To Be, Or Not to Be: On Whether Animals Can Commit Suicide

Can animals reflect on, and reject, their conditions of existence? The philosopher Owen Flanagan has pointed out that when Hamlet poses the question that has become the single most powerful query of all English literature, “he is, of course, contemplating suicide.
Read more: https://iainews.iai.tv/articles/to-be-or-not-to-be-on-whether-animals-can-commit-suicide-auid-1087?source=Snapzu

Meriton fined $3m for manipulating TripAdvisor hotel reviews

Australian property giant Meriton has been ordered to pay $3m for manipulating TripAdvisor reviews about its serviced apartments, in breach of consumer law. Meriton was found by the federal court to have withheld from the travel website the emails of guests who had complained or had a negative experience between November 2014 and October 2015.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2018/jul/31/meriton-fined-3m-for-manipulating-tripadvisor-hotel-reviews?source=Snapzu

As California burns, many fear the future of extreme fire has arrived

Experts say the state’s increasingly ferocious wildfires are not an aberration – they are the new reality
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/30/california-wildfires-climate-change-new-normal?source=Snapzu

Homeopaths to pay £120,000 bill for failed legal challenge against NHS

Taxpayer's should not pick up the bill for “tap water masquerading as medicine” NHS England said it will seek full reimbursement after judges dismissed the homeopaths’ challenge in June.
Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/homeopathy-nhs-england-legal-costs-challenge-high-court-evidence-a8471261.html?source=Snapzu

France bans smartphones in schools

French lawmakers on Monday passed a law banning schoolchildren from having smartphones and other internet-enabled devices at schools. The ban applies to smartphones, tablets, smartwatches and other connected devices, which must be turned off or left at home.
Read more: https://dw.com/en/france-bans-smartphones-in-schools/a-44890246?source=Snapzu

Why New York Kicked the Country's Second-Biggest Cable Company Out of the State

New York State voted to kick Charter Communications (which operates as Spectrum) out of the state for repeatedly failing to meet the modest conditions affixed to its merger with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. Charter Communications has long been the poster child for broadband industry dysfunction, with some of the worst customer satisfaction ratings of any company in any industry in America.
Read more: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ne538b/why-new-york-kicked-charter-spectrum-cable-out-of-the-state?source=Snapzu

'Spectacular' ancient public library discovered in Germany

Remains of grand building that may have housed up to 20,000 scrolls uncovered in central Cologne, dating back to second century AD
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jul/31/spectacular-ancient-public-library-discovered-in-germany?CMP=fb_us?source=Snapzu

19-year-old dies following 'routine traffic stop' in Chesapeake

On Wednesday a 19-year-old Chesapeake woman mysteriously died following a routine traffic stop. Police said Sarah Wilson used a handgun inside the car to shoot and kill herself. However, the teen’s mom believes there is much more to this story, and she’s desperate for answers. “In all of her life I have never known of her to shoot a gun, own a gun, or even hold a gun,” said mother Dawn Wilson.
Read more: https://www.13newsnow.com/mobile/article/news/19-year-old-dies-following-routine-traffic-stop-in-chesapeake/291-578159905?source=Snapzu

Swedish coast guard works to clean up 14,000-litre oil spill

Sweden's coast guard was on Monday working to clear up an oil spill caused by heavy winds after a large freight ship ran aground off the country's southeastern coast. The 139-metre freight ship Makassar Highway first ran aground on July 23rd and began leaking oil. Initially the coast guard was able to contain the spillage, but heavy winds on Saturday and Sunday meant the oil began to leak into the Baltic Sea, before the salvage operation could begin.
Read more: https://www.thelocal.se/20180730/swedish-coastguard-oil-spill-freight-ship?source=Snapzu

String Theory May Create Far Fewer Universes Than Thought

The problem with string theory, according to some physicists, is that it makes too many universes. It predicts not one but some 10500 versions of spacetime, each with their own laws of physics. But with so many universes on the table, how can the theory explain why ours has the features it does?
Read more: https://www.space.com/41320-string-theory-may-create-fewer-universes.html?utm_source=notification?source=Snapzu

Ex-Clackamas County probation officer gets 35 years in prison for raping children

A former Clackamas County probation officer was sentenced Friday to 35 years and one month in prison for repeatedly raping two girls beginning when they were 5 and 7. Clackamas County Circuit Judge Michael Wetzel sentenced Gordon Mead Jr., 69, for first-degree rape, first-degree sexual abuse and first-degree sodomy of the two girls, which occurred separately between 2004 and 2012, court records show. A county jury found Mead guilty of the charges on March 2.
Read more: https://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascounty/index.ssf/2018/03/ex-clackamas_county_probation.html?source=Snapzu

