News bits: Biden's achievements; QAnon crackpottery; McCarthy flip-flop; Dementia research update

Biden has done some good stuff. Here's some of it.

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Pink News reports about a crackpot fake technology that is probably going to land a jackass in jail:

New Mexico man Michael David Fox was charged based on concerning threats he made against a cis-gender Texas Congressperson because he believed that she was transgender, Satanic, and a pedophile.

When confronted by the FBI on 26 May, Fox immediately confirmed that he had made the phone call, but didn’t recall the specific details of what he had said. However, after hearing back a recording of the call, Fox admitted to making the threats, Advocate  reports.

The [QAnon] group, which originated on 4Chan in 2017, is centered around the belief that there is a society of Satan-worshipping, cannibalistic pedophiles that run the world. 

Fox told authorities that he and other followers believe that transgender people are secretly running the government and major corporations and, after running the unnamed US Rep’s skull features through forensic analysis, he believed that she was transgender. 

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The Huffpo reports that two words, George Santos, got Kevin McCarthy to flip-flop on whether crooked Bob Menendez should resign:

Kevin McCarthy Wanted Bob Menendez To Resign 

Until Someone Mentioned George Santos

The House speaker wanted the New Jersey senator to resign, but he changed his mind after someone asked why he hadn't asked Santos to do the same

Menendez was indicted last week on bribery charges. On Saturday, McCarthy called for the senator’s resignation, saying that the indictment was “very damaging” and that the evidence presented by prosecutors “seems pretty black and white.”

What's surprising is that McCarthy flipped and now says that crooked Bob should have his day in court. He could have just said that the evidence against crooked George is weak and a partisan witch hunt, unlike the evidence against crooked Bob. Will wonders never cease?

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The WaPo reports on new dementia research:

Sitting all day increases dementia risk — even if you exercise

The study, which involved 49,841 men and women aged 60 or older, “supports the idea that more time spent in sedentary behaviors increases one’s risk of dementia,” said Andrew Budson, a professor of neurology at Boston University ....

If the men and women sat for at least 10 hours a day, which many of them did, their risk of developing dementia within the next seven years was 8 percent higher than if they sat for fewer than 10 hours.

The risks ballooned from there, reaching a 63-percent greater risk of dementia for people who spent at least 12 hours chair-bound.

Surprisingly, the researchers found little benefit from exercise.

People who worked out but then plopped into chairs for 10 hours or more were as prone to dementia as people who hadn’t exercised much at all.

The same was true for walking and other short breaks. After adjusting for other factors, the researchers noted few improvements among people who interrupted their sitting time with breaks. If they got up and walked around, but still managed to sit for 10 or more hours a day, their risk didn’t change much. What ultimately mattered was how many hours, in total, a person spent in a chair most days.

The best way to reduce dementia risk, Raichlen said, is to find ways to sit less overall. “People in our study who were sedentary for 9.5 hours a day didn’t have any increased risk,” he said.

Dang, now I've gotta get a standing desk. Crud. I thought exercise would do the trick.