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Published on Big Pine Key’s garbage pick-up days:
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 [Crook] New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez was convicted on all 16 counts stemming from a sweeping scheme to sell his office to foreign powers and crooked businessmen. Menendez is “only the seventh sitting U.S. senator to be convicted of a federal crime.The conviction marks a dramatic downfall for a politician once considered one of the most influential people in Washington D.C. The verdict is a win for the Justice Department which failed to convict Menendez in a separate case in 2015. After being found guilty by a New York jury on Tuesday, Menendez told reporters that he was “deeply disappointed” and that the decision would “put at risk every member of the United States Senate, in terms of what they think a foreign agent would be.” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called on Menendez to “do what is right for his constituents, the Senate, and our country, and resign.” |
| My boss was honest with me today. He pulled up to work with his sweet new car this morning and I complimented him on it. He replied, “Well, if you work hard, set goals, stay determined and put in long hours, I can get an even better one next year.” |
 [Read eBooks in Style] Open EPUB, Mobipocket, Kindle, FB2, CBZ, and PDF files. Read in paginated or scrolled mode. Adjust the font, spacing, margins, and color scheme. Window controls hide automatically to minimize distraction. Link |
| [Malls] Younger generations are using shopping malls more than older generations, according to a new Ipsos poll. The poll found that despite the decline of malls, 58% of respondents ages 15 to 34 say they visit shopping malls “often or sometimes,” compared to 48% of respondents ages 35 to 54 and 38% of respondents ages 55 and up. |
 I am contemplating cremation, do you think it will be painful? |
| You cannot run faster than a bullet. ~Idi Amin |
| [Friday Joke] My nagging wife died suddenly on a trip to Jerusalem. Funeral director, “Sir, it would cost about $45,000 if we send her home back to the states or $500 if we bury her here in Jerusalem.” Me: “Ship her home.” Funeral director: “But sir, why don’t you bury her here in the Holy Land and you can save money.” Me: “A long time ago a man was buried here and 3 days later he rose from the dead, I can’t take that chance.” |
 Breakthrough cobra venom antidote discovered. A common blood thinner may help make a cheaper treatment. Link |
| Chose your friends and enemies according to your own status. |
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| Prestige! Sir, is it nothing to be revered by fools, gaped at by children, envied by the rich and scorned by the wise. ~Barnave |
 [Boring Oktoberfest] Munich, the home of Germany’s Oktoberfest beer festival, will open its first alcohol-free biergarten in a “nod to changing consumption habits among the party set and growing frustration with public binge drinking,” The Guardian said. The sober beer garden will serve a variety of nonalcoholic beverages in an “attempt to strip the area of its boozy, seedy image.” |
| Scientific facts the public opinion won’t accept. Slide Show |
| [World Emoji Day] 3,782 emojis are approved by the Unicode Consortium, a group of people who decide which new emoji characters should be introduced. Thursday is World Emoji Day, and to mark the occasion, emoji experts Emojipedia revealed the top three most frequently used emojis in the world: 😂, ❤️ and 😍. |
 Americans’ confidence in the police sits at 51%. This marks an 8-point increase from 2023 and includes 25% of respondents who say they have a “great deal” of confidence in the police and 26% who say they have “quite a lot” of confidence. |
| [Are You Hacked?] Google is making dark web reports free for everyone. Here’s how they work. Find out faster if your data has been leaked online. Link |
 [Rattlesnake Cam] Ssssso many snakes: Watch a ‘mega-den’ of rattlesnakes in real time. The RattleCam shows the daily lives of hundreds of slithering reptiles in Colorado. Video |
| [Ethiopia’s Kidnapping Epidemic] More than 100 people, mostly students, are being held for ransom by kidnappers in Ethiopia. They are the latest victims of a wave of abductions in the troubled country. The kidnappings are centered in the unstable Oromia region. Buses traveling from a university in the area to the capital Addis Ababa this month were attacked and the passengers were taken. Such incidents are nothing new. It’s now very rare to find a family that has not been affected by kidnapping. The government has no control over the problem, |
[Greedy Merchant] Lowe’s, Greer South Carolina. July 16th. Halloween decorations already on display. |
