Le Show; 2021-01-03

Here it is! From deep inside your audio device of choice. I'm isolating a whole different self. It isn't generally because it's a new year, right? Isn't that the way it works? We are, I think, all in the throes or the catches of celebrating this weird little tradition we have in our culture of thinking that things really are going to change as the old year ends and the new year, new years. I'll work with these teeth as long as I have them.

The new year is rung in and it's a cute concept. It's easy to believe in. Until you realize, of course, that ours isn't the only calendar on the earth. Forget, you know, the other planets and the rest of the thing. But even on this little green ball here, there are what? Half a dozen more calendars currently running, the ones we know about and others that don't get as much oxygen. Does the fate machine restart each time one of those flips a year? Then it would just seem as if it's almost random. The pace of all those yearly changes that come one after the other. Each calendar is, of course, not synchronized with any of the others. It's, you know, it's part of a situation where we really don't understand that much about time anyway.

I mean, the clearest concept I have of it is it's the thing that runs out just as a guest on a news interview program starts to answer the question. I'm pretty solid with that. But so, you know, how do we, how do we look for hope if not to the pages of the calendar? And I mean, it's, you know, I'm not anti-calendar. It's in this COVID era. It is very useful to distinguish one of these hideously same days from the next or the last. And it is a good way to separate one photograph of a hunky firefighter from the other. But we could just take the alternative path, resign ourselves to the random now, and just bellow to the universe.

Just begin again. Hello. Welcome to the show. When the game has just been lost, When the race has all been run, When the storm has left your sheep once more,

You know the cause. Get your stars uncrossed, Back at square one. Just begin again. You can always run away. Just begin again. No matter what they say. Life is just a wheel. If it's even renew, You can't rush another day. Life is just a wheel. If you never say where. Just begin again. People say nothing is enough.

And people say you can't undo what's done. People say the road is just too rough. I thought do they know? Life is just a show. Go reload your car. Just begin again. Make the bastards eat their words. Just begin again. Like bubblegreens and hummingbirds. Life is just a dream.

And unconscious stream. A picture of one way and it works. Life is for your dream. And giving power to strength of death. Don't come to me. Music is no scene. So just begin. Music is no scene. Music is no scene. Music is no scene.

From New Orleans, I'm Harry Sierro welcoming you to this edition of the show. Music is no scene. Does that make you want to go to Disney? I'm Harry Sierro. I'm Harry Sierro. I'm Harry Sierro. Your TV not only passes on the advertising sold by the networks and the cable channels,

but now it's capable of sending you its own commercial messages because it's smart. You get it yet? The campaign dubbed Stream Scam by Oracle. Supposedly exploited the technology called server side ad insertion. Used to inject ads into video streams by generating records. The scam work by generating records that ads had been displayed. And therefore registered ad impressions on your cortex. Or mine. Without actually presenting any ads to anyone. It sounds kind of perfect. But the advertising system finds it a scam. You see, who exactly was behind this fraud, the description by the British tech journal, the register, is not yet clear and still said to be under investigation.

It could be crooks paid artificially inflate the number of impressions that an ad delivers to the advertiser. Or that's the speculation of the register. Or it could be someone involved in brokering the ads to ensure ad impression targets are met one way or the other. Due to the complexities of digital advertising, it can be hard to determine. You remember when the whole digital thing started and it was going to be so precise? We don't have to do Nielsen ratings anymore and guesswork on all this stuff. It's real simple. Somebody makes a digital thing. Somebody else sees a digital thing. There's a digital record of it and a digital guy can look at it. Or gal. We're, we're a long way down the line. In just four months, the scammers are estimated to have conjured up almost $15 million worth of fraudulent billings to advertisers without providing anything in return. Like our eyeballs.

Again, it sounds like heaven. To me, Oracle had that estimate of the money lost. The final amount billed may be reduced upon audit. Well, that always happens. That's the advertising business. Oracle claims that stream scam spooked more than 28 million valid internet protocol addresses associated with US households, affecting 3,600 apps and 3,400 connective TV devices. Like Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Google TV, Roku, and Samsung Titan Smart TV. Oh, sorry, Tyson. Apparently you couldn't copyright Titan. That's an order of magnitude more than the largest previously detected connected TV fraud campaign called Ice Bucket. That was spotted in April. It involved 2 million spooked household IP addresses. Oracle has a cloud business reminder.

