|
|
Post by mhbruin on Aug 1, 2023 7:49:35 GMT -8
In the men's room at work, the boss placed a sign directly above the sink. It had a single word on it:
"THINK!"
The next day, when he went to the men's room, he looked at the sign and right below it, immediately above the soap dispenser, someone had carefully lettered another sign which read:
"THOAP!"
Fani Willis Needs to Invest in a Dictionary
Jan 24 (Reuters) - A Georgia prosecutor investigating Donald Trump's efforts to overturn his defeat in the state's 2020 presidential election told a judge on Tuesday that decisions on whether to bring criminal charges are "imminent."
---------------
imminent adjective
im·mi·nent ˈi-mə-nənt
ready to take place : happening soon
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Aug 1, 2023 7:51:17 GMT -8
How Did He Manage to Kill So Many of His Own Brain Cells?MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell believes abortion provider Planned Parenthood is now "killing the parents." At an event on Sunday for the Christian Flashpoint program, Lindell recalled the genesis of his theory. "Abortion is about, it's not just about destroying a child, guys, it's about destroying the image of God," one panelist at the event claimed before Lindell interrupted. "You know, I wanna say something about that, Planned Parenthood," Lindell said, recalling that he had hosted an anti-abortion event in front of the Supreme Court in 2020. "And there's, I don't know, half a million people out there, and I go, I'm introducing, and Planned Parenthood, now they're killing the parents, or they're just killing the parents, right?" he said. Here's Who is Actually DyingNearly two years after Texas’ six-week abortion ban, more infants are dyingTexas’ abortion restrictions – some of the strictest in the country – may be fueling a sudden spike in infant mortality as women are forced to carry nonviable pregnancies to term. Some 2,200 infants died in Texas in 2022 – an increase of 227 deaths, or 11.5%, over the previous year, according to preliminary infant mortality data from the Texas Department of State Health Services that CNN obtained through a public records request. Infant deaths caused by severe genetic and birth defects rose by 21.6%. That spike reversed a nearly decade-long decline. Between 2014 and 2021, infant deaths had fallen by nearly 15%.
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Aug 1, 2023 7:58:10 GMT -8
It's Really a Bear. Don't Take My Word For It. Just Ask Him.China zoo denies rare sun bear is a human in costume Hangzhou Zoo dismisses suggestion one of its bears might be a person in a costume after footage of standing animal prompts accusations. A zoo in China has denied that one of its sun bears is actually a human in a costume after footage of an animal standing on its hind legs raised online accusations of a furry impostor. The video clip of the bear rearing up and interacting with a group of people at the zoo in eastern Hangzhou city went viral on Chinese social media over the weekend. Many social media users posted comments doubting that the bear was real, with some alleging that its bipedal posture and wrinkled skin suggested that it was actually a human in a costume. Hangzhou Zoo dismissed the rumours, saying on Monday on its social media accounts that the sun bears from Malaysia are smaller than other bears and look different but are the real thing. It came after the zoo issued a statement written from the bear’s perspective, saying its detractors “really don’t understand me”. “The zoo director called me after work yesterday and asked if I’d been slacking off by finding a two-legged beast to replace me,” Sunday’s statement added. “Some people thought the way I stand up looks too human … so I will stress again: I’m a sun bear!”  Just Grin and Bear It.
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Aug 1, 2023 8:01:02 GMT -8
A QOP Trojan Horse
NC State Representative Tricia Cotham is infamous for switching party allegiance from Democrat to Republican, and this allowed the now supermajority of Republicans in the legislature to pass a 12 week abortion ban in NC. You may remember this was the same woman who made an impassioned speech about the time she had to obtain an abortion. Her explanation for switching parties was that Democrats are into “group think” and only care about “process.” She also added that Democrats were just “mean to her.”
When Tricia Cotham, a former Democratic lawmaker, was considering another run for the North Carolina House of Representatives, she turned to a powerful party leader for advice. Then, when she jumped into the Democratic primary, she was encouraged by still other formidable allies.
