#there are almost 200 countries in this world with over 8 billions humans

[arabian-batboy]

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[plaguedocboi]

More scary waters, by popular demand!

Since my last post ranking bodies of water really, really blew up, I decided to make a second. Some of these were suggested by people (in which case I’ll credit them), and some were just ones that didn’t quite make the cut for the first list.

I’ll also be doing a third list ranking the most toxic bodies of water in the world, so stay tuned for that.

Also, keep in mind that these aren’t ranked by how dangerous they are. They’re ranked by how scary I, personally, find them. So if the rating seems off, it’s due to which ones inspire a visceral reaction in me and which ones don’t.

Silfra Rift, Iceland

This one is something that I actually find very beautiful rather than scary, but it still seems like something that others might be freaked out by. The Silfra Rift is the point where the Eurasian and North American continental plates are pulling apart, creating a crack in the earth that filled with water. The water here is incredibly clear, and you can see all the way down to the bottom even in the deepest spots (which are almost 200 feet down, by the way). It’s the only place in the world where you can put your hands on two different continents at the same time! I’ve had the privilege of snorkeling here, and although it’s definitely deep, I wasn’t terribly scared due to the fact that the rift is just so beautiful. The only danger to swimmers is the temperature; it stays between 35-39 F year-round, meaning anyone getting into the water needs a full drysuit to avoid getting hypothermia or worse. I give the Silfra Rift a 1/10 fear rating because I thought I would be much more freaked out by it than I was.

Dragon Hole, China

While not as visually striking as the Great Blue Hole in Belize, this sinkhole in China is the deepest “blue hole” in the world. This pit descends 987 feet down. This earns a 2/10 purely because this is just a goddamn hole in the ocean that’s almost 1,000 ft deep and I don’t care for that.

Lake Tanganyika, multiple countries (suggested by @iguessiamhere)

This lake didn’t quite make the cut for the first list because it comes in second to Lake Baikal. It’s the second-oldest, second-deepest, and second-largest (by volume) lake in the world. But someday, Lake Tanganyika may be number 1, because just like Baikal, it’s a Rift Valley. It’s getting bigger every day, and in a few million years when Baikal is an ocean, Tanganyika might be the largest lake by default. Its 4,820 ft depth earns it a 3/10.

Lake Superior, US/Canada (suggested by multiple people)

This is the largest of the Great Lakes, and the third-largest lake in the world. It reaches depths of over 1,000 feet and has a surface area of over 31,700 square miles. Lake Superior is the site of over 350 shipwrecks and contains roughly 10,000 dead bodies. The reason these bodies are never recovered is because the lake is very cold, and very deep. The lake bottom is essentially a sterile environment, where bodies are preserved for eternity instead of floating up as a normal body would. This lake holds onto her dead. 4/10 for sheer danger and alarming amount of dead bodies.

Cenote Angelita, Mexico ( @olive-k wanted a cenote, and this list has two!)

This is a cenote with an underwater river running through it. No, I’m not kidding. Underwater rivers are actually quite common, but they rarely exist in places that humans can see them. Usually they’re caused by a current moving in a different direction than the majority of the water, or a boundary between water with different density (as is the case here). The “river” appearance in Angelita is enhanced by dead trees, giving the appearance of a bank. For the first 100 feet, this cave has regular freshwater. But a little deeper lies a layer of hazy hydrogen sulfate, and beneath that is 100 feet of salt water. This ranks 5/10 because can you imagine descending towards a hazy patch of water and branches that you assume is the bottom, only to pass right through it and see a gaping black expanse beneath? No thanks.

Devil’s Hole, Nevada

As a biologist, this is somewhere that I actually want to visit. This tiny waterhole in the desert is the only place that the endangered Devil’s Hole Pupfish lives. But we’re not here to learn about cute fish, we’re here to read about unsettling waterways. And hooo boy, this one is pretty weird. Because despite its appearance, this isn’t a little rainwater pool. It’s the opening to a huge cave system, which reaches depths of at least 500 feet. We’re not totally sure, though, because the bottom has never been mapped, and several people have died trying to attempt it. 6/10, since it’s very deep, hasn’t been fully mapped, and is apparently haunted.

Eagle’s Nest Sinkhole, Florida

There is literally a sign in front of this sinkhole that reads “STOP. Prevent your death. There is nothing in this cave worth dying for” accompanied by a picture of the Grim Reaper. Need I say more? Probably not, but I will anyway. This sinkhole is the only surface opening to a cave system that stretches several miles and plunges to over 300 feet deep. Miles of twisting, confusing, narrow passages with only one exit make for an extremely dangerous cave system. For some fucking reason, it’s a very popular dive site. At least 11 people have died here since the 80’s, and is referred to as the “Underwater Mt Everest” because of how dangerous it is. 7/10.

Zacatón, Mexico

This cenote was literally considered “bottomless” for a long time, because no one could find the bottom. Multiple expeditions were attempted, including one where a man died after reaching 925 feet without finding the end. It took a multi-million dollar operation funded by NASA to find the bottom of this hole. I’m not kidding. Turns out, it’s 1,099 feet deep, making it the deepest cenote in the world. It disturbs me that it took NASA and a robot designed to map alien moons to locate where this hole ended, so it earns an 8/10.

Saltstraunen, Norway (suggested by anon)

This narrow strait is home to the strongest tidal currents on the planet. Roughly 110 billion gallons of seawater move in and out of this corridor every six hours, creating violent currents. These tidal movements are so strong they create a phenomenon very similar to the whirlpool in Scotland—the Saltstaunen Maelstrom. This vortex is 33 feet across and forms four times a day as the tides go in and out. Although this whirlpool is only 16 feet deep (very shallow compared to Scotland’s) the currents alone would probably destroy you if you ever fell into this strait. 9/10 because damn.

Blue Lake, Russia

Despite having the least creative name of all time, the Blue Lake is anything but boring. Like the Zacatón, this lake had a reputation for being bottomless for a long time. A diver died after descending to 394 feet, and another barely survived after going down to 685 feet. Neither found the bottom. Eventually, the bottom was discovered and it came as a surprise. The lake itself is only 770 ft by 426 ft, but it is 846 ft deep. This lake is deeper than it is long. It is also a constant 48 degrees F, making hypothermia a risk for any swimmers. If that’s not bad enough, it’s also full of hydrogen sulfide, which makes the air around the lake potentially dangerous. However, people do still dive here on occasion (mostly for research purposes) and the lake is surprisingly beautiful beneath the surface. Still, that doesn’t make it any less deep, cold, and poisonous, so this is a 10/10 for me.

Honorable mention: The Mariana’s Trench, because although it’s not really a specific body of water it’s the deepest point in the ocean, at 7 miles below the surface!

[theotherjourney7]

“I was gonna leave The Week In Tory until Friday the 2nd October but at their current rate it'll be very long by then, and I'm worried about you, mate.

It's OK to get drunk on at 5pm on Monday the 28th of September, isn't it? Well, that's my recommendation anyway. Here goes...

1. In June UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said to Black Lives Matter protestors: “I hear you”, and acknowledged the “incontrovertible, undeniable feeling of injustice” that “we simply cannot ignore”

So obviously, 40 Tory MPs refused to take part in unconscious bias training

2. The government shut pubs an hour early, seemingly under the impression coronavirus (an inert, sub-microscopic infectious entity with no brain or nervous system) can tell the time.

The government demanded we all follow the rules

The government exempted House Of Commons bars from the rules

3. Health Minister Helen Whately said “people who get drunk and leave the pub to keep on partying should remember their responsibility for the nation’s health”

Helen Whateley, who is *actually* responsible for the nation’s health, was sober when she said this. Presumably

4. After 6 months of world-leading “throwing apps in the bin but taking the cash anyway”, the government finally proudly released an NHS Testing App

It didn't work with NHS tests

Or on 18% of phones

Or in Scotland or Northern Ireland

And a report said only 10% of the us will use it, cos we don’t trust Dominic Cummings with our data

Nor should we: the Data Commissioner said Cummings' proposed changes to privacy law will see the UK barred from sharing global data, and cost the UK economy "up to £80bn"

5. Meanwhile the promise of 500,000 tests per day won’t be reached because, in news that should shock nobody, the government failed to order enough raw materials

So the government stopped releasing evidence of how many are being tested, cos if you don't look at it, it isn't real

6. The government, which only weeks ago was demanding we go back to work or all get sacked, now demands we all stay at home

7. Them the government said the reason the UK had the worst Covid response AND worst economy in Europe is because we are “freedom-loving”

8. And then government freedom-lovingly banned schools from using any materials that criticised capitalism

Not content with this, they also banned schools discussing “victim narratives”, which is going to make it tough to maintain their national anti-bullying strategy

9. And then a leaked report said the government was planning to freedom-lovingly deploy the military on the streets

10. Meanwhile, the government announced only 24% of businesses have done any preparation for Brexit, and only 30% of cross-channel HGVs have the correct paperwork

11. The government finally admitted what they’d been told repeatedly since 2016, and said Brexit would create 2-day queues of 7000 lorries at Channel ports

7000 lorries (at the average 16.5m each) is 1155km. That’s a queue over 70 miles long. Every day.

To solve this, the government announced a new internal border in Kent, helpfully relocating 70 miles of queues to London, Essex, Surrey and East Sussex instead

A month ago, Tory MP Sir Edward Leigh was demanding we “take back” Calais. Now we’re essentially abandoning Kent.

Because we only had 4 years to plan for this, our lovely new border will start on 1 January and be controlled by software that – and you should probably open a second bottle around now - won’t be ready until at least 4 months later

Oh, and border checks won’t be ready in Northern Ireland either

But we might not have a problem anyway: it was revealed there are just 2000 EU haulage permits for our 40,000 UK hauliers. That’s 5% of what we need, for any Govt Ministers struggling with the maths

12. And we don’t even have enough pallets for the goods we import, cos we currently rely on a supply we share with the EU, and have neither the wood nor the treatment plants, nor the required chemicals to make and treat our own

So now the government has to make a 200m border, a mechanism for policing it, an internal passport system, software, admin, buy 38,000 permits and grow enough trees for 700,000 pallets. In 3 months.

It had 5 months to add up some A-Level results, and that went swimmingly

13. I’m sure supply-and-demand won’t force prices sky high, cos it never does when you have 5% of the food the nation needs and a govt which boasts about breaking the law, but it was also announced tariffs will add £3.1bn to the nation’s food bill in Jan 2021

14. As a mark of confidence, Jim Ratcliffe, Britain’s richest man and a leading Brexiteer, buggered off to Monaco

15. And an unnamed minister was quoted: “We are stuck in a bind. If we try to cancel Brexit we destroy ourselves; if we go ahead with it we destroy the country”

16. The London School of Economics reported the long-term cost of Brexit will be 2-3 times the cost of Covid

So Rishi Sunak cancelled the budget, cos once again, if you don’t look at it, it doesn’t exist

17. JPMorgan shifted £200 billion out of the UK and into Germany calling it “a result of Brexit”.

At least 22% of our entire national economy depends on international banks based in the City of London, so when the largest one fucks off, it's a relaxing development

18. Former Prime Minister Theresa May said the government’s bill to break international law is “reckless” and “risks the integrity of the United Kingdom”

19. The Attorney General, who takes an oath to parliament, the Queen and The Bar to observe the law, said she was “very proud” to be breaking the law

The UK is a signatory and legal guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement, which brought peace to the island of Ireland after 3600 violent deaths. The Attorney General, who is sworn to maintain peace, says Brexit will break the GFA, and she is “extremely proud” of that too.

Turns out, the advisory Professor who told her she should go ahead and break the law and endanger peace in Ireland is the partner of Michael Gove’s special advisor. It’s amazing, these coincidences. Almost as if they don’t want to listen to anybody else

20. Speaking of which, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s old friend and unfailingly irrumating backer (google it) Charles Moore, who has spent his life demanding the end of the BBC, and said the BBC causes "human misery worthy of Dickens" (does he mean Mrs Brown's Boys?) is in line to run the BBC

And it was reported ex Daily Mail Editor Paul Dacre, who shouts c*unt so much his meetings are called “the vagina monologues”, and whose paper is banned as a Wiki reference cos it lies so often, is going to be put in charge of Ofcom: ensuring decent and honest broadcasting

Oh yeah, and Boris Johnson tweeted “a free press is vital in holding the government to account”, which is probably why the people holding his govt to account are being replaced with his mates and cheerleaders

21. Tory MP and successful conscience-donor Andrea Jenkins got paid £25k from a thinktank that doesn’t exist

22. And because no list is complete without a disturbing nocturnal visitation from the smirking angel of death, Home Office Secretary Priti Patel was accused of incitement to racial hatred

23. Whilst Patel, Jenkyns and the Attorney General were busy redefining “the party of Law and Order” the rest of the govt took a wild swing at “the party of fiscal responsibility”, when it was revealed the government has wasted £3,895,556,000 since March.

This includes unsafe testing kits; face masks that don’t work; broken tracing systems; useless antibody tests; cancelled ventilator challenge; and inexplicable contracts to sweet manufacturers and dormant companies with no employees, to provide PPE that never arrived!

24. The government, which insisted schools and universities reopened, said it was now vital to lock down students and prevent them from mixing in large groups

And then the government said it was sanctioning class sizes of up to 60 which ... remind me, is that more or fewer than 6?

25. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said “we’re giving up to 11,000 iPads to care homes to enable residents to connect with loved ones”

“Up to” is a bit telling, but even if it’s 11,000, there are 21,700 care homes in the UK. I guess they’ll just have to share. Goodbye forever, nana!

26. And finally, if you feel all alone in despairing at this: you aren’t. Belief in Britain as a “global force for good” has fallen 10% since 2019. I, for one, am shocked to the core....”-Russ

[toonpunk-game]

Fluff Updates: Part 2

Next up: a bunch of stuff about Saskatoon, the default setting’s central location; and the country surrounding it, the United Canadian and American States.

Saskatoon

Let’s make this clear: while the UCAS still acknowledges Ottowa as its capitol, Saskatoon is nothing less than the very center of the world today.  There is no other city that unites so many different pillars of finance, industry, science, and politics; and for the last 200 years, it has been to the world as New York was to the 1900s.  In Saskatoon, you can find the Morbux Company’s interplanetary center of operations; the United Planetary Council; the world’s largest Inkman asylum; the Babblebones Museum of History and Science; the only publicly-available space elevator; and a thriving, storied, culture.

Like many great cities, Saskatoon rose to prominence because of its location.  For reasons which are not yet fully understood, the Saskatoon general area has the highest elemental ink concentration in the entire world—roughly 1 part per 120, which skirts the safe limit for human beings.  This not only makes it extremely livable for inkmen of all kinds; but also makes the production and operation of ink-assisted technology significantly easier than any other place—today, a full 40% of publicly-distributed augments are manufactured within the Saskatoon city limits, by over 15 different companies; and many other corporations rely on the natural ink levels to create engines, batteries, computers, and much more.

Due to strict zoning laws enacted during the I-day reconstruction, the Saskatoon municipal area has kept a comparatively low population density—with only 15 million residents, it is one of the few major metropolitan areas that has not reached 5000-persons-per-kilometer.  Even with that said, it remains a popular travel destination, and accommodates nearly 3 million tourists a day.

Despite its global importance, Saskatoon is very much a city with two sides; and it is hounded by a shockingly high crime rate and a historically dark reputation.  The high ink level means that, during I-day and Bloody March, numerous highly destructive ink-beings manifested there: dragons, archdemons, killer clowns, and more.  In many ways, it was the epicenter of the bloodshed; and by the time it was over, much of the city and surrounding areas had been completely leveled.  

During the arduous decade-long reconstruction effort, most of the survivors were confined to refugee camps.  There, many dispossessed Saskatoonians adopted drug use, and violent crime—habits which were not necessarily relinquished upon their return to ordered society.  While those original perpetrators are by now long deceased, they did successfully lay the groundwork of several criminal spheres, which persist even today: illegal augmentation, opioids, arms dealing, and mafia protection rackets are disappointingly common within the city, despite over a century of prosperity.  

According to the UCAS census bureau’s 2302 report, between 5% and 7% of Saskatoon residents have been arrested during their life—the highest arrest rate in the country. However, many of these arrests are made by private security companies, and do not result in a later conviction: of the nearly 1 million arrests made annually, only 120 thousand of these are carried out by the Saskatoon PD—while the majority of PMC arrests are made for unsubstantiated claims of assault, vandalism, or trespassing. This statistic is often used as a case against the legal power of PMCs, by critics who maintain that they are knowingly abusing their power as a form of intimidation.  However, those who support their power of arrest often dismiss the Saskatoon arrest rate as a statistical outlier with no broadly applicable significance.

 UCAS

The most powerful nation on the North American continent is the United Canadian/American States—more commonly shortened to UCAS.  Formed after the oust of Chairman Moirus III, and the collapse of the USA, the UCAS is commonly described as the only true megacapitalist country on the planet Earth—something which has made it a favorite of the Morbux Corporation, and frequently pushed it into opposition with more heavily regulated nations around the world.  With over 5 billion residents, the UCAS accounts for almost 20% of the global population; and it was the second nation to be interglobally recognized as a Superduperpower, shortly after the DPRC.

Of the UCAS’ approximately 20 million kilometer area, only 8 million is incorporated metropolitan zones—meaning that despite its large population, the UCAS actually has one of the highest percentages of rural territory in the Western world.  Most of this is given over to factory farming of corn, potatoes, and crickets, all of which are staples of modern-day convenience food; and which, taken together, make up almost 15% of Canadian exports.  The majority of industrialized territory accommodates numerous different manufacturing industries, the most profitable of which is consumer augmentation—thanks in large part to the unparalleled manufacturing capability of the Saskatoon general area.

According to the 2302 Population Census, there are roughly 4.4 billion UCAS citizens, and 1.6 billion of these live on or beneath the poverty line; despite this, UCAS citizens hold an estimated 48% of the planet Earth’s GDP—due mostly to the large number of mega-gloms headquartered there: a reported 2003 trillionaires live in the UCAS, while several thousand more are certified billionaires.  Fully 60% of Canadian citizens, across all wealth bands, are inkmen of some description; the third-highest amount in the world, behind North Ireland and New Songhai.  

FORMATION OF THE UCAS  

      Nutocracy

Prior to the Canadian/American unification, both countries observed independent systems of governance—the former as a federal monarchy, and the latter as an informal plutocracy. During the second half of the 20th century, and the earliest parts of the 21st, America was the dominant superpower on the planet Earth; but during the 2020s its fortune began to steadily decline. Underneath the Thomas Thunder administration, sweeping budget cuts and comically far-reaching corruption scandals left many American federal agencies derelict in their duties; so a number of government services—most prominently roadwork, education, emergency rescue, disaster relief, and environmental protection—were co-opted by private organizations. Many of these were initially started as PR moves by larger companies but grew into separate organizations over time. For example, the famous pornography website BootyBank.com began planting forests for use as carbon sinks—a movement which later coalesced into the thriving BotanyBank charity.

Over the next few years, growing disillusionment with the ailing political corpus lead to the rise of the “Neo-populist” movement: an offshoot of free-market libertarianism catalyzed by the New Rockefellers’ respective cults of personality. The mainstream media of the time labeled the NP movement a “threat to the American way of life” and derisively referred to them as the “cult of the billionaire”; but a dogged and understated media campaign successfully won them the hearts and minds of numerous people across Cob Country, the Rust Belt, and the Western Seaboard.

The growth of the Neopop movement was concerning to many people. The cornerstone of their rhetoric was the Smithian idea of incentivizing the rich to aid the poor, which they argued could be accomplished by selectively dissolving and privatizing government services: that is to say that in the absence of government, it would become the best interest of American corporations to fill the vacuum with a private service. Many critics on the political left argued that this would pave the way for a corrupt plutocratic government; and in one particularly memorable press address, Republican Senator Mathieu Willaby referred to the Neopops as “a series of fascists nesting in the hollowed-out corpse of the Republican party”; but this alarmism generally failed to resonate with the American public in the face of the Neopops’ calm and understated campaigning.

 Instead of the fiery political rhetoric of the mainstream, Neopop candidates—usually running on the Republican platform and funded by the New Rockefellers—would perform a series of public services in an underprivileged area, and use this in its entirety as their campaign rally. Despite some initial trepidation, the house Republicans elected to toe the Neopop line for the sake of maintaining a unified conservative majority on capitol hill. During the 2026 mid-term elections, Neopop party members secured bipartisan nominations and successfully won seats in 187 congressional districts—becoming the de facto largest voting bloc in congress, despite not actually being recognized as a political party in itself.

The Neopop Dream

In 2032, the Neopop party won their biggest success when President Walter Sturm was elected to his second term of office on his “corporate castles” platform: a sweeping series of deregulations which promised to remove power from the government while empowering American business owners to make more significant contributions to the legislative process. Despite enormous pushback from the political left, the American congress ratified several laws and a constitutional amendment.

The most important of these was the 28th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which signed into law the ability of civilian groups or people to unilaterally appoint a congressional representative in exchange for an annual payment to the federal reserve. This more or less allowed the extremely wealthy to buy voting power, and was heralded by American Neopop conservatives as a revolution of democracy: proponents argued that this was a way for the movers and shakers of American society to directly raise the quality of life and economy without being bogged down by obstinance and inefficiency in the legislative body.

