Dad Suffocates Coyote With Bare Hands After It Attacked Toddler

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A hero New Hampshire father suffocated a coyote to death with his bare hands after the beast attacked his child on Monday, police said.

Ian O’Reilly was walking with his wife and three kids on a trail near Judes Pond in Kensington around 11 a.m. when the wild animal jumped out of the woods and grabbed the 2-year-old child by the jacket, cops said.

That’s when “the dad went into protection mode,” kicking the coyote before choking it, said Kensington Police Chief Scott Cain.

O’Reilly told local outlet WFXT that he was running on instinct and adrenaline when he wrestled the beast to the ground, eventually killing it after a 10-minute skirmish. . .

“From there… I shoved [its] head into the snow… and then eventually was able to expire it through suffocation,” he said. “Ultimately one hand on its windpipe and one hand on its snout did the trick.” (Read more from “Dad Suffocates Coyote With Bare Hands After It Attacked Toddler” HERE)

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These Are the ‘Laziest’ States in America

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. . .The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this month released its findings from a recent study on physical inactivity levels across the U.S. The study, which combined data from 2015 through 2018, is based on telephone interviews conducted by both federal and state health officials.

Overall, all states and territories had more than 15 percent of adults who were considered physically inactive. Physical inactivity was determined if they responded “no” to the question: “During the past month, other than your regular job, did you participate in any physical activities or exercises such as running, calisthenics, golf, gardening, or walking for exercise?”

The South had the highest levels of physical inactivity, with 28 percent of adults responding “no” to the above question. Coming in second was the Northeast, at 25.6 percent. The Midwest and the West followed behind at 25 percent and 20.5 percent, respectively.

In particular, seven states – Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky – reported the highest levels of inactivity. In these states, 30 percent or more of adults were physically inactive. (Read more from “These Are the ‘Laziest’ States in America” HERE)

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America Is About to Get a Powerful Tool in the War Against Cancer

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America’s war on cancer is about to get another tool in its arsenal. The country’s first carbon ion therapy center to treat cancer is being built in collaboration with Hitachi on the campus of the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. The cancer therapy treatment will be part of Mayo’s $233 million oncology facility, announced in June.

An alternative to surgery, this new treatment is viewed as the next horizon of cancer care. It has the capability of killing cancer cells that are resistant to traditional radiation therapy. Yet the U.S. has been slow to adopt the treatment even though the technology was developed in California in 1975.

According to experts, carbon ion therapy damages the DNA of fast-growing cancer cells, ultimately destroying them. But unlike older forms of radiation, this technique causes minimal harm to normal tissue. Studies also suggest it triggers an immune response against cancer.

Dr. Steven Buskirk, chair of the department of radiation oncology at Mayo Clinic in Florida, says, “the availability of carbon ion technology will allow Mayo Clinic researchers to evaluate the efficacy of carbon ion therapy for the treatment of various cancer types, including exploration into new and expanded therapies, including multi-modality treatment options.” . . .

The plan is to put together a national Scientific Advisory Board composed of doctors and scientists from the U.S. and abroad to study the efficacy and safety of the treatment and secure FDA approval so the treatment can be offered in 2025, says Dr. Kent Thielen, CEO of the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. He notes that his institution is a leading National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center, and Mayo Clinic radiation oncologists and physicists have been studying carbon ion treatment in Asia and Europe for nearly a decade. Mayo already has developed a high level of expertise in treatment planning and delivery. (Read more from “America Is About to Get a Powerful Tool in the War Against Cancer” HERE)

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Black Lives Matter Says It Was Snubbed by the Women’s March

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Black Lives Matter says the activist group was excluded from speaking onstage at Saturday’s 4thannual Women’s March in downtown Los Angeles, suggesting organizers should consider rebranding the event the “White Women’s March.”

“(Women’s March L.A.) did not invite Black Lives Matter to participate, failed to respond to an email request for inclusion, and further refused speaking time during a subsequent telephone conversation,” said Dr. Melina Abdullah, a college professor who co-founded BLM’s L.A. chapter.

