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Posts posted by TTL News
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QuoteJERUSALEM (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli leaders on Wednesday in his push for a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas, saying “the time is now” for an agreement that would free hostages and bring a pause in the nearly seven months of war in Gaza.
He said Hamas would bear the blame for any failure to get a deal off the ground.
Blinken is on his seventh visit to the region since the war erupted in October in his bid to secure what’s been an elusive deal between Israel and Hamas that could avert an Israeli incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering.
The current round of talks appears to be serious, but the sides remain far apart on one key issue — whether the war should end as part of an emerging deal.
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QuoteOfficers took protesters into custody late Tuesday after Columbia University called in police to end the pro-Palestinian occupation on the New York campus. Hours later, dueling groups of protesters clashed Wednesday at the University of California, Los Angeles, grappling in fistfights and shoving, kicking and using sticks to beat one another.
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QuoteThousands of U.S. deaths per year could be prevented if people followed the government’s dietary guidelines, which advise men to limit themselves to two drinks or fewer per day and women to one drink or fewer per day, Naimi said.
One drink is the equivalent of about one 12-ounce can of beer, a 5-ounce glass of wine or a shot of liquor.
Naimi served on an advisory committee that wanted to lower the recommendation for men to one drink per day. That advice was considered and rejected when the federal recommendations came out in 2020.
“The simple message that’s best supported by the evidence is that, if you drink, less is better when it comes to health,” Naimi said.
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QuoteWASHINGTON (AP) — A measure of inflation closely tracked by the Federal Reserve remained uncomfortably high in March, likely reinforcing the Fed’s reluctance to cut interest rates anytime soon and underscoring a burden for President Joe Biden’s re-election bid.
Friday’s report from the government showed that prices rose 0.3% from February to March, the same as in the previous month. It was the third straight month that the index has run at a pace faster than is consistent with the Fed’s 2% inflation target. Measured from a year earlier, prices were up 2.7% in March, up from a 2.5% annual rise in February.
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QuoteFour Cornell students were suspended on April 26 for their involvement with a pro-Palestinian encampment on the campus. The university administration announced on Saturday that more suspensions are coming. The encampment is part of the growing anti-war, pro-Palestinian protests on campuses across the country.
The four students received emails Friday afternoon notifying them they have been “temporarily suspended” from Cornell. Two of them are international graduate students. Two are American undergraduates. One condition of the suspensions is students are not allowed on campus.
Momodou Taal is a doctoral student from the UK. He said the administration deliberately targeted some of the most vocal student protesters.
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Quote"I think we're good at 17 now," Goodell said. "But, listen, we're looking at how we continue. I'm not a fan of the preseason." Then, gesturing toward a group of fans assembled nearby, Goodell said, "And I don't think these guys like it either." He continued: "The reality is, I'd rather replace a preseason game with a regular-season game any day. That's just picking quality. If we get to 18 and 2, that's not an unreasonable thing."
Adding an additional regular-season game could, theoretically, result in a second bye week being added, which would lengthen the regular season. But Goodell would welcome that, he said, as he envisions a Presidents Day weekend built around the Super Bowl on Sunday night.
"And then you have Monday off," Goodell said.
What do YOU think about this idea?
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QuoteNASCAR and Watkins Glen International have made changes to the curbing in the bus stop area of the race track in the interest of driver safety.
Last season, Kyle Larson and several other NASCAR Cup Series drivers volunteered to wear data-gathering mouthpieces, which showed sobering data in that particular area of the race course. Larson shared the data read-out from his mouthpiece on Thursday.
NASCAR confirmed to TobyChristie.com that the change to the curbing in the bus stop at Watkins Glen was necessitated by the mouthpiece data from Larson and others that utilized the device last season.
“Yes, the mouthpiece data from Larson (and all those who wore it) necessitated this move,” a representative said. “We saw that an abnormally large number of ‘incidents’ were triggered in this area. Credit to NASCAR safety team and the drivers who participated in this mouthpiece program. It was an initiative started to continue improving on safety, and this is one of the results.”
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QuoteIn response to concerns about his mobility, President Biden has adjusted his routine when walking to Marine One on the White House’s South Lawn. Now he’s often accompanied by aides.
The modification since mid-April aims to project an image of agility and reduce the chances of mishaps that could draw attention to his age, Axios reports.
