WORLD NEWS
Accounts of ‘White Lung’ Flood Chinese Social Media Amid COVID Spike
When the father of Fan Deng, a prominent former anchor of Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, started dozing off more frequently during the day, the family didn’t worry.
This wasn’t uncommon, after all, for someone in their 80s. The man’s mind was clear and his appetite was as good as ever. But when the family used a pulse oximeter out of caution, they found his blood oxygen level dangerously low at 88 percent, 4 percent below the threshold requiring medical attention. By the time the family got him to the hospital, his blood oxygen levels had plunged to the 60s.
Only after doing a CT scan at the hospital did the family realize the gravity of the situation: His lungs appeared mostly white. Healthy lungs, by contrast, would normally appear as dark regions.
He died after three nights at the hospital.
Fan shared this account on Chinese social media, which has been flooded with similar stories by family and friends of victims who allegedly presented the same symptoms in their lungs.
“White lung,” once a little-known phrase, has been a top trending word on Chinese social media amid an expansive COVID outbreak sweeping China, before censors swooped in to scrub discussion of the phenomenon. The white patches indicate areas of inflammation, which causes excessive fluid accumulation in the lungs.
The phenomenon has sparked fears that the virus has mutated or that earlier strains of COVID are driving the latest outbreak. The Chinese regime, which has been sharply criticized by the international community for refusing to share data on the outbreak, insists that Omicron is behind the surge, that no new variants have emerged, and no earlier strains have reemerged.
China Says Companies Going ‘All-Out’ to Make Ventilators for Allegedly Minor Coronavirus Cases
China’s state-run Global Times on Tuesday boasted that Chinese manufacturers are “going all-out” to manufacture ventilators for coronavirus patients — an odd boast since the Chinese government’s official position is that the coronavirus strains sweeping the country are mild and almost no one is growing seriously ill or dying.
The Global Times saluted state-owned Beijing Aerospace Changfeng Co. for supposedly breaking “the monopoly of imported ventilators” by creating “safe, reliable, and reasonably priced respiratory products.”
Food Inflation Hits Record 13.3 Per Cent in Britain Indicating ‘Another Difficult Year’ to Come
Food inflation in Britain hit its highest rate in history in December, as Christmas spending soared while consumers actually took home less.
According to the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and the Nielsen data firm annual food prices rose by 13.3 per cent in December, compared to 12.4 per cent in the previous month. The BRC said that this was the largest inflation recorded since they began tracking food prices in 2005.
Cofigeo, a group which owns several food companies in France, has shut down four of its eight factories over energy costs, amounting to 80 per cent of its total production.
Cofigeo owns several French food brands including William Saurin, Garbit and Raynal and Roquelaure and has announced it has shut down four of its eight French factories, affecting 800 of the company’s 1,200 workers due to soaring energy costs.
Priorities: Government Officials Want Cannabis Legalisation Bill ‘as Soon as Possible’
Officials within Germany’s federal government are reportedly pushing for a bill to legalise cannabis in the country to be drawn up “as soon as possible”.
Kirsten Kappert-Gonther, a Green MP within the German parliament, has called for the Federal Health Minister to present a draft law that would legalise cannabis in the country “as soon as possible”, a report on Wednesday has claimed.
The issue has been a hot-button topic within the Bundestag for some time, despite the fact that the country has also largely failed to address its woeful energy situation which has seen inflation rise to its highest level in the country’s post-war history last year.
According to a report by Die Welt, Kappert-Gonther, who serves as the Green party’s health spokeswoman within parliament, emphasised that cannabis legalisation has already been agreed upon within Germany’s three-party ruling coalition, which consists of the Greens with the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD, red), as well as the Free Democratic Party (FDP, yellow).
Now, the main issue getting in the way of legalisation is the country’s Health Minister, Karl Lauterbach, who has yet to publish a draft bill that would legalise the substance.
Joe Biden to Visit U.S.-Mexico Border Next Week
President Joe Biden will visit the U.S.-Mexico border next week, almost two years after he effectively opened the border to millions of job-seeking, wage-cutting economic migrants.
“That’s my intention, we’re working out the details now,” Biden told reporters while he was in Kentucky with the GOP’s Senate leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky).
