In the news, Wednesday, November 1, 2006

________

OCT 31      INDEX      NOV 02

________

________

from First Things

AMERICA IN THE EUROPEAN MIND
In recent years, there’s been no shortage of commentary on European anti-Americanism and the divide between Americans and Europeans on a number of issues—religion, most of all. The reasons for such a divide are complex and tied both to history and to how we think about history. For Americans, our national story is intimately connected to tales of devout, beleaguered Europeans leaving the Old World for religious freedom. It’s a story in which prominent Catholics, such as Jacques Maritain and John Courtney Murray, have pointed to the American experiment as a means of helping the Catholic Church, roiled by the militant anticlericalism of post-1789 Europe, come to regard liberal democracy and religious freedom in a positive light. In short, the story we often tell about ourselves suggests a measure of European sympathy for the American experiment. But another distinctly European “narrative construction” of America in general, and American religious life in particular, deserves more attention. It is well-developed, laden with invocatory power, and familiar to Europe’s knowledge classes, not to mention to what the sociologist Peter Berger calls America’s own “Europeanized intelligentsia.” Attentiveness to this narrative provides a more nuanced understanding of contemporary anti-Americanism. Intrinsic to this second narrative is the assumption that America’s early experiment in voluntary religion constitutes a worrisome special path to modernity, especially in view of the high levels of religious belief that this system has since fostered. This special path, in turn, helps account for why the United States presents a political “anomaly” on the world stage in contrast to normal (meaning properly secularized) Western industrialized nations. It also helps explain Europeans’ fascination with American religious life and their inability to translate this fascination from caricature and condescension to understanding and engagement.

________

from The Spokesman-Review

________

In the news, Friday, May 29, 2020

________

MAY 28      INDEX      MAY 30

________

________

from Church Times

Newspaper in London, United Kingdom

Lockdown could change the Church permanently
Richard Giles, John Sadler, and Robert Warren call for a radical rethink of the work of a parish priest. How things will look for the Church when we emerge from this experience will depend on what we do now. Is mere survival our aim, or are we excited by the surprising things that we discover as we strive to be true to our vocation in dramatically changed circumstances? Being prevented from “going to church” might liberate us from our habitual routines to “become church” all over again — or, perhaps, for the very first time. Such rejuvenation may help to release us, at last, from the prison of our church building, which, for many, have become shrines to the past which not only soak up energy and resources, but also perpetuate concepts of division and hierarchy harmful to a mature understanding of who we are.

________

from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)

RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, non-profit organization

Meat Shortages Are Coming Unless Congress Breaks up the Highly Centralized System It Created
Just a few closures of meat packing plants are putting the entire meat industry on the brink of collapse. A congressman who also raises cattle sounded the alarm for years that burdensome regulations needed to go. Now will Congress act in time? Representative Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) is gaining bipartisan support for his PRIME Act, which stands for Processing Revival and Intrastate Meat Exemption Act. The bill has been sitting in the House and the Senate for nearly a year, meaning it could be fast tracked to President Donald Trump if the political will is there. The legislation lifts restrictions on over 1,000 mom-and-pop meat processing plants that aren’t allowed to supply restaurants, schools, hotels, and the like. Yes, you read that right. The American people are dependent on a few big businesses that enjoy great advantages thanks to regulation.

________

from Hoover Institution

Nonprofit Organization in Stanford, California

Taiwan: “The Struggle Continues”
“Reunification is a historical inevitability of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” declared Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office in May, promoting the idea that Taiwan will be absorbed into the People’s Republic of China. ... “Ambiguity” pervades America’s approach to Taiwan. Today, Washington’s policy is said to be one of “strategic ambiguity,” in other words, not telling either Beijing or Taipei what the U.S. will do. The idea is that America should keep Chinese aggressors guessing as to whether it will defend the island republic. The policy, despite lacking needed clarity, has obviously worked until now.

