The Philippines president-elect accused the Catholic church on Sunday of hypocrisy, saying the bishops who had condemned him during his campaign had been asking favours from the government.
Rodrigo “the punisher” Duterte, who won the 9 May presidential elections by a landslide, caused outrage in the church hierarchy in December after making a rambling and obscenity-filled speech cursing the pope. About 80% of Filipinos belong to the Catholic church. Continue reading…
The National Weather Service says a tornado that damaged or destroyed about 20 homes near the northeast Kansas town of Chapman was an EF4 with estimated peak winds of 180 mph.
Weather service surveyors determined the tornado started at 7:10 p.m. Wednesday and stayed on the ground for 26 miles before ending around 8:40 p.m. Kansas officials said Thursday numerous power lines and a set of railroad tracks were damaged in the storm.
The twister passed just south of Chapman, a community of 1,400 that in 2008 lost more than 60 homes and had several school buildings and churches damaged by a similar-sized tornado that cut through the heart of the town.
The weather service says Wednesday’s tornado was a half-mile wide and completely destroyed a farmstead near Chapman.
Earlier Thursday the weather service had rated the tornado as an EF3. Source
A day after 11 states filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration over bathroom guidance for transgender students, a 12th state says it wants to get involved.
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R) said in a statement Thursday that his office had already spoken with Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, who is leading the suit.
“I intend, as soon as possible, to join the lawsuit against this latest example of federal overreach,” Bryant said in a statement. Continue reading…
“Microsoft has turned “nasty” in its campaign to coerce hundreds of millions of customers to upgrade to its Windows 10 operating system, a program critics condemn as privacy-invading, data-swiping and “brimming with freemium services and ads.” Microsoft has been trying to lure computer users into its new operating system for months, bombarding them with unending pop-up screens. But many users are comfortable with the systems they have, have no interest in learning new operations and have simply clicked the “X” to get rid of the unwanted solicitation. You can’t do that anymore. Microsoft changed the coding on the “X” so that clicking it now instructs MS to “upgrade” your computer to Windows 10. Yes, really. In fact, the two options on the page, “OK” and “Upgrade Now,” do the same thing as the “X.” –Source
Finally, a somewhat mainstream article exposing Microsoft for unethical practices that everyone using Windows 7, 8 or even 10 need to know about. Yes, many PC mags touched on this already months ago. But not many people read or speak geek. And so I am glad this article came out using laymen’s terms so as to shine a light on something most people running the new Windows 10 operating system had no clue about. Continue reading…
Facebook could be tapping into not just users personal information, interests, and online habits but also your private conversations, a new report has revealed.Facebook admits that it “uses your microphone to identify the things you’re listening to or watching, based on the music and TV matches we’re able to identify.” Continue reading…
Robots will do repetitive tasks previously done by people.
The biggest manufacturer of Apple AAPL 0.79% products is going to replace human workers with robots.
Foxconn FXCNY -3.70% has cut 60,000 jobs historically reserved for humans and is in the process of replacing them with robots, according to the BBC and the South China Morning Post. (Foxconn manufactures for a great number of brands and it’s not clear whether these changes affect Apple products.) continue reading…
Suicide attempts in the military aren’t necessarily combat-driven. At the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Army soldiers most likely to try to kill themselves were never deployed, new research shows.
Moreover, risk was greatest just two months into service, according to the study of more than 163,000 soldiers. Continue reading…
Unemployment and reduced public-sector health spending following the 2008 global economic crisis were associated with increased cancer mortality, according to a new study published in The Lancet. The study estimates that the recent economic crisis was associated with over 260000 additional cancer deaths in countries within the Organisation for Economic Development (OECD) by 2010, of which 160000 were in the European Union.
The study is the first global analysis to look at the effect of unemployment and changes in public-sector healthcare spending on cancer deaths, and suggests universal health care coverage may protect patients from the health consequences of rising unemployment and reduced public-sector healthcare spending. Continue reading…
A woman from the north of Colombia has died after a self-proclaimed witch set her ablaze in a fatal attempt to rid the victim of “evil spirits,” local media reported Tuesday.
The fatal accident happened in Buenavista, a town in the Caribbean province of Sucre, where the 36-year-old victim had called in the help from a local lady who claimed supernatural powers some 10 days ago. Continue reading…
When Jennifer Stella’s two children were babies, she made sure they got all the usual vaccines. But when one started having seizures and the other developed eczema after they’d gotten immunizations, the Vermont woman decided her kids would no longer get shots required to attend school.
Stella, a co-founder of the Vermont Coalition for Vaccine Choice, is among a growing number of parents who are opting out of childhood vaccinations because they’re worried about their safety. Public health experts say the movement is leading to outbreaks of nearly eradicated dangerous diseases, such as measles and whooping cough, among clusters of unvaccinated kids. Continue reading…