US intelligence agencies determine that North Korea is constructing new missiles: report

U.S. intelligence agencies indicate North Korea is building new missiles, officials told The Washington Post on Monday, weeks after President Trump declared the nation is "no longer a Nuclear Treat." Satellite images taken in recent weeks appear to show that at least one and possibly two liquid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) are being worked on at a large research facility in Sanumdong, outside of the capital of Pyongyang.
Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/399604-us-intelligence-agencies-determine-that-north-korea-is-constructing?source=Snapzu

Judge orders many migrant children removed from Texas facility said to use psychotropic drugs

A lawsuit alleged that children held at the Texas facility are likely to be administered psychotropic drugs without their parents' consent.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna895966?source=Snapzu

Popup scam tricks child porn suspect into turning himself in

An Indiana man is facing child porn charges after a popup on his phone prompted him to turn himself in. Joseph Hanvey, 22, of Valparaiso, Indiana told police he tried to download a pornographic video involving a child last week, The Times of Northwest Indiana reported. A message popped up on his screen stating the phone was being monitored by the FBI, according to police.
Read more: https://www.nbc4i.com/news/local-news/popup-scam-tricks-child-porn-suspect-into-turning-himself-in/1335458325?source=Snapzu

Pussy Riot members rearrested after leaving prison – video

Members of the band Pussy Riot appeared surprised as they were met by Russian police after leaving prison where they had been held for 15 days. They were detained after running on to the pitch at Luzhniki stadium dressed as police officers during the second half of the World Cup final between France and Croatia. Olga Pakhtusova, Olga Kurachyova and Veronika Nikulshina looked confused as a police officer approached them and they were immediately put into a van and driven away.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2018/jul/30/pussy-riot-members-rearrested-after-leaving-prison-video?source=Snapzu

Humanity Has Killed 83% of All Wild Mammals and Half of All Plants: Study

Of all the birds left in the world, 70% are poultry chickens and other farmed birds. When it comes to planet Earth, humans are very tiny. The weight of all 7.6 billion humans makes up just 0.01% of all biomass on Earth, according to a report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday. Bacteria, by comparison, make up 13% of all biomass, plants account for 83%, and all other forms of life make up 5% of the total weight, according to the report.
Read more: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/humans-destroyed-83-of-wildlife-report/?source=Snapzu

McDonald's worker with Down syndrome celebrates 30 YEARS in the job

A McDonald's worker with Down syndrome has been delighting customers at his local McDonald's for the past 30 years. Russell O'Grady, 48, first donned the fast food restaurant's uniform in 1986 when he was just 18-years-old. Now, 30 years later, he is a local hero at Northmead McDonald's, in Sydney's west. His father, Geoff O'Grady, told Daily Mail Australia his son had become 'the best-known person in Northmead' since he started working at McDonald's.
Read more: https://www-dailymail-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/c/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3869008/amp/McDonald-s-worker-syndrome-Russell-O-Grady-celebrates-30-years-job.html?source=Snapzu

The 37 strangest lines in Rudy Giuliani's off-the-rails CNN interview

President Donald Trump seems to believe that Rudy Giuliani is a really, really good surrogate for him when it comes to fighting back against the ongoing special counsel probe into Russia's attempted interference in the 2016 election. What else could explain Giuliani's ubiquity on cable television? Which brings me to Monday morning and a thrill-ride of a performance by Giuliani on CNN's "New Day." There was so much said in the interview that condensing it all into one news story is truly impossible. So, below, I've picked out the 37 oddest lines from the Giuliani sit-down.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/30/politics/giuliani-interview-trump-russia/index.html?source=Snapzu

A Toxic Tide Is Killing Florida Wildlife

Florida has an algae problem, and it’s big. This year, an overgrowth in the waters off the state’s southwestern coast is killing wildlife and making some beaches noxious. The toxic algal bloom, known as a red tide, is not unusual. They appear off the state’s coast almost every year. But this one, still going strong after roughly nine months, is the longest since 2006, when blooms that originated in 2004 finally abated after 17 months.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/30/climate/florida-red-tide-algae.html?source=Snapzu

