pileofcrapola

BALTIMORE (AP) — The Maryland Zoo says twin female cheetahs have died there of an uncommon liver disease.

Nine-year-old Tuli and Teep were diagnosed last month with veno-occlusive disease, a genetic disease unique to cheetahs, zoo spokeswoman Jane Ballentine said in a news release.

Despite treatment, Ballentine says, Teep died of the illness this week, and Tuli was euthanized.

Tuli and Teep came to the zoo in July from a San Diego facility.

Cheetahs live mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. There are only about 7,500 to 10,000 cheetahs left in the wild. The International Union for Conservation of Nature considers cheetahs to be vulnerable to extinction.

The post Twin cheetahs die of uncommon disease at Baltimore zoo appeared first on WTOP.

BALTIMORE (AP) — For the passengers on a cruise ship heading back to snowy Baltimore from the Bahamas, one more day at sea doesn’t sound like such a bad idea.

The Maryland Department of Transportation said Friday that a blizzard means the port won’t be ready for the Royal Caribbean International’s Grandeur of the Seas until Monday. The ship was to return Sunday from an eight-day trip to the Bahamas, said Cynthia Martinez, a Royal Caribbean spokeswoman. But plans changed after forecasters said the storm could dump more than 2 feet of snow.

Meg Ryan of Hamilton, New Jersey, one of the cruise ship’s passengers, said she learned about 1 p.m. Friday of the postponement from the cruise line’s website.

“I was not totally surprised and, frankly, happy to be delayed,” Ryan wrote in an email to The Associated Press. “First, it is an extra day of vacation, but more importantly, safety comes first and travel Sunday would be difficult, if not impossible.”

Ryan, 51, is an assistant manager of a luggage store in New Jersey. She is also a Master Cruise Counsellor, a certification from the trade organization Cruise Lines International Association. She works with a company called eCruisenet, which provides consulting services to passengers planning trips. Ryan said she was traveling with a group of eCruisenet clients.

Ryan said she expected the cruise line will have activities to entertain passengers, and the shops and casino will be open, “ready to separate guests from their money.”

On the downside, Ryan said passengers were trying to rebook transportation from Baltimore to their homes. Also, the Grandeur of the Seas was to begin another cruise Sunday to the western Caribbean, so a fresh set of passengers will grapple with a delay. Ryan said the cruise line was helping passengers returning to Baltimore with free calls and Internet access; she took a photo of a line of people waiting to make calls.

Still, an on-board indoor solarium and pool presented an idyllic contrast to what awaited Ryan at home.

“I will return to Hamilton (near Trenton), N.J., to 2 feet of snow, and probably an irate cat, who I am sure will not be happy that I am delayed,” she wrote.

___

This story has been corrected to reflect that the Bahamas are in the Atlantic Ocean, not the Caribbean.

The post Passengers get extra day at sea on cruise to Baltimore appeared first on WTOP.

Fairfax County Fire and Rescue crews were called to a partially frozen lake to make a rescue just as the storm picked up Friday night. The citizen in peril was a large dog that had fallen through the ice.

The rescue happened on the other side of the county in Fairfax Station, but we’re posting it here to show the skills and heart of all Fairfax County Fire Rescue medics.

Milo, a St. Bernard, walked out onto the ice at Woodglen Lake in Fairfax Station as his owners were tubing nearby, firefighters said. At the time of rescue the temperature was 21 degrees with a wind chill of 8 degrees and blowing snow.

When firefighters arrived, the found the dog about 30 feet from shore, so they formulated a rescue plan that included rescuers jumping into the icy water.

Fairfax County medics and firefighters routinely train for ice rescues. They can sometimes be seen on Reston’s lakes (if they are frozen) practicing drills.

The dog was rescued from the freezing pond and placed in the medic unit for drying and re-warming. After about 30 minutes, the dog and owners were taken home and warming efforts continued.

Firefighter said late Friday that the dog is doing well. After rewarming the dog appears healthy and in no distress, they said.

Check out video of the rescue on fire rescue’s Facebook page.

Photo: Fairfax County Firefighters recused a St. Bernard from an icy lake/Credit: Fairfax County

The post Fairfax County Firefighters Save Big Dog From Icy Lake appeared first on WTOP.

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) — A study concludes that a Virginia program to remove thousands of lost crab pots from lower Chesapeake Bay has generated millions in increased revenues for watermen.

The so-called ghost pots are the wire mesh cages used by watermen that have been lost or neglected at the bottom of the bay.

The Daily Press (http://bit.ly/1PLuaxy) reports that researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science found that the program to retrieve those ghost pots has generated a collective harvest value to watermen of more than $21 million.

That figure comes from the increase in blue crab harvest of 13,504 metric tons that computer models attribute to the removal of 34,408 ghost pots between 2008 and 2014.

About 800,000 licensed crab pots sit on the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay.

___

Information from: Daily Press, http://www.dailypress.com/

The post Researchers: ‘ghost pot’ program means money for watermen appeared first on WTOP.

We get it. Maybe you revived your childhood obsession with Star Wars. But don’t extend that fandom to your password, or you could end up welcoming in… the dark side. And by that, we mean anyone who happens to look at the list of 2015’s Worst Passwords.

This year’s list from SlapDash uses aggregations of leaked passwords as sample sizes to nail the most popular security phrases in circulation. And as we all know — or should know — popularity is not a good thing when it comes to attackers who may be able to guess their way into your secure information.

The usual favorites our on the list again, including “123456” and “password” holding strong at the top with their positions unchanged from last year, but there are some newcomers joining the rolls that are linked to pop culture, including “starwars” and “solo,” named for one Han Solo.

Here’s the list– check it once, check it twice, and if you’re using any of the combinations or words below, right now is the time to change that:

1. 123456 (Unchanged)
2. password (Unchanged)
3. 12345678 (Up 1)
4. qwerty (Up 1)
5. 12345 (Down 2)
6. 123456789 (Unchanged)
7. football (Up 3)
8. 1234 (Down 1)
9. 1234567 (Up 2)
10. baseball (Down 2)
11. welcome (New)
12. 1234567890 (New)
13. abc123 (Up 1)
14. 111111 (Up 1)
15. 1qaz2wsx (New)
16. dragon (Down 7)
17. master (Up 2)
18. monkey (Down 6)
19. letmein (Down 6)
20. login (New)
21. princess (New)
22. qwertyuiop (New)
23. solo (New)
24. passw0rd (New)
25. starwars (New)

If you’re looking for a change, it’s a good idea to use passwords or phrases with 12 characters or more, with mixed types of characters (letters, numbers, punctuation) and avoid reusing the same password on different websites.

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Normally, when using the words “Chick-Fil-A” and “kale” in a sentence, we would be referring to the longtime trademark dispute between the chicken restaurant and the maker of t-shirts telling the public to “eat more kale.” The dispute was resolved in the kale-pushing artist’s favor, and now Chick-Fil-A is helping customers to follow their advice, while also following trends in the fast food industry by serving up kale side salads.

McDonald’s is testing kale as part of a breakfast item, but Chick-Fil-A is making it part of the permanent menu. They’re ditching coleslaw as a side option and replacing it with the Superfood Side, which features the hybrid vegetable broccolini, dried cherries, and nuts.

Robert Muller-Moore, the artist who created the “Eat More Kale” shirts, finds Chick-Fil-A’s new offering simply hilarious. “[M]y email blew up with literally hundreds of people writing me in a day, saying, could there be anything more ironic than Chick-fil-A now serving, nationwide, a kale salad?” he told NPR. Better yet: the salad has a maple syrup vinaigrette, and Muller-Moore is based in Vermont. That could simply be because maple is delicious, but he thinks it’s no coincidence.

(via Brand Eating)

Today Chipotle released more information on what exactly it’ll be discussing with employees when the chain shuts down all locations for a few hours on Feb. 8 to discuss the E. Coli and Norovirus outbreaks that hit the chain in 2015. Along with previously announced new food safety protocols, Chipotle says it will offer paid sick leave so that employees who are ill don’t have an incentive to show up to work, thus avoiding the risk of making customers sick as well.

