- AI Replaces ‘Mamma Mia!’ Musical Star Sara Poyzer for BBC Production: “Sobering” Hollywood Reporter
- ‘Mamma Mia!’ Stage Star Sara Poyzer Told In “Grim” Email She’s Been Replaced By AI On BBC Show Deadline
- AI Debate Stirs in U.K. as Actress Replaced on BBC Project by Artificially Generated Voice Rolling Stone
- ‘Mamma Mia’ Star Replaced With AI in BBC Project: ‘Sobering’ The Daily Beast
- BBC defends decision to replace Mamma Mia star Sara Poyzer with AI on upcoming documentary as it reveals the t Daily Mail
Tag Archives: sobering
Banks Just Offered a Sobering Update to Wall Street, and It Likely Means a Big Move in Stocks Is on the Way – The Motley Fool
- Banks Just Offered a Sobering Update to Wall Street, and It Likely Means a Big Move in Stocks Is on the Way The Motley Fool
- US Banks Facing ‘Significant Risk’ of Deposit Flight As Profit Margins Narrow, Warns Top Ratings Agency The Daily Hodl
- Moody’s downgrades US banks Philstar.com
- Fulton Bank is among 10 banks downgraded by Moody’s Investors Service LNP | LancasterOnline
- Moody’s gives ‘negative outlook’ to PNC, Citizens, Fifth Third, Huntington banks. But what does that mean? cleveland.com
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Western allies receive increasingly ‘sobering’ updates on Ukraine’s counteroffensive: ‘This is the most difficult time of the war’ – CNN
- Western allies receive increasingly ‘sobering’ updates on Ukraine’s counteroffensive: ‘This is the most difficult time of the war’ CNN
- ‘Until Ukraine gets the air power that it needs it’s probably going to be a slow, painful grind’ FRANCE 24 English
- Ukraine making small gains with Western equipment :Reports | Russia-Ukraine War | WION Fineprint WION
- Defense stocks flourish after Russian invasion of Ukraine Defense News
- It’s almost 18 months since Russia invaded Ukraine, and peace seems no closer The Guardian
- View Full Coverage on Google News
NASA Responds to Sobering Review of Psyche Mission, Entire Jet Propulsion Lab
An independent review of problems that delayed the launch of NASA’s Psyche asteroid mission has also uncovered broad institutional issues at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech. JPL is struggling with an unprecedented, overwhelming workload, and its resources are clearly spread too thin.
Psyche was originally supposed to launch with Artemis 1, on Aug. 29 of this year. But a host of problems, including the SLS missing its own launch window, conspired to delay the mission. Orbital mechanics decree that the next plausible launch window for Psyche comes in October 2023. So, the agency convened an independent review board led by retired aerospace exec and former NASA administrator Tom Young, to do some root-cause analysis on the delays. The board’s sobering report (PDF) found that the Psyche project is shot through with problems from top to bottom. But it also characterized Psyche’s problems as just the visible tip of the iceberg — the inevitable consequences of systemic problems throughout JPL.
Following the review board’s report, NASA held an online town hall meeting and a press conference. Laurie Leshin and Thomas Zurbuchen, the NASA administrators who convened the review board in the first place, attended both meetings to field questions and elaborate on the sixty-page report.
The agency also published a point-by-point response to the review board’s findings. It’s not controversial — NASA is in full cooperation with the review board, which the agency itself convened — but it is a startling portrait of systemic dysfunction.
Total Overhaul
16 Psyche is a main-belt asteroid. It’s the largest metallic planetesimal in our solar system: the exposed core of a planet that could have been. By itself, 16 Psyche accounts for nearly one percent of the entire main belt’s mass. As such, this hunk of metal has incalculable value, whether you’re considering it as a commodity or a source of scientific data.
Psyche averages 111 km (69 miles) in diameter, making it larger than the state of Rhode Island but not quite as big as Delaware.
