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Post by mhbruin on Mar 2, 2023 9:33:09 GMT -8
A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: 'Keep off the Grass.'
Attack of the Devil's Fungus
A Jack Daniels building project is to be halted after a neighbour argued she was facing a plague of whiskey fungus caused by escaping alcohol vapours.
Christi Long, of Lincoln County, Tennessee, claimed her property was coated in the fungus, which appears as a black crust on surfaces.
It is a growing issue for people in the area, her lawyer told BBC News.
The fungus, which consumes ethanol fumes, grows on surfaces near bakeries and distilleries around the world.
Mrs Long, who runs an events venue next to several Jack Daniels warehouses, including one under construction, says the invading fungus has required her to spend thousands on power washing.
She is suing the local county zoning office, arguing it did not properly approve permits for the warehouses.
Some infuriated locals are now calling for Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey, which is owned by Louisville-based company Brown-Forman, to install air filters to combat the problem.
Jason Holleman, a lawyer representing Mrs Long, says whiskey companies often speak about the evaporation process - dubbed "the angels' share" - without mentioning the resulting mould that comes with it.
"If you go on one of these distillery tours they will tell you about the angels' share that goes into the atmosphere," he says.
"And unfortunately that also results in the devil's fungus."
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 2, 2023 9:36:05 GMT -8
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 2, 2023 9:36:57 GMT -8
We're Losing the War
Communities around the world emitted more carbon dioxide in 2022 than in any other year on records dating to 1900, a result of air travel rebounding from the pandemic and more cities turning to coal as a low-cost source of power.
Emissions of the climate-warming gas that were caused by energy production grew 0.9% to reach 36.8 gigatons in 2022, the International Energy Agency reported Thursday. (The mass of one gigaton is equivalent to about 10,000 fully loaded aircraft carriers, according to NASA.)
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 2, 2023 9:39:59 GMT -8
Migranes and Nausea Always Get Me Down
The presidents of U.S. railroad unions told Biden administration officials that rail workers have fallen ill at the Norfolk Southern derailment site in East Palestine, Ohio, in a push for more train safety.
According to the letter, Norfolk Southern rail workers who have worked or continue to work the cleanup site have reported experiencing “migraines and nausea.” One worker reportedly asked his supervisor to be transferred off the derailment site because of his symptoms, but never heard back from his supervisor and was left at the job site.
The letter also claims workers are not being provided appropriate personal protective equipment such as respirators, eye protection or protective clothing. According to union representatives, 35 to 40 workers were on the track and were not supplied with proper breathing apparatuses — only paper and N95 masks — or rubber gloves, boots or coverups.
A Norfolk Southern spokesperson told CNBC in a statement that the train company was “on-scene immediately after the derailment and coordinated our response with hazardous material professionals who were on site continuously to ensure the work area was safe to enter and the required PPE was utilized, all in addition to air monitoring that was established within an hour.”
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 2, 2023 9:41:10 GMT -8
There Must Be 4,000 Crazy People in Bakhmut
One old enemy now apparently giving some assistance to Ukraine in the fight to hold that final paved road in and out of the city—General Mud. Over the last week, temperatures around Bakhmut have notched up several degrees. The snow has melted everywhere except in the shadow of some ruined buildings, and Russian efforts to drive that advance south from the area between Berkhivka and Yahidne have run into an uncomfortable issue: There are no roads there. Or at least, no paved roads.
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 2, 2023 9:48:45 GMT -8
Economists Don't Know Sheet
On Monday, the National Association for Business Economics released its latest survey of forty-eight professional forecasters, and the results were all over the place. Though the median prediction showed the inflation-adjusted gross domestic product (the broadest measure of what the economy produces) eking out a modest expansion of 0.3 per cent from the fourth quarter of 2022 to the fourth quarter of 2023, the projections ranged from negative 1.3 per cent—a significant slump—to positive 1.9 per cent, which would represent a relatively healthy growth rate. Moreover, that wasn’t the only thing that the forecasters disagreed on. Estimates of inflation, labor-market indicators, and interest rates “are all widely diffused, likely reflecting a variety of opinions on the fate of the economy—ranging from recession to soft landing to robust growth,” the association’s president, Julia Coronado, of MacroPolicy Perspectives, said.
The divided opinions among economists were also on display at a conference on monetary policy that the University of Chicago Booth School of Business hosted in New York, last Friday. A group of economists from academia and Wall Street, which included the former Federal Reserve governor Frederic Mishkin, presented a research paper that cast doubt on hopes the central bank will be able to bring inflation down to its target of two per cent without causing a recession of some kind. After examining prior periods of disinflation going back more than seventy years and running simulations on an economic model, the economists said their findings suggested that “the Fed will need to tighten policy significantly further to achieve its inflation objective by the end of 2025.” Virtually all economists agree on at least one thing: the further the Fed raises interest rates, the more likely it is that its inflation-fighting exercise will end in a full-on recession.
By chance, the conference in Chicago coincided with the release of a monthly inflation report that Jerome Powell and his colleagues at the Fed monitor closely: the index for personal-consumption expenditures (P.C.E.). After the annual rate of inflation declined steadily during the second half of 2022, the update for January showed it edging up a bit, to 5.4 per cent. This news added to concerns that inflation may be proving “stickier” than some analysts had hoped. But what is the real outlook for inflation?
“Give me a one-handed Economist. All my economists say 'on hand...', then 'but on the other...” ― Harry Truman
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 2, 2023 9:52:40 GMT -8
MLK Is Gone With the Wind, Too.
At the Atlanta premiere of Gone With the Wind on December 15, 1939, the 10-year-old Martin Luther King Jr. was dressed as a slave. It was the second night of an official three-day holiday proclaimed by the mayor of Atlanta and the governor of Georgia. King’s choir was serenading a white audience, directed to croon spirituals to evoke an ambiance of moonlight and magnolias for the benefit of the movie’s famous producer, David O. Selznick. He was the son of a former studio head and the husband of Louis B. Mayer’s daughter Irene, inspiring the ancient joke in Hollywood that “the son-in-law also rises.” But he’d fought hard to carve out his own legacy, beginning with his addition of the eye-catching but meaningless “O” to his name, and culminating in his creation of an independent studio. By 1939, Selznick had established himself as one of Hollywood’s most notoriously ambitious and outspoken showmen. He’d gambled his entire studio on Gone With the Wind, banking on the popularity of a novel about a ruthless Southern belle during the Civil War that had swept America three years earlier, winning its first-time author Margaret Mitchell the Pulitzer Prize and soon becoming the bestselling work of fiction in the country, second only to the Bible in book sales.
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 2, 2023 9:55:39 GMT -8
"Do You Really Want Me to Answer You?"
When reporters ask questions of Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, they should be prepared to get very blunt answers, as Swedish Television (SVT) climate correspondent Erika Bjerström found out in a mid-February interview with her.
ERIKA BJERSTRÖM: The elephant in the room, what a lot of Western climate diplomats tell me, is that leaders like yourself also carry a responsibility. Why are vulnerable countries still so debt-stricken, why is there still corruption … what is your response to that?
MIA MOTTLEY: You really want me to answer you?
BJERSTRÖM: I do.
MOTTLEY: Okay. Why is it that every time we talk about countries from the South, the first allegation is corruption? Last time I checked, in the USA, and the UK, and Europe, they’re riddled with corruption but nobody says that they’re not capable of achieving their objectives because of corruption.
Why is it that we are not talking about the fact that these countries became independent having allowed those countries that colonized them to extract significant portions of their wealth? Such that we had no proper housing, no proper education, no proper health care systems, no proper legal systems, no proper—across the whole stream—and certainly having to do with building social capital like community development and cultural enterprises.
And what has happened, is therefore that we have spent the time since independence trying to give our people what the global North has taken for granted, and has supported by the extrication of centuries of wealth to give their people—out of our blood, sweat, and tears.
Now when our blood, sweat, and tears finances the industrial revolution, and the industrial revolution then causes a climate crisis, and then I have to pay for the consequences of the climate crisis because of the industrial revolution, financed by our blood, sweat, and tears. Then I think that they have no moral authority to tell me anything about the financing of the climate, or about why we don’t have enough.
BJERSTRÖM: Is it anger over this that fuels your energy?
MOTTLEY: Anger? Absolutely not. Unfairness, lack of justice. We’re not angry. I’m just disappointed that humankind wants to believe that’s there’s one world for a set of people, and another world for another set.
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 2, 2023 9:57:49 GMT -8
I'm Pretty Sure They Were Motivated By Hate. Most Nazis Are.
5 individuals (4 men, 1 woman) have been arrested for six seven bombing incidents in and around Fresno, CA. I was surprised because I had not heard there were serial bombers active in Fresno. I know Fresno isn’t LA or New York but you think it might’ve made a blip on the national news.
Scott Anderson, 44, the suspected bomber, was arrested together with Frank Rocha, 56. Two other men are in custody after they were arrested in Fresno: Steven Burkett, 51; and Paul New, 55. Also arrested was Amanda Sanders, 41.
Police also encountered flags, signs, clothing, cups, banners and patches with white supremacist and Nazi paraphernalia.
"At this point, we can't say that the motivation was a hate crime, or whether the victims were targeted because of their race," (Fresno Police Chief Paco Balderrama)
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 2, 2023 10:00:41 GMT -8
The Radical Texas Judge May Not Be Such a Big Problem for Pharmacutical Abortions
A federal lawsuit filed in Texas could soon take mifepristone off the market. Mifepristone is the first ingredient in the two-drug medication abortion cocktail. The ban on mifepristone could extend to the states in which abortion is fully or partially legal, significantly restricting abortion rights. The judge in the case, Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, is a Trump appointee with a history of reversing progressive and moderate policies and supporting government control of individuals’ lives.
But a new study offers an alternative protocol. According to data just published in the journal Contraception, using the second drug of the abortion pill cocktail, misoprostol, is both safe and effective.
Drawing on data from previous studies, the paper reports that, at most, just 0.7% of people had complications requiring hospitalization. For comparison, tonsilectomy has a re-hospitalization rate about four times that figure. The majority of people who used misoprostol reported being satisfied or very satisfied with the method, and said they would use it again. Ninety-three percent of patients had a complete abortion that did not require additional care or follow-up.
The sample protocol in the study suggests misoprostol is safe during the first trimester, and recommends three to four doses of the drug.
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 2, 2023 10:04:39 GMT -8
Oof!
Based on Her "Logic", the She Killed All the People Who Died of Gun Violence
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 2, 2023 10:05:58 GMT -8
Today's Geography Quiz
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 2, 2023 10:09:07 GMT -8
An Optimistic View, However, It Seems Unlikely
Russia will run out of "military tools" to achieve its war aims in Ukraine by the end of the spring, Ukraine's top military intelligence official predicted in a USA TODAY interview.
Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov's forecast comes amid considerable uncertainty about what the next phase of the war will look like as it moves into its second year. For weeks, Ukrainian officials had signaled that Russia was planning a major new offensive to coincide with the one-year anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine on Feb 24. A notable new offensive has yet to materialize.
"Russia has wasted huge amounts of human resources, armaments and materials. Its economy and production are not able to cover these losses. It's changed its military chain of command. If Russia's military fails in its aims this spring, it will be out of military tools," Budanov said in his heavily guarded, fortified Kyiv office, which he shares with two pet frogs, poisonous-gas detecting canaries and a range of ammunitions.
'We need to keep living': What life is like for Ukrainians a year into Russia's invasion
Budanov further predicted that Ukraine and Russia would fight "a decisive battle this spring, and this battle will be the final one before this war ends." He did not provide any specific evidence to back up his claims. And it's important to note that Moscow and Kyiv are involved in an intense information war as well as fighting on the battlefield. Some military experts have cautioned that both sides need to be prepared for a long fight.
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 2, 2023 10:11:41 GMT -8
I Still Worry About Nuclear Waste, But This Makes Sense. This is Also a Cheap Way to Generate Power
The Biden administration said on Thursday it is offering a fresh round of $1.2 billion in aid to extend the life of distressed nuclear power plants which, for the first time, could offer funding to a plant that has recently closed.
President Joe Biden's climate team believes nuclear power is a crucial source of virtually carbon-free electricity needed to be maintained and expanded to reach his pledge of what it calls 100% clean electricity by 2035.
But faced with rising security costs and competition from wind and solar energy and power generated with cheap natural gas, about a dozen U.S. reactors have closed since 2013, leaving 92 across the country.
The funding comes from the $6 billion Civil Nuclear Credit program, created by the 2021 infrastructure law, and will be distributed by the Department of Energy (DOE).
In this second round, the money is available to plants at risk of closure
"Expanding the scope of this ... funding will allow even more nuclear facilities the opportunity to continue operating as economic drivers in local communities that benefit from cheap, clean, and reliable power," Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said.
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 2, 2023 10:13:06 GMT -8
What Do You Want to Bet That the "Law and Order" QOP Blocks This?
President Joe Biden plans to ask Congress to provide $1.6 billion in new funding to tackle fraud tied to U.S. pandemic relief programs and help victims of identity theft, the White House said.
The push, led by White House adviser Gene Sperling, will seek to demonstrate renewed toughness on pandemic fraud ahead of promised investigations by House of Representatives Republicans on the trillions of dollars in COVID-19 pandemic aid approved under both former President Donald Trump, a Republican, and Biden, his Democratic successor.
The aid, among other things, helped pay for expanded unemployment benefits to workers and forgivable loans under the Paycheck Protection Program to companies if they kept workers employed.
The funding request includes $600 million to help investigate large-scale fraud by criminal syndicates, $600 million for fraud and identity theft protection, and $400 million to help victims who have had their identities stolen, according to the White House.
In addition, Biden wants Congress to increase the statute of limitations on serious pandemic unemployment insurance fraud to 10 years, the White House said.
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