Also of great significance was House Bill 6274, which instituted a federal-level plan to gradually defund state-operated police departments over the following 10 years while replacing them with for-profit [b]Rights Protection Agencies[/b]. These RPAs would function identically to municipal police departments, with the major difference being that they would only take a small portion of their funding from the city: the majority of their funding would come from individual citizens, who would be allowed to opt into preferential treatment in exchange for larger monthly payments. During the months leading up to its ratification, critics of HB6274 attempted to frame it as the gateway to systemic oppression by the wealthy; but these were successfully deflected by the Neopops’ insistence that it was merely the difference between “total protection by the police” and “deluxe total protection”.

These concerns were, of course, almost [i]immediately[/i] vindicated by the Cordon of Alabama three months after HB6274’s ratification. Sadly, by that point the damage was done; and over the next 4 years the cordons of Michigan, Missouri, and Arizona solidified America’s new paradigm as a land of haves-and-have-nots. Most of these cordons targeted minority groups in rural and subrural areas—which provoked further outrage from the citizenry. Since the 2020s, it had been the fashion among affluent African and Latino Americans to seek Canadian residence; and in 2036, this trend spiraled into the first American Refugee Crisis. By 2040, nearly 46 million Black or Hispanic Americans were refugees, with 27 million receiving asylum in Canada or Germany. By I-day, 52 million people had been displaced by the effects of HB6274 and the worst was yet to come.

The Second Immigration Crisis

When I-day finally came, it was enough to break the USA right in half. An estimated 3.1 billion people abruptly materialized, and America was worse-equipped to handle them than most: despite having vast swathes of inhabitable land, most of it was on the relatively arid great plains. The humid areas best suited to accommodate the inkish population were congregated around the gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi river, and the great lakes—all of which had been ravaged by a combination of 6274’s aftereffects and seasonal flooding. The country was, simply put, not ready for that number of people: the government briefly deployed the national guard, and then the army, to try and quell the chaos—but the sheer number of people meant that establishing conventional refugee camps was impossible. Throughout March and April it became clear that there was no protocol or organization in place which could even remotely address the ongoing issues.

On March 24, 2042, President Timothy Malthus issued the executive order for the military to indiscriminately employ lethal force against inkish refugees and burn any life-bearing paper. Violence erupted up and down the Mississippi, and bonfires dotted the country. Progress came at a glacial rate: it was nothing less than an act of genocide, but it was being committed against a people that could seldom ever die. America seemed poised on the edge of a long and brutal war with no clear end, of a sort that had not since been seen since the Mexican drug war of prior decades. Inkmen were executed on sight without trial or trepidation, treated as no more than pests.

Then, an unexpected source promised some measure of salvation. On March 29, the Canadian government declared its borders unconditionally open to American inkmen and life-bearing paper. This was not in itself particularly surprising, and was a continuation of the country’s refugee-friendly politics: during the first American immigration crisis, Canada had installed numerous far-reaching refugee housing measures to accommodate some 3.5 million American refugees; and when I-day came, their extant temp-housing corpus was prepared for 4 million people. This was not nearly vast enough to accommodate the influx of American inkmen; but it did not have to be.

During experimentation conducted on several survivors of the Saskatoon blitz, the Canadian government had accurately ascertained the physiological needs of inkish beings.  Knowing that they technically required nothing but ink and space, both of which Canada had in abundance, the house of commons made a calculated gamble and opened the border. Meanwhile, PM Katie Sheffield declared a public order emergency with a very simple provision: inkish persons would be allowed to deposit their homepages at public refugee camps, where they would be held by the government; but past that, they would be required to wait in the wilderness until such a time as the government could organize them into formal labor groups. While unpleasant, these conditions were favorable to being shot on sight; and most able-bodied American inkmen fled to Canada.

Canada in the Ascendency

Over the next 16 months, the Canadian government successfully organized 12,400 migrant building projects across the uninhabited sectors of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Nunavut. These projects relied on local resources and highly specialized construction which leveraged the inkmen’s limited physical needs: their homes did not need bathrooms or kitchens, which meant space could be devoted entirely to living and utility. At the time, this was heralded as an unrivaled display of bureaucratic aptitude; but in 2032 declassified government documents revealed this to be the work of a clandestine “crisis council” formed from some of Western Animation’s finest minds. This council, which had been kept secret to avoid public concern, included such disparate luminaries as Croesus Catsby, Princess Ember, Quincey Quark, and Vernon Vernacular.

The ultimate goal of admitting the inkish refugee population was to eventually dissolve their temporary settlements and integrate them into broader Canadian society. The government, under advisement by the crisis council, was not merely counting on inkish persons to equal the economic power of meatish refugees, but to exceed it: in an internal memo to PM Sheffield, Catsby outlined his expectation that [i]“the inkish population will be an unprecedented economic force: we can be trained out of our reliance on sleep and food, and can survive all but the most dangerous climes. We will produce and consume more in this service economy than any living creature. A naturalized inkish populace will be worth ten times its weight in gold.”[/i]

This turned out to be something of an understatement. Over the next 20 years, Canada became the world’s greatest economic superpower—eclipsing America after 3 years, Germany after 6 years, and China after 9 years.  Opening the job market to inkmen allowed numerous highly-specialized highly-trained people to enter the workforce almost instantly, while the ballooning population and expanding cityscapes meant supply could barely keep up with demand. Secondly, the country’s high ambient ink reserves allowed local manufacturers to mass produce precious materials at an unmatched rate with virtually no carbon footprint or additional infrastructure necessary.

The American Experiment’s Ignominious Ending

In the South, things were boiling over. It is possible that, had the second crisis not occurred, America would have enjoyed relative success for some time; but in 2045, the post I-day tension reached its promised conclusion. On February 2, the Inkish States of America launched a coordinated bombing attack on the cities of Atlanta, Chicago, and New York—at long last bringing the United States into its long-anticipated Second Civil War. The ISA, based out of the depopulated rural regions, launched a violent guerilla campaign against urban America. This campaign was aided by millions of meatmen sympathetic to the Inkish cause, especially on the western seaboard. On February 4th, President Benjamin Huxley declared a state of martial law; but a combination of numerous factors meant that the military deployment was largely ineffective. By November of that year, casualties had risen to over 800 US Soldiers and 1200 ISA fighters—while the New Rockefellers had uniformly rebased to Canada.

In January 2046, several key players in the American military industrial complex—including Kingston Aeronautics and the now-defunct Mammoth Motors, both of which had expatriated to Canada—announced a shift in allegiance to the ISA. Historical records show that these decisions were jointly meditated upon, and featured input from many of the New Rockefellers. With the country’s de facto financiers officially pulling out, the American government quickly fell to ruin. On October 16 2046, the Rockefeller-backed ISA laid siege to Washington DC; and on October 31, President Huxley signed the USA’s unconditional surrender before General A. Z. Blowhard.

On November 3rd, ISA members and hopeful statesmen met for a new constitutional convention. Under the official rules of the convention, each of the 50 united states would be assigned a pair of representatives to vote on their behalf. Any humans over the age of 35 and any inkmen over the mental age of 35 would be allowed to submit a bid for a representative position; and over the next 3 days all convention attendees would be allowed to vote on their choice for representative. In theory this would put everyone on an even keel; but in practice people congregated around recognized leaders in politics and industry. Among the elected representatives were several New Rockefellers—namely Bradley Crichton of Megalodon Shipping; Sharlto Butts of Athena Engineering; Susan Surma of Numerik Technology; and Waldo Hammerstein of the Bjurgenstadt holdings firm.

The constitutional convention was dominated by fiery egalitarian rhetoric, with a particular focus on three things: establishing the rights of sapient inkpersons as fully protected citizens; re-instating police forces as government-funded entities; and the reorganization of the American armed forces. Amid the ongoing debates, a new political movement arose: unionism, which advocated for the ISA’s voluntary integration with the Canadian government. Arguing that Canada’s natural ink reserves and ink-friendly policies were ideal for both Meatman-dominated industry and inkish settlers seeking new livelihoods, the unionists (backed by the Rockefellers and many members of the ISA leadership) gained significant traction among the representatives. On November 30th, the constitutional convention voted 61/39 to enter into talks with the Canadian Parliament.

On December 29, 2046, the Canadian parliament and the new constitutional convention jointly ratified a ten-year plan to gradually integrate the two nations into a unified federation. Under the ten-year plan, the Canadian/American border would be effectively dissolved.  

In the years since, conspiracy theorists have long argued over whether the unionist party, or perhaps even the entire ISA, was actually a Canadian proxy; but there is no truly compelling evidence to support this theory. It is today commonly accepted as fact that the Rockefeller’s involvement with the ISA was a political gambit designed to ensure their protected status after the collapse of the incumbent government—a collapse which their actions in the previous decades had admittedly helped cause.

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, August 3, 2021

Two travelers submitted fake vaccination cards before flying to Toronto. Each was fined nearly $16,000. (Washington Post) Before two passengers flew from the United States to Toronto last month, they submitted required copies of their vaccination cards and negative coronavirus test results to a portal reviewed by Canadian authorities. But it wasn’t until they arrived in Canada the week of July 18 that officials discovered the documents the pair presented were fraudulent, the Public Health Agency of Canada said in a news release Friday. Now, each passenger must pay fines totaling nearly $16,000 (about $20,000 Canadian) for submitting “false documentation” and failing to comply with quarantine and testing requirements. Both travelers were Canadian citizens. In Canada, airline passengers who are not fully vaccinated against the coronavirus must spend three nights upon arrival at a hotel approved by the government and submit proof of a 14-day quarantine plan, even if they have tested negative for the coronavirus or have already recovered from the illness. They must also submit proof of a negative coronavirus test taken at least 72 hours before their flight. Upon arrival, passengers must get a second coronavirus test and collect a kit containing a test they must take on Day 8 of their quarantine.

Senators produce $1T infrastructure bill (AP) After much delay, senators unveiled a nearly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package, wrapping up days of painstaking work on the inches-thick bill and launching what is certain to be a lengthy debate over President Joe Biden’s big priority. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act clocked in at some 2,700 pages, and senators could begin amending it soon. Despite the hurry-up-and-wait during a rare weekend session, emotions bubbled over once the bill was produced Sunday night. A key part of Biden’s agenda, the bipartisan bill is the first phase of the president’s infrastructure plan. It calls for $550 billion in new spending over five years above projected federal levels, what could be one of the more substantial expenditures on the nation’s roads, bridges, waterworks, broadband and the electric grid in years.

Abandoned oil wells (AP) In 1859, Pennsylvania became the site of the first successful commercial oil well in the United States. What followed was an oil boom that lasted decades, but one where nobody was actually keeping track of where people dug wells, so the technology to seal defunct or abandoned wells was still decades off. As a result, Pennsylvania is estimated to contain 100,000 to 560,000 unplugged abandoned oil wells around the state, an environmental and safety disaster. To date, Pennsylvania has located 8,700 orphaned wells. Across the country, there are an estimated 3.2 million abandoned oil and gas wells.

Europe’s heat dome (Foreign Policy) Europe could see new record-high temperatures today as a heat dome continues to drive a heat wave across the continent’s southeast. The dry conditions have already contributed to wildfires in Greece and Italy, while in Turkey at least 8 people have died in fires that have blazed since last Wednesday. Turkey has seen an unusually high number of wildfires this year—133 in total. From 2003 to 2020 Turkey averaged 43 wildfires per year, according to EU data.

Sun-seekers enjoy European summer 'workcation' before office return (Reuters) Drawn by sun, sea and speedy Wi-Fi, remote workers are converging on Europe's southernmost islands to try "workcationing" before employers order them back to the office, giving battered tourism businesses a welcome boon. Combining holiday destinations with remote work is a growing trend in Spain and Portugal's sunniest archipelagos, as travel bans ease and the starved tourism industry offers discounted stays and dedicated workspaces. The remote workers register as tourists, making them hard to quantify, but evidence of their presence is ubiquitous, from new co-working spaces sprouting up to stickers advertising free, extra-powerful Wi-Fi in many restaurants, cafes and bars. The "Nomad List" website counted the Canary island of Tenerife among the 10 fastest-growing destinations for teleworking in the first seven months of 2021, after the trend began last year.

Boar battle (Washington Post) In the Brandenburg forest, a bounding 4-year-old black Belgian shepherd named Uschi picks up a scent. Wearing a neon high-visibility jacket, she stops by an overturned tree and barks. In the mud is the rotting carcass of a wild boar. It’s exactly what they spent the day hunting. As the world fights the coronavirus pandemic, teams in Europe are battling another outbreak: African swine fever. Hundreds of miles of fencing have been thrown up in Europe to stop its steady march west across the continent. In fenced-off “red zones,” teams work to clear the area of the infectious wild boars that have succumbed to the sickness and hunt any still alive in an attempt to break infection chains. While the virus cannot be passed to humans, it kills almost every pig it infects in about a week. The stakes are high for Germany, Europe’s largest pork producer, exporting $4.7 billion in pig products each year. The arrival of the virus in Germany’s wild boar population last year triggered bans on pork exports to countries outside Europe, wiping out $867 million in sales to China. Then, in mid-July, the first case was discovered in a domestic pig farm in Germany—exactly the spread that teams picking through forests had been hoping to prevent.

At an extraordinary Olympics, acts of kindness abound (AP) A surfer jumping in to translate for the rival who’d just beaten him. High-jumping friends agreeing to share a gold medal rather than move to a tiebreaker. Two runners falling in a tangle of legs, then helping each other to the finish line. In an extraordinary Olympic Games where mental health has been front and center, acts of kindness are everywhere. The world’s most competitive athletes have been captured showing gentleness and warmth to one another—celebrating, pep-talking, wiping away one another’s tears of disappointment. Runners Isaiah Jewett of the U.S. and Nijel Amos of Botswana got tangled and fell during the 800-meter semifinals. Rather than get angry, they helped each other to their feet, put their arms around each other and finished together.

Belarus athlete enters Poland's embassy in Tokyo after refusing to return home (Reuters) A Belarusian athlete at the centre of an Olympic standoff with her own country walked into Poland's embassy in Japan on Monday, a day after refusing to board a flight home she said she was being forced to take against her wishes by her team. Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, 24, would seek asylum in Poland, said a member of the local Belarus community who was in touch with her. Earlier, Polish foreign ministry official Marcin Przydacz wrote on Twitter that Tsimanouskaya has been "offered a humanitarian visa and is free to pursue her sporting career in Poland if she so chooses." In a brewing diplomatic incident on the sidelines of the Olympics, Tsimanouskaya's refusal to board the plane has thrown a harsh spotlight on discord in Belarus, a former Soviet state that is run with a tight grip by President Alexander Lukashenko. The sprinter, who was due to compete in the women's 200 metre heats on Monday, had her Games cut short when she said she was taken to the airport to board a Turkish Airlines flight. She then sought the protection of Japanese police at the airport.

Australia tightens COVID curbs as Brisbane extends lockdown, army patrols Sydney (Reuters) Australia’s Queensland state on Monday extended a COVID-19 lockdown in Brisbane, while soldiers began patrolling Sydney to enforce stay-at-home rules as Australia struggles to stop the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus spreading. Queensland said it had detected 13 new locally acquired COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours—the biggest one-day rise the state has recorded in a year. The lockdown of Brisbane, Australia’s third-biggest city, was due to end on Tuesday but will now stay in place until late on Sunday. Australia is going through a cycle of stop-start lockdowns in several cities after the emergence of the fast-moving Delta strain, and such restrictions are likely to persist until the country reaches a much higher level of vaccination coverage. Meanwhile the lockdown of Brisbane and several surrounding areas comes as Sydney, the biggest city in the country, begins its sixth week under stay-at-home orders.

U.S., Britain, Israel blame Iran for fatal drone strike on oil tanker; Tehran denies responsibility (Washington Post) The United States, Britain and Israel on Sunday all accused Iran of carrying out a drone attack last week on an oil tanker in the Arabian Sea that killed two people on board, raising fears of an escalating maritime war in the Middle East, as Tehran denied responsibility for the strike. American and Israeli officials had previously said that Thursday’s attack on the Liberian-flagged Mercer Street bore the hallmarks of an operation by Iran, which has been accused of deploying attack drones in the past. The Mercer Street is managed by Zodiac Maritime, a London-based company owned by an Israeli billionaire. Those killed included a British national and a Romanian citizen, the company said. Hostilities over the past two years between Israel and Iran have frequently played out at sea, in tit-for-tat attacks by both countries on oil tankers, private commercial vessels or warships—a conflict often referred to as part of a “shadow war” that feels increasingly overt. The strike on the Mercer, off the coast of Oman, marked a significant escalation and was the first time fatalities had resulted from one of the recent attacks.

Food insecurity (Foreign Policy) Ethiopia’s Tigray region, southern Madagascar, Yemen, South Sudan, and northern Nigeria, were all named by both the U.N. World Food Program and Food and Agriculture Organization as the most at risk of “catastrophic” food insecurity in the next three months. Six countries have been added to the list of “hunger hotspots” since the two agencies last assessed global hunger in March: Chad, Colombia, Kenya, Myanmar, Nicaragua, and North Korea.

Survivalists (NBC News) Americans worried about climate change are flocking to survivalist schools and taking urban-disaster preparedness courses. Once the domain of campers and hunters, survivalist schools across the country are busily instructing young families and urbanites in skills they can use if faced with wildfires, droughts, and destructive storms increasingly brought about by Earth’s rising temperatures. Whether or not one thinks that training to survive in the wilderness is the best way to prepare for the looming crisis, it’s likely that periodic disasters will force many city dwellers to at least temporarily evacuate their homes, which is why urban-preparedness courses at survival school are particularly popular. Tony Nester is head instructor at Ancient Pathways, which teaches desert and wilderness survival in Arizona and Colorado. “We talk about it. What plans do you have in place? How do I get my family evacuated? Where do we go? What supplies should we have with us? How do we get out of our house in 15 minutes? How do we get across town to get to our kids? We’re discussing those issues more and more.”

[marctugonon]

2ND TRIME L1# 1

COVID-19; The Battle of the Infectious Coronavirus Disease

Covid-19 is a hotly debated topic that often divides opinion. Delusional people say it’s just a made-up, imaginary, or unreal propaganda serving as news. On the contrary, some experts, researchers, and conspiracy theorists say, that Covid-19 was made intentionally to avoid a population boom and to lessen the global human population in China since they’re one of the Top 10 Countries with the Highest Population in the World, according to Internet World Stats written by Miniwatts Marketing Group. 

