Tues - Honoring Fictional Drug Dealers. Warp Speed No More

--------------
Today's Worst Joke in the World

Stupidity knows no boundaries, but it knows a lot of people.

Poker Zen Koan

What is the sound of two aces cracking?


--------------
Vaccine News

Covid-19 vaccines saved an estimated 20m lives during their first year

The development of covid-19 vaccines was a scientific triumph. Converting it into medical benefits has required getting shots into the arms of as many people as possible, a process fraught with political and logistical hurdles. Nonetheless, a new study finds that jabs cut the disease’s death toll by 63% during their first year.

Warp Speed Turns Into Impulse Power

In the early days of the pandemic, the federal government launched Operation Warp Speed, the public-private initiative aimed in part at speeding up the development of vaccines.

It proved to be a success, bringing the first Covid vaccines to the market in about 9 months, an unheard-of time frame for a process that normally takes years or even decades.

But that same kind of effort has not been given to developing the next generation of vaccines, which experts believe will provide even greater protection.

Nasal vaccines, in particular, may hold a lot of promise; many scientists consider such an approach to have the potential to prevent infections entirely.

That’s because nasal vaccines deliver a boost of immunity right where the virus enters the body.

These vaccines “concentrate the immune protection in the upper airway,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief medical adviser, told NBC News in an interview. In doing so, the “antibodies that are trying to protect you from having the virus enter your body, are right there on the front lines protecting you.”

The lack of initiative has been a disappointment for some scientists who say vaccines administered through the nose or upper respiratory tract may be better suited to preventing infections caused by the coronavirus compared to shots administered intramuscularly.

“There isn’t a lot of appetite to invest in these things anymore because Operation Warp Speed is over and a lot of people think this is all done and we don’t need better vaccines,” said Florian Krammer, an immunologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. He is supporting an effort at Mount Sinai to develop a nasal vaccine.

But as the pandemic continues, it’s clear that the existing vaccines do little to protect against infection, particularly from omicron and its family of immune-evading subvariants. The shots and boosters from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna continue to hold up against hospitalization and death, but blocking infection entirely could prevent even mild illnesses. It could also curb transmission of the virus and prevent other serious issues, such as long Covid.

“A traditional shot in the arm, you get what’s called systemic immunity, namely antibodies build up that are essentially distributed in different organs of the body,” Fauci said. That’s the reason, he said, those vaccines do very well against protecting against severe disease.

Nasal vaccines are also designed to induce antibody production, but in the mucosal tissue — the inner lining of the nose, throat and mouth, where the virus typically enters the body.
--------------
Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees

Real Gas Guzzlers

With gas prices at record highs in the U.S. in recent months, some people have turned to hacking the pump.

Since prices spiked in March, police have arrested at least 22 people across the country for either digitally manipulating computers that manage gas pumps or installing homemade devices to discount their fuel, according to an NBC News review of police and local news reports.

The most common tactics aren’t technologically sophisticated. Gas hackers take advantage of the fact that gas pump equipment in the U.S. is heavily standardized and largely relies on a handful of manufacturers that often don’t include strong security protections. And some of the hacking tools are easily available online for purchase.

The first exploits the fact that many Wayne fuel dispensers have a remote control option to allow station owners and fuel inspectors to easily access them. Those remotes are not regulated, though, and NBC News found many of them for sale online on places including eBay.

An eBay spokesperson said in an emailed statement: “eBay is committed to providing a secure online shopping experience to millions of people globally. We have programs and policies in place to monitor our marketplace for items that encourage illegal activity and work with regulators to remove items when patterns of abuse or criminal behavior are reported.”

While Wayne’s gas dispensers require remote users to enter a key code to access its controls, many station owners never change it from the default setting, Denton said. (1234?)

“You can just pump as much as you want. The easy solution to prevent this from happening is to change that code when pumps are installed (Duh!), but for whatever reason, whether apathy or lack of knowledge, some of these owners aren’t.”

The second method, often used against Gilbarco pumps, tricks a gas pump into dispensing far more gas than it tracks. Gas pumps rely on a device called a pulser to measure how much gas comes out of a pump, telling it how much to charge a customer. Thieves use homemade devices, which can be made from a handful of parts from a hardware store, to slow the pulser so it registers only a fraction of the gas it dispenses.

A thief still needs to open up a gas pump panel to install a pulser manipulator, but many Gilbarco cabinets use a standardized key. NBC News found such keys were also widely available for sale online.

