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Forum: Smoky Backroom

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  • Reports that US government could axe POTATOES as a vegetable sparks fury among Democrat AND Republican senators

    03/29/2024 9:40:47 AM PDT · by algore · 55 replies
    Senators are fighting back against rumblings that the US government will stop classifying potatoes as a vegetable. Fourteen lawmakers have written to the federal agencies who could influence the change, warning it would confuse Americans and cause chaos for supply chains. It comes amid reports that the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee is 'considering changes to food groups,' including a proposal to lump starchy vegetables in the same category as grains, which would put it in the same bracket as bread and rice. The panel is tasked with providing independent, science-based advice to the Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health...
  • Pete Buttigieg calls collapsed Baltimore Francis Scott Key bridge one of the 'cathedrals of American infrastructure' and warns of massive supply chain issues

    03/26/2024 5:55:05 PM PDT · by algore · 35 replies
    Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg vowed the federal government would rebuild the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland on Tuesday, calling it a 'cathedral' of American infrastructure. 'This is no ordinary bridge, this is one of the cathedrals of American infrastructure,' he said. 'It has been part of the skyline of this region longer than many of us has been alive.' He cautioned that the 'path to normalcy' for the Baltimore community after the tragedy 'will not be easy, will not be quick, and will not be inexpensive Buttigieg spoke at a press conference in Baltimore Tuesday afternoon, several...
  • Judge issues gag order barring Donald Trump from commenting on witnesses, others in hush money case

    03/26/2024 1:29:22 PM PDT · by Olog-hai · 30 replies
    Associated Press ^ | March 26, 2024 | Michael R. Sisak
    A New York judge issued a gag order Tuesday barring Donald Trump from making public statements about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial. Judge Juan M. Merchan cited the former president’s prior comments about him and others in the case, as well as a looming April 15 trial date, in granting a prosecution request for what it termed a “narrowly tailored” order barring Trump from making certain out-of-court statements. “It is without question that the imminency of the risk of harm is now paramount,” Merchan wrote. Prosecutors had asked for the gag order, citing...
  • I fell in love with a death row killer when I was just 24

    03/23/2024 6:36:42 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 30 replies
    New York Post ^ | March 23, 2024 | Claudia Poposk
    A woman has revealed the moment she fell for a death-row inmate, before spiraling into a life of drugs. Benjamin Ritchie was driving a stolen van in 2000 when a police officer saw him and gave chase. After wrecking the van, Ritchie fired five shots. One of the bullets killed the cop. SNIP While living on death row, Ritchie appeared in a YouTube documentary, where he caught the eye of Ivana, then 24. She decided to write to him and from there, romance blossomed. SNIP Her own father spent time in jail during her youth.
  • Democrat strategist James Carville says Biden's poll numbers are as bad as seeing your grandma naked and that president's party is dominated by 'too many preachy females'

    03/23/2024 1:55:55 PM PDT · by algore · 60 replies
    A leading democratic strategist has hit out at President Biden's poll numbers saying looking at them was equivalent to 'walking in on your grandma naked.' James Carville, spoke of his overall disapproval of the current state of the Democratic Party. Speaking to The New York Times, Carville spoke about ratings, how he believes there to be 'too many preachy females' and how 'woke stuff' was killing the party. Carville described Biden's ratings, which according to polls is at a low of 37.4 percent, as, 'It’s like walking in on your grandma naked. You can’t get the image out of your...
  • '---- You, Bill Clinton!': Gwyneth Paltrow Recalls Former President 'Snoring Right in Front of Me' During White House Screening of 'Emma'

    03/22/2024 3:17:06 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 18 replies
    OK Magazine ^ | Mar. 21 2024, | Taylor Norton
    On the latest installment of host Sean Evans’ YouTube interview series Hot Ones, Gwyneth Paltrow recalled when the former president, 77, fell asleep during a screening of her 1996 movie Emma at the White House in Washington, D.C. After Evans asked if the story was real, the Glee actress stated, "True." "He was snoring right in front of me," she said of the ex-commander-in-chief. At the time, the mother-of-two thought, "Wow, I guess this is going to be a real hit movie." "But it was, so ---- you, Bill Clinton!" she exclaimed. The Academy Award-winning star also touched on how...
  • Truck-to-truck worm could infect – and disrupt – entire US commercial fleet

