Post by mhbruin on Feb 4, 2022 11:22:18 GMT -8
US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 541 Million Shots (Population 333 Million)
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California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday Feb 2)
There has been no significant rain since the first week in January. There are no big storms in the 10-day forecast. After a great start, this could still turn out to be a bad season.
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
Virtual Creeps
Meta has announced a new feature to allow more personal space for people's avatars in virtual-reality worlds.
The metaverse is still at concept stage but the latest attempts to create virtual worlds are already facing an age-old problem: harassment.
Bloomberg's technology columnist Parmy Olson told the BBC's Tech Tent programme about her own "creepy" experiences.
And one woman likened her own traumatic experience in VR to sexual abuse.
Meta has now announced a new feature, Personal Boundary, which begins rolling out on 4 February. It prevents avatars from coming within a set distance of each other, creating more personal space for people and making it easier to avoid these unwanted interactions.
It stops others "invading your avatar's personal space", said Meta.
You'll Take What You Get and Be Grateful For It! Only Bosses Get to Be Greedy.
Unions have reacted with fury after the Bank of England boss urged workers not to ask for big pay rises, to help stop prices rising out of control.
Andrew Bailey told the BBC wage rises needed to be moderate with firms showing "restraint" in pay talks.
When asked whether the Bank was asking workers not to demand big pay rises, Mr Bailey, said: "Broadly, yes."
The GMB union branded the comments a "sick joke", while the TUC said calls for pay restraint were "ill-founded".
"Telling the hard-working people who carried this country through the pandemic they don't deserve a pay rise is outrageous. It's a sick joke," said Gary Smith, GMB's general secretary.
TUC head of economics Kate Bell said increasing pay at a slower rate would "make the squeeze on family budgets even tighter".
"Energy prices are pushing up inflation - not wage demands. Britain needs a pay rise - not another decade of lost pay and living standards," she added.
And Unite lead Sharon Graham said workers did not need "lectures" from Mr Bailey "on exercising pay restraint".
"Let's be clear, pay restraint is nothing more than a call for a national pay cut."
A Pox On Both Their Houses!
In the Pennsylvania Senate race, one candidate is accusing a rival of having "dual loyalties" to the US and a foreign country. In turn, that rival is charging his opponent with being too cozy with China.
But these aren't candidates from opposing parties. They are hedge-fund executive David McCormick and TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz, two of the leading contenders for the Republican nomination.
Both candidates have flooded the airwaves with television ads in the first weeks of their campaigns, spending a combined more than $10 million to overwhelm primary voters with their messages. Super PACs supporting Republican candidates have chipped in an additional $3 million total. And another Republican candidate, former US ambassador to Denmark Carla Sands, has also spent more than $2 million on ads so far.
The ads, particularly from the super PACs, are hitting the rival candidates hard on everything from McCormick's hedge fund investment in China to a PSA from Oz touting the benefits of Obamacare. Pro-Sands ads, meanwhile, aren't yet engaging in the slugfest.
Note to Bigots: Snow Doesn't Melt Jews
Man who recorded himself using snowplow to spray Jewish people fired and under investigation
In the latest antisemitic incident to make the news, an off-duty New Jersey snowplow driver was suspended after posting a video on social media in which he or a friend allegedly shoved snow toward Orthodox Jewish people last weekend, NJ.com reported.
The driver, identified as Donny Klarmann, who at the time was employed by Waste Management, is under investigation by Lakewood Police and the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, officials confirmed to NBC News on Tuesday. Authorities noted that they are investigating whether to pursue hate crimes charges.
Why Do Criminals Want to Record Themselves in the Act?
Another Day, Another Dishonest QOP Rep
Rep. Ronny Jackson, the Texas member of Congress known as “candy man” during his time as White House doctor, bragged this week about being “instrumental in getting” $1.6 million for the Red River Chloride Control Project. But of course he voted against the law that provided that funding. At the time, he tweeted, “I WILL NOT be voting for Pelosi’s bloated ‘infrastructure’ bill, which spits in the face of the Patriotic values my constituents expect out of their representative in Washington. I love the Panhandle and I can’t in good conscience support such a TERRIBLE bill.”
