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Category: Bazaar News
Bazaar News | ReportWire publishes the latest breaking U.S. and world news, trending topics and developing stories from around globe.
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Sherri Papini, The California Mom Who Faked Her Own Kidnapping And Blamed It On Two Hispanic Women
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On November 2, 2016, Sherri Papini vanished near her home in Redding, California. Three weeks later, she re-emerged — with a bizarre kidnapping story.
Keith Papini Sherri Papini with her then-husband, Keith.
In November 2016, Sherri Papini disappeared while out for a jog in Northern California. She was found three weeks later on a highway about 140 miles away, battered and bruised, and with a story about how she’d been abducted and tortured by two Hispanic women. But it was a lie.
To the shock of Papini’s friends, family, and community, she had orchestrated her own abduction. She had not been tortured by anyone. Instead, she had gone to see an ex-boyfriend living 600 miles away.
This is the story of Sherri Papini, the woman who faked her own kidnapping — and then tried to conceal what she’d done with a bizarre lie.
The Troubled Early Life Of Sherri Papini
Born on June 11, 1982, Sherri Papini (née Graeff) had a troubled youth. Per SFist, Papini allegedly burglarized her father’s house when she was 18 years old. And a few years later, Papini’s mother told the police that she believed that Papini was harming herself and trying to blame her for the wounds.
Her defense attorney later made the case that Papini’s childhood had been difficult and that’s what led to her later deceptions.
“Papini’s painful early years twisted and froze her in myriad ways,” defense attorney William Portanova argued, according to KCRA 3.
But Papini’s early years weren’t all painful. As she wrote in her wedding blog, she met her husband, Keith Papini, while they were in middle school.
Keith PapiniSherri Papini and her husband Keith first met in middle school before reconnecting years later.
“It all started with a first kiss in middle school,” Sherri Papini explained in her blog. “He was in seventh grade, I was in eighth. I never imagined my middle school first kiss would turn out to be my husband!”
As PEOPLE explains, the two lost contact for years but later reconnected as adults. By that point, Sherri Papini had already been married and divorced, but she quickly fell for her old flame and planned her future with him.
“By our third date we were head over [heels] in love and have spent [every day] together since,” she wrote, per PEOPLE. “I have never been so happy. We always laugh and always smile. We enjoy each [other’s] company and make a great team! We’re best friends and a perfect couple.”
The pair got married in 2009 and had two children together in Redding, California. From the outside, they seemed to have an idyllic life. But then, in November 2016, Sherri Papini suddenly vanished without a trace.
Inside The Frantic Search For The Missing Mom
On November 2, 2016, Sherri Papini went out for a jog. As PEOPLE reports, her husband Keith came home to find that his wife was still gone. He realized something was wrong when he used the “Find My iPhone” app and found her phone discarded on the side of a road about a mile away.
Keith Papini called the police — and a massive search for his wife began.
“It is excruciating,” Keith Papini told ABC News at the time. “I don’t like to think too much about it because I just assume that I’m going to get a phone call any second or she’s going to show up at my house.”
Three weeks later, the case took an alarming turn. Then, the missing mother was discovered near a highway about 140 miles away from her home. She was emaciated and her hair had been cut off. And she had multiple injuries, including bruises, a swollen nose, and a brand burned into her shoulder.
Shasta County Sheriff’s OfficeSherri Papini was officially missing for three weeks in November 2016.
“The bruises were just intense,” Keith Papini told ABC News after his wife was found. “She’s always had very long, blonde hair [and] they chopped it off.”
Though Sherri Papini was initially reluctant to speak to the police — claiming, according to ABC News, that her abductors had planned to traffic her to someone in law enforcement — she eventually told an extraordinary story.
According to Sherri Papini, she had been abducted at gunpoint and held by two Hispanic women. CNN reports that Papini claimed the women had kept her chained in a closet, tortured her, and burned a brand into her shoulder.
Despite the bizarre narrative, police worked tirelessly to find the captors. But after four years, Sherri Papini’s kidnapping story fell apart.
Sherri Papini’s Elaborate Kidnapping Hoax
From the beginning, the police noticed a few inconsistencies in Sherri Papini’s story. For example, she gave a few different reasons as to why her abductors had branded her. And when authorities found DNA on Papini’s clothing, they realized that it was from a man, not a woman.
What’s more, there was no clear reason why Sherri Papini had been abducted in the first place. And detectives found it odd that Papini’s headphones had been found coiled on top of her phone, and not in disarray.
But the case didn’t truly break open until 2020. Then, DNA recovered from Sherri Papini’s clothing was found to match her ex-boyfriend, James Reyes. ABC News reports that police spoke to Reyes, who said that Papini had told him she was being abused by her husband and asked for his help. (Reyes did not know at the time that the abuse allegations were unfounded.)
Federal Bureau of InvestigationAn FBI sketch of Sherri Papini’s alleged kidnappers, who police were looking for until 2020.
Reyes explained that Sherri Papini had stayed at his home of her own free will for weeks, hundreds of miles away from where her friends and family were conducting a desperate search. Around Thanksgiving, he said that she missed her kids and wanted to go home. But first, she wanted to injure herself — and she even asked Reyes to help her fake a few of her wounds.
“I’m like, ‘oh, this is probably going to hurt.’ I mean, I’ve never done this,” Reyes told investigators of when he branded Papini on her request.