Firstly, let’s take a look at Covid-19’s timeline in the Philippines and how it was able to enter the country. On January 22, 2020, the first suspect of Covid was investigated, later on, identified as the first case of Covid-19 on January 30, 2020. It was a 39-year old Chinese woman, together with her partner, who was on vacation in the Philippines. She was immediately admitted to San Lazaro Hospital in Manila. Her partner, who was also encountering symptoms of the said disease, was identified as the second case of Covid-19 in the country. His condition deteriorated, thus causing him to die and subsequently confirmed as the first death of Covid-19 outside of China on the 2nd of February. Secondly, the first confirmed case of a Filipino citizen outside the country was identified. He was a crew member of the cruise ship Diamond Princess and was quarantined in Japan. The third confirmed case in the country was also announced as well as the refugees from Wuhan who were quarantined for 14 days in the New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac. Fortunately, none of them showed any symptoms of the disease and hence getting released right after they were cleared. And there comes the month of March. The number of Covid cases combusted during this time and people were in full panic mode. On March 6, 2 new cases of the disease were announced. They were the first and second cases of Filipinos inside the country. The number of cases abruptly increased in a short span of time, which generated all the schools and workplaces nationwide to shut down. Duterte also declared a lockdown on the entire island of Luzon. Later on, Duterte signed Proclamation No. 929 that placed the entire Philippines under a state of calamity due to the impact that caused panic and trauma to the citizens brought by Covid. The president also gave additional orders to the frontliners in order to lessen fresh cases of Covid-19. Amidst the lockdown, Duterte signs, once again, an act called Administrative Order No. 26, to grant at least 500 pesos daily hazard pay for the government personnel who still go to work in spite of what’s happening in the country. Lastly, he signed the  Bayanihan to Heal as One Act of 2020 into law, which grants him more power to handle Covid and its upcoming damages. He also announced in the public that his administration granted 200 billion pesos for those who are struggling financially due to the implementation of ECQ in the country. At the end of the month, a total of 2,084 cases were reported with a death toll of 88 and 49 recovered patients. Moving on to the month of April. People started protesting demanding food aid and were immediately arrested due to disobedience towards the Covid-19 protocol. As a consequence of people’s negligence to the protocol provided by the government, Duterte imposed protective measures on soldiers to protect themselves from rebellious protestors and quarantine violators. On April 5, the president signed an order, Administrative Order No. 28, which gives allowance to government health workers as a result of their bravery. Extension of quarantine until the 15th of May was also announced in the public. At this time of the month, the Philippine government disclosed the public disclosure of personal information of Covid-19 patients to avoid the escalation of the virus. Towards the end of the month, the Supreme Court demanded reduced pre-trial restrictions for those who committed crimes and are being suspected. At the end of the month, Covid brought a total of 8,212 cases with a death toll of 558 and 1,023 recovered patients. The month of May came by, bringing two hundred ninety-five new cases immediately with its first 3 days, which gives us a total of 9,223 new cases in the country. The government also tightened its restrictions on departures for overseas employment. The IATF-EID made amends towards the quarantine situations in some areas in the country. Modified Enhance Community Quarantine (MECQ), which is stricter than GCQ, was applied to Metro Manila, cities of Angeles and Bacoor, provinces of Laguna, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, and Zambales. While on the other hand, Cebu and Mandaue City were under ECQ, whereas the rest of the country was under GCQ. 10 days after the announcement of changes in quarantine in some parts of the country, all mayors of Metro Manila held a meeting which discoursed NCR’s situation regarding their quarantine situation. Metro Manila mayors have agreed that the NCR will be placed from MECQ to GCQ which will be effective on the following month, June 1, specifically. Eventually, ECQ in Luzon ended, hence the downgrade to GCQ or MECQ to some areas in the region. Furthermore, June arrives, bringing MECQ to NCR. June, with its first days of the year 2020, brought almost 20,000 fresh cases of Covid-19 in the country with almost a total of 1,000 deaths. In regards to the country’s education, UNICEF gave a helping hand to DepEd with the Basic Education Learning Continuity Plan for their back to school campaign. After 2 weeks, Covid with its uprising cases was almost unfeasible for the government, frontliners, and the country’s economy to control. Fortunately, DOH came to the media immediately to announce that among all the active cases in the country, 97.5% are mild. But that doesn’t change the fact that it is fatal. Towards the end of the month, many cases were reported among the repatriated Overseas Filipino Workers and Locally Stranded Individuals caused by the negligence of precautionary measures. DOH is asking for tighter proper implementation of guidelines to lessen Covid’s casualties, as it is one of the main sources of fresh cases in the country. After all, June came by very quickly and left the country with over 36,438 Covid cases. The Philippines spent its first 3 days for the month of July distinguishing for new cases. They successfully identified over 200+ MRT Line 3 workers who tested positive for Covid-19 within a span of 3 days. It was also announced that the first case of Covid-19 in Tawi Tawi was identified. It was a 44-year old police officer from Bongao. On July 8, the Philippines breached the 50,000-mark of Covid-19 cases. The Quezon City mayor, Joy Belmonte was one of the unfortunate citizens who got infected by the disease. Due to Covid-19 cases simultaneously rising, several Metro Manila hospitals reached their full capacity to give service to those who are infected with the disease, therefore putting all hospitals under “danger zone”. Halfway through July, Cebu City shifted to MECQ while Metro Manila remained under GCQ for another 2 weeks. The Philippines also reached 70,000 cases with a death toll of 2,837 and 23,381 recovered patients. 2 days after the announcement regarding the 70,000 mark of Covid-19 Cases, Cebu City demanded free testing, making them the first ones to declare free testing outside Metro Manila. At the end of the month, 89,374 cases were displayed in the media, with a death toll of 1,083 and 65,064 recovered patients. Moreover, Cebu City declares GCQ on the first day of August. However, Metro Manila was left with little to no changes and was still under GCQ. The country reached the 100,000 mark on the 2nd of August. On August 6, the Philippines finally surpassed Indonesia in terms of cases in Southeast Asia. Nothing much really happened in the month of August, besides topping in Southeast Asia with the most Covid-19 cases. September also came by very quickly which brought over 200,000 new cases of Covid-19, which generated the breaching of the 300,000 mark. Later on, Duterte appeared on national television, together with the Health Secretary Francisco Duque III. They issued a statement about Metro Manila being kept under GCQ together with Batangas, Tacloban, and Bacolod. Games such as basketball resumed in the month of October, as well as cases consistently getting worse. A miracle happened, and the number of cases of Covid in the Philippines miraculously slowed down for a short period of time, hence Indonesia surpassing us in terms of the number of Covid-19 cases in Southeast Asia. Afterwards, Malacanang declared GCQ for Metro Manila, Batangas, Iloilo City, Tacloban, Iligan City, and Lanao del Sur, while the rest of the country stays in MGCQ. After a few days of suspension due to the consecutive recent calamities that struck the country, PBA games resumed which in result, a player was confirmed positive with Covid-19. The Philippines also reached the 400,000 mark with a total of 401,416 cases. Towards the end of the month, the Senate approved the P4.5-T 2021 national budget which includes the increase in the country’s funding for Covid-19 vaccines. The month of December is up, and the country still has no free mass testing, therefore cases continuously rising. As of December 8, there are 443k confirmed cases of Covid-19. Another point worth noting is the Effects of COVID to the economy, health, and safety of the Philippines.If you are updated with the news today, read articles, or very active on social media, especially Twiter, you will know how incompetent the government is towards the recent ruckus the country is facing, the pandemic. In the early stage of Covid-19 in the Philippines, it was very much noticeable how the country’s economy deteriorated. Ironically, the government still managed to push through with the Manila Bay Beautification despite the uprising cases of Covid-19 cases in the country. Leaving its citizens screaming in agony. Ever since the first lockdown, free mass testing was not prescribed by the government. It’s currently the 8th of December and the Philippines still has no free mass testing. After almost 10 months in lockdown, President Rodrigo Duterte finally had a eureka moment and realized the government itself must provide testing if the country really wants to avoid and limit the virus. As stated by Harry Roque, Duterte is always 10 steps ahead on everything, but it seems like he’s 10 months delayed. Nonetheless, as reported by Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2020 Update, the Philippines’ economy is expected to rebound in 2021. But drawbacks will still be expected next year that could really affect the country’s trade, investment, and OFW remittances. This is due to a slower global recovery that the world is experiencing as the outbreak is ongoing. In September 2020, the government had announced its preparations for the fiscal support package which includes cash subsidies to those who were heavily affected, ousted Filipino workers; agriculture, tourism, and transportation; and subsidies to the leading health care systems in the country and hence a controlled and well tracked economy for the country’s recovery next year.

Another factor to consider is efforts of the government, health sectors, and citizens in responding to the said pandemic. In the first few months of the lockdown, the President signed an act “Bayanihan To Heal As One”, where all measures were taken. This act gives the President the authority over organizations, workers, systerms, and any other matters relating to the pandemic. The government provided testing such as swab tests, but the country needs free mass testing. Not everyone is privileged enough to pay for a swab test due to its high price, especially the poor. In most parts of the country, squatters or residential areas can be seen everywhere. Their lives are at high risk due to their cramped spaces, leaving more room for Covid to infect more people. Duterte’s diabolical response to Covid-19 provoked more people to cause commotion, but in a good way. People used their platforms to cry for help in order to be heard by the government. In spite of all the madness; rallies and uproaring of people online, the government still  managed to neglect and revoke the citizens and country’s condition. The incompetence of the government is not the only problem here, but the unruly and disobedient behaviors of the people towards the protocols. People should also be considerate and think of other people’s safety and health as well. They’re also  risking their life by risking other people’s lives. Yes, wearing face masks and face shield is a great response to the said pandemic, but that won’t protect you from getting infected and that won’t lessen any casualties brought by the disease. Consider the health of those hardworking, exhausted, underpaid frontliners. Be sensitive to your surroundings and peers in order for the country to heal and recover as soon as possible. Last but not least, the on-going developments and progress about the Covid-19. As a person who’s very interested in politics, society, and culture, I go about my day scrolling through the internet, reading articles, watching news and press conferences. I have noticed that the Philippines seem to have been experiencing scarcity when it comes to obtaining developments and progress towards the pandemic. The Philippines lacked sufficient testing supplies; mass testing programs, research and manufacture of important drugs and vaccines, protection, government’s lack of planning in the required medical logistics desired to fight against the uprising Covid-19 cases. It is noticeable that the Philippine government is not clear with their intentions for the crisis the country is facing right now. For now, the country is dependent on other countries in terms of manufacturing vaccines for the Covid-19 due to lack of facilities, funding, and scientists in the country. The only progress the Philippines have is the funding for the upcoming vaccine which will be available in the latter half of 2021. 

To sum up, the country is in a battle with its economic catastrophe together with the fatal pandemic, COVID-19. With the government’s incompetence, it is nowhere near feasible for the country to get back on track and recover as soon as possible. Having a eureka moment after 10 months into lockdown is also very unrealistic. It’s not a question anymore as to why the citizens despise the president so much. Nonetheless, the people won't, and will never stop fighting for accountability and transparency. This is a moment for the people to rethink their life decisions, and as quarantine will continue to extend, educate yourselves on the current and future matter.

[christopherscorner-blog1]

What I’ve learned throughout 70 organizations across 4 continents, 18 countries...

...and nearly every U.S. continental State, with experience spanning virtually every industry (Military, Construction, Healthcare, Property Management, Transportation, Telecommunications, E-commerce, Food Service, Entertainment, more) to include dozens of Churches, and more than three years volunteering between 5 nonprofits/causes, even experimenting for around a year as homeless literally living the veteran struggle while sleeping the streets and beaches from SoCal to Miami and a dozen homeless/transitional shelters in between.

First, I want to share one of my most interesting and profound observations throughout my life’s journey in yet another obvious and concrete testament to the power and reality of God concerning the amazingly stark contrast between the Church and secular world. Between the several dozen Churches I’ve had the privilege of experiencing across half a dozen States, I can honestly testify to witnessing a very happy, healthy, successful, purpose filled/driven, and inspired people across the board, with unemployment, homelessness, and suicide virtually non-existent. It’s true, you won’t find one homeless or unemployed person who is part of a Church (for long), because there are plenty of successful homeowners and business owners in (nearly) every Church who are happy and able to help. These observations have also led me to the realization of how bad the homeless situation would actually be if it were not for God’s Church. Between Jacksonville Florida and Miami alone there are more than several dozen Church organizations providing temporary shelter, meals, and other services for the homeless, and they are all taxed to the max. How ironic, yet amazingly odd, how tens of thousands literally depend on our God while rejecting Him… Think about how much worse the situation would be if these Churches disappeared! Which brings me to another observation.

Having lived and worked amongst the secular world much of my life, I can tell you from experience that the picture for the majority of those who reject our Creator is absolutely miserable and depressing. Sadly, it has been my painful observation that most secularists are living meaningless enslaved tortuous lives, almost completely void of love, creativity, or inspiration, under crushingly overwhelming and seemingly hopeless (without God) problems. A look at every facet of our society also reveals this truth to be dreadfully obvious. Take modern art, music, entertainment, and architecture, for example. If you haven’t noticed, our entire culture is now almost completely void of creativity, inspiration, or beauty. Stats don’t lie either. Health and mental problems (40% of Americans are obese –literally destroying body and mind, 1/6 take psych meds./1/33 born defective), addiction (20+ million -200+ die every day from drug overdose), and suicide (120+ daily suicides) are at epidemic levels, with rampant poverty (13.5% = 43+ million Americans), homelessness (600k Americans), unemployment (real unemployment = 20’ish%), parasitic infestations (25+/-% among poor black communities), diseases (1/4 w/STD), viruses (33 die daily from AIDS), and cancer (1/3 will get cancer). It’s too bad no one has been separating these stats by religion, or you would know my observation to be true. Granted, any stat would be muddled by a majority of fake proclaiming Christians, particularly Catholics. However, there is more definitive evidence to support my observation, which brings me to my next related observation –weather.

Consider the increasing natural disasters which devastated numerous U.S cities and entire states last year costing our country 300+ billion last year alone. Yet in another display of Divine Protection, out of the 31 Billion plus-dollar natural disasters which struck all over the country the last 2 years, amazingly, America’s ‘Bible-Belt’ was barely been touched. Is it any coincidence that our modern Sodom and Gomorrah cities (L.A. & Vegas) are desert wastelands literally on fire and in severe drought, with California on the verge of bankruptcy as people and businesses leave in mass, while the ‘Bible Belt’ flourishes with both green and industry? Nope. These areas are great examples both of God’s blessing and judgment. Which is why no one should be surprised if California is hit with the ‘Big One’ and slides off into the ocean, or is struck with drought and famine devastating the economy. Still skeptical? Consider Israel and her surroundings, another stark contrast of economies demonstrating both God’s blessing and judgment. While the Middle East is a desert wasteland plagued with conflict, stagnant growth, poverty, and famine, dominated by the evil enslavement of Islam’s death cult factions, Israel, a baby country, flourishes in every way, literally turning their desert into a blossoming garden while leading the world in growth and technology and as a beacon of freedom, prosperity, and hope -and all this despite the fact that Israel is literally surrounded by vicious and merciless enemies who are hell bent on her destruction, even winning battle after battle against the odds.

Secondly, considering my extensive experience both as a homeless veteran and across America’s Work-Force, with a 99% hire rate and 12+ resume repertoire, I believe it’s safe to refer to myself not only as an American Work-Force and Employment Expert, but an expert on the veteran struggle. Based on my experience and observations across America’s work-force, it’s no wonder to me why most Americans are so absolutely miserable, or even suicidal. Without God I certainly would have ended my life several times by now: 1.) after giving up on a military career facing a stale economy with no money, and 3.) as a transitioning veteran-civilian experiencing mostly failure, disappointment, and misery for nearly eight years now. Praise God He has pulled me through. There’s no other reason for my hope and positivity. Maybe it’s to eventually help others experiencing the same difficulties, but I digress. Tragically, I’m here to report that employment conditions are absolutely horrendous across the board, almost unrecognizable from slavery, and the system is broke and in dire need of fixing. (If this does not describe your experience, consider yourself blessed!) First off, there’s something seriously wrong with a system when those who do all the work live in poverty working like slaves just to eat and sleep in a bed, with many now not even able to afford housing with a full-time job, while those who do virtually nothing reap all the rewards living in luxury. It’s absolutely ridiculous, and it’s wrong. However, this is the evil reality of Capitalism and things will never change until we identify & accept this. Secondly, work conditions are just terrible throughout virtually every industry. From mandatory 70+ hours, to criminally pathetic pay, to weekly mandatory unpaid detentions/days/hours, to mandatory weekends, to virtually ZERO holidays, to mandatory cancer-inducing sperm-killing cell phones without reimbursement, to mandatory transportation without reimbursement, to dangerous or unhealthy conditions (sitting down 8-10+ hours driving or staring at a computer screen daily), stuck doing the same painfully mind-numbing monotonous tasks day-in & day-out, to mandatory requirements eliminating both industry newcomers and those without money, to random/political firings, to lazy firings ( too unintelligent or impatient to train), to entire industry/chain layoffs as technology takes over, or mass lay-offs from criminal activity/criminal negligence/incompetence, to turnover rates of around 100% (trucking), to sub-human treatment (pissing on demand/verbal abuse), to thefts of last paychecks (I’ve personally been robbed of thousands of dollars by nearly half a dozen companies), to a vast majority of businesses being ran by someone who has NO BUSINESS running one (likely why 80% fail), the situation is not only just absolutely atrocious, but very, very bleak. I’ve seen entire industries comprised of desperate workers literally destroying their health just to earn a buck. Virtually zero industries have any program to help integrate the poor and/or uneducated, let alone military veterans, so virtually everyone is stuck where there at, even if it’s nowhere because they couldn’t afford schooling and have no money. The rare few organizations who do have something of a housing/training/employment program are not expanding or expandable as they are restricted by a poor and very narrow business model. Virtually every corporation cares more about making a buck than they do this country, which is why many jobs have been outsourced. And every buck we do make is ripped off by Uncle Sam who literally throws it down the drain towards interest which shouldn’t exist in the first place (debt = new age slavery), or other ridiculous expenditures, including a military which should NOT be a full-time thing -destroy evil and let soldiers get back to normal lives! It’s quite amazing what people are willing to put up with. Worst of all, somehow most everyone seems to think all the above is normal, ‘just the way things are,’ and there’s something wrong with those of us who choose not to accept this atrocious ridiculousness. None of this should be normal! Life is what we choose to make of it! I, for one, refuse to accept this status-quo. All of which brings me to the most important revelation of my experiences; there is a God who cares about me (us individually), and He is good!

Almost unbelievably, the crazy and amazing reality for me is that much of my experience (between 34 companies/organization) was acquired after randomly relocating thousands of miles away, several times (from Ohio to California to Florida), into a strange city, not knowing anyone, with no money, no phone, and no transportation, just a backpack, my Bible, and God in my heart, literally throwing myself into deep holes which only God could have pulled me out of. And pull me out wonderfully God did so that in each case, in no time at all, I was working multiple jobs (7 at one time in California), with owned beautiful transportation, rent-free living, and the love of a beautiful and sweet woman. However, the journey has been anything but easy, and due to a recently evolved spiritual and intellectual maturity, I’m now forced to carve my own seemingly impossible way.

God knows I have tried to fit into a ‘normal,’ or any, job. How many can boast employment opportunities with 70 companies/organizations? How many could have picked themselves up half as many times? 70 just happens to be the number I finally decided it’s time to figure something else out. I’m just not a corporate sheep-drone, and I value freedom, health, and life more than paper/materialism. To be clear, I’ve NEVER been fired for performance. My work ethic never lets anyone outwork me, and I’m always there, first in last out. There’s a reason I was filling an E-5 slot as an Army team-leader in record time. Most opportunities ended for me either due to relocations or because I walked away. The ‘issue’ has been that I refuse to tolerate verbal abuse, I refuse to be miserable, and I refuse to destroy my body or health for little green paper. Life should not revolve around work! I would rather be poor, healthy, and happy, than have money while miserably destroying my health. How many have dedicated their lives towards companies or cities only to be eventually screwed over either right before retirement because the company went bankrupt or laid you off for one reason or another, or after retirement because the company/city went bankrupt (my neighbor is one victim) due to criminal negligence or technological developments? How many more near retirement are likely to be laid off due to technology taking over entire industries? Transportation, Cashiers, and Banks are all soon to be automated, and these industries employ tens of millions in America.

My recent evolution of mind leaves me in an even worse pickle now because I now also refuse to A.) pee on demand, B.) pay for a cancer-inducer (cell phones) strapped to my hip at some strangers beckon call, and C.) pay for transportation, which is always a money-hog, just so I can work, just so I can afford the transportation, while paying half a dozen unconstitutional taxes just to exercise my God given freedom to travel, in my property along public roads no less –which, even worse, is also patrolled by Nazi-thugs who are likely to randomly harass, steal, kidnap, and even kill me for no reason at all (it happens!). To submit myself to this slavery would be insanity. 

Is not my God King? It would certainly appear so. Despite the overwhelming odds against me, while many in the same boat commit suicide by the dozens DAILY, not only am I still here, but I’m living better than most, so much so that I don’t even have to work. Not to brag, but I eat like a King, I have zero bills or expenses, I’m averaging 45+ days of paid vacations annually, including paid trips to Europe and elsewhere, and most would envy my women, rides, and current home. Not that I deserve any of it, I absolutely do not. This isn’t about pointing a finger at me, it’s about pointing a finger at God. I'm living proof that ‘with God, all things are possible.’ The fact that God has given me, not one, but two, potentially multi-million dollar books about to launch is also a great consolation prize.

[techcrunchappcom]

New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/global-covid-19-news-live-updates/

Global Covid-19 News: Live Updates

Here’s what you need to know:

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in December.Credit…Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

As lawmakers push for billions of dollars to boost the nation’s efforts to track coronavirus variants, the Biden administration announced on Wednesday a new effort to ramp up this work, pledging nearly $200 million in federal funding to better identify the new threats as they emerge.

Calling the $200 million a “down payment,” the White House said that the investment will result in a threefold increase in the number of positive virus samples that labs can sequence, jumping from around 7,000 to around 25,000 each week.

But that goal still remains aspirational, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its lab partners are still far from hitting the weekly 7,000-sample mark.

“When we will get to 25,000 depends on the resources that we have at our fingertips and how quickly we can mobilize our partners,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the C.D.C. director, said at a White House news conference on Wednesday. “I don’t think this is going to be a light switch. I think it’s going to be a dial.”

The move comes as a contagious variant first identified in Britain, known as B.1.1.7, continues to sweep across the United States, threatening to slow or reverse the rapid drop of new coronavirus cases. From a peak of almost 260,000 new cases a day, the seven-day average daily rate has fallen to below 82,000, still well above the high point of last summer’s surge, according to a New York Times database.

A growing number of other worrisome variants have also cropped up in the United States, including one that was first found in South Africa and weakens the effectiveness of vaccines. The United States reported its first case of B.1.1.7 that had gained a particularly worrying mutation that has been shown in South Africa to blunt the effectiveness of vaccines, Dr. Walensky said. The F.D.A. is preparing for a potential redesign of vaccines to better protect against the new variants.

Researchers are hoping to increase the number of coronavirus genomes they sequence and rapidly analyze them to spot dangerous mutations. The current level of sequencing is inadequate, experts say. That, plus the lack of national coordination, has left them blind to where the most concerning variants are spreading, and how quickly.

To do more sequencing, officials said, the country needs to scale up its testing in general. The Department of Health and Human Services and Defense Department on Wednesday announced substantial new investments in testing, including $650 million for K-8 schools and “underserved congregate settings,” such as homeless shelters. The two departments are also investing $815 million to speed up the manufacturing of testing supplies and raw materials.

Dr. Walensky said the administration’s efforts to scale up sequencing would result in more “geographic diversity” in the test samples surveyed.

“It’s not just the test and getting the test done,” she said. “We need the computational capacity, the analytic capacity to understand the information that’s coming in.”

The White House’s announcement added to an effort by lawmakers to insert funds for a national sequencing program into an economic relief package that Democratic congressional leaders aim to pass before mid-March, when unemployment benefits begin to lapse.

