Geopaix

Michigan stymies Michael Penix Jr., Washington to claim first national championship since 1997 season

10Jan

By Winry RockbellNo Comments

Sports

Michigan stymies Michael Penix Jr., Washington to claim first national championship since 1997 season

By Lauren Merola, Max Olson, Austin Meek, Jim Trotter and Nicole AuerbachIt’s been 26 years, but finally, no one has it better than Michigan.The Wolverines rushed for 303 yards and held flame-throwing Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. in check to emerge as the College Football Playoff national champion with a 34-13 defeat of the Huskies on Monday night at NRG Stadium in Houston. The win marked Michigan’s first national title since 1997 and the completion of a long-anticipated return to the top of college football under head coach Jim Harbaugh.The Wolverines, who entered the night ranked second in the FBS in passing yards allowed per game, held the Heisman Trophy runner-up Penix to 255 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions on 27-of-51 passing, well below the usual output from th...

Paxlovid Cuts Covid Death Risk. But Those Who Need It Are Not Taking It.

9Jan

By Winry RockbellNo Comments

Health

Paxlovid Cuts Covid Death Risk. But Those Who Need It Are Not Taking It.

As Covid rises again, killing about 1,500 Americans each week, medical researchers are trying to understand why so few people are taking Paxlovid, a medicine that is stunningly effective in preventing severe illness and death from the disease.A study of a million high-risk people with Covid found that only about 15 percent who were eligible for the drug took it. If instead half of the eligible patients in the United States had gotten Paxlovid during the time period of the research, 48,000 deaths could have been prevented, the authors of the study, conducted by the National Institutes of Health, concluded.It’s not because people don’t know about the drug — most do — but the reluctance seems to come from doctors worried about interactions with other drugs and people wary of a possible reboun...

9Jan

By Winry RockbellNo Comments

World

Tuesday Briefing – The New York Times

Israel announced a new military phase in GazaIsrael said its military was starting to shift from a large-scale ground-and-air campaign in the Gaza Strip to a more targeted phase, with fewer troops and airstrikes, in its war against Hamas. Israeli officials have privately told their U.S. counterparts that they hoped the transition would be completed by the end of the month, U.S. officials said.Antony Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, is in Israel to press officials there to curtail their campaign in Gaza and to prevent the war from spreading across the region. An Israeli strike last week killed senior Hamas leaders in Lebanon, and Hezbollah said yesterday that one of its commanders had also been killed in a strike in southern Lebanon.U.S. officials said they expected the transition to r...

U.S. Steel Acquisition Proposal Tests Biden’s Industrial Policy

9Jan

By Winry RockbellNo Comments

Business

U.S. Steel Acquisition Proposal Tests Biden’s Industrial Policy

U.S. Steel is an iconic example of the lost manufacturing muscle that President Biden says his economic policies will bring back to the United States.But last month, the storied-but-diminished company announced plans to be acquired by a Japanese competitor. That development has put Mr. Biden in an awkward bind as he tries to balance attempts to revitalize the nation’s industrial sector with his efforts to rebuild international alliances.Mr. Biden’s administration has expressed some discomfort with the deal and is reviewing the proposed $14.1 billion takeover bid by Japan’s Nippon Steel. The company is offering a hefty premium for U.S. Steel, which has struggled to compete against a flood of cheap foreign metal and has been weighing takeover offers for several months.The proposal has quickl...

Unity Software to Cut 25% of Its Work Force

9Jan

By Winry RockbellNo Comments

Technology

Unity Software to Cut 25% of Its Work Force

The videogame software provider Unity Software said on Monday that it would cut its work force by 25 percent, or roughly 1,800 jobs, in one of the first major tech industry layoffs this year.In a securities filing, Unity said the cuts would allow it to restructure and refocus “on its core business, and to position itself for long-term and profitable growth.” The company added in a statement that teams across the company would be affected.Last week, Xerox said it would lay off 15 percent of its 23,000-member global staff in the first quarter of 2024, an effort to further shift its focus to services and away from photocopiers.The cuts signal what could be the start of another tough year for the tech industry, which last year laid off tens of thousands of employees in the wake of challenging ...

