China

:Yes, he's right. It lacked a certain je ne sais quoi. It would have been better if it had been served to him rectally.

Squirrels caused 80 outages in Toronto last year: hydro officials Squirrels caused about 80 power outages in Toronto in 2023 after coming into contact with power equipment, Toronto Hydro said, after a squirrel-related outage in the city Wednesday affected about 6,500 people. Racoons caused 13 outages in 2023, whilst birds caused about 30 outages in the same year, Toronto Hydro said in an email. "While each power outage is unique to its circumstances, outages due to wildlife interference…are resolved on average in under two hours," spokesperson Daniel McNeil said. Click on the link for the full article

Trapped cargo ship Dali will refloat to Baltimore Monday at high tide Almost two months after its devastating collision with a Baltimore bridge, the trapped cargo ship Dali will refloat and travel to the Baltimore marine terminal on Monday morning, officials said. After weeks of salvage operations, the Dali can finally be relocated thanks to a series of controlled explosions which broke apart a massive piece of the Francis Scott Bridge that had been stuck atop the ship’s bow, officials said. An estimated 500-foot section of the bridge weighing 8-12 million pounds was removed from the ship. “The refloat and transit sequence is deliberately designed to ensure all response personnel around the M/V Dali maintain control of the vessel, from refloat, transit to, and berthing at a local marine terminal,” Unified Command said in a news release Saturday. Conditions permitting, the massive ship’s journey will begin around 5 a.m. on Monday during peak high tide, according to Unified Command. Crews will begin prepping the ship about 18 hours before – about midday on Sunday – to take full advantage of the high tide, officials added. Up to five tugboats will then tow and push the Dali about two and a half miles to the Seagirt Marine Terminal in Baltimore, the release said. It will take an estimated three hours to transport the 984-foot, 106,000-ton ship. Click on the link for the full article

Eight charged with kidnapping man held captive in neighbour’s cellar for 26 years Eight suspects have been charged with the kidnapping an Algerian man who was held captive for almost 30 years in a cellar just metres from his family home. Omar Bin Omran disappeared in the Algerian city of Djelfa 27 years ago when he was a teenager. But his family were shocked to discover the man had been held prisoner just 200m from his home the entire time, in a hole inside a neighbour’s sheep pen. His family searched for him for years across the country, even appearing on TV to appeal for info on his whereabouts, but eventually gave up hope and assumed he had been killed in the civil war which rocked the region at the time. But years after all hopes of finding him had passed, the sister of a neighbour dropped a bombshell on social media after a inheritance dispute, and revealed that Omar was alive the entire time. Omar’s family subsequently stormed the property and were shocked to discover their long-lost relative was still alive, and have since provided an update on his condition. ‘They found him in a stable, where the suspect keeps his sheep, [the cellar trapdoor] covered in hay, and he was thankfully saved,’ said Khaled Rgueb, Omar’s cousin. According to Algerian media reports, Omar told relatives he was unable to escape because he was under a ‘spell.’ Mr Reggab said: ‘This matter is puzzling. The (sheep pen) belongs to the residence and he has some sheep. It has piles of hay and Omar was covered with all this hay. ‘Even when we asked him, why didn’t you shout or try to resist or leave the house and so on, his answer was very simple. He said literally ‘I was not able to even speak or even walk.’ Footage of his rescue shows a disheveled and bewildered looking Omar, now aged 45, look up to his rescuers. Omar reportedly told family members he used to see them passing by the stable he was held captive in, but was unable to contact them because he believed himself to be ‘under some sort of black magic spell’ cast by his alleged abductor. When Omar went missing, his dog reportedly pined for him outside the neighbour’s home for weeks- before allegedly being poisoned by the captor in attempt to ward the family off, according to Algerian newspaper El Khabar. Click on the link for the full article