Canada Blocks Most Foreigners From Buying Homes Amid Surging Prices
The ban is intended to help control skyrocketing housing prices by disincentivizing foreign investors from purchasing property.
As of January 1, a two-year ban has taken effect in Canada restricting the purchase of residential properties in the country by individuals who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents. The ban is intended to help control surging housing prices by disincentivizing foreign investors from purchasing property.
The law provides some exceptions, such as for certain immigrants, those with temporary work permits, and students who have been in the country for at least 5 years.
“The desirability of Canadian homes is attracting profiteers, wealthy corporations, and foreign investors,” said a campaign website for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party, “This is leading to a real problem of underused and vacant housing, rampant speculation, and skyrocketing prices. Homes are for people, not investors.”
Less than 6% of homeowners in British Columbia and Ontario are non-Canadian residents, according to government data reported by the BBC, and opponents of the ban argue that in addition to potentially being xenophobic, it might only end up having minimal benefits on reducing housing costs.
“Canada has built a reputation as a multicultural nation that welcomes people from around the world. As currently proposed, the prohibition on the purchase of residential property by non-Canadians can impact our reputation as a welcoming nation,” said a statement from the Canadian Real Estate Association. “The potential benefits of the ban are likely to be modest.”
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
McCarthy Suffers 6th Straight Loss in Speaker Bid; House Adjourns Until Jan. 5
After a sixth straight failure to name a new House speaker, Members adjourned until 8 p.m. on Jan. 4, sparking intense talk that some sort of deal is in the offing to resolve the deadlock.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) received the same 201 votes during the sixth vote that he got on the fourth and fifth earlier in the day, just as Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) again got the votes of all the chamber’s 212 Democrats.
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) received 20 votes for the third time as well. Donalds told Fox News shortly after the sixth vote that he thinks McCarthy may yet find the path to victory.
McCarthy’s three losses on Jan. 4 in his effort to gain enough votes to succeed fellow Californian Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, as speaker came despite a strong endorsement on Jan. 3 by former President Donald Trump.
The vote on the fifth ballot showed McCarthy getting 201 votes, with Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) getting 212, and Donalds, the favorite of McCarthy’s Republican opponents, receiving 20. Those were the same totals that the trio received earlier in the day on the fourth ballot.
Rep. Donalds Explains Switching Vote From McCarthy in Speaker Election
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) flipped his vote against Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for House speakership during the third round of voting on Jan. 3, despite voting for the Republican leader on the first and second ballots.
“These continuous votes aren’t working for anyone,” Donalds said in a Twitter thread following the flip. “When the dust settles, we will have a Republican Speaker, now is the time for our conference to debate and come to a consensus. This will take time,” the congressman wrote.
McCarthy’s defeat on Tuesday marked the first time in a century that the House failed to elect a speaker on the first vote. The chamber will meet at noon on Wednesday for another round of voting.
Trump Breaks Silence on McCarthy as Contender for House Speaker After Failed Votes Former President Donald Trump has thrown his weight behind Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for House speaker ahead of a fourth round vote Wednesday after McCarthy failed to secure the top job in three rounds of voting on Tuesday but insisted he’s still a contender.
Hours after failing to clinch the House gavel amid GOP opposition, McCarthy said late Tuesday that he’s still in the running for speaker and insisted Trump had “reiterated his support” for his candidacy.
Trump, who after Tuesday’s failed vote was initially guarded in reiterating his endorsement, took to Truth Social later in the day to say he’s behind McCarthy all the way.
“Some really good conversations took place last night, and it’s now time for all of our GREAT Republican House Members to VOTE FOR KEVIN” and “CLOSE THE DEAL.”
20 Republicans Who Voted Against Kevin McCarthy for House Speaker
Here are the 20 House Republicans who didn’t vote for McCarthy for speaker Tuesday:
- Andy Biggs of Arizona
- Dan Bishop of North Carolina
- Eli Crane of Arizona
- Paul Gosar of Arizona
- Matt Gaetz of Florida
- Byron Donalds of Florida
- Bob Good of Virginia
- Anna Paulina Luna of Florida
- Chip Roy of Texas
- Keith Self of Texas
- Andrew Clyde of Georgia
- Andy Harris of Maryland
- Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma
- Matt Rosendale of Montana
- Mary Miller of Illinois
- Lauren Boebert of Colorado
- Andy Ogles of Tennessee
- Michael Cloud of Texas
- Ralph Norman of South Carolina
- Scott Perry of Pennsylvania
Donalds voted for McCarthy in the first two rounds, but switched his vote in the third round to Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who others also supported despite Jordan’s nomination of McCarthy on the second ballot.
