Media Today

[Rick Plant]

Uvalde Police body cam video released showing clueless police trying to figure out what to do



The body cam footage of a police officer has been revealed to the families and now to the public showing the catastrophic failure of the Uvalde police during the mass shooting that killed 22 people.

The footage shows Uvalde Police Sgt. Daniel Coronado, who was one of the first on the scene along with UPD Officer Justin Mendoza.

He's shown running inside the school talking to dispatchers on the radio that there is a shooting. Gunshots are then heard. Coronado races outside the building to take cover. Meanwhile, inside, the children are being killed. Coronado radios in saying, that the dispatch that he thinks the shooter is contained and in an office, not in a classroom.

Coronado asked if he could open the door to the building because there were more officers arriving asking what they should do

"What are we doing here?" one asks on video.

Coronado is then seen helping children out of a window. He goes back inside, and the video shows Chief Pete Arredondo pleading with the shooter on a cell phone to come out and let the incident end peacefully. Police dispatch radios call the officers to tell them that a child was on the phone with 911. Coronado can be heard asking, "what did they say?" The dispatch then said that the shooter was inside with all of the victims, "oh f*ck," Coronado can be heard saying.

It has been eight weeks since the mass shooting and none of the families had seen the body cam video until this weekend. It shows the 77 minutes of inaction officers standing around outside the classrooms where the gunman was firing.

Speaking to CNN after showing the video, former FBI deputy assistant director Andrew McCabe said that the widely trained and accepted process is that first responders grab their weapon and try to take the shooter out.

"The district attorney, the investigators here, have been holding this video back. The mayor felt that out of transparency, this needed to be released," said CNN's Shimon Prokupecz.

McCabe went on to say that with a department this small the only reasonable option is to eliminate the force and rebuild it from the bottom up.

Watch: https://twitter.com/i/status/1548799795590053888

[Rick Plant]

Leading space science expert predicts a 'direct hit' on Earth from a solar storm
It can cause significant blackouts to GPS navigation systems.
https://interestingengineering.com/solar-storm-direct-hit-earth

[Rick Plant]

Mariners' winning streak: Seattle enters All-Star break on high note with 14th straight victory

The Mariners' streak is tied for the longest in MLB this season

You can't go into the All-Star break on a higher note than the Seattle Mariners. The Mariners beat the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Park on Sunday (SEA 6, TEX 2) to extend their winning streak to 14 games. It is tied for the longest winning streak in baseball this season (the Atlanta Braves won 14 straight from June 1-15) and is the second longest winning streak in franchise history.

At 51-42 (.548), the Mariners have their best first half record since going 58-39 (.598) prior to the All-Star break in 2018. The 2018 Mariners went 31-34 (.477) in the second half and Seattle missed the postseason by eight games. Here are the longest winning streaks in franchise history:

1. 15 games: May 23 to June 8, 2001
2. 14 games: July 2-17, 2022 (and counting)
3. 10 games: April 8-17, 2002
4. 10 games: Sept. 12-21, 1996
5. 9 games: May 27 to June 5, 2003
6. 9 games: April 19-28, 2001

All-Stars Ty France and Julio Rodríguez (who else?) were the heroes Sunday. France, who was named to the All-Star team earlier in the day, slugged a solo home run in the fifth inning and an RBI single in the seventh. Rodríguez broke the game open with a two-run double in the seventh. Those two went 4 for 9 with a double, a homer, and 4 RBI on Sunday.

Following their most recent loss on July 1, the Mariners were five games behind the third and final American League wild-card spot with five teams ahead of them. The 14-game win streak has moved Seattle into the second wild-card spot, and they are only a half-game behind the Tampa Bay Rays for the first wild-card spot. Seattle is three games up on a postseason spot in general.

The Mariners have not been to the postseason since Ichiro's rookie season in 2001. It is baseball's longest postseason drought by a decade. According to FanGraphs, the winning streak has improved Seattle's postseason odds from 11.0 percent to 63.1 percent.

A year ago Seattle went 90-62 and missed the postseason by two games.

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mariners-winning-streak-seattle-enters-all-star-break-on-high-note-with-14th-straight-victory/

[Rick Plant]

These maps show how excessively hot it is in Europe and the U.S.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/07/18/heatwave-europe-unitedstates-records-uk/


Europe suffers from deadly heat wave as wildfires displace thousands of people

- A deadly heat wave in Western Europe has triggered intense wildfires, disrupted transportation and displaced thousands of people as the continent grapples with the impact of climate change.

- The heat is forecast to grow more severe this week and has prompted concerns over infrastructure problems such as melting roads, widespread power outages and warped train tracks.

- More than five countries in Europe have declared states of emergency or red warnings as wildfires, fueled by the hot conditions, burn across France, Greece, Portugal and Spain.


Tourists fill the Levante beach in Benidorm to quench high temperatures as a heatwave sweeps across Spain on July 16, 2022 in Benidorm, Spain.

At least 350 people have died in Spain from high temperatures during the past week, according to estimates by Spain’s Carlos III Health Institute. In Portugal, health officials said that nearly 240 people died in the first half of July due to the high temperatures, which reached 117 degrees Fahrenheit earlier in the month.

In the U.K., train service was limited amid concerns that the rails would buckle in the heat. The U.K. Met Office, for the first time ever, issued a red warning for heat, its most extreme alert. And Wales recorded its highest-ever temperature of 98.8 Fahrenheit on Monday, according to Britain’s national weather service.


An aerial view shows boats in the dry bed of Brenets Lake (Lac des Brenets), part of the Doubs River, a natural border between eastern France and western Switzerland, in Les Brenets on July 18, 2022.

Flights were also delayed and disrupted into and out of Luton Airport in London after a defect was identified on the runway surface due to extreme temperatures, according to the airport. Temperatures had reached 94 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday in north London and were forecast to rise on Tuesday.

As people across Europe endured the heat, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres issued a dire warning to leaders from 40 nations gathered in Berlin to discuss climate change response measures as part of the Petersberg Climate Dialogue.

“Half of humanity is in the danger zone from floods, droughts, extreme storms and wildfires. No nation is immune. Yet we continue to feed our fossil fuel addiction,” Guterres said in a video message to the leaders on Monday.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/18/europe-suffers-from-deadly-heat-wave-as-wildfires-displace-thousands.html

[Rick Plant]

'Collective action or collective suicide': UN chief pleads for real climate response



Governments can either come up with a collaborative and urgent plan to tackle the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency that is already wreaking deadly havoc across the globe or keep allowing corporations to pollute the atmosphere without limit, thereby condemning humanity to a grim future.

That stark warning comes from United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, who said Monday: "We have a choice. Collective action or collective suicide."

"This has to be the decade of decisive climate action."

"It is in our hands," he told diplomats from 40 countries gathered in Berlin for a three-day conference called the Petersberg Climate Dialogue. The meeting, hosted annually for the past 13 years by the German government, marks one of the last chances to work out an international agenda for mitigation, adaptation, and compensation before the U.N.'s COP27 climate summit kicks off in Egypt this November.

At the conclusion of COP26 eight months ago, Guterres noted, the Paris agreement's goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5ºC above preindustrial levels was left "on life support."

"Since then, its pulse has weakened further," he continued. "Greenhouse gas concentrations, sea level rise, and ocean heat have broken new records."

"Half of humanity is in the danger zone from floods, droughts, extreme storms, and wildfires," Guterres pointed out. "No nation is immune."

The U.N. chief's latest warning comes as large swaths of the planet are being pummeled by heatwaves and wildfires, with no immediate respite in sight—at around 1.2ºC of warming.

Extreme heat has killed more than 1,000 people in Portugal and Spain in recent days, and France is experiencing what experts are calling a "heat apocalypse." Thousands of people in the region have been forced to evacuate due to wildfires. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom is bracing for its hottest day on record, with temperatures expected to climb even higher on Tuesday.

It's not just Europe that is being seared. The United States, China, and parts of Africa and the Middle East are also suffering from heatwaves and wildfires, which climate scientists have long warned will increase in frequency and severity as a result of unmitigated greenhouse gas pollution.

And yet, "we continue to feed our fossil fuel addiction," Guterres lamented Monday. Global energy market disruptions triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine have led many nations to double down on coal, gas, and oil extraction at a moment when investments in a swift green transition are sorely needed.

Most troubling of all, said Guterres, is that governments of the world "are failing to work together as a multilateral community."

"Nations continue to play the blame game instead of taking responsibility for our collective future," he said. "We cannot continue this way. We must rebuild trust and come together—to keep 1.5 alive and to build climate-resilient communities."

Emphasizing that "time is no longer on our side," Guterres said that "we need to move forward together on all fronts," referring to mitigation, adaptation, and financial support for climate-related damages and losses. The latter is a long-standing demand—made by many poorer nations that have contributed the least to the problem but are already bearing the brunt of its consequences—for more green funding from richer nations most responsible for planet-heating pollution.

"First, we need to reduce emissions—now," Guterres stressed. "Everyone needs to revisit their Nationally Determined Contributions," he continued, referring to currently inadequate and nonbinding emission reduction targets. "We need to demonstrate at COP27 that a renewables revolution is under way. There is enormous potential for a just energy transition that accelerates coal phase-out with a corresponding deployment of renewables."

"Second, we must treat adaptation with the urgency it needs," he said. "One in three people lack early warning systems coverage. People in Africa, South Asia, and Central and South America are fifteen times more likely to die from extreme weather events. This great injustice cannot persist."

"Third, let's get serious about the finance that developing countries need," he added.

While wealthy governments originally vowed to contribute $100 billion annually by 2020 to help low-income nations switch to sustainable energy sources and improve infrastructure, they have missed their target. Just $80 billion is expected this year, with the $100 billion pledge now postponed until 2023.

In addition to redistributive investments in mitigation and adaptation, the provision of more money to address the mounting losses and damages from a rapidly changing climate and increasingly frequent and intense extreme weather disasters "has languished on the sidelines for too long," said Guterres. "It is eroding the trust we need to tackle the climate emergency together."

"We need a concrete global response that addresses the needs of the world's most vulnerable people, communities, and nations," he added. "This has to be the decade of decisive climate action."

https://twitter.com/antonioguterres/status/1549038782833385472

[Rick Plant]

The great toilet paper panic of 2020 started in Arizona: study



The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 brought anxiety not only about how the virus was being transmitted but panic about going out in public and stocking up on products to survive lockdowns.

The first US city that faced a reported diagnosis of COVID was Seattle, where toilet paper quickly disappeared. Panic buying then commenced across the US, beginning in Arizona, according to a study flagged by the Phoenix News Times.

"Cherry Digital, a public relations and content marketing agency based in Portland, Oregon, and London, conducted an analysis of Google search data for the phrase “toilet paper” through March 2020," said the report. "The findings at the height of the panic buying period were compared to data that was compiled beginning in March 2019."

There was a 11,115 percent increase in online searches for toilet paper during the pandemic, the company explained.

“Societies generally function because there is confidence and trust in the system,” content marketing director Jamie Gibbs explained in a press release. “The pandemic marked an anxious time for many people, and therefore that very trust began to erode at an alarming speed, which explains why panic buying took place. Despite appearing to be an irrational thing to do, hoarding everyday items was actually a predictable human action.”

The epicenter was Phoenix, the report explained, and nine of the top 10 cities listed in Arizona for the panic buying were in that metro area – except Tuscon, which ranked fifth.

Panic buying isn't unheard of, a 1989 research paper from Rider University explained.

"In a crisis situation, there is a breakdown in the intellectual abilities of the individual in terms of processing information, assessing the environment, and analyzing alternatives," they explained. "The greater the perceived time pressure, the smaller the number of alternatives considered, the greater the likelihood that decisions will be made before necessary, and the greater the likelihood of incorrect choice of alternatives."

People are also more likely to purchase things that show their greatest vulnerability, like toilet paper. It can also make matters worse as people are shopping and they see empty shelves for items, leading to more panic buying in the stores.

“During COVID, Arizona had more vacant shelves than other states,” Phoenix economist Jim Rounds the site. “More empty shelves means more panic buying.”

Supply chain issues with inflation made panic buying in 2020 even worse. Then people were staying at home more, which meant that people needed more toilet paper at home.

Read the full report at the Phoenix New Times:

https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/study-says-arizonans-most-guilty-of-panic-buying-toilet-paper-during-coronavirus-pandemic-14035854

[Rick Plant]

Sweltering NYC Stretch in the 90s Kicks Off Tuesday — and This Kind of Heat Can Kill
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/weather/the-heat-is-on-expect-temps-over-90-for-the-next-week-and-itll-only-get-muggier/3780011/