"The National Weather Service is forecasting dangerously high temperatures in the triple digits across the Southwest this weekend… Excessive heat warnings and advisories have been issued across the region, from southern Texas to California. According to the NWS, residents can expect to see daytime temperatures 10-20 degrees above normal."
"More than 25 major cities tied or broke record-high temperatures Saturday, during a dangerous heatwave that enveloped much of the Southwestern United States over the weekend. Approximately 53 million people are still under excessive heat warnings as extreme temperatures begin to shift east."
"Astronomers have unveiled the most detailed survey of the Milky Way, revealing thousands of 'starquakes' and stellar DNA, and helping to identify the most habitable corners of our home galaxy… The observations from the European Space Agency’s Gaia probe cover almost two billion stars – about 1% of the total number in the galaxy – and are allowing astronomers to reconstruct our home galaxy’s structure and find out how it has evolved over billions of years."
"California-based Astra on Sunday launched two shoebox-size NASA satellites from Cape Canaveral in a modest mission to improve hurricane forecasts, but the second stage of the company's low-cost booster malfunctioned before reaching orbit and the payloads were lost."
"It's common knowledge that armed non-state groups in the Middle East bankroll themselves with oil and ransom money. But a close third in the pipeline that fuels warlords and terrorists globally? The plunder and sale of antiquities… If activists have their way, the buyers and dealers of those stolen cultural relics will face criminal repercussions."
"But a Saturday profile in The Washington Post characterizing Lemoine as 'the Google engineer who thinks the company’s AI has come to life' became the catalyst for widespread discussion on social media regarding the nature of artificial intelligence. Among the experts commenting, questioning, or joking about the article were Nobel laureates, Tesla’s head of AI, and multiple professors… At issue is whether Google’s chatbot, LaMDA—a Language Model for Dialogue Applications—can be considered a person." As you know (Bob) I'm an intense AI sentience skeptic and my first reaction is, yes, computer programs designed to engage in human language can be eerily human like. But then that was also true with ERIKA programs back in the 80s. Our brain is designed to detect patterns, even if they aren't there, and programmers are taught how to exploit that. However, there is an argument to be made here of "what is life" and are we much more than a flesh computer running simple programs and how our responses and emotions are not indistinguishable from a silicon based brain running complex "if y then x" branching and returning preprogrammed responses. That is, if a robot toy is programmed to express surprise (eyes wide, eyebrows up, slightly opened mouth) when conditions are met for the toy to appear surprised (something sudden happening), is that very different than our "organic" surprise response? And once you analyze that, is this a fantasy comparison created by our human tendency to compare our brains to computers and so we are trapped in that metaphor?
"And so, having disposed of the monster, exit our hero through the front door, stage right…" (Groucho eyebrows)
"As Robert Brantley was driving down the backroads of northeast Louisiana on Tuesday, something caught his eye. The professional shooter was going about 40 miles an hour as he headed toward the shooting range, but he thought he had seen a kitten on the side of the road."
"The two signed an arbitration agreement in March of 2021, agreeing to settle their dispute. Roughly two months later, an arbitrator awarded M.O. $5.2 million, saying the sum 'would fairly and justly compensate' her… M.O. went to circuit court in Jackson County, Mo., to enforce the arbitration ruling, and won her case. GEICO then appealed to the higher state court… The insurance giant said it hadn't been given a chance to defend itself, violating its constitutional rights to due process and access to the courts. But in its ruling this week, two judges in the Missouri Court of Appeals' western district said GEICO had numerous chances to act on its own behalf." Note that the plaintiff in this case did not enter arbitration freely, they were forced into it by the GEICO contract. GEICO is just upset that the arbiter, the person they hired, agreed with the plaintiff.
For more insight into this, here's Cory Doctorow discussing the case and how this perversion of law (forced arbitration) has come about. And how, now that the plaintiffs are starting to gain power in the arbitration system, the corporations who forced everyone into arbitration and now trying to break that system. He also discusses some of the social engineering happening around this story (by using the "McDonald's Hot Coffee" story as another example). "Here's a media literacy rule of thumb: any time you hear about how the courts have done something outrageous and absurd to some poor, long-suffering, gigantic, wildly profitable corporation…dig deeper."
"People who menstruate are saying it's hard to find tampons on store shelves across the U.S. right now, as supply chain upsets reach the feminine care aisle… 'I just went to 5 different Walgreens [and] the shelves are CLEARED,' said one Twitter user this past week, while people on Reddit have posted about empty shelves going back months." The new baby formula? I'm sure it's Biden's fault, somehow.
"Thousands of protesters from across the country are march(ed) through Washington, D.C. (Saturday) for the second March for Our Lives."
"Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that fighting is severe in Severodonetsk, the epicenter of the conflict in eastern Ukraine."
"The search for an Indigenous expert and a journalist who disappeared in a remote area of Brazil’s Amazon continued on Monday following the discovery of a backpack, laptop and other personal belongings submerged in a river."
"Authorities arrested 31 members of the white supremacist group Patriot Front near an Idaho Pride event Saturday after they were found packed into the back of a U-Haul truck with riot gear… The men were standing inside the truck wearing khakis, navy blue shirts and beige hats with white balaclavas covering their faces when Coeur d'Alene police stopped the U-Haul and began arresting them on the side of the road."
"Federal Judge Drew Tipton threw out a Department of Homeland Security policy that limits who immigration authorities can arrest and deport. In a ruling published Friday, Tipton sided with the states of Texas and Louisiana, which argued that the DHS guidance is preventing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from enforcing the law."
"Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested Wednesday that he might urge the state's child protective services to investigate parents who take their children to drag shows." What would they be guilty of? Showing them a good time?
"A Texas judge on Friday temporarily blocked the state from investigating families of transgender children who have received gender-confirming medical care, a new obstacle to the state labeling such treatments as child abuse."
"A bipartisan group of senators unveiled an agreement on principle for gun safety legislation Sunday, providing an overview of a forthcoming package of reforms to address one of the nation's most pressing and divisive issues in the wake of mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas… Here is what the lawmakers included in the framework and what they left out."
"The House select committee holds another public hearing Monday -- this time focused on the "big lie" pushed by former President Donald Trump and his allies -- that the committee says fueled those who attacked the Capitol."
"The former Trump advisor Steve Bannon melted down on his podcast over the possibility former President Donald Trump might be indicted over the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot… The attorney Ron Filipkowski posted a clip from Bannon's 'War Room: Pandemic' podcast in which the Trump ally raged at the possibility of a Trump indictment and threatened Attorney General Merrick Garland with impeachment." Won't someone rid us of this troublesome priest?
Monday, June 13, 2022
Friday, June 10, 2022
Linkee-poo Friday June 10
"It wasn't clear what the country could expect from the Jan. 6 select committee's beginning presentation of its findings, but the prime-time, opening hearing Thursday night had lots of new information, and it was presented in a calm and cogent way… The committee transported the audience back to Jan. 6 with behind-the-scenes and up-close video of what happened that day. It also made a strong case that former President Donald Trump was the central character responsible for what happened — with on-camera testimony from many of the people closest to him, including his daughter Ivanka, who broke with him over his lies that the election was stolen." The hospital was too busy last night for me to catch any of it, including try to repeat it on C-Span, but I understand it was fairly good.
"The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol has laid the blame firmly on Donald Trump, saying the assault was not spontaneous but an “attempted coup” and a direct result of the defeated president’s effort to overturn the 2020 election."
"Former President Donald Trump seemed to support threats from rioters to hang the former vice president during the attack on the Capitol, saying 'Mike Pence deserves it,' House Jan. 6 committee vice chairman Liz Cheney said Thursday night."
"After a six-year journey, a plucky spacecraft called Hayabusa2 zinged back into Earth's atmosphere in late 2020 and landed deep in the Australian outback. When researchers from the Japanese space agency JAXA opened it, they found its precious payload sealed and intact: a handful of dirt that Hayabusa2 managed to scoop off the surface of a speeding asteroid."
"NASA is putting a team together to study unidentified aerial phenomena, popularly known as UFOs, the US space agency said Thursday… The team will gather data on 'events in the sky that cannot be identified as aircraft or known natural phenomena -- from a scientific perspective,' the agency said."
"But storing large amounts of renewable energy has proven challenging. Wind and solar only generate power when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing. Otherwise, fossil fuels kick back in. Now, one major utility in Oregon is trying to produce energy 24/7 with a boost from a critical component — batteries."
"The Biden administration is expected to announce Friday that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will lift its requirement for travelers to test negative for Covid-19 before entering the US, according to a senior administration official."
"The French labor code prohibits workers from eating lunch in the workplace. The solo work lunch is also shunned in a culture that prizes a change of pace — and scenery — during the midday meal." I can't really remember the last time I didn't eat my "meal at work" at my desk.
"A baby who has been missing since her parents were found murdered in a wooded area in Houston in 1981 has been found, Texas authorities have announced. Holly Clouse, now 42, is alive and well, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office said in a statement Wednesday… Clouse was about a year old when her parents' bodies were found in January 1981, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. They weren't identified until 2021, when a forensic genetic genealogy firm said they were Harold Dean Clouse Jr. and Tina Gail Linn Clouse, originally of Florida, according to Paxton's office."
"Now Illinois is giving Sorensen and students like her a new option for dealing with mental health lows. The state allows K-12 students in public schools to have five excused absences per school year for mental health reasons, another example of the growing acknowledgment among lawmakers that emotional and physical health are intertwined. The new policy, which went into effect at the beginning of 2022, passed both chambers of the state legislature unanimously."
"The Texas school police chief criticized for his actions during one of the deadliest classroom shootings in US history said in his first extensive comments that he did not consider himself the person in charge as the massacre unfolded and assumed someone else was."
"An explosion at a liquefied natural gas terminal in Texas has left nearby residents rattled and is taking a substantial amount of the fuel off the market at a time when global demand is soaring… Freeport LNG will be offline for at least three weeks, the company said Thursday, following a fire in its export facility. The company said no one was injured, and the cause is under investigation."
"The Labor Department said Friday that consumer prices in May were 8.6% higher than a year ago — the largest increase since December of 1981. Prices rose 1% between April and May, led by jumps in the price of gasoline, groceries and rent."
"The number of guest workers and immigrants coming to the United States is slowly climbing again after steep declines during the pandemic. Tens of thousands of international students are back at resort towns and amusement parks. The Biden administration has released more visas for seasonal guest workers, and it's automatically extending work permits for others."
"A man’s life was changed after he spent 17 days in a New Mexico jail because American Airlines wrongfully accused and identified him to police as a shoplifter at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, according to a lawsuit filed Monday."
"President Joe Biden and other Western Hemisphere leaders are set to announce on Friday what is being billed as a roadmap for countries to host large numbers of migrants and refugees."
"The General Staff notes that there have been reports of units that comprise forcibly mobilised residents of the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts refusing to take part in hostilities."
"Speaking at an event with young entrepreneurs in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to ominously hint at further territorial expansion… 'It’s impossible — do you understand? — impossible to build a fence around a country like Russia. And we do not intend to build that fence,' Putin said, according to Sky News."
"The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol has laid the blame firmly on Donald Trump, saying the assault was not spontaneous but an “attempted coup” and a direct result of the defeated president’s effort to overturn the 2020 election."
"Former President Donald Trump seemed to support threats from rioters to hang the former vice president during the attack on the Capitol, saying 'Mike Pence deserves it,' House Jan. 6 committee vice chairman Liz Cheney said Thursday night."
"After a six-year journey, a plucky spacecraft called Hayabusa2 zinged back into Earth's atmosphere in late 2020 and landed deep in the Australian outback. When researchers from the Japanese space agency JAXA opened it, they found its precious payload sealed and intact: a handful of dirt that Hayabusa2 managed to scoop off the surface of a speeding asteroid."
"NASA is putting a team together to study unidentified aerial phenomena, popularly known as UFOs, the US space agency said Thursday… The team will gather data on 'events in the sky that cannot be identified as aircraft or known natural phenomena -- from a scientific perspective,' the agency said."
"But storing large amounts of renewable energy has proven challenging. Wind and solar only generate power when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing. Otherwise, fossil fuels kick back in. Now, one major utility in Oregon is trying to produce energy 24/7 with a boost from a critical component — batteries."
"The Biden administration is expected to announce Friday that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will lift its requirement for travelers to test negative for Covid-19 before entering the US, according to a senior administration official."
"The French labor code prohibits workers from eating lunch in the workplace. The solo work lunch is also shunned in a culture that prizes a change of pace — and scenery — during the midday meal." I can't really remember the last time I didn't eat my "meal at work" at my desk.
"A baby who has been missing since her parents were found murdered in a wooded area in Houston in 1981 has been found, Texas authorities have announced. Holly Clouse, now 42, is alive and well, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office said in a statement Wednesday… Clouse was about a year old when her parents' bodies were found in January 1981, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. They weren't identified until 2021, when a forensic genetic genealogy firm said they were Harold Dean Clouse Jr. and Tina Gail Linn Clouse, originally of Florida, according to Paxton's office."
"Now Illinois is giving Sorensen and students like her a new option for dealing with mental health lows. The state allows K-12 students in public schools to have five excused absences per school year for mental health reasons, another example of the growing acknowledgment among lawmakers that emotional and physical health are intertwined. The new policy, which went into effect at the beginning of 2022, passed both chambers of the state legislature unanimously."
"The Texas school police chief criticized for his actions during one of the deadliest classroom shootings in US history said in his first extensive comments that he did not consider himself the person in charge as the massacre unfolded and assumed someone else was."
"An explosion at a liquefied natural gas terminal in Texas has left nearby residents rattled and is taking a substantial amount of the fuel off the market at a time when global demand is soaring… Freeport LNG will be offline for at least three weeks, the company said Thursday, following a fire in its export facility. The company said no one was injured, and the cause is under investigation."
"The Labor Department said Friday that consumer prices in May were 8.6% higher than a year ago — the largest increase since December of 1981. Prices rose 1% between April and May, led by jumps in the price of gasoline, groceries and rent."
"The number of guest workers and immigrants coming to the United States is slowly climbing again after steep declines during the pandemic. Tens of thousands of international students are back at resort towns and amusement parks. The Biden administration has released more visas for seasonal guest workers, and it's automatically extending work permits for others."
