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Going forward, new shows will post for Thursday at 6PM (CT) broadcast and re-run on Sundays at 1PM and Wednesdays at 11AM.

AUDIO:

POSSIBLE TOPICS:

1. OPINION: Here’s What I Learned From Trump’s Victory: I’m the Problem. It’s Me;
2. FROM: Lina Hidalgo, Harris County Judge;
3. So, what can this administration do before January 20^th, and what can the Democratic-led Senate do before the end of the year?
4. Joe Biden Could End Ukraine War Before Donald Trump; Zelenskyy Too Might Prefer A Biden-Led Deal: OPED;
5. NATO’s Rutte says Russian attacks on Europe are ‘intensifying’;
6. No new limits on Ukraine’s use of US arms if North Korea joins Russia’s fight, Pentagon says;
7. Satanic Temple has created a largely-free telehealth clinic to help people perform a ritual … that includes mailing them abortion pills.;
8. Walking pneumonia is spreading. Doctors share the tell-tale symptoms to look for, and varied ways to treat it.;
9. Do I have COVID, the flu or something else? 2024 symptoms and testing to know.;
10. Our toothbrushes are home to hundreds of new viruses. They could be the future of biotech.;
11. Evolutionary anthropologist presents hypothesis about why humans are dominating the world over other animals;
12. Hertz Apologizes For Threatening To Have Customer Who Drove 25,000 Miles In Rental Car Arrested;
13. Boeing Reportedly Looking to Sell Off Its Disastrous Starliner Spacecraft;

Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig where we discuss local, state, national, and international stories. 

Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig (@ThinkwingRadio) is now on Wednesdays at 11AM (CT) or Thursdays at 6PM on KPFT 90.1 FM-HD2, Houston’s Community Media. You can also hear the show:

1. Live online at KPFT.org (from anywhere in the world!)
2. Podcast on your phone’s Podcast App
3. Visiting Archive.KPFT.ORG

Except for timely election info, the extensive list of voting resources will now be at the end.

1. I’m not going to spend the whole show on politics today. I think many of us need a bit of a reprieve. But I do want to spend time on some thoughts before we do stuff that’s just interesting and maybe even fun.
2. Post-Election Stuff — The first thing I’m going to read is an opinion piece by Michael Ian Black from COM. I think it’s thoughtful and poignant, but also important. — OPINION: Here’s What I Learned From Trump’s Victory: I’m the Problem. It’s Me; Michael Ian Black thought four years of corruption, lies, ineptitude, graft, and cruelty had cured our dalliance with authoritarianism. Nope. By Michael Ian Black | THEDAILYBEAST.COM | Updated Nov. 6, 2024 @ 7:13AM EST / Published Nov. 6, 2024 @ 5:40AM EST. TAGS: Michael Ian Black, Election 2024, MAGA, Donald Trump,
   1. (MIKE: It’s written in first person, and that’s how I’m going to read it.)
   2. I thought we were past this. I really did. I was wrong.
   3. For the last years, my Twitter feed has been filled with MAGA trolls telling me that people like me “are the problem.” I never believed them. At least I didn’t until last night, when my nation confirmed it. Turns out, people like me really are the problem, and I must admit, as Donald Trump begins the process of assuming his second presidency, that I don’t know what to do about it.
   4. The thing is, people like me don’t want to believe that half of my countrymen support the things Donald Trump supports. We thought four years of corruption, lies, ineptitude, graft, and cruelty cured our dalliance with our authoritarianism. Turns out the following four years of recovery only whetted their appetite.
   5. People like me believed that the office of the presidency would humble even the most hardened heart, just as it has for each of its previous occupants (well, there might have been a couple exceptions before Trump). We thought that even if a humbug were to assume the office that the other two thirds of the government would keep him in line. We thought even the most cynical politicians would put the nation’s interests above their own. We were wrong.
   6. Because I don’t understand how a nation founded in the highest aspirations of a people can choose to be led by somebody who only appeals to their basest desires. I don’t understand how a nation that has fought so hard to overcome the worst of its sins can be led so easily back into temptation.
   7. What do my fellow Americans envision mass deportations are going to look like? A country that only 80 years ago locked 120,000 people into internment camps are now going to do the same to millions? This is what my fellow Americans just voted for. Unless they don’t really believe he’ll do it. In which case they’re voting for somebody they believe is lying to them. Forgive me, I don’t understand.
   8. America obviously wants a return to something… I wish I’d ever heard a cogent explanation of exactly what, but there was, apparently, a time of American greatness that was also, somehow, a time when the men were men, the women were happy and in which, as Garrison Keillor so lovingly described his mystical hometown of Lake Wobegon, the children were above average. It is, in other words, a fiction. Worse, it’s the fiction of a fiction. Because that America loved its neighbors. This America spits on them. Or maybe, again, I’ve just got it all wrong.
   9. Speaking of Garrison Keillor, another disgraced octogenarian making a comeback, I remember when Trump won in 2016, Keillor wrote:
   10. Democrats can spend four years raising heirloom tomatoes, meditating, reading Jane Austen, traveling around the country, tasting artisan beers, and let the Republicans build the wall and carry on the trade war with China and deport the undocumented and deal with opioids, and we Democrats can go for a long, brisk walk and smell the roses.
   11. I remember reading those words for the first time and feeling righteous indignation at them. How dare he, I thought, When he has the privilege to go read Jane Austen and smell his damned roses.
   12. Eight years later, I take his point. The world is going to keep spinning, one way or the other, and there’s not a damned thing people like me can do about it. Not anymore.
   13. People like me feel foolish today. Not because we lost an election, but because we put our faith in those stupid higher ideals that founded our nation.
