Thursday, February 25, 2021

Florida bank allegedly robbed by woman in electric wheelchair

A woman was arrested after she allegedly robbed a bank in Florida in an electric wheelchair and threatened to kill everyone inside, according to reports. The unidentified woman got into an argument with a teller at Regions Bank in downtown Jacksonville before announcing she was robbing the place.  Authorities said the woman was given cash before leaving the bank, located just a few blocks from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office headquarters. She was taken into custody a short time later. No one was injured during the robbery, according to the sheriff’s office. Authorities described her as a 39-year-old Black woman who typically uses an electric wheelchair to get around and was last seen wearing a silver and black face mask. (WTLV)

Arizona Mom Threw Daughter Cheapest Wedding Under $1000, Bought Her A Rat-Urine-Stained Bridal Dress

In an extreme case of cutting down wedding expenses, Arizonian threw her daughter a $1000 wedding which also meant adjusting with the choice of a rat-urine-stained wedding gown. The mother has reportedly been saving cash for 20 years and when her daughter finally broke out the news of the newfound commitment, she devised a plan to keep the expenses to the minimum. She settled on a $1000 budget by going for quite the odd options for the venue, dress, and other costs. She conveniently opted for the local school gym as the wedding location as she was confident that her friends, who worked at the gym would allow her to officiate the event free of cost. Her several efforts to keep the expenditures record-breaking low didn’t quite sit well with the groom’s mother. For flowers and Cake, the brides mother went ahead with the option of purchasing out-of-season flowers for the bouquet and settled to bake a cake at home to prevent herself from getting the $400 setback. Yet what caught the public’s attention was her uncompromising attitude towards the wedding attire. While choosing her dream wedding dress, the bride settled on a dress that had rat urine stains all over it for $75. Like his mother, the groom was not having the time of his life but chose to go ahead with the arrangement as he was focused on getting hitched to his lady love. The brides mother finally in a surprising move, decided to officiate the woman herself as she held the position of an ordained minister. (Folks Paper)

Bill that would repeal need for gun permits passes Indiana House

Indiana is moving one step closer to passing a Lawful Carry gun bill. House Bill 1369, passed in the House 65 to 31 and now heads to the Senate, would allow any person who is able to lawfully carry and possess a firearm to do so without a government issued permit or license. The bill repeals the law that requires a person to obtain a license to carry a handgun in Indiana. It would then make it so people who are not otherwise prohibited from carrying or possessing a handgun would not be required to obtain or possess a license or permit from the state to carry a handgun in Indiana. Supporters say requiring gun permits undermines Second Amendment protections and argue violent criminals don’t obey the law. Several police officials spoke out against the bill, saying it would make it more difficult to identify who shouldn’t possess handguns. The bill explains a person who has been convicted of domestic battery may not possess or carry a handgun unless that right is legally restored. If someone convicted of domestic battery does possess or carry a handgun, they’ll be charged with a Class A misdemeanor. Other people would be charged with a Level 5 felony if caught with a handgun. Those include:

• People younger than 23 who were convicted as juveniles of certain violent crimes
• People who carry a handgun on or near school property or on a school bus

Currently, Indiana is a “shall issue” state for the license to carry a handgun. You would have to be 18 or older, register online, schedule an appointment to have your fingerprints taken, and then you would need to complete local law enforcement agency processing within 180 days. (WTHR)

GameStop CFO Ousted In Shakeup

GameStop Chief Financial Officer is stepping down on March 26th after a rollercoaster month where the company’s shares became the focal point of the Reddit-fueled meme stock mania, but a source close to the situation is claiming he was pushed out because the board lost faith in his ability to help shift the company to an e-commerce focus. GameStop did not give a reason for the departure, but in an SEC filing, it said his resignation was “not because of any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies or practices, including accounting principles and practices.” The CEO joined GameStop in 2019 as the company was struggling with the rise in online shopping and digital video games sales, but GameStop’s largest shareholder has criticized company leadership for failing to embrace the digital economy with enough urgency. (Forbes)

