1332: Spookberg

Finland heeft al sinds verleden jaar een proef lopen met honden die covid proberen te detecteren. Zo te zien gaat de douane er niet verder mee, omdat het onbetrouwbaar is. Op het vliegveld blijven ze nog tot juli in gebruik.

Hier in chronologische volgorde het verhaal:

Juli verleden jaar:

https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/could_finnish_covid_dogs_help_sniff_out_the_pandemic/11459829

Augustus:

https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/funding_secured_for_coronavirus_airport_dogs/11514881

September:

https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/corona-sniffing_dogs_start_work_at_helsinki_airport/11562452

Oktober:

https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/uncertain_future_for_airport_covid_sniffer_dogs/11589182

Februari dit jaar:

"However, officials at the ministry said there was not sufficient evidence to indicate that dogs could detect coronavirus, despite previous studies suggesting that canines could identify the virus quickly."

https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/customs_will_not_use_covid_sniffer_dogs/11813840

Het is alleen jammer dat het zo lastig is om audio/video clips in het Engels te vinden hier. De Finse staatsomroep heeft wel een podcast in het Engels, maar ik weet niet of ik het mentaal op kan brengen daarnaar te gaan luisteren.

"Every small business and small restaurant is hurting right now because the government is paying people to stay home, basically," Illinois restaurant owner Nick Morganthaller told WCIA-TV in Champaign.

"Staffing is impossible. It's impossible to find anybody that wants to come to work," he said.

Under the American Rescue Plan, people who receive unemployment benefits are offered a new tax waiver on their first $10,200 of benefits.

The package also provides a $300 weekly enhancement that will be available until Sept. 6.

https://www.wnd.com/2021/03/businesses-say-cant-find-workers-unemployment-pays/

I'm a dude named Ben at a Northern silicon valley High School District. And I want to give you an update on the school reopening scam by the state of California. Let me start by saying that I understand the risk of covid19 as I was hospitalized for seven days this past November with covid19 and bacterial pneumonia. So I'm fully aware of the possible dangers of covid19 and its complications. But I am also mindful of the relatively low risk of death or hospitalization for most people, including staff and students.

The vast majority of staff members think reopening this school year is pointless with only 35 instructional days left. As John says why take a chance. They realized that the only reason to reopening is to make the governor of California look good.

To John's point, we do have a fair share of teachers who decided to resign or have moved away because they have no wish to come back to the classroom. But the majority of our teachers want to come back but not with this bullshit hybrid in-person zoom model. Under this reopening, all lessons are still held on zoom and even with students in the classroom. We're only reopening for the senior class, with the 9th through 11th graders all staying home.

We all recognize the school district is only doing this to obtain our share of the $6.5 billion that the state government has promised our schools.

Rumor is getting 3 million if we can reopen all of our district schools by April 1, Which we are using quite fast as we are burning through cash buying PPE, laptops, Chromebooks, webcams, and headphones. This fact is so blatant as the administration had to reassure us five times in a district-wide zoom meeting that we weren't reopening because of the money. Then bribe us with a One time stipend if we come back a week early, or we can wait and get nothing and take our sick and vacation days if we don't return.

We also plan to test all staff, most of which got at least one covid shot, with a test Curative we have been told has had issues with false negatives. We only plan to do a random sample test for the kids, none of which have gotten the vaccine.

I think there's also some cognitive dissonance with our staff. The fact that the media is shaming Florida and Texas for lifting their mass mandates and spiking the covid-19 ball to soon. While we're contemplating putting children and teachers at risk, be it a very low risk.

Quick tip. Try to sleep or lay on your stomach if you get covid19; it makes it easier to breathe if you get liquid build up in the lungs. This tip from an ICU nurse kept me from being placed on a ventilator and out of the ICU.

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Mon, 22 Mar 2021 03:47

Texas Roadhouse Founder Commits COVID-Related Suicide 3/21/2021 7:48 AM PT Breaking News

Kent Taylor, the man who founded the wildly successful Texas Roadhouse restaurant chain, has taken his own life after experiencing severe, post-COVID side effects.

Taylor suffered from tinnitus -- ringing in the ears -- which his family says greatly intensified in the last days of his life and ultimately became unbearable. At its worst, tinnitus can sound like a jet engine roaring inside the ears.

The family said, "Kent battled and fought hard," but ultimately the suffering became too great.

Kent was a master businessman, who founded Texas Roadhouse back in 1993. He came up with the idea on a cocktail napkin and brought it to life with the first restaurant located in Louisville, Kentucky. The plan took hold, and eventually, there were 537 Texas Roadhouses in 49 states, with 10 international locations.

Kent got national attention last Spring when he earmarked his entire salary to help support frontline workers during the pandemic.

He suffered from tinnitus, but it apparently flared up in a big way after he contracted COVID. There's data indicating tinnitus is exacerbated by coronavirus.

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said, "He was a maverick entrepreneur who embodied the values of never giving up and putting others first."

Kent was 65.

RIP.

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Mon, 22 Mar 2021 13:26

| March 21, 2021 12:06 PM

Americans overestimate the likelihood a person with COVID-19 would have to be hospitalized by 10 times the actual number, a study shows.

People were asked during a Franklin Templeton/Gallup study what ''percentage of people who have been infected by the coronavirus needed to be hospitalized.'' Thirty-five percent of those asked said that over half of infected people would require hospitalization from the disease. Meanwhile, only 18% of Americans correctly stated that the risk of hospitalization was somewhere between 1%-5%.

''The U.S. public is also deeply misinformed about the severity of the virus for the average infected person,'' the study's authors said.

The numbers came at the same time a paper published in the National Bureau of Economic Research found that U.S. media coverage of the virus skewed overwhelmingly negative when compared to the coverage in other countries, which likely contributed to the outsized fear Americans have about the threat the virus poses.

US MEDIA COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS SKEWS OVERWHELMINGLY NEGATIVE COMPARED TO INTERNATIONAL SOURCES: STUDY

''Ninety one percent of stories by U.S. major media outlets are negative in tone versus fifty four percent for non-U.S. major sources and sixty five percent for scientific journals,'' reads the working paper's abstract. ''The negativity of the U.S. major media is notable even in areas with positive scientific developments including school re-openings and vaccine trials. Media negativity is unresponsive to changing trends in new COVID-19 cases or the political leanings of the audience.''

Democrats were much more likely to overestimate the harms of COVID-19, according to the Franklin Templeton/Gallup study, with 41% believing over half of coronavirus patients would require hospitalizations, compared to 28% of Republicans.

Republicans were also more likely to identify the correct risk of hospitalization from the virus, with 26% answering between 1%-5% of patients would require hospitalizations, compared to only 10% of Democrats who believed the same.

''These errors in factual knowledge appear to have important real-world implications,'' the study's authors noted. ''Those who overestimate risks to young people or hold an exaggerated sense of risk upon infection are more likely to favor closing schools, restaurants, and other businesses.''

To bring the public's perception of the virus risks in line with reality, the authors stress the need for a more ''well-informed public.''

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

''The most important lesson from our research is that a well-informed public, freed from both exaggerated fear and trivialization of a dangerous threat, is more likely to support optimal policies and engage in the behaviors needed to both maintain safety and avoid unnecessary economic damage,'' the study concluded. ''Tracking the public's attitudes and behaviors on COVID-19 provides a tighter grasp of what to expect in a highly uncertain situation.''

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Mon, 22 Mar 2021 13:56

image copyright Getty Images

People may need to wear face coverings and socially distance for several years until we return to normality, a leading epidemiologist has predicted.

Mary Ramsay, the head of immunisation at Public Health England, said basic measures could be in place until other countries successfully roll out jabs.

She also said a return of big spectator events required careful monitoring and clear instructions about staying safe.

Ben Wallace told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show that booking a break abroad now would be "premature" and "potentially risky".

The UK set another record for the number of coronavirus vaccine doses given in a single day on Saturday, with 844,285 jabs.

Dr Ramsay said restrictions such as face coverings in crowded places and social distancing had become accepted by many and still allowed the economy to function.

She said "people have got used to those lower-level restrictions now, and people can live with them, and the economy can still go on with those less severe restrictions in place".

"So I think certainly for a few years, at least until other parts of the world are as well vaccinated as we are, and the numbers have come down everywhere, that is when we may be able to go very gradually back to a more normal situation," she added.

Warning it was "very important that we do not relax too quickly", Dr Ramsay said any circulating virus would inevitably pick on those who are vulnerable.

"We have to look very carefully before any of these restrictions are lifted," she said.

Prof Chris Whitty, the UK government's chief medical adviser, told MPs earlier this month that it was hoped "simple interventions like washing hands, face masks where appropriate, test-and-trace, and above all vaccines" would keep the virus controlled beyond the summer.

Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, has also said face masks could be needed in certain situations if the number of infections rises in the winter, but that it was possible people will naturally behave in a way that promotes social distancing.

A group of government scientific advisers said last month that "maintaining a baseline of policies which reduce transmission" will be necessary for some time to come.

Those experts said these could include continuing test-and-trace, self-isolation, and public messaging that encourages "voluntary actions to reduce risks".

The government's roadmap for easing lockdown in England states all legal limits on social contact will be removed no earlier than 21 June.

In a second release of restrictions on Monday 29 March, people will be able to mix outdoors with up to five others in a return to the so-called "rule of six".

Outdoor sport and leisure facilities can also reopen, organised outdoor sports are allowed once more, and outdoor parent and child groups with up to 15 parents can meet.

In Scotland, communal worship resumes on 26 March. In Wales, supermarkets can sell non-essential items from Monday, and garden centres can open. And in Northern Ireland, six people from two households can meet in private gardens from 1 April.

The government established a review of measures to control coronavirus from the summer onwards last month.

Meanwhile, Sir Paul Nurse, chief executive of the Francis Crick Institute, has told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend there should be a rapid investigation into what happened during the first months of the pandemic.

He said he believed there was a "slowness in political response - almost casual really - suggesting a failure of scientific and medical advice reaching political power".

"We should have a rapid investigation of the first part of the pandemic - January to June - so we can learn the lessons and be bettered prepared for the future," he said.

Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, England's deputy chief medical officer, suggested last week that a public inquiry into the pandemic now would be an unwelcome distraction to those tasked with controlling the virus.

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Thu, 25 Mar 2021 11:21

TUCSON, Ariz. '-- Modern medicine can do amazing things for even the most critically ill patient, but it can't do a thing if they don't seek treatment. More people are dying from heart and respiratory conditions which don't usually lead to death, and avoiding medical care may be why. Dr. Joseph S. Alpert, editor-in-chief of The American Journal of Medicine, says the cause is simple '-- fear. His findings reveal more patients with serious illnesses are avoiding urgently needed care over concerns they'll contract COVID-19 in hospitals.

Alpert says although he's seeing the same mix of non-COVID inpatients entering hospitals '-- those with heart failure or COPD '-- these people are much sicker and close to death than in pre-pandemic days.

''At times, one-third of our Internal Medicine patients were receiving consultations from the Palliative Care service and were being considered for inpatient or home hospice,'' Dr. Alpert writes in the peer-reviewed journal. ''In the past the usual situation involved no patient, or only one individual, being considered for hospice.''

Why are hospital patients sicker during COVID-19?''The answer was simple,'' declares Alpert, from the University of Arizona School of Medicine. ''Patients were avoiding the hospital as much as possible because they feared acquiring a lethal COVID infection on top of their chronic illness. For the same reason, many hospitalized patients refused post-discharge physical therapy or inpatient hospice transfer following acute care.''

Previous studies have noted that fewer patients suffering heart attacks and strokes are entering emergency rooms during the pandemic. Moreover, hospital mortality rates have been higher as well. Scientists believe this is likely the result of delaying urgent care and recommended therapies.

Dr. Alpert notes that patients often claim it's safer to stay home than go to the hospital during COVID. Others admitted they were afraid hospital staff would be so busy treating coronavirus patients they wouldn't have time for them.

''I repeatedly told patients that they were safer with us on both our inpatient and outpatient services than they would be shopping for groceries, where they would not know the COVID status of those standing near them,'' Dr. Alpert continues in his report.

If you're sick, get to a doctor!The study author adds hospitals and clinics are doing everything they can to prevent COVID-19 from spreading in their facilities. Those steps include social distancing, no-visitor policies, constant cleaning, and (more recently) near-universal vaccinations for staff.

''Unfortunately, much of this information fell on deaf ears. It seems that fear had overcome rational thinking.''

Dr. Alpert believes the airline industry may have the answer when it comes to dealing with irrational fears of hospitals. The journal Editor-in-Chief explains that airlines have used special programs and promotions to help potential customers overcome their fear of flying for years. The same trick might help critically ill patients take the leap and get themselves the care they need.

''Medicine needs to use as many avenues of communication as possible to educate the public concerning safe conditions within hospitals and outpatient clinics,'' Alpert concludes. ''If you are sick, do not delay and do not hesitate to call 911 or get someone to bring you to the closest emergency department where you can receive potentially life-saving therapy.''

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Thu, 25 Mar 2021 14:04

Mr. Taylor died by suicide after suffering from post-Covid-19 symptoms, including severe tinnitus, the company said.

Kent Taylor, the founder and chief executive of the Texas Roadhouse restaurant chain, died on Thursday. He was turned down more than 80 times as he initially tried to find investors. Credit... Ron Bath/Texas Roadhouse Published March 21, 2021 Updated March 23, 2021

Kent Taylor, the founder and chief executive of the Texas Roadhouse restaurant chain, died by suicide on Thursday after suffering from post-Covid-19 symptoms, the company and his family said in a statement. He was 65.

''After a battle with post-Covid-related symptoms, including severe tinnitus, Kent Taylor took his own life this week,'' the statement said.

Mr. Taylor fought the condition, but ''the suffering that greatly intensified in recent days became unbearable,'' the statement said. It added that Mr. Taylor had recently committed to funding ''a clinical study to help members of the military who also suffer with tinnitus,'' which causes ringing and other noises in the ear.

His body was found in a field on his property near Louisville, Ky., the Kentucky State Police told The Louisville Courier Journal. The official cause of death is pending autopsy results, the Oldham County coroner, David Pendleton, said on Monday. The State Police, which did not respond to a request for comment, are investigating the matter, Mr. Pendleton said.

Mr. Taylor, who was also the chairman of the company's board of directors, founded Texas Roadhouse in 1993. He sought to create an ''affordable, Texas-style'' restaurant but was turned down more than 80 times as he tried to find investors, according to a biography provided by the company.

Eventually, he raised $300,000 from three doctors from Elizabethtown, Ky., and sketched out the design for the first Texas Roadhouse on a cocktail napkin for the investors.

The first Texas Roadhouse opened in Clarksville, Ind., in 1993. Three of the chain's first five restaurants failed, but it went on to open 611 locations in 49 states, and 28 international locations in 10 countries.

Until his death, Mr. Taylor had been active in Texas Roadhouse's day-to-day operations, the company said. He oversaw decisions about the menu, selected the murals for the restaurants and personally picked songs for the jukeboxes.

Wayne Kent Taylor was born on Sept. 27, 1955, at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., where his father, Powell Taylor, was a lieutenant in the Army. He was raised in Louisville, where his father worked for General Electric and his mother, Marilyn (Bergmann) Taylor, was a buyer for a local boutique.

Mr. Taylor graduated from the University of North Carolina, where he received a track scholarship.

In addition to his parents, Mr. Taylor is survived by his children, Michelle, Brittney and Max; and five grandchildren. He was married twice; both marriages ended in divorce.

Greg Moore, the lead director of the company's board, said in a statement that Mr. Taylor gave up his compensation package during the coronavirus pandemic to support frontline workers in the company.

Jerry Morgan, the company's president, will succeed Mr. Taylor as chief executive. Texas Roadhouse will announce its next chairman at a later date, Mr. Doster said.

Senator Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky and the minority leader, said in a statement that Mr. Taylor ''didn't fit the mold of a big-time C.E.O.''

''Kent built a billion-dollar company with creativity, grit and a lot of bold risks,'' Mr. McConnell said. ''As Texas Roadhouse stretched around the globe, Kent kept his heart and his headquarters in Louisville.''

If you are having thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK). You can find a list of additional resources at SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.

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Tue, 23 Mar 2021 17:52

AstraZeneca said Tuesday the data it released a day earlier had included cases up to Feb. 17 and it's continuing to analyze cases that have occurred since then.

WASHINGTON '-- Results from a U.S. trial of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine may have included ''outdated information'' and that could mean the company provided an incomplete view of efficacy data, American federal health officials said early Tuesday.

AstraZeneca said in a statement that the data it released Monday included cases up to Feb. 17, as the study rules specified, and that it was continuing to analyze cases that have occurred since then. The company said that a preliminary analysis of data that has continued to roll in was consistent with what it had already reported. It promised an update within 48 hours.

AstraZeneca reported Monday that its COVID-19 vaccine provided strong protection among adults of all ages in a long-anticipated U.S. study, a finding that some experts hoped would help rebuild public confidence in the shot around the world and move it a step closer to clearance in the U.S.

In the study of more than 30,000 people, the company reported that the vaccine was found to be 79% effective at preventing symptomatic cases of COVID-19 '-- including in older adults. There were no severe illnesses or hospitalizations among vaccinated volunteers, compared with five such cases in participants who received dummy shots '-- a small number, but consistent with findings from Britain and other countries that the vaccine protects against the worst of the disease.

AstraZeneca also said the study's independent safety monitors found no serious side effects, including no increased risk of rare blood clots like those identified in Europe, a scare that led numerous countries to briefly suspend vaccinations last week.

But just hours after those encouraging results were reported, the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases issued an unusual statement.

The agency said the Data and Safety Monitoring Board ''expressed concern that AstraZeneca may have included outdated information from that trial, which may have provided an incomplete view of the efficacy data.''

''We urge the company to work with the DSMB to review the efficacy data and ensure the most accurate, up-to-date efficacy data be made public as quickly as possible,'' the statement added.

The company aims to file an application with the Food and Drug Administration in the coming weeks, and the government's outside advisers will then publicly debate the evidence.

Authorization and guidelines for use of the vaccine in the United States will be determined by the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after thorough review of the data by independent advisory committees.

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Thu, 25 Mar 2021 13:17

Side effects are just a sign that protection is kicking in as it should.

Katherine J. WuFebruary 2, 2021 Getty / The Atlantic Editor's Note: The Atlantic is making vital coverage of the coronavirus available to all readers. Find the collection here.

At about 2 a.m. on Thursday morning, I woke to find my husband shivering beside me. For hours, he had been tossing in bed, exhausted but unable to sleep, nursing chills, a fever, and an agonizingly sore left arm. His teeth chattered. His forehead was freckled with sweat. And as I lay next to him, cinching blanket after blanket around his arms, I felt an immense sense of relief. All this misery was a sign that the immune cells in his body had been riled up by the second shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, and were well on their way to guarding him from future disease.

Side effects are a natural part of the vaccination process, as my colleague Sarah Zhang has written. 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 like my husband's 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. My husband, who's a neurologist at Yale New Haven Hospital, is one of many who had a worse experience with his second shot than his first.

Recommended ReadingBut much like any other learning process, in this one repetition is key. When hit with the second injection, the immune system recognizes the onslaught, and starts to take it even more seriously. The body's encore act, uncomfortable though it might be, is evidence that the immune system is solidifying its defenses against the virus.

''By the second vaccine, it's already amped up and ready to go,'' Jasmine Marcelin, an infectious-disease physician at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, told me. Fortunately, side effects resolve quickly, whereas COVID-19 can bring on debilitating, months-long symptoms and has killed more than 2 million people.

When the immune system detects a virus, it will dispatch cells and molecules to memorize its features so it can be fought off more swiftly in the future. Vaccines impart these same lessons without involving the disease-causing pathogen itself'--the immunological equivalent of training wheels or water wings.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines accomplish that pedagogy via a genetic molecule called mRNA that's naturally found in human cells. Once delivered into the upper arm, the mRNA instructs the body's own cells to produce a coronavirus protein called spike'--a molecule that elicits powerful, infection-fighting antibody responses in people battling COVID-19.

Read: What's the use of a pretty good vaccine?

To ensure safe passage of mRNA into cells, the vaccine makers swathed the molecules in greasy bubbles called lipid nanoparticles. These strange, fatty spheres don't resemble anything naturally present in the body, and they trip the sensors of a cavalry of fast-acting immune cells, called innate immune cells, that patrol the body for foreign matter. Once they spot the nanoparticles, these cells dispatch molecular alarms called cytokines that recruit other immune cells to the site of injection. Marshaling these reinforcements is important, but the influx of cells and molecules makes the upper arm swollen and sore. The congregating cells spew out more cytokines still, flooding the rest of the body with signals that can seed system-wide symptoms such as fever and fatigue.

''It's the body's knee-jerk reaction to an infection,'' or something that looks like it, Mark Slifka, a vaccine expert and an immunologist at Oregon Health and Science University, told me. ''Let's spray the area down with antiviral cytokines, which also happen to be inflammatory.''

The mRNA itself might also tickle a reaction out of the immune system, simply because of how unusual it looks. ''All of a sudden, you have a lot of new RNA that the cell didn't make,'' says Donna Farber, an immunologist at Columbia University, who got her second shot of Moderna's vaccine last month, with very few side effects.

The provocative nature of mRNA might help explain why Moderna's shot, which contains three times as much of the genetic material as Pfizer's, was linked to more side effects in clinical trials.

The innate immune system acts fast. But its actions aren't very long-lived or discerning: These cells just clobber anything that looks a little weird. Within a day or two of the injection, they start to lose steam. Cytokine production sputters; side effects start to fade. Around this time, innate immune cells start to pass the baton to another division of the immune system, called adaptive immunity, which includes sniperlike molecules and cells, such as antibodies and T cells, that will launch an attack on specific pathogens if they try to infect the body again.

T cells and B cells, the cells that make antibodies, need several days to study the spike's features before they can respond. But by the time the second injection rolls around, adaptive cells are raring to go, and far faster to react. Some of these cells have even been lingering at the site of injection, out of suspicion that their target would return. Stimulated anew, these sentinel cells will blast out their own cytokines, layering on an extra wave of inflammation. In some people, like my beleaguered neurologist husband, these complex reactions can manifest in fevers, aches, and prolonged exhaustion.

My husband had side effects after his first dose too: a headache, some fatigue, a touch of dizziness'--all of which I can safely blame on his innate immune system. Those same innate responses return for another round of inflammation after the second shot. But the ruckus raised after the second injection might be a double whammy: The expected innate cells might be further egged on and amplified by a less sluggish surge of adaptive cells, concentrated near where the needle goes in.

''With the second dose, now everything is responding within that same short time period,'' Marion Pepper, an immunologist at the University of Washington, told me.

Pepper described her first shot of Pfizer's vaccine as ''a piece of cake.'' The second injection saddled her with flu-like symptoms, tougher to take. But the side effects also signify that both branches of the immune system are being engaged as they should'--cementing the memory of the coronavirus's spike protein in some of the body's most powerful cells.

That's a big part of why vaccine boosts are so important, Slifka said. Although the first shot stimulates both innate and adaptive immunity, the second injection reminds B and T cells that the threat of the coronavirus cannot be taken lightly, and ensures that the sharpest and strongest immune players will be used for any subsequent response.

''They're asking, 'Why is this happening 21 or 28 days later? I thought we took care of this four weeks ago,''' Slifka said.

Read: The long haul of vaccine results is just beginning.

Marcelin, the Nebraska infectious-disease physician, also experienced rougher symptoms after her second shot of Pfizer's vaccine. By the time she went to bed that evening, she was gripped with miserable muscle aches and chills. It took a couple more days before ''I felt like myself,'' Marcelin recalled.

The side effects didn't faze her, though. She's now about three weeks out from her second dose'--past the point when the vaccine's full protective effects are expected to kick in. ''I would do it again,'' she says. ''It was definitely worth it.''

People shouldn't be perturbed by a lack of vaccine side effects either. As our bodies churn through new information, ''some people's immune systems are louder than others','' Marcelin said. But the quiet ones are still hard at work.

My husband's immune system certainly fell into the diva category. The night after his second shot, he pinwheeled between cold and hot, alternately bundling himself in blankets and tossing them away. The flux seemed to bleed a bit into his emotional valence too. After snoozing on the couch for several hours, he perked up and couldn't stop laughing at a picture of an orange cat curled up next to a box of similarly crescent-shaped croissants.

But within 24 hours of his shot, he was feeling well enough to run (yes, run) to work and finish an 11-hour shift. In a couple of weeks, he'll join the millions of other Americans who, thanks to a pair of injections, will be cloaked in an extra layer of armor against the coronavirus.

As he told me Wednesday night, shivering through the cushion of two comforters: ''This is a million times better than getting COVID.''

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Tue, 23 Mar 2021 01:13

Physician-scientist Dr. Hooman Noorchashm is an advocate for patient safety, ethics and women's health. He specializes in cardiothoracic surgery and has taught and practiced medicine for nearly two decades.

His faculty appointments include positions at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and the Philadelphia VA Hospital.

As a researcher and scientist, he assisted in and acquired grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

Noorchashm has authored more than 65 articles, abstracts and reviews in peer-reviewed medical journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Immunology, Nature Medicine, American Journal of Transplantation, Critical Care Medicine and Diabetes.

In addition to peer-reviewed publications, he has authored medical book chapters and has lectured at several annual medical meetings and conferences.

In 2013, Noorchashm's wife Dr. Amy Reed had a hysterectomy with a laparoscopic power morcellator. After the surgery, she was diagnosed with stage 4 leiomyosarcoma. The couple found out the morcellator spread the previously undetected cancer in Reed's abdominal cavity, making it more difficult to treat and lowering her chances for survival.

In order to protect other women, Noorchashm and Reed began spreading awareness, advocating for the devices' removal from the market and influencing congressional legislation on medical device safety.

Noorchashm continues the patient safety work he and Reed began together. In 2015, he received a Health Policy Heroes Award from the National Center for Health Research.

Then in 2017, he founded the American Patient Defense Union, Inc. which he describes as ''a union of, by and for patients '-- capable of providing adequately powered liability signals to the corporate healthcare establishment so that it can improve and evolve.''

He spoke at the 2019 Food and Drug Law Forum at Delaware Law School, highlighting the regulatory deficits in the FDA's 510(k) medical device clearance process.

Awards, Honors and Public Service2017 Founder, American Patient Defense Union, Inc. (Pro bono patient advocacy)2015 Health Policy Heroes Award, National Center for Health Research2004 Young Investigator Awardee, American Society of Transplant Surgeons2002 Young Investigator Awardee, American Society of Transplant Surgeons1999 Research Achievement Awardee, University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine1999 Young Investigator Awardee, International Transplantation Society1997 Rapporteur, 4th World Attack on Type 1 Diabetes (JDRF-EASD joint meeting)1992 Cum Laude, University of PennsylvaniaFaculty Appointments2016-2017 Attending Physician, Department of Surgery, Philadelphia VA Hospital, Philadelphia, PA2014-2015 Assistant Professor of Surgery, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA2013-14 Lecturer on Surgery, Department of Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA2006-11 Instructor in Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA2002-06 Assistant Professor of Surgical Research, Harrison Department of Surgical Research, University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PAMedical Lectures by Invitation2013 Speaker, C. Walton Lillehei Research Forum, AATS annual meeting2011 Speaker, American Association of Immunologists Annual Meeting2011 Speaker, American Transplant Congress2006 Speaker, Society of University Surgeons Annual Meeting, Plenary Presentation2004 Speaker, American Transplantation Congress, Plenary Basic Science Session2002 Speaker, American Transplantation Congress, Plenary Basic Science Session

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Tue, 23 Mar 2021 01:15

Hooman MD PhD : No word from @GVDBossche on a debate about his ideas - yet.I think it's tragic that folks are unable or unwilling'... https://t.co/SbSjbmioeC

Mon Mar 22 13:16:30 +0000 2021

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Wed, 24 Mar 2021 14:11

Little Adventures, Shutterstock

By Jessica Ivins, KSL.com Contributor | Posted - Mar. 23, 2021 at 2:05 p.m. SALT LAKE CITY '-- There are many reasons to sign up to get your COVID-19 vaccine, and the latest one is pretty darn sweet.

