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Month: March 2020

Odds and Ends 

1 In 30 People Say They Have Done A Poop In The Shower

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Take a look around you. Can you see more than 30/50/100 people? Maybe they’re colleagues, maybe they’re strangers, but now you are cursed with the knowledge that – statistically speaking – one or more of them has made a poop in the shower. If you ask 29 of them and they all deny it, congratulations, the shower pooper is you (this is a joke before you start informing me about statistics thankyouverymuch). A survey of the bathroom habits of Americans and British people by QS Supplies has found out all sorts of stuff…

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Headlines 

A Disease Tracker Backed by Gates and Zuckerberg Tackles Covid-19

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Jessica Manning had no experience with coronaviruses. The infectious disease researcher had lived and worked in Cambodia off and on since 2013, studying the mosquitoes of the Mekong Delta and how their saliva helps spread disease in humans. But in January, the country flagged its first Covid-19 patient, and the lab that delivered the diagnosis wanted to send samples from the patient and his family to Manning for further testing. Manning works at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research in Phnom Penh,…

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FIFA pro banned from all EA games following threatening rant

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An Important message regarding FIFA player Kurt0411. pic.twitter.com/RcHu1hMCup — Electronic Arts (@EA) February 24, 2020 In the statement, EA outlined why it took this drastic step. It noted that threats against employees and other players earned Fenech a partial ban in November. The severe new ban, according to EA, was earned through Fenechs abusive and threatening messages, that have crossed a line of decency. The company did not point to any specific messages from Fenech, but his Twitter page is filled with expletive-laced messages aimed at EA. We will not…

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Headlines 

1905 shipwreck pushed toward Lake Hurons shore by storms

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The wreck of the Joseph S. Fay has been pushed by storms toward the shore of northern Lake Huron. (Wayne Lusardi) The Great Lakes continue to reveal their shipwreck secrets. Earlier this year, photos showed a mysterious shipwreck slowly “disappearing” into Lake Michigan. The wreck, which is believed to have sunk in the 1930s, had been uncovered by a Lake Michigan storm surge. ‘MYSTERIOUS GHOST SHIP’ DISCOVERED IN LAKE MICHIGAN Elsewhere, the remarkably intact wreck of a schooner that sank in 1891 was

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Before Trick Shots on the Internet Became a Thing, There was This Guy in 1950

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‘Ambidextrous’ Andy Varipapa (March 31, 1891 – August 25, 1984) was a legendary bowler known for his incredible trick shots. Varipapa was considered to be “the greatest one-man bowling show on Earth”. Beyond his trick shot exhibitions, Varipapa was a solid professional bowler. In 1947, at the age of 56, he won the prestigious BPAA All-Star competition (predecessor to the U.S. Open) in a gruelling 100 game format, making him the oldest winner ever. He became the first to win two years in a row when he repeated in 1948.…

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Gentoo Penguins May Be Affected By Human Noise Too

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We’ve sailed the seas for many millennia, yet it’s only relatively recently that we’re learning of the life beneath our boats. Little is known about the underwater hearing of Antarctic gentoo penguins, a species well adapted to life both above and below Earth’s waters.  To explore the hearing of these peach-feet waddlers, a team of scientists from the University of Southern Denmark and the German Oceanographic Museum played noise to penguins in a pool enclosure at the Odense Zoo, Denmark between July and October, 2018. The sound was played to seven…

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Headlines 

Amid Coronavirus Fears, Startups Rethink the Virtual Conference

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The first conference to go was Mobile World Congress. The annual gathering of electronics makers and phone geeks announced the cancellation just weeks before it was set to begin, in late February, for the sake of safety. Global concern over the new coronavirus was rising, and plus, exhibitors were dropping left and right. Next came Adobe Summit. Then Facebook F8. Within weeks, Google had canceled its annual developer conference, Google I/O, and Google Cloud Next, its cloud-focused conference. Microsoft called off its MVP Summit. IBM pulled the plug on Think.…

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Court says YouTube isn’t subject to First Amendment scrutiny

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A federal appeals court on Wednesday dismissed claims that big tech companies like Google and YouTube were subject to First Amendment scrutiny because they are a private forum, not a public one. A three-judge panel from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle unanimously ruled in favor of Google and YouTube to uphold another courts dismissal of a case brought against them by conservative group PragerU, who claimed that the video-sharing platform was devaluing conservative content. Despite YouTubes ubiquity and its role as a public-facing platform, it remains…

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Headlines 

Trump works harder than the Democrats to reach black voters. That’s worrying | Steve Phillips

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Trump spent $11m on a single television ad targeting African Americans. Democrats wont cough up a fraction Donald Trump understands the importance of African American voters much better than Democrats and progressives do. Trump and his team are making sizable and smart investments in efforts to chip away at black support for Democrats. Yet those who want to oust Trump from the Oval Office are spraying millions of dollars in election spending in every direction except the African American community. Had African Americans turned out to vote in 2016 like…

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National Weather Service Snaps Ice Volcanoes Erupting On The Shore Of Lake Michigan

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On the shores of the Great Lakes in North America, a truly peculiar phenomenon takes place. Given the right conditions – when waves hit ice gathered on the shore, for example – “ice volcanoes” can form, erupting water and slush through the frozen surface of a lake. The National Weather Service of Grand Rapids posted a few photos and a video of the ice volcanoes erupting at Oval Beach on February 16. The feature might be unfamiliar to many but they are not a rare occurrence and have been studied in detail…

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