What's in the news?

[TheGlyphstone]

Publicity stunt. There wouldn't even be unified support from the Democratic block for something this excessive, and there sure as hell wouldn't be any backing from the GOP.

[gaggedLouise]

As expected...the Academy decided to pass on the Nobel prize for literature for this year. It could well be that next year will see a double award though, one for '18 and one for '19.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43999240

I think this was the only reasonable solution for now.

[Rex Pacis]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2018/05/02/wwe-wrestler-kane-glenn-jacobs-tennessee-primary-win-mayor/573173002/


Still trust him over Trump. Full costume and everything.

[Oniya]

Well, Rick Steiner was an alderman for a good long time...

[TheGlyphstone]

And let's not forget Jesse Ventura, who actually served a full 4-year term as the governor of Minnesota.

[Rex Pacis]

Dont think Jesse Ventura or Rick Steiner were ever dubbed the "devil's favorite demon" or used a car battery to taze someone's privates. That's gotta be better than grabbing 'em by the p at the very least.

Wish him the best. Long as he ain't corrupt he can chokeslam all the opposition if you ask me.

[Lustful Bride]

Volcano spews ash and sulfur on Hawaii.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/hawaii-volcano-sends-more-lava-sulfur-gas-into-communities/ar-AAwJr1R?ocid=spartandhp&ffid=gz

[MasterMischief]

Pele is cumming.

[Lustful Bride]

Gang uses drones to ruin FBI hostage rescue raid.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/gang-used-drone-swarm-to-thwart-fbi-hostage-raid/ar-AAwL6Hw?ocid=spartandhp&ffid=gz

[gaggedLouise]

Volcano spews ash and sulfur on Hawaii.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/hawaii-volcano-sends-more-lava-sulfur-gas-into-communities/ar-AAwJr1R?ocid=spartandhp&ffid=gz

It's now expanded into major earthquakes (one measuring almost 7 Richter). And there's lots of molten matter. In another newspaper I read about how the asphalt surfaces of some of the local roads were cracking open with sheets of lava bubbling out of the fissures... :O

[Lustful Bride]

Man I hope this eruption doesn't get worse, but even the scientists are getting worried.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/why-hawaiis-newest-eruption-makes-volcanologists-nervous/ar-AAwLsQ8?ocid=spartandhp&ffid=gz

[gaggedLouise]

Man I hope this eruption doesn't get worse, but even the scientists are getting worried.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/why-hawaiis-newest-eruption-makes-volcanologists-nervous/ar-AAwLsQ8?ocid=spartandhp&ffid=gz

Katla volcano on Iceland is getting closer to a major eruption every year, the last one was a century ago. When it blows open it will be a real spectacle and far worse than the vent nearby that disrupted air traffic in Europe back in 2010...

[Lustful Bride]

Russian opposition leader released from police custody.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russia-protests-opposition-leader-navalny-released-from-police-custody/ar-AAwOUrT?ocid=spartandhp&ffid=gz

[Deamonbane]

Russian opposition leader released from police custody.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russia-protests-opposition-leader-navalny-released-from-police-custody/ar-AAwOUrT?ocid=spartandhp&ffid=gz

I guess you could say that his charges were...



...Trumped Up.

[TheGlyphstone]

Hopefully he doesn't end up 'mysteriously' dead in a mugging gone wrong with no suspects or evidence (again).

[gaggedLouise]

The Moscow correspondent of one of the big dailies around here had a piece about that demonstration - one of many across Russia. She said most of  those who showed up knew in advance that heavy, beefy police would ring the rally and have many people arrested, but they were quietly defiant. Some people among them, she reported, even go to his demonstrations as a kind of thrillseeking thing: it rocks to have been taken by the police at such an event and forced into the arrest cell, in the eyes of young Russians. 

*wonders what else may happen at the police station when those demonstrants are brought in handcuffed* :(

[Sara Nilsson]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43997862

On Tuesday, the Utah law will come into effect. It changes the state's definition of neglect to allow children of "sufficient age and maturity" to engage in independent activities like walking to and from school.

