Happy Friday. Beer Stein Holding Season officially kicks off this weekend. Yes, it’s a sport and you should be ashamed for even asking if it’s real. Here are a few rules:
If any beer drips you’re disqualified.
Your thumb cannot rest on top of the stein it must reside with the other fingers.
Some arching of the back is tolerated, but not too much.
The average person can hold a beer stein straight out for about 90 seconds. The world record is 21 minutes 17 seconds.
đ„ France will offer free contraceptives for all women up to the age of 25Â starting next year.
đ The Super Bowl champion Tampa Buccaneers kicked off the NFL season last night with a victory over the Dallas Cowboys 31-29.
đ„ Hundreds are being evacuated in Spain due to wildfires.
đ°đ” Kim Jong Un held a midnight parade to celebrate the 73rd anniversary of Pyongyang. The photos show that the leader has lost weight, true to a state media report in June.
đ The Supreme Court will go back to the courtroom this October for the first time since March of 2020.
âïž The United States Justice Department has sued the state of Texas over its new abortion law.
Coronavirus Update:Â đ· Total confirmed U.S. cases as of 2:15 p.m. ET on Thursday:Â 40,503,408Â â Total deaths:Â 653,332
Health officials said that eight pregnant women and one infant have died of Covid in Mississippi.
Miami airport has deployed dogs that can sniff out Covid with 97% accuracy.
Covid cases in New Zealand are down and the government will consider easing lockdowns on Monday.
Los Angeles County is the first school district to mandate the Covid vaccine for all children 12 and over.
MARKETS
Bitcoin
$46,185.77
-0.06%
Ethereum
$3,402.22
-2.21%
Cardano
$2.47
-3.06%
Dow
34,879.38
-0.43%
S&P
4,493.28
-0.46%
Nasdaq
15,248.25
-0.25%
*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 5:00am ET.
Markets: The European Central Bank announced that it’s reducing its stimulus, aka bond-buying program, which props up the banks. The US Federal Reserve is expected to follow suit. Lululemon reported better than expected earnings as people work off their pandemic 15 pounds.
President Biden put tougher rules in place requiring vaccinations in the workplace on Thursday. The sweeping new plan requires all federal workers to be vaccinated as well as all employees of companies with 100 or more people. Businesses that do not comply will face fines of up to $14,000 per violation.
The Biden administration is using OSHAâs Emergency Temporary Standards code, which allows a rule to go into place immediately if âworkers are in grave danger due to exposure to toxic substances or agents determined to be toxic or physically harmful or to new hazards.â The administration considers that rising Covid cases in many states qualifies.
Fighting back
Some Republican governors have said that they will push to strip the law in their states. South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem says that her state will file a lawsuit against the Biden administration to combat what she calls âfederal intrusion.â
Additionally, air travelers who refuse to wear masks will face double the fines that they were previously charged with and the airline industry is pushing to require vaccines for all air travel. So far that has not been instated.
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Andrew Yang is poised to start a âthird political partyâ in the United States. Well, it wouldnât really be the third. There already are at least three: Republican, Democrat and Green Party but too many people ignore the Green Party (in our opinion).
Yangâs party would be the fourth and is said to be announced in conjunction with his forthcoming book, âForward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy.â
Yang was a Presidential candidate as well as a candidate for New York City Mayor. He did not win either but he earned himself a following for being truly progressive. He was one of very few politicians to endorse basic universal income of $1,000 per month.
People who live in loud places have a higher risk of dementia, according to a new study that is being called the largest of its kind.
The study followed two million adults over a decade and found a high correlation between people who lived in noisy areas and the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimerâs disease.
The authors call this âtransport noise,â meaning noise related to traffic, railroads and other noise related to the movement of a city.
How could noise cause disease?
The authors say that it could be related to environmental factors such as the pollution from cars and rail, or it could be due to constant sleep disruption. Both things have been associated with dementia and Alzheimerâs.
This study sought correlation, not causation so the authors cannot say for sure. Anecdotally, my grandmother lived across the street from a train line and she died from Alzheimerâs so this one hit home.
0.01. That is how much higher the average national temperature was across the U.S. this summer than the previous record. The average temperature for the Lower 48 states was 74 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 0.01 degrees higher than the previous hottest summer on record in 1936.
1,500. That is how many pounds of grapes were stolen from a church in Missouri. The church uses those grapes to make wine for communion but there wonât be a vintage this year.
6. That is how many beers per day residents of an apartment complex in Australia are allowed. The National Health Service is policing alcohol deliveries for residents who are still on lockdown due to Covid outbreaks. They are also limited to one bottle of wine or one 375ml bottle of spirits per day.
A new study shows that too much free time is associated with lower levels of wellbeing.
This suggests that leisure time and idle time are two very different things. People who had up to two hours of free time per day reported high levels of well-being. People with up to five hours of free time showed lower levels of well-being. The authors suggest that there is such thing as too much of a good thing and that people with too much free time lack purpose, which leads to lower levels of wellbeing.
Just as the saying goes, âAn idle brain is the devilâs workshop.â
The Netherlands is drafting a law that would reduce livestock by one-third in order to save the planet.
The meat industry is terrible for the environment, using copious amounts of water and causing ammonia pollution. The ammonia comes from the urine of the livestock mixed with a nitrogen compound. This creates a ânitrogen crisisâ in lakes and streams.
New proposals would force farmers to sell their emission rights and even their land to the state if necessary. The Netherlands has one of the largest livestock industries in Europe and is the EUâs biggest meat exporter. This would be a major move in reducing the amount of meat on the market as well as reducing its impact on the planet. Itâs a bold but necessary move. How long before other countries are forced to make this choice and humans realize that they do not need to eat meat with every meal?
Today’s Live Show
BIDEN’SÂ VACCINE MANDATEÂ
Join us on this morning at 9AMÂ EST for the only morning show that’s not funded by billionaire corporations. On today’s show:
We’ll be looking Biden’s controvesial vaccine mandate. Why did he change his position?
Why the mainstream media is ignoring the Dr. Fauci bombshell. Did he lie before Congress?