avatar!

I shouldn't laugh, but the article starts off with An Irish man is facing decades behind bars over an alleged meltdown *snicker* I've seen enough BBC to know how that goes...

Gunman's argument with mother over diet led to NYPD call, officer's killing, police say https://www.yahoo.com/news/gunmans-argument-mother-over-diet-182000768.html When the officers went to the back bedroom to talk to him, he emerged gripping a Glock 45 handgun with a high-capacity magazine that holds up to 40 rounds and opened fire...NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said McNeil had a criminal history that included a gun charge in North Carolina, an assault on a police officer in Pennsylvania and a felony narcotics charge in New York City. Essig said he was on probation. Are you surprised that he had a long criminal record? Rhetorical question. The NYC DA, Alvin Bragg, is soft on crime, but I'm sure that has NOTHING to do with criminals being let out on the street that later kill people. Nope. Nothing, I mean come on, how can releasing a dangerous criminal possibly be a bad move? [end sarcasm] https://nypost.com/2022/01/20/manhattan-da-alvin-bragg-stands-by-soft-on-crime-staff-memo/ Bragg also said his “Day One” staff memo — which directs prosecutors to drop some misdemeanor cases, not seek bail or prison time for most defendants and to downgrade certain felonies to misdemeanors — remained “operative.”

Nice going gradma! Officers of the Nassau County Police Department arrested Joshua Estrella Gomez, 28, and charged him with attempted grand larceny in the third degree. He was released on an appearance ticket and is due to appear in court on February 3. Ah, well, it is NYC. Home of the revolving prison door... won't see this guy again because he's never going to show up for that court date.

There was no "foul play" involved, and since he owned many illegal venous snakes... I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the culprit was probably some limbless carnivorous reptile

I will pick up some of the Evercade ports because I think it will be fun to play them, and I honestly have no intention of purchasing a Lynx, although it is a cool system

Hey, that's cold... I love sarcasm! I just don't necessarily follow all the messages on the threads

I would add that you should listen to doctors, scientists, and people that actually know about infectious diseases! https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/6-things-doctors-wish-patients-knew-about-masks Masks are vital to preventing spread Cover your nose and mouth Medicine changes as we know more

No bacon in California? Restaurants, grocers try to make sense of new pork-products law https://www.yahoo.com/news/no-bacon-california-restaurants-grocers-185634434.html Read the title and immediately knew it had to be California Truth be told, I am all in favor of anything that supports animal welfare. That said, this is also not a surprise at all: Grocers, retailers, restaurants and family processors are all scratching their heads, wondering how they will sell Prop. 12 compliant pork this year. The problem is the state still has not finalized the rules and regulations all industry stakeholders need to come into compliance and to demonstrate that all pork they buy or sell was raised under the new requirements. With 98% of pork coming from out of state, the state’s pork suppliers have no way of proving on their own that pork was raised in compliance with Prop. 12. The bottom line is that the state does not have regulations in place, to say nothing of the complex system of certifying the operations of farms and pork distributors nationwide that the draft regulations contemplate. That places the pork suppliers in an untenable position, and consumers will, unfortunately, pay the price of this uncertainty at a time when they’re already struggling.

Anxious Ukrainians react to Biden's prediction on Russian invasion https://www.yahoo.com/news/anxious-ukrainians-react-to-bidens-prediction-on-russian-invasion-210204039.html “Take a deep breath. Calm down,” Zelensky told his countrymen. There was absolutely no reason to panic. Hours later, however, President Biden sounded a very different tune about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intentions, one that made Ukrainians anxious. “My guess is he will move in. He has to do something,” Biden said at a White House press conference on Wednesday when asked if Russia would actually invade Ukraine. Biden’s comments sparked panic in the former Soviet republic. It was “absolutely absurd,” Oleksiy Sorokin, political editor for the Kyiv Independent news site, told Yahoo News. “We followed Zelensky’s speech and we’re like, ‘OK, so this is the strategy now — don’t panic.’ And then two hours later, we get the president of the United States confirming that Russia will invade and the whole speech of Zelensky, his whole plan, just goes to pieces.” But what really dropped jaws in Kyiv was Biden’s take on how NATO might respond to a Russian attack on Ukrainian soil. “I think what you’re going to see is that Russia will be held accountable if it invades,” Biden said, adding, “It depends on what [Russia] does. It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion and then we end up having a fight about what to do and not do, etc. “My first reaction was, ‘Oh, my God, what am I hearing right now?’” said Sorokin. “It felt like he was giving Putin a green light to invade Ukraine. I was thinking, ‘When should I wake up tomorrow, so not to miss the Russian invasion?’” Have to agree, that sounded like a stupid thing for Biden to say...

Cool! These guys publish lots of Lynx and Jaguar games https://songbird-productions.com/

Nina Strohminger is a professor of legal studies and business ethics...

Cool! with only 71 games it sounds like it's doable for most people - that said, how rare are the games? Any command big bucks? Any personal favorites?

