A congressional probe recently revealed that the U.S. Postal Service has shared information from Americans’ mail with law enforcement, including names and addresses, without requiring a court order, with the organization approving 97% of the 60,000 requests they’ve received from police departments since 2015. What do you think?
“It’s worrisome that law enforcement would have that kind of access to the deals Spectrum is offering.”
Sohail Ashraf, Asylum Greeter
Nation’s Men In Bathroom Stalls Announce Plan To Breathe Really Loudly
“I always suspected my mailman was a fed.”
Aiya Thorp, Company Downsizer
“They must have a hell of a file on Current Resident.”
“Great moments are born from great opportunity. And that’s what you have here, tonight, boys. That’s what you’ve earned here tonight. One game.” That’s the late, great Herb Brooks with the most inspirational speech ever given by a head coach.
I’m not saying that he was referring to Durham and myself that day in Lake Placid, but I’m not saying that he wasn’t, either.
One random Friday in 2024, we took it upon ourselves to do the unthinkable, the improbable, the idiotic… We attempted the 9-9-9 Challenge while watching the Chicago Cubs take on the Miami Marlins.
The proof is in the Darwinian pudding. A study providing evidence that humans can genetically adapt to holding their breathunderwater for an extended period of time resurfaced. Consequently, one of the research’s authors exclusively opened up to Bored Panda about the scientific findings.
First published in 2018 in the research journal Cell, a group of scientists highlighted the indigenous Bajau people (“Sea Nomads”) of Southeast Asia who live a subsistence lifestyle based on breath-hold diving.
Highlights
The Bajau can hold their breath underwater for an average of up to 13 minutes, a capacity possibly based on genetic adaptation.
Researchers found that natural selection on genetic variants like the PDE10A gene increases spleen size, enhancing oxygen storage.
Evidence suggests the Bajau have genetic variants in the BDKRB2 gene, which affects the human diving reflex, aiding hypoxia tolerance.
The Sea Nomads’s renowned breath-holding abilities, an average of up to 13 minutes underwater, were highly speculated as to whether they had a genetic basis or not.
Using a comparative genomic study, the researchers showed that natural selection on genetic variants in the PDE10A gene increased the spleen size in the Bajau, providing them with a larger reservoir of oxygenated red blood cells.
A study providing evidence that humans can genetically adapt to holding their breath underwater for a long period of time resurfaced
Moreover, researchers found evidence of a strong selection specific to the Bajau on BDKRB2, a gene affecting the human diving reflex.
As a result, the Bajau, and possibly other diving populations, were found to provide a potential new opportunity to study human adaptation to hypoxia tolerance.
Understanding the physiology and genetics of human hypoxia tolerance has important medical implications, the scientists noted.
Until the 2018 study, human hypoxia tolerance had only been investigated in high-altitude human populations.
The Sea Nomads have lived an entirely marine-dependent existence, traveling the Southeast Asian seas on houseboats for over 1,000 years, the researchers noted.
Their marine hunter-gatherer existence depends on the food they collect through free diving.
One of the research’s authors exclusively opened up to Bored Panda about the scientific findings
They are renowned for their extraordinary abilities, diving to depths of over 70 m with nothing more than a set of weights and a pair of wooden goggles and spending 60% of their daily working time underwater.
Melissa Ilardo, an assistant professor at the University of Utah, Department of Biomedical Informatics, and author of the 2018 study, told Bored Panda in an email: “From our initial paper, it seems likely that the diving ability of the Bajau has a genetic basis.
“However, we have not done further research on this population, so we have not been able to support this finding with any additional evidence.”
Nevertheless, these genes (the PDE10A and BDKRB2 genes) are found in all people, the scholar fluent in eight languages explained.
She further explained: “However, there are specific changes (genetic variants) in these genes that can be distinct to different populations.
“The variant we identified in PDE10A that was under selection in the Bajau is also found in other populations.
“For example, we showed in our paper that about 30% of Europeans have the same variant as the Bajau.”
Published in 2018, a group of scientists highlighted the Indigenous Bajau people (“Sea Nomads”) of Southeast Asia
Melissa revealed that her 2018 research prompted new studies on the spleen, including a recent study that showed that Sherpas have larger spleens and that this may help them better tolerate the hypoxia of high altitude.
The expert in human evolutionary genomics has long studied indigenous human populations who have adopted survival strategies that range from desert foraging to deep-sea diving.
“An extraordinary array of adaptations has arisen from these environments and lifestyles, resulting in physiological advantages,” Melissa wrote on her LinkedIn profile.
For the second time in a month I get to hear Melissa Ilardo discuss the sea nomads. Once at #ASHG18 And now again at @evmedasu seminar seires. pic.twitter.com/4pTR1aspzn
“My research explores evolution in these superhuman populations,” she added. “Thus far, I have partnered with two populations who engage in the practice of breath-hold diving: The Bajau Sea Nomads of Indonesia and the Haenyeo (all-female) divers of Jeju, Korea.”
