Arachnophobia

Nature 4 Minutes

Let’s be honest…no matter how valuable spiders are to our ecosystem…they give me the creeps! {{SHUDDER}} Setting those feelings aside, here are some amazing facts about spiders!

Spiders have blue blood – just like snails and octopuses.

Spider silk is liquid at the beginning and only becomes solid in the air.

Spiders only have muscles to pull their legs inwards. But some spiders do not have the opposite extensor muscles. Therefore, they move them outwards by pumping blood into them.

There are different types of spiders in which the female eats the male before, during or after copulation. The Black Widow is the best-known representative of sexual cannibalism.

Around 35,000 different types of spiders are known worldwide.

The Sydney funnel-web spider’s venom can be used after a stroke to prevent brain damage.

In total, all spiders eat around 800 million tons of prey each year. By contrast, whales only estimate up to 500 million tons of biomass.

Some spiders live together on a web after mating.

Jumping spiders can even see the ultraviolet spectrum. Their highly developed eyes ensure that they can jump from branch to branch without fail.

The water spider (Argyroneta aquatica) spins a dense web out of its silk, which is used as a diving bell.

Antarctica is the only continent where no spiders exist.

 Tidarren sisyphoides is a spider species of the family of tangle web spiders. The females of this species are one hundred times larger than males.

The Goliath birdeater’s bite claws are almost one inch (2.5 centimeters) long.

The Sydney funnel-web spider (Atrax robustus) is the most poisonous spider in the world. A dose of just 0.2 grams per kilogram of body weight is fatal to the victim.

New Guinea fishermen use the web of the golden orb-weaver (Nephila) for fishing because it is extremely tear-resistant.

In August 2008, the world’s largest spider web was discovered in Texas. In the Lake Tawakoni nature reserve, it spanned several bushes and trees and was built by around 250 spiders. It measures 180 meters in length.

The Colombian spider Patu digua is the smallest known spider in the world with a body size of up to 0.014 inches (0.37 millimeters).

Annually, more people die from being hit by a champagne cork than from the bite of a venomous spider.

In order to kill a spider, a woman in Kansas burned down her house.

The spider species Caeristris darwini spins the largest webs in the world. Their size can reach more than 30 square feet (2.8 square meters).

A bite of the Brazilian wandering spider can cause men an erection that lasts for hours.

The silk of the spider species Caeristris darwini is the toughest biomaterial in the world – ten times stronger than a comparable strand of Kevlar.

In order to better investigate the effects of a black widow’s poison, the scientist Allan Walker Blair voluntarily let the dangerous spider bite him.

The Huntsman spider (Heteropoda maxima) is the largest spider species in the world. Adult males usually have a span of up to 12 inches (30 centimeters). In Australia, a specimen estimated at 15.7 inches (40 centimeters) was discovered in 2017.

The spider species Amaurobius Ferox belongs to the genus of matriphages. This means that the spider female’s children eat their own mother after hatching from their eggs.

Martin Goodman – one of the founders of Marvel – thought Spider-Man was a bad idea because people do not like spiders.

Australia is home to some of the world deadliest animals. You can find the deadliest snake, spider, octopus and fish there. Nevertheless only a few people are killed by that animals and even more people are killed by horses each year than by Australia’s deadliest animals combined.

The fear of spiders is called arachnophobia.

Bolas spiders do not spin webs to catch prey. Instead, they use a long line of silk ended with a spot of sticky glue. It contains pheromones to simulate a potential sexual partner for certain insects. If prey comes too close to the mucus ball, the bola spider moves the silk line to catch the prey animal, much like a fishing line.

The ogre-faced spider has developed a very special hunting technique. It weaves a net between its four front legs and then dangles above places where prey are likely to pass through. If a prey is within range, it throws the net over it extremely fast.

With a leg span of up to 11.8 inches (30 centimeters), the Goliath birdeater (Theraphosa blondi) is the largest tarantula species in the world. It occurs exclusively in the tropical rainforests in northern Brazil, Venezuela, Guiana, and Suriname.

Spiders had a tail 100 million years ago.

There are about 300 species of spiders that can mimic the behavior, appearance or even fragrance of ants. Few of them deceive their prey in this way and then attack them from behind.

The largest jumping spider in the world is almost one inch (2.5 centimeters) long and can skip eight times its body length.

Jumping spiders weave a dense, non-sticky net under which they position themselves to being protected from bad weather like in a tent.

Jumping spiders do not use their silk to build a web, but as a tether when jumping.

Spiders are not insects, but arachnids.

There is only one known type of spider that has no eyes. Sinopoda scurion is a Huntsman spider and was discovered in a cave in Laos where there is no daylight.

Not all spiders have eight eyes. There are also some species that have only six, four or even just two eyes.

The spider species Cebrennus rechenbergi, also called cartwheeling spider, moves partly in a rolling flic-flac movement. It is then twice as fast as with normal movement.

Disclaimer: I need a happy spider picture to cleanse my brain…

Published by FJB

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162 thoughts on “Arachnophobia”

  1. Morning All!
    the movie arachnophobia creeped me out!!! jumping spiders multiplying and…..shudder…

    anyway, the trap we set on the deck to trap raccoons is shut, but there is nothing in it and the bait is gone…hubby will have to get the trail cam to see what happened…

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Oooh, that movie freaked me out, too!!! I hate spiders, pure and simple, altho I’m not going to freak out over one or two of the small black tiny ones I see occasionally. And Daddy Longlegs spiders don’t scare me. But that is as far as my tolerance for them goes!!! “A bite of the Brazilian wandering spider can cause men an erection that lasts for hours.” Hey! A natural get-it-up solution! Oh, and I do NOT believe more horses kill people in Australia than all those other creatures! Not a chance!

