…some days you can’t help but wonder…& these days those days seem to be…well…all the days?

"Can vaccinated people spread Delta?"

YES.

Even if a vaccinated person might not show symptoms or get sick, they can still spread Delta.

SO WEAR YOUR MASK. pic.twitter.com/AMpCs48B2w

— B'more City Health (@BMore_Healthy) August 5, 2021

What if… hear us out…

The virus is the alien.

And we are gonna give a lot of little free guns to your cells and keep out the virus.

The more people’s cells we give guns, the more we can #BuildTheWall to keep it out.

How about that. https://t.co/dV26Ee34Uv pic.twitter.com/OkdQIoOqFA

— B'more City Health (@BMore_Healthy) August 8, 2021

…you’d think by now people would have got the message

Florida school superintendents who require masks for students without giving them a way to opt out could have their salaries withheld, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office said Monday

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/salaries-florida-school-superintendents-who-impose-mask-rules-risk-desantis

…after all…if you follow that “logic” to its logical conclusion…any day now governor “florida man” there is going to wind up looping the loop all the way around to proposing that the military be defunded

“To defend this nation, we need a healthy and ready force. I strongly encourage all DoD military and civilian personnel – as well as contractor personnel – to get vaccinated now and for military service members to not wait for the mandate,” the defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, said.

He added: “All FDA-authorized Covid-19 vaccines are safe and highly effective. They will protect you and your family. They will protect your unit, your ship, and your co-workers. And they will ensure we remain the most lethal and ready force in the world.”
[…]
The president said: “I strongly support Secretary Austin’s message to the force today on the department of defense’s plan to add the Covid-19 vaccine to the list of required vaccinations for our service members not later than mid-September.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/09/us-military-covid-vaccine-mandate-military

…although…there’s a certain sort of people who seem…let’s call it slow on the uptake

Confused anti-vaccine protesters stormed what they thought was a major BBC building on Monday, apparently unaware the corporation largely moved out almost a decade ago.

Rather than target the BBC’s news operation, which they hold responsible for promoting Covid-19 vaccines, a handful of protesters gained access to Television Centre in west London, which is now predominantly rented by ITV to film its daytime shows such as Good Morning Britain and This Morning.

The circular building was vacated by the BBC in 2013 and has since been converted into flats and a private members’ club.
[…]
Many of the protesters outside the building appeared to be operating under the belief they were targeting a major BBC building connected to its news coverage, with live streams and promotional material for the event mentioning the building’s BBC links.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/09/confused-anti-vaccine-protesters-storm-bbc-hq-years-after-moved-out

…hell, the older I get the more it seems like somehow I always manage to underestimate the levels of ambient stupidity out in the wild

On Friday, the Department of Homeland Security released a bulletin warning state and local law enforcement officials of increasing chatter about potential violence that “may occur during August 2021.” Nothing specific was mentioned, but an official who spoke with ABC News noted that the department was offering the warning because of how quickly a threat could emerge.

The warning stemmed from threats “fueled in large part by conspiracy theories and other false narratives” that are spread by “domestic extremist thought leaders,” among others, according to the official. This misinformation is “consumed by individuals who are predisposed to engage in violence,” the official said.

The bulletin itself was more direct: “Some conspiracy theories associated with reinstating former President Trump have included calls for violence if desired outcomes are not realized.”

Trump’s election conspiracies are coming to a head — again [WaPo]

…it probably shouldn’t be surprising, really

A federal judge on Monday questioned why U.S. prosecutors are asking Capitol riot defendants to pay only $1.5 million in restitution while American taxpayers are paying more than $500 million to cover the costs of the Jan. 6 attack by a pro-Trump mob.
[…]
Howell has already asked in another defendant’s plea hearing whether no-prison misdemeanor plea deals offered by the government are too lenient for individuals involved in “terrorizing members of Congress,” asking pointedly whether the government had “any concern about deterrence?”
[…]
“I’m accustomed to the government being fairly aggressive in terms of fraud when there have been damages that accrue from a criminal act for the restitution amount,” said Howell, a former Brooklyn federal prosecutor and Senate Judiciary Committee general counsel.

“Where we have Congress acting, appropriating all this money due directly to the events of January 6th, I have found the damage amount of less than $1.5 million — when all of us American taxpayers are about to foot the bill for close to half a billion dollars — a little bit surprising,” she said.

