor's race. And in perhaps an even bigger stunner in New Jersey, Republican Jack Ciatarelli was within a percentage point of incumbent Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy… The New Jersey race could be headed for a recount, but just the fact that the election was this close shows how much energy Republicans had on their side heading into Tuesday night. Both results are sending shockwaves through a Democratic political establishment that has had little good news over the last few months." It's always bad news for the Democrats.
"Minneapolis voters ousted at least two incumbent council members Tuesday in an election that largely hinged on the future of policing after the murder of George Floyd and how best to address rising violent crime in the city… Candidates who opposed the failed public safety charter amendment — which would have replaced the Minneapolis Police Department with a Department of Public Safety and eliminated a requirement for the city to have a minimum number of police officers — appeared to have leads in several key wards."
"Sen. Joe Manchin has announced he cannot yet support the $1.75 trillion framework for President Biden's social spending package that congressional Democrats were hoping to push through this week." Dear Democrats, Sen. Manchin is a no. He has been not negotiating in good faith. He never intended to support the bill. It's time to go big and let Sen. Manchin (and Sinema) that you will sell this as the solution, and if they do sink the bill, you will hang it around their neck like the preverbal albatross and support primary contenders in their states. So they can get on the bandwagon and help their constituents, or they can start drafting their concession speech.
"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in a major shift, announced on Wednesday that four weeks of paid family and medical leave will be added back into the social spending bill, after Democrats had previously scrapped the provision from the package."
"Serious politician that he is, Fox News invited (Arizona Attorney General Mark) Brnovich on the air Monday to discuss what could happen to parents who are voicing their objections to mask mandates and critical race theory at school board hearings… 'Joe Biden and Merrick Garland essentially want to weaponize the Department of Justice,' Brnovich said. 'Just because parents are exercising their First Amendment rights to speak out against critical race theory or even vaccine mandates does not make them domestic terrorists. If we allow the Biden administration to continue this, God forbid, you’re going to end up with mom and pop at Gitmo. Think about how outrageous that is, Harris.'" Whackaloon quotient remains stratospheric. (Grokked from John)
Tuesday, November 2, 2021
Unscheduled
So today I am called upon to do my civic duty. Yes, first there is the voting (go and vote). But I'm also talking about jury duty. It's quite probable that there won't be much posting going on until this is over (and no, I don't know when that will be). More when I know more.
Monday, November 1, 2021
Linkee-poo it's gonna be the future soon
"A mysterious signal that appeared to be emanating from the closest star to our own sun put scientists on a nearly yearlong hunt to track down its origin… The result? The signal was not from an alien world circling Proxima Centauri but instead something much more mundane — possibly a radio, a telephone or even a computer located somewhere in Australia, according to two studies published this week in the journal Nature Astronomy."
"A climate extravaganza got underway in Glasgow, Scotland, on Sunday. President Biden showed up. So have other world leaders and a small city's worth of diplomats, business executives and activists. It's billed as a potential turning point in the struggle to avert the worst effects of climate change, and it has a curious name: COP26."
"President Biden on Sunday placed blame on Russia and China for a lack of momentum by the world's most powerful nations in the fight to combat climate change as he marked the end of the Group of 20 conference in Rome ahead of a crucial summit on climate change in Glasgow, Scotland."
"Yang knew, though, that if she helped Angelica get treated with three weekly shots of penicillin at least 30 days before she gave birth, it was likely that the infection would be wiped out and her baby would be born without any symptoms at all. Every case of congenital syphilis, when a baby is born with the disease, is avoidable. Each is considered a 'sentinel event,' a warning that the public health system is failing."
"But a top White House official is cautioning that parents shouldn't expect to be able to get their kids vaccinated the very next day if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the vaccine, as it is expected to on Tuesday. Patience may be needed, as it could take several days before shots are readily available."
"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will need more time to decide whether to approve Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine for use in children ages 12 to 17, the company announced Sunday… The extended timeline is so the FDA can look into reports of a rare side effect — myocarditis, or the inflammation of the heart muscle — in those who've gotten the shot. Moderna said the FDA informed the company of the delay on Friday."
"The researchers were studying another coronavirus, called 229E, that causes only a mild cold in humans. But the results of that experiment offer some intriguing insights into the possible endgame of the COVID-19 pandemic. After this delta-variant surge wanes this winter, as scientists forecast, what's next? Will the virus come back next year? And the year after that?" Welcome to the endemic phase.
"More than 90% of New York City's employees have been vaccinated and about 9,000 were placed on unpaid leave Monday for failing to meet today's mandatory vaccination deadline, Mayor Bill de Blasio said."