Russia says it knows of U.S. military plans before they happen

Russia's top diplomat said Moscow "will be provided with information about the schemes harbored by the militaries of both the U.S. and other Western countries."
Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/russia-says-it-will-know-us-military-plans-they-happen-1048779?source=Snapzu

Smoking Marijuana Legalized in Georgia

The Constitutional Court of Georgia has released a statement on the decision made today regarding the use of marijuana, effectively abolishing administrative punishment for the use of the drug.
Read more: http://georgiatoday.ge/news/11592/Smoking-Marijuana-Legalized-in-Georgia?source=Snapzu

U.S. spy agencies: North Korea is working on new missiles

Weeks after the Trump-Kim summit, factories are still producing intercontinental ballistic missiles and enriched uranium.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-spy-agencies-north-korea-is-working-on-new-missiles/2018/07/30/b3542696-940d-11e8-a679-b09212fb69c2_story.html?source=Snapzu

Einstein’s General Relativity Passes Black Hole Test

At the center of our Milky Way Galaxy lies the 4-million-solar-mass black hole named Sagittarius A*. This gravitational monster is surrounded by a group of stars orbiting around it at high speed. This extreme environment makes it the perfect place to explore gravitational physics, and particularly to test Einstein’s relativity theory.
Read more: http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/einsteins-general-relativity-black-hole-test-06245.html?source=Snapzu

​Dell XPS 13 now ships with Ubuntu 18.04 Linux

Want a top-flight laptop with a high-end Linux pre-installed? Then you'll want to check out Dell's latest XPS 13.
Read more: https://www.zdnet.com/article/dell-xps-13-now-ships-with-ubuntu-18-04-linux/?source=Snapzu

‘It’s sobering’: A once-exciting HIV cure strategy fails its test in people

When Science published a monkey study nearly 2 years ago that showed an anti-inflammatory antibody effectively cured monkeys intentionally infected with the simian form of the AIDS virus, the dramatic results turned many heads. But some skeptical researchers thought the data looked too good to be true and predicted the intervention wouldn’t work on HIV in humans. They were right.
Read more: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/07/it-s-sobering-once-exciting-hiv-cure-strategy-fails-its-test-people?source=Snapzu

Cruise line faces backlash over shooting of polar bear

A German cruise line is facing outrage after one of its employees shot and killed a wild polar bear in Norway after the animal attacked another of its employees. Hapag-Lloyd Cruises said its ship was docked at Spitsbergen, the largest island on Norway's Svalbard archipelago, on Saturday when the bear attacked a guard hired to go on shore before passengers to ensure there aren't any polar bears in the area.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/29/world/polar-bear-killed-norway-cruise-guard-attacked/index.html?source=Snapzu

Enormous penguin population crashes by almost 90%

The world’s second-largest penguin colony has collapsed in just a few decades, falling from half a million breeding pairs in the 1980s to just tens of thousands in 2017. Breeding colonies of king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) occupy unvegetated ground on islands in the Southern Ocean, including the remote Ile aux Cochons.
Read more: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05850-2?source=Snapzu

French skier lost 64 years ago in Alps identified with help of social media

A French skier who went missing more than 60 years ago has finally been identified after details of a probe into his disappearance were posted on social media, Italian police said Sunday. Human remains and ski equipment were found in 2005 more than 3,000 metres (10,000 feet) up the Cime Bianche in the Valtournenche valley of the Aosta region near the Swiss border in northern Italy.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/30/french-skier-lost-64-years-ago-in-alps-identified-with-help-of-social-media?source=Snapzu

Matt Groening Talks Origins of New Netflix Series ‘Disenchantment’

“The Simpsons” creator Matt Groening explained how his upcoming Netflix animated series “Disenchantment” came about during the TCA summer press tour on Sunday. “I keep sketch books that are full of characters and I started drawing fantastic creatures we couldn’t do on ‘The Simpsons’ and we just went from there,” Groening said. “I filled up an entire sketch book full of imps and gnomes and trolls and fairies…Josh [Weinstein] and I had put together this universe and we’ve only gotten to the fist dozen mythical creatures.”
Read more: https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/matt-groening-netflix-disenchantment-1202889449/?source=Snapzu

Trump rails against Mueller in Sunday tweetstorm

President Donald Trump fired off a series of tweets on Sunday lashing out at the special counsel investigation led by former FBI Director Robert Mueller.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/29/politics/donald-trump-robert-mueller-twitter/index.html?source=Snapzu

