Unpredictable Fortunetellers
Sat 00:50 | Re-run : Sat 07:45 (Seoul, UTC+9)
Program Info.
Fortune teller Seo Janghoon and child monk Lee Su-Geun give solutions
to their guests that work like a charm.
Friday, May 21, 2021
How N. Korea Deals with Waste
# Inside North Korea l 2021-05-20
Environmental issues have become more important than ever before, with the ever-increasing amount of trash giving the entire world a big headache. In South Korea, local governments are staging various programs and campaigns to reduce waste. Today, we’ll learn about how North Korea deals with the country’s waste from Professor Jeong Eun Chan at the National Institute for Unification Education.
After resettling in South Korea, I was surprised quite often to see such a huge amount of trash. In general, the amount of industrial waste increases in line with the mass production system, overpackaging and the emergence of containers made of new and different materials. North Korean industries aren’t as advanced as South Korean ones, so the amount of industrial waste in North Korea is not as large as South Korea’s.
While South Korea uses gas, most local regions in North Korea depend on coal or coal briquettes. Brown coal is used in North Hamgyong Province. Coal briquette ash and coal cinders are included in waste.
In South Korea, the concept of separating the recyclables from the garbage appeared in the early 1990s and the volume-based waste disposal system went into effect in 1995. Public awareness of waste recycling has since grown in the country, and the separated waste is kept clean on the whole. How do North Korean people dispose of trash?
In North Korea, neighborhood units called inminban in each region separate waste or recycle it at a public dumpsite. As the smallest neighborhood watch program, one inminban consists of 20 to 30 households. In general, ten inminban units or 300 households use a single public dumpsite. They’re supposed to pay for cargo trucks and gasoline. That means each household shares the cost of trash disposal, in a similar way to waste disposal in South Korea.
The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the so-called “contactless” consumption significantly, with the amount of delivery goods shooting up. As a result, single-use plastic containers and other types of plastic waste are piling up, causing another problem. We can’t help but wonder if North Koreans also use a lot of disposable items.
Waste from disposable products can be found in North Korea, too. But single-use items in the North are not as diverse as those in South Korea and packaging is also simpler. When ordering food in the North, some people bring their own dishes to restaurants and take food home, while some restaurants deliver food to customers and later take back their dishes. In local regions, eggs are mostly wrapped in straw. While plastic bags and containers are found in big cities, many consumers use bags made of cloth or natural material.
North Korea has long suffered from a shortage of raw materials, due to strong and continuing international sanctions. Worse yet, the pandemic forced North Korea to shut down its borders, making raw materials even scarcer in the country.
The Supreme People’s Assembly adopted a law concerning recycling in April last year, in an effort to tackle economic difficulties through self-reliance. Accordingly, the country has been carrying out an intensive recycling program.
Recycling in North Korea means collecting and reusing waste. China accounts for 95 percent of North Korea’s foreign trade. But bilateral border trade has been blocked, making it impossible for North Korea to import raw materials from China. To produce goods locally and increase production using recyclable resources, North Korea adopted the law on recycling. The country mobilizes all recyclables available, including paper, scrap metal, plastic waste, glass and even shoe soles. After the enactment of the recycling law, North Korea created a recycling department within the Ministry of Light Industry and invested considerable resources in research of recycling-related technology. North Korea is said to push for a project of recycling urban waste in Pyongyang.
The problem is how to procure waste for recycling. Since the recycling law came into effect in North Korea, local residents have had to collect waste to meet their quotas.
Households, workplaces and schools have to meet their waste collection quotas. They should fulfill their task even by picking up trash on the streets. But that may still not be enough. So, a new service has recently appeared. If a person pays certain fees, the service submits waste in place of the person. North Korea also operates stores that purchase waste, including empty bottles, or exchange waste with daily necessities. In doing so, the country encourages the people to actively participate in the recycling program.
For the recycling project in North Korea, the Environment Research Institution at the State Academy of Sciences, the Chemistry Department at Kim Il Sung University, the Heat Engineering Faculty at Kim Chaek University of Technology and the Ministry of Light Industry have been developing new waste processing technology. Lately, the country set up science and technology distribution centers in each unit to develop recycling technology on their own.
North Korean media outlets have introduced successful recycling examples based on creative ideas in order to promote the recycling law.
North Korea uses waste industrial oil to produce paint and makes hats from recycled cloth. It also produces protein using waste water generated in the process of reeling silk from cocoons. The country uses various methods to turn industrial waste into useful resources. For example, part of a toothpaste dispenser can be separated to make a new toothpaste tube, while by-products from machine factories can be used to produce paving blocks.
But North Korea still has to import some raw materials, which cannot be replaced with recycled resources. In this sense, the country’s recycling project has limitations. It tries to use recycling as a means of developing the economy but the impact is insignificant.
North Korea carries out the recycling campaign for the purpose of economic and industrial development, rather than in light of environmental protection. Clearly, there are limitations for the country to find a comprehensive solution to the shortage of raw materials simply through recycling.
Sinovac outpaces Western jabs in trials
JAKARTA. – Sinovac Biotech Ltd’s vaccine is wiping out Covid-19 among health workers in Indonesia, an encouraging sign for the dozens of developing countries reliant on the controversial Chinese shot, which performed far worse than Western vaccines in clinical trials.
Indonesia tracked 128 290 health workers in capital city Jakarta from January to March and found that the vaccine protected 98 percent of them from death and 96 percent from hospitalization as soon as seven days after the second dose, Pandji Dhewantara, a Health Ministry official who oversaw the study, said in a Wednesday press conference.
Dhewantara also said that 94 percent of the workers had been protected against symptomatic infection – an extraordinary result that goes beyond what was measured in the shot’s numerous clinical trials. Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin earlier revealed a smaller version of the study involving 25 374 people in a Tuesday interview that had the same effectiveness data for hospitalisation and infection. Protection against death was 100 percent in the smaller group.
“We see a very, very drastic drop,” in hospitalizations and deaths among medical workers, Sadikin said. It’s not known what strain of the coronavirus Sinovac’s shot worked against in Indonesia, but the country has not flagged any major outbreaks driven by variants of concern.
A spokesman for Sinovac in Beijing said the company cannot comment on the Indonesian study until it acquires more details.
The Indonesian study compared vaccinated against non-vaccinated people to derive the estimated effectiveness. The median age of the participants is 31 years old.