As COVID-19 vaccines become more readily available across the country, Krispy Kreme is doing its part to encourage Americans to get vaccinated. Here's the deal: simply flash your COVID-19 vaccination card the next time you have a hankering for a doughnut, and you'll become the proud owner of one of the chain's famous original glazed rings, on the house.

Perhaps the best part is customers can continue to proudly show that vaccination card every day for the rest of the year and get a free doughnut each time. That's right: This is not just a one-time offer, which means 2021 is the year of a doughnut a day, and it won't even cost you any dough.

Krispy Kreme announced the promotion on its website Monday.

The website specifies that guests who have received at least one of the two shots of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine qualify for the offer. Customers have to show their official COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card to receive a free doughnut '-- stickers will not be accepted.

After the better part of a year spent hunkering down at home, guests will be happy to know that they'll have to venture out to Krispy Kreme storefronts (and drive-thrus) to participate; the offer is not valid on online or delivery orders.

All Utah adults will be eligible to schedule an appointment for the COVID-19 vaccine starting this Wednesday, March 24.

To the doughnut fans who have reservations about getting the COVID-19 vaccine, Krispy Kreme says, no sweat.

"We understand that choosing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine is a highly personal decision," the website reads.

For those who have chosen not be vaccinated, the chain is offering a free glazed doughnut and a medium brewed coffee every Monday from March 29 to May 24.

— Related StoriesMore stories you may be interested in

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Archived Version

Wed, 24 Mar 2021 15:12

by Brian ShilhavyEditor, Health Impact News

Reports are now surfacing of people dying following the recently authorized Johnson and Johnson experimental COVID shots here in the United States.

The Johnson and Johnson experimental COVID ''vaccine'' is an ''adenovirus'' vaccine, and like the experimental mRNA ''vaccines'' from Pfizer and Moderna, there are currently no approved adenovirus vaccines in the market, although the military has used experimental adenovirus vaccines that are not FDA approved.

So by getting the FDA to issue an EUA, which they did on February 27th, Johnson and Johnson can now test their experimental vaccine on the public as part of their Phase 3 trials.

The vaccine is being produced in Belgium, by the same company that in the past produced the anthrax vaccine that destroyed the lives of so many military personnel.

See:

FDA Issues Emergency Use Authorization for Another Experimental COVID-19 VaccineThe COVID Blog published two stories today that are among the first deaths following the Johnson and Johnson experimental COVID injections: 32-year-old New York stagehand Benjamin Goodman, and 25-year-old Connecticut educator Desir(C)e Penrod.

Benjamin Goodman: 32-year-old New York stagehand dead 24 hours after Johnson & Johnson viral vector shotThe Food and Drug Administration authorized the Janssen Pharmaceuticals/Johnson & Johnson viral vector shot for emergency use on February 27. It has now claimed the life of a promising young professional.

Mr. Benjamin Goodman went to a Walgreens pop-up COVID-19 ''vaccine'' clinic in Chelsea, New York on Saturday, March 13. He received the experimental Johnson & Johnson viral vector shot, according to his stepmother Pamela Goodman. Benjamin texted his father, Jeff Goodman, and told him he received the shot. The family was not happy to hear the news. Soon thereafter, Benjamin had a severe headache and started feeling ill. He fell asleep, hoping the symptoms would pass after some rest.

Mr. Goodman woke up at 1 a.m. with a high fever and chills. His fianc(C)e, Lindsay Janisse, was awakened to Mr. Goodman having seizures at 4 a.m.. Ms. Janisse called 911 as Mr. Goodman went into cardiac arrest. Paramedics tried, unsuccessfully, to revive him on the scene. Mr. Goodman was rushed to a nearby Mount Sinai Hospital. But he was pronounced dead at 6:05 a.m. Sunday morning, March 14.

His mother did not mince words as to what happened to her son.

Mr. Goodman was a member of Local One International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. He worked behind-the-scenes on several NBC and CBS shows.

Mr. Goodman was recently accepted into the Michigan State University MBA program, and planned to enroll this fall. He and Lindsay planned to marry on June 25, 2022. A GoFundMe page is collecting donations for funeral and other costs.

Intelligent people vs. powerful psychological conditioningMr. Goodman was no dummy. He was an intelligent young man with a bright future. Many Americans and others around the globe are like Mr. Goodman. But they are constantly bombarded with coordinated, well-structured messaging from mainstream media and big tech companies.

Mr. Goodman even had family members warning him against getting these experimental shots, to no avail. Whether they listen or not, it is your responsibility to at least inform loved ones about the true nature of these shots and the agenda thereof. These shots are tools of genocide. Period. Stay vigilant.

Source: The COVID Blog.

Desir(C)e Penrod: 25-year-old Connecticut educator dead one week after Johnson & Johnson viral vector shotThe Johnson & Johnson experimental viral vector shot has claimed another young victim with a promising future.

Ms. Desir(C)e Penrod said on Facebook that she received the ''Janssen dose'' on or around March 9. Janssen Pharmaceuticals is the drug division of Johnson & Johnson, and developed the JNJ-78436735 viral vector shot.

It is marketed as the one-dose vaccine. The 25-year-old educator said she felt no adverse effects the first day of the shot. But she said the ''vaccine is killing me today'' on March 10.

She engaged with several people who commented on her post that day. Ms. Penrod said the shots were offered to her through the Killingly School District in Danielson, Connecticut.

She worked at Killingly Memorial School, which serves grades 2 to 4. Ms. Penrod thanked several people for their concern and told others considering the shot, ''no need to be nervous.''

Another person commented, ''[the symptoms] lasted two days for me, then voila it was gone.'' Ms. Penrod responded that she had her fingers crossed that March 10 would be the last day of her symptoms and it ''goes away.''

The next day she said she was feeling better ''for the most part.'' That was the last comment she made on Facebook. Ms. Penrod died on Wednesday, March 17, becoming the youngest victim this blog has covered for all of the experimental shots.

Her wake is this Wednesday, March 24 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Gagnon and Costello Funeral Home in Danielson.

Senseless deaths and manipulationWe're only human here. For some reason, this one caused emotion while writing. Perhaps it's because Desir(C)e was so young. Perhaps it's because she truly believed in this whole surreal, twilight zone agenda that is so well-coordinated. Keep in mind, nobody knows the long-term effects of these gene-modifying shots. All of them are still in clinical trials.

Regardless, the propaganda machines continue its narratives. The BBC reported how the Americans are literally picking their poison between the three experimental shots authorized for emergency use only. They continue the narrative that you should expect to get sick because that's how you know ''the shot is working.'' Immunity starts weeks after the shots, but you still must wear a mask thereafter. It doesn't even make common, rational sense.

Media, big tech and government are all working together to facilitate this agenda. Please stay vigilant and spread truth to as many people as possible.

Source: The COVID Blog.

Comment on this article at HealthImpactNews.com.

See Also:

Doctors Around the World Issue Dire WARNING: DO NOT GET THE COVID VACCINE!!

People Now Dying Following the Experimental Johnson and Johnson COVID Injections

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1,739 DEAD as CDC Adds Another 200+ Recorded Deaths this Week Following COVID Experimental ''Vaccines''

534 Dead 330,063 Reported Injured following COVID19 Experimental Vaccine Injections in the U.K.

Teacher Dies Hours After Getting AstraZeneca COVID Shot in Italy '' Manslaughter Investigation Launched

Pediatric Nurse Brags About Getting COVID Vaccine While Pregnant '' Baby is Stillborn 8 Days Later

Boxing Champion Marvin Hagler DEAD at Age 66 After Receiving an Experimental COVID ''Vaccine''

39-Year-Old Surgical Technician and Mother Dies 4 Days After Second Experimental Moderna COVID mRNA Shot

UK Government Changes Recommendations on Pregnant Women Getting Experimental COVID Injections Causing at Least 20 Miscarriages So Far

First Week of COVID Experimental Vaccines in South Korea: 7 DEAD and More than 2,800 Injured

Whistleblower Reveals Many Pregnancy Complications following Experimental COVID Injections '' ''Vaccine Leaving a Trail of Devastated Mothers''

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28-Year-Old PhD Physical Therapist DEAD 2 Days After Being Injected with COVID Experimental mRNA Vaccine

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Two Nuns Dead and 28 COVID Positive 2 Days After Experimental COVID mRNA Injections

Formerly Healthy American Serviceman Now has Heart Disease Following the Moderna COVID Shots

Whistleblower Video Footage of Forced COVID Vaccines in German Nursing Homes Goes Public '' Attorney: ''We're Dealing with Homicide, Maybe Even Murder''

Second Pfizer COVID Shot Halted in Spain After 46 Deaths in One Nursing Home Following the First Shot

Former Detroit TV Anchor Karen Hudson-Samuels Suddenly Dies One Day After Being Injected with Experimental mRNA COVID Shot

Whistleblower: 8 of 31 Residents Dead in German Nursing Home After They Were Forcibly Injected with Pfizer Experimental mRNA COVID Shots Against Their Will

28-Year-old Wisconsin Healthcare Worker has Aneurysm '' Brain Dead Five Days After Second Experimental Pfizer mRNA COVID Injection

Another Medical Professional in the Prime of Life DEAD Weeks After Receiving the mRNA Experimental Injection as Memphis Mourns Loss of 36-Year-Old Doctor

Wisconsin Resident Doctor has Miscarriage 3 Days After Being Injected with Experimental COVID mRNA Shot

39-Year-Old Medical Doctor and Son of Former Chief Justice of Trinidad Found Dead After COVID Injection in Ireland

TRAGEDY! 9 Dead in Spanish Nursing Home Shortly After First Pfizer Shots but Second Doses Given Anyway '' Religious Beliefs in Vaccines Causing Massive Senior Deaths?

Another Jewish Holocaust? Local Talk Radio Reports ''Many Dying'' in Israel Following Pfizer Experimental mRNA Injections

45-Year-Old Italian Doctor ''In the Prime of Life and in Perfect Health'' Drops Dead After the Pfizer mRNA COVID Shot: 39-Year-Old Nurse, 42-Year-Old Surgical Technician Also Dead

58-Year-Old Mother and Grandmother of Six in Virginia Dies Within Hours of Receiving Experimental Pfizer mRNA Injection

Israeli Teenager Hospitalized in ICU for ''Inflammation of the Heart'' Days after Receiving Second Pfizer Vaccine

24 Residents Dead in 3 Weeks as One Third of UK Nursing Home Residents Die After Experimental mRNA COVID Injections

CNA Nursing Home Whistleblower: Seniors Are DYING LIKE FLIES After COVID Injections! SPEAK OUT!!!

Did Larry King Receive an Experimental COVID Shot Just Before His Death?

53 Dead in Gibraltar in 10 Days After Experimental Pfizer mRNA COVID Injections Started

Baseball Legend Hank Aaron Dead After Receiving the Experimental Moderna mRNA COVID Injection

10 Dead with 51 Severe Side-Effects Among Germany's Elderly after Experimental Pfizer COVID Injections

55 Americans Have Died Following mRNA COVID Injections as Norway Death Toll Rises To 29

23 Seniors Have Died in Norway After Receiving the Pfizer Experimental COVID mRNA Injection

Louisiana Woman Convulses Uncontrollably after Being Injected with the Experimental Pfizer COVID Shot '' ''I can't stand to see my mom this way it makes me want to cry knowing I can't do anything to help her.''24 Dead and 137 Infected at NY Nursing Home After Experimental COVID Injections

''Very Healthy 56-Year-Old'' Miami Obstetrician Dies after Being Injected with the Experimental Pfizer COVID Vaccine

''Perfectly Healthy'' 41-year-old Pediatric Assistant Dies Suddenly After Injected with Experimental Pfizer COVID Vaccine

Is the Tennessee Nurse Who Passed Out on Live Camera After the COVID Vaccine Still Alive?

32-Year-Old Mexican Doctor Suffers Seizures and is Paralyzed After Receiving the Pfizer Experimental Vaccine

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Leaving a lucrative career as a nephrologist (kidney doctor), Dr. Suzanne Humphries is now free to actually help cure people.

In this autobiography she explains why good doctors are constrained within the current corrupt medical system from practicing real, ethical medicine.

One of the sane voices when it comes to examining the science behind modern-day vaccines, no pro-vaccine extremist doctors have ever dared to debate her in public.

Book '' The Vaccine Court , by Wayne Rohde '' 240 pages''The Dark Truth of America's Vaccine Injury Compensation Program''FREE Shipping Available!ORDER HERE!Published on March 22, 2021

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Archived Version

Thu, 25 Mar 2021 11:10

According to a new study in Israel, an astonishingly low number '-- 0.06% '-- of people who have received the second round of the Pfizer COVID vaccine reported ''sick'' '-- and none of them seriously:

New data released by the Maccabi Healthcare Services has confirmed the effectiveness of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine.

As of Thursday, only 254 individuals out of the 416,900 [0.06%] who were already a week after the second Pfizer shot '' the time where the immunity is considered to kick in '' got infected with the virus, the organization reported. Moreover, those who were found to be positive only had light symptoms, with just four of them being hospitalized, all of them in light condition.

Over the same period of time, some 12,944 new cases of COVID-19 emerged in the control group of some 778,000 people having a diverse health profile.

A comparison between the data from the two groups shows that the vaccine is 91% effective seven days or more after the second injection is administered.

From a segmentation of the infections that did occur, it appears that the immunity increases as the days go by. Among the 254 people who contracted the virus, 76 of them were infected after seven days, 44 on the eight day, and 24 on the ninth day. Between day 22 and 24 '' when the test period ended '' no one was infected.

According to the studies conducted by Pfizer, the vaccine had an efficacy of about 95%, which is considered very high.

With some 2.5 million members, Maccabi is the second largest health fund in Israel. About 900,000 of its customers have already received the first shot, and about 500,000 the second one.

''The data continue to be very encouraging and to show that the effectiveness of the vaccine is high and stable,'' Dr. Anat Aka Zohar, head of Maccabi's Information and Digital Health Division said. ''The findings clearly indicate that as the days go by after the second dose, the immunity becomes stronger.''

She also emphasized that the vaccine does not only protect against infection but also again developing more severe symptoms.

Dr. Anthony Fauci warned the public these COVID vaccines would not stop anyone from contracting the COVID ''virus'' '-- rather, the vaccines would merely help in lessening the symptoms of those who get infected '-- exactly what all vaccines are theoretically supposed to do.

Yet, if we are to believe the Israeli ''experts'', the Pfizer vaccine is miraculously stopping people from actually becoming ''infected'' or testing postive at all '-- which is in complete defiance of vaccine science.

But when it comes to this pandemic, there seems to be a lot of ''miracles'' happening in Israel '-- like the complete disappearance of the seasonal flu.

Big Pharma even went out of its way to convince Jews that the COVID vaccines were strictly ''kosher'' '-- perhaps a dog whistle that the fix was in?

There is absolutely nothing about the Pfizer vaccine that would stop people from testing positive for COVID '-- 99.9% of people who test positive for COVID are asymptomatic.

And a recent study in China '-- with 10 million people '-- proved that there is zero transmission of COVID in asymptomatic people.

So the only way for vaccinated Israelis to no longer test positive for COVID is for the Health Ministry to have lowered cycling threshold for the PCR test '-- from 35 or 40 to under 25 '-- which is exactly what the World Health Organization recommended two weeks ago.

Not only that, the second round of the Pfizer COVID vaccine allegedly has a stronger dose than the first round '-- and according to the Israelis, there have been NO serious side effects or deaths reported '-- even though over 300 deaths have already been reported from the first Pfizer vaccine in America.

Of course, the Health Ministry could be completely lying about the complete lack of side effects '-- but why would they want to potentially sicken or kill off a large number of their own population?

All of these ''miraculous'' results coming out of Israel can be explained very simply '-- Israelis are receiving placebo vaccines, and they have changed the PCR standards to make it falsely appear that the vaccines are working '-- just as we predicted they would do over 6 months ago.

Certainly we cannot blame the Israelis for giving their own citizens safe placebo vaccines '-- that's what any responsible government would do to protect its people '-- especially elderly and frail Holocaust survivors.

As we previously reported, it would be absolutely unconscionable and irresponsible to subject Holocaust survivors of all people to dangerous medical experimentation with these untested vaccines '-- international laws against such experimentation were implemented after WWII for that very reason.

Unfortunately, these fake successful results in Israel will be used to convince 100s of millions of ''gentiles'' in the West that these dangerous '-- even deadly '-- vaccines are safe and effective '-- and many people will become disabled and die after they take ''hot'' doses of the real vaccines.

Also on Christians for Truth:

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Archived Version

Thu, 25 Mar 2021 11:37

By James GallagherHealth and science correspondent

image copyright Getty Images

The virus that causes the common cold can effectively boot the Covid virus out of the body's cells, say researchers.

Some viruses are known to compete in order to be the one that causes an infection.

And University of Glasgow scientists say it appears cold-causing rhinovirus trumps coronavirus.

The benefits might be short-lived but rhinovirus is so widespread, they add, it could still help to suppress Covid.

Think of the cells in your nose, throat and lungs as being like a row of houses. Once a virus gets inside, it can either hold the door open to let in other viruses, or it can nail the door shut and keep its new home to itself.

Influenza is one of the most selfish viruses around, and nearly always infects alone. Others, such as adenoviruses, seem to be more up for a houseshare.

There has been much speculation about how the virus that causes Covid, known as Sars-CoV-2, would fit into the mysterious world of "virus-virus interactions".

The challenge for scientists is that a year of social distancing has slowed the spread of all viruses and made it much harder to study.

image copyright Getty Images

The team at the Centre for Virus Research in Glasgow used a replica of the lining of our airways, made out of the same types of cells, and infected it with Sars-CoV-2 and rhinovirus, which is one of the most widespread infections in people, and a cause of the common cold.

If rhinovirus and Sars-CoV-2 were released at the same time, only rhinovirus is successful. If rhinovirus had a 24-hour head start then Sars-CoV-2 does not get a look in. And even when Sars-CoV-2 had 24-hours to get started, rhinovirus boots it out.

"Sars-CoV-2 never takes off, it is heavily inhibited by rhinovirus," Dr Pablo Murcia told BBC News.

He added: "This is absolutely exciting because if you have a high prevalence of rhinovirus, it could stop new Sars-CoV-2 infections."

Similar effects have been seen before. A large rhinovirus outbreak may have delayed the 2009 swine flu pandemic in parts of Europe.

Further experiments showed rhinovirus was triggering an immune response inside the infected cells, which blocked the ability of Sars-CoV-2 to make copies of itself.

When scientists blocked the immune response, then levels of the Covid virus were the same as if rhinovirus was not there.

'Hard winter' ahead

However, Covid would be able to cause an infection again once the cold had passed and the immune response calmed down.

Dr Murcia said: "Vaccination, plus hygiene measures, plus the interactions between viruses could lower the incidence of Sars-CoV-2 heavily, but the maximum effect will come from vaccination."

Prof Lawrence Young, of Warwick Medical School, said human rhinoviruses, the most frequent cause of the common cold, were "highly transmissible".

He added that this study suggests "that this common infection could impact the burden of Covid-19 and influence the spread of SarsCoV2, particularly over the autumn and winter months when seasonal colds are more frequent".

Exactly how all this settles down in future winters is still unknown. Coronavirus is likely to still be around, and all the other infections that have been suppressed during the pandemic could bounce back as immunity to them wanes.

Dr Susan Hopkins, from Public Health England, has already warned of a "hard winter" as a result.

"We could see surges in flu. We could see surges in other respiratory viruses and other respiratory pathogens," she said,

The results have been published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

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Archived Version

Thu, 25 Mar 2021 13:53

Erika Behlmer-Rothberg, a 30-year-old Ph.D student from Florida, has finally booked a honeymoon with her husband. She chose a European river-cruise vacation for the week of Christmas as a honeymoon getaway with her husband. She's in favor of cruise lines requiring vaccines.

''We had put a pause on both our wedding and honeymoon planning until my husband and I got our first doses, because we wouldn't even dream of leaving the house prior to the vaccine, let alone travel,'' Behlmer-Rothberg said.

She and her husband have thought their decision through. ''River cruises are a fraction of the size of a major ocean liner,'' she said, ''so that already limits our exposure.''

The pandemic even informed the couple's choice of cruise vacation: a river cruise through Germany and the Czech Republic.

'' 'We had put a pause on both our wedding and honeymoon planning until my husband and I got our first doses.' ''

'-- Erika Behlmer-Rothberg, a 30-year-old Ph.D student who will be taking a honeymoon cruise''These cruises are usually attract a much older crowd, who I imagine were considered priority in their states for vaccinations,'' Behlmer-Rothberg said.

She and her husband will be traveling on Viking River Cruises. The company did not respond to a request for comment.

Viking River Cruises has not announced a vaccination requirement for its upcoming sailings, but the company plans to require daily PCR COVID tests '-- regarded as the gold standard among coronavirus tests '-- for guests and crew on its ships to prevent outbreaks of the virus.

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, some of the most prominent clusters occurred on cruise ships. In the months that followed, many countries prohibited ships from docking because of concerns about the virus' spread. Other cruise lines had deaths from the coronavirus on board and, as the industry suspended services, shares of cruise lines plummeted.

Behlmer-Rothberg may be surprised at the average age of a cruise passenger. It hovers at just under 47 years old, according to the Cruise Lines International Association Global Passenger Report.

'' Saga Cruises, based in England that caters to travelers over the age of 50, was among the first to announce a vaccination requirement. ''

However, 40 to 49-year-olds account for approximately 15% of all cruise passengers for that year. The median age range was between 60 and 69 years old, accounting for 19% of cruise passengers.

Saga Cruises, a cruise line based in England that caters to travelers over the age of 50, was among the first to announce a vaccination requirement for its passengers.

Back in January, the cruise line announced that guests must be fully inoculated before their trip '-- meaning that they must have received both of the doses of the COVID-19 vaccine at least 14 days before sailing.

In recent weeks, a growing number of cruise lines have followed suit and rolled out their own policies stipulating that guests over the age of 18 be vaccinated. Some cruise lines have opted to require this only for specific sailings at this time, while other cruise lines like Virgin Voyages have introduced the mandate for all their upcoming itineraries.

''Our goal is to ensure that we're providing the safest travel experience which means vaccinations for both our crew and passengers,'' Virgin Voyages CEO Tom McAlpin said in announcing the cruise line's vaccine requirement.

'' Some of the cruise lines that have mandated vaccines are targeting specific markets where the vaccine rollout has been successful. ''

Royal Caribbean International RCL, -2.05% also requires all passengers and crew for its initial voyages to be vaccinated, a spokeswoman said.

Some of the cruise lines that have mandated vaccines are targeting specific markets where the vaccine rollout has been successful. Both P&O Cruises and Princess Cruises are booking cruises around the coast of the United Kingdom that are limited to U.K. residents who have been vaccinated.

The U.K. has approved the two-shot vaccines developed by Moderna MRNA, -2.67% and Pfizer-BioNTech PFE, -0.79% BNTX, -1.12% as well as the one-shot vaccine developed by AstraZeneca AZN, +0.11% and Oxford University.

''Our decisions will be informed by our global medical and science experts and requirements of the places we operate and visit,'' a Carnival Corp. CCL, -2.62% spokesperson said in a statement to MarketWatch. ''There may be some brands, like P&O Cruises in the UK, that initially require vaccinations based on select ships and country-by-country requirements.''

In cases where vaccines are required, guests can generally just show the original documents they received at the time of their shot.

Because the vaccines have not been approved in children yet, younger passengers must instead provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test prior to boarding in cases where they are allowed on the ship.

Erika Behlmer-Rothberg, and her husband Dustin, pictured during a previous trip to London. The couple is planning to take a river cruise in December for their honeymoon. Courtesy of Erika Behlmer-Rothberg Industry responds to public pressureThe decision by cruise lines to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine in part may reflect the various approaches different countries have taken toward international travel.

''Several countries, such as Greece and Iceland, are requiring vaccines for international travelers, so any cruises that eventually sail or visit those ports will have to follow those requirements,'' said Chris Gray Faust, managing editor of travel website Cruise Critic. ''We could see more of that from destinations across the globe.''

'' 'Several countries, such as Greece and Iceland, are requiring vaccines for international travelers.' ''

'-- Chris Gray Faust, managing editor of travel website Cruise CriticBut cruise lines are likely also responding to the desires of travelers. P&O Cruises, in announcing its U.K. sailings that feature a vaccine requirement, cited the ''strong expressed preference'' among its customers that the upcoming itineraries be limited to people who are vaccinated.

A recent survey of more than 2,000 people from Cruise Critic indicated that vaccine requirements are extremely popular. In the poll, 85% of people said they would take a cruise if people were required to be inoculated against COVID-19 in advance, versus just 7% who said they would not sail if such a policy were in place.

Cruise lines have yet to resume operations from American ports as they work to comply with new requirements laid out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Getty Images Cruises are not sailing out of AmericaFor cruise operators that sail out of America, how to approach vaccinated passengers will be one part of the puzzle of resuming operations.

Last fall, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chose not to extend the no-sail order put in place earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, public-health officials rolled out a series of requirements that cruise operators would need to meet to resume sailings as part of a conditional sail order.

Since the new requirements were first announced, no company has begun sailing from U.S. ports yet '-- travel experts have warned it would take the cruise lines months to return given the challenges involved.

Currently, cruise lines are expected to run the required test sailings as part of the CDC's new protocol in June or July, ''if a cow jumps over the moon and planets align,'' said Stewart Chiron, a travel expert who runs The Cruise Guy website.

Cruise lines have resumed operations out of other countries, particularly in Europe and Southeast Asia. In some cases, passengers onboard these ships have tested positive for COVID-19.

''COVID-infected passengers will inevitably get onboard and it's how cruise lines mitigate the situations, minimize inconveniences and disruptions, that makes the difference,'' Chiron said.

In spite of this possibility, Chiron argued that vaccine requirements may be premature. ''There's no point to making such announcements right now as the situations is so volatile,'' he said.

For cruises to resume sailing out of ports across the U.S., it will take a combination of factors beyond the nation's vaccine rollout. Cruise lines will still need to develop processes around COVID testing, temperature checks and social distancing.

''It's going to be a combination of a lot of protocols, procedures and technology that will be used not only for the cruise industry but for many others,'' he said.

Other companies have yet to issue a vaccine requirement for passengers, but have put in place such a mandate for their crew members.

''We are exploring all options regarding vaccinations for guests and crew, and it is our intention that all crew members be vaccinated before boarding our vessels to begin their duties, subject to availability of the vaccine,'' a spokesperson for Norwegian Cruise Line NCLH, -3.71% said.

Behlmer-Rothberg, meanwhile, is excited for her honeymoon cruise. It has, after all, been a long time coming. She is happy with her choice of honeymoon, and remains unfazed by previous stories of cruise-ship outbreaks.

''We are so excited to go on vacation after quarantining for so long,'' she said. ''We had to postpone not just our honeymoon, but the giant wedding that we had planned last year, so we're so excited to finally celebrate our marriage with our loved ones.''

