Wednesday, December 2, 2020

Tennessee man went to cemetery to meet date; instead, someone shot at him

According to the Monroe County, Tennessee Sheriff’s Office, a 39-year-old man went to a cemetery expecting to meet a date. Instead, a man shot at him at least seven times and set his car on fire. The shooter was arrested and charged with theft of property under $1,000, arson, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm by a felon and driving on a revoked license, according to Monroe County online booking records. The victim said he went to the cemetery to meet a woman for a date at around 8:30 pm. While the victim waited in his 2000 Ford Expedition, the shooter allegedly came out of the woods near the cemetery and walked toward the vehicle. The victim said the shooter leveled what appeared to be a .22-caliber rifle and fired three shots at the driver’s side window. The victim said that as he drove away, the shooter allegedly fired four more shots at the rear of the vehicle. The victim then jumped out of the car and ran into the woods. He later asked his sister to return to the cemetery to get the vehicle, but she said the vehicle was on fire, the sheriff’s office said. The woman managed to put the blaze out and drove the vehicle home. The victim said a 14-inch subwoofer and a stereo amplifier were missing from the Expedition, along with a cellphone and a pouch containing $30 in coins. Deputies arrested the shooter the next day. (Advocate and Democrat)

Man accused of trespassing into university room to steal vibrator

A 27-year-old man is accused of trespassing into a room in a university and stealing a vibrator, before returning months later to the same room to “fiddle” with a sex toy. The man, who cannot be named along with the exact location due to gag orders protecting the victim’s identity, returned to court for a mention of his case earlier this week. He faces four charges: Two of criminal trespass, one of theft and a fourth charge of sending insulting communication to the victim through the mobile app Telegram. If found guilty of theft, he could be jailed for up to seven years and fined. If convicted of sending insulting communication with the intent to cause alarm, he could be jailed for up to eight months, fined up to S$5,000, or both. (Channel News Asia)

The “world’s loneliest elephant” has been moved from Pakistan to an animal sanctuary in Cambodia

Kaavan, a 36-year-old bull elephant, made headlines in recent months due to the conditions in which he lived. Dubbed by the press as the world’s loneliest elephant, Kaavan is the only Asian elephant in Pakistan, the tiny number of other pachyderms at other zoos are African. Activists say that he was being kept in a dilapidated pen in a zoo in Islamabad, where he was being chained and exposed to extreme heat during the summer. Kaavan’s plight made headlines thanks to Cher, whose charity Free the Wild has campaigned for the elephant to be relocated for the past five years. Kaavan’s case and the woeful conditions at the zoo resulted in a judge this year ordering all the animals to be moved. A team of vets and experts from Four Paws have spent months working with Kaavan to get him ready for the trip to Cambodia, which has included training the elephant to enter the massive metal transport crate that will be placed in a cargo plane for the seven-hour flight. (The Jakarta Post)

General Motors has scrapped plans to buy an 11% stake in electric vehicle company Nikola

Shortly after the carmakers signed a wide-ranging collaboration agreement in September, a company named Hindenburg Research published a report accusing Nikola of deceiving investors by overstating the progress it had made in the development of its vehicles. Under the agreement, the companies were going to jointly develop an electric and hydrogen-powered pickup truck named Badger. Nikola on Monday said that it no longer plans to develop the Badger but it will continue working on heavy trucks. Under the terms of a revamped agreement announced on Monday, GM and Nikola will collaborate to develop the trucks, which will use GM’s Hydrotec fuel-cell system. Nikola shares dropped 21% in early trading. The Hindenburg report claimed that a prototype of Nikola’s hydrogen fuel-cell semi-truck was rolled down a hill to give the impression that the vehicle was being powered by its own engine. The report said that the company falsely claimed that the truck shown off during a 2016 event was equipped with an operational hydrogen fuel-cell engine, when in fact it had a turbine designed to be powered by natural gas. Nikola denied most of the allegations. (Associated Press)

Now a mysterious Arthur C Clarke-style monolith appears in ROMANIA after unexplained metal vanished from Utah

Utah received worldwide attention for the mysterious monolith that seemed to appear out of nowhere and then less than a week after being in the spotlight, vanished into the night. While the mystery of the Utah object and its disappearance remain, a similarly mysterious object has appeared in northern Romania, though in a much less remote location and with noticeable visual differences from the one erected south of Moab in the wilderness. While roughly the same height, the Romanian three-sided metallic object is decorated with rows of swirling patterns and is said to be two feet taller than its American companion piece. The new object is in northern Romania, at a town called Piatra Neamt, only meters away from an ancient fortress reportedly built approximately 2,000 years ago. Unlike the Utah monument, it wasn’t hidden in a remote location for years and just popped up before the weekend. The Romanian location is near “one of the most famous mountains in Romania, and is listed as one of the seven natural wonders of the country,” a significant contrast from Utah’s remote structure. Like the Utah location, the installation of the monument wasn’t officially approved. (Daily Mail)

One of the exotic birds that was stolen from a California zoo on Sunday morning has been returned, while the other remains missing

