My sister was going to visit her boyfriend

but she decided not to in case the kids were upset that she wasn't here for bedtime.

She showed up right as they decided they really, really wanted to do a sleepover at a friend's house. LOL!

Only three more days of school!

******************

MIT Wristband Could Make AC Obsolete

Children in California rescued in nationwide sex-trafficking bust, FBI says
And here

WiFi isn't short for "Wireless Fidelity"

The founder of a Mormon women's group who was accused of undermining church teachings was excommunicated Monday by an all-male panel of judges who said she can only return if she abandons her cause.

Corporate America is taking out life insurance on its employees so companies can profit from workers’ deaths

Earth’s north magnetic pole is drifting south toward Siberia at an accelerating rate, according to recent data from the European Space Agency (ESA), which also showed that the dynamic magnetic field that protects the planet from radiation has weakened.

Hachette v Amazon, the death of print and the future of the book

Stan Blackwell hunted angels.

It wasn’t a bad job, not in this economy. The logistics were hard to set up sometimes, but the market for angelhide was always enormous, and no one could send you to jail for harvesting creatures that the government didn’t think existed.

Want to get out alive? Follow the ants - "Emergency exits work better when they are obstructed."

What's up with the wild extremes of weather?

A Sudanese woman sentenced to death for apostasy was freed Monday by a Khartoum court, and has rejoined her Christian husband with their two young children.

While in college, two friends set out to turn air pollution into plastic. Their decade-long journey has led to an award-winning carbon-based product. They aim to reduce global warming by capturing heat-trapping carbon emissions. (Older article)

A senior UN official has described the world's forests as "fundamental" to human well-being and survival.

Two veterans in a Veterans Affairs psychiatric facility languished for years without proper treatment, according to a scathing letter and report sent Monday to the White House by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, or OSC.

Fear kept the VA scandal a secret

Police on the Italian island of Sicily believe they have solved a Mafia murder mystery dating back to 1909.

Obama urges Congress and employers to expand benefits for families

Sunni rebels in Iraq say they have fully captured the country's main oil refinery at Baiji, north of Baghdad.

The High-Flying Ant With a Bite Like a Bear Trap

The Giant Tetris Game On Third Avenue

The final stockpile of Syria's chemical weapons has been shipped out of the country, according to the OPCW, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Report warns world's fragile oceans pushed to point of collapse
Also here.

(no subject)

Emails Show Feds Asking Florida Cops to Deceive Judges

Western-born jihadists rally to ISIS's fight in Iraq and Syria

This won't hurt a bit: the cultural history of pain

How Lessons From a Brain-Infecting Fungi Could Change Medicine

NYC School Cops Are Putting Kids on the Fast Route to Prison

How Overlooked Plants Like the Potato Bean Can Be Tamed to Feed the World

Introducing the Vacuum Transistor: A Device Made of Nothing
This curious mash-up of vacuum tube and MOSFET could one day replace traditional silicon

How times have changed in New York City! Extraordinary colour photographs reveal 1940s life in the Big Apple in all its glory

Major cities could see big drops in uninsured, increase in revenue with Medicaid expansion

Why inequality might make kids drop out of high school

Researchers have long thought that autism was more common among white children in the U.S. than other ethnic or racial groups. But a new study of birth records in highly diverse Los Angeles County suggests that children whose mothers emigrated from certain countries may be particularly at risk.

Republicans Finally Admit Why They Really Hate Obamacare

Insecticides put world food supplies at risk, say scientists

10 maps that show how much time Americans spend grooming, eating, thinking and praying

The United Nations says more than 1,000 people have been killed in Iraq this month, most of them civilians, as Sunni Islamist insurgents have taken over most of the country’s north.

Report Exposes Companies That Dumped 206 Million Pounds of Toxic Chemicals Into U.S. Waterways

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi called on Tuesday for a change of course in Europe, saying austerity policies on their own could not guarantee fiscal stability as unemployment rises and economies stagnate.

Violent and Legal: The Shocking Ways School Kids Are Being Pinned Down, Isolated Against Their Will

Goldman Sachs confirmed last week what we all have know long ago: the rent is too damn high.

Raids target militants in China

The senior executives who played leading roles in the 2008 financial crisis can breathe a sigh of relief: If any committed crimes, the statute of limitations will run out for most of them this year. It's safe to say nobody will go to jail.

A hundred years of American politics, in one GIF

Want to Suppress the Vote? Stress People Out

The latest science-of-politics study suggests that GOP voter intimidation tactics may be more effective than liberals have feared—for biological reasons.

Survey: One-fourth of Americans have no emergency savings

It’s not every day that a Republican finance guy — one who remembers George W. Bush as a “terrific boss” — writes an op-ed in the New York Times imploring the nation to set up a carbon tax. Not this year, anyway; just a few years ago, it might’ve been ho-hum.

Pesticides threaten birds and bees alike, study says

Islamic extremists have abducted 60 more girls and women and 31 boys from villages in northeast Nigeria, witnesses said Tuesday.

A Sudanese woman freed from death row on Monday has been arrested with her family at Khartoum airport

Robert Morris University will offer about 30 athletic scholarships to students who play the 'League of Legends' video game

If you think you’re being asked to fill out more and more surveys - you’re right. The Boston Globe says the best known online survey platform, SurveyMonkey , is now processing survey responses at the rate of 2.2 million per day, up from 1 million a day in January 2013. (I stole that blurb directly from Pat's Papers.)