Located in Torreilles, France, Frenzy WaterPark bills itself as "Most Extreme Waterpark of Europe 🔥", where this guest went for extra distance by jumping off a pergola onto the "JUMP XTREM" water slide:
Rendez-vous demain dès 19h pour notre BEST TRICKS 2022 placé sous le signe du Texas et des cow-boys 🏜😍Avec la présence de youtubeurs, d'influenceurs et de riders plus chauds que jamais 🔥Entrée gratuite dès 19h pour en prendre plein les yeux 🤩Spectacle suivi par une nocturne exceptionnelle au tarif de 15€ seulement jusqu'à 00h 🚀🌙 #frenzywaterpark#extremesports#redbull#ridingzone#besttricks#pourtoi#fyp#fypシ#viral#sport
The old adage "A picture is worth a thousand words", requires a few orders of magnitude extra words to begin describing the powerful collage images Uğur Gallenkuş creates, to raise awareness about "the social disparities that separate those who live in privilege from those who are oppressed." The stark image collages meld disparate ends of the human condition to shock, outrage, motivate, and connect the benign with the malignant portions of the world we live in. In his latest book titled "Parallel Universes of Children", Uğur Gallenkuş seeks to bring attention to the lives and plight of children around the world, by illustrating "the true price children pay for inequality in today's world."
Uğur Gallenkuş is an Istanbul-based digital artist of world renown. His collages conscientiously address the widening global divide between the privileged and oppressed, weaving together misery and mirth, wealth and poverty and love and despair. By taking an unflinching look at the realities that surround us through his art, Gallenkuş aims to make a difference in how we understand the lives of others.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Pearson plc CEO Andy Bird discusses the benefits of moving digital textbook sales to blockchain and Non-Fungible Token (NFT) technologies as a mechanism to capture portions of secondhand sales:
"In the analogue world, a Pearson textbook was resold up to seven times, and we would only participate in the first sale," he told reporters following the London-based company's interim results on Monday, talking about technological opportunities for the company.
"The move to digital helps diminish the secondary market, and technology like blockchain and NFTs allows us to participate in every sale of that particular item as it goes through its life," by tracking the material's unique identifier on the ledger from "owner A to owner B to owner C," said Bird, a former Disney executive.
I've always felt that there must be a better way to do this manual back breaking labor intensive task, until seeing this curiosity satisfying video below:
In most species, gender is determined during fertilization. However, the sex of most turtles, alligators, and crocodiles is determined after fertilization. The temperature of the developing eggs is what decides whether the offspring will be male or female. This is called temperature-dependent sex determination, or TSD.
Research shows that if a turtle's eggs incubate below 27.7° Celsius (81.86° Fahrenheit), the turtle hatchlings will be male. If the eggs incubate above 31° Celsius (88.8° Fahrenheit), however, the hatchlings will be female. Temperatures that fluctuate between the two extremes will produce a mix of male and female baby turtles.
Researchers have also noted that the warmer the sand, the higher the ratio of female turtles. As the Earth experiences climate change, increased temperatures could result in skewed and even lethal incubation conditions, which would impact turtle species and other reptiles.
The animated series "Beavis and Butt-Head" have come a long way from the September 22, 1992 "Frog Baseball" short originally aired on MTV's Liquid Television, eventually ending it's television run after 8 seasons in 2011.
I've spent the past few weeks doing some trial & error in reverse engineering Chipotle's chicken recipe. I worked at a Chipotle for a few months, so I have some first-hand knowledge about the ingredients used and different processes involved in this chicken recipe. I've reviewed dozens of online "copycat" recipes, and every single one misses the mark in some way. Let's go…
"When Americans buy an airline ticket, they should get to their destination safely, reliably, and affordably," "This new proposed rule would protect the rights of travelers and help ensure they get the timely refunds they deserve from the airlines."
