Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalWisconsin pair found dead were electrocuted using dangerous art technique, officials say
Two people found dead after a fire in Marathon County two weeks ago were accidentally electrocuted while using a potentially perilous technique for an art project, according to authorities.
Tanya Rodriguez, 44, and James Carolfi, 52, were electrocuted while they were using a dangerous method called fractal wood burning to create art, said Sheriff’s Deputy Chad Billeb.
The equipment used for fractal burning caused the electrocutions and started a fire in the garage where the two were found April 6, officials said during a news conference Thursday. The fire spread to the rest of the house.
An investigation found that Rodriguez and Carolfi had died before the fire, authorities said.
The fractal process, which uses high-voltage electricity to create designs in wood, has gained popularity on social media sites. Many of the designs look like lightning strikes.
The fractal process typically uses a high-voltage transformer, often repurposed from a microwave oven, to flow current across wood items soaked with a chemical solution, according to the Woodworking Network.
https://www.channel3000.com/i/wisconsin-pair-found-dead-were-electrocuted-using-dangerous-art-technique-officials-say/
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Is there a way to do this safely? It says "potentially" hazardous.
Hot, hungry alligators are crawling through Florida neighborhoods
Alligators are crawling through Florida neighborhoods, and most are just hot and hungry.
A large alligator was spotted Easter Sunday cruising through Venice before heading back to the neighborhood lake, according to a Facebook post from the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office.
"We’re guessing he was about 10 feet in length and boy, did he take his time making it back to the lake he came from," the post said.
Another alligator was spotted two days later in Venice crossing a street.
"WALKERS BEWARE!" a Facebook post from the Venice Police Department said. "He’s currently in the drainage ditch nearby so please use caution when around this area."
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/04/23/alligators-mating-season-florida/7381358001
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Another reason not to live there. Keep your small children and pets indoors.
Ron DeSantis's attack on Disney obviously violates the First Amendment
By Ian MillhiserAt the urging of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Florida legislature voted this week to punish one of the world’s biggest producers of entertainment and pop culture, because DeSantis and his fellow Florida Republicans disagreed with that producer’s First Amendment-protected speech. DeSantis signed the bill into law on Friday.
Florida’s decision to strip a government benefit from Disney because, in DeSantis’s words, Disney expressed “woke” opinions and “tried to attack me to advance their woke agenda,” is unconstitutional. And it’s not a close case.
As the Supreme Court said in Hartman v. Moore (2006), “official reprisal for protected speech ‘offends the Constitution [because] it threatens to inhibit exercise of the protected right.’” Nor does it matter how the government retaliates against a person or business who expresses an opinion that the government does not like — any official retaliation against someone because they engaged in First Amendment-protected speech is unconstitutional.
The conflict between DeSantis and Disney arose after Disney denounced Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, an unconstitutional law which allows parents to sue their local school district if topics such as sexual orientation or gender identity are mentioned in the classroom. The law is unconstitutional because it is so vaguely drafted that teachers cannot determine what kinds of instruction are permitted and what kinds are forbidden — although it remains to be seen whether a federal judiciary dominated by Republican appointees will strike the law down.
Florida plans to strip Disney of an extraordinarily unusual benefit it receives from the state. Walt Disney World is located in a nearly 40-square-mile area that Florida has designated the “Reedy Creek Improvement District.” Within this district, Disney essentially functions as the primary landowner and the local government.
This provides Disney with several advantages — among other things, if it wants to build a road or a new hotel, it can approve that project itself rather than going through the ordinary permitting process run by local Florida governments, though Disney still must comply with state building codes. This Reedy Creek arrangement also allows Disney to tax itself at a higher rate to pay for governmental services like sewage and a fire department — according to one analysis, property taxes on non-Disney landowners in Florida’s Orange County could go up by as much as 25 percent if Disney loses its ability to tax itself.
Few Floridians, and, indeed, few major companies, receive this kind of benefit from their state. But the fact that Florida only plans to strip a special benefit from Disney — rather than, say, tossing its executives in prison — does not mean that it can punish Disney for its protected speech.
https://www.vox.com/23036427/ron-desantis-disney-first-amendment-constitution-supreme-court
Gaslit and Watergate: The enduring draw of a 1972 conspiracy
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the United States' most notorious political scandal: Watergate. To mark the jubilee, a new TV series and an art exhibition reveal a resurgence of creative takes on the national disgrace, which started with a June 1972 burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, DC's Watergate office building. Police caught the burglars in the act, leading to an investigation that uncovered major abuses of power in Republican President Richard Nixon's administration.
