The Prometheus League
Breaking News and Updates
- Abolition Of Work
- Ai
- Alt-right
- Alternative Medicine
- Antifa
- Artificial General Intelligence
- Artificial Intelligence
- Artificial Super Intelligence
- Ascension
- Astronomy
- Atheism
- Atheist
- Atlas Shrugged
- Automation
- Ayn Rand
- Bahamas
- Bankruptcy
- Basic Income Guarantee
- Big Tech
- Bitcoin
- Black Lives Matter
- Blackjack
- Boca Chica Texas
- Brexit
- Caribbean
- Casino
- Casino Affiliate
- Cbd Oil
- Censorship
- Cf
- Chess Engines
- Childfree
- Cloning
- Cloud Computing
- Conscious Evolution
- Corona Virus
- Cosmic Heaven
- Covid-19
- Cryonics
- Cryptocurrency
- Cyberpunk
- Darwinism
- Democrat
- Designer Babies
- DNA
- Donald Trump
- Eczema
- Elon Musk
- Entheogens
- Ethical Egoism
- Eugenic Concepts
- Eugenics
- Euthanasia
- Evolution
- Extropian
- Extropianism
- Extropy
- Fake News
- Federalism
- Federalist
- Fifth Amendment
- Fifth Amendment
- Financial Independence
- First Amendment
- Fiscal Freedom
- Food Supplements
- Fourth Amendment
- Fourth Amendment
- Free Speech
- Freedom
- Freedom of Speech
- Futurism
- Futurist
- Gambling
- Gene Medicine
- Genetic Engineering
- Genome
- Germ Warfare
- Golden Rule
- Government Oppression
- Hedonism
- High Seas
- History
- Hubble Telescope
- Human Genetic Engineering
- Human Genetics
- Human Immortality
- Human Longevity
- Illuminati
- Immortality
- Immortality Medicine
- Intentional Communities
- Jacinda Ardern
- Jitsi
- Jordan Peterson
- Las Vegas
- Liberal
- Libertarian
- Libertarianism
- Liberty
- Life Extension
- Macau
- Marie Byrd Land
- Mars
- Mars Colonization
- Mars Colony
- Memetics
- Micronations
- Mind Uploading
- Minerva Reefs
- Modern Satanism
- Moon Colonization
- Nanotech
- National Vanguard
- NATO
- Neo-eugenics
- Neurohacking
- Neurotechnology
- New Utopia
- New Zealand
- Nihilism
- Nootropics
- NSA
- Oceania
- Offshore
- Olympics
- Online Casino
- Online Gambling
- Pantheism
- Personal Empowerment
- Poker
- Political Correctness
- Politically Incorrect
- Polygamy
- Populism
- Post Human
- Post Humanism
- Posthuman
- Posthumanism
- Private Islands
- Progress
- Proud Boys
- Psoriasis
- Psychedelics
- Putin
- Quantum Computing
- Quantum Physics
- Rationalism
- Republican
- Resource Based Economy
- Robotics
- Rockall
- Ron Paul
- Roulette
- Russia
- Sealand
- Seasteading
- Second Amendment
- Second Amendment
- Seychelles
- Singularitarianism
- Singularity
- Socio-economic Collapse
- Space Exploration
- Space Station
- Space Travel
- Spacex
- Sports Betting
- Sportsbook
- Superintelligence
- Survivalism
- Talmud
- Technology
- Teilhard De Charden
- Terraforming Mars
- The Singularity
- Tms
- Tor Browser
- Trance
- Transhuman
- Transhuman News
- Transhumanism
- Transhumanist
- Transtopian
- Transtopianism
- Ukraine
- Uncategorized
- Vaping
- Victimless Crimes
- Virtual Reality
- Wage Slavery
- War On Drugs
- Waveland
- Ww3
- Yahoo
- Zeitgeist Movement
-
Prometheism
-
Forbidden Fruit
-
The Evolutionary Perspective
Category Archives: Progress
Are we there yet? Neuralink progress update next month could give us a deeper look into Elon Musk’s brain-computer – Silicon Canals
Posted: July 13, 2020 at 5:18 pm
Elon Musk unveiled Neuralink back in July 2019 as a startup specialising in brain-computer interface (BCI). The premise is simple wherein numerous thin wires can be implanted in a brain to intercept signals being fired by a group of neurons. However, the presentation where Musk introduced the technology and talks about the possibilities is definitely exciting. Now, Elon Musk is gearing up to release new updates on the project.