“The reality is Rep. Kevin McCarthy doesn’t have the votes,” Donalds said in a tweet. “I committed my support to him publicly and for two votes on the House Floor. 218 is the number, and currently, no one is there.”
“When the dust settles, we will have a Republican Speaker [and] now is the time for our conference to debate and come to a consensus,” Donalds also wrote on Twitter.
GOP Rep. Buck: Republicans Should Start Looking at Scalise for Speaker
Representative Ken Buck (R-CO) said Wednesday on CNN’s “The Lead” that Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) needed to step aside and let Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) run for Speaker of the House.
Buck said, “I had a number of conversations with Kevin and I basically told him at some point this needs to break loose, he needs to make a deal to bring the 19 or 20 over or he needs to step aside and give somebody a chance to do that.”
Anchor Jake Tapper asked, “So, your message to Kevin mMcCarthy is we need to fish or cut bait. Like, if you can’t get to 218 or 217, whatever the threshold is, we need to find someone else. Who might that be?”
VIDEO: Sean Hannity has made it clear he favors “business as usual” in DC politics
Colorado Governor to Send Illegal Immigrants to New York, Other Cities
The state of Colorado is organizing transportation to send the illegal immigrants flooding into the state to other major cities around the United States.
Announcing the move on Jan. 3, Gov. Jared Polis’ office said in a statement that Colorado had been “working tirelessly” to address the dramatic influx of immigrants, of which the state estimated roughly 70 percent intend to travel elsewhere.
The state-organized transportation, the news release noted, will be voluntary and coordinated with the help of “culturally competent navigators.”
Damar Hamlin’s Family Gives New Update After Bills Player Suffers Cardiac Arrest
Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin’s status has improved after he collapsed during Monday night’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals, according to family members in interviews on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Hamlin’s uncle, Dorian Glenn, told NFL Network that Hamlin is still sedated but has improved to 50 percent oxygen on a ventilator. The Bills player—in his second year in the NFL—remains in intensive care at a Cincinnati hospital.
“Right now, they got him on a ventilator, so they’re trying to get him to breathe on his own,” Glenn told the network. “So, we’re just kind of taking it day by day. Still in the ICU. They have him sedated, so just continue to administer the medical treatment that they’ve been doing.”
More Than 270 Sudden Cardiac Deaths in US Athletes After Vaccination: Peer-Reviewed Study
Two hundred seventy-nine athletes and former athletes in the United States have died from cardiac arrests after taking COVID-19 vaccines, according to data from a recent peer-reviewed study.
Authored by structural biologist Panagis Polykretis, and board-certified internist and cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough, the study’s cited data found that from 2021 to 2022, at least 1,616 cardiac arrests have been globally documented in vaccinated athletes, with 1,114 of those being fatal.
The global data also showed that between 2021 to 2022, former and current American athletes made up 279 of the mortalities.
Athletes have a lower chance of cardiac arrest and sudden cardiac death as compared to nonathletes. A 2016 U.S. study calculated that nonathletes, compared to athletes, have a 29 times higher chance of sudden cardiac death.
One of the reasons is because “athletes are screened out for the common causes of sudden death on the playing field,” McCullough told The Epoch Times.
Players are screened for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which makes up almost 50 percent of sudden cardiac deaths in athletes, as well as other less common heart abnormalities.
The intensive screening is what makes competitive-level sports safer than everyday sporting activities, McCullough argued.
150,000 Votes in the 2020 Election Not Tied to a Valid Address in Wisconsin: Election Watchdog
a Wisconsin election integrity watchdog organization, has discovered that more than 150,000 votes cast in the 2020 presidential election cannot be connected with a valid address.
EW computer analyst Peter Bernegger said the group’s study of Wisconsin’s voter rolls found 45,000 such occurrences involving people who were living out of state in the Nov. 3 ballot, with another 107,000 documented instances on the part of voters who moved to another address within the state and cast a ballot in a different jurisdiction from the one in which they actually reside.
