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Amid spike in shootings, Portland unveils new initiative https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/amid-spike-shootings-portland-unveils-initiative-87211238 In the face of growing violence, many cities are now trying to navigate how to maintain public safety while also addressing the calls to reform and “defund” the police sparked by George Floyd’s murder, as racial justice activists seek to have police budgets reallocated to other social services. Holding police accountable is a must. Anyone who says "defund the police" is either a fool or criminal. The report found that last year Portland had a homicide rate of 13.5 per 100,000 people, roughly double the nationwide rate. The number of homicides in Portland surpassed more populous cities like San Francisco and Boston. The Oregon city had twice as many slayings compared to its larger Pacific Northwest neighbor Seattle. In 2020 Portland decided to cut the police budget by $15 million. We all know how well that worked In another article discussing homicides in Atlanta - which have skyrocketed https://www.ajc.com/news/crime/atlanta-no-3-for-highest-homicide-jump-during-covid-study-finds/HW37L6IMM5BFZLWH7DP6TZJSRI/ After a historically deadly 2020, Atlanta leaders hoped homicides would decrease last year. That statement shows how out-of-touch "leaders" are with what is happening.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-a-dick-pic-helped-detectives-crack-dollar30m-tamara-ecclestone-diamond-heist One of the group had sent her colleague a string of lewd messages on the hotel’s out-of-hours iPhone—one of which was a dick pic. Staff at the hotel even saved the man’s number as “Weirdo.” The hotel had made a photocopy of his photo ID when he checked in, which gave cops their first suspect in the case: a 23-year-old Italian called Jugoslav Jovanovic. Once they had his identity, police were able to piece together Jovanovic’s movements after entering the U.K., and even found that his appearance matched that of a man caught on security cameras during the robberies carried out at the homes of other high profile celebrities

https://chicago.suntimes.com/2022/7/15/23216341/violent-crime-soared-arrests-historic-lows-chicago-police-department-david-brown-lori-lightfoot ...violent crime in Chicago has continued to surge —and criminals are mostly getting away with it. The police have made arrests in just 12% of crimes reported last year, according to a Chicago Sun-Times analysis. That’s the lowest level since at least 2001, the first year the data was made publicly available. A former commander says officers who regularly have had days off canceled are avoiding making some arrests because they don’t want to wind up in court during their time off. A beat cop who patrols downtown says prosecutors’ high threshold for approving felony charges has made officers second-guess whether to engage “criminals with guns” — a sentiment the former commander echoes. The beat cop says high-profile attacks on officers such as last August’s shooting in West Englewood that left Ella French dead and her partner Carlos Yanez critically wounded — “make us take a step back and think: Who really cares about us at that point? “As fewer arrests are made, the legitimacy of law enforcement gets questioned in the eyes of the people, the less respect people have for law enforcement because they feel and, quite literally, see that you can get away with almost anything in this city right now and not get caught,” he says. “Refusal to recognize that fact only makes Chicago all the more dangerous.”

Nice job by Subway (and good publicity for them the TikTok complaint did catch the attention of Subway of Australia. And though they didn't pay her fine, they did give her a bit of a reimbursement: a Subway gift card for $2,664 AUD, the exact amount of the fine, along with a thank you card and a box of Subway merchandise such as a hat, scrunchy, socks, and playing cards.

Cool! I looked this up, and according to wikipedia Though T.H.E. Cat was popular among children and teens, the series fared poorly in the ratings overall, a situation that prompted its cancellation after a single season well... guess ol' Hollywood hasn't changed all that much

Clearly a ....cat burglar

Santa's Special -

My last flight was actually okay, no real issues despite a short delay. However, I keep reading horror stories like this- https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/advice/seven-hour-flight-delay-cost-1500-almost-ended-passenger-mutiny/ At about 8.30pm – nearly seven hours after we were supposed to depart – staff finally agreed to give us some food, but just as they were doing so the buses arrived to take us back to the terminal. We then waited about an hour to get through passport control – strange, since we’d not gone anywhere. Our luggage didn’t arrive until about midnight. We had no help at all from EasyJet. It was a total shambles. Ugh! and then there is this... A passenger with an $11,000 ticket to Europe says Air Canada 'begged' 25 people to get off the plane because it was too heavy to take off. Then they lost his bag. https://www.businessinsider.com/air-canada-begs-25-people-deboard-airline-delays-lost-luggage-2022-7 Even a senior manager at a global travel logistics company can't escape this summer's airport chaos: The man, who's based in the Western US, told Insider his 21-hour trip to Europe last weekend was the "worst experience flying" he's ever had — complete with nearly a dozen flight delays and a lost suitcase....The passenger, who was traveling to a business conference, told Insider he has not received compensation for the flight and spent more than $4,500 on replacement items and clothes. He spoke on condition of anonymity because his employer — who purchased his ticket — does not allow its staff to talk to the media, but his identity is known to Insider, which also reviewed his travel documents. His final destination is being withheld to protect his identity. I am honestly scared to fly these days. According to "experts" expect more expensive tickets, more delays, more lost luggage (I'm not making this up!), more unruly passengers... I used to fly ALL the time! Numerous times during the year pre-covid. Nowadays, forget it! If there is any way for more to drive, I'll do it over shitty flying. How about the rest of you? Any horror stories? Any good experiences recently?

