There were a lot of takeaways for me in watching the film from Monday night's loss to the Seattle Seahawks. As you would imagine, there was plenty of bad and plenty of good. The most impressive facet, for me, was the performance of the defense. I thought there were standout players at all three levels. On the opening drive, after some foolish penalties put Seattle inside the 5-yard line, the way the defense responded was awesome to see, and it culminated with a goal-line stand (the second in as many weeks) and a turnover on downs. That play was made by defensive end Derek Barnett, who also made the drive-ending sack on the ensuing possession. Here are those two plays and how they came to be.
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December 02, 2020 at 10:31AM
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Duffy: Here's what I learned from the All-22 | Seahawks edition - PhiladelphiaEagles.com
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Frost clinging to cars and dying foliage. The air stings your lungs while breathing. Your eyes watering while looking up at the bright, full moon. This was a frigid morning!
Many in central Missouri woke up to temps in the teens this morning! The coldest numbers around the area was 11 degrees near Macon and 12 degrees near McBaine.
This cold is normal
Yes. Unfortunately, this cold air is normal for the time of year. After all, we are in December now. The 30-year average high for early December is 46 degrees. Average morning temps are closer to 28 degrees.
Hate to say it, but the cold, frigid air in central Missouri is somewhat typical for early December.Average high now is 46 degrees, average low is 28 #mowx@KOMUnewspic.twitter.com/yfR9ifyXtF
Over the next seven to 10 days, day-time temps will average out in the middle 40s. By next week we may reach 50 degrees! 60 degrees now becomes uncommon this time of year and 70s would be record-setting. Welcome to winter in Missouri.
Snow on Thursday morning - our thoughts
The next storm system to provide precipitation will begin to arrive Wednesday afternoon, leading to considerable cloudiness and a rain chance in the evening while temps are in the 30s to lower 40s.
Naturally, temperatures cool at night and this will be the time we watch closely for snowflakes to mix in with rain drops overnight when lows are expected near freezing.
Below is a computer model snapshot of that the radar could look like Thursday morning. There is a distinct lack of precipitation over northern Missouri due to too much dry air, a feature that will leave most without precipitation for locations north of I-70, but could induce colder temps leading to mainly snow.
Areas along and south of I-70 will have the greatest chance for rain and/or a rain/snow mix, but temps will range from 32 to 35 degrees and could lead to mainly rain.
As of now, impact to travel are not anticipated unless air temperatures become cold enough for snow to reach the ground before melting into a rain drop. Stay tuned.
The small, ferret-like mammals farmed for their valuable fur have raised alarm after contracting and mutating the coronavirus, passing it back to humans.
The virus, officials said, spread from human handler to mink, mutated, and then spread back to humans.
Denmark went so far as to cull 17 million minks in November in response to outbreaks at more than 200 mink farms. The northern region of the country, where most fur farms lie, was placed under strict lockdowns.
The Danish government spared no mink, killing infected and healthy animals, alike.
"We would rather go a step too far than take a step too little to combat Covid-19,” the country’s foreign minister Jeppe Kofod said at a press conference in early November. The country's prime minister later apologized and its food and agriculture minister stepped down when the order to kill the animals was declared illegal.
The story, however, has not ended there.
Since the mass slaughter, hundreds of mink carcasses have emerged from their graves.
Buried in shallow pits and trenches in Western Denmark, the dead minks were pushed out of the ground by gas emitted from their decomposing bodies, leading to more outrage and concern.
Mink are seen at the farm of Henrik Nordgaard Hansen and Ann-Mona Kulsoe Larsen near Naestved, Denmark on Nov. 6, 2020.Mads Claus Rasmussen / Ritzau Scanpix via Reuters file
We know Covid-19 came from an animal host, and spilled into humans recently, said Jonathan Runstadler, professor in the department of infectious disease and global health at the Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. “That would lead one to think that the virus has retained the capability of replication and infection in other animal hosts as well.”
Runstadler, who studies emerging diseases in animals, said the outbreak in minks hasn’t surprised many in his field, in part because of the conditions in which they live.
At fur farms, minks are densely packed in conditions ripe for close contact with one another. Those conditions might be ideal for shoving the small mammals into metal machines that skin them for fancy coats and hats, but they also can be breeding grounds for the coronavirus.
Runstadler said it’s hard to know if minks are unique among other species in their ability to contract and spread the virus, or if they’re just in a situation that leads to such outbreaks.
What is known, though, Ontario Veterinary College professor Scott Weese said, is that viruses don’t automatically work their way into cells. They need to stick onto something.
“We have viruses that are just human viruses or dog viruses or cat viruses,” he explained. “This virus attaches well to mink. It’s a very good match.”
It also attaches pretty well to cats, but not as well to dogs and cows, he said. Still, we don’t know much about how it works in minks or other animals, in part because scientists have been busy trying to figure out how Covid-19 affects humans. But we do know a few things that are raising eyebrows.
Minks that catch Covid-19 are sometimes spreading a mutated form of the virus back to humans.
“Transmission back to people is more a concern at a personal level,” Weese said. “Big picture, it’s not probably a big deal because few people have contact with minks.”
When outbreaks occur at farms, local health departments are mandating quarantines. In northern Wisconsin, two farms in Taylor County are currently under quarantine after recent outbreaks killed 5,500 minks. The animals can’t move on or off the farm, said Kevin Hoffman, the public information officer for Wisconsin’s Division of Animal Health.
Hoffman said the outbreaks are under control. His department is helping the farms compost the mink bodies, and there are currently no conversations in the state about mass culling.