Recognize Taiwan
On 12 May, New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters stated that his nation will support Taiwan’s inclusion in the World Health Assembly at the organization’s meeting the following week. The Assembly governs the World Health Organization, the international body tasked with fighting pandemics like COVID-19. China has excluded Taiwan from the WHA since 2017, after participating in sessions as an observer since 2009. Today, Taiwan has conducted one of the world’s most effective COVID-19 containment campaigns, limiting cases to under 500, and deaths to just seven. Taiwan’s experience would be invaluable in fighting the pandemic in other contexts—it has boosted production of PPE and sanitizer by leveraging indigenous private industry and developed a broadly non-invasive tracking system that has isolated exposed individuals. Any balanced evaluation of the facts would result in Taiwanese admission to the WHA to leverage its lessons and apply them globally.

________

from Mises Institute
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, MIXED

Minneapolis Riots Are a Reminder that Police Don't Protect You or Your Property
Looting and arson have followed what began as peaceful protests in response to the apparent killing of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin, a now-former member of the Minneapolis Police Department. But whatever was the spark that set off the current round of rioting in the Twin Cities area, it is clear that most property owners and residents will have to fend for themselves where riots have taken place. In other words, any unfortunate shopkeeper or resident who finds himself in the path of the rioters ought to just assume that police won't be around to provide any protection from the mob.

NOTES ON TRUMP'S EXECUTIVE ORDER FOR TECH COMPANIES
Donald Trump's executive order issued earlier this week purports to prevent online censorship by effectively instructing federal agencies to reinterpret the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA). In particular, Trump has a well-founded complaint with the infamous section 230 of the CDA, which grants tech companies a certain level of immunity from various civil lawsuits, including defamation lawsuits. By doing so, section 230 not only attempts to preempt state law to the contrary—federal preemption is almost always bad— but also creates a class of actors that enjoys the status of a neutral platform or common carrier but exercises editorial discretion.

Three Ways Lockdowns Are Costing Human Lives
The conversation about the lockdowns when the COVID-19 crisis started was centered on saving lives at the cost of the economy. This makes sense, since many of those making decisions were epidemiologists and we cannot expect them to fully understand the lockdowns' impact on the economy and human lives. The problem is that even many economists argued the same thing and completely ignored the harm that the lockdowns would create. These economists have fallen prey to what Frédéric Bastiat called the “unseen” consequences of a policy. Frédéric Bastiat argued that an “act, a habit, an institution, a law, gives birth not only to an effect but to a series of effects. Of these effects, the first only is immediate; it manifests itself simultaneously with its cause—it is seen. The others unfold in succession—they are not seen: it is well for us, if they are foreseen.” Applied to lockdowns this means that it is easier to see the deaths caused by COVID-19 than to see the deaths caused by lockdowns.

________

from The Spokesman-Review

Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

________

from Stars and Stripes

Poland hit by wave of fake news before start of major military exercise with US
Poland was hit with a barrage of fake news stories this week, including a phony interview with a U.S. commander ridiculing allied militaries, days before a major NATO exercise kicks off in the country, Polish officials said. “The attack coincided with the beginning of the next phase of (the) Defender Europe-20 military exercise hosted by Poland,” Polish government spokesman Stanislaw Zaryn said in a lengthy statement Thursday, in which he blamed Moscow.

________

from The Tyee

Online news magazine in Vancouver, BC

Pandemic Further Strains BC’s Fragile Heritage Sites
Managers of historical buildings and towns say they’re barely staying afloat.

________

In the news, Thursday, May 28, 2020

________

MAY 27      INDEX      MAY 29

________

________

from BBC News (UK)

The tree that changed the world map
Deep in the Andean rainforest, the bark from an endangered tree once cured malaria and powered the British Empire. Now, its derivatives are at the centre of a worldwide debate. ... “This may not be a well-known tree,” said Nataly Canales, who grew up in the Peruvian Amazonian region of Madre de Dios. “Yet, a compound extracted from this plant has saved millions of lives in human history.” Today, Canales is a biologist at the National Museum of Denmark who is tracing the genetic history of cinchona. As she explained, it was the bark of this rare tree that gave the world quinine, the world’s first anti-malarial drug. And while the discovery of quinine was welcomed by the world with both excitement and suspicion hundreds of years ago, in recent weeks, this tree’s medical derivatives have been at the centre of another heated global debate. Synthetic versions of quinine – such as chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine – have been touted and largely disputed as possible treatments for the novel coronavirus.