We found out last week that the all-staff meetings during the lunch hour on Feb. 8 would be a chance for company executives to be upfront about the status of the outbreak, and what steps Chipotle is taking to prevent it from happening again.

On Tuesday, Chipotle shed a little more light on how those meetings will shape up, saying it will “share information as to what may have caused some customers to become ill in 2015,” as well as offering paid sick leave “helping to ensure that ill employees have no incentive to work while ill.”

“Over the last few months, we have been implementing an enhanced food safety plan that will establish Chipotle as an industry leader in food safety,” said Steve Ells, founder, chairman and co-CEO of Chipotle in a press release. “Most of the new protocols are already in place, thanks to the hard work and dedication our excellent restaurant teams. Additionally, we have implemented unprecedented food safety standards with our suppliers, which make the food coming into our restaurants safer than ever before.”

Some of the components of Chipotle’s new food safety program include things the chain already covered, including changes to food prep and handling, like chopping lettuce and tomatoes and shredding cheese at central locations; blanching ingredients like onions, limes, and avocados in restaurant kitchens; and new protocols for marinating chicken and steak.

The chain also confirmed that it’ll be using DNA-based testing of many ingredients to make sure they’re safe before they ever reach restaurants.

Disgusted at reports that some shrimp sold in the United States may have been caught by people working under slavery-like conditions, a woman in California filed a class-action lawsuit against Costco, the store where she purchased her shrimp. The problem: Costco, as a members-only warehouse, knows exactly what she has purchased, and says she didn’t actually buy any of the affected shrimp.

The lawsuit claimed that the plaintiff and her mother purchased prawns that came from two specific suppliers based in Thailand. Disturbing recent news reports have exposed the treatment of workers in the seafood industry in that country, who are recruited from poorer Asian countries and forced to work long hours under slavery-like conditions. Those workers don’t catch shrimp: they catch fish that are in turn fed to farmed shrimp.

The problem is that there’s no proof that the lead plaintiff bought any affected seafood. She may have, but Costco’s records for her account and for her mother’s don’t show that she purchased that shrimp.

“One of Costco’s buyers attests that based on item numbers and descriptions, the prawns purchased by Jacobo were sourced from Vietnam and Indonesia, not Thailand,” the court notes.

The case has been dismissed, but if the attorneys can find a different plaintiff who actually purchased Thai farmed shrimp from those suppliers, it can continue.

Order on motions to dismiss[PDF] (via Courthouse News)

Groundhog Day is a fun and silly holiday, and Groundhog Day was a fine movie about personal redemption, but it turns out that rodents are not actually very good at predicting the weather. That leaves an opportunity for another animal with weather-indicating abilities to step in and take over… but we’re not sure that the Peeps chicks are really up for the job.

The premise of the “Vote Peeps” ad campaign is simple: Phil is really not very good at accurately predicting the coming of spring, so we should hand the job over to a marshmallow chick instead. After all, when the chicks are on store shelves, that means spring is near.

The flaw in this logic is that Peeps has spent the last decade or so turning their product into a year-round one: there are Halloween Peeps, Christmas Peps, and even summer peeps in flavors like lemonade and bubble gum.

In addition, considering how early some stores put out Easter candy, it’s not really an accurate gauge of when spring will come.

The Peep vs. Groundhog campaign is framed as a political campaign with attack ads on both sides, because goodness knows that Americans aren’t tired of those yet.

If you’ve been waiting around and salivating since the coming of cinnamon bun flavored Oreos was announced back in September, good news: the cookies have finally been spotted in the wild. They are still not in the smaller “seasonal” package and there’s no mention of the flavor being a limited-time offering, which means that they could be a permanent Exotic Oreo flavor. [The Impulsive Buy]

If you believe that a company has wronged you and other consumers in the same way, you can file a class-action lawsuit seeking to represent all the purported victims of the company’s misbehavior. But can that company preempt the entire lawsuit by offering you a full settlement in advance? Today, the U.S. Supreme Court (well, six of them) said no.

Here’s the quick-sketch background on this case. The U.S. Navy hired a company called Campbell-Ewald to come up with a recruiting campaign that included sending out marketing text messages to consumers who, as required by law, had actively opted in to receiving such texts.

A man named Jose Gomez sued Campbell-Ewald, claiming that he never opted in to these messages and alleging that the company had violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). He intended for the lawsuit to be a class action, representing consumers who were similarly texted without permission, but before he could file the motion for class certification, Campbell offered Gomez a settlement and moved to dismiss the case, even though Gomez rejected the offer.

Campbell claimed that its offer of a settlement rendered Gomez’s individual lawsuit moot because the offer would have provided him with complete relief. In fact, Gomez would have received $1,500 from Campbell, three times the statutory penalty for the alleged violation.

Going a step further, Campbell contended that, because Gomez had not yet filed his motion for class certification, any related class action was similarly mooted.

Both a U.S. District Court and the Ninth Circuit appeals panel held that Campbell could not moot the class action by making an offer that was rejected by the plaintiff. The courts disagreed on whether Campbell enjoyed “derivative sovereign immunity” from TCPA-related lawsuits because of its position as a contractor for the Navy.

Today, in a 6-3 split ruling [PDF], the U.S. Supreme Court held that “An unaccepted settlement offer or offer of judgment does not moot a plaintiff’s case.”

Writing for five-sixth of the majority (Justice Clarence Thomas penned his own concurring opinion), Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg notes that a rejected settlement offer “creates no lasting right or obligation. With the offer off the table, and the defendant’s continuing denial of liability, adversity between the parties persists.”

Today’s ruling stands in contrast to a recent similar case that went before SCOTUS, 2012’s Genesis HealthCare Corp. v. Symczyk. That matter, which involved a nurse claiming that a nursing home was illegally docking employees’ pay, was not a formal class action, but a “collective action” under federal wage-and-hour law. Unlike a class action, this would require other wronged employees to actively join in the claim, as opposed to merely being a passive member of a plaintiff class.

After the nurse filed her suit, the nursing home offered her a settlement that included unpaid wages, attorney fees, and expenses. The nurse never responded to the offer, and the nursing home moved to dismiss the case because no other employees had yet signed on to the lawsuit.

In a narrow 5-4 ruling [PDF], SCOTUS did not actually decide on the question of whether the lawsuit was mooted by the settlement offer. Instead, it assumed that the matter had been rendered moot, even if the settlement was rejected. What the court did decide on in Genesis was that, absent a plaintiff with a live individual case, the suit could not be maintained.

And so today’s opinion takes up that issue left undecided in the Genesis opinion, with Ginsburg noting one important difference between the two cases — that Gomez, unlike the nurse in the 2012 case, actively disputed before the lower court whether or not the case had been mooted.

Ginsburg points out that, while Federal Rule of Civil Procedure #68 obligates parties in a lawsuit to consider a settlement offer, nothing in the rule says that the offer must be accepted or a case is mooted.

In fact, the rule states that an unaccepted offer is “considered withdrawn” and “does not preclude a later offer.”

Campbell pointed to three precedents to support its argument that an offer of a full settlement rendered the lawsuit moot. All three cases cited by Campbell involve 19th century railroad taxes, which Ginsburg says is crucial to understanding why they don’t apply.

In each of the three cases, the party offering the settlement had already paid the money in full back to the state, and state law required that the funds be accepted.

“In all three cases, the railroad’s payments had fully satisfied the asserted tax claims, and so extinguished them,” says Ginsburg, adding that “Gomez remained emptyhanded” after the Campbell settlement offer.

“Because Gomez’s individual claim was not made moot by the expired settlement offer, that claim would retain vitality during the time involved in determining whether the case could proceed on behalf of a class,” reads the opinion. And since Mr. Gomez’s case should still have been considered live, he should have been “accorded a fair opportunity” to show that class certification was warranted.

