- Jews…Egyptians….Belgians…..it’s an international religious
artifact smuggling drama like the world has never seen, not since the last time
shady criminals attempted to steal priceless artifacts and smuggle them across
the border of another country. This particular tale involves authorities in
Egypt seizing a
cache of Jewish religious artifacts that smugglers allegedly wanted to ship to
Belgium at one of the country's main ports. Antiquities Minister Mohammed
Ibrahim confirmed the seize in a statement released Friday that officials found
the artifacts while searching cargo Thursday at the coastal city of Damietta.
The haul was quite impressive, including a cylindrical wooden box plated in
silver that would have held Torah scrolls. There was also a silver knife dating
to roughly 1890 with inscriptions, and bells commonly hung in synagogues. All
in all, it’s the sort of treasure trove of old stuff that could have brought
six figures or more on the black market and it also represents a rare period in
Egyptian history in which there was some semblance of religious tolerance in
the country. Such an era seems light years away now, given the massive dearth
of security the country has existed in since a 2011 uprising toppled
then-leader Hosni Mubarak. Since then, chaos has gripped the nation and
scumbags have seized upon this chance to thieve thousands of valuable
artifacts. A committee will study and date the recovered cache of old stuff and
determine what to do with it next. Meanwhile, an angry Belgian black market fence
is sitting in a dimly lit warehouse, polishing off a delicious Belgian waffle
topped with powdered sugar and Nutella and wondering where his dam Torah scroll
box is……..
- Mara Wilson is the most awesome actress in Hollywood. She
earned that well-deserved distinction with a simple, yet powerful act. Wilson
was a part of a train wreck of a movie 21 years ago, playing Robin Williams
and Sally Field's young daughter Natalie Hillard in the 1993 comedy “Mrs.
Doubtfire.” The movie featured Williams ridiculously in drag as an elderly
white woman just to be close to his estranged children and somehow, no one ever
saw through his truly asinine disguise. The laughs were few, the absurdity was
high and Wilson was a part of the project as relatively unknown child actor who
can be forgiven for not knowing how much the film sucked. Two decades later,
the inexplicable news that there will be a “Mrs. Doubtfire” sequel has dropped
on the world like a vat of spoiled milk. The announcement was met with
justifiable skepticism by some, refusing to believe that even Hollywood was
this desperate for a recognizable title to slap up on the big screen. Wilson’s
reaction was entirely different and it is reason to stand and applaud her for
not being a soul-less cash-grabber with no self-respect. "I've been in
some mediocre movies, but I've never been in a sequel. And I have no interest
in being in one now," Wilson tweeted. “Sequels generally suck unless they
were planned as part of a trilogy or series. I think Doubtfire ended where it
needed to end." Brav-freaking-o, Mara, brav-freaking-o. Everything she
wrote in that 140-character burst was brilliant and should be taught in acting
classes for the rest of humanity. Just ot make sure her message was clear, she
followed it with a second tweet. “For the record, no, I do not have anything to do
with the Mrs. Doubtfire sequel, nor will I.” She drove the point home a second
time on her Facebook page, noting that she no longer acts in movies. Yet in
spite of that, she becomes the coolest actress around merely by refusing to
whore herself out for a decent payday in a garbage sequel………..
- World, we’re psychologically softer than anyone dared to
imagine. According to a new study by British psychiatrists, feeble-minded victims of
childhood bullying are still laboring under the effects of their teenage
torment nearly four decades later. In the first study to examine the effects of
childhood bullying beyond early adulthood, researchers cited the impact of such
bullying as "persistent and
pervasive,” with people who were bullied when young more likely to have poorer
physical and psychological health and poorer cognitive functioning at age 50. "The
effects of bullying are still visible nearly four decades later ... with
health, social and economic consequences lasting well into adulthood,"
said Ryu Takizawa, who led the study at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's
College London. The data used for this sad study comes from the British
National Child Development Study, which includes data on all children born in
England, Scotland and Wales during one week in 1958. The research included 7,771
children whose parents gave information on their child's exposure to bullying
when they were between the ages of 7 and 11. Researchers followed up/annoyingly
continued questioning these children until they became adults and reached the
age of 50. Approximately 28 percent of children studied were bullied occasionally
and 15 percent were bullied frequently. The study factored in such components
as childhood IQ, emotional and behavioral problems and low parental involvement
and determined that those who were frequently bullied in childhood were at an
increased risk of mental disorders such as depression, anxiety and experiencing
suicidal thoughts. Additionally, victims of bullying were also more likely to
have lower educational levels, less likely to be in a relationship and more
likely to report lower quality of life. Men didn’t fare well at all, as those
who had been bullied proved to be o more likely to be unemployed and earn less.
