Once again, I lose to the Life splinter. My leveled up Fire team (Weak Magic/Rise of the Commons rule sets, 40 mana) was no match for General Sloan. If you can’t beat them, join them?

Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, and Debt:

When Journalists Draw The Wrong Conclusions

Cryptocurrencies are more popular in countries perceived as corrupt or with strict capital controls, boosting the case for greater regulation of the industry.

Yeah, okay, the journalist is just regurgitating an IMF talking point, but this seems ass backwards to me. People in corrupt countries and/or nations with strict capital controls are seeking the freedoms that crypto provides. That’s a good thing, not a valid excuse for more regulation.

7 Wild Bitcoin Mining Rigs

Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:

Clinical Trials Find No Increase in Mortality Among COVID-19 Patients Treated with Remdesivir, Contrary to Viral Claim

China leading citizens to jump from balconies in quest to achieve ‘COVID Zero’

Politics:

A Russian rocket that struck a Ukrainian train station and killed dozens of people had 'For the children' written on its side

Republicans in the Dark on January 6 Probe

One by one, Republicans eviscerated the work of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, each one bemoaning the fact that the chief congressional security officials had not been subpoenaed to examine that day’s security lapses. Not interviewing these key officials was proof, they suggested, that the committee was just out to score political points against Republicans.
Finally, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) shut down that line of debate on Wednesday with some information these Republicans did not seem to know.
Said Raskin: “We have in fact interviewed precisely the people they set up as a test for the validity of our investigation.”

Anyone who picked Donald Trump Jr. in the Trump Family Prison Pool must be getting pretty excited.

— Middle Age Riot (@middleageriot) April 8, 2022

Russia Deploys Land Mines on a Timer

The weapons roar in like any rocket, but instead of exploding instantly, they eject up to two dozen mines that explode at intervals, parceling out death in the hours afterward.
Since the start of the invasion, Russia has made clear that it is willing to mete out violence and destruction to achieve its aims, often indiscriminately. It has launched cruise missiles, sent in tanks and fired mortars, artillery and rockets. Now it has also turned to something less ominous in appearance, but just as brutal.

Russians Turn on One Another Over the War

With President Vladimir Putin’s direct encouragement, Russians who support the war against Ukraine are starting to turn on the enemy within.”
The episodes are not yet a mass phenomenon, but they illustrate the building paranoia and polarization in Russian society. Citizens are denouncing one another in an eerie echo of Stalin’s terror, spurred on by vicious official rhetoric from the state and enabled by far-reaching new laws that criminalize dissent.

Texas Woman Arrested for ‘Illegal Abortion’

Gotta love the comments section for this tweet:

Surprise 😉 pic.twitter.com/AWa5RjYosD

— Embassy of Ukraine to the UK (@UkrEmbLondon) April 9, 2022

Panel Has Evidence for Criminal Referral of Trump

The leaders of the House committee investigating the Capitol attack have grown divided over whether to make a criminal referral to the Justice Department of former President Donald Trump, even though they have concluded that they have enough evidence to do so.
The debate centers on whether making a referral — a largely symbolic act — would backfire by politically tainting the Justice Department’s expanding investigation into the Jan. 6 assault and what led up to it.

Serendipity:

The world’s most polluted capital city

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