He sure seems fine with its effect on his district, though. Even wants to be sure people know that he got the money he voted against.
One Free Rape
Last year, a federal appeals court twice rejected a Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) proposed interpretation of Title IX. In the official legal opinion, Judge James Wynn of the federal Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals said that FCPS was trying to argue that schools should get "one free rape."
Students protest the one free rape by Fairfax County Public Schools
FCPS has paid the law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth millions of taxpayer dollars to help fight back against students' civil rights, including by lodging this appeal. This is the same law firm that previously argued in favor of segregation during the seminal Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education, when the high court struck down segregation in public schools. Former West Virginia Solicitor General, Elbert Lin, along with attorneys Sona Rewari and Ryan Bates, are assisting with the appeal.
Interpreting Coal Joe
History for Dummies
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) received a free lesson in U.S. history after posting her latest tweet about the Constitution.
“The Constitution is not evolving,” she wrote on Twitter. “To say that spits in the face of every single one of our founders.”
I Think He Should Stay Masked
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900,000. That's Reported Deaths. According to the CDC Excess Deaths are Over 1 Million.
The US is now averaging 356,658 new Covid-19 cases, according to Johns Hopkins University (JHU).
Cases are down 38% since last week. Cases are trending down in all but one state: Alabama.
The US is now averaging 2,441 new deaths each day, according to JHU. This is 7% higher than a week ago, but it’s been holding steady over the past couple of days. The US will likely surpass 900,000 total Covid-19 deaths tonight or tomorrow.
There are 122,627 people currently hospitalized with Covid-19. This is a 16% drop from last week, and new hospital admissions are down compared to last week, too – a promising sign that the downward trend will continue, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
More than a quarter (26.8%) of the total US population is fully vaccinated and boosted, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 64% of the population is fully vaccinated with at least their initial series.
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It's Melting! It's Melting
Climate change is causing the highest glacier on Mount Everest to melt at a rapid pace, a new study has found.
Researchers led by the University of Maine found that the South Col Glacier has lost more than 180ft (54m) of thickness in the last 25 years.
The glacier, which sits around 7,906m (25,938 ft) above sea-level, is thinning 80 times faster than it first took the ice to form on the surface.
The rate of decline has been blamed on warming temperatures and strong winds.
Scientists leading the study found that since the 1990s, ice that took around 2,000 years to form has melted away.
They also noted that the glacier's thick snowpack has been eroded, exposing the underlying black ice to the sun and accelerating the melting process.
Et Tu, Larsen?
Sea ice attached to the Antarctic Penninsula’s Larsen B embayment shattered and disintegrated sometime between January 16 and the 21st. The vast expanse of sea ice had formed in 2011 when it fastened itself to the coastline after the Larsen B ice shelf collapsed. Once the sea ice crumbled, it took a large chunk of the Scar Inlet ice shelf with it.
With the loss of the sea ice, the small glaciers on the NE region of the peninsula no longer have any buttressing to hold back the small glaciers in the area from emptying in the sea. Glaciers at Larsen A shelf have already thinned and drained into the sea. They are known as ghost glaciers. According to Nasa, these glaciers at Larsen B will also dump their land ice into the Weddel Sea.
Both Larsen A and B disintegrated over the past 30 years, and they were 12,000 years old. Larsen C has begun to show signs of collapse, while Larsen D recently calved a large piece of its ice shelf. The Antarctic peninsula is the fastest-warming area on the continent.
Warm moist weather that was once unheard of on the peninsula melted and destabilized Larsen B bay. The crisis is here.
--------------
Did the Clown Get Fired, Too?
When copy writer Josh Thompson received an ominous email from his bosses asking to discuss his role at the company, he knew he was facing redundancy.
The human resources department at FCB New Zealand encouraged him to bring a "support person" to help cushion the blow, an option that is legally required in New Zealand.
But rather than bring a family member, a friend or even a pet, the part-time stand-up comedian decided to splash out NZ$200 (£100) on a clown called "Joe".
