Strange & Bizarre News

I'd like to clarify an earlier comment, one that might have seemed "greedy". It's in relation to
car accidents, so it sort of fits in with the above.

When someone hits you in the rear and then you hit the car in front of you, in order
to save on the adjusting costs, your company pays for your replacement, and the damage
to the car in front of you - their rear damages.

However, they nearly immediately subordinate or go against, the proximate cause of the accident, which is the driver to your rear.

His company will end up paying for all of it, eventually. When I mentioned that you
could ask for another $500 or so, safely, here is what I meant.

You can go to the online library and find a blue book or black book - both give
values of cars. Look at your vehicle, year, mileage, condition, etc., and then ask
yourself: Is this my vehicle? BTW the black book is just another guide like the
blue book, but it is the one used most often by used car dealers and sometimes
by adjustors. It tends to be more conservative and offer a lower value for used vehicles.

Without being greedy, you may be due from $500 to $1500 more than what they
offer for you to replace your vehicle, simply because your car is better than the average
that the blue book gives.

For example, if you have upgrades, there is a list at the bottom to add those in. If you
have bettered the sound system you need to add the difference. If you have a tire cover
that did not come with the vehicle, ditto. If you have special tires, add the extra cost.
I think you get the idea. Add all of these together, call the adjuster from your Insurance
Company, and point out those betterments. Tell him that you would like to mention
some reasons for why your vehicle is worth $xxxx number of dollars.

He will cut the higher check amount without giving you too much of an
argument, since they are going to be subordinating the entire cost anyway. This is not
greedy, nor unfair. but often many people do no take this into account and they get short
changed when it is not necessary.

This is fair, since according to the laws of Insurance, you should receive what you lost,
and not a penny better or worse. That's what is equitable, and it is not greedy. I did not
explain this earlier and it may have seemed like I was trying to somehow "cheat" the
system - when I was not. Good luck to you.
 

nivek

As Above So Below


Arctic Walrus Winds up in Ireland

A father and daughter walking along a beach in Ireland could not believe their eyes when they spotted a giant arctic walrus resting on some rocks. The incredibly rare sighting reportedly occurred on Sunday afternoon as Alan Houlihan and his daughter Muireann were exploring the shore of the country's Valentia Island. The five-year-old girl first noticed the enormous creature and pointed it out to her dad, who initially suspected that it was a seal until he saw that it sported a pair of tusks.

"He kind of jumped up on the rocks," Houlihan recalled, marveling that "he was massive. He was about the size of a bull or a cow, pretty similar in size, he’s big, big." The pair watched the enormous creature, believed to be around six-and-a-half-feet long, resting on the rocks seemingly in an exhausted state, although it did occasionally dip back into the water before returning to its perch. Sightings of walruses in the waters of Ireland are not entirely unheard of, though incredibly rare with only around 20 reports in the last century.

As for how the creature could have wound up on the rocks of Valentia Island, a marine biologist theorized that the walrus had originated from somewhere in its natural habitat around the Arctic Circle and probably "fell asleep on an iceberg and drifted off and then he was gone too far, out into the mid-Atlantic or somewhere like that down off Greenland possibly." Like a sailor adrift at sea, the mighty marine animal, which would have traveled thousands of miles over the course of the journey, eventually caught sight of the Irish shore and made its way towards land in the hopes of finding something to eat.

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nivek

As Above So Below


Rodent Plague Strikes Australia

Millions of mice have invaded rural farms and towns across New South Wales, Australia, drawn by this season's bumper grain harvest. Record rainfall, usually a boon for farmers, has boosted crop production but also attracted a plague of rodents to the region. Video footage from local news media shows innumerable mice running rampant across the area and damaging everything in their wake. Businesses including motels, supermarkets, and shops have also been effected by the rodent invasion, and several people have been hospitalized for bites.