NAACP seeking justice in Airman Roger Fortson’s death; Okaloosa County Sheriff responds The NAACP in Okaloosa County announced that the group wants to seek justice for Senior Airman Roger Fortson after he was killed in a deputy-involved shooting. NAACP President, Sabu Williams, released the statement as follows: The NAACP stated with this and similar incidents, the branch and the Florida State Conference NAACP is demanding the following: A full, independent, and transparent investigation of the killing of Senior Airman Fortson be conducted by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement The United States Department of Justice conduct a full and transparent investigation into the killing of Airman Fortson All related body cam footage, audio, and digital communication, including any 911 calls be released publicly The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office release the disciplinary records of the officer involved in the killing of Airman Roger Fortson A series of community engagement sessions be held with the county sheriff’s office Access to review reports on the use of force, use of lethal force complaints, disciplinary actions, termination records, and lawsuits connected to the Okaloosa County Sheriff within the past 10 years All police departments in the state of Florida commit to training its officers in methods of de-escalation and other alternatives to the use of force The same day, the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office released a statement in response, saying they received the NAACP Okaloosa Branch’s list of demands and understood their concerns. The statement was as follows:

AP Investigation: In hundreds of deadly police encounters, officers broke multiple safety guidelines In hundreds of deaths where police used force meant to stop someone without killing them, officers violated well-known guidelines for safely restraining and subduing people — not simply once or twice, but multiple times. Most violations involved pinning people facedown in ways that could restrict their breathing or stunning them repeatedly with Tasers, an Associated Press investigation found. Some officers had little choice but to break policing best practices — safety guidelines that are recommended by government agencies, law enforcement groups and training experts — to save a life or protect someone. Many other violations were harder to explain. Officers at times prematurely resorted to weapons or physical holds during routine calls or misread a person’s confusion as defiance in medical emergencies, setting off a string of mistakes. In other cases, they kept applying force even after they had people handcuffed and controlled. For its investigation, AP catalogued 1,036 deaths over a decade’s time after officers had used force not involving their guns. In about half, medical officials ruled that law enforcement caused or contributed to the deaths, but they usually didn’t mention whether policing best practices were followed. Click on the link for the full article

GOP fighting, 50-hour Democratic filibuster kill push to make amending Missouri Constitution harder GOP infighting and a record-breaking, 50-hour Democratic filibuster on Friday killed a Republican push to make amending Missouri’s constitution harder, an effort in part aimed at thwarting an upcoming ballot measure on abortion-rights. The GOP-led Senate adjourned Friday morning — nearly eight hours before the 6 p.m. deadline for lawmakers to pass legislation this year — without passing what was a top priority for Republicans this year. The Senate’s early departure came after Democrats spent Monday, Tuesday and half of Wednesday blocking all work in hopes of pushing Republicans to strip a ban on noncitizens voting, which is already illegal in Missouri, from the proposed constitutional amendment. Democrats argued that Republicans pushed for the provision to persuade voters to support an effort to limit their own power at the polls. “Republicans wanted to make it harder to amend the constitution,” Senate Democratic Minority Leader John Rizzo told reporters Friday. “We recognize they have a supermajority, but we wouldn’t let them trick people.” The GOP wants to make it so amendments need support from a majority of voters in a majority of congressional districts as well. It’s part of an effort to give more weight to voters in rural areas that trend more Republican compared to the state’s big cities. Click on the link for the full article

Former Trump attorney John Eastman pleads not guilty in Arizona election interference case John Eastman, a former attorney for former president Donald Trump, pleaded not guilty on Friday to charges related to a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results in Arizona. Eastman is among over a dozen Trump allies who were charged in the state last month, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and former Trump aide Boris Epshteyn. Outside of the courthouse following his arraignment, Eastman said, "I, of course, pled not guilty. I had zero communications with the electors in Arizona, zero involvement in any of the election litigation in Arizona or legislative hearings. And I’m confident that with the laws faithfully applied I will be fully exonerated at the end of this process." Eastman is the first of the group to plead not guilty. Click on the link for the full article

It's funny how he was found with his finger on the trigger, yet they were unable to locate any fingerprints on the gun.