''One of the best things about cruising is that you can go to sleep in one city (or country) and wake up somewhere entirely different, so after a year-plus of no travel, being able to visit so many locations in one trip is especially exciting,'' she added.

''We can't wait.''

Which cruises lines are requiring vaccines?Corporate spokespeople, company websites

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Archived Version

Mon, 22 Mar 2021 11:38

As a healthcare services provider, Walmart is working to empower its customers with digital access to their health data, beginning with their COVID-19 vaccine record. Walmart will make vaccination records available digitally, so those vaccinated at Walmart and Sam's Club can easily access their vaccine status as needed, in a safe, secure and frictionless way.

Enabling the fair and equitable access to health records, so people control their own health data, is a key element of empowering individuals. As such, Walmart will use the open, interoperable SMART Health Cards standard being developed under the Vaccination Credential Initiative, co-chaired by The Commons Project Foundation (TCP). Having convenient, safe, frictionless access to health records will be available to customers vaccinated at Walmart and Sam's Club, including their vaccination records, through the Health Pass by CLEAR app and TCP's CommonHealth and CommonPass apps. These platforms are free to users who choose to use them in order to verify their vaccine status to safely return to travel, work, school, sports events, entertainment and other venues while protecting their health data privacy.

''Our goal is to give customers vaccinated at Walmart free and secure digital access to their vaccine record and enable them to share that information with third parties seeking to confirm their vaccination status,'' said John Furner, CEO and President, Walmart U.S. ''We are proud to be the first retailer to strategically partner with both The Commons Project Foundation and CLEAR, and we look forward to working with them to empower people with digital access to their vaccination records so they can use them whenever and however they choose.''

Health Pass by CLEAR is a free mobile experience within the CLEAR app, which securely connects a person's verified identity to multiple layers of COVID-19 related health information to reduce public health risk and make it possible for people to return to what they love. More than 50 organizations are currently using Health Pass to create safer and more frictionless environments. With Walmart, Health Pass users will soon be able to link to and use their vaccination results in a frictionless way. Trust and transparency is CLEAR's number one priority, and with Health Pass, users are always in control of their health information.

''We are proud to partner with Walmart and The Commons Project and help Walmart customers better control, access and share their health and vaccine information. Working together, this partnership will help deliver a free and secure experience and get people back to what they love,'' said Caryn Seidman-Becker, Chairman and CEO of CLEAR.

TCP's CommonHealth is a free Android app for people to collect and manage their personal health data and share it with the health services, organizations and apps they trust. TCP's CommonPass is a free mobile app for people to access their COVID-19 test results and vaccination record from trusted health partners like Walmart and demonstrate their current health status so they can safely return to travel, work, school and life, while protecting their data privacy. CommonPass is also being integrated with CLEAR's secure identity platform to enable safe, easy, frictionless experiences at airports, workplaces, hospitality and entertainment venues.

''We applaud Walmart's strong commitment to empowering customers with access to their health information using open standards,'' said Paul Meyer, CEO of The Commons Project Foundation. ''Not only can this help facilitate the safer return to normal life during COVID, empowering people with their health data can help improve the quality of the health services they receive in the future.''

Through a free digital account at Walmart and Sam's Club, customers will have access to their prescription history and other health care information from Walmart. This information can also be provided in paper form at their local Walmart and Sam's Club pharmacy.

How it works:

Individuals will create a free digital account on the Walmart or Sam's Club app to schedule an appointment to receive a vaccinationIf an individual chooses, they can also download the CLEAR, CommonHealth or CommonPass app, create an account and join their services for freeIndividuals sign into their Walmart or Sam's Club account and agree to share their vaccination history with the verification app they have chosenIndividuals will then authenticate their vaccine status with Walmart or Sam's Club account credentials in the verification app they've chosenCLEAR, CommonHealth and CommonPass apps can be downloaded now and will soon be able to validate Walmart vaccine credentials in real-time at locationsTo enable this technology, Walmart and Sam's Club have created systems that will allow vaccine status to be stored within the company's proprietary apps and also interface with secure third-party apps. This effort is the latest in the company's commitment to quality and accessible health care via trained pharmacists in more than 5,400 pharmacies, a simple and easy process for immunizing patients in all pharmacies, including COVID-19 vaccinations and caring follow-up to help ensure patients have what they need in today's world.

About WalmartWalmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) helps people around the world save money and live better '' anytime and anywhere '' in retail stores, online, and through their mobile devices. Each week, approximately 220 million customers and members visit approximately 10,500 stores and clubs under 48 banners in 24 countries and eCommerce websites. With fiscal year 2021 revenue of $559 billion, Walmart employs over 2.2 million associates worldwide. Walmart continues to be a leader in sustainability, corporate philanthropy and employment opportunity. Additional information about Walmart can be found by visiting corporate.walmart.com , on Facebook at facebook.com/walmart and on Twitter at twitter.com/walmart .

About ClearCLEAR is a leader in identity and access, with more than 5 million users and 55+ locations across the United States. CLEAR links identity with different information sets, including: credit cards, tickets to the game, reservations, frequent flyer numbers, flight manifests, health care identification, driver's licenses and passports. CLEAR's data security framework meets the highest standards for performance and for protecting sensitive information '-- FISMA High- and SAFETY Act-certified by the Department of Homeland Security. CLEAR's users are always in control of their data and CLEAR does not sell user information. To learn more, visit clearme.com .

About The Commons Project FoundationA non-profit public trust established with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, The Commons Project Foundation builds and operates digital platforms and services for the common good. Our mission-driven structure is designed to attract world-class talent to build and sustain digital public services in a way that serves people's interests above all. Beginning with health information, we are focused on empowering people to access and control their personal data and put it to use for their own benefit. Learn more about The Commons Project Foundation .

About the Vaccination Credential InitiativeThe Vaccination Credential Initiative (VCI) is a broad coalition of health and technology organizations committed to empowering individuals with digital access to their vaccination records using the open, interoperable SMART Health Cards specification , based on W3C Verifiable Credential and HL7 FHIR standards. Visit vaccinationcredential.org for more information.

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Thu, 25 Mar 2021 11:11

Two sections in the lower bowl of the American Airlines Arena will be dedicated to fully vaccinated fans.

MIAMI (AP) '-- Vaccinated fans will soon have their own sections at Miami Heat games.

The Heat announced plans Tuesday to open two sections in their lower bowl only for fully vaccinated fans starting with an April 1 game against Golden State. They are the first NBA team to reveal such a plan, though other clubs are believed to be working on similar measures.

Masks will still be required, even for the vaccinated fans, but social distancing rules will be slightly relaxed in those areas.

The NBA told teams last week that such sections would be allowed, under very specific conditions and in accordance with local and state health and safety guidelines. If any of the sections provided by teams include seats within 30 feet of the court, fans in those seats will have to take a PCR test two days prior to the game or an approved antigen test on game day.

''You're already getting a sense that things are starting to change and go in a much more positive direction,'' Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. ''Just the environment in our building, I remember those first couple games we had at the beginning of the year when there was literally nobody here, that was an eerie experience.''

The Heat are devoting two sections for the fully vaccinated fans, where pods of groups will be separated by just one seat. Those fans will be admitted through a separate gate and required to show their Centers for Disease Control vaccination card, or proof thereof, along with valid identification. Fans would have to have been fully vaccinated for at least 14 days to be eligible to be in those sections.

Miami has allowed a small number of fans to attend games for the past several weeks, plus has had virus-detecting dogs at entrances this season. The Heat are also one of three teams '-- New Orleans and Atlanta are the others '-- to publicly acknowledge in recent days that some players and staff members have started the vaccination process.

''Things are moving,'' Spoelstra said. ''All of us can't wait until we get our building full again, and same thing for other arenas.''

By NBA rules for the vaccinated-only sections, children not yet eligible to receive the vaccine would not be permitted even if with parents or guardians who have been vaccinated. Teams are also being encouraged to have dedicated concession and restroom areas for the vaccinated fans, and make efforts to limit any chance for those fans to commingle with others inside the arena.

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Tue, 23 Mar 2021 03:03

A pair of proposals would invest in infrastructure, education, work force development and fighting climate change, with the aim of making the economy more productive.

A wind farm in Carbon County, Wyo. Clean energy is among the areas that would see investment under President Biden's infrastructure plan. Credit... Benjamin Rasmussen for The New York Times March 22, 2021 Updated 10:24 p.m. ET WASHINGTON '-- President Biden's economic advisers are pulling together a sweeping $3 trillion package to boost the economy, reduce carbon emissions and narrow economic inequality, beginning with a giant infrastructure plan that may be financed in part through tax increases on corporations and the rich.

After months of internal debate, Mr. Biden's advisers are expected to present the spending proposal to the president and congressional leaders this week, as well as begin outreach to industry and labor groups. On Monday, Mr. Biden's national climate adviser, Gina McCarthy, discussed his infrastructure plans '-- and their role in combating climate change '-- in a meeting with oil and gas industry executives.

Administration officials caution that details remain in flux. But the enormous scope of the proposal highlights the aggressive approach the Biden administration wants to take as it tries to harness the power of the federal government to make the economy more equitable, address climate change, and improve American manufacturing and high-technology industries in an escalating battle with China.

The $1.9 trillion economic aid package that Mr. Biden signed into law this month includes money to help vulnerable people and businesses survive the pandemic downturn. But it does little to advance the longer-term economic agenda that Mr. Biden campaigned on, including transitioning to renewable energy and improving America's ability to compete in emerging industries, like electric vehicles. Administration officials essentially see those goals '-- building out the nation's infrastructure and shifting to a low-carbon future '-- as inseparable.

The package under consideration would begin that effort in earnest.

''President Biden's plan represents a stunning shift in priorities, addressing many of the nation's most pressing challenges,'' said Seth Hanlon, a senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress think tank, contrasting the plan with the priorities of Mr. Biden's predecessor President Donald J. Trump. ''As reported, the plan is very wide-ranging, reflecting the fact that we've underinvested in so many areas.''

Just how to approach the legislative strategy is still under discussion given the size of the proposal and the thin majority that Democrats hold in the House and the Senate.

Mr. Biden's advisers plan to recommend that the effort be broken into pieces, with Congress tackling infrastructure before turning to a second package that would include more people-focused proposals, like free community college, universal prekindergarten and a national paid leave program.

Some White House officials believe the focus of the first package may be more appealing to Republicans, business leaders and many moderate Senate Democrats, given the longstanding bipartisan push in Washington for an infrastructure bill.

That plan would spend heavily on clean energy deployment and the development of other ''high-growth industries of the future'' like 5G telecommunications. It includes money for rural broadband, advanced training for millions of workers, and one million affordable and energy-efficient housing units. Documents suggest it will include nearly $1 trillion in spending on the construction of roads, bridges, rail lines, ports, electric vehicle charging stations, and improvements to the electric grid and other parts of the power sector.

Whether it can muster Republican support will depend in large part on how the bill is paid for.

Officials have discussed offsetting some or all of the infrastructure spending by raising taxes on corporations, including increasing the 21 percent corporate income tax rate and a variety of measures to force multinational corporations to pay more tax in the United States on income they earn abroad. That strategy is unlikely to garner Republican votes.

''I don't think there's going to be any enthusiasm on our side for a tax increase,'' Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, told reporters last week. He predicted the administration's infrastructure plan would be a ''Trojan horse'' for tax increases.

The overall price tag of the package could approach $4 trillion since it includes several tax incentives, like credits to help families afford child care and to encourage energy efficiency in existing buildings. It could also extend temporary tax cuts meant to fight poverty, which could increase the size of the proposal by hundreds of billions of dollars, according to estimates prepared by administration officials.

Mr. Biden supports all of the individual spending and tax proposals under consideration, but it is unclear whether he will back splitting his agenda into pieces, or what legislative strategy he and Democratic leaders will pursue to maximize the chances of pushing the effort through Congress.

His advisers have debated the merits of aggressively pursuing compromise with Republicans and business leaders on an infrastructure package, which would most likely require dropping or scaling back plans to raise taxes on corporations. Another route would be to move the sweeping bill through a special parliamentary process that would require only Democratic votes, as Mr. Biden did with the stimulus package.

''President Biden and his team are considering a range of potential options for how to invest in working families and reform our tax code so it rewards work, not wealth,'' said Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary. ''Those conversations are ongoing, so any speculation about future economic proposals is premature and not a reflection of the White House's thinking.''

Mr. Biden said in January that his relief bill would be followed by a ''Build Back Better Recovery Plan,'' which would include investments in infrastructure, manufacturing, clean energy, skills training and other areas.

The timing of that proposal '-- which Mr. Biden had initially said would come in February '-- slipped as administration officials focused on completing the relief package. In the interim, administration officials have concluded that their best chance to advance Mr. Biden's larger agenda in Congress will be to split it into pieces.

The infrastructure proposal includes large portions of the plan Mr. Biden offered during the 2020 election, including investments that his campaign predicted would create five million new jobs, on top of restoring all the jobs lost last year during the Covid-19 crisis.

The second plan is focused on what many progressives call the nation's human infrastructure '-- students, workers and people left on the sidelines of the job market '-- according to documents and people familiar with the discussions. It would spend heavily on education and programs meant to increase the participation of women in the labor force by helping them balance work and caregiving.

Image An electric vehicle charging station in Baker, Calif. Documents suggest a Biden administration plan would include nearly $1 trillion in spending alone on the construction of roads, bridges, rail lines, and electric vehicle charging stations. Credit... Philip Cheung for The New York Times That plan would also extend or make permanent two temporary provisions of Mr. Biden's recent relief bill: expanded subsidies for low- and middle-income Americans to buy health insurance and tax credits aimed at cutting poverty, particularly for children.

Officials have weighed financing that plan through initiatives that would reduce federal spending by as much as $700 billion over a decade, like allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug costs with pharmaceutical companies. The officials have discussed further offsetting the spending increases by raising taxes on high-earning individuals and households, like raising the top marginal income tax rate to 39.6 percent from 37 percent.

One question is how, exactly, to apply Mr. Biden's campaign promise that no one earning less than $400,000 a year would pay more in federal taxes under his plan. Currently, the top marginal income tax rate starts at just above $500,000 for individuals and above $600,000 for couples. Mr. Biden proposed raising that rate during the campaign.

Mr. Biden's advisers say they are committed to not raising the tax bills of any individual earning less than $400,000. But they have debated whether to lower the income threshold for the top marginal rate, to tax all individual income above $400,000 at 39.6 percent, in order to raise more revenue for his spending plans.

Mr. Biden's broader economic agenda will face a more difficult road in Congress than his relief bill, which was financed entirely by federal borrowing and passed using the special parliamentary tactic. Mr. Biden could again try to use that same budget reconciliation process to pass a bill on party lines. But moderate Democrats in the Senate have insisted that the president engage Republicans on the next wave of economic legislation, and that the new spending be offset by tax increases.

Large business groups and some congressional Republicans have expressed support for some of Mr. Biden's broad goals, most notably efforts to rebuild roads, bridges, water and sewer systems, and other infrastructure. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers have both spoken favorably of spending up to $2 trillion on infrastructure this year.

But Republicans are united in opposition to most of the tax increases Mr. Biden has proposed. Business groups have warned that corporate tax increases would scuttle their support for an infrastructure plan. ''That's the kind of thing that can just wreck the competitiveness in a country,'' Aric Newhouse, the senior vice president for policy and government relations at the National Association of Manufacturers, said last month.

Administration officials are considering offering as part of their plans to extend some 2017 tax breaks that are set to expire, like the ability to immediately deduct new investments, in order to win business support.

Top business groups have also expressed an openness to Mr. Biden breaking up his Build Back Better agenda to pass smaller pieces with bipartisan support.

''If you try to solve every major issue in one bill, I don't know that's a recipe for success,'' Neil Bradley, the executive vice president and chief policy officer at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in an interview last month. ''These don't have to be done in one package.''

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Wed, 24 Mar 2021 15:21

Brian O'Shea SPI : 1/CDC propaganda dept just got $1billion. Get ready for more censorship, increased ad rev for CNN, NBC, ABC, etc, e'... https://t.co/ruTM3jCsed

Tue Mar 16 04:33:17 +0000 2021

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Thu, 25 Mar 2021 14:30

Texas lawmakers are quickly moving a bill forward that attempts to stop cities from banning natural gas as a fuel source for new construction and utility services '-- a trend in progressive California cities that some state lawmakers say would restrict consumer choices if Texas cities move to do the same.

At least a dozen similar bills have been filed in states including Kansas, Minnesota and Ohio. But in Texas, the bill has been pushed as a response to the power outages caused by last month's winter storm.

Now labeled a priority for lawmakers, House Bill 17 would bar cities and municipalities from banning, limiting, restricting or ''discriminating'' against the type or source of energy used for utility connections. It was included in a slate of bills that the Texas House State Affairs Committee quickly voted out of committee Thursday that are intended to address the storm-related power outages, which left more than 4.8 million people without electricity and killed dozens of people in Texas.

The bill was first filed in January as House Bill 1282. It's sponsor, state Rep. Joe Deshotel, D-Beaumont, said the legislation is a response to ''what is happening on the West coast'' where cities have passed energy efficiency plans that prohibit new subdivisions from offering natural gas heating, requiring instead that new homes be heated by electricity.

''The purpose of this bill is to prevent a city from prohibiting choice of fuel for homes,'' Deshotel told the House State Affairs Committee.

Using electricity to heat homes rather than natural gas reduces greenhouse gas emissions. The bulk of emissions from residential and commercial buildings in San Francisco are attributed to burning natural gas, which spurred the city's efforts to mandate a transition, Inside Climate News reported in November. In Austin, the city's initial climate action plan would have virtually eliminated gas use in new buildings by 2030, but was altered after Texas Gas Service opposed the measure, the Texas Observer reported earlier this month.

Elected officials have promoted Deshotel's bill as a response to the trend toward electrifying new home construction, defending the use of natural gas to heat homes and buildings. While visiting Midland in January '-- where oil and natural gas production dominates the local economy '-- Gov. Greg Abbott railed against San Francisco's ban and announced his support for legislation that prohibits counties from restricting use of natural gas appliances.

Yet the bill has taken on new prominence in the aftermath of the Texas power outages in February. Deshotel's bill was included in the slate of legislation considered a priority for ensuring the state does not experience such long-lasting and deadly power outages again.

The House State Affairs Committee on Thursday advanced a number of bills responding to the power outages, including one that would require power plants to be upgraded and built for extreme weather events and another that reforms the board of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the independent operator of the power grid that covers most of Texas.

Environmental and consumer advocacy groups '-- which supported the other bills responding to the power outages '-- opposed House Bill 17, raising concerns that as filed, it could be interpreted to prevent cities from offering rebates and other incentives to encourage use of renewable power generation.

Luke Metzger, executive director of Environment Texas, called the bill ''grossly irresponsible.'' Cyrus Reed, conservation director of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, said the bill is too broadly written.

''It makes us nervous that the bill could be used to prevent what we view as good programs happening in cities throughout Texas like rebates for heat pumps or changes in code that encourage electric vehicles,'' Reed said during the hearing.

Deshotel promised to add an amendment at a later date to address the concerns raised by environmental groups that the language is too broad, reiterating that the bill would not prohibit rebates or other incentive programs for renewable sources of power. Regardless, Reed said Sierra Club would remain opposed because the bill ''takes away the rights of local political subdivisions to pursue the actions they'd like to pursue.''

Companies that supply natural gas to households voiced their support. Jason Ryan, senior vice president of regulatory services and government affairs at CenterPoint Energy, said at the hearing that the company was ''proud'' of how its natural gas utilities served customers during the power outages last month, experiencing few disruptions.

Lawmakers agreed, pointing to the ability of natural gas providers to largely continue supplying gas to homes during the February storm. Gas fired furnaces cannot run without power, but some people with gas service were able to use gas fireplaces and stoves.

''A lot of people lost electricity,'' said State Rep. Chris Paddie, R-Marshall, chair of the committee, ''but folks still had that gas going.''

During the storm, a supply shortage of natural gas worsened the power outages. While delivery to homes was the first priority, the second priority was to deliver gas to natural gas-fired power plants to generate electricity. However, several electric generation executives testified in hearings last month that their plants were not able to run due to a shortage of fuel. Many plants were also offline due to the cold weather.

That fuel shortage was in part due to increased demand for natural gas during the winter for heating homes, James Cisarik, chairman of the Texas Energy Reliability Council, testified last month.

Ahead of the vote out of committee, some Democratic lawmakers raised concerns about the legislation. Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, said her office has received dozens of emails about House Bill 17 '-- all opposed.

Deshotel responded that there has been ''misinformation'' about the bill. ''I understand [the] people calling you and complaining,'' he said, referring to news coverage and statements from environmental groups characterizing the bill as a handout to the natural gas industry.

''I would be calling too, and saying, 'Is this guy crazy?''' he said. ''But you know, that's not what this bill does. So, I'm certainly willing to work with all the parties here. It's not about forcing anything on anybody.''

Disclosure: CenterPoint Energy and Texas Gas Service have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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Wed, 24 Mar 2021 14:35

'); googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1609270282082-0'); }); } It begins. Faster than anyone anticipated.

'); googletag.cmd.push(function () { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1609268089992-0'); }); } As Joe Biden falls 3 times in a light breeze boarding Air Force One, the latest sign of dementia he presents, and as his first-ever press conference looms this Thursday, the public is being prepared for a transition of power to Kamala Harris. The gay conservative site Outspoken reports that it has received leaked emails revealing the following:

[T]he White House is shifting toward a communication strategy that seeks to elevate Vice President Kamala Harris in all official White House business.

The directive, the employee reports, came from a top White House communications team member and instructs all agencies to refer to the Biden administration as the "Biden-Harris Administration" in place of the "Biden Administration."

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Thu, 25 Mar 2021 11:25

Some environmentalists and economists are pushing for "degrowth" '-- stabilizing or even shrinking the economy '-- to avert environmental catastrophe.

The big picture: Degrowthism may seem like the only reasonable response to the climate challenges we face, but the experience of enforced economic shrinking during the pandemic indicates the pain would outweigh the benefits '-- especially for the world's poorest.

Where it stands: The global economy shrank by an estimated 4.3% in 2020, according to data from the World Bank.

That contraction was due both to the direct pain of the pandemic and the effects of social distancing measures, but it also led to a roughly 6% reduction in global carbon dioxide emissions '-- the biggest annual drop since WWII. How it works: However accidental, 2020 represented perhaps the best example we've ever experienced of degrowthism in action.

For degrowthers, simply cleaning up the global economy by switching from fossil fuels to zero-carbon sources of energy isn't enough. Economic growth '-- the goal of essentially every government everywhere '-- is itself the problem.Environmental activist Greta Thunberg summed up the argument when she chastised delegates at a UN climate summit in 2019: ''We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!''The movement now has its own dedicated academic journals, associations and conferences. The catch: The very real human pain of 2020 '-- and the political fallout it created '-- should be taken as a warning sign to degrowthers.

A new Pew Research Center analysis found the ranks of the global middle income '-- those who live on $10.01 to $20 a day '-- fell by 54 million in 2020 compared to the number projected before the pandemic, while the number of global poor rose by 131 million.And while carbon emissions did fall significantly in 2020, it came at a high cost. One analysis estimated that each ton of CO2 reduced due to pandemic-related degrowth will have an implied cost to the economy of more than $1,500.That's "an order of magnitude greater than the most costly of 'technofixes'" like direct capture of carbon from the air, as Ted Nordhaus of the Breakthrough Institute wrote last year.Between the lines: The strongest argument around degrowth is one rooted in a goal that its own advocates strive for: global equity.

In a piece posted earlier this week, economist Max Roser of Our World in Data estimated the amount of global growth required to bring everyone in the world up to the level of poor people in the fairly rich nation of Denmark would be 410%. Whether or not global poverty can be truly conquered '-- meaning getting everyone at least to the minimum of the developed world '-- "overwhelmingly depends on whether the average incomes in those countries that are home to the poorest billions of people in the world will increase or not," Roser writes.Be smart: With reason, we tend to focus on the huge and growing wealth gap between the ultrarich and the middle class and poor in rich countries like the U.S. But a much bigger gap exists between even the relatively less well-off in the developed world and most of humanity.

Take electricity access, one of the basic fundamental requirements for a modern lifestyle: Californians use more electricity just to play video games than the total amount of power consumed by everyone in countries like Ghana and Kenya, according to one estimate.Flashback: This isn't the first time the idea of degrowth or economic stasis has been raised. Utilitarian philosopher John Stuart Mill argued in mid-19th century England that "economic growth in the richest countries had run its course."

Yet as developmental economist Charles Kenny notes, at that time, the average income in England was just $2,858 '-- roughly the level of Egypt now.Today, England has a much bigger population and average income of nearly $40,000, a fact it accomplished through growth.What to watch: For all the environmental pressure growth has created, in recent decades, both rich and poor countries have been able to continue to grow while reducing many pollutants through more efficiency and cleaner energy.

Growing while reducing carbon emissions enough to avert dangerous climate change will be tougher, but that's beginning to happen as well.The bottom line: To paraphrase Winston Churchill on democracy, the pursuit of growth has its faults, but it still may be the least worst way to organize an economy.

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Thu, 25 Mar 2021 11:27

The Margin Last Updated: March 24, 2021 at 2:32 p.m. ET First Published: March 24, 2021 at 12:52 p.m. ET Some people are bringing up the former president's history with women Vice President Kamala Harris is poised to talk with former President Bill Clinton about women's empowerment and the pandemic's impact on women. Getty Images Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Bill Clinton are scheduled to discuss empowering women and girls in the U.S. on Friday '-- and many people on Twitter have some thoughts about that, to put it mildly.

A Politico reporter tweeted on Tuesday night that the country's barrier-breaking first female VP will talk about the welfare of women with the former Democratic president, who was impeached by the House in 1998 on grounds of perjury and obstruction of justice over his sexual relationship with a White House intern. Clinton was later acquitted by the Senate.

The talk scheduled for Friday afternoon is described in a Clinton Foundation press release as a ''one-on-one conversation'' on ''the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women, and empowering women and girls in the U.S. and around the world.''

Many readers questioned whether Clinton was the right person to talk about women's well-being, however, which led the former president's name to trend on Twitter TWTR, -3.44% overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, drawing some 50.5K tweets. And the backlash coincided with Equal Pay Day on Wednesday, which is a date dedicated to raising awareness of the gender pay gap.

Even Sean Spicer, a former White House press secretary under Donald Trump, couldn't resist piling on '-- despite his own former boss also drawing allegations of sexual misconduct.

But Clinton supporters pointed out that the former president also made moves that did help to empower women, such as nominating the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme Court.

Neither the vice president's office nor the former president's team were immediately available for comment.

The Clinton Foundation sent the following statement by email: ''For 20 years under the direction of President Clinton, the Clinton Foundation has worked to empower girls and women around the world. The Clinton Global Initiative has launched thousands of commitments to improve lives: empowering more than 13 million girls and women through job and leadership training; improving maternal and child health care access for more than 114 million people; and increasing opportunity for women in STEM education and careers.''

The virtual panel between Harris and Clinton, which is being hosted in partnership with Harris's alma mater Howard University, is scheduled for Friday at 3:25 p.m. ET.

This article has been updated with a response from the Clinton Foundation.

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Thu, 25 Mar 2021 13:47

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks as US President Joe Biden looks on during a listening session with Georgia Asian American and Pacific Islander community leaders at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia on March 19, 2021.

Eric Baradat | AFP | Getty Images

President Joe Biden, whose administration is grappling with overcrowding at migrant facilities on the southern border, tasked Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday with leading efforts to coordinate with Mexico and the Central American nations of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

The assignment marks Harris' first major policy role since she was sworn in in January.

