If the rate of vaccinations don’t pick up, I’m starting to worry that we won’t be in person for years.

Happening in the World: SpaceX launched a record-breaking 143 satellites into space on a Falcon rocket Sunday morning. As the technology shifts to be miniaturized with lower costs, satellites are becoming easier to make. Transporting these satellites has become easier as well, as SpaceX offers to take packages to orbit for just a million dollars (BBC).

Happening in the US: An officer in Tacoma, Washington is under investigation after he drove into a crowd watching street racers doing burnouts. One person was rushed to a hospital with injuries. The Tacoma Interim Police Chief, Mike Ake, said in his statement that he is “concerned that [their] department is experiencing another use of deadly force incident,” (BBC).

Happening in NYC: As federal vaccine supplies dwindle, New York City is struggling to keep up with its goals for vaccinations. Mayor Bill de Blasio set a goal of one million vaccinations by the end of January, and with hundreds of thousands of vaccinations to go yet less than 27,000 vaccines currently available, appointments are getting canceled. De Blasio is attempting to get approval to use second doses as the first dose for vaccinations and wait for new shipments to begin giving the second doses (Gothamist).

Happening in our Community: The Graduate Initiative for Inclusion and Engagement is holding an LGBTQ+ Roundtable with Columbia faculty this Thursday, January 28th, at 4 p.m,. Faculty will be discussing their experiences in higher education as members of the LGBTQ+ community. To register, click here.

Film of the Week: Jurassic Park (dir. by Steven Spielberg)

satellite via Bwog Archives