Man found dead inside Cleveland grocery store’s air ducts, police say

An exterminator discovered a dead body in the air duct of a grocery store in Cleveland, Ohio. The police spokesperson said it appeared that the man entered the ducts on his own and that investigators noted no obvious signs of violence on the man’s body. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner has not released the man’s cause of death. A store manager called the exterminator after noticing a foul odor emanating from the ducts, according to police. Investigators have not determined how the man managed to climb into the ducts. Cleveland firefighters used a large electric saw to cut a hole in the top of the roof to help recover the man’s body. A statement from the store said they are “working in full cooperation” with Cleveland police and that the store will be temporarily closed. (Cleveland.com)

Pandemic makes prostitution taboo in Nevada’s legal brothels

Legal brothels have been shuttered for nearly a year, leaving sex workers to offer less-lucrative alternatives like online dates or nonsexual escort services. Those in the industry say many of the licensed prostitutes, who work as independent contractors, have struggled to qualify for unemployment benefits since closures began last March and some have opted to take their work into the shadows, offering sex illegally. While the business of legal bordellos may seem incompatible with social distancing, sex workers and brothel owners say that’s not the case. Like other close-contact industries such as massage therapy and dental services, they contend brothels should be allowed to reopen with protective measures. A state task force that makes recommendations on coronavirus restrictions hasn’t responded to pleas from brothel owners seeking a way to reopen. Prostitution is only legal in Nevada’s estimated 20 licensed brothels, whose sex workers undergo regular tests for sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS and obtain required work cards from local law enforcement after passing an FBI background check. They’re only allowed to operate in counties with populations of less than 700,000 people. Brothels and prostitution are illegal in the counties that include Las Vegas and Reno, but some brothels are a half-hour to an hour away. Some offer free limo rides from the casino-heavy cities. (Associated Press)

Phoenix family discovers 5,000 fentanyl pills inside daughter’s thrift store toy

A family in Arizona bought a toy worth far more than what they paid for when they discovered more than 5,000 pills believed to be fentanyl inside the doll. Phoenix police said the child’s parents bought a Glo Worm from a thrift store in El Mirage, Arizona. The parents were cleaning the toy when they found a sandwich bag filled with the drugs, according to police. Police said the family immediately reported their discovery and handed the drugs over to authorities. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid often mixed with other illicit drugs like heroin and cocaine that causes euphoric-like effects. Overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids increased over 16 percent from 2018 to 2019, according to the CDC. Law enforcement officials used the incident as a reminder for parents to inspect all open and used toys. (Phoenix, Arizona Police Twitter)

Puppy Born With 6 Legs, 2 Tails Has Survived Against All Odds

A miracle puppy born with six legs and two tails has beaten the odds to survive and thrive. Skipper is part Border Collie, part Australian Shepard mix who was born in Oklahoma. Veterinarians where Skipper was bought in say that this is the first known instance of a dog with six legs to be born alive. “She has survived longer than we suspect any other canine has (at just 4 days old – published research does not indicate one has been born alive),” the Neel Veterinarian Hospital wrote in a Facebook post. Skipper has a pair of congenital conjoining disorders called monocephalus dipygus and monocephalus rachipagus dibrachius tetrapus. This means that the tiny puppy has one chest cavity and one head, but two pelvic regions, two reproductive systems and two lower urinary tracts. Despite this, the puppy is “very strong”. (Neel Veterinary Hospital Facebook)

Michigan study shows sleep plays a vital role for the brain to associate emotion with specific, newly formed memories; exact processes between brain circuitry remains unclear

When you slip into sleep, it’s easy to imagine that your brain shuts down, but University of Michigan research suggests that groups of neurons activated during prior learning keep humming, tattooing memories into your brain. U-M researchers have been studying how memories associated with a specific sensory event are formed and stored in mice. In a study conducted prior to the coronavirus pandemic and recently published in Nature Communications, the researchers examined how a fearful memory formed in relation to a specific visual stimulus. They found that not only did the neurons activated by the visual stimulus keep more active during subsequent sleep, sleep is vital to their ability to connect the fear memory to the sensory event. Previous research has shown that regions of the brain that are highly active during intensive learning tend to show more activity during subsequent sleep, but what was unclear was whether this “reactivation” of memories during sleep needs to occur in order to fully store the memory of newly learned material. (University of Michigan)

