Another Saturday….another news dump…..there is very little of interest in the news this past week…..Swift is a billionaire….Truth Social took a hit….Musk is an asshole.

Local news….the cities along the Coast are trying very hard to keep Spring Breakers from having any fun by denying permit requests.

I will start with the best news….those rich people that must climb Everest now have a new problem…..

Back in the good old days of summiting Mount Everest, you could just shimmy down your pants, drop a deuce, and leave it right there on the snowy ground.

The problem with just leaving poop on the highest peak in the world is that the environ’s extremely cold temperatures are not at all conducive to degrading biological matter. In addition, poop runoff is a problem at lower elevations — to the degree that they’ve contaminated the local watershed.

Basically, Mount Everest is covered in human feces. It’s a problem that hikers, sherpas and local officials have been complaining about for years.

But now, according to CNN, new poop rules are in place. If you want to climb Mount Everest from Nepal, the most common entryway, you gotta take your crap back with you instead of leaving it on the mountain.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/mount-everest-poop

As long as we are on health problems…..

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an alert Thursday urging doctors to look out for a bacterial infection that is rare, but on the rise. The CDC said infections are being caused by a strain of Neisseria meningitidis bacteria, CNN reports. Sickness caused by the bacteria is known as meningococcal disease—but unlike typical infections, most patients aren’t showing symptoms of meningitis, which include headaches, a stiff neck, and aversion to light. Instead, 64% of those infected with ST-1466 had bloodstream infections, with symptoms including cold hands and feet, rapid breathing, and, in later stages, a dark purple rash, per the CDC. Another 4% had infected joints, known as septic arthritis.

Symptoms that both bloodstream infections and meningitis have in common include fever and vomiting. “While initial symptoms of meningococcal disease can at first be non-specific, they worsen rapidly, and the disease can become life-threatening within hours,” the CDC said. The agency warned that immediate antibiotic treatment is critical for people with meningococcal disease and “survivors may experience long-term effects such as deafness or amputations of the extremities,” Live Science reports. Around 10% to 15% of infected people die. The CDC said 422 cases of invasive meningococcal disease were reported in the US last year, the most since 2014, and this year’s total is likely to be higher.

The CDC said the ST-1466 strain, unusually, is hitting people 30 to 60 years old the hardest. That group accounted for 65% of cases. It is also disproportionately affecting Black people, who accounted for 63% of cases. Some 15% of the infections were in people with HIV. The CDC said all 11- to 12 year-olds should be vaccinated for meningococcal disease, with a booster at 16. People at increased risk, including those with HIV, should have “booster doses every 3–5 years, depending on age,” the CDC said.

Shows you just how stupid the South can be….do you remember a couple of years ago and the chemtrail conspiracy?

It was totally debunked and yet Tennessee has passed a law banning ‘chemtrail’….they banned something that does NOT exist….how moronic is that?

The bill, which passed Monday, seeks to prohibit “the intentional injection, release, or dispersion, by any means, of chemicals, chemical compounds, substances, or apparatus within the borders of this state into the atmosphere with the express purpose of affecting temperature, weather, or the intensity of the sunlight”.

While the Republican bill refers to attempts to geoengineer the planet’s climate, witnesses at the debate around the bill cited conspiracy theories and spoke of secret government programs, according to the conservation director of the Tennessee branch of environmental organization the Sierra Club.

“As a serious environmental organization, if what was in the bill was actually going on we would be calling for a stop to it,” Scott Banbury told the BBC. “It’s not happening.”

The thoroughly debunked “chemtrail” conspiracy theory suggests that the trails left by airplanes are chemicals deliberately sprayed into the atmosphere by a government agency of your choosing. Proponents claim they are part of military tests, dispense chemicals that make you sick in order to bump the profits for drug companies, or are used for mind control purposes. Some even go so far as to suggest chemtrails could wipe out humanity by causing “biblical flooding”. Advocates include Alex Jones and Chuck Norris, who, let’s say, are not considered to be among the world’s top scientists. 

https://www.iflscience.com/tennessee-chemtrail-bill-prohibits-a-phenomenon-which-doesnt-exist-73654

These people are idiots and have idiots doing their bidding.