   14. I know, I know. Trump supporters will say the same, and both of us will believe that the other side misread those same, stupid founding documents. But when I read the opening of the Constitution, I don’t read it in the voice of Donald J. Trump. I hear it in the voices of my immigrant grandparents and great-grandparents. Of my friends and neighbors and the people I interact with every day. What does it mean to Donald Trump to form a more perfect union? What does it mean to them?
   15. Are we more of a union today or less? People like me believe one way. We’re wrong about everything else. I hope we’re wrong about this, too.
3. MIKE: The next thing I’m going to read is from the campaign of Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, and I think it’s good to hear at a time when it’s easy to feel hopeless — Again, this is written in first person and that’s how I’m going to read it.
   1. FROM: Lina Hidalgo, Harris County Judge
   2. What a tough night. Like you, I’m disappointed after losing the presidency, key federal races, and several local elected offices.
   3. Vice President Harris and her team, along with all her supporters, her allies, and our Democratic Party, worked extremely hard and did our very best. The Vice President is a magnificent person and candidate. She makes us feel proud and inspired.
   4. It’s easy to despair at the reality that her strength, thoughtful policies, and commitment to the community did not win the day. For me as a woman leader, it’s easy to despair at the seeming impossibility that voters will trust a woman to lead our nation.
   5. And it’s easy to despair at the thought of what may come next, particularly as pertains [to] Donald Trump’s authoritarian-like promises. [Judge Hidalgo says,] I decided to run for office when then-President Trump started attacking journalists and journalism itself—attacks on the free press being anathema to democracy. I believe democracy is our nation’s biggest treasure.
   6. During his campaign, Donald Trump made very clear his authoritarian aspirations and his extreme agenda, including tariffs that would threaten the open market, anti-immigrant proposals that would leave our nation without vital workers, and a shakiness on Ukraine and Taiwan that would destabilize the international order.
   7. But my message is: don’t despair.
   8. I do not believe those who voted for Mr. Trump did so *because* of his authoritarian wishes, or the negative impacts of his extreme proposals, although I do believe there is still a gender barrier in politics. Perhaps they voted for him because they felt he would bring a stronger household economy and bring down inflation, or better manage our borders.
   9. So what to do instead of despair? We should start with the reality we have and work from there, with the resiliency and strength we know we have.
   10. We accept election results, of course. But that doesn’t mean Donald Trump gets to be a dictator, even for a day. We steel ourselves for our nation to be led by people we would not have chosen. But we fight bad policies through the court system, through public opinion, and the midterm elections.
   11. And throughout all that, and most importantly, we work to better connect with the many ordinary people who felt Donald Trump offered enough promise to outweigh his clear threats to our institutions.
   12. To everyone who voted, thank you for making your voice heard. I am always proud to lead our beautiful, diverse, Harris County.
   13. Onward, Lina
4. MIKE: So, what can this administration do before January 20^th, and what can the Democratic-led Senate do before the end of the year?
   1. The president can exercise some of his powers as chief executive and Commander-In-Chief.
   2. As regards the Russia-Ukraine War, it’s worth remembering that Russia has recently perpetrated two significant moves against the US. They caused dangerous devices to be shipped potentially on US civil aircraft, and they sent fake bomb threats that interfered with voting by US citizens.
   3. A response is absolutely called for, and it should be painful. A first consideration might be to pre-empt Ukraine being totally sold out by Donald Trump. This might be done by lifting restrictions on the use of American weapons by Ukraine, allowing them to fight with all the capabilities in their arsenal. Another possibility is to radically accelerate the transfer of weapons and ammunition to Ukraine before January 20^th, and preferably before the end of the year.
   4. Another possibility, as a response to Russia calling in North Korean troops to fight Ukraine, and in consultation with our NATO allies, might be to extend NATO air cover over at least parts of Ukraine. This doesn’t have to mean NATO jets overflying Ukraine, but rather could involve anti-missile weapons fired from NATO territory.
   5. There may be other executive actions Biden can take before the end of his term such as attempting to protect civil servants or protecting the Justice Department from executive interference, but it’s unlikely that any such executive orders couldn’t and wouldn’t be reversed by Donald Trump “on Day One”.
   6. There isn’t much that a Democratically-controlled Senate can get passed into law, but “Job 1” should be confirming all Biden nominees to open court seats. They can also make efforts that might at least act as political signals to the American Public.
   7. For example, they can attempt to repeal the Comstock Act, which Republicans have made noises about using to further restrict women’s healthcare. They can put forward a bill to reform the Supreme Court. They can present a bill for election reforms.
   8. Anything the Senate may pass will likely fail in the Republican-controlled House, but it’s worth trying.
   9. In another vein, unfortunately, rightly or wrongly, I think it will be a while before a woman heads the Democratic presidential ticket again for quite a while, probably for a generation. Hillary Clinton, an extraordinarily qualified White woman, won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College. Kamala Harris, an extraordinarily qualified South Asian-and-Black mixed-race woman, lost both the popular vote and the Electoral College, at least as of this writing. And it was White men and White women that made the difference.
   10. There’s no telling what Democratic primary voters will do in the future, but I think that this history will factor into the choices of primary voters for a long time to come. …
5. Along the lines of my thoughts on Biden’s executive choices regarding Ukraine assistance, there’s this opinion piece from the EurAsian Times, which I have edited down a bit — Joe Biden Could End Ukraine War Before Donald Trump; Zelenskyy Too Might Prefer A Biden-Led Deal: OPED; By Vijainder K Thakur | EURASIANTIMES.COM (An Indian-Canadian private joint news venture) | November 6, 2024. TAGS: Ukraine, Russia, Donald Trump, Joe Biden,
   1. … Trump has repeatedly said that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war quickly, sometimes stretching credulity with his projected time frame – “in 24 hours” or even before his inauguration if elected.
