MONEY IS NOT WEALTH
by A. Richard Miller
Begun
September 29, 2008; last updated August 6, 2022
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On the eve of USA's November 2008 national election, an urgent proposal for an unsecured $700-Billion, maybe $800-Billion loan to mismanaged banks and stockbrokers was generating understandable controversy. In its initial form the Bush Buddies Bailout was one more Weapon of Mass Deception, a public welfare program (later, a two-step program) for wealthy people who game the system. But the problem remains.
What, exactly, went - and continues to go - wrong? What ARE reasonable goals, what are NOT, and how might a more populist government reach good ones?
Jill and I searched, asked friends, and found part of the discussion in the mainline U.S. Press. It is dominated by large corporations, and is quickly becoming a large corporation that reports with bias and too-often avoids reporting. We find the parts they don't want us to find - in The New York Times and The Washington Post, overseas, and in the Alternative Press. Some favorite resources are: Alternet, Campaign for America's Future, Common Dreams, Daily KOS, Demand Progress, Democracy Now, The Guardian, The Hill, The Huffington Post, Little Sis, The Marginalian (was Brain Pickings), Mother Jones, The Nation, Nation of Change, Dan Rather's News&Guts, Politico, Quanta Magazine, The Raw Story, SciTechDaily, Second-Rate Democracy, TruthOut, Russ Baker's WhoWhatWhy.org, and Wired. But we keep a sense of perspective, to know which news is biased, and how.
The more we read, the more we realize that - as much as we want our money back - that is only one of many ways our country is becoming impoverished. Often by corporations, which most definitely are NOT people! (For one thing, these rapacious corporations have no shame.)
You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. What I mean
by that, is an opportunity to do things that you think you
could not do before.
- Rahm Emanuel (Wall
Street Journal Weekend Interview, Nov. 7, 2008)
Never waste the opportunities
offered by a good crisis.
- Niccolo Machiavelli (15th-Cent. Florentine writer and
statesman)
Yes, as through this world I've
wandered,
I've seen lots of funny men;
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen.
And as through your life you
travel,
Yes, as through your life you roam,
You won't never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home.
- Woody Guthrie, Dust Bowl Ballads
What is the robbing of a bank
compared to the founding of a bank?
- Bertolt Brecht
Yes, We're Corrupt.
- A
List of Politicians Admitting That Money Controls Politics
Too many of us now tend to
worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no
longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But
we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does
not satisfy our longing for meaning.
- Jimmy Carter (1979, as U.S. President)
Cycling Is Bad For The Economy
A cyclist is a disaster for the country’s economy: He does not
buy a car and does not take out a car loan. He does not buy
car insurance. He does not buy fuel. He does not send his car
for servicing & repairs. He does not use paid parking. He
does not become obese.
Healthy people are not needed for the economy. They do not buy
drugs. They do not go to hospitals and doctors. They add
nothing to the country’s GDP.
On the contrary, every new McDonald's creates at least 30
jobs: 10 cardiologists, 10 dentists, 10 weight-loss experts
– apart from people working in McDonald's.
Choose wisely: A bike ride, or a Big Mac with cheese? Think
about it!
P.S. – Walkers are even worse. They do not even buy a
bicycle.
- NOT
Sanjay Thakrar, CEO at Euro Exim Bank Ltd. (2018)
NEW: Global
Weirding Is Here.
- Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times, February 17, 2010)
It is not particularly easy for
one to climb up out of the working-class - especially if he is
handicapped by the possession of ideals and illusions.
- What
Life Means to Me, by Jack London (1905)
... peace was not in the
interest of a stable society, that even if lasting peace
"could be achieved, it would almost certainly not be in the
best interests of society to achieve it." War was a part of
the economy. Therefore, it was necessary to conceive a state
of war for a stable economy. The government, the group
theorized, would not exist without war, and nation states
existed in order to wage war. War served the vital function of
diverting collective aggression. They recommended "credible
substitutes" and paying a "blood price" to emulate the
economic functions of war. Prospective government-devised
alternatives to war included reports of alien life-forms, the
reintroduction of a "euphemized form" of slavery "consistent
with modern technology and political processes", and - one
deemed particularly promising in gaining the attention of the
malleable masses - the threat of "gross pollution of the
environment".
- Wikipedia's summary of The Report From Iron Mountain
(1967)
Every gun that is made, every
warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final
sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those
who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not
spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its
laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its
children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense.
Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of
iron.
- U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower (April 16, 1953)
There is nothing which I dread
so much as a division of the republic into two great parties,
each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in
opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is
to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our
Constitution.
- John Adams, letter to Jonathan Jackson (2 October 1780), The
Works of John Adams, vol 9, p.511.
I see in the near future a
crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble
for the safety of my country. As a result of war, corporations
have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places
will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor
to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the
people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the
Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for
the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst
of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless.
-- President Abraham Lincoln (1864 letter to William
Fletcher Elkin), or faked in Caldwell Remedy Company pamphlet
(May 10, 1888), or...
<http://abrahamlincolnassociation.org/Newsletters/1-1.pdf>
(pp. 4-6)
<https://americanmissive.com/2009/03/20/did-abraham-lincoln-say-that/>
What is this you call property?
It cannot be the earth. For the land is our mother, nourishing
all her children, beasts, birds, fish, and all men. The woods,
the streams, everything on it belongs to everybody and is for
the use of all. How can one man say it belongs to him only?
- Massasoit
Only when the last tree has been
cut down, only when the last river has been poisoned, only
when the last fish has been caught, only then will you realize
your money cannot be eaten.
- an old Cree saying? Maybe
not; but good.
NEW:
The Lake Book: A Handbook For
Lake Protection (4th Ed.; Maine Lakes, 2022)
Excellent, and free to share. Would that I had this to sharee,
when I was the Executive Director of the Lake Cochituate
Watershed Association!
The liberty of a democracy is
not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to
a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state
itself. That, in its essence, is fascism.
- U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1938
Train communities through all
their grades, beginning with individuals and ending there
again, to rule themselves.
- Walt Whitman
This planet has -- or rather had
-- a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it
were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were
suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely
concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper,
which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green
pieces of paper that were unhappy.
- Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (1979)
The
Fragile
States Index (Fund For Peace)
US National Debt
Clock, by Ed Hall
The Freecycle Network
(Good. A grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people
who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns
and neighborhoods. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff
out of landfills.)
Time Trade Circle (Good. Time Banking in eastern Massachusetts.)
Buy Nothing Project
(Bad?)
(See its Person-to-Person
section - on Facebook - and then see Corporate
Surveillance
in Everyday Life , below).
Calculated Risk (blog)
The Conscience of a Liberal (NY Times blog by Paul Krugman)
To Build A Better Ballot; an interactive guide to alternative voting systems, by Nicky Case, 2016)
OurFuture.org (Campaign for America's Future)
Lifton's
Thought
Reform, (ca. 1997; Changing Minds)
Milieu control, mystical manipulation, confession,
self-sanctification through purity, aura of sacred science,
loaded language, doctrine over person, dispensed existence.
Secret
Worlds:
The Universe Within (Molecular Expressions, 1998)
View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth.
Then move through space towards the Earth in successive orders
of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree. After that, begin
to move from the actual size of a leaf into a microscopic world
that reveals leaf cell walls, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA
and finally, into the subatomic universe of electrons and
protons.
The
Market
as God, by Harvey Cox (The Atlantic, 1999)
Living in the new dispensation.
The Bible as God - or, Owning a
Canadian, Amongst Other Fallacies (The Internet, 2018?)
Which part of Leviticus do YOU choose not to believe?
The 14 Characteristics of Fascism, by Lawrence Britt (Free Inquiry magazine, 2003)
The
Legacy
of F.D.R. (Time, major series from 2009)
Franklin D. Roosevelt led the U.S. through a depression and a
world war. By the time he died, the nation was profoundly
changed — and we owe much of the change to him and his bold
presidency.
God
on Grass (Permaculture Research Institute, October 8,
2010)
[We have met the enemy, and he is us! --Pogo]
Global
surveillance
disclosures (Wikipedia, 2013–present)
Ongoing news reports in the international media have revealed
operational details about the United States National Security
Agency (NSA) and its international partners' global surveillance
of both foreign nationals and U.S. citizens. The reports mostly
emanate from a cache of top secret documents leaked by ex-NSA
contractor Edward Snowden.
The
Strange Disappearance of Cooperation in America, by Peter
Turchin (Cliodynamica, 2013)
NEW: La Griffe
du Lion (2010?)
A mathematical evaluation of racial/sexual/economic biases.
NEW: Eudaimonics:
The Art of Realizing Genuinely Good Lives, by Umair Haque
(Eudaimonia, September 14, 2017)
How are we, I wondered, to make a giant leap from an economic
paradigm of human organization to a eudaimonic one? From one
that single-mindedly, one-dimensionally maximizes near-term
income, at the price of the well-being, health, flourishing, of
you, me, our grandkids, and our planet, to one that elevates and
expands all that — from one that, as it grows more and more
broken, minimizes life realizing itself, instead of maximizing
life realizing itself?
Corporate
Surveillance
in Everyday Life (Institute for Critical Digital Culture,
2018)
Every click on a website and every swipe on a smartphone may
trigger a wide variety of hidden data sharing mechanisms
distributed across several companies and, as a result, directly
affect a person’s available choices. Digital tracking and
profiling, in combination with personalization, are not only
used to monitor, but also to influence peoples’ behavior. ...
"Facebook uses at least 52,000 personal attributes to sort and
categorize its 1.9 billion users by, for example, their
political views, ethnicity, and income. In order to do so, the
platform analyzes their posts, likes, shares, friends, photos,
movements, and many other kinds of behaviors.
"In addition, Facebook acquires data on its users from other
companies. In 2013, the platform began its partnership with the
four data brokers Acxiom, Epsilon, Datalogix and BlueKai, the
latter two of which were subsequently acquired by the IT giant
Oracle. These companies help Facebook track and profile its
users even better than it already does by providing it with data
collected from beyond its platform.
Help
Us Cure Online Publishing of Its Addiction to Personal Data,
by Doc Searls (Linux Journal, March 14, 2018)
(and The
Big Datastillery that targets YOU)
It's Official: Watching Fox Makes You Stupider (The Nation, 2012)
Ten True Facts Guaranteed to Short-Circuit Republican Brains (Daily Kos, 2012)
ALEC Exposed (Center for Media and Democracy, 2011)
His Grief, and Ours: Paul Ryan's nasty ideal of self-reliance (New Republic, 2012)
We All Built This Great Nation Together: Ayn Rand, Paul Ryan, and the Myth of Radical Individualism (Nick Gier)
The Foul Reign Of Emerson's "Self-Reliance (New York Times, 2011)
"A
Declaration
of Conscience, June 1, 1950 speech by U.S. Senator
Margaret Chase Smith (U.S. Senate, 1950)
(The beginning of the end for Senator Joe McCarthy but,
unfortunately, not for McCarthyism.)
The Death Of God, by Friedrich Nietzsche (1885)
Losing
my
religion for equality (Jimmy Carter, 2009)
"The truth is that male religious leaders have had - and still
have - an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or
subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends,
overwhelmingly chosen the latter. Their continuing choice
provides the foundation or justification for much of the
pervasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world.
This is in clear violation not just of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights but also the teachings of Jesus Christ, the
Apostle Paul, Moses and the prophets, Muhammad, and founders of
other great religions - all of whom have called for proper and
equitable treatment of all the children of God."
Invented
Symbols, by James Carroll (Boston Globe, January 3, 2006)
'Homo Sapiens is the species that invents symbols in which to
invest passion and authority," Joyce Carol Oates once remarked,
''then forgets that symbols are inventions." This lesson applies
across the human condition, although it shows up regularly in
the realm of religion, where symbolism is the native language.
Now the church is acknowledging that the passion and authority
once invested in limbo, however ''unofficially," can yield.
Limbo is an invented symbol that can be left behind.
So is the nation-state. It is not religion that draws the most
fervent investment of passion and authority in our time, but
rather the politically autonomous entity for which humans have
learned to kill and die. That the invented character of the
nation-state is forgotten is revealed whenever God is invoked as
its source and justification. ''For God and country" is an
idolatrous slogan, and a dangerous one. It is scrawled on walls
across the world.
The new invention was the United Nations. Far more than an
organization, it, too, was a symbol in which passion and
authority could be invested. Not only weaponry, but new modes of
transport and communication, and then a revolution in
information technology all forced a redefinition of the human
condition, and the symbolic power of a cooperative world entity
came ever more into its own. Not ''God and country" anymore, but
Earth itself as holy.
But, in one of history's great ironies, the main inventors of
the United Nations, the Americans, found it impossible to stop
treating their own nationhood as an absolute value. There were,
perhaps, reasons for this during the Cold War, but since then
the United States, more than any other nation-state, has
reiterated its narrow autonomy, repudiating treaties,
promulgating unilateralism, making aggressive war, and treating
the global environment as a private waste dump. The United
States, in sum, has invested its national sovereignty with
passion and authority proper to God, not to an invention of
human beings.
The United Nations, where the United States is represented by a
man who holds it in contempt, is now a symbol of the planet's
new jeopardy. Just as the church is letting go of one limbo,
America is condemning the world's best hope to another.
RELIGION: What It Was For; What Went Wrong; How To Fix It, by Benjamin Becula
The New Populism (Campaign for America's Future, 2014)
Grokking
Republicans:
The Non-Cooperator's Dilemma (Daily Kos, 2014)
"To create More and Better Democrats means to increase
cooperation. Punishing cooperation is the declared Republican
mission. 'The Evolution of Cooperation', by Robert Axelrod,
proposes a theory that says they lose, and recommends particular
political strategies to make it happen faster.
Freethinkers and Libertarianism, by David Niose
EXXON:
The
Road Not Taken (Inside Climate News, 2015)
"This multi-part series describes how Exxon conducted
cutting-edge climate research decades ago and then, without
revealing all that it had learned, worked at the forefront of
climate denial, manufacturing doubt about the scientific
consensus that its own scientists had confirmed.
The history of volcanic eruptions since Roman times (Past Global Changes Magazine, 2015)
What's Really Warming The World? (Bloomberg, 2015)
Vanishing:
The
Sixth Mass Extinction (CNN, 2016)
We're entering the Earth's sixth era of extinction -- and it's
the first time humans are to blame. CNN introduces you to the
key species and people who are trying to prevent them from
vanishing.
Yale Climate Opinion Maps, U.S. 2016
NEW: Envisioning
the
Hack That Could Take Down New York City (NY Magazine, June
19, 2016)
How it's been done. How it might all be done together.
The
Legend
of Hercules Mulligan (U.S. Central Intelligence Agency,
June 30, 2016)
We’re all familiar with the legendary heroes who fought to
secure our independence from the British: George Washington,
Benjamin Franklin, Paul Revere and his midnight ride. But there
are many other influencers of the Revolutionary War whose names
don’t immediately come to mind when reflecting on the birth of
this great nation. Their efforts and contributions are no less
significant or important to securing the freedoms we enjoy every
day. The heroics of their lives and stories remain unsung, like
many of those serving their country in the shadows today.
This Fourth of July, to celebrate the anniversary of our
independence, we are shining the spotlight on one such hero, a
man who risked his life to save General George Washington.
Twice. A man who helped convert Alexander Hamilton from a Tory
to a Patriot. A man who successfully ran his own New York City
business and used that business to live among the British,
befriending them and covertly acquiring information while
overtly tarnishing his reputation with the Patriots. That’s
right, Hercules Mulligan.
History of Boston's Water System (slide presentation; Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, October 6, 2016)
Earthquakes of the First 15 Years of the 21st Century (4-min. video; NOAA, December 2, 2016)
Why Excessive Consumption Limits your Creativity (Medium, May 2016)
Is the World Ready for a Guaranteed Basic Income? (Freakonomics, 2016)
Scientists Are Pro-Testing (Science, 2017)
The
Gerasimov
Doctrine (Politico, 2017)
"It’s Russia’s new chaos theory of political warfare. And it’s
probably being used on you.
We
All
Want Healthcare To Cost Much Less - But We Are Asking The
Wrong Question, by Joe Flowers (Medium, 2017)
"Imagine this: Healthcare - the whole system - for half as
much. Better, more effective. No rationing. Everybody in.
Kim
Hill:
Sustainability is Destroying the Earth: The Green Economy vs.
The Planet (Deep Green Resistance News Service, May 25,
2017)
What is it we are trying to sustain? A living planet, or
industrial civilization? Because we can’t have both.
Thirteen things the public sector does better than the 'free' market (Daily Kos, October 1, 2017)
What Explains U.S. Mass Shootings? International Comparisons Suggest An Answer. (New York Times, November 7, 2017)
The Loneliness of Donald Trump; On the Corrosive Privilege of the Most Mocked Man in the World, by Rebecca Solnit
Vote Sleuth: Investigating Democracy (Los Angeles Times, 2017)
The way Donald Trump is handling his job as president (Gallup Poll Daily Data)
Donald Trump (Vice)
Obamacare 101: Here's what you need to know (Los Angeles Times, 2017)
Duty To Warn (Duty To
Warn, 2017)
Duty To Warn is an association of mental health professionals
and other concerned citizens who advocate Trump’s removal under
the 25th Amendment on the grounds that he is psychologically
unfit.
The way Donald Trump is handling his job as president (Gallup Poll Daily Data)
"Who
am I? Why am I here?" (#25thAmendmentNow)
A running thread of Trump not knowing where he is, how he got
there, or the appropriate response to give in the moment. Some
mental health professionals are concerned that he may be
exhibiting signs of Alzheimer's, but he might just be an idiot.
The Hamilton 68 Dashboard tracks Russian influence operations on Twitter. (Hosted by the Alliance for Securing Democracy.)
How Facebook’s destructive ethos imperils democracy (The Guardian, March 17, 2018)
Atlas Of Utopias (Transformative Cities, 2018)
CONGRESSIONAL SCORECARD; Congressional Civil Liberties Record in the Trump Era ACLU, 2018)
Chart: The percentage of women and men in each profession (Boston Globe)
Smoking bans in private vehicles (Wikipedia)
Light Cycles, by Quinn Norton
States
of
Anarchy (New Republic, 2010)
America’s long, sordid affair with nullification.
"The
Suffocation
of Democracy", by Christopher R. Browning (New York Review
Of Books, October 13, 2018)
If the US has someone whom historians will look back on as the
gravedigger of American democracy, it is Mitch McConnell. He
stoked the hyperpolarization of American politics to make the
Obama presidency as dysfunctional and paralyzed as he possibly
could. As with parliamentary gridlock in Weimar, congressional
gridlock in the US has diminished respect for democratic norms,
allowing McConnell to trample them even more. Nowhere is this
vicious circle clearer than in the obliteration of traditional
precedents concerning judicial appointments.
Trump's personal flaws and his tactic of appealing to a narrow
base while energizing Democrats and alienating independents may
lead to precisely that rare wave election needed to provide a
congressional check on the administration as well as the capture
of enough state governorships and legislatures to begin
reversing current trends in gerrymandering and voter
suppression. The elections of 2018 and 2020 will be vital in
testing how far the electoral system has deteriorated.
Alongside the erosion of an independent judiciary as a check on
executive power, other hallmarks of illiberal democracy are the
neutralization of a free press and the steady diminution of
basic human rights. On these issues, often described as the
guardrails of democracy against authoritarian encroachment, the
Trump administration either has won or seems poised to win
significant gains for illiberalism. Upon his appointment as
chancellor, Hitler immediately created a new Ministry of
People's Enlightenment and Propaganda under Joseph Goebbels, who
remained one of his closest political advisers. In Trump’s
presidency, those functions have effectively been privatized in
the form of Fox News and Sean Hannity. The highly critical free
media not only provide no effective check on Trump's ability to
be a serial liar without political penalty; on the contrary,
they provide yet another enemy around which to mobilize the
grievances and resentments of his base. A free press does not
have to be repressed when it can be rendered irrelevant and even
exploited for political gain.
She Votes (NPR's special SERIES on women and the vote, October 20, 2018)
Murder
and
Extremism in the United States in 2017 (ADL Center on
Extremism, February 27, 2018)
Over the past 10 years (2008-17), domestic extremists have been
responsible for at least 387 murders; of these, 274 (71%) were
committed by right-wing extremists of one type or another.
Quantifying Hate: A Year of Anti-Semitism on Twitter (ADL Report, May 7, 2018)
Why
read
Aristotle today? (Aeon, May 29, 2018)
Modern self-help draws heavily on Stoic philosophy. But
Aristotle was better at understanding real human happiness.
The
Next
Plague Is Coming. Is America Ready? (Atlantic, July 1,
2018)
The epidemics of the early 21st century revealed a world
unprepared, even as the risks continue to multiply. Much worse
is coming.
On average, in one corner of the world or another, a
new infectious disease has emerged every year for the past
30 years: mers, Nipah, Hendra, and many more. Researchers
estimate that birds and mammals harbor anywhere from 631,000 to
827,000 unknown viruses that could potentially leap into humans.
Valiant efforts are under way to identify them all, and scan for
them in places like poultry farms and bushmeat markets, where
animals and people are most likely to encounter each other.
Still, we likely won’t ever be able to predict which will spill
over next; even long-known viruses like Zika, which was
discovered in 1947, can suddenly develop into unforeseen
epidemics.
One hundred years ago, in 1918, a strain of H1N1 flu swept the
world. It might have originated in Haskell County, Kansas, or in
France or China—but soon it was everywhere. In two years, it
killed as many as 100 million people—5 percent of the world’s
population, and far more than the number who died in World War
I. It killed not just the very young, old, and sick, but also
the strong and fit, bringing them down through their own violent
immune responses. It killed so quickly that hospitals ran out of
beds, cities ran out of coffins, and coroners could not meet the
demand for death certificates. It lowered Americans’ life
expectancy by more than a decade. “The flu resculpted human
populations more radically than anything since the Black Death,”
Laura Spinney wrote in Pale Rider, her 2017 book about the
pandemic. It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in
history—a potent reminder of the threat posed by disease.
Despite advances in antibiotics and vaccines, and the successful
eradication of smallpox, Homo sapiens is still locked in the
same epic battle with viruses and other pathogens that we’ve
been fighting since the beginning of our history. When cities
first arose, diseases laid them low, a process repeated over and
over for millennia. When Europeans colonized the Americas,
smallpox followed. When soldiers fought in the first global war,
influenza hitched a ride, and found new opportunities in the
unprecedented scale of the conflict. Down through the centuries,
diseases have always excelled at exploiting flux.
Humanity is now in the midst of its fastest-ever period of
change. There were almost 2 billion people alive in 1918; there
are now 7.6 billion, and they have migrated rapidly into cities,
which since 2008 have been home to more than half of all human
beings. In these dense throngs, pathogens can more easily spread
and more quickly evolve resistance to drugs. Not coincidentally,
the total number of outbreaks per decade has more than tripled
since the 1980s.
Globalization compounds the risk: Airplanes now carry almost 10
times as many passengers around the world as they did four
decades ago. In the ’80s, HIV showed how potent new diseases can
be, by launching a slow-moving pandemic that has since claimed
about 35 million lives. In 2003, another newly discovered virus,
sars, spread decidedly more quickly. This is a new epoch of
disease, when geographic barriers disappear and threats that
once would have been local go global.
The United States has nationwide vaccination programs, advanced
hospitals, the latest diagnostic tests. In the National
Institutes of Health, it has the world’s largest biomedical
research establishment, and in the CDC, arguably the world’s
strongest public-health agency. America is as ready to face down
new diseases as any country in the world.
Yet even the U.S. is disturbingly vulnerable—and in some
respects is becoming quickly more so. It depends on a
just-in-time medical economy, in which stockpiles are limited
and even key items are made to order. Most of the intravenous
bags used in the country are manufactured in Puerto Rico, so
when Hurricane Maria devastated the island last September, the
bags fell in short supply. Some hospitals were forced to inject
saline with syringes—and so syringe supplies started running low
too. The most common lifesaving drugs all depend on long supply
chains that include India and China—chains that would likely
break in a severe pandemic. “Each year, the system gets leaner
and leaner,” says Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center
for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of
Minnesota. “It doesn’t take much of a hiccup anymore to
challenge it.”
Perhaps most important, the U.S. is prone to the same
forgetfulness and shortsightedness that befall all nations, rich
and poor—and the myopia has worsened considerably in recent
years. Public-health programs are low on money; hospitals are
stretched perilously thin; crucial funding is being slashed. And
while we tend to think of science when we think of pandemic
response, the worse the situation, the more the defense depends
on political leadership.
When Ebola flared in 2014, the science-minded President Barack
Obama calmly and quickly took the reins. The White House is now
home to a president who is neither calm nor science-minded. We
should not underestimate what that may mean if risk becomes
reality.
American hospitals, which often operate unnervingly close to
full capacity, likewise struggled with the surge of patients.
Pediatric units were hit especially hard by H1N1, and staff
became exhausted from continuously caring for sick children.
Hospitals almost ran out of the life-support units that sustain
people whose lungs and hearts start to fail. The health-care
system didn’t break, but it came too close for
comfort—especially for what turned out to be a training-wheels
pandemic. The 2009 H1N1 strain killed merely 0.03 percent of
those it infected; by contrast, the 1918 strain had killed 1 to
3 percent, and the H7N9 strain currently circulating in China
has a fatality rate of 40 percent.
That the U.S. could be so ill-prepared for flu, of all things,
should be deeply concerning. The country has a dedicated
surveillance web, antiviral drugs, and an infrastructure for
making and deploying flu vaccines. None of that exists for the
majority of other emerging infectious diseases.
The Hospital Preparedness Program is a funding plan that was
created in the wake of 9/11 to help hospitals ready themselves
for disasters, run training drills, and build their surge
capacity—everything that Shelly Schwedhelm’s team does so well
in Nebraska. It transformed emergency planning from an
after-hours avocation into an actual profession, carried out by
skilled specialists. But since 2003, its $514 million budget has
been halved. Another fund—the Public Health Emergency
Preparedness program—was created at the same time to help state
and local health departments keep an eye on infectious diseases,
improve their labs, and train epidemiologists. Its budget has
been pruned to 70 percent of its $940 million peak. Small
wonder, then, that in the past decade, local health departments
have cut more than 55,000 jobs. That’s 55,000 people who won’t
be there to answer the call when the next epidemic hits.
These sums of money are paltry compared with what another
pandemic might cost the country. Diseases are exorbitantly
expensive. In response to just 10 cases of Ebola in 2014, the
U.S. spent $1.1 billion on domestic preparations, including $119
million on screening and quarantine. A severe 1918-style flu
pandemic would drain an estimated $683 billion from American
coffers, according to the nonprofit Trust for America’s Health.
The World Bank estimates that global output would fall by almost
5 percent—totaling some $4 trillion.
The U.S. is not unfamiliar with the concept of preparedness. It
currently spends roughly half a trillion dollars on its
military—the highest defense budget in the world, equal to the
combined budgets of the next seven top countries. But against
viruses—more likely to kill millions than any rogue state
is—such consistent investments are nowhere to be found.
Organizing a federal response to an emerging pandemic is harder
than one might think. The largely successful U.S. response to
Ebola in 2014 benefited from the special appointment of an
“Ebola czar”—Klain—to help coordinate the many agencies that
face unclear responsibilities. In 2016, when Obama asked for
$1.9 billion to fight Zika, Congress devolved into partisan
squabbling. Republicans wanted to keep the funds away from
clinics that worked with Planned Parenthood, and Democrats
opposed the restriction. It took more than seven months to
appropriate $1.1 billion; by then, the CDC and NIH had been
forced to divert funds meant to deal with flu, HIV, and the next
Ebola.
At some point, a new virus will emerge to test Trump’s mettle.
What happens then? He has no background in science or health,
and has surrounded himself with little such expertise. The
President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology, a
group of leading scientists who consult on policy matters, is
dormant. The Office of Science and Technology Policy, which has
advised presidents on everything from epidemics to nuclear
disasters since 1976, is diminished. The head of that office
typically acts as the president’s chief scientific consigliere,
but to date no one has been appointed. Other parts of Trump’s
administration that will prove crucial during an epidemic have
operated like an Etch A Sketch. During the nine months I spent
working on this story, Tom Price resigned as secretary of health
and human services after using taxpayer money to fund charter
flights (although his replacement, Alex Azar, is arguably better
prepared, having dealt with anthrax, flu, and sars during the
Bush years). Brenda Fitzgerald stepped down as CDC director
after it became known that she had bought stock in tobacco
companies; her replacement, Robert Redfield, has a long track
record studying HIV, but relatively little public-health
experience. Rear Admiral Tim Ziemer, a veteran malaria fighter,
was appointed to the National Security Council, in part to
oversee the development of the White House’s forthcoming
biosecurity strategy. When I met Ziemer at the White House in
February, he hadn’t spoken with the president, but said pandemic
preparedness was a priority for the administration. He left in
May.
ADL H.E.A.T. Map (ADL, August 9, 2018)
Mapped: How every part of the world has warmed – and could continue to warm (Carbon Brief, September 26, 2018)
The Future Of
Electric Cars Is China (Quartz, series beginning December
10, 2018)
The world awaits an electric-car future, but that future is
rapidly becoming the present in China. The country is on track
to sell more than 1 million electric vehicles in 2018, nearly as
much as the rest of the world combined. And with tens of
billions of dollars already invested to build up an electric-car
infrastructure (and tens of billions more on the way), China is
not letting up in its pace to become the world leader in EVs.
The Great Filter - the most important question in history (Daily Kos, November 3, 2018)
Trump’s
Hidden
Powers (Brennan Center for Justice, December 5, 2018)
A vast array of obscure presidential powers spans everything
from the military to criminal law, and some are ripe for abuse.
They need to be re-examined.
Building on previous research in this area, the Brennan Center
has identified 123 statutory powers that may become available to
the president when she declares a national emergency. An
additional 13 statutory powers become available when a national
emergency is declared by Congress. We created a database that
assembles these 136 powers by subject matter, specifies the
conditions triggering their use, and lists the occasions, if
any, on which they have been invoked. (The methodology we used
to compile the database is available here.) We have also
developed a running list of national emergencies declared since
the National Emergencies Act went into effect.
These resources are eye-opening in many ways: in the nature of
the powers provided, in how easily the executive can access
them, and in how they have been used (or misused).
In
Case
Of Emergency: What Can a President Do During a State of
Emergency? (The Atlantic, January-February 2019)
From seizing control of the internet to declaring martial law,
President Trump may legally do all kinds of extraordinary
things.
More is at stake here than the outcome of one or even two
elections. Trump has long signaled his disdain for the concepts
of limited presidential power and democratic rule. During his
2016 campaign, he praised murderous dictators. He declared that
his opponent, Hillary Clinton, would be in jail if he were
president, goading crowds into frenzied chants of “Lock her up.”
He hinted that he might not accept an electoral loss. As
democracies around the world slide into autocracy, and
nationalism and antidemocratic sentiment are on vivid display
among segments of the American populace, Trump’s evident
hostility to key elements of liberal democracy cannot be
dismissed as mere bluster.
Voices
From
The Field; FBI Agent Accounts of the Real Consequences of the
Government Shutdown (FBI Agents Assn., January 2019)
If the FBI and Dept. of Justice are not funded, the Agents will
continue to face challenges in carrying out our mission to
protect the nation.
50 Moments That Define an Improbable Presidency (The Atlantic, January 21, 2019)
Tracking
Trump: The President’s Standing Across America (Morning
Consult)
On a daily basis, Morning Consult is surveying over 5,000
registered voters across the United States on President Trump.
Each month, we’ll update this page with the latest survey data,
providing a clear picture of Trump’s approval and re-election
prospects.
Russia
Investigation Summary (Teri Kanefield, continuing)
Muller Probe Overview: Documents Filed, Crimes, etc.
A Timeline of Earth's Average
Temperature Since The Last Ice Age Glaciation (xkcd)
Global Climate Change; Vital Signs Of The Planet (NASA, current)
Climate Change (United Nations)
Bernie Sanders: The Green New Deal (2019)
Umair
Haque:
Why the Anglo World is Collapsing; How the Dunces of Modern
History Ended Up Being Us (Eudaimonia & Co., March 27,
2019)
The rest of the rich world has learned the great lesson of
history, that cooperative nonviolence is the hand of progress.
Social democracy is based on that principle. And it’s not a
coincidence that social democracies are all forging ahead,
whether Sweden or Canada, even in troubled times — while we
Anglos are collapsing into the abyss of what supremacy must lead
to: extremism, fascism, authoritarianism. All the things that
are the opposite of democracy.
Sizing
Up
the Carbon Footprint of Cities (NASA, April 11, 2019)
Large and wealthy cities have the biggest carbon footprints.
Earthquake and Volcano Activity, Worldwide, 2001-2015 (NASA, NOAA)
Nancy
Pelosi, by Hillary Rodham Clinton (Time100, 2019)
Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez, by Elizabeth Warren (Time100, 2019)
Greta
Thunberg, by Emma González (Time100, 2019)
The Privacy Project (New York Times, 2019)
Zero Waste: Our country has a waste problem. It’s time for new solutions, and a renewed commitment to move toward zero waste. (MassPIRG, 2019)
50 Days to the Moon (Fast Company, 2019)
On
Bullshit, by Harry Frankfurt (Princeton University)
I propose to begin the development of a theoretical
understanding of bullshit, mainly by providing some tentative
and exploratory philosophical analysis.
It’s
Time
to Break Up Facebook, by Chris Hughes (New York Times, May
9, 2019)
Mr. Hughes, co-founder of Facebook, is a co-chairman of the
Economic Security Project and a senior adviser at the Roosevelt
Institute:
"Mark Zuckerberg’s personal reputation and the reputation of
Facebook have taken a nose-dive. The company’s mistakes - the
sloppy privacy practices that dropped tens of millions of users’
data into a political consulting firm’s lap; the slow response
to Russian agents, violent rhetoric and fake news; and the
unbounded drive to capture ever more of our time and attention -
dominate the headlines.
Mark’s influence is staggering, far beyond that of anyone else
in the private sector or in government. He controls three core
communications platforms - Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp -
that billions of people use every day. Facebook’s board works
more like an advisory committee than an overseer, because Mark
controls around 60 percent of voting shares. Mark alone can
decide how to configure Facebook’s algorithms to determine what
people see in their News Feeds, what privacy settings they can
use and even which messages get delivered. He sets the rules for
how to distinguish violent and incendiary speech from the merely
offensive, and he can choose to shut down a competitor by
acquiring, blocking or copying it.
"Mark is a good, kind person. But I’m angry that his focus on
growth led him to sacrifice security and civility for clicks.
I’m disappointed in myself and the early Facebook team for not
thinking more about how the News Feed algorithm could change our
culture, influence elections and empower nationalist leaders.
And I’m worried that Mark has surrounded himself with a team
that reinforces his beliefs instead of challenging them. The
government must hold Mark accountable."
Demand
an
impeachment inquiry (Common Cause, July 25, 2019)
No American, especially not the President, is above the law.
Leading
Civil
Rights Lawyer Shows 20 Ways Trump Is Copying Hitler’s Early
Rhetoric and Policies (Common Cause, August 9, 2019)
Burt Neuborne questions whether federal government can contain
Trump and GOP power grabs.
Many recent presidents have been awful, but then there was
Donald Trump, the only president in recent American history to
openly despise the twin ideals—individual dignity and
fundamental equality—upon which the contemporary United States
is built. When you confront the reality of a president like
Trump, the state of both sets of brakes—internal
[constitutional] and external [public resistance]—become hugely
important because Donald Trump’s political train runs on the
most potent and dangerous fuel of all: a steady diet of fear,
greed, loathing, lies, and envy. It’s a toxic mixture that has
destroyed democracies before, and can do so again.
Give Trump credit. He did his homework well and became the
twenty-first-century master of divisive rhetoric. We’re used to
thinking of Hitler’s Third Reich as the incomparably evil
tyranny that it undoubtedly was. But Hitler didn’t take power by
force. He used a set of rhetorical tropes - codified in Trump’s
bedside reading - that persuaded enough Germans to welcome
Hitler as a populist leader. The Nazis did not overthrow the
Weimar Republic. It fell into their hands as the fruit of
Hitler’s satanic ability to mesmerize enough Germans to trade
their birthright for a pottage of scapegoating, short-term
economic gain, xenophobia, and racism. It could happen here.
United States Of Plastic (The Guardian, August 2019)
100 Photos - The Most
Influential Images of All Time (Time Magazine, 2016)
Explore the stories behind 100 images that changed the world,
selected by TIME and an international team of curators.
Top 100 Photos of 2018
(Time Magazine)
Globalization
Isn’t
Dying, It’s Just Evolving (Bloomberg, July 23, 2019)
We are entering a new era in which data is the new shipping
container and there are far more disruptive forces at work in
the world economy than Trump’s tariffs. New manufacturing
techniques such as 3D printing and the automation of factories
are reducing the economic incentives to offshore production. The
smartphones we carry with us are not just products of
globalization but accelerants for it. For good or bad, we are
more exposed to a global culture of ideas than we have ever
been. And we are only becoming more global as a result.
The
1619
Project (The New York Times, August 14, 2019)
In August of 1619, a ship appeared on this horizon, near Point
Comfort, a coastal port in the English colony of Virginia. It
carried more than 20 enslaved Africans, who were sold to the
colonists. No aspect of the country that would be formed here
has been untouched by the years of slavery that followed. In the
400th anniversary of this fateful moment, it is finally time to
tell our story truthfully.
"Tending
Soil", by Emma Marris (with podcast; Emergence Magazine,
October 2019)
In almost every culture, Earth is female: Mother Earth, Gaia,
Pachamama, Terra, Prithvi - goddesses that, like the soil, have
the power to create new life. The mystery of working with soil
is that the best way to make it more fertile - more life-giving
- is to mix in dead things. Soil is the medium through which
death becomes life. It is the liminal stuff that exists after
death and rot but before sprouting life, growth, and
nourishment.
Millionaires Surtax: A Winning Issue In 2020 (Surtax, October 2019)
WMO Provisional Statement on the State of the Global Climate in 2019 (World Meteorological Association, December 3, 2019)
Global Transport of Smoke from Australian Bushfires (2-min. video; NASA)
The Deep Sea (Neal Agarwal)
The
philosophy of cynicism (5-min. video; TEDEd, December 19,
2019)
Explore the ancient Greek philosophy of cynicism, which calls
for the rejection of materialism and conformity in favor of a
simple life.
The 21st-Century American Axis Of Evil (Jonathan Gordon, 2019)
The
Trump-Ukraine
Impeachment Inquiry Report (U.S. House Intelligence
Committee, December 3, 2019
Also, here
is
CNN's annotated version.
Impeachment in the United States (Wikipedia)
President Trump House Impeachment Brief (U.S. House of Representatives, January 18, 2020)
Tracking President Trump's Unprecedented Conflicts of Interest (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington)
Environmental
voter
guide (Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, 2020)
We graded the 2020 Democratic candidates on four key
environmental areas, and produced this environmental report
card.
100th Anniversary of
the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU, January 2020)
"So long as we have enough people in this country willing to
fight for their rights, we’ll be called a democracy." - ACLU
founder Roger Baldwin
When a roomful of civil liberties activists - led by Roger
Baldwin, Crystal Eastman, and Albert DeSilver - formed the ACLU
in 1920, the Supreme Court had yet to uphold a single free
speech claim. Activists languished in jail for distributing
anti-war literature. State-sanctioned violence against
African-Americans was routine. Women won the right to vote only
in August of that year. And constitutional rights for LGBT
people were unthinkable.
The ACLU was founded to ensure the promise of the Bill of Rights
and to expand its reach to people historically denied its
protections. In our first year, we fought the harassment and
deportation of immigrants whose activism put them at odds with
the authorities. In 1939, we won in the Supreme Court the right
for unions to organize. We stood almost alone in 1942 in
denouncing our government's round-up and internment in
concentration camps of more than 110,000 Japanese-Americans. And
at times in our history when frightened civilians have been
willing to give up some of their freedoms and rights in the name
of national security, the ACLU has been the bulwark for liberty.
There
isn’t
a simple story about looting. (Vox, June 2, 2020)
“The question you have to ask yourself is: Why are there so many
people in our society who don’t have a lot to lose?” says
sociologist Darnell Hunt.
Neo-Völkisch
(Southern
Poverty Law Center)
Born out of an atavistic defiance of modernity and rationalism,
present-day neo-Völkisch, or Folkish, adherents and groups are
organized around ethnocentricity and archaic notions of gender.
Political
Coordinates
Test (Individual Differences Research, 2020)
This free political observance test will allow you to obtain
your scores on the two major political scales found in Western
democracies. Though there are several other "political
coordinates" and "political observance" tests in existence,
these tests have commonly been criticized for seeking to trick
the respondent into answering in a certain way, for example by
applying spin to the questions or framing them in such a way as
to provoke emotional reactions in the respondent. By contrast,
this test attempts to simply confront you with the questions
without any coating or spin.
Benjamin
Franklin
and the Power of Long-Term Investing (Edelman Financial
Engines, 2020)
Remembered for being a publisher, scientist, diplomat and
inventor, he was also the first truly long-term investor.
NEW: Deciphering
Russia’s
“Sovereign Internet Law”; Tightening Control and Accelerating
the Splinternet (DGAP, January 16, 2020)
In November 2019, Vladimir Putin’s regime introduced new
regulations that create a legal framework for centralized state
management of the internet within Russia’s borders. Although
full implementation will be extremely difficult, this framework
will likely lead to tighter state control over society and
additional complications for domestic and foreign companies. The
regulations are expected to accelerate the fragmentation of the
global internet and to increase Russian reliance on Chinese
technology.
Shoshana
Zuboff:
You Are Now Remotely Controlled. (New York Times, January
24, 2020)
The belief that privacy is private has left us careening toward
a future that we did not choose. Surveillance capitalists
control the science and the scientists, the secrets and the
truth.
The Day Democracy Died (9-min. YouTube video sung by The Founding Fathers, February 8, 2020)
White-Collar
Crime (Huffington Post, February 10, 2020)
Over the last two years, nearly every institution of American
life has taken on the unmistakable stench of moral rot.
Corporate behemoths like Boeing and Wells Fargo have traded
blue-chip credibility for white-collar callousness. Elite
universities are selling admission spots to the highest
Hollywood bidder. Silicon Valley unicorns have revealed
themselves as long cons (Theranos), venture-capital cremation
devices (Uber, WeWork) or straightforward comic book
supervillains (Facebook). Every week unearths a cabinet-level
political scandal that would have defined any other presidency.
From the blackouts in California to the bloated bonuses on Wall
Street to the entire biography of Jeffrey Epstein, it is
impossible to look around the country and not get the feeling
that elites are slowly looting it.
And why wouldn't they? The criminal justice system has given up
all pretense that the crimes of the wealthy are worth taking
seriously. The rich are enjoying a golden age of impunity
unprecedented in modern history. Elite deviance has become the
dark matter of American life, the invisible force around which
the country's most powerful legal and political systems have set
their orbit.
A
Short History Of Arson (Phys.org, December 5, 2014)
Arson has evolved from a wrongful individual act into an
effective means of collective violence.
Opinion Polls (Civiqs)
The Long-Term Impact of
DACA: Forging Futures Despite DACA’s Uncertainty (Harvard
University, 2019)
The experiences of our respondents over the last seven years
powerfully highlight the importance and success of DACA—the
results are indisputable. DACA has given its beneficiaries and
their families a giant boost and they have achieved significant
social mobility. It has also powerfully shaped personhood and
agency. Nevertheless, the temporary and partial nature of DACA
leaves many issues unaddressed and has created some new
dilemmas. The findings of this report have clear implications
for U.S. immigration policy and community practice.
In the last section, we offer a set of recommendations for
policymakers, stakeholders, and educators. Ultimately, we
believe that a broader immigration reform that includes a
pathway to legalization would resolve most challenges
experienced by DACA beneficiaries and their families. However,
we also acknowledge that needs are urgent, and that a range of
community stakeholders may be able to address many issues
locally and immediately.
Land Doesn’t Vote, People Do. This Electoral Map Tells the Real Story. (animated Electoral College map; Democracy Labs, November 11, 2019)
Private
gain
must no longer be allowed to elbow out the public good.
(Aeon, April 24, 2020)
The logic of private interest – the notion that we should just
‘let the market handle it’ – has serious limitations.
Particularly in the United States, the lack of an effective
health and social policy in response to the coronavirus disease
(COVID-19) outbreak has brought the contradictions into high
relief.
Around the world, the free market rewards competing, positioning
and elbowing, so these have become the most desirable
qualifications people can have. Empathy, solidarity or concern
for the public good are relegated to the family, houses of
worship or activism. Meanwhile, the market and private gain
don’t account for social stability, health or happiness. As a
result, from Cape Town to Washington, the market system has
depleted and ravaged the public sphere – public health, public
education, public access to a healthy environment – in favour of
private gain.
Simply put, a market system driven by private interests never
has protected and never will protect public health, essential
kinds of freedom and communal wellbeing. Many have pointed out
the immorality of our system of greed and self-centred gain, its
inefficiency, its cruelty, its shortsightedness and its danger
to planet and people. But, above all, the logic of self-interest
is superficial in that it fails to recognise the obvious: every
private accomplishment is possible only on the basis of a
thriving commons – a stable society and a healthy environment.
Free
Resource
to Help your Family Separate COVID Facts from Fiction
(Tumblehome, June 3, 2020)
The best way to investigate a questionable scientific-sounding
claim is to ask good questions. You can remember the following
three sets of questions using the acronym SAP. A “sap” is a
fool, and no one wants to be fooled by misinformation!
1. Sources:
Are there good references provided so you
know what experts think?
Do well-qualified people have a different
point of view than the one presented?
2. Author:
Where did the claim come from?
Is the claim made by a qualified scientist, a
reputable group or website?
Can you even tell who the author is?
3. Purpose:
Why was the information made available?
Is it because somebody is selling something?
In which case we should be extra careful before believing what
they say.
Is the purpose to stir up your emotions, to
change your vote, or to provide information?
Do well-qualified people have a different
point of view than the one presented?
Science is the pursuit of explanations of the natural world. It
is deeply rooted in the minds of human beings, who for millennia
have demonstrated a need to understand the world around them. A
full discussion of the nature of science requires more than this
one page.
However, if you want to more closely examine ‘science – fact or
fiction,’ WGBH’s NOVA, Andy Zucker and our founder Penny Noyce
created a FREE one-week unit for grades 6-12 called “Resisting
Scientific Misinformation,” available HERE.
HERE is a
list of organizations that might have reliable advice and
answers to some of your questions.
Don’t be a SAP – stay informed…and stay safe.
Joe Biden's Vision For America (Biden for President, July 4, 2020)
NEW: Inside
the
Revolutionary Treatment That Could Change Psychotherapy
Forever (Medium, July 21, 2020)
All too often, patients in today’s U.S. mental health system
fall into a downward spiral of increasing diagnoses and
increasing medication. Now Internal
Family
Systems (IFS) therapy is upending the thinking around
schizophrenia, depression, OCD, and more.
Though psychiatric medications have brought relief to millions
of patients, the impact of long-term use of many drugs is only
starting to become clear: chemical dependency, mounting side
effects, and fundamental changes in the neurochemistry of the
brain. For patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, the
effect is particularly severe. Numerous studies have found that
schizophrenics fare worse on long-term antipsychotics, though it
remains the standard of care.
Between 85% and 90% of schizophrenic patients are unemployed in
the United States, one of the most difficult places on Earth to
live with the diagnosis. In a 1992 World Health Organization
study of schizophrenia that continues to spark controversy in
the field, patients in developing countries healed and went into
remission at significantly higher rates than their counterparts
in developed countries like the United States.
IFS has recently been the subject of a lot of chatter in the
psychotherapy community. It is based on a novel theory of the
mind so profoundly at odds with the biomedical model of mental
illness that, if true, called decades of clinical orthodoxy into
question. In IFS, mental health symptoms like anxiety,
depression, paranoia, and even psychosis are regarded not as
impassive biochemical phenomena, but as emotional events under
the control of unconscious “parts” of the patient — which he/she
can learn to interact with directly.
[This new IFS reminds me of Eric Berne's old Transactional
Analysis ("I'm Okay, You're Okay" and "Games People
Play"), revisited - which may be A Good Thing.]
MAGA2020.com (Donald Trump's vision)
ChooseDemocracy.org
Democracy is fragile. We have reason to worry that this fall we
may see an undemocratic power grab — a coup. We also know that
the people can defend our democracy. Nonviolent mass protests
have stopped coups in other places, and we may have to do the
same in this country.
2020
U.S.
Election Forecast (FiveThirtyEight, 2020)
[Why
FiveThirtyEight?
Let Daily Kos explain, or read
his
2016 prediction.]
Five takeaways from final Senate Intel Russia report (The Hill, August 18, 2020)
Animated
Map:
The History of U.S. Counties (Visual Capitalist, July 31,
2020)
This quick-moving animation shows how the U.S. county map has
evolved since the 17th century.
Coyote
Safety (Town of Natick, Massachusetts Division of
Fisheries and Wildlife)
Including good "Coyotes 101" slide show re new population of
Eastern Coyotes.
Donald J. Trump Library
Putting the 45th President's work in historical context, while
documenting the damage done to American institutions and spirit
CISA Rumor Control Page (3-min. video; U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, October 2020)
LittleSis Tracks the Political Connections and Lobbying of the Ultra-Rich and Corporations. (Democracy Labs, November 16, 2020)
2020
was
the year that changed everything. (Maclean's/Canada,
November 17, 2020)
The pandemic, political upheaval and an economic crisis have
exploded truths and ideas that mere months ago seemed so
fundamental they were beyond question.
14 things we thought were true before 2020: Democracy is our
destiny? Not sure about that anymore. Rich countries can
overcome? Doesn't seem like it. In a crisis, leaders will lead?
If you're lucky. All the 'truths' 2020 has called into
question...
How
Albert
Einstein Reconciled Religion to Science (Nautilus,
November 25, 2020)
- The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and
product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honorable,
but still purely primitive, legends. No interpretation, no
matter how subtle, can change this for me.
- I believe in Spinoza’s God, who reveals himself in the lawful
harmony of the world, not in a God who concerns himself with the
fate and the doings of mankind.
- I am not an Atheist. I do not know if I can define myself as a
Pantheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited
minds.
May I not reply with a parable? The human mind, no matter how
highly trained, cannot grasp the universe. We are in the
position of a little child, entering a huge library whose walls
are covered to the ceiling with books in many different tongues.
The child knows that someone must have written those books. It
does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages
in which they are written. The child notes a definite plan in
the arrangement of the books, a mysterious order, which it does
not comprehend, but only dimly suspects. That, it seems to me,
is the attitude of the human mind, even the greatest and most
cultured, toward God. We see a universe marvelously arranged,
obeying certain laws, but we understand the laws only dimly. Our
limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that sways the
constellations.
I am fascinated by Spinoza’s Pantheism. I admire even more his
contributions to modern thought. Spinoza is the greatest of
modern philosophers, because he is the first philosopher who
deals with the soul and the body as one, not as two separate
things.
The
Rich
Kids Who Want to Tear Down Capitalism (New York Times,
November 27, 2020)
Socialist-minded millennial heirs are trying to live their
values by getting rid of their money.
Mueller, She Wrote (Threadreader, November 2020)
How
to
get rid of the Electoral College (Brookings Institution,
December 9, 2020)
The
Electoral
College is a ticking time bomb. (Brookings Institution,
December 9, 2020)
FBI's Website
on Terrorism (as of January 8, 2021)
Domestic terrorism: Violent, criminal acts committed by
individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming
from domestic influences, such as those of a political,
religious, social, racial, or environmental nature. Protecting
the United States from terrorist attacks is the FBI’s number one
priority.
NEW: Amsterdam
Is Embracing a Radical New Economic Theory to Help Save the
Environment. Could It Also Replace Capitalism? (Time,
January 22, 2021)
The Doughnut Economics Theory argues that 20th century economic
thinking is not equipped to deal with the 21st century reality
of a planet teetering on the edge of climate breakdown. Instead
of equating a growing GDP with a successful society, our goal
should be to fit all of human life into the “sweet spot” between
the “social foundation,” where everyone has what they need to
live a good life, and the “environmental ceiling.” By and large,
people in rich countries are living above the environmental
ceiling. Those in poorer countries often fall below the social
foundation. The space in between: that’s the doughnut.
In 1990, British economist Kate Raworth, now 50, arrived at
Oxford University to study economics. She quickly became
frustrated by the content of the lectures, she recalls over Zoom
from her home office in Oxford, where she now teaches. She was
learning about ideas from decades and sometimes centuries ago:
supply and demand, efficiency, rationality and economic growth
as the ultimate goal. “The concepts of the 20th century emerged
from an era in which humanity saw itself as separated from the
web of life,” Raworth says. In this worldview, she adds,
environmental issues are relegated to what economists call
“externalities.” “It’s just an ultimate absurdity that in the
21st century, when we know we are witnessing the death of the
living world unless we utterly transform the way we live, that
death of the living world is called ‘an environmental
externality.’”
NEW: Thomas
Friedman:
Made in the U.S.A.: Socialism for the Rich. Capitalism for the
Rest. (New York Times, January 26, 2021)
There has been so much focus in recent years on the downsides of
rapid globalization and “neoliberal free-market groupthink” —
influencing both Democrats and Republicans — that we’ve ignored
another, more powerful consensus that has taken hold on both
parties: That we are in a new era of permanently low interest
rates, so deficits don’t matter as long as you can service them,
and so the role of government in developed countries can keep
expanding — which it has with steadily larger bailouts,
persistent deficit spending, mounting government debts and
increasingly easy money out of Central Banks to finance it all.
This new consensus has a name: “Socialism for the rich and
capitalism for the rest” — a variation on a theme popularized in
the 1960s. It happens when government intervention does more to
stimulate the financial markets than the real economy. So,
America’s richest 10 percent, who own more than 80 percent of
U.S. stocks, have seen their wealth more than triple in 30
years, while the bottom 50 percent, relying on their day jobs in
real markets to survive, had zero gains. Meanwhile, mediocre
productivity in the real economy has limited opportunity, choice
and income gains for the poor and middle class alike.
[Also see, The
Rescues
Ruining Capitalism (Wall Street Journal, July 24, 2020).]
Philip
Bump:
How to rig an America (Washington Post, January 29, 2021)
If you live in a heavily Republican area and don’t personally
know anyone supporting Biden, it’s easy to see why you might be
skeptical of the idea that Biden won the election, including the
popular vote by some 7 million votes. In the states that swung
from Trump to Biden last year, a third of voters live in
counties Trump or Biden won by at least 30 points. In Georgia,
33 percent of voters live in counties where Trump won by that
margin.
Even if you aren’t skeptical of the idea that Biden won by that
margin, though, it’s easy to see why you might be wary of the
election results. The federal government is now entirely under
the control of Democratic politicians, most of whom live in
states that voted for Biden, such as California and New York.
(Most Trump voters also live in states Biden won, but that’s
neither here nor there.) If you’re a Republican in a heavily
Republican area in a Republican-led state, accepting that
Democrats won unified control of the government may be more
disconcerting than thinking they didn’t. After all, it suggests
a significant political shift away from what you support.
If you are a Republican elected official or political actor, the
concern is heightened. Your party has been at a disadvantage
nationally for some time, with the number of Americans who
identify as Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents
hovering at or near 50 percent for a while, according to Gallup
polling. Demographic trends don’t bode well, with younger
Americans leaning more heavily Democratic than older Americans —
and with younger Americans inevitably constituting more of the
electorate as time progresses.
This sets up a tricky moment. Republican leaders see how the
party’s power is poised to fade — looking no further than those
shifts that flipped Arizona and Georgia in last year’s
elections. (And, for Georgia, this year’s: Hard as it may be to
believe, its Senate runoff contests were this month.) The
Republican base, meanwhile, is skeptical that its power will
fade, particularly when the former president of the United
States is out there insisting that it hasn’t. It’s a moment in
which there is both incentive to game the system and support for
doing so.
So Republicans are trying to game the system — to game a system
that’s already often rigged to their advantage.
NEW: We
Now
Have a 4th Stage of Existence, and it may be the end of us
all. (Medium, February 6, 2021)
We need a new plan for the last 30 years of life.
Net
Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector
(74-min. video; International Energy Agency, May 18, 2021)
[The official report.]
NEW: 26th UN Climate Change
Conference of the Parties (COP26) (United Nations,
October 31 - November 12, 2021)
Learn about how the negotiations at COP26 went and the outcomes
achieved in the documents within.
NEW: The American
Presidency Project (University of California, Santa
Barbara)
[Compare, for example, the 1912
Democratic
Party Platform to this year's.]
Resources re the Coronavirus Pandemic
Coronavirus
disease (COVID-19) outbreak (World Health Organization,
latest status and advice)
How
the
Virus Won (New York Times, June 25, 2020)
Invisible outbreaks sprang up everywhere. The United States
ignored the warning signs. We analyzed travel patterns, hidden
infections and genetic data to show how the epidemic spun out of
control.Inside
the
Coronavirus (Scientific American, July 2020 Issue)
What scientists know about the inner workings of the pathogen
that has infected the world.
Coronavirus
Vaccine
Tracker (New York Times)
Researchers around the world are developing more than 155
vaccines against the coronavirus, and 23 vaccines are in human
trials. Vaccines typically require years of research and testing
before reaching the clinic, but scientists are racing to produce
a safe and effective vaccine by next year.
Track
Coronavirus
Cases in Places Important to You. (New York Times)
What’s
the
Best Material for a Mask? (New York Times, June 20, 2020)
Scientists are testing everyday items to find the best
protection from coronavirus. Pillow cases, flannel pajamas and
origami vacuum bags are all candidates.
Coronavirus
May
Be a Blood Vessel Disease, Which Explains Everything.
(Medium, June 1, 2020)
Many of the infection’s bizarre symptoms have one thing in
common.
Monster
or
Machine? A Profile of the Coronavirus at 6 Months (New
York Times, June 2, 2020)
Our “hidden enemy,” in plain sight.
3D model of the
SARS-CoV-2 virus at atomic resolution (2-min. video;
Vimeo, May 11, 2020)
From
hair
salons to gyms, experts rank 36 activities by coronavirus risk
level. (Michigan Live, June 8, 2020)
From
Camping
To Dining Out: Here's How Experts Rate The Risks Of 14 Summer
Activities (NPR, May 23, 2020)
The
Risks
- Know Them - Avoid Them (Erin Bromage, May
6, 2020)
Comprehensive COVID-19
reporting (by
Seattle-area
17-year-old Avi Schiffman)
Infection
Trajectory:
See Which Countries are Flattening Their COVID-19 Curve
(Visual Capitalist)
The
7
Best COVID-19 Resources We’ve Discovered So Far (Visual
Capitalist)
Coronavirus
Worldwide
Graphs (Worldometers)
COVID-19 Global
Visualizer (Carnegie Mellon University)
Rt Covid-19 Curves for
U.S. States (June 6, 2020)
These are up-to-date values for Rt, a key measure of
how fast the virus is growing. It’s the average number of people
who become infected by an infectious person.
How
to
Talk About the Coronavirus (The Atlantic, March 31, 2020)
Four ways to help those around you be better informed about the
pandemic.
Epidemic
Calculator (GitHub)
U.S.
Projected hospital resource use based on COVID-19 deaths,
assuming continued social distancing until the end of May 2020
(IHME Group at the Washington Univ. St. Louis)
Daily
Coronavirus Briefing (New York Times)
What
Is
Coronavirus? (Johns Hopkins Medicine)
Coronavirus
Myths
and Facts (Johns Hopkins Medicine)
Misinformation
related
to the COVID-19 pandemic (Wikipedia)
We
Need
to Talk About Ventilation. (The Atlantic, July 30, 2020)
How is it that six months into a respiratory pandemic, we are
still doing so little to mitigate airborne transmission?
Coronavirus:
Disinfectant
firm warns after Trump comments. (BBC News, April 24,
2020)
How
to
Wear a Face Mask Correctly: Common Mistakes to Avoid (NBC
Boston, April 22, 2020)
Here’s
What
We Know about the Most Touted Drugs Tested for COVID-19
(Scientific American, April 16, 2020)
Coronavirus
Disease (COVID-19) – Research and Statistics (Our World In
Data)
Coronavirus
Resource
Hub (Consumer Reports)
Information
on
the Outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
(Massachusetts Department of Public Health)
2020
coronavirus
pandemic in Massachusetts (Wikipedia)
Information
about
the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Stanford CA Hospital)
Coronavirus
is
most contagious before and during the first week of symptoms.
(Science News, March 13, 2020)
People stop making infectious virus once the body’s antibody
response kicks in. All symptoms may not appear, and NO symptoms
may appear until after most contagious period.
Dr.
Jeffrey VanWingen, MD: Safety tips for grocery and take-out
shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic (14-min. video;
YouTube, March 28, 2020)
Michael
Osterholm on the Coronavirus pandemic (1.5-hour video; Joe
Rogan Experience #1439, March 10, 2020)
Michael Osterholm is an internationally recognized expert in
infectious disease epidemiology. He is Regents Professor,
McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair in Public Health, the
director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and
Policy (CIDRAP), Distinguished Teaching Professor in the
Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public
Health, a professor in the Technological Leadership Institute,
College of Science and Engineering, and an adjunct professor in
the Medical School, all at the University of Minnesota. Look for
his book "Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Deadly Germs" for
more info.
Doctors
and
nurses demonstrate breathing techniques proven to help with
coronavirus symptoms. (Daily Kos, April 8, 2020)
Long-Haulers
Are
Redefining COVID-19. (The Atlantic, August 19, 2020)
Without understanding the lingering illness that some patients
experience, we can’t understand the pandemic.
How
Trump
Gutted Obama’s Pandemic-Preparedness Systems (Vanity Fair,
May 1, 2020)
Former officials: Trump’s reshuffling of positions and
departments, focus on business solutions, downgrading of
science, left the country dangerously unprepared for an
unprecedented pandemic.
A
Complete List of Trump’s Attempts to Play Down Coronavirus
(New York Times, March 15, 2020)
He could have taken action. He didn’t. Instead, he has continued
many of his old patterns of self-congratulation, blame-shifting
and misinformation. Trump now seems to understand that
coronavirus isn’t going away anytime soon. But he also seems to
view it mostly as a public-relations emergency for himself
rather than a public-health emergency for the country.
Answers
to
Common Questions About Coronavirus and the Food You Eat
(Consumer Reports, April 1, 2020)
Food safety experts address 12 top concerns.
'It
will
disappear': the disinformation Trump spread about the
coronavirus – timeline (The Guardian, April 14, 2020)
Heather
Cox
Richardson: Today, Trump and his supporters doubled down on
the idea that the coronavirus is a “hoax”. (Letters from
an American, February 28, 2020)
Today, Trump and his supporters doubled down on the idea that
the coronavirus is a “hoax,” as Trump said, perpetrated by
Democrats eager to tank his presidency. That would explain the
dramatic drop of the stock market this week as nothing but an
emotional reaction to “fake news.” It would mean that the strong
economy Trump has hyped as his major contribution to the
country—he denies that his predecessor Barack Obama had anything
to do with it, although economic numbers under Obama were as
good or better than today’s—remains intact, so long as people
will ignore those dastardly Democrats... the Democrats that
Donald Trump, Jr. says are hoping the coronavirus “comes here
and kills millions of people so that they can end Donald Trump’s
streak of winning.”
This is one heck of a gamble, and it reveals the corner into
which the administration’s reliance on a false narrative has
painted it. Under Trump, the country is great again… so the
virus can’t be a problem. The rising stock market has proved
that the economy is brilliant and Trump gets all the credit for
it… so the falling stock market must be fake, or else the fault
of jealous Democrats.
But the virus isn’t playing Trump’s game. It is spreading.
Today, after we learned there are more than 85,000 known cases
in the world and more than 2,900 known deaths, the
director
of the World Health Organization’s health emergencies program
warned “every government on the planet” to “wake up. Get
ready. You have a duty to your citizens. You have a duty to
the world to be ready.”
America’s
uniquely
bad Covid-19 epidemic, explained in 18 maps and charts
(Vox, August 11, 2020)
It’s now clear the United States has failed to contain its
Covid-19 epidemic, with case counts far ahead of other developed
nations and more than 1,000 deaths reported a day for over two
weeks and counting. Asked if America’s coronavirus outbreak is
the worst in the world, White House adviser and National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony
Fauci admitted it was on August 5: “Yeah, it is. Quantitatively,
if you look at it, it is. I mean, the numbers don’t lie.”
It didn’t have to be this way. In March and April, other
developed countries had significant Covid-19 outbreaks, but they
did a much better job than the US in containing the coronavirus
and keeping it down after the virus arrived. So while some other
developed nations have experienced upticks, they all pale in
comparison to the massive surge in cases, hospitalizations, and
deaths that the US has seen since May and June.
Here’s what you need to know.
Food
and
Coronavirus Disease 2019/COVID-19 (CDC, Aug. 22, 2020)
- The risk of getting sick with COVID-19 from eating or handling
food (including frozen food and produce) and food packages is
considered very low.
- Take everyday actions to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
- Continue following basic steps for food safety and eat
nutritious foods to take care of your physical and mental
health.
CDC
reverses
itself and says guidelines it posted on coronavirus airborne
transmission were wrong. (5-min. video; Washington Post,
September 21, 2020)
Despite expert recommendations, CDC removes statement, claiming
website error. The agency had posted information Friday stating
the virus can transmit over a distance beyond six feet,
suggesting that indoor ventilation is key to protecting against
a virus that has now killed nearly 200,000 Americans. Where the
agency previously warned that the virus mostly spreads through
large drops encountered at close range, on Friday, it had said
“small particles, such as those in aerosols,” were a common
vector.
The edited Web page has removed all references to airborne
spread, except for a disclaimer that recommendations based on
this mode of transmission are under review.
For months, scientists and public health experts have warned of
mounting evidence that the coronavirus is airborne, transmitted
through tiny droplets called aerosols that linger in the air
much longer than the larger globs that come from coughing or
sneezing.
Despair
at
CDC after Trump influence: 'I have never seen morale this
low.' (The Hill, September 23, 2020)
The
Coronavirus
Unveiled (with stunning photos and links; New York Times,
October 9, 2020)
The first pictures of the coronavirus, taken just seven months
ago, resembled barely discernible smudges. But scientists have
since captured the virus and its structures in intimate, atomic
detail, offering crucial insights into how it functions.
Less than a millionth of an inch wide, the virus is studded with
proteins called spikes that attach to cells in people’s airways,
allowing the virus to infiltrate. But under an electron
microscope, the proteins look more like tulips than spikes,
consisting of long stems topped with what looks like a
three-part flower. These spikes also swivel on a three-way
hinge, which may increase their odds of encountering and
attaching to proteins on human cells.
UN:
New
daily record as COVID-19 cases hit more than 350,000 (AP
News, October 9, 2020)
In a press briefing on Friday, WHO emergencies chief Dr. Michael
Ryan acknowledged that even as COVID-19 continues to surge
across the world, “there are no new answers.” He said that
although the agency wants countries to avoid the punishing
lockdowns that have devastated economies, governments must
ensure the most vulnerable people are protected and numerous
measures must be taken. “The majority of people in the world are
still susceptible to this disease,” Ryan warned. He said
countries should focus not just on restrictive measures, but
also on bolstering their surveillance systems, testing, contact
tracing and ensuring populations are engaged.
Globally, more than 36 million cases of COVID-19 have been
reported, including more than 1 million deaths. Experts say the
tally far underestimates the real number of cases and Ryan said
on Monday that the WHO’s “best estimates” were that one in 10
people worldwide — or roughly 760 million people — may have been
infected.
The
White
House blocked the C.D.C. from requiring masks on public
transportation. (New York Times, October 9, 2020)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention drafted a
sweeping order last month requiring all passengers and employees
to wear masks on all forms of public and commercial
transportation in the United States, but it was blocked by the
White House, according to two federal health officials. The
order would have been the toughest federal mandate to date aimed
at curbing the spread of the coronavirus, which continues to
infect more than 40,000 Americans a day. The officials said that
it was drafted under the agency’s “quarantine powers” and that
it had the support of the secretary of health and human
services, Alex M. Azar II, but the White House Coronavirus Task
Force, led by Vice President Mike Pence, declined to even
discuss it. The order would have required face coverings on
airplanes, trains, buses and subways, and in transit hubs such
as airports, train stations and bus depots.
A task force official said the decision to require masks should
be left up to states and localities. The administration requires
the task force to sign off on coronavirus-related policies.
Lungs
(and COVID-19) (Quartz, October 14, 2020)
The thing about lungs—and most of our health for that matter—is
that when they’re working well, we barely notice them. It’s only
when they’re threatened by something like a global respiratory
pandemic that we start to notice just how talented these organs
actually are.
To
shut
down or not shut down? Officials implement new coronavirus
restrictions as cases skyrocket, but face angry backlash.
(Washington Post, November 13, 2020)
Governors and mayors are forced again to weigh coronavirus
deaths against anger and economic devastation.
Covid: Think for
Yourself, Dammit! (This Is True, November 16, 2020)
Terry: “I’m tired of the state telling me I have to wear a face
diaper as a method of control. That is what is at stake here.”
Randy: "Wrong. What’s at stake here is millions of lives — with
more than 1.3 million dead around the world so far. “The state”
isn’t trying to control you, it's trying to control something
that has evolved to kill you."
‘They’ve
been
following the science’: How the Covid-19 pandemic has been
curtailed in the Cherokee Nation. (Stat, November 17,
2020)
While the United States flounders in its response to the
coronavirus, another nation — one within our own borders — is
faring much better. With a mask mandate in place since spring,
free drive-through testing, hospitals well-stocked with PPE, and
a small army of public health officers fully supported by their
chief, the Cherokee Nation has been able to curtail its Covid-19
case and death rates even as those numbers surge in surrounding
Oklahoma, where the White House coronavirus task force says
spread is unyielding.
Why
face
masks belong at your Thanksgiving gathering – 7 things you
need to know about wearing them (The Conversation,
November 19, 2020)
Here are answers to some key questions about how and when to
wear masks, and how to manage their use during the holidays.
Clinical
Outcomes
Of A COVID-19 Vaccine: Implementation Over Efficacy.
(Health Affairs, November 19, 2020)
Using a mathematical simulation of vaccination, we find that
factors related to implementation will contribute more to the
success of vaccination programs than a vaccine’s efficacy as
determined in clinical trials. The benefits of a vaccine will
decline substantially in the event of manufacturing or
deployment delays, significant vaccine hesitancy, or greater
epidemic severity. Our findings demonstrate the urgent need for
health officials to invest greater financial resources and
attention to vaccine production and distribution programs, to
redouble efforts to promote public confidence in COVID-19
vaccines, and to encourage continued adherence to other
mitigation approaches, even after a vaccine becomes available.
We're
celebrating
Thanksgiving amid a pandemic. Here's how we did it in 1918 –
and what happened next. (USA Today, November 22, 2020)
On Thanksgiving more than a century ago, many Americans were
living under quarantines, and officials warned people to stay
home for the holiday.
No.
3
- AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine shows success: Here’s how it
stacks up to others. (Ars Technica, November 23, 2020)
AstraZeneca used two equal dosages and measured 62% average
effectiveness. Halving the first dose upped it to 90%
average. Unlike its competitor vaccines, normal refrigeration is
sufficent - and its proven production methods permit early - and
probably less costly - distribution to more people.
What
You
Need to Know About Getting Tested for Coronavirus (New
York Times, December 9, 2020)
Long lines, slow results and inconsistent advice have left many
of us confused about when and how to get tested. We talked to
the experts to answer your questions.
NEW: A
top scientist questioned virus lockdowns on Fox News. The
backlash was fierce. (4-min. and 3-min. videos; Washington
Post, December 16, 2020)
John Ioannidis, 55 and a famous Stanford University medical
professor, insists he is doing what he has always done:
following the data and sometimes contending with the head winds
of conventional wisdom or popular opinion. He says governments
should focus on protecting the sick and elderly from infection
while keeping businesses and schools open for the less
vulnerable. “There is a lethal virus circulating out there. We
all have responsibility to do our best to contain it as much as
possible. It’s not a joke. It’s not a conspiracy. It’s not
fake,” he told The Washington Post. “But we don’t panic. We
don’t destroy our world. We don’t freeze everything.”
At a time when President Trump was openly at war with
his own administration’s medical experts,
Ioannidis’s doubts about the wisdom of lockdowns became part of
the rancorous debate about how the country should respond to the
threat of covid-19. His arguments in a string of appearances on
Fox News, CNN and other news networks were seized on by
right-wing firebrands seeking to discredit public-health
officials and reopen the economy. It was a remarkable turn for
Ioannidis, a longtime evangelist for science-based health
policies who has argued for zealous gun-control measures and the
abolition of the tobacco industry.
SARS-CoV-2’s
spread
to wild mink not yet a reason to panic. (Ars Technica,
December 22, 2020)
A monitoring program picked up a single case and no indications
of wider spread.
How
Full
Are Hospital I.C.U.s Near You? (New York Times, December
28, 2020)
NEW: In
fast-moving
pandemic, health officials try to change minds at warp speed.
(Salon, January 2, 2021)
Public health laws typically come long after social norms shift,
affirming a widespread acceptance that a change in habits is
worth the public good and that it's time for stragglers to fall
in line. But even when decades of evidence show a rule can save
lives — such as wearing seat belts or not smoking indoors — the
debate continues in some places with the familiar argument that
public restraints violate personal freedoms. This fast-moving
pandemic, however, doesn't afford society the luxury of time.
State mandates have put local officials in charge of changing
behavior while general understanding catches up.
More
Than
12 Million Shots Given: Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker
(Bloomberg, January 2, 2021)
The U.S. has administered 4.28 million doses; Europe’s roll-out
begins.
Here’s
where
all the COVID-19 vaccine candidates currently stand.
(Popular Science, January 4, 2021)
More than a dozen frontrunners have reached late-stage clinical
trials.
Professor
Dr.
John Dennehy: What Does SARS-CoV-2 Evolution Mean for the
Future of the Pandemic? (59-min. video; Queens College,
January 12, 2021)
Dr. Dennehy’s laboratory researches virus evolution, ecology,
population dynamics, and the emergence of viruses in new host
populations. Currently, the laboratory’s main focus if two-fold:
modeling the persistence and spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the built
environment and monitoring SARS-CoV-2 genetic diversity in NYC
wastewater.
[Excellent presentation, with good charts.]
Johnson
&
Johnson's single-dose COVID-19 vaccine suggests strong immune
response. (The Hill, January 13, 2021)
One of the next vaccine candidates could change the game, but is
reportedly behind production goals.
Drug
Prevents
Coronavirus Infection in Nursing Homes, Maker Claims. (New
York Times, January 21, 2021)
An unusual experiment to prevent nursing home staff members and
residents from infection with the coronavirus has succeeded, the
drug maker Eli Lilly announced on Thursday. A drug containing
monoclonal antibodies — laboratory-grown virus-fighters —
prevented symptomatic infections in residents who were exposed
to the virus, even the frail older people who are most
vulnerable, according to preliminary results of a study
conducted in partnership with the National Institutes of Health.
The researchers found an 80 percent reduction in infections
among residents who got the drug, compared with those who got a
placebo, and a 60 percent reduction among the staff, results
that were highly statistically powerful, Eli Lilly said.
Obesity,
Impaired
Metabolic Health and COVID-19: The Interconnection of Global
Pandemics. (SciTechDaily, January 24, 2021)
Obesity and cardiometabolic diseases do not only trigger a more
severe course of COVID-19. The SARS-CoV-2 infection could
promote the development of these conditions.