________

from The EastAfrican

News & Media Website

UN warns of possible war crimes in northeastern Congo
Widespread and systematic killings, beheadings, rape and other barbaric acts by militia mostly from the ethnic Lendu community in northeastern Congo may constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes, the United Nations said on Wednesday. Rich in natural resources including gold, diamonds, oil and coltan, the Ituri province in northeast Congo was the site of some of the country’s worst fighting between 1999 and 2007, after a power struggle between rebel groups descended into ethnic violence, mostly between the Hema and Lendu communities. After years of relative calm, tit-for-tat fighting erupted again in December 2017, reviving longstanding tensions over land.

________

from HumanProgress.org

Education Website

Heroes of Progress, Pt. 45: John Snow

This week, our hero is John Snow. Snow was a 19th century English physician, and is considered by many the father of epidemiology. Following a series of cholera outbreaks in London, Snow was the first person to use maps and data records to track the spread of a disease back to its source. Snow’s work provided a foundation for the science of epidemiology. As such, he improved the way humanity confronts public health emergencies. 

________

from Mises Institute
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, MIXED

Politicians' COVID Mania Ravages Maryland
Maryland politicians have destroyed more than four hundred thousand jobs in dictatorial responses purporting to thwart the coronavirus pandemic. “Nearly one in five Maryland workers have filed for unemployment” compensation, theBaltimore Sun reported. The situation is so bad that even the Washington Post recognized that Maryland’s COVID “restrictions have crippled the economy and paralyzed daily life since mid-March.”

The Hydroxychloroquine Controversy Is a Reminder That Prescription Laws Are a Government Racket
After President Trump declared that he uses hydroxychloroquine, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) walked back its advice against the drug and seemingly all others as well. “The decision to take any drug,” the head of the agency said, is “between a patient and their doctor.” The FDA has had two shining moments during the spread of the coronavirus. At neither time did the agency do something so much as it undid something. The first moment was March 13, when the FDA dropped its onerous approval process for coronavirus test kits. It was still late to the game, but the move helped save face.

________

from New York Post
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, MIXED,  Newspaper in New York

China allegedly pursuing law allowing citizens to sue US over COVID-19
China’s legislature proposed drafting a sovereign immunity law that would allow Chinese citizens to pursue legal actions against the United States over the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report. The proposal in China’s National People’s Congress would be in retaliation for lawsuits brought against China and the ruling Communist Party by several US states and a number of countries around the world, Breitbart News reported on Wednesday. The suits accuse China of silencing doctors who were raising alarms that the coronavirus was a contagious respiratory disease in the early days of the outbreak and of pressuring foreign countries not to impose travel restrictions on Chinese nationals.

________

from The Spokesman-Review

Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

Sue Lani Madsen: Christians must decide for themselves how essential attending church is for their faith
Should churches reopen as an essential service? Yes, said President Donald Trump on Sunday. Not yet, said Gov. Jay Inslee, until he changed his mind on Wednesday. Meanwhile the shutdown has pushed the body of Christ to rethink what “church” means.

________

In the news, Wednesday, May 27, 2020

________

MAY 26      INDEX      MAY 28

________

________

from Forbes

‘Close Them Down’: Trump Threatens To Shut Down Social Media Platforms
President Trump threatened action against social media companies one day after Twitter, for the first time, fact-checked one of his tweets on mail-in voting.