"A man’s life was changed after he spent 17 days in a New Mexico jail because American Airlines wrongfully accused and identified him to police as a shoplifter at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, according to a lawsuit filed Monday."
"President Joe Biden and other Western Hemisphere leaders are set to announce on Friday what is being billed as a roadmap for countries to host large numbers of migrants and refugees."
"The General Staff notes that there have been reports of units that comprise forcibly mobilised residents of the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts refusing to take part in hostilities."
"Speaking at an event with young entrepreneurs in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to ominously hint at further territorial expansion… 'It’s impossible — do you understand? — impossible to build a fence around a country like Russia. And we do not intend to build that fence,' Putin said, according to Sky News."
Thursday, June 9, 2022
Linkee-poo Thursday June 9
"The shared results will provide the first systematic baseline of winter conditions on the Great Lakes, giving important clues about how climate is affecting lake ecosystems as a whole."
"Remains of Europe's largest ever land-based dinosaur have been discovered on the Isle of Wight, scientists say… Palaeontologists at the University of Southampton identified the remains of the predator, which measured more than 32ft (10m) long and lived about 125 million years ago."
"The Venus Cloud Discontinuity is a relatively new discovery, photographed by Japan's Venus orbiter Akatsuki in 2016 and first spotted by JAXA scientist Javier Peralta. The massive structure cuts vertically across Venus's equator, stretching almost 5000 miles from end to end, and circles the planet faster than 200 mph, making one lap every ~5 Earth days."
"For the past four months, Perseverance has had an unexpected traveling companion. Back on sol 341… a rock found its way into the rover's front left wheel, and since hitching a ride, it's been transported more than 5.3 miles (8.5 km). This rock isn't doing any damage to the wheel, but throughout its… journey, it has clung on and made periodic appearances in our left Hazcam images."
"One of the 18 golden segments of the James Webb Space Telescope's giant mirror was hit by a micrometeoroid in May, according to an update from NASA. But don't worry -- the space observatory is still on track to share its first high-resolution, full-color images on July 12."
"Good news for sea turtles: President Biden announced on Monday that he hopes to designate the aquatic Hudson Canyon as a national marine sanctuary… About 100 miles southeast of New York City, Hudson Canyon is the largest underwater canyon in the U.S. portion of the Atlantic Ocean. It's also a biodiversity hotspot: home to sensitive species including sperm whales, cold-water coral and, yes, sea turtles."
"World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cautioned Wednesday that the window to contain the global monkeypox outbreak may be narrowing… 'The risk of monkeypox becoming established in non-endemic countries is real,' he said at a briefing in Geneva… 'We would have to really screw things up not to be able to contain this,' (Eric Toner, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security) added." Funny you should mention that, Eric.
"Results demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 exceeded ( influenza A virus) in its capacity to cause permanent injury to the lung and kidney and uniquely impacted the olfactory bulb (OB) and epithelium (OE). Despite a lack of detectable infectious virus, the OB and OE demonstrated myeloid and T cell activation, proinflammatory cytokine production, and an interferon response that correlated with behavioral changes extending a month post viral clearance." Oops.
"To understand the differences between food culture and hospitality around the globe, we spoke to anthropologists and food researchers."
"In the U.S., a small box of Kleenex now has 60 tissues; a few months ago, it had 65. Chobani Flips yogurts have shrunk from 5.3 ounces to 4.5 ounces. In the U.K., Nestle slimmed down its Nescafe Azera Americano coffee tins from 100 grams to 90 grams. In India, a bar of Vim dish soap has shrunk from 155 grams to 135 grams."
"Initial jobless claims spiked to their highest level since mid-January last week despite signs of an otherwise strong employment picture, the Labor Department reported Thursday… First-time filings for the week ended June 4 totaled 229,000, an increase of 27,000 from the upwardly revised level in the prior period and well ahead of the 210,000 Dow Jones estimate. The period covered includes the Memorial Day holiday; seasonal adjustments normally would lead to a higher number."
"The European Central Bank on Thursday confirmed its intention to hike interest rates at the policy meeting next month and downgraded its growth forecasts… Following the latest monetary policy meeting, the Governing Council announced it intends to raise key interest rates by 25 basis points at the July meeting."
"German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has condemned Wednesday's attack on a busy Berlin street that left one person dead and 31 injured as a 'cruel rampage'… Mr Scholz added that the attack, which was carried out by a 29-year-old man, had left him 'deeply saddened'."
"Every day, new information surfaces about how law enforcement responded to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 students and two teachers dead… Critics have pointed out failures at nearly every step of that response: the school's resource officer drove by the shooter as he crouched between cars; police waited more than an hour to head into the classroom while the gunman was inside; and the chief of school police showed up without his radio and stopped treating the incident as an active shooter situation."
"A young student who survived the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, was among of group of witnesses who testified before House lawmakers at a hearing on gun violence, recalling how she smeared the blood of a classmate on herself to appear as if she were dead." And the continual question, will this time be different?
"On Thursday, the outfit announced a new campaign directed at Fox's website and its popular YouTube channel calling on the public to pressure online ad exchanges to stop doing business with Fox. It comes just as the House committee investigating the Capitol riots kicks off a series of hearings focused on violence that unfolded on Jan. 6." The real problem here is that Fox News, the parent company, receives much of it's funding from cable tv subscriptions. And until that is decoupled (by ala cart type subscriptions, or placing Fox News on a premium tier by itself) all you can do is affect how many shrimp are on their meeting shrimp cocktails. They're doing good work, but if you really want to hurt Fox, go after the cable TV companies. The biggest strike against ONAN was AT&T dropping them from the lineup. So I wish them all the success. Maybe they will be able to affect change. But ads aren't where Fox News makes it's money.
"FBI agents arrested (Michigan) Republican gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley on misdemeanor charges related to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol… The arrest and search unfolding at Kelley's home in Allendale add more uncertainty to a chaotic race for governor that has seen several Republican candidates blocked from the ballot for submitting fraudulent nominating petition signatures."
"Haley is putting her political muscle behind South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace, a freshman congresswoman who blamed Trump for the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot — and who is now facing a Trump-endorsed opponent, Katie Arrington, in next week’s Republican primary. Haley, a former South Carolina governor, has appeared in Mace’s TV ads, headlined a fundraiser that raised six figures, and is expected to close out the race by holding several events with the congresswoman."
"The Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol played out for the world to see, but the House committee investigating the attack believes a more chilling story has yet to be told -- about the president and the people whose actions put American democracy at risk."
"Next week is the 50th anniversary of the break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, an event that would bring down a U.S. president. The reporters at the heart of uncovering the Watergate scandal have reissued their book 'All the President's Men' with a new forward drawing parallels to former President Trump. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein join Judy Woodruff to discuss." And then Carl Bernstein drops the hammer, "But then Trump went further. He is the first seditious president in our history. How did that happen? He decided he would not abide by the election, the duly constituted, free election of Joe Biden as the president of the United States, and staged a coup to keep Biden from taking office."
"Remains of Europe's largest ever land-based dinosaur have been discovered on the Isle of Wight, scientists say… Palaeontologists at the University of Southampton identified the remains of the predator, which measured more than 32ft (10m) long and lived about 125 million years ago."
"The Venus Cloud Discontinuity is a relatively new discovery, photographed by Japan's Venus orbiter Akatsuki in 2016 and first spotted by JAXA scientist Javier Peralta. The massive structure cuts vertically across Venus's equator, stretching almost 5000 miles from end to end, and circles the planet faster than 200 mph, making one lap every ~5 Earth days."
"For the past four months, Perseverance has had an unexpected traveling companion. Back on sol 341… a rock found its way into the rover's front left wheel, and since hitching a ride, it's been transported more than 5.3 miles (8.5 km). This rock isn't doing any damage to the wheel, but throughout its… journey, it has clung on and made periodic appearances in our left Hazcam images."
"One of the 18 golden segments of the James Webb Space Telescope's giant mirror was hit by a micrometeoroid in May, according to an update from NASA. But don't worry -- the space observatory is still on track to share its first high-resolution, full-color images on July 12."
"Good news for sea turtles: President Biden announced on Monday that he hopes to designate the aquatic Hudson Canyon as a national marine sanctuary… About 100 miles southeast of New York City, Hudson Canyon is the largest underwater canyon in the U.S. portion of the Atlantic Ocean. It's also a biodiversity hotspot: home to sensitive species including sperm whales, cold-water coral and, yes, sea turtles."
"World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cautioned Wednesday that the window to contain the global monkeypox outbreak may be narrowing… 'The risk of monkeypox becoming established in non-endemic countries is real,' he said at a briefing in Geneva… 'We would have to really screw things up not to be able to contain this,' (Eric Toner, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security) added." Funny you should mention that, Eric.
"Results demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 exceeded ( influenza A virus) in its capacity to cause permanent injury to the lung and kidney and uniquely impacted the olfactory bulb (OB) and epithelium (OE). Despite a lack of detectable infectious virus, the OB and OE demonstrated myeloid and T cell activation, proinflammatory cytokine production, and an interferon response that correlated with behavioral changes extending a month post viral clearance." Oops.
"To understand the differences between food culture and hospitality around the globe, we spoke to anthropologists and food researchers."
"In the U.S., a small box of Kleenex now has 60 tissues; a few months ago, it had 65. Chobani Flips yogurts have shrunk from 5.3 ounces to 4.5 ounces. In the U.K., Nestle slimmed down its Nescafe Azera Americano coffee tins from 100 grams to 90 grams. In India, a bar of Vim dish soap has shrunk from 155 grams to 135 grams."
"Initial jobless claims spiked to their highest level since mid-January last week despite signs of an otherwise strong employment picture, the Labor Department reported Thursday… First-time filings for the week ended June 4 totaled 229,000, an increase of 27,000 from the upwardly revised level in the prior period and well ahead of the 210,000 Dow Jones estimate. The period covered includes the Memorial Day holiday; seasonal adjustments normally would lead to a higher number."
"The European Central Bank on Thursday confirmed its intention to hike interest rates at the policy meeting next month and downgraded its growth forecasts… Following the latest monetary policy meeting, the Governing Council announced it intends to raise key interest rates by 25 basis points at the July meeting."
"German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has condemned Wednesday's attack on a busy Berlin street that left one person dead and 31 injured as a 'cruel rampage'… Mr Scholz added that the attack, which was carried out by a 29-year-old man, had left him 'deeply saddened'."
"Every day, new information surfaces about how law enforcement responded to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 students and two teachers dead… Critics have pointed out failures at nearly every step of that response: the school's resource officer drove by the shooter as he crouched between cars; police waited more than an hour to head into the classroom while the gunman was inside; and the chief of school police showed up without his radio and stopped treating the incident as an active shooter situation."
"A young student who survived the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, was among of group of witnesses who testified before House lawmakers at a hearing on gun violence, recalling how she smeared the blood of a classmate on herself to appear as if she were dead." And the continual question, will this time be different?
"On Thursday, the outfit announced a new campaign directed at Fox's website and its popular YouTube channel calling on the public to pressure online ad exchanges to stop doing business with Fox. It comes just as the House committee investigating the Capitol riots kicks off a series of hearings focused on violence that unfolded on Jan. 6." The real problem here is that Fox News, the parent company, receives much of it's funding from cable tv subscriptions. And until that is decoupled (by ala cart type subscriptions, or placing Fox News on a premium tier by itself) all you can do is affect how many shrimp are on their meeting shrimp cocktails. They're doing good work, but if you really want to hurt Fox, go after the cable TV companies. The biggest strike against ONAN was AT&T dropping them from the lineup. So I wish them all the success. Maybe they will be able to affect change. But ads aren't where Fox News makes it's money.
"FBI agents arrested (Michigan) Republican gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley on misdemeanor charges related to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol… The arrest and search unfolding at Kelley's home in Allendale add more uncertainty to a chaotic race for governor that has seen several Republican candidates blocked from the ballot for submitting fraudulent nominating petition signatures."
"Haley is putting her political muscle behind South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace, a freshman congresswoman who blamed Trump for the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot — and who is now facing a Trump-endorsed opponent, Katie Arrington, in next week’s Republican primary. Haley, a former South Carolina governor, has appeared in Mace’s TV ads, headlined a fundraiser that raised six figures, and is expected to close out the race by holding several events with the congresswoman."
"The Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol played out for the world to see, but the House committee investigating the attack believes a more chilling story has yet to be told -- about the president and the people whose actions put American democracy at risk."
"Next week is the 50th anniversary of the break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, an event that would bring down a U.S. president. The reporters at the heart of uncovering the Watergate scandal have reissued their book 'All the President's Men' with a new forward drawing parallels to former President Trump. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein join Judy Woodruff to discuss." And then Carl Bernstein drops the hammer, "But then Trump went further. He is the first seditious president in our history. How did that happen? He decided he would not abide by the election, the duly constituted, free election of Joe Biden as the president of the United States, and staged a coup to keep Biden from taking office."
Wednesday, June 8, 2022
Linkee-poo Wednesday June 8
"The NFL season doesn't start until September, but Justine Lindsay is making history in the off-season as the league's first openly transgender cheerleader… Lindsay, 29, announced that she had made the Carolina Panthers TopCats team earlier this year in an Instagram post."
"Astronomers have detected a mysterious, repeating fast radio burst emanating from a dwarf galaxy located 3 billion light-years away… The cosmic object is distinctive when compared with other detections of radio bursts in recent years, according to new research."
"Researchers in the United Kingdom have found that an ancient Greek inscription on a 2,000-year-old marble tablet is actually something resembling a yearbook for a graduating class, according to a new translation… The inscription sat in the National Museums Scotland collection for over 130 years without being properly looked at until researchers discovered the document, according to Peter Liddel of the University of Manchester."
"Bison produce very lean meat, but they are wild animals that can be difficult to raise on a farm. Cattle are very docile, but their meat can be high in fat and not very healthy… That's why proponents of a crossbreed — called beefalo — say they have what should be the future of U.S. meat production." Or, ya know, we could stop feeding cattle corn which leads to higher fat content (and it's why they're fed corn in the fed lots before slaughter). But that battle won't be won at the producer level, but at the slaughter house level. Just a reminder, Americans needed to be sold on "marbled beef" because it was cheaper and faster to produce. Fat is believed to hold more flavor. And it's also why pork and chicken are becoming fatty.
