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Post by mhbruin on Mar 25, 2023 7:58:33 GMT -8
I don't know what you call a small spillage from a pen but I have an inkling. What is the Pro-Life Movement Doing to Protect the Lives of Pregnant Women? Our Lack of Universal Health Care Hurts, Too. |
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 25, 2023 8:00:14 GMT -8
Maternal Mortality by Race. It's Just What You Would Expect, But It's Getting Worse for All Races.
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 25, 2023 8:08:17 GMT -8
States With the Highest Maternal Mortality Rates. New Jersey?Here are the 10 states with the highest maternal mortality: Louisiana - 58.1 per 100k
Georgia - 48.4 per 100k
Indiana - 43.6 per 100k
New Jersey - 38.1 per 100k
Arkansas - 37.5 per 100k
Alabama - 36.4 per 100k
Missouri - 34.6 per 100k
Texas - 34.5 per 100k
South Carolina - 27.9 per 100k
Arizona - 27.3 per 100k
In Some Parts of the US, the Maternal Mortality Rate is Higher Than in Kenya or Rwanda.
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 25, 2023 8:16:38 GMT -8
A Man Who Changed the World
Silicon Valley pioneer and philanthropist Gordon Moore has died aged 94 in Hawaii.
Mr Moore started working on semiconductors in the 1950s and co-founded the Intel Corporation.
He famously predicted that computer processing powers would double every year - later revised to every two - an insight known as Moore's Law.
That "law" became the bedrock for the computer processor industry and influenced the PC revolution.
Two decades before the computer revolution began, Moore wrote in a paper that integrated circuits would lead "to such wonders as home computers - or at least terminals connected to a central computer - automatic controls for automobiles, and personal portable communications equipment".
He observed, in the 1965 article, that thanks to technological improvements the number of transistors on microchips had roughly doubled every year since integrated circuits were invented a few years earlier.
His prediction that this would continue became known as Moore's Law, and it helped push chipmakers to target their research to make this come true.
After Moore's article was published, memory chips became more efficient and less expensive at an exponential rate.
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 25, 2023 8:19:11 GMT -8
Putin Continues to Unite the World ... Against Him
Air force commanders from Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark have said they have signed a letter of intent to create a unified Nordic air defence aimed at countering the rising threat from Russia.
The intention is to be able to operate jointly, based on already known ways of operating under NATO, according to statements on Friday by the four countries’ armed forces.
The move to integrate the air forces was triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year, the commander of the Danish air force, Major General Jan Dam, told Reuters.
“Our combined fleet can be compared to a large European country,” Dam said.
Norway has 57 F-16 fighter jets and 37 F-35 fighter jets with 15 more of the latter on order. Finland has 62 F/A-18 Hornet jets and 64 F-35s on order, while Denmark has 58 F-16s and 27 F-35s on order. Sweden has more than 90 Gripen jets.
How's that "Weakening NATO" Thinkg Going, Vlad?
Two major things have happened this week regarding Finland’s application to join NATO:
1. Finland’s President signed the necessary legal amendments required for NATO membership.
2. Turkiye has rescinded it’s objections to Finland’s membership and a Turkish parliamentary committee approved Finland’s application to join the alliance. President Erdogan has said the full Turkish Parliament will move to ratifying the application, which could happen as soon as next week.
These events leave only one last step: Hungary has yet to vote to ratify the application. However, the vote for this is scheduled next week on March 27th and the application is expected to pass.
If both Turkish and Hungarian parliaments vote next week to ratify the application, then the ratification process will be unanimous among NATO members, a requirement for joining the alliance.
In other NATO news, this week the Swedish Parliament also overwhelming passed required legislation to join NATO, bringing that nation a step closer to NATO membership as well. However Turkiye and Hungary are both continuing their objections to Swedish membership in NATO at present. Hopefully these differences will be resolved in the near future.
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 25, 2023 8:24:10 GMT -8
Russia Is Slowing DownOn Saturday morning, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Army reported that Russia had conducted 59 assaults on Ukrainian positions along the front line. That number was the lowest for any complete day in March, but it was also part of a trend.  No Chips, No TanksUnless You Count WWII Tanks
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 25, 2023 8:29:05 GMT -8
Gov DeathSentence Is Keeping the Funeral Industry Happy. Gavin Newsome? Not So Much. Florida’s governor has ignored Florida’s high death rates as he campaigns for president. This graph shows the issue he, and the rest of Florida, need to deal with, Florida’s high death rate. This graph focuses on the white death rate because Florida’s whites need to know that they are paying the major cost of Republican’s controlling state government, a very high middle aged white death rate. This graph shows that that Florida’s white death rate is very much higher than the very Democratic state, California. I will make three comparisons to keep this short and readable. First that star showing the percentage for 26 year olds, shows that for this age group, Florida’s death rate is 150% of California’s. In other words the number of 27 year olds that it takes to experience 100 deaths in California, experienced 150, the dot is three points above the 147 line, in Florida. Next that cluster of seven dots around age 40. White Floridians in this group experience 180% of Californians death rate or simply put the size of this middle age population that produces 100 deaths in California produces 180 in Florida. Next, I calculated how many deaths non-Hispanic whites in Florida aged 25-64 would have experienced if they had California’s death rate for the same population. That is, all the dots would have been on that 100% line. Their total deaths for 2018 through 2021 was 210,266. If they had experienced the same race and single year age deaths rates as California that would have been 165,692. That is 44,574 or 21.2% fewer. In other words if Florida had experienced California’s middle aged non-Hispanic death rates a little more than one in five of their deaths would not have happened. Their funeral industry would be unhappy.
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 25, 2023 8:30:22 GMT -8
Tell a Lie. Make a Million Bucks. Quite a Gig.
Trump's fans sent him $1.5 million in 3 days after he falsely predicted that he'd be arrested Tuesday
Donald Trump wasn't arrested Tuesday, but he got a big fundraising boost after claiming he would be. He raised $1.5 million in the three days after saying he'd be arrested, per multiple reports. That's nearly double the daily average he got in the weeks before and after launching his 2024 bid.
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 25, 2023 8:35:05 GMT -8
A Little Musical Interlude
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 25, 2023 8:36:31 GMT -8
No Salmon For You. Next!
As drought dried up rivers that carry California’s newly hatched Chinook salmon to the ocean, state officials in recent years resorted to loading up the fish by the millions onto trucks and barges to take them to the Pacific.
The surreal and desperate scramble boosted the survival rate of the hatchery-raised fish, but still it was not enough to reverse the declining stocks in the face of added challenges. River water temperatures rose with warm weather, and a Trump-era rollback of federal protections for waterways allowed more water to be diverted to farms. Climate change, meanwhile, threatens food sources for the young Chinook maturing in the Pacific.
Now, ocean salmon fishing season is set to be prohibited this year off California and much of Oregon for the second time in 15 years after adult fall-run Chinook, often known as king salmon, returned to California’s rivers in near record-low numbers in 2022.
“There will be no wild-caught California salmon to eat unless someone has still got some vacuum sealed last year in their freezer,” said John McManus of the Golden State Salmon Association.
Experts fear native California salmon, which make up a significant portion of the Pacific Northwest’s fishing industry, are in a spiral toward extinction. Much of the salmon caught off Oregon originate in California’s Klamath and Sacramento rivers. After hatching in freshwater, they spend three years on average maturing in the Pacific, where many are snagged by commercial fishermen, before migrating back to their spawning grounds, where conditions are more ideal to give birth. After laying eggs, they die.
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 25, 2023 8:38:03 GMT -8
California Wants to Keep It's Death Rates Lower than Florida's
Some chemicals linked to health issues have been banned in food products in the European Union, while the United States has allowed use at levels determined safe. A bill recently introduced in the California State Assembly could start to change that.
Assembly Bill 418, or AB 418, seeks to prohibit the manufacture, sale or distribution of food products in California containing red dye No. 3, titanium dioxide, potassium bromate, brominated vegetable oil or propylparaben, according to a news release from the Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel’s office, who introduced the bill with fellow Democratic lawmaker Buffy Wicks. If passed, the bill would go into effect January 1, 2025.
Titanium dioxide is a powder used as a white colorant or to give a smooth texture in candies and other processed foods. Potassium bromate is added to baked goods to help dough strengthen and rise higher. In some beverages, brominated vegetable oil keeps citrus flavoring from floating to the top. Propylparabens are used for antimicrobial food preservation.
In the EU, these chemicals are banned “due to scientific studies that have demonstrated significant public health harms, including increased risk of cancer, behavioral issues in children, harm to the reproductive system, and damage to the immune system,” Gabriel’s news release says.
A search of the Environmental Working Group’s Eat Well Guide returns nearly 3,000 products that use red dye No. 3 as an ingredient, including popular candies such as Skittles, Nerds candies and Trolli gummies; protein shakes; instant rice and potato products; and boxed cake mixes.
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 25, 2023 8:40:12 GMT -8
Florida Descends Further Into the Dark Ages
A Florida charter school principal has been forced to resign after a parent complained sixth graders were exposed to pornography during a lesson on Renaissance art that included Michelangelo’s “David” sculpture.
The Tallahassee Democrat reported that the principal, Hope Carrasquilla, of Tallahassee Classical School resigned this week after an ultimatum from the school board's chairman.
One parent complained the material was pornographic and two other parents said they wanted to be notified of the lesson before it was given to their children, Carrasquilla said. The instruction also included Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam” painting and Botticelli's “Birth of Venus.”
“It saddens me that my time here had to end this way,” Carrasquilla told the paper.
The “David” statue's nudity has been part of a centuries-old debate about art pushing boundaries and the rules of censorship. In the 1500s, metal fig leaves covered the genitals of statues like David when the Roman Catholic Church deemed nudity as immodest and obscene.
The kerfuffle in Florida also prompted social media users to point out similarities to a 1990s episode of “The Simpsons” where characters debate the censorship of the "David" statue.
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Post by mhbruin on Mar 25, 2023 8:43:25 GMT -8
It's a Freakin' Cookie, People. Eat an Oreo and Chill Out!
For decades, Girl Scouts has used cookie sales to raise funds and teach scouts about entrepreneurship. This year, thanks to the Raspberry Rally cookie, members got a painful lesson in what can happen when high demand meets limited supply.
The much-hyped Rally, a raspberry-flavored spin on the Thin Mint, was always supposed to be a limited-edition cookie. But interest in it seemed to have taken Girl Scouts leadership by surprise — perhaps because of a new online-only ordering system.
As demand surged, with some cookies even ending up on eBay, in some cases listed for about $40 per box, supply stayed the same because cookie makers couldn’t quickly pump out more Rallies. One of the Scouts’ manufacturers, ABC Bakers, said it needs lots of lead time to make limited-edition cookies. The other, Little Brownie Bakers, said bad weather caused power outages at a Kentucky plant, contributing to other inventory issues that lead to tight supply.
As a result, the Rallies sold out rapidly, leaving scouts and parents to explain the situation to annoyed shoppers even as they tried to make sense of it themselves.
Girl Scouts USA seemed surprised by the level of interest in the Raspberry Rally. - Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service/Getty Images
For young scouts, having to tell customers there are no Rallies available “is a particularly frustrating transaction,” scout parent Betsy Everett told CNN. “When people ask for the new cookie, we tell them the situation and then they don’t want to buy anything. It’s disappointing for the girls.”
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