      Liked by 1 person

  7. from tcth

    HEIDI
    October 2, 2022 2:38 am

    No doubt this fraud happened in other targeted states:

    Video: Weaponized’ Voter Rolls in NY:
    Investigation Into Over 10,000 ‘Cloned’ Registrations | Facts Matter ~

    Marly Hornik, director of the NY Citizens Audit team revealed 321,000+ NY voters had multiple invalid voter registration ID numbers attached to their name, address, date of birth that could only have been created by someone w official access to the state’s election software.

    Vote total for 2020 election was more than 272,000 votes off from what is shown in the NY state voter rolls. ~

    https://rumble.com/v1m2f7w-facts-matter-the-pit-fraudulent-weaponized-ny-voter-rolls.html?mref=6zof&mc=dgip3&ep=2

    Liked by 1 person

  9. trying to make sense of this story…doj is admitting the warrant they gave lindell is true and correct?
    entire article
    Mike Lindell’s phone was taken by FBI agents on September 13th outside a Minnesota Hardee’s.
    Now, the search warrant Mike says the FBI showed him is under dispute.
    In a hearing before a Trump-appointed judge in his civil case against the US Department of Justice, government lawyers said they wouldn’t concede that the search warrant filed by Mike’s legal team was “true and correct.”
    What is going on?
    Here is part of the search warrant filed by Mike’s lawyers:

    The full search warrant filed by Mike’s lawyers is https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/22671151/lindell-v-us-warrant.pdf.
    Mike’s lawyers — including Alan Dershowitz — want the search warrant declared “invalid.”
    But the DOJ won’t say that search warrant filed by Mike’s lawyers is “true and correct.”
    Law and Crime reported:

    Lindell’s 20-page complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, seeks the return of the company-issued phone and other “declaratory or equitable relief.” The complaint also (more relevantly) asks for a judge to declare as “invalid” the search warrant federal agents used to seize the device. It further seeks the return of any data accessed from the device; for a “temporary restraining order prohibiting the Defendants from attempting any access to the data collected”; and for the government to provide Lindell “a copy of the Affidavit submitted to the Court to obtain the Warrant.”

    Also from Law and Crime:

    Federal prosecutors on Friday twice reiterated that they were “not conceding” that MyPillow founder and Donald Trump supporter Mike Lindell filed a “true and correct” copy of a purported search warrant served upon him for the seizure of his cell phone.

    https://thelibertydaily.com/search-warrant-fbi-used-to-get-mike-lindells-cell-phone-is-under-dispute-doj-wont-concede-filed-copy-is-true-and-correct/

    Liked by 1 person

      1. then all they’d need to do is present the “original” and prove lindell’s team as frauds–that would be a big story, don’t you think?
        maybe i’m reaching here, but this seems like maybe the “agents” modified the original order OR the doj got caught doing something not above board and is trying to cover that up…

        Liked by 1 person

  10. jail justice? in quarantine tho…hmmmmmmm
    FTA
    A former substitute teacher accused of statutory rape and sodomy was found dead Monday in his cell at the St. Louis County Justice Center in Missouri.

    Thirty-year-old Brandon Holbrook was alone and under quarantine when a corrections officers found him, Doug Moore, the spokesman for County Executive Sam Page told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

    The man was later pronounced dead at a hospital, and the cause is currently under investigation. In addition, there were reportedly no signs of drug use or suicide.

    The outlet noted an autopsy was pending, adding that “Holbrook is the third inmate at the St. Louis County Jail to die this year.”

    https://www.breitbart.com/crime/2022/09/30/ex-teacher-accused-of-raping-student-found-dead-in-cell/

    Liked by 1 person

  12. ghoulish medical practice for what was considered a compassionate AFTER DEATH gift
    entire article
    In the never-ending quest for viable organs, doctors have found a way around brain death and circulatory death criteria. Transplant centers around the country are removing organ donors from life support, clamping off the blood flow to their brains, and then restarting their hearts. Thus, the organs are resuscitated and viable for transplant, but the person doesn’t wake up.

    This procedure, known as normothermic regional perfusion with controlled donation after circulatory death (NRP-cDCD) allows for organ-harvesting in patients who are not brain-dead but who are not expected to survive. Life support is removed, and after the heart stops beating, doctors wait an average of 2–3 minutes to see if the heart will start up again on its own. If it doesn’t, surgery begins with clamping off the blood flow to the patient’s brain. That way, when the rest of the body is resuscitated, the brain is excluded from the returning blood flow, and the body is effectively made “brain-dead” on purpose. After the brain circulation is occluded, the rest of the body is hooked up to a cardiac bypass machine to deliver warm, oxygenated blood to the organs. According to the University of Nebraska protocol, “once blood flow to the heart is established, the heart will start beating.” The remaining organs are thus resuscitated and can be harvested for transplantation. The NRP-cDCD protocol allows for the harvesting of organs such as the heart and intestines, which would quickly become non-viable and unsuitable for transplant with previous circulatory death harvesting techniques.

    Many medical professionals are uncomfortable with donation after circulatory death because they know that patients are routinely resuscitated after 2–3 minutes of cardiac arrest. Dr. Ari Joffe, a clinical professor of pediatrics and critical care at the University of Alberta, has found at least 12 patients whose hearts restarted without any medical intervention after as much as 10 minutes of cardiac arrest, and some of these patients made a complete recovery. In 2020, the heart of a young woman who had been declared dead by circulatory criteria was noted to have restarted during the removal of her kidneys, even as she began to gasp for breath. The coroner declared her “second” death a homicide. Because of concerns such as these, the American College of Physicians (ACP) recommended in 2021 that the practice of NRP-cDCD be paused, as “the burden of proof regarding the ethical and legal propriety of this practice has not been met.” Other nations, such as Australia, have banned NRP-cDCD altogether. But despite ongoing ethical concerns, this type of organ-harvesting is continuing and expanding in the USA.

