Scientists have found dangerous drug-resistant “super bacteria” off beaches in Rio de Janeiro that will host Olympic swimming events and in a lagoon where rowing and canoe athletes will compete when the Games start on Aug. 5.
The findings from two unpublished academic studies seen by Reuters concern Rio’s most popular spots for tourists and greatly increase the areas known to be infected by the microbes normally found only in hospitals.
They also heighten concerns that Rio’s sewage-infested waterways are unsafe.
ZIKA. Super bacteria .. political strife.
The real gold medal may have to go to the person who survives Rio 16..
Kerri Little was going to address the assembly about bullying. Feeling censored by her school, she skipped the whole thing and caused waved in Pennsylvania media by doing so.
She also had a tremendous and well thought out statement she posted to Facebook.
“A Lego block … just lifted itself out of the box and hurled itself across the room at me. There would be the most icy draft come past you as if someone had opened the freezer door. It was all too deep, too slurred and too consistent for the kids to make it up.”
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All of these words from reporter Michael Hellicar about his experience in the CONJURING 2 (REAL) house ..
New Line’s Conjuring 2 is beating its projections from earlier in the week with a No. 1 take of $37.1M at 3,343 theaters. It’s down 11% from its 2013 predecessor’s $41.9M opening ..
That is actually a good opening for a sequel in the box office world – sequelitis is a very real thing.
Even TMNT2 was less than projected earlier..
But CONJURING is beating the predictions a bit..
It is also one of the few movies right now on ROTTEN TOMATOES with a decent score from both critics and viewers..
A shock story was sent across news wires last night..
VOICE star shot to death at her own concert, blazed headlines..
More information came to light moments afterwards..
Singer Christina Grimmie, who starred in NBC’s “The Voice,” died early Saturday after a gunman shot her following a performance in Florida, authorities said. According to what s known so far: A man armed with two guns walked up to the 22-year-old singer as she was signing autographs late Friday night and opened fire, Orlando Police spokeswoman Wanda Ford said. The gunman fatally shot himself after Grimmie’s brother tackled him, according to authorities.
Grimmie was not alone on stage during the show that proceeded her death. The singer had performed at The Plaza Live theater Friday night, along with the band Before You Exit..
BEFORE YOU EXIT.. A strange and bizarre name given the circumstances of what happened after the show.
The singer had a large social media following–and those fans are saddened by the news of the singer’s untimely demise. Even for those who are not fans, it’s shocking to hear.. It’s actually quite revolting.
Muhammad Ali died Friday at age 74, according to a statement from the family. He was hospitalized in the Phoenix area with respiratory problems earlier this week, and his children had flown in from around the country.
Doin’t be too shocked by what they are.. You may actually realize they match what makes a good STORY or movie in general.
Nonetheless, Jakarta Post figured it was breaking news worthy enough of posting a link.. and I will share too since it has to do with James Wan.
The list, as follows:
Characters that people care about. The cases should be relatable to the audience. The sound design. (Just like IT FOLLOWS, one of the best.) Atmosphere. And good story.
Think of your favorite films or TV shows. They all have the above. Even comedies.
Fears an American werewolf on the prowl - in HULL: A strange story from the UK EXPRRESS.. The Hull creature with glowing eyes and sharp claws.. Prowling late at night under the moonlight sky. A paranormal tale that some believe and now even more are taking about thanks to the story running across the world..
A few days after it was revealed the persons who carried a gun to the White House and was shot by secret service was from Ashland PA, now this news of the syndicated program filming in the coal region is released..
Awful notoriety. We used to be famous for halupkies, block parties, and Centralia. Those were the days.
The 3,340-meter Turrialba Volcano is located in Cartago Province of central Costa Rica, only 30 km from the country’s capital, San José. The volcanic activity started Wednesday and the first eruptions were recorded Friday, according to local media.
Pictures are circulating online of the enormous smokestack and scene of ‘hell’ ..
Photos taken on Sunday showed evidence of pyroclastic flows — a fast-moving cloud of hot volcanic gases, rocks and ash — in the village. Dead and injured animals were lying on the ground, around them scorched homes and smoky vegetation. Soldiers were setting up roadblocks and people were carrying their belongings and leading farm animals to safety.
THE FIGHT FOR FALLUJAH YEARS AFTER THE AMERICAN VERSION..
THIS FROM CNN:
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi took to live television early Monday to announce the start of an operation to recapture the city of Falluja from ISIS.
Speaking on Iraqi state TV from the military’s Joint Operations Command in Baghdad, Abadi said Iraqi security forces would provide safe passage for civilians to leave the city during the operation.
