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Ready, Set, Baby

Marriage often ends in divorce, why not start the kids off with separated parents. There are now dating sites that cut to the chase and get right to the baby part. Perfect for those people who want children without all that loving the other partner baggage.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/oct/31/i-wanted-to-meet-a-mate-and-have-a-baby-without-wasting-time-the-rise-of-platonic-co-parenting?utm_source=pocket-newtab#comment-144914024

Song cue – What’s Love Got to Do With It

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Exclusive dating service with just one member.

Greg Lindberg has a proactive method of dating. Send a private security force to find out their details so you can decide if you want to date them.

He’s headed to prison on unrelated charges of bribery and doesn’t like the ankle bracelet since it “acts as a stalking device” for the government.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/insurance-executive-ordered-to-prison-on-seven-year-sentence-11602186498

Not sure if the appropriate song is Every Breath You Take by The Police or Private Eyes by Hall and Oates

Feel free to add your song suggestions to the comments.

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News places

A rose by any other name can still give you Mesothelioma.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54608836

The festive O in the sign hides the dirty truth.

A sign welcoming people to Asbestos Quebec

Remediation is seen as a drain on local economies. A failure to mark the leftovers as lethal means the piles will be disturbed for years to come as companies mine sift through the tailing piles for other other minerals.

https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/the-asbestos-legacy-can-mining-residues-be-repurposed-safely

One bright spot is that the process to extract magnesium destroys the asbestos fibers. No mention of how fibers will not become airborne while the tailing piles are dug up with large equipment.

https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/too-good-to-be-true-transforming-asbestos-mining-residue-into-money

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But hey there’s no C02

Not a big enough fan of toxic waste to get behind Nuclear Power. Especially when hearing about how the waste water is going to be handled at Fukushima, the biggest reactor disaster since Chernobyl.

Not sure the criteria for best, but apparently a, “a controlled environmental release is said to be the best way to treat low-tritium-concentration water.”

The strategy of using “controlled environmental releases” worked great for plastics in the ocean.

Diesel trucks are also pretty good at “controlled environmental release”

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News

Return to Sender

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/marketplace-amazon-returns-1.5753714

Since Amazon does sell returns to liquidators (with a whole lot of junk mixed in) and the backpack would have potential value. The question to the investigative journalists becomes, are you experienced at shipping. Did the tracker tear the lining in the pocket where it was placed. Was the bag wrapped in tissue paper or just tossed it in a box. Those zippers and buckles will scratch every time they flop around during shipping.

Before getting too excited about returns being offered online.
1) On eBay and Amazon, free returns are one of the tools used to build trust.
2) How much of the 30-40% return rate for online purchases is clothing? Amazon started selling books as the first category because they can be evaluated for purchase without having to try them on or see them work leading to less potential for returns than other categories.
3) The toy bricks had an electronics package glued to one of the bricks. No way that can be resold.

Tin foil hat bonus point. Maybe Amazon scans all items returned for hidden trackers and those items were sent for destruction to prevent a competitor from finding the secret to Amazon’s ability to process so many returns.

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Seems pretty clear to me.

How hard is it to fire somebody these days? We have a factory worker making pizza dough and he added something other than flour, water, sugar, salt and yeast. So the part of the story I can’t fathom… And I quote, “It wasn’t immediately clear why Mitchell no longer worked for the company.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ex-pizza-company-worker-allegedly-put-razor-blades-dough-sold-n1243043

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Have your people call my people.

Google is adding the ability for pixel phones to handle being on hold and give you a notification when someone comes on the line.

Google Hold For Me

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Now some happy nature news

Tasmanian devils have made enough progress that they can be reintroduced into the world.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-54417343

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Overlooking the obvious

Lot of pontification about how AI would detect a flat tire from changes in vehicle handling and smart tires with additional sensors, but no mention of the Tire Pressure Monitoring System which is available on modern cars and has been required since 2001 in the United States with the appropriately named TREAD act.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lanceeliot/2020/10/03/tire-blowouts-could-cause-self-driving-cars-to-go-astray/#4e9cadbb463b

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The real meaning of pirate radio stations.

All this time I thought the name was because they were not licensed, turns out the original pirate radio stations broadcast from ships.