"I can think of nobody who is better qualified to do this" than Harris, the president said at the White House. "When she speaks, she speaks for me, doesn't have to check with me."

The vice president will work to stem the flow of people coming to the border, thousands of whom are unaccompanied children. Biden, among other reversals of Trump-era immigration policies, ended the prior administration's practice of expelling unaccompanied minors.

But the recent increase in migrants has quickly overwhelmed border patrol stations and processing facilities, which are grappling with backlogs and overcrowding.

Harris this week called the situation at the border "a huge problem."

"The surge we're dealing with now started [with] the last administration, but it's our responsibility to deal with it humanely and to stop what's happening," Biden said Wednesday. "This increase has been consequential."

He said that Harris has "agreed to lead our diplomatic effort and work with those nations to accept [returning migrants] and enhance migration enforcement at their borders."

Harris thanked Biden for his "confidence."

"The work will not be easy, but it is important work," she said. "It is work that we demand and the people of our countries, I believe, need to help stem the tide that we have seen."

Beyond the short-term challenges, Harris will work to strengthen diplomatic ties with Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala to address the root causes of the region's migrant problems, senior administration officials said.

She also plans to coordinate with international organizations and private-sector entities as part of her efforts, the officials said.

Harris spoke Wednesday with Ricardo Zuniga, Biden's new special envoy for the Northern Triangle, and will work closely with him, they said. The Northern Triangle refers to El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.

At the White House, Biden said that Harris' prior experience as attorney general of California made her well-suited for this new responsibility.

Still, he acknowledged to Harris that "I gave you a tough job."

Why Is All COVID-19 News Bad News? Bruce Sacerdote, Ranjan Sehgal and Molly

Abstract

We analyze the tone of COVID-19 related English-language news articles written since January 1, 2020. Eighty seven percent of stories by U.S. major media outlets are negative in tone versus fifty percent for non-U.S. major sources and sixty four percent for scientific journals. The negativity of the U.S. major media is notable even in areas with positive developments including school re-openings and vaccine trials. Media negativity is unresponsive to changing trends in new COVID-19 cases or the political leanings of the audience. As evidenced by most viewed and most shared major media readers in the U.S. and U.K. strongly prefer negative stories about COVID-19, and negative stories in general. But the U.S. major media is more willing to satisfy this demand for negativity in both COVID and pre-COVID years. We suggest that this American exceptionalism stems from the lack of fair and balanced media laws and a lack of a large public option in the U.S. media. The causal impacts of this negative COVID coverage are less obvious; counties in the U.S. that rely more heavily on the major media are as likely to re-open schools as other similar counties.Cook*

https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.dartmouth.edu/dist/4/2318/files/2021/03/Why-Is-All-Covid-News-Bad-News-3_22_21.pdf

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Thu, 25 Mar 2021 11:59

Lawyers for MSNBC host Rachel Maddow (inset) will have to deal with arguments by UC Santa Barbara linguistics professor Stefan Gries (left) that she indeed was taken literally by viewers in labeling One America News as Russian propaganda. Images via uchicago.edu and TwitterIf Rachel Maddow loses her $10 million defamation case brought by the owner of San Diego-based One America News Network, she can blame, in part, a UC Santa Barbara linguistics professor.

The professor, Stefan Thomas Gries, argues in a long analysis of Maddow's on-air speech patterns that when she says ''literally,'' she means ''in fact.''

Judge Cynthia Bashant in downtown San Diego federal court will hear both sides Dec. 16 in a hearing on an anti-SLAPP motion.

Herring Networks' response to Rachel Maddow anti-SLAPP motion. (PDF)Lawyers for the MSNBC host said in that Oct. 21 motion that Bashant should throw out the suit by Herring Networks because Maddow was merely using hyperbole '-- and expressing her own opinion '-- when she said: OAN ''really literally is paid Russian propaganda.''

Lawyers for Maddow's employers, including Comcast, said OAN didn't dispute that for more than four years Kristian Brunovich Rouz wrote about 1,300 articles for the Russian news agency Sputnik and that ''Sputnik News is affiliated with the Russian government.''

Maddow lawyer Theodore J. ''Ted'' Boutrous Jr. argued that the liberal host was clearly offering up her ''own unique expression'' of her views to capture what she saw as the ''ridiculous'' nature of the undisputed facts.

''Her comment, therefore, is a quintessential statement 'of rhetorical hyperbole, incapable of being proved true or false,''' he said.

The anti-SLAPP statute allows targets of certain lawsuits to ask a court to dismiss a complaint when it involves the rights of petition and free speech. (SLAPP stands for ''strategic lawsuit against public participation.'')

But UCSB professor Gries, retained by Herring as an expert witness, says he reviewed the July 22, 2019, segment in question and concludes ''it is very unlikely that an average or reasonable/ordinary viewer would consider the sentence in question to be a statement of opinion.''

West German-born Gries, who also speaks Russian and German, said in a legal filing Monday that, according to Google Scholar, ''I am the second most widely-cited cognitive linguist and sixth most widely-cited living corpus linguist. The field of cognitive linguistics draws from both linguistics and psychology and studies how language interacts with cognition.''

In a response totaling 93 pages, Herring lawyer Amnon Siegel says Gries conducted a thorough analysis of Maddow's segment, ''identifying and analyzing linguistic markers (including words, tone, and cadence) used by Maddow.''

''Maddow did not use any typical opinion-markers when she stated that OAN 'really literally is paid Russian propaganda,''' he said.

Siegel said Maddow is not the sort of person an audience would expect to misuse ''literally.''

''She is a graduate of Stanford and Oxford Universities and a Rhodes Scholar,'' he said. ''In fact, on the show, Maddow regularly uses 'literally' in its primary meaning,'' as she did in these examples:

''Meanwhile, today the Trump administration tried to push through one of the most controversial judicial nominees of Trump's time in office. They literally nominated him to the job two days ago.''

''It's literally an emergency, a formally declared emergency.''

The U.S. military [is] apparently diverting C17 cargo flights to stop at President Trump's golf course in Scotland, literally to have U.S. airmen stay at his golf resort.''

And: ''They are literally de-funding the day care center at Andrews Air Force Base.''

Thus Maddow's use of ''literally'' is consistent, he said, and ''her audience would not have understood her assertion that OAN 'really literally is paid Russian propaganda' as metaphorical hyperbole.''

Contacted Tuesday, Gries couldn't respond to questions about his expert-witness record at trial and other issues, saying: ''I'm sorry I can't be more forthcoming at this time.''

In a declaration attached to the response, Herring Networks president Charles Herring says that prior to The Daily Beast article that Maddow cited in her segment, ''Herring Networks did not know that Rouz also wrote articles for Sputnik News.''

''Neither Maddow nor anyone from Comcast Corporation, NBCUniversal Media, LLC, or MNSBC Cable LLC contacted OAN or Herring Networks prior to televising the segment,'' Herring added in an apparent attempt to show Maddow didn't care to check on the accuracy of her statement. (A ''reckless disregard'' for the truth is a factor in libel actions.)

Herring further declared: ''Neither OAN nor Herring Networks has ever received money from Russia or the Russian government, and none of OAN's content is influenced by Russians or the Russian government. In fact, Herring Networks is exclusively financed by the Herring Family and has never received outside investment.''

Siegel, one of four Miller Barondess attorneys for Herring, supplied nearly three dozen federal and state court citations and statutes to prove his case.

Among them: Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary definitions of ''really'' and ''literally.''

Updated at 3:42 p.m. Dec. 3, 2019

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Mon, 22 Mar 2021 11:52

CBS Studios is betting Germans still love David Hasselhoff.

The production arm of U.S. broadcaster CBS is venturing into local-language programming abroad, and one of its first projects is a dark comedy starring Mr. Hasselhoff that will debut next year on TV Now, a video-on-demand platform that is a unit of Germany's Mediengruppe RTL.

''Ze Network,'' which starts production in July, will feature Mr. Hasselhoff playing a fictionalized version of himself who comes to Germany to do a play and ends up getting caught up in a post-Cold War spy story. The show will be in German and English and distributed outside of Germany as well.

''It will either be a massive hit world-wide or a major flop,'' Mr. Hasselhoff said in an interview. ''I know it will be a hit in Germany.''

''Ze Network'' is one of several projects CBS Studios has in the works overseas as a plan hatched in 2017 that is starting to pay dividends. It also has deals to make series in the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Africa, Australia and Israel.

CBS Studios is the latest U.S. entertainment company looking abroad for new productions and revenue. Netflix Inc. has been very aggressive in creating content for local markets to drive subscriptions to its platform, as has Amazon.com Inc.'s Prime Video service.

''Local-language productions are robust,'' said CBS Studios President David Stapf.

The 68-year-old Mr. Hasselhoff'--who will speak English as well as some German in the show'--has been a phenomenon in Germany since the 1980s, thanks to reruns of his talking-car show ''Knight Rider'' and his pop music. He famously performed at a New Year's Eve concert in 1989 at the site of the Berlin Wall just weeks after it came down, cementing his status there.

''Ze Network'' is co-produced by Syrreal Entertainment, which has a first-look deal with CBS Studios. Mr. Hasselhoff said he was eager to work with Syrreal because he is a fan of another one of its shows, the crime drama ''Dogs of Berlin.''

Mr. Hasselhoff said he was ''a little bit freaked out'' by the pitch but was sold by the fourth reading of the script. He said he hopes to incorporate what he describes as his own escapades behind the Wall, describing the show as '''Confessions of a Dangerous Mind' meets Ingmar Bergman.''

Meghan Lyvers, senior vice president of co-productions for CBS Studios International, said the partnership between Syrreal and CBS Studios allowed for the budget to be larger, in turn helping the creators achieve their vision.

''Some of these ideas can't get done on their own,'' she said.

CBS Studios is expanding through partnerships with local production companies primarily to feed hungry subscription video platforms rather than create its own channels, an approach to content the company has long had.

While parent company ViacomCBS Inc. also creates local-language programming for the international versions of its cable channels and third-party platforms, CBS Studios entered this arena before the merger of CBS and Viacom and its operation will continue, similar to how there are multiple production units throughout the company.

''We all are enabling the corporation to broaden its reach with all the various studios,'' Mr. Stapf said.

CBS Studios has been very successful in the U.S. selling shows to non-CBS companies including Netflix and Walt Disney Co. 's Disney+ streaming service, but continuing media consolidation could make that tougher in the years to come. Netflix, WarnerMedia's HBO and HBO Max and Disney+ as well as the broadcast networks are all placing a bigger priority on owning as much of their content as possible, making it tougher for outside studios to sell them content.

ViacomCBS has recently rebranded and relaunched its CBS All Access streaming service as Paramount+ and is eager for new content. The CBS shows it is making abroad could end up living on that platform at home.

Other projects in the works include ''The Darkness,'' a Scandinavian crime drama CBS Studios is making with Stampede Ventures, and ''Bestseller Boy'' for the Netherlands with Avrotros production company that is based on the bestselling Dutch novel by Mano Bouzamour about his challenges as an immigrant in Amsterdam.

Write to Joe Flint at joe.flint@wsj.com

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Tue, 23 Mar 2021 17:56

Casey Newton : Hearing that the New York Times just dropped the hammer on any new newsletters from staff, paid *or* free, unless t'... https://t.co/Zca18ccE8C

Tue Mar 23 16:00:51 +0000 2021

RonMwangaguhung : @CaseyNewton Come on, let them have their newsletters!

Tue Mar 23 17:41:36 +0000 2021

Swami Bhut Jolokia : @CaseyNewton Is this even enforceable, if the side gig is done on personal time and without the use of NY Times equ'... https://t.co/CJ7Z7tbXeR

Tue Mar 23 17:37:53 +0000 2021

Lance Ulanoff : @CaseyNewton Do they have a similar policy for Twitter accounts?

Tue Mar 23 17:34:39 +0000 2021

👨ðŸ>>'ðŸ'>>'•¸ : @CaseyNewton 500 years after Martin Luther, @MikeIsaac nails a printed copy of his substack to the doors at 620 8th'... https://t.co/uCb56BLz6r

Tue Mar 23 17:33:03 +0000 2021

Reid Jackson : @CaseyNewton What does this mean for https://t.co/H2v3gMGpY6 ?@cwarzel

Tue Mar 23 17:32:16 +0000 2021

Dan Gant : @CaseyNewton This also means they will have a hard time hiring any writers with an established following, because t'... https://t.co/rneNEWlvNk

Tue Mar 23 17:31:06 +0000 2021

Harry Campbell 🇺🇸 : @CaseyNewton It's hard as a publisher to allow your employee to run a competitive side project of which you get no piece.

Tue Mar 23 17:29:16 +0000 2021

Danny M : @CaseyNewton This raises an important question for me. Does a journalist own their following and can monetize or is'... https://t.co/XNbRrJOAFD

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Oleena Mak : @CaseyNewton Not saying that this is right or great, but it's like working for any organization. You're renting out'... https://t.co/rkpl4JdJW7

Tue Mar 23 17:21:33 +0000 2021

Aditi Shrivastava | TheCapTable : @CaseyNewton In India, the largest media group, BCCL, circulated an internal memo to take over social media account'... https://t.co/mlm7WoCH58

Tue Mar 23 17:21:31 +0000 2021

Zeke 🇺🇸 : @CaseyNewton 360 deals for journalists?!

Tue Mar 23 17:19:23 +0000 2021

Hey Adam, Chaplain of the No Agenda Nation checking in from a missionary hospital in West Africa! (I gave you a Bible when you were on the first Hot Pockets tour in New Orleans)

My family and I are serving as missionaries in West Africa and work at a missionary hospital. The expat staff here all thought that having a plan for vaccine distribution would be pointless, because they estimated it would be years before this area would get them. But not a week later we had a mandate from the Ministry of Health to turn in a list of all our frontline workers. The nationals that work at the hospital tend to be afraid of the government so they started assembling a full list. I had to approve the list and saw that all the expat doctors and staff were listed. I fought very hard to take them off the list, because I didn't know if the government just wanted a ballpark figure or if it was going to be mandatory or what. Other missionaries expressed their concern not about the vaccine in general, but about which vaccine would we be given.

Guess which vaccine showed up at our doorstep as "mandatory" the very next week? Apparently Africa is getting all the EU rejects: AstraZeneca.

All the national staff is asking the expats what they should do. Some missionary doctors only want the Pfizer, Moderna, or J&J vaccine, some only want vaccines that they know have been properly refrigerated and administered, while only myself and one other doctor are completely against it. It's amazing to see so many medical people not understand that these are untested and potentially dangerous--especially when they know all the CDC and WHO information about transmission of virus and possible infections after getting the vaccine.

As an aside, I brought up the concern of untested mRNA and the response was to get the J&J vaccine. Then I brought up the hot-button topic of aborted fetal cells for the J&J vaccine (you can imagine at a mission hospital where we stand on this), and now people here are morally stuck for a bit. It's interesting.

Last point: Where we are, the government wants to look strong and is beholden to global funding. COVID is not a big threat here (especially compared to Lassa fever and Ebola), so it is all about the money and looking good on the world stage.

Thank you for all you do! Praying for you and John (and Mimi and the Keeper!)

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Tue, 23 Mar 2021 15:39

The Biden Administration last week set a new historical record by threatening sanctions against Germany, India, Russia and China in the space of 72 hours. Germany and India are, or at least were, American allies.

Washington is angry at Germany for building a natural gas pipeline with Russia, at India for purchasing a Russian air defense system, at Russia for mistreatment of President Putin's opponents and at China for treatment of its Uighur Muslim minority.

None of Washington's recent threats is consistent with identifiable policy objectives. On the contrary, recent outbursts from Biden and his cabinet will cement a Sino-Russian alliance against the US, undermine US efforts to rebuild relations with European allies and damage US efforts to create a ''Quad'' alliance against China in the Pacific.

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that no one is in charge at the White House, and that senior officials are jockeying for position in a power vacuum by signaling to domestic constituencies. But the net effect recalls the old joke about the firing squad that stands in a circle.

President Biden March 16 called Russia's President Putin ''a killer'' who ''has no soul,'' and averred that Putin would ''pay a price'' for allegedly trying to help Trump in the 2020 presidential election'--an unprecedented combination of threat and insult that no Western leader ever has uttered except in wartime.

Visiting India last week, Lloyd Austin, ''the guy who runs that outfit over there'' in Biden's description, warned India not to go through with its planned purchase of Russia's S400 air defense system, to ''avoid any kind of acquisitions that would trigger sanctions.''

According to news reports, Austin is the US secretary of defense. India is supposed to anchor the ''Quad,'' a four-way alliance among the US, Japan, Australia and India to contain China's ambitions in the Pacific. Threatening one's prospective allies with sanctions is not the conventional way in which alliances are built.

That was only one of the all-time firsts achieved by the new US team, which has been in office just two months. The meeting of US and Chinese foreign ministers and other senior officials in Anchorage, Alaska, last week began with 15 minutes of mutual insults for the benefit of attending journalists, the first time in modern history that a high-level diplomatic meeting offered a verbal Punch-and-Judy show as a warm-up act.

''US-China summit descends into insults,'' was the London Times headline. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken began by raising ''deep concerns with actions by China, including in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyberattacks on the United States and economic coercion toward our allies. Each of these actions threaten the rules-based order that maintains global stability.''

To which China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi retorted, in part: ''We do not believe in invading through the use of force, or to topple other regimes through various means, or to massacre the people of other countries, because all of those would only cause turmoil and instability in this world. And at the end of the day, all of those would not serve the United States well.''

Secretary of State Blinken and US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan are global interventionists without the means of intervention. Donald Trump may be out of office, but the ''endless wars'' he denounced have long since exhausted the patience of American voters, as Beijing well knows. Wang told Blinken in so many words, ''You and what army?'' It must have stung.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin upon his arrival to attend the Peace summit on Libya at the Chancellery in Berlin on January 19, 2020. Photo: AFP / John MacDougallMeanwhile the threat of American sanctions against Germany companies building the $11 billion Nord Stream II natural gas pipeline to Russia ''could turn the relaunch of the US as the leader of a network of global alliances into a home harbor shipwreck,'' as Daniel Benjamin of the American Academy in Berlin warned in Politico March 18.

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and other Republican leaders have proposed severe sanctions against companies involved in the project, and if the Biden Administration backs them, the outcome would be ''a major portion'' of the allied Christian Democrats and Bavarian Christian Social Union ''turning against the US,'' Benjamin reports.

The State Department has already demanded an immediate cessation of work on the pipeline, which is 95% complete, warning that any company involved is at risk of sanctions.

Europe now pays about $2 billion a year in transit fees to the Ukraine, Slovakia and other countries for Russian natural gas, which provides about a third of its annual gas consumption. The Nord Stream II pipeline would reduce transportation costs substantially, at the expense of the Ukraine and others.

According to the Swiss daily Neue Z¼rcher Zeitung, the new pipeline would provide 55 billion cubic meters of gas a year, mostly at the expense of the 87 billion cubic meters now flowing through the Ukraine pipeline. Thanks to its large underground storage capacity, Ukraine would remain an important gas supplier to Europe, and a disproportionate contributor to peak demand, but Ukraine's geostrategic position would be weakened with respect to Russia.

The US wants to bolster Ukraine against Russia, and it also wants Europe to import more expensive liquified natural gas from the US. The German government wants to reduce gas import costs and improve relations with Russia. Chancellor Angela Merkel has put her personal prestige behind the project, and it is unlikely that American sanctions can stop the project at this point.

As I wrote in a March 19 commentary (''Life after death for the neoconservatives''), the nomination of neo-conservative Victoria Nuland as undersecretary of state for political affairs will be read in Moscow as well as European capitals as a declaration of intent for regime change in Russia. Ms. Nuland was prominently associated with America's 2014 involvement in the Maidan coup in Ukraine, which Nuland and others in the US security establishment hoped would be repeated in Moscow.

It is far from clear, though, that the Biden Administration has such a plan, or indeed any plan at all. Its emphasis on Chinese actions in Hong Kong and Xinjiang Province has no practical ramifications, because there is nothing that the United States can do to stop the Chinese from dealing with internal matters as they see fit.

Biden is a weak president at best, given to embarrassing lapses, such as his inability to remember either Lloyd Austin's name or the fact that he was defense secretary, and his jarring reference to his vice president as ''President Harris'' in a March 18 talk at the White House. A third of Americans polled by Business Insider and SurveyMonkey doubted Biden's mental fitness.

Without strong direction from the top, public officials will attempt to strengthen their positions by signaling to domestic constituencies. The Democratic majority on both houses of Congress is razor-thin, and the first midterm election after a presidential election typically goes badly for the White House incumbent.

If Biden loses either or both of the House of Representatives and the Senate in the 2022 elections, the second half of his term will be an exercise in frustration. Secretary Blinken's challenge to China at the Anchorage Summit was a reflection less of what the Administration has in mind than of its fear of appearing weak.

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Thu, 25 Mar 2021 11:28

Photo: vesselfinder.com / Suez Canal Authority

The Suez Canal has been blocked and a big backlog of ships is building up after a huge container ship ran aground during bad weather.

At least eight tug boats and a digger are working to dislodge and refloat the 400m long and 59m wide Ever Given.

The container ship, registered in Panama and operated by Taiwanese shipping company Evergreen Marine, became stuck yesterday morning, and attempts to shift it and get traffic flowing again have so far failed.

''Ship in front of us ran aground while going through the canal is now stuck sideways, looks like we might be here for a little bit,'' wrote Julianne Cona on Instagram.

It's now emerged that the Ever Given's journey was even more cursed than we first thought, as just before getting lodged in the canal, it charted a course that, well, just look at it.

Tracking data from vesselfinder.com and myshiptracking.com websites clearly shows what resembles a giant dick pic, and arguably a pair of ass cheeks too, slap bang in the Red Sea '' if that isn't an omen then what is.

A spokesperson for vesselfinder.com confirmed the ship tracking data was accurate. "There is no room for some kind of conspiracies or false data,'' Mihail Mitev told VICE World News over email.

Things are not looking great for the Ever Given: because the ship was heading from China to the Netherlands it is much more likely to be fully laden with goods, and therefore much heavier and more difficult to refloat.

Photo: vesselfinder.com

The vesselfinder.com website showed traffic building up on both sides of the canal, which is one of the busiest waterways in the world, with about 10 percent of global trade flowing through it.

Photo: vesselfinder.com

Lieutenant-General Osama Rabie, chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, said that some ships were being diverted to an older channel to help alleviate some of the traffic.

He said strong wind and a dust storm had caused bad visibility, and contributed to the ship running aground.

ORIGINAL REPORTING ON EVERYTHING THAT MATTERS IN YOUR INBOX.

By signing up to the VICE newsletter you agree to receive electronic communications from VICE that may sometimes include advertisements or sponsored content.

ITM! The noodle gun strikes. I don’t know who inquired about this below, but we have to respond. I wish I had more robust documentation to share.

I work for a county auditor’s office in Ohio. I manage all of the GIS/mapping for appraisal work. But our office also prepares the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the county’s finances each year - the CAFR. The link to the CAFR document on our website was simply, “CAFR”.

No no no... that industry-standard term is now verboten!

--------------------

Can you please change the word CAFR to Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, on the homepage.

Believe it or not there is an issue where some people consider the term CAFR to be offensive, as it its pronounced the

Same as kaffir.

Kaf·fir

/ˈkafər/

noun

· 1. an insulting term for a black African. offensive South African

· 2. an insulting term used by some Muslims for non-Muslims. offensive

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Archived Version

Thu, 25 Mar 2021 14:02

pathdoc / Shutterstock Many common phrases often found in American English actually have racist, sexist, or otherwise offensive origins.The popular term "peanut gallery," for example, was once used to refer to people '-- mostly Black people '-- who were sitting in the "cheap" seats in Vaudeville theaters. Some of these outdated terms should be left in the past, or revised at the very least.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.As language evolves, we sometimes forget the offensive origins of certain words and phrases. Or we never knew them in the first place.

Many common terms and phrases are actually rooted in racist, sexist, or generally distasteful language. For example, the popular phrase "peanut gallery," typically used to reference hecklers, originated as a term to refer to those '-- usually Black people '-- who sat in the "cheapest" section of the Vaudeville theaters.

Similarly, people might not realize that the term "uppity," nowadays used generally to refer to a stuck-up or arrogant person, was commonly used to describe Black people that "didn't know their socioeconomic place."

As the nation enters a new age, new phrases should follow suit. Here are 12 popular phrases that you may want to rethink using in everyday conversation.

1. "The itis"

Halfpoint/Shutterstock More commonly known now as a "food coma," this phrase directly alludes to the stereotype of laziness associated with African Americans. According to Mic, it stems from a longer (and incredibly offensive) version '-- n----ritis.

Modern vernacular dropped the racial slur, leaving a faux-scientific diagnosis for the tired feeling you get after eating way too much food.

We recommend using the technical term instead: postprandial somnolence. Or maybe just say you're stuffed.

2. "Uppity"

Anwar Hussein / Contributor / Getty Images In 2011, Rush Limbaugh pontificated that a NASCAR audience booed Michelle Obama because she exhibited "uppity-ism." Glenn Beck even defended him, citing the first lady's love of arugula.

The Atlantic reports that during Segregation racist southerners used "uppity" to describe Black people "who didn't know their place," socioeconomically speaking. Originally, the term started within the Black community, but the racists adopted it pretty quickly.

3."Peanut gallery"

Reuters This phrase intends to reference hecklers or critics, usually ill-informed ones. In reality, the "peanut gallery" names a section in theaters, usually the cheapest and worst, where many Black people sat during the era of Vaudeville.

If it's not directly racist, it's classist and rude at the very least.

4. "Gyp"

industryviews/Shutterstock "Gyp" or "gip" most likely evolved as a shortened version of "gypsy" '-- more correctly known as the Romani, an ethnic group now mostly in Europe and America. The Romani typically traveled a lot and made their money by selling goods. Business disputes naturally arose, and the masses started thinking of Romani as swindlers.

Today, "gyp" has become synonymous with cheating someone.

5. "Paddy wagons"

Roman Tiraspolsky/Shutterstock In modern slang, "paddy wagon" means a police car.

"Paddy" originated in the late 1700s as a shortened form of "Patrick," and then later a pejorative term for any Irishman. "Wagon" naturally refers to a vehicle. "Paddy wagon" either stemmed from the large number of Irish police officers or the perception that rowdy, drunken Irishmen constantly ended up in the back of police cars, according to Splinter News.

Neither is particularly nice.

6. "Bugger"

Oli Scarff/Getty Images When you call someone a "bugger," you're accusing them of being a sodomite '-- at least according to the original meaning. The term stemmed from the Bogomils, who led a religious sect during the Middle Ages called "Bulgarus." Through various languages, the term morphed into "bugger."

Many considered the Bogomils heretical and thus, said they approached sex in an "inverse way."

7. "Hooligan"

Hooligans light flares at the stadium after the Polish Cup final soccer match between Legia Warsaw and Lech Poznan in Bydgoszcz May 3, 2011. Krzysztof Szatkowski//Reuters This phrase started appearing in London newspapers around 1898. The Oxford Online Dictionary speculates it evolved from the fictional surname "Houlihan," included in a popular pub song about a rowdy Irish family.

Other sources, like Clarence Rook's book, "The Hooligan Nights," claim that Patrick Houlihan actually existed and that he was a bouncer and a thief in Ireland.

Whatever the case, somewhere along the line, an Irish family landed a bad rap. Most notably, the term evolved into "football hooliganism," destructive behavior from European football (but really soccer) fans.