https://www.insider.com/artificial-intelligence-bot-wrote-scientific-paper-on-itself-2-hours-2022-7 A researcher from Sweden gave an AI algorithm known as GPT-3 a simple directive: "Write an academic thesis in 500 words about GPT-3 and add scientific references and citations inside the text." Researcher Almira Osmanovic Thunström then said she stood in awe as the text began to generate. In front of her was what she called a "fairly good" research introduction that GPT-3 wrote about itself. "All we know is, we opened a gate," Thunström wrote. "We just hope we didn't open a Pandora's box."

Germany Seeks Russian Pipeline Part Released in Gas De-Escalation https://news.bloombergtax.com/international-trade/germany-sees-russian-pipeline-part-released-in-gas-de-escalation Germany expects Canada to release a key Russian pipeline part caught up in sanctions, a move that both Berlin and Moscow have said could ease the squeeze on gas flows to Europe...Germany -- which has had to rip up decades of Russian-dependent energy policy since the war -- is now bracing for Moscow to squeeze flows further, and even for the prospect of Nord Stream never to come back online again after maintenance. I'm not going to mince words - I can't stand Trump. That said, I will give credit where credit is due... and Germany like much of Europe was just being stupid and playing into Putin's hands.

The resolution on JWST is phenomenal....

7 teenagers beating up AND killing a defenseless old man... sad and infuriating!

I'm glad you're learning and enjoying space and astronomy! That said... UGH! this article explained many ideas in a very misleading way. Just for example: space itself isn’t exactly cold. In fact, it doesn’t actually have a temperature at all. The Universe as a whole is about 2.7K, this is simply the temperature of the cosmic background. While technically "space" as a concept has no temperature and no mass, realistically if you were in outer space (which I will use to distinguish from the concept of "space") without protection you would quickly (less than one day) reach the same ambient temperature, which at 2.7K is also -270.3 Celsius - so yeah, it's cold. And you would be solid. While you would not "immediately" nor even after just a few minutes freeze solid, you would nevertheless quickly reach that unimaginably cold temperature. The hottest regions of space are immediately around stars, which contain all the conditions to kick start nuclear fusion. WTF? Nuclear fusion happens in the core of stars. Not on the surface of stars, not in the "space immediately around stars". Also, the hottest regions known are typically the accretion disks around black holes. This is a result of a collision with an Earth-sized object early in its existence causing Uranus to orbit the sun on an extreme tilt, making it unable to hang on to its interior heat. Very misleading. The primary reason Uranus is cold because is because it is about 20 times farther than the Earth from the Sun and receives about 1/400 as much energy. The fact that it is tilted on it's side could explain why it's a colder than expected, but by far the primary reason is distance. Anyway, I do get worked up about some of these things Good article to share with my students and have them note all the misleading parts!

CMPD Puts Thousands of Lives in Danger by Not Pursuing Criminal https://www.yahoo.com/news/chopper-9-skyzoom-overhead-police-164021050.html Watch the video. This is crazy - the police allowed the criminal to steal multiple cars, drive erratically and put thousands in danger, over a course of three FREAKIN HOURS!! “The reason we have policies is to ensure everyone gets to go home. I know there will be questions about the length of time,” Jennings said. He said that it is unusual to see someone continuing to drive erratically when patrol cars are taken out of the mix. He also added that stop sticks were used multiple times in an attempt to end the chase. “We have to weigh the options and what is the most danger to the public. The last thing I want to do is have an officer behind a vehicle which causes that driving to escalate, and someone gets seriously hurt or killed,” Jennings said. Between Uvalde and Charlotte... hard to know which police department is managed more poorly... by the way, Uvalde Cop Asked to Shoot Gunman Before He Entered the Building — But Didn’t Get a Response https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/uvalde-cop-permission-shoot-gunman-outside-school-no-response-1379258/ A Uvalde police officer requested permission to shoot the armed gunman as he approached Robb Elementary on May 24, but he didn’t receive a response from his supervisor, according to a new damning report from Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) Center.