Interesting stuff happening or happened today. Not an exhaustive list. Definite liberal truth bias.
by Janice L Blixt

April 21, 2024

Israeli strikes on the southern Gaza city of Rafah overnight killed 22 people.

Royal Parks Police, in charge of Richmond Park in west London, have been warning tourists to stop trying to remove the antlers from the famous red deer herd. The male members of deer herd, which has lived in the park since 1637, have bone antlers that can grow up to 2.5 cm a day and shed naturally each year in early spring. The deer are described as “distressed” over the “help” they’re being given. Fergodssake, people! Leave the deer alone!!

The currency shift in Zimbabwe from the old ZWL (locals call them bond notes) to the new ZiG (called Zimbabwe gold) continues to be messy. While the ZiG are deemed the official currency, they won’t be available for mass circulation until the end of April and the ZWL, while the govt says are still currency, are being cut off by most businesses. Most Zimbabweans are, at this time, using the American dollar for payments.

China’s Guangdong province is bracing for massive flooding as sections of rivers and tributaries at the Beijiang and Xijiang and river basins are hitting record water levels. Guangdong province, one of China’s main commercial centers, has had storms with high winds and massive rainfalls rolling through for over a week. Officials call it “grim.”

In an event of I-wouldn’t-believe-it-if-I-hadn’t-seen-it proportions, the UK returned 32 previous metal treasures, stolen from the Asante Kingdom more than 150 years ago, to the Ghanaian government. 15 items from the British Museum and 17 from the Victoria & Albert will be displayed at the Manhyia Palace Museum in Kumasi. Upon further reading, I see the UK govt. is considering the agreement a “loan.” That makes more sense.

NASA has been tasked to determine a standardized time zone for the moon. Coordinated Lunar Time (CLT). Because of gravitational time dilation, time moves a wee bit faster on the moon than on Earth, and the establishment of CLT will allow programs to sync moon time and earth time better helping PNT (Positioning, Navigation and Timing) systems for communications.

A drought, caused mostly by an El Niño strengthened by climate change, has prevented electricity creation at most of Ecuador’s hydroelectric dams causing massive power shortages. President Daniel Noboa has declared a state of emergency.

Surfing’s former rookie-of-the-year, Gabriela Bryan, won her first international championship event yesterday. Her final 7.83 scoring run was joined by a pod of dolphins within the wave she was riding.

There’s tons more, it’s a big world, but that’s a quick clip.

Interesting stuff happening or happened today. Not an exhaustive list. Definite liberal truth bias.
by Janice L Blixt

April 22, 2024

David’s beautiful mother, Jill Blixt, is celebrating a birthday! Happy Birthday, Mom!

The U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization and Copernicus, the EU’s climate agency, said in a report that Europe is the fastest-warming of the continents. While 43% more overall power was generated in Europe by renewables than fossil fuels for the second year in a row, the latest five-year average temperature indexes are showing that Europe’s temp has risen 2.3 degrees – much higher than the world average of 1.3 degrees above pre-industrial levels.

Kool & the Gang, A Tribe Called Quest, Ozzy Osbourne, Foreigner, Dave Matthew’s Band, Peter Frampton, Mary J Blige, and Cher have been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. I have seen only 1 live – guess who?

President Biden, marking Earth Day today, announced new action on Climate Corps – a workforce training and service initiative to prepare 20,000 young people for jobs in clean energy and climate resilience. “You’ll get paid to fight climate change, learning how to install those solar panels, fight wildfires, rebuild wetlands, weatherize homes, and so much more,” he said, also announcing a new partnership between the administration and TradesFutures, the non-profit arm of the North America’s Building Trades Unions, allowing Climate Corps members to access some of the union’s apprenticeship programs.

Because the biggest democratic exercise ever in history (the ongoing Indian elections) needs to share in the grossness taking over democratic nations, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has returned to his old anti-Muslim rhetoric and lies about the plans of the opposition to his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Calling opposition leaders “infiltrators,” he’s been giving speeches – and promoting the speeches of BJP extremists – saying Muslims are out to make Hindu culture illegal. The elections continue through June 1.

The conservative majority of the Supreme Court, in oral arguments today, appeared comfortable with making not having a home sleeping in public) a criminal offense. In the minority, Justice Elena Kagan argued: “Sleeping is a biological necessity. It’s sort of like breathing… But, presumably, you would not think that it’s OK to criminalize breathing in public, and for a homeless person who has no place to go, sleeping in public is kind of like breathing in public.” If the Conserves rule against, how would that affect the naps happening at the defense table in NY?

An independent review by the UN -lead by France and supported by three Nordic has announced that Israel has given no credible evidence that UNWRA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) was working with terrorist groups, hired members of terrorist groups, or had knowledge of terrorist group plans, accusations that lead to the cutting off of funds to the humanitarian aid organization by several donor nations.

Geochemist and leader of the U.S. Center for Oldest Ice Exploration (COLDEX), Ed Brook, announced the blue Arctic ice his team is studying is over 6mn years old. The ice, from the Pliocene Epoch just before a major planetary climate shift, suggests CO2 levels were lower than had been expected in this time. “But if even a tiny drop in CO2 can kick off a major climate change,” Brook said, “you know, we probably care about that.”

The $175mn bond dispute in the appeal of last month’s Trump Organization fraud case seems to be put to rest with Knight Insurance Co taking full control over the money-market fund Trump was using as collateral rather than sharing control with Trump. Knight also agreed to keep the money in cash, not transferred to mutual funds or stock purchases. I had thought this was all going to be a bigger deal. Hmmm.

Evacuations expand as flood waters continue to rise in China’s Guangdong province. Over 100k people have already been moved, with at least 100k more in the next days.

Readership of the top 10 far-right and right-wing media sites has fallen by over 40% since 2020. The Daily Caller lost 57% of its audience; Drudge Report -81%; The Federalist -91%; FoxNews .com lost “only” 22 percent of traffic. Why? Facebook (Meta) began “de-emphasizing news content” in late 2018 and in 2021 “tightened the cap” further leading to less pushing of certain sites to general users. Rise of fascism in this country? Social media algorithms… Go figure.

FYI: Traffic to The Washington Post and The New York Times was essentially flat.

The director of emergency medicine at Bundaberg Hospital in Queensland, Australia, Dr. Adam Michael, is asking snake bite victims to stop bringing the offenders with them to the hospital. The ER docs won’t be able to identify them on sight (most having MDs not herpitology backgrounds) and they have better ways of determining venom issues. “If that snake gets out in an emergency department, that becomes a huge disaster.”

Opening arguments proceeded today in Judge Juan Merchan’s court in Manhattan in the first of DJT’s criminal trials. Reports again had the icky man dozing off. Attorney Todd Blanche for DJT faced objections twice in his opening remarks – a rare occurrence in criminal court.

David Pecker, Former CEO of American Media, publisher of The National Enquirer and other tabloids, and a textbook example of nominative determinism, was the first witness called to testify for the prosecution in the current criminal case against DJT. He gave mostly biographical info and confirmed he was in charge of AM’s “checkbook journalism”- they pay for stories. End of first day. Pecker will return tomorrow.

After a series of close calls, the FAA (Federal Aviation Authority) has announced rules changes to increase the amount of rest time required between shifts from 9 to now 10 hours, and 12 hours of rest before an overnight shift. “We also know that we’re understaffed throughout the population of controllers,” FAA Admin Mike Whitaker said. “So we have been doing everything within our power to increase controller hiring.”

There’s tons more, it’s a big world, but that’s a quick clip.

A joyous Passover celebration to everyone who’s gathering around a Seder table tonight.

Chag Pesach Sameach!