The air in London's Tube network is polluted with metallic particles small enough to enter the human bloodstream...

... High levels were found of a type of iron oxide called maghemite.

The academics did not investigate whether the particles pose a direct health risk...

Note that this is an ongoing story from many years ago...

Note that this is an ongoing story from many years ago...

That's the understatement of the century.

We've cynically joked that the 'tick boxes' have been deliberately designed to ensure the 'clients' remain forever quietly entrapped to maximize profits for minimum care, and their well-being be damned...

Over 15,000 flights cancelled by one airline (as of 29 Dec 2022)...

When thousands of crabs began washing up dead off Teesside and North Yorkshire's beaches in October 2021, it was a tragedy for the local fishing industry, and the environment.

But it also set off a row that shows little sign of dying off...

... At stake is not just the health of sea life, but also the future of a key part of the government's levelling up agenda - the creation of a freeport offering tax breaks to lure businesses to Teesside

An investigation by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the most likely cause of the 2021 die-off was a naturally-occurring algal bloom. Devastating for fishing, but seemingly unpreventable...

... In September 2022, those academics concluded that the crabs were more likely to have been poisoned by pyridine - an industrial chemical that is present in the river's mud... stirred up by what's called maintenance dredging...

... Preventing that could threaten the first economic fruits of the freeport...

... There has already been concern about transparency. Ms Coffey has not revealed who is sitting on the panel, or what its frame of reference was, even though she has been urged to do so by the Conservative environment committee chairman Sir Robert Goodwill. There is every chance yet that its conclusions may not satisfy Labour MPs or the fishing industry that there is no attempt to cover up a scandal...

Allegations that Tesla staged a 2016 video demonstrating full self driving have resurfaced,...

... "The intent of the video was not to accurately portray what was available for customers in 2016. It was to portray what was possible to build the system," .... "so in that sense … it was not trying to portray what was the then state of Autopilot," he added...

...the route was planned and 3D mapped in advance, it took multiple takes to get a run without the need for human intervention, and – according to the engineer – the car even hit a fence when trying to demonstrate automatic parking. 

Of the video, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said at the time: "Tesla drives itself (no human input at all) thru urban streets to highway to streets, then finds a parking spot." Tesla's page for the video describes it as an example of the full self-driving hardware that comes standard in all Tesla's...

... a fatal 2018 Tesla accident involving Autopilot...

... sued Tesla, alleging that Autopilot was defectively designed, misrepresented and falsely advertised...

... Tesla is currently dealing with numerous Autopilot-related lawsuits and government investigations. 

Among other battles, Tesla is being sued by police in Texas who allege defects in Tesla's safety features, which they claim were overlooked to "pump Tesla's share price and sell more cars" that led to a Model X smashing into two parked police cruisers at 70mph (112kph) during a traffic stop...

What regulations?...

Don't look too deep into an "extinction event" for the sake of 'Developing' new profits?...

[...]

The really stupid aspect is that pyridine poisoning is well known, just as is lead poisoning and arsenic poisoning in water, and the pollution is well known to be a consequence of the industries there spewing out into the River Tees for decades. (Very glad to have turned down a job at one of those plants up there many years ago... Far too polluted... So much so it stripped the paint off cars...)

... So why not the obvious fix of testing for pyridine before dredging? Or at the very least, treating the silt before dumping?...


Or is all that too much of an 'inconvenience' for the operators?...

A disease or parasite new to UK waters may have caused the deaths of thousands of shellfish along the North East and North Yorkshire coast, a report said.

A panel of 12 experts found it was "about as likely as not" a new pathogen caused the die-off in late 2021. They said it was "very unlikely" regular dredging of the River Tees caused it...

... The government previously blamed harmful algae, while fishers commissioned a report which suggested it was due to pyridine, an industrial chemical...

... The mass die-off of marine life on 40 miles (70km) of coastline from Hartlepool to Whitby saw crustaceans washed ashore between October and December 2021...

... "We haven't found evidence of a new pathogen - we're just saying there could be a new pathogen."...

... "This is a desk-based study. We've tried to explore all those avenues." However, he said this report "puts the pyridine story to bed"...

... The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee had expressed concerns over a lack of transparency and communication about the report, including - at the time - revealing which experts were chosen to make up the panel...

... He said the deaths had been "devastating" for the fishing community and it was essential the government supported fishermen and helped them recover.

However, Stockton North's Labour MP Alex Cunningham said he considered the matter "very much not closed", calling for further investigations and Andy McDonald, Middlesbrough's Labour MP, said the report "resolves nothing".

Industrial conglomerate Koch Industries received nearly $2.5 billion in dividend payments last year from its Georgia-Pacific unit, which had spun off a subsidiary that took on its liability from asbestos litigation and then filed bankruptcy to limit lawsuit payouts, according to documents filed in a U.S. bankruptcy court in North Carolina.

Koch unit Georgia-Pacific used a corporate bankruptcy maneuver known as the Texas two-step, forming a new Texas subsidiary, Bestwall, that took on the company's asbestos liability. Bestwall declared bankruptcy about three months after its founding. The latest court documents, filed on Wednesday, provide new detail about how Koch has benefited from the case.

Georgia-Pacific faced thousands of lawsuits over the years accusing executives of concealing knowledge about the dangers of asbestos in its building products. In 2017, Georgia-Pacific became the first company to execute a Texas two-step.

Several major companies, including Johnson & Johnson and 3M Co, have turned to the bankruptcy courts in an attempt to manage their mass tort liabilities, a practice Reuters detailed last year. Plaintiff attorneys have called the cases an improper manipulation of the bankruptcy system, while the companies say the Chapter 11 filings are aimed at compensating claimants fairly and equitably. All the bankruptcies are pending.

U.S. bankruptcy law requires that creditors must be fully repaid before shareholders. Equity investors, with limited exception, are almost always wiped out in Chapter 11 cases. However, most of Georgia-Pacific’s assets went to another newly created entity, called New Georgia-Pacific, which did not file for bankruptcy and has continued paying dividends to Koch Industries, court filings show.

New Georgia Pacific paid four quarterly dividends to Koch Industries in fiscal year 2022 totaling $481 million, plus a one-time special dividend of $2 billion, the court filing shows. Koch has received more than $5 billion since Bestwall filed for bankruptcy in 2017.....

... To me, that sounds and smells like a total cover-up.


How conveniently convenient?

Don't look too deeply??

Further investigations must be carried out into the deaths of thousands of shellfish off the North East and North Yorkshire coast, a committee has said.

Since late 2021, thousands of marine life, including crabs, have washed up between Hartlepool and Whitby.

In a letter to the Environment Secretary, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee said an urgent study into the mass die-off was needed...

... "Indeed, as the independent panel highlighted, a conclusive result from the broad diagnostic screening of samples would significantly affect the level of confidence in the novel pathogen theory."...

... Measures should include "thorough sampling and testing for chemical pollutants such as pyridine," it said.

The committee also called on the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs to "swiftly complete" its analysis of the economic impact of the incident and, pending its outcome, provide financial support to those affected and for the regeneration of crab and lobster stocks.

It said it was hoping for a response within two weeks...