I can't even imagine! Your spouse is having a heart attack and you're fumbling, in a panic, to contact emergency services.
Massachusetts 911 Outage Caused by Errant Firewall A statewide outage of the Massachusetts 911 system was the result of a firewall that blocked calls from reaching emergency responders.
ByRyan Naraine
June 19, 2024
A statewide outage of the 911 emergency response system in Massachusetts this week was caused by an errant firewall that prevented calls from getting to the 911 dispatch centers.
The Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security described the two-hour outage on Tuesday as a “technical issue” with its 911 vendor Comtech that was the result of a firewall installed to provide protection against cyberattacks and hacking.
“The firewall prevented calls from getting to the 911 dispatch centers, also known as Public Safety Answer Points (PSAPs),” the agency said. “Comtech’s initial review of the incident has confirmed that the interruption was not the result of a cyberattack or hack; However, the exact reason the firewall stopped calls from reaching dispatch centers remains under review.”
The agency said that although some emergency calls were not successful, the system allows dispatch centers to identify the phone number of callers and return those calls. The department said it did not receive any reports of emergencies impacted during the interruption.
The mysterious monolith that appeared in the Nevada desert has been removed, years after similar mystifying, gleaming objects first appeared in the deserts of Utah during the Covid-19 pandemic and captured the world’s imagination.
Las Vegas police announced the discovery of the monolith – an art installation – at Gass Peak, roughly 40 miles (64.4km) north of the city, on Monday.
“MYSTERIOUS MONOLITH!” a police department post on X said. “We see a lot of weird things when people go hiking like not being prepared for the weather, not bringing enough water... but check this out! Over the weekend, [police] spotted this mysterious monolith near Gass Peak north of the valley.”
The monolith was taken down Thursday afternoon, the police said in an update on Friday, citing “public safety and environmental concerns”. They said it would be stored at an undisclosed location while authorities determine how to dispose of or store the reflective 10ft-tall (3 meters) metal prism.
A donkey spotted apparently living with a herd of wild elk in a video that went viral on the internet has been identified as Diesel, a once beloved pet who had apparently run away five years ago.
The video was taken earlier this year, when Max Fennell, a hunter in northern California, filmed a group of wild elk apparently hanging out with a donkey who appeared to be a member of their herd.
We had a peacock who lived here for several years. He ran with the turkeys.
The mysterious monolith that appeared in the Nevada desert
Is there no education for journalists these days?
They describe it as a
reflective 10ft-tall (3 meters) metal prism
so they know its construction, but use the word "monolith" 11 times in the article.
Monolith. It's simple. It means "single stone". Stone. Not metal. Stone. How difficult is that to understand?
It's a column. It is not a monolith.
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Posted: Sat Jun 22, 2024 4:55 pm
by RTH10260
check your fireplace for ancient stuff, please ...
Ancient Mayan vase purchased by US woman for $4 returned to Mexico Anna Lee Dozier bought ceramic vessel at Maryland thrift store but it will now reside in Mexico City’s main museum
Ramon Antonio Vargas
Sat 22 Jun 2024 12.00 CEST
Mexico has regained a lost ancient Maya vase because of a US woman who bought the artefact for less than $5 at a thrift store.
Anne Lee Dozier recently received an expression of gratitude from the Mexican embassy in her home town of Washington DC for her role in reuniting the 1,200-to 1,800-year-old vase with its motherland.
“A valuable witness of our Maya history returns home … thanks to the generosity of Anne Lee Dozier,” Mexico’s ambassador to the US, Esteban Moctezuma Barragán, wrote on X. “This historic jewel will be reintegrated within the collection of [Mexico’s National Museum of Anthropology and History] to preserve our rich cultural heritage.”
As she recounted to National Public Radio in an article published on Friday that summarized the unusual saga, Dozier bought the vase in question in about 2019 at the 2A Thrift Store in Clinton, Maryland, where it was on a clearance shelf by the checkout register.
Dozier perceived the vase to be old – but no more than three decades old, as she put it to NPR. Dozier, a human rights advocate with Christian Solidarity Worldwide, took an interest in the pottery because she had worked with Indigenous communities in Mexico, and to Dozier it seemed the piece had some tie to the country.
“I thought it would be just a nice little thing to take home and put on the shelf and to remind me of Mexico,” Dozier – who paid $4 for the vase – said to NPR.
Dozier then traveled to Mexico City in January on a work trip, visited the national anthropology museum and saw other Maya vases displayed there that bore a striking resemblance to the one she had at home, according to NPR. She wasn’t entirely convinced she had an authentic Maya vase at home, but she reported her thrift store find to a museum official, who in turn recommended that she call the Mexican embassy.
