Category: Now for something completely different
Kansas Will No Longer Allow Residents To Change Gender On Birth Certificates.
Kansas will no longer allow people to change the gender on their birth certificate after Republicans passed a law enshrining the biological definition of woman into law.
The state’s health department was compelled to follow the law after Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach sued to stop state agencies from allowing people who say they are transgender to be able to change the gender on public documents.
After a legal back and forth, Kobach won in court, and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said on Friday that it could “no longer process gender identity amendments to birth certificates.”
I hate modern appliances. They’re built like it’s planned for them to last about 5 years then break to the point it’s not really cost effective to repair them when the electronics start doing strange things and major parts break.
However I like the way modern business apples itself. Washing Machine ignominiously finally decides to strip out the motor’s main gears on a Saturday afternoon? No problem. Local hardware, tool, appliance emporium delivers on weekends and a new, and slightly less electronically complex version is being delivered this afternoon.
The dryer, bought at the same time, still works just fine. Of course, now I expect it to also die, in mutual support of it’s previous co-worker
Just 12% of Americans — mostly men — are eating half of our beef supply.
Where’s the beef? In America, it’s getting scarfed up by a small minority of people.
A new study reveals that 50% of the beef consumed in any given day goes to just 12% of the US population.
And this heavy consumption of beef has significant health impacts on those Americans who are eating half of our steaks, meatballs, weiners and hamburgers.
Current US Department of Agriculture guidelines suggest eating four ounces per day of meat, poultry, and eggs for those consuming 2200 calories per day. But the study reveals some Americans are far exceeding that amount.
The USDA reports Americans overall consumed a whopping 30 billion pounds of beef in 2021, which equals almost 60 pounds per person per year.
The researchers were “surprised” such a small percentage of people consume such an outsized proportion of beef, study author Dr. Diego Rose, nutrition program director at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, said in a news release.
Four Mississippi alligator hunters break state record with catch
According to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks (MDWFP), four hunters harvested a male alligator in the West Central Alligator Hunting Zone on Saturday, August 26.
The alligator measured 14 feet and three inches long, with a belly girth of 66 inches and a tail girth of 46.5 inches. Officials said the gator weighted 802.5 lbs.
Don’t Throw Away Those Silica Gel Packets! Here Are 14 Smart Ways to Reuse Them.
Those tiny little packs of dessicant that come in your new pack of shoes or your vitamins have many uses around your home. Anywhere that moisture is a problem, silica gel packets can help alleviate the issue. Keep them stored in an airtight container away from pets and children (they are a choking hazard) and whip them out in the following scenarios.
Around the Kitchen
- Keep vitamins from moisture damage. (It’s good to just keep those silica packs that come in the vitamin containers; save them once the vitamins are finished.)
- Keep dry food and pet food fresh and crispy with a silica gel pack taped to the lid of your storage container.
- Put a few silica gel packs in the bottom of your clothes hamper to absorb moisture from clothes or damp towels.
- A pack of silica gel will help dry out wet shoes or boots.
Around the House
- Reduce condensation on windows by setting a silica gel pack on the window sill. (Remember to keep them away from children and pets)
- Help dry out a non-water-resistant cell phone by putting it in a sealed bag with several silica gel packs.
- Protect important documents and photos from moisture with a silica gel pack inside the box or file cabinet.
- Boxes of paper memories — like old papers, photos or notebooks — in storage? Silica gel packs stored in the same container will adsorb moisture.
- Store silica gel packs with your tools to help prevent rust damage.
- Store some in your medicine cabinet if you keep medication in there. The silica gel packs will help keep humidity down.
- Keep razors from moisture damage by storing them in a sealed container with a silica gel pack.
- Placing a few silica gel packs between your dashboard and windshield in the car will help keep fogging to a minimum.
When You Travel
- Keep luggage dry while it’s in storage by tossing a silica gel pack in each suitcase.
- Toss a few silica gel packs in a Ziploc bag if you can’t dry your bathing suit before packing it.
Bonus Tip: To “reactivate” silica gel packs that are saturated with moisture, place them on a baking sheet in a 200 degree oven away from the heating element for two hours.
Chicago Group Asks Gang Members Not to Shoot People Between 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m.
Native Sons, a group from Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood, is asking that gang members pledge to cease fire from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. daily so no one lives in fear of being shot while going about their day-to-day activities.
The push for the cease-fire is being called “The People’s Ordinance,” CWBChicago reported.
