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Post by mhbruin on Aug 20, 2022 7:54:23 GMT -8
I got over my addiction to chocolate, marshmallows, and nuts. I won’t lie, it was a rocky road. A Marine Biologist is Never a Hero in His Own HomeWhen Jenn Ross returned to her New Zealand home to find a few buckets out of place in the garage, she thought the family cat, Coco, might have brought in a bird. Instead she found a seal in the hall. The young animal had got through two cat flaps to enter the house in Mt Maunganui, about 150m from the sea - probably in pursuit of Coco the cat. Ms Ross' marine biologist husband Phil was unfortunately the only member of the family not at home at the time. He told the BBC he regretted missing his chance to shine, saying: "The big joke is that this is probably the one family emergency where it would be useful to have a marine biologist, and I wasn't there." After posing for some photos, the seal - nicknamed Oscar - was collected by the Department of Conservation and returned to the sea. Mr Ross said it was likely to be around 10 months old, and likened it to a "teenager".  |
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 20, 2022 7:59:23 GMT -8
Why Did They Kill Freyda?"Walruses are unpredictable in their behaviour," says Erik Born, a senior scientist at the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, "and are perfectly well able to catch a seal between their front flippers and stab them to death." As the walrus got closer to people - or the people got closer to her - there was an obvious danger. "Having a half-tonne heavy walrus - with sharp tusks - swimming among people is pretty risky," Dr Born says. What's more, walruses have been known to attack scuba divers and small boats - although these cases are few and far between.  Norway's Fisheries Directorate did discuss a possible solution to the issue other than euthanasia with experts before acting, including members of the Institute of Marine Research (IMR). But the outcome was not positive. According to the IMR, experts advised against anesthetising Freya, as she would "then most likely have sought safety in the water and drowned after the anaesthetic took effect". Attempting to immobilise the animal with drugs so she couldn't swim away and drown would have come with its own risk, warns biologist Dr Higdon. "Immobilising, capturing and moving wild animals can lead to physiological stress - and in extreme cases cause death," he says. (Euthanizing an animal always causes death.)The directorate agreed and had further concerns - pointing to the walrus's large size, limited access to blood vessels and "severe respiratory and circularity problems" when anaesthetised.
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 20, 2022 8:01:36 GMT -8
This Would Have Been a Lot Easier If Some Idiot Hadn't Killed the Original Agreement
A European proposal to restore the 2015 nuclear agreement between Western countries and Iran appears to be gaining traction, with sources revealing to Al Jazeera Arabic details of the proposed agreement, and indicating that there is broad agreement among all sides.
What does the potential deal look like?
If an agreement is reached, the JCPOA will be revived in four phases over two 60-day periods, sources told Al Jazeera Arabic.
Media outlets inside and outside Iran on Friday published details of a potential agreement that appear to come from a leaked audio file of a meeting with chief negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani.
According to the unconfirmed reports, some 150 Iranian financial entities and 17 banks will be removed from the sanctions list on the day the agreement is finalised, and Iran will start immediately but gradually rolling back its nuclear advances.
Moreover, $7bn worth of Iranian assets frozen by South Korea will be released, while Iran will gain two and a half years of guaranteed US sanctions relief, which equates to a total of five and a half years even if a Republican wins office in 2024, as President Joe Biden has committed to stay in a restored deal.
CNN and others have reported that Iran has abandoned its demand to take the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) off a US “terror” list as part of the agreement, instead agreeing to discuss the issue later.
Unconfirmed reports also suggest the text of the agreement could contain a clause stipulating that if Iran cooperates with the IAEA, signatories will move to kill an open-ended inquiry into traces of man-made nuclear material found at several Iranian sites in 2019. Ending the inquiry has been a major Iranian demand.
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 20, 2022 8:09:09 GMT -8
Cook v Silver
On Thursday, the Cook Political Report moved its prediction for control of the Senate from favoring the G.O.P. to a tossup;
Nate Silver: "Democrats are favored to win the Senate."