A Nicobar pigeon, known as “Old Man Nicobar” by zookeepers, was returned to the Fresno Chaffee Zoo’s Australian Asian Aviary exhibit after a member of the community saw the news coverage surrounding the bird-brained theft. “Old Man Nicobar” and the other bird, a lesser sulphur-crested cockatoo known as Charlie, were stolen 4:30 a.m. local time on Sunday. Both birds, which are long-term residents of the zoo and are of “advanced age,” are in need of “special care and treatment,” the general curator said in a statement posted to Facebook. “Thanks to the support of the community and the media coverage, the Nicobar pigeon, affectionately known as ‘Old Man Nicobar’ by zookeepers, has been returned to the Zoo,” Fresno Chaffee Zoo wrote in a Facebook post. “A member of the community recognized the bird after seeing a story on the news, immediately contacted our team and brought the bird to us. Our team is continuing to search for Charlie, the lesser sulphur-crested cockatoo.” (Fresno Chaffee Zoo Facebook)

Starbucks offering free coffee for frontline workers in December

Starbucks is stepping up to once again offer free coffee to front-line workers amid the ongoing pandemic, granting them a free tall brewed coffee (hot or iced) at participating locations throughout the month of December. In order to redeem their cups, frontline workers merely need to show up and identify themselves as such (no ID required). Per Starbucks, those eligible for the promotion include doctors, nurses, public health workers, pharmacists, dispatchers, firefighters, paramedics, police officers, dentists, dental hygienists, mental health workers, social workers, hospital staffers (janitors/housekeeping/security, etc.) and active-duty military members. In addition to its offer of free coffee, Starbucks is also preparing 50,000 care packages and gift cards to be distributed to frontline workers via Operation Gratitude. The company also made a donation of $100,000 to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) to help provide remote mental health resources for essential workers who require them. (Fox News)

Wendy’s offers free Breakfast Baconators with a catch

That’s why the fast food chain is giving away free Breakfast Baconators for customers who make a purchase until December 27th. To redeem this offer, customers will need to make their order through the Wendy’s Mobile App or they can access a QR code from the app that they can get scanned when they visit a Wendy’s location. Wendy’s added its Breakfast Baconator to menus in early March as part of its nationwide breakfast rollout. The sandwich is said to be inspired by The Baconator, which was introduced to the public in 2007. However, this burger has been slightly adjusted for morning palates and switches out the beef patty for a square breakfast sausage patty. Other additions include fresh-cracked eggs, six strips of Applewood smoked bacon, two slices of American cheese and Swiss cheese sauce sandwiched between two buns. Wendy’s free Breakfast Baconator promotion comes at a time when fast food chains have seen a decline in morning foot traffic due to Americans having more opportunities for remote work and schooling due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Wendy’s)

Holiday movie wars are heating up

As the holiday season approaches, TV networks and streaming services are gearing up to duke it out for seasonal movie supremacy. Hallmark is slated to air 40 new movies and Lifetime is releasing 34 films, while players like Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max and Fox Nation are also launching holiday content. With more players entering the space, executives say “appetite has exploded” for Christmas-themed movies, which has in turn expanded into merchandise and even a holiday-movie inspired vacation rental. (Variety)

‘Perfect storm’ boosts home prices

The pandemic may have temporarily cooled California’s housing market in early 2020, but it’s heating back up. The state’s median home price of $712,430 hit a record in September, making it the fourth month in a row of record highs, according to the California Department of Finance. Real estate experts are sayimg low rates, housing shortages and heightened demand have created a “perfect storm.” In addition, the Golden State is a “proxy” for what’s happening elsewhere in the U.S., with most of the movement being in the higher-end housing market. (The New York Times)

Tesla set to enter a roaring market

Tesla is set to join the S&P 500 in a single (and massive) step on December 21st, becoming the biggest company ever to be added to the stock index, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. The move will force index funds to buy about $73 billion worth of its shares, according to the index provider, which earlier explored including Tesla in two separate tranches to help funds handle the impact of adding such a big company. Tesla’s planned entrance comes after a strong month for U.S. stocks: the Dow Jones Industrial Average wrapped up its best month since 1987 on Monday, climbing 12%. (CNBC)

Amazon sees record holiday sales

Amazon said this year’s holiday shopping season has been the biggest in its history. While the e-commerce giant did not disclose wider sales figures, it said that independent businesses on its platform made an estimated $4.8 billion in global sales from Black Friday through Cyber Monday, marking a jump of over 60% from last year. Meanwhile, this year’s Cyber Monday is forecast to have been the largest U.S. online shopping event ever, bringing in up to $11.4 billion. Customers largely shunned physical stores over the holiday weekend as coronavirus concerns prompted many to do their shopping from home. (Reuters)

Archaeologists have discovered tens of thousands of prehistoric paintings in the Amazon

The paintings feature ice age animals, including the mastodon, a prehistoric relative of the elephant. There are also images of the palaeolama, an extinct camelid, as well as giant sloths and horses. Dubbed “the Sistine Chapel of the ancients” the collection of paintings was found in Colombia, on cliffs stretching across nearly eight miles. A professor of archaeology at Exeter University in the U.K. and the leader of the British-Colombian team that made the discovery said that it will take generations to catalog and study all the paintings. Many of the images are very vivid and in great condition. The paintings also feature fish, turtles, and lizards, as well as geometric shapes, trees, hallucinogenic plants, and scenes of people dancing and holding hands. The area where the paintings were found was off-limits until recently because it was controlled by the FARC leftist guerrillas, which signed a peace agreement with the Colombian government in 2016. (Art News)

Wednesday Slumps Down With:

• Fritters Day
• International Day for the Abolition of Slavery Day
• Mutt Day
• Package Protection Day (Following Wednesday after Thanksgiving)
• Rockerfeller Christmas Tree Lighting
• Safety Razor Day
• Special Education Day
• Special Kids Day (First Wednesday)