OUR PICKSThe Narcissism of the Angry Young Men | Blind Spot in Planetary Threat Detection | The Trust Gap, and more
·· $100 Repair Bill Sparked N. California Shooting, Prosecutor Says
Man killed 7 people because he was told to pay $100 to repair a forklift damaged at work
·· Trump’s Evolution in Social-Media Exile: More QAnon, More Extremes
Trump’s online presence has grown much more extreme —he will now bring this approach to a far wider audience
·· How Barr’s Quest to Find Flaws in the Russia Inquiry Unraveled
After almost four years, John Durham’s work is ending without uncovering the Deep State plot alleged by Trump
·· NIH Did Not Properly Track a Group Studying Coronaviruses, Report Finds
NIH made significant errors in its oversight of grants to a nonprofit group doing research in China
·· Asteroid’s Sudden Flyby Shows Blind Spot in Planetary Threat Detection
With current capabilities, astronomers can’t see when such a rock targets Earth until days prior
·· Whiplash Weather: What We Can Learn from California’s Deadly Storms
Western U.S. swings between heavy winter rainfall and severe summer drought
·· The Narcissism of the Angry Young Men
What to do about the deadly misfits among us? First, recognize the problem.
·· The Trust Gap
How to fight pandemics in a divided country
$100 Repair Bill Sparked N. California Shooting, Prosecutor Says (AP / VOA News)
A farmworker charged with killing seven people at two Half Moon Bay mushroom farms reportedly told investigators he was spurred to carry out the shootings after his supervisor demanded he pay $100 to repair a forklift damaged at work.
San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe confirmed to the Bay Area News Group on Friday that Chunli Zhao was enraged by the equipment bill, saying that a coworker was to blame for the collision between his forklift and the coworker’s bulldozer.
NIH Did Not Properly Track a Group Studying Coronaviruses, Report Finds (Benjamin Mueller and Sheryl Gay Stolberg, New York Times)
An internal federal watchdog said that the health agency had not given adequate oversight to EcoHealth Alliance, which had been awarded $8 million in grants.
Trump’s Evolution in Social-Media Exile: More QAnon, More Extremes (Ken Bensinger and Maggie Haberman, New York Times)
The former president, now free to post again on Facebook and Twitter, has increasingly amplified far-right accounts on Truth Social. Experts on extremism worry that he will bring this approach to a far wider audience.
How Barr’s Quest to Find Flaws in the Russia Inquiry Unraveled (Charlie Savage, Adam Goldman and Katie Benner, New York Times)
The review by John Durham at one point veered into a criminal investigation related to Donald Trump himself, even as it failed to find wrongdoing in the origins of the Russia inquiry.
Asteroid’s Sudden Flyby Shows Blind Spot in Planetary Threat Detection (Reuters ?/ VOA News)
The discovery of an asteroid the size of a small shipping truck mere days before it passed Earth on Thursday, albeit one that posed no threat to humans, highlights a blind spot in our ability to predict those that could actually cause damage, astronomers say.
NASA for years has prioritized detecting asteroids much bigger and more existentially threatening than 2023 BU, the small space rock that streaked by 2,200 miles from the Earth’s surface, closer than some satellites. If bound for Earth, it would have been pulverized in the atmosphere, with only small fragments possibly reaching land. (Cont.)
