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Dublinia and realism.

A post shared by Jason Weisberger (@jlw) on Oct 17, 2018 at 5:31am PDT

Today I experienced full immersion while enjoying Dublin's terrific history exhibit 'Dublinia.' Read the rest

This weekend I rewatched Starship Troopers. Read the rest

Research from the California Department of Food and Agriculture has shown that many vitamin and herbal supplements carry a payload of undeclared, and unapproved, drugs.

No wonder that magnesium make me feel so cheerful.

Via Science Alert:

A new analysis of 10 years of FDA records reveals that from 2007 to 2016, almost 750 dietary supplements were found to be contaminated with secret doses of totally unregulated drugs, including prescription medicines, banned and unapproved chemicals, and designer steroids.

Over 20 percent of these offending products contained more than one unapproved drug ingredient, and numerous contained a cocktail of clandestine chemicals – in two cases, as many as six unlisted ingredients.

For a US$35 billion industry patronised by about half of American adults, it's possible this data could be just the tip of the iceberg, too.

"The drug ingredients in these dietary supplements have the potential to cause serious adverse health effects owing to accidental misuse, overuse, or interaction with other medications, underlying health conditions, or other pharmaceuticals within the supplement," researchers from the California Department of Food and Agriculture, Sacramento, explain in their paper.

Given that supplement use is associated with some 23, 000 ER visits and 2,000 hospitalisations in the US each year, it's clear we're looking at a big problem here, but what's even more shocking than the brazen selling of these illicit additives is how tame and toothless the FDA's official actions were.

My Great Pyrenees, Nemo, loves sleeping on this pet bed so much I got him two. Read the rest

FLOTUS Melania Trump and her poorly timed jacket famously did not care, but maybe she did -- but only about herself. Read the rest

The State of Maryland got a bit of a surprise when the FBI informed state officials the contractor responsible for much of Maryland's voting infrastructure was, unbeknownst to Maryland, purchased by a Russian oligarch in 2015.

Via CBS News:

"We were briefed late yesterday, along with Governor Hogan, by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that the software vendor who maintains portions of the State Board of Elections voter registration platform was purchased by a Russian investor in 2015, without the knowledge of state officials," Maryland State Senate President Thomas Mike Miller, Jr. and Maryland House Speaker Michael Busch, said in a joint statement Friday.

State officials say they were told they were told their voter registration system, ByteGrid LLC, is financed by AltPoint Capital Partners, whose fund manager is "a Russian" and largest investor is Russian oligarch Vladimir Potanin. ByteGrid LLC performs a vast array of voting-related functions for the state, including voter registration, the state's online voter registration system, online ballot delivery and unofficial election night results.

"While the FBI did not indicate that there was a breach, we were concerned enough to ask Attorney General [Brian] Frosh to review the existing contractual obligation of the state, as well as asked for a review of the system to ensure there have been no breaches," Miller and Busch said.

We have also instructed the State Board of Elections to complete all due diligence to give the voters of Maryland confidence in the integrity of the election system. We are also asking the federal Department of Homeland Security Election Task Force to assist the State Board of Elections for any corrective action deemed necessary."

Sean Kayode, a homeless person hustling to make ends meet in San Francisco unsurprisingly received a lot of parking tickets, in San Francisco. Naturally, the best way for San Francisco to secure payment was to seize his method of earning money. A federal judge has ordered the car be returned, for now.

Via the SF Examiner:

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the city of San Francisco to return a towed car to a homeless man who couldn’t afford to pay the parking tickets he received while working as a food delivery driver.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White said Sean Kayode had raised “serious questions” about whether the March 5 towing of his car because of unpaid parking tickets violated the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures.

White wrote that in a situation in which a car owner can’t afford to pay overdue parking tickets, “it is not clear…that seizure is reasonable in an effort to secure repayment of the debt owed.”

The judge issued a preliminary injunction requiring return of the car. The order will remain in effect until there is a full trial on a lawsuit filed by Kayode, 52, and James Smith, 64, whose car was towed on Dec. 28, 2017.

Kayode’s car was towed from a street-cleaning zone outside a homeless shelter where he was staying. In the previous 10 months, he had received about 30 parking tickets and had paid some but not all of them.

A state law allows local authorities to tow a car whose owner has five or more unpaid parking tickets for at least three weeks.

Science Alert claims this illusions mimics time travel in the brain. I think the illusion works, but I saw no dinosaurs. Read the rest

The new record for most eliminations in a single match by a squad is now 61. Watch Fortitude_Fqrbes, Nexjs, tactjc, and TTV NadeXC take down most of the lobby.

There is a lot of swearing, as there should be. Read the rest

Keeping the narcissism on brand, Melania is 100% Trump.

Via CNN:

First lady Melania Trump said in an interview that aired Thursday that she is the most bullied person in the world, which has led her to create her anti-bullying "Be Best" initiative, before softening her comments slightly to say she is one of the most bullied.

"I could say I'm the most bullied person on the world," Trump told ABC News in an interview during her first major solo trip to Africa last week when asked what personally made her want to tackle the issue of cyberbullying.