Single-cell slime mold is capable of rudimentary memory functions despite lacking a central nervous system

The ability to store and recover information gives an organism a clear advantage when searching for food or avoiding harmful environments. Traditionally it has been attributed to organisms that have a nervous system. A new study challenges this view by uncovering the surprising abilities of a highly dynamic, single-celled organism to store and retrieve information about its environment. The slime mold Physarum polycephalum has been puzzling researchers for many decades. Existing at the crossroads between the kingdoms of animals, plants and fungi, this unique organism provides insight into the early evolutionary history of eukaryotes – to which also humans belong. Its body is a giant single cell made up of interconnected tubes that form intricate networks. This single amoeba-like cell may stretch several centimeters or even meters, featuring as the largest cell on earth in the Guinness Book of World Records. When the researchers followed the migration and feeding process of the organism and observed a distinct imprint of a food source on the pattern of thicker and thinner tubes of the network long after feeding. Researchers combined microscopic observations of the adaption of the tubular network with theoretical modeling. An encounter with food triggers the release of a chemical that travels from the location where food was found throughout the organism and softens the tubes in the network, making the whole organism reorient its migration towards the food. (Technical University of Munich)

Use of Cherokee name by Jeep ‘inappropriate,’ says principal chief

It’s there on the seal of course, and also emblazoned on the brick wall in front of the Nation’s headquarters, but it’s also affixed to thousands of vehicles across the country. “Car and Driver magazine reached out and asked me what I thought and I told them the truth, which is I that I think that the Cherokee name belongs to the Cherokee people,” said the Principal Chief. When the parent company of Jeep found out, they reached out to talk. “I think they wanted to genuinely understand what our perspective was, and they listened, and I think that’s to their credit,” he said. (Car And Driver)

Mars rover’s giant parachute carried secret message

The huge parachute used by NASA’s Perseverance rover to land on Mars contained a secret message, thanks to a puzzle lover on the spacecraft team. A Systems engineer used a binary code to spell out “Dare Mighty Things” in the orange and white strips of the 70-foot parachute. He also included the GPS coordinates for the mission’s headquarters at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He came up with the idea two years ago. Engineers wanted an unusual pattern in the nylon fabric to know how the parachute was oriented during descent. Turning it into a secret message was “super fun,” he said. Only about six people knew about the encoded message before the recent landing. They waited until the parachute images came back before putting out a teaser during a televised news conference. It took just a few hours for space fans to figure it out, he said adding that next time, he’ll “have to be a little bit more creative.” Another added touch not widely known until touchdown: Perseverance bears a plaque depicting all five of NASA’s Mars rovers in increasing size over the years, similar to the family car decals seen on Earth. He suspects there are even more so-called hidden Easter eggs, but adds: “I’m not even privy to them.” (KOCO)

Elon Musk says SpaceX ‘will double’ Starlink satellite internet speeds later this year

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the company’s Starlink satellite internet service “will double” speeds to customers “later this year,” as it continues to build out the global consumer network. “Speed will double to ~300Mb/s & latency will drop to ~20ms later this year,” Elon Musk said in a tweet recently, responding to a user who showed speed tests ranging between 77 and 130 Mbps. Latency is the amount of delay in an internet network, defining how much time it takes a signal to travel back and forth from a destination. Latency and download speeds are key measures for an internet service provider. In a following tweet, the CEO added that Starlink will reach customers around “most” of the Earth by the end of 2021 and is expecting to have complete global coverage “by next year.” He emphasized that Starlink, like other satellite broadband services, is intended for customers in “low to medium population density area.” “Cellular will always have the advantage in dense urban areas,” Musk said. (CNBC)

Thursday Is Treated With:

• Chili Day
• Chocolate Covered Nut Day
• Clam Chowder Day
• Digital Learning Day (4th Thursday)
• International Toast Day (Last Thursday)
• Purim
• Ta’Anit Esther
• Rubber Ducky Day