Coronavirus live updates: Beijing city bans group meals as China death toll hits 563 confirmed cases rise to 11,791. First US person-to-person case of coronavirus reported in Chicago. ‘We believe people in Illinois are at low risk.’

11:00 am: The latest on airlines suspending China flights

These are the airlines which have suspended all flights to China amid the outbreak:
American Airlines (until March 27),
Delta Airlines (Feb 6. to April 30),
Air France (until Feb. 9),
British Airways,
Air Seoul,
Egyptair,
Lion Air,
Lufthansa,
Swiss Airlines and Austrian Airlines (until end February),
Kenya Airways,
RwandAir (till further notice),
Vietjet (effective Feb. 1),
all Russian airlines (except Aeroflot).

Major routes of outbound air and train travel originating from Wuhan during chunyun, 2019. Darker and thicker edges represent greater numbers of passengers. International outbound air travel (yellow) constituted 13·5% of all outbound air travel, and the top 40 domestic (red) outbound air routes constituted 81·3%. Islands in the South China Sea are not shown. Credit: Wu, et al. / The Lancet

Authors caution that given the lack of a robust and detailed timeline of records of suspected, probable, and confirmed cases and close contacts, the true size of the epidemic and its pandemic potential remains unclear.

New modeling research, published in The Lancet, estimates that up to 75,800 individuals in the Chinese city of Wuhan may have been infected with 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) as of January 25, 2020.

What streets need traffic signals, crosswalks. Selma and Fairfax.

Ten Worst Zoos for Elephants' ranked San Diego Zoo, 9th.

In Defense of Animals criticizes movement of elephants, captive breeding

SAN DIEGO —  An animal-activist group that publishes an annual list of the “Ten Worst Zoos for Elephants” ranked San Diego Zoo Global — parent organization for the zoo and the Safari Park — ninth this year.
San Diego was included because of “irresponsible breeding, severing bonds and treating elephants like expendable assets,” according to In Defense of Animals, a San Rafael-based organization that has been compiling the list since 2004 and has long been opposed to elephants being kept in zoos. This is the second time San Diego has been included.

Georgia district won't pay for surgeries for student burned in chemistry demo,

Georgia district won't pay for surgeries for student burned in chemistry demo, his attorney says
Malachi McFadden suffered third-degree burns on his face, neck, and arms after a botched "burning money demonstration" at Redan High School on Aug. 6.

The report said the teacher violated district standards. Regional Superintendent Sean Tartt recommended she be fired "due to the severity of the incident," but the school's principal Janice Boger recommended she be suspended and receive training on classroom safety, according to the report

Your Art Will Save Your Life, Beth Pickens

A great inspirational book. 

Pink Phones in West Hollywood.

How they close a sidewalk for six months.

Toxic 'forever chemicals' found in drinking water throughout US

The report, published by the Environmental Working Group, found that 20 cities and regions nationwide – including Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Miami and Louisville, Kentucky – contained PFAS levels of at least 10 parts per trillion. Forty-three areas, including New York City, Nashville, Las Vegas and Sacramento, had detectable PFAS at least 1 part per trillion

Boeing has temporarily stopped making 737 Max airplanes

Congratulations.

And now how can these rural hospital closures help the homeless?

Listed below are the 80 rural hospitals that closed between January 2010 and November 2016, as tracked by the NCRHRP.
For the purposes of its analysis, the NCRHRP defined a hospital closure as the cessation in the provision of inpatient services. As of November, all of the facilities listed below no longer provided inpatient care.
However, many of them still offered other services, including outpatient care, imaging, emergency care, urgent care, primary care or skilled nursing and rehabilitation services.