Silencer for leaf blowers picked up by Black & Decker There are few power tools that raise a neighbor’s hackles quite like the leaf blower. Sure, others can be loud, but there’s just something about their particular ear-splitting drone that cuts in like a dentist’s drill. Perhaps it's people's frustrating tendency to use them early in the morning, when folk are trying to sleep in. Perhaps it's the knowledge that using a broom or rake would not only be quieter, but also wouldn’t just move all the leaves onto your lawn. Either way, it's the kind of problem engineering students love to tackle. The team’s design ended up taking the form of an attachment that fits over the end and dampens the specific frequencies blasted out by leaf blowers, without reducing the force of the air. They compare it to a silencer for a gun, or a muffler for a car. The researchers started by analyzing the sounds leaf blowers made, and how they make them. “The sound that comes out of this leaf blower is very complicated and it contains a lot of different frequencies,” said Andrew Palacio, a member of the research team. “A lot of different notes on a piano would be a good analogy.” It turns out, among the cacophony that these tools emit are some high frequency noises that are particularly annoying to the human brain. The team designed their attachment to specifically dampen these frequencies, reducing them by around 12 decibels (dB) at 50 ft (15 m), or 94% quieter. The overall noise has come down by about 37% – that means there’ll still be some noise of course, but this device should take the edge off it. Click on the link for the full article

Conservative scion Brent Bozell IV sentenced to nearly 4 years in Jan. 6 case A man whose family members were key architects of the American conservative movement was sentenced Friday to three years and nine months in federal prison for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which included smashing windows that allowed the mob to storm into the building during the initial breach. Federal prosecutors sought more than 11 years in prison and a terrorism enhancement for Brent Bozell IV, the son of Media Research Center founder Brent Bozell III and grandson of Joe McCarthy speechwriter Brent Bozell Jr., who was William F. Buckley Jr.'s brother-in-law and ghost-wrote Barry Goldwater's "The Conscience of a Conservative." But Judge John Bates sentenced Bozell IV to 45 months in prison and $4,727 in restitution Friday. Bates found that the clear language of the terrorism enhancement statute would apply in Bozell's case, saying it's "a little difficult for me to escape" that conclusion. But Bates disagreed with the enormous impact it would have on Bozell's sentence range and seemed uncomfortable with labeling a man with a leadership role in the politically-motivated attack on the U.S. Capitol as a domestic terrorist. "I’m not sure that label is an appropriate label for the defendant to have to carry with him,” Bates said, noting that while Bozell busted windows that let the mob breach the building and joined the mob as it overtook multiple police lines, his conduct wasn't "meaningfully violent" and he didn't cause any physical harm to officers. Still, he previously found that Bozell was “leaning toward the officers with his head down” and "forcibly" made contact with officers as the mob charged a police line. He also found that Bozell repeatedly lied on the stand about his conduct. Bates also took the opportunity to indirectly push back on the rhetoric that Republican politicians have been using about Jan. 6 defendants. “Not for a moment should January 6 rioters be considered true patriots,” Bates, a George W. Bush appointee said. “They’re not political prisoners. They’re not hostages.” Click of the link for the full article

Video shows Georgia cops kicking in door to save elderly woman asleep during house fire According to police, officers responded around 12:45 a.m. after they smelled smoke nearby and eventually found the home engulfed in flames. Authorities knocked on doors and windows but got no response. Neighbors told officers they believed someone was still inside, an 89-year-old woman. With the fire spreading and firefighters not yet on the scene, police kicked the front door open, finding the resident who was asleep in her bedroom, and escorting her to safety. Click on the link for the full article and video

That's true for many of them.

Lessons from rattlesnake class in the American Southwest In a Phoenix-area venomous snake training course, the first thing students learn is that basically everything they thought they knew about rattlesnakes is a myth. For starters, rattlesnakes aren't aggressive. They don't rattle to warn that they're about to strike. And they definitely don't chase people. "They're not out to get us," Cale Morris of the Phoenix Herpetological Sanctuary told the class Tuesday. The sanctuary holds the class for the public and businesses in the spring, as rattlesnakes wake up from their winter-long naps, known in the reptile kingdom as brumation. The trainings run through a host of rattlesnake information before teaching people how to safely grab snakes with tongs, plop them in a bucket and remove them from their homes. The students also get hands-on experience doing it. And that practice could prove to be quite helpful. Arizona saw a surge in rattlesnake bites in April, according to data provided to NPR on Wednesday by the Banner Poison and Drug Information Center. Click on the link for the full article

