the "Headline That Caught My Attention or the WTF" thread

Seriously?

[URL unfurl="true"]https://nypost.com/2023/03/11/users-getting-hooked-on-gas-station-heroin-pills-report/[/URL]

[URL unfurl="true"]https://nypost.com/2023/03/10/china-pummeled-by-rain-of-worms-as-residents-asked-to-carry-umbrellas/[/URL]

[HEADING=2]China pummeled by ‘rain of worms’ as residents asked to carry umbrellas[/HEADING]

China needs to call Rihanna for some umbrellas to weather this phenomenon of nature.

Citizens of the Chinese province of [Liaoning]('https://twitter.com/ArmornaeICE/status/1634129649465737216') were told to find shelter after it looked like it started to rain worms.

A [viral clip]('https://twitter.com/TheRioTimes/status/1633418516685639681') showed the area apparently being showered with little worms, which were splattered all over cars.

The video showed residents covering themselves with umbrellas as they go along with their routines and wander past.

While the cause of the slimy creature calamity has yet to be uncovered, the scientific journal Mother Nature Network [suggested]('https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/other/beijing-flooded-by-rain-of-worms-residents-asked-to-carry-umbrellas-to-street-watch/ar-AA18rmSJ?li=AAgges1') that the animals were dropped after being swept up by heavy winds.
:oops:

[URL unfurl="true"]https://nypost.com/2023/03/12/execution-delayed-for-child-killer-andre-thomas-who-gouged-out-own-eyes-ate-one/[/URL]

[URL unfurl="true"]https://nypost.com/2023/03/12/execution-delayed-for-child-killer-andre-thomas-who-gouged-out-own-eyes-ate-one/[/URL]

*:......and later gouged out both of his eyes and ate one was granted a delayed execution."

"Andre Thomas, 39, was sentenced to death for [the 2004 killings ]('https://nypost.com/2023/02/18/death-row-inmate-andre-thomas-who-cut-out-eyes-ate-one-seeks-clemency/')of his estranged wife, Christine Boren, 20, their 4-year-old son Andre Lee and her 13-month-old daughter Leyha Marie Hughes.

He cut out the children’s hearts during the fatal attack."

"Thomas’ lawyers had requested additional time to prepare for a court hearing to review his competency, citing mental illness."
===================================*

Well YEAH - Duh? All the more reason not to delay the execution. Hell. I would just've shot him in the courtroom!

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.yahoo.com/news/lamborghini-caught-speeding-152-mph-201516370.html[/URL]

and what was he going to try to talk it down to? 100 MPH?
:rolleyes:

*:......and later gouged out both of his eyes and ate one was granted a delayed execution."

"Andre Thomas, 39, was sentenced to death for [the 2004 killings ]('https://nypost.com/2023/02/18/death-row-inmate-andre-thomas-who-cut-out-eyes-ate-one-seeks-clemency/')of his estranged wife, Christine Boren, 20, their 4-year-old son Andre Lee and her 13-month-old daughter Leyha Marie Hughes.

He cut out the children’s hearts during the fatal attack."

"Thomas’ lawyers had requested additional time to prepare for a court hearing to review his competency, citing mental illness."
===================================*

Well YEAH - Duh? All the more reason not to delay the execution. Hell. I would just've shot him in the courtroom!

Just a general WTF...he can't ever join the general population...best would be by execution.

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.yahoo.com/news/russians-warned-nuclear-attack-hackers-203332617.html[/URL]

WTF is wrong with our youth......................

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.yahoo.com/news/florida-teachers-aide-attacked-allegedly-013005917.html[/URL]

I'm confused. I thought GSA said that besides being a fund raiser, their cookie sales was supposed to help the young ladies understand a bit about marketing and capitalism. I'm guessing real smart young ladies can learn from this Raspberry Rally event and next year, buy some on their own and sell them on the secondary market at a nice, personal profit, teaching them the important, Greed is good lesson...

[HEADING=2][SIZE=7]Sold-Out Girl Scout Cookie Flavor Hits the Resale Market[/SIZE][/HEADING]
Single boxes of the Raspberry Rally cookies, which cost from $4 to $7, are selling for as much as five times the usual price. Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., which notes that cookie sales fund troop activities, expressed dismay.

