"Extinction is also not new on our planet. We estimate that more than 99% of species that ever existed on the planet have gone extinct. So extinction is a natural process on planet earth but what’s different about the dynamics of extinction today are the pace, extinctions are happening much more quickly than they have in the past, and the cause. Extinctions have never before been caused by a single species. So species have always caused each others’ extinction because of species interactions. But the fact that we have a single species, our species, that’s having a global impact on extinction patterns around the world is new. This is something that we think has never happened before on the history of our planet. And so extinction is a natural process, but extinction is being accelerated because of human impacts on the planet."

THE ART MANUALS UNWRAPPED PODCAST: Art Manuals Unwrapped is a podcast that currently features 8 episodes recorded during 2020. Hosts Iyabo Oba and Priscilla Wrightson "unpack the ideas and thoughts of different art manual creators and their unique contributions to the Western European art scene," concentrating on the methods artists and art instructors have used to teach people how to draw and paint. WEATHER PUPPY, SCIENCE: www.weatherpuppy.com: Readers who find their typical weather forecasts overly dry and insufficiently cute should check out the Weather Puppy smartphone app, which pairs forecasts from Weather Underground with weather-themed background pictures of puppies and dogs. The weather data presented include current conditions, hourly forecasts, and 10-day forecasts.

Jo Freeman Reviews: This book features a selection of Ginsburg’s legal writing. In the first section, there is one appeals court brief and two transcripts of oral arguments before the Supreme Court. All on gender equality, they illustrate Ginsburg’s strategy of arguing cases where men were the legal losers in the belief that the court would be more sympathetic. Moritz concerned a section of the IRS code that allowed women, widowers and divorced men to take a tax deduction for the care of dependants. The plaintiff was a never-married man who was caring for his mother. Frontiero v. Richardson concerned the different standards for servicemen and women to get benefits for their dependent spouses. Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld challenged a portion of the social security law which permitted widows but not widowers to collect special benefits to care for minor children.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the risk for abuse directed towards seniors who are socially isolated and vulnerable to exploitation,” said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta. “As this Annual Report demonstrates, the department has marshalled a wide array of tools – enforcement actions, research, public education and outreach, training and victim services – to combat elder abuse and to ensure that our seniors have the support and protections that they deserve.” “While technology has brought the world together in many ways, it has also opened the door to a myriad of fraud schemes that prey upon older adults,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco. Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) released the first 2020 Elder Fraud Report providing information useful for targeting interventions. For example, the report found that over 100,000 persons over the age of 60 filed a complaint, with a resulting loss of nearly $1 billion, although the greatest financial losses were associated with confidence fraud/romance scams.

“These individual guilty pleas, which follow the sentencing of G4S NV, demonstrate the division’s commitment to the vigorous enforcement of antitrust laws,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Richard A. Powers of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. “The division and its Procurement Collusion Strike Force partners will continue to investigate and prosecute both individual and corporate wrongdoers who seek to exploit the government procurement process...” In November 2019, the Department of Justice created the Procurement Collusion Strike Force (PCSF), a joint law enforcement effort to combat antitrust crimes and related fraudulent schemes that impact government procurement, grant, and program funding at the federal, state, and local levels.

Ferida Wolff writes: Now, traveling by local farms reminds me that Autumn is here. The cornstalks, so plentiful during growing season, are turning brown and wilting. Farmers are cutting them down, leaving the fields covered with the remains of summer’s corn crop. It’s nature’s reminder that all things flourish for a time and then release their energy. What we need now is a new way to look at our environment. Perhaps by changing our interference with nature we can modify the strength and number of storms in the future. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a part of the U.S. Department of Commerce posted a recent article: US Hit By 18-Billion Dollar Disasters So Far This Year    

"I want to highlight two of the proposals that the Federal Reserve Board (the Board) sought feedback on in the September 2020 Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to strengthen CRA regulations. Recognizing that many places in Indian Country have few bank branches and are located outside of branch-based assessment areas, the Board proposed that a bank in any part of the country could receive credit for eligible CRA activities in Indian Country, even when there is not a branch nearby. Banks need to be confident about receiving CRA credit to seek out activities and investments in these areas." "Here in Oklahoma, when looking at how the economic activity of tribes compares with different industries in the state, tribes would rank 9th in output, at over $7 billion, and 11th in job creation — greater than either the construction or utilities industries." October 13, 2021 Financial Inclusion and Economic Challenges in the Shadow of the Pandemic: A Conversation with Tribal Leaders Governor Lael Brainard At Fed Listens: Roundtable with Oklahoma Tribal Leaders, Oklahoma City…