Previously, Mr. Biden, 81, would frequently make the walk alone or with family members. However, recent observations indicate a noticeable shift, with the president choosing to be flanked by staff members or lawmakers in nine out of 10 instances since April 16.
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QuoteThis opens up speculation as to what will go on in Milwaukee when the MAGA faithful descend like a horde of cicadas to choose their candidate for president. It is presupposed that Trump, no matter what, will become the nominee. But there are whispers, and growing speculation among the faithful and the faithless in MAGA land that Donald Trump may not be up for the job.
“For the first time,” I was told this week by a Trump organizer in Wisconsin, “I’ve started to think about what we would do if Trump isn’t our candidate. It’s a real s**t show to consider.”
If Trump is somehow rejected from the ballot or is incapable of serving, the Milwaukee convention could end up looking like the House of Representatives searching for a speaker after it expelled Kevin McCarthy. It could take several ballots, lots of smoke and drinks in backrooms combined with banshee-like wailing and gnashing of teeth. The whole Republican convention, always a circus show of pretense and populism, will more accurately resemble a hallucinogenic Barnum and Bailey event under the big top – or even more precisely Mad Max under the Thunderdome.
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QuoteSouth Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem — a potential running mate for presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump — is getting attention again. This time, it’s for a new book where she writes about killing an unruly dog, and a smelly goat, too.
QuoteIn her book, Noem writes that she took Cricket on a hunting trip with older dogs in hopes of calming down the wild puppy. Instead, Cricket chased the pheasants while “having the time of her life.”
On the way home from the hunting trip, Noem writes that she stopped to talk to a family. Cricket got out of Noem’s truck and attacked and killed some of the family’s chickens, then bit the governor.
Noem apologized profusely, wrote the distraught family a check for the deceased chickens, and helped them dispose of the carcasses, she writes. Cricket “was the picture of joy” as all that unfolded.
“I hated that dog,” Noem writes, deeming her “untrainable.”
“At that moment,” Noem writes, “I realized I had to put her down.” She led Cricket to a gravel pit and killed her.
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A new trailer was released this week. ( NSFW - Language )
Seriously, you've been warned.
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QuoteThe Marvel multiverse has gotten a bit overwhelming in recent years for the more casual fans who may have seen most of the films but only dabbled in the Disney+ offerings that regularly introduce new concepts and characters that eventually find their way into the films. “Deadpool & Wolverine,” for instance, uses the Time Variance Authority (TVA) — a major part of “Loki” but new to the movies — to help get Deadpool to the MCU. But Levy promises that enjoyment of “Deadpool & Wolverine” requires no bingeing or studying beforehand.
“I was a good student in school. I’ll do my homework as an adult. But I am definitely not looking to do homework when I go to the movies,” Levy said.
“I very much made this film with certainly a healthy respect and gratitude towards the rabid fan base that has peak fluency in the mythology and lore of these characters and this world. But I didn’t want to presume that. This movie is built for entertainment, with no obligation to come prepared with prior research.”
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QuoteGardeners are often given the advice to sprinkle diatomaceous earth (DE) around plants to deter pests. Unsurprisingly, we’re often asked, “What is diatomaceous earth, exactly?” Well, here’s your answer…
What Is Diatomaceous Earth?
Diatomaceous earth (DE) is the fossilized skeletons of microscopic single-celled aquatic organisms called diatoms. Their skeletons are made of a natural substance called silica—which makes up 26% of the Earth’s crust by weight.
Deep deposits of diatomaceous earth are mined in the western United States in places where lakes once covered the area millions of years ago.
How Does Diatomaceous Earth Deter Garden Pests?
Slugs and snails do not like to crawl over DE because the silica skeletons are very sharp—like tiny pieces of broken glass. (Slugs and snails don’t like eggshells, either!) If their soft bodies do get cut, they eventually dehydrate and die. This process works on other soft-bodied insects, too, including caterpillars and aphids, as well as on those with hard shells, such as beetles, fleas, cockroaches, and even bed bugs. The tiny particles of DE get into the insects’ joints, causing irritation and dehydration.
Caution: The downside to DE is that it does not discriminate between pests and beneficial insects. Ladybugs, green lacewings, butterflies, bees, and other “good guys” can also be killed by DE if they come into contact with it. For this reason, we recommend using DE with discretion on and around plants that beneficial insects may frequently visit. Avoid using it around flowers as well.