In last years presentation, Elon Musk said that the first generation Neuralink devices would be used to treat brain diseases such as Parkinsons, before allowing people to ultimately achieve a sort of symbiosis with artificial intelligence. The next update on where the company has reached in its milestone will come in August.
Musk is known for cryptic tweets and he recently tweeted, If you cant beat em, join em, Neuralink mission statement. This was followed by, Progress update August 28 and AI symbiosis while you wait. The second tweet is straightforward and suggests that another briefing regarding Neuralinks progress will happen on August 28. However, the first and third tweets are rather unique.
Rather than reading too much into them, theres a good possibility that the tweets are simply a play on words. Musk views AI as a threat to humanity if its development is left unchecked. So, If you cant beat em, join em could simply mean ramping up our capabilities to match an AIs, which is one of the things Neuralink aims to ultimately accomplish.
its not yet known what could be unveiled on August 28 at the next Neuralink progress. However, speculations and rumours making rounds on the internet are ranging from possible to sci-fi. Since Neuralink is yet to receive regulatory approval for human trials, we dont expect to see the technology in action.
A video of how the tech has been used in animals could be revealed since Musk previously said that a monkey was able to control a computer with his brain, thanks to Neuralink. But we will have to wait until the official announcements are made as this is merely speculation.
Neuralinks Brain Computer Interface uses thin wires that can be implanted in a brain to intercept neuron signals. Intercepting these signals could enable the company to understand and treat brain disorders such as Parkinsons, and preserve and enhance brain function, and more.
Musk has also made some futurist claims regarding Neuralinks capabilities. One of them is making language obsolete within the next decade. You wouldnt need to talk we could still do it for sentimental reasons, he said on the Joe Rogan Podcast. You would be able to communicate very quickly and with far more precision Im not sure what would happen to language. In a situation like this it would kind of be like The Matrix. You want to speak a different language? No problem, just download the program.
Check out the innovations that took home the Blue Tulip Awards this 2020
Continue reading here:
Posted in Progress
Comments Off on Are we there yet? Neuralink progress update next month could give us a deeper look into Elon Musk’s brain-computer – Silicon Canals
Firefighters Halt Progress of Alum Fire in Hills Above San Jose – CBS San Francisco
Posted: at 5:18 pm
SAN JOSE (CBS SF) A wildfire ignited in the grasslands in the hills above San Jose Saturday, sending a large smoke plume skyward that was visible for miles and bringing crews from Santa Clara County and Cal Fire to battle the blaze.
Cal Fire air support joined dozens of firefighters who managed to halt forward progress of the 30-acre fire shortly after noon
Fire officials said the Alum Fire was burning at the top of a hillside near Mount Hamilton Rd. and Crothers Rd. east of the San Jose Country Club and south of Alum Rock Park.
Forward progress of the fire has been stopped. All fixed wing aircraft have been released and reported to be 30 acres, San Jose fire officials tweeted.
The National Weather Service tweeted that blaze was burning so intensely it had generated enough heat to trigger an alert from a GOES satellite orbiting over the West Coast.
Visit link:
Firefighters Halt Progress of Alum Fire in Hills Above San Jose - CBS San Francisco
Posted in Progress
Comments Off on Firefighters Halt Progress of Alum Fire in Hills Above San Jose – CBS San Francisco
Progress demands participation by the many | Columns | Journal Gazette – Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
Posted: at 5:18 pm
These are uncertain, divided times for our nation.
Unemployment is at mind-boggling levels, a virus we still don't fully understand is stifling the course of ordinary life, many businesses are struggling, nationwide protests continue against systemic and deep-seated racism, and local policymakers face rising questions about policing and public safety.
It's no surprise that this is one of those rare moments of national reflection about our future course.
It's also a moment of great attention to our political system because that's how we're going to work these things out. For me, this raises a fundamental question: What are politics and government all about, and how do we use them to make progress on such fundamental issues?
At heart, I'd argue, our political and economic systems try to provide an environment that enhances each person's quest for happiness and a good life. We lay the framework in part through government, and through the politics that determines who runs our government and what they do once in office.