Senator Tammy Baldwin, Democrat of Wisconsin, introduced legislation this month that would provide $2 billion to the C.D.C. to enhance its sequencing efforts, including through grants the agency would award to state health departments. As House lawmakers worked to finalize the details of Mr. Biden’s stimulus proposal ahead of a floor vote later this month, they incorporated Ms. Baldwin’s proposal and allocated $1.75 billion.

In an interview, Ms. Baldwin said she had been working closely with the C.D.C.’s Advanced Molecular Detection program. A substantial amount of money is needed just for staffing and training, she said. She suggested 15 percent as a target of how many positive virus samples should be sequenced around the nation, a goal far beyond what researchers believe is possible in the near term.

“This is intended to create the basis of a permanent infrastructure that would allow us not only to do surveillance for Covid-19, to be on the leading edge of discovering new variants, but also we’d have that capacity for other diseases,” she said of her bill. “There’s significant gaps in our knowledge because of a lack of variants resources.”

Ms. Baldwin’s target of fifteen percent would translate to about 85,000 sequences a week at the current rate of new positive tests. Last week, the United States sequenced only 9,038 genomes, according to the online database GISAID.

United States › United StatesOn Feb. 16 14-day change New cases 64,376 –43% New deaths 1,707 –29%

World › WorldOn Feb. 16 14-day change New cases 325,121 –28% New deaths 9,300 –20%

U.S. vaccinations ›

President Biden at the National Institutes of Health last week.Credit…Evan Vucci/Associated Press

The Biden administration has been quite cautious in setting its public vaccination goals.

During the transition, officials said they hoped to give shots to one million Americans per day — a level the Trump administration nearly reached in its final days, despite being badly behind its own goals. In President Biden’s first week in office, he raised the target to 1.5 million, although his aides quickly added that it was more of a “hope” than a “goal.” Either way, the country is now giving about 1.7 million shots per day.

The Times’ David Leonhardt spent some time recently interviewing public-health experts about what the real goal should be, and came away with a clear message: The Biden administration is not being ambitious enough about vaccinations, at least not in its public statements.

An appropriate goal, experts say, is three million shots per day — probably by April. At that pace, half of adults would receive their first shot by April and all adults who wanted a shot could receive one by June, saving thousands of lives and allowing normal life to return by midsummer.

Biden struck a somewhat more ambitious tone yesterday, telling CNN that anybody who wanted a vaccine would be able to get one “by the end of July.” But Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert and an adviser to the president, also said that the timeline for when the general population could receive shots was slipping from April to May or June.

The key fact is that the delivery of vaccine doses is on the verge of accelerating rapidly. Since December, Moderna and Pfizer have delivered fewer than one million shots per day to the government.

But over the next month and a half, the two companies have promised to deliver at least three million shots per day — and to accelerate the pace to about 3.3 million per day starting in April. Johnson & Johnson is likely to add to that total if, as expected, it receives the go-ahead to start distributing shots in coming weeks.

Very soon, the major will be logistics: Can the Biden administration and state and local governments administer the shots at close to the same rate that they receive them?

“I’m not hearing a plan,” Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccine expert at Baylor College of Medicine, said. “In the public statements, I don’t hear that sense of urgency.”

Experts said they understood why Biden had set only modest public goals so far. Manufacturing vaccines is complex, and falling short of a high-profile goal would sow doubt during a public-health emergency, as Barry Bloom, a Harvard immunologist, said. If he were president, Bloom added, he would also want to exceed whatever goal was appearing in the media.

The appropriate goal is to administer vaccine shots at roughly the same rate that drug makers deliver them, experts said — with a short delay, of a week or two, for logistics. Otherwise, millions of doses will languish in storage while Americans are dying and the country remains partially shut down.

“We should be doing more,” Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins, said. “I am kind of surprised by how constrained we’ve been.” Many vaccine clinics operate only during business hours, she noted. And the government has not done much to expand the pool of vaccine workers — say, by training E.M.T. workers.

The newly contagious variants of the virus add another reason for urgency. They could cause an explosion of cases in the spring, Hotez said, and lead to mutations that are resistant to the current vaccines. But if the vaccines can crush the spread before then, the mutations may not take hold.

Biden aides have emphasized the challenges — the possibility of manufacturing problems, the difficulty of working with hundreds of local agencies, the need to distribute vaccines equitably. They also point out that they have nearly doubled the pace of vaccination in their first month in office, accelerated the pace of delivery from drugmakers and have plans to do more, like open mass-vaccination clinics and expand the pool of vaccine workers.

Scientists want the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to call for improved ventilation as well as mask-wearing to fight the airborne spread of the coronavirus indoors. Fourth graders wear masks in class at Elk Ridge Elementary School in Buckley, Wash.Credit…Ted S. Warren/Associated Press

Scientists are urging the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to swiftly set standards to limit the airborne transmission of the coronavirus in high-risk settings like meatpacking plants and prisons.

The push comes nearly a year after research showed that the virus can be spread through tiny droplets called aerosols that linger indoors in stagnant air and can be inhaled.

Action on air standards is even more urgently needed now because vaccination efforts are off to a slow start, more contagious virus variants are circulating in the United States, and the rate of Covid-19 infections and deaths remains high despite a recent drop in new cases, the scientists said in a letter to Biden administration officials.

The C.D.C. issued new guidelines on Friday for reopening schools, but the guidelines made only a passing mention of improved ventilation as a precaution against viral spread. The World Health Organization was slow to acknowledge that the virus can linger in the air in crowded indoor spaces, accepting that conclusion only in July after 239 experts publicly called on the organization to do so.

The 13 experts who wrote the letter — including several who advised Mr. Biden during the transition — urged the administration to blunt the risks in a variety of workplaces by requiring a combination of mask-wearing and environmental measures, including better ventilation. They want the C.D.C. to recommend the use of high-quality masks like N95 respirators to protect workers who are at high risk of infection, many of whom are people of color, the segment of the population that has been hit hardest by the epidemic in the United States.

At present, health care workers mostly rely on surgical masks, which are not as effective against aerosol transmission of the virus as N95 masks are.

Mr. Biden has directed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which sets workplace requirements, to issue emergency temporary standards for Covid-19, including those regarding ventilation and masks, by March 15.

But OSHA will only impose standards that are supported by guidance from the C.D.C., said David Michaels, an epidemiologist at George Washington University and one of the signatories.

(Dr. Michaels led OSHA during the Obama administration; the agency has not had a permanent leader since his departure.)

“Until the C.D.C. makes some changes, OSHA will have difficulty changing the recommendations it puts up, because there’s an understanding the government has to be consistent,” Dr. Michaels said. “And C.D.C. has always been seen as the lead agency for infectious disease.”

An employee scans packages at Amazon’s distribution center in Staten Island, N.Y., November 2020. Conditions at the site is the focus of a lawsuit.Credit…Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters

New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, sued Amazon on Tuesday evening, arguing that the company provided inadequate safety protection for workers in New York City during the pandemic and retaliated against employees who raised concerns over the conditions.

The case focuses on two Amazon facilities: a large warehouse on Staten Island and a delivery depot in Queens. Ms. James argues that Amazon failed to properly clean its buildings, conducted inadequate contact tracing for known Covid-19 cases, and “took swift retaliatory action” to silence complaints from workers.

“Amazon’s extreme profits and exponential growth rate came at the expense of the lives, health and safety of its frontline workers,” Ms. James argued in the complaint, filed in New York Supreme Court.

Kelly Nantel, a spokeswoman for Amazon, said the company cared “deeply about the health and safety” of its workers.

“We don’t believe the attorney general’s filing presents an accurate picture of Amazon’s industry-leading response to the pandemic,” Ms. Nantel said.

Last week, Amazon preemptively sued Ms. James in federal court in an attempt to stop her from bringing the charges. The company argued that workplace safety was a matter of federal, not state, law.

In its 64-page complaint last week, Amazon said its safety measures “far exceed what is required under the law.”

New York, in its suit, said Amazon received written notification of at least 250 employees at the Staten Island warehouse who had Covid-19. In more than 90 of those cases, the infected employee had been at work in the previous week, yet Amazon did not close portions of the building to provide proper ventilation as the state required, the filing said.

Ms. James also argued that Amazon had retaliated against Christian Smalls, a worker the company fired in the spring. Mr. Smalls had been raising safety concerns with managers and led a public protest in the parking lot of the Staten Island facility.

Amazon has said Mr. Smalls was fired for going to the work site for the protest even though he was on paid quarantine leave after he had been exposed to a colleague who had tested positive for the coronavirus.

Ms. James said that by firing Mr. Smalls and reprimanding another protest leader, Amazon sent a chilling message to others.

Eighty percent of Oregon’s 560,000 public schoolchildren remain in fully remote instruction.Credit…Sara Cline/Associated Press

Shortly before Christmas, as Oregon schools faced their 10th month under some of the nation’s sternest coronavirus restrictions, Gov. Kate Brown began a major push to reopen classrooms.

She offered to help districts pay for masks, testing and tracing, and improved ventilation. Most important, she prioritized teachers and school staff members for vaccination — ahead of some older people.

Her goal: to resume in-person classes statewide by Feb. 15.

But today, roughly 80 percent of Oregon’s 560,000 public schoolchildren remain in fully remote instruction. And while some districts are slowly bringing children back, two of the largest, Portland and Beaverton, do not plan to reopen until at least mid-April — and then only for younger students.

Oregon’s halting efforts to return children to classrooms are being repeated up and down the West Coast. The region’s largest city school districts — from Seattle to Portland to San Francisco to Los Angeles — have remained mostly closed, even as Boston, New York, Miami, Houston and Chicago have been resuming in-person instruction.

And the release on Friday of guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that urge school districts to reopen has not changed the minds of powerful teachers’ unions opposed to returning students to classrooms without more stringent precautions.

Tough state health restrictions imposed by Ms. Brown, a Democrat, helped protect the state from experiencing the high death tolls occurring elsewhere. But by December, she was growing alarmed at the toll social isolation was having on children.

“Eleven- and 12-year-olds were attempting suicide,” she said in a recent interview.

Worried that schools would not reopen until the 2021-22 school year if she waited to vaccinate teachers along with other essential workers, Ms. Brown rejected federal guidelines and bumped school employees up in priority, before people 65 and older, even though that constituency would — and did — protest.

Oregon was among a handful of states at the time, and the only one on the West Coast, to single out school employees for the vaccine. (About half of states now prioritize teachers.)

Rental prices in New York City have dropped, but the biggest cuts are mostly in Manhattan, not in cheaper neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens where many essential workers live.Credit…Tom Sibley for The New York Times

Two things have been true since the pandemic flattened New York’s rental market last March: Prices have fallen sharply, but not for the people who need relief most.

Now a new report shows how little those price cuts have helped the more than a million New Yorkers the city calls essential workers.

From mid-March to the end of 2020, there were 11,690 apartments citywide that were considered affordable to essential workers, up more than 40 percent from a year before, according to the listing website StreetEasy. But that share represented just 4 percent of the total market-rate inventory in the city.

Essential workers — a broad category that includes teachers, bus drivers and grocery clerks, among others — make an average of about $56,000 a year. Using a common calculation to measure affordability, based on 30 percent of gross income, the highest comfortable rent on that salary is about $1,400 a month.

Record rent cuts have not bridged the gap. In January, the median monthly asking rent in Manhattan was $2,750, a 15.5 percent drop from the year prior, according to StreetEasy. Brooklyn and Queens also had record cuts of 8.6 percent, dropping to $2,395 and $2,000.

“It highlights a tale of two cities,” said Nancy Wu, an economist with StreetEasy, noting that the biggest price cuts have tended to occur in pricey neighborhoods in Manhattan, where only 12 percent of essential workers live. Neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens, where roughly half of that work force resides, often had smaller discounts, or lost affordable inventory, because of high demand.

But most of Manhattan’s affordable apartments were studios, Ms. Wu said, while nearly half of essential workers have at least one child.

Of course, many New Yorkers spend more on rent than they can comfortably afford. In 2018, the latest year data were available, almost 53 percent of New Yorkers were rent-burdened, meaning they spent more than 30 percent of their gross income on rent, according to the New York University Furman Center.

global roundup

Japan’s late start on vaccines has raised questions about whether it will be ready to host the Olympics, which are scheduled to begin in Tokyo this July after a one-year delay. Credit…Koji Sasahara/Associated Press

TOKYO — Japan began its national coronavirus vaccination program on Wednesday, starting with the first of 40,000 medical workers and planning to reach the general population by the summer.

The comparatively late start has raised questions at home and abroad about whether the country will be ready to host the Olympics, which are scheduled to begin in Tokyo this July after the pandemic forced a one-year delay.

Japan has managed to keep coronavirus infection levels relatively low and, so far, has recorded around 7,200 deaths. But the authorities declared a one-month state of emergency in early January, after daily case counts reached nearly 8,000. They have since extended it until at least the beginning of March, partly in response to more contagious coronavirus variants.

The vaccine rollout has been slower than in many other developed countries in part because the authorities requested that Pfizer run separate medical trials in Japan. That reflected some public ambivalence toward vaccinations, a general sense of caution that most recently surfaced after media reports about rare side effects related to vaccines for HPV.

Speaking to the news media on Tuesday, Taro Kono, the minister in charge of the rollout, emphasized that it was important to “show the Japanese people that we have done everything possible to prove the efficacy and safety of the vaccine.”

While that slowed the program’s start, he said, “We think it will be more efficient.”

Major obstacles to a rapid rollout remain. Japan relies on other countries for its entire vaccine supply and is still working to approve the vaccines from AstraZeneca and Moderna. It is also short of the special syringes that would allow its doctors to extract an extra, sixth dose from each vial supplied by Pfizer.

In his remarks on Tuesday, Mr. Kono said the vaccination program was not linked to the Games.

Speaking on Wednesday, the governor of Shimane Prefecture, which has recorded only 280 cases, threatened to pull it out of activities around the Olympic torch relay for fear of spreading infection.

In other developments across the world:

President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa received the single-dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine on Wednesday, hours after 80,000 doses arrived in the country. Health care workers will be among the first to receive the vaccine. The country paused its rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine this month after a study suggested that it failed to prevent mild or moderate illness from a variant found in the country. South Africa has recorded nearly 1.5 million coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic, with 48,855 deaths, according to a New York Times database.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, secured a contract for an additional 300 million doses of the Moderna vaccine, the commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, announced on Wednesday. The deal allows European countries to order up to 150 million doses in 2021, with an option for as many next year and authorization to donate unused doses to other countries. The commission, which has been under intense scrutiny following the sluggish vaccination rollout across Europe, had previously signed a contract for 160 million doses.

A five-day lockdown that started last week in the Australian state of Victoria will end at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, after 24 hours without a new coronavirus case. Residents will remain restricted to five visitors at a time and will still be required to wear masks in indoor public places.

The city of Auckland, New Zealand, will also emerge from a lockdown at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, after the authorities said that contact tracers could manage a cluster of six local cases. “We don’t have a widespread but rather a small chain of transmission which is manageable via testing procedures,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told reporters.

Hong Kong plans to relax restrictions on a range of businesses on Thursday, provided they enforce use of a government-made app for contact tracing or keep records of customers. Employees must also be tested for the coronavirus every two weeks. Separately, on Tuesday, vaccine experts appointed by the Hong Kong government recommended the use of the Sinovac vaccine, a sign that health authorities will approve it for the city’s 7.5 million residents. They approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in January.

Prosecutors in China said that a batch of fake coronavirus vaccines had been shipped outside the country last year, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Monday. The fake vaccines were produced by a counterfeiting ring that the authorities broke up in February. Prosecutors said last week that the ring had manufactured and sold about 580,000 vials, for a profit of almost $280 million. The police have also arrested suspects they say smuggled 2,000 vials into Hong Kong, believing them to be genuine. Prosecutors said that 600 of those vaccines were later sent overseas, but did not say where.

Health authorities in Germany have documented rapid growth in the more infectious coronavirus variant first found in Britain, despite a general drop in new infections during a monthslong lockdown. Jens Spahn, the German health minister, said during a news conference on Wednesday that the variant now accounted for 22 percent of tested coronavirus samples, up from 6 percent at the beginning of February.

Palestinian health workers unloading the Gaza Strip’s first shipment on Wednesday.Credit…Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters

JERUSALEM — The first doses of coronavirus vaccine arrived in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday after Israel approved their delivery.

Mai al-Kaila, the health minister of the Palestinian Authority, said that 2,000 doses of the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine had been shipped to the territory.

She said the vaccines would be allocated to frontline medical teams, but the territory’s Health Ministry said the first priority would be dialysis patients and people undergoing transplants, followed by medical workers.

The Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule over parts of the West Bank, while the Hamas militant group controls Gaza. In Gaza, with a population of about 2 million, the number of recorded Covid cases has declined sharply after a surge in December.

The vaccines were delivered amid a heated debate over whether Israel bears responsibility for the health of Palestinians living in occupied territory.

While human rights groups have argued international law requires Israel to provide Palestinians with access to vaccines on a par with what it makes available to its own citizens, supporters of Israel’s policies have contended that the Palestinians assumed responsibility for health services when they signed the Oslo Accords in the 1990s.

The vaccines delivered to Gaza were not supplied by Israel but by the Palestinian Authority.

Still, their transfer required Israeli approval and provoked a debate in Israel’s Parliament. Several right-wing lawmakers had demanded that the government make their delivery conditional on the return of two Israeli citizens and of the bodies of two soldiers believed to be held by Hamas.

“It is forbidden for Israel and its leader to abandon the fate of captive citizens and give up an opportunity to bring back the bodies of the fallen soldiers,” Zvi Hauser, a member of Parliament, told a parliamentary committee that discussed the matter on Monday.

A Hamas spokesman rejected the idea as “an attempt at extortion.”

However, an Israeli government official said that senior Israeli officials had recommended that the request be approved. It was on Wednesday.

In New York City, like other places across the country, the demand for vaccinations far outstrips the supply allocated each week. Credit…Kirsten Luce for The New York Times

The dangerous winter weather has delayed shipments of vaccine doses to New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday, preventing officials from scheduling between 30,000 and 35,000 new vaccination appointments and complicating a rollout already constrained by a limited supply of doses.

The problems in New York City, which could extend to suburbs and neighboring states, came as vaccination efforts have been disrupted nationwide. Clinics have closed and shipments have been stalled as snow and ice grounded flights and made highways dangerously slick. Many of the closures and cancellations have been in the South, where the storm hit hardest, with Texas, Alabama, Georgia and Kentucky canceling or rescheduling appointments this week.

Jeffrey D. Zients, President Biden’s coronavirus response coordinator, said on Wednesday that the Biden administration is pushing governors to extend the hours of vaccination sites once they reopen.

“People are working as hard as they can, given the importance of getting the vaccines to the states and to providers, but there’s an impact on deliveries,” he said.

Mr. de Blasio said he did not know when the shipments would arrive next or which specific weather conditions were snarling the shipments.

“It’s obviously a national problem what’s happening with the weather, and it is gumming up supply lines all over the country,” Mr. de Blasio said.

In New York City, like other places across the country, the demand for vaccinations far outstrips the supply allocated each week. Mr. de Blasio said on Wednesday that the city had about 30,000 doses on hand, and that those could run out by Thursday.

“We’re going to run out of what we have now,” he said. “We could be doing hundreds of thousands more each week.”

The weather has caused problems for the city’s vaccination efforts before. A heavy snowstorm earlier this month had forced city and state officials to delay appointments for days until driving conditions improved.

On Wednesday, Mr. de Blasio said the city was bracing for another bout of snow on Thursday, with forecasts predicting about six or seven inches of accumulation.

The Sambódromo in Rio de Janiero, normally the site of carnival parades, was lit on Friday in honor of victims of Covid.Credit…Buda Mendes/Getty Images

In good times and bad, Rio de Janeiro’s famously boisterous Carnival has endured, often thriving when the going got particularly tough.

People partied hard during years of war, hyperinflation, repressive military rule, runaway violence and even the Spanish Flu in 1919, when the Carnival was considered among the most decadent on record.

This year, though, the only thing keeping the spirit of Carnival faintly alive is online events produced by groups that traditionally put on extravagant street performances.

“It’s very sad for Rio not to have Carnival,” Daniel Soranz, the city’s health secretary, said this past Saturday morning, standing in the middle of the Sambódromo parade grounds as elderly residents got vaccinated under white tents. “This is a place to party, to celebrate life.”

Marcilia Lopes, 85, a fixture of the Portela samba school who hasn’t missed a Carnival for decades, looked relieved after she got her first dose of the Chinese-made CoronaVac vaccine.

She has been so scared of catching the virus for the past year that she refused to leave home for anything. On her birthday, she asked her children not to even bother buying a cake — she was in no mood to celebrate. So Ms. Lopes is missing her beloved Carnival this year, but stoically.

“I’m at peace,” she said. “Many people are suffering.”

Brazil’s coronavirus outbreak has been among the most severe in the world. It has killed more than 239,000 people here, second only to the death toll in the United States, and several Brazilian states are grappling with large caseloads.

As a second wave took hold in recent months, local officials across the country canceled the traditional Carnival celebrations, which normally bring in hundreds of million of dollars in tourism revenue and create tens of thousands of temporary jobs.

Marcus Faustini, Rio de Janeiro’s secretary of culture, said that as painful as it was to slog through carnival season without revelry, there was no responsible way to adapt the megaparty for this era of social distancing.

“It would make no sense to hold this party at this time and run the risk of driving a surge of cases,” he said. “The most vital thing right now is to protect lives.”

Lis Moriconi contributed reporting.

