In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Illness] Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian traveler who was being treated for Ebola in Dallas, has died. "It is with profound sadness and heartfelt disappointment that we must inform you of the death of Thomas Eric Duncan this morning," the Texas Health Presbyterian hospital said in a statement.

[CN: Illness] In other news: Ebola researchers are walking a fine line between tempering alarmism about an Ebola epidemic in the US and also conveying realistic information regarding how little certainty we can actually have about a virus that has "opportunities to evolve as it passes through multiple human hosts." Meanwhile, male Ebola survivors (and other people with testes who don't identify as male) are being urged to wear condoms because "the disease can last much longer in semen," perhaps as long as more than 90 days.

[CN: Police brutality; racism] Rage seethe boil: "Eighteen-year-old DeShawn Currie was walking into his foster parents' unlocked side door after school Monday afternoon, when a neighbor called 911 to report what they perceived to be a burglary on the residential block in Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina. When cops arrived, they walked inside the house and ordered Currie to put his hands up, as Currie, confused, questioned what he had done wrong. Cops responded by pointing to a picture on the wall that showed several white children together, implying that Currie, black, did not belong. By the time Currie's foster mother Stacy Tyler came home, EMTs were treating Currie in the driveway for having been pepper sprayed in the face by the officers, WTVD reports. Police said in a statement they pepper-sprayed Currie because he would not follow orders."

[CN: Worker exploitation] David Leonhardt explores "The Great Wage Slowdown of the 21st Century." And I'm no economist, but it seems to me it might be worth mentioning that profits aren't hurting. Executive pay is increasing. I don't really think it's so much about energy costs, or education costs, or healthcare costs, as it is about priorities. Energy, education, and healthcare costs serve as useful red herrings to avoid talking about greed, though.

[CN: Identity theft] WHAT: "A DEA agent commandeered a woman's identity, created a phony Facebook account in her name, and posted racy photos he found on her seized cell phone. The government said he had the right to do that." But now: "Facebook has removed the page and the Justice Department said it is reviewing the incident." Fucking hell.

[CN: Homophobia; war on agency] This is an interesting article on "contact theory" and political canvassing, and how canvassers disclosing that they are gay, bi, or trans can persuade people to change their views on same-sex marriage, and whether canvassers disclosing they've had an abortion might similarly persuade people to change their views on abortion.

Jon Huntsman says he's not running again in 2016. I'm sure that's very interesting news to the five of us who remember he ran in 2012.

And finally: Here's just a terrific video of a sloth eating carrots precisely as lazily as you imagine a sloth might do that.