We do this through a representative democracy, a system by which citizens elect men and women to represent them in a national or state legislature in order to make the laws of the country. It's an elaborate, complex effort, especially in a country as diverse as ours. Disparate interests are rampant at every level, and for government to work you have to try to build a consensus among those groups while seeking collective security, economic growth, and protection for individual rights and liberties.
That's because our democracy promotes the idea that individuals are equal before the law, and that the rights we've enshrined in the Bill of Rights need to be protected.
Representative democracy does not demand that its citizens participate, but it fails if enough of them don't. It encourages civic engagement, community service, citizens living up to their obligations to their neighbors and, of course, voting.
It also makes room for all manner of communications, from letter-writing to participating in boycotts and protests. And it works best when people are well informed and educated on the political issues. That places a burden on us all to find high-quality information and use it effectively and prudently.
The system encourages competition for political power among a wide range of groups and interests, and nothing is ever settled. If you lose, you're given a chance to win in future elections. If, finally, you win, you've got the temporary power to achieve your legislative goals. But winning is never total.
Congress and our legislatures represent the diversity of the population, and pretty much require cooperation and consensus-building to accomplish anything. This is both a weakness it can be cumbersome and a strength, since it allows for reasonable stability as all kinds of groups, including minorities of all sorts, strive to exert influence.
All of this creates a dynamic, energetic political sphere that challenges us. It's remarkable, if you think about it: The system was crafted for a country of about 4 million. Here we are more than200 years later, with 330 million, with the same system helping to organize a country of enormous power, reach and complexity.
It's evolved over that time, thanks to constant tinkering, reform and improvement, and those needs will never go away. That's what our system does: It calls on citizens to make it work and to make it better.
There's no doubt we face great stresses, and while we may make progress in enhancing individuals' pursuit of happiness, it's rarely straightforward. We take steps ahead then retreat; we celebrate victories and suffer setbacks.
But overall, when citizens speak up and become involved, we progress.
Read the original:
Progress demands participation by the many | Columns | Journal Gazette - Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
Posted in Progress
Comments Off on Progress demands participation by the many | Columns | Journal Gazette – Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
After months of little progress, will Dak Prescott make a deal with the Cowboys? Time to decide is running out. – The Dallas Morning News
Posted: at 5:18 pm
The last year of Dak Prescotts contract impasse moved like two hours on a gym bicycle: exhausting but stationary. And as the Cowboys and their franchise quarterback spun their wheels, unable to broker a deal, the surrounding landscape changed significantly.
A new collective bargaining agreement with the seeming promise of long-term league prosperity was enacted. A Chiefs quarterback was paid like an Angels outfielder. Now, a pandemic threatens to cancel the upcoming season.
Moving in place is no longer an option.
By 3 p.m. Wednesday, the Cowboys and Prescott must sign or get off the cash pot.
That is the NFL deadline for any player who has been franchise-tagged to finalize a multiyear contract. Otherwise, no such deal can be completed until after the conclusion of the 2020 season.
One way or another, barring a change to the NFL calendar, the days of wondering how soon a blockbuster Prescott contract could come are numbered. It is either a few days away or several-plus months away.
Deadlines tend to drive action. Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott can attest to that.
Last summer, Elliott skipped all of training camp during a 40-day holdout, chowing on sushi rolls for dinner between workouts and friendly poker tournaments at a Cabo San Lucas resort. His contract was not agreed upon until nearly 5 a.m. on the Wednesday before a Sunday season opener against the New York Giants.
A last-ditch deal happened then. It can happen now.
Then again, Prescott might not necessarily feel tremendous urgency as Wednesdays deadline nears. Under his signed franchise tag, he is scheduled to earn $31.4 million in 2020. If the Cowboys tag him again in 2021, the salary value increases by 20% to about $37.7 million.
This is a meaningful jump in any year. Its especially consequential when the COVID-19 pandemic is sure to disrupt the leagues revenue this season.
Revenue and the salary cap are directly correlated. While the exact repercussions of the pandemic are still developing, the NFL and NFL Players Association probably will have to borrow from future years in order to buoy the 2021 cap to a respectable figure, keeping it flat instead of allowing the current $198.2 million figure to tank.
