Tuesday, August 30, 2022

And another day of hampering election preparations, no reliable drinking water, Zombie ice, Lassa Fever, the last member of a Brazil tribe dies, ID needed to buy canned whip cream in New York state comes to a close:

“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” -- Voltaire

Deaths

US: 1,069,748

World: 6,491,960

Cases

US: 96,149,016

World: 607,175,775

With 10 weeks until midterms, election deniers are hampering some election preparations. With ten weeks to go until the 2022 midterms, dozens of state and local officials across the country tell ABC News that preparations for the election are being hampered by onerous public information requests, ongoing threats against election workers, and dangerous misinformation campaigns being waged by activists still intent on contesting the 2020 presidential election. The efforts, many of which are being coordinated at both the national and local level, range from confronting election officials at local government meetings to training volunteers to challenge the vote-counting process on Election Day, according to election officials…"Election officials are clearly getting, like, a copy-and paste-job of a FOIA request from some centralized entity," she said. "They can see in the FOIA request because it'll be bracket, insert county here, close bracket -- and the requestor doesn't insert the name of the county."…"They have become a weaponized tool against us to keep us from being able to do our job.”

Jackson, Mississippi, to go without reliable drinking water indefinitely. The city linked the failure to complications from the flooding of the Pearl River, but Governor Tate Reeves, who declared a state of emergency, said the cause was unknown and that the city-run water treatment plant had been poorly operated and understaffed for years…Jackson, the state capital, is more than 80% Black or African American, according to U.S. Census data. — And that’s why the city’s infrastructure was left to fail. — The town has been under a boiled water alert for a month…"Until it is fixed, it means we do not have reliable running water at scale. It means the city cannot produce enough water to fight fires, to reliably flush toilets, and to meet other critical needs.” -- Let’s be clear: The capital of a US state has no drinking water indefinitely.

Zombie ice from Greenland will raise sea level 10 inches. Greenland’s rapidly melting ice sheet will eventually raise global sea level by at least 10.6 inches (27 centimeters) -- more than twice as much as previously forecast — according to a study published Monday. That’s because of something that could be called zombie ice. That’s doomed ice that, while still attached to thicker areas of ice, is no longer getting replenished by parent glaciers now receiving less snow. Without replenishment, the doomed ice is melting from climate change and will inevitably raise seas, said study co-author William Colgan, a glaciologist at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland.

The deadly virus Nigerians fear more than COVID-19: Lassa fever. Doctors have assured the 48-year-old man that he will recover from the illness, an acute haemorrhagic disease similar to Ebola. He is lucky. Although 80 percent of those infected do not get very ill from the virus and most cases go undiagnosed, the death rate among those who end up in hospital is 15 percent, according to the World Health Organization. With an incubation period of between two and 21 days, severe symptoms can start showing a week into the illness. By then it could be too late. Lassa fever lowers the platelet count in the blood and its ability to clot, causing internal bleeding. Fatal organ failure can follow within days…Despite its widespread presence in West Africa, the disease remains little known in much of the world…Lassa fever infects an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 Africans each year, of which thousands die, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Eighteen people have died after police in Madagascar opened fire on what they called a lynch mob angered at the kidnapping of a child with albinism, a senior doctor has said…On the large Indian Ocean island, people with albinism are regularly the target of violence. More than a dozen abductions, attacks, and murders have been reported in the past two years, according to the United Nations.

The last member of a tribe in Brazil has died, pulling Indigenous rights into focus. The last member of a besieged Indigenous tribe in Brazil has died, apparently of natural causes. Activists are holding up his legacy as a symbol of both the genocide and resilience of his people, calling for his land to be preserved as a reminder of both…His ethnicity, language and name remain a mystery. But his singularity — and decades of isolation — did gain him some broader recognition in and beyond Brazil. He earned the nickname "The Man of the Hole" because of the deep ditches he would dig…The rest of his tribe was likely massacred in attacks by gunmen hired by colonists and ranchers dating back to the 1970s…He had since resisted all attempts at contact and "made clear he just wanted to be left alone.”

Want to buy canned whipped cream in New York state? Don’t forget your ID. A little-known state law banning sales of cartridges used in cans of whipped cream to those under 21 has only recently been noticed — and enforced — to the amusement of customers unaware of the not-so-new regulation. The age limit was enacted nine months ago to curb teens’ possible abuse of nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas. The nitrous oxide found in whipped cream canisters, when it is abused as a narcotic, is commonly referred to as “whippits” or “whip-its.”

Mikhail Gorbachev, who steered Soviet breakup, dead at 91. 

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

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