An Aviation Consumer Protection Advisory Committee has requested "members of the public and interested parties" attend a virtual meeting scheduled for August 22, 2022. More details related to this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking from the press release have been reproduced below:
For many years, under the Department's statutory authority to prohibit unfair practices, the Department has required airlines and ticket agents to refund travelers if airlines cancel or significantly change their flights. However, the terms significant change and cancellation had not previously been defined, which has resulted in inconsistency among carriers on when passengers are entitled to refunds. Further, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, various airlines have questioned the Department's authority to require refunds for flights airlines cancel or significantly change. This proposal would codify the Department's longstanding interpretation that a failure to provide refunds when a carrier cancels or significantly changes a flight to, from, or within the United States is an unfair practice. The Department is also proposing, for the first time, to define the terms significant change and cancellation.
The Department proposes that significant changes to a flight would include:
• Changes that affect the departure and/or arrival times by three hours or more for a domestic flight or six hours or more for an international flight;
• Changes to the departure or arrival airport;
• Changes that increase the number of connections in the itinerary; and
• Changes to the type of aircraft flown if it causes a significant downgrade in the air travel experience or amenities available onboard the flight.
Under the proposal, a canceled flight would mean a flight that was published in a carrier's Computer Reservation System at the time of the ticket sale but was not operated by the carrier.
The proposal would also require that airlines and ticket agents provide passengers flight credits or vouchers that are valid indefinitely when passengers are unable to fly for certain pandemic related reasons, such as government-mandated bans on travel, closed borders, or passengers advised not to travel to protect their health or the health of other passengers. Further, under the proposal, airlines and ticket agents that receive significant government assistance related to a pandemic would be required to issue refunds, in lieu of non-expiring travel credits or vouchers.
The Department encourages members of the public and interested parties to attend a virtual public meeting of the Aviation Consumer Protection Advisory Committee focusing on this rulemaking scheduled for August 22, 2022, and to submit comments on this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NRPM). Comments must be received within 90 days of the date the notice is published in the Federal Register. The NPRM can be found at https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/latest-news and at regulations.gov, docket number DOT-OST-2022-0089. Requests to attend the meeting must be submitted to https://usdot.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_e_B-NtXfT8KlqgoNCH3f7w. Additional information on this public meeting (including how to make requests to make remarks during the meeting) is available at https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/latest-news.
The issuance of the Airline Ticket Refund NPRM is one of the many steps the Department is taking to protect consumers. In November 2021, the Department's Office of Aviation and Consumer Protection issued its largest fine ever for extreme delays in providing refunds to thousands of consumers for flights to or from the United States that a carrier canceled. The Department's Office of Aviation Consumer Protection recently concluded its investigation of 10 other airlines and is pursuing enforcement action against them for extreme delays in providing refunds for flights the airlines canceled or significantly changed. The Office is actively investigating refund practices of more than 10 additional airlines flying to, from, or within the United States.
In addition, on August 1, 2022, the Department submitted to the Office of Management and Budget for review an NPRM on Transparency of Airline Ancillary Fees. This rulemaking would amend the Department's consumer protection regulation to ensure that consumers have ancillary fee information at or before the time of ticket purchase, including baggage fees, change fees, cancellation fees, and seat fees that affect families traveling with young children.
For information about airline passenger rights, as well as DOT's rules, guidance and orders, the Department's aviation consumer website can be found at https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer.
"The Justice Department has charged four current and former Louisville Metro Police Department officers with federal crimes related to Ms. Taylor's death. Those alleged crimes include civil rights offences, unlawful conspiracies, unconstitutional use of force, and obstruction offences. The four defendants were charged through two separate indictments and one information.
The first indictment charges former Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) Detective Joshua Jaynes, 40, and current LMPD Sergeant Kyle Meany, 35, with federal civil rights and obstruction offenses for their roles in preparing and approving a false search warrant affidavit that resulted in Taylor's death. The second indictment charges former LMPD Detective Brett Hankison, 46, with civil rights offenses for firing his service weapon into Taylor's apartment through a covered window and covered glass door. The third charging document — an information filed by the Department of Justice — charges LMPD Detective Kelly Goodlett with conspiring with Jaynes to falsify the search warrant for Taylor's home and to cover up their actions afterward.
