It's Been Reported

Rare Human Case Of Bubonic Plague In Oregon Confirmed By Authorities (Health) — The bubonic plague might sound like an affliction of the past, but the bacterium behind the disease is still out there, causing thousands of human infections worldwide, year after year, although cases in the U.S. are relatively rare. The state of Oregon just confirmed its first case in eight years, and officials say it probably came from a domestic cat, which also showed symptoms. Oregon health officer Richard Fawcett told Aria Bendix at NBC News that the patient who contracted the plague from their pet became "very sick". Usually, an infection of this kind starts with flu-like symptoms, including fatigue, fever, chills, and a headache. The recent infection in Oregon, however, had progressed to the point of a draining abscess, called a "bubo", which is a rare outcome nowadays. Thankfully, modern antibiotics mean that the bubonic plague no longer has to be a death sentence. The bacterium behind the infection, Yersinia pestis, rarely proves fatal if caught and treated early enough. The patient in Oregon is apparently responding well to modern medicine, and their close contacts have also been treated to curb the possibility of further spread. Officials have not said how the infection spread from the cat to the owner, but if the cat was bitten by infected fleas, the pet might have brought the fleas home, exposing the owner, too. Either that, or the owner may have been in contact with the cat's own contaminated fluids. See full story	Asylum Seekers And The Church Of England’s Conversion Conveyor Belt (Conservative Woman UK) — There is a considerable stir regarding the Church’s role in asylum claims of conversion to Christianity following the chemical attack, allegedly by Afghan asylum seeker Abdul Ezedi, on a mother and her two children. Ezedi was twice denied asylum in the UK before being allowed to stay after claiming he had ‘converted’ to Christianity. The authenticity of his conversion has been brought into question on a number of grounds, not least on account of his friends in Newcastle testifying to what a ‘good Muslim’ he was, years after his apparent defection to the Christian faith. Ezedi continued to purchase halal meat, and had even said he was planning to return to Afghanistan to get married – hardly a country a Muslim convert-to-Christ would be in a hurry to settle in, given Islam’s (and especially the Taliban’s) notorious aversion to apostasy. ... Former Church of England vicar Matthew Firth said that when he took up his post at St Cuthbert’s, Darlington in 2018, ‘lots of adult baptisms were already booked in ... The vast majority, if not all of them, were asylum seekers who had already failed in their initial application for asylum.’ Firth quickly realised it was ‘a conveyor belt, a veritable industry of asylum baptisms’. It was a blatant transaction, he said, that sometimes even involved money changing hands – people slipping money to the middleman who is bringing loads of (asylum seekers) into the church’. The C of E described his claims as nonsense. See full story
Report: Farm, Food Prices Rise Under Net-Zero Climate Rules (The Center Square) — Farms and families will pay significantly more under the Biden administration's net-zero climate policies, a new report from an Ohio-based policy group says. The Buckeye Institute’s Net-Zero Climate-Control Policies Will Fail the Farm shows farmers will see a 34% rise in operational costs under the policies and family grocery bills will increase 15% based on modeling. “Federal policymakers are pursuing expensive climate-control and emissions policies that have largely failed in Europe – and the American farm and household will be required to pay for them,” report authors Trevor W. Lewis and M. Ankith Reddy, both economic research analysts at The Buckeye Institute, said. The report said Biden and Congress revived parts of the “Green New Deal” through the Inflation Reduction Act, and Biden used executive powers to restrict oil and natural gas supply, make chemical feedstocks more expensive and use the Securities and Exchange Commission to require new reports to track carbon emissions from farm to table. See full story	17,000-yr-old Aylesbury Roman Chicken Egg With Contents A 'World First', Say Scientists (BBC) — The only intact chicken's egg found from Roman Britain is now thought to be the only one of its type in the world -- after scientists found it still had liquid inside. The egg, which is about 1,700 years old, was found during a dig in Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. Researchers said at the time it was a "genuinely unique discovery". However, they admitted they were "blown away" recently to find it still contained the yolk and egg white. A micro CT scan – that produces 3D images – revealed the contents of the egg, complete with the air sac. Edward Biddulph, senior project manager at Oxford Archaeology, which oversaw the excavation, said while finding the only intact egg from the period in Britain was "amazing... the fact that the egg still retains its original contents, however, is absolutely incredible". He said: "We were absolutely blown away when we saw the contents in there, as we might have expected them to have leeched out." See full story
Mexican Authorities Arrest 6 In Connection To Grisly Machete Murders In Cancun (Fox News) — Mexican authorities say they have arrested six members of a drug gang in connection to the brutal slaying of at least eight people in Cancun. Officials said the arrests were made after the discovery of five dismembered bodies inside a taxi on Jan. 29. The victims were not identified by the attorney general's office for the state of Quintana Roo. Prosecutors alleged the six suspects hacked up five people with a machete and dumped three other victims in a shallow grave. Mexican police seized drugs from the group, including marijuana, cocaine and crack, as well as two firearms exclusively used by the military, two motorcycles allegedly used to transport the mutilated bodies, and two cars, including one that was reported stolen, authorities said. The attorney general's office also announced the arrest of 23 people who allegedly operated a fake tour agency as cover for a drug operation in Cancun. See full story	AI’s Newest Use Case: Bedbug Detection (The Hustle) — Even reading the word “bedbugs” is enough to make you itchy. And finding the little creatures in your hotel sheets – like what happened last fall in Paris – is a real-life nightmare that’s becoming more common. Luckily, it’s AI to the rescue. Spotta, a UK-based company founded in 2017, is developing tech to spot bedbugs on hotel mattresses and put a stop to outbreaks, per Hotel Dive. While bedbugs might be teeny-tiny, the potential profits are not: One study found that a single review mentioning bedbugs can slash the value of a hotel’s rooms by $23-$38 per night. Insect pests cost the global economy $570B annually spreading disease, killing crops, and marring businesses’ reputations. The startup, which raised $3.7m+ in December, works with hotels throughout Europe and recently partnered with Comcast’s MachineQ to bring its tech to more U.S. hotels. See full story