After Reyes passed a polygraph test, the police brought Sherri and Keith Papini in for questioning. They told them that the DNA on Sherri Papini’s shirt belonged to Reyes — and then continued to blow apart the hoax.
Shasta County Sheriff’s OfficeSherri Papini and her husband during her 2020 interrogation.
“The reason why you lost so much weight is because you stopped eating,” an investigator said, per the New York Post. “The reason why you got a rash on your arm was because you cleaned his house. The reason why [you had] the brand is because he went to the store, got the branding tools, and branded you. The reason why your nose is broke is because of a hockey stick.”
The investigator told Sherri Papini that there was no use in denying it.
“[Reyes] told us what happened and gave us details nobody else would know,” he said. Before long, Keith Papini had left the interrogation room.
What Happened To Sherri Papini After The Hoax?
In March 2022, Sherri Papini was arrested and charged with making false statements and mail fraud. She pleaded guilty that same year.
As for Keith Papini, he soon filed for divorce. “I’m the idiot husband who stayed around the whole time,” he told investigators, according to ABC News.
Sherri Papini’s family members and the authorities weren’t the only ones outraged by her kidnapping hoax. The local community who had searched for her when she was supposedly missing and who supported her after her “rescue” were also furious. And Latinas in the area felt especially betrayed.
One activist said that Papini’s false claims about her “Hispanic abductors” caused anxiety among Latinas, especially when sketches of the alleged suspects came out: “Latina women were fearful that they might look like one of those people in the sketch.” And as prosecutors later revealed during Papini’s trial, numerous “innocent individuals” indeed became targets of the criminal investigation, as authorities searched in vain for fictional abductors.
TwitterSherri Papini at her trial in 2022.
Ultimately, Sherri Papini was sentenced to 18 months in prison for her deception. In addition, she was ordered to pay $309,902 in restitution to the California Victim Compensation Board, the Social Security Administration, the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office, and the FBI, according to NBC News.
“I stand before you humbled by the court. I’m so sorry to the many people who have suffered because of me. I thank you all,” Sherri Papini said before her sentencing, according to PEOPLE. “I am guilty of lying and dishonor. I trust in this court… and I trust in you. What was done cannot be undone. I am choosing to humbly accept all responsibility.”
Papini never offered a motive for her hoax. A psychiatrist later suggested that she might have been seeking fame and fortune, or perhaps trying to avoid a real-life problem — such as a divorce — by inventing a fake crisis.
Though Sherri Papini was found out, her deceit shocked her loved ones, her community, and the entire nation. It proved that sometimes things aren’t as they appear — and when a story seems off, there’s often a reason why.
After reading about Sherri Papini’s kidnapping hoax, go inside the infamous 1932 kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby. Then, learn about the 30-year mystery of nine-year-old Michaela Garecht’s kidnapping.
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Kaleena Fraga
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BizToc
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A voter initiative that would overturn a California law aimed at raising wages and improving working conditions for fast food workers has qualified for next year's ballot, authorities said Tuesday. The referendum raised more than 623,000 valid voter signatures to be placed on the Nov. 5, 2024,…
#shirleynweber #mcdonald #starbucks
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33 Stunning Photos Of The California Gold Rush And The 49ers Who Tried To Strike It Rich
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The discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in January 1848 sparked a mass migration to California — but not everyone was lucky enough to strike it rich.
33 Incredible Photos From The California Gold Rush, The Mining Craze That Captivated The World
In 1848, a carpenter building a sawmill near Coloma, California, caught a glimpse of something glittering along the banks of the American River. It was gold. And his discovery would launch the California gold rush, a frantic, hopeful, and transformative period in American history.
Seeking riches, hundreds of thousands of people — mostly men, but some women, too — flooded the territory. Borrowing money or using their life savings, they came from the East Coast, Europe, and even China. From roughly 1848 until 1855, they mined for gold across the state, eventually extracting some $2 billion worth of the precious metal.
This mass migration transformed the territory forever. But the California gold rush also altered the course of American history in more ways than one.
‘It Made My Heart Thump’: The Discovery Of Gold In California
The California gold rush began on Jan. 24, 1848. Then, as carpenter James Wilson Marshall worked on a water-powered sawmill for his employer, Swiss immigrant John Sutter, he noticed something shiny in a streambed.
“My eye was caught by something shining in the bottom of the ditch,” Marshall later recounted of his discovery, according to the Library of Congress. “I reached my hand down and picked it up; it made my heart thump, for I was certain it was gold… Then I saw another.”
Marshall’s find came at a serendipitous time for the United States. As PBS reports, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in February 1848 just weeks after Marshall’s discovery, ending the Mexican-American War and ceding gold-rich California to the United States. At the time, no one knew that Marshall, Sutter, and their workmen had started to dig for the precious metal.
Bettmann/Getty ImagesJames Wilson Marshall, the carpenter who discovered gold in California.
Indeed, Marshall and Sutter tried to keep the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill under wraps — but word soon got out. HISTORY reports that stories about the discovery of gold started to run in newspapers that March, and storekeeper Sam Brannan caused waves in San Francisco when he displayed flakes of gold discovered at Sutter’s Mill around the city.
