Tuesday, October 5, 2021

And another day of amusing ourselves to death comes to a close:

“The greatest use of a life is to spend it on something that will outlast it.” -- William James

Deaths

US: 724,728 (+2469)

World: 4,831,604 (+8890)

Cases

US: 44,781,200 (+101,820)

World: 236,593,653 (+434,373)

Ex-Facebook manager criticizes company, urges more oversight. While accusing the giant social network of pursuing profits over safety, a former Facebook data scientist told Congress Tuesday she believes stricter government oversight could alleviate the dangers the company poses, from harming children to inciting political violence to fueling misinformation.

In latest fight, Republicans embrace Trump ethos: Don't pay debts. Republicans are taking a decidedly Trumpian approach to the possibility of a U.S. default: Only a sucker pays debts. They want Democrats to be those suckers, and they will get their way. The Democrats are ready to shoulder the political hit to pay debts incurred by former President Donald Trump, who slashed revenue and spent profligately, and they are trying unsuccessfully to shame Republicans into walking away from a Senate floor showdown Wednesday.

Texas legislation would allow partisan actors to request election audits. Still, Senate Bill 47, which was introduced Friday by GOP state Sen. Paul Bettencourt of Houston, passed the chamber narrowly Tuesday. The measure would allow county party leaders, candidates, judges and political committees to formally ask the Texas secretary of state's office to review any "irregularities" in an election.

A Virginia 10-year-old died of Covid-19 complications just five days after she started showing symptoms, according to her parents, who said the girl may have been exposed to the virus as a result of being classroom "nurse."…"She was required to walk all sick students in her class to the nurse's office."

‘Pandora papers’ show London is a key hub for tax avoidance. Transparency advocates are calling on Britain to tighten the country’s defenses against money laundering and tax avoidance after a massive leak of financial data showed how London is a key destination of choice for some of the world’s richest and most powerful people to conceal their cash. The cache of almost 12 million files shows how wealthy people around the world reportedly set up offshore companies to buy property and avoid taxes.

French clergy sexually abused over 200,000 children since 1950, probe finds. French clergy have sexually abused more than 200,000 children over the past 70 years, a major investigation released on Tuesday found, and its authors accused the Catholic Church of turning a blind eye for too long. The church had shown "deep, total and even cruel indifference for years," protecting itself rather than the victims of what was systemic abuse, said Jean-Marc Sauvé, head of the commission that compiled the report. Most of the victims were boys, he said, many of them aged between 10 and 13.

New Climate Maps Show a Transformed United States. In the case of extreme warming (represented as RCP 8.5), the niche moves sharply toward Canada, leaving much of the lower half of the U.S. too hot or dry for the type of climate humans historically have lived in. Both scenarios suggest massive upheavals in where Americans currently live and grow food…Today, the combination of truly dangerous heat and humidity is rare. But by 2050, parts of the Midwest and Louisiana could see conditions that make it difficult for the human body to cool itself for nearly one out of every 20 days in the year.

1 in 7 trans Britons are refused healthcare by their GP just for being trans. And almost a third – 29 per cent – of trans people have been refused care by gender or sex-specific NHS services because they are trans…Perhaps unsurprisingly, more than half (57 per cent) of trans people then avoid going to the doctor when they feel ill.

Rising Share of U.S. Adults Are Living Without a Spouse or Partner. The share of U.S adults ages 25 to 54 who are currently married fell from 67% in 1990 to 53% in 2019, while the share cohabitating more than doubled over that same period (from 4% in 1990 to 9% in 2019).

Dave Grohl suggested the iconic cover of Nirvana's "Nevermind" album may change following a lawsuit from the man who was a baby when his naked photo was used for the album.

Researchers have discovered the third-ever tardigrade fossil on record, suspended within a piece of 16-million-year-old Dominican amber. "The discovery of a fossil tardigrade is truly a once-in-a-generation event.”

Planet with iron rainfall is even more extreme than scientists thought. On this sizzling exoplanet hundreds of light-years from Earth, droplets of iron rain fall from the sky at night. Now, researchers have also detected sodium and ionized calcium in the planet's atmosphere, based on observations from the Gemini North Telescope, which is located near the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The new findings suggest the planet, named WASP-76b, is even hotter than scientists expected.

Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.

Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.