In Europe, pandemic spending has largely focused on helping people and businesses through the crisis.Credit…Yann Schreiber/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Billions of euros are being deployed to nationalize payrolls, suppress bankruptcies and avoid mass unemployment as Europe battles the pandemic. Trillions more are being earmarked for stimulus to stoke a desperately needed recovery.

The European Union has upended its policies to finance the largess, breaking with decades of strict limits on deficits, and overcoming visceral German resistance to high debt.

Austerity mantras led by Germany dominated Europe during the 2010 debt crisis, when profligate spending in Greece, Italy and other southern eurozone countries pushed the currency bloc toward a breakup.

The pandemic, which has killed over 450,000 people in Europe, is seen as a different animal altogether — a threat ravaging all the world’s economies simultaneously.

In the United States, President Biden is pursuing an aggressive strategy to combat the pandemic’s toll with a $1.9 trillion economic aid plan. While the national debt is now almost as large as the economy, supporters say the benefits of spending big now outweigh the costs of higher debt.

In Europe, pandemic spending has so far largely focused on floating people and businesses through the crisis.

For Philippe Boreal, a janitor at a luxury hotel in Cannes, the support has been vital.

“Without the aid, things would be much worse,” said Mr. Boreal, who is collecting more than 80 percent of his paycheck, allowing him to pay essential bills and buy food for his wife and teenage daughter.

But, he said, “at some point you ask yourself, ‘How are we going to pay for all this?’”

For now, such spending is affordable. And government debt may never have to be fully paid back if central banks keep buying it.

But some economists worry that inflation and interest rates could rise if stimulus investment revives growth too rapidly, forcing central banks to put a brake on easy-money policies. And weaker countries could struggle with the higher borrowing costs that resulted.

To people in charge of steering their economies through the pandemic, those potential troubles seem far away.

“We need to reimburse the debt, of course, and to work out a strategy for paying down the debt,” the French economy minister, Bruno Le Maire, said in an interview with a small group of journalists. “But we won’t do anything before growth returns — that would be crazy.”

For the strategy to work, Europe must act quickly to ensure a robust recovery, economists warn. While leaders approved a €750 billion ($857 billion) stimulus deal last year, countries haven’t been unleashing stimulus spending, to kick-start a revival and create jobs, nearly as rapidly as the United States has.

“Most of what’s been done in Europe is survival support,” said Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank in London.

[aviation1965]

The Retrospective

(From  Le Monde diplomatique, October, 1999).

It is not easy to write with feigned calm and dispassion about the events that have been unfolding in East Timor. Horror and shame are compounded by the fact that the crimes are so familiar and could so easily have been terminated by the international community a long time ago.

Indonesia invaded the territory in December 1975, relying on US diplomatic support and arms, used illegally, but with secret authorisation from Washington; there were even new arms shipments sent under the cover of an official “embargo”. There was no need to threaten bombing or even sanctions. It would have sufficed for the US and its allies to withdraw their active participation, and inform their close associates in the Indonesian military command that the atrocities must be terminated and the territory granted the right of self-determination that has been upheld by the United Nations and the International Court of Justice. We cannot undo the past, but we should at least be willing to recognise what we have done, and face the moral responsibility of saving the remnants and providing ample reparations – a small gesture of compensation for terrible crimes.

The latest chapter in this painful story of betrayal and complicity opened right after the referendum of 30 August 1999 when the population voted overwhelmingly for independence. At once, atrocities mounted sharply, organised and directed by the Indonesian army. The UN mission (Unamet) gave its appraisal on 11 September: “The evidence for a direct link between the militia and the military is beyond dispute and has been overwhelmingly documented by Unamet over the last four months. But the scale and thoroughness of the destruction of East Timor in the past week has demonstrated a new level of open participation of the military in the implementation of what was previously a more veiled operation.”

The mission warned that “the worst may be yet to come… It cannot be ruled out that these are the first stages of a genocidal campaign to stamp out the East Timorese problem by force” (1).

John Roosa, historian on Indonesia and official observer of the vote, described the situation starkly: “Given that the pogrom was so predictable, it was easily preventable… But in the weeks before the ballot, the Clinton Administration refused to discuss with Australia and other countries the formation (of an international force). Even after the violence erupted, the administration dithered for days” (2). Finally it was compelled by international (primarily Australian) and domestic pressure to make some timid gestures. Even these ambiguous messages sufficed to induce the Indonesian generals to reverse course and accept an international presence.

While President Clinton “dithered,” almost half the population were expelled from their homes, according to UN estimates, and thousands murdered (3). The air force that was able to carry out pin-point destruction of civilian targets in Novi Sad, Belgrade and Ponceva lacked the capacity to drop food to people facing starvation in the mountains to which they had been driven by the terror of the Indonesian forces, armed and trained by the US and its no less cynical allies.

The recent events will evoke bitter memories among those who do not take refuge, like the so-called international community, in “intentional ignorance”. We are witnessing a shameful replay of events of 20 years ago. After carrying out a huge slaughter in 1977-78 with the decisive support of the Carter Administration, Indonesia felt confident enough to permit a brief visit by members of the Jakarta diplomatic corps, among them the US ambassador, Edward Masters. They recognised that an enormous humanitarian catastrophe had been created. The aftermath was described by Benedict Anderson, one of the most distinguished scholars on Indonesia. Anderson testified before the UN that “For nine long months” of starvation and terror, “Ambassador Masters deliberately refrained, even within the walls of the State Department, from proposing humanitarian aid to East Timor.” He was waiting “until the generals in Jakarta gave him the green light” – until, as an internal State Department document recorded, they felt “secure enough to permit foreign visitors” (4).

One gruesome illustration of US complicity was the coup that brought General Suharto to power in 1965. Army-led massacres slaughtered hundreds of thousands in a few months, mostly landless peasants. The powerful communist party was destroyed. The achievement elicited unrestrained euphoria in the West and fulsome praise for the Indonesian “moderates”, Suharto and his military accomplices, who had cleansed society and opened it to foreign plunder. Robert McNamara, then Secretary of Defence, informed Congress that US military aid and training had “paid dividends” – including half a million corpses. A congressional report concluded they were “enormous dividends”. McNamara informed President Johnson that that US military assistance “encouraged (the army) to move against the communist party when the opportunity was presented.” Contacts with Indonesian military officers, including university programmes, were “very significant factors in determining the favourable orientation of the new Indonesian political elite” – the army (5).

So matters continued during 35 years of intensive military aid, training, and communication. As Indonesian troops and their back-ups were burning Dili, and the killings and destruction had reached new heights, the Pentagon announced that a US-Indonesian “training exercise” on rescue and humanitarian actions in disaster situations had ended on 25 August (6), five days before the referendum. The lessons of this cooperation were rapidly put into practice.

A few months earlier, shortly after the massacre of dozens of refugees who had taken shelter in a church in Liquica, Admiral Dennis Blair, the US Pacific Commander, had assured General Wiranto, head of the Indonesian armed forces and defence minister, of US support and assistance, proposing a new US training mission (7).

The degree of cooperation between Washington and Jakarta is impressive. US weapons sales to Indonesia amount to over $1 billion since the 1975 invasion. Military aid during the Clinton years is about $150 million, and in 1997 the Pentagon was still training Kopassus units (see article by Romain Bertrand), in violation of the intent of congressional legislation. In the face of this record, the US government lauded “the value of the years of training given to Indonesia’s future military leaders in the US and the millions of dollars in military aid for Indonesia” (8).

The reasons for the disgraceful record have sometimes been honestly recognised. During the latest phase of atrocities, a senior diplomat in Jakarta described “the dilemma” faced by the great powers: “Indonesia matters and East Timor doesn’t” (9). It was therefore understandable that Washington should keep to ineffectual gestures of disapproval while insisting that internal security in East Timor was “the responsibility of the government of Indonesia, and we don’t want to take that responsibility away from them”. This official stance, reaffirmed a few days before the August referendum, was repeated and maintained in full knowledge of how that “responsibility” had been carried out (10).

The reasoning of the senior diplomat was spelled out more fully by two Asia specialists from the New York Times. The Clinton Administration, they wrote, “has made the calculation that the United States must put its relationship with Indonesia, a mineral-rich nation of more than 200 million people, ahead of its concern over the political fate of East Timor, a tiny impoverished territory of 800,000 people that is seeking independence.” The Washington Post quoted Douglas Paal, president of the Asia Pacific Policy Centre, describing the facts of life: “Timor is a speed bump on the road to dealing with Jakarta, and we’ve got to get over it safely. Indonesia is such a big place and so central to the stability of the region” (11).

In the rhetoric of official Washington, “We don’t have a dog running in the East Timor race”. Accordingly, what happens there is not US business. But after intensive Australian pressure, the calculations shifted. A senior government official concluded: “We have a very big dog running down there called Australia and we have to support it” (12). The survivors of US-backed crimes in a “tiny impoverished territory” are not even a “small dog”.

The guiding principles were articulated in 1978, three years after Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor, by Washington’s ambassador to the UN, Daniel Patrick Moynihan. His words should be committed to memory by anyone with a serious interest in international affairs, human rights, and the rule of law. In his memoirs, Moynihan wrote: “The United States wished things to turn out as they did, and worked to bring this about. The Department of State desired that the United Nations prove utterly ineffective in whatever measures it undertook. This task was given to me, and I carried it forward with no inconsiderable success” (13).

Success was indeed considerable. Moynihan cited reports that within two months some 60,000 people had been killed: “10 percent of the population, almost the proportion of casualties experienced by the Soviet Union during the second world war”. A sign of the success, he added, was that within a year “the subject disappeared from the press.” So it did, as the invaders intensified their assault. Atrocities peaked in 1977-78. Relying on a new flow of advanced military equipment from the Carter Administration – with its emphasis on human rights – the Indonesian military carried out a devastating attack against the hundreds of thousands who had fled to the mountains, driving the survivors to Indonesian control. It was then that highly credible Church sources in East Timor sought to make public the estimates of 200,000 deaths – long denied, but now at last accepted. As the slaughter reached near-genocidal levels, Britain and France joined in, along with other powers, providing diplomatic support and even arms.

This year opened with a moment of hope. Indonesia’s interim president, B J Habibie, had called for a referendum with a choice between incorporation within Indonesia (“autonomy”) or independence. The army moved at once to prevent this outcome by terror and intimidation. In the months leading to the August referendum, 3,000 to 5,000 were killed (14) – a far larger order of magnitude of deaths than that cited by Nato (2,000) in the year leading up to the bombing in Kosovo.

Braving violence and threats, almost the entire population voted, many emerging from hiding to do so. Close to 80% chose independence. Then followed the latest phase of atrocities by the Indonesian army in an effort to reverse the outcome by slaughter and expulsion. Much of the country was reduced to ashes. Within two weeks more than 10,000 people may have been killed, according to Bishop Carlos Filipe Belo, the Nobel Peace laureate (see article by Sylvain Desmille). The bishop was driven from his country under a hail of bullets, his house burned down, and the refugees sheltering there dispatched to an uncertain fate (15).

Even before Habibie’s surprise call for a referendum, the army anticipated threats to its rule, including its control over East Timor’s resources, and undertook careful planning with “the aim, quite simply, … to destroy a nation”. The plans were known to Western intelligence. The army recruited thousands of West Timorese and brought in forces from Java. More ominously, the military command sent units of its dreaded US-trained Kopassus special forces, and, as senior military adviser, General Makarim, a US-trained intelligence specialist with experience in East Timor and “a reputation for callous violence” (16).

Terror and destruction began early in the year. The army forces responsible have been described as “rogue elements” in the West. There is good reason, however, to accept Bishop Belo’s assignment of direct responsibility to General Wiranto (17). It appears that the militias have been managed by elite units of Kopassus, the “crack special forces unit” that had, according to veteran Asia correspondent David Jenkins, “been training regularly with US and Australian forces until their behaviour became too much of an embarrassment for their foreign friends” (18).

These forces adopted the tactics of the US Phoenix programme in the Vietnam war, that killed tens of thousands of peasants and much of the indigenous South Vietnamese leadership, Jenkins writes, as well as “the tactics employed by the Contras” in Nicaragua. The state terrorists were “not simply going after the most radical pro-independence people, but going after the moderates, the people who have influence in their community.”

Well before the referendum, the commander of the Indonesian military in Dili, Colonel Tono Suratman, warned of what was to come: “If the pro-independents do win … all will be destroyed… It will be worse than 23 years ago” (19). An army document of early May, when international agreement on the referendum was reached, ordered that “Massacres should be carried out from village to village after the announcement of the ballot if the pro-independence supporters win.” The independence movement “should be eliminated from its leadership down to its roots” (20). Citing diplomatic, church and militia sources, the Australian press reported “that hundreds of modern assault rifles, grenades and mortars are being stockpiled, ready for use if the autonomy option is rejected at the ballot box” (21).

All of this was understood by Indonesia’s “foreign friends”, who also knew how to bring the terror to an end, but preferred evasive and ambiguous reactions that the Indonesian generals could easily interpret as a “green light” to carry out their work.

The sordid history must be viewed against the background of US-Indonesia relations in the post-war era (22). The rich resources of the archipelago, and its critical strategic location, guaranteed it a central role in US global planning. These factors lie behind US efforts 40 years ago to dismantle Indonesia, perceived as too independent and too democratic – even permitting participation of the poor peasants. These factors account for Western support for the regime of killers and torturers who emerged from the 1965 coup. Their achievements were seen as a vindication of Washington’s wars in Indochina, motivated in large part by concerns that the “virus” of independent nationalism might “infect” Indonesia, to use Kissinger-like rhetoric.

Surely we should by now be willing to cast aside mythology and face the causes and consequences of our actions, and not only in East Timor. In that tortured corner of the world there is still time, though precious little time, to prevent a hideous conclusion to one of the most appalling tragedies of the terrible century that is winding to a horrifying, wrenching close.

(1) Report of the Security Council Mission to Jakarta and Dili, 8 to 12 September 1999.

(2) New York Times, 15 September 1999.

(3) Boston Globe, 15 September 1999.

(4) Benedict Anderson, Statement before the Fourth Committee of the UN General Assembly, 20 October 1980. See also Noam Chomsky, Towards a New Cold War, Pantheon, New York, 1982.

(5) For review and sources, see Noam Chomsky, Year 501, South End, Boston, 1993.

(6) AP on line, 8 September 1999.

(7) The Nation, New York, 27 September 1999.

(8) New York Times, 14 September 1999.

(9) Financial Times, London, 8 September 1999; Christian Science Monitor, Boston, 14 September 1999.

(10) Sydney Morning Herald, 25 August 1999, citing State Department spokesman James Foley. Defence Secretary William Cohen, press briefing, 8 September 1999.

(11) Elizabeth Becker and Philip Shenon, New York Times, 9 September 1999. Steven Mufson, Washington Post, 9 September 1999.

(12) Australian Financial Review, Sydney, 13 September 1999.

(13)Daniel Patrick Moynihan, A Dangerous Place, Little Brown, Boston, 1978.

(14) Washington Post, 5 September 1999.

(15) New York Times, 13 September 1999.

(16) The Observer, London, 13 September 1999.

(17) Shenon, op. cit.

(18) Sydney Morning Herald, 8 July 1999.

(19) Australian Financial Review, 14 August 1999.

(20) The Observer, op. cit.

(21) Sydney Morning Herald, 26 July 1999.

(22) See Noam Chomsky, “Indonesia, master card in Washington’s hand”, Le Monde diplomatique, English Internet edition, June 1998, English print edition, September 1998.

[opedguy]

Trump Fingers WHO Negligence in Covid-19

LOS ANGELES (OnlineColumnist.com), April 8, 2020.--President Donald Trump raised the very real possibility that the World Health Organization [WHO] is responsible for the coronavirus AKA CoV-2 or Covid-19 global pandemic.  WHO Director General 55-year-old Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus refused to investigate a spiraling viral epidemic causing pneumonia and death in Wuhan, China.  Tedros refused to send WHO investigators to Wuhan until Feb. 8, one week after Trump banned all Chinese flights to the United States.  Tedros implied that Trump overreacted, exposing his xenophobic tendencies.  “There is no reason for measures that unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade,” Tedros said Feb. 8 in Geneva, repeating a Chinese Communist Party talking point about Trump’s decision.  By the time Tedros spoke up there were already 9,000 SARS CoV-2 cases worldwide, with the first cases washing up on U.S. soil in Seattle, Washington Jan. 21.

            Tedros did everything possible to cover up China’s spiraling epidemic in December 2019, saying nothing when millions of infected Chinese tourists traveled to the U.S., Europe and parts beyond.  WHO receives about $86 million of its 4.42 billion annual budget from China, while the United States gives $116 million in general funding and another $400 million for special projects.  Tedros knew about the Wuhan conronavirus outbreak in December 2019 but waited until March 11 to declare the Wuhan SARS CoV-2 epidemic a global pandemic.  Commissioned by the United Nation’s as the global health agency, WHO’s primary mission is to stop local epidemics from spreading to global pandemics.  WHO touts its work on such epidemics as HIV/AIDS, Ebola, H1N1 Swine Flu, SARS, MERS, etc, but somehow dropped the ball on SARS CoV-2 epidemic.

            Tedros remarks Feb. 8 in Geneva tell the whole story about his inappropriate relationship protecting not U.N. members-states and world citizens from a deadly viral plague but China’s bottom line, something Tedros refers to as “travel and trade.” Tedros had an inside track to get his job at WHO July 1, 2017 because Chinese President Xi Jinping’s wife Peng Liyuan worked for years as WHO’s global ambassador.  Tedros took over from Hong Kong, Canadian-trained physician Margaret Chan.  With Tedros, Xi knew he had someone controlled by Chinese largesse in Ethiopia, he could never say no to China.  Reacting to Trump’s Jan. 31 China travel ban, Tedros gave away his inappropriate attachment to China’s Communist Party. Trump’s 62-year-old State Department immunologist Dr. Deborah Birx admitted that WHO “did delay the ability” to declare coronavirus a global pandemic.

            Trump’s concerns about WHO’s leadership was immediately attacked by the anti-Trump press.  When you consider that the coronavirus outbreak occurred in Wuhan, China, most likely leaked from China’s National Virology Laboratory, where it’s bioweapons lab experiments with deadly viruses on laboratory animals, it’s shocking that WHO wouldn’t have taken more timely action.  “The WHO can only react to the data it’s given, and when you go back and look at the timeline, it wasn’t until, I think, almost the middle of January that China reported that there was human-to-human transmission,” Birx said. But, unlike Trump, Birx doesn’t read between the lines, knowing that one week after Trump banned flights to-and-from China, Tedros made his public remarks about protecting China’s “travel and trade.”  It’s clear Tedros had Xi’s back, not U.N. member-states.

            Under fire now for his lethargic response to the coronavirus crisis, Tedros went into full-on damage control.  “Please don’t politicize this virus,” Tedros said today in Geneva.  “The focus of all political parties should be to save their people,” Tedros said, shifting blame away from his inappropriate relationship with China and failed response to prevent the Wuhan epidemic from spreading around the globe.  When you consider that over 200 countries suffer from the global SARS CoV-2 pandemic affecting 1,501,685 cases with 87,838 deaths, Tedros should be apologizing profusely for WHO’s sluggish response.  Waiting nearly five weeks after his Feb. 8 Geneva remarks about protecting China “travel and trade” until declaring a global Pandemic March 11 is inexcusable.  Tedros’s latest damage control tries to put him as a political scapegoat, not a corrupt, incompetent bureaucrat.

            Showing guilt over his mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic, Tedros cares now about saving his own hide that admitting how WHO failed under his leadership to do his job to confront a spiraling viral outbreak in Wuhan.  Instead of notifying U.N. member-states about the dangers, Tedros obeyed Xi, delaying any announcement until March 11, by that time the world was set ablaze with the most deadly pandemic since the 1981 H1N1 Spanish Flu epidemic that infected 500 million and killed up to 100 million world citizens.  Instead of shifting blame to politics, Tedros must resign his post immediately for failing to do his job.  WHO’s current funding mechanism, giving undo weight to China, puts the world at risk for another global crisis.  Tedros must step aside for protecting Chinas’ bottom line, not protecting U.N. member-states from current and future infectious disease.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

[lcohen35]

Assignment 6 Final Draft:How can the responsibility for population control be balanced between more and less developed nations?

Figure 1. “Depicts 320,000 light bulbs, equal to the number of kilowatt hours of electricity wasted in the United States every minute from inefficient residential electricity usage (inefficient wiring, computers in sleep mode, etc.)” (Jordan 2008a).

“Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us” -Sir David Attenborough (Miller and Spoolman 2016, 119). Maybe the coronavirus is nature’s cry for help...

The world population is approaching 8 billion people (Worldometer 2020). As the population grows, we use more of the earth’s natural resources, our ecological footprints expand and degrade the natural capital that keeps us alive and supports our lifestyles and economies. Three major factors contributed to our oversized population:

Emergence of early and modern agriculture which increased food production

Additional tech helped humans expand into almost all of the world’s climate zones and habitats

Death rates dropped sharply with improved sanitation and health care (antibiotics and vaccines)

It’s unclear how many people the earth can sustain, but there has been rapid population growth in the past 200 years. The world’s population is unevenly distributed between the global north and south, with less-developed nations containing more people. The current view is that we have already exceeded some of the limits of population growth. This is clear in our extreme degradation of the environment.