According to the police report, the vehicle reached up to 60 mph in 25 mph speed limit zones and drove through six stop signs without coming to complete stops. According to documents from the Ouachita County Parish Sheriff’s Office and Correctional Center, Seaberry has been charged with three misdemeanors and one felony following the incident, including use of multiple beam road lighting equipment, lack of motor vehicle insurance, driving unlicensed and fleeing from an officer, which was labeled as aggravated flight. The Ouachita Correctional Center records Seabury’s total bond amount as $1,050. No insurance, fleeing, reckless driving, could have killed someone... and gets a whopping $1000 bond. BULLSHITE

Normally I'd be happy! that particular cat... mmmm, a bit too large

That's the type of mentality people had decades ago. In fact, circa 1940s and earlier https://daily.jstor.org/do-police-deter-crime/ While there is an unending debate exactly why crimes spike, the best way to handle them, etc. evidence from the past few decades clearly shows a correlation between more police and less crime. Hence yes, police "prevent" murders from happening. It's really not a stretch of the imagination to guess how violent life would be without police presence.

It wasn't defunding per se but the pressure put on police resulted in many officers feeling alienated, unwanted, even hostility by the community. Thus many police officers quit/retired after seeing little support from politicians. Others continued with their jobs but had much less street presence and this all snowballed into one of the deadliest years in USA history.

Thanks, I knew exposure to lead was dangerous, but I wonder how they can say that it leads to gun violence? Unless of course they're referring to...

NYT: Good morning. We explore why murders surged in the U.S. From 1991 to 2014, America’s murder rate plummeted by more than half. Experts still don’t agree on why that happened. Among the many possibilities: mass incarceration, changes in policing, reduced exposure to lead and video games keeping more young men occupied. I don't know what "reduced exposure to lead" is supposed to mean, but it's nice to hear video games are keeping people occupied that would otherwise shoot things up Those of us old enough remember when games were demonized as inciting violence - And here, research shows it's the exact opposite! Anyway, solutions to violence - In the short term, there’s solid evidence for policing — specifically, more focused policing, targeting the people and places most likely to be violent. With some of these strategies, the police work with other social services to lift violent perpetrators out of that life. I think many people have been saying that, and of course the evidence always showed that. Unfortunately the "defund the police" movement took its toll...

She was an Ivy League student with an inspiring story. Then her university started investigating. https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-dredging One Monday morning in the fall of 2020, Mackenzie Fierceton received an email asking her to meet with Beth Winkelstein, deputy provost of the University of Pennsylvania...“There are questions that now need to be answered,”..The questions kept coming. At one point, Fierceton took a sip of water and began to cry. Throughout the conversation — Fierceton would later refer to it as an interrogation — the 23-year-old graduate student struggled to maintain her composure...Fierceton was a low-income, first-generation college student who had passed through the foster-care system and had written her capstone thesis on how foster kids often end up in prison. And now she was off to Oxford. But after The Philadelphia Inquirer published an article about Fierceton’s scholarship, university officials received an anonymous email raising doubts about her biography. In reality, the email said, Fierceton had grown up in an affluent suburb of St. Louis with her mother, a radiologist, and had attended private schools. A similar email, sent to the Rhodes Trust, accused her of being “blatantly dishonest in the representation of her childhood” and included photos from her high-school yearbook of Fierceton skydiving, riding a horse, and whitewater rafting. While admissions officers at highly selective institutions will insist that it’s not necessary to highlight the darkest aspects of your upbringing, the need to set yourself apart is real. In addition, those elite colleges, sensitive to the charge that they cater to the wealthy and well-connected, are eager to show that they’re transforming society rather than laundering its inequalities. They are always on the lookout for remarkable kids from less-fortunate circumstances. The evidence the committee collected showed that Fierceton had, according to the report,"created and repeatedly shared false narratives about herself” and that her “misrepresentations also served her interests as an applicant for competitive programs.” The report recommended rescinding her scholarship. Fierceton withdrew from the program instead....Asked what Penn should have done when it received an anonymous email accusing her of fabricating her life story, Fierceton has a ready answer: “Believed me.” Sadly, the reality is that very driven people (and studies show this) have NO problem lying, cheating, and getting away with things AND ultimately convincing themselves they are in the right and everyone else is in the wrong. This student, lied and refuses to accept that she purposely altered and fabricated her experience in order to get into an elite institution. AT THE SAME TIME, sadly, often this is what many elite institutions are looking for - a poor to riches story. I think she is to blame, but to an extent so is the institution of higher education in this country. That said, she deserves the vast majority of the blame and clearly she refuses to accept any fault. Why Certain People Will Never Admit They Were Wrong https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-squeaky-wheel/201811/why-certain-people-will-never-admit-they-were-wrong

I thought Ultima V (PC version) was everything Ultima IV should be and more. I hope one day those are re-imagined for a new generation.