Today's News: April 20, 2020

World News

 

Bangladesh funeral attracts 100,000 people, shattering coronavirus social distancing rules

Fox – A funeral for a Bangladeshi religious leader drew around 100,000 people in defiance of nationwide coronavirus lockdown.

Police reported that mourners did not wear masks or gloves as they crowded the Sarail district in Brahmanbaria on Saturday to pay their respects to Maulana Jubayer Ahmed Ansari, a senior official of an Islamist party.

Bangladesh has struggled to control the pandemic, leading to strict lockdown measures. Government officials were assured the funeral would observe social distancing rules.

“The madrasa authorities told us they would ensure social distancing, which did not turn out to be the case. We’ll look into it,” Deputy Commissioner Hayat-ud-Doula Khan told the Dhaka Tribune.

Police were unable to handle the huge number of people attending the last rites.

“We had repeatedly asked them to ensure social distancing. Announcements through megaphones were made in the area to that end. Despite all-out efforts from our part, it was not possible to maintain the social distancing rules,” said Additional Superintendent of Police Md Alamgir Hossain.

“The law cannot be enforced on tens of thousands of people,” Hossain said.

Police suspended several senior officers for failing to disperse the crowd.

Bangladesh has imposed a nationwide lockdown since March 26, with a restriction of no more than five people allowed to congregate in prayer in a mosque.

 

Watch: Berlin Cops Aggressively Breakup Protest Against Nation’s “Authoritarian” Lockdown

ZeroHedge – We have suggested that the next phase of the COVID-19 pandemic will likely be a “flare-up of social unrest across major Western cities as millions have lost their jobs,” and the global economy has plunged into depression.

We said that about three weeks ago, and now with warmer weather trends across the West, people are hangry and tired of quarantines, have left their homes to mobilize in the streets to protest the government’s stay-at-home orders.

Across America this weekend (April 18-19), pro-Trump supporters who saw the “greatest economy ever” crash in front of their eyes within weeks, were at various state capitol buildings, demanding their respective state governments lift quarantine orders. 

Now we’re beginning to learn that protests weren’t limited to the US but were also seen in Europe, more specifically in central Berlin.

Hundreds of people defied lockdown orders on Saturday, furious that the German government was headed for “authoritarian rule.” RT News said the protest was met with “a strong police response.”

About 300 protestors assembled on the Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz square in Germany’s capital on Saturday afternoon to rally against the government’s lockdown measures. Many people did not abide by social distancing rules, such as wearing masks and staying 6 feet apart from one another, who were countered by dozens of armed police.

RT points out that one protester held a sign that said, “vaccination is terrorism,” referring to how Europeans will likely be required to get a COVID-19 vaccine once developed.

 

Coronavirus journey: The ‘last cruise ship on Earth’ finally comes home

BBC – The three last cruise ships still sailing with passengers will dock today – and one has had quite the odyssey.

The MSC Magnifica left Europe in January, and was in the other corner of the world when ports began to close.

With nowhere to go, the Swiss-owned ship started the long journey home. Its passengers, used to a new port every few days, last felt land six weeks ago.

On Monday those passengers will finally get off in Marseille, having last disembarked in Wellington.

Their voyage has included political storms, presidential pleas, one death, and – despite it all – plenty of fun.

When the Magnifica left Genoa, Italy, on 5 January, the world looked very different.

The “unknown pneumonia”, as it was called, did not have a name. No one had died, the World Health Organization said, and just 59 people were infected, all in Wuhan.

It is safe to say most of the Magnifica’s 1,760 passengers – mainly Italian, French, and German – had not heard of the virus. And so, as they watched the sunset from the boat’s Bar del Sole, or ate in the Quattro Venti restaurant, spirits were high.

After leaving Europe, the ship stopped in Cape Verde, off the west coast of Africa, before heading across the Atlantic. By the time they docked in Brazil on 19 January, the virus had left China, and Captain Leotta had noticed.

“We were always in contact with all the local authorities,” he says. “[But it was] after South America the situation became more concerning.”

The ship left Chile on 21 February, reaching Pitcairn in the South Pacific three days later. By now, cruise ships were in the news.

Ports were closing their doors. Passengers from quarantined ships were dying. And the Pacific island of Aitutaki – just east of the International Date Line, population 2,000 – was worried.

As it pulls into Marseille on Monday, the Magnifica will be one of three cruises still sailing with passengers, the Cruise Lines International Association says.

The other two are also due to disembark today: the Pacific Princess in Los Angeles, and the Costa Deliziosa in Barcelona (it will also drop off passengers in Genoa afterwards).

For Andy Gerber, who turned 70 in Sydney harbour, life on board “the last cruise ship on Earth” has been enjoyable, despite the lack of shore visits.

“There is still plenty to do if you want,” he says. “Gym, games, shows, dance classes…

“We have two pools and perfect weather, plenty to eat and drink, and we have made a lot of friends – especially during all these sea days.”

 

A gunman in Nova Scotia evaded police for nearly 12 hours after killing at least 16 in one of Canada’s deadliest mass shootings

CNN – Nova Scotia authorities have begun investigating the shooting of a gunman who may have been disguised as a police officer and went on 12-hour rampage that left 16 people dead in a small town.