She won the primary in a redrawn district near Charlotte, and then triumphed in the November general election by 18 percentage points, a victory that helped Democrats lock in enough seats to prevent, by a single vote, a Republican supermajority in the state House.
Except what was unusual — and not publicly known at the time — was that the influential people who had privately encouraged Ms. Cotham to run were Republicans, not Democrats. One was Tim Moore, the redoubtable Republican speaker of the state House. Another was John Bell, the Republican majority leader.
“I encouraged her to run because she was a really good member when she served before,” Mr. Bell recalled in an interview.
She Switched Parites Because People We Mean to Her? What is She, 12?
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Aug 1, 2023 8:02:51 GMT -8
Mar-a-Loco Wasn't Just a Coverup. It Was Worse
1. The coverup (obstruction) is not worse than the crime (Espionage Act) – it facilitated the ongoing criminal conduct.
The attempted destruction of the video recordings was not just a coverup of the underlying crime of having unlawfully retained national defense information. Properly understood, it was also a means to continue that underlying conduct. Put another way, the attempt to delete the footage would not simply have served to hide past wrongdoing. It also could have prevented the FBI and other federal authorities from knowing that Trump continued to hold onto dozens of more highly classified materials – e.g., the boxes of materials that were never returned to the storage room, including the materials recovered during the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago in August 2022.
As Bridgeman and Rosen outlined in detail in the prior Just Security article, the continued retention of those highly classified documents in an unsecure environment and without the intelligence community knowing exactly what was missing posed enormous risks to U.S. national security. The effort to destroy the video footage should be understood as facilitating that result. [...]
2. The surveillance video as a tool for understanding who had access to the classified documents.
As the government explained in court filings, the U.S. Intelligence Community conducted a damage assessment and risk mitigation following the intelligence breach posed by Trump’s retaining classified documents at Mar-a-Lago (and transporting some of the material to and from Bedminster). One of the most challenging parts of that damage assessment is determining who might have had access to the materials, for how long, and under what conditions (i.e., whether visitors were left alone in the room with cell phones or other recording devices). Those facts are crucial to assessing the extent to which U.S. intelligence programs, human sources, and technical collection streams may have been compromised. The surveillance footage presumably would play a valuable role in making such assessments. The purposeful destruction of such a source of information would thus pose its own significant concerns for the continued viability of sensitive intelligence operations and U.S. national security more broadly.
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Aug 1, 2023 8:25:47 GMT -8
WTF Were These People Up To? Fairly shocking': Secret medical lab in California stored bioengineered mice laden with COVIDA months-long investigation into a rural California warehouse uncovered an illegal laboratory that was filled with infectious agents, medical waste and hundreds of mice bioengineered "to catch and carry the COVID-19 virus," according to Fresno County authorities. Health and licensing said Monday that Prestige Biotech, a Chinese medical company registered in Nevada, was operating the unlicensed facility in Reedley, California — a small city about 24 miles southeast of Fresno. The company, according to Reedley City Manager Nicole Zieba, had a goal of being a diagnostics lab. "They never had a business license," Zieba told USA TODAY. "The city was completely unaware that they were in this building, operating under the cover of night." Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning. The Fresno County Public Health Department launched its investigation into the facility in December 2022 after a code enforcement officer saw a garden hose attached to a building that was presumed to be vacant and had no active business license, Zieba said. Further inspection in March revealed that the facility housed various chemicals, suspected biological materials, bodily fluids and hundreds of lab mice, among other lab supplies, according to court documents. County public health officials said they also found medical devices that were believed to have been developed on-site, such as COVID and pregnancy tests. "Being a small, rural town of 26,000 — walking into what we believed to be a vacant building and finding lab supplies, live white mice... was was fairly shocking," Zieba said. Following several attempts to communicate with Prestige Biotech, Fresno County officials are accusing the company of not being forthcoming with information and failing to comply with orders, such as providing a plan for hazardous and medical waste disposal. Fresno County Public Health staff completed biological abatement work of all the materials found in the facility by July 7, according to court documents. New York university lawsuit: Janitor who shut off lab freezer due to 'annoying' alarms ruined decades of research, college claims in suit CDC detected at least 20 infectious agentsZieba said officials had to conduct a separate investigation into the warehouse for several weeks because it was private property. After authorities discovered there were people working inside the building, Zieba said federal, state and local agencies joined the investigation, including the county health department and Federal Bureau of Investigation. Authorities were then able to serve an inspection warrant in March. "Certain rooms of the warehouse were found to contain several vessels of liquid and various apparatus," court documents said. "Fresno County Public Health staff also observed blood, tissue and other bodily fluid samples and serums; and thousands of vials of unlabeled fluids and suspected biological material." Hundreds of mice were also found at the warehouse, where they were "kept in inadequate conditions in overcrowded cages" with no food or water, according to court documents. An associate with Prestige Biotech told investigators that the mice were "genetically engineered to catch and carry the COVID virus," the documents added. 
