Tracker

I am almost to the point where if mother Nature puts more snow down, she can take it away.

Snopes did not confirm or deny the rumour, but it was bad optics if nothing else for McDonald's to take so long to deny it. A few years ago, Tim Horton's was accused by rumour to have laced their coffee with MSG, and they squelched that in a few days.

Good, but not good enough. In our country, few need to own firearms whose sole designed intent is to kill people. This doesn't need to be the sole plank of a election platform, but an important one.

Tucker Carlson Goes Nuts For '******** Tanning' And The Internet Has Questions Tucker Carlson, who recently came under fire for the homoerotic nature of the trailer for his upcoming “documentary,” which highlights the alleged collapse of testosterone levels in men, is under scrutiny again. In a short clip, Carlson’s guest, Andrew McGovern, said, “If you want to optimize and take it [your testosterone] to another level, expose yourself to red light therapy”: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tucker-carlson-********-tanning_n_625cd22ee4b0be72bff7a25f

Birds Aren’t Real': How a mock conspiracy theory caught on with the far right When Arkansas native turned Memphis resident Peter McIndoe invented the Birds Aren’t Real conspiracy theory in January 2017 — the month of former President Donald Trump’s inauguration — he was making fun of far-right conspiracy theorists. It was an exercise in political satire; McIndoe, now 23, was mocking the type of MAGA Republicans who listen to listen to Alex Jones’ “Infowars” and embrace Pizzagate and other ludicrous conspiracy theories. But Birds Aren’t Real caught on, and according to The Guardian’s Zoe Williams, some conspiracy theorists on the far right actually take it seriously. Birds Aren’t Real claims that the “Deep State” killed off all of the real birds in the United States and replaced them with drones that are made to look like birds — and the drones are being used to spy on Americans. McIndoe never really believed that, but he found that some far-right conspiracy theorists took him seriously and believed that all the birds flying around were drones. McIndoe, Williams notes, unveiled his Birds Aren’t Real claims at a rally in Memphis in January 2017. “Someone was filming him and put it on Facebook,” Williams explains. “It went viral, and Memphis is still the center of the Birds Aren’t Real movement. Or is it a movement? You could call it a situationist spectacle, a piece of rolling performance art or a collective satire. MSNBC called it a ‘mass coping mechanism’ for Generation Z, and as it has hundreds of thousands of followers on social media, ‘mass,’ at least, is on the money.” The audience for far-right conspiracy theories only grew during Trump’s four years in the White House, from QAnon to the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. And according to Williams, Birds Aren’t Real is “the most perfect, playful distillation of where we are in relation to the media landscape we’ve built but can’t control, and which only half of us can find our way around.” https://www.alternet.org/2022/04/birds-arent-real-how-a-mock-conspiracy-theory-caught-on-with-the-far-right-report/

Potential carries a player for only so long. If he does not measure up this training camp, he will probably be done here.

No doubt the soldier will suffer a mineral-induced heart attack very soon.

Garland has not enough for accolades or condemnation, but justice delayed is justice denied.

There are those who seek power to do good and make the world a better place, but there are also those who are so psychologically damaged that they seek power to harm others as they have been harmed. "Hurt people hurt people". There are places which do not allow criminals to profit from their misdeeds.

This is pathological. Instead of going after Big Oil for predatory pricing or encouraging people to drive less or smaller vehicles, this is feeding the problem. Problematic gamblers do not see the gambling as a problem, but see the problem as a lack of money.

Russian Soldier Tells Wife Putin’s Troops Bombed Their Own People, Ukrainian Intel Says ‘THAT WAS OURS’ A Russian soldier in an occupied part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region was caught telling his wife back home that Putin’s own troops were the ones who bombed a Russian town on the border this week, according to Ukrainian intelligence. In an audio clip of an intercepted call released Friday by Ukraine’s Security Service, a woman can be heard expressing concern about the attack on the town of Klimovo that Moscow blamed on Ukrainian forces, which reportedly left seven people wounded. “That was ours ******* stuff up,” the purported soldier quickly responds. “It’s necessary. They do that to provoke the [Ukrainians]. And that’s why they hit it,” he said. “We talked to the bosses and they said that’s how it is. The same **** was happening in the Chechen War, they blew up apartments in Moscow, as if it were terrorists. It was really the FSB,” he said, referring to the series of bombings in September 1999 that helped bring Vladimir Putin to power. Prominent Kremlin critics and defectors like Alexander Litvinenko have long accused Russia’s security services of orchestrating the bombings themselves to drum up support for the Chechen War and Putin. The unnamed soldier in the intercepted call goes on to say there was “no way” the Ukrainians could have reached the town of Klimovo, in the Bryansk region, from where they were, and tells his wife he plans to “refuse” to go further with the war in Ukraine.