________

from Hoover Institution
Nonprofit Organization in Stanford, California

The “Miracle” Of Dunkirk
PBS has recently released “World on Fire,” part of the British Masterpiece drama series, which follows the lives of ordinary people caught in the maelstrom of World War II. Its first season ended with the evacuation of British and Allied forces from Dunkirk, the German conquest of France, and the beginnings of resistance movements on the European continent. The episode that featured the evacuation from Dunkirk, other than the improbable appearance of Polish soldiers who had somehow transported themselves across Nazi-held territory to France, was quite stirring. The evacuation of Dunkirk, code-named Operation Dynamo, which began eighty years ago this week, has gripped the imagination of the West ever since the Royal Navy accomplished the seemingly-improbable feat of withdrawing nearly 340,000 soldiers from France during a ten-day period from May 26 to June 4, 1940. Dramatized three years ago in the movie “Dunkirk,” the evacuation has entered British folklore as the triumph of ordinary people in the face of the Nazi juggernaut.

________

from India Today

Xi Jinping tells Chinese military to prepare for war. Is it against India, US or Taiwan?
Chinese President Xi Jinping has asked the PLA to prepare for war without specifying who is the enemy. China is currently engaged in intense territorial dispute with India, Taiwan and also the US.

________

from Mises Institute
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, MIXED

What the Failed 55-MPH Speed Limit Law Tells Us about COVID Lockdowns
During the oil crises of the 1970s, Congress attempted to lower gasoline consumption by mandating a lowered speed limit for vehicles on all highways. But the efforts quickly evolved into a national campaign to increase traffic safety through lowered speed limits. Government data showed that thousands of lives could be saved per year by enforcing lower speed limits. Millions of American motorists, however, were unimpressed. Widespread noncompliance resulted as many Americans concluded it was better to accept higher risk of death on highways—for themselves and for those around them—than to travel at reduced speeds. Government propaganda efforts such as the "55 Saves Lives" slogan proved ineffective, and the national speed limit was repealed in 1995.

Coronavirus Propaganda Mimics War Propaganda
Propaganda kills, but it also works. Many of the same tactics employed to destroy opposition to the Iraq War are being used today against opponents of lockdowns.

COVID Ethics: It's Immoral to Confine Innocent People Who Might Be a Threat
The possibility that someone might pose a threat to another at a future time is not sufficient reason to revoke a person's property rights.

________

from Reuters

International news agency headquartered in London, UK

U.S. weighs options 'across the spectrum' to punish China over Hong Kong
The Trump administration is crafting a range of options to punish China over its tightening grip on Hong Kong, including targeted sanctions, new tariffs and further restrictions on Chinese companies, according to U.S. officials and people familiar with the discussions. ... David Stilwell, assistant Secretary of State for East Asia, said the long list of potential U.S. responses could be “across the spectrum,” including visa and economic sanctions. He declined to elaborate but said measures would be calibrated to mitigate the impact on Hong Kong people and U.S. businesses there.

________

from The Spokesman-Review

Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

________

In the news, Tuesday, May 26, 2020

________

MAY 25      INDEX      MAY 27

________

________

from Anglican Journal

On not singing the Lord’s song
It was the story of a community choir rehearsal in Mount Vernon, Washington, that sent shockwaves through the choral community. Sixty-one members of the choir met for their rehearsal on March 10, 2020, as they had every Tuesday: one of the choristers had experienced cold-like symptoms for a few days and was later diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. Within two days of the practice, six more choir members developed symptoms. In the end, 53 members of the choir became ill with COVID-19. Two of them died. One of the underreported stories of this pandemic has been the suspension of choral singing: community and church choirs have gone silent. 

________

from Asia Times

LEAST BIASED, HIGH;  News & Media Website based in Hong Kong

Behind Trump’s push to blame China
The rhetorical clash between China and the United States over the Covid-19 pandemic escalated to new heights this past week. Harsh language and taunts are now a daily event, feeding growing concern that the war of words could lead to more serious tensions over Taiwan or the South China Sea. Calls for “decoupling” from dependence on supply chains for vital medical equipment and technology produced in China took concrete form in new steps to block China’s Huawei telecom giant from using American-designed technology. Both Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump face challenges to their legitimacy and political future from the pandemic and the two are equally eager to deflect responsibility for the crisis.