Judge asks why Capitol rioters are paying just $1.5 million for attack, while U.S. taxpayers will pay more than $500 million [WaPo]

…after all it sure does seem like day after day we wind up covering the same ground

But then, maybe there’s nothing surprising about Carlson’s visit. After all, Trump and his supporters have proved only too happy to mimic Orbán’s authoritarian steps over the past few years. Trump called for the jailing of political opponents, pressured foreign governments to fabricate “dirt” on his rival and encouraged an insurrectionist riot on Jan. 6. As we’ve continued learning, Trump is also the first sitting president who ever attempted to overturn the results of a presidential election — and the will of the American electorate.

In many ways, Trump and Orbán are birds of an autocratic feather. This helps explain why Carlson — who regularly regurgitates far-right talking points and who often seems to harbor disdain for both nonwhite Americans and American democratic principles, despite his protests to the contrary — showed up in Budapest to glad-hand Orbán and praise the Hungarian leader’s supposed achievements.
[…]
The reasons for such praise run the gamut, from Orbán’s willingness to malign immigrants and refugees to his outward efforts to target members of the LGBTQ community — and, of course, to his willingness to dismantle the aspects of Hungarian democracy he does not like, brick by brick, policy by policy. As the Washington Post columnist Ishaan Tharoor wrote, “Orbanism represents the fever dream of the American right.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/connecting-fox-news-tucker-carlson-hungary-trump

The investigations were opened after a New York Times article that detailed efforts by Jeffrey Clark, the acting head of the Justice Department’s civil division, to push top leaders to falsely and publicly assert that continuing election fraud investigations cast doubt on the Electoral College results. That prompted Mr. Trump to consider ousting Mr. Rosen and installing Mr. Clark at the top of the department to carry out that plan.

Mr. Trump never fired Mr. Rosen, but the plot highlights the former president’s desire to batter the Justice Department into advancing his personal agenda.
[…]
As details of Mr. Clark’s actions emerge, it is unclear what, if any, consequences he could face. The Justice Department’s inspector general could make a determination about whether Mr. Clark crossed the line into potentially criminal behavior. In that case, the inspector general could refer the matter to federal prosecutors.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/07/us/politics/jeffrey-rosen-trump-election.html

…right down to the part where there’s a lot of talk about examining apparent bias…&/or how inherent it is or why that might be

It’s a unique step in what has become an important field of research: Finding ways that automated systems trained by existing data resources have become imbued with existing biases in society.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/twitters-racist-algorithm-also-ageist-ableist-islamaphobic-researchers-rcna1632

In 1956, the Eisenhower administration launched the multibillion-dollar Interstate Highway System, creating a transportation network that indisputably paved the way for immense economic growth. But it also exacted a devastating cost: The new highways were often routed through older, thriving communities, displacing more than 1 million Americans — the vast majority of whom were Black and low-income. In some cities, they cut off Black neighborhoods from quality jobs, schools and housing, solidifying racial and economic segregation. The impact of this disruption is still felt today.

Now, the Biden administration is involved in a similarly game-changing investment — the development of artificial intelligence. The National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource Task Force, launched in June, is President Biden’s first contribution to a growing number of federally authorized advisory committees guiding development of AI systems across public and private sectors from housing, employment and credit to the legal system and national security.
[…]
The artificial intelligence at issue refers to computer models, or algorithms, that mimic the cognitive functions of the human mind, such as learning and problem-solving. AI is widely used for automated decision making — analyzing massive amounts of data, finding correlations and then making predictions about future outcomes.
[…]
So when AI systems are developed in ways that do not adequately take into account existing racism, sexism and other inequities, built-in algorithmic bias can undermine predictive decisions and result in invisible but very real discrimination. As these systems are deployed, they exacerbate existing disparities and create new roadblocks for already-marginalized groups.​

[…] the dangers of AI’s algorithmic bias are invisible, complex and hard to describe. But AI is far more pervasive than a highway system, and far more consequential in the long run. We need to build fair, equitable AI systems so that the United States of the 21st century is equally accessible to everyone. Let’s learn from the mistakes of the past.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/09/biden-must-act-get-racism-out-automated-decision-making/

Consider Facebook’s Ad Library from 2018: After years of political actors’ abusing its ads platform, Facebook pledged to release a public archive of ads. But the library failed to meet most of the requirements that researchers Mozilla contacted had requested. The tool was riddled with bugs, missing vital information and had restrictive search limits, and Facebook didn’t engage with our suggested improvements.