A confrontation with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police began after a manhunt for the fleeing suspect overnight Saturday. Multiple crime scenes and hours of evasion later, the gunman was killed Sunday in a shootout with police. Nova Scotia’s Serious Incident Response Team took over the investigation into the death, according to a SIRT statement.

Gabriel Wortman, 51, was identified as the suspect and was confirmed dead by RCMP Chief Superintendent Chris Leather.

The motive behind the shooting, one of Canada’s deadliest, is still under investigation, Leather said. Some victims, he said, “appeared not to have a relationship with the assailant shooter.”

The chaos began when police were first called to a property around 10:30 p.m. Saturday in Portapique, a seaside town about an hour and a half’s drive north of Halifax. “When police arrived at the scene the members located several casualties inside and outside of the home,” Leather said.

One of those killed was Constable Heidi Stevenson. Another officer is in the hospital receiving treatment for non-life-threatening injuries he suffered in the incident, the RCMP said on Facebook.

“It is with tremendous sadness that I share with you that we lost Cst. Heidi Stevenson, a 23-year veteran of the Force who was killed this morning,” said Lee Bergerman, the RCMP’s commanding officer in Nova Scotia. “I met with Heidi’s family, and there are no words to describe their pain. Two children have lost their mother and a husband his wife. Parents lost their daughter and countless others lost an incredible friend and colleague.”

 

Protesters gather in Russia’s N. Ossetia-Alania to demand cancellation of self-isolation rules

Hundreds of protesters, most of them unmasked, gathered in Vladikavkaz, the capital of the southern Russian Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, on Monday, to demand the cancellation of the self-isolation regime. The unauthorized meeting near the building of the local government took place despite restrictions, which will last till April 30.

An initiative group of the protesters was formed and began negotiations with officials, TASS reported. The head of the republic, Vyacheslav Bitarov, earlier talked with protesting people, saying that authorities will help all those who need aid.

Bitarov also asked the republic’s residents to stay home because of the coronavirus pandemic, “as people in other countries do it,” but those gathered reportedly did not listen to him, according to reports. Around 1,500 people took part in the action, Kommersant daily said.

The number of Covid-19 cases in the republic is 177, and two people have died, according to the local Health Ministry.

 

Coronavirus: Virgin Atlantic will fold without aid, warns Branson

BBC – Sir Richard Branson has warned that airline Virgin Atlantic needs government support to survive.

The boss of the Virgin Group said he was not asking for a handout, but a commercial loan, believed to be £500m.

In an open letter to staff, Sir Richard said: “Many airlines around the world need government support and many have already received it.

The plea comes as Virgin Australia, the country’s second largest airline, faces going into administration without aid.

Sir Richard wrote in his letter that without UK government support for Virgin Atlantic “there won’t be any competition left and hundreds of thousands more jobs will be lost”.

 

U.S. News, Politics & Government

 

Judge halts Kansas governor’s order limiting church gatherings to 10 people: report

Fox – A federal court in Kansas issued a temporary restraining order Saturday against an executive order capping church gatherings at 10 people due to COVID-19, according to a local report.

The move came a week after the Supreme Court of Kansas ruled in favor of Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat who saw her order overturned by a GOP-led panel of state lawmakers.

Despite the ruling, Kelly defended her order.

“We are in the middle of an unprecedented pandemic,” the governor said, according to The Associated Press. “This is not about religion. This is about a public health crisis.” She called the ruling “preliminary” and said she would remain “proactive” about protecting the public’s health.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, meanwhile, supported the court’s action.

“Today’s judicial ruling is a much-needed reminder that the Constitution is not under a stay-home order and the Bill of Rights cannot be quarantined,” he said. “The Constitution protects our liberties especially during times of crisis, when history reveals governments too quick to sacrifice rights of the few to calm fears of the many.”

 

Protests in Washington, Colorado against US coronavirus curbs

Al Jazeera – Protests flared in parts of the United States against stay-at-home orders while governors disputed President Donald Trump’s claim they have enough tests for the coronavirus and should quickly reopen their economies.

An estimated 2,500 people rallied at the Washington state capitol in Olympia on Sunday to show their opposition to Democratic Governor Jay Inslee’s stay-at-home order, in defiance of a ban on gatherings of 50 or more people.

 

INDICTMENTS AGAINST OBAMA’S DEEP STATERS MAY COME THIS WEEK, SAYS JOURNALIST

SpyGate scandal investigation by John Durham nearly complete, says John Solomon

Infowars – John Durham, the lead investigator looking into the FBI’s 2016 Crossfire Hurricane spy operation against Donald Trump’s presidential campaign may deliver several indictments against Obama-era officials, according to investigative journalist John Solomon.

In an interview Friday with Fox Business’ Lou Dobbs, Solomon explained that new materials released by the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the FISA abuses against Trump’s campaign reveal the surveillance operation against him was far more corrupt than previously believed.

 

‘Scientific breakdown’ at CDC lab led to coronavirus testing delays, report says

NY Post – A “glaring scientific breakdown” at the CDC’s main laboratory was behind the federal agency’s failure to quickly make a coronavirus test kit, according to a new report.

One of the three test components became contaminated because the way the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laboratory put the kits together violated sound manufacturing practices, The Washington Post reported, quoting unnamed scientists.

The paper said there was likely cross contamination because the chemical mixtures were put together into testing kits in a lab space that was also dealing with synthetic coronavirus material.

