News for the week of 2023-06-19

The Prepared Support - June 19, 2023

News

Make a top-level comment for a new story/topic. Discussions about the topic should be in the replies to the top-level comment. That way things stay organized and every main comment as you scroll down is a different piece of news.

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In hot climates, save money and reduce reliance on air conditioning by changing the roofing material.

https://wapo.st/3NlbwE1

 

Peru is having a very bad outbreak of Dengue, which is spread by mosquitos. Peru has deployed its military to exterminate mosquitos in a desperate attempt to slow down infections.

 

Preparedness challenge for mosquito-borne diseases like dengue and malaria

What if you faced a similar problem to what is happening in Peru now? Your neighborhood is full of mosquitoes, and your life depends on not getting even a single mosquito bite. What do you do to protect yourself, your family, and your neighbors? What would you buy? What would you build? How would your daily habits need to change?

Making this just slightly less hypothetical, my state just had its first two malaria cases in twenty years. I’m not expecting a major malaria outbreak this year, but every year of global warming brings the most dangerous mosquitoes a bit further north, so it’s just a matter of time.

https://www.wfla.com/news/sarasota-county/alert-issued-after-2-malaria-infections-confirmed-in-sarasota-and-manatee-counties/

 

Texas just confirmed a malaria case in a patient with no recent travel. That’s two southern states now (FL and TX) with recent malaria cases.

(Scroll past the unrelated video. This is purely a written article.)

https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/locally-acquired-malaria-case-confirmed-texas-state-agency-following-up/

 

Texas Heat Wave Shows No Signs of Letting Up
A record-breaking heat wave is expected to worsen through the weekend as it spreads through nearby states.

Officials in Texas asked residents to conserve electricity amid concerns that several days of triple-digit temperatures could strain the power grid. Early Friday, more than 100,000 homes and businesses were without power across Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma, according to poweroutage.us, a website that tracks utilities.

 

114 degrees?!? Wow!

For anyone in Texas or other crazy hot areas, I find cooling vests very helpful. You put the vest in the freezer then wear it to stay cool. Here’s the model I personally use.

FLT Mesh Cooling Vest

Keeps me cool for two hours in Florida’s hot/humid climate. Recharges quickly in cooler or slowly at room temperature.

 

Alzheimer’s treatment lecanemab will be FDA approved soon.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/second-opinions/105171

 

In case you havent been paying attention……the russian civil war started in earnest today. This should be interesting. 

 

“In case you havent been paying attention……the russian civil war started in earnest today. This should be interesting.”

You have my attention.

It’s not yet clear to me if this is civil war or just the usual rivalry between generals getting out of hand. It could even be theatre to help Russians accept the current or upcoming situation without blaming Putin. I’ll be keeping an eye on the news this weekend and hoping for more clarity.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/06/23/world/russia-ukraine-news?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

 

It’s now very clear that this is rebellion. The Wagner group, some of Russia’s Russia’s most elite fighters, are invading Russia. They are moving quickly toward Moscow and have covered half that distance since yesterday. Actual fighting has been minimal so far because Wagner is avoiding cities to move quickly. This map from NYT shows the Wagner group’s progress so far.

https://counteroffensive.substack.com/p/newsflash-russia-wracked-by-rebellion?utm_medium=ios

 

With the rebel group just hours from reaching Moscow, after traveling 2/3 of the way with minimal resistance, the rebel leader accepted a negotiated end to hostilities. The rebel leader will be exiled to Belarus.  The rebel troops will “not be punished” which probably means they’ll return to Ukraine to die in the war.

It’s been a year since Russia tried to take Kiev in a 4-day blitz. Moscow was closer to falling today than Kiev has been that entire time. So at the very least Ukraine’s odds of victory went up this week.

This incident will also make it impossible for Putin to maintain his illustrious of invulnerability. I expect there will be aftershocks of instability in Russia as other Putin rivals are emboldened.

We live in interesting times.

https://renewdemocracy.substack.com/p/emergency-update-on-events-unfolding#details

 

Prototype page for a better heat index, taking into account how hot you’d feel sweating in the sun based on temperature, humidity, sun intensity, and wind speed. Anyone know a good source for this that’s already working?

https://www.weather.gov/tsa/wbgt

 

How the Shortage of a $15 Cancer Drug Is Upending Treatment
Older generic chemotherapy drugs remain scarce, forcing doctors to put a priority on the patients who have the best chance of survival.

 

Here’s a Look at the Water Crises That Might Be Coming to You Soon
Bangladesh, a river delta nation, is on the front line of climate change. Its coping strategies could offer lessons for the wider world.

 

That’s a very good article about how Bangladesh is dealing with many water crises at once: drought, deluge, cyclones, saltwater. Here’s a particularly interesting paragraph about some of the coping strategies. I highly recommend reading the rest of the article as well.

“The people of Bangladesh are rushing to harvest rice as soon as they get word of heavy rains upstream. They’re building floating beds of water hyacinths to grow vegetables beyond the reach of floodwaters. Where shrimp farms have turned the soil too salty to cultivate crops, they’re growing okra and tomatoes not in soil, but in compost, stuffed into plastic boxes that had once carried shrimp. Where the land itself is washing away, people have to move to other villages and towns. And where they’re running out of even drinking water, they’re learning to drink every drop of rain.”