Hyundai’s low-cost Casper Electric (also known overseas as the Inster EV) is getting a rugged new XRT variant. The new Casper EV XRT trim was spotted for the first time in Korea ahead of its official debut.
Tesla battery supplier Panasonic Energy is considering pouring new investments potentially up to $4 billion in its De Soto, Kansas, plant to produce 4680 battery cells for the Tesla Cybertruck and Tesla’s next-gen vehicles.
DALLAS (Feb. 12, 2024) – With the Total Solar Eclipse on April 8 fast approaching, Dallas-Fort Worth residents have only a few weeks left to prepare for the extremely rare celestial event happening in our region for the first time in over a century.
Total Eclipse DFW, shares this checklist of the top 10 things all DFW residents need to do now to get ready:
Clear schedules – Take the day off work and avoid scheduling any appointments on Eclipse day. Remember, this is likely a once-in-a-lifetime event for DFW, with totality not returning for 300 years. With over 1.5 million visitors expected, residents and visitors don’t want anything interfering with experiencing this spectacular phenomenon.
Get certified Eclipse glasses – Don’t risk permanent eye damage by viewing the partial Eclipse phases without proper eyewear. International Organization for Standardization (ISO)-compliant glasses are required for direct solar viewing. Because there are many fraudulent Eclipse viewer sellers, participants should only purchase Eclipse glasses from a reseller listed on the American Astronomical Society (AAS) Suppliers of Safe Solar Filters & Viewers list to avoid potential harm and legal liabilities. Total Eclipse DFW is the only AAS-approved reseller from DFW. Total Eclipse DFW’s glasses are $3 each and can be purchased online here. Residents are encouraged to order their glasses soon as experts expect a shortage.
Choose an ideal viewing spot – Carefully research prime locations along the path of totality in DFW and have a viewing plan for April 8. Massive crowds are expected, so participants should arrive several hours early to secure a spot. Have backup options in mind, too, due to expected traffic and accidents. Total Eclipse DFW has compiled over 300 DFW cities and totality times here. Those viewing in areas with as much as 99% will not experience totality, so plan to arrive in an area that will experience totality at least two hours in advance to make sure you have a good spot
Ellis County Viewing Information:
Cedar Hill, Texas
Miles from Downtown Dallas: 17 | Miles from Downtown Fort Worth: 31
Total Eclipse Totality Start Time: 13:40:05
Total Eclipse Totality Duration: 3 Minutes 58.2 Seconds
Ennis, Texas
Miles from Downtown Dallas: 35 | Miles from Downtown Fort Worth: 57
Total Eclipse Totality Start Time: 13:40:03
Total Eclipse Totality Duration: 4 Minutes 22.4 Seconds
Ferris, Texas
Miles from Downtown Dallas: 20 | Miles from Downtown Fort Worth: 50
Total Eclipse Totality Start Time: 13:40:20
Total Eclipse Totality Duration: 4 Minutes 18 Seconds
Glenn Heights, Texas
Miles from Downtown Dallas: 19 | Miles from Downtown Fort Worth: 42
Total Eclipse Totality Start Time: 13:40:07
Total Eclipse Totality Duration: 4 Minutes 8.3 Seconds
Maypearl, Texas
Miles from Downtown Dallas: 40 | Miles from Downtown Fort Worth: 44
Total Eclipse Totality Start Time: 13:39:26
Total Eclipse Totality Duration: 4 Minutes 15.4 Seconds
Midlothian, Texas
Miles from Downtown Dallas: 25 | Miles from Downtown Fort Worth: 30
Total Eclipse Totality Start Time: 13:39:49
Total Eclipse Totality Duration: 4 Minutes 4.7 Seconds
Ovilla, Texas
Miles from Downtown Dallas: 22 | Miles from Downtown Fort Worth: 41
Total Eclipse Totality Start Time: 13:40:02
Total Eclipse Totality Duration: 4 Minutes 8.2 Seconds
Red Oak, Texas
Miles from Downtown Dallas: 18 | Miles from Downtown Fort Worth: 42
Total Eclipse Totality Start Time: 13:40:07
Total Eclipse Totality Duration: 4 Minutes 13.3 Seconds
Venus, Texas
Miles from Downtown Dallas: 32 | Miles from Downtown Fort Worth: 32
Total Eclipse Totality Start Time: 13:39:36
Total Eclipse Totality Duration: 4 Minutes 1.2 Seconds
Waxahachie, Texas
Miles from Downtown Dallas: 30 | Miles from Downtown Fort Worth: 42
Total Eclipse Totality Start Time: 13:39:48
Total Eclipse Totality Duration: 4 Minutes 18.1 Seconds
Book accommodations – If traveling to DFW or have family and friends coming in for the Total Eclipse, secure lodging immediately before rooms disappear. Hotels are filling up fast, so lock in reservations now. Consider vacation rentals, too, for the full Eclipse weekend.
Monitor weather forecasts – Be ready to change locations even the day before if meteorologists predict clouds. Have a flexible backup option to drive to if needed. Thankfully, DFW has some of the best historical weather conditions for April 8. However, should overcast skies prevail during totality, thinner translucent clouds can still reveal glimpses of the moon-obscured sun; regardless, attendees can still experience the Eclipse’s striking impact on ambient surroundings like light levels, animals’ reactions and temperature changes.
Brace for heavy traffic – Local authorities are expecting gridlock before and after totality. Fill up car tanks by April 7, map alternate routes and pack provisions in case you are stuck in traffic. Plan ahead for traffic jams as a million of your friends and neighbors are trying to head home after totality, as well.
Pack provisions – For residents planning on going to a viewing location or event, bring food, water, chairs, picnic blankets, layers of clothes, sun protection and other necessities to be self-sufficient on Eclipse day. Treat this like an outdoor event or camping trip. Come prepared.
Test photo gear – Experiment with cameras and lenses ahead of time if capturing images. Confirm settings and equipment functioning, including any special solar filters. No smartphone is built to withstand the intense solar rays emitted by the sun.
Check school schedules – Many districts are closing on April 8 so families can witness the eclipse together. For schools holding classes, parents should inquire about safe viewing policies and ISO-compliant glasses for students.
Secure eclipse merch– Capture this rare celestial event’s excitement by picking up solar Eclipse merchandise like apparel, glasses, posters and pins from DFW vendors before stores sell out. Eclipse swag makes ideal gifts for Total Eclipse parties happening in the DFW metroplex on April 8!
Jo Trizila, Total Eclipse DFW founder, emphasizes, “Don’t miss this incredible four-plus minute Total Solar Eclipse here in DFW. Start preparing today using our website’s convenient guides and resources!”