"Health care sharing ministries are faith-based organizations whose members agree to share medical expenses. The ministries grew in popularity before the Affordable Care Act's mandate for having insurance coverage was repealed, because they offered a cheaper alternative to insurance. But they are not insurance, are largely not regulated as such and don't necessarily cover members' medical bills. Massachusetts is the lone state that requires ministries to regularly report data, and only about half of claims submitted to ministries there were deemed eligible for payment. This spring, the Colorado legislature passed similar requirements that await the governor's signature."
More on that rectal cancer study… "In a very small trial done by doctors at New York's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, patients took a drug called dostarlimab for six months. The trial resulted in every single one of their tumors disappearing. The trial group included just 18 people, and there's still more to be learned about how the treatment worked. But some scientists say these kinds of results have never been seen in the history of cancer research."
"Moderna says its new vaccine candidate, which fights both the original COVID-19 strain and the now-dominant omicron variant, shows a "superior neutralizing antibody response" against the coronavirus compared to its original vaccine… The 'bivalent' vaccine — meaning it targets two different antigens — is Moderna's leading candidate to have an effective booster ready for fall of 2022, the company said."
"Mortgage rates are back on the upswing, after a brief decline in May, and the housing market is still suffering from a lack of listings. As a result, mortgage demand continues to drop… Total mortgage application volume fell 6.5% last week compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. Demand hit the lowest level in 22 years."
"While wealthier shoppers continue to splurge, low-income shoppers have pulled back faster than expected in the past two months. They’re focusing on necessities while turning to cheaper items or less expensive stores. And they’re buying only a little at a time."
"Budget airline Ryanair says it's forcing South African travelers to the U.K. to do a test in the Afrikaans language to prove their nationality in an apparent effort to weed out those with phony passports… Afrikaans is one of South Africa's 11 official languages and is the first language of about 13% of the country's population. It's a Dutch-based language developed by many of the country's white settlers who came from the Netherlands and is associated with South Africa's apartheid regime of white minority rule that ended in 1994."
"Russia’s war in Ukraine and the energy and food crises it worsened will severely drag down global economic growth and push up inflation this year, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Wednesday."
"U.S. gas prices hit a new record on Monday, with a gallon of regular gas costing an average of $4.865 (not adjusting for inflation), according to the most recent data from AAA… The highest average price — $6.34 — is in California, but 10 states have now surpassed the $5 mark… The higher prices hit hard in the past week, when Americans hit roads and highways for the Memorial Day holiday travel."
"Former Hollywood movie producer Harvey Weinstein is facing two indecent assault charges in the United Kingdom against a woman in 1996… The UK's Crown Prosecution Service said on Wednesday it had authorized London's Metropolitan Police to charge the 70-year-old following a review of evidence gathered by the force in its investigation."
"The International Skating Union is raising the minimum age for athletes in its most high-profile competitions from 15 to 17. The move comes months after Russia's Kamila Valieva was caught in a storm of controversy at the Beijing Winter Olympics when she was just 15 years old."
"A 66-year-old British man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison in Iraq after he was found guilty of stealing antiquities while on an archaeological tour of the country, his lawyer has said… Fitton's family, who say they fear the retired geologist might die while serving his sentence, said they were "shattered" by Monday's verdict and have urged the UK government to seek his release."
"A U.S. woman pleaded guilty Tuesday to operating an all-female military group for ISIS in Syria… Allison Fluke-Ekren, 42, who became the leader of the ISIS battalion known as Khatiba Nusaybah, taught women how to use AK-47s and explosive devices, according to the U.S. Justice Department."
"U.S. authorities moved Monday to seize two luxury jets — a $60 million Gulfstream and a $350 million aircraft believed to be one of the world's most expensive private airplanes — after linking both to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich."
"The skull is the symbol of the Wagner Group — a private Russian mercenary force believed to be financed by an oligarch with close ties to President Vladimir Putin. The group is fighting alongside the Russian army in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region. And it's widely believed that at least some of the "little green men" — well-trained fighters who wore fatigues without insignia or markings — who took over part of eastern Ukraine in 2014 were Wagner Group soldiers."
"Organizers of a Republican-backed Michigan petition to enact voter restrictions to combat would-be voter fraud missed the state’s filing deadline on Wednesday after discovering tens of thousands of fraudulent signatures… Organizers had planned to submit the petition to the state by Wednesday’s deadline but abruptly backed down after discovering that around 20,000 signatures were fraudulent. Organizer Jamie Roe insisted that the effort had gathered 435,000 signatures, more than the 340,047 required, but said the group did not submit the petition out of an 'abundance of caution.'" And then they tried to blame their signature gatherers, like those who faked signatures on some of the gubernatorial races did. Yeah. It's your volunteers' fault.
"The FBI has seized the electronic data of a retired four-star general who authorities say made false statements and withheld 'incriminating' documents about his role in an illegal foreign lobbying campaign on behalf of the wealthy Persian Gulf nation of Qatar."
"In Massachusetts, the Anti-Defamation League counted 388 reported hate, extremism, antisemitism and terror incidents in 2021. Five years earlier, it tallied only 123 reported incidents. Much of this activity is graffiti or leafleting or other acts of racist propaganda. But some of it is violence… Investigators last summer found antisemitic and racist writings taken from the internet in the home of Nathan Allen after he murdered two Black people in Winthrop."
"In Pvt. Melzer’s case, the American military allegedly came close to suffering a homegrown attack, which would have been the ultimate blowback of an 18-year undercover-informant operation. Joshua Sutter’s role as the chief American proselytizer of Melzer’s satanic ideology is complicated by the fact that Sutter was also enjoying life on the FBI payroll, while publishing thousands of words of blood-curdling propaganda that radicalized a growing movement of dangerous extremists."
"The leader of the far-right Proud Boys group and four associates have been charged with seditious conspiracy related to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack that was intended to block Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election, the Justice Department said on Monday… A federal grand jury in Washington also charged them with conspiring to prevent an officer from discharging any duties."
"The Justice Department is racking up convictions in its investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, charging more than 800 people with crimes related to the deadly assault, securing three guilty pleas on the rare charge of seditious conspiracy and winning the cooperation of insiders from far-right groups… But even as its investigation has heated up and fanned further out in recent months, the department has been hammered by lawmakers and political progressives who say it hasn't gone far enough."
"An armed man was arrested near Brett Kavanaugh's Maryland home after making threats against the Supreme Court justice, according to a court spokesperson… The man was arrested at about 1:50 a.m. ET Wednesday, the spokesperson said. He was transported to Montgomery County Police 2nd District. Montgomery County police say the man arrested is from California."
"At the Supreme Court, nothing is as usual this term after the leak of Justice Samuel Alito's draft opinion in the biggest abortion case in nearly a half-century… Normally at this time of year, the justices would be exchanging hundreds of pages of draft opinions and working with each other to resolve differences and reach consensus in the most challenging cases of the term. Instead, the court is riven with distrust among the law clerks, staff and, most of all, the justices themselves."
"Astronomers have detected a mysterious, repeating fast radio burst emanating from a dwarf galaxy located 3 billion light-years away… The cosmic object is distinctive when compared with other detections of radio bursts in recent years, according to new research."
"Researchers in the United Kingdom have found that an ancient Greek inscription on a 2,000-year-old marble tablet is actually something resembling a yearbook for a graduating class, according to a new translation… The inscription sat in the National Museums Scotland collection for over 130 years without being properly looked at until researchers discovered the document, according to Peter Liddel of the University of Manchester."
"Bison produce very lean meat, but they are wild animals that can be difficult to raise on a farm. Cattle are very docile, but their meat can be high in fat and not very healthy… That's why proponents of a crossbreed — called beefalo — say they have what should be the future of U.S. meat production." Or, ya know, we could stop feeding cattle corn which leads to higher fat content (and it's why they're fed corn in the fed lots before slaughter). But that battle won't be won at the producer level, but at the slaughter house level. Just a reminder, Americans needed to be sold on "marbled beef" because it was cheaper and faster to produce. Fat is believed to hold more flavor. And it's also why pork and chicken are becoming fatty.
"Health care sharing ministries are faith-based organizations whose members agree to share medical expenses. The ministries grew in popularity before the Affordable Care Act's mandate for having insurance coverage was repealed, because they offered a cheaper alternative to insurance. But they are not insurance, are largely not regulated as such and don't necessarily cover members' medical bills. Massachusetts is the lone state that requires ministries to regularly report data, and only about half of claims submitted to ministries there were deemed eligible for payment. This spring, the Colorado legislature passed similar requirements that await the governor's signature."
More on that rectal cancer study… "In a very small trial done by doctors at New York's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, patients took a drug called dostarlimab for six months. The trial resulted in every single one of their tumors disappearing. The trial group included just 18 people, and there's still more to be learned about how the treatment worked. But some scientists say these kinds of results have never been seen in the history of cancer research."
"Moderna says its new vaccine candidate, which fights both the original COVID-19 strain and the now-dominant omicron variant, shows a "superior neutralizing antibody response" against the coronavirus compared to its original vaccine… The 'bivalent' vaccine — meaning it targets two different antigens — is Moderna's leading candidate to have an effective booster ready for fall of 2022, the company said."
"Mortgage rates are back on the upswing, after a brief decline in May, and the housing market is still suffering from a lack of listings. As a result, mortgage demand continues to drop… Total mortgage application volume fell 6.5% last week compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. Demand hit the lowest level in 22 years."
"While wealthier shoppers continue to splurge, low-income shoppers have pulled back faster than expected in the past two months. They’re focusing on necessities while turning to cheaper items or less expensive stores. And they’re buying only a little at a time."
"Budget airline Ryanair says it's forcing South African travelers to the U.K. to do a test in the Afrikaans language to prove their nationality in an apparent effort to weed out those with phony passports… Afrikaans is one of South Africa's 11 official languages and is the first language of about 13% of the country's population. It's a Dutch-based language developed by many of the country's white settlers who came from the Netherlands and is associated with South Africa's apartheid regime of white minority rule that ended in 1994."
"Russia’s war in Ukraine and the energy and food crises it worsened will severely drag down global economic growth and push up inflation this year, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Wednesday."
"U.S. gas prices hit a new record on Monday, with a gallon of regular gas costing an average of $4.865 (not adjusting for inflation), according to the most recent data from AAA… The highest average price — $6.34 — is in California, but 10 states have now surpassed the $5 mark… The higher prices hit hard in the past week, when Americans hit roads and highways for the Memorial Day holiday travel."
"Former Hollywood movie producer Harvey Weinstein is facing two indecent assault charges in the United Kingdom against a woman in 1996… The UK's Crown Prosecution Service said on Wednesday it had authorized London's Metropolitan Police to charge the 70-year-old following a review of evidence gathered by the force in its investigation."
"The International Skating Union is raising the minimum age for athletes in its most high-profile competitions from 15 to 17. The move comes months after Russia's Kamila Valieva was caught in a storm of controversy at the Beijing Winter Olympics when she was just 15 years old."
"A 66-year-old British man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison in Iraq after he was found guilty of stealing antiquities while on an archaeological tour of the country, his lawyer has said… Fitton's family, who say they fear the retired geologist might die while serving his sentence, said they were "shattered" by Monday's verdict and have urged the UK government to seek his release."
"A U.S. woman pleaded guilty Tuesday to operating an all-female military group for ISIS in Syria… Allison Fluke-Ekren, 42, who became the leader of the ISIS battalion known as Khatiba Nusaybah, taught women how to use AK-47s and explosive devices, according to the U.S. Justice Department."
"U.S. authorities moved Monday to seize two luxury jets — a $60 million Gulfstream and a $350 million aircraft believed to be one of the world's most expensive private airplanes — after linking both to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich."
"The skull is the symbol of the Wagner Group — a private Russian mercenary force believed to be financed by an oligarch with close ties to President Vladimir Putin. The group is fighting alongside the Russian army in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region. And it's widely believed that at least some of the "little green men" — well-trained fighters who wore fatigues without insignia or markings — who took over part of eastern Ukraine in 2014 were Wagner Group soldiers."
"Organizers of a Republican-backed Michigan petition to enact voter restrictions to combat would-be voter fraud missed the state’s filing deadline on Wednesday after discovering tens of thousands of fraudulent signatures… Organizers had planned to submit the petition to the state by Wednesday’s deadline but abruptly backed down after discovering that around 20,000 signatures were fraudulent. Organizer Jamie Roe insisted that the effort had gathered 435,000 signatures, more than the 340,047 required, but said the group did not submit the petition out of an 'abundance of caution.'" And then they tried to blame their signature gatherers, like those who faked signatures on some of the gubernatorial races did. Yeah. It's your volunteers' fault.
"The FBI has seized the electronic data of a retired four-star general who authorities say made false statements and withheld 'incriminating' documents about his role in an illegal foreign lobbying campaign on behalf of the wealthy Persian Gulf nation of Qatar."
"In Massachusetts, the Anti-Defamation League counted 388 reported hate, extremism, antisemitism and terror incidents in 2021. Five years earlier, it tallied only 123 reported incidents. Much of this activity is graffiti or leafleting or other acts of racist propaganda. But some of it is violence… Investigators last summer found antisemitic and racist writings taken from the internet in the home of Nathan Allen after he murdered two Black people in Winthrop."
"In Pvt. Melzer’s case, the American military allegedly came close to suffering a homegrown attack, which would have been the ultimate blowback of an 18-year undercover-informant operation. Joshua Sutter’s role as the chief American proselytizer of Melzer’s satanic ideology is complicated by the fact that Sutter was also enjoying life on the FBI payroll, while publishing thousands of words of blood-curdling propaganda that radicalized a growing movement of dangerous extremists."
"The leader of the far-right Proud Boys group and four associates have been charged with seditious conspiracy related to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack that was intended to block Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election, the Justice Department said on Monday… A federal grand jury in Washington also charged them with conspiring to prevent an officer from discharging any duties."