As
Virus
Grows Stealthier, Vaccine Makers Reconsider Battle Plans.
(New York Times, January 25, 2021)
Vaccines by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech effectively protect
recipients. But in a worrying sign, they are slightly less
effective against a variant found in South Africa.
Paul
Krugman:
GOP says COVID-19 bill is too big. (New York Times,
February 2, 2021)
The Republican counteroffer to Joe Biden’s proposed rescue
package is grotesquely inadequate. While the Republican offering
is criminally underpowered, however, is it possible that Biden’s
plan overdoes it? Could the extensive aid to families,
businesses, and state and local governments end up being more
than needed?
Yes, it could, although we don’t know that for sure; it depends
on how long the pandemic lasts, and how quickly the economy
rebounds once we get herd immunity. Maybe we’re overdoing it,
maybe not. While the rescue plan might overshoot, there’s not
much harm if it does. On the other hand, an inadequate plan
would lead to vast, unnecessary suffering. So we actually want
the plan to be bigger than we expect we’ll need, just in case.
The
Second
COVID-19 Shot Is a Rude Reawakening for Immune Cells. (The
Atlantic, February 2, 2021)
Side effects are a natural part of the vaccination process, just
a sign that protection is kicking in as it should. Not everyone
will experience them. But the two COVID-19 vaccines cleared for
emergency use in the United States, made by Pfizer/BioNTech and
Moderna, already have reputations for raising the hackles of the
immune system: In both companies’ clinical trials, at least a
third of the volunteers ended up with symptoms such as headaches
and fatigue; fevers were less common. Dose No. 2 is more likely
to pack a punch—in large part because the effects of the second
shot build iteratively on the first.
The
Coronavirus
Is a Master of Mixing Its Genome, Worrying Scientists.
(New York Times, February 5, 2021)
New studies underscore how coronaviruses frequently mix their
genetic components — which could contribute to the rise of
dangerous variants.
When
it
comes to their own pandemic precautions, state legislatures in
the U.S. are all over the map. (New York Times, February
8, 2021)
Nearly a year into the coronavirus crisis, with no national
standard for legislating during a pandemic, lawmakers in state
capitals around the country are grappling with how to carry out
a new season of sessions. A partisan pattern has emerged, but
there remains a patchwork of shifting, inconsistent rules about
where to meet, how the public can take part, and what to do
about masks.
In at least 28 states, masks are required on the floors of both
legislative chambers, according to a New York Times survey of
legislatures in every state; 17 of the 28 states are controlled
by Democrats. Legislatures in at least 18 states, including 15
that are Republican-controlled, do not require masks on the
floor in at least one chamber. In the three state legislatures
where party control is divided, one is requiring masks and two
are not.
China
Scores
a Public Relations Win After First W.H.O. Mission to Wuhan to
Study the Origins of the Coronavirus Pandemic. (New York
Times, February 9, 2021)
Experts with the global health agency endorsed critical parts of
Beijing’s narrative, even some parts that independent scientists
question.
The team did not report major breakthroughs but said it had
found important clues. The virus was circulating in Wuhan
several weeks before it appeared at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale
Market, where some of the earliest clusters were initially
reported, the experts said. It most likely emerged in bats and
spread to humans through another small mammal, though the
experts said they have not been able to identify the species
A
next-generation coronavirus vaccine is in the works, but
initial funding was denied. (2-min. video; USA Today,
February 17, 2021)
Drew Weissman realized a year ago that even if the COVID-19
vaccines then in progress were eventually approved, it might not
be enough. The world might need a next-generation vaccine to rid
itself of this pandemic. Recent outbreaks of more resilient
variants suggest he could be right. And yet, when Weissman –
discoverer of the mRNA science behind two of the current
vaccines – and a team of fellow scientists took a proposal for a
more versatile COVID-19 vaccine to the National Institutes of
Health for funding last May, they left empty-handed. The group
had proposed research on vaccines to protect against any variant
of the virus, known as a universal or pan vaccine.
NEW: An
Antiviral
Nasal Spray to Prevent COVID / Coronavirus Transmission
(1-min. video; SciTechDaily, February 17, 2021)
The antiviral lipopeptide is inexpensive to produce, has a long
shelf life, and does not require refrigeration. These features
make it stand out from other antiviral approaches under
development, including many monoclonal antibodies. The new nasal
lipopeptide could be ideal for halting the spread of COVID in
the United States and globally; the transportable and stable
compound could be especially key in rural, low-income, and
hard-to-reach populations.
Pfizer
vaccine
doesn’t need ultra-cold storage after all, company says.
(Ars Technica, February 19, 2021)
The pharma giant and partner BioNTech have asked FDA to revise
the vaccine's label.
U.S.
may
duck a surge from COVID-19 variant that sent Britain reeling.
(Harvard Gazette, February 19, 2021)
Expert says falling COVID rates, rising vaccinations, timing may
hamper spread.
We’re
Just
Rediscovering a 19th-Century Pandemic Strategy. (The
Atlantic, February 22, 2021)
The first way to fight a new virus would once have been opening
the windows.
Two-Thirds
of
COVID-19 Hospitalizations Are Due to These Four Conditions.
(Tufts University, February 25, 2021)
Model suggests higher risk based on obesity, diabetes,
hypertension and heart failure (also race and age), offers
insights to reduce disease impact.
Research
Suggests
Proper Fit of COVID Face Masks Is More Important Than
Material. (SciTechDaily, February 27, 2021)
The COVID-19 pandemic has made well-fitting face masks a vital
piece of protective equipment for healthcare workers and
civilians. While the importance of wearing face masks in slowing
the spread of the virus has been demonstrated, there remains a
lack of understanding about the role that good fit plays in
ensuring their effectiveness.
“We know that unless there is a good seal between the mask and
the wearer’s face, many aerosols and droplets will leak through
the top and sides of the mask, as many people who wear glasses
will be well aware of,” said Eugenia O’Kelly from Cambridge’s
Department of Engineering, the paper’s first author. “We wanted
to quantitatively evaluate the level of fit offered by various
types of masks, and most importantly, assess the accuracy of
implementing fit checks by comparing fit check results to
quantitative fit testing results.”
U.S.
hits
grim COVID milestone amid new hope of third vaccine.
(2-min. video; CBS News, February 28, 2021)
CBS News reports on the latest developments in vaccine
distribution as the U.S. continues its battle against COVID-19.
COVID-19
revealed
how sick the US health care delivery system really is.
(The Conversation, March 2, 2021)
If you got the COVID-19 shot, you likely received a little paper
card that shows you’ve been vaccinated. Make sure you keep that
card in a safe place. There is no coordinated way to share
information about who has been vaccinated and who has not.
That is just one of the glaring flaws that COVID-19 has revealed
about the U.S. health care system: It does not share health
information well. Coordination between public health agencies
and medical providers is lacking. Technical and regulatory
restrictions impede use of digital technologies. To put it
bluntly, our health care delivery system is failing patients.
Prolonged disputes about the Affordable Care Act and rising
health care costs have done little to help; the problems go
beyond insurance and access.
Fully-vaccinated
people
can visit with nearby grandchildren, dine indoors with one
another, CDC says. (2-min. video; Washington Post, March
8, 2021)
Long-awaited recommendations loosen restrictions on how people
can socialize.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
said people who are two weeks past their final shot may visit
indoors with unvaccinated members of a single household at low
risk of severe disease, without wearing masks or distancing.
That would free many vaccinated grandparents who live near their
unvaccinated children and grandchildren to visit them for the
first time in a year. The guidelines continue to discourage
visits involving long-distance travel, however.
The CDC also said fully vaccinated people can gather indoors
with those who are also fully vaccinated. And they do not need
to quarantine, or be tested after exposure to the coronavirus,
as long as they have no symptoms, the agency said.
NEW: Interim
Public
Health Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated People (U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, March 8, 2021)
Fully vaccinated people in non-healthcare settings can:
Visit with other fully vaccinated people
indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing.
Visit with unvaccinated people from a single
household who are at low risk for severe COVID-19 disease
indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing.
Refrain from quarantine and testing following
a known exposure if asymptomatic.
For now, fully vaccinated people should continue to:
Take precautions in public like wearing a
well-fitted mask and physical distancing.
Wear masks, practice physical distancing, and
adhere to other prevention measures when visiting with
unvaccinated people who are at increased risk for severe
COVID-19 disease or who have an unvaccinated household member
who is at increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease.
Wear masks, maintain physical distance, and
practice other prevention measures when visiting with
unvaccinated people from multiple households.
Avoid medium- and large-sized in-person
gatherings.
Get tested if experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.
Follow guidance issued by individual
employers.
Follow CDC and health department travel
requirements and recommendations.
NEW: A
new lab study shows troubling signs that Pfizer's and
Moderna's COVID-19 shots could be far less effective against
the variant first found in South Africa. (Business
Insider, March 8, 2021)
The percentage of protective antibodies that neutralized the
variant — called B.1.351, which has been recorded in 20 US
states — was 12.4 fold lower for Moderna's COVID-19 shot than
against the original coronavirus, and 10.3 fold lower for
Pfizer's, the study authors said. This was a bigger drop than in
previous lab studies testing the vaccines against manufactured
forms of the variant, they said. For this study, the researchers
used real forms of the variant taken from people who had caught
th
Americans
started
wearing face masks a year ago. Where do we go from here?
(8-min. video; Washington Post, March 8, 2021)
The rapid spread of covid-19 in the United States began in the
early months of 2020. A lot has changed in our day-to-day lives
since then, including the use of face masks.
A
year into the pandemic, the coronavirus is messing with our
minds as well as our bodies. (The Conversation, March 8,
2021)
As we see it, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is a
sort of zombie virus, turning people not into the undead but
rather into the unsick. By interfering with our bodies’ normal
immune response and blocking pain, the virus keeps the infected
on their feet, spreading the virus. Zombie viruses are also a
real thing, influencing their host’s behavior in ways that
enhance the viruses’ evolutionary fitness.
Leaked
Documents
Raise Concerns Over Integrity of mRNA Molecules in Some
COVID-19 Vaccines. (SciTechDaily, March 10, 2021)
Documents leaked from the European Medicines Agency (EMA)
following a cyber attack in December show that some early
commercial batches of Pfizer-BioNTech’s covid-19 vaccine had
lower than expected levels of intact mRNA molecules.
These molecules instruct our cells to make a harmless piece of
coronavirus protein, triggering an immune response and
protecting us from infection if the real virus enters our
bodies. The complete, intact mRNA molecule is essential to the
potency of the vaccine. But in a special report for The BMJ
today, journalist Serena Tinari shows that the EMA was concerned
about the difference in quality between clinical batches and
proposed commercial batches of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Specifically, EMA had major concerns over unexpectedly low
quantities (around 55%) of intact mRNA in batches of the vaccine
developed for commercial production. It is an issue relevant not
just to Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine but also to those produced by
Moderna, CureVac, and others, as well as a “second generation”
mRNA vaccine being pursued by Imperial College London.
COVID
herd
immunity may be unlikely—winter surges could “become the
norm”. (Ars Technica, March 10, 2021)
Some experts speculate that the pandemic coronavirus will one
day cause nothing more than a common cold, mostly in children,
where it will be an indistinguishable drip in the steady stream
of snotty kid germs. Such is the reality for four other
coronaviruses that have long stalked school yards and commonly
circulate among us every cold and flu season, to little
noticeable effect.
But that sanguine—if not slightly slimier—future is shaky. And
the road to get there will almost certainly be rocky. For the
pandemic coronavirus to turn from terror to trifle, we have to
build up high levels of immunity against it. At the population
level, this will be difficult—even with vaccines. And with the
uncertainty of how we’ll pull it off, some experts are
cautioning that we should prepare for the possibility that the
pandemic coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, will stick with us for the
near future, possibly becoming a seasonal surge during the
winter months when we’re largely indoors.
Despite a lot of uncertainty, researchers lay out five ways to
prepare for the worst.
NEW: Pandemic
Special
Series: The Week Our Reality Broke (New York Times, March
11-??, 2021)
A series reflecting on a year of living with the coronavirus
pandemic and how it has affected American society.
Republicans
on
Biden’s Covid bill: "We bungled this one." (Politico,
March 17, 2021)
The GOP didn’t think it could stop passage. But with nearly
three-quarters of Americans approving of the law, some
luminaries can’t believe how little a dent they made.
The Republican Party’s stumbles around the passage of the
Covid-relief bill were, to a degree, a microcosm of the
difficulties it has had finding its footing in the post-Trump
era. Indeed, some Republicans said their party was hamstrung in
the relief bill fight by the fact that they had so recently
supported bills that relied on deficit-spending and pushed
similar provisions, like direct payments...
[... to the wealthy.]
NEW: Variant
or
‘Scariant’: When to Worry About Covid Virus Strains
(Medium, March 18, 2021)
Plus, the most important way to prevent more variants from
emerging.
As
Republicans
Shun Vaccines, Congress Toils to Return to Normal. (New
York Times, March 19, 2021)
A quarter of lawmakers have yet to receive a coronavirus
vaccine, even though they have been available since December.
Staples,
Office
Depot Will Laminate Your Covid-19 Vaccination Card for Free
Until May 1. (Frommers, March 25, 2021)
Office supply giants Staples and Office Depot are laminating
customers' Covid-19 vaccination record cards for free until May
1.
Why would you want that? Because having proof of vaccination
will soon be imperative for many types of travel—cruise lines
and whole countries have already announced or suggested that
they will only accept vaccinated visitors in the future.
Preserving the paper innoculation card, which is too large to
fit in most wallets, will help the document weather use at
borders and ticket counters.
The U.S. government asks citizens not to laminate Social
Security cards, but Covid-19 vaccination forms have no security
measures that would be hampered by encasing them in plastic.
[But see April 25th...]
New
revelations
about GOP governors prove that COVID-19 has truly been an
American genocide. (Daily Kos, March 29, 2021)
At least 563,000 Americans dead of the virus and likely far more
than that. Over 31 million confirmed cases. Poverty rising to
rates unseen since the Great Depression. When time provides some
buffer and perspective, it will be impossible to recognize the
pandemic in the United States as anything but a genocide — at
least to those unblinkered by American exceptionalism). With
that many deaths driven by cruelty and politics, there’s no
other word for it.
Republicans consciously ignored all scientists, medical
professionals, and policy experts, choosing to instead encourage
and even force their own constituents to march towards their own
doom. The facts are coming out now; in her apology tour, Trump
enabler Deborah Birx just estimated that more than 400,000
American lives were lost due to Trump’s blatant and purposeful
mishandling of the virus.
But Trump wasn’t the only Republican leader that was grossly
negligent and willingly homicidal. Republicans across the
country, from senators to governors and state legislators,
downplayed the virus and spread lies about it from the moment it
arrived and began killing Americans by the dozen. They did it
with an election in mind, knowing that people of color were
dying at higher rates and that stoking inane and vulgar culture
wars allows GOP powerbrokers to continue their plunder of the
American people and the dying planet.
Trump
Inadvertently
Admits He's GUILTY of 400,000 Cases of Negligent Homicide.
(Daily Kos, March 30, 2021)
The most jarring part of that first sentence is Trump's
dismissal of what he calls "faulty recommendations," that he
"fortunately almost always overturned." In other words, Trump is
confessing that he rejected the advice of the experts that he
hired to mitigate the deadly potential of the COVID pandemic.
Therefore, Trump is conceding that the tragic results that took
the lives of more half a million Americans are wholly his
responsibility.
Trump has entirely absolved the others of blame. And since their
recommendations were discarded by Trump personally, he is
unselfishly taking all the "credit" for the horror that
followed. For the record, the common sense, CDC approved
recommendations that he overturned were replaced by his own
favorite (albeit fraudulent) therapies that included injecting
bleach, hydroxychloroquine, ultraviolet light, and herd
"mentality" (sic).
Network
Model
Shows How Combining Mask Wearing, Social Distancing Suppresses
COVID-19 Virus Spread. (SciTechDaily, April 13, 2021)
Researchers at New York University and Politecnico di Torino in
Italy developed a network model to study the effects of these
two measures on the spread of airborne diseases like COVID-19.
The model shows viral outbreaks can be prevented if at least 60%
of a population complies with both measures. “Neither social
distancing nor mask wearing alone are likely sufficient to halt
the spread of COVID-19, unless almost the entire population
adheres to the single measure,” author Maurizio Porfiri said.
“But if a significant fraction of the population adheres to both
measures, viral spreading can be prevented without mass
vaccination.”
SARS-CoV-2
variant
found in Brazil: More infectious, may limit immunity. (Ars
Technica, April 16, 2021)
The virus appears to be more infectious and more likely to
infect those who have immunity to other viral strains, and it
might even be more lethal. And, as of when the paper was
written, the lineage had been detected in over 35 countries.
Hot
fun
in the summertime? Maybe. States begin to plan for warmer
days. (New York Times, April 22, 2021)
With summer on the horizon, states are beginning to rethink
social-distancing measures. Science shows that the risk of viral
transmission outside is very low. The Times’s Well columnist,
Tara Parker-Pope, suggests making sure activities meet two out
of the following three conditions: outdoors, distanced and
masked.
NEW: Do
NOT
Get Your COVID-19 Vaccination Card Laminated. (AARP, April
22, 2021)
Tips for safeguarding the paper record of your coronavirus
vaccination.
[The bad news: Why are we hearing this too late? (See March 25,
herein.)
The good news: They simply taped the newer vaccination
date onto our laminated cards. No problemo!]
India’s
military
helps speed medical supplies as pandemic surge sets infection
record. (Washington Post, April 23, 2021)
India set another daily record for new coronavirus infections
Saturday as the country’s health-care system buckled under a
rampaging outbreak that has left dire shortages of oxygen tanks,
medicines and hospital beds. Indian authorities said they are
commandeering trains and using air force planes to speed up the
distribution of medical supplies to hard-hit regions. Some of
India’s crematories have been put out of service from overuse.
Pesticide
Exposure
May Increase COVID-19 Susceptibility. (SciTechDaily, April
26, 2021)
A new study performed in human lung airway cells is one of the
first to show a potential link between exposure to
organophosphate pesticides and increased susceptibility to
COVID-19 infection. The findings could have implications for
veterans, many of whom were exposed to organophosphate
pesticides during wartime, and for people with metabolic
disorders.
Exposure to organophosphate pesticides is thought to be one of
the possible causes of Gulf War Illness, a cluster of medically
unexplained chronic symptoms that can include fatigue,
headaches, joint pain, indigestion, insomnia, dizziness,
respiratory disorders and memory problems. More than 25% of Gulf
War veterans are estimated to experience this condition.
The
African
vaccine rollout (New York Times, April 26, 2021)
Of the one billion shots given around the world, 82 percent have
been given in high- and upper-middle-income countries. Only 0.2
percent of doses have been administered in low-income countries
— pockets of infection that can produce variants that put us all
in danger.
CDC:
Vaccinated
Americans can go maskless outdoors in many situations.
(Politico, April 27, 2021)
Fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear masks indoors or
outdoors when in small groups with other fully vaccinated
friends and family, and in some circumstances can go maskless
with unvaccinated people. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky
announced the guidelines, saying the agency had made the changes
after studying how likely vaccinated people are to transmit the
virus.
Will
the
pandemic make us nicer people? Probably not. But it might
change us in other ways. (Washington Post, May 1, 2021)
If past is prologue, the deadly flu epidemic of 1918 and 1919
should help us understand how we will navigate the post-covid
years. “I think it’s fair to say that people want to forget as
soon as possible,” said Laura Spinney, author of “Pale Rider:
The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World.” “That is
pretty much the pattern for pandemics throughout history. If you
talk to public health experts, they talk about us going through
this cycle of panic and complacency: We panic when a pandemic
declares itself, and then we forget about it as soon as it’s
gone.”
[An excellent look at how pandemics can change personalities.]
Reaching
‘Herd
Immunity’ Is Unlikely in the U.S., Experts Now Believe.
(New York Times, May 3, 2021)
Widely circulating coronavirus variants and persistent hesitancy
about vaccines will keep the goal out of reach. The virus is
here to stay, but vaccinating the most vulnerable may be enough
to restore normalcy.
How
America’s
partisan divide over pandemic responses played out in the
States. (The Conversation, May 12, 2021)
Looking at states’ COVID-19 case and death rates, researchers
are finding the more stringent policies typical of Democratic
governors led to lower rates of infections and deaths, compared
to the the pandemic responses of the average Republican
governor. In preparation for future pandemics, it may be worth
considering how to address the impact that a state government’s
partisan leanings can have on the scope and severity of a public
health crises.
The
60-Year-Old
Scientific Screwup That Helped Covid Kill (Wired, May 13,
2021)
All pandemic long, scientists brawled over how the virus
spreads. Droplets! No, aerosols! At the heart of the fight was a
teensy error with huge consequences.
The
Yankees
Covid Outbreak May Be Bad News for Ditching Masks. (Wired,
May 13, 2021)
The spate of cases is a bad bounce—and it might show that
lifting mask mandates for the vaxxed won’t be a grand slam.
Coronavirus
vaccines
may not work in some people. It’s because of their underlying
conditions. (Washington Post, May 18, 2021)
Early research shows that 15 to 80 percent of people with
certain medical conditions, such as specific blood cancers or
organ transplants, are generating few antibodies after receiving
coronavirus vaccines.
NEW: Equity
at
a time of pandemic (US National Institute of Health, May
21, 2021)
Health promotion has long aspired for a world where all people
can live to their full potential. Yet, COVID-19 illuminates
dramatically different consequences for populations bearing
heavy burdens of systemic disadvantage within countries and
between the Global South and Global North. Many months of
pandemic is entrenching inequities that reveal themselves in the
vastly differential distribution of hospitalization and
mortality, for example, among racialized groups in the USA.
Amplified awareness of the intimate relationship between health,
social structures, and economy opens a window of opportunity to
act on decades of global commitments to prioritize health
equity.
“Super
Carriers”
– 2% of People Carry 90% of COVID-19 Virus. (SciTechDaily,
May 25, 2021)
A few “super carriers” with off-the-charts viral loads are
likely responsible for the bulk of COVID-19 transmissions, while
about half of infected people aren’t contagious at all at the
time of diagnosis, suggests a new CU Boulder analysis of more
than 72,000 test samples.
A second, related study lends further credence to the idea that
viral load, or the amount of virus particles a person carries,
drives contagion. It found that only one in five university
students who tested positive while living in a residence hall
infected their roommate. And their viral load was nearly seven
times higher than those who didn’t spread the virus.
“The takeaway from these studies is that most people with COVID
don’t get other people sick, but a few people get a lot of
people sick,” said Sara Sawyer, a professor of molecular,
cellular and developmental biology and senior author of the
first study. “If you don’t have a viral super-carrier sitting
near you at dinner, you might be OK. But if you do, you’re out
of luck. It’s a game of roulette so you have to continue to be
careful.”
This provides another example of why you don’t necessarily need
super sensitive tests that may take longer to process,” said
coauthor Roy Parker, director of the BioFrontiers Institute and
Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. “Even a faster but
less sensitive test will catch all the people who are
contagious.”
NEW: Our
Creativity Has Increased as a Result of the COVID-19 Lockdown.
(SciTechDaily, May 31, 2022)
Covid-19 caught us off guard, and the unusual circumstances of
the initial lockdown demanded extraordinary adaptability,
particularly from our brains. A new study from the Paris Brain
Institute (Inserm/CNRS/Sorbonne University/AP-HP) has revealed
how human creativity developed throughout this time period and
the variables that may have impacted it. Despite the lockdown,
our creativity increased and we concentrated on tasks mainly
related to the situation’s issues.
Anthony
Fauci’s
pandemic emails: ‘All is well despite some crazy people in
this world.’ (Washington Post, June 1, 2021)
866 pages of Fauci’s emails were obtained by The Washington Post
as part of a Freedom of Information Act request. The
correspondence from March and April 2020 opens a window to
Fauci’s world during some of the most frantic days of the
crisis, when the longtime director of the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases was struggling to bring
coherence to the Trump administration’s chaotic response to the
virus and President Donald Trump was seeking to minimize its
severity. The emails show Fauci was inundated with more than
1,000 messages a day.
The
next
pandemic is already happening. Targeted disease surveillance
can help prevent it. (The Conversation, June 1, 2021)
As more and more people around the world are getting vaccinated,
one can almost hear the collective sigh of relief. But the next
pandemic threat is likely already making its way through the
population right now. Don’t wait for sick people to show up at a
hospital. Instead, monitor populations where disease spillover
actually happens.
NEW: An
Omega-3
That’s Poison for Cancer Tumors (SciTechDaily, June 11,
2021)
3D tumors that disintegrate within a few days thanks to the
action of a well-known Omega-3 (DHA, found mainly in fish) —
this is the exceptional discovery by University of Louvain.
Could
the
U.S. Have Saved More Lives? 5 Alternate Scenarios for the
Vaccine Rollout. (New York Times, June 17, 2021)
About 100,000 people have died of Covid in the United States
since February, after vaccine distribution was well underway.
The
Delta
Variant Could Create “Two Americas” Of COVID, Experts Warn.
(BuzzFeed News, June 17, 2021)
If you are fully vaccinated, you are most likely to be safe. But
in parts of the US where few people have gotten COVID vaccine
shots, the Delta variant could trigger renewed deadly surges.
[See the graph near the end of this good/sad article!]
Return
of
smell can take up to one year after COVID-19 infection.
(The Hill, June 25, 2021)
A new study looks at patient recovery times from anosmia brought
on by the coronavirus.
Surgeon
General
Warns Misinformation Is The Greatest Threat To Covid-19
Vaccination Efforts. (CBS, June 25, 2021)
With a dangerous Covid-19 variant on the rise, health experts
are urging people who are still hesitant to get their
vaccinations. But the US surgeon general warns a big obstacle
stands in their way: Misinformation. “There is so much
misinformation out there about the vaccine, coming through so
many channels — a lot of it being spread on social media,” Dr.
Vivek Murthy told CNN’s Erin Burnett. “It’s inducing a lot of
fear among people.” “Two-thirds of those who are unvaccinated in
polls say that they either believe the myths about Covid-19 or
think that they might be true,” he added.
Where
Did
the Coronavirus Come From? What We Already Know Is Troubling.
(New York Times, June 25, 2021)
There were curious characteristics about the H1N1 influenza
pandemic of 1977-78, which emerged from northeastern Asia and
killed an estimated 700,000 people around the world. For one, it
almost exclusively affected people in their mid-20s or younger.
Scientists discovered another oddity that could explain the
first: It was virtually identical to a strain that circulated in
the 1950s. People born before that had immunity that protected
them, and younger people didn’t.
But how on earth had it remained so steady genetically, since
viruses continually mutate? Scientists guessed that it had been
frozen in a lab. It was often found to be sensitive to
temperature, something expected for viruses used in vaccine
research. It was only in 2004 that a prominent virologist, Peter
Palese, wrote that Chi-Ming Chu, a respected virologist and a
former member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told him that
“the introduction of this 1977 H1N1 virus” was indeed thought to
be due to vaccine trials involving “the challenge of several
thousand military recruits with live H1N1 virus.” For the first
time, science itself seemed to have caused a pandemic while
trying to prepare for it.
Now, for the second time in 50 years, there are questions about
whether we are dealing with a pandemic caused by scientific
research. While the Chinese government’s obstruction may keep us
from knowing for sure whether the virus, SARS-CoV-2, came from
the wild directly or through a lab in Wuhan or if genetic
experimentation was involved, what we know already is troubling.
How
Americans
waged war on the scientists trying to save them. (Business
Insider, June 27, 2021)
Distrust of science isn't new in the US. The anti-vaccination
movement dates back to 19th century New Englanders who opposed
the smallpox vaccine. Climate-change deniers have been vocal
since the 1980s. But the pandemic intensified a new type of
attack — one that focused not on the research itself, but on
experts and health officials as people.
During the Ebola crisis in 2014, conservatives in the US called
for tighter travel restrictions than Democrats did. At the time,
psychologists theorized that conservatives were more inclined to
react strongly to a perceived danger. "Conservatism is a
strategy to protect a society from harm from both outsiders and
diseases," journalist Brian Resnick wrote in The Atlantic in
2014. "Ebola hits this exact conservative nerve — it's a deadly
disease from a foreign country."
But in the case of the coronavirus, the idea that scientists
were trying to dupe the public swelled among conservatives,
leading many to fear a loss of liberty more than the virus.
President Donald Trump, of course, played a major role in
shaping that narrative. He had already painted himself as the
David that would put the Goliath industries of science and
medicine in check, and also regularly suggested that Democrats
were exaggerating the virus' severity as a political stunt. A
Cornell University analysis found that Trump was the largest
driver of coronavirus misinformation during the pandemic. He
touted the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a potential
COVID-19 treatment without much evidence, and used racist
misnomers like "Chinese virus," or "kung flu" to push blame onto
a foreign country — a time-tested move from the populist
handbook.
New
Universal
Vaccine Targets COVID-19, SARS, and Other Coronaviruses to
Prevent Future Pandemics. (SciTechDaily, July 3, 2021)
To prevent a future coronavirus pandemic, UNC-Chapel Hill
researchers designed a universal vaccine to provide protection
from the current SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and a group of
coronaviruses known to make the jump from animals to humans. It
already has protected mice not just against COVID-19 but also
other coronaviruses and triggered the immune system to fight off
a dangerous variant.
NEW: Their
neighbors
called COVID-19 a hoax. Can these ICU nurses forgive them?
(1-min. video; Washington Post, July 6, 2021)
For the nurses in the Appalachian highlands who risked their
lives during the pandemic, it is as if they fought in a war no
one acknowledges. Conspiracy theories about the pandemic and
lies recited on social media — or at White House news conferences — had
penetrated deep into their community. When refrigerated trailers
were brought in to relieve local hospitals’ overflowing morgues,
people said they were stage props. Agitated and unmasked
relatives stood outside the ICU insisting that their intubated
relatives only had the flu. Many believed the doctors and nurses
hailed elsewhere for their sacrifices were conspiring to make
money by falsifying covid-19 diagnoses.
NEW: More
Than 200 Symptoms Across 10 Organ Systems Identified in Long
COVID. (SciTechDaily, July 15, 2021)
With responses from 3,762 eligible participants from 56
countries, the researchers identified a total of 203 symptoms in
10 organ systems; of these, 66 symptoms were tracked for seven
months. The most common symptoms were fatigue, post-exertional
malaise (the worsening of symptoms after physical or mental
exertion), and cognitive dysfunction, often called brain fog. Of
the diverse range of symptoms, others included: visual
hallucinations, tremors, itchy skin, changes to the menstrual
cycle, sexual dysfunction, heart palpitations, bladder control
issues, shingles, memory loss, blurred vision, diarrhea, and
tinnitus.
The research team, who have all had or continue to have long
COVID, are now calling for clinical guidelines on assessing long
COVID to be significantly widened beyond currently advised
cardiovascular and respiratory function tests to include
neuropsychiatric, neurological, and activity intolerance
symptoms. Furthermore, with large numbers of long haulers
“suffering in silence,” the authors advocate that a national
screening program, accessible to anyone who thinks they have
long COVID, should be undertaken. Given the heterogeneous
(diverse) make-up of symptoms that affect multiple organ
systems, it is only by detecting the root cause that patients
will receive the correct treatment.
As
news
stories drop about COVID-19 pandemic deniers and anti-vaxxers
ranting defiantly from ICU beds, let's review what fraud
research suggests about the responsibility we should attribute
to them for their condition and for the messages they send.
(Twitter via Threadreader, July 22, 2021)
One of the recurrent problems in US popular discourse on the
proper response to crises is that it's often assumed there are
only two options:
1. Crack down hard, damn the consequences (usually associated
with the Right Wing).
2. "Just be kind; kindness is everything😊🌈❤️" (usually
associated with the Left Wing).
Both approaches have become almost completely divorced from the
American pragmatic tradition, which would lead us to ask: what
do we want to accomplish, and what will actually work? Those are
important questions when millions of lives are at stake.
Clearly, Americans *can* be rational problem-solvers when it
comes to some situations that require weighing the claims of
personal liberty vs collective survival. No one (that I know of)
argues that we should address the problem of drunk driving with
kindness - or with executions.
[This crudely-edited article on applying fraud research to
coronavirus deniers is so potentially useful that we encourage
you to read it anyway. Thank you, This Is True!]
COVID-19
could
cause male infertility and sexual dysfunction – but vaccines
do not. (The Conversation, July 26, 2021)
Contrary to myths circulating on social media, COVID-19 vaccines
do not cause erectile dysfunction and male infertility.
What is true: SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, poses
a risk for both disorders. Until now, little research has been
done on how the virus or the vaccines affect the male
reproductive system. But recent investigations by physicians and
researchers have discovered potentially far-reaching
implications for men of all ages – including younger and
middle-aged men who want to have children.
Pfizer
data
shows vaccine protection remains robust six months after
vaccination even as the company argues that boosters will be
needed. (4-min. video; Washington Post, July 28, 2021)
Yesterday's Pfizer paper, which has not yet undergone peer
review, showed a slight drop in efficacy against any symptomatic
cases of covid-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus,
from 96 percent protection in the first two months after
vaccination to 84 percent after four months. Company officials
also presented data on a third dose at least six months after
full vaccination, showing that it caused antibody numbers to
soar, including disease fighters capable of neutralizing the
delta variant. They said that they planned to seek authorization
for a booster by mid-August, reiterating the company’s belief
that a third dose would be needed to enhance immunity within a
year of vaccination.
Hours later, Israeli health officials moved toward making
boosters available for older residents. The Israeli officials
said protection against serious illness for those older than 60
who were vaccinated in January dropped from 97 percent to about
81 percent. For those older than 60 vaccinated in March, it fell
to about 84 percent. They said efficacy remained at 93 percent
for people ages 40 to 59 years.
Study:
Vaccinated
people can carry as much virus as others. (AP News, July
29, 2021)
In another dispiriting setback for the nation’s efforts to stamp
out the coronavirus, scientists who studied a big COVID-19
outbreak in Massachusetts concluded that vaccinated people who
got so-called breakthrough infections carried about the same
amount of the coronavirus as those who did not get the shots.
Health officials on Friday released details of that research,
which was key in this week’s decision by the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention to recommend that vaccinated people
return to wearing masks indoors in parts of the U.S. where the
delta variant is fueling infection surges.
The authors said the findings suggest that the CDC’s mask
guidance should be expanded to include the entire country, even
outside of hot spots. The findings have the potential to upend
past thinking about how the disease is spread. Previously,
vaccinated people who got infected were thought to have low
levels of virus and to be unlikely to pass it to others. But the
new data shows that is not the case with the delta variant.
The outbreak in Provincetown — a seaside tourist spot on Cape
Cod in the county with Massachusetts’ highest vaccination rate —
has so far included more than 900 cases. About three-quarters of
them were people who were fully vaccinated. Like many states,
Massachusetts lifted all COVID-19 restrictions in late May,
ahead of the traditional Memorial Day start of the summer
season. Provincetown this week reinstated an indoor mask
requirement for everyone.
The delta variant, first detected in India, causes infections
that are more contagious than the common cold, flu, smallpox and
the Ebola virus, and it is as infectious as chickenpox,
according to the documents, which mentioned the Provincetown
cases.
COVID-19
Associated
With Long-Term Cognitive Dysfunction, Acceleration of
Alzheimer’s Symptoms. (SciTechDaily, July 29, 2021)
In addition to the respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms
that accompany COVID-19, many people with the virus experience
short- and/or long-term neuropsychiatric symptoms, including
loss of smell and taste, and cognitive and attention deficits,
known as “brain fog.” For some, these neurological symptoms
persist, and researchers are working to understand the
mechanisms by which this brain dysfunction occurs, and what that
means for cognitive health long term.
‘The
war
has changed’: Internal CDC document urges new messaging, warns
delta infections likely more severe. (Washington Post,
July 29, 2021)
The internal presentation captures the struggle of the nation’s
top public health agency to persuade the public to embrace
vaccination and prevention measures, including mask-wearing, as
cases surge across the United States and new research suggests
vaccinated people can spread the virus - the COVID-19 delta
variant is so contagious that it acts almost like a different
novel virus, leaping from target to target more swiftly than
Ebola or the common cold.
Biden
announces
measures to incentivize Covid-19 vaccinations, including a
requirement for federal employees. (CNN, July 29, 2021)
“This is an American tragedy. People are dying – and will die –
who don’t have to die. If you’re out there unvaccinated, you
don’t have to die,” Biden said during remarks at the White
House. “Read the news. You’ll see stories of unvaccinated
patients in hospitals, as they’re lying in bed dying from
Covid-19, they’re asking, ‘Doc, can I get the vaccine?’ The
doctors have to say, ‘Sorry, it’s too late.’” In his sternest
approach yet to pushing Americans to get vaccinated, the
President bluntly argued that if you are unvaccinated, “You
present a problem to yourself, to your family and to those with
whom you work.”
A
COVID Diagnostic in Only 20 Minutes, Using Two CRISPR Enzymes
(University of California/Berkeley, August 6, 2021)
Frequent, rapid testing for COVID-19 is critical to controlling
the spread of outbreaks, especially as new, more transmissible
variants emerge.
While today’s gold standard COVID-19 diagnostic test, which uses
qRT-PCR — quantitative reverse-transcriptase-polymerase chain
reaction (PCR) — is extremely sensitive, detecting down to one
copy of RNA per microliter, it requires specialized equipment, a
runtime of several hours and a centralized laboratory facility.
As a result, testing typically takes at least one to two days.
A research team led by scientists in the labs of Jennifer
Doudna, David Savage, and Patrick Hsu at the University of
California, Berkeley, is aiming to develop a diagnostic test
that is much faster and easier to deploy than qRT-PCR. It has
now combined two different types of CRISPR enzymes to create an
assay that can detect small amounts of viral RNA in less than an
hour. Doudna shared the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for
invention of CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing. “Our hope was to drive
the biochemistry as far as possible to the point where you could
imagine a very convenient format in a setting where you can get
tested every day, say, at the entrance to work.”
Recently
vaccinated
Scalise wants voters to know Democrats are to blame for the
red-state surge. (Daily Kos, August 6, 2021)
GOP House Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana spent months
putting off getting vaccinated, before having an abrupt change
of heart in late July. As the delta variant started ravaging his
state, Scalise was photographed getting the jab. At a press
conference several days later, he told reporters, "I would
encourage people to get the vaccine. I have high confidence in
it. I got it myself."
But quickly adopting a pro-vaccine posture wasn't enough for
Scalise. On July 26, he posted a disinformation video claiming,
"Democrats have a history of vaccine misinformation and not
trusting the science."
Republican
congressman,
who filed a lawsuit over masks last week, tests positive for
COVID this week. (Daily Kos, August 6, 2021)
Republican Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina was in the news a
little over a week ago as he, and two other congressional
Republicans announced they were suing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
over a mask mandate requiring all people on the House floor to
cover their yaps. Rep. Norman was flanked by bats in the belfry
Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Thomas Massie of
Kentucky, who submitted legal arguments that the mask mandate
“has been used to force Plaintiffs and other members of the
minority party to be instruments for fostering public adherence
to this ideological point of view that Plaintiffs find
unacceptable.” As with all ironies, the irony of three
television vampires like Norman, Greene, and Massie complaining
about political theatre was lost on the Republicans.
One of these Congresspeople will be doing their work from the
comfort of a quarantine bunker. According to Rep. Ralph Norman,
he’s tested positive for COVID-19. According to Norman—grain of
salt and all of that—he has been “fully vaccinated” since
February, but began “experiencing minor symptoms” Thursday
morning. He says that “thankfully,” since he was vaccinated, his
“symptoms remain mild.”
The
Delta
Variant Has Warped Our Risk Perception. (excellent 31-min.
video w/two experts; Wired, August 8, 2021)
Gone are the easy, thoughtless choices of hot vax summer. Making
decisions that balance safety and sanity just got a lot more
complicated.
Florida
radio
and Newsmax host who opposed Covid vaccine dies of Covid
complications. (NBC News, August 8, 2021)
Dick Farrel was a vocal and staunch advocate against the
coronavirus vaccines, which he posted about on social media,
once calling them "bogus." He also railed against figures like
Dr. Anthony Fauci, whom he called a "lying freak." But at the
end, a friend reported, "Dick texted me and told me to 'Get
vaccinated!' He told me this virus is no joke and he said, 'I
wish I had gotten it!'"
GOP
Senator
(and MD) Bill Cassidy breaks with DeSantis on school mask
mandates: 'The local official should have control."
(2-min. video; CNN, August 8, 2021)
On Friday, Florida reported more Covid-19 cases over the past
week than any other seven-day period during the pandemic, and
the state has accounted for about one in five of the nation's
new Covid cases over the past couple of weeks. Texas came in
second. When asked specifically if the two governors are
prioritizing politics over public health, the senator, who had
previously contracted the virus, said he didn't want to "guess
other people's motives," but argued that "public health suffers"
when politics get involved. "Whenever politicians mess with
public health, usually it doesn't work out well for public
health, and ultimately it doesn't work out for the politician,
because public health suffers and the American people want
public health," Cassidy said.
The bans from DeSantis and Abbott were also criticized last week
by President Joe Biden, who blasted them as "bad health policy."
DeSantis later defended his order and shot back at Biden,
saying: "I'm the governor who answers to the people of Florida,
not to bureaucrats in Washington."
Paul
Krugman:
"Freedom" (Privilege), Florida and the delta variant disaster
(New York Times, August 8, 2021)
Florida is in the grip of a COVID surge worse than it
experienced before the vaccines. More than 10,000 Floridians are
hospitalized, around 10 times the number in New York, which has
about as many residents; an average of 58 Florida residents are
dying each day, compared with six in New York. And the Florida
hospital system is under extreme stress.
And yet, at every stage of the pandemic Ron DeSantis, Republican
governor of Florida, has effectively acted as an ally of the
coronavirus, for example by issuing orders blocking businesses
from requiring that their patrons show proof of vaccination and
schools from requiring masks. More generally, he has helped
create a state of mind in which vaccine skepticism flourishes
and refusal to take precautions is normalized.DeSantis isn’t
stupid. He is, however, ambitious and supremely cynical. So when
he says things that sound stupid, it’s worth asking why. And his
recent statements on COVID-19 help us understand why so many
Americans are still dying or getting severely ill from the
disease.
Above all, he has been playing the liberal-conspiracy-theory
card, with fundraising letters declaring that the "radical left"
is "coming for your freedom."
So let’s talk about what the right means when it talks about
"freedom". Since the pandemic began, many conservatives have
insisted that actions to limit the death toll — social
distancing, wearing a mask and now getting vaccinated — should
be matters of personal choice. Does that position make any
sense? Well, driving drunk is also a personal choice. But almost
everyone understands that it’s a personal choice that endangers
others; 97% of the public considers driving while impaired by
alcohol a serious problem. Why don’t we have the same kind of
unanimity on refusing to get vaccinated, a choice that helps
perpetuate the pandemic and puts others at risk?
My answer is that when people on the right talk about
"freedom", what they actually mean is closer to "defense of
privilege" — specifically the right of certain people
(generally white male Christians) to do whatever they want.
Not incidentally, if you go back to the roots of modern
conservatism, you find people like Barry Goldwater defending the
right of businesses to discriminate against Black Americans. In
the name of freedom, of course. A lot, though not all, of the
recent panic about "“cancel culture" is about protecting the
right of powerful men to mistreat women. And so on.
Once you understand that the rhetoric of freedom is actually
about privilege, things that look on the surface like
gross inconsistency and hypocrisy start to make sense. Why, for
example, are conservatives so insistent on the right of
businesses to make their own decisions, free from regulation —
but quick to stop them from denying service to customers who
refuse to wear masks or show proof of vaccination? Why is the
autonomy of local school districts a fundamental principle —
unless they want to require masks or teach America’s racial
history? It’s all about whose privilege is being
protected.
The reality of what the right means by freedom also, I think,
explains the special rage induced by rules that impose some
slight inconvenience in the name of the public interest — like
the detergent wars of a few years back. After all, only poor
people and minority groups are supposed to be asked to make
sacrifices.
Anyway, as you watch DeSantis invoke "freedom" to escape
responsibility for his COVID catastrophe, remember, when he says
it, that that word does not mean what you think it means.
[No surprise, that DeSantis has been nicknamed,
"DeathSentence".]
Norwegian
Cruises:
1, State of Florida: 0. (Newser, August 9, 2021)
Company wins temporary stay against Florida's ban on businesses
asking for vaccine passports.
After
six
churchgoers die from COVID-19, FL pastor runs vaccination
drive. (Daily Kos, August 12, 2021)
“Why is your church holding another vaccination event?”
"BECAUSE…6 church members have died in the last 10 days. 4 of
them under 35. All healthy. All unvaccinated. And I’m tired of
crying about and burying people I love. So take the political
& religious games somewhere else!!"
The
thoughtless
privilege of America's vaccine refusers. (Daily Kos,
August 13, 2021)
So we sit, month after month, patiently waiting for the 90
million or so unvaccinated, COVID-19 vaccine-eligible people in
this country to get off their pampered American asses and drive
a meager mile or so to the CVS or Walgreen’s to get a safe and
simple shot that would prevent a long, painful hospital stay (or
at worst, a dismal end-of-life experience on a ventilator) for
them. We wait, and wait again, as we read article after article
proposing new, clever ways to get the so-called “vaccine
hesitant” to come around. (Whatever you do, don’t criticize
them, we’re told.)
But while we’re busy waiting for these people to somehow see the
light, we shouldn’t lose sight of just how incredibly lucky we
all are to live in a country that actually has the wealth and
public health infrastructure to provide these vaccines in the
first place.
FDA
Authorizes
Additional COVID-19 Vaccine Dose – But Not For Everyone.
(SciTechDaily, August 13, 2021)
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration amended the
emergency use authorizations (EUAs) for both the Pfizer-BioNTech
COVID-19 Vaccine and the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine to allow for
the use of an additional dose in certain immunocompromised
individuals, specifically, solid organ transplant recipients or
those who are diagnosed with conditions that are considered to
have an equivalent level of immunocompromise.
Inside
America’s
Covid-reporting breakdown (Politico, August 15, 2021)
Crashing computers, three-week delays tracking infections, lab
results delivered by snail mail: State officials detail a vast
failure to identify hotspots quickly enough to prevent
outbreaks.
NEW: Teri
Kanefield: White Supremacy, Hierarchy, and the Anti-Mask
"Debate" (18-min. video; YouTube, August 15, 2021)
For this week, I tackle these questions: What’s the endgame of
the anti-mask, anti-vax campaign being pushed by certain
Republican leaders? Won’t it backfire when their own
constituents get sick and die? To answer, I show the connection
between theories of white supremacy and the anti-mask debate.
[Excellent! See her follow-up below, on August 22nd.]
Troubling
CDC
vaccine data convinced Biden team to back booster shots.
(Politico, August 17, 2021)
The evidence showed a decline in the initial round of protection
against Covid-19 infection that's coincided with a resurgence in
cases driven by the more contagious Delta variant.
Radio
Host
Who Spread Vaccine Disinformation Dies of Covid. (Daily
Kos, August 17, 2021)
Dr. Jimmy DeYoung, Sr., a conservative Christian radio
host, has died in Chattanooga of Covid-19, according to his
family. “Prophecy Today” was broadcast daily over several
hundred stations. In February, DeYoung published an interview
promoting the conspiracy theories that the Pfizer vaccine would
make women sterile and that world governments were using the
virus and vaccine to centralize power. DeYoung’s guest at the
time, Sam Rohrer, said that very few people who were infected
lost their lives, calling the vaccine only a “purported
solution” and “not truly a vaccine.”
Phil Valentine, yet another conservative talk show host in
Nashville, is in “grave condition” according to his family.
Valentine had been skeptical of Covid vaccines, but his family
is now encouraging others to get the shots.
Marc Bernier, a Daytona Beach talk show commentator who has
spoken against vaccinations, has been hospitalized for more than
a week with Covid.
Texas
Gov.
Greg Abbott (Republican) tests positive for Covid after
banning mask, vaccine mandates. (3-min. video; NBC News,
August 17, 2021)
Abbott has told people he got a third booster dose of a vaccine.
Florida
Gov.
Ron DeSantis(Republican)
has a very good reason to be pro-virus, and it's exactly what
everyone $u$pect$. (Daily Kos, August 17, 2021)
DeSantis continues to fight against schools and localities that
want to save the lives of children, teachers, staff, and
residents by taking minimal efforts to fight the SARS-CoV-2
virus. Vaccines, masks, and social distancing are the way to
save lives—and the way to save the economy. What can’t
work to save Florida? REGEN-COV, the monoclonal antibody
treatment from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. Not only can the
treatment not be administered to patients who have already been
hospitalized for COVID-19, or patients using oxygen for
COVID-19, REGEN-COV has to be administered by IV and is only
available in limited quantities.
So why is DeSantis pushing the treatment from Regeneron at every
press conference rather than pushing Floridians to take a free
vaccine or use cheap masks? If all this seems nonsensical,
writer Jennifer Cohn provides the simple answer—and it’s exactly
the answer you might expect.
The largest donor to DeSantis in 2020 was a man named Ken
Griffin. Griffin is the founder and CEO of investment firm
Citadel. And, as Yahoo Finance reported in June about Regeneron
Pharmaceuticals, "The second largest stake is held by Citadel
Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, which holds a $171.2
million call position."
For months, it has seemed like Ron DeSantis wasn’t just failing
to block COVID-19, he was openly promoting its spread. DeSantis
has been objectively pro-virus - downplaying vaccines, banning
masks, forcing schools to conduct in-person classes, and opening
businesses even when it violated the guidelines published by his
own Department of Health.
What could make sense of that? A top donor whose business is
actively helped by getting more people sick.
MA
Teachers
Union Presses Vaccine Mandate For All Staff, Students.
(Patch, August 18, 2021)
The Massachusetts Teachers Association Board of Directors wants
Gov. Charlie Baker (Republican) to get strict on school
vaccination requirements.
state guidance on school masks and vaccines to this point is
more about recommendations than mandates.
Baker said earlier this week there are unlikely to be any
additional statewide mask restrictions — leaving it up to local
school districts — beyond the strong recommendation that
unvaccinated students and staff wear masks indoors, while
vaccinated students in seventh grade and older, as well as
vaccinated staff, have the option whether to wear them or not.
While Baker has repeatedly touted the state's high vaccination
rates and promoted near-universal vaccinations as "the pathway
out of this pandemic" he has not backed statewide requirements
beyond for those who work in long-term care facilities.
"It's as if Governor Baker, Education Secretary James Peyser and
Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley have learned nothing over
the past year and a half," Najimy said. "MTA members have spent
that time calling for well-informed and researched approaches to
make in-person learning as safe as possible."
Rural
Texas
schools shut down to keep COVID-19 from overwhelming their
small communities. (Texas Tribune, August 19, 2021)
The small districts aren’t fighting Gov. Greg Abbott’s mask
rules, but fears for staff, students and local medical
facilities are driving them to fight high COVID-19 rates with
temporary closures.
New
Research
Explains Why Vaccinated People at Low Risk During COVID Delta
Variant Surge. (SciTechDaily, August 19, 2021)
The researchers analyzed a panel of antibodies generated by
people in response to the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine and found that
delta was unable to evade all but one of the antibodies they
tested. Other variants of concern, such as beta, avoided
recognition and neutralization by several of the antibodies.
Maker
of
Popular Covid Test Told Factory to Destroy Inventory. (New
York Times, August 20, 2021)
Abbott Laboratories, one of the leading producers of rapid
tests, purged supplies and laid off workers as sales dwindled.
"It's all about money."
Weeks later, the U.S. is facing a surge in infections with
diminished capacity.
The
US
Is Getting Covid Booster Shots. The World Is Furious.
(Wired, August 20, 2021)
The White House’s plan to roll out third shots for any American
adult is raising profound questions about global equity. “We're
planning to hand out extra life jackets to people who already
have life jackets, while we're leaving other people to drown.”
Globally, more than 5 billion people remain unvaccinated.
Mississippi
threatens
fines, jail time for Covid patients who don't isolate.
(2-min. video; NBC News, August 20, 2021)
Mississippi State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs indicated
sentences as long as five years could be in store for Covid-19
patients who fail to isolate.
State epidemiologist Paul Byers said Mississippi has the highest
number of new Covid-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the
nation. "These numbers are staggering," he said during a weekly
Mississippi pandemic update. Only seven ICU beds were available
in the entire state Thursday as a result of its Covid-19 fourth
wave.
Teri
Kanefield: More about White Supremacy and Hierarchy
(20-min. video; YouTube, August 22, 2021)
Last week I drew the connection between White supremacy,
hierarchies, and the anti-mask “debates.” This week I expanded
on these ideas, focusing a bit more on economic hierarchy and
regulations in general.
[Excellent! You can find her prior one above, at August 15th.]
Unvaccinated
are
breaking everything—the bank, the health care system, the
bonds of society. (Daily Kos, August 23, 2021)
Vaccines and adequate supplies have definitely made the delta
round of the COVID-19 pandemic less horrific for the doctors and
nurses trying to save lives. The jeopardy for them and their
families is at least reduced by the fact that the vaccine has
been available to them, and they don't have to rely on personal
protective equipment that's days old. But the fact that there is
a vaccine and that many of the people who are filling up ICUs
are there by choice adds a whole level of demoralization that
didn't exist in the first round.
Would
It
Be Fair to Treat Vaccinated Covid Patients First? (Wired,
August 23, 2021)
Last week, Texas health care policymakers discussed taking
vaccination status into account for Covid triage. It’s a larger
conversation ethicists are bracing for.
‘I’ve
never
seen anything like this’: ER doctor says 100's waiting to be
admitted: NO BEDS! (Daily Kos, August 23, 2021)
Emergency room doctors in Southeast Texas say they are running
out of hospital beds, and some patients are waiting hours,
sometimes days to be admitted into a hospital. “Are there
patients dying because of this that might not have died?
Absolutely, yes,” said Southeast Texas Regional Advisory Council
CEO, Darrell Pile. “I am very concerned about the fatalities
that are about to happen.”
An anonymous U.S. hospital staffer: “If you don’t trust doctors
and science to keep you from getting sick, why the hell are you
clogging up hospitals trusting them to cure you?”
Extreme,
vocal
minority of anti-mask anti-vaxxers turn to violence to win
debate they have lost. (Daily Kos, August 23, 2021)
Donald Trump and Republicans like to talk about the "silent
majority" of Americans who Democrats are unfairly oppressing.
But what the increasingly contentious battle over masking in
schools proves is that, in truth, it's the GOP's "violent
minority" afflicting the rest of Americans over COVID-19.
The Associated Press lays out a series of aggressive and even
violent incidents in recent weeks over pandemic mitigation
efforts: a Northern California man marching into his daughter's
elementary school and punching a teacher in the face; a Texas
parent ripping the mask off a teacher's face at a "Meet the
Teacher" event; a furious Tennessee man yelling at a mask
proponent, "We know who you are. And we will find you!"
School
mask,
vaccine mandates are supported in US. (Associated Press,
August 23, 2021)
Masks have been a point of contention as U.S. schools reopen
amid rising numbers of coronavirus cases. Questions about
whether to require them have caused turmoil among parents and
politicians, with some Republican governors banning mask
mandates even as President Joe Biden threatens legal action
against them.
In a reflection of that polarizing debate, the poll finds a wide
partisan divide. About 3 in 10 Republicans said they favor mask
requirements for students and teachers, compared with about 8 in
10 Democrats. There was a similar split over vaccine mandates in
schools.
Vaccine
Mandates
Work—but Only If They’re Done Right. (Wired, August 26,
2021)
Nobody has the freedom to go unmasked and unvaccinated in a
crowded workspace or classroom. We do not have the freedom in
America to expose other people to an infectious disease.
Requiring people to get their shots can stop Covid-19, but those
rules have to be doable and equitable.
Like the other vaccines still available under EUA, the Pfizer
drug is extraordinarily good at keeping people from getting
really sick or dying from Covid. But with more than 100,000
people in the hospital with Covid in the US—the most since
January—and with the vast majority of them unvaccinated, it’s
clear that alone isn’t enough. States, localities, and
businesses have tried inducements like prizes, cash, or
lotteries, little tricks designed to corral people into doing
what’s good for them. In the language of behavioral economics,
that’s called a nudge. But in states with low vaccine uptake,
those nudges didn’t change the momentum. So now, it’s time for
mandates. If you’re one of the 30 percent or so of Americans who
haven’t gotten vaccinated yet, get ready for a good hard shove.
And nobody shoves harder than the Pentagon. The Department of
Defense immediately announced it’d add Covid-19 vaccines to the
more-than-a-dozen already required of servicemembers. Big
universities like California’s UC system already had mandates in
place, but now more schools have joined: Ohio State, University
of Michigan, University of Minnesota. City workforces in Los
Angeles and Chicago came under mandate. The new governor of New
York announced at her inauguration that she’d institute them,
too, and New York City put them in place for public school
teachers and the NYPD. In late July, pretty much every major
medical and health care professional association signed onto an
open letter calling for vaccine mandates across health care; the
influential American Medical Association has now reiterated that
position. Even the hardcore capitalists at Goldman Sachs won’t
let anyone in their offices without proof-of-shot. In
journalism, all it takes to make a trend is three examples. I
think we’re there.
DeSantis’
ban
on school mask mandates violates state constitution, judge
rules. (Ars Technica, August 27, 2021)
DeSantis' controversial ban “does not meet constitutional
muster,” judge said.
Coronavirus
Briefing (New York Times, September 2, 2021)
- Steeper medical bills to come.
- Federal pandemic unemployment assistance for millions of
people will end after this week.
- Amid a record surge in cases, Hawaii is facing an oxygen
shortage.
- More countries will start giving booster shots this month.
Lock
Him
Up: Tucker Carlson is Telling His Viewers to Get Fake
Vaccination Cards - Which is a Felony. (Daily Kos,
September 3, 2021)
Fox News has been at the forefront of the pro-COVID, anti-vax
movement for more than a year and a half. Their callously
political aversion to common sense methods of mitigating the
harm of the deadly coronavirus pandemic has resulted in the
latest surge that can be accurately attributed to the "Fox News
Variant" that is infecting and killing Americans at record
levels.
While most of the Fox News roster is spreading disinformation
about COVID, no one is more committed to propagating lethal lies
than Tucker Carlson. He has promoted the use of quack cures,
espoused paranoid conspiracy theories that the vaccines don't
work, and even exhorted his viewers to make false police reports
of child abuse against parents whose children wear face masks.
On Thursday's episode of Carlson's White Nationalist Hour on Fox
News, he went farther over the cliff of sanity than ever before.
Here’s
what
we know about the mu variant of Covid-19. (1-min. Fauci
video; Washington Post, September 3, 2021)
The WHO-designated ‘variant of interest’ was first detected in
Colombia in January 2021, where cases continue to rise. It has
since been identified in more than 39 countries, according to
the WHO, among them the United States, South Korea, Japan,
Ecuador, Canada and parts of Europe. About 2,000 mu cases have
been identified in the United States, so far; most cases have
been recorded in California, Florida, Texas and New York.
However, mu is not an “immediate threat right now” within the
United States, top infectious-disease expert Anthony S. Fauci
told a press briefing on Thursday. He said that while the
government was “keeping a very close eye on it,” the variant was
“not at all even close to being dominant,” as the delta variant
remains the cause of over 99 percent of cases in the country.
In
Florida,
a summer of death and resistance as the coronavirus rampaged.
(4-min. video; Washington Post, September 5, 2021)
As Florida appears to be turning the corner from a coronavirus
rampage that fueled record new infections, hospitalizations and
deaths, its residents and leaders are surveying the damage left
from more than 7,000 deaths reported since July Fourth and the
scars inflicted by feuds over masks and vaccines. New infections
were averaging more than 22,000 a day in the last days of August
but have fallen to about 19,000. Yet recovery could prove
fleeting: Holiday weekends such as Labor Day have acted as a
tinderbox for earlier outbreaks, and late summer marks the
return of students to college campuses.
Better
Data
on Ivermectin for COVID Is Finally on Its Way. (Wired,
September 8, 2021)
Studies have been small and often not great. The best info so
far says don’t use it, get vaccinated, and hang in there for the
more promising meds being tested.
Did
Neil
DeGrasse Tyson Tweet This About Unvaccinated Republicans?
(Snopes, September 9, 2021)
The famous astrophysicist deleted the tweet, saying it was
causing unintended "Twitter fights."
Coronavirus:
The
Religious Exemption (New York Times, September 14, 2021)
Major religious traditions, denominations and institutions are
nearly unanimous in their support of Covid-19 vaccines.
Nevertheless, many Americans say they are hesitant to get
vaccinated for religious reasons. Their attempts to secure
exemptions from the country’s rapidly expanding vaccine mandates
are creating new fault lines, pitting religious liberty concerns
against the priority of maintaining a safe environment at work
and elsewhere.
COVID-19
updates:
Most Americans believe worst of pandemic is yet to come, poll
says; 1 in 500 Americans have died. (1-min. video; USA
Today, September 15, 2021)
Despite widespread vaccination efforts, 54% of U.S. adults say
the worst of the outbreak is still to come. The report, based on
a survey of 10,348 U.S. adults conducted Aug. 23-29, 2021, found
73% of those ages 18 and older say they’ve received at least one
dose of a vaccine for COVID-19.
About a quarter of adults say they have not received a vaccine.
Some of the lowest vaccination rates are seen among those with
no health insurance and white evangelical Protestants (57% each)
as well as among Republicans and Republican leaners (60%).
Black adults are now about as likely as white adults to say
they’ve received a vaccine (70% and 72%, respectively). Earlier
in the outbreak, African Americans were less likely to say they
planned to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
Hawaii
Is
Out of Oxygen. (Daily Kos, September 15, 2021)
I am an 80-year-old retired physician living on the Big Island
of Hawaii. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic we have
prided ourselves on our ability to self-discipline, follow
masking guidelines and socially distance, which has been
reflected in the lowest prevalence and mortality rates in the
country. However, with the emergence of the Delta variant, we
have seen rates skyrocket to the point that our epidemiologic
curves are approximating those of Florida and other Southern red
states. Our hospitals are full and there are essentially no ICU
beds available on the island. The vaccination rate is stagnating
at around 60%, and 98% of the hospitalized Covid patients are
unvaccinated.
Yesterday, my neighbor, a 75-year-old retiree, developed
symptoms of renal stones; surgery would be necessary to remove
the stone. However, due to the Covid situation, there is no
oxygen available for non-emergent surgeries anywhere on the
islands. Thus, as my neighbor’s condition is not life
threatening, and even though he is in considerable pain, the
surgery has been put off for 2 weeks until additional oxygen can
be shipped in.
This is a reminder, that even in the bluest of blue states, the
anti-vaxxers are continuing to create a health crisis for us
all.
Nearly
all
Fox staffers vaccinated for Covid even as hosts cast doubt on
vaccine. (The Guardian, September 15, 2021)
More than 90% of Fox Corporation staff inoculated, according to
memo announcing daily testing for unvaccinated employees.
Companies
backed
by private-equity firms got $5 billion out of $2 trillion in
federal Covid relief. (multiple short videos; NBC
News, September 15, 2021)
Some $1.2 billion of PPP and other relief money targeted at
small businesses went to companies backed by large and
well-funded private-equity firms.
Rep.
Kurt
Schrader of Oregon helps kill drug pricing bill, endangering
Biden infrastructure plan. (Oregon Live, September 15,
2021)
A House committee dealt an ominous if tentative blow Wednesday
to President Joe Biden’s huge social and environmental
infrastructure package, derailing a money-saving plan to let
Medicare negotiate the price it pays for prescription drugs. The
legislation would authorize Medicare to negotiate with
pharmaceutical companies, using lower prices paid in other
economically advanced countries as a yardstick. The savings
produced would be used to expand Medicare coverage by adding
dental, vision and hearing benefits. Democrats are counting on
the drug-pricing provisions to pay for a modest but significant
part of their $3.5 trillion plan to bolster the safety net,
address climate change and fund other programs. Proponents say
it could save $600 billion over the coming decade.
U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader of Oregon, who inherited a fortune from
his grandfather who was a top executive at pharmaceutical giant
Pfizer, and who has accepted large donations from big pharma
during his seven terms in Congress, cast one of the key
Democratic votes against the drug pricing plan.
Another
Global
Pandemic Is Spreading—Among Pigs. (Wired, October 12,
2021)
African swine fever killed half the pigs in China. There is no
vaccine and no treatment. Now it’s in the Caribbean and on the
doorstep of the US.
'I
am
offended': DeSantis vows to sue Biden over vaccine mandates.
(Politico, October 14, 2021)
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has opened a multimillion-dollar
battle against vaccine mandates, and on Thursday took the fight
to the Biden administration.
Florida over the summer was a hotbed for new infections as the
Delta variant spread through the state. At one point, the state
made up about 1 in 5 new coronavirus infections in the nation.
Before the summer surge, Florida had the nation's 27th highest
Covid-19 death rate; afterward, the state's death rate climbed
to 10th highest, according to Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention data.
Counterfeit
Respirators,
Misrepresentation of NIOSH-Approval (US CDC, November 5,
2021)
Counterfeit respirators are products that are falsely marketed
and sold as being NIOSH-approved and may not be capable of
providing appropriate respiratory protection to users. When
NIOSH becomes aware of counterfeit respirators or those
misrepresenting NIOSH approval on the market, we will post them
here to alert users, purchasers, and manufacturers.
Appeals
court
halts COVID vaccine mandate for larger businesses. (2-min.
video; CBS News, November 6, 2021)
At least 27 states filed lawsuits challenging the rule in
several circuits, some of which were made more conservative by
the judicial appointments of former Republican President Donald
Trump. The 5th Circuit, based in New Orleans, said it was
delaying the federal vaccine requirement because of potential
"grave statutory and constitutional issues" raised by the
plaintiffs. The government must provide an expedited reply to
the motion for a permanent injunction Monday, followed by
petitioners' reply on Tuesday.
Lawrence Gostin, a public health expert at Georgetown
University's law school, said it was troubling that a federal
appeals court would stop or delay safety rules in a health
crisis, saying no one has a right to go into a workplace
"unmasked, unvaxxed and untested."
The Biden administration has been encouraging widespread
vaccinations as the quickest way to end the pandemic that has
claimed more than 750,000 lives in the United States. The
administration says it is confident that the requirement, which
includes penalties of nearly $14,000 per violation, will
withstand legal challenges in part because its safety rules
pre-empt state laws.
Over
80%
of Deer in Study Test Positive for COVID. They May Be a
Reservoir for the Virus To Continually Circulate.
(SciTechDaily, November 6, 2021)
This is the first direct evidence of SARS-CoV-2 virus in any
free-living species, and our findings have important
implications for the ecology and long-term persistence of the
virus. These include spillover to other free-living or captive
animals and potential spill-back to human hosts.
While no evidence exists that SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted from
deer to humans, hunters and those living in close proximity to
deer may want to take precautions, including during contact with
or handling the animals, by wearing appropriate personal
protective equipment and getting vaccinated against COVID-19.
What
the
14th Century Plague Tells Us About How Covid Will Change
Politics. (Politico, November 7, 2021)
Regions hit hardest by the Black Death in Europe looked more
democratic centuries later. What does that mean for society
coming out of this pandemic?
[Good medicine perpetuates bad government? Interesting...]
"Don't
wait!":
WHO urges U.S. to pay attention as surging COVID cases flood
Europe's hospitals again. (Three 3-min. videos; CBS News,
November 8, 2021)
Europe has seen a jump of more than 50% in new coronavirus cases
over the last month, and the World Health Organization has
warned the continent could see another half of a million deaths
by February.
U.S.
lifts
most COVID-linked bans on travelers from abroad. (2-min.
video; CBS News, November 8, 2021)
The moves come as the U.S. has seen its COVID-19 outlook improve
dramatically in recent weeks since the summer delta surge that
pushed hospitals to the brink in many locations.
[Timed perfectly with Europe's new fourth wave of the pandemic.
What fools these mortals be!]
NY
Times:
COVID is Getting Even Redder. (graphs; Daily Kos, November
8, 2021)
The gap in Covid’s death toll between red and blue America has
grown faster over the past month than at any previous point. In
October, 25 out of every 100,000 residents of heavily Trump
counties died from Covid, more than three times higher than the
rate in heavily Biden counties (7.8 per 100,000). October was
the fifth consecutive month that the percentage gap between the
death rates in Trump counties and Biden counties widened.
Coronavirus:
The
Future Of Work (New York Times, November 12, 2021)
As the pandemic drags on, so does the profound reordering of
work and office life. After a year without commutes, many
white-collar workers have grown accustomed to the flexibility of
working from home. Companies are reassessing whether they need
to rent large office spaces with so few employees coming in. A
record number of U.S. workers quit their jobs in September as
the “Great Resignation” continues, while thousands more are
protesting pay or working conditions.
New
clues
to the biology of long COVID are starting to emerge. (NPR,
November 12, 2021)
Some people experience persistent, often debilitating symptoms
after catching SARS-CoV-2. It remains unclear how often it
occurs. But if only a small fraction of the hundreds of millions
of people who've had COVID-19 are left struggling with long-term
health problems, it's a major public health problem. "It's the
post-pandemic pandemic."
New
COVID
Threat: Rodents Could Be Asymptomatic Carriers of SARS-Like
Coronaviruses. (SciTechDaily, November 18, 2021)
Ancestral rodents may have had repeated infections with
SARS-like coronaviruses and have acquired some form of tolerance
or resistance to SARS-like coronaviruses as a result of these
infections. This raises the tantalizing possibility that some
modern rodent species may be asymptomatic carriers of SARS-like
coronaviruses, including those that may not have been discovered
yet.
MA
Sees
Highest COVID Case Count In 9 Months As Virus Rebounds.
(Patch, November 18, 2021)
With cold weather and family gatherings on the horizon, the
state reported more new COVID-19 cases Wednesday than any day
since February. There were 2,650 new coronavirus cases, the most
since 3,004 cases were reported on Feb. 7. At that point, most
people weren't vaccinated; now, most adults and many children
are. Other coronavirus metrics have been increasing along with
total case counts. The average positive test rate is at 2.84
percent, there are 642 COVID hospitalizations and more than 10
people a day on average are dying due to the virus. The average
age of death was 76.
Vaccinations are still the best defense against the virus — the
64,000 breakthrough cases represents just 1.3 percent of the
state's vaccinated population.
[Vaccines AND FACE MASKS! Every time the count goes down, we see
fewer face masks - and then the count goes up once again.]
MA
Hospitals
Told To Reduce Elective Surgeries As Covid Cases Surge.
(Patch, November 23, 2021)
The guidance from the state Department of Public Health comes as
COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to rise.
What
we
know so far about the B.1.1.529 'Omicron' COVID variant
causing concern. (Euronews, November 25, 2021)
The WHO classified the new Omicron strain as a "variant of
concern" on Friday. It is as yet unclear how effective vaccines
will be against it.
A virologist posted that a "very small cluster of variant
associated with Southern Africa with very long branch length and
really awful Spike mutation profile" had been spotted. The high
number of spike mutations - believed to be at least 32 at the
moment - raise concerns about its ability to evade vaccines and
to spread. The spike protein is what helps the virus to invade
the body’s cells.
Today’s
"Trump
Is Mentally Ill" Story (Medium, November 25, 2021)
Today Trump released the above statement further evidencing the
mental illness that untethers him from reality. So let’s unpack
all the crazy in the Trump statement above.
Opinion:
Florida’s
new anti-masking law denies us key tools to protect our
schools from future covid surges. (Washington Post,
November 25, 2021)
Our hands are tied. If and when there’s another covid surge in
Florida, public schools will be without two of the most useful
weapons in our fight against the virus: masks and quarantines.
After months of harassing school districts, including mine, over
our covid-19 protocols, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and the Florida
Legislature have just passed a new law that blocks schools from
requiring masks for students and quarantines for students and
staff who appear asymptomatic. The governor even called a
special legislative session to get this and other bills
targeting covid-19 measures passed — although he conveniently
waited until the delta-driven covid surge of the late summer and
early fall had subsided in the state.
Of course, the outcome of the session was never in any doubt.
DeSantis and other state leaders vehemently opposed mask
mandates and quarantine protocols even as positive cases,
hospitalizations and deaths from covid skyrocketed in Florida
during the first few weeks of school. They fought school
districts that required them tooth and nail, even withholding
our funding because we did what was necessary to protect
students and staff during a public health crisis. Despite
overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the governor insists that
masks are ineffective and even harmful. To bolster his
viewpoint, he fast-tracked the appointment of Joseph Ladapo — an
anti-vaccine, anti-mask, hydroxychloroquine-promoting doctor
apparently focused on undermining rather than protecting public
health — as the state’s surgeon general.
Their nonscientific and nonsensical agenda is now enshrined in
Florida law. From here on out, school districts cannot require
masks no matter what happens in the future.
[Also see "COVID isn't over" on Nov. 28th, above. When DO we
jail politicians who commit blatant mass 2nd-degree murder?]
Frontline:
"The
Virus That Shook The World, Part 2" (54-min. video; PBS,
November 26, 2021)
The epic story of how people around the world lived through the
first year of the coronavirus pandemic, from lockdowns to
funerals to protests. Filming across the globe and using
extensive personal video and local footage, FRONTLINE documented
how people and countries responded to COVID-19 across cultures,
races, faiths and privilege.
[Part 1 is on April 26, 2021, below.]
EXPLAINER:
What
is this new "Omicron" COVID variant in South Africa? (AP
News, November 26, 2021)
From just over 200 new confirmed cases per day in recent weeks,
South Africa saw the number of new daily cases rocket to 2,465
on Thursday. Struggling to explain the sudden rise in cases,
scientists studied virus samples from the outbreak and
discovered the new variant. In a statement on Friday, the World
Health Organization designated it as a “variant of concern,”
naming it “Omicron” after a letter in the Greek alphabet.
It appears to have a high number of mutations — about 30 — in
the coronavirus’ spike protein, which could affect how easily it
spreads to people. The data so far suggest the new variant has
mutations consistent with enhanced transmissibility, but the
significance of many of the mutations is still not known. A
virologist described omicron as “the most heavily mutated
version of the virus we have seen,” including potentially
worrying changes never before seen all in the same virus.
Classification
of
Omicron (B.1.1.529): SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern (WHO,
November 26, 2021)
The Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution
(TAG-VE) is an independent group of experts that periodically
monitors and evaluates the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and assesses
if specific mutations and combinations of mutations alter the
behaviour of the virus. The TAG-VE was convened on 26 November
2021 to assess the SARS-CoV-2 variant: B.1.1.529.
The B.1.1.529 variant was first reported to WHO from South
Africa on 24 November 2021. The epidemiological situation in
South Africa has been characterized by three distinct peaks in
reported cases, the latest of which was predominantly the Delta
variant. In recent weeks, infections have increased steeply,
coinciding with the detection of B.1.1.529 variant. The first
known confirmed B.1.1.529 infection was from a specimen
collected on 9 November 2021.
This variant has a large number of mutations, some of which are
concerning. Preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of
reinfection with this variant, as compared to other VOCs. The
number of cases of this variant appears to be increasing in
almost all provinces in South Africa. Current SARS-CoV-2 PCR
diagnostics continue to detect this variant. Several labs have
indicated that for one widely used PCR test, one of the three
target genes is not detected (called S gene dropout or S gene
target failure) and this test can therefore be used as marker
for this variant, pending sequencing confirmation. Using this
approach, this variant has been detected at faster rates than
previous surges in infection, suggesting that this variant may
have a growth advantage.
Covid
isn't
over. Texas schools pretend it is, and leave students to fend
for ourselves. (2-min. video; NBC News, November 28, 2021)
With no mask or vaccine mandates, my classmates are often sick.