    The Uniform Declaration of Death Act (UDDA) was passed into law in 1981. Under the UDDA, a person may be declared legally dead after the irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions, or the irreversible cessation of all functions of the brain, including the brainstem. The current practice of NRP-cDCD restarts the heart well within the time that normal resuscitation can still occur. How is circulatory function irreversible if the heart can be restarted in the patient’s own chest? Well, now they can still be claimed as dead according to the UDDA’s cessation of brain function criteria. This medical-legal sleight of hand is used to obfuscate the fact that the dead donor rule is being violated. The dead donor rule states that organ donors cannot be killed in order to obtain their organs, and organ procurement cannot cause death.

    Dr. Matthew DeCamp, M.D., Ph.D., a bioethicist at the University of Colorado, wrote in the journal Chest:

    Restarting circulation reverses what was just declared to be the irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory function. It is no defense to suggest that the patient was already dead when the action negates the conditions upon which the determination was made.

    Dr. Wes Ely, M.D., MPH, a critical care physician and transplant pulmonologist at Vanderbilt University, told MedPage Today:

    We’re so hungry for organs right now that we are pushing all the limits. I just want us to be super-cautious. We need to press the pause button on this and have some more conversations so that we can set up boundaries and stay in the right lane. The dignity of the human who donates the organs should never be sacrificed.

    Transplant physicians who perform NRP-cDCD are playing fast and loose with the both the spirit and letter of the law as spelled out by the UDDA. Because these patients are still capable of being resuscitated, they are not yet dead, and they are being actively harmed by physicians in pursuit of their organs. Because these donors are not brain-dead, do they have some level of awareness as they are taken to have their brain circulation cross-clamped? How many families would give their loved ones over to transplant teams if they knew the grisly reality taking place behind the operating room doors?

    While medical professionals debate the ethics of “circulatory death,” the American people continue to sign their donor cards in ignorance of these facts. Physicians and organ procurement organizations must come clean on the many controversies surrounding both “brain-dead” and “circulatory death” organ-harvesting. It is critical that patients receive a full explanation of the many ethical questions involved in organ-harvesting before giving their informed consent.

    Don’t become a victim of unethical organ harvesting practices. Don’t sign that donor card!

    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/10/doctors_have_a_macabre_new_way_to_harvest_organs.html

    Liked by 1 person

  13. we were watching the trail cam footage. it IS a raccoon. he got right up to the cage–which is now tethered to the deck–and tried reaching inside to grab the tuna can with the bait in it–all without stepping inside the trap and triggering it. But hubby also secured the bait can far enough away from the front of the trap that he couldn’t do that. so he jumped on the trap and shook it somewhat…which triggered the trap and the door slammed shut. then he kept swatting at the cage, knocking the pellets out of the bait can which he then ate.
    we decided to try a secured-to-the bottom of the cage apple tonight…he will not rattle the apple out of the can…
    he’s a smart little bugger for sure

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Ha! TOLD YOU!!! I knew it was a coon!!! Yes, they are VERY wily little buggers…..remember Laura’s pet raccoon??? How about a can of tuna itself or some kind of canned meat that can’t be shaken out of the can?

      Liked by 1 person

      1. i do remember Jasper…lol
        it was puzzling about the trap being sprung…the squirrels and chipmunks or mice are too light to trip the plate. but finally seeing him in action…he is very clever!

        Liked by 1 person

  14. OK – I am fully aware of the pressure to keep players on the field put on the team coaches and support staff, including the doctors, by the money people upstairs. But there was one overriding question floating thru my mind the entire time I was reading this…..I kept looking and looking but it isn’t mentioned….how much pressure did TUA put on the doctor to ALLOW him to keep playing and put him back in the game? Because we all know most of those players will do it every time! Of course those doctors should honor their Hippocratic oath and do the right thing but we’ve all learned the hard lesson in the last 2 years about just how much trust we can safely place in doctors!!!! Yes, he should have been fired but the ramifications must NOT stop there!

    EXCERPT: “On Friday we reported about the terrifying brain injury Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa suffered in a Thursday night Football game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Tua was slammed to the turf and exhibited signs of the “fencing response,” in which a person’s arms go into an unnatural position after suffering a traumatic brain injury. It was scary to watch.

    The outcry among pundits, doctors, and former and current players was swift—because Tagovailoa had experienced what looked like another disturbing injury just four days earlier in a game against the Buffalo Bills. After that hit, Tua stumbled around in apparent disorientation and even fell to the ground. However, he was inexplicably allowed to finish the game and even suit up for the Thursday night Bengals matchup.
    ——————
    At issue is the phrase in the current protocols that say a player is a no-go if he experiences “gross motor instability” that was “neurologically caused.” This is the loophole apparently used by the Dolphins—they said it was back injury that caused Tua’s unsteadiness, not neurological issues, thus paving the way to get him back in action. The words “neurologically-caused” will presumably be stricken post-haste, and any player appearing obviously disoriented will heretofore need to step off the field.

    The situation is doubtless complicated, and millions of dollars are potentially at stake when a star player is unable to play. However, I can’t help but think this is not a good look for Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel who didn’t seem to get that a major mistake was made:

    “I get the optics, I get how it looks like, I get all of this, I get people’s concern,” he said.