Native Sons’ co-founder, Tatiana Atkins, said:
Under this ordinance, we ask that people stop associating with and glorifying ‘shooters,’ stop glorifying ‘switches,’ and stop wearing those ski masks everywhere which perpetuates you as some ‘opp.’ When those who live a certain lifestyle try to hang with ‘regular’ class citizens, they put everyone at risk.…
At the end of the day, five-year-olds are being killed by gun violence, 14-year-olds are being killed by gun violence, 78-year-olds are being killed by gun violence, pregnant women are being killed by gun violence, young boys with bright futures are being killed by gun violence, fathers are being killed by gun violence, and this shouldn’t be happening.
Atkins hopes that gang members will adopt the cease-fire and that parents will react by making sure they have their children home and inside as 9:00 p.m. approaches.
Breitbart News reported at least 23 people were shot over the weekend in Chicago, three of them fatally.
Over 370 people have been killed in Chicago thus far in 2023.
Origins of Cappuccino: A Saintly Friar and a Battle Against the Turks.
Many Americans love cappuccino, but few people know where the name comes from. Cappuccinos are named for a holy Capuchin priest who was chaplain to an army fighting Ottoman Turks to defend Christian Europe.
Bl. Mark (or Marco) of Aviano is a saint celebrated by Catholics on August 13, and the name cappuccino comes from the name of the religious order Mark joined, the Capuchins. To understand the story of cappuccino, it helps to know a little about Bl. Mark himself.
As a teenager, Mark set off to preach Christianity and possibly become a martyr in Crete (where Muslim Turks were invading), but was convinced to return home after stopping at a monastery. It wasn’t the last time Ottoman Turks would figure in his life, however. The monastery had impressed young Mark, and he became a Capuchin friar and then a priest in 1655 in Italy. After some time living a cloistered life he became a missionary preacher and then superior of two religious houses. While preaching at a Paduan monastery, his prayers resulted in the miraculous healing of a bed-ridden religious sister, and Mark soon became famous as a miracle-worker. That fame in turn led him to become an advisor to the Austrian emperor and then papal legate and apostolic nuncio for Pope Bl. Innocent XI.
He secured the release of Vienna from the Ottoman Turks on 12 September 1683. Travelled with the army from 1683 to 1689 as advisor and chaplain to soldiers of all ranks. He helped negotiate the liberation of Buda on 2 September 1686, and of Belgrade on 6 September 1688. He worked as a peacemaker throughout Europe, bringing unity to warring Catholic powers, educating them on the threat posed by the Ottoman[s] – and never letting them forget that all wise counsel was given by God.
So where does coffee come in? Well, it was at the end of the Battle of Vienna. There are two stories about how cappuccino was invented, according to National Catholic Register. The more widely known and widely accepted version (which seems to be older, too) is as follows:
[A]fter the capture of the Turkish camp at the end of the battle, the imperial soldiers found hundreds of bags of coffee, together with numerous other treasures left behind by the defeated army.
The bitterness of this product, quite unknown in the West at that time, had a repellent effect on the soldiers, so Blessed Marco advised them to mix the beverage with some milk to sweeten it. The delicious beverage, which also happened to have the same color as the friar’s habit, was then called kapuziner in his honor and rapidly spread through Vienna and the rest of the Holy Roman Empire.
Italian scholar Ugo Spezia apparently wrote about a different version of the story where Greek and Serbian merchants used the coffee bags to open Vienna’s very first coffee shops. The drink they made by mixing coffee and milk was named in honor of Bl. Mark who, after Vienna’s liberation, was naturally rather famous and popular there. Whichever story you accept, Bl. Marco is at the center of it!
So the next time you sip a cappuccino, remember Mark of Aviano and the Christian soldiers who saved Europe from the Turks!
But will it sound like a sky car from The Jetsons?
World’s first fully electric flying car approved by FAA and accepting preorders.
A California company building a flying electric car is now taking preorders.
Alef Aeronautics’ flying car has been given a Special Airworthiness Certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), meaning the company will be allowed to road/air test the car, the company said in a news release.
The fully-electric vehicle (with a hydrogen option for a higher price) is a low-speed vehicle that can be driven up to 200 miles on public roads and fits into a regular garage, but it can also launch vertically into the air with a flying range of 110 miles, according to Alef’s website.
The company’s “Model A” car “can fly forward above the obstacles until a desired destination is reached,” the San Mateo-based company says.
“The driver and the cabin are stabilized by a unique gimbaled rotating cabin design.”
Alef touts the car’s ability to avoid traffic, fly in any direction while giving a “cinematic 180 plus degree view for safe and enjoyable flight.”
Customers can preorder the vehicle, which can seat up to two people is expected to cost around $300,000.