Abadi’s overnight announcement came hours after Iraq’s military implored residents of ISIS-held Falluja to flee their homes ahead of the operation to wrest the metropolis from the terror group.
Iraqi planes have dropped thousands of leaflets – safe passage cards ..
Families who are unable to flee the city have been told to raise a white flag above their homes. The military has told families to call or text an emergency line to seek evacuation.
Al-Abadi spoke by phone with U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday and “agreed on the critical importance of improving the security” of Baghdad and the Green Zone, according to a White House statement. It added that the two leaders also discussed progress being made in the campaign against the Islamic State group.
Lake Mead reached the all-time low Wednesday night, slipping below a previous record set in June 2015.
The downward march of the reservoir near Las Vegas reflects enormous strains on the over-allocated Colorado River. Its flows have decreased during 16 years of drought, and climate change is adding to the stresses on the river.
As the levels of Lake Mead continue to fall, the odds are increasing for the federal government to declare a shortage in 2018, a step that would trigger cutbacks in the amounts flowing from the reservoir to Arizona and Nevada. With that threshold looming, political pressures are building for California, Arizona and Nevada to reach an agreement to share in the cutbacks to avert an even more severe shortage.
Egypt has deployed a submarine to the Mediterranean Sea to search for the so-called black boxes from EgyptAir Flight 804, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said Sunday.
Searchers have recovered parts of the plane wreckage – passengers’ personal belongings, life vests, aircraft chairs and even body parts – but are still scouring the Mediterranean for the fuselage and flight data and cockpit voice recorders that would likely reveal what went wrong on the flight.
Residents in a Mexican city woke in fright before dawn on Saturday to bright light in the sky and then a thunderous noise, fearing a nearby volcano had suddenly erupted.
But officials said Popocatepetl volcano had not stirred and no earthquake had registered.
Instead, the phenomena witnessed by the inhabitants of Puebla de Zaragoza, a city of three million people 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Mexico City, was “most likely a meteor,” the local Astronomic Society tweeted.
Social media was captivated by the strange weekend sights and sounds–lots of scared people below felt the sky was falling.
People were terrified.. So many thought it was an explosion.. The upper atmosphere glowed. And the booms resounded through the city.
If a visitor to Venezuela is unfortunate enough to pay for anything with a foreign credit card, the eye-watering cost might suggest they were in a city pricier than Tokyo or Zurich.
Chaos explained.. chaos described: A nation in turmoil and financial ruin..
A hamburger sold for 1,700 Venezuelan bolivares is $170, or a 69,000-bolivar hotel room is $6,900 a night, based on the official rate of 10 bolivares for $1.
But of course no merchant is pricing at the official rate imposed under currency controls. It’s the black market rate of 1,000 bolivares per dollar that’s applied.
But for Venezuelans paid in hyperinflation-hit bolivares, and living in an economy relying on mostly imported goods or raw materials, conditions are unthinkably expensive.
Even for the middle class, most of it sliding into poverty, hamburgers and hotels are out-of-reach excesses.
“Everybody is knocked low,” Michael Leal, a 34-year-old manager of an eyewear store in Caracas, told AFP. “We can’t breathe.”
Wood making a splash of headlines with this news–he thinks that a child sex scandal was and is continuing to plague Hollywood at the core..
Wood described it. The UK TELEGRAPH reported it:
The 35-year-old former child actor said paedophiles had been protected by powerful figures in the movie business and that abuse was probably still taking place.
In an interview with the Sunday Times, Wood said he had been protected from abuse as he was growing up, but that other child actors had been regularly “preyed upon” at parties by industry figures.
“You all grew up with Savile – Jesus, it must have been devastating,” he said.
“Clearly something major was going on in Hollywood.
“It was all organised.
“There are a lot of vipers in this industry, people who only have their own interests in mind.
“There is a darkness in the underbelly – if you can imagine it, it’s probably happened.”
The Saville sex scandal in the UK was abhorrent. It also had tentacles that made its way into many parts of political, media, and entertainment in the UK. Accomplices were widespread and the horror victims had to endure was awful..
More from the UK report:
“That’s the tragedy of attempting to reveal what is happening to innocent people,” he said.
“They can be squashed but their lives have been irreparably damaged.”
Allegations that senior Hollywood figures have been protecting child abusers have gathered pace in recent years.
Anne Henry, co-founder of Bizparents, a group set up to help child actors, said Hollywood is currently sheltering around 100 active abusers and said a “tsunami” of claims was beginning.
