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Post by mhbruin on Jan 27, 2023 9:17:57 GMT -8
 (It should be "levee". A levy is a tax.) This Is Almost Too Much BearA black bear in Colorado has been pausing and posing in front of motion-detecting cameras, snapping hundreds of "selfies". On one camera, roughly 400 out of 580 images were of the same bear. Most of the other animals at Open Space and Mountain Parks (OSMP) in Boulder simply walk by, searching for food or resting places. But not this bear. This animal "took a special interest" in the cameras, an OSMP spokesperson said, and seized the "opportunity." |
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 27, 2023 9:20:23 GMT -8
Today's Safety Tip: Don't Pick Up Radioactive CapsulesAn urgent search is under way in Western Australia after a tiny capsule containing a radioactive substance went missing. The casing contains a small quantity of radioactive Caesium-137, which could cause serious illness if touched. It was lost between the town of Newman and the city of Perth in mid-January - a distance of roughly 1,400km (870 miles). The public has been warned to stay away from the capsule if they see it. It was being transported on a truck between a mine site north of Newman in the Pilbara region and the north-eastern parts of Perth between 10-16 January when it was mislaid. Caesium-137 is a substance commonly used in mining operations. The Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) has said the capsule can't be weaponised but could cause radiation burns and have other longer-term risks like cancer. 
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 27, 2023 9:22:06 GMT -8
Who Was He Dating?
A group of scientists from Cairo University revealed previously unknown details about a mummified teenage boy dating to about 300 BC.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 27, 2023 9:24:02 GMT -8
Is It OK To Date Your Mummy?
Egyptian archaeologists have uncovered a Pharaonic tomb near the capital, Cairo, containing what may be the oldest and “most complete” mummy yet to be discovered in the country.
The 4,300-year-old mummy was found at the bottom of a 15-metre (49-foot) shaft in a recently uncovered group of tombs dating back to the fifth and sixth dynasties of the Old Kingdom near the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, Zahi Hawass, director of the team, told reporters on Thursday.
The mummy, of a man named Hekashepes, featured a “gold-leaf covering” and was in a limestone sarcophagus that had been sealed in mortar.
“I put my head inside to see what was inside the sarcophagus: a beautiful mummy of a man completely covered in layers of gold,” Hawass said. “This mummy may be the oldest and most complete mummy found in Egypt to date.”
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 27, 2023 9:25:29 GMT -8
She Was Refused Gas, But She Won the Lottery
A jury has awarded an Oregon woman $1 million in damages after finding she was discriminated against by a gas station employee who told her, “I don’t serve Black people.”
The Multnomah County jury’s award this week to Portland resident Rose Wakefield, 63, included punitive damages of $550,000.
Wakefield’s lawyer, Gregory Kafoury, said she stopped for gas at Jacksons Food Store in Beaverton on March 12, 2020, and saw the attendant, Nigel Powers, ignore her and instead pump gas for other drivers.
When she tried to ask for assistance, he said, “I’ll get to you when I feel like it,” according to Kafoury.
Attendants are required to pump fuel for motorists at gas stations in Oregon’s larger population centers including Portland and the nearby suburb of Beaverton.
Surveillance video showed Wakefield go inside to ask for help. Another employee followed her back outside to pump her gas. Kafoury said as she was leaving, Wakefield asked Powers why he refused to help her and that he said, “I don’t serve Black people.”
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 27, 2023 9:27:43 GMT -8
When is a Fireball Not a Fireball?
If you've ever been confused by miniature bottles branded as Fireball Cinnamon, the popular cinnamon-flavored drink found in gas stations and supermarkets, you're not alone — and now there's a lawsuit over the matter.
Citing two news articles pointing out that the bottles, while displaying the Fireball label, do not actually contain whisky, lawyers representing Chicago plaintiff Anna Marquez are seeking unspecified damages against Fireball-maker the Sazerac Company.
In the suit, Marquez and her attorneys say the mini bottles, which advertise "Fireball Cinnamon," falsely give consumers the impression that the drinks are merely smaller versions of regular Fireball whisky. The fine print on the bottles, which states that the shots are a "malt beverage with natural whisky & other flavors and caramel color," is deceptive because it includes the word "whisky," they wrote.
"When viewed together with the Fireball distilled spirit brand name, the label misleads consumers into believing it is or contains distilled spirits," the suit states.