It's not up there. It's in a server farm somewhere in Northeast Virginia, Northwest Virginia. The business operates an analytic service called MOTE. Companies use MOTE to measure digital marketing. Oracle said that while making such measurements, it discovered that those behind the scam had created a server network that sends ad impression events to its MOTE service and to advertisers without sending ads or video content to anyone. I got to take that person to dinner. Seriously. Ads that we don't have to see. Again, it sounds like a household miracle. Washtay miracle. They forged household IP addresses, app IDs, and device ideas in the measurement events to make it appear that ads had played in those environments. When, in fact, they did not, said Oracle. They had a product for Oracle MOTE, so the identity of the perpetrators is unknown. We're actively working with our industry partners to further research and attempt to determine the source of fraudulent activity.

The guy said he expects connected TV ad fraud to grow. Well, doesn't everything else? No, except for newspapers. Service side ad insertion based fraud is a complicated challenge as streams scam demonstrates and we believe it will grow quickly until our industry adjusts its defenses to address it. He said he being this guy. We plan to work closely with our peers across the industry to better understand this threat and the most effective tools to block it. Last month, an anti-fraud business called Check with a Q because it's now published a report claiming that losses from digital advertising fraud 35 billion dollars are now greater than annual credit card fraud around the world, which is only 27 billion. Despite the fact that the digital ad market is a tenth the size of the credit card market. So it's fraud friendly.

Check estimates about 10% of all digital advertising revenue is lost to fraud compared to the 0.008% rate of credit card fraud losses. It's a smart world. But let's let's get inside your smart house for a moment. Would you allow me? I'm in. Don't worry about it. The FBI is issuing this announcement to warn users of smart home devices with cameras and voice capabilities warning them to use complex unique passwords and enable two factor authentication to help protect against swathing attacks. Is this new to you? A little bit new to me. Smart home device manufacturers recently recently notified law enforcement offenders have been using stolen email passwords to access smart devices with cameras and voice capabilities and carry out swathing attacks. This is from the internet crime complaint center. Did you know there was one? Swathing is a term used to describe a hoax call made to emergency services, usually reporting an immediate threat to human life in order to draw a response from law enforcement and the SWAT team to a specific location.

Confusion on the part of homeowners or responding officers has resulted in health related or violent consequences and push pulls limited resources away from valid emergencies. Swathing may be motivated by revenge, used as a form of harassment or used as a prank, but it's a serious crime. It says the crime complaint center that I've never heard of before. Offenders often use spoofing technology to anonymize their own phone numbers to make it appear to first responders as if the emergency call is coming from the victim's phone number. This enhances their credibility when communicating with dispatchers. Recently offenders have been using victims smart devices, including video and audio capable home surveillance services to carry out swathing attacks to gain access to the devices of offenders are likely taking advantage of customers who reuse their email passwords for their smart devices. I thought they were called smart. The offenders use stolen email passwords to log into the smart device and hijack features, including the camera and speakers.

They then call emergency services to report a crime at the victim's residence as the law enforcement responds the offender watches the live stream footage and engages with the responding police through the camera and speakers. In some cases, the offender also live streams the event on shared online community platforms. That ladies and gentlemen is entertainment. At that NBC wishes they thought of it. In November, according to the BBC, one of our news networks over here highlighted a case in which police went to a Florida home after receiving a fake 911 call from a man saying he'd killed his wife and was hoarding explosives. They left the building after discovering it was a hoax. Officers reported hearing someone insult them by the properties internet connected ring doorbell. Now, don't you want one? In another instant at the same month in Virginia police reported hearing the hacker shout, help me after arriving at the home of a person they thought might be about to kill himself.