In a separate interview, Sinovac’s chief executive officer Yin Weidong defended the disparity in clinical data around the shot, and said there was growing evidence CoronaVac is performing better when applied in the real world.
But the real-world examples also show that the Sinovac shot’s ability to quell outbreaks requires the vast majority of people to be vaccinated, a scenario that developing countries with poor health infrastructure and limited access to shots cannot reach quickly. In the Indonesian health worker study, and another in a Brazilian town of 45 000 people called Serrana, nearly 100% of people studied were fully vaccinated, with serious illness and deaths dropping after they were inoculated.
The mRNA shot developed by BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc. has been shown to be over 90 percent effective in preventing transmission in Israel.
While non-mRNA vaccines are unlikely to be that effective in preventing transmission, the growing body of evidence that Sinovac’s shot works is a boon to China’s mission of supplying the developing world in a bid to increase its influence and standing. It’s also somewhat of a vindication amid criticism that Chinese vaccine developers disclosed less data and were less transparent about severe adverse events compared with western companies. – Bloomberg.
JAKARTA. – Sinovac Biotech Ltd’s vaccine is wiping out Covid-19 among health workers in Indonesia, an encouraging sign for the dozens of developing countries reliant on the controversial Chinese shot, which performed far worse than Western vaccines in clinical trials.
Indonesia tracked 128 290 health workers in capital city Jakarta from January to March and found that the vaccine protected 98 percent of them from death and 96 percent from hospitalization as soon as seven days after the second dose, Pandji Dhewantara, a Health Ministry official who oversaw the study, said in a Wednesday press conference.
Dhewantara also said that 94 percent of the workers had been protected against symptomatic infection – an extraordinary result that goes beyond what was measured in the shot’s numerous clinical trials. Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin earlier revealed a smaller version of the study involving 25 374 people in a Tuesday interview that had the same effectiveness data for hospitalisation and infection. Protection against death was 100 percent in the smaller group.
“We see a very, very drastic drop,” in hospitalizations and deaths among medical workers, Sadikin said. It’s not known what strain of the coronavirus Sinovac’s shot worked against in Indonesia, but the country has not flagged any major outbreaks driven by variants of concern.
A spokesman for Sinovac in Beijing said the company cannot comment on the Indonesian study until it acquires more details.
The Indonesian study compared vaccinated against non-vaccinated people to derive the estimated effectiveness. The median age of the participants is 31 years old.
In a separate interview, Sinovac’s chief executive officer Yin Weidong defended the disparity in clinical data around the shot, and said there was growing evidence CoronaVac is performing better when applied in the real world.
But the real-world examples also show that the Sinovac shot’s ability to quell outbreaks requires the vast majority of people to be vaccinated, a scenario that developing countries with poor health infrastructure and limited access to shots cannot reach quickly. In the Indonesian health worker study, and another in a Brazilian town of 45 000 people called Serrana, nearly 100% of people studied were fully vaccinated, with serious illness and deaths dropping after they were inoculated.
The mRNA shot developed by BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc. has been shown to be over 90 percent effective in preventing transmission in Israel.
While non-mRNA vaccines are unlikely to be that effective in preventing transmission, the growing body of evidence that Sinovac’s shot works is a boon to China’s mission of supplying the developing world in a bid to increase its influence and standing. It’s also somewhat of a vindication amid criticism that Chinese vaccine developers disclosed less data and were less transparent about severe adverse events compared with western companies. – Bloomberg.
Exactly When You Can See This Week’s ‘Super Flower Blood Moon’ Eclipse From Every U.S. State
Jamie Carter
Senior Contributor
Science
I inspire people to go stargazing, watch the Moon, enjoy the night sky
The month’s marquee astronomical event is a total lunar eclipse—a "Blood Moon"—on May 26, 2021. GETTY
Will you see 2021’s “Blood Moon” total lunar eclipse? That depends on where you are on the planet—and even within North America. That’s because the full “Flower Moon”—also technically 2021’s biggest, brightest and best “supermoon”—will set in North America just as it’s about to go red.
For the east coast and much of the midwest U.S. that’s a huge shame, though it will still be possible to see at least some of the early stages of this five-act total lunar eclipse from everywhere in the U.S.
Here’s precisely what you’ll see from where you are—and exactly when to look at the “Super Flower Blood Moon Eclipse” from everywhere in the U.S.
TL;DR: Totality—when the full Moon turns reddish for 14 minutes 30 seconds—will be visible from 15 U.S. states as well as parts of western Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska, with the West Coast getting the best views of the “Blood Moon” at 4:11-4:25 a.m. on Wednesday, May 26, 2021. Hawaii and Alaska will get the best views. But many central U.S. states will also see a partial lunar eclipse as the full Moon becomes a weird-looking “Half-Blood Moon.” The east coast, however, will see little more than the full Moon drop in brightness before it sets.
PROMOTED
MORE FROM FORBESWhen Is The Next Full Moon?
2. The full Moon getting increasingly red as it enters Earth’s inner shadow (partial lunar eclipse) from 09:44-11:11 UTC (1 hour 27 minutes – full Moon begins to turn reddish).
3. The full Moon in totality—100% red (total lunar eclipse) from 11:11-11:25 UTC (14 minutes 30 seconds – full Moon is reddish).
4. The full Moon gradually losing its redness (partial lunar eclipse) from 11:25-12:52 UTC (1 hour 27 minutes – full Moon begins to turn grey).
5.The full Moon leaving Earth’s outer shadow and turning a dull grey (penumbral lunar eclipse) from 12:52-13:49 UTC (57 minutes – full Moon remains muted in brightness).
As you can see it’s acts 2 and 3 that are most worth observing.
It’s a global event, so all you have to do is convert UTC to you local timezone. You can do that here, but it’s better to enter your location here to get an exact observing schedule for your location because the various stages of the eclipse may happen after the Moon has set in the west.
Take a look at this map, below, and it should now all make sense.
You can see that the Moon sets midway across the country just as totality is upon us. Totality will be visible from 11 U.S. states west of that “moonset line,” including parts of western Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. Everyone east will miss out on a red Moon, but some will be able to see the full Moon turning red before it sets.
Below the map are the times for every U.S. state, what you’ll see, and where to look in the sky. Note that most of the U.S. will need a clear view of the southwest horizon to see a “red moon” setting:
Total lunar eclipse visibility on May 26, 2021. JAMIE CARTER/MAP DATA FROM XAVIER JUBIER
Here’s a useful interactive Google Map of the total lunar eclipse so you can see how high above the horizon each phase is (kudos and thanks goes to French eclipse-chaser and cartographer Xavier Jubier).
