Post by mhbruin on Dec 22, 2021 10:08:51 GMT -8
US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 499 Million Shots (Population 333 Million)
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Only #2?
Out of Nine Presidents
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Is There a Media Blackout on Good Economic News?
The U.S. economy is expanding at a 7% rate over the last three months, up by 5% from the beginning of the year. That number isn’t just three times the expected growth rate in Europe, it almost doubles the rate of growth in China. As reported in The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. economy is genuinely a world-beater. It’s doing so well that for the first time in years, “The force of the American expansion is also inducing overseas companies to invest in the U.S., betting that the growth is still accelerating and will outpace other major economies.”
Rolling into the holiday season, America is enjoying record low levels of unemployment and levels of economic growth that exceed the wildest unfulfilled promises of Donald Trump. But at the same time, CNN reports that President Biden’s approval levels for handling the economy are at record lows. The best economy in 50 years enjoys just a 44% approval rating.
The front page of Wednesday’s New York Times contains nothing about the record pace of the economy. It does contain dire warnings about supply chain issues affecting Christmas gifts and what seems to be an obligatory feature on the threat posed by inflation.
CNN offers up the story about Biden’s bad economic ratings but nothing on the booming economy. The Washington Post is economy-free when it comes to their front page—either on paper or internet.
Every penny increase in the price of gasoline became a screaming headline. And repeatedly—repeatedly—outlets ran stories in which they quoted people making outrageous claims of 30% or 40% inflation without bothering to correct those claims.
There are no headlines to report that gas prices are down. There are no headlines to report that America is enjoying the best economy in 50 years under Biden.
Didn't Reuters Get the Memo?
U.S. economic growth slowed in the third quarter amid a flare-up in COVID-19 infections, the government confirmed on Wednesday, but activity has since picked up, putting the economy on track to record its best performance this year since 1984.
Gross domestic product increased at a 2.3% annualized rate, the Commerce Department said in its third reading of GDP growth for the July-September quarter.
Though that was an upward revision to the 2.1% rate estimated last month, it was still the slowest pace since the second quarter of 2020, when the economy suffered a historic contraction in the wake of stringent mandatory measures to contain the first wave of coronavirus cases.
The revision reflected a bit more consumer spending and business inventory investment than previously estimated. That partially offset a downward revision to exports.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast third-quarter GDP growth unrevised at a 2.1% pace. The economy grew at a 6.7% rate in the second quarter.
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They're Gonna' TikTok Till the Cows Come Home
The Maasai TikTokers wowing Bollywood fans
A smartphone is set up on a tripod a few metres from their home in Mindu Tulieni, a small village in the eastern Pwani region.
The nearest town, Lugoba, is an hour away by foot. With no electricity in the village, Kili visits the town every day to charge his phone.
Positioning themselves in front of the camera, Kili, 26, stands just behind his 23-year-old sister Neema.
Once the music begins, the siblings take it in turn to lip sync perfectly in Hindi and dance to some of Bollywood's most popular songs.
Over the past few months, their lip-syncing videos have become a viral sensation across India.
...
The song's original performer, Jubin Nautiyal, surprised the siblings when they took part in a live interview on one of India's radio stations.
"Everybody knows you in India," Nautiyal told them. "You guys are famous!"
.....
Kili's verified TikTok account now has 1.8 million followers. He started his account less than a year ago - hearing about the app through friends.
Neema has since set up her own Instagram account, which has nearly 65,000 followers.
...
But while the story of the siblings' social media success has garnered international attention, their family and other villagers in the community have little idea about their new found fame.
"Many people here don't have smartphones and they don't know about social media. Even Neema doesn't understand much. She just enjoys it but she doesn't know the impact it is having," Kili says.
"Everyone was very confused when journalists started coming to our village with TV crews.
"At first, my family wondered why I was singing and dancing instead of looking after the cows.
If you want the full story
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Prevention of Koality to Animals
Regulators in Australia have issued hundreds of animal cruelty charges over the deaths of dozens of koalas in the state of Victoria.
The animals were found dead at a partially cleared timber plantation at Cape Bridgewater last year.
More were later euthanised because of dehydration and injuries sustained during the incident.
A landowner and an earthmoving business are accused of harming and killing the animals by clearing the area.