The Food and Drug Administration also concluded the CDC violated its own laboratory standards, according to the paper.

It took the CDC more than a month to straighten out the assembly problems, which worsened nationwide delays in testing for COVID-19.

A CDC spokesman told the paper that the agency had “implemented enhanced quality control to address the issue.”

 

White House Petition Passes 100K Signature Threshold To Have Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Investigated For Connections To Wuhan Outbreak

Public concerned about Gates’ depopulation agenda, vaccine and virus patents, and microchip ID scheme

Infowars – A White House petition calling for the investigation of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has amassed nearly 300,000 signatures, triple the threshold that requires an official government response.

The petition that began last week, called “We Call For Investigations Into The ‘Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’ For Medical Malpractice & Crimes Against Humanity” reads as follows:

As we look at events surrounding the “COVID-19 pandemic,” various questions remain unanswered. On Oct. 18th of 2019, only weeks prior to ground zero being declared in Wuhan, China, two major events took place. One is “Event 201,” the other is the “Military World Games,” held in none other than Wuhan. Since then a worldwide push for vaccines & biometric tracking has been initiated.

At the forefront of this is Bill Gates, who has publicly stated his interest in “reducing population growth” by 10-15%, by means of vaccination. Gates, UNICEF & WHO have already been credibly accused of intentionally sterilizing Kenyan children through the use of a hidden HCG antigen in tetanus vaccines.

Congress & all other governing bodies are derelict in duty until a thorough and public inquiry is complete.

Additionally, a separate petition rejecting the use of Bill Gates’ planned mass vaccinations and microchip ID technology has also accrued over 38,000 signatures in a week.

“ID2020 is a plan put in place by bill gates to impose mass public vaccination and show ‘vaccine status’ through a microchip or ‘ID’ injected under the skin,” the petition reads.

“This is the mark of the beast the bible has warned us about, folks.”

The minimum requirement for an official White House response to “We The People” petitions is 100,000 signatures, meaning the Trump administration must address the public’s concerns about Bill Gates and his connections to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.

 

‘We Needed to Go’: Rich Americans Activate Pandemic Escape Plans

Bloomberg – As coronavirus infections tore across the U.S. in early March, a Silicon Valley executive called the survival shelter manufacturer Rising S Co. He wanted to know how to open the secret door to his multimillion-dollar bunker 11 feet underground in New Zealand. 

The tech chief had neve­r used the bunker and couldn’t remember how to unlock it, said Gary Lynch, general manager of Texas-based Rising S Co. “He wanted to verify the combination for the door and was asking questions about the power and the hot water heater and whether he needed to take extra water or air filters,” Lynch said. The businessman runs a company in the Bay Area but lives in New York, which was fast becoming the world’s coronavirus epicenter. 

“He went out to New Zealand to escape everything that’s happening,” Lynch said, declining to identify the bunker owner because he keeps his client lists private. “And as far as I know, he’s still there.”

For years, New Zealand has featured prominently in the doomsday survival plans of wealthy Americans worried that, say, a killer germ might paralyze the world. Isolated at the edge of the earth, more than 1,000 miles off the southern coast of Australia, New Zealand is home to about 4.9 million people, about a fifth as many as the New York metro area. The clean, green, island nation is known for its natural beauty, laid-back politicians and premier health facilities.

 

Antibody Test, Seen as Key to Reopening Country, Does Not Yet Deliver

NY Times – The tests, many made in China without F.D.A. approval, are often inaccurate. Some doctors are misusing them. The rollout is nowhere close to the demand.

A law firm in Scottsdale, Ariz., tested employees who hoped, with the prick of a finger, to learn if they might be immune. In Laredo, Texas, community leaders secured 20,000 of the new tests to gauge how many residents had been infected. In Chicago, a hospital screened firefighters to help determine whether they could safely stay on the job.

In recent weeks, the United States has seen the first rollout of blood tests for coronavirus antibodies, widely heralded as crucial tools to assess the reach of the pandemic in the United States, restart the economy and reintegrate society.

But for all their promise, the tests — intended to signal whether people may have built immunity to the virus — are already raising alarms.

Officials fear the effort may prove as problematic as the earlier launch of diagnostic tests that failed to monitor which Americans, and how many, had been infected or developed the disease the virus causes. Criticized for a tragically slow and rigid oversight of those tests months ago, the federal government is now faulted by public health officials and scientists for greenlighting the antibody tests too quickly and without adequate scrutiny.

 

State gets sued for allowing only girls in girls’ sports

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing Idaho over a state law that requiring participants in girls’ sports to be girls.

That would rule out boys who say they are girls.

Idaho’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act made the state the first to ban “biologically male students from participating in all-female sports.”

The organization said on Twitter: “When @GovernorLittle signed a law to ban trans athletes, he sent a message that trans people do not deserve the benefits of sports available to their peers. He is wrong and today along with @CooleyLLP and @Legal_Voice, we will sue.”

One Twitter user corrected the ACLU: “No, he sent the message that gender identity is not a sports category; sex is. As such, the protected female sports category is only open to athletes who are biologically female and adhere to the doping rules. It holds trans and non-trans athletes alike to this same standard.”

