BECAUSE THE WORLD IS A SCARY PLACE
Joseph Laurinaitis, better known in the professional wrestling world as Road Warrior Animal, died at the age of 60 on Wednesday morning. Animal’s official Twitter account broke the news — “At this time, we would like to confirm the passing of Joseph Laurinaitis aka Road Warrior Animal at the age of 60. The family is planning to release a statement later today. At this time we ask for you to keep everyone in your thoughts and prayers.”
Yet another early death ..
Church says goodbye to his fans..
says too many projects going in..
And thanks George Noory
And you think nurses had it tough!?
Maitland Ward has gone public about her feature length porn film that was made during COVID-19…
You may remember her name from BOY MEETS WORLD. Now she’s in the world of COVID as a porn star..
The harrowing experience, as revealed in an essay in the DAILY BEAST, include:
At first, I have to admit, I was a little skeptical. How would this all work? Would the cast and crew be able to remain safe and healthy for a span of days and weeks? But any trepidation I had quickly left me when I saw the time and effort put in to insure this production would run smoothly and safely.
Ward goes on to reveal that cast and crew received COVID tests every single morning, regardless of whether or not they were required to be on set.
That may be surprising given the state of testing in the United States! So many are struggling to get tested.. But Ward and cast etc were able to daily.
The porn production house also hired an EMT, and temperatures were checked frequently and at random. We are sure it was ‘hot’ in there.
Ward wrote that ‘disinfecting, and distancing were enforced, and only performers in scenes could take their masks off.’
But you can rest easy tonight with this knowledge: Ward made the best of a tragic situation.
Ward has been abstaining from sexual relations in her personal life due to anxiety about spreading and contracting the coronavirus – but the safety of the set gave her a place to let loose without having to worry about anyone being infected.
‘I had missed random human contact so much I think I mauled my first scene partner, but he didn’t seem to mind.’
Welcome to the future of medicine!?
This has been widely reported: Ransomware invaded 30 servers at University Hospital Düsseldorf last week, crashing systems and forcing the hospital to turn away emergency patients.
News agencies have informed global audiences that a woman in a life-threatening condition was sent to a hospital 20 miles away in Wuppertal and died from treatment delays…
If true, it would be the the first known and reported incident of a cyber attack actually leading to the death of a patient..
It also may not be a complete surprise..
Germany’s cyber-security agency, the Federal Office for Information Security, was called in to shore up the hospital’s systems. The Citrix flaw had been known about since December 2019 and called on healthcare facilities not to delay IT security upgrades.
German police are probing negligent homicide …
And the true final story may be more nuanced than headlines depict..
Authorities in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia launched an investigation on Thursday into suspected “negligent homicide” after a ransomware attack crippled a hospital in Düsseldorf.
A woman scheduled for life-saving treatment at the Düsseldorf University Clinic on Friday night had to be redirected to a hospital in Wuppertal roughly 60 kilometers (38 miles) away. A ransomware cyberattack had forced emergency services to redirect nearly ambulances bound for the Düsseldorf hospital to other medical facilities. The state Justice Ministry suggested the woman had died as a result of the delay in treatment caused by the ransomware.
Perhaps an unintended consequence of an intended action?
German state authorities said the attack on the hospital was likely unintended. On one of the servers, a note was found requesting that the Heinrich Heine University get in contact with the perpetrators.
“There was no concrete ransom demand,” according to the hospital.
DEVELOPING..
President Trump was sent ricin in a letter.. officials investigating
A package containing ricin poison that was addressed to US President Donald Trump has been intercepted before it reached the White House, officials told US media.
The letter was discovered at a screening facility for White House mail earlier this week, the officials said.
They said a substance found inside the envelope was identified as ricin, a poison found naturally in castor beans.
The Trump administration is yet to comment on the reports.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Secret Service are investigating where the package came from and whether others have been sent through the US postal system.
DEVELOPING..
On March 30, Dr. Deborah Birx started the the nation with a prediction that we could hit 200,000 deaths from COVID… Welcome to 200,000..
This weekend, that absurd number so many scoffed at back in the spring, comes to fruition.
NBC NEWS’ By Erika Edwards and Denise Chow write on September 19, 2020:
In the predawn hours of March 30, Dr. Deborah Birx stepped in front of the camera on the White House lawn and made an alarming prediction about the coronavirus, which had, by then, killed fewer than 3,000 people in the United States.
“If we do things together, well, almost perfectly, we can get in the range of 100,000 to 200,000 fatalities,” Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, told Savannah Guthrie of NBC News’ “Today” show.
“We don’t even want to see that,” she added, before Guthrie cut her off.
That was the worst case scenario..
The count continues.
The worst case scenario apparently is not done yet.
According to all reasonable reports, the COVID-19 death count surpassed the 200,000 mark on Saturday.
With the case count and death counts now rising in many locations around the United States, the next sobering number is being tossed around amongst many: A surge in the number of new infections in the fall and winter, combined with growing fatigue over social distancing and other public health measures, could result in more than 415,000 deaths in the U.S. by January, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, or IHME, at the University of Washington.
x x x
Boris Johnson was hospitalized with COVID-19 earlier this year. If you recall, Britain was on edge with rumors swirling that their prime minister was clinging for life. Public displays of his health suddenly became fearful, with the strong leader showing that adversity almost brought him down.