Before long, according to the Library of Congress, San Francisco became a ghost town. Merchants, sailors, soldiers, and laborers alike dropped everything and headed into the California hills, hoping to strike it rich.
The Rise Of The California Gold Rush
Before long, news of the California gold rush spread across the world. PBS reports that thousands of eager prospectors sailed to California from Hawaii, Oregon, Mexico, Chile, Peru, and even China. Though Americans on the East Coast initially doubted that gold had been discovered in the territory, they were convinced by the end of the year when President James K. Polk confirmed it.
“The accounts of abundance of gold are of such an extraordinary character as would scarcely command belief were they not corroborated by the authentic reports of officers in the public service,” Polk wrote, per HISTORY.
Nearly 100,000 people poured into the state by 1849. The so-called “49ers” sailed 17,000 miles around Cape Horn, traversed Panama, or made their way across the Great Plains. While some dreamt of finding gold, others realized that there was money to be made by supporting the miners in jobs ranging from merchants to dance hall girls.
Molina Photographic Company/Buyenlarge/Getty ImagesA portrait of a “49er” with a knife in his belt.
“A smart woman can do very well in this country,” one woman who went west during the California gold rush wrote, according to the Women’s Museum of California. “[T]rue, there are not many comforts and one must work all the time and work hard, but there is plenty to do and good pay.”
The miners extracted shocking riches from the ground — and each year seemed to be better than the last. According to PBS, they found $10 million in 1849, $41 million in 1850, $75 million in 1851, and a whopping $81 million in 1852, the peak of the California gold rush.
But the gold rush had a dark side, too. PBS reports that white miners could be territorial and violent toward immigrants. And Native Americans in California suffered in great numbers, losing a full third of their population to disease, mining-related accidents, and murder, according to HISTORY.
In addition to the loss of so many indigenous residents, around 300,000 hopeful prospectors from around the world had flooded California by 1855. The demographics of the state were forever changed — but that wasn’t the only effect the gold rush had on the region.
The Lasting Impact Of The California Gold Rush
Though the California gold rush sputtered to an end around 1855, it cast a long shadow over American history in more ways than one. As National Geographic notes, it transformed California by turning quiet towns like San Francisco and Sacramento into humming metropolises.
Universal History Archive/Getty ImagesA bird’s eye view of San Francisco drawn in 1875. The California gold rush turned the quiet port into a bustling city.
And the gold rush had political implications as well. As HISTORY reports, it likely fast-tracked California’s admission to the Union — but also added to existing tensions between North and South. Though California entered the Union as a free state, the Compromise of 1850 dictated that the new states of Utah and New Mexico could make their own decisions about slavery.
Just a decade later, the Civil War broke out.
In that way, the California gold rush represents a crucial chapter in American history. Not only did it add to existing political tensions, but the possibility of untold wealth also completely transformed the “Golden State.”
Above, look through 33 photos of the California gold rush that capture this stunning moment in American history.
After reading about the California gold rush, look through these photos of the Klondike gold rush. Or, discover the story of Slab City, the squatters’ paradise located in the California desert.
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Kaleena Fraga
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A Massive Poisonous Cane Toad Was Just Found In Australia — And It Weighed A Record 5.95 Pounds
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An Australian park ranger gasped when she saw the record-breaking monster cane toad, now dubbed “Toadzilla.”
Queensland Government Park ranger Kylee Gray holds the record-breaking cane toad dubbed “Toadzilla.”
Park rangers in Australia made a discovery this week that shocked viewers and broke records: a nearly six-pound cane toad now dubbed “Toadzilla.”
The toad was found during a routine trail check in Australia’s Conway National Park, when park ranger Kylee Gray stopped her vehicle for a passing snake. After exiting her vehicle, Gray looked down and gasped at the sight of a monstrously large toad.
“I reached down and grabbed the cane toad and couldn’t believe how big and heavy it was,” Gray said in a news release from the Queensland Department of Environment and Science. “We dubbed it Toadzilla, and quickly put it into a container so we could remove it from the wild.”
“Toadzilla” weighed in at a record-breaking 5.95 pounds (2.7 kilograms), and is believed to be a female due to its size, as female cane toads grow larger than males.
A typical cane toad weighs an average of about three pounds, according to National Geographic. They can survive in the wild for up to 15 years and produce 30,000 eggs every breeding cycle.
Cane toads are also known for their unusual eating habits. They are omnivores, and consume mostly insects as well as small mammals, birds, lizards, and even other frogs.
“A cane toad that size will eat anything it can fit into its mouth,” Gray said.
The cane toad’s voracious appetite has landed it in some hot water in Australia. Native to South and Central America, the cane toad was introduced in Australia in the 1930s as part of a government initiative to control the growing cane beetle population.
According to Smithsonian, cane beetles had been wreaking havoc on sugar crops, forcing the Queensland government to look for alternative methods for dealing with the pesky insects.
But cane toads have no natural predators in Australia, and their toxic skin often kills would-be predators quickly, allowing them to remain at the top of the food chain. So when the toads were introduced, they eventually bred out of control, forcing native species out of their habitats by hogging shelters and resources and upsetting the natural ecosystems in the region.
According to Smithsonian, the increase in cane toads also had no discernible effect on the cane beetle population, and now Australia is struggling to control the toads’ booming population.