So, Prescotts 20% salary increase would come at a time when the cap is static.
Last Monday, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes signed a 12-year, $477.6 million contract with incentives, the potential value is about $503 million. This contract was a landmark development, but it bears little relevance on what the Cowboys and Prescott are working to accomplish.
Mahomes was still playing on his rookie contract. Apples.
Prescott is on the franchise tag. Oranges.
Prescott appears sure to earn more than Mahomes over the next four to five years, at which point he could be scheduled to hit free agency again. By that point, the COVID-19 probably wouldnt be holding back the cap, and Prescott could strike again while still in his prime.
He turns 27 this month.
The real question, the one that only Prescott and his agent Todd France at CAA can answer, is how the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 impacts their willingness to stay the course. Few answers are available regarding what would happen to player salaries if the 2020 regular-season schedule is shortened or canceled outright.
How much of that $31.4 million would Prescott lose?
How much of that would he keep if, by Wednesday, he signed a multiyear contract that turned most of the money into a signing or roster bonus?
There is much to decide in the coming days. The Cowboys and France have gone months, at certain times during this grueling process, without achieving progress toward a multiyear contract. They must deliberate now to change that. They have hurdles to clear. They have to give and take.
This wont be like riding a bike.
Find more Cowboys stories from The Dallas Morning News here.
Read the original here:
Posted in Progress
Comments Off on After months of little progress, will Dak Prescott make a deal with the Cowboys? Time to decide is running out. – The Dallas Morning News
AweSun update supports macOS to accelerate the progress of building connections from anywhere – Help Net Security
Posted: at 5:18 pm
AweRay, an international remote desktop service provider, released AweSun updated version which supports macOS in the US and worldwide. Since its initial launch, AweSun solutions for remote desktop have already covered Windows, iOS and Android devices.
And now, its support for macOS comprehensively achieve the goal of cross-platform connections. The technology firm is dedicated to achieve their work ambition: make connections anywhere, anytime.
AweSun Remote Desktop enables people to connect to remote work computer, from home laptop, iPad or iPhone. It facilitates remote access to any device as if users were right in front of them. As the most affordable remote desktop solution on the market, AweSun offers free yet powerful features which users expect to find in other paid software.
Including all the features the Free Version provides, the upgraded Pro Version enables users to perform Remote CMD and access to the remote camera. IT professionals and experts can get more convenience from the enhanced features.
AweSun Game Version, which attracts much attention, makes the software stand out among its competitors. The Game Version enables users to customize a gaming keyboard on the mobile device. Users can therefore freely play favourite PC games on their phones.
As a remote access service provider, AweSun is deeply aware that our users pose great emphasis on security and privacy. Out of security concern, AweSun adopts a two-factor authentication with RSA/AES (256-bit) encryption method to ensure a secure line. Privacy security is AweSuns priority.
Meanwhile, AweSun has never stopped continuously updating and developing products. In March, 2020, AweSun launched the AweSun Client app installed for mobile devices. The app offers a great solution for users who want to assist their family, friends, or clients with phone setup, app installation, or troubleshooting.
In June, 2020, AweSun for Windows 1.5 provides users with a series of new features and upgrades, including two-way audio, dual-authentication access to optimize remote connection.
Maybe thats one of the reasons that AweSun received many thanks letters this year. Remote work is not an experimental trail or an ideal concept today. Technology firms like AweSun are making smart tools for all.
During recent work from home wave, the surge in the number of users is obvious and many users expressed their gratitude to AweSun for providing a free and practical tool that help them quickly adapt to remote work, said Joseph Chan, CEO of AweRay Limited.
The release of AweSun for macOS strengthens AweSuns position in the market as the most reliable and most affordable remote desktop solution available. Multi-platform remote connection offers our customers a more effective user experience. As AweRays vision goes, empowering everyone with the tools they need to do great work and have great fun.