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 20, 2022 8:13:13 GMT -8
I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar in Numbers Too Big to Ignore
Note: Likely voter models may underestimate the size of the women's vote.
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 20, 2022 8:17:41 GMT -8
Plus He Would Just Lose Any Motion He Files
Former President Donald Trump on Friday threatened a “major motion” involving the Fourth Amendment over the FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago home.
He offered no details, though he appeared to be referring to a court action. The Fourth Amendment provides protection from unreasonable search and seizure.
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 20, 2022 8:19:42 GMT -8
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 20, 2022 8:23:15 GMT -8
Praise the Vlad, and Pass the Ammunition.
If They Were on Little Round Top, They Could Try a Bayonet Charge After They Run Out of Bullets
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 20, 2022 8:24:52 GMT -8
The QOP is Where Fun Goes to Die
The QOP is Where Democracy Goes to Die
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The Gang That Couldn't Spend Straight
Republican Senate hopefuls are getting crushed on airwaves across the country while their national campaign fund is pulling ads and running low on cash — leading some campaign advisers to ask where all the money went and to demand an audit of the committee’s finances, according to Republican strategists involved in the discussions.
In a highly unusual move, the National Republican Senatorial Committee this week canceled bookings worth about $10 million, including in the critical states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Arizona. A spokesman said the NRSC is not abandoning those races but prioritizing ad spots that are shared with campaigns and benefit from discounted rates. Still, the cancellations forfeit cheaper prices that came from booking early, and better budgeting could have covered both.
“The fact that they canceled these reservations was a huge problem — you can’t get them back,” said one Senate Republican strategist, who like others spokes on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters. “You can’t win elections if you don’t have money to run ads.”
The NRSC’s retreat came after months of touting record fundraising, topping $173 million so far this election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission disclosures. But the committee has burned through nearly all of it, with the NRSC’s cash on hand dwindling to $28.4 million by the end of June.
As of that month, the committee disclosed spending just $23 million on ads, with more than $21 million going into text messages and more than $12 million to American Express credit card payments, whose ultimate purpose isn’t clear from the filings. The committee also spent at least $13 million on consultants, $9 million on debt payments and more than $7.9 million renting mailing lists, campaign finance data show.
“If they were a corporation, the CEO would be fired and investigated,” said a national Republican consultant working on Senate races. “The way this money has been burned, there needs to be an audit or investigation because we’re not gonna take the Senate now and this money has been squandered. It’s a rip-off.”
The NRSC’s chairman, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, has already taken heat from fellow Republicans for running ads featuring him on camera and releasing his own policy agenda that became a Democratic punching bag — leading to jokes that “NRSC” stood for “National Rick Scott Committee” in a bid to fuel his own presumed presidential ambitions.
Other spending decisions, such as putting about $1 million total into reliably blue Colorado and Washington earlier this month sparked fresh questions after the committee turned around and canceled buys in core battlegrounds.
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 20, 2022 8:27:19 GMT -8
Will CNN Become Fox News Lite?
CNN's new CEO, Chris Licht, has been attending to an audience neglected by the network for the past several years: Republican lawmakers.
The network boss camped out in mid-July in a room on the first floor of the Senate side of the Capitol, S-120, where he asked GOP lawmakers to come talk with him privately. That arrangement avoided alerting the reporters who stalk the halls of the Capitol, sources said, and accommodated Republican lawmakers who preferred not to be seen hobnobbing with him.
Licht's message, according to one of the lawmakers who sat down with him as well as to several sources briefed on the exchanges: "We want to win back your trust."
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 20, 2022 8:31:05 GMT -8
Vance, the Candidate For Opioid Murderers and Hedge Fund Billionaires.