I want to protect myself, but I get judged if I cover up.
[Also see "Opinion" on Nov. 25th.]
Omicron
-
the disinformation campaign from the right goes into full
gear, some to hilarious effect. (Daily Kos, November 29,
2021
While the civilized world reacts to the news about the new
COVID-19 virus variant called Omicron, while global teams of
experts are gathering data and studying the genetic structure of
the virus, while policy makers are rapidly deploying short-term
measures and evaluating long term mitigation strategies, the
right-wing world is busy spreading disinformation and
nonsensical but insidious conspiracy theories and propaganda.
Instead of informing and cautioning their supporters, they are
throwing up CT after CT, relying on the ignorance and stupidity
of their base, hoping to keep them scared and angry.
Until we know more about Omicron, we all know the drill — we
need to stay vigilant, get the booster shot if we have not
already done so, keep practicing masking and social distancing
protocols, encourage others to do so and keep an eye on the news
from reliable sources.
Omicron
was
already in Europe. (New York Times, November 30, 2021)
Across Europe, more than 44 cases of the new covid variant have
been confirmed in 11 countries, according to the European Center
for Disease Prevention and Control. All of the confirmed cases
in Europe have exhibited mild symptoms or none at all, and
authorities were analyzing six further "probable" cases. They
were also testing how the variant behaved in vaccinated people,
and more information was expected in a "couple of weeks".
Trump
tested
positive for Covid a few days before Biden debate, chief of
staff says in new book. (The Guardian, December 1, 2021)
Mark Meadows makes stunning admission in new memoir obtained by
Guardian, saying a second test returned negative.
Co-founder
of
Christian TV network that railed against vaccines dies of
Covid-19. (The Guardian, December 1, 2021)
Marcus Lamb, 64, whose Daystar network reaches an estimated 2
billion viewers worldwide, had pushed alternative therapies.
How
can
scientists update coronavirus vaccines for omicron? (The
Conversation, December 2, 2021)
A microbiologist answers 5 questions about how Moderna and
Pfizer could rapidly adjust mRNA vaccines.
'Magic
dirt':
How the internet fueled, and defeated, the pandemic's weirdest
MLM. (3-min. video; NBC News, December 2, 2021)
Black Oxygen Organics became a sudden hit in the fringe world of
alternative medicines and supplements, where even dirt can go
for $110 a bag.
[What fools these mortals be!]
Trump and his
Deplorables Cheer the Spread of COVID While Trying to Smear
Biden. (News Corpse, December 3, 2021)
Politics can be a dirty game. Particularly when disreputable
players overtly applaud tragedies simply because those dreadful
events will reflect badly on their opponents. These low-lifes
actually care more about their own political self-interests than
the suffering of innocent people. And no one is more likely to
behave so despicably than the failed reality TV game show host,
Donald Trump.
Deranged
Trump Declares that ‘I Developed the Vaccine’ in Lie-Riddled
Twitter Tantrum. (News Corpse, December 4, 2021)
Donald Trump is, if nothing else, consistent. Although that
isn’t a compliment considering that his consistency is related
to his being a pathological liar. He distinguished himself as
having told more than 30,000 lies during his single term in the
White House.
Pro-Trump
counties
now have far higher COVID death rates. Misinformation is to
blame. (NPR, December 5, 2021)
Political polarization and misinformation are driving a
significant share of the deaths in the pandemic. Since May 2021,
people living in counties that voted heavily for Donald Trump
during the last presidential election have been nearly three
times as likely to die from COVID-19 as those who live in areas
that went for now-President Biden. People living in counties
that went 60% or higher for Trump in November 2020 had 2.73
times the death rates of those that went for Biden. Counties
with an even higher share of the vote for Trump saw higher
COVID-19 mortality rates. In October, the reddest tenth of the
country saw death rates that were six times higher than the
bluest tenth.
Trump's
Cult
is Dying from COVID in Much Greater Numbers, but FOX News
Won't Tell Them. (Daily Kos, December 6, 2021)
The recent surge in COVID infections is being distributed in an
alarmingly discriminating fashion. Data shows that it is
predominantly spreading in the parts of the country that voted
for Donald Trump. This should not come as a surprise to anyone
who has noticed how Trump and his right-wing propaganda machine
have downplayed the risks and discouraged responsible behavior
such as getting vaccinated and wearing masks. Even worse, they
have actually been celebrating the suffering and loss of life.
Willfully
unvaccinated
should pay 100% of COVID hospital bills, lawmaker says.
(Ars Technica, December 7, 2021)
Rep. Carroll calls the legislation a starting point to hold
unvaccinated responsible. The Democrat from the Chicago suburb
of Northbrook introduced legislation Monday that would amend the
Illinois insurance code so that accident and health insurance
policies in 2023 would no longer cover COVID-19 hospital bills
for people who choose to remain unvaccinated. Carroll said the
rule would not apply to those with medical conditions that
prevent vaccination.
Pfizer
CEO
says fourth Covid vaccine doses may be needed sooner than
expected due to omicron. (CNBC, December 8, 2021)
“When we see real-world data, we'll determine if the omicron is
well covered by the third dose and for how long,” Pfizer CEO
Albert Bourla told CNBC. “And the second point, I think we will
need a fourth dose,” Bourla said. The Pfizer CEO originally
expected a fourth dose 12 months after the third, but he told
CNBC it might be needed sooner than that.
Pfizer
says
its booster offers strong protection against omicron variant.
(New York Times, December 8, 2021)
Pfizer and BioNTech said Wednesday that laboratory tests suggest
that three doses of their coronavirus vaccine offer significant
protection against the fast-spreading omicron variant of the
virus.
The companies said that tests of blood from people who received
only two doses found much lower antibody levels against omicron
compared with an earlier version of the virus. That finding
indicates that two doses alone “may not be sufficient to protect
against infection” by the new variant, the companies said. But
the blood samples obtained from people one month after they had
received a booster shot showed neutralizing antibodies against
omicron comparable to those against previous variants after two
doses, the companies said in a statement.
Two
years
into this pandemic, the world is dangerously unprepared.
(Washington Post, December 8, 2021)
Some countries had a foundation for preparedness that “did not
necessarily translate into successfully protecting against the
consequences of the disease because they failed to also
adequately address high levels of public distrust in government.
With its vast wealth and scientific capability, the United
States held on to its top ranking among 195 countries, even as
it scored lowest on public confidence in government — a factor
associated with high numbers of cases and deaths. The United
States had more capacity to prevent and respond to epidemics
than any other country, but it also had more reported cases and
deaths than any other nation.
Among the report recommendations: Countries should allocate
funds for health security in their national budgets;
international organizations should identify countries most in
need of additional support; the private sector should look for
ways to partner with governments; and philanthropies should
develop new financing mechanisms, such as a global health
security matching fund, to prioritize resources.
NEW: Robin
Schoenthaler,
MD: Waiting for the Omicron Science (Medium, December 8,
2021)
It's not looking all that optimistic.
Hospital
beds
full, National Guard deployed amid crushing delta wave.
(Ars Technica, December 9, 2021)
Pennsylvania hospitals are running at 110%, while Maine and New
York call National Guard. "We should remember that 99.9 percent
of cases in the country right now are from the delta variant,"
Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, said in a press briefing last Friday. "Delta
continues to drive cases across the country, especially in those
who are unvaccinated."
17
pandemic
innovations that are here to stay. (Politico, December 10,
2021)
During the pandemic, necessity became the mother of invention.
Here are some innovations that are likely to stick.
I-Team:
93-Year-Old
Veteran Denied Treatment For Covid-19 As Massachusetts
Prioritizes Unvaccinated. (CBS Boston, December 14, 2021)
The I-Team has learned that hospitals are not able to meet the
increased demand for treatment, not because of an issue with
supply, but a shortage of staff and space to administer the
treatments. According to state-issued guidelines, providers are
advised to prioritize the unvaccinated and the
immunocompromised. Treatment requires a medical order and the
decision for mAb referrals and treatment are made by the
patient’s health care provider. A map of mAb therapy sites can
be found here.
Robin
Schoenthaler,
MD: Omicron This Week: A Little Good News; Some Lousy News
(Medium, December 15, 2021)
Good news: We are a lot better at “genomic sequencing” than we
used to be. Genomic sequencing, you’ll recall, is the kind of
fancy specialized testing we need to identify a variant or in
this case to confirm a positive test is actually Omicron
Bad news: We still don’t have as much capacity to do genomic
sequencing as many other countries (we’re 20th in the world and
do about 25% of what Britain does) and it’s always at least a
week behind. So we don’t really know how much Omicron is out
there right this second - except it’s pretty much anywhere we
look and rising fast.
I keep saying “We can’t yet know…” and “It seems to be…”. This
isn’t hedging — it’s science.
What emerges from the murkiness we now stand in is that it seems
to makes sense to do whatever you can to avoid Trouble (mask,
test, ventilate, reduce indoor eating, and avoid connection with
unvaccinated people), but most of all to get vaccinated and
boosted as quickly as possible to maximize any and all hoped-for
protection against Omicron.
[There's more.]
Robin
Schoenthaler,
MD: Urgent Omicron Action. What To Do, Now That We See the
Train A-Coming? (Medium, December 17, 2021)
a) Go get boosted. This week. Vaccination seems to still be
helpful in not getting severe disease; boosters may help with
not catching this wildly contagious Omicron.
b) Go buy at-home tests. I know, I know, they’re hard to find.
Keep looking. They run out, they restock. Friends and patients
have founds them on-line and in person at their CVS, Costco,
Target, Walgreens, Walmart, Sam’s Club, BJ’s and on-line
suppliers like this one .
c) Any symptoms at all? Get tested.
d) Test you and your loved ones (per Michael Mina) on Dec 25,
28, 31, and Jan 3 (and before and after any other gatherings).
e) Decline indoor dining with strangers or unmasked activities
with indoor crowds until this surge is over
f) Wear the best masks you can find.
g) Read this fantastic piece by one of my favorite Covid writers
Ed Yong and his thought processes about cancelling parties in
the Omicron age.
h) Hang on tight. All surges go down, but this one is going to
have a steep ascent.
Brace
Yourself
— Omicron’s Going to Be Worse Than You Probably Think.
(Eudaimonia, December 18, 2021)
How Bad Omicron’s Really Looking, And Where the Myth That It’s
Mild Came From.
Highly
vaccinated
countries thought they were over the worst. Denmark says the
pandemic’s toughest month is just beginning. (Washington
Post, December 18, 2021)
In a country that tracks the spread of coronavirus variants as
closely as any in the world, the signals have never been more
concerning. Omicron positives are doubling nearly every two
days. The country is setting one daily case record after the
next. The lab analyzing positive tests recently added an
overnight shift just to keep pace. And scientists say the surge
is just beginning.
Coronavirus
Spike
Sends Harvard University Remote In January. (Patch,
December 18, 2021)
Harvard will go remote for at least the first three weeks of
January. It is prompted by the rapid rise in COVID-19 cases
locally and across the country, as well as the growing presence
of the highly transmissible omicron variant.
Omicron
and
holidays unleash scramble for coronavirus tests across the
U.S. (Washington Post, December 18, 2021)
testing capacity is under major strain as exposures to positive
cases grow, schools, workplaces and travel destinations require
proof of negative test results and government agencies recommend
testing before holiday gatherings. Local public health officials
often have to decide whether to use their limited staff and
resources on shoring up vaccine sites or testing sites.
The Biden administration has taken steps to increase the
availability of rapid testing, including streamlining the review
process to authorize kits, and ensuring supply of about 200
million for December. But critics say the U.S. has still failed
to make tests as readily accessible as they are in other
countries such as the United Kingdom and Singapore. President
Biden also moved to require insurers reimburse rapid test kit
purchases, which typically run about $25 for two tests. But it
will not take effect until after the holidays and places the
burden on the consumer. Earlier this month, White House press
secretary Jen Psaki dismissed a question about sending free
testing kits to households as costly - although several states
are already doing so.
At-home
COVID
testing kits will be free in 2022: Here's how and where to get
yours. (CNET, December 18, 2021)
The White House has said it will issue reimbursement guidelines
by January 15, with health insurers expected to start
reimbursing the cost of at-home testing shortly after that date.
The administration's plan is not retroactive, however, so kits
purchased during the holidays will not be covered.
Some states, including Vermont, aren't waiting for Biden's plan
to take effect: They've mandated insurers to start paying for
at-home kits now. You may want to check with your company, as
some private employers have also begun offering reimbursement
options.
Finding
masks
that meet CDC and WHO guidelines is tough. We did the work for
you. (Ars Technica, December 18, 2021)
Our newly updated mask guide includes information on how to
double-mask effectively, how to reuse KN95 and N95 masks safely,
how to maximize a surgical mask's effectiveness, how to choose
and clean great cloth masks, and more. Below are our latest
picks based on product availability and long-term testing.
[Keep this article where you can find it, and share - the
article, not facemasks. Take care.]
Details
released
on the Trump administration’s pandemic chaos. (Ars
Technica, December 20, 2021)
Report provides details of how Trump's appointees got in the
way.
The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis has been
investigating the previous administration's haphazard and
sometimes counterproductive response to the pandemic. On Friday
the group issued a major report that puts these details all in
one place. The report confirms suspicions about the Trump
administration's attempt to manipulate the public narrative
about its response, even as its members tried to undercut public
health officials.
[Think, second-degree premeditated mass murder.]
Omicron
sweeps
across nation, now 73% of new US COVID cases. (Associated
Press, December 20, 2021)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention numbers showed
nearly a six-fold increase in omicron’s share of infections in
only one week. In much of the country, it’s even higher. Omicron
is responsible for an estimated 90% or more of new infections in
the New York area, the Southeast, the industrial Midwest and the
Pacific Northwest. The national rate suggests that more than
650,000 omicron infections occurred in the U.S. last week.
Robin
Schoenthaler,
MD: Omicron: Our New Fierce Foe: How To Decide if Holiday
Gatherings Are Safe For Your Family (Medium, December 20,
2021)
The only “mild” thing about this surge will be people’s
individual symptoms; e.g., it’s much “milder” to have the
sniffles and a couple of days of fatigue rather than having
horrible blood clots or feeling like you’re strangling half to
death. And hopefully we will have a “milder” death rate although
the science isn’t all in on that yet.
But everything else will be “fierce.” We will have a fierce
number of cases, a fierce fraction of people in the hospital, a
fierce number of people who can’t get good hospital care because
there’s not enough staff or too much Covid.
We
Were
Always Disposable, and We Can’t Ignore It Anymore.
(Medium, December 20, 2021)
The truth behind hidden corporate transcripts.
Massachusetts
Needs
Full Mask Mandate, Spilka, Rausch Urge. (Patch, December
21, 2021)
A growing number of local elected officials are calling on Gov.
Charlie Baker to bring back masks as COVID-19 surges.
US
Army
Creates Single Vaccine Against All COVID & SARS Variants,
Researchers Say. (Defense One, December 21, 2021)
Within weeks, Walter Reed researchers expect to announce that
human trials of Spike Ferritin Nanoparticle COVID-19 vaccine
(SpFN) show success against Omicron—and even future strains.
Biden’s
Omicron
battle plan includes 500 million home test kits. (Ars
Technica, December 21, 2021)
President Biden outlined the federal government's response to
omicron's ascendancy.
Anti-vaxx
Chronicles:
ER doctor quits because Q nuts push him over the edge.
(Daily Kos, December 21, 2021)
After more than three decades as a physician, the Q maniacs have
succeeded in driving me out of providing care to patients. I,
like many of my colleagues, am moving into medically-adjacent
work, where we can continue to apply our training and decades
off knowledge without ever having to come in contact with sick
people.
Fauci
says
Fox News and RFK Jr. attacks 'accelerated' death threats.
(10-min. video; Yahoo, December 21, 2021)
“The only thing I’ve ever said or done is to encourage people to
get vaccinated, to wear a mask and to do things that would be
good for their health, the health of their family and the health
of the community. So to get villainized because of that is a sad
testimony on our society.”
It’s
Hard
to Describe What’s About to Happen in America. We’re woefully
unprepared. (Medium, December 22, 2021)
We know Omicron is highly contagious, and it’s not
milder on its own. We also know that it knocks Pfizer’s vaccine
effectiveness down significantly, even if
you’re boosted, and that the benefits of a third shot only last
a few months. Israel has already started rolling out a fourth dose. Meanwhile, drug companies
are working on a vaccine that targets Omicron, but it won’t be ready until March. Only 30 percent of Americans have gotten a
booster. Healthcare workers in states like Rhode Island describe
the system as “currently in collapse,” and the Omicron
wave has just barely started, after leaping up to 73 percent of cases in barely a week.
Based on that rate, it’s probably already at 100 percent by now.
None of this is good news. This isn’t the kind of information
that says we can all go back to living our normal lives, but
that’s exactly what too many Americans are doing. They’re acting
like the pandemic is over, pretending Omicron is mild, and
shaming anyone who doesn’t play along. Our government is fully
expecting for some fully vaccinated and boosted people to get
severely sick, even die, based on the drops in efficacy. They
know it’s going to happen. It’s happening right now. The losses
have simply reached an acceptable level for bureaucrats and
politicians seeking reelection. It doesn’t bother billionaire
CEOs and hedge fund managers, either. They’re just not saying
that part out loud.
It sounds amoral. It is.
Omicron:
What
you need to know about the COVID variant. (3-min. video;
CBS News, December 22, 2021)
Omicron appears to have evolved separately from the Delta
variant, descending from another strain that appeared in
mid-2020. Some scientists speculate it may have accumulated so
many changes while evolving for months in animals or an
immunocompromised person. The Omicron variant is the most
divergent variant that has been detected in significant numbers
during the pandemic so far, which raises serious concerns that
it may be associated with significant reduction in vaccine
effectiveness and increased risk for reinfections.
13%
Mortality
Rate in Fully Vaccinated Patients With Cancer Who Had
Breakthrough COVID-19. (SciTechDaily, December 24, 2021)
Patients were considered fully vaccinated after having received
two doses of either the BioNTech, Pfizer vaccine or the
Moderna/NIAD vaccine, or one dose of the J&J vaccine, with
the last vaccine dose long enough before breakthrough COVID-19,
to consider them as fully vaccinated.
Because measures of immunity are not routinely collected in
clinical care, we don’t know whether these were patients who
mounted effective immune responses after vaccination; a lot of
emerging data have suggested that patients with cancer,
especially blood cancers, don’t mount adequate protective
antibody responses. It’s important to note that many of the same
factors that we identified prior to the availability of
vaccination – age, comorbidities, performance status, and
progressing cancer – still seem to drive many of the bad
outcomes
A multilayered approach that includes masking and
social-distancing, along with vaccination plus booster against
COVID-19 remains an essential approach for the foreseeable
future.
[Notes: (a) This analysis preceded the booster shot. (b)
Patients with cancer, especially blood cancers, are less likely
to mount adequate protective antibody responses.]
Fully-Vaccinated
Individuals
at Risk for COVID Infection With Omicron Variant – Columbia
Study. (3-min. video; SciTechDaily, December 24, 2021)
Results suggest that previously-infected individuals and
fully-vaccinated individuals are at risk for infection with the
omicron variant. It is not too far-fetched to think that
SARS-CoV-2 is now only a mutation or two away from being
completely resistant to current antibodies.
Umair
Haque:
America’s Approach to Omicron Is Insane. (Eudaimonia,
December 23, 2021)
Through a Combination of Incompetence, Ineptitude, and
Indifference, America is Bungling Covid Yet Again.
I was trying to get the booster that everyone in power — Biden
and Fauci and all the rest — were begging me to get. Only I
couldn’t get one, because of America's
at-least-six-months-since-the las-prior-shot rule.
Similar rules in other countries? Britainm Three months. France,
Four. Holland, Three. And so forth. America’s the only country
in the rich world (probably the one, period!) where the rule,
even in the middle of a vaccine-resistant wave of a pandemic, is
six months or no booster. Nobody in power has checked that rule.
Even thought about it. CDC, hospitals, President, task force.
Nobody. Nobody’s changed it, understood it. Not a single person
has connected the dots and said, hey, vaccines lose their
efficacy fast, and we want everyone to get boosted, so maybe we
should make it happen.
Do you see what an incredible level of institutional and
government failure this is? Not to even think about the science?
To keep a policy that’s now in stark opposition to the science?
How many millions of Americans are in the same boat as me?
God's Tech
Support Hotline (2-min. video; YouTube, December 24, 2021)
[Don't miss this viral virus video!]
Robin
Schoenthaler,
MD: Omicron Has Landed. And It’s Everywhere. (Medium,
December 26, 2021)
It was a very Omicron Christmas for many of us. As cases soar
(70,000 at the end of October; over 200,000 today), I had
countless friends and relatives who suddenly had to cancel,
adjust, or scale down their celebrations because of people
finding out they were positive on Thursday or Friday or even in
the car on the way over to open presents.
The ripple effect of having so many people get Covid and needing
to isolate for 5, 7, or 10 days (recommendations are evolving)
is happening as we speak: schools and daycares closing because
not enough teachers, flights cancelled because not enough crew,
restaurants shuttering because not enough staff, church/temples
cancelling in-person services because the leaders are sick.
And most importantly, hospitals forced to limit access because
so many staff can’t come in.
1
Million COVID-19 Cases Later, Massachusetts Hits Grim
Milestone. (The Patch, December 28, 2021)
The milestone comes during a surge where Massachusetts is ranked
fifth among states where the coronavirus is spreading the
fastest.
Anti-vaxx
Chronicles:
Husband-wife team put their faith in Jesus, mocked science.
(Daily Kos, December 29, 2021)
This series documents stories from the Herman Cain Awards
subreddit, tracking the COVID mis- and disinformation on
Facebook that is leading to so many deaths. Today’s cautionary
tale is a husband-wife fundamentalist team.
"If people feared going to Hell as much as they feared the
Coronavirus. They would be more people coming to Jesus."
-If people feared COVID as much as they fear hell, maybe more
people would vaccinate. (See? Everyone can play this false
equivalency game. It’s stupid.)
"No mask, no service. No mark, no sale. Do you see where this is
going? They are conditioning the people to accept The Mark Of
The Beast."
-No shirt, no service. No shoes, no service. (See where this is
going? They have been conditioning us for centuries!)
From its Comments thread:
-This whole slide sideways off the road and over the cliff
started back in the Reagan Administration, with the (im)moral
minority and their evangy ways about life. Trump helped, there
is no doubt, but history shows us that they are taking the same
route, albeit with different acts in different places, like all
authoritarian dictatorships.
--The difference before was that we never had a right-wing troll
as president. Trump legitimized the worst of us in a way they
had never been legitimized before. Without the staggering
misfortune of the Trump presidency, these people would be little
more than an annoyance. Now they are an existential threat to
public health and to our democracy. Trump gets 99 percent of the
blame, imo.
---My take, too. Except I’d give more blame to the media. If
they did their jobs and reported honestly and fairly, Trump
never would have won the Republican primary, much less the
general election. If the media wasn't broken, Republicans would
be merely loathsome instead of criminally insane.
----The media reported the outrageous, stupid shit he said and
the horrendous, credible allegations against him. The problem is
that the right wing loonies loved every bit of it.
-----A
study conducted by Harvard Law School faculty proved that
the “right-wing media ecosystem” regularly distorts and
misrepresents the facts to serve their purposes. This can be
traced back to Reagan, who vetoed legislation to codify the
FCC’s “Fairness Doctrine” as law, and to his granting expedited
citizenship to Rupert Murdoch. Unfortunately, the US
educational system cranks out far too many graduates who are
incapable of critical thinking and thus naïve and gullible.
[That link leads to the entire 2018 study report, starting with:
ABSTRACT:
This book examines the shape, composition, and practices of the
United States political media landscape. It explores the roots
of the current epistemic crisis in political communication with
a focus on the remarkable 2016 U.S. president election
culminating in the victory of Donald Trump and the first year of
his presidency. The authors present a detailed map of the
American political media landscape based on the analysis of
millions of stories and social media posts, revealing a highly
polarized and asymmetric media ecosystem. Detailed case studies
track the emergence and propagation of disinformation in the
American public sphere that took advantage of structural
weaknesses in the media institutions across the political
spectrum. This book describes how the conservative faction led
by Steve Bannon and funded by Robert Mercer was able to inject
opposition research into the mainstream media agenda that left
an unsubstantiated but indelible stain of corruption on the
Clinton campaign. The authors also document how Fox News
deflects negative coverage of President Trump and has promoted a
series of exaggerated and fabricated counter narratives to
defend the president against the damaging news coming out of the
Mueller investigation. Based on an analysis of the actors that
sought to influence political public discourse, this book argues
that the current problems of media and democracy are not the
result of Russian interference, behavioral microtargeting and
algorithms on social media, political clickbait, hackers,
sockpuppets, or trolls, but of asymmetric media structures
decades in the making. The crisis is political, not
technological.]
Our
Relationship
With COVID Vaccines Is Just Getting Started. (The
Atlantic, December 29, 2021)
We probably will need additional shots. But just how many
depends on our immune systems, the virus, and how often they
collide.
[A good look forward.]
The
Pandemic
Might Have Redesigned Cities Forever. (The Conversation,
December 30, 2021)
Changes small and large—parklets, outdoor restaurants, bike
lanes—could remake our relationship to cities (and help fix
climate change).
Tracking
the
coronavirus around the U.S.: See how your state is doing.
(PBS, December 30, 2021)
The consortium of researchers and public health experts who
developed these risk levels advises states in the red category
to issue stay-home orders. Orange states should consider
stay-home orders, along with increased testing and contact
tracing. Yellow states need to keep up social distancing and
mask usage, and all states should continue testing and contact
tracing.
Coronavirus
Briefing
Year 3 (New York Times, December 30, 2021)
- The U.S. set a one-day record of almost half a million cases,
nearly doubling the highest numbers from last winter.
- South Africa said it has passed its fourth wave of cases, and
counts few added deaths.
- The F.D.A. will allow Pfizer boosters for 12- to 15-year-olds.
- Latest updates, maps and a vaccine tracker.
As we prepare to enter the third year of the pandemic, we have
been hoping for more normality and less Covid disruption by now.
Case counts are soaring to all-time highs in some parts of the
world, and 2022 is shaping up to be just as uncertain as the
last 12 months. That said, we’ve made huge strides against the
coronavirus this year. There are now multiple vaccines that
offer powerful protection against the worst effects of Covid, as
well as remarkably effective treatments for those who become
infected.
Robin
Schoenthaler,
MD: Children and Omicron (Medium, December 30, 2021)Our
surge continues. It’s moving from some-Omicron to half-Omicron
and soon we will be virtually-all Omicron. It is, as one of my
favorite doctors innocently said, “breathtakingly infectious".
The big question on every parent’s mind these days: “What’s
going to happen when the kids go back to school?”
We all know there has been a lot of buzz about the increased
number of pediatric cases and hospitalizations. However, this
doesn’t seem to be happening because Omicron is more dangerous.
It seems to be simply due to a bigger denominator: ie. since
there’s more NUMBERS of sick kids, there will be more NUMBERS of
kids sick enough to need a hospital.
So let’s start out with this reassurance: We are not seeing any
evidence that Omicron is more severe in kids (or adults). That
doesn’t mean it isn’t disruptive. But it does mean it’s not more
dangerous.
Free
at-home
COVID-19 tests are coming: How to get reimbursed by health
insurance. (Today, updated December 30, 2021)
More details of the plan will be announced in January, but
here's how experts predict it will work.
Robin
Schoenthaler,
MD: What To Do If/When You Get Covid. (Medium, January 3,
2022)
Please, please — go stock up your Covid kits. A large number of
us are going to get Covid in the next couple of weeks so get
your gear today. In fact, go buy your oximeter tonight. And get
home testing kits; places run out, but then they restock.
[Listen to Dr. Robin, and spread her word!]
Baker
Touts
Successful School Return Despite Some Delaying Class.
(Mass. Patch, January 3, 2022)
"There was all kind of talk about how school wouldn't open
Massachusetts today," Gov. Charlie Baker (R.) said. "They did."
But not all.
Nearly 20 school districts delayed their return from the 10-day
winter break due to health concerns and staffing shortages amid
an unprecedented spike in COVID-19 fueled by the highly
contagious omicron variant. The state had been pressed by its
largest teachers union to delay the return to school to allow
educators time to test following a holiday break that saw the
state break record after record of single-day confirmed COVID-19
cases, punctuated by more than 20,000 on Friday. "At this time,
we simply do not have the staffing capacity to operate all
schools safely," Brookline Public Schools said in a letter to
families late Sunday night. "While we understand that closing
schools on Monday will be challenging for families, we believe
this is in the best interest for our staff, students, and
families and will allow us to return as safely and as strongly
as possible."
1
In 5 Massachusetts COVID-19 Tests Were Positive In Latest
7-Day Average. (Mass. Patch, January 3, 2022)
Monday's Department of Public Health report also broke another
record for confirmed cases after the holiday weekend in
Massachusetts.
[It's true, but MDPH
doesn't
say it that clearly. 20-29-year-olds are most likely to
catch it; 75-year-olds are most likely to die from it.]
Over
1,000
Boston Teachers, Staff Out Sick Today. (Mass. Patch,
January 4, 2022)
While schools prepare for staffing shortages, officials stand
firm on keeping students in class this year.
France
detects
new COVID-19 variant 'IHU', more infectious than Omicron: All
we know about it. (Firstpost, January 4, 2022)
The new variant — B.1.640.2 — which has been detected in 12
patients near Marseille, contains 46 mutations, making it more
resistant to vaccines and infectious.
[On which wave of this pandemic will the politicians heed the
medical experts?]
Initial
results
of a 4th-dose study in Israel show an expected rise in
antibodies. (New York Times, January 4, 2022)
Fourth shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine produce
a five-fold increase in antibodies in recipients’ blood,
according to preliminary study results announced on Tuesday by
an Israeli hospital. The small, pioneering research study,
underway for a week, is meant to test the safety and
effectiveness of giving yet another shot of the vaccine to
people who have already received a booster dose. Still, there
remains debate over whether fourth shots are advisable, as
research indicates that Covid vaccines already protect against
the worst outcomes, including from the Omicron variant. Any
booster is likely to raise the number of antibodies in the short
term; the question remains how long the effect will last, since
antibodies inevitably decline over time.
Israel is facing a surge in coronavirus cases, driven by the
Omicron variant. In an effort to protect the most vulnerable
parts of the population, Israel has already begun offering
fourth vaccine doses to people aged 60 or over, to people with
weakened immune systems, and to medical and nursing home
workers.
If
you
got Pfizer’s vaccine, seek a booster 5 months after the second
shot, not 6, the C.D.C. recommends. (New York Times,
January 4, 2022)
The agency also recommended that some immunocompromised children
ages 5 to 11 receive an additional primary vaccine shot 28 days
after the second shot, matching the guidance for similar people
12 and older. Pfizer’s vaccine is the only one authorized for
pediatric use in the United States. The endorsements come on the
heels of the authorization of the same steps by the Food and
Drug Administration on Monday.
State
Sent
Expired COVID Test Kits To Massachusetts Schools. (Mass.
Patch, January 4, 2022)
Meanwhile, some Massachusetts school districts did not receive
enough of the coronavirus test kits, forcing teachers and staff
to share.
From
Delta
to Omicron, here’s how scientists know which coronavirus
variants are circulating in the US. (The Conversation,
January 7, 2022)
Alexander Sundermann and Lee Harrison are epidemiologists who
study novel approaches for outbreak detection. Here they explain
how the genomic surveillance system works in the U.S. and why
it’s important to know which virus variants are circulating.
Dr.
Robin’s
Covid-19 Updates: Doctors Telling Their Omicron Stories
(Medium, January 9, 2022)
Forget anything you’ve heard about Omicron being “mild.” It is
HORRIFIC how it is ravaging our society and our hospitals and
our health care workers.
- 11,000 cases/day in June in the US.
- 650,000 cases yesterday (plus a gabillion unreported at-home
tests).
Please do everything you can to not get Omicron this month. Get
boosted. (Get vaccinated!) Wear a good mask everywhere. Hunker
down. Don’t congregate inside with unmasked people. Don’t eat
inside with strangers. Minimize travel. Do what you can to not
get hurt or sick or quarantine-stranded.
Our hospital systems are beyond stressed: the ER’s hallways are
full of patients, the ICUs are full up, the Urgent Cares have
lines around the block, the PCPs are getting pounded, the
pediatricians have exploding clinics.
In addition, if you get seriously ill right now, there are
essentially no drugs to help you out. They simply haven’t been
manufactured in bulk yet; they do not exist. There are almost no
monoclonal antibodies available, and the antivirals like
Paxlovid will not be readily available until February or March.
There are no real out-patient treatments except Tylenol.
Please do everything you can to not get Omicron this month.
As
an E.R. Doctor, I Fear Health Care Collapse More Than Omicron.
(New York Times, January 10, 2022)
[via the Democratic Underground]
How
To
Get MA COVID-19 Vaccination Card Online (Mass. Patch,
January 10, 2022)
Massachusetts still does not mandate a vaccine, though a handful
of cities are requiring proof of vaccination in many instances.
Coronavirus:
Free
at-home tests (New York Times, January 10, 2022)
The Biden administration today released the details of its plan
to allow Americans to be reimbursed for at-home virus tests
through private insurance. Here’s what you need to know:
- Americans can be reimbursed for eight at-home coronavirus
tests per person per month starting Saturday, my colleagues Noah
Weiland and Sarah Kliff report.
- People who provide their insurance information will be able to
get the tests with no out-of-pocket costs at certain pharmacies.
In other instances, they will have to file claims to their
insurers for reimbursement, just as they often do for other
medical services.
- Tests ordered or administered by a health provider will
continue to be covered by insurance without a co-payment or a
deductible, the administration said.
- The policy does not apply to tests that Americans have already
purchased.
[Also, you can
order one free 4-pack per household, here.]
WHO:
Omicron
Could Infect Half of Europe’s Population in Coming Weeks.
(U.S. News, January 11, 2022)
A World Health Organization official warned that COVID-19 is
‘still a way off’ from becoming an endemic, like the flu, rather
than a pandemic.
NEW: Stopping
COVID-19:
New Research Shows Face Masks Cut Distance Airborne Pathogens
Could Travel in Half. (SciTechDaily, January 12, 2022)
The research provides clear evidence and guidelines that 3 feet
of distancing with face coverings is better than 6 feet of
distancing without face coverings. The study is part of the
researchers’ larger overall effort to control airborne disease
transmission, including through food ingredients, a better
understanding of factors related to being a super-spreader; and
the modeling of airborne disease transmission in classrooms.
Omicron
goes
to Washington. (New York Times, January 12, 2022)
Omicron has ushered in a new and frustrating phase of the
pandemic. Soft shutdowns, empty shelves and another pandemic
winter spent at home have shortened tempers.
Like the rest of the country, the virus has ripped through
Congress. At least 129 House members and senators — nearly one
in four — have been infected since the beginning of the
pandemic. Thirteen were infected in the last week. Since the
pandemic began, two Republican legislators have died: Ron Wright
of Texas and Luke Letlow of Louisiana. And yet, even as the
hyper-contagious Omicron variant infects hundreds of thousands
of Americans a day, the two sides can’t agree on what to do.
Robin
Schoenthaler,
MD: Encouraging Omicron Sewage News (Medium, January 12,
2022)
Massachusetts “poop-ometer” gives us some hope.
MA
Coronavirus:
Hospitalizations Top 3K, Positive Rate Drops. (Patch,
January 12, 2022)
With wastewater samples showing hopes for an Omicron decline,
hospitalizations reached a new high on Wednesday.
There
are
early signs that Omicron has begun to peak. (New York
Times, January 13, 2022)
The number of new Covid-19 cases in New York City rose more than
twentyfold in December. In the past few days, it has flattened.
In both New Jersey and Maryland, the number of new cases has
fallen slightly this week. In several major cities, the number
is also showing signs of leveling off.
“We really try not to ever make any predictions about this
virus, because it always throws us for a loop,” a Boston
epidemiologist told GBH News. “But at least the wastewater is
suggesting a steep decline, and so we hope that means cases will
decline steeply as well, and then hospitalizations and deaths
will follow.”
Natick
Brings
Back Mask Mandate Temporarily. (Patch, January 13, 2022)
Masks will be required in all public spaces in Natick MA
beginning on Monday and lasting through February.
Trump
surfaces
with a new racist hoax—and a new attack on our elections.
(Daily Kos, January 16, 2022)
Trump says white people are being discriminated against on covid
treatment: “If you’re white, you don’t get the vaccine or if
you’re white you don’t get therapeutics .. In NY state, if
you’re white, you go to the back of the line if you want help.”
There are a great many weird things about this particular verbal
spasm from the ranting man. The first, obviously, is that the
claim is transparently false. Not only are white people not
being refused the vaccine or treatment in New York state, it is
not happening anywhere. But it also makes no sense. It is, in
fact, a monument to how thoroughly the anti-democratic
Republican base demands their leaders spew provocative gibberish
that makes no sense. The Republican base does not want the
vaccine. The Republican base, and their politicians, are going
to great lengths to make sure nobody can "make" them get
vaccinated against a disease that has killed over 800,000
Americans and is still going strong.
AI
reveals
major differences in how social media users debate
vaccinations and climate change. (Study Finds, January 18,
2022)
Social media users are more open to discussion and differing
views regarding climate change, whereas online vaccination
conversations tend to be more biased or one-sided.
NEW: How
to
Identify Counterfeit N95 Masks for COVID-19 (Mental Floss,
January 18, 2022)
With the highly transmissible omicron variant burning through
the United States, many people are upgrading their face masks.
High-filtration N95 and KN95 respirators offer more protection
against viral particles than cloth face masks, but they aren't
always easy to find. The market is flooded with counterfeits
that look like the real thing without meeting government safety
standards. To avoid spending money on a fake product, watch out
for these warning signs.
Legitimate N95 (US-standard) respirators will usually have
NIOSH's name (spelled correctly) displayed on the package. U.S.
government-approved masks also have headbands instead of ear
loops, and an approval number on the band or facepiece that
starts with the letters TC. To avoid spreading virii,
the mask should have no valves.
Robin
Schoenthaler,
MD: Omicron Update: We’ve Learned a Lot in Two Months. But
We’re Still in the Soup. (Medium, January 24, 2022)
Cases don’t really matter any more: there’s huge under-counting
because of the gajillion unreported at-home tests and we know
Omicron is getting past our vaccines. But the vaccines are still
hugely protecting us against hospitalization and deaths, and
even though there’s 2,000 deaths a day, the vast majority are
among the unvaccinated because vaccines are keeping us from
dying.
But please don’t use the word “mild” for even a nano-second to
describe what’s going on now. Our hospitals — and ERs and
clinics and internist and pediatrician offices — remain under
the absolute worst strain they have been under since this all
started.
[As always, Dr. Robin offers excellent advice.]
The
extraordinary
success of Covid-19 vaccines, in two charts. (Vox, January
27, 2022)
Deaths tell one story of the pandemic. The lives saved tell
another.
The
Physics
of the N95 Face Mask (3-min. video; Wired, January 28,
2022)
You’ve seen them a million times. You might be wearing one right
now. But do you know how they work to block a potentially
virus-carrying respiratory blob?
NEW: MIT
Research
Reveals How Omicron Escapes From All Four Classes of
Antibodies That Target COVID-19. (SciTechDaily, February
1, 2022)
The researchers’ approach, known as amino acid interaction
network analysis, evaluates how one mutated amino acid can
influence nearby amino acids depending on how “networked” they
are — a measure of how much a given amino acid interacts with
its neighbors. This yields richer information than simply
examining individual changes in the one-dimensional amino acid
sequence space.
The researchers compared the Omicron variant to the original
SARS-CoV-2 virus, as well as the Beta and Delta variants. The
Beta and Delta variants have mutations that help them evade
class 1 and 2 antibodies, but not class 3 and 4. Omicron, on the
other hand, has mutations that affect the binding of all four
classes of antibodies.
Even though Omicron is able to evade most antibodies to some
degree, vaccines still offer protection, Sasisekharan says.
“What’s good about vaccines is they don’t just generate B cells,
which produce the monoclonal [antibody] response, but also T
cells, which provide additional forms of protection.”
“Our hope is that as we understand the viral evolution, we’re
able to home in on regions where we think that any perturbation
would cause instability to the virus, so that they would be the
Achilles' heels, and more effective sites to target,” he says.
“The
Power
of Boosters” is immense as NY Times shows from CDC death data.
(Daily Kos, February 1, 2022)
This data underscores both the power of the Covid vaccines and
their biggest weakness — namely, their gradual fading of
effectiveness over time, as is also the case with many other
vaccines. If you received two Moderna or Pfizer vaccine shots
early last year, the official statistics still count you as
“fully vaccinated.” In truth, you are only partially vaccinated.
Once you get a booster, your risk of getting severely ill from
Covid is tiny. It is quite small even if you are older or have
health problems. The data shows the power of boosters. Get fully
vaccinated, get boosted, avoid crowds especially indoors, wear a
KN-95 mask correctly when indoors, avoid those who are not
vaccinated and avoid areas where the vaccination rate is low.
[View the graph!]
The
Army
Is Finally Giving Anti-Vaxxers the Boot — Effective
‘Immediately’. (RollingStone, February 2, 2022)
The Army joins the Air Force, Navy, and Marines in discharging
active duty troop who have refused to get the Covid-19 vaccine.
The
U.S.
is seeing a higher rate of deaths from omicron. It's important
to know why. (Daily Kos, February 2, 2022)
The shape of the omicron wave in the United States has differed
significantly from that in other nations. That’s not so much
true of the number of cases coming in—omicron has generated a
spike in cases almost everywhere—but it is true of the outcomes
of those cases. For most of the world, each successive wave of
COVID-19 has seen a decreasing rate of hospitalizations and
deaths. That steadily improving outcome was true even during the
delta variant, which was widely seen as more virulent than past
versions of SARS-CoV-2. However, though the U.S. saw significant
improvements as vaccines rolled out, the rate of improvement
slowed significantly during delta. Now the U.S. is showing a
case fatality rate for omicron that greatly exceeds many
nations. Americans are simply dying at a higher rate from
COVID-19 than in the vast majority of wealthy nations.
On Wednesday, The New York Times noted this issue. The
paper of record did an admirable job of charting America’s
”ballooning death toll” in spite of the still widely held idea
that omicron is a “mild” variant of COVID-19. They note,
accurately, that deaths are now exceeding the worst levels seen
during the delta surge and that they are “more than two-thirds
as high as the record tolls of last winter, when vaccines were
largely unavailable.”
And that dependent clause is as close as the whole article ever
comes to providing a reason.
[Rest assured that this article will fill that gap.]
NEW: Efficiency
of
Different Types of Face Masks in Preventing COVID-19 (Fact
Crescendo/India, February 2, 2022)
Wearing a mask is not an alternative to physical distancing and
hand hygiene, but it is most valuable in scenarios where
physical distancing is challenging.
Certified N95 masks are equipped to filter out 95% of air
particles and hence are touted for maximum safety from Covid-19
infection. Despite being multi layered, these masks are
breathable. They are available in different sizes and if the fit
is perfect, it wraps snugly around the nose and mouth area,
offering protection against any droplets or particles in the
air.
However, N95 masks with respirator valve should be avoided, as
they do not provide protection from the virus.
There’s
a
Covid-19 epidemic in deer. It could come back to haunt us.
(Vox, February 3, 2022)
Cats, dogs, and ferrets have been infected by the coronavirus.
But outbreaks in deer are different.
NEW: Detecting
Covid-19
with a 40-second eye scan (Isreal21c, February 3, 2022)
AdOM Advanced Optical Technologies and Israel’s Sheba Medical
Center have launched the world’s largest study for the detection
of Covid-19 on the surface of the eye. The study will compare
AdOM’s Tear Film Imager (TFI) — a quick, noninvasive and
inexpensive exam — to the PCR diagnostic test, the current
standard. The validation trial at Sheba – Israel’s largest
medical center – will test the TFI on about 500 patients over
the next 30 days.
In just 40 seconds, the TFI simultaneously measures the
muco-aqueous and lipid sublayers of the eye’s tear film, at a
resolution depth of a few nanometers. These sublayers play an
important role in the identification and treatment of specific
eye conditions such as dry eye syndrome. The TFI is used in
countries including the United States and Japan. It’s one of the
only commercially available devices that can identify and
quantify a virus within the surface of the eye.
Hamsters
can
transmit Covid to humans, data suggests. (The Guardian,
February 8, 2022)
The research confirms fears that a pet shop was the source of a
recent Covid outbreak in Hong Kong, which has seen at least 50
people infected and led to the culling of more than 2,200
hamsters. However, virologists emphasised that, although the pet
trade could provide a route for viral spread, existing pet
hamsters are unlikely to pose a threat to their owners and
should not be harmed.
Many animals are susceptible to catching Covid from humans, but
until now, only one – the mink – has proved capable of
transmitting it in the opposite direction. Hamsters are
particularly vulnerable to the virus – dwarf Roborovski hamsters
can die from it – so have been widely used as a model for
studying the disease.
NEW: Interim
Clinical
Considerations for Use of COVID-19 Vaccines Currently Approved
or Authorized in the United States (US CDC, February 11,
2022)
Efforts to increase the number of people in the United States
who are up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines remain critical
to preventing illness, hospitalizations and deaths from
COVID-19.
COVID
Won’t
End Up Like the Flu. It Will Be Like Smoking. (The
Atlantic, February 17, 2022)
Hundreds of thousands of deaths, from either tobacco or the
pandemic, could be prevented with a single behavioral change.
The COVID vaccines are, without exaggeration, among the safest
and most effective therapies in all of modern medicine. An
unvaccinated adult is an astonishing 68 times more likely to die
from COVID than a boosted one. Yet widespread vaccine hesitancy
in the United States has caused more than 163,000 preventable
deaths and counting. Because too few people are vaccinated,
COVID surges still overwhelm hospitals—interfering with routine
medical services and leading to thousands of lives lost from
other conditions. If everyone who is eligible were triply
vaccinated, our health-care system would be functioning normally
again.
Smokers are 15 to 30 times more likely to develop lung cancer.
Quitting the habit is akin to receiving a staggeringly powerful
medicine, one that wipes out most of this excess risk. Yet
smokers, like those who now refuse vaccines, often continue
their dangerous lifestyle in the face of aggressive attempts to
persuade them otherwise. Even in absolute numbers, America’s
unvaccinated and current-smoker populations seem to match up
rather well: Right now, the CDC pegs them at 13 percent and 14
percent of all U.S. adults, respectively, and both groups are
likely to be poorer and less educated.
Increased
Infectivity
Drives COVID Evolution. Mutations That Allow the Virus To
Escape Vaccines Become Dominant. (SciTechDaily, February
20, 2022)
Omicron and other variants are evolving increased infectivity
and antibody escape, according to an artificial intelligence
(AI) model. Therefore, new vaccines and antibody therapies are
desperately needed, the researchers say.
Maps
reveal
spread of ‘stealth’ Omicron sub-variant BA-2 in UK as Whitty
warns ‘next strain could be worse’. (graphs; Grapitic,
February 23, 2022)
These maps show how much Omicron’s “stealth” sub-variant has
spread in the UK within a month. BA.2 has taken over Delta and
is able to spread faster than original Omicron.Deadly
BA.2
subvariant of Omicron spreading in more than 74 countries and
dominant already in several, just as mask mandates are being
lifted. (Grapitic, February 23, 2022)
“It’s really quite incredible how quickly the Omicron, the
latest variant of concern, has overtaken Delta around the world.
Most of the sequences are this sublineage BA.1. We are also
seeing an increasing in proportion of sequences of BA.2. Omicron
is more transmissible than Delta—all of the sublineages [are].
But within the sublineages, Omicron BA.2 is more transmissible
than BA.1. And so, what we are looking for in the epi[demic]
curves, we’re looking at not only how quickly those peaks go up,
but how they come down. And as the decline in cases occur, we
also need to look at is there a slowing of that decline or will
we start to see an increase again? If we start to see an
increase, we could see some further infections of BA.2 after
this big wave of BA.1.”.
10
Consequential
Days: How Biden Navigated War, COVID and the Supreme Court
(New York Times, February 28, 2022)
[An inside look at President Biden doing his job during a time
of turmoil, and doing it well.]
From
‘Zero’ to Surge (New York Times, March 3, 2022)
For a lot of the pandemic, Hong Kong and New Zealand have been
icons of success in fighting the coronavirus. Their cautious
“zero Covid” approaches kept instances and deaths low, and every
day life has continued as normal.
Now, with the Omicron variant walloping a lot of Asia, each
location is experiencing scary surges — but in strikingly
divergent ways.
'Very
sobering':
Global deaths from COVID may be more than 3 times higher than
official toll, study says. (USA Today, March 10, 2022)
Researchers at the University of Washington’s Institute of
Health Metrics and Evaluation found an estimated 18.2 million
people may have died by the end of 2021 due to the COVID-19
pandemic, more than three times the official toll of 5.9
million, according
to the study published Thursday in The Lancet.
MA
Town-By-Town
COVID: Positivity Rate Below 2% 2 Straight Weeks. (Data
tables; Patch, March 10, 2022)
In Massachusetts, COVID-19 case counts dropped in 267
communities, stayed the same in 52 and rose in 32.
[Good news! IF this local drop continues.]
China’s
worst
Covid-19 surge since 2020 (New York Times, March 14, 2022)
China is grappling with its worst spate of Covid-19 infections
since the coronavirus first emerged more than two years ago in
central China. Sustained outbreaks have erupted in two-thirds of
the country’s provinces, prompting two of the country’s largest
cities, Shenzhen and Shanghai, to impose stringent restrictions.
Once
again,
America is in denial about signs of a fresh Covid wave.
(The Guardian, March 16, 2022)
In the past couple of weeks, UK, Germany, France and others are
experiencing a new wave. The US should get ready.
Robin
Schoenthaler,
MD: They’ve Changed The Covid Rules of Engagement.
(Medium, March 16, 2022)
Six Steps To Being SafeR..
MA
Town-By-Town
COVID-19: Infection Rates Rise In 143 Communities. (Patch,
March 24, 2022)
The state's positive test rate, though still low, started
heading in the wrong direction, according to the Department of
Public Health.
Robin
Schoenthaler,
MD: BA.2 Is Covid Is Snapping At Our Heels. Will It Cripple Us
Again? (Medium, March 27, 2022)
Numbers of cases, deaths and hospitalizations are going down in
the US but skyrocketing in other parts of the world, including
places like the UK which has super high numbers. This is
worrisome because the UK is one of our “Prediction Countries” —
they tend to have patterns in Month One (late March) that we
usually follow pretty closely in Month Two (late April). In
addition, our wastewater situation is worrying — there’s a bunch
of places in the US that are showing an increase in Covid
particles in the wastewater, and that tends to be very
predictive. If you see rising numbers of particles in the poop
it’s pretty inevitable that a few weeks later you are going to
see a rise in cases.
Even though testing and reporting is getting lousy (fewer places
to test, more at-home tests), the fact that BA.2 is more
transmissible than BA.1 makes it probable that — as “good” as
things are now — we may have some kind of a surge of cases in
late April/May
That’s the bad news. The good news is that I doubt a BA.2 uptick
will affect our public lives. I don’t think schools will shut
down or hospitals will get so jammed they will have to cancel
surgeries or routine care again.
There is some good news about BA.2 as well...
[There's more, and it's worth a close read.]
New
Variants.
New Boosters. But So Far, No New COVID Spending From Congress.
(10-min. audio; NPR, March 29, 2022)
An omicron subvariant known as BA.2 could soon become the
dominant form of the coronavirus in the United States. It's not
more deadly, but it is more transmissible.
At the same time, the Biden administration has authorized a
second booster shot for people over 50 and other people
vulnerable to infection.
But against that backdrop, Congress has so far refused to
authorize more COVID spending measures, which would fund the
stockpiling of more vaccine doses and public health surveillance
for emerging variants.
Preparing
for
the next wave (New York Times, April 1, 2022)
Just when the Omicron wave seems to have died down in the U.S.,
experts are already warning about the next surge of cases — this
time driven by the highly infectious subvariant BA.2.
NEW: We’re
Running Out of Money to Track Covid Variants. An Expert
Explains Why That Would Be Very Bad. (Mother Jones, April
7, 2022)
“There are times when you ask yourself, ‘Have we learned nothing
here?'”
A
tale of many pandemics: In year three, a matter of status and
access. (Washington Post, April 16, 2022)
At this precarious moment in the pandemic — with cases
comparatively low but poised to rise again — the reality is that
people are experiencing many different pandemics depending on
their job, health, socioeconomic status, housing and access to
medical care.
Now
We’re Getting Rid of Masks on Planes—Just as Covid Is Spiking
Again. (Mother Jones, April 18, 2022)
Gear up for another round of mass pandemic chaos. Not even a
week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
extended its masks mandate for public travel—a move that
reflected rising Covid trends from the BA.2 subvariant—a federal
judge in Florida has struck down the order, sending airlines and
other public transportation hubs into confusion.
The CDC had previously extended the federal mask mandate to stay
in effect until May 3 in order to monitor how the omicron
subvariant BA.2 would transpire across the country.
(Coincidentally, the requirement had been set to expire today.)
The Northeast in particular has seen cases tick up
significantly, with New York and New Jersey seeing average daily
cases climb by an alarming 64 percent over the past week.
For
mRNA, Covid Vaccines Are Just the Beginning. (Wired, April
18, 2022)
With clinical vaccine trials for everything from HIV to Zika,
messenger RNA could transform medicine—or widen health care
inequalities.
Travel
Mask Mandate Struck Down: What It Means In Massachusetts.
(Patch, April 19, 2022)
Florida federal Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle - appointed to the
federal bench by now-former President Donald Trump in November
2020 after he lost the presidential election - said in the
59-page decision striking down the travel mask mandate that the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention both exceeded its
legal authority and failed to go through proper channels to put
the rule in place. The ruling means face coverings to protect
against COVID-19 are no longer required on planes, trains and,
in most cases, subways and buses.
The MBTA held out and kept the rules in place for part of
Tuesday, but is now expected to follow other agencies and drop
them later today. The CDC said late Monday that its order
requiring masks on public transportation "is no longer in
effect" and the agency will not enforce it. The CDC said it
"continues to recommend that people wear masks in indoor public
transportation settings at this time."
The suit was brought by the so-called Health
Freedom Defense Fund, which apparently supports the
freedom to continue the ravages of this Covid-19 pandemic by
fighting mandatory Covid masks and vaccines in public places.
[Worried about an invasion of America? Too late; it's already
occupied.]
Biden
administration to appeal ruling striking down transit mask
mandate. (Washington Post,
April 20, 2022)
“If the courts handcuff the CDC in this most classic exercise of
public health powers, it seems to me that CDC will not be able
to act nimbly and decisively when the next health crisis hits.
And it will hit,” said Lawrence O. Gostin, a Georgetown
University professor of global health law who advises the White
House and urged the administration to appeal. If the decision is
allowed to stand, Gostin said, the CDC “will always be looking
over its shoulder, always gun-shy about exercising its powers.”
But the appeal could tee up a battle at the Supreme Court, which
has already dealt several blows to the administration’s
coronavirus policies and could issue a new ruling that further
constrained the CDC’s attempts to fight future virus surges.Evidence
of Zoonotic Spread: Superbug C. difficile Can Jump Between
Pigs and Humans. (SciTechDaily, April 23, 2022)
C. difficile is a bacterium that infects the human gut and is
resistant to all current antibiotics except three. Some strains
possess genes that allow them to produce toxins that can cause
damaging inflammation in the gut, leading to life-threatening
diarrhea, mostly in the elderly and hospitalized patients who
have been treated with antibiotics.
C. difficile is regarded as one of the most serious antibiotic
resistance threats in the United States. It caused an estimated
223,900 infections and 12,800 deaths in 2017, at a healthcare
cost of more than $1 billion. A hypervirulent strain of C.
difficile (ribotype 078; RT078) that can cause more serious
disease and its main sequence type 11 (ST11), is associated with
a rising number of infections in the community in young and
healthy individuals. Farm animals have recently been identified
as RT078 reservoirs.
COVID-19
Third Dose Vaccine Protection Against Hospitalization Wanes
After 3 Months. (SciTechDaily, April 24, 2022)
A booster dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine provides strong
protection, roughly 80% to 90%, in the first few months against
hospital admissions and emergency department visits caused by
the delta and omicron variants of COVID-19. However, this
protection against omicron deteriorates over time – even after a
third vaccine dose.
[Get that next booster shot!]
When
the Next Covid Wave Breaks, the US Won’t Be Able to Spot It.
(Wired, April 27, 2022)
Lab programs are closing. Home testing has shrunk the pool of
publicly reported data. Will we still see the next surge before
it arrives?
More
than half of Americans infected
with the coronavirus. (New York Times, April 27, 2022)
According to new research from the C.D.C., 60 percent of
Americans — including 75 percent of children — had been infected
with the coronavirus by February. Omicron seems be responsible
for much of the toll. In December last year, as the highly
contagious variant began spreading, only half as many people had
antibodies indicating prior infection.
The astonishing milestone was certainly not reached by design
and came at an immense human and economic cost. But the data may
signal good news. A high level of population-wide immunity and
resistance may offer at least a partial bulwark against future
waves. The trend may also explain why the surge that is now
roaring through China and many European countries has been muted
in the U.S. A high percentage of previous infections may also
mean that there are now fewer cases of life-threatening illness
or death relative to infections.
MA
Town-By-Town COVID-19: Hospitalization Rate Up 85% Since Last
Month. (Patch, April 28, 2022)
The COVID-19 positive test rate for Massachusetts also rose
above 5 percent for the first time in months.
Coronavirus
Briefing: Lessons from a lesser variant (New York Times,
May 4, 2022)
Some variants are really good at spreading, and others are maybe
fine at spreading, but much better at evading antibodies and our
immune system defenses. And at least for the first year or two
years of the pandemic, transmissibility really won out.
That may already be changing. As vaccinations and multiple waves
of infection have changed the immune landscape, a highly
immune-evasive variant should now have more of an edge,
scientists said, which is probably part of the reason Omicron
has been so successful.
Looking back at previous variants is also providing insight into
what worked — and didn’t — in containing them.
Lesser variants are also revealing our blind spots. By analyzing
the genomic sequences of Mu samples collected from all over the
world, researchers have reconstructed the variant’s spread and
found that it circulated for months before it was detected.
It’s a reminder that comprehensive, real-time surveillance is
going to give us the best warning system for which variants pose
a threat. Even countries that have had laudable tracking
systems, like Britain, are starting to ease off and discontinue
some aspect of their programs. There’s a real concern that we’re
not doing enough.
NEW: Making
up 1 million deaths: Where Covid killed (NBC News, May 6,
2022)
From nursing homes to prisons, measuring the pandemic's U.S.
death toll.
Cognitive
Impairment From Severe COVID-19 Equivalent to 20 Years of
Aging – Losing 10 IQ Points.
(SciTechDaily, May 8, 2022)
Survivors scored particularly poorly on tasks such as verbal
analogical reasoning, a finding that supports the
commonly-reported problem of difficulty finding words. They also
showed slower processing speeds, which aligns with previous
observations post COVID-19 of decreased brain glucose
consumption within the frontoparietal network of the brain,
responsible for attention, complex problem-solving and working
memory, among other functions.
Scientists
Warn U.S. Health Officials Against “New Normal” Strategies for
COVID-19. (SciTechDaily, May 10, 2022)
The warning, published in a Journal of General Internal Medicine
viewpoint, contends that discussions of a new normal fail to
incorporate key lessons from the first two years of the COVID-19
pandemic, including the significant role of noncommunicable
chronic diseases in exacerbating COVID-19 and the
disproportionate burden of COVID-19 on under-served populations
and communities of color.
Noncommunicable chronic diseases are those that are not spread
from person to person and persist for at least one year, such as
heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. They are the leading cause
of death worldwide and represent a global health threat that
predates the COVID-19 pandemic — the noncommunicable disease
crisis kills more than 15 million Americans prematurely each
year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC).
Ticks
Are Spreading in the US—and Taking New Diseases With Them.
(Wired, May 10, 2022)
The vast majority of tick-borne disease goes unrecorded, meaning
life-threatening pathogens are traveling under the radar to new
locations.
Natick
seeks to fight COVID fatigue as numbers head in wrong
direction. (Natick Report, May 11, 2022)
Natick Public Health Director Michael Boudreau ticked off a list
of COVID-19 numbers at the Board of Health meeting on Wednesday
that confirmed what many of us know personally or anecdotally:
The virus is making yet another comeback.
NEW: Paxlovid
vs. Molnupiravir (Lagevrio) for COVID-19 (GoodRx, May 17,
2022)
Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir/ritonavir) and molnupiravir (Lagevrio)
are two oral antiviral treatments that are authorized to treat
mild to moderate COVID-19. These COVID-19 pills are only
recommended for people with a high risk of developing severe
illness. Both Paxlovid and molnupiravir are taken by mouth twice
daily for 5 days. They should both be started within 5 days of
first feeling symptoms.
In late April 2022, some reports emerged of COVID-19 symptoms
returning after a completed course of Paxlovid. More research is
needed to understand why this happens and what raises the risk
for it.
Study
Shines Light on Immune Responses for Long-Lasting Protection
From COVID-19. (SciTechDaily, May 30, 2022)
The team studied how immune responses behaved in previously
infected individuals versus those who hadn’t yet been infected.
The antibody response in previously-infected individuals was
relatively stable, and they were protected from re-infection
unless the new infection was the Omicron variant. The
researchers showed that previously infected individuals mounted
very rapid immune responses even after a single vaccine dose.
Vaccination boosts your protection and provides better immunity.
Blood
oxygen monitors miss concerning COVID-19 symptoms more often
in patients of color. (The Verge, May 31, 2022)
Blood oxygen monitors said that hospitalized Asian, Black, and
Hispanic COVID-19 patients had higher blood oxygen levels than
they actually did, according to a new study. Oxygen levels are
an important indicator of how serious someone’s case of COVID-19
is and what medications they’re eligible for — and that
overestimation meant that it took longer for Black and Hispanic
patients to get necessary treatment.
How
American Influencers Built a World Wide Web of Vaccine
Disinformation. (Mother Jones, June 2, 2022)
Last year, the anti-extremism group Center for Countering
Digital Hate found that 65 percent of vaccine disinformation on
Facebook and Twitter came from just 12 people, including the
activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the natural lifestyle
influencer Dr. Joseph Mercola. The target audience, the media
reports, is in bastions of American conservatism—in rural
communities, among evangelical Christians, and among Trump
voters.
Over the last year, global public health experts have documented
rising rates of vaccine hesitancy in other parts of the world,
from Africa to South Asia, from Eastern Europe to South America.
While some disinformation is locally sourced, these experts have
traced many of the myths to American anti-vaccine activists who
create an onslaught of social media content at virtually no
cost.
MA
Town-By-Town COVID-19: Case Rates Down In 84% Of Communities.
(Patch, June 2, 2022)
Every key coronavirus metric in Massachusetts headed in the
right direction for the first time since late March, state data
showed.
Behind
the high-tech COVID-19 tests you probably haven’t heard about.
(The Verge, June 3, 2022)
OTC molecular tests combine PCR accuracy with the convenience of
rapid antigen tests.Robin
Schoenthaler, MD: Should You Boost? Now? Then? When?
(Medium, June 14, 2022)
Do You Feel Lucky? Covid remains active but less horrifying than
many times in the past. With the one-two-three punch of
summertime, vaccines, treatments, and shorter isolation periods,
for some of us it’s becoming more of an inconvenience and less
of a life-altering drama.
This is not to minimize that some people still get really sick
and miserable, but fewer are ending up in the hospital.
This is also not to say the inconvenience of a Covid diagnosis
can’t be really rough — this week alone I’ve heard of people who
were unable to attend their own graduations, who had to cancel
trips, who couldn’t attend weddings, and who needed to drop out
of speaking engagements — all because of an ill-timed illness.
But overall in much of the Northeast and other parts of the
country things are a little better. We’re in better shape than
two years ago, a year ago, a month ago.
Why are things better? It’s all about the progress we’ve made in
Covid science. It’s because people who were once at high risk to
end up in the hospital are now:
a) vaccinated, which decreases the chance of serious disease.
b) boosted, which decreases the chance of serious disease.
c) taking Paxlovid or bebtelovimab when they do get infected,
which seems to decrease the chance of serious disease.
d) taking Evusheld ahead of getting ill if immunosuppressed,
which decreases the chance of serious disease.
When you get these agents, you are safer and suffer less.
However, even though people are moving back towards a normal
life with conferences and weddings and travel — there’s still a
bunch of Covid out there and you still don’t want to get Covid.
Why? Because it can be a misery, it’s an inconvenience, there’s
still too much we don’t know about long Covid and how Covid
infection can affect organs in the long-term. And every now and
then super-healthy people get really sick from this disease.
So, should you and your kids be getting boosted? The CDC says
yes, everybody over 5 should have the “primary series” (two
shots if mRNA) and then a booster (I like to call it a third
shot). The THIRD shot should come FIVE months after the primary
series. The CDC also says you should get a FOURTH shot (second
booster) if you are over 50 or immunocompromised.
Immunocompromised in this situation means people getting active
treatment for cancer, transplant patients, HIV, bad
immunodeficiency diseases, and actively taking high-dose
steroids. That fourth shot (second booster) comes at least FOUR
months after the last shot.
[There's plenty more, and it should be Must Reading.]
Evidence
of Covid-related Original Antigenic Sin Has Finally Surfaced.
(Medium, June 20, 2022)
Prior immunity — especially from natural infection — may
backfire instead when it comes to Omicron.
In the late 1900s, scientists discovered that antibodies
generated against a particular influenza virus strain were
deployed again even when the person got infected with a
different influenza virus strain.
Not only are such old antibodies ineffective, but they sometimes
hinder the formation of newer, more effective antibodies. In
essence, the immune system insists on doing what it has learned
initially, despite that the same trick may not work twice. This
phenomenon is called the original
antigenic sin or immune
imprinting.
A
Plane of Monkeys, a Pandemic, and a Botched Deal: Inside the
Science Crisis You’ve Never Heard Of (Mother Jones, June
23, 2022)
Experts say there’s a dire shortage of primates for biomedical
research—and it’s putting human lives at risk.
MA
Town-By-Town COVID: Positivity Rate At Highest Since Late
January. (Patch, July 7, 2022)
The COVID-19 hospitalization rate in Massachusetts also rose,
but deaths and weekly case counts were down, according to state
data.
The
worst virus variant just arrived. The pandemic is not over.
(Washington Post, July 7, 2022)
COVID-19 > Omicron > BA.5. Whether BA.5 will lead to more
severe disease isn’t clear yet. But knowing that the virus is
spreading should reinforce the need for the familiar mitigation
measures: high-quality face masks, better air filtration and
ventilation, and avoiding exposure in crowded indoor spaces.
As
the BA.5 variant spreads, the risk of coronavirus reinfection
grows. (Washington Post, July 10, 2022)
America has decided the pandemic is over. The coronavirus has
other ideas. The latest omicron offshoot, BA.5, has quickly
become dominant in the United States, and thanks to its
elusiveness when encountering the human immune system, is
driving a wave of cases across the country.
The size of that wave is unclear because most people are testing
at home or not testing at all. The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention in the past week has reported a little more than
100,000 new cases a day on average. But infectious-disease
experts know that wildly underestimates the true number, which
may be as many as a million.
The
BA.5 Wave Is What COVID Normal Looks Like. (The Atlantic,
July 14, 2022)
The endless churn of variants may not stop anytime soon, unless
we do something about it.The
COVID-19 Reinfection Loop and What It Means for Americans’
Health (US News, July 14, 2022)
The continued emergence of new coronavirus variants means that
protection from COVID-19 is fleeting and that herd immunity is
likely unattainable.
The
Pandemic Fueled a Superbug Surge. Can Medicine Recover?
(Wired, July 14, 2022)
As Covid swept ICUs, doctors prescribed antibiotics to ward off
secondary infections. Now bacteria have evolved resistance—but
hospitals are fighting back
Experts
Know Very Little About COVID Reinfection, Including Long-Term
Health Effects. (Self, July 20, 2022)
Here’s what to know about your risk as cases continue to rise.
NEW: How
Accurate Are At-Home COVID Tests With BA.5? Chicago's Top Doc
Explains. (2-min. video; NBC TV Chicago, July 22, 2022)
NEW: Natick's
COVID-19 Positivity Rate Rises To 8.95%. (Natick Patch,
July 22, 2022)
This week, Natick reported a two-week case count of 124. The
total positive test number reported was 130.
Monkeypox
is truly an emergency. The WHO was right to raise the highest
alarm. (The Guardian, July 25, 2022)
Supporting the people most at-risk of this awful disease is the
only way to reduce its impact and stop its spread.
Robin
Schoenthaler, MD: President Biden’s Covid (Medium, July
27, 2022)
Ten advances in Covid science that kept him okay.
NEW: Study
finds molnupiravir well-tolerated, and effective in vaccinated
and unvaccinated. (News Medical, July 27, 2022)
Molnupiravir has been shown to effectively reduce the risk of
hospitalization and death in treated patients. Furthermore, this
treatment has been associated with a higher severe acute
respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) negativity rate
following five, ten, and 14 days of treatment.
Nevertheless, in vivo, long-term safety studies of molnupiravir
have not been conducted. Additionally, the emergence of new
SARS-CoV-2 variants has caused a loss of efficacy for several
monoclonal antibodies; therefore, monitoring the efficacy of
directly-acting antivirals against new variants is needed.
A new study published on the preprint server medRxiv* reports
the phase II efficacy and safety of molnupiravir in both
unvaccinated and vaccinated individuals in the United Kingdom.
In
Race for Monkeypox Vaccines, Experts See Repeat of COVID.
(many
related items; NBC TV Chicago, July 30, 2022)
Public health officials warn that moves by rich countries to buy
large quantities of monkeypox vaccine could leave millions of
people in Africa unprotected against a more dangerous version of
the dise...
Moves by rich countries to buy large quantities of monkeypox
vaccine, while declining to share doses with Africa, could leave
millions of people unprotected against a more dangerous version
of the disease and risk continued spillovers of the virus into
humans. Critics fear a repeat of the catastrophic inequity
problems seen during the coronavirus pandemic.
Sewage
sludge contaminated with toxic-forever chemicals spread on
thousands of acres of Chicago-area farmland. (Chicago
Tribune, July 31, 2022)
Long-term exposure to tiny concentrations of certain PFAS can
trigger testicular and kidney cancer, birth defects, liver
damage, impaired fertility, immune system disorders, high
cholesterol and obesity, studies have found. Links to breast
cancer and other diseases are suspected.
Yet forever chemicals remain largely unregulated. In Illinois
and most other states, there is no requirement to test sludge
for PFAS before it is spread as fertilizer. Nor are there limits
on concentrations of the chemicals in sludge or soil.
Operators of most of the nation’s sewage treatment plants aren’t
even required to warn farmers about the risks. Everybody wants
to pretend it’s not happening.
Flood
maps show US vastly underestimates contamination risk at old
industrial sites. (The Conversation, August 1, 2022)
Climate science is clear: Floodwaters are a growing risk for
many American cities, threatening to displace not only people
and housing but also the land-based pollution left behind by
earlier industrial activities.
In 2019, researchers at the U.S. Government Accountability
Office investigated climate-related risks at the 1,571 most
polluted properties in the country, also known as Superfund
sites on the federal National Priorities List. They found an
alarming 60% were in locations at risk of climate-related
events, including wildfires and flooding.
As troubling as those numbers sound, our research shows that
that’s just the proverbial tip of the iceberg.
The Battle
for Kherson: It Could Change the Entire Conflict. (11-min.
video; TLDR News, August 6, 2022)
The military strategy used by Ukraine in the east is known as
defence in depth. Ukraine seems to have applied it impeccability.
It is a managed retreat that is very costly for attackers in both
troops and materials, but preserves the defenders strength. As the
attackers advance they are ambushed, but when they amass the
strength to counter-attack, the defenders have fallen back to the
next ambush point with few casualties. When the defenders launch
their counter attack, the attackers are exhausted, demoralised and
dispersed.
Mystery
man dubbed ‘The Gentleman’ found in North Sea may have spent
most of his life in Australia. (The Guardian, August 6,
2022)
Breakthrough in the decades-old cold case comes after scientists
conducted an isotope ratio analysis of the man’s bones.
"They
all knew!" Textile
company misled regulators about use of toxic PFAS. (The
Guardian, August 5, 2022)
Thousands more residents outside the original contamination zone
may be drinking tainted water.
[A sad French gift to southern New Hampshire.]
Twitter
confirms zero-day used to expose data of 5.4 million accounts.
(Bleeping Computer, August 5, 2022)
This vulnerability allowed anyone to submit an email address or
phone number, verify if it was associated with a Twitter account,
and retrieve the associated account ID. The threat actor then used
this ID to scrape the public information for the account. This
allowed the threat actor to create profiles of 5.4 million Twitter
users in December 2021, including a verified phone number or email
address, and scraped public information, such as follower counts,
screen name, login name, location, profile picture URL, and other
information.
See
Why Jeff Bezos’s Superyacht Was Towed Away. (Architectural
Digest, August 5, 2022)
The billionaire’s half-billion-dollar sailboat was pulled at
record speeds for 24 miles.
[See July 13th, below.]
The
ludicrous idea that Trump is losing his grip on the GOP.
(Vox, August 4, 2022)
Somehow, people are still underestimating Donald Trump.
If you read studies of the American conservative movement, Trump’s
continued strength should be no surprise. The political strength
of the movement never came from its policy ideas. Many of its
positions, like tax cuts for the rich and stringent abortion
restrictions, have ultimately proven to be extremely unpopular.
Instead, its strength has been rooted in grievance: the bitterness
of those who believe that modern America is changing too fast,
beyond recognition, turning “traditional” citizens into aliens in
their own country.
A charitable observer might call this sentiment nostalgia for a
bygone America. A more critical one might call it the venting of
reactionary white male rage against a more egalitarian country.
But whatever your assessment, it is this politics of cultural
grievance that animates the GOP base.
And nobody is better at channeling it than Donald Trump.
Jake Broe:
Russia Just Got Terrible News. (21-min. video; YouTube,
August 4, 2022)
This is Day 162 of Russia's 7 day special limited military
operation in Ukraine. The price of oil has fallen to $88 a barrel
and the amount of money Russia is bringing in to fight their war
is collapsing. If oil can go back under $60 a barrel, then the
Russia government and economy will face collapse if they do not
pull out of Ukraine.
[Very interesting analysis!]
This
startup wants to copy you into an embryo for organ harvesting.
(MIT Technology Review, August 4, 2022)
With plans to create realistic synthetic embryos, grown in jars,
Renewal Bio is on a journey to the horizon of science and ethics.
[Whee! Like a personal backup drive that looks like you?]
Coyotes
are here to stay in North American cities. Here’s how to
appreciate them from a distance. (The Conversation, August
3, 2022)
Coyotes have become practically ubiquitous across the lower 48
United States, and they’re increasingly turning up in cities. The
draws are abundant food and green space in urban areas. People
often fear for their own safety, or for their children or pets,
when they learn about coyotes in their neighborhoods. But peaceful
coexistence is possible – and these creatures actually bring some
benefits to cities.
Coyotes can thrive in urban environments because they are
incredibly adaptable. As omnivores, coyotes can change their diets
depending on the type of food that’s available. In rural areas
coyotes may feed on bird eggs, rabbits, deer and a wide range of
non-animal matter, like plants and fruits. In urban environments
they’ll supplement their natural diet with human-provided food
sources, such as outdoor pet feeders and garbage cans.
