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

[[COLOR=rgb(184, 49, 47)][SIZE=4]the story[/SIZE][/COLOR]]('https://www.yahoo.com/news/man-says-emotional-support-alligator-215618078.html')

Top ten brands ticked for speeding. Says Forbes:

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimgorzelany/2024/05/01/are-you-driving-what-research-shows-is-a-speeding-ticket-magnet/[/URL]

Buy American!

Top ten brands ticked for speeding. Says Forbes:

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimgorzelany/2024/05/01/are-you-driving-what-research-shows-is-a-speeding-ticket-magnet/[/URL]

Buy American!

My Chevy moves at a good clip!

My Chevy moves at a good clip!

so does my lawn mower - But they've left me alone.....................
:)

My Chevy moves at a good clip!

Mom's Buick Century is fairly peppy too. But being an old fogey's type of car it has an almost magical quality. It is practically invisible to law enforcement.

[HEADING=2]Interesting thing is that the US Debt that China holds has gone down 25% since 2021...[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2][SIZE=7]China Is Buying Gold Like There’s No Tomorrow[/SIZE][/HEADING]
The global price of gold has reached its highest levels as Chinese investors and consumers, wary of real estate and stocks, buy the metal at a record pace.

As [gold surged]('https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/10/business/gold-price-inflation.html') this year to its highest price ever, Xena Lin joined the frenzy by making monthly purchases of gold “beans,” pebble-like morsels of the precious metal.

For Ms. Lin, a 25-year-old administrative worker in southern China, the $80 beans — small enough to rest on a fingertip and weighing about one-thirtieth of an ounce — were an affordable way to buy into the gold excitement without splurging for jewelry, gold bars or coins. She had dabbled with investing in stocks in the past, but she said buying gold, especially in this fun way, inspired her to continue investing.
“I’m still working hard to save more,” Ms. Lin said.

Often considered a safe investment during times of geopolitical and economic turmoil, gold has soared in price in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the war in Gaza. But gold’s climb to highs above $2,400 per ounce has proved more resilient, and lasted longer, because of China.

Chinese consumers have flocked to gold as their confidence in traditional investments like [real estate]('https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/30/business/china-evergrande-real-estate.html') or [stocks]('https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/15/business/china-stocks-a-shares.html') has faltered. At the same time, the country’s central bank has steadily added to its gold reserves, while whittling away at its holdings of U.S. debt. And throwing fuel on the fire are Chinese speculators betting that there is still room for appreciation.

China already held considerable sway in gold markets. But the country’s influence has become more pronounced during this latest bull run — a nearly 50 percent increase in the global price since late 2022. It continued to scale new heights despite factors that traditionally make gold a comparatively less appealing investment: higher interest rates and a strong U.S. dollar.

Last month, gold prices vaulted higher even after the Federal Reserve signaled that it would [keep higher interest rates for longer]('https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/26/business/inflation-fed-rates.html'). And it has continued to appreciate even as the dollar has [risen against almost every major currency]('https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/29/business/a-strong-us-dollar-weighs-on-the-world.html') in the world this year.

Prices have pulled back to around $2,300 per ounce, but there is a growing sentiment that the gold market is governed no longer by economic factors but by the whims of Chinese buyers and investors.
“China is unquestionably driving the price of gold,” said Ross Norman, chief executive of [MetalsDaily.com]('https://www.metalsdaily.com/'), a precious-metals information platform based in London. “The flow of gold to China has gone from solid to an absolute torrent.”

Gold consumption in the country rose 6 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, according to the China Gold Association. It came on the heels of a 9 percent increase last year.

Gold investing became more alluring as traditional investments turned lackluster. China’s real estate sector, the destination for most families’ savings, remains in crisis. Investor confidence in the country’s stock markets has not fully returned. A string of big investment funds aimed at the wealthy toppled after failed bets on real estate.

With few better alternatives, money flowed into Chinese funds that traded in gold, and many young people took to collecting beans in tiny quantities.

Online merchants are aggressively hawking gold beans. On Alibaba’s Taobao, one of China’s biggest e-commerce platforms, a merchant sold gold beans on a livestream — a blend of the Home Shopping Network and Amazon. She said buying beans was “like shopping, but an investment.”

The tiny beans came in five shapes, including one that resembled a peanut and another like a persimmon. Paying $87 per bean, a person could buy into the gold boom for the price of a hot pot meal, she said.

