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They were elementary and homemade at first before becoming commercialized and mass-produced, but plastic dividers became as commonplace during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic as the paper masks that now litter city streets. Put up with the aim of blocking droplets from the noses and mouths of the COVID-infected among us, they became a sort of virtue signal for businesses to show that they cared about the safety of their customers and employees. Plastic dividers popped up to separate Uber drivers from their passengers, supermarket cashiers from customers, students from teachers, and virtually every place there used to be unimpeded face-to-face...

Jerome Adams, former Surgeon General under former President Donald Trump, said the U.S. should prepare for “more mitigation” strategies “including masks” to counteract the slow pace of vaccinations. Adams warned of the delta variant on Sunday, and said it is crucial to “be honest” with people about its spread and the “consequences of stagnation in vaccinations.” “Health officials do all they can to protect us and preserve hospital capacity, but if we can’t get more vaccinated, their next best tool is masking,” he said, adding that people need to begin to prepare for further mitigation strategies, which includes masking up...

The White House Coronavirus Task Force today recommended 30-day mitigation strategies for New Rochelle, NY due to widespread transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). These mitigation activities are designed to address the effects of COVID-19 on areas that are experiencing community spread. “President Trump has made clear that the Task Force must move decisively to protect the health and safety of the American people,” said Vice President Mike Pence. “These recommendations outline a whole-of-community approach to immediately minimize the impacts of coronavirus in this area. I look forward to the continued partnership between the Task Force and State and local...

The White House Coronavirus Task Force today recommended 30-day mitigation strategies for Seattle-King, Pierce, and Snohomish County, Washington, and Santa Clara County, California due to widespread transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). These mitigation activities are designed to address the effects of COVID-19 on areas that are experiencing community spread.“President Trump has made clear that the Task Force must move decisively to protect the health and safety of the American people,” said Vice President Mike Pence. “These recommendations outline a whole-of-community approach to immediately minimize the impacts of coronavirus in these cities and towns. I look forward to the...

(snip)“The signs are more ferocious,” Wellfleet Director of Community Services Suzanne Grout Thomas said. “We’ve got a scarier shark on the sign. It used to be couched in a little more friendly language. Now it’s basically, sharks hunt in these waters.”“This year, in terms of busyness level, is about the same as the last two years.” In previous years, researchers were only on the water about twice a week. Now, boats are out at least five times a week leading to more sightings, while the number of sharks may not have changed.(snip) In early August, Newcomb Hollow Beach debuted the...

Sightings of great whites off the shores of Cape Cod are a daily occurrence: Since June 1 the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s sharktivity app indicates there have been more than 160. “When we are lucky enough to actually get eyes on a shark, it really is no surprise,” said Nate Sears, natural resources manager for the town of Orleans, an area whose beaches have already been closed 12 times since mid-June due to confirmed shark sightings.

In early November, gale-force winds whipped a brush fire into an inferno that nearly consumed the town of Paradise, California, and killed at least 86 people. By the second morning, I could smell the fire from one foot outside my door in Berkeley, some 130 miles from the flames. Within a week, my eyes and throat stung even when I was indoors. Air quality maps warned that the soot-filled air blanketing the Bay Area had reached “very unhealthy” levels. For days, nearly everyone wore masks as they walked their dogs, rode the train, and carried out errands. Most of those...

Fraud: While the global warming alarmists have done a good job of spreading fright, they haven’t been so good at hiding their real motivation. Yet another one has slipped up and revealed the catalyst driving the climate scare. We have been told now for almost three decades that man has to change his ways or his fossil-fuel emissions will scorch Earth with catastrophic warming. Scientists, politicians and activists have maintained the narrative that their concern is only about caring for our planet and its inhabitants. But this is simply not true. The narrative is a ruse. They are after something...

An innovative solution for the man-made carbon dioxide fouling our skies could rest far beneath the surface of the ocean, say scientists at Harvard University. They've found that deep-sea sediments could provide a virtually unlimited and permanent reservoir for this gas that has been a primary driver of global climate change in recent decades, and estimate that seafloor sediments within U.S. territory are vast enough to store the nation's carbon dioxide emissions for thousands of years to come. Harvard's Kurt Zenz House and Daniel P. Schrag, along with colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Columbia University, detail the...

The eight salamanders found on the site of the new Ann Arbor high school are not endangered Smallmouth Salamanders [Ambystoma texanum] as originally thought. Instead, they are hybrids, part Blue-spotted Salamander [Ambystoma laterale] and part Jefferson Salamander [Ambystoma jeffersonianum], said James Ball, a York Township research scientist in herpetology who did some of the testing on the amphibians. Neither the Blue-spotted nor the Jefferson Salamander are on the threatened and endangered species list in Michigan, and hybrid salamanders do not qualify as threatened or endangered in the state, either. District officials, who learned of the salamanders' lineage on June 8,...

Government Climate-Change Research Plan Is Good Start, But Major Improvements Needed to Meet Nation's Needs WASHINGTON -- While the federal government has taken a good first step toward better understanding and responding to climate change by drafting a strategic plan that contains new research initiatives, the plan lacks a clear guiding vision and does not sufficiently meet the needs of decision-makers who must deal with the effects of climate change, says a new report from the National Academies' National Research Council. The committee that wrote the report also noted that the president's fiscal year 2004 budget request appears to...