"I was working - because I had a job back then - and I got an email and the email said: 'Hi Josh we'd like to meet with you to discuss some matters in regards to your role,'" he told the BBC from Australia, where he has been "making the most of not having a job".
"Basically I sensed that this was going to be a redundancy ... so I thought I might as well try to make the best out of this situation," he added.
Is it all over for non-creepy clowns?
"Joe" accompanied Josh for the redundancy meeting, where the clown made balloon animals, although he had to be told to stop a few times as it was difficult to hear above the screeching of plastic.
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Sean Spicer is Disappointed. Boo, Hoo!
The January jobs report released Friday morning was predicted to be weak thanks to the omicron surge, and Republicans were doing victory laps in advance. Former Trump mouthpiece Sean Spicer tweeted that “the White House spin on tomorrow's jobs report will be fun.”
On Fox & Friends: ”How does the White House spin this?” and “What vaccine do you get for job loss?” and, in giant red letters, “MORE JOB LOSSES.”
Well, it turned out the White House doesn’t need to spin anything. Friday morning, it was President Joe Biden who had the opportunity to take a victory lap—this one based on the facts, not wishful thinking. “America’s job machine is going stronger than ever,” Biden said, touting truly impressive jobs numbers. Not only did January’s jobs report seriously exceed expectations, but November and December’s jobs reports were revised upward by huge numbers. Dow Jones had estimated 150,000 new jobs in January. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, reality was 467,000 new jobs.
”This morning's [jobs] report caps off my first year as president, and over that period, our economy created 6.6 million jobs,” Biden said. “If you can't remember any year when so many people went to work in this country, there's a reason: It never happened.”
Maybe Sean Spicer Needs a Clown
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Can Even the QOP Go Too Far for the QOP?
A Republican bill that would have overhauled elections in Arizona -- including giving the state legislature the power to reject election results -- proved to be too much even for state GOP leaders this week.
Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, a Republican, quietly doomed House Bill 2596 on Tuesday with an unusual parliamentary maneuver.
The speaker assigns all new bills to a committee for consideration before they can have full House votes, a choice that often has a great effect on a measure's chance of success. But on Tuesday, Bowers took the unprecedented step of ordering all 12 House committees to consider the elections bill, virtually ensuring it will never reach the floor.
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I May Be One of the Few Americans Who Believes in Open Borders, But the Majority Like Immigrants
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Maybe They Were Infected With the China Virus
Media conglomerate News Corp revealed Friday that it was the target of a cyberattack affecting a limited number of email accounts and documents" from its headquarters, and publications including Dow Jones, News UK, and New York Post.
"Our preliminary analysis indicates that foreign government involvement may be associated with this activity, and that some data was taken," chief technology officer David Kline and chief information security officer Billy O'Brien wrote in an email to staff.
The publisher of the Wall Street Journal is being assisted in the investigation of the hack by cybersecurity firm Mandiant, which linked the attack to China.
"Mandiant assesses that those behind this activity have a China nexus, and we believe they are likely involved in espionage activities to collect intelligence to benefit China's interests," David Wong, vice president of consulting at Mandiant, said in a statement to CBS News.
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Facebook is Officially the Worst
Meta Platforms Inc.’s one-day crash now ranks as the worst in stock-market history.
Meta Erases $251 Billion in Value, Biggest Wipeout in History
The Facebook parent plunged 26% Thursday on the back of woeful earnings results, and erased about $251.3 billion in market value. That’s the biggest wipeout in market value for any U.S. company ever.