Today's Scam Alert:  Don't Trust People Because They Claim to Know a Scam Artist

Two Chinese American businesspeople were charged Monday with funneling foreigners’ money into political donations that bought entry to an exclusive dinner with then-President Donald Trump so the duo could impress and swindle Chinese investors.

In a complex financial scheme with political tentacles, prosecutors say, Sherry Xue Li and Lianbo “Mike” Wang raised $27 million for a grandiose development plan that never got close to approval, then siphoned off millions of dollars for personal expenses.

To project the sway to keep their promises — which often included visas to live in the U.S. — they used investor money and foreign nationals’ cash to make big-dollar donations and be seen with Trump and other prominent politicians, prosecutors said in court documents.

“Together we can build a better, stronger and healthier community and ‘Make America Great Again!’” read one of their business’ press releases trumpeting that Li and Wang had attended a pre-inaugural reception featuring various figures in the incoming Trump administration.

God Forbid Anyone Care About Students' Emotional Health

In October, after a student opened fire at Timberview High School in North Texas, wounding two classmates and a teacher, parents in the Mansfield Independent School District initially rallied together, praying publicly for the victims and praising officials for reacting quickly to prevent a worse tragedy.

But six months later, a different narrative began to spread through this suburban Dallas school district, one that put the blame for the shooting on a new district approach to disciplining students. It started with political mailers sent to thousands of homes.

“MISD put ‘woke’ politics over the safety of our children,” the flyers read in all caps, above a news clipping about the Timberview shooting, which reportedly resulted from a fight between two Black students. The flyers, paid for by a conservative political action committee, warned that the Mansfield school district had “stopped disciplining students” based on “Critical Race Theory principles.” As a result, it said, “kids were nearly killed.”

But the Mansfield mailer omitted a key detail: Some of the local school policies that it was attacking were initially implemented three years ago, not as part of a liberal takeover of the suburban school system, but at the urging of Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the Trump administration.

The mailers reflected a growing belief among some conservative parents, both in Mansfield and nationally, that school programs meant to address students’ emotional well-being have become vehicles for indoctrinating children with progressive ideas about race, gender and sexuality. The flyers, sent in mid-April ahead of a school board election, also previewed how some prominent Republicans would respond one month later after the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas — making a visceral connection between anti-racism initiatives in schools and parental fears about the physical safety of their children.

What Does the QOP Have Against Resisting Dictators?



Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) was in his element back home in Kentucky, speaking at a Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce lunch. Early in his appearance, after going through a litany of what he said were President Joe Biden’s failures, he turned to Ukraine as an area of bipartisanship.

“Let me just tell you that I think beating the Russians in Ukraine is the single most important thing to world peace that we’re dealing with at the moment. The Russians simply have to be defeated,” he said July 5.

“Some people write me and say, ‘Well, why did we send $40 billion over there?’ Well, the answer to that is it costs us a lot more to do it later,” he said.

Some of those people are in McConnell’s own party — including Donald Trump, who could be the party’s presidential nominee again in 2024.

And that presents a problem for McConnell and President Joe Biden. Helping Ukraine, which started off with broad public and bipartisan support, is at risk of becoming yet another casualty of today’s polarized politics.

According to Morning Consult polling, while a plurality of all voters see the United States as doing “the right amount” to help Ukraine, Republican voters were the only group more likely to say the U.S. was doing “too much,” at 28%, than too little, 25%.

A June poll for the University of Maryland found that willingness to tolerate substantially or somewhat higher levels of energy prices and inflation had dropped off for Republican voters compared to overall voters in a similar March survey.

84% of the GOP Are in the QOP


--------------
Today's Best Person in the World Nominees

Faster, Cheaper, and Cleaner.  Fossil Fuel Joe Manchin Will Try to Kill It.


From a small office overlooking an airfield, once home to the UK's first Spitfire squadron, a tiny British start-up is hoping to make a little history of its own - as one of the pioneers of commercial electrified aviation.

Faradair is planning to develop and sell a hybrid-electric passenger plane, aimed at the regional aviation market. It would have up to 19 seats and would be propelled by a fan driven by an electric motor. The necessary electricity would be provided by a small gas turbine.

In order to provide extra lift, and allow take-offs and landings from short runways, it would also have a triple level wing. This would give it a passing resemblance to a World War One fighter, despite having state-of-the-art aerodynamics.