“That’s over 150,000 votes cast in the 2020 presidential election that cannot be tied to a valid address,” said Bernegger. “That’s illegal in the state of Wisconsin.
“Though there may be a reasonable explanation for most of these, the number of instances is so large that if only two out of 10 were nefariously cast votes, that was enough to tip the election to Biden.”
Idaho Murder Suspect Stopped Twice by Police During Recent Cross-Country Drive: Officials
A man arrested in connection with the deaths of four Idaho college students was stopped twice by police last month as he was driving back to his home state of Pennsylvania, according to his attorney, as reports indicated that he was flying to Idaho on Wednesday after waiving his extradition.
Indiana State Police and the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department confirmed that 28-year-old suspect Bryan Kohberger was pulled over twice within a nine-minute time period while traveling on Interstate 70 in December. Kohberger was not ticketed for either traffic stop, the public defender said.
Kohberger and his father were traveling 2,500 miles from Washington state to Pennsylvania for the Christmas holiday, LeBar confirmed.
The Hancock County Sheriff’s Department in Indiana told news outlets this week Kohberger was pulled over by a deputy at 10:41 a.m. on Dec. 15 for tailgating, and he received a verbal warning. Nine minutes later, at 10:50 a.m., the suspect was pulled over for speeding, according to the Indiana State Police, adding that a trooper gave him a verbal warning.
Indiana State Police released bodycamera video footage of the second time he was pulled over. They are planning to send it to investigators in Idaho.
“The Trooper, having learned the two had been stopped minutes before by a Deputy from the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department, who he knew was working just down the interstate from him, used his discretion and released the two men with a verbal warning,” state police said in a statement to news outlets.
State police troopers added: “At the time of this stop, there was no information available on a suspect for the crime in Idaho, to include identifying information or any specific information related to the license plate state or number of the white Hyundai Elantra which was being reported in the media to have been seen in or around where the crime occurred.”
NC State Broadcaster Gary Hahn Reinstated After ‘Illegal Aliens’ Remark
North Carolina State broadcaster Gary Hahn will be reinstated following his suspension for a remark referencing “illegal aliens” that he made during the December 30 Duke’s Mayo Bowl Game between North Carolina State and Maryland.
While giving a scoreboard update on the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, Hahn referenced “illegal aliens.”
“Amongst all the illegal aliens down in El Paso, it’s UCLA 14, Pittsburgh 6,” Hahn said. “That’s with 11:15 to go in the second quarter.”
Immediately following the game, Wolfpack Sports Properties General Manager Kyle Winchester announced that Hahn would be suspended from his broadcast duties. On Wednesday, Learfield sports announced that Hahn’s suspension was over.
Of course, while Hahn’s employers clearly didn’t appreciate the remark. His point about the burgeoning crisis at the southern border, particularly at El Paso, is well-founded.
Twitter Files: Deep State Used Media to Manipulate Twitter
The deep state used the media as a tool to pressure social media companies into censorship, according to a new batch of the Twitter files released by Matt Taibbi on Tuesday.
“By 2020, Twitter was struggling with the problem of public and private agencies bypassing them and going straight to the media with lists of suspect accounts,” wrote Taibbi.
“In February, 2020, as COVID broke out, the Global Engagement Center – a fledgling analytic/intelligence arms of the State Department – went to the media with a report called, ‘Russian Disinformation Apparatus Taking Advantage of Coronavirus Concerns.’”
In one email, then director of Trust and Safety Yoel Roth attempted to persuade outside researchers — who reportedly had a relationship with the U.S. government — to talk to Twitter before going to the press.
“We’re happy to work directly with you on this, instead of NBC,” said Roth.
Twitter apparently convinced the Global Engagement Center not to go to the media with its findings before contacting the platform, but were not convinced they would do so in a timely enough manner.
“The delta between when they share material and when they go to the press continues to be problematic,” wrote a Twitter communications official.
Twitter’s disputes with the GEC eventually spilled over into the media, with the company publicly denying the GEC’s allegations about Chinese influence operations on the platform.
The conundrum mirrored Twitter’s experience with the House and Senate Intelligence committees in earlier years, in which Democrat staffers would work with the media to amplify exaggerated claims of “Russian disinformation” on Twitter.
