Mort Walker, the comic strip artist who created Beetle Bailey, died over the weekend at his home in Stamford, Connecticut. He was 94. Walker drew the strip, about a loafing Army private, for 68 years, the longest such daily run ever, according to syndicator King Features. Beetle Bailey originally was a slow-moving college student named Spider, but Walker turned him into an Army private with the onset of the Korean War. The Tokyo edition of Stars & Stripes banned the strip for fear it would encourage real service members to become slackers, but that only gave it free publicity that sent circulation soaring. In the 1970s, Walker added a black character, Lt. Flap, stoking the strip's popularity again. His sons plan to continue the comic.
NPR Militants on Monday killed 11 Afghan soldiers in a raid against a military academy in Kabul as a wave of violence by Islamist extremists continued in Afghanistan. It was the fourth major attack in nine days, coming just after suicide bombers killed more than 100 people when they detonated ambulances full of explosives in a busy Kabul neighborhood. Last week, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack on the office of the aid group Save the Children in the eastern city of Jalalabad, which left six people dead. The U.S. has been increasing assistance to Afghan security forces, including air strikes against the Taliban and other groups.
Reuters Weather Channel co-founder John Coleman has died, The Associated Press reported Sunday, citing confirmation from his wife, Linda. He was 83. Coleman was also the original Good Morning America meteorologist. A controversial figure, he insisted that global warming was a hoax. The Texas native got his first TV job while studying at the University of Illinois. Later, he worked at local stations in the Midwest before joining GMA for its 1975 launch. He helped get The Weather Channel up and running in 1981, serving as its CEO for about a year, then spent the last 20 years of his career as a meteorologist for KUSI-TV in San Diego. He retired in 2014.
Source: The Weather Channel s you’re probably aware by now, the government of Hawaii texted out an emergency ballistic missile warning over the weekend, terrifying its citizens with the following text: EMERGENCY ALERT: BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. It actually was a drill, it turns out, but in the 38 minutes after this text was sent out, Hawaiians panicked in the streets, crying and screaming for dear life, according to multiple media reports.
Source: Natural News Two suicide bombers struck a busy street market in central Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 38 people. At least 105 people were wounded. The bombers blew themselves up in Tayran Square during rush hour, when it is typically filled with laborers looking for work. No group immediately claimed responsibility, although the attack was similar to past bombings claimed by the Islamic State. Such attacks had decreased dramatically in the Iraqi capital in recent months as the Iraqi military, backed by the U.S.-led coalition, drove ISIS out of strongholds across the country over the last three years.
Source: USA Today The death toll in Southern California's mudslides rose to 17 on Wednesday. Dozens remained missing in areas where the state's largest wildfire on record recently burned away vegetation, leaving neighborhoods vulnerable without natural protection against flooding in heavy rain. Rescuers had to wade through thick mud to get to stranded residents in Montecito, northwest of Los Angeles. Crews were still trying late Wednesday to reach about 300 people trapped in their homes. Twenty-eight people were injured and about 100 homes were destroyed.
Source: The New York Times At least 13 people were killed Tuesday when heavy rains triggered mudslides in parts of Santa Barbara County, California, an area devastated by wildfire just weeks earlier. "It's going to be worse than anyone imagined for our area," Santa Barbara County Fire Department spokesman Mike Eliason said. "Following our fire, this is the worst-case scenario." The rainstorm hit early in the morning, causing "waist-high" mudflows, said Kelly Hoover, a Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman. The deaths occurred in Montecito. At least 25 other people were injured.
Source: Los Angeles Times Tatsuro Toyoda, the former Toyota Motor Corp. president who led the company’s climb to become one of the world’s top automakers, died Dec. 30. He was 88. The cause was pneumonia, the Japanese automaker said. Other details were not disclosed. Mr. Toyoda, the automaker’s seventh president and son of the company’s founder, stepped down from the position in 1995, while continuing in other posts, such as adviser, a title he held until his death.
Source: Washington Post A heat wave pushed temperatures in Sydney, Australia, to 117 degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday, the hottest in 78 years. The highest temperature in the area, recorded in the suburb of Penrith, fell one degree below an all-time record set in 1939. Authorities in the neighboring state of Victoria were forced to warn drivers that a six-mile stretch of freeway was "melting." The high heat also triggered multiple wildfires. The severe heat came as Europe and many other parts of the world also experienced unusually high temperatures.
Source: The Huffington Post Editor's note: Doesn't anyone know Australia is on the Celsius scale? Temperatures remain extremely low in the Northeast Sunday morning but are expected to rise over the coming week after days of severe cold, high winds, and heavy snow. "With the wind dying down it will probably feel significantly better although many of these areas will still be below freezing," said Patrick Burke of the National Weather Service of Sunday's weather on the East Coast. CBS reports at least 22 people have died in connection to the record low temperatures observed across the country since the end of December.
Source: The Associated Press, CBS News |
About This BlogCertain numerology has a strong connection with occultism. Various numbers from time-to-time appear in news articles, and one has to wonder if there isn't some occult significance behind this story. Archives
May 2021
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