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Rodent Plague Strikes Australia

Millions of mice have invaded rural farms and towns across New South Wales, Australia, drawn by this season's bumper grain harvest. Record rainfall, usually a boon for farmers, has boosted crop production but also attracted a plague of rodents to the region. Video footage from local news media shows innumerable mice running rampant across the area and damaging everything in their wake. Businesses including motels, supermarkets, and shops have also been effected by the rodent invasion, and several people have been hospitalized for bites.

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Where's the Pied Piper when you need him? Oh, wait a minute, wasn't he connected with groups of children, whom he lured from their homes? Might be a PC connected deal with him.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
Scientists in US and Canada set to battle murder hornets

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Scientists in the U.S. and Canada are opening new fronts in the war against so-called murder hornets as the giant insects begin establishing nests this spring. The scientists said Wednesday that the battle to prevent the apex predators from establishing a foothold in North America is being fought mostly in Whatcom County, Washington, and the nearby Fraser Valley of British Columbia, where the hornets have been spotted in recent years.

“This is not a species we want to tolerate here in the United States,” said Sven-Erik Spichiger of the Washington state Department of Agriculture, which eradicated a nest of the Asian giant hornets last year. “The Asian giant hornet is not supposed to be here.”

“We may not get them all, but we will get as many as we can,” he said of eradication efforts this year. Paul van Westendorp of the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries said the hornets pose threats to human life, to valuable bee populations needed to pollinate crops and to other insects.

“It’s an absolutely serious danger to our health and well-being,” he said. “These are intimidating insects.”

One major front will be setting thousands of traps this spring to capture queens that are trying to establish nests, officials said. Both government agencies and private citizens will set traps, they said. Another effort is underway to determine exactly where in Asia these hornets came from, to try and learn how they are getting across the Pacific Ocean, scientists said. The theory is they are crossing on cargo ships, Spichiger said.

While hundreds of the hornets were killed when the nest in Whatcom County was destroyed last October, only a handful of the hornets were spotted in British Columbia last year, van Westendorp said. Scientists have been studying the genetics of captured hornets and comparing them with those that exist in South Korea, Japan and China, Spichiger said.

Initial findings indicate the hornets found in the U.S. were linked to hornets in South Korea, while those in British Columbia were linked to hornets found in Japan, Spichiger said. But it is not clear that the hornets found in North America actually migrated directly from those countries, said Anne LeBrun, a scientist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The agency is working to pin down the origin of murder hornets found here.

Hornet queens tend to emerge from winter quarters in the spring and establish nests to birth worker hornets. The hornets start attacking and destroying beneficial honey bees later in the year, eating the bees for protein as they raise more hornets, Soichiger said. Whatcom County is about 55 miles (88 kilometers) south of Vancouver, British Columbia.

The Washington state agency will continue using orange juice and rice cooking wine in traps this year, while citizens can use either orange juice or a brown sugar-based bait, officials said. Residents in Whatcom, Skagit, San Juan, Island, Jefferson, and Clallam counties in Washington have been encouraged to make their own traps starting in July.

Half of the confirmed reports of the species in the state last year and all of the reports about the hornets in British Columbia came from members of the public, officials said. The first confirmed detection of an Asian giant hornet in Washington was made in December 2019 and the first hornet was trapped last July. Several more were subsequently caught, all in Whatcom County, which is in the northwestern corner of the state.

Asian giant hornets, an invasive pest not native to the U.S., are the world’s largest hornet and a predator of honey bees and other insects. A small group of Asian giant hornets can kill an entire honey bee hive in a matter of hours. The honey bees pollinate many of the crops in Washington’s multibillion-dollar agriculture industry.

Asian giant hornets can deliver painful stings to people and spit venom. Despite their nickname and the hype that has stirred fears, the world’s largest hornets kill at most a few dozen people a year in Asian countries, and experts say it is probably far less. Meanwhile, hornets, wasps and bees typically found in the United States kill an average of 62 people a year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said.

The real threat from Asian giant hornets — which are 2 inches (5 centimeters) long — is their devastating attacks on honeybees, which are already under siege from problems like mites, diseases, pesticides and the loss of food.