To avoid damage from heavy rains, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have opened floodgates along Arizona’s border fencing during monsoon season since 2009. But social media users, including Sen. Ted Cruz, shared posts with the misleading claim that the Biden administration opened the gates “by design” to allow illegal immigration.
Full Story
U.S. Customs and Border Protection opens floodgates in the barriers along Arizona’s southern border during the state’s monsoon season, which generally occurs from mid-June until the end of September. CBP uses the flood or lift gates to mitigate environmental problems and damage to the barrier structures.
A CBP spokesperson told us in an email interview that the floodgates in the Tucson sector — which covers most of the state of Arizona — have been used for many years.
“Fencing in the Tucson Sector was constructed at various times between 2009-2021,” the spokesperson said. “Throughout the history of the infrastructure, during monsoon season and ahead of potential heavy rains or flood events, CBP has opened stormwater drainage gates to ensure proper drainage and minimize potential impacts to the infrastructure. These gates prevent flooding and subsequent environmental, infrastructure and community damage.”
“A compromise in the integrity of the barrier can lead to extensive damage making the gate, or even the infrastructure unstable,” the spokesperson also said. “When gates become damaged, they need to be secured open to prevent additional damage which can prolong the gap in the infrastructure. The unregulated flow of water can also undermine the integrity of the border road disrupting agents and emergency services ability to respond to illegal entries, smuggling and other criminal activity, or persons in distress.”
Floodgates – which either swing open like doors or lift up like windows – are manually operated by CBP to allow water to flow through the border fencing. Theywere in use before and during the administration of former President Donald Trump, who had made a campaign promiseto build “a beautiful, gorgeous, big wall” on the southern border, as we’ve written.
While in office, Trump secured $16.4 billion to expand border barrier construction along the southern border — including $10 billion in redirected military funds, although $4.75 billion of that money was not disbursed before he left office, according to the Congressional Research Service. Over the course of his four-year term, Trump constructed 85 miles of new and 373 miles of replacement barriers along the border.
The installation of new barriersduring the Trump administration included fencing in the Tucson sector’s Lukeville area, where construction began in 2019. The new barrier in the Lukeville area was built with floodgates and the gates were opened in 2020 during the monsoon season before Trump left office, the CBP spokesperson told us. (An example of floodgates under construction during the Trump administration can be seen in a photo taken by Border Report at a different location along the Arizona border.)
On his first day in office on Jan. 20, 2021, President Joe Biden ordered the federal government to stop using Defense Department funds intended for military missions on construction of border barriers.
Biden later resumed building small portions of the border fencing in Texas, California and Arizona.
But somesocial media users have misrepresented the Biden administration’s management of the border barriers, misleadingly claiming that this year’s opening of the floodgates was part of a plan to encourage illegal immigration.
An Aug. 26 Instagram post from conservative commentator David J. Harris, Jr., which has received more than 100,000 likes, shows a TikTok video of the floodgates open in the Lukeville area, with the text: “just in case you didn’t hear from the MSM one of those Dept in the Biden administration welded open border gates in Arizona.”
Other social media users circulated the video, with one Instagram post using the hashtag #ImpeachBiden, while a commenter on anothersaid, “I’m actually surprised they didn’t place voting poles there.”
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas shared a photo of the opened gates on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, with a caption that claimed, “The Biden administration welded open the Trump border wall in Tucson, AZ. It’s not a crisis. It’s by design.” Cruz added his own comment: “This…is…nuts.”
But as we explained, the practice of opening the Arizona border floodgates is not new and occurred during the Trump administration to address the effects of the monsoon rains.
Due to the surge in illegal border crossings, the CBP closed the floodgates in the Lukeville area — the border section highlighted in the social media posts — during the first week of September, weeks earlier than usual, NewsNation reported.
Updated, Sept. 14: After our story was published, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers emailed us a statement saying it had “built and installed flood or lift gates as a component of all [Department of Defense]-funded border wall construction contracts. Pursuant to direction from the Department of Defense, USACE suspended construction of border infrastructure, including gates, in January 2021 and then terminated construction contracts by May 1, 2021.”
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to debunk misinformation shared on social media. Our previous stories can be found here. Facebook has no control over our editorial content.
NOTICE OF A PUBLIC HEARING
THE CITY COUNCIL OF MIDLOTHIAN, TX
The City Council of the City of Midlothian will hold a Public Hearing to begin at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, July 11, 2023 in the City Council Chambers at Midlothian City Hall, (104 West Avenue E, Midlothian, TX), to consider and act upon ordinances for the following cases:
CASE NO. SUP08-2023-36: Conduct a public hearing and consider and act upon an ordinance for a Specific Use Permit (SUP) for a multi-family residential development within Planned Development 146 (PD-146). The property is generally located on Highway 287 and Old Fort Worth Road.
CASE NO. SUP09-2023-44: Conduct a public hearing and consider and act upon an ordinance for a Specific Use Permit (SUP) for building wall signage that require an exception to Section 4.6017 of the City of Midlothian Zoning Ordinance, located on Lot 2RA, block 1, Walnut Grove Center South (commonly known as 4470 East Highway 287, Suite 500), and presently zoned Commercial (C).
CASE NO. Z12-2023-45: Conduct a public hearing and consider and act upon an ordinance amending the zoning of Planned Development-4 (PD-4) to allow for signage that requires exceptions from Section 4.6000 of the Zoning Ordinance for signage, within an existing Planned development on +/- 31.17 acres, being in the L. Newton Survey, Abstract 792 and the JT Rawls Survey, Abstract 933. The property is generally located at 975 S. Highway 67.
CASE NO. OZ02-2023-24: Conduct a public hearing and consider and act upon an ordinance amending the City of Midlothian Subdivision Regulations by amending Section 3.12 “Application Process” to remove references to conceptual plans and provision relating to dormant applications; recaptioning and amending Section 3.13 “Site Plan Requirement” to remove references to conceptual site plans; amending Section 3.15 “Vacation Instrument, Replatting, Amended Plats, and Minor Plats” Subsection 1 “Vacation of a Plat” relating to the procedures for vacating a plat or replat; recaptioning and amending Section 4.12 “Site Plans” to limit the subject matter to the approval of building site plans; amending Section 4.13 “Preliminary Plats” by amending paragraph t) of Subsection 4 regarding phasing plans; Subsection 9.a) removing references to conceptual site plans; and Subsection 9.c) relating to the extension of preliminary plats; and amending Subsection 1 of Section 4.14 “Final Plats” to provide for filing plats within Johnson County when applicable. (Case No. OZ02-2023-24).
I just want my kids to be happy.