More recently, after pressure from certain executives at the company, Facebook partly dismantled the team behind CrowdTangle, a tool that provides transparency into which public page posts on the platform receive the most engagement. Brian Boland, a former Facebook vice president and an internal advocate who pushed for more transparency during his time at the company, told The New York Times that Facebook “doesn’t want to make the data available for others to do the hard work and hold them accountable.” (A Facebook spokesperson said that the company prioritizes transparency and that the purpose of the reorganization of CrowdTangle was to better integrate it into the product team focused on transparency.)

And just last week, Facebook effectively shut down N.Y.U.’s Ad Observatory project, an initiative by third-party researchers that sought greater transparency into Facebook’s ad targeting. (Facebook said the researchers were violating the company’s terms of service.)

YouTube is also guilty of providing a fuzzy picture about its platform. For years, YouTube’s recommendation algorithm has amplified harmful content like health misinformation and political lies. Indeed, Mozilla published research in July that found that YouTube’s algorithm actively recommends content that violates its very own community guidelines.

TikTok, YouTube and Facebook Want to Appear Trustworthy. Don’t Be Fooled. [NYT]

…even when the news is arguably good

Prolonging a showdown over proposed new voting restrictions, a Texas judge temporarily blocked the arrest of Democratic lawmakers who fled the state to stop the legislation, a move that will allow members of the group to return from Washington without the threat of being detained.
[…]
The Austin-based judge agreed that Democrats would suffer “imminent and irreparable harm” if Republicans are not barred from ordering arrests, which they threatened to do if members of the minority party returned to the state. Last month, 57 House Democrats left for Washington to advocate for federal voting rights protections, leaving the chamber without the minimum attendance required to do business and continuing a stalemate that began with a similar walkout in May.
[…]
The order, which could expire in 14 days without an extension, specifically bars Abbott and Phelan from issuing warrants or ordering law enforcement to “detain, confine, or otherwise restrict” House members’ movement within Texas. A hearing on the order is scheduled for Aug. 20.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/08/09/texas-democrats-arrest-judge-voting-restrictions/

…it seems like it’s about something that shouldn’t have been necessary in the first place

Before the right embraced Covid denial, there was climate denial. Many of the attitudes that have characterized the right-wing response to the coronavirus pandemic — refusal to acknowledge facts, accusations that scientists are part of a vast liberal conspiracy, refusal to address the crisis — were foreshadowed in the climate debate.

Yet from the response to Covid-19 among Republican officials — especially the opposition to lifesaving vaccines — it’s hard to escape the conclusion that the paranoid, anti-rational streak in American politics isn’t as bad as we thought; it’s much, much worse.
[…]
We can, however, safely predict how influential conservatives will react to the report, if they react at all. They’ll say that it’s a hoax or that the science is still uncertain or that any attempt to mitigate climate change would devastate the economy.
[…]
However, while there are important similarities between the right’s response to climate change and its response to Covid-19, there are also some important differences. The pandemic has opened frontiers in destructive irrationality.
[…]
Also, there was big money behind climate denial. Fossil fuel interests were prepared to spend large sums creating a fog of skepticism in the expectation that delaying climate action would be good for their bottom lines.

Climate Denial, Covid Denial and the Right’s Descent [NYT]

…which of course brings us to the burning issue of the day

The new report makes it clear: If we are to keep global temperatures in check, we urgently need to focus on cutting methane pollution. When every fraction of a degree counts, moving quickly to reduce this super pollutant is one of the most immediate and powerful ways to start solving the climate crisis. And because of methane’s relatively short life span — it lingers in the atmosphere for around 12 years, while carbon dioxide hangs around for hundreds of years — bringing down our methane emissions will help clear the atmosphere, helping to moderate temperatures and making a real impact on our near-term climate goals.

The panel’s findings have important implications for our clean energy future. When it comes to generating electricity in the United States, increased use of so-called “clean” natural gas has often made up for decreased use of carbon-intensive coal. This has led some of my Republican colleagues to call for expanded natural gas production and the easing of restrictions on exporting the resource abroad.

But the natural gas we use is made up of 85 to 90 percent methane. Yes, natural gas often emits somewhat less carbon dioxide than does coal when burned at power plants. Methane, however, escapes at every point of its production and distribution, from when it’s extracted from drilling or fracking sites to when it’s transported through gas pipelines to when it’s purified at refineries. These leaks undermine the potential climate benefit of natural gas.
[…]
Last month, I was disappointed to see only 12 House Republicans join our Democratic majority when we voted in favor of stronger safeguards against methane pollution. This was truly low-hanging fruit: a measure to require oil and gas companies to regularly find and repair methane leaks. The resolution even had support from some of the world’s largest oil companies. And yet most of our colleagues across the aisle refused to put the health of American families above the profits of polluters.

