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Since 1999, Slashdot has been covering the annual Ig Nobel prize ceremonies — which honor real scientific research into strange or surprising subjects. "Each winner (or winning team) has done something that makes people LAUGH, then THINK," explains the ceremony web page, promising that "a gaggle of genuine, genuinely bemused Nobel laureates handed the Ig Nobel Prizes to the new Ig Nobel winners." As co-founder Marc Abrahams says on his LinkedIn profile, "All these things celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative — and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology." You can watch this year's entire goofy webcast online....

Former Mayor Bill de Blasio has gone from eating pizza with a fork to chowing down on a huge helping of humble pie. The chief executive admitted in a new article that he wound up as one of the city’s most unpopular mayors because he grew out of touch with average New Yorkers and failed to engage with the city’s “aggrieved residents.”

Speaking during remarks to a J.P. Morgan healthcare conference this week, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla openly stated current vaccines the company developed for Wuhan coronavirus offer "limited, if any" protection against contracting current variants of the disease. He then encouraged booster shots. The statement from Bourla comes as the Biden administration continues to justify vaccine mandates for federal workers, contractors and private businesses. The Supreme Court heard arguments about President Biden's mandates for private companies and medical workers last week. A ruling is expected soon on the constitutionality of the mandates. A number of people who have pointed out the...

National Institutes of Health paid $205,000 to study transgender monkeys just as the omicron variant of COVID-19 was sending untold numbers of Americans to the hospital. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) — the division headed up by celebrity medical spokesmodel Anthony “Doctor” Fauci — gave your tax dollars to Scripps Research to try and find out why transgender women are so prone to HIV infection. I know what you’re asking: “Who amongst us, for 200 large, wouldn’t put a monkey in a dress?” For half a million, I’d dress up with it. Not that I’m into...

White people who visit the square where George Floyd was murdered by ex-Minnesota cop Derek Chauvin will now have to obey 'special rules' according to a new signposted. The sign at the square reads: “A Sacred Space for Community, Public Grief, and Protest.”

Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Richard Jordan released Justin Wilson from jail on April 30 because of COVID-19 concerns. On July 23, Wilson, a repeat criminal, murdered 63-year-old Edigio Ienzi in his Germantown, Maryland home ... The 16-year-old daughter woke up when she heard shouting and walked downstairs to see her father fighting with an intruder at knifepoint. The teen ran back up to her bedroom and dialed 911 from her closet. ... Surveillance video from two of the neighbors’ homes caught a man matching Wilson’s description running away. ... Tens of thousands of dangerous criminals are being released from...

The huge display of sortie generation capability comes as the base's F-35 force reaches full capacity after transitioning to the F-35 years ago. The 388th and 419th Fighter Wings that call Hill Air Force Base in Utah home have just executed a massive readiness drill that included an 'elephant walk' of a whopping 52 F-35As. The exercise coincides with the wings reaching full strength following the transition to the F-35A, a process that began years ago. The elephant walk and the massive number of flights that usually go along with it are all about sortie generation and displaying a level...

Those oh-so-handy USB power charging stations in the airport may come with a cost you can’t see. Cybercriminals can modify those USB connections to install malware on your phone or download data without your knowledge. “Plugging into a public USB port is kind of like finding a toothbrush on the side of the road and deciding to stick it in your mouth. You have no idea where that thing has been,” says Caleb Barlow, Vice President of X-Force Threat Intelligence at IBM Security. “And remember that that USB port can pass data.”

Add another alleged groping incident to Al Franken’s growing list of sexual misdeeds. The one-time comedian appeared on the Howard Stern Show in 1999, where he bragged about groping Kathie Lee Gifford. Later in the show, however, Franken changed his story, and said it was “wrong” he had sexually accosted Gifford.

[Hussein] Obama went golfing in Hawaii...then made what ABC News describes as a 40-foot chip shot....The press rewarded Obama with cheers.

Linky only.

C-Span has just aired a replay of the Wednesday ceremony held by the US Congress to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of the Vietnam War. Congressional leaders and current members, the Secretary of Defense, and past members of Congress who had served in Vietnam spoke about the war, its significance in the history of the country, and the sacrifice of those who served as well as the debt of gratitude the country owes them to this day. When Boehner finally got around to presenting at the end of the program he announced that a lapel pin had bee...

[People of color] are expected to educate white people as to our humanity. Women are expected to educate men. Lesbians and gay men are expected to educate the heterosexual world. The oppressors maintain their position and evade their responsibility for their own actions. —Audre Lorde America loves teachable moments, those real-life Very Special Episodes of supposed cross-cultural exchange and transracial learning. The problem with those teachable moments is that the same people always end up doing all the teaching. In matters of race (and sex, disability, gender and sexuality, but let’s stick to race right now), the marginalized are tasked...

Can't see how you would repeat an already posted article on Free Republic.

Can't see how you would repeat an already posted article on Free Republic.

Most people know James Golden as “Bo Snerdley,” the call screener, for the Rush Limbaugh radio show. He recently gave an interview with The Daily Caller where he addressed the reaction that Black leaders had towards the now jailed abortion doctor convicted of murdering an abortion patient and several babies in his Philadelphia “House of Horrors” abortion clinic. “How is it that [abortion doctor] Kermit Gosnell can practice in Philadelphia and do what he did to black women and black babies who were in some cases full term and do this without an outcry in a community for so long?...

Reid calls it 'a big deal over nothing'. The Democratic Party seems to have a go-to line to reflect apathy for controversial issues plaguing the Obama administration. Asked about why he seemed to be the only one notified about the deal to retrieve Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl before it was made, Harry Reid bristled at the question. “I’m not sure I’m the only one,” he said. “A big deal over nothing. Is it Friday or is it Saturday? What difference does it make? What difference does it make?” Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton infamously snapped, “What difference at this point...

A lot of political pundits make a lot of money talking to an every-shrinking audience. Most Americans these days simply can’t stand politics, and after watching Tuesday’s State of the Union speech and the Republican response, it’s easy to understand why. President Obama’s speech was empty calories, a greatest hits record from a local band that never had a hit. I had to check my DVR to make sure I hadn’t accidentally replayed a previous year’s speech. I hadn’t, but I still want to know where to go to get those two hours of my life back. The buzz leading...

A 48-year-old self-employed court reporter referenced by President Barack Obama as a beneficiary of his Affordable Care Act during a recent address has learned that she’s one of the latest Americans to be duped by another Obamacare false promise. From the White House rose garden late last month, Pres. Obama read a letter he received from Jessica Sanford, a Washington state single mom who had recently found out that the president’s hallmark health care plan would cost her a fraction of what she previously paid to cover herself and her son. “I am a single mom. No child support, self-employed...

Ex-Congressman Apologizes to Family for Misusing Campaign Funds A judge on Wednesday sentenced former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. to 2½ years in prison for treating his campaign fund like a "personal piggy bank"—siphoning off $750,000 over the years to pay for personal items like spa treatments and televisions. Mr. Jackson's wife, Sandi Jackson, a former Chicago alderman, was sentenced to a year in prison for her role in the scheme. The former congressman, who had represented a Chicago district for more than a decade, resigned last year amid the Federal Bureau of Investigation probe of his finances. He pleaded guilty...