The first indictment — charging Jaynes and Meany in connection with the allegedly false warrant — contains four counts. Count One charges that Jaynes and Meany, while acting in their official capacities as officers, willfully deprived Taylor of her constitutional rights by drafting and approving a false affidavit to obtain a search warrant for Taylor's home. The indictment alleges that Jaynes and Meany knew that the affidavit contained false and misleading statements, omitted material facts, relied on stale information, and was not supported by probable cause. The indictment also alleges that Jaynes and Meany knew that the execution of the search warrant would be carried out by armed LMPD officers, and could create a dangerous situation both for those officers and for anyone who happened to be in Taylor's home. According to the charges, the officers tasked with executing the warrant were not involved in drafting the warrant affidavit and were not aware that it was false. This count alleges that the offense resulted in Taylor's death.
Count Two charges Jaynes with conspiracy, for agreeing with another detective to cover up the false warrant affidavit after Taylor's death by drafting a false investigative letter and making false statements to criminal investigators. Count Three charges Jaynes with falsifying a report with the intent to impede a criminal investigation into Taylor's death. Count Four charges Meany with making a false statement to federal investigators.
The second indictment —against Hankison — includes two civil rights charges alleging that Hankison willfully used unconstitutionally excessive force, while acting in his official capacity as an officer, when he fired his service weapon into Taylor's apartment through a covered window and covered glass door. Count One charges him with depriving Taylor and a person staying with Taylor in her apartment of their constitutional rights by firing shots through a bedroom window that was covered with blinds and a blackout curtain. Count Two charges Hankison with depriving three of Taylor's neighbors of their constitutional rights by firing shots through a sliding glass door that was covered with blinds and a curtain; the indictment alleges that several of Hankison's bullets traveled through the wall of Taylor's home and into the apartment unit occupied by her neighbors. Both counts allege that Hankison used a dangerous weapon, and that his conduct involved an attempt to kill.
The information charging Goodlett with conspiracy contains one count. It charges Goodlett with conspiring with Jaynes to falsify the warrant affidavit for Taylor's home, and file a false report to cover up the false affidavit.
All of the civil rights charges involve alleged violations of Title 18, United States Code, Section 242, which makes it a crime for an official acting under color of law — meaning an official who is using or abusing authority given to that person by the government — to willfully violate a person's constitutional rights. A violation of this statute carries a statutory maximum sentence of life imprisonment where the violation results in death or involves an attempt to kill. The obstruction counts charged in the indictments carry a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years; and the conspiracy counts carry a statutory maximum sentence of five years, as does the false-statements charge. Actual sentences, in case of conviction, are determined by a judge.
The charges announced today are separate from the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division's pattern or practice investigation into Louisville Metro Government and the Louisville Metro Police Department, which Attorney General Garland announced on April 26, 2021. The charges announced today are criminal against individual officers, while the ongoing pattern or practice investigation is a civil investigation that is examining allegations of systemic violations of the Constitution and federal law by LMPD and Louisville Metro. The civil pattern or practice investigation is being handled independently from the criminal case by a different team of career staff.
The charges announced today are also separate from the charges previously filed by the Commonwealth of Kentucky against Hankison related to the shooting at Taylor's home. The federal charges allege violations of the U.S. Constitution, rather than of state law. The federal charges also allege excessive use of force with respect to Taylor and a person staying in her apartment; violations not included in the Commonwealth's case.
These federal cases were investigated by the FBI Louisville Field Office. Trial Attorneys Michael J. Songer and Anna Gotfryd of the Civil Rights Division are prosecuting the cases with Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary Dembo of the Eastern District of Kentucky.
Due to a mild hoarding tendency, I've gathered a collection of calendars over the years for a good reason. Given a long enough timespan, annual calendars will repeat the same day of the week sequences from prior years, so 2006 & 2017 calendars can be substituted for a 2022 calendar; subsequently a 2022 calendar can be reused in 2033 & 2039. There is a process for working out which years can be substituted, but I long ago co-opted the ethos "The power to do anything, the will to do nothing", so I prefer to use the website When can I reuse this calendar? to do the heavy lifting for me instead. Some may call this hoarding, but in light of modern trends, I prefer to frame this in the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle light of "sustainability".
