’A man in India is the first person thought to be sickened by a fungus that usually attacks and kills rose plants…’

— via Gizmodo

First steps toward the Cordyceps apocalypse foretold in The Last of Us and, apparently independently, a pair of dystopian books by a favorite author of mine, M.L. Carey, The Girl with All the Gifts and The Boy on the Bridge?

’Suzanne Scott, the chief executive of Fox News, told staff that checking facts was bad for business.

In one instance, Scott emailed Meade Cooper, executive vice president of prime time programming, and expressed frustration after correspondent Eric Shawn appeared on Martha MacCallum’s show and fact-checked Trump and a Sean Hannity guest.

“This has to stop now,” Scott said in a December 2, 2020, message.

“This is bad for business and there is a lack of understanding what is happening in these shows,” Scott added. “The audience is furious and we are just feeding them material. Bad for business.”…’

— via oing Boing

’Biden again called for an assault weapons ban after the Nashville shooting. Why hasn’t Congress acted?…’

— via Vox

The Nashville shooting, which killed six and, among them, three children, once again brings the assault weapons issue to the forefront of the gun control debate in the US. Assault style weapons have been used in more than 50% of the deadliest mass shootings of the past 50 years, accounting for almost 40% of the deaths in mass shootings during the interval. Congress failed to renew a previous national ban on assault weapons when it expired in 2004 and Pres. Biden calls for a new ban whenever there is a mass shooting event but the likelihood of enacting such a ban is low given the partisan paralysis in Washington. Assault weapons bans, extreme risk protection laws, and other measures such as criminal background checks that could not be evaded are no-brainer measures in an civilized society, but to its continuing shame and the continued outrage of rational people the US remains an outlier. 

 

Related: Protestors flood the Tennessee Capitol demanding gun control: “Children are dead!”

 

’Hundreds of protestors — including adults and children — poured into and outside of the Tennessee Capitol this morning, demanding something be done about gun laws. The angry demonstration comes three days after the Covenant elementary school shooting in Nashville that killed three nine-year-old children, three members of the school staff, and the shooter.…’

— via Boing Boing