This is a huge issue. While some Republicans have softened their rhetoric when it comes to climate, many of them continue to stand in the way of clean energy and climate solutions. This needs to change quickly, and they must get serious about tackling this crisis with urgency.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/09/opinion/climate-crisis-carbon-dioxide.html

…you know…the one that’s been burning longer than any of us have been alive…& which some of the corporate entities involved have been a lot clearer about for a lot longer than they like to admit

Nations have delayed curbing their fossil-fuel emissions for so long that they can no longer stop global warming from intensifying over the next 30 years, though there is still a short window to prevent the most harrowing future, a major new United Nations scientific report has concluded.

Humans have already heated the planet by roughly 1.1 degrees Celsius, or 2 degrees Fahrenheit, since the 19th century, largely by burning coal, oil and gas for energy. And the consequences can be felt across the globe: This summer alone, blistering heat waves have killed hundreds of people in the United States and Canada, floods have devastated Germany and China, and wildfires have raged out of control in Siberia, Turkey and Greece.

But that’s only the beginning, according to the report, issued on Monday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a body of scientists convened by the United Nations. Even if nations started sharply cutting emissions today, total global warming is likely to rise around 1.5 degrees Celsius within the next two decades, a hotter future that is now essentially locked in.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/09/climate/climate-change-report-ipcc-un.html

For decades, Earth’s energy system has been out of whack.

Stability in Earth’s climate hinges on a delicate balance between the amount of energy the planet absorbs from the sun and the amount of energy Earth emits back into space. But that equilibrium has been thrown off in recent years — and the imbalance is growing, according to a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature Communications.

The changes to Earth’s energy system have major ramifications for the planet’s future climate and humanity’s understanding of climate change. The Princeton University researchers behind the paper found that there’s a less than 1 percent probability that the changes occurred naturally.

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/earths-energy-imbalance-removes-almost-all-doubt-from-human-made-climate-change

“​​It is unequivocal.” Those stark three words are the first in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s new report. The climate crisis is unequivocally caused by human activities and is unequivocally affecting every corner of the planet’s land, air and sea already.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/09/climate-crisis-unequivocally-caused-by-human-activities-says-ipcc-report

U.N. Secretary General António Guterres called the findings “a code red for humanity” and said societies must find ways to embrace the transformational changes necessary to limit warming as much as possible. “We owe this to the entire human family,” he said in a statement. “There is no time for delay and no room for excuses.”

But so far, the collective effort to slow climate change has proved gravely insufficient. Instead of the sort of emission cuts that scientists say must happen, global greenhouse gas pollution is still growing. Countries have failed to meet the targets they set under the 2015 Paris climate accord, and even the bolder pledges some nations recently have embraced still leave the world on a perilous path.
[…]
Humans can unleash less than 500 additional gigatons of carbon dioxide — the equivalent of about 10 years of current global emissions — to have an even chance of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels.

But hopes for remaining below that threshold — the most ambitious goal outlined in the Paris agreement — are undeniably slipping away. The world has already warmed more than 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit), with few signs of slowing, and could pass the 1.5-degree mark early in the 2030s.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/08/09/ipcc-climate-report-global-warming-greenhouse-gas-effect/

The water in the Atlantic is constantly circulating in a complex pattern that influences weather on several continents. And climate scientists have been asking a crucial question: Whether this vast system, which includes the Gulf Stream, is slowing down because of climate change.

If it were to change significantly, the consequences could be dire, potentially including faster sea level rise along parts of the United States East Coast and Europe, stronger hurricanes barreling into the Southeastern United States, reduced rainfall across parts of Africa and changes in tropical monsoon systems.

Now, scientists have detected the early warning signs that this critical ocean system is at risk, according to a new analysis published Thursday in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/05/us/gulf-stream-collapse.html

Such an event would have catastrophic consequences around the world, severely disrupting the rains that billions of people depend on for food in India, South America and West Africa; increasing storms and lowering temperatures in Europe; and pushing up the sea level off eastern North America. It would also further endanger the Amazon rainforest and Antarctic ice sheets.