    “I can exude with 100 percent conviction that every person in this building had 100 percent the correct process, diligence and there is not one person you could talk to in the building that would think otherwise.”

    https://redstate.com/bobhoge/2022/10/01/the-fallout-begins-from-tagovailoa-brain-injury-doctor-who-cleared-him-fired-concussion-protocols-to-be-changed-n636105

    Liked by 1 person

  15. thread but no thread reader app that i could find

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Like

  18. Liked by 1 person

  19. EXCERPT: “The Journal of Insulin Resistance published a two-part research paper, “Curing the pandemic of misinformation on COVID-19 mRNA vaccines through real evidence-based medicine.”

    This was written by one of the U.K.’s most eminent cardiologists, Dr. Aseem Malhotra, who was one of the first to take two doses of the vaccine and promote it on “Good Morning Britain.”

    Malhotra now says that since the rollout of the vaccine, the evidence of its effectiveness and true rates of adverse events have changed and now, “There is a strong scientific, ethical, and moral case to be made that COVID-19 vaccines rollout must stop immediately until raw data has been released for fully independent scrutiny.”

    Furthermore, real-world data reveal that in the non-elderly population, the number needed to vaccinate to prevent one death from COVID-19 runs into thousands and that re-analysis of randomized controlled trial data from the initial vaccine clinical trials suggests a greater risk of suffering a serious adverse event from the vaccine than to be hospitalized with COVID-19.

    Summary overviews of the two-part research paper are below, together with a transcript of the above video in which he introduces his findings.”

    https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/aseem-malhotra-cardiologist-end-covid-vaccines-malone/

    Liked by 1 person

  20. “Box Office: “Bros,” billed as an all gay comedy, is a box office disaster. Total receipts for Thursday and Friday came to just $1.84 million. With another $2.5 million coming on Saturday and Sunday, “Bros” stands to make less than $5 million for its entire opening weekend.”

    “Or truckloads of horse shit!!!”

    “Me, when I wake up at 4 am and find the FBI at my door….”

    Liked by 1 person

  25. aw so cute…the fib caught someone selling secrets…guess who? an nsa agent??? i’m not sure i believe this stuff anymore…
    entire article
    (Molly Bruns, Headline USA) A former agent of the National Security Agency (NSA) was arrested after the FBI discovered attempting to sell government secrets to an FBI agent who he thought was a foreign operative.

    According to The Daily Wire, Jareh Sebastian Dalke made his first court appearance after his arrest for espionage related charges for transmitting National Defense Information (NDI) to a Russian Operative.

    The Department of Justice stated that Dalke used an encrypted email account in order to send many classified documents to someone he believed worked for the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service.

    “In actuality, that person was an undercover FBI agent. Dalke subsequently arranged to transfer additional classified information in his possession to the undercover FBI agent at a location in Denver, Colorado,” the DOJ said.

    Dalke worked as a systems sercurity designer for the NSA in June and July of this year, and was arrested when he went to meet up with his contact to sell the classified information.

    The DOJ said in a statement that Dalke told the undercover FBI agent that he was still working for the NSA and that he would sell secrets for a specific cryptocurrency.

    “On or about Aug. 26, 2022, Dalke requested $85,000 in return for additional information in his possession,” the DOJ said. “Dalke also told the FBI undercover agent that he would share additional information in the future, once he returned to the Washington, D.C., area. Although he was not employed by the NSA while communicating with the FBI, Dalke re-applied to the NSA in August 2022.”

    Dalke also told the undercover agent that he “recently learned that [his] heritage ties back to [the agent’s] country,” which was reportedly part of why he wanted to sell him the information.

    He also stated that he wanted to sell the documents because he “questioned our role in damage to the world in the past and by mixture of curiosity for secrets and a desire to cause change.”

    If convicted, Dalke could be sentenced to life in prison or execution.

    https://headlineusa.com/nsa-agent-arrested-secrets-undercover/

    Liked by 1 person

  26. this is plain disgusting…
    entire article
    Is this, like, normal for the Deep South? Does this just happen all the time down there?

    There was an issue loading this tweet. Click here to troubleshoot.
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    (For background, the setup is that a fellow working with a nonprofit river organization was taking some group donors out on a ride on the Chattahoochee:)

    Ulseth had boated it a hundred times before. “But, this time,” he told me recently, “I saw something white off on the side near the bridge.” He pulled the boat over to the bank. “There were eight or nine baby decapitated goats just floating in the water. The ladies flipped their [expletive].”

    Ulseth “booked it out of there,” he told me. It wasn’t the first time a dead goat had been seen in the river — in the nineties, Georgia Power informed [Chattahoochee Riverkeeper] that a goat carcass was caught in a swirling eddy near a power station’s intake pipe. (Riverkeeper employees have also come upon grocery carts, sex toys, mannequins, bowling balls, and TV sets, among other objects.) But that morning in October, Ulseth said, marked the beginning of the Chattahoochee’s headless-goat era. “After that, I found them there pretty much every single time I’d go out,” he told me. “Just bodies, never heads. Sometimes dozens.” Ulseth estimates that in the roughly four years since that day he’s found around five hundred decapitated goats in the Chattahoochee.

    Uh yeah, when you find five hundred decapitated goats on a single river, you don’t just go on doing things like normal. You call Rambo in his riverboat to come take a look around for you.

    Nobody really knows who’s doing this, or why, but some theorize that it could be cartel drug runners practicing the weird quasi-pagan religion of Santeria:

    I told Almonte about what was turning up in the Chattahoochee. He didn’t sound surprised. “I’m seeing more and more of the drug traffickers using Santería for protection over the last couple of years,” he said. “But that’s a lot of goats. That would mean they’re moving a lot of drugs along that highway.”

    Oh heck, they really should call Rambo, he knows how to deal with the cartel!

    Still, this is the weirdest thing ever. Headless goats by the hundreds. Lord have mercy.