| Adele is to take a “big break” from music. The British singer will perform in Europe next month for the first time since 2016, with 10 concerts in Munich’s Messe exhibition center, but will then do “other creative things just for a little while,” she told German broadcaster ZDF. “My tank is quite empty at the minute,” she said. “I don’t have any plans for new music at all,” added the 36-year-old, who released her most recent album “30” in November 2021 after a five-year hiatus and divorce. “I don’t even sing at home at all. How strange is that?”I like that I get to make music all the time … but the fame side of it I absolutely hate.” Adele’s two-year weekend residency in Las Vegas concludes in November. The sell-out shows at Caesars Palace have been “an emotional exchange,” she said. Adele and Taylor Swift have charged the most for tickets, some going for $1000. |
 
The Flamingo cactus vine bloomed late last night, but I overslept and didn’t see it. One photo is the day before and the other is just after the bloom in the early morning hours. |
| [Friday Joke] A wife got so mad at her husband she packed his bags and told him to get out. As he walked to the door she yelled, “I hope you die a long, slow, painful death.” He turned around and said, “So, you want me to stay?” |
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 [Snail Mucin] Mucus secreted by snails as they scoot along, is skin care’s latest wonder ingredient. Data analyzed by Glimpse shows online searches for it are up by 110% in the past year. Research on snail mucin is limited, but proponents say it fades dark spots, hydrates skin and improves texture. Consumers are excited to try these products. In the last 30 days, Amazon has sold more than 100,000 bottles of COSRX Snail Mucin 96% Power Repairing Essence facial serum. |
| [Free Lunch] Copenhagen has launched a program offering visitors the chance to earn credits for free meals, museum admissions and other perks by engaging in eco-friendly activities, such as picking up litter around the city or using zero-emissions transportation like a bicycle. Running through Aug. 11, the initiative, called CopenPay, aims to promote sustainable behavior among tourists in the Danish capital. A GPS map leads the participating tourists to more than 20 establishments offering freebies. |
 [Healthy Butter] Savor, a California startup backed by Bill Gates, has developed an animal-free butter alternative made from CO2. The company uses a thermochemical process that allows it to build fat molecules, creating chains of carbon dioxide, hydrogen and oxygen. |
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| [Friday Joke] A man is walking through the woods when he sees a bear charging at him. He books it, but he knows he can’t outrun a bear for long, so he starts praying, “Dear Lord, I beseech thee. Please, o Lord, please let this bear be a Christian!” The bear catches up to him, knocks him down on the ground, then gets on its knees and says, “Dear Lord, thank you for this food I am about to receive…” |
Holy Jeebus, it’s hot! The past two weeks have in the upstate of South Carolina has been stupid hot. |
| Driving has been an essential part of American culture since cars were invented. But young Americans may be falling out of love with cars. “Polls, studies and surveys show younger generations are less likely to drive, less likely to have a driver’s license, have less access to vehicles, and when they do get behind the wheel, are driving fewer miles,” said Business Insider. The percentage of U.S. teen drivers has consistently dropped since the 1990s. In our car-dependent country, with just a handful of cities boasting reliable public transportation, this driving rejection may come as a surprise. |
 [Big Pine Library Book Club] For the July 20th discussion we selected The Man who Died Twice by Richard Osman. It is the second book in the Thursday Murder Mystery Club series. “A must read full of humor and heart” says Harlan Coban. Full Menu > Book Club |
| [Bullet Vending Machines] The gun lobby has crossed a dangerous new line. A Texas company is now installing ammunition vending machines in grocery stores across Alabama, Oklahoma, and Texas (let that sink in). You can now buy bullets as easily as you buy a candy bar or a soda. This isn’t just irresponsible — it’s a recipe for disaster. We’ve already seen the devastation that easy access to firearms can cause. Just last Saturday, an AR-15 was used in an assassination attempt on former President Trump in Pennsylvania, leaving one innocent bystander dead and others injured. Now, imagine if the assailant could have easily restocked ammunition at the local grocery store. |
 [Live Cam] Beluga Whale brings the ‘canaries of the sea’ to your screen. They bring their babies up to the camera and they just talk all day. This is a very cool beluga population. It consists of a third of the belugas in the entire world. Video |
| [“Big Pine Key woodpecker”] If you think the woodpecker is always knocking on your door, and you keep answering it, I’d say there’s no one on either side of the door. |
 Why is it so hard to print an email? Sure, you can print the whole screen, but not just the email. Also, why can’t you change the title of an email so you can file it how you’d like to? |
| The current Coconut Telegraph was published on 7/19/24 at 7:54 am. |