Today, there are more than 200 million cane toads in Australia. This is an astounding increase from the original 2,400 cane toads introduced almost a century ago, and they are projected to expand westward at a rate of 25 to 37 miles per year.
Queensland Government “Toadzilla” in the wild. The toad weighed roughly six pounds at the time of its discovery.
While “Toadzilla” is a marvel, park rangers have removed her from the park citing the environmental issues cane toads pose in Australia. The Queensland Department of Environment and Science confirmed in a tweet that “Toadzilla” had been euthanized.
“A female cane toad like potentially Toadzilla would lay up to 35,000 eggs. So their capacity to reproduce is quite staggering,” senior park ranger Barry Nolan, one of Gray’s colleagues, told Reuters in an interview. “All parts of the cane toad’s breeding cycle are poisonous to Australian native species, so prevention is a big part of how we need to manage them.”
The toad’s body has been donated to the Queensland Museum for further research. Previously, the Guinness World Record for the heaviest toad belonged to Prinsen, a pet cane toad in Sweden who weighed 5.81 pounds in 1991.
After reading about “Toadzilla,” learn about the invasive “super pigs” wreaking havoc in Canada. Then, read about another species of toxic toad that threatened pets and clogged pools in a Florida neighborhood.
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Amber Breese
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8 Facts About Fortune Cookies
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Fortune cookies are a beloved treat that many people associate with Chinese American restaurants. These small, crispy cookies are often served at the end of a meal and contain a slip of paper with a “fortune” inside. But there’s more to them than meets the eye. From their surprising origin to the unique recipe, fortune cookies have a rich and fascinating history worth exploring.
Fortune cookies are a staple of Chinese American cuisine, but it’s believed that they actually originated in Japan. A Japanese cracker called tsujiura senbei can be traced back to 19th-century Kyoto. This cracker was made with sesame and miso, and contained a small paper fortune tucked into its folds.
These crackers arrived in the U.S. with the Japanese immigrants who came to Hawaii and California after the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, which created a demand for cheap labor to replace the Chinese immigrants who were forced out.
The Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco, California. / Moonstone Images/E+/Getty Images A lot of the Japanese immigrants who moved to the U.S. settled in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The fortune cookie recipe from Kyoto came with them, and the treats started to pop up in bakeries in San Francisco and Los Angeles in the early 1900s.
The Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park is often credited as the first place in the country to sell the modern-day fortune cookie. The food’s exact origins are still a subject of debate, with multiple sources claiming to have invented the cookie around the same time, including three businesses in Los Angeles: the Fugetsu-Do confectionary shop, Japanese snack manufacturer Umeya, and the Hong Kong Noodle Company.
Fortune cookies being made via machine, 1955. / Evans/GettyImages Fortune cookies have always had a relatively simple recipe. While the original Japanese crackers were savory and contained sesame oil and miso, most cookies you’ll find today are made with sugar, flour, vegetable shortening, water, vanilla, and food coloring.
After the batter has been mixed, it’s used to form flat, thin circles on a hot baking tray. The cookies only need to bake for a few minutes before they’re fully cooked and ready to be shaped.
A handful of strawberry-flavored fortune cookies. / Jessica Carter/DigitalVision/Getty Images After baking, the fortune cookies are removed from the oven and immediately folded into the traditional curved shape while they’re still hot and pliable; this is also when paper fortunes are slipped inside. The process must be completed quickly, as it doesn’t take long for the desserts to harden. The folded cookies are then cooled before being packaged and shipped to restaurants and retailers.
Today, most fortune cookies are made by machine, but some artisanal bakers still whip them up by hand. There are also different variations in the recipe: Though some fortune cookies come in different colors and flavors, they’ll all typically have a subtle hint of vanilla.
There’s a lot of demand for fortunes hidden inside cookies. / Diane Macdonald/Moment/Getty Images It’s difficult to estimate the exact number of fortune cookies made annually, as they’re produced by many different manufacturers and small-scale bakers. However, it’s safe to say that fortune cookies are a popular treat. Some estimates claim that around 3 billion fortune cookies are produced every year—according to the Museum of Food and Drink, one Brooklyn-based factory alone makes 4.5 million each day. Though the U.S. leads the world in fortune cookie production and consumption, the crunchy confections are served in Chinese restaurants elsewhere in the world as well.
Wonton Food Inc., based in Brooklyn, is the largest manufacturer of fortune cookies in the world. The company was founded in 1973 by Ching Sun Wong, who immigrated from China to the U.S. in the 1960s. He started the company in a store’s basement. Now, Wonton Food Inc.’s various plants produce a wide variety of the treats, including the traditional vanilla ones as well as flavored cookies like chocolate and citrus.
There’s a reason fortune cookie fortunes start seeming repetitive. / Image Source/Image Source/Getty Images Wonton Food Inc. has about 15,000 fortunes in a database it uses for all its cookies. Donald Lau, former vice president and chief financial officer Wonton Food, wrote most of those fortunes as part of his job when he first started with the company. He would find inspiration throughout the day in everything from the newspaper to subway signs. Lau eventually stopped writing new fortunes after he developed writer’s block.
Yang’s Fortunes, Inc., a fortune cookie company based in San Francisco, has a database of about 5000 fortunes it uses in their cookies.