Falling Maggots Force Delta Flight To Turn Around. (People) — Delta Air Lines passengers were in for a gross surprise during their flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Tuesday when maggots reportedly started falling from the overhead bin. "Really lovely to be 2 hours into an 8 hour @Delta to Amsterdam and find out there is rotten fish and maggots hitching a ride with us ??," one passenger, @kelce__, wrote of their experience on X (formerly Twitter). In response to her post, another user questioned how someone could make it onto a plane without the contents of the bag being detected by airport security. The original poster replied: “All our thoughts exactly.” Delta confirmed in a statement to PEOPLE that flight DL 133 returned to Amsterdam on Tuesday. They also said the plane was thoroughly cleaned and passengers were rebooked for the next available flight to Detroit on a different aircraft. “We apologize to the customers of Flight 133 on Feb. 13 as their trip was interrupted due to an improperly packed carry-on bag. The aircraft returned to the gate and passengers were placed on the next available flight," the statement reads in part. See full story	Scientists Caught Sperm Defying A Major Law Of Physics (Science Alert) — With their whip-like tails, human sperm propel themselves through viscous fluids, seemingly in defiance of Newton's third law of motion, according to a recent study that characterizes the motion of these sex cells and single-celled algae. Kenta Ishimoto, a mathematical scientist at Kyoto University, and colleagues investigated these non-reciprocal interactions in sperm and other microscopic biological swimmers, to figure out how they slither through substances that should, in theory, resist their movement. When Newton conceived his now-famed laws of motion in 1686, he sought to explain the relationship between a physical object and the forces acting upon it with a few neat principles that, it turns out, don't necessarily apply to microscopic cells wriggling through sticky fluids. Newton's third law can be summed up as "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction". It signifies a particular symmetry in nature where opposing forces act against each other. In the simplest example, two equal-sized marbles colliding as they roll along the ground will transfer their force and rebound based on this law. See full story
Man Warned Against Entering Lion Exhibit Killed Within Minutes Of Stepping Foot Inside (Fox News) — A zoo guest who decided to climb a wall to enter a lion enclosure to apparently take a selfie was mauled to death by the animal Thursday, according to reports. The man, identified as Prahalad Gurjar, 34, "climbed the wall and chain-link fencing" of the Sri Venkateswara zoological park in Tirupati, India, and jumped into the enclosure despite warnings from a zoo employee. "After seeing the human being inside the enclosure, the animal attacked," the zoo said. "Though the animal keeper and other security staff nearby tried to save the person, the animal dragged the person inside the enclosure," the zoo said. Gurjar Was Dead Within 10 Minutes, The Times Of India Reported, Adding That The 12-Year-Old Lion Was Put In His Nighthouse While Authorities Recovered The Body. See full story	Man Just Released From Prison Steals Truck Hauling Corvettes Because He Needed A Ride Home (Fox News) — A man who stole a semi-truck hauling over $1 million worth of new Corvettes from an Arizona truck stop told deputies he only took the truck because he needed a ride home after being released from prison, authorities said Thursday. Isaiah Walker, 23, of Lawton, Oklahoma, assaulted and robbed a truck driver at the Loves Truck Stop in Willcox near Interstate 10, the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office said. Walker was talking to the victim about his truckload and "lulled him into a sense of security" before grabbing the victim and throwing him from the cab, according to the sheriff’s office. Walker allegedly drove away in the semi, which was transporting 10 Chevrolet C8 Corvettes with an estimated value of over $1.25 million. See full story
Uninsured Alabama Station In Disbelief After 200-Foot Radio Tower And Transmitter Stolen (NBC News) — A radio station in Alabama was forced to go silent after thieves stole its 200-foot radio tower and other equipment from a building. The station, WJLX, sent a landscaping crew to the site Friday morning for spring cleaning, only to find the 200-foot radio tower gone. When a crew member called the station’s general manager to break the news, he was in disbelief. “What do you mean the tower is gone? Are you sure you’re in the right place? I actually used more colorful words than that,” Brett Elmore recounted to NBC News. “He said there’s wires all over the ground and the tower is gone.” Not only was the radio tower stolen, but a nearby building was also vandalized. When Elmore heard the door was left ajar, “that’s when reality was starting to set in that something bad had happened.” See full story	Interaction Between Two Common Oral Bacteria Creates Chemical Compound Responsible For Bad Breath (phys.org) — In a study published last month in mSystems, researchers from Osaka University revealed that the interaction between two common types of oral bacteria leads to the production of a chemical compound that is a major cause of smelly breath. Bad breath is caused by volatile compounds that are produced when bacteria in the mouth digest substances like blood and food particles. One of the smelliest of these compounds is methyl mercaptan (CH3SH), which is produced by microbes that live around the teeth and on the surface of the tongue. However, little is known about which specific bacterial species are involved in this process. "Most previous studies investigating CH3SH-producing oral bacteria have used isolated enzymes or relatively small culture volumes," explains lead author of the study Takeshi Hara. "In this study, we aimed to create a more realistic environment in which to investigate CH3SH production by major oral bacteria." See full story