Stop the Idiocracy: Korea

Showing posts with label Korea. Show all posts

Monday, April 17, 2023

President Biden’s industrial policy begins to bear fruit

Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

‘The US appears poised for a manufacturing boom as companies tap into Biden administration subsidies with pledges to spend tens of billions of dollars on new projects.’ {FT 4/17} - https://www.ft.com/content/b6cd46de-52d6-4641-860b-5f2c1b0c5622

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

The most common variety of Russian war crimes, North Korea takes being a hermit kingdom to another level, and Elon Musk buys Twitter

Omar Marques/Getty Images

Rape: The war crime that goes mostly unpunished - Russian men are nearly all brutes, rarely to be trusted. Make no mistake, rape is a deliberate tactic and is sanctioned by the Kremlin itself. It is hardly the first time in history Russians have used rape as a weapon, nor are they the only nation that has done so to its enemies. Obviously, for the women of Ukraine. Quote: ‘What’s happening in Ukraine is one of the worst large-scale campaigns of sexual violence in war since Islamic State’s attacks on the Yezidi minority in Iraq in 2014.’ (Ruth Pollard, Bloomberg 4/19)

North Korea remains one of only two countries on earth not to have administered COVID-19 vaccines - The hermit kingdom was offered millions of doses by the UN and China, and turned them down. Information concerning current conditions there is spotty, but none of what is known or highly suspected is good. The small African nation of Eritrea is the only other country not to have administered vaccines to citizens. (Washington Post 4/24)

Getty Images/BBC

Elon Musk buys Twitter for $44 billion - As of right now, I’m not terribly concerned about this and am not leaving Twitter, but I’ll be among the many watching this guy like a hawk. ‘Free speech’ is fine, but he’d be well-advised not to give any more openings to liars, disinfo agents, and those engaging in hate speech. Yes, ‘hate speech,’ just as with ‘free speech,’ can be wrongly defined in a lot of ways; but blatant and open racism is really not at all hard to detect. Same goes for sedition. (BBC 4/26)

Andriy Khlyvnyuk/Pink Floyd

Hey Hey Rise Up - Dozed off sometime around 9 p.m. on Monday night, and woke up just before 11 p.m. out of a nightmare - that my neighborhood just outside of Boston was bombed. I do not have vivid, lifelike dreams too often, but they do happen and this one was a bit too much. I woke up sweating, and my head is still pounding as I write this (just after Midnight on Tuesday morning.) I have had visions of calamity come upon me in the past, and they are always physically and mentally exhausting. And, at those moments, I have to remind myself that it’s nothing next to the destruction we are seeing overseas. For the people of Ukraine, the nightmare is their daily reality. Please pray for the Ukrainian people. And continue to stream and download ‘Hey Hey Rise Up,’ as all proceeds go to relief efforts. Every click is meaningful, and may even save a life or two. Слава Україні

Sunday, December 19, 2021

Americans in their 40s, 50s, and 60s suffer worse ‘depression and worse memory recall than older Americans did when they were the same age,’ a phenomenon not seen in better-educated countries

Alamy

Well, I’m 43, and have had the misfortune of spending my entire life in this rotting cesspool. And I’m not a happy man. Nor am I even able to recall what my name is half the time, and that is only somewhat of an exaggeration. I suppose I am not the only one beyond frustrated with all the noise, gaslighting, and degradation we must endure for the ‘privilege’ of being an American. Via Arizona State University -

Middle-aged adults in the United States today experience worse mental health than older generations of Americans and also their European and Asian peers.
To understand what is happening with middle-aged American adults, a research team led by Arizona State University scientists compared middle age across different cultures and periods of time.
The study examined how physical and mental health in midlife changed over time and in different countries. American adults currently in their 40s, 50s and early 60s have more symptoms of depression and worse memory recall than older Americans did when they were the same age. This pattern was found in Australian middle-aged adults but not in those living in Germany, South Korea or Mexico.
Years of education was associated with better mental health in midlife, but the strength of this buffering effect has waned for Americans currently in their 40s, 50s and 60s relative to older American generations and to middle-aged adults in Australia, Germany, South Korea and Mexico.
This work was published on Dec. 16 in American Psychologist. (Read more)

Sunday, January 10, 2021

Week in review, 01/04 - 01/10

Photo: Reuters

When one stops and thinks about it, it’s just amazing. Never have any of us seen a presidency implode like this. And let us pray we never see it again ...

Video timeline: How pro-Trump insurrectionists broke into the U.S. Capitol

‘An effort to subjugate American democracy by mob rule.’ General Mattis directly blames Trump for security breach in the U.S. Capitol, says ‘Mr. Trump will deservedly be left a man without a country’

People are tired of chaos. May a quieter and saner decade be ahead: The majority of Americans want Trump removed immediately after U.S. Capitol violence

‘Snowflakery for me, but not for thee.’ Jonah Goldberg: American Benghazi

Historian Michael Brenner: ‘As the German example warns us, however, knocking down an insurrection does not yet mean winning the fight for democracy. This fight will go on until our politicians learn the crucial lessons from the past’

A blatant a**hole who was just begging to have someone knock him down. It was written all over his face and in his demeanor: Arkansas man who invaded Speaker Pelosi’s office as part of the raid on the U.S. Capitol is charged with multiple crimes

‘Multiple air traffic controllers in New York heard a chilling threat Monday in audio obtained exclusively by CBS News: "We are flying a plane into the Capitol on Wednesday. Soleimani will be avenged”’

‘(S)cientists are warily watching a different variant found in South Africa, but not yet reported in the U.S. There have been some reports that the mutation might make treatments called “monoclonal antibodies” less likely to work’

‘States with laws mandating flu shots for hospital workers saw reductions in deaths from influenza and pneumonia annually across their populations, a study published ... by the Annals of Internal Medicine found’

The Biden administration plans COVID-19 vaccination blitz shortly after Inauguration Day

‘There have been 431 new COVID-19 cases among students and staff in Massachusetts schools in the last week, according to the latest data from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’

Pfizer and other top pharmaceutical companies raise drug prices, and ‘it is expected that further drug price increases are to be announced in early January as the pandemic continues to hit companies in 2021’