An FAA spokesperson told Fox Business it “issued a Special Airworthiness Certificate for the Armada Model Zero aircraft on June 12, 2023. This certificate allows the aircraft to be used for limited purposes, including exhibition, research and development. This is not the first aircraft of its kind for which the FAA has issued a Special Airworthiness Certificate.”
Alef first unveiled the car last October, and said it has already taken a “strong” number of preorders from people and businesses.
The FAA is working on policies for the takeoff and landing of electric vehicles, the company said.
“We’re excited to receive this certification from the FAA,” Alef CEO Jim Dukhovny, who co-founded the company in 2015, said in a statement.
Dukhovny and co-founders Constantine Kisly, Pavel Markin and Oleg Petrovwere were first inspired to first try to create a flying car in 2015, when they realized it was the same year Marty McFly drove one in “Back to the Future II,” the website says.
“During one of the Science Fiction lectures, Jim Dukhovny talked about how flying cars are finally possible in 2015,” the website says.
“But he lacked technical skills to take on such a complicated task by himself.”
The four met at a café and set out to design a flying car.
Dukhovny added that the certification “allows us to move closer to bringing people an environmentally friendly and faster commute, saving individuals and companies hours each week. This is a one small step for planes, one giant step for cars.”
Fox Business has reached out to Alef Aero for comment.
Reports are that units of Wagner Group are on the way there from Rostov
Buying mercenaries’ services has always been problematic
Rule 49. Every client is one missed payment away from becoming a target and every target is one bribe away from becoming a client.
Russian elite leaves Moscow on private planes en masse.
Russian oligarchs and politicians are leaving Moscow en masse on private planes, some of which have already landed outside the Russian Federation.
Source: Vazhnye Istorii (Important Stories), a Russian website focused on investigative journalism.
Details: For example, Vladimir Putin’s Il96-300PU, which is equipped with army control equipment, flew from Moscow to St Petersburg. The aircraft disappeared from the radar near Tver in Russia.
In addition, the second presidential plane, a Tu-214PU, departed from Moscow to St Petersburg at 14:44, which is also equipped in case of war. It disappeared from the radar over the Russian town of Gatchina.
An aircraft belonging to Denis Manturov, Russian Deputy Prime Minister, took off from Moscow at 07:00 and landed in Dalaman, Türkiye at 12:06.
Oligarch Vladimir Potanin’s Gulfstream G650 business jet is expected to take off from Moscow to fly to Istanbul today at 17:00
A Bombardier Global Express XLS belonging to state-owned company Inter RAO [headed by Boris, the son of Putin’s friend Yury Kovalchuk – ed.] took off from Moscow and landed in St Petersburg at around 15:00 (Moscow time).
Ordinary residents of the Russian Federation are unlikely to be able to fly anywhere today, as the prices for air tickets to visa-free countries have skyrocketed. For example, a ticket for a direct flight from Moscow to Yerevan costs up to 200,000 roubles [about US$2,363 – ed.] and to Dubai – up to 350,000 roubles [about US$4,136 – ed.]. There are no tickets left for Istanbul, Astana and Tbilisi.
Background:
Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has claimed that the regular Russian army had launched a missile strike on the Wagnerites’ rear camps. Prigozhin claimed that Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu had arrived in Rostov, where he personally conducted an operation to wipe out the mercenaries.
According to Prigozhin, 25,000 of his mercenaries are allegedly going to “restore justice”. At the same time, he asked not to call their actions a “military coup”. Prigozhin added that Shoigu had fled Rostov like a coward and “this creature will be stopped”. The Russian Defence Ministry called the information a provocation.
Further update on Dad. He’s feeling pretty good 4 days after surgery. If not for the insurance company, that has to approve his transfer to a skilled nursing facility for him to start rehab, he’d be there as they’ve ready to receive him anytime.
I personally called them today and told them to expedite the approval as they said the ‘normal’ timeframe was 14 DAYS!!
Hopefully we’ll have good new in 24-72 hours……maybe.
Success! NYC’s Drug Paraphernalia Machine Cleaned Out in One Night.
If it were a Broadway show, it would have received rave reviews. “A Hit!” “NYC Scores Big in New Debut! “Boffo!” “A Must-See!” “Five Stars and Two Thumbs Up!” “All of Gotham Is Talking!”
Alas, we aren’t talking about the latest play or musical to grace the Great White Way. Nope. We’re talking about the machine that dispenses free drug paraphernalia to users in New York City. But to be fair, it was received extremely well by the target demographic. The machine in question was installed on Monday in Brownsville, Brooklyn. It offers crack pipes, drug test strips, condoms, and Narcan. And lip balm. Patrons can also get tampons and gum.