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Well - here's my bit of Strange and Bizarre News.
About 600 yards from my cabin we have two Jaguar, one black, and the other colored,
taking dogs and chickens whenever possible. This is recent, since previously they roamed
about eight miles away. I haven't seen the black one yet but there was the corpse of a
multi-colored cub on the highway about 400 yards from my cabin, across a ravine, that
apparently was killed by a passing truck in the night. I keep my dogs close at hand, but
those that let theirs roam free are now losing them at a very brisk pace.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
upload_2021-3-23_19-28-6.png

Doctors find condom in woman’s lung

Tuberculosis (TB) is a painful disease affecting the lungs, which today still kills over a million people per year worldwide. It’s estimated that around a quarter of the Earth’s population is infected with TB bacteria, though they haven’t become ill with the disease. Of these, the World Health Organization writes, around 5-10 percent have a chance of falling ill with the disease, particularly if their immune system is weakened.

Left untreated, 45 percent of people ill with TB will die, and nearly all of those who are also HIV positive upon falling ill. Though it may be seen as a disease of the past, it’s still very much around today and requires lengthy courses of antibiotics as a treatment.

But sometimes, it’s a condom

A 27-year-old woman showed up to hospital with a cough, fever, and thick mucus that had been persistent for six months. Four months prior to attending hospital, she had been prescribed antibiotics and anti-tuberculosis treatment, which appeared to have no impact on her symptoms, doctors write in a case report published in the National Library of Medicine.

The school teacher’s sputum was tested for TB and was found to be negative. However, when her chest was scanned they found a lesion in the right upper lobe of her lungs. Upon further investigation, it appeared to be “an inverted bag-like structure ‘sitting’ in the bronchus”.

The team removed the mysterious “bag”. Though most of it was destroyed by the process, it was still identifiable as a condom.

For the layperson, “the lungs” are not in the top ten list of places you’d expect to find a condom. Doctors, understandably, did not just leave it there and asked a few more follow-up questions to get to the bottom of events.

“Retrospectively, both the husband and wife accepted to having undergone a fellatio,” the team wrote in their report. “They could recollect that the condom had loosened during the act, and at that time, the lady had also experienced an episode of sneezing or coughing.”

The team noted that diagnosis of the problem was delayed by several factors:

1) They believe that the condom itself was unlikely to cause a lung injury directly “due to its soft, elastic and rubbery consistency,” but the obstruction could have led to build-ups of secretions, as well as infections. However, the way the condom flapped inside her lung during breathing and coughing likely cleared some secretions, leading to the delay of symptoms that could be seen by medical staff.

2) Embarrassment. The team writes that the couple may have been hesitant to disclose what had happened, or else genuinely didn’t correlate inhaling a condom with subsequently developing a cough.

3) Given the age of the patient, the team did not consider inhalation of a foreign body as a possible explanation from the start.

The woman was expected to make a recovery, though small pieces of the condom were left in her lung following its tearing, making it likely that she may have to have a further bronchoscopy. The team believe that the case may be the only one of its kind in the medical literature. [Pubmed, IFL SCIENCE]


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View attachment 13818

Doctors find condom in woman’s lung

Tuberculosis (TB) is a painful disease affecting the lungs, which today still kills over a million people per year worldwide. It’s estimated that around a quarter of the Earth’s population is infected with TB bacteria, though they haven’t become ill with the disease. Of these, the World Health Organization writes, around 5-10 percent have a chance of falling ill with the disease, particularly if their immune system is weakened.

Left untreated, 45 percent of people ill with TB will die, and nearly all of those who are also HIV positive upon falling ill. Though it may be seen as a disease of the past, it’s still very much around today and requires lengthy courses of antibiotics as a treatment.

But sometimes, it’s a condom

A 27-year-old woman showed up to hospital with a cough, fever, and thick mucus that had been persistent for six months. Four months prior to attending hospital, she had been prescribed antibiotics and anti-tuberculosis treatment, which appeared to have no impact on her symptoms, doctors write in a case report published in the National Library of Medicine.