FIFY

Super-contagious COVID variant XE has a key deficiency that could be our saving grace. XE may be more contagious than BA.2 — but its spike protein isn't different. Here's why that's a good thing At the beginning of this year, the extremely contagious BA.1 variant (also known as the omicron variant) set an astonishing record: scientists believed it was likely the most contagious virus ever, surpassing even measles. That is, until BA.2 — or "stealth" omicron, as it has been called — came along. Studies suggest that BA.2 is between 30 and 50 percent even more contagious than its predecessor, which was already more contagious than measles. But while contagiousness is certainly an alarming trait for a viral mutation, scientists warn that the worst possible mutation would be the emergence of a new variant that was both contagious and more inclined to cause severe disease. Luckily, BA.1 and BA.2 don't fit that bill. Indeed, while BA.2, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), caused 86 percent of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. last week, hospitalizations remain quite low. But just as public health experts seemed to get a grip on the situation with BA.1 and BA.2, a newer, odder variant has emerged. It's called XE, it's a hybrid between BA.1 and BA.2, and it's extremely transmissible. Could this pose a renewed threat to global public health? Salon spoke to experts about what we know so far about this new variant and the threat that it poses. Crucially, XE seems to have one key deficiency that will prevent it from attaining that secret sauce that makes variants more dangerous. XE is on the rise in the United Kingdom. According to recent data from the U.K. Health Security Agency, 1,125 cases of XE have been identified in the country as of April. That number is about 50 percent more than what public health officials identified a week prior on March 25. The variant was first identified on January 19, 2022 in the United Kingdom. XE has since been detected in Thailand, India, Israel and most recently, Japan; the U.S. has not yet reported any XE cases yet. Sriram Subramaniam, a biochemist at the University of British Columbia, told Salon that despite the rise, XE is still relatively low in prevalence in the United Kingdom. "Given the current high level of transmission worldwide, it is likely that further variants, including recombinants, will continue to emerge. It doesn't look like it's taken off in a big way yet," Subramaniam said. "There are some cases in various parts of the world — and it's not just XE, there's XD and XF," he noted, referring to initialisms for subsequently mutated sub-variants. XE may be more transmissible than BA.2 As Subramaniam mentioned, XE is one of three recombinant variants being monitored by the U.K. Health Security Agency (UKHSA). A recombinant variant occurs when a new SARS-CoV-2 variant develops by picking up traits from previous variants — recombining into something completely novel, a hybrid of sorts, with traits from multiple forebears. As previously mentioned, XE is essentially a hybrid between BA.1 and BA.2; the other two recombinant variants — XD and XF — are recombinants of delta and omicron BA.1. According to the UKHSA, 38 cases of XF have been identified in the U.K., but none have been seen since mid-February. XD hasn't been identified in the U.K. at all, and only 49 cases have been reported globally, most of which are in France. This is why, among the three, XE is hogging the headlines. Yet the U.K. hasn't yet collected enough data to say definitively how contagious XE is. Specifically, UKHSA says "there is currently insufficient evidence to draw conclusions about growth advantage or other properties of this variant."

Spinal and joint injuries are the most problematic in rehab, so we will see. Presumably, the Bombers will have checked this out. Edit: after the MVA, he was on a respirator. That is serious stuff, so I hope the Bombers take all necessary care with him- football is for only a while but life does go on afterwards.

My dog swallowed a whole bag of Scrabble tiles. We took him to the vet to get him checked out. No word yet…

Well.....he was moderately attractive.

O'Shea is very much an anomaly. The star players in any league are almost always so monofocused in their play that they do not transition well into coaching. Management seems to be a different kettle of fish.

Kongbo may yet return. The NFL is a tough nut to crack and he has already tried. He was not a dominant force on the line anyways

And, for some strange reason, no Argos.

If we have a lethal air attack, it ought to open up the running game for Brady et al, so if it takes a game or two for him/them to get going, all will be well.

FIFY

Pat King bail review adjourned again, this time in response to new charges against him A key figure of the Freedom Convoy protest will remain in custody for now after his bail review hearing was adjourned Thursday due to new charges against him. On Wednesday, the same hearing was abruptly adjourned when a lawyer's computer was hacked. Pat King's defence lawyer had requested a review of the decision to keep him in custody until his trial begins. The bail review hearing started Wednesday but came to an unexpected stop when King's lawyer, David Goodman, who was appearing virtually, interrupted court to alert everyone his computer had been hacked. Through Goodman's computer speakers, a cryptic voice repeatedly said the computer had been locked. The proceeding was adjourned until Thursday, and Justice Graeme Mew ordered a publication ban on the hacking. When the hearing resumed Thursday, the publication ban on the hacking was lifted. Goodman told court his computer issue had been "fully resolved," nothing was corrupted and his files were safe and secure. All evidence presented at the bail review remains subject to a publication ban, which is often requested and granted to prevent potential jurors from being prejudiced ahead of trial. King was a leading figure in the weeks-long convoy protest against COVID-19 restrictions, and was arrested on Feb. 18 on four charges: mischief, counselling to commit mischief, counselling to commit the offence of disobeying a court order, and counselling to obstruct police. King is now facing additional charges of obstructing justice and perjury. -CBC News