    03/21/2024 5:31:42 PM PDT · by algore · 19 replies
    Vulnerabilities in common Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) required in US commercial trucks could be present in over 14 million medium- and heavy-duty rigs, according to boffins at Colorado State University. In a paper presented at the 2024 Network and Distributed System Security Symposium, associate professor Jeremy Daily and systems engineering graduate students Jake Jepson and Rik Chatterjee demonstrated how ELDs can be accessed over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connections to take control of a truck, manipulate data, and spread malware between vehicles. "These findings highlight an urgent need to improve the security posture in ELD systems," the trio wrote [PDF]. The...
  • Missouri teen charged with bashing Kaylee Gain's head into pavement is the 'real victim', an honor roll student who was 'defending herself'

    03/21/2024 8:35:48 AM PDT · by algore · 87 replies
    The family of the teenage girl charged with violently assaulting Kaylee Gain says that she is the real victim who was 'harassed and bullied' before the viral incident – and are raising $150k for her legal defense, DailyMail.com can reveal. Kaylee, 16, from St Louis, Missouri has been left in a life-threatening condition by the student who repeatedly smashed her head into concrete. She suffered a skull fracture and frontal lobe damage during the violent March 8 brawl which was caught on camera near her high school. But her alleged attacker's family have hit back at calls to charge the...
  • ‘Wake up!’: Parents allegedly passed out drunk on beach vacation while their kids wandered away

    03/19/2024 4:47:15 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 26 replies
    New York Post ^ | March 19, 2024 | Melissa Koenig
    A Georgia couple allegedly passed out drunk on a Florida beach while their five and seven-year-old children wandered off — in a case that has shocked even the local sheriff. Volusia County deputies desperately tried eight times to wake Alyssia Langley and her fiance Timothy Stephens, both 27, as they lay in the sand on Daytona Beach on Saturday afternoon, according to an affidavit obtained by Fox 35 Orlando. One of the deputies could be seen in body camera footage nudging Stephens as his arm was wrapped around his girlfriend. “Hey. The sheriff’s office! Wake up!” she yelled in the...
  • Trump says Jewish people who vote for Democrats 'HATE their religion and hate Israel'

    03/19/2024 9:53:30 AM PDT · by algore · 36 replies
    Donald Trump has accused Jewish Americans who vote for Democrats of hating Israel and 'their religion' in a radio interview with former White House staffer Sebastian Gorka. Trump was asked by Gorka why the Democrats - specifically President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer - were so hostile to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 'I actually think they hate Israel,' answered Trump, who has himself criticized Netanyahu for a lack of preparation for the October 7 Hamas terror attack. 'Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion,' he said. 'They hate everything about Israel, and they...
  • Director Roman Polanski is sued over more allegations of sexual assault of a minor

    03/18/2024 11:10:47 PM PDT · by Olog-hai · 14 replies
    Associated Press ^ | March 13, 2024 | Andrew Dalton
    A woman has sued director Roman Polanski, alleging he raped her in his home when she was a minor in 1973. The woman aired the allegations, which the 90-year-old Polanski has denied, in a news conference with her attorney, Gloria Allred, on Tuesday. The account is similar to the still-unresolved Los Angeles criminal sexual assault case that prompted Polanski in 1978 to flee to Europe, where he has remained since. The woman who filed the civil lawsuit said she went to dinner with Polanski, who knew she was under 18, in 1973, months after she had met him at a...
  • Taiwanese man soaks feet in dry ice for over 10 hours, then amputates them, for $1.7 million payout

    03/18/2024 7:34:03 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 34 replies
    AsiaOne ^ | MARCH 16, 2024 | Lok Jian Wen
    A Taiwanese university student was hoping to pocket over NT$41 million (S$1.7 million) in insurance payout by claiming that he lost his feet to frostbite. But his frosty fraud has instead landed him in hot water, after investigators found out he had soaked his feet in dry ice for over 10 hours in order to feign frostbite severe enough to warrant a double amputation. Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau said the student, surnamed Chang, conspired with his former high school classmate, surnamed Liao, to orchestrate the fraud, reported Taiwan News.
  • We Asked the Math Tutor Who Posts His Lessons on Pornhub: Why?

