That time again….another weekend and another news dump of all the super interesting crap on the internet….or so I am told.

Well crap!  It is that time a year again….a storm is headed for Hurricane Alley as I type…..

Tropical Storm Bret chugged toward the eastern Caribbean on Tuesday as forecasters warned it could strengthen into a rare June hurricane. Bret had maximum sustained winds of 40mph and was moving across the Atlantic Ocean at 17mph, per the AP. It’s expected to strengthen into a hurricane in the coming days but then weaken ahead of its approach to the Lesser Antilles, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The storm is expected to pummel some eastern Caribbean islands on Thursday and Friday at near-hurricane strength. “Both the atmospheric and oceanic environment look conducive for strengthening during the next couple of days with low shear and abnormally warm ocean waters,” the center said.

The storm formed Monday—an early and aggressive start to the Atlantic hurricane season that began on June 1. It would be only the second hurricane to form in the tropical Atlantic in June in nearly a century, according to meteorologist Philip Klotzbach at Colorado State University. The previous hurricane was 1933’s on Trinidad. A tropical disturbance with a 60% chance of cyclone formation is trailing Bret. No June on record has had two storms form in the tropical Atlantic, Klotzbach noted. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has forecast 12 to 17 named storms for this year’s hurricane season. It said between five and nine of those storms could become hurricanes, including up to four major hurricanes of Category 3 or higher.

It is bad enough that vegans are trying to rule to food world now they are imposing their lousy food choices on their dogs…..

The vegan Nazis are starting to pollute their dogs with ….brands like Clif Pet with vegan jerky and Halo Holistic vegan dog food….

Seriously?

On the vegan BS….a story comes out of Australia….

One could very well claim that veganism would be more popular if vegan people were a little tolerant and patient, and were not quick to burst into a temper regardless of the situation. In a recent debacle that took place in Australia, a vegan family decided enough was enough when their neighbor was cooking meat and they could smell it. The upset family had earlier sent a polite letter to the neighbor, asking them to close their windows while cooking- which is quite impossible unless someone wants the fumes to be all over their house. And when the neighbor didn’t pay heed to the letter, they sent another- which was a little less polite and a lot more intimidating. The letter was sent by a woman named Sarah, who passed it to her neighbor Kylie, where it was addressing some of the concerns that Sarah had regarding Kylie’s cooking.

Vegan Family Sends ‘Final Warning’ To Neighbors After Cooking Meat With Open Window

In the complex where my daughter works was a restaurant, An-Jacks, a BBQ food outlet and there was also a yoga studio that complained that they were offended by the smell of meat cooking…..they moved.

Personally I do not think that they are truly offended but rather are reminded what they were missing and their devotees would stray.

More lab grown meat….this time chicken….

For the first time, US regulators on Wednesday approved the sale of chicken made from animal cells, allowing two California companies to offer “lab-grown” meat to the nation’s restaurant tables and eventually, supermarket shelves. The Agriculture Department gave the green light to Upside Foods and Good Meat, firms that had been racing to be the first in the US to sell meat that doesn’t come from slaughtered animals—what’s now being referred to as “cell-cultivated” or “cultured” meat as it emerges from the laboratory and arrives on dinner plates, the AP reports. The companies received approvals for federal inspections required to sell meat and poultry in the US.

The action came months after the US Food and Drug Administration deemed that products from both companies are safe to eat. A manufacturing company called Joinn Biologics, which works with Good Meat, was also cleared to make the products. Cultivated meat is grown in steel tanks, using cells that come from a living animal, a fertilized egg, or a special bank of stored cells. In Upside’s case, it comes out in large sheets that are then formed into shapes like chicken cutlets and sausages. Good Meat, which already sells cultivated meat in Singapore, the first country to allow it, turns masses of chicken cells into cutlets, nuggets, shredded meat, and satays.

But don’t look for this novel meat in US grocery stores anytime soon. Cultivated chicken is much more expensive than meat from whole, farmed birds and cannot yet be produced on the scale of traditional meat, says Ricardo San Martin, director of the Alt:Meat Lab at University of California Berkeley. The companies plan to serve the new food first in exclusive restaurants: Upside has partnered with a San Francisco restaurant called Bar Crenn, while Good Meat dishes will be served at a Washington, DC restaurant run by chef and owner Jose André.

Company officials are quick to note the products are meat, not substitutes like the Impossible Burger or offerings from Beyond Meat, which are made from plant proteins and other ingredients. Globally, more than 150 companies are focusing on meat from cells, not only chicken but pork, lamb, fish, and beef, which scientists say has the biggest impact on the environment.

There are so many reasons to avoid Florida….the politics, alligators, and those giant pythons….to add to the reason are giant snails….

Florida continues its game of whack-a-mole, more like whack-a-snail, with a formidable opponent. On Tuesday, the state imposed a quarantine of sorts in parts of Broward County to try to contain the invasive giant African land snail, reports NBC Miami. Meaning, residents in the affected areas can’t remove snails on their own, or even dispose of dirt or yard waste. Instead, the state is moving in to apply the pesticide metaldehyde, informally known as “snail bait,” per USA Today. It essentially dries out the snails and kills them over the course of a few days.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because Florida has been fighting the infestation for years. Last year, the same kind of quarantine was imposed in the New Port Richey area of Pasco County. The snail is prolific (one can lay 1,200 eggs per year), voracious (they eat at least 500 different kinds of plants and have been known to munch on homes’ stucco), potentially dangerous (they carry rat lungworm, which can cause meningitis in humans), and a little creepy for those who don’t like large, slimy creatures (they can grow to the size of a human fist). In short, “these snails could be devastating to Florida agriculture and natural areas,” warns the state, per CNN.

All I can say is….Eeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwww!

Do orcas talk over long range?   Maybe they have a social media presence.

I recently wrote about the pod of orca that are attacking boats off the coast of Spain….the word got out and now orca attacks in the North Sea….

An orca repeatedly rammed a yacht in the North Sea off Shetland on Monday, in a concerning development following previous interactions between the cetaceans and vessels in the strait of Gibraltar and Portugal.

Dr Wim Rutten, a 72-year-old retired Dutch physicist and experienced yachtsperson, was sailing solo from Lerwick to Bergen in Norway. He was fishing for mackerel, with a single line off the back of the boat, when the orca suddenly appeared in the clear water, and hit the stern of the seven-ton boat.

“I said: ‘Shit!’” Rutten, who said he had heard about the “Portuguese accidents”, told the Guardian. The whale hit again and again, creating “soft shocks” through the aluminium hull.

“What I felt [was] most frightening was the very loud breathing of the animal,” he said. The orca stayed behind the boat “looking for the keel. Then he disappeared … but came back at fast speed, twice or thrice … and circled a bit.

“Maybe he just wanted to play. Or look me in the eyes. Or to get rid of the fishing line.”

This is the same behaviour that has been seen in the Iberian orca population, but it is the first time it has been known to happen in northern waters.

(theguardian.com)

Again….Do orca have access to social media?

This is the end of this Saturday’s news dump.  I hope you, my reader, found something of interest.

Have a great weekend….be well and be safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”