The academic runs the Superhumans Ilardo Lab, which is focused on celebrating human strengths instead of hunting for “disease-causing genetic variants.”
“Our research seeks to understand how health is preserved among resilient, adapted individuals,” the lab’s description read.
Readers were left stunned by the Bajau’s remarkable abilities in the water
Alexander sends us this snippet, where we change our definition of truth to something which eschews concrete definitions and accepts that existence is ephemeral. Truth and false are just illusions we project onto a reality that is itself just an illusion. In the end, we are all nothing.
publicenum Bit
{
None = -1,
False = 0,
True = 1
}
The file cannot be found, because there is no file to begin with. There is no self. This code is on the verge of breaking the wheel of reincarnation and becoming enlightened. Then again, Alexander tells us that this code lives inside of an e-commerce application handling, in his words, “REAL revenue”. Capitalism is the enemy of enlightenment, so perhaps this code is just another example of a business co-opting movements and selling them back to the public at a profit.
Or maybe the author of this code is a real jokester. Maybe, they were just… doing a bit.
Is a phantom flasher terrorising an English town? Are local children being subjected to spectral exposure by a vengeful spirit? As local vigilantes dig up local graveyards in search of deceased sex offender, spirit itself contacts medium to protest innocence of peadophilia in life, claiming post-mortem antics are payback against his former persecutors….
The Republican Governor of Louisiana Jeff Landry recently signed a law requiring state’s classrooms to display a copy of the Ten Commandments. The Onion explores the pros and cons of requiring religious doctrine in public schools.
Nation’s Men In Bathroom Stalls Announce Plan To Breathe Really Loudly
PRO: A good way to cover up the bullet holes.
CON: Use of woke “Thou/Thy” pronouns.
PRO: Great example of counting to 10 in the real world.
CON: Just finished building golden calf.
PRO: Least out-of-date thing in classroom.
CON: True believers would display the entirety of the King James Bible.
PRO: Distracts from how weird the Pledge of Allegiance is.
After a prolonged retreat from the limelight, Keira Knightley stepped out for a public event with her husband, James Righton.
The 39-year-old actress attended the opening of the new exhibition Imaginary Conversations: An ERDEM Collection Inspired by Duchess Deborah, and she was captured posing with her musician husband in the rare public appearance.
Highlights
Keira Knightley made a rare public appearance with husband James Righton after over a year
The couple attended the opening of Imaginary Conversations: An ERDEM Collection Inspired by Duchess Deborah
The event was held at Chatsworth House, a filming location for her 2005 movie, Pride and Prejudice
James Righton played drums at the event, which was also attended by pregnant actress Jenna Coleman
The event, which took place on June 19, was hosted at Derbyshire’s Chatsworth House. The stately home likely holds a special place in the onscreen leading lady’s heart, as it served as one of the locations for her 2005 film Pride and Prejudice.
Keira Knightley stepped out for a public event with her husband, James Righton, by her side
Husband James was not only in attendance but also played drums for the event, which was attended by star Jenna Coleman as well. The English actress is pregnant with her first child and looked gorgeous with her baby bump dressed in a green floral dress.
Greta Bellamacina, Kate Moss, and Elfie Reigate were also present.
She wore a teal dress as she attended the opening of Imaginary Conversations, an exhibition paying homage to the late Dowager Duchess Deborah Cavendish
When she spoke about the false impression people might have about her being haughty or posh, the English actress said she doesn’t mind it and likes keeping things private.
The English actress is known for keeping her personal life fiercely private and doesn’t mind if people think she is post or haughty
“No, I think that’s fine…” she told Harper’s Bazaar all the way back in 2013.
“I like being private. I haven’t asked a lot of the actresses who I really admire, ‘How do you do it?’ because I don’t want to know. Maybe I’m childish in that way; I just don’t want to know about your life,” she continued.
Having tasted fame at the age of 17, she revealed in another interview with Harper’s Bazaar in 2023 that she knew for a long time about the expectations upon her.
“There’s a funny place where women are meant to sit, publicly, and I never felt comfortable with that. It was a big jolt,” the Pride and Prejudice actress once said
“I had quite an entrance into adult life, an extreme landing because of the experience of fame at a very early age,” she told the outlet. “There’s a funny place where women are meant to sit, publicly, and I never felt comfortable with that. It was a big jolt.”
When asked about whether she worries about ageism, she replied, “Change is always tricky. We’re taught that it’s bad. We’re taught that we don’t want grey hair.”
Mentioning Helen Mirren as a “terribly good” example, she continued, “She ages in the most sensational manner. She’s fabulous in every way. You look at her and think, ‘God, you’re having so much fun. You’re enjoying life so much.’”
When interacting with RESTful web services, there’s a depressingly common anti-pattern: always return status 200 OK, but embed a more meaningful status code in the body of the response. Frequently, the embedded status code is just the HTTP status code you should have returned in the first place.