Still, “we’re definitely concerned,” Hoffman said, adding farmers are recommended to interact with mink the way they would humans during a pandemic: wearing proper PPE and keeping their distance.
There is also some worry that a mutated form of the virus, given to humans by minks, could make it more difficult to implement an effective vaccine.
“There is still some debate over whether it's a relevant change, and there’s not a clear answer on that,” Weese said.
It’s why both Weese and Runstadler say more studying needs to be done to understand Covid-19 in minks.
“I worry we are not doing enough to monitor that situation to make sure this virus isn’t spilling into the animal populations,” Runstadler said. “We should be identifying the interfaces where humans and animals are in close and frequent enough contact that virus spillover is possible, and doing surveillance.”
At fur farms, scientists have seen Covid-19 transfer from minks to cats through mink manure, and are worried about what would happen if it gets into wildlife populations.
“The other area to be concerned about is having this virus spill into an animal host that becomes a regional or local reservoir for viral infections,” Runstadler said.
“The easiest way to get rid of a problem is to get rid of the problem,” Weese said, “but that’s not always the best way.”
Part of the problem, he explained, is that we don’t know the effects of the spread. If farms with outbreaks were isolated, it’s not known whether the virus would circulate through all the minks and eventually die out.
“We want to keep this a human virus,” Weese said. Culling is often the answer when data on animal spread is inconclusive. “When you’ve got a disease that is killing lots of people, there is less willingness to be lax with the animal side,” he said. Plus, people don’t have the close attachment to minks they might dogs. If the animal isn’t a common pet or an endangered zoo animal, there’s less outrage when it’s killed.
Thousands of killed mink being buried at the Jydske Dragonregiment's training ground at Noerre Felding near Holstebro in Denmark, after Denmark, the world's biggest producer of mink fur, had announced it would cull all of the country's minks after a mutated version of the new coronavirus was detected at its mink farms and had spread to people, on Nov. 12, 2020.Morten Stricker / Ritzau Scanpix via AFP - Getty Images file
But Denmark’s decision was not without detractors. Outrage fomented in Denmark after images and videos of botched killings and mass mink graves circulated, and farmers spoke to the hardship this would cause them.
"We have 65,000 mink. In the coming week all will be put down," Danish mink farmer Martin From told the BBC in November. “This will end our business.”
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen apologized for the killing, tearing up as she called it a “regrettable mistake” and admitting the government did not have the legal jurisdiction to cull so many animals.
News of “zombie minks,” pushed up from their shallow and quickly built graves by the gas created from their decomposing bodies, has only furthered anger.
Denmark's government wants to dig up some of the culled minks from the mass graves.
For animal rights groups, the debacle illustrates why fur farming should be eliminated.
“With or without a cull, the animals on these farms would still be violently killed at some point,” Ashley Byrne, an associate director at PETA, said. “These Covid-19 outbreaks and the grisly circumstances that have gone along with them in the mink industry are just more evidence that the fur industry needs to be finished.”
Byrne called the farms a “recipe for a disaster” in a pandemic, stressing fur farms put humans at risk, too.
But Marc Kaufman, a fur merchant in New York City who sells a lot of mink coats, said there is no reason for his industry to worry about the outbreaks.
“Water rises all,” he said. “With furs, if it’s not made one place, it’s made some place else. Demand is there, and need for the product is there. If Copenhagen doesn’t farm the skins, Russia will. If Russia doesn’t, China will. Either way there is gonna be a supply because there is demand.”
Kaufman, whose family has been in the business since 1870, said his shop is busier this year than last, and customers aren’t talking about the minks getting Covid-19.
“They put down cows when they have cow disease, they put down chickens when they have salmonella, this isn’t the first time animals have been killed for disease purposes. Things happen.” he said. “When it gets cold, people need fur.”
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December 02, 2020 at 08:28AM
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Here's why Denmark culled 17 million minks and now plans to dig up their buried bodies. The Covid mink crisis, explained - NBC News
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CNBC.com's MacKenzie Sigalos brings you the day's top business news headlines. On today's show, CNBC's Phil LeBeau breaks down the airline industry's latest attempt to woo business travelers back to the skies: Covid-19 safety tours of planes and facilities. Plus, we ask a Wall Street analyst to explain why Zoom stock dropped 15% after reporting 367% revenue growth.
U.S. air travel rose to the highest levels since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, according to data released Monday, an increase that came despite U.S. health officials' warnings against travel.
Close to 1.2 million people were screened by the Transportation Security Administration at airports on Sunday, the most since March 16, but still down about 60% from the nearly 2.9 million people TSA screened a year earlier.
With the coronavirus pandemic continuing to drive people to Zoom for work, school and family meetings, Zoom's revenue grew 367% on an annualized basis in the quarter, which ended Oct. 31, according to a statement. In the previous quarter revenue increased 355%, and in the quarter before that, revenue had risen 169%.
Zoom's gross margin declined to 66.7% from 67.3% in the previous quarter. During the quarter Zoom dealt with a higher mix of free users, including students and teachers who logged in as school resumed.
If you're cashing in some of your Bitcoin this year, the IRS wants to know about it.
On Monday, the cryptocurrency's value hit new heights, surging beyond $19,800 for a unit of Bitcoin. The asset's appreciation has skyrocketed this year, rising by 160% in 2020.
Understand that if you want to take a few of those holdings off the table, you'll need to share that information when you file your individual income tax return next spring.
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December 02, 2020 at 06:52AM
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Airlines are begging business travelers to return — here's their pitch: CNBC After Hours - CNBC
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