I know, I know, I know. It’s an impossible and unrealistic goal. I’ve been in enough therapy sessions to know that chasing “happiness” is a fool’s errand. We should really be appreciating…
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING CITY OF HUTCHINS
CITY COUNCIL
JUNE 20, 2023, MEETING
The City Council of the City of Hutchins will hold a public hearing at 6:30 PM on Tuesday,
June 20, 2023, in the Council Chambers at 321 N Main. The meeting will be for
consideration of the following items.
Consider a change of zoning from (R) Retail to Single Family Residential 7 (SF-7) at the
following location;
BRING ALL OF THAT tract of land situated in the T. Freeman Survey, Abstract No. 453,
in the City of Hutchins, Dallas County, Texas and being all of that tract of land described
in deed to Donnie H. McGraw, recorded in Volume 200012, Page 3691 of the Official Public
Records of Dallas County, Texas (OPRDCT), and being more particularly described as
Hutchins Acreage, Blk. 6 Lot 8, 700 W. Palestine Street, Hutchins, Texas.
If you have any questions, please feel free to call City Hall at (972) 225-6121 and ask to
speak to Building Official Tim Rawlings
The Long, Challenging, But Worthwhile Healing From Trauma
Each person you have encountered, whether at work, out on the street, or a bus, is hurting in their own way. Everyone has been through a painful and traumatic experience. Although you have no control over what already happened in the past, you do have control over how you heal. Healing is rarely easy—it’s tricky, messy, and scary, but it’s possible.
In today’s episode of Radically Loved, Wil Wheaton shares the trauma that he experienced growing up and how he was able to heal from it. He talks about his struggles during his healing from trauma and what you can do to also work through yours. Listen as Wil takes you along his journey so that you can also heal and find radical love as he has.
If you’re struggling with trauma and looking for healing, this episode is for you!
Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode:
Find out how to confront your pain and trauma by reflection and writing.
Learn how to free yourself from toxicity and undergo healing from trauma through communication, therapy, and reading.
Discover how to break generational trauma with an authoritative parenting style.
Wil Wheaton burst into the spotlight in 1986 in the iconic coming of age movie Stand By Me. He went on to play many more roles throughout his teen and young adult years, including starring as Wesley Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation and playing a version of himself on the hit TV show, The Big Bang Theory. But his success hid a childhood filled with trauma and abuse that led to a lifetime of depression, anxiety and complex PTSD. In his new memoir, Still Just a Geek, Wil opens up about his life and explains how he came to grips with his past. This week, he talks about why it’s so important to him to talk openly about mental health.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
What led Wil to revisit his life in his new memoir.
How writing the book helped him find empathy and compassion for his younger self.
Why it’s so important for him to normalize the conversation around mental health.
Midlothian’s Independence Day activities will kick off on Saturday July 2, with festivities in Heritage Park at 8 a.m., with the “United We Stand” parade stepping off on North 8th Street at 10 a.m.
Arts & Crafts Fest will open the day’s activities at 8 a.m. and run till noon in Heritage Park, 203 N. 8th Street. This will include vendor and food booths.
“United We Stand” parade will step off at 10 a.m. at Avenue B and the 8th Street Bridge, follow North 8th Street south to Heritage Park, turn west on Avenue F and end at Overlook Drive. Parade and festival sponsors are Methodist Midlothian Medical Center and Marco’s Pizza.
Midlothian Independence Day Fireworks Show July 3rd
The annual fireworks show, sponsored by Citizens National Bank of Texas, Methodist Midlothian Medical Center, and Midlothian Community Development Corporation, will take place on Sunday, July 3 at 9:15 p.m. The show can be viewed from the parking lot at the Midlothian Independent School District Multi-Purpose Stadium, 1800 S. 14th Street, and the surrounding vicinity. Gates to the MISD stadium will open at 6 p.m.
Rain-out date for the fireworks show is Tuesday, July 5. Please keep know that no solicitors or vendors are allowed on the MISD property or at this event.
Immersive Super Hero Experience Coming To Dallas This Summer
DALLAS, Texas, – Cityneon and Paquin Entertainment Group have just announced the launch city for the World Premiere of MARVEL AVENGERS STATION: EVOLUTION set to open this Summer at Grandscape in The Colony, just north of Downtown Dallas.
MARVEL AVENGERS S.T.A.T.I.O.N., which made its debut in New York in July 2014, and has showcased the Avengers worldwide in 25 cities (13 countries) including Paris, London, Las Vegas and soon Tokyo, has attracted millions of fans by allowing them to experience the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) through an immersive exhibition. Now, for the first time ever, this experience has been updated to reflect key moments from all 4 phases of the MCU, including Marvel Studios’ WandaVision, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Black Widow and more… This exhibition has indeed evolved into… MARVEL AVENGERS STATION: EVOLUTION!
Brand New, Upgraded Experience
“This immersive Super Hero experience is going to be bigger and better,” says Ron Tan, Executive Chairman and Group CEO of Cityneon Holdings. “After impressing global audiences with our award-winning experience, MARVEL AVENGERS S.T.A.T.I.O.N., we are confident that we will delight even more visitors with this brand-new, upgraded Super Hero experience, MARVEL AVENGERS STATION: EVOLUTION, coming to our friends in Dallas this summer.”
Justin Paquin, Producer, Paquin Entertainment Group, also shared, “We are thrilled to launch the World Premiere in Dallas where families will be amazed and entertained as they are immersed in an experience that is unlike anything they have done before.”
The exhibition consists of 7 segments where guests will experience the MCU in a journey through this high-energy facility. Here, they can explore their favorite characters, discover the weapons, vehicles and technologies of the Avengers, learn inspiring real-world science, and experience interactive challenges and simulations. In addition, guests will get an up-close look at original costumes, props and film footage straight from the big screen while surrounded by the landscapes and worlds where these epic stories take place.
Marvel Studios’ Iron Man was released in 2008 and lead the way for the next 22 films that culminated in Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame in 2019. Now, the MCU continues to expand in exciting ways with new series, exclusively on Disney+, that connect to upcoming films. It is safe to say the popularity of the Avengers shows no sign of slowing down for the millions of fans worldwide.
If you’re tired of dealing with traffic, gas, and oil when going to or from work, then it’s time to change things up. Right now, Metakoo’s Cybertrack 100 e-bike is on sale for $545, which marks a new all-time low that we’ve tracked. Ready to ride up to 37 miles on a single charge as fast at 20 MPH, this e-bike makes taking short to medium trips around the city a breeze, while also letting you enjoy fresh air while traveling. We also have a wide selection of Tesla, Greenworks, and other e-bike discounts in today’s New Green Deals, so you won’t want to miss that either.
Responding to a surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed an executive order on Oct. 31 allowing hospitals that are at or near capacity to transfer or stop admitting patients. Social media posts falsely claimed the order says hospitals can “refuse to treat the unvaccinated.” But the order doesn’t mention vaccination status.