Kelly Zhong, a teacher in Beijing, started buying gold in 2020 at the outset of the pandemic. She has amassed more than two pounds of gold bars, but she has also invested in the metal through exchange-traded funds. She said she was inspired by an old saying: “Jade in prosperous times, gold in troubled times.”
As she felt the world become more chaotic, Ms. Zhong added to her stockpile, betting that gold prices would only climb. She has stopped buying, but she is not ready to sell. She sees no reason to. The Chinese economy is still struggling, and neither real estate nor stocks seem like a sound investment.

“The money has to go somewhere,” she said.
Another major buyer of gold in China is the country’s central bank. In March, the People’s Bank of China added to its gold reserves for a 17th straight month. Last year, the bank bought more gold than any other central bank in the world, adding more to its reserves than it had in nearly 50 years.

Beijing is buying up gold to diversify its reserve funds and reduce its dependence on the U.S. dollar, long considered the most important currency to hold in reserve. China has been reducing its U.S. Treasury holdings for more than a decade. As of March, China had about $775 billion worth of U.S. debt, down from about $1.1 trillion in 2021.

When China increased its gold holdings in the past, it bought domestically using renminbi, said Guan Tao, global chief economist at BOC International in Beijing. But this time, he said, the bank is using foreign currencies to buy gold — effectively reducing its exposure to the U.S. dollar and other currencies.
Many central banks, including China, starting acquiring gold after the U.S. Treasury Department took the rare step of freezing Russia’s dollar holdings under sanctions imposed on Moscow. Other American allies imposed similar restrictions for their currencies.

Mr. Guan said the sanctions had shaken the “foundation of trust for the current international monetary system” and forced central banks to protect their reserves with more diverse holdings. “We can see this wave of gold’s rise may be different from the past,” he said.

Although Beijing has been buying up gold, the metal accounts for only about 4.6 percent of China’s foreign exchange reserves. In percentage terms, India holds nearly twice as much of its reserves in gold.

The combination of aggressive retail buying from Chinese consumers and central bank purchases has drawn the interest of speculators on markets in Shanghai who are betting that this trend will continue. Average trading volume for gold on the Shanghai Futures Exchange more than doubled in April from a year earlier.

“They are swimming with the tide,” said Mr. Norman from MetalsDaily. “China is now dominating the gold market.”

For Ms. Lin, buying gold beans is satisfying, she said, because it feels like frivolous shopping but she’s actually investing her money in something she can touch. She said she would continue to buy more beans.

“The price of gold always goes up and down,” she said. “But the increase is within the range that I can bear, so I think it’s OK.”

[[COLOR=rgb(184, 49, 47)][SIZE=5]Gator Follow Up[/SIZE][/COLOR]]('https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/concerns-mount-over-emotional-support-211523032.html')

[HEADING=2]Interesting thing is that the US Debt that China holds has gone down 25% since 2021...[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2][SIZE=7]China Is Buying Gold Like There’s No Tomorrow[/SIZE][/HEADING]
The global price of gold has reached its highest levels as Chinese investors and consumers, wary of real estate and stocks, buy the metal at a record pace.

As [gold surged]('https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/10/business/gold-price-inflation.html') this year to its highest price ever, Xena Lin joined the frenzy by making monthly purchases of gold “beans,” pebble-like morsels of the precious metal.

For Ms. Lin, a 25-year-old administrative worker in southern China, the $80 beans — small enough to rest on a fingertip and weighing about one-thirtieth of an ounce — were an affordable way to buy into the gold excitement without splurging for jewelry, gold bars or coins. She had dabbled with investing in stocks in the past, but she said buying gold, especially in this fun way, inspired her to continue investing.
“I’m still working hard to save more,” Ms. Lin said.

Often considered a safe investment during times of geopolitical and economic turmoil, gold has soared in price in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the war in Gaza. But gold’s climb to highs above $2,400 per ounce has proved more resilient, and lasted longer, because of China.

Chinese consumers have flocked to gold as their confidence in traditional investments like [real estate]('https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/30/business/china-evergrande-real-estate.html') or [stocks]('https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/15/business/china-stocks-a-shares.html') has faltered. At the same time, the country’s central bank has steadily added to its gold reserves, while whittling away at its holdings of U.S. debt. And throwing fuel on the fire are Chinese speculators betting that there is still room for appreciation.

China already held considerable sway in gold markets. But the country’s influence has become more pronounced during this latest bull run — a nearly 50 percent increase in the global price since late 2022. It continued to scale new heights despite factors that traditionally make gold a comparatively less appealing investment: higher interest rates and a strong U.S. dollar.

Last month, gold prices vaulted higher even after the Federal Reserve signaled that it would [keep higher interest rates for longer]('https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/26/business/inflation-fed-rates.html'). And it has continued to appreciate even as the dollar has [risen against almost every major currency]('https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/29/business/a-strong-us-dollar-weighs-on-the-world.html') in the world this year.