Figure 2. “Depicts 28,000 42-gallon barrels, the amount of oil consumed in the United States every two minutes (equal to the flow of a medium-sized river)” … “Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning” (Jordan 2008b). Chris Jordan has an interesting and effective approach to making meaning out of numbers.

However, our economic view has not come to agree with this. Our unnatural appetite for endless growth is insatiable. The economy cannot grow forever (New Economics Foundation 2020). This growth-based economy does not even prioritize human quality of life for most people. Instead, it relies on the efficiency of workers as cogs in the corporate machine to benefit the top 1%. If society focused on having a more meaningful life, our value systems would be altered (Koehler 2008). We need to invest in social and natural capital rather than just financial capital. We can follow the Netherlands in their Plenitude economy which focuses on well-being rather than efficiency and expansion. This model suggests we hire more workers who work less to increase the number of people in the workforce along with free time of those workers. Our current model does not support this type of change due to the increasing operational costs of labor (New Dream 2011). The Steady-state model, however, would support this type of change. This model suggests we halt the growth of wealth, population and therefore the economy. It was applied to ecological economics by Herman Daly, who recommended government regulate and implement this mode of economics. Measures already exist which lean towards this model, such as the limiting of consumption through plastic bag bans. A movement which represents the promotion of these types of economies is the Degrowth movement of the 1970s. Their 3 main goals were to:

Reduce the environmental impact of human activity

Redistribute income and wealth both within and between countries

Promote the transition from a materialistic to a convivial and participatory society.

The movement  saw the model of sustainable development as an oxymoron, as any form of development was seen as unsustainable (Wikipedia, n.d.A).

The plenitude economy, steady state economy and degrowth movement prioritize the average individual rather than potential stakeholders, and we should use our voting power to vote people into office who advocate for our quality of life. 

Educating and Empowering Women to Decrease Population Size

A key factor affecting birth and death rates is the average number of children born to women within a population. There are two types of fertility rates: replacement-level and total. Replacement-level is the average number of children that couples in a  population must bear to replace themselves (2.1 children). Total Fertility rate (TFR) is the average number of children born to the childbearing population. TFR must equal replacement-level consistently to halt population growth.

The US population is third largest at over 329,000,000 and still growing due to baby boomers and longer life expectancy, immigration (legal and illegal). There is a net gain of one person every 24 seconds due to one birth every 9 seconds, one death every 11 seconds, and one international migrant every 44 seconds (United States Census Bureau 2020). Immigration has made this country more culturally diverse, which increases economic growth as these people work and start businesses. Migration is also a key factor affecting population, but discouraging immigration is not an adequate solution to the population issue.

The more adequate solutions are through reducing poverty through economic development, elevating the status of women and encouraging family planning. Women tend to have fewer children if they are educated, can control their own fertility, earn an income of their own and live in societies that don’t suppress girls and women. Currently, only about 30% of the world’s girls are enrolled in secondary education. Poor women who cannot read often have an avg of 5-7 children, compared with 2 or fewer children in societies where most women can read. This statistic outlines the global need for all children (regardless of gender) to get at least an elementary school education. As women in less-developed nations take charge of their lives and reproduction, populations will stabilize, human health will be improved, poverty and environmental degradation will be reduced and there will be more access to basic human rights.

In addition to educating women on a basic level, family planning can also aid in lowering TFR. Family planning provides education and clinical services that can help couples choose how many children to have and when to have them. Each dollar spent on family planning saves $10-$16 in health, education and social service costs by preventing unwanted birth. However, in many cultures, males dominate impoverished societies, which leads to early marriage of ⅓ of girls.

Women should be given the tools to limit family size such as access to education and birth control (and contraception), however I do not believe anyone has the right to tell a woman whether or not she can have children. It is important that children are not the only option made available.

Green Cities

Populations are especially dense in cities. More than half of the world’s population resides in urban areas. 3 major trends of urbanization include:

The percentage of urban global population has grown sharply and projected to continue growing

Then numbers and sizes of urban areas are increasing

Poverty is increasingly urbanized, mostly in less developed countries

Figure 3. Megacities with 10 million or more people (Miller and Spoolman 2016, 606).

Concentrating people in cities has helped protect biodiversity by reducing destruction and degradation of wildlife habitat. However, older cities have deteriorating services, aging infrastructure and carry beyond their intended capacity. Additionally urban sprawl – the growth of low-density development on the outskirts of cities and towns –has allowed people to live near, but not in cities. This lifestyle degrades natural habitats and forces people to drive almost everywhere. Dependence on motor vehicles for transportation results in high emissions, which contribute to climate change. Some solutions to discourage use of cars have been full-cost pricing of gasoline, tolls, and car sharing initiatives. Mayor Bloomberg tried to implement congestion pricing (a fee on cars entering Manhattan during peak hours) as part of PlaNYC, but it was cancelled due to many complaints from commuters. Additionally, it was criticized because the underlying assumption that people could use mass transit was incorrect; many subways were used to full capacity, and the tracks allowed no more room to add trains  (Wikipedia. n.d.B).

The major urban resource and environmental problems in cities include high levels of resource use, waste, pollution and poverty. It is increasingly difficult to maintain sustainability in the face of growing population and higher resource use per person (large ecological footprints).

Figure 4. Natural Capital Degradation. (Miller and Spoolman 2016, 610).

People living in cities lack vegetation and green space, and don’t benefit from their ecosystem services (air purification, generation of oxygen, removal of atmospheric CO2, control of soil erosion and wildlife habitat). Pollution can be attributed due to the density and number of people found in cities. Poverty is also common, and impoverished city dwellers are subject to severe air and water pollution. A solution to poverty in Brazil and Peru was legal recognition and titles to land. This applied permanence has allowed impoverished groups to improve their living conditions and eventually become productive working citizens who contributed to tax revenues which pay for government programs which can assist the poor. I would argue, however, this is based on the assumption that all people in poverty have a desire to contribute to a system that has failed to serve them, which I’m not sure is entirely accurate.

Cities can become more sustainable and livable through citywide initiatives and lifestyle changes. If people chose alternative modes of transport, recycled or reused most waste, grew much of their food, protected biodiversity by preserving surrounding land, and generated carbon-neutral energy, we would be on a sustainable track. Cities should exist for people, not cars, and environmental justice must be considered through any sustainability initiative.

I believe cities have the potential to exist as sustainability hubs, due to city dwellers’ lack of reliance on cars. However, they should not be the only places where sustainability and sustainable business is supported. We need to balance the avoidance of urban sprawl with the fact that while people don’t want to live in cities, they tend to be the epicenters of success and flourishing economies. 

The question of how social change occurs still remains. If we rely on the government too highly, we may end up with plans that don’t accurately address the problem. On the other hand, relying on grassroots community movements, like Transition Towns, put a large amount of ownness on individual action and self-sufficiency that this economy and society does not support (Wikipedia. n.d.C). The balance of both government and individual action is essential in this movement. Additionally, the global north needs to decrease the size of their carbon footprint, and give back to the communities we have drained of resources for too long.

Figure 5. “Depicts 92,500 agricultural plant seeds, equal to one hundredth of one percent of the number of people in the world today who suffer from malnutrition. To illustrate the entire statistic with 925 million seeds would require ten thousand prints of this image, covering more than eight football fields.” (Jordan, 2011).  

Word Count: 2,200 words

Question: Do more-developed countries have a responsibility to aid sustainable development in less-developed countries? How can they balance doing so with the history of colonization?

Works Cited

Jordan, Chris. “Light Bulbs.” 2008. Running The Numbers: An American Self-Portrait. Online Collection. http://www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/rtn/#light-bulbs.

Jordan, Chris. “Oil Barrels.” 2008. Running The Numbers: An American Self-Portrait. Online Collection. http://www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/rtn/#oil-barrels.

Jordan, Chris. “Stone of The Sun.” 2011. Running the Numbers II: Portraits of Global Mass Culture. Online Collection. http://www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/rtn2/#maya.

Koehler, Berrett. “More than Money- What is ‘The Good Life’ Parable.” YouTube video, 3:05. Posted August 2008. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7JlI959slY.

Miller, G. Tyler, and Scott E. Spoolman. 2016. Living in the Environment: Nineteenth Edition, 119-616. Canada: Cengage Learning.

New Dream. “Visualizing a Plenitude Economy.” YouTube video, 4:51. Posted September 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HR-YrD_KB0M.

New Economics Foundation. 2010. “The Impossible Hamster.” Vimeo video, 1:10. Posted January 2010. https://vimeo.com/8947526.

United States Census Bureau. 2020. “U.S. and World Population Clock.” Accessed February 26, 2020. https://www.census.gov/popclock/.

Worldometer. 2020. “World Population.” Accessed February 26, 2020. https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/.

Wikipedia. n.d. “Degrowth.” Last modified February 17, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degrowth.

Wikipedia. n.d. “PlaNYC.” Last modified November 1, 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlaNYC

Wikipedia. n.d. “Transition Town.” Last modified December 14, 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_town

[anewpoliticalspin]

Which side has been the feel-good side? Sometimes, conservatives

I am a former American Republican. I wholeheartedly believed the saying that “If you aren’t a liberal when you’re young, you have no heart, but if you aren’t a middle-aged conservative, you have no head.”

I thought that liberals were people who needed to toughen up and accept hard truths. A common conservative belief is that liberals don’t accept “the way the world works”.

I thought this for a long time. Then, the advent of Donald Trump, well, turned my world upside-down and made me have to rebuild from the bare bottom up my entire worldview on politics.

After all, you always know something by it’s outcome. The right vision leads to the right results. Or, the reverse, as can be. Which we’ve seen. Ever heard of “garbage in, garbage out”?

I started to rethink whether, in present-day America, conservatives really had a mature, tough, worldview. Mind you that a political faction can change a lot over the years.

Liberal or conservative?

1) I’m going to start with an easy one. It’s human-created global warming. It already has, and will, lead to lost lives. Countless of them. It threatens the well-being of many, many across the globe. The scientific evidence is also out there and there is close to 100% agreement.

Wouldn’t logic tell you anyway, even if you’re not a scientist, that putting out high numbers of smog every day would have some kind of effect? Which party has accepted this difficult truth, and which party has denied it?

2) Which is an easier truth to accept in the case of an unsuccessful war, that we’ve hit our terrorist targets (for the most part), or that we’ve also hit a lot of innocent civilians?

Think about our War in Afghanistan. Isn’t a war successful when its over? Afghanistan was and still is, being fought for, 19 years (surprisingly, yes. It’s the longest war in US history! Did you know that?)

You’ve also got to be tough to be honest with yourself about war when it is taking innocent lives. That takes strength to see. Seeing the honest suffering of innocent civilians, and maybe at the hands of our drones strikes, might cut at our hearts because we can only imagine how it would feel if it were to happen on our soil.

Think back to Vietnam, too.

3) Is it tough to say, “Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works,”  “So they literally have no habit of showing up on Monday. They have no habit of staying all day. They have no habit of ‘I do this and you give me cash’ unless it’s illegal.” (This was Newt Gingrich, by the way)

Or, is it tough to say, the working poor (most of the poor are working and not unemployed) are working hard, and still struggling to get by? That they have demanding, low-paying jobs, and are still struggling.

Yes, people are sometimes poor due to their own choices, and need to help themselves. Only sometimes, though. Sometimes, they have had hard luck. We can use a belief about the poor in the wrong way.

4) “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.”Before we go anywhere, let me say first that I am not saying we should have an absolute ban on guns. They may sometimes have their place. I’m just saying, having unfettered legal access to both owning guns and almost any type of gun has it’s consequences. It’s an important distinction.

I used to think too on the logic that “law-abiding citizens are law abiding citizens, and criminals will always get guns illegally anyway”.This puts the focus on criminals. But I think we do have to worry about law-abiding citizens too. It’s not just street criminals who misuse guns, and people who get them illegally. Mentally ill people will borrow from a family member, as Adam Lanza did from his mother before the Sandy Hook shooting. Kids will find them from their parents. People will obtain a weapon legally bought from someone else, as the Columbine shooters did.

By the way, gun control legislation has been found effective in many nations that have tried it.

Just think of this. Which takes more guts, and honest soul-searching, to believe?“Guns don’t kill, people do” “Guns can help kill people, and can make it worse”

Lastly, do you think it says something that we have had a number of mass shootings over the last two decades much higher that any other developed country, and we have the laxest gun laws and highest guns ownership?

5) Who is tougher, the then Vice Presidential candidate runner who says:

“Donald Trump and I believe there’s been far too much of this talk of institutional bias or racism within law enforcement. That police officers are human beings. In difficult and life threatening situations, mistakes are made and people have to be held to strict account,“, and then "we ought to set aside this talk about institutional racism and institutional bias.”

Or Hillary from this article:

But the former secretary of state said the “systemic racism in our criminal justice system” needs to be addressed.She added that “implicit bias” is a “problem for everyone, not just police.” But since encounters with police can have “literally fatal consequences,” she believes the federal government could be in a position where it would “offer and provide” more support and training.

Who is tougher? The person who says “we don’t need to talk about”? Or the one who says “we do, and we’ll find a way”?

By the way, I say this because when you look at the statistics of who is pulled over by officers, in identical situations, and the disproportionate numbers, I think you start to see how the only explanation is bias. There are reputable studies on this here, here, and here.

 and it’s a big problem. When something is a large enough problem, the answer has got to be to take action, and have a real conversation about it, not to say there has been too much talk about it.

6) Who is tougher, in this debate that was had? The person who asks that tough question, the one posited to Ron Paul? Or, maybe, someone who gives the answer he gives? This is taken from this article.

This was the question from CNN’s Wolf Blitzer:

“A healthy 30-year-old young man has a good job, makes a good living, but decides, you know what? I’m not going to spend $200 or $300 a month for health insurance because I’m healthy, I don’t need it. But something terrible happens, all of a sudden he needs it.

"Who’s going to pay if he goes into a coma, for example? Who pays for that?”

The question was directed to Paul, who is a physician. The exchange continued like this:

PAUL: Well, in a society that you accept welfarism and socialism, he expects the government to take care of him.

BLITZER: Well, what do you want?

PAUL: But what he should do is whatever he wants to do, and assume responsibility for himself. My advice to him would have a major medical policy, but not be forced —

BLITZER: But he doesn’t have that. He doesn’t have it, and he needs intensive care for six months. Who pays?

PAUL: That’s what freedom is all about, taking your own risks. This whole idea that you have to prepare and take care of everybody —

(APPLAUSE)

BLITZER: But Congressman, are you saying that society should just let him die?

A few in the crowd hollered and at least a couple screamed, “Yeah.”

Paul responded, “No. I practiced medicine before we had Medicaid, in the early 1960s, when I got out of medical school. I practiced at Santa Rosa Hospital in San Antonio, and the churches took care of them. We never turned anybody away from the hospitals.”

Yet, is this always what happens? Do churches always have the funds and means to take care of the poor?

7) Plastic bags. We as Americans use 100 billion plastic bags, and just in one year. That has to go somewhere and has plenty of costs. The blue state of California has enacted a ban on plastic bags. Many nations have also implemented a ban, or something close to one.

That was some courageous action they were willing to take, and I think shows commitment to facing and fighting a difficult truth about plastic bag usage.

8)  Conservatives are less likely than liberals to believe that the Israeli government has a discriminatory treatment of Palestinians. 

9) Lastly, what if we take an issue at random, and see the response to it by each side, I think that can be very telling. 

Take the issue of sexism From this article, Poll: Republicans see equality for women. Democrats don’t.More than half of Democratic voters, 55 percent, think men are better off than women in the U.S. — but only a fifth of Republicans shared that view. I think this is a good indicator of a party’s overall mindset and approach to difficult issues.

What I’ve seen in the Republican Party, for some time, has been an overall philosophy, and one that can be pretty cavalier, and even avoidant and uncompassionate. It’s been a tough it out philosophy.

It’s one that has avoided discussion of unpleasant facts and difficult truths, especially ones related to the hard circumstances of people.

After seeing everything, who has been tougher?

The Republican Party has gone wayward, and needs to pull themselves back.

P.s. Someone else noticed a lot of these things, and I got my inspiration from him.. It was actually one article that changed my views. Just one, that opened my eyes. “Confessions of a former Republican” by Jeremiah Goulka. He talked about how conservatives had to “take off their rose-colored glasses”. He talked about the “wool being pulled off his eyes” in a logical, no nonsense, pragmatic way.

I take his word at it.

[lupine-publishers-tceia]

Lupine Publishers| Nanotechnology in Concrete: Small Things Shape a Great Future

Lupine Publishers| Journal of Civil Engineering Research

Abstract

Concrete changes the world. Nanotechnology changes the concrete world. The nano-engineered concrete can be intelligent, strong, durable, easy to fabricate, recyclable and eco-friendly. Its potential benefits include improved infrastructures reliability and longevity, enhanced structural performance and durability, improved safety against natural hazards and vibrations, reduced lifecycle costs in operating and managing infrastructures, and reduced burdens on resources, energy and environment.

Concrete related to sustainable development of human society

Figure 1: Concrete price and usage; b) Energy consumption for concrete production; c) The cumulative carbon sequestration from 1930 to 2013; d) Elemental composition of the earth; e) Cement demand prediction [1-5].

Concrete's excellent properties and low cost have made it tremendous quantity of concrete (4 billion cubic meters per year) the world's most widely used engineering material (Figure 1a). A has been consumed worldwide for infrastructure construction. China accounts for approximately 60% of the total concrete consumption with the per capita amount of 2 cubic meters. The manufacturing of cement, a key ingredient in concrete, has a significant impact on nature source, energy and environment. In fact, concrete has lower energy consumption and carbon emissions compared to other engineering materials (Figure 1b). According to recent research, as carbon sequestration, concrete can reabsorb a large fraction of CO2 released from cement production. From 1930 to 2013, carbonating concrete absorbed 43% of the cumulative CO2 emissions associated with the high-temperature calcination of carbonate minerals during cement production (Figure 1c). In addition, in terms of resource, it is almost impossible to find an alternative construction material to concrete. This is because O, Si, Al, Fe, Ca, Na, K and Mg comprise 98% of the crustal composition, which are the main components of concrete (Figure 1d). In the long term, on the basis of the urban development of the developing countries and the world's population growth rate, concrete will continue to be massively consumed as construction materials in the whole world. Taking the developing countries such as China and India for example, concrete usage converted by the total amount of cement will nearly double in the coming several decades (Figure 1e). Therefore, concrete is the largest material foundation bearing the civilization in today’s society and even in future society. The production and utilization of concrete are closely related to source, energy and environmental issues, thus having a strong effect on the sustainable development of human society [1-5].

Improving concrete performance to meet the ever-increasing demand for infrastructure construction

Figure 2: Multi-component, multi-phase and multi-scale nature [4].

Concrete has a multi-component, multi-phase and multi-scale nature and is considered as the most complicated composite while fabricated with the simplest production process (Figure 2). The feature of thermodynamic metastability has an effect on the concrete volume stability. Under deformation, shrinkage and loading, it is vulnerable to interrupt or destroy homophase continuity and heterophase bonding. In addition, concrete is known for its brittleness with low tensile strength, poor deformation performance and high cracking tendency. The presence of cracks tends to weaken the integrity and bearing capacity of structures and severely affect their safety, serviceability and durability, causing potential safety problems on construction. Especially with the trend toward large-scale and complicated infrastructures, extreme service environment, multi-factor coupling and ever-enlarging application field, these problems are becoming more serious and facing with a plenty of new challenges as well. In this case, high- performance and smart/multifunctional concrete becomes the only way to implement the sustainable development of concrete structures. High-performance and smart/multifunctional concrete has excellent mechanical properties, durability and processability needed for structural material. Meanwhile, it also presents selfsensing, self-healing and self-adjusting features. Making use of high- performance and smart/multifunctional concrete can effectively enhance the safety, comfort and durability of infrastructures and maintain a coordinated relationship between infrastructure and environment.

Nanotechnology adding new impetus for developing high-performance and smart/multifunctional concrete

As shown in Figure 2, concrete is a multi-scale complex system. Generally, the normal aggregate in concrete has a particle size ranging from millimeters to centimeters and the particle size of ordinary cement itself is usually 7-200|im. However, cement hydrated phases are primary nano structured materials mainly condensed by C-S-H gel tens of nanometers in size. Therefore, due to its natural attribute, concrete has the properties of nanomaterials. In addition, the scientific community and industry are always spontaneous to manipulate the nano-scale behavior inside concrete using nanotechnology to enhance or modify concrete performance in the process of concrete development, such as nano crystals, mineral admixtures and chemical admixture used for concrete preparation. It should be recognized that nanotechnology in concrete is not a new technique. It is just attributed to the rapid development of nanotechnology in recent two decades improving the understanding of the nano-scale behavior inside concrete and enriching the methods for concrete reinforcement and modification via nanotechnology. In this manner, research in the application of nanotechnology in concrete reaches a very active period.