Trump threatens government shutdown over border security

President Trump warned on Sunday that he would be willing to “shut down” the government over border security. “I would be willing to 'shut down' government if the Democrats do not give us the votes for Border Security, which includes the Wall! Must get rid of Lottery, Catch & Release etc. and finally go to system of Immigration based on MERIT!” he said in a morning tweet.
Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/399382-trump-warns-of-government-shutdown-over-border-security?source=Snapzu

Deadly California wildfire kills missing children and great-grandmother, family says

Melody Bledsoe and her great-grandchildren James, 4, and Emily, 5 did not survive the fire that engulfed their home Thursday night, according to relatives.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/28/us/california-carr-fire/index.html?source=Snapzu

Kansas City doctors team up to pay off $1.4 million in medical debt for local patients

A reported 1 in 5 Americans have delinquent medical debt on their credit reports—and that doesn’t even account for other Americans who struggle with medical costs in other ways. It’s a large problem that is preventable in one of the richest countries...
Read more: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/7/26/1783702/-Kansas-City-doctors-team-up-to-pay-off-1-4-million-in-medical-debt-for-local-patients?source=Snapzu

Ancient B.C. Indigenous settlement to become outdoor history classroom

Near the foot of sacred Mount Prevost where Indigenous people say their ancestors first landed on earth lays buried a 2,000-year-old settlement with archeological evidence of ancient tools, homes, hearths and grave sites. The Ye'yumnuts village near Duncan, B.C., is about to become a living Indigenous history lesson where the local school district will use the 2.4-hectare meadow as a place-based classroom.
Read more: http://www.nsnews.com/ancient-b-c-indigenous-settlement-to-become-outdoor-history-classroom-1.23383399?source=Snapzu

Girls told to hide spoons in underwear to avoid forced marriage

The spoons are intended to trigger metal detectors, alerting airport staff to any girls being flown abroad against their will; a Swedish national hotline received 139 calls last year about child marriage or forced marriage.
Read more: https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2147168/swedish-girls-fearing-forced-marriage-told-hide-spoon-underwear?source=Snapzu

'Better Call Saul,' 'Fear the Walking Dead' and 'McMafia' Renewed by AMC

AMC has renewed “Fear the Walking Dead” and “Better Call Saul” for fifth seasons and “McMafia” for a Season 2, it was announced Saturday at the Television Critics Association summer 2018 press tour. The network also announced that its miniseries “The Little Drummer Girl” will premiere in November.
Read more: https://www.thewrap.com/better-call-saul-fear-the-walking-dead-and-mcmafia-renewed-by-amc/?source=Snapzu

Hackers break into voting machines within 2 hours at Defcon

Hackers from around the world cracked into voting machines at Defcon convention in Las Vegas this weekend
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hackers-break-into-voting-machines-defcon-las-vegas/?source=Snapzu

New Ebola species is reported for first time in a decade

The family of Ebola viruses has just gotten a bit bigger. The government of Sierra Leone has announced that a new species of Ebola, the sixth, has been discovered there in bats. It has been called, provisionally, the Bombali virus, after a district in the north of the country where it was found. There’s no evidence the new virus has infected people, although EcoHealth Alliance, an environmental nonprofit group involved in the discovery, said on Twitter that it has the potential to infect human cells.
Read more: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/new-ebola-species-is-reported-for-first-time-in-a-decade?source=Snapzu

Homeless man hands out resumes, gets hundreds of job offers

On Friday morning, homeless web developer David Casarez woke from his park bench in Mountain View, Calif., put on a nice shirt and tie, and carried his hand-written cardboard sign to a nearby highway median. “HOMELESS,” the sign read. “HUNGRY 4 SUCCESS. TAKE A RESUME.” It turned out to be the perfect job search strategy. A passerby’s photo of him standing on the median holding the sign soon went viral on Twitter, and by Saturday afternoon, he’d been flooded with more than 200 job offers.
Read more: https://nypost.com/2018/07/28/homeless-man-hands-out-resumes-gets-hundreds-of-job-offers/?source=Snapzu

'As Jews, we reject the myth that it's antisemitic to call Israel racist'

In such urgent times, it is more important than ever to distinguish between legitimate critiques of unjust Israeli policies and ‘hostility to Jews as Jews’
Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/antisemitisim-jews-israel-labour-party-bds-jewish-coalition-palestine-a8458601.html?source=Snapzu

Pope accepts resignation of prominent cardinal

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who led the Archdiocese of Washington, after decades-old allegations of sexual abuse of a teenage altar boy forced the Vatican to remove him from ministry.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2018/07/28/cardinal-theodore-mccarrick-resigns-vpx.cnn?source=Snapzu

