Non-IT News Thread
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US Election 2020: Americans choose between Trump and Biden
Americans are voting in one of the most divisive presidential polls in decades, pitting incumbent Republican Donald Trump against Democrat Joe Biden.
Polls have opened in the east of the country after a long and bitter campaign amid the coronavirus pandemic. More than 100 million people have already cast their ballots in early voting, putting the country on course for its highest turnout in a century. Both rivals spent the final hours of the race rallying in key swing states. National polls give a firm lead to Mr Biden, but it is a closer race in the states that could decide the outcome. -
@scottalanmiller said in Non-IT News Thread:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/02/europe/russia-sausage-king-killed-intl/index.html
At least it wasn't Abe Froman, the sausage king of Chicago!
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US election results 2020: When might we get a winner?
You might have reasonably expected to have some kind of clue about the results of the US presidential election by now.
We're into our second day of counting. The huge number of postal votes cast during this pandemic election and different states' laws about how to count them, meant this always was going to take longer if the result was close. And it is. Hasn't Joe Biden won the popular vote? Yes, so far, but that's not what decides who gets to be president. Instead, a candidate has to win the majority in a system called the electoral college, where each state gets a certain number of votes or "electors" roughly in proportion to its population. If you win a state, you win all its votes (except Nebraska and Maine, but that's complicated). There are 538 state votes and the person who gets 270 wins the prize. -
Vienna shooting: Anti-terror chief suspended over intelligence bungle
Austrian officials have revealed new intelligence failings ahead of the murder of four people in Vienna on Monday night, prompting the city's anti-terror chief to step aside.
Erich Zwettler was being suspended at his own request, police said. It has already emerged the Austrians were told in July that the suspect had tried to buy ammunition in Slovakia. Now, the Austrians have admitted the gunman met two people from Germany who were already under observation. Interior Minister Karl Nehammer has spoken of "obvious, and in our view intolerable mistakes". In a further development, a mosque and a mosque association frequented by the 20-year-old have been closed, which Integration Minister Susanne Raab said had contributed to his radicalisation. He had repeatedly visited the mosques in the suburbs of Ottakring and Meidling. The Ottakring mosque association was notorious for its links to militant Islamists: a preacher there is said to have led a German-speaking brigade to Syria before being killed in a drone strike. -
COVID-19 Patient Zero: Data Analysis Identifies the “Mother” of All SARS-CoV-2 Genomes
In the field of molecular epidemiology, the worldwide scientific community has been sleuthing to solve the riddle of the early history of SARS-CoV-2.
Since the first SARS-CoV-2 virus infection was detected in December 2019, tens of thousands of its genomes have been sequenced worldwide, revealing that the coronavirus is mutating, albeit slowly, at a rate of 25 mutations per genome per year.
But despite major efforts, no one to date has identified the first case of human transmission, or “patient zero” in the COVID-19 pandemic. Finding such a case is necessary to better understand how the virus may have jumped from its animal host first to infect humans as well as the history of how the SARS-CoV-2 viral genome has mutated over time and spread globally.
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Alex Trebek: Jeopardy! gameshow host dies after cancer battle aged 80
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54867011 -
@black3dynamite said in Non-IT News Thread:
Alex Trebek: Jeopardy! gameshow host dies after cancer battle aged 80
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54867011So young
I mean, not young. But so much younger than it should have been. -
Donald Trump fires Defence Secretary Mark Esper
President Donald Trump has sacked Defence Secretary Mark Esper, announcing on Twitter that the top US official has been "terminated"
Christopher Miller, the current head of the National Counterterrorism Center, will take on the role immediately. It follows a public falling-out between Mr Trump and Mr Esper in recent weeks. Mr Trump has so far not conceded the US election to President-elect Joe Biden, and has vowed to challenge the projected result in court. In the weeks before Mr Biden takes office on 20 January, Mr Trump is still empowered to make decisions. -
Dish to Shut Down Slingbox Service and Devices, Which Will Become ‘Inoperable’ in 2022
Dish Network announced that it will permanently shut down all of Sling Media’s Slingbox services and support for devices in two years, at which point they’ll no longer work.
On Monday, Dish’s Sling Media unit announced that Slingbox servers will be permanently taken offline 24 months from Nov. 9, 2020.
“Until then, most Slingbox models will continue to work normally, but the number of supported devices for viewing will steadily decrease as versions of the SlingPlayer apps become outdated and/or lose compatibility,” the company said in a message to customers.
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@JaredBusch I wonder if this includes the SlingTV service.
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@DustinB3403 said in Non-IT News Thread:
@JaredBusch I wonder if this includes the SlingTV service.
That is not the same thing, or even the same company.
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@JaredBusch said in Non-IT News Thread:
@DustinB3403 said in Non-IT News Thread:
@JaredBusch I wonder if this includes the SlingTV service.
That is not the same thing, or even the same company.
I thought SlingTV was a spinoff, no?
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US election: Justice lawyer quits after attorney general orders 'vote fraud' inquiries
US attorney general William Barr has allowed federal prosecutors to probe alleged irregularities in the presidential election, prompting a top justice department official to quit.
The official, Richard Pilger, would have overseen such investigations. Any such cases would normally be the remit of individual states, but Mr Barr said this was not a hard and fast rule. Donald Trump refuses to accept Joe Biden's projected victory, and has made unsubstantiated fraud claims. The president's campaign is seeking an emergency injunction in Pennsylvania to prevent Mr Biden's victory being certified in the state. The president-elect's projected win there on Saturday took him over the threshold of 270 electoral college votes needed to secure victory nationwide. -
@mlnews so when Trump gets dragged out of the white house, do you think they'll use the billy clubs or tazers?
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@DustinB3403 said in Non-IT News Thread:
@mlnews so when Trump gets dragged out of the white house, do you think they'll use the billy clubs or tazers?
I dunno... but I think they should make it Pay Per view. My money is on Billy Clubs, Tazers, and Rubber Bullets.
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@dafyre said in Non-IT News Thread:
@DustinB3403 said in Non-IT News Thread:
@mlnews so when Trump gets dragged out of the white house, do you think they'll use the billy clubs or tazers?
I dunno... but I think they should make it Pay Per view. My money is on Billy Clubs, Tazers, and Rubber Bullets.
I'd easily drop money on that.
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'Murder hornets': More nests likely to be found in US
Washington is unlikely to have seen its last Asian giant hornets, the state's agricultural department has said, after scientists found 200 queens in one nest.
The nest - the first in the US - of the so-called murder hornets was captured with a vacuum from a tree in October. Researchers believe more queens - which are responsible for establishing colonies - could remain at large. But they are confident the population can be brought under control. Asian giant hornets are an invasive species in the Pacific North-West. They target honeybees, which pollinate crops. The insect, which is native to Japan and South Korea, can slaughter a bee colony in a matter of hours. -
Black people 'twice as likely to catch coronavirus'
Black people are twice as likely as white people to catch the coronavirus, a study of 18 million people suggests.
The research also indicates Asian people are 1.5 times more likely than white people to be infected - and may be more likely to need intensive care. Researchers say their findings are of "urgent public-health importance" and raise questions about how vaccines will be prioritised within at-risk groups. The work, in EClinical Medicine, adds support to other studies' findings.
