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Post by mhbruin on Nov 29, 2023 9:24:12 GMT -8
A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station..
At the Moment, Five of My Family Members and a Co-Worker of My Daughter All Have COVID. Some Family Members Had No Contact with Other Family Members.
Incidence of a COVID-19 variant appears to have increased threefold in the U.S. in recent weeks, federal tracking showed.
The BA.2.86 variant – a mutated COVID-19 strain previously thought to be uncommon – is projected to account for nearly one-tenth of circulating viruses, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Nowcast variant tracker posted Monday. Two weeks ago, the variant made up 3% of cases. These figures are based on estimates of circulating variants.
“The numbers are less important,” Dr. Perry Halkitis, the dean of the Rutgers School of Public Health, in New Jersey, told USA TODAY. “The pattern is more important. And it looks like it's growing.”
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The most recent estimate that BA.2.86 makes up 9% of COVID cases is not a firm number. Health officials say the variant likely accounts for 5% to 15% of circulating variants in the U.S.
Testing is considered a less reliable indicator of disease prevalence. But the increase in hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 should cause concern, Halkitis said. Colder temperatures in densely populated regions such as the New York area may account for increases in the Northeast in recent days, he added.
All of These People Flew Over the Thanksgiving Weekend.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 29, 2023 10:09:40 GMT -8
Bitcoin Uses More Than a Bif of WaterEvery Bitcoin payment 'uses a swimming pool of water'Every Bitcoin transaction uses, on average, enough water to fill "a back yard swimming pool", a new study suggests. That's around six million times more than is used in a typical credit card swipe, Alex de Vries of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, calculates. The figure is due to the water used to power and cool the millions of computers worldwide Bitcoin relies on. It comes as many regions struggle with fresh water shortages. Up to three billion people worldwide already experience water shortages, a situation which is expected to worsen in the coming decades, the study notes. "This is happening in Central Asia, but it's also happening in the US, especially around California. And that's only going to get worse as climate change gets worse," Mr de Vries told the BBC. In total, bitcoin consumed nearly 1,600 billion litres - also known as gigalitres (GL) - of water in 2021, the study, published in the journal Cell Reports Sustainability, suggests. It says the 2023 figure could be more than 2,200 GL. The main reason Bitcoin uses so much water is because it relies on an enormous amount of computing power, which in turn needs huge amounts of electricity. Bitcoin is so power hungry it uses only marginally less electricity than the entire country of Poland, according to figures from Cambridge University. Water is used to cool the gas and coal-fired plants that provide that much of our power. And large amounts of water are lost through evaporation from the reservoirs that supply hydroelectric plants. Some water is also used to cool the millions of computers around the world on which Bitcoin transactions rely. Mr de Vries argues that Bitcoin does not need to use this much water - singling out the power hungry process at its heart, which is known as "Bitcoin mining." In simple terms, miners audit transactions in exchange for an opportunity to acquire the digital currency. But they compete against each other to complete that audit first - meaning the same transaction is being worked on many times over, by multiple powerful and power hungry computers. "You have millions of devices around the world, constantly competing with each other in a massive game of what I like to describe as 'guess the number'," Mr de Vries told the BBC. "All of these machines combined are generating 500 quintillion guesses every second of the day, non stop - that is 500 with 18 zeros behind it." And How Much Fossil Fuel is Burned to Provide All That Electricity?
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 29, 2023 10:11:47 GMT -8
Sikh and Ye Shall Find ... A Murder Plot
The US has said it foiled an alleged plot to assassinate an American citizen in New York who advocated for a Sikh separatist state.
Nikhil Gupta, an Indian national, was charged with murder-for hire over the plot on Wednesday. He was allegedly directed by an Indian government employee, according to the indictment.
That government official was not named or charged.
The alleged target was also not named by the justice department's indictment.
But US media reported the target was Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a dual US-Canadian citizen who is a member of a US-based Sikh activist group.
Sikhs are a religious minority that make up about 2% of India's population. Some groups have long called for a separate homeland for Sikhs.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 29, 2023 10:12:56 GMT -8
Ronaldo Scores An Own Goal
Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo is facing a class action lawsuit in the US over his promotion of Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world.