Additionally, though the Campbell settlement in this case may have provided Mr. Gomez with the full financial relief he sought, Ginsburg notes that the deal included the condition that Campbell would not admit to any violation of the law. While that is not a monetary consideration, an admission of liability from the defendant may be one of the goals in filing a lawsuit.

In his dissenting opinion, Chief Justice Roberts argued that it’s up to a court to “decide whether each party continues to have the requisite personal stake in the lawsuit” after a settlement offer has been made, and that the majority’s ruling “takes that important responsibility away from the federal courts and hands it to the plaintiff.”

But Ginsburg responds that if you allow defendants to escape a class action lawsuit by only settling with one plaintiff, you would “place the defendant in the driver’s seat.”

Today’s decision is a rare pro-consumer ruling from this court, which has repeatedly sought to scuttle consumers’ access to the legal system.

In 2011, in the landmark Concepcion case, SCOTUS held that it was perfectly legal for a company to insert clauses into their contracts and terms of service that strip customers of their right to sue the company in court, or to bind their complaints together into a single class action.

Two years later, in American Express v. Italian Colors Restaurant, the Supremes upheld these bans on class actions, even if it meant that companies could break the law because it would be too expensive for a single plaintiff to mount a proper claim.

Most recently, the court ruled that state courts in California could no longer follow local precedent that had long deemed these bans on class actions unconscionable.

There’s nothing like a story with a happy ending to warm you up on a cold day… although, a fleece blanket might do the trick, too: a Zappos customer in South Carolina found a welcome, cozy surprise when a wrong order had to be returned, after she shared the troubles many in her community were facing amidst the recent flooding.

The woman tells WISTV that she used some Christmas gift cards to order a new pair of shoes for her husband. When the wrong shoes in the wrong size showed up, she called Zappos customer service to sort things out.

Not only did the representative apologize, but she told the woman to give away the wrong shoes because the right pair would be coming for free. That’s when the customer opened up about the tough times in her community.

“I told her about the flood we had here in South Carolina and how so many people have been effected, losing their homes and possessions, and promised I would give the shoes to someone in town that needed them,” she said.

A huge box arrived from Zappos soon after, which she wasn’t expecting. But then she saw a sticker on it that said “Surprise!” and opened the box to find a dozen rolled fleece blankets, with a note.

“I wanted to send you something else to donate to the people in need. Thank you for being amazing and helping those around you who’ve had such a hard year,” the note from the customer service rep read.

The customer and her husband are now working out a plan to get the blankets to flood victims in need.

Wrong shoe order turns into surprise donation for South Carolina flood victims [WISTV]

They look like drugs, they’re regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, but Frontline‘s new investigation found that supplements are very, very different.

Frontline, The New York Times, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation joined efforts to investigate the world of vitamins and supplements to take a closer look at how they’re marketed and regulated in a special called Supplements & Safety that aired Tuesday night. It raised some interesting, somewhat troubling questions about the $50-billion-plus business.

You can watch the entire episode here, but we’ve pulled out a few things we think you should be aware of before you reach for a health supplement.

1. “The FDA does not do any review of dietary supplements before they come onto the market, and I think that all consumers need to understand this,” FDA acting commissioner Stephen Ostroff, M.D., told Frontline.

2. Manufacturers of supplements do need to show that they are using good manufacturing processes, and the FDA does inspections for this, but because there is no formal registration system that is required, the FDA says they only do “inspections of the [manufacturers] we know about.”

3. Acting commissioner Ostroff says his agency sees a higher proportion of inspections that have “substantial problems” with supplements than in other categories they regulate. The acting commissioner told Frontline that this is “cause for concern” because “this isn’t about us and it isn’t about the companies, it’s about the consumers.”

4. Doctors contacted by Frontline were critical of the FDA’s system for reporting potential problems with supplements. Two doctors who attempted to report possible patient harm told Frontline that they had difficultly getting the FDA to take them seriously.

One described being disconnected from the FDA’s MedWatch hotline twice before finally getting someone on the phone. Though the doctor chose not to be interviewed on camera, Frontline says he described his interaction with the FDA this way: “[The FDA operator] was acting as if I was telling her that aliens put messages in my Cheerios.”

Another doctor spoke on camera about her colleague’s attempts to report multiple cases of liver failure.

“They told one of our liver doctors that they thought she was a prankster,” said Dr. Linda Wong, transplant surgeon at the University of Hawaii.

Dr. Pieter Cohen of the department of medicine at Harvard Medical School told Frontline that there is “no effective system to detect harm from supplements.”

5. Industry representatives stressed the safety and effectiveness of supplements, but also acknowledged that there were issues.

“There may be some supply chain issues we need to be mindful of,” said Daniel Fabricant, Ph.D., a supplements industry spokesman and former FDA regulator. When speaking about his former position with the FDA he told Frontline the agency “threw the book” at manufacturers who didn’t adhere to standards.

6. Recently, several studies used DNA testing to try to see if supplements actually contained what was listed on the bottle. The results were alarming, with one study conducted by the New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman’s office finding that 79% of supplements failed their DNA test. In response to these types of studies, Frontline says GNC and Nature’s Way have begun DNA testing ingredients as a way to verify the contents of the bottle.

7. Doctors from the well-respected Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia were concerned about the quality of supplements. When they tried to obtain independent verification what was in various supplements, they ran into problems. Most manufacturers didn’t even respond to their requests, Dr. Paul Offit told Frontline. Even when they did send test results, they were often not especially flattering.

“Often, [manufacturers] would send us certificates of analysis where whats on the label wasn’t even close to what was in the bottle,” Offit said.

In the end, only 35 supplements met the hospital’s quality standards, says Frontline.

For more information, you can also check out Frontline’s Five Questions To Ask When Considering Health Supplements.

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Depending on where in the country you are, you’re most likely dealing with the aftermath of a winter storm, preparing for a winter storm, or sneering at your friends in other regions saying, “What’s snow?” While local governments handle ice melt and snow removal for the roads, you’re in charge of clearing and treating your own driveway and walkways. What’s the best equipment to use?

With snow shovels, the best brand and model doesn’t matter as much as choosing the right design and material for the area you’ll be shoveling and the type of snow typical for your region. Here’s a video from our colleagues down the hall at Consumer Reports about the different styles of shovels and how to pick one that works for you.

If you have more territory to clear, they also have a guide (no subscription needed) to types of snow blowers and what you should know and look for before you shop for one. Again, the key is knowing yourself, your property, and the snow typical for your area.

After you’ve cleared the snow or if you’re expecting an ice storm, the next step is to put down some ice melt to prevent ice from accumulating and your household and guests from slipping.

When deploying ice melt, here’s what you should keep in mind:

• Clear the snow first. See above.
• Apply the crystals evenly. You can buy spreaders for this purpose, or scatter it yourself using a small cup or your (gloved!) hands.
• Remember what the surface below the ice is. Note the chart above: not all ice melt types work well with asphalt or newly poured concrete.
• Watch out for your plants and pets. Clean their paws when re-entering the house, and choose gentler, pet- and plant-safe options if they’re effective in your climate.

5 Best Snow Shovels [Consumer Reports]

Would you allow a stranger to enter your house, rummage through your closets and cupboards if it meant that your next shopping experience might be better? That’s the idea behind Target’s latest initiative to change the way it gets to know customers. 

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that Target CEO Brian Cornell and other executives of the retailer have been paying home visits to some customers in an effort to better understand consumers’ food choices, fashion trends, and shopping habits.

The so-called “fundamental ethnography work” has, so far, focused on the homes of single millennials and Hispanic moms in various cities across the nation.

Cornell’s visits are part of Target’s push to be more competitive with other retailers like Amazon who are better able to interact with the increasingly tech-savvy consumers.

“It’s not just about Mom anymore,” Cornell tells the Star Tribune of reconfiguring the retailer’s idea of typical customers, who used to be a white soccer mom, driving a minivan and living in the suburbs.