Awareness of nanotechnology applications in concrete starts at 2001. The addition of nano-SiO2 to concrete was first used for concrete reinforcement. After that, nano-ZrO2, nano-TiO2 and nanocarbon material were applied one after another for the enhancement and modification of concrete. Much work indicated that the big gains in mechanical, durable and functional properties of concrete were achieved by nano nonmetallic oxide and metallic oxide modification. The addition of nano-SiO2 increased the 3d/28d compressive and flexural strengths by 48.1%/48.7% and 45.6%/16.0%, respectively. Meanwhile, the addition of nano-SiO2 can increase the freeze-thaw resistance, chloride penetration and permeability, abrasion resistance and fire resistance of concrete [6]. The fracture toughness of concrete can be enhanced by 400% when nano-ZrO2 is used as fillers [7]. The flexural and compressive strengths of concrete with nano-TiO2 at age of 28 d achieve increases of 87% /6.69 MPa and 12.26%/12.2 MPa with respect to concrete without nano-TiO2, respectively. Nano-TiO2 can also endow concrete with the photocatalytic effect to decompose both organic pollutants and oxides such as NO, NO2 and SO2 [8]. Moreover, extensive research endeavors demonstrated the potential of various nano carbon materials including carbon nanotubes (CNTs), carbon nanofibers (CNFs), and graphene for enhancing/modifying concrete materials [9].

Figure 3: Graphene platelets acting like�filters�for chloride ions [11].

The observed best performance enhancement of concrete with CNTs or CNFs include a relative/absolute enhancements of 79%/74MPa and 64.4%/5.6MPa in compressive and flexural strength [10], a 34.28% increase in tensile strength, a 270% increase in fracture toughness, a 14% increase in fracture energy, an over 600% improvement in Vickers’s hardness at the early ages of hydration, a 2200% increase in deflection, a 130% increase in ductility, an over 430% improvement in resilience and a 227% increase in Young’s modulus. Graphene can improve the tensile, flexural and compressive strength of concrete by 78.6%, 60.7% and 38.9%, respectively. The presence of CNTs obviously enhances the transport property and durability of concrete materials. Graphene significantly improves the moisture transport performance, the acid resistance and the chloride ion penetration resistance (as listed in Table 1 and Figure 3) of the concrete.

Table 1:  Chloride migration coefficient of concrete with grapheme.

DRCM: Chloride migration coefficient from non-steady-state migration test

The electrical resistivity reduction extent of concrete materials than that of concrete without CNTs. The damping capacity of with CNTs/nano carbon black composite filler is 99.9%. The concrete with CNTs is 1.6 times than that of concrete without CNTs. thermal conductivity of CNTs concrete composites is 85% greater The addition of CNTs into concrete materials can lead to a 27%decrease in electromagnetic wave reflectivity at a frequency of 2.9 GHz. Additionally, the composites with CNTs, CNFs or graphene feature smart self-sensing (e.g. sensing stress, strain, crack, damage, temperature and smoke), self-heating and steel cathodic protection performances. Nano fillers not only can enhance/modify the also have strong impact on the rheology and workability of fresh concrete [11]. Nano fillers have higher surface energy compared with cement particle. Therefore, as shown in Figure 4, the addition of nano fillers raises the system energy of cementitious composites, thus importing negative entropy to the system of composites.

Figure 4: System of nano-engineered concrete [7].

The mechanisms of nano-core effect on the enhancement/ modification are mainly due to two aspects: intrinsically excellent mechanical, electrical, thermal and electromagnetic properties and morphology features (high aspect ratio); and promoting cement hydration, optimizing C-S-H gel structure and forming ultrafine and compact crystals, improving interfacial transition zone and pore structure, controlling nano-scale cracks, autogenous curing, improving early strength and decreasing autogenous shrinkage through nucleating effect (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Schematic diagram of effect of nano fillers on the hydration products growth around cement particles [11].

Conclusion

As a new industrial revolution, nanotechnology infiltrating in the field of civil engineering provides new impetus for developing high- performance and smart/multifunctional concrete. To restructure or modify material structural units in nanoscale via interpreting material genetic code and drawing the blueprint of nanoscale properties provides new theory and method to develop high- performance, durable, smart/multifunctional, and environmentally friendly concrete (Figure 6). The utilization of nanotechnology helps promote the understanding of concrete behavior, manipulate and design concrete performance, lower the concrete production and ecological cost, extend the service life of engineering infrastructures and reduce the relative demand of concrete. It is of profound significance to guide the sustainable development and application of concrete material and infrastructures.

Figure 6: Nano-engineered concrete based on nano-core effect.

Acknowledgment

The authors thank the funding supported from the National Science Foundation of China (51578110 and 51428801).

For more Lupine Publishers Open Access Journals Please visit our website: http://www.lupinepublishers.com/

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[nigeiadigitalmarketingcompany]

2:00PM Water Cooler 8/7/2019

Digital Elixir 2:00PM Water Cooler 8/7/2019

By Lambert Strether of Corrente

Trade

“U.S. agricultural exports to China plummeted more than 50% last year to $9.1 billion as tariffs raised the cost of American soybeans, pork and other farm products. The exports dropped another 20% in the first six months of this year. The pain is rippling through agricultural supply chains. One forecast says tariffs could cost the sector as many as 71,000 jobs over the next two years” [Wall Street Journal]. (Apparently, China’s swine fever epidemic has not cut demand for soy.)

Politics

“But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?” –James Madison, Federalist 51

“They had one weapon left and both knew it: treachery.” –Frank Herbert, Dune

“2020 Democratic Presidential Nomination” [RealClearPolitics] (average of five polls). As of August 5: Biden fluctuates to 32.3% (32.2), Sanders continues climb to 16.7% (16.5%), Warren flat at 14.0% (14.0%), Buttigieg flat at 5.5% (5.5%), Harris down at 10.2% (10.3%), Beto separating himself from the bottom feeders, interestingly. Others Brownian motion. So, I think we can conclude that Sanders won both debates.

* * *

2020

Sanders (D)(1): Sanders calls his shot not only the effect of trade deals on workers, but on the two-party system. In 2000. The whole video is worth a listen, since the Tweet doesn’t quote all of it.

In the year 2000, Congress voted to grant China upgraded trade status, helping it become world's most powerful dictatorship.

Bernie Sanders voted against. He stood next to Pelosi at Dem presser and blasted Bill Clinton. "Let me tell you where he got his money," Sanders intoned. pic.twitter.com/JzBZ3UiXka

— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) August 7, 2019

No wonder they hate him….

* * *

“Few candidates have loyal small-dollar donor bases” [WaPo]. • Few, but not none:

Turns out small donor money isn’t all that fungible.

“Shadow of Dark Money Grows as 2020 Groups Shun Donor Disclosure” [Bloomberg]. “Democratic and Republican groups raising tens of millions of dollars for the 2020 elections increasingly are keeping their funding sources secret, a trend that watchdog groups warn allows high-dollar donors to gain influence with candidates without risking exposure. Priorities USA, which collected almost $200 million to help Hillary Clinton in 2016, says it wants to spend that much or more to help the next Democratic nominee defeat President Donald Trump. This time, however, Priorities is being funded mostly by undisclosed donations.” • What could go wrong?

“Are the Democrats divided? No — they’re poised to win big if they don’t screw it up” [Bill Curry, Salon]. “Everyone wants to see Warren and Sanders face off against Biden because the real dividing line is between the middle class and the donor class. Warren and Sanders never attack Obama, Biden or each other and they won’t do it in September. What they will do is compare their ideas and campaigns to his. The facts will be fierce, but the delivery will be civil. It’ll be Biden’s toughest test. Progressives want to take a new path, but I’ve yet to meet a “Never Bidener.” The stakes are too high. To defeat Trump, Democrats need to answer his racism with a message of both racial justice and social conciliation, and answer his corruption with a message of economic justice and political reform. So long as their candidates don’t make a fetish of their small differences, they’ll get there.” • White House counsellor to Clinton. Not seeing a whole lot about “economic justice and political reform” from establishment Democrats. Of course, if they hadn’t spent three years yammering about Russia, they might have had time to come up with something.

El Paso and Dayton Shootings

“Dayton shooter may be antifa’s first mass killer” [NY Post]. • I dunno. It’s the shooters pr0n rock band that gets me. I see the El Paso shooter, who — assuming the provenance proves out — wrote a manifesto as being ideologically serious in a way that the Dayton shooter, who was just a mess by all accounts, was not. (We should also think back to the Orlando shootings, where literally everything about the initial stories was wrong). And speaking of pr0n–

“Photos from Dayton and El Paso illustrate the grim routine of mass shootings” [WaPo]. • If I see one more photo of beautiful young people holding candles… Honestly, it’s like some weird kind of pr0n. I don’t equate viewing digital images of people mourning as actually mourning.

Where “we” are:

Panic in Times Square After Motorcycle Is Mistaken for Gunshots https://t.co/F5qsndMPfD

— Dan Froomkin (@froomkin) August 7, 2019

Somehow, I can’t help thinking that a panicked populace is not conducive to sound democratic decision-making…

“What Experts Know About People Who Commit Mass Shootings” [New York Times]. “Can one mass shooting inspire another? Yes… Are video games to blame for mass shootings? The results of studies attempting to clarify the relationship between violent video games and aggression have been mixed, with experts deeply divided on the findings. How strong is the link between mental illness and mass shootings? Tenuous, at best. Would drugging or confining people showing “red flags” prevent massacres? No one knows for certain.” • This is pretty thin stuff.

2018 Post Mortem

No:

.@ChelseaClinton and I are thrilled to announce "The Book of Gutsy Women," out October 1st. It's a conversation about over 100 women who have inspired us—and narrowing it down was a process! https://t.co/DOhSrVq9SC pic.twitter.com/bOVES73FAQ

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 6, 2019

Realignment and Legitimacy

“Is ‘Bernie or Bust’ the Future of the Left?” [New York Times]. • Report on the DSA convention. I dunno, it seems to me that an organization dedicated to seizing the means of production shouldn’t be getting press this good. Perhaps it’s their stand on open borders.

“Twitter says it won’t verify new candidates until they win their primaries” [The Hill]. • Swell. More incumbent protection. That should certainly help Twitter with regulatory issues!

“Inslee Is Doing Very Well in the Power Primary” [Mike the Mad Biologist]. The conclusion: “Democrats in 2021 will need to make people’s lives better in meaningful ways. If not, we will have a repeat of 2010 in 2022, since next time we won’t get Trump, we’ll get someone smarter and more disciplined. As bad as Trump is, President Tom Cotton would be far worse.” • Yep. 2020 is their last shot. Biden/Harris all the way!

They call it historical materialism:

The political continuum hypothesis states that there exist historical precedents besides Nixon and Hitler. It is widely believed outside the United States, in countries Americans have never heard of

— Pinboard (@Pinboard) August 7, 2019

Stats Watch

JOLTS, June 2019 (yesterday): “Moderation in labor demand is this year’s theme of the JOLTS report” [Econoday]. “Quits, which are tracked by Federal Reserve officials for indications of worker mobility and related wage pressure, remain flat… This report hints at easing capacity pressure in the labor market and will likely be welcome by Fed officials who, with last month’s rate cut, are adding new stimulus to the economy.”

MBA Mortgage Applications, week of August 2, 2019: “A big drop in mortgage rates — the result of last week’s rate cut by the Federal Reserve — triggered a surge of refinancing applications” [Econoday].

Shipping: “Slots in heavy-duty truck production lines are opening up but few fleet operators are getting in line. Orders for Class 8 trucks fell last month to their lowest level since 2010” [Wall Street Journal]. “A factory backlog for Class 8 trucks that exceeded 300,000 orders late last year is down by more than a third, and research group FTR expects production to decline 22% next year. The good news for manufacturers is that cancellations have remained relatively light. That could change if weakness in the broader industrial sector gets worse and trucking companies decide to park their current fleet plans.”

The Bezzle: “A pioneer in the meal-kit market is losing its sizzle. Blue Apron Holdings Inc. narrowed its quarterly loss but is still losing customers… and a turnaround could involve a lot more logistics for a business already laden with complicated fulfillment” [Wall Street Journal]. “New Chief Executive Linda Kozlowski says Blue Apron’s plan to boost revenue and customer growth this year will include serving more households and offering greater menu choices, including flexibility to tailor the options…. Perhaps more challenging, analysts say the overall market is already saturated and likely smaller than companies had hoped.”

Tech: “Trump Wants to Make It Basically Impossible to Sue for Algorithmic Discrimination” [Vice]. “The new rule takes aim at a 2015 Supreme Court ruling, which decided that consumers could combat housing discriminatory business practices by making “disparate-impact claims” under the Fair Housing Act of 1968. In a disparate-impact claim, if you find out that a business practice had a disproportionate effect on certain groups of people, then you can hold that business liable—even if it was an unintended consequence….. HUD’s new rule would throw all that out the window by introducing huge loopholes to shield businesses from liability when their algorithms are accused of bias. As Reveal News reported, ‘A hypothetical bank that rejected every loan application filed by African Americans and approved every one filed by white people, for example, would need to prove only that race or a proxy for it was not used directly in constructing its computer model.’ But there is substantial evidence to show that racial bias is fundamentally baked into the way that these algorithms and their data sets are constructed, even if they don’t specifically take race into account.” • Code is law…

Tech: “Amazon Is Coaching Cops on How to Obtain Surveillance Footage Without a Warrant” [Vice]. “When police partner with Ring, Amazon’s home surveillance camera company, they get access to the ‘Law Enforcement Neighborhood Portal,’ an interactive map that allows officers to request footage directly from camera owners. Police don’t need a warrant to request this footage, but they do need permission from camera owners. Emails and documents obtained by Motherboard reveal that people aren’t always willing to provide police with their Ring camera footage. However, Ring works with law enforcement and gives them advice on how to persuade people to give them footage. Emails obtained from police department in Maywood, NJ—and emails from the police department of Bloomfield, NJ, which were also posted by Wired—show that Ring coaches police on how to obtain footage. The company provides cops with templates for requesting footage… Ring suggests cops post often on Neighbors, Ring’s free ‘neighborhood watch’ app, where Ring camera owners have the option of sharing their camera footage.” • It’s a little tough to rank Big. Tech companies for evil right now, but surely Amazon gets a boost for this.

Tech: “Jeff Bezos feels a tap on the shoulder. Ahem, Mr Amazon, care to explain how Capital One’s AWS S3 buckets got hacked?” [The Register]. “After last week’s revelations that a hacker stole the personal details of 106 million Capital One credit card applicants from its Amazon-hosted cloud storage, a US Senator has demanded Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos explain what exactly what went wrong. The sensitive information was siphoned from Capital One’s Amazon Web Services S3 buckets by a former AWS engineer, who was arrested and charged at the end of July…. Wyden is particularly concerned that other companies that store their data in the AWS cloud may have been hit in the same way by the suspected Capital One thief, Seattle-based software engineer Paige Thompson. He cited reports that Ford, the University of Michigan, the Ohio Department of Transportation, and others may have suffered similar losses of information at the hands of Thompson, and that this may point to a systemic weakness in Amazon’s security.” • Uh oh. Keeping my data on my hard disk, thank you very much.

Tech: “FCC Plans to Redo Flawed Broadband Maps” [Inside Sources]. “Accurate broadband maps would help under [-served] areas get internet access, and they could also be used to hold telecom companies T-Mobile and Sprint accountable for their pledge to build out 5G to cover 85 percent of rural Americans in three years and 99 percent of all Americans in six years once they complete their merger. (The combined company will face financial penalties if they don’t meet these conditions.) According to the FCC’s Report and Order for the Digital Opportunity Data Collection, the FCC will require all internet service providers (ISPs) ‘to submit granular data maps of the areas where they have broadband-capable networks and make service available.’ Previously, ISPs submitted census block data, which means even if they only served one person within a census tract or county, they counted that entire tract or county has having internet access.” • Wow.

Tech: “More on Backdooring (or Not) WhatsApp” [Schneier on Security]. “Yesterday, I blogged about a Facebook plan to backdoor WhatsApp by adding client-side scanning and filtering. It seems that I was wrong, and there are no such plans.” • A retraction, which speaks well of Schneier.

Tech: “Hacked Equifax Customer Receives 10,000 Stolen Social Security Numbers As Share Of Class Action Settlement” [The Onion]. • News In Photos, so the headline is the joke.

Manufacturing: “Boeing Holds Workshops With China Carriers to Bring 737 Max Back” [Industry Week]. “Boeing invited pilots and engineers from China Southern Airlines Co. to a gathering in Guangzhou on Monday, according to an emailed statement from Boeing. More such workshops will be held with Air China Ltd., China Eastern Airlines Corp., Xiamen Airlines Co. and Hainan Airlines Holding Co. in their respective hubs this week. The gatherings are among the latest steps Boeing is taking to bring the plane back, though the exact timing remains unclear. Boeing is redesigning the plane’s flight-control system and is still aiming to present a final software package to regulators by September, though the timeline could slip, a person familiar with the plans has said. China Southern and Air China are among Chinese carriers seeking compensation from the U.S. manufacturer for order delays and losses caused by the grounding of the 737 Max in the wake of two deadly crashes.”

Transportation: “Self-Driving Trucks Are Ready to Do Business in Texas” [WIRED]. “The truck developers come for the weather: It can get chilly in Texas, but the state doesn’t get the months of snow, which can bedevil automated vehicle sensor technology.” • So, when the headline says “in Texas,” it really does mean “in Texas.”

Transportation: “How Much Traffic Do Uber and Lyft Cause?” [CityLab]. “Today the ride-hailing giants released a joint analysis showing that their vehicles are responsible for significant portions of [vehicle-miles traveled (VMT)] in six major urban centers… Now, the Fehr and Peers memo indicates that [transportation network companies (TNCs)] accounted for nearly twice the VMT in San Francisco than the SFCTA had estimated, said Gregory Erhardt, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Kentucky who has researched Uber and Lyft’s effects on public transit ridership. That means the services are likely delaying commuters more, too… On average, between the six cities, just 54 to 62 percent of the vehicle miles traveled by Lyfts and Ubers were with a rider in tow. A third of these miles involve drivers slogging around in between passengers (“deadheading,” in taxi-driver argot); 9 to 10 percent are drivers on their way to a pickup.”

Transportation: “Swiss Post Suspends Drone Delivery Service After Second Crash” [IEEE Spectrum]. “For about a year, Swiss Post and Matternet have been collaborating on a drone delivery service in three different cities in Switzerland, with drones ferrying lab samples between hospitals far faster and more efficiently than is possible with conventional ground transportation. The service had made about 3,000 successful flights as of last January, but a January 25th crash into Lake Zurich put things on hold until April. A second crash in May caused Swiss Post to suspend the service indefinitely, and a recently released interim report published by the Swiss Safety Investigation Board provides some detail on what happened—and a reminder that for all the delivery drone hype, there are some basic problems that are still not totally solved.” • In this case, parachutes that deploy “if something goes wrong.” More: “We have no idea exactly how safe Amazon’s drones are, or Google’s drones are. Even Zipline, which has been flying drones dozens of times per day for years, is still working to make their drones safer. What we do know is that crashes can (and do) happen, and the Swiss Post incidents are further evidence that we’ll need a much better understanding of where all of the risk is if we want drones flying regularly over populated areas.”

Concentration: “Australia Strips Google/Facebook to Their Underwear” [Matt Stoller, Big]. “The [Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC)]’s most important contribution to the debate is to say, unvarnished, that Google and Facebook have exceptional amounts of market power and the incentive to use it to manipulate and exploit publishers, businesses, and users. Over the past fifteen years, Google and Facebook have become, as Sims put it in his press conference, “essential gateways for consumers and businesses.” The consequences of this shift are the killing of the free press and the mass manipulation of users….” • Most NC readers already know that, but Stoller’s post is well worth a read for the wealth of detail and clarity of exposition.

Mr. Market: “Carry On Like Nothing Really Matters. Until It Does” [John Authers, Bloomberg]. “It’s no secret that yields on sovereign bonds around the world remain stunningly and historically low. And that, in turn, means a revival in the ‘carry trade.’… Carry trading is best known from its incarnation in the foreign-exchange market. It involves borrowing in a currency where interest rates are low and parking that money in a currency with higher rates, pocketing the difference, or ‘carry.’ Ideally, you get paid for doing nothing… In practice, any increase in volatility or perceived risk — which can be nicely proxied by the CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX — spells doom for the carry trade.” • Uh oh.

Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 20 Extreme Fear (previous close: 27, Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 48 (Neutral). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Aug 7 at 12:19pm. • Restored at reader request. Note that the index is not always updated daily, sadly.

The Biosphere

“Who Will Save the Amazon (and How)?” [Foreign Policy]. “Aug. 5, 2025: In a televised address to the nation, U.S. President Gavin Newsom announced that he had given Brazil a one-week ultimatum to cease destructive deforestation activities in the Amazon rainforest. If Brazil did not comply, the president warned, he would order a naval blockade of Brazilian ports and airstrikes against critical Brazilian infrastructure. The president’s decision came in the aftermath of a new United Nations report cataloging the catastrophic global effects of continued rainforest destruction, which warned of a critical “tipping point” that, if reached, would trigger a rapid acceleration of global warming. Although China has stated that it would veto any U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the use of force against Brazil, the president said that a large “coalition of concerned states” was prepared to support U.S. action. At the same time, Newsom said the United States and other countries were willing to negotiate a compensation package to mitigate the costs to Brazil for protecting the rainforest, but only if it first ceased its current efforts to accelerate development.” • Ulp.