No vaccine or medical product is 100% safe, but the safety of vaccines is ensured via rigorous testing in clinical trials prior to authorization or approval, followed by continued safety monitoring once the vaccine is rolled out to the public to detect potential rare side effects. In addition, the Food and Drug Administration inspects vaccine production facilities and reviews manufacturing protocols to make sure vaccine doses are of high-quality and free of contaminants.
One key vaccine safety surveillance program is the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, which is an early warning system run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and FDA. As its website explains, VAERS “is not designed to detect if a vaccine caused an adverse event, but it can identify unusual or unexpected patterns of reporting that might indicate possible safety problems requiring a closer look.”
Anyone can submit a report to VAERS for any health problem that occurs after an immunization. There is no screening or vetting of the report and no attempt to determine if the vaccine was responsible for the problem. The information is still valuable because it’s a way of being quickly alerted to a potential safety issue with a vaccine, which can then be followed-up by government scientists.
Another monitoring system is the CDC’s Vaccine Safety Datalink, which uses electronic health data from nine health care organizations in the U.S. to identify adverse events related to vaccination in near real time.
In the case of the COVID-19 vaccines, randomized controlled trials involving tens of thousands of people, which were reviewed by multiple groups of experts, revealed no serious safety issues and showed that the benefits outweigh the risks.
The CDC and FDA vaccine safety monitoring systems, which were expanded for the COVID-19 vaccines and also include a new smartphone-based reporting tool called v-safe, have subsequently identified only a few, very rare adverse events.
To ease the burden on the state’s hospitals, Gov. Jared Polis signed an executive order on Oct. 31 allowing hospitals to transfer or stop admission of any patients when the medical facilities have “reached capacity or are reasonably anticipated to reach capacity” due to the rise in COVID-19 cases.
But social media posts have falsely claimed that the governor’s order allows hospitals to deny admission or treatment of unvaccinated patients. A screenshot of a tweet posted on Instagram reads, “Colorado Governor Signs Executive Order to TURN AWAY UNVACCINATED FROM HOSPITALS and Prioritize Treatment to Vaccinated Patients…”
A similar claim posted on Twitter reads, “Colorado now says its ok for hospitals to refuse to treat the unvaccinated.”
But that’s not what the order says.
“The Executive Order doesn’t even mention or have anything to do with vaccination status,” Conor Cahill, press secretary for the Colorado governor’s office, said in an email to FactCheck.org. He noted that a federal law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, prohibits hospitals from refusing to provide emergency care to anyone, regardless of insurance status or ability to pay.
The word “vaccine” does appear once in the executive order — when it says the recent surge in COVID-19 cases is “largely due to the highly contagious Delta variant and the 20% of Coloradans who have yet to get the highly effective, safe vaccine.”
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis visits a mass COVID-19 vaccination event on Jan. 30 in Denver. Photo by Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images
The order “authorizes the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment (CDPHE) to determine whether a hospital or freestanding emergency department is at, or reasonably anticipated to reach, capacity. CDPHE is authorized to direct those facilities to transfer patients to prevent overwhelming the capacity of a facility and its staff,” Cahill said.
“The Executive Order states,” Cahill continued, that “‘a hospital must comply with the non-waived sections of the EMTALA, including the requirements to provide stabilizing treatment within the hospital’s capabilities and capacity prior to the initiation of a transfer to another hospital, and to provide a medical screening examination to any individual who comes to the emergency department and requests examination or treatment.’”
Matthew Wynia, director of the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Colorado, told us in an email that the social media posts were “Pants on Fire false.”
“We are not using vaccination status in making triage decisions. We are treating everyone the same according to their medical needs,” Wynia said.
“Bottom line: health care professionals don’t punish people for making bad medical decisions, even when those decisions harm both themselves and others,” he said.
“Colorado is in as bad a situation as we’ve faced in the entire pandemic, with very few ICU beds open and many hospitals already operating under crisis standards of care,” Wynia said. At the hospital where he works, UCHealth Internal Medicine – Anschutz Medical Campus, there would normally be one respiratory therapist managing no more than five people on ventilators. In the current situation, there is sometimes just one respiratory therapist monitoring as many as 15 people on ventilators, he said.
“We are bursting at the seams, and it just keeps getting worse,” Wynia said. “We assume that over the next weeks … about 10% of people who are currently in hospitals will need to go home, even though they aren’t really ready to go home yet – just to open up some staffed beds for really sick people who are liable to die if they don’t get care in the hospital.”
A screenshot from a presentation given by Dr. Rachel Herlihy on Nov. 10.
Herlihy also presented a model predicting that COVID-19 hospitalizations will peak higher than ever on Jan. 1 and “could exceed current hospital capacity” based on the current trajectory. But she said that an increase in the administration of vaccine boosters could decrease the number of cases.
“I believe California and New York have now also opened up vaccination boosters to everyone, as we did recently,” Wynia, of the University of Colorado, said.
“Idaho, Alaska and some other states have also authorized use of crisis standards of care, which allows hospitals to transfer patients to each other and to other facilities as a way of balancing the load, and many hospitals in those states are also using staffing models and nursing ratios that we all know aren’t completely safe, but they’re the best we can do under the circumstances,” Wynia said.
Currently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a booster dose for certain people who received Pfizer/BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson vaccines against COVID-19. The CDC and Food and Drug Administration are expected to soon approve a booster dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for all adults.
Update, Nov. 19: The CDC approved and the FDA authorized Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 boosters for all adults on Nov. 19, which makes the boosters available to everyone ages 18 and older.
Editor’s note: SciCheck’s COVID-19/Vaccination Project is made possible by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The foundation has no control over FactCheck.org’s editorial decisions, and the views expressed in our articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the foundation. The goal of the project is to increase exposure to accurate information about COVID-19 and vaccines, while decreasing the impact of misinformation.
Sources
American College of Emergency Physicians. “EMTALA Fact Sheet.” Accessed 15 Nov 2021.
Cahill, Conor. Press secretary, Colorado Office of the Governor. Email sent to FactCheck.org. 15 Nov 2021.
Galveston, Texas (October 21, 2021) — It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas as Moody Gardens announces an all-new, one-of-a-kind holiday show experience and hotel packages for the ideal festive island getaway. Be prepared to be astonished this holiday season with brand new circus performers as Moody Gardens rings in the holidays with Lone Star Circus’ “Cirque Joyeux Holiday Show”.
This original one-hour Christmas spectacular is fun for the entire family and features a cast of international circus and variety performers. Witness the inconceivable feats of acrobats, the amazing artistry of aerialists, endearing antics of four-legged performers, the awe-inspiring and incredible strength of hand-to-hand balancers and much more. Be up-close and personal with the action-packed lineup of impressive circus performers.