Now, the company’s focus has broadened to include consumers who are more urban-centric, and increasingly Hispanic.

In other areas of business, Cornell say the company will beef up its IT workforce by about 1,000 employees in an effort to increase its website functionality and mobile presence.

Target CEO Brian Cornell visiting homes of customers [StarTribune]

You’ve likely never been prescribed the antibiotic colistin, because it’s a drug of last resort that you turn to after only other antibiotics have failed. But there’s a gene that can make bacteria resistant to colistin, and a new report says it’s been found in at least 19 countries on four continents.

The gene (MCR-1) was first noted in a Chinese researchers for a Nov. 2015 report in The Lancet.

“The emergence of MCR-1 heralds the breach of the last group of antibiotics,” concludes the report, which at the time stated the belief that the gene is “currently confined to China.”

However, the Natural Resources Defense Council notes that in the months since the Chinese study was published, scientists have found the MCR-1 gene in countries all over the globe.

Some of the positive samples predate the Lancet report, so the gene has been spreading around the world for years.

As you can see from the map above, not only has the colistin resistance gene been found in Asia, Europe, Africa, and North America, it’s been identified in everything from farm animals to retail meat products to human patients. There are also unconfirmed claims of the gene showing up in South America.

The gene can be passed from bacteria to bacteria, and while it’s primarily been found in E. coli cells, it can also carry its colistin resistance over to other pathogens.

“Bacteria can collect resistance genes and splice them together on strands of DNA that can move around between bacteria,” explains the NRDC’s Carmen Cardova. “When a bacterium acquires one of these pieces of mobile DNA with many resistance genes, it can transform bacterium from one posing little threat to a potentially lethal superbug that resists treatment by multiple antibiotics.”

Interestingly, the FDA has tested nearly 3,000 of its salmonella samples for MCR-1, but the NRDC notes that the agency has only tested 76 of its thousands of available E. coli samples. So far, none of the tests have turned up the gene.

Perhaps the absence, at least so far, of the colistin-resistant gene in the U.S. has to do with the fact that colistin is not used on domestic livestock. However, the drug is used — for non-therapeutic reasons — on farm animals elsewhere in the world.

As noted in a recent report commissioned by UK Prime Minister David Cameron, the use of antibiotics in livestock on a worldwide level is expected to grow significantly as some of the world’s largest countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China, among them — seek to meet the increased food demands of a new middle class. The use of antibiotics in farming is expected to increase by 99% in these countries over the next fifteen years.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drug-resistant bacteria sicken two million Americans every year, killing more than 20,000. Drugs like colistin are used to treat those illnesses when other antibiotics are rendered useless.

Some argue that newer drugs are the answer, while others contend that fancier pills is just a way to kick the can down the road and that the only way to combat superbugs in the long run is to end the non-medical overuse of antibiotics in farm animals.

Not even a year after Verizon FiOS began offering so-called “skinny” pay-TV bundles that don’t include the pricey ESPN in the required core package — and in the midst of a lawsuit filed by ESPN’s parent company Disney, alleging that Verizon is violating its contract by doing so — the telecom titan is now hinting that it’s the end times for this dream world where consumers weren’t forced to pay so much for a channel they care so little about.

For those unfamiliar with the concept, the FiOS Custom TV offering starts with a core bundle of around 36 basic cable channels and then customers add on niche-targeted channel packs of around 10 stations each. The lowest tier sold by Verizon includes the core bundle and two channel packs of their choosing, so customers could get ESPN at no additional cost by using one of those two slots for the appropriate sports pack, but they don’t have to.

But it looks like that may soon change. According to Fierce Cable, during yesterday’s call with investors to discuss the company’s quarterly earnings, Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran “Bam Pow” Shammo dropped a huge clue about the future of Custom TV.

“We’re going to refresh it so that we’re in compliance with our contractual relationships [with programmers],” said Shammo, without directly addressing the huge elephant — draped in an ESPN banner — in the room.

Disney sued Verizon in April 2015, claiming that the new FiOS offerings violated a requirement in its contract with the entertainment company that ESPN can not be placed on some sort of premium sports tier. Verizon has previously maintained that the rearranging of its pay-TV offerings is “well within our rights under our agreements.”

ESPN is cable TV’s most expensive basic channel — most people pay at least $5/month for just the network’s flagship channel; add in ESPN2 and others and you’re reportedly looking at upwards of $8/month. The network got to that point by long being the only national 24-hour sports network, but its dominance is now being challenged by competitors from Fox, NBC, CBS, not to mention the sports-targeted networks from the major pro sports leagues.

We recently asked readers if having ESPN in their cable package was worth the $5/month (at least) that they have to pay for the sports network, and fewer than 10% of you said the channel was so vital that you were willing to foot the bill for it.

Last June, a more scientific survey of American TV viewers asked them to put together their ideal a al carte pay-TV package. While ESPN was the most frequently selected of the sports networks, it was 20th overall, indicating that its importance to TV watchers has been eclipsed by the likes of Discovery, TLC, HGTV, and FX.

[via DSLreports.com]

Players of a certain age may have fond memories of some old Atari classics of yesteryear, but the hardware isn’t exactly around anymore and copies of games have literally been in a dump. Well, rejoice: Atari is releasing 100 classic game titles to the PC on Steam sometime this spring. In addition to actually running, the titles will have some modern upgrades like working local and/or online multiplayer and Steam Controller support. [via The Verge]

Given Google’s recent confession that its self-driving cars would have been involved in 13 crashes if a human hadn’t intervened, you’d assume that having a real driver in an autonomous car could only help. Then you remember that millions of humans crash their vehicles every day, regardless of how intelligent that car is.

Mashable reports that a self-driving Nissan LEAF owned and operated by Cruise Automation — a company that sells after-market autonomous driving kits — crashed into another vehicle while rolling down the streets of San Francisco.

But unlike Google’s self-driving car that would have crashed without human intervention, it appears the Nissan vehicle crashed because of a human.

According to the accident report [PDF], the Jan. 8 incident occurred when the self-driving LEAF began deviating from course, swaying left and right within its lane. The driver then took control of the vehicle, but failed to “change the path of the vehicle and it collided with an unoccupied Toyota Prius.”

No one was hurt in the incident, and Mashable reports that both cars suffered minor damage.

Human error caused a self-driving Nissan LEAF to crash in San Francisco [Mashable]

Do you feel compelled to travel with a supposedly supernatural-powered doll that not only gets its own seat, but a meal it can’t possibly eat? Then one airline is ready to cater to your very specific needs.

Bloomberg reports that Thai Smile Airways has told staffers that the airline will now sell individual seats for passengers carrying dolls known as Look Thep, or Child Angels, which have recently grown in popularity in the region after some celebrities touted the dolls’ alleged supernatural benefits.

For the price of a child’s ticket, the life-size doll gets its own seat, along with food and drinks. Cabin crew has been told they can treat the dolls as real children because they have undergone a “spiritualization” process.

Just like a living, breathing passenger, the dolls must be safely buckled into their seats during takeoff and landing. They are also not allowed in exit rows.

The airline’s CEO tells the Bangkok Post that this is about balancing the desires of passengers who carry these dolls with the safety of everyone else on the plane. He explains that cabin crew had been putting the dolls in the overhead bins, but that upset some passengers, who then insisted on putting the dolls on their laps. That could be a potential safety hazard.

Passengers who bring their dolls on board but don’t want to buy a seat must count the doll as a piece of carry-on luggage.

It’s bad enough when a thief hits the dairy case once, but Wisconsinites are holding their cheddar (extra) close after some jerks stole a combined $160,000 worth of cheese in the last few days.

The acts of cheese treachery started last week a big chunk of Parmesan cheese up and walked away from a business in Marshfield WI.

“Approximately $90,000 worth of Parmesan cheese was missing from a logistics or storage facility here in Marshfield,” a lieutenant with the Marshfield Police Department said in a statement (via WBAY News).