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How Many Crimes Can You Count in This Man's Actions
When local right wing extremist Mike Ventura Ancheta arrived at the Montecito Recreation Center, he was already filming everything with his phone. Poll workers greeted him warmly and offered him hand sanitizer and a mask. He instantly refused and made a massive scene over being asked to put on a mask. Poll workers tell him that he can do curbside voting, but he refuses and only gets more agitated. “You’re trying to suppress my right to vote!” Ancheta yells, as poll workers offer him additional voting options. Ancheta is a known anti-masker/anti-vaxxer and Proud Boy affiliate who has been to many violent COVID-19 denialist rallies.
According to California law:
No person shall, with the intent of dissuading another person from voting, within 100 feet of a polling place, do any of the following:
(1) Solicit a vote or speak to a voter on the subject of marking his or her ballot. (2) Place a sign relating to voters’ qualifications or speak to a voter on the subject of his or her qualifications except as provided in Section 14240.
(3) Photograph, video record, or otherwise record a voter entering or exiting a polling place.
(b) Any violation of this section is punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than 12 months, or in the state prison. Any person who conspires to violate this section is guilty of a felony.
(c) For purposes of this section, 100 feet means a distance of 100 feet from the room or rooms in which voters are signing the roster and casting ballots.
He Has Not Been Charged With Anything
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Halloween Is Genuinely Scary in Texas
Two Texas teens dressed as Klansman tased their Black classmate—now they face hate crime charges
The incident made headlines in November when two teen boys from Woodsboro, Texas—Rance Bolcik, 17, who is white, and Noel Garcia Jr.,17, who is Latino—dressed in Klan outfits and targeted one of their football teammates, who is Black. Also, a white unnamed 16-year-old Karen recorded a video of the attack on her cellphone.
It's quite a story, but long
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I Think There is a Pattern Here
Another Pattern
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What's In a Name?
A Turd By Any Other Name Would Still Smell As Foul
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Some Folks Seem to Just Like Losing in Court
Michael Flynn, a longtime adviser to Donald Trump, has sued the congressional committee investigating the deadly 6 January attack on the US Capitol in hopes of blocking it from obtaining his phone records.
Flynn alleged in a lawsuit, filed in federal court in Florida, that a subpoena issued to him by the House of Representatives select committee was too broad in scope and punishes him for constitutionally protected speech as a private citizen.
Flynn also alleged in the lawsuit that the committee “has no authority to conduct business because it is not a duly constituted select committee”.
An appeals court has rejected that argument, ruling on 9 December that the committee was valid and entitled to see White House records Trump has tried to shield.
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The Great Japanese COVID Mystery. The Game's Afoot!
As the omicron variant surges around the world, Japan’s overall coronavirus cases and deaths have been plummeting. And no one seems to know exactly why.
Call it the hunt for a potential “X factor,” such as genetics, that may explain the trend and inform how Japan could deal with the next wave. While the new highly transmissible omicron variant has appeared in the country and experts suspect there is already some community spread, the overall transmission rate of the virus and coronavirus-related deaths in Japan have remained low.
“Honestly, we do not know the exact reason behind the sudden drop in covid deaths in Japan,” said Taro Yamamoto, professor of global health at Nagasaki University’s Institute of Tropical Medicine.
Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Japan has had much lower rates of infection and death than in many Western countries, though there was a severe spike over the summer that overwhelmed hospitals.
Milder outbreaks — compared with the ravages of the virus in Europe and the Americas — were found in many Asian countries and were attributed often to a public accustomed to health measures from previous experiences with respiratory illnesses like the SARS and MERS epidemics. Researchers had also looked into genetics, diet and other factors that may have spared East Asian countries like Japan and South Korea from the high death tolls elsewhere.
In Japan, researchers have also examined factors like weather, cyclical patterns in the spread of the virus, and potential past exposure to mild coronavirus variants that may have led to the low case and death counts. Experts have identified potential genetic characteristics among the Japanese that may have led to a stronger immune system response to the coronavirus, but said there needs to be more research to draw definitive conclusions.
Japan has now vaccinated most of its population and has widespread masking, which may explain the current low numbers. But so does neighboring South Korea, where authorities are rescinding reopening plans because of a spike in infections and record numbers of serious and critical cases. And Japan has barely begun rolling out its booster shots, lagging behind other countries in the region, including South Korea.
Vaccination and Masking? The Case is Solved!