Now Johnson is publicly stating that his nation is in the second wave of the virus.
The BBC is among the sources reporting that Johnson is bracing the nation for ‘tighter social distancing.’ British media report that the government is trying to avoid a national lockdown..
The plan would aim to avoid a national lockdown but could stop household-to-household contact. The first tier would be the level of measures currently in place in most parts of England now – with social distancing the key aspect. The second tier would involve what is currently being imposed in north-east of England – curfews on hospitality venues and a ban on meetings between households. The final third tier would involve stricter lockdown measures.
BBC 18 September 2020
Europe’s death rate has been stable for 72 days, according to the ECDC, although Bulgaria, Croatia, Malta, Romania and Spain are seeing death rate increases.
The surge comes just after the summer vacation season, as workers return to city centers and children go back to school.
The World Health Organization blames countries that relaxed restrictions..
Perhaps images like this explain what is going wrong: People are seen dancing to a busker in Leicester Square, central London, on September 12, days before social gatherings were restricted again.
The second wave–or just increase in cases–may have just been inevitable.
Professor Mark Woolhouse, an epidemiologist at the University of Edinburgh, told CNN earlier this month that the initial lockdown was “never, ever going to solve the problem for us in Europe or anywhere else; it was simply deferring it.”
Deferring it..
And the world has deferred long enough?
Behold. The second wave.
and..
Did the Dark Knight Rises almost rise to an NC-17?
The Christopher Nolan Batman Franchise has been a unique and popular addition to the lure of the caped crusader.. But one scene that was apparently removed almost put the film into NC-17 waters.
The Dark Knight Rises would have been stamped NC-17, and Nolan avoided that simply by removing the original death scene for Matthew Modine’s character.
Modine talked about this during an appearance on CinemaBlend’s ReelBlend podcast to promote the 4K release of his 1987 movie Full Metal Jacket:
He cut my death scene out of Dark Knight Rises. Because he said it was so violent that it would have gotten an NC-17 rating. … Marion Cotillard — after Bane dies and Batman, Chris [Bale] gets stabbed, she gets in one of those vehicles. She starts to drive away, and I’m shooting at her. And I got run over. All it does is, it just cuts, and I’m on the ground, dead. But it was so violent. The guy that was doubling me got hit by the car. They put a plexiglass thing on the front of [the car] and he got hit. They had ropes to pull him into the air, but he went up and they dropped him from about 15 feet, and the sound of his body hitting the cobblestone street in front of the New York Stock Exchange, it was sickening. And I remember I looked at Christopher Nolan when we shot it and his face was white. He was like, ‘OK, let’s move on. We got that.’ But it was like, ‘Oh my God, is that guy going to get up? Is he okay?’ But [Nolan] said that if he would have put it in the movie, it would’ve got an NC-17 rating because it was so violent.
Now the NC-17 commentary is an opinion from Modine–not official.
Modine may be right on how the violent aspect of DKR would have been more intense, there are plenty of other films that feature mild gore and still end up with a PG-13 or an R..
It may be unfair to critique Modine’s commentary in such a way–but most news sites are throwing headlines up treating it as fact..
Without seeing the actual scene it is difficult to tell.
Perhaps Modine is right..
The scene’s gore would have earned the score.
Shock and awe across both political and judicial landscapes took place Friday night with the passing of 87 year old Ruth Bader Ginsburg..
Chief Justice John Roberts said:
“Our Nation has lost a jurist of historic stature. We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn, but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her — a tireless and resolute champion of justice.”
Ginsburg’s reign as the liberal powerhouse on the court began when she replaced Sandra Day O’Connor during the Clinton presidency.
We will leave other more astute and dedicated political and legal websites opine as to the impact Notorious RBG’s death will have over the advancement of women’s rights and civil liberties..
The political fight is set for fever pitch–with an election taking place in just weeks Senate Majority Leader McConnell says he will abandon the Obama-era McConnell Rule and move forward with filling Ginsburg’s seat!
According to NPR, Ginsburg dictated one final dig at President Donald Trump to her granddaughter Clara Spera, declaring, “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”
Ginsburg using the world “installed” was an interesting choice.
Ginsburg could have said, “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until after the election,” or even “After the inauguration.” Rather, she said she did not want to be replaced “until a new president is installed.” If President Trump wins re-election, then a “new president” will not be “installed” until 2024. (Barring impeachment or resignation, of course.) If Ginsburg meant these words literally, then her seat would remain vacant throughout the entirety of Donald Trump’s second term. Merrick Garland could not be reached for comment.
JOSH BLACKMAN |THE VOLOKH CONSPIRACY
Maybe RBG already knew this election could be decided by a court..
DEVELOPING..
Donald Trump is planning to freeze downloads of the TikTok and WeChat apps by banning them from Apple and Google app stores starting Sunday, according to a press release issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce on Friday.
Developing
Reporting says ye.
Before Twitter locked his account, Kanye tweeted, “I know a lot of musicians are not allowed to say anything but I can’t be muted or cancelled so I’m going to say everything as always.”
More..
Something for someone mad.
Meanwhile presidential candidate West also used social media for the chance to publicly urinate on one of the many Grammys he’s earned through the years.. maybe this is the one he took from TAYLOR?
