Thanks, gocomics.org
Twinkies aren’t immortal, after all
Left to Right: Deceased – Dying – Want a bite?
Last week, craving sweets, Colin Purrington remembered the Twinkies.
He’d purchased them back in 2012 for sentimental reasons when he heard that Hostess Brands was going bankrupt and Twinkies might disappear forever…
Like many people, Purrington believed Twinkies are basically immortal, although the official shelf life is 45 days. He removed a Twinkie from the box, unwrapped it — it looked fine — and took a bite. Then he retched…
…Researchers immediately thought some kind of fungus was involved in attacking the 8-year-old Twinkies, because they’ve studied fungi that kill insects and dry them out in a similar way. Plus, the reddish blotch on one Twinkie seemed to have a growth pattern that’s typical of fungi.
They reached out to Purrington, who was only too happy to mail them the Twinkies immediately. “Science is a collaborative sport,” he says. “If someone can take this and figure out what was actually growing, I’m all in. I really want to know what species exactly was eating my Twinkies.”
A fun read, unless you’re a big shareholder in whoever owns Twinkies, nowadays. Another addition to the long list of reasons why I don’t eat anything in this category of food I didn’t prepare myself.
Ex-Mexican government minister busted for drug trafficking
Mexico’s former defence secretary has been arrested in Los Angeles on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering, becoming the latest in a string of senior officials accused of collaborating with the very criminal groups they were supposed to be confronting…
(General Salvador) Cienfuegos was Mexico’s top military official during the 2012-2018 presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto, and played a key role in the militarized “war on drugs”…
Generations of the Mexican military have been implicated in drug violence: the country’s first anti-drug czar Gen Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo was arrested in the late 1990s and convicted of taking bribes from drug cartels…
But the armed forces remain one of the country’s most trusted institutions, “despite their known issues with corruption and human rights abuses”, said Rodolfo Soriano-Núñez, a sociologist in Mexico City.
It can’t happen here! Right?
Not when you can make as much or more as a “consultant” to drug companies, military weapons manufacturers, Republican Party, Democratic Party, blah, blah, etc..
Originalist sin…
Thanks, gocomics.org
What do ex-Trumpsters think of their former boss?
Andrew Harrer photo
Former White House chief of staff, retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, has told friends that President Donald Trump “is the most flawed person” he’s ever known.
“The depths of his dishonesty is just astounding to me. The dishonesty, the transactional nature of every relationship, though it’s more pathetic than anything else. He is the most flawed person I have ever met in my life,” the retired Marine general has told friends, CNN has learned.
The reporting comes from a new CNN special scheduled to air Sunday night, “The Insiders: A Warning from Former Trump Officials,” in which former senior administration officials — including former national security adviser John Bolton, former Health and Human Services scientist Rick Bright and former Department of Homeland Security general counsel John Mitnick — explain why they think the President is unfit for office.
Kelly’s sentiments about the President’s transactional nature and dishonesty have been shared by other former members of the Trump administration who also appear in the special.
Sadly, I have to assume that some of the support for this phony over the last four years and more – comes from folks who have been self-limited in their sources of information on the real world. Presuming intellectual honesty. What that tells me is that it’s also time for them to review who they’ve been relying upon to tell them the truth.
Homeless Jesus in trouble
Bernard Weil/Toronto Star
A “Homeless Jesus” statue depicting Jesus as a homeless person lying on a bench covered in a blanket was recently installed outside of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Bay Village, Ohio. So, naturally, someone called the cops on it within 20 minutes of it being revealed.
As the Cleveland Scene reports, Father Alex Martin, the church’s pastor, received a visit from a Bay Village police officer after someone reported a homeless person sleeping on a park bench. He says he hopes the incident can serve as a lesson for how we can better help those in need.
Americans traveling outside North America say it feels like VietNam War days, once again. Pretend to be Canadians!
Stress avoidance
“He did the early voting and then wanted to be cryogenically frozen until Inauguration Day.”
Thanks to THE NEWYORKER
World Bread Day
Today is World Bread Day. It’s my usual day to bake a loaf of bread for the next week, as well.
I’m pretty set in my ways. Even though I often experiment one way or another with flour combinations, even the shape…this is pretty much my standard loaf. King Arthur flour, of course. This one happens to be 50/50 blend of their All-Purpose and Bread Flours. A touch more protein than straight AP.
Can’t wait for the first slice toasted with breakfast, tomorrow. But, I shall. 🙂
Why do fascist-minded crooks and political hacks always love the “Grand Entrance”?
It never ends, does it? Whether we’re in the era of Hitler and Mussolini…or Trump.
Uncovering a murder — 430,000 years ago
The first known murder was just as brutal as any other. The attacker smashed the victim twice in the head, leaving matching holes above the victim’s left eyebrow. The dead body was then dropped down a 43-foot shaft into a cave—where it lay for nearly half a million years…
Paleontologists pieced together the 430,000-year-old skull and reported their forensic analysis Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE. Injuries to the skull represent the oldest direct evidence of homicide, the scientists say…
The…skull comes from the Sima de los Huesos, or “Pit of Bones,” site in Spain, where paleontologists have found the remains of at least 28 individuals…Exactly what to call the Sima de los Huesos people has been debated, but Nohemi Sala, lead author of the study, and her colleagues identify them as members of the species Homo heidelbergensis, an early human ancestor that gave rise to the Neanderthals.
Read on. The forensics are good enough for Inspector Morse.