Samoas, Trefoils and Thin Mints, move over. A new Girl Scout cookie flavor, Raspberry Rally, is in such high demand that, after swiftly selling out online, boxes are now being peddled for far higher prices on resale websites.

Single boxes of the cookies, which have a crispy raspberry-flavored center coated in chocolate, cost from $4 to $7, but they are selling for as much as [five times the usual price]('https://www.ebay.com/itm/275728347952?hash=item4032b0b330:g:mMYAAOSwYTJkBV6G&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA4JffOYfHZpMWavK1m%2FARvf%2Ff1wouE3Nn96vVce8wOr8t%2FZBK3P1mmuPp4aYcqGeUP3fCsmBJHQrgbKGxkMAyIx9t%2BNcc4jQY3GJBAyop1IaDk3kntm8%2B7cx2SZvd8nCMKvTbVkBcH3Y3Z2ZPvUCZ3d6iwFfiyEYHWfLV%2F%2BWEGodoYxWQIvnnnJqSZpHZ4lHL%2FGxPiJJQIiAndUSyrOaJxXphDYttZR3O03YP7XwUr9gNPcry%2FmZy31sFgfiasjZDqd9lTxIhuX1mstxWtSm76i4dCHnye20RL9WVzBnC3qVb%7Ctkp%3ABFBMmLii09dh') on the secondary market.

Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. has expressed dismay over the situation. The organization said in a statement that most local Girl Scout troops had sold out of the “extremely popular” Raspberry Rally cookies for the season and emphasized that it was “disappointed” to see unauthorized resales of the flavor.

“While we are happy that there’s such a strong demand for our cookies year over year,” the Girl Scouts said, “we’re saddened that the platforms and the sellers are disregarding the core mission of the cookie program and are looking to make a profit off of the name without supporting our mission and the largest girl-led entrepreneurship program in the world.”

The third-party sellers have “deprived” troops of valuable experience and of proceeds that fund “critical programming,” the organization said. The organization encouraged people to support Girl Scout troops by purchasing one of the many other available flavors.

The Raspberry Rally cookies, which [first became available late last month]('https://www.girlscouts.org/en/footer/press-room/2022-press-announcements/new-raspberry-rally-girl-scout-cookie-joins-nationwide-lineup-for-2023-season.html'), can be bought only online. The cookie is considered a “sister” to the Thin Mint, the top-selling Girl Scout cookie, [according to the Girl Scouts website]('https://www.girlscouts.org/en/cookies/cookie-flavors/raspberry-rally-cookies.html').

For more than a century, the Girl Scouts have been holding annual cookie sales to raise money for troop activities while helping scouts learn skills like marketing, goal-setting and budgeting. The cookies, which were once baked by the scouts themselves, are now made commercially and are available in more than a dozen flavors.

An eBay representative said in a statement that while the company encouraged cookie fans to support their local Girl Scouts, the resale of the cookies did not violate the platform’s policies.

Girl Scout cookie enthusiasts have taken to social media to post about their quests to procure the elusive Raspberry Rally variety. Some said they had waited for months, enticed by the announcement of the new flavor last August, only to come up empty-handed when the cookies sold out within hours of going on sale online last month.

Eric Rodwell of Parker, Colo., was eagerly anticipating the release of the Raspberry Rally cookies on Feb. 27, but he said he was initially unable to find any boxes online. But then he connected through Twitter with a troop based in Washington, D.C., that had some extra cookies on hand. He ordered 10 boxes.

“I’m super excited and have no idea when they will ship,” Mr. Rodwell said. “I don’t feel good about participating in resale unless it’s benefiting the girls and definitely wouldn’t support paying lots of money over the original price — doesn’t seem right.”

But some councils, such as the Girl Scouts of Northern California, have a later cookie season — and boxes of the Raspberry Rally cookie still up for grabs. Comparing the demand for the cookies to the recent frenzy for [Beyoncé concert tickets]('https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/01/arts/music/beyonce-renaissance-tour.html'), the council [advised]('https://twitter.com/GSNorCal/status/1632815931238776833') Raspberry Rally hunters to set a reminder for when the sale begins on Wednesday.

