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Post by mhbruin on Apr 15, 2023 8:17:59 GMT -8
I saw an ad for burial plots, and thought to myself this is the last thing I need. If You're One of the Rare People Who Wants to Know What is Going On in SudanThe fighting that has erupted in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country is a direct result of a vicious power struggle within the country's military leadership. There are clashes at key strategic places across the capital as members of a paramilitary force - Rapid Support Forces (RSF) - and regular soldiers fight. Since a coup in October 2021, Sudan has been run by a council of generals and there are two military men at the centre of the dispute. Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who is the head of the armed forces and in effect the country's president. And his deputy and leader of the RSF, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti. They have disagreed on the direction the country is going in and the proposed move towards civilian rule. One of the main sticking points is over the plans to include the 100,000-strong RSF into the army and who would then lead the new force. Sudan fighting: The military rivalry behind the clashes in Khartoum |
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Post by mhbruin on Apr 15, 2023 8:19:41 GMT -8
The Grossest Way to Die
A man who died in an Atlanta jail cell was "eaten alive by insects and bed bugs", the family's lawyer has alleged.
Lashawn Thompson was jailed on a misdemeanour and placed in the Fulton County Jail psychiatric wing after officials judged him mentally ill.
Family attorney Michael D Harper released photos showing Mr Thompson's body riddled with bugs.
He is calling for a criminal investigation and told reporters a lawsuit is pending.
"Mr Thompson was found dead in a filthy jail cell after being eaten alive by insects and bed bugs," Mr Harper said in a statement. "The jail cell Mr Thompson was housed in was not fit for a diseased animal. He did not deserve this."
I'm Not Going to Include Pictures
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Post by mhbruin on Apr 15, 2023 8:22:24 GMT -8
The Rime of the Ancyent Virus
Relics of ancient viruses - that have spent millions of years hiding inside human DNA - help the body fight cancer, say scientists. The study by the Francis Crick Institute showed the dormant remnants of these old viruses are woken up when cancerous cells spiral out of control. This unintentionally helps the immune system target and attack the tumour. The team wants to harness the discovery to design vaccines that can boost cancer treatment, or even prevent it. The researchers had noticed a connection between better survival from lung cancer and a part of the immune system, called B-cells, clustering around tumours. B-cells are the part of our body that manufactures antibodies and are better known for their role in fighting off infections, such as Covid. Precisely what they were doing in lung cancer was a mystery but a series of intricate experiments using samples from patients and animal tests showed they were still attempting to fight viruses. Million-year-old viruses help fight cancer, say scientists
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Post by mhbruin on Apr 15, 2023 8:24:53 GMT -8
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Post by mhbruin on Apr 15, 2023 8:29:32 GMT -8
He'll Represent You As Long As He Doesn't Have to Live Around You
Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives, Cameron Sexton, led the charge to expel three Democrats from the state House for participating in a protest calling for gun reform. The GOP supermajority voted to expel Justin Jones of Nashville and Justin Pearson of Memphis. The third and sole white representative up for vote, Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, survived by just one vote.
But it turns out that Sexton may have other problems. He nominally represents a swath of exurban and rural territory between Knoxville and Nashville, but Judd Legum of Popular Information has compiled mounting evidence that he actually lives year-round in Nashville—contrary to the state constitution’s requirement that state legislators are residents of the districts they represent. His son is enrolled in a school outside Nashville, and Sexton rarely sets foot in his nominal hometown. Moreover, he only spent a little over a month in Nashville last year on official business when the legislature wasn’t in session.
The evidence that Sexton doesn’t really live in the district he represents grew exponentially on Thursday, when Legum revealed that Sexton used some, shall we say, novel means to buy a house in Nashville. This is probably the strongest evidence yet that Sexton does not actually live in his district—and thus is not qualified to serve in the legislature.
On Monday, Legum revealed that Sexton’s son attends a private Christian school just outside Nashville—quite a hike from Sexton’s nominal home in Crossville. Moreover, Sexton is rarely at the Crossville condo he claims as his residence, according to one of his Crossville neighbors. He’s only there on weekends and the odd weekday when school isn’t in session—with a conspicuous law enforcement detail.
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Post by mhbruin on Apr 15, 2023 8:31:26 GMT -8
The QOP Continues Down the Road to Hell
Now, consider some numbers:
72%: That’s the percentage of Americans who oppose “laws that make it illegal to use or receive through the mail FDA-approved drugs for a medical abortion,” according to extensive recent polling on abortion from PRRI (the Public Religion Research Institute).
63%: That’s the percentage of Americans who oppose “laws that ban abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, usually around the sixth week of pregnancy.”
52%: That’s the percentage of Americans who “oppose restrictions that make it illegal to obtain an abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.”