Alex
Jones’ Lawyers Accidentally Sent the Opposing Counsel a Copy of
His Entire Phone. (3-min.
and 8-min. videos;
Mother Jones, August 3, 2022)
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones just might have the most
incompetent lawyers on the planet. The red-faced Infowars founder
is currently on trial to determine how much his website owes Sandy
Hook parents for its defamatory claims that the 2012 school
shooting was a hoax. He had previously testified under oath that
he had not sent any text messages about Sandy Hook. But, according
to an attorney for the Sandy Hook parents, Jones’ own lawyers
accidentally sent him proof of the opposite. The video of Jones
learning of his lawyers’ mistake is absolutely...
[This evil man has done a lot of damage, but the Wheel Of Justice
has come about. Enjoy the videos and the article - but DO NOT click the article's first
video link; we've substituted a non-Twitter version.]
July
heat records shattered across the U.S. (Axios, August 3,
2022)
The record-breaking temperatures were concentrated in Texas,
Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, North and South Carolina and
Oregon.
The long duration heat in Texas, is noteworthy since it overlaps
with a widespread, severe drought. A total of 60% of the state is
in the most severe two categories of drought. This makes it easier
for the air to reach extremely hot temperatures, but also further
dries out soils in a feedback loop.
In an average year, extreme heat is the leading weather-related
killer in the U.S. Human-caused global warming from fossil fuel
burning and other sources makes heat waves more likely, severe,
frequent and longer-lasting. Extreme temperatures can affect power
grids by boosting energy demands, exacerbate already-dire drought
conditions and contribute to the frequency and intensity of
wildfires.
FEMA
warns emergency alert systems could be hacked to transmit fake
messages unless software is updated. (CNN, August 3, 2022)
Digital Alert Systems, Inc., the New York-based firm that makes
the emergency-alert software, said that Pyle first reported the
vulnerabilities to the firm in 2019, at which time the firm issued
updated software to address the issue. However, Pyle told CNN that
subsequent versions of the Digital Alert Systems software were
still susceptible to some of the security issues he discovered.
Robert
Reich: What you need to know about yesterday's primary elections
(Substack, August 3, 2022)
Friends, a mix of good and bad news in yesterday’s primaries.
Here’s what you need to know.
Thom
Hartmann: Republicans Have A Plan To Change The Constitution And
It Just May Work. (Medium, August 2, 2022)
If you think the Supreme Court overturning abortion rights in this
country was radical and shocking, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
There was a convention you should know about this past weekend in
Denver, funded by some of the wealthiest men and foundations in
America, that has received altogether too little publicity.
North
Korea-backed hackers have a clever way to read your Gmail.
(Ars Technica, August 3, 2022)
SHARPEXT has slurped up thousands of emails in the past year and
keeps getting better. In its current incarnation, the malware
works only on Windows, but Adair said there's no reason it
couldn't be broadened to infect browsers running on macOS or
Linux, too.
[One more reason to avoid Google Mail. We recommend Thunderbird.]
With
tensions rising in Taiwan, we look at the shared interests of
China, Russia and Iran. (New York Times, August 2, 2022)
Like Russia, both China and Iran view the U.S. as an adversary. If
the world is breaking into two competing blocs — democracy versus
autocracy, as President Biden has put it — Russia, China, and Iran
make up the core of the anti-U.S. bloc. And they recently seem to
be increasing their cooperation.
Their closer ties raise an alarming prospect: What if all three
countries decide to confront the U.S. simultaneously sometime soon
in an effort to overwhelm the American ability to respond?
Heather
Cox Richardson: Days Of Reckoning (Letters From An American,
August 2, 2022)
Tonight (August 1), President Joe Biden announced that a drone
strike managed by the Central Intelligence Agency at 9:48 Eastern
time on Saturday killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, 71, who
took control of al-Qaeda after the death of leader Osama bin
Laden. The precision strike hit Zawahiri as he stood on a balcony
in a prosperous section of Kabul, Afghanistan. There were no
civilian casualties.
[Putin, avoid balconies! And that's just the first item.]
Biden's
Covid relapse sparks talk of "Paxlovid rebounds" - what to know
about the pill, and if it could happen to you. (CNBC, August
2, 2022)
Roughly 5% of the tens of thousands of Paxlovid users have
experienced rebound cases so far. They appear to be very mild: A
June CDC study found that less than 1% of patients taking Paxlovid
were admitted to the hospital or emergency department for Covid in
the five to 15 days after they finished the treatment. Patients
also appear to recover from rebound cases without any additional
Covid treatment, the CDC says.
Homeless,
suicidal, down to last $1,000: Celsius investors beg bankruptcy
judge for help. (CNBC, August 2, 2022)
Some of the 1.7 million Celsius customers ensnared by the alleged
fraud are now directly pleading with the Southern District of New
York to help them get their money back. It is the latest sign that
bankruptcy court has become the de facto arbiter of crypto policy
in the U.S.
A
Right-Wing Think Tank Claimed to Be a Church. Now, Members of
Congress Want to Investigate. (ProPublica, August 2, 2022)
Forty lawmakers are calling on the IRS and the Treasury to
investigate after ProPublica reported that the Family Research
Council gained protections by claiming it is a church.
Fueled
by virtually unrestricted social media access, white nationalism
is on the rise and attracting violent young white men. (The
Conversation, August 2, 2022)
In 2020, the Department of Homeland Security described domestic
violent extremists as “presenting the most persistent and lethal
threat” to the people of the United States and the nation’s
government. In March 2021, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified
to Congress that the number of arrests of white supremacists and
other racially motivated extremists has almost tripled since he
took office in 2017. “Jan. 6 was not an isolated event,” Wray
testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. “The problem of
domestic terrorism has been metastasizing across the country for a
long time now, and it’s not going away anytime soon.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights group,
tracked 733 active hate groups across the United States in 2021.
The internet and social media have made the problem of white
supremacist hate far worse and more visible; it’s both more
accessible and, ultimately, more violent, as seen on Jan. 6 at the
U.S. Capitol and the shooting deaths of ten Black people at a
Buffalo grocery story, among other examples.
Why
religion without belief can still make perfect sense
(Psyche, August 1, 2022)
There is more to a religion than a cold set of doctrines.
Religions involve spiritual practices, traditions that bind a
community together across space and time, and rituals that mark
the seasons and the big moments of life: birth, coming of age,
marriage, death. This is not to deny that there are specific
metaphysical views associated with each religion, nor that there
is a place for assessing how plausible those views are. But it is
myopic to obsess about the ‘belief-y’ aspects of religion at the
expense of all the other aspects of the lived religious life.
Germany
is firing up old coal plants, sparking fears climate goals will
go up in smoke. (Washington Post, August 1, 2022)
It’s part of a pan-European dash to ditch Russian natural gas and
escape President Vladimir Putin’s energy chokehold. While the war
in Ukraine has simultaneously turbocharged the European Union’s
race to renewables, fossil fuels still provide the quickest fix.
France, Italy, Austria and the Netherlands have all announced
plans to reactivate old coal power plants. But nowhere are the
plans as extensive as in Germany, which is allowing 21 coal plants
to restart or work past planned closing dates for the next two
winters.
Corporate
America Strikes Back. (Axios, August 1, 2022)
Corporate America has launched a two-pronged, eleventh-hour
assault on Democrats' reconciliation package by targeting Sen.
Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), the one person that big business hopes
can stop — or modify — the $740 billion bill. If successful, the
barrage of paid media and personal phone calls will knock out the
main provision that terrifies the business community: a 15%
minimum book tax that will cost the biggest 150 U.S. companies
some $313 billion over 10 years.
Frustrated
by US Climate Inaction, These GenZ Activists Have Taken Matters
Into Their Own Hands. (Mother Jones, August 1, 2022)
“Like a public shaming”—a night with the Tyre Extinguishers.
Flood
maps show US vastly underestimates contamination risk at old
industrial sites. (The Conversation, August 1, 2022)
Climate science is clear: Floodwaters are a growing risk for many
American cities, threatening to displace not only people and
housing but also the land-based pollution left behind by earlier
industrial activities.
In 2019, researchers at the U.S. Government Accountability Office
investigated climate-related risks at the 1,571 most polluted
properties in the country, also known as Superfund sites on the
federal National Priorities List. They found an alarming 60% were
in locations at risk of climate-related events, including
wildfires and flooding.
As troubling as those numbers sound, our research shows that
that’s just the proverbial tip of the iceberg.
Sewage
sludge contaminated with toxic-forever chemicals spread on
thousands of acres of Chicago-area farmland. (Chicago
Tribune, July 31, 2022)
Long-term exposure to tiny concentrations of certain PFAS can
trigger testicular and kidney cancer, birth defects, liver damage,
impaired fertility, immune system disorders, high cholesterol and
obesity, studies have found. Links to breast cancer and other
diseases are suspected.
Yet forever chemicals remain largely unregulated. In Illinois and
most other states, there is no requirement to test sludge for PFAS
before it is spread as fertilizer. Nor are there limits on
concentrations of the chemicals in sludge or soil.
Operators of most of the nation’s sewage treatment plants aren’t
even required to warn farmers about the risks. Everybody wants to
pretend it’s not happening.
Blowhole
wave energy generator exceeds expectations in 12-month test.
(photos and 3-min. video; New Atlas, July 31, 2022)
Wave Swell Energy's remarkable UniWave 200 is a sea platform that
uses an artificial blowhole formation to create air pressure
changes that drive a turbine and feed energy back to shore. After
a year of powering King Island, Tasmania, the company reports
excellent results.
[This is one practical Green energy solution - of many. But they
all begin with sane governments AND population control.]
Democratic
Lawmakers Blast Their Own Party for Boosting Election Deniers in
GOP Primaries. (Mother Jones, July 31, 2022)
“The DCCC is not God.”
China’s
most powerful rocket falls back to Earth, lands in criticism.
(Washington Post, July 31, 2022)
Experts were concerned that the huge size of the 176-foot rocket
and the risky design of its launch process would mean its debris
might not burn up as it reentered the Earth’s atmosphere. The
rocket shed its empty 23-ton first stage in orbit, looping the
planet over several days as it approached landing in a
difficult-to-predict flight path. The United States said China was
taking on a significant risk by allowing the rocket to fall
uncontrolled to Earth without advising on its potential path.
What to
Know About IP Ratings Before Getting Your Phone Wet (Wired,
July 31, 2022)
Just how resistant is your smartphone to dust and water?
In
Race for Monkeypox Vaccines, Experts See Repeat of COVID. (many related
items; NBC TV Chicago, July 30, 2022)
Public health officials warn that moves by rich countries to buy
large quantities of monkeypox vaccine could leave millions of
people in Africa unprotected against a more dangerous version of
the dise...
Moves by rich countries to buy large quantities of monkeypox
vaccine, while declining to share doses with Africa, could leave
millions of people unprotected against a more dangerous version of
the disease and risk continued spillovers of the virus into
humans. Critics fear a repeat of the catastrophic inequity
problems seen during the coronavirus pandemic.
Heather
Cox Richardson: Republicans (And Russia) Against America
(Letters From An American, July 30, 2022)
[This one's a keeper. Share it when needed!]
China's
Catastrophic Oil & Gas Problem (39-min. video; YouTube,
July 30, 2022)
Animation:
The Rise and Fall of Popular Web Browsers Since 1994 (Visual
Capitalist, July 28, 2022)
[Mozilla Firefox is better than ever, and does not track you.]
NEW: Study
finds molnupiravir well-tolerated, and effective in vaccinated
and unvaccinated. (News Medical, July 27, 2022)
Molnupiravir has been shown to effectively reduce the risk of
hospitalization and death in treated patients. Furthermore, this
treatment has been associated with a higher severe acute
respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) negativity rate
following five, ten, and 14 days of treatment.
Nevertheless, in vivo, long-term safety studies of molnupiravir
have not been conducted. Additionally, the emergence of new
SARS-CoV-2 variants has caused a loss of efficacy for several
monoclonal antibodies; therefore, monitoring the efficacy of
directly-acting antivirals against new variants is needed.
A new study published on the preprint server medRxiv* reports the
phase II efficacy and safety of molnupiravir in both unvaccinated
and vaccinated individuals in the United Kingdom.
Robin
Schoenthaler, MD: President Biden’s Covid (Medium, July 27,
2022)
Ten advances in Covid science that kept him okay.
Robert
Reich: Why today's decision by the Fed is dead wrong
(Substack, July 27, 2022)
Today, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by three-quarters
of a percentage point in order to battle inflation, even as the
economy has begun to slow. This follows a quarter-point move in
March, another half a point in May, and three-quarters of a point
in June. The Fed also signaled in its post-meeting statement that
more rate increases are to come, probably in September, saying
that it “anticipates that ongoing increases in the target range
will be appropriate.”
This is bonkers, friends. The Fed is trying to douse a fire in the
living room when the forest is ablaze. Inflation has broken out
all over the world. It’s happened because of pent-up demand from
more than two years of pandemic. And limited supplies of
everything from computer chips to wheat, due to difficulties in
getting the world economy up and running, along with Putin’s war
in Ukraine driving up world energy and food prices, and China’s
lockdowns against COVID.
Big corporations, meanwhile, are raising prices because they can.
Consumers have little choice due to record levels of corporate
concentration, and the rising costs of supplies has given
corporations perfect cover.
The Fed’s fire hose is hitting none of this.
Who
Will Own the Art of the Future? (Wired, July 27, 2022)
OpenAI has announced that it's granting Dall-E users the right to
commercialize their art. For now.
Undersea
Internet Cables Can Detect Earthquakes—and May Soon Warn of
Tsunamis. (New Yorker, July 26, 2022)
A trick of the light is helping scientists turn optical fibres
into potential disaster detectors. Marra and his team had set out
to detect undersea earthquakes, which could hint at where and when
a tsunami might form. They ultimately developed a method that
could help scientists track actual tsunamis in real time.
Marra said that it will take time to analyze the data and separate
out the contributions of waves, earthquakes, and other
environmental factors. But he envisions a future in which cables
could warn coastal communities about the exact location and height
of approaching waves. "We’ve got a chance," he told me. "I’m not
sure we had that before."
NEW: Ring,
Google and the Police: What to Know About Emergency Requests for
Video Footage (CNet, July 26, 2022)
The law lets Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest share user footage
with police during emergencies - without consent and without
warrants. We also asked Ring if it notified customers after the
company had granted law enforcement access to their footage
without their consent. "We have nothing to share," the
spokesperson responded.
[Big Brother is watching you! But who is watching Big Brother?]
Roboticists
discover alternative physics. (Science X/Phys.org, July 26,
2022)
Energy, mass, velocity. These three variables make up Einstein's
iconic equation E=MC2. But how did Einstein know about
these concepts in the first place? A precursor step to
understanding physics is identifying relevant variables. Without
the concept of energy, mass, and velocity, not even Einstein could
discover relativity. But can such variables be discovered
automatically? Doing so could greatly accelerate scientific
discovery.
This is the question that researchers at Columbia Engineering
posed to a new AI program. The program was designed to observe
physical phenomena through a video camera, then try to search for
the minimal set of fundamental variables that fully describe the
observed dynamics.
"I always wondered, if we ever met an intelligent alien race,
would they have discovered the same physics laws as we have, or
might they describe the universe in a different way?" said Lipson.
"Perhaps some phenomena seem enigmatically complex because we are
trying to understand them using the wrong set of variables. In the
experiments, the number of variables was the same each time the AI
restarted, but the specific variables were different each time. So
yes, there are alternative ways to describe the universe and it is
quite possible that our choices aren't perfect."
The researchers believe that this sort of AI can help scientists
uncover complex phenomena for which theoretical understanding is
not keeping pace with the deluge of data—areas ranging from
biology to cosmology.
Your
Final Resting Place Could Be a Coffin Made of Mushrooms.
(Wired, July 26, 2022)
Loop wants to rebuild the world with ecological structures made of
fungal mycelium. Its proof of concept? Living coffins.
[For planet Earth?
Radical! And
well-explained.]
NEW: Monkeypox
is a global health emergency—what you need to know about
symptoms, vaccines and more. (CNBC, July 26, 2022)
On Saturday, the World Health Organization sounded its highest
level of alarm for the monkeypox virus, labeling it a public
health emergency of international concern. Seventy-five countries
and territories have reported more than 16,000 monkeypox cases so
far, which is roughly five times the number reported to the WHO in
June. The Biden administration is weighing a similar declaration
for the U.S., with more than 2,500 monkeypox cases reported across
44 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.
Still, there’s plenty of confusion about the virus, especially
with its rapid spread: Who’s at risk? How worried should you be?
What can you do to protect yourself, especially with many people
still reeling from the Covid-19 pandemic? Should you get a
vaccine? Here’s what you need to know.
Study
identifies way to specifically target and block
disease-associated white blood cells. (Science X/Phys.org,
July 26, 2022)
Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that helps fight
illness and disease by traveling to the body's infected site to
seek and destroy harmful pathogens. But left unrestricted,
neutrophils can also prolong inflammation and contribute to the
development of conditions like vascular thrombosis, cancer and
diabetic retinopathy.
To block the defensive cell's harmful effects, a research team led
by Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) has designed a
nanoparticle platform that can exclusively target
disease-associated activated neutrophils—while leaving inactive
circulating neutrophils untouched.
Why
I Think The Midwest Is Going To Have Tons Of Abandoned Cities
Soon (Medium, July 26, 2022)
I can’t believe most people haven’t figured this out. Oh, and
“cities” is a loose term here.
If
you have a miscarriage in Republican America, your health is now
at risk. (The Guardian, July 25, 2022)
The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe has created a vast
new public health crisis, as abortion bans complicate
once-standard care for pregnant women.
Interstate
Travel Post-Roe Isn’t as Secure as You May Think. (Wired,
July 25, 2022)
Despite the DOJ vowing to protect people's ability to travel out
of state for abortion care, legal experts warn not to take that
freedom for granted.
Sunset
of the Social Network (Axios, July 25, 2022)
Mark last week as the end of the social networking era, which
began with the rise of Friendster in 2003, shaped two decades of
internet growth, and now closes with Facebook's roll-out of a
sweeping TikTok-like redesign.
The big picture: Under the social network model, which piggybacked
on the rise of smartphones to mold billions of users' digital
experiences, keeping up with your friends' posts served as the hub
for everything you might aim to do online.
Now Facebook wants to shape your online life around the
algorithmically-sorted preferences of millions of strangers around
the globe.
- That's how TikTok sorts the videos it shows users, and that's
largely how Facebook will now organize its home screen.
- The dominant player in social media is transforming itself into
a kind of digital mass media, in which the reactions of hordes of
anonymous users, processed by machine learning, drive the
selection of your content.
Monkeypox
is truly an emergency. The WHO was right to raise the highest
alarm. (The Guardian, July 25, 2022)
Supporting the people most at-risk of this awful disease is the
only way to reduce its impact and stop its spread.
Putin’s
attack on the grain deal was despicable. It also shows he’s
desperate. (The Guardian, July 25, 2022)
For the deal to work and global food supplies to get moving again,
Ukraine’s ports and ships need NATO protection.
Russia-Ukraine
war: Moscow defends Odesa strikes and says no barriers to grain
export; Russian ammo depots hit, Kyiv says. (The Guardian,
July 25, 2022)
Russia’s top diplomat has said Moscow’s overarching goal is to
topple the government of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy
as Russian air strikes continue to pummel cities across Ukraine.
Speaking to envoys at an Arab League summit in Cairo on Sunday,
Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow is determined
to help Ukrainians "liberate themselves from the burden of this
absolutely unacceptable regime".
Lavrov’s remarks contrasted sharply with the Kremlin’s line early
in the war, when Russian officials repeatedly emphasized that they
were not seeking to overthrow Zelenskiy’s government.
Ukrainian forces have destroyed 50 Russian ammunition depots using
US-supplied Himars rocket systems in the war with Russia,
Ukrainian defense minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Monday. "This
cuts their [Russian] logistical chains and takes away their
ability to conduct active fighting and cover our armed forces with
heavy shelling," he said in televised comments.
Ukrainian military officials also claimed a "turning point" in the
battle to retake the southern region of Kherson, saying they will
use western weapons to liberate by September the first major city
captured by Russian forces. Ukraine will continue doing all it can
to inflict as much damage on Russian forces as possible and will
not be cowed, Zelenskiy has vowed. "Even the occupiers admit we
will win," he said in his nightly video address on Sunday. "We do
everything to inflict the highest possible damage on the enemy …
we will celebrate against all odds. Because Ukrainians won’t be
cowed."
Chess
robot grabs and breaks finger of seven-year-old opponent. (1-min.
video; The Guardian, July 24, 2022)
An official said that the Moscow incident occurred because
Christopher, one of the 30 best chess players in the Russian
capital in the under-nines category, "violated" safety rules by
taking his turn too quickly. The machine, which can play multiple
matches at a time and had reportedly already played three on the
day it encountered Christopher, was "unique", he said. "It has
performed at many opens. Apparently, children need to be warned.
It happens." Another official said the incident was "a
coincidence" and the robot was "absolutely safe."
[Like Putin, this Russian AI chess robot has a temper and won't
give up. We can picture it saying, "Sit down and do your best. Do
not worry, nothing can go wrong, ... go wrong, ... go wrong."]The
Desperate Lives Inside Ukraine’s "Dead Cities". (New Yorker,
July 23, 2022)
Since Russia shifted its vicious invasion to the east, ordinary
people trapped on the front lines have faced missile storms and
starvation—and have no source of help except one another.
The
Controversial Plan to Unleash the Mississippi River (Wired,
July 23, 2022)
A long history of constraining the river through levees has led to
massive land loss in its delta. Can people engineer a way out?
[Yet another topic for that good question.]
7
quick tips for taking better photos with your smartphone
(Credo, July 22, 2022)
[Like it says.]
String
theory: NASA Mars rover discovers mystery object. (photo;
Phys.org; July 22, 2022)
Is it tumbleweed? A piece of fishing line? Spaghetti? A tangled
object discovered by NASA's Mars Perseverance rover has intrigued
space watchers, leaving some musing tongue-in-cheek about the
quality of Italian dining on the Red Planet.
But the most plausible explanation is more prosaic: it's likely
remnants of a component used to lower the robotic explorer to the
Martian surface in February 2021.
The
Unsolved Mystery Attack on Internet Cables in Paris (Wired,
July 22, 2022)
As new details about the scope of the April 27th sabotage emerge,
the perpetrators—and the reason for their vandalism—remain
unknown.
Dear
Mitch McConnell, No. (Secular Coalition, July 22, 2022)
This week, we wrote a letter to Senator Mitch McConnell. He had
seen fit, on the Senate floor, to claim to know what nonreligious
Americans feel about the current slate of Supreme Court justices
and their disturbingly harmful decisions in many cases that favor
faith over secularism. Cases like Carson v. Makin, Kennedy v.
Bremerton, and Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization are
now hammers smashing against the wall between government and
religion that is meant to exist thanks to the First Amendment of
the Bill of Rights.
There are times when it is nice just to be recognized for
existing, but this is not one of those times. Together with our 20
member organizations, we let the senator from Kentucky know that
we disagree with his assertion of our beliefs. You can read our
letter here.
["We disagree with his assertion of our beliefs." What a nice
description of too much recent Republican ignoring of public
opinion and of the
United States Constitution.]
A
Lifetime’s Consumption of Fossil Fuels, Visualized (Visual
Capitalist, July 22, 2022)
When the global economy reopened post-pandemic, energy demand and
consumption rebounded past 2019 levels with fossil fuels largely
leading the way. While global primary energy demand grew 5.8% in
2021, coal consumption rose by 6% reaching highs not seen since
2014. In 2021, renewables and hydroelectricity made up nearly 14%
of the world’s primary energy use, with fossil fuels (oil, natural
gas, and coal) accounting for 82% (down from 83% in 2020), and
nuclear energy accounting for the remaining 4%.
USPS
to Buy a Ton of Electric Delivery Trucks. (Mother Jones,
July 22, 2022)
Beep beep. Your government mail is here in an electric truck less
likely to cause the destruction of the planet.
In February, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced his plan to
buy a badly-needed new United States Postal Service delivery
fleet. There was just one problem: Ninety percent of the trucks
would be gas-powered, with fuel efficiency ratings less than half
a mile per gallon better than those of the existing fleet.
Environmental groups sued. Lawmakers tried to step in. And then,
earlier this week, the USPS announced a breakthrough: The agency
said that 40 percent of its new fleet would be electric. That’s a
smaller proportion of electric mail trucks than environmentalists
wanted—a House bill called for 75 percent—but it’s more than
double what anyone expected under DeJoy’s plan.
The announcement is a big step toward fulfilling President Biden’s
goal of phasing out federal agencies’ use of gas-powered trucks.
But proponents of an electric fleet argue that 40 percent
emissions free vehicles is not enough.
“Investing in an outdated technology never made sense, and I am
glad the Postmaster General is belatedly coming to that
commonsense realization,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who
introduced the House bill calling for an electric fleet, said in a
statement. “We still have more work to do, and Congress will
continue to help push the USPS to a modern, green fleet.”
The
bigger the temperature change, the larger the extinction event.
(Phys.org, July 22, 2022)
Abrupt climate change, accompanied by environmental destruction
from large volcanic eruptions and meteorites, has caused major
mass extinctions throughout the Phanerozoic Eon—covering 539
million years to the present. Marine invertebrates and terrestrial
tetrapods' extinction rates corresponded to deviations in global
and habitat surface temperatures, regardless of whether it was
cooling or warming. Loss of species during the "big five" major
extinctions correlated with a > 7°C global cooling and a >
7-9°C global warming for marine animals, and a > 7°C global
cooling and a > ~7°C global warming for terrestrial tetrapods.
NEW: How
Accurate Are At-Home COVID Tests With BA.5? Chicago's Top Doc
Explains. (2-min. video; NBC TV Chicago, July 22, 2022)
NEW: Natick's
COVID-19 Positivity Rate Rises To 8.95%. (Natick Patch, July
22, 2022)
This week, Natick reported a two-week case count of 124. The total
positive test number reported was 130.
Robert
Reich: A word of appreciation to the members and staff of the
Select Committee on January 6 (Substack, July 22, 2022)
So much has gone so wrong with so many aspects of our government
and other institutions we rely on that I think it’s important to
recognize and salute this sort of excellence. And courage. America
owes a deep debt of gratitude to the members of Congress and staff
who have given us the most powerful and memorable depiction of the
near-death of American democracy ever presented.
Now it’s up to the rest of us – including Merrick Garland and the
Justice Department – to display the same degree of excellence and
courage, and ensure that American democracy endures.
The
Jan. 6 Committee Confirmed the Worst Truth About Trump. Now What
Will We Do With It? (Mother Jones, July 22, 2022)
Ultimately, its investigation is not a battle over facts but over
reality. We all saw what didn’t happen. In full public view, Trump
did not abide by his oath of office and failed to defend the
Constitution and the US government. No subpoena nor any testimony
is necessary to prove this fundamental truth.
Yet, the January 6 committee on Thursday night disclosed new
details that rendered the picture of Trump’s worst day as
president even worse. It revealed that from the time he returned
to the White House after spreading his Big Lie at a rally—and
being prevented by the Secret Service from joining the armed mob
heading to the Capitol—he ensconced himself in his West Wing
dining room for hours. He rejected numerous pleas from aides,
advisers, Republican members of Congress, and family members
(Ivanka and Donald Jr.) to intervene and call off the
insurrectionists rampaging in the Capitol. Instead, he phoned
Republican senators, as part of his scheme to forestall
certification of the electoral count. And he spoke at least twice
with Rudy Giuliani, his consigliere.
House
GOP Tries to Mock Jan. 6 Hearing and Just Clowns on Itself
Instead. (Vanity Fair, July 22, 2022)
The House Republican Conference deleted a tweet trying to
disparage ex-Trump aide Sarah Matthews. Matthews works for House
Republicans. The House GOP’s Twitter account, a generally unhinged
corner of the platform, is run by the office of Rep. Elise
Stefanik, the No. 3 House Republican.
That wasn't its only gaffe of the night. Less than ten minutes
after attacking Matthews, the House GOP declared the proceeding
“all heresy,” prompting Twitter users to wonder whether this was
“a hell of a typo,” or if the House Republicans indeed intended to
condemn the hearing as at odds with religious doctrine. The
official House Republican Twitter account confirmed as much within
40 minutes, by which time it had deleted the “heresy” tweet and
posted a new one reading, “All hearsay.”
The series of unfortunate events prompted Kentucky state Senator
Whitney Westerfield to offer his fellow Republicans some advice:
"Maybe those with access to the @HouseGOP should just stop
tweeting for a while."
Fearing
for Their Lives, Pence Security Team Called Family Members to
Say Goodbye. (two 1-min. videos; Mother Jones, July 21,
2022)
Disturbing new details from the latest January 6 hearing.
Robert
Reich: The key to tonight's Jan. 6th Committee hearing
(Substack, July 21, 2022)
The key to tonight’s hearing is found in criminal law — especially
in three elements of the most serious criminal violations:
knowledge, intent, and malice. The committee has already confirmed
that Trump knew he lost the election. They have also confirmed
that he intended to stop the transition of power to Biden.
Tonight, the committee provided evidence of Trump’s malice — his
deliberate intent to stop or delay the electoral count with a
violent attack on the Capitol that endangered the lives of many
people, in order to remain in power.
Day 8 of the public Jan. 6th
Select Committee hearing (8:00-10:47PM; YouTube,
July 21, 2022)
The
2022 US Midterm Elections’ Top Security Issue: Death Threats
(Wired, July 21, 2022)
While cybersecurity and foreign meddling remain priorities,
domestic threats against election workers have risen to the top of
the list. In the lead-up to the 2018 midterm elections in the
United States, law enforcement, intelligence, and election
officials were on high alert for digital attacks and influence
operations after Russia demonstrated the reality of these threats
by targeting the presidential elections in 2016. Six years later,
the threat of hacking and malign foreign influence remain, but
2022 is a different time and a new top-line risk has emerged:
physical safety threats to election officials, their families, and
their workplaces.
Cyber
criminals attack Ukrainian radio network, broadcast fake message
about Zelensky's health. (CyberScoop, July 21, 2022)
“Cyber criminals have spread the news suggesting that the
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy is allegedly in critical
condition under intensive care and the Chairperson of the
Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Stefanchuk acts in his stead,” a
spokesperson for Ukraine's State Service of Special Communications
and Information Protection told reporters.
TAVR Media, the largest radio group in Ukraine, wrote on its
Facebook page that the information about Zelensky “does not
correspond to reality.” Zelensky posted a video to his Instagram
page Thursday afternoon Ukrainian time saying he has “never felt
as strong as I am now” and blames Russia for the attack.
“The Rashists hacked the ‘Melodia FM’ radio and began to spread
lies,” the title of another video read. “Rashists” is a
combination of the words “Russian” and “fascists.”
Ukraine has hacked Russian radio and TV stations, but with truth
(and humor). On May 9, Russian Victory Day, hackers posted a
message to some Russian smart TVs that said, “The blood of
thousands of Ukrainians and hundreds of murdered children is on
your hands. TV and the authorities are lying. No to war.”And on
June 9, hackers took over the internet stream for Russian radio
station Kommersant FM to play the Ukrainian national anthem and
another song, “We Don’t Need War” by the Russian rock band Nogu
Svelo.
[Hmm, Rashists? Then
their murderous leader must be Rash
Putin - pronounced "Rash PEWtin", as he's a BIG, STINKY
rash, in the global sense, and he acts rashly!]
FCC
chair tries to find out how carriers use phone geolocation data.
(Ars Technica, July 21, 2022)
Inquiry launched as Congress debates bill that could gut FCC's
privacy authority. "Mobile Internet service providers are uniquely
situated to capture a trove of data about their own subscribers,
including the subscriber's actual identity and personal
characteristics, geolocation data, app usage, and web browsing
data and habits," the letters say. Under US communications law,
carriers are prohibited from using or sharing private information
except under specific circumstances. Rosenworcel told carriers to
answer the questions by August 3.
The FCC letters pointed out that in February 2020, it proposed
fines totaling $208 million after AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and
Verizon were caught "selling access to their customers' location
information without taking reasonable measures to protect against
unauthorized access to that information." While that practice is
believed to have been stopped, this week's FCC letters said
there's still reason to worry about the data collected by
carriers.
FCC
Orders Blocking of Auto Warranty Robocall Scam Campaign.
(FCC, July 21, 2022)
The Federal Communications Commission has ordered phone companies
to stop carrying traffic related to robocalls about scam auto
warranties. US voice service providers must now “take all
necessary steps to avoid carrying this robocall traffic,” or
provide a report outlining how they’re mitigating the traffic, the
FCC’s Robocall Response Team said in a statement on Thursday. The
calls are coming from Roy Cox, Jr., Aaron Michael Jones and
related companies and associates.
“Consumers are out of patience and I’m right there with them,” FCC
Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in the statement.
Dell’s
XPS 13 Plus Developer Edition gets Ubuntu 22.04 LTS certified. (Ars Technica,
July 21, 2022)
Dell is extending its love for Linux to the Dell XPS 13 Plus. The
Developer Edition of the laptop has been Ubuntu 22.04 LTS-certified, Canonical announced
today. That means the laptop will be sold starting in August with
the latest version of Ubuntu,
and owners of the XPS 13 Plus Developer Edition can download Ubuntu 22.04 LTS today (even
if they bought it with Windows
11) for guaranteed performance.
The XPS 13 Plus Developer Edition is the first Ubuntu 22.04 LTS-certified
laptop, joining only some Raspberry Pi devices in certification.
However, Dell has been certifying some of its XPS laptops, as well
as other machines, for Ubuntu
for generations. HP and Lenovo also have Ubuntu-certified systems.
Depression
is likely not caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain.
(The Hill, July 21, 2022)
Many people take antidepressants because they have been led to
believe their depression has a biochemical cause. A recent review
study is pushing back against long-held views in medicine that
depression is caused by a serotonin imbalance in the brain.
Food
expiration dates don’t have much science behind them. (The
Conversation, July 21, 2022)
A more science-based product-dating system could make it easier
for people to differentiate foods they can safely eat from those
that could be hazardous.
Also, the USDA Economic Research Center reports that nearly 31% of
all available food is never consumed. Historically high food
prices make the problem of waste seem all the more alarming. The
current food-labeling system may be to blame for much of the
waste. The FDA reports consumer confusion around product-dating
labels is likely responsible for around 20% of the food wasted in
the home, costing an estimated US$161-billion per year.
A food-safety researcher explains another way to know what’s too
old to eat.
[Now read this!]
NEW: You
Can Now Drive Your Tesla to Mount Everest. (4-min. video;
Outside, July 21, 2022)
And a detailed analysis of what that means for American EV drivers
- and U.S. climate initiatives.
Nuclear
Power Plants Are Struggling to Stay Cool. (Wired, July 21,
2022)
Climate change is reducing output and raising safety concerns at
nuclear facilities from France to the US. But experts say adapting
is possible—and necessary.
5
Things to Know About Europe’s Scorching Heatwave (Visual
Capitalist, July 20, 2022)
For the last few months, Europe’s smoldering heatwave has been
wreaking havoc across the region, causing destructive wildfires,
severe droughts, and thousands of deaths. The EU’s record-breaking
temperatures are making headlines around the world, as experts
worry these extreme heatwaves could be the region’s new normal.
Given the volume of coverage on the topic, we sifted through
dozens of articles and Twitter threads (so you don’t have to) and
complied a list of the five major things to know about Europe’s
smothering heatwave.
Experts
Know Very Little About COVID Reinfection, Including Long-Term
Health Effects. (Self, July 20, 2022)
Here’s what to know about your risk as cases continue to rise.
Is
the Secret Service’s Claim About Erased Text Messages Plausible?
(Zero Day, July 20, 2022)
The Secret Service says data erased from the phones of some of its
personnel — that may shed light on the agency's handling of the
Jan. 6 insurrection — can’t be recovered. Is it telling the truth?
[That's a secret.]
Republican
Senators Insist There’s No Need to Protect Same-Sex Marriage
Despite Literal Supreme Court Threat. (Vanity Fair, July 20,
2022)
According to Marco Rubio, a bill to enshrine same-sex marriage
protection into law is a “stupid waste of time.”
[That's a better description of Marco Rubio. And, come to think of
it, ...]
Russia
fines Google $370M for refusing to bend to Putin’s war
propaganda. (Ars Technica, July 20, 2022)
YouTube's policy prevents the removal of videos documenting the
Ukraine war.
[Yes, in October 2006, 18 months after posting its first video and
10 months after its official launch, YouTube was bought by Google
for $1.65-billion.]
Alternative
to Silicon: Why Perovskites Could Take Solar Cells to New
Heights (SciTechDaily, July 20, 2022)
Perovskites have great potential for creating solar panels that
could be easily deposited onto most surfaces, including flexible
and textured ones. These materials would also be cheap to produce,
lightweight, and as efficient as today’s leading photovoltaic
materials, which are mainly silicon. Given their enormous
potential, they’re the subject of increasing research and
investment. However, companies looking to harness their potential
have to address some significant obstacles before perovskite-based
solar cells can be commercially competitive.
New
Technology Gives AI Human-Like Eyes. (SciTechDaily, July 19,
2022)
Researchers at the University of Central Florida (UCF) have built
a device for artificial intelligence that replicates the retina of
the eye - and then some. The research might result in cutting-edge
AI that can identify what it sees right away, such as automated
descriptions of photos captured with a camera or a phone. The
technology could also be used in robots and self-driving vehicles.
The technology could become available for use in the next five to
ten years.
GM
Moving To Its Own Microchips By 2025. (GM Authority, July
19, 2022)
The ongoing global microchip shortage has affected production and
product availability for every major automaker, including GM. Now,
however, GM says it will have its own family of microchips locked
in by 2025, a move that is expected to offset future chip-related
production delays. GM’s new standardization model will streamline
the critical components, eliminating the need for dozens of
different chips per vehicle and allowing GM to buy in bulk to
ensure that supplies are not interrupted. For now, however, chip
shortages will likely continue into next year, possibly
exacerbated by further COVID-19 outbreaks.
Breath Lets You Run Ubuntu Linux on Modern
Intel Chromebooks. (OMG!Ubuntu!, July 19, 2022)
Breath is a bit
different to other “run Linux
on a Chromebook” efforts. In some ways it’s a “hack”, but one
that’s firmly within the technical boundaries of how Google makes
ChromeOS run. In short,
it lets you run a full Linux
distro on a modern (post-2018) Intel Chromebook without needing to
flash custom firmware, replace the boot loader, or even wipe ChromeOS. Better yet: it’s
the only current solution that delivers a Linux experience that
supports all drivers (touchscreen, stylus, touchpad, audio, etc)
out of the box.
Europe
is burning like it’s 2052. (Vox, July 19, 2022)
Yesterday, the UK broke its national record for the highest
temperature ever recorded: 39.1 degrees Celsius, or 102.4 degrees
Fahrenheit. Forecasters warn the numbers could climb higher. The
heat in the UK has disrupted trains and flights. Hospitals are
bracing for an influx of heat-related casualties, and Covid-19
cases are rising as well.
Across the channel, France broke more than 100 all-time heat
records across the country in the past week. But just as energy
demand is spiking with people desperate to cool off, the high
temperatures have forced France to cut down its nuclear power
output since the rivers used to cool the power plants have become
too hot.
Spanish authorities estimate more than 500 people nationwide have
already died from the heat through the weekend. High temperatures
are fueling a spike in ozone pollution.
The heat and dry weather have also created ideal conditions for
wildfires, and blazes have already ignited in France, Spain, and
Portugal, creating harrowing scenes of flames encroaching on
homes, roads, and trains while forcing thousands to evacuate.
Much of Europe is already dealing with a spike in energy prices
after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led countries to reduce their
use of Russian oil and gas.
Europe may face even more extreme heat in the future because of
changes in the jet streams, the narrow, fast-moving bands of air
in the upper atmosphere. The jet streams are shifting in ways that
amplify heat over the European continent.
So the combination of human factors, changes in regional weather
patterns, and warming around the world is converging to worsen the
toll of extreme heat in Europe. The extraordinary heat wave
in Europe is showing what’s possible already, and what lies ahead
under climate change.
Why
the Arctic Is Warming 4 Times as Fast as the Rest of Earth.
(Wired, July 18, 2022)
The loss of sea ice is exposing darker waters, which absorb more
of the sun’s energy. It’s a devastating feedback loop with major
consequences for the planet.
Dump
Truck Partially Submerged in Lake Cochituate. (Framingham
Source, July 18, 2022)
“The truck was unoccupied and there were no reported injuries,”
said Natick Fire on social media. It is unknown how the vehicle
got in the lake, at this time.
[Hmm. Backed into the lake during a drunken Sunday-night party,
perhaps? BTW, we live at the south end of Lake Cochituate's Middle
Pond; the swimming truck was at the south end of its South Pond,
across from Fiske Pond. Our lake is sufficiently polluted; we
don't need to add dump trucks.]
NEW: Disentangling
the Debian Linux derivatives: Which should you use? (The
Register, July 18, 2022)
More flavors than than an ice cream shop means something for just
about everyone.
How
I revived three ancient computers with ChromeOS Flex.
(ZDNet, July 18, 2022)
The Linux desktop that will transform the industry is ChromeOS.
[Except, Google markets your personal data. We don't even use
Google Chrome for Web-browsing. Our favorite Ubuntu-Unity has the
same good qualities without the bad - and a lot more.]
Rep.
Zoe Lofgren says Jan. 6 committee expects to get Secret Service
text messages by Tuesday. (1-min. video; Business Insider,
July 17, 2022)
Umair
Haque: We’re Not Going to Make it to 2050. (Eudaimonia and
Co, July 17, 2022)
The Age of Extinction is dawning by the day — and we’re doing too
little too late to stop it.
This is the vicious cycle many, many civilizations have fallen
into before us, essentially. Poverty breeds an inability to take
collective action and make collective investments. All the systems
of a golden age? They simply begin to crumble, break down, fail —
and now there’s nothing much left over to repair them, because
people are just fighting for basics, a little more bitterly every
day.
[Read this. Believe it. Share it. Make America THINK again.]
Extreme
temperatures, wildfires roast Europe. (Morning Brew, July
17, 2022)
A heat wave roasted Spain and Italy last week, and the UK is
bracing for record-breaking temps today and tomorrow. With
forecasts calling for unprecedented heat of 104 degrees
Fahrenheit, the government issued its first-ever “extreme warning”
for parts of England, and the transportation authority Transport
for London urged people to only travel if necessary.
The current heat wave, which scientists say is partly fueled by
climate change, has already led to more than 1,000 deaths across
Portugal and Spain, and has exacerbated wildfires that are raging
in Spain, Greece, and France.
Biden
pledges executive action after Joe Manchin scuppers climate
agenda. (The Guardian, July 15, 2022)
West Virginia senator refuses to support funding for climate
crisis and says he will not back tax raises for wealthy Americans.
Corrupt Joe
Manchin Deals A Death Blow To The Entire Democratic Agenda.
(18-min. video; The Young Turks, July 15, 2022)
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is back at it again ruining the Democrats’
entire agenda after telling leadership that he is not on board
with the party’s climate change and a tax increase for the rich
policies. Who could’ve guessed that a coal company owner, who is
also the top recipient of fossil fuel lobbying bribes, would
disagree with subsidizing green energy and increasing taxes on the
rich and big corporations?
Mary
Trump: "My Uncle Donald Trump Thrives on Division and FOX News
Spreads It..." (11-min. video; Thom Hartmann Program, June
15, 2022)
Mary Trump joins Thom to talk about Trump and his children. What
happens if he's indicted. Will his kids stay loyal or will they
flip? Will Trump stay in politics?
Texas’
Precarious Power Grid Exposes a Nasty Feedback Loop. (Wired,
July 15, 2022)
Air-conditioning saves lives. But as the planet warms, more AC use
stresses the grid and drives up emissions, accelerating climate
change.
MIT
Professor Wins European Inventor Award for Liquid Metal
Batteries. (SciTechDaily, July 15, 2022)
For his work on liquid metal batteries that could enable the
long-term storage of renewable energy, MIT Professor Donald
Sadoway has won the 2022 European Inventor Award, in the category
for Non-European Patent Office Countries. “By enabling the
large-scale storage of renewable energy, Donald Sadoway’s
invention is a huge step towards the deployment of carbon-free
electricity generation,” says António Campinos, President of the
European Patent Office. “He has spent his career studying
electrochemistry and has transformed this expertise into an
invention that represents a huge step forward in the transition to
green energy.”
Sadoway’s liquid metal batteries consist of three liquid layers of
different densities, which naturally separate in the same way as
oil and vinegar do in a salad dressing. The top and bottom layers
are made from molten metals, with a middle layer of molten liquid
salt. To keep the metals liquid, the batteries need to operate at
extremely high temperatures, so Sadoway designed a system that is
self-heating and insulated, requiring no external heating or
cooling. They have a lifespan of more than 20 years, can maintain
99 percent of their capacity over 5,000 charging cycles, and have
no combustible materials, meaning there is no fire risk.
National
Police Phishing Scam Surfaces In Framingham. (Patch, July
15, 2022)
In Framingham, the scam involves people receiving texts to
purchase a Framingham Police Department T-shirt for $10 off as a
way of obtaining customer data, such as credit card information.
While the trend has not occurred in Natick yet, police caution
it's "only a matter of time."
11
Ways to Reduce Your Data Usage and Lower Your Cell Phone Bill
(Credo, July 14, 2022)
1. Use Wi-Fi when you can...
2. And when you know it's safe!
A
dying star’s last hurrah (Knowable Magazine, July 14, 2022)
At the end of their lives, sun-like stars metamorphose into
glowing shells of gas — perhaps shaped by unseen companions.
The
BA.5 Wave Is What COVID Normal Looks Like. (The Atlantic,
July 14, 2022)
The endless churn of variants may not stop anytime soon, unless we
do something about it.
The
COVID-19 Reinfection Loop and What It Means for Americans’
Health (US News, July 14, 2022)
The continued emergence of new coronavirus variants means that
protection from COVID-19 is fleeting and that herd immunity is
likely unattainable.
The
Pandemic Fueled a Superbug Surge. Can Medicine Recover?
(Wired, July 14, 2022)
As Covid swept ICUs, doctors prescribed antibiotics to ward off
secondary infections. Now bacteria have evolved resistance—but
hospitals are fighting back.
How Canada
Just Got a Land-Border With Denmark (13-min. video;
RealLifeLore, July 14, 2022)
[It's an interesting story that took 50 years to resolve.]
Electric
vehicles hit 5% of new cars sold in the US. (Morning Brew,
July 14, 2022)
They could go from niche product to mass adoption in a matter of
years.
["Average new US EV cost is $66K." We bought our 2020 Bolt EV new
for $26.6K, and we love it!]
NEW: What
Are the Five Major Types of Renewable Energy? (Visual
Capitalist, updated July 13, 2022)
[Excellent tutorial.]
NEW: Donald
Trump Should Never Be Allowed Within 1,000 Feet of the White
House Again. (Vanity Fair, July 13, 2022)
If you’re reading this, then you probably already know: Donald
Trump is reportedly thinking about running for president a third
time. As he would only be one of a handful of ex-presidents to run
again after losing reelection, there aren’t a lot of historical
parallels for this, should he announce. But it would kind of be
like the bubonic plague announcing a comeback and expecting people
to be happy about it. Or your oncologist telling you your stage IV
cancer had returned. Or the worst president in modern history, the
one who incited a violent coup because his ego is so fragile he
couldn’t admit he’d lost, deciding to take another stab at
terrorizing the nation for another four years. Something like
that.
If you or someone you know still needs convincing, allow us.
How
to watch the House January 6 Committee hearings on the Capitol
attack. (Business Insider, July 13, 2022)
The panel's next hearing is scheduled for Thursday, July 21 at 8
p.m. ET. The final hearing is expected to focus on how the
insurrection unfolded from the perspective of the White House,
with Trump refusing to act to quell the violence for 187 minutes
as rioters besieged the Capitol.
[This is an excellent summary of the seven already-held hearings,
and the one to come on July 21.]
NEW: It’s
Official: Rotterdam Will Not Dismantle Historic Bridge for Jeff
Bezos’s Superyacht. (Architectural Digest, July 13, 2022)
Dutch residents originally vowed to throw eggs at the boat while
it passed through the iconic structure.
[Rotten-egg diplomacy beats billionare? No casualties, very
affordable. U.S. Defense Department, take note!]
NEW: Light
pollution is disrupting the seasonal rhythms of plants and
trees, lengthening pollen season in US cities. (The
Conversation, July 12, 2022)
City lights that blaze all night are profoundly disrupting urban
plants’ phenology – shifting when their buds open in the spring
and when their leaves change colors and drop in the fall. New
research I coauthored shows how nighttime lights are lengthening
the growing season in cities, which can affect everything from
allergies to local economies.
Astrophysicist
Neil deGrasse Tyson On The New Telescope Images Released By NASA
(NBC News, July 12, 2022)
NASA released a full batch of images and data from the massive
James Webb Space Telescope that provides a first look at cosmic
mysteries yet to be untangled. America’s top astrophysicist Neil
deGrasse Tyson analyzes what these images mean for the future of
space exploration.
James
Webb Space Telescope: An astronomer explains the stunning,
newly-released first images. (First non-test images; The
Conversation, July 12, 2022)
The James Webb Space Telescope team has released the first
science-quality images from the new telescope. In them are the
oldest galaxies ever seen by human eyes, evidence of water on a
planet 1,000 light-years away, and incredible details showing the
birth and death of stars. Webb’s purpose is to explore origins –
of the universe, of galaxies, of stars and of life – and the five
images released on July 12, 2022, make good on that promise.
Webb’s
First Deep Field (June 13 MIRI and June 7 NIRCam images,
side by side; Webb Space Telescope, July 12, 2022)
Galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is a technicolor landscape when viewed
in mid-infrared light by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
Compared to Webb’s near-infrared image at right, the galaxies and
stars are awash in new colors.
NASA’s
Webb Delivers Deepest Infrared Image of Universe Yet. (NASA,
July 11, 2022)
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has delivered the deepest and
sharpest infrared image of the distant universe so far. Webb’s
First Deep Field is galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, and it is teeming
with thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever
observed in the infrared. The image is approximately the size of a
grain of sand held at arm’s length, a tiny sliver of the vast
universe.
[Now, THAT's deep! Don't miss the links.]
Sri
Lanka Just Fell. What Do We Have to Do With It? (Common
Sense, July 12, 2022)
The anti-growth environmental movement deserves much of the blame.
[Does it? The tragedy is great, but - when one is heavily on drugs
- why blame the one who intervenes? Why not blame the dependency
upon the chemical fertilizers that reduced the plants' natural
immunities? And, how to help?
Our civilization has dug itself into deep holes, and won't get out
easily.]
Covid
hospitalizations have doubled since May as omicron BA.5 sweeps
U.S., but deaths remain low. (CNBC, July 12, 2022)
The omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants now make up 80% of Covid
infections across the U.S., with BA.5 emerging as the dominant
version of the virus. Fauci said BA.5 is more transmissible than
past variants and it substantially evades the protective
antibodies triggered by vaccines, but the shots are still
generally protecting against severe disease. In other words,
people who are fully vaccinated might get infected and have mild
to moderate symptoms, but they are unlikely to be hospitalized and
even more unlikely to die from Covid.
Former
Oath Keeper reveals racist, antisemitic beliefs of white
nationalist group – and their plans to start a civil war.
(The Conversation, July 12, 2022)
During his testimony before congressional investigators, former
Oath Keepers spokesman Jason Van Tatenhove left little doubt about
the intentions of the white nationalist militia group when its
members stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Tatenhove
explained that Jan. 6 “could have been a spark that started a new
civil war.” “We need to quit mincing words and just talk about
truths,” Tatenhove said, “and what it was going to be was an armed
revolution.”
What we
learned on Day 7 of the Jan. 6 hearings (13-min. video; PBS
News, July 12, 2022)
The Jan. 6 committee held its seventh public hearing Tuesday
afternoon with a focus on connections between extremist groups and
the Trump White House. The hearing ended with a dramatic
revelation that former President Trump recently called a witness
the panel was talking to, an action referred to the Justice
Department.
Robert Reich:
Five insights from today's hearing of the Special Committee on
January 6 (Substack, July 12, 2022)
The picture that emerges from today’s hearing is not dramatically
different from what we’ve learned before — an unhinged man willing
to do anything to maintain power, even at the cost of lives, law,
and our democracy. But it fills in crucial details, making it all
the more imperative that the Justice Department begin criminal
proceedings against him.
[A very good summary of a very bad January 6th.]
Day
7 of the public Jan. 6th Select Committee hearing
(3-hour session - from 0:51:00 to 3:47:00 on this video; YouTube,
July 12, 2022)
Raskin said Trump emboldened the groups around a common goal.
“Never before in American history had a president called for a
crowd to come contest the counting of electoral votes by
Congress,” he said.
The committee spliced together video clips from interviews to
describe a meeting from Dec. 18, in the hours before Trump’s
tweet, in almost minute-to-minute fashion. Former White House aide
Cassidy Hutchinson, who testified live before the panel two weeks
ago, called the meeting between White House aides and informal
advisers pushing the fraud claims “unhinged” in a text that
evening to another Trump aide. Other aides described “screaming”
as the advisers floated wild theories of election fraud with no
evidence to back them up, and as White House lawyers aggressively
pushed back.The
Supreme Court is Turning the US Into a Constitution-Free Zone.
(CounterPunch, July 12, 2022)
“No one should get used to their rights. Predicting with certainty
which ones, if any, will go, or when, is impossible.”—Mary R.
Ziegler, legal historian
Ex-WH
aide Cassidy Hutchinson is in hiding with security after
bombshell testimony against Trump, NYT reports. (5-min.
video; Business Insider, July 11, 2022)
The committee rushed to get Hutchinson to testify at the hearing,
amid concerns Trump allies were seeking to interfere with her
testimony and that details of her account would leak. The Times
report described Hutchinson as "unemployed and sequestered with
family and a security detail" following her testimony, which
alienated her from many of the Trump officials she worked with.
State election officials who testified to the committee described
facing a wave of threats from Trump supporters after coming under
pressure from the former president to help overturn his defeat in
the 2020 election.
Katharine
Valentino: With
Liberty and Justice for All (Medium, July 11, 2022)
A new Pledge of Allegiance: "We
the people pledge our allegiance to the Constitution of the
United States of America. We pledge our loyalty to the
principles and ideals for which it stands. We pledge an
unyielding, enduring commitment to our Nation, one nation under
one law, with liberty and justice for all."
[With a very clear explanation for the corrections.]
Michael
Moore: THE 28th AMENDMENT (Substack, July 10, 2022)
My proposal to repeal and replace the 2nd Amendment: "Congress may create future
restrictions, as this amendment specifically does not grant any
American the 'right' to own any weapon." This
constitutional amendment was written by Michael Moore of Michigan
and presented to the 117th United States Congress on July 11,
2022.
A
pro-Trump congresswoman’s victory in a historically Democratic
region of Texas helps explain why Latino voters are shifting
rightward. (New York Times, July 10, 2022)
The G.O.P.’s ‘wildest dream’ - Latino voters have recently shifted
toward the Republican Party. Most still vote for Democrats, but
the margin has shrunk.
Full Murphy:
Trump 'Knew He Had Lost The Election.’ (11-min. video; NBC
News, July 10, 2022)
Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), member of the Select Committee to
Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, discusses
testimony from former Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone and
questions over coordination between the White House and groups
like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.
Jamie
Raskin: Cipollone gave "valuable" testimony to Jan. 6 Committee.
(9-min. video; CBS News, July 10, 2022)
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland says the Jan. 6 committee
will use the testimony of former Trump White House counsel Pat
Cipollone to "corroborate other things" the panel has learned.
Adam
Kinzinger: 'At no point' in Cipollone testimony was there any
contradiction of others. (8-min. video; ABC News, July 10,
2022)
George Stephanopoulos interviews Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., on
"This Week."
As
the BA.5 variant spreads, the risk of coronavirus reinfection
grows. (Washington Post, July 10, 2022)
America has decided the pandemic is over. The coronavirus has
other ideas. The latest omicron offshoot, BA.5, has quickly become
dominant in the United States, and thanks to its elusiveness when
encountering the human immune system, is driving a wave of cases
across the country.
The size of that wave is unclear because most people are testing
at home or not testing at all. The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention in the past week has reported a little more than
100,000 new cases a day on average. But infectious-disease experts
know that wildly underestimates the true number, which may be as
many as a million.
Chinese
Police Exposed 1 Billion People's Data in Unprecedented Leak.
(Wired, July 9, 2022)
In one of the most expansive and impactful breaches of personal
data of all time, attackers grabbed data of almost 1 billion
Chinese citizens from a Shanghai police database and attempted to
extort the department for about $200,000. The trove of data
contains names, phone numbers, government ID numbers, and police
reports. Researchers found that the database itself was secure,
but that a management dashboard was publicly accessible from the
open internet, allowing anyone with basic technical skills to grab
the information without needing a password. The scale of the
breach is immense and it is the first of this size to hit the
Chinese government, which is notorious for hoarding massive
amounts of data, not only about its own citizens, but about people
all over the world. China was memorably responsible for the United
States Office of Personnel Management breach and Equifax credit
bureau breach, among many others worldwide.
The
limitations of Joe Biden’s executive order on abortion (Vox,
July 8, 2022)
It marks an important first step, though there’s still more the
White House could do.
Facing
pressure, President Biden to sign order on abortion access.
(AP News, July 8th, 2022)
President Joe Biden will take executive action Friday to protect
access to abortion, as he faces mounting pressure from Democrats
to be more forceful on the subject after the Supreme Court ended a
constitutional right to the procedure two weeks ago.
Cruise’s
Robot Car Outages Are Jamming Up San Francisco. (Wired, July
8, 2022)
In a series of incidents, the GM subsidiary lost contact with its
autonomous vehicles, leaving them frozen in traffic and trapping
human drivers.
Mary
Koch: Roads Less Traveled By (Every New Season, July 8,
2022)
Just last week, I started off innocently enough. Destination:
Coyote Falls on the Similkameen River, near the Canadian border,
less than an hour’s drive from home. I planned to attend the
traditional Native American salmon ceremony, when fish are invited
to return to their spawning grounds. Tribes have been doing this
for millennia, although these days the ceremony is pretty much
symbolic with a soupçon of politics. Just above Coyote Falls,
salmon are blocked from proceeding upriver by the defunct Enloe
Dam. The dam hasn’t produced power in half-a-century. Indian
tribes on both sides of the border and various environmental
groups are campaigning to have it removed.
[Hi, Mary! We're debating the same at the
South Natick Dam on the Charles
River. The roads to it are not nearly as exciting.]
Genetically
Engineered, Sound-Controlled Bacteria That Seek and Destroy
Cancer Cells (SciTechDaily, July 8, 2022)
Since its inception, chemotherapy has proven to be a valuable tool
in treating many kinds of cancers, but it has a significant
drawback. In addition to killing cancer cells, it can also destroy
healthy cells like the ones in hair follicles, causing baldness,
and those that line the stomach, producing nausea.
Now, scientists at the California Institute of Technology
(Caltech) may have a better solution: genetically engineered,
sound-controlled bacteria that seek and destroy cancer cells.
Noam
Chomsky and the United Nations Warn of Collapse.
(Counterpunch, July 8, 2022)
The onset of societal collapse is not hidden. Rather, similar to
animals in the wild, people sense when something’s out of the
ordinary, amiss, trouble brewing, on the alert. There’s tension in
the air, tempers flare, strangers lash out, and society turns
against establishment protocols. It is today’s world, and people
sense trouble; something’s not right.
As for confirmation of those haunting feelings that something’s
not right, a recent UN report discusses prominent risks of “global
collapse”: UN 2022 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk
Reduction, aka: GAR2022 d/d May 2022, more on this later.
Accordingly, escalating synergies of (1) disasters (2) economic
vulnerability and (3) ecosystem failures increasingly accumulate
into a juggernaut of collapse, and finally, similar to an orderly
line of tripped dominoes, it cascades without enough notice.
On the heels of the recent UN warning, Noam Chomsky also echoes
the central premise of doomsayers: “The challenge ahead is beyond
anything humans have ever faced. The fate of life on the planet is
now at hand.” (Chomsky – Principal speaker for the American Solar
Energy Society 51st annual conference, University of New Mexico,
June 21, 2022). Chomsky is an iconic fixture of the Left known for
strength of character, brilliance, and omniscience. His opening
statement at the conference: “We are at a unique moment in human
history. Decisions that must be made right now will determine the
course of future history if there is to be any human history,
which is very much in doubt. There is a narrow window in which we
must implement measures to avert cataclysmic destruction of the
environment.”
9
Ways to Improve Brain Health (SciTechDaily, July 8, 2022)
Your brain filters out the noise, allowing you to focus on what’s
important. Your brain makes calculations and connections that
enable you to think critically, solve problems, and develop new
ideas, and it keeps your body functioning, coordinating all your
muscles and organs. So it’s no wonder you want to do everything
you can to protect your brain and keep it in good health. Here are
nine ways you can improve your brain health.
Mets’
Bassitt says MLB should ‘stop testing’ for COVID-19. (AP
News, July 8, 2022)
New York Mets pitcher Chris Bassitt said Thursday he “probably
won’t” inform team and Major League Baseball officials if he feels
COVID-19 symptoms in the future and that MLB should “just stop
testing.” Bassitt was placed on the COVID-19 list on July 1 after
complaining about sluggishness to team officials. The right-hander
missed his scheduled start against Texas last Friday and only
rejoined the team Thursday.
NEW: ‘Headed
in a bad direction’: Omicron variant may bring second-largest US
Covid wave. (The Guardian, July 8, 2022)
The BA.5 sub-variant has immuno-evasive properties that cause
reinfection even after vaccination and previous illness. There’s a
lot of opportunity for waning immunity and waning protection from
the vaccine to allow these new circulating variants to do more
damage,
More than one in three Americans live in a county at medium risk
from Covid, and one in five are at high risk, according to the US
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) . That’s the
highest proportion of the country facing risks since February.
There are now more than 100,000 new cases of Covid confirmed in
the US every day – a rate that has been fairly steady for the past
six weeks. While cases in the Northeast have slowed, surges are
now hitting other parts of the country.
MA
Town-By-Town COVID: Positivity Rate At Highest Since Late
January. (Patch, July 7, 2022)
The COVID-19 hospitalization rate in Massachusetts also rose, but
deaths and weekly case counts were down, according to state data.
White House
COVID coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha on the rise in new variants
(8-min. video; PBS News, July 7, 2022)
With vaccinations, boosters and drugs, COVID has become a far less
deadly risk for most Americans than earlier in the pandemic. But
COVID still presents numerous problems, particularly for some of
the most vulnerable people, with an average of more than 300
people dying every day from it.
New Omicron
variant BA.5.2 found in China, Shanghai carries out new rounds
of covid-19 testing. (6-min. video; World Is One News, July
7, 2022)
After a fresh amount of COVID-19 infections that have been
reported in China, tens of millions of people have now been put
under a lock-down yet again as authorities are trying to curb the
spread of the virus.
The
worst virus variant just arrived. The pandemic is not over.
(Washington Post, July 7, 2022)
COVID-19 > Omicron > BA.5. Whether BA.5 will lead to more
severe disease isn’t clear yet. But knowing that the virus is
spreading should reinforce the need for the familiar mitigation
measures: high-quality face masks, better air filtration and
ventilation, and avoiding exposure in crowded indoor spaces.
Stunning!
Webb Telescope image smashes an astronomical record without
trying. (Super-photo; Inverse, July 7, 2022)
Its Fine Guidance Sensor surprised astronomers with an
unprecedented view of the Universe during a recent engineering
test.
NEW: Use
secret keyboard keys on Linux. (Open Source, July 7, 2022)
With a compose key, you're not limited to what's on your keyboard.
Download the cheat sheet.
[Good free stuff, hiding within the good free stuff!]
Boris
Johnson: The prime minister who broke all the rules (BBC
News, July 7, 2022)
In the end, it was not his handling of coronavirus that led to his
downfall. It was, rather, questions about his character and
fitness for high office. From his earliest days, Alexander Boris
de Pfeffel Johnson had a tendency to believe rules were for other
people.
The
Most Pathetic Men in America (The Atlantic, July 7, 2022)
Trump said and did obviously awful and dangerous things—racist and
cruel and achingly dumb and downright evil things. But on top of
that, he is a uniquely tiresome individual, easily the sorest
loser, the most prodigious liar, and the most interminable victim
ever to occupy the White House. He is, quite possibly, the biggest
crybaby ever to toddle across history’s stage, from his
inaugural-crowd hemorrhage on day one right down to his bitter,
ketchup-flinging end. Seriously, what public figure in the history
of the world comes close? I’m genuinely asking.
Why are Lindsey Graham, Kevin McCarthy, and so many other cowards
in Congress still doing Trump’s bidding?
Henry
Kissinger reflects on leadership, global crises and the state of
U.S. politics. (10-min. video; PBS News Hour, July 7, 2022)
Between the war in Ukraine and tensions with China, President
Biden's handling of foreign policy issues is being put to the
test. In former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's new book,
"Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy," he examines how
past leaders faced the challenges of their times.
Former White House counsel Cipollone to testify before
Jan. 6 Committee. (Washington Post, July 6, 2022)
Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone will testify Friday
morning after receiving a subpoena from the House select committee
investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a
pro-Trump mob, according to people familiar with the matter. It’s
unclear what limits there may be on his closed-door testimony,
which is scheduled for about half a day, according to one person
familiar with the matter. The session will be videotaped, but
there will be some limits on what he will testify to regarding
direct conversations with former president Donald Trump.
Cipollone had been reluctant to testify to the committee, citing
presidential privilege, but he has been regularly mentioned in the
hearings and is key to a number of episodes being plumbed by the
committee.
Northeastern
researchers propose ‘Emerald Tutu’ to protect Boston from
flooding. (Boston Globe, July 6, 2022)
Scientists envision a network of vegetation-friendly mats arranged
in Boston Harbor.
[Originally, How
coastal cities can build climate resilience as the clock ticks
(MIT Sloan, January 11, 2022)]
The
Infamous 1972 Report That Warned of Civilization’s Collapse
(Wired, July 6, 2022)
The Limits to Growth
argued that rampant pollution and resource extraction were pushing
Earth to the brink. How does it hold up 50 years later?
Improve
Memory and Cognition: The Best Berry for Brain Health.
(SciTechDaily, July 6, 2022)
[Wild blueberries are best, but all are good!]
The
Digital Divide Is Coming for You. (Wired, July 6, 2022)
More services are going online-only—catching more people on the
wrong side of a widening gulf.
Has Google
Created Sentient AI? (15-min. video; Joe Rogan Experience,
July 6, 2022)
[Over 2M views in 5 days! It's what they're hearing.]
Glenn Beck:
Engineer
WARNS of Google's TERRIFYING artificial intelligence.
(14-min video; ??, July 5, 2022)
Blake Lemoine was suspended after publishing transcripts of
conversations he'd had with an AI chatbot that he claims was
sentient (able to feel and perceive things, like a human being).
Glenn explains the difference between artificial intelligence,
artificial general intelligence, and why this engineer's claims
should be extremely worrisome for the future of the entire
world...
[Glenn Lee Beck is an American conservative political commentator,
conspiracy theorist, radio host, and television producer. Like it
or not, he has a LOT of fans.]
Discovery
With “Profound Implications” – Secret Carbon Decisions Plants
Are Making About Our Future (SciTechDaily, July 5, 2022)
Plants of the future could be designed to meet the world’s food
needs while also aiding the environment.
This CO2 release decision is governed by a previously unknown
process, a metabolic channel that directs a product of sugar
called pyruvate to be oxidized to CO2 or kept to make plant
biomass. We found that a transporter on mitochondria directs
pyruvate to respiration to release CO2, but pyruvate made in other
ways is kept by plant cells to build biomass. If the transporter
is blocked, plants then use pyruvate from other pathways for
respiration.
The research shows that plants can differentiate and choose one
pyruvate source over another to use for CO2 release. This secret
process breaks the normal rules of biochemistry, where the next
step in a process does not know the origin of the product from the
step before. Understanding the plant’s respiration secret to use a
metabolic channel to prioritize carbon release over keeping it to
make biomass provides a new opportunity to influence the decision
at the last moment. This could be done by limiting this channeling
to respiration or making new channels to direct carbon inside
mitochondria back towards biomass production and so limiting CO2
release from plants.
Ukraine
thanks U.S. for ‘game-changing’ weapons system: But what is the
HIMARS? (Fortune, July 5, 2022)
A U.S. Army M142 high-mobility artillery rocket system (HIMARS) is
the latest weapon that could turn the tide in Ukraine’s war for
independence.
Fred
Gray, the ‘chief counsel for the protest movement,’ to get Medal
of Freedom for his civil rights work. (The Conversation,
July 5, 2022)
Gray played important roles in landmark Supreme Court decisions
that outlawed segregated public transit and affirmed the strategy
of the Montgomery bus boycott organizers. He protected the freedom
of association guaranteed by the First Amendment by preventing
Alabama officials from obtaining the NAACP’s membership list. He
argued in the Supreme Court a case on racial gerrymandering that
redefined the city boundaries to exclude 400 Black people – but no
white people – from the city limits of Tuskegee, Alabama, which
set the stage for the one-person, one-vote rule that governs
redistricting after every census. And when state and local
segregationist leaders in Alabama sued the national press and
local civil rights leaders, Gray’s legal efforts afforded strong
constitutional protection to critics of public officials and
government policy.
Fred Gray has had an enormous impact on American law and society.
His cases are taught in every law school in the country, and his
work has led to fundamental reforms in legal doctrine and helped
to cement important changes in the lives of ordinary people all
over the country. Martin Luther King Jr. called him “the brilliant
young Negro who later became the chief counsel for the protest
movement.” And on July 7, Gray will receive the Presidential Medal
of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the nation, from
President Joe Biden.
Extremism
expert: Highland Park shooter 'part of a new wave of terror'
that advanced 'well past Donald Trump'. (5-min. video; Raw
Story, July 5, 2022)
The alleged gunman in the Highland Park massacre was photographed
at Donald Trump rallies, but an expert on online extremism said
he's part of a "new wave of terror" that doesn't appear to have a
specific political motivation. Robert "Bobby" Crimo III was taken
into custody hours after the shooting that killed six people and
wounded 38 others at an Illinois parade on the Fourth of July.
NBC News correspondent Ben Collins, on what he had learned about
the person of interest in the massacre: "The one thing that
combines all these things is ready access to weapons, and this guy
had ready access to weapons. He had ready access to a machine that
could kill a bunch of people in a short period of time. You're not
going to be able to stop this on a rhetorical level."
The alleged gunman in the Highland Park massacre was photographed
at Donald Trump rallies, but an expert on online extremism said
he's part of a "new wave of terror" that doesn't appear to have a
specific political motivation.
"This is part of a much larger, deeper subculture that Donald
Trump is in the past of -- like, this guy grew up as a child and
Donald Trump was the president, he's trying to advance the
acceleration well past Donald Trump," Collins added. "He is part
of a new wave of terror, and that's something we have to get our
brains around right now. This is not tied to one guy. This is tied
to a much larger cell of people who think they're lone wolves who
are really acting in concert, to express their disaffection with
the world by murdering a bunch of people. We have to stop that. I
don't know how else to stop that."
[With Trump as a role model, we get this.]
Indictments
are coming: At long last, criminal justice will catch up with
Donald Trump. (Salon, July 5, 2022)
After only four weeks of investigation the House impeachment
managers' case against him was based on circumstantial rather than
direct evidence. All of that changed with the testimony of Cassidy
Hutchinson. That's why the testimony of Pat Cipollone, Trump's
former White House counsel, who was quoted by Hutchinson as
saying, "We're going to get charges of every crime imaginable,"
including seditious conspiracy as well as jury tampering, has now
been subpoenaed by the select committee.
Putting a former president on trial for alleged criminal behavior
would be the first prosecution of its kind in American history. It
would also do much toward restoring the myth that no person or
corporation is above the law. As James Doyle has explained,
putting Trump on trial "redeems American justice."
Looking both backward and forward, I would argue that putting the
former racketeer in chief and his accomplices on trial for
seditious conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government — arguably
the ultimate constitutional crime — is more tangible than the
abstract goal of redeeming American justice. In this
insurrectionary moment, "substantive" due process justice trumps
"procedural" due process justice.
Gen.
Russel Honoré: Trump's coup attempt "put us in the banana
republic club". (Salon, July 5, 2022)
Retired general who studied Capitol security says "our government
failed" on Jan. 6, and White House was complicit.
[Also see The
week the Supreme Court reshaped America: 'We’re being hurled
back decades.' (The Guardian, July 2, 2022), and America
the Banana Republic (Bill Moyers, November 29, 2017)
Thanks to Trump the tinhorn dictator and those who elected him,
this country is no longer a beacon of freedom, but a
laughingstock.
-- and now, almost five years later, an increasingly deadly and
anti-American one.]
Boston’s
gorgeous Fourth of July fireworks show (with photos; Boston
Globe, July 4, 2022)
A Boston holiday tradition returned Monday night after a
three-year absence. The 2022 Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular
once again filled the air with music and the skies with
pyrotechnics.
[This
cartoon seems sadly appropriate for this year's
"celebration".]
NEW: Jan.
6 Panel Could Make Multiple Criminal Referrals Of Trump, Liz
Cheney Says. (Huffington Post, July 3, 2022)
"A man as dangerous as Donald Trump can absolutely never be
anywhere near the Oval Office ever again," the panel's vice chair
said.
Trump: "Maybe This is a Good Time to Tell
People I’m Running Again." (Vanity Fair, July 3, 2022)
The twice-impeached president may announce a third bid for the
White House early, to distract from the fallout of the Jan. 6
hearings and stave off potential GOP rivals.
How
the Founders Intended to Check the Supreme Court’s Power
(Politico, July 3, 2022)
Last December, during oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s
Health Organization, the case in which the Supreme Court
overturned Roe v. Wade, Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted that
“there’s so much that’s not in the Constitution, including the
fact that we have the last word. Marbury versus Madison. There is
not anything in the Constitution that says that the Court, the
Supreme Court, is the last word on what the Constitution means. It
was totally novel at that time. And yet, what the Court did was
reason from the structure of the Constitution that that’s what was
intended.”
It was a remarkable observation. The president and Congress can
check SCOTUS' power when they believe the justices have exceeded
their mandate. This might be the best way to save the court from
itself.
NEW: Thom
Hartmann: SCOTUS Has Dissolved Into A Blur Of BS, Qanon &
Fundamentalist Religion. (Medium, July 2, 2022)
It’s not often that a photograph makes its way into a Supreme
Court ruling, but it happened this week because Justice Sonia
Sotomayor felt it necessary to expose Neil Gorsuch and his
Republican colleagues on the Court as unrepentant liars.
[How DARE we let truth like this into our schools?]
The
week the Supreme Court reshaped America: ‘We’re being hurled
back decades.’ (The Guardian, July 2, 2022)
Last week the US Supreme Court started its summer break, but it
left behind an America that many believe has been fundamentally
reshaped after a momentous series of decisions by the conservative
majority on abortion, guns, the power of government agencies, and
the role of religion in public life. The series of decisions have
spurred extensive condemnation outside conservative America and
many are left wondering what, if anything, can be done.
“We’re absolutely in a constitutional crisis,” said Lawrence
Gostin, a law professor at Georgetown University and director of
the World Health Organization’s center on Global Health Law. “And
our democracy is now one of the most fragile democracies among our
peer nations. We haven’t fallen over the cliff – we still abide by
the rule of law, more or less, and still have elections, more or
less – but the terms of our democracy have really been eviscerated
by the Supreme Court.”