NASA has determined that the Psyche mission is irreplaceable. Its unique mandate, to explore its namesake asteroid — “a world made not of rock or ice but of metal” — can’t just slipstream into another mission. Nevertheless, the Psyche mission is in peril, and its problems have begun to reach other missions as well. And the report is clear: Nothing short of a total overhaul will be enough to set things right at JPL.
“The Psyche issues are not unique to Psyche. They are indicative of broader institutional issues,” said Young during the town hall meeting. To start with, the report showed that JPL is struggling with an unprecedented workload. Right now, the Lab is managing more projects than at any other time in its history. But it’s also suffering from an acute staff shortage at every level, from new talent to seasoned employees who can mentor others.
One major reason: JPL is hemorrhaging talent to private space companies. They can’t pay engineers enough to keep them, nor entice new hires. It’s difficult to overstate how much of a problem this is. The Psyche project literally didn’t have a chief engineer. From the report:
The pandemic also disrupted the Psyche project, like it disrupted everything else. Lockdowns, and then working from home in the post-pandemic labor environment, have been downright disastrous for communication and schedules. Specifically, the report names the kind of informal “drop-in conversations” that happen in the cafeteria or when someone pokes their head in to chat. It turns out that in NASA’s profoundly collaborative organizational structure, those conversations really do matter.
‘Canary in the Coal Mine’
JPL is throwing itself into the audit like they’re bandaging a bleeding wound. But there’s another, more subtle problem here, that’s more difficult to name. The Psyche review showed that JPL has experienced a kind of cultural “erosion,” weakening the institution as a whole.
Aerospace culture at its most efficient and successful engages in a kind of no-fault error review. When someone drops a circuit board or punches an accidental drill hole, that person can report the incident to their supervisors without fear of punishment. You want to report when and how these problems happen because you need to know why they happen, in order to make sure they don’t happen again.
This kind of radical transparency is what got us to the Moon. It lets us put satellites like the James Webb Space Telescope in orbit, trusting that they’ll operate like the documents say they will. But the Psyche review showed that this culture of trust and transparency is falling apart throughout JPL. Instead, a culture of “prove there is a problem” has taken hold. Budget pressure, staffing issues, and remote work due to the pandemic “created an environment where working-level personnel were challenged to prove that a problem existed before schedule and/or budget relief was provided or to change baseline plans. Team members experienced the normalization of deviance with respect to understaffing, high stress, inadequate scheduling, and pushback against worker intuition.”
The agency’s official response welcomed the board’s findings. Zurbuchen said, “It’s our job to notice issues early – this report is essentially a canary in the coal mine – and address them. Information like this helps us for more than just Psyche, but also for upcoming key missions such as Europa Clipper and Mars Sample Return.”
In Venus, VERITAS
Unfortunately, NASA authorities didn’t notice Psyche’s many issues in time to prevent the VERITAS mission to Venus from becoming a casualty. In its desperation to staff the Psyche mission, NASA is delaying the VERITAS probe so that VERITAS staff can contribute to the Psyche project. After lamenting their own staff being poached by other companies, they’re forced to do it themselves.
“After long deliberations, I have to say that we intend to postpone the VERITAS launch readiness date to no earlier than 2031,” said Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s planetary science division. “This postponement can offset both the workforce imbalance for at least those three years and provide some of the increased funding that will be required to continue Psyche towards that 2023 launch.”
During the annual meeting of the Venus Exploration Analysis Group on Monday, Glaze described the mission delay as “the most painful thing I’ve ever had to do probably in my whole life.” Despite never falling afoul of its schedule, VERITAS will now launch three years late. However, Glaze said, “there were zero good options.”
“I recognize that you are not responsible for the things that are going to be assessed, that’s out of your control,” Glaze said later, addressing a member of the VERITAS team. “I can make a commitment to you and your team to be transparent and to work with you.” But that’s about all the agency can promise right now.