The Washington Free Beacon reported the ACLU sued on behalf of a transgender Boise State University track runner named Lindsay Hecox and a Boise High School student who is not transgender but said she is worried the government could invade her privacy to verify her sex.

The law is scheduled to take effect July 1.

Gabriel Arkles, a lawyer for the LGBT activists, told the Free Beacon that biological sex does not matter, it’s “gender identity” that counts.

“This should be the standard for all school sports.”

The governor explained the law is to protect the rights of female athletes.

“I think that the issue is the girl’s right to participate without having to be concerned about who they’re competing with. And that’s why I signed the bill,” he said.

In districts where boys are allowed to compete as girls they tend to overwhelm the competition.

“Courts have recognized that the inherent, physiological differences between males and females result in different athletic capabilities,” the law states.

 

Economy & Business

 

Meat Prices Suddenly Surge As Food Processing Plants Shut Down, With 1000s Of Tons Left To Spoil

Activist Post – As we pointed out earlier in the week, China-owned Smithfield Food’s decision to temporarily shutter the largest pork processing plant in the US, based in Sioux Falls, SD, due to a coronavirus outbreak is a much more significant even than the mainstream media gave credit for. While WaPo focused on bashing the state’s governor, whose refusal to issue a ‘stay at home’ order was blamed for the outbreak, the real significant wasn’t accorded sufficient time and attention, we feel.

The real takeaway here is that the supply chain for American staples was badly damaged by the outbreak, with the damage still more extensive and stubborn than government officials have really acknowledged. Two months on, and millions of Americans are still having trouble finding toilet paper and sterilizing wipes. A comprehensive list of products in perpetual short-supply would be quite lengthy, at this point.

For all we know, Smithfield might be only the beginning. Earlier on Sunday, we noted a Hormel foods plant in Illinois has been forced to close temporarily after a cluster of cases in the surrounding counties was traced back to workers at the plant. That could leave millions of Americans without access to popular processed foods like Spam. An unopened can of Spam can keep for between 2 an 5 years, depending on storage conditions.

If closures like these continue, it could add further strain on the supply chain. Everywhere you look, you see experts talking about an overabundance of food thanks to the closure of restaurants, which has resulted in unprecedented levels of food waste. But, sadly, thanks to the way our food distribution is set up, if there’s no way to process the products, package them and then distribute them to markets around the country, then the food will spoil before it’s eaten.

And if enough hungry, scared, desperate and irrepressibly, unceasingly furious Americans hear that piles of food are being left to spoil in the farm belt as the country starves – or if a sudden burst of inflation rattles both the Fed and hungry Americans as one of the many worst-case “supply-side” shocks unfolds – well, they just might riot.

Bloomberg warned on Sunday that these closures, along with a handful of others, are already putting upward pressure on meat prices at the point of sale in the market. As more processing facilities close, supermarkets are left with fewer options – because unfortunately many farmers who sell mostly to restaurants simply aren’t equipped to ship to supermarkets, and these types of changes unfortunately take time, as frustrating as that might sound.

 

Dow drops 500 points amid coronavirus concerns & oil price collapse

RT – US stocks dropped sharply to start the week on Monday as investors are focused on coronavirus news along with plunging crude prices. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 500 points at the opening bell on Wall Street.

The S&P 500 index of America’s top-500 corporations slid 1.6 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was down just under one percent during early trading.

Stocks are headed lower as the price of US crude benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crashed 40 percent, below $11 a barrel, the weakest level since December 1998. Oil is selling off as the May crude contract is set to expire, and suppliers are running out of places to store it.

 

Killed By The Coronavirus Lockdowns: 1000s Of U.S. Businesses That Were Shut Down Will Be Closed Permanently

Michael Snyder – This economic downturn is turning out to be far deeper and far more severe than most experts were originally anticipating.  More than 22 million Americans have filed claims for unemployment benefits, and economists are telling us that the U.S. economy is contracting at the fastest rate that we have seen since the Second World War.  We are already starting to see some high profile companies move toward bankruptcy, but the real story is what is happening to thousands upon thousands of small and mid-size businesses because of the lockdowns.  Many of them were barely surviving even before this pandemic, and now these lockdowns have delivered a death blow.

The restaurant industry is a perfect example.  Prior to the pandemic, there were more than a million restaurants in the United States, and about half of them were independent.  Those independent restaurants employed approximately 11 million workers, and now the vast majority of those workers have been laid off.

Once the lockdowns are over, it would be wonderful if all of those independent restaurants would spring back to life, but the results of a recent survey suggest that simply is not going to happen.  In fact, that survey found that 28 percent of all independent restaurants are probably not going to survive if the lockdowns last for another month

 

Shake Shack returning $10 million government loan meant for small businesses

NBC – Shake Shack, one of several large restaurant chains that got federal loans through the coronavirus stimulus law meant to help small businesses, said Sunday night that it is giving all $10 million back.

The New York-based burger company is among more than a dozen companies with annual revenues in the hundreds of millions that are reported to have received money from the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP. The loan program set aside $349 billion in the stimulus law called the CARES Act to help small businesses keep their workers on the payroll. Less than two weeks after it started, the program has already run out of money.