That is the police thought that when they question the attacker via the device, he claimed to have compromised four different cameras at the location and to be charging officers. Oh, no, sorry, others $5 to watch online. There's a bottom-born every minute after this will log out tell him to change his Yahoo password is ring password and stop using the same passwords for the same stuff. The offender was quoted as saying by a local news station further event reported in Georgia as if they don't have enough problems in which the attacker shouted racial abuse at his victims after the police went away and claimed to have carried out more than a dozen such hacks in that day. I'm telling you, that is a smart smart world we live in. Come on. That's smart. Now ladies and gentlemen, let's turn to news of the land of 15,000 princes are freedom of being friends in Saudi Arabia. They experienced a little windfall over the holidays at the end of the year. The US State Department proved the sale of $290 million in bombs to Saudi Arabia.

This was part of a flurry of arms deals with Middle Eastern dictatorships in the last weeks of the Trump administration. Nice, nice way to go out the door. This, according to the Guardian, critics of the sale say they're being rushed through despite broad congressional and public opposition to such military support due to the human rights records of the regimes involved. And in the case of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the huge civilian death toll from the war in Yemen that they're fighting on one side of. Apparently, rebels backed by the Iranians are fighting on the other side. So the Saudis have to have more bombs. State Department's Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced the approval of the sale of a small diameter bomb munition in related equipment to Saudi Arabia. Recently, on the same day, the agency also announced the approvals of the sale of Apache helicopters worth $4 billion to Kuwait, $100 million in defensive equipment against missile attack, for the plane of Egypt as well as $65 million in precision targeting equipment for Egyptian warplanes.

Egypt has been criticized for the civilian impact of its counterinsurgency campaign in the Sinai. Remember the Sinai? A New York think tank is planning to sue Secretary of State Pompeo over the proposed sale of $23 billion of advanced weaponry, including drones and stealth warplanes to the United Arab Emirates. That's, according to the administration, to deter increasing Iranian aggressive behavior and threats. The deal was agreed after the Emirates agreed to normalize relations with Israel. Oh, I see. They got a little, a little, a little, a little smear on the side. And let's believe the arms sales of the Saudis and to Kuwait are in part incentives for them to follow suit and make peace. It's a peacemaking deal by selling weapons. Critics of the arms deal say they were destabilizing and rewarded human rights abuses.

The spate of arms sales comes, according to the Guardian, as the transition team of President-elect Biden. I'll say that again, President-elect Biden, for those of you who are hard of hearing. That team is complaining it's not being properly briefed by the Pentagon on ongoing military operations, as is customary for an incoming administration. And man, now maybe we know why. Maybe it's not that smarter world after all. And now ladies and gentlemen, the topic of the day or of the moment, at least, turns inexorably, inexorably, to dominion. Oh, they're going to keep playing. Don't worry about it, because they have dominion. They think it's not your storage unit that's packed of the guilds, according to a new study.

The total mass of all of our stuff, buildings, roads, cars, and everything else we manufacture now exceeds the weight of all other living things on planet Earth, according to Science Magazine. The amount of new material added every week equals the total weight of Earth's nearly 8 billion people. I wouldn't eat that's whatever you ate again, sir. I'd take that as a warning. If you weren't convinced before the humans are dominating the planet, then you should be convinced now says, Tim and McPherson, an urban ecologist at the New School, would happen to be all of school, who was not involved with research. This is an eye-catching comparison at Frittle and Crossman, social ecologist at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna. He, like the other guy, McPherson, was not involved with research.

There are many measures of humanity's impact on the planet, fossil fuels, of course, have sent greenhouse gases soaring. Agriculture and dwellings have altered 70% of the land on the planet. Humans have wiped out untold numbers of species in an emerging great extinction. Job well done, baby. Transformations are so great researchers have declared we're living in, of course, a new human-dominated age, the Anthropocene, but a systems biologist at the Weitzmann Institute, when looking for a new gauge of our impact in his colleague's synthesized previous estimates of the biomass of living plants, for each year between 1917, those estimates count for about 90% of all living things, based on field research and computer modeling. From 1990 onward, they also include data from satellites. Researchers have used that to track global vegetation as well. Then the team added in a mass of all other living things, bacteria to whales, which they tallied up in 2018 based on field surveys, humans making a 0.01% of the planet's biomass. There's a lot of bugs out there. The yearly estimates of the mass of human-made materials came from published research by crossmen and colleagues, including objects like cars and machines and buildings, and, you know, the stuff we dump here.