Three Different Show Formats
Cirque Joyeux Holiday Show opens December 17 and runs through December 30. With three different show formats, guests can choose whether they would like to attend a Dinner, Matinee or Evening Show. The Dinner Show will be December 17, 18, 24 and 25. The Dinner Shows are sure to provide great family entertainment along with a fabulous dinner. The December 19, 22 and 29 afternoon Matinee Shows offer concessions. Afterwards spend the evening enjoying other holiday activities on the Moody Gardens property. Evening Shows on December 20, 21, 23, 27, 28 and 30 feature the same performance and provides concession options without dinner.
Courtesy Photo
Moody Gardens Festival of Lights
Tickets are on sale now at MoodyChristmasShow.com. The Matinee Show prices range from $39 – $59 for adults, $25 – $45 for children and $0 – $45 for infants. Evening Show prices range from $39 – $59 for adults, $25 – $45 for children and $0 – $45 for infants. Dinner Show prices are $79 – $119 for adults, $49 – $89 for children and $0 – $89 for infants. All tickets include free admission to Moody Gardens Festival of Lights. FOL is the Gulf Coast’s largest holiday lighting event including a mile-long trail of holiday lights, music, pictures with Santa, hot cocoa with s’mores. This year there are even more lights than before!
Admission to the show can also be purchased as a hotel package for couples or families. Cirque Joyeux Holiday Show hotel packages start at $355 and include admission to the Festival of Lights.
“This show offers all of the holiday wonder, sparkle and entertainment we all appreciate during this special time of year,” said Moody Gardens Hotel General Manager Leon Garrison. “It’s definitely a memorable experience the whole family will enjoy”.
Moody Gardens® is a public, non-profit, educational destination utilizing nature in the advancement of rehabilitation, conservation, recreation, and research.
As electric bicycle sales have soared to record numbers lately, fewer people are needing much convincing to get out of a car and onto a fun, energy efficient e-bike. But for the few left scratching their heads and wondering what all the fuss is about, this video is for you.
From an interview with an Amazon Web Services security engineer:
So when you use AWS, part of what you’re paying for is security.
Right; it’s part of what we sell. Let’s say a prospective customer comes to AWS. They say, “I like pay-as-you-go pricing. Tell me more about that.” We say, “Okay, here’s how much you can use at peak capacity. Here are the savings we can see in your case.”
Then the company says, “How do I know that I’m secure on AWS?” And this is where the heat turns up. This is where we get them. We say, “Well, let’s take a look at what you’re doing right now and see if we can offer a comparable level of security.” So they tell us about the setup of their data centers.
We say, “Oh my! It seems like we have level five security and your data center has level three security. Are you really comfortable staying where you are?” The customer figures, not only am I going to save money by going with AWS, I also just became aware that I’m not nearly as secure as I thought.
Plus, we make it easy to migrate and difficult to leave. If you have a ton of data in your data center and you want to move it to AWS but you don’t want to send it over the internet, we’ll send an eighteen-wheeler to you filled with hard drives, plug it into your data center with a fiber optic cable, and then drive it across the country to us after loading it up with your data.
What? How do you do that?
We have a product called Snowmobile. It’s a gas-guzzling truck. There are no public pictures of the inside, but it’s pretty cool. It’s like a modular datacenter on wheels. And customers rightly expect that if they load a truck with all their data, they want security for that truck. So there’s an armed guard in it at all times.
It’s a pretty easy sell. If a customer looks at that option, they say, yeah, of course I want the giant truck and the guy with a gun to move my data, not some crappy system that I develop on my own.
Lots more about how AWS views security, and Keith Alexander’s position on Amazon’s board of directors, in the interview.
The family of Billy Ray Jones is begging the public for help in identifying the driver of a blue Toyota Camry. They’ve created a Facebook page in order to get justice for Billy Ray.
“On the last day of July 2020, Billy Jones tragically left us in a fatal hit & run motorcycle accident on Friday, July 31, 2020.
Billy was married to his bride, Sherri since 1991 and was the father of their only child—Ashley. He was a devoted husband and an incredible father.
We are asking for the public, friends and family to help the Jones family find the hit & run driver for justice. Please post any pictures, video’s or information. We need to find the people that were there at the QT and witness what happen. We need your photos. above all please pray for us. God Bless”
July 31 Hit & Run in Ft. Worth
FORT WORTH, TX, (July 31, 2020) – Billy Ray Jones, 52, sustained fatal injuries in a hit-and-run crash involving a vehicle and motorcycle on Friday, July 31 in Fort Worth.
A motorcyclist killed in the 200 block of East Rendon Crowley Road July 31; Billy Ray Jones
Billy Ray Jones, 52, sustained fatal injuries in a hit-and-run crash involving a vehicle and motorcycle on Friday, July 31 in Fort Worth.
Jones was riding a motorcycle in the 200 block of East Rendon Crowley Road when a light blue Camry turned in front of him, police said. He was unable to avoid the collision and ended up striking the side of the Camry.
Jones was taken to a local hospital where he, sadly, succumbed to his injuries.
Fort Worth police are seeking the identity of the Camry driver who fled the scene. Several cameras at QuikTrip recorded the incident.
FATAL HIT-AND-RUN ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION NEEDED
Contact #: 817-392-4889 Report #: 200058659
On 07/31/20 at the 200 block of E Rendon Crowley Rd, a light blue Toyota Camry (2007-2010) turned in front of a motorcyclist traveling westbound. The Camry was turning from eastbound into the QT parking lot. The motorcyclist struck the side of the Camry and was transported to a local hospital where he died.
The Camry was driven by a young Hispanic male- black hair, medium build. The driver of the Camry did not stay on scene and departed; he and the vehicle are seen on several cameras at the QT.
The investigation is open and ongoing, police said. Anyone with information can contact the Fort Worth Police Department at 817-392-4889.
File photo of a Falcon 9 booster landing on SpaceX’s drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” in the Atlantic Ocean following a launch in November 2018. Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX is likely to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket set for launch April 30 on a drone ship just off the coast of Cape Canaveral, not at the company’s onshore recovery site as originally planned, after a ground test of the company’s Crew Dragon capsule at the landing pad ended in an explosion Saturday.
Workers were examining wreckage from the Crew Dragon spacecraft at Landing Zone 1, the site where Falcon 9 boosters return to Cape Canaveral, prompting the company to apply for authority from the Federal Communications Commission to land the first stage on next week’s mission on SpaceX’s drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, featuring a brand new first stage, is set for liftoff at 4:22 a.m. EDT (0822 GMT) April 30 from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad. The launcher will carry into orbit a Dragon cargo capsule packed with several tons of supplies and experiments heading for the International Space Station.