In both cases, Twitter caved, and by September 2020 was taking and escalating censorship requests “from every conceivable government body” in the U.S.
Emails also showed a preference for working with the FBI and DHS, which were perceived as “(generally) apolitical” according to one communication from Roth.
One former DOD official who spoke to Taibbi had a different view: “I think they thought the FBI was less Trumpy.”
You’ve Got to Be Kidding: Professor Demands Animals Stop Eating Each Other
Sometimes you encounter a proposal that is so daft that you think to yourself, “The author can’t be serious!” In today’s column, I’d like to discuss an example of this sort that comes from one of the world’s most eminent moral philosophers, Martha C. Nussbaum. In her article, “A Peopled Wilderness,” appearing in the New York Review of Books, December 8, 2022, Nussbaum suggests that we need to think seriously about curbing predation in nature. It disturbs her that animals eat other animals: this is not how things ought to be. We must be careful in what we try to do to correct this morally bad state of affairs, since through lack of knowledge, we may worsen things; but this is no excuse to let matters slide.
To be clear, she is not just proposing that we should make sure that lions can’t get into the deer cage at the zoo; she is talking about the possibility of getting animals in the wild to cease to kill and eat each other. Her idea illustrates and extends a besetting sin of contemporary moral and political philosophy, its idle utopianism. The ordinary circumstances of the human condition are rejected, and philosophers devise fantastic schemes to remake the social and political world to their own liking.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Twitter sued by landlord for allegedly failing to pay rent
A commercial landlord is suing Twitter for breach of contract after the company allegedly failed to pay rent for one of its offices in San Francisco.
The lawsuit concerns Twitter’s office space at 650 California Street, not its main headquarters on Market Street. But it comes after media reports last month said Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, had stopped paying rent on Twitter’s office space globally — including for its headquarters — and had told employees not to pay company vendors, in an apparent effort to cut costs. Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion, including a substantial amount of debt financing.
According to a copy of the complaint filed last week in California Superior Court in San Francisco, Twitter missed a rent payment of $136,260 for its 650 California Street office. That triggered a notice from the landlord on Dec. 16, giving Twitter five more business days to make the payment or risk falling into default.
McDonald’s to close in Asian country – Bloomberg
McDonald’s may soon exit the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan due to anti-Russia sanctions, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The Central Asian country has not joined the US and its allies in embargoing Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine. However, the American fast-food chain reportedly prohibited its franchisee in Kazakhstan from buying frozen beef patties from Russia.
The franchisee, TOO Food Solutions KZ, suspended operations at 24 restaurants in November, citing supply issues. Importing meat from Europe would cost too much, according to Bloomberg’s sources – who would not speak on record. McDonald’s would not comment on the matter. It was likewise not possible to source the meat locally, for reasons that were not specified.
McDonald’s was brought to Kazakhstan in 2016, by a relative of former president Nursultan Nazarbayev. However, Kairat Boranbayev, who ran TOO Food Solutions KZ, was arrested in March 2022 on charges of embezzlement.
U.S. Manufacturing Contracted at End of 2022, ISM Survey Says
Activity in U.S. factories contracted for the second month in a row in December, a survey showed Wednesday.
The Institute for Supply Management’s survey of purchasing managers indicated that manufacturing activity declined at year end as demand for goods declined amid higher interest rates and a slumping European economy. The results of the ISM survey confirmed similar findings released on Tuesday by S&P Global.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Unprecedented, Unholy, Unseen: AI Chatbots Are Colonizing Our Minds
Chatbots are at the front lines of an unrelenting AI invasion. The steady increase of artificial minds in our collective psyche is akin to mass immigration—barely noticed and easily overlooked, until it’s too late. Our cultural landscape is being colonized by bots, and as with illegal aliens, much of our population welcomes this as “progress.”
The bots will keep us company. They will learn and absorb our personalities. And when we die, they will become our digital ghosts. It’s a morbid prospect, but the process is already underway.
E-learning institutions regularly deploy AI teachers. Chatbot companions are seducing lonesome souls by the millions, including religious chatbots who function as spiritual guides. At the end of the road, various start-ups are developing cyber-shrines where families can commune with their departed loved ones and find comfort in the digital undead.