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Aug 1, 2023 8:28:43 GMT -8
Get Treated at A HCA Hospital At Your Own RiskCEO of HCA hospital in Florida that allegedly had roaches in the operating room leaves jobThe chief executive of HCA Florida Bayonet Point, the Hudson, Fla., hospital whose physicians characterized it as unsafe and unclean in a February NBC News report, has departed after less than four years, according to a memo delivered to the staff Friday. Regina Temple, the former CEO, is leaving “to pursue other opportunities outside HCA Healthcare, effective immediately,” the July 28 memo said. Temple’s exit seemed sudden, physicians working at the hospital said, as she was engaged in long-term initiatives at the hospital as recently as mid-July. Temple, who is being replaced by an acting chief executive, did not return a text seeking comment. HCA Healthcare is the nation’s largest hospital chain, with more than 180 hospitals in the U.S. and U.K. The company is highly profitable but has come under criticism from some doctors and nurses for practices they say put profits ahead of patients. NBC News reported in June that 27 doctors at 16 HCA facilities said their officials pushed doctors into admitting patients to hospice care, reducing in-hospital mortality rates, a closely watched quality measure, and freeing up a patient bed more quickly, potentially generating more revenues. HCA’s spokesman said in a statement then that “Suggesting that medical care in HCA Healthcare hospitals is based on anything other than a physician’s independent medical judgment of what is in the patient’s best interest is untrue and wrong.” In the February NBC News report about Bayonet Point, four physicians working there said hospital leadership was endangering patients by focusing on cost-cutting to generate profits and bonuses. The physicians said they had to deal with unsanitary surgical instruments, inadequate monitoring of ICU patients, and an overflowing emergency department. After the administration replaced the hospital’s longstanding anesthesiology professionals with per diem staff, errors began occurring, the physicians said, including a patient waking up during surgery. Photos of Bayonet Point provided by insiders showed ceiling leaks in a recovery room, oxygen equipment held together with tape, bloody and backed-up sinks, wires dangling from a hole in the wall and cockroaches in the operating room. Don't run the time approaches. Hotels and midnight coaches, Be sure to hide the roaches
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Aug 1, 2023 8:31:24 GMT -8
The Hottest Cities to Move To May Be the Hottest Cities to Move ToThe 10 hottest cities for people who want a new hometownHomebuyers are keener than ever to switch cities, according to a new report. A study from real estate company, Redfin, has found that a record 25.5% of people looked to move to a different metro area in the second quarter of this year. That percentage jumped up from 23% last year and 19% pre-pandemic. Redfin's data is collected from the searches of around two million users on its site from April to June 2023 across more than 100 metro areas. Major cities including San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles saw the biggest outflow while Las Vegas topped Redfin's list for the first time ever. Phoenix and Tampa also bagged top spots as some of the most popular destinations. Like Las Vegas, both cities are relatively affordable in comparison to Los Angeles or San Francisco. The average Las Vegas home costs less than half as much as buying one in the major California cities, according to Redfin.