I've Been Confused Over Many Things, But I Can't Say Fireball Cinnamon Is One of Them.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 27, 2023 9:30:33 GMT -8
The QOP Has a New Candidate For Biggest Entitled Jerk
The Senate is out Friday, still waiting on the Republicans to get their shit together on committee assignments. The committees can still meet and have hearings and do work because like the Senate as a whole, they are continuing bodies. It’s not like the House, where literally nothing could happen until the Speaker was elected. But it does mean there could be no real legislative work. They had just two roll call votes, one an a non-binding resolution and one executive confirmation. They still have not adopted their organizing resolution that will allow legislation to start moving.
That’s largely because a bit of disarray in the GOP, when newly elected Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) announced that he wanted one of the Judiciary Committee Republicans to step down and let him have their seat. He even called Sens. Marsha Blackburn (TN) and Thom Tillis (NC) to ask them to make room for him. They were not amused. The first problem for Schmitt, other than being an entitled asshole who totally bucked all the norms and traditions of learning his place as a freshman, is that his colleague from Missouri, Sen. Josh Hawley, is already on the committee. The Senate Republican Conference has a rule against that. He asked for a waiver and didn’t get it.
But that process kept the Republicans from finishing committee assignments for all the members. He has to come up with new committee requests and submit them. That has pushed the Republicans’ organizing into next week, and with it, the formal organization of all the Senate committees. That means the Senate can’t adopt its whole organizing resolution. It appears that Schmitt decided to stake his claim as the Senate’s most obnoxious member early on. Look out, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. You’ve got some stiff competition.
On Thursday, they designated January as “National Stalking Awareness Month,” on a 94-0 vote, just to have something to do. Usually, these kinds of resolutions are done by voice votes or under unanimous consent. On Monday, they confirmed Brendan Owens as assistant defense secretary for energy, installations, and environment, 60-35.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 27, 2023 9:35:46 GMT -8
New Poll Shows 27% Are Ignorant or Idiots
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 27, 2023 9:48:10 GMT -8
Timothy Snyder Connects the Dots. Manafort, McGonigal, and Deripaska, Oh My! It's All Connected.On 23 January, we learned that a former FBI special agent, Charles McGonigal, was arrested on charges involving taking money to serve foreign interests. One accusation is that in 2017 he took $225,000 from a foreign actor while in charge of counterintelligence at the FBI's New York office. Another charge is that McGonigal took money from Oleg Deripaska, a sanctioned Russian oligarch, after McGonigal’s 2018 retirement from the FBI. Deripaska, a hugely wealthy metals tycoon close to the Kremlin, "Putin's favorite industrialist," was a figure in a Russian influence operation that McGonigal had investigated in 2016. Deripaska has been under American sanctions since 2018. Deripaska is also the former employer, and the creditor, of Trump's 2016 campaign manager, Paul Manafort. The reporting on this so far seems to miss the larger implications. One of them is that Trump’s historical position looks far cloudier. In 2016, Trump's campaign manager (Manafort) was a former employee of a Russian oligarch (Deripaska), and owed money to that same Russian oligarch. And the FBI special agent (McGonigal) who was charged with investigating the Trump campaign's Russian connections then went to work (according to the indictment) for that very same Russian oligarch (Deripaska). This is obviously very bad for Trump personally. But it is also very bad for FBI New York, for the FBI generally, and for the United States of America. Another is that we must revisit the Russian influence operation on Trump’s behalf in 2016, and the strangely weak American response. Moscow’s goal was to move minds and institutions such that Hillary Clinton would lose and Donald Trump would win. We might like to think that any FBI special agent would resist, oppose, or at least be immune to such an operation. Now we are reliably informed that a trusted FBI actor, one who was responsible for dealing with just this sort of operation, was corrupt. And again, the issue is not just the particular person. If someone as important as McGonigal could take money from foreigners while on the job at FBI New York, and then go to work for a sanctioned Russian oligarch he was once investigating, what is at stake, at a bare minimum, is the culture of the FBI's New York office. The larger issue is the health of our national discussions of politics and the integrity of our election process. The Whole Article is Worth Reading.The Specter of 2016
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 27, 2023 9:53:40 GMT -8
There's A Big NYT Story About All Kinds of Bad Stuff Inside the Durham Investigation? Want to Read the Story? It's Your Lucky Day.
Almost four years after launching his investigation into the less than two year Russia investigation, John Durham came up with no proof that the FBI, DOJ, or any member of Robert Mueller’s team did anything wrong. But that doesn’t mean that Durham did nothing wrong.
