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A headache-prone Pokemon character given away in KFC children's meals has become China's most wanted toy, selling for up to US$200 (S$274), as people seek ways to express their frustrations over Covid-19 lockdowns. KFC began handing out Psyduck in China on May 21, ahead of a promotion for Children's Day on June 1, and the toy has become a focal point for social media users angered by weeks of lockdown. One video, showing the character, known as Koduck in Japan, holding a sign saying "I don't want to take Covid testing" in one wing, and "I want to go out...

As soon as Stranger Things: Season 4 dropped on Netflix, English singer-songwriter Kate Bush's 1985 hit, Running Up That Hill (Deal With God) started sprinting up the iTunes and Spotify charts, as a new generation of audience started to discover the powerful song after it was featured significantly in the show. According to LA Times, Running Up That Hill was top on iTunes on Sunday (May 29). It is also currently #13 on Spotify's Daily Top 200. People have also apparently been searching for the song after the season debuted last week, so Google-search traffic has also spiked. The song...

...Following the horrific massacre of schoolchildren and teachers last week in Uvalde, Texas -- which followed the horrific massacre of mostly Black shoppers at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York -- the NRA went ahead with its planned annual convention in Houston. The convention reportedly attracted thousands of protesters and repelled a handful of scheduled performers, who withdrew after the killings in Uvalde. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick also backed out, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott canceled his appearance, doing a pretaped video instead. That trouble is hardly all-encompassing -- major speakers such as former President Donald Trump and...

Surviving in microgravity One of the biggest challenges for human colonisers will be staying fit and healthy on Mars. Studies have shown that transitioning from one gravity field to another can affect spatial orientation, head-eye and hand-eye coordination, balance and locomotion. Astronauts also experience changes to bone and muscle in space. ‘Moreover, the fluids in the body shift upward to the head in microgravity, which may put pressure on the eyes and cause vision problems,’ NASA added. ‘If preventive or countermeasures are not implemented, crews may experience an increased risk of developing kidney stones due to dehydration and increased excretion...

A top Kremlin official on Monday disputed reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s health is getting progressively worse amid rumors that he may have cancer.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov issued a response to the reports, saying that Putin “makes public appearances on a daily basis.”“You can see him on TV screens, read, and listen to his speeches. I don’t think that a sane person can suspect any signs of an illness or ailment in this man,” he added. “I’ll leave it on the conscience of those who disseminate such rumors despite daily opportunities for everyone to see how he and...

Good evening fellow Freepers. I wanted to find out if I could get your help with something. As some of you know, I work at a military installation in the central US. I am a government civilian employee, though not a high paid one. During the past couple of years many of us, especially DOD civilians, were allowed to telework from home. I did so as well, though the ability to do so was recently striped away, and hence this posting. I wanted to find out if anyone knows if there are federal regulations/directives that govern teleworking for the government...

Gravitational wave scientists from The University of Western Australia have led the development of a new laser mode sensor with unprecedented precision that will be used to probe the interiors of neutron stars and test fundamental limits of general relativity. Research Associate from UWA's Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav-UWA) Dr. Aaron Jones said UWA coordinated a global collaboration of gravitational wave, metasurface and photonics experts to pioneer a new method to measure structures of light called "eigenmodes." ... The proof-of-concept setup the team developed was over one thousand times more sensitive than the original apparatus developed by...

Parents rallied outside of Luther Jackson Middle School in Fairfax, Va., on Thursday in opposition to a proposed policy change that would increase penalties on fourth- through sixth-graders for “misgendering” or “deadnaming” people — for example, addressing a boy as “he” even though he calls himself a female, or calling “transgender or gender-expansive” people by a name other than their chosen name.The Fairfax County School Board was initially scheduled to consider this change to the Student Rights and Responsibilities guide at their meeting that evening, but they rescheduled discussion of the topic to June 16.“It could be that some people...

California residents were slapped with tighter water restrictions Tuesday two weeks after state officials spiked plans for a $1.4 billion saltwater desalination plant in Orange County amid a season of historic drought.The State Water Resources Control Board unanimously voted to implement a statewide watering ban for ornamental lawns at businesses and commercial properties as residents brace for a prolonged drought, the driest drought of its length in 1,200 years. Local government will also be required to reduce water use by up to 20 percent. “California is facing a drought crisis and every local water agency and Californian needs to step...