The change over the past 120 years is dramatic. In 1900, the mass of human materials was 3% of Earth's total biomass. Since then, materials have doubled every 20 years. The team reports in nature. The glut of concrete and asphalt began during the boom years after World War II. When developed countries, we went on a building spree. In recent decades, even more has been added. And total biomass declined, gradually, since 1900, because of deforestation and other reasons. The increase in human-made mass is driven by the use of dense geological resources, rocks, minerals, and metals. Human-made mass finally exceeded Earth's total living biomass this year. Give or take six years. That depends on whether biomass is tallied with or without water. And the mass of plastic is double that of all animals.

So next time you want to pet, get a plastic bottle. Also, in the world of Dominion, Brazil has changed, according to nature, as well as the COVID pandemic, killing more than 170,000 of its citizens so far. 2020 saw almost one-third of the Pantadao, the largest tropical wetland in the world, on fire. You'd think it's a wetland. Four million, well, 15,000 square miles of forest, savannah, and shrub land, an area bigger than Maryland, have gone up in flames since last January. Almost all the indigenous territories and conservation facilities were burnt, as was much private land. Conservation areas have been devastated. One of them contained one of the largest populations of jaguars in the world. So do you like your jaguars? Roasted or fried? Fire's impacts have been felt throughout Brazil. Smoke has spread thousands of miles reducing air quality in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and other areas far away, so in states of experienced showers of black rain.

You're welcome. Fire's are decimating Brazil's economy, curbing inward investment, as well as sectors such as air travel and tourism, already hit hard by the pandemic. The fires have made headlines for months. Some of the Brazilians have volunteered to fight the flames, not including President Bolsonaro. Yet Brazil's government is doing little, ignoring the causes of the fires, a combination of inadequate fire management, climate extremes, human behavior, and weak environmental regulations. And the government has slashed funding for fire prevention, and has been slow to contract firefighters. It has even cast doubts on the reliability of satellite fire detection, much like the administration in this country currently casting doubt on the death figures from COVID were being reported by the CDC. Fire risks and impacts in the region are under understudied. Deeper research is needed on the weather conditions that fan the fires.

The conditions that fan these blazes are becoming increasingly common as the area warms. The Pantanal has got 84% of its territory conserved. It's the largest remaining wetland area of natural vegetation in the world. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Traditional farmers practice unique forms of sustainable agriculture. Poor guys and girls, including grazing cattle on native pastures. And moving animals to higher land when lowlands flood. Who would do that? Each rainy season floods swell the river, the Paraguay River, to support ecosystems found nowhere else on earth. And soon, nowhere. As in, not nowhere else, nowhere. And you know why, ladies and gentlemen? I'll tell you why.

Because we've got... When you do it that way, it doesn't hurt so much. You're my path, my future, my vision, from the beginning, you were there. My boss, we're together, my following, my goal, I'm sure where I'll go. My mother and my mother, my fear and my champagne. It's a matter of space, it will happen. Where I am, if I'm mad, my fear and my pride.

You're my path, my passion, my caravan. You're my path, my desire, my desire, my desire, my desire. You're my path, my desire, my desire, my goal, my desire, my desire. You're my path, my desire, my desire, my desire, my desire, my desire. Mélzen,í meubén. You're my verschourel, My little son, His drawings, And Darga, And you who were with you. My mother training our enemies out. My Sign.

My Gl今年 When we'll see each other. My mother in my life, my mother in my champagne, Visiting the space of the city. Where I am, if the fire, my fire and my eyes You are my drug, passion and karma. My mother in my life, my mother. My mother in my life, my mother. My mother in my life, my mother. My mother in my life, my mother.

