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In the first episode of “Bluey,” the Australian children’s series about an animated family of blue heelers, the mama dog, Chilli, drives off to work, leaving her husband, Bandit, to care for the pups. They play a game requiring Bandit to freeze in increasingly silly scenarios — fingers in his nose, sock on his tail, garden hose blasting him right in the face. Much of the series is a showcase for Bandit’s virtuosic performances in his daughters’ imaginative schemes. In subsequent episodes, he serves as their beleaguered hospital patient, beleaguered robot, beleaguered horse. “Bluey” has been praised for its rare...

~Surprise Development of the Week: German chancellor tests positive for COVID again, despite booster shots "Despite"? Meanwhile, back in the real world: EU countries destroy €4B worth of COVID vaccines A POLITICO analysis shows that more than 200M unwanted coronavirus jabs have been dumped. The Mark Steyn Show first reported on the dumping of Covid vaccines last year, but it's good to see the trend continuing. That "200 million" EU total is a considerable underestimate, given that certain countries - France, Greece, the Czech Republic, etc - have refused to cough up any data. Obviously not all the unwanted "boosters"...

Flight 69 Sol 1007 Date Dec. 20, 2023 Horizontal Distance 705 m ~2,315 ft Max. Altitude 16 m ~52 ft Max. Groundspeed 10 m/s ~22.4 mph Duration 135.4 seconds Route of Flight Airfield ChiFlight Log By the Numbers FLIGHTS 69FLIGHT TIME ~125.5 MINS DISTANCE FLOWN 10 MILES (~16,711 km) (sic)MAX. GROUND SPEED 22.4 MPH 10 m/sHIGHEST ALTITUDE 24 METERS (~79 ft)

Everyone owes astronaut Frank Rubio an apology.NASA astronaut Frank Rubio returned to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) in late September, after a record-setting 371 straight days in space. During his lengthy mission, Rubio orbited our planet roughly 5,936 times, covered a distance of more than 157 million miles … and inadvertently lost one tiny tomato. Rubio was among the ISS team who worked on a project called VEG-05, an experiment into how (or if) red robin tomatoes could grow in space. After a 100-day growth period, the inch-long tomatoes were harvested, but, according to NASA, the astronauts were...

A police officer searched a Massachusetts middle school after someone reported that a book with explicit material was being read in an eighth-grade classroom. The plain-clothes cop was reportedly wearing a bodycam when he entered W.E.B. Du Bois Regional Middle School in Great Barrington. The officer was looking for the graphic novel, Gender Queer: A Memoir, after police received a complaint on December 8 about 'concerning illustrations' in the book. Great Barrington Police Chief Paul Storti said the person who made the complaint provided an image that showed illustrated characters in sexual acts. The officer was escorted by school officials...

Legal groups and individuals have shaken the foundation of diversity, equity, and inclusion hiring practices across the country with dozens of lawsuits and civil rights complaints. Sometimes, hiring based on race or gender is used as an incentive program to reward hiring managers who meet quotas. Such is allegedly the case with IBM, whose executives have been exposed for incentivizing the hiring of "underrepresented" minorities and genders. Doing so "leads to a plus on your bonus," said IBM CEO Arvind Krishna. IBM was subsequently hit with a federal civil rights complaint over race-based hiring practices. Leading the charge was former...

When six Israelis decided to make tequila in Israel, they thought their biggest mission would be convincing people that tequila made from blue agave in the Holy Land could rival the well-known and much appreciated tequilas of Mexico. After October 7, however, when Hamas attacked Israel and killed 1,200 people, the founders of spirits company Negave Estates realized that they had a whole new mission – to help rebuild and resuscitate the Negev communities devastated in the attack. Making tequila in Israel sounds like a pretty wild thing to embark on. Blue agave usually grows in the plains of central...

The Lincoln Memorial has been temporarily closed as cleanup crews have begun removing graffiti at the national monument that said "Free Gaza" in red paint, U.S. Park Police confirmed to ABC News. Police are investigating the vandalism of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., which was first discovered on Wednesday on the west side of the Reflecting Pool and Lincoln Memorial Circle. The memorial has since been temporarily closed to visitors.

Chess legend and political activist Garry Kasparov, who was the youngest-ever undisputed world champion at the age of 22 and was ranked the number one player in the world for an astonishing 21 consecutive years, mocked CNN for calling the huge terror tunnel built by Hamas an “alleged Hamas tunnel.”

It’s the most wonderful time of the year for retailers. With Christmas around the corner, shopping soars: groceries and drinks for dinners, toys, electronics for gifts, and clothes for events. It seems wild not to believe that capitalism is in perfect health... However, former Greek Minister of Economics Yanis Varoufakis not only thinks it's in decline but claims it's already dead. Who killed it? Well, according to him, Amazon and Alibaba, among others... My Wildest Prediction is a brand new podcast series from Euronews Business where we dare to imagine the future with business and tech visionaries. In this third...