"The Justice Department is racking up convictions in its investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, charging more than 800 people with crimes related to the deadly assault, securing three guilty pleas on the rare charge of seditious conspiracy and winning the cooperation of insiders from far-right groups… But even as its investigation has heated up and fanned further out in recent months, the department has been hammered by lawmakers and political progressives who say it hasn't gone far enough."
"An armed man was arrested near Brett Kavanaugh's Maryland home after making threats against the Supreme Court justice, according to a court spokesperson… The man was arrested at about 1:50 a.m. ET Wednesday, the spokesperson said. He was transported to Montgomery County Police 2nd District. Montgomery County police say the man arrested is from California."
"At the Supreme Court, nothing is as usual this term after the leak of Justice Samuel Alito's draft opinion in the biggest abortion case in nearly a half-century… Normally at this time of year, the justices would be exchanging hundreds of pages of draft opinions and working with each other to resolve differences and reach consensus in the most challenging cases of the term. Instead, the court is riven with distrust among the law clerks, staff and, most of all, the justices themselves."
Monday, June 6, 2022
Linkee-poo Monday June 6
"For the last two years, the notion that no kid should ever have to go hungry in the US has gotten closer to a reality, thanks to federal waivers that have expanded children’s access to food. The waivers resulted in a simple but revolutionary outcome: free lunch, year-round, for every American schoolchild… But that will come to an end in weeks, as Congress has failed to include an extension of the waivers, which have allowed schools to offer school lunches as well as summer lunch handouts, enabling an estimated 10 million more students to get a free meal."
"This case, argued over six weeks before a seven-person jury and judge, and a noisily expanding online audience, drove much of the internet crazy with guilty pleasure. Thus ensued a collective hurling of feces at Amber Heard, despite the evidence gathered meticulously in a 2020 British libel case also focused on Depp’s spousal abuse. The only quarter of the media that seemed reluctant to engage in the facts of the case was the progressive press, or the liberal media. There you could find coverage of the social media chaos, but not the underlying reality. This bothered journalist Michael Hobbes, host of the podcast Maintenance Phase, who observed that usually reliable outlets tended to steer around the facts, and sold an already victimized woman down the river." An On the Media short podcast on the Amber Heard/Johnny Depp trial.
"Scientists at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution announced today that ribonucleic acid (RNA), an analog of DNA that was likely the first genetic material for life, spontaneously forms on basalt lava glass. Such glass was abundant on Earth 4.35 billion years ago. Similar basalts of this antiquity survive on Mars today."
"A weekly dose of a diabetes drug appears to lead to significant weight loss in people with obesity, in a development experts have hailed as gamechanging… Now researchers say a diabetes drug, used alongside such interventions, can help people with obesity. Participants in a 72-week trial lost as much as 20% of their body weight." But in the US off label use is strictly regulated. Ask me how I know.
"Thousands of UK workers are starting a four-day work week from Monday with no cut to their pay in the largest trial of its kind… The pilot, which will last for six months, involves 3,300 workers spanning 70 companies, ranging from providers of financial services to a fish-and-chip restaurant… During the program, workers receive 100% of their pay for working only 80% of their usual week, in exchange for promising to maintain 100% of their productivity." I mentioned somewhere that we are now in a societal conversation regarding work/life balance. I know healthcare work places that had been resistant to 10 and 12 hour work days are now experimenting (or have promised to experiment).
"The technology necessary to turn nuclear waste into energy is known as a nuclear fast reactor, and has existed for decades. It was proven out by a United States government research lab pilot plant that operated from the 1960s through the 1990s… For political and economic reasons, the technology has never been developed at commercial scale." The resulting "waste" is plutonium. Which, while low grade, is something we generally didn't want more of (even though it will be produced eventually).
"Oil prices topped $120 a barrel in choppy trade on Monday buoyed by Saudi Arabia raising its July crude prices but amid doubts that a higher output target for OPEC+ oil producers would ease tight supply."
"Anti-monopolists blame inflation on price-gouging. This is a persuasive argument. After all, CEOs of companies in highly concentrated industries keep giving investor presentations where they chortle, rub their hands, twirl their mustaches, and announce that their profits are sky-high thanks to their ability to raise prices…" Cory Doctorow on the current inflation bubble. Also this… "The collapse of onshore manufacturing capacity was a choice, not an accident. It was part of the financialization of our economy, which was heralded as a source of efficiency and abundance." Lived through that, can confirm.
"Solar energy stocks soared Monday after a report that the Biden administration will suspend tariffs on solar panel components from four countries… President Joe Biden declared a 24-month tariff exemption for solar panel products from several Southeast Asian nations, and announced the use of the Defense Production Act to promote domestic production."
"U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's job is at stake in a no-confidence vote Monday night local time. Johnson's supporters say he's certain to stay in office — but the rebellion within his own Conservative Party opens a new front in Johnson's fight to overcome a string of scandals and hold onto power."
"The battle for Ukraine has turned into a slugfest of dueling artillery. It's not the lightning-quick takedown Russian President Vladimir Putin intended. But former CIA Director David Petraeus says there's no denying Russian progress… 'They have made grinding, costly, but substantial gains,' he said. 'They now control at least 20 percent of the country, if you include the areas, of course, that they took control of back in 2014.'" I appreciate that in a war of attrition there's little to report, but can we stop covering the same ground with different talking heads?
"Ukrainian partisans in occupied areas of the country are increasing attacks and sabotage efforts on Russian forces and their local collaborators, with organised underground efforts appearing to spread."
"India is facing major diplomatic outrage from Muslim-majority countries after top officials in the governing Hindu nationalist party made derogatory references to Islam and the Prophet Muhammad, drawing accusations of blasphemy across some Arab nations that have left New Delhi struggling to contain the damaging fallout." I wonder when we'll have the conversation about former colonized nations having learned the wrong lessons while throwing off the colonizers.
"A Uvalde mom who says she was handcuffed by law enforcement while trying to rescue her sons from the school shooting has claimed that authorities warned her not to speak to the media about her experience."
"Confusion, chaos and wrong information appear to have contributed to law enforcement's delay in stopping the gunman at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas… The gunman spent more than an hour inside the school while police waited outside, authorities say. This was because the incident commander, school district police chief Pete Arredondo, treated the scene as a barricaded-person situation rather than as an active shooter situation."
"The House select committee will hold its first public hearing this week, on June 9 at 8 p.m. ET. Sources told CNN this hearing will be a broad overview of the panel's 10-month investigation and set the stage for subsequent hearings, which are expected to cover certain topics or themes… While the setup of the hearings has been a work in progress and evolving, sources note, the presentations will likely feature video clips from January 6, as well as some of the roughly 1,000 interviews the committee has conducted behind closed doors."
"The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack will unveil new evidence at Watergate-style public hearings this week showing Donald Trump and top aides acted with corrupt intent to stop Joe Biden’s certification, according to sources close to the inquiry… The panel intends to use the hearings as its principal method of revealing potential crimes by Trump as he sought to overturn the 2020 election results, the sources said, in what could be a treacherous legal and political moment for the former president."
"This week, On the Media looks ahead to the January 6th committee hearings that will air live in primetime this month. Find out which questions reporters hope the hearings will answer — like what really happened inside the White House that day. Plus, how a lie about a suitcase full of fake ballots took on a life of its own."
"This case, argued over six weeks before a seven-person jury and judge, and a noisily expanding online audience, drove much of the internet crazy with guilty pleasure. Thus ensued a collective hurling of feces at Amber Heard, despite the evidence gathered meticulously in a 2020 British libel case also focused on Depp’s spousal abuse. The only quarter of the media that seemed reluctant to engage in the facts of the case was the progressive press, or the liberal media. There you could find coverage of the social media chaos, but not the underlying reality. This bothered journalist Michael Hobbes, host of the podcast Maintenance Phase, who observed that usually reliable outlets tended to steer around the facts, and sold an already victimized woman down the river." An On the Media short podcast on the Amber Heard/Johnny Depp trial.
"Scientists at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution announced today that ribonucleic acid (RNA), an analog of DNA that was likely the first genetic material for life, spontaneously forms on basalt lava glass. Such glass was abundant on Earth 4.35 billion years ago. Similar basalts of this antiquity survive on Mars today."
"A weekly dose of a diabetes drug appears to lead to significant weight loss in people with obesity, in a development experts have hailed as gamechanging… Now researchers say a diabetes drug, used alongside such interventions, can help people with obesity. Participants in a 72-week trial lost as much as 20% of their body weight." But in the US off label use is strictly regulated. Ask me how I know.
"Thousands of UK workers are starting a four-day work week from Monday with no cut to their pay in the largest trial of its kind… The pilot, which will last for six months, involves 3,300 workers spanning 70 companies, ranging from providers of financial services to a fish-and-chip restaurant… During the program, workers receive 100% of their pay for working only 80% of their usual week, in exchange for promising to maintain 100% of their productivity." I mentioned somewhere that we are now in a societal conversation regarding work/life balance. I know healthcare work places that had been resistant to 10 and 12 hour work days are now experimenting (or have promised to experiment).
"The technology necessary to turn nuclear waste into energy is known as a nuclear fast reactor, and has existed for decades. It was proven out by a United States government research lab pilot plant that operated from the 1960s through the 1990s… For political and economic reasons, the technology has never been developed at commercial scale." The resulting "waste" is plutonium. Which, while low grade, is something we generally didn't want more of (even though it will be produced eventually).
"Oil prices topped $120 a barrel in choppy trade on Monday buoyed by Saudi Arabia raising its July crude prices but amid doubts that a higher output target for OPEC+ oil producers would ease tight supply."
"Anti-monopolists blame inflation on price-gouging. This is a persuasive argument. After all, CEOs of companies in highly concentrated industries keep giving investor presentations where they chortle, rub their hands, twirl their mustaches, and announce that their profits are sky-high thanks to their ability to raise prices…" Cory Doctorow on the current inflation bubble. Also this… "The collapse of onshore manufacturing capacity was a choice, not an accident. It was part of the financialization of our economy, which was heralded as a source of efficiency and abundance." Lived through that, can confirm.
"Solar energy stocks soared Monday after a report that the Biden administration will suspend tariffs on solar panel components from four countries… President Joe Biden declared a 24-month tariff exemption for solar panel products from several Southeast Asian nations, and announced the use of the Defense Production Act to promote domestic production."
"U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's job is at stake in a no-confidence vote Monday night local time. Johnson's supporters say he's certain to stay in office — but the rebellion within his own Conservative Party opens a new front in Johnson's fight to overcome a string of scandals and hold onto power."
"The battle for Ukraine has turned into a slugfest of dueling artillery. It's not the lightning-quick takedown Russian President Vladimir Putin intended. But former CIA Director David Petraeus says there's no denying Russian progress… 'They have made grinding, costly, but substantial gains,' he said. 'They now control at least 20 percent of the country, if you include the areas, of course, that they took control of back in 2014.'" I appreciate that in a war of attrition there's little to report, but can we stop covering the same ground with different talking heads?
"Ukrainian partisans in occupied areas of the country are increasing attacks and sabotage efforts on Russian forces and their local collaborators, with organised underground efforts appearing to spread."
"India is facing major diplomatic outrage from Muslim-majority countries after top officials in the governing Hindu nationalist party made derogatory references to Islam and the Prophet Muhammad, drawing accusations of blasphemy across some Arab nations that have left New Delhi struggling to contain the damaging fallout." I wonder when we'll have the conversation about former colonized nations having learned the wrong lessons while throwing off the colonizers.
"A Uvalde mom who says she was handcuffed by law enforcement while trying to rescue her sons from the school shooting has claimed that authorities warned her not to speak to the media about her experience."
"Confusion, chaos and wrong information appear to have contributed to law enforcement's delay in stopping the gunman at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas… The gunman spent more than an hour inside the school while police waited outside, authorities say. This was because the incident commander, school district police chief Pete Arredondo, treated the scene as a barricaded-person situation rather than as an active shooter situation."
"The House select committee will hold its first public hearing this week, on June 9 at 8 p.m. ET. Sources told CNN this hearing will be a broad overview of the panel's 10-month investigation and set the stage for subsequent hearings, which are expected to cover certain topics or themes… While the setup of the hearings has been a work in progress and evolving, sources note, the presentations will likely feature video clips from January 6, as well as some of the roughly 1,000 interviews the committee has conducted behind closed doors."
"The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack will unveil new evidence at Watergate-style public hearings this week showing Donald Trump and top aides acted with corrupt intent to stop Joe Biden’s certification, according to sources close to the inquiry… The panel intends to use the hearings as its principal method of revealing potential crimes by Trump as he sought to overturn the 2020 election results, the sources said, in what could be a treacherous legal and political moment for the former president."
"This week, On the Media looks ahead to the January 6th committee hearings that will air live in primetime this month. Find out which questions reporters hope the hearings will answer — like what really happened inside the White House that day. Plus, how a lie about a suitcase full of fake ballots took on a life of its own."
Sunday, June 5, 2022
Linkee-poo Sunday June 5
"Tropical Storm Alex, the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, gained a bit more force as it headed toward Bermuda on Sunday after dumping rain on parts of Florida, flooding some roads… Alex reached tropical storm force after strengthening off Florida's east coast early Sunday."
"For the first time in 18 years, five planets — Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn — will be sequentially aligned and visible at dawn throughout this month… Those watching from the continental United States should be able to catch a look, as long as they're up early enough, Diana Hannikainen, Sky & Telescope's Observing Editor, told NPR."
"On May 3, the tribal council voted nearly unanimously to banish the Lakota Language Consortium — along with its co-founder Wilhelm Meya and its head linguist, Jan Ullrich — from setting foot on the reservation. What the council took into consideration wasn’t just the organization’s dealings with the Standing Rock Sioux; it turned out at least three other tribes had also raised concerns about Meya, saying he broke agreements over how to use recordings, language materials and historical records, or used them without permission." Who owns a language, and breaking the chain of exploitation.
"Nationwide celebrations of The Queen's historic Platinum Jubilee closed with a spectacular Platinum Pageant in London - along with an appearance from the monarch herself… Tens of thousands of people gathered on The Mall hoping to see the Queen as four days of festivities drew to a close following the pageant… The pageant was split into four acts, telling the story of the Queen's life, and included a feast for the eyes from the Gold State Coach with archive footage of the Queen projected onto the windows to a peloton of 300 cyclists led by Sir Chris Joy and Dame Laura and Sir Jason Kenny."