The Super Bowl winning coach and his family who have fallen in love with Wrexham

9Jan

By Winry RockbellNo Comments

Sports

The Super Bowl winning coach and his family who have fallen in love with Wrexham

Where does a former NFL coach with a Super Bowl title to his name go on holiday for the new year? Wrexham, of course.Paul McCord and his family swapped Florida for north Wales to take in the League Two match against Barrow after becoming passionate fans of the club through the documentary Welcome to Wrexham.It meant leaving behind the Tampa sunshine and daytime temperatures of 22C (71.6F) for highs of 9C but Paul, wife Mindy — a successful coach in women’s lacrosse — and nine-year-old son LJ couldn’t have been happier.“Being here in Wrexham to celebrate the new year meant so much,” says Paul, a member of the coaching team who took the Baltimore Ravens to Super Bowl glory in 2001. He sports the commemorative ring he received after the 34-7 victory over the New York Giants.“This is our secon...

The Income Gap Jeopardizing Retirement for Millions

7Jan

By Winry RockbellNo Comments

Health

The Income Gap Jeopardizing Retirement for Millions

Monique Louvigny, an event coordinator in the San Francisco Bay Area, economizes where she can. She drives a 10-year-old Prius, brings a thermos of coffee to work instead of patronizing a place with baristas, and takes advantage of a drive-through food pantry once a month.Laid off at 57, “I kind of reinvented myself,” she said. She rebuilt her career as a freelancer, overseeing receptions and conventions for many companies and institutions, including the local de Young and Legion of Honor art museums.But her income fell to less than $30,000 last year. “It’s erratic,” she said. “In January, I have 12 days of work.” In the summer, she might have only three or four.Ms. Louvigny, 64, feels fortunate on two fronts. For health insurance, she has qualified for Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid prog...

The Mystery of the Coin That Shouldn’t Exist

7Jan

By Winry RockbellNo Comments

World

The Mystery of the Coin That Shouldn’t Exist

A decade ago, a funny money mystery fell into the hands of scientists and students at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru in Lima.The university had been acquiring 19th- and 20th-century Peruvian coins from local dealers, and graduate students in the chemistry department were analyzing the pieces for their thesis work. But one coin, a 10-cent piece known as a dinero, stood out.The dinero was marked “1899.” The problem was that official records indicated no coins of that denomination were minted in Peru that year — according to the people who made the money, the coin never existed.Most international coin catalogs don’t list 1899 dineros, said Luis Ortega, a chemist at the university. And in the rare cases that they do, there is often only a note of “counterfeit” with no further detai...

Boeing Again Under Scrutiny After Latest 737 Max Problem

7Jan

By Winry RockbellNo Comments

Business

Boeing Again Under Scrutiny After Latest 737 Max Problem

A harrowing flight over the weekend is again forcing Boeing to confront concerns over its planes, particularly the 737 Max, already one of the most scrutinized jets in history.No one was seriously injured in the episode on an Alaska Airlines flight Friday night in which a portion of a 737 Max 9 fuselage blew out in midair, exposing passengers to howling wind. The plane landed safely, but the event, on a flight from Portland, Ore., to Ontario, Calif., has spooked travelers and prompted immediate safety inspections on similar planes.Federal authorities focused attention on a mid-cabin door plug, which is used to fill the space where an emergency exit would be placed if the plane were configured with more seats.The Federal Aviation Administration ordered the inspection of 171 Max 9 planes ope...

Switching to a Flip Phone Helped Me Cut Down on My Smartphone Addiction

7Jan

By Winry RockbellNo Comments

Technology

Switching to a Flip Phone Helped Me Cut Down on My Smartphone Addiction

This time of year, everyone asks what you like least about your life, but they phrase it as, “What’s your New Year’s resolution?”My biggest regret of 2023 was my relationship to my smartphone, or my “tech appendage” as I’ve named it in my iPhone settings. My Apple Screen Time reports regularly clocked in at more than five hours a day.That’s only an hour more than the average American, but I still found it staggering to think that I spent the equivalent of January, February and half of March looking at that tiny screen (April too, if we only count waking hours).Sure, some (much?) of that time was gainfully spent on activities that enrich my life or are unavoidable: work, family text threads, reading the news and keeping up with far-flung friends. But I reached for the device more than 100 t...