Kirk LaPointe, publisher and editor-in-chief:
What next with the pandemic? How can we get through it? It’s a difficult path, but health writer Ed Yong explores the particular challenges for the United States, all of which have some application with us. - The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/08/delta-has-changed-pandemic-endgame/619726/
How will the coronavirus evolve? There are clues in earlier understandings, and mysteries, of how viruses mutate. We are far from Easy Street. - The New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/science/annals-of-medicine/how-will-the-coronavirus-evolve
Lorde is one of music’s most intriguing artists. She has disappeared for a few years now, tossing her phone into the ocean at one point to just live life. Her new album reflects a considerable change in that lifestyle. - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/12/arts/music/lorde-solar-power.html
Timothy Renshaw, managing editor:
NASA is set to chase down a cool US$10,000 quintrillion
(US$10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) worth of precious metals suspected to be housed in Psyche 16, which was last seen orbiting somewhere between Mars and Jupiter. The Brighter Side of News story reports that the outer space mineral prospecting mission is set to lift off next August. No word yet on how the treasure trove of metals will be shipped back to Earth or who is going to be swinging pickaxes into the space rock. NASA scientists need not be bothered by such niggling details. They are for lesser beings to wrestle with.
It might be Code Red for humanity, according to the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, but it's pretty much GHG business as usual in the U.S.A., where the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s August energy outlook forecasts, among other things, coal-related CO2 emissions to increase by 17% in 2021 as the share of U.S. electricity generated by coal accelerates this year.
https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/steo/
Mark Falkenberg, deputy managing editor
Daily Kos’ Mark Sumner on ProPublica research that shows the degree to which Trump’s 2017 tax bill was tailored to benefit the extremely wealthy. It was, Sumner says, “hand-tooled not just to benefit billionaires in general, but to specifically include items that benefited individual Republican backers. That includes a last-minute addition pushed by Sen. Ron Johnson that generated a massive windfall for just two people—two people who together shoved $20 million into Trump’s campaign.” – Daily Kos
Recent data from online real estate site Zillow shows people selling homes can get up to $5,000 more for their property just by choosing the right paint colours. Light blue in the bathroom, for instance, is a good start, notes this story about the sale-enhancing hues. – Financial Post
Glen Korstrom, reporter
Not only are Thailand’s COVID-19 case counts soaring, but so are deaths. This long well-written blog post from a former Reuters bureau chief in the Kingdom, and longtime Thailand watcher, Andrew MacGregor Marshall is a fascinating read, with lots of links.
The piece illuminates in detail why Marshall believes the country had a botched response to the pandemic – Secret Siam Blog
https://secretsiam.news/p/the-palace-and-the-pandemic
This longer take on how COVID-19 will evolve sources a range of scientists and addresses a topic many have on their minds – New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/science/annals-of-medicine/how-will-the-coronavirus-evolve