Excerpt from:
Posted in Progress
Comments Off on AweSun update supports macOS to accelerate the progress of building connections from anywhere – Help Net Security
America & Race: The Progress & the Task Ahead – National Review
Posted: at 5:18 pm
The Gallant Charge of the Fifty Fourth Massachusetts (Colored) Regiment, on the Rebel works at Fort Wagner, Morris Island near Charleston, July 18th 1863, and Death of Colonel Robert G. Shaw, Currier and Ives(Keith Lance/Getty Images)It is remarkable, and it continues
There are two things that I believe to be true. First, that America has a long history of brutal and shameful mistreatment of racial minorities with black Americans its chief victims. And second, that America is a great nation, and that American citizens (and citizens of the world) should be grateful for its founding. Perhaps no nation has done more good for more people than the United States. It was and is a beacon of liberty and prosperity in a world long awash in tyranny and poverty.
In much of our modern political discourse, it seems to be taken as a given that the existence of one truth has to negate the other. A nation simply cant be great and also inflict such immense pain and suffering on so many millions of black and brown citizens.
And so the public debate warps and twists. Speak about the greatness of the nation, and critics immediately accuse you of minimizing the undeniably hideous sin of white supremacy. Emphasize white supremacy, and opponents will accuse you of minimizing the immense sacrifices of black and white soldiers in the Union Army, the undeniable progress in civil rights since Jim Crow, and the obvious fact that black and brown citizens from across the globe flock to our shores in search of the American dream.
Lets dodge that back-and-forth and go back and ask two more-fundamental questions. What is the nature of man? And what does that nature imply for the history of nations and cultures? Absent truthful answers to those questions, its not possible to accurately analyze a nations worth. And the answers are grim.
Human beings, to quote no lesser authority than Jesus Christ, are evil. As G. K. Chesterton observed, original sin is the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved. It doesnt take a historian to know that a survey of human civilization over the ages leads us to conclude that social justice has been hard to find. Indeed, there isnt even a straight line between, say, Athenian democracy and American liberty, or the Magna Carta and the American Constitution. Instead, there were times when three steps forward were followed by nine steps back.
The American republic was thus founded against the backdrop of millennia of conquest, oppression, slavery, monarchy, and tyranny all of it an expression of humanitys dark nature. That doesnt mean there werent pockets of virtue or periodic prophetic condemnations of wickedness, but the presence of evil in human affairs has been persistent and often overpowering.
Noting that the evils of slavery and conquest have been pervasive doesnt make them less evil. It does, however, help us to explain our appreciation for the American founding and the trajectory of the American nation.
That founding and that trajectory were hardly inevitable. Indeed, the introduction of slavery to our shores in 1619 showed that there was nothing particularly special about our new civilization. It was more of the dreary human same. The signing of the Declaration of Independence and the ratification of the Constitution (and the Bill of Rights) were, by contrast, remarkable. They marked the beginning of something new.
Its important to emphasize the word beginning. Ive been struggling to think of the right analogy to describe the role of the American founding in world history. Lets try a term from counterinsurgency warfare: the ink blot.
In counterinsurgency warfare, the strategist looks at a nation or countryside in chaos one thats descending into a state of nature and attempts to establish an island of safety and security. The purpose is for that island of safety and security to spread across the map the way an ink blot spreads across the paper.
The American founding declared universal principles: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. But then its constitution and laws granted only a particularized and narrow defense of those rights.
Even the Bill of Rights, sweeping in its language, was extraordinarily limited in its scope. It originally restrained only the actions of a small and relatively weak central government. The ink blot of liberty was tiny. The only people who could confidently assert those universal rights were a small class of white male property owners clustered on the Eastern Seaboard of the new United States.
Everyone else, to a greater or lesser extent, lived still within the ordinary state of nature, with slaves, as always, the most vulnerable of all. But the combination of a universal declaration of liberty and the obvious joy and prosperity of its exercise created an unbearable tension within the new nation. There was a tension between our founding ideals and our founding reality.
Thomas Jefferson, a slave owner, understood this tension. These words, adapted from his writings, are engraved on Panel Three of the Jefferson Memorial:
God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever. Commerce between master and slave is despotism. Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free.
It is absolutely true that too many of those Americans who enjoyed the blessings of liberty did not ponder the question Frederick Douglass posed: What to the slave is the Fourth of July? Too many, once they cashed in their own promissory note of freedom, did not concern themselves with those who were still owed a debt of liberty. But in every generation, there were Americans white and black, slave and free who sought to close the gap between promise and reality.
