Links

Hurricane Beryl, while tiny in size, is intensifying in the Atlantic Ocean well east of the Lesser Antilles, and its chances of striking the Antilles as a hurricane early next week are increasing.
https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/2018-07-06-hurricane-tropical-storm-beryl-atlantic


Super Typhoon Maria exploded into the Northwest Pacific’s first Category 5 storm of 2018 on Thursday, intensifying from a tropical storm with 70 mph winds to a Category 5 super typhoon with 160 mph winds in just 24 hours. This is one of the fastest intensification rates ever observed for a tropical cyclone.
https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/Beryl-Hurricane-96L-Likely-Become-Chris-Maria-Hits-Cat-5


More than 200 people ill from parasite in Del Monte vegetable tray recall
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/06/health/cyclospora-veggie-outbreak/index.html


A historic heat wave in northern Africa on Thursday, July 5, brought Africa its hottest reliably measured temperature on record: 124.3°F (51.3°C), at Ouargla, Algeria. Ouargla (population 190,000) is the capital city of Ouargla Province in the Algerian Sahara Desert, at an elevation of 719 feet (219 meters).
https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/Africas-Hottest-Reliably-Measured-Temperature-Record-1243F-Thursday-Algeria


Hurricanes that undergo rapid intensification are now doing so faster and becoming stronger than they did 30 years ago in parts of the Atlantic Basin, according to a new study.
Rapid intensification is defined as an increase in wind speed of at least 35 mph in 24 hours or less. This is difficult to forecast and sometimes cannot be predicted accurately until it has already started to occur.
The results showed the average increase in wind speed during a 24-hour rapid intensification event is about 13 mph greater than it was 30 years ago in the central and eastern Atlantic Ocean. The researchers found no similar trend in the western Atlantic, however.
https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/2018-05-09-powerful-hurricanes-strengthen-faster-now-than-30-years-ago


The fallacy of obviousness
[I would say this article does show the fallacy of obviousness.]
https://aeon.co/essays/are-humans-really-blind-to-the-gorilla-on-the-basketball-court


Pressure is mounting on Thai authorities to bring forward a rescue plan for 12 boys and their coach trapped deep inside a flooded cave in northern Thailand, after the death of a former navy diver and a drop in oxygen levels underground.
Officials initially thought they could keep the boys and their coach in the cave where they are trapped for up to four months, until waters dropped sufficiently for them to be able to walk out.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/05/asia/thai-cave-diver-intl/index.html


The manufacturer of one of the deadliest opioids on the market has dropped its effort to cloak in secrecy what Tennessee’s attorney general says is proof the firm lied about the addictive properties of the drug and actively marketed it to addicts.
https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/crime/2018/07/05/purdue-pharma-opioid-lawsuit-tennessee-records-unsealed/754234002/

Seen on Quora.com:
As a low income American that worked multiple jobs that just covered rent, utilities and health insurance. I can assure you I was scraping the barrel of third world living conditions, my house was ruined, we had no hot water, no heat, and barely enough for food. It cost me $25,000 a year to survive, barely survive.
For the same amount of money in the UK I have a home, all utilities paid, cable WiFi and landline, a cellphone, health care, transportation, a whole months shopping for groceries and money left over. I also get 15 free hours of child care for my children and 28 paid vacation days. I have never lived better in my life.
https://www.quora.com/Why-do-many-people-including-the-Americans-who-left-the-US-say-that-living-in-the-US-is-hard-and-that-leaving-the-country-was-the-best-choice-they-ever-made/answer/Katrina-Johnston-8

"At 78 percent of gross domestic product, federal debt held by the public is now at its highest level since shortly after World War II," the CBO found. "If current laws generally remained unchanged, the Congressional Budget Office projects, growing budget deficits would boost that debt sharply over the next 30 years; it would approach 100 percent of GDP by the end of the next decade and 152 percent by 2048. That amount would be the highest in the nation's history by far."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/national-debt-at-highest-level-since-after-wwii/


As the US's trade conflict with China heats up and President Donald Trump's reelection campaign gets underway, a Chinese manufacturer says his factory has been hired to create flags for Trump's 2020 bid.
http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-factory-says-its-making-flags-for-trump-2020-campaign-2018-7?utm_source=facebook&utm_content=top-bar&utm_term=desktop


Amputations, fractured fingers, second-degree burns and head trauma are just some of the serious injuries suffered by US meat plant workers every week, according to data seen by the Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
US meat workers are already three times more likely to suffer serious injury than the average American worker, and pork and beef workers nearly seven times more likely to suffer repetitive strain injuries. And some fear that plans to remove speed restrictions on pig processing lines – currently being debated by the government – will only make the work more difficult.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/05/amputations-serious-injuries-us-meat-industry-plant