In light of the June 24, 2022, U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization and the July 20, 2022, 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in Sistersong v. Kemp, the Department will recognize any unborn child with a detectable human heartbeat, as defined in O.C.G.A. § 1-2-1, as eligible for the Georgia individual income tax dependent exemption. The 11th Circuit's ruling made HB 481's amendment to O.C.G.A § 48-7-26(a), adding an unborn child with a detectable heartbeat to the definition of dependent, effective as of the date of the court's ruling, which was July 20, 2022.
As such, on individual income tax returns filed for Tax Year 2022 where, at any time on or after July 20, 2022, and through December 31, 2022, a taxpayer has an unborn child (or children) with a detectable human heartbeat (which may occur as early as six weeks' gestation), the taxpayer may claim a dependent personal exemption as provided for under O.C.G.A § 48-7-26(a) and (b)(3) in the amount of $3,000.00 for each unborn child. For Tax Year 2022, the deduction for dependent unborn children will be a subtraction on Line 12, "Other Adjustments," of Form 500 Schedule 1.
Similar to any other deduction claimed on an income tax return, relevant medical records or other supporting documentation shall be provided to support the dependent deduction claimed if requested by the Department.
One of my favorite things about language is the quirky way cultures interpret animal noises. Dogs for example bark "Woof, Woof" here in the US, "Mong, Mong" in S. Korea, "Av, Av" in Serbia, "Ghav, Ghav" in Greece, and "Hau, Hau" in Ukraine. David Sedaris touches on this in his essay "Six to Eight Black Men":
Guns aren't really an issue in Europe, so when I'm traveling abroad, my first question usually relates to barnyard animals. "What do your roosters say?" is a good icebreaker, as every country has its own unique interpretation. In Germany, where dogs bark "vow vow" and both the frog and the duck say "quack," the rooster greets the dawn with a hearty "kik-a-ricki." Greek roosters crow "kiri-a- kee," and in France they scream "coco-rico," which sounds like one of those horrible premixed cocktails with a pirate on the label. When told that an American rooster says "cock-a-doodle-doo," my hosts look at me with disbelief and pity.
Typically, when talking about animal sounds with friends from new cultures, the topic switches from "what does such and such say where you are from?" to more exotic topics like "what does a giraffe sound like?", however I've never wondered what a stingray sounded like, until I ran across this YouTube video from Fish Thinkers Research Group which shows a mangrove whipray and cowtail stingray clicking:
NuScale's small modular reactor (SMR) design will be the 7th design certified since the inception of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) on January 19, 1975. With the expiration of 2 nuclear reactor designs previously certified by NRC, NuScale's SMR design is to be 1 of 5 reactor designs utilities may reference when applying for a combined license to build and operate a nuclear power plant. For a sub 2 minute breakdown of the NuScale SMR design, see this video released in 2018:
For more details on the NuScale SMR power plant design, see this video released in 2020:
Finally, Joe Scott has an excellent video that delves into the game changing nature of SMR designs:
Marketers have long used Sonic IDs to associate brands with a desired behavioral response that resonates on an emotional and subconscious level. Sonic IDs can be transient, leaving a vague affinity that rises to the fore only when encountered again; however some Sonic IDs like those employed by HBO have been known to persist through repeated encounters, tied to powerful narratives festooned with emotional hooks. Planet Money's Wailin Wong collaborated with Twenty Thousand Hertz to share this fascinating walk through the evolution of HBO's Sonic IDs:
Let's take a look at the visual portion associated with the Sonic IDs mentioned above in HBO 2.0, starting with the HBO Static Angel, which at over 20 years old, is showing it's age like this opening sentence from William Gibson's novel "Neuromancer": "The sky above the port was the colour of television, tuned to a dead channel"
By mimicking the introductions used by movie theaters at the time, HBO's 1982 intro sets the tone for future revisions to come:
1983 saw HBO further refining it's 1982 intro, stretching it out to over a minute long:
HBO began to use this shorter update of the 1983 intro in 2017, which would go on to be fractured into tiny sound bites lasting only seconds each, while retaining the same impact as the whole:
After all these years, that theme music and that static sound are still the foundation of HBO's sonic brand. They're catchy. They're memorable. And they're just satisfying to listen to. But the nostalgia that people have for these sounds is just as important as how they were designed, and nostalgia isn't something you can manufacture, and it's definitely not something you can buy.