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.foxnews.com/us/desantis-strips-luxurious-florida-hotels-liquor-license-hosting-lewd-drag-show-children-present[/URL]

"[P]erverted versions of popular children’s Christmas songs" were also played at the event including an adaption of "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth," the complaint states. The song contained a "portrayal of oral fellatio" and the lyric "I’ll sit on his lap, he can put his milk and cookies all between my gap."

During the remixed song "Screwdolph the Red-Nippled Reindeer," attendees heard the lyrics "You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen Vomit and Stupid and Dildo and D***s-in…" and "Then one soggy Christmas Eve Santa came to say ‘Screwdolph with your nipples so bright won’t you guide my sleigh tonight," according to the Florida department.

The complaint accused the hotel of violating [Florida]('https://www.foxnews.com/category/person/ron-desantis') statute.

Just when you thought this nut couldn't get any nuttier she says "hold my beer."

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/celebrity/gwyneth-paltrow-says-rectal-ozone-therapy-has-been-very-helpful/ar-AA18AA3L?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=89dcf309f38149738aa75b7e3cee136f&ei=11[/URL]

[HEADING=2]At Least 39 Russian Oligarchs, Scientists & Generals Dead Under Mysterious Circumstances After Criticizing Putin's War In Ukraine[/HEADING]

Don't think for one minute that a PUTIN can't take over in the USA......

At Least 39 Russian Oligarchs, Scientists & Generals Dead Under Mysterious Circumstances After Criticizing Putin's War In Ukraine

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.foxnews.com/us/desantis-strips-luxurious-florida-hotels-liquor-license-hosting-lewd-drag-show-children-present[/URL]

"[P]erverted versions of popular children’s Christmas songs" were also played at the event including an adaption of "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth," the complaint states. The song contained a "portrayal of oral fellatio" and the lyric "I’ll sit on his lap, he can put his milk and cookies all between my gap."

During the remixed song "Screwdolph the Red-Nippled Reindeer," attendees heard the lyrics "You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen Vomit and Stupid and Dildo and D***s-in…" and "Then one soggy Christmas Eve Santa came to say ‘Screwdolph with your nipples so bright won’t you guide my sleigh tonight," according to the Florida department.

The complaint accused the hotel of violating [Florida]('https://www.foxnews.com/category/person/ron-desantis') statute.

Cause they want to molest kids and expect it to become excepted just like them pounding ass and hanging flags bragging about it.
If you ever see a name from one, do some sleuthing. We find them boasting about their attraction to kids on profiles. Some started pulling it off but we keep history.

[HEADING=1]Republicans call for raising the retirement age: Some GOP back plan to make 'future generations' work longer to stop Social Security and Medicare funds running out[/HEADING]

Republicans call for raising the retirement age

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.yahoo.com/news/sold-yacht-waterfall-price-19-121406270.html[/URL]

[[IMG alt="The New York Times"]https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/OjCorDVYVm1GMM5UQZp4tQ--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTIzMjtoPTQ4O2NmPXdlYnA-/https://s.yimg.com/os/creatr-uploaded-images/2020-11/9e8d5220-3364-11eb-bbfd-715069cb6bd4[/IMG]]('https://www.nytimes.com/')
[HEADING=2]Sold: Yacht With a Waterfall. Price: $19 Million. Broker: George Santos.[/HEADING]

:oops::rolleyes::LOL::oops:

[URL unfurl="true"]https://share.newsbreak.com/3bfcotsu[/URL]

Ah, the web we weave...

[HEADING=2][SIZE=7]At Wellesley College, a Fight Over Whether to Admit Trans Men[/SIZE][/HEADING]
Students will vote Tuesday on a nonbinding referendum that considers opening admission to all nonbinary and transgender applicants. Opponents say the school’s mission is to educate women.

Wellesley College proudly proclaims itself as a place for “women who will make a difference in the world.” It boasts a long line of celebrated alumnae, including Hillary Clinton, Madeleine Albright and Nora Ephron.
On Tuesday, its students will vote on a referendum that has divided the campus and goes straight to the issue of Wellesley’s identity as a women’s college.