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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 | |
| Feb 4 | |||||
| Feb 3 | 719,986 | 250,593,665 | 212,336,183 | ||
| Feb 2 | 494,092 | 250,378,993 | 212,130,684 | 378,015 | 2,403 |
| Feb 1 | 510,477 | 250,184,240 | 211,954,555 | 415,552 | 2,369 |
| Jan 31 | 575,732 | 250,029,773 | 211,818,885 | 446,355 | 2,287 |
| Jan 30 | 603,030 | 249,892,470 | 211,695,131 | 497,296 | 2,234 |
| Jan 29 | 595,871 | 249,695,301 | 211,533,229 | 522,626 | 2,261 |
| Jan 28 | 626,946 | 249,473,925 | 211,343,818 | 543,016 | 2,265 |
| Jan 27 | 643,725 | 249,267,851 (I don't know why) | 211,162,083 | 577,748 | 2,300 |
| Jan 26 | 962,958 | 251,518,114 | 210,850,212 | 596,859 | 2,288 |
| Jan 25 | 1,011,603 | 251,289,667 | 210,682,471 | 627,294 | 2,246 |
| Jan 24 | 1,201,186 | 250,964,433 | 210,459,963 | 692,359 | 2,166 |
| Jan 23 | 1,101,405 | 250,763,600 | 210,358,008 | 663,908 | 1,936 |
| Jan 22 | 1,002,322 | 250,568,431 | 210,229,586 | 686,715 | 1,939 |
| Jan 21 | 1,035,111 | 250,262,153 | 210,021,766 | 716,829 | 1,974 |
| Jan 20 | 1,094,988 | 250,028,635 | 209,842,610 | 726,870 | 1,843 |
| Jan 19 | 1,135,453 | 249,702,939 | 209,509,297 | 744,615 | 1,749 |
| Jan 18 | 1,158,537 | 249,393,487 | 209,312,770 | 755,095 | 1,669 |
| Jan 17 | No Data | 736,350 | 1,746 | ||
| Jan 16 | No Data | 771,131 | 1,851 | ||
| Jan 15 | 1,268,202 | 248,707,432 | 208,995,438 | 788,628 | 1,858 |
| Jan 14 | 1,286,773 | 248,338,448 | 208,791,862 | 798,335 | 1,784 |
| Jan 13 | 1,291,013 | 247,987,225 | 208,564,894 | 794,587 | 1,730 |
| Jan 12 | 1,234,672 | 247,695,845 | 208,182,657 | 782,765 | 1,729 |
| Jan 11 | 1,213,113 | 247,321,023 | 207,954,605 | 761,535 | 1,656 |
| Jan 10 | 1,307,445 | 247,051,363 | 207,796,335 | 750,996 | 1,633 |
| Jan 9 | 1,331,635 | 246,812,939 | 207,662,071 | 674,406 | 1,552 |
| Jan 8 | 1,286,783 | 246,447,823 | 207,452,448 | 680,330 | 1,544 |
| Jan 7 | 1,226,151 | 246,050,320 | 207,229,983 | 668,497 | 1,513 |
| Jan 6 | 1,164,127 | 245,653,518 | 207,016,514 | 614,552 | 1,350 |
| Jan 5 | 1,117,999 | 245,278,020 | 206,797,799 | 586,391 | 1,245 |
| Jan 4 | 1,093,005 | 244,947,293 | 206,581,659 | 554,328 | 1,238 |
| Jan 3 | No Data | 491,652 | 1,165 | ||
| Jan 2 | No Data | 438,082 | 1,174 | ||
| Jan 1 | No Data | 411,871 | 1,151 | ||
| Dec 31 | No Data | 391,098 | 1,135 | ||
| Dec 30 | 1,234,917 | 243,527,564 | 205,811,394 | 360,276 | 1,144 |
| Feb 16, 2021 | 1,716,311 | 39,670,551 | 15,015,434 | 78,292 |
| At Least One Dose | Fully Vaccinated | % of Vaccinated W/ Boosters | |
| % of Total Population | 75.5% | 64.0% | 41.8% |
| % of Population 5+ | 80.2% | 68.0% | |
| % of Population 12+ | 85.2% | 72.6% | 45.0% |
| % of Population 18+ | 87.1% | 74.2% | 56.3% |
| % of Population 65+ | 95.0% | 88.4% | 64.6% |
California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday Feb 2)
There has been no significant rain since the first week in January. There are no big storms in the 10-day forecast. After a great start, this could still turn out to be a bad season.