"All of the patients in the study had a rare genetic signature in their tumors, known as mismatch repair deficiency. This means that cells are not as able to repair errors in DNA, a process that can lead to cancer. Eight of the 12 patients described in the New England Journal paper, including Roth, had Lynch syndrome, a genetic condition that causes mismatch repair and carries a much higher risk of colon cancer… …Immunotherapy drugs such as Jemperli or Merck’s Keytruda are thought to work against such cancer because all those changes in DNA make it easier for the immune system to learn to recognize and attack a tumor."
"At least two genetically distinct monkeypox variants are circulating in the U.S., according to new sequencing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." Wut?
"Starbucks is closing a store in Ithaca, N.Y., in what Starbucks union organizers are calling an illegal move of retaliation after workers at the location voted to unionize."
"The white-hot U.S. job market cooled to merely red hot last month, a mixed blessing for workers worried about runaway inflation and the possibility of a recession… While nearly all the private-sector jobs lost during the pandemic have returned, the pace of employment growth is noticeably slowing."
"More than two years into a pandemic that has no clear end, the debate over remote work has only intensified. Working from home isn't possible in many jobs. But for those who have the option, it's now evident that it is feasible, even beneficial… But how beneficial is a point of contention between workers and their bosses. Some bosses are deciding too much is lost when people aren't in the office and it's time to come back." The only thing missing in jobs for workers who can work remotely is the sense of control over their lives their bosses used to have. And I say that as a former manager. We are engaged in a large discussion of life/work balance. Work is starting to lose. when I started working from home (which I did a hybrid at a former employer while working on my Rad Tech degree), I really wasn't thrilled. It was a good option and time saver, though. Now after 2+ years for my part time job, while I won't say I love it, I certainly love the time and expense savings.
"A massive fire at a container depot near a port city in southeastern Bangladesh killed at least 49 people, including nine firefighters, and injured more than 100 others, officials and local media reported Sunday, as efforts to extinguish the blaze continued into a second night."
"Russia launched airstrikes on Kyiv for the first time in five weeks on Sunday, claiming it had targeted western-supplied tanks – while the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, warned more targets would be struck if weapons deliveries continued."
"Gunmen opened fire on worshippers at a Catholic church in southwestern Nigeria on Sunday and also detonated explosives, a state lawmaker said. Dozens were feared dead including children."
"Pope Francis added fuel to rumors about the future of his pontificate by announcing he would visit the central Italian city of L'Aquila in August for a feast initiated by Pope Celestine V, one of the few pontiffs who resigned before Pope Benedict XVI stepped down in 2013."
"A gunman suspected of fatally shooting a retired county judge at a Wisconsin home had a list that included Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, Whitmer's office and a law enforcement source said Saturday."
"Three people were killed after gunfire broke out early Sunday morning outside a nightspot in Chattanooga, Tennessee, authorities said."
"A bustling entertainment district turned into a scene of carnage when multiple shooters opened fire in the South Street area of Philadelphia, police said… At least three people were killed and 11 others hit by gunfire Saturday night, said Philadelphia Police Inspector D.F. Pace."
"Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican from Pennsylvania who is among the group of senators negotiating a package of new gun laws, said Sunday that a proposal to expand background checks is 'on the table' as discussions continue." Haven't we been to this dance before?
"Over the last 10 days, two leading contenders, former Detroit police chief James Craig and self-funding businessman Perry Johnson, were disqualified from the August ballot, their candidacy petitions rejected because of allegedly forged signatures. Conservative commentator Tudor Dixon, who had been polling in the single digits, earned the backing of Michigan’s highly influential DeVos family. And in the suddenly shrunken field, one poll showed fringe candidate Ryan Kelley — a real estate agent who attended the pro-Donald Trump rally that preceded the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — jumping into first place."
"For the first time in 18 years, five planets — Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn — will be sequentially aligned and visible at dawn throughout this month… Those watching from the continental United States should be able to catch a look, as long as they're up early enough, Diana Hannikainen, Sky & Telescope's Observing Editor, told NPR."
"On May 3, the tribal council voted nearly unanimously to banish the Lakota Language Consortium — along with its co-founder Wilhelm Meya and its head linguist, Jan Ullrich — from setting foot on the reservation. What the council took into consideration wasn’t just the organization’s dealings with the Standing Rock Sioux; it turned out at least three other tribes had also raised concerns about Meya, saying he broke agreements over how to use recordings, language materials and historical records, or used them without permission." Who owns a language, and breaking the chain of exploitation.
"Nationwide celebrations of The Queen's historic Platinum Jubilee closed with a spectacular Platinum Pageant in London - along with an appearance from the monarch herself… Tens of thousands of people gathered on The Mall hoping to see the Queen as four days of festivities drew to a close following the pageant… The pageant was split into four acts, telling the story of the Queen's life, and included a feast for the eyes from the Gold State Coach with archive footage of the Queen projected onto the windows to a peloton of 300 cyclists led by Sir Chris Joy and Dame Laura and Sir Jason Kenny."
"All of the patients in the study had a rare genetic signature in their tumors, known as mismatch repair deficiency. This means that cells are not as able to repair errors in DNA, a process that can lead to cancer. Eight of the 12 patients described in the New England Journal paper, including Roth, had Lynch syndrome, a genetic condition that causes mismatch repair and carries a much higher risk of colon cancer… …Immunotherapy drugs such as Jemperli or Merck’s Keytruda are thought to work against such cancer because all those changes in DNA make it easier for the immune system to learn to recognize and attack a tumor."
"At least two genetically distinct monkeypox variants are circulating in the U.S., according to new sequencing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." Wut?
"Starbucks is closing a store in Ithaca, N.Y., in what Starbucks union organizers are calling an illegal move of retaliation after workers at the location voted to unionize."
"The white-hot U.S. job market cooled to merely red hot last month, a mixed blessing for workers worried about runaway inflation and the possibility of a recession… While nearly all the private-sector jobs lost during the pandemic have returned, the pace of employment growth is noticeably slowing."
"More than two years into a pandemic that has no clear end, the debate over remote work has only intensified. Working from home isn't possible in many jobs. But for those who have the option, it's now evident that it is feasible, even beneficial… But how beneficial is a point of contention between workers and their bosses. Some bosses are deciding too much is lost when people aren't in the office and it's time to come back." The only thing missing in jobs for workers who can work remotely is the sense of control over their lives their bosses used to have. And I say that as a former manager. We are engaged in a large discussion of life/work balance. Work is starting to lose. when I started working from home (which I did a hybrid at a former employer while working on my Rad Tech degree), I really wasn't thrilled. It was a good option and time saver, though. Now after 2+ years for my part time job, while I won't say I love it, I certainly love the time and expense savings.
"A massive fire at a container depot near a port city in southeastern Bangladesh killed at least 49 people, including nine firefighters, and injured more than 100 others, officials and local media reported Sunday, as efforts to extinguish the blaze continued into a second night."
"Russia launched airstrikes on Kyiv for the first time in five weeks on Sunday, claiming it had targeted western-supplied tanks – while the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, warned more targets would be struck if weapons deliveries continued."
"Gunmen opened fire on worshippers at a Catholic church in southwestern Nigeria on Sunday and also detonated explosives, a state lawmaker said. Dozens were feared dead including children."
"Pope Francis added fuel to rumors about the future of his pontificate by announcing he would visit the central Italian city of L'Aquila in August for a feast initiated by Pope Celestine V, one of the few pontiffs who resigned before Pope Benedict XVI stepped down in 2013."
"A gunman suspected of fatally shooting a retired county judge at a Wisconsin home had a list that included Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, Whitmer's office and a law enforcement source said Saturday."
"Three people were killed after gunfire broke out early Sunday morning outside a nightspot in Chattanooga, Tennessee, authorities said."
"A bustling entertainment district turned into a scene of carnage when multiple shooters opened fire in the South Street area of Philadelphia, police said… At least three people were killed and 11 others hit by gunfire Saturday night, said Philadelphia Police Inspector D.F. Pace."
"Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican from Pennsylvania who is among the group of senators negotiating a package of new gun laws, said Sunday that a proposal to expand background checks is 'on the table' as discussions continue." Haven't we been to this dance before?
"Over the last 10 days, two leading contenders, former Detroit police chief James Craig and self-funding businessman Perry Johnson, were disqualified from the August ballot, their candidacy petitions rejected because of allegedly forged signatures. Conservative commentator Tudor Dixon, who had been polling in the single digits, earned the backing of Michigan’s highly influential DeVos family. And in the suddenly shrunken field, one poll showed fringe candidate Ryan Kelley — a real estate agent who attended the pro-Donald Trump rally that preceded the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — jumping into first place."
Friday, June 3, 2022
Linkee-poo Friday June 3
"Tropical storm warnings have been issued across the southern half of the Florida Peninsula and the Keys ahead of the likely formation of a Gulf tropical storm that will bring heavy rain and gusty winds to those areas into the weekend."
"The most surprising thing about the racism directed at Obi-Wan Kenobi star Moses Ingram is the fact that some people are still surprised by it… After all, other actors of color who have joined the Star Wars universe in recent years have complained about racist attacks from fans online, including John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran." It's not about the wars in the stars, it's just plain racism. And while it might not help much, yes, having the studio get out in front of this problem would help a little (for both racism and misogyny). But then that would mean the studios would need to accept risk of blowback, and frankly they don't have the spines for that.
"Adding to the growing list of commercial deliveries slated to explore more of the Moon than ever before under Artemis, NASA has selected two new science instrument suites, including one that will study the mysterious Gruithuisen Domes for the first time."
"The technique revealed never-before-seen details about 3C 273's host galaxy, including what the scientists described as an "unknown structure" in a statement on the discovery(opens in new tab). Komugi's team saw a faint band of radio emission across the host galaxy stretching for tens of thousands of light-years. This radio emission is coming from tens of billions to hundreds of billions of solar masses' worth of hydrogen gas that has been ionized by the ultraviolet and X-ray radiation from the quasar."
"A US medical team said Thursday they had reconstructed a human ear using the patient's own tissue to create a 3D bioimplant, a pioneering procedure they hope can be used to treat people with a rare birth defect."
"On Thursday, Alameda County broke ranks by once again implementing an indoor mask mandate 'to limit the impact of increasing COVID-19 cases on hospitalizations.' The mandate, which takes effect June 3, applies to most indoor settings, save K-12 schools and the city of Berkeley, which sets its own health protocols. The state lifted its school mask mandate earlier this year."
"US employers added 390,000 jobs in May, representing a robust but slower pace of hiring, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly jobs report released Friday… The unemployment rate stayed at 3.6%, slightly higher than the half-century low recorded in February 2020, before the pandemic hit."
"In his book, The Man Who Broke Capitalism, Gelles makes the case that (GE CEO Jack) Welch's ruthless cost-cutting and single-minded focus on quarterly earnings ultimately hurt both GE and American capitalism." I worked for GE vendors during the 90s, Jack Welch was an asshole who was destroying the company. You could tell it back then. And he impoverished thousands of workers at GE because of his assholiness. It's finally come time that the rest of business sees exactly what he wrought.
"Lee is part of a new surge of people showing up at food banks all over the U.S. this year, a "drumbeat of increasing demand, month over month," says Katie Fitzgerald, president of Feeding America. Food is one of the items worst hit by the highest inflation in four decades. And the cost of food and other essentials, such as gas and rent, fall hardest on lower-income households with little wiggle room."
"The U.S. Department of Education will forgive $5.8 billion of federal student loans for those who attended Corinthian Colleges, a chain of for-profit schools that deceived students about their job placement rates and students' ability to transfer credits… It is the single largest discharge of student loans in history, according to the department."
"A researcher entered the metaverse wanting to study users' behavior on Meta's social-networking platform Horizon World. But within an hour after she donned her Oculus virtual-reality headset, she says, her avatar was raped in the virtual space." I got nothing.
"Prosecutors investigating war crimes cases in Ukraine are examining allegations of the forcible deportation of children to Russia since the invasion as they seek to build a genocide indictment, the country’s top prosecutor said in an interview."
"Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, marked the 100th day of war with a video message in front of the presidential office in Kyiv where he pledged that 'victory will be ours'."
"Across France, more than 300 people have reported being pricked out of the blue with needles at nightclubs or concerts in recent months. Doctors and multiple prosecutors are on the case, but no one knows who's doing it or why, and whether the victims have been injected with drugs — or indeed any substance at all."
"Afghanistan's Taliban rulers have begun a campaign to eradicate poppy cultivation, aiming to wipe out the country's massive production of opium and heroin, even as farmers fear their livelihoods will be ruined at a time of growing poverty." What's old is new again.
"With Queen Elizabeth II missing a service of thanksgiving on Friday at St Paul's Cathedral for her 70-year reign, questions are swirling about the health of the United Kingdom's 96-year-old monarch… Buckingham Palace said Thursday the Queen experienced "some discomfort" during the first day of her Platinum Jubilee celebration and would sit out of the second day's major event."
"On the day a gunman massacred 21 people at Robb Elementary, the 911 calls from terrified children inside the school were not relayed to school district Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who was the incident commander, said state Sen. Roland Gutierrez on Thursday." How long until this is also rolled back? And if it's not, oh boy should heads roll.
"Tulsa police confirmed that a shooter killed four people at Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Okla., on Wednesday."
"The Story County Sheriff's Office says three people are dead in a shooting outside of Cornerstone Church on the eastern edge of Ames on Thursday night… Story County authorities provided new details in the shooting Friday morning."
"President Biden on Thursday declared it is time to put an end to the 'carnage' and loss of American lives in mass shootings across the country as he pleaded with Congress to pass what he said are 'rational, common-sense measures' to curb gun violence… 'How much carnage are we willing to accept?'"
"For decades, auto accidents have been the leading cause of death among children, but in 2020 guns were the No. 1 cause, researchers say… Overall firearm-related deaths increased 13.5% between 2019 and 2020, but such fatalities for those 1 to 19 years old jumped nearly 30%, according to a research letter in New England Journal of Medicine."
"New York state lawmakers passed several bills on Thursday to tighten state gun laws, including a bill that would raise the minimum age to 21 to buy a semiautomatic rifle."