"Eventually, Board President Marlys Davidson told Roupoli her time was up, according to public video of the meeting, and called up the next parent. Roupoli concluded, and Davidson mumbled under her breath 'f--- you,' which was picked up by her mic." While I don't disagree with her, just a reminder that just like you should treat every firearm as if it is loaded until you personally verify it is not, you should consider every mic a hot mic and it will pick up anything you say, no matter how softly.
"The Biden administration has announced the broad outlines of a deal to end an expensive economic impasse that had led to growing tension between the United States and the European Union… The United States will keep steel and aluminum tariffs on European nations, but will allow a certain amount of steel and aluminum produced in the EU to enter U.S. markets tariff-free." This is the problem with trade wars, you can't just end them. You have to slowly walk them back.
"With inflation at its highest point in three decades, the Federal Reserve is set this week to begin winding down the extraordinary stimulus it has given the economy since the pandemic recession struck early last year, a process that could prove to be a risky balancing act."
"Halloween — the night of ghost stories and trick-or-treating — has religious origins that span over two thousand years and over time, the Catholic Church, pagan groups, and even the brewing company Coors have played a role in shape-shifting the holiday. How did Halloween turn from a spiritual celebration to a multi-billion dollar industry? From the Great Famine of Ireland to the Simpsons, we present the many evolutions of Halloween." The Throughline podcast with an episode about Halloween.
"A federal jury in Tacoma, Wash., says the GEO Group, which owns and runs a large detention center for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, owes former detainees $17.3 million in back pay for tasks such as cleaning and cooking meals… The Florida-based for-profit prison company paid detainees $1 a day for such work, a practice the jury determined earlier this week is a violation of the state's minimum wage law. On Friday, they announced how much back pay was owed."
"A federal judge in Utah ordered the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) and two of its affiliates to pay nearly $1 million for allegedly violating child labor laws when they employed minors on a ranch without paying them for years."
"A federal inspection report has found serious violations in how marine mammals have been cared for at one of Miami's oldest attractions. The Seaquarium is where the Flipper TV series was filmed in the 1960s. For 51 years, its star attraction has been Lolita, one of the oldest killer whales in captivity. The federal report raises concerns about Lolita's health and has renewed calls for her to be relocated."
"President Joe Biden's first day at the Group of 20 Summit began Saturday with the President achieving one of his core objectives for the global conference -- an endorsement of a 15% global minimum tax from world leaders… The tax is a chief priority of Biden's that the White House believes would end the global race-to-the-bottom on corporate tax rates. The new rule will be formalized when the leaders release a final G20 communiqué on Sunday, when the summit ends." While agreements are nice, the proof is having the legislation in hand.
"Top executives of ExxonMobil and other oil giants denied spreading disinformation about climate change as they sparred Thursday with congressional Democrats over allegations that the industry concealed evidence about the dangers of global warming." Uh huh. Sure.
"Nearly five years after Joe Arpaio was voted out as sheriff of Arizona's most populous county, taxpayers are covering one of the last major bills from the thousands of lawsuits the lawman's headline-grabbing tactics inspired — and the overall legal tab has hit $100 million." Was it worth it?
"The Lincoln Project has confirmed it was behind a political stunt in which five members posed as white supremacists carrying tiki torches at a campaign stop for Glenn Youngkin, the Republican candidate for governor in Virginia, in Charlottesville ahead of election day next week." Not cool, Lincoln Project.
"White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Sunday that she had tested positive for COVID-19, days after pulling out of the president's overseas trip due to a family emergency. Psaki is vaccinated, and said she is only experiencing mild symptoms."
"Donald Trump is seeking to prevent Jan. 6 investigators from accessing daily presidential diaries, drafts of election-related speeches, logs of his phone calls, handwritten notes and files of top aides, the National Archives revealed in a Saturday morning court filing."
"John Eastman, a conservative lawyer working with then-President Donald Trump's legal team, said in a radio interview in early January that then-Vice President Mike Pence had the power to throw the 2020 presidential election to the House of Representatives, saying it depended on whether Pence had 'courage and the spine.' Those comments are more direct than how Eastman has recently described his conversation with Pence, when he has said he told the vice president it was an 'open question' whether he could throw out seven states' Electoral College votes and that it'd be a 'foolish' option to pursue." One story for the public, another for the faithful.
And then… "During the Jan. 6 insurrection, a lawyer for President Donald Trump emailed a top aide of Vice President Mike Pence claiming that Pence had caused the violence by refusing to block the certification of the election, according to the Washington Post… Trump’s lawyer, John Eastman, continued to pressure Pence to overturn the election, even after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol."
