Gardening Trends for 2020: Think Unconventional, Sustainable
1 Billion Animals Have Reportedly Died in Australia's Wildfires ; Tea Drinkers Live Longer ; and More Picks
FBI Surveillance Vendor Threatens to Sue Tech Reporters (Mili)
From Gizmodo: “Motherboard on Thursday revealed that a ‘secretive’