   2. He has suggested that his approach would be more effective due to his personal good relationships with both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin. …
   3. Trump has also suggested that Zelenskyy should never have let the war start, implying that Ukraine could have made concessions to prevent the conflict. He has criticized Biden for allegedly instigating the war by providing military aid without pushing for a diplomatic solution.
   4. Trump’s campaign has hinted at a policy where the U.S. might pressure Ukraine into negotiations, possibly involving territorial concessions, to end the war swiftly.
   5. Following Trump’s resounding electoral victory, Vice President-elect J.D. Vance outlined Trump’s approach to peace in Ukraine: A ceasefire based on the current lines of demarcation between Russia and Ukraine, creating a demilitarized zone along these lines; 2. Ukraine would remain outside of NATO, suggesting a policy of neutrality for Ukraine; 3. Ukraine might need to make territorial concessions, particularly regarding areas where there are significant Russian-speaking populations or where Russia has control, like Crimea and parts of the Donbas; 4. European nations should take on more responsibility for supporting Ukraine, both financially and militarily, rather than relying heavily on the U.S.
   6. President Vladimir Putin’s latest peace proposal to Ukraine, as outlined in various reports and statements up to late October 2024, laid down the following two conditions for engaging in peace talks with Ukraine: Complete withdrawal by Ukrainian forces from the territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions; 2. Ukraine must formally renounce its plans to join NATO.
   7. Putin stated that as soon as Ukraine agrees to withdraw from these regions and declares its intention to remain neutral (not join NATO), Russia would “immediately” order a ceasefire and start negotiations.
   8. The negotiations would cover international Recognition of the “new territorial realities” and the lifting of all Western sanctions against Russia as part of any peace deal.
   9. When they were outlined, Ukraine and Western countries dismissed President Putin’s proposals, insisting that peace would require the full withdrawal of Russian forces from all Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, which voted to join Russia in 2014. …
   10. Trump’s proposals are potentially more aligned with Russian interests than the current stance of Ukraine and its Western allies, who insist on the restoration of Ukraine’s full territorial integrity and sovereignty before peace talks can proceed effectively.
   11. Coincidentally, Zelenskyy, in his post-election congratulations, appreciatively mentioned Trump’s commitment to the “peace through strength” approach, which is another way of describing Trump’s isolationist or less interventionist approach.
   12. The Russian response to Trump’s peace proposals has been muted. The Kremlin has indicated that any peace plan from the Trump administration would need to reflect the “reality on the ground.”
   13. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, has commented that while: 1. Putin remains open to negotiations[but] Russian-US relations are at their lowest point in history. …; 2. The United States is now an unfriendly country involved in a war against Russia; 3. The US is capable of changing its policy towards Ukraine, but it is impossible to end the conflict overnight. …
   14. Negotiations for peace between Ukraine and Russia are likely to start in the next few months, most likely under President Trump.
   15. However, President Zelensky’s congratulatory message to Trump hints at an acceptance of the changed realities. Consequently, negotiations could start even before Trump’s inauguration as President on January 20, 2025. Zelensky may conclude that he will be able to negotiate a better deal with Putin under Joe Biden than under Donald Trump! …
   16. MIKE: This scenario actually plays into my suggestions about Biden authorizing — or threatening to authorize — more equipment and weapons and greater latitude for their usage to Ukraine. This could provide leverage for a Russia-Ukraine deal negotiated by Biden. But why wouldn’t Putin wait for Trump to be sworn in?
   17. MIKE: Because if Biden gave such authorization for Ukraine far enough in advance, even Trump would have a hard time rolling back the new “facts on the ground”.
   18. MIKE: Could such a deal between Ukraine and Russia be struck before January 20^th? It would definitely be a long shot, but it might be worth considering.
   19. MIKE: It’s also worth remembering that the Europeans also have a lot at stake here, and appeasing Putin’s hunger for Ukrainian territory as the price of peace might remind them too much of the 1938 Munich Agreement that ceded chunks of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany in a vain attempt to avoid a European war.
   20. MIKE: Could Europe continue to sufficiently support Ukraine in its war against Russia without meaningful US participation? It’s hard to say. Aside from the sheer expense, Europe’s defense industries have atrophied even more than the US, and we’re having trouble keeping up with Ukraine’s needs even with European help.
   21. MIKE: These sorts of questions are among the reasons I’m so concerned about these elections results. Geopolitically, I can see this as the beginning of the end of the American century and American world dominance.
   22. MIKE: That’s more than just ego or national pride. It has implications for war, peace, US national security, our economic health and prosperity, and more.
   23. MIKE: Our geopolitical recovery from Trump’s first term in office was hard enough. It was aided by much of the Western world wanting us to come back into world affairs in a meaningful way. What the wreckage of our global influence will look like by January 2029 at the end of Trump’s second term (or Vance’s first), I shudder to think.
   24. MIKE: As an aside, there’s a related story that I’m referencing with a link, but not reading: NATO’s Rutte says Russian attacks on Europe are ‘intensifying’; “interfering directly in our democracies, sabotaging industry and committing violence,” said Mark Rutte. By Joshua Posaner | POLITICO.EU | November 4, 2024 6:26 pm CET. TAGS: Air defense , Armaments , Military War in Ukraine, Germany , Russia , Ukraine, Mark Rutte , Olaf Scholz, NATO
6. As an addition to that story, from REUTERS — No new limits on Ukraine’s use of US arms if North Korea joins Russia’s fight, Pentagon says; By Phil Stewart and Andrew Gray | REUTERS.COM | October 28, 2024@5:51 PM CDT/Updated 2 days ago. TAGS: NATO, North Korean troops, Ukraine,
   1. MIKE: To summarize briefly, while the US statement says that there will be “No new limits on Ukraine’s use of US arms if North Korea joins Russia’s fight, Pentagon says”, but the story doesn’t make clear whether or not that means that existing limits won’t be extended. Perhaps this is a case of “deliberate ambiguity”, but I wish the intent of what can only be construed as a threat was made more clearly and less ambiguously.
