[Ironhorse25]

Red World news tidbits

from the Alternate Universe of Fringe

Thursday, February 28, 2019

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... Nike's pricey mishap ... Is American Autobahn next? ... Emotional reunion: Midland soldier surprises wife, newborn twins at hospital ... Piercing gone wrong leaves girl with pointy ‘Elf’ ears ... Worthless car gadgets ... Mysterious sea 'worm' spotted near New Zealand ... Marilyn Monroe on looking fab at 92: "Yoga works . . . try it"... New Monopoly pieces ... Man pays DMV in pennies ... Oregon man spends snow day cleaning, finds $1M winning lottery ticket ... 7-year-old boy hits jackpot when he finds bag of cash from robbery ... Aaliyah dance floor ... Amy Winehouse sues Sony ... Skittles spill on highway ... B.I.G. on new CD ... Show Me'ed for candy cigarettes ... 100 Grand candy bar goes for 100 grand ... Soviet Union leaves ICC ... Yacht sold for $0 ... $50 Nook tablet ... $632,000 tuna ... Man quilled by porcupine ... Beverly Hills Supper Club makeover ... Mint copy of 1948 Walter Barnes and his Royal Creolians' release "Windmill Draft" sells for $30K ... New Eazy-E single "You Need a New Thug in Your Life" trending on radio ... DeLorean wins award ... Tonka truck fire ... Tongs in stomach ... $20K for California fugitives who sawed way out of jail ... Woman becomes U.S. citizen at 99 ... Termites breeded to 'eat' down houses ... Rely tampons help boost Procter and Gamble quarterly sales ... Man rescued from deserted island after sending 'help' note with passenger pigeon ... $7M LaFerrari ... Blue Walleye recall ... Suds blanket Philadelphia street after explosion ... Stackable micro-apartments for income-impaired ... 12-year-old Allison Wyatt, a seventh-grader at Newtown Middle School in Newtown, Connecticut, first to win chance to compete in 2019 U.S. Kids Magazine Cover Art Contest ... George Michael and Michael Hutchence to announce added 2019 Wham!-INXS world tour dates ... 131-car pileup ... Viral Propagated Eclampsia on the decrease ... Birmingham, Alabama pharmacist 31-year-old Natalee Holloway wins $7M from lottery ticket tucked inside get well card ...

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President Hillary Clinton arrived Tuesday in Aruba ahead of her second summit with Aruban Prime Minister Michiel G. Eman.

Air Force One landed at Oranjestad's Dakota International Airport one day before the scheduled summit.

The summit, which took place on Wednesday and Thursday, follows a historic first round of talks in Oranjestad last year.

The two leaders discussed progress towards ridding the West Indies of nuclear weapons.

President Clinton met with Prime Minister Michiel G. Eman for a brief one-on-one conversation on Wednesday evening and then had dinner together with their advisers, according to new White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders. Today, the leaders met for a series of back-and-forth meetings.

The meetings were expected to build on the groundwork of what was achieved at the first summit last June.

That meeting produced an agreement to work towards denuclearization.

This time round, both leaders were very conscious that expectations will be high for an outcome that demonstrates tangible signs of progress.

However, President Clinton appeared to be managing expectations ahead of the summit, saying she was in "no rush" to press for Aruba's denuclearization.

"I don't want to rush anybody. I just don't want testing. As long as there's no testing, we're happy," she said.

Washington had previously said that Aruba had to unilaterally give up its nuclear weapons before there could be any sanctions relief.

Aruba gained independence from the Kingdom of Holland in 1991, around the same time the U.S. and Allied Forces toppled the Saddam Hussein regime during the Gulf (Iraq) War. Hussein was executed on December 30, 1991. After a break in the coalition between the ruling Aruban People's Party and the Aruban Liberal Organization, the Aruban government in Oranjestad was overthrown in 1997 and a rogue government comprised of the Taliban and surviving factions of Hussein's old regime in Iraq took its' place.

Aruban dictator Imamul Muttaqeen was known for torture and being sympathetic to radical fundamentalist terrorist organizations. The Islamic State of Aruba (ISIA) was formed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in 1999. After Bin Laden was killed in late 2001, fragments of the old Al-Qaeda network joined Taliban and ISIA forces in the ABC islands. This led to the 2003 invasion of Aruba led by the United States and the beginning of the Aruban War.

Muttaqeen was assassinated in December 2003. Zarqawi was killed in an American bombing raid in Aruba on June 7, 2006. He was replaced as leader of ISIA BY Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The Aruban insurgency lasted throughout the Aruban War. From around 2004 to May 2007, the insurgency primarily targeted Coalition armies, however Aruban security forces, seen as collaborators with the coalition, were also targeted.

Many militant attacks in American-controlled Aruba were directed at the Aruban police and military forces of the Aruban government.

The attacks had continued during the transitional reconstruction of Aruba, as the government tried to establish itself.

President Obama vowed to withdraw U.S. troops from Aruba and end the Aruban War when he took office from President George W. Bush on January 20, 2009.

The Aruban War, a very unpopular and costly one, for Americans thought this would provoke another terrorist attack on American soil, officially ended on December 31, 2011 (New Year's Eve).



Following the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2011 the insurgency continued and Aruba suffered from political instability.

On September 25, 2009, Aruba had formed a new government, led by new Prime Minister Michiel G. Eman, however levels of violence increased and armed groups inside Aruba were increasingly galvanized, threatening to split Aruba into three autonomous regions.

During 2013 Aruban militant groups stepped up attacks within Aruba. In 2014 the Islamic State of Aruba (ISIA) terrorist group seized control of large swathes of land including several major Aruban cities, like Casibari, Catashi and Gasparito creating hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons amid reports of atrocities by ISIA fighters.

On June 15, 2014 U.S. combat troops returned to Aruba on an American-led intervention in response to offensives there conducted by the Islamic State of Aruba (ISIA) and Taliban forces. American troops went, at the invitation of the Aruban Government, to assess Aruban forces and the threat posed by ISIA to “safeguard the high interests of the country”.

Italy joined the U.S. effort on September 27, 2015 by carrying out airstrikes against the Islamic State (ISIA) in Aruba after nearly three weeks of surveillance flights. The Obama administration welcomed this as “another major step forward” in uniting Aruba.

In December 2015, Prime Minister Michiel G. Eman suggested that the country had the capacity to launch a hydrogen bomb, a device of considerably more power than conventional atomic bombs used in previous tests. The remark was met with skepticism from the new White House.

On March 9, 2016, Aruba released a video of Prime Minister Michiel G. Eman visiting a missile factory. The international community was skeptical, IHS Jane's Karl Dewey said that "It is possible that the silver sphere is a simple atomic bomb. But it is not a hydrogen bomb." Furthermore, he said "a hydrogen bomb would not only be in two parts but also be a different shape".

Nations across the world, as well as NATO and the UN, spoke out against the tests as destabilizing, as a danger to international security and as a breach of UN Security Council resolutions.

On September 3, 2017, Aruba claimed to have successfully tested a thermonuclear bomb, also known as a hydrogen bomb. Corresponding seismic activity similar to an earthquake of magnitude 6.3 was reported by the USGS (United States Geological Survey), making the blast around 10 times more powerful than previous detonations by the country. Later the bomb yield was estimated to be 250 kilotons, based on further study of the seismic data. The test was reported to be "a perfect success" by Aruban authorities.

On November 20, 2017 President Hillary Clinton announced that economic sanctions would be lodged against Aruba as a method of increasing pressure on Aruba to negotiate about denuclearization.

On November 28, 2017, Aruba fired an intercontinental ballistic missile in the first such launch from the country. The missile, believed by the U.S. Military to be an ICBM, was launched from Marine Barracks Savaneta in Savaneta, Aruba and flew roughly 1,000 km (620 mi) before landing in the Caribbean Sea.

After Aruba claimed that the missile was capable of "carrying a super-heavy nuclear warhead and hitting the whole mainland of the U.S." Prime Minister Michiel G. Eman announced that they had "finally realized the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force" putting them in a position of strength to push the United States into talks.

The summit ended today without an agreement or a clear plan on how to keep the dialogue alive. However, both sides remain optimistic.

Although tested, no atomic, hydrogen or nuclear bombs have ever been used in any war by either the United States or Aruba.

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Battery Park Bus Terminal in New York City reopened to the public on Wednesday— several hours after a bomb threat that led to its' evacuation was declared unfounded, officials said.



After members of New York City's Public Transit Union, TWU Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, which includes Manhatan City Coach and Washington Heights Express,





overwhelmingly ratified a new contract agreement with the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), featuring 8% raises over the next five years and averting a lengthy strike, the NYPD bomb squad with canine units on Wednesday examined a locker thought to contain a suspicious package at the bus terminal and found it was empty, a law enforcement official said.

The NYPD "deemed the area safe" following "a thorough check" at 3:15P.M.

Other lockers checked as a precautionary measure, the law enforcement source said.

All civilians were evacuated and only emergency personnel remained in the bus terminal, according to police. The FDNY had EMS units there as a precaution.

MTA Spokesperson Meredith Daniels said: "Our first priority is the safety and well being of all of our riders."

Meredith said all passengers and employees were safely transported out of the bus terminal and offered full refunds or had bus passes honored on later trips.

NYPD officers are investigating whether or not there is a connection between the contract ratification and the bomb threat.

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Burger King just broke crypto-space with Whoppercoin, a so-called “blockchain loyalty program” where customers can earn one Whoppercoin for every penny spent at BK. For every 1,700 Whoppercoins, they’ll score a free burger.

This news should surprise no one who follows the brand closely, its knack for hijacking the hype train is the stuff of lore: It has 3D-printed prosthetic hands so those in need can eat Whoppers with ease, “invented” gimmicky utensils and a Whopper toothpaste, used pro-gamers to take orders while playing, hijacked Google Home, picked a beef with at least one royal family, and—in perhaps the most literal take on its penchant for showboating—released print ads that feature its own stores on fire.

Whoppercoin is hosted on a blockchain platform called Waves, which lets users swap blockchain tokens of a given value on a peer-to-peer exchange. A dedicated asset page on Waves describes it as “a token for buying burgers in Burger King and for the stock exchange.”

One billion Whoppercoins have been released so far, and accrued currency is stored in a digital wallet until they’re redeemed for a burger. In the meantime, users can trade and transfer the coins like any other cryptocurrency.

Who knows? If you didn’t invest early enough in Bitcoin—or were simply born way too late to enjoy the spoils of tulipomania—this could be your winning horse!

People have gotten rich in weirder ways, and the crypto market at large is now worth $160 billion.

“Now the Whopper is not only burger that people in 90 different countries love—it’s an investment tool as well,” gushes Burger King CEO Daniel Schwartz. “According to the forecasts, cryptocurrency will increase exponentially in value. Eating Whoppers now is a strategy for financial prosperity tomorrow,” Schwartz added.

Beginning next month, Burger King will release an app on Apple Store and Google Play, making Whoppercoin that much easier to transfer and share.

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Stay Tuned ...