Prices have pulled back to around $2,300 per ounce, but there is a growing sentiment that the gold market is governed no longer by economic factors but by the whims of Chinese buyers and investors.
“China is unquestionably driving the price of gold,” said Ross Norman, chief executive of [MetalsDaily.com]('https://www.metalsdaily.com/'), a precious-metals information platform based in London. “The flow of gold to China has gone from solid to an absolute torrent.”

Gold consumption in the country rose 6 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, according to the China Gold Association. It came on the heels of a 9 percent increase last year.

Gold investing became more alluring as traditional investments turned lackluster. China’s real estate sector, the destination for most families’ savings, remains in crisis. Investor confidence in the country’s stock markets has not fully returned. A string of big investment funds aimed at the wealthy toppled after failed bets on real estate.

With few better alternatives, money flowed into Chinese funds that traded in gold, and many young people took to collecting beans in tiny quantities.

Online merchants are aggressively hawking gold beans. On Alibaba’s Taobao, one of China’s biggest e-commerce platforms, a merchant sold gold beans on a livestream — a blend of the Home Shopping Network and Amazon. She said buying beans was “like shopping, but an investment.”

The tiny beans came in five shapes, including one that resembled a peanut and another like a persimmon. Paying $87 per bean, a person could buy into the gold boom for the price of a hot pot meal, she said.

Kelly Zhong, a teacher in Beijing, started buying gold in 2020 at the outset of the pandemic. She has amassed more than two pounds of gold bars, but she has also invested in the metal through exchange-traded funds. She said she was inspired by an old saying: “Jade in prosperous times, gold in troubled times.”
As she felt the world become more chaotic, Ms. Zhong added to her stockpile, betting that gold prices would only climb. She has stopped buying, but she is not ready to sell. She sees no reason to. The Chinese economy is still struggling, and neither real estate nor stocks seem like a sound investment.

“The money has to go somewhere,” she said.
Another major buyer of gold in China is the country’s central bank. In March, the People’s Bank of China added to its gold reserves for a 17th straight month. Last year, the bank bought more gold than any other central bank in the world, adding more to its reserves than it had in nearly 50 years.

Beijing is buying up gold to diversify its reserve funds and reduce its dependence on the U.S. dollar, long considered the most important currency to hold in reserve. China has been reducing its U.S. Treasury holdings for more than a decade. As of March, China had about $775 billion worth of U.S. debt, down from about $1.1 trillion in 2021.

When China increased its gold holdings in the past, it bought domestically using renminbi, said Guan Tao, global chief economist at BOC International in Beijing. But this time, he said, the bank is using foreign currencies to buy gold — effectively reducing its exposure to the U.S. dollar and other currencies.
Many central banks, including China, starting acquiring gold after the U.S. Treasury Department took the rare step of freezing Russia’s dollar holdings under sanctions imposed on Moscow. Other American allies imposed similar restrictions for their currencies.

Mr. Guan said the sanctions had shaken the “foundation of trust for the current international monetary system” and forced central banks to protect their reserves with more diverse holdings. “We can see this wave of gold’s rise may be different from the past,” he said.

Although Beijing has been buying up gold, the metal accounts for only about 4.6 percent of China’s foreign exchange reserves. In percentage terms, India holds nearly twice as much of its reserves in gold.

The combination of aggressive retail buying from Chinese consumers and central bank purchases has drawn the interest of speculators on markets in Shanghai who are betting that this trend will continue. Average trading volume for gold on the Shanghai Futures Exchange more than doubled in April from a year earlier.

“They are swimming with the tide,” said Mr. Norman from MetalsDaily. “China is now dominating the gold market.”

For Ms. Lin, buying gold beans is satisfying, she said, because it feels like frivolous shopping but she’s actually investing her money in something she can touch. She said she would continue to buy more beans.

“The price of gold always goes up and down,” she said. “But the increase is within the range that I can bear, so I think it’s OK.”

That’s because they have been strategically misinformed , gold silver and all precious metals are one day going to be worthless since the moon and other planets are littered with them.

[URL unfurl="true"]https://nypost.com/2024/04/29/us-news/wealthy-white-louisiana-residents-split-from-baton-rouge-to-form-their-own-city/[/URL]

🤩

hell of a headline........................

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.yahoo.com/tech/boeing-desperately-hoping-nothing-bad-202040331.html[/URL]
:LOL:

Hope they have the door securely fastened.

This speaks volumes...