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QuoteWe don’t know how far back the domestication of animals goes. But we do know it is a process, rather than a single event. The domestication of the dog from its ancestor, the grey wolf, for example, may have begun some 17,000 years ago, but it also may have begun as many as 60,000 to 100,000 years ago. The reason scientists and others disagree on this is because, for tens of thousands of years, those first domesticated dogs too closely resembled wolves for us to recognize the difference when we found them in the fossil record.
What is domestication?
When we “tame” an animal we take a wild animal and make it not fear us. But we don’t change the makeup of the animal itself. But with the process of domestication, we change animals to make them more useful or desirable to ourselves. We breed them to enhance certain characteristics and actually alter their basic genetic makeup. Circus lions and tigers, for example, have been tamed, but not domesticated. However, the dog is arguably a domesticated wolf that has been considerably altered.
Most domesticated animals, such as dogs, cattle, horses, sheep, etc., are quite unlike their wild forebears. But in the last few centuries, there are notable exceptions that include animals recently “farmed,” such as catfish and even alligators which are now raised for their leather with little or no thought to directing their breeding to make them more docile.
We also breed some animals, such as the California condor, expressly to return them to the wild. And as long as 400 years ago, there were attempts to preserve, in their native states, species of wild cattle and horses from which today’s domesticated stocks are descended. Unfortunately, these attempts failed.
Otherwise, consciously or unconsciously, humans have directed the evolution of animals and plants they have domesticated in ways that have made them considerably different from their wild kin.
Animals were probably first bred to ensure their future offspring were more docile, less apt to roam off, and more productive. For example, sheep with the most desirable wool or the meatier bodies were bred to ensure future generations would be similar.
Sources of early domesticates
As with plants (See, Where our garden crops come from, Issue #104, March/April 2007), what animals ancient men captured and domesticated had to be the ones that were local to them. Later, animals may have been traded, stolen, or otherwise taken to new regions where they were raised and bred. For example, dogs, chickens, goats, and sheep have spread all around the world, far from the areas where they lived in the wild and where they were first domesticated. Explorers and colonists to the New World and Australia brought with them the animals they’d found useful in the Old World, sometimes with unintended consequences, as in the introduction of rabbits and other animals to Australia which are now considered pests.
But even if animals were traded or brought home as plunder from wars, it wasn’t enough to simply have the animal in hand. What a culture can raise also depends on the climate and geography of the area. You’re not likely to productively raise sheep in Point Barrow, Alaska, or find it easy to maintain a catfish farm in Death Valley, California.
Feral animals
It’s useful to understand what is meant when we use the word “feral.” Though sometimes used to denote any wild animal, the term is generally associated with domesticated animals that have escaped back into the wild. The American West now has many feral horses and burros that are either recent escapees or the descendants of escaped domesticates, and there are “wild” boar from coast to coast that are actually feral pigs.
But there remains the question of how well today’s domesticated animals would fare if they really had to go back to the wild. The answer depends on what type of country they’d have to survive in. There are feral cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and horses in New Zealand where they can thrive in the absence of predators. But the great repository of feral animals is Australia. Cattle, camels, pigs, water buffalo, goats, horses, cats, and dogs run loose there. They’re changing the landscape, interfering with farming, and, at times, are a danger to campers, hikers, and others.
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QuoteELMIRA, N.Y. (WETM) – A new resolution by the Elmira City Council to publish a monthly list of “worst” landlords is being met with some concerns from landlords. Some say the resolution is unnecessary and sends the wrong message.
“First of all, I want to make sure everybody knows that I’m not against tenants, I actually like to work with tenants,” said Rickey Paul, President of the Chemung County Landlord Association. Paul is also a Licensed New York State Broker & Property Manager for his company “REP Home Sales & Services” located in Downtown Elmira.
Paul says the Chemung County Landlord Association holds monthly meetings to educate landlords on the right way to manage properties and keep landlords up to speed on current codes and laws.
“We are not for landlords that are not doing the right thing. This is why we try to bring education.
Paul says the association also connects tenants with resources if they fall behind on rent.
“The last thing we would like to do is go to court and evict people. I want that to be put on record,” said Paul.