7. Now it’s time for health-related stories. And on the topic of women’s health, I don’t think you’ll be hearing this story anywhere else. From THREADS — Satanic Temple has created a largely-free telehealth clinic to help people perform a ritual … that includes mailing them abortion pills. “aeclarke_books | Nov 3, 2024 | https://www.threads.net/@aeclarke_books/post/DB5hSPKNEVZ…
   1. [FROM THREADS:] “Okay, this is honestly [fracking] amazing: the Satanic Temple has created a largely-free telehealth clinic to help people perform a ritual (aimed at removing guilt as well as general self-affirmation) that includes mailing them abortion pills. They’re arguing that they fall under a religious exemption, and thus can provide abortions via telehealth. (Honestly, using religious exemptions to bypass religion-inspired laws is perfect.”
   2. [According to the web site, TST is the] first telehealth clinic providing free religious medication abortion care. Patients only pay for their medications from a pharmacy, which typically costs around $90.
   3. How It Works: [They] will text you a link to a confidential health screening; After completing the screening, you will receive a link to schedule your virtual appointment; Video chat with our provider; Receive an email from our pharmacy partner to complete your medication purchase; Receive your abortion medication within 3-5 days in a discreet package; Text [them] if you need support or have questions.
   4. TST Health’s services are available to those who meet the following criteria: + At least 17 years old; In New Mexico or Virginia at the time of the online visit; Have a New Mexico or Virginia mailing address; Up to 11 weeks pregnant; Medically eligible; Interested in performing TST’s abortion ritual, OR are a TST member*.
   5. MIKE: I’ve emailed The Satanic Temple to see if membership waives the restrictive state membership requirement and opens it up to anyone in the 50 United States and associated territories, but from their FAQ, I don’t think it does.
   6. MIKE: Note that The Satanic Temple is not to be confused with The Church of Satan. They are antipathetic to each other.
   7. MIKE: It is important to note that discussing this story is not an endorsement of The Satanic Temple.
   8. REFERENCE: TST Health provides free religious telehealth medication abortion care, — The Satanic Temple. (If you want to learn more about the mission that The Satanic Temple claims it pursues, you can look here.)
8. Next — Walking pneumonia is spreading. Doctors share the tell-tale symptoms to look for, and varied ways to treat it.; By Hilary Brueck | BUSINESSINSIDER.COM | Nov 1, 2024, 11:54 AM CDT. TAGS: Health, Medical, Pneumonia, Antibiotics,
   1. A common infection known as “walking pneumonia” has been on an uptick across the US in recent months, especially among kids and teens.
   2. The respiratory illness caused by mycoplasma pneumoniae bacteria is often called walking pneumonia because it tends to be milder than other lung infections. Patients may feel run down, with a cough and a slight fever, but are often still well enough to continue their daily life.
   3. “It can be a little incognito, it can sneak up on people,” Dr. Elizabeth Schlaudecker, medical director of infectious diseases at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, told Business Insider.
   4. The illness can be tough to identify and expensive to test for, and it can linger for several weeks, making it a frustrating sickness for families. Plus, treatment isn’t necessarily one-size-fits-all.
   5. Here’s what to know about how to spot it and treat it.
   6. Look out for a persistent cough, fever, and fatigue — The tell-tale signs of walking pneumonia are not obvious. Illnesses caused by mycoplasma pneumoniae tend to be milder than infections caused by the more common bacterial pneumonia, streptococcus pneumoniae.
   7. ER doctor Russell Migita at Seattle Children’s Hospital says it’s hard to know exactly how many of the patients he sees have walking pneumonia cases, versus strep pneumonia or viral pneumonia. Often, doctors use a stethoscope to listen for a characteristic, localized “crackling” noise in patients with walking pneumonia, but not every patient has that.
   8. Testing for the bacteria that causes walking pneumonia is also expensive, relatively new, imperfect, and may not be covered by insurance, Migita said, so it’s hard for experts to know exactly how bad this fall outbreak really is, compared to years past.
   9. The latest CDC data on the tests that are being done suggests more toddlers are getting walking pneumonia this year than was thought to be typical; the illness used to be viewed as more common in school-age kids. There have also been outbreaks among young adults living in dorms, where the bacteria has plenty of time to incubate and spread.
   10. Schlaudecker is part of the CDC surveillance network testing patients for mycoplasma bacteria across the country. She said test results indicate a surge in infections peaked in late August and early September as kids headed back to school, and started trading germs again. “Hopefully it’s starting to slowly decline, but we’re definitely still seeing it,” she said.
   11. People who’ve recently had the flu are also at increased risk for developing walking pneumonia.
   12. New studies suggest there isn’t always a clear winner when it comes to the best treatment for walking pneumonia.
   13. Even though macrolide antibiotics, like azithromycin, are the recommended treatment and should perform better than penicillin-based antibiotics like amoxicillin on this bacteria, there isn’t great data on which medication actually helps shorten and improve the course of this infectious disease best.
   14. In practice, Migita says doctors often use a mix of their own experience, local disease trends, and a particular patient’s history and preferences to get a sense of what might work. In some cases, patients will get better without medication, but for bacterial pneumonia, an antibiotic can help. Doctors assess the situation on a case-by-case basis, similar to how they would treat an ear infection.
   15. “Empiric treatment is what we do in most cases for most pediatric infections because it’s hard to say for sure what’s causing it,” he said. “If you’re not getting better on your first antibiotic in two to three days, then get seen again.”
