Author: KnowledgeHippo

The hiking trail to Middleham Falls on the Caribbean island of Dominica is all wet leaves, slippery black stones and steps formed by tree roots. It could be a path in Middle Earth, shrouded, shady and green, fit for hobbits and fairies. Where sunlight pierced the canopy, rainbows formed in the mist, almost close enough to pierce. Here and there, hummingbirds drew nectar from huge flowers.The goal that January day: a 200-foot forest waterfall that fills and refills small pools on the valley floor, where I could—as one does at Dominica’s secret hot pools and secluded waterfalls—discard my clothes, slip…

The spending showdown that brought the government to the brink of a partial shutdown this week is being fueled by Republicans in Congress, who, after failing in their efforts to cut federal funding, are still clinging to the dictates of right-wing politics.House Republicans loaded their spending bills with hundreds of partisan policy orders, the vast majority of which had no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate or being signed by President Biden. They include measures to target various parts of Mr. Biden’s agenda, including one to limit access to abortion drugs and another to restrict the Department of Veterans Affairs…

The body of a 22-year-old woman was found in a wooded area at the University of Georgia in Athens on Thursday, sending shockwaves through Clarke County, a community about 70 miles east of Atlanta.When authorities revealed that the man charged with the killing was a Venezuelan immigrant, the crime became a political flashpoint.The victim, Laken Riley, was a nursing student at nearby Augusta University. On Friday, Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, was charged with her murder. The two did not know each other, authorities said.Many questions remain about the killing, which is believed to be the first in nearly 30 years…

So when The Springfield News-Leader, a newspaper serving Springfield, Mo., reported that Trader Joe’s planned to open a store there with a quote from a company statement, it got noticed.”I am pleased to confirm that we have plans to open a new store in Springfield,” a Trader Joe’s spokeswoman wrote, according to the newspaper.But “Springfield” turned out not to be descriptive enough. There are Springfield, Fla., Springfield, Mass., Springfield, Ill., Springfield, NJ, Springfield, Ohio, Springfield, Ore., Springfield, Pa., Springfield, Vt., Springfield, Tenn., and Springfield, Va.Springfield is also where ‘The Simpsons’ takes place. Show creator Matt Groening, who has acknowledged in…

OpenAI filed a motion in federal court on Monday that seeks to dismiss some key elements of a lawsuit brought by The New York Times Company.The Times sued OpenAI and its partner Microsoft on December 27, accusing them of infringing its copyright by using millions of its articles to train artificial intelligence technologies such as the online chatbot ChatGPT. Chatbots are now competing with the news outlet as a source of reliable information, the lawsuit said.In the lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, the defendants argue that ChatGPT is “in no way…

The tainted applesauce might have gone unnoticed for even longer if it weren’t for one family in North Carolina.Early last summer, Nicole Peterson and Thomas Duong were concerned about their young children’s blood lead levels during a routine test. Within weeks, levels had doubled.Ms Peterson said the couple worked with the local health department as they tried to determine what could have harmed their children. “We haven’t been sleeping and we haven’t been eating – because it’s driving us crazy,” Ms Peterson said. She and her husband are suing Dollar Tree, where they bought the applesauce, and WanaBana, a U.S.…

Boeing’s safety culture remains flawed, despite improvements made after two fatal crashes involving the 737 Max 8 jet in 2018 and 2019, according to a Federal Aviation Administration report released Monday.The report, written by a panel of experts convened a year ago at the behest of Congress, found there was a “disconnect” among senior executives at Boeing, which makes commercial planes as well as military aircraft and technology. The company, the commission found, was at times “inadequate and confused” in how it managed its safety culture.In a statement, the FAA said it would “immediately begin a thorough review of the…

Iran has made a concerted effort to rein in militias in Iraq and Syria after the United States responded with a series of airstrikes for the killing of three US military reservists this month.Initially, there were regional concerns that the unprecedented violence would lead to an escalation of the conflict in the Middle East. But since the Feb. 2 U.S. strikes, U.S. officials say, there have been no attacks by Iranian-backed militias on U.S. bases in Iraq and only two small ones in Syria.Before then, the US military had recorded at least 170 attacks against US troops in four months,…

There’s a lot we don’t know about why Nex Benedict, a non-binary teenager in Owasso, Okla., died a day after a fight in a high school bathroom. But there are a few things we do know, and they all add up to tragedy.We know that 16-year-old Nex, who often went by their pronouns with peers, was bullied at school. According to Sue Benedict, their biological grandmother and guardian, the bullying started in earnest last year. We know that Nex did not report the recent meetings to teachers or school officials. “I didn’t really see the point in it,” they told…

The Federal Trade Commission and several state attorneys general sued Monday to block Kroger, the supermarket giant, from completing its $24.6 billion takeover of grocery chain Albertsons, saying the deal would harm competition in the industry .The agency said the deal, which would be the largest supermarket merger in U.S. history, would likely lead to higher grocery prices for consumers and, with fewer supermarkets, reduce the ability of grocery store workers to they negotiate higher wages and better working conditions. .”This major supermarket merger comes as American consumers have seen grocery costs rise steadily in recent years,” Henry Liu, director…