And make no mistake, in the face of often violent resistance, the American promise is prevailing. The ink blot of liberty is spreading, blotting out the default human background of oppression and misery. Critically, that ink blot has jumped our borders. The mightiest military power in the history of the world has used its strength to defeat the worlds worst tyrannies, secure the existence of liberal democracies from Japan to Germany, and then maintained a long and prosperous peace.
But its a mistake to think that our chief task is to point backwards, to look at the immense gap between slavery and freedom, between Jim Crow and civil rights, and believe that our work has been done. One does not undo the consequences of 345 years of legalized oppression in a mere 56 years of contentious change. Instead, our task is to continue the struggle to match American principles with American reality. Its to spread the ink blot to continue the American counterinsurgency against the chaos of history.
In July of every year, I think of two seminal infantry charges. The first occurred on July 2, 1863, when Colonel Joshua Chamberlain led the 20th Maine Infantry Regiment on a desperate counterattack against Confederate troops on Little Round Top on perhaps the most fateful day in American history day two of the Battle of Gettysburg.
The second charge happened just 16 days later, when the 54th Massachusetts Infantry launched its own desperate attack against the walls of Fort Wagner in South Carolina. The 54th was a black regiment, and its charge was a direct and physical manifestation that Americas black citizens were rising up to seize their inheritance.
The lesson of those two historic moments has been repeated time and again throughout American history. It took white Americans and black Americans to end slavery and not through a revolt against the Founding but rather through a defense of the Founding. It took white Americans and black Americans to end Jim Crow. Again, not through a revolt against the Founding but rather through a defense of the Founding. Through appeals to Americas founding promise, every marginalized American community has muscled its way into more-complete membership in the American family.
Its right to celebrate a nation that has over time combined courageous people with righteous principles to secure a more perfect union. Light the fireworks. Defend the monuments to the imperfect (though indispensable) people who in their turn and their time advanced human liberty and dignity.
Its most important, however, that we run the race in our turn, that we look forward so that future generations can look back and say of us that we didnt simply secure and maintain the gains of the past we made our own payments on that promissory note of freedom. We continued to close the gap between American principles and American reality. We have far to go, but the courageous history of this great nation should give us confidence that the best part of the American story is yet to be told.
This article appears as On Racial Progress in the July 27, 2020, print edition of National Review.
If you enjoyed this article, we have a proposition for you: Join NRPLUS. Members getallof our content (including the magazine), no paywalls or content meters, an advertising-minimal experience, and unique access to our writers and editors (conference calls, social-media groups, etc.). And importantly, NRPLUS members help keep NR going. Consider it?
If you enjoyed this article, and were stimulated by its contents, we have a proposition for you: Join NRPLUS.
See the rest here:
America & Race: The Progress & the Task Ahead - National Review
Posted in Progress
Comments Off on America & Race: The Progress & the Task Ahead – National Review
Pence touts progress in Covid-19 hot spots amid a surge of cases – POLITICO
Posted: at 5:18 pm
Pence also suggested emergency room visits are beginning to drop off in Arizona and Florida. But Arizona state data shows that key metric continuing to climb. A record 2,008 suspected or confirmed coronavirus patients were seen Tuesday.
In Florida, more than 223,000 coronavirus cases have been confirmed and nearly 17,000 patients have been hospitalized, according to the Florida Department of Health. Many hospitals in the state are running out of intensive care unit beds, according to data from the state Agency for Health Care Administration.
And while Floridas positivity test rate does appear to be growing at a slower pace, the seven-day moving average stands at about 19 percent, according to Johns Hopkins Universitys data dashboard. Texas testing positivity rate has remained steady over the past few weeks at around 14 percent.
Trump's own health officials have suggested a positivity rate below 10 percent is desirable, though other public health experts say the goal should be 5 percent or lower.
Pence made the comments as President Donald Trump and others in his administration push to reopen schools in the fall. Public health experts have expressed concerns with moving forward with cases on the rise in most states and the U.S. total surpassing 3 million on Wednesday.
Birx, Pence and Trump have all touted a lower coronavirus mortality rate in recent days, but public health experts including NIH infectious disease specialist Anthony Fauci have cautioned deaths are a lagging indicator.
"It's a false narrative to take comfort in a lower rate of death," Fauci said during a live stream Tuesday with Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.).