    I don’t care how lovely Alan Jackson makes it sound … I, for one, will never ever go down yonder to the Chattahoochee.

    https://notthebee.com/article/uh-is-anyone-else-alarmed-that-hundreds-of-decapitated-goat-carcasses-are-showing-up-in-a-major-us-river/

    Liked by 1 person

  27. self-certify that they are NOT delinquent on tax payments? but hire 87,000 more irs auditors to go after citizens…gov’t awarded nearly $1 billion in contracts and grants to organizations owed almost a BILLION in federal taxes…
    entire article
    This week’s Golden Horseshoe is awarded to an array of federal agencies for awarding billions in contracts and grants to organizations that owed nearly $1 billion in delinquent federal taxes, according to a new audit by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

    In a 14-month period, the federal government awarded 2.1 million contracts and grants worth over $30 billion to nearly 4,000 awardees which owed a combined $891 million in delinquent taxes.

    “Between October 2018 and December 2019, the Federal Government awarded 2.1 million Federal contracts and grants to more than 83,000 awardees,” the audit found. “Of these, 3,040 contractors received almost $10.2 billion in Federal contracts while owing $621.8 million in delinquent Federal taxes. In addition, 938 grantees received $22.7 billion in Federal grants while owing $269.2 million in delinquent Federal taxes.”

    The watchdog found that 45% of the 938 delinquent grantees were state, local and tribal agencies, municipal entities such as school districts or transit agencies, and colleges and universities.

    Awardees are currently required to self-certify that they are not delinquent in taxes on the government site System for Award Management. But a sample of contractors found 93% inaccurately self-certified that they were not delinquent in tax payments.

    The IRS was allocated $30 million by Congress to create an application called the Federal Contractor Tax Check System that would reveal if entities owed delinquent taxes. The agency set up a working group in October 2020 to implement the application and as of June 2022 has spent $8.54 million on design and implementation efforts.

    “The IRS has designed a technical solution to build the FCTCS and plans a foundational release in November 2022 that automates the rules underlying the performance of a tax check for business taxpayers,” the audit reports.

    The IRS is “prohibited from disclosing taxpayer information for non-tax administration purposes, including other Federal agencies contracting activities and grant awards,” IRS Chief Privacy Officer Robert Choi wrote in a memo to Deputy Inspector General Healther Hill.

    The IRS concurred with the inspector general’s recommendation that the agency’s deputy commissioner for operations support should “continue to prioritize the development of the FCTCS system” to determine entities that have seriously delinquent tax debt.

    https://justthenews.com/accountability/watchdogs/sunfed-contracts-grants-went-awardees-owing-nearly-1b-delinquent-taxes

    Liked by 1 person

  28. pays to be the mayor’s friend…pays really really well in nyc
    entire article
    I will confess that I’d had high hopes (okay… perhaps not “high” but at least “some”) for New York City Mayor Eric Adams when he came into office. The retired police chief and former Republican ran on a platform of restoring the police and getting the city’s crime levels back under control. The voters rewarded him, leaving his far more progressive primary competitors in the dust. And he has actually put some policies in place that should produce at least modest improvements. But he has also demonstrated disturbing tendencies toward nepotism and gaming the system for his own benefit or that of his friends and donors. The latest example showed up this week when it was revealed that his longtime friend and former police colleague, Timothy Pearson, has been living large on the taxpayer’s dime. Pearson is holding multiple paid positions simultaneously while also drawing his NYPD retirement benefits. One of those positions is listed as being a “senior adviser” to Adams. The Mayor’s office had somehow managed to keep Pearson’s salary a secret for the first four months in the position, but we now know that he is among the highest-paid municipal employees in the city, drawing a salary of more than $240,000 annually. (Daily Mail)

    A retired police inspector, who is a close confidant of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, is being paid more than $242,000 by the city – making him one of its highest-paid employees.

    Timothy Pearson was put on the payroll of the city’s economic development corporation by Adams on May 31, while retaining his prior job as head of security at the city’s only casino.

    In addition to holding the simultaneous positions, he is also vying for one of three newly available, full-scale casino licenses, which would allow it to expand from electronic games to become a full-service casino.

    Pearson’s salary as an “advisor” to the Mayor with no official municipal duties brings him only $10K less than deputy mayors receive and just $16K less than the Mayor himself. He is paid far more than other civil servants with far more experience and responsibilities.

    As to his position with the casino, he’s not even one of the executives in charge of the operation. He’s the head of security. And yet he somehow seems to be involved in the process where his employer will be vying for one of only three full-scale casino licenses in New York. And he is very up-close and personal with Hizzoner himself. Isn’t that convenient?

    It would be nice to think that this was simply some sort of one-off incident of a friend of the Mayor doing remarkably well for himself, but it’s not. Upon taking office, he tried to name his brother Bernard as the Deputy NYPD commissioner with a salary of nearly a quarter million dollars per year. That plan blew up in his face, but he finally named Bernard to be the “Senior Adviser for Mayoral Security.” (Funny how many friends and relatives wind up being “senior advisers,” isn’t it?) But after the appointment, the City Conflict of Interest Board stepped in and said that the brother could only be paid one dollar per year,

    https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2022/10/01/nyc-mayor-paying-his-buddy-242k-to-be-an-adviser-n500207

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  33. Liked by 1 person

  34. hubby is watching football. there was a commercial for the equalizer…now i remember my dad watching that show many years ago. so i did some quick research… a white man played the role first…in the late 80’s. then denzel washington revived the role and now? queen latifah plays the starring role…
    sigh

    Liked by 1 person

        1. what i don’t get it is this…the pretend female made an “inappropriate remark” to the girls…but THEY are the bullies?? I wanna know what the remark was…no one is saying.

          Liked by 2 people

  36. The Bee:

    MAR-A-LAGO — Former President Trump has announced “Corn Kid” will officially be his selection for Secretary of Agriculture upon re-election.