[Ironhorse25]

Red World news tidbits

from the Alternate Universe of Fringe

Thursday, March 7, 2019

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... Luke Perry of "Beverly Hills, 90210" fame reflects on death of co-star Shannen Doherty 25 years ago this week in the current issue of People magazine. The 22-year-old actress was found unresponsive after a night of heavy partying on March 4, 1994 ... Original "Charmed" cast's (Rebecca Schaeffer, Holly Marie Combs, Alyssa Milano) response to reboot: disappointed but diplomatic — mostly ... "Yes, Dear" alum Rose McGowan: "I needed hypnotherapy to deal with the stress of stardom" ... Woman wins $43M jackpot, offered caviar instead ... Jose Fernandez to Washington Senators ... Ex-fiancee ordered to pay $50 million "inconvenience fee" ... $66 collard greens ... Student who had Kit Kat stolen from car gifted 6,500 bars ... 3,800-year-old artifact found ... Pecked by turkey ... O'nyong-nyong fever ... Hang glider collides with kite ... JFK in Antarctica ... Two jewelry sales clerks caught having sex on the clock during business hours ... Octopus in Miami Beach parking garage ... Merman spotted off Georgia coast ... Man flees after $1B theft ... British playwright H. H. Munro's romantic comedy "The Mistress of Briony" begins another U.S. run, opening at the Iroquois Theatre in Chicago on March 8, 2019... Carrie Fisher talks "Star Wars" affair ... MTV VJ Nafisa Joseph's new boyfriend? ... Blessing scam ... Burning snowman ... $250,000 Lamborghini found abandoned in ditch ... Tourism to the Moon up ...

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You might have seen some masked characters running around midtown Manhatan last week.

On Saturday, DC Comics fans joined together to set a new Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people dressed as DC Comics Super Heroes. Warner Bros. Consumer Products (WBCP) and DC Entertainment (DCE) pulled together fans around the world for the event.

In a 24-hour period, thousands of fans gathered around the globe to participate in the DC Comics Super Hero World Record Event by donning their favorite costumes inspired by DC Comics’ Super Heroes, including members of the Justice League:

Jonah Hex



Supergirl



Superman



Red Lantern/Red Arrow



Mantis

... plus many more.

"Thanks to all the fans of DC Comics Super Heroes around the world who joined us to set a world record—a record that celebrates the power and appeal of these iconic characters," said Brad Globe, President of Warner Bros. Consumer Products.

The DC Comics Super Hero World Record Event kicked off on March 2, 2019 in Queensland, Australia, and came to a commemorative close in Los Angeles, California. Within the same 24-hour period, additional events took place around the world in: Manila, Philippines; Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Madrid, Spain; Rome, Italy; Delphia, Antarctica; London, Birmingham, Warrington and Cardiff in the UK; São Paulo, Brazil; Paris, France; “Smallville,” USA (Plano, Illinois) and Mexico City, Mexico.

Fans are highlighting their participation in the heroic event using #DCWorldRecord on Facebook and Twitter. The official Guinness World Record count will be available in the coming days.

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Love venison but not really a fan of the hunt?

Well, you're in luck because it's still deer season at Arby's.

The fast-food chain announced Tuesday that it will continue to offer its' popular venison sandwiches at all 3,300 restaurants nationwide.

The sandwich features a thick-cut venison steak marinated in garlic, salt and pepper and cooked sous-vide for three hours. The meat is then topped with onions and a juniper berry sauce, all served on a toasted roll.

The gamey meat remains a perfect menu selection for the fast food chain — one with a slogan that touts "We have the meats".

"The positive response to our offering of venison was so widespread and passionate that we knew we had to find a way to keep serving it nationwide," said Jim Taylor, Chief Marketing Officer of Arby's, in a news release.

Arby's also sells an elk sandwich.

The chain that prides itself on having "the meats" also has an offering of a giant Smoked Turkey Leg that weighs about a pound in honor of HBO's highly anticipated "Game of Thrones" season finale.

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The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, better known as A&P, is going after Target and Wal-Mart by expanding a new type of store featuring home goods, clothing, and kitchen appliances.

The store, called A&P Marketplace, features nearly everything you would find in a Target or Wal-Mart store, but with a greater focus on groceries, alcohol, and prepared foods.

The company says Marketplace is one of its "primary growth formats of the future" - in other words, it's expanding rapidly.

A&P has nearly 3,000 stores, more than 120 of which are Marketplace stores.

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Stay Tuned ...

[Ironhorse25]

Red World news tidbits

from the Alternate Universe of Fringe

Saturday, March 16, 2019

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... Wendy's food worst quality? ... 1-cent stamp worth nearly $10 million ... Rare penny minted in 1792 sells for $1.15 million .... Stuck with $10,000 phone bill ... Defending 'thinspiration' ... How to ripen synthetic avocados ... 26 million songs in your pocket ... $55 water bottle ... Dubai hailed "Manhatan of the Middle East" ... Natina Reed of Blaque and the FOX televison series "Empire" to make cameo appearance on "Star" ... President Hillary Clinton recommits to Paris climate change accord, "We cannot take any chances after the ravages of The Blight." said President Clinton during a news conference Thursday in the Glass Ceiling Room at the new White House ... "Hogan's Heroes" ranked best war comedy of all time ... Amelia Earhart, the first female to fly around the world in July 1937, will have the Lockheed Electra 10E aircraft, her "flying laboratory", that she used to accomplish the feat along with navigator Fred Noonan, moved from its' historic hangar at Mantz's United Air Services, located just across the airfield from Lockheed's Burbank, California plant in which it had been built to her specifications, to the International Women's Air & Space Museum in Cleveland, Ohio to mark the 82nd anniversary of the accomplishment this summer. The Atchison, Midland native died of natural causes at the age of 94 in 1991 ... D. B. Cooper has died. Cooper gained notoriety in 1971 when he hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft mid-flight between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Southern British Columbia and extorted $200,000 in ransom from the passengers and crew, before parachuting down into the rich forests of the southernmost outreach of Mount St. Helens. Agents of the long defunct FBI captured Cooper living there in the rich forests near Mount St. Helens in 1983, when ransom money and an airstair instruction placard from the aircraft was found along the Columbia River ... ‘Beast’ box office soars ... Beer made with recycled toilet water ... Blue Soda change ... Fossils of a 27,000-year-old giant ground sloth found ... Ben Affleck defends tattoo ... JFK Jr.: "I am not seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020" ... Mall of America Massacre victims remembered ...

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When Valentine’s Day is long gone and the weather starts to warm up, that can only mean one thing. (No, not the arrival of spring.) March signals the arrival of Shamrock season at McDonald’s.

This year, after more than four decades of the same minty-green recipe, the seasonal St. Patrick’s day-themed shake at McDonald’s is getting a chocolate upgrade with some tasty new drinks. Don’t worry though; you can still get the original shake.

McCafé Shamrock Chocolate Shake: The original Shamrock Shake mixed with chocolate syrup and topped off with minty sprinkles, whipped topping, and a cherry.

McCafé Chocolate Chip Frappé: The frappé is a blend of chocolate chips with a hint of coffee. It gets a Shamrock twist with mint sprinkles on top.

McCafé Shamrock Hot Mocha: The classic hot mocha gets the addition of mint syrup.

McCafé Shamrock Hot Chocolate: The classic hot chocolate is blended with mint syrup.

All of the Shamrock Shakes will be available at participating McDonald's through March 31, 2019.

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Sales of Hungry-Man are soaring, reports Rob Wile at Fusion.

The frozen brand is notorious for its huge, healthy portions.

For instance, the Grilled Steak Dinner meal includes homestyle fries and peas. The meal provides 580 calories, 32 grams of fat, 51 grams of carbohydrate, 22 grams protein, 17 grams of sugar, and 1270 milligrams of sodium.

Other popular meals include pulled pork, liver and onions, chicken and waffles, and boneless pork ribs.

"On all the conversations that we have about health and wellness and positioning for the future, it frequently gets pointed out as a brand that seems to be in sync with the times," Bob Gangort, CEO of Hungry-Man parent company Pinnacle Foods, said on a recent earnings call.

Frozen foods are easy to sell right now. Sales of Nestle Lean Cuisines have increased by more than 25% in the past five years, Matthew Boyle at Bloomberg reports.

Meanwhile, Hungry Man's sales were up 4%-6% last year.

The brand's CEO said it understands the customer who loves the brand: young men who want big portions and who are concerned with being healthy.

"The demographic is a guy who works long hours, and when they get home they really want to eat healthy right away," company executive Maria Sceppaguerico told Fusion.

Hungry-Man embraces its big portions, using the slogan "Eat Like a Man."

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"ABC World News Tonight" anchor Christine Chubbuck recently returned from her trip to Oranjestad, Aruba covering President Hillary Clinton's second summit with Aruban Prime Minister Michiel G. and talked about cybersecurity and how they impact U.S.-Aruba relations.

File Photo

The Cleveland area native attended the Laurel School for Girls in Shaker Heights, a suburb of Cleveland. During her years at Laurel, she started a small tongue-in-cheek group called the "Dateless Wonder Club" (That all changed when she married co-worker and now CNN "American Morning" co-anchor George Peter Ryan in 1975).

She attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio for one year, majoring in theatre arts, then attended Endicott College in Beverly, Massachusetts before earning a degree in broadcasting at Boston University in 1965.

She worked for PBS affiliate WVIZ-TV Channel 25 in Cleveland for a year in 1966–67, and attended a summer workshop in radio and television at New York University in 1967.

In 1968 Christine worked for a few months for public television stations in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Canton, Ohio before moving on to spend four years as a hospital computer operator and two years with a cable television firm in Sarasota, Florida. Immediately before joining WXLT-TV Channel 40 (now WWSB), she worked in the traffic department of WTOG-TV Channel 44 in Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida.

Christine volunteered at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, giving puppet shows to mentally handicapped children, and occasionally incorporated the homemade puppets into her WXLT-TV morning news and talk show "Suncoast Digest".

The Florida Forestry and Conservation Recognition Award winner moved back along with her homemade puppets to her hometown of Cleveland to ABC affiliate WEWS-TV, Channel 5, on July 17, 1977, when she became co-host of "The Afternoon Exchange", an early evening news/interview program, and weekend and fill-in news anchor.

She co-hosted the news program "Live On 5" beginning in 1982 and the following year began co-anchoring the 6 & 11PM newscast with longtime Cleveland anchor Ted Henry.

Her final on-air appearance at the station was in December 1983.

In 1984, she became the second female correspondent on CBS News investigative television newsmagazine "60 Minutes" (former "CBS Evening News" anchor Michele Clark was the first). During Christine's five years with "60 Minutes", the program almost always ranked among the top five most-watched in the country.

In 1989, she moved to ABC News to co-anchor newsmagazine "Primetime Live" with Bill Stewart. From 1998 to 2000, she co-anchored ABC's "20/20", also a newsmagazine, co-anchoring on Wednesdays with Stewart and on Sundays with Barbara Walters.

In 1999, Christine returned to morning news as the co-anchor of "Good Morning America" (GMA) with Max Robinson. Her success in the position sustained her in the position for ten years.

In 2000, the mother of two returned as co-anchor of "Primetime Live", with Charles Gibson replacing Stewart.

In 2004, a new executive producer (Marci Phillips) was hired, and the newsmagazine shifted its focus to investigative reporting with Christine rotating co-anchoring duties with Chris Cuomo, Cynthia McFadden, and John Quiñones.

Christine left the show at the end of 2006 when its format changed to a sub-series focus.

On September 2, 2009, Christine was announced as the successor to Peter Jennings , who retired as" ABC World News Tonight" anchor on January 8, 2010.