8. "Eskimo"

The crew of Seawolf-class fast-attack sub USS Connecticut enjoys ice liberty after surfacing in the Arctic Circle during Ice Exercise (ICEX) 2020, March 7, 2020 US Navy/MCS 1st Class Michael B. Zingaro "Eskimo" comes from the same Danish word borrowed from Algonquin, "ashkimeq," which literally means "eaters of raw meat." Other etymological research suggests it could mean "snowshoe-netter" too.

Either way, when we refer to an entire group of people by their perceived behaviors, we trivialize their existence and culture. Let's start using the proper terms, like Inuit.

9. "Sold down the river"

Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images Today, if someone "sells you down the river," he or she betrays or cheats you. But the phrase has a much darker and more literal meaning.

NPR reports that during slavery in the US, masters in the North often sold their misbehaving slaves, sending them down the Mississippi River to plantations in Mississippi, where conditions were much harsher.

11. "Hip hip hooray!"

Giuseppe Lombardo/EyeEm/Getty Though steeped in controversy, some think the first part of this phrase relates to anti-Semitic demonstrations that started in Germany in the 19th century. Germans cheered "hep hep," a German herding call, as they forced Jews from their homes across Europe, according to Cracked.

Alternatively, others believe that the term didn't originate as a racist phrase, but instead evolved to have racist usage. Just to be safe, we can easily avoid the first two words. "Hooray" conveys just as much merriment as the full version and comes from hurrah, a version of huzzah, a "sailor's shout of exaltation."

12. Cretins

AP Photo/Keystone, Martin Ruetschi Though most people use the word "cretin" to refer to someone that is "insensitive" or "stupid," Merriam-Webster writes that the word used to refer to those who lives in the French-Swiss Alps, and were affected with hypothyroidism.

Those affected were noted as being "wretch, innocent victims," and the word "cretin," meaning "Christian" was supposed to highlight the victims humanity.

Source: Merriam-Webster

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More: Words History Racist Comment Racism Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options.

https://augenguy.blogspot.com/2019/02/who-is-q.html

" This brings us to the US State Department's Global Engagement Center (GEC). Established by the Defense Authoriation Act of 2017, the GEC's stated goals on its website are to “lead, synchronize, and coordinate efforts of the Federal Government to recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining United States national security interests.”

In other words, GEC's goals are to control the narrative and establish counter-narratives. This is, by Q's own statements, what it is doing. We might also recall at this point Trump's often-repeated jab at the US media, "You are the enemy of the people." That statement becomes multi-layered in this context.

We must also note that the Act was passed in 2017, just shortly before Q first appeared on 4chan. "

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Tue, 23 Mar 2021 23:22

In response to Dominion's defamation lawsuit, Powell's lawyers say ''reasonable people'' wouldn't buy her claims.

By Aaron Rupar on March 23, 2021 2:25 pm As a former Trump campaign lawyer, Sidney Powell did more than perhaps anyone to push the big lie that President Joe Biden's victory over Donald Trump in last November's presidential election was the result of fraud involving Dominion Voting Systems machines. Now, however, lawyers representing her have acknowledged that the ''big lie'' is, in fact, just that.

Powell faces a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit from Dominion because of her false claims, and on Monday her lawyers offered her defense: that ''no reasonable person would conclude that the statements'' Powell made about election fraud ''were truly statements of fact.''

''Indeed, Plaintiffs themselves characterize the statements at issue as 'wild accusations' and 'outlandish claims.' They are repeatedly labelled 'inherently improbable' and even 'impossible,''' Powell's lawyers add. ''Such characterizations of the allegedly defamatory statements further support Defendants' position that reasonable people would not accept such statements as fact but view them only as claims that await testing by the courts through the adversary process.''

Indeed, Powell's conspiracy theories were wild and outlandish.

During an infamous November 19 news conference, for instance, she asserted that there was a ''globalist'' conspiracy to take down Trump '-- improbably involving the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chvez '-- and asserted that ''in the middle of the night, after they've supposedly stopped counting, and that's when the Dominion operators went in and injected votes and changed the whole system.''

There was just one problem for Powell: She was never able to produce a shred of evidence for her claims.

On the contrary, election officials on both sides of the aisle, and Trump administration officials like Attorney General Bill Barr, admitted that Biden's victory over Trump was the product of a free and fair election. And the outlandishness of her conspiracy theories seemed to be a bit much even for Rudy Giuliani, who during a Newsmax interview in December distanced Trump's legal team from Powell and said her arguments go beyond ''the bounds of rationality, common sense, and the law.''

But as the legal challenges to the election that Powell and other lawyers filed on behalf of Trump failed one by one, Trump not only didn't join Giuliani in distancing himself from Powell, but reportedly considered appointing her as special counsel to investigate the very unfounded claims of election fraud she was pushing.

That plan didn't pan out, and in the days after the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, Dominion began taking legal action against those who pushed lies about its voting systems, including Powell, Giuliani, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, Fox News, and Newsmax.

''Dominion brings this action to set the record straight,'' lawyers representing Dominion wrote in the suit against Powell, adding later: ''There are mountains of direct evidence that conclusively disprove Powell's vote manipulation claims against Dominion '-- namely, the millions of paper ballots that were audited and recounted by bipartisan officials and volunteers in Georgia and other swing states, which confirmed that Dominion accurately counted votes on paper ballots.''

Powell's legal filing suggests her money was never where her mouth was.

And yet the big lie lives onWhile Powell's attorneys were quietly acknowledging that her conspiracy theories aren't true, Trump was on Fox News pushing the big lie with impunity.

''Look, we won the election, as far as I'm concerned. We had a great election. We had almost 75 million votes,'' he said on Tuesday.

Trump wasn't challenged to back up his claims, but it is notable that there's been a change in his approach when talking about the election, and one that was apparent in his Fox News appearance.

When the former president has tried to make a case that the election was stolen from him in recent weeks, he's no longer made claims about votes being changed. Instead, he's argued that pandemic-related changes to state election laws were unconstitutional '-- arguments that were rejected in courtroom after courtroom when Trump's lawyers made them, including by judges he appointed.

Despite this shift, Trump ultimately hasn't repudiated his false claims, as Powell appears to be doing. And as baseless as it may be, the big lie not only lives on in Trump's new narrative but is giving Republicans in states like Georgia and Arizona that Trump narrowly lost a pretext to try to make it harder for people to vote.

Powell is reviving the Tucker Carlson defensePowell's court filing represents the second time in recent months that a prominent Trumpworld figure has acknowledged in a court of law that they are full of it. Fox News did much the same thing to defend host Tucker Carlson against a defamation lawsuit brought by Karen McDougal, a woman who claims to have had an affair with Trump.

As Aaron Blake explains for the Washington Post:

When Carlson accused Karen McDougal of extorting former president Donald Trump over her claims of an affair, McDougal filed suit against him. Fox News's defense was that a ''reasonable viewer'' would not accept such claims as fact because of the tenor of Carlson's show. And a judge agreed, dismissing the case. It remains to be seen whether Powell's strategy will be similarly successful. But her filing makes it clearer than ever that Trump allies' attempt to overthrow the 2020 election was a naked power grab based on a pack of lies.

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Thu, 25 Mar 2021 14:28

A key member of the legal team that sought to steal the 2020 election for Donald Trump is defending herself against a billion-dollar defamation lawsuit by arguing that ''no reasonable person'' could have mistaken her wild claims about election fraud last November as statements of fact.

In a motion to dismiss a complaint by the large US and Canadian voting machine company Dominion, lawyers for Sidney Powell argued that elaborate conspiracies she laid out on television and radio last November while simultaneously suing to overturn election results in four states constituted legally protected first amendment speech.

''No reasonable person would conclude that the statements were truly statements of fact,'' argued lawyers for Powell, a former federal prosecutor from Texas who caught Trump's attention through her involvement in the defense of his former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Powell falsely stated on television and in legal briefs that Dominion machines ran on technology that could switch votes away from Trump, technology she said had been invented in Venezuela to help steal elections for the late Hugo Chvez.

Those lies were built on empty claims that apparently originated in anonymous comments on a pro-Trump blog, only to be amplified on a global scale by Trump himself in a 12 November tweet in which he wrote in part ''REPORT: DOMINION DELETED 2.7 MILLION TRUMP VOTES NATIONWIDE.''

Citing lost business and reputational damage, Dominion filed a $1.3bn defamation lawsuit against Powell and her colleague on Trump's legal team, Rudy Giuliani. A Dominion employee separately sued the Trump campaign after receiving death threats.

Thousands of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol on 6 January in an effort to stop the certification of an election they considered invalid, killing a police officer in violent clashes in which four others died.

But lawyers for Powell argued her false statements about election fraud in the months preceding the Capitol insurrection were unmistakably not presented as true facts.

''It was clear to reasonable persons that Powell's claims were her opinions and legal theories on a matter of utmost public concern,'' her legal motion says. ''Those members of the public who were interested in the controversy were free to, and did, review that evidence and reached their own conclusions '' or awaited resolution of the matter by the courts before making up their minds.''

The filing brought expressions of disbelief from Trump critics.

''This is her defense. Wow,'' tweeted the Republican representative Adam Kinzinger.

''Bad argument!'' tweeted Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen. ''[Powell] should have gone with an insanity defense due to #TrumpDerangementSyndrome.''

''Shorter Sidney Powell: suckers!'' tweeted Charlie Sykes, an editor of the anti-Trump conservative publication the Bulwark.

As Trump fought to reverse his election loss in November, the former president himself reportedly supported Powell's claims in private '' and trumpeted them in public, touting Powell two weeks after the election as a key part of ''the legal effort to defend OUR RIGHT to FREE and FAIR ELECTIONS''.

Powell was publicly exiled from the Trump camp a week after that tweet, after she appeared at a news conference hosted by the Republican National Committee alongside Giuliani, whose hair dye memorably ran down his face, and Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis.

The group was ''an elite strike force team that is working on behalf of the president and the campaign'', Ellis announced.

Then Powell faced the cameras and claimed to have identified ''massive influence of communist money through Venezuela, Cuba and likely China in the interference with our elections here in the United States''.

Aides reportedly told Trump that Powell was not helping, and Giuliani and Ellis issued a subsequent statement announcing, ''Sidney Powell is practicing law on her own. She is not a member of the Trump legal team. She is also not a lawyer for the president in his personal capacity.''

But that did not prevent Powell from filing lawsuits the next week on Trump's behalf in Georgia, Michigan, Arizona and Wisconsin.

In her defense against the Dominion defamation lawsuit, Powell argued that whatever ''reasonable persons'' thought of her wild claims, Dominion had failed to demonstrate that she herself thought them to be false as she spoke them '' a key distinction in defamation cases.

''In fact,'' Powell's motion reads, ''she believed the allegations then and she believes them now.''

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Tue, 23 Mar 2021 21:29

(CBS4) '' A ransomware group has leaked data allegedly stolen from the University of Colorado on the dark web. In February, CU announced it was investigating a cyberattack believed to be the largest in the university's history.

The attack targeted a vulnerability in the File Transfer Appliance from Accellion, a third-party vendor. Accellion says the hack impacted fewer than 100 clients, with 25 suffering significant data theft.

READ MORE: Personal Information Compromised In CU Cyberattack Believed To Be Largest In University HistoryThe ransomware group Clop has published data from 25 Accellion hacks on the dark web, including data from the University of Colorado. Cybersecurity threat analyst Brett Callow of Emsisoft says it is highly likely that Clop has additional data from other Accellion hacks.

(credit: CBS)

''Whether Clop is responsible for the hacks or is simply handling the extortion is impossible to say, but I suspect the latter,'' Callow added.

Officials have not said if CU received ransom demands from the Clop group. On Tuesday, the university said it is still investigating the scope of the attack.

(credit: CBS)

''Organizations in this position are without good option,'' Callow explained. ''If they don't pay the ransom demand, their data will be released online in a series of installments. If they do pay, they'll simply receive a pinky-promise that the stolen data will be destroyed. Obviously, there is absolutely no reason to believe that the criminals would actually do this, especially if the data has significant market value.''

READ MORE: Cyberattack Disrupts Brewing Operations At Molson CoorsCU Boulder was notified of the Accellion attack on Jan. 25. The university's Office of Information Security determined files uploaded by 447 CU users were at risk of unauthorized access. Officials said personal information of CU Boulder and CU Denver students, along with prospective students, and employees may have been accessed.

(credit: CBS)

The university is preparing to notify those affected by the data breach. CU said it would provide monitoring services at no cost for anyone whose information was compromised. In the meantime, students and employees can take proactive steps to protect their identity by visiting identitytheft.gov/databreach.

Accellion said on March 1 that all known File Transfer Appliance vulnerabilities have been remediated.

''Since becoming aware of these attacks, our team has been working around the clock to develop and release patches that resolve each identified FTA vulnerability, and support our customers affected by this incident,'' said Jonathan Yaron, Accellion's Chief Executive Officer.

CU said it plans to switch to a different file sharing product. Additionally, officials plan to move university data to a cloud-hosted environment and add multi-factor authentication as an extra layer of security.

MORE NEWS: Dark Web In Colorado? Federal Agents Raid Home Seeking Child Porn, 'Wreck Lives' Of Arvada Family Audra Streetman Audra Streetman joined the CBS4 team in 2019 as a digital producer and assignment editor. She covers a variety of stories in and around metro Denver. More from Audra Streetman

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Archived Version

Wed, 24 Mar 2021 04:27

A 'significant' number of cyberattacks targeting vulnerable Microsoft Exchange servers are attempted every single day, warn researchers at F-Secure - who say it's critical to apply the patches immediately.

By Danny Palmer | March 22, 2021 -- 15:50 GMT (08:50 PDT) | Topic: Security

Why old cybersecurity vulnerabilities are still a big problem

There are still thousands of cyberattacks targeting zero-day security vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server every single day as cyber criminals attempt to target organisations that have yet to apply the security patches released to mitigate them, according to a tech security company.

Microsoft released critical updates to secure Microsoft Exchange Servers against the four vulnerabilities on March 2 with organisations urged to apply them as a matter of urgency to prevent cyberattacks to their email servers.

But weeks later, many organisations are yet to apply the critical updates for Microsoft Exchange Server and cyber attackers are taking advantage to gain access to servers while it remains possible.

SEE: Network security policy (TechRepublic Premium)

And cyber criminals are doing just that, with security researchers at F-Secure identifying tens of thousands of attacks targeting organisations around the world that are still running vulnerable Microsoft Exchange Server every day. According to F-Secure analytics, only about half of the Exchange servers visible on the internet have applied the Microsoft patches for these vulnerabilities.

"Tens of thousands of servers have been hacked around the world. They're being hacked faster than we can count. Globally, this is a disaster in the making," said Antti Laatikainen, senior security consultant at F-Secure.

The fear is that an attack that successfully compromises a Microsoft Exchange Server not only gains access to sensitive information that's core to how businesses are run, but could also open the door for additional attacks '' including ransomware campaigns.

In order to avoid falling victim to cyber attackers exploiting the Microsoft Exchange vulnerabilities, it's recommended that organisations apply the critical updates as quickly as possible, because the longer the patches aren't applied, the more time cyber criminals will have to potentially exploit the vulnerabilities as part of an attack.

Even if organisations have already applied the relevant security updates, there's no guarantee they were not compromised by malicious hackers before the patches were applied '' so it's important to analyse the network to examine if it has already been accessed by cyber criminals.

When it isn't possible to install the critical Microsoft Exchange updates, the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) recommends that untrusted connections to Exchange server port 443 should be blocked, while Exchange should also be configured so it can only be accessed remotely via a VPN.

In another step to protect against Exchange Server vulnerabilities, Microsoft has implemented an automatic mitigation tool within within Defender Antivirus that helps prevent unpatched servers falling victim to attacks.

SEE: Check to see if you're vulnerable to Microsoft Exchange Server zero-days using this tool

Tens of thousands of organisations around the world are known to have had their email servers compromised in attacks targeting Microsoft Exchange. Microsoft have attributed the campaign to a state-sponsored advanced persistent threat (APT) hacking group working out of China, dubbed Hafnium.

However, once knowledge of the vulnerabilities became public following the release of the patch, other state-sponsored and cyber-criminal hacking groups have attempted to target Microsoft Exchange servers that have yet to have patches applied.

It's recommended that organisations take measures to mitigate attacks as soon as possible.

"There are a ton of things they can do manually to prevent a full disaster. I just encourage them to do them immediately," said Laatikainen.

MORE ON CYBERSECURITY Microsoft Exchange Server hacks 'doubling' every two hoursHow the Microsoft Exchange hack could impact your organizationCheck to see if you're vulnerable to Microsoft Exchange Server zero-days using this toolMicrosoft Exchange attackers strike more than 30,000 US organizationsCybersecurity: How to get your software patching strategy right and keep the hackers at bay

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Thu, 25 Mar 2021 11:28

On the Clock is Motherboard's reporting on the organized labor movement, gig work, automation, and the future of work.

Amazon delivery drivers nationwide have to sign a "biometric consent" form this week that grants the tech behemoth permission to use AI-powered cameras to access drivers' location, movement, and biometric data.

If the company's delivery drivers, who number around 75,000 in the United States, refuse to sign these forms, they lose their jobs. The form requires drivers to agree to facial recognition and other biometric data collection within the trucks they drive.

"Amazon may'... use certain Technology that processes Biometric Information, including on-board safety camera technology which collects your photograph for the purposes of confirming your identity and connecting you to your driver account," the form reads. "Using your photograph, this Technology, may create Biometric Information, and collect, store, and use Biometric Information from such photographs."

It adds that "this Technology tracks vehicle location and movement, including miles driven, speed, acceleration, braking, turns, and following distance ...as a condition of delivery packages for Amazon, you consent to the use of Technology."

In February, Amazon announced plans to install the AI-powered four-lens cameras, made by the tech company Netradyne, in all of its Amazon-branded delivery vans. The company says cameras are being used to improve "safety" and the "quality of the delivery experience." But as Thomson Reuters reported earlier this month, some drivers are quitting their jobs because of privacy concerns. The Netradyne cameras are able to sense when a driver yawns, appears distracted, or isn't wearing a seatbelt, according to a product description, and monitor drivers' body and facial movements.

''Netradyne cameras are used to help keep drivers and the communities where we deliver safe,'' said Deborah Bass, a spokesperson for Amazon. ''We piloted the technology from April to October 2020 on over two million miles of delivery routes and the results produced remarkable driver and community safety improvements'--accidents decreased 48 percent, stop sign violations decreased 20 percent, driving without a seatbelt decreased 60 percent, and distracted driving decreased 45 percent. Don't believe the self-interested critics who claim these cameras are intended for anything other than safety.''

Technically, these drivers aren't even employed by Amazon, but by roughly 800 companies, known as delivery service partners that operate out of Amazon delivery stations. Still, Amazon controls many aspects of its drivers working conditions, from their training to their uniforms to their delivery quotas.

"I had one driver who refused to sign," the owner of an Amazon delivery company in the Pacific Northwest told Motherboard. Motherboard granted the business owner anonymity because they feared retaliation from Amazon. "It's a heart-breaking conversation when someone tells you that you're their favorite person they have ever worked for, but Amazon just micromanages them too much."

Do you have a tip to share with us about Amazon? Please get in touch with the reporter Lauren at lauren.gurley@vice.com or via Signal 201-8972-2109.

The policy has already received scrutiny from Congress. Last month, five senators raised concerns about drivers privacy in a letter to Amazon.

ORIGINAL REPORTING ON EVERYTHING THAT MATTERS IN YOUR INBOX.

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Also, since you mentioned the yellow square trend, I just wanted to note that I've only seen conservative Asians participate. Can't tell if they are just doing it as satire. The boba liberals are telling us not to co-opt BLM with "Asian lives matter" or yellow squares.

Thanks,

Wing-Mei

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Archived Version

Thu, 25 Mar 2021 12:34

88rising has apologized for posting a yellow square in response to the Atlanta spa shootings.

On Tuesday, eight people were killed in three spa businesses. Despite official police statements, many believe the 21-year-old suspect '-- who has been arrested and charged in connection to the shootings '-- specifically targeted Asian-Americans, as six of the victims were Asian women. The attack also coincides with a dramatic increase in anti-Asian hate crimes amid the pandemic, which hasn't been helped by the "China virus" rhetoric espoused by former President Trump.

Related | How to Help Stop Hate Crimes Against Asian Americans

In response to the shootings, Asian-American talent management and media company 88rising decided to voice their support for their community by posting a yellow square to their Instagram on Wednesday morning.

"Enough is enough," the caption said. "Heartbroken with the disgusting and senseless violence in Georgia tonight. Violence against the Asian community has to stop. Let's protect each other and stand against hate."

That said, the since-amended (and subsequently deleted) post faced widespread pushback for its apparent co-option of the black squares people posted in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter protests last summer '-- a move that was already criticized for its performative allyship. Additionally, others argued that 88rising's use of yellow was offensive and inherently racist, as how the color has historically been used to stereotypically describe East Asian skin tone.

Related | Stop Tagging Blackout Tuesday Posts With Black Lives Matter

Following the backlash, 88rising issued a statement apologizing for the yellow square post, writing, "Thank you to our community for sharing your comments and critiques with us."

"Not 88rising co-opting something which the folks at the center of the original movement (Black people) explicitly said wasn't helpful," as one person wrote, while another added, "Besides the performative activism, isn't using a yellow square racist ? Like Asian people aren't 'yellow.'"

"Yellow squares are racist," a third commenter said. "And to double that, the black square shit that you're mimicking with this (so a dash of anti-Black co-opting too???) has been talked about as performative and useless since y'all did it the first time. Stop."

not 88rising co-opting something which the folks at the center of the original movement (black people) explicitly said wasn't helpful ðŸ­ðŸ­ https://t.co/9gL1UeLMGk

'-- ð'ð'ð'šð'ð'Œð'Œð'‹ (@MiseryElliott) March 17, 2021 besides the performative activism,, isn't using a yellow square racist ? like asian people aren't "yellow" ðŸ­

'-- sarah𖧵'· (@outrosza) March 17, 2021 yellow squares are racist.and to double that, the black square shit that you're mimicking with this (so a dash of anti-black co-opting too???) has been talked about as performative and useless since yall did it the first timestop https://t.co/qblUegbDzT

'-- Danny Gay-da-Lore-ian (@weredawgz) March 17, 2021"It was never our intention to cause harm, but we recognize the effects of our actions and apologize," the company continued before clarifying that while they were "not trying to start a yellow square movement," they understood "how it was misinterpreted."

They added, "We are heartbroken and wanted to share our thoughts on the horrific violence in Georgia and to decry the racism against the Asian community."

See 88rising's response, as well as what other people are saying about the original post, below.

it doesnt sit right with me that 88 rising posts a yellow square as an act to tackle the issue at hand when most of their artists are asian ppl of different ethnicities and skin colour, like if ur thought is ''oh asian activism = yellow square'' then u might be the problem

'-- à¼>>chicago (@vanteurysm) March 17, 2021Photo via Getty

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Thu, 25 Mar 2021 11:12

In case you needed another reason to care about the climate crisis, it has been found that pollution is causing human penises to shrink.

A leading epidemiologist and environmental scientist has published a book which examines the link between industrial chemicals and penile length.

Dr Shanna Swan's book, Count Down, argues that our modern world is altering humans' reproductive development and threatening the future of our species.

The book outlines how pollution is leading to higher rates of erectile dysfunction, fertility decline, and growing numbers of babies born with small penises. Though the headline fact about shrinkage may sound like a laughing matter, the research paints a bleak portrait of humanity's longevity and ability to survive.

"In some parts of the world, the average twenty-something today is less fertile than her grandmother was at 35," Dr Swan writes, dubbing the situation a "global existential crisis" in the book.

''Chemicals in our environment and unhealthy lifestyle practices in our modern world are disrupting our hormonal balance, causing various degrees of reproductive havoc."

According to the book, humans meet three of the five possible criteria used to define whether or not a species is endangered. "Only one needs to be met," writes Dr Swan, "the current state of affairs for humans meets at least three."

What is it about pollution that's causing these problems?According to Dr Swan's research, this disruption is caused by phthalates, chemicals used in plastic manufacturing, which can impact how the hormone endocrine is produced.

This group of chemicals is used to help increase the flexibility of a substance. They can be found in toys, food packaging, detergents, cosmetics, and many more products. But Dr Swan believes that these substances are radically harming human development.

"Babies are now entering the world already contaminated with chemicals because of the substances they absorb in the womb," she says. Much of Dr Swan's recent work has focused on the effects of phthalates, initially looking at phthalate syndrome in rats.

In 2000, however, there was a breakthrough in the field, and it became possible to measure low doses of phthalates in humans.

Since then Dr Swan has authored papers on how these chemicals can pass between parents and their offspring, the impact on female sexual desire, and - most recently - on penile length.

One of her most famous studies examined the intersection between sperm count and pollution in 2017, in ground-breaking research which looked at men's fertility over the last four decades. After studying 185 studies involving almost 45,000 health men, Dr Swan and her team concluded that sperm counts among men in Western countries had dropped by 59 per cent between 1973 and 2011.

But there is some good news. Since the creation of the European Environment Agency, European citizens are exposed to 41 per cent less particulate pollution than we were two decades ago. It's believed that these regulations have gifted Europeans an extra nine months of life expectancy, on average.

''A demand for change from citizens and subsequent strong policies have helped to clear the air in parts of Europe before, and can continue to do so to ensure that high pollution today does not need to be tomorrow's fate," says Michael Greenstone, director of the Energy Politics Institute at the University of Chicago.

So if pollution reduction measures can be properly implemented, there is still hope for the future and humanity's fertility.

Every weekday at 15.30 CET, Euronews Living brings you a cutting edge, environmental story from somewhere around the world. Download the Euronews app to get an alert for this and other breaking news. It's available on Apple and Android devices.

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Mon, 22 Mar 2021 14:00

Dinosaurs and farting. Two of mankind's favourite things. Put them together, and apparently that warrants a scientific publication. A new study has attempted to forge a correlation between sauropod dinosaurs, their gassy output, and global warming during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Naturally, being a bit obscure, it's received great attention in the media. The less-than-two-page report, however, is pretty devoid of actual science, and is the kind of analysis that I'd expect from an undergraduate. A bad undergraduate.

The amount of times statements are preceded by 'could have' 'suggests', 'estimates', 'likely', etc. is an immediate trigger for concern. There's nothing actually concrete in the paper. There is a hypothetical link between, er, biomethane production and global warming (it's happening right now, actually '' see cows), but there's a way to approach this hypothesis: with scientific rigour.

The initial research concept is flawed. As most people know, dinosaurs consist of three major lineages: the herbivorous sauropodomorphs, the mostly-hypercarnivorous theropods, and the herbivorous ornithischians. So when looking at the methane output of herbivores, and you exclude a major group, just because they weren't as big, you're making a pretty big mistake. Especially when you consider the biological assumptions that were made regarding sauropods (they had digestive systems similar to modern ruminant herbivores) are actually more likely to have been applicable to ornithischians.

The methods applied were pretty naff too. The calculations are ridden with assumptions, and grossly oversimplify what intrinsically requires a more detailed study. Sauropod biomass is based on raw specimen estimates, based purely on the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation. Well known as a dinosaur 'graveyard', containing near-unparalleled quantities of dinosaur bones, this is pretty much the worst proxy that could have been used. Considering that sauropod diversity patterns are quite well established, this would have been a far more accurate proxy to use.

The next bit made me cringe. Sauropods were pretty frickin' huge. So when estimating methane outputs based on modern organisms, you use at least something that's vaguely comparable, right? Nope. You use guinea pigs, rabbits, and tortoises. I shit you not, these are the ecological analogues used in terms of fart-volume, or whatever you want to call it. The assumption is made that because the outputs are similar between these three, it holds true for every organism in the animal kingdom, ever. Methane emissions are assumed therefore to be insensitive to body mass, and also every other digestive parameter out there. As well as this theory of ''evolution'' (heard of it?).