"The origins of the meme go back to Oct. 2, when race car driver Brandon Brown won his first NASCAR Xfinity Series race and was being interviewed by NBC reporter Kelli Stavast. In the background, some in the crowd can be heard chanting 'F*** Joe Biden,' though Stavast says 'you can hear the chants from the crowd, "Let's go, Brandon!"' in her broadcast." I'm sure the usage makes conservatives think they're clever.
"For anyone hoping that voting and elections post-2020 would become less polarized, the recent Take Back Virginia rally outside Richmond was not a good sign… For many of the speakers at the event, election integrity was at the top of their priority list — and not just opposition to ballot drop boxes or voting by mail. Instead, the emphasis was for direct involvement by regular voters and activists to monitor election workers." It's not over. In fact, it's barely begun.
"Three University of Florida professors were denied permission from the school to testify in a major voting rights case against the state, documents filed in federal court show… As part of the testimony, the plaintiffs were seeking three professors from the university — Dan Smith, Michael McDonald and Sharon Austin — to testify as expert witnesses. All three specialize in voting rights and behavior and election law."
"Almost a third of Republicans believe violence may be necessary to 'save' the US, according to a new poll… Researchers at the Public Religion Research Institute, a nonprofit, found that 30% of Republicans agreed with the statement 'Because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country'."
"A climate extravaganza got underway in Glasgow, Scotland, on Sunday. President Biden showed up. So have other world leaders and a small city's worth of diplomats, business executives and activists. It's billed as a potential turning point in the struggle to avert the worst effects of climate change, and it has a curious name: COP26."
"President Biden on Sunday placed blame on Russia and China for a lack of momentum by the world's most powerful nations in the fight to combat climate change as he marked the end of the Group of 20 conference in Rome ahead of a crucial summit on climate change in Glasgow, Scotland."
"Yang knew, though, that if she helped Angelica get treated with three weekly shots of penicillin at least 30 days before she gave birth, it was likely that the infection would be wiped out and her baby would be born without any symptoms at all. Every case of congenital syphilis, when a baby is born with the disease, is avoidable. Each is considered a 'sentinel event,' a warning that the public health system is failing."
"But a top White House official is cautioning that parents shouldn't expect to be able to get their kids vaccinated the very next day if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the vaccine, as it is expected to on Tuesday. Patience may be needed, as it could take several days before shots are readily available."
"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will need more time to decide whether to approve Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine for use in children ages 12 to 17, the company announced Sunday… The extended timeline is so the FDA can look into reports of a rare side effect — myocarditis, or the inflammation of the heart muscle — in those who've gotten the shot. Moderna said the FDA informed the company of the delay on Friday."
"The researchers were studying another coronavirus, called 229E, that causes only a mild cold in humans. But the results of that experiment offer some intriguing insights into the possible endgame of the COVID-19 pandemic. After this delta-variant surge wanes this winter, as scientists forecast, what's next? Will the virus come back next year? And the year after that?" Welcome to the endemic phase.
"More than 90% of New York City's employees have been vaccinated and about 9,000 were placed on unpaid leave Monday for failing to meet today's mandatory vaccination deadline, Mayor Bill de Blasio said."
"Eventually, Board President Marlys Davidson told Roupoli her time was up, according to public video of the meeting, and called up the next parent. Roupoli concluded, and Davidson mumbled under her breath 'f--- you,' which was picked up by her mic." While I don't disagree with her, just a reminder that just like you should treat every firearm as if it is loaded until you personally verify it is not, you should consider every mic a hot mic and it will pick up anything you say, no matter how softly.
"The Biden administration has announced the broad outlines of a deal to end an expensive economic impasse that had led to growing tension between the United States and the European Union… The United States will keep steel and aluminum tariffs on European nations, but will allow a certain amount of steel and aluminum produced in the EU to enter U.S. markets tariff-free." This is the problem with trade wars, you can't just end them. You have to slowly walk them back.
"With inflation at its highest point in three decades, the Federal Reserve is set this week to begin winding down the extraordinary stimulus it has given the economy since the pandemic recession struck early last year, a process that could prove to be a risky balancing act."
"Halloween — the night of ghost stories and trick-or-treating — has religious origins that span over two thousand years and over time, the Catholic Church, pagan groups, and even the brewing company Coors have played a role in shape-shifting the holiday. How did Halloween turn from a spiritual celebration to a multi-billion dollar industry? From the Great Famine of Ireland to the Simpsons, we present the many evolutions of Halloween." The Throughline podcast with an episode about Halloween.