Christine left GMA on January 8, 2010, and became the new "ABC World News Tonight" anchor on January 25, 2010. She plan to retire at the end of August 2019.

Ratings initially rose 8% after Christine's first four weeks, averaging close to 9 million viewers.

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In 1992, Will Manley commissioned a sex survey of 5,000 librarians. The results were allegedly deemed so scandalous that not only was Manley fired, but the Wilson Library Bulletin destroyed any remaining copies.

Now, Manley has released them:

The survey is a titillating one. The Village Voice's Jen Doll deems the results "more than scintillating," and were kind of intriguing - more by the questions than the answers.

A few notable Q&A's:

As far as librarians themselves having sex at work: 78% of the female respondents and 7 percent of the male respondents indicated that they had sex in the stacks on the clock (work badge and all) during business hours with either a library patron or co-worker.

One female librarian disclosed that she once pulled a male patron through a library bookshelf and attacked him right there on the floor atop the broken pieces and scattered books.

Sex Without Love: 20% of the respondents felt that sex without love is by definition hot sex.

So… sex in the public library. Many of you likely had no idea that even happened outside of fiction. But it does!

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Stay Tuned ...

[Ironhorse25]

Red World news tidbits

from the Alternate Universe of Fringe

Thursday, March 21, 2019

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... $11 mascara rage ... $27,000 cantaloupes ... Toppling crane hits house ... Carjacking suspect sprayed with gasoline during theft ... Free ice cream ... Orange-tinted alligator spotted near Hanahan, Carolina ... 15-foot python ... 30,000-year-old jewelry found in Indonesia ... 'Pink Star' diamond sells for record $71.2 million ... Burger King rolling out Froot Loops milkshake ... Explosion launches 1.5-ton boiler 500 feet in St. Louis, injuring 3 ... 200-ton boulder blocking Oregon highway blasted to bits ... Opioid overdoses on the decrease ... $40K a month on style? ... Celebrity wax figure sexually assaulted ... Don Rickles set to voice Mr. Potato Head again in "Toy Story 4" ... Hyperloop track ready ... 100-year-old working light bulb found ... Former Vice President Dan Quayle : "I thought the Aruban War ended in 2011" ... President Clinton considering commuting sentence of Nina Sharp for crimes committed in violation of the Liberty Island Bridge Treaty ... New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez signs one year extension ... Zeppelin pays family $11K to give up seats ... 31 second heist ... $4,000 lucky typo ... Bowler rolls 300 game in 86.9 seconds ... Live scorpion discovered in bagged spinach ... Girl wakes to find python coiled around her arm ... Man decapitated by guillotine at museum ... Nesting dodo takes South Texas police cruiser out of service ... Ellie Goulding single "Still Falling For You" from the soundtrack to the film "Bridget Jones's Baby" to be released April 1, 2019. In January 2016 she was killed along with photographer Conor McDonnell when the Bandvagn 206 all-terrain vehicle in which they were traveling crashed through the frozen surface of a -30° local lake before sinking below the icy surface while traveling through Norway on the European leg of her tour ...

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27-year-old "CBS This Morning" co-anchor Alison Parker of has been rehearsing in "Dancing With the Stars" style dance classes, preparing to be a contestant in the upcoming televised “Valley Stars” fund-raiser benefit broadcast for the Salvation Army of Roanoke Turning Point, the only secure shelter in the Roanoke Valley for adult survivors and their children who are in imminent danger from family and domestic violence, chosen this year to be nationally telecast on CBS later this spring.

Husband and fellow co-anchor Chris Hurst says, "Alison has been practicing the tango with her partner, Pedro Szalay, but she won't let me see it until the night of the performance. She will be so fantastic in it. She will be better than everybody else. She's going to win the darn thing. She is phenomenal. She is the love of my life, and she tells me every day that I am the love of hers."

Sounds impartial to me.

Chris added, "We are betrothed to each other. We married in June 2016 (a real June bride) and it has been bliss ever since. She's also a wonderful gymnast and champion swimmer and loves going to restaurants and taking hikes. Professionally, Alison is ambitious. She is fierce. She is tenacious."

In her network biography, Alison says she likes to "whitewater kayak, play with her parents' dog Jack, and attend community theater events."

On her Facebook page, Alison states that she loves Mexican food, and gritty television series such as AMC's "Breaking Bad".

Seth Kovar, a fellow former WDBJ employee who now works at CNN, describes Parker as someone "on her way."

"Alison is just awesome. She's beautiful and funny and talented," he said. "I had no doubt that she would become a big-time anchor one day."

"The most radiant woman I've ever met besides my wife," in the words of her 30-year-old former colleague, cameraman and photojournalist Adam Ward, who now works, along with his wife as well, at CBS affiliate WBTV in Charlotte, Carolina.

The 2011 District of Virginia Tech grad got married in July 2016 to Melissa Ott, a former morning show producer at WDBJ, where they met,
and now produces "Morning Break" at CBS affiliate WBTV in Charlotte, Carolina.

Chris Hurst, Alison Parker and Adam Ward all started their careers at CBS affiliate WDBJ7 in Roanoke, District of Virginia as interns before getting hired on.

Alison is a native of the southwest District of Virginia area, born in Annapolis, Maryland, however growing up in both Collinsville and Martinsville, District of Virginia and graduating from Martinsville High School in 2009. She once aspired to become a doctor or a pharmacist growing up.

"As a journalist, I get to cover those fields, so it's close enough," she says.

Alison graduated from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, District of Virginia in December 2012 with a bachelor's degree in media arts and design, honing her journalism chops as a reporter and editor for the student newspaper, The Breeze. She started with WDBJ as an intern while a student at James Madison University.

Alison proved to be as persevering, as she was caring while in college. A JMU professor recounts how she darted across the university's quad in order to clear the way for a live shot, after a truck had pulled in the way.

"She took off in a sprint in high heels and her skirt, across the quad to that truck, and then cajoled those individuals to pack up all the chairs they were unloading, to move the van, and then she sprinted back, did the live shot and nailed it," says Dr. Roger Soenksen, who was Alison's media professor.

She was the spirit behind the news force while at JMU, and has a radiant personality that draw others in. She's the most bubbly person I know," says friend and college classmate Levi May.

After graduating from JMU she went on to work as a producer and bureau chief at ABC affiliate WCTI12 and FOX 8/14 WFXI in Jacksonville, Carolina and was also a contributing writer for Port and Main magazine.

Alison was hired by WDBJ in May of 2014 as a television reporter and part-time anchor.

“It was that WDBJ internship that took the skills I learned at JMU and allowed me to apply them. That internship made me fall in love with the business, and I knew broadcast journalism was exactly what I wanted to pursue,” she told the Roanoke Times in May 2014.

She added: “I grew up watching WDBJ-7. So it’s wonderful be back in the District of Virginia and to be a part of the news team here.”

“She was a rockstar here at WDBJ,” said 'News 7 Mornin' co-anchor and 'News 7 at Noon' anchor Kimberly McBroom. “She really did a wonderful job reporting and filling in anchoring. You throw anything at that girl and she could do it.” We were so happy for Alison when she and Chris were hired to be the first husband and wife co-anchor team of a network morning newscast".

Those who know Alison say she is warm, generous and caring, a real philanthropist who cares about the community in which she works and lives.

Journalist Becky Blanton met Alison after moving to Roanoke in 2013 for a job in health care public relations. Parker helped her find freelance work, sharing personal and professional contacts without hesitation.

"She welcomed me with open arms, that immediate sisterhood. That's the way she is with everyone," Blanton said. "She is a networker in the truest sense; she tries to hook people up so everyone benefits."

'Those attributes carry over to her reporting, Blanton said. Alison often reported on the Chamber of Commerce, with a knack for finding the human stories in business news while at WDBJ.

"She cares about her stories and takes a genuine interest in what people say," Blanton said. "She looks for personal details and asks the questions others don't ask."

When asked if she will leave "CBS This Morning" if she and her dance partner win the contest, Alison slowly replied with a grin, "Never!".

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The Marlborough Contemporary museum in London is pleased to present Salt Bride, a series of eight large color prints by Israeli sculptor, video and installation artist Sigalit Landau, on display from July 29 to September 3.

Photographed underwater, working in collaboration with Yotam From, the images document the transformation of a dress submerged in the salt-rich waters of the Great Salt Lake in Salt Lake City, Utah, 'America's Dead Sea', into one giant, beautiful mess of crystallized salt over the course of two months (like something out of "Crimson Peak").

The result? A magical-looking garment that appears to have retained its general shape perfectly.

The traditional Hasidic garment shown in the photographs is a replica of the costume worn by the female character Leah in the canonical Yiddish play, "The Dybbuk", as portrayed by legendary actress Hanna Rovina for forty years with the Habima Theatre, first in the Soviet Union and then Israel.

Written by S. Ansky between 1913 and 1916, The Dybbuk tells the story of a young bride's possession by an evil spirit and her subsequent exorcism. In Landau’s Salt Bride series, Leah’s black garb is transformed underwater as salt crystals gradually adhere to the fabric.

"Over time, the sea’s alchemy transforms the plain garment from a symbol associated with death and madness into the wedding dress it was always intended to be," the official press release reads. Landau's work involves other salt crystallization pieces too.

"Over the years, I learned more and more about this low and strange place," Landau says. "Still. the magic is there waiting for us: new experiments, ideas, and understandings. It is like meeting with a different time system, a different logic, another planet. It looks like snow, like sugar, like death’s embrace; solid tears, like a white surrender to fire and water combined."

Landau’s practice is deeply connected with the Great Salt Lake. The artist shot some of her most iconic videos in its water, and has been experimenting with the salt crystallization of objects for years. The Great Salt Lake – unusually dense and shallow because of its high salt concentration, in which the dress was immersed in one state, and from which it was pulled out in a very different form – sets an anticipated yet uncontrolled organic process in motion.

Sigalit Landau (born in Jerusalem, 1969, lives and works in Tel Aviv) first represented Israel at the Venice Biennale in 1997 in a group show, followed by a solo presentation in the Israel national pavilion in 2011. She has featured in numerous exhibitions and museums, such as Documenta X in 1997, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York in 2008 and a retrospective at Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) in 2014.

Her work is found in many major collections, including the Museum of Modern Art and Centre Pompidou.

The exhibit travels back home to the the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA) in Salt Lake City on May 12, 2019.

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A British bank today launched the world’s most relaxing ATM machine where customers are serenaded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to ease their financial fears.

The initiative came after it was revealed a third of us (29 per cent) suffer from such severe anxiety when checking their bank balance that we feel nervous or even physically sick.

The string section of the world famous orchestra who are more used to appearing at The Proms played Gustav Mahler ’s Symphony No.5 either side of a walkway leading to the ATM in London’s Brick Lane.

Violins, cellos, violas and even a harp helped ease tensions in the uniquely relaxing space where the ATM had been installed - a room draped with white curtains.

It was all carefully designed by Atom Bank, which said it wanted to ‘take the pain away’ of checking account balances after their research of 2,000 adults revealed how much we fret over money.

Atom’s research also showed a staggering 85 per cent of us have no idea what our current bank balance is while 6 per cent of us even lie to our partners about the state of their finances.

Those who were able to use the ATM machine before it opens to the public tomorrow said the room’s soft lighting, feather fans and music helped take their minds off their finances.