The company's chief executive, Neil Cloughley, argues that such a plane would have far fewer moving parts than a conventional propeller aircraft, making it cheaper to run. It would also be much quieter, and produce fewer emissions.

"Why do we not use aeroplanes like we would a bus?" he asks.

"The reason is cost of operation, primarily. Also if you start using lots of aeroplanes it creates a lot of noise, and of course we have now got into an age where sustainability really is a key part of our future.

"So we decided we would come up with an aircraft that would not only be economic to use, and therefore cost-effective, but would also be quiet and sustainable."

The Faradair design, he says, would allow short hops between cities such as London and Manchester for £25 each way - less than the cost of a rail ticket.

In more remote or inaccessible regions, meanwhile, such planes could provide a transport lifeline from small airstrips, avoiding the need for major investments in road or rail lines.

It plans to have the aircraft flying by 2025 with commercial use starting in 2027.

Faradair is far from alone in seeing the potential of electric aviation, at a time when governments around the world are searching for ways to reduce carbon emissions. Nor is its project the most ambitious.

California-based start-up Wright Electric, for example, plans to bring a fully-electric 100-seat aircraft into service by the middle of the decade. It would be based on the existing Bae146, with its four turbofan engines replaced by electric motors.

Chipping Up.  Congress is Doing Something

Over a year after passing its first version of a bill boosting semiconductor competition with China, the U.S. Senate was due to begin voting on Tuesday on a slimmed-down version of legislation to provide more than $50 billion in subsidies for the computer chip industry.

The Senate's Democratic majority leader, Chuck Schumer, announced that the first procedural vote would take place on Tuesday, calling U.S. semiconductor manufacturing a matter of national security as well as a source of jobs.

Senate aides said the goal is to pass the bill early next week. The would send the bill to the House of Representatives, whose approval would then send it to the White House for President Joe Biden to sign into law.
--------------
Invasions Have Consequences

Day 146

Fighting

A Russian missile attack in the Black Sea port city of Odesa wounded at least four people and burned houses to the ground, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Ukraine said Russian troops tried unsuccessfully to advance towards the city of Avdiyivka north of Donetsk but were pushed back after several days of fighting, suffering heavy losses, with some 40 people dead.

Ukraine’s top military commander said US-supplied long-range rocket systems helped “stabilise the situation” through “major strikes at enemy command points, ammunition and fuel storage warehouses”.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered generals to prioritise destroying Ukraine’s long-range missile and artillery weapons after raids on Russian supply lines.

And according to the United Kingdom’s defence ministry, Russia has struggled to sustain its offensive since the start of its invasion, and the problem was likely to become increasingly acute.



Economy

Russia’s energy company Gazprom has told customers in Europe it cannot guarantee gas supplies because of “extraordinary” circumstances, according to a letter seen by the Reuters news agency.

Dated July 14, the letter from the Russian state gas monopoly said it was declaring force majeure on supplies, starting from June 14.

Foreign allies need to increase their financial support for Ukraine to help the country maintain financial stability during the war with Russia, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidential office said.

Officials from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations will most likely meet this week to discuss resuming Ukraine’s Black Sea grain exports, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said.

Diplomacy

EU foreign ministers agree to another 500 million euros ($504m) of funding to supply arms to Ukraine, taking the bloc’s security support to 2.5 billion euros ($2.54bn) since Russia’s invasion began.

In his second trip outside Russia since the invasion started, President Vladimir Putin arrived in Iran for a summit with his Iranian and Turkish counterparts on the Syrian conflict, Iranian state TV said on Tuesday.

Russia’s highest-ranked women’s tennis player, Daria Kasatkina, called for an end to fighting in Ukraine in an interview released on Monday.

The liberal-leaning Russian independent TV station Dozhd (TV Rain) resumed broadcasting on Monday evening from abroad after being forced to shut its Moscow studio following the invasion.

What's Happening in Kherson?

Russian forces focused on maintaining occupied lines and preventing a Ukrainian offensive along the Southern Axis on July 18.[25] Russian forces conducted airstrikes on Ukrainian positions along the Kherson-Mykolaiv and Kherson-Dnipropetrovsk Oblast borders and settlements on the Zaporizhia Oblast frontline.[26] The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Ukrainian and Russian forces conducted mutual shelling strikes along the contact line along the Southern Axis.[27] Kherson Oblast officials reported that Russian forces continued changing their concentration areas to densely populated areas in Kherson Oblast in an effort to deter Ukrainian strikes on Russian positions.[28]

Russian Telegram channel Rybar claimed on July 18 that Ukrainian forces are increasing groupings of forces and equipment near the contact line in the Mykolaiv-Kryvyi Rih direction in preparation for an offensive on Kherson Oblast.[29] Rybar also claimed that Ukrainian forces set up a pontoon bridge in preparation for a possible offensive across the Inhulets River near Arhanhelske, Kherson Oblast.[30]





Taking the IED to the Next Level


Partisans


Good Luck Collecting


Russia's Southern "Ally" Isn't on the Putin Bus


Another Ammo Dump is Now a Dump


It's the Same in Any Language


I Wonder What It Is


--------------
Here's What We Can Expect in the US

Abortion is illegal in the Philippines – a majority Catholic country and former American colony – and has been for over a century. Under the law, women found to have aborted their fetuses face prison terms of between two to six years.

Doctors and nurses caught performing abortions or providing assistance are also subject to harsh punishment by the state. “We risk losing our medical licenses and would also face charges in court,” Miriam said.

In the Philippines, many women seek other solutions to unwanted or unviable pregnancies, regardless of risks.

Lawyer Clara Rita Padilla, a spokeswoman for the Philippine Safe Abortion Advocacy Network (PINSAN), said that while there are “progressive interpretations” of the abortion law in the Philippines, there are no clear exemptions allowing for terminating pregnancies even in severe cases like rape and incest – or to save the life of the pregnant woman.

A study conducted by PINSAN in 2020 found 1.26 million abortions were carried out in the country, “placing the lives and health of Filipina women at risk.” And that figure is expected to grow. Another study by the University of the Philippines estimated that 1.1 million abortions occur every year in the country.

Padilla said most women who had abortions came from poorer financial backgrounds, and many were below the age of 25. In the absence of legal services, women often turned to dangerous underground abortions performed by midwives, healers, and untrained doctors in makeshift clinics, she said.
--------------
It's Like Rain, On Your Wedding Day

Towering waves on Hawaii’s south shores crashed into homes and businesses, spilled across highways and upended weddings over the weekend.

The large waves — some more than 20 feet high — came from a combination of a strong south swell that peaked Saturday evening, particularly high tides and rising sea levels associated with climate change, the National Weather Service said Monday.

A wedding Saturday evening in Kailua-Kona was interrupted when a set of large waves swamped the event, sending tables and chairs crashing toward guests.


--------------
The Heat is On

"Through Rain, Sleet, Hail, Or Snow."  They Don't Mention Heat.

An Arizona homeowner is sharing video of a UPS driver collapsing in front of his door in a bid to warn people to stay safe in the extreme heat the state has been experiencing for more than a month.

The Ring video shared by Scottsdale resident Brian Enriquez shows the delivery person walk slowly to the front door. As he bends down to put down a package, the delivery man falls over and lands in a sitting position, where he sits for a little while before laying down on the porch.

The driver then gets up and rings the doorbell before staggering away.



There is Almost No AC in the UK

The U.K. recorded its hottest ever temperature on Tuesday, according to provisional Met Office figures, as the country faces a second day of extreme heat amid warnings of wildfires and reports of melting roads.

A temperature of 39.1C (102.4 Fahrenheit) has been provisionally recorded at Charlwood, Surrey, in south east England, the Met Office announced.

If confirmed, it will be the highest temperature ever recorded in the U.K.

The forecaster warned temperatures are likely to rise throughout the day.




I Am Running Out of Corny Ways to Say It is Hot Everywhere
--------------
I Guess We Are Running Out of Real People to Honor.  So We Need to Start Honoring Fictional Drug Dealers

“Breaking Bad” fans have a new cause to celebrate, namely two life-sized statues of the show’s unscrupulous protagonists.

Bronze statues of Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, as portrayed by actors Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, will be unveiled at the Albuquerque Convention Center on July 29, Sony Pictures Television said in a statement.

“We are thrilled and humbled to be getting bronze statues of our characters from Breaking Bad permanently placed at the Convention Center in downtown Albuquerque,” Cranston and Paul said in a joint statement. “This city has meant so much to us over the years, and we want to thank everyone in ABQ, for not only being great hosts through our show and Better Call Saul but being an important character in the storytelling as well.”

While statues celebrating meth dealers might seem questionable, “Breaking Bad” has majorly driven Albuquerque tourism, with excursions of recognizable locations and show-centric events regularly offered. The mayor said the show played an “unmistakable role in our city’s meteoric rise.”

Never afraid of keeping things light, Cranston and Paul thanked the city for placing the statues indoors to protect their likenesses “from pigeons depositing their critiques on our heads.”
--------------
Today's Lost Animal News

A wayward dolphin has been swimming in a Connecticut river after making its way upstream from Long Island Sound.

The dolphin was first spotted Thursday morning by fishermen along the Thames River. A video posted to Facebook shows the dolphin jumping around near the Norwich Marina, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the Sound. Eventually, the animal rescue team at Mystic Aquarium was notified. They have been monitoring the situation along with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.



Having Trouble Getting to Yeehaw Junction?

A herd of loose cows shut down a portion of Florida's Turnpike in the central part of the state on Monday afternoon, leading to massive traffic delays in Osceola County, south of Orlando.

Efforts to corral the roughly 70 cows let loose during a truck fire brought all lanes to a standstill for over three hours near St. Cloud, which is about 27 miles southeast of Orlando.

Florida Highway Patrol troopers reported a fire just south of the Canoe Creek Service Plaza at 11:38 a.m. ET.

North and southbound lanes were closed from there to Yeehaw Junction at State Road 60 or from roughly mile marker 244 to 192.



Cows Don't Know Better.  People Should


This could have turned out much worse.

In a Track and Field World Championships that's making repeated headlines for what's gone wrong, another bizarre incident took center stage during Monday's competition, this time in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase.

In an event built around obstacles, runners ran into an unplanned impediment on the track — a cameraman. As competitors still bunched up in the early stages of the race ran down the stretch of the Hayward Field track, a cameraman stood in Lane 2 with his back turned to the field.

Runners faced a choice. Go left or go right. And hope to not get knocked down.

Fortunately for the runners, the camera operator somehow remained still, and they all ran around him without further incident. After the race, U.S. runner Evan Jager explained his thought process when he saw the cameraman.

“I was a little worried that he was going to dart one way or another, right at the last second, but thankfully he didn’t realize we were there until we all passed him,” Jager said, per the New York Times.

So why was a camera operator standing in the middle of the field of competition? He was filming the nearby women's triple-jump final. Evidently nobody on his broadcast team informed him that there was live competition taking place on the track.
--------------
Going Down

The U.S. average retail gasoline price fell to $4.495 a gallon on Tuesday, slipping below $4.50 for the first time in nine weeks, data from the American Automobile Association (AAA) showed.
--------------
The Answer is "NO"

Is student loan forgiveness fair to those without college degrees?  It would be unfair for the Biden administration to cancel student loans for those who “already repaid their loans or decided to pursue alternative education paths.” 

Young People From Poor Families Are Far Less Likely to Attend College.  This Tends to Subsidize Better-Off Kids.
--------------
Duh!

Federal prosecutors said Monday they have declined to bring charges against nine people associated with CBS’ “Late Show with Stephen Colbert” who were arrested in a building in the U.S. Capitol complex last month.

The decision, made by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, comes after prosecutors determined they “cannot move forward” with the misdemeanor charges against the nine people arrested June 16 in the Longworth House Office Building. The incident followed the third public hearing by the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office said it was not probable a conviction could be obtained and sustained given that the nine arrested had been invited and that their escorts had never asked them to leave the building.
--------------
The Show Must Go On!

Rep. Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, announced Tuesday he has COVID-19 two days ahead of a prime-time hearing Thursday.

"I tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday, and I am experiencing mild symptoms," Thompson said in a statement. "Gratefully, I am fully vaccinated and boosted. I am continuing to follow CDC guidelines and will be isolating for the next several days."

Despite Thompson's diagnosis, the committee's next hearing later this week will go on as planned.


--------------
Evacuate, When They Tell You To

A Spanish man who fled a wildfire with his clothes in flames after trying to dig a trench to protect his town was in serious condition in hospital but managed to communicate with his wife, a family friend told Reuters on Tuesday.

Arjona, 50, the owner of a construction equipment firm, suffered severe burns and was given emergency first aid on the spot before being airlifted to a specialist burns unit in the nearby city of Valladolid, local emergency services said.

Family friend Jose Manuel Taba said he was in serious condition but had communicated with his wife in the early hours of Tuesday.
--------------

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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