The crimes against dairy continued when a thief nabbed $70,000 worth of cheese on Friday, when a 54-foot long trailer packed with locally-made cheese was stolen from a trucking company in Germantown, reported the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

A semi-tractor used in the heist was found later that day, and the empty trailer was found in the general vicinity of Milwaukee eventually as well.

“We have recovered the trailer, minus the cheese,” a police lieutenant told WTMJ News. “This was not a one or two person job.”

The incidents are apparently unrelated, police say, and the locations of the two thefts are at least two hours apart — the first in the southeastern part of the state, and the second some 180 miles to the northwest. Police don’t know what the thieves have intended for the cheese… but I think I have a few guesses.

Germantown cheese theft follows Marshfield caper [WTMJ News]

$160,000 worth of cheese stolen in Wisconsin [WBAY News]
$70,000 worth of cheese stolen from Germantown [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

Washington Post

A sweet little Virginia pub that refuses to close when a big snowstorm hits Washington Post At 10 p.m. Friday, architect Jerry Yantis and his buddies were still nursing their last beers at the Main Street Pub in Clifton, Va., howling and high-fiving as they recounted a night of joy-riding on sleds towed by a truck in 2010, the last time it ... and more »

Washington Post

DC's fire chief quietly works to put out hotspots in his troubled agency Washington Post As gray smoke rose from the burning condo building on U Street, D.C. Fire Chief Gregory M. Dean circled the block, talking with battalion chiefs and paramedics standing ready to treat anyone who was injured. He didn't assume command. Instead, Dean kept ...

Being autistic can be rough. People tell you that you're embarrassing, that you're rude or insensitive, or that you're a puzzle that needs to be completed to be whole. But that doesn't mean that they're right. This article will help you come to terms with your autism so you can focus on being the wonderful human being that you are.

EditSteps

EditLearning About Autistic Strengths

Autism is a disability, and being disabled can be hard. That doesn't mean it's all bad. Autism comes with its own strengths and endearing quirks, and it contributes to your successes as well as your struggles.

1. Learn about autism from the autistic people. Too often, non-autistic people write about autism without consulting real autistic people. They may come up with inaccuracies, laughable misconceptions, or extremely negative viewpoints on differences that don't hurt anyone. Thus, not all the bad things you read about autism are correct.
   
   • The autistic community often describes autism in a neutral or positive light. This may help you feel better about being autistic.
2. Read about the strengths that come along with autism. Autism is a complex neurological condition that comes with several blessings along with its impairments. You may experience some or all of the following:
   
   • Deeply passionate interests. These can lead to tremendous expertise, and possibly a very successful career or fun hobby.^[1]
   • Helpfulness. Autistic people, in general, have a high sense of social responsibility, or the desire to solve problems and help others.^[2]
   • Precision. Autism is often noted to lead to focusing on small parts, rather than the big picture. This can lead to remarkable detail-oriented work, where a neurotypical might be unable to focus so clearly on individual aspects of something.^[3]
   • Visual intelligence. Autistic people have tested higher on visual and nonverbal intelligence tests.^[4][5]
   • Sincerity. Autistic people tend to mean what they say, and act as a "voice of reason" without becoming mired in social complexities.^[6] Your honesty and genuine spirit can feel refreshing to others.
   • Creativity and a unique perspective. Autistic people can learn in unusual ways.^[7] This provides insights that neurotypicals may never realize, and can become a great asset in collaboration.^[8]
3. Read about successful autistic people. Plenty of famous people have been diagnosed or thought to be autistic. Strong special interests, focus, and a unique perspective can lead to innovation and creativity.
   
   • Historically, Einstein,^[9] Thomas Jefferson, Emily Dickinson,^[10] Mozart,^[11], Temple Grandin, and more people were thought to be autistic.^[12]
   • Famous autistic people today include Tim Burton,^[13] Susan Boyle,^[14] Adam Young (from Owl City),^[15] Jerry Seinfeld,^[16] and more.^[17]
4. Consider your special interests. Special interests are a clear upside of autism: you have an incredible memory about these facts, intense focus, and the ability to act like a walking encyclopedia of information whenever you want. You also get to have a lot of fun doing the things you love.
   
   • Most non-autistic people would be jealous of the way you can recall and discuss information.
5. Read about the social model of disability. The social model holds that disability is not caused by defects in the brain or body, but by society's failure to accommodate and accept a certain variation.^[18][19]
   
   • For example, most nearsighted people are not disabled: they are fully accommodated within society (glasses, contacts), and have the same opportunities that non-nearsighted people have. Their body can't do the same things, but technology makes up for that, so it is not an issue.

EditHelping Yourself

1. Remember that it's okay to be different. If everyone were just like everyone else, the world would be boring. Your quirks are part of what makes you memorable, and you don't need to censor yourself or try to look "normal." It is absolutely okay to be disabled and to look disabled in public.
   
2. Find therapies and treatments that work for you. A good therapy will leave you better off than you were before, and you will gain skills and be happier. You can also learn coping mechanisms, alternative methods of doing difficult tasks, and how to capitalize on your strengths.
   
   • Options include sensory integration therapy, talk therapy, occupational therapy, special diets, behavior therapy, and seeing a psychologist for emotional issues.
   • Always check with a doctor before altering your diet or attempting an alternative treatment.
   • Be careful about behavior therapies. Some therapies are based on compliance and may hurt more than helping.^[20] If your therapist's goal is to make you more normal (rather than more comfortable or more competent), or if you feel upset and anxious about seeing them, then find a better therapist.
3. Stop trying to do things that are too hard. With the media constantly encouraging people to "do your best," sometimes people forget that it's okay to quit. You do not have to put forth 110% effort all the time—this can lead to burnout. If something is draining your energy or adding a lot of stress to your life, consider not doing it anymore. Sometimes saying "I quit" is freeing.
   
   • Disability doesn't just mean that there are some things you can't do. It can also mean that some things are painful or extremely draining.^[21] Give yourself permission to quit or find an alternative way.
4. Focus on your skills and character strengths. This will help you spend less energy mourning your disability, and more energy on doing positive things and enjoying your life.
   
   • Spend time on your hobbies and things that you're good at. Enjoy the feeling of competence and expertise.
   • Make a list of your positive traits. Consider both personality traits and skills. Place the list somewhere where it'll be easy to see when you're feeling sad about yourself.
   • Help other people. Prepare food for the hungry, raise awareness for important causes, or write about your special interest on wikiHow. Effecting a positive change in the world will distract you, help others, and make you feel happier about yourself.
5. Practice self-care. Being disabled can be difficult, and it's important to treat yourself well. Cut out energy drains from your life so you can focus on what matters most to you.
   
   • Pushing yourself to meet non-autistic standards will only take a toll on your health. It is okay to ask for academic accommodations, take extra breaks, or quit doing things that are too stressful to achieve.
   • Pay extra attention to general health advice: sleep for at least 8 hours, eat fruits and vegetables, limit junk food, minimize stress, and exercise regularly (taking walks counts). Self-care is extra important for you, to mitigate stress and help with meltdowns.
   • If you have trouble with self-care, it's okay to ask for help. Assisted living, a group home, or living with family might be better for you. Talk with a doctor, social worker, or therapist if you're struggling. There's no shame in meeting your needs, and it'll free up time for things you love.
6. Get a mentor (or two). Look for people in your life whose judgment you trust: parents, older siblings, relatives, counselors, clergy members, friends, et cetera. Living in a neurotypical world can be confusing, so it's useful to have people to ask for advice. You can ask questions from "Is this outfit good for an awards ceremony?" to "This person makes me feel awful; what do I do?"
   
7. Stop apologizing for being autistic. You have the right to ask for accommodations, stim in public, and do what you need to do in order to function. Toning down your behavior is your choice—not something to be pushed or coerced out of you. You are not required to act more neurotypical just because everyone else is used to it.
   
8. Recognize that autism is just one piece of who you are—a kind, thoughtful, and lovable human being. People can love you and your autism. You can love yourself and your autism. You are not a lesser person.
   
