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Post by mhbruin on Feb 24, 2023 9:54:36 GMT -8
Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.
In the Game of Streaming, You Win or You Die
Streaming giant Netflix has cut prices in more than 30 countries as it attempts to attract more subscribers.
Prices have been cut in parts of Asia, Europe, Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.
It comes as the rising cost of living sees households tightening their belts and Netflix faces increased competition from rival services.
"Members have never had more choices when it comes to entertainment," a company spokesperson told the BBC.
Countries in which subscription charges have been lowered include Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Croatia, Venezuela, Kenya and Iran.
The cuts apply to certain price plans, with subscription charges falling by half in some cases.
The company did not name the UK or the US as countries where it had cut its prices.
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 24, 2023 9:56:55 GMT -8
A Leopard Does Not Change His Spots ... But It May It's National Insignia
Poland says it has delivered four Leopard 2s to Ukraine, the first such battle tanks to be supplied by Kyiv’s Western allies.
Germany says it will deliver a further four tanks to Ukraine, taking its overall commitment to 18 units, while Sweden announces plan to deliver 10 tanks from its own stocks.
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 24, 2023 10:06:16 GMT -8
Russian Logic: The Way to Peace is to Start a Wider War
The only way for Russia to ensure lasting peace with Ukraine is to push back the borders of hostile states, even as far as the frontiers of NATO member Poland, said former President Dmitry Medvedev.
Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, made the comments in a message on his Telegram account on Friday, a year after Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in what it called a “special military operation” to protect Russian speakers and ensure its own security.
Maybe They Can Start With Moldova
There have been plenty of rumors, accusations, Sturm und Drang, etc. going around about something big fixin’ to happen in Moldova. Some of those come from the Moldovan government, which has warned that Russia is planning to stage a coup in the former Soviet republic.
Moldova is Europe’s poorest country and before last year it would have been hard to find anyone who had even heard of it, much less cared about it. Moldova has attempted to lay low and stay neutral over the last 30 years in the hopes of not pissing off Russia. But it has applied for EU membership and many have suggested that Moldova should join NATO. The country also has traditional ties to neighboring Romania.
The current issue centers around the breakaway region called Transnistria, which declared independence from Moldova and allied itself to Russia. Hardly anyone recognizes Transnistria, which is a long thin strip of land sandwiched between Moldova and Ukraine.
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 24, 2023 10:08:02 GMT -8
In the Game of Gondalas, You Float or You DieBusiness didn’t dry up, but some of Venice’s famous gondoliers have had to limit their movements in recent weeks after water levels in some of the Italian city’s smaller canals dropped because of unusually low tides. “We have had four exceptional low tides, and each time the water was so low in certain canals that we had to steer away from them,” one gondolier, Andrea Balbi, told NBC News on Thursday. “I have been a gondolier for 28 years, and I have never seen so many low tides at once,” he added. Worse still, he said some gondolas that had been “parked” got stuck in the trickle of water and mud “and they had to wait for the tide to rise again to get them out.” 
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 24, 2023 10:10:46 GMT -8
Gov DeathSenteance Want to Turn Florida Public Universities into Right-Wing Re-Education Camps
After a series of teasers, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis released his detailed legislation to turn Florida’s public colleges and universities into right-wing indoctrination factories, and it’s as bad as he promised it would be. DeSantis is, on the one hand, moving to ban virtually any viewpoint he doesn’t like and, on the other hand, setting up a core curriculum that reflects his specific political agenda.
On the banned list: Not only whatever the people DeSantis puts in charge decide are “Critical Race Theory,” but literally all diversity, equity, and inclusion programming. Majors or minors in gender studies. Any general education course that “defines American history as contrary to the creation of a new nation based on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence.”
