Monday, October 21, 2019

Police in Oklahoma are looking for a man who they say shot himself in the groin

Officers  say it happened toward the end of August after an assailant pistol  whipped a man. Video reportedly recorded the whole thing, including him dropping the gun before it went off and shot him. The man has  been out on bail following another weapon charge last month. He’s now  facing a felony for having a gun because prosecutors say he is an  adjudicated delinquent child. He was convicted for stealing a car in  2016. (KSWO)

Food Without Thought

One  man in Jupiter, Florida, decided that he could make a difference in his  town by paying off the lunch debt for every child in the system. It all  started with a Facebook post. The administrator of the “Jupiter Mamas”  Facebook group, said she was disgusted by national news stories about  children who couldn’t afford to buy lunch at school. She asked the Palm  Beach County School Board for her district’s stats. To spread awareness,  she shared the list of nine schools’ outstanding lunch debt of $944.34.  Weeks later, the list made its way to a Jupiter real estate agent who  decided he wanted to do something about the list, and paid the balance  for all 400 kids in full. He knew that the kids in debt would go without  eating or simply get a cheese sandwich. But he isn’t stopping there. “I’m  going to do either a GoFundMe page or a fundraising page that can raise  money every quarter, so lunch debt never accumulates so that children  never have to worry about a hot meal and parents never have to worry  about paying the bill,” he said. Sharing his small spark of  kindness started a fire with those who found out about his personal  initiative. Over 200 people offered to help on his Facebook alone. With  their help, he can start to not only tackle the lunch debt of Jupiter  but the greater debt of Palm Beach County. A spokeswoman for the  district said that the total school lunch debt was around $50,000 for  over 180,000 enrolled students. (WPEC)

Men’s marijuana use increases miscarriage risk for women, new research finds

When  men smoke marijuana once a week or more, their partners are twice as  likely to experience a miscarriage when pregnant, according to Boston  University researchers who examined over 1,400 couples before they got  pregnant. The researches asked the couples about marijuana usage over  the past two months and then followed them as they got pregnant and, in  some cases, miscarried. The majority of men in the study did not smoke  marijuana, with only 8% smoking once a week or more. Nearly 18% of the  couples in the study reported a miscarriage. Smoking, but less  frequently than once a week, did not have an association with  miscarriage rate, according to the research. One reason for the  increased risk of miscarriage with male marijuana use, according to  researchers, is that smoking marijuana may negatively affect sperm  quality and the change in sperm quality may drive the increased  occurrence of miscarriage. The research comes just days after  researchers in China released a study that found a father’s alcohol  intake may actually affect a future child more than a mother’s intake.  Their results, published in the European Journal of Preventive  Cardiology, revealed that the risk of heart defects in infants was 44%  higher if their fathers drank. They found that this risk was increased  by 16% for mothers who drank. (ABC News)

Space ‘elevator’ to the moon may soon be a reality

The concept of using an “elevator”  to travel from Earth to space has been around for quite some time, with  an early concept first proposed in 1959 by a Russian engineer. But now,  that seemingly far-fetched idea may become a reality. The idea is  relatively simple: a cable is stretched from a satellite counterweight  above the geosynchronous orbit, where it’s attached to a floating anchor  station at the equator. The cord is able to stand up on its own by  centrifugal force, allowing a car to travel along the cable, directly  from Earth to a space station. NASA and space agencies in Japan and  China have been working on this version of the space elevator for years.  The Obayashi Corporation has promised to have its version up and  running by 2050, estimated to cost $90 billion. As opposed to a cable  stretching skyward anchored from the Earth, the cable proposed in the  study runs from the moon down toward our planet, coming to an end and  hanging in Earth’s geosynchronous orbit, 22,236 miles above the surface.  This would place the cable out of danger zone of lower orbit, where it  could be struck by satellites or space debris. The pencil-lead-thin cord  would be constructed from carbon polymers and hung from the moon. The  cost is estimated to be in the billions of dollars. (New York Post)

Countries saw an erosion of trust in 2018 and an overall decline in reputation

When  measuring a country’s reputation, one should consider whether the  nation in question has an advanced economy, an appealing environment and  an effective government. The reputation of the U.S. has been in steep  decline since 2016, dropping two spots to No. 36 on this year’s list,  below even the Philippines, which ranked a surprising No. 35 in spite of  that country’s Presidents’ murderous regime. The European nation fell  two spots to No. 18 due, in part, to global skepticism about the  competence of Parliament. To determine the list, researchers surveyed  more than 58,000 individuals in just seven countries, Canada, France,  Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States,  during the period from March to April 2019. The 55 countries considered  were those with the greatest gross domestic product and those that were  familiar to at least 51% of the population of the G8 countries. The  World’s Most Reputable Countries 2019 include:

• 1 Sweden
• 2 Switzerland
• 3 Norway
• 4 Finland
• 5 New Zealand
• 6 Canada
• 7 Denmark 
• 8 Australia
• 9 Netherlands
• 10 Ireland

The World’s Least Reputable Countries 2019:

• 46 Algeria
• 47 Bangladesh
• 48 Colombia
• 49 Venezuela
• 50 Nigeria
• 51 Russia
• 52 Saudi Arabia
• 53 Pakistan
• 54 Iran
• 55 Iraq

(Forbes)

Former Nazi Bunker To Open As Luxury Hotel In Hamburg, Germany

The  St. Pauli bunker on Feldstraße in Hamburg, Germany was one of two  towers created by the Nazi’s for air defense during WWII. Constructed in  only 300 days by over 1,000 forced laborers from concentration camps,  the bunker was used during the War to launch anti-aircraft fire at  allied planes. During the War, tens of thousands of Hamburg residents  found protection against air raids. Reports show that during the  bombardments on the city of Hamburg at times up to 30,000 people were  sheltered in the bunker. The Bunker St. Pauli, located in the heart of  the city, will have five stories in the shape of a pyramid including a  spectacular roof-top garden. Designers have created a public rooftop  park, where the bunker will host a memorial for the victims of the Nazi  regime. There will be spaces for culture, exhibitions and a hall for  sports and entertainment events will be created. (Luxury Launches)

Two women come to blows over man on Oklahoma highway

A  fight between two women in the middle of the highway allegedly started  with a disagreement over laundry, toilet paper and dishes, and ended  with both women in lockup. A man was caught up in the middle of it. He’s  legally married to one of the women, but the two had an open  relationship with another woman. He said things were going well for a  few months until the girlfriend wanted to get something off her chest. “She didn`t want to be the other woman,”  he said. So, he left the wife and their three kids to go live with the  girlfriend. But the honeymoon ended when it came time to buying the  groceries and doing chores. A police report says, “The wife and the girlfriend got in an argument over toilet paper, laundry and dishes.” The man told the girlfriend that he had enough and that he wanted to “move out.” So  he packed his bags, hopped on his Harley and called called the the wife  to come drive the van, but the two didn’t get very far before the  girlfriend was on their tail. The girlfriend allegedly hit the back of  the man’s bike on purpose and sent him flying across the pavement.  Horrified drivers called 911. Then, the girlfriend hit the wifes vehicle  before the two got out and went hand-to-hand on the highway. Both women  were off to jail facing charges, but were bonded out of jail. However,  the wife is back in jail as the investigation continues. (KFOR)

Monday Strikes Back With:

• Celebration of The Mind Day
• Global Iodine Deficiency Disorder (IDD) Prevention Day
• Lung Health Day (Monday of Respiratory Care Week)
• National Clean Your Virtual Desktop Day (3rd Monday)
   
• National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day
• Reptile Awareness Day
• Shemini Atzeret
• Xterra World Championships