    03/18/2024 5:09:52 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 18 replies
    Vice ^ | A math tutor has raked in over a million views on Pornhub by teaching calculus in a hoodie.
    A math tutor has raked in over a million views on Pornhub by teaching calculus in a hoodie.Among the trove of wild roleplay and bizarre COVID porn, a bespectacled man clad in a thick gray hoodie is an unlikely hit on Pornhub. Scribbling mathematical equations on a chalkboard and explaining them in utmost seriousness, the unassuming tutor has carved a niche for himself in a corner of one of the world’s largest porn sites without being even remotely sexual. This isn’t some next-level take on professor roleplay or the nerdy side of Rule 34. No, we’ve just stumbled upon a...
  • Pornhub Pulls Out of Seventh State

    03/18/2024 4:34:21 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 49 replies
    Reason ^ | 3.18.2024 | Elizabeth Nolan Brown
    Pornhub has begun blocking visitors from Texas, where the authorities are attempting to enforce a new law requiring web porn platforms to check viewer ages. The company called the law "ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous." Since Pornhub pulled out, Texans have greatly increased Google searches for tools to mask the geographic location of their devices. We've been here before—with age-check laws, attempts to get around them, and porn platforms cutting off access. In fact, Texas is the seventh state that adult content platforms run by the Canadian company Aylo (formerly MindGeek) have left over age verification requirements. As a result, residents...
  • Man fatally stabbed woman with golf club because he thought she stole $700, Barrow prosecutors say

    03/16/2024 10:44:10 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 21 replies
    WSB-TV ^ | March 16, 2024
    A Barrow County man will spend the rest of his life in prison after being convicted of stabbing and killing his girlfriend. Ralph Junior Butler, 59 of Winder, was accused of the murder of Yoland Hammond, 50, in August 2023. The jury deliberated for just 30 minutes before finding him guilty of malice murder, two counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault, aggravated battery and criminal trespass. Prosecutors say Butler hit another man and bashed his car window with a golf club and broke it. Moments later, he stabbed Hammond several times with the broken club. Butler claimed...
  • Salinas Man Sentenced for Attacking Prostitute With a Machete

    03/15/2024 10:27:18 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 12 replies
    KSBW ^ | Mar 15, 2024 | Ricardo Tovar
    Monterey County District Attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni announced Friday that a man was sentenced to 15 years in prison after he allegedly attacked a prostitute with a machete back in April 2023. Felipe Saavedra, 38, of Salinas, was found guilty of one count of forcible rape and one count of assault with a deadly weapon with an enhancement for causing great bodily injury. The now-convicted rapist will have to also register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, said Pacioni. Salinas Police told KSBW at the time of the initial arrest that the victim and her attacker...
  • NYPD hunts woman who fled subway shooting after 'stabbing' gun-wielding attacker - as new video shows him lying on train after being shot with his OWN GUN

    03/15/2024 8:47:37 AM PDT · by algore · 30 replies
    NYPD detectives are urgently seeking a female subway passenger filmed stabbing a gunman during a train brawl, shortly before he was shot with his own weapon. The woman, who has not been identified, was seen stabbing the unnamed victim, 36, in the back several times as he fought with another male passenger aged 32. 'You stabbed me? You stabbed me?' the shooting victim said to the woman repeatedly, as she responds: 'I didn't do nothing' while blood seeped from his shirt. Terrified commuters scrambled to escape the melee, which appeared to be initiated by the shooting victim, dressed all in...
  • The UK, Japan, South Africa and Australia are among dozens of countries suffering mystery spikes of all different kinds of tumors in young people

    03/15/2024 8:25:21 AM PDT · by algore · 23 replies
    Doctors across the world are sounding the alarm over a surging epidemic of young people being diagnosed with cancers more commonly associated with the elderly. Between 1990 and 2019, cases of cancer in young people across the globe have increased by 79 percent and deaths have risen 28 percent. Studies project diagnoses will continue to rise by 31 percent and deaths will rise by 21 percent in 2030. Nearly every continent is experiencing an increase of various types of cancer in people under 50 years old, which is particularly problematic as the disease tends to be caught in later stages...
  • Strange Forum Behavior. A "1" pops up in the search bar for no reason throwing off the usual feed.

    03/13/2024 6:45:14 PM PDT · by Boomer · 49 replies
    FR ^ | 3.13.24 | Self
    Anyone else having this issue?
  • Newly declassified footage reveals Britain’s deadly DragonFire LASER weapon that can blow up drones and hypersonic nuclear missiles at the speed of light - and for just £10 a shot

    03/12/2024 9:47:54 AM PDT · by algore · 30 replies
    A deadly laser weapon which can blow up drones and hypersonic nuclear missiles at the speed of light has been revealed to the public in newly declassified footage. The video shows Britain achieving its first high-power firing of the Dragonfire laser weapon, as it successfully destroyed a drone in the sky using the system's death ray. In these secret trials at the Military of Defence's Hebrides Range, the weapon proved so accurate it could hit a £1 coin half a mile away, with each 'shot' said to cost around £10. Its full range remains classified, but the invisible 50kW beam...