Month: March 2022

Enlarge / Pro-Trump supporters storm the US Capitol following a rally with President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021, in Washington, DC. (credit: Getty | Samuel Corum)

Dr. Simone Gold, a prominent anti-vaccine doctor who founded a group notorious for widely peddling COVID-19 misinformation, pleaded guilty on Thursday to joining the insurrectionists who violently attacked the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021.

Gold is the founder of America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLDS) and has spent the pandemic downplaying COVID-19, promoting unproven treatments, such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, and casting doubt on the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.

According to her guilty plea, Gold entered a restricted area around the Capitol on January 6, joining part of the mob outside the East Rotunda door. There she stood directly in front of a law enforcement officer as the officer was assaulted and dragged to the ground, the plea notes. Shortly after, she entered the Rotunda with rioters and began giving a speech against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and government-imposed lockdowns, while co-defendant John Strand video-recorded her remarks. Multiple law enforcement officers had to intervene before Gold stopped her speech, then she and Strand left the area.

Enlarge / Activision’s publishing HQ in Santa Monica, California. (credit: Activision)

The parents of former Activision employee Kerri Moynihan have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, alleging that the harassment she suffered working at the company contributed to her 2017 suicide at a corporate retreat.

The Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit, which was filed Thursday and was initially reported by The Washington Post, alleges that the hostile work environment Moynihan was subjected to during her time at the Activision finance department contributed to her untimely death in 2017 at age 32. That death, which the lawsuit says was ruled a suicide by the Orange County coroner, came during an Activision company retreat at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa.

The new lawsuit quotes heavily from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing lawsuit filed against Activision last July. That earlier suit is used to establish that the company “fostered and permitted a sexually hostile work environment to exist in which female employees were routinely sexually harassed, belittled, disparaged, and discriminated against, and Activision failed and refused to take corrective action or reasonable steps to prevent that harassment.”

Enlarge / Boxes of Starlink terminals in Ukraine seen in a picture posted by Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. (credit: Mykhailo Fedorov)

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk yesterday warned that Starlink user terminals in Ukraine could be targeted by Russia and advised users to take precautions. “Important warning: Starlink is the only non-Russian communications system still working in some parts of Ukraine, so probability of being targeted is high. Please use with caution,” Musk tweeted.

When asked for specific advice, Musk said people in Ukraine should turn Starlink on only when it’s needed, place the antenna “as far away from people as possible,” and “place light camouflage over [the] antenna to avoid visual detection.” A thin layer of spray paint would work if there are no metal particles in the paint, he wrote.

One Twitter user asked Musk if Starlink could face a cyberattack from Russia similar to the one that affected Viasat satellite service. Musk responded, “Almost all Viasat Ukraine user terminals were rendered permanently unusable by a Russian cyberattack on day of invasion, so… yes.”

Enlarge (credit: Pramote Polyamate)

Earlier this week, the Pew Research Center announced the results of polling that asked the US public its thoughts on how to address climate change. While the usual partisan split was apparent, the survey highlights an even larger challenge that policymakers will face: the US public supports contradictory things when it comes to climate policy.

Nearly 70 percent of the public favored taking steps toward the goal of being carbon neutral by 2050. Yet less than a third support transitioning off fossil fuels.

What we want vs. how we get there

The survey was very large, having reached over 10,000 US adults at the end of January. That’s enough to ensure that different groups within the population are well represented. For most questions, Pew divides up the US populace into conservative Republicans, moderate Republicans, moderate Democrats, and liberal Democrats.