Giants quarterback Tommy DeVito and the owner of a New Jersey pizzeria who was steaming over an autograph signing gone terribly wrong broke bread — and a whole lot more — Tuesday afternoon. Over a meal of pizzas, chicken parm and sodas mixed from an antique machine, DeVito, members of his new marketing team and Nino Coniglio — owner of Coniglio’s Old Fashioned in Morristown — agreed to a charitable solution that mends most fences in a viral feud, as witnessed by The Post. Coniglio originally advertised a Tuesday appearance by DeVito at his restaurant but cancelled after he said...

Americans are again voting with their feet, which means the deep blue states of Illinois, California, and New York posted the top three population losses in 2023, while the red states of Texas, Florida, and North Carolina were the top three population gainers. Yes, yes, I am well aware my current home state of North Carolina has a Democrat governor. However, Republicans control the State Senate and House. In fact, Republicans have a veto-proof supermajority in the House. Here in The NC, we are governed by the GOP. When you compare 2022 state populations to 2023 state populations, New York...

Could a secret trip to Finland hold the key to an unresolved chapter in American history? Documents that were kept secret for 60 years have finally been released by the Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo), according to YLE. On the night of October 10, 1959, Lee Harvey Oswald checked into Helsinki’s Hotel Torni. His passport identified him as an American, and he booked room 309 for five days. However, after just two nights, Oswald abruptly left, claiming a desire to return to the US, a statement later proven false. Oswald’s Mysterious Movements In Helsinki Oswald’s actions in Finland puzzled authorities....

... At least 16 other states currently have pending legal challenges to Mr. Trump’s eligibility for office under the 14th Amendment, according to a database maintained by Lawfare, a nonpartisan site dedicated to national security issues. The lawsuits argue that he is barred because he engaged in an insurrection with his actions surrounding the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Four of these lawsuits — in Michigan, Oregon, New Jersey and Wisconsin — have been filed in state courts. Eleven lawsuits — in Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, New York, New Mexico, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming —...

Climate activist attended recent rally against project that saw protesters blockade Statkraft's Oslo, Norway office Norway’s Statkraft and its partners will pay reindeer herders millions of dollars to avoid having to tear down part of a huge onshore wind project that was found to violate their human rights, although a dispute with another group rumbles on. A deal was struck this week between Statkraft and one group of Sami reindeer herders who have in recent years found themselves sharing a home with the state-owned green power giant’s 1GW Fosen Vind project that is among Europe's largest.

DENVER, CO — In a 4-3 decision, the Colorado Supreme Court will require Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips must bake a celebration cake honoring the Colorado Supreme Court's decision to remove Trump from the ballot. "The cake must have the words 'Dump Trump' in giant red letters," said Justice Richard Gabriel in his opinion. "No wait — have it say DRUMPF! HA! Classic. And put some little rainbow flags and Palestinian flags all over it. It is the opinion of the court that failure to bake this cake for us constitutes illegal discrimination." Justice Gabriel then banged his gavel loudly...

Almost a quarter of former President Donald Trump's supporters said he should not become the Republican presidential nominee in 2024 if he is convicted of a crime, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll. The poll released on Wednesday showed that 24% of Republican voters who would vote for Trump next year said that "even if he has won the most votes in the primary," if he is convicted, Trump should not become the GOP's standard-bearer. Trump faces 91 indictments across four criminal cases and is in the middle of a $250 million New York civil fraud trial. And...

Member states and the European Parliament struck on Wednesday a major deal to reform the bloc's migration policy, capping off a three-year-long ambitious effort that at times seemed doomed to fail. The sought-after agreement, which is preliminary and still needs to undergo formal ratification, was sealed after marathon talks that began on Monday afternoon, continued throughout Tuesday and concluded on Wednesday morning, an intensity that reflects the high stakes on the table. Negotiations focused on a vast and complex array of open questions that required compromises on both sides, such as detention periods, racial profiling, unaccompanied minors, search-and-rescue operations and...

Actor Cameron Diaz has a strong opinion when it comes to sleeping with your partner: "We should normalize separate bedrooms." "To me, I would literally — I have my house. You have yours. We have the family house in the middle," Diaz, who married Good Charlotte guitarist Benji Madden in 2015, said on an episode of the podcast Lipstick on the Rim earlier this week.

A story of a dog who went missing six years ago, thought to be lost forever, has had a happy ending after she was found alive and well in the UK. In a remarkable series of events, a black Patterdale terrier named Rose, a dog who had been missing for over six years was discovered in a forest in the south of England. This heart-warming story unfolded in Crawley Down, West Sussex. The Lost Dog Recovery UK South group was notified of a dog roaming the area in late 2023. They set up cameras in the forest to determine if...