Where to see the ‘Super Flower Blood Moon’ total lunar eclipse on May 26, 2021 from every U.S. state capital
The further west you go the more of a partially eclipsed “Blood Mon” you’ll see. Click on the link for each U.S. state capital to get the exact schedule—the time of “maximum” being the very best view of a “red Moon” from that location.
It’s a global event so the times won’t change for the phases, but how high above the horizon the Moon is will change, so enter your exact location for the full details.
Alabama (AL) - Montgomery (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Alaska (AK) - Juneau (entire eclipse visible)
Arizona (AZ) - Phoenix (entire eclipse visible)
Arkansas (AR) - Little Rock (penumbral and partial phases visible)
California (CA) - Sacramento (entire eclipse visible)
Colorado (CO) - Denver (entire eclipse visible)
Connecticut (CT) - Hartford (penumbral phase only visible)
Delaware (DE) - Dover (penumbral phase only visible)
District of Columbia (DC) - Washington (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Florida (FL) - Tallahassee (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Georgia (GA) - Atlanta (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Hawaii (HI) - Honolulu (entire eclipse visible)
Idaho (ID) - Boise (entire eclipse visible)
Illinois (IL) - Springfield (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Indiana (IN) - Indianapolis (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Iowa (IA) - Des Moines (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Kansas (KS) - Topeka (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Kentucky (KY) - Frankfort (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Louisiana (LA) - Baton Rouge (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Maine (ME) - Augusta (penumbral phase only visible)
Maryland (MD) - Annapolis (penumbral phase only visible)
Massachusetts (MA) - Boston (penumbral phase only visible)
Michigan (MI) - Lansing (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Minnesota (MN) - St. Paul (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Mississippi (MS) - Jackson (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Missouri (MO) - Jefferson City (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Montana (MT) - Helena (entire eclipse visible)
Nebraska (NE) - Lincoln (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Nevada (NV) - Carson City (entire eclipse visible)
New Hampshire (NH) - Concord (penumbral phase only visible)
New Jersey (NJ) - Trenton (penumbral phase only visible)
New Mexico (NM) - Santa Fe (entire eclipse visible)
New York (NY) - Albany (penumbral phase only visible)
North Carolina (NC) - Raleigh (penumbral and partial phases visible)
North Dakota (ND) - Bismarck (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Ohio (OH) - Columbus (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Oklahoma (OK) - Oklahoma City (entire eclipse visible)
Oregon (OR) - Salem (entire eclipse visible)
Pennsylvania (PA) - Harrisburg (penumbral phase only visible)
Rhode Island (RI) - Providence (penumbral phase only visible)
South Carolina (SC) - Columbia (penumbral and partial phases visible)
South Dakota (SD) - Pierre (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Tennessee (TN) - Nashville (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Texas (TX) - Austin (entire eclipse visible)
Utah (UT) - Salt Lake City (entire eclipse visible)
Vermont (VT) - Montpelier (penumbral phase only visible)
Virginia (VA) - Richmond (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Washington (WA) - Olympia (entire eclipse visible)
West Virginia (WV) - Charleston (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Wisconsin (WI) - Madison (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Wyoming (WY) - Cheyenne (entire eclipse visible)
A total lunar eclipse is really five different phases—penumbral partial, total, penumbral and then ... [+] GETTY
Even for the western U.S. it’s going to be quite tricky to see the “Blood Moon,” as this summary shows
Very low in the southwestern sky – Texas: 6:11-6:25 a.m. on Wednesday, May 26, 2021
Low in the southwestern sky – New Mexico, Colorado, Montana, Idaho and Utah: 5:11-5:25 a.m. on Wednesday, May 26, 2021
Higher in the southwestern sky – Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington: 4:11-4:25 a.m. on Wednesday, May 26, 2021
If you can choose where to go to get the best view of the “Blood Moon?” Hawaii gets the best view followed by Alaska and coastal California.
Disclaimer: Jamie Carter is Editor of WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
Jamie Carter
I'm an experienced science, technology and travel journalist and stargazer writing about exploring the night sky, solar and lunar eclipses, moon-gazing, astro-travel, astronomy and space exploration. I'm the editor of WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com and the author of "A Stargazing Program for Beginners: A Pocket Field Guide" (Springer, 2015), as well as many eclipse-chasing guides.
Jamie Carter
Senior Contributor
Science
I inspire people to go stargazing, watch the Moon, enjoy the night sky
The month’s marquee astronomical event is a total lunar eclipse—a "Blood Moon"—on May 26, 2021. GETTY
Will you see 2021’s “Blood Moon” total lunar eclipse? That depends on where you are on the planet—and even within North America. That’s because the full “Flower Moon”—also technically 2021’s biggest, brightest and best “supermoon”—will set in North America just as it’s about to go red.
For the east coast and much of the midwest U.S. that’s a huge shame, though it will still be possible to see at least some of the early stages of this five-act total lunar eclipse from everywhere in the U.S.
Here’s precisely what you’ll see from where you are—and exactly when to look at the “Super Flower Blood Moon Eclipse” from everywhere in the U.S.
TL;DR: Totality—when the full Moon turns reddish for 14 minutes 30 seconds—will be visible from 15 U.S. states as well as parts of western Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska, with the West Coast getting the best views of the “Blood Moon” at 4:11-4:25 a.m. on Wednesday, May 26, 2021. Hawaii and Alaska will get the best views. But many central U.S. states will also see a partial lunar eclipse as the full Moon becomes a weird-looking “Half-Blood Moon.” The east coast, however, will see little more than the full Moon drop in brightness before it sets.
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3 Reasons Why May 2021's 'Super Flower Blood Moon' Eclipse Will Be A Very Big DealBy Jamie Carter
Why ‘West is best’ for the ‘Blood Moon
Those in Hawaii and on the West Coast will see everything. By that I mean all FIVE phases of the total lunar eclipse will be visible at these times in global Universal Time (UTC), which are:
1. The full Moon entering Earth’s outer shadow and turning a dull grey (penumbral lunar eclipse) from 08:47-09:44 UTC (57 minutes – full Moon drops in brightness).
Why ‘West is best’ for the ‘Blood Moon
Those in Hawaii and on the West Coast will see everything. By that I mean all FIVE phases of the total lunar eclipse will be visible at these times in global Universal Time (UTC), which are:
1. The full Moon entering Earth’s outer shadow and turning a dull grey (penumbral lunar eclipse) from 08:47-09:44 UTC (57 minutes – full Moon drops in brightness).