Your dream career could be waiting for you. / Deonta Delaney/EyeEm/Getty Images After Lau decided to stop writing fortunes regularly, Wonton Food Inc. began hiring freelance writers every couple of years to create new fortunes. Other companies that produce fortune cookies also hire writers to generate new ideas.
These gigs aren’t advertised regularly—so keep an eye out if you’d like to add this job to your portfolio. Fortune cookie writers are typically hired as freelancers and don’t get paid a lot, but it would be pretty fun to come across one of your own fortunes one day.
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Anne Taylor
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A Florida Woman Was Just Rescued From A Storm Drain — For The Third Time In Two Years
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Lyndsey Kennedy was pulled naked from a different storm drain in March 2021 — and just two months later, she was found inside another drain system in Texas.
Delray Beach Police DepartmentThe first time Kennedy got lost in a storm drain, she was reportedly there for weeks.
A woman in Delray Beach, Florida was recently rescued from a storm drain — for the third time in just two years.
As local station WFLA reported, Delray Beach police responded to a call about a person who was possibly in distress while swimming in a canal. When officers arrived, they found the woman, Lyndsey Kennedy, in the water and asked if she needed assistance.
She ignored them.
Then, taking it a step further, Kennedy climbed into a storm drain pipe and refused to come out. When police tried to coax her out, she crawled in deeper.
Eventually, it took a team of Delray Beach Fire Rescue Special Operations members to evacuate Kennedy from the pipe using a ladder and a harness. Kennedy appeared to have minor injuries when she was pulled out, and she was taken to a nearby hospital for evaluation.
Bizarrely, a similar incident occurred nearly two years ago when Kennedy, 43 at the time, was reported missing by her boyfriend. According to WPTV, he notified police that she had disappeared on March 3rd, and on March 23rd, she was found naked in a storm drain pipe.
Delray Beach Police DepartmentThe first storm drain Kennedy was rescued from in 2021 was about eight feet deep, and it was clear that she had been down there for quite a while.
She told police that she had been swimming in a canal and entered the drain system, but at some point while exploring the tunnels, she got lost. She claimed that she survived on an unopened can of ginger ale that she found in the pipes.
Kennedy could very well have remained lost had a passerby not heard her from the street and called 911.
Dani Moschella, a spokeswoman for the Delray Beach Fire Rescue, told WPTV at the time, “You could look at her and see, she was down there for some time.”
“Firefighters go to storm drain calls a lot,” she added. “We rescue ducklings and kittens and puppies, and this is the first time anybody can remember actually seeing a person down there.”
Palm Beach County Sheriff’s OfficeKennedy was also arrested for a hit and run in July 2021.
Then, just over two months after that incident, the same thing happened to Kennedy in Grand Prairie, Texas. Once again, police said Kennedy was reported missing, and once again, she was found inside a storm drain and taken to a hospital for treatment.
Her mother also commented that Kennedy had a history of mental illness and regularly used illegal narcotics, noting that she often “[makes] bad decisions when she is high on drugs.”
After reading about the Florida woman who won’t stop climbing into storm drains, learn about the time a black belt Florida woman broke her boyfriend’s nose for refusing sex. Or, discover the story of the Florida woman who zipped her boyfriend into a suitcase and taunted him while he suffocated to death.
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Austin Harvey
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BizToc
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Real Wages Fall for the Twenty-First Month as Rent and Food Prices Keep Rising The Federal Reserve has yet to get price increases anywhere near its own arbitrary 2-percent goal, but a mild slowing in growth rates has Biden claiming that price inflation is "falling." Original Article: "Real Wages…
#federalreserve #original #realwagesfall #thisaudiomiseswire #christophercondon
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Amazon Is Now Selling a Prescription Drug Subscription Covering 80 Common Conditions for Just $5 a Month
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Retail giant Amazon has long been dubbed “the everything store” for its vast selection of goods and services. Their latest offering? Prescription drugs.
The company just announced RxPass, a subscription offering that allows shoppers to choose from among 50 different generic medications treating roughly 80 common conditions. They can fill as many prescriptions as they like for a $5 monthly fee. The list covers many of the most widely-used drugs, from statins to antibiotics to antidepressants to sildenafil, better known as Viagra.
Why so low? Speaking with CNN, Cornell University health expert Sean Nicholson offered that the service may boost revenue in other areas: People looking to Amazon for cheap medication may buy other goods or opt for their more expensive brand-name drugs via their Amazon Pharmacy service, which sells a wider variety of drugs.
The fine print: Owing to the low cost of the service, RxPass won’t accept insurance; Medicare or Medicaid recipients aren’t eligible to sign up, either. You also need to be an Amazon Prime member to use the prescription feature. (Prime is $14.99 monthly or $139 annually.) And if you’re in California, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Texas, or Washington, you’re out of luck; the service will not deliver to these states—at least not yet.
[h/t Associated Press]
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Jake Rossen
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WTF Fun Fact 13212 – The Cat Righting Reflex
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Have you ever wondered why cats always land on their feet? It’s because of something called the cat righting reflex.
What’s the cat righting reflex?
Normally, if you see a cat fall, you’re probably panicking and not trying to pay attention to the physics of the whole situation mid-air. But if you slow down footage of a cat falling (which we hope you don’t set them up for at home!), you’ll see that cats have the ability to reorient themselves in midair to ensure they land feet first.