In a statement Sunday night on LinkedIn, Danny Meyer, Shake Shack’s founder and CEO of its parent company, Union Square Hospitality Group, and Randy Garutti, Shake Shack’s CEO, said the company pursued the loan because the law stipulated that it was open to any restaurant location with no more than 500 employees — which describes Shake Shack’s 189 individual U.S. restaurants.

The program offered to forgive the loans if recipients rehired furloughed and laid-off workers by June, and because Shake Shack and its parent company had already furloughed hundreds of employees, they said, they gambled that “the best chance of keeping our teams working, off the unemployment line and hiring back our furloughed and laid off employees, would be to apply now and hope things would be clarified in time.”

But they said they had no idea the fund would dry up so quickly, so after they were able to secure separate funding last week, “we’ve decided to immediately return the entire $10 million” so restaurants that “need it most can get it now.”

“We now know that the first phase of the PPP was underfunded, and many who need it most, haven’t gotten any assistance,” Meyer and Garutti wrote, urging Congress to ensure that “all restaurants no matter their size have equal ability to get back on their feet and hire back their teams.”

“Our people would benefit from a $10 million PPP loan, but we’re fortunate to now have access to capital that others do not,” they wrote. “Until every restaurant that needs it has had the same opportunity to receive assistance, we’re returning ours.

 

Energy & Environment

 

Air pollution may be ‘key contributor’ to Covid-19 deaths

Research shows almost 80% of deaths across four countries were in most polluted regions

Guardian – High levels of air pollution may be “one of the most important contributors” to deaths from Covid-19, according to research.

The analysis shows that of the coronavirus deaths across 66 administrative regions in Italy, Spain, France and Germany, 78% of them occurred in just five regions, and these were the most polluted.

The research examined levels of nitrogen dioxide, a pollutant produced mostly by diesel vehicles, and weather conditions that can prevent dirty air from dispersing away from a city. Many studies have linked NO2 exposure to health damage, and particularly lung disease, which could make people more likely to die if they contract Covid-19.

“The results indicate that long-term exposure to this pollutant may be one of the most important contributors to fatality caused by the Covid-19 virus in these regions and maybe across the whole world,” said Yaron Ogen, at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany, who conducted the research. “Poisoning our environment means poisoning our own body, and when it experiences chronic respiratory stress its ability to defend itself from infections is limited.”

 

Science & Technology

 

Coronavirus: Will Covid-19 speed up the use of robots to replace human workers?

BBC – As a pandemic grips the world, a person could be forgiven if they had forgotten about another threat to humanity’s way of life – the rise of robots.

For better or worse the robots are going to replace many humans in their jobs, analysts say, and the coronavirus outbreak is speeding up the process.

“People usually say they want a human element to their interactions but Covid-19 has changed that,” says Martin Ford, a futurist who has written about the ways robots will be integrated into the economy in the coming decades.

“[Covid-19] is going to change consumer preference and really open up new opportunities for automation.”

Companies large and small are expanding how they use robots to increase social distancing and reduce the number of staff that have to physically come to work. Robots are also being used to perform roles workers cannot do at home.

Walmart, America’s biggest retailer, is using robots to scrub its floors.

Robots in South Korea have been used to measure temperatures and distribute hand sanitiser.

With health experts warning some social distancing measures may need to be in place through 2021, robot workers may be in greater demand.

 

Newly-Developed Solar Cell Earns Two World Records for Its ‘Extraordinary’ Efficiency

Good News Network – Scientists at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have fabricated a solar cell with an efficiency of nearly 50%.

For perspective, the average solar cell has an efficiency rate of 15% to 20%, meaning it’s capable of converting just a small fraction of absorbed sunlight into electricity.

The newly-developed six-junction solar cell, however, now holds the world record for the highest solar conversion efficiency at 47.1%, which was measured under concentrated illumination. A variation of the same cell also set the efficiency record under one-sun illumination at 39.2%.

“This device really demonstrates the extraordinary potential of multijunction solar cells,” said John Geisz, a principal scientist in the High-Efficiency Crystalline Photovoltaics Group at NREL and lead author of a new paper on the record-setting cell.

The paper appeared in the journal Nature Energy this week.

 

Gardening, Farming & Homesteading

 

10 Types of Apples Thought to Be Extinct From Pioneer Days Are Discovered in the Pacific Northwest

Good News Network – What do you have planned for your retirement? While enjoying your grandchildren or traveling across Italy might be some things you’re considering, we can not imagine that many of you would answer: “I’m going to scour the wilderness of America looking for abandoned and forgotten pioneer homesteads in the hope of discovering forgetting genetic strains of common crops”.

Well, this pair of retirees have been scouring the Pacific Northwest for abandoned pioneer-era fruit orchards, and have successfully discovered numerous lost species of apples.

During the autumn of 2019, EJ Brandt and David Benscoter—the Vietnam-veteran and former FBI agent who became amateur botanists for their nonprofit, the Lost Apple Project—made a remarkable discovery that was confirmed by the experts at Temperate Orchard Conservatory.

The apples they found growing in orchards around abandoned homesteads in Genesee, Idaho, led to the re-discovery of 10 forgotten varieties of apples that were believed to be extinct.

“It was just one heck of a season. It was almost unbelievable. If we had found one apple or two apples a year in the past, we thought we were doing good. But we were getting one after another after another,” EJ Brandt told the AP. “I don’t know how we’re going to keep up with that.”