"In what might be characterized as an exercise in the art of the possible, a bipartisan group of senators led by John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., have spent the past few days focused on a limited set of new policies targeting gun violence… They're still in the earliest phases of brainstorming, but three broad areas are showing promise: incentivizing states to pass red flag laws, updates to school safety protocols, and possibly some narrow changes to background checks." One, not enough. And two, I have no hope that even minor legislation could be passed.
"The white 18-year-old man accused of fatally shooting 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket was charged Wednesday by a grand jury with domestic terrorism motivated by hate and 10 counts of first-degree murder."
"GOP leadership from the state House and Senate stood at DeSantis’ side during a news conference in The Villages as he announced the record veto list. At times during the hourlong press conference, the governor directly poked fun at them as they laughed and clapped, a continuation of the Legislature's fealty to a governor who has run roughshod over them as his reputation as a national Republican rock star and potential 2024 presidential candidate has grown." It's all a game to them.
"Florida Governor Ron DeSantis vetoed Thursday a $35 million legislation for a Tampa Bay Rays’ spring training facility… DeSantis’s decision, according to Outkick and The Hill, is in response to the Rays 'politicizing' recent shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde ahead of a matchup with the Yankees in May."
"(Sen. Joe) Manchin was recently revealed to have quietly made millions of dollars from Enersystems over the past three decades as the only supplier of a low grade coal to a high-polluting power plant near Fairmont. That came as news to Hilsbos and just about everyone else in the city."
"Peter Navarro, a top White House adviser to Donald Trump, is being commanded by a federal grand jury subpoena to turn over to the justice department his communications with the former president, the former president’s attorneys and the former president’s representatives… The exact nature of the subpoena – served on 26 May 2022 and first obtained by the Guardian – and whether it means Trump himself is under criminal investigation for January 6 could not be established given the unusually sparse details included on the order."
"A federal grand jury has indicted former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro for contempt of Congress after he refused to cooperate in the House January 6 committee's investigation."
"Had the whole farrago of rumor and innuendo about the gay Reaganite conspiracy come to light during the campaign, it’s difficult to say what effect it would have had on the election. Of all the voters most likely to be troubled by such charges, it would have been the evangelical Christians whose support Reagan was courting so assiduously. Reagan’s eventual 10-point victory over Carter obscures how close the race was during the final stretch. In June, just as the Post investigation was about to unfold, Carter led Reagan 35 percent to 33 percent in a national Gallup poll, and few predicted anything near the landslide Reagan ultimately won."
"The most surprising thing about the racism directed at Obi-Wan Kenobi star Moses Ingram is the fact that some people are still surprised by it… After all, other actors of color who have joined the Star Wars universe in recent years have complained about racist attacks from fans online, including John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran." It's not about the wars in the stars, it's just plain racism. And while it might not help much, yes, having the studio get out in front of this problem would help a little (for both racism and misogyny). But then that would mean the studios would need to accept risk of blowback, and frankly they don't have the spines for that.
"Adding to the growing list of commercial deliveries slated to explore more of the Moon than ever before under Artemis, NASA has selected two new science instrument suites, including one that will study the mysterious Gruithuisen Domes for the first time."
"The technique revealed never-before-seen details about 3C 273's host galaxy, including what the scientists described as an "unknown structure" in a statement on the discovery(opens in new tab). Komugi's team saw a faint band of radio emission across the host galaxy stretching for tens of thousands of light-years. This radio emission is coming from tens of billions to hundreds of billions of solar masses' worth of hydrogen gas that has been ionized by the ultraviolet and X-ray radiation from the quasar."
"A US medical team said Thursday they had reconstructed a human ear using the patient's own tissue to create a 3D bioimplant, a pioneering procedure they hope can be used to treat people with a rare birth defect."
"On Thursday, Alameda County broke ranks by once again implementing an indoor mask mandate 'to limit the impact of increasing COVID-19 cases on hospitalizations.' The mandate, which takes effect June 3, applies to most indoor settings, save K-12 schools and the city of Berkeley, which sets its own health protocols. The state lifted its school mask mandate earlier this year."
"US employers added 390,000 jobs in May, representing a robust but slower pace of hiring, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly jobs report released Friday… The unemployment rate stayed at 3.6%, slightly higher than the half-century low recorded in February 2020, before the pandemic hit."
"In his book, The Man Who Broke Capitalism, Gelles makes the case that (GE CEO Jack) Welch's ruthless cost-cutting and single-minded focus on quarterly earnings ultimately hurt both GE and American capitalism." I worked for GE vendors during the 90s, Jack Welch was an asshole who was destroying the company. You could tell it back then. And he impoverished thousands of workers at GE because of his assholiness. It's finally come time that the rest of business sees exactly what he wrought.
"Lee is part of a new surge of people showing up at food banks all over the U.S. this year, a "drumbeat of increasing demand, month over month," says Katie Fitzgerald, president of Feeding America. Food is one of the items worst hit by the highest inflation in four decades. And the cost of food and other essentials, such as gas and rent, fall hardest on lower-income households with little wiggle room."
"The U.S. Department of Education will forgive $5.8 billion of federal student loans for those who attended Corinthian Colleges, a chain of for-profit schools that deceived students about their job placement rates and students' ability to transfer credits… It is the single largest discharge of student loans in history, according to the department."
"A researcher entered the metaverse wanting to study users' behavior on Meta's social-networking platform Horizon World. But within an hour after she donned her Oculus virtual-reality headset, she says, her avatar was raped in the virtual space." I got nothing.
"Prosecutors investigating war crimes cases in Ukraine are examining allegations of the forcible deportation of children to Russia since the invasion as they seek to build a genocide indictment, the country’s top prosecutor said in an interview."
"Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, marked the 100th day of war with a video message in front of the presidential office in Kyiv where he pledged that 'victory will be ours'."
"Across France, more than 300 people have reported being pricked out of the blue with needles at nightclubs or concerts in recent months. Doctors and multiple prosecutors are on the case, but no one knows who's doing it or why, and whether the victims have been injected with drugs — or indeed any substance at all."
"Afghanistan's Taliban rulers have begun a campaign to eradicate poppy cultivation, aiming to wipe out the country's massive production of opium and heroin, even as farmers fear their livelihoods will be ruined at a time of growing poverty." What's old is new again.
"With Queen Elizabeth II missing a service of thanksgiving on Friday at St Paul's Cathedral for her 70-year reign, questions are swirling about the health of the United Kingdom's 96-year-old monarch… Buckingham Palace said Thursday the Queen experienced "some discomfort" during the first day of her Platinum Jubilee celebration and would sit out of the second day's major event."
"On the day a gunman massacred 21 people at Robb Elementary, the 911 calls from terrified children inside the school were not relayed to school district Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who was the incident commander, said state Sen. Roland Gutierrez on Thursday." How long until this is also rolled back? And if it's not, oh boy should heads roll.
"Tulsa police confirmed that a shooter killed four people at Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Okla., on Wednesday."
"The Story County Sheriff's Office says three people are dead in a shooting outside of Cornerstone Church on the eastern edge of Ames on Thursday night… Story County authorities provided new details in the shooting Friday morning."
"President Biden on Thursday declared it is time to put an end to the 'carnage' and loss of American lives in mass shootings across the country as he pleaded with Congress to pass what he said are 'rational, common-sense measures' to curb gun violence… 'How much carnage are we willing to accept?'"
"For decades, auto accidents have been the leading cause of death among children, but in 2020 guns were the No. 1 cause, researchers say… Overall firearm-related deaths increased 13.5% between 2019 and 2020, but such fatalities for those 1 to 19 years old jumped nearly 30%, according to a research letter in New England Journal of Medicine."
"New York state lawmakers passed several bills on Thursday to tighten state gun laws, including a bill that would raise the minimum age to 21 to buy a semiautomatic rifle."
"In what might be characterized as an exercise in the art of the possible, a bipartisan group of senators led by John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., have spent the past few days focused on a limited set of new policies targeting gun violence… They're still in the earliest phases of brainstorming, but three broad areas are showing promise: incentivizing states to pass red flag laws, updates to school safety protocols, and possibly some narrow changes to background checks." One, not enough. And two, I have no hope that even minor legislation could be passed.
"The white 18-year-old man accused of fatally shooting 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket was charged Wednesday by a grand jury with domestic terrorism motivated by hate and 10 counts of first-degree murder."
"GOP leadership from the state House and Senate stood at DeSantis’ side during a news conference in The Villages as he announced the record veto list. At times during the hourlong press conference, the governor directly poked fun at them as they laughed and clapped, a continuation of the Legislature's fealty to a governor who has run roughshod over them as his reputation as a national Republican rock star and potential 2024 presidential candidate has grown." It's all a game to them.
"Florida Governor Ron DeSantis vetoed Thursday a $35 million legislation for a Tampa Bay Rays’ spring training facility… DeSantis’s decision, according to Outkick and The Hill, is in response to the Rays 'politicizing' recent shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde ahead of a matchup with the Yankees in May."
"(Sen. Joe) Manchin was recently revealed to have quietly made millions of dollars from Enersystems over the past three decades as the only supplier of a low grade coal to a high-polluting power plant near Fairmont. That came as news to Hilsbos and just about everyone else in the city."
"Peter Navarro, a top White House adviser to Donald Trump, is being commanded by a federal grand jury subpoena to turn over to the justice department his communications with the former president, the former president’s attorneys and the former president’s representatives… The exact nature of the subpoena – served on 26 May 2022 and first obtained by the Guardian – and whether it means Trump himself is under criminal investigation for January 6 could not be established given the unusually sparse details included on the order."
"A federal grand jury has indicted former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro for contempt of Congress after he refused to cooperate in the House January 6 committee's investigation."
"Had the whole farrago of rumor and innuendo about the gay Reaganite conspiracy come to light during the campaign, it’s difficult to say what effect it would have had on the election. Of all the voters most likely to be troubled by such charges, it would have been the evangelical Christians whose support Reagan was courting so assiduously. Reagan’s eventual 10-point victory over Carter obscures how close the race was during the final stretch. In June, just as the Post investigation was about to unfold, Carter led Reagan 35 percent to 33 percent in a national Gallup poll, and few predicted anything near the landslide Reagan ultimately won."
Wednesday, June 1, 2022
Linkee poo explodes into Summer
Well, I'm back from foreign lands. What shall we talk about?
"While 18-year-old Salvador Ramos was inside adjoining classrooms, a group of 19 law enforcement officers stood outside the classroom in the school for roughly 50 minutes as they waited for room keys and tactical equipment, CNN has reported. Meanwhile, children inside the classroom repeatedly called 911 and pleaded for help, Texas officials said." This story was a textbook case of "don't trust the first reports." JFC. As to the reports of "we thought it was a barricaded shooter, there were several 911 calls from inside the classroom. So, no, the police froze.
"Alleged school shooter Salvador Ramos was in the classroom for 77 minutes before officers entered and killed him, ABC News reported… During that time, he discharged 315 rounds of ammunition, with hundreds of those rounds fired within the first four minutes of his arrival, authorities said."
"The Uvalde Police Department and the Uvalde Independent School District police force are no longer cooperating with the Texas Department of Public Safety's investigation into the massacre at Robb Elementary School and the state's review of the law enforcement response, multiple law enforcement sources tell ABC News." If you've got nothing to hide…
"An activist confronted Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in a Houston restaurant on Friday night in a testy exchange after the lawmaker delivered a speech at the National Rifle Association (NRA) convention blaming violent video games, social media and other factors besides guns for mass shootings in the U.S."
And the narrative continues to evolve… "Texas officials had said a teacher propped a door open at Robb Elementary in Uvalde just before the gunman entered and carried out a mass shooting — but they now acknowledge that the woman closed the door, after the teacher's attorney spoke out… It's the latest shift in a narrative that has continued to change since last Tuesday — an extraordinary process that has seen officials repeatedly correcting earlier statements, after they're contradicted by new information."
"Amerie Jo Garza, one of the 21 victims killed in a mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, has been posthumously given the highest award in the Girl Scouts organization — the Bronze Cross." We should live in a society that doesn't have to award 10-year olds for putting the lives of others above their own, and by the gods we should never have to award it posthumously.
"The Food and Drug Administration is investigating two brands of strawberries sold at top grocery stores for Hepatitis A… The agency is 'investigating a multistate outbreak of hepatitis A infections in the United States and Canada potentially linked to fresh organic strawberries branded as FreshKampo and HEB,' the FDA website says."
"Starting Wednesday, residents across Southern California will have to limit how much they water their yards under new restrictions placed in response to the drought."
"This glorious Hubble Space Telescope image showcases spiral galaxy IC 342, also known as Caldwell 5. No matter what you call this galaxy, scientists have had some difficulty observing it due to obstacles in the way, earning it its 'hidden' nickname, according to NASA."
"Megalodon, the giant shark that lived more than 23 million years ago and was inspiration for the movie "The Meg," was almost four times bigger than the great white shark that cruises our oceans today… However, the two shark species, which once coexisted, likely hunted some of the same prey. This competition could potentially have been one reason why the 65-foot-long (20-meter-long) megalodon went extinct, a new study has suggested."
"A bison gored a woman visiting Yellowstone National Park and tossed her into the air, park officials said Tuesday… The 25-year-old woman, who was visiting from Ohio, was not identified in a news release from the National Park Service." Don't approach wild animals.
"Paleontologists have been debating for decades whether dinosaurs were warm-blooded, like modern mammals and birds, or cold-blooded, like modern reptiles. Knowing whether dinosaurs were warm- or cold-blooded could give us clues about how active they were and what their everyday lives were like, but previous methods to determine their warm- or cold-bloodedness — how quickly their metabolisms could turn oxygen into energy — were inconclusive. However, in a new paper published in the journal Nature, scientists are unveiling a novel method for studying dinosaurs’ metabolic rates, using clues in their bones that indicated how much the individual animals breathed in their last hour of life."
"In a policy shift aimed at reducing deaths from overdoses, Canada is decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of drugs in the western province of British Columbia… Drug overdose deaths have risen sharply across Canada over the past five years, with opioid-related deaths linked to fentanyl more than doubling."