By 1:00 P.M. Tuesday, a drug prevention program worker was hard at work restocking it. That same worker suspected that it might need to be restocked at least twice a day. For the most part, users were happy with the new amenity. Evelyn Williams told the New York Post, “Yes, I love it. They put it in yesterday, and it’s empty already.” She added, “We have a lot of addicts and heroin users over here. They should re-stock it immediately!” Another man rode by on a bike, gave a thumbs up, and said simply, “Yeah!”
Not everyone was impressed. The paper reported that 56-year-old Minoshi Calpe groused that the crack pipes were not quite up to her standards. She said she preferred the Pyrex pipes, and that the ones in the vending machine had no resale value since they were already available for free. She stated, “The crack pipes are a little too thin now. And every time I pull on [the newer ones], it was burning my lips. I was like, ‘Hell, no! I like my lips too much for this.’”
The machines cost around $11,000 without the contents. In the future, the city may also offer syringes for injection drugs. Charming.
The people in charge of the cluster-**** that has become New York City will undoubtedly tout this as an act of compassion. Actually, this is an act designed to help bureaucrats launder money through the system. And it has the added bonus of increasing poverty, death, and disease. And it should also contribute to the number of citizens getting accosted and assaulted on the streets and pushed onto subway tracks.
I know that Mayor Eric Adams recently gave a speech touting the values of patriotism. It was a nice speech from someone who may view himself as center-left. But a good speech is not going to help a city that is so complicit in its own demolition. If Adams wants to say anything, he should start with admitting that New York City has a left-wing problem. That is, as after all, the first step to recovery.
Well, Dad is progressing well. PT already had him out of bed and eating lunch while sitting in one of those lounge type chairs. Took two aids to get him back into bed, but already one day out of surgery and he’s doing as well as the therapy staff there has seen other people progress, so all’s for the good.
We thank everyone for their kind thoughts and prayers.
Jet fighters chase small plane in Washington area before it crashes in Virginia
WASHINGTON, June 4 (Reuters) – U.S. officials scrambled jet fighters in a supersonic chase of a light aircraft that violated airspace in the Washington D.C. area and later crashed into mountainous terrain in southwest Virginia, officials said.
The jet fighters prompted a sonic boom over the U.S. capital, causing consternation among people in Washington area, in an attempt to catch up with the errant Cessna Citation, officials said.
A Cessna aircraft crashed into mountainous terrain in southwest Virginia around the time the sonic boom was heard in the capital, the Federal Aviation Administration said. A Cessna Citation can carry seven to 12 passengers.
A U.S. official said the jet fighters did not cause the crash.
A separate source familiar with the matter said the Cessna was believed to be on autopilot and did not respond to authorities.
The Cessna took off from Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and was bound for Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York, about 50 miles (80 km) east of Manhattan, the FAA said in a statement, adding that it and the National Transportation Safety Board would investigate.
The crash occurred around 3:30 p.m. EDT (1930 GMT), the FAA said.
According to the flight-tracking website Flight Aware, the plane appeared to reach the New York area and made nearly a 180-degree turn, with the flight ending in Virginia.
Air National Guard F-16s were deployed from Joint Base Andrews, ABC News reported, citing an unnamed U.S. official. At least one military pilot saw that the Cessna pilot had passed out, ABC reported.
While rare, incidents involving unresponsive pilots are not unprecedented. Golfer Payne Stewart died in 1999 along with four others after the aircraft he was in streaked across thousands of miles with the pilot and passengers unresponsive. The plane eventually crashed in South Dakota with no survivors.
In the case of Stewart’s flight, the plane lost pressure, causing the occupants to lose consciousness because of oxygen deprivation.
Similarly, a small U.S. private plane with an unresponsive pilot crashed off the east coast of Jamaica in 2014 after veering far off its course toward southwest Florida and triggering a U.S. security alert that prompted a fighter jet escort.
On Sunday, the sonic boom caused consternation among many people in the Washington area who took to Twitter to report hearing a loud noise that shook the ground and walls. Several residents said they heard the noise as far away as northern Virginia and Maryland.
FYI:
Dad went through surgery like a champ
Originally scheduled for yesterday, but a major, multiple fatality, multiple injury accident had higher priority.
Modern anesthesia has progressed so much in the past few years that it has really surprised me, and while still a non-zero danger event is tolerated well by the elderly.
Now that he’s awake, he’s not so much of a happy camper, but as Chief Dan George put it: “That is the way things are.”
The long haul now begins as Dad & I get to find out just what’s involved in recovery and rehab from a hip replacement.