2. The full Moon getting increasingly red as it enters Earth’s inner shadow (partial lunar eclipse) from 09:44-11:11 UTC (1 hour 27 minutes – full Moon begins to turn reddish).
3. The full Moon in totality—100% red (total lunar eclipse) from 11:11-11:25 UTC (14 minutes 30 seconds – full Moon is reddish).
4. The full Moon gradually losing its redness (partial lunar eclipse) from 11:25-12:52 UTC (1 hour 27 minutes – full Moon begins to turn grey).
5.The full Moon leaving Earth’s outer shadow and turning a dull grey (penumbral lunar eclipse) from 12:52-13:49 UTC (57 minutes – full Moon remains muted in brightness).
As you can see it’s acts 2 and 3 that are most worth observing.
It’s a global event, so all you have to do is convert UTC to you local timezone. You can do that here, but it’s better to enter your location here to get an exact observing schedule for your location because the various stages of the eclipse may happen after the Moon has set in the west.
Take a look at this map, below, and it should now all make sense.
You can see that the Moon sets midway across the country just as totality is upon us. Totality will be visible from 11 U.S. states west of that “moonset line,” including parts of western Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. Everyone east will miss out on a red Moon, but some will be able to see the full Moon turning red before it sets.
Below the map are the times for every U.S. state, what you’ll see, and where to look in the sky. Note that most of the U.S. will need a clear view of the southwest horizon to see a “red moon” setting:
Total lunar eclipse visibility on May 26, 2021. JAMIE CARTER/MAP DATA FROM XAVIER JUBIER
Here’s a useful interactive Google Map of the total lunar eclipse so you can see how high above the horizon each phase is (kudos and thanks goes to French eclipse-chaser and cartographer Xavier Jubier).
Where to see the ‘Super Flower Blood Moon’ total lunar eclipse on May 26, 2021 from every U.S. state capital
The further west you go the more of a partially eclipsed “Blood Mon” you’ll see. Click on the link for each U.S. state capital to get the exact schedule—the time of “maximum” being the very best view of a “red Moon” from that location.
It’s a global event so the times won’t change for the phases, but how high above the horizon the Moon is will change, so enter your exact location for the full details.
Alabama (AL) - Montgomery (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Alaska (AK) - Juneau (entire eclipse visible)
Arizona (AZ) - Phoenix (entire eclipse visible)
Arkansas (AR) - Little Rock (penumbral and partial phases visible)
California (CA) - Sacramento (entire eclipse visible)
Colorado (CO) - Denver (entire eclipse visible)
Connecticut (CT) - Hartford (penumbral phase only visible)
Delaware (DE) - Dover (penumbral phase only visible)
District of Columbia (DC) - Washington (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Florida (FL) - Tallahassee (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Georgia (GA) - Atlanta (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Hawaii (HI) - Honolulu (entire eclipse visible)
Idaho (ID) - Boise (entire eclipse visible)
Illinois (IL) - Springfield (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Indiana (IN) - Indianapolis (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Iowa (IA) - Des Moines (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Kansas (KS) - Topeka (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Kentucky (KY) - Frankfort (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Louisiana (LA) - Baton Rouge (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Maine (ME) - Augusta (penumbral phase only visible)
Maryland (MD) - Annapolis (penumbral phase only visible)
Massachusetts (MA) - Boston (penumbral phase only visible)
Michigan (MI) - Lansing (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Minnesota (MN) - St. Paul (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Mississippi (MS) - Jackson (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Missouri (MO) - Jefferson City (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Montana (MT) - Helena (entire eclipse visible)
Nebraska (NE) - Lincoln (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Nevada (NV) - Carson City (entire eclipse visible)
New Hampshire (NH) - Concord (penumbral phase only visible)
New Jersey (NJ) - Trenton (penumbral phase only visible)
New Mexico (NM) - Santa Fe (entire eclipse visible)
New York (NY) - Albany (penumbral phase only visible)
North Carolina (NC) - Raleigh (penumbral and partial phases visible)
North Dakota (ND) - Bismarck (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Ohio (OH) - Columbus (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Oklahoma (OK) - Oklahoma City (entire eclipse visible)
Oregon (OR) - Salem (entire eclipse visible)
Pennsylvania (PA) - Harrisburg (penumbral phase only visible)
Rhode Island (RI) - Providence (penumbral phase only visible)
South Carolina (SC) - Columbia (penumbral and partial phases visible)
South Dakota (SD) - Pierre (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Tennessee (TN) - Nashville (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Texas (TX) - Austin (entire eclipse visible)
Utah (UT) - Salt Lake City (entire eclipse visible)
Vermont (VT) - Montpelier (penumbral phase only visible)
Virginia (VA) - Richmond (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Washington (WA) - Olympia (entire eclipse visible)
West Virginia (WV) - Charleston (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Wisconsin (WI) - Madison (penumbral and partial phases visible)
Wyoming (WY) - Cheyenne (entire eclipse visible)
A total lunar eclipse is really five different phases—penumbral partial, total, penumbral and then ... [+] GETTY
Even for the western U.S. it’s going to be quite tricky to see the “Blood Moon,” as this summary shows
Very low in the southwestern sky – Texas: 6:11-6:25 a.m. on Wednesday, May 26, 2021
Low in the southwestern sky – New Mexico, Colorado, Montana, Idaho and Utah: 5:11-5:25 a.m. on Wednesday, May 26, 2021
Higher in the southwestern sky – Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington: 4:11-4:25 a.m. on Wednesday, May 26, 2021
If you can choose where to go to get the best view of the “Blood Moon?” Hawaii gets the best view followed by Alaska and coastal California.
Disclaimer: Jamie Carter is Editor of WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
Jamie Carter
I'm an experienced science, technology and travel journalist and stargazer writing about exploring the night sky, solar and lunar eclipses, moon-gazing, astro-travel, astronomy and space exploration. I'm the editor of WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com and the author of "A Stargazing Program for Beginners: A Pocket Field Guide" (Springer, 2015), as well as many eclipse-chasing guides.
Tardigrades are almost bulletproof, scientists discover
Mike Wehner BGR
Mike Wehner BGR
© Provided by BGR tardigrades moon
Tardigrades — those microscopic organisms that have been found to withstand extreme radiation, the vacuum of space, and temperatures that would turn most other organisms into literal popsicles — are a true wonder of nature. They seem to be virtually indestructible, and in a highly-anticipated 2019 mission by Israel, they were sent to the Moon. Unfortunately for the country and scientists working on the mission, the Moon lander crashed and was completely destroyed. The tardigrades, however, well we aren’t quite sure what happened to them, but scientists are eager to find out.
Tardigrades, also called “water bears,” are so ridiculously hardy that researchers think they may have survived the high-speed collision between the lander and the Moon’s surface. To test that theory, a team led by a Ph.D. student from London’s Queen Mary University conceived of an experiment where the microscopic creatures would be shot out of a “science gun,” as it were.
The gun is unlike a conventional firearm in that it uses a two-stage system to propel projectiles at extremely high speeds. The projectiles reach speeds greater than bullets fire from a typical gun, and the extreme impact of the projectiles against a target is a better simulation for the kind of extremes the tardigrades might have endured.
Before being fired from the gun, the tardigrades were subjected to freezing temperatures. This triggered a hibernation state that reduces their metabolism to a tiny fraction of what it would be under normal conditions. Then, the tardigrades were loaded into nylon bullets in groups of 2 to 4. The researchers fired those bullets at sand targets a short distance away and observed whether or not the tiny creatures survived the intense pressure changes of the initial shot as well as impact with the target.
Tardigrades — those microscopic organisms that have been found to withstand extreme radiation, the vacuum of space, and temperatures that would turn most other organisms into literal popsicles — are a true wonder of nature. They seem to be virtually indestructible, and in a highly-anticipated 2019 mission by Israel, they were sent to the Moon. Unfortunately for the country and scientists working on the mission, the Moon lander crashed and was completely destroyed. The tardigrades, however, well we aren’t quite sure what happened to them, but scientists are eager to find out.
Tardigrades, also called “water bears,” are so ridiculously hardy that researchers think they may have survived the high-speed collision between the lander and the Moon’s surface. To test that theory, a team led by a Ph.D. student from London’s Queen Mary University conceived of an experiment where the microscopic creatures would be shot out of a “science gun,” as it were.
The gun is unlike a conventional firearm in that it uses a two-stage system to propel projectiles at extremely high speeds. The projectiles reach speeds greater than bullets fire from a typical gun, and the extreme impact of the projectiles against a target is a better simulation for the kind of extremes the tardigrades might have endured.
Before being fired from the gun, the tardigrades were subjected to freezing temperatures. This triggered a hibernation state that reduces their metabolism to a tiny fraction of what it would be under normal conditions. Then, the tardigrades were loaded into nylon bullets in groups of 2 to 4. The researchers fired those bullets at sand targets a short distance away and observed whether or not the tiny creatures survived the intense pressure changes of the initial shot as well as impact with the target.
The scientists shot the projectiles at different speeds, gradually increasing the velocity with each subsequent shot. What they found was that tardigrades are indeed capable of enduring a bullet impact, but only up to a point. The tardigrades were capable of enduring shots of up to roughly 900 meters per second. To put that in perspective, a 9mm handgun round can be expected to travel at speeds of around 400 meters per second. Meanwhile, most 5.56x45mm rounds fired from a rifle will travel somewhere between 850 and 900 meters per second.
So, the tardigrades were capable of enduring impacts akin to that of a rifle round, which is pretty impressive. Unfortunately for anyone who likes to imagine the tiny water bears surviving their brush with death on the surface of the Moon, the impact of the lander with the lunar surface would have subjected the creatures to a shock of much greater intensity. The researchers feel comfortable in stating that none of the tardigrades could have survived the impact. Bummer.
So, the tardigrades were capable of enduring impacts akin to that of a rifle round, which is pretty impressive. Unfortunately for anyone who likes to imagine the tiny water bears surviving their brush with death on the surface of the Moon, the impact of the lander with the lunar surface would have subjected the creatures to a shock of much greater intensity. The researchers feel comfortable in stating that none of the tardigrades could have survived the impact. Bummer.
Ancient Roman bath complex found on beach in southern Spain
By Zamira Rahim and Vasco Cotovio, CNN
A well-preserved ancient Roman bath complex has emerged from the sands of a beach in southern Spain
By Zamira Rahim and Vasco Cotovio, CNN
A well-preserved ancient Roman bath complex has emerged from the sands of a beach in southern Spain
.© Universidad de Cádiz - LABAP Facade of one of the rooms of the Roman structure
The researchers from the University of Cádiz (UCA) found well-preserved Roman baths with walls more than 13 feet high at the Caños de Meca beach in Spain's Andalusia region, the university said in a statement.
Only two rooms have been excavated so far, with most of the site remaining untouched. UCA said the site is estimated to spread over 2.5 acres.
The walls of the two excavated rooms had been covered by sand "after their abandonment in Late Antiquity," UCA said.
Some medieval ceramics from the 12th and 13th centuries were also found near the baths.
At a separate UCA excavation on Andalusia's Cape Trafalgar, at least seven Roman salting pools -- used to preserve food -- were found, with depths ranging from 5 feet to 6.5 feet.
UCA said some "remains of Roman preserves" were found in two of the pools.
As well as the Roman artifacts, they also discovered an intact prehistoric tomb at the Cape Trafalgar site.
The university said the burial site was 4,000 years old and contained the remains of several individuals.
"It is wonderful," Patricia del Pozo, Andalusia's culture minister, said, adding that the excavations showed that the region was "an incredibly attractive area for all types of civilizations, which endows us with incredible history."
Last year, authorities inadvertently discovered a collection of ancient Roman containers, called amphorae, while inspecting a seafood store in Alicante, eastern Spain.
The officers brought the finds to the attention of Spain's Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, which determined that the containers were likely from the Roman Empire and could date back to the first century.
The researchers from the University of Cádiz (UCA) found well-preserved Roman baths with walls more than 13 feet high at the Caños de Meca beach in Spain's Andalusia region, the university said in a statement.
Only two rooms have been excavated so far, with most of the site remaining untouched. UCA said the site is estimated to spread over 2.5 acres.
The walls of the two excavated rooms had been covered by sand "after their abandonment in Late Antiquity," UCA said.
Some medieval ceramics from the 12th and 13th centuries were also found near the baths.
At a separate UCA excavation on Andalusia's Cape Trafalgar, at least seven Roman salting pools -- used to preserve food -- were found, with depths ranging from 5 feet to 6.5 feet.
UCA said some "remains of Roman preserves" were found in two of the pools.
As well as the Roman artifacts, they also discovered an intact prehistoric tomb at the Cape Trafalgar site.
The university said the burial site was 4,000 years old and contained the remains of several individuals.
"It is wonderful," Patricia del Pozo, Andalusia's culture minister, said, adding that the excavations showed that the region was "an incredibly attractive area for all types of civilizations, which endows us with incredible history."
Last year, authorities inadvertently discovered a collection of ancient Roman containers, called amphorae, while inspecting a seafood store in Alicante, eastern Spain.
The officers brought the finds to the attention of Spain's Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, which determined that the containers were likely from the Roman Empire and could date back to the first century.
© Universidad de Cádiz - LABAP An aerial view of the Roman ruins discovered at Cape Trafalgar
.
© Universidad de Cádiz - LABAP The Cape Trafalgar dig uncovered at least seven pools used for preserving food.
Village of the dammed: Submerged Italian community re-emerges after 71 years
Duration: 01:55
The Italian village of Curon has resurfaced from under the water for the first time since 1950. Mike Drolet explains how the community disappeared, then returned, and Canada has its own versions of Curon.
Duration: 01:55
The Italian village of Curon has resurfaced from under the water for the first time since 1950. Mike Drolet explains how the community disappeared, then returned, and Canada has its own versions of Curon.
SEE MURDER OF THE DEAD
Murder of the Dead by Amadeo Bordiga 1951
Like Maramaldo, capitalism, oppressor of the living, is the murderer also of the dead: “But as soon as people, whose production still moves within the lower forms of slave-labour, corvée-labour, etc., are drawn into the whirlpool of an international market dominated by the capitalist mode of production, the sale of their products for export becoming their principal interest, the civilised …
Halliburton shareholders vote against executive compensation plan
By Liz Hampton and Arunima Kumar
By Liz Hampton and Arunima Kumar
© Reuters/Brendan McDermid FILE PHOTO: Halliburton's president and CEO Jeff Miller, tours the floor at the NYSE in New York
(Reuters) -Halliburton Co's shareholders voted against the oilfield services provider's proposed executive compensation plan in an advisory motion, the company said on Thursday.
Halliburton Chief Executive Officer Jeff Miller said the company was "disappointed by the shareholder advisory vote" and that it had led its peers in shareholder returns despite challenges stemming from the coronavirus pandemic and a supply and demand imbalance in oil markets.
Halliburton did not provide vote tallies. The company revised its executive compensation program in 2019 and received 91% approval of the plan from shareholders last year.
Shares of Halliburton are up about 18% year-to-date to $22.38 as oilfield activity has slowly returned amid higher prices.
Miller and other executives pledged to cut salaries last year after the pandemic crippled the oil market and set off a wave of layoffs in the industry.
Although Miller cut his base salary by $200,000 between 2019 and 2020, he received some $9.7 million in stock awards, versus $3.6 million the previous year. Overall, his compensation was 293 times the median compensation for Halliburton employees, the company said in an April filing.
Chief Financial Officer Lance Loeffler's base salary jumped from $650,000 to $709,000 between 2019 and 2020, and his earnings were also bolstered by stock awards.
Halliburton in April said the sharp increase in 2020 compensation was due to changes to the plan and reporting.
Companies are not required to comply with advisory votes.
(Reporting by Arunima Kumar in Bengaluru and Liz Hampton in Denver; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Cynthia Osterman)
(Reuters) -Halliburton Co's shareholders voted against the oilfield services provider's proposed executive compensation plan in an advisory motion, the company said on Thursday.
Halliburton Chief Executive Officer Jeff Miller said the company was "disappointed by the shareholder advisory vote" and that it had led its peers in shareholder returns despite challenges stemming from the coronavirus pandemic and a supply and demand imbalance in oil markets.
Halliburton did not provide vote tallies. The company revised its executive compensation program in 2019 and received 91% approval of the plan from shareholders last year.
Shares of Halliburton are up about 18% year-to-date to $22.38 as oilfield activity has slowly returned amid higher prices.
Miller and other executives pledged to cut salaries last year after the pandemic crippled the oil market and set off a wave of layoffs in the industry.
Although Miller cut his base salary by $200,000 between 2019 and 2020, he received some $9.7 million in stock awards, versus $3.6 million the previous year. Overall, his compensation was 293 times the median compensation for Halliburton employees, the company said in an April filing.
Chief Financial Officer Lance Loeffler's base salary jumped from $650,000 to $709,000 between 2019 and 2020, and his earnings were also bolstered by stock awards.
Halliburton in April said the sharp increase in 2020 compensation was due to changes to the plan and reporting.
Companies are not required to comply with advisory votes.
(Reporting by Arunima Kumar in Bengaluru and Liz Hampton in Denver; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Cynthia Osterman)
How a lack of insurance is a growing threat to the oilsands
Kyle Bakx
CBC
20/5/2021
© Kyle Bakx/CBC Oilsands companies are finding it more difficult to insure their facilities in Northern Alberta, with insurers citing both the financial and climate risk of fossil fuel industries and the oilsands in particular.
The fight to stop the Trans Mountain oil expansion pipeline from Alberta to Canada's West Coast was back before the national regulator recently, with the Crown corporation behind the project seeking to protect the names of the insurance companies backing the controversial development.
Trans Mountain made the proposal after demonstrators in Vancouver blocked the entrances of buildings housing insurance companies to demand they stop insuring the pipeline, resulting in four arrests.
The Canada Energy Regulator ultimately sided with the pipeline builders, allowing them to keep the insurers' names secret from the public.
But opponents could only delight at their impact, with the Crown corporation making it clear in its application how pressure over the years by environmentalists was making it harder and more expensive to find enough insurance, threatening the viability of the project.
The dispute even made international headlines.
Trans Mountain isn't alone as natural resource companies are increasingly struggling to obtain adequate coverage amid rising prices and fewer numbers of insurers willing to work with the fossil fuel industry, especially pipeline and oilsands companies, which could threaten future growth of the sector.
"It's certainly a sign that the pressure on the insurance companies is working," said Elana Sulakshana, with the Rainforest Action Network, an environmental organization based in San Francisco.
Sulakshana spends the majority of her time finding ways to try to stop insurance companies from supporting the fossil fuel industry, because burning fossil fuels is a major contributor to climate change.
This week, the International Energy Agency released a report detailing how the global energy industry can bring carbon dioxide emissions to net zero by 2050 and give the world a chance of limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 C. Besides projects already in development, it said there are "no new oil and gas fields approved for development in our pathway."
Only in the last 12 to 24 months have environmental activists decided to put much more emphasis on the role of banks and insurance companies, said Sulakshana.
"There's absolutely no room for new oilsands or any oil and gas infrastructure to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement," said Sulakshana. "Financial institutions should not be supporting these products or companies."
In its application to the regulator, Trans Mountain said insurers were increasingly reluctant to provide coverage for the pipeline project and at a reasonable price.
The company had already "experienced a significant reduction in available insurance capacity" in 2020 and the demonstrations this year were likely to result in the problem getting worse and making it more of a challenge to "fulfil its significant financial resource obligations" that are required by the regulator.
For their part, insurers have cited financial risk as one of the reasons to pull out of oilsands investing. Climate regulations and societal pressure "could result in significant loss of value ('stranded assets') for the most carbon intensive businesses," wrote AXA in 2017, calling the oilsands "a particularly carbon intensive form of energy."
Fewer options
It's difficult to quantify how much insurance rates have increased for the oilsands industry because there are many factors that go into prices and companies are often changing their coverage, usually choosing to purchase less insurance to avoid higher expenses.
About a decade ago, there were about 50 large insurance companies in North America, Europe and Bermuda that provided coverage to the oilsands, said Joe Seeger, who has more than 25 years of experience advising oilpatch companies on insurance.
Today, there's only about half as many, he said.
When big players likes AXA, Allianz, and Zurich announce they are reducing their exposure to emission-intensive sectors such as the oilsands, amid "an increasing climate crisis," they can pull out hundreds of millions of dollars of insurance coverage.
"It really is a supply and demand situation where we always go to our clients and have the bad news of [explaining] are fewer insurers and we have to try to figure out new ways to do the business," said Seeger.
For instance, the large insurers based in London, U.K., are only offering up a combined limit of $200 million US toward coverage of the oilsands, compared to almost $500 million just 18 months ago, according to a recent report by Willis Towers Watson, an international insurance broker.
The biggest oilpatch players like ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell and Suncor Energy are able to self-insure, but smaller companies don't have the same luxury. Adequate insurance for a large industrial facility is often required by banks and other investors.
"Based on the coverages that you can get, I don't know if you'd see any more of these mega-projects go on in the oilsands anymore. I just don't see the ability to financially backstop some of the mega-projects that put the oilsands on the map," Seeger said.
© Kyle Bakx/CBC Some oilsands companies have supported carbon pricing policy for several years. The oilsands are responsible for about 11 per cent of the country's total emissions, according to 2018 data from the federal government, and other oil and natural gas production makes up another 11 per cent.
Strange bedfellows
To fill the void, Canadian companies have increasingly looked to China, Saudi Arabia, and other parts of the world to underwrite operations in Northern Alberta, Seeger said.
While activists are seeing results from their efforts to pressure insurers, they also realize the strategy has its limits. Not only can the large corporations self-insure, but the majority of oil production comes from state-owned companies around the globe, who also don't always require traditional insurance coverage.
Restricting insurance is an effective tool to combat climate change, said Sulakshana, with the Rainforest Action Network, but it "is not a silver bullet."
Driving some North American and European oil and gas producers out of business could also benefit some of the state-owned companies operating in other countries without the same level of environmental standards, some energy experts say.
"The climate movement has a lot of work to do to grapple with how we're challenging the build out of oil and gas infrastructure in some of those petro-nations like Saudi Arabia and Russia," she said.
The fight to stop the Trans Mountain oil expansion pipeline from Alberta to Canada's West Coast was back before the national regulator recently, with the Crown corporation behind the project seeking to protect the names of the insurance companies backing the controversial development.
Trans Mountain made the proposal after demonstrators in Vancouver blocked the entrances of buildings housing insurance companies to demand they stop insuring the pipeline, resulting in four arrests.
The Canada Energy Regulator ultimately sided with the pipeline builders, allowing them to keep the insurers' names secret from the public.
But opponents could only delight at their impact, with the Crown corporation making it clear in its application how pressure over the years by environmentalists was making it harder and more expensive to find enough insurance, threatening the viability of the project.
The dispute even made international headlines.
Trans Mountain isn't alone as natural resource companies are increasingly struggling to obtain adequate coverage amid rising prices and fewer numbers of insurers willing to work with the fossil fuel industry, especially pipeline and oilsands companies, which could threaten future growth of the sector.
"It's certainly a sign that the pressure on the insurance companies is working," said Elana Sulakshana, with the Rainforest Action Network, an environmental organization based in San Francisco.
Sulakshana spends the majority of her time finding ways to try to stop insurance companies from supporting the fossil fuel industry, because burning fossil fuels is a major contributor to climate change.
This week, the International Energy Agency released a report detailing how the global energy industry can bring carbon dioxide emissions to net zero by 2050 and give the world a chance of limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 C. Besides projects already in development, it said there are "no new oil and gas fields approved for development in our pathway."
Only in the last 12 to 24 months have environmental activists decided to put much more emphasis on the role of banks and insurance companies, said Sulakshana.
"There's absolutely no room for new oilsands or any oil and gas infrastructure to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement," said Sulakshana. "Financial institutions should not be supporting these products or companies."
In its application to the regulator, Trans Mountain said insurers were increasingly reluctant to provide coverage for the pipeline project and at a reasonable price.
The company had already "experienced a significant reduction in available insurance capacity" in 2020 and the demonstrations this year were likely to result in the problem getting worse and making it more of a challenge to "fulfil its significant financial resource obligations" that are required by the regulator.
For their part, insurers have cited financial risk as one of the reasons to pull out of oilsands investing. Climate regulations and societal pressure "could result in significant loss of value ('stranded assets') for the most carbon intensive businesses," wrote AXA in 2017, calling the oilsands "a particularly carbon intensive form of energy."
Fewer options
It's difficult to quantify how much insurance rates have increased for the oilsands industry because there are many factors that go into prices and companies are often changing their coverage, usually choosing to purchase less insurance to avoid higher expenses.
About a decade ago, there were about 50 large insurance companies in North America, Europe and Bermuda that provided coverage to the oilsands, said Joe Seeger, who has more than 25 years of experience advising oilpatch companies on insurance.
Today, there's only about half as many, he said.
When big players likes AXA, Allianz, and Zurich announce they are reducing their exposure to emission-intensive sectors such as the oilsands, amid "an increasing climate crisis," they can pull out hundreds of millions of dollars of insurance coverage.