This “fixes” situations where you have badly behaving clients that don’t do proper error handling, but also breaks the entire point of doing REST.
Alice works on an app that, while most of the time the code is decent, has a service that does this. This service also does something even worse: depending on the URL parameters you pass to the query, it may do something like this when it returns errors:
{"statusCode":422,"errors":{"Value should be an integer":["version"]}}
Or something like this:
{"statusCode":422,"errors":{"orderSatus":["The value you selected is not a valid choice."]}}
Sometimes, the service returns errors in the form “error message: [list of fields]”, and sometimes it returns errors in the form “field: [list of errors]”. I’d argue that the latter is more correct, but either is workable if they were at least consistent.
At first, looking at the responses, I assumed this was some multi-team, microservice situation where you had specification drift and two different teams solving the same problem slightly differently, but no: it’s just one service, maintained by one small team.
These kinds of inconsistencies abound in the codebase. The entire thing is designed to make the front-end team pull their hair out, and any third parties consuming the API to go completely insane.
Alice writes: “I’m glad I only maintain the back-end and front-end is someone else’s job.”
Alice says that, but she clearly has her work cut out for her, too, if this is going to get any better.
What’s with the babytalk? She looks at 30 years old. It’s time for her to finally starting to use proper words. It’s not a TikTok, it’s a watch, dummy.
Masterful dadjoke flirting is the ultimate dating strategy. It’s like having a secret weapon that combines humor, charm, and a touch of innocence. Ladies love that.
The House Ethics Committee, which has a long-running investigation into the conduct of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), announced it is now also considering allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use in addition to previous claims that he accepted improper gifts and sought to obstruct government investigations. What do you think?
“I’m appalled that my tax dollars are being used to pay the salaries of an Ethics committee.”
Gloria Dupree, Brakes Cutter
Nation’s White Liberals Announce They Have Successfully Completed Listening
“I’m sure this was caused by peer pressure from all his teenage friends.”
Najeem Wolff, Bedding Critic
“At least give him a chance to pay off the committee members.”
Great Dane dogs are often called “gentle giants” due to their impressive size yet very friendly, loyal and soft behavior.
When Danes are standing on their legs, they are taller than most people, yet one named Kevin from West Des Moines, Iowa was recently recognized by the Guinness World Records as the tallest living dog of all.
The 4-year-old Great Dane Kevin belongs to Tracy Wolfe, who lives on a farm in Iowa with her husband, two kids, three cats, four dogs and several chickens, goats and horses.
He’s not the first Great Dane for the family. A few years ago, they had one named Cora, yet at the age of 6 she passed away. This breed has a short life expectancy – only about 7 to 10 years.
After the painful loss, in 2019, Tracy came across an advertisement for new litters of Great Danes on social media and decided to see the puppies. The meeting eventually ended in taking Kevin home.
“The timing was just perfect for us,” the woman said. “I wouldn’t have looked at getting a Great Dane for a while after losing our previous. But the kids were little, and I thought a puppy would be great for them.”
“He was so friendly, he just ran up to us,” Tracy shared, and that’s how the family named the dog after Kevin McCallister, the main character from the movie Home Alone.
Kevin since the very beginning had a particularly special bond with Tracy’s son Alexander
Tracy’s son Alexander has a particularly special bond with Kevin.“Alexander is Kevin’s person,” she said and added that it’s her son who came up with the idea to reach out to the Guinness World Records.
Being still a puppy, Kevin didn’t show any signs of becoming the tallest Great Dane, but by the time he reached 1 year, it was already clear to the family that their dog would be unusually tall.
“Kevin just kept growing up and growing up and growing up,” shared Tracy and mentioned that the average male from this breed is about 2 feet, 6 inches (76,2 cm) at the shoulder while Kevin now is 3 feet and 2 inches (96,52 cm) tall.
“They don’t know how big they are. They’re just the sweetest. Kevin is continuously trying to squeeze into small beds and sit on top of us and do everything that the smaller dogs do,” the woman said, also mentioning that her ‘gentle giant’ is afraid of thunderstorms, kittens and also got scared of the measuring tape that was used to take his height.
“He was always an anxious, nervous dog. The vacuum drives him crazy. He’ll jump from couch to couch,” Tracy added.
Unfortunately, Kevin passed away Wednesday morning from complications due to emergency surgery for a gastric problem. The family said that no matter how short Kevin’s life was, it was truly meaningful and always surrounded by lots of love and joy.
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Great Danes are considered the tallest dogs in the world. Therefore, it’s not a big surprise that the previous title also belonged to one of the same breed. The dog from Texas was named Zeus and was 3 feet and 5.18 inches tall.
No matter how huge and powerful these dogs are, they could also be described as the most gentle ones, and Kevin is a great example. Despite his short life, he left unforgettably warm memories not only in his family’s hearts but also in all those who knew him.
People on the internet shared their love for the Great Dane breed and Kevin, who was the tallest above all