"Contrary to popular myth, forgoing coffee isn’t likely to improve your health. The opposite might be true: Years of research suggests that drinking coffee is linked with a lower risk of death… The latest addition to that body of research was published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The study looked at around 120,000 people in the U.K. who regularly drank unsweetened or sugar-sweetened coffee over seven years. The findings suggested that those who drank 1.5 to 3.5 cups a day had a lower risk of death during those seven years than non-coffee drinkers, even if they added a teaspoon of real sugar — not artificial sweetener — to every cup." Oh look, the latest round of industry sponsored research is ready. "But the researchers didn't look at causality, so they couldn't say whether coffee is directly responsible for the outcome." I'll bet you they did look at causality, but didn't include it in the study.
"For decades now, experts believed monkeypox would simply stay put in Africa. This May, the zoonotic virus proved the fallacy of that idea, appearing in 23 countries — many of them in Europe —prompting the World Health Organization to declare Sunday that it was a 'moderate' global public health risk." Note this story makes all the errors outline in the On the Media podcast issue with a segment about Monkey Pox (further below).
"At least 650 children have been diagnosed with a mysterious and severe hepatitis infection since early April, according to the World Health Organization. The cases, which have so far puzzled health officials, have been reported in 33 different countries… At least 38 children have required a transplant, and nine have died, according to a Friday statement from WHO. There are also 99 cases pending classification."
"While there has indeed been significant research into long Covid over the past two years – including a few studies published last week – some infectious disease experts say we still don’t know enough about the prevalence of the condition, what causes it, and how to treat it."
"As we trudge through our third year of the pandemic, what is the state of our immunity to COVID? On this week’s On the Media, hear how vaccines and reinfections interact with fast-evolving variants. Plus, why we should take the recent monkeypox outbreak seriously, but avoid panicking."
"Covid-19 care, including distribution of lifesaving therapies, was significantly delayed for Black and Hispanic patients due to inaccurate oxygen readings from devices that can work poorly in darker-skinned individuals, according to a study published Tuesday. The finding may be one reason much higher Covid-19 mortality rates have been seen in communities of color across the United States." This is a known issue. WTF is this not being addressed?
"The Justice Department asked a federal appeals court on Tuesday to overturn last month's court decision by a federal judge that declared the mandate requiring masks on airplanes and other public transportation unlawful." One of the odd things about being in foreign, is that travel there was fairly easy, and they require masking on the flights that come in. Travel back was a PIA and we had to pass COVID testing, although there is no masking requirement for US travel. Try and rationalize that one. And yes, we wore our masks for all the flights.
"When asked to comment Tuesday about its weekend troubles, Delta pointed to a statement it issued last week, when it said it faced challenges including rising COVID-19 cases among workers." Remember that Delta has been leading the charge to roll back masking and other mandates. And now in their C-suite there are a large amount of chickens looking for roosting space.
"Job openings fell by nearly half a million in April, narrowing the historically large gap between vacant positions and available workers, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday… That left a gap of 5.46 million between openings and the available workers, still high by historical standards and reflective of a very tight labor market, but below the nearly 5.6 million difference from March. As a share of the labor force, the job openings rate fell 0.3 percentage point to 7%."
"A Republican commissioner on a federal mine safety agency sought advice on personnel matters from a closely held collection of outside advisers that appears to have included at least one coal industry executive, according to documents obtained by POLITICO… The revelations prompted the commission’s Democratic chair to request a review by an outside inspector general, alleging what appeared to be a violation of federal ethics rules."
"Families are transferring to Singapore, she said, but small- and medium-sized businesses are also on the move. Whereas one company executive might have left in the past, now 'they’re all going,' she said. Small companies are 'taking the entire team and putting them into Singapore.'" It's CNBC, so they often get motivations wrong. Such as with this article, the first claim about reasons why people are moving out of Hong Kong has to do with COVID restrictions. Singapore has had stricter and longer lock downs than Hong Kong.
"Shanghai celebrated Wednesday with a long-awaited burst of life, as the government lifted its city-wide lockdown. But the process of reopening is likely to be slow and painful, as residents in the financial hub contend with the trauma of the past two months."
"Elon Musk has told Tesla employees to come back into their respective offices at least 40 hours a week or leave the company… In two emails obtained by Electrek, Musk said that people must show up for at least 40 hours per week in a main Tesla office. 'If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned,' he said in one of the emails."
"Delta Air Lines expects its revenue to return to 2019 levels this quarter thanks to a surge in travel demand and higher fares that helped it cover a jump in fuel costs, the carrier said in a filing Wednesday." Not if they can't get the airplanes in the air.
"Cracks are forming in the U.S. labor market as some companies look to curb hiring while others are desperate for employees… Microsoft, Twitter, Wayfair, Snap and Facebook-parent Meta recently announced they plan to be more conservative about adding new employees. Peloton and Netflix announced layoffs as demand for their products slowed, and online car seller Carvana cut its workforce as it faces inflation and a cratering stock price."
"Nationally, home prices were 20.6% higher than they were in March 2021, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index. That is higher than the 20% gain in February. The index is a three-month running average ending in March." I believe the word is "uncoupled."
"As rates increase, there are some key money moves financial experts recommend consumers make to put themselves in a better financial situation. These broadly include paying down debt and shoring up personal budgets to be able to withstand any sudden shocks to the economy."
"Gas prices in the Tri-State area are still well above the national average, but New York drivers will get a little relief starting today… That's because effective on June 1, New York is suspending its gas tax for the rest of the year."
"The US and Taiwan unveiled a new trade initiative, Taiwan's trade representative announced Wednesday, after Taiwan was excluded from the US Indo-Pacific economic initiative that President Joe Biden formally announced in Asia last week."
"The FBI thwarted a planned cyberattack on a children’s hospital in Boston that was to have been carried out by hackers sponsored by the Iranian government, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday."
"But that's where the similarities end. In the aftermath of the shooting, parents in Dunblane were able to mobilize with the kind of effectiveness that has eluded American gun control activists. By the following year, Parliament had banned private ownership of most handguns, as well as semi-automatic weapons, and required mandatory registration for shotgun owners. There have been no school shootings in the U.K since then."
"Grab your party hats and hang up your bunting -- the Platinum Jubilee celebrations for the UK's Queen Elizabeth II are nearly upon us… No other monarch in British history has achieved 70 years of service."
"This week we're airing an interview that Brooke did while on a fellowship at the American Academy in Rome. She and her husband Fred Kaplan (author of the War Stories column in Slate), sat down with Mark Hannah, host of the podcast "None of the Above," produced by the Eurasia Group Foundation… From the Crimean War of 1853 to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this year, journalists, reporters, and the media have shaped the public’s understanding of war. But do the stories we read and the photos we see provide an impartial picture of the wars they document? As Hannah recently explained in Foreign Policy, certain aspects of American war coverage—reliance on government sources and incentives to simplify geopolitics as battles between good and evil—have long compelled news organizations to tilt toward military action." Recommended.
"President Joe Biden wrote in a Tuesday New York Times opinion essay that the more advanced rocket systems and munitions will enable Ukrainians to make more precision strikes on battlefield targets in their own country. He went on to outline what the U.S. will and won't do when it comes to the war in Ukraine."
"Russia on Wednesday sharply criticised a U.S. decision to supply advanced rocket systems and munitions to Ukraine, warning it could widen the conflict and increase the risk of direct confrontation with Washington." Whaaa. It's not a good look on you, Russia. And Lavrov can kiss my ass.
"Russian and Ukrainian troops traded blows in fierce close-quarter combat Sunday in an eastern Ukrainian city as Moscow’s soldiers, supported by intense shelling, attempted to gain a strategic foothold to conquer the region. Ukraine’s leader also made a rare frontline visit to Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, to assess the strength of the national defense."
"Kozhemyako is the founder and CEO of Agrotrade Group, one of Ukraine's largest grain production, storage and export companies. But his focus is now on the war… 'Yes, I'm a businessman,' he says. 'And now I'm a commander of a military unit in Ukraine.'… Kozhemyako set up and leads his own light infantry battalion. It's formally known as Khartia or 'charter,' and consists mostly of civilians. It's casually called the "billionaire's battalion," referring to Kozhemyako's wealth in Ukrainian currency, not dollars. Along with other wealthy Ukrainians, Kozhemyako pays for training, weapons and vehicles. His unit takes orders from the army but operates independently."
"Belarusians like Kukhta see Ukraine's defense against Russia as inextricably linked to Belarus' fate as a future democracy free of Kremlin influence. The idea is that Russia's defeat in Ukraine would both deal a blow to the Russian President Vladimir Putin's imperial ambitions and bring down his close ally, Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko."
"But even Gonzales can understand why some people don't feel welcome at Pride, especially LGBTQ people of color. In Philadelphia, she has joined a new group of queer and trans activists who are trying to rebuild Pride into something more welcoming — and more revolutionary."
Again and Again… "In the wake of yet another racist mass shooting, this time in Buffalo, New York, media outlets are churning out heartbreakingly familiar stories, with the same tropes and the same helplessness. On this week's On the Media, how we've become mired in patterns and lost sight of the potential solutions. Plus, how journalists should cover the ongoing siege on democracy. Then, a deep dive into the forgotten legacy of one of America's most influential writers." And Again… "Lois Beckett is a senior reporter for The Guardian. She covered gun violence for many years, now gun policy. She says that mainstream coverage of the issue is flawed because it's focused mainly on one type of tragedy. She explained to me when I spoke to her 3 years ago, how better coverage would mean focusing on the root causes of gun violence."
"Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, America's largest Protestant denomination, stonewalled and denigrated survivors of clergy sex abuse over almost two decades while seeking to protect their own reputations, according to a scathing 288-page investigative report issued Sunday."
"The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked a Texas social media law from taking effect that intended to punish online platforms for removing political speech… The vote was 5-to-4, with the court's three most conservative justices filing a written dissent that would have allowed the Texas law to start. In a surprise move, liberal Justice Elena Kagan joined in the dissent, but she did not explain her rationale."
Meanwhile, on Bullshit Mountain… "Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, has been a go-to destination for generations of American families, but the skyrocketing costs of admission, accommodations, and even spending inside the park are leaving many visitors wondering if a Disney vacation is now only reserved for the rich." I never went to Disney World as a kid, but in the last 4 years I have gone twice as an adult. While, yes, the loss of the Magic Express and dinning plan is bad, these prices are not new. This is the campaign to hurt Disney for not towing the conservative line. A Disney Vacation has always been for the rich.
"A stampede Saturday at a church charity event in southern Nigeria left 31 people dead and seven injured at a program that aimed to offer hope to the needy. One witness said the dead included a pregnant woman and many children."
"House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was booed as he began a virtual appearance at former President Donald Trump's rally in Wyoming on Saturday." Just a reminder that in authoritarianism, no dissent is allowed. Kevin forgot that part and thinks he can play both sides of the game. Also, it doesn't matter what the big guys says, once on the outs, always on the outs.
"A lawyer with ties to the US Democratic party has been cleared of lying to the FBI during the frenzied final days of the 2016 presidential campaign… Michael Sussman, 58, had been charged with lying to investigators and concealing his ties to Hillary Clinton's campaign… At the time, Mr Sussman was looking into possible links between Russian officials and the Trump campaign… The FBI looked into the allegations and found nothing suspicious." That's gonna leave a mark.
Meanwhile, on Bullshit Mountain… "And that's a little concerning because this looks more like a jury nullification, where even though the evidence was overwhelming, even though they, the government, proved their case, that the jury just decided that this wasn't a case worth pursuing."
"Video recordings of Republican Party operatives meeting with grassroots activists provide an inside look at a multi-pronged strategy to target and potentially overturn votes in Democratic precincts: Install trained recruits as regular poll workers and put them in direct contact with party attorneys… The plan, as outlined by a Republican National Committee staffer in Michigan, includes utilizing rules designed to provide political balance among poll workers to install party-trained volunteers prepared to challenge voters at Democratic-majority polling places, developing a website to connect those workers to local lawyers and establishing a network of party-friendly district attorneys who could intervene to block vote counts at certain precincts."
While a Yahoo link, it's still Bullshit Mountain story… "Former President Donald Trump is calling on the Pulitzer Prize Board to revoke prizes awarded to the New York Times and Washington Post in 2018 for their coverage of the Russia investigation, threatening legal action if they do not comply." He has no standing.
"While 18-year-old Salvador Ramos was inside adjoining classrooms, a group of 19 law enforcement officers stood outside the classroom in the school for roughly 50 minutes as they waited for room keys and tactical equipment, CNN has reported. Meanwhile, children inside the classroom repeatedly called 911 and pleaded for help, Texas officials said." This story was a textbook case of "don't trust the first reports." JFC. As to the reports of "we thought it was a barricaded shooter, there were several 911 calls from inside the classroom. So, no, the police froze.
"Alleged school shooter Salvador Ramos was in the classroom for 77 minutes before officers entered and killed him, ABC News reported… During that time, he discharged 315 rounds of ammunition, with hundreds of those rounds fired within the first four minutes of his arrival, authorities said."
"The Uvalde Police Department and the Uvalde Independent School District police force are no longer cooperating with the Texas Department of Public Safety's investigation into the massacre at Robb Elementary School and the state's review of the law enforcement response, multiple law enforcement sources tell ABC News." If you've got nothing to hide…
"An activist confronted Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in a Houston restaurant on Friday night in a testy exchange after the lawmaker delivered a speech at the National Rifle Association (NRA) convention blaming violent video games, social media and other factors besides guns for mass shootings in the U.S."
And the narrative continues to evolve… "Texas officials had said a teacher propped a door open at Robb Elementary in Uvalde just before the gunman entered and carried out a mass shooting — but they now acknowledge that the woman closed the door, after the teacher's attorney spoke out… It's the latest shift in a narrative that has continued to change since last Tuesday — an extraordinary process that has seen officials repeatedly correcting earlier statements, after they're contradicted by new information."
"Amerie Jo Garza, one of the 21 victims killed in a mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, has been posthumously given the highest award in the Girl Scouts organization — the Bronze Cross." We should live in a society that doesn't have to award 10-year olds for putting the lives of others above their own, and by the gods we should never have to award it posthumously.