   16. Doctors say even though walking pneumonia doesn’t tend to be as severe as other seasonal illnesses kids pass around like the flu, COVID, or RSV, it can still be a burdensome one for families, because it tends to last for a long time.
   17. [MIKE: Please note this:] In rare cases, walking pneumonia can prompt brain swelling, kidney issues, and difficulty breathing, and people with lung issues, and weakened immune systems may be especially at risk of hospitalization with walking pneumonia.
   18. [MIKE: In other words, don’t automatically think that it’s okay to save a doctor’s visit and just hope it will go away on its own. It can get serious.]
   19. Earlier this year, [Dr.] Schlaudecker’s 15-year-old daughter had a persistent cough that continued for a week after what her mom thought was just a cold. They went to see her pediatrician, who listened to the girl’s chest with a stethoscope.
   20. Without any testing, the daughter was diagnosed with walking pneumonia, and prescribed a Z-Pak (azithromycin). Within 24 hours of beginning her medication, the teenager felt great again.
   21. “She was like, ‘Wow, this is so cool that we figured out what it was and got on the right drug,” Schlaudecker said. “It was a good medical success story.”
9. Do I have COVID, the flu or something else? 2024 symptoms and testing to know.; By Sara Moniuszko | CBSNEWS.COM | November 1, 2024 / 6:00 AM EDT / CBS News. TAGS: RSV, COVID-19, Flu Season, Influenza,
   1. As the weather changes, we can start feeling under the weather too — but while each illness has a typical set of symptoms, it’s important to understand you can’t diagnose on your own, Dr. Céline Gounder, CBS News medical contributor and editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News, said on “CBS Mornings” Wednesday.
   2. “If you come in with some symptoms of cough or sore throat or runny nose, whatever it is, I can’t tell you if that’s a cold, if it’s walking pneumonia, if it’s COVID or the flu. You do need to test,” she said. 
   3. The good news? Tests are available. 
   4. “Since the pandemic, we now have tests that cover all the most common viral and bacterial respiratory infections, making it easy to test for all with one swab,” Gounder said. 
   5. Determining your exact illness through testing also helps decide on the best course of treatment. 
   6. “We have specific treatments for influenza (Tamiflu, Xofluza), COVID (Paxlovid), ‘walking pneumonia’ (azithromycin), and other infections, and testing helps guide that treatment,” she added. 
   7. Signs of COVID 2024 — The COVID variant called XEC making headlines in 2024 was spotted around the world and in half of states across the United States last month, but a spokesperson for the CDC said the agency is “not aware of any specific symptoms associated with XEC or any other co-circulating SARS-CoV-2 lineage.”
   8. While symptoms can vary depending on vaccination status, those with COVID can expect symptoms including but not limited to: Cough, Congestion or runny nose, Diarrhea, Fever or chills, Shortness of breath, Loss of taste or smell, Sore throat, [and] Fatigue
   9. Americans are now eligible for free COVID test kitsmailed to their homes. According to gov, U.S. households will be able to order up to four free COVID-19 nasal swab teststhrough the federal program. 
   10. COVID vs flu symptoms — According to the CDC, flu symptoms often include: Fever, Cough, Sore throat, Runny or stuffy nose, Body aches, Headaches, [and] Fatigue.
   11. Some people may have vomiting and diarrhea, though this is more common in children than adults.
   12. “It’s important to note that not everyone with flu will have a fever, [and] others may feel feverish or have chills,” the CDC adds. “Flu signs and symptoms usually come on suddenly.”
   13. Earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration authorized the Healgen Scientific’s Rapid Check COVID-19/Flu A&B Antigen Test for home use without a prescription, which makes it easier for people to simultaneously test themselves for COVID-19 and the flu on their own. 
   14. This is helpful because some of the symptoms are the same, the CDC reiterates, meaning you “cannot tell the difference between flu and COVID-19 by symptoms alone.”
   15. Cold symptoms — Unlike abrupt flu symptoms, the onset of cold symptoms is usually gradual, according to the CDC, and can include: Runny nose or nasal congestion, Cough, Sneezing, , Sore throat, Headache, [and] Mild body aches.
   16. Compared to the flu, fever is rare, but low-grade fevers can also occur, usually in older children and adults.
   17. “The signs and symptoms of a cold usually peak within 2 to 3 days of infection,” the CDC adds. 
   18. Walking pneumonia, RSV and whooping cough — Colds and flu aren’t the only illnesses to be aware of this season. Walking pneumonia, for example, is on the rise among young kids. 
   19. The number of two- to four-year-olds diagnosed after visiting the ER for pneumonia-related illnesses has jumped from 1% to 7% in the last months, according to the CDC.
   20. Walking pneumonia, known scientifically as mycoplasma pneumonia, is [a] kind of bacterial pneumonia that includes symptoms such as sore throat, chest pain and fever in younger kids, Gounder said. 
   21. “We do sometimes see vomiting and diarrhea, which are a little bit atypical,” she added. 
   22. Whooping cough is also up among school-aged kids, with about four times as many cases this year compared to last year. 
   23. The illness is especially dangerous for infants and young kids because of their small airways, CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook recently explained on “CBS Mornings Plus.”
   24. “The reason why it’s called whooping cough — it’s a cough, cough, cough, cough, and then they gasp for air, that’s the whoop,” he said. “As an adult, when you get it, you may be sick, but probably going to be OK in terms of moving air in and out of your body. With infants, airways are so small that they can really have trouble breathing at all.”
   25. RSV, or respiratory syncytial [Pron: sin-SIH-shil] virus, affects the upper respiratory system with a runny or stuffy nose as well as a cough or sore throat.
   26. When the virus moves to the lower airways into the bronchi or the lungs, pneumonia or bronchitis can develop, which can be more dangerous. 
