What's up? News of the world....

[Jackalope]

Good doggy.

[Cod]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-46438396

Wow.. Isn't that amazing. Are you watching God?

[Angrboda]

Demonstrators Across Israel Protest Violence Against Women

Protesters across Israel on Tuesday criticized what they say is the government's failure to address violence against women.

Activists carried signs bearing the names of women killed this year, lit candles and blocked city streets. Some demonstrators lay in the roads, with fake blood splattered across their clothes, and clutching stuffed animals. In Tel Aviv, protesters displayed shoes that had been dyed red. In Jerusalem, a fountain spouted red fluid, resembling blood.

Media outlets reported that people chanted for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "wake up, our blood is not cheap."

The protest was a reaction to the killings of 24 women this year by a partner, family member or person they knew, according to local media: One woman was reportedly stabbed to death by her husband hours after visiting a lawyer. Another was allegedly attacked by her son with a hammer.

Last week, the bodies of 13-year-old Silvana Tsegai and 16-year-old Yara Ayoub were discovered in Israel, The Los Angeles Times reported. Authorities said both were killed by men they knew.

"We had to do something radical, to make sure that women in Israel show the government that we are not going to take this anymore," organizer Ruti Klein told The Associated Press.

Netanyahu stoked criticism when he voted against a proposal to establish a parliamentary inquiry into women who had been killed.

[brewer]

Good doggy.

I'm all for service dogs but I hate staged photos like this.

[Anomalocaris]

Good doggy.

I'm all for service dogs but I hate staged photos like this.

It’s not necessarily staged. Sometimes one can grab shots if one is observant.

[Angrboda]

Number of short- to intermediate-range missile models deployed or near deployment

Now the Chinese have several hundred missiles that would violate the treaty — if Beijing were a signatory. It has devoted considerable industrial resources to building the DF-26. (The DF stands for Dong Feng, or East Wind.) First displayed in a 2015 military parade, the missile, at 46 feet, was carried on trucks that featured 12 giant wheels and camouflage paint. The missile could be stored in bunkers deep underground, rolled onto roads and fired at distant targets. Western analysts put the range of the weapon at about 2,500 miles, far enough to threaten American bases on Guam.

It is a technology North Korea is now replicating — and accelerating, even as Mr. Trump insists that he has made diplomatic gains and that the threat there is all but eliminated.

China was the animating concern when Admiral Harris told Congress that roughly 95 percent of Beijing’s land-based missiles now fell into the intermediate-range nuclear forces category: “The aspects of the I.N.F. treaty that limit our ability to counter Chinese and other countries’ cruise missiles, land-based missiles, I think, is problematic.”

The Chinese are not the only ones. Ian Williams, a missile expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington, said the governments with missiles in that particular range now total 10, including India, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Pakistan and Taiwan.

A Cold War Arms Treaty Is Unraveling. But the Problem Is Much Bigger.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Nuns Break Commandment #7, DON'T Get A Pass

2 Nuns Accused Of Embezzling $500,000 From Catholic School

Two Roman Catholic nuns have admitted to embezzling $500,000 from a parochial school, according to news reports. They are believed to have spent some of the money on travel and casino gambling...

...Initially, the church indicated that it would not press charges against the women because they had expressed remorse, the Long Beach Press-Telegram said. But ABC News reported on Sunday that a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles said that it will pursue a criminal case because the investigation has deepened. 

Boru

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I'm all for service dogs but I hate staged photos like this.

It’s not necessarily staged.  Sometimes one can grab shots if one is observant.

Yep. But we also have to compare his normal behaviour with this event. The Scotty that slept on his master's grave for years got attention for that, including food. It became his routine.

[Angrboda]

Why Ireland's Border Is Brexit's Intractable Puzzle

The boundary between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland was long the scene of tense checkpoints and violent protest. Nearly two decades after the end of a conflict that claimed 3,500 lives, the undulating border is once again caught up in a bitter division. When British and European Union leaders carry out the split -- Brexit -- that British voters ordered up, the border between Ireland’s north and south will be the only land crossing between the two jurisdictions. For now the border is effectively open, meaning people and goods are free to cross back and forth. Whether it remains that way is the most vexing issue in the divorce talks.

1. Could Brexit mean a return of border checks?
That’s one scenario -- a return of customs controls, along with the delays and costs that would entail. But since cross-border trade is worth more than 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) a year, there’s a desire to avoid disruptions, especially given concerns that a return to checkpoints and watchtowers could endanger the region’s peace process. Both sides broadly agree that people and goods should move seamlessly back and forth. There’s a discussion about possible technical solutions, such as cameras, drones and a system for pre-clearing goods. So far though, there is no sign of an agreement.

2. Why is there a border in the first place?
The island was partitioned in 1921 as part of a peace agreement between the U.K. government and Irish rebels seeking independence. As part of the deal, Northern Ireland, where the population is majority Protestant, remained part of the U.K. with England, Scotland and Wales. The mostly Catholic southern part of the island became the Irish Free State and gained full independence in 1948. Today the border runs north-south in some places, east-west in others, meandering through countryside for some 310 miles (500 kilometers), dividing rivers, fields and even some houses. A change in road signs and accepted currency is pretty much the only indication that a person has moved into a different jurisdiction.

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Orban Tightens Grip Over Hungarian Courts After Chaotic Vote

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s long march toward one-man rule in the heart of the European Union hit a new milestone.

Shrugging off the threat of sanctions from Brussels, Orban’s lawmakers approved a law Wednesday that will further tighten his hold over the country’s court system. Opposition lawmakers tried to prevent the opening of the parliamentary session and then whistled and jeered as the ruling coalition voted to create a new high court to deal with public-administration cases and brought it under the government’s oversight.

A third-consecutive election win in April gave Orban, 55, and his Fidesz party a constitutional majority, which made the vote a formality. The re-election also gave Orban a self-claimed mandate to continue the NATO member’s transformation into an “illiberal state” along the lines of Vladimir Putin’s Russia, frustrating EU efforts to maintain the unity underpinning the world’s largest trading bloc.

“We’re long past the point of no return when it comes to salvaging the rule of law, but even so, the creation of this rubber-stamp court is alarming,” said Mate Szabo, a lawyer and program director at Hungary’s Civil Liberties Union. “The EU has been totally unprepared to deal with it.”

[Angrboda]

Why emoji mean different things in different cultures

The timing of the rise in the popularity of emojis may be no coincidence either. As our electronic communications have become shorter, snappier, and started looking more like sentences we would drop into a conversation, there is a growing need to include our feelings and emotions in these messages in other ways. Otherwise, without the accompaniment of a smile or sympathetic tone of voice, a one-liner message runs the risk of being misinterpreted as negative, bossy or even rude.

Yet relying too heavily on emojis to bridge that gap can cause problems of its own. We may all have access to more or less the same emojis through our smartphone keyboards, but what we mean when we use those emojis actually varies greatly, depending on culture, language, and generation.

While the thumbs-up symbol may be a sign of approval in Western culture, traditionally in Greece and the Middle East it has been interpreted as vulgar and even offensive.

Equally, in China, the angel emoji, which in the West can denote innocence or having performed a good deed, is used a sign for death, and may be perceived as threatening.

Similarly, the applause emojis are used in the West to show praise or offer congratulations. In China, however, this is a symbol for making love, perhaps due to its resemblance to the sounds “pah pah pah” (啪啪啪).

But perhaps most confusingly, in China the slightly smiling emoji is not really used as a sign of happiness at all. As it is by far the least enthusiastic of the range of positive emojis available, the use of this emoji instead implies distrust, disbelief, or even that someone is humouring you.