Ultimately, Dozier sent in pictures of the vase along with a description of its dimensions. The national anthropology museum replied that she indeed had an authentic relic – one that Mexico wanted back.
“I got an email saying, ‘Congratulations – it’s real and we would like it back,’” Dozier said.
Newly released video shows Saudi man filming locations ahead of 9/11 attacks Footage was unsealed in court action by families of victims who claim Saudi government was complicit in event
Robert Tait in Washington
Fri 21 Jun 2024 17.41 CEST
A 25-year-old video has come to light of a man identified by the FBI as a Saudi intelligence agent filming locations in the center of Washington three months before Al-Qaida decided to carry out the 9/11 attacks.
The footage, shot in the summer of 1999 and in the possession of the FBI, was unsealed in a court action by families of the victims of 9/11, who claim that Saudi Arabia’s government was complicit in the event, which the country’s rulers deny. It was obtained by CBS and shown on the 60 Minutes program.
The video includes commentary from the man, Omar al-Bayoumi, about various locations in the city, including the Washington monument and the entry points and security arrangements of the US Capitol building, and referring at one point to a “plan”.
The Capitol is believed to have been the target of one of the planes before its hijackers were overwhelmed by passengers, causing it to crash in the Pennsylvania countryside.
Saudi authorities have long and strenuously denied complicity or support for 9/11, as does Bayoumi. Lawyers for the Saudi government have filed for the families’ case to be dismissed, with oral arguments due this summer.
The film was initially found by UK investigators in Bayoumi’s flat in the days after the attack in 2001, when he was a PhD student at Aston University in Birmingham. The flat also contained an address book that lawyers for the families say contains the contact details of officials in the Saudi government at the time. Scotland Yard gave the footage to the FBI.
Crews continue building Metropolis, as ‘Superman’ descends over downtown Cleveland
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Metropolis police cars, a military tank and a pile of boulders filled Superior Avenue on Saturday, the latest additions to the set of DC’s filming of “Superman” in downtown Cleveland.
No filming took place, though workers continued to transform modern Cleveland into Metropolis, a bustling city of yesteryear. A crew member worked on the sign “Greetings from Metropolis,” which was on one of the windows of the Arcade.
Another put a fresh coat of paint on the sign of “Hob’s Bay Pizza.” (For Clevelanders, that’s Guy’s Pizza). Staffers placed “Metropolis Waste Management” trash cans along the street.
In other words, Superior Avenue, as we know it, is no more. At least at East 6th Street.
It is Concord Street, which houses The Daily Planet. Clark Kent and Lois Lane work in a newspaper that has temporarily taken over Residences at Leader. And it appears that it will be there for a while.
neonzx wrote: ↑Sun Jun 23, 2024 8:26 am
Superman is coming back!!!
Whoop! Whoop! It's HAPPENING!
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Superman is ready for his Cleveland closeup. David Corenswet, the actor portraying Clark Kent in the new “Superman” movie currently filming in Downtown Cleveland, arrived on set early Monday morning to shoot scenes along a closed section of Superior Avenue that’s been prepped for days to be transformed into Metropolis.
Corenswet was seen dressed in a black cape strolling along the street and checking out the set, which is strewn with prop rubble and wrecked cars, and appears to be ready for shooting an explosive action scene. If you look closely, you can see the collar of his Superman suit underneath the cape.
Earlier, Lois Lane actress Rachel Brosnahan arrived on set under the cover of umbrellas, shielding her identity from the crowd of onlookers hoping to get a glimpse of the production.
Director James Gunn appeared around 9:30 a.m. to go over the scene with crew members and background actors dressed in military gear. Another set of extras then took their places for a rehearsal on a futuristic-style staircase connected to a platform draped in a blue screen, indicating it would be later replaced with CGI.
This reboot of “Superman” focuses on a younger version of the Man of Steel than DC’s previous franchise with Henry Cavill. In addition to Corenswet and Brosnahan, the cast features Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luther and Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific.
To avoid hijacking Bill G's thread even more than I already have talking about my obsessive dad and his doll house, I'll put this here. We have a quilt show opening next Tuesday of either postcard quilts 16"x25" of Mississippi attractions, or landscape quilts 18"x20" of Mississippi places. I decided yesterday I wanted to make one and it's due Thursday morning. I've know about this since Feb.Mine is the 18"x20" landscape of my mother's family homestead on Cat Island in the Gulf. My 4x great grandfather, Juan Cuevas built the home in 1812. There are only 2 photos I've ever seen of it, and a watercolor painting that was given to my mother. I used the painting and 1 of the photos as references. The trees and laf piles are little bitty chips of fabric that are then stitched over so they have a lot of texture. Every piece is hand cut and placed, then stitched. I didn't buy anything, just used what I had at hand. I still have some details to add around the house, decide on putting the fence in, quilt the sky, add the caption at the bottom, then just block, trim and bind it. I can do it!!