Yes, DeSantis is attempting to write into law that any history that suggests the United States did not always fully live up to the “universal principles” of the Declaration of Independence (a document written by a slave-owner!) is not fit for inclusion as a general education course—the ones that students will be required to take. Those general education courses will be five courses designated within each of five areas (communication, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, natural sciences) from which students must choose. The direct requirement of the bill would be history courses that didn’t admit to the existence in U.S. history of slavery or the internment of Japanese people during World War II.
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 24, 2023 10:12:17 GMT -8
Americans Care About Abortion
One in four Americans (25%) say they will only vote for a candidate who shares their views on abortion, compared with a slim majority of Americans (52%) who say a candidate’s position on abortion is just one of many important factors and 20% who do not see abortion as a major issue when voting. There were not significant changes in these numbers throughout the year, though the question was not included on the March wave. The proportion of Americans who say a candidate must share their views has increased from 18% in 2012 and 20% in 2020. The proportion who do not see abortion as a major issue went down, from 33% in 2012 to 26% in 2020 and 20% in 2022.
Among Americans who say that abortion should be legal in most or all cases, 26% say they will only vote for candidates who share their views on abortion. Notably, among this group, Democrats (34%) are nearly three times as likely as Republicans (12%) and significantly more likely than independents (21%) to say that they will only vote for candidates who share their views on abortion. Republicans in this group have remained steady compared to 2020 (12%), but Democrats have doubled in this opinion (17% in 2020). Independents in this group have become nine percentage points more likely to say they will only vote for a candidate who shares their abortion views (21% vs. 12% in 2020).
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 24, 2023 10:15:16 GMT -8
What Do the Special Elections Say?
The first bona fide signs that Democrats might defy historical odds in the 2022 election came via special elections. While Republicans had been over-performing in such races earlier in the year, that turned on a dime after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and Democrats started beating the fundamentals. And while we were unsure whether the bump would last into November, it turned out the data didn’t lie.
Well, now we’ve got some data from early in the 2023 elections, and the numbers continue to look good for Democrats.
Four states held special elections or primaries on Tuesday, and all four were encouraging for Democrats:
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 24, 2023 10:16:57 GMT -8
The QOP Can't Burrow Deep Enough into the Excrement
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 24, 2023 10:22:43 GMT -8
I'm Not Convinced That Demographic Changes Always Are a Significant Factor in Changing the Political Climate.Joe Biden may have defeated Donald Trump in 2020 by several million votes, but things are only going to get worse for the Republican Party. By 2024, their base will have gotten smaller as more voters over 65 die out and the 18-24 voting block increases it’s numbers. The fatal wound for the GOP is it’s platform, which embraces the 1950’s, when women and minorities knew their place, the Guilded Age, when the many were subservient to the few, and even the Middle Ages, when the only classes in existence were the Royals and the Serfs. As the table shows, the only voting block which the Republican Party dominates is that over 65 group, which FOX News and other right wing media outlets have been spoon feeding their propaganda to for more than a generation. And the support from that block continues a slow drip over time to the Democrats, as former Republicans, such as myself, leave the party.  And SCOTUS Isn't Changing for a Long Time
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 24, 2023 10:24:16 GMT -8
We've Found a Candidate Who Will Matter Less Than Nicki Haley
Marianne Williamson on Thursday gave the strongest indication yet that she is running for president in 2024.
The move could possibly make her the first Democrat to challenge President Joe Biden, who has previously said he intends to pursue a second term in office but hasn’t yet announced a definitive decision.
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 24, 2023 10:26:04 GMT -8
Then Kyle Rittenhouse Was Attacked By Blibbering Humdingers and Crumple-Horned Snorkacks
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 24, 2023 10:28:14 GMT -8
I See Two Americans Pimping for Putin, But Who is the Ukranian Pimp?
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 24, 2023 10:30:02 GMT -8
More Previous Guy Classified Records Found
Donald Trump’s lawyers found a box of White House schedules, including some that were marked classified, at his Mar-a-Lago resort in December because a junior aide to the former president had transported it from another office in Florida after the FBI completed its search of the property.