"A federal jury in Tacoma, Wash., says the GEO Group, which owns and runs a large detention center for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, owes former detainees $17.3 million in back pay for tasks such as cleaning and cooking meals… The Florida-based for-profit prison company paid detainees $1 a day for such work, a practice the jury determined earlier this week is a violation of the state's minimum wage law. On Friday, they announced how much back pay was owed."
"A federal judge in Utah ordered the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) and two of its affiliates to pay nearly $1 million for allegedly violating child labor laws when they employed minors on a ranch without paying them for years."
"A federal inspection report has found serious violations in how marine mammals have been cared for at one of Miami's oldest attractions. The Seaquarium is where the Flipper TV series was filmed in the 1960s. For 51 years, its star attraction has been Lolita, one of the oldest killer whales in captivity. The federal report raises concerns about Lolita's health and has renewed calls for her to be relocated."
"President Joe Biden's first day at the Group of 20 Summit began Saturday with the President achieving one of his core objectives for the global conference -- an endorsement of a 15% global minimum tax from world leaders… The tax is a chief priority of Biden's that the White House believes would end the global race-to-the-bottom on corporate tax rates. The new rule will be formalized when the leaders release a final G20 communiqué on Sunday, when the summit ends." While agreements are nice, the proof is having the legislation in hand.
"Top executives of ExxonMobil and other oil giants denied spreading disinformation about climate change as they sparred Thursday with congressional Democrats over allegations that the industry concealed evidence about the dangers of global warming." Uh huh. Sure.
"Nearly five years after Joe Arpaio was voted out as sheriff of Arizona's most populous county, taxpayers are covering one of the last major bills from the thousands of lawsuits the lawman's headline-grabbing tactics inspired — and the overall legal tab has hit $100 million." Was it worth it?
"The Lincoln Project has confirmed it was behind a political stunt in which five members posed as white supremacists carrying tiki torches at a campaign stop for Glenn Youngkin, the Republican candidate for governor in Virginia, in Charlottesville ahead of election day next week." Not cool, Lincoln Project.
"White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Sunday that she had tested positive for COVID-19, days after pulling out of the president's overseas trip due to a family emergency. Psaki is vaccinated, and said she is only experiencing mild symptoms."
"Donald Trump is seeking to prevent Jan. 6 investigators from accessing daily presidential diaries, drafts of election-related speeches, logs of his phone calls, handwritten notes and files of top aides, the National Archives revealed in a Saturday morning court filing."
"John Eastman, a conservative lawyer working with then-President Donald Trump's legal team, said in a radio interview in early January that then-Vice President Mike Pence had the power to throw the 2020 presidential election to the House of Representatives, saying it depended on whether Pence had 'courage and the spine.' Those comments are more direct than how Eastman has recently described his conversation with Pence, when he has said he told the vice president it was an 'open question' whether he could throw out seven states' Electoral College votes and that it'd be a 'foolish' option to pursue." One story for the public, another for the faithful.
And then… "During the Jan. 6 insurrection, a lawyer for President Donald Trump emailed a top aide of Vice President Mike Pence claiming that Pence had caused the violence by refusing to block the certification of the election, according to the Washington Post… Trump’s lawyer, John Eastman, continued to pressure Pence to overturn the election, even after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol."
"The origins of the meme go back to Oct. 2, when race car driver Brandon Brown won his first NASCAR Xfinity Series race and was being interviewed by NBC reporter Kelli Stavast. In the background, some in the crowd can be heard chanting 'F*** Joe Biden,' though Stavast says 'you can hear the chants from the crowd, "Let's go, Brandon!"' in her broadcast." I'm sure the usage makes conservatives think they're clever.
"For anyone hoping that voting and elections post-2020 would become less polarized, the recent Take Back Virginia rally outside Richmond was not a good sign… For many of the speakers at the event, election integrity was at the top of their priority list — and not just opposition to ballot drop boxes or voting by mail. Instead, the emphasis was for direct involvement by regular voters and activists to monitor election workers." It's not over. In fact, it's barely begun.
"Three University of Florida professors were denied permission from the school to testify in a major voting rights case against the state, documents filed in federal court show… As part of the testimony, the plaintiffs were seeking three professors from the university — Dan Smith, Michael McDonald and Sharon Austin — to testify as expert witnesses. All three specialize in voting rights and behavior and election law."
"Almost a third of Republicans believe violence may be necessary to 'save' the US, according to a new poll… Researchers at the Public Religion Research Institute, a nonprofit, found that 30% of Republicans agreed with the statement 'Because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country'."
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