In fact, according to The New York Times, after finding nothing but actions taken in good faith by other investigators, Durham ended up chasing down several avenues that he never shared with the America people. That includes covering up evidence provided by Italian intelligence that Donald Trump might have undisclosed fiscal ties to Russia.
But that’s far from the worst aspect of Durham’s investigation. Because it certainly seems as if, in his attempt to prove that the FBI stepped over the line when looking into Trump, Durham didn’t just step over the lines, he erased them. And in at least one extraordinary instance, the man investigating the Russia investigation took his marching orders straight from … Russia.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 27, 2023 9:58:48 GMT -8
Will the Bar Bar Eastman?
Two years after penning the infamous "coup memo," the California Bar Association is recommending that former Chapman Law Professor John Eastman be disbarred.
According to a release, there are 11 disciplinary counts (PDF). One count is, "Failure to Support the Constitution and Laws of the United States. There are two counts of "Seeking to Mislead a Court." The Bar Association also cites six counts of "Moral Turpitude - Misrepresentation," and two counts of simply "Moral Turpitude."
“There is nothing more sacrosanct to our American democracy than free and fair elections and the peaceful transfer of power,” said State Bar of California’s Chief Trial Counsel George Cardona in the filing. “For California attorneys, adherence to the U.S. and California Constitutions is their highest legal duty. The Notice of Disciplinary Charges alleges that Mr. Eastman violated this duty in furtherance of an attempt to usurp the will of the American people and overturn election results for the highest office in the land—an egregious and unprecedented attack on our democracy—for which he must be held accountable.”
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 27, 2023 10:01:08 GMT -8
TucKGBer Carlson Goes Further Than Blaming Canada. He Wants Us to Invade.
Tucker Carlson on Thursday called for the U.S. to invade Canada and remove Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The Fox News host claimed he meant it before saying he was talking himself “into a frenzy.” (Watch the video below.)
During Fox Nation’s “Tucker Carlson Today,” Carlson referenced the arrests last year of anti-vax truckers in Canada. The demonstrators paralyzed commerce and won over extremists with their traffic-tying protests of COVID-19 safety measures. At the time, Carlson said the country had become a dictatorship because the government took action.
And now he suggested he’d like to do something about it.
“I’m completely in favor of a Bay of Pigs operation to liberate that country,” Carlson said. “Why should we stand back and let our biggest trading partner ... why should we let it become Cuba? Like, why don’t we liberate it? We’re spending all this money to liberate Ukraine from the Russians. Why are we not sending an armed force north to liberate Canada from Trudeau? And I mean it.”
That's One Way to Take the Heat Off Putin For Invading Ukraine.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 27, 2023 10:05:27 GMT -8
30% is Better Than 5%
Weeks of historic rainfall in California won’t be enough to end a severe drought, but it will provide public water agencies serving 27 million people with much more water than the suppliers had been told to expect a month ago, state officials announced Thursday.
The Department of Water Resources said public water agencies will now get 30% of what they had asked for, up from the 5% officials had previously announced in December. That’s because for the first three weeks of January nine atmospheric rivers dumped an estimated 32 trillion gallons of rain and snow on California. It was enough water to increase storage in the state’s two largest reservoirs by a combined 66%.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 27, 2023 10:07:13 GMT -8
Nobody Knows Who Santos Is. Everything About Him is Antonymous
In the spring of 2022, George Santos’s congressional campaign submitted a handful of filings to the Federal Election Commission that did something unheard of in campaign finance: The campaign reported spending a total of $254,000 — in more than 1,200 small payments — to recipients identified only as “anonymous.”
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 27, 2023 10:12:56 GMT -8
Do You Know the Way From San Jose? To Detroit?
Silicon Valley's loss will be Detroit's gain as automakers transition into high-tech companies and as talented people who will design and operate the new "computers-on-wheels" flood the current job market.
Technology titans Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta (Facebook's parent) and others have already laid off — or are in the process of doing so — about 70,000 employees in a year's time due to economic uncertainties and slower growth, according to a CNBC report.
All this newly unemployed tech talent spilling into the market offers General Motors and Ford Motor Co. a fortuitous opportunity to lure talent to Detroit, people who might not have previously considered the Motor City, analysts told the Free Press.
"Two years ago, a software developer or engineer in Silicon Valley was not taking GM’s call," said Dan Ives, managing director and senior equity analyst at Wedbush Securities. "Today, they are actively looking to work at GM. GM has fully bet on their electric vehicle future and under the hood they are a very mature company that is essentially an entrepreneurial startup-like in spirit."
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