The plaintiffs claim his endorsement led them to make loss-making investments.
They are seeking damages of "a sum exceeding" $1bn (£790m).
The BBC has contacted both Ronaldo's management company and Binance for comment.
In November 2022, Binance announced its first "CR7" collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in partnership with Ronaldo, which the footballer said would reward fans "for all the years of support".
NFTs are virtual assets that can be bought and sold, but which have no real-world form of their own - in other words they only exist digitally. Generally, they are used to mark ownership of something, such as a picture or video online.
"CR7" refers to Ronaldo's initials and shirt number, and is used as branding in a range of products, from footwear to fragrances, that have helped make him one of the wealthiest athletes on earth.
In a social media video announcing the partnership, Ronaldo told would-be investors "we are going to change the NFT game and take football to the next level".
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 29, 2023 10:15:42 GMT -8
Forecast: This Winter Will Be Either Wet or Dry
In 1983, El Niño brought historic flooding to parts of Southern California, toppling sections of fishing piers and inspiring some to travel submerged streets by surfboard. In 1998, it returned, dusting regional mountains with snow through May.
For Californians' collective mind, the weather phenomenon, defined by an eastward-moving, warmer-than-normal sea surface along the equatorial Pacific, is shaped by those traumatic, potent winters with record precipitation.
But as some earth scientists see a bit of 1983 or 1998 in the coming winter's strong El Niño, they may be neglecting a new reality: A stormy, wet El Niño of that vintage hasn't struck California this century.
University of California, Irvine, earth system science professor Jin-Yi Yu, whose doubts about a predicted "Godzilla El Niño" in 2015-16 were confirmed, sees the phenomenon permanently changed.
"El Niños in these respective centuries are distinct," Yu said in a series of emails. "Recent El Niño and La Niña events have behaved differently from what we initially expected."
While Yu is once again a rare voice discounting the chances of a wet El Niño for California this winter, many of the state's most influential weather watchers are not wholly opposed to his bearish outlook.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the current El Niño is “strong” by its measurements, which could translate into strong storms affecting parts of the state.
State Climatologist Michael Anderson, who also expressed some doubt in 2015's "Godzilla El Niño" predictions, has called on Californians to essentially be ready for anything.
"Until better seasonal forecasts are available, California is preparing for both extreme wet or extreme dry conditions," he said by email.
That may be wise in a weather world that sometimes seems upside down.
So Far, California Precipitation is WELL Below Normal
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 29, 2023 10:17:40 GMT -8
Hunter Offers to Talk. They QOP is Freaking Out
Hunter Biden wants to testify to the House Oversight Committee in public, not behind closed doors. He’s watched as his associates have given private depositions only for Republicans to leak misleading and outright false accounts of their answers, and the president’s son doesn’t seem interested in being a victim of that process. Hunter Biden’s offer to testify publicly has James Comer, the chair of the Oversight Committee, talking fast and offering a lot of excuses. A closed-door deposition, Comer insisted to Sean Hannity Tuesday night, “is for all practical purposes public. We will release the transcripts.”
But not before Comer and his buddies go out and set the narrative about the deposition by lying about it.
There’s a reason Hunter Biden might want the world to see his answers live. In late July, his former business partner Devon Archer gave a closed-door deposition. Within hours, Comer and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan were on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News, with Comer claiming, “Today, we saw Joe Biden has lied to the American people. He knew exactly who his son was getting those millions and millions of dollars of wires from, and he spoke to them, and he spoke to them often.” Days later, under pressure, Republicans released the transcript of Archer’s deposition, and, of course, it showed nothing of the sort.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 29, 2023 10:21:02 GMT -8
Previous Guy Asks Prosectors to Turn Over EVERYTHING. Absolutely EVERYTHING.
The latest news in the criminal case against coup-attempting seditionist Donald Trump—and this would be the federal case filed in Washington, D.C., charging Trump with attempting to obstruct the 2020 election we're talking about, since Trump is under multiple indictments in multiple jurisdictions at this point—is another demand from Trump's lawyers that the federal government turn over basically every scrap of info related to the insurrection, from multiple branches of the government.
In court papers filed Monday, Trump’s legal team sought permission to compel prosecutors to turn over reams of information on the 2020 election and Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack from the FBI, national security and election integrity units of the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the Capitol Police, the Defense Department, the D.C. police department, the National Guard, and members of Congress.
There's some surrounding hokum about how this is allegedly part of a Trump defense plan to show that the election was too stolen, or the violent insurrection he fomented was actually a false flag operation meant to make him look bad, and none of that matters even the slightest little bit. This is just another showboating delay tactic from Trump's lawyers, almost certainly on Trump's own orders, as he tries desperately to delay each of the trials against him until after the November 2024 elections and a possible election victory that would allow him to pardon himself for any federal convictions and simply ignore the charges in New York, Florida, and Georgia.
The point of dumping this 370-page dead whale on U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan's doorstep is that the judge now has to spend at least a little time cleaning it up, adding another delay to the trial. Trump probably won't even get that, though; by making the requests so broad and open-ended, he's made them easy for the judge to reject.
Here is a tip: Prosecutors aren't required to turn over information they don't have. They're also not obligated to do the defense team's work for them.
Federal criminal defendants typically can and often do file shotgun-blast requests for information in hopes of finding gaps in the prosecution’s case or at least slowing down the push toward trial. However, courts give U.S. prosecutors broad discretion to decide which evidence reasonably may be helpful to the defense and thus must be turned over. Their obligation to produce evidence is also limited to information available to the prosecution team — not everything known to the U.S. government at large.
The Trump move purports to demand that federal prosecutors turn over documents about the election and insurrection from every part of government, including the Defense Department and Congress, and ... no? Those are separate parts of the government. Trump would have just as much luck demanding that special counsel Jack Smith’s team turn over Walmart sales records for Lincoln, Nebraska. If his lawyers want to see Walmart’s records, it's on them to either go get them from Walmart or to convince the judge to issue a subpoena obliging Walmart to hand them over.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 29, 2023 10:28:05 GMT -8
Why is Hamas Giving Up Hostages?
As negotiations on extending the Israel-Hamas pause begin in Doha, some preliminary observations:
1. Hamas remains in control in Gaza capable of enforcing the ceasefire on all the other terrorist groups, including PIJ.
2. That casts doubt on its claims that it can’t get its hands on all the hostages.
3. PIJ’s submission to Hamas’s command is an indication that Iran supports the ceasefire. Note that all of Iran’s proxies, including Hezbollah, have ceased firing despite not being included in the agreement. (The Houthis were late in getting the memo.) This fits with Nasrallah’s advice to Hamas at the outset of the war to go for a ceasefire.
4. Hamas gains by holding the IDF at bay but also from the release of Palestinian prisoners to the West Bank where its popularity is soaring at Abu Mazen’s expense.
5. If this is all true then Hamas will be more than willing to pay with more hostages to hold off Israel’s resumption of hostilities.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 29, 2023 10:29:39 GMT -8
Early Polls Don't Mean Much, But This Might Save You a Bit of Anguish.
What Happened In Mississippi?
On a night of surprisingly strong Democratic performances in the 2023 elections, Brandon Presley’s 3.2% loss in Mississippi’s gubernatorial election stands out. Facing an incumbent governor in a Trump +17 state in the Deep South, most had already written off the Presley campaign. Then, a catastrophic October Democratic underperformance in demographically-similar Louisiana made Presley’s chances look even slimmer.
Presley’s surprise overperformance was powered by three factors: strong Black turnout, exceptional Black support, and relatively strong white support. Tapping into the white electorate was one of the biggest reasons that Mississippi was so much closer than Louisiana. Furthermore, while Black turnout was abysmally low in the latter state, it was remarkably robust in the former.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 29, 2023 10:39:05 GMT -8
"When I heard MTG had written a book, my initial thought was it must be a coloring book. But nope. Sure enough, it has words"
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 29, 2023 10:41:47 GMT -8
What Do You Expect When You Have a Climate Summit in the Middle East?
The president of the United Nations’ annual climate summit planned to use the talks to lobby dozens of countries and business leaders to increase exports of oil and gas, according to leaked documents obtained by media outlets this week.
Dubai is preparing to host the 28th Conference of the Parties, or COP, this week, which will see hundreds of world dignitaries and envoys meet to discuss the growing threat of a warming world. The president of COP28 is Sultan Al Jaber, the CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, or ADNOC, which provides about 3% of the world’s oil.
The Centre for Climate Reporting and the BBC obtained briefing documents from a whistleblower that suggests Al Jaber and his colleagues planned to discuss fossil fuel exports with nearly 30 foreign nations between July and October. It’s unclear how often those interests were discussed, but the outlets report at least one nation followed up on the commercial discussions.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 29, 2023 10:43:31 GMT -8
What a Wonderful Idea! Help Criminals Rehabilitate Themselves.
Home Depot’s retired co-founder Bernie Marcus is sticking by Donald Trump.
The billionaire Republican has admitted he’ll probably still donate to Trump’s 2024 campaign even if the former president ends up being convicted in one of his four criminal cases that are expected to come to trial before the general election next November.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 29, 2023 10:44:41 GMT -8
GM Can Actually Afford to Pay Their Workers a Better Wage.
Shares of General Motors climbed as much as 10.7% on Wednesday following the company's plans to boost shareholder returns.
The automaker announced a $10 billion accelerated repurchase program and said it will increase its common stock dividend by 33% beginning in 2024.
The moves come as GM pulls back on its electric vehicle and autonomous driving ambitions, while also navigating higher labor force costs amid its new contract with the United Auto Workers.
"We are finalizing a 2024 budget that will fully offset the incremental costs of our new labor agreements and the long-term plan we are executing includes reducing the capital intensity of the business, developing products even more efficiently, and further reducing our fixed and variable costs," GM Chair and CEO Mary Barra said in a statement. "With this clear path forward, and our strong balance sheet, we will return significant capital to shareholders."
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 29, 2023 10:47:24 GMT -8
Life Expectancy Went Down Under a Republican President and Rose Under a Democratic One.U.S. babies born in 2022 gained roughly a year in life expectancy compared with babies born a year earlier, federal data showed on Wednesday, marking progress after two consecutive years of declines largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Life expectancy at birth for 2022 newborns was 77.5 years, up from 76.4 in 2021 but still lower than the 78.8 years expected for those born in 2019, data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests. It will take "some time before we're back to where we were in 2019, before the pandemic," said Elizabeth Arias, a CDC researcher who worked on the report. The study estimated babies' life expectancy if mortality conditions when they were born were to persist throughout their lives. "There were positive outcomes all around ... all the groups by race and sex experienced increases in life expectancy," Arias said. Come With Me If You Want to Live Come With Me If You want to ProsperShrugging off higher interest rates, America's consumers spent enough to help drive the economy to a brisk 5.2% annual pace from July through September, the government reported Wednesday in an upgrade from its previous estimate. The government had previously estimated that the economy grew at a 4.9% annual rate last quarter. In the current fourth quarter, though, economists say growth is likely slowing sharply from the cumulative effects of higher borrowing rates on consumer and business spending. TD Economics, for example, expects growth in the October-December period to come in at a 1.8% annual rate. Wednesday's second estimate of growth for the July-September quarter confirmed that the economy sharply accelerated from its 2.1% rate from April through June. It showed that the U.S. gross domestic product — the total output of goods and services — grew at its fastest quarterly rate in nearly two years.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 29, 2023 10:50:26 GMT -8
The Blood and Body of Christ and Lots of Fossil Fuels
Hundreds of Catholic institutions around the globe have announced plans to divest their finances of oil, gas and coal to help fight climate change since Pope Francis published his landmark encyclical on environmental stewardship in 2015 urging a break with fossil fuels.
But in the United States, the world's top oil and gas producer and where about a quarter of the population is Catholic, not a single diocese has announced it has let go of its fossil fuel assets.
U.S. dioceses hold millions of dollars of stock in fossil fuel companies through portfolios intended to fund church operations and pay clergy salaries, according to a Reuters review of financial statements. And at least a dozen are also leasing land to drillers, according to land records.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), an assembly of the hierarchy of U.S. Catholic Church that sets policy guidance, told Reuters that its guidance on socially responsible investing was updated in 2021 to account for the pope's encyclical but confirmed that it does not require divestment from fossil fuels.
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