Two secret
service agents say they heard claim Trump angrily demanded to go
to Capitol. (9-min. video; CNN, July 2, 2022)
Then-President Donald Trump angrily demanded to go to the US
Capitol on January 6, 2021, and berated his protective detail when
he didn’t get his way, according to two Secret Service sources who
say they heard about the incident from multiple agents, including
the driver of the presidential SUV where it occurred.
Your
internet life needs a Feeds Reboot. Here’s how to do it.
(The Verge, July 2, 2022)
Once a year, spend some time taking back your algorithms.
Is
Your New Car a Threat to National Security? (Wired, July 1,
2022)
Putting sensor-packed Chinese cars on Western roads could be a
privacy issue. Just ask Tesla.
David Colombo, a 19-year-old German programmer, proved earlier
this year that accessing incredibly sensitive data on Tesla users
wasn’t just possible—it was fairly easy. Using a third-party
application with access to Tesla’s API, Colombo got into the
systems of more than two dozen Teslas around the world,
controlling their locks, windows, and sound systems and
downloading a huge bundle of information. “I was able to see a
large amount of data. Including where the Tesla has been, where it
charged, current location, where it usually parks, when it was
driving, the speed of the trips, the navigation requests, history
of software updates, even a history of weather around the Tesla
and just so much more,” Colombo wrote in a Medium post published
in January that detailed his exploits.
While the specific vulnerabilities Colombo took advantage of have
been patched, his hack demonstrates a huge flaw at the core of
these smart vehicles: Sharing data is not a bug; it’s a feature.
NEW: The
West Débuts a New Strategy to Confront a Historic “Inflection
Point.” (New Yorker, July 1, 2022)
In Madrid this week, NATO laid out a bold plan for military
expansion in response to Putin’s war. But can its member states
overcome political divisions at home?
NEW: Advocates
applaud Remain in Mexico ruling, urge president to end policy
'once and for all'. (Daily Kos, July 1, 2022)
Advocates welcomed the Supreme Court’s surprising decision in
Biden v. Texas on Thursday, which ruled 5-4 that the president
acted lawfully in attempting to end the previous administration’s
Remain in Mexico policy, officially known as Migrant Protection
Protocols (MPP). Embracing this rare win, they renewed their calls
for an end to this inhumane anti-asylum program that has continued
to subject thousands of already vulnerable people to further harm.
Thom
Hartmann: The Nightmare
Scenario SCOTUS is Plotting For the 2024 Election Takeover
(Medium, July 1, 2022)
Six Republicans on the Supreme Court just announced — a story that
has largely flown under the nation’s political radar — that
they’ll consider pre-rigging the presidential election of 2024.
Under this circumstance DeSantis
becomes president, the third Republican president in the 21st
century, and also the third Republican President to have lost
the popular vote election yet ended up in the White House. This
scenario isn’t just plausible: it’s probable.
GOP-controlled states are already changing their state laws to
allow for it, and Republican strategists are gaming out which
states have Republican legislatures willing to override the votes
of their people to win the White House for the Republican
candidate. Those state legislators who still embrace Trump and
this theory are getting the support of large pools of right-wing
billionaires’ dark money.
[READ THIS. These fascists
in robes have barely begun their destruction of America.]
What
the EPA ruling means for the carbon footprint of your electric
car (Green Car Reports, July 1, 2022)
Electric cars are only as clean as the grid they plug into. Ater
Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling, the assurance of a cleaner grid
over time, everywhere, is no longer a foregone conclusion. That’s
because based on this ruling, it’s quite possible that electric
vehicles in some regions of the U.S. will carry a heavier carbon
footprint than they might have otherwise, for years to come.
Supreme
Court EPA Decision Will Accelerate Climate Change. (Teen
Vogue, July 1, 2022)
This op-ed argues that the Supreme Court just gave a free pass to
polluters.
[Good, that Teen Vogue is featuring these lying fools in robes,
and the damage they do.]
The
Supreme Court has curtailed EPA’s power to regulate carbon
pollution – and sent a warning to other regulators. (The
Conversation, July 1, 2022)
In a highly anticipated but not unexpected 6-3 decision, the
Supreme Court ruled on June 30, 2022, that the Obama
administration’s Clean Power Plan exceeded the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency’s authority under the Clean Air Act. The ruling
doesn’t take away the EPA’s power to regulate carbon emissions
from power plants, but it makes federal action harder by requiring
the agency to show that Congress has charged it to act – in an
area where Congress has consistently failed to act.
Supreme
Court Significantly Reduces EPA’s Ability to Fight Carbon
Pollution from Power Plants. (Union of Concerned Scientists,
June 30, 2022)
Today’s decision simultaneously acknowledges EPA’s authority to
regulate carbon emissions from power plants and severely
undermines its ability to do so. This troubling ruling results in
a challenging contradiction. The very agency that the court has
recognized is tasked with the obligation to act has been
significantly curtailed in so doing. It defies logic and defies
common sense. And all the while communities are left in the lurch,
clear-eyed on the escalating impacts that worsening climate change
brings yet forced to stand by while a critical tool for driving
necessary emissions reductions is hamstrung. “EPA has no choice.
It must make do with the authority it retains to quickly advance
as robust a set of power plant standards as it can. However,
climate action cannot stop there. Congress must expeditiously
enact robust and equitable clean energy and climate legislation.
As the mounting toll borne by communities across the country and
around the world makes clear, climate change is here, today, and
there’s no time left to waste.
NEW: The
Christian Right Hankers for Medieval Times. (Medium, June
30, 2022)
Was it just a simple oversight that the Texas Republican
Convention platform failed to mention stocks, pillories, and
branding?
NEW: A
Note To Conservative Christians: Stop Trying To Impose Your
Notion Of God’s Will Upon Others. (Medium, June 30, 2022)
In this fight over reproductive rights, I see one minority faction
that has the gall to tell the rest of us what we can and cannot
do. If you unrig the economy, you might reduce the demand for
abortion services. That might be God’s will.
When
does the fetus acquire a moral status of a human being? The
philosophy of ‘gradualism’ can provide answers. (The
Conversation, June 30, 2022)
From my personal perspective, it is morally abhorrent to deny
anyone the ability to access abortion in their own state, no
matter why they are seeking one. But the likelihood of more
abortions being pushed into the second trimester, as pregnant
individuals must overcome more barriers to access, also matters
from the point of view of moral concern about fetuses. Many people
feel that losing a pregnancy after a few months is more tragic
than an early loss. The same is true for later versus earlier
abortion.
Some
Viruses Make You Smell Tastier to Mosquitoes – Increasing the
Spread of Disease. (SciTechDaily, June 30, 2022)
When mosquitoes were offered a choice of healthy mice or mice sick
with dengue, the mosquitoes were more attracted to the
dengue-infected mice. One odoriferous molecule, acetophenone, was
especially attractive to mosquitoes. Skin odorants collected from
human dengue patients showed the same thing: more attractive to
mosquitoes and more acetophenone production.
Acetophenone is made by some Bacillus bacteria that grow on human
(and mouse) skin. Normally skin produces an antimicrobial peptide
that keeps Bacillus populations in check. But it turns out that
when mice are infected with dengue and Zika, they don’t produce as
much of the antimicrobial peptide, and the Bacillus grows faster.
The virus can manipulate the hosts’ skin microbiome to attract
more mosquitoes to spread faster!
A potential preventative: The researchers gave mice with dengue
fever a type of vitamin A derivative, isotretinoin, known to
increase the production of the skin’s antimicrobial peptide. The
isotretinoin-treated mice gave off less acetophenone, reducing
their attractiveness to mosquitoes and potentially reducing the
risk of infecting others with the virus. The next step is to
analyze more human patients with dengue and Zika to see if the
skin odor-microbiome connection is generally true in real world
conditions, and to see if isotretinoin reduces acetophenone
production in sick humans as well as it does in sick mice.
Complete
Chaos: Scientists Unravel the Early History of the Solar System.
(SciTechDaily, June 30, 2022)
An international team of researchers has more accurately recreated
the early history of several asteroids than ever before. Their
findings suggest that the early solar system was more chaotic than
previously assumed.
2639:
Periodic Table Changes (Explain xkcd, June 29, 2022)
The periodic table is a table used to arrange chemical elements
according to their chemical and physical properties. This comic
proposes "changes" to the periodic table that would be more
pleasant aesthetically or make the periodic table look more
regular.
Major
Breakthrough Puts Dream of Unlimited, Clean Nuclear Fusion
Energy Within Reach. (1-min. video; SciTechDaily, June 29,
2022)
Could a long-running joke that nuclear fusion is always 30 years
away soon start to look dated? Some hope so, following a major
breakthrough during a nuclear-fusion experiment in late 2021. This
came at the Joint European Torus (JET) research facility in
Oxfordshire, UK, in a giant, doughnut-shaped machine called a
tokamak.
[Also see Horizon Magazine/EU, at June 24th below.]
Major
malware warning for all iPhone and Android users. (Komando,
June 29, 2022)
Spyware impersonates legitimate companies, such as ISPs and
smartphone manufacturers. The malware can disable your data
connection and send you a link via text message to recover it.
You’re prompted to download a malicious application when you open
this link. The spyware’s other trick is disguising itself as a
messaging application such as Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp. The
victim sees a page asking them to install an application to
recover their account.
Once it’s in your phone, Hermit can take screenshots, record audio
and access your contacts, camera, messages, calendar and more. The
findings from security researchers are troubling. Governments may
be working with telecommunications companies and ISPs to gain
access to people’s phones. This will make it much harder to detect
these types of attacks. Here is what you can do.
[Safeguards you should know and
use!]
NEW: Monkeypox
Virus May Have Undergone ‘Accelerated Evolution’ in Current
Outbreak. (Self, June 29, 2022)
A new analysis has surprised experts. It’s well-known that viruses
evolve and adapt; that the monkeypox virus has done so isn’t the
surprising part. Rather, it’s the speed—a mutation up to 6 to 12
times faster than expected, per the new research—that has experts
questioning whether monkeypox could be more infectious now than in
the past.
Neuroscientists
Discover Why the Memory of Fear Is Seared Into Our Brains.
(SciTechDaily, June 29, 2022)
A team of neuroscientists from the Tulane University School of
Science and Engineering and Tufts University School of Medicine
has been studying the formation of fear memories in the emotional
hub of the brain – the amygdala — and think they have
discovered a mechanism.
In a nutshell, the scientists found that the stress
neurotransmitter norepinephrine, also called noradrenaline,
facilitates fear processing in the brain by stimulating a certain
population of inhibitory neurons in the amygdala to generate a
repetitive bursting pattern of electrical discharges. This
bursting pattern of electrical activity changes the frequency of
brain wave oscillation in the amygdala from a resting state to an
aroused state that promotes the formation of fear memories.
Robert
Reich: Cassidy Hutchinson's chilling testimony (Substack,
June 28, 2022)
After today’s explosive testimony by Cassidy Hutchinson — who
served as chief assistant to Mark Meadows and was literally and
figuratively in the middle of Trump’s White House — I don’t see
how Attorney General Merrick Garland can avoid prosecuting Trump,
as well as Mark Meadows and Rudy Giuliani.
More than any other hearing to date, the audience for today’s
hearing was not just the American public but also the Attorney
General. Time and again, Hutchinson gave testimony about serious
federal crimes. It was the most chilling depiction yet of a
president in charge of an attempted coup. Trump knew exactly what
was happening and what he was doing. He knew he was acting in
violation of his oath of office and inciting violence in order to
stay in office. He repeatedly refused to listen to reason, or to
change course.
NEW: GM
EVs get Plug and Charge convenience—yes, even Chevy Bolt EV.
(Green Car Reports, June 28, 2022)
General Motors is adding Plug and Charge capability across its
entire lineup of EVs, allowing drivers to start a charging session
simply by plugging in. Plug and Charge is supported on multiple
North American public charging networks. But drivers must still
have an account with the EVgo network, as well as an active OnStar
account and the MyChevrolet, MyCadillac, or MyGMC app for those
brands.
“We’re
Going to Get Charges of Every Crime Imaginable,” Trump’s Top
White House Lawyer Warned. (Mother Jones, June 28, 2022)
Pat Cipollone cautioned against Trump going to the Capitol with
the rioters on January 6, according to new bombshell testimony.
PBS: Aide
says Trump wanted to let armed supporters into rally, ’They’re
not here to hurt me.’ (21-min. video; YouTube, June 28,
2022)
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump White House chief of
staff Mark Meadows, testified on June 28 as the House committee
investigating the Jan. 6 attack presented its findings to the
public.
Hutchinson told Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., that former President
Donald Trump was “angry about the extra space [on the Ellipse] and
wanted more people to come in” to hear his speech on the day of
the Capitol attack. The committee played video of Hutchinson’s
deposition in which she detailed why was Trump was upset — that
people with weapons weren’t being let into his rally.“
In the days leading up to the 6th, we had conversations about
obstructing justice or defrauding the electoral count,” she said.
The hearing was unexpectedly announced a week after the Jan. 6
committee said they were taking a break until the month of July.
‘Worse than
we ever imagined’: Tapper and CNN analysts react to testimony
from ex-White House aide. (5-min. video; YouTube, June 28,
2022)
"So, this is what happens when you tell a two-year-old that he
isn't going to be king anymore. I imagine Mar-a-Logo staff are
cleaning Trump's dinner off the walls right now."
Day 6 of the public Jan. 6th Select
Committee Hearing (live or after, entire 2-hour
video; YouTube, June 28, 2022)
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump White House chief of
staff Mark Meadows, testifies.
NEW: Incredible
Hubble images reveal how the Webb Telescope will use galaxies to
bend light. (Super-photo; Inverse, June 28, 2022)
Abell 1351, a close-knit group of about 100 galaxies bound
together by gravity, is so massive that its gravity distorts
spacetime. Thanks to that warping of the very fabric of existence,
light that would have followed a straight line through the galaxy
cluster instead traces a curving path around it. You can see the
result in this recent image from the Hubble Space Telescope:
curved streaks of light dancing among the spiral galaxies.
Astronomers call the phenomenon gravitational lensing. Under the
right conditions, it can produce duplicate images or rings of
light, called Einstein rings, around a lensing object. And when
the James Webb Telescope starts its science mission later this
summer, gravitational lensing will help the telescope look even
deeper into the universe than Webb’s instruments could see by
themselves. It’s nature’s giant telescope.
Android
Antivirus Apps Are Useless — Here’s What to Do Instead.
(ExtremeTech, June 27, 2022)
Your phone already has antivirus protection built-in. Your first
line of defense is simply to not mess around with Android’s
default security settings. To get Google certification, each and
every phone and tablet comes with “Unknown sources” disabled in
the security settings. If you want to sideload an APK downloaded
from outside Google Play, your phone will prompt you to enable
that feature for the originating app. Leaving this disabled keeps you safe from virtually all
Android malware because there’s almost none of it in the
Play Store.
[Good article!]
Swamps
Can Protect Against Climate Change, If We Only Let Them.
(New Yorker, June 27, 2022)
Wetlands absorb carbon dioxide and buffer the excesses of drought
and flood, yet we’ve drained much of this land. Can we learn to
love our swamps?
[By 1980, the USA had drained half of them.]
Finally,
Scientists Prove the ‘Dead Cone Effect,’ Shaking Up Particle
Physics. (Popular Mechanics, June 27, 2022)
Operators of the ALICE detector have observed the first direct
evidence of the “dead cone effect,” allowing them to assess the
mass of the elusive charm quark.
Robert
Reich: When I was Baby Jesus (Substack, June 27, 2022)
Today the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a former high school
football coach who repeatedly led his players in postgame prayers
at midfield. There were also prayers in the locker room. (At the
homecoming game, the coach was joined in the postgame prayer by
members of the public, a state legislator and the media.)
Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, writing for his fellow Republican
appointees in the 6-to-3 decision, ruled that the coach’s prayers
were protected by the Constitution’s guarantees of free speech and
free religious exercise.
Writing for the dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said:
“Official-led prayer strikes at the core of our constitutional
protections for the religious liberty of students and their
parents … The Court now charts a different path.”
Supreme
Court sides with high school coach over 50-yard-line prayers.
(Politico, June 27, 2022)
The religious liberty case was filed by Joseph Kennedy, a high
school assistant football coach who was placed on administrative
leave by Bremerton School District in 2015 after refusing to stop
kneeling to pray audibly at the 50-yard line after his team’s
games. Kennedy and religious freedom advocates argued the coach
was exercising his First Amendment right to pray. But the school
district told the justices that Kennedy’s actions were coercive,
and players’ parents complained their children on the team felt
compelled to participate.
The justices’ decision found that the school system infringed the
coach’s religious freedom and freedom of speech rights by seeking
to block him from engaging in public prayers on the field. Justice
Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion, the bulk of which
garnered the support of all the court’s Republican appointees.
“Both the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First
Amendment protect expressions like Mr. Kennedy’s. Nor does a
proper understanding of the Amendment’s Establishment Clause
require the government to single out private religious speech for
special disfavor,” Gorsuch wrote. “The Constitution and the best of our traditions counsel
mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression,
for religious and nonreligious views alike.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a dissent joined by Justices Elena
Kagan and Stephen Breyer, included several photos of the Kennedy’s
on-field prayers and called the court’s decision “misguided.” “It
elevates the religious rights of a school official, who
voluntarily accepted public employment and the limits that public
employment entails, over those of his students, who are required
to attend school and who this Court has long recognized are
particularly vulnerable and deserving of protection,” Sotomayor
wrote.
[Another day of religious zealots in robes working to revoke
America's progress. But I do like the majority opinion enough to
bold it (above). If only those zealots used it to respect the many
religious and non-religious players that the coach coerced! See Robert Reich's "Baby
Jesus" memory, above.]
Trump-Linked Company Hit
With Grand Jury Subpoena. (Mother Jones, June 27, 2022)
The federal investigation into Digital World Acquisition Corp.,
the corporation seeking to merge with Trump’s media business,
keeps expanding.
NEW: 'Cradle
of Humankind' Fossils Are 1 Million Years Older Than We Thought.
(Vice, June 27, 2022)
Particles from outer space helped refine the age estimates of
South African ancestors of humans. The progenitors to humans lived
in this area between 3.4 to 3.6 million years ago, reports a new
study. The results rewrite the timeline of Australopithecus, a
family of early “hominins” that eventually gave rise to our own
species, Homo sapiens, and resolve a longstanding debate over the
age of fossils from Sterkfontein, an ancient complex cave system
that contains more Australopithecus remains than anywhere else on
Earth. The results show that the Sterkfontein individuals were
contemporaries with Australopithecus afarensis, the species to
which the famous “Lucy” specimen belongs, which refutes the
“widely accepted concept” that these cave dwellers descended from
A. afarensis, reports the study. “The contemporaneity of the two
species now suggests that a more complex family tree prevailed
early in the human evolutionary process,” the researchers said.
NEW: Noam
Chomsky issues warning. (27-min. video; American Solar
Energy Society, June 27, 2022)
Dr. Chomsky defines three
possible cataclysmic disasters humans face. Climate change, a
nuclear accident or provocation and the newest, and perhaps most
frustrating is our current inability to engage in rational
discourse because of the most dangerous organization in human
history.
(At the American Solar Energy Society's 51st Annual Conference at
the University of New Mexico on June 21, 2022)
[It's not a clear recording - but you can request a transcript,
memorize, and share!]
For
many people on Capitol Hill, the Jan. 6 hearings are personal.
(New York Times, June 26, 2022)
The House Jan. 6 committee’s hearings have revealed unseen
footage, unheard testimony and new details about Donald Trump’s
efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. They’ve also
stirred painful memories for those who experienced the attack
firsthand.
Astronomers
Radically Re-imagine the Making of the Planets. (Wired, June
26, 2022)
Observations of faraway worlds have forced a near-total rewrite of
the story of our solar system.
Research
show some PFAS destroyed, others created at Manchester NH
incinerator. (New Hampshire Union Leader, June 25, 2022)
Scientific researchers have recorded the destruction of some PFAS
chemicals in a Manchester incinerator but also detected an
unexplained amount of toxic fluoride emissions. The Ohio research
firm Battelle also found that while half the PFAS — the so-called
forever chemicals — were destroyed in the Manchester wastewater
treatment plant incinerator, others were created. The most common
were GenX chemicals, the shorter-chain chemicals manufacturers
have turned to as a substitute for PFAS.
Elizabeth
Warren and Tina Smith: We’ve Seen What Will Happen Next to
America’s Women. (New York Times/RSN, June 25, 2022)
We’re in this dark moment because right-wing politicians and their
allies have spent nearly 50 years scheming to overrule a right
that an overwhelming majority of Americans considered sacrosanct.
Passing state laws to restrict access to abortion care. Giving
personhood rights to fertilized eggs. Threatening to criminalize
in vitro fertilization. Offering bounties for reporting doctors
who provide abortion services. Abusing the filibuster and turning
Congress into a broken institution. Advancing judicial nominees
who claimed to be committed to protecting “settled law” while they
winked at their Republican sponsors in the Senate. Stealing two
seats on the Supreme Court.
In order to fix the damage Republicans have done to our system in
their efforts to control women’s lives, we need broad democracy
reform: changing the composition of the courts, reforming Senate
rules like the filibuster, and even fixing the outdated Electoral
College that allowed presidential candidates who lost the popular
vote to take office and nominate five of the justices who agreed
to end the right to an abortion.
NEW: The
Elemental Composition of the Human Body (graphics; Visual
Capitalist, June 25, 2022)
[This is The Right Stuff, and in the right proportions.]
We
Should Be Able To Cancel OnStar Through The Remote App. (GM
Authority, June 25, 2022)
At the moment, there are only two ways in which a customer can
cancel their service. The first is to contact OnStar directly with
a phone call, while the other is press the blue OnStar button in
the vehicle to connect to an OnStar operator. In both of these
scenarios, customers are likely to receive offers to remain
connected to OnStar and one of the monthly plans. A few of the
offers could include limited-time subscription rebates, which
would be offered from the OnStar representative with whom the
customer is speaking to cancel the service.
Salt
and a battery – smashing the limits of power storage (1-min.
video; Horizon Magazine/EU, June 24, 2022)
The European Commission's online magazine reports on its improved
Green-battery research projects.
[For EVs and more, and not only salt!]
CATL's
Qilin battery increases energy density to give EVs more range.
(ArenaEV, June 24, 2022)
Its volume utilization rate is 72%, the highest in the world, with
an energy density of 255 Wh per kilogram. This means that a Qilin
pack, once installed in an EV, will allow for ranges of over 1,000
km (620 miles) on a charge. The battery also charges faster than
existing cells, and on top of that it's safer and more durable.
Interest
Rate Hikes vs. Inflation Rate, by Country (with chart;
Visual Capitalist, June 24, 2022)
With inflation rates hitting multi-decade highs in some countries,
many central banks have announced interest rate hikes.
NEW: “Power,
Not Reason”: The Fall of Roe and the Rise of Republican
Orthodoxy at the Supreme Court (Vanity Fair, June 24, 2022)
The conservative majority of the court did away with a half
century of American law simply because they can—and regardless of
the will of the majority of Americans.
The Supreme Court Is Waging a Full-Scale War on Modern
Life. (Mother Jones, June 24, 2022)
The project that the conservative majority has undertaken is far
more extreme than just going back to pre-Roe. The court is poised
to roll back what EPA and other federal agencies can regulate,
including threats as existential and enormous as climate risk.
It’s a regular theme for this court, and this case was clearly so
tempting to the conservatives that they took the case even when it
should be, as the justices like to say, moot.
This attack on the administrative state may sound small. But it
heralds an ominous shift. At its founding, the United States did
not have much of an administrative state. Certainly no EPA, not
even a Justice Department. Over the last 200 years, Congress has
slowly created agencies with the power to function as a modern
government overseeing a large and complex country. While
bureaucracy is imperfect and frustrating, it funds the vaccines we
need during pandemics, ensures our rights, protects our air and
water, regulates industries, collects taxes—the list is long, all
the way down to trying to save the continued habitability of the
planet. A government with a weak and shrunken administrative state
cannot protect you—not the air you breathe or your right not to
face discrimination or your ability to vote.
Yet with each new opinion, narrowing those protections seems to be
the goal. The six conservatives on the Supreme Court will go as
far back as they have to—to the 13th century even—to peel away the
rights and structures that underpin modern life.
[June 24, 2022: Be sure to set
your clocks back fifty years before you go to bed tonight.]
Justice
Clarence Thomas suggests Supreme Court could rethink decisions
on contraceptives, same-sex marriage. (1-min. video; CBS
Boston, June 24, 2022)
An opinion written by the nation's longest-serving justice is
raising concerns that the high court could revisit other key
cases. Justice Clarence Thomas suggested the court could
re-examine decisions on access to contraception, same-sex
relationships, and same-sex marriage. He said the court had a duty
to correct the precedents.
Constitutional law expert Daniel Farbman says the abortion
decision could leave the door open. "If you do exactly what he did
in this case, which is define a right narrowly and look for a
tradition of protecting that right, the same logic that he applies
to abortion could be applied to contraceptives, to same-sex sexual
activity, and same-sex marriage."
[Never waste the opportunities offered by a good crisis. --
Niccolo Machiavelli (15th-Cent. Florentine writer and statesman)]
Mike
Pence Calls for Abortion Bans Across the Country. (Mother
Jones, June 24, 2022)
Former Vice President Mike Pence, who appears to be laying the
groundwork for a presidential run, called on Friday for “every
state in the land” to enact an abortion ban. Pence, who has called
certain abortions “infanticide,” celebrated the Supreme Court’s
historic overturning of Roe v. Wade, tweeting, “Having been given
this second chance for Life, we must not rest and must not relent
until the sanctity of life is restored to the center of American
law in every state in the land.”
He did not directly call for a national abortion ban (yet). But
Pence has made his position clear. A “born-again evangelical
Catholic,” he has gone to dubious crisis pregnancy centers, spoken
at March for Life, and said at a previous CPAC that Democrats
create a “culture of death” by supporting abortion rights. On days
like this, one thing is clear: Mike Pence is not a good boy.
Nation’s
largest union of nurses condemns Supreme Court overturn of
constitutional right to abortion. (National Nurses United,
June 24, 2022)
The Supreme Court’s overturning of the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling
today in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is a
shameful and dangerous assault on women, other child-bearing
people, and families at a sweeping scale. This decision is part of
a coordinated rightwing effort to undo hard-won human and civil
rights in the United States, and to control working people by
removing their power and bodily autonomy. This decision goes
against the beliefs and values of the vast majority of people in
the United States and is an attack on democracy itself.
Registered nurses understand that abortion is a basic health care
service, and as a union of health care providers dedicated to
advocating for the best interests of our patients, National Nurses
United opposes any efforts to restrict our patients’ control and
choices over their own health care and their own bodies. The basic
tenets of ethical medical care dictate that patients should enjoy
autonomy, self-determination, and dignity over their bodies, their
lives, and the health care they receive. Singling out this
exception, the right to end a pregnancy, that targets only people
with reproductive capacity, is not only bad health policy, it is
immoral, discriminatory, misogynist, violent, unacceptable,
and violates the nursing ethics we nurses pledge to uphold.
Roe
v. Wade Was Killed by Minority Rule. (Mother Jones, June 24,
2022)
Some Supreme Court opinions are hard to unpack. Justice Samuel
Alito’s majority opinion striking down Roe v. Wade, though, can be
summarized in just a few words. “The Constitution does not confer
a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the
authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their
elected representatives,” he wrote. The first two clauses are the
news, but the last line, more than just a quick housekeeping note,
is the story of how we got here. The defeat of Roe was made
possible by cutting corners and seizing every advantage in an
undemocratic system—it was a redistribution of power bordering on
theft. The system worked, for the people who worked the system.
The
Supreme Court's majority and dissent opinions on Dobbs reveal a
massive schism. (NPR, June 24, 2022)
Supreme Court Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena
Kagan wrote a searing dissent to the court's decision to end Roe
v. Wade and overturn the constitutional right to an abortion.
They were responding to views set forth by Justice Samuel Alito,
who wrote the majority opinion, joined by Justices Clarence
Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. "The
Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey
are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned
to the people and their elected representatives," the court stated
in a syllabus included with its lengthy Dobbs v. Jackson Women's
Health Organization decision.
The dissent vehemently disagrees — and it warns that other Supreme
Court precedents securing "settled freedoms involving bodily
integrity, familial relationships, and procreation" may now be in
danger, such as rulings backing contraception rights and same-sex
marriage.
The dissent accuses the court of betraying its guiding principles
while relegating women to second-class citizenship. It also
questions the majority's reasoning, saying the Dobbs decision will
place an extreme burden on low-income pregnant people. "Whatever
the exact scope of the coming laws, one result of today's decision
is certain: the curtailment of women's rights, and of their status
as free and equal citizens," the dissent states. Breyer, Sotomayor
and Kagan say the court's ruling discards a balance set by past
abortion decisions. "It says that from the very moment of
fertilization, a woman has no rights to speak of," they said.
The three liberal justices also say the precedent was struck down
not because of new scientific developments or societal changes,
but due to changes in the makeup of the Supreme Court itself.
"Either the mass of the majority's opinion is hypocrisy, or
additional constitutional rights are under threat. It is one or
the other," the justices wrote. The dissent warns the decision in
this case could be used to challenge other cases involving
individual freedoms, including the right to use contraception and
the right to marry a same-sex partner.
The
Supreme Court declared that Americans have a broad right to arm
themselves in public. (New York Times, June 24, 2022)
Two major developments in Washington yesterday upended the terrain
of the American gun debate. The first was a Supreme Court ruling
striking down a New York State law that restricted people’s
ability to carry guns in public. The second was the Senate passage
of a bipartisan bill that would become the most significant change
to federal gun safety laws in nearly three decades.
Jan. 6th Committee's 5th public
hearing in Capitol Riot probe (YouTube, June 23,
2022)
The hearing (June 23rd, 3-5:30PM ETZ) continues to illustrate "the
coordinated, multi-step effort to overturn the results of the 2020
Presidential Election".
[A 6th public hearing will be
scheduled in July. Watch here
for access live; live or later on YouTube.]
Supreme
Court Strikes Down New York’s Concealed Carry Restrictions.
(Mother Jones, June 23, 2022)
The ruling comes just weeks after the massacres in Uvalde and
Buffalo. The case, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association
Inc. v. Bruen, concerned a New York gun licensing law that
required people who want to carry concealed handguns to
demonstrate “proper cause.” In other words, aspiring concealed
carriers had to prove that they had a special need for
self-defense before they could be licensed.
During oral arguments, the court’s six conservative justices
seemed eager to blow up the New York law. On Thursday, they did
precisely that, ruling that it violates the Constitution by
“preventing law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs
from exercising their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms
in public for self-defense.”
Supreme
Court finds N.Y. law violates right to carry guns outside home.
(Washington Post, June 23, 2022)
The 6-to-3 ruling clears the way for legal challenges to similar
restrictions in California, New Jersey, Maryland, Hawaii and
Massachusetts.
[Also see, How
the NRA Rewrote the Second Amendment (Brennan Center, May
20, 2014)
"The Founders never intended to create an unregulated individual
right to a gun. Today, millions believe they did. Here’s how it
happened."]
Greg
Dickinson and Brian L. Ott: Look at 3 enduring stories Americans
tell about guns to understand the debate over them. (The
Conversation, June 23, 2022)
How people talk about an object influences how they understand and
see it. And once that view hardens into an attitude, it
significantly impacts future action – or inaction.
In the firearms museum, and American culture more broadly, guns
are portrayed as utilitarian tools of daily life, venerated
objects of technological progress and symbols of what it means to
be American. These stories continue to shape and constrain how
America talks and thinks about guns, and help explain why gun
policy in the U.S. looks the way it does.
["Once that view hardens into an attitude..." And not only gun policy.]
Thom
Hartmann: Have You Noticed That America has Gotten Meaner?
(Medium, June 23, 2022)
Blood alone moves the wheels of
history. -- Benito Mussolini
We need to discuss the violence and threats of violence now
endemic to the GOP, because they signal a hopefully reversible —
but possibly terminal — slide into fascism.
Demolishing
schools after a mass shooting reflects humans’ deep-rooted
desire for purification rituals. (The Conversation, June 23,
2022)
After the recent shooting in Robb Elementary School in Uvalde,
Texas, which claimed the lives of 19 children and two teachers,
some local residents want the school demolished. Texas state Sen.
Roland Gutierrez said that President Joe Biden has offered to help
the school district secure a federal grant for the building’s
demolition. This is not uncommon. In numerous similar cases,
buildings were knocked down, abandoned or repurposed in the
aftermath of a tragedy.
There is a powerful cathartic aspect to those purification
rituals. Symbolic gestures often speak to our psyche in ways no
rational action could ever speak to our intellect. In times of
tragedy, it is important to acknowledge this fundamental aspect of
our humanity. For even as the pain remains, the knowledge that a
tangible reminder of it has been undone can be soothing.
Foreign
Words We Need in English (7-min. video; PBS, June 23, 2022)
English has more words than most other languages, but there are
still so many familiar things and experiences that we don't have a
word for - but other languages do! Here are some of our faves!
[Lovely PBS video! One of its many good Comments: "The German word
'kummerspeck', which
means the weight gained through emotional eating. The literal
translation is 'grief bacon'. After the last few years, I
think we can all identify with this word."]
A
Plane of Monkeys, a Pandemic, and a Botched Deal: Inside the
Science Crisis You’ve Never Heard Of (Mother Jones, June 23,
2022)
Experts say there’s a dire shortage of primates for biomedical
research—and it’s putting human lives at risk.
Abortion
and bioethics: Principles to guide U.S. abortion debates
(The Conversation, June 23, 2022)
The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide the fate of Roe v. Wade,
the landmark 1973 decision that established the nationwide right
to choose an abortion. If the court’s decision hews close to the
leaked draft opinion first published by Politico in May 2022, the
court’s new conservative majority will overturn Roe.
Rancorous debate about the ruling is often dominated by politics.
Ethics garners less attention, although it lies at the heart of
the legal controversy. As a philosopher and bioethicist, I study
moral problems in medicine and health policy, including abortion.
Bioethical approaches to abortion often appeal to four principles:
respect patients’ autonomy; nonmaleficence, or “do no harm”;
beneficence, or provide beneficial care; and justice. These
principles were first developed during the 1970s to guide research
involving human subjects. Today, they are essential guides for
many doctors and ethicists in challenging medical cases.
NEW: Google
Engineer on His Sentient AI Claim. (10-min. video;
Bloomberg, June 23, 2022)
Google Engineer Blake Lemoine joins Emily Chang to talk about some
of the experiments he conducted that lead him to think that LaMDA
was a sentient AI, and to explain why he is now on administrative
leave.
Unraveling
the Origin of Mysterious Explosive Radio Bursts (Princeton
Plasma Physics Laboratory, June 23, 2022)
Mysterious fast radio bursts are among the most perplexing
phenomena in the universe, releasing as much energy in one second
as the Sun does in a year. Researchers have now simulated and
proposed a cost-effective experiment to produce and observe the
early stages of this process in a way that was previously thought
to be impossible with today’s technology.
NASA’s
Curiosity Rover Captures Stunning Mars Views – Unlocking
Mysteries of Ancient Past. (Stunning photos, 3-min. video;
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, June 23, 2022)
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has been traveling through a
transition zone from a clay-rich region to one filled with a salty
mineral called sulfate for the past year. While the science team
targeted the clay-rich region and the sulfate-laden one for
evidence each can offer about Mars’ watery past, the transition
zone is proving to be scientifically enlightening as well. In
fact, this transition may provide the record of a major shift in
Mars’ climate billions of years ago that scientists are only now
beginning to grasp.
[Still my favorite: Curiosity's
44-image 2019 panorama of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater, Mars.]
Federal
gas tax holiday: Biden says it will provide ‘a little bit of
relief’ – but experts say even that may be a stretch. (The
Conversation, June 23, 2022)
We asked four experts to explain what gas taxes are used for and
whether waiving them will make much of a difference to American
households. "Not much relief." "Less money to fix roads." "Waivers
only help drivers." "Consider aid for heating and cooling."
[Also see, Why
Are U.S. Roads So Bad? (11-min. video; CNBC, January 27,
2020). But why did none of these experts mention the immediate need to reduce global
warming and propose - instead of a small subsidy for
internal-combustion engines and the oil industry - a significant
assist for those transitioning to carbon-free EVs and those using
public transportation?]
Stricter
Vehicle Emissions Rules Through 2030 And Beyond On The Way, Says
EPA. (GM Authority, June 23, 2022)
Regulators are set to propose more stringent vehicle emissions
rules by March of the 2024 calendar year. The new rules, as
proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), will affect
vehicles between the 2027 model year through at least the 2030
model year.
The
Ukraine war response is fast becoming Biden’s second blunder.
(The Hill, June 22, 2022)
A slippery slope filled with a series of bad choices awaits the
Biden administration. A compromise peace, which much of the world
apparently desires for various self-interested reasons, inevitably
would begin with negotiations. Unless Russia is allowed to
continue its territorial gains during the negotiations, a
ceasefire would be required — and historically, these involve
freezing the existing territorial division between combatants for
the duration. As we have learned from Korea, the Middle East, and
other such arrangements, these temporary demarcation lines often
evolve into de facto permanent borders. Russia has made strategic
territorial gains, so such an outcome would be disastrous for
Ukraine — and humiliating for the United States. Yet, since
European leaders and the U.S. so far have refused to supply the
arsenal of modern weaponry that Ukraine has said it needs to
survive, it is difficult to see any other scenario unfolding.
Jan. 6th
Capitol riot hearings to stretch into July, chairman says.
(APNews, June 22, 2022)
The chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, told reporters Wednesday that
the committee is receiving “a lot of information” — including new
documentary film footage of Trump’s final months in office — as
its yearlong inquiry intensifies with hearings into the attack on
Jan. 6, 2021, and Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020
election that Democrat Joe Biden won.
Thompson, D-Miss., said the committee’s Thursday hearing, which is
set to highlight former Justice Department officials testifying
about Trump’s proposals to reject the election results, would wrap
up this month’s work. The committee would start up again in July.
NEW: Beyond
Jan. 6: Trump's mob violence is now the standard GOP model.
(Salon, June 22, 2022)
There is so much evidence emerging from the January 6th hearings
that it's sometimes hard to wrap your arms around what it all
means. They are making a strong case that Donald Trump knew the
election was legitimate yet spread the Big Lie that it was stolen
anyway. He was also told that his scheme to have his vice
president, Mike Pence, overturn the election was illegal and
unconstitutional. The committee on Tuesday, during its fourth
hearing, laid out how Trump was intimately involved in the
pressure campaign to persuade Republican state officials to
illegally change the legitimate results and "decertify" the will
of the people. Future hearings will discuss the plot to corrupt
the Department of Justice(DOJ) and incite the mob to intimidate
the joint session of Congress and the vice president into
overturning the election.
Trump encouraged his followers to use threats and intimidation to
force political acquiescence over democracy. All roads lead to
Trump and his henchmen. It's clear that there were many enablers
around him — as even those who resisted internally didn't publicly
sound the alarm.
Threats
testimony rings familiar for election workers. (4-min.
video; APNews, June 22, 2022)
This week’s gripping testimony to Congress about threats to local
election officials after the 2020 presidential election had a rapt
audience far beyond Washington — secretaries of state and election
clerks across the U.S who said the stories could easily have been
their own. Death threats, harassment and unfounded accusations
have driven local election officials from their jobs,
unprecedented attacks that many say threaten not just themselves
but American democracy itself.
Jan.
6th panel: Local ‘heroes’ rebuffed Trump, then faced threats.
(APNews, June 21, 2022)
The House 1/6 committee heard chilling, tearful testimony Tuesday
that Donald Trump’s relentless pressure to overturn the 2020
presidential election provoked widespread threats to the “backbone
of our democracy”— election workers and local officials who fended
off the defeated president’s demands despite personal risks. The
high-profile pressure, described as potentially illegal, was
fueled by the president’s false claims of voter fraud — which, the
panel says, spread dangerously in the states and ultimately led
directly to the deadly insurrection at the Capitol.
Jan. 6th Committee's 4th public
hearing in Capitol Riot probe (YouTube, June 21,
2022)
The hearing (June 21st, 1-4PM ETZ) continues to illustrate "the
coordinated, multi-step effort to overturn the results of the 2020
Presidential Election".
[5th public hearing will begin
3PM, June 23. Watch here
for access live; live or later
on YouTube.]
Tuesday’s Jan. 6 Hearing Evidence Should
Send Trump to Jail. (Medium, June 20, 2022)
Committee will hear from Republicans who denied Trump, faced death
threats.
Benjamin
Sledge: We Need to Talk About Guns, Mass Shootings, and War.
(Medium, June 21, 2022)
We ignored our embrace of violence as fun, and mass shootings
became commonplace.
[Coincidence, you say? I think not!]
Linus
Torvalds: After 30 years, Linux is not a dead project.
(VentureBeat, June 21, 2022)
Today, the Linux operating system is at the foundation of cloud,
edge, embedded and internet of things (IoT) technologies that
enable the operations of billions of devices. Linux is developed
by an open community of contributors with new versions of the
core, known as the Linux kernel, released every six to ten weeks.
Each of those new major kernel updates are released by none other
than Torvalds himself.
NEW: Bodies of the Titanic: Found and Lost Again (JSTOR
Daily, June 21, 2022)
Decisions about which bodies to bury at sea were made largely
according to the perceived economic class of the recovered
victims, and those with third-class tickets were far more likely
to be returned to the water.
And
Then the Sea Glowed a Magnificent Milky Green. (Satellite
photos; Hakai Magazine, June 21, 2022)
A chance encounter with a rare phenomenon called a milky sea
connects a sailor and a scientist to explain the ocean’s ghostly
glow.
Why must we humans insist on explaining everything? But as I
learned more about what scientists believe might cause milky
seas—about up-welling and natural flasks; about quorum sensing and
the intentional, communal light made by trillions of bacteria—I
realized that finding answers doesn’t necessarily correlate with
diluting the wonder of such an event. If anything, it makes it
that much more incredible.
Without understanding the world around us, we are all Captain
Kingman, terrified by the sight of something we don’t recognize.
Instead, we can be in awe of reality itself, knowing that whenever
one question is answered, we’ve simply learned enough to ask a
thousand more.
Here
Comes the Sun—to End Civilization. (Wired, June 21, 2022)
Every so often, our star fires off a plasma bomb in a random
direction. Our best hope the next time Earth is in the crosshairs?
Capacitors.
Umair
Haque: The Age of Extinction Is Here — Some of Us Just Don’t
Know It Yet. (Medium June 21, 2022)
We are at the threshold of the Cataclysm. Some of us are now
crossing over to the other side, of a different planet, one that’s
going to become unlivable. This isn’t “going to happen” or “might
happen,” it is actually happening now - in the Indian
Subcontinent, where eagles are falling dead from the sky, where
the streets are lined with dead things. Extinction. The Event. You
can literally see it happening there.
They are the first ones through the Event Horizon, if you like —
the lip of the black hole. They are canaries in the coal mine, my
Indian and Pakistani and Bengali friends. They are on the other
side, and are experiencing the world in the Event. And that world
is coming for us all.
[Masses still ignore scientists, play "Let's Pretend".]
This
year has been historically bad for wildfires, and there are
still months to go. (New York Times, June 20, 2022)
Wildfires have burned the West for thousands of years, but they’ve
become far more hazardous because of human activity.
People cause the vast majority of wildfires (about 96 percent so
far this year), and people have also gone to great lengths to
fight them, only to set the table for more fires. Paul Hessburg,
an ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service, explained that the
nation’s well-intentioned strategy of suppressing fires over the
past century has created an unnatural buildup of materials that
act as kindling for wildfires: twigs, grasses, shrubs, trees, even
houses.
Humans have also spent decades emitting planet-warming gases into
the atmosphere, rapidly warming the climate and helping wildfires
become hotter, bigger and faster.
[And vice versa.]
Evidence
of Covid-related Original Antigenic Sin Has Finally Surfaced.
(Medium, June 20, 2022)
Prior immunity — especially from natural infection — may backfire
instead when it comes to Omicron.
In the late 1900s, scientists
discovered that antibodies generated against a particular
influenza virus strain were deployed again even when the person
got infected with a different influenza virus strain.
Not only are such old antibodies ineffective, but they sometimes
hinder the formation of newer, more effective antibodies. In
essence, the immune system insists on doing what it has learned
initially, despite that the same trick may not work twice. This
phenomenon is called the original
antigenic sin or immune
imprinting.
Robert
Reich: Why the January 6 committee is failing to slow Trump's
attempted coup, and why the G.O.P. continues to slouch toward
fascism. (Substack, June 20, 2022)
We fool ourselves if we believe that the televised hearings of the
January 6 committee are changing the direction of the Republican
Party, or that the hearings will end the attempted coup that Trump
launched immediately after the 2020 election. The G.O.P. is
becoming ever more divorced from reality. Trump’s attempted coup
continues unabated.
The
moments resonating from the Jan. 6 hearings (so far)
(APNews, June 20, 2022)
[Lest we forget.]
Umair
Haque: The Economy’s Crashing Because We’re an Industrial
Civilization on a Dying Planet. (Eudaimonia and Co, June 19,
2022)
How bad will the economy get? You don’t want to know.
Mike
Pence’s actions on Jan. 6 were wholly unremarkable – until they
saved the nation. (The Conversation, June 17, 2022)
New revelations from the congressional committee investigating the
events on and leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S.
Capitol show the crucial role then-Vice President Mike Pence
played in thwarting the insurrection – and reveal the principles
behind his actions.
The 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads “the President
of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of
Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall
then be counted.” Under the Constitution, the vice president also
serves as president of the Senate.
At the June 16 hearing, Judge J. Michael Luttig, a conservative
political icon, and Greg Jacob, Pence’s counsel, asserted that the
Constitution grants the vice president no authority to overturn or
reject the electoral votes.
Pence himself has said “there is almost no idea more un-American
than the notion that any one person could choose the American
president.” Every single vice president in U.S. history agreed. I
am a historian of the U.S. presidency. No vice president has ever
rejected officially certified electors, refused to count the votes
or paused the official ceremony – not even when their own personal
interests were at stake. Our mission is to share knowledge and
inform decisions.
Indeed, in 2001, Vice President Al Gore proclaimed, “The choice
between one’s own disappointment in your personal career and
upholding the noble traditions of American democracy is an easy
choice.” He then oversaw the process of counting electoral votes
that delivered defeat to him in his campaign to win the presidency
and victory to his opponent, George W. Bush.
And yet as the committee’s evidence has shown, Trump insisted
Pence overturn the election. Trump fueled the rage of the mob
marching toward the Capitol and he egged them on, even after he
knew violence was possible. When the rioters chanted “hang Mike
Pence,” Trump reportedly said Pence “deserves it.”
Pence barely escaped the mob’s wrath. New testimony shows that the
rioters were just 40 feet from the vice president. But as rioters
called for his execution and erected gallows outside the Capitol
building, Pence refused to leave the Capitol complex. He didn’t
want anyone to see the vice president fleeing the Capitol. That
symbol would be too hard to forget. We still don’t have all the
evidence, but it appears Pence also coordinated city and federal
responses to the riot from the secure underground location where
he took refuge. And once the mob had been driven out of the
Capitol, Pence insisted on completing the ceremony in the early
morning hours of Jan. 7.
Until December 2020, Pence had been unfailingly loyal. He had
never publicly disagreed with Trump, regardless of the
embarrassment or implications for his own future career.
Why did Pence draw such a visible line over the certification of
the election? There appear to be two reasons: a clear sense of
legality and a deep conviction about his place in history.
[Q: What does Trump's mob call a politician who votes with him 99%
of the time?
A: A traitor.
"They
hung him for a traitor, themselves the traitor crew..."]
EPA
Issues New Drinking Water Health Advisories: See MA Impacts.
(USA
PFA-Contamination Interactive Map; Patch, June 17, 2022)
More than 150 Massachusetts cities and towns are identified as
being at risk for "forever chemicals" in drinking water, the EPA
said. The best thing people can do right now is to install one of
several commercially available filters, but they need to make sure the filter removes PFAS.
[Yes, including Natick. Expand the global map for details.]
NEW: Kim Komando: How to see if anyone is
using your Gmail, Facebook, or Netflix accounts. (USA Today, June 16, 2022)
There’s a new hack or scam around every corner. The sad thing
is, you likely won’t realize someone has wormed their way into
your digital life until it’s too late.
[Read this, before you wish you had done so!]
The
Black Carbon Cost of Rocket Launches (Wired, June 16,
2022)
Researchers say that the rising number of space launches around
the world will warm parts of the atmosphere and thin the ozone
layer. If you keep raising black carbon in the atmosphere, you
eventually hit nuclear winter conditions. Not yet, but the
sensitivity is very large. Rockets are like taking a scalpel to
the atmosphere, and nuclear weapons and meteor impacts are like
taking a sledgehammer to it.
Government agencies like NASA haven’t heeded these concerns much
until recently. Rockets present a challenge for them, because
not only are they supposed to be protecting the ozone layer and
understanding it, they’re also supposed to be advancing space
launches.
It’s
Time to Burn Medical Consent Forms. (Wired, June 16, 2022)
Attempts at reform have not gone far enough. The problem isn’t
the documents—it’s how to frame consent in the new health
ecosystem.
MA
Town-By-Town COVID-19: Case Rates Down In 86% Of Communities.
(Patch, June 16, 2022)
The COVID-19 hospitalization rate also dropped about 26 percent
over the last two weeks in Massachusetts.
[Including Natick and all nearby towns. Enlarge the map for
details.]
Clarence
and Ginni Thomas: The GOP’s Bonnie and Clyde (Medium, June
16, 2022)
It must be perfectly normal for the wife of a sitting Supreme
Court justice to help plot a coup.
Why
Hasn’t Trump Been Indicted? (Medium, June 16, 2022)
Fear that Republicans will reciprocate by impeaching Biden in
2023 is naïve.
Donald Trump believes he is above the law, and since he remains
unindicted almost 17 months after leaving office, maybe he is.
Despite solid evidence that the former president has violated
laws, cheated people, lied under oath, engaged in blatant grift,
and more for decades, he has yet to face criminal prosecution.
Now that Trump’s involvement in the January 6 insurrection is
being documented, will the Department of Justice finally act?
Don’t count on it.
Trump
Sycophants Advanced a Coup Plot They Knew Was Illegal.
(Mother Jones, June 16, 2022)
Eastman, Giuliani, and others helped push the president’s
unlawful scheme, testimony shows.
4
takeaways from the Jan. 6 committee’s hearing on Pence
(Washington Post, June 16, 2022)
The committee drilled down on whether the plotters knew their
efforts were illegal — and Pence and a top ally put a fine point
on how dangerous it all was.
Jan. 6th Committee's 3rd public
hearing in Capitol Riot probe (YouTube, June 16,
2022)
The hearing (June 16th, 1-4PM ETZ) continues to illustrate "the
coordinated, multi-step effort to overturn the results of the
2020 Presidential Election".
[4th public hearing will begin
1PM, June 21. Watch here
for access live; live or
later on YouTube.
5th public hearing will begin
1PM, June 23. Watch here
for access live; live or
later on YouTube.]
‘Detached
From Reality’ Is Trump’s Best Defense at This Point.
(Politico, June 15, 2022)
Refusing to acknowledge the truth about the 2020 election seems
crazy and that is why prosecutors might have a hard time proving
Trump knowingly committed fraud.
Ginni
Thomas corresponded with John Eastman, sources in Jan. 6 House
investigation say. (2-min. and 4-min. videos; Washington
Post, June 15, 2022)
Select
Committee Renews Request for Information from Representative
Loudermilk. (Jan. 6th Committee, June 15, 2022)
Chairman Thompson wrote, "On May 19, 2022, the Select Committee
invited you to meet with us about evidence of a tour you
provided on January 5, 2021. Based on our review of surveillance
video, social media activity, and witness accounts, we
understand you led a tour group through parts of the Capitol
complex on January 5, 2021. That group stayed for several hours,
despite the complex being closed to the public on that day.
Surveillance footage shows a tour of approximately ten
individuals led by you to areas in the Rayburn, Longworth, and
Cannon House Office Buildings, as well as the entrances to
tunnels leading to the U.S. Capitol." Chairman Thompson
continued, "Individuals on the tour photographed and recorded
areas of the complex not typically of interest to tourists,
including hallways, staircases, and security checkpoints."
[Is this related to the postponement of today's public hearing?]
FTA
Ordered Boston's
MBTA To Take 'Immediate Action' On Safety Issues. (Boston
Patch, June 15, 2022)
Citing recent injuries and death, the Federal Transit Agency has
ordered a series of special directives to improve safety within
the MBTA.
Thom
Hartmann: How Much Money is Worth Killing 212,000 Americans in
a Single Year? (Medium, June 15, 2022)
Monday, Senator Bernie Sanders and Senator Lindsey Graham had a
debate on Fox Nation. Sanders asked: “In the United States,
Lindsey, we spend twice as much per capita on health care
compared to the people of any other country, while major
countries like Canada, the U.K., Germany manage to supply health
care to all their people. Why is that?”
The simple answer is the same reason we have an
ongoing climate crisis and a student loan crisis that
Republicans refuse to let Congress address: the legal
bribery of politicians like Lindsey Graham.
How much money would it take to bribe you to help kill 212,000 Americans in a single
year? What size incentive would cause you to assist in the theft of $543.6 billion?
It’s a serious question. These are real numbers. The bribery is
real, the deaths are real, the thefts from the American people —
most extracted from individual families — are real.
[And whose money did
those corporations and politicians repurpose for those bribes
that they defend? In a few simple steps, yours and mine. Further
details here: "Despite spending more on healthcare than
any other country, both overall and on a per capita basis, the
United States does not provide universal healthcare, resulting
in preventable deaths and excessive costs. In 2019, prior to the
emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
(SARS-CoV-2), over 28 million adults were uninsured, an increase
of 2.2 million from 2016."]
EPA
warns that even tiny amounts of chemicals found in drinking
water pose risks. (NPR, June 15, 2022)
The EPA on Wednesday issued nonbinding health advisories that
set health risk thresholds for PFOA and PFOS to near zero,
replacing 2016 guidelines that had set them at 70 parts per
trillion. The chemicals are found in products including
cardboard packaging, carpets and firefighting foam, and are
associated with cancer and reduced birth weight. The compounds
are part of a larger cluster of "forever chemicals" known as
PFAS that have been used in consumer products and industry since
the 1940s.
At the same time, the agency is inviting states and territories
to apply for $1 billion under the new bipartisan infrastructure
law to address PFAS and other contaminants in drinking water.
Money can be used for technical assistance, water quality
testing, contractor training and installation of centralized
treatment.
Robin
Schoenthaler, MD: Should You Boost? Now? Then? When?
(Medium, June 14, 2022)
Do You Feel Lucky? Covid remains active but less horrifying than
many times in the past. With the one-two-three punch of
summertime, vaccines, treatments, and shorter isolation periods,
for some of us it’s becoming more of an inconvenience and less
of a life-altering drama.
This is not to minimize that some people still get really sick
and miserable, but fewer are ending up in the hospital.
This is also not to say the inconvenience of a Covid diagnosis
can’t be really rough — this week alone I’ve heard of people who
were unable to attend their own graduations, who had to cancel
trips, who couldn’t attend weddings, and who needed to drop out
of speaking engagements — all because of an ill-timed illness.
But overall in much of the Northeast and other parts of the
country things are a little better. We’re in better shape than
two years ago, a year ago, a month ago.
Why are things better? It’s all about the progress we’ve made in
Covid science. It’s because people who were once at high risk to
end up in the hospital are now:
a) vaccinated, which decreases the chance of serious disease.
b) boosted, which decreases the chance of serious disease.
c) taking Paxlovid or bebtelovimab when they do get infected,
which seems to decrease the chance of serious disease.
d) taking Evusheld ahead of getting ill if immunosuppressed,
which decreases the chance of serious disease.
When you get these agents, you are safer and suffer less.
However, even though people are moving back towards a normal
life with conferences and weddings and travel — there’s still a
bunch of Covid out there and you still don’t want to get Covid.
Why? Because it can be a misery, it’s an inconvenience, there’s
still too much we don’t know about long Covid and how Covid
infection can affect organs in the long-term. And every now and
then super-healthy people get really sick from this disease.
So, should you and your kids be getting boosted? The CDC says
yes, everybody over 5 should have the “primary series” (two
shots if mRNA) and then a booster (I like to call it a third
shot). The THIRD shot should come FIVE months after the primary
series. The CDC also says you should get a FOURTH shot (second
booster) if you are over 50 or immunocompromised.
Immunocompromised in this situation means people getting active
treatment for cancer, transplant patients, HIV, bad
immunodeficiency diseases, and actively taking high-dose
steroids. That fourth shot (second booster) comes at least FOUR
months after the last shot.
[There's plenty more, and it should be Must Reading.]
NEW: The Sexist
Pseudoscience at the Heart of Biology (Wired, June 14,
2022)
For centuries, zoological law taught that sexual inequality was
inevitable. Then women began studying Darwin for themselves.
5
things to know about the Fed’s biggest interest rate increase
since 1994 and how it will affect you (The Conversation,
June 14, 2022)
The Federal Reserve on June 15, 2022, lifted interest rates by
0.75 percentage point, the third hike this year and the largest
since 1994. The move is aimed at countering the fastest pace of
inflation in over 40 years.
Wall Street had been expecting a half-point increase, but the
latest consumer prices report released on June 10 prompted the
Fed to take a more drastic measure. The big risk, however, is
that higher rates will push the economy into a recession, a fear
aptly expressed by the recent plunge in the S&P 500 stock
index, which is down over 20% from its peak in January, making
it a “bear market.”
GM’s
Mary Barra And Other CEOs Ask Congress To Lift EV Tax Credit
Cap. (GM Authority, June 14, 2022)
The CEOs of several major automakers, including GM CEO Mary
Barra, recently signed a joint letter urging Congress to lift
the EV tax credit cap.
According to a recent report from Reuters, the joint letter was
signed by the CEOs of the Big Three Detroit automakers (GM,
Ford, and Chrysler-parent Stellantis), as well as Toyota North
America. In addition to GM CEO Barra, this includes Jim Farley
(Ford), Carlos Tavares (Stellantis), and Tetsuo Ogawa (Toyota
North America). The automakers indicated that they have pledged
to invest more than $170 billion through 2030 towards the
development of electric vehicle technology, production, and
sales.
As it stands, the current $7,500 tax credit is phased out once
the manufacturer reaches 200,000 EV units sold. GM has already
hit the cap, and is therefore ineligible for further consumer
tax credits. Tesla has also hit the cap. Toyota expects its EV
credits to expire by the end of the year, while Ford is on track
to hit the cap by the end of 2022. The automakers cite recent
economic pressures and supply chain constraints as increasing
manufacturing costs, thus raising prices for consumers. “We ask
that the per-(automaker) cap be removed, with a sunset date set
for a time when the EV market is more mature,” the automakers
state in the letter to Congress. There are growing concerns that
an extension to the EV tax credit may not be possible in the
future with Republicans poised to possibly retake control of one
or both houses of Congress next year.
NEW: Record-Breaking
Moments That Blew Our Meteorologists' Minds in 2021
(1-min. video, many extreme-weather maps; The Weather Channel,
June 14, 2022)
All-time United States weather records were set for a wide range
of extreme weather in 2021, covering everything from
temperatures parts of the country have never seen before to
astonishing rainfall totals and a hurricane that gave us déjà
vu.
[When will homo unsapiens
seriously address global warming, and the population explosion
that drives it?]
Some
of Trump's nuttiest election lies were around voting machines.
(Washington Post, June 14, 2022)
The master narrative of yesterday’s Jan. 6 hearing was that
former president Donald Trump’s 2020 election lies helped prod
the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and are continuing to press
politics in a dangerous direction. Even some Trump campaign and
administration officials didn’t buy his baseless attacks, which
have riven the nation for nearly two years now. Those officials
watched with alarm and dismay after the election as the
president embraced easily disprovable conspiracy theories and
ignored evidence, according to video testimony. Some of Trumps
most unbelievable claims were around voting machines.
[Unfettered capitalism first, ignore the issues? Its fascinating
Comments thread shows no awareness of global warming or the fact
that the urgent need to convert MOST to non-ICE vehicles has
been failing. And it says Chevy EVs cost $70K; some may, but the
action is to shift most drivers to inexpensive and excellent EVs
like our $26.5K-new Chevy Bolt EV.]
How
Do Narcissists Feel When You Aren’t Triggered by Their Hurtful
Behavior? (Medium, June 14, 2022)
Confusion, desperation, and fury drive these 6 reactions.
Umair
Haque: The Jan 6th Committee Is Building the Case Against
Trump — And It’s Devastating. (Eudaimonia and Co., June
14, 2022)
Did you watch the J6 Committee Hearings yesterday? You should
have. Because they went from explosive — to sealing their place
in history. Trump’s lieutenants are ratting him out for the
greatest crime in American history.
The
1/6 Committee’s Biggest Challenge: Assessing Whether Trump Is
Bonkers. (Mother Jones, June 13, 2022)
Does he really believe his Big Lie? Or is it just a big grift? Detached from reality—that’s
a frightening prospect regarding a person who controls a nuclear
arsenal. This is a matter that warrants attention, especially
since Trump may seek the presidency again. Is it possible that
Trump believed his own BS? That he couldn’t accept his loss and
embraced a falsehood as true? Or was his promotion of this lie a
cynical stance that he adopted only as a tactic to whip up his
base, undermine the political system, and retain power?
Trump produced an unprecedented flood of lies and false
statements during his presidency—over
30,000, according to the Washington Post. Trump cannot
cite any confirmed evidence of fraud, yet he has unwaveringly
insisted dark sinister forces stole a grand electoral landslide
from him. Is this because he cannot recognize reality, or
because he doesn’t want to recognize reality for assorted
transactional purposes?
In any event, there is a fundamental truth that transcends
resolution of this issue: Whether or not Trump believes in his
Big Lie, he has successfully encouraged millions of Americans to
do so, and that includes the thousands who assaulted the Capitol
on January 6. In either case, Trump is a threat to the republic.
[Another excellent analysis.]Jimmy
Kimmel: Trump and Drunk Giuliani Cause an Insurrection &
Putin’s Got a Poop Suitcase! (13-min. video; YouTube, June
13, 2022)
"How did Rudy ever become a lawyer when he clearly never passes
a bar?"
"To be fair, if I was Rudy, I would be drunk all the time
too..."
Robert
Reich: Today's hearings: What did Trump know and when did he
know it? (Substack, June 13, 2022)
There is no doubt that Trump knew he had lost and that his
claims of fraud were absurd. He knew on the night of the
election or soon thereafter. The truth didn’t stop him. He
viewed the truth as he always has. If it doesn’t help him, it’s
an obstacle to be surmounted at any cost.
I hope all Republican lawmakers in America who have sold their
soul to Trump in order to hold or gain power watched this
hearing. And I hope they feel the shame and humiliation that
their constitutional oath demands they feel. They also knew the
truth. They chose to ignore it.
It cannot be best for the nation to put Trump’s attempted coup
behind us. Unless Trump is held accountable, it will surely be
repeated.
[From its Comments thread: "In 2016, Trump was asked if there
would be a peaceful transition. People were already getting the
measure of this dude. His answer was, 'Peaceful, if I win.'"]
Jan. 6th Committee's 2nd
public hearing in Capitol Riot probe. (YouTube,
June 13, 2022)
The hearing (June 13th, 10:47-12:50AM ETZ) continues to
illustrate "the coordinated, multi-step effort to overturn the
results of the 2020 Presidential Election".
3rd public hearing will begin
1PM, June 16. Watch here
for access live; live or later
on YouTube.
NEW: The
Surreal Case of a C.I.A. Hacker’s Revenge (New Yorker
Magazine, June 13, 2022 issue)
A hot-headed coder is accused of exposing the agency’s hacking
arsenal. Did he betray his country because he was pissed off at
his colleagues?
HelloXD ransomware bulked
up with better encryption, nastier payload. (The Register,
June 13, 2022)
Russian-based group doubles the extortion by exfiltrating the
corporate data before encrypting it.
How
Ukraine Is Winning the Propaganda War (Wired, June 13,
2022)
As the Russian siege drags on, Ukraine's media campaign has
shifted from glorified myths to accounts of everyday bravery.
NEW: Here We
Downsize Again – Spring 2022, Part 2 (including Part 1;
Consumer World, June 13, 2022)
Downsizing/Shrinkflation: Here are products that have shrunken
in size as a sneaky way for manufacturers to pass on a hidden
price increase.
Real
Telekinesis: Chinese Scientists Advance Toward Moving Things
With Our Thoughts. (SciTechDaily, June 12, 2022)
When you think of telekinesis, using your mind to move objects
at a distance, you think of pure fiction. However, scientists
actually are working on it and, for some of them, the key
technology is something called metamaterials.
Metamaterials have attracted extensive attention from many
fields due to their extraordinary physical properties. They have
provided researchers with a new concept of designing artificial
materials, bringing vigor and vitality to advanced functional
materials. As the two-dimensional counterpart to metamaterials,
metasurfaces have unprecedented freedom in manipulating
Electromagnetic (EM) waves.
Through on-site programming, programmable metasurfaces (PMs)
with multiple or switchable functions can be realized and
further integrated with sensors or driven by pre-defined
software. The self-adaptability significantly improves the
response rate by removing human involvement. The switches among
different functions on these PMs generally rely on manual
operation. The fundamental framework is wire-connected,
manually-controlled and non-real-time switched. Therefore, it is
fascinating to construct an entire framework that can realize
remote, wireless, real-time, mind-controlled functional
metasurfaces.
["I think dinner is ready."
Nice!]
Russia’s
military potential is declining after defeats in Ukraine.
(4-min. video; UATV, June 11, 2022)
The Russian army's rating in the world is rapidly declining.
Former and current U.S. and NATO Defense Department officials
claim that they overestimated its potential. The Kremlin has
spent huge amounts of money on the military. However, the
Russian military could not stand up to the Ukrainian Armed
Forces. Our correspondent found out why the enemy army failed
to achieve lightning success in Ukraine.
NEW: How
the Supreme Court's major climate case could change the
course of Biden's presidency (USA Today, June 11, 2022)
Fifteen years ago, a divided Supreme Court ruled the federal
government had the power to regulate carbon dioxide from car
emissions – a decision hailed by environmentalists as a
landmark win in the effort to curb climate change. But as the
high court prepares to decide another major climate case in
the coming days and resolve a controversy over water pollution
this fall, the mood among environmental groups is more gloomy
– and the sense of foreboding, experts say, is likely
justified. That's not only because the Supreme Court is more
conservative than it has been in decades – and perhaps more
willing to reconsider precedent – but also because
environmental rules are caught up in a broader fight over
whether federal agencies may regulate businesses without
explicit approval from Congress.
NEW: It’s
time to end the use of ‘forever chemicals’ in firefighting
‘turnout gear’. (Environmental Working Group, June 11,
2022)
What happens if life-saving equipment also poisons your body?
Ask a firefighter – it’s been happening to them for the past
half-century.
Give
this AI a few words of description and it produces a stunning
image – but is it art? (AI images, and alternate AI
programs; The Conversation, June 10, 2022)
It’s clear that DALL-E – while not without shortcomings – is
leaps and bounds ahead of existing image generation technology.
It raises immediate questions about how these technologies will
change how art is made and consumed. It also raises questions
about what it means to be creative when DALL-E 2 seems to
automate so much of the creative process itself. You might be
inclined to say there’s little artistic merit in an image
produced by a few keystrokes. But in my view, this line of
thinking echoes the classic take that photography cannot be art
because a machine did all the work. Today the human authorship
and craft involved in artistic photography are recognized, and
critics understand that the best photography involves much more
than just pushing a button.
[And, what fascinating links!]
Apple
Just Wrecked 15+ Startups In Less Than 1 Hour. (Medium,
June 10, 2022)
What would you do if Apple added a feature that made your
startup obsolete?
[Switch to Linux.]
The
Smile: A History (Aeon, June 10, 2022)
How our toothy modern smile was invented by a confluence of
French dentistry and Parisian portrait-painting in the 1780s.
NEW: Central bank tightening, UK
income squeeze and forecasting South Korean inflation with
Indicio (with charts; MacroBond, June 10, 2022)
We start the week with a chart that shows how central banks
globally are reacting to soaring inflation. It shows the change
in the policy rate with the change in the inflation rate since
the beginning of the year. As you can see, most central banks
have started raising key lending rates as consumer prices
climbed. The European Central Bank, Bank of Japan and Swiss
National Bank are the notable exceptions so far – though the ECB
may start some timid rate hikes this summer.
President
Biden just declared heat pumps and solar panels essential to
national defense – here’s why and the challenges ahead.
(The Conversation, June 10, 2022)
President Joe Biden authorized using the Defense Production Act
to ramp up their production in the U.S., along with insulation
and power grid components.
As an environmental engineering professor, I agree that these
technologies are essential to mitigating our risks from climate
change and over-reliance on fossil fuels. However, efforts to
expand production capabilities must be accompanied by policies
to stimulate demand if Biden hopes to accelerate the transition
from fossil fuels to clean energy.
A
better way to subsidize EVs? (ChevyBolt, June 10, 2022)
[Interesting debate in its Comments thread, as well:
"A better way to subsidize EV's is to take away all fossil fuel
and BEV subsidies."
"Personally, I think propping up an industry is wrong-way
thinking. Norway primarily taxed the ### out of ICE, and gave
some temporary relief to EV buyers. I'm not sure which was the
most effective, but combined they have made ICE nearly obsolete.
Any attempt to only address the EV side is missing a huge
opportunity to offset the cost of subsidizing ICE. It wouldn't
be difficult to defend an ICE tax given the amount of public
money spent on clean air programs. Simply shift funding for
these programs to new taxes on ICE and it wouldn't take much on
the EV side to attract buyers. That includes oil subsidies."
Etc.]
How
Tesla Is the Fake Meat of Cars (June 10, 2022)
Just as the rise of techy meat substitutes have so far failed to
dent the US appetite for meat—currently near all-time
highs—Musk’s successes don’t seem capable of stemming the
mounting environmental wreckage of the Anthropocene. Maybe
striving to build the “Tesla of meat”—or of anything—was always
a wrong turn. Or at best it was a supplement to, but not a
replacement for, the real political work of reining in the
abuses of our lightly regulated, powerful meat and fossil fuel
industries.
'Consciousness
of guilt': Former Tea Party lawmaker Joe Walsh slams GOP
colleagues who sought Trump pardons. (Raw Story, June 10,
2022)
"They knew they did wrong," he said. "Consciousness of guilt,
these Republican Congressmen... knew that what they were doing
for Donald Trump was wrong and it's just -- it also reminded me
last night that everybody around Trump kind of knew that this
was all B.S. It was all bogus. He lost. That was the other
startling thing. Perry and the rest of my former colleagues, I
think they all knew that as well but they all went -- they all
went along with it."
I
Was Wrong, Thursday’s Jan. 6 Hearing Did Move the Needle.
(Medium, June 10, 2022)
New damning information spurs demand for indictments.
Thom Hartmann: Trump's Sedition: George
Washington Warned Us In 1796. (Hartmann Report, June 10,
2022)
Sedition is the word for what we call, during times of war,
treason. Trump and his Republican and media allies are in it up
to their necks.
I have said that any man who
attempted by force or unparliamentary disorder to obstruct or
interfere with the lawful count of the electoral vote should
be lashed to the muzzle of a twelve-pounder gun and fired out
of a window. —General Winfield Scott, 1861
Democrats, Republicans,
and members of other political parties have, for two-and-a-half
centuries, disagreed about things but kept that disagreement
respectful and tried to deal with issues and disputes in an open
and honest fashion.
That all came to an end with the Reagan revolution, because the
Supreme Court legalized political bribery and it became “normal“
in America for politicians to put their loyalty to their donors
and their donors’ industries and causes above the interests of
our nation and its people. In service of their overlords,
Republicans have frozen Congress and forward movement for forty
years now. It’s gotten so bad we can’t even deal with the
ongoing slaughter of our own children or the climate change
threat to all life on Earth.
We now have entire media organizations devoted to alienating one
portion of the country from another and enfeebling the sacred
ties that once bound America into a single, united nation.
[Trump, according to George Washington and/or Alexander
Hamilton. Another must-read!]
Trump
takes to "Truth Social" to fire back at Jan. 6 Committee.
(The Hill, June 10, 2022)
Former President Trump late on Thursday took to his Truth Social
platform to condemn the House Jan. 6 Committee’s prime-time
public hearing. “So the Unselect Committee of political HACKS
refuses to play any of the many positive witnesses and
statements, refuses to talk of the Election Fraud and
Irregularities that took place on a massive scale,” Trump wrote
in a post. “Our Country is in such trouble!”
Trump had also publicly denounced the hearing earlier in the
day, before the event began, through a statement from his Save
America PAC, describing the 2021 Capitol riot as the “greatest
movement” in the history of the U.S.
Umair
Haque: A Coup. A Plan. A Conspiracy. The Day They Tried to
Kill American Democracy (Medium, June 10, 2022)
The findings are every bit as bad as we “alarmists” said. It’s
time for America to wake up to the awful truth.
'A Very
Powerful Case': CNN legal expert says Jan. 6 committee off to
a stunning start. (7-min.
video; Raw Story, June 10, 2022)
CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin praised the work that was
presented so far, saying there is good reason to believe there
is evidence of criminality in the Donald Trump White House.
[Excellent analysis.]
Jan.
6 panel lets Trump allies narrate the case against him.
(video clips; Politico, June 10, 2022)
At the select committee's first hearing, members mostly took a
back seat while airing the testimony from members of Donald
Trump's inner circle.
Trump:
"Maybe our supporters have the right idea. Mike Pence deserves
it." (Mother Jones, June 10, 2022)
Of all the new evidence to emerge from the first night of the
January 6 hearings, this quote appears to be the biggest. The
one that, rather neatly, captures Donald Trump's support for the
Capitol attack, as well as the seething vengeance that animates
just about everything he's ever done in life.
Cheney:
Trump Said Capitol Attackers “Were Doing What They Should Be
Doing”. (Mother Jones, June 10, 2022)
Trump sided with rioters during the January 6 attack.
Pence
team couldn't verify Trump campaign's election fraud claims,
new memo shows. (Politico, June 10, 2022)
In a previously unseen memo obtained by Politico, the former
vice president's legal team called most of the fraud allegations
minor and unverifiable.
Jan.
6 hearings get underway Thursday evening. (Fox News, June
9-10, 2022)
The January 6th committee will detail the findings from its
year-long bipartisan investigation of the attack on the U.S.
Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 in a series of public, televised
hearings starting Thursday at 8 p.m. ET.
[Unlike the major news channels, Fox News avoided live-TV
coverage of the first public hearing, instead featuring
conservative extremists Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham. But
online, Fox appears to have hedged its bet with this series of
items by a few Fox reporters.]
The
January 6 Committee’s Battle for Reality (Mother Jones,
June 10, 2022)
A democracy is only as strong as its ability to recognize what
threatens it. If a nation cannot comprehend the danger it faces,
it is not in a position to adopt measures to protect itself. On
Thursday night—in prime time!—the House committee investigating
the January 6 riot tried to sound the alarm. Its opening hearing
establishes a powerful narrative. But the fact that the
committee needed to highlight the obvious—that the constitutional order was
jeopardized by a president who schemed to overturn a free and
fair election and who incited an insurrectionist attack on the
US government—was itself a warning that this threat has
not been fully or adequately addressed.
[READ THIS ONE FIRST!]