“Humans versus Earth: the quest to define the Anthropocene” [Nature]. “Crawford Lake is one of ten sites around the globe that researchers are studying as potential markers for the start of the Anthropocene, an as-yet-unofficial designation that is being considered for inclusion in the geological time scale. The Anthropocene Working Group (AWG), a committee of 34 researchers formed by the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) in 2009, is leading the work, with the aim of crafting a proposal to formally recognize the Anthropocene. This new epoch would mark a clear departure from the Holocene, which started with the close of the last ice age. To define a new epoch, the researchers need to find a representative marker in the rock record that identifies the point at which human activity exploded to such a massive scale that it left an indelible signature on the globe. Given how much people have done to the planet, there are many potential markers. “Scientifically, in terms of evidence, we’re spoiled for choice, but we have to pin it down,” says Jan Zalasiewicz, a palaeobiologist at the University of Leicester, UK, and chair of the AWG…. In the end, it will be the rocks that have the final say.” • In more ways than one.

“A mission to Mars could cause learning impairment and anxiety, study says” [CNN]. “On a long-term spaceflight mission to Mars, astronauts will be continuously exposed to low-dose radiation in deep space. A new study found that this exposure can cause impairments in the brains of mice, resulting in learning and memory issues as well as anxiety… Based on their findings, the researchers believe that one out of five astronauts on a deep space mission would likely experienced anxiety. One in three would be more likely to deal with memory issues. And all of them may struggle when it comes to making decisions, which would be crucial on a mission to Mars where communications with the Earth are delayed by up to 20 minutes.” • Surely there is a science fiction story with this premise, though I can’t remember one. Certainly lots of potential for dark comedy…

“This tiny insect could be delivering toxic pesticides to honey bees and other beneficial bugs” [Science]. “According to a new study, neonicotinoids can kill beneficial insects such as honey bees, hoverflies, and parasitic wasps by contaminating honeydew, a sugar-rich liquid excreted by certain insects…. The study suggests honeydew could be another way beneficial insects are exposed to deadly insecticides. This can devastate more insects across the food web than nectar contaminated with insecticides could, the team says, because honeydew is more abundant, especially in agricultural fields… neonicotinoids still account for more than 20% of the world’s insecticide market.”

Our Famously Free Press

“The GateHouse takeover of Gannett has been finalized” [Poynter]. • Ugh. I expect the imminent gutting of USA Today, which has been a surprisingly good paper.

“How to do something about local news” [Substack]. • Basically a hymn of praise to substack by a founder, but it still sounds like an interesting, er, platform (akin to WordPress, not Facebook).

Games

“Investigative journalism startup uses mobile gaming to finance its future” [Journalism]. “In the game, the player uses tools and skills that McGregor and his editorial team need in their day-to-day investigations and reports. With image verification being an example of one of the most difficult challenges, the game will ask players to assess whether a viral image is accurate or not by using software to spot areas of the image that have been edited. ‘It’s the basics and 101 of journalism – teaching people to be sceptical and what tools to use to crack the conspiracy, like searching court records or sting operations on a more extreme level,’ he explained.” • It sounds like the stories and games are fictional. I don’t see why they couldn’t be real.

The Last of the Feral Hogs, I Swear

For our readers in the United Kingdom:

“30-50 of them, you say?” pic.twitter.com/M07mLraoSE

— Josephine Long come to my show please it’s urgent (@JosieLong) August 5, 2019

A kind soul summarizes:

in the final analysis, the great moral victory of feral hog twitter was that it was much more of a carnival atmosphere with people aiming to make each other laugh than a dunkfest on the feral hog guy

— elizabeth bruenig (@ebruenig) August 6, 2019

News of the Wired

Bake like an Egyptian. Wonderful thread:

Two weeks ago, with the help of Egyptologist @drserenalove and Microbiologist @rbowman1234, I went to Boston’s MFA and @Harvard‘s @peabodymuseum to attempt collecting 4,500 year old yeast from Ancient Egyptian pottery. Today, I baked with some of it… pic.twitter.com/143aKe6M3b

— Seamus Blackley (@SeamusBlackley) August 5, 2019

* * *

Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, (c) how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal, and (d) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. Today’s plant (EM):

EM writes: “You have been saying you need plant photos. I was just in the garden weeding when I remembered to capture this and send it to you. The pink hydrangea on the left is my favorite this year but I am also partial to the coreopsis beneath it.” I like the path, which looks like it would be nice to walk on in bare feet.

Bonus (PS):

PS writes: “Does this fill the bill?” Re Silc sent in his mobile, and Mark52 sent in his steel silhouette, and now PS. I didn’t expect a response like this. Reader, how about you?

* * *

Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the annual NC fundraiser.Remember, a tip jar is for tipping! So if you see a link you especially like, or an item you wouldn’t see anywhere else, please do not hesitate to express your appreciation in tangible form. Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know I’m on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for five or ten days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of donations helps me with expenses, and I factor in that trickle when setting fundraising goals:

Here is the screen that will appear, which I have helpfully annotated.

If you hate PayPal, you can email me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will give you directions on how to send a check. Thank you!

2:00PM Water Cooler 8/7/2019

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[abujaihs-blog]

Lifting 100m Nigerians out of poverty:Lessons from Brazil, India, China, Indonesia

However, the gains achieved by some countries with similar demographic and developmental levels (as at the 1980s) point to how Africa’s largest economy could lift almost 100 million inhabitants out of poverty. Concerns on poverty levels heightened in Nigeria in May 2018 after a report by the Brookings Institution revealed that the country took the baton from India to become home to the highest number of people living in extreme poverty in the world. At that time, Nigeria had 87 million people living in extreme poverty compared to 73 million in India. The figures worsened to over 93 million in June 2019 in Nigeria, thereby accounting for 47.7 percent of the country’s population. President Muhammadu Buhari, while addressing Nigerians at the maiden June 12 Democracy Day celebration this year, expressed optimism that the country has the potential to lift a large number of people out of extreme poverty.

“With leadership and sense of purpose, we can lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years,” Buhari said. Plans by the Federal Government to disburse N5,000 to the poor through the social intervention programme (SIP) would translate to N465 billion for each month. This means the government would spend N5.58 trillion to cater for the poor in a year. For a country challenged with revenue inflows as its major source of income has come under pressure owing to developments in the international market, the move could further worsen the nation’s current debt stock and make its plan to reduce poverty counter-productive. To ascertain the feasibility of the government’s goal to lift 100 million out of extreme poverty in the next 10 years, an international comparison of countries like Brazil, India, China, and Indonesia with remarkable wins against extreme poverty in the last few decades would help. Brazil is an upper middle-income country, and just like Nigeria, is the largest country in South America, with an estimated population of over 200 million people. The country has achieved some successes in complementing market-oriented reforms with progressive social policies which have helped it achieve a significant growth rate, bring more people into the economy, and create jobs to meet the growing demand and expectations of an expanding labour force. The new policy by the Brazilian government from the 1990s similar to the “Washington Consensus” include far-reaching reforms on macroeconomic stability, and privatisation of some state-owned enterprises thereby opening the country up for capital inflows to revive moribund state’s assets. Also implemented were fiscally prudent policies through a low government borrowing strategy. The idea was to discourage it from having high fiscal deficits relative to GDP, diversion of public spending from subsidies to important long-term growth supporting sectors like primary education, primary healthcare, and infrastructure, implementing tax reform policies to broaden the tax base and adopting moderate marginal tax rates. Part of the trade reforms adopted include selecting interest rates that are determined by the market, encouraging competitive exchange rates through freely-floating currency exchange, adoption of free trade policies. Currently, lawmakers in Brazil are debating the government’s pension reform bill, which aims to generate savings of around 1 trillion reais ($262 billion) over the next decade, shore up the public finances and stimulate investment and economic growth in the country. Also, India, the world’s second-most populous country, with the majority of poor people living in villages and rural communities, has halved its poverty rate in 10 years from 55 percent in 2005/06 to 28 percent in 2015/16. As of June 2019, less than 3 percent of Indians are below the poverty line, according to the World Poverty Clock. Until the first quarter of 2019 when the country recorded a sluggish growth rate of 5.8 percent, the Indian economy was the fastest growing major economy in the world ahead of China. This made the nation achieve a significant reduction in its poverty rate. The achievement came on the back of improved living standards through investments in human capital, better sanitation, and increased household assets propping up the country’s per capita GDP, a measure of a country’s wealth relative to each individual, from less than $400 in 1990 to $2,036 in 2018, according to the International Monetary Fund. Although there had been some efforts by India in the 1980s to create jobs and shore up its economy, the major factors that trigger poverty reduction in any economy, India’s reforms and policies for an inclusive economic growth started in early 1991. In 1991, India had an economic crisis owing to its external debt, rendering its government incapacitated to make the payments for the borrowings it had made from the foreign countries. This led the government to adopt new policy reforms to reposition the economy. The reforms were geared towards supporting the private sector players which eventually opened up the Indian economy to foreign investment, even as some other reforms focussed on restructuring the public sector. Major steps were taken in trade and industrial policy. These include a reduction in import tariffs, deregulation of markets, and reduction of taxes, making the country record increased foreign investment. As a result, foreign direct investment into the country began to increase, rising from less than $10 billion in 2005-06 to $42 billion in 2018 on the back of robust inflows into manufacturing, communication, financial services and cross-border merger and acquisition activities, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) World Investment Report 2019. This placed the country as the 10th highest recipient of FDI inflows in the world. Growth in cross-border merger and acquisitions in India grew to $33 billion in 2018 compared with $23 billion recorded a year earlier, this was driven by $16 billion worth of transactions in retail trade which includes e-commerce and telecommunication ($13 billion). Consequently, the size of the nation’s economy spiked from $1.3 trillion in 2009 to $2.6 trillion in 2017. China’s rise from a poor developing country to a major economic powerhouse has been spectacular. Since opening up its economy to foreign trade and investment and implementing free-market reforms, the Asian giant has been among the world’s fastest growing economies, with an average annual growth of 8 percent in the decade between 2001 and 2010.

China’s growth miracle is buoyed by open-door economic policy and market-oriented reforms implemented. The Chinese government established several zones for foreign investment, including special economic zones, open coastal cities, the economic and technology development zones and high-tech development zones among others. The creation of these zones provided the trigger for massive inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI), particularly from companies in Taiwan and Hong-Kong. Additional reforms, which followed in stages, sought to decentralize economic policymaking in several sectors, especially trade. Economic control of various enterprises were given to provincial and local governments, which were allowed to operate and compete on free market principles, rather than state planning control. China’s trade and investment reforms led to a surge in FDI. Such flows have been a major source of China’s productivity gains and rapid economic and trade growth, with inflows rising from $3.5 billion in 1990 to $136.2 billion in 2017, making the Asian nation the third-largest recipient of FDI worldwide. There has been a consensus that productivity gains (increased efficiency) have been another major factor in China’s rapid economic growth. The improvements to productivity were caused largely by a reallocation of resources to more productive uses, especially in sectors that were formerly heavily controlled by the central government, such as agriculture, trade, and services. Agricultural reforms boosted production, freeing workers to pursue employment in the more productive manufacturing sector. China’s decentralization of the economy led to the rise of non-state enterprises (such as private firms), which tended to pursue more productive activities than the centrally controlled enterprises and were more market-oriented and more efficient. Additionally, a greater share of the economy (mainly the export sector) was exposed to competitive forces. Local and provincial governments were allowed to establish and operate various enterprises without interference from the government. In addition, FDI in China brought with it new technology and processes that boosted efficiency. The Indonesian economy is the largest in South East Asia and simultaneously the 16th biggest global economy by nominal Gross Domestic Product. Its economy expanded some 5.2 percent in 2018. Indonesia’s poverty elimination success has seen the percentage of the country’s population living below $1.9 per day plunge between 1999 and 2017, falling from 41.7 percent to 5.7 percent according to World Bank figures. According to the world poverty clock, 5.6 Indonesians escape poverty every minute. This is above the target escape rate of 1.9 people per minute. Whereas Nigeria has 4.5 people fall into absolute poverty every minute, completely missing its target of lifting 15.5 people out of the poverty trap every minute. Indonesia’s economic reform started when it began liberalizing its economy and shifted its economy to a non-oil export oriented one with an increased focus on a broad-based economic growth that had at its center, rural development. The government focused its attention on raising productivity (of rural areas especially) by focusing on agriculture, education and transport infrastructure with little emphasis on direct transfer programs, consumer subsidies, and public employment. The government spent about a third of its development budget on improving agriculture especially rice farming in the period. The government also committed 49 percent of its oil windfall to creating social and physical infrastructure and a result, Indonesia was able to cut down the number of people in absolute poverty to 40 percent by 1976. Indonesia also embarked on a currency devaluation by the late 1970s which resulted in increased competitiveness and improved exports of non-oil commodities. The rupiah was allowed to float from late 1966 to the end of 1968, during which time it depreciated from Rp 85 per U.S. dollar to Rp 326. The move reduced the incidence of export smuggling and increased its export receipts as well as boosting the confidence of potential aid donors and of foreign investors and residents, who repatriated capital that had previously been in flight. As a result by the late 1980s, Indonesia was able to stand on equal footing with Nigeria given its export-oriented and labor-intensive growth that increased employment and private investment.

Indonesia also passed into law two policies to encourage foreign investment. In addition, rural development strategy of improved spending on education, health and water hygiene proved to be a success as rural areas where most of the poor lived, grew at a faster rate than in urban centers. The current national framework for poverty reduction Rencana Pembangunan Jangka Panjang Nasional (RPJMN) which started in 2015 and is expected to end in 2019 focuses on reducing poverty by making economic growth more inclusive. The plan anchors on job creation and improving the business environment to increase investment in labor-intensive industries and small enterprise. The government also outlined plans to develop basic infrastructure which would support economic activities as well as aid rural settlements and hinterlands. In addition, the government noted it would improve on the delivery of basic social services including education and health to the poor as well as roll out more comprehensive and better targeted social protection programs. The plan outlines an ambition to reduce income disparity between income group. Source: businessdayng Read the full article

[chrissyglikesbooks]

88 Crazy Things You Probably Didn't Know About Australia

1. Australia is as wide as the distance between London to Moscow.

2. The biggest property in Australia is bigger than Belgium.

3. More than 85% of Australians live within 50km of the coast.

4. In 1880, Melbourne was the richest city in the world.

5. Gina Rinehart, Australia's richest woman, earns $1 million every half hour, or $598 every second.

6. In 1892, a group of 200 Australians unhappy with the government tried to start an offshoot colony in Paraguay to be called 'New Australia'.

7. The first photos from the 1969 moon landing were beamed to the rest of the world from Honeysuckle Tracking Station, near Canberra.

8. Australia was the second country in the world to allow women to vote (New Zealand was first).

9. Each week, 70 tourists overstay their visas.

10. In 1856, stonemasons took action to ensure a standard of 8-hour working days, which then became recognised worldwide.

11. Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke set a world record for sculling 2.5 pints of beer in 11 seconds. Hawke later suggested that this was the reason for his great political success.

12. The world's oldest fossil, which is about 3.4 billion years old, was found in Australia.

13. Australia is very sparsely populated: The UK has 248.25 persons per square kilometre, while Australia has only 2.66 persons per square kilometre.

14. Australia's first police force was made up of the most well-behaved convicts.

15. Australia has the highest electricity prices in the world.

16. There were over one million feral camels in outback Australia, until the government launched the $19m Feral Camel Management Program, which aims to keep the pest problem under control.

17. Saudi Arabia imports camels from Australia (mostly for meat production).

18. Qantas once powered an interstate flight with cooking oil.

19. Per capita, Australians spend more money on gambling than any other nation.

20. In 1832, 300 female convicts mooned the governor of Tasmania. It was said that in a "rare moment of collusion with the Convict women, the ladies in the Governor's party could not control their laughter."

21. Australia is home to the longest fence in the world. It is 5,614 km long, and was originally built to keep dingoes away from fertile land.

22. Australia was one of the founding members of the United Nations.

23. Melbourne is considered the sporting capital of the world, as it has more top level sport available for its citizens than anywhere else.

24. Before the arrival of humans, Australia was home to mega fauna: three metre tall kangaroos, seven metre long goannas, horse-sized ducks, and a marsupial lion the size of a leopard.

25. Kangaroos and emus cannot walk backward, one of the reasons that they're on the Australian coat of arms.

26. Speaking of, Australia is one of the only countries where we eat the animals on our coat of arms.

27. If you visited one new beach in Australia every day, it would take over 27 years to see them all.

28. Melbourne has the world's largest Greek population outside of Athens.

29. The Great Barrier Reef is the planet's largest living structure.

30. And it has it's own postbox!

31. The male platypus has strong enough venom to kill a small dog.

32. And when the platypus was first sent to England, it was believed the Australians had played a joke by sewing the bill of a duck onto a rat.

33. Before 1902, it was illegal to swim at the beach during the day.

34. A retired cavalry officer, Francis De Groot stole the show when the Sydney Harbour Bridge officially opened. Just as the Premier was about to cut the ribbon, De Groot charged forward on his horse and cut it himself, with his sword. The ribbon had to be retied, and De Groot was carted off to a mental hospital. He was later charged for the cost of one ribbon.

35. Australia has 3.3x more sheep than people.

36. Prime Minister Harold Holt went for a swim at Cheviot Beach, and was never seen again.

37. Australia's national anthem was 'God Save The King/Queen' until 1984.

38. Wombat poop is cube shaped! This helps it mark its territory.

39. European settlers in Australia drank more alcohol per capita than any other society in history.

40. The Australian Alps receive more snowfall than Switzerland.

41. A kangaroo is only one centimetre long when it is born.

42. Sir John Robertson, a five-time premier of NSW in the 1800s, began every morning with half a pint of rum. He said: "None of the men who in this country have left footprints behind them have been cold water men."

43. The Box jellyfish has killed more people in Australia than stonefish, sharks and crocodiles combined.

44. Tasmania has the cleanest air in the world.

45. The average Aussie drinks 96 litres of beer per year.

46. 63% of Australians are overweight.

47. Australia is ranked second on the Human Development Index (based on life expectancy, income and education).

48. In 2005, security guards at Canberra's Parliament House were banned from calling people 'mate'. It lasted one day.

49. In Australia, it is illegal to walk on the right-hand side of a footpath.

50. Australia is the only continent in the world without an active volcano.

51. Aussie Rules footy was originally designed to help cricketers to keep fit in the off-season.

52. The name 'Kylie' came from an Aboriginal hunting stick, similar to the boomerang.

53. 91% of the country is covered by native vegetation.

54. The largest-ever victory in an international football match was when Australia beat American Samoa 31-0 in 2001.

55. There are 60 designated wine regions in Australia.

56. Melbourne has been ranked the world's most liveable city for the past three years.

57. If all the sails of the Opera House roof were combined, they would create a perfect sphere. The architect was inspired while eating an orange.

58. Australia is home to 20% of the world's poker machines.

59. Half of these are found in New South Wales.

60. Moomba, Australia's largest free festival, held in Melbourne, means 'up your bum' in many Aboriginal languages.

61. No native Australian animals have hooves.

62. The performance by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the 2000 Olympics opening ceremony was actually a prerecording- of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

63. The wine cask (goon sack) is an Australian invention

64. So is the selfie.

65. Durack, Australia's biggest electorate, is larger in size than Mongolia.

66. The world's first compulsory seat belt law was put into place in Victoria in 1970.

67. Each year, Brisbane hosts the world championships of cockroach racing.

68. In 1932, the Australian military waged war on the emu population of Western Australia. Embarrassingly, they lost.

69. Canberra was created in 1908 as a compromise when Sydney and Melbourne both wanted to be the capital city.

70. A gay bar in Melbourne won the right to ban women from the premises, because they made the men uncomfortable.

71. In 1992, an Australian gambling syndicate bought almost all the number combinations in a Virginia lottery, and won. They turned a $5m purchase into a $27m win.

72. Eucalyptus oil is highly flammable, meaning gum trees may explode if ignited, or in bushfires.

73. In 1975, Australia had a government shutdown, which ended with the Queen firing everyone and the government starting again.

74. A bearded Australian was removed from a darts match in the UK, after the audience started chanting 'Jesus!' at him, distracting the players.

75. There have been instances of wallabies getting high after breaking into opium crops, then running around and making what look like crop circles.

76. An Australian man once tried to sell New Zealand on eBay.

77. In 1940, two aircraft collided in midair, in NSW. Instead of crashing, the two planes became stuck together and made a safe landing.

78. The male lyrebird, which is native to Australia, can mimic the calls of over 20 other birds. If that's not impressive enough, he can also perfectly imitate the sound of a camera, chainsaw and car alarm.

79. Some shopping centres and restaurants play classical music in their car park to deter teenagers from loitering at night.

80. Despite sharing the same verbal language, Australian, British and American sign language are all completely different languages.

81. In 1979, debris from NASA's space station 'Skylab' crashed in Esperance, WA. The town then fined NASA $400 for littering.

82. There have been no deaths in Australia from a spider bite since 1979.

83. There currently a chlamydia outbreak among koala species, which has led to a 15% drop in koala populations.

84. In NSW, there is a coal fire beneath the ground which has been burning for 5,500 years.

85. An Australian election TV debate was rescheduled so it didn't conflict with the finale of reality cooking show Masterchef.

86. Chinese explorers travelled to Australia long before Europeans arrived. As early as the 1400s, sailors and fisherman came to Australia for sea-cucumbers and to trade with Indigenous peoples.

87. The first European to visit Australia was Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon, in 1606. More Dutch explorers visited the country over the next hundred years, plotting maps and naming it 'New Holland'.

88. Captain James Cook first landed on Australia's east coast in 1770. In 1788, the British returned with eleven ships to establish a penal colony. Within days of The First Fleet's arrival and the raising of the British flag, two French ships arrived, just too late to claim Australia for France.