Their apple sleuthing is worthy of a documentary, as it involves hunting lost orchards in the forests, mountains, and canyons relying only on newspaper clippings, old maps, county fair records and nursery sales ledgers that contain records of homesteaders purchasing trees to begin their orchards with. The ledgers often contain some information on the buyer, which can help triangulate a possible orchard location.

Whenever a suspected location is discovered, EJ and David trek by ATV, truck, and hiking shoe, to log hundreds of miles and countless hours over the course of a reconnaissance mission.

Once an apple orchard location is discovered, they will tag it with a GPS pin, ribbon the old apple trees, and bag whatever specimens they find to be shipped off to the experts at the Temperate Orchard Conservatory.

“The locations of old homestead orchards are surprisingly consistent. Settlers always planted their orchards in low spots like ravines or along a water source like a stream if they had access to one,” Brandt wrote on Facebook.

“When I find an apple that’s lost, I want to know who homesteaded it, when they were there, who their children were, when they took their last drink of water,” Brandt said. “We cannot afford to lose the name of even one of these landowners.”

Even if you threw your children in the back of your car and went on a cross-county search to catalogue the number of species of apples you could find at local supermarkets, you might not manage more than 10 of the 4,500 named varieties that exist in the country today.

Even that number, as shocking as it is, can’t compare to the 17,000 individual apple varieties that spread across the length and breadth of North America during the heyday of homesteading.

The Lost Apple Project believes that many hundreds of these varieties were planted by settlers, and the experts use old botany textbooks and watercolor illustrations of apples made by the Department of Agriculture in the 1800s to confirm the varieties’ identities.

 

Health

 

8 Tips to Boost Your Immunity According to Ancient Healing Science

Newsmax – With the spread of the coronavirus, it’s wise to keep your immune system strong. One of the oldest healing sciences, dating back 5,000 years, is called Ayurveda. In Sanskrit this means “Science of Life,” according to The Ayurvedic Institute in New Mexico.

Its principles are to help balance the body through the right thinking, diet, lifestyle, and healing herbs. Dr. Suhas Kshirsagar, who holds a doctorate in Ayurvedic medicine, says that in this practice, the body becomes the most important tool to defend against any invasion. He offers these tips in an article published by The Chopra Center.

 

1. Avoid heavy, oily, and cold foods. These foods weaken your immune system and produce excess mucous, says the expert. While mucous helps tap airborne particles before they get into your lungs, too much can restrict your breathing. Some foods to avoid include dairy, red meat, breads and pastas, fried foods, and sweets.
2. Add healing spices to your food. The best choices for immune boosting are turmeric, cinnamon, clove, ginger, cumin, garlic, and cayenne pepper. “These hot spices, especially garlic and ginger, can help fight inflammation,” writes Kshirsagar.
3. Eat at least one citrus food a day. Grapefruits, oranges, and tangerines contain vitamin C, an important immune booster. You can also squeeze lemon juice into a glass of hot water to get your vitamin C and give your body a gentle cleanse.
4. Stay active. By generating heat, you may be keeping the virus at bay. Dr. Stefan Baral, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University, told the Boston Herald that he expects a “natural decrease” of COVID-19 in the United States as we move into warmer weather.
5. Take warm baths in the evening. According to Gaia, soaking in a warm bath with Epsom salts and essential oils like eucalyptus and rosemary helps de-stress your body, which makes the immune system more resilient.
6. Add steam to your routine. Practice steam inhalation before bedtime by carefully placing your face over a pot of boiling water, covering your head with a towel and inhaling the steam. You could also add a couple of drops of eucalyptus oil into the pot. “Dry nasal passages tap more infections, so keeping them lubricated is important,” says Kshirsagar.
7. Make fresh, homemade meals as often as possible. Frozen foods usually have fewer immune-boosting nutrients than homecooked meals made with fresh ingredients.
8. Have at least one bowel movement daily. The doctor says that 70% to 80% of your immune system is in your colon and gut. “Eliminating your body’s impurities on a daily basis is very important,” he says. “If you don’t eliminate waste daily, it turns toxic and breeds inflammation. This adds stress to your body, breaking down its immune system.”

Cordyceps Fungus: Top 7 Benefits of This Miracle Mushroom

For centuries, traditional Chinese medicine practitioners used Cordyceps to give men a natural boost of vitality. That’s one of the reaosns why it’s so popular in coffee blends these days. Men are, once again, turning to medicinal mushrooms like Cordyceps to boost sex drive, energy, and exercise performance.

Ang Wang, a Chinese author from the 1600s, brought Cordyceps to the world’s attention. He wrote about its uses in his 1694 book, The Classic of Herbal Medicine, a record of all known Chinese medicinal herbs.

What Is Cordyceps?

Though often called a mushroom, Cordyceps is a mushroom-like fungus. It’s native to high-altitude prairies of the Himalayan mountains, particularly in the Qinghai, Tibet, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Gansu provinces of China.[

Aside from the booming world of mushroom coffee, you can take Cordyceps supplements in powder, liquid extract, and capsule forms.

You can find two main species in supplements: Cordyceps sinensis and Cordyceps militaris. Cordyceps sinensis spores land on a caterpillar and consume it. These fruiting bodies resemble the caterpillar host and are not vegan — they can not be cultivated without the use of insects. Further, because of collection from the wild, they’ve become rare and hard to find, bringing their cost sky-high.