Next Steps for JPL
The report made recommendations to address Psyche’s potentially mission-lethal problems. But it also bluntly said that the agency needs to get its house in order by March 2023, because right now, they’re robbing Peter to pay Paul.
In response, JPL is making sweeping changes to its entire reporting structure. But it also asked for greater oversight from Caltech and NASA. JPL also is instituting new internal staffing approaches and working with industrial partners to support staffing needs and to redouble efforts to strengthen experienced leadership at all levels.
For a VERITAS delay, NASA said in a statement, JPL will “stand down their management and engineering teams for the mission and release the staff to other projects.” Meanwhile, science teams will still receive funding and support. But in a later phone call with reporters, Glaze said that the Psyche mission may need more money than the agency will save by delaying VERITAS.
In any case, Leshin said, JPL will lean into the panel’s recommendations, including reviewing other missions the Lab is managing. “We are going to be working through each and every one of our projects, especially the big ones like Clipper and Mars Sample Return, to make sure the lessons learned are appropriately applied.”
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Sobering new study says that those under age 40 shouldn’t drink alcohol at all
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A new study shares surprising recommendations for people under age 40.
The study is essentially encouraging young people to put down that gorgeous summer cocktail or delicious beer right this minute.
They shouldn’t drink alcohol at all.
People under 40 suffer significant health risks from drinking, according to the research from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington in Seattle.
The research was published on Thursday in The Lancet, a British medical journal.
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The health risks associated with imbibing include auto accidents, injury and even murder, according to the study.
Also, those under age 40 receive no health benefits at all from drinking alcohol, the study found.
A young woman drinks a glass of wine — something that’s now a no-no for people under age 40, according to a new study.
(iStock)
People 40 or older may benefit from a limited consumption of alcohol — a glass of red wine occasionally, for example — as long as they have no underlying health risks.
The benefits of small amounts of alcohol include potentially reducing the risk of developing heart disease, ischemic stroke and/or diabetes, according to the Mayo Clinic’s website. (None of these outcomes are guaranteed with moderate drinking.)
“Our message is simple: Young people should not drink, but older people may benefit from drinking small amounts.”
This new study, which comes from the authors of the Global Burden of Diseases project based at the University of Washington in Seattle, analyzed the drinking habits of people in 204 countries and territories. The number of people consuming harmful amounts of alcohol increased to 1.34 billion in 2020, it found.
Nearly 77% of these people were male — with almost 60% of the harmful consumption happening among individuals between 15 and 39 years old.
Fox News Digital reached out to Dr. Emmanuela Gakidou, senior author of the study and professor of health metrics sciences at University of Washington, and was directed by the IHME to the press release on its website.
“We do think it’s important to communicate the latest evidence so that everyone can make informed decisions about their health,” the new study said.
(iStock)
The release says, in part: “Our message is simple: Young people should not drink, but older people may benefit from drinking small amounts.”
“While it may not be realistic to think that young people will abstain from drinking,” the statement continues, “we do think it’s important to communicate the latest evidence so that everyone can make informed decisions about their health.”
“Our message is simple: Young people should not drink, but older people may benefit from drinking small amounts.”
The study examined the risk of alcohol consumption on 22 health outcomes, such as cardiovascular disease and cancer.
For the purposes of the new study, one drink of alcohol was defined as 10 grams of pure alcohol — meaning a small 3.4-fluid ounce (100 milliliters) glass of red wine, a 12-fluid ounce (355 milliliters) standard can or bottle of beer (3.5% alcohol) or a one fluid ounce shot of spirits (30 milliliters) that is 40% alcohol by volume.
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“We provide clear evidence that the level of alcohol consumption that minimizes health loss varies significantly across populations and remains zero or very close to zero for several population groups, particularly young adults,” the study said.
There has been a focus in the past on studying alcohol consumption in relation to gender. A new study, however, focused on global region, sex, age and calendar year.
