“Friday Update – News that Matters” is a weekly feature that offers brief overviews of important news that might have been overlooked over the course of a busy week. Here’s what you may have missed in the period December 24 through December 27, 2024.
@BARTLEBY
THE EAGLE HAS LANDED
The bald eagle, which, it is important to note, is not bald or even suffering from hair loss, has just been named the national bird of the United States. President Joe Biden signed a law on Christmas Eve that bestowed this auspicious honor upon the white-headed and yellow-beaked bird of prey.
Whence the name “bald eagle,” I hear you all cry.
A look at the taxonomic classification of the bald eagle is revealing. Birds are of the class Aves, which is divided into 23 orders, including Accipitriformes, the hawks and eagles. The American bald eagle’s scientific name is Haliaeetus leucocephalus; “Haliaeetus” means sea eagle, while “leucocephalus” means “white-headed.”
The term “bald”” traces its origins to Middle English bold, from Old English beald (West Saxon), bald (Anglian) “stout-hearted, brave, confident, strong,” from…the Proto-Germanic.
In addition to the fascinating linguistic history of its name, the bald eagle also builds the largest nest of any North American bird and the largest tree nests ever recorded for any animal species, up to 13’ (4 m) deep, 8.2’ (2.5 m) wide, and 1.1 short tons (1 metric ton) in weight.
While the bald eagle has been a national emblem in the United States for centuries, having first appeared on the Great Seal of the United States in 1782 and on a Massachusetts copper cent in 1772, it was first anointed the official bird of the United States in 2024 by President Joe Biden.
The bald eagle – along with other eagles – is viewed by many around the world as a symbol of strength, courage, and freedom.
Not everyone throughout history has always agreed that the bald eagle was deserving of this title.
Founding Father Benjamin Franklin objected to the creature being chosen to represent the country, calling it a “bird of bad moral character.”
“I wish that the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral character; like those among men who live by sharping and robbing, he is generally poor and often very lousy.”
Instead, Franklin suggested the turkey would be a more suitable choice.
“The turkey is a much more respectable bird and withal, a true, original native of America.”
Fortunately, most members of the early Congress shared Franklin’s sentiments.
A selection of items in the 2024 Holiday Gift Guide including products from Dachstein, Molton Brown, Sockwell, Nomad, and Jameson, among others.
@IN DEPTH
2024 Frequent Business Traveler Holiday Gift Guide: Diamond Edition – Find Inspiration in These Unusual and Splurge-Worthy Indulgences
Hanukkah has just started, yesterday was Boxing Day, and Christmas is (except for Orthodox Christians) now in the rear-view mirror… and every day is a great day to buy something splurge-worthy.
The Editors of The Travelist and Frequent Business Traveler have all of the best ideas for doing just that. This Holiday Gift Guide has been a tradition at Frequent Business Traveler and The Travelist since 2012, a tradition almost as old as our annual report on the New Year’s Eve cult classic, “Dinner for One.”
We know where you can find all of the best indulgences, from artful lamps that make a sphere appear to float to an amazing Austrian thick-boiled wool hat that’s perfect for skiing, hunting, snowboarding, climbing, ice fishing, or any other winter sport one can think of.
A new indulgence will be added every day for the remainder of the year, so stay tuned. It could be new Apple Home automation tools; kinky books; sensible yet stylish compression socks; a parfum that attracts humans, not bugs; or an Apple AirTag compatible card that fits neatly into a credit card wallet.
Check out the complete Holiday Gift Guide – Diamond Edition here. Your friends will be glad you did.
@DEADLINE
As one of busiest travel periods of 2024 draws to a close – the U.S. Transportation Security Administration said that it expects some 40 million people between December 19 and January 2, 2024 to traverse its portholes – a series of major storms is expected to affect travel in the western and southern United States.
The National Weather Service said in an early Friday morning statement that the center of the nation will see dense fog, while there will be severe thunderstorms across the South, and a parade of Pacific Storms will continue in the west.
“[A] Series of Pacific storms will continue to significantly impact portions of the West through this last weekend of 2024,” the NWA said. “Strong winds, high surf, heavy lower elevation rain and heavy mountain snow [are] expected.”
“Across the Plains, low visibility and dense fog will make for travel difficulties as warmer air lifts north,” the agency added. “This will fuel severe thunderstorms across several southern states on Saturday.”
As of Friday at 1:30 p.m., 98 flights had been cancelled within, into, and out of the United States, and an additional 3,677 had been delayed. On Thursday, those figures were 791 and 1,198 respectively.
The Lower Manhattan section of the congestion-pricing zone
@BRIEFLY NOTED
Why everyone around you is coughing. If you’ve recently noticed that you’re surrounded by a sea of coughers, it’s not in your head. In factr, it’s in their respiratory tracts. As of December 14 and for calendar year 2024, there have been 32,085 cases of pertussis reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That figure is a fivefold increase from the number recorded in 2023. A number of factors are at play here including declining vaccination rates and the decline in the first several years of the coronavirus pandemic in pertussis due to an increase in social distancing and masking.
Avian flu virus mutates to become more transmissible.. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that CDC said that recent H5N1 bird flu samples show mutations that may help the virus bind to cells in the upper airways of people.
Double the dead. The country’s cold-related mortality rate has more than doubled since the late 1990s, researchers at Harvard Medical School report in a study. They found that the number of deaths have especially increased in recent years. Important risk factors influencing the cold-mortality rate include extreme weather events tied to climate change, homelessness, and social isolation, the researchers wrote.
Gridlock surge pricing. New York State Governor Kathy Hochul said that, despite the fact that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has the right to charge surge pricing on so-called “gridlock alert days,” the days on which traffic is most congested, she has opted not to allow such pricing to go into effect.
(Photos: Accura Media Group)