From New Orleans, this is Liz Show. It could have been somebody who was loose and stupid that did it. That really could apply to pretty much the whole week, at least in Washington, at least out of the mouth of the speaker. President, what am I going to laugh at in the 20 days? President Trump flew back unexpectedly from his Mar-a-Lago thing where the citizens or the government in West Palm Beach is challenging his plans to live there, because when he got permission to take over the place it was going to be not a residence, but a private club. I can't live in a private club.

Anyway, flew back maybe because he got advanced word that the New Year's Eve party featured as part of the entertainment. Vanilla ice. Anyway, he flew back more believably and reportedly to lead the Quixotic. I think anybody who didn't understand what the word Quixotic was before now getting it demonstrated in real time. The Quixotic attempt to challenge the electoral vote in the presidential election in the House and Senate and joint session this coming Wednesday. And sure enough, more and more Republican senators lined up behind the guy who started it, Senator from Missouri, who was rumored to want to run for president in 2024. I have to say just to interrupt myself, because I won't object,

that what we're going to see right after January 20th is what H. Ross Perot famously called during his Quixotic presidential campaign. A giant sucking sound as powered drains from the current occupant and all the people who had to put their egos on the back burner when he defeated them. Many of them still aching to be in the White House. It's going to get real. There's going to be a rampage. There's going to be a split. Anyway, so this week there is that buildup of senators signing up to question the electoral votes in the swing states. It'll be presided over the joint session as the Constitution provides by the vice president, who's the president of the Senate, that's Mike Pence.

As I say, that's coming up on Wednesday and there are recurring reports that the current occupant is in a fairly foul mood as you might expect for somebody who has built his entire career and perhaps persona on being a winner. This week for perhaps the last time the writing is on the wall and for the businessman turn chief executive Mexico is not paying for that wall either. Jared, Mr. President, I think one more trip to the Middle East and I can wrap up a piece treaty with Oman. Great. Who are they at wall with? Nobody, but it's like our own. Jared, I've been watching your performance throughout the series. You started out great getting my daughter off my hands, but then what?

I let you take the coronavirus off my hands and getting blamed for people getting sick. How is that a win? Sir, as I've explained to you many times, there were a lot of moving parts to the task force operation. Yeah, while there were a lot of moving parts in my limousine and it doesn't crash every time I get in it. I mean, sometimes it smells funny, but I just chalked that up the drive a cologne which I've told them about. Well, in retrospect, you know, maybe we wouldn't have left quite as much of the pandemic work up into the individual states. Although that's such a Republican thing. All our senators thought... Senators thought. That's a new one. You ever seen a Mitch McConnell thinking? Like a constipated turtley looks. You know, if I'd known you were going to run this task force like a loser, I'd never have pardoned you, crooked dad. That was just a few days ago. You knew the problems we were encountering. Hey, listen, hey, listen, buddy boy. If I wanted to pay attention, I don't think I don't. Pay attention, that is.

I know damn well that stuff with Oman is just a way to get some arom-sucker to bail out that pilot crap you've got on Fifth Avenue. How does somebody go a mile underwater owning a Fifth Avenue building? Some people might say, same way somebody could go bankrupt in the casino business? Right. Differences, that's called being smart. You wouldn't understand. So look, Mr. Boychick, to chew the fat with a loser's son-in-law, who by the way booked vanilla ice for the party down there? Like, who in the freaking hell does that? That wasn't me, that was the party planner that Ivanka hired. She thought it was going to be, you know, cute having a big loser serenading a winner. Listen, pal. That's so-called New York irony is why I move the Florida aside from the tax thing. So look, I know I'm peeing up a rope here, but you've got to dash this week. Hopefully, if everybody wakes up to the hoax, it won't be a last-ask. Get your friends in the media to cover this electoral vote-challenged thing live. Straight through.