(iStock)
“At the same time, small amounts of alcohol consumption are associated with improved health outcomes in populations that predominantly face a high burden of cardiovascular diseases, particularly older adults in many world regions,” it continued.
“Given these findings, we recommend a modification of existing policy guidelines to focus on emphasizing differential optimal consumption levels by age, rather than the current practice of recommending different consumption levels by sex.”
There has been a focus in the past on studying alcohol consumption in relation to gender — such as a report almost a decade ago entitled, “Closing the Gender Gap: The Case for Gender-Specific Alcohol Research,” published in the Journal of Alcoholism and Drug Dependence in 2013.
This new study focused instead on several factors: global region, sex, age and calendar year.
A new study is “stressing that the level of alcohol consumption recommended by many existing guidelines is too high for young people in all regions.”
(iStock)
The study “highlights present a serious recommendation for those 40 and younger, and the authors call for alcohol consumption guidelines to be revised to emphasize consumption levels by age,” according to the University of Washington’s IHME website.
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The study is “stressing that the level of alcohol consumption recommended by many existing guidelines is too high for young people in all regions.”
It also calls for “policies that target males under 40, who are most likely to use alcohol harmfully.”
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“This study highlights the importance of prioritizing interventions targeted at minimizing alcohol consumption among young adults,” the study also noted.
Sobering thought! Binging drinking on your 21st birthday causes brain white matter to shrink
Brain scans of Americans after a night of legally drinking alcohol on their 21st birthday reveal the dangers on binge drinking.
Scans of college students’ brains days after celebrating the right of passage showed the largest white matter structure, which is responsible for communication between the left and right cerebral hemispheres, had shrunk.
Scientists conducted scans on several of the participants five weeks after and saw no signs that this region, also known as the corpus callosum, was on a path to recovery.
‘Results from this study suggest that a single extreme drinking episode is enough to alter the brain morphometry of emerging adults a couple days after the drinking episode,’ the researchers wrote in the study published in the journal Alcohol Clinical Experimental Research.
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Brain scans of Americans after a night of legally indulging in alcohol on their 21st birthday reveal the dangers on binge drinking
Many Americans countdown the days until they are legally able to consume alcohol, but because of the excitement surrounding the day, most end up going overboard with booze.
A separate study in 2008 found 34 percent of men and 24 percent of women reported consuming 21 drinks or more on the special day.
Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have looked deeper into the issue and found one night of binge drinking truly impacts the brain.
The team recruited 52 students for the study, all of which had MRI scans taken 11 days before their 21st birthday, another about four days after and some participated in a third scan five weeks later.
Scans were taken of participants’ brains before they drank on their 21st birthday (pictured)
Scans of college students’ brains days after (pictured) celebrating the right of passage showed the largest white matter structure, which is responsible for communication between the left and right cerebral hemispheres, had shrunk
Researchers used drink-by-drink reconstruction to estimate the participants’ peak blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) during the celebrations and identify who had experienced an alcohol-induced blackout.
One each of their birthdays, the students were reported to have, on average, a BAC of 0.23 – three times over the legal driving limit.
The MRI scans of 29 participants five weeks later did not reveal further structural atrophy or recovery in the corpus callosum.
Scientists conducted scans on several of the participants five weeks after and saw no signs that this region, also known as the corpus callosum, was on a path to recovery
However, researchers note this could be due to the lower number of participants.
The team also notes that their study did not detect alcohol-related damage to other brain regions that are considered vulnerable, including the hippocampus, which has a major role in learning and memory.
‘We found evidence that a single extreme drinking episode was associated with structural changes immediately post-birthday celebration,’ the authors wrote in the study.
‘Specifically, higher twenty-first birthday estimated blood-alcohol concentration was associated with decreased volume of the posterior and central corpus callosum immediately post-birthday celebration.
‘This extreme drinking episode was not associated with further structural changes, or recovery, 5 weeks post-twenty-first birthday celebration.’
Binge drinking, however, has risen in the U.S. over the past few years, federal health officials said in 2020.
While overall rates of binge drinking fell from 18.9 percent in 2011 to 18.0 percent in 2017, the number of actual drinks increased.
The average number of alcoholic beverages had by binge drinkers during benders rose from 472 in 2011 to 529 in 2017, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
For the report, the CDC looked at self-reported data from binge drinkers from the agency’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System between 2011 and 2017.
Binge drinking was defined as men having five or more drinks in one sitting and women having four or more drinks.
The report found that the biggest spike in drinks consumed during one sitting occurred among adults between ages 35 and 44.
Binge drinkers consumed an average of 593 drinks in 2017 during binging episodes – a more than 25 percent increase in 2011.
Among those aged 45 to 64, there was a 23 percent increase from 428 in 2011 to 527 in 2017.
The CDC report revealed binge drinking rates increased as level of education decreased.
The largest rises were seen among adults without a high school degree with 942 drinks per person in 2017, up from 646 in 2011.
Dr. Anthony Fauci sees ‘sobering’ data on South Africa variant; US daily cases below 100K, but danger lurks: Latest COVID-19 updates
Data on the South Africa variant of the coronavirus is “sobering,” and current vaccines are less effective against it than the original strain or U.K. variant, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday.
Fauci, speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said less is known about the South African variant than the U.K. version, which has proved to be more transmissible than the original version of the virus.
“But we do know that it (the South Africa variant) evades the protection from some of the monoclonal antibodies, and it diminishes somewhat the capability and the effectiveness of the vaccine to block it,” Fauci said. “It doesn’t eliminate it, but it diminishes it by multiple fold.
Fauci said there was “still some cushion left” so that current vaccines do provide some protection against it. He added that, in South Africa, there were people who got infected with the original virus, recovered and then got reinfected with the South Africa variant. That indicates prior infection does not protect someone from reinfection with the South Africa variant, he said.
“Somewhat good news is it looks like the vaccine is better than natural infection in preventing you from getting reinfected,” Fauci said.
USA TODAY is tracking COVID-19 news. Keep refreshing this page for the latest updates. Want more? Sign up for our Coronavirus Watch newsletter for updates to your inbox and join our Facebook group.
In the headlines:
►A Los Angeles County woman died shortly after receiving the Pfizer vaccine, local health officials said. Dr. Michael E. Morris, director of Kaiser Permanente Southern California’s vaccination program, said in a statement that the woman, 78, “passed away unexpectedly” Friday after being vaccinated. He also said that, according to her family, the woman had a history of heart illness. The county Public Health Department said her death appeared to be unrelated to the vaccine.
►New Zealand’s largest city went into lockdown for at least three days Sunday and police set up checkpoints at eight locations at Auckland’s border. The crackdown comes after three family members tested positive. The entire nation of about 5 million people has fewer than 50 known cases currently.
►The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not currently recommend required COVID-19 testing before domestic air travel, the CDC said in a statement to CNN on Saturday. Federal officials had said this week they were considering domestic testing requirements.
►China refused to give raw data on early COVID-19 cases to a World Health Organization team probing the origins of the pandemic, one of the team’s investigators, Dominic Dwyer, told Reuters and The Wall Street Journal. The head of the WHO said Friday that all hypotheses into the origins of the coronavirus were still being investigated and analyzed after a team of investigators said earlier this week that the theory that the virus leaked from a virology lab in Wuhan would no longer be pursued.
►Florida state health officials reported that more than 10,000 residents and staff of long-term care facilities have died of COVID-19.
📈 Today’s numbers: The U.S. has more than 27.6 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 485,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The global totals: More than 108.7 million cases and 2.39 million deaths. More than 70 million vaccine doses have been distributed in the U.S. and about 52.8 million have been administered, according to the CDC.