The [referendum]('https://thewellesleynews.com/2023/03/08/gender-inclusivity-ballot-question-passes-senate/'), which is nonbinding, calls for opening admission to all nonbinary and transgender applicants, including trans men. Currently, the college allows admission to anyone who lives and consistently identifies as a woman.

The referendum also calls for the college’s communications to be more gender inclusive — for example, using the word “students” or “alumni” instead of “women.”

The vote is in some ways definitional: What is the mission of a women’s college?

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.yahoo.com/news/anglers-thought-hooked-tiger-shark-183902375.html[/URL]

video at the link

[URL unfurl="true"]https://share.newsbreak.com/3bipt081[/URL]

Red tide, hurricanes, alligators, falling iguanas and now pythons. Ah yes, the Sunshine State, but how can one have a restful morning dump when either a python or iguana can pop up of their toilet???

Time to get John Cleese and Eric Idle, along with Daniel Radcliffe involved??

[HEADING=2][SIZE=7]Pythons, Invasive and Hungry, Are Making Their Way North in Florida[/SIZE][/HEADING]
A study from the U.S. Geological Survey called the state’s python problem “one of the most intractable invasive-species management issues across the globe.”

MIAMI — So much for all the efforts to slow the proliferation of Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades over the last two decades, including with paid contractors, trained volunteers and an annual hunt that has drawn participants from as far as Latvia: The giant snakes have been making their way north, reaching West Palm Beach and Fort Myers and threatening ever-larger stretches of the ecosystem.

That was one of the few definitive conclusions in a [comprehensive review of python science]('https://www.usgs.gov/centers/wetland-and-aquatic-research-center/news/comprehensive-review-burmese-python-science') published last month by the U.S. Geological Survey, which underscored the difficulty of containing the giant snakes since they were first documented as an established population in the state in 2000.

Little is known about how long Burmese pythons live in the wild in Florida, how often they reproduce and especially how large the state’s python population has grown, according to the review, which called the state’s python problem “one of the most intractable invasive-species management issues across the globe.”

Nor is it known how exactly they travel. The review theorized that South Florida’s extensive network of canals and levees “may facilitate long-distance movement by pythons,” though it suggested that slithering and swimming to points north may take awhile.

“One python transited continuously for 58.5 hours and traveled 2.43 kilometers in a single day,” the review said of a snake followed with radio tracking.

More research should be conducted to develop and evaluate new tools to eradicate pythons and to refine existing ones, the study found, adding that controlling the species’ spread is critical to protecting the Everglades. Earlier studies found that Burmese pythons, which are nonnative apex predators originally from South Asia, had decimated native species, including wading birds, marsh rabbits and white-tailed deer.

Pythons found in Florida have measured longer than 15 feet and weighed more than 200 pounds, the review found; even hatchlings can be more than two feet long.

The pythons’ voracious spread is all the more alarming given the billions of dollars that the state and the federal government have spent on restoring the Everglades, the review noted, calling invasive species “one of the greatest threats to restoration success.”

Florida, with its subtropical climate, numerous entry ports and prolific live animal trade, has at least 139 established invasive species, meaning that they are reproducing in the wild, according to the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. More than 500 nonnative species have been reported in the state over time.
Pythons, like invasive iguanas, have been known to emerge from [the occasional South Florida toilet bowl]('https://www.naplesnews.com/story/news/local/florida/2019/05/28/ball-python-slithers-out-toilet-bites-florida-man-arm/1266438001/'); the review notes that while Burmese pythons have mostly been spotted in and around Everglades National Park and other swamplands, many have also been found in Naples and the western outskirts of Miami.
Once a year, the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission [holds a python hunt]('https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/24/us/florida-mounts-a-hunt-for-creatures-that-maintain-a-very-low-profile.html') open to the public, challenging people to find and remove as many snakes as they can. Participants must take a training course online or in person about [humanely killing pythons]('https://flpythonchallenge.org/participate/competition/humane-killing-methods/') using either preferred mechanical methods, like a stun gun, or manual ones, like hunting knives, since the hunt does not allow the use of firearms. Last year’s winner took home $10,000 for hunting down 28 pythons.