The cat righting reflex is that innate ability, and it’s made possible by a specialized collar bone (or clavicle) This clavicle is highly flexible, allowing a cat to rotate its body 180 degrees while in the air.
So, when a cat falls, it first extends its legs. Then it rotates its head to face the ground. As it falls, it will then begin to rotate its spine, using its flexible collarbone to control the rotation.
Finally, as a cat reaches the ground, its hind legs will extend to absorb the impact.
And if you’ve seen a cat take a fall, you know its front legs are ready to push off and run away pretty much immediately.
Do cats *always* land on their feet?
While cats can survive falls from great heights, nothing works 100% of the time.
Not all cats can use their righting reflex with the same success. Some may not have the same flexibility or strength as others, especially if they are old or injured. And sometimes the cat righting reflex is not always “right.” They do get hurt…or worse.
Overall, the righting reflex has been an important survival mechanism for cats. It allows them to escape predators and avoid injuries when falling from things they’ve climbed.
Cats are also able to use their righting reflex to perform acrobatic feats, such as jumping through hoops, or climbing up and down vertical surfaces. That’s because their reflexes are typically really fast and precise, allowing them to make rapid adjustments to their body position.
Are cats the only animals with a righting reflex?
The righting reflex is not unique to cats. Other animals, such as squirrels and certain species of primates, also have this ability.
But cats are particularly known for this reflex because they have a very low center of gravity and a flexible spine. This allows them to maintain control of their bodies better than most creatures.
Source: “Why Do Cats Land on Their Feet?” — Live Science
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Move Over, Oscar Mayer—Planters Is Looking for “Peanutters” to Drive Its NUTmobile
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If you thought this town (i.e. the corporate brand landscape) wasn’t big enough for two vehicles whose names and shapes are meant to evoke an iconic food product, think again.
America’s highways play host now not only to Oscar Mayer’s Wienermobile, but also Planters’ NUTmobile. The 26-foot-long “peanut on wheels” ferries Mr. Peanut around the U.S., promoting the brand at various local events. And, as ClickOnDetroit reports, the company is currently on the hunt for three enthusiastic “Peanutters” to drive it.
Actually operating the NUTmobile is but one small part of a Peanutter’s role. They’re also expected to plan and execute events for Mr. Peanut and the NUTmobile to attend across the country. This includes things like booking hotels, communicating with local media to publicize the events, managing the NUTmobile social media accounts, and even dressing in costume to entertain visitors. The gig, which kicks off in June 2023, is quite literally a full-time job: 40 hours a week over five days, with plenty of variation in your weekly schedule depending on what events are on the agenda (and where).
It’s a one-year assignment, after which you could score an interview for a more long-term job in Hormel’s food sales department. If you have a bachelor’s degree, a valid driver’s license, and a hankering to cruise around in a giant peanut (and sometimes dress up as one), you can apply here by Tuesday, February 14. In addition to a résumé and cover letter, you’ll also have to upload a “short video describing why you would make the perfect Peanutter.” Now’s your chance to turn your peanut butter obsession into a career.
[h/t ClickOnDetroit]
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Ellen Gutoskey
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10 Facts About the Teapot Dome Scandal
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Before Watergate, Iran-Contra, and the Clinton impeachment, there was the Teapot Dome scandal. As secretary of the interior under President Warren Harding, Albert Fall used his position to hand government-owned land to his friends in the oil business—and the private buyers agreed to line his pockets in return. The shady dealings resulted in an investigation, a guilty conviction, and a Supreme Court case that changed the role of the Senate. Though similar stories have cycled in out of the news in the decades since, Teapot Dome has remained a touchstone for corruption in U.S. government. Here’s what you should know about the biggest political scandal of the 1920s.
Warren G. Harding / Library of Congress/Corbis Historical/Getty Images When Warren G. Harding became president in 1920, oil tycoons saw him as the answer to their prayers. Some had donated to his campaign and counted on him to return the favor with oil-friendly Cabinet appointments. Edward L. Doheny of Pan American Petroleum and Transport gave $25,000 to the Republican candidate, while Harry F. Sinclair of Mammoth Oil contributed $1 million. When Harding appointed Senator Albert Fall—a New Mexico rancher and old friend of Doheny’s—to be his Interior secretary, Big Oil was clearly an influence.
Conservationists were wary of Fall prior to the Teapot Dome scandal. Before joining Harding’s Cabinet he had worked as a lawyer for logging and mining businesses, and as secretary of the interior, he quickly tried to use his power to grant companies access to public lands. He first attempted to open up Alaska’s natural resources to private businesses, and later, he tried transferring oversight of national forests and the U.S. Forest Service (which were part of the Department of Agriculture) to his department. In both cases, conservationists in Congress blocked his efforts. But they weren’t able to stop him from moving control of the Navy’s oil reserves to the Department of the Interior in 1922.
Before Harding’s administration, President William Howard Taft had set aside several oil fields to be used as fuel reserves for the Navy in case of wartime shortages. Private oil barons had eyed this land for years, and it became much easier to infiltrate under Harding. Fall convinced the president to shift control of the public oil reserves to the Department of the Interior. Following the transfer, Secretary Fall leased multiple government sites to private businessmen without a public announcement or competitive bidding. Teapot Dome, a site north of Casper, Wyoming, went to Harry Sinclair, and Elk Hills in California went to Edward L. Doheny. Though Teapot Dome (named for a nearby rock formation shaped like a teapot) was just one of the properties involved, it would come to represent the scandal.