<p>MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A woman is facing felony charges after police say she shot a woman at a grocery store in South Memphis on Sunday.</p><p>Police say Leenora Johnson, 42, shot the woman just before 3 p.m. at SuperLo Foods on Lamar after the two were involved in an ongoing feud for two months over a death in the family.</p>

Top Gun: Maverick is giving star Tom Cruise his biggest opening weekend of all time as the unofficial start to summer and the blockbuster movie season begins. The film has already grossed $150 million domestically and promises to do boffo business in the coming weeks.But there’s one market that may never see the film released. The 1.2 billion consumers of American pop culture in China may not be allowed to see the film because of its unabashedly pro-American messaging.Paramount Pictures may have also upset the Chinese by adding back Japanese and Taiwanese flags to Cruise’s leather flight jacket after the...

It can be maddening and baffling to engage in debate with left-wing activists. Their love of ad hominem arguments and non sequiturs would make a sophist blush. Their stated principles shift during an argument like a kaleidoscope. That doesn't even begin to take into account their shrieking rage and cosplay costumes. Yet on the abortion question, all their histrionics are designed to obscure the one fundamental question that must be answered before any further discussion can take place: is the fetus a human person or is he/she not? If he is, he is entitled to all the protections all other...

MESA, AZ — Officials are investigating a fire outside of a Mesa gun shop Monday morning. Fire officials tell ABC15 they were dispatched to the area of Southern Avenue and Mesa Drive for a fire in a storage container outside of a business complex. The container had ammunition, flammables, and other hazardous materials that were exploding during the fire. For that reason, fire crews backed off and fought the blaze defensively for their own safety. in Mesa Fire officials tell ABC15 they were dispatched to the area of Southern Avenue and Mesa Drive for a fire in a storage container...

Russia's army could collapse amid huge losses of more than 30,000 troops in Ukraine, according to a confidential UK report that emerged on Monday. While Moscow's latest estimated troop losses make grim reading for President Vladimir Putin, the report claims he sees them as a 'price worth paying' for victory. However, the new report - a secretive analysis of Putin's brutal invasion seen by The Mirror - claims that the losses could be too great for his soldiers, amid other reports that Russian morale is low. Latest estimates from the Ukraine's Armed Forces suggest as many as 30,350 Russian soldiers...

One of the first criminals named on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List was Willie Sutton, a man who quipped that he robbed banks because "that's where the money is." Sutton's comment could easily apply to the epidemic of school shootings that has overtaken America. Banks, airports, jewelry stores, and other locations that have been attractive targets to criminals are protected with multiple layers of security, including armed guards. Children, our most precious resource, are protected with signs proclaiming slogans like "this school is a gun-free zone," as if a maniac with a gun is going to see the sign...

In addition to this all-electric GT, DeLorean eventually plans to offer a coupe with a V-8 and a hydrogen-powered SUV. This is the DeLorean Alpha5. It's just a concept for now, but it previews a would-be production grand tourer with massive two-row gullwing doors and ItalDesign-penned lines. The doors and choice of design house are the two biggest connections to the original DMC-12. As this is a halo car for a brand being launched in the 2020s, this is an all-electric car. That means it's avoided the Renault V-6 family entirely for an unspecified electric powertrain joined to a battery...

Disturbing new video obtained by The Post shows demented Robb Elementary School shooter Salvador Ramos grinning as he holds up a bag of blood-soaked dead cats. The deranged 18-year-old gunman is seen smiling in the undated footage while sitting in the passenger seat of a pal’s car — holding up a clear plastic bag with at least two bloodied cats visible inside. [cut] The sicko was previously rumored to have had a fascination with dead cats and had threatened to kidnap, kill and rape girls who shunned him online. “The shooter was known for hurting cats,” said David Trevino Jr.,...

In all of physical law, there’s arguably no principle more sacrosanct than the second law of thermodynamics — the notion that entropy, a measure of disorder, will always stay the same or increase. “If someone points out to you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement with Maxwell’s equations — then so much the worse for Maxwell’s equations,” wrote the British astrophysicist Arthur Eddington in his 1928 book The Nature of the Physical World. “If it is found to be contradicted by observation — well, these experimentalists do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found...

A University of Pennsylvania professor drew ridicule online for suggesting that first responders waited too long to engage the shooter in Uvalde, Texas last week because “police didn’t give a damn” about “brown kids.” In a since-deleted tweet from Friday, UPenn Religious Studies and Africana Studies Professor Anthea Butler — who is also an MSNBC contributor — suggested that racism was responsible for the police failure to stop a gunman at a Texas elementary school in an attack that left 19 children and two adults dead. “So since no one else will ask, I will. Did those children die because...