There are a couple more terrible assumptions too. Vegetation area is assumed not just to be equivalent to land area, but also equivalent to sauropod number, globally, during the entire Jurassic and Cretaceous. No. I had expletives annotated all over the paper by this point; it was a bit too much.

I couldn't resist making one of these..So yeah, it wasn't science. Sorry guys. It was a neat story, backed up by some pretty poor empirical analysis and speculative theory. Ten references just doesn't cut it for a story of this magnitude, even if the mighty Marcus Clauss is reviewing it (I'm surprised such an awesome ecologist let his name be put anywhere near this). The lack of understanding of space and time is worrying, as well as a disregard for ornithischians (which are everyone's favourite dinosaurs, right?), which are the more-likely culprits of mass-methanic expulsion, is somewhat worrying. How about getting a temperature curve for the Mesozoic, and attempting to correlate it with species diversity through time? Pretty sure a paper came out doing just that recently, without making such wild speculation.

If I haven't gassed enough, here's more slightly-less-critical analysis of the study:

New Scientist, PZ Myers, Science Daily, National Geographic [check out the URL for this one..]

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Archived Version

Thu, 25 Mar 2021 13:55

WASHINGTON (AP) '-- Two Democratic senators lashed out Tuesday at the lack of Asian American and Pacific Islander representation in President Joe Biden's Cabinet and even vowed not to support nominations until the White House better promotes diversity '-- moves that could stymie their own party's administration in filling key posts.

Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, one of only two senators of Asian American heritage, said she raised the issue with top Biden advisers on Tuesday and afterward called the situation ''not acceptable.''

''I've been talking to them for months and they're still not aggressive, so I'm not going to be voting for any nominee from the White House other than diversity nominees,'' Duckworth told reporters. ''I'll be a no on everyone until they figure this out.''

That prompted Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono, the only other senator of Asian American heritage, to say, ''I'm joining her in that.'' Hirono said they would like the White House to commit to a more diverse representation in the Cabinet and senior White House positions.

Katherine Tai, who is Taiwanese American, is in the Cabinet as Biden's top trade envoy. Dr. Vivek Murthy, the son of Indian parents, was confirmed Tuesday as surgeon general, a sub-Cabinet position.

Biden defended the makeup of his Cabinet to reporters Tuesday evening, saying, ''We have the most diverse Cabinet in history.'' He added, ''We have a lot of Asian Americans that are in the Cabinet and in sub-Cabinet levels.''

The threats to withhold support could nonetheless complicate matters for Biden as he moves forward with other high-level administration and judicial appointments that require confirmation in an evenly divided Senate where Vice President Kamala Harris holds a tie-breaking vote.

Asian American and Pacific Islander elected officials and activists are hoping that last week's shootings at spas around Atlanta that killed eight people, six of them women of Asian descent, will prompt the community to demand greater representation in government.

''We're not just calling for API's. This is not about pitting one diversity group against them. So I'm happy to vote for a Hispanic or Black person and LGBTQ person and AAPI person,'' Hirono said. ''I just like to see more diversity representation.''

Duckworth is of Thai descent and was mentioned as a possible vice presidential pick for Biden before he settled on Harris, the first Black and Indian American woman to hold the vice presidency. Duckworth, who had also been under consideration for a Cabinet role, noted that presidents over the last 20 years have included AAPI people in their Cabinets.

Hirono, who also spoke to senior Biden advisers, said she has expressed dismay about a lack of representation.

''I shared the frustration that the AAPI community has that there's not been a significant number of AAPIs at the Cabinet level,'' she told reporters. ''I don't think the trade representative is what the community understands (as) a Cabinet level.''

Tai, who was confirmed last week, is the first Asian American and first woman of color to serve as U.S. trade representative.

Biden also nominated Neera Tanden to serve as director of the Office of Management and Budget, but she withdrew her nomination after it became clear she would have difficulty winning confirmation. Tanden faced opposition from Republicans and Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, over insulting tweets aimed at Republican lawmakers that she posted prior to her nomination.

Duckworth said administration officials noted the selections of Tai and Tanden, who are both high-level picks but not part of the president's Cabinet, when she raised her concerns.

That didn't sit well with her.

''To be told that, well, you have Kamala Harris, we're very proud of her, you don't need anybody else, is insulting,'' Duckworth said.

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Mon, 22 Mar 2021 13:20

Being depressed in the 'world's happiest country'

(Image credit: Maddy Savage)

Finland regularly tops global rankings as the happiest nation on the planet, but this brings a unique set of challenges for young people struggling with depression.

B

Basking in the sunshine outside a coffee shop decked out with minimalist Nordic furniture and colourful textiles, Tuukka Saarni is something of a poster boy for Finland's position atop the UN's happiness rankings, for the second year in a row.

''I'm pretty happy right now,'' says the 19-year-old, who recently finished high school and is about to start a job in a grocery store after a few months searching for work.

In fact, he rates his happiness levels as 10 out of 10, saying neither he nor anyone in his friendship group has experienced depression.

''Our lives are going really well,'' he says. ''It's a great mixture of things. We have good weather '' sometimes at least '' good education and good healthcare.''

A national culture that supports spending time alone as well as with friends is also something he values, alongside Finland's ample nature and low unemployment levels. ''There's a lot of jobs...if one is ready to apply and search for a job, then I think everyone can get a job,'' he argues.

It is these kind of markers '' alongside high levels of trust and security and low rates of inequality '' that explain Finland's sometimes controversial top position in global happiness rankings.

The small, northerly nation, with a population of just 5.5 million people, has historically been stereotyped as having a melancholic mentality linked to its long, dark winters '' it isn't a place where you regularly see outpourings of joy or other positive emotions. Yet, like its Scandinavian neighbours, Finland ticks the bulk of the boxes that typically influence subjective well-being around the world.

With strong welfare systems and low inequality rates, Finland is home to many adolescents like Tuukka who thrive happily with no depressive symptoms. (Credit: Maddy Savage)

'More complex world'

But many experts argue that this image of Finland as a happy nation glosses over ongoing challenges when it comes to mental health '' especially when it comes to young people. Some believe it may even be making it harder for Finns to recognise and acknowledge depressive symptoms and seek treatment.

Suicide rates in Finland are half what they were in the 1990s and have reduced across all age groups '' a shift which has been linked to a nationwide suicide prevention campaign when things were at their worst, alongside improved treatment for depression.

But they remain well above the European average. One third of all deaths among 15- to 24-year-olds are caused by suicide. According to a 2018 report, In the Shadow of Happiness, authored by the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen, some 16% of Finnish women aged 18 to 23 and 11% of young men define themselves as ''struggling'' or ''suffering'' in life. This level is only worse in the age bracket of 80 or above.

The last in-depth nationwide study of depression in Finland was in 2011, but not-for-profit organisation Mieli (Mental Health Finland) estimates that around 20% of under 30s have experienced depressive symptoms in the last year.

''It is prevalent,'' says Juho Mertanen, a psychologist for the organisation. ''And there are signs it might be rising, although this rise is not as extreme as some of the media here have made out.''

A 2017 report for the Nordic Centre for Welfare and Social Issues highlighted close links between substance abuse and ill health, noting that Finns drink more than their Nordic neighbours. There has also been an increase in drug use in the 25 to 34 age group. And while nationwide unemployment rates are low, they are significantly higher among young people. Some 12.5% of 15- to 19-year-olds were jobless at the end of 2018, the highest proportion in the Nordics and above the EU average of 11.5%.

Despite Finland's high ranking in world happiness surveys, its substance abuse, adolescent depression and suicide rates are well beyond the European average (Credit: Maddy Savage)

Mertanen agrees that the job market in Finland is playing a role when it comes to mental health issues among young people because ''there is a lot of uncertainty nowadays''. While Finland is a financially stable country by international standards, inequality is rising, he adds.

He also points out that Finland is exposed to global trends in digitalisation and embracing the gig economy, which are beginning to play a role in discussions about mental health among young people across the western world. ''The world is becoming more complex...The economy is changing '' there are less stable careers that you can kind of just get into and then work [your] way through and then retire,'' says Mertanen.

Social media, he argues, may also be having an impact on the mental health of young people in Finland and elsewhere. While he is quick to point out that long-term, large-scale research looking at the impact of the likes of Instagram and Facebook remains limited, he explains that ''the depressed mind is prone to comparison'' and social media offers an easy way for some to ''start comparing [their] own worst moments with the best moments of someone else's life''.

Mertanen says it is even possible that Finland's image as a place where people are expected to be satisfied with life might be exacerbating the negative impact of these global trends on young Finns, who don't feel their experiences match the stereotype.

''I would say the happiness research and the social media... I can see it's feeding into the kind of black-and-white world view of the depressed mind,'' he argues.

'Everything was fine, but'...'

It's a view shared by plenty of young Finns who have experienced depression themselves.

''You almost feel like you don't have the right to be depressed when you're living in a country like Finland where the living standard is so high,'' explains Kirsi-Marja Moberg, now 34, who was first diagnosed with depression as a teenager and struggled with the illness throughout her twenties.

According to experts, Finland's stereotype of being the happiest country in the world may have negative impacts on adolescents struggling with depression (Credit: Maddy Savage)

''You feel really like you should be just enjoying yourself and all the possibilities that you have when you're still young. And also the society can really give you this kind of image.''

''In Finland... you feel that everything should be alright, even though it's not,'' agrees Jonne Juntura, a 27-year-old junior doctor who was depressed for six months during his university studies.

He points out that while difficult personal and societal events are often linked to depression '' for example, break-ups or a recession '' it is an illness that can affect people regardless of their standard of living.

''Even though we're the happiest country in the world according to the statistics, it doesn't tell the whole story. Because depression is a disease and it doesn't always relate to circumstances.''

''The moment I personally fell ill, everything was fine with my life. I was really enjoying my school. I loved my hobbies. I was in a relationship. So there was nothing dramatically wrong with my life. But still, I fell ill,'' he explains.

A social stigma?

Most mental health experts agree that taboos around depression and anxiety have started to break down in Finland, especially since the nationwide anti-suicide push. This has contributed to more people seeking treatment, which makes it tricky to compare depression rates through the years and across age groups.

But many young Finns who have experienced depression, including Kirsi-Marja Moberg, believe there is still a stigma attached to anyone ''identified as a depressed person''.

''It depends what kind of social circles you are in or also, maybe, where you live in Finland, how freely people talk about these things...the taboo is definitely still there,'' she argues.

Despite mental health stereotypes being broken down, young adults like Kirsi-Maria and Jonne still feel the heavy presence of taboos surrounding depression (Credit: Maddy Savage)

Meanwhile in a culture where privacy is valued, overt displays of emotions are rare and even small talk is typically kept to a minimum, acknowledging and discussing depression can remain a challenge for some Finns with the illness.

''It's not just a stereotype,'' says Jonne Juntura of the Finns' reputation for limited communication.

Now treating his own patients with depression, he argues that young men in Finland can find it especially hard to verbalise what they are going through.

''Mental health problems are still associated with being weak, and in the masculine culture, some people see it as a hard thing to say they are feeling that bad.''

Getting treatment

When it comes to getting help for depression, municipal authorities are responsible for mental health services, which are heavily subsidised by taxes. This means that, as in other Nordic countries with strong welfare systems, those experiencing mental health problems should not, in theory, struggle to get help or suffer financially.

However, in recent years there have been ongoing political debates about long waiting lists in larger cities, access to treatment for patients in more remote areas, and managing care for teenagers as they transition into adulthood.

Access to mental health treatments, especially in rural areas, is a growing issue in Finland with patients often waiting weeks or months for appointments (Credit: Maddy Savage)

''It's really difficult to get help quickly '...[it] might take weeks or even months. And in a crisis situation, that's too long,'' says Emmi Kuosmanen, who works with teenagers at a high school in Helsinki. ''I think the need has increased...But the health services haven't caught up.''

Mental Health Finland psychologist Juho Mertanen agrees that early intervention is crucial to recovery, especially among young people experiencing depressive symptoms for the first time.

''With mental health, usually if you don't get help early on, then there's a lot of time to kind of 'dig a hole deeper', in a way,'' he says.

Projects like Mental Health Hub and the national crisis hotline have been gaining traction as the societal push for mental health resource access grows (Credit: Maddy Savage)

Global awareness

Junior doctor Jonne Juntura says he is confident that despite Finland's current challenges when it comes to tackling depression among young people, services will continue to improve.

He hopes that '' alongside greater investment in early intervention '' a broader national conversation will also evolve as a result of expanding global awareness about depression. The United Nations' recent inclusion of mental health as a sustainable development goal is one example of a sea-change in attitudes in recent years, according to Juntura.

''People are slowly starting to understand how big of an issue mental health is, and how many resources [are needed] individually and when it comes to society,'' he argues. ''There is still a lot to be done...But I do feel really optimistic.''

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Archived Version

Wed, 24 Mar 2021 14:10

The fleet of several dozen cars pulled into East Austin's Fiesta Gardens, or ''Chicano Park'' as locals call it, on a recent weekend with the booming of powerful stereo systems announcing their arrival. After a few loops around the park, some drivers'--most of them Black and Latino men in their twenties and thirties driving customized lowriders, bright, candy-colored slabs, and jacked-up trucks with flashy chrome rims'--packed into a nearby middle school parking lot. Some unloaded barbecue grills, toddlers, and pit bulls, then cracked open beers, and blasted Texas hip-hop and Tejano music. Others joined a slow-moving carousel that flowed from the parking lot into the street and back again, swerving from side to side and occasionally screeching their tires, unleashing plumes of white smoke that covered the block in a light haze.

Some variation of this assembly has taken place nearly every Sunday afternoon since the early nineties. But now many residents of The Weaver, a newly built luxury apartment building across the street'--whose website promises renters access to a ''community that is rich in history and tradition'''--have decided it's time for the weekly event to come to an unceremonious end. Some of the building's residents defend the car club gatherings and note they predate The Weaver residents' arrival in the neighborhood, but many others have grown tired of the loud music, annoyed by the traffic, and turned off by the smell of skidding tires. One particularly vocal tenant, a non-Hispanic white woman with short blond hair who appeared to be in her fifties, claimed that smoke from the tires was killing nearby trees and that traffic from the gathering would make it impossible for an ambulance to reach her in the event of a medical emergency (though two other roads to the apartment building remain accessible at all times). Another Weaver resident voiced more generalized criticism, calling the event a ''display of toxic masculinity.''

''[W]e should shut this thing down,'' a third resident, who blamed the lack of police response on the ''idiotic'' city council's decision to slash the Austin Police Department's budget, wrote in March on a building forum. Indeed, at a recent gathering, a non-Hispanic white tenant had flagged two police vehicles and pleaded with officers to disband the celebration, calling it ''scary.'' The officers eventually drove off without taking any action. Even though the event sometimes violates noise and traffic ordinances, it doesn't pose major threats to anyone in The Weaver, nor does it break other city rules.

By the Sunday I went to the park, the building had posted a security guard in the driveway in response to growing outrage among its residents, and concerns for their safety. Several angry residents gathered near him. A few threatened to call the police. A frustrated woman from Chicago who said she winters in Austin and would not be renewing her lease wondered aloud about the financial toll the gathering would exact upon The Weaver, which is owned by Greystar Real Estate Partners, an international developer based in Charleston, S.C. (The regional manager who oversees Greystar's Austin properties did not respond to repeated requests for an interview.)

The conflict between residents of The Weaver and the car club is a microcosm of a larger struggle between professionals newly arriving in Texas, many of them tech workers, and the Black and Latino neighborhoods across East Austin that the newcomers are transforming through gentrification. With large tech companies including Apple, Oracle, and Samsung expanding operations in Austin, and many more making plans to relocate there, such conflicts have accelerated during the pandemic. Surrounded by new neighbors, many native Austinites say they're often made to feel unwelcome in their own communities. For the car clubs, which gather in public parks on the front lines of gentrification, the feeling has been especially amplified.

The Weaver, built in 2020, features a pool, grotto, and a state-of-the-art fitness center, and sits on the southwest corner of the neighborhood known as East Cesar Chavez. For decades, the area was a working-class Latino neighborhood dominated by blocks of modest, single-family homes, and shaded by one-hundred-year-old pecan and oak trees. By the mid-1960s, construction of Interstate 35 placed a massive concrete rampart between local residents and the city's more prosperous downtown, effectively severing the two areas. As recently as 2009, the economic cost of that isolation was still readily apparent, with the value of an average home in the neighborhood being a scratch more than $100,000, about half as much as the average home in the Austin area. But over the last decade, gentrification has intensified. By last summer, the median sale price for a home in East Cesar Chavez had climbed to nearly $800,000.

Though elements of the old neighborhood remain intact, the community's character has been conspicuously altered. Modest homes with porches, where neighbors used to gather to chat at the end of the workday, have been torn down and replaced with hulking, multistory abodes that rise above security fencing. In 2015, Jumpolin, a beloved pi±ata store that had become a colorful symbol of the neighborhood's Latino heritage, was bulldozed without warning. In its place, a cafe catering to cat owners was erected (and has since closed).

Chale Nafus, a local historian and longtime professor at Austin Community College, has lived in East Cesar Chavez since 1975. Sitting on his large front porch, facing a wall of new hotels rising a few blocks to the west, the 78-year-old told me the first wave of non-Hispanic white residents were artists who wanted to live in a ''thriving, warm community'' and ''partake in the culture.'' But he said that now, many of the newest residents obsess over exaggerated threats to their safety. Nextdoor, a neighborhood social media app, bristles with concern about unfamiliar vehicles being parked on the street, and complaints about loud music that violates city noise ordinances or a homeless man who has peacefully paced the neighborhood for decades. ''I have to refrain from responding, 'Good lord, don't you understand where you're living and what this once was?'' Nafus said. ''But it's too late now'--the tsunami has arrived.''

East Cesar Chavez is far from the only Austin community to face a wave of outsiders and rising property values. Austin is routinely ranked among the fastest-growing big cities in the United States, with about one million transplants migrating to the area over the past two decades, according to the city's chamber of commerce. The new arrivals have forced many Black residents to move out of the city: In 2000, about 10 percent of the Austin's 656,000 residents were Black. By 2017, that percentage had dropped to around 7.5, as thousands decamped for more affordable suburban communities such as Pflugerville, about 15 miles northeast of the Capitol.

Social gatherings such as weekend car club meet-ups have become ever more important as those traditional communities fracture. ''A lot of us grew up here and were pushed out and this is how we come home to spend time with family and old friends,'' explained Rogerick ''Kountry'' Davis, a 34-year-old City of Austin Aviation Department employee and the founder and president of the Hands Full of Cash Car Club. Davis, who lives in East Austin and has seen many of his friends priced out of the area in recent years, calls big automobiles, loud music, and barbecue a ''Texas tradition.''

For decades, clubs such as Davis's have gathered on Sundays in Givens Park, a sixty-year-old East Austin community hub named after Dr. Everett Givens, one of Austin's most famous Black civil rights activists. The park is about four miles northeast of Fiesta Gardens. Now many new residents call the cops on the club, and a gathering that had allowed Davis to wind down with loved ones before the workweek has started to leave him on edge. ''You think you're just calling and they're going to kick us out, but it could always lead to something more,'' he said. ''It sucks because we've been doing this for so long!'' Many neighborhood residents have asked city councilmember Natasha Harper-Madison, who grew up going to Sunday barbecues with her family at Givens Park, to step in, and she says she's had some success de-escalating police calls by challenging new residents to talk through their fears, as well as their concerns about noise and traffic.

A car club member spins his back tires'--a practice known as a ''burnout'''--at a car club meet-up on Sunday, unleashing a cloud of white smoke. Some of The Weaver's residents say burnouts harm nearby trees and make it difficult for people to breathe. Photograph by Peter HolleyOn a recent Saturday afternoon, Nafus gave me a tour of East Cesar Chavez. We walked past a local school where he used to coach a teenage breakdancing team, almost all of whose members have moved out of the neighborhood, and a tiny grocery store run out of a house that had been boarded up. A few blocks south, Nafus introduced me to a man relaxing in his backyard, Sabino ''Pio'' Renteria, who represents the neighborhood on the city council and has lived in it for forty years. He said that for as long as he's been there, car lovers have gathered in various parking lots around ''Chicano Park'' on Sundays. The gathering across the street from The Weaver can get noisy, he admitted, and even he has called the police to break it up when some car owners lingered past 8 p.m. But he said that ''we've got customs here that have been going on for decades and they're going to continue.'' Asked what he'd tell newly arrived residents, Renteria replied he'd urge ''patience'' because ''it's just a few hours out of the week.''

The next day, it was clear that patience remained in short supply. Watching from her upper-floor apartment, one of The Weaver's most vocal critics of the car clubs, the blond woman who worried about emergency responders being able to reach her, decided she'd had enough. She bounded downstairs and into the street in high heels, holding her iPhone to film the offending vehicles and threatening to call the police on another group of men standing beside an old-school Ford sedan who looked unamused. ''You can't tell me drugs aren't being distributed over there,'' she huffed. ''The brazenness of it all just kills me!''

About one hundred feet away, a twentysomething member of a car club in shorts and a T-shirt, who said he goes by the nickname ''Kilo,'' calmly watched the bizarre scene unfold. Born and raised in Austin, he said he'd been coming to the park to check out custom cars and connect with old friends since he was a kid. He wondered why instead of calling the police and creating unnecessary tension the blond woman and other angry residents hadn't walked across the street and introduced themselves first, opening up dialogue. ''If you come with good energy, you'll find out that we're just here to chill and enjoy the cars and the scenery,'' he said. ''Don't be scared.''

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Archived Version

Thu, 25 Mar 2021 14:28

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., seen here at the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 13, had said she would vote no on President Biden's nominees until he commits to making more appointments of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Stefani Reynolds/Pool/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Stefani Reynolds/Pool/AFP via Getty Images Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., seen here at the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 13, had said she would vote no on President Biden's nominees until he commits to making more appointments of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Stefani Reynolds/Pool/AFP via Getty Images Sen. Tammy Duckworth and the White House broke an impasse over the Illinois Democrat's pledge to block President Biden's nominees who aren't diverse candidates as a protest over a lack of Asian American representation in the new administration.

Under their deal announced late Tuesday, the White House will add a senior liaison to the community and, in exchange, Duckworth will support Biden's nominees.

"Senator Duckworth appreciates the Biden administration's assurances that it will do much more to elevate AAPI voices and perspectives at the highest levels of government, including appointing an AAPI senior White House official to represent the community, secure the confirmation of AAPI appointments and advance policy proposals that are relevant and important to the community," Ben Gash Garmisa, a Duckworth spokesman, said in a statement. "Accordingly, she will not stand in the way of President Biden's qualified nominees'--which will include more AAPI leaders."

The about-face came after Duckworth and fellow Democrat Mazie Hirono of Hawaii pledged to vote no on any White House nominees who aren't diverse candidates. Hirono said late Tuesday she too changed her position.

"There's no AAPI representation in the Cabinet," Duckworth told Capitol Hill reporters Tuesday afternoon. "There's not a single AAPI in a Cabinet position. That's unacceptable."

Duckworth, who is Thai American, said she had been talking to the White House for months over concerns about the lack of representation of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, even giving the White House names of "well-qualified AAPI" candidates "who never even got a phone call."

Biden pledged to build the most diverse Cabinet in history, and about half of his Cabinet picks have been nonwhite. Speaking about Duckworth's decision on Tuesday, Biden said: "We have the most diverse Cabinet in history. We have a lot of Asian Americans that are in the Cabinet and in sub-Cabinet levels."

There are no Asian Americans in Biden's Cabinet and just a handful in top positions like U.S. trade representative (a Cabinet-level position but not a Cabinet member) and surgeon general.

In a statement late Tuesday, Jen Psaki, Biden's spokeswoman, said: "The White House will add a senior level Asian American Pacific Islander liaison, who will ensure the community's voice is further represented and heard."

Duckworth said her frustration hit a breaking point after a call Monday evening with Biden aides during which she said White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jen O'Malley Dillon pointed to Vice President Harris' South Asian heritage.

"Last night, that was the trigger for me," Duckworth said. "To be told that 'well, you have Kamala Harris, we're very proud of her, you don't need anybody else' is insulting." Duckworth noted she has heard that sentiment from the administration "multiple times."

"That is not something you would say to the Black caucus: 'Well, you have Kamala '-- we're not going to put any more African Americans in the Cabinet because you have Kamala.' Why would you say it to AAPI?"

After the call, she says she notified the administration of her decision to cast "no" votes "until they figure this out." She told reporters she planned to still vote for racial minorities and LGBTQ nominees.

Duckworth added that Biden had left the call before the comment was made and that he had been "caring and thoughtful and humane when he talked about what AAPIs have been going through."

Hirono echoed Duckworth's comments, telling reporters she planned on joining Duckworth in voting no on non-diverse nominees until the White House committed that there would be "more diversity representation in the Cabinet and in senior White House positions."

Hirono added she wasn't solely calling for more AAPI representation.

"This is not about pitting one diversity group against another. So I'm happy to vote for a Hispanic, a Black person, an LGBTQ person, an AAPI person. I'd just like to see more diversity representation."

In a tweet late Tuesday, Hirono announced her change in position. She later issued a statement, saying: "I had a productive conversation with the White House today to make clear my perspective about the importance of diversity in the President's Cabinet. Based on the private conversation we had, I will continue voting to confirm the historic and highly qualified nominees President Biden has appointed to serve in his administration."

Asian American leaders have called on the Biden administration to take concrete steps to protect the AAPI community following increased violence in the last year, including the recent shootings in the Atlanta area that killed eight people, including six women of Asian descent.

When asked on Tuesday what appointments the Biden administration could practically make at this point in time, Duckworth mentioned the Federal Communications Commission and the Office of Management and Budget and suggested the administration could make a commitment for a future Cabinet secretary position.

Had Neera Tanden, Biden's original pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget, been confirmed, she would have been the first South Asian American woman to serve in the position. Tanden withdrew her nomination in early March after multiple key senators said they wouldn't support her.

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Archived Version

Tue, 23 Mar 2021 18:23

NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff stopped by 'The View' Monday where he largely dismissed Joe Biden's culpability in the ongoing border crisis; instead blaming the humanitarian disaster on ''climate change.''

''It doesn't matter what any President says!'' explained Jacob Soboroff.

''What really pushes people here is violence and persecution and corruption in their home countries '... exacerbated by the effects of climate change, climate variability,'' he added.

On "The View," NBC's @jacobsoboroff blames global warming for the current border crisis: ''What really pushes people here is violence and persecution and corruption in their home countries '... exacerbated by the effects of climate change, climate variability." pic.twitter.com/wkfB4xd2IJ

'-- Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) March 22, 2021

Watch the exchange above.

BIDEN in NEW HAMPSHIRE: 'What You Do Here in Iowa is Going to Set the Tone'posted by Hannity Staff - 12.09.19

Former Vice President Joe Biden left audience members scratching their heads in New Hampshire over the weekend; confusing the northeast state for Iowa -approximately 1,000 miles away.

''The primary race for the United States presidency'... You have an incredible obligation, not to me at all, but to yourselves. What you do here in Iowa ['...] is going to set the tone,'' said Biden before correcting himself.

''New Hampshire, the primary in New Hampshire,'' he added.

Joe Biden says he is in Iowa when he is actually in New Hampshire.

Iowa and New Hampshire are 1,000+ miles away from each other.pic.twitter.com/Fh3Nl02fde

'-- Tommy Pigott (@TCPigott) December 8, 2019

Biden made a similar mistake earlier this year; confusing New Hampshire for the neighboring state of Vermont.