Researcher Louise Arseneault said the findings proved how vital it is "to
move away from any perception that bullying is just an inevitable part of
growing-up." "Teachers, parents and policy-makers should be aware
that what happens in the school playground can have long-term
repercussions," she said. Nice try, enabler. It’s time to toughen
up, world, and stop listening to these scientific sissies…….
- When is a nine-figure, quintessential rich dude purchase
that dwarfs the gross domestic product of many Third World nations actually a
bargain? According to Dallas
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, that isn't a bizarre riddle that only the 1 percent
can understand. As the bombastic billionaire sees it, the purchase of the worst
team in the NBA - located in one of the most undesirable places to live and
work in the Association - for approximately $550 million is highway robbery for
men who only travel on the highway on their way to the airport to board their
private jet. After longtime Milwaukee Bucks owner Herb Kohl announced that he
had reached an agreement to sell the team to hedge-fund billionaires Wesley
Edens and Marc Lasry, Cuba moved quickly to play up the sale as the equivalent
of finding a Picasso in the dollar bin at the neighborhood yard sale. "I
think they got off cheap," Cuban said. "I think that was a bargain. I
think it's worth a lot more. I think it's worth a lot more than that. I think
someone got a bargain. You can't look backwards. You've got to look forward.
You don't value teams based off what happened in the past." The deal is
still subject to approval by the NBA and its board of governors, but even
without hat approval, Cuban appears to be full of shit. In January, Forbes
valued the Bucks at $405 million, the lowest among the NBA's 30 teams. Perhaps
Cuban looks at the then-record $285 million he paid for the Mavericks in 2000,
sees the soaring costs and wants to drive up prices even further for he and his
fellow uber-wealthy pals. Why? Because when he was asked whether the league
should consider adding an expansion team, Cuban said he was cool with it - as
long as the price tag as massive. "I'm not opposed to it," Cuban
said. "This is just me talking, but we'd be crazy to sell it for under a
billion dollars." Let’s see….a billion dollars…..divided by 30 guys who
don’t really need any more money…..is a sh*t load of cash.……..
- Cow dung is more valuable than one might imagine. A
farmer in Scott County, Iowa is taking the smelly stuff that drops from the
non-business end of his cattle and turning it into the fuel needed to drive his
farm’s operations. With 2,400 cows on his land, Bryan Sievers has plenty of
manure with which to work. Each of
his cud-chomping cattle consumes 40
pounds of feed daily and that leads to a lot of cow feces. With so many cow
pies on the ground, Sievers began thinking that there had to be a way to do
something productive with the poop. Digging deep into his Iowa farmer pockets, he
invested $7 million to the waste into clean power for Alliant Energy. “There’s
nothing that goes to waste on a farm like this,” Sievers said. “The more they
eat, the more energy we produce.” His unique setup is one of only three in the
entire state and the system is relatively simple. Waste falls through a slotted
floor and is transported to a device called a digester does a bunch of fancy
science stuff and poof, energy comes out the other end. Actually, the manure
travels through a series of pipes and tanks and is converted into methane gas. The
energy generated in a day is enough to power 1,000 homes. The generator that
cranks out the energy has been online since September and it creates enough
power for the entire farm and the aforementioned 1,000 homes. For his
participation in this process - which consists of getting his cows to poop in
the right place and keeping them alive long enough to make that happen, Sievers
gets a monthly check for about $24,000 from Alliant Energy. “If you stretch
yourself with what you want to achieve, with your farm operation you can
probably do more than you might think,” he said, sounding very much like a
combination between a bovine Buddha and Warren Buffett. All of this is
important not only because it supplements the always-lacking income of a
Midwestern farmer and his family, but also because it reduces the Sievers
family’s carbon footprint and that is something of which they can all be
immensely proud………
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