Some in Houston facing no power for weeks after storms cause widespread damage, killing at least 4 Power outages could last weeks in parts of Houston, an official warned Friday, after thunderstorms with hurricane-force winds tore through the city, knocking out electricity to nearly 1 million homes and businesses in the region, blowing out windows on downtown high rises and flipping vehicles. The National Weather Service said it confirmed a tornado with peak winds of 110 mph (177 kph) touched down near the northwest Houston suburb of Cypress in Harris County. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the county’s top elected official, said crews were still trying to determine the extent of the damage and the number of casualties from Thursday’s storms. Houston Mayor John Whitmire said four people, and possibly five, had died. “It was fierce. It was intense. It was quick, and most Houstonians didn’t have time to place themselves out of harms way,” Whitmire said at a news conference. With multiple transmission towers down, Hidalgo urged patience. Thousands of utility workers were headed to the area, where power had already been restored to roughly 200,000 customers. Another 100,000 customers were without power in Louisiana, down from a peak of 215,000. Click on the link for the full article

When will Florida be underwater? Here’s what to know As more attention is being given to melting ice caps and rising sea levels more people are asking when parts of Florida could be left underwater. So News 6 Chief Meteorologist Tom Sorrells asked an expert. Professor Emeritus of Planetary Sciences Dr. Joseph Donoghue with the University of Central Florida said sea levels are rising about 4 millimeters per year, but he expects that number to increase quickly. “The global climate models — which are the only insight we have into future climate — all project that global sea level will continue to accelerate in the rate of rise and that sea levels by 2100, the end of this century, will be over one meter above present, so 3.1 feet, and could be much more if parts of West Antarctica collapse. That’s the worst-case scenario. If that happens, it could be 2 meters or more. Some of the worst-case projections say that it could be 2 meters by 2100 and certainly by another century.” Dr. Donoghue said 1 meter used to be an outrageous suggestion, but it is now what most of the climate models suggest, and if that becomes reality, it will impact a large portion of Florida. “A 1-meter rise inundates about 10% of Florida, and as you said, that’s mostly in the South and Southwest,” Dr. Donoghue said. These projections are already starting to have impacts on people living in the state. “Even the insurance companies are starting to realize that. It’s going to be harder and harder to get a mortgage and insurance on a coastal property,” Dr. Donoghue said. Click on the link for the full article

Lessons From a Mass Shooter’s Mother A decade after her son committed a massacre, Chin Rodger is on a quest to help prevent the next tragedy. The Pacific stretched along the coastal 101 in brilliant blue, the bright May sky beginning to soften toward sunset. Chin Rodger felt a lift of optimism as she exited the freeway and arrived at a sushi restaurant tucked away in the tony town of Montecito, where she greeted her 22-year-old son, Elliot. He looked well. He wore a designer shirt and Armani sunglasses, his dark hair styled, a smile on his boyish face. He was happy to see her and his younger sister, Georgia, a high school senior who often joined their mom for the drive up from Los Angeles. This was a favorite dinner spot for their monthly get-together since Elliot began attending Santa Barbara City College more than two years earlier. They ordered their usual plates to share and chatted about nothing in particular. Seated across from Chin, Elliot began glancing over her shoulder. “Look at that couple,” he said, eyeing a young man and woman at another table. He muttered that the guy looked unworthy of his attractive blonde date. Chin was used to his awkward social insecurity, part of his longtime emotional struggles, and she steered him back to positive conversation. She was pleased when the always skinny Elliot ordered an additional roll and began polishing it off. “Wow, you’re eating a lot,” Georgia said. He shrugged. “So what?” Elliot liked this place because it felt far removed from where he lived in nearby Isla Vista, a small bluff-top town hugging University of California, Santa Barbara, whose party scene once attracted Elliot but had become alienating for him. Chin watched him enjoying the meal. It had been about three weeks since he had dropped out of communication for a few days and she found a video he’d posted online about his frustrations over girls. Worried, she’d called a social worker Elliot met with when visiting home, who said they should dial a crisis hotline in Santa Barbara. When police went to Elliot’s apartment for a welfare check, they concluded that all seemed fine with him, and his texts and calls with Chin since then had been encouraging. He’d told her his spring classes were finishing well and talked of promptly paying off a parking ticket, which struck her as part of his emerging self-improvement. Chin cut the visit a little short because Georgia had plans with friends later that night. Their usual stroll for coffee and dessert would have to wait for next time. They hugged Elliot goodbye in the mild evening air, then got on the road back to LA. Chin left heartened by her son’s relaxed demeanor and newfound appetite. It would be years before she would begin to learn what those really were: the last in an accumulating trail of warning signs. Click on the link for the full story