Harry Sinclair with Albert Fall during their trial in connection to the Teapot Dome Scandal. / Hulton Archive/GettyImages Doheny paid Fall $100,000 in exchange for the land—a sum equivalent to more than $1.5 million today. Fall used the money to pay for his sprawling ranch in New Mexico. Sinclair, meanwhile, delivered livestock to his property and transferred roughly $300,000 in cash and Liberty bonds to Fall’s son-in-law. Ultimately it was these gifts, not the leases, that landed the men in legal trouble. Though Doheny and Fall insisted the $100,000 payment was an “interest-free loan,” the Senate suspected them of bribery and launched an inquiry.
The Senate Public Lands Committee meets to investigate the Teapot Dome scandal. / Library of Congress/GettyImages Congress’s right to subpoena witnesses in investigations is less than a century old. As the Senate scrutinized Attorney General Harry Daugherty’s failure to investigate the Teapot Dome scandal, it called on his brother, Mally Daugherty, to testify. He refused, and this led to the spin-off trial McGrain v. Daugherty. The Constitution doesn’t explicitly grant Congress the right to investigate private citizens’ affairs, but the Supreme Court recognized this power when deciding the case in 1927. This precedent was reinforced two years later after Sinclair declined to speak on certain topics before the Senate. In Sinclair v. United States, the Supreme Court once again stated that Congress could make witnesses appear before its investigatory committees, even if they weren’t government officials.
Albert Fall was found guilty of accepting the bribe, making him the first Cabinet member convicted of a crime committed while in office. Fall was the lone guilty verdict. (Though Edward Doheny also offered the bribe, he was acquitted of the same crime.) He was originally fined $100,000 and sentenced to prison for one year. He was incarcerated in 1931 and released three months early in light of his failing health. Though Sinclair wasn’t convicted of bribery, he ended up spending six months in prison for jury tampering.
Teapot dome hanger from the 1924 United States presidential election featuring Charles W. Bryan and John W. Davis. / The Frent Collection/GettyImages Harding had appointed Fall as secretary of the interior and Daugherty as attorney general, but the 29th president mostly avoided the fallout from the scandal. Harding died unexpectedly at age 57 in 1923, likely from cardiac arrest. Though Harding didn’t live to see the full investigation play out, the Teapot Dome scandal and other examples of corruption in his administration have damaged his legacy. Today many historians regard him among the worst presidents in U.S. history.
Though he didn’t act alone, Fall was the only player convicted of bribery in the Teapot Dome scandal. That technically makes him a “fall guy”—or someone who takes the full blame for a situation—but despite a popular misconception, the term didn’t originate with him. Fall guy was already in the lexicon by the 1920s; it was even the title of a Broadway play that premiered in 1925. The phrase’s exact origins are unknown, but they definitely predate the Teapot Dome scandal.
The Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. / Hulton Archive/GettyImages The affair was the biggest political scandal the country had seen when it rocked the Harding administration in the 1920s. Fifty years later, when five burglars broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C.’s Watergate complex, journalists drew comparisons to Teapot Dome. Nixon’s Attorney General John Mitchell became the second U.S. Cabinet official to go to prison when he was convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury.
Following the scandal, the leased oil fields were reinstated as Naval reserves—though they didn’t stay that way forever. During the Clinton presidency, Elk Hills in California was auctioned off to the Occidental Petroleum Company. The U.S. government held on to the scandal’s namesake Teapot Dome until 2015, when it was bought by Stranded Oil Resources Corporation for a winning bid of $45 million. The transparent sales didn’t lead to criminal charges this time around.
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Michele Debczak
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WTF Fun Fact 13211 – Grey Cat Genes
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Grey cat genes are an interesting thing. For example, did you know that most grey cats get their coloring from a “diluted” form of the black fur gene?
It’s kind of like the difference between a tortoiseshell cat and a “dilute tortie.”
Fascinating facts about grey cat genes
The melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) gene is responsible for black fur in cats. This gene controls the production of eumelanin in the hair shafts. In cats, there are two versions of this gene. So, an “active” version produces black or brown fur. A “diluted” version results in a grey or “blue” coat color.
The “diluted” version of the MC1R gene is caused by a specific genetic mutation. This mutation turns off the production of eumelanin in the hair shafts.
Grey cats can also have other colors in their fur, such as white, orange, or other shades of grey, and this depends on the specific genetic variations that are present. As you might have guessed, the color of a cat’s coat is determined by the interaction of multiple genes and environmental factors. The genetics of coat color can get pretty complex.
Cat fur color doesn’t tell us a lot
Grey cat fur can come in different shades and patterns. Some grey cats may have a light, silver-gray coat, while others may have a darker, charcoal-gray coat. Some grey cats may have a solid-colored coat, while others may have tabby markings or other patterns.
If you have a grey cat, you can’t necessarily tell what breed they are just by their fur color. But you can likely narrow it down if the cat is entirely grey.
The color and pattern of a cat’s coat can also be influenced by other genetic factors, such as the presence of white spotting or the agouti gene.
