Our picksThe Long Goodbye to Covid-19 | YouTube’s Algorithm Pushes Hate | Buying Land to Stop Floods, and more
· The Long Goodbye to Covid-19
· Killer Flying Robots Are Here. What Do We Do Now?
· Biden Urged to Harden Government for Future Pandemics
· California Tests Off-the-Grid Solutions to Power Outages as Extreme Heat, Fires Threaten Supply
· Londoners Urged Not to Be ‘Complacent’ about Terror Threat in Capital
· Al-Qaeda Poses ‘Serious Risk’ to U.K.- Expert Warns of ‘Power-Sharing Deal’ with Taliban
· Downtown S.F., North Beach Included in New Bay Area Tsunami Hazard Zones
· Why does Baton Rouge Want to Buy Empty Land? It’s about Stopping Floods.
· As France Plans to Shrink Sahel Force, Jihadi Threat Grows
· YouTube’s Algorithm Pushes Hateful Content and Misinformation: Report
The Long Goodbye to Covid-19 (Economist)
The pandemic is still far from over, but glimpses of its legacy are emerging.
Killer Flying Robots Are Here. What Do We Do Now? (Vivek Wadhwa, Foreign Policy)
A new generation of AI-enabled drones could be used to terrible ends by rogue states, criminal groups, and psychopaths.
Biden Urged to Harden Government for Future Pandemics (Morgan Chalfant, The Hill)
Public health experts are urging the Biden administration to harden the federal government for future crises, warning that the U.S. is not prepared for the next pandemic.
The White House says it is laser-focused on bolstering the government’s ability to respond to another coronavirus-like outbreak. But doing so will require ample funding from Congress to help agencies react as quickly and effectively as possible to prevent a loss of life similar to COVID-19, which has killed more than 4 million people globally and more than 600,000 Americans.
Experts have said the U.S. was caught flat-footed by the coronavirus pandemic due to years of inadequate investments in public health infrastructure. The rapid spread of cases along with pressure on hospitals and clinical laboratories exposed critical weaknesses.
California Tests Off-the-Grid Solutions to Power Outages as Extreme Heat, Fires Threaten Supply (Associated Press. KTLA.com)
When a wildfire tore through Briceburg nearly two years ago, the tiny community on the edge of Yosemite National Park lost the only power line connecting it to the electrical grid.
Rather than rebuilding poles and wires over increasingly dry hillsides, which could raise the risk of equipment igniting catastrophic fires, the nation’s largest utility decided to give Briceburg a self-reliant power system.
Londoners Urged Not to Be ‘Complacent’ about Terror Threat in Capital (Joe Talora, Evening Standard / Yahoo Sports)
Londoners have been urged not to be “complacent” about the threat of terrorism as lockdown restrictions ease, with a “substantial” number of terror investigations currently ongoing in the capital. The warning came from Commander Richard Smith, head of Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism command, at a meeting of the London Assembly on Thursday. As London today marks 16 years since the tragic terrorist attack that claimed 52 lives on July 7, 2007, Commander Smith said that he “wouldn’t want anyone to be complacent” about “the scale of the threat” currently facing the capital. (Cont.)
