Tuesday, June 8, 2021

Man strangled dog during video call with relative, police say

Police on Long Island, New York have charged a 23-year-old man with killing a dog and threatening a relative during a video phone call. Authorities said the man is undergoing a mental health evaluation at a hospital. The man last month found a Chihuahua that had escaped from its home and kept the dog for nearly a month, police said. During a recent video phone call with a relative, he strangled the dog and threatened the family member, police said. Detectives found the dog’s body at a waste transfer facility and a necropsy was planned. Police said the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals helped in the investigation. (NBC News)

Holy guacamole! Avocados are smashing it

Avocados are still a smash, and demand is expected to keep increasing through next year, according to a new report. It shows monthly shipments jumped 33% year-over-year in January, hitting a new record, and March shipments were up 20% compared to a year earlier. The report includes a word of warning for avo lovers, though: It says shipments “may be tight in some weeks later this summer” as California’s and Peru’s respective seasons end and Mexico’s picks up. (Rabobank)

OnlyFans model suffers heart attack mid-striptease after trying out dangerous ‘dry scooping’ fad

An OnlyFans model suffered a heart attack mid-striptease after engaging in a dangerous fad that’s been spreading on TikTok called “dry scooping”. The 20-year-old OnlyFans model, has reported that she was at her striptease job when she began sweating uncontrollably, also the signs of a heart attack, after having swallowed a spoonful of dry workout powder before hitting the gym. Before she went into the full-on heart attack during her striptease, she said that her chest pain subsided and she went home from the gym suffering from nausea and light-headedness. The practice of “dry scooping” is evocative of the dangerous fad from the early 2000s in which young people would pressure one another to swallow a teaspoon of cinnamon, sometimes with fatal results. She admitted that she had taken part in the “dry scooping” TikTok craze earlier that day, which saw her rushed to hospital in her bikini. The stunt involves ingesting protein powder before a gym workout which supposedly boosts the “energising” effects. After keeping her overnight, the physicians determined she had suffered a less damaging form of heart attack, known as an NSTEMI. She was given the go-ahead to start exercising again within a few days of her hospitalization. (Lad Bible)

Florida man throws baby after vehicle chase, authorities say

A man was in jail with no bail after authorities said he threw a 2-month-old boy in their direction at the end of a wild vehicle chase near Vero Beach, Florida. The chase started when a deputy attempted to stop the suspect for “failure to maintain the lane,” the office said. It lasted about 40 minutes and included James driving a white Nissan SUV that struck an unmarked sheriff’s vehicle, according to authorities. The pursuit got so wild that law enforcement called off the ground chase and tracked the suspect via helicopter, the sheriff’s office said. The man drove to an apartment complex, stopped and tried to run away, but Deputies followed and chased him on foot. That’s when he allegedly tossed the baby. A deputy caught the boy, who was unharmed. The suspect was taken to a hospital after complaining of complications due to asthma and booked at the local jail on multiple charges, including battery on an officer and child abuse, according to inmate records. One allegation, aggravated battery on a pregnant woman, means his bail has been revoked, the records indicate. (NBC News)

Woman arrested after posing as 13-year-old student at Texas school

A 30-year-old woman was arrested after she was allegedly found trespassing on school grounds and posing as a student. The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office said staff within San Elizario Independent School District identified her after she posed as a student within one of the district’s schools. The Sheriff’s Office said several social media postings documented the incident where she posed as her 13-year-old daughter. The woman was booked into the El Paso County Detention Facility on suspicion of criminal trespassing and tampering with government records along with an unrelated traffic warrant. She was being held on a bond of $7,908. (KFOX)

High court won’t review men-only draft registration law

The FDA has approved aducanumab, the first new medication available to treat Alzheimer’s disease since 2003

Aducanumab is the first drug approved to treat the “pathophysiology” of Alzheimer’s disease, not just its symptoms. The company says the drug can slow cognitive decline in patients in the early stages of the disease. The approval comes despite a number of Alzheimer’s experts arguing that they haven’t seen enough evidence that the drug is effective. The FDA says it is aware of the controversy surrounding the drug but determined that clinical trial data was convincing enough to merit its “Accelerated Approval” pathway. The FDA’s approval is contingent on Biogen conducting another clinical trial, which could take several years. The administration could pull approval for aducanumab should future trials show the drug is ineffective, but it will be available for patients until then. The Alzheimer’s Association says that more than 6 million Americans suffer from the disease. (United States Food And Drug Administration)

The Supreme Court ruled that individuals with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) who unlawfully entered the U.S. are not eligible to become permanent residents

The 400,000 people in the U.S. with TPS are largely refugees who fled wars or disasters, but their unlawful entry into the U.S. does not allow them to access green cards, the Court unanimously decided. Immigrant groups argue that many TPS recipients should be eligible to become permanent U.S. residents as they may have lived here for decades and built families in U.S. communities. TPS has been given to migrants from 12 countries for humanitarian reasons: El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen. The ruling does not apply to TPS recipients who entered the U.S. legally and overstayed their visa. These individuals can seek to become permanent residents. (Associated Press)