    “Corn Kid is going to do tremendous thing for our great country, everyone is saying so,” said President Trump in a statement. “He can’t imagine anything more beautiful than corn, and I can’t imagine anything more beautiful than him running the Department of Agriculture. He’s got the juice, ok? Believe me – between your favorite president and Corn Kid, we are going to make corn great again!”

    The famed “Corn Kid”, whose actual name is Tariq, has reportedly entered into negotiations with Trump to accept the position. “We’re going to get the deal done and it’s going to be incredible,” said Mr. Trump. “See Tariq, he knows the art of the deal. He comes out asking for new butter reserves, demands all corn to cost one dollar – he knows how to play the game. He’s a winner, which I respect. I would probably pick him as my running mate if he weren’t seven years old.”

    At publishing time, Tariq had reportedly accepted the position, provided no one at the White House plays the game “lava monster”.
    ———————
    [Like me, you probably hadn’t heard of the “Corn Kid!” So I looked him up…..]

    Entire Article @ People: “‘Corn Kid’ Tariq Named South Dakota’s ‘Corn-bassador’ — Everything to Know About the Viral Star—An interview featuring a 7-year-old and his enthusiastic love of corn has captured the hearts of many

    Corn is having a moment — and it’s all thanks to a 7-year old boy named Tariq. Now known as the “Corn Kid,” the viral star appeared in a video on Recess Therapy, which posts hilariously sweet clips from interviews with host Julian Shapiro-Barnum.

    The video starts with Tariq saying, “For me, I really like corn,” as he clutches his own grilled corn on a stick. Shapiro-Barnum then follows up by asking the 7-year-old what he likes about the sweet vegetable. “Ever since I was told that corn was real, it tasted good,” Tariq adorably answered. “But when I tried it with butter, everything changed! I love corn.”

    Music group, The Gregory Brothers, also known as Schmoyoho on Youtube and TikTok, turned the interview snippets into a catchy remix that has gone viral on TikTok.

    Most recently, the Corn Kid was named South Dakota’s official “Corn-bassador.” On Saturday, Governor Kristi Noem signed an executive proclamation, declaring his new title, while Tariq also visited the state’s Corn Palace. The attraction features corn murals, fun activities and has a corn mascot, who Tariq got to meet, according to photos in the governor’s tweet.

    As a result of his unexpected fame, the Corn Kid created his own TikTok account, @kornboyofficial, in which he shares even more content chronicling his love of the starchy vegetable. On Sunday, the account shared a clip of Tariq driving through corn fields on his way to the South Dakota-based palace. “My babies!” he quipped.

    Several celebrities, including Martha Stewart and Barbara Corcoran, have joined in on the viral trend by posting their own videos with the song. The latest playful rendition is from Kevin Bacon, who played an acoustic version of the remix on a balcony overlooking the ocean. Perhaps the funniest part of the video is that he used an ear of corn to tap along to the beat as he strummed his guitar.

    “I can’t imagine a more beautiful thing #itscorn 🌽,” he captioned the post, using quotes from Tariq’s original video.

    Fast food chains and large brands alike are even backing Tariq. Last month, Chipotle shared a social media spot showcasing the Corn Kid. As the camera panned over toppings, viewers could hear the Chipotle employee asking a customer what ingredients he wanted in his bowl. After continuously declining rice, protein, beans and toppings, the employee asked, “any corn?” and the camera finally revealed the customer’s identity by showing a smiling Tariq who enthusiastically said, “It’s corn!”

    Video: https://people.com/food/corn-kid-tariq-named-south-dakotas-official-corn-bassador-everything-to-know-about-the-viral-star/

    Liked by 2 people

  38. Hi Miss Pat – SCARY Month, huh!

    I’m definitely not fond of arachnids – especially – 🕷️🕷️🕷️ – TICKS!!!
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tick !!!

    Have been thinking of you all day – wishing you were here with me. I’ve been designing safety slings for Sally Q’s ceiling track lift – so she won’t ever fall out again, no matter how tires or ill she’s feeling.

    Here was my first idea….

    Later – after thinking a bit harder – I changed the original design to add back support and have come up with three different designs:

    – Two are made of single pieces of fabric – one with pleats and the other with a mitered fold – both will be reinforced with the nylon straps/belting like we use for seat belts, etc.

    – The other one will be made with two pieces of fabric – one piece going from arm to arm under the seat with a separate back piece – kind of like a Publix green bag with one side out (that was my inspiration). All seams and edges will be reinforced with nylon belting.

    I’ll be using D rings on the slings and snap Carabiners on the strap that holds the sling onto the arm of the chair. That will make it easier to wash the slings.

    Using ripstop polyester for the first prototypes. And maybe ripstop nylon for the second batch.

    Still wish you were here! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I just saw this in pending…sorry.
      I was glad to see Sally has been making progress and she and her dad were not in the hurricane’s path. I am keeping your son and all your family in my prayers GA!
      those ideas above are quite fabulous–very well thought out!!
      I have worked with ripstop nylon before–on items for my son –for camping, rafting, etc…very durable and very easy to clean. carabiners are a good choice–my son uses them in rock climbing–they are very strong.
      you do amazing things GA!!! please keep me updated on this!!

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement.

        You have to be the most fun person – and grandmother – I bet they love to come visit.

        Love the little spider at the end of today’s post. I was thinking how did they make it – 3 pair of little black tights (two stuffed with foam or polyfill, one for the baby, a black T shirt, stretch hair band, a bow and some google eyes… Right?