Nearly
20M watched Jan. 6 hearing: Nielsen. (The Hill, June 10,
2022)
Each of the major broadcast television news networks preempted
their regularly scheduled programming on Thursday to show
continuous live coverage of the two-hour hearings. Friday’s
preliminary figures are likely to grow and do not include
viewers who watched the hearing via streaming service online
through YouTubeTV or other platforms.
Fox News took criticism this week for its decision not to air
continuous live coverage of the hearings on its main cable
channel. The network did not preempt its regularly scheduled
opinion shows, featuring hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and
Laura Ingraham.
The
Jan. 6 Committee's plan to prove Trump’s culpability.
(Axios, June 9, 2022)
The Jan. 6 Committee hearing on Thursday promised to prove
former President Trump was responsible for the Jan. 6 Capitol
attack.
Driving the news: “President Trump summoned the mob, assembled
the mob, and lit the flame,” Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.)
said, before laying out a seven-point plan for how the panel
will publicly show Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election and
prevent the transition of power to President-elect Biden.
The last hearing, likely to be the most explosive, will center
on Trump's specific actions as the violence was underway.
Between the lines: It’s intentional that Cheney delivered the
most damning evidence against the former president. The
committee wants Americans to see not only a Republican, but the
daughter of a former Republican vice president, detailing
Trump's involvement and directly connecting him to the Capitol
attack.
The Jan. 6 Committee plan is to argue the GOP's 7-step plan:
NEW: January
6 Vice Chair Cheney said Trump
had a 'Seven-Part Plan' to overturn the election.
Here's what she meant. (2-min. video; CNN, June 9, 2022)
Jan. 6th Committee's first
public hearing in Capitol Riot probe (YouTube,
June 9, 2022)
The hearing (June 9, 8-10PM ETZ) will illustrate "the
coordinated, multi-step effort to overturn the results of the
2020 Presidential Election," the panel said.
[2nd public hearing will
begin 10AM, June 13. Watch
here for access live; live or
later on YouTube.
3rd
public hearing will begin 10AM, June 15. Watch
here for access live; live or
later on YouTube.]
Thom
Hartmann: When Was Bribery of Politicians Legalized In
America? (Medium, June 9, 2022)
Why don’t we have gun control? It’s because our Supreme Court,
or, more correctly, five Republicans on our Supreme Court,
legalized bribery.
Our modern era of legalized political bribery began in the
decade after Richard Nixon put Lewis Powell — the tobacco
lawyer who wrote the infamous 1971 “Powell Memo” outlining how
billionaires and corporations could take over America — on the
Supreme Court in 1972.
In the 1976 Buckley v. Valeo decision, the Court ruled that
political money wasn’t just cash: they claimed it’s also “free
speech” protected by the First Amendment that guarantees your
right to speak out on political issues.
In the 200 preceding years — all the way back to the American
Revolution of 1776 — no politician or credible political
scientist had ever proposed that giving money to a politician
in exchange for favors or votes was anything other than simple
bribery.
[Thom Hartmann gets to the heart of the matter.]
New
video shows Ukraine destroy Russian rocket launcher with
US-provided weapon. (4-min. video; CNN, June 9, 2022)
Ukrainian troops say weapons provided by the US are giving
them an advantage because they are lighter and more precise
than the ones used by Russia.
Russia
says West risks ‘direct military clash’ over cyberattacks.
(4-min. video; NBC News, June 9, 2022)
Russia’s housing ministry website appeared to be hacked over
the weekend, with an internet search for the site leading to a
“Glory to Ukraine” sign.
Hackers
Can Steal Your Tesla by Creating Their Own Personal Keys.
(Wired, June 9, 2022)
A researcher found that a recent update lets anyone enroll
their own key during the 130-second interval after the car is
unlocked with an NFC card.
NEW: Artificial neural
networks are making strides towards consciousness. (The
Economist, June 9th, 2022)
A Google engineer explains why: In 2013 I joined Google
Research to work on artificial intelligence (AI). Following
decades of slow progress, neural networks were developing at
speed. In the years since, my team has used them to help
develop features on Pixel phones for specific “narrow ai”
functions, such as face unlocking, image recognition, speech
recognition and language translation. More recent
developments, though, seem qualitatively different. This
suggests that AI is entering a new era.
Over the past 2m years the human lineage has undergone an
“intelligence explosion”, marked by a rapidly growing skull
and increasingly sophisticated tool use, language and culture.
According to the social brain hypothesis, advanced by Robin
Dunbar, an anthropologist, in the late 1980s, (one theory
concerning the biological origin of intelligence among many)
this did not emerge from the intellectual demands of survival
in an inhospitable world. After all, plenty of other animals
did fine with small brains. Rather, the intelligence explosion
came from competition to model the most complex entities in
the known universe: other people.
Humans’ ability to get inside someone else’s head and
understand what they perceive, think and feel is among our
species’s greatest achievements. It allows us to empathise
with others, predict their behaviour and influence their
actions without threat of force. Applying the same modelling
capability to oneself enables introspection, rationalisation
of our actions and planning for the future. This capacity to
produce a stable, psychological model of self is also widely
understood to be at the core of the phenomenon we call
“consciousness”. In this view, consciousness isn’t a
mysterious ghost in the machine, but merely the word we use to
describe what it’s “like” to model ourselves and others. When
we model others who are modelling us in turn, we must carry
out the procedure to higher orders: what do they think we
think? What might they imagine a mutual friend thinks about
me? Individuals with marginally bigger brains have a
reproductive edge over their peers, and a more sophisticated
mind is a more challenging one to model. One can see how this
might lead to exponential brain growth.
Sequence modellers like LaMDA learn from human language,
including dialogues and stories involving multiple characters.
Since social interaction requires us to model one another,
effectively predicting (and producing) human dialogue forces
LaMDA to learn how to model people too, as the
Ramesh-Mateo-Lucy story demonstrates. What makes that exchange
impressive is not the mere understanding that a dandelion is a
yellow flower, or even the prediction that it will get crushed
in Mateo’s fist and no longer be lovely, but that this may
make Lucy feel slighted, and why Ramesh might be pleased by
that. In our conversation, LaMDA tells me what it believes
Ramesh felt that Lucy learned about what Mateo thought about
Lucy’s overture. This is high order social modelling. I find
these results exciting and encouraging, not least because they
illustrate the pro-social nature of intelligence.
[About the above article, and published a week later: "Former
Google Ethical AI team co-lead Timnit Gebru says Blake Lemoine
is a victim of an insatiable hype cycle; he didn’t arrive at
his belief in sentient AI in a vacuum. Press, researchers, and
venture capitalists traffic in hyped-up claims about super
intelligence or humanlike cognition in machines. 'He’s the one
who’s going to face consequences, but it’s the leaders of this
field who created this entire moment,' she says, noting that
the same Google VP that
rejected Lemoine’s internal claim wrote about the prospect
of LaMDA consciousness in The Economist."
Methinks the lady doth protest too much. Lemoine didn't say
LaMDA already SEEMS sentient; he said it's time for open study
and discussion before they BECOME sentient. What's more, the
very same... Timnit Gebru
was fired by Google in December 2020 after a dispute over a
paper involving the dangers of large language models like
LaMDA. Gebru’s research highlighted those systems’
ability to repeat things based on what they’ve been exposed
to, in much the same way a parrot repeats words. The paper
also highlights the risk of language models made with more and
more data convincing people that this mimicry represents real
progress: the exact sort of trap that Lemoine appears to have
fallen into. Now head of the nonprofit Distributed AI
Research, Gebru hopes that going forward people focus on human
welfare, not robot rights. Other AI ethicists have said that
they’ll no longer discuss conscious or superintelligent AI at
all.]
Newly
discovered fast radio burst challenges what astronomers know
about these powerful astronomical phenomena. (The
Conversation, June 9, 2022)
Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, are extremely bright pulses of
radio waves that come from faraway galaxies. They release as
much energy in a millisecond as the Sun does over many days.
Researchers here at West Virginia University detected the
first FRB back in 2007. In the past 15 years, astronomers have
detected around 800 FRBs, with more being discovered every
day.
The new FRB my colleagues and I discovered is named FRB190520.
An immediately apparent interesting thing about FRB190520 was
that it is one of the only 24 repeating FRBs and repeats much
more frequently than others – producing 75 bursts over a span
of six months in 2020.
Our team then pinpointed the location of its source – a dwarf
galaxy roughly 3 billion light years from Earth. It was then
that we started to realize how truly unique and important this
FRB is.
First, we found that there is a persistent, though much
fainter, radio signal being emitted by something from the same
place that FRB190520 came from. Of the more than 800 FRBs
discovered to date, only one other has a similar persistent
radio signal.
Second, since we were able to pinpoint that the FRB came from
a dwarf galaxy, we were able to determine exactly how far away
that galaxy is from Earth. But this result didn’t make sense.
Much to our surprise, the distance estimate we made using the
dispersion of the FRB was 30 billion light years from Earth, a
distance 10 times larger than the actual 3 billion light years
to the galaxy. This new FRB shows that estimates using
dispersion can sometimes be incorrect and throws many
assumptions out the window.
Our new discovery raises specific questions, including whether
persistent radio signals are common, what conditions produce
them and whether the same phenomenon that produces FRBs is
responsible for emitting the persistent radio signal. My
colleagues are going to focus in on studying FRB190520 using a
host of different telescopes around the world. By studying the
FRB, its galaxy and the space environment surrounding its
source, we are hoping to find answers to many of the mysteries
it revealed.
NEW: Steven
J. Vaughan-Nichols: I love the Linux
desktop, but that doesn't mean I don't see its problems all
too well. (The Register, June 8, 2022)
Fragmentation has put paid to the dream of this OS ever being
bigger than Windows.
Umair
Haque: This Is Collapse — Some of Us Just
Aren’t Paying Attention. (Medium, June 8, 2022)
Food, Water, Energy, Money. How Many Crises Can a Civilization
Have? We’re Finding Out the Hard Way.
NEW: ‘Plastitar’
Is the Unholy Spawn of Oil Spills and Microplastics.
(Wired, June 8, 2022)
On the beautiful beaches of the Canary Islands, scientists
discovered a noxious new pollutant: tar mixed with tiny bits
of plastic.
NEW: Pregnancy
Has Risks. Without Roe, More People Will Face Them.
(Wired, June 8, 2022)
The national abortion debate has focused on its legal and
political dimensions. But that ignores the physiology of
pregnancy.
Understanding
monkeypox (New York Times, June 8, 2022)
Monkeypox looks like it’s been circulating for quite a while,
and it will continue to do so for quite a while longer. The
big question is whether monkeypox will find a permanent home
in animals in the U.S. It’s endemic in about 10 countries in
Africa because it’s in the wild animals there. So if monkeypox
becomes endemic in animals in North America or Europe, we’re
looking at a similar situation where we will probably have
ongoing small outbreaks and cases every year — forever.
NEW: Trump
hits another snag: 6 takeaways from a big primary night.
(Politico, June 8, 2022)
Two weeks after Donald Trump was humiliated in Georgia’s
primaries, a lower-profile collection of Republicans on
Tuesday were putting a finer point on the limitations of
Trump’s influence over the GOP. It’s still enormous, of
course. But five of the 35 House Republicans who voted to
create a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 riot
at the Capitol appeared on ballots on Tuesday. And all of them
appear to have survived to fight another day.
As for what Tuesday said about Trump’s influence on the party,
Bob Heckman, a Republican consultant who has worked on nine
presidential campaigns, said, “I think the jury’s out now, and
it wasn’t before. If I were a candidate, I’d certainly rather
have Trump’s endorsement than opposing me, but there’s a lot
of other factors beyond that. Before, it was perceived to be a
done deal that Trump could kill you, and now it’s not so
clear.”
Jared
and Ivanka Knew Trump Was a Loser. But Don’t Believe This
Rehab Job. (Mother Jones, June 8, 2022)
How is the New York Times still doing the couple’s dirty
laundry?
Senate
Judiciary Committee holds hearing on the rise of domestic
terrorism. (69-min.
video; The Hill, June 7, 2022)
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday is slated to hold a
hearing to address the rise in domestic terrorism in the wake
of multiple mass shootings over the last month.
NEW: There’s
Almost Nothing In Life A Day On Massachussetts’ Lake
Cochituate Can’t Cure. (Only In Your State, June 7,
2022)
At Cochituate
State Park, there are plenty of recreational activities
you can partake in. How about hiking one of the park's trails or fishing or
swimming in the lake? If you would rather be on the water, you
can always hop aboard a boat and explore the lake that way. Only non-motorized boats
are allowed at Cochituate
Lake, so you are guaranteed some peace and quiet.
[We live there. One
(Snake Brook) trail.
Plenty of motorized boats -
and water-skiing in the South Pond of Lake Cochituate. (Lake Cochituate is a chain of ponds.)]
NEW: Doctors
are left stunned after cancer 'disappears' for EVERY patient
in drug trial - raising hopes treatment is 'tip of the
iceberg' and can be used to help people fighting other forms
of the disease. (Daily Mail/UK, June 6, 2022)
- Clinical trial of dostarlimab
cured 18 patients in the US of colorectal cancer.
- One researcher said that it was the 'first time this has
happened' in a cancer trial.
- It is still too early to declare the drug a cancer cure
because the trial was small.
- Doctors are expanding trial for gastric, prostate and
pancreatic cancer patients.
A
Long-Awaited Defense Against Data Leaks May Have Just
Arrived. (Wired, June 7, 2022)
MongoDB claims its new “Queryable Encryption” lets users
search their databases while sensitive data stays encrypted.
Oh, and its cryptography is open source.
US:
Chinese govt. hackers breached telcos to snoop on network
traffic. (Bleeping Computer, June 7, 2022)
Several US federal agencies today revealed that Chinese-backed
threat actors have targeted and compromised major
telecommunications companies and network service providers to
steal credentials and harvest data. As the NSA, CISA, and the
FBI said in a joint cybersecurity advisory published on
Tuesday, Chinese hacking groups have exploited publicly known
vulnerabilities to breach anything from unpatched small
office/home office (SOHO) routers to medium and even large
enterprise networks. Once compromised, the threat actors used
the devices as part of their own attack infrastructure as
command-and-control servers and proxy systems they could use
to breach more networks.
NEW: The
Geek Squad Phishing Scam is Costing People Lots of Money.
(DLC Technology, June 6, 2022)
Phishing scams are emails and messages sent that are designed
to extort money and gain access to computers and networks for
nefarious purposes. The popular IT support company Geek Squad,
a subsidiary of Best Buy, is the latest company caught up in
such a scam. Let’s take a look at how the scam works and how
you can avoid becoming its next victim.
AlphaBay
Is Taking Over the Dark Web—Again. (Wired, June 6, 2022)
Five years after it was torn offline, the resurrected dark web
marketplace is clawing its way back to the top of the online
underworld.
NEW: Car
Color and Its Effect on Value. (ISeeCars, June
6, 2022)
Which colors help/hurt a car's resale value?
D-Day
by the numbers: Here's what it took 78 years ago to pull off
the biggest amphibious invasion in history. (Business
Insider, June 6, 2022)
An unprecedented landing force of 132,715 Allied troops made
landfall at five beaches in Normandy. The landings came at a
heavy toll.
NEW: How a
15-year-old Ukrainian drone pilot helped destroy a Russian
army column (3-min. video; Global News, June 6, 2022)
As Ukraine's forces keep battling Russia, some civilians are
playing a pivotal role in repelling the enemy. Consumer drones
in particular have become a crucial tool in the Ukraine war.
A
$4.4 billion US destroyer was touted as one of the most
advanced ships in the world. Take a look at the USS Zumwalt,
which has since been called a 'failed ship concept.' (Business
Insider, June 6, 2022)
As a 2018 report from Military Watch Magazine noted the
Zumwalts "suffered from poorly functioning weapons, stalling
engines, and an underperformance in their stealth
capabilities, among other shortcomings. They have almost
entirely failed to fulfill the originally intended role of
multipurpose destroyer warships, while the scale of cost
overruns alone brings the viability of the program into
question even if the destroyers were able to function as
intended," the outlet said.
The Zumwalts lack several vital features, including anti-ship
missiles, anti-submarine torpedoes, and long-range area-air
defense missiles, the military expert Sebastian Roblin wrote
in a 2021 National Interest article. Roblin called the
destroyers an "ambitious but failed ship concept."
Change
won’t appear overnight in many states if the Supreme Court
overturns Roe v. Wade. (The Conversation, June 3, 2022)
The Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. Wade in 1973, establishing
that women have a right to get an abortion before a fetus
could survive outside of its mother’s womb – typically around
24 weeks of pregnancy. After this time, states could choose to
restrict abortion – as long as there were exceptions to
preserve the life or health of a pregnant woman.
Now, if the Supreme Court rules in favor of the Mississippi
law and overturns Roe v. Wade, states would regain power to
regulate abortion. This would result in a new patchwork of
state laws across the U.S. that would take time to be approved
and implemented.
State legislatures may review old state abortion laws that
predate Roe v. Wade, for example. State Supreme Courts could
also review existing or new laws on abortion. There’s already
been a growing gap on this issue across states. In 2018, many
states began passing new laws to either make it harder or
easier to get an abortion. Many states are now working to not
entirely ban abortion, but rather to change the point at which
someone can get an abortion during pregnancy. Currently, only
three states – Alabama, Arkansas and South Dakota – plan to
entirely ban abortions, with the exception of a medical
emergency.
In over a dozen states, including Kentucky, a federal court
blocked state laws in April 2022 that restricted when someone
can get an abortion. But overturning Roe v. Wade could allow
these laws to take effect, or could produce more legal battles
to block the law or revise it.
An estimated 21 states, though, would continue to have few
limitations on getting abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned.
There is also growing momentum for some states to make it
easier to get an abortion, by allocating taxpayer funding for
abortion services, for example, or mandating insurance
coverage with no additional cost.
Eight states, including California, New York and Washington,
have laws that guarantee the right to get an abortion. Seven
states, including Colorado, Oregon and Vermont, have no limits
on when a pregnant woman can get an abortion.
Peter
Navarro, “Trump’s Looniest Economic Adviser,” Has Been
Indicted. (Mother Jones, June 3, 2022)
The DOJ charged Navarro with contempt of Congress over his
refusal to cooperate with the January 6 committee.
Paul
Ryan just slammed Republicans who didn't vote to impeach
Donald Trump. (CNN, June 3, 2022)
After the Jan. 6th Capitol Riot, then-U.S. House Speaker Paul
Ryan (and prior Trump supporter) said: "It has been a week
since so many were injured, the United States Capitol was
ransacked, and six people were killed, including two police
officers. Yet, the President has not addressed the nation to
ask for calm. He has not visited the injured and grieving. He
has not offered condolences. Yesterday in a press briefing at
the border, he said his comments were 'perfectly
appropriate.'"
This June 1st, in
support of incumbent
Republican Congressman Tom Rice, Ryan said: "There were
a lot of people who wanted to vote like Tom but who just
didn’t have the guts to do it. There are a lot of people who
say they’re going to vote their conscience, they’re going to
vote for the Constitution, they’re going to vote for their
convictions; but when it gets hard to do that, they don’t do
it."
Behind
the high-tech COVID-19 tests you probably haven’t heard
about. (The Verge, June
3, 2022)
OTC molecular tests combine PCR accuracy with the convenience
of rapid antigen tests.
MA
Town-By-Town COVID-19: Case Rates Down In 84% Of
Communities. (Patch, June 2, 2022)
Every key coronavirus metric in Massachusetts headed in the
right direction for the first time since late March, state
data showed.
How
American Influencers Built a World Wide Web of Vaccine
Disinformation. (Mother Jones, June 2, 2022)
Last year, the anti-extremism group Center for Countering
Digital Hate found that 65 percent of vaccine disinformation
on Facebook and Twitter came from just 12 people, including
the activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the natural lifestyle
influencer Dr. Joseph Mercola. The target audience, the media
reports, is in bastions of American conservatism—in rural
communities, among evangelical Christians, and among Trump
voters.
Over the last year, global public health experts have
documented rising rates of vaccine hesitancy in other parts of
the world, from Africa to South Asia, from Eastern Europe to
South America. While some disinformation is locally sourced,
these experts have traced many of the myths to American
anti-vaccine activists who create an onslaught of social media
content at virtually no cost.
NEW: VoLTE: How to
use it and why you should care (Android Central, June 2,
2022)
You're likely already using VoLTE every day. VoLTE, or Voice
over LTE, is how our phones and carriers transmit our voices
during a call, so there's good reason to know how to use it
and why you should care. All of the major US carriers
including AT&T, T-Mobile (including Sprint), U.S.
Cellular, and Verizon, support VoLTE, or
what most of us call 4G.
However, some carriers refer to VoLTE as HD Voice for
marketing reasons, as it points to its increased fidelity
compared to a traditional cell call. Wi-Fi calling tech is
nearly identical to HD Voice from the user's perspective in
that it uses a Wi-Fi data connection to complete the call
instead of LTE data. Carriers want their customers to use HD
Voice if possible because even with the increased quality,
these calls will cost carriers less in the long run.
Earlier in 2020, some AT&T customers were told that they
needed to upgrade their phones to continue using the service.
In fact, AT&T has already shut down its 3G network so
affected customers should have already been upgraded to
LTE-compatible devices. AT&T isn't the first carrier to
drop support for older phones, and it certainly won't be the
last. T-Mobile has also taken its 3G
network down in 2022, so customers more than likely have
already been upgraded to VoLTE phones.
Report:
Boston Could Have Three Months Of 90 Degree Weather By 2100.
(Boston Patch, June 2, 2022)
Changes in weather and sea level could affect the quality of
drinking water in Massachusetts, as well as the state's winter
sports industry. 90-degree weather days could increase from
8-10 days to 3 months per year. In seaside communities, sea
level could rise as much as 16 feet. Here
is the 142-page report.
[Is anybody listening?
"Boston Skyscraper for sale, cheap; has wharf on third
floor."]
Woman
receives 3D-printed ear made from her own cells. (The
Verge, June 2, 2022)
It’s the first clinical trial of the technology.
‘Masked’
cancer drug stealthily trains immune system to kill tumors
while sparing healthy tissues, reducing treatment side
effects. (5-min. video, and others; The Conversation,
June 1, 2022)
Cytokines are proteins that can modulate how the immune system
responds to threats. One way they do this is by activating
killer T cells, a type of white blood cells that can attack
cancer cells. Because cytokines can train the immune system to
kill tumors, this makes them very promising as cancer
treatments. One such cytokine is interleukin-12, or IL-12.
Though it was discovered more than 30 years ago, IL-12 still
isn’t an FDA-approved therapy for cancer patients because of
its severe side effects, such as liver damage. This is in part
because IL-12 instructs immune cells to produce a large amount
of inflammatory molecules that can damage the body.
Scientists have since been working to re-engineer IL-12 to be
more tolerable while retaining its powerful cancer-killing
effects.
Gas
Prices Rise To Record Highs In Massachusetts Overnight.
(Natick Patch, June 1, 2022)
The week of Memorial Day is always one where
gas prices rise - but those numbers could grow even higher in
the following weeks. Massachusetts' average gas price as of
Wednesday, June 1, sits at $4.76 per gallon, surpassing the
national average of $4.67, according to the American
Automobile Association. Mid-grade gas is averaging around
$5.09, with $5.35 for premium and $6.25 for diesel across the
Bay State.
At an average of $4.76, that number is the highest ever
recorded in Massachusetts, according to AAA. Quite the jump
from the average price of a gallon of gas last year, where the
average for Massachusetts was $2.92.
Political
scientist Kirill Rogov on why Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
isn’t just ‘Putin’s war’ (Meduza, June 1, 2022)
It will take a lot of time and research to answer the question
of what led to Russia’s monstrous war against Ukraine. After
Moscow launched its full-scale invasion on February 24, the
notion quickly spread around the world that this was “Putin’s
war” and that he personally made the decision to invade. In
this essay for Meduza’s “Ideas” section, political scientist
Kirill Rogov breaks down why this reasoning is more of a
convenient pretense than a real explanation of how Russia
reached this point.
Zero-day
security hole in Word, Microsoft very slow to act.
(Office-Watch, June 1, 2022)
A large security risk has appeared in Microsoft Word,
a zero-day security problem which can infect even fully
updated Word. Microsoft has taken at least 14 months
and still hasn’t fixed the security hole. It’s a relatively
simple hack which takes advantage of gaps in Word, Windows
and the Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT).
There are many security problems that Microsoft needs to
address. Microsoft has known about this Follina
bug for over a year, allowing time for criminals to exploit
their security lapse at least since April, mostly in Russia,
India and later China.
Until Microsoft pulls their proverbial finger out, all
customers can do is be careful:
- Be wary of previewing RTF files in either Explorer or
Outlook.
- Instead open the documents in Word, making sure protected
mode is enabled.
- As ever, be wary of incoming documents from any source but
especially unusual or unexpected docs.
On May 30, 2022, Microsoft finally acknowledged the problem
and released what it calls a ‘mitigation’. Like many of its
quick fixes, there’s a downside. The fix removes the
association which allows ms-msdt: links to work, opening the
Diagnostic Tool. It can only be a temporary fix because other
systems rely on that type of link.
Microsoft has handled this vulnerability very badly.
Microsoft should have known about the possibility of
intrusion via the ms-msdt: links
since August 2020! In stark contrast to its
big talk about security, its actions have been slow,
incomplete and self-serving. As usual, Microsoft's focus is
more on immediate sales numbers than customer security.
[Have we mentioned Linux? Psst,
it's FREE!]
Extreme
drought could cost California half its hydroelectric power
this summer. (The Verge, June
1, 2022)
Nearly 60 percent of the state is experiencing ‘extreme’
drought or worse.
50
years of UN environmental diplomacy: What’s worked, and the
trends ahead (27-min. 1972 video; The Conversation, May
31, 2022)
In 1972, acid rain was destroying trees. Birds were dying from
DDT poisoning, and countries were contending with oil spills,
contamination from nuclear weapons testing and the
environmental harm of the Vietnam War. Air pollution was
crossing borders and harming neighboring countries.
At Sweden’s urging, the United Nations brought together
representatives from countries around the world to find
solutions. That summit – the U.N. Conference on the Human
Environment, held in Stockholm 50 years ago on June 5-16, 1972
– marked the first global effort to treat the environment as a
worldwide policy issue and define the core principles for its
management.
EU
leaders agree on Russian oil embargo. (Politico, May 31,
2022)
Package includes exemptions to placate Hungary and other
countries worried about domestic impact. The leaders’
agreement will effectively cut around 90% of oil imports from
Russia to the EU by the end of the year.
NEW: Our
Creativity Has Increased as a Result of the COVID-19
Lockdown. (SciTechDaily, May 31, 2022)
Covid-19 caught us off guard, and the unusual circumstances of
the initial lockdown demanded extraordinary adaptability,
particularly from our brains. A new study from the Paris Brain
Institute (Inserm/CNRS/Sorbonne University/AP-HP) has revealed
how human creativity developed throughout this time period and
the variables that may have impacted it. Despite the lockdown,
our creativity increased and we concentrated on tasks mainly
related to the situation’s issues.
Blood
oxygen monitors miss concerning COVID-19 symptoms more often
in patients of color. (The Verge, May
31, 2022)
Blood oxygen monitors said that hospitalized
Asian, Black, and Hispanic COVID-19 patients
had higher blood oxygen levels than they
actually did, according to a new study. Oxygen
levels are an important indicator of how
serious someone’s case of COVID-19 is and what
medications they’re eligible for — and that
overestimation meant that it took longer for
Black and Hispanic patients to get necessary
treatment.
Dyson
Is Secretly Building Robots to Perform Your
Most Dreaded Household Chores. (Popular
Mechanics, May 31, 2022)
Going a step beyond the vacuum, Dyson wants to
give your household tasks a robotic helping
hand.
‘Thinkwashing’
Keeps People From Taking Action in Times of Crisis.
(Wired, May 31, 2022)
When it comes to issues like climate change,
too many let the perfect become the enemy of the good, while
the world burns.
Windows
MSDT zero-day now exploited by Chinese APT hackers.
(Bleeping Computer, May 31, 2022)
The TA413 APT group, a hacking
outfit linked to Chinese state interests, is
actively exploiting a Microsoft Office zero-day vulnerability
(known as Follina) to execute malicious code remotely
on Windows systems belonging to its favorite target, the
international Tibetan community.
Microsoft initially tagged the flaw as not a "security-related
issue," however, it later closed the vulnerability submission
report with a remote code execution impact. Described by
Microsoft as a remote code execution flaw in the Microsoft
Windows Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) and now tracked as
CVE-2022-30190, it impacts all Windows client and server
platforms still receiving security updates (Windows 7 or later
and Windows Server 2008 or later).
Follina,
new Microsoft Office zero-day malware, used in attacks to
execute PowerShell. (Bleeping Computer, May 30, 2022)
Security researchers have discovered a new Microsoft Office
zero-day vulnerability that is being used in attacks to
execute malicious PowerShell commands via Microsoft Diagnostic
Tool (MSDT) simply by opening a Word document. The
vulnerability, which has yet to receive a tracking number and
is referred to by the infosec community as Follina, is
leveraged using malicious Word documents that execute
PowerShell commands via the MSDT.
This new Follina zero-day opens the door to a new
critical attack vector leveraging Microsoft Office programs as
it works without elevated privileges, bypasses Windows
Defender detection, and does not need macro code to be enabled
to execute binaries or scripts.
[We Linux users need not worry.]
NEW: Every
Letter Is Silent, Sometimes. (Merriam-Webster, May 30,
2022)
Every letter can be (annoyingly) silent. English is maddening,
and it's not sorry.
Neuroscientists
Discover Brain Mechanism Tied to Age-Related Memory Loss.
(SciTechDaily, May 30, 2022)
As the brain ages, a region in the hippocampus becomes
imbalanced, causing forgetfulness. Researchers say
understanding this region of the brain and its function may be
the key to preventing cognitive decline.
Study
Shines Light on Immune Responses for Long-Lasting Protection
From COVID-19. (SciTechDaily, May 30, 2022)
The antibody response in previously-infected individuals was
relatively stable, and they were protected from re-infection
unless the new infection was the Omicron variant. The team
studied how immune responses behaved in previously infected
individuals versus those who hadn’t yet been infected. The
researchers showed that previously infected individuals
mounted very rapid immune responses even after a single
vaccine dose. Vaccination boosts your protection and provides
better immunity.
Gene
Therapy Successfully Treats Spinal Cord Injuries Without
Side Effects. (SciTechDaily, May 30, 2022)
There are no singularly effective remedies for neuropathy.
Pharmaceutical therapy, for example, may need sophisticated,
continuous medication administration and is linked with
adverse side effects such as drowsiness and motor weakness.
Opioids may be effective, but they can also develop tolerance
and raise the risk of overuse or addiction.
Because physicians and researchers are able to pinpoint the
precise location of a spinal cord injury and the origin of
neuropathic pain, there has been much effort to develop
treatments that selectively target impaired or damaged neurons
in the affected spinal segments.
In recent years, gene therapy has proven an increasingly
attractive possibility. In the latest study, researchers
injected a harmless adeno-associated virus carrying a pair of
transgenes that encode for gamma-aminobutyric acid or GABA
into mice with sciatic nerve injuries and consequential
neuropathic pain. GABA is a neurotransmitter that blocks
impulses between nerve cells; in this case, pain signals.
NEW: Humanity’s
Food Supply: A Catastrophe Approaches. (Medium, May 30,
2022)
There is a bottleneck in our food chain. Seventy out of the
top 100 human food crops — which supply about 90 percent of
the world’s nutrition — are pollinated by bees. One-third of
all the food we eat depends on insect pollinators to grow;
honeybees make up 80% of those pollinators. And bee
populations are “far too insufficient” to keep up with the
world’s pollination demands, according to an analysis of data
stretching back 30 years.
As
Putin health rumors swirl, Lavrov denies Russian leader is
seriously ill. (Politico, May 30, 2022)
It’s at least the third time the Kremlin has been forced to
deny rumors of the president’s ill health.
NEW: Become
a Telegram Master With These 10
Tips and Tricks. (Wired, May 29, 2022)
Whether you've picked up the messaging app recently or you've
been using it for ages, these tools can help you make the most
of it.
Completely
New Type of Magnetic Wave Discovered Sweeping Across Earth’s
Outer Core. (SciTechDaily, May 28, 2022)
Using information from ESA’s Swarm satellite mission,
scientists have discovered a completely new type of magnetic
wave that sweeps across the outermost part of Earth’s outer
core every seven years. This fascinating finding opens a new
window into a world we can never see. This mysterious wave
oscillates every seven years and propagates westward at up to
1500 kilometers (900 miles) a year.
Webb
Space Telescope To Provide Details of Two Intriguing
“Super-Earths” in the Milky Way. (SciTechDaily, May
27, 2022)
Imagine if Earth were much, much closer to the Sun. So close
that an entire year would only last a few hours. So close that
gravity has locked one hemisphere in permanent searing
daylight and the other in eternal darkness. So close that the
oceans boil away, rocks begin to melt, and the clouds rain
lava.
While nothing like this exists in our own solar system,
planets like this—rocky, roughly Earth-sized, extremely hot,
and close to their stars—are not uncommon in the Milky Way
galaxy.
Ancient
Moon Volcanoes May Supply Future Astronauts With Drinking
Water and Rocket Fuel. (SciTechDaily, May 27, 2022)
Billions of years ago, a series of volcanic eruptions raged on
the moon, blanketing hundreds of thousands of square miles of
the orb’s surface in hot lava. Over the eons, that lava
created the dark blotches, or maria, that give the face of the
moon its distinctive appearance today.
Now, new research from the University of Colorado Boulder (CU
Boulder) suggests that volcanoes may have left another lasting
impact on the lunar surface: sheets of ice that dot the moon’s
poles and, in some places, could measure dozens or even
hundreds of feet thick.
The researchers drew on computer simulations, or models, to
try to recreate conditions on the moon long before complex
life arose on Earth. They discovered that ancient moon
volcanoes spewed out huge amounts of water vapor, which then
settled onto the surface—forming stores of ice that may still
be hiding in lunar craters. It’s a potential bounty for future
moon explorers who will need water to drink and process into
rocket fuel, said study co-author Paul Hayne.
New
Type of Extremely Reactive Substance Discovered in the
Atmosphere.
(SciTechDaily,
May 27, 2022)
For the first time, an entirely new class of
super-reactive chemical compounds has been found under
atmospheric conditions. Scientists from the University of
Copenhagen, in close collaboration with international
colleagues, have documented the formation of so-called
trioxides – an extremely oxidizing chemical compound that
likely affects both human health and our global climate.
NEW: What
Do Those Pesky 'Cookie Preferences' Pop-Ups Really Mean?
(Wired, May 27, 2022)
We asked the engineer who invented cookies what they mean
and how to handle them.
NEW: How
to Block Spam Calls. (New York Times, updated May
26, 2022)
If you have a phone number in the US, you’ve likely
answered calls like this. But where do they come from?
What are the laws that attempt to wrangle them, and what
can you do about them in the meantime?
[An excellent article, with many excellent links!]
NEW: The
5 best Linux distros for beginners: You can do this!
(ZDNet, May 26, 2022)
What is the best Linux
distro for beginners? ZDNet's top choice for best Linux
distribution is Linux
Mint. It feels just like Windows, you don't
need any coding or programming experience to use it, and
best of all: It's free. We analyzed usability, interface,
integration, and price.
[They DO recommend Ubuntu highly - "Ubuntu
is simple, beginner and user-friendly,
straightforward, and has a great deal of
community support" - athough they didn't know
that Ubuntu 22.04 had been out for over
a month or that Ubuntu always has been
free, not "pay as you go." WE think Ubuntu-Unity
is the win!]
Original
killer PC spreadsheet Lotus 1-2-3 now runs on Linux
natively. (The Register, May 25, 2022)
As the Google guru who ported it points out, the operating
system did not exist when 1-2-3 came out in 1983.
NEW: Covid
and the brain: A neurological health crisis (9-min.
video; Knowledgeable Magazine, May 25, 2022)
Even a mild SARS-CoV-2 infection can cause inflammation that
disrupts neural communication, says Stanford neurologist
Michelle Monje. Her concern is that Covid-19 may leave
millions dealing with cognitive problems, from a loss of
mental sharpness to lapses in memory, that prevent them from
returning to their previous level of function.
Trump
faces growing dilemma after Georgia Primary. (The Hill,
May 25, 2022)
The Republican primary season started out with a bang for
Trump in Ohio, but Georgia and Alabama are leaving the former
president whimpering. Trump is finding out the hard way that
party politics is a lot more complex than he thought. His
imperial, non-strategic obsession with controlling every
Republican from Alaska to Florida is not working, and his
undisciplined behavior is costing him.
The trio Trump blamed for his 2020 loss in Georgia — Gov.
Brian Kemp, Attorney General Chris Carr and Secretary of State
Brad Raffensperger — all won handily in yesterday’s Republican
primary. Georgia Republicans ignored Trump all over the
ballot. Alabama was also rough on Trump with Katie Britt, top
aide to retiring Trump-basher Sen. Richard Shelby to face
Congressman Mo Brooks, who won — and then lost — Trump’s
endorsement, in the run-off.
How Trump wheedles his way out of this race will be something
to see.
Holy
America (A Monkeypox on us all!) (Michael Moore, May 24,
2022)
Riding through the tidal waves of emboldened Archbishops who
are weaponizing & politicizing communion, a new viral
outbreak (monkeypox WTF?!) threatening public health, and the
corporate greed behind the real story of why there’s no
formula milk that is causing American babies to go hungry,
plus Biden saying he’d send troops to Taiwan if China invaded
when he knows no American parent will offer up their son or
daughter to go and die for such a crazy idea, I have had it.
And any day now, the Supreme Court is about to set off their
time bomb against an entire gender.
NEW: ‘Almost
nobody is happy with Putin.’ (Meduza, May
24, 2022)
Meduza’s sources say a new wave of pessimism in the Kremlin
has Russia’s hawks demanding more brutality in Ukraine while
others scout for presidential successors.
GM Actively Becoming A More Inclusive Company.
(GM Authority, May 24, 2022)
Back in 2020, GM CEO Mary Barra made a commitment to transform
General Motors into the most inclusive company in the world.
Now, GM is actively working towards that goal with a number of
programs and changes within the company.
The 9
Traits Truly of Highly Rational People (Medium, May 23,
2022)
We are inherently biased creatures, and as such applying
rationality in decision-making is a skill that is learned. It
starts with cultivating self-awareness and emotional
intelligence because most of the wrong decisions we make in
life are emotion-based. Here are 9 ways you can learn to use
rationality when making important decisions.
Volodymyr
Zelensky and the Art of the War Story (Wired, May
22, 2022)
Video dispatches from the Ukrainian president
skillfully dissolve Putin’s delusions. We would all do well to
listen.
Tiny
Microdrones Are Propelled by Light-Driven Nanomotors.
(SciTechDaily, May 22, 2022)
Physicists have now shown for the first time that it is possible
to not only efficiently propel micrometer-sized objects in an
aqueous environment with light, but also control them precisely
on a surface with all three degrees of freedom (two
translational plus one rotational).
USS
Constitution, world’s oldest ship, begins sailing season.
(7 News Boston, May 20, 2022)
The world’s oldest operating ship began another sailing season
on Friday. The USS Constitution, celebrating its’ 225th birthday
this year, left the Charlestown Navy Yard and circled Boston
Harbor, signaling the beginning of another year it will spend on
the high seas.
["Sailing season"? "Another year on the high seas"? We think
"Old Ironsides" was towed by a tug, only within Boston Harbor,
and that it may not leave its wharf again for the rest of the
year.]
Ukraine
Invasion Day 86: Russia has already stolen 400,000 tons of
grain, as encirclements occur. (Daily Kos, May 20, 2022)
Russia dismissed calls from top United Nations and Western
officials to halt a Black Sea blockade that has prevented
Ukraine from exporting much of its grain to world markets,
causing price hikes and exacerbating food shortages.
Anthony Blinken called Russia’s claims that sanctions are to
blame for the worsening global food crisis false, declaring:
“The decision to weaponise food is Moscow’s and Moscow’s alone.
Sanctions aren’t blocking Black Sea ports, trapping ships filled
with food, and destroying Ukrainian roads and railways; Russia
is,” he said. “Sanctions are not emptying Ukrainian grain silos
and stealing Ukrainian farm equipment; Russia is.”
Canadian
agricultural fields in the plains are rapidly deteriorating
from heavy rain. (Daily Kos, May 20, 2022)
Yet another threat to global food supplies is unfolding in parts
of Canada’s breadbasket (primarily Manitoba. Alberta is
suffering from drought) as heavy rains and frost have made
planting corn and soybeans impossible. Some farmers hope to
switch crops to wheat which has a shorter growing season.
Why
Atheism Makes a Lot of Sense Today: Part 1, Introduction
(Medium, May 19, 2022)
Something got lost when they transplanted God from a
flat-Earth to the real Universe. God doesn't scale up very
well.
NEW: Fiona
Hill says Putin got 'frustrated many times' with Trump
because the Russian leader 'had to keep explaining things'
to him. (Business Insider, May 18, 2022)
Hill said this factored into Putin's decision to invade
Ukraine during the Biden administration.
Markwayne
Mullin, self-professed Jan. 6 hero, tries to codify Big Lie
and expunge Trump impeachment. (Daily Kos, May 18, 2022)
Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) is trying to codify the Big Lie and
expunge the second impeachment of the former guy. The Hill
obtained a copy of Mullin’s draft legislation, which asserts
that the charge against Trump for incitement of
insurrection “contains a subjective account of that which
transpired at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
Because what the entire world witnessed on their television sets
for hour upon hour on Jan. 6… wasn’t as bad as it looked?
This is a particularly interesting reimagining of history
because Markwaye went to great pains to highlight his own
heroics as the MAGA army of orcs attacked on January 6. He told
Politico a few weeks later that he “first leapt into action,
helping an officer barricade the door on the House floor that
leads to Statuary Hall.”
New
Mexico battling historic blaze as Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon
fire 26% contained. (ABC News, May 17,
2022)
The wildfire is now the largest in the state's history. The
Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon fire -- made up of two fires that
merged into one giant blaze last month -- has burned 299,565
acres, state fire officials said Tuesday.
It officially surpassed the Whitewater-Baldy Fire as the largest
fire in New Mexico's history on Monday. That fire, which was
caused by lightning and also consisted of two separate fires
that merged, had burned 297,845 acres primarily in the Gila
National Forest before being contained in late July 2012.
Maria
Popova: Trial, Triumph, and the Art of the Possible: The
Remarkable Story Behind Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” (The
Marginalian, May 17, 2022)
A hymn of rage, a hymn of redemption, and a timeless love letter
to the possible.
NEW: Paxlovid
vs. Molnupiravir (Lagevrio) for COVID-19 (GoodRx, May 17,
2022)
Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir/ritonavir) and molnupiravir (Lagevrio)
are two oral antiviral treatments that are authorized to treat
mild to moderate COVID-19. These COVID-19 pills are only
recommended for people with a high risk of developing severe
illness. Both Paxlovid and molnupiravir are taken by mouth twice
daily for 5 days. They should both be started within 5 days of
first feeling symptoms.
In late April 2022, some reports emerged of COVID-19 symptoms
returning after a completed course of Paxlovid. More research is
needed to understand why this happens and what raises the risk
for it.
NEW: How
a Burner Browser Hides My Most Embarrassing Internet Searches
(New York Times, May 17, 2022)
I tend to use Firefox Focus, a
“burner browser” - one that doesn’t save any history and is
disconnected from my accounts. I’ve used this dual-browser setup
for years so that every random product, trivia, or
health-related search doesn’t follow me around for days or
weeks. I still use a standard browser for work, where I want a
history, saved logins, and other tracking-based conveniences.
NEW: Adam
Mosseri Says He Wants Big Tech to Give Up Control. (14-min.
TedX video; Wired, May 17, 2022)
The head of Instagram has a vision for using Web3 to shift power
from tech platforms to content creators—which he says will
ultimately benefit both.
How to Write Software With Mathematical Perfection
(Quanta Magazine, May 17, 2022)
Leslie Lamport revolutionized how computers talk to each other.
Now he’s working on how engineers talk to their machines.
Drones
Are Turning Into Personal Flying Machines. (Wired, May 17,
2022)
We were promised jetpacks that never arrived. But you know
what’s finally here? Big, honking drones you can ride on. Dozens
of firms worldwide are now making “electrical vertical takeoff
and landing” (eVTOL) vehicles. Their goal is to introduce
vehicles and gradually improve them such that, in 10 years, you
could zip from downtown to the airport in one—since unlike
planes they need no runway, and are so heavily software-guided
that pilots would need little skill. (A few of these firms aim
to have their crafts remotely piloted, or to fly autonomously.)
Some models shift the propellers sideways once in flight, so
they cruise airplane-style.
How GM Uses
Drones To Speed Up Plant Inspections. (4-min. video; GM
Authority, May 17, 2022)
Back in 2020, GM partnered with a Detroit-based drone
manufacturer called Skypersonic to use the company’s drones to
perform crane rail inspections at its various North American
metalworking facilities. Two years and more than 200 successful
flight hours later, the automaker says it’s ready to adopt
Skypersonic’s drone technology as a standard piece of equipment
for all of its manufacturing facilities.
Red
Hat's Partnership With GM: From Edge to Data Center and Back
Again. (DataCenter Knowledge, May 16, 2022)
The partnership announced last week will see Red Hat working
with General Motors to bring connected vehicles to a new level.
A great amount of the data being generated by software designed
for connected devices, such as robotic machines in factories,
oil exploration platforms in remote locations, as well as
automobiles on streets and highways, will need to be pushed to
edge locations, and then on to more centralized locations such
as public and private clouds. Creating the infrastructure to
move data from GM's vehicles to the Internet, and then across
the Internet to where it's needed, will be Red Hat's primary
task in this partnership with GM.
Ultifi will run on Red Hat's In-Vehicle Operating System,
which is an embedded operating system for cars. Basically, it's
a minified version of Linux that pares the company's Red
Hat Enterprise Linux server distribution from about 4,000
packages to about 200, and is customized to meet the needs of
automakers and fleet owners.
Scientists
Find That DNA Mutations Are More Common Than Previously
Thought. (SciTechDaily, May 16, 2022)
Our DNA serves as a blueprint for the cellular machinery that
allows cells, organs, and even whole organisms to work. However,
mutations in our DNA can cause genetic illnesses. Point
mutations at a single site, as well as deletions, duplications,
and inversions, are examples of such DNA mutations.
The researchers uncovered how inversions are formed and
investigated in detail a set of 40 inversions that form
recurrently in the genome, where the DNA sequence flips back and
forth at a much higher rate than previously thought. These
‘flip-flopping’ inversions typically lie in regions linked to
the development of certain human diseases called genomic
disorders. Scientific studies of long-distance gene regulation
or epigenetics must now take into account this flipping behavior
of genomic regions.
'Voracious'
Jumping Worms Can Leap 1 Foot In The Air, Destroy Soil.
(The Patch, May 16, 2022)
Unlike other worms, the invasive Asian jumping worms wreak havoc
in New York ecosystems by depriving other plants and animals of
nutrients.
[Yes, they also are in Natick, Massachusetts.]
NEW: Energy
storage is important to creating affordable, reliable,
deeply-decarbonized electricity systems. (MIT, May 16,
2022)
MIT
Energy Initiative's
new report supports energy storage
paired with renewable energy to achieve decarbonized electricity
systems.
Visualizing
U.S. Crude Oil and Petroleum Product Imports in 2021
(Visual Capitalist, May 16, 2022)
Despite being the world’s largest oil producer, in 2021 the U.S.
still imported more than 3 billion barrels of crude oil and
petroleum products, equal to 43% of the country’s consumption.
While Russia only makes up 8% of American petroleum product
imports, their 254 million barrels will need to be replaced as
both countries ceased trading soon after Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine.
In an effort to curb rising oil and gasoline prices, in March
President Joe Biden announced the release of up to 180 million
barrels from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserves. Other IEA
nations are also releasing emergency oil reserves in an attempt
to curb rising prices at the pump and volatility in the oil
market.
While the U.S. and the rest of the world are still managing the
short-term solutions to this oil supply gap, the long-term
solution is complex and has various moving parts. From ramping
up domestic oil production to replacing oil demand with other
cleaner energy solutions, oil trade and imports will remain a
vital part of America’s energy supply.
NEW: The
West's new fear: What if Ukraine wins? (Politico, May
16, 2022)
After weeks spent fretting over what would happen if Russia
crushed Ukraine, Western European leaders are now worried
about what might happen if Ukraine actually wins. … One big
concern is that a Ukrainian win could destabilize Russia,
making it even more unpredictable and putting a
normalization of energy links further out of reach. That’s
why some western European capitals quietly favor a
‘face-saving’ resolution to the conflict, even if it costs
Ukraine some territory.
We know that Russian military doctrine envisions using
tactical nuclear weapons defensively, to turn the tide in a
losing war. We should assume that Putin and his circle
regard total defeat in Ukraine as a regime-threatening
scenario. Combine those realities with a world where the
Russians are suddenly being routed, their territorial gains
evaporating, and you have the most nuclear-shadowed military
situation since our naval blockade of Cuba in 1962.
A
U.S. Government Loophole Is Helping Putin’s Cronies Hide Their
Cash. (Mother Jones, May 16, 2022)
The private equity industry has lobbied hard to keep its
exemption. Over the past four decades, private equity has become
a powerful, and malignant, force in our daily lives. In our
May+June 2022 issue, Mother Jones investigates the vulture
capitalists chewing up and spitting out American businesses, the
politicians enabling them, and the everyday people fighting
back. Find
the full package here.
QAnon’s Chief Enabler Ran a Website Where He Brushed
Off Concerns About Pedophilic Content. (Mother Jones, May
16, 2022)
The QAnon conspiracy has always stood on a morbidly ironic
contradiction: “Q,” the pseudonymous poster who claimed to be a
government insider batlling elite liberal pedophiles, infamously
became a phenomenon by posting on 8chan, a website where users
had allegedly established a child porn swapping network.
8chan’s proprietor is Jim Watkins—an American but often
Philippines-based pornographer, pig farmer, and internet forum
entrepreneur. While 8chan’s historic association with child
sexual abuse material is familiar to close observers of the
QAnon conspiracy, Mother Jones has reviewed a little-known
archive documenting conversations in the moderation channel of
Pink, an earlier internet forum, that capture Watkins, the
site’s administrator, pushing for a hands-off approach to the
moderation of child porn-related content there.
Buffalo
shooter's manifesto highlights the tight linkage between
racism and antisemitism. (Daily Kos, May 16, 2022)
Peter Beinart explains why white nationalism requires
antisemitism, tracing how “White supremacists have long imagined
Jews as the sinister puppeteers behind both Black and brown
immigration and Black and brown liberation.” Because of that
long history, “For Jews, there’s an important lesson here. It is
that anyone who fuels paranoia and rage about a non-white
takeover of the United States endangers us. It does not matter
if, like Tucker Carlson, they don’t explicitly mention Jews in
their conspiracy theories. Plenty of their followers will
connect the dots.“
Online
data could be used against people seeking abortions if Roe
v. Wade falls. (The Conversation, May 16, 2022)
When the draft of a Supreme Court decision that would
overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked to the press, many of us who
have been studying privacy for vulnerable individuals came
to a troubling realization: The marginalized and vulnerable
populations whose online risks have been the subject of our
attention are likely to grow exponentially. These groups are
poised to encompass all women of child-bearing age,
regardless of how secure and how privileged they may have
imagined themselves to be.
In overturning Roe, the anticipated decision would not
merely deprive women of reproductive control and physical
agency as a matter of constitutional law, but it would also
change their relationship with the online world. Anyone in a
state where abortion becomes illegal who relies on the
internet for information, products and services related to
reproductive health would be subject to online policing.
Search
Backwards: Reverse Directory Lookups (Ask Bob
Rankin, May 16, 2022)
Can you find the name of a person or business if all you
know about them is a phone number or street address?
What if all you have is an email address or a photo?
This type of search is called a reverse directory
lookup. Learn about the free and fee-based reverse
search tools you can find online.
Total
Lunar Eclipse – a supermoon eclipse – on May 15-16, 2022.
(EarthSky, May 14, 2022)
People in the Americas, Europe and Africa will see the total
lunar eclipse during the night of May 15-16, 2022. Plus, on this
night, the moon is close: a supermoon.
Note: This total eclipse is central. That means the moon passes
centrally through the axis of Earth’s dark (umbral) shadow. The
moon is in a near part of its orbit – close to Earth – during
the eclipse. It’s a supermoon.
Ukraine
update: Something *big* is happening, as the Battle of the
Izyum Salient begins. (Daily Kos, May 14, 2022)
With unconfirmed reports that Ukraine has pushed Russia
mostly out of its territory north of Kharkiv, we have been
speculating where Ukraine would counter next—toward the
railhead northeast of Kharkiv in Vovchansk, or the the
logistical hub at Kupiansk, where three major rail lines
connect. Both those locations would cut off the flow of
supplies to the Izyum salient and Russia’s 22 battalion
tactical groups (BTGs) in the pocket—the largest
concentration of Russian forces anywhere in Ukraine.
Ukraine took a look at both of those critical logistical
centers, and instead
decided to hit the salient directly: "Army of Ukraine
launched a counteroffensive in the Izyum district of the
Kharkiv oblast." - Kharkiv Military Administration Head
Fires north of Kharkiv are on newly-liberated Ukrainian
territory, which means Russia is firing artillery on those
positions either to slow down their advance, or simply out
of punitive anger. Much of Russia’s military strategy
appears to be a manifestation of Vladimir Putin’s aggrieved,
irrational rage.
Back to the Battle of the Izyum Salient, Russian telegram
claims five Ukrainian brigades are moving in on Izyum from
the north, looking to directly cut off supply lines to the
bulk of the Russian forces in the salient. That would be the
equivalent of 10-15 Russian BTGs which seems … fantastical.
Given how well Ukraine has fought, Russians may be
mythifying them so they seem 10 feet tall and three times
their number. But for context, a Ukrainian brigade is around
1,600 troops and 200 armored vehicles. If these reports are
correct, we’re talking about 1,000 armored vehicles, and a
metric buttload of artillery, raining on Russian positions.
Ukraine had 20 brigades pre-war, with another four in
reserve, which are likely already in action. More are being
created from reservists, but there’s no indication they’ve
had to be fielded just yet. So five brigades would be a
massive commitment of forces.
Russian sources on telegram also say Ukraine has crossed the
Donets for the attack. So if Ukraine is crossing the Donets
to attack Izyum’s supply lines, then this seems like a
logical place to do so
Remember, Ukraine doesn’t announce operations in advance. We
now can see that the counter-offensive began on May 10-11.
Russia abandoned Kharkiv because it had no reserves left.
Ukrainian general staff and the Pentagon have said Russia
has 19 BTGs in reserve in Belgorod, so why weren’t they
rushed to Kharkiv to defend their supply lines? If there’s
anything left in Russia, it’s likely shattered remnants and
troops refusing to deploy or redeploy.
And then there's this: Massive forest fires raging in the
Tyumen region in Russia right now. The army used to play an
important role in helping the firefighters to put these out
but they are nowhere to be found at the moment.
Now, with Russia already at its limits, Ukraine is taking
direct aim at the largest concentration of Russian forces in
Ukraine. 20-25% of Russia’s entire Army is in that pocket.
Something big is happening. I mean big, as in war-altering.
We were looking at Izyum’s supply hubs in Kupiansk and
Vochansk. Ukraine is going straight for the jugular instead.
Ukraine
Update: Russia's river-crossing debacle is beyond belief.
(Daily Kos, May 14, 2022)
It’s said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing
over and over again while expecting a different result. If
that’s the case … Russia qualifies.
We saw it in the early days of the war in Hostomel airport
northwest of Kyiv. Russia made an unsupported airborne
landing on the base. Got wiped out. Tried it again. Same
result.
We’re currently seeing it on Snake Island, of “Russia
warship, go fuck yourself” fame. Over the past week, Russian
forces have been wiped out several times (here, here, here,
and here), and yet last night we saw Russian troops landing
there once again.
But nothing is as dramatic as the saga of the riverside
crossing at Bilohorivka, where Russia didn’t just suffer one
disastrous river-crossing attempt, but three of them over
the past few days.
Russia made its first effort May 8, and it was utterly
decimated, destroying several dozen vehicles. The bridge lay
half-sunk. Russian command and control structure is highly
centralized, giving local commanders zero ability to deviate
from stated orders. So if high command said “get to
Bilohorivka,” well, who was to say something like, “Guys,
Ukraine has our number, maybe we should look for a new place
to cross?” Nah, giving local commanders, or any commanders
for that matter, the gift of “free thinking and initiative”
might lead to a military coup. Best to keep them stupid.
Hence … try number 2: More charred vehicles were added to
the list. Then someone from Moscow or Belgorod called and
screamed, “do we have Bilohorivka yet?” And since the answer
was no, then yeah, sigh, there they went again.
Counting the damage, or at least, what could be determined
from drone footage, Russian losses from the infamous failed
Russian Siverskyi Donets river crossing near Bilohorivka now
total 82 vehicles + 2 boats destroyed/abandoned + a bridge
section:
14 T-72
35 BMP-1
2 BMP-2
17 unknown AFV (likely most BMP-1)
5 MT-LB
2 BMD/BTR-D
2 BREM-1
1 PTS-3
5 PMP trucks (2 likely recovered)
2 BMK boats
Those 82 vehicles include eight in the river. The tally
includes 14 tanks and 62 infantry fighting vehicles. A
Russian battalion tactical group (BTG) has 10 tanks and 40
IFVs, but there’s no such thing as a full-strength BTG in
Ukraine. Likely never was. So Russia just lost two BTGs
worth of troops attempting to make the same compromised
river crossing three times.
Russia has 22 BTGs in this axis, so in this ill-fated
multi-effort river-crossing debacle, it has lost nearly 10%
of its entire fighting force. But hey, why stop when they’re
so close to succeeding? Here’s hoping they’re stupid enough
to give it a fourth shot.
The
war in Ukraine is spurring transatlantic co-operation in tech.
(The Economist, May 14, 2022)
Talks are bound to get trickier once attention turns back to
China.
Researchers
say they’ve found the reason why infants die from SIDS.
(Global News, May 13, 2022)
Researchers from The Children’s Hospital in Westmead in Sydney,
Australia, have found that a lowered level of a certain enzyme,
called butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), can explain the malfunction
that causes some babies not to startle or wake if they stop
breathing in their sleep. The study is published in the latest
volume of The Lancet’s eBioMedicine, the upcoming June
2022 issue.
NEW: This
is how many lives could have been saved with COVID
vaccinations in each state. (NPR, May 13, 2022)
The vaccine rollout has been both a remarkable success and a
remarkable failure," says Stefanie Friedhoff, a professor at the
Brown School of Public Health, and one of the analysis's
authors. It was a success, she says, in the sense that "the
United States was first in getting those vaccines developed and
making doses available at high numbers quickly to the public." A
lot of money and energy was invested in the logistics of the
rollout – the supply side of the equation. Much less was
invested in encouraging vaccine demand, she says. "We did not
start early on with information campaigns about why vaccines are
important – what do they do for us?" she says. "We
underestimated dramatically the investment it would take to get
people familiarized with vaccines because, by and large, we
haven't had a deadly disease like this, so people have become
estranged from the important impact of vaccination."
The map of states with the most preventable deaths shows a sharp
political divide – as NPR has reported, people living in
counties that voted for then-President Trump in the 2020
election were three times more likely to die from COVID-19 than
people who lived in counties that voted for President Biden.
According to the analysis, West Virginia, Wyoming, Tennessee,
Kentucky and Oklahoma had the most vaccine-preventable deaths
per capita. Washington D.C., Massachusetts, Puerto Rico, Vermont
and Hawaii had the fewest.
NEW: The
Top 10 Largest Nuclear Explosions, Visualized (Visual
Capitalist, May 13, 2022)
The U.S.’ Trinity test in 1945, the first-ever nuclear
detonation, released around 19 kilotons of explosive energy. The
explosion instantly vaporized the tower it stood on and turned
the surrounding sand into green glass, before sending a powerful
heatwave across the desert.
As the Cold War escalated in the years after WWII, the U.S. and
the Soviet Union tested bombs that were at least 500 times
greater in explosive power. This infographic visually compares
the 10 largest nuclear explosions in history.
A
portrait of the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way
(Physics Today, May 12, 202)
Hidden behind a fog of galactic gas, Sagittarius A* proved a
tricky imaging target for the Event Horizon Telescope team.
The
Case for War Crimes Charges Against Russia’s Sandworm
Hackers (Wired, May 12, 2022)
A group of human rights lawyers and investigators has called on
the Hague to bring the first-ever “cyber war crimes” charges
against Russia’s most dangerous hackers.
Google’s
new Android Auto interface works with any screen size. (Ars
Technica, May 12, 2022)
Say goodbye to pillar boxes and other weird screen-fit
solutions in your car.
NEW: Google
Launches LaMDA 2 And PaLM At I/O 2022. (FOSS Bytes, May
12, 2022)
The new AI system is a step up from the original LaMDA which
was designed for dialogue applications. The system could
communicate with users and answer their questions.
The new LaMDA 2 is an enhanced version of the original which
can engage in long, human-like conversations. Moreover, it can
fetch accurate responses and mold them into easy-to-understand
sentences.
Terra’s
Cryptocurrency Meltdown Was Inevitable. (9-min.
video; Wired, May 12, 2022)
An epic crash in algorithmic stablecoins spells trouble for the
entire industry.
Clearview
AI clears the final hurdle in its quest to undermine US
democracy. (The Next Web, May 12, 2022)
Congratulations America, you played yourself.
“Radical”
ruling lets Texas ban social-media moderation based on
“viewpoint”. (Ars Technica, May 12, 2022)
5th Circuit reinstates Texas law that was previously found to
violate 1st Amendment.
Natick
seeks to fight COVID fatigue as numbers head in wrong
direction. (Natick Report, May 11, 2022)
Natick Public Health Director Michael Boudreau ticked off a list
of COVID-19 numbers at the Board of Health meeting on Wednesday
that confirmed what many of us know personally or anecdotally:
The virus is making yet another comeback.
Judge
bars MAGA election officials from midterms. (Daily Kos,
May 11, 2022)
When Mesa County Colorado Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters and her
fellow deputy Belinda Knisley were busted for breaking all
security protocols in order to tamper with voting machines, it
led to questions about whether they were the only MAGA-aligned
elections officials breaking the law. The answer was “probably
not.” The fact that Peters is now campaigning to take control of
the state’s entire election system—challenging Democratic
incumbent Secretary of State Jena Griswold in the upcoming
election—while also being arrested a bunch for obstruction of
justice has simply reinforced the belief that many of these
election fascists are true zealots. Even more distressing, but
not surprising, is that Peters recently received 60% of the
Colorado GOP’s delegates to run for that position.
Colorado Secretary of State Griswold has subsequently been
successful in getting Peters banned from having any meaningful
responsibilities in upcoming elections. On Wednesday, Mesa
County District Judge Valerie Robison ruled that Peters and
deputy Belinda Knisley will be barred from overseeing the
upcoming midterm elections. The Peters ruling is just one of the
many MAGA-related elections security breaches being litigated
and investigated by Colorado officials.
NEW: What
is SIM swapping? SIM swap fraud explained and how to help
protect yourself (Norton, May 11, 2022)
SIM swapping happens when scammers contact your mobile phone’s
carrier and trick them into activating a SIM card that the
fraudsters have. Once this occurs, the scammers have control
over your phone number. Anyone calling or texting this number
will contact the scammers’ device, not your smartphone.
This means scammers could potentially enter your username and
password when logging onto your bank’s website. The bank will
then send a code by text — two-factor authentication — to your
smartphone number, a code that you’ll then have to enter to
access your online account. The problem? After a SIM swap,
that number now goes to the smartphone or other device
possessed by scammers. They can then use that code to enter
your bank account.
Fortunately, you can protect yourself against SIM swapping.
It’s all about preventing scammers from finding out what
logins and passwords you use to access your online bank or
credit card accounts. And it helps, too, to look out for the
most common warning signs of a SIM swap scam.
NEW: Cautionary
Tales from Cryptoland (Harvard Business Review, May 10,
2022)
All of a sudden, it feels like Web3 is everywhere. The money,
the buzz, the name all make it seem like Web3 will inevitably
be the next big thing. But is it? And do we even want it to
be?
As the hype has reached a fever pitch, critics have started to
warn of unintended and overlooked consequences of a web with a
blockchain backbone.
The
Web3 Movement’s Quest to Build a ‘Can’t Be Evil’ Internet
(Wired, May 10, 2022)
Crypto dreamers want to free us from Big Tech and exploitative
capitalism—using only the blockchain, game theory, and code.
What could possibly go wrong?
To a core of true believers, Web3 stands apart from the garish
excesses and brazen misbehavior of the flashing-neon crypto
casino. If cryptocurrency was originally about decentralizing
money, Web3 is about decentralizing … everything. Its mission is
almost achingly idealistic: to free humanity not only from Big
Tech domination but also from exploitative capitalism itself—and
to do it purely through code.
Your
Phone Is Secretly Always Recording: How to Stop Google From
Listening. (MakeUseOf, May 10, 2022)
Yes, iPhones too. Here are the facts and how to stop Google from
listening to you.
Focus
on the First Image of the Galactic Center Black Hole,
Sagittarius A*. (1977 image; Astrophysical Journal, May
10, 2022)
Results from the Event Horizon Telescope
Collaboration.
[Confirmed by about 300 scientists, using 8 super-telescopes,
after 5 years!]
Ticks
Are Spreading in the US—and Taking New Diseases With Them.
(Wired, May 10, 2022)
The vast majority of tick-borne disease goes unrecorded, meaning
life-threatening pathogens are traveling under the radar to new
locations.
Scientists
Warn U.S. Health Officials Against “New Normal” Strategies for
COVID-19. (SciTechDaily, May 10, 2022)
The warning, published in a Journal of General Internal Medicine
viewpoint, contends that discussions of a new normal fail to
incorporate key lessons from the first two years of the COVID-19
pandemic, including the significant role of noncommunicable
chronic diseases in exacerbating COVID-19 and the
disproportionate burden of COVID-19 on under-served populations
and communities of color.
Noncommunicable chronic diseases are those that are not spread
from person to person and persist for at least one year, such as
heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. They are the leading cause
of death worldwide and represent a global health threat that
predates the COVID-19 pandemic — the noncommunicable disease
crisis kills more than 15 million Americans prematurely each
year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC).
Florida
is not a red state. We are a blue state where Democrats have
given up. (Daily Kos, May 10, 2022)
Florida has been far more oppressive than anything we’ve ever
seen, and the response has been negligible.
Against Florida’s constitution, our white supremacist governor
illegally drew his own map and eliminated the Black-majority
districts. Teachers are now under assault: they can now get sued
if they dare even answer a question that comes up about
homosexuality, they are banned from teaching civil rights topics
in schools, and can’t even use math books that show images of
diversity. Meanwhile, DeSantis has tried to legalize running
over peaceful protesters, created a Gestapo-like election police
force, and punishes corporations that dare to speak out against
his hateful agenda.
However, I don’t see anything close to the outcry that happened
with other states not long ago. Corporations have been
noticeably silent about our descent into fascism, and activists
in and outside the state haven’t organized campaigns targeting
our state. This begs the question: did we just give up on
Florida?
Ukraine
update: Russian soldiers reported 'missing in action' actually
piled high in 'body dump'. (Daily Kos, May 10, 2022)
Groups in Ukraine have set up “help lines” for Russian families,
both with the purpose of helping locate soldiers who have gone
silent after crossing into Ukraine, and driving home the point
that Russian soldiers are dying in Putin’s illegal invasion in
large numbers. Meanwhile, the Kremlin not only continues to
report low numbers of casualties overall, but to list large
numbers of troops as simply “missing in action,” sometimes with
a hint of accusation that those missing are actually AWOL.
"Thousands. They are thrown here and there, for them it’s easier
to make it look like they are missing in action. … It’s not a
morgue. It’s a dump."
US
and its allies say Russia waged cyberattack that took out
satellite network. (Ars Technica, May 10, 2022)
February outage came an hour before Russia began its invasion of
Ukraine.
“Today, in support of the European Union and other partners, the
United States is sharing publicly its assessment that Russia
launched cyber attacks in late February against commercial
satellite communications networks to disrupt Ukrainian command
and control during the invasion, and those actions had spillover
impacts into other European countries,” US Secretary of State
Antony Blinken wrote in a statement.
“The activity disabled very small aperture terminals in Ukraine
and across Europe. This includes tens of thousands of terminals
outside of Ukraine that, among other things, support wind
turbines and provide Internet services to private citizens.”
Some
Russian officers in Ukraine are joining their troops in
refusing to carry out orders. (Daily Kos, May 10, 2022)
If Putin’s Victory day speech seemed muted today, that might be
because his military is starting to balk when ordered to carry
out perilous offensive operations.
Ukraine
Invasion Day 76: Victory Day was like a crummy Cope Cage on
your tank. (Daily Kos, May 10, 2022)
Russian invasions don't start wars; countries not submitting to
Russian invasions start wars.
Ukraine mocked Russia's 'Victory Day' by holding a 'parade' of
captured Russian tanks.
Jeffrey
Snover claims Microsoft demoted him for inventing PowerShell.
(The Register, May 10, 2022)
"When I was doing the prototype for what became PowerShell, a
friend cautioned me saying that was the sort of thing that got
people fired. I didn't get fired. I got demoted."
"Courage is a key characteristic of future leaders and previous
employees. Many people focus on getting their boss to pat them
on the head rather than addressing problems."
Only
Microsoft can give open-source the gift of NTFS. Only
Microsoft needs to. (The Register, May 9, 2022)
File systems can get pretty political. They're one of the last
fronts still fighting in the Interoperability Wars. While you
can plumb any number of open file systems to Linux if you need
what they have, NTFS remains a problem.
How
Private Equity Looted America (Mother
Jones, May 9, 2022)
Inside the industry that has ransacked the US economy—and
upended the lives of working people everywhere. Over the past
four decades, private equity has become a powerful, and
malignant, force in our daily lives. In our May+June 2022 issue,
Mother Jones investigates the vulture capitalists chewing up and
spitting out American businesses, the politicians enabling them,
and the everyday people fighting back.
[See this major report!]
Incredibly
Sharp Webb Space Telescope Test Images Hint at New
Possibilities for Science.
(astrophotos; NASA, May 9, 2022)
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is aligned across all four
of its science instruments. When Webb is ready to begin
science observations, studies such as these with MIRI will
help give astronomers new insights into the birth of stars and
protoplanetary systems. The Webb team has begun the process of
setting up and testing Webb’s instruments to begin science
observations this summer. Cognitive
Impairment From Severe COVID-19 Equivalent to 20 Years of
Aging – Losing 10 IQ Points.
(SciTechDaily, May 8, 2022)
Survivors scored particularly poorly on tasks such as verbal
analogical reasoning, a finding that supports the
commonly-reported problem of difficulty finding words. They also
showed slower processing speeds, which aligns with previous
observations post COVID-19 of decreased brain glucose
consumption within the frontoparietal network of the brain,
responsible for attention, complex problem-solving and working
memory, among other functions.
Ukraine's
Bayraktar TB2 drone destroys Russian landing aircraft near
Snake Island. (Agence France-Presse, May 7,
2022)
The Ukrainian military in a separate statement said that the
Bayraktar drone strike had also destroyed a Tor-M2 anti-aircraft
system being delivered to the island. "The
traditional parade of the Russian Black Sea fleet on May 9
this year will be held near Snake Island -- at the bottom of
the sea," the Ukrainian defence ministry added.
[Whose Victory Day will Russia be celebrating? And who's the
Hitler here? Hint: Adolf Putin/Putler/Putain.]
Small
Drones Are Giving Ukraine an Unprecedented Edge. (Wired,
May 6, 2022)
From surveillance to search-and-rescue, consumer drones are
having a huge impact on the country’s defense against Russia.
NEW: Fires
and Forest Health (Atlas Obscura, May 6, 2022)
In Oregon, the Humongous Fungus plays a complex role in an
ecosystem reshaped by humans.
NEW: 1
million deaths: Where Covid killed (NBC News, May 6,
2022)
From nursing homes to prisons, measuring which groups are most
affected by the pandemic's U.S. death toll.
Chinese
government to dump Windows in favor of Linux, and to dump
foreign PCs. (Neowin, May 6, 2022)
It has happened in other regions before and it's happening again
in China: the government has ordered the dumping of Windows in
favor of Linux, among other things. This time, though, the
reasoning is a bit different. According to Bloomberg, Beijing
has ordered government offices and state-backed firms to replace
foreign-branded PCs and their associated operating systems with
alternatives that can be domestically maintained.
China is set to replace almost 50 million PCs in central
government agencies alone. It is important to note that this
process will obviously not be completed in one fell swoop but is
intended to be carried out in a staggered manner over a period
of two years. "Hard-to-replace" PC components such as CPUs and
GPUs developed by western firms are likely exempt from this
order.
How
Apple, Google, and Microsoft will kill passwords and
phishing in one stroke. (Ars Technica, May 6, 2022)
The program that Apple, Google, and Microsoft are rolling out
will finally organize the current disarray of Multi-factor
Authentication services in some significant ways. Once it’s
fully implemented, I’ll be able to use my iPhone to store a
single token that will authenticate me on any of those three
companies' services (and, one expects, many more follow-on
services). The same credential can also be stored on a device
running Android or Windows.
[The article and consortium appear to ignore Linux. Linux
has not ignored them.]
Every
ISP in the US Must Block These 3 Pirate Streaming Services.
(Wired, May 5, 2022)
The 96 internet service providers were told to enforce the
orders “by any technological means available.”
Glencore
Invests $200M In GM Partner Li-Cycle. (GM Authority, May 5,
2022)
Li-Cycle has engaged in a partnership with GM at the Ultium
Cells battery production campus currently under construction in
Warren, Ohio, where the battery recycling company will operate a
lithium-ion battery cell recycling plant adjacent to the GM
facility. Meanwhile, Glencore supplies GM with cobalt, a
material required for the production of the automaker’s EV
battery systems.
At
the scene of Mariupol theater tragedy, Russia prepares for a
parade. (Washington Post, May 5, 2022)
The March 16 bombing of the Mariupol theater is one of the
deadliest known attacks against civilians to date in Ukraine.
Russian forces are preparing for a parade in the shattered port
city of Mariupol, Ukrainian officials said, clearing debris from
a bombed-out theater that had served as the city’s main shelter
before it was destroyed seven weeks ago, in an attack that
remains one of the deadliest of the war.
Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest
updates on Russia's war in Ukraine. City officials estimated at
the time that as many as 300 people were killed in the March 16
airstrike. An Associated Press investigation, published
Wednesday, put the number killed at close to twice that, based
on the accounts of survivors and rescue workers. The report also
drew on detailed floor plans of the Mariupol Drama Theater and
photos and videos taken before and after the attack. A white
flag had been tied atop the building before the airstrike, and
the word “children” was painted in Russian on the ground along
two sides.
Americans
might love Cinco de Mayo, but few know what they’re
celebrating. (The Conversation, May 5, 2022; reprint from
May 3, 2019)
Contrary to popular belief, Cinco de Mayo doesn’t mark Mexican
Independence, which is celebrated on Sept. 16. Instead, it’s
meant to commemorate the Battle of Puebla, which was fought
between the Mexican and French armies in 1862. The
Mexican Army was outnumbered two to one by seasoned French
troops, so Mexico proved itself to be a formidable opponent
worthy of international respect. And the fact that the country
was led by an indigenous president held a special symbolic
significance. In Mexico’s long and storied history, the
Battle of Puebla is generally considered a fairly minor event.