Birx, during Wednesday's briefing, advised Americans in states that have seen a sudden rise in cases to return to the earliest phase of reopening guidelines, which include avoiding gatherings of more than 10 people and the wearing of face coverings. She praised governors in Arizona, Florida and California for shutting down bars and reinstating social distancing orders.
We are really asking American people in those counties, in those states, to not only use face coverings, not go to bars ... but really not gather in homes either, Birx said.
CDC Director Robert Redfield said his agency would be releasing additional guidance next week on how schools can safely reopen in the fall, just hours after Trump on Twitter criticized his agencys initial guidelines for schools as tough and expensive.
We will continue to develop and evolve our guidance to meet the needs of the schools in the states that we continue to provide that assistance to, Redfield said. He declined to answer whether his agency is revising guidance in response to the presidents criticism.
The rest is here:
Pence touts progress in Covid-19 hot spots amid a surge of cases - POLITICO
Posted in Progress
Comments Off on Pence touts progress in Covid-19 hot spots amid a surge of cases – POLITICO
New York State continues to make progress in the fight against COVID-19, hospitalizations dip below 800 – WSYR
Posted: at 5:18 pm
Posted: Jul 11, 2020 / 01:18 PM EDT / Updated: Jul 11, 2020 / 06:12 PM EDT
(WSYR-TV) For the first time since March 18, COVID-19 hospitalizations dipped below 800 on Friday, as New York State continues to make progress in the fight against coronavirus.
New York continues to reach encouraging milestones regarding the coronavirus, as the data released on Saturday shows 799 people are currently hospitalized throughout the state with COVID-19. This is the lowest number of coronavirus hospitalizations in the state since March 18.
Tragically, six more New Yorkers lost their lives to COVID-19 on Friday, but the three-day average death toll is the lowest the state has seen since March 16.
Below is the COVID-19 data from Friday that was released by the New York State Health Department on Saturday.
New York State confirmed 730 new coronavirus cases on Friday, which is about 1.05% of the people that were tested.
Each regions percent of positive tests over the last three days can be found below.
In total, there have been over 400,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in New York State.
Although New York State is making great progress in the fight against COVID-19, the story is much different in other parts of the country.
For more coronavirus data, click here.
Read more from the original source:
Posted in Progress
Comments Off on New York State continues to make progress in the fight against COVID-19, hospitalizations dip below 800 – WSYR
The Limits of Democrats’ Climate Progress – The New Republic
Posted: at 5:18 pm
Thursday morning, the World Meteorological Organization released a report projecting that there is a one in five chance of global temperatures rising by 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) in the next five years, a line beyond which millions of livelihoods will become unviable and homes uninhabitable. In the midst of a summer that has already seen Siberia on fire, the prediction felt more than plausible.
The day before, a group of Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders advisers focused on projecting unity in the Democratic Party released 110 pages worth of policy recommendations, starting with climate policy. The persistent sit-ins, climate strikes, and insurgent candidate success stories of the past four years seem to have accomplished this much: The policy recommendations contained in this document, like just about every other climate plan to emerge from mainstream nodes of the Democratic Party in the last year, are orders of magnitude more sweeping than anyone, even Sanders, would have thought possible in 2016. Thanks doubtless to the influence of the Sunrise Movements Varshini Prakash, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and other left-leaning members of the unity advisers climate segment, the documents climate goals are ambitious: zeroing out building and power sector emissions by 2030 and 2035, respectively; an embrace of environmental justice principles and targeted investments in this countrys most vulnerable communities; installing 500 million solar panels in five years; the creation of a Cabinet position for emissions reductions. Encouragingly, climate also makes an appearance in the recommendations of the economy and immigration recommendations.
Still, the recommendations for phasing out fossil fuels remain weak. The plan doesnt fully grapple with the crisis now gripping oil and gas companies and the financial sector that supports them. Few international commitments are suggested, leaving the United States to eat up most of the worlds remaining carbon budget.
The plans are better than they were. The plans are not enough. What are the plans for?
Though its ostensibly my job to analyze these kinds of climate plans on their own terms, the whole exercise is starting to feel pretty pointless. Documents like the task force recommendationslike presidential campaign platforms or the House Committee on the Climate Crisis reportreally only indicate where were starting from. So far, all the plans on offer will likely produce warming greater than two degrees Celsius. And thats a relatively rosy scenario.