        Liked by 1 person

        1. I really admire your attitude and resourcefulness GA!
          My son would come to visit and say mom, my “bladder” needs a make over. (That would be the fluid system he wore as a backpack when he ran marathons and such.) He’d tell me what he needed and how he wanted and just expected mom to make it…lol.
          he was the same with Halloween costumes when he was a boy. (I have an open coming on easy costumes how to’s later this month)
          But what you do is so much harder–there’s safety and comfort issues and you just figure it all out! THAT’S IMPRESSIVE GA!!!

          Liked by 1 person

            1. it’s more of a fluid delivery system…they don’t carry water bottles for 26 miles…so he wanted to wear it like a backpack and there’s an over the shoulder hose/ straw type thing that he can access without interrupting his running. so i had to make the backpack waterproof cuz he runs/bikes in all kinds of weather.

              Like

              2. sort of…i guess. but it’s really for fluid intake instead of output.
                he’s an iron man. that competition took him 14 hours to complete–2 miles swim, 112 miles on the bike followed by a marathon–26 miles run. you gotta keep moving. so stopping for water/fluids is a killer…
                can you imagine…the iron man winner did it in a little over (or was it under) 7 HOURS?
                my son just wanted to do it once…and he did. we were so proud. he did it in Lake Placid–a great venue.

                Liked by 1 person

              4. that was before the accident…the year after that, he was hit by a truck while riding his bike…cracked a vertebrae and damaged his shoulder. he still rock climbs, bikes and runs–but not like he used to. and swimming bothers his shoulder…sigh.
                but he will always have that moment.

                Liked by 1 person

              5. What a sad thing – but he’s alive and still an overcomer.

                When I read about the Ironman – I was thinking – ‘good genes and Mama’s great cooking’ – made him a champion.

                Liked by 1 person

              6. he is a survivor…he didn’t let that accident stop him from riding his bike to work every day–after he rehabbed of course. now that he’s married and moved, he can’t do it anymore…but he still is active. He’s turned to another passion now–woodworking…he’s done some amazing things.
                mama’s no athlete…LOL…but he does love to cook like i do…

                Liked by 1 person

              14. Starting out cutting/folding/pinning small scraps of old sheets. So far, of the one piece of cloth designs – it looks like only the mitered fold one – might work. I’m fairly sure the two pieces will work. Still, I won’t cut the real cloth until I have a pattern or some solid dimensions to work with.

                Liked by 1 person

              15. smart move. people were always giving me fabric that i couldn’t use or didn’t like but i always kept it for just such a purpose…making patterns…saving the desired material for the finished product.
                you got this GA!

                Like

              16. After fiddling with the scraps, I realized one of my designs was a fantasy figment of my imagination and not possible, but the other two may do the job.

                Liked by 1 person

              17. i’ve been there with my craft items i sell. I dream up and sketch the item…then start making patterns and i realize it’s never going to work or at least work easily enough for me to make more than one…
                may I ask…was that YOUR sketch?
                because you have serious talent

                Liked by 1 person

              18. I studied art in college and grad school. It was a quick little sketch – kind of an idealized version of Sally in her lift. Not showing the negatives and strains of her life and the toll taken by the disease or even the difficulties using the wheelchair.

                Liked by 1 person

              20. Yay – came up with a 3rd design to replace the one that didn’t work – will just make a fan fold sling like the one in the drawing – just extend it up to support her back. Will make it of double thickness ripstop fabric and reinforce with strapping/belting. I’ll make seat belts for all the slings too – with D rings and pass through velcro closures. My goal is for these slings to make her safe from falls, and protect her even if she’s sick and out of it. She has fallen out of the lift due to helper error (including her Dad and me) and due to being tired, feeling bad, etc. She’s gained weight and the disease has progressed, so her muscles aren’t as strong, so it’s harder for her to keep her arms down and keep the chest supports in place when she’s lifted in the air.

                Liked by 1 person

              22. Interesting idea. If you look at the drawing – I had tried using a contour gait belt we had used years ago – around the chest arms. (I don’t throw anything away – it can usually be repurposed down the line)

                The biggest need right now is to support her weight – because she slips out of the chest arms when she can’t hold her arms down. She has gained weight in the tummy/hips (as many wheelchair users do) and it puts too much stress on her shoulder arm muscles. The sling I drew on ther would support her hips and extra weight. I may still use the belt – if the sling supporting her back and the seat belt on the sling aren’t enough. A shoulder harness connected to the chest belt would be even more support. I’m trying to figure out how to add ‘belt loops’ on the plastic chest arms to stabilize the belt and keep it from moving, slipping out of place when it’s tightened. Maybe epoxy or gorilla glue plus tiny screws or do you think those new ‘Command’ things would stick strongly enough?

                Liked by 1 person

              23. the command things are pretty good–but I wouldn’t want you take my recommendation…I have no experience with weight bearing fasteners. but i will think on it

                Liked by 1 person

              24. I’ve come up with another idea. That hard plastic chest arm frame is uncomfortable as heck. They make a cushion pad for it – but I think I will make a cover for the whole arm that fits around it tightly with velcro closures, that has sewed on belt loops. The more I look at the whole thing – I think my original simple cloth sling and the chest belt will do the job. If needed, I can add adjustable belting shoulder straps on the belt. Poor child – she’s used to being belted in and strapped down….day and night. She likes to sleep in her wheelchair because it gives her more independence and privacy. She can keep her own hours without a caregiver hanging around to get her in and out of bed, etc.

                Liked by 1 person

              25. I don’t blame her one bit for wanting independence and privacy. i think you’re doing a wonderful job considering her feelings in making these things GA!
                I was going to suggest some batting or padding for your arm cover, but that would probably require replacing when it gets matted due to use. have you ever considered taking your designs to the company who makes the frame?