San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance garbs sheep in animal costumes, to help illustrate the irreplaceable nature of wildlife once it's gone. Here's AdAge.com's description of this advertising campaign:
Created by Goodby Silverstein & Partners, the idea revolves around imposter sheep posing as wild animals such as lions, giraffe, rhinos, penguins or peacocks, to get across the message that "you can't replace wildlife once it's gone." Videos and outdoor ads reveal the sheep dressed up in ridiculous guises while radio ads put a fresh take on the lyrics of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight."
As manufacturing trends have progressed from offshoring to nearshoring to onshoring, California seeks to go a step further with manufacturing low-cost biosimilar insulin with the launch of the in state drug label: "CalRx." California Health and Human Services outlines the details of reducing the cost of insulin in it's May 2022-23 budget summary as:
The downstream impacts of the market failure for affordable insulin impacts California and its residents. National data suggests as many as 1 in 4 diabetics cannot afford their insulin, and thus ration or stop taking insulin altogether. Affordable insulin is critical for Black, Brown, and lower income Americans because they are much more likely to have severe diabetes-related complications, such as renal disease and amputations. The May Revision includes $100 million General Fund one-time for the CalRx Biosimilar Insulin Initiative to implement partnerships for increased generic manufacturing of essential medicines under Chapter 207, Statutes of 2020 (SB 852). Through a contractual partnership, the Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) will invest $50 million towards the development of low-cost interchangeable biosimilar insulin products and an additional $50 million towards a California-based insulin manufacturing facility. CalRx biosimilar insulin products are expected to be a fraction of the current market price of over $300 per vial and would disrupt market forces that keep insulin products unnecessarily high. Many Californians, such as the uninsured, underinsured, and those with high deductible plans would benefit significantly from low-cost insulin that is broadly available.
While Michigan and Utah are seeking similar initiatives, the knock-on effect arising from the sheer size of California's market power could push insulin prices down across the nation. In AP News' report, California Health and Human Services Agency secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly stated:
he hopes a state as large as California making its own insulin would significantly diminish the role of pharmacy benefit managers in insulin pricing.
If successful, Ghaly said he thinks the price of California-branded insulin would be so competitive that patients could buy it off the shelf cheaper than going through their insurance plan.
"We expect to save hundreds of millions of dollars for California because of this," Ghaly said. "This gives us an opportunity to create a blueprint for healthcare affordability that has been so far out of reach for states and, frankly, the federal government, and it's really exciting to see where it can go."
Newborn alpaca are known as "cria", and the birthing process is known as "unpacking"; which can be seen in the video above , that details the unpacking of Archimedes the cria, and the tiny milestones leading to those first uncoordinated steps taken on wobbly legs.
Electrofishing is exactly what the name alludes to, but it's more nuanced than just using electricity to stun fish. Sciencedirect.com has an excellent breakdown on how the process works, in their synopsis of William L. Thompson, Gary C. White and Charles Gowan's book "Monitoring Vertebrate Populations":
Electrofishing gear consists of three major components: a power source (a generator, usually producing alternating current, or a battery), a transformer to convert current from the power source to different voltages or to direct current, and electrodes placed in the water to create an electrical field. In general, direct current (DC) is preferred over alternating current (AC) because it produces an "attraction" zone within which fish actively swim toward the anode (galvanotaxis), is usually less injurious to fish, and is less dangerous for operators (Hendricks et al., 1980). Pulsed DC requires less voltage than unpulsed DC to achieve comparable stun zones (Reynolds, 1983), but may cause more injuries than unpulsed DC (Snyder, 1993). Despite advantages of DC, AC produces larger stun and death zones and may be preferable when capture efficiency takes priority over minimizing fish injury. Alternating current most often is used in boat-mounted systems for lakes and larger rivers (Heidinger et al., (1983).
There are many factors that go into electrofishing, so here's a great video from North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, on how fish populations are sampled using this method:
Boats aren't the only way to electrofish, and this Colorado Parks and Wildlife video shows the handheld electrofishing method used to conduct annual surveys on rivers and streams:
