Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

Covid and the Worker Shortage

CRAIN'S COMMENTS

In prior posts, I’ve presented information about how Covid is impacting the size of the workforce in the US and contributing to supply chain disruptions and inflation.

This week, the Brookings Institute offers additional insights which are worth attention;

  • 15% of the worker shortage in the US is due to Long Covid, that is people suffering from long term symptoms who are partially or fully disabled by those symptoms.
    • A rough estimate is that 1.1 million workers have not worked at all in the past year due to suffering from Long Covid.
    • A substantial portion of those trying to work through the illness have needed to reduce their work hours. The reduced hours are the equivalent of 500,000 full time workers.
    • This makes the total impact of Long Covid equivalent to the loss of 1.6 million workers. That is 15% of the total unfilled jobs.

  • Government agencies have failed to…

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Day 49/67: Five Month GED, History, Interest, and financial language learning

Context, Thought, and Learning: ShiraDest Offers Project Do Better

      How can you determine what the cost of a student loan, or a mortgage, might be, in 20 years, and what might interest rates have to do with that?   What might the difference be between simple interest, compound interest, the prime rate, and other types of interest rates?  

And why should we all care?  All of these questions are part of learning the language of finance, which every Adult needs to understand, even if one does not wish to participate in all parts of the system.

You might get a start, or a refresher, on the mathematics for that in the lesson below…

 Middle of week 13/18
Day 49 Lesson Plan
Grammar: parallel structure in sentences
Math: Simple Interest
Today’s history reading
Day 49 Exit Ticket
(Day 48 … Day 50)

Bernanke drew some more parallels between then and now:

” I thought that I would speak…

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White nationalists are flocking to the US anti-abortion movement | Moira Donegan | The Guardian

Like last year, this year’s March for Life featured an appearance by Patriot Front, a white nationalist group that wears a uniform of balaclavas and khakis. The group, which also marched at a Chicago March for Life demonstration earlier this month, silently handed out cards to members of the press who tried to ask them questions. “America belongs to its fathers, and it is owed to its sons,” the cards read. “The restoration of American sovereignty must follow the restoration of the American Family.”

Explicit white nationalism, and an emphasis on conscripting white women into reproduction, is not a fringe element of the anti-choice movement. Associations between white supremacist groups and anti-abortion forces are robust and longstanding. In addition to Patriot Front, groups like the white nationalist Aryan Nations and the neo-Nazi Traditionalist Worker party have also lent support to the anti-abortion movement. These groups see stopping abortion as part of a broader project to ensure white hegemony in addition to women’s subordination. Tim Bishop, of the Aryan Nations, noted that “Lots of our people join [anti-choice organizations] … It’s part of our Holy War for the pure Aryan race.” That the growing white nationalist movement would be focused on attacking women’s rights is maybe to be expected: research has long established that recruitment to the alt-right happens largely among men with grievances against feminism, and that misogyny is usually the first form of rightwing radicalization.

Source: White nationalists are flocking to the US anti-abortion movement | Moira Donegan | The Guardian

Myanmar tumbles into the abyss

Since the February 2021 coup, Myanmar’s democrats have needed to begin reckoning with this history and with the shape of a future federal union. But, for now, their attention is on the struggle to stay alive and to keep up their united opposition to the military’s claim to rule.

There is no easy way to end the post-coup conflict and yet the Myanmar army’s capacity to consolidate its rule appears more fragile than ever, especially with so many new armed groups now taking up to the fight to the military regime and its representatives. Outrageous attacks by the junta against civilians are likely to only fortify the already strong resolve of resistance forces in the mountains, but also in the country’s big cities. There is simply no good future for Myanmar while the military leadership strangles its own people.

Source: Myanmar tumbles into the abyss

Efforts to dim Sun and cool Earth must be blocked, say scientists

  • Scientists are calling on political institutions to place limits on solar geoengineering research so that it cannot be deployed unilaterally by countries, companies or individuals.
  • Long-term planetary-level geoengineering interventions of this kind are unprecedented and extremely dangerous, say the academics behind the letter, and should not therefore be experimented with outdoors, receive patents, public funds or international support.
  • Solar geoengineering’s leading proposal — injecting billions of aerosol particles into the Earth’s stratosphere — could have severe, unintended and unforeseen consequences. Modelling suggests that it may cause drying in the Amazon rainforest
  • In addition, if solar geoengineering were deployed, it would need to be maintained for decades. Sudden discontinuance would result in Earth facing what scientists call termination shock, with a sudden temperature rise due to existing atmospheric carbon emissions which would have been masked by cooling stratospheric aerosols.

Source: Efforts to dim Sun and cool Earth must be blocked, say scientists

Mules in the CBI and their Veterinarians

Pacific Paratrooper

Merrill’s Marauders

We often comment on the animals who help us, especially in war, BUT the Veterinarians who care for them are very rarely given a voice…

I received a message from Lavinia Ross @ Salmon Brook Farms about her veterinarian, D.E. Larsen, DVM and his mentor, Robert W. Davis, DVM, Please visit to read!

GP, you might like this post by our old veterinarian who retired some years back. One of his mentors in vet school was the same veterinarian who cared for the mules used by Merrill’s Marauders in Burma during WWII.”

Article about Dr, Davis

Dr. David E. Larsen, So. Korea

The most famous American unit of the CBI was the 5307th Composite Unit, also known as “Merrill’s Marauders.” Undertaking operations similar to those of the Chindits, it used large numbers of mules. Six Quartermaster pack troops were part of the unit, and mules were liberally…

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Minbari Mondays, Babylon 5: Convictions, and Health

Context, Thought, and Learning: ShiraDest Offers Project Do Better

       This week’s review, from February of our year 2260 CE,  is just by me, since Ranger Mayann is now prohibited from writing to us from Minbar, where she is stationed. 

All life is sacred.

   When the object of your actions does not share that conviction, that can be a problem.  Especially if poor and lacking health care, too!

    And on the not-so-light side, this is The Elevator Episode!!  Check out Neatnik’s review for some great quotes from that scene, and Neatnik’s review also has a more traditional discussion of  this episode.

Last Monday’s review was S3e1: Matters of Honor,

Next Minbari Monday is Season 3, ep3: A Day in the Strife…

Shira

 

Nih sakh sh’lekk, sleem wa.

I come in peace, I am your friend.

 

There are earlier episodes, as part of a letter on the history of the Babylon Project.  

Action Prompts

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