Cordyceps militaris have orange-red club-shaped fruiting bodies that — in the wild — grow out of pupa in the ground. However, most supplements are grown on farms without the use of insects. Cultivated varieties grow on grains, such as brown rice and are vegan.

Your supplement may contain mycelium, or the branching “hyphae” of a fungus that usually grows underground, the fruiting body, and some starch from the food source. Together, these components contain alpha and beta-glucans, cordycepin, and other health-giving nutrients.

How Cordyceps Can Boost Your Health

Below, we’ve listed the top seven ways Cordyceps benefits your health.

1. Enhances Sex Drive

Historically, people have turned to Cordyceps when they want a little boost of energy. Not only does it enhance your libido, but it also helps keep your reproductive systems working properly.

Long-term use of the active ingredient cordycepin may promote normal testicular function, countering the effects of middle age decline. Thanks to the testosterone boost, Cordyceps could be the best natural product to take for low sex drive — eliminating unnecessary chemicals and their side effects on your body.

2. Boosts Your Energy

Bust through drowsiness with a boost from Cordyceps, used in Asia to beat fatigue.The fungus has adaptogen properties — which means it helps the body adapt to stress.

Stress often comes with exhaustion, so Cordyceps can boost energy, performance, and reduce fatigue. It’s helpful if you are frequently sleepy or if you are recovering from something. Regularly taking Cordyceps promotes healthy energy levels. That way, when you aren’t (appropriately) tired, you can get more done at a more efficient rate.

3. May Improve Exercise Performance

Cordyceps may give a boost to your exercise performance. This fungal supplement works by helping muscles use oxygen more efficiently during exercise. It supports enhanced blood flow through the body. Studies showed that Cordyceps acts as an antioxidant, countering the harm from free radicals.

These combined effects create a noticeable increase in athletic performance. Your body may end up with a higher capacity for aerobic exercise, as well as more power during high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Not only that, you’ll also come out on the other side with less muscle stress and fatigue

4. Promotes Healthy Aging

Traditional healers throughout the Sikkim region of India and Tibet found that yaks, goats, and sheep consuming Cordyceps sinensis stayed youthful longer. After that observation, they started using it to support increased longevity in people, as well. This led to its widespread use in traditional Chinese medicine.

Today, people have overharvested Cordyceps sinensis in the wild. It’s so rare that most people get a farm-cultivated version of Cordyceps militaris, instead, which has similar health benefits.

Cordyceps has positive effects on your brain health and performance. No more forgetting where your keys or glasses are!

5. Supports Gut Health

The microbiome inside your belly is essential for proper gut health and digestion. About 80 percent of your immune system is in your gut. Taking Cordyceps modulates the gut and immune system, helping you maintain a healthy, balanced digestive system.

Harmful bacteria are no match for Cordyceps. This fungus can deter harmful organisms while supporting good bacteria. Your microbiome will flourish.

6. Promotes Kidney & Liver Health

This fungus supports improved kidney function and liver health. These organs naturally detoxify your body. Not only does Cordyceps promote a normal response to inflammation, but it also protects these organs at a cellular level.

If your kidneys aren’t healthy, you increase your risk of developing chronic kidney disease. Cordyceps helps protect renal function overall. Cordyceps protects kidneys by promoting a normal response to inflammation and preventing chemical processes in these vital organs from getting off-kilter.

7. Boosts Your Immune System

Your immune system has three parts. First, you have the physical parts of your body that prevent viruses and bacteria from getting inside, like your nostrils. Second, your innate immune system immediately reacts to eliminate intruders that do enter. Third, your adaptive immune system acts in a way that’s specific to each pathogen. For example, once you’re exposed to a virus, like Varicella (chickenpox), you’re unlikely to get it again because of the adaptive immune system.[1]

Research on Cordyceps shows that it influences both the innate and adaptive immune systems. It modulates both systems at once, supporting your body at a cellular level.

 

Good News

 

Stressed? This Study Says You Simply Need a 20-Minute ‘Nature Pill’

Good News Network – If you are feeling particularly anxious today, this study from 2019 says that taking at least twenty minutes out of your day to stroll or sit in a place that makes you feel in contact with nature will significantly lower your stress hormone levels.

“For the first time” ever, researchers conducted a study on the most effective dose of an urban nature experience to counteract the effects of modern stress.

Healthcare practitioners are now free to use this discovery, published in Frontiers in Psychology, to prescribe “nature-pills” with the knowledge that they have a real measurable effect on stress.

“We know that spending time in nature reduces stress, but until now, it was unclear how much is enough, how often to do it, or even what kind of nature experience will benefit us,” says Dr. Mary Carol Hunter, an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan and lead author of the research. “Our study shows that for the greatest payoff, in terms of efficiently lowering levels of the stress hormone cortisol, you should spend 20 to 30 minutes sitting or walking in a place that provides you with a sense of nature.”

At the time, the researchers said that nature pills could be a low-cost solution to reduce the negative health impacts stemming from growing urbanization and indoor lifestyles dominated by screen viewing. To assist healthcare practitioners looking for evidence-based guidelines on what exactly to dispense, Hunter and her colleagues designed an experiment that would give a realistic estimate of an effective dose.