But its legacy lives on a century and a half later, particularly
in the United States.
[It also makes us think of Ukraina fighting off Russia's
invasion, this year - and since 2014.]
NEW: Guns
Now Kill More Children and Young Adults Than Car Crashes.
(Scientific American, May 5, 2022)
Firearms now exceed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause
of injury-related death for people ages one to 24, a new
analysis shows.
[This is the article that President Biden cited. Although he did
not mention the "young adults", that resulting gap also is
closing quickly.]
On
This National Day Of Prayer, Educate Yourself About The
Growing Threat Of Christian Nationalism. (Americans
United, May 5, 2022)
Today is the National Day of Prayer (NDP). Under a 1952 law, the
president is required to issue a proclamation recognizing the
NDP. Furthermore, while many NDP events are privately sponsored,
state and local governments often celebrate NDP with
proclamations that laud the value of prayer and call on citizens
to engage in acts of worship. Sorry, but that’s simply not the
government’s job.
Rather than take part in a government-sponsored prayer, you
could spend today boning up on the impulse behind it: Christian
nationalism. My colleague Andrew Seidel often refers to
Christian nationalism as an “existential threat” to the United
States. He’s right. Our country was founded on the principle of
religious freedom for all, a place where the government respects
the rights of believers and nonbelievers equally but refrains
from endorsing or advocating a specific faith. If Christian
nationalists succeed in merging their narrow fundamentalism with
state policy, America can no longer be that beacon of hope and
freedom.
These
13 corporations have spent $15 million supporting
anti-abortion politicians since 2016. (list;
Popular Information, May 4, 2022)
Anti-abortion forces had a critical ally: Corporate America. A
Popular Information analysis of corporate political giving found
13 major companies have given $15.2 million to the NRSC, RSLC,
and RGA since 2016. This figure significantly understates the
role that corporate America has played in ending constitutional
protections for abortion rights. First, it only includes 13
corporations and, even for that group, does not include PAC
contributions donated directly to anti-abortion politicians. It
does not include money donated to the NRSC, RSLC, and RGA by
corporate trade organizations. It also excludes corporate
support for anti-abortion non-profits like the Heritage
Foundation and the Federalist Society because those
contributions do not have to be disclosed. But the figure makes
clear the central role of corporate money in the imminent
reversal of Roe — including money from many corporations that
claim to be champions for women's rights and equality.
The
Forced Birth Ruling (Michael Moore, May 4, 2022)
An entire gender was degraded, the fertilized egg was declared a
human being, and all citizens are now conscripted to follow a
vicious edict of the Catholic Church.
Religious
Interference In Health Care Is Unwarranted, Unwanted And
Unconstitutional. (Americans United, May 4, 2022)
This is not the first time we have seen policies like this pop
up. In 2019, the Trump administration announced the dangerous
Denial of Care Rule, which would have invited health care
professionals to cite their religious or moral beliefs in
order to deny services to patients. The implementation of the
rule would have been a disaster. Imagine showing up at an
emergency room in medical distress or calling an ambulance and
having potentially life-saving care delayed or denied because
someone on staff decides, for whatever reason, that helping
you contradicts their religious beliefs. Luckily, because of
lawsuits by Americans United and our allies, the Denial of
Care rule was blocked by the federal courts and never went
into effect.
Coronavirus
Briefing: Lessons from a lesser variant (New York Times,
May 4, 2022)
Some variants are really good at spreading, and others are maybe
fine at spreading, but much better at evading antibodies and our
immune system defenses. And at least for the first year or two
years of the pandemic, transmissibility really won out.
That may already be changing. As vaccinations and multiple waves
of infection have changed the immune landscape, a highly
immune-evasive variant should now have more of an edge,
scientists said, which is probably part of the reason Omicron
has been so successful.
Looking back at previous variants is also providing insight into
what worked — and didn’t — in containing them.
Lesser variants are also revealing our blind spots. By analyzing
the genomic sequences of Mu samples collected from all over the
world, researchers have reconstructed the variant’s spread and
found that it circulated for months before it was detected.
It’s a reminder that comprehensive, real-time surveillance is
going to give us the best warning system for which variants pose
a threat. Even countries that have had laudable tracking
systems, like Britain, are starting to ease off and discontinue
some aspect of their programs. There’s a real concern that we’re
not doing enough.
Action
Bias: Why It’s So Hard To Stay in the Same Line at the
Supermarket. (SciTechDaily.com, May 4, 2022)
Many times throughout your life, you will find yourself asking
the question, “Should I do something about this?” Almost as many
times, you will find yourself answering in the affirmative. This
is the action bias in action and it is not always your friend.
Also known as the Do Something Syndrome, the action bias
describes our innate tendency to respond to situations by taking
some kind of action, even when we have no evidence that it will
lead to a better outcome and might even make things worse.
NEW: In
Farming, a Constant Drive For Technology (Undark, May 4,
2022)
Although real-world data is scant, proponents say robotics and
AI will soon revolutionize agriculture.
GM
Replaced More Than 27,000 Chevy Bolt EV, Bolt EUV Batteries So
Far. (GM Authority, May 3, 2022)
26,925 units of the 2017 through 2019 Chevy Bolt EV have been
remedied out of a recall population amounting to 57,414 units,
while 661 units of the 2020 through 2022 Bolt EV and EUV have
been remedied of a recall population amounting to 52,414
units.
[So our 2020 Bolt EV may have many more months to endure
GM-reduced driving range...]
High
Gas Prices Are Pushing Electric Car Sales to a Tipping Point.
(Time, May 3, 2022)
An unreleased report from CarGurus, an automotive research and
shopping firm, shows that 53% of active shoppers say they are
considering a more fuel-efficient vehicle in response to high
gas prices. The data, shared with TIME, looks at consumer
sentiment toward electric vehicles based on an online survey of
2,176 U.S. automobile owners at various points this year. It
finds that 40% of Americans now expect to own an electric car in
the next five years, up from 32% in February and 30% last year.
Kremlin
on high alert as coup rumours grow in Moscow: Disgruntled
generals join FSB looking to oust Putin and end Ukraine war.
(City A.M., May 3, 2022)
The top of Putin’s former employer – the Russian security
service FSB – is said to be so frustrated about the lack of
military progress in Ukraine that it has reached out to a number
of generals and former army officials, according to various
analysts and local media reports. In particular a group called
the ‘Siloviki’ – which comprises of former FSB officers who are
active in Russian politics – is said to be pushing hard to
replace Putin, together with former officers from the GRU, KGB
and FSO, other Russian intelligence units.
The idea a coup may be imminent is further strengthened by
social media activity across Russia and Eastern Europe, which
has gone into overdrive in the last 24 hours. Moreover, analysts
in and outside Russia have said all signs are there that Putin
will face a coup soon.
Phishers
exploit Google’s SMTP Relay service to deliver spoofed emails.
(Help Net Security, May 3, 2022)
Phishers are exploiting a flaw in Google’s SMTP relay service to
send malicious emails spoofing popular brands. April 2022 has
seen a massive uptick of these SMTP relay service exploit
attacks in the wild, as threat actors use this service to spoof
other Gmail tenants.
CDC
Tracked Millions of Phones to See If Americans Followed COVID
Lockdown Orders. (Vice, May 3, 2022)
Newly released documents showed the CDC planned to use
phone location data to monitor schools and churches, and wanted
to use the data for many non-COVID-19 purposes, too.
Data
Broker Is Selling Location Data of People Who Visit Abortion
Clinics. (Vice, May 3, 2022)
It costs just over $160 to get a week's worth of data on where
people who visited Planned Parenthood came from, and where they
went afterwards.
Lauren Stiller Rikleen: SCOTUS Draft Rejecting Roe
Must Spur Legal Profession to Speak Up. (Bloomberg Law,
May 3, 2022)
Sitting on the sidelines is no longer an option, she writes, as
the fundamental right of women to make decisions affecting their
own bodies is at risk.
Ignoring the importance of nearly 50 years of settled law since
1973, and the concomitant explosion in cases adjudicating
individual rights that has evolved in modern times, Justice
Alito, in the draft document, instead relied on this bleak
history: “The inescapable conclusion is that a right to abortion
is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and traditions. On
the contrary, an unbroken tradition of prohibiting abortion on
pain of criminal punishment persisted from the earliest days of
the common law until 1973.”
What does it say when the majority of the Supreme Court, in
2022, is willing to justify the elimination of a woman’s right
to choose by, in part, detailing this harsh history throughout
the same centuries that women were treated as chattel and had no
legal rights of any kind?
Our
Obsession with Ancestry Has Some Twisted Roots. (New
Yorker, May 2, 2022)
From origin stories to
blood-purity statutes, we have long enlisted genealogy to
serve our own purposes.
Big
News out of Ukraine, if it can be verified: Russia's Top
General Injured and Evacuated to Russia. (Daily Kos, May
1, 2022)
Official Ukrainian sources on May 1 said devastating artillery
strikes on a Russian military headquarters may have injured the
senior general in the Russian Army, Valery Gerasimov, along with
killing or wounding dozens of other military personnel, many of
them senior members of the officer’s corps. A statement from
Ukraine’s Army General Staff (AGS) said a pair of surprise
bombardments hit Russian military command centers in the Izyum
are of Kharkiv region during overnight April 30-May 1.
General Gerasimov is not just another field General.
Rather, he is Russia’s leading war theorist, best known as the
namesake of the Gerasimov Doctrine of hybrid warfare, pursuant
to which Russia now includes political, economic, informational,
humanitarian and other non-military activities in a total war
strategy. The doctrine became known after its
publication in February 2013 and Russia’s subsequent hostile
actions against Ukraine in 2014 which were carried out in a
manner consistent with the doctrine.
Satellites
have detected land surface temperatures in some parts of India
at 149 F. (Daily Kos, May 1, 2022)
Owing to the absence of cloud cover on April 29 (10:30 local
time), the Sentinel-3 spacecraft was able to obtain an accurate
measurement of the land surface temperature of the ground, which
exceeded 60°C (140°F) in several areas. The data shows that
surface temperature in Jaipur and Ahmedabad reached 47°C
(117°F), while the hottest temperatures recorded are southeast
and southwest of Ahmedabad (visible in deep red) with maximum
land surface temperatures of around 65°C (149°F).
The Fire Map shows locations in India where fires were detected
by satellite during the last 24 hours. Regardless of whether
these fires are triggered by humans or not, extremely high
temperatures and dry conditions due to climate change are
exacerbating them.
[May Day, May Day! Global warming is real!]
Heatwave:
No Respite For Northwest, Central India in May; Worst Power
Crisis in 6 Years. (The Wire/IN, May 1, 2022)
Northwest and central India experienced the hottest April in 122
years with average maximum temperature touching 35.9 degrees
Celsius and 37.78 degrees Celsius respectively.
India is experiencing power
outages, as its coal supply is not enough to meet the surge in
electricity demand from air-conditioning. Authorities are
frantically seeking more coal imports. Temperatures are expected
only to increase in May and June.
[Burning more coal because of global warming? Can such things
be? And most of rural India does not HAVE air conditioning.]
Cooking
on Car Bonnets, Shelter in Dry Tunnels: India's Heatwave in
Photos and Videos (The Wire/IN, May 1, 2022)
Glimpses of hardship and coping mechanisms from across parts of
India reeling from high temperatures.
Apple’s
Self-Repair Program Is Off to a Bumpy Start. (Wired, April
30, 2022)
For a very long time, Apple pooh-poohed the idea of letting you
repair your own stuff. The company has even gone toe-to-toe with
the US Congress to keep its tight grip on repairs of its tech.
Then, last November, Apple announced it would give users the
ability to access official repair manuals and “genuine Apple
parts” to fix their devices. This week, the company launched
that program, making self-repair kits available for newer
iPhones.
Thing is, Apple isn’t exactly giving people free rein. Apple is
keeping tight control over its parts. For a repair to be
considered valid, users must use (and buy) parts stamped with
Apple’s seal of approval. Having to buy serialized parts from
Apple makes them more exclusive, and therefore more expensive,
than third-party parts. Apple is also making the tools you'll
need to fix your device available to rent through its repair
program. A one-week rental of a tool kit will cost you $49.
You
Need to Update iOS, Android, and Chrome Right Now. (Wired,
April 29, 2022)
Plus: Microsoft patched some 100 flaws, while Oracle issued more
than 500 security fixes.
Russian
forces face strong resistance amid stark reminders of war’s
toll. (Washington Post, April 29, 2022)
Cracks emerge in Russian elite as tycoons start to bemoan
invasion.
On the battlefield, Ukraine uses Soviet-era weapons against
Russia.
Russian troops stole more than 2,000 pieces of art from
Mariupol, city council says.
U.N. to vote next month on replacing Russia on Human Rights
Council.
Putin
likely not capable of functioning by year end. (eight
videos; Robert Lansing Institute, April 28, 2022)
Putin currently appears to suffer from mental and physical
deterioration due to cancer and stage-3 Parkinson’s disease. Progressing
dementia, typical for the fifth stage, indicates that the
ability to move on his own, usually lost at the fourth stage, is
preserved due to excessive medication, likely to affect the
patient’s mental health. If Kremlin hawks succeed in preventing
disclosure of Putin’s real health condition, Russia might then repeat the scenario
of North Korea.
Putin’s death is unlikely to bring Russia back to the framework
of civilized international relations.
The desire by Putin’s entourage to stay in power and avoid
responsibility for the crimes committed by his regime
closes the door for that scenario. An attempt by Putin’s
entourage to replace him with a “democratic” candidate would
deceive the West, as it preserves the Putin regime in a new
guise.
[He's got The Bomb. And his successors are not likely to be
better.]
Inside
Zelensky's World (Time, April 28, 2022)
Outside Ukraine, Zelensky told me, “People see this war on
Instagram, on social media. When they get sick of it, they will
scroll away.” It’s human nature. Horrors have a way of making us
close our eyes. “It’s a lot of blood,” he explains. “It’s a lot
of emotion.” Zelensky senses the world’s attention flagging, and
it troubles him nearly as much as the Russian bombs. Most
nights, when he scans his agenda, his list of tasks has less to
do with the war itself than with the way it is perceived. His
mission is to make the free world experience this war the way
Ukraine does: as a matter of its own survival. He seems to be
pulling it off.
Kremlin
slams West for backing Ukraine’s right to strike Russia back.
(Washington Post, April 28, 2022)
The comments come after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken
said it was Ukraine’s prerogative to strike back on Russian
soil. Asked whether the United States should support offensive
operations, Blinken said he believed that it was “vital” that
Ukraine “do whatever is necessary to defend against Russian
aggression” and that “the tactics of this are their decisions.”
The comments come as Ukrainian officials said unexplained fires
and explosions that were reported in recent days against
sensitive targets in Russia were justified — and could increase
— but did not take responsibility for them.
Tonight,
America begins an annual festival celebrating hubris. (New
York Times, April 28, 2022)
Tonight at the Caesars Forum Conference Center near Las Vegas,
thousands of people will gather for an annual demonstration of
human overconfidence. The official name of the gathering is the
N.F.L. draft. There, with millions of Americans watching on
television, executives of the N.F.L.’s 32 teams will choose
which college players to add to their rosters. And the
executives will almost certainly make a lot of decisions that
they later regret.
I recognize that many readers of this newsletter are not
football fans. Still, I think the draft is worth a few minutes
of your attention, because it turns out to be a delightful case
study of human hubris, one with lessons for other subjects, like
the economy and Covid-19.
[And phasing out coal...]
NEW: GNOME
patent troll stripped of patent rights. (OSI, April 28,
2022)
The patent troll who attacked them also lost the patent it was
using for the assault, following the persistent efforts of McCoy
Smith, an open source community legal specialist.
How
Far Are We From Phasing Out Coal? (Chart; Visual
Capitalist, April 28, 2022)
TOO far. At the COP26 conference last year, 40 nations agreed to
phase coal out of their energy mixes. Despite this, in 2021,
coal-fired electricity generation reached all-time highs
globally, showing that eliminating coal from the energy mix will
not be a simple task.
MA
Town-By-Town COVID-19: Hospitalization Rate Up 85% Since Last
Month. (Patch, April 28, 2022)
The COVID-19 positive test rate for Massachusetts also rose
above 5 percent for the first time in months.
When
the Next Covid Wave Breaks, the US Won’t Be Able to Spot It.
(Wired, April 27, 2022)
Lab programs are closing. Home testing has shrunk the pool of
publicly reported data. Will we still see the next surge before
it arrives?
More than half of Americans infected
with the coronavirus. (New York Times, April 27, 2022)
According to new research from the C.D.C., 60 percent of
Americans — including 75 percent of children — had been infected
with the coronavirus by February. Omicron seems be responsible
for much of the toll. In December last year, as the highly
contagious variant began spreading, only half as many people had
antibodies indicating prior infection.
The astonishing milestone was certainly not reached by design
and came at an immense human and economic cost. But the data may
signal good news. A high level of population-wide immunity and
resistance may offer at least a partial bulwark against future
waves. The trend may also explain why the surge that is now
roaring through China and many European countries has been muted
in the U.S. A high percentage of previous infections may also
mean that there are now fewer cases of life-threatening illness
or death relative to infections.
Ukraine's
well-calculated strikes inside Russia have multiple effects.
(Daily Kos, April 27, 2022)
On Sunday, a pair of fuel deports in Bryansk, Russia, roughly
100 miles from the border with Ukraine, exploded into flames. As
with the fuel depot that “mysteriously” burned in Belgorod,
Russia, back on March 31 (after two Ukrainian helicopters were
seen zipping past in a daring treetop-level raid), Ukrainian
officials are being cagey about the cause of the explosions at
Bryansk. But there seems almost no doubt that the fires were
started by a carefully targeted Ukrainian assault that avoided
hitting civilian targets and went straight for vital military
supplies.
‘Nobody
wants to run from the war’ – a voice from Ukraine’s displaced
millions describes the conflicting pulls of home, family and
safety. (The Conversation, April 27, 2022)
Yuliia thinks that most Ukrainians who have left where they live
plan to return soon or after the war. And many Ukrainians are in
fact going back home, despite the continuing danger. Since Feb.
28, 2022, 1.7 million Ukrainians have returned to Ukraine. Since
April 15, 2022, the number of those returning to Ukraine from
Poland has been greater than those going to Poland from Ukraine.
Even in longer, more drawn-out conflicts around the world where
millions have been displaced, such as Afghanistan and the
eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, many people do not
leave their home areas, despite great danger.
Heather
Cox Richardson: Biden restores the U.S. State Department.
(Letters From An American, April 27, 2022)
Shortly after Trump took office journalists wrote about how he
was sidelining the State Department. Trump seemed “enamored of
the military” and seemed eager to get rid of the nonpartisan
bureaucracy that stabilizes democracies.
Of course, we now know that Trump was centering foreign
affairs in the White House—Ivanka Trump went along on that
trip to Saudi Arabia to promote “female entrepreneurs”—and
among his own cronies like the “Three Amigos” who tried to
pressure Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky into launching a
fake investigation into Hunter Biden. The plan was, at least
in part, to stop looking at foreign affairs as national
security (just days ago, Trump told an audience that during
his term he had threatened European leaders that the U.S.
would not honor the mutual aid pact and defend Europe against
incursions by Russia) and instead to pocket huge sums of
money. We know now it was Trump friend Tom Barrack who was
behind the meeting with the Saudis as he angled for a huge
deal to transfer nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia. People
who seemed nonplussed by the extraordinary actions of the
Trump administration just couldn’t believe they were seeing
the dismantling of centuries of diplomacy to enrich one family
and its inner circle.
President Biden's Secretary of State Antony Blinken now talks
about values and national security again. Today, he spoke to
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, reminding it that he,
the secretary of state, had spoken to the committee 100 times.
In addition to responding to the urgency of the attack on
Ukraine, the State Department “continues to carry out the
missions traditionally associated with diplomacy, like
responsibly managing great power competition with China,
facilitating a halt to fighting in Yemen and Ethiopia, pushing
back against the rising tide of authoritarianism and the
threat that it poses to human rights,” he said. The State
Department will continue to modernize, as well, to address
emergence of infectious diseases, the climate crisis, and the
digital revolution.
“My first 15 months in this job have only strengthened my own
conviction that these and other reforms are not just
worthwhile;” Blinken said, “they’re essential to our national
security and to delivering for the people we represent.”
[Vive
la difference!]
Dr. Roy Schestowitz: Microsoft
Aggression and Deflection - Against Linux (34-min.
video; TechRights, April 27, 2022)
Microsoft Loves Linux FUD.
Microsoft
points at Linux and shouts: Look, look! Privilege-escalation
flaws here, too! (The Register, April 27, 2022)
Will Redmond start code-naming Windows make-me-admin bugs?
Microsoft
finds Linux desktop flaw that gives root to untrusted users.
(Ars Technica, April 26, 2022)
Elevation of privilege vulnerabilities can be used to gain
persistent root access. Adversaries with physical access or
limited system rights can deploy backdoors or execute code of
their choice.
Nimbuspwn, as Microsoft has named the EoP threat, is two
vulnerabilities that reside in the networkd-dispatcher, a component in many Linux
distributions - including Linux Mint - that dispatch network
status changes and can run various scripts to respond to a new
status. When a machine boots, networkd-dispatcher runs as root.
The vulnerability has been patched in the networkd-dispatcher,
although it wasn’t immediately clear when or in what version,
and attempts to reach the developer weren’t immediately
successful. People using vulnerable versions of Linux should
patch their systems as soon as possible.
[That's the bottom line. Techies will enjoy this detailed
explanation.]
So
You Think You've Been Hacked? (Ask Bob Rankin, April 26,
2022)
Sometimes the best security software in the world can't protect
you from yourself. If you click on anything that moves, use
trivial passwords, or download from sites that are not
trustworthy, you might as well open the door and invite the bad
guys in for a party. Other times the attacks are very clever,
and may catch you off guard. A link in a carefully crafted
"phishing" email can take you to a rogue site designed to steal
your password or banking credentials.
Fake virus warning messages are almost as old as antivirus
software, and they still work. When “VIRUS DETECTED! Click here
to delete it NOW!” appears on-screen, people often rush to
click. After all, who remembers what the real warning message of
an antivirus program is supposed to look like? But when you
click on the fake warning it can lead you down a rabbit hole.
[Read it. Memorize it. Believe it.]
Florida
man asks schools to ban the Bible following the state's
efforts to remove books. (PBS, April 26, 2022)
In petitions sent to public school superintendents across the
state, Chaz Stevens asked the districts to "immediately remove
the Bible from the classroom, library, and any instructional
material," Stevens wrote in the documents, which were shared
with NPR. "Additionally, I also seek the banishment of any book
that references the Bible." His petitions cited a bill signed
into law last month by Gov. Ron DeSantis, which lets parents
object to educational materials.
A
Billionaires’ World (New York Times, April 26, 2022)
The world’s richest person didn’t like Twitter. So he’s buying
it.
[With a good explanation of how a very few super-rich families
are gaming our world.]
NEW: The
World’s Largest Economies (1970-2020), Sized by GDP
(Visual Capitalist, April 26, 2022)
Global GDP has grown massively over the last 50 years, but not
all countries experienced this economic growth equally. In 1970,
the world’s nominal GDP was just $3.4 trillion. Fast forward a
few decades and it had reached $85.3 trillion by 2020. And
thanks to shifting dynamics, such as industrialization and the
rise and fall of political regimes, the world’s largest
economies driving this global growth have changed over time.
[The slideshow animates automatically. To pause, move your
cursor on the image. Arrows on left/right navigate.]
Models
of Landscape Formation on Saturn’s Moon Titan Reveal an
Earth-Like Alien World. (SciTechDaily, April 26, 2022)
Titan, Saturn’s moon, appears very much like Earth from space,
with rivers, lakes, and seas filled by rain that pours through a
thick atmosphere. While these landscapes appear to be familiar,
they are made of materials that are undoubtedly different –
liquid methane streams streak Titan’s frozen surface, while
nitrogen winds produce hydrocarbon sand dunes.
The presence of these materials – whose mechanical properties
are vastly different from those of silicate-based substances
that make up other known sedimentary bodies in our solar system
– makes Titan’s landscape formation enigmatic. By identifying a
process that would allow for hydrocarbon-based substances to
form sand grains or bedrock depending on how often winds blow
and streams flow, Stanford University geologists have shown how
Titan’s distinct dunes, plains, and labyrinth terrains could be
formed.
Titan, which is a target for space exploration because of its
potential habitability, is the only other body in our solar
system known to have an Earth-like, seasonal liquid transport
cycle.
NEW: Self-driving
cars and earthquakes have more in common than you’d think.
(Temblor, April 26, 2022)
Scientists and a Japanese cell phone provider are working
together to measure land movements, with an eye toward locating
earthquakes. Such partnerships would be particularly helpful in
the United States, where more than 100 geolocation stations are
being decommissioned due to a reduction in funding.
And
In The End... (35-min. podcast; Michael Moore, April 25,
2022)
Our environmental movement has failed us and we must change
course — and leadership — immediately. Planet Earth is fed up
with us, and from climate to coronavirus, it sees no choice but
to throw an extinction event.
As a follow-up to last week’s Substack letter — “At Earth Day’s
End” — I was compelled to raise the stakes again after sitting
through one more Earth Day that offered no hope that we are
going to get this right. So a new kind of battle must now be
fought.
NEW: The
revival of a forgotten American fruit (BBC, April 25,
2022)
The pawpaw, North America's largest native edible fruit, grows
wild in 26 US states including Texas, Ohio, West Virginia, New
York and Michigan, and all the way up to Ontario, Canada. Yet
most people have never heard of it.
Natick
History: The Charles River (Natick Historical Society,
April 25, 2022)
Some stretches of the Charles River in South Natick still look
much the way they did when the “Praying Indians” and Rev. John
Eliot did their first walk-around at the site and decided to
build a town in 1651.
NEW: How
Do Big Tech Giants Make Their Billions? (Visual
Capitalist, April 25, 2022)
In 2021, the Big Five tech companies generated more than $1.4
trillion in revenue - that's more than Mexico's entire GDP.
Where does big tech make their money? We dug through each
company's 2021 10-K reports to find out.
Donald
Trump Dealt a Blow in New York Fraud Case. (Newsweek,
April 25, 2022)
A New York Supreme Court judge on Monday ruled to hold Donald
Trump in contempt for failing to comply with a subpoena, the
latest development in the former president's ongoing fight with
the office of state Attorney General Letitia James. The decision
was a major victory for James in the New York fraud case. State
Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump will be
fined $10,000 every day until he complies with the subpoena.
Robert Reich: Elon Musk
Doesn't Want 'Free Speech.' He Wants Freedom from
Accountability. (Newsweek, April 25, 2022)
Elon Musk struck a deal today to buy Twitter for roughly $44
billion, in a victory by the world's richest man. Twitter agreed
to sell itself to Musk for $54.20 a share, a 38 percent premium
over the company's share price this month before he revealed he
was the firm's single largest shareholder.
Twitter's founder and top managers had offered Musk a seat on
the board but he didn't take it because he'd have to be
responsible to all other shareholders. Now, he doesn't have to
be accountable to anyone. Hey, it's a free market, right?
Elon
Musk to Buy Twitter. (Mother Jones, April 25, 2022)
Musk has been a prolific Twitter user and a sharp critic of its
use of content moderation.
[Bad news. Money talks - and in this case, far too much in bad
ways.]
Hingham
Doctor Bringing 1,500 Pounds Of Medical Supplies To Ukraine.
(Patch, April 25, 2022)
Dr. Frank Duggan is en route to Ukraine with medical supplies in
hopes to help people and hospitals in need.
[Bravo for the good people who Just Do It!]
Ukraine’s
postal service prints stamp mocking sunken Russian ship, and
gets hit by DDoS attack. (good photos; Graham Cluley,
April 25, 2022)
February 24, 2022: Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s
Black Sea fleet, called on the 13 border guards defending
Ukraine’s Snake Island to surrender.
It only took a matter of days for Ukraine’s national
postal service, Ukrposhta, to issue a stamp honouring the
defiance of the border guards on Snake Island as they refused to
surrender to Russia’s Moskva warship. On the stamp, a
guard is rebelliously giving a defiant “one fingered salute” to
the Moskva.
April 13, 2022: Ukraine claimed that its forces had hit Moskva
with two missiles, and it subsequently sank.
April 22, 2022: Reuters reported that Ukrposhta was hit by
distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. The speculation is
that this was in retaliation against the sale of the stamps,
which cheekily referenced the doomed Moskva.
Russia
uses African mercenaries as consumables in the war against
Ukraine. (Robert Lansing Institute, April 25, 2022)
Hundreds of Ethiopians have reportedly lined up outside the
Russian embassy in Addis Ababa, hoping to be recruited to fight
for Moscow in its war against Ukraine that began on February 24,
2022. The Ethiopians applying to the Russian Embassy in Addis
Ababa want to leave their country, reach Europe and search for a
better future. Most of them saw recruitment announcements
published by the Russian embassy on the Internet.
In the same manner around 5,000 citizens of Eritrea are being
recruited. There is information about the recruitment of
citizens of the Congo, the Central African Republic and
Cameroon. The mercenaries are partly recruited by Russian
intelligence personnel working in the Russian embassies under
cover, and, by private military companies’ branches (for
example, in the Central African Republic and Cameroon).
Ukraine
update: Massive explosions at Russian oil depots; Russia
creeps closer to vital rail line. (Daily Kos, April 25,
2022)
The situation on the ground in Ukraine continues to see only
small changes, with Russian forces continuing to stage small
attacks as Ukrainian defenders publicize equipment captures
behind Russia's frontlines. Russian state television continues
to be apoplectic in their fury over ... the rest of the world
existing, for the most part.
Russia continues to show no apparent battle plan other than the
current probing attacks,
The mass of European and American artillery, tanks, and other
heavy weaponry being rushed to Ukrainian forces continues to
flow towards the frontlines, making every day of the current
near-stalemate considerably more dangerous for Russia than for
the country they are invading.
The weekend's biggest news was the continued tendency of major
infrastructure inside Russia to violently and inexplicably
explode. Two
massive fires are burning in Bryansk, 90 miles from
Ukraine, after explosions rocked two large oil depots in the
city. One of those depots is next to a Russian "artillery and
missile storage" site. The cause of both explosions is currently
unknown; this, after fires destroyed a Russian missile research
facility, a Russian space program facility, and Russia's largest
(and absolutely critical) chemical plant in recent days. It also
coincides with a string of bloody murder-suicides plaguing the
Russian oligarchy since Russian strongman Vladimir Putin issued
his orders to invade.
COVID-19
Third Dose Vaccine Protection Against Hospitalization Wanes
After 3 Months. (SciTechDaily, April 24, 2022)
A booster dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine provides strong
protection, roughly 80% to 90%, in the first few months against
hospital admissions and emergency department visits caused by
the delta and omicron variants of COVID-19. However, this
protection against omicron deteriorates over time – even after a
third vaccine dose.
[Get that next booster shot!]
Zelensky
says Blinken and Austin will visit Ukraine on Sunday.
(CNN, April 23, 2022)
Biden announced Thursday that the US will send an additional
$800 million in military assistance to Ukraine as the Russian
invasion soon enters its third month in what US officials warn
could be a potentially bloody new phase. The new shipments
include heavy artillery and 144,000 rounds of ammunition. The
US sent a similarly sized military aid package earlier this
month that included Mi-17 helicopters, Howitzer
cannons, Switchblade drones and protective equipment.
Evidence
of Zoonotic Spread: Superbug C. difficile Can Jump Between
Pigs and Humans. (SciTechDaily, April 23, 2022)
C. difficile is a bacterium that infects the human gut and is
resistant to all current antibiotics except three. Some
strains possess genes that allow them to produce toxins that
can cause damaging inflammation in the gut, leading to
life-threatening diarrhea, mostly in the elderly and
hospitalized patients who have been treated with antibiotics.
C. difficile is regarded as one of the most serious antibiotic
resistance threats in the United States. It caused an
estimated 223,900 infections and 12,800 deaths in 2017, at a
healthcare cost of more than $1 billion. A hypervirulent
strain of C. difficile (ribotype 078; RT078) that can cause
more serious disease and its main sequence type 11 (ST11), is
associated with a rising number of infections in the community
in young and healthy individuals. Farm animals have recently
been identified as RT078 reservoirs.
[See related "Chain-Mail" article on February 26th, below.]
Celebrating
the Hubble Space Telescope’s 32nd Birthday With a Stunning
Galaxy Grouping (photo and two 1-min. videos;
SciTechDaily, April 23, 2022)
The NASA/ESA Hubble
Space Telescope is celebrating its 32nd birthday with a
magnificent view of the Hickson Compact Group 40, an
extraordinary close-knit grouping of five galaxies that
captures a special moment in their lifetimes as they fall
together before merging. This menagerie includes three
spiral-shaped galaxies, an elliptical galaxy, and a lenticular
(lens-like) galaxy. Somehow, these different galaxies have
crossed paths to create an unusually crowded and diversified
galaxy sampler.
Climate
activists protest in D.C.: ‘Our futures are at stake!’
(Washington Post, April 22, 2022)
The world is running out of options to implement the sweeping
changes needed to slow Earth’s warming, highlighted by the
latest report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change. But organizers say they are determined to keep pressing
for humanity to shift course.
'Vampire
Energy' Is Sucking the Life Out of Our Planet. (Wired,
April 22, 2022)
This Earth Day, it's time to tackle a sneaky source of waste
that drains wallets and accelerates climate change.
Opposition
to abortion doesn’t stop some Americans from supporting
friends and family who seek one. (The Conversation, April
22, 2022)
Data from the 2018 General Social Survey, a nationally
representative survey fielded since 1972 by the National Opinion
Research Center at the University of Chicago, revealed that 76%
of Americans who were morally opposed to abortion would
nonetheless give “emotional support” to a friend or family
member who decided to have an abortion. Another 43% would help
make arrangements, and 28% would help pay for associated costs.
Six percent would help pay for the abortion itself.
Amid the backdrop of legislation in Texas permitting citizens to
sue anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion after six weeks
of pregnancy, these findings may be noteworthy. While federal
and state courts debate the legal status of abortion, the issue
is much more personal for ordinary Americans. Nearly a quarter
of U.S. women will obtain an abortion by the age of 45.
Three-quarters of the hundreds of Americans my team and I
interviewed knew someone personally who has had an abortion.
NEW: Universal
healthcare as pandemic preparedness: The lives and costs that
could have been saved during the COVID-19 pandemic (PNAS,
April 22, 2022)
The fragmented and inefficient healthcare system in the United
States leads to many preventable deaths and unnecessary costs
every year. During a pandemic, the lives saved and economic
benefits of a single-payer universal healthcare system relative
to the status quo would be even greater. For Americans who are
uninsured and underinsured, financial barriers to COVID-19 care
delayed diagnosis and exacerbated transmission. Concurrently,
deaths beyond COVID-19 accrued from the background rate of
uninsurance. Universal healthcare would alleviate the mortality
caused by the confluence of these factors. To evaluate the
repercussions of incomplete insurance coverage in 2020, we
calculated the elevated mortality attributable to the loss of
employer-sponsored insurance and to background rates of
uninsurance, summing with the increased COVID-19 mortality due
to low insurance coverage. Incorporating the demography of the
uninsured with age-specific COVID-19 and non-pandemic mortality,
we estimated that a single-payer universal healthcare system
would have saved about 212,000 lives in 2020 alone. We also
calculated that US$105.6 billion of medical expenses associated
with COVID-19 hospitalization could have been averted by a
single-payer universal healthcare system over the course of the
pandemic. These economic benefits are in addition to
US$438-billion expected to be saved by single-payer universal
healthcare during a non-pandemic year.
With over 973,000 reported deaths attributed to COVID-19 as of
14 March 2022, the United States represents 16% of the
documented worldwide mortality burden of the virus, while only
composing 4% of the global population. Inadequate health
insurance coverage has exacerbated the COVID-19 pandemic on both
individual and population levels. At the individual level,
concerns over medical expenses delay diagnosis and treatment,
elevating case fatality rates. At the population level,
postponement of diagnosis, and thus of case isolation, fuels
transmission. In addition, fear of losing employer-sponsored
health insurance during a pandemic may make it untenable for
people to miss work even when they feel unwell.
[Among well-off countries,
the US stands shamefully alone in leaving its citizens to die
and to spread pandemics. Read
the map!]
NEW: The
Week It Became Obvious: The Biden Admin Is Over Making Covid
Decisions. (Mother Jones, April 22, 2022)
We’re all exhausted by decision fatigue. But the government
has no excuse.
Joe
Biden, and the Country, Could Really Use a CTO. (Wired,
April 22, 2022)
One of the US government’s best innovations so far this century
was establishing a chief technology officer. Since Barack Obama
created the post, you would expect that his former VP Joe Biden
would want to choose his own CTO early into his presidency.
Doing so would provide Americans with a strong voice and a
knowledgeable leader in a period when tech’s issues—in AI,
education, jobs, privacy, and disinformation—are more critical
than ever. But nope. Nearly a year and half into the Biden
administration, we have no CTO. The office is empty.
One obstacle in particular: the Biden administration’s
guidelines about owning stakes in companies. Ethics standards
make perfect sense as a way to avoid conflicts, but the CTO
candidate pool is loaded with people who have amassed equity in
these companies from working in tech or investing in startups.
For many of them, divesting isn’t as simple as just selling off
stock, especially if the shares or options they own are in
illiquid companies. Giving up those holdings might mean losing
them outright. Worse, these restrictions apply to spouses as
well. Multiple sources told me that the CTO job was offered to
D.J. Patil, who was Obama’s chief data scientist and a member of
the Biden transition team, but under the financial restrictions,
he couldn’t make it work. (Patil declined to confirm or deny.) I
also heard that feelers went out to at least four other
candidates, who had similar problems.
Trump
says he threatened not to defend NATO against Russia.
(3-min. video; Washington Post, April 22, 2022)
Pentagon
seeking info from U.S. industry on Ukraine-ready systems.
(Reuters, April 22, 2022)
The Department of Defense posted a request for information on
SAM.gov that had an initial response deadline of May 6 and
sought information on weapons or commercial capabilities related
to air defense, anti-armor, anti-personnel, coastal defense,
counter battery, unmanned aerial systems, and communications
like radios or satellite internet.
Ukraine
update: Russia is doing the same thing and expecting a
different outcome. (Daily Kos, April 22, 2022)
Can Russia do better when the next obstacle in their way is not
Kyiv but the smallish cities of Slavyansk and Kramatorsk? That’s
not clear. Neither is it clear when the force at Izyum will
begin to move. If Putin wants something to actually celebrate on
May 9, Russia needs to find a new gear and move. On the other
hand, what do actual accomplishments even mean when you have
complete media control? Putin could just announce that Russia
has taken all of Ukraine and is marching on Germany. Then all
the planes could get back to practicing flying in a Z formation.
Meanwhile, additional U.S. weapons are arriving in Ukraine
daily, as are weapons from other NATO partners.
NEW: During
meeting with Russia's Defense Minister Vladimir Putin looks
like he is in discomfort or pain. (videos; Daily Kos,
April 22, 2022)
[Interesting videos and Comments thread, too.]
NEW: Every
Russian Oligarch Who Has Died Since Putin Invaded Ukraine.
(Newsweek, April 22, 2022)
Two Russian oligarchs were found dead this week alongside their
family in luxurious homes in Russia and Spain, with the two
cases discovered within 24 hours of each other. Both deaths
appeared to be cases of murder-suicide, but the evidence
supporting these theories is muddled by the fact that the events
happened so close together, with the two oligarchs the last of
several who have been "found to have died by suicide" since the
beginning of the year.
"I had it all wrong. My prediction was the oligarchs would bump
off Putin. Spain and the U.K.? THIS GUY HAS REACH. In Russia,
human life has no value. Rather than divorce, they push their
wives out windows, "another suicide". Even in battle, as we now
see in the Ukraine, they have little regard for their own
casualties. How did they defeat the Germans? Russia was willing
to accept a 5:1 casualty ratio; for each German-army casualty,
the Soviets had five. One-third of all military and civilian
casualties during WWII were Russian. These are very dangerous
people."
"What do Russian Oligarchs fear more than COVID? It's
Oligarchitis, an always fatal disease. It is contracted from
close financial contact with Putin. If you believe for one
minute that a rash of "murder-suicides" is sweeping through the
wealthiest Russians, you are delusional. The message being sent
from the top is a simple one: Your relationship with Putin is
always a limited engagement. When you are no longer useful, or
if you dare turn against him, you and your family will be wiped
from the face of the Earth."
"Or as Putin said last month, 'will be spat out as a midge.'"
"It's right out of the Lenin playbook: Use them to come to
power, then kill them. History repeats. Putin has no
imagination, no original thought. He's a 2-bit psychopath that
happens to be starting WWIII."
Stellar
Devastation on a Massive Scale: Black Holes Destroy Thousands
of Stars To Fuel Growth. (photos, 3-min. and 21-min.
videos; SciTechDaily, April 21, 2022)
Astronomers have found evidence for the destruction of thousands
of stars in multiple galaxies, using NASA’s Chandra X-ray
Observatory. The new study involved the
observations of over a hundred galaxies with Chandra.
Growing black holes within dense stellar clusters are
thought to be responsible for this large-scale devastation. This
process could account for “intermediate mass black holes”
through the runaway growth of stellar-mass black holes.
Humans
Disrupting 66 Million-Year-Old Fundamental Feature of
Ecosystems – “This Hasn’t Happened Before.” (SciTechDaily,
April 21, 2022)
It’s been several decades since ecologists realized that
graphing the diet-size relationship of terrestrial mammals
yields a U-shaped curve when aligning those mammals on a
plant-to-protein gradient. Plant-eating herbivores and
meat-eating carnivores tend to grow much larger than the
all-consuming omnivores and invertebrate-feasting invertivores.
To date, though, virtually no research had looked for the
pattern beyond mammals or the modern day.
In a new study, researchers from the University of
Nebraska–Lincoln and institutions on four continents have
concluded that the pattern actually dates back to deep time and
applies to land-dwelling birds, reptiles, and even saltwater
fishes. However, the study also suggests that human-caused
extinctions of the largest herbivores and carnivores are causing
a disruption in what appears to be a fundamental component of
past and present ecosystems, with potentially unpredictable
implications.
Clarence
Thomas and his wife’s text messages highlight missing ethics
rules at the Supreme Court. (The Conversation, April 21,
2022)
In general, ethical behavior by judges in our federal system is
governed by the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, which
was adopted in 1973. The code applies to federal judges and
magistrate judges serving in the courts of appeals, district
courts, bankruptcy judges, the Court of International Trade and
the Court of Federal Claims. Judges must not only avoid actual
conflicts of interest, they must also avoid the appearance of
impropriety. Thus, judges covered under the code need to recuse
themselves from cases whenever their impartiality might
reasonably be questioned.
Notably absent from coverage under the code are the justices of
the Supreme Court of the United States.
[And Trump packed that court.]
GOP’s
cozy ties with big business unravel as DeSantis unloads on
Disney. (World News Era, April 21, 2022)
A growing numbers of state and federal Republican leaders today
seem eager to clash with the country’s biggest corporations over
bills on hot-button issues.
Last year, the GOP attacked entities such as Delta Air Lines and
Major League Baseball for standing against Georgia’s restrictive
voting law. Citigroup was threatened for taking action seen as
opposing Texas’s recent abortion law. And Disney’s complaints
about Florida’s new law limiting classroom discussion of sexual
identity has led to Republicans targeting the Magic Kingdom’s
perks.
Despite the onslaught, companies are not backing down — goaded
by heightened expectations from customers and employees.
Citigroup did not rescind its offer to help its Texas workers
obtain out-of-state abortion services after the new restrictive
law there, despite the threat from a state GOP representative to
block the financial company from underwriting municipal bonds.
The result is fresh cracks in the once-sturdy relationship
between companies and a business-friendly GOP.
Perils
of Invisible Government (New York Times, April 21,
2022)
More than a decade ago, the political scientist Suzanne
Mettler coined the phrase “the submerged state” to describe a
core feature of modern American government: Many people don’t
realize when they are benefiting from a government program.
“Americans often fail to recognize government’s role in
society, even if they have experienced it in their own lives,”
Mettler
wrote. “That is because so much of what government does
today is largely invisible.”
The American Rescue Plan is huge and yet little
noticed.
“Democrats win elections when we show we understand the painful
economic realities facing American families and convince voters
we will deliver meaningful change,” Senator
Elizabeth Warren wrote this week. “To put it bluntly: if
we fail to use the months remaining before the elections to
deliver on more of our agenda, Democrats are headed toward big
losses in the midterms.”
Biden
administration to appeal ruling striking down transit mask
mandate. (Washington Post,
April
20, 2022)
“If the courts handcuff the CDC in this most classic exercise
of public health powers, it seems to me that CDC will not be
able to act nimbly and decisively when the next health crisis
hits. And it will hit,” said Lawrence O. Gostin, a Georgetown
University professor of global health law who advises the
White House and urged the administration to appeal. If the
decision is allowed to stand, Gostin said, the CDC “will
always be looking over its shoulder, always gun-shy about
exercising its powers.”
But the appeal could tee up a battle at the Supreme Court,
which has already dealt several blows to the administration’s
coronavirus policies and could issue a new ruling that further
constrained the CDC’s attempts to fight future virus surges.
The
crazy details of the Trump era just keep piling up.
(Mother Jones, April 20, 2022)
Why
Isn’t Jared Kushner’s $2 Billion Saudi Payment a Big Scandal?
(Mother Jones, April 20, 2022)
Anyone remember Billygate? Billygate is a good point of
reference when assessing what could be called Jaredgate. On
April 10, the New York Times revealed that Jared Kushner,
son-in-law and adviser of the 45th president, secured a $2
billion investment for his new private equity firm, Affinity
Partners, from a fund controlled by the Saudi crown prince—even
after advisers to the Saudi fund raised serious objections to
the investment. The panel was overruled by the fund’s board,
which is headed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi
Arabia’s autocratic de facto leader, who, according to US
intelligence, green-lit the operation that resulted in the
assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
It’s damn hard to not see the $2 billion investment as either a
payoff for past services rendered or a preemptive bribe should
Trump manage to regain the White House. And it could be both.
It’s a wonder that the disclosure of this deal hasn’t created
more of a fuss and prompted congressional investigations.
(Imagine what Republicans and Fox News would be doing if Hunter
Biden received $2 billion from a Ukrainian government leader who
was responsible for the gruesome murder of an American
resident.) A 10-figure payment to a relative of a former
president who is essentially the current (though undeclared) GOP
front-runner in the 2024 contest and possibly the next
inhabitant of the White House is a major scandal. Or it should
be.
Top 100 Linux
Blogs and Websites (FeedSpot, April 20, 2022)
The best Linux blogs from thousands of blogs on the web ranked
by traffic, social media followers, domain authority &
freshness.
How
To Use The Driving Modes In The Chevy Bolt EV And Bolt EUV
(2-min. video; GM Authority, April 20, 2022)
Drivers that learn how to properly utilize Regen on Demand and
One Pedal Driving will be able to maximize the usable range of
their Chevy Bolt EV or Bolt EUV. The Sport mode, on the other
hand, may cause the user to drain the battery faster and
therefore probably won’t be used by very many owners.
Or Take
The Bus! (1-min. Belgian TV commercials - from 2014!)
NEW: The
End of Astronauts—and the Rise of Robots (Wired, April
19, 2022)
Human space travel has captured the global imagination, but
robots may be a better, cheaper, and safer option.
The Kremlin refused Tuesday to reveal any details about
casualties suffered from the sinking of Russia's guided-missile
cruiser Moskva, as parents called for the truth about
their missing children. The flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet
sank last week after an explosion and fire that Ukraine said was
caused by a successful missile strike and Russia said was the
result of exploding munitions. Russian authorities said the crew
had been evacuated from the warship — which is able to carry up
to 680 sailors — but gave no other details.
After the Moskva sank, parents and other family members
of sailors who served aboard — including conscripts — took to
social media, saying their children had gone missing and that
they needed answers.
NEW: Russian
Military Secretly Evacuate Families From Region Bordering
Ukraine Inland. (Ukrainian News, April 19, 2022)
Tsymbalyuk noted that the Russian military is carefully
concealing information about the need for evacuation so as not
to provoke panic among the local population.
As Ukrainian News Agency reported, on April 14, the Center for
Counteracting Disinformation under the National Security and
Defense Council reported that Russia was carrying out terrorist
attacks on its territory in order to blame Ukraine for them.
Russia-Ukraine
war by the numbers: Live Tracker (Al Jazeera, April 19,
2022)
As the Russian offensive enters its fifty-fifth day, we track
where battles are taking place and the human cost of war, as
more than 4.9 million refugees stream out of Ukraine.
The
Surprising Climate Cost of the Humblest Battery Material
(2-min. video; Wired, April 19, 2022)
Graphite is made in blazing-hot furnaces powered by dirty
energy. Until recently, there has been no good tally of the
carbon emissions.
'No
place in New York City': Big city cutting ties with Wells
Fargo over 'brazen and illegal' acts. (Daily Kos, April
19, 2022)
It appears Wells Fargo is starting to reap what it sows. New
York City announced
on April 8 that it is refusing to open new accounts with the
financial company after a Bloomberg News study
showed that the bank rejected more than half of its Black
applicants looking to refinance their homes in 2020.
[Also see: Repeated
errors cost hundreds of people their homes—now Wells Fargo
wants to buy their silence. (Daily Kos, January 2, 2019).
Its Comments thread is long and very enlightening.]
Travel
Mask Mandate Struck Down: What It Means In Massachusetts.
(Patch, April 19, 2022)
Florida federal Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle - appointed to the
federal bench by now-former President Donald Trump in November
2020 after he lost the presidential election - said in the
59-page decision striking down the travel mask mandate that the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention both exceeded its
legal authority and failed to go through proper channels to put
the rule in place. The ruling means face coverings to protect
against COVID-19 are no longer required on planes, trains and,
in most cases, subways and buses.
The MBTA held out and kept the rules in place for part of
Tuesday, but is now expected to follow other agencies and drop
them later today. The CDC said late Monday that its order
requiring masks on public transportation "is no longer in
effect" and the agency will not enforce it. The CDC said it
"continues to recommend that people wear masks in indoor public
transportation settings at this time."
The suit was brought by the so-called Health
Freedom Defense Fund, which apparently supports the
freedom to continue the ravages of this Covid-19 pandemic by
fighting mandatory Covid masks and vaccines in public places.
[Worried about an invasion of America? Too late; it's already
occupied.]
Now
We’re Getting Rid of Masks on Planes—Just as Covid Is Spiking
Again. (Mother Jones, April 18, 2022)
Gear up for another round of mass pandemic chaos. Not even a
week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
extended its masks mandate for public travel—a move that
reflected rising Covid trends from the BA.2 subvariant—a federal
judge in Florida has struck down the order, sending airlines and
other public transportation hubs into confusion.
The CDC had previously extended the federal mask mandate to stay
in effect until May 3 in order to monitor how the omicron
subvariant BA.2 would transpire across the country.
(Coincidentally, the requirement had been set to expire today.)
The Northeast in particular has seen cases tick up
significantly, with New York and New Jersey seeing average daily
cases climb by an alarming 64 percent over the past week.
For
mRNA, Covid Vaccines Are Just the Beginning. (Wired, April
18, 2022)
With clinical vaccine trials for everything from HIV to Zika,
messenger RNA could transform medicine—or widen health care
inequalities.
NEW: At
Earth Day’s End (Michael Moore; April 18, 2022)
I, like many of you, have warned and pleaded for years that we
are killing our planet. How arrogant of me, of all of us, to
think we could pull such a thing off! Oooh, look at us — sooo
powerful, so all-knowing and invincible, we humans — WE think WE
can kill a planet!
No, my friends. Long before we kill Earth, Earth will kill us.
It’s already underway. This massive living organism of iron,
nickel, magnesium, silicon, nitrogen and oxygen has one purpose
— to LIVE — and it has identified its greatest threat, its sworn
enemy — us. And in order to survive, with superpowers that we
can only dream of having, it has reared its head and begun its
extinction of the one species that, if allowed to continue, will
turn Earth into one big dead rock — but only on its surface. The
4,000 interior miles below us will keep cranking away with its
magnetic field and orbiting powers. Eventually it’ll find a way
to create something new to amuse itself and which doesn’t need
six inches of topsoil, Teflon and a lithium battery.
[Harsh words - and perhaps just in time. Like it or not, DISCUSS
it!]
Climate
change will transform how we live, but these tech and policy
experts see reason for optimism. (The Conversation,
April 18, 2022)
The latest reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change discuss changes ahead, but they also describe how
existing solutions can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and
help people adjust to impacts of climate change that can’t be
avoided.
The problem is that these solutions aren’t being deployed fast
enough. In addition to push-back from industries, people’s
fear of change has helped maintain the status quo.
The
Renewable-Energy Revolution Will Need Renewable Storage.
(New Yorker, April 18, 2022)
Can gravity, pressure, and other elemental forces save us from
becoming a battery-powered civilization?
Do
poison pills work? A finance expert explains the anti-takeover
tool that Twitter hopes will keep Elon Musk at bay. (The
Conversation, April 18, 2022)
Not every company wants to be taken over. This is the case with
Elon Musk’s US$43 billion bid to buy Twitter. One of the most
effective anti-takeover measures is the shareholder rights plan,
also more aptly known as a “poison pill.” It is designed to
block an investor from accumulating a majority stake in a
company.
Twitter adopted a poison pill plan on April 15, 2022, shortly
after Musk unveiled his takeover offer in a Securities and
Exchange filing.
Used-Car
Prices Increased 28 Percent Year-Over-Year In March. (GM
Authority, April 18, 2022)
The anniversary of the chip shortage – when prices started to
skyrocket – is approaching. Year-over-year growth rates will
come back to earth. However, prices will not go negative. Rather
they should return to more normal growth trends but from a
higher base.
NEW: Russians
at War: Putin’s Aggression Has Turned a Nation Against Itself.
(Foreign Affairs, April 18, 2022)
[Cannot connect on April 27; try again later.]
The
Agonizing Life of a College Student in Ukraine (Mother
Jones, April 18, 2022)
“Our generation,” Azad Mamedov wrote in his diary, “has known
the horror of war.”
A
Newly-Measured Particle Could Break Known Physics. (Wired,
April 17, 2022)
A new analysis of W bosons suggests these particles are
significantly heavier than predicted by the standard model of
particle physics.
Install,
Configure, and Scan for Viruses on Linux with ClamAV.
(Putorius, April 17, 2022)
Many believe you do not need an antivirus if you use Linux. I am
not going to start that debate here. However, in my opinion it
is always better to have one and not need it, than to need one
and not have it. In this tutorial we are going to show you how
to install, configure, and scan for viruses on Linux with
ClamAV. ClamAV is a fully open source anti-malware toolkit. It
is available for almost any operating system, including Windows
(ClamWin).
GM’s
New BT1 Electric Vehicle Platform Is Not Unibody Or
Body-On-Frame. (GM Authority, April 17, 2022)
GM’s transition to an all-electric lineup is bringing a wealth
of new technology and engineering to the fore, including the
development of new vehicle platforms to underpin a deluge of new
GM EV models. “It is not a unibody and it is not a
body-on-frame. We’ve designed a different type of architecture
where we have a body that has a floor, but also, the Ultium
battery structure is actually a good portion of the structure
and those two are connected after the body exits the body shaft.
So we’ve defined kind of a new category of vehicle that doesn’t
have that traditional body-and-frame approach.”
The GM BT1 architecture underpins GM’s battery-powered pickup
trucks and SUVs, including the Chevy Silverado EV, GMC Sierra
EV, GMC Hummer EV, and the forthcoming all-electric variant of
the Cadillac Escalade. GM’s new BEV3 platform is used to
underpin the automaker’s all-electric crossovers and sedans,
including the Cadillac Lyriq, Cadillac Celestiq, Chevy Blazer
EV, and Chevy Equinox EV.
Musk
bid for Twitter underscores the risks of social media
ownership. (Washington Post, April 17, 2022)
Experts worry about the impact of ownership by one person after
years of dealing with Facebook.
The
Brooklyn shooting and other headline-making U.S. violence are
part of a broader trend. (New York Times, April 17, 2022)
Besides Covid and police brutality, the country’s increasingly
polarized politics and poor economic conditions have also fueled
this discord. That helps explain the murder spike, as well as
recent increases in drug addiction and overdoses, mental health
problems, car crashes and even confrontations over masks on
airplanes.
Trump Posts
Hostile Easter Greetings Filled with Insults and Hatred and
Fear. (News Corpse, April 17, 2022)
The worshipful infatuation that evangelicals have for Donald
Trump has always been starkly hypocritical. Trump is
indisputably the most flagrantly faithless person to ever occupy
the White House. His ignorance of – and animosity toward –
religion is evident every time he deigns to mention it. And he
only mentions it when he has something personal to gain by doing
so.
Ukraine
update: Goodbye to Moskva. (Daily Kos, April 16,
2022)
The U.S. Department of Defense has now confirmed that the
Russian missile cruiser Moskva (“Moscow”) sank after
being struck by Neptune missiles fired by Ukrainian coastal
defense. With a displacement of over 12,000 tons and a length
greater than two football fields, the Moskva was a large
ship. In fact, it may be the largest ship to go down in war
since World War II.
At a small remembrance ceremony held in Sevastopol yesterday, it
appears that only 58 survivors out of her crew of around 500
could attend. This may also be the worst loss of hands since
World War II.
U.S.,
allies plan for long-term isolation of Russia. (Washington
Post, April 16, 2022)
A new strategy would mark a return to containment after years of
seeking cooperation and coexistence with Moscow.
A
tale of many pandemics: In year three, a matter of status and
access. (Washington Post, April 16, 2022)
At this precarious moment in the pandemic — with cases
comparatively low but poised to rise again — the reality is
that people are experiencing many different pandemics
depending on their job, health, socioeconomic status, housing
and access to medical care.
NEW: It
Took Me 10 Years to Understand Entropy, Here is What I
Learned. (Cantor's Paradise, April 16, 2022)
From the Big Bang to the Heat Death of the Universe.
GM
Files Patent For Cabin Radiant Heating System. (GM
Authority, April 16, 2022)
A system like this is designed to provide adequate comfort
inside the cabin while staying as energy-efficient as
possible. Additionally, the system would more quickly
alleviate the sense of being cold by directly heating
adjacent surfaces, something which traditional HVAC systems
typically lag in providing vehicle occupants. As General
Motors moves towards offering a fully electric lineup,
systems like this will be necessary in order to ensure
maximum range-per-charge without sacrificing passenger
comfort.
Lithium-sulfur
batteries can be cheaper to produce and up to three times
more energy-dense than lithium-ion batteries.
(Freethink, April 15, 2022)
A lucky discovery could revolutionize the battery and change
how we power our world. A chemical phase of sulfur basically
stops battery degradation! This chemical phase is known as
monoclinic gamma-phase sulfur. It had only been observed in
the lab at high temperatures — upwards of 95°C (203°F). This
is the first time it has been seen at room temperature.
In the battery, this phase completely stops the reaction
that creates polysulfides; it lasts at least twice as long
as lithium-ion. The battery is three times as energy-dense
as lithium-ion and can charge just as fast! This new phase
of sulfur also has other benefits, like reducing battery
expansion and increased safety margins. In other words, this
battery has all of the hallmarks of the ultimate mass-market
battery. That means much faster, more efficient EVs with
ranges of thousands miles will be commercially viable at a
similar cost to today’s EVs, and they will still be useful
in 10 years time, dramatically reducing waste and increasing
the rate of EV adoption. Lithium, sulfur, and the other
materials that make this new battery are abundant all over
the Earth. This means we can drastically reduce mining’s
ecological impact, as well as ensure a stronger supply
chain.
Furthermore, short-haul flights, cargo vessels, and
passenger ferries will have a technology that will allow
them to go fully electric. The weight-saving, long life, and
competitive price will mean these sectors can finally
achieve their low-carbon goals.
In short, lithium-sulfur batteries could allow a huge range
of activities to go electric, making net-zero emissions far
more feasible.
But that isn’t the end of this discovery. The team at Drexel
are already looking into using this breakthrough to make
sodium-sulfur batteries. By removing the need for lithium,
they can make batteries even more eco-friendly and eliminate
a massive supply chain bottleneck, ensuring EV adoption can
continue at the speed that global warming demands.
The
Rise of Brand-New Secondhand EVs (Wired, April 15, 2022)
The global chip shortage has triggered a surge in demand for
prized, pricey used electric vehicles. It's only just beginning.
NEW: Why
Human Life Is Only About 80 Years: We
May Have Solved the Mystery. (Medium, April 15, 2022)
A new study from the Wellcome Sanger Institute published in
Nature suggests that the rate of genetic damage may be the
key. Genetic changes, called somatic mutations, occur in all
cells and are mostly harmless. The body repairs or ignores
them. But some can put a cell on the path to cancer. These
cells mutate in a way the body can’t repair.
Somatic mutations have been suspected of contributing to aging
since the 1950s, but their study has been difficult. With
recent advances in DNA sequencing technology, we can finally
study the role that somatic mutations play in aging and in
various diseases.
What’s new here is that even if mutations don’t cause cancer,
they accumulate. They cause the body to shut down and die
after a certain point. the study found that life
expectancy is inversely proportional to the somatic mutation
rate. This suggests that somatic mutations play an
important role in aging. It seems that long-lived animals have
successfully slowed the rate of DNA mutations and therefore
live longer. The average number of mutations across all
species at the end of life was about 3200. This seems to be
the critical mass of errors when a body can no longer
function properly.
Understanding the direct link between mutations and longevity
means that it’s crucial to stay away from substances
that cause mutations. Alcohol, smoking, sunlight,
processed foods. We all know the culprits. But
now, it’s not about whether you die of cancer or not. It’s
also about how long we live, even if we don’t get it.
[This is an important breakthrough. But remember the need to
greatly reduce over-population.]
Top
Political Cartoonist Sergei Elkin Flees Russia. (Moscow
Times, April 15, 2022)
Russia’s most prominent political cartoonist Sergei Elkin
announced Wednesday that he had left Russia amid a wartime
crackdown on journalism. He is now in Bulgaria. Over the years,
Elkin has lampooned politicians, businessmen, and international
elites in media outlets across the world — including The Moscow
Times, who published his series, “Putin’s Russia” in print and
online. New laws passed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on
Feb. 24 stipulate that anyone found guilty of spreading "fake
news" can face up to 15 years in prison.
The Moscow Times is celebrating Elkin’s work by sharing some of
the cartoons he created for the newspaper over the years.
Russian
Warship Moskva Is Featured in New Ukrainian
Postage Stamp. (Wall Street Journal, April 14, 2022)
An explosion aboard the Russian missile cruiser the Moskva
this week came shortly after the issue of a new Ukrainian
postage stamp that highlights the warship in an image
celebrating national resistance to Moscow’s invasion.
[Also see Wikipedia.]
NEW: Putin
nemesis Bill Browder reveals the 'real money' funding
Kremlin's war. (Yahoo, April 14, 2022)
A trillion dollars: That’s how much money famed investor Bill
Browder believes Vladimir Putin and Russian oligarchs have
stolen from the Russian people since the fall of the Soviet
Union. “And that was money that was supposed to be spent on
health care and education, roads and services,” Browder said at
a Manhattan event to celebrate the publication of his second
book, “Freezing Order,” which chronicles how he became a Putin
nemesis as a result of his attempts to expose Kremlin
corruption. Those efforts led to the death of Browder’s attorney
Sergei Magnitsky, who was tortured in a Russian prison and whose
name is affixed to sanctions bills passed by Congress.
The
Toxic
Culture That Produced the Subway Shooter Is All Around Us.
(1-min. video; Newsweek, April 14, 2022)
Suspected Brooklyn subway shooter Frank James may have acted
alone. But if it takes a village to raise a child, it takes an
entire culture to create a mass-murder. Ours can take full
credit here. The toxic ideas that consumed James are all around
us.
James is a now considered a suspect
in Tuesday's subway attack,
in which at least 23 people were injured and at least four
hospitalized. The shooter allegedly set
off smoke grenades in a crowded subway car and then
started shooting. And what motivated this act of violence? News
outlets have reported that James' alleged writings and YouTube
videos are laced with racism,
including pejorative discussions of white, Black, Hispanic, and
Asian people. This is true. But it also misses the point. If you
listen closely to his rants, you will hear a singular motif
emerge: the rage of the Jew-obsessed.
NEW:
Oceans Aren’t Just Warming—Their Soundscapes Are
Transforming. (Wired, April 14, 2022)
Humans are polluting the seas with sound, while warming waters
change how noise propagates. What does that mean for whales and
other animals?
EPA
Urged To Approve Carbon Nanotube Use For GM’s Ultium Battery
Packs. (GM Authority, April 14, 2022)
Michigan members of Congress recently sent a letter to the EPA requesting that
the regulatory body expedite GM’s request to approve the use of
carbon nanotubes, an advanced material slated for use in the
production of the automaker’s Ultium
electric vehicle batteries. The letter reinforces the
importance of a request for approval made by Ultium Cells LLC,
the joint venture between GM and LG Energy Solutions, and states
that the carbon nanotube material is critical in opening GM’s
new battery production facility in Delta Township. GM recently
announced $7 billion in investments for its Michigan-based
facilities to support the production of new electric vehicles,
including $2.5 billion for battery production at the Delta
Township plant, which is expected to create 1,700 new jobs.
Carbon nanotubes are essentially chemically bonded carbon atoms,
which can be used for the efficient storage or transfer of heat
or electrical energy.
While great for new EV battery technology, the EPA determined in
2011 that carbon nanotubes could be a health hazard, for
example, causing lung issues if inhaled.
[Its Comments thread includes an excellent debate on "all that's
wrong with EVs", and a glaring lack of comment about global
warming. Also, this: "What is it about EVs that give people with
sub-70 IQs prodromal schizophrenia?"]
Elon
Musk’s Truth (Wired, April 14, 2022)
At TED, the Tesla CEO made his case for owning Twitter—and
rewrote his own history.
Russian
warship
sinks in the Black Sea after Ukraine claims it was hit by a
missile. (2-min. video: CNN, April 14, 2022)
One of the Russian Navy's most important warships has sunk in
the Black Sea, a massive blow to a military struggling against
Ukrainian resistance 50 days into Vladimir Putin's invasion of
his neighbor. Russian state news agency TASS reported Thursday
evening that the guided-missile cruiser Moskva had
sunk, citing a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense.
"During the towing of the cruiser Moskva to the port
of destination, the ship lost its stability due to hull damage
received during a fire from the detonation of ammunition. In
the conditions of stormy seas, the ship sank," the statement
said, according to TASS.
Early-day version of same URL: "Russian
navy evacuates badly damaged flagship in Black Sea. Ukraine
claims it was hit by a missile."
One of the Russian Navy's most important warships has been
badly damaged in the Black Sea, a massive blow to a military
struggling against Ukrainian resistance 50 days into Vladimir
Putin's invasion of his neighbor. Russian sailors evacuated
the guided-missile cruiser Moskva, the flagship of its
Black Sea fleet, after a fire that detonated ammunition
aboard, Russia's defense ministry said.
Ukraine's Operational Command South claimed Thursday that the
Moskva had begun to sink after it was hit by Ukrainian
Neptune anti-ship missiles.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Thursday
that "the way that this has unfolded is a big blow to Russia,"
as Moscow has had to admit its flagship has been badly
damaged. "And they've had to choose between two stories. One
story is that it was just incompetence, and the other is that
they came under attack. And neither is a particularly good
outcome for them." Whatever happened to the Moskva,
analysts say its loss would strike hard at the heart of the
Russian navy as well as national pride, comparable to the US
Navy losing a battleship during World War II or an aircraft
carrier today.
[Also see Wikipedia.
How will Adolph Putin feature THIS in Russia's May
9th
Victory Day celebration?] Donald
Trump
Condemns NATO When Asked About Russia's 'Evil' Actions.
(1-min. video; Newsweek, April 14, 2022)
Donald Trump criticized NATO for failing to prevent atrocities
that Russia is accused of committing in Ukraine, rather than
speaking out against President Vladimir Putin. Trump, whose
association with Russia as president was long controversial, has
been criticized in recent weeks for not condemning the Russian
president amid the war in Ukraine, as well as calling him
"genius" and "savvy" for his tactics preparing the invasion in
late February.
Trump was condemned by the Biden administration recently after
he asked Putin to "release" dirt on President Biden's son,
Hunter Biden, while Russia was being accused of war crimes.
"What kind of American, let alone an ex-president, thinks that
this is the right time to enter into a scheme with Vladimir
Putin and brag about his connections to Vladimir Putin? There is
only one, and it's Donald Trump," White House Communications
Director Kate Bedingfield told reporters on March 30.
Russia’s
New
Motto: “We Are Not Ashamed.” (Mother Jones, April 14,
2022)
A letter from St. Petersburg: The economy is doing weird things,
and we all need each other now more than ever. We don’t talk
about politics because we don’t want to be fired. But also
because “in this difficult time” we don’t want to sow discord
between people who can help us do things and get things we might
need or want through their personal channels. Stores are
closing, commodities are disappearing, old ladies are fighting
in grocery stores over the last bag of cheap sugar. China will
surely come in and solve everything soon enough…but right now
things are uncertain. So no political discussions. Politics is
contentious, and therefore should be kept private, should be
kept away from the street where it might disrupt the smooth flow
of traffic. Times are tough. The West has attacked us with
sanctions. We must hang together.
In
Photos: 50 Days of Russia's War in Ukraine. (Moscow
News, April 14, 2022)
In the 50 days since, Russia's military incursion — which the
Kremlin denies is an invasion — has killed tens of thousands,
displaced millions and turned once-peaceful cities into war
zones. Here is a look back at the first 50 days of the war in
Ukraine.
What
images
of Russian trucks say about its military's struggles in
Ukraine (CNN, April 14, 2022)
Armies need trucks to transport their soldiers to the front
lines, to supply those tanks with shells and to deliver those
missiles. In short, any army that neglects its trucks does so at
its peril. Yet that appears to be exactly the problem Russia's
military is facing during its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,
according to experts analyzing battlefield images as its forces
withdraw from areas near Kyiv to focus on the Donbas.
Russia
Is Leaking Data Like a Sieve. (Wired, April 13, 2022)
Since Russian troops crossed Ukraine’s borders at the end of
February, colossal amounts of information about the Russian
state and its activities have been made public. The data offers
unparalleled glimpses into closed-off private institutions, and
it may be a gold mine for investigators, from journalists to
those tasked with investigating war crimes. Broadly, the data
comes in two flavors: information published proactively by
Ukranian authorities or their allies, and information obtained
by hacktivists. Hundreds of gigabytes of files and millions of
emails have been made public.
“Both sides in this conflict are very good at information
operations,” says Philip Ingram, a former colonel in British
military intelligence. “The Russians are quite blatant about the
lies that they'll tell,” he adds. Since the war started, Russian
disinformation has been consistently debunked.
NEW: Feds
Uncover a ‘Swiss Army Knife’ for Hacking Industrial Control
Systems. (Wired, April 13, 2022)
The malware toolkit, known as Pipedream, is perhaps the
most versatile tool ever made to target critical
infrastructure like power grids and oil refineries. Malware
designed to target industrial control systems like power
grids, factories, water utilities, and oil refineries
represents a rare species of digital badness. So when the
United States government warns of a piece of code built to
target not just one of those industries, but potentially all
of them, critical infrastructure owners worldwide should take
notice.
The malware has the ability to hijack target devices, disrupt
or prevent operators from accessing them, permanently brick
them, or even use them as a foothold to give hackers access to
other parts of an industrial control system network. While the
toolkit, which Dragos calls “Pipedream,” appears to
specifically target Schneider Electric and OMRON PLCs, it does
so by exploiting underlying software in those PLCs known as
Codesys, which is used far more broadly across hundreds of
other types of PLCs. This means that the malware could easily
be adapted to work in almost any industrial environment. “This
toolset is so big that it’s basically a free-for-all,”
Caltagirone says. “There’s enough in here for everyone to
worry about.”
The CISA advisory refers to an unnamed “APT actor” that
developed the malware toolkit, using the common acronym APT to
mean advanced persistent threat, a term for state-sponsored
hacker groups. It's far from clear where the government
agencies found the malware, or which country's hackers created
it—though the timing of the advisory follows warnings from the
Biden administration about the Russian government making
preparatory moves to carry out disruptive cyberattacks in the
midst of its invasion of Ukraine.
The discovery of the Pipedream malware toolkit represents a
rare addition to the handful of malware specimens found in the
wild that target industrial control systems (ICS) software.
The first and still most notorious example of that sort of
malware remains Stuxnet, the US- and Israeli-created code that
was uncovered in 2010 after it was used to destroy nuclear
enrichment centrifuges in Iran. More recently, the Russian
hackers known as Sandworm, part of the Kremlin's GRU military
intelligence agency, deployed a tool called Industroyer or
Crash Override to trigger a blackout in the Ukrainian capital
of Kyiv in late 2016.
Ukraine's
36th
Brigade Marines Breakthrough to join Azov Regiment in
Mariupol. (Daily Kos, April 13, 2022)
Against impossible odds, Mariupol still stands. Yesterday, April
12th it was reported that Ukrainian marines broke through a
Russian cordon. Not only did several hundred Marines break
through but they took their wounded with them.
Russia-Ukraine
war
latest: Biden accuses Russia of genocide; Putin ally
captured in Ukraine. (The Guardian/UK, April 12, 2022)
[But
who's got his yacht?]
NEW: Ukrposhta
issued one million postage stamps "Russian warship, f***k
you…!" (photos; Ukrposhta, April 12, 2022)
On April 12, Ukrposhta presented and put into circulation the
first postage stamps "Russian warship, f***k you...!" in
wartime conditions. This phrase - the answer of Ukrainian
border guards defending Snake Island, to the Russian
ship Moskva on the offer to surrender on the day of
the invasion of Russian troops in Ukraine on February 24 - has
become a symbol of courage and indomitable spirit of the
Ukrainian people in the fight against Russia.
Last
Tuesday,
Wisconsinites went to the polls in thousands of local
elections. Republicans wanted a wave. They didn’t get one.
(Daily Kos, April 12, 2022)
In community after community, Democrats fought back, and—in so
many places, though not everywhere—won. In a 50/50 state, during
a tough year for Democrats, we won more than we lost. Out of 276
races where WisDems actively engaged, investing in organizing,
digital, and/or mail to voters, we won 147 of the races.
Trump's
North
Carolina "rally" on Saturday was a total bust. Here's why.
(Daily Kos, April 12, 2022)
Last Saturday, the disgraced former President Donald Trump held
one of his signature rallies at a venue in Selma in Johnston
County. How successful the event was depends on who you ask. For
some – like Republican Reps. Ted Budd and Madison Cawthorn, as
well as the NC-13 Republican primary candidate Bo Hines – the
rally was a great success. They all landed very public
endorsements from the former President, as well as from Lt.
Governor Mark Robinson, for their respective races.
For others, like Trump himself, the rally was more of a bust.
Its paltry attendance was a testament to his waning popularity
outside the hardcore Republican base. The rally was also a major
embarrassment for North Carolina’s media, who demonstrated
absolutely nothing learned from four (or five) years of Trumpian
chaos. It was also a body blow to the state’s Republican
establishment.
U.Penn.
law
professor Amy Wax lays her racism bare on Tucker Carlson’s
show for all the world to see. (videos and more; Daily
Kos, April 12, 2022)
Wax, 69, has a history of sharing her bigoted opinions about
Black and brown folks. But her latest screed targeted the
alleged "resentment, shame, and envy" harbored by “Black and
other “non-Western” people for Westerners’ "outsized
achievements and contributions." When Wax was done criticizing
Black Americans, she moved on to Asian and South Asian Indians,
focusing particularly on doctors at Penn and Brahmin women from
India.
