Extra, Extra

Lob Shot: Looking for a stat that explains everything in DC? WaPo: “The lobbying industry had a record year in 2021, taking in $3.7 billion in revenue as companies, associations and other organizations pressed Congress and the Biden administration over trillions of dollars in new pandemic spending and rules affecting health care, travel, tourism and other industries.”

+ Long Way Home: “Within my online long Covid support group are former ultramarathon runners who can no longer make the distance to their own mailboxes since contracting COVID-19. Microclots have been found in the blood of many Long Covid patients, as well as evidence of serious cognitive issues. Disability advocates have been warning us that mass infection of Covid would lead to a mass disabling event. Current figures show they were correct, and we will not get better unless our illness is taken seriously with fast-track research and clinical trials.” Marooned with Long Covid.

+ Holey Grail: “Officials at an MIT spinoff say they’ve figured out how to drill as deep as 12 miles into the Earth’s crust, using a special laser that they say is powerful enough to blast through granite and basalt like a knife through soft butter.” In an effort to ease fossil-fuel reliance, an MIT spinoff plans to dig the deepest holes on Earth. (They should have asked my stock broker. He’s been doing that for weeks.)

+ Peacock Ring of Fire: “Kentucky — big, bad Kentucky — succumbed to No. 15 seed Saint Peter’s in an opening-round men’s NCAA tournament game that few thought would even be worth watching. The Peacocks, led by a coach making less than four Kentucky assistants, stunned one of college basketball’s bluest blue bloods in overtime, 85-79.”