“The signs of destabilisation being visible already is something that I wouldn’t have expected and that I find scary,” said Niklas Boers, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, who did the research. “It’s something you just can’t [allow to] happen.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/05/climate-crisis-scientists-spot-warning-signs-of-gulf-stream-collapse

…& since we all know most folks aren’t ever going to read that IPCC report…they’ve even drawn the pictures

https://interactive-atlas.ipcc.ch/

Limiting global warming to 1.5C is ambitious – but is not fanciful. In the 2019 amendment to the Climate Change Act, the UK showed the intent required and committed to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. Still, achieving that aim will be a challenge. The climate crisis is as much a rural problem as an urban one. It is both economic and human, domestic and international. This means transformation is required at every level of society: individuals, employers, institutions and international partners will need to work together to understand the trade-offs, agree compromises and seize opportunities. And just as scientists are pooling insights from diverse fields of expertise, policymakers will need to work in new ways, sharing ideas across disciplines to plot a clear path from here to net zero. This is a whole systems challenge. Tackling it will require a systemic approach.

Working back from 2050, it is clear that reaching net zero requires a renewed emphasis on science and innovation. First, we need to assess the technologies already available, identify those we need at scale by the middle of the century and deploy them as fast as possible. Second, we need to rigorously monitor progress against intermediate targets to make sure we are on track. Third, we need to identify areas where practical answers don’t yet exist – where research and innovation is still required to answer specific challenges – and invest accordingly; done well, these investments can seed the industries of the future. Across all this, we need to think globally, ensuring climate innovations are affordable and that their benefits are shared equally.

We must also recognise that the climate has already changed, and will continue to do so as we near 1.5C. The seas are rising, and floods and wildfires are more frequent. Again, science and engineering can help us to adapt, boosting the resilience of the most vulnerable and strengthening global food security. Existing tools can anticipate adverse events, while adjusting the design of cities, transport systems and agriculture can minimise their worst effects.

The IPCC report is clear: nothing short of transforming society will avert catastrophe [Guardian]

But the report also contains crucial reasons for hope. It does not find evidence for a single temperature threshold beyond which climate change will spiral out of control. It suggests that the feedback loops that come with high levels of warming — such as melting permafrost that releases more carbon into the atmosphere — are dwarfed by the current human emissions. The scale of increasing temperatures and escalating extremes is directly related to the amount of greenhouse gases people choose to unleash.

In other words, climate change is not a pass/fail course. There is no chance that the world will avoid the effects of warming — we’re already experiencing them — but neither is there any point at which we are doomed.
[…]
And that means a safer future is still within our grasp.
[…]
In the best-case scenario, people rapidly switch from fossil-fuel-powered energy sources to renewable ones. We change the way we travel, construct homes and grow food. We restore ecosystems so they can more effectively soak up carbon dioxide.

If we manage to reach “net zero” emissions in the next few decades, the report finds, we have a good shot at limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) over preindustrial levels — just a few tenths of a degree hotter than the world is now. The world would still have to cope with longer heat waves, more frequent droughts and more intense rainfall during storms. But the scale of those changes would likely be within our capacity to adapt.

Why we shouldn’t give in to climate despair [WaPo]

Earth itself is our greatest ally in this effort. Ecosystems like California’s kelp forests absorb about half of the greenhouse gases humans emit, studies show. Without them, warming would be even worse. Nature shields us from the worst consequences of our own actions, forgiving the sins we refuse to repent.
[…]
A 2020 analysis in the journal Nature Sustainability found that better soil stewardship could reduce emissions by at least 5.5 gigatons of carbon dioxide each year — about 15 percent of current annual emissions.
[…]
Enhancing carbon in soils is just the beginning. In 2017, an international team of scientists set out to determine how much carbon the planet could pull out of the atmosphere, if humans would only give it a chance. In a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), they concluded natural climate systems are capable of storing almost 24 gigatons of carbon dioxide per year — roughly two thirds of what people emit. About half of that sequestration would be cost-effective, meaning enacting the necessary protections would cost less than the consequences of keeping that carbon in the air.

Of the climate solutions they studied, few delivered more carbon bang per buck than mangroves — lush systems of salt-tolerant shrubs and trees that thrive where freshwater rivers spill into the sea. Though these forests occupy just 0.5 percent of Earth’s shorelines, they account for 10 percent of the coast’s carbon storage capacity.

And they do more than just draw down carbon. With their luxuriant canopies and pillar-like roots extending deep into brackish water, mangroves provide shelter for small fish and help clean coasts. When storms strike a shoreline, they lessen the force of the waves.

Humanity’s greatest ally against climate change is Earth itself [WaPo]