"You're really the most bullied person in the world?" ABC News' Tom Llamas asked during the exchange.

"One of them, if you really see what people saying about me," Trump said.

"Be Best" apparently means "Be nice to Melania." Read the rest

This NPR story on the use of discarded restaurant oyster shells to build a series of thriving oyster reefs in New York's harbor is awesome. Read the rest

Over 20,000 reported cases of crap on the streets of San Francisco wins it a funny smelling crown.

Via KRON4:

San Francisco has been named the 'doo-doo' capital of the United States with 20,899 poop complaints reported in 2017, according to RealtyHop.

RealtyHop did a comparison of 311 poop complaints in Chicago, New York City, and San Francisco.

This study includes dog and human poop sightings.

While 2017 was the worst year on record in San Francisco, research shows that 2018 is on track to beat that.

The 'Doo-Doo Map' from RealtyHop shows the which neighborhoods have the most poop complaints in the city.

Don't blame the dogs, tho:

San Francisco Department of Animal says that the city has 120,000 dogs, but the real issue is the number of homeless people without shelter.

The research conducted says there is no correlation between a neighborhoods home value and poop complaints.

According to the study, the poop crisis in San Francisco reflects a social crisis and the problem has continued to increase since 2011.

Read the rest

Mysteries of the universe.

Via the NYT:

“I was getting a number of papers showing how remarkable the things were that dogs could do,” he said. When it came to other animals, though, scientific studies on intelligence barely trickled in, despite evidence to suggest that horses, chimpanzees and cats had tricks of their own. “Almost everything a dog claimed to do, other animals could do too,” Dr. Lea said. “It made me quite wary that dogs were special.”

Sure, there is Chaser, a Border collie from Spartanburg, S.C., who was trained to understand 1,022 nouns. (His owner, John Pilley, a scientist who studied canine cognition, recently died.) Before that was a Border collie named Rico who learned to recognize the names of 200 items. But beyond those examples, Dr. Lea wondered: Had dog lovers (and scientists, for that matter) imbued their pets with extraordinary capabilities they did not possess?

To be fair, Dr. Lea said he was a cat person. Still, he and Britta Osthaus, a senior lecturer in the School of Psychology, Politics and Sociology at Canterbury Christ Church University in Britain, set out to test the hypothesis.

They compared dog cognition with members of three similar groups: carnivores, social hunters and domestic animals. Among the animals they studied were wolves, cats, chimpanzees, dolphins, horses and pigeons. What they found, Dr. Lea said, was that “dog cognition does not look exceptional.”

Taylor Swift may speak to her home state, but MTv's former presidential hopeful Randee of the Redwoods may be more effective to rally Happy Mutant voters!

Randee reminds us of our youth, while encouraging everyone to register and to vote.

Just say "Whoa!"

Read the rest

A High School student purportedly offered pot brownies to football players in trade for homecoming queen votes. The student both failed in her bid for office and faces criminal charges.

I'd have eaten the brownies and stayed home.

Via WaPo:

Police told TV station WWMT that the 17-year-old at Hartford High School wanted the crown so badly that she showed up to school with a clever, but illegal, bit of homemade homecoming swag: a dozen pot brownies.

In the weeks prior, the girl had been nominated as a finalist for homecoming queen. Police say she hoped the brownies would sway her classmates to cast the votes she would need to win the title.

The cheerleader gave goody bags to football players, a standard practice before games, according to Hartford police, but hers also allegedly came with the brownies and their dose of THC.

The ambitious teen’s maneuvering was uncovered around Sept. 26, when police say someone used an app to anonymously notify state authorities, who then relayed the tip to Hartford police.

School officials were able to retrieve two brownies in their entirety and the partial remains of a third brownie, Hartford Superintendent Andrew Hubbard told The Washington Post.

Hubbard said at least eight students face possible expulsion for their roles or reactions to the scheme.

“I’ve read about things across this country. It has not happened with anything that I know of in this area,” Hartford police officer Michael Prince told Fox 17. “I’ve been an officer a long time, and whenever you think you’ve heard it all, something just about daily comes up, like, ‘Wow,’ ” Prince said.

Like other members of the Trump family, Melania is also not good at petting elephants.

Via Newsweek:

First lady Melania Trump got friendly with some baby elephants in Kenya on Friday—and one of the youngsters responded by giving her a shove.

The episode occurred when the first lady stepped forward toward a baby elephant at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage. An elephant behind it appeared to nudge and cause the elephant closest to Trump to run toward her and push her backward.

Two people who appeared to be Secret Service agents quickly put their hands on Trump for support. The first lady did not appear to have been injured, smiled and stood back.

Read the rest

Whoa.

I do not know who this woman is, or how she got to be so insanely wrong about everything. Anytime someone claims to know who the chosen one is the universe takes it in the nuggets.

Harry Potter might be the only time "the chosen" one has actually worked out.

All kidding aside, we're doomed. The voice of the commentator just agreeing along and "Uh huh"ing the predictions of doom and promises of curses turns the dial on this one to 11. Read the rest