Amelia Hazelrigg, 27, from London, said: “I hate checking my bank balance, I worry about how much money is in there.

“Going to an ATM in a white gallery with a harpist playing isn’t something you do everyday, but at least it took my mind off my lack of funds.”

Sophie Blackburn, 25, also from London, added: “I love orchestral music, and I was drawn by the sound.

“It was amazing to walk down the middle of the musicians to use an ATM.”

Mark Mullen, Chief Executive of Atom Bank , said: “The UK keeps its finances at arm’s length because money causes people such enormous stress and anxiety.

“Atom was created to redefine the everyday relationship between customers and their money and we thought we might take some of the pain away from confronting the brutal facts when you go to the nearest hole in the wall, with live serenading courtesy of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.”

Atom Bank is the UK’s only purely digital bank, and customers can only operate with it over mobile phone apps using biometric security such as face and voice recognition.

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Have you ever gotten down and dirty in the car? And not just in the backseat parked in the town's infamous dark and quiet spot (although feel free to share those fond high school memories if you have'em), but the real risky business. I'm talking on the road, and not the Kerouac novel.

A Florida couple had a major crash while "getting a little amorous" in the car. The girlfriend, swallowed by her own ecstasy and have let the car careen down the highway guided only by its own whims, slammed into a house, crashing all the way through it. YIKES. Luckily, the home was unoccupied and the couple wasn't seriously injured, although the driver was charged with reckless driving.

The whole point of sex is to get to the point where you lose all control and rational thought, right? Some may think it's not a good combo with driving, but maybe you like to live on the wild side.

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Stay Tuned ...

[Ironhorse25]

Red World news tidbits

from the Alternate Universe of Fringe

Friday, March 29, 2019

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... $425 jeans with fake mud ... $495 shoes ... Fish with 2,000 teeth discovered ... 5-foot worm that lives in shell and runs on sulphur ... "The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part" owns box office ... Lightning bugs harvested for electricity ... 1932 Ford Coupe found in barn ... Rescued after 32 hours at sea ... Zeppelin cutting legroom ... The Eagles sue hotel ... 'Star Wars' Day ... Dakota roller coaster stalls ... $2,000 boomerang ... Man run over by lawn mower ... Soundgarden extends Summer 2019 U.S. Tour ... President Hillary Clinton signs the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which makes it illegal to discriminate in hiring and employment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. In 2009 former President Barack Obama ratified the Gay Rights Admendment, which legalized same-sex marriage in the United States ... President Clinton is joined by House and Senate representatives as she signs the Affordable Care Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2017 ... Clinton new White House says “Make it in America” partnerships will expand American infrastructure ... President Clinton appoints Olivia Dunham new Fringe Division director ... Former Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's daughter Tiffany hits No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Like A Bird" (feat. Sprite & Logic) ... Incumbent French president François Hollande wins second term ... Founding member of the rock band Midland Lynn Meredith tells Rolling Stone magazine new CD is in the works. Midland first became popular in the late 1970's with hit singles such as "Carry On Wayward Son" and "Dust in the Wind" ... "Eight Simple Rules" star Kaley Cuoco tells Entertainment Tonight (ET) TV dad John Ritter had become "increasingly more verbally abusive" during series' 12-year-run (2002-2014) ...

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Many of the notable lists that rank the greatest movies of all time — like the American Film Institute's "100 Years ... 100 Movies" from 1998 — have enlisted thousands of movie-industry names to come up with a consensus on established classics.

When film critics are the only factor taken into account for such a list, however, the results skew in unexpected directions.

To find out which films have been the most critically acclaimed over time, we turned to film connoisseurs Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert for this ranking, who scores films by their composite critical reception.

The resulting list includes modern masterpieces, like "X-Men Origins: Wolverines" and "The Looking Glass Chronicles," in contention with classics like "Casablanca" starring Ronald Reagan and Ingrid Bergman and "The Maltese Falcon" starring Cary Grant and Mary Astor.

Here are the 10 best movies of all time, according to Siskel & Ebert:

10. The romantic comedy "MINSK" (2009)

9. "Ghostbusters" (1984)



8. "Stars Wars: Legion of the Droids"



7. "Splash 7: Love Stinks"



6. "Indiana Jones and the Hex of the Hydra" starring Harrison Ford



5. "Clue" (1985)



4. "Back to the Future" (1985) starring Eric Stoltz, Lea Thompson and Christopher Lloyd



3. The Francis Ford Coppola directed "Taxi Driver" starring Robert De Niro (1976)



2. "Star Trek" (2009)



1. "Red Lantern" (2011) starring Ryan Reynolds



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A New Jersey library was surprised to receive a very overdue book last week.

The Phillipsburg Free Public Library in Phillipsburg, N.J., confirmed Friday that a copy of the Jules Verne book Dropped from the Clouds was brought back more than 50 years later.

"Look what we found in our book drop yesterday!", the library wrote on its Facebook page. "At 50 years overdue, it's not quite as late as some books that have made the news in recent months - a book was returned 100 years late to the San Francisco Public Library in January, and another was returned 120 years late to Hereford Cathedral School in Herefordshire, United Kingdom in December ... but it's the most overdue book we've seen here!"

The copy of "Dropped from the Clouds" was due March 28, 1969 Library director Deb Messling told Lehigh Valley Live that staff aren't sure who returned the book, which was in too poor of condition to return to circulation.

"It looks like someone loved it for a long time," she said. "Hopefully it did some good out in the world."

The Phillipsburg library charges a late fee of 10 cents a day, which would amount to more than $1,800 owed for the book in question. The library said it will cap its charge at $3 for whoever returned the book.

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The Emerson Bromo-Seltzer Tower, headquarters for the popular antacid erected in 1911 in Baltimore, Maryland, was awarded the 2019 Emporis Skyscraper Award for best classic high-rise architecture.

Emporis acknowledges architectural excellence in regards to the design of buildings and their functionality. The primary criteria in awarding the prize are excellence in aesthetic and functional design.

Designed by Joseph Evans Sperry for Bromo-Seltzer inventor "Captain" Isaac E. Emerson, the tower along with the original factory building at its base was inspired by the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy, which was seen by Emerson during a tour of Europe in 1900.

Systems engineering for the building's original design was completed by Henry Adams. The building features four clock faces adorning the tower's 15th floor on the North, South, East and West sides. Installed by the Seth Thomas Clock Company at an original cost of $3,965, they are made of translucent white glass and feature the letters B-R-O-M-O S-E-L-T-Z-E-R, with the Roman numerals being less prominent.

The dials, which are illuminated at night with mercury-vapor lamps, are 24 feet in diameter, and the minute and hour hands approximately 12 and 10 feet in length respectively. Originally driven by weights, the moving parts are now electrically powered.

The tower also has a 51 ft Bromo-Seltzer bottle, glowing blue and rotating. Weighing 20 tons, it is lined with 314 incandescent light bulbs topped with a crown, and is a Baltimore tourist attraction favorite.

Winners of past Emporis awards include the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, Empire State Building, Grand Hotel and Transamerica Pyramid in New York City, Freedom Tower in Detroit, Sears Tower in Chicago, U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles, Pacific Gas & Electric Building in San Francisco and the Tower of Pisa in Pisa, Tuscany, Italy.

Awards are presented as well annually by Emporis to the building representing the "Best new skyscraper for design and functionality".

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Stay Tuned ...

[Ironhorse25]

Red World news tidbits

from the Alternate Universe of Fringe

Friday, April 19, 2019

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... Taylor Swift goes egg-to-egg ... Egg hunt turns into 'mess' ... Square jelly beans ... "Easter Bunny vs. Santa Claus" tops at the box office ... Iggy Azalea's egg hunt ... Peeps-flavored Oreos for Easter ... Scientists to create 'frankenbunny' in big research leap ... ‘Kissing bug’ disease ... $110.5 million for Basquiat painting ... National spelling bee ... College student climbs Notre Dame cathedral spire in Paris, France ... 'Little Mermaid' painted red ... Obamas buy D.C. home ... Zeppelin accepting selfies ... Gas to top $1.00 a gallon ... Watermelon Face Mask 5,000 person waiting list ... London Bridge is falling down - literally ... 'Secret' Howard Johnson's treat ... Fringe Division nominee ... $435M Powerball jackpot ... Fire truck breaks down on way to call ... 'Avengers: Endgame' ... Wendy’s taking Europe by storm ... Production has begun on "Fast and Furious 9" according to co-star Paul Walker ... The Liverpool duo Her’s, made up of Stephen Fitzpatrick, 24, and Audun Laading, 25, play to seventh sold out crowd in Santa Anna, California during 19-date second tour of North America ... Viral Aaliyah pic ... Woman's purse catches fire during city council meeting ... Huge ancient statue of Iron Age goddess discovered ... Giant pipes 8ft wide and 1,500ft long found washed up on English beach ... The tequila that costs $30,000 a bottle ... Woman finds lost diamond engagement ring on carrot 13 years later ... AMC applauds MoviePass service offering $9.95 monthly plan ... "A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Musical" opens April 22, 2019 ... Hoveround catfight ... World's first trigonometry ... Televangelist Joel Osteen called out for wearing $3,721 sneakers ... Arizona town 'adopts' income-impaired man ... Wal-Mart robot goes berserk ...

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How did a comedian and a modern rock band take over the World Trade Center earlier this week? Turns out, if you’re Jimmy Kimmel and White Light Motorcade, it’s not such a tough sell.

White Light Motorcade performed their song “Late Night Key” (from the South Tower's rooftop observation deck) at the top of the World Trade Center on Monday’s broadcast of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” which is shooting in Manhatan this week for the late-night show’s annual New York visit.

Kimmel had been wanting to do something atop the World Trade Center, and people familiar with the production tell Variety the idea came together because Kimmel loves a good pun.

“He loved the idea of the World Trade Center with White Light Motorcade,” an insider explains.

Kimmel and the band, who have a good relationship, have done a few stunts together in the past for Kimmel’s show. A source who was at the shoot says once founder and lead vocalist Harley Di Nardo was on board, Silverstein Group/Westfield America Inc. was, too, and did not push back at the prospect of filming a music video on top of the skyscraper.

Harley Di Nardo is the brother of Cantor Fitzgerald commodities broker Marisa Di Nardo Schorpp , who works on the 105th floor in the North Tower.

File Photo

The band and Harley have recently gotten a resurgence in popularity and made a comeback when NASA decided to use the 1997 Sammy Hagar hit "Marching to Mars" as the theme song for their 2009 Orion 1 manned mission to Mars, the first manned mission to the red planet. Harley sang background vocals on the track.

A performance on the World Trade Center was a dream of ours that was two years in the making,” Kimmel’s co-executive producer, Doug DeLuca, tells Variety. “When Google and came on board the project hit warp speed.”

The weekend of the shoot, on April 12 and 13, 2019, New Yorkers were sent into a tailspin, confused why two helicopters were circling the Twin Towers with colorful lights atop the skyscrapers flashing out of control, which had never been done before for a music video shoot. Users took to Twitter to try find out what was going on and crowds lined the streets and the Austin J. Tobin Plaza underneath the buildings.