The school teacher’s sputum was tested for TB and was found to be negative. However, when her chest was scanned they found a lesion in the right upper lobe of her lungs. Upon further investigation, it appeared to be “an inverted bag-like structure ‘sitting’ in the bronchus”.

The team removed the mysterious “bag”. Though most of it was destroyed by the process, it was still identifiable as a condom.

For the layperson, “the lungs” are not in the top ten list of places you’d expect to find a condom. Doctors, understandably, did not just leave it there and asked a few more follow-up questions to get to the bottom of events.

“Retrospectively, both the husband and wife accepted to having undergone a fellatio,” the team wrote in their report. “They could recollect that the condom had loosened during the act, and at that time, the lady had also experienced an episode of sneezing or coughing.”

The team noted that diagnosis of the problem was delayed by several factors:

1) They believe that the condom itself was unlikely to cause a lung injury directly “due to its soft, elastic and rubbery consistency,” but the obstruction could have led to build-ups of secretions, as well as infections. However, the way the condom flapped inside her lung during breathing and coughing likely cleared some secretions, leading to the delay of symptoms that could be seen by medical staff.

2) Embarrassment. The team writes that the couple may have been hesitant to disclose what had happened, or else genuinely didn’t correlate inhaling a condom with subsequently developing a cough.

3) Given the age of the patient, the team did not consider inhalation of a foreign body as a possible explanation from the start.

The woman was expected to make a recovery, though small pieces of the condom were left in her lung following its tearing, making it likely that she may have to have a further bronchoscopy. The team believe that the case may be the only one of its kind in the medical literature. [Pubmed, IFL SCIENCE]


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School teachers = actually many of them are very immoral people. Wearing a condom for fellatio on your spouse? Sketchy. All in all - entertaining.
 

SysConfig

Adept
Your Brain Has 'Zombie' Cells That Actually Grow After You Die
zombie-cells_resize_md.jpg

Scientists recently discovered that certain cells in human brains not only stay active after death, but actually grow. These "zombie cells" exponentially grow and sprout longer arm-like tentacles in the hours after we die.
Scientists at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) made the discovery by simulating a post-mortem environment on fresh brain tissue taken from a routine brain surgery.
The team analyzed gene expression of this tissue and discovered that glial cells, a specific type of inflammatory cell in our brain, in fact, grew to "gargantuan proportions."
The fact that glial cells significantly expand after death didn't surprise the scientists, as this type of cell's job is to "clean things up after brain injuries like oxygen deprivation or sroke," said Dr. Jeffrey Loeb, author of the study and head of neurology and rehabilitation at the UIC College of Medicine.
What this discovery means for neuroscience
What is important about this discovery, as Dr. Loeb explains, is its implications. Research studies on brain tissues after death don't account for the post-mortem gene expression of brain cells or cell activity. The general assumption is that all brain activity ends when a person dies, but the UIC team has proven that's not the case.
"Our findings will be needed to interpret research on human brain tissues. We just haven’t quantified these changes until now," said Dr. Loeb.
During its study, the team found out that these zombie cells' changes peaked approximately 12 hours after death.
With this new information, Dr. Loeb and his team explain that researchers need to bear in mind these genetic and cellular changes when carrying out post-mortem brain studies.
Now, researchers have a good idea about which genes and cell types in the brain degrade, remain stable, and expand after death, opening up further avenues for neuroscientists to research.
The team published its findings in the journal Scientific Reports on March 23.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
 

nivek

As Above So Below
Georgia man receives last paycheck in oily pennies dumped on his driveway

A Georgia man who was having trouble getting the last paycheck from his employer was shocked to discover its equivalent in pennies dumped in his driveway earlier this month. Fayetteville's Andreas Flaten had quit his job at Peachtree City's A OK Walker Luxury Autoworks in November 2020.

He told local WGCL-TV he had been at the automotive repair shop for a year -- and had known his boss Miles Walker for eight years -- but that "toxic" working conditions had taken a "toll" on him. He gave his two-weeks notice, writing a letter of resignation to Walker who reportedly promised Flaten's final $915 check would be paid to him in January.