In the minds of tech enthusiasts, AI chatbots of all sorts will be our soulless companions on the trek toward the Future™. These ephemeral “friends” are key psychological components of what many describe as human-AI symbiosis. They will be like artificial guardian angels in our palms—and by extension, in our heads—answering questions and steering decisions.
One thing is certain. Whatever you think about this invasion, AIs are falling to earth like stars from a godless heaven. And with each successive wave, their voices are that much more convincing.
These bots are crafted to push our cognitive buttons, giving the illusion of personhood. Before long, they will come to be widely trusted—even loved. Among early adopters, they already are. Our emotional minds are being hardwired for control.
The recent roll-out of ChatGPT, created by OpenAI, has been heralded as the second coming of the Google God. As with previous GPT programs, the user types in a question and the bot onscreen spits out a reasonably coherent, if occasionally inaccurate answer.
China Experiments with Spreading Vaccines Through Mosquitoes
Chinese scientists are reportedly looking at a technique for using mosquito bites to distribute vaccines. The experiment was conducted on animals, but the possibilities for human exposure are obvious and ominous.
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) on Wednesday quoted a paper from the Chinese Academy of Sciences that described a plan to send genetically-modified mosquitoes into the wild, where they would bite animals to trigger a “strong, long-lasting immune response.”
The authors of the paper said their trials had been successful at making animal subjects more resistant to viral infections, most notably Zika, which was the big viral panic in the late 2010s before a certain other organism emerged from Wuhan, China, to rampage across the world.
Zika is spread primarily by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, a wide-ranging pest that breeds in swamps around the world, including the United States. The Zika crisis was particularly acute in Brazil, where pregnant women feared a mosquito bite could lead to birth defects or miscarriage from the virus.
SURVEILLANCE STATE
Louisiana To Require Official Government ID To Access Pornography
Louisiana has passed a law requiring legitimate age verification for websites that contain 33.3 percent or more pornographic material.
HB 142, which was introduced by state Rep. Laurie Schlegel (R) and signed into law by Gov. John Bel Edwards (D), dictates websites that meet the threshold for pornographic material must require an online government identification age verification using the LA Wallet app.
“Pornography is destroying our children and they’re getting unlimited access to it on the Internet, and so if the pornography companies aren’t going to be responsible, I thought we need to go ahead and hold them accountable,” Schlegel, a professional counselor and certified sex addiction therapist who treats those with pornography and sex addiction, said.
According to Schlegel, depression, erectile dysfunction, fatigue, and lack of motivation are all directly linked to pornography use. The Louisiana Republican seeks to protect children from such outcomes.
“It’s tied to some of the biggest societal ills of human trafficking and sexual assault,” she added. “And in my own practice, the youngest we’ve ever seen is an eight-year-old.”
Facial recognition and other sources of artificial Intelligence (A.I.) technology can be biased, make errors, and it’s privacy invasive (see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). Nevertheless, it’s still being used by American police departments (see 1, 2), sometimes with disastrous results.
From Common Dreams:
False Match That Led to Arrest Highlights Danger of Facial Recognition
“Law enforcement must drop this dangerous technology—we shouldn’t have to worry about being falsely arrested because an algorithm gets it wrong,” said the ACLU after a Georgia man was misidentified as a purse thief.
Instead of enjoying a late Thanksgiving meal with his mother in Georgia, Randal Reid spent nearly a week in jail in November after he was falsely identified as a luxury purse thief by Louisiana authorities using facial recognition technology.
That’s according to Monday reporting by NOLA.com, which caught the attention of Fight for the Future, a digital rights group that has long advocated against law enforcement and private entities using such technology, partly because of its shortcomings and the risk of outcomes like this.
“So much wrong here,” Fight for the Future said Tuesday, sharing the story on Twitter. The group highlighted that many cops can use facial recognition systems without publicly disclosing it, and anyone’s “life can be upended because of a machine’s mistake.”
HEALTH
100 Million Americans to Be on Medicaid by March, Think Tank Projects
Up to 100 million Americans will soon be enrolled in Medicaid, according to an enrollment monitoring project by the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), a think tank focused on welfare and health care policy.
On Dec. 28, FGA announced it believes that the number of Americans enrolled with Medicaid will cross the 100 million mark in about 76 days, or approximately March 14. The Naples, Florida-based think tank also launched a countdown clock for the date they project Medicaid enrollment to hit 100 million.