In a written response to the perceived rejection, Abdullah noted, “this marks the first time that BLMLA will not participate,” stating the rebuff was “the culmination of ongoing disagreement and tension,” accusing Women’s March L.A. (WMLA) of “blatantly engaging in anti-Blackness.”

“In past years, BLMLA has utilized the WMLA space to inspire on-the-ground action,” Abdullah wrote. “It has always been our desire for the masses of women, girls, femmes, and allies assembled under the banner of the Women’s March to engage in actual work that transforms the world, rather than gather for a feel-good parade.”

Abdullah claims that her teenage daughter, Thandiwe, who addressed the crowd at the 2018 march, was “accused by WMLA leadership of making specific, violent, anti-Semitic threats during her speech.”

(Read more from “Black Lives Matter Says It Was Snubbed by the Women’s March” HERE)

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Humans’ Body Temperatures Are Mysteriously Getting Colder, Study Finds

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The average human body temperature has dropped over the past 150 years, according to a new study, though it remains unclear what is behind this decrease.

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have established that people’s bodies are now typically cooler than the textbook figure of 37C, first established by German physician Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich in 1868.

The study shows that modern-day men have a body temperature 0.58C lower than their 19th century counterparts, while women’s are 0.32C lower.

This decrease has been attributed to “changes in our environment over the past 200 years, which have in turn driven physiological changes”. However, the study acknowledges that establishing cause and effect remains “inherently unprovable”.

Senior author Julie Parsonnet, a professor of medicine and of health research and policy at Stanford University, says: “Our temperature is not what people think it is. (Read more from “Humans’ Body Temperatures Are Mysteriously Getting Colder, Study Finds” HERE)

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Just 162 Billionaires Have the Same Wealth as Half of Humanity

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In a stark reminder of gaping global inequality, a report published Sunday reveals that 162 billionaires, including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, have the same wealth as the poorest half of the world.

There are 2,153 billionaires globally, and, in 2019, they held more wealth combined than 4.6 billion people, according to the report, which uses data from the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report and Forbes’ billionaire rankings.

The report uses a striking analogy to put these amounts of wealth in context. If everyone sat on their wealth piled up in $100 bills, most people would be sitting on the floor, a middle-class person from a rich country would be the height of a chair, and the world’s two richest men would be sitting in space.

Oxfam’s report is published annually to coincide with the start of the World Economic Forum gathering in Davos, where high-profile policymakers, business leaders and the wealthy take their private jets to a Swiss ski town to discuss how to “improve the state of the world.”

Once someone is very wealthy, the report points out, it’s easy to just watch the money accumulate because the rich can afford the best investment advice. Billionaire wealth has increased by an average of 7.4% a year since 2009, according to the report published by Oxfam, an international development nongovernmental organization. And 2019 was a good year for the ultrarich. Despite their wealth levels dipping at the start of the year, they quickly rebounded, and the world’s 500 richest people managed to add $1.2 trillion to their wealth over the course of the year, according to a Bloomberg analysis. (Read more from “Just 162 Billionaires Have the Same Wealth as Half of Humanity” HERE)

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Family Sues TSA After Man’s $82,000 Life Savings Were Seized at an Airport

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A Pennsylvania man who kept his entire life savings in a Tupperware container is suing the federal government after the money – $82,373 in cash – was seized at an airport after DEA agents deemed it ‘suspicious’.

Terrence Rolin, 79, and his daughter Rebecca Brown are the lead plaintiffs in a federal class action lawsuit filed Wednesday by the Institute for Justice which accuses the Drug Enforcement Administration and Transportation Security Administration of ‘treating American citizens like criminals’ by seizing large amounts of cash from airline passengers without evidence of an underlying crime. . .

She was flying back home to Boston to do that when TSA and DEA agents at Pittsburgh International Airport noticed the large sum of cash and began questioning her.

Brown said she had checked the TSA website beforehand to confirm that she could fly with that amount of money, and the site didn’t say that anything would prohibit her from doing so.