"It really is a supply and demand situation where we always go to our clients and have the bad news of [explaining] are fewer insurers and we have to try to figure out new ways to do the business," said Seeger.
For instance, the large insurers based in London, U.K., are only offering up a combined limit of $200 million US toward coverage of the oilsands, compared to almost $500 million just 18 months ago, according to a recent report by Willis Towers Watson, an international insurance broker.
The biggest oilpatch players like ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell and Suncor Energy are able to self-insure, but smaller companies don't have the same luxury. Adequate insurance for a large industrial facility is often required by banks and other investors.
"Based on the coverages that you can get, I don't know if you'd see any more of these mega-projects go on in the oilsands anymore. I just don't see the ability to financially backstop some of the mega-projects that put the oilsands on the map," Seeger said.
© Kyle Bakx/CBC Some oilsands companies have supported carbon pricing policy for several years. The oilsands are responsible for about 11 per cent of the country's total emissions, according to 2018 data from the federal government, and other oil and natural gas production makes up another 11 per cent.Strange bedfellows
To fill the void, Canadian companies have increasingly looked to China, Saudi Arabia, and other parts of the world to underwrite operations in Northern Alberta, Seeger said.
While activists are seeing results from their efforts to pressure insurers, they also realize the strategy has its limits. Not only can the large corporations self-insure, but the majority of oil production comes from state-owned companies around the globe, who also don't always require traditional insurance coverage.
Restricting insurance is an effective tool to combat climate change, said Sulakshana, with the Rainforest Action Network, but it "is not a silver bullet."
Driving some North American and European oil and gas producers out of business could also benefit some of the state-owned companies operating in other countries without the same level of environmental standards, some energy experts say.
"The climate movement has a lot of work to do to grapple with how we're challenging the build out of oil and gas infrastructure in some of those petro-nations like Saudi Arabia and Russia," she said.
Increasingly, activists are targeting the insurance and finance industry to stop supporting coal and oil companies
Duration: 01:26
The technique isn't a "silver bullet" but is showing signs of working, says Elana Sulakshana, with the Rainforest Action Network.
The fastest way to fix a labor shortage: Pay more
Analysis by Christine Romans, CNN Business
For decades, worker compensation has been stagnant, while corporate profits make up an ever-increasing share of the economy.
An Amazon.com Inc. delivery driver scans bags of groceries while loading a vehicle outside of a distribution facility on February 2, 2021 in Redondo Beach, California. - Jeff Bezos said February 1, 2021, he would give up his role as chief executive of Amazon later this year as the tech and e-commerce giant reported a surge in profit and revenue in the holiday quarter. The announcement came as Amazon reported a blowout holiday quarter with profits more than doubling to $7.2 billion and revenue jumping 44 percent to $125.6 billion. (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
The coronavirus pandemic has made the divide between employee and employer far more apparent. Covid disrupted the labor market in ways we have never seen: health worries, family obligations, hybrid-learning and child care shortages mean millions of workers remain on the sidelines. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a record 8.1 million job openings in March.
As the economy reopens, employers are scrambling to meet the demand from newly vaccinated customers.
To retain and recruit workers in a tightening labor market, a parade of companies in recent weeks vowed to raise their minimum wage.
Under Armour next month will bump its minimum pay from $10 an hour to $15, a pay raise in the US for more than 8,000 employees.
The coronavirus pandemic has made the divide between employee and employer far more apparent. Covid disrupted the labor market in ways we have never seen: health worries, family obligations, hybrid-learning and child care shortages mean millions of workers remain on the sidelines. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a record 8.1 million job openings in March.
As the economy reopens, employers are scrambling to meet the demand from newly vaccinated customers.
To retain and recruit workers in a tightening labor market, a parade of companies in recent weeks vowed to raise their minimum wage.
Under Armour next month will bump its minimum pay from $10 an hour to $15, a pay raise in the US for more than 8,000 employees.
Amazon said last week it is hiring 75,000 workers at an average starting pay of $17 an hour, and offering $1,000 signing bonuses in some locations.
At McDonald's corporate-owned restaurants, some 36,500 employees will get pay raises. The company said average hourly wages should reach $15 by 2024.
Costco, Walmart and Chipotle also raised average pay.
But the prize goes to Bank of America. It has already doubled its minimum wage since 2010 to $20 an hour last year, and vowed to raise starting pay to $25 an hour by the year 2025.
CEO Brian Moynihan told my colleague Poppy Harlow it will cost the company "a few hundred million dollars a year" when it happens in 2025. He called it an "investment" in the "standard of living for our teammates."
The bank can easily afford it. It earned $8.1 billion in the first quarter and gave $5 billion back to shareholders in dividends and stock buybacks. That's 5,000 million dollars to shareholders in three months, compared with an extra few hundred million for workers four years from now.
Before you applaud...
Hold off on the good citizenship awards. This is good business.
"The recent wage hikes -- from McDonald's to Bank of America -- were not necessarily because these companies have suddenly gone soft," says Greg Valliere, chief US policy strategist at AGF Investments. "It's because they need to retain labor and inoculate themselves from criticism from the populist left."
A move to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour is currently stalled in Washington. The Biden administration has raised the minimum for federal contractors, and wants corporations and the rich pay for Biden's infrastructure and care economy agenda.
That's why Bank of America's wage hike is a "smart public relations move," says Valliere. "Major companies also may be worrying about an assault on their huge profits and astonishingly generous compensation packages for their top executives."
And it's just not a good look when deep-pocketed public companies have full-time workers who make so little, they rely on food stamps and Medicaid. Millions of Americans working fulltime earned so little, the taxpayer was subsidizing the wages through the safety net, according to a report from the GAO published late last year.
There's obviously a difference between those deep-pocketed major corporations and small proprietors.
Millions of small business owners run with ultra-thin margins. For them, rising food and labor costs coming out of the pandemic are especially critical. Many employers say they face competition from enhanced jobless benefits. Those benefits are scheduled to run out in September. More than 20 Republican-led states have moved to end those federal benefits early to entice those workers back into the jobs market.
The big companies raising wages "were also on the winning side of the pandemic," said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton.
That could exacerbate the divide between the haves and the have-nots as we exit the pandemic.
"Sadly, they are competing away workers from smaller businesses that were barely able to stay afloat during the crisis," Swonk said. "I worry about what that means for dynamism in the economy."
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