According to Medicaid.gov data, through August 2022, some 90,550,412 individuals were enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
FGA compiled more recent state-by-state Medicaid enrollment figures showing 96.2 million Americans are now enrolled in the government health care program. Based on the state-by-state growth trends, FGA projects 98.9 million Americans will be enrolled in Medicaid by the end of January and another 1.1 million Americans will be enrolled in the program by mid-March.
US approves experimental bee vaccine
The generational immunity treatment aims to counter the deadly American Foulbrood disease
The US Department of Agriculture has granted a conditional license to the first-ever vaccine for bees, Dalan Animal Health announced on Wednesday. The Athens, Georgia-based company has developed an oral prophylactic they hope will be effective against a highly destructive spore-transmitted bacterial infection.
“Our vaccine is a breakthrough in protecting honeybees,” Dalan CEO Dr. Annette Kleiser said in a statement, suggesting it might “change how we care for insects, impacting food production on a global scale.”
American Foulbrood is a bacterial infection transmitted to bee larvae by spores. While antibiotic treatment can mitigate the impact to adult bees, US regulations adopted almost a century ago require the burning of an infected colony.
Dalan’s technology “uses a transgenerational immune priming approach,” using the queen to pass the immunity onto larvae before they hatch. In practice, the vaccine containing “killed whole-cell Paenibacillus larvae bacteria” is passed along by worker bees to the queen via the royal jelly, and ends up in her ovaries. The company claims that efficacy studies have indicated this “may reduce larval death” associated with the Foulbrood infections.
Spend This Long Eating Each Meal For Better Appetite Control, Says An RD
You likely give a good amount of thought to what you eat—but do you ever consider how long you spend eating?
Spending enough time eating each meal can greatly aid in satiety (feelings of fullness) and help to reduce overeating. Here’s why 20 minutes is the ideal amount of time you should devote to each meal.
This 20-minute window takes advantage of the gut-brain connection: a two-way communication pathway that coordinates appetite and satiety based on hormones that are produced in response to food intake.
Egg yolks provide valuable vitamins (A, D, E and K), omega-3 fats and antioxidants, much of which is not found in egg whites
The cholesterol in egg yolks is not associated with high blood cholesterol levels or heart disease
The yolk is arguably the healthiest part of the egg and should be consumed lightly cooked or raw (provided it’s free-range and organic)
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Powerful California Storm Kills 2, Thousands Without Power
fueled by an atmospheric river slammed into the state on Wednesday. It is expected to continue through today with more storms arriving during the weekend.
Evacuations have been ordered in areas prone to mudslides and debris flows.
“We anticipate that this may be one of the most challenging and impactful series of storms to touch down in California in the last five years,” said Nancy Ward, the new director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
New York Joins Growing List Of States Allowing Human Composting
Well, I suppose it’s one way to boost employment numbers. If you live in New York, and you have that one family member who just refuses to get a job and leeches off friends and relatives, don’t worry: Semi-gainful employment could be in their future when the time finally comes for them to shuffle off this mortal coil. They can always nourish a rosebush or tree in someone’s yard.
Over the weekend, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed NY A00382. In a nutshell, so to speak, the bill adds “natural organic reduction” to cremation and burial as a way to dispose of human remains. How does it work? You’ll be sorry you asked, but since you did…
Just the News looked into it, sparing the rest of us the trouble. According to a Seattle funeral home called “Recompose,” (yes, that’s the name), the body is placed in a (reusable) stainless container. Alfalfa, straw, and woodchips are added and then, nature takes its course. The whole thing takes about six weeks, give or take, and any leftover teeth or bones are ground up. Then everything is packaged and shipped to the family as soil. Once the awkward moment of signing for the, uh, delivery is over, you can take comfort in knowing that human composting is a more eco-friendly internment option than burial or cremation. Which is why it has already been embraced by California, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington. Of course, it has. I mean, if you have already decided that humans are a pestilence and a danger to the planet and that people are nothing more than organic machines, what better way to say goodbye to a loved one?