China trying to steal vaccine research: Trump adviser
You would think that mankind had progressed enough, that they would work together to take on an evil scourge like the new coronavirus. But no, not a chance … in fact, accusations are flying over alleged vaccine espionage. During an appearance on CBS News’ Face the Nation on Sunday, US national security adviser Robert O’Brien said China was likely using espionage to try to steal US coronavirus-vaccine research, but he declared that American scientists would develop it first, Newsweek reported.

________

from BBC News (UK)

JK Rowling unveils The Ickabog, her first non-Harry Potter children's book
JK Rowling has surprised fans with the announcement of a brand new children's book, which she is publishing in daily instalments on her website for free. The Ickabog is her first children's story not to be linked to Harry Potter. She wrote it over a decade ago for her own children and has now dusted it off. It's for "children on lockdown, or even those back at school during these strange, unsettling times", she said. She had previously referred to it only as an unnamed "political fairytale". Chapters of The Ickabog are being published daily until 10 July on The Ickabog website.

US says Russia sent jets to Libya 'mercenaries'
The US Africom statement on Tuesday said: "Moscow recently deployed military fighter aircraft to Libya in order to support Russian state-sponsored private military contractors (PMCs) operating on the ground there." "Russian military aircraft are likely to provide close air support and offensive fires for the Wagner Group PMC that is supporting the Libyan National Army's fight," it said. "The Russian fighter aircraft arrived in Libya, from an airbase in Russia, after transiting Syria where it is assessed they were repainted to camouflage their Russian origin."

________

from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)

RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, non-profit organization

‘A Year's Worth of Suicide Attempts in Four Weeks’: The Unintended Consequences of COVID-19 Lockdowns
The costs of the government responses to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic have been severe. New evidence suggests they could be even worse than we imagined. An ABC affiliate in California reports that doctors at John Muir Medical Center tell them they have seen more deaths by suicide than COVID-19 during the quarantine. “The numbers are unprecedented,” said Dr. Michael deBoisblanc, referring to the spike in suicides. We’ll have months if not years to debate whether the lockdowns were effective or the right thing to do. What’s important to remember is the stay-at-home orders come with a host of unintended consequences that we have not yet even begun to measure or understand.

________

from Mises Institute
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, MIXED

The Chicago School versus the Austrian School
Although it's true that Austrians agree with Chicago economists on many policy issues, their approach to economic science is very different.

________

from New York Times  Newspaper in New York

We’re Reopening Notre Dame. It’s Worth the Risk.
Informed by the best medical advice we can find, we believe we can keep our campus environment healthy. At the University of Notre Dame, we recently announced our plans to return students to campus for the fall semester. In order to reduce the chances that students from around the country and the world with multiple departures and returns will carry pathogens with them, we will bring students back two weeks early, forgo a fall break and finish the semester before Thanksgiving.

________

from The Spokesman-Review

Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

________

from Yahoo News

LEFT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, news website owned by Verizon Media

The Coronavirus Is Deadliest Where Democrats Live
The staggering American death toll from the coronavirus, now approaching 100,000, has touched every part of the country, but the losses have been especially acute along its coasts, in its major cities, across the industrial Midwest, and in New York City. The devastation, in other words, has been disproportionately felt in blue America, which helps explain why people on opposing sides of a partisan divide that has intensified in the past two decades are thinking about the virus differently. It is not just that Democrats and Republicans disagree on how to reopen businesses, schools and the country as a whole. Beyond perception, beyond ideology, there are starkly different realities for red and blue America right now.

________

In the news, Monday, May 25, 2020

________

MAY 24      INDEX      MAY 26

________

________

from Forbes

Deepfakes Are Going To Wreak Havoc On Society. We Are Not Prepared.