9. Talk to someone if you are overwhelmed by self hatred. Anxiety, depression, and self esteem issues are unfortunately common in autistic people.^[22][23][24] Identify someone you trust and explain to them how awful you feel.
   
   • If you think you may have anxiety and/or depression, schedule or ask for a doctor appointment. The doctor can give you a screening.
   • You are not being selfish or burdensome by sharing negative feelings. People can probably tell if you are feeling awful, they just don't know why or what to do. If you tell them, this is helpful to them, because then they can know what to do and worry less.

EditFinding Community

1. Surround yourself with positive people. Look for the people in your life who build you up and leave you feeling better than you did before. Make an effort to spend more time with them. Ask if they'd like to get lunch with you, or if you could get together this weekend.
   
   • If you usually feel bad about yourself after spending time with someone, that's an important pattern to be aware of. Figure out why you feel that way, and whether the relationship is worth maintaining.
2. Meet the autistic community. This can be done by contacting a friendly support group, or through a search online. Learn what autistic people have to say about themselves, their symptoms, and the way they interact with the world. Autistic people, in general, are very welcoming to newly-diagnosed or self-diagnosed people.
   
   • Autistic people can offer advice and tips to those in need (and often do so, especially online)
   • The general positivity of the autistic community can help you feel better when you are feeling sad or have low self-esteem.
3. Avoid people and organizations that dehumanize you. You are not broken or lesser. People like you do not deserve to be abused, coerced, silenced, or eugenically aborted.
   
   • It is okay to cut toxic people out of your life. You don't need their negativity, and you're much better off without them. You are not required to argue that your existence is worthwhile, and it's okay to decide not to waste your time and energy on them.
   • If you're stuck with these people, you have two main choices: to educate them, or to avoid them. Educating them can be done by showing them an article, and making an appeal to their desire to be a good person. If you try this and fail, or if you know that they won't respond to reason, it's better to avoid spending time with them and avoid autism-related conversations. You don't deserve to listen to toxic ideas about your existence.
4. Get involved with positive autism-related organizations. They will help you understand yourself better and make a positive contribution to the world.
   
   • Many autism self-advocacy groups have a large online presence. You do not need to physically go somewhere to get involved.
   • If you can't find in-person autism organizations that are any good, try general disability groups. It can be tremendously relieving to spend time with a group where being disabled is normal.
5. Make autistic friends. Along with the usual benefits of friendship, you can share coping strategies, discuss autism together, and be yourselves without any fear.
   
   • Look for autistic people in autism acceptance advocacy groups, Special Ed (if you go there), or disability/autism clubs.

EditWarnings

• If you struggle with persistent feelings of sadness related to your diagnosis, tell someone. Talk to someone you trust, or a doctor or therapist.

EditRelated wikiHows

• Be Yourself
• Elevate Your Self Esteem
• Be a Sweet Autistic Girl
• Cope with Autism Awareness Month
• Explain Autism to People
• Develop Self‐Esteem
• Experience Autistic Culture
• Feel Confident With Your Special Talents
• Cope with an Autism Diagnosis
• Love Yourself
• Observe Autism Acceptance in April

EditSources and Citations

• Valerie L. Gaus, PhD. Living Well on the Spectrum.

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The Bernese mountain dog is a large dog originally from Switzerland that was intended to be a farm dog.^[1] These dogs are great with humans and make great pets for the right people. Since it is so large, these dogs need specific care and living arrangements to be happy and healthy. If you are considering one of these dogs, there are some things you need to know to take care of them.

EditSteps=

EditProviding the Right Nutrition

1. Feed her the right food. Bernese mountain dogs have special dietary needs. Since they are so large, these dogs need a dog food that is high-quality and provides a balance of nutrients. Look for dog foods that have real ingredients instead of fillers. The first three or four ingredients should be meat and vegetables. Meat by products and wheat should be farther down on the list.
   • If you are unsure of what to feed your dog, ask your vet or the breeder you get your dog from.
   • Bernese mountain dogs will live long, happy lives with these foods. However, look out for food sensitivity or intolerance in relation to certain ingredients. This can cause your dog to vomit, have diarrhea, or experience skin irritation.^[2] If this happens, see your vet to help determine what is causing the issue.
2. Consult an animal nutritionist. If you are unsure of certain foods, you may want to make your own dog food or put your Bernese mountain dog on a raw diet. This may be a good choice, but you will have to work with an animal nutritionist to make sure your dog is getting a balanced diet. This is important since your Bernese mountain dog, as well as all dogs, need certain nutrients to be healthy, just like humans.
   • Ask for a referral from your vet for a trusted and qualified animal nutritionist. There are also many online sources that describe the different homemade foods you can make.^[3]
3. Feed her the right amount. To avoid over or under feeding your dog, follow the suggested food amount on your pet's dog food. This will be a considerable amount since Bernese mountain dogs are so large, so make sure your dog is getting the right amount. To decrease this risk, feed your dog the recommended amount every day and avoid feeding her too many treats or table scraps.
   • Consider giving your pet natural treats, such a baby carrots or unsalted canned green beans.^[4]
4. Avoid certain foods. There are certain foods that can harm, and in some cases kill, your dog. This is because your dog's body cannot process certain foods, which is why the foods cause problems. Keep these away from your Bernese mountain dog, which can be more difficult since she can easily access counters and even low shelves. Keep these products in closed shelves that she cannot reach. These foods include:
   • Chocolate
   • Avocados
   • Grapes and raisins
   • Certain nuts
   • Alcohol
   • Onions, garlic and chives
   • Yeast dough
   • Sugar free foods^[5]
5. Keep an eye on her weight. Although Bernese mountain dogs are large dogs, they can still be overweight. This may be hard to spot since they are already so big, but you should always be aware of your dog's weight. The recommended healthy weight for a female Bernese mountain dog is 100 pounds and 110 pounds or a little over for a male dog.
   • Your Bernese mountain dog is considered overweight if she weight 10 to 20% more than her ideal weight. This is around 110 to 120 pounds.
   • Anything more than 20% in weight is considered obese. Obesity can greatly decrease her lifespan and cause many health problems.^[6]
6. Hydrate your dog. Dogs need a constant supply of fresh and clean water to help them digest their food. Since Bernese mountain dogs are so large, she will likely drink more than a smaller dog, so keep a close watch on the water levels to ensure she has plenty.
   • You should also clean the water bowl every so often with dish soap and water, then rinse and dry it. This will cut down on any possibility of algae or bacteria that may grow in the bowl if not cleaned properly.

EditGrooming Your Dog

1. Take care of her fur. Bernese mountain dogs have long, silky fur that needs weekly care. Brush her fur at least once a week to keep it from getting tangled and knotted. This will also help her skin development and encourage circulation.
   • You should also check for ticks and fleas while brushing her. Look close at the skin and run your fingers over her fur while your brush her to check for ticks.
   • Also use this time to check for any skin abnormalities, such as cysts, lumps, or bumps. Also look for skin irritation and redness. If you find any, you should contact your vet to find the cause.
   • Bernese mountain dog's fur is not generally cut short but is just kept trimmed neatly.^[7]
2. Trim her nails. In addition to taking care of her fur, you should also take care of her nails. You can get your vet to do this or you can try it at home. It may be hard to do it at first at home, but after she gets used to it, she will likely let you do it. Just make sure you know what you are doing so you avoid cutting to much off and injuring the quick of her nails. This is painful and may cause them to get infected.
   • Even if the vet takes care of her nails, you should groom the fur around her paws. It should be kept neatly trimmed but long enough to keep her paws covered.^[8]
3. Take care of her teeth. Bernese mountain dogs benefit from brushing their teeth every day. This will help remove plague and bacteria that builds up in her mouth. Never use human toothpaste on a dog because it can cause illness because the fluoride is poisonous to dogs. Buy dog toothpaste and a dog toothbrush, which can be bought at pet stores or from your vet.
   • You may have to start slow to acclimate her to the feeling of brushing her teeth. Start off by letting her lick the toothpaste off your finger, rubbing it into her gums with your finger, and then brushing a little at a time until she lets you do all of her teeth. This may take a week or more.
   • While you brush her teeth, also look for loose or damaged teeth and check the overall health of the mouth.5
   • You can also give her dental fortified treats or food to help fight plaque buildup. If your dog gets a lot of buildup despite bushing her teeth, your vet can clean her teeth as well.^[9]