These are bad numbers for Republicans. Whether you are DeSantis signing a six-week ban or Scott (tentatively) supporting a 15-week ban, you are still on the losing side of public opinion. That’s to say nothing of the Republicans who support outright bans, where public support ranges from the single digits to the low 20s, depending on whether there are exceptions for the life of the mother, incest or rape.
Banning medical abortions would be an unmitigated political disaster for Republicans.
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Post by mhbruin on Apr 15, 2023 8:34:15 GMT -8
“We don’t have elections anymore, we have censuses.”
How Tennessee Became the Poster State for Political Meltdown
The Volunteer State was long defined by its unique culture. Then came toxic redistricting, poisoned social media, parties polarized on race and other pathologies.
The old boys were also, well, old boys. There’s yet to be a female governor here, and racial minorities have been all too scarce outside the state’s large cities.
What there was, though, was competition and accountability.
Statewide races were hotly contested, as were many legislative and congressional campaigns and, with the right conditions, moderate Southern Democrats could carry the state in presidential races (or fall achingly short).
That was then.
Now, the voters are confined to safely red or blue districts and are animated by the same partisan impulses down the ballot that have made Tennessee a deep-red state in federal races. Candidate quality, cyclical changes in the economy and local issues are moot, at least when compared to party label.
“We don’t have elections anymore, we have censuses,” Jeff Yarbro lamented.
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Post by mhbruin on Apr 15, 2023 8:38:07 GMT -8
And the Old White Guys Applaud
Why No AR-15? How Can You Kill A Ton of People With a Shotgun?
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Post by mhbruin on Apr 15, 2023 8:40:35 GMT -8
I Have Never Been to an Apartment Store
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Post by mhbruin on Apr 15, 2023 8:50:45 GMT -8
“When Russia sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people,”
The construction of barbed-wired fence along Finland’s long border with Russia - primarily meant to curb illegal migration - has broken ground near the southeastern town of Imatra less than two weeks after the Nordic country joined NATO as the 31st member of the military alliance.
The Finnish Border Guard on Friday showcased the building of the initial three kilometer (1.8 mile) stretch of the fence to be erected in Pelkola near a crossing point off Imatra, a quiet lakeside town of some 25,000 people.
Finland’s 1,340 kilometer (832 mile) border with Russia is the longest of any European Union member.
Construction of the border fence is an initiative by the border guard that was approved by Prime Minister Sanna Marin's government amid wide political support last year. The main purpose of the three-meter (10-foot) high steel fence with a barbed-wire extension on top is to prevent illegal immigration from Russia and give reaction time to authorities, Finnish border officials say.
They're Bringing Tanks. They're Brining Land Mines
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Post by mhbruin on Apr 15, 2023 8:57:27 GMT -8
I Tried to Think of a Joke About This, But It's Just Not Funny
Planet Earth continues to run a fever. Data released by the Copernicus Climate Change Service last week showed that March of 2023 was the planet’s second-warmest month in recorded history, registering average global temperatures 0.92 degrees Fahrenheit above normal high temperatures measured between 1991 and 2020.
On Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) confirmed the March findings, adding that “Polar sea ice saw its second-smallest March coverage on record.”
Above-normal monthly temperatures haven’t just become the norm thanks to climate change; they are all but guaranteed. The heat in March marked the 529th consecutive month of hotter-than-normal temperatures in comparison to the 20th century average.
In a tweet last week, American environmentalist Bill McKibben put the findings in perspective:
In case you are wondering, the warmest March on record occurred in 2016, when an El Niño weather pattern helped shatter heat records around the world. In an El Niño, “trade winds weaken,” NOAA says on its website. As a result, ocean temperatures rise, resulting in warmer and drier temperatures in northern portions of the U.S. and Canada, and wetter-than-normal periods along the Gulf Coast and Southeastern U.S.
On Thursday, NOAA also issued an “El Niño Watch,” meaning that chances of the formation of that weather pattern appear more likely than not.
Other climate models used by meteorologists in the U.K., Japan, Australia and the U.S. have reached the same conclusion — that an El Niño could develop by August, potentially supercharging temperatures. While the oscillation from warmer El Niño patterns to cooler La Niña ones is a natural function of the Earth’s climate that is not the result of burning fossil fuels, climate scientists are quick to rebut those who suggest that the arrival of an El Niño is what has really accounted for global temperature rise.
“An El Nino typically gives global air temperature a bit of a boost by transferring heat from the ocean into the atmosphere (while La Nina does the opposite),” Katharine Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist at Texas Tech University, wrote in a 2020 tweet regarding record high temperatures set during a La Niña period. “Last month, however, is now the warmest above average without that added boost. This is global warming, folks.”
In fact, the last eight years have been the warmest eight in recorded history, while only three of those featured an El Niño weather pattern.
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