Industry officials confirmed Tuesday that SpaceX will likely attempt a drone ship landing on next week’s mission to “ensure the integrity” of the Landing Zone 1 area and “preserve valuable information” in the aftermath of Saturday’s Crew Dragon test mishap.
According a SpaceX license application dated Monday, the drone ship will be positioned roughly 17 miles (28 kilometers) southeast of pad 40, or due east of the easternmost point of Cape Canaveral. Weather permitting, the rocket’s predawn return to Earth should be visible from land.
The landing will allow SpaceX to refurbish and re-fly the booster on a future mission. Falcon 9 launches with Dragon cargo freighters carry sufficient fuel reserves for the first stage to reverse course and return to Cape Canaveral, rather than land on SpaceX’s drone ship.
Information in SpaceX’s new license application to the Federal Communications Commission suggests the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage will likely target a landing aboard the company’s drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean a few minutes after liftoff April 30 on a space station resupply mission. Credit: Google Maps/Spaceflight Now
A NASA spokesperson said, as of Monday, that the Dragon cargo mission remained scheduled for launch April 30. It will be SpaceX’s 17th resupply mission to the station since 2012 under a NASA contract valued at more than $3 billion.
A hold-down firing of the Falcon 9’s Merlin main engines at pad 40 is scheduled for Thursday.
SpaceX and NASA officials in the coming days are expected to review any potential impacts on the resupply mission stemming from the investigation into the Crew Dragon test accident.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft, also known as Dragon 2, is a much different spacecraft than SpaceX’s first-generation Dragon capsule.
Saturday’s accident occurred during a hotfire test of the Crew Dragon’s SuperDraco abort thrusters, according to SpaceX and NASA officials. The SuperDraco thrusters, which would be activated to save astronauts from a failing rocket, do not fly on the Dragon variant set for launch next week.
The spacecraft that exploded on the test stand Saturday was the same vehicle that completed a six-day test flight to the International Space Station last month. SpaceX was conducting ground tests on the capsule in preparation for its reuse on an in-flight abort demonstration in the next few months, a test intended to verify the SuperDraco thrusters can safely propel the spacecraft away from a Falcon 9 rocket under extreme aerodynamic pressures.
SpaceX and NASA have said little about Saturday’s accident, but the mishap is expected to delay the Crew Dragon program by months. A different test vehicle will have to be used for the in-flight abort test, which was planned to be one of the final milestones before NASA approves the spacecraft to carry astronauts to the space station.
With the Demo-1 capsule no longer available for the in-flight abort, SpaceX will have to shuffle its plans and outfit a different vehicle for the high-altitude escape test.
The unpiloted Crew Dragon test flight to the space station in early March, designated Demo-1, achieved all of its major objectives, including the first automated docking of a U.S. spacecraft to the station. But NASA officials said at the time that engineers needed to complete further testing and analysis on the Crew Dragon’s thrusters and parachutes, along with pressurant tanks on the spacecraft and the Falcon 9 rocket, before deeming the capsule ready for human occupants.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft backs away from the International Space Station after undocking March 8. The same spacecraft was involved in an accident during ground testing Saturday at Cape Canaveral. Credit: SpaceX
NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are assigned to the Crew Dragon’s first piloted mission, named Demo-2.
The most recent schedule indicated the Demo-2 launch was targeted for no earlier than July 25 from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Officials familiar with the schedule said before Saturday’s mishap that the Demo-2 mission was likely to be pushed back to late September or early October.
The Crew Dragon is one of two commercial spaceships funded by NASA to ferry astronauts to and from the space station.
SpaceX has won a series of NASA contracts totaling more than $3.1 billion since 2010 to develop the human-rated Crew Dragon spacecraft. The crew contracts are separate from SpaceX’s multibillion-dollar cargo-carrying deal with NASA.
A similar set of contracts were awarded to Boeing, worth more than $4.8 billion, to support the design and development of the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft.
The Crew Dragon is designed to launch aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from pad 39A at Kennedy, while the Starliner capsule will lift off on United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket from nearby pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Both are designed to accommodate up to seven crew members, but will typically ferry four astronauts at a time, along with cargo.
SpaceX’s crew capsule returns to Earth with a splashdown at sea under four parachutes. Cushioned by airbags, the Starliner will land under chutes on the ground in the Western United States.
Both vehicles use liquid-fueled “pusher” escape systems to quickly boost the capsules away from a launch emergency. Other crew capsules, such as Russia’s Soyuz, NASA’s 1960s-era Apollo and future Orion spacecraft, use a “tractor” abort system relying on top-mounted towers with solid-fueled rocket motors to “pull” the vehicle away from its launch vehicle.
Once the rocket is out of the atmosphere, the abort towers are jettisoned because they are no longer needed. The Crew Dragon’s SuperDraco thrusters, which SpaceX originally designed to support propulsive pinpoint touchdowns, stay with the spacecraft from liftoff through landing.
SpaceX did away with the propulsive landing plan in 2017, electing to return the Crew Dragon capsules to Earth with more conventional ocean landings.
The Crew Dragon’s thrusters consume hypergolic hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide propellants, which chemically ignite when mixed together. The ship’s Draco thrusters are used for in-orbit maneuvers and pointing, while eight larger SuperDraco thrusters — packaged in pairs into four propulsion modules — are used for launch aborts.
Each SuperDraco engine has a 3D-printed chamber and can produce up to 16,000 pounds of thrust, with the ability to restart multiple times.
Boeing has also run into trouble during abort testing.
During a hotfire of the Starliner’s abort engines last year, stuck valves in the craft’s propulsion system led to a fuel spill on a test stand in New Mexico.
Each CST-100 service module carries four launch abort engines, built by Aerojet Rocketdyne. The engines would only fire in flight in the event of a launch emergency, igniting with 40,000 pounds of thrust each for a few seconds to propel the capsule away from its rocket.
Like the Crew Dragon’s SuperDraco engines, the Starliner abort engines burn a mixture of toxic hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide propellants, and are designed to almost instantly ramp up to full thrust and fire for only a few seconds. The requirement demands the abort engines to guzzle huge quantities of propellant pushed into the thrusters at high pressure.
Boeing officials said the fuel leak did not damage the test article, but the mishap forced engineers to make minor design changes to part of the Starliner’s propulsion system, including hardware and software modifications.
Earlier this month, Boeing said new valves were being installed into the Starliner’s abort engines for another hotfire test, followed by a pad abort test to prove the system’s ability to safely propel the capsule away from danger on the launch pad.