A combination of the phrases “deep learning” and “fake”, deepfakes first emerged on the Internet in late 2017, powered by an innovative new deep learning method known as generative adversarial networks (GANs).

________

from The Lancet

International family of medical journals, founded in 1823

Revisiting the 1957 and 1968 influenza pandemics
The relative unconcern about two of the largest influenza pandemics of the 20th century—the Encyclopaedia Britannica estimates that the 1968 pandemic, due to an H3N2 influenza virus, was responsible for between 1 million to 4 million deaths globally—presents a marked contrast and, to some critics, a rebuke to today's response to COVID-19 and the heightened responses to outbreaks of other novel pathogens, such as avian and swine influenza. “When hysteria is rife, we might try some history”, opined Simon Jenkins in an article in The Guardian titled “Why I'm taking the coronavirus hype with a pinch of salt”. “The [1968] pandemic raged over three years, yet is largely forgotten today”, commented The Wall Street Journal, “a testament to how societies are now approaching a similar crisis in a much different way”.

________

from The Spokesman-Review

Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

Then and Now: Spokane College
The Methodist Episcopal Church, one of the largest Methodist denominations, made Spokane’s first attempt at higher education. The Spokane First Methodist Church brought a new minister, the Rev. I. C. Libby, to town in 1881. Both Libby and his wife had college degrees and immediately helped organize Spokane College, which opened in a downtown building in 1882. The new school would take students from primary grades through college.

________

from Sputnik

RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, MIXED, Broadcasting & Media Production Company out of Moscow, Russia

Maduro Defends Iran & Venezuela’s Right to 'Trade Freely', Thanks Tehran for Help Amid US Sanctions
The first Iranian tanker carrying gasoline and the components to produce it from oil arrived in the Bolivarian Republic on 24 May, despite the two countries' concerns that it risked being intercepted by the US Navy, which is patrolling the Caribbean. Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has condemned US attempts to prevent Caracas from having trade relations with Iran, arguing that this is an inalienable right of the two states.

'Wrong On Their Face': WHO Official Says US Departure 'Unimaginable', Slams Trump Claims
Earlier in the week, US President Donald Trump sent a letter to the World Health Organization threatening to exit the international body and permanently suspend all funding, demanding that the agency "demonstrate independence" from Beijing. An exit by the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO) would be "unimaginable", as the country and the agency have been "connected since the very beginning", according to the organization's assistant director-general of general management, Stewart Simonson, who outlined that the agency has "benefited from the enormous generousity of the people of the United States" and praised "the incalculable technical support" provided by the country.

Beijing Opposes All US Restrictions on Chinese Airlines, Foreign Ministry Says
The statement comes in response to a report that the US Transportation Department ordered four Chinese airlines to file their schedules by 27 May. The American government has accused Beijing of making it impossible for the US to resume flights to China. China opposes all US restrictions introduced against Chinese airlines, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said in a statement on Monday.

________

In the news, Sunday, May 24, 2020

________

MAY 23      INDEX      MAY 25

________

________

from BBC News (UK)

Millions of periodical cicadas to emerge in parts of US
After spending 17 years underground, millions of cicadas will be emerging in parts of the United States. Periodical cicadas are expected to come out in early summer across southwest Virginia, parts of North Carolina, and in West Virginia. The last time the cicadas emerged in many of those regions was in 2003 and in 2004, though some areas saw an emergence in 2013. As many as 1.5 million of the insects can emerge per acre of land.

________

from DW News (Deutsche Welle)

Broadcasting & Media Production Company in Bonn, Germany

China's Hong Kong security law could risk US sanctions

President Trump's senior security adviser has said that new rules from China that threaten Hong Kong’s autonomy may lead to US sanctions. He also said it could spell the end of Hong Kong's role as Asia's financial hub.