But, come January, the check never arrived and Flaten said his former boss accused him of damages. He even called Georgia's Department of Labor for assistance in the matter, without much luck.

Months later, Flaten and his girlfriend, Olivia Oxley, were leaving his house when he noticed something at the end of his driveway: more than 91,000 oil or grease-covered pennies and an envelope with his final pay stub that was addressed with an explicit message: "F--- you!"

upload_2021-3-26_3-17-5.png

The pennies weigh more than 500 pounds in total, according to Fox 5 Atlanta, breaking the wheels of Flaten's wheelbarrow.

Dismayed by the incident, Oxley took to social media with videos of the scene, writing on Facebook that "no one like that deserves to have [a] successful business."



Flaten called the move "childish" and noted that cleaning the pennies was "going to be a lot of work" for money he had already earned.

Now, his nights are spent cleaning the coins for hours at a time in order to be able to cash them in.

Oxley declined to comment to Fox News on Thursday, explaining that the pair would be focusing their energy on finding resources to be able to get a "real payment" for Flaten's final check.

Walker declined to comment.

Walker spoke with WGCL-TV briefly, stating he didn’t know if he did or didn’t drop the pennies off at Flaten’s house.

"I don’t really remember," Walker told the TV station. "It doesn’t matter he got paid, that’s all that matters."

Walker went on to call Flaten a "weenie."

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michael59

Celestial
That was completely unprofessional and I don't understand why the department of labor didn't do something about it. These kinds of disputes are exactly why the department of labor was created.
 

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
Clearly there's a bit more to this story.

The only thing worse than being paid in 500lbs of oily nasty pennies is paying someone in 500lbs of oily nasty pennies.
The F U note was just a bit of free poetry. Karma is satisfied here.

If I were the guy at the GA Dept. of Labor that got the phone call on this one I'd glance around and say 'nope, we don't have a form for that' and be done with it. : )
 

nivek

As Above So Below


US man returns from swift shopping trip to find 15,000 bees in his car

A man who went shopping in New Mexico returned to a car filled with 15,000 honey bees who had apparently got in through an open window while he spent 10 minutes buying groceries.

Astonishingly, the man – who was not named in the New York Times report detailing his unexpected travel companions – did not notice the sudden presence of a giant swarm of buzzing insects on his vehicle’s back seat until he was driving away.


“Then he turned back and looked and like was ‘holy cow’,” Jesse Johnson, an off-duty firefighter and paramedic whose hobby is beekeeping, said of the man’s reaction in an interview with the paper. “He called 911 because he didn’t know what to do.”

Johnson, and his fellow firefighters, helped the man remove the bees and put them in an empty hive box.

He said the bees were likely swarming with a queen and looking for a new home – which makes them more docile and easier to handle as they are not defending their turf.

The whole incident passed largely without injury – but not entirely.

“One guy got stung on the lip, and we made fun of him the next morning,” Johnson told the Times.


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Zee

Adept


US man returns from swift shopping trip to find 15,000 bees in his car

A man who went shopping in New Mexico returned to a car filled with 15,000 honey bees who had apparently got in through an open window while he spent 10 minutes buying groceries.

Astonishingly, the man – who was not named in the New York Times report detailing his unexpected travel companions – did not notice the sudden presence of a giant swarm of buzzing insects on his vehicle’s back seat until he was driving away.


“Then he turned back and looked and like was ‘holy cow’,” Jesse Johnson, an off-duty firefighter and paramedic whose hobby is beekeeping, said of the man’s reaction in an interview with the paper. “He called 911 because he didn’t know what to do.”

Johnson, and his fellow firefighters, helped the man remove the bees and put them in an empty hive box.

He said the bees were likely swarming with a queen and looking for a new home – which makes them more docile and easier to handle as they are not defending their turf.

The whole incident passed largely without injury – but not entirely.

“One guy got stung on the lip, and we made fun of him the next morning,” Johnson told the Times.


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Has this not been on x-files?
 
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