EditCaring for Quality of Life

1. Have large enough living arrangements. A Bernese mountain dog cannot live in a small apartment or house. Since they are so large, they need adequate space. She can be very happy in a medium sized or large house. If you don't have a large house, consider housing her outside. Many Bernese mountain dogs can live quite happily outside, especially in cold weather, as long as they have the right supplies. This includes:
   • A large dog house
   • Plenty of insulated bedding, such as dry, clean straw and a warm blanket
   • Access to shade during hot weather
   • Access to plenty of water
   • Make sure you never chain your dog up outside.^[10]
2. Exercise your dog. Bernese mountain dogs need to exercise daily. Start with at least a 30 minute walk or job twice a day. Just putting them outside is not enough, especially if your yard is small. Consider running or jogging with your dog as she gets stronger. This will help burn more energy and help her be happier.
   • In addition to walks, play games with your dog, such as Frisbee or fetch to give her more exercise and make it fun. Plus, it will help her bond with you more.^[11]
   • Never give your Bernese mountain dog small toys or balls because she may accidently swallow it, which can cause her to suffocate or choke.
3. Socialize her. Starting when she is a puppy, your Bernese mountain dog should be socialized with other dogs as well as people. Introduce her to people and dogs through walks in the park or through a neighborhood. Consider taking her to a dog park with other dog lovers.
   • If you can't find a group or dog park on your own, many pet stores and community groups have socialization classes. This will her start this process in a safe and controlled atmosphere. manners.^[12]
   • You can also take her to obedience classes at the same time, which also gives her exposure to other dogs.

EditMonitoring Her Health

1. Get regular check-ups. To keep your dog in good health, you need to make sure you take her to the vet often. This will ensue her continued health and well being. This starts before you get her with the breeder, who will her at six weeks for an exam to check for hernias and worms as well as eye, heart, ear, and lung problems as well as proper vaccinations.
   • At 12 weeks, your dog needs her rabies vaccination.
   • If you live in an area where Lyme disease is common, you might need to look into the Lyme disease vaccination. This may also be helpful if your dog spends a lot of time outside or if you live on a farm.^[13]
2. Look for breed specific diseases. There are certain conditions that Bernese mountain dogs are more prone to have. These conditions hip dysplasia, bloat, and cranial cruciate ligament rupture, which attacks the knee. They also have an increased risk of cancer.
   • If you notice your dog showing signs of sickness, such as lethargy, decreased appetite, vomiting, restlessness, or pain, talk to your vet immediately. These can be signs of bloat.^[14]
3. Have your dog spayed or neutered. When your dog is six to nine months old, consider having her spayed or neutered. This will provide health benefits for her, such as the decreased chance tumors, testicular cancer, and urinary tract infections. It can also help with some behavioral issues and unwanted puppies.^[15]
   • If you want to breed your pet, you obviously should not do this.
4. Provide preventative medication. To ensure the overall health of your dog, give her preventative medication. This can be flea medication, such as topical ointments or flea collars. This also includes heartworm medication, which comes as a once a month tablet or a shot that lasts up to six months. These will kill any heartworm organisms in your dog’s system.
   • Make sure she is regularly checked for heartworms. This disease if widespread and can cause major issues, even death.
   • If your dog does end up with heartworms, treatment is available but is generally hard on her as well as you. It is also expensive and may take months to get rid of.^[16]

EditSources and Citations

Cite error: <ref> tags exist, but no <references/> tag was found

Amazon isn’t ready to unleash its Prime Air drones into the skies just yet (and the Federal Aviation Administration isn’t ready to let it, either) but in the meantime, company executives don’t mind talking about their plans for Prime Air.

Yahoo Tech has an interview with Paul Misener, Amazon’s vice president for global public policy, where he shares more about the company’s ideas of how Prime Air should work.

Misener says the delivery service will get packages customers within 30 minutes of ordering online. In order to do that, their are goals for the drones.

“The range has to be over 10 miles. These things will weigh about 55 pounds each, but they’ll be able to deliver parcels that weigh up to five pounds,” Misener says, explaining, “It turns out that the vast majority of the things we sell at Amazon weigh less than five pounds.”

Amazon has a bunch of different prototypes it’s work on at the moment, as different weather conditions or climates in the U.S. may mean one drone works well in one area, and another will work better elsewhere.

These aren’t off-the-shelf drones, either — Amazon is building its own vehicles with “sense-and-avoid technology.” This tech makes the aircraft more like horses than cars, Misener explains. Wait, what? Horses can’t fly.

“If you have a small tree in your front yard, and you want to bang your car into it for some reason, you can do that. Your spouse might not be happy with you, but you can do it,” Misener says. “But try riding a horse into the tree. It won’t do it. The horse will see the tree and go around it. Same way our drones will not run into trees, because they will know not to run into it.”

There are still obstacles Amazon must surmount, namely, that the Federal Aviation Administration has yet to release final regulations for commercial drones. If the technology is ready before the rules are, well, Amazon might look to the skies over other countries.

“We have customers all around the world, of course,” Misener says. “There’s no reason why the United States must be first. We hope it is.”

As for the thing we all really want to know — how much it’ll cost you to order a package of batteries to replace the ones in the TV remote — Misener says that he doesn’t know that the company has priced that out yet.

Exclusive: Amazon Reveals Details About Its Crazy Drone Delivery Program [Yahoo Tech]

A retired dentist in Georgia, who pleaded guilty in 2009 to filing Medicaid claims for procedures he didn’t actually perform, doesn’t want the world to see a nearly seven-year-old news report about allegations from patients that he physically assaulted them while in his office.

It’s a story that only registered as a minor blip on the news radar back when it happened, and thanks to poor archiving of the local media (and a press release from the attorney general that has vanished without explanation), it may have simply faded into vague “Wasn’t there a dentist who…?” memory.

But now that the doctor has sued an anonymous YouTuber — subpoenaing Google to try to reveal that user’s identity, drawing legal attention from a high-profile first amendment advocate — he and his previous actions are back in the critical spotlight.

The Backstory

In March 2008, Dr. Gordon Trent Austin of Carrollton, GA, was indicted on multiple counts of simple battery, two counts of aggravated assault, and one count of first degree cruelty to children.

Among the accusations included in those charges, some patients said they were struck in the face with a tool known as a dental elevator.

Police arrested Dr. Austin in April 2008. He was released on bond the same day, according to news reports from the time.

A trial was initially slated for Sept. 2009, but the doctor instead entered guilty pleas in August of that year to six counts of misdemeanor theft for submitting claims to the Georgia Medicaid program for teeth extractions he did not perform.

A press release sent out at the time — which has, in just the last week, been placed behind a password-protected page (much more on that later in the story) — makes no mention of the battery and assault indictments, but a look at records [PDF] obtained from the Georgia Board of Dentistry show that Dr. Austin’s deal with the state included an agreement by prosecutors to not pursue three indictments if he ceased practicing oral surgeries and dentistry for a period of 10 years:

In Dec. 2009, the Board revoked Dr. Austin’s license to practice dentistry in the state [PDF].

The New Lawsuit

Now, more than six years later, Dr. Austin is trying to sue an anonymous YouTube user for defamation. The YouTuber didn’t post their own video about the incident, but rather just reposted a two-part story run by the local Fox affiliate in Atlanta back in 2009:

This video, which was posted by the YouTuber in March 2009, includes patients’ stories about allegedly being struck by the doctor when they began to complain during dental procedures. The apparent goal, according to these patients, was to quiet them so that others could not hear them outside of the room.