I am .. what?! As a Swede this is baffling. I rode my bike alone to and from school from age 7. Summer or winter, feet of snow or not. There was never any debate if kids should be allowed to do this.  No one thought this was odd, and now Utah becomes the first state to not make that a crime anymore. What the hell?!

When Alexander Meitiv dropped his two children - 10 and six - off at a local park near their Maryland home to play for the afternoon in late 2014, he was not expecting the firestorm that would follow. A bystander called 911 after noticing the children walking home by themselves. Police stopped them and brought them back to the Meitivs' home.

I am at a loss at how this is ok, I do not think that the USA is THAT much more dangerous than Sweden. So I am glad that Utah is moving forward with this. And frankly if anyone suggested such a thing back in sweden they would be laughed out of the country. Bus to school? Only if it is practically impossible to bike to it. As in the school is in a different city.

[Oniya]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43997862

I am .. what?! As a Swede this is baffling. I rode my bike alone to and from school from age 7. Summer or winter, feet of snow or not. There was never any debate if kids should be allowed to do this.  No one thought this was odd, and now Utah becomes the first state to not make that a crime anymore. What the hell?!

I am at a loss at how this is ok, I do not think that the USA is THAT much more dangerous than Sweden. So I am glad that Utah is moving forward with this. And frankly if anyone suggested such a thing back in sweden they would be laughed out of the country. Bus to school? Only if it is practically impossible to bike to it. As in the school is in a different city.

We've got busing to schools if it's more than 2 miles 'as the crow flies' (which can be substantially different when actually walking).  Little Oni has been walking by herself since she entered high school.  She could have walked by herself to middle school, but we were having real issues with other students, so I went with her.

Quite honestly, I think that the over-protectiveness of parenting in the US is overdue for a turn back.  Your child is more likely to be abducted or assaulted by someone they know than a stranger.  Teach them how to listen to their guts, to assert themselves, and to do things.

[TheGlyphstone]

That implies personal responsibility on the part of the parents though, which is rarer than it used to be.

[RedRose]

I walked to school in primary school. Sometimes alone.

[gaggedLouise]

I walked to school in primary school. Sometimes alone.

Me too. Admittedly it was just a few hundred metres away till I turned thirteen (eq. to the first year of US high school) but if I was going somewhere else within town after I had turned about nine years old, I often got there by myself, on foot, bike or bus - and sometimes alone.

[RedRose]

It bothers me that parents cannot send their kids out, BUT are also blamed if they are fat or on their iPad. A parent isn't a robot who can spend every waking minute keeping a kid occupied.

[Oniya]

Me too. Admittedly it was just a few hundred metres away till I turned thirteen (eq. to the first year of US high school) but if I was going somewhere else within town after I had turned about nine years old, I often got there by myself, on foot, bike or bus - and sometimes alone.

I've been sending Little Oni to the store since she was fourth or fifth grade.  (Old enough to handle the cash and tall enough to see over the counters.)  School then was past three cornfields, a soybean field, and a cow pasture, so 'to school' wasn't an option.

[Lustful Bride]

Actor/comedian Ken Jeong saves fan who broke collapsed into a seizure during his stand up routine.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/celebrity/ken-jeong-jumps-off-stage-to-help-woman-having-seizure-during-his-stand-up-set/ar-AAwRYwf?ocid=spartandhp&ffid=gz

[midnightblack]

I walked to school in primary school. Sometimes alone.

My father went to school the hardcore way, wading through forests and over adder-infested hills. When I was a kid, I only had to cope with packs of stray dogs and occasional punks of questionable origins that would wait with a pocket knife around corners. It was a good idea to be a fit and self-aware kid in those times. 

Nowadays there are convoys of cars jammed up around the school every morning. Though the dogs are long gone and the streets are much safer, it seems like literally everyone drives their kids all the way up to the school's entrance.