Grey domestic cats could be a mix of different breeds, which leads to variations in size, shape, and overall appearance. So, while grey cats share the common characteristic of having a grey coat due to the diluted form of the MC1R gene, each one still has other characteristics to be considered.
Feline parentage
Did you know a female cat is known as a molly (unless she is a purebred, then she is called a Dam). Female cats are called queens when they are pregnant or still feeding babies. Males are called “toms” or “tomcats” (and purebred fathers are Sires).
According to The Cat Fancier’s Association (cited below), there are some general rules about cat genetics.
For example, male kittens always obtain both color genes from their mothers. “The male offspring in a litter will always be either the color of the dam (or one of the colors in the case of parti-colors) or the dilute form of the dam’s color.”
On the other hand, “Female kittens take one color gene from each parent. The color of the female kittens in a litter will always be either a combination of the sire’s and dam’s colors, or the dilute form of those colors.”
We also didn’t realize that “Only the immediate parents determine the color/pattern of a kitten” or that “A kitten’s pattern can be inherited from either parent.”
There’s always something interesting to know about cats, even if it’s technical! — WTF fun facts
Source: “Basic Feline Genetics” — Cat Fancier’s Association
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ABC News is considering offloading statistician Nate Silver and his website FiveThirtyEight as it looks to make cost cuts, the Daily Beast reported. The publication has never turned a profit, according to the Daily Beast. FiveThirtyEight reports on politics, sports and economics with a focus on…
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The ‘Breaking Bad’ Scene That Broke Bryan Cranston
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Breaking Bad lives up to its name. By the end of five seasons, Walter White transforms from a mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher to a murderous meth kingpin. Though the character commits his most heinous crimes later in the show, Bryan Cranston said he was most shaken up by a moment from season 2, Screen Rant reports.
On a recent episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show (as seen below), the Breaking Bad star recounted the scene that nearly broke him as an actor. In the episode, titled “Phoenix,” Walt checks on his drug-dealing partner Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), who has recently become addicted to heroin. He finds Jesse in bed with his girlfriend Jane (played by Krysten Ritter), and what follows is what many fans consider Walter White’s first turn from antihero to villain. (Obvious spoilers for anyone who hasn’t gotten around to watching Breaking Bad in the past 15 years.)
“I did a scene on Breaking Bad where I was watching a woman die in the second season,” he told Clarkson. “All of a sudden, her face left and the face of my real daughter showed up, and I was watching my real daughter die. It choked me. I’m even getting a little choked up now.”
Though his character would later commit much more direct acts of violence, that was the moment that sticks with him so many years later. “It is an emotional risk that actors go through; we have to put ourselves in a position of vulnerability for that to possibly happen, because you’re willing to go into the unknown,” he said.
Cranston reportedly spent 15 minutes crying after filming the scene. He wasn’t the only member of the cast impacted by Jane’s death. In a Reddit AMA, Paul said shooting it also affected him on a personal level. He wrote, “Looking at Jane through Jesse’s eyes that day was very hard and emotional for all of us. When that day was over, I couldn’t be happier that it was over because I really, truly felt I was living those tortured moments with Jesse.”
You can read more facts about Breaking Bad here.
[h/t Screen Rant]
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Michele Debczak
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Why Is There Iodine in Table Salt?
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Sometimes your dinner companion is so uninteresting that you might begin to read the label of your table salt. If this happens to you, you might grow curious over why the salt is labeled as being “iodized.” What does that mean, and what’s the benefit?
Adding iodine to salt has traditionally been a slightly sneaky way of making sure consumers have a sufficient amount of the micronutrient in their diet, a practice not dissimilar to adding fluoride to water. Iodine isn’t made by the body, but it’s needed in small quantities in order for the thyroid gland to function properly. It allows the thyroid to make thyroxine, a hormone that helps regulate many bodily functions, including mental acuity. If iodine is lacking, thyroid dysfunction can occur. This can lead to thyroid swelling (a goiter), mental impairment, or even birth defects.
Iodine is found in naturally in coastal areas, and we get the nutrient from a variety of marine foods, including fish and seaweed (dairy products and some grains are other common sources). So why add it to salt? In the early 20th century, iodine deficiency was more common; so were concerns that the iodine found in foods wouldn’t be enough to support the thyroid. Some areas of the U.S., like the interior Northwest, were even known as “the goiter belt” because they lacked coastal food sources. Emulating the Swiss, U.S. officials added iodine (in the form of potassium iodate or iodide) to table salt.
The positive effects were quickly noticed: In Michigan, where iodized salt was first sold starting in 1924, the number of folks with goiters fell from 30 percent to just 2 percent over a 10-year period.
Thanks to a more varied diet, however, Americans are rarely at risk for iodine deficiency today. In general, iodine from salt isn’t necessary. One exception is pregnant women, who are sometimes at risk of low levels and should take vitamin supplements if recommended by their doctor. Additionally, people who don’t eat much fish or drink milk might want to be mindful of sourcing iodine elsewhere.
The continued presence of iodized salt is more of a cheap insurance policy than anything. For people whose diets may not supply iodine, some sprinkles of salt should stave off the effects of being deficient. Because iodine is cheap—perhaps as little as $1 per ton of salt—and generally safe to consume in moderation, it’s likely to remain part of your dinner table.
Have you got a Big Question you’d like us to answer? If so, let us know by emailing us atbigquestions@mentalfloss.com.
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