Individuals have donated over $11,000 to a Virginia family after 8-year-old started selling his Pokémon cards to pay for expensive treatment for his four-month-old puppy

The boy’s mother said the family was not going to be able to afford the puppy’s treatment for parvo, a contagious virus. The boy overheard, and wanted to sell his beloved Pokémon cards to help. After he shared this story on Facebook and set up a GoFundMe, $11,000 has been donated (on an $800 goal), and the family says a number of people have shown up to donate cash to the boy, though they won’t accept any Pokémon cards in return. The puppy is now doing fine and the mom said she’s using the extra money to pay veterinary bills for other families in need. (The Washington Post)

Apple has already made a number of software reveals at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC)

The event continues through Friday, but here are some of the top announcements so far:

• iOS 15 will come with significant updates, including background noise reduction and spatial audio isolation on FaceTime.
• iOS 15 will also include upgrades to notifications and the ability to search for text in photos.
• iCloud+ is a new service that provides a VPN-like feature to mask a user’s identity.
• Apple’s mail app will start including “tracker-blockers” to prevent senders from seeing when you’ve opened an email.
• The iPad is also getting new software, called iPadOS 15. Apple says the software will improve app organization and allow users to have two apps open side-by-side on the iPad screen.
• The Apple Watch is getting a new operating system as well. WatchOS 8 comes with a new mindfulness app, additional fitness-monitoring features, and gif support. (The Verge)

Computer simulations based on brain scans can predict how well stroke victims will recover their ability to speak

At Boston University, a team of researchers is working to better understand how language and speech is processed in the brain, and how to best rehabilitate people who have lost their ability to communicate due to brain damage caused by a stroke, trauma, or another type of brain injury. This type of language loss is called aphasia, a long-term neurological disorder caused by damage to the part of the brain responsible for language production and processing that impacts over a million people in the US. This first-of-its-kind technology addresses that need by using sophisticated neural network models that simulate the brain of a bilingual person that is language impaired, and their brain’s response to therapy in English and Spanish. The model can then identify the optimal language to target during treatment, and predict the outcome after therapy to forecast how well a person will recover their language skills. They found that the models predicted treatment effects accurately in the treated language, meaning these computational tools could guide healthcare providers to prescribe the best possible rehabilitation plan. (The Brink)

Americans are sleeping, drinking, shopping and having sex while on the clock

Americans are sleeping and drinking while on the clock. That’s according to a new survey that sheds light on just what people have been doing while working remotely. Sixty percent of respondents say they’ve taken a nap while on the clock. Almost half have had a drink, and 41 percent have had sex, while more than three-fourths have online shopped, but for the employers out there – it’s not all bad. The majority of respondents are spending four or more hours working each day. (News 4)

How to watch this week’s rare “ring of fire” solar eclipse

Thursday morning, June 10th, the new moon will eclipse the sun at 6:53 a.m. EDT. To see it, look to the east. Because the moon appears smaller under these circumstances, it cannot fully block out the sun, forming what’s called a “ring of fire” or “ring of light.” A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes directly between the Earth and the sun, completely blocking the sun’s light. During an annular solar eclipse, the moon does not completely cover the sun as it passes, leaving a glowing ring of sunlight visible. An annular eclipse can only occur under specific conditions, NASA says. The moon must be in its first lunar phase, and it must also be farther away from Earth in its elliptical orbit, appearing smaller in the sky than it usually would. (CBS News)

Tuesday Touches Down With:

• Best Friends Day
• Call Your Doctor Day (2nd Tuesday)
• Caribbean American HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
• Ghostbusters Day
• Name Your Poison Day
• Upsy Daisy Day
• World APS Day
• World Oceans Day
• World Pet Memorial Day (2nd Tuesday)

Historical Events

• 1405 – Richard le Scrope, Archbishop of York and Thomas Mowbray, Earl of Norfolk, are executed in York on Henry IV’s orders.
• 1789 – James Madison introduces twelve proposed amendments to the United States Constitution in the House of Representatives; by 1791, ten of them are ratified by the state legislatures and become the Bill of Rights; another is eventually ratified in 1992 to become the 27th Amendment.
• 1861 – American Civil War: Tennessee secedes from the Union.
• 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Cross Keys – Confederate forces under General Stonewall Jackson save the Army of Northern Virginia from a Union assault on the James Peninsula led by General George B. McClellan.
• 1928 – Second Northern Expedition: The National Revolutionary Army captures Peking, whose name is changed to Beiping (“Northern peace”).
• 1941 – World War II: Allies invade Syria and Lebanon.
• 1967 – Six-Day War: The Israeli army enters Hebron and the Cave of the Patriarchs.
• 1968 – Robert F. Kennedy’s funeral takes place at the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York City.
• 1972 – Vietnam War: Associated Press photographer Nick Ut takes his Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of a naked 9-year-old Phan Thị Kim Phúc running down a road after being burned by napalm.
• 1984 – Homosexuality is declared legal in the Australian state of New South Wales.