Might run 11 or 12 hours. A fundraising line stay open all night. I think some of them are planning to, you know, dip in and out. A wall to freaking wall. Trump style coverage. Call your friends and the murder kid. Tell them this is the way to get off my spit list. I can do that. It won't be true. But hey, why start now, right? Right. Right. Mike, my precious jewel of loyalty, my beautiful Mike. Mr. President, the opportunity to serve you this hour of need is the gift of a lifetime. I'm humbled by once again being able to be of some small assistance too. Great. Because this is the time that the money that's not only get cut, they sliced and served with a one-source. Well, that's a figure of speech only you could conjure up, sir. Yeah, one of my gifts. Mike, this Wednesday,

you can hold the future of this country in your hands. Wherever you hold stuff. I am aware of that, sir, and again, I tremble at the enormity of their responsibility, even given the trivial nature of the duties assigned to me. Well, that's where you're wronger than sacks on Sixth Avenue. Listen, Mike, I've been speaking to the top lawyers in the business, Rudy, Sidney, Sidney the woman, Lynn, Lynn the man, they all agree. You've got power so awesome, it could make me jealous if I did that kind of thing. Once the illegal votes are challenged and we've got great senators to do that, these are senators who love the country and they love the mega people. You're free to exercise your best judgment. And of course, that means this great cause of continuousness, a continuity, or whatever, a power. Continuation problem. Mr. President, it would be my great privilege to do whatever I could to see the continuation of this magnificent era and edifice of leadership. Of course, my reading of the

Royal Law leaves me in a situation I fear as far as robust in terms of omnipotence. David Mike, we move the whole government up the camp, David. They can't send the military in there. The military runs a place. The good senators, filibuster against any attempt to cut off our money. All the TV people are going crazy cause nobody's ever seen anything like it. It's make America great again squared times two. Sort of the very skilled people I turn to for guidance on this matter of advice me that my duties on Wednesday are purely ministerial. Mike, I'm not asking you to pray with me. I'm offering you the one time only opportunity to save this country from a fate so bad nobody noticed it until I call attention to it. And don't worry about having the improvise Stephen Millowell write everything for you. He's great and fast like you wouldn't believe. Drafts come out of him faster than the belches from most people. Mr. President, what is it, Mike? You want to run in 2024?

Helping me right now makes you a better than a rich father. I don't presume to aspire to a position you've filled with such ease and majesty. Look, you don't believe me that's your right as an idiot. But listen to the lawyers, they've been in a lot of the country's best courts all this year. Mr. President, there's one word I've never wanted to say to you. But I'm afraid I may have to say it now. Is it no because if it's no I don't even want to hear that you would come out of your mouth, Mike. Nobody would believe it. It's so out of character. Against type, you know, like they say. And of course, it goes against the loyalty thing. Which if you ask me is your best feature. So, sir, I'm afraid but I'm going to be doing on Wednesdays and going to be able to help you. So I can't tell you how refusing your request, my order, or whatever. It's just so very painful. But, um, came, Mike.

That's enough. It's better fall in it's enough. And I don't know if you noticed, but I happen to have a very big bus. I have room enough. Left for you. Under it. New team. New tasks. Same mission. We're going to make saving my ass. Great again. We have Congress is his boardroom. The president is this week, because there may not be a next one. And my nightmare, everything's wrong. I'm waiting for love, but you come along. You kiss me, child, but you seem too happy to see me somehow. In the sky, falls in on my head.

The nails glow on your eyes to the red. You're safe forever, dear, and a day. You're swearing that you're never going to go away. And I'll be gone when you turn around the other way. And I can't wake up. To save my life. Or I can't wake up. To save my life. And my nightmare, you forgive me. Cruelest gift you could have given me. You said I'm sure you understand me now. But your eyes say brother, I get you somehow. And then a light when these cheeks across the road. The smell like something fresh from a tongue.

The squeeze too hard to assist on. Kissing when it seems like hop your fists isn't missing. And your hair's toned in to recognize. It's said that I can't wake up. To save my life. Or I can't wake up. To save my life. Things I don't make, but dreams go bad. Like most old boys coming home to die. But you're in so shy of your soul. A piece don't fail me, don't let go. To come wake up. To save my life. Or I can't wake up.

To save my life. Or I can't wake up. To come wake up. To come wake up. And now ladies and gentlemen. The apologies of the week. The Japanese minister for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympic Games. Seiko Hashimoto has faced criticism for breaking COVID-19 guidelines.