   27. Most adults recover from RSV within one to two weeks, but children and infants are affected differently because of their smaller airways and underdeveloped immune systems. 
   28. Testing is also important here, since “there is no way to know if it is RSV, COVID or the flu” based off of symptoms alone, Gounder had said previously. There is no at-home RSV test available, but a pediatrician can test children through a nasal swab.
   29. MIKE: There’s also a relevant audio clip from a CBS News story that I’m going to play because it touches on another important detail:
   30. [PLAY AUDIO] Selene Gounder: “What we think is happening is with social distancing during the pandemic, we reduced a lot of things to almost zero, like the flu, RSV, other kinds of infections. So what we’re seeing now is a rebound as these different infections start circulating again …”
   31. MIKE: So an important note that’s in the associated story audio but not in the text is that the increase in communicable diseases is largely due to the ending of social distancing.
   32. MIKE: My recent personal experience was getting three vaccine updates: Covid, Flu, and Tdap (which includes Tetanus, and diphtheria and Whooping cough, which I don’t think I’ve had boosted since elementary school).
   33. MIKE: I did have some flu-like reaction about 17 hours later in the form of shivering like I had a fever, but it passed in a few hours.
   34. MIKE: At my age of 73, I’ll need a second Covid boost in about six months. Hopefully RFK, Jr. will still permit that.
10. From the category of, you never know where the next big antibiotic breakthrough might come from — Our toothbrushes are home to hundreds of new viruses. They could be the future of biotech.; By Gabby Landsverk | BUSINESSINSIDER.COM | Oct 11, 2024, 2:59 PM CDT. TAGS:
    1. The next big breakthrough in disease-fighting innovation could be no further away than your bathroom.
    2. A recent study found hundreds of viruses on samples from toothbrushes and shower heads, including many that have never been seen before, let alone examined.
    3. But this specific kind of viruses, known as bacteriophage, aren’t concerning for human health because they target and infect bacteria, not us, according to Erica Hartmann, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern University who led the study. …
    4. Understanding how these infectious particles work could be a valuable step in protecting us from harmful pathogens and bacteria, including those that cause tuberculosis and other serious diseases.
    5. [Miryam Wahrman, a professor of Biology at William Paterson University of New Jersey who was not involved with the study, told Business Insider,] “The more we know about what’s in shower heads and what’s on toothbrushes with regard to viruses and microbes, the more we can advance in understanding how we get sick and even devise new tools to fight those pathogens.”
    6. … Researchers from Northwestern University were inspired to investigate toothbrushes because of a previous study investigating whether flushing the toilet could release aerosols that might contaminate a toothbrush left out on the countertop.
    7. The good news is that the study, nicknamed “Operation Pottymouth,” found no evidence of poop-related germs on toothbrushes.
    8. “Overwhelmingly, we find that microbes on your toothbrush come from your mouth,” Hartmann said.
    9. The research team decided to put all those used toothbrushes to good use and took a closer look at what’s hanging out there.
    10. In a previous study, they also analyzed samples taken from shower heads to offer even more insight into our bathrooms’ microscopic occupants.
    11. The researchers weren’t surprised to find that these household items were home to many germs because of their warm, moist environments.
    12. But they were blown away by how many different kinds of viruses were present. There was so much diversity that there was almost no overlap between the samples, meaning each toothbrush and shower head was host to its own unique microscopic world. …
    13. Phages could be the new frontier in disease-fighting biotech —
    14. There’s no reason to be grossed out by the tiny inhabitants sharing our homes.
    15. [Said Hartmann,] “I don’t think there’s any need to change behavior or enhance cleaning. These are not viruses that are going to infect you, these are viruses that are potentially cool.”
    16. It’s a common misconception to think of all germs and microorganisms as potential threats, but plenty of microbes are neutral, beneficial, and sometimes necessary for human health.
    17. Bacteria and viruses have sparked groundbreaking innovations in science, biotechnology, and healthcare that we benefit from every day, such as penicillin and DNA research. …
    18. [Phages] are exciting because they specialize in attacking and replicating inside bacteria, including bacterial pathogens. These pathogens make us sick and can become resistant to our current protective strategies, like antibiotics.
    19. “… They are potentially a very helpful tool for us,” Wahrman said.
    20. Researchers have known about the existence of [phages] for more than a century, but antibiotics have gotten most of our attention. Now that some pathogens have outsmarted antibiotics, [phages] are a wide-open frontier for innovation.
    21. In the future, [phages] might be a rich source of biotech innovations like phage therapy, in the same way pharmaceuticals have developed medicines from plants or animals. Rather than scouring remote reaches of the planet, these discoveries could come from digging deeper into what surrounds us every day.
    22. [Hartmann said,] “There are a lot of things waiting to be discovered just under our noses or on our toothbrushes.”
    23. MIKE: This is why preserving life on Earth, from the macro-biological to the micro-biological, is really important. It’s not just that life has a value of its own. Even for the materially-minded, it’s worth remembering that we never know what animals, plants or microbes might hold the key to the next medical or biomechanical breakthrough. Even Velcro came from studying a seed pod.
11. I think this next story is interesting — Evolutionary anthropologist presents hypothesis about why humans are dominating the world over other animals; by Arizona State University | PHYS.ORG | November 7, 2024. TAGS: Humans, Animals, Culture,
    1. Why is human culture—the shared body of knowledge passed down across generations—so much more powerful than animal cultures?
    2. “What’s special about our species?” is a question scientists have wrestled with for centuries, and now a scientist at Arizona State University has a new hypothesis that could change the way we perceive ourselves, and the world around us.
    3. [Said evolutionary anthropologist Thomas Morgan in a new research paper published in Nature Human Behaviour,] “Ten years ago, it was basically accepted that it was the ability of human culture to accumulate and evolve that made us special, but new discoveries about animal behavior are challenging these ideas and forcing us to rethink what makes our cultures, and us as a species, unique.”