Alabama
Chilton Medical Center (Clanton)
Elba General Hospital
Florala Memorial Hospital
Randolph Medical Center (Roanoke)
South West Alabama Medical Center (Thomasville)
Arizona
Cochise Regional Hospital (Douglas)
Florence Community Healthcare
Hualapai Mountain Medical Center (Kingman)
California
Colusa Regional Medical Center
Corcoran District Hospital
Kingsburg Medical Center
Georgia
Calhoun Memorial Hospital (Arlington)
Charlton Memorial Hospital (Folkston)
Hart County Hospital (Hartwell)
Lower Oconee Community Hospital (Glenwood)
North Georgia Medical Center (Ellijay)
Stewart-Webster Hospital (Richland)
Illinois
St. Mary's Hospital (Streator)
Kansas
Central Kansas Medical Center (Great Bend)
Mercy Hospital Independence
Kentucky
New Horizons Medical Center (Owenton) 
Nicholas County Hospital (Carlisle)
Parkway Regional Hospital (Fulton)
Westlake Regional Hospital (Columbia)
Maine
Parkview Adventist Medical Center (Brunswick)
Southern Maine Health Care – Sanford Medical Center
St. Andrews Hospital (Boothbay Harbor)
Massachusetts
North Adams Regional Hospital
Michigan
Cheboygan Memorial Hospital
MinnesotaAlbany Area Hospital 
Lakeside Medical Center (Pine City)
Mississippi
Kilmichael Hospital
Merit Health Natchez – Community Campus
Patient's Choice Medical Center of Humphreys County (Belzoni)
Pioneer Community Hospital of Newton
Quitman County Hospital (Marks)
Missouri
Parkland Health Center – Weber Road (Farmington) 
Sac-Osage Hospital (Osceola)
SoutheastHEALTH Center of Reynolds County (Ellington)
Nebraska
Tilden Community Hospital
Nevada
Nye Regional Medical Center (Tonopah)
North Carolina
Blowing Rock Hospital
Vidant Pungo Hospital (Belhaven)
Yadkin Valley Community Hospital (Yadkinville)
Ohio
Doctors Hospital of Nelsonville
Physicians Choice Hospital-Fremont
Oklahoma
Epic Medical Center (Eufaula)
Memorial Hospital & Physician Group (Frederick)
Muskogee Community Hospital
Sayre Memorial Hospital
Pennsylvania
Mid-Valley Hospital (Peckville)
Saint Catherine Medical Center Fountain Springs (Ashland)
South Carolina
Bamberg County Memorial Hospital
Marlboro Park Hospital (Bennettsville)
Southern Palmetto Hospital (Barnwell)
Williamsburg Regional Hospital (Kingstree)
South Dakota
Holy Infant Hospital (Hoven)
Tennessee
Gibson General Hospital (Trenton)
Haywood Park Community Hospital (Brownsville)
Humboldt General Hospital
McNairy Regional Hospital (Selmer) 
Parkridge West Hospital (Jasper)
Pioneer Community Hospital of Scott (Oneida)
Starr Regional Medical Center-Etowah
United Regional Medical Center (Manchester)
Texas
Bowie Memorial
East Texas Medical Center-Clarksville
East Texas Medical Center-Gilmer
East Texas Medical Center-Mount Vernon
Good Shepherd Medical Center (Linden)
Gulf Coast Medical Center (Wharton)
Hunt Regional Hospital of Commerce
Lake Whitney Medical Center (Whitney)
Nix Community General Hospital (Dilley)
Renaissance Hospital Terrell
Shelby Regional Medical Center (Center)
Weimar Medical Center
Wise Regional Health System-Bridgeport
Virginia
Lee Regional Medical Center (Pennington Gap)
Wisconsin
Franciscan Skemp Medical Center (Arcadia)

Warm Water Patch Called ‘The Blob’ Fueled Biggest Known Seabird Die-Off In History An estimated 1 million common murres died in 2015 and 2016. Scientists fear it was a harbinger of a warming world.

'You're stealing our water': Germans protest against Tesla gigafactory

Anne Bach, a 27-year-old environmental activist, said Tesla's plans Tesla continued,

Published earlier this month showed it would need more than 300 cubic meters of water per hour which would drain the area's declining reserves.

"I am not against Tesla ... But it's about the site; in a forest area that is a protected wildlife zone. Is this necessary?" Bach said.

 "In such an ecological system like the one here and with the background that climate is changing, I cannot understand why another location was not selected from the beginning,"

said Frank Gersdorf, a member of "Citizens' Initiative Gruenheide against Gigafactory", a local group that organized Saturday's protest.

Homeless solutions:LA Councilman Seeks to Turn Closing Hospital into Housing for Homeless

O'Farrell said the city could potentially acquire the 366-bed hospital for less than what it would cost to build the same number of beds for the homeless.


Every city has some buildings unused

Asteroid could be dangerous to life on Earth, and its on the way.

Most dust particles will burn up harmlessly in our atmosphere, but if 2003 YT1 completely breaks apart into smaller asteroids, it could eventually pose a threat. The double asteroid is a bit of a monster, with the bigger rock measuring about 1.2 miles (2 km) and orbited by a 690-foot (210 m) companion.

Like Adding 'Five to Six Hiroshima Bombs of Heat Each Second,' Study Shows Oceans Warming at Record Rate

A new study published Monday shows that the Earth's oceans reached the highest temperatures and warmed the fastest since records began, highlighting the urgent need for global action to address the climate crisis before it's too late.

The study (pdf), "Record-Setting Ocean Warmth Continued in 2019," which was published in Advances in Atmospheric Studies, found the oceans have warmed by around 0.075 degrees C above the average of 1981-2010.

That level of warming, the paper found, is equal to 228,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (228 Sextillion) Joules of heat. Study lead author Lijing Cheng, associate professor with the International Center for Climate and Environmental Sciences at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences analogized the level of heating to something more manageable for the human mind.

The number of Americans drinking themselves to death has more than doubled

Alarming new report finds alcohol factored in nearly 1 million deaths between 1999 and 2017