A DEA agent asked Brown to put her father on the phone so he could verify her story about where the cash came from, but Rolin, who is suffering mental decline, was unable to verify some of the details, she said. (Read more from “Family Sues TSA After Man’s $82,000 Life Savings Were Seized at an Airport” HERE)

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Churchwide Sunday School Manual Revives Mormon Racial Concerns

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A recent blunder with a Sunday school manual for use by all members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints could set back progress the Utah-based faith has made on the issue of racism in the past few years — and alienate people of color.

Last year, the church produced a new manual for its 2020 curriculum, which will be a study of the faith’s signature scripture, the Book of Mormon, which Latter-day Saints believe tells the religious history of peoples in the ancient Americas.

Several passages describe a “dark skin” descending on one of the clans, and for much of the faith’s history that has been seen as a racial “curse.” These days, though, that interpretation is no longer part of church teaching.

That is why several early readers of the 2020 “Come, Follow Me” manual were troubled to see a note in one lesson that is a throwback to previous thinking.

“The dark skin was placed upon the Lamanites so that they could be distinguished from the Nephites and to keep the two peoples from mixing,” the book explains, citing a statement made some 60 years ago by then-apostle and future church President Joseph Fielding Smith. “The dark skin was the sign of the curse. The curse was the withdrawal of the Spirit of the Lord. … Dark skin … is no longer to be considered a sign of the curse.” (Read more from “Churchwide Sunday School Manual Revives Mormon Racial Concerns” HERE)

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Good News: Women’s March Attendance Plummets in 2020

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The fourth annual Women’s March took place on Saturday, but attendance was way down, according to reports, as interest in the march has flagged and the Women’s March organization is dogged with problems.

Carmen Perez, the only Women’s March “co-founder” left at the group after a purge of organizers earlier this year stemming from allegations of anti-Semitism within the Women’s March’s ranks, told USA Today that she hoped to see a re-energized group of marchers, but it doesn’t seem her hopes materialized.

“There was a moment in 2016, 2017, and I think that moment is here again,’’ Perez said. “One, we are in an election year. Two, we are in potential war conversations, with the fact the U.S. has struck another country. I personally feel we’re going to see an increase in numbers because people are wanting to come together again. People are going to show up to the Women’s March with their anti-war messaging because they want to be out in the streets working.”

In 2019, attandance was at an all time low. ‘The crowd estimator pegged nationwide participation in the 650-plus sister marches that day at 3.3 million-5.3 million, making it the largest single-day protest in U.S. history. Those figures dwindled to 1.9 million-2.6 million in 2018 and 676,000-747,000 in 2019.”

Although crowd estimates aren’t out yet for 2020’s march, it seems even fewer managed to pull on their pink-eared hats and take to the streets to protest President Donald Trump. A few thousand turned out in Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Los Angeles, but otherwise, the Women’s March seemed to rely on local organizers to draw out groups of 50 or 60 in small towns and progressive enclaves.

(Read more from “Good News: Women’s March Attendance Plummets in 2020” HERE)

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Court Rejects Male Prisoner’s Motion for Preferred Female Pronouns

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A federal appeals court rejected a male federal prisoner’s request to be addressed with female pronouns in accord with his gender identity.

Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans, an appointee of President Donald Trump, issued the opinion denying Norman Varner’s motion to be addressed with female pronouns.

In 2012, Varner plead guilty to attempted receipt of child pornography and was subsequently sentenced to 15 years in prison and then 15 years of supervised release. He had previously been convicted on a state charge of possession of child porn and failure to register as a sex offender.

The opinion notes that, in 2018, Varner asked the district court to change his name on the document ordering his committal to “Kathrine Nicole Jett,” to reflect his transgendered status. The lower court rejected the name change, stating “Norman Varner” was his legal name at the time the court’s documents were prepared.

In his motion, Varner stated failure by others to use his preferred female pronouns when addressing him “leads me to feel that I am being discriminated against based on my gender identity.” (Read more from “Court Rejects Male Prisoner’s Motion for Preferred Female Pronouns” HERE)

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