Author: HP McLovincraft

Seeker of rabbit holes. Pessimist. Libertine. Contrarian. Your huckleberry. Possibly true tales of sanity-blasting horror also known as abject reality. Prepare yourself. Veteran of a thousand psychic wars. I have seen the fnords. Deplatformed on Tumblr and Twitter.

Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard arrested in Winnipeg under Extradition Act

The original lawsuit against Nygard included allegations from 10 women who accused him of enticing them to his estate in the Bahamas. In the following months, more women from Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States joined the lawsuit.

The women, who are not named, have shared stories in court documents about being brought to Nygard’s offices and properties with promises of modelling or other career opportunities. Some allege they were given alcohol spiked with drugs before they were sexually assaulted.

Two women allege they were as young as 14.

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FDA approves new genetically modified pig for allergy-free medical and food products

The US Food and Drug Administration said Monday it has approved a genetically modified pig whose body doesn’t make a component that can trigger allergies in people.The pigs should produce meat that is safe to eat, and organs and tissues safe for transplants and for the other biomedical uses for people allergic to the compound — a sugar found on the surface of animal cells known as alpha-gal, the FDA said.

It might help people who have an allergy to alpha-gal– an allergy sometimes triggered by a tick bite.”Today’s first ever approval of an animal biotechnology product for both food and as a potential source for biomedical use represents a tremendous milestone for scientific innovation,” said FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn.The pigs, licensed to Revivicor Inc., a subsidiary of United Therapeutics, are called GalSafe pigs. Revivicor is a spinoff from PPL Therapeutics, which produced the first mammal cloned from an adult mammal: Dolly the sheep, in 1996.Products made from their bodies can be safely used by people with alpha-gal syndrome, FDA officials told a media briefing. These might include the blood thinner heparin, made from pig intestines, as well as tissue or organ transplants.A company called Xenotherapeutics has three patients enrolled in a Phase 1 safety trial of using skin from GalSafe pigs for skin grafts to treat burn victims with alpha-gal allergies. The company is working to enroll three more in the trial at Massachusetts General Hospital.

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What a Mathematician Learned From Cracking the Zodiac Killer’s Code

A group of three hobbyist cryptographers last week cracked one of the most infamous ciphers created by the Zodiac Killer, more than half-a-century after the murderer claimed their first confirmed victim.

The unnamed Zodiac killed at least five people in Northern California between the late 1960s and early 1970s, and derived their pseudonym from a series of taunting letters sent to the San Francisco Bay Area press up until 1974. Those letters included four cryptic messages, known as “ciphers.” Up until a few days ago, only one of those ciphers had ever been convincingly decoded.

Cryptologist David Oranchak, who has been trying to crack the notorious “340 cipher” (it contains 340 characters) for more than a decade, made a crucial breakthrough earlier this year when applied mathematician Sam Blake came up with about 650,000 different possible ways in which the code could be read. From there, using code-breaking software designed by Jarl Van Eycke, the team’s third member, they came up with a small number of valuable clues that helped them piece together a message in the cipher:

“I HOPE YOU ARE HAVING LOTS OF FUN IN TRYING TO CATCH ME 

THAT WASNT ME ON THE TV SHOW 

WHICH BRINGS UP A POINT ABOUT ME 

I AM NOT AFRAID OF THE GAS CHAMBER 

BECAUSE IT WILL SEND ME TO PARADICE ALL THE SOONER 

BECAUSE I NOW HAVE ENOUGH SLAVES TO WORK FOR ME 

WHERE EVERYONE ELSE HAS NOTHING WHEN THEY REACH PARADICE 

SO THEY ARE AFRAID OF DEATH 

I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE IS

LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE DEATH”

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LOOPHOLE ALLOWS BIDEN NOMINEES TO AVOID DISCLOSURES. WILL THEY USE IT?

“DONALD TRUMP HAS presided over the most corrupt administration in modern history,” Joe Biden’s website declared as he ran for president. By contrast, the site said, a Biden administration would “make sure that the principles of equality, transparency, and public — not private — interest drive all government decisions.”

It would be difficult for any incoming administration to match Trump for opacity and self-dealing. But an obscure exemption for executive branch officials from disclosing previous clients may generate an interesting test case for Biden’s commitment to full transparency.

The question is partly whether any Biden nominees will use this exemption themselves to conceal their recent sources of income. Perhaps more important is the question of whether the Biden administration will take steps to eliminate the exemption, thereby foreclosing its abuse by future presidents, Trumpian or otherwise.

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Mass. Prisoners Among The First To Get COVID Vaccines

Among those first in line for the COVID-19 vaccine in Massachusetts are correction workers and the nearly 13,000 people incarcerated in jails and prisons in the state. The news comes as COVID cases continue to spike behind bars.

Gov. Charlie Baker included both groups in the first phase of his COVID vaccination plan, which he announced last week. The first phase also includes health care workers, police, fire and emergency responders and residents of long term care facilities and those living and working in homeless shelters. Massachusetts is one of six states to specifically include prisoners in the first phase of vaccinations, according to the Prison Policy Initiative.

The Department of Correction referred questions about the vaccine process to the state’s COVID-19 Response Command Center. It says those working and living in congregate care settings, like homeless shelters and correctional facilities, are prioritized for phase one because of the high-risk, high-exposure setting. The state estimates that 22,000 vaccines will be needed for those living and working in correctional facilities, and officials expect the vaccines to be distributed between December and February. Details about how the vaccines will be given behind bars will be clearer once the state receives vaccine shipments.

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