                Liked by 1 person

              26. I’m thinking of making the cover of washable terry or polyfleece with a rug pad or neoprene foam padding or both underneath and strapping it on with nylon strap with a velcro D ring closure. Everything washable, durable, easily and inexpensively replaced. Last time I used ripstop was to replace a the back for her shower wheelchair which had gotten brittle with age. I added a chest strap to that to keep her from lurching forward and hitting the wall or her shower control handle and getting a goose egg. We sometimes use a chest strap on her wheelchair when feeding her so she won’t lurch forward when coughing and hit the corner of the upper cabinets over the countertop that serves as her table.

                I’ve added foam pillows to her foot rig, with a foot straps for all day, hip straps for night only. She has to wear foam ankle things to keep her feet from touching anything, due to a Tailor’s callus that is caused by her turned foot rubbing the outside bone. Feet and ankle deformities occur with this disease as well as fingers curling, etc. Yet she continues to ‘type’ and keep up with friends on her laptop computer. She recently put her favorite CDs on computer files. She went all out and got some Alexas and Echos to turn on and off lights and music.

                Liked by 1 person

              28. I did contact the US branch of SureHands lifts and they sent the drawing and suggestions to the home office Handi-Move of Belgium. I have considered getting them to work with me on designs because they do custom slings, etc. But I want to wait until I’ve tried and tested some preliminary prototypes, have photos and drawings in hand.

                I’m not 100% impressed with their designs, since we tried two of their slings and returned them. Sally slipped right out of one and it looked like she was going to slip out of the other one. So I started thinking and sketching – and consulting with you. Your idea for a chest harness may be a solution for many patients whose health diminishes with time making it difficult for them to use the SureHands lift. I’m cogitating on that possibility – for when Sally’s disease progresses and if she sick, has a fever and/or isn’t fully rational/coherent.

                Liked by 1 person

              29. sometimes the designers need to meet with and work with people who use the devices daily to see what the true needs are–and how to better provide comfort and safety. i think you would make an excellent designer in that regard.

                Liked by 1 person

              30. I’m a ham-fisted untaught sewer or sewist as they call us now. You are a pro and very artistic. Love your crafts – they are never tacky or kitschy. I loved reading about your home sewing projects….and MOTG dress alterations.

                Liked by 1 person

              31. I have been sewing since i was nine. I made most of my school clothes–when i was 16, my cousin asked me to make slipcovers for the old car he bought.
                you’re very kind GA!

                Liked by 1 person

              32. Thank you for letting me think all this out with you. It has helped so much to talk it out with someone who sews and knows how to invent and alter designs. I’ve missed you and all the others so much.

                Liked by 1 person

              36. The sling designs will come up to just beneath her arms and to her bra level in the back. I can place the seat belt so it comes around her waist inside the sling and can be tightened without pulling on the sides of the sling. That should keep her from tipping out – but a shoulder harness would really hold her steady. Hmmm…gotta get the brain cells working.

                Liked by 1 person

  39. I am adding a short daily prayer to the board. I would invite each of you, if you wish, to also add one or maybe two of your own liking. I do not want to stifle anyone but please limit yourself to one or two religious postings. here’s one I found that I liked.

    Liked by 1 person

  42. One more from the Bee:

    A few days ago, President Joe Biden moseyed away from his podium while speaking to a group of FEMA workers. As he did so, worried aides and officials stifled their panic enough to keep their voices steady, trying to beckon him back where he was still needed. At that moment, we saw what we have so often seen from our President: independence of thought and courage in an atmosphere of quiet, dignified leadership.

    They say the best way to start an Op-Ed is by quoting the dictionary, and the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “dignity” as “formal reserve or seriousness of manner, appearance, or language” – something we continue to see from President Biden. Falling into a standing coma and walking away calmly from frantic calls of “Mr. President – MR. PRESIDENT!!!” could only be described as a posture of formal reserve. Gaping around and noticing that random attendees needed handshakes could also be described as serious in manner, and the slack-jawed, wide-eyed openness to new people represents a gravitas not seen since Barack Obama.

    Leadership has also probably been defined as not being aware of where you are, what you are doing, or who you are. At least that’s what the definition will be in Merriam-Webster after we request more administration-friendly definitions. According to Merriam-Webster’s future new definition, there is no better example of leadership than the blissfully ignorant, far-off stare of the President of the United States. Every day we see him meeting interesting ghosts, hallucinating that dead people are in the crowd, and being otherwise gorked out of his mind. If that’s not leadership according to Merriam-Webster’s upcoming edit, we don’t know what is.

    Critics may say that our fearless President looks and sounds more lost and disoriented with each public appearance, adding that his staffers seem to be welcoming his deterioration so they can enact a more extreme agenda under the auspices of his office. To that, we have a simple answer: you’re a racist.

    For some, it may be too much to accept that President Biden is the greatest leader this country has ever seen. We choose to leave those people behind in their bigotry and ignorance. As for us, we are with him to the end, whether he leads us to walk off a platform, into a wall, or into the spirit realm where the ghost of Rep. Jackie Walorski now answers Biden’s call.

    The President reminds us that while quiet dignity may feel like a lost art, it is still very much alive in Joe Biden. For that, we are eternally grateful.

    Liked by 1 person

  45. Time for you to join hubby, I’m sure – I am making my monthly shopping trip tomorrow morning. If I’m in the mood when I get up, I may not sign on until I get back….but that probably won’t happen. LOL – have a good one!

    Liked by 2 people

      1. LOL…I once coated a big ugly orange spider outside on my door window with HAIRSPRAY…it started to move…so i ran and got the STARCH…
        I think i drowned it actually…it fell off the window where i slammed it with a log.
        I felt just like John…LOL

        Liked by 1 person

    2. she’d be in love if she heard the background music while he was dancing–cuz he is killing it with those moves…LOL

      Like

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