''I've been here a number of times'...I love this place. Look, what's not to like about Vermont in terms of the beauty of it?'' Biden told reporters.

Biden, who is in New Hampshire, thinks he is in Vermont

At some point, the media is going to have to stop calling this "gaffes" https://t.co/Dhno1WN2rU

'-- Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) August 24, 2019

BIDEN in PENN: 'Rapid Results Testing Contract, Contract Contact Tracing, Widely Available Personnel!'posted by Hannity Staff - 6.17.20

Former Vice President Joe Biden continued his gaffe-filled campaign at a speaking event in Pennsylvania Wednesday; bizarrely stating the country needs ''contract tracing capacity widely available personnel.''

''Here comes the rapid results testing Contract Contract Contact Tracing Capacity, widely available personnel protective equipment,'' said Biden.

Must have been a typo on the teleprompter. pic.twitter.com/45snKpw8RM

'-- Benny (@bennyjohnson) June 17, 2020

Watch Biden's comments above.

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Archived Version

Tue, 23 Mar 2021 01:37

This information is added by users of ASN. Neither ASN nor the Flight Safety Foundation are responsible for the completeness or correctness of this information.If you feel this information is incomplete or incorrect, you can

submit corrected information.

Narrative:Following a loss of engine power, the aircraft impacted an occupied motor vehicle short of the runway during the attempted return to the point of departure at North Perry Airport (HWO/KHWO), Hollywood, Florida. The airplane was destroyed by the impact and post-impact fire and the two occupants onboard were fatally injured. The two occupants of the motor vehicle received serious injuries. One of those two vehicle occupants, a child, later succumbed to the injuries received. Review of ATC audio revealed the Bonanza was cleared for takeoff on runway 10L at 14:57L. It had been instructed to depart on a left downwind. Approximately 90 seconds later, KHWO tower broadcast that the airport was closed. According to publicly-available video from a home recording, the first point of impact was located approximately 1000 feet east of the approach end of runway 28L.Sources:

https://miami.cbslocal.com/2021/03/15/small-plane-crash-north-perry-airport-pembroke-pines/ https://wsvn.com/news/local/2-dead-2-injured-after-plane-crash-in-pembroke-pines-neighborhood/ https://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/Search/NNumberResult?nNumberTxt=236BC https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N236BC Media:

Revision history:

Date/timeContributorUpdates15-Mar-2021 21:33GenoAdded 15-Mar-2021 21:37GenoUpdated [Source]15-Mar-2021 22:02RobertMBUpdated [Aircraft type, Operator, Phase, Nature]16-Mar-2021 04:30GenoUpdated [Other fatalities, Narrative]16-Mar-2021 06:52Airwork737Updated [Registration, Source, Embed code]16-Mar-2021 06:54harroUpdated [Aircraft type, Registration, Cn]16-Mar-2021 06:55harroUpdated [Cn, Source, Category]16-Mar-2021 07:16RobertMBUpdated [Time, Operator, Source]17-Mar-2021 10:15aaronwkUpdated [Time, Narrative]17-Mar-2021 12:55Captain AdamUpdated [Embed code, Category]21-Mar-2021 10:49AerossuranceUpdated [Embed code, Narrative]

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Thu, 25 Mar 2021 11:19

MARYLAND '-- By now, you've likely heard that Maryland trees will vibrate with the mating calls of 17-year cicadas later this spring. The state will find itself at the epicenter of the 2021 emergence of Brood X, or Great Eastern Brood, cicadas from mid-May to mid-June.

Did you know you can eat these nutritious, red-eyed bugs that are high in protein and low in fat? Deep fry them and serve with a hot mustard dipping sauce. Marinate them in teriyaki sauce. Bake them into a cake or pie.

Now that you've rearranged your face, know this: They're called the "shrimp of the land."

That's according to Isa Betancourt, an entomologist from Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.

"It's a delicacy that's rare," she told Lancaster Online of edible cicadas, which are among the bugs she's eaten.

Billions Of 17-Year Cicadas Will Emerge; MD Epicenter In 2021"We regularly eat the arthropods of the sea, and those are the shrimp, lobster and crabs," Betancourt told the news outlet, noting that "cicadas are arthropods, too."

Some who have dined on cicadas say they even taste a little like shrimp, according to Food & Wine.

Dr. Michael Raupp, known for his Bug Guy blog and a professor emeritus of entomology at the University of Maryland, said Maryland is at the epicenter of the cicada emergence.

The 17-year cicadas will also come out in Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Researchers have said that in our state, they'll be in Allegany, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Cecil, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, Howard, Montgomery, Prince George's and Washington counties.

Cities likely to see and hear the invasion of bugs include Annapolis, Baltimore, Bel Air, Bethesda, Bowie, Brooklyn Park, Catonsville, Chevy Chase, College Park, Columbia, Cockeysville, Crofton, Eldersburg, Elkridge, Ellicott City, Fallston, Gaithersburg, Gambrills, Germantown, Glen Burnie, Greenbelt, Hanover, Havre De Grace, Hyattsville, Landover Hills, Laurel, Lutherville, Odenton, Owings Mills, Pikesville, Potomac, Randallstown, Reisterstown, Riverdale, Rockville, Severna Park, Silver Spring, Takoma Park, Timonium, Towson, and Wheaton.

The best time to harvest cicadas (again, stop making that face) is just after they emerge when they are molting '-- that is, shedding their skin. Morning hours are best, Betancourt told Lancaster Online.

"That's when they're softest," she said. "When they first emerge, they'll be kind of green in color, and after a few hours they'll harden."

They're still edible after hardening, but crunchy.

Raupp just loves snacking on the insects. His former students even created "Cicada-Licious: Cooking and Enjoying Periodical Cicada," a cookbook filled with cicada recipes.

"I've had them several different ways and, frankly, I've enjoyed them every way I've eaten them," Raupp told Lancaster Online.

Gaye Williams, an entomologist with the Maryland Department of Agriculture, called them "the truffles of the insect world" in a 2004 interview with The Baltimore Sun.

Many cultures around the world regularly eat insects, Williams said.

"Americans are the only ones around who are grossed out by eating insects," Williams told The Sun. "For most people around the world, insects are a major food source or delicacy."

Jenna Jadin, one of Raupp's former students, shared a cicada craft cocktail, called Red Eyes, with National Geographic in 2013 ahead of the emergence of Brood II of the 17-year cicadas. Here's the recipe:

Red Eyes

2 shots vodka½ shot Campari½ shot extra-dry vermouth1 shot fresh orange juice

Shake the ingredients in a shaker with ice and strain into a chilled glass. Garnish with a couple of candied cicadas on a stick.

You're still making that face.

"Have you ever eaten an oyster or a clam out of the bay? It lives on the bottom of the bay and filters, you know what (feces)," Raupp told Lancaster Online. "You'd eat this thing, but would not eat this delectable insect that's been sucking on plant fat for 17 years? I think it's weird."

None of this is new.

Author Charles Lester Marlatt recalled people eating cicada stew in "The Periodical Cicada," written in 1898.

"The cicadas were collected just as they emerged from pupae, and were thrown in cold water in which they remained overnight," he wrote. "They were cooked the next morning and served at breakfast time. They imparted a distinct and not unpleasant flavor to the stew, but were not at all palatable themselves, as they were reduced to nothing but bits of flabby skin. ... The most palatable method of cooking is to fry in batter, when they remind one of shrimps."

The synchronized emergence of Magicicada cassini, as this cicada brood is scientifically known, is a true marvel of nature. The species' extraordinarily long life cycle '-- the longest of any insect on the planet '-- is part of an evolutionary strategy that has allowed the cicada to survive for 1.8 million years, or from the Pleistocene Epoch, according to a CBS News report.

They'll all tune up at once in a species-wide mating call. The collective song of male cicadas calling for mates can reach up to 100 decibels. Think of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle with straight pipes constantly running outside your window.

The cicadas periodic emergence is still an unfolding scientific mystery. Scientists can't entirely explain the synchronized emergence of periodical cicadas, but one evolutionary hypothesis is that the forced developmental delay was an adaptation to climate cooling during the ice ages.

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Mon, 22 Mar 2021 13:28

The U.S. has evidence of UFOs breaking the sound barrier without a sonic boom and making maneuvers impossible with known technology, the former Director of National Intelligence has revealed.

The revelations increased excitement about a forthcoming report detailing what the U.S. government has observed.

John Ratcliffe, who served as Donald Trump's Director of National Intelligence, said that many of the incidents still have no easy explanation.

'There are a lot more sightings than have been made public,' Ratcliffe told Fox News.

'Some of those have been declassified.

'And when we talk about sightings, we are talking about objects that have seen by Navy or Air Force pilots, or have been picked up by satellite imagery that frankly engage in actions that are difficult to explain.

'Movements that are hard to replicate that we don't have the technology for. Or traveling at speeds that exceed the sound barrier without a sonic boom.'

John Ratcliffe appeared on Fox News on Friday to discuss the forthcoming report

Wow. Maria Bartiromo gets former DNI John Ratcliffe to talk about UFOs ahead a deadline for the government to disclose what it knows about them..."Usually we have multiple sensors that are picking up these things...there is actually quite a few more than have been made public" pic.twitter.com/qu4VlzrZw1

'-- Daniel Chaitin (@danielchaitin7) March 19, 2021Ratcliiffe said that there had been more UFO sightings than the public previously knew

Navy pilots recorded seeing unexplained objects spinning in mid air, in the summer of 2014

Ratcliffe told host Maria Bartiromo that the sightings of 'unidentified aerial phenomena' had been observed all around the world.

'When we talk about sightings, the other thing I will tell you is, it's not just a pilot or just a satellite, or some intelligence collection,' Ratcliffe said.

'Usually we have multiple sensors that are picking up these things, and some of these are unexplained phenomenon, and there is actually quite a few more than have been made public.'

The government was, in December, given a 180-day deadline to disclose what it knew, meaning that the report should be out before June 1.

Ratcliffe said he had hoped to publish their findings before he left office on January 20.

'We weren't able to get it down into an unclassified format quickly enough,' he said.

The report was part of a $2.3 trillion COVID relief bill, which Trump signed into law in December.

The bill contained the Senate Intelligence Committee's Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 that had in it a 'committee comment' section that addressed 'unidentified aerial phenomena.'

The report, produced by the Pentagon and the intelligence agencies, must identify, among other things, any threats posed by unidentified aerial phenomena and whether they may be attributed to foreign adversaries.

'Weather can cause disturbances, visual disturbances,' Ratcliffe said.

'Sometimes we wonder whether or not our adversaries have technologies that are a little bit further down the road than we thought or than we realized.

'But there are instances where we don't have good explanations for some of the things that we have seen.'

Avril Haines is now the Director of National Intelligence in the Biden administration.

The Defense Department announced in September the creation of an Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force on August 4.

Videos from the Navy were released last year through the Freedom of Information Act that showed UFOs moving at incredible speeds and performing seemingly impossible aerial maneuvers.

One of the videos was shot in November 2004; the other two were shot in January 2015. The three videos were code-named 'FLIR1,' 'Gimbal,' and 'GoFast.'

In the 2015 videos, Navy pilots can be heard expressing disbelief. All three UFO videos were captured by Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets.

The videos were made public and published because of efforts by the New York Times, as well as through efforts by To The Stars Academy, which was founded by Tom Delonge, the founder and lead vocalist for the bands Blink-182 and Angels & Airwaves.

Ratcliffe said it would be 'healthy' for as much of this information as possible to be made public.

A week before Ratcliffe stepped down, in January, the CIA released a treasure trove of newly-unsealed records.

They showed chilling accounts of hundreds of UFO sightings across the globe dating back to the 1950s - along with the international intelligence community's efforts to understand them.

A dossier with nearly 3,000 pages of documents about Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs) - the government's official term for what are commonly called UFOs - was published on The Black Vault website.

Thousands of paranormal enthusiasts pored through the collection of more than 700 individual documents, according to Black Vault's founder John Greenewald Jr, who has spent the past two decades suing the CIA to release the records and then scanning the pages into his database one by one.

The CIA purports that the files account for its 'entire' collection of declassified UAP intel, but Greenewald cautions that there's no way to verify that claim and has vowed to continue searching for further records.

The documents also show correspondence about UFO sightings between CIA officers and members of the military.

Sometimes the officials brush off observers' stories as purely superstitious, even when another explanation isn't clear. But in other instances the officers show genuine concern that perhaps something dangerous is at play.

Pictured: A photo from the Project Blue Book archive shows lights misidentified as a group of UFOs over a Coast Guard air station in Salem, Massachusetts in 1952

In December it emerged that two Pentagon reports had been produced, providing detailed classified information about strange sightings.

The DoD's Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force issued the two classified intelligence 'position reports' in 2018 and summer 2020, and they circulated widely in the U.S. intelligence community, according to a detailed account from The Debrief based on interviews with multiple intelligence sources.

The position reports' startling contents included a leaked photo that has never before been made public, accounts of 'Unidentified Aerial Phenomena' (UAP) emerging from the ocean and soaring through the sky, and an admission that extraterrestrial origins for the objects cannot be ruled out.

This leaked photo, published by The Debrief in December, was included in the 2018 position report, two DoD and one intelligence source told the outlet

The photo was previously described as depicting an 'unidentified silver 'cube-shaped' object' hovering over the ocean at an altitude of roughly 30,000 to 35,000

The leaked photo was was captured in 2018 off the East Coast of the United States by a military pilot using his cell phone camera, the sources said.

The photo was previously described as depicting an 'unidentified silver 'cube-shaped' object' hovering over the ocean at an altitude of roughly 30,000 to 35,000.

It appears that the image was captured by the backseat weapons systems operator of what appears to be an F/A-18 fighter jet.

Experts were baffled by the photo, but noted that the object somewhat resembles a GPS dropsonde, an atmospheric profiling device designed to be dropped from aircraft, typically over a hurricane.

'These revelations are extraordinary, and give the public a genuine peek behind the curtain when it comes to how the US government is handling the UFO issue,' Nick Pope, who investigated UFOs for the UK Ministry of Defence, told DailyMail.com.

'What this new information does is confirm that the US government is taking the UFO phenomenon more seriously than ever before,' he added. 'I anticipate further revelations shortly.'

The Pentagon has not confirmed the existence of the two position reports, as well as the authenticity of a leaked cockpit photo included in one of the reports.

Even more shocking were the revelations contained in a second, revised report issued by the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force in early 2020.

The report delved deeply into the possibility that UAP are able to freely move both through the air and underwater, zipping through the ocean undetected and emerging into the air at incredible speeds.

The report contained an 'extremely clear' photograph of an unidentifiable triangular aircraft that emerged from the ocean in front of a F/A-18 Hornet fighter pilot, sources told The Debrief.

An artist's recreation (above) shows the image in the 2020 report as described by sources: a large equilateral triangle with rounded edges and large, spherical white 'lights' in each corner

Researcher Dave Beaty created this image to depict the object as described by sources who had seen the report from the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force

That photo has not been leaked publicly, but artist and researcher Dave Beaty's recreation shows it as described by sources: a large equilateral triangle with rounded or 'blunted' edges and large, perfectly spherical white 'lights' in each corner.

The encounter occurred off the East Coast in 2019, according to officials who had seen the latest report.

Two officials said said the photo was taken after the triangular craft emerged from the ocean and shot straight upwards.

Officials say the latest report focused specifically on the possibility of 'transmedium' craft that are able to operate both underwater and in the air.

'Tic Tac' UFO: US Navy pilot made visual contact with the object on November 14, 2004At least six Super Hornet pilots made visual or instrument contact with the UFO on November 14, 2004.

The encounters, which are documented in numerous interviews with first-hand witnesses, remain a mystery, and the object's incredible speed and movements have led to speculation that it was extraterrestrial in origin.

The original FLIR video from the USS Nimitz encounters leaked online as early as 2007.

Witnesses say that clips of the video had been circulated widely on the Navy's intranet - used to communicate between ships in the carrier group - and an unknown sailor in the group likely first leaked it.

The clip became one of the most-touted pieces of evidence in the UFO community when the Pentagon confirmed its authenticity in 2017.

In January, Chad Underwood, the former Navy aviator who shot the famous leaked video clip, broke his silence in an interview with New York Magazine.

Chad Underwood, the former Navy aviator who shot the famous leaked video clip, broke his silence in an interview with New York Magazine in January

He said the oblong, wingless 'Tic Tac' shaped object was spotted off the coast of Mexico over the Pacific.

He also revealed that for about two weeks, the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Princeton, part of Carrier Strike Group 11, had been tracking mysterious aircraft intermittently on an advanced AN/SPY-1B passive radar.

The radar contacts were so inexplicable that the system was even shut down and restarted to to check for bugs - but operators continued to track the unknown aircraft.

Then on November 14, Commander David Fravor says he was flying in an F/A-18F Super Hornet when he made visual contact with the object, which seemed to dive below the water, resurface, and speed out of sight when he tried to approach it.

As Fravor landed on the deck of the Nimitz, Underwood was just gearing up to take off on his own training run.

Fravor told Underwood about the bizarre encounter, and urged Underwood to keep his eyes open.

He recalls how he suddenly saw a blip on his radar before tracking it on his FLIR camera.

Underwood was flying in an F/A-18F Super Hornet as part of the USS Nimitz (above) carrier group when he encountered an 'unidentified aerial phenomena'

'The thing that stood out to me the most was how erratic it was behaving,' Underwood told the magazine.

'And what I mean by 'erratic' is that its changes in altitude, air speed, and aspect were just unlike things that I've ever encountered before flying against other air targets.'

Underwood said the object wasn't obeying the laws of physics and dropped from 50,000 feet altitude to 100 feet in seconds, which he says, 'isn't possible'. He added that he saw no signs of an engine heat plume or any sign of propulsion.

The pilot refuses to speculate as to whether the object is an alien spacecraft or not, however.

'That's not my job. But I saw something. And it was also seen, via eyeballs, by both my commanding officer, Dave Fravor, and the Marine Corps Hornet squadron commanding officer who was out there as well.'

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Tue, 23 Mar 2021 14:08

The Breez Lightning client now includes a native podcasting network '-- a major step toward bringing the decentralized economy to podcast creators.

As consumers increasingly turn to podcasts for digestible content, content creators have found the world of podcasting rife with adversarial monetization. Traditionally, creators must rely on advertisements embedded within their podcasts. This not only breaks the natural flow of the content, but encourages podcasters to pander to their advertisers, and not their audiences.

Enter Breez: By integrating the streaming of podcasts with an instantaneous payment system like the Lightning Network, podcast creators become self-sufficient and self-monetized. This is often referred to as ''Podcasting 2.0.''

"When we started the Podcasting 2.0 movement, we anticipated Lightning service providers and wallet developers would see the use case of value for value streaming payments,'' said Adam Curry, an original champion and long time proponent of podcasting, in an announcement about Breez's new support for podcasting sent to Bitcoin Magazine. ''The whole team at Breez made the vision a reality with their in-app podcast player. This is a game changer for podcasting and Lightning.''

The legacy podcasting industry is largely dominated by centralized services which take large portions of earned ad revenue. By eliminating this extraneous drain on revenue, streamers can reconnect their effort with their earnings. In addition, Podcasting 2.0 encourages creators to reconnect with their audiences, as they become the financial driver of the podcast's growth rather than advertisers.

''Streaming sats to podcasters is a great example of how we can expand the P2P Lightning economy into many new areas,'' Breez CEO Roy Sheinfeld explained in the announcement. ''The fact that users carry a Lightning node in their pockets adds a lot of freedom, and it can really improve our overall quality of life.''

The increasing ease with which consumers will be able to directly pay content creators is going to play a large role in the decentralization of the economy. Breez mobilizes this economy via Lightning and Bitcoin, and is leading the charge in offering real alternatives to traditional, centralized streaming platforms.

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Mon, 22 Mar 2021 13:30

There will be a shift in the global ageing population from 7% today to 20% in the next few decades. This growth will be one of the greatest social, economic, and political transformations of our time. It will force changes in systems, have impact on families, and will require new solutions. Though older adults are a reigning economic segment, the attitudes and stereotypes about ageing still persist and market innovation to meet their needs is lagging behind. Collaboration among policy-makers, civil society, academia, and the private-sector is crucial to creating holistic solutions that promote the safety, autonomy, well-being, and dignity of older adults. Many societies have outdated beliefs about ageing. Older adults are often described as frail, as ''challenges'' to be addressed, and they are discriminated against, particularly in the workplace, where their experience and knowledge should count.

While we celebrate the birth and growth of children and their early adulthood, we fail to respect those with wisdom and important stories to pass down to younger generations. Marketing companies tend to focus on millennials and Gen Z, but one of the largest economic segments, the baby boomers, are largely forgotten.

According to a recent survey, baby boomers in the US are projected to have 70% of disposable income over the next five years yet less than 10% of advertising efforts are directed towards them. As they begin to retire and continue to do so over the next several decades, there is untapped opportunity in the realm of retirement services.

Rethinking stereotypical beliefs about ageing and changing the discourse around older adults will positively transform society into one where everyone can age with purpose.

Image: United Nations

The challenges of getting olderBy 2050, the number of adults over the age of 65 globally will double, reaching a staggering 1.6 billion, with the largest growth in the developing world. This growth will be one of the greatest social, economic, and political transformations of our time, that will impact existing healthcare, government and social systems, that today are largely not inclusive of the ageing population or built to the scale needed to support it.

But we can begin to make investments in our support systems (enabled and scaled by technology) that encompass a coordinated response from governments, society, academia, and the private sector.

A precursor to investing in innovative solutions will be to acknowledge the needs of older adults and identify their caregiving challenges. These are the issues that will inform the solutions agenda.

Ageing in place

Ageing in place refers to the desire to be independent in a residence of one's choice and participate in the community. Meaningful social contact and well-being are essential components of ageing in place. Instead of segregating people into communities based on age (like retirement communities), intergenerational living can provide companionship and purpose for older adults.

Independent mobility

Driving cessation is associated with increased depressive symptoms and a variety of other health consequences. Therefore, meeting the mobility needs of the older population is crucial to minimizing the adverse impacts on their health and well-being.

Health challenges

The health challenges faced by older adults undermine the potential opportunities of increased longevity. Unfortunately, older adults are disproportionately affected by chronic ailments, with 80% of seniors in the US having at least one chronic disease and 70% having at least two. Heart disease, stroke, cancer, and diabetes are among the most common.

Approximately 47.5 million people worldwide have dementia'--a number that is predicted to nearly triple by 2050.

Social engagement

Social inclusion or active engagement in society via a social network (whether through employment, volunteering, childcare, learning or teaching) has a positive impact on mortality, well-being, and life satisfaction. In fact, the fallout from social isolation and loneliness is estimated to cost US Medicare $6.7 billion per year.

Financial health and reskilling

A significant number of low- and medium-income seniors experience financial challenges that require them to extend their retirement plan. With increased longevity, even those individuals who have the means to retire want to stay in the workforce longer but can face age discrimination, despite the fact that an intergenerational workforce that embraces mentoring and reverse mentoring can spark innovation and organizational success.

Diversity in abilities

It is important to acknowledge that older adults are a heterogeneous group of individuals, with varying physical, sensory, cognitive, and sensory abilities. Contrary to popular belief, there is not always a clear relationship between chronological age and health status.

In fact, a significant proportion of older Americans are healthy across a broad age range, from 51-54, 55-59 all the way to those aged 85+. There are also variations in educational levels and technological experience among older adults.

Ageing with disability

While disability in the older population can arise as a result of age-related declines in sensory, mobility, and cognitive functions, individuals can also experience disability as a result of pre-existing impairments. In addition to supporting older adults with a range of abilities, it is also important to support those with long-term impairments. For example, someone who was born blind and relied on auditory cues to interact with a system may experience age-related decline in hearing and may not be able to rely solely on auditory information anymore.

Lack of professional caregivers

Globally, health and social care systems are struggling to meet the needs of older adults. For example, a recent longitudinal study conducted in the United Kingdom revealed that more than 50% of older adults who needed assistance with daily activities get no support. There is a palpable need for a sustainable social care system with enough care workers to manage an ageing population in several nations across the globe including Germany, India, Japan and the United States.

Family caregiver burden

The growth in the population of older adults coupled with the desire to age in place and the shortage of professional care providers is requiring families and friends to fill the gaps.

In the US, one in five adults are caregivers. Coordinating the care across the care continuum, which disproportionality effects women, includes balancing healthcare decisions, care plan adherence, and medications. General tasks associated with the day-to-day care for a loved one is stressful and expensive.

As a result, family caregivers suffer from cognitive overload, balance of time and especially relationship loss as they shift from the role of daughter, son or spouse to a caregiver role. In fact, family caregivers suffer a significantly higher rate of depression. Our research also indicates that family caregiving represents $1.2 trillion in economic loss in the US alone. Losses comprise unpaid labour, low business productivity, lost salaries, and increased medical costs totaling almost $100 billion (partly resulting from high rates of caregiver depression).

A multistakeholder approach to ageingCatering to the needs of an ageing population is a largely untapped opportunity, but the space is fragmented. This presents a challenge, but also a space for a broader ecosystem to grow, where brand, trust and reliability from a multistakeholder base are critical for scaling up innovation.

To truly bring the holistic services needed to market, device makers, developers, enterprises such as retirement homes and insurance companies, civil society, policy-makers, and academia should come together to develop a unified platform that includes Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence. More importantly, older adults must be at the centre of this change, where their values and perspectives are included in the solutions.

Technology trends and predictions

Technology has the potential to enhance individual lives, facilitate caregiving, and improve the delivery of services. Contrary to popular belief, more seniors have embraced digital technologies than ever before, with perceived benefits and usability driving adoption. Specific areas of technology that are being explored to meet the needs of older adults include:

Telemedicine Tablets for communication and entertainment ''Smart'' platforms that integrate electronic medical records (EMRs) and electronic health records with AI and analytics Wearables Voice, touch, motion, and other assistive technologies Connected IoT devices and sensors Technologies for safety (monitoring and alert devices) Sensory aids (e.g., hearing devices) Gig economy services (e.g., meal delivery) Self-driving cars Robots Microsoft is one of the organizations investing in this space. For example, Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare helps manage health data at scale by providing personalized care, transforming data into patient insights, enabling virtual care and care team collaboration, optimizing treatment by combining IoT and analytics, and promoting data interoperability.

Microsoft Azure Kinect and Teams is being used for rehabilitation at homes, allowing patients and therapists to communicate with each other.

These are meeting some aspects of the challenge '' but there is a much broader opportunity across different sectors that will require a coordinated approach to succeed at scale.

Alzheimer's Diesease, a result of rapid ageing that causes dementia, is a growing concern. Dementia, the seventh leading cause of death worldwide, cost the world $1.25 trillion in 2018, and affected about 50 million people in 2019. Without major breakthroughs, the number of people affected will triple by 2050, to 152 million.

To catalyse the fight against Alzheimer's, the World Economic Forum is partnering with the Global CEO Initiative (CEOi) to form a coalition of public and private stakeholders '' including pharmaceutical manufacturers, biotech companies, governments, international organizations, foundations and research agencies.

The initiative aims to advance pre-clinical research to advance the understanding of the disease, attract more capital by lowering the risks to investment in biomarkers, develop standing clinical trial platforms, and advance healthcare system readiness in the fields of detection, diagnosis, infrastructure and access.

The economic impact of ageing will be massive, but the burden on individuals and their families and the healthcare system itself will be even larger. There is a present opportunity to help people and businesses achieve more.

With the retirement industry in the US targeted somewhere in the hundreds of billions, it is large today and set to grow over the next decade. A further 98 countries are expected to have an even higher proportion of people aged 65-plus than the US by 2050. This is not only a market that is poised for monetization '' but investment into it is essential to the sustainability and dignity of communities, worldwide.

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Tue, 23 Mar 2021 15:58

De populariteit van podcasts is groot. Velen maken ze, vaak voor niets of een appel en een ei. Hoe verdien je geld met een podcast? Dat is de grote vraag en het antwoord ligt bij: streaming money. Of: het bitcoin-lightning-netwerk.

Niet alleen voor geeky jongetjes en meisjes in achterkamertjes, maar bereikbaar (C)n begrijpbaar voor iedereen. Ik schreef er al eerder over, maar toen was het nauwelijks de proof-of-concept-fase voorbij. Het werkte nog niet bepaald voor ons, de gewone mens.

Nu dus wel: walletmaker Breez bracht op 23 maart een testversie uit voor iOS en voor een enkeling met de juiste kanalen ook voor Android.

De stappen op iOS: download de wallet in het TestFlight-programma, installeer, maak een klein plukje (bijvoorbeeld omgerekend 5 euro) aan Lightning-bitcoin naar Breez-met-podcastmogelijkheid over. Zoek een podcast en warempel, als de podcast in zijn RSS-feed de zogenaamde 'value tag' heeft opgenomen, dan kun je heel kleine plukjes geld in de vorm van microbitcoins naar de maker van de podcast sturen. Zomaar, zonder gedoe.

Ik ben niet enthousiast, ik ben bijna euforisch. Dit kon eerst alleen met een app waar heel veel goede bedoelingen in zitten, maar die ik (nog) niet bepaald aan iemand zou aanraden. Nu is het dus andersom: een wallet, een bitcoinbewaarportemonnee, voegt podcasting aan zijn service toe en dus niet een podcastingapp die een walletservice toevoegt.

Dit is precies wat bitcoin is: de basislaag is supersafe, traag en kostbaar. Daar bouw je andere dingen bovenop. Apps die iets kunnen, systemen waar we echt iets aan hebben in combinatie met die hele domme bitcoinblockchainbasis. Eigenlijk precies hoe internet werkt, zelf ook een vrij 'dom' netwerk dat vooral heel goed is in data verplaatsen. En bitcoin is heel goed in waarde verplaatsen.

Het zogenaamde Lightning-netwerk draait als het ware 'bovenop' de bitcoinblockchain. Is een '2de laag'. Een laag die heel veel sneller werkt, veel goedkoper is en bedoeld voor kleine bedragen. En daar dan ook heel erg goed in is om die af te handelen of het settelen van transacties. Microstransacties in dit geval zelfs.

De Breez-appNa al die euforie, hoog tijd de app zelf kort onder de loep te nemen. Het gaat om een bitcoinwallet met lightning-functionaliteit. Je kunt deze wallet gebruiken als 'normale' bitcoinwallet, maar daar is deze niet voor bedoeld. Breez is bedoeld voor het lightning-netwerk of LN. Dat netwerk bestaat nog maar kort en het was tot niet zo lang geleden een drama om er iets mee te doen als je geen technische kennis had. Die problemen zijn in 2019 en 2020 uit de weg geruimd en er ontstond een groot aantal heel simpele bitcoin-LN-wallets. Ofwel portemonnees waar je geen kennis voor nodig hebt.

Screenshots uit b¨ta-versie van Breez-walletNa het downloaden van de app, krijgt je direct het hoofdscherm te zien met de walletfunctionaliteit. Dan zijn er twee opties: Send en Receive, ofwel verzenden en ontvangen.

De b¨taversie met podcastfunctionaliteit heeft in het menu aan de linkerkant direct onder balance ook Podcasts staan. Daaronder staat de optie een Point of Sale te openen, een simpele kassafunctionaliteit, en daaronder apps en voorkeuren of Preferences.

Om iets te kunnen doen met LN-bitcoins moet je ze eerst hebben. Daar zit een addertje onder het gras voor zij die ze nog niet hebben, maar daarover later meer.

Druk simpelweg op receive en klik op Receive via Invoice. Daar kun je de hoeveelheid in bitcoin aangeven, maar door op het tekentje rechts te klikken kun je ook euro's of dollars aangeven. Stel, we sturen 5 euro aan LN-bitcoins naar de wallet. Daarvoor maak je een invoice aan. Na het aanmaken krijg je een qr-code te zien en de mogelijkheid de code te kopiren. We doen dat laatste en plakken die code in een andere LN-bitcoinwallet met wel fondsen erin. Daarna is het slechts een kwestie van accepteren van de factuur en verzenden. Enkele seconden later staat de 0.0001077 bitcoin (op moment van schrijven ongeveer 5 euro) op je Breez-wallet.

Ga je nu naar het tabje Podcasts dan zie je daar al enkele podcasts die gebruikmaken van het systeem waaronder twee Nederlandstalige podcasts De Bitcoin Show en Hup Bitcoin. Beginnen met Bitcoin accepteert ze ook, maar daarvoor moet je even in het zoekveld 'beginnen met bitcoin' invoeren. In principe zijn, voor zover mij bekend, alle podcasts die zich bij het podcastindex.org-netwerk van Adam Curry hebben aangesloten te vinden.

De MagicDan komt de magic. Je gaat naar de podcast in kwestie toe en klikt op een aflevering. Dan klik je op play en zie je een paar extra buttons onderaan die je bij andere podcastapps (nog) niet zult vinden, namelijk Boost! en een button met daaronder sats/min dat staat voor satoshi's per minuut. Een satoshi is de kleinste deler van bitcoin, ofwel 0.00000001 bitcoin.*

Je kunt bij Boost een bedrag instellen en als je dan op Boost klikt, dan stuurt ie in een keer dat bedrag naar de podcast. De andere functie zorgt ervoor dat je per minuut je podcast betaalt. Zo weet je als podcaster ook of mensen je aflevering ¼berhaupt wel afluisteren zonder dat je extra spionage-software nodig hebt om zo je luisteraars te bespieden op hun gedrag.

Als je de per-minuut functie op 0 zet, dan betaal je niets.

Uiteraard is de app nog wat kaal in vergelijking met andere podcastapps en mist nog veel standaard-podcastappfunctionaliteit, maar dit is wel een begin waar ik blij van wordt. Hoe andere podcasts zich makkelijk aan kunnen sluiten kun je het best checken in het LightningNL-telegramkanaal of zie uitleg over de code in het artikel Podcast en streaming money dat ik op 7 november over dit onderwerp schreef. Met behulp van Podcasterwallet kun je ook zonder RSS-skills of zonder de mogelijkheid iets aan je RSS-feed te wijzigen satoshi's ontvangen.

Kleine waarschuwing: het is nog wel erg makkelijk om je geld 'kwijt' te raken, want als je per ongeluk op 'boost' klikt, is het ook in (C)(C)n keer weg. Maar nogmaals: het is b¨ta, het is nog vroeg, toch als je ziet HOE relatief makkelijk dit blijkbaar te implementeren is, geeft dat hoop. Hopelijk zien anderen ook dat podcasts vrij en open kunnen blijven door niet achter betaalmuren van grote bedrijven te gaan hangen en wellicht vele andere vormen van online media.

Happy podcasting!

Lightning-bitcoinWat is Lightning-bitcoin of LN-bitcoin of LN-BTC nou eigenlijk? In feite zijn het normale bitcoins, alleen ze staan als het ware vast in kanalen van gebruikers. Tussen die kanalen kunne zonder tussenkomst van de gewone bitcoinblockchain toch transacties uitgevoerd worden. Technisch gezien is dit een ietsiepietsie minder veilig dan een transactie uitvoeren op de grote, trage en dure bitcoinblockchain, maar het is wel duizenden keren sneller en goedkoper. Een transactie kost vaak zelfs zo weinig dat je het niet in centen uit kunt drukken. De gedachte is dan ook dat veel mensen nooit met het bitcoinbasisnetwerk in aanraking zullen komen, behalve misschien voor sparen of andere zaken waarbij snelheid van transacties of kosten van een transactie niet zoveel uitmaken.

Het lightning-netwerk bestaat goed en wel nog maar kort. Kanalen kunnen goed en wel sinds maart 2018 gemaakt worden. Sindsdien is er heel veel ontwikkeld en het gaat steeds sneller, juist omdat als het er eenmaal is, iedereen er iets mee kan doen, zolang je je maar aan bepaalde standaarden houdt.

* Het kan nog kleiner, namelijk een duizendste satoshi, maar dat is nog niet relevant voor gewone betalingen

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Thu, 25 Mar 2021 14:09

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Thu, 25 Mar 2021 13:16

I miss the old days when these people were locked up in mental institutions.

OMG! I tried to watch, but the vomit in my mouth needed too removed, followed by a long shower. I still feel kinda dirty, there should have been a warning on that video that it might lead to nausea, followed by extreme anxiety. SIGH!

I wanted to puke, brain dead Biden zombies.

welcome to socialism'.....and its only week 10'...'...'...'....ammo up

I threw up a little in my mouth. ðŸ¤

Shouldn't have looked at this while eating breakfast, I wanted to vomit. Do the commie/Democrats really think we're that stupid?

Trust in no one but Jesus

I'm still scratching my brain and sad to know people really believe this crap. If the media would do their job and report that millions of us have gone about our lives without a vaccine, going to work, sending kids to school, eating out and not wearing a mask, etc'... maybe they wouldn't be so afraid and brain washed. Sadly, people do not get out nor think for themselves.

Goebbels would be so proud.

Single Mom Makes $89,844/Yr in Her Spare Time on The Computer Without Selling Anything. you can bring from $5000-$8000 of extra income every month. working at home for 4 hours a day, and earning could be even bigger.

The potential with this is endless'...>>>>>> https://mysp.ac/4poc8

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oh. my. god!!! wth was that?? is this real or is it a parody?? 'cause if its real, its the dumbest video ever made!!

'' YOU VILL OWN NOTHSINGK UND YOU'LL BE HAPPY ABOUT ZIS''! Says REICHS UBER FUHERER KLAUSS. JUST LIKE THOSE SLAVES ON DAS PLANTATIONS UND POOREST PEOPLE ON AFRIKA UND INDIA! Yah!

This is called propaganda!

Propaganda always consists of lies. This is pure lies. I pity the fools this resonates with.

This is satire, right? No one could really be that stupid, right?

You do know we are dealing with Liberals, right???'...Now I have to figure out how to unsee this!

President Harris spent $87 billion on those videos.

Yea but $86.9b went to her and Pedo Joe's family so it's okay. Just bend over and relax.

Let's see fellow Globalists,Will have our Dr.Fauci and pal Gates dress rehearsal ''Agenda 21'' in October 2019 for our Plandemic to scare Americans, destroy small independent businesses, further dumb down the kids forcing them out of school to stare at computer screens all day and destroy the economy so no one will vote for Trump.Doesn't matter if they do cuz we can rig the election with our automatic voting machines from Communist China.Then we will roll out the vaccines that change the human genetic code and require everyone to get their vaccine lot number tattooed on their forehead in order to eat.Like these ideas?

An attempt to normalize the destruction they created'...FU

I got about1/4 of the way through before I puked on my shoes.

I was lucky, no breakfast yet,..but did gag for a while'...

You lost brain cells. I lost my breakfast all over myself

''Competent Leaders''????? Really!!!! Hahahahahahahaaaaaa'..... What a Freaking Joke'..... These Moron Demoturd ''leaders'' in the swamp don't give a crap about the American Citizens'... They are only concerned with their own power and wealth'....

One more thingI find this repulsive and disgustingThey are singing and dancing about a vaccine for the biggest scamdemic pandemic that killed small business, seniors. Only lib twats would do this and I can't stand em

These people have serious mental problems. That lady is scary looking.

Tokyo Rose would be so proud of them!

The funny thing is, after being warned of brain cell loss, I watched this sh!t anyway'....Couldn't make it all the way through the first one.Couldn't make it past ''competent leader'' BS in the second one.I am 62 and never really hated anyone before in my life.Leftists have changed that for me.

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The lies and manipulation pushed in these videos are for the benefit of only morons'...

There was one thing I wanted to do in March 2020 that I had to modify. That is all my damages from the Wuhan virus.

My business improved greatly since March 2020 because I benefitted from new customers leaving my competitors whom were hiding in their closets, wallowing in ignorance.

if this truly resonates with liberals, they are beyond repair. the piece infantilized them.

They aren't Liberals. They are leftists. The two are antithetical. That alone should explain to you that they have been beyond repair for over 100 years.

Disagree. Leftards. Regressives. Leftists. Liberals. All shapes of the same ðŸ'(C)

Unless, of course, you mean classic liberalism.

A real, Classic Liberal would freak out and raise hell over all of this Government Over reach.Reagan was a Liberal till the Democrats went over the deep end with abusive banking and destructive Policies. He said :''He did not leave the Democrat Party, it left him,..in California.He repaired much of the damage done to the US by Carter and the Leftists, set us back on the right path. Trump did the same with MAGA,.. and now we have the Liberal Marxists in control'... destroying everything they can'... because that is what Marxists do. They only call themselves Liberals to hide what they really are.

The Biden administration:Chaos wrapped in a freak show, wrapped in racism, wrapped in stupidity, wrapped in dementia.

In the last year, I've flown on a plane, eaten in restaurants, visited my parents every weekend, hung out with friends, went to bars, went to crowded events, went on trips, and never missed a beat. These people are weak cowards. Covid was a hoax to anyone under 50 years old.

And that liberal woman is obviously nuts, just look at her eyes.

Same here in Missouri. Never wore a mask and did not change a thing and I am 52. Ignorance is the only virus people should be afraid of.

Simple ignorance is relatively benign. Leftism/Progressivism is a malignant cancer.

I'm over 50 and have done the exact same thing. Covid is a political ploy that was used to control the masses.

GA here. A bunch of the families in my sub got together on December 23rd. All got it together. Mild to moderate cold for 100% of us. Done in 10 days. Yay! Now I'm immune and no cringe vaccination day required.

Titter and Reddit approved

39 seconds!! I lasted through 39 seconds this garbage before I threw up.

Full spew, or just a little in your mouth?

After watching those videos, I strongly feel It is time to burn down this country, genocide all the lefties, and rebuild it in OUR glorious image,

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Now lets not use words like genocide, you'll get visits from men (some of them biological) in suits who've all had humorectomies. Just remove them from all positions of power and they become simple garden variety raving lunatics.

When government says go left, I go right, and vice versa.

These commercials will turn everyone off of anything to do with lockdowns and mask-mandates. Good job for contriubiting to the anti-mask crowd, which includes me.

OMG that was painful first thing in the a.m. I know the work of the first guy and he is talented but he has such trust in the government that it is sad. In the 2nd one, I hope she keeps drinking the KoolAid because down the line she may wake up and realize she's been pranked. Whenever you include that partisan cut against conservatives you destroy any value in the message. It may seem to be fun circling the toilet bowel, but the final flush into the dark sewer of indifferent politicians and criminal Pharma companies with their enablers it's all dark all the time.

The first video is from the Holderness family, a popular channel on YouTube. They're kinda funny, but they've sold out to the commercial industry to endorse and sell products, and they're very into all the covid neurosis. I have a soft spot for them, they're very creative, but their covid BS can get to be a bit much. The second video of the lady singing is boring, and pure ignorance and propaganda'....she's not smart enough to admit Trump got us the vaccine in record time, even though morons like her said it couldn't be done. Pure douchebaggery! Thank you President Trump!

5 years from now'...IF YOU TOOK THE COVID VACCINE YOU COULD RECEIVE FINANCIAL COMPENSATION CALL OUR OFFICES TODAY.

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I don't even give it 5 years. Two maybe. People are already falling over dead from this fake vaccine.

Yeah, when they find some sort of unexplained internal growth. Government will never link it to the shots.

The guberment authorized it's use on an ''emergency basis'', I bet there is a ''the company cannot be sued'' clause in there somewhere'...'....

The first video, the Holderness Family, is satire. He's making fun of people needing a shot to live normally '' not celebrating it, FWIW.

So then why would people in a hospital setting demand that I put on one of their little paper masks when I had on an N95 mask and also had an Inogen 4 oxygen machine on and tell me it isn't a problem when I tell them I have COPD. Of course, it isn't a problem for them-it is a problem for me when I can't breathe and they expect me to walk a long way. It is all about control of their little fiefdom-it isn't medical-it is about control.

According to the ADA it's ok to suffocate people in our position. One less person to cull.

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Thu, 25 Mar 2021 12:00

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Thu, 25 Mar 2021 11:47

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Thu, 25 Mar 2021 00:45

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Wed, 24 Mar 2021 20:50

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Wed, 24 Mar 2021 15:08

CHICAGO (CBS) '-- Your completed vaccination card could be your key to bars, restaurants, and events.

A new Illinois state rule, in effect now, that says people who are fully vaccinated don't count against a venue's COVID-19 capacity regulations.

READ MORE: Child Tax Credit: 'IRS Not Set Up Currently To Provide Regular Monthly Payments,' Says ExpertHow is that actually going to work?

As CBS 2's Tara Molina reported Tuesday, the City of Chicago is still considering and reviewing the new rule. But it is in effect elsewhere across the state.

We got in touch with a restaurant group with businesses in and outside the city to talk about the position they're in with the rule '' and what it could look like for you.'‚¬''

According to the new rule, anyone with proof of full vaccination prior to an event or outing does not count against the COVID-19 related capacity limits '' which are still in place across the state.

''You know, it's getting a little confusing,'' said Steve Hartenstein of the Stefani Restaurant Group. ''How do you have the time to ask? And how do you '' is it intrusive to ask somebody, 'So have you been vaccinated? Show me?'''

And with so many unanswered questions, Hartenstein said his restaurant group has not implemented any big changes in their restaurants outside of the city yet.

''What happens if it's a mixed table? What if one of us was fully vaccinated and one of us wasn't?'' Hartenstein said. ''It's going to be a bit of a challenge.''

READ MORE: Senators Duckworth, Hirono Back Off Threats To Oppose Biden Nominees After White House Adds AAPI AdvisorWe reached out to see if the state is sharing any guidance this with business owners.

''Anything we can do to get more open is great,'' Hartenstein said.

A spokesperson for Gov. JB Pritzker's office said businesses will need to ask to see proof of vaccination from customers '' and if they're not comfortable doing that, they can just continue to operate with current capacity limits:

''Businesses that wish to increase capacity limits should request to see proof of a negative test or vaccination from patrons. Those who are vaccinated are provided a card as proof and test results are usually available via some form of written communication. This is not a requirement for business, but just another tool they can utilize to accommodate more customers in a healthy and safe manner. If businesses do not want to ask their patrons about their vaccination status or test results they are free to continue abiding by the current capacity limits as the state moves to further stages of reopening.''

Molina asked the Mayor's office and the city's Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection about a timeline on when we could see this rule apply here. Right now, they will only say they are reviewing these new updates from the governor.

BACP issued the following statement:

''The City is reviewing the guidelines released by the State last week. At this point, Chicago's existing regulations remain in place, which means that individuals with proof of vaccination or negative COVID-19 test count towards capacity limits.''

MORE NEWS: Chicago Police Officer Injured In Bronzeville Crash After Woman Runs Red LightMolina as of late Tuesday was also awaiting responses to inquiries about the new rule from the city and state departments of public health. But we know the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has asked people who are vaccinated still to avoid any kind of gathering that is not small, so there are more than a few lingering questions.

Tara Molina

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Wed, 24 Mar 2021 03:56

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Tue, 23 Mar 2021 17:52

President Biden Joe BidenGood luck, Dan Bongino! The Hill's Morning Report - Biden's next act: Massive infrastructure plan with tax hikes Conservative group says polling shows Dems' voting rights bill 'out of sync with American voters' MORE on Tuesday called on Congress to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and to close loopholes in the background check system after a gunman killed 10 people at a grocery store in Boulder, Colo.

''I don't need to wait another minute, let alone an hour, to take common sense steps that will save lives in the future and to urge my colleagues in the House and Senate to act,'' Biden said in remarks at the White House following Monday's shooting. ''We can ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in this country once again. I got that done when I was a senator. '... We should do it again.''

Biden called on the Senate to ''immediately pass'' two House-passed bills that would expand background checks for firearm sales, noting that both passed the Democrat-controlled lower chamber with some Republican support.

''This is not and should not be a partisan issue, this is an American issue. It will save lives, American lives, and we have to act,'' Biden said.

Ten people, including a police officer, were shot and killed at a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder on Monday.

Authorities on Tuesday identified the suspect as 21-year-old Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa from Arvada, Colo. He has been charged with 10 counts of murder.

Biden noted that officials were still waiting for more information on the shooter, his motive and the weapons he used. Various reports Tuesday indicated that the suspect used an AR-15 type of assault rifle to carry out the attack.

The president said he was being regularly briefed by Attorney General Merrick Garland Merrick GarlandDuckworth: Atlanta shootings look 'racially motivated' Biden condemns anti-Asian violence, 'ugly poison' of racism Exclusive: GOP officials offer support for Vanita Gupta MORE and FBI Director Christopher Wray and is in touch with state and local leaders in Colorado.

Biden thanked the ''heroic'' police and first responders and commended the ''exceptional bravery'' of Eric Talley, the police officer who lost his life responding to the shooting, while offering condolences to the families who lost loved ones.

''Those poor folks who died left behind families, that leaves a big hole in their hearts,'' Biden said. ''Those families who are mourning today because of gun violence in Colorado and Georgia and all across the country, we have to act so there's not more of you, there's fewer of you, as time goes on.''

Biden delivered the remarks before departing the White House to Columbus, Ohio, where he will highlight his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package and mark the 11th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act.

Biden ordered flags at the White House to be flown at half-staff before his departure, noting they were still there from last week's deadly shooting in Atlanta when he heard the news out of Boulder.

Vice President Harris earlier described the shooting as ''absolutely tragic'' in brief remarks to reporters at a swearing-in ceremony for CIA Director William Burns William BurnsThe Hill's Morning Report - Biden's next act: Massive infrastructure plan with tax hikes Hillicon Valley: Twitter says Greene account suspended in error | Justice Dept. indicts hacker connected to massive surveillance breach | Trump reference to 'Chinese virus' linked to increase in anti-Asian hashtags The Hill's Morning Report '-- Presented by Facebook '-- Biden delivers 100 million shots in 58 days, doses to neighbors MORE .

''It's absolutely tragic,'' Harris said when asked for her reaction to the violence. ''Ten people going about their day, living their lives, not bothering anybody. A police officer who is performing his duties, and with great courage and heroism.''

Both Harris and Biden noted that Talley leaves behind seven children.

The shooting took place less than a week after a gunman shot and killed eight people in a rampage at three massage parlors in the Atlanta area. The tragedies had already renewed calls for gun control legislation from Democrats and gun control advocates.

"President Biden is right: this is the moment to act on gun safety,'' Everytown for Gun Safety chief John Feinblatt said in a statement after the president's remarks. ''To end these senseless killings, we need more than thoughts and prayers '-- we need the Senate to pass background checks, and we need this administration to take executive action to save lives."

Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action, agreed that "we cannot wait a moment longer."

"In the past week alone, two mass shootings have killed at least 18 people, wounded at least one more, and devastated our country '-- while other types of gun violence continue to kill more than 100 people in the U.S. every day," Watts said.

However, many Republicans remain opposed to gun control measures, meaning that passing legislation is expected to be difficult given the 50-50 partisan split in the Senate.

"Prayer leaders have their important place in this, but we are Senate leaders. What are we doing?" Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin Dick DurbinMeet the Make the Senate Great Again caucus Sunday shows preview: Biden administration grapples with border surge; US mourns Atlanta shooting victims Hillicon Valley: Senate Republicans call for hearing on FTC's Obama-era Google decision | US grid at rising risk to cyberattack, says GAO | YouTube rolls out TikTok rival in the US MORE (D-Ill.) said at the outset of a previously scheduled hearing on reducing gun violence. ''We won't solve this crisis with prosecutions after funerals. We need prevention before shooting.''

Speaking from the Senate floor, Majority Leader Charles Schumer Chuck SchumerDemocrats make low-tax states an offer they should refuse Biden must keep his health care promises FEMA pauses flood insurance rate update after Schumer pushback: report MORE (D-N.Y.) vowed that "the Senate is going to debate and address the epidemic of gun violence" in the wake of the shooting.

"We have a lot of work to do. I've already committed to bringing universal background checks legislation to the floor of the Senate. There is a hearing today in the Senate Judiciary Committee under Chairman Durbin's leadership to examine several commonsense proposals," Schumer said.

'--Updated at 1:48 p.m.

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Tue, 23 Mar 2021 17:23

#MRGreenRoboticFrog David 5 Stones : ITM Sound, record this please. K Harris @ about 1:50 in Says 7 Children, She Believes were killed in Co Shooting?'... https://t.co/K1rkxbeWJf

Tue Mar 23 17:19:20 +0000 2021

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Tue, 23 Mar 2021 02:58

Published Mon, Mar 22 2021 4:07 PM EDT

Updated Mon, Mar 22 2021 4:54 PM EDT

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The White House is meeting Monday with top executives in the energy industry, including the oil, gas and mining sectors, attendees told CNBC.The attendees are expected to include the top executives of BP, Chevron, Exxon and BHP, among others.News of the meeting comes as White House climate advisor Gina McCarthy has been engaging with industry leaders ahead of the Biden administration's expected unveiling of a massive infrastructure and climate packageThe White House is meeting Monday with top executives in the energy industry, including the oil, gas and mining sectors, attendees told CNBC.

The guest list is expected to include the top executives of BP, Chevron, Exxon and BHP, among others. The White House declined to provide a full list of invitees, and would not say which officials would be representing the Biden administration.

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Mon, 22 Mar 2021 11:44

It's even worse than it appears.

Sunday March 21, 2021; 11:17 AM EDT

Everything should be great in America, but it isn't. Why? # FIrst watch this video from a 60 Minutes interview with Fed chairman Lewis Powell on how he creates money. # One of the biggest misperceptions about how money works, even among educated people, is that we have to pay for projects by raising taxes. The fact they're missing is that the Federal Reserve creates money. So we don't have to raise taxes to provide relief to victims of disasters. # When they say the debt is something our children and grandchildren will have to pay off, that's not true either. We can pay the debt by printing money. If we owe you $100 who's to say if we got that money by taxing Americans or simply by giving you new money we created for that purpose? # Money has to start somewhere, and unlike a household budget, the US government has an infinite supply of it. Basically the only country with the power to create new money that can be spent everywhere is the United States. # The United States is unique because our dollar is the reserve currency for the world. So if say Egypt owes money to India, they pay them in dollars. If a small country is reserving some money for a future project, they store it in dollars. Our currency, unlike all others, is in demand all around the world. Which means we can give them dollars we just printed and they will send us goods that cost real money, because of course when we printed the money, it was real, simply because we printed it. # We are the richest country there is, it's not hyperbole. And yet we have one of the worst benefit systems for our people in the world. If people really understood how this works (just re-read this piece) they would be enraged about how health, education, infrastructure, everything basically, in the US, is shit. You see this when you travel to Europe. A sense that everything is first class. And they don't have the economic advantage that we do. # So, why is it this way, such a rich country that lives so poorly? Some of it is the rich self-dealing, grift, the 1%, inequality, etc -- but a lot of is the dysfunction of Congress. # The quality of life for Americans hasn't been a priority in Washington, at least not until very recently. There is cause for hope of that changing. Just don't believe the politicians when they say something good for the people has to be "paid for." Tell them you understand how it works, and the exact opposite is true, it does not ever have to be paid for. We, the United States, can buy whatever we want. And we need to start doing that. #

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Mon, 22 Mar 2021 00:12