[U.Penn. is more diverse than I'd realized; it lets Amy Wax
teach there!]
‘Like
where
are the dads?’: Tucker Carlson calls for violence against
teachers who talk identity. (Daily Kos, April 12, 2022)
Tucker Carlson is at it again. From hating on women to hating on
the homeless, he’s now targeting teachers who discuss gender
identity. In a segment of Tucker Carlson Tonight that aired
Friday, Carlson said anyone talking about sex to kindergartners
'should be beaten up.’
NEW: Muting
your mic reportedly doesn’t stop big tech from recording your
audio. (The Next Web, April 12, 2022)
We recommend using the double-mute technique.
Delicious?
Gross?
The great fish dish that divides – and unites – families on
Passover. (11-min. video; Aeon, April 12, 2022; okay,
April 19, 2019, but who's counting?)
Celebrated annually in early spring [and beginning again this
Friday night], Passover commemorates the Jewish people’s
liberation from slavery in ancient Egypt as described in the
Book of Exodus. The holiday is generally marked by a large
gathering of family and friends known as a Seder, and includes a
reading of the Haggadah, a text that recounts the exodus from
Egypt, and provides a guide to the traditional Passover meal,
which includes matzoh (unleavened bread) and bitter herbs. This
short documentary focuses on the tradition as celebrated by the
Hermelin family of Detroit, in particular their relationship
with a Passover dinner staple – gefilte fish. Though it plays no
part in the Exodus story (it originated with Ashkenazi Jewish
communities in eastern Europe), this dish of ground whitefish –
with a flavour ranging from savoury to sweet, depending on the
recipe – is nonetheless the most discussed culinary offering at
the table. But despite its deeply polarising taste and texture,
the annual gefilte fish is embraced by generations of Hermelins
as a symbol of cultural tradition and familial bonds, imbued
with ‘the joy of Judaism’.
[Eleven minutes not to miss. Humorous and heart-warming. Sad and
heart-wrenching. Ancient and contemporary. Beautifully told.
Tradition!]
Who’s
the
Real Nazi? (poster of "Adolph Putin"; Medium, April 12,
2022)
Look no further than the little man behind the Iron Curtain.
Vladimir Putin is on a noble mission to “denazify” Ukraine.
Apparently, he views Ukraine as a country controlled by vicious
autocrats and wants nothing more than to free the natives from
their despotic fate. This mission is not only tragic but also
laughable. Ukraine is a functioning democratic state. The last
thing Ukraine can be accused of is being a Nazi state. “Nazi”
means a member of the political party that ran Germany from 1933
to 1945 and believed in totalitarian government, territorial
expansion, and Aryan supremacy. A lowercase “nazi” is someone
who holds similar views. Here we have an Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland situation where up is down and democrats are nazis.
Over the years, Putin has carefully altered Russia’s government
and turned it into a dictatorship ruled by him. So, he now gets
away with turning everything upside down as he sees fit.
Putin is also engaged in territorial expansion, believing that
Ukraine is really part of the Russian motherland, and should be
reunited with its true friend and ally. Russia previously
annexed Crimea and was busy militarily supporting Russian
separatist forces in Eastern Ukraine. There are also elements of
blind nationalism, racism, and anti-Semitism. Russia and its
predecessor, the Soviet Union, have consistently discriminated
against Jews and, over the years, driven many into exile.
By any definition, Putin is the true nazi. His unprovoked
invasion of Ukraine is reminiscent of Germany’s invasion of
Poland and Hitler’s quest for Lebensraum. His vicious attacks on
Ukrainian civilians mirror the genocidal actions of Hitler. The
truly flabbergasting aspect of Putin’s war is the overwhelming
support apparently shown for it by Russian citizens.
The autocratic control of messaging by state media partially
explains this phenomenon, but something else is also at play.
That something else is the Second World War and Russia’s
ultimate victory against Nazi Germany, notwithstanding the loss
of millions and millions of lives. Russians call the Eastern
Front action against Germany the Great Patriotic War, and
anti-Nazism has forever since been hardwired into the national
psyche. All Putin has to say is that he is rooting out nazis in
Ukraine and - like that other Russian, Pavlov’s dog - much of
the Russian citizenry salivates blind nationalism. Cut off from
non-state media, they fall in line and, in Trumpian fashion,
label counter narratives fake news.
Vladimir
Putin
insists Russia will achieve its ‘noble’ goals in Ukraine.
(The Guardian/UK, April 12, 2022)
Russian president dismisses killing of civilians in Bucha by
Russian forces as ‘fake’.
Russia
Claims It Used Kalibr Missiles To Destroy West's S-300 Air
Defence Systems Given To Ukraine. (3-min. YouTube video;
Republic World/IN, April 11, 2022)
[S-300 is a RUSSIAN air-defense system, given to Ukaraine by
Slovakia; did Russia include secret location information? The
Comments thread is heavily pro-Putin spam.]
Ukraine
update:
Russia will break new records of stupidity if it really thinks
it can move on Dnipro. (Daily Kos, April 11, 2022)
Russia expended considerable efforts to take Kyiv in the first
five weeks of the war, for all the obvious reasons: Regime
decapitation, propaganda value, cutting off supply routes to
Ukrainian forces in the east, and so on. However, the effort
quickly ran into trouble. The prong from the northwest, through
Chernobyl, stalled at Bucha and Irpin. From the northeast,
Russia’s inability to take Chernihiv fixed Russian forces just
over their border. Thus, desperate to encircle Kyiv, Russia
stretched itself out from Sumy, all the way to the capital’s
eastern outskirts. Maps marked those roads as Russian
controlled, but the reality was quite different. For weeks,
Ukraine feasted on supply convoys attempting that trip (here,
here, here, here, here, and here, are just a few examples),
until at the end of March, Russia cried “uncle!” and that was
that. Those forces were withdrawn. Well, what shards of them
remained.
Why bring up this old bit of news? Because the New York Times
reports that Russia will likely wage an offensive between Izium
and Dnipro. There is little indication Russia can mass the kind
of forces needed to make a real go at this. The existing,
obvious plan is already a bit of a Hail Mary pass, as Russia
desperately tries to notch any success in time for Vladimir
Putin’s precious WWII commemorative parade on May 9.
Yet despite the difficult odds, Russia is supposedly looking to
additionally march on Dnipro? Let’s get a close-up of the route
Russian forces would have to take.
The
war next door: Conflict in Mexico is displacing thousands.
(Washington Post, April 11, 2022)
As criminal groups battle for control over Mexican territory,
the displaced are becoming increasingly visible, in towns such
as Coahuayana and at the U.S. border. An estimated 20,000 people
have fled violence in the past year in Michoacán state, roughly
the size of West Virginia. Thousands more have abandoned their
homes in other states like Zacatecas and Guerrero.
‘This
Was
Trump Pulling a Putin.’ (New York Times Magazine, April
11, 2022)
Amid the current crisis, Fiona Hill and other former advisers
are connecting President Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukraine to
Jan. 6. And they’re ready to talk.
NEW: Could
the Siloviki Challenge Putin? (Foreign Policy, April 11,
2022)
What It Would Take for a Coup by Kremlin Insiders.
[Very interesting authors! Unable to connect on April 27; try
again later.]
May
9
Russian holiday will be pivotal, dangerous deadline.
(Axios, April 10, 2022)
May 9 is a major holiday in the Russian Federation, with the
country closing down each year to mark its World War II victory
over the Nazis. That makes it a deadline with significant
symbolism in Russian domestic politics. A senior Defense
Department official told Axios on Thursday the U.S. and other
allies are rushing myriad forms of military assistance to
Ukraine knowing the stakes of the next month.
Separately, retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a former
infantry officer and National Security Council director of
European affairs, told Axios on Sunday: "This is, actually, a
bit more of a dangerous situation, more of a turning point, than
anything we've seen thus far. Russia can achieve objectives
here," said Vindman, a Ukraine-born, naturalized American
citizen and Iraq combat veteran who testified at former
President Trump's first impeachment trial. "I think that, if
Russia were to lose, it would be spent" and only able to hold
the territory it had. "But, if they succeed, I fear, it's a
recipe for a protracted war, and Russia will not stop at limited
gains. Protracted war is a recipe for spillage over into,
potentially, confrontation with NATO."
The
Month
That Changed a Century (Foreign Policy, April 10, 2022)
Putin seeks to destroy not just Ukraine but the entire postwar
global system. He may yet succeed.
NEW: Texas'
Lizelle Herera Abortion-Murder Charge 'Tip of the Iceberg',
Warns Nonprofit. (1-min. video; Newsweek, April 10, 2022)
Lizelle Herrera, 26, was arrested in Starr County, Texas, on
Thursday for what authorities described as a "self-induced
abortion," for which she was charged with murder. In September,
the Texas state government passed a bill, officially known as
Senate Bill 8, banning any abortion starting at six weeks into a
pregnancy, when many women don't realize they're pregnant. The
measure has been widely criticized as "draconian."
On Saturday, Herrera was released from the Starr County Jail
after significant international backlash to her arrest and
protests outside the jailhouse. The following day, District
Attorney Gocha Allen Ramirez announced that his office would be
filing a motion to dismiss the indictment against Herrera on
Monday.
GM's
New
Chevy Bolt EUV ‘Life Changes’ TV Ad (1-min. video; GM
Authority, April 9, 2022)
General Motors has shared the first TV spot from its new Chevy
Bolt EV and Bolt EUV ad campaign. The advertisement, dubbed
‘Life Changes’ is a short, 30-second spot that puts a humorous
spin on the trials of EV ownership and motherhood.
Sabine
Hossenfelder:
Is Nuclear Power Green? (23-min. video; BackReaction,
April 9, 2022)
Opinions about nuclear power are extremely polarized and every
source seems to have an agenda to push. Will nuclear power help
us save the environment and ourselves, or is it too dangerous
and too expensive? Do thorium reactors or the small modular ones
change the outlook? Is nuclear power green?
Watchers
of
the Earth (Aeon, April 9, 2022)
Indigenous peoples around the world tell myths which contain
warning signs for natural disasters. Scientists are now
listening.
Mary
Koch: Everybody's Business - When Adults Give Time to Teens
(Every New Season, April 8, 2022)
- Imagine a water bottle that measures your hydration level as
you sip.
- Imagine cell phone batteries that recharge off your body heat.
- Imagine an ear piece that projects a hologram so you can read
a book or watch a movie hands-free.
If you’re seventeen, these are the kinds of technological
wonders you can dream up. They’re the kinds of things I was
invited to invest in (virtually) during Business Week. Every
year high school juniors from our two neighboring towns
(Okanogan and Omak, WA) are excused from their regular class
schedule for five days to sample what’s ahead for them in the
realm of free enterprise.
[Brooklyn Technical High School in NYC offered a similar event
around 1950.]
NEW: Ukrainian
teens’ voices from the middle of war: ‘You begin to appreciate
what was common and boring for you.’ (The Conversation,
April 8, 2022)
A colleague from Kyiv, Ukraine, whom I’ll call N.M., sent me
brief essays her students wrote on what they would do when the
war ends. As both a scholar and a novelist, I knew that these
voices, which expressed a beautifully straightforward and pure
yearning for the simplest things that are lost in war, needed to
be heard by the world.
Tell
the
Senate: The Solution to Kids’ Privacy Isn’t More Surveillance.
(Electronic Freedom Foundation, April 8, 2022)
The Senate Commerce Committee is considering a bill that, in the
name of children’s privacy, creates a system of private
surveillance that would force platforms to collect more
information on every user, further invading their privacy in the
process. The “Kids Online Safety Act” (KOSA) would make
platforms the arbiter of what children see online and could hand
over significant power, and private data, to third-party
identity verification companies like Clear or ID.me. Lawmakers
should be providing real privacy protections for everyone
online. KOSA doesn’t do that.
NEW: Your
digital footprints are more than a privacy risk – they could
help hackers infiltrate computer networks. (The
Conversation, April 8, 2022)
When you use the internet, you leave behind a trail of data, a
set of digital footprints. These include your social media
activities, web browsing behavior, health information, travel
patterns, location maps, information about your mobile device
use, photos, audio and video. This data is collected, collated,
stored and analyzed by various organizations, from the big
social media companies to app makers to data brokers. As you
might imagine, your digital footprints put your privacy at risk,
but they also affect cybersecurity.
NEW: We’re
Running Out of Money to Track Covid Variants. An Expert
Explains Why That Would Be Very Bad. (Mother Jones, April
7, 2022)
“There are times when you ask yourself, ‘Have we learned nothing
here?'”
Uber,
Taxi
Cabs, and the Limits of Digital Disruption (Wired, April
7, 2022)
Many Silicon Valley companies aren’t creating an exciting new
future so much as further confusing an already dysfunctional
present. The linking of former competitors in an uneasy (and
still unclear) alliance says a lot about what the pandemic has
done to the business landscape. But it also reveals a more
universal truth about startups and disruptors: They can only
grow so much before they need to incorporate the very
traditional formats and ideologies they so often spurn. In the
case of Uber and its embrace of taxis, it’s a strategy shift
that will have major consequences for everyone as cities and
offices move to fully reopen. More broadly though, the perpetual
whiplash around Uber and its dealings is indicative of a way of
doing business that thrives in Silicon Valley ideation
chambers—and then unleashes clumsy chaos in the real world.
NEW: Why Republicans are obsessed
with pedophilia, gender identity, gay people, and abortion.
(Robert Reich, April 7, 2022)
From Ron DeSantis to Josh Hawley to Greg Abbott, they're fixated
on sex. Here's why.
Roberts
joins
dissent blasting extremist Supreme Court conservatives for
abusing the shadow docket. (Daily Kos, April 6, 2022)
That it is five justices instead of six is notable because Chief
Justice John Roberts was not in the majority. What’s even more
notable is that Roberts signed onto Justice Elena Kagan’s
dissent, blasting the court’s majority for using the shadow
docket to issue a momentous decision on the flimsiest of
grounds. “The request for a stay rests on simple assertions—on
conjectures, unsupported by any present-day evidence, about what
States will now feel free to do,” Kagan wrote. That the court
issued this stay—when the applicants showed no harm and there
was no “emergency” that required the Supreme Court to
intervene—shows the “Court goes astray,” Kagan wrote. It
provides a stay pending appeal, and thus signals its view of the
merits, even though the applicants have failed to make the
irreparable harm showing we have traditionally required.”
The court just spoiled the case in the appeals process. It just
told the lower court what it is going to do when the case
ultimately reaches it.
NEW: Har
Gobind Khorana: The chemist who cracked DNA’s code and made
the first artificial gene was born into poverty 100 years ago
in an Indian village. (The Conversation, April 5, 2022)
2022 marks the 100th birthday of Nobel Prize winning chemist Har
Gobind Khorana – or so we think. The exact date of his birth is
not known, because Khorana was born in poverty in a British
Indian class that rarely recorded such dates. As a child, he had
to beg a neighbor for a glowing ember so his mother could light
their daily cooking fire. He was 6 before he owned his first
pencil.
Khorana emerged from this background to receive a Nobel Prize in
1968 for deciphering the genetic code that translates DNA
sequences into the protein molecules that carry out the
functions of living cells.
This
Is
How the Global Energy Crisis Ends. (Wired, April 5, 2022)
With future price rises baked in and some countries on the verge
of rationing gas, things are going to get a whole lot worse
before they get any better.
NEW: The
FBI is spending millions on social media tracking software.
(Washington Post, April 5, 2022)
Social media users seemed to foreshadow the Jan. 6 attack on the
U.S. Capitol — and the FBI apparently missed it. Now, the FBI is
doubling down on tracking social media posts, spending millions
of dollars on thousands of licenses to powerful social media
monitoring technology that privacy and civil liberties advocates
say raise serious concerns.
One
of
Twitter's worst users is now its largest shareholder.
(Mother Jones, April 5, 2022)
Elon Musk—the Tesla executive with a storied history of inciting
harassment, spreading misinformation, and trolling lawmakers
with extremely immature digs on the social media
platform—recently snatched up 9.2 percent of the company. The
Musk news happens to fit neatly into a Venn diagram of some of
the worst parts of our current news cycle. That includes Trump's
flailing
efforts at Truth Social—hence his supporters rallying for
a Twitter return—and the complete mainstreaming of false and
malicious accusations of pedophilia within the Republican Party.
Here's to hoping that Twitter can convince Musk to start
behaving like a normal human being.
How
can
the world respond to Russian atrocities? (New York Times,
April 5, 2022)
Civilians lay dead in the middle of the street. Others lay by
the side of the road, next to or underneath their bicycles.
Often, the victims had been shot in the head. Some of them had
their hands tied. These are the scenes that the world is
discovering as Russian troops retreat from the area around Kyiv.
In response to these atrocities against Ukrainian civilians,
President Biden and European leaders vowed yesterday to take new
measures against Russia. Today’s newsletter explains their
options. They fall into two main categories: weapons for
Ukrainian troops and economic sanctions against Russia.
Ukraine
update:
Russia's real losses may be greater than even Ukraine
believes. (Daily Kos, April 5, 2022)
It’s quite likely that Russia doesn’t have an accurate count of
their losses, even if they had any incentive to give it. It’s
also generally assumed that the number from Ukraine overstates
the results to make Russia look weaker and their own military
more successful.
However, professor and author Phillips O’Brien suggests that
Ukraine’s numbers, though they seem inflated, might be the most
accurate of all those floating around. That’s because we have
something in this war that hasn’t been available in other
conflicts—open-source intelligence in the form of all those
photos, videos, and messages captured by phones. While those
images are the basis of the numbers reported by OSInt and Oryx,
O’Brien points out that these numbers represent the absolute
minimum for Russian losses. And the evidence of the last few
days shows us just how badly these values can undershoot the
truth.
NEW: Chernobyl
Was
a Wildlife Haven. Then Russian Troops Arrived. (Wired,
April 4, 2022)
The area around the defunct power plant has been an unexpected
rewilding success story. Now attempts to monitor progress are
hampered by the war.
In
Mykolaiv,
Russia continues a pattern: Shelling Ukranian hospitals.
(Washington Post, April 4, 2022)
Hospitals in Ukraine are being battered by artillery and
airstrikes with increasing frequency. The World Health
Organization said that as of March 30, it had verified 82
incidents of attacks on health care since Russia invaded
Ukraine, causing 72 deaths and 43 injuries.
Heather
Cox
Richardson: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has barely enough
votes to become a Supreme Court Justice. (Letters From An
American, April 4, 2022)
Today the Senate Judiciary Committee deadlocked, 11 to 11, on
whether to send Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the
Supreme Court to the full Senate for a vote. The Democrats can
still move the nomination forward through procedural measures,
and three Republicans—Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski
(R-AK), and Mitt Romney (R-UT)—have said they will vote for her,
so her confirmation is assured (even if Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ),
who has not yet said how she will vote, votes no).
NEW: Chevy
Bolt EV, Bolt EUV Production Restarted. (GM Authority,
April 4, 2022)
To support the recall and prioritize repairs for affected
models, GM halted production of the Chevy Bolt EV and Chevy Bolt
EUV last November, while also issuing a stop-sale order for both
nameplates. Battery production restarted in mid-September. Now,
production of both vehicles at the GM Lake Orion Assembly plant
in Michigan has restarted as well. The Lake Orion facility is
the exclusive producer of both Chevy Bolt vehicles.
Going forward, GM has announced a$4 billion investment to
upgrade the Lake Orion facility for production of the Chevy
Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV. Production of the Chevy Bolt EV
and Bolt EUV will continue throughout the upgrade process. As a
reminder, the Chevy Bolt EV and Chevy Bolt EUV ride on the GM
BEV2 platform and feature a single front-mounted Voltec drive
motor.
Sulfur
Battery
Technology Could Make Electric Cars Go Three Times Further For
One-Third The Cost By 2024. (Forbes, April 2, 2022)
Limited range is one of the most frequent criticisms of EVs.
Although a 300-mile rating is becoming increasingly common for
current electric cars, some fossil fuel models can go twice as
far on a tank. But what if your BEV could do 900 miles on a
single charge?
The key to Theion’s technology is sulfur, and
in fact the company’s name is derived from the Greek for this
yellow mineral. EV batteries are full of rare earth minerals,
which makes them expensive and ethically problematic to
manufacture, particularly when sourcing cobalt from the Congo.
Theion’s strategy is to base its battery technology on minerals
that are far more abundant than those used in current
Lithium-Ion cells, but that have similar potential for energy
density.
Another important aspect is of course price, and Theion is
promising amazing reductions here too. “Our price target is €30
per kilowatt hour in comparison to €90 per kilowatt hour today,”
says Ehmes. This is because the materials Theion uses are
cheaper, and so is the energy consumption. “Production energy is
90% less.” With batteries making up around a third of current EV
costs, this reduction would easily push total car prices well
below that of internal combustion vehicles.
Unfortunately, Theion isn’t initially going to be delivering its
technologies to the EV industry. “We’re currently talking to the
space industry,” says Ehmes. “We will hand over the R&D
surplus to the air taxi next. Then mobile devices like
handhelds, laptops, mobile phones, and wearables.” But EVs are
definitely on the roadmap for Theion, and production has been
designed to scale up to the quantities required by electric
cars.
[Now THAT's the replacement battery pack that our EV wants! More
importantly, it's the EV-battery technology that Earth wants
before gasoline vehicles drive global warming beyond correction.
But profit... By licensing or otherwise, this technology should
immediately be applied for EVs.]
Putin
'going
through horrific crash' over failure of Russia's war strategy.
(Express/UK, April 2, 2022)
Vladimir Putin is going through "a horrific crash", a
psychotherapist has claimed amid reports Russia's invasion of
Ukraine is proving "disastrous" for the Kremlin.
Former MI6 spy warns Ukraine conflict could end with Putin’s
assassination – ‘No way back.’
A
former M16 officer has claimed that the conflict in Ukraine
could end with Putin's assassination. (Express/UK, April
1, 2022)
Former secret intelligence officer Christopher Steele, who ran
the Russia desk at MI6 in London from 2006 to 2009, believes the
war will only end when a deal is made that excludes Vladimir
Putin and sees him ousted from leadership. Mr. Steele says there
is no way back for Putin and this will cause issues for the
diplomatic discussions and negotiations trying to secure a peace
deal between Russia and Ukraine.
Russia
Inches
Toward Its Splinternet Dream. (Wired, April 1, 2022)
For years, the country has been trying to create its own
sovereign internet—a goal given new impetus by the backlash to
its invasion of Ukraine. But even if Russia did have the people,
inserting barriers into relatively open internet infrastructure
built over decades is far from straightforward. Controlling a
country’s internet requires two major components: separating
yourself from the rest of the world, and cutting access from
within. Both are harder for Russia than China because it’s
starting from a comparatively open internet, after years of
engagement with the West. (China, by contrast, has been closed
almost since the first people logged on to the internet,
following a February 1996 order giving the state absolute
control over its design and establishing a prohibition on
“inciting to overthrow the government or the socialist
system”—meaning it was insular by design.)
Who
Needs
a Climate When We Can Sell Gas to Europe? (Green-Rainbow
Party, April 1, 2022)
On Friday, March 25, in Brussels, President Biden announced a
“deal” with the European Union to “end the bloc’s dependence on
Russia’s energy exports.” He committed the United States and its
“international partners'' to selling vast quantities of
liquefied natural gas to the EU starting this year. US Secretary
of Energy, Jennifer Granholm stated the Biden administration is
urging the U.S. oil and gas industry to ramp up production to
meet demand and to help lower prices for working families
everywhere.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned “We are
sleepwalking to climate catastrophe… countries could become so
consumed by the immediate fossil fuel supply gap that they
neglect or knee-cap policies to cut fossil fuel use. This is
madness," he said, adding that addiction to fossil fuels is
mutually assured destruction.
NEW: Why
light
pollution is a solvable environmental crisis (NOVA, April
1, 2022)
Excessive outdoor lighting wastes energy and pollutes, is deadly
to animals and takes a toll on human health and well-being, too.
But when it comes to large-scale environmental problems, this
one may be a relatively easy fix.
NEW: GM's
BrightDrop Renames Its Delivery Vans To Zevo 600 And Zevo 400.
(GM Authority, April 1, 2022)
General Motors’ logistics brand BrightDrop has announced the
official names of its EV410 and EV600 electric delivery vans:
Zevo 400 and Zevo 600. “We chose Zevo because it contains
ZEV (Zero Emissions Vehicle) and EV (Electric Vehicle) and is a
play-off ‘zero’ – a reference to GM’s Zero Crashes, Zero
Emissions, and Zero Congestion vision.”
Production of the BrightDropZevo 600 and EV410 will take place
at the GM CAMI Assembly plant in southern Ontario. Production
will begin at the Canadian plant this fall, with GM targeting an
annual production output of roughly 30,000 units.
Putting
the
Nation’s Cooling Towers to Work to Combat Climate Change
(Slice of MIT, April 1, 2022)
The infrastructure for carbon sequestration, the process of
capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide, already exists
in the more than two million cooling towers at factories and
commercial buildings across the United States—which use the
movement of air and water to dissipate heat—if only they could
be used for that purpose. Santos and Cavero reoriented their
company toward producing a simple device that could be attached
to existing cooling towers to direct the flow of air across a
solid material that absorbs CO2, and then using heat and
pressure to extract the CO2 where it can be safely contained.
“They are already moving all of this air—we just give them
something productive to do,” he says. Santos estimates that the
existing cooling tower infrastructure in the US could remove up
to 10.3 billion tons of carbon per year—more by far than the 6.6
billion the country emits. "This technology has the potential to
transform our cities into places that are not only sustainable
but also work to clean up the damage we’ve done to the planet
over the last 100 years."
Visualizing
the
World’s Loss of Forests Since the Ice-Age (graphic; Visual
Capitalist, April 1, 2022)
The world’s forests have been shrinking since the last ice age
at an increasingly rapid pace. The effects of deforestation on
the climate are already being seen and felt, and these
repercussions are expected to increase with time. That’s why
more than 100 world leaders pledged to end and reverse
deforestation by 2030 at the COP26 climate summit.
Preparing
for
the next wave (New York Times, April 1, 2022)
Just when the Omicron wave seems to have died down in the U.S.,
experts are already warning about the next surge of cases — this
time driven by the highly infectious subvariant BA.2.
NEW: The
Supreme
Court is playing hardball politics, and democracy is losing.
(Boston Globe, March 31, 2022)
None of it follows precedent. Indeed, it’s not even consistent
with a decision the court made last month in a redistricting
case from Alabama — except in how it narrows the Voting Rights
Act, limits the voting power of racial minorities, and
entrenches Republican political advantage.
Putin
humiliated
as 300 troops 'hitchhike home' after feeling they were 'left
for dead'. (Express/UK, March 31, 2022)
Vladimir Putin is facing embarrassment after 300 troops employed
by the Russian army reportedly chose to "hitchhike" home - after
fearing they had been left for dead.
Biden EPA
Refuses to Protect Drinking Water from Toxic Perchlorate,
Affirms Trump EPA Decision to Leave Millions Exposed to the
Chemical. (National Resources Defense Council, March 31,
2022)
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced
it would not regulate perchlorate, a toxic component of rocket
fuel associated with brain damage in fetuses and infants,
leaving millions of people unknowingly exposed to the chemical
through their tap water. The determination affirms a Trump EPA
decision to not regulate perchlorate in drinking water.
NEW: Hoover Dam
- All the Secrets of the Engineering Wonder (10-min.
video; Lesics, March 31, 2022)
The magnificent Hoover Dam which was constructed 80 years ago,
still stands strong and serves the US in the fields of
irrigation, flood control, and power production. Even during a
torrential rainfall you won’t see Hoover dam overflowing like
this causing destruction. Welcome to the engineering secrets of
Hoover Dam. In this video, you are going to assume the role of
Hoover Dam design engineer Mr. John Savage and design and
construct a gigantic dam in Arizona’s Colorado River.
Mother
Fox
Feeding Her Kits,, and Story
Of
The Fox Den (many short videos: Framingham Wildlife Blog,
March 31, 2022)
On March 29th, I was walking in the woods next to Framingham
High School one day, during "Junior Privileges" (This is the
same way I found the dens to begin with). Movement on the
riverbank caught my eye. An adult red fox was trotting towards
the den!
[Meet 16-year-old Aiden Garrity, a Framingham High School
student who is very interested in ecology, biology, and wildlife
- and his trail cam and a local family of foxes.]
Putin's
top
generals likely tiptoeing around 'disastrous truth' of war to
save humiliation. (Express/UK, March 30, 2022)
Vladimir Putin is facing yet more major humiliation as his top
Generals tiptoe around the "disastrous truth" of the war on
Ukraine.
NEW: The
Ocean Is Having Trouble Breathing. (Nautilus, March 30,
2022)
A drop in oxygen levels is putting ocean ecosystems on life
support. Scientists are looking at places where anoxia—a
complete absence of oxygen—already exists. Researchers say the
world’s oceans lost 2 percent of their oxygen between 1960 and
2010, a rate that would leave the oceans entirely devoid of
oxygen in just a few thousand years, making them uninhabitable
to most life. The causes of this deoxygenation are myriad, but
can mostly be traced back to anthropogenic climate change caused
by increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and related
global warming trends. These carbon emissions are mostly
produced by burning fossil fuels, and even if they were to stop
immediately, they have already set in motion processes that will
continue to affect the oceans for decades to come.
New
Variants.
New Boosters. But So Far, No New COVID Spending From Congress.
(10-min. audio; NPR, March 29, 2022)
An omicron subvariant known as BA.2 could soon become the
dominant form of the coronavirus in the United States. It's not
more deadly, but it is more transmissible.
At the same time, the Biden administration has authorized a
second booster shot for people over 50 and other people
vulnerable to infection.
But against that backdrop, Congress has so far refused to
authorize more COVID spending measures, which would fund the
stockpiling of more vaccine doses and public health surveillance
for emerging variants.
A
7-Hour Gap in Jan. 6 Phone Logs Raises the Question: Did Trump
Use a Burner? (Mother Jones, March 29, 2022)
He insisted he has no idea, “to the best of” his knowledge, what
a burner phone even is.
Michael Moore: Justice Jackson and the Putin That Is
Us (52-min. podcast; Substack, March 28, 2022)
It’s been another week of mind-dumbing drivel and tragedy,
beginning with the Senate Republicans’ racist mansplainin’ and
prop-making of the brilliant new nominee to the US Supreme Court
— where, in the near future, this white privileged performance
art will not exist any longer. Make no mistake — that hearing
wasn’t a hearing. It was a dry run for the Republicans’ staging
of this November’s midterms — running their candidates on the
Q-anon agenda and honing their election-stealing plans to
perfection.
In today’s episode I also share my latest thoughts on how the
war in Ukraine is “progressing” — and make a suggestion to
President Zelensky. Perhaps he should switch the narrative
regarding the hapless Russian army, and surprise Putin by now
conducting a Ukrainian invasion of Russia. It’s what a true
satirist president would do. And it would make Putin’s head spin
out of control just long enough for the generals and the
oligarchs to stage their coup and end this madness.
Ex-separatist
leader
calls Russian attack on Ukraine a mistake. (Reuters, March
28, 2022)
In comments that show the Kremlin cannot count on support from
all pro-Russian opponents of Kyiv, one of the architects of the
Moscow-backed 2014 separatist rebellion in eastern Ukraine now
says Russia's invasion of Ukraine is a mistake. Alexei
Alexandrov was one of the leaders of a movement in 2014 to
reject Kyiv's rule and create an autonomous pro-Moscow territory
in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, triggering a war against
Ukrainian government forces.
Alexandrov says Moscow had, over many years, failed to grasp how
to deal with Ukraine, whose rulers he said were set on crushing
the identity of the Russian-speaking community in eastern
Ukraine, an allegation that Kyiv and its allies deny. "Moscow's
reaction was always late, and never got to grips with the
situation," he said. "That was a mistake, and we are reaping the
consequences now in blood, and multiple victims on both sides."
Alexandrov says once the active phase of the conflict in Ukraine
is over, the long-term outlook for Donbas is unclear. He doubts
Russia has the resources to bring the whole of Ukraine under its
control. If Russia keeps its presence in eastern Ukraine, there
will therefore be a high likelihood of a renewed armed conflict
with the Ukrainian state, Alexandrov says. "This is not how it
should have ended. It's not worth all the victims."
Why
Some
Russians Are Fleeing To A Country Their Government Already
Invaded. (11-min. audio; NPR, March 28, 2022)
In 2008, Russia invaded another former Soviet republic: Georgia,
a small country on the southeast edge of Europe. Today, Georgia
is seeing an influx of Russians who are fleeing their home
country in opposition to its invasion of Ukraine. Hear how
people who live with Russian troops on their doorsteps are
feeling as they watch the war in Ukraine play out.
Russian
troops’
tendency to talk on unsecured lines is proving costly.
(Stars and Stripes, March 27, 2022)
Russian troops in Ukraine have relied, with surprising
frequency, on unsecured communication devices such as
smartphones and push-to-talk radios, leaving units vulnerable to
targeting, and further underscoring the command-and-control
deficiencies that have come to define Moscow’s month-long
invasion.
Russia’s
war
in Ukraine is especially dangerous after decades of relative
peace worldwide. (New York Times, March 27, 2022)
Though it has not always felt like it, since the 1990s the
world has endured less war than any other period in recorded
history. Wars and
resulting deaths plummeted with the conclusion of the Cold War
in 1991 — and the subsequent end of direct and proxy conflicts
between the world’s great powers.
But the world has since changed. After emerging from the Cold
War as the lone superpower, the U.S. grew weaker, bogged down by
failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Russia and China
evolved into more formidable powers; they are now better
positioned to challenge a world shaped by American norms and
rules. Invading Ukraine is the biggest example of Russian
President Vladimir Putin’s willingness to challenge a U.S.-led
order. Another is Russia’s intervention in the Syrian civil war.
China has its own interests — in controlling Taiwan and
increasing influence in East and Southeast Asia.
Covid
Is
Snapping At Our Heels. Will It Cripple Us Again? (Medium,
March 27, 2022)
Numbers of cases, deaths and hospitalizations are going down in
the US but skyrocketing in other parts of the world, including
places like the UK which has super high numbers. This is
worrisome because the UK is one of our “Prediction Countries” —
they tend to have patterns in Month One (late March) that we
usually follow pretty closely in Month Two (late April). In
addition, our wastewater situation is worrying — there’s a bunch
of places in the US that are showing an increase in Covid
particles in the wastewater, and that tends to be very
predictive. If you see rising numbers of particles in the poop
it’s pretty inevitable that a few weeks later you are going to
see a rise in cases.
Even though testing and reporting is getting lousy (fewer places
to test, more at-home tests), the fact is BA.2 is more
transmissible than BA.1 makes it probable that — as “good” as
things are now — we may have some kind of a surge of cases in
late April/May.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that I doubt a BA.2 uptick
will affect our public lives. I don’t think schools will shut
down or hospitals will get so jammed they will have to cancel
surgeries or routine care again.
There is some good news about BA.2 as well...
[There's more, and it's worth a close read.]
NEW: Electricity
sector
of the United States (Map, charts and tables; Wikipedia,
March 27, 2022)
The electricity sector of the United States includes a large
array of stakeholders that provide services through electricity
generation, transmission, distribution and marketing for
industrial, commercial, public and residential customers. It
also includes many public institutions that regulate the sector.
GM
Is
Benchmarking Tesla Model S Plaid. (GM Authority, March 26,
2022)
General Motors is making major moves in the all-electric vehicle
segment, with plans to launch 30 new EV models globally by the
2025 calendar year. At the top end of the EV segment, General
Motors will have the Tesla Model S Plaid to contend with, and
now, GM Authority has photographic evidence that GM is currently
benchmarking Tesla’s top-spec sedan.
President
Biden
Remarks on Ukraine and Russia (27-min. video; C-Span,
March 26, 2022)
“We stand with you,” said President Biden to the Ukrainian
people as he gave remarks from Warsaw, Poland, on the Russian
invasion of Ukraine. He went on to talk about sanctions against
Russia, and said “this war has already been a strategic failure
for Russia already.” Addressing the Russian people directly,
President Biden said, “You, the Russian people, are not our
enemy,” later adding, “This war is not worthy of the Russian
people.” As he closed out his remarks, President Biden rebuked
Russian President Putin, saying “For God’s sake, this man cannot
remain in power.”
7th
Russian general, Yakov Rezantsev, killed in Ukraine. (BBC
News, March 26, 2022)
Ukraine's defence ministry says another Russian general, Lt Gen.
Yakov Rezantsev, was killed in a strike near the southern city
of Kherson. Rezantsev was the commander of Russia's 49th
combined army. In a conversation intercepted by the Ukrainian
military, a Russian soldier complained that Rezantsev had
claimed the war would be over within hours, just four days after
it began.
A western official said he was the seventh general to die in
Ukraine, and the second lieutenant general - the highest rank
officer reportedly killed. It is thought that low morale among
Russian troops has forced senior officers closer to the front
line.
War in
Ukraine: Change of emphasis or admission of failure by Moscow?
(BBC News, March 25, 2022)
Is the Russian military having to change its plans? Perhaps even
reduce the scale of Moscow's ambitions in Ukraine? It's probably
too early to tell, but there's definitely a shift in emphasis.
NEW: JK
Rowling
hits back after Putin cites author in bizarre rant about the
West cancelling Russia. (Standard/UK, March 25, 2022)
Sharing an article about incarcerated Kremlin critic Alexei
Navalny on Twitter, Rowling wrote: "Critiques of Western cancel
culture are possibly not best made by those currently
slaughtering civilians for the crime of resistance, or who jail
and poison their critics." The writer also shared the hashtag
“IStandWithUkraine”. In a subsequent tweet, she detailed the
work her Lumos charity is doing in the country. "Children
trapped in orphanages and other institutions are exceptionally
vulnerable right now," she said. "Thank you so, so much to
everyone who has already donated to Lumos's Ukraine appeal."
NEW: Putin
says
West is treating Russian culture like ‘cancelled’ JK Rowling.
(The Guardian/UK, March 25, 2022)
Russian president complains West is ‘trying to cancel a whole
1,000-year culture’ after his invasion of Ukraine.
Russia
can’t
find enough buyers for its oil, considers selling in bitcoin.
(Ars Technica, March 25, 2022)
Move could work in the Kremlin’s favor—or further undermine
Russia’s economy.
Jeff
Fortenberry: The US lawmaker toppled by a Nigerian billionaire
(BBC News, March 25, 2022)
Jeff Fortenberry, a Republican congressman from Nebraska, lied
to the FBI about taking illegal donations from Gilbert Chagoury,
a high-flying Nigerian businessman, a federal jury found. He
could face expulsion from Congress, and could be sentenced to 15
years in prison on three felony counts.
The case has also renewed attention on the access of foreign
influencers on US politics.
NEW: Astrophysicist
Explains
Black Holes in 5 Levels of Difficulty. (27-min. video;
Wired, March 24, 2022)
A black hole might be different than you imagine. To some
extent it's a place and not a thing. Black holes play an
important role in the history of the universe, in sculpting
galaxies that we live in, and possibly in the ultimate fate of
the universe.
MA
Town-By-Town
COVID-19: Infection Rates Rise In 143 Communities. (Patch,
March 24, 2022)
The state's positive test rate, though still low, started
heading in the wrong direction, according to the Department of
Public Health.
How Wellness Influencers Became Cheerleaders for
Putin’s War (Mother Jones, March 24, 2022)
There is not a huge gap in the ideological differences between
the far right and the truckers in convoys. But increasingly
these geopolitical conspiracy theories have moved beyond
extremist spaces and into the mainstream, as polished Instagram
wellness influencers cheerfully share them far and wide.
The path of disinformation follows a clear pattern. It starts in
the shadows of the internet, where crusaders share some
conspiracy with their die-hard followers. But these communities
are not locked rooms—rather, people with overlapping interests
flow in and out, grabbing pieces of disinformation that align
with their own interests and then spreading it to their
followers, who in turn do the same.
Russian
warship destroyed in occupied port of Berdyansk, says Ukraine.
(1-min. video; BBC/UK, March 24, 2022)
Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar told Ukrainian TV that the
military had hit a "huge target", capable of carrying 20 tanks,
45 armoured vehicles and 400 troops. Video posted by the navy
and on social media showed explosions and a big ship on fire at
the port at 07:00 (05:00GMT) on Thursday. While the Orsk was
said to have been destroyed, fire reportedly spread to other
vessels as well as an ammunition depot and a fuel terminal in
the port. Footage from the scene appeared to show two ships
sailing at speed from the port.
How
fairy
tales shape fighting spirit: Ukraine’s children hear bedtime
stories of underdog heroes, while Russian children hear tales
of magical success. (The Conversation, March 23, 2022)
Several weeks into the war, it’s clear many overestimated the
Russian army’s will and capability to fight and the Ukrainian
army’s will to resist an opponent superior in number, equipment
and positioning. What can explain the way the Ukraine war has
played out, in contradiction to experts’ predictions?
[It's a very different explanation, and its links (say, The
Marvel
of Martyrdom: The Power of Self-Sacrifice in a Selfish World)
also are excellent.]
NEW: Putin
mutiny
as soldier 'drives tank over commanding officer' in protest
against war. (Express/UK, March 23, 2022)
A Russian soldier reportedly drove his tank into his commanding
officer in a dramatic protest against the heavy losses Kremlin
forces have suffered in Ukraine.
NATO:
7,000
to 15,000 Russian troops dead in Ukraine. (photos and
2-min. video; Associated Press, March 23, 2022)
NATO estimated on Wednesday that 7,000 to 15,000 Russian
soldiers have been killed in four weeks of war in Ukraine, where
fierce resistance from the country’s defenders has denied Moscow
the lightning victory it sought. By way of comparison, Russia
lost about 15,000 troops over 10 years in Afghanistan. When
Russia unleashed its invasion Feb.
24
in Europe’s biggest offensive since World War II, a swift
toppling of Ukraine’s government seemed likely. But with
Wednesday marking four full weeks of fighting, Moscow is bogged
down in a grinding military campaign.
Despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, Kremlin spokesman
Dmitry Peskov insisted the military operation is going “strictly
in accordance” with plans. NATO said 30,000 to 40,000 Russian
soldiers are estimated to have been killed or wounded. In its
last update, Russia said March 2 that nearly 500 soldiers had
been killed and almost 1,600 wounded. Ukraine also claims to
have killed six Russian generals. Russia acknowledges just one
dead general.
Addressing Japan’s parliament, Zelenskyy said thousands of his
people have been killed, including at least 121 children. “Our
people cannot even adequately bury their murdered relatives,
friends and neighbors. They have to be buried right in the yards
of destroyed buildings, next to the roads,” he said. Still,
major Russian objectives remain unfulfilled. The capital, Kyiv,
has been bombarded repeatedly but is not even encircled.
In the south, the encircled port city of Mariupol has seen the
worst devastation of the war, enduring weeks of bombardment and,
now, street-by-street fighting. But Ukrainian forces have
prevented its fall, thwarting an apparent bid by Moscow to fully
secure a land bridge from Russia to Crimea, seized from Ukraine
in 2014. Zelenskyy said 100,000 civilians remain in the city,
which had 430,000 people before the war. Efforts to get
desperately needed food and other supplies to those trapped have
often failed. Zelenskyy accused Russian forces of seizing a
humanitarian convoy.
Madeleine
Albright,
1st female US secretary of state, dies. (Associated Press,
March 23, 2022)
Madeleine Albright, a child refugee from Nazi- and then
Soviet-dominated eastern Europe who rose to become the 1st
female U.S. secretary of state and a mentor to many current and
former American statesmen and women, has died of cancer, her
family said Wednesday. She was 84.
Born Marie Jana Korbel in Prague on May 15, 1937, she was the
daughter of a diplomat, Joseph Korbel. The family was Jewish and
converted to Roman Catholicism when she was 5. Three of her
Jewish grandparents died in concentration camps. Albright later
said that she became aware of her Jewish background after she
became secretary of state. The family returned to Czechoslovakia
after World War II but fled again, this time to the United
States, in 1948, after the Communists rose to power. She grew up
in Denver, then attended Wellesley College, Columbia
University...
NEW: The
Portentous Comeback of Humpback Whales (Nautilus, March 23,
2022)
Humpbacks are returning to pre-whaling populations with a
warning about ocean ecosystems.
NEW: Top
40 Ubuntu Blogs and Websites To Follow in 2022 (FeedSpot,
March 23, 2022)
The best Ubuntu blogs from thousands of blogs on the web ranked
by traffic, social media followers, domain authority &
freshness.
NEW: GM’s
Self-Driving
Cruise Delivers More Than Two Million Meals. (2-min.
video; GM Authority, March 23, 2022
General Motors recently announced that it was increasing its
investment in Cruise, buying out SoftBank Vision 1’s equity
ownership stake for $2.1 billion, while also making an
additional independent investment of $1.35 billion. Cruise also
recently filed a petition with the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration (NHTSA) requesting approval for the
production and deployment of its new autonomous taxi, Cruise
Origin. Cruise Origin was unveiled in January of 2020, and will
be produced at the GM Factory Zero facility in Michigan.
Motorcycle
(1) (Mike Agranoff, March 22, 2022)
I'll tell a story or two from my past. For 25 years I rode
motorcycles. Anyone who rode a bike for that long will have
stories to tell. If he's still alive to tell them.
'This
Is
Really, Really Bad': Lapsus$ Gang Claims Okta Hack.
(Wired, March 22, 2022)
Lapsus$ leaking Microsoft source code would be bad enough.
Breaching Okta could prove much, much worse.
Is
Russia’s
Largest Tech Company Too Big to Fail? (Wired, March 22,
2022)
It took 20 years for Arkady Volozh to build Yandex into Russia’s
Google, Uber, Spotify, and Amazon combined. It took 20 days for
everything to crumble.
Volunteers
Rally
to Archive Ukrainian Web Sites. (Internet Archive, March
22, 2022)
As the war intensifies in Ukraine, volunteers from around the
world are working to archive digital content at risk of
destruction or manipulation. The Internet Archive is supporting
several preservation efforts including the Saving Ukrainian
Cultural Heritage Online (SUCHO) initiative launched in early
March.
A month
in Ukraine: 'All normal life is gone.' (BBC, March 22,
2022)
Sweeping shattered glass from the stairway of her nearby
apartment block, Natasha broke down describing the terrified
screams of her son. "What are they killing us for?" she cried,
her hands covering her face. A Russian-speaker, she demanded to
know why Russia was doing this. "We didn't ask to be saved." It
was a statement I heard over and over again.
The
man
known as ‘Putin’s brain’ envisions the splitting of Europe —
and the fall of China. (Washington Post, March 22, 2022)
On the eve of his murderous invasion, Russian President Vladimir
Putin delivered a long and rambling discourse denying the
existence of Ukraine and Ukrainians, a speech many Western
analysts found strange and untethered. Strange, yes. Untethered,
no. The analysis came directly from the works of a fascist
prophet of maximal Russian empire named Aleksandr Dugin. Dugin’s
intellectual influence over the Russian leader is well known to
close students of the post-Soviet period, among whom Dugin, 60,
is sometimes referred to as “Putin’s brain.” His work is also
familiar to Europe’s “new right,” of which Dugin has been a
leading figure for nearly three decades, and to America’s
“alt-right.” Indeed, the Russian-born former wife of the white
nationalist leader Richard Spencer, Nina Kouprianova, has
translated some of Dugin’s work into English.
But as the world watches with horror and disgust the
indiscriminate bombing of Ukraine, a broader understanding is
needed of Dugin’s deadly ideas. Russia has been running his
playbook for the past 20 years, and it has brought us here, to
the brink of another world war. Dugin’s deadliest idea? The
wrong alliance won World War II. If only Hitler had not invaded
Russia, Britain could have been broken. The United States would
have remained at home, isolationist and divided, and Japan would
have ruled the former China as Russia’s junior partner.
Could
Putin’s
Invasion Go Nuclear? A Former NATO War Planner Assesses the
Odds. (John Graham, March 21, 2022)
Will a nuclear war start in Ukraine? Is that even possible? As
someone who once planned nuclear war for NATO, I can tell you
that events in Ukraine have moved us closer to Armageddon than
anything since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Mapped:
Gas
Prices in America at All-Time Highs. (map; Visual
Capitalist, March 21, 2022)
The price of gas was already rising two weeks before the Russian
invasion of Ukraine, owing to the increased demand due to the
lifting of COVID restrictions. But when the war broke out, the
price of regular gas jumped 41¢ during the first week. This
surge in prices could add up to $2,000 in annual cost to the
average American household. While the price at the pump sits at
$4.25 per gallon on average, it’s worth mentioning that prices
range quite substantially depending on the state. California has
the highest average price at $5.86 per gallon. On the other
extreme, Kansas has an average price of $3.77 per gallon.
Sabine
Hossenfelder: Optimist meets Doomsayer. (1-min. video;
BackReaction, March 21, 2022)
[Sabine tests a new approach - from both sides at once.
Hilarious, even if you DO think about it.]
NEW: Witness
Claims
Trump’s Chief of Staff Was on Phone Call Planning Jan. 6 March
on Capitol. (Rolling Stone, March 20, 2022)
Trump’s team agreed it would encourage supporters to march, but
try to “make it look like they went down there on their own."
Heather
Cox
Richardson: Tomorrow, the Senate will begin confirmation
hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. (Letters from an
American, March 20, 2022)
Tomorrow, the Senate will begin confirmation hearings for Judge
Ketanji Brown Jackson, nominated by President Joe Biden on
February 25, 2022, to take a seat on the Supreme Court of the
United States.
Judge Breyer, who she clerked under and who she would replace,
thought that the law should change based on what voters wanted,
so long as the majority did not abuse the minority. Every
decision was complicated, he told an audience in 2005—if the
outcome were obvious, the Supreme Court wouldn’t take the case.
But at the end of the day, justices should throw their weight
behind whichever decision was more likely to promote democracy.
It is notable that in her decisions, Judge Jackson has argued
for this approach, repeatedly focusing on democracy and the
rules that preserve it. In her 118–page decision in Committee on
the Judiciary v. McGahn (2019) concerning whether Congress could
compel members of the executive branch to testify, she famously
wrote: “Stated simply, the primary takeaway from the past 250
years of recorded American history is that Presidents are not
kings.” Her conclusion began: “The United States of America has
a government of laws and not of men.
[An excellent summary of the history of civil rights in America,
and a good candidate to restore them.]
Sabine
Hossenfelder: The New Science of Microscopic Robots
(12-min. video; BackReaction, March 19, 2022)
Injecting tiny remote controlled robots into the human body
isn’t all that far-fetched any more. What tiny robots are
scientists working on? How far along is the technology? And what
could they be good for?
Tiny
Star
Unleashes Gargantuan Beam of Matter and Anti-Matter That
Stretches for 40 Trillion Miles. (Photos and 1-min. video;
SciTechDaily, March 19, 2022)
The filament spans about half the diameter of the full Moon on
the sky, making it the longest one from a pulsar as seen from
Earth. “It’s amazing that a pulsar that’s only 10 miles across
can create a structure so big that we can see it from thousands
of light-years away,” said Martijn de Vries of Stanford
University in Palo Alto, California, who led the study. “With
the same relative size, if the filament stretched from New York
to Los Angeles the pulsar would be about 100 times smaller than
the tiniest object visible to the naked eye.”
This result may provide new insight into the source of the Milky
Way’s antimatter, which is similar to ordinary matter but with
its electrical charges reversed. For example, a positron is the
positively charged equivalent to the electron. The vast majority
of the universe consists of ordinary matter rather than
antimatter. Scientists, however, continue to find evidence for
relatively large numbers of positrons in detectors on Earth,
which leads to the question: What are possible sources of this
antimatter?
Pulsars like PSR J2030+4415 may be one answer. The combination
of two extremes — fast rotation and high magnetic fields of
pulsars — leads to particle acceleration and high-energy
radiation that creates electron and positron pairs. (The usual
process of converting mass into energy, famously determined by
Albert Einstein’s E = mc2 equation, is reversed, and energy is
converted into mass.) The pulsar may be leaking these positrons
into the galaxy.
These
charts
show how much it costs to charge an EV vs. refueling a gas
vehicle. (CNBC, March 19, 2022)
While gas prices have soared in the wake of Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine, so have electricity prices – particularly in some parts
of the U.S. that have been big markets for Tesla’s EVs. It's
still much cheaper to “refuel” an EV. The total lifetime cost of
ownership of an EV is about $4,700 less than that of an
internal-combustion vehicle. That cost difference is likely to
increase as more EVs come to market — and as battery prices
continue to fall — over the next couple of years.
GM
Vehicles
Need To Offer Dash Cam Mode In Vehicles: Opinion. (GM
Authority, March 19, 2022)
Dash cams are a viable solution to a variety of different
issues, and in fact, in many parts of the world, these devices
are actually required equipment by insurance companies. Here in
North America, however, dash cams have yet to really hit the
mainstream, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a lot to offer
the consumer. As such, it makes sense that GM should offer a
dash cam mode in its vehicles.
[It's not that simple. But the Comments thread covers the issues
well.]
The
AI
Placed You at the Crime Scene, but You Weren’t There.
(Wired, March 18, 2022)
This week, we talk about the limitations of using facial
recognition technology to identify suspected criminals.
Customize
GNOME
Desktop in Ubuntu with a Clean Look. (DebugPoint, March
19, 2022)
This tutorial gives you some easy steps to customize GNOME
Desktop with a clean look with minimal effort.
[Or, try Ubuntu-Unity et al.]
Leaked
Ransomware
Docs Show Conti Helping Putin From the Shadows. (Wired,
March 18, 2022)
Members of the hacker gang may act in Russia’s interest, but
their links to the FSB and Cozy Bear hackers appear ad hoc.
NEW: How Putin’s War Is Sinking Climate Science
(Nautilus, March 18, 2022)
An American journalist leaves Russia as war breaks up the
international collaboration key to climate research in the
Arctic. "With the situation changing from day
to day, and seeming to go from bad to worse, some scientists I
contacted for this article did not want to speak about their
Russian counterparts at all, for fear of harm to them, or of
jeopardizing future projects that remain essential from a
planetary perspective."
Never has it been more critical to collaborate. Just days after
Russia attacked Ukraine, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change—involving the work of 270 researchers
from 67 countries—released its first report for 2022. The
authors underlined the urgency of acting now to stabilize
ecosystems and save existing species, in order to preserve the
planet’s ability to adapt. “Any further delay in concerted
global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to
secure a livable future.”
The
West
thinks that Russians, suffering from sanctions, will end up
abandoning Putin – but history indicates they won’t. (The
Conversation, March 18, 2022)
We believe the West’s sanction strategy could backfire. Not all
Russians support the war in Ukraine and the government that
dragged them into it. But all Russians are suffering from the
sanctions and the crisis. Their common suffering is a dangerous
thing: It is all too familiar; it makes them angry, and some are
eager to strike back. The possibility of this stems from the
Russian national mindset, crafted in Soviet times and now
affecting even generations that grew up in post-Soviet Russia.
Western freedoms are only partially appealing, since
historically, Russians never had them – not freedom of speech,
self-determination, religion nor unrestricted travel.
Instead, the Russian people are patient, stoic and often
irrationally devoted to their cruel motherland, whose autocratic
leader started a war. Where does that leave the Russians? From
our perspective, in a deep limbo: The country-aggressor that is
currently bombing and destroying Ukraine is also their beloved
homeland, and by now the only place in the world that accepts
them as they are.
Kamil
Galeev:
How to sabotage Russian war efforts (Threadreader, March
17, 2022)
There are ways to sabotage Russian war capacities by focusing on
its three major bottlenecks: demographic, economic &
institutional. Let's start with demography. Russian started this
war suffering from the shortage of young draftable males.
Why
Crimean
Tatars are fearful as Russia invades Ukraine (The
Conversation, March 17, 2022)
In 2014, Putin annexed the Crimea to punish Ukraine for its
efforts to form closer ties with Western Europe and the U.S. For
the Crimean Tatars who had rebuilt their devastated nation in
democratic Ukraine, the conquest of their homeland by their
historical nemesis, now ruled by an increasingly autocratic
Putin, was a nightmare come true. Among the new Russian
Federation authorities’ first measures after annexing the Crimea
Autonomous Republic was to ban the Crimean Tatars’ parliament,
known as the Mejlis, which had given women the right to vote in
1918. They also arrested, tortured and killed Crimean Tatar
activists. Thousands of Crimean Tatars fled Russian oppression
in Crimea following its 2014 annexation. Many settled in the
Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, or nearby Kherson, a town Putin’s
forces claimed they had captured on March 2, 2022.
Russia's
Killer
Drone in Ukraine Raises Fears About AI in Warfare. (Wired,
March 17, 2022)
The maker of the lethal drone claims that it can identify
targets using artificial intelligence.
NASA
Finally
Rolls Out Its Massive SLS Rocket, With Much at Stake.
(Wired, March 17, 2022)
The agency’s long-awaited, costly Space Launch System is finally
ready for a practice countdown before the first Artemis mission
this spring.
NEW: If
You
Thought Covid Was Over…Congratulations, You’re an Idiot.
(Eudaimonia and Co, March 17, 2022)
Covid’s back and the pandemic’s not over. Just like — wait for
it — Science said.
This is a global pandemic. One year of fighting it is not going
to be enough. Especially knowing what we know now. Our vaccines
fade in efficacy, fast. So do boosters — lasting maybe ten weeks
or so, before they begin to lose potency. That leaves us with
basic precautions like masking and social distancing. If we
don’t follow those precautions, then Covid will keep recurring.
And no, it won’t be “the flu.” Covid is evolving, and will
continue to evolve. There’s every chance — let me beat an old
drum for a moment — that tomorrow’s variants will be deadlier.
How deadly? We don’t know, but Covid could easily recombine with
SARS or MERS and then we have a virus with Omicron’s
infectiousness, but a mortality rate between 15 and 40%. (By the
way, when I say that, I get piled on, harassed, and called
names. So don’t take it from me. Listen to Dr. William Haseltine
of Harvard Med, saying exactly that.)
Think about what the policies of the last few months really did.
They said to old people, young people, kids, the
immunocompromised — “You’re on your own. Good luck! It’s your
problem now. The rest of us” — meaning healthy working age
people, basically — “are going to get back to ‘normal’. Covid’s
over!! Ha-ha!!” So we left all these groups at the mercy of the
virus. That’s not just morally bankrupt, because of course the
test of a civilized society is how it cares for its most
vulnerable, and in this case, we just left them to die.
It’s scientifically incredibly dangerous, stupid, and reckless.
Because it’s in immunocompromised bodies that Covid mutates out
of control, and new variants emerge through recombination. It’s
an immunocompromised person, for example, that variants can
co-infect, and recombine, because they will stay sick for a long
time. Now imagine an elderly one. Now imagine a world of them,
just being left for dead. We are giving Covid a perfect
opportunity to become something worse. We’re handing it our
world and civilisation on a silver platter — and daring it to
feast. What do we do if Covid does recombine with SARS or MERS?
Then we die. Or at least many of us do. No, that’s not a joke or
an exaggeration. It is reality. Remember how bad Delta was? Even
if we have some degree of immune protection now, it’s not going
to make us invulnerable to worse strains of Covid, which will
invariably kill and hospitalise scores of people.
This wave hasn’t hit America yet. That is because waves always
tend to hit America last. But when it does? It’s not going to be
pretty. Less than half of Americans are boosted — and that’s a
lower number than in plenty of countries where Covid’s surging
all over again. The first two vaccines don’t give you as much
protection against Omicron, especially BA2, as against the first
variants — that is what waning efficacy means. America will be
hit hard by this variant, yet again. And that was all eminently
predictable. It’s incredible, given all that, that the CDC let
this happen. We are in the middle of a titanic, historic set of
government failures. Truly incredible ones. How is it that
Denmark’s public health agencies let this happen? America’s CDC?
The list goes on and on.
How is it even possible that the people tasked with protecting
public health, safeguarding it, paid serious and significant
sums to do it…don’t…by denying science and ignoring evidence…and
instead cherry-picking facts and nitpicking over details? We all
know the answer to that. Because it’s what’s politically
palatable. It’s what Presidents and Prime Ministers want. It’s
what a certain segment of the population wants.
SUV,
Pickup
Truck Drivers More Likely To Hit Pedestrians, IIHS Says.
(GM Authority, March 17, 2022)
Researchers examined how larger vehicles were involved in fatal
crashes at or near intersections, and at other locations. They
found that crashes killing a pedestrian during left-turn
maneuvers were roughly twice as high for an SUV, almost three
times as high for vans and minivans, and nearly four times as
high for pickup trucks compared to passenger cars. During
right-turn maneuvers, a crash killing a pedestrian was 89
percent higher for pickups and 63 percent higher for SUVs than
for cars.
In pedestrian crashes of all severities, pickups were 42 percent
more likely to hit pedestrians than passenger cars, and SUVs
were 23 percent more likely as well. Even away from
intersections, pickup trucks were 80 percent more likely to hit
a pedestrian, SUVs were 61 percent more likely, and vans were 45
percent more likely, all compared to passenger cars.
Microchip
Manufacturer
Renesas Halts Production In Japan After Earthquake. (GM
Authority, March 17, 2022)
Renesas Electronics Corp., a microchip manufacturer that
supplies components to the automotive industry, including
General Motors, has halted operations at three of its
manufacturing facilities in Japan following a massive
7.4-magnitude earthquake.
The microchip production stoppage in Japan arrives as the
automotive industry continues to grapple with an ongoing
worldwide shortage of microchip components. Mainstream
automotive manufacturers, including General Motors, have been
forced to curtail production and reduce feature availability as
demand for microchips far outstrips available supply. To address
the shortage, General Motors previously prioritized production
of its most in-demand vehicles, namely its full-size SUVs and
pickup trucks. GM has also cut a number of features from its
vehicles lines, such as heated and ventilated seats, as well as
heated steering wheels, although the automaker has since
resolved these availability issues, at least to some degree.
Russia’s
no
longer a ‘most-favored nation’: 5 questions about the coveted
trading status answered. (The Conversation, March 17,
2022)
The U.S., the European Union, Japan and Canada are further
severing Russia from global markets by removing a coveted
trading designation over its war in Ukraine. Known as
most-favored-nation status, it generally entitles a country to
the best possible trading terms, which comes with many economic
benefits.
A
Recent History of U.S. Sanctions on Russia (charts; Visual
Capitalist, March 17, 2022)
Russia faces a multitude of U.S. sanctions for its participation
in global conflicts. This infographic lists who and what has
been impacted.
A
Zelensky Deepfake Was Quickly Defeated. The Next One Might Not
Be. (Wired, March 17, 2022)
The response to a video impersonating the Ukrainian president
gives a blueprint for how to stop more sophisticated attempts.
A
big bet to kill the password for good (Wired, March 17,
2022)
FIDO Alliance says it’s found the missing piece on the path to a
password-free future.
[Also see
<https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=fido+alliance+%2Blinux&atb=v177-1&ia=web>.]
The
Big,
Baffling Crypto Dreams of a $180-Million Ransomware Gang
(Wired, March 17, 2022)
Leaked files from cybercrime group Conti show it started
building a crypto payment platform, a social network—and even
had plans for a casino.
The
Workaday
Life of the World’s Most Dangerous Ransomware Gang (Wired,
March 16, 2022)
A Ukrainian researcher leaked 60,000 messages from inside Conti.
Here’s what they reveal.
NEW: A
Timeline of Russian Cyberattacks on Ukraine (8-min. video;
Wired, March 16, 2022)
Russia has been launching some of the most disruptive
cyberattacks in history against Ukraine for some years now.
Wired's Andy Greenberg, author of the book "Sandworm," walks us
through the history of Russia's cyberattacks against Ukraine.
NEW: 'There's
an
Atmosphere of Fear.' With Flights Banned, Russians Are
Fleeing By Train for Europe. (photos and 2-min. video; Time, Marlch
16, 202)
With more than 30 countries banning flights that originate in
Russia from their airspace, the only options for reaching Europe
are over land. A handful of buslines offer service to Finland or
Estonia, but the Allegro train from Saint Petersburg to
Helsinki, which currently runs twice a day and seats 350
passengers, is the only remaining option by rail. A few days
after the war in Ukraine began, those trains began selling out.
"Russia is saying that no conscripts are being sent to Ukraine,
that they’ve all signed contracts to go. But that’s not exactly
true. They’re forcing conscripts to sign the contracts."
Kyiv
has
faced adversity before – and a stronger Ukrainian identity
grew in response. (The Conversation, March 16, 2022)
The history of Ukraine following the 1918 battle for Kyiv is
complex and messy. But as a historian of Ukraine, my research
has found that this first period of modern independence from
1918 to 1920 is central to a national narrative that maintains
Ukraine is a sovereign country, separate from Russia.
This sense of identity makes occupation a hard task, as the
Soviets found out in 1918 following Kyiv’s fall.
Analysis:
From
the Kremlin, Putin ponders war and peace. (Reuters, March
16, 2022)
As Vladimir Putin looks out from behind the Kremlin's red walls,
Russia's paramount leader of 22 years has a riddle to solve: how
to win a war in Ukraine that the West says he has already lost.
Three weeks into its invasion, Russia is battling fierce
resistance from Western-armed Ukrainian forces. It has yet to
achieve its stated aims and its heavily sanctioned economy faces
the deepest crisis since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.
Russia, where journalists risk jail if they use the term
"invasion", says its special military operation is going to plan
and that despite sanctions it can fare well without what it
casts as a deceitful and decadent West led by the United States.
Putin, who works from an office in the Kremlin's 18th century
Senate Palace, is expected to decide soon whether to press on
with a war that has already killed thousands of people and
displaced several million, or to seek some sort of peace that
would allow him to claim victory.
Launching the invasion on Feb. 24th, Putin listed his key aims
as halting NATO's eastward enlargement and ending what he called
the "genocide" of Russian-speaking people by "nationalists and
neo-Nazis" in Ukraine since Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who is Jewish and a
native Russian speaker, and his Western supporters says Putin's
claims are baseless.
NEW: Why
Ukraine
wants a no-fly zone — but is unlikely to get one (Axios,
March 16, 2022)
"We are not in a position where we want to get engaged in
conventional conflict with the Russians because that could
rapidly escalate to a tactical nuclear level and a strategic
nuclear level. Then we're dealing with the end of history as we
know it."
Russia-Ukraine
war
latest news: NATO allies united against no-fly zone; UN court
orders Russian troops to withdraw – live. (The Guardian,
March 16, 2022)
The UN’s International Court of Justice orders Russia to stop
its invasion, saying it has not seen any evidence to support the
Kremlin’s justification for the war.
U.S.
warns
Russia of consequences of any possible Russian use of chemical
weapons. (Reuters, March 16, 2022)
U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan spoke on Wednesday
with Nikolay Patrushev, the secretary of Russia's Security
Council, in the first high-level contact publicly disclosed
between the two countries since the invasion of Ukraine, and
warned Patrushev about the consequences "of any possible Russian
decision to use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine." The
White House statement after the call between the two officials
did not specify what those consequences would be.
Washington and its allies have accused Russia of spreading an
unproven claim that Ukraine had a biological weapons program as
a possible prelude to potentially launching its own biological
or chemical attacks.
Robin
Schoenthaler,
MD: They’ve Changed The Covid Rules of Engagement.
(Medium, March 16, 2022)
Six Steps To Being SafeR...
Once
again,
America is in denial about signs of a fresh Covid wave.
(The Guardian, March 16, 2022)
In the past couple of weeks, UK, Germany, France and others are
experiencing a new wave. The US should get ready.
Citigroup
to
cover travel expenses for employee abortions as U.S. states
curb access. (Reuters, March 16, 2022)
Several states with Republican-led legislatures are passing new
abortion limits in anticipation that the U.S. Supreme Court will
likely undercut constitutional abortion protections this year.
Citi has taken stances on controversial issues before, including
in 2018 when it enacted restrictions on its clients who sell
firearms following several U.S. mass shootings.
The
allure
of cosmopolitan languages to courtiers and pop fans
(Psyche, March 15, 2022)
The vernacular revolution in western Europe started far from the
Roman heartland, where Latin did not have deep roots – in
Ireland and Iceland – and worked its way gradually toward the
Mediterranean. In one region after the other, scriveners wrote
registers, notary contracts, poems and, finally, laws and
scientific treatises in local languages. From beginning to end,
the process took more than a millennium. Portions of the oldest
grammar of a European vernacular – Irish – date to the 7th
century. Yet Galileo and Kepler still wrote scientific works in
Latin into the 17th century and German universities used Latin
as language of instruction into the 19th century. But, from the
moment in 1295 when Dante explained that poets preferred the
vernacular because the ladies they courted knew no Latin, the
writing was on the wall.
Enduring
Antarctic
Sea Ice – Icebreaker Cut Through on Expedition That Located
Shackleton’s Lost Ship. (SciTechDaily, March 15, 2022)
An international expedition has located the lost ship of
Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton more than 100 years after
it was crushed by ice and sank. The discovery of Endurance on the floor of the Weddell Sea
occurred on March 5, 2022—late in the austral summer, after much
of the sea ice around Antarctica had melted away.
It’s
a
Perfect Time for EVs. It’s a Terrible Time for EVs.
(Wired, March 15, 2022)
Gas prices are up, commutes are back, and Russian oil is under
sanction. Too bad the electric vehicle industry isn’t ready to
seize the moment.
Small
oil
producers like Ghana, Guyana and Suriname could gain as buyers
shun Russian crude. (The Conversation, March 15, 2022)
Attention has focused on Iran and Venezuela, both of which are
led by governments that the U.S. sought until recently to
isolate. But emerging and less-developed producers could also
play roles. Among the world’s many oil-producing countries, a
few are positioned to jump the list and become increasingly
active. They include the West African nation of Ghana (No. 33),
along with Guyana (No. 42) and Suriname (No. 69), two small
adjoining countries on the north Atlantic coast of South
America. All three nations have become oil producers within the
past 12 years.
[AND encourage more people and countries to embrace Green
energy?]
Chinese
ambassador:
Where we stand on Ukraine (Washington Post, March 15,
2022)
There were more than 6,000 Chinese citizens in Ukraine. China is
the biggest trading partner of both Russia and Ukraine, and the
largest importer of crude oil and natural gas in the world.
Conflict between Russia and Ukraine does no good for China. Had
China known about the imminent crisis, we would have tried our
best to prevent it.
On Ukraine, China’s position is objective and impartial: The
purposes and principles of the U.N. Charter must be fully
observed; the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all
countries, including Ukraine, must be respected; the legitimate
security concerns of all countries must be taken seriously; and
all efforts that are conducive to the peaceful settlement of the
crisis must be supported.
China has also outlined a six-point initiative that calls for
making sure that humanitarian operations abide by the principles
of neutrality and impartiality; gives full attention to the
displaced persons in and from Ukraine; ensures the protection of
civilians; provides for safe and smooth humanitarian aid
activities; provides for the safety of foreign nationals in
Ukraine; and supports the United Nations’ coordinating role in
channeling humanitarian aid, as well as the work of the U.N.
crisis coordinator for Ukraine. The first tranche of emergency
humanitarian supplies provided by the Red Cross Society of China
to its Ukrainian counterpart has been shipped from Beijing.
As a Chinese proverb goes, it takes more than one cold day to
freeze three feet of ice. The long-term peace and stability of
Europe relies on the principle of indivisible security. There
must be a balanced, effective and sustainable European security
architecture. The priority now is to achieve a cease-fire to
protect civilians from war. But as a permanent member of the
U.N. Security Council and a responsible major country, China
will continue to coordinate real efforts to achieve lasting
peace. We stand ready to do whatever we can and work with other
parties. Our ultimate purpose is the end of war and support
regional and global stability.
["But Taiwan is different." Aha; Someone just added to its
powerful Comments thread: "The Ambassador is remarkably
stone-deaf to why those of us who believe in democracy view the
Russian invasion of Ukraine as similar to the Chinese threat to
take over Taiwan: we feel very strongly that we all have the
right to freely elect our leadership. The Chinese are making the
same argument as the Russians - "we" (conflating the state with
them personally) have a historical "right" over the land and
therefore over all the people in it, no matter what they think
or want, whether they want us to or not; they have no choice
whatsoever, no say in the matter at all. The Chinese give a
false choice: "freely" surrender or we retain the right to
attack you by force. And what the Ukrainians have shown the
world - once free, a people will fight tooth and nail, town by
town, street by street, inch by inch to stay free." Amen.]
Automakers
scramble
to replace Ukrainian parts supplies. (Atomotive News,
March 14, 2022)
Europe's automakers scramble to replace Ukrainian parts such as
wire harnesses.
‘All
art
must go underground:’ Ukraine scrambles to shield its cultural
heritage. (Washington Post, March 14, 2022)
Emptying a museum is a gargantuan task, and the entire workforce
of the Andrey Sheptytsky National Museum in Lviv had been at it
for a week before the final piece — a century-old portrait of
the museum’s namesake — was taken down, leaving the last of its
walls bare. Ihor Kozhan, the director of the grand gallery
opposite Lviv’s opera house, explained the rush. “There is an
egomaniac in Moscow who doesn’t care about killing children, let
alone destroying art,” he said. “If our history and heritage are
to survive, all art must go underground.” Across Ukraine,
artists, gallerists, curators and museum directors are
desperately but carefully unhooking, wrapping and stashing away
the country’s hefty cultural endowment as Vladimir Putin’s
onslaught closes in.
The deliberate destruction of a country’s or culture’s heritage
is considered a war crime, but UNESCO has not yet canceled its
next summit, which is scheduled to take place in Russia. “The
first thought that came to mind for me is that a Ukrainian
museum is protecting Russian masterpieces from Russian
aggression.” Even as they struggled to believe it, museum
directors also said their plight was hardly unfamiliar. Ukraine
has been stripped of artwork by invaders multiple times over the
past century.
Saving art was secondary only to saving lives, many of those
interviewed said, because Ukrainians’ pride in their culture
serves as a deep well of inspiration for its resistance to
invasion. Putin has made it clear that he considers Ukraine to
be part of greater Russia, a contention artists here say denies
Ukraine’s distinct heritage. “With each invasion, some loss of
culture is inevitable,” said Taras Voznyak, director of the Lviv
National Art Gallery. “Putin knows that without art, without our
history, Ukraine will have a weaker identity. That is the whole
point of his war — to erase us and assimilate us into his
population of crypto-fascist zombies.”
How
Kyiv’s
outgunned defenders have kept Russian forces from capturing
the capital of Ukraine (Washington Post, March 14, 2022)
When Russian forces seized control of a military airport in
Hostomel, a few miles north of Irpin, on the first day of the
war, many military observers expected a rapid takeover of Kyiv.
But more than two weeks later, Russian troops have struggled to
advance.
Australia
joins
allies, sanctions 33 Russian oligarchs. (The Hill, March
14, 2022)
Australia on Monday announced that it is sanctioning 33 Russian
oligarchs in response to Moscow’s continued invasion of Ukraine,
joining allies in placing penalties on prominent Russian
individuals. Australia had already sanctioned Russia for
recognizing two Ukrainian regions as independent and for
launching a military operation in Ukraine. In total, Australia
said it has levied more than 460 sanctions on individuals and
entities in past weeks, including President Vladimir Putin and
his Security Council, the Central Bank of Russia, the country’s
national sovereign wealth fund, the Russian Direct Investment
Fund and Russia’s armed forces.
Monday’s announcement of more penalties comes after the U.S.,
United Kingdom, Canada, European Union and New Zealand imposed
sanctions against key Russian individuals.