The watercolor:
Cuevas Homestead on Cat Island.1225739968.jpg (109.31 KiB) Viewed 530 times
And the quilt:
99DoneCatIsland.jpg (162.64 KiB) Viewed 530 times
Hijack This Thread
Posted: Mon Jun 24, 2024 8:50 pm
by raison de arizona
Well done, that's amazing!
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Posted: Mon Jun 24, 2024 9:13 pm
by northland10
sugar magnolia wrote: ↑Mon Jun 24, 2024 8:41 pm
The watercolor:
Cuevas Homestead on Cat Island.1225739968.jpg
And the quilt:
99DoneCatIsland.jpg
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Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2024 12:38 am
by AndyinPA
That's just stunning, Sugar!
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Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2024 1:32 am
by RTH10260
Julian Assange may be on his way to freedom but this is not a clear victory for freedom of the press The Espionage Act will still hang over the heads of journalists reporting on national security issues, not just in the US
Julian Borger in Washington
Tue 25 Jun 2024 05.03 CEST
The release from a UK prison of Julian Assange is a victory for him and his many supporters around the world, but not necessarily a clear win for the principle underlying his defence, the freedom of the press.
The charges Assange is anticipated to plead guilty to as part of a US deal, and for which he will be sentenced to time served, are drawn from the 1917 Espionage Act, for “conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified information related to the national defense of the United States”.
So although the WikiLeaks founder is expected to walk free from the US district court in Saipan after Wednesday’s hearing, the Espionage Act will still hang over the heads of journalists reporting on national security issues, not just in the US. Assange himself is an Australian, not a US citizen.
US prosecutors argued that Assange was not a proper journalist, but a hacker and an activist with his own agenda, who endangered the lives of US sources and contacts, so the Espionage Act could be applied without harming press freedom.
the Espionage Act will still hang over the heads of journalists reporting on national security issues
Well that’s not exactly how it went down.
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Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2024 10:38 am
by bill_g
sugar magnolia wrote: ↑Mon Jun 24, 2024 8:41 pm
The watercolor:
Cuevas Homestead on Cat Island.1225739968.jpg
And the quilt:
99DoneCatIsland.jpg
That is awesome Sugar. Well done. I love it.
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Posted: Wed Jun 26, 2024 1:22 am
by RTH10260
new news item, prior was two weeks ago
Conservative US lawmakers are pushing for an end to no-fault divorce Republicans in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Texas have discussed eliminating or restricting such cases
Eric Berger
Tue 25 Jun 2024 13.00 CEST
Some prominent conservative lawmakers and commentators are advocating for ending no-fault divorce, laws that exist in all 50 US states and allow a person to end a marriage without having to prove a spouse did something wrong, like commit adultery or domestic violence.
The socially conservative, and often religious, rightwing opponents of such divorce laws are arguing that the practice deprives people – mostly men – of due process and hurt families, and by extension, society. Republican lawmakers in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Texas have discussed eliminating or increasing restrictions on no-fault marriage laws.
Defenders of the laws, which states started passing a half-century ago, see legislation and arguments to repeal them as the latest effort to restrict women’s rights – following the overturning of Roe v Wade and passage of abortion bans around the country – and say that without such protections, the country would return to an earlier era when women were often trapped in abusive marriages.
“No-fault divorce is critical to the ability, particularly the ability of women, to be able to exercise autonomy in their own relationships, in their own lives,” said Denise Lieberman, an adjunct professor at the Washington University School of Law in St Louis, who has a specialty in policies concerning gender, sexuality and sexual violence.
Before 1969, when then California Republican governor Ronald Reagan, who had been divorced, approved the country’s first no-fault divorce law, women, who are more likely to experience violence from an intimate partner, were often forced to stay in marriages. If they could not prove that their husband had been abusive or persuade him to grant a divorce, they would not be able to take any assets from the marriage or remarry, according to a study in the Quarterly Journal of Economics.
States around America gradually followed suit and passed similar laws allowing unilateral divorce until 2010, when New York became the last state to approve the practice.
Between 1976 and 1985, states that passed the laws saw their domestic violence rates against men and women fall by about 30%; the number of women murdered by an intimate partner declined by 10%; and female suicide rates declined by 8 to 16%.