Shakespearean in scope, the scandal, which included wire-tapping, "hush" money and secretly recorded White House tapes, led to the worst US constitutional crisis since the Civil War. Nixon's resignation two years later forever altered US politics and the nation's standing in the world.
Since then, Nixon's downfall has inspired artworks from a range of creators, from Alan J Pakula's 1976 All the President's Men, the earliest film in the genre, to Oliver Stone's Nixon (1995), and Robbie Pickering's Gaslit, a new TV series premiering on StarzPlay on 24 April.
"It's been an endlessly fertile ground for television, movies, visual art, humour, even music," says David Greenberg, cultural historian and author of Nixon's Shadow: The History of an Image. "There's something about Nixon's dark qualities that still provokes the imagination."
Gaslit also coincides with an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, Watergate: Portraiture and Intrigue, on view until 5 September. And this autumn, HBO is expected to air The White House Plumbers from the producers of Veep, starring Woody Harrelson as E Howard Hunt and Justin Theroux as G Gordon Liddy, the two masterminds behind the DNC burglary.
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220421-gaslit-and-watergate-the-enduring-draw-of-a-1972-conspiracy
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A British take. And dammit, I won't get to see Gaslit for awhile yet because we don't have Starz!
Textbook with 'divisive teachings' nixed by Virginia board
Virginia school board has decided against buying some new social studies textbooks because of concerns that one of the books encourages “divisive teachings,” including critical race theory.
The Virginian-Pilot reports that the Williamsburg-James City County school board voted 4-3 on Tuesday to not purchase the books. The textbook of concern is “Government in America: People, Politics and Policy.”
It is often used in government and politics classes. One citizen claimed it was biased and left-leaning. Another said the cover photograph was a form of indoctrination.
The photo is of a protest outside the U.S. Capitol with signs reading, “Stop killing Black people.” Students are currently using textbooks that are 12 years old.
https://www.whsv.com/2022/04/22/textbook-with-divisive-teachings-nixed-by-virginia-board/
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Dumb, Williamsburg, very dumb. Kids that age are living it but can't read about it?
Texas mother set for execution - yet evidence suggests she did not kill her child
On the evening of 15 February 2007, a team of five police officers in Cameron county, Texas, began an interrogation of a Mexican American mother whom they suspected of having murdered her two-year-old child.
Melissa Lucio was in a vulnerable condition. She was pregnant with twins and in the grip of shock and grief. Just two hours earlier her youngest child Mariah had been pronounced dead having fallen unconscious.
The officers did not let the suspect’s vulnerabilities get in the way of the inquisition. Over almost six hours, stretching late into the night, they applied to Lucio the notorious “Reid Technique” – a controversial interrogation method that has led to numerous wrongful convictions in the US.
As trained to do under the system, the officers put their faces within inches of Lucio’s, screaming at her that she “had to know” what had happened to her child. They had “lots of evidence” that she was to blame for the death, they said, forcing her to view photographs of the girl’s lifeless body.
Then, as the Reid method dictates, they abruptly switched tone. They gently reassured her that she could “put this to rest” if she would only confess to having caused the toddler’s death.
Lucio insisted over 100 times that night that she was innocent. But after more than five hours of aggressive “maximization” and “minimization”, as the technique is known, she reached break point.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/21/texas-woman-death-row-melissa-lucio
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She does not stand a prayer in Texas. Fcuk Abbott and the chair he rode in on.
13 survivors of abuse by Larry Nassar target the FBI for mishandling the case
Lawyers for 13 girls and women who survived sexual abuse by former gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar have notified the FBI they intend to sue over its failure to act on reports of his misconduct.
"They left us at the disposal of a predator," said Grace French, a survivor and advocate who is part of the process.
French and others argue that the FBI was on notice by the summer of 2015 that Nassar had engaged in widespread and ongoing sexual assaults, under the guise of medical treatment. But, they said, the Bureau failed to take steps to halt the abuse or notify other law enforcement agencies that might have had jurisdiction.
"They turned a blind eye," said attorney Antoinette Frazho, which "led to this monster continuing to sexually assault women and children for 16 more months....They were careless, reckless and grossly negligent."
https://www.npr.org/2022/04/21/1094047967/survivors-of-abuse-by-larry-nassar-target-fbi-for-mishandling-their-case
Taco Bell is bringing back the Mexican pizza -- and South Asians are rejoicing
Taco Bell has announced the return of the Mexican pizza, a favorite for South Asian communities across the country.