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Which Genius At Tesla Came Up With This Idea?
U.S auto safety regulators said Wednesday they have opened a formal safety investigation into 580,000 Tesla vehicles sold since 2017 over the automaker's decision to allow games to be played on the front center touchscreen.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said its preliminary evaluation covers various 2017-2022 Tesla Model 3, S, X, and Y vehicles. This functionality, referred to as “Passenger Play,” "may distract the driver and increase the risk of a crash," the agency said.
Playing Games on the Console Can Distract You From Reading Texts on Your Phone While You Drive
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The Early Bird Gets the Worm. But Who Wants Worms?
January could be the merriest time of the year for shoppers this holiday season. The reason: The same supply-chain snarls that led to product shortages and fewer Black Friday discounts this year are expected to result in major savings on a range of items.
"This is the age-old problem of inventory liquidation that's going to make itself known in the form of heroic discounting," said Mark Cohen, director of retail studies at Columbia Business School. "I think that's already started and will pick up in the final days of December when it becomes untenable to ship things. In the face of somewhat of a chill because of Omicron, retailers are starting to dump goods."
Fewer products on store shelves this year meant fewer Black Friday discounts. In November, for example, only 8% of electronics products were discounted, compared with roughly 13% the previous year, according to Karthik Bettadapura, CEO of DataWeave, a retail data and pricing analytics firm. Just 3% of furniture products were discounted around Black Friday, versus 26% in 2019.
Now Cohen said he's already seeing steep discounts of 50% off on popular holiday gifts including chocolates and wristwatches. Retailers also need to clear out late-arriving winter items, like sweaters, boots and parkas, to make room for spring inventory. Some sellers are also throwing in free expedited shipping.
The Rewards of Procrastination
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I AM Sure You Were Dying to Know This
Death rates for Americans ages 15 and older rose sharply in 2020, hitting Black and Hispanic Americans the hardest, according to a report released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The report — the agency’s finalized data on 2020 death rates — confirmed that life expectancy in the United States fell last year by nearly two years, the largest one-year drop since World War II.
“We normally don’t see declines of life expectancy of this magnitude,” said Bob Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. “Usually when we see fluctuations in life expectancy, it’s only for a couple months of the year, so this is quite significant.”
Life expectancy overall fell from 78.8 years in 2019 to 77 years in 2020. For males, the average life expectancy fell 2.1 years, from 76.3 in 2019 to 74.2 in 2020. For women, the average decrease was 1.5 years, from 81.4 in 2019 to 79.9 in 2020.
“One of the most jolting things in the report is the racial disparities,” said Dr. Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University.
The average age-adjusted death rate increased by nearly 17 percent, from 715.2 deaths per 100,000 people in 2019, to 835.4 deaths per 100,000 people in 2020. But the increase for Black and Hispanic Americans was far greater.
Death rates increased by almost 43 percent for Hispanic males and more than 32 percent for Hispanic females. Death rates in Black males rose by 28 percent and almost 25 percent for Black females, compared to roughly 13 percent for white males and 12 percent for white females.
“That just shouldn’t be happening,” Woolf said. “There is this deeply embedded health consequence of systemic racism.”
Nine of the 10 long-time leading causes of death in the U.S. stayed the same, with Covid appearing on the list for the first time. Deaths from heart disease remained the leading cause of death, with cancer second, followed by Covid-19, unintentional injuries — which includes drug overdoses — stroke, chronic lower respiratory disease, Alzheimer’s disease, influenza and pneumonia, and kidney disease. Deaths due to heart disease, unintentional injury and diabetes saw the biggest rises.
The rise in deaths from these other causes show the impact the pandemic has had on all aspects of health in America, experts say.
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My New Favorite Ex-Mormon
Jeff Green, a billionaire thought to be the richest person from Utah, resigned from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, writing in a letter to the church's president that he believes the institution has "hindered global progress in women’s rights, civil rights and racial equality, and LGBTQ+ rights," according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
Green, the chairman and CEO of The Trade Desk, a technology marketing company, informally left the Mormon church, as the LDS church is commonly called, a decade ago. But in a letter Monday to church President Russell Nelson, he officially resigned and requested the removal of his records, The Tribune reported.
Green said in his letter that most of the church's members are "good people trying to do right" but that he believes "the church is actively and currently doing harm in the world."
“The church leadership is not honest about its history, its finances, and its advocacy,” he wrote, according to The Tribune.