I got a bunch of certified copies of birth certificates today in the mail, my own, my four siblings', and even my parents' birth certificates were in the pile from the insurance company. The seven of us were born in only three states, on account of how four of us are Californians, and my dad and one brother were born in the same hospital in Newport, Rhode Island. Mom was from Pennsylvania.
If we were still following the birther movement here on Fogbow ( ) I might post these stellar examples of the fine art and science of the American birth certificate. None of them, I should mention, contain any information about the citizenship of the parents, which would make the last 5 birthers very sad. My father's birth certificate asked for the name, occupation, and birthplace of his father, but the only information they wanted about my grandmother was her maiden name.
Anyway, I remain the world's 23rd most expert on birth certificates, and now I have a bunch of new ones to get rid of.
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Posted: Wed Jun 26, 2024 6:27 pm
by keith
Foggy wrote: ↑Wed Jun 26, 2024 3:40 pm
I got a bunch of certified copies of birth certificates today in the mail, my own, my four siblings', and even my parents' birth certificates were in the pile from the insurance company. The seven of us were born in only three states, on account of how four of us are Californians, and my dad and one brother were born in the same hospital in Newport, Rhode Island. Mom was from Pennsylvania.
If we were still following the birther movement here on Fogbow ( ) I might post these stellar examples of the fine art and science of the American birth certificate. None of them, I should mention, contain any information about the citizenship of the parents, which would make the last 5 birthers very sad. My father's birth certificate asked for the name, occupation, and birthplace of his father, but the only information they wanted about my grandmother was her maiden name.
Anyway, I remain the world's 23rd most expert on birth certificates, and now I have a bunch of new ones to get rid of.
Hey no. Keep 'em for when you get tapped tp go on 'Who Do You Think You Are?'
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Posted: Wed Jun 26, 2024 7:37 pm
by RTH10260
Foggy wrote: ↑Wed Jun 26, 2024 3:40 pm
I got a bunch of certified copies of birth certificates today in the mail, my own, my four siblings', and even my parents' birth certificates
Did Soros order you to apply for alternate passports
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Posted: Wed Jun 26, 2024 9:22 pm
by raison de arizona
"Child clothing enthusiast" Tom Fitton
Carlos Turnbull @cturnbull1968 wrote:
The top MAGA legal commentators, are not attorneys. Julie Kelly is a food and wine blogger and Tom Fitton is child clothing enthusiast.
These are not serious people.
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Posted: Thu Jun 27, 2024 2:16 pm
by RTH10260
Evangelicals must be turning out in throves to protest this
‘Male’ Brazilian rainbow boa produces 14 baby snakes in ‘miracle birth’ Misidentified reptile Ronaldo had not been in contact with any other snakes for at least nine years
Steven Morris
Tue 25 Jun 2024 13.59 CEST
The appearance of 14 baby snakes in a vivarium occupied by a Brazilian rainbow boa snake called Ronaldo was surprising on two counts.
First, staff at the City of Portsmouth college had thought Ronaldo was a male; second the 1.8-metre (6ft) long reptile had not been in contact with any other snakes for at least nine years.
The college called it a “miracle birth” but also explained that, actually, it was thought to be a rare example of parthenogenesis, a natural form of asexual reproduction in which embryos develop without fertilisation.
It is common in plants and some animals but this is believed to be only the third occurrence to be documented in a captive Brazilian rainbow boa anywhere in the world.
A student discovered the 14 babies during a routine check of Ronaldo’s vivarium. “At first we thought she must have been mistaken. We couldn’t believe our eyes,” said Amanda McLeod, an animal care technician.
Pete Quinlan, a reptile specialist, was called in and was equally shocked.
“I’ve been breeding snakes for 50 years and I’ve never known this to happen before,” he said. “Effectively the babies are clones of their mother although their markings are all slightly different.
“Ronaldo had been looking slightly fatter than usual, like he’d [Quinlan is still struggling to remember he is a she] eaten a big meal. We never thought for a moment that he, or should we say she, was pregnant.”
Quinlan has been taking care of Ronaldo for nine years after the snake was rehomed by the RSPCA. The boa, who had been declared male by a vet, has been a popular resident at the college for the last two years.
I can't even imagine! Your spouse is having a heart attack and you're fumbling, in a panic, to contact emergency services.
Is there no education for journalists these days? 
) I might post these stellar examples of the fine art and science of the American birth certificate. None of them, I should mention, contain any information about the citizenship of the parents, which would make the last 5 birthers very sad. My father's birth certificate asked for the name, occupation, and birthplace of his father, but the only information they wanted about my grandmother was her maiden name. 