"As fully transparent medical records proliferate, many questions remain unanswered. Such uncertainties create anxiety and apprehension among doctors at a time when many already feel overwhelmed. In an effort to ease the transition to what we believe will be a widespread and ultimately beneficial practice, we draw on over 5 years of the authors' clinical experience and conversations with clinicians around the country to offer suggestions for creating notes that can work for all concerned. Patients have unprecedented online access to their medical records. More than 6 million Americans can now read their doctors' notes via patient portals, and continued rapid growth is likely."

"Jonathan and Diana Toebbe, both of Annapolis, Maryland, were arrested in Jefferson County, West Virginia, by the FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) on Saturday, Oct. 9. They will have their initial appearances on Tuesday, Oct. 12, in federal court in Martinsburg, West Virginia. For almost a year, Jonathan Toebbe, 42, aided by his wife, Diana, 45, sold information known as Restricted Data concerning the design of nuclear-powered warships to a person they believed was a representative of a foreign power. In actuality, that person was an undercover FBI agent. The Toebbes have been charged in a criminal complaint alleging violations of the Atomic Energy Act." Department of Justice Public Affairs, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)National Security Division (NSD)

In January 2021, following a report from The New York Times that detailed a plot between Trump and Clark to use DOJ to further Trump’s efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election, Durbin led the Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee in a letter to then-Acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson calling on him to preserve and produce all relevant materials in the DOJ’s possession, custody, or control related to this plot. This kicked off the Committee’s eight-month investigation. The Committee continues to seek records requested from the National Archives and Records Administration, which have not yet been supplied, and continues to pursue interviews with relevant individuals as part of this ongoing investigation.

One US child loses a parent or caregiver for every four COVID-19 deaths, a new modeling study published in Pediatrics reveals. The findings illustrate orphanhood as a hidden and ongoing secondary tragedy caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and emphasizes that identifying and caring for these children throughout their development is a necessary and urgent part of the pandemic response – both for as long as the pandemic continues, as well as in the post-pandemic era ... In the closing words of the paper, “Effective action to reduce health disparities and protect children from direct and secondary harms from COVID-19 is a public health and moral imperative.”

Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco: "...the original passage of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) in 1994, as you have noted Mr. Chairman, had a major impact on my own life. At the time I was a young staff member on this Committee, working for then-Chairman Biden, and one of my responsibilities included responding to letters from people who wrote to the Committee. Time and again, I read firsthand accounts not only about the violence that too many people — mostly women — suffered at the hands of their intimate partners, but also about the lack of accountability for these crimes. Statistics the Committee reported during that period painted a very grim picture: 98% of rape victims never saw their attacker caught, tried and imprisoned — meaning almost all perpetrators of rape walked free. Fewer than half of people arrested for rape were convicted, and almost half of convicted rapists could expect to serve a year or less in jail."

Science Based Medicine features blog-style posts offering the latest evidence about medical claims, news about recent scientific discoveries, and commentary on issues of contemporary and perennial interest. Readers can scroll through the latest posts or find those organized by popular topics such as Chiropractic, Energy Medicine, Nutrition, Health Fraud, and even Veterinary Medicine. Second, in the Reference drop-down menu, SBM offers materials on major topics and issues such as Homeopathy, Vaccines & Autism, and Acupuncture.

Adrienne Cannon Writes: "I sit down and try to understand what my life will be for the next few days. I can swim in an outdoor pool. No! too risky for fellow swimmers. I can take a walk outside. No! Not in a community of older friends and neighbors. I see I have a special date on the calendar — the first rehearsal of the concert band that has been shut down for a year. I play a woodwind instrument and I calculate immediately that I will have to miss that event — I play a “wind” instrument that I translate into “aerosol droplet spread.” I have to accept that I am quarantined within my walls for the duration."