Posts posted by bolverk
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1 hour ago, Onboard 2.0 said:
They should have applied for a gender fluidity study, they'd have received millions....
Better yet, make them study the fluidity of the true/false scale so they can better ascertain the veracity of claims regarding the timing of a "state of emergency" declaration by the governor of Virginia.
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1 hour ago, HenryJames said:
Is there any way that these appointments can be "disappointed"? Asking specifically about that Ric Grenell one. You know, the former ambassador to Germany who caused a rift in diplomatic relations, because he cozied up to the anti-semitic Alternative fur Deutschland party. His appointment to the Holocaust Memorial is some serious Kuhscheisse.
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The blurb I read said he'd be the state's first Latino senator and so I can see how there could've been some pressure to go that route since they comprise something like 40% of California's population.
But that doesn't interest me so much as what this dude's political track record or general outlook is.
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PBS News Hour had a good segment last night on the sharp rise in murders across the country:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/whats-behind-a-sharp-rise-in-murders-across-the-u-s
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4 minutes ago, Cheeseweasel said:
Depression makes people do strange things. What could be more depressing than losing your employment and getting $600 bucks as compensation?
I don't disagree, because I've been there and have suffered from severe depression during a time of unemployment and nearly spiraled into a full-blown state of chronic, debilitating alcoholism. Hell, working full-time alone at home is depressing enough. So, yeah, I understand and also agree that $600 is a paltry sum as compensation for so much suffering. There were many in Congress who had been advocating for a larger amount and proposed a bill all the way back in May as a second stimulus package. It's too bad that others were opposed, held it up for seven months, and ended up reducing that sum. Now, just imagine where we'd be if we had full compliance for 100% mask-wearing at in-door public places and proper social distancing to help mitigate the spread and the loss of life thereby lowering the number of people who are depressed.
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From the AP:
US deaths in 2020 top 3 million, by far most ever counted
NEW YORK (AP) — This is the deadliest year in U.S. history, with deaths expected to top 3 million for the first time — due mainly to the coronavirus pandemic.
Final mortality data for this year will not be available for months. But preliminary numbers suggest that the United States is on track to see more than 3.2 million deaths this year, or at least 400,000 more than in 2019.
U.S. deaths increase most years, so some annual rise in fatalities is expected. But the 2020 numbers amount to a jump of about 15%, and could go higher once all the deaths from this month are counted.
That would mark the largest single-year percentage leap since 1918, when tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers died in World War I and hundreds of thousands of Americans died in a flu pandemic. Deaths rose 46% that year, compared with 1917.
COVID-19 has killed more than 318,000 Americans and counting. Before it came along, there was reason to be hopeful about U.S. death trends.
The nation’s overall mortality rate fell a bit in 2019, due to reductions in heart disease and cancer deaths. And life expectancy inched up — by several weeks — for the second straight year, according to death certificate data released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But life expectancy for 2020 could end up dropping as much as three full years, said Robert Anderson of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC counted 2,854,838 U.S. deaths last year, or nearly 16,000 more than 2018. That’s fairly good news: Deaths usually rise by about 20,000 to 50,000 each year, mainly due to the nation’s aging, and growing, population.
Indeed, the age-adjusted death rate dropped about 1% in 2019, and life expectancy rose by about six weeks to 78.8 years, the CDC reported.
“It was actually a pretty good year for mortality, as things go,” said Anderson, who oversees CDC death statistics.
The U.S. coronavirus epidemic has been a big driver of deaths this year, both directly and indirectly.
The virus was first identified in China last year, and the first U.S. cases were reported this year. But it has become the third leading cause of death, behind only heart disease and cancer. For certain periods this year, COVID-19 was the No. 1 killer.
But some other types of deaths also have increased.
A burst of pneumonia cases early this year may have been COVID-19 deaths that simply weren’t recognized as such early in the epidemic. But there also have been an unexpected number of deaths from certain types of heart and circulatory diseases, diabetes and dementia, Anderson said.
Many of those, too, may be related to COVID. The virus could have weakened patients already struggling with those conditions, or could have diminished the care they were getting, he said.
Early in the epidemic, some were optimistic that car crash deaths would drop as people stopped commuting or driving to social events. Data on that is not yet in, but anecdotal reports suggest there was no such decline.
Suicide deaths dropped in 2019 compared with 2018, but early information suggests they have not continued to drop this year, Anderson and others said.
Drug overdose deaths, meanwhile, got much worse.
Before the coronavirus even arrived, the U.S. was in the midst of the deadliest drug overdose epidemic in its history.
Data for all of 2020 is not yet available. But last week the CDC reported more than 81,000 drug overdose deaths in the 12 months ending in May, making it the highest number ever recorded in a one-year period.
Experts think the pandemic’s disruption to in-person treatment and recovery services may have been a factor. People also are more likely to be taking drugs alone — without the benefit of a friend or family member who can call 911 or administer overdose-reversing medication.
But perhaps a bigger factor are the drugs themselves: COVID-19 caused supply problems for dealers, so they are increasingly mixing cheap and deadly fentanyl into heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine, experts said.
“I don’t suspect there are a bunch of new people who suddenly started using drugs because of COVID. If anything, I think the supply of people who are already using drugs is more contaminated,” said Shannon Monnat, a Syracuse University researcher who studies drug overdose trends.
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6 minutes ago, Anastasis said:
Mom is recovered. Sister did an excellent job in getting her taken care of and has now gone back to Denver.
Dad is still in the hospital where they expect him to be a couple of more weeks. At 83, I'm afraid it's going to be a slow process and am pretty sure he'll need some PT to build back up some of his muscle strength after lying in a hospital bed for a little over three weeks now.
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1 hour ago, blacklab said:
If they incorporate they have to provide sewer, water and garbage. The cost of sewage and water will take a long, long time to recover and we have to spend our money removing lanes from streets, not doing something that is good for the long term of the city.
As an unproductive and unhelpful aside, whenever I see your avatar now I briefly think she's got a pacifier in her mouth and that makes me feel a little funny in my underpants.
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2 hours ago, Viper said:
My god that was amazing. One question, did not katan just die? I don't remember seeing her get up after gideon unloaded on her
That's what I thought at first, but in the final scene when they showed the whole crew together she was standing there. I'm a little confused, because there was a Mandalorian chick who definitely looked like she was shot to death by Gideon. Reading through this thread though, folks are mentioning a third Mandalorian chick who wasn't part of the fight in taking the ship and bridge.
I dunno, man. Maybe someone with keener eyes will weigh in.
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22 minutes ago, Gatorubet said:
They're currently looking for a permanent headquarters for the U.S. Space Command for our Space Force Guardians. The finalists are Redstone Army Airfield (Huntsville, AL), Port San Antonio fka Kelly AFB, Patrick AFB (next to Cape Canaveral), Offutt AFB (Omaha), and Peterson AFB (Colorado Springs) near the Air Force Academy...so maybe?
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1 hour ago, Pato del Muerto said:
With or without reapportioning, how would it look if each district voted on its EC vote, and statewide vote was used for the 2 senate EC votes?
I assume that would currently slant red based on the number of red states and the relative even split of the US house.
While that would make some sense for a hybrid-type of model that would be slightly more representative, it could still be easily corrupted by the continued gerrymandering of districts which is almost completely up to the individual states - especially now that the Civil Rights Act has been gutted.



Nashville explosion
in Daily Texan
Streetview during happier times.