Putin's war turns troops into 'sex sadists' with 'wives braced for abuse with manual’ Russian troops returning from war in Ukraine are so broken they return as "sex sadists" with their wives handed a horrific manual on domestic abuse. The grim training guide asks women to put up with beatings and violent sex from their partners suffering mentally from the horrors of the frontline where hundreds and thousands have been killed. As such with soldiers decompressing from military life, their girlfriends and wives have been tasked with taking their monstrous behaviour on the chin and instead show empathy and support. The manual reads: "Changes may manifest themselves in temporary intolerance to touch and decreased sexual desire. “However, they can also be expressed in increased sexual arousal, the need for frequent sexual acts, and a predisposition to aggressive forms of sex.” Created by pro-war organisation All-Russia People’s Front, the manual stipulates women must not criticise their menfolk, even if they behave poorly, or compare them to other men who have returned from war more well-adjusted. The guide instructs women to “learn to listen to silence and just be there”, make sure he “doesn’t blame himself” and to speak in a “quiet voice”. Click on the link for the full article

Boeing whistleblower John Barnett died by suicide, coroner rules Boeing whistleblower John “Mitch” Barnett took his own life on March 9, South Carolina authorities reiterated in two reports released Friday. All findings suggest he died from a single, self-inflicted gunshot wound. Barnett, 62, was found dead in his truck in Charleston, S.C. He was in the midst of giving depositions alleging Boeing retaliated against him for complaints about quality lapses, and was scheduled to continue depositions the day his body was found. As he was a Boeing whistleblower caught up in a long legal fight with his embattled former employer, Barnett’s death received global attention. That attention intensified this month when a second whistleblower, Joshua Dean of Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems, died from an infection. Click on the link for the full article And so did Epstein.

Homeowner defending his wife uses knife to cut armed man ‘to pieces,’ Florida cops say A homeowner defending his wounded wife grabbed a seven-inch knife and “went to work” on the accused gunman, cutting him “to pieces,” according to Florida investigators. The suspect was “very much deceased by the time the deputies could get to him,” Highlands County Sheriff Paul Blackman said in a video posted Friday, May 17, on Facebook. It happened around 8:30 p.m. May 16 inside an Avon Park home, about a 75-mile drive south from Orlando. “Deputies found two possible victims, a female and a male, both 69 years of age. Both victims had what can be described a serious injuries,” Blackman said. “It was discovered that Lindsey Glenn used a ruse to gain entry into the victims’ residence. Once inside the residence, he produced a firearm and shot the female victim in the face. The male victim, seeing his wife shot, armed himself with what is described as a seven-inch garden knife.” In the minutes that followed, the homeowner “went to work” with the knife, overpowering the suspect and killing him, officials said. “Ultimately, the suspect Lindsey Glenn was cut to pieces,” Blackman said. Click on the link for the full article

Electric Car Charger Vandalism Continues To Surge Nationwide A Tesla Supercharging station in the Bay Area was recently targeted by vandals who severed the charging cord from every stall. A few days prior, 5 separate Supercharger locations were stripped in Houston, TX. In Fresno, CA, over 50 of the city’s 88 EV charging stations have been pillaged – some multiple times. Since the start of 2024, hundreds of Level 2 (L2) and DC fast charging (DCFC) stalls across the United States have been targeted by scalpers and vandals. Historically, most vandalism against EVs and charging infrastructure was committed by those with anti-EV beliefs or some personal vendetta. But more recently, thieves are just looking to make a quick buck by nabbing the copper material used in cable wiring. The scrapped metal is then sold to recyclers who pay pennies on the dollar for the raw materials. For a haul that might net criminals $50 at most, the damage often costs cities and charging operators thousands to source and install new charging cords. Click on the link for the full article