Dustin Crum, who has been hunting pythons for a decade, took home $1,500 for capturing the longest snake in the competition, an 11-footer. He won in the same category in 2021 after catching a 15-footer.

“We started out doing this stuff as a hobby and just couldn’t believe we could catch giant constrictors like that in the wild,” said Mr. Crum, 42, who now hunts pythons full time. The state pays hunters $50 per foot for the first four feet of snake and $25 for each subsequent foot, he said, as well as an hourly rate. Outside of the state-sponsored competition for the public, Mr. Crum does use guns to kill the snakes.
“I’ll say a little prayer: ‘Hey, it’s not your fault,’” he said.

Sometimes, scientists ask to get the pythons alive so that they can be tracked. Hunters like Mr. Crum deposit them in designated drop boxes during night hunts and email researchers to come get them in the morning.

Pythons became popular exotic pets in the United States in the 1970s. Some eventually grew so large that their owners released them into the wild. By 2000, scientists had documented multiple generations of pythons living across a relatively large geographic area in the Everglades and Florida’s southern tip.
The realization that pythons were prodigiously reproducing and nearly wiping out native species helped lead to regulations restricting python importation and ownership. But by then, it was too late to stop their spread.

Detecting pythons, which like to hide in marshes and thrive in remote habitats, is so challenging that experts do not know how many exist in Florida, though they estimate that there are at least tens of thousands. More than 18,000 have been removed since 2000, including 2,500 in 2022, according to the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Melissa Miller of the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Florida is helping lead a large-scale python removal project that also hopes to get a better sense of the snakes’ abundance by putting trackers on more of them and measuring the reproductive output of more females. (She is also part of a team of experts at the university, known as the “[Croc Docs]('https://crocdoc.ifas.ufl.edu/#:~:text=University%20of%20Florida%27s%20%22Croc%20Docs,south%20Florida%20and%20the%20Caribbean.'),” that researches wildlife in South Florida and the Caribbean.) Another part of the project will use drones to track many tagged pythons at once. Someday, a genetic biocontrol tool might emerge to help suppress the population, she said.

“We don’t really have a reliable estimate of how many are out there,” Dr. Miller said. “They’re kind of a cautionary tale to not to release pets, to make sure you report invasive species immediately.”
Florida makes it easy with a hotline: 888-IVE-GOT1.

Pythons are so large that they are not easily kept in enclosures to study them. The U.S.G.S. review suggested building a research center to conduct captive and small-scale trials.

In late 2021, a team from the Conservancy of Southwest Florida [found likely the largest Burmese python]('https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/23/us/florida-largest-python.html') ever recorded in the state: a 215-pound female with 122 eggs inside her.

“It helps you visualize what it ate, in pounds of native wildlife, to get to that,” said Ian Bartoszek, the environmental science project manager for the group.

If there is any good news in the U.S.G.S. review, it is that there have been no reports of humans in Florida being killed by wild pythons, which squeeze their prey to death before swallowing it; captive pythons are responsible for the few recorded fatalities.

Python breeding season generally extends from November to March or April, Mr. Bartoszek said. The team at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida uses tagged male pythons as “scouts” to lead researchers to females. This season, a V.I.P. — “that’s Very Important Python,” Mr. Bartoszek said — named Jesse led the team to two large females within two weeks.

“We’ve had to do a lot of kayaking out to some of them this season,” he said. Female pythons in the area that the group studies have been smaller lately, he added, a sign that tracking and hunting them might be making a dent in the number that survive long enough to get big: “It’s getting very hard for those animals to find us females,” he said.

Hurricane Ian, the powerful Category 4 storm that crashed into Southwest Florida last September, did not have much effect on the pythons his team tracks, he added. Prolonged cold snaps have killed off some snakes in the past, the U.S.G.S. review noted, but such weather has become increasingly rare in southern Florida.

Mr. Bartoszek said pythons had adapted over time to Florida, with those closer to the coast behaving slightly differently than those inland. But native species have adapted, too, and python hatchlings now have a few predators: snakes, alligators and at least one bobcat [that was caught on camera]('https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/28/science/bobcat-python-eggs.html') preying on a clutch of python eggs.

“The Everglades,” Mr. Bartoszek said, “is fighting back.”