After attending a group dinner, with over five people. All the big shots do it. Doesn't it seem like that? According to a South Korean publication, the Dangan Ilbo Hashimoto admitted she dined with five other people. At a sushi restaurant in Tokyo in mid-December. She said the dinner was supposed to be with two other guests, but others joined later. She was appointed to a position a year and a half ago after moving into politics following her career as an athlete. She was a speed skater. She was also Japan's Chef Dumishon, a two-winner Olympic Games and she's president of the Japan Skating Federation. The Prime Minister Yoshidi. Yoshihidi Suga recently broke his own rules to reportedly having dinner with eight other people. Also in mid-Sember, he made an apology. The following day and his approval rating has dropped. 16 percentage points since.

They don't like the big shots. Not obeying the rules. The head of Ontario's COVID Task Force is in Canada as apologized for pausing coronavirus vaccinations during the Christmas holidays as frustrations mount across Canada over a slow rollout of the drug. This is the Guardian also reporting this. And it puts our situation here south of the border and do some perspective. It's not too much. Officials in the country's most populous province. That's Ontario. Shorten the vaccination clinics on Christmas Eve. Close them on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, citing staffing concerns. By Tuesday, all 19 had reopened. Quote, we shouldn't have made that decision. I take responsibility for that, and it says the entire general head of the province's COVID Task Force. And clearly, we got it wrong. We've been slammed, we've been spanked, we'll pick up our game.

Unquote. Canada has the highest rate per capita of secured vaccine contracts with drug manufacturers, but its rates of vaccination lag behind other countries that have also improved. The drug, Katas efforts, here's your irony right here, have been hampered by the requirements of deep cold storage needed for the Pfizer vaccine. In Canada, you can just leave it outside, as well as poorly executed vaccination programs in some of its provinces. Yep. Must be the whole continent. Must be a problem with North America. The mail on Sunday, a, quote, newspaper, unquote, from Great Britain has apologized to Prince Harry. And issued a correction after a story claim that he had turned his back on his military life. A story claim that Harry did not keep in contact with the Royal Marines when he stepped down for royal duties in March and relocated to California. An article last October reported that Prince Harry had been accused by a top general of turning his back on the Royal Marine since withdrawing from his military role.

And that, in an apparent snub to the armed forces, he had failed to reply to a letter from a former chief of the general staff, said the mail on Sunday. We now understand that they go on that Harry has been in contact in a private capacity with individuals in the military, including in the Royal Marines to offer informal support. And while he did, whilst he did not initially receive the letter, referred to in the article, due to administrative issues, he has since replied unbecoming aware of it. We apologize to Prince Harry and have made a donation to his Invictus Games Foundation. The mail on Sunday acknowledged the era took down the original article from its website, trying to be good at the mail on Sunday. Harry's lawsuit will still be examined by a court, and hearing will take place later this month. He sent a legal warning to the tabloid in October, and his lawyer said the story was false and defamatory. So I must admit the mail on, oh, come on now. We don't need that kind of talk.

Deadline Richmond, Virginia, Rodney Robinson, the senior advisor for Richmond Public Schools, and a former national teacher of the year, apologized this week for a since-deleted tweet, in which he called Senator Rand Paul's 2017 attacker. It was a neighbor, a quote, true Kentucky hero, and said it was a Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's neighbor's, quote, turn to step up. Yeah, there was a landscaping dispute. Who knew that was going to lead to four seasons landscaping this year? See, there's a whole landscaping theme going on here, and we're just... We're not seeing the big picture, and I include myself. Rand Paul's long had to later be removed, the neighbor pleaded guilty to assaulting a member of Congress, due to my ignorance of the situation, I didn't know Rand Paul was seriously injured in the altercation. No, it was in the lung, sir. The teacher wrote in a public statement, in which he said the tweet was a bad joke.