In Aug. 2015, more than six years after the video was posted, Dr. Austin filed a complaint [PDF] in a Carroll County, GA, court. It accuses the anonymous defendant of defaming the doctor and his practice “via various false accusations and statements,” though the complaint does not specify which of the statements made in the video are problematic.

Dr. Austin subsequently subpoenaed YouTube’s parent company Google to get them to provide information that would help identify the actual defendant. Google then notified this still-anonymous user in Nov. 2015 that it intended to comply with the subpoena.

Then last week, representing the “Doe” defendant, Paul Alan Levy from Public Citizen and Phil Malone from Stanford University Law School, filed a motion [PDF] to quash that subpoena, arguing that Dr. Austin has provided no evidence that the anonymous user did anything defamatory by posting the YouTube clip, and that the doctor’s case can’t possibly succeed.

The motion takes issue with the complaint’s repeated references to unspecified “false” statements allegedly made in the video. It also asks why the Doe defendant is being accused of malicious intent against the doctor, saying that the lawsuit “never explains why an ordinary citizen would not be justified in accepting the word of the prosecution as well as Fox News in repeating the gist of the indictment and republishing the TV story.”

Where’s The Proof?

There is currently no national legal standard for when it’s legally okay to unmask an anonymous online user. However, many states follow the so-called “Dendrite standard,” referencing the 2001 New Jersey Superior Court ruling in Dendrite International, Inc. v. Doe No. 3.

As part of that case, a software company sought to compel Yahoo! to identify anonymous posters — represented by Levy in the appellate hearing — on a bulletin board run by the Internet giant. The appeals court not only upheld the lower court ruling that kept the commenters anonymous, but also created a five-point standard by which other courts could determine when it was appropriate to unmask an anonymous online user.

One of those requirements is that the plaintiff must “identify and set forth the exact statements purportedly made by each anonymous poster that plaintiff alleges constitutes actionable speech.”

Some states, like California, have adopted a more streamlined three-point standard, following the 2005 Delaware Supreme Court ruling in Doe v. Cahill. That case — also argued by Public Citizen’s Levy — involved the efforts of local politicians to compel Comcast to unmask a critical commenter. Like Dendrite, the Cahill standard requires the plaintiff to provide evidence to support their claim before being able to learn a user’s anonymity.

Beyond that, there is also the fact that the video was posted more than six years before the lawsuit was filed. The defendant argues that state law in both Georgia (where the complaint was filed) and California (where the subpoena was served) puts a one-year statutory limit on filing a libel claim. Similarly, argues the motion, Dr. Austin’s claim of tortious interference must fail because of Georgia’s four-year statutory limit.

Plead Guilty: Password Required?

In researching this case, we noticed something odd. A simple Google search for Dr. Austin turns up the YouTube video in question, but it also turns up an Aug. 2009 press release from the Georgia Attorney General’s office. Or rather, it turns up a link to that press release.

When we clicked on the link, it didn’t take us to the AG’s statement on how Dr. Austin had agreed to plead guilty to the misdemeanor theft charges, but instead to this password-protected page:

Thinking that perhaps the AG’s website had password protection on older releases, we looked through the online archive and found similar public statements going back to 1997, all of which appear to be publicly accessible.

So we went directly to the 2009 archive, thinking perhaps there was a problem with the URL. Interestingly, while there are dozens of other releases from that year available for perusal, the Aug. 6, 2009 notice about Dr. Austin is not included:

In the motion to quash, it references the same URL we had discovered but there is no mention of it being behind a password. So we asked Doe attorney Levy if he’d encountered this password requirement, and subsequently learned that someone on his team had been able to access the document without being asked for a login on Jan 7, 2016 — a week before we tried.

So when was this pulled from public view? A look at the URL on Google Web Cache has it publicly available as recently as Jan. 12:

We have asked both the office of Georgia AG Sam Olens and Dr. Austin’s attorneys to comment on why this particular press release is no longer public, but have yet to receive any reply from either.

Stirring Up The Past

When it comes to Dr. Austin, it’s not just the 2009 press release that is no longer available. We came across a number of links to stories from 2008 and 2009 about the doctor’s alleged wrongdoings, but almost all of them have been lost to time.

In some cases, it’s because the websites for the local TV stations in Georgia fail to maintain an archive more robust than a few weeks or months. In others, it’s because websites that once hosted these stories have been heavily redesigned or reformatted in the years since.

For example, we know that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote at least one story on Dr. Austin in 2008, but that story is not available on the newspaper’s website because any articles earlier than 2009 are not currently maintained on AJC.com.

So while you can still find the story by requesting a physical copy, a search for Gordon Austin on the site turns up only articles from 2011 and 2012 about his involvement in the region’s political sphere, or a more recent letter to the editor, all unrelated to his past behavior.

The doc has also sent out press releases of his own on things like the need for more focus on oral health.

There was also that press release from April 2015 about Dr. Austin receiving the “Best of Carrollton” Award in the Dental Surgeon category from something called the “Carrollton Award Program.”

The award claims to be an annual program “honoring the achievements and accomplishments of local businesses throughout the Carrollton area,” but we could only find one other company that ever received this honor.

What we did find was that “AwardSystem.org,” the website mentioned in the press releases is also mentioned in another public statement — from the Better Business Bureau, which called it “a vanity award scheme where businesses are not winning based on merit, but for the sole intent of purchasing the plaque or certificate for an inflated price.”

It might sound unbelievable, after years of high gas prices, but it finally happened again: gas fell below $1 per gallon… in one part of the country, at a few stations, for one weekend.

A few Michigan gas stations had prices below a dollar over the last few days, making it the first state to welcome back those super low prices, according to GasBuddy.com and local media, including WXYZ.com.

There were signs for $0.95, $0.78, and $0.77. Then, according to NBC News, there was one station that dropped its prices to $0.47. That’s quite a discount from the current national price of $1.89 per gallon.

The super low prices appeared to be part of a local gas war in the area of Houghton Lake, notes USA Today, with police directing traffic to deal with the long lines of cars waiting to fill up.

It was fun while it lasted: by this morning, the price of regular at two stations in the area was up $1.46 and $1.47 a gallon, GasBuddy reported.

Gas prices are down across the country lately, going from $3.85 a gallon to $1.89 in the last 18 months, as the price of crude oil dropped below $30 a barrel.

Some states are left out of the discount fuel fun, however, including Hawaii at $2.63 average per gallon; Alaska with $2.34 a gallon, and California, clocking in at $2.76 per gallon.

While U.S. officials try to get to the bottom of exploding hoverboards, you might be wondering if the scooters are safe. It’s unclear, but one company that makes the scooters, which, as we all know by now, do not actually hover, is in hot water for allegedly peddling products bearing counterfeit safety marks.

Underwriters Laboratories, an independent safety consulting and certification company, issued a notification that Swagway marketed and sold hoverboards with the UL mark, without first being evaluated to “any standard of safety.” UL hasn’t certified any hoverboards for safety whatsoever, the company noted.

“It is unknown if the Swagway Hoverboards comply with any safety requirements,” UL said in a statement.

Swagway says it’s been “in discussions” with UL for weeks over using the mark, a spokeswoman told the Tribune, and that the company uses UL-certified battery cells and adapters. However, it was told by UL it had been incorrectly using a mark that means the entire system has been certified by UL.

“Swagway is disappointed that despite its good faith efforts to work with UL on this issue, UL chose to unilaterally issue its polarizing press release without discussing it with Swagway,” the company said in a statement, via the Chicago Tribune.

Hoverboards — or self-balancing electric scooters — have become popular items in the U.S. lately. But after reports that lithium-ion batteries used in the devices can spontaneously burst into flames, airlines, college campuses, and other organizations have banned the boards.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said last month that it’s looking into 22 hoverboard-related fires in 17 states, with a focus on the configuration of battery packs and compatibility with chargers.

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