"The Food and Drug Administration is investigating two brands of strawberries sold at top grocery stores for Hepatitis A… The agency is 'investigating a multistate outbreak of hepatitis A infections in the United States and Canada potentially linked to fresh organic strawberries branded as FreshKampo and HEB,' the FDA website says."
"Starting Wednesday, residents across Southern California will have to limit how much they water their yards under new restrictions placed in response to the drought."
"This glorious Hubble Space Telescope image showcases spiral galaxy IC 342, also known as Caldwell 5. No matter what you call this galaxy, scientists have had some difficulty observing it due to obstacles in the way, earning it its 'hidden' nickname, according to NASA."
"Megalodon, the giant shark that lived more than 23 million years ago and was inspiration for the movie "The Meg," was almost four times bigger than the great white shark that cruises our oceans today… However, the two shark species, which once coexisted, likely hunted some of the same prey. This competition could potentially have been one reason why the 65-foot-long (20-meter-long) megalodon went extinct, a new study has suggested."
"A bison gored a woman visiting Yellowstone National Park and tossed her into the air, park officials said Tuesday… The 25-year-old woman, who was visiting from Ohio, was not identified in a news release from the National Park Service." Don't approach wild animals.
"Paleontologists have been debating for decades whether dinosaurs were warm-blooded, like modern mammals and birds, or cold-blooded, like modern reptiles. Knowing whether dinosaurs were warm- or cold-blooded could give us clues about how active they were and what their everyday lives were like, but previous methods to determine their warm- or cold-bloodedness — how quickly their metabolisms could turn oxygen into energy — were inconclusive. However, in a new paper published in the journal Nature, scientists are unveiling a novel method for studying dinosaurs’ metabolic rates, using clues in their bones that indicated how much the individual animals breathed in their last hour of life."
"In a policy shift aimed at reducing deaths from overdoses, Canada is decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of drugs in the western province of British Columbia… Drug overdose deaths have risen sharply across Canada over the past five years, with opioid-related deaths linked to fentanyl more than doubling."
"Contrary to popular myth, forgoing coffee isn’t likely to improve your health. The opposite might be true: Years of research suggests that drinking coffee is linked with a lower risk of death… The latest addition to that body of research was published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The study looked at around 120,000 people in the U.K. who regularly drank unsweetened or sugar-sweetened coffee over seven years. The findings suggested that those who drank 1.5 to 3.5 cups a day had a lower risk of death during those seven years than non-coffee drinkers, even if they added a teaspoon of real sugar — not artificial sweetener — to every cup." Oh look, the latest round of industry sponsored research is ready. "But the researchers didn't look at causality, so they couldn't say whether coffee is directly responsible for the outcome." I'll bet you they did look at causality, but didn't include it in the study.
"For decades now, experts believed monkeypox would simply stay put in Africa. This May, the zoonotic virus proved the fallacy of that idea, appearing in 23 countries — many of them in Europe —prompting the World Health Organization to declare Sunday that it was a 'moderate' global public health risk." Note this story makes all the errors outline in the On the Media podcast issue with a segment about Monkey Pox (further below).
"At least 650 children have been diagnosed with a mysterious and severe hepatitis infection since early April, according to the World Health Organization. The cases, which have so far puzzled health officials, have been reported in 33 different countries… At least 38 children have required a transplant, and nine have died, according to a Friday statement from WHO. There are also 99 cases pending classification."
"While there has indeed been significant research into long Covid over the past two years – including a few studies published last week – some infectious disease experts say we still don’t know enough about the prevalence of the condition, what causes it, and how to treat it."
"As we trudge through our third year of the pandemic, what is the state of our immunity to COVID? On this week’s On the Media, hear how vaccines and reinfections interact with fast-evolving variants. Plus, why we should take the recent monkeypox outbreak seriously, but avoid panicking."
"Covid-19 care, including distribution of lifesaving therapies, was significantly delayed for Black and Hispanic patients due to inaccurate oxygen readings from devices that can work poorly in darker-skinned individuals, according to a study published Tuesday. The finding may be one reason much higher Covid-19 mortality rates have been seen in communities of color across the United States." This is a known issue. WTF is this not being addressed?
"The Justice Department asked a federal appeals court on Tuesday to overturn last month's court decision by a federal judge that declared the mandate requiring masks on airplanes and other public transportation unlawful." One of the odd things about being in foreign, is that travel there was fairly easy, and they require masking on the flights that come in. Travel back was a PIA and we had to pass COVID testing, although there is no masking requirement for US travel. Try and rationalize that one. And yes, we wore our masks for all the flights.
"When asked to comment Tuesday about its weekend troubles, Delta pointed to a statement it issued last week, when it said it faced challenges including rising COVID-19 cases among workers." Remember that Delta has been leading the charge to roll back masking and other mandates. And now in their C-suite there are a large amount of chickens looking for roosting space.
"Job openings fell by nearly half a million in April, narrowing the historically large gap between vacant positions and available workers, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday… That left a gap of 5.46 million between openings and the available workers, still high by historical standards and reflective of a very tight labor market, but below the nearly 5.6 million difference from March. As a share of the labor force, the job openings rate fell 0.3 percentage point to 7%."
"A Republican commissioner on a federal mine safety agency sought advice on personnel matters from a closely held collection of outside advisers that appears to have included at least one coal industry executive, according to documents obtained by POLITICO… The revelations prompted the commission’s Democratic chair to request a review by an outside inspector general, alleging what appeared to be a violation of federal ethics rules."
"Families are transferring to Singapore, she said, but small- and medium-sized businesses are also on the move. Whereas one company executive might have left in the past, now 'they’re all going,' she said. Small companies are 'taking the entire team and putting them into Singapore.'" It's CNBC, so they often get motivations wrong. Such as with this article, the first claim about reasons why people are moving out of Hong Kong has to do with COVID restrictions. Singapore has had stricter and longer lock downs than Hong Kong.
"Shanghai celebrated Wednesday with a long-awaited burst of life, as the government lifted its city-wide lockdown. But the process of reopening is likely to be slow and painful, as residents in the financial hub contend with the trauma of the past two months."
"Elon Musk has told Tesla employees to come back into their respective offices at least 40 hours a week or leave the company… In two emails obtained by Electrek, Musk said that people must show up for at least 40 hours per week in a main Tesla office. 'If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned,' he said in one of the emails."
"Delta Air Lines expects its revenue to return to 2019 levels this quarter thanks to a surge in travel demand and higher fares that helped it cover a jump in fuel costs, the carrier said in a filing Wednesday." Not if they can't get the airplanes in the air.
"Cracks are forming in the U.S. labor market as some companies look to curb hiring while others are desperate for employees… Microsoft, Twitter, Wayfair, Snap and Facebook-parent Meta recently announced they plan to be more conservative about adding new employees. Peloton and Netflix announced layoffs as demand for their products slowed, and online car seller Carvana cut its workforce as it faces inflation and a cratering stock price."
"Nationally, home prices were 20.6% higher than they were in March 2021, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index. That is higher than the 20% gain in February. The index is a three-month running average ending in March." I believe the word is "uncoupled."
"As rates increase, there are some key money moves financial experts recommend consumers make to put themselves in a better financial situation. These broadly include paying down debt and shoring up personal budgets to be able to withstand any sudden shocks to the economy."
"Gas prices in the Tri-State area are still well above the national average, but New York drivers will get a little relief starting today… That's because effective on June 1, New York is suspending its gas tax for the rest of the year."
"The US and Taiwan unveiled a new trade initiative, Taiwan's trade representative announced Wednesday, after Taiwan was excluded from the US Indo-Pacific economic initiative that President Joe Biden formally announced in Asia last week."
"The FBI thwarted a planned cyberattack on a children’s hospital in Boston that was to have been carried out by hackers sponsored by the Iranian government, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday."
"But that's where the similarities end. In the aftermath of the shooting, parents in Dunblane were able to mobilize with the kind of effectiveness that has eluded American gun control activists. By the following year, Parliament had banned private ownership of most handguns, as well as semi-automatic weapons, and required mandatory registration for shotgun owners. There have been no school shootings in the U.K since then."
"Grab your party hats and hang up your bunting -- the Platinum Jubilee celebrations for the UK's Queen Elizabeth II are nearly upon us… No other monarch in British history has achieved 70 years of service."
"This week we're airing an interview that Brooke did while on a fellowship at the American Academy in Rome. She and her husband Fred Kaplan (author of the War Stories column in Slate), sat down with Mark Hannah, host of the podcast "None of the Above," produced by the Eurasia Group Foundation… From the Crimean War of 1853 to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this year, journalists, reporters, and the media have shaped the public’s understanding of war. But do the stories we read and the photos we see provide an impartial picture of the wars they document? As Hannah recently explained in Foreign Policy, certain aspects of American war coverage—reliance on government sources and incentives to simplify geopolitics as battles between good and evil—have long compelled news organizations to tilt toward military action." Recommended.
"President Joe Biden wrote in a Tuesday New York Times opinion essay that the more advanced rocket systems and munitions will enable Ukrainians to make more precision strikes on battlefield targets in their own country. He went on to outline what the U.S. will and won't do when it comes to the war in Ukraine."
"Russia on Wednesday sharply criticised a U.S. decision to supply advanced rocket systems and munitions to Ukraine, warning it could widen the conflict and increase the risk of direct confrontation with Washington." Whaaa. It's not a good look on you, Russia. And Lavrov can kiss my ass.
"Russian and Ukrainian troops traded blows in fierce close-quarter combat Sunday in an eastern Ukrainian city as Moscow’s soldiers, supported by intense shelling, attempted to gain a strategic foothold to conquer the region. Ukraine’s leader also made a rare frontline visit to Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, to assess the strength of the national defense."
"Kozhemyako is the founder and CEO of Agrotrade Group, one of Ukraine's largest grain production, storage and export companies. But his focus is now on the war… 'Yes, I'm a businessman,' he says. 'And now I'm a commander of a military unit in Ukraine.'… Kozhemyako set up and leads his own light infantry battalion. It's formally known as Khartia or 'charter,' and consists mostly of civilians. It's casually called the "billionaire's battalion," referring to Kozhemyako's wealth in Ukrainian currency, not dollars. Along with other wealthy Ukrainians, Kozhemyako pays for training, weapons and vehicles. His unit takes orders from the army but operates independently."
"Belarusians like Kukhta see Ukraine's defense against Russia as inextricably linked to Belarus' fate as a future democracy free of Kremlin influence. The idea is that Russia's defeat in Ukraine would both deal a blow to the Russian President Vladimir Putin's imperial ambitions and bring down his close ally, Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko."
"But even Gonzales can understand why some people don't feel welcome at Pride, especially LGBTQ people of color. In Philadelphia, she has joined a new group of queer and trans activists who are trying to rebuild Pride into something more welcoming — and more revolutionary."
Again and Again… "In the wake of yet another racist mass shooting, this time in Buffalo, New York, media outlets are churning out heartbreakingly familiar stories, with the same tropes and the same helplessness. On this week's On the Media, how we've become mired in patterns and lost sight of the potential solutions. Plus, how journalists should cover the ongoing siege on democracy. Then, a deep dive into the forgotten legacy of one of America's most influential writers." And Again… "Lois Beckett is a senior reporter for The Guardian. She covered gun violence for many years, now gun policy. She says that mainstream coverage of the issue is flawed because it's focused mainly on one type of tragedy. She explained to me when I spoke to her 3 years ago, how better coverage would mean focusing on the root causes of gun violence."
"Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, America's largest Protestant denomination, stonewalled and denigrated survivors of clergy sex abuse over almost two decades while seeking to protect their own reputations, according to a scathing 288-page investigative report issued Sunday."
"The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked a Texas social media law from taking effect that intended to punish online platforms for removing political speech… The vote was 5-to-4, with the court's three most conservative justices filing a written dissent that would have allowed the Texas law to start. In a surprise move, liberal Justice Elena Kagan joined in the dissent, but she did not explain her rationale."
Meanwhile, on Bullshit Mountain… "Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, has been a go-to destination for generations of American families, but the skyrocketing costs of admission, accommodations, and even spending inside the park are leaving many visitors wondering if a Disney vacation is now only reserved for the rich." I never went to Disney World as a kid, but in the last 4 years I have gone twice as an adult. While, yes, the loss of the Magic Express and dinning plan is bad, these prices are not new. This is the campaign to hurt Disney for not towing the conservative line. A Disney Vacation has always been for the rich.
"A stampede Saturday at a church charity event in southern Nigeria left 31 people dead and seven injured at a program that aimed to offer hope to the needy. One witness said the dead included a pregnant woman and many children."
"House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was booed as he began a virtual appearance at former President Donald Trump's rally in Wyoming on Saturday." Just a reminder that in authoritarianism, no dissent is allowed. Kevin forgot that part and thinks he can play both sides of the game. Also, it doesn't matter what the big guys says, once on the outs, always on the outs.
"A lawyer with ties to the US Democratic party has been cleared of lying to the FBI during the frenzied final days of the 2016 presidential campaign… Michael Sussman, 58, had been charged with lying to investigators and concealing his ties to Hillary Clinton's campaign… At the time, Mr Sussman was looking into possible links between Russian officials and the Trump campaign… The FBI looked into the allegations and found nothing suspicious." That's gonna leave a mark.
Meanwhile, on Bullshit Mountain… "And that's a little concerning because this looks more like a jury nullification, where even though the evidence was overwhelming, even though they, the government, proved their case, that the jury just decided that this wasn't a case worth pursuing."
"Video recordings of Republican Party operatives meeting with grassroots activists provide an inside look at a multi-pronged strategy to target and potentially overturn votes in Democratic precincts: Install trained recruits as regular poll workers and put them in direct contact with party attorneys… The plan, as outlined by a Republican National Committee staffer in Michigan, includes utilizing rules designed to provide political balance among poll workers to install party-trained volunteers prepared to challenge voters at Democratic-majority polling places, developing a website to connect those workers to local lawyers and establishing a network of party-friendly district attorneys who could intervene to block vote counts at certain precincts."
While a Yahoo link, it's still Bullshit Mountain story… "Former President Donald Trump is calling on the Pulitzer Prize Board to revoke prizes awarded to the New York Times and Washington Post in 2018 for their coverage of the Russia investigation, threatening legal action if they do not comply." He has no standing.
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