I quote, I apologize for making light of his injuries. I do not advocate for violence against Mitch McConnell. I often preach to my students and other teachers that the mirror is the biggest tool for improvement. You have to look into the mirror and ask yourself reflective questions and be honest with the answers. It is time for me to look in the mirror and reflect on my recent action. Go to the mirror, boy. Apologies for the weak. Copyright feature of this broadcast. And now some news of the Olympic movement. More news of the Olympic movement. Tokyo 2020 athletes village mayor. Kawabuchi claims holding this year's games with no spectators would be, quote, like, cooking a meal with no seasoning. Athletes have been told they are expected to arrive in the athletes village five days prior to their competition and leave no less, no more than two days afterward. Kawabuchi was concerned. He said about the athletes missing out on the Olympic opening ceremony. Since the athletes in the second half of the games, arriving five days before their event

would be missing that. Nothing else to say about this. Kawabuchi was concerned. He said about the athletes missing out of that. Nothing in my life could beat that feeling of coming into the stadium and hearing the loud cheer in the Olympic march. Said athletes village mayor. I strongly agree with reducing the numbers in the village, but the athletes competing in the second half can't attend. I wonder if there's something that can be done. Athletes have a right to attend the opening ceremony. Add that to your list of rights, ladies and gentlemen. And with just over a half a year to go before the opening ceremony. Organizers are battling rising costs, stemming from the pandemic. And waning public interest in the host country. Japanese organizers in the IOC are publicly optimistic. They can ensure the safety of more than 11,000 athletes as well as thousands of officials, journalists and games related staff. But when the IOC president Thomas Bach said last November,

he and the Prime Minister were totally aligned in the full determination and confidence to make the Olympics a great success and the Paralympic. That sounds like wistful thinking six years on, according to the aforementioned Guardian. Japan is far better than many other countries in the pandemic, just 3,400 deaths. It's heading into the new year, amid a surge of infections with the host city at its center. Tokyo's governor this week warned that the capital could face an explosion of cases and urged people to put life before fun and stay home over the new year holidays. Only 24 hours later, Tokyo had 1,300 new infections beating the previous one day total of 949 from last Saturday. Health experts have pointed to the logistics of testing and tracking all those visitors as well as a potential for additional pressure on Tokyo's already overstretched medical infrastructure. And of course, rising costs,

the latest Olympic bill, had risen by 2.8 billion, including 900 million for COVID stuff, to 15.4 billion dollars, most of which of course, will be paid for by NB. No, by the Japanese taxpayer. Oh, to be a Japanese taxpayer. Japan isn't expected to begin vaccinating its population until February, at the earliest, medical workers and vulnerable people, older people. That happens in March when 10,000 runners are due to start carrying the Olympic torch to every part of the country. Ooh, timing. It's a bitch. The Olympics ladies and gentlemen, it's a movement. And we all need one every day. And finally, just a little news of microplastics, microplastic particles have been revealed

in the placenta of unborn babies for the first time. Researchers said it was, quote, matter of great concern. Unquote. This was just three months after publication of an article in the Guardian that said bottle fed babies are swallowing millions of microplastic particles a day, according to research described as a milestone, in the understanding of human exposure to tiny plastic. High temperature process for sterilizing plastic bottles and preparing formula milk caused bottles to shed millions of microplastics and trillions of even smaller nanoplastics. Oh, to be a baby now.

Well, that's going to conclude this week's edition of the show the program it turns next week, same time on these radio stations, whenever you want it on the other audio device of choice you may have. Alexa, turn on the show every week and don't let the guy turn it off. And it would be like Alexa following my advice. If you'd agree to turn week needs end, would you already? Thank you very much. Welcome to the show shop, go to the San Diego desk to Pam Holston and to Thomas Walsh here at www.inoNew Orleans for help of today's program. The e-mail address for this program. Yeah, it's still it. Oh, people are clapping for e-mail now. That's nice. As well as the music playlist for the show and your chance to get cars I talk t-shirts. All at harryshear.com and a month Twitter at the harryshear. .

The show comes tickets, The show comes to you from the Century of Progress Productions and originates through the facilities of W.W. and O. New Orleans flagship stations that change his easy radio network. Whatever calendar you follow, Happy New Year. From New Orleans.