CDC Covid messaging has persistently lagged behind scientific findings

CDC Covid messaging has persistently lagged behind scientific findings

STAT reports: Nearly a year ago, amid concerns about how to prevent transmission of the virus causing Covid-19, scientists were beginning to conclude that rigorous disinfection of surfaces — say, fogging them or deep-cleaning with bleach — was overkill. Academics were warning that the risk of so-called fomite transmission was wildly overblown. In the fall, research from Israel and Italy found that the virus couldn’t even be cultured from surfaces in hospital infectious disease units. By February of this year,…

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Biden administration approves nation’s first major offshore wind farm

Biden administration approves nation’s first major offshore wind farm

The New York Times reports: Construction on the nation’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm is expected to begin this summer, after the Biden administration gave final approval Tuesday to a project it hopes will herald a new era of wind energy across the United States. The Vineyard Wind project calls for up to 84 turbines to be installed in the Atlantic Ocean about 12 nautical miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. Together, they could generate about 800 megawatts…

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Efforts to weed out extremists in law enforcement meet resistance

Efforts to weed out extremists in law enforcement meet resistance

The New York Times reports: In the battle to stamp out extremism from the ranks of the police, lawmakers from California to Minnesota have proposed solutions they thought were straightforward. Some laws would empower the police to do more robust background checks of recruits, letting them vet social media to make sure new officers were not members of hate groups. Other laws would make it easier for departments to fire officers with ties to extremists. But legislators working to get…

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Microbes are a missing piece in the biodiversity puzzle

Microbes are a missing piece in the biodiversity puzzle

Ian Morse writes: Scientists are clear: the number of plant and animal species on Earth is declining. The climate crisis, habitat loss, pollution and the illegal wildlife trade are all pushing species toward extinction. Researchers especially worry that losing too much biodiversity could push the earth past a tipping point into irreversible change, and on into a new paradigm in which humanity and other life can’t survive. Which partly explains humanity’s self-interest and urgency in understanding and maintaining global biodiversity….

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Critics urge Biden to step up as violence spreads in Israel

Critics urge Biden to step up as violence spreads in Israel

Politico reports: President Joe Biden and his aides have signaled that they believe stepping back from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to focus on more direct threats to America is in the U.S. national interest. But, as an outcry in Congress and beyond over an escalating, bloody crisis in Jerusalem shows, walking away may not be in Biden’s political interest. Weeks of tensions between Israelis and Palestinians over access to holy sites and the potential eviction of several Palestinian families from east…

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What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is mine too

What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is mine too

B. Michael writes: It’s happening once again, this time in Sheikh Jarrah. Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes in West Jerusalem are slated to be evicted from their homes in East Jerusalem too. Why? Because the homes in which they’ve legally resided for 160 years or more were built on land that was once owned by Jews. On the face of it, it is merely a real estate dispute. But in actuality, it is an event that…

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Why Confederate lies live on

Why Confederate lies live on

Clint Smith writes: Most of the people who come to Blandford Cemetery, in Petersburg, Virginia, come for the windows—masterpieces of Tiffany glass in the cemetery’s deconsecrated church. One morning before the pandemic, I took a tour of the church along with two other visitors and our tour guide, Ken. When my eyes adjusted to the hazy darkness inside, I could see that in each window stood a saint, surrounded by dazzling bursts of blues and greens and violets. Below these…

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Russian spy unit suspected of directed-energy attacks on U.S. personnel

Russian spy unit suspected of directed-energy attacks on U.S. personnel

Politico reports: U.S. officials suspect that a notorious Russian spy agency may be behind alleged attacks that are causing mysterious health issues among U.S. government personnel across the world, according to three current and former officials with direct knowledge of the discussions. Officials do not have a smoking gun linking Russia’s military intelligence unit, the GRU, to the suspected directed-energy incidents, said the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly. The intelligence community has not reached a consensus or…

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DarkSide hackers say the Colonial Pipeline cyber attack was only about the money — not politics

DarkSide hackers say the Colonial Pipeline cyber attack was only about the money — not politics

Reuters reports: The ransomware gang accused of crippling the leading US fuel pipeline operator has said it never meant to create havoc, an unusual statement that experts said was a sign the cyber criminals’ scheme had gone awry. Colonial says services will be “substantially” restored by the end of the week The FBI accused the group calling itself DarkSide of a digital extortion attempt that prompted Colonial Pipeline to shut down its network, potentially causing extraordinary disruption as gasoline deliveries…

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To be more tech-savvy, borrow these strategies from the Amish

To be more tech-savvy, borrow these strategies from the Amish

Alex Mayyasi writes: Despite growing up within driving distance of Amish Country, I never expected to see the Amish as a source of tech-savvy guidance. A decentralised religious group with roots in Germany and Switzerland, the Amish immigrated to the US in the 1700s – mainly to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where they remain a regular sight, sporting simple outfits, working on family farms, and driving horse-drawn buggies. Many Americans think of them as Luddites who make nice wooden furniture. For…

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Neanderthals carb loaded, helping grow their big brains

Neanderthals carb loaded, helping grow their big brains

Science reports: Here’s another blow to the popular image of Neanderthals as brutish meat eaters: A new study of bacteria collected from Neanderthal teeth shows that our close cousins ate so many roots, nuts, or other starchy foods that they dramatically altered the type of bacteria in their mouths. The finding suggests our ancestors had adapted to eating lots of starch by at least 600,000 years ago—about the same time as they needed more sugars to fuel a big expansion…

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Covid lays bare the price of populism

Covid lays bare the price of populism

Uri Friedman writes: As populism has experienced a resurgence in recent years, many have focused on the hazards the ideology poses to democratic systems. But today’s complex and highly technical global threats—pandemics, climate change, cyberattacks, financial crises—that demand technocratic solutions have driven home a grim reality: Populism can place us all at risk. In 2018, a burst of anger over government corruption propelled a populist politician named Jair Bolsonaro to Brazil’s presidency. Brazil, which is currently suffering from one of…

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Fevers are plaguing the oceans — and climate change is making them worse

Fevers are plaguing the oceans — and climate change is making them worse

Nature reports: Ten years ago, dead fish began washing ashore on the beaches of Western Australia. The culprit was a huge swathe of unusually warm water that ravaged kelp forests and scores of commercially important marine creatures, from abalone to scallops to lobster. Over the following weeks, some of Western Australia’s most lucrative fisheries came close to being wiped out. To this day, some of them have not recovered. After the crisis, scientists came together to assess the damage and…

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Push to electrify mail trucks gains wide support, an unlikely win for both DeJoy and Biden

Push to electrify mail trucks gains wide support, an unlikely win for both DeJoy and Biden

The Washington Post reports: House Democratic leaders are lining up behind a White House push to allocate $8 billion in taxpayer funding for the latest iteration of mail truck, paving the way for a fully electric fleet instead of the piecemeal strategy U.S. Postal Service leaders have been pursuing. The agency, which is generally self-sustaining and does not draw public money, has drawn up a bootstrap plan for new vehicles — the vast majority of which would run on gas…

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