“J.D. Vance, the billionaire-backed U.S. Senate candidate in Ohio, has routinely positioned himself as an anti-opioid China-hawk, promising to rein in Big Pharma and bring jobs back to the U.S. But in recent weeks it has been revealed that Vance, a Trump-backed author, worked for a white shoe law firm that represented multiple Chinese companies and lobbied for Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin. Vance then hired an American Enterprise Institute (AEI) resident who cited Purdue-funded studies to downplay the role overprescribing painkillers plays in the opioid crisis as the addiction specialist to Ohio's Appalachian region for his nonprofit, "Our Ohio Renewal." ”
Also, J.D. Vance exploited the carried-interest tax loophole, Vance has structured his own personal finances to take advantage of that loophole. And one of the super PACs that is infusing his campaign with millions of dollars is funded by private equity billionaires that benefit from this loophole. Hope these items become front and center in the campaign. I will be out this morning but will be happy to respond to comments this afternoon.
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 20, 2022 8:35:33 GMT -8
The Wicked Witch of the East Isn't Happy With Oz
Former President Donald Trump is increasingly upset he endorsed former TV personality Mehmet Oz to run for a Senate seat in Pennsylvania, sources have told Rolling Stone.
He’s going to “f**king lose” unless something drastically changes, Trump has complained about his pick, two sources who have discussed November’s midterm elections with Trump told the publication.
Oz, a heart surgeon, is stumbling in the polls, and Trump has asked his confidants how someone once so popular on TV can’t keep his numbers up, according to Rolling Stone. Trump, like Oz, had zero experience in politics before he was elected president but was well-known as a successful businessman and then for hosting the long-running “Apprentice” reality TV shows.
Trump has even privately asked advisers if it was a mistake for him to endorse Oz, Rolling Stone reported.
Yet Trump is staying the course. He announced Friday that he will travel to Pennsylvania for a Sept. 3 rally in support of Oz, highly controversial GOP Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano and the “entire Pennsylvania Trump ticket.”
In the latest of Oz’s widely mocked blunders, he moaned in a video, originally made in April, about the high cost of “crudité” in a city that prefers Philly cheesesteaks. He also referred to the well-known Pennsylvania grocery store Redner’s, where he was shopping for raw vegetables, as “Wegner’s.”
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 20, 2022 8:39:11 GMT -8
Now Florida Is Against Words. Maybe All Classes Can Be Taught by Humming
The definition of “woke” literature from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has apparently grown so expansive that a public school district is now blocking a donation of dictionaries.
Hundreds of dictionaries planned for distribution by a local Rotary Club are gathering dust as the Sarasota County School District awaits guidance from Florida’s Department of Education on how to proceed in light of an education law recently signed by the Republican governor, The Sarasota-Herald Tribune reported Friday.
All book donations and purchases have been halted in the district for the rest of the year because the new law (HB 1467) requires books to be approved for suitability by state-certified media specialists, a job that doesn’t currently exist in the district.
DeSantis, who has signed laws that also restrict discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in elementary school classrooms, has said HB 1467 will help prevent “indoctrination through the school system.”
Just Look at the Filth in the Dictionary
lesbian adjective
Log In
les·bi·an | \ ˈlez-bē-ən \
Definition of lesbian (Entry 1 of 2)
1[from association with the ardent poetry written by Sappho of Lesbos (c. 610-c. 580 b.c.) to and about other women in the female religious and educational community she led] : of, relating to, or characterized by sexual or romantic attraction to other women or between women
gay and lesbian veterans
a lesbian relationship
2Lesbian : of or relating to Lesbos
lesbian noun
plural lesbians
Definition of lesbian (Entry 2 of 2)
: a woman who is sexually or romantically attracted to other women : a gay woman
lesbians and gay men
Examples of lesbian in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective
Most Pride events typically take place in June to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City, which is a pivotal moment in gay and lesbian history.
— Rod Stafford Hagwood, Sun Sentinel, 29 July 2022
In 2016, Finding Dory briefly showed an apparent lesbian couple, but the filmmakers declined to confirm this.
— Brendan Morrow, The Week, 15 June 2022
Naysheen Collins and Simone Kolysh, an interracial lesbian couple with four children, said the climate for LGBTQ people has led them to consider moving from their home outside Frederick, Md., to D.C. for a more welcoming environment.
— Justin Jouvenal, Washington Post, 7 June 2022
Beverly Shaw was the artist on this, and it’s where Midge takes Suzy to the Trapdoor, a lesbian bar.
— Jazz Tangcay, Variety, 4 Aug. 2022
With a quarter of all openly gay or lesbian lawmakers in the state legislature and the potential to add three more in November, San Diego has built a base for LGBTQ representation by filling local seats and advancing candidates to higher office.
— Deborah Sullivan Brennan, San Diego Union-Tribune, 1 Aug. 2022
Through her accounting of McCullers’s life (and her own), Shapland argues that the author’s work must be understood through her lesbian identity.
— Kristen Martin, The Atlantic, 3 Apr. 2022
Back then, my feelings about my size were further complicated by my lesbian identity.
— Dani Janae, refinery29.com, 8 Mar. 2021
Williams’ anxious callers were gay and lesbian couples who plan to marry.
— Shelia Poole, ajc, 14 July 2022
Recent Examples on the Web: Noun
Jacobson and Graham also consulted with real-life AAGPBL players like Maybelle Blair, who publicly came out as a lesbian this year at the age of 95.
— Devan Coggan, EW.com, 15 Aug. 2022
An article on Twitter about a young lesbian named Emma in Edgewater, Ind., whose high school prom was canceled to prevent her from attending with her girlfriend, hands them a surefire social media cause.
— Los Angeles Times, 12 Aug. 2022
Studies show that young lesbian and bisexual young women are at a greater risk of an unwanted pregnancy than their heterosexual peers.
— Jen Christensen, CNN, 28 July 2022
It’s all well and good for Korg to be portrayed as a gay man and for Valkyrie to be depicted as a Black lesbian.
— Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 13 July 2022
For Bilton’s mother, Debra, a cult-prone lesbian, Harrison was more than a sperm donor.
— Janet Manley, Washington Post, 12 July 2022
Stalter created the series and will star as Beth Parker, a 20-year-old Christian and closeted lesbian who wrestles with her sexuality and faith in God while entering adulthood in suburban Ohio.
— Lesley Goldberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 23 June 2022
The show’s curatorial team acquired a complete set of the highly influential lesbian/feminist catalog Ladyslipper Music—a donation from the catalog’s founder Laurie Fuchs.
— Lucia Cheng, Smithsonian Magazine, 23 June 2022
That’s an attitude demanded by owner Honor Huxley, a lesbian.
— Sun Sentinel, 16 June 2022
Teenage Boys Everywhere Are Locking Themselves in the Bathroom With a Dictionary
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 20, 2022 8:42:57 GMT -8
The Burning Question: Will Uber Fire Him?Fritz Sam started his day driving an Uber in New York City, just as he had for the past seven years. But moments into his second ride, his morning took a terrifying turn. Suddenly, he found himself sprinting toward a burning building. He had picked up a passenger, Jemimah James Wei, around 8 a.m. in Brooklyn on Wednesday. She was headed to LaGuardia Airport to catch a 10 a.m. flight to Vermont. “Five minutes into the ride, we’re passing this block and I noticed that there’s some activity going on in front of a brownstone,” recalled Sam, 54. “I realized it was a fire.” As he approached the home, he saw that a second-floor window was completely engulfed in flames. Although his passenger had a flight to catch, Sam turned to her and asked: “Can we stop and help?” “Obviously!” Wei, 29, told him. They darted toward the commotion, and “flames were shooting out of the building. There were glass shards everywhere,” Wei said. “It looked really bad.” “From the outside, it looked serious,” said Sam, a father of two daughters, ages 7 and 9. “I could imagine what it must have looked like in the apartment.” A crowd had gathered on the sidewalk, and people were panicking as residents rushed out of the building. Sam asked if anyone was still inside. No one seemed to know, so he made a flash decision to run in himself. “I felt like I had a responsibility to do this,” Sam said in a phone interview with The Washington Post, adding that he wasn’t about to leave the scene if people were possibly stuck inside. “I had to do something.” “It’s not my family, but it’s someone else’s family,” he continued. “If it was my family, and I wasn’t able to be there, I would hope that somebody else would go in and help them.” Uber driver paused mid-ride to rescue people from burning Brooklyn building
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