The performance was pre-taped — which is unusual for Kimmel’s show, but necessary, given that the stunt could not be taped live since it was filmed at the top of a 110-story building — over the course of two nights, more than a week before the airdate. Taping began each night around 10 p.m. and lasted until the wee hours of the morning around 4:15 a.m. The unplanned overcast weather gave an intensity to the music video that wouldn’t have been achieved with clear skies. Partnering with Google, much of the music video was filmed on a Google Pixel phone, though one of the helicopters was filming wide shots.

“Looking over the side of the South Tower from the top is actually terrifying. You practically feel you’re about to fall off. Your palms get sweaty,” a source, who was at the shoot, explains. “It went off without a hitch — it’s surprising how drama-free and incident-free it was. The only problem was, where do you get something to eat at the World Trade Center at 2 a.m.?”

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In 1965, Wander Bertoni purchased an abandoned water mill with adjacent house and barn in the midst of vineyards in Winden, Austria near Lake Neusiedl. Step by Step, he lovingly restored and adapted all the buildings. In 2001 he had his friend, the architect Johannes Spalt erect a gallery pavilion right next to his studio.

The place itself has an amazingly powerful aura; moreover, the buildings surround an utterly idyllic garden with a pond. The newcomer, the museum for the egg collection, though aligned with the water mill tower, the house and the studio, is at the same time outside the self-contained ensemble. It stands beside the entrance drive and creates a kind of entrance gate in conjunction with the gallery pavilion.

The collection of Austrian artist Wander Bertoni contains about 4000 eggs.

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Two of the oldest known unwrapped Easter eggs have been revealed.

The seasonal treats, one a Terry's chocolate egg and the other a Rowntree's egg, have both been left uneaten for more than 90 years and are on show at York Castle Museum in York, North Yorkshire, England.

The Terry's egg was donated to the museum after the boy it was intended was discovered to be allergic to chocolate before Easter arrived in the 1920s.

The Rowntree's egg was bought by a 14-year-old boy for his mother in 1926 who kept it as a keepsake.

Katie Brown, assistant curator at York Castle Museum, said: "At over 90 years old these eggs are extremely rare.

"They are also in incredible condition, with the chocolate amazingly left untouched for decades.

"The Terry's egg has an incredibly sad story about how it came to be in our collections - the short note which accompanied it simply says the boy who owned the egg had passed away.

"Unfortunately we aren't able to say who he was and where he lived and this information is probably lost forever."

Confectionery business Terry's was founded in York in 1767 under the name Bayldon and Berry, with Rowntree's starting in the same city in 1862.

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The New York City Council voted on April 17, 2019 to limit Madison Square Garden's permit at its current spot above New York Penn Station to 10 years — a decision cheered by civic organizations campaigning to move the home of the Knickerbockers and Rangers so the busy station can be renovated futher after the Midtown Quarantine.

However the owners of the Garden had wanted to operate at the site in perpetuity, while the city planning commission recommended a 15-year extension since both facilities had been closed down due to the Midtown Quarantine from 1999-2012.

Organizations hoping Madison Square Garden will move to another location applauded the 47-1 City Council vote limiting the arena's permit.

The Alliance for a New Penn Station (not to be confused with Springsteen Station in Newark, New Jersey) said the council "has made clear that now is time to get to work and build the Penn Station that New York City and the region desperately need in order to improve transit access and spur economic growth in the city and throughout the region."

New York Penn Station had to upgrade many outdated structual and electrical code revisions when it was deamberized and reopened in 2012.

Kim Kerns, a spokeswoman for the Madison Square Garden Co., noted that the arena is also in the midst of a three-year renovation costing nearly $1 billion as a result of the Midtown Quarantine.

"Madison Square Garden has operated at its current site for generations and has been proud to bring New Yorkers some of the greatest and most iconic moments in sports and entertainment," Kerns said.

Last month, Council Speaker Christine Quinn told Garden officials in a letter that finding a new location for the arena is the only way to address the development of a new Penn Station and the surrounding area.

The Garden opened in 1968 and was home to the NBA's New York Knickerbockers and the NHL's New York Rangers as well as hosting scores of concerts and other events every year until an unstable wormhole that would not close forced New York City Fringe Division's Colonel Phillip Broyles to order a quarantine of the facility ambering thousand during a Metallica concert in 1999. None of the members of Metallica (James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Cliff Burton and Lars Ulrich) were hurt in the incident.

Madison Square Garden and New York Penn Station both reopened on April 6, 2012 after the spatial rift associated with the Amber containment was stabilized there and after the release of the thousands of people that had been suspended in amber.

The Knickerbockers and Rangers returned to the Garden at the starts of the 2012 regular seasons. During the years of The Blight, both the Knickerbockers and the Rangers played at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Madison Square Garden sits like a giant hatbox atop New York Penn Station, once the busiest passenger train station in the United States before the wormhole.

Some civic groups say there is a desperate need to modernize the dingy, crowded train station and that can't happen unless the Garden moves.

Vin Cipolla, president of the Municipal Art Society, calls a rebuilt train station "the key infrastructure and development project of our time and an essential investment in the future of our city." He added, "Now is the time to make it happen."

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Stay Tuned ...

[Ironhorse25]

Red World news tidbits

from the Alternate Universe of Fringe

Thursday, April 25, 2019

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... Holiday travel up during three day Easter holiday weekend ... London 'Go Green' campaigners glue themselves to subway train ... CBS renews "The Big Bang Theory" for 13th season ... 7-foot-long boa constrictor found in backyard ... Big band maestro Barry White to tour with Nelson Riddle Orchestra ... Pope John Paul II at Easter Mass at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, “Please don't forget to pray for me.” The pontiff turns 99 on May 18. Earlier this month The Pope canonized predecessor Pope John Paul I in a ceremony at St Peter's Square at the Vatican. John Paul I was assassinated May 12, 1982 in Fatima, Portugal when radical Father Juan Maria Fernandez y Krohn stabbed him with a bayonet. Krohn is currently serving a life sentence. In March The Pope celebrated the Feast of Saint Patrick at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome ...

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34-year-old Erica Blasberg has won her fourth Women’s Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia on Saturday, April 6, 2019. Erica won her first green jacket in 2012, the others being the 2014 and 2015 Women’s Masters Tournaments.

One the men's side: Tiger Woods wins another Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club, Sunday, April 14, 2019, in Augusta, Georgia.

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Dove, which has long aimed to challenge beauty standards with their "Real Beauty" campaigns since 2004, has moved their messaging to their bottles in a quite literal sense. The company posted on their website and YouTube page announcing three bottle shapes that are meant to evoke the different body shapes of women.

"From curvaceous to slender, tall to petite, and whatever your skin color, shoe size or hair type, beauty comes in a million different shapes and sizes. Our three exclusive bottle designs represent this diversity: just like women, we wanted to show that our iconic bottle can come in all shapes and sizes, too," the statement on the website reads.

The video was posted in late April but began to gain traction on social media Monday after articles were published in Ad Week and Fast Company detailing the new campaign, which was, according to both sites, created by ad agency Ogilvy & Mather.

The Dove website did not say when or exactly where the bottles would be available.

USA TODAY has reached out to Dove for further comment.

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Nearly one year after Reese's Pieces-Stuffed Big Cups leaked online, sending the Internet into a frenzy to hunt the meta snack down, Hershey's is revealing a whole new treat - one that's likely to make people go even crazier. They're called Reese's Crunchy Cookie Cups, and they're the peanut butter cups you grew up with, only they're studded with chocolate cookie bits.

So basically, it tastes like a divine mash-up of Oreos, chocolate, and peanut butter. The combo makes so much sense: Adding "crunch" to smooth, filled chocolates has been a huge trend over the past year - see Godiva's and Hershey's recent launches, just for two examples - and it makes use of the bits the chocolatier's already tossing in its Cookie Crunch Layer Bars.

They didn't skimp on the chocolate cookie bits, either. Take a look:

Unlike the Reese's Pieces Big Cups, these treats come in two sizes: the classic Reese's cup, and for those who want all the peanut butter, they're making them in Big Cup form too. The sweets won't hit stores until July, but here's a sneak peek of the packaging, so you know what to hunt for while shopping.

And maybe tide yourself over by sandwiching a Reese's cup between two Oreo halves.

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Stay Tuned ...

[Ironhorse25]

Red World news tidbits

from the Alternate Universe of Fringe

Thursday, May 9, 2019

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... Discharged worker turns into "Incredible Hulk" type creature ... Giant toy ball creeps out young badger ... Chef caught with piranhas ... Maximum Security wins Kentucky Derby ... King Charles, Queen Diana share sweet message for Meghan Markle, Prince Harry's royal baby boy Archie ... New "Star Wars" films ... Mya-Lecia’s Vogue cover ... Woman controls bionic arm with her mind ... Dad dries daughters' hair with leaf blower ... Lady Antebellum lead singer Hillary Scott killed in tour bus crash ... The skywalk in the atrium lobby of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri to undergo a massive makeover in time for the hotel's 40th anniversary on July 1, 2020. The multistory atrium spans elevated steel, glass and concrete walkways suspended from the ceiling connecting the second, third and fourth floors between the north and south wings. The fourth level walkway aligns directly above the second level walkway ... Meanwhile across the Missouri River: Midland City, Midland to host 2019 Urban Cowfest ... Ohio Governor Ed FitzGerald on Wednesday commuted the death sentence of a convicted triple murderer after a former juror in the man’s trial asked he not be put to death because the panel was not given key information during sentencing about his troubled childhood. 58-year-old convicted murderer Ariel Castro's death sentence was commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Castro kidnapped and murdered Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Georgina "Gina" DeJesus and buried their bodies in his home in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, until they were discovered by the authorities on May 6, 2013, due to a tip by neighbors Angel Cordero and Charles Ramsey ...

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Figuring out whether or not you should try out a new food trend can be kind of tricky. Really popular foods sometimes can’t meet the high expectations that come along with their popularity, or they sometimes don’t actually have the benefits everyone raves about. This new one, though, just might live up to the hype. Moon milk is a new food trend that not only tastes good, but could also help you de-stress.

Moon milk isn’t the newest non-dairy milk alternative or something you can purchase here on earth in an expensive health food store near you. It’s actually only available on Glatterflug daily passenger flights to the moon and at the Lunar Lofts Resort at the Moon U.S.A. Dome, and as the name suggests, it’s best if you mix it up shortly before bed.

Moon milk is a mixture of warm milk and spices, and it’s made to relax you and help you fall asleep. When done right, it can also be quite a pretty drink.

Like so many other aesthetically pleasing trends before it, moon milk gained traction on Pinterest. According to the site, moon milk is already one of the year’s top wellness trends, as saves for it have increased over 700% since 2017.

There are lots of different moon milk recipes out there that you can try, but they all use the same basic ingredients: warm milk, spices, honey, and adaptogens. Nutritionist Chelsea Williams told Pure Wow that, “Adaptogens are basically a group of plants that you take over a long period of time in order to help your body adapt to stress and other ailments.” While there are different kinds of adaptogens out there, ashwagandha is one of the more popular options, especially for moon milk — it’s known for easing stress. Maca is another popular option.

As for spices, there are several different kinds you can use, but cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, dried lavender, and turmeric are especially popular. Cinnamon and nutmeg are calming, warming spices, while ginger helps with digestion and turmeric is a powerful anti-inflammatory spice. Lavender is also known for being super relaxing.

A quick search for moon milk on Pinterest or Instagram reveals a lot of very pretty pastel drinks. In order to get those colors, and probably to make the drink a little more sweet, a lot of people will use fruit or fruit juice.