Green wrote that he will donate $600,000 to the LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Utah as the first major donation from his family foundation's giving arm, Dataphilanthropy. According to The Tribune, he added that almost half of the money will go to a new scholarship program for LGBTQ students in Utah, including those who "may need or want to leave" his alma mater, Brigham Young University, which is sponsored by the church.
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Pant-emonium in India. They Are Not Skirting The Issue.
A row has broken out in the southern Indian state of Kerala after a government school allowed teenage female students to wear trousers. The BBC's Geeta Pandey in Delhi and Ashraf Padanna in Kerala explain the controversy over clothes.
Until the changeover, female students wore traditional long tunics, loose fitting trousers and waistcoats.
School principal Indu R told the BBC that last year girls, who are now in class 12, suggested they should be allowed to wear the same uniform as the boys.
She said she saw merit in their proposal since "most of our students wear jeans and tops outside like teenage girls anywhere else in the world" and the waistcoat was not suited for Kerala's humid weather.
"So we discussed it with the staff and then called a meeting of the Parent Teacher Association (PTA). The majority agreed so we decided to switch," Mrs Indu said.
"Only one or two parents expressed concern about the gender-neutral uniform and we told them that girls could wear longer shirts with full sleeves, they could wear a headscarf and even the waistcoat if they wanted.
"But very few girls have chosen them," she added.
Then The Religious Bigots Stepped In
But the new uniform has not gone down well with conservative Muslim groups who say their children are being "forced" to wear the new outfits.
"The decision was taken without calling a general body meeting of the PTA and now our girls are being forced to wear trousers and shirts like boys. It's also a huge financial burden on poorer families," said Mujahid Balussery, a member of the Muslim Coordination Committee against unisex uniforms.
But a bigger concern for Mr Balussery is his belief that a uniform change is part of the state's Communist government "agenda to impose their atheistic ideology on children" which he says will lead them astray.
"We cannot compromise on our faith," he says. "Girls and boys must keep their distinctive identities. Allowing girls to dress up like boys is like initiating them into free sex. It will lead to sexual liberation by ending gender differentiation."
Similar comments by other Muslim religious groups in the past week have evoked sharp criticism from many in Kerala and the rest of India, with critics saying it is an attempt by orthodox groups to impose restrictions on girls.
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CDC doesn't do a good job of reporting around holidays.
Doses Administered 7-Day Average | Number of People Receiving 1 or More Doses | Number of People 2 or More Doses | New Cases 7-Day Average | Deaths 7-Day Average | |
| Dec 22 | 1,283,244 | 241,583,543 | 204,818,717 | ||
| Dec 21 | 1,542,936 | 241,132,288 | 204,578,725 | 161,261 | 1,223 |
| Dec 20 | 1,554,261 | 241,881,712 | 204,098,982 | 149,331 | 1,188 |
| Dec 19 | 1,558,720 | 241,571,084 | 203,926,479 | 132,659 | 1,169 |
| Dec 18 | 1,562,366 | 241,205,528 | 203,727,446 | 127,445 | 1,182 |
| Dec 17 | 2,065,555 | 240,775,382 | 203,479,206 | 125,775 | 1,182 |
| Dec 16 | 2,043,207 | 240,321,022 | 203,159,327 | 122,296 | 1,179 |
| Dec 15 | 1,795,384 | 239,975,167 | 202,748,005 | 119,546 | 1,187 |
| Dec 14 | 1,904,464 | 239,553,956 | 202,504,037 | 117,950 | 1,143 |
| Dec 13 | 1,951,329 | 239,274,656 | 202,246,698 | 117,890 | 1,147 |
| Dec 12 | 1,984,721 | 239,008,166 | 201,975,235 | 116,742 | 1,131 |
| Dec 11 | 2,020,853 | 238,679,707 | 201,688,550 | 116,893 | 1,131 |
| Dec 10 | 1,721,570 | 238,143,066 | 201,279,582 | 118,575 | 1,146 |
| Dec 9 | 1,583,662 | 237,468,725 | 200,717,387 | 118,052 | 1,089 |
| Dec 8 | 1,611,831 | 237,087,380 | 200,400,533 | 118,515 | 1,092 |
| Dec 7 | 1,781,389 | 236,363,835 | 199,687,439 | 117,488 | 1,097 |
| Dec 6 | 1,780,807 | 236,018,871 | 199,313,022 | 117,179 | 1,117 |
| Dec 5 | 2,264,301 | 235,698,738 | 198,962,520 | 103,823 | 1,154 |
| Dec 4 | 2,009,864 | 235,297,964 | 198,592,167 | 105,554 | 1,150 |
| Dec 3 | 1,700,056 | 234,743,864 | 198,211,641 | 106,132 | 1,110 |
| Dec 2 | 1,428,263 | 234,269,053 | 197,838,728 | 96,425 | 975 |
| Dec 1 | 1,116,587 | 233,590,555 | 197,363,116 | 86,412 | 859 |
| Nov 30 | 1,152,647 | 233,207,582 | 197,058,988 | 82,846 | 816 |
| Nov 29 | 937,113 | 232,792,508 | 196,806,194 | 80,178 | 804 |
| Nov 28 | No Data | 72,008 | 719 | ||
| Nov 27 | No Data | 72,139 | 721 | ||
| Nov 26 | No Data | 73,962 | 742 | ||
| Nov 25 | No Data | 82,440 | 887 | ||
| Nov 24 | 898,833 | 231,367,686 | 196,168,756 | 93,931 | 989 |
| Nov 23 | 1,126,545 | 230,669,289 | 195,973,992 | 94,266 | 982 |
| Nov 22 | 1,521,815 | 230,732,565 | 196,398,948 | 93,668 | 1,009 |
| Nov 21 | 1,774,196 | 230,298,744 | 196,284,442 | 91,021 | 985 |
| Feb 16 | 1,716,311 | 39,670,551 | 15,015,434 | 78,292 |
| At Least One Dose | Fully Vaccinated | % of Vaccinated W/ Boosters | |
| % of Total Population | 72.8% | 61.7% | 30.8% |
| % of Population 12+ | 83.0% | 70.9% | 33.5% |
| % of Population 18+ | 85.0% | 72.7% | 45.4% |
| % of Population 65+ | 95.0% | 87.7% | 55.8% |
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Only #2?
Out of Nine Presidents
--------------
Is There a Media Blackout on Good Economic News?
The U.S. economy is expanding at a 7% rate over the last three months, up by 5% from the beginning of the year. That number isn’t just three times the expected growth rate in Europe, it almost doubles the rate of growth in China. As reported in The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. economy is genuinely a world-beater. It’s doing so well that for the first time in years, “The force of the American expansion is also inducing overseas companies to invest in the U.S., betting that the growth is still accelerating and will outpace other major economies.”
Rolling into the holiday season, America is enjoying record low levels of unemployment and levels of economic growth that exceed the wildest unfulfilled promises of Donald Trump. But at the same time, CNN reports that President Biden’s approval levels for handling the economy are at record lows. The best economy in 50 years enjoys just a 44% approval rating.
The front page of Wednesday’s New York Times contains nothing about the record pace of the economy. It does contain dire warnings about supply chain issues affecting Christmas gifts and what seems to be an obligatory feature on the threat posed by inflation.
CNN offers up the story about Biden’s bad economic ratings but nothing on the booming economy. The Washington Post is economy-free when it comes to their front page—either on paper or internet.
Every penny increase in the price of gasoline became a screaming headline. And repeatedly—repeatedly—outlets ran stories in which they quoted people making outrageous claims of 30% or 40% inflation without bothering to correct those claims.
There are no headlines to report that gas prices are down. There are no headlines to report that America is enjoying the best economy in 50 years under Biden.
Didn't Reuters Get the Memo?
U.S. economic growth slowed in the third quarter amid a flare-up in COVID-19 infections, the government confirmed on Wednesday, but activity has since picked up, putting the economy on track to record its best performance this year since 1984.
Gross domestic product increased at a 2.3% annualized rate, the Commerce Department said in its third reading of GDP growth for the July-September quarter.
Though that was an upward revision to the 2.1% rate estimated last month, it was still the slowest pace since the second quarter of 2020, when the economy suffered a historic contraction in the wake of stringent mandatory measures to contain the first wave of coronavirus cases.
The revision reflected a bit more consumer spending and business inventory investment than previously estimated. That partially offset a downward revision to exports.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast third-quarter GDP growth unrevised at a 2.1% pace. The economy grew at a 6.7% rate in the second quarter.
--------------
They're Gonna' TikTok Till the Cows Come Home
The Maasai TikTokers wowing Bollywood fans
A smartphone is set up on a tripod a few metres from their home in Mindu Tulieni, a small village in the eastern Pwani region.
The nearest town, Lugoba, is an hour away by foot. With no electricity in the village, Kili visits the town every day to charge his phone.
Positioning themselves in front of the camera, Kili, 26, stands just behind his 23-year-old sister Neema.
Once the music begins, the siblings take it in turn to lip sync perfectly in Hindi and dance to some of Bollywood's most popular songs.
Over the past few months, their lip-syncing videos have become a viral sensation across India.
...
The song's original performer, Jubin Nautiyal, surprised the siblings when they took part in a live interview on one of India's radio stations.
"Everybody knows you in India," Nautiyal told them. "You guys are famous!"
.....
Kili's verified TikTok account now has 1.8 million followers. He started his account less than a year ago - hearing about the app through friends.
Neema has since set up her own Instagram account, which has nearly 65,000 followers.
...
But while the story of the siblings' social media success has garnered international attention, their family and other villagers in the community have little idea about their new found fame.
"Many people here don't have smartphones and they don't know about social media. Even Neema doesn't understand much. She just enjoys it but she doesn't know the impact it is having," Kili says.
"Everyone was very confused when journalists started coming to our village with TV crews.
"At first, my family wondered why I was singing and dancing instead of looking after the cows.
If you want the full story
--------------
Prevention of Koality to Animals
Regulators in Australia have issued hundreds of animal cruelty charges over the deaths of dozens of koalas in the state of Victoria.
The animals were found dead at a partially cleared timber plantation at Cape Bridgewater last year.
More were later euthanised because of dehydration and injuries sustained during the incident.
A landowner and an earthmoving business are accused of harming and killing the animals by clearing the area.
--------------
How Many Crimes Can You Count in This Man's Actions
When local right wing extremist Mike Ventura Ancheta arrived at the Montecito Recreation Center, he was already filming everything with his phone. Poll workers greeted him warmly and offered him hand sanitizer and a mask. He instantly refused and made a massive scene over being asked to put on a mask. Poll workers tell him that he can do curbside voting, but he refuses and only gets more agitated. “You’re trying to suppress my right to vote!” Ancheta yells, as poll workers offer him additional voting options. Ancheta is a known anti-masker/anti-vaxxer and Proud Boy affiliate who has been to many violent COVID-19 denialist rallies.
According to California law:
No person shall, with the intent of dissuading another person from voting, within 100 feet of a polling place, do any of the following:
(1) Solicit a vote or speak to a voter on the subject of marking his or her ballot. (2) Place a sign relating to voters’ qualifications or speak to a voter on the subject of his or her qualifications except as provided in Section 14240.
(3) Photograph, video record, or otherwise record a voter entering or exiting a polling place.
(b) Any violation of this section is punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than 12 months, or in the state prison. Any person who conspires to violate this section is guilty of a felony.
(c) For purposes of this section, 100 feet means a distance of 100 feet from the room or rooms in which voters are signing the roster and casting ballots.
He Has Not Been Charged With Anything
--------------
Halloween Is Genuinely Scary in Texas
Two Texas teens dressed as Klansman tased their Black classmate—now they face hate crime charges
The incident made headlines in November when two teen boys from Woodsboro, Texas—Rance Bolcik, 17, who is white, and Noel Garcia Jr.,17, who is Latino—dressed in Klan outfits and targeted one of their football teammates, who is Black. Also, a white unnamed 16-year-old Karen recorded a video of the attack on her cellphone.
It's quite a story, but long
--------------
I Think There is a Pattern Here
Another Pattern
--------------
What's In a Name?
A Turd By Any Other Name Would Still Smell As Foul
--------------
Some Folks Seem to Just Like Losing in Court
Michael Flynn, a longtime adviser to Donald Trump, has sued the congressional committee investigating the deadly 6 January attack on the US Capitol in hopes of blocking it from obtaining his phone records.
Flynn alleged in a lawsuit, filed in federal court in Florida, that a subpoena issued to him by the House of Representatives select committee was too broad in scope and punishes him for constitutionally protected speech as a private citizen.
Flynn also alleged in the lawsuit that the committee “has no authority to conduct business because it is not a duly constituted select committee”.
An appeals court has rejected that argument, ruling on 9 December that the committee was valid and entitled to see White House records Trump has tried to shield.
--------------
The Great Japanese COVID Mystery. The Game's Afoot!
As the omicron variant surges around the world, Japan’s overall coronavirus cases and deaths have been plummeting. And no one seems to know exactly why.
Call it the hunt for a potential “X factor,” such as genetics, that may explain the trend and inform how Japan could deal with the next wave. While the new highly transmissible omicron variant has appeared in the country and experts suspect there is already some community spread, the overall transmission rate of the virus and coronavirus-related deaths in Japan have remained low.
“Honestly, we do not know the exact reason behind the sudden drop in covid deaths in Japan,” said Taro Yamamoto, professor of global health at Nagasaki University’s Institute of Tropical Medicine.
Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Japan has had much lower rates of infection and death than in many Western countries, though there was a severe spike over the summer that overwhelmed hospitals.
Milder outbreaks — compared with the ravages of the virus in Europe and the Americas — were found in many Asian countries and were attributed often to a public accustomed to health measures from previous experiences with respiratory illnesses like the SARS and MERS epidemics. Researchers had also looked into genetics, diet and other factors that may have spared East Asian countries like Japan and South Korea from the high death tolls elsewhere.
In Japan, researchers have also examined factors like weather, cyclical patterns in the spread of the virus, and potential past exposure to mild coronavirus variants that may have led to the low case and death counts. Experts have identified potential genetic characteristics among the Japanese that may have led to a stronger immune system response to the coronavirus, but said there needs to be more research to draw definitive conclusions.
Japan has now vaccinated most of its population and has widespread masking, which may explain the current low numbers. But so does neighboring South Korea, where authorities are rescinding reopening plans because of a spike in infections and record numbers of serious and critical cases. And Japan has barely begun rolling out its booster shots, lagging behind other countries in the region, including South Korea.
Vaccination and Masking? The Case is Solved!
--------------
Which Genius At Tesla Came Up With This Idea?
U.S auto safety regulators said Wednesday they have opened a formal safety investigation into 580,000 Tesla vehicles sold since 2017 over the automaker's decision to allow games to be played on the front center touchscreen.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said its preliminary evaluation covers various 2017-2022 Tesla Model 3, S, X, and Y vehicles. This functionality, referred to as “Passenger Play,” "may distract the driver and increase the risk of a crash," the agency said.
Playing Games on the Console Can Distract You From Reading Texts on Your Phone While You Drive
--------------
The Early Bird Gets the Worm. But Who Wants Worms?
January could be the merriest time of the year for shoppers this holiday season. The reason: The same supply-chain snarls that led to product shortages and fewer Black Friday discounts this year are expected to result in major savings on a range of items.
"This is the age-old problem of inventory liquidation that's going to make itself known in the form of heroic discounting," said Mark Cohen, director of retail studies at Columbia Business School. "I think that's already started and will pick up in the final days of December when it becomes untenable to ship things. In the face of somewhat of a chill because of Omicron, retailers are starting to dump goods."
Fewer products on store shelves this year meant fewer Black Friday discounts. In November, for example, only 8% of electronics products were discounted, compared with roughly 13% the previous year, according to Karthik Bettadapura, CEO of DataWeave, a retail data and pricing analytics firm. Just 3% of furniture products were discounted around Black Friday, versus 26% in 2019.
Now Cohen said he's already seeing steep discounts of 50% off on popular holiday gifts including chocolates and wristwatches. Retailers also need to clear out late-arriving winter items, like sweaters, boots and parkas, to make room for spring inventory. Some sellers are also throwing in free expedited shipping.
The Rewards of Procrastination
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I AM Sure You Were Dying to Know This
Death rates for Americans ages 15 and older rose sharply in 2020, hitting Black and Hispanic Americans the hardest, according to a report released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The report — the agency’s finalized data on 2020 death rates — confirmed that life expectancy in the United States fell last year by nearly two years, the largest one-year drop since World War II.
“We normally don’t see declines of life expectancy of this magnitude,” said Bob Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. “Usually when we see fluctuations in life expectancy, it’s only for a couple months of the year, so this is quite significant.”
Life expectancy overall fell from 78.8 years in 2019 to 77 years in 2020. For males, the average life expectancy fell 2.1 years, from 76.3 in 2019 to 74.2 in 2020. For women, the average decrease was 1.5 years, from 81.4 in 2019 to 79.9 in 2020.
“One of the most jolting things in the report is the racial disparities,” said Dr. Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University.
The average age-adjusted death rate increased by nearly 17 percent, from 715.2 deaths per 100,000 people in 2019, to 835.4 deaths per 100,000 people in 2020. But the increase for Black and Hispanic Americans was far greater.
Death rates increased by almost 43 percent for Hispanic males and more than 32 percent for Hispanic females. Death rates in Black males rose by 28 percent and almost 25 percent for Black females, compared to roughly 13 percent for white males and 12 percent for white females.
“That just shouldn’t be happening,” Woolf said. “There is this deeply embedded health consequence of systemic racism.”
Nine of the 10 long-time leading causes of death in the U.S. stayed the same, with Covid appearing on the list for the first time. Deaths from heart disease remained the leading cause of death, with cancer second, followed by Covid-19, unintentional injuries — which includes drug overdoses — stroke, chronic lower respiratory disease, Alzheimer’s disease, influenza and pneumonia, and kidney disease. Deaths due to heart disease, unintentional injury and diabetes saw the biggest rises.
The rise in deaths from these other causes show the impact the pandemic has had on all aspects of health in America, experts say.
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My New Favorite Ex-Mormon
Jeff Green, a billionaire thought to be the richest person from Utah, resigned from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, writing in a letter to the church's president that he believes the institution has "hindered global progress in women’s rights, civil rights and racial equality, and LGBTQ+ rights," according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
Green, the chairman and CEO of The Trade Desk, a technology marketing company, informally left the Mormon church, as the LDS church is commonly called, a decade ago. But in a letter Monday to church President Russell Nelson, he officially resigned and requested the removal of his records, The Tribune reported.
Green said in his letter that most of the church's members are "good people trying to do right" but that he believes "the church is actively and currently doing harm in the world."
“The church leadership is not honest about its history, its finances, and its advocacy,” he wrote, according to The Tribune.
Green wrote that he will donate $600,000 to the LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Utah as the first major donation from his family foundation's giving arm, Dataphilanthropy. According to The Tribune, he added that almost half of the money will go to a new scholarship program for LGBTQ students in Utah, including those who "may need or want to leave" his alma mater, Brigham Young University, which is sponsored by the church.
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Pant-emonium in India. They Are Not Skirting The Issue.
A row has broken out in the southern Indian state of Kerala after a government school allowed teenage female students to wear trousers. The BBC's Geeta Pandey in Delhi and Ashraf Padanna in Kerala explain the controversy over clothes.
Until the changeover, female students wore traditional long tunics, loose fitting trousers and waistcoats.
School principal Indu R told the BBC that last year girls, who are now in class 12, suggested they should be allowed to wear the same uniform as the boys.
She said she saw merit in their proposal since "most of our students wear jeans and tops outside like teenage girls anywhere else in the world" and the waistcoat was not suited for Kerala's humid weather.
"So we discussed it with the staff and then called a meeting of the Parent Teacher Association (PTA). The majority agreed so we decided to switch," Mrs Indu said.
"Only one or two parents expressed concern about the gender-neutral uniform and we told them that girls could wear longer shirts with full sleeves, they could wear a headscarf and even the waistcoat if they wanted.
"But very few girls have chosen them," she added.
Then The Religious Bigots Stepped In
But the new uniform has not gone down well with conservative Muslim groups who say their children are being "forced" to wear the new outfits.
"The decision was taken without calling a general body meeting of the PTA and now our girls are being forced to wear trousers and shirts like boys. It's also a huge financial burden on poorer families," said Mujahid Balussery, a member of the Muslim Coordination Committee against unisex uniforms.
But a bigger concern for Mr Balussery is his belief that a uniform change is part of the state's Communist government "agenda to impose their atheistic ideology on children" which he says will lead them astray.
"We cannot compromise on our faith," he says. "Girls and boys must keep their distinctive identities. Allowing girls to dress up like boys is like initiating them into free sex. It will lead to sexual liberation by ending gender differentiation."
Similar comments by other Muslim religious groups in the past week have evoked sharp criticism from many in Kerala and the rest of India, with critics saying it is an attempt by orthodox groups to impose restrictions on girls.
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