[HEADING=2][SIZE=7]R.F.K. Jr. Says Doctors Found a Dead Worm in His Brain[/SIZE][/HEADING]
The presidential candidate has faced previously undisclosed health issues, including a parasite that he said ate part of his brain.

Rut-roh, someone has some "splaining" to do...

[HEADING=2][SIZE=7]30 pounds of fentanyl pills delivered by mistake to house in Winslow[/SIZE][/HEADING]
Police are investigating the shipment of the potent synthetic opioid, which has a street value of up to $2 million.

WINSLOW — Police are investigating after two misdelivered packages were found to contain nearly 30 pounds of pills believed to be fentanyl with a street value of up to $2 million.

In a news release issued Wednesday, Winslow police said the department received a complaint that a resident had been delivered an unexpected package from California on Friday; the resident had not ordered anything nor was any delivery expected.

When the package was opened, it contained multiple bags of pills. They tested presumptively positive for fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid, police said.

A second package containing more pills was delivered Saturday.

The total weight of the pills is approximately 29½ pounds. Police estimated the street value could be as much as $2 million.

Winslow Deputy Police Chief Randy Wing said in the news release that the investigation is ongoing, and no further information is available for release.

Rut-roh, someone has some "splaining" to do...

[HEADING=2][SIZE=7]30 pounds of fentanyl pills delivered by mistake to house in Winslow[/SIZE][/HEADING]
Police are investigating the shipment of the potent synthetic opioid, which has a street value of up to $2 million.

WINSLOW — Police are investigating after two misdelivered packages were found to contain nearly 30 pounds of pills believed to be fentanyl with a street value of up to $2 million.

In a news release issued Wednesday, Winslow police said the department received a complaint that a resident had been delivered an unexpected package from California on Friday; the resident had not ordered anything nor was any delivery expected.

When the package was opened, it contained multiple bags of pills. They tested presumptively positive for fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid, police said.

A second package containing more pills was delivered Saturday.

The total weight of the pills is approximately 29½ pounds. Police estimated the street value could be as much as $2 million.

Winslow Deputy Police Chief Randy Wing said in the news release that the investigation is ongoing, and no further information is available for release.

Were they standing on a corner when it happened?

Sorry, I had to ask. 😔

hell of a headline........................

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.yahoo.com/tech/boeing-desperately-hoping-nothing-bad-202040331.html[/URL]
:LOL:

Hope they have the door securely fastened.

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.yahoo.com/tech/nasa-contractor-warns-boeing-launch-165626075.html[/URL]
:oops:

what the..............

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.yahoo.com/news/chinese-zoo-under-fire-dyeing-140049371.html[/URL]
:rolleyes:

WTF!!?

you've got to be kiddinh me?

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/kim-kardashians-son-psalm-gifted-214015760.html[/URL]

I have to admit, I'm impressed.

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/woman-found-living-michigan-grocery-store-sign-complete-computer-keuri-rcna151750[/URL]

Now here's a "sticking it to the Man" story you gotta love and admire!!

SEASIDE, Calif. (KSBW) - A California man who was told by city officials he needed to put a fence up to hide his boat from public view did just that – with a twist.

Etienne Constable says he received a letter from the City of Seaside in July 2023. The city required him to build a 6-foot coverage screen in front of his boat. After discussing the plan with his neighbor, Constable decided to build the fence – with a lifelike painting of the boat on it.

“I’m not a rule-breaker, but I like to make a political statement as necessary, as well as a humorous statement and a creative statement,” Constable said.

Well, it is San Francisco.

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.foxnews.com/media/san-francisco-fire-program-giving-booze-homeless-alcoholics-recovery[/URL]

A $5 million pilot program bringing free beer, wine and vodka shots to [San Francisco's]('https://www.foxnews.com/category/us/san-francisco') homeless alcoholics aims to relieve the city's emergency services, but one addict-turned-recovery advocate says the effort misses the mark and only delays recovery for those who need it.

"It's not a good idea, not when you consider the fact that, over the last four years, San Francisco spent $20 million to basically service a total of a couple of hundred people… by giving them free vodka and beer. For that amount of money, we could have funded 60 drug treatment beds instead," Tom Wolf, founder of the Pacific Alliance for Prevention and Recovery, told ["Fox & Friends First."]('https://www.foxnews.com/media')

"You really have to ask, where's the recovery in all of this? What is the desired outcome of this program? They say it'll save money, but we just spent $20 million bucks over the last four years. You have to really ask, ‘is it saving money, and is it making a difference?’"

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.yahoo.com/news/portal-between-dublin-nyc-shut-193041060.html[/URL]