This day in 1815: The Mount Tambora volcano begins a three-month-long eruption, lasting until July 15. The eruption ultimately kills 71,000 people and affects Earth’s climate for the next two years.
And in 1963, 129 people die when the submarine USS Thresher sinks at sea.
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A year and a half since fires devastated the historic town of Lahaina on the island of Maui, Hawaii, only six houses have been rebuilt—six out of more than 2,000. The main challenge now is dealing with a crushing permitting regime that slows or outright bans construction. But local political dysfunction has discouraged state and local leaders from taking emergency action to cut through this red tape.
Many of the buildings are illegal to rebuild under the current zoning laws.
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A year and a half since fires devastated the historic town of Lahaina on the island of Maui, Hawaii, only six houses have been rebuilt—six out of more than 2,000. The main challenge now is dealing with a crushing permitting regime that slows or outright bans construction. But local political dysfunction has discouraged state and local leaders from taking emergency action to cut through this red tape.
Many of the buildings are illegal to rebuild under the current zoning laws.
***
Great Britain is home to 170+ unicorns and boasts the third largest tech ecosystem in the world.
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America’s cattle supply is at its lowest level since 1951
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Notes (Others)
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off (the) shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die."-the last words of character Roy Batty (portrayed by Rutger Hauer) in the 1982 Ridley Scott film Blade Runner. This speech is not in the book.
*
In 2024, Missouri passed a ballot initiative that overturned a near-total abortion ban and made abortion legal in the state until the point of viability, thanks in part to millions of dollars in foreign funding.
Proponents of the measure far outspent their opponents, with more than $31 million spent on getting voters to support the ballot measure.
That includes millions of dollars in foreign funds contributed to the “Vote Yes” campaign by the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a D.C.-based dark money group that has taken nearly $300 million from Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss. The group was one of the top donors to the ballot initiative, with $4.6 million spent.
While foreign money is banned in elections, it is allowed in ballot initiatives.
As an aside, who are these people, and why do they want to influence the inner workings of our government? $300 million is a lot of caring.
*
Marine Le Pen was at the heart of an embezzlement scheme that led to her election ban.
A review of court documents, emails, and testimony from her trial shows how the French far-right leader was at the center of a system to create phony contracts that directed the equivalent of $4.8 million in EU funding to her inner circle and party officials. Although it's peanuts compared to $300 million.
*
North Korea has swiped more than $6 billion in cryptocurrency over the past decade—a sum so large that no one else compares.
The country’s hackers are both patient and brazen. To get into companies’ computers, they comb through employees’ Facebook and Instagram pages and invent tailor-made stories to trick them into clicking on links with viruses. Some North Korean hackers have even become employees themselves, fooling U.S. companies into hiring them as remote IT workers and gaining access to their networks.
And, investigators say, they have used algorithms to spread funds through global crypto networks faster than any human could, making it almost impossible for authorities to catch up.
*
In 2008, the U.S. economy was about the same size as the euro zone’s; now, it is nearly twice the size. In 1990, average U.S. wages were about 20 percent greater than the overall average in the advanced industrial world; they are now about 40 percent higher. In 1995, a Japanese person was 50 percent richer than an American in terms of GDP per capita; today, an American is about 150 percent richer than a Japanese person.
Notes (Others)
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off (the) shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die."-the last words of character Roy Batty (portrayed by Rutger Hauer) in the 1982 Ridley Scott film Blade Runner. This speech is not in the book.
*
In 2024, Missouri passed a ballot initiative that overturned a near-total abortion ban and made abortion legal in the state until the point of viability, thanks in part to millions of dollars in foreign funding.
Proponents of the measure far outspent their opponents, with more than $31 million spent on getting voters to support the ballot measure.
That includes millions of dollars in foreign funds contributed to the “Vote Yes” campaign by the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a D.C.-based dark money group that has taken nearly $300 million from Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss. The group was one of the top donors to the ballot initiative, with $4.6 million spent.
While foreign money is banned in elections, it is allowed in ballot initiatives.
As an aside, who are these people, and why do they want to influence the inner workings of our government? $300 million is a lot of caring.
*
Marine Le Pen was at the heart of an embezzlement scheme that led to her election ban.
A review of court documents, emails, and testimony from her trial shows how the French far-right leader was at the center of a system to create phony contracts that directed the equivalent of $4.8 million in EU funding to her inner circle and party officials. Although it's peanuts compared to $300 million.
*
North Korea has swiped more than $6 billion in cryptocurrency over the past decade—a sum so large that no one else compares.
The country’s hackers are both patient and brazen. To get into companies’ computers, they comb through employees’ Facebook and Instagram pages and invent tailor-made stories to trick them into clicking on links with viruses. Some North Korean hackers have even become employees themselves, fooling U.S. companies into hiring them as remote IT workers and gaining access to their networks.
And, investigators say, they have used algorithms to spread funds through global crypto networks faster than any human could, making it almost impossible for authorities to catch up.
*
In 2008, the U.S. economy was about the same size as the euro zone’s; now, it is nearly twice the size. In 1990, average U.S. wages were about 20 percent greater than the overall average in the advanced industrial world; they are now about 40 percent higher. In 1995, a Japanese person was 50 percent richer than an American in terms of GDP per capita; today, an American is about 150 percent richer than a Japanese person.
In fact, the poorest American state, Mississippi, has a higher per capita GDP than Britain, France, or Japan.
*
23andMe. The past year didn’t change 23andMe’s trajectory. The stock fell even more, and layoffs continued. Its CEO, Wojcicki, tried to buy the company—and had the inside track with super-voting shares. The board of directors rejected her offer, then resigned. She brought in a new board that rejected her new bid.
Recently, the company filed for bankruptcy protection.
The moral of the 23andMe story may be that the company was just too early. DNA testing has evolved, and soon medical grade tests will be so cheap, they may be common for doctors to order.
Meanwhile, 23andMe is stuck with the non-medical-grade test it bet on 19 years ago.
*
23andMe. The past year didn’t change 23andMe’s trajectory. The stock fell even more, and layoffs continued. Its CEO, Wojcicki, tried to buy the company—and had the inside track with super-voting shares. The board of directors rejected her offer, then resigned. She brought in a new board that rejected her new bid.
Recently, the company filed for bankruptcy protection.
The moral of the 23andMe story may be that the company was just too early. DNA testing has evolved, and soon medical grade tests will be so cheap, they may be common for doctors to order.
Meanwhile, 23andMe is stuck with the non-medical-grade test it bet on 19 years ago.
*
At the University of Michigan (UM), professor Jessica Kenyatta Walker specializes in “critical food studies” and helped develop “in-class activities” on the “racialization of food in the United States.” Professor Adi Saleem’s recent book, Queer Jews, Queer Muslims: Race, Religion, and Representation, focuses on “triangulating the Jewish-Muslim dyad with a third variable: queerness.” Jennifer Dominique Jones, meantime, teaches courses in “Black Queer Histories” and “Black Intimacies.”
These 'scholars' share more than an affinity for critical theory: each was hired through the university’s Collegiate Fellows Program. Established in 2016, the CFP hires postdoctoral fellows who show a “commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.” The fellows are guaranteed a tenure-track position after two years, bypassing the rigors of a normal competitive job search.
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