SpaceX successfully accomplished the pad abort test in May 2015 using a boilerplate version of the Crew Dragon. When the agency negotiated the commercial crew contracts, NASA did not require either company to complete an in-flight abort demonstration, and Boeing decided to forego such a test.
Boeing now plans the Starliner’s first orbital test fight, without astronauts, in mid-August, followed by the capsule’s first test flight with astronauts in November. Both demo missions will dock with the space station.
Philip Morrison's Christmas Lectures in 1968 focussed on the importance of scale in science. Taking inspiration from Dean Swift's Gulliver in the lands of Lilliput and Brobdingnag , we go on a journey from the fundamental building blocks of the universe to the stellar size of of our galaxy.
In the first lecture we examine some of the smallest and largest objects ever made by man. Among the topics covered are the simple artihmetic of large and small numbers, geometry of size itself, and the nature of length, area, and volume.
Yes, yes…I know this is usually a blog about Star TREK fan films. But hey, it’s a Star WARS weekend with The Last Jedi opening, so deal with it. This is one of my all-time favorite Star Wars fan projects. Released four years ago, it’s creatively brilliant, incredibly well-produced, and most of all, absolutely hilarious! It took a team of both students and faculty in the Digital Video Program at the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, Arizona…plus dozens ofStar Wars cosplayers from the local Arizona community. With nearly four million views, the force is strong with this amazing fan film / parody / music video masterpiece!
Since December 1, 2016, Curiosity has been unable to drill into rocks because of a serious problem with one of the drill's motors. Emily Lakdawalla thoroughly explains the issues and the path forward for Curiosity.
I recently stumbled upon a way to nudge anti-Trump zombies off the idea that 97% of climate scientists agree with each other and Trump is on the wrong side. I’m not arguing about the accuracy of the estimate because I have nothing to compare it to. I’m only concerned that people are trusting the fate of the planet to that estimate without knowing how it was derived.
I started with a quote from this article by Lawrence Solomon. He says…
“…a much heralded claim that 97 per cent of scientists believed the planet was overheating came from a 2008 master’s thesis by a student at the University of Illinois who obtained her results by conducting a survey of 10,257 earth scientists, then discarding the views of all but 77 of them. Of those 77 scientists, 75 thought humans contributed to climate change. The ratio 75/77 produced the 97-per-cent figure that global warming activists then touted.”
I assume the student discarded from the study the scientists who were least-involved with climate science. That seems entirely sensible, right? But I don’t know that to be the case.
But then I asked my test subject if it would be important to know the opinions of scientists in general, even if they were not directly involved in climate science. If, for example, 60% of scientists in general were skeptical of climate science, wouldn’t you want to know that? I assume scientists are better-equipped to judge other scientists, even in unrelated fields, at least compared to the public at large.
Next, I asked my test subject if he agreed with the following statement:
"The claim that 97% of scientists agree on climate science MIGHT be true, but I would need to know more about how it was derived to judge its credibility.”
He agreed it was fair.
And keep in mind that the question that generated the 97% figure was limited to whether human activity contributes to warming. Even the critics agree with that statement. Where they differ is on the predictive accuracy of the models.
Summarizing, the problems with the 97% estimate are:
1. Human-caused warming is the part upon which both sides AGREE. Humans “contribute” to warming. The disagreement is on how much, and whether it matters. That wasn’t asked.
2. We don’t know what non-climate-scientists think of the climate models. That would add to our understanding of the topic in a big way.
3. We don’t know how reliable the 97% estimate is because we don’t know enough about the methodology. And it hasn’t been repeated as far as I know.
Try this approach with climate science zombies near you and see if you can nudge them off the 97% figure. Let me know how it goes.
—
You might enjoy my book because 97% of climate scientists agree that it has nothing to do with climate science.
Motorola's latest Moto Z flagship phones are modular, designed to accommodate add-on modules that snap to the back of their cases for extra battery life, more complex camera modules, pico projectors, et cetera. Critical and consumer response to the change has been mixed, as it was for LG's modular G5 designs. But in a recent meeting with technology journalists, the Lenovo subsidiary doubled down on the modular approach. Motorola committed to at least 12 new Moto Mod add-on products per year.
prisoninmate writes: A zero-day vulnerability in the FFmpeg open-source multimedia framework, which is currently used in numerous Linux kernel-based operating systems and software applications, also for the Mac OS X and Windows platforms, has been discovered recently by Russian programmer Maxim Andreev in the current stable builds of the software. It appears to let anyone with the necessary skills hack a computer to read local files on a remote machine and send them over the network using a specially crafted video file. Arch Linux devs already rebuilt their FFmpeg packages without the AppleHTTP and HLS demuxers.
Ellis (2015) for free in SD and HD.
14 minute video.
Just click one of the buttons that says "free", and the movie is yours forever.
You can watch them on your computer, tablet, Roku, or smart TV with the Amazon Video streaming video app.
Always buy the HD quality if the price is the same as the SD quality.
HD movies will play in HD on compatible screens, and will also play in lower quality on non-HD screens.
However if you buy a SD movie, it could play in low quality on a HD screen.
These movies usually sell for $4 to $20 each.
Also, some short movies for kids:
The press is reporting that Trump is being uncharacteristically kind to Ben Carson. People seem confused about it. The press reports over and over that, Trump has gone so far as to call Carson a “nice guy.”
This is quite a puzzler to the press. Why would Trump be so kind to this one challenger?
I hope all of you just shouted out the answer in your heads.
No, not that, you racists. The OTHER thing you just shouted in your head.
Right. That.
“Nice guy” is a linguistic sniper shot. It is engineered to take out its target without revealing where the shot came from. It is not a casual choice of words. It is deeply engineered.
Think back to my past posts about how Trump sets an anchor for any negotiation by staking out the extreme before you open your mouth. That way only Trump gets to decide where the middle is, should you later decide to meet halfway.
Now think about the two anchors Trump has offered.
One anchor is that Trump is worth $10 billion, even though observers are highly skeptical of that estimate. That’s the number that pops up now when you think of him, just as Trump planned.
Trump has also branded himself as an experienced international business person, a tough negotiator in a world that needs just that, and a man who can’t be bought.
The anchor Trump dropped on Carson is that Carson is a “nice guy.” The press picked it up and can’t stop repeating it. Repetition is persuasion. Trump deputized the winged monkeys in the media to repeat “nice guy” until it will literally be the only thing you think of when you see Ben Carson’s face.
Hello, China! Here comes our nice guy to do some negotiating! You better run!
What are the first two words an American voter hears in her head after “Nice guys…”?
In America, a familiar saying is “Nice guys finish last.” If you are familiar with the saying, you probably automatically add those two words when you hear “nice guy.”