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Aug 1, 2023 8:35:15 GMT -8
Putin on the RitzThe Kremlin has pumped so much money into the economy that it's creating a boom — but this house of cards could topple anytime soonNearly 18 months after the Ukraine war started, Russia's economy appears to be humming along — baffling economists who predicted catastrophic outcomes following sweeping sanctions against Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. While some economists have questioned the quality and veracity of Russian data releases, a New York Times report on Monday offered a nuanced picture of the country's wartime economy and how it's helping drum up popular support for Vladimir Putin. Russia's economic strength so far is due to the Kremlin's measures — the Times reported that Putin is boosting the production of military equipment and raising pensions, salaries, and other benefits for people who are not well-off. The state is also subsidizing mortgages. Soldiers fighting the war are also earning far higher salaries than average earnings in poorer regions of Russia, the Times reported. For instance, Russia was offering a minimum of 160,000 rubles, or about $1,740, in monthly wages for contract soldiers last September — three times the national average, Reuters reported at the time. Large payouts for those who died in the war — for example, a 5 million rubles payout for families of Wagner Group fighters who died in the war — are circulating in the economy. These measures have boosted the demand — and prices — for a range of products and services in Russia, the Times reported. Corporate loans have increased 19% in the year to June as investments grew, the Times said, citing the Russian central bank's figures. Meanwhile, the value of mortgages taken out from Russia's top 20 banks surged 63% in the first half of the year from a year ago, the Times reported, citing the state-run lender Dom.RF, and the real estate research firm Frank Media. Russia's economy is running so hot that its central bank raised interest rates by one percentage point on July 21 — double the 0.5 percentage point analysts polled by Reuters had expected — to tame inflation that hit 3.25% in June from a year ago. But the boom may not last.
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Aug 1, 2023 8:37:34 GMT -8
I Wouldn't Collect Them By Hand‘Giant’ orange creature found lurking in Amazon rainforest. It’s a new speciesWhile surveying the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador, scientists stumbled upon an orange creature with eight legs and fangs. The creature, a type of giant crab spider, is a new species and the first of its genus to be found in the country, according to a study published on July 6 in the journal Ecology and Evolution. Scientists affiliated with the University of San Francisco in Quito found the novel arachnid in the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve, a protected swath of rainforest in the northeast corner of the country. It is considered one of the most biodiverse areas in the world. While walking on a trail at night, scientists spotted several of the orange spiders “perched” on leaves and branches above the forest floor. “Specimens were collected by hand, transported to the laboratory in plastic containers with leaf litter, photographed alive, and euthanized,” researchers said.
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Aug 1, 2023 8:41:10 GMT -8
Floiri-Dumb Wants to BEcome Christen-DumbFlorida may become first state to accept a ‘classical’ alternative to the SAT and ACTAnew college entrance exam that has become popular among Christian schools and conservative political groups may soon expand its footprint to include Florida’s public universities — following a boost from the DeSantis administration. The Florida Board of Governors, which oversees the state’s public universities, is expected to vote at its August meeting on whether to accept Classic Learning Test scores for admissions, in addition to the SAT and the ACT. If the board approves it, Florida would become the first public university system in the country to accept the test. The Classic Learning Test, or CLT, was created in 2015 as an alternative college entrance exam rooted in a teaching model that emphasizes the humanities, morality and classical literature. The test has found favor in recent years among some conservatives as an antidote to progressive influence, and it is now accepted by more than 200 predominantly private universities. .............. The primary difference in the CLT lies in its choices for literature. The exam may include passages from Pope John Paul II or the Christian author C.S. Lewis, which Tate said prompted one public university to explicitly tell him that’s why it won’t use the CLT. Tate said that to “censor the entire Catholic and Christian tradition,” as he accuses the SAT and the ACT of doing, excludes important influences and foundations of Western civilization.
|
|