Like many children in Indian families, Krish Jagirdar was raised vegetarian, meaning most fast food joints were off the table.
"The one place that we were allowed to go to, that we did often go to, was Taco Bell," he said. "The Mexican pizza was the item that I gravitated towards again and again. Hugely, hugely popular amongst Indian Americans."
Jagirdar said he would swap out meat for vegetarian ingredients. But it wasn't just vegetarian options that drew Jagirdar's family to Taco Bell — he says the flavors and emphasis on spice appealed to Indian Americans because they're similar to food at home.
"They have a heavy emphasis on spice," he said. "So I think in a lot of ways, it's kind of as close as they can get to, like, Indian fast food while still being obviously part of American culture."
Despite the name, the Mexican pizza is a distinctly American concoction. No such thing exists in true Mexican cuisine, and some might argue the snack doesn't really even look like pizza either.
https://www.npr.org/2022/04/21/1094074835/taco-bell-is-bringing-back-the-mexican-pizza-and-south-asians-are-rejoicing
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They aren't the only ones---I'm there for it!
College pitcher faces expulsion for attacking opponent after home run
A college baseball pitcher from Weatherford College (Texas) is facing possible expulsion for attacking an opponent as he rounded the bases during a home run trot.
"We are shocked and disappointed at what happened in our game today," Weatherford baseball coach and associate athletic director Jeff Lightfoot said in a statement on Wednesday. "This type of behavior cannot be tolerated."
The incident happened during the the top of the sixth inning between Weatherford and North Central Texas College in Weatherford, Texas, when first baseman Josh Phillips hit a go-ahead home run off pitcher Owen Woodward to put NCTC up 3-2.
As Phillips rounded third base, Woodward charged his opponent and tackled him to the ground, knocking Phillips' helmet off his head. The incident was shared on social media.
College baseball pitcher from Weatherford College in Texas faces expulsion for attacking opponent after home run
Cydney Henderson
USA TODAY
A college baseball pitcher from Weatherford College (Texas) is facing possible expulsion for attacking an opponent as he rounded the bases during a home run trot.
"We are shocked and disappointed at what happened in our game today," Weatherford baseball coach and associate athletic director Jeff Lightfoot said in a statement on Wednesday. "This type of behavior cannot be tolerated."
The incident happened during the the top of the sixth inning between Weatherford and North Central Texas College in Weatherford, Texas, when first baseman Josh Phillips hit a go-ahead home run off pitcher Owen Woodward to put NCTC up 3-2.
As Phillips rounded third base, Woodward charged his opponent and tackled him to the ground, knocking Phillips' helmet off his head. The incident was shared on social media.
MORE: Tennessee baseball player Jordan Beck called out after hitting home run with 'illegal' bat
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The viral video shows Phillips' teammates storm out of the dugout and pile on top of Woodward. The two were separated and Woodward's teammates escorted him to their dugout. Despite the hit, Phillips, a freshman, got up and stepped on home plate.
"After the incident umpires suspended the game until further notice," Weatherford College announced in a statement shared on Twitter.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/baseball/2022/04/20/texas-college-baseball-pitcher-faces-expulsion-attacking-opponent/7388648001/
'A great sense of humour': But what makes the Queen laugh?
There has been much solemnity and seriousness in the Queen's life - but as she reaches her 96th birthday, what has often been overlooked is her sense of humour.
"Laughing things off has been an important survival technique," says royal historian Robert Lacey.
The Queen's well-developed "sense of the absurd" has been a vital private outlet from such a highly choreographed public life, where she often has to remain straight-faced, he says.
"She obviously takes her job seriously - but at the same time, it doesn't stop her having a sense of the ridiculous," Mr Lacey says.
The Duke of Sussex, after last week's flying visit to the UK, singled out his grandmother's "great sense of humour" as her best quality.
Historian and author Sir Anthony Seldon says: "A defining characteristic is that she doesn't take herself too seriously. It's significantly contributed to the success of her reign."
He says the Queen has none of the "self-obsession" that he calls the "disease of the age".
"There is a lack of pomposity, a certain irreverence," he says. "She's able to laugh off misfortune and keep going."
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-61067187
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She continues to remind me a great deal of my mom, who didn't have as public a profile, but who had to occasionally stifle giggling fits on public occasions, was a good mimic, and had a great sense of humor...and looked like the Queen.
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