The former president does not appear to have played a direct role in the mishandling of the box, though he remains under investigation for the possible improper retention of national security documents and obstruction of justice. This previously unreported account of the retrieval was informed by two sources familiar with the matter.
Known internally as ROTUS, short for Receptionist of the United States, the junior aide initially kept the box at a converted guest bungalow at Mar-a-Lago called the “tennis cottage” after Trump left office, and she soon took it with her to a government-leased office in the Palm Beach area.
The box remained at the government-leased office from where the junior aide worked through most of 2022, explaining why neither Trump’s lawyer who searched Mar-a-Lago in June for any classified-marked papers nor the FBI agents who searched the property in August found the documents.
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 24, 2023 10:31:55 GMT -8
In the Game of Houses, You Pay Cash or You Die
Secondary-home and investment-property buyers are a rising share of homebuyers in many major cities, real estate data shows, and experts say the effect these deep-pocketed shoppers are having in housing markets is muscling out first-time homebuyers.
The share of homes sold to absentee owners — people in the market for properties that won’t be their primary residence — has increased since 2020 in 228 out of 307 ZIP codes across nine major metropolitan areas from Seattle to Charlotte, North Carolina, an NBC News analysis of data from real estate data provider ATTOM found.
Through December 2022, absentee sales in most of these areas remained higher than before the pandemic. With deep inventory shortages, experts say this has changed the rules of the game — propping up prices and keeping competition tight.
“[Absentee owners] have cash, they have knowledge, they’re not as concerned about what the home looks like if they’re not living in it,” said Tiffiney Graham, a realtor with Keller Williams River Cities in Columbus, Georgia.
Cash offers are typically a calling card of wealthy, seasoned buyers, experts say, often overlapping with investor and second-home buyer presence.
“We have some stat in our reports that 75% of all investor purchases are done with cash,” said Sheharyar Bokhari, a senior economist at Redfin.
Ryan Pavlich, a marketing analyst in San Antonio, spent 18 months trying to buy a house beginning in 2018. Pavlich, 29, said he placed offers on nine homes, including a three-bedroom starter home with a new fence that he offered $5,000 above asking price.
He was beaten on all of them.
“Each time we lost out, the common denominator was cash,” Pavlich said.
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 24, 2023 10:35:10 GMT -8
Heinz Wants to Catch Up with the Ketchup Guy
Heinz is searching for a sailor who survived on ketchup while he was lost at sea.
It's been nearly a month since the Colombian Navy's announcement that it had rescued a man — later identified as Elvis Francois — who went missing at sea in December 2022 and spent 24 days adrift.
After being picked up by a merchant ship, the man's sailboat — which he had to constantly drain water from to prevent sinking — was abandoned. In a video released by the naval branch, the 47-year-old man said he relied on Maggi cubes, garlic powder and a bottle of ketchup to survive.
Now, an iconic ketchup company is asking fans to help it track down Francois to buy him a new boat.
In an Instagram posted on Feb. 14, Heinz wrote to fans, “Help us #findtheketchupboatguy.”
The post features an image of a message in a ketchup bottle washed onto shore.
“To whoever finds this message,” the caption reads. “We need your help tracking down an amazing man with an amazing story. You may remember Elvis Francois as the brave sailor who survived on nothing but ketchup and spices while adrift at sea for 24 days. Well, Heinz wants to celebrate his safe return home and help him buy a new boat… but we can’t seem to find him.”
"So, we’re setting this message adrift into the sea of the internet because if anyone can help us find him, it’s you. If you or anyone you know can help us get in contact with Elvis Francois, please drop us a DM. Don’t forget to share this post with all your friends so we can #FindTheKetchupBoatGuy," the post concludes.
A spokesperson for Heinz explained to TODAY.com that the company hopes to gift Francois "a new boat equipped with full navigational technology to avoid another disaster in the future."
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