    4. Morgan is a research scientist with the Institute of Human Origins and associate professor with the School of Human Evolution and Social Change.
    5. Just as humans pass on knowledge to our children, when a new queen leafcutter ant hatches, she collects a little mouthful of her mother’s fungus and takes it with her to start a new colony. This has been happening for so long—millions of years—that the fungus within these colonies is genetically different from the wild fungus outside of the colonies.
    6. Similar to how human languages change, new data shows that humpback whale songs evolve, spread between groups and become more complex over time. Like humans, chimpanzees learn to use tools and we now have evidence that they have been doing so for thousands, perhaps millions, of years.
    7. Even locusts use complex evolving systems to adapt to local conditions, relying on epigenetic changes—how factors like age and environment can change gene activity without altering the DNA sequence—to quickly evolve between calm and green or swarming and yellow-and-black forms based on overpopulation.
    8. These discoveries, along with others, have shown that not only do animals have culture, but there are also examples of accumulation in their culture, something that for a long time was believed to be uniquely human.
    9. [Said Morgan,] “It used to be thought that other species just didn’t have culture. And now we know that lots of other species do. Then it was thought that only human cultures accumulate or evolve over time. But now we know animal cultures can do this too. So, if animals do have evolving cultures, then what’s special about human culture that differentiates us from other animals?”
    10. … Morgan and Stanford University Professor Marcus Feldman address this question in their paper, “Human culture is uniquely open-ended, not uniquely cumulative.”
    11. They present a new hypothesis: that we humans dominate and are so special because of “open-endedness”—our ability to communicate and understand an infinite number of possibilities in life.
    12. [Said Morgan,] “The way that animals think about what they’re doing constrains the way that their cultures can evolve. One way might be that they can’t imagine elaborate sequences very easily, or they can’t imagine subgoals.”
    13. “For example, [Morgan says,] “when I’m making my boys’ breakfast in the morning, it’s a nested, multistep process. First, I need to get the bowls and pots and other equipment. Then I need to put the ingredients in the pot and start cooking, all in the right amounts and order. Then I need to cook it, stirring and monitoring temperature until it reaches the right consistency, and then I need to serve it up,” he said.
    14. “Each of these steps is a subgoal, and these subgoals have steps within them that I need to execute in the right order, so this whole thing is an elaborate procedure.”
    15. When it comes to the limit of this system, human brains just keep going; we are able to build and retain sequences of instructions that are deeply complicated and this allows us to perform a near infinite set of behaviors—this is open-endedness.
    16. … While other scientists have compared human and animal cultures before, Morgan and Feldman’s research is unusual because it also compares animal examples of epigenetic inheritance and parental effects. The leafcutter ant is an example of a parental effect and the locust an example of cumulative epigenetic inheritance.
    17. While both epigenetic inheritance and parental effects are stable and accumulate in non-human species, they eventually stop developing, explains Morgan. “Just like animal cultures, there are constraints that these systems run-up against and that halt their evolution.”
    18. [Morgan went on to say,] “I think the key question is what is special about human culture, and we tried to answer that by comparing human cultures with animal cultures, with epigenetics, and with parental effects—as many evolving systems as we can think of. And in the end, we concluded that the special thing about human culture is its open-endedness. It can accumulate but then it never has to stop, it just keeps going.”
    19. MIKE: I found the first sentence in this story particularly interesting. Many animal and human behaviorists hate to use the word “culture” in regard to animals because of the implications of intelligence or personhood that word might bestow.
    20. MIKE: And yet when an adult chimpanzee teaches a young chimp how to open a nut for food by using a rock as a hammer with another rock as an anvil, isn’t that culture? If in the absence of this lesson the young chimp doesn’t learn this tool-using trick, it may not discover it on its own. If that’s not culture, what is?
    21. MIKE: And yet there are many examples of this kind of passed-down learning among many animals. The story discusses two examples of insects, no less.
    22. MIKE: What are some other implications of this research? Well, it actually has a bearing on the effects of habitat loss on the survival of species. Much like humans, there is some exchange of culture among groups of tribes of animals. When habitat is broken up and communications among groups are cut, some animals may lose the ability to pass on survival skills to new generations.
    23. MIKE: If you think about it, this is the same as trying to release an animal habituated to a human environment back out into the wild without rehabilitating them, which is to say helping them learn the skills they need to survive. Does that not qualify as a sort of acculturation that animals require to thrive in the wild?
    24. MIKE: Humans have spent millennia looking at animals as chattel or tools or, as Alfred Hitchcock is said to have referred to his extras, “scenery that moves”. Considering animals as having more cultural capacity than that has big implications that will be challenging to cope with by human civilization.
12. Now a “read the contract” story here both sides might need to understand their contract — Hertz Apologizes For Threatening To Have Customer Who Drove 25,000 Miles In Rental Car Arrested; The company charged the customer a $10,000 fee for driving too many miles on an “unlimited” rental. By Bradley Brownell | JALOPNIK.COM | Published Nov. 6, 2024. TAGS: Hertz, Car Rental, Unlimited Mileage,
    1. Hertz is in a heap of public relations trouble once again as a location manager threatened to have a customer arrested if he didn’t pay a $10,000 mileage overage charge for driving 25,000 miles in one month. That’s a ton of miles for a car to rack up in one month, basically doing around 1,000 miles per business day. But here’s the kicker: the rental agreement was for “unlimited miles.”
    2. In the TikTok video [embedded in the story], first spotted by [user] One Mile At A Time, you can see the exchange between the Hertz manager and the unnamed customer become quite heated. Despite repeated pleas for sanity, the customer is faced with a choice of paying the $10,000 and walking out, or continuing to dispute the charge and potentially getting arrested. It isn’t clear what laws the customer was breaking that would result in their arrest, but when a so-called customer service professional becomes this belligerent there’s likely no reasoning with them.