Breastfeeding campaign gets funding boost

Funding to encourage more mothers in Scotland to breastfeed for longer is to be almost doubled. The Scottish government has announced an extra £2m investment. Figures show that over the last year 63% of babies had been breastfed at some point, but the rate dropped to 41% at six weeks. The cash boost, ahead of World Breastfeeding Week, will go to health boards to tackle problems which see some mothers stop breastfeeding.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-44991586?source=Snapzu

Circumcising newborn boys increases their risk of cot death

Circumcising newborn boys increases their risk of cot death, new research suggests. Male babies who have their foreskins removed are likely to suffer from the condition, also known as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), due to the stress of the procedure, a UK study found.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-5998771/Circumcising-newborn-boys-increases-risk-cot-death-stress-procedure.html?source=Snapzu

First fossilized snake embryo ever discovered rewrites history of ancient snakes

The first-ever discovery of an ancient snake embryo, preserved in 105-million-year-old amber, provides important new information on the evolution of modern snakes, according to a new study led by University of Alberta paleontologists. “This snake is linked to ancient snakes from Argentina, Africa, India and Australia,” explained paleontologist Michael Caldwell, lead author and professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. “It is an important—and until now, missing—component of understanding snake evolution from southern continents, that is Gondwana, in the mid-Mesozoic.”
Read more: http://www.geologypage.com/2018/07/first-fossilized-snake-embryo-ever-discovered-rewrites-history-of-ancient-snakes.html?source=Snapzu

Tech companies can bid on the Pentagon’s $10 billion cloud contract, starting today

On Thursday, the Pentagon opened bidding for a huge cloud computing contract that could be worth as much as $10 billion. Given its size, the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract, known as JEDI, is alluring for major cloud computing companies that might not normally do much business with the Department of Defense. Announced in March, JEDI is structured as a winner-take-all contract with a potential 10-year term, though the Pentagon clarified that the original award will span just the first two years, so all 10 years aren’t set in stone up front.
Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/26/jedi-10-billion-department-of-defense-bidding/?source=Snapzu

Squares and circles are so basic. Get down with this new shape, the scutoid

It's not just a cool "twisted prism," either. The scutoid plays a role in the development of biological organisms. By Adam Rosenberg.
Read more: https://mashable.com/2018/07/28/scutoid-shape-discovery-epithelial-cells/#srKAkKxvSmqy?source=Snapzu

Time is running out in the tropics - researchers warn of global biodiversity collapse

A global biodiversity collapse is imminent unless we take urgent, concerted action to reverse species loss in the tropics, according to a major scientific study in the prestigious journal Nature.  
Read more: http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/news/time-is-running-out-in-the-tropics-researchers-warn-of-global-biodiversity-collapse?source=Snapzu

Migrant children selling sex to escape from Italy, says charity

Migrant children are prostituting themselves in order to get a safe passage into France from the Italian border, according to a report from Save the Children Italy. The minors, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, are selling sex if they are unable to pay the €50-€150 asked by drivers in exchange for a lift across the border.
Read more: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/migrant-children-selling-sex-to-escape-from-italy-says-charity-1.3579659?source=Snapzu

Grieving orca mother carries dead calf for days as whales fight for survival

Whale is one of just 75 in an endangered group off the coast of Washington state and Canada. A grieving mother orca near Vancouver Island has been carrying her dead calf for four days, after refusing to leave her baby behind when the rest of her pod left. The mother whale, named J35 by researchers, gave birth Tuesday in what was initially a hopeful moment. Mother and female calf were seen swimming together that morning near Victoria, British Columbia, according to the Washington state-based Center for Whale Research.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/27/orca-mother-carries-dead-baby-washington-canada?source=Snapzu

Apple wins a Design Patent for 'AirPower' prior to its Launch

Last month Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple Announcing AirPower too ahead of time was a Mistake." The report covered a Bloomberg report attempting to explain the delay in delivering Apple's new inductive charging pad called 'AirPower.' Hopefully Apple will officially launch AirPower next month when they introduce their next generation of iPhones or at least have it ready for the holiday season. Our report today covers Apple being granted a design patent for AirPower in Hong Kong, China in addition to covering their ClassKit trademark filing in both the U.S. and Hong Kong.
Read more: http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2018/07/apple-wins-a-design-patent-for-airpower-prior-to-its-launch.html?source=Snapzu