Sorry for the lack of posting.
Dad’s in the hospital after falling down and breaking a hip.
Surgery is scheduled for the morning
So, except for some automatic updates, posting will be light for a few days.
Extreme cold in Antarctica is coming earlier than expected this year
Apparently there are too many measuring stations from different nations in Antarctica, so that fraud in the sense of climate madness is not possible. Since the beginning of May, temperatures of down to minus 76.4 degrees Celsius have been measured at the Vostok research station. However, the current season in the southern hemisphere is still autumn. Low temperatures are unusual for this time of year. The norm for the location in May is -61 to -64 degrees Celsius.
Climate fanatics might consider it a success. Because they stick to the ground in European cities, are temperatures dropping at the South Pole? Hardly likely. However, it is a proven fact that the temperatures in the Antarctic in 2023 will be significantly lower than the ten-year average. Between 2005 and 2015, temperatures between minus 61 and minus 64 degrees Celsius were measured for the month of May.
Extreme cold should not be reached for months
Lowest temperatures are usually measured in Vostok when the northern hemisphere has its hottest summer – i.e. July, August and sometimes September. The fact that the Antarctic winter broke out in May with such temperatures is considered a special feature. The Russian measuring station was set up in 1957 at a distance of 1,300 kilometers from the South Pole at an altitude of 3,500 meters. The previous minus temperature record is said to have been reached on July 28, 1997 with minus 91 degrees Celsius (Wikipedia speaks of “unconfirmed”, July 21, 1983 with minus 89.2 degrees Celsius is confirmed). The warmest day in recorded history was January 5, 1974 with “only” minus 14 degrees Celsius.
Of course, spot temperature records are due to “weather” and not the “climate” that is supposed to be warming and from which we are all meant to die unless we regress to a pre-industrial age in trees and in caves. At least that is the plan of the climate apocalypticists – although many of them also dream of a depopulation of the earth.
Temperatures in Antarctica have been falling for 40 years
As early as 2021, scientists reported the “ coldest winter season in more than 60 years ” in Antarctica. After a trend has been emerging since 2021, one could cautiously speak of “climate” here. It would be time for politicians to come to their senses and stop destroying the wealth of western countries and citing some fictitious climate targets as the reason for doing so.
This article on Eike Klima Energie also shows with clear tables that no global warming has been detectable in the Antarctic for at least 40 years. Rather, a cooling can be detected at the German Arctic station. Conclusion there: The winters are getting colder at the South Pole. The current measurements seem to confirm this theory.
Herd of Cows aid North Carolina police pursuit, leading them ‘directly’ to suspect
Police said the cows appeared to be opposed to suspected criminals loitering in their pasture
North Carolina police officers made an arrest with the help of a herd of cows who were happy to narc on the suspect hiding in their pasture.
The Town of Boone Police Department said the suspect, later identified as Joshua Minton, 34, fled from officers during a traffic stop on Tuesday and led the officers and Watauga County Sheriff’s Office deputies on a pursuit. He abandoned his vehicle in the Deep Gap area and ran into an undeveloped area.
Because of the suspect’s “fast and reckless driving,” officers were not immediately close enough to see where he ran to, according to police.
Officers began searching the area for the man and received some unexpected assistance from cows willing to reveal the suspect’s whereabouts.
“Apparently cows do not want suspected criminals loitering in their pasture and quickly assisted our officers by leading them directly to where the suspect was hiding,” police said in a press release. “The cows communicated with the officers as best they could and finally just had the officers follow them to the suspect’s location.”
Minton was apprehended and charged with one count of felony fleeing and eluding arrest with a motor vehicle, driving with a license revoked, and disorderly conduct. He received a $20,000 secured bond and is scheduled to appear in court on June 28, in Watauga County.
The police department thanked the cows for their assistance in finding Minton.
“In addition to thanking our officers and deputies for putting themselves in harm’s way; obviously, we want to express our gratitude to the cows for their assistance,” police said. “This opens up all kinds of questions as to the bovines’ role in crime fighting. Honestly, it is something that we have not considered before now.”
Building on the moon: NASA awards Texas company $57 million for lunar construction system
Project Olympus just got a significant cash infusion
Artist’s illustration of lunar infrastructure built by ICON’s Project Olympus construction system, along with a SpaceX Starship in the background. (Image credit: ICON)
ICON is a pioneer in the use of advanced construction technologies here on Earth. For example, the company built the first-ever fully permitted 3D-printed home in the United States in 2018 and has since delivered entire communities of such houses in the U.S. and in Mexico.