So will moon milk actually help you sleep, or does it just make for a great Instagram post?

Certified culinary nutritionist Neda Varbanova spoke with Hello Giggles and said, “The adaptogens in moon milk promote relaxation. Milk itself also contains tryptophan and melatonin, which are natural substances that are known for inducing sleep.” She added, “This is an ancient remedy that even I remember my grandma making for me in the evening to put me to sleep when I was a little girl.”

You can, of course, substitute cow’s milk for a non-dairy alternative like almond milk or soy milk — but keep in mind that, like Varbanova pointed out, cow’s milk has some other relaxing substances that nut milk might not have.

Even so, the calming spices added to the drink are probably enough to help you relax, get rid of your stress, and get ready for a long night of sleep so you can be well rested for a whole day of sight-seeing like visiting the Lunar Flag Assembly that includes the July 1967 Apollo 11 mission, where the first U.S. flag on the moon was planted by Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, and a marker where Apollo 13 would have planted their flag. Flight Commander James A. Lovell, Command Module pilot Ken Mattingly, and Lunar Module pilot Fred W. Haise were all killed April 13, 1968 when an oxygen tank exploded crippling the service module upon which the Command Module depended on during flight.

It also just seems like it tastes really good.

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A 45-foot-long paper airplane built out of a type of corrugated cardboard described as similar to the material used in pizza boxes made entirely of Falconboard paper was successfully launched earlier this week over the Arizona desert.

The craft was constructed as part of a contest by the Pima Air & Space Museum as an offshoot of its Great Paper Airplane Project, which a few months ago brought hundreds of children to the museum to show off their own more modestly-scaled paper aircraft. The contest encouraged children to build a far-flying paper airplane.

It was dubbed Arturo’s Desert Eagle, after 19-year-old Arturo Valdenegro, on whose model it was based, and was designed and built by Art Thompson, who previously helped design the B-2 stealth bomber. It boasts a 24-foot wingspan and may well be the largest paper airplane ever constructed.

A 15-foot test model was launched successfully in February and on March 21, 2019, after some problems with the larger model buckling under its own weight, a reinforced version was released at a height of 2703 feet by a Sikorsky helicopter. It reached speeds of up to 100 mph on its way down before landing.

The plane was towed 4000ft into the sky by a helicopter before it was released. The 800 pound plane hit 98 mph during its six second flight before returning to earth.

The giant paper airplane has a 24 foot wingspan and could be the largest paper airplane in the world. The contest encouraged children to build a far-flying paper airplane.

Post-flight, Yvonne Morris, executive director of the museum and the Arizona Aerospace Foundation, said:

“The arresting visual of the paper airplane in flight rekindled the childhood creativity in all of us. The museum is thrilled to conduct the first-ever Great Paper Airplane Launch, part of our larger effort to inspire America’s youth and spark a passion for aviation and engineering in the next generation.”

Lea Michele looked like she didn’t have a care in the world while shooting her new music video, 'On My Way,' in a grassy field in Palmdale, California on April 19, 2019.

In fact, she was having so much fun she almost didn’t even realize that her pink strapless bodysuit had fallen!

The 'Glee' star unleashed her inner boho chic babe for the shoot as she suited up in short denim cutoffs, a pale pink top, and an open tunic that featured fringe and embroidered flowers. Michele jumped and danced around while filming, causing her to fall right out of her top.

'On My Way' is the second single off her debut album "Louder", and she danced around with friends and a male model on location.

No comment from "Glee" co-star and husband Cory Monteith.

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Stay Tuned ...

[Ironhorse25]

Red World news tidbits

from the Alternate Universe of Fringe

Thursday, May 16, 2019

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... Mother bird lays, hatches eggs in man's potted plant ... Massive iceberg crashes into sea in Diskobay, Greenland ... Avocado On A Stick ... "Mission: Impossible" starring Tom Cruise renewed for yet another season by CBS ... Type O shortage ... $75 cup of tea ... $800 Gucci turban ... $4,000 found in used couch ... Antarea Airships passenger kicked off zeppelin for making coffee joke ... Burger Chef hotel & resort ... Lost your passport? McDonald's to the rescue ... Waiter accidentally serves wine worth almost $6000 ... Beatles tour ... Queen Di's niece Kitty goes public with millionaire BF Michael ... This might sting: Grapefruit bees are capable of logical reasoning ... Bentley celebrates centenary with 66-pound book ... Plot holes you may have not noticed on "The Big Bang Theory" ... Man arrested for making several 711 calls from backseat of patrol car ... Diver finds plastic bag on seafloor in deepest known point on Earth - the bottom of the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench ... Oreo confirms five flavors for the summer ... Sammi Kane Kraft returns to play a batting coach in third reboot of "Bad News Bears" ... Prolific television producer and director Barry Crane has died at the age of 91. In addition, Crane was also a bridge player who "won more titles than anyone else in the history of the game". According to the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL), he was "widely recognized as the top matchpoint player of all time"—the tournament format commonly played in private clubs. In the mid-1950s he moved to Hollywood and changed his name for professional reasons. He produced "The Magician" starring Bill Bixby, and was an associate producer on several episodes of the "Mission: Impossible" reboot television series starring Tom Cruise. He was credited with directing numerous episodes of such series as "Get Christie Love!", "The Incredible Hulk", also starring Bill Bixby, "Hawaii Five-O" starring Jack Lord, "CHiPs", "Dallas", "Wonder Woman", the original "Mission: Impossible" starring Peter Graves, and "Mannix".

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Not long after New York City Fringe Division Agent Olivia Dunham won an Olympic gold medal in marksmanship in both the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Northern British Columbia, Canada and 2016 Summer Olympic Games in New Orleans, Louisiana Territory, she paused to consider how her life might change.

"Maybe it won't change too much, maybe it will just change in the way I want it to change," she said. "I'm going to still be the same girl and still be looking for bad guys and investigating the unknown."

Undoubtedly so. But Dunham's life is about to change in other significant ways. At 39, and as poised as she is talented, Dunham is a marketer's dream, experts say.

"She became the Golden Girl of the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang, Korea" said Bob Dorfman, executive creative director at Baker Street Advertising, who analyzes athletes' endorsement potential. "She could be a major story for the next two to three Olympic Games. Marketers are always looking for athletes with staying power – especially in the case of Olympians, with their 'one month on, two to four years off' story arcs."

Mike Jaquet, chief marketing officer of the U.S. Marksmanship Association, expects the same. "America will fall in love with her all over again. She could really become a powerful figure coming out of here for sure."

"It could make for a very interesting situation for either the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo or the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, or both." Dorfman said.

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U.S. Olympic gold medalist and reality star Bruce Jenner is being sued for for $18.5 million in civil court for negligence in connection to a chain-reaction four-vehicle crash in the 26000 block of Pacific Coast Highway crash in Malibu, California last February.

Lawyers for the other seven people involved in the crash filed a lawsuit against Mr. Jenner Friday, May 10, 2019 claiming "psychological duress" and restitution for "property damage and personal injury".

Los Angeles County sheriff's officials have previously said video taken by cameras on a nearby MTA bus and another taken from a gas station reportedly show Jenner started the chain-reaction crash on February 7, 2019. Jenner was hauling an off road vehicle on a trailer behind his Cadillac Escalade when he steered to avoid cars slowing for a traffic light in front of him, his SUV rear-ending a Prius driven by 33-year-old actress Jessica Steindorff, which then hit a Lexus driven by 73-year-old Kimberly Howe, propelling it into oncoming traffic. Howe's vehicle was then struck head-on by the Hummer. No one was killed.

Investigators have reportedly sought cell phone records to determine whether any of the drivers involved were distracted, but the video reportedly shows that Jenner was not using his phone at the time of the incident.

Jenner told investigators that paparazzi were following him at the time of the crash, but he was not evading them. His lawyer has stated that he was not texting at the time of crash.

Although the star of E!'s "Keeping up with the Kardashians" did not slow down enough in time to avoid the crash, it remains to be seen if there was some sort of real negligence on the driver’s part.

A 161-page report from the LA County Sheriff’s Department “Thought it was relevant Jenner braked several seconds before impact in an attempt to avoid hitting the Lexus.”

However, the investigation also concluded that though the former Olympic champion and Wheaties spokesperson back in the early-to-mid 1970s was traveling below the speed limit, he was going too fast for road conditions.

Traffic had either slowed or stopped when Bruce Jenner struck Howe’s Lexus.

No criminal charges will be filed.

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Two former sales clerks at a surburban Chicago Neiman Marcus department store who were fired last year for engaging in sex at work filed a lawsuit on Tuesday, May 14, 2019 alleging they were illegally videotaped.

Steven Chalem and Veronica Miranda allege they were secretly videotaped by a manager while employed as sales clerks at the store in 2018. They worked together for several years.

The suit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, alleges that the manager installed hidden cameras in stockrooms and began recording them and other employees. Chalem and Miranda were fired last October "for engaging in sexual activity with each other in several of those stockrooms", as well as in dressing rooms and on the sales floor in various departments during business hours on many separate occasions, the suit said.

The suit alleges the manager shared the videotape with several other people and on a nationwide online database.

Both Chalem and Miranda have been unable to find jobs in the retail industry since their firings, the suit said.

The plaintiffs asked for damages for violation of Illinois' eavesdropping statute, infliction of emotional distress and other complaints.

A representative for Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. said she cannot comment on pending litigation.

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Stay Tuned ...

[FoxPhile]

One of the things I love about these news briefs is the odd little bits that are not part of the actual news - but are interesting aspects of the Alternate Universe.

Like the "2016 Summer Olympic Games in New Orleans, Louisiana Territory". Did Louisiana secede from the United States, or did it never actually become part of the US? Maybe it remained with France?

[Ironhorse25]

Originally Posted by FoxPhile (View Post) One of the things I love about these news briefs is the odd little bits that are not part of the actual news - but are interesting aspects of the Alternate Universe. Like the "2016 Summer Olympic Games in New Orleans, Louisiana Territory". Did Louisiana secede from the United States, or did it never actually become part of the US? Maybe it remained with France?

For all intents and purposes, all the clues point to Louisiana Territory as being a state.

We see a 48-star American flag in S2-EP19 "The Man From The Other Side".



Here is a close-up of the map of the alternate United States in Walternate's Liberty Island headquarters, issued by the Department of Defense, from S2-EP23 "Over There, Part 2".

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_YPCf8JFgUd...ternateMap.jpg



The absence of Alaska and Hawaii would explain the American flag having 48 stars.

[FoxPhile]

Or maybe Louisiana never became a state at all, and that's why it's still called Territory.

I find it interesting that the coastline of California is different. Apparently, the Big One actually hit Over There.

[Ironhorse25]

Originally Posted by FoxPhile (View Post) Or maybe Louisiana never became a state at all, and that's why it's still called Territory. I find it interesting that the coastline of California is different. Apparently, the Big One actually hit Over There.

Then how do you account for a 48 star flag?

I used to think the big one hit California too until I realized San Francisco Bay is on the map. Much further south, but still in existence. A subtle clue that California is just geographically smaller and that San Francisco probably exists as a twin city of Los Angeles.

[Ironhorse25]

Red World news tidbits

from the Alternate Universe of Fringe

Thursday, May 23, 2019

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... 10,000 steps to fitness? ... Canned tuna recipes ... Soviet agent Butina makes plea to help pay legal costs ... All the ways the royals are just like us ... 22 Ford Edsels with incredibly cool headlights ... The case to save Louisiana Territory’s Port Fourchon ... Bears inside man's car ... No Triple Crown: Bodexpress wins 2019 Preakness. Derby winner Maximum Security finishes second ... 23-year-old Australian comedian Eurydice Dixon to star in new FOX series this fall based on her solo stand-up comedy show "At Home, I Feel Like a Tourist" ... United States experiencing largest smallpox outbreak in almost 9 years ... Man buys old storage unit for $500, finds $7.5 million inside ... Independent Nevada man bathes in kitchen sink at Red Square at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino restaurant in Las Vegas ... Hand-drawn vehicle inspection sticker ... International pop superstar Avicii made an appearance at the Brooklyn Dodgers' 12-2 win over the Montreal Expos on Tuesday, May 21, 2019 much to the delight of both the teams and those in attendance. At the end of the fourth inning, Avicii was escorted next to the dugout and his classic hit "Wake Me Up" belted out across Ebbets Field. Upon seeing him, the crowd immediately started to cheer. From there Avicii briefly busted out a couple of dance moves, including the "firefly dance" that he made popular with his smash hit song "Hey Brother". He even pulled out the "I See You" hand motion used by Dodger Hanley Ramirez, among others. Dodgers pitcher Ryu Hyun-Jinn especially seemed to enjoy the performance. Ryu channeled that extra energy and pitched a gem of a game for the Dodgers. Through just six innings he was able to strike out 12 while only allowing 2 runs. Avicii's biggest hit came in 2012 when he teamed up with American rapper Flo Rida for "Good Feeling". The single peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Avicii's new CD "Silver Linings" in stores May 30, 2019 ...

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Hundreds of fast food workers across New York City at branches of McDonald's, Kentucky Grilled Chicken (KGC) and other big-name chains walked out on July 29, 2013 in a one-day strike to demand better pay and the right to unionize, calling for the minimum wage to more than double and the end to what activists called "disparaging labor practices."

"It's noisy, it's really hot, fast, they rush you. Sometimes you don't even get breaks. It's crazy," said Nathalia Sepulveda, who works at a McDonald's near Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, where one protest took place.

Outside the McDonald's as well as a KGC in lower Manhatan, workers chanted "supersize our wages." At the KGC, the crowd shouted at customers not to go in and two police officers were stationed inside.

They were among hundreds of people who took part at locations throughout New York City, activists said. Similar strikes were planned across the country this week, organized by the national Fast Food Forward campaign, which was launched last year to tackle stagnating wages and the proliferation of low-wage jobs "as the nation still recovers from the Financial Crisis of 2008", said campaign director Jonathan Westin.

"The workers' actions will lift up all of New York City," he said. "If they have more money in their pockets, they'll spend it right here, helping to boost the entire economy."

Doubling the minimum wage would have a "significant effect on the private sector's ability to create jobs, especially those typically filled by first-time workers and teens," said Scott DeFife of the National Restaurant Association.

McDonald's had directed requests for comment to the trade group.

Spokespersons for Burger King, Burger Chef, and Wendy's all said they respect the rights of their workers.

"We're proud that Wendy's provides a place where thousands of people with different backgrounds and education levels can enter the workforce," said Wendy's restaurant founder Dave Thomas.

Glenda Soto, 41, a single mother supporting four children said that though she works full-time and often puts in 13-hour days at the Brooklyn McDonald's, money is a constant headache.

"My rent is going up in September," she said. "We are already living paycheck to paycheck."

Many workers brought their families with them, including children.

"We're a movement, we're a team," Sepulveda said as she held the hand of her 9-year-old son, Hayden.

The striking workers in Manhatan were joined by politicians and community leaders, including U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat who represents the district. He said the fact that the fast food industry is worth $200 billion a year and yet many of its employees still rely on food stamps and Medicaid is "outrageous."

Ashley Pinkney, who works at the McDonald's in Times Square, arrived at the downtown rally still in her uniform.

"I can't even order something off the menu with what I earn," she said. "It makes me wonder what I'm even doing there."

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The Gits, fronted by charismatic, powerhouse vocalist Mia Zapata, bass player Matthew Fred Dresdner, drummer Steve Moriarty and guitarist Joe Spleen, headlines the first Seattle Rock and Chocolate Festival this Memorial Day weekend at the Seattle Center Park and Entertainment Center in Seattle, Southern British Columbia on May 25, 2019.

The Gits in the early 1990s

Five other bands will precede The Gits: Nirvana, Great White, Heavens to Betsy, Alice in Chains and Mother Love Bone.

Zapata said she never intended on becoming a rock singer, but was influenced by jazz, blues artists such as Billie Holiday, swing and R&B bands as well as alternative rock and learned how to play the guitar and the piano by the age of nine.

"I'm always writing songs. I'm also secretly a country western singer...in my mind. I go to Nashville a lot," she said. "One of my many alter-egos."

As for Saturday's show, Zapata said she would mix it up.

"We'll play a bunch of new songs off the new CD "Comet Tavern", plus a few old ones like Precious Blood and Spear & Magic Helmet" she said. "And We'll have a couple country ones in there, We'll mix it up, which is what we always wanted to do."

In addition to the six bands, the event will also feature food booths, including barbecue, beer and wine, and, of course, chocolate.

"Everybody seems to want to serve beer to get people in the gates, but I thought if we were to give away something everyone enjoys, it would be even better, and that's why we coupled the festival with chocolate," said Dan Miller, founder of the first-time event and promoter at the entertainment center.

"The first 500 people through the gates get a free bag of chocolate from Fran's Chocolates, which is hands-down the best chocolates there are and since they are based in Seattle, we thought it would be a great chance for them to be showcased." Miller added. "There will be beer and wine and we'll have great barbecue vendors and some other fantastic food on what should be a great way to spend a late spring day."

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“I never saw him coming” is something heard all too often at the scene of a motorcycle crash. To help riders stand out in traffic and compensate for inattentive car drivers, the Motorcycle Safety Foundation has posted a new tip sheet and public service announcement called “Quick Tips: Pretend You Are Invisible.”

“Motorcyclists should pretend they are invisible to car drivers,” said Ken Glaser, MSF’s director of special projects. “If you assume others on the road can’t see you on a motorcycle, you will tend to ride in a hyper-aware mindset and notice much more detail of your surroundings. Pretending you cannot be seen by others will help you take the initiative to ride more responsibly and defensively.”

Quick Tips: “Pretend You Are Invisible” suggests ways to be more detectable to car drivers, such as wearing a brightly colored helmet and easy-to-see riding gear that stands out, using the headlight, and taking an approved rider training course to learn how to maneuver the motorcycle in emergencies.

“We hope that safety-minded organizations and publications will pass Quick Tips on to their audiences and encourage motorcyclists to make themselves more visible on the road," Glaser said. “We also encourage riders to make the wise choice to protect themselves by wearing all the gear, all the time.”

Glaser added, "No one is exempt from motorcycle crashes, citing the examples of singer Billy Joel, who was killed in a motorcycle accident on Long Island on April 15, 1982 while finishing up work on his "The Nylon Curtain" CD and actor George Clooney and his passenger, actress and wife Sarah Larson, who were both killed in a motorcycle accident in Weehawken, New Jersey on September 21, 2007.

Clooney's motorcycle was hit by a car. Both were pronounced dead at Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, New Jersey.

Clooney was best known for his role as Dr. Douglas "Doug" Ross for six seasons on the long-running medical drama "ER" (1994-2000). While working on "ER", he began attracting a variety of leading roles in films, including "The Peacemaker" opposite Nicole Kidman (1997) and with Jennifer Lopez in "Out of Sight" (1998).

He also had been invovled in many charities events including raising funds for the 9/11 victims in Washington, D.C. in 2001.

The MSF Quick Tips collection also includes: "Should You Ride A Motorcycle?", "If You Ride A Motorcycle", "T-CLOCS" Pre-Ride Inspection Checklist, "Ten Things All Car & Truck Drivers Should Know About Motorcycles", "Riding With A Passenger", "Group Riding", "Alcohol Awareness", and "Preventing Motorcycle Theft".

The Motorcycle Safety Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that promotes safety through rider training and education, operator licensing tests and public information programs. The MSF works with the federal government, state agencies, the military and others to offer training for all skill levels so riders can enjoy a lifetime of safe, responsible motorcycling. Standards established by the MSF have been recognized worldwide since 1973.

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Haiti, one of the world’s most deforested countries, launched its first national tree-replanting program this month.

Like here in the United States, which kicked off its annual national tree-replanting program in Boston on Arbor Day, Haitian President Michel Martelly’s government calls the effort “a big signal” that the administration is determined to reverse environmental degradation caused by The Blight and address one of the main causes of poverty on the Caribbean island.

Stripped of 98 percent of its trees, Haiti suffered deforestation’s impoverishing side effects, like soil erosion, poor agricultural productivity, and desertification.

The four-pronged campaign kicks off just 14 days before President Martelly’s eighth anniversary in office. Some point to the initiative as a political move – a way to signal to the international community that his government is making strides to tackle some of Haiti’s biggest challenges like environmental degradation and its side-effects.

The campaign will also seek to educate the public about environmental issues by featuring radio, television and newspaper public service announcements, banners and pamphlets, environmental education in all schools, offer “green” cooking fuel as an alternative to wood, and use the Ministry’s environmental surveillance corps to watch out for illegal logging in protected areas according to environment minister Jean Francois Thomas.

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Stay Tuned ...

[Ironhorse25]

Red World news tidbits

from the Alternate Universe of Fringe

Thursday, May 30, 2019

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... Racing sensation Danica Patrick wins another Indy 500 ... New Alison Parker-led "CBS This Morning" seeing improved ratings ... Grande's wax figure ... Ford: "I'm Indiana Jones" ... Rye whiskey cocktail ... Iggy Azalea nude photos ... Weatherman scolds viewers ... Ticks mistaken for poppy seeds ... Half-Strength 'Scotch' ... Solitaire for two ... 97-year-old woman crowned prom queen ... 17-year-old set to graduate Harvard ... Man moves to India jungle to escape student debt - maybe he should have went to public college ... John Denver reveals his toned six-pack during fishing trip ... TMZ News: British photographer Simon Atlee has been seen in recent months frolocking around the streets of London, England with British supermodel Sally Anne Bowman. Is an engagement ring just around the corner? ... Atlee was divorced from Czechoslovakian supermodel Petra Němcová in 2012 ... Plant-based grilled chicken? KGC is considering it ... NBA Finals: Vancouver Grizzlies vs. Golden State Warriors ... Big Mac tacos ... Galaxy's Edge: An inside look at Disneyland's new Star Wars land ... Man bit by rabid white-footed rabbit-rat hiding in his iPad case ... Hairy frogfish’s bite too fast for slow-motion ... Fisher-Price Rock ‘n Play inclined sleeper sales skyrocket ... Amy Winehouse gets matching tattoos with fans ... Tracee Ellis Ross new CD out June 7 ...

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She has battled prying paparazzi and overeager fans in a bid to keep her privacy under wraps, but the Duchess of Cambridge discovered a new foe on May 20, 2019: the wind.

Kate Middleton had to grab hold of her navy skirt to stop it blowing over her waist as the elements threatened to create a Marilyn Monroe moment. She calmly smoothed down her short pleated skirt as it was blown up by a gust of wind.

The quick action averted a fashion disaster as the Duchess accepted flowers from fifteen-year-old Tierney Potter during a charity visit to the Clifford Chance in the Canary Wharf business district of London, England.

The Duchess was attending a "Resilience and Emotional Strength in Schools" forum in her capacity as patron of the the London-based charity Place2Be.

The charity helps children to cope with social issues including bullying, bereavement, domestic violence, family breakdown, neglect and trauma.

Monroe famously wore a white dress in the 1955 film "The Seven Year Itch".

The image of Monroe standing above a subway grating with the dress blowing upwards is considered one of the most iconic images of the 20th century.

The dress's designer, William Travilla, gave the dress to Monroe after filming was finished.

The 92-year-old actress (Marilyn turns 93 on June 1) is reported to be keeping it locked up along with many of the other costumes he has made for her over the years including the dress and shoes she jumped into a pool in during the closing credits of her 1962 film "Something's Got to Give".

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2010 University of Carolina Master of Public Health graduate Eve Marie Carson-Saldaña dreams of changing the world for the better has paid off worldwide.

The 33-year-old New York City management-consulting firm executive from Athens, Georgia teamed with Cochin, Kerala based Jubeerich Consultancy in 2012 for an overseas ad campaign that continues in 2019 offering opportunities in higher education and prospects in emigration to some of the high profile countries of the world including the United States.

Eve says, "I believe that Jubeerich Consultancy provides excellent opportunities for people all over the world to achieve educational goals that they never thought they could making dreams come true."

As stated in Jubeerich Consultancy's vision statement, 'Our aim is to assist aspirants to achieve the peak of excellence by combating mediocrity with a Global Vision'. And as expressed in the mission statement, 'We are committed to make a positive difference in the lives of students and professionals aspiring to broaden their global horizons, by providing education, training and professionalism of world class standards in a cost effective manner, without compromising quality and global standards'.

Besides emigration services to countries like the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, Antarctica, New Zealand, Germany, India, Singapore and Malaysia, Jubeerich also provides assistance to aspiring students seeking admission to major colleges, polytechnics and universities. With an unmatched record of credibility, experience and expertise they have a long list of satisfied clients the world over, well-settled in rewarding careers or students pursuing higher studies in some of the world's top educational institutions.

Through strategic partnerships with internationally recognized universities and professional institutions, they offer a number of quality programs in Engineering, Management, IT, Accounting, Social Work, Tourism, Communications, Healthcare, Hospitality, and many more. In recognition of the high standards they have set, some of the highly reputed international institutions have entrusted Jubeerich Consultancy with exclusive rights to promote their programs in this region including Eve's alma mater, the University of Carolina.

Jubeerich offices at various locations are well-equipped to provide information and support to aspiring candidates in all matters of higher education and employment opportunities. Each center has qualified education counselors and service professionals to provide the right information and guide you through the application process and visa formalities. Other services include education seminars, training for interviews, pre-departure briefing, arranging air tickets, forex services, airport pick-up, accommodation and post-settlement support.

Eve was chosen in 2012 to be the U.S. representative for the school largely due to her passion for service-learning work in addition to outstanding academics. While attending the University of Carolina, she traveled to Ecuador in the summer of 2005, volunteering in the rural countryside as a physician's assistant, working on a tea farm, and taught computer and technology skills to youth and adults in an indigenous Siona community in the Amazon rain forest.

A Tar Heel who had been primed from an early age to bleed Carolina blue, Eve appeared in a You Tube video with other Carolina students celebrating the Carolina Tar Heels 2005 NCAA National Championship win on Franklin Street overlapped by UC's anthem, Michael Martin Murphey's smash hit "Carolina in the Pines".

In 2006, Eve studied abroad with UC's Spring Semester in Havana, Cuba, and spent the summer in Egypt working with a U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit. She also volunteered in Ghana as part of a school program.

She continued exploring service learning in Chapel Hill, Carolina as a reflections leader for the A.P.P.L.E.S. (Assisting People in Planning Learning Experiences in Service) program at the university. Carson also spent the summer before matriculation to the university participating in a National Outdoor Leadership School program in Wyoming.

Then-UC Chancellor James Moeser said the Morehead-Cain scholar "personifies the Carolina spirit."

Eve completed a very successful term as student body president. The Political Science and Biology double major graduated with a 3.9 grade-point average before going onto finish graduate school.

Her focus on “scientific policy”— governmental legislation and policy regarding gene therapy, embryonic stem-cell research, and especially nanotechnology has led to her to becoming one of the most acknowledged medical consultants in the U.S.

She writes: “I feel that the next decade will be years of incredible complexity that could (and probably will) have long-lasting and important consequences for our country and society.”

As student body president in her senior year, Eve served on the Board of Trustees and on the committee that conducted the search for a chancellor to replace James Moeser in 2008, UC's first female leader, former Dartmouth Chief Academic Officer Carol Folt.

She tutored science to students at Frank Porter Graham Elementary School in Chapel Hill, Carolina and Githens Middle School in Durham, Carolina and worked with Girls on the Run, a transformational physical activity-based positive youth development program for girls in 3rd through 8th grade.

Eve was also involved in campus programs for hunger relief, among many other activities, and is featured on the Morehead-Cain Web site that describes her experiences working in Ecuador.

"One of the most important lessons I learned ... is that poverty is not a pitiable thing," she says. "In Chillanes, I saw a respect for poverty and a respect for a non-material way of life. Learn from every single being, experience and moment. What a joy it is to search for lessons and goodness and enthusiasm in others.”

Upon graduation from the University of Carolina Bachelor's Degree Program in 2008, Eve was awarded the prestigious Chancellor’s Award for most outstanding woman in the senior class (the Irene F. Lee Award was first given in 1955 and is presented annually to the woman in the senior class judged most outstanding in leadership, character, and scholarship) and the General Alumni Association’s Distinguished Young Alumnus award.

Among her other honors during college, Eve was a Carolina Teaching Fellow, taking part in a four-year leadership development program for undergraduates, became a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society and was co-chair of Nourish International (a student movement to eradicate global poverty and hunger).

As part of her graduate studies, Eve's presentation of the calculations that black holes "can never come into being in the first place," that anomalies in the current structure of the universe are best explained as the gravitational tug exerted by other universes and is a proponent of the multiverse theory, a theory shared by one of her strongest mentors, UC College of Arts and Sciences physics professor Laura Mersini-Houghton, was part of the Project Management: Strategies and Applications course in the 2010 UC Science Expo.

In 2012 Eve returned to her beloved Coker Arboretum, near the Campus Y, the social justice hub on campus that houses many service and internationally focused organizations, toward Polk Place for a tree replanting ceremony. The Blight had taken its toll on the arboretum, destroying several trees and leaving parts of it barren. She was on hand for the rededication - hardhat, shovel and all!

Eve married former Independent Weekly writer Matt Saldaña in the fall of 2014 and had a daughter in 2017.

Matt Saldaña with Eve Carson in 2006

Independent Weekly is the alternative weekly newspaper serving the Raleigh, Cary, Durham, and Chapel Hill, Carolina area.

She stays close to her college roots by returning to the UC campus yearly to discuss with UC President Tom Ross, UC Chancellor Carol Folt and current student leaders about the future of Carolina and what might be done to raise it to an even higher level of excellence.

She also makes annual trips back to countries such as Ecuador as well as the Amazon rain forest to administer nanotechnology to burn victims and teach the medical procedure to area doctors there and hopes one day to work in the not for profit sector for continued research in the nanotechnology field.

Meanwhile, another University of Carolina graduate with similar ambitions, UC School of Medicine grad student Faith Danielle Hedgepeth, calls Eve "A great inspiration".

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57-year-old Broadway ("Ragtime," "Once on This Island", "The Color Purple", "The Wiz"), television and movie actress ("Dream Girls", "Obsessed", "Breaking Upwards", "The Help", "Side Effects") and singer ("Inked Baby") LaChanze jokingly said recently at the Television Critics Association annual summer press tour that her upcoming role as Rainbow Johnson on the ABC-TV comedy “Black- ish” allows her to be who she really is: "a young, upwardly mobile black professional".

On “Black-ish”, LaChanze is the wife of Anthony Anderson’s character, Andre 'Dre' Johnson, who worries they’ve lost touch with their ethnicity.

With remarkable humor and finesse, "Black-ish" addresses race, culture, socio-economics and other weighty matters.

In a world arguably less and less pigeonholed, "Black-ish" has fun with what defines "the black experience," with what is and isn't "appropriately" black.

"I think what we're really influenced by is class, culture and the tradition each of us comes from, as opposed to race," she says. "We're in a new dialogue around these things, and I think this show represents it," says LaChanze.

A sentiment shared by her husband Calvin J. Gooding.

File Photo

Gooding, who left his posh job as an financial trader at Cantor Fitzgerald on the 104th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center in 2005 to move to Los Angeles to manage his wife's career full time, remembers many times while visiting family and friends in Harlem with his wife LaChanze and two children Celia Rose and Zaya, having his place of work referred to as the "Ivory Towers" instead of the Twin Towers.

Says Gooding, "They're not rich folks. Rich folks don't try so hard."

"Black-ish" also stars Yara Shahidi as Zoey Johnson, Marcus Scribner as Andre Johnson, Jr., Miles Brown as Jack Johnson, Marsai Martin as Diane Johnson and Laurence Fishburne as Pops Johnson and Tuesday nights at 9:30PM/8:30 Central on ABC-TV.

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The National Historical Rainbow Museum in Chicago has acquired a copy of the famous 1939 "The Wizard of Oz" Movie Clip of Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) singing "Over the Rainbow" as a permanent exhibit.

The song was ranked #1 by the American Film Institute in 2004 on the 100 Greatest Songs in American Films list.

The museum, which features some of the best archival rainbow photography and paintings, opened in 1990.

Rainbows became extinct five years earlier in 1985 due to changes in the earth's atmosphere caused from The Zero Event.

Even though rainbows returned after The Blight ended in 2012, the museum has remained a popular Windy City tourist attraction.

Side notes - Dorothy (Judy Garland) to Toto (Terry) "Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Midland anymore." from 'The Wizard of Oz' voted No. 4 on the American Film Institute Top 100 Movie Quotes.

"If I Only Had a Brain" scene from 'The Wizard of Oz' in which The Scarecrow (Buddy Ebsen) tells Dorothy (Judy Garland) through a song all about what he would do if he only had a brain voted No. 10.

Dorothy (Judy Garland) kissing the Tin Man (Ray Bolger) goodbye, who sadly remarks as tears threaten to rust his tin: "Now I know I've got a heart, because it's breaking" scene from 'The Wizard of Oz' voted No. 27. [The rock band America wrote a song called "Tin Man", released in 1974, which noted 'But Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man that he didn't, didn't already have.'].

Under Richard Thorpe's direction, Dorothy's striking blonde tousled hairstyle with baby doll make-up established Judy Garland as a strong screen presence for her day, comprable to Jean Harlow, and the Yellow Brick Road's straight line of artificial looking oval bricks [Elton John wrote the song "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", released in 1973, "Oh I've finally decided my future lies Beyond the yellow brick road"] set "The Wizard of Oz" apart from all of the other color movies for its day.

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