📘 What we’re reading: People of color have suffered the most from COVID-19. But now that a vaccine is here, they are far less likely to have received a first dose – for many of the same reasons. Read more.
COVID-19 cases continue to decline, but variants are on the rise
New COVID-19 cases in the United States have been slowly dropping since a peak several weeks ago, with the average per day falling below 100,000 Friday for the first time since Nov. 4 and staying under that figure Saturday as well. That’s still more than one new case every second, but it’s less than half the rate the country was reporting in January.
However, the number of known coronavirus variant infections has surged in recent weeks. The 1,193 cases of variants reported Sunday represent nearly 200 cases more than on Thursday night, nearly doubling the total on Feb. 4.
The B.1.1.7 variant first seen in the United Kingdom, considered at least 50% more contagious than the original strain, accounts for the vast majority of the known cases with 1,173. It is spreading quickly and could become the predominant strain in the U.S. by the end of March.
Florida has nearly 1/3 of the nation’s known total cases with 379.
– Mike Stucka
New Orleans gets tough with Mardi Gras celebrations
New Orleans is tamping down its annual Mardi Gras celebrations this week and health officials in other cities are warning would-be revelers to do the same amid a spike in coronavirus variant cases across the nation. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell ordered bars closed during the Mardi Gras weekend that started Friday and runs through Tuesday. Parades are canceled and there are limits on gatherings.
Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is the annual pre-Lenten bash celebrated along much of the Gulf Coast. Last year’s revelry is believed to have contributed to an early surge that made Louisiana a coronavirus hot spot.
FDA policy to allow antibody tests without authorization ‘flawed,’ officials say
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration policy of allowing companies to market their COVID-19 antibody tests without authorization was “flawed” and allowed ineffective products to flood the market, two FDA officials wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine on Saturday.
In March, the agency began allowing companies to market their antibody tests without FDA emergency use authorization as long as the companies notified the agency and could show that the test worked.
“As a result, the market was flooded with serology tests, some of which performed poorly and many of which were marketed in a manner that conflicted with FDA policy,” according to the FDA’s Jeffrey Shuren and Timothy Stenzel.
Inexperienced or dubious companies capitalized on the lack of FDA oversight, including one that sells vape pens and one headed by a self-proclaimed technology evangelist, a USA TODAY investigation last year found.
– Grace Hauck
Massachusetts program to vaccinate people who accompany seniors quickly ‘abused’
Some people in Massachusetts are offering rides and even money for a chance to take advantage of a state rule that allows those who accompany people age 75 and older to a coronavirus vaccination appointment to get a shot at the same time.
The rash of online ads from people looking to cut the vaccination line drew a stern rebuke from Gov. Charlie Baker, who warned against offers of help from complete strangers. “If you’re contacted by somebody soliciting to take you to a site, please report it to the authorities,” Baker said. Seniors should accept help only from someone they trust, he said.
“While it may have been well-meaning, it took less than 24 hours for this new state policy to be abused,” Boston City Councilor Andrea Campbell in a statement.
Democratic state Rep. Steve Owens said a group of lawmakers have urged Baker to pause the program, noting that he saw an ad from someone offering $250 to drive an eligible resident to a vaccination site.
University of Oxford testing vaccine in children
The University of Oxford plans to test its COVID-19 vaccine – which is being produced and distributed by AstraZeneca – in children for the first time, becoming the latest vaccine developer to assess whether its coronavirus shot is effective in young people.
The trial announced Saturday seeks to recruit 300 volunteers ages 6 to 17, with up to 240 receiving the COVID-19 vaccine and the remainder a control meningitis vaccine.
Andrew Pollard, chief researcher on the Oxford vaccine trial, says that while most children don’t get severely ill from COVID-19, “it is important to establish the safety and immune response to the vaccine in children and young people as some children may benefit from vaccination.”
Contributing: The Associated Press
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: COVID news: Anthony Fauci; South Africa variant; Mardi Gras; China