________

from The National Interest  Magazine

Building the Post-Pandemic World
The coronavirus pandemic has set the stage for the greatest upheaval in the global order since World War Two. China, Russia, Iran and other adversaries of America are positioning themselves to take advantage of the post-pandemic environment and may have significant advantages in doing so. The United States cannot afford to ignore this reality and concentrate solely on spurring a domestic recovery. Washington must lead an international effort of like-minded democracies—including Allies and friends in Europe, Asia, South Asia and the Middle East—to shape the world emerging from coronavirus in a way that favors freedom, prosperity, and global security. The “West”— the idea, not the place—remains the most visionary, powerful, resourceful, inspiring, and sustainable hope for humanity. Our leaders must marshal these strengths now to build a post-pandemic world that will benefit future generations.

________

from The Spokesman-Review

Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

________

In the news, Saturday, May 23, 2020

________

MAY 22      INDEX      MAY 24

________

________

from BBC News (UK)

Berlin WW2 bombing survivor Saturn the alligator dies in Moscow Zoo
An alligator who survived World War Two in Berlin and was rumoured - wrongly - to have belonged to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler has died in Moscow Zoo. "Yesterday morning, our Mississippi alligator Saturn died of old age. He was about 84 years old - an extremely respectable age," the zoo said. Saturn was gifted to Berlin Zoo in 1936 soon after he was born in the US. He escaped the zoo being bombed in 1943. British soldiers found him three years later and gave him to the Soviet Union.

________

from CNBC

TV Network in Englewood Cliffs, NJ

Why scientists are changing their minds and disagreeing during the coronavirus pandemic

The changing recommendations during the Covid-19 pandemic on things such as whether to wear face masks has confused the public and caused them to lose faith in science. But changing your mind based on new evidence is a badge of honor in the scientific community. The situation is complicated by the fact that pre-print research is often being debated in public on social media, instead of behind closed doors.

________

from The Guardian (UK)

LEFT-CENTER, HIGH, British daily newspaper published in London UK

The English towers and landmarks that inspired Tolkien's hobbit sagas
Book identifies middle England sources for sites of key scenes from Middle-earth books
Readers of The Lord of the Rings must surely imagine lifting their eyes in terror before Saruman’s dark tower, known as Orthanc. Over the years, many admirers of the Middle-earth sagas have guessed at the inspiration for this and other striking features of the landscape created by JRR Tolkien. Now an extensive new study of the author’s work is to reveal the likely sources of key scenes. The idea for Saruman’s nightmarish tower, argues leading Tolkien expert John Garth, was prompted by Faringdon Folly in Berkshire.

________

from HumanProgress.org

Education Website

The Rousseauian Myth of a Passenger Pigeon

The tragedy of the Passenger Pigeon is an environmentalist staple. The pigeon was an “emblem of bounty” provided by nature – but its downfall, alleges the science author and journalist Charles Mann, was the result of man’s “squandering of that bounty.” The Passenger Pigeon makes for a good story: a colorful bird, previously existing in unheard-of abundance, fell prey to profit-seeking colonialists, their dirty industries and disregard for nature. This story is mistaken – or at least incomplete.

________

from iFIBER One News

Broadcasting & Media Production Company in Ephrata, WA

Grant County approved to move to Phase 2 of state's reopening plan
Grant County, along with six other counties, were approved Saturday to move to Phase 2 of Gov. Jay Inslee’s “Safe Start plan.” The other six counties approved on Saturday include Cowlitz, Island, Jefferson, Mason, Pacific and San Juan, according to the state Coronavirus Response Joint Information Center.

________

from New York Post
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, MIXED,  Newspaper in New York

Carranza resumes anti-bias workshops remotely, citing anti-Asian bigotry

NYC schools Chancellor Richard Carranza is resuming implicit-bias training remotely for all Department of Education employees, saying for the first time the controversial sessions are needed because of bias against Asian-Americans. The anti-bias workshops are controversial. Administrators have been lectured on “white supremacy culture,” and teachers asked to examine their “whiteness.” Those who objected were accused of “white fragility,” participants said.

________

from The Spokesman-Review

Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

________