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QuoteL’Jarius Sneed’s jam heard ’round the NFL of Tyreek Hill didn’t escape the attention of Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel. As the dust was still settling after the Dolphins’ 26-7 Wild Card round loss to the Chiefs in frozen Kansas City, McDaniel called out Hill during a team meeting. He cued up now-famous footage of Sneed pile-driving Hill to the ground before he could even begin his route on one of many failed Dolphins plays in that game.
What Miami Dolphins’ Mike McDaniel Said About Tyreek Hill
“Everybody see the play against the Chiefs that the [explicit] jammed me to the floor?” Hill said recently on the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast, “He called me out. He was like, ‘Reek, bro, you’re supposed to be [explicit] best player in the [explicit] league, and you got this guy putting hands all over you like that. We pay you all this money, for what?'”
Kudos to McDaniel for speaking an uncomfortable truth. Hill, aside from his 53-yard touchdown catch, was invisible against his old team on that frozen January evening.
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At a press conference held earlier today, Chemung County Sheriff William A. Schrom announced the release of a custom smartphone application for the Sheriff's Office.
The app will serve as an innovative way for the Sheriff’s Office to connect with Chemung County residents and visitors, providing information quickly and efficiently to anyone with a smartphone.
The Chemung County Sheriff’s Office app was developed by TheSheriffApp.com, a brand of OCV, LLC., which specializes in mobile app development for sheriffs’ offices and public safety organizations across the country. The app offers quick access to items of public interest and is
easy to use. In just a few clicks, users can access features such as:- Meet The Sheriff - Most Wanted
- News & Alerts - Submit a Tip
- Programs & Services - Contact Us
- Inmate Information - More!
- Warrants List
“Over 80 percent of people in the United States own and use smartphones as their primary means of communication,” OCV Partner and CRO Kevin Cummings said. “Mobile apps offer agencies a better way to alert, inform and prepare the public. Apps allow public safety agencies
the ability to reach and serve their citizens where they are: their smartphones.”The app is now available to download for free in the App Store and Google Play by searching “Chemung County Sheriff, NY” or by clicking here.
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QuoteThe FTC estimates about 30 million people, or one in five American workers, from minimum wage earners to CEOs, are bound by noncompetes. It says the policy change could lead to increased wages totaling nearly $300 billion per year by encouraging people to swap jobs freely.
The ban, which will take effect later this year, carves out an exception for existing noncompetes that companies have given their senior executives, on the grounds that these agreements are more likely to have been negotiated. The FTC says employers should not enforce other existing noncompete agreements.
The vote was 3 to 2 along party lines. The dissenting commissioners, Melissa Holyoke and Andrew Ferguson, argued that the FTC was overstepping the boundaries of its power. Holyoke predicted the ban would be challenged in court and eventually struck down.
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QuoteNEW YORK (AP) — Terry Anderson, the globe-trotting Associated Press correspondent who became one of America’s longest-held hostages after he was snatched from a street in war-torn Lebanon in 1985 and held for nearly seven years, has died at 76.
Anderson, who chronicled his abduction and torturous imprisonment by Islamic militants in his best-selling 1993 memoir “Den of Lions,” died on Sunday at his home in Greenwood Lake, New York, said his daughter, Sulome Anderson.
Anderson died of complications from recent heart surgery, his daughter said.
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QuoteThe most distant spacecraft from Earth stopped sending back understandable data last November. Flight controllers traced the blank communication to a bad computer chip and rearranged the spacecraft’s coding to work around the trouble.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California declared success after receiving good engineering updates late last week. The team is still working to restore transmission of the science data.
It takes 22 1/2 hours to send a signal to Voyager 1, more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) away in interstellar space. The signal travel time is double that for a round trip.
Celebrity Obits 2024
in Pop Culture
Posted
NEW YORK (AP) — Duane Eddy, a pioneering guitar hero whose reverberating electric sound on instrumentals such as “Rebel Rouser” and “Peter Gunn” helped put the twang in early rock ‘n’ roll and influenced George Harrison, Bruce Springsteen and countless other musicians, has died at age 86.
Eddy died of cancer Tuesday at the Williamson Health hospital in Franklin, Tennessee, according to his wife, Deed Abbate.
With his raucous rhythms, and backing hollers and hand claps, Eddy sold more than 100 million records worldwide, and mastered a distinctive sound based on the premise that a guitar’s bass strings sounded better on tape than the high ones.
Source
Note: Duane Eddy was born in Corning NY. For those who aren’t sure they’ve heard his music, you’ve likely heard this one: