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Your livewired brain makes you a different person every day

Your livewired brain makes you a different person every day

Steve Paulson writes: Brain “plasticity” is one of the great discoveries in modern science, but neuroscientist David Eagleman thinks the word is misleading. Unlike plastic, which molds and then retains a particular shape, the brain’s physical structure is continually in flux. But Eagleman can’t avoid the word. “The whole literature uses that term plasticity, so I use it sparingly,” he says. Eagleman also discounts computer analogies to the brain. He’s coined the term “livewired” (the title of his new book)…

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As the world gets hotter, the divide between rich and poor gets bigger

As the world gets hotter, the divide between rich and poor gets bigger

Vann R. Newkirk II writes: Consider the cantaloupe. It’s a decent melon. If you, like me, are the sort who constantly mixes them up, cantaloupes are the orange ones, and honeydews are green. If you, like me, are old enough to remember vacations, you might have had them along with their cousin, watermelon, at a hotel’s breakfast buffet. Those spreads are not as bad as you remember, especially when it’s hot out; add a couple of cold bagels and a…

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U.S. coronavirus cases climb toward a third peak

U.S. coronavirus cases climb toward a third peak

The New York Times reports: The number of new coronavirus cases in the United States is surging once again after growth slowed in late summer. While the geography of the pandemic is now shifting to the Midwest and to more rural areas, cases are trending upward in most states, many of which are setting weekly records for new cases. The charts and maps below offer a snapshot of two earlier peaks of the pandemic, as well as where case counts…

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Anti-Biden disinformation decried by disinformation and security experts

Anti-Biden disinformation decried by disinformation and security experts

Patrick Tucker writes: Disinformation watchers on Wednesday were quick to point out the deeply problematic nature of the [New York Post] story and urge journalists and news outlets to be careful in how they covered it. Peter Singer, a strategist at New America and the co-author of LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media, a book about disinformation, tweeted: “as I read stories like this, it makes me reflect on what some in media (especially on security beat) have learned from…

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The inside story of how Trump’s Covid-19 coordinator, Deborah Birx, undermined the world’s top health agency

The inside story of how Trump’s Covid-19 coordinator, Deborah Birx, undermined the world’s top health agency

Science magazine reports: On the morning of 13 July, more than 20 COVID-19 experts from across the U.S. government assembled in a conference room at the Department of Health and Human Services, steps from the Capitol. The group conferred on how best to gather key data on available beds and supplies of medicine and protective gear from thousands of hospitals. Around the table, masks concealed their expressions, but with COVID-19 cases surging out of control in some parts of the…

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Trump tramples government boundaries as he gets desperate

Trump tramples government boundaries as he gets desperate

Politico reports: The farther behind Donald Trump has fallen in the competition for campaign dollars, the more he’s milked government resources to make up the difference. Millions of boxes of food doled out to needy families — with letters signed by the president taking credit stuffed inside. An $8 billion program for drug-discount cards to seniors featuring Trump branding — intended to arrive before the Nov. 3 election. A $300 million advertising blitz to “defeat despair” over the coronavirus pandemic…

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Rupert Murdoch sees Trump as his own worst enemy and predicts a landslide win for Biden

Rupert Murdoch sees Trump as his own worst enemy and predicts a landslide win for Biden

The Daily Beast reports: President Trump’s influential supporter Rupert Murdoch is telling close associates he believes Joe Biden will win the election in a landslide. The Australian-born billionaire is disgusted by Trump’s handling of COVID-19, remarking that the president is his own worst enemy, that he is not listening to advice about how best to handle the pandemic, and that he’s creating a never-ending crisis for his administration, according to three people who have spoken with Murdoch. In response to…

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GOP Sen. Sasse says Trump ‘kisses dictators’ butts’ and mocks evangelicals

GOP Sen. Sasse says Trump ‘kisses dictators’ butts’ and mocks evangelicals

The Washington Examiner reports: Republican Sen. Ben Sasse excoriated President Trump in a telephone conference call with constituents this week, saying he had mishandled the coronavirus response, “kisses dictators’ butts,” “sells out our allies,” spends “like a drunken sailor,” mistreats women, and trash-talks evangelicals behind their backs. Trump has “flirted with white supremacists,” according to Sasse, and his family “treated the presidency like a business opportunity.” He said Trump could drive the Senate into the hand of the Democrats and…

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White House agrees with Dr Johnny Bananas and Dr Person Fakename that coronavirus should be allowed to spread

White House agrees with Dr Johnny Bananas and Dr Person Fakename that coronavirus should be allowed to spread

The New York Times reports: The White House has embraced a declaration by a group of scientists arguing that authorities should allow the coronavirus to spread among young healthy people while protecting the elderly and the vulnerable — an approach that would rely on arriving at “herd immunity” through infections rather than a vaccine. Many experts say “herd immunity” — the point at which a disease stops spreading because nearly everyone in a population has contracted it — is still…

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Trump’s Covid-19 task force is now openly rebelling against him

Trump’s Covid-19 task force is now openly rebelling against him

The Daily Beast reports: Standing outside one of the main buildings on the University of Connecticut campus last week, Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, let out an exasperated sigh through her peach-colored face mask. Birx had been traveling almost non-stop since June, working with local and state officials to develop area-specific strategies for slowing the spread of the highly contagious virus. Connecticut was her 32nd state and, as in the others, she was peppered there with…

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Rudy’s questionable Hunter Biden emails from a questionable source

Rudy’s questionable Hunter Biden emails from a questionable source

Jonathan Chait writes: Rudy Giuliani has spent at least two years attempting to find some kind of Ukrainian dirt that can be used to discredit Joe Biden. Now he has unveiled his October surprise: emails, or images of what purport to be emails, between Hunter Biden and Burisma officials. The conservative New York Post has a credulous account of how Rudy came across these emails. The Post claims somebody brought the computer to a repair shop in Delaware, but then…

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How a more conservative Supreme Court could impact environmental laws

How a more conservative Supreme Court could impact environmental laws

E&E News reports: Barrett, who currently serves on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, has a relatively slim record on climate and environmental matters. But if she is confirmed to the high court, Barrett, 48, likely would lock up a conservative coalition there, legal experts said. That bloc could smooth the path for future environmental rollbacks or make it more difficult to expand emissions regulations through a broad reading of statutory authority. “I view Barrett being added to the…

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An autoimmune-like antibody response is linked with severe COVID-19

An autoimmune-like antibody response is linked with severe COVID-19

Are patients with severe COVID-19 victims of their own immune response? JOAQUIN SARMIENTO/Getty Images By Matthew Woodruff, Emory University In the earliest days of the pandemic, many immunologists, including me, assumed that patients who produced high quantities of antibodies early in infection would be free from disease. We were wrong. Several months into studying COVID-19, like other scientists, I’ve come to realize the picture is far more complicated. A recent research study published by my colleagues and me adds more…

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How do pandemics end? History suggests diseases fade but are almost never truly gone

How do pandemics end? History suggests diseases fade but are almost never truly gone

The COVID-19 new normal might be here for quite some time. SolStock/E+ via Getty Images By Nükhet Varlik, University of South Carolina When will the pandemic end? All these months in, with over 37 million COVID-19 cases and more than 1 million deaths globally, you may be wondering, with increasing exasperation, how long this will continue. Since the beginning of the pandemic, epidemiologists and public health specialists have been using mathematical models to forecast the future in an effort to…

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