See the original post:
The Limits of Democrats' Climate Progress - The New Republic
Posted in Progress
Comments Off on The Limits of Democrats’ Climate Progress – The New Republic
Opinion: We need ‘serious progress toward all of our students feeling valued and learning at their full potential’ – BethesdaMagazine.com
Posted: at 5:18 pm
MCPS superintendent calls for greater urgency, purpose in eradicating racism
By Jack Smith
| Published: 2020-07-11 00:49
Most years, I spend the Fourth of July holiday enjoying the company of my family and friends; watching the joy on a grandchilds face during a fireworks display; and reflecting on my whereabouts during the many July 4 holidays Ive experienced.
This year, my social time was distanced; fireworks shows were canceled; and I was thinking of a specific July 4 in Montgomery County history I recently read about the day the last recorded lynching took place not far from where I now sit in Rockville as the superintendent of schools.
Recently, a colleague shared with me that the location of the current MCPS central office building on Hungerford Drive and Mannakee Street is close to the location of the last lynching in our county. I was forwarded an article from The Washington Post that shared the details of this horrible event.
According to the article, on July 4, 1896, a lynch mob of 20 to 30 masked men brutally killed Sidney Randolph, a 28-year-old Black man. Mr. Randolph was accused of killing a 7-year-old white girl.
The article goes on to say that the evidence against Mr. Randolph was circumstantial and conflicting, and that he lacked a motive to commit the crime. Yet, police arrested him and a mob saw fit to hang him from a chestnut tree.
While this horrific lynching occurred more than a century ago, my heart sank and my anger was intense as if it had just happened. My thoughts raced forward in time to the 2020 killings of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd.
In the last 124 years, we have traveled to the bottom of the ocean and into space; created the internet; and sequenced the human genome. Yet, as a country, we are still unable to protect, value and respect the life and liberty of Black Americans, specifically Black men.
I believe Montgomery County has made progress toward this goal by being on the forefront of desegregation of schools in the 1950s; by years of equity policies and initiatives in the school system; and by the countys passage of a Racial Equity and Social Justice law in 2019.
However,recent social media posts from students of color in our school system that detail their experiences with racism and bias in our schools are a stark reminder that there is much more work to be done. In some of these posts, students shared allegations of bias, stereotyping and racism at the hands of their peers and, more disturbingly, our staff members.
I am grateful to those who stepped forward to share their painful, personal stories. They help us do the work that must be done.
Many of the experiences highlighted in the social media posts reflect what research has confirmed implicit bias exists across the educational spectrum, including preschool. The research also shows that this bias can contribute to disparities in academic outcomes for students of color.
I have no reason to believe that students and educators in our county are immune. Moreover, we know that public education institutions, including MCPS, have only taught a small fraction of what students should know about the Black experience in the United States, including the barriers that exist to full access and opportunity in education.
The good news is we know that bias can be interrupted and curricula can be enhanced to achieve these goals. The MCPS staff is working to enhance our mandatory equity and cultural proficiency training and practices. Work is underway to integrate cultural proficiency and implicit bias training with effective instructional practice and sound content knowledge into all professional learning experiences.
By changing the experience of our students of color through culturally responsive relationships and expanding learning opportunities, we can truly unleash the potential of our students.
Additionally, we have made significant changes to our elementary and middle school literacy and math curricula. Next, we must work on high school literacy, as well as social studies and other curricula at all levels. Providing curricula that meet the needs of our students and creating equitable access and opportunity across the system must continue to be the priority.
While we have made progress in many areas, we must work with a greater sense of urgency and purpose. I am not naive, but I am committed. We will not be able to eradicate racism overnight.
Based on the story of Sidney Randolph and the aforementioned social media posts, racism and bias have long roots. But I believe we can and must move the needle quickly.
I expect to see serious progress toward all of our students feeling valued and learning at their full potential by the time July 4 arrives next year. We cannot wait another century for change.
Jack Smith is the superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools.
Continue reading here:
Posted in Progress
Comments Off on Opinion: We need ‘serious progress toward all of our students feeling valued and learning at their full potential’ – BethesdaMagazine.com