This n that

[Brent]

Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth has formally sought President Donald Trump's authorization to carry out the execution of former Army Major Nidal Hasan for the 2009 Fort Hood shooting that killed 13 people and injured 32 others. The Army confirmed it has initiated procedural measures to enact Hasan's death sentence, upheld after all legal appeals were exhausted in April.

[Prof Emeritus at Fawk U]

Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth has formally sought President Donald Trump's authorization to carry out the execution of former Army Major Nidal Hasan for the 2009 Fort Hood shooting that killed 13 people and injured 32 others. The Army confirmed it has initiated procedural measures to enact Hasan's death sentence, upheld after all legal appeals were exhausted in April.

Good.

[Oliver the Second]

"Butt breathing" might soon be a real medical treatment



Last year, a group of researchers won the 2024 Ig Nobel Prize in Physiology for discovering that many mammals are capable of breathing through their anus. But as with many Ig Nobel awards, there is a serious side to the seeming silliness. The same group has conducted a new study on the feasibility of adapting this method to treat people with blocked airways or clogged lungs, with promising results that bring rectal oxygen delivery one step closer to medical reality.

This is perhaps one of the more unusual research developments to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated shortages of ventilators and artificial lungs to assist patients' breathing and prevent respiratory failure. The Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center team took their inspiration from the humble loach, a freshwater bottom-dwelling fish found throughout Eurasia and northern Africa. The loach (along with sea cucumbers) employs intestinal breathing (i.e., through the anus) rather than gills to survive under hypoxic conditions, thanks to having lots of capillary vessels in its intestine. The technical term is enteral ventilation via anus (EVA).

And Oxycyte was ideal for the group's 2021 Ig Nobel-winning efforts. The experiments involved intra-anally administering oxygen gas or a liquid oxygenated perfluorocarbon to the unfortunate rodents and porcines. Yes, they gave the animals enemas. They then induced respiratory failure and evaluated the effectiveness of the intra-anal treatment. The result: Both treatments were pretty darned effective at staving off respiratory failure with no major complications.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/10/butt-breathing-might-soon-be-a-real-medical-treatment/

[Prof Emeritus at Fawk U]

Is he belching or farting?



Or both?

[Shen Li]

The former lead vocalist of the Welsh rock band Lostprophets, Ian Watkins aged 48, recently was attacked and killed in prison.

Watkins was murdered at Wakefield prison in Britain on the morning of Oct. 11.

During trial, it was revealed that the password to encrypted files on Watkins' computer was 'I F*K KIDZ,' Rolling Stone previously reported.

In December 2013, Watkins pleaded guilty to 13 charges, including conspiring to rape a child, three counts of sexual assault of children, seven counts involving making or possessing indecent images of children, and one count of possessing an extreme pornographic image involving a sex act on an animal.

The disgraced singer was sentenced to 29 years in prison.

[Brent]

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed Coast Guard security personnel fired upon a driver who was using a rental truck in what appeared to be a ramming attack at their base in Alameda, California, on Thursday night.

Anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protesters had gathered outside the base after hearing federal immigration agents were being housed at Coast Guard Island Alameda. The anti-ICE crowd had minor clashes with federal agents during the day, resulting in at least two arrests. A security guard working for a news crew was also reportedly attacked by anti-ICE protesters, leaving him with a gash on his face and a chipped tooth.

In the late evening after most of the crowd had left, a masked suspect driving a U-Haul was filmed driving backward toward the Coast Guardsmen several times. The security officers can be heard on the footage yelling at the driver to stop. After the driver apparently continued his route into them, the Coast Guardsmen opened fire.
https://x.com/AZ_Intel_/status/1981620123841536429

[DKG]

The New York Knicks evidently want nothing to do with Zohran Mamdani, the front-runner in next month's mayoral election who defended the extremist slogan "globalize the intifada" earlier this year and has repeatedly been accused of anti-Semitism.

The NBA team sent a legal warning to the socialist assemblyman after he used the team's iconic branding in a campaign advertisement that not only was published on social media but aired during the Knicks' season opener on Wednesday night.

The team's blue and orange basketball logo was featured prominently in the ad — but instead of saying "Knicks," it said "Zohran." On social media, the ad was captioned, "This is our year. This is our time."

In its cease-and-desist letter to Mamdani, obtained by the New York Post, the NBA team suggested that the ad was "likely to mislead the public into believing that the Campaign is affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by, or in some way connected with the Knicks."

Per the team's demand, Mamdani's campaign removed all of the offending ads as of Friday afternoon.

[Prof Emeritus at Fawk U]

At least the Knicks are smart.

[DKG]

The national truck driver shortage might be a myth.

Despite numerous government programs over the past several years addressing the so-called driver shortage, the issue persists, according to the American Trucking Associations, the industry's largest national trade organization. The association has claimed a driver shortage since the 1980s, estimating it to be around 60,000 drivers in 2023. It projected that the shortage may reach 160,000 by 2028.

Yet more than 450,000 new commercial driver's licenses are issued each year, according to the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, and many of those drivers enter long-haul trucking. Under the Biden administration, states issued over 876,000 CDLs between January 2021 and April 2022.

The American Transportation Research Institute, the ATA's research arm that conducts studies, including analyses to support its driver-shortage claims, has received over $8 million in government contracts since 2007.

Some critics of the driver-shortage narrative contend that the real issue affecting the industry is driver retention caused by an unnatural suppression of wages and unsatisfactory working conditions, exacerbated by the Biden administration's open-border chaos. By the ATA's own estimates, the driver turnover rate is over 90%.

American truckers in the 1980s reportedly made an annual salary of more than $110,000, and today, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median wage in 2024 was just over $57,000. One report indicated that between 1980 and 2018, the industry experienced a 21% average wage decrease, while some areas of the U.S. experienced a 50% decline.

Shannon Everett with American Truckers United rejected the ATA's narrative, arguing that if such a shortage did exist, wages would be on the rise.

Another issue impacting driver retention is declining working conditions. Truckers said that many drivers are typically paid by the mile, meaning any time spent waiting to load or unload is not compensated. Drivers lose $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion in earnings to detention time, according to a 2018 study from the Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General.

Some truckers argue that these slowdowns can create safety issues, as many drivers are in a rush to get back on the road to make up for the lost wages. These logistical inefficiencies stem from outdated warehouses, a need for more warehouse workers, and the lack of any direct and easily measurable cost impact on the retailers that operate the warehouses.

[Oliver the Second]

 We do NOT need foreign truck drivers!

[Herman]