Speaking of conspiracy theories….this Christian conspiracy takes the cake…..as most people know Monday 08 April there will be a solar eclipse and the christian goofballs have a warning for us…..

An upcoming total solar eclipse scheduled for next week has stirred panic among conspiracy theorists, with many speculating that the celestial event might be a harbinger of the apocalypse.

Set to happen on April 8, the eclipse will involve the moon blocking out the sun’s light for just over four minutes across a limited area of North America.

While several city and state authorities have advised the public to exercise caution due to potential spikes in emergency calls and rushes on essential supplies, conspiracy theorists have amplified these warnings, interpreting them as signs of something more ominous.

In fact, they’re claiming the path of the eclipse will pass over seven towns in North America named “Nineveh,” a city in the Bible that was described as “evil.” They also insist the event will plunge the world into darkness for seven days.

https://www.comicsands.com/christian-conspiracy-theorists-solar-eclipse-2667661540.html

Keeping with the eclipse meme….I went the other day to pick-up MoMo from her grooming session and heard a person ask a vet if they should keep their pet in during the eclipse….and I got to thinking about it as well…..so naturally I had to do some research….

By now, you probably know what you’ll be doing on April 8, 2024, when the Great North American total solar eclipse makes its way across the continental United States. You’ve had your safety glasses ready since January (and have confirmed that they’ll actually protect your retinas), you’ve picked out the perfect vantage point in your area for the best view, and you’ve memorized Nikon’s tips for taking pictures of this rare celestial phenomenon. Still, it feels like you’re forgetting something … and it’s probably the thing that’s been right under your nose, and sitting on your lap, the whole time: your pets.

Even if you’ve never witnessed a solar eclipse, you undoubtedly know that you’re never supposed to look directly at the sun during one. But what about your four-legged family members? Shouldn’t Fido be fitted with a pair of eclipse glasses before he heads out for his daily walk? Could Princess Kitty be in danger of having her peepers singed if she’s lounging on her favorite windowsill? While, like humans, looking directly at the sun during a solar eclipse does pose the potential of doing harm to a pet’s eyes, it’s unlikely that the thought would even occur to the little balls of fluff.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/503776/should-you-keep-your-pets-indoors-during-solar-eclipse

Finally a horror story!

I have written about people that get bitten while on the toilet by a snake….but this is a new twist…..a toilet rat.

In a study that’s not for the squeamish, doctors have determined that a man who became very ill after being bitten by a rat in his toilet was infected by bacteria in rat urine that was in the rat’s mouth. According to the study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, the 76-year-old Montreal resident arrived at a hospital’s emergency department with symptoms including fever, headache, and abdominal pain 18 days after the rat bite. The man, who had been suffering the symptoms for three days, was admitted to the ICU with “multiorgan dysfunction secondary to sepsis of unclear origin.”

The man said he had been bitten on two fingers as he tried to remove the rat from the toilet bowl. He said he went to an emergency department after the bite, “where he received basic wound care and a booster dose of tetanus vaccination before being discharged,” the study says. After he was admitted to the ICU, doctors determined that he was infected with leptospirosis, also known as Weil’s disease, Live Science reports. The disease kills close to 60,000 people worldwide every year, though only 100 to 150 cases are reported in the US annually.

The disease is found in the urine of rats and other infected animals but not in their saliva. “Temporary contamination of their oral cavity with urine has been suggested as an explanation for transmission through bites,” doctors wrote. The Canadian man was treated with antibiotics and steroids and was released from the ICU after three days, the New York Post reports. In the study, doctors wrote that “rat bites represent 1% of the estimated 2 million animal bites annually, and children are often the victims.”

Thew moral of this story is check the toilet out before you sit and put out rat traps.

That is it for me on this Saturday….I hope all have a good first weekend of April and as always…..Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”