Over an 8-week period, participants were asked to take a nature pill with a duration of 10 minutes or more, at least 3 times a week. Levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, were measured from saliva samples taken before and after a nature pill, once every two weeks.

“Participants were free to choose the time of day, duration, and the place of their nature experience, which was defined as anywhere outside that in the opinion of the participant, made them feel like they’ve interacted with nature. There were a few constraints to minimize factors known to influence stress: take the nature pill in daylight, no aerobic exercise, and avoid the use of social media, internet, phone calls, conversations and reading,” Hunter explains.

She continues, “Building personal flexibility into the experiment allowed us to identify the optimal duration of a nature pill, no matter when or where it is taken, and under the normal circumstances of modern life, with its unpredictability and hectic scheduling.”

“We also accommodated day-to-day differences in a participant’s stress status by collecting four snapshots of cortisol change due to a nature pill,” says Hunter. “It also allowed us to identify and account for the impact of the ongoing, natural drop in cortisol level as the day goes on, making the estimate of effective duration more reliable.”

The data revealed that just a 20-minute nature experience was enough to significantly reduce cortisol levels—but if you spent a little more time immersed in a nature experience, 20 to 30 minutes sitting or walking, cortisol levels dropped at their greatest rate. After that, additional de-stressing benefits continued to add up but at a slower rate.

 

Scientists ‘Blown Away’ By Discovery of Longest Animal Ever Recorded—And It’s Quite Beautiful

Good News Network – An estimated 150-foot siphonophore—seemingly the longest animal ever recorded—was discovered during a month-long scientific expedition exploring the submarine canyons near Perth, Australia.

Additionally, up to 30 new underwater species were found by researchers from the Western Australian Museum aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel Falkor.

The discovery of this massive gelatinous string siphonophore—a floating colony of tiny individual zooids that clone themselves thousands of times into specialized bodies that string together to work as a team—was just one of the unique finds among some of the deepest fish and marine invertebrates ever recorded for Western Australia.

 

Next Time You’re Feeling Particularly Stressed or Anxious, This Study Says You Should Play Tetris

Good News Network – It can be easy to let yourself become overwhelmed by stress or anxiety during these turbulent times of social restrictions and coronavirus concerns—but this new study says that there is a very simple (and fun) way to ease your worried mind.

Research from the University of California shows that playing Tetris has a remarkable effect on a person’s mental health and performance.

Psychologist Kate Sweeny led the research by studying the game’s effects on the welfare of the university’s student population. During times of immense stress, such as undergoing final exams and considering future careers, Sweeny instructed the students to play the arcade game before measuring their relative levels of perceived anxiety.

Her research shows that by playing Tetris, overworked individuals often experienced a significant reduction in stress and anxiety and an influx in positive emotions.

While most video games offer similar kinds of distraction, Tetris offers the perfect balance of challenge and accessibility; it’s difficult enough to keep players engaged, but simple and intuitive enough to allow players to stay relaxed and enjoy the experience. This specific mental state is referred to as “flow”—or “being in the zone”.

“Flow requires a delicate balance,” Sweeny said. “Flow is most readily achieved with activities that challenge the person somewhat, but not too much; have clear, achievable goals; and that provide the person with feedback about how they’re doing along the way.”

This is not the first study that has shown the benefits of Tetris, either—a 2009 study showed that people who practiced the arcade game over time experienced improved mental performance. This makes it a perfect activity for distraction, and a fantastic way to improve your mental wellbeing in a short amount of time.

It has also been used to help addicts cope with their withdrawals and curb food cravings.

 

For the First Time in 240 Years, White-Tailed Eagles Spotted Flying Over England

Good News Network – Eagles had been nearly hunted to extinction throughout England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales—but researchers are saying they are now making a triumphant return.

In Ireland’s majestic Glenveagh National Park, golden eagles had disappeared until 2001 when—with the help of the Golden Eagle Trust—birds collected from eyries in Scotland were released into the park, which now boasts a stable population of the majestic birds.

In England, white-tailed eagles had become extinct on the coasts and cliffs of Great Britain. Also known as sea eagles, they are one of the largest eagle species on Earth.

Now, 240 years after the last sighting, a mature white-tailed eagle was confirmed soaring in the wild high over the North York Moors. This is the direct result of several eaglets that were released onto the cliff sides on the Isle of Wight.

Also collected under a Scottish National Heritage license from the same populations that Glenveagh drew from, the sea eagle project is part of a 5-year strategy managed by the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation and Forestry England to bring eagles back.

A team of experts and dedicated volunteers insured the birds were happy and healthy all the way to adulthood when they were released back along the wilds of the south coast, where the team has worked to provide feeding stations that would encourage the majestic birds to make that area home, rather than journey into human civilization and risk the danger of being struck by a windmill, glass building, or some other hazard.

 

Action Item

 

Global 5G Protest APRIL 25 and 26 

Activist Post – The first global protest was held in January.  Thanks to the folks at Stop 5G International for organizing and promoting this second global protest as well.

Opposition to 5G continues to increase in the U.S. and worldwide because of the many threats it poses to biological health, cybersecurity, environmental health, privacy, safety, and humanity.

Although many cities and countries have already banned 5G and/or issued moratoriums against installation, the “Race to 5G” continues in the U.S. and elsewhere.