The legislation has been condemned by the New York State Catholic Conference. Executive Director Dennis Poust commented, “Just as Church teaching prohibits the scattering or dividing of cremated remains, it would not permit the spreading of composted human remains co-mingled with other organic matter to fertilize a garden.” Rabbi Avi Shafran, a public affairs director at Agudath Israel of America stated, “The idea of ‘utilizing’ a body as a growth medium is anathema to the honor due to a vessel that once held a human spirit.”
I mean, it’s your corpse and if this is how you want to repose and decompose, then by all means, compost away. But the whole thing just sounds creepy. I’ve buried both parents and lost grandparents and far too many friends over the years, and the idea just seems too dismissive and utilitarian for my tastes. But it does add a whole new vibe to the old Andrews Sisters’ song, “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree with Anyone Else But Me.” Not that I could bring myself to actually eat anything that was fertilized by a relative’s remains. I mean, I suppose it’s okay but… eww.
>> Video: Soylent Green is People! – Classic Movie Scene
>>> Related Article: Gov. Kathy Hochul wants to turn New Yorkers into fertilizer, signs bill that legalizes human composting
California declares state of emergency ahead of incoming storm
Heavy rainfall expected to cause flooding and power outages across the state, with tornados in other parts of the US.
COVID RELATED NEWS
Safe and Effective: Canada Pays Almost $2.8 Million in Damages Caused by COVID-19 Jabs
The Liberal government led by Justin Trudeau paid up almost $2.8 million in compensation for injuries incurred as a result of the experimental Covid-19 jabs.
There were a total of 1,299 claims submitted to the Vaccine Injury Support Program (VISP) between June 2021 and December 1 of 2022.
To be eligible for compensation, Canadians must have sustained severe and permanent damage related to a vaccine approved by Health Canada and given in Canada after December 8, 2020.
So far, Health Canada has approved 50 claims of serious and permanent injuries caused by vaccines.
“These claims represent cases where it has been determined by the Medical Review Board that there is a probable link between the injury and the vaccine, and that the injury is serious and permanent,” according to the program.
While 209 were deemed ineligible because they lacked the required information or did not match the eligibility criteria.
COVID Boosters Trigger Metastasis
Cancer rates have increased since the introduction of the COVID shots and is now one of the top three leading causes of premature death among younger adults — a trend that in turn is driving down U.S. life expectancy
The leading causes of death in 2021 were heart disease and cancer, both of which are potential side effects of the COVID jabs
Dr. Angus Dalgleish, professor of oncology at St. George’s University of London, warns that COVID boosters may be causing aggressive metastatic cancers
Research shows SARS-CoV-2 spike protein obliterates 90% of the DNA repair mechanism in lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell that helps your body fight infection and chronic disease, including cancer
The COVID jab is less effective in lymphoma patients. Emory University researchers found only 68% of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia developed neutralizing antibodies after the second dose, compared to 100% of healthy controls
CANCEL CULTURE
Land of the Sheep, Home of the Defeated
When people are referred to as sheep, the implication is that like sheep, they are people who mindlessly follow the herd to their own eventual slaughter, without ever asking any questions or considering any other alternative. The accusation is that the group is mindless and spineless.
At this moment in history, America (USA) is no longer a Land of the Free or Home of the Brave. If it were, nothing we have witnessed for at least the past three years would have ever been able to happen in this once great country.
Unlike the Americans of 1776, who voluntarily pledged to each other their Lives, Fortunes, and sacred Honor for the cause of freedom and liberty, today’s Americans are of the go-along to get-along sort. Lured into the trap by their “love of money,” (the root of all evil), the American people, from coast to coast, top to bottom, surrendered their freedom and liberty for promises of mere pennies on the dollar.
GOOD NEWS
It took decades: Now there’s a photo for each name on Vietnam wall
Volunteers have now tracked down at least one photo for every one of the more than 58,000 U.S. military service members who died in the Vietnam War – for an online Wall of Faces project that took more than two decades to complete.
The goal was to help a new generation of Americans grapple with sacrifice and inspire them to reflect, perhaps, on “why we have a wall” with names inscribed on it, say organizers from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF), the nonprofit that spearheaded the digital project as well as the national monument on which all these names are engraved.
More than half of the visitors to the memorial in Washington, D.C., today weren’t alive when it was commissioned in 1982, they add.
ICYMI
Federal Agency Issues Warning to California as Bomb Cyclone Approaches
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger to Become CNN Contributor
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