In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Abduction; video may autoplay at link] Police are asking for help in locating a person of interest who matches the description of a man who violently abducted Carlesha Freeland-Gaither from a Philadelphia street last weekend: "They're the first new clues investigators have found since the 22-year-old nurse's aide was forced into a gray metallic Ford Taurus in the Germantown section of Philadelphia late Sunday. She tried to fight off the 5-foot-10-inch tall man with a medium-heavyset build, but was unable. Once inside the car, she kicked or punched out the car's rear windows in an attempt to escape, witnesses told NBC10. ...None of the witnesses were able to get a license plate number for the kidnapper's car." Fuck.

Republican Tim Scott, elected to the US Senate from the state of South Carolina, becomes the fifth black US Senator in history and the first from the South since the 19th century.

[CN: Murder; disablism; video may autoplay at link] In Oregon, Jillian McCabe is charged with aggravated murder, murder, and first and second degree manslaughter after throwing her six-year-old son with autism off of a bridge. Every single thing about this family's circumstances suggests a breakdown of robust social support and accommodation. For the boy, for his father who was diagnosed with MS, and for his mother who, according to those who knew her, "suffered a mental collapse in the face of the challenges of caring for her son and her husband—and didn't get proper mental health care." Or, possibly, did not have access to it. I am not implying that what she did was in any way okay, or that she should not be held responsible. I'm observing that these things don't happen in a vacuum. I'm not minimizing her accountability; I'm exploring my own.

[CN: War] I don't even know what to say: "The Pentagon has denied that the US strategy against Islamic State (Isis) is in disarray after a series of setbacks as the war known as Operation Inherent Resolve stretches into its fourth month. 'I don't believe that we view current events as a major setback to the goals that we've set with respect to training and equipping the moderate opposition' in Syria, said Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon's chief spokesman. Kirby's remarks came days after an al-Qaida-aligned faction routed one of the Syrian resistance groups on which the US has been depending to anchor an anti-Isis proxy force. The Nusra Front, al-Qaida's affiliate in Syria, appears now to be allying with Isis, an indication that the Islamist extremist group's fortunes are rising."

[CN: Murder; video may autoplay at link] Photos posted at 4¢han may have been images of a crime scene posted by the killer, who predicted a murdered woman would be found by a family member. Which then happened. Police are investigating. At best, another delightful 4¢han member thought it would be a hilarious gag to pretend to have murdered a woman who was actually murdered by someone else. Fucking hell.

Gravity may be responsible for why we only experience time moving forward and not backward.

The first photograph of a human being ever taken.

And finally! Here is a video of a Pomeranian doing the backstroke. Haha!