    3. There are obviously two sides to this story, as the customer almost certainly overran the car’s service intervals during his month with the machine. If they were ignoring “service engine soon” lights on the dash, that could certainly have caused untold damage, maybe even above the $10,000 fee. That said, it’s in Hertz’ best interest to make this PR nightmare go away as quickly as possible, so it has decided to reverse the charge and apologize to the customer.
    4. “Customer satisfaction is our top priority at Hertz, and we sincerely regret this customer’s experience at one of our franchise locations,” Hertz’s statement, provided to the Drive, “Per the terms of the contract, the customer will not be billed for mileage. Our franchisee is addressing the employee’s conduct and reinforcing our customer service standards and policies to ensure they are understood and followed consistently across our locations.”
    5. So, I guess, if you need to do a whole lot of driving over the course of a month, you should probably rent a car so you aren’t racking up miles on your own vehicle. Maybe make sure you get the rental desk to confirm it’s unlimited in writing before you take off, though.
    6. MIKE: I think the reason that the customer could potentially be arrested would be for creating a disturbance and, having been asked to leave private property and refusing to do so, could now be considered as trespassing.
    7. MIKE: But I think that the story author made a couple of interesting points. First, there’s the black letter contract: Unless there are some qualifiers or limits to “unlimited mileage”, then the mileage is unlimited.
    8. MIKE: Second, there is at least one service interval that was likely exceeded before 25,000 miles, and that would be the oil change interval. In all likelihood, the contract cited customer abuse and failing to take ordinary care of the vehicle as a violation of the rental agreement. Further, damage to a rental vehicle is the renter’s responsibility.
    9. MIKE: Did a service light go on? No way to know from this story. But exceeding a service interval without notifying the lessor could make the lessee liable for engine damages. Even insurance would not cover user abuse.
    10. MIKE: All-in-all, I think this qualifies as “news you can use”.
13. Boeing Reportedly Looking to Sell Off Its Disastrous Starliner Spacecraft; There it is. By Victor Tangermann | FUTURISM.COM | Oct 26, 7:00 AM EDT. TAGS: Boeing, NASA, Starliner,
    1. Embattled aerospace giant Boeing is reportedly looking to sell off its space business following the disastrous crewed test launch of its much-maligned Starliner that left two NASA astronauts stranded in space.
    2. As the Wall Street Journal reports, insider sources claim that Boeing is looking to get out of the space race altogether in the face of a deepening financial crisis — a startling about-face for a company that’s worked on iconic space vehicles ranging from NASA’s Space Shuttle to the International Space Station.
    3. The embattled contractor even approached Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, per the WSJ‘s reporting, which has been working on its own rockets for NASA.
    4. Despite a decade of development, Boeing has yet to successfully deliver and return astronauts on board its Starliner capsule, a damning indictment of a company that already has several major fires to put out.
    5. In other words, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Boeing is looking to cut its losses — but buyer beware.
    6. Ballast So Hard — Boeing has been burning through billions of dollars as its commercial jet business continues to grapple with concerning quality control issues and an ongoing industrial worker strike of epic proportions. Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Boeing is set to fire ten percent of its workforce, amounting to a staggering 17,000 employees.
    7. And Starliner, its entry into NASA’s Commercial Crew program, hasn’t fared any better. The capsule left the International Space Station last month without any passengers on board due to nagging technical issues that NASA deemed too dangerous for a crewed return.
    8. According to its latest filings with regulators, the company took another massive $250 million loss on its Starliner commercial crew program in its third fiscal year quarter, bringing the total losses of the spacecraft’s development to a stunning $1.85 billion.
    9. NASA also recently announced that an upcoming crew rotation flight to the ISS would make use of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon instead of Starliner.
    10. Despite looking for a buyer for Starliner, Boeing is reportedly still committed to overseeing the development of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, which is set to deliver the first astronauts to the surface of the Moon in over half a century no earlier than two years from now.
    11. Nonetheless, NASA’s inspector general concluded in a damning August report that Boeing’s contributions were woefully behind schedule and way over budget.
    12. In short, Boeing’s recently minted CEO Kelly Ortberg now has the seemingly impossible task of picking up the pieces — and ditching the parts of the business that are weighing down a company actively in crisis.
    13. [Ortberg told analysts during a call [a couple of weeks ago,] “We’re better off doing less and doing it better than doing more and not doing it well. What do we want this company to look like five and ten years from now? And do these things add value to the company or distract us?”
    14. MIKE: This isn’t good for Boeing or the US. We really need at least two ways to get to orbit, and with SpaceX being the only current viable US alternative, we’re back in a bind of sorts.
    15. MIKE: And frankly, Boeing hasn’t been doing great on the Space Launch System that’s one of the essential pieces for returning to the moon. It’s years late and billions over budget.
    16. MIKE: Let’s hope that things will pan out so we can still beat the Chinese and Russians back to the Moon, because if they get there first, there’s always the danger that they’ll see possession as nine-tenths of the law.
14. And last, I want to play an audio clip that represents a kind of dark humor. It’s MSNBC’s Chris Matthews having his mind blown when Trump was declared the winner in 2016, and it’s amazing how relevant and accurate it still is now.
    1. [PLAY AUDIO CLIP] “There’s got to be a pony in this crap pile.” — Chris Matthews, MSNBC Commentator, Election Night, November 9, 2016 (VIDEO: https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc-news/watch/matthews-there-s-got-to-be-a-pony-in-this-crap-pile-804506691773)
    2. Mike: Another example of how history doesn’t necessarily repeat itself, but it rhymes.

=====================================================

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