“Outrageously” priced weight-loss drugs could bankrupt US health care With the debut of remarkably effective weight-loss drugs, America's high obesity rate and its uniquely astronomical prescription drug pricing appear to be set on a catastrophic collision course—one that threatens to "bankrupt our entire health care system," according to a new Senate report that modeled the economic impact of the drugs in different uptake scenarios. If just half of the adults in the US with obesity start taking a new weight-loss drug, such as Wegovy, the collective cost would total an estimated $411 billion per year, the analysis found. That's more than the $406 billion Americans spent in 2022 on all prescription drugs combined. While the bulk of the spending on weight-loss drugs will occur in the commercial market—which could easily lead to spikes in health insurance premiums—taxpayer-funded Medicare and Medicaid programs will also see an extraordinary financial burden. In the scenario that half of adults with obesity go on the drug, the cost to those federal programs would total $166 billion per year, rivaling the programs' total 2022 drug costs of $175 billion. In all, by 2031, total US spending on prescription drugs is poised to reach over $1 trillion per year due to weight-loss drugs. Without them, the baseline projected spending on all prescription drugs would be just under $600 billion. Click on the link for the full article

When the U.S. Tried to Win World War II with Radioactive Foxes The United States government knew it needed to step up its espionage game during World War II. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS)—the forerunner of the CIA—was created just six months after the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, and it was tasked with putting a creative spin on the art of war. “It was my policy to consider any method whatever that might aid the war, however unorthodox or untried,” wrote Stanley Lovell, the OSS’s head of Research and Development (think of him like Q from James Bond). This policy led to the testing of some rather unusual ideas, from small time-release bombs glued to bats to developing of a chemical that smelled like feces that would be sprayed on the enemy to embarrass them. Both plans were (unsurprisingly) nixed. But perhaps strangest of all was Operation Fantasia, an absurd—and ultimately unsuccessful—plot that sought to use glow-in-the-dark foxes as a form of psychological warfare. William Donovan, director of the OSS, told Lovell that he wanted to “outfox the Nazis and the [Japanese].” One of the ideas that sprang up from his directive ran in an unexpectedly literal direction. Allen Abrams, acting director of R&D, requested the creation of a floating device in the shape of a creature (his suggestions were a fox or a dragon) that was capable of “luminescence without the source of light being apparent.” Enter Ed Salinger, a businessman who had previously worked in Japan, giving him some degree of insider knowledge that the OSS wanted to take advantage of. Salinger thought U.S. forces could break the enemy’s morale by tapping into fears about kitsune—supernatural fox creatures from Japanese folklore—that are sometimes seen as harbingers of doom. Salinger was unfazed; his original plan involved live foxes anyway. To make them appear seemingly spirit-like, they would be coated with luminescent paint. Salinger’s plot clearly did not take animal welfare into account: The paint did more than just give the bushy-tailed creatures an otherworldly glow—it was also hazardously radioactive. The dangers of the paint were well-known. In 1928, five “Radium Girls” sued U.S. Radium after being falsely told the luminous paint they worked with was safe. The women were employed to paint watch and clock faces and ingested the substance when shaping their brushes to a point with their mouths. The poisonous substance caused necrosis of the jaw and even death, among many other issues. Despite the known hazards of using such a dangerous product, 30 foxes were painted and taken for a test run (literally!): The OSS released the glow-in-the-dark animals in Washington, D.C.’s Rock Creek Park. It was a popular spot, mere miles from the White House, historically frequented by several presidents (Teddy Roosevelt had been particularly prone to taking people birding, hiking, and rock climbing there). The OSS figured that if the ghostly canines could give the American public a little fright, then they would surely terrify the Japanese people. Park-goers were suitably spooked, with the National Park Police reporting, “Horrified citizens, shocked by the sudden sight of the leaping ghost-like animals, fled from the dark recesses of the park with the ‘screaming jeemies.’” Click on the link for the full story