Corey Feldman, another former child actor who started in films such as Gremlins, the Goonies and Stand by Me in the 1980s , has said that as a young teenager he was “surrounded” by abusers.
Americans’ belief in heaven remains about the same as always. But new data shows that the belief in hell has dropped considerably.. 70ish percent down to the 50s and falling.. this to coincide with other research showing millennials have stopped going to church.
“What if the muting of hell is due neither to emotional weakness nor loss of Gospel commitment?” writesEdward Fudge, whose 1982 book, The Fire That Consumes, is widely regarded as the scholarly work that jump-started the current debate. “What if the biblical foundations thought to endorse unending conscious torment are less secure than has been widely supposed?”
Fudge is among those who endorse an alternative doctrine, known as “annihilationism” or “conditional immortality,” which holds that, after death, sinners simply cease to exist, while those who are saved enjoy eternal life under God’s grace. Although it’s not a positive outcome for the wicked—in fact, it amounts to spiritual capital punishment—it’s deemed a far more merciful and just fate than an eternity of torture.
HELL.. That merciless place where sinners burn.
I went through Catholic school. My initial upbringing with harsh Ukrainian nuns who held nothing back when it came to hell. Hell! I was afraid I’d burn forever if I had one impure thought or forgot to dot an I on homework. As time went on, I switched schools and eventually had more humane sisters. And finally in high school mostly lay teachers since nuns and priests got busy with other things.
But even now in life I know several people with varied religions predilections. Often, the ‘non denominational’ I know argue with the Jehovah Witnesses I know.. who argue with the Protestants I know. And all whom seem to look down on my for being a member of the Roman Empire Catholic Church–though I remind them I am technically born into a Ukrainian Catholic church and was confirmed and baptized in one fell swoop in my first month of employment with life.
“We need a fresh wave of great awakeners—those who will unapologetically preach hell fire in today’s dire end times,” writes John Burton, a pastor and speaker. “To the shame of much of today’s church there has been a firm and steadfast rejection of any truth that doesn’t result in people feeling happy affection for God.” The narcissistic belief that God loves us so much that he couldn’t bear inflicting eternal punishment, Burton argues, encourages evil to expand unchecked.
A traditionalist view of hell, however, does not necessarily mean fire and brimstone. “I certainly wouldn’t agree that hell is a place of literal fire or torment,” says Galli. “I tend to be more favorable toward the metaphors that talk about hell as the absence of a love of God and that would be a miserable existence.”
Not necessarily hell or heaven, but this topic fascinates me the most: Is there life after death.
I have been searching for an answer since I figured out I could have independent thoughts and meditate. I have yet to find an answer, or come across someone who could give me proof. I read MOODY and his near death experiences.. I paged through MY DESCENT about a supposed trip to the fires of hell.. I have constantly been informing myself of the many theories of what we are and where we go. Nothing has satisfied my thirst.. nothing quenched my hunger. I need more information. I want more theory. And I want to find that magical cave or hidden document that houses the information I need: Does an afterlife exist? Do my trips to graveyards amount to an actual conversation or am I just looking a little ‘off’ talking to headstones?
While I am at it, I’d sure like to know more about heaven and hell too if they exist. I wouldn’t want to rock any boats so much on earth that I burn in eternal fire.
Proving again that we hardly know anything about our universe and certainly nothing about the potential for how abundant life may be ‘out there’ in the cosmos.. enter this study.
The research, published in the journal Astrobiology last week, suggests that more planets in the Milky Way galaxy may harbor advanced civilizations than we previously imagined.
Study co-authors Adam Frank and Woodruff Sullivan looked at recent discoveries of potentially habitable exoplanets and considered the odds of whether sophisticated civilizations existed on them in the past or present.
“What we showed was the ‘floor’ on the probability for a civilization to form on any randomly chosen planet,” Frank, a University of Rochester physics and astronomy professor, told The Huffington Post in an email. “If we are the only civilization in cosmic history, then that what we calculated is the actual probability nature has set. But if the actual probability is higher than that floor, then civilizations have happened before.”
According to the theory, the amount of life on planets beyond ours is potentially staggering.
“Even if you are pretty pessimistic and think that you’d have to search through 100 billion (habitable zone) planets before you found one where a civilization developed, then there have still been a trillion civilizations over cosmic history!” Frank wrote. “When I think about that, my mind reels — even if there is just a one in a 100 billion chance of evolution creating exo-civilizations, the universe still has made so many of them that we are swamped by histories other than our own.”
So there you have your “feeling small on Sunday morning” post.. The notion that we are just existent in a universe abundant in other civilizations like this. Or maybe hopefully NOT like us at all..