| Percent of Average for this Date | Last Week | 2 Weeks ago | 3 Weeks ago | 4 Weeks ago | 5 Weeks ago | |
| Northern Sierra Precipitation | 113% | 124% | 134% | 149% | 158% | 170% |
| San Joaquin Precipitation | 99% | 110% | 121% | 138% | 156% | 170% |
| Tulare Basin Precipitation | 91% | 101% | 112% | 127% | 145% | 151% |
| Snow Water Content - North | 89% | 117% | 128% | 135% | 134% | |
| Snow Water Content - Central | 89% | 114% | 129% | 148% | 148% | |
| Snow Water Content - South | 92% | 121% | 135% | 160% | 158% |
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
Virtual Creeps
Meta has announced a new feature to allow more personal space for people's avatars in virtual-reality worlds.
The metaverse is still at concept stage but the latest attempts to create virtual worlds are already facing an age-old problem: harassment.
Bloomberg's technology columnist Parmy Olson told the BBC's Tech Tent programme about her own "creepy" experiences.
And one woman likened her own traumatic experience in VR to sexual abuse.
Meta has now announced a new feature, Personal Boundary, which begins rolling out on 4 February. It prevents avatars from coming within a set distance of each other, creating more personal space for people and making it easier to avoid these unwanted interactions.
It stops others "invading your avatar's personal space", said Meta.
You'll Take What You Get and Be Grateful For It! Only Bosses Get to Be Greedy.
Unions have reacted with fury after the Bank of England boss urged workers not to ask for big pay rises, to help stop prices rising out of control.
Andrew Bailey told the BBC wage rises needed to be moderate with firms showing "restraint" in pay talks.
When asked whether the Bank was asking workers not to demand big pay rises, Mr Bailey, said: "Broadly, yes."
The GMB union branded the comments a "sick joke", while the TUC said calls for pay restraint were "ill-founded".
"Telling the hard-working people who carried this country through the pandemic they don't deserve a pay rise is outrageous. It's a sick joke," said Gary Smith, GMB's general secretary.
TUC head of economics Kate Bell said increasing pay at a slower rate would "make the squeeze on family budgets even tighter".
"Energy prices are pushing up inflation - not wage demands. Britain needs a pay rise - not another decade of lost pay and living standards," she added.
And Unite lead Sharon Graham said workers did not need "lectures" from Mr Bailey "on exercising pay restraint".
"Let's be clear, pay restraint is nothing more than a call for a national pay cut."
A Pox On Both Their Houses!
In the Pennsylvania Senate race, one candidate is accusing a rival of having "dual loyalties" to the US and a foreign country. In turn, that rival is charging his opponent with being too cozy with China.
But these aren't candidates from opposing parties. They are hedge-fund executive David McCormick and TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz, two of the leading contenders for the Republican nomination.
Both candidates have flooded the airwaves with television ads in the first weeks of their campaigns, spending a combined more than $10 million to overwhelm primary voters with their messages. Super PACs supporting Republican candidates have chipped in an additional $3 million total. And another Republican candidate, former US ambassador to Denmark Carla Sands, has also spent more than $2 million on ads so far.
The ads, particularly from the super PACs, are hitting the rival candidates hard on everything from McCormick's hedge fund investment in China to a PSA from Oz touting the benefits of Obamacare. Pro-Sands ads, meanwhile, aren't yet engaging in the slugfest.
Note to Bigots: Snow Doesn't Melt Jews
Man who recorded himself using snowplow to spray Jewish people fired and under investigation
In the latest antisemitic incident to make the news, an off-duty New Jersey snowplow driver was suspended after posting a video on social media in which he or a friend allegedly shoved snow toward Orthodox Jewish people last weekend, NJ.com reported.
The driver, identified as Donny Klarmann, who at the time was employed by Waste Management, is under investigation by Lakewood Police and the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, officials confirmed to NBC News on Tuesday. Authorities noted that they are investigating whether to pursue hate crimes charges.
Why Do Criminals Want to Record Themselves in the Act?
Another Day, Another Dishonest QOP Rep
Rep. Ronny Jackson, the Texas member of Congress known as “candy man” during his time as White House doctor, bragged this week about being “instrumental in getting” $1.6 million for the Red River Chloride Control Project. But of course he voted against the law that provided that funding. At the time, he tweeted, “I WILL NOT be voting for Pelosi’s bloated ‘infrastructure’ bill, which spits in the face of the Patriotic values my constituents expect out of their representative in Washington. I love the Panhandle and I can’t in good conscience support such a TERRIBLE bill.”
He sure seems fine with its effect on his district, though. Even wants to be sure people know that he got the money he voted against.
One Free Rape
Last year, a federal appeals court twice rejected a Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) proposed interpretation of Title IX. In the official legal opinion, Judge James Wynn of the federal Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals said that FCPS was trying to argue that schools should get "one free rape."
Students protest the one free rape by Fairfax County Public Schools
FCPS has paid the law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth millions of taxpayer dollars to help fight back against students' civil rights, including by lodging this appeal. This is the same law firm that previously argued in favor of segregation during the seminal Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education, when the high court struck down segregation in public schools. Former West Virginia Solicitor General, Elbert Lin, along with attorneys Sona Rewari and Ryan Bates, are assisting with the appeal.
Interpreting Coal Joe
History for Dummies
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) received a free lesson in U.S. history after posting her latest tweet about the Constitution.
“The Constitution is not evolving,” she wrote on Twitter. “To say that spits in the face of every single one of our founders.”
I Think He Should Stay Masked
--------------
900,000. That's Reported Deaths. According to the CDC Excess Deaths are Over 1 Million.
The US is now averaging 356,658 new Covid-19 cases, according to Johns Hopkins University (JHU).
Cases are down 38% since last week. Cases are trending down in all but one state: Alabama.
The US is now averaging 2,441 new deaths each day, according to JHU. This is 7% higher than a week ago, but it’s been holding steady over the past couple of days. The US will likely surpass 900,000 total Covid-19 deaths tonight or tomorrow.
There are 122,627 people currently hospitalized with Covid-19. This is a 16% drop from last week, and new hospital admissions are down compared to last week, too – a promising sign that the downward trend will continue, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
More than a quarter (26.8%) of the total US population is fully vaccinated and boosted, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 64% of the population is fully vaccinated with at least their initial series.
--------------
It's Melting! It's Melting
Climate change is causing the highest glacier on Mount Everest to melt at a rapid pace, a new study has found.
Researchers led by the University of Maine found that the South Col Glacier has lost more than 180ft (54m) of thickness in the last 25 years.
The glacier, which sits around 7,906m (25,938 ft) above sea-level, is thinning 80 times faster than it first took the ice to form on the surface.
The rate of decline has been blamed on warming temperatures and strong winds.
Scientists leading the study found that since the 1990s, ice that took around 2,000 years to form has melted away.
They also noted that the glacier's thick snowpack has been eroded, exposing the underlying black ice to the sun and accelerating the melting process.
Et Tu, Larsen?
Sea ice attached to the Antarctic Penninsula’s Larsen B embayment shattered and disintegrated sometime between January 16 and the 21st. The vast expanse of sea ice had formed in 2011 when it fastened itself to the coastline after the Larsen B ice shelf collapsed. Once the sea ice crumbled, it took a large chunk of the Scar Inlet ice shelf with it.
With the loss of the sea ice, the small glaciers on the NE region of the peninsula no longer have any buttressing to hold back the small glaciers in the area from emptying in the sea. Glaciers at Larsen A shelf have already thinned and drained into the sea. They are known as ghost glaciers. According to Nasa, these glaciers at Larsen B will also dump their land ice into the Weddel Sea.
Both Larsen A and B disintegrated over the past 30 years, and they were 12,000 years old. Larsen C has begun to show signs of collapse, while Larsen D recently calved a large piece of its ice shelf. The Antarctic peninsula is the fastest-warming area on the continent.
Warm moist weather that was once unheard of on the peninsula melted and destabilized Larsen B bay. The crisis is here.