Remember, this is a long-distance linguistic kill shot. You aren’t supposed to know where the shot came from. The finish last portion of the thought is literally being created by you, in your head. And it rewires you with repetition.
Did Trump intentionally rewire your brain so you would think of his rival as the nice guy who always finishes last?
Not as far as you know. All you saw was a flash in the distance and your head exploding a few seconds later.
On an unrelated topic, if your friend wants to set you up with someone who is “nice,” does that sound like a good thing to you? It does not. And if we are being honest, one-third of the public probably votes for whoever they find sexiest. If you were going to date Ben Carson, I’ll bet you would be impressed by his good looks (he really is a beautiful man) and probably his keen mind and good humor. What might be the ONE thing you worry about when you ask yourself if you will have good chemistry with this magnificent creature?
No, not that, you racists. I mean the other thing you are thinking.
You wonder if perhaps he’s too nice. Because that looks weak. Too much niceness shouldn’t bother you, you tell yourself. But it does. Sex is more linked to power than niceness. Trump projects power. Carson projects niceness.
And Trump isn’t done. If the polls narrow too much, Trump might say…
“Ben Carson wants you to promote him from doctor to president.”
Ladies and gentleman, I give you Donald Trump.
Also keep in mind that Carson is still an option for Trump’s running mate. Trump wants him limping but not dead. I think it will either be Carson or Cuban on the Trump ticket. Trump wins it all with either one. But with Cuban it would be the biggest margin of victory in your lifetime.
History buffs will remember that Bill Clinton did a similar “nice guy” play on Bob Dole during their election cycle. Clinton made it clear that he liked Bob Dole. He even thanked Dole for his service to the country. Thanking Dole for his service makes you think of Dole in the past tense. It was a way to call him old and done. That was a linguistic sniper shot you did not see.
Conservatives have long portrayed themselves as the voices of personal responsibility. They insist that the traditional values encompassed by patriotism and faith demand that individuals be accountable for their actions. But when it comes to the brutal assassination of two New York police officers, Fox News exploits the tragedy to lay the blame on innocent people that they regard as political adversaries.
The blinding hatred that Fox News has for New York Mayor Bill De Blasio and Al Sharpton doesn’t justify splashing the blood of dead officers on people who had no part in their demise. Other cretinous pundits have gone so far as to indict President Obama for this horror. The only thing that sort of vile and false condemnation achieves is to reveal the rancid bigotry of the accuser.
The butcher who assassinated two NYPD officers yesterday was a deeply disturbed and violent man with a long record of criminality. And despite news reports that sensationalized a few comments on social media that referenced Eric Garner and Michael Brown, his motives are still not clear. He may indeed have had opinions as to the injustices in those cases (as did millions of righteous Americans), but it is impossible to spin his shooting of his girlfriend in Baltimore prior to traveling to New York as part of a vendetta against the police. Plainly there is something else that is darkly lurking beneath the surface of this still unfolding drama.
One thing for certain is that the only person responsible for the murders is the perpetrator. It is wholly inappropriate to shift the blame to others who are just as repulsed by this as those feverishly pointing their sanctimonious fingers in other directions. That sort of flailing rebuke not only slanders the targets, it pardons the guilty. And it is particularly disgusting when the intent is such a brazen act of partisan politics.
You have to wonder why there was no similar condemnation of the treasonous Tea Party brigades that flocked to Nevada to defend tax cheat Cliven Bundy. Among their ranks were a couple who later went to Las Vegas and executed two police officers as they ate their lunch in a diner. The Tea Party cop killers failed to meet the Fox News criteria for condemnation because they were a white, Christian couple from Indiana. Consequently, Fox quickly dropped the story without any sermonizing about responsibility.
On the other hand, right-wingers were quick to mock Garner and Brown, for whom rallying cries reflected their final moments with utterances of “Hands up, don’t shoot,” and “I can’t breathe.” These unintentional epitaphs became fodder for the conservative martinets of virtue to disregard the human tragedies and shift the blame to vague criticisms of black culture, families, and values. The spokesmen for these deliberate distractions were paraded across Fox News along with the absurd and insensitive notion that the victims caused their own deaths. The conservative viewpoint was that responsibility for their fates was their own and that the people protesting ought to accept that as a fact.
Now, suddenly, responsibility is no longer attributable to an obvious offender, but is shamelessly cast on perceived enemies. It’s such a Christian thing to do in this season of peace and goodwill. And it’s just another hypocrisy by malicious jackasses who care more about their own spiteful prejudices than the very real losses suffered by both police officers and citizens whose lives are stolen too soon and without reason.
“Mama, I wrote on your drawing! I made it better!”
At the sound of those words, I stood straight up from where I was cleaning nearby. I stilled the impulse to immediately start yelling, recognizing my fear and my own fault in an instant.
“You wrote on my drawing?” I echoed, buying myself time to observe the damage before really reacting. I’d left my sketchbook open on the table, with a picture I’d spent a lot of time on the night before. Right next to a freshly-sharpened No. 2 pencil, the most enticing writing implement on the planet.
I knew I shouldn’t do that around a three-and-a-half year old. And I’d done it anyway. And now my sketch had to be scrawled all over in pencil, ruined forever. It’s just a concept sketch, I told myself as I neared the table. You were going to draw it again anyw –
And then I saw it. “Oh!” I said in surprise. “You did make it better!”
There, along with the Little Engineer’s beaming face, I saw the first completely recognizable word he’d ever written. Mama.
“I signed it for you. Muh-ah-muh-ah!”
A kiss. A hug. Pride and love and tears chasing the first wave of relief from my body before I’d really felt it. “It’s so much better, I think I might cry,” I said, then added, “Next time, ask before you write on one of my drawings. But this…this time, it’s perfect.”
“I will,” he promised. “What picture can I write on next?”
Hmm. Well, I think I’ll still try to be better at putting my sketchbook away in the future.
This sketch, by the way, is for a secret project I’m working on to share with all of you. Check back in September to see what I’ve been up to!
To ease the burden on the state’s hospitals, Gov. Jared Polis signed an executive order on Oct. 31 allowing hospitals to transfer or stop admission of any patients when the medical facilities have “reached capacity or are reasonably anticipated to reach capacity” due to the rise in COVID-19 cases. 
Motorola's latest Moto Z flagship phones are modular, designed to accommodate add-on modules that snap to the back of their cases for extra battery life, more complex camera modules, pico projectors, et cetera. Critical and consumer response to the change has been mixed, as it was for LG's modular G5 designs. But in a recent meeting with technology journalists, the Lenovo subsidiary doubled down on the modular approach. Motorola committed to at least 12 new Moto Mod add-on products per year.
