Tuesday, November 15, 2022

And another day of falling missiles, Scott challenging McConnell, overturning GA’s ban on abortions, zooming in on the biggest polluters, the Mormon church supports same-sex marriage, youth hearing loss, and the male fertility crash comes to a close:

“When you're in a cult, you don't know you're in a cult.” -- Holly Figueroa O’Reilly

“I did not watch the racist misogynistic xenophobic narcissistic orange pile of garbage tonight, but still, I'm kinda hoping this tears the GOP apart. That'd be fun.” — Phil Plait

Deaths

US: 1,100,631 (+335)

World: 6,618,221 (+1665)

Cases

US: 99,974,387 (+39,346)

World: 641,047,115 (+397,978)

Poland: Russian-made missile fell on our country, killing 2. Poland said early Wednesday that a Russian-made missile fell in the eastern part of the country, killing two people in a blast that marked the first time in the war with Ukraine that Russian weapons came down on a NATO country. Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy decried the strike as “a very significant escalation” of the war.

Biden says it's "unlikely" missile that fell in Poland was fired from Russia. US President Joe Biden said that preliminary information suggests it is unlikely the missile that caused an explosion in Poland on Tuesday and killed two civilians was fired from within Russia.

Trump seeks White House again amid GOP losses, legal probes. Another campaign is a remarkable turn for any former president, much less one who made history as the first to be impeached twice and whose term ended with his supporters violently storming the Capitol in a deadly bid to halt the peaceful transition of power on Jan. 6, 2021.

Explainer: What legal problems does U.S. presidential candidate Trump face? -- There are several. And he’s using the cover of running for POTUS to try and get out of them. Lock that fucker up.

GOP Sen. Scott mounts long-shot bid to unseat McConnell. Florida Sen. Rick Scott said Tuesday that he will mount a long-shot bid to unseat Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, opening the latest front in an intraparty battle between allies of McConnell and former President Donald Trump over the direction of the GOP following a disappointing showing in last week’s midterm elections.

Judge overturns Georgia’s ban on abortion after around 6 weeks. A judge overturned Georgia’s ban on abortion starting around six weeks into a pregnancy, ruling Tuesday that it violated the U.S. Constitution and U.S. Supreme Court precedent when it was enacted and was therefore void. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney’s ruling took effect immediately statewide, though the state attorney general’s office said it planned to appeal. The ban had been in effect since July. It prohibited most abortions once a “detectable human heartbeat” was present. Cardiac activity can be detected by ultrasound in cells within an embryo that will eventually become the heart as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. That means most abortions in Georgia were effectively banned at a point before many women knew they were pregnant.

Al Gore’s New Tool Can Zoom in on the Biggest Polluters in Your Town. If you’ve ever wondered how much methane the landfill in your neighborhood emits, there’s now a way to potentially find out. A promising new tool can zoom in on spots around the world in various industries to measure just how much greenhouse gases those locations and facilities are emitting.

Earth at 8 Billion: Consumption not Crowd is Key to Climate. While more people consuming energy, mostly from the burning of fossil fuels, is warming the planet, the key issue isn’t the number of people as much as how a small fraction of those people are causing way more than their share of carbon pollution, several climate and population experts told The Associated Press. “We do have a population problem and we do have a population issue,” said Vanessa Perez-Cicera, director of the Global Economics Center at the World Resources Institute. “But I think most importantly, we have an overconsumption issue.”

Mormon church comes out in support of same-sex marriage law. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Tuesday it would back proposed federal legislation to safeguard same-sex marriages, marking the latest show of support for the measure from conservative-leaning groups. The nearly 17-million member, Utah-based faith said in a statement that church doctrine would continue to consider same-sex relationships to be against God’s commandments. Yet it said it would support rights for same-sex couples as long as they didn’t infringe upon religious groups’ right to believe as they choose.

Texas GOP looks to restrict transgender health care and drag shows. One of the bills filed in the Legislature this week would make letting kids attend drag shows a Class A misdemeanor — on par with vehicle burglary. Texas Republicans introduced several bills this week that target the transgender community, including at least two measures seeking to criminalize gender-affirming care for minors and one looking to prevent children from attending drag performances.

Male fertility crash accelerating worldwide: study. The study found sperm counts fell by more than 51 percent between 1973 and 2018. And while sperm counts have been dropping for decades, the decline rate appears to be speeding up.

Smoking marijuana can raise risk of lung disease, chest scans indicate. In a new analysis of medical records, cannabis smokers had higher rates of a certain type of emphysema than tobacco smokers.

One billion young people risk hearing loss from loud music. More than 1 billion teenagers and young adults may be at risk of hearing loss because of their use of headphones, earphones and earbuds and attendance at loud music venues, a study suggests. An international team of researchers estimate that 24% of 12- to 34-year-olds are listening to music on personal listening devices at an “unsafe level”.

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

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