--------------
Did the Clown Get Fired, Too?
When copy writer Josh Thompson received an ominous email from his bosses asking to discuss his role at the company, he knew he was facing redundancy.
The human resources department at FCB New Zealand encouraged him to bring a "support person" to help cushion the blow, an option that is legally required in New Zealand.
But rather than bring a family member, a friend or even a pet, the part-time stand-up comedian decided to splash out NZ$200 (£100) on a clown called "Joe".
"I was working - because I had a job back then - and I got an email and the email said: 'Hi Josh we'd like to meet with you to discuss some matters in regards to your role,'" he told the BBC from Australia, where he has been "making the most of not having a job".
"Basically I sensed that this was going to be a redundancy ... so I thought I might as well try to make the best out of this situation," he added.
Is it all over for non-creepy clowns?
"Joe" accompanied Josh for the redundancy meeting, where the clown made balloon animals, although he had to be told to stop a few times as it was difficult to hear above the screeching of plastic.
--------------
Sean Spicer is Disappointed. Boo, Hoo!
The January jobs report released Friday morning was predicted to be weak thanks to the omicron surge, and Republicans were doing victory laps in advance. Former Trump mouthpiece Sean Spicer tweeted that “the White House spin on tomorrow's jobs report will be fun.”
On Fox & Friends: ”How does the White House spin this?” and “What vaccine do you get for job loss?” and, in giant red letters, “MORE JOB LOSSES.”
Well, it turned out the White House doesn’t need to spin anything. Friday morning, it was President Joe Biden who had the opportunity to take a victory lap—this one based on the facts, not wishful thinking. “America’s job machine is going stronger than ever,” Biden said, touting truly impressive jobs numbers. Not only did January’s jobs report seriously exceed expectations, but November and December’s jobs reports were revised upward by huge numbers. Dow Jones had estimated 150,000 new jobs in January. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, reality was 467,000 new jobs.
”This morning's [jobs] report caps off my first year as president, and over that period, our economy created 6.6 million jobs,” Biden said. “If you can't remember any year when so many people went to work in this country, there's a reason: It never happened.”
Maybe Sean Spicer Needs a Clown
--------------
Can Even the QOP Go Too Far for the QOP?
A Republican bill that would have overhauled elections in Arizona -- including giving the state legislature the power to reject election results -- proved to be too much even for state GOP leaders this week.
Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, a Republican, quietly doomed House Bill 2596 on Tuesday with an unusual parliamentary maneuver.
The speaker assigns all new bills to a committee for consideration before they can have full House votes, a choice that often has a great effect on a measure's chance of success. But on Tuesday, Bowers took the unprecedented step of ordering all 12 House committees to consider the elections bill, virtually ensuring it will never reach the floor.
--------------
I May Be One of the Few Americans Who Believes in Open Borders, But the Majority Like Immigrants
--------------
Maybe They Were Infected With the China Virus
Media conglomerate News Corp revealed Friday that it was the target of a cyberattack affecting a limited number of email accounts and documents" from its headquarters, and publications including Dow Jones, News UK, and New York Post.
"Our preliminary analysis indicates that foreign government involvement may be associated with this activity, and that some data was taken," chief technology officer David Kline and chief information security officer Billy O'Brien wrote in an email to staff.
The publisher of the Wall Street Journal is being assisted in the investigation of the hack by cybersecurity firm Mandiant, which linked the attack to China.
"Mandiant assesses that those behind this activity have a China nexus, and we believe they are likely involved in espionage activities to collect intelligence to benefit China's interests," David Wong, vice president of consulting at Mandiant, said in a statement to CBS News.
--------------
Facebook is Officially the Worst
Meta Platforms Inc.’s one-day crash now ranks as the worst in stock-market history.
Meta Erases $251 Billion in Value, Biggest Wipeout in History
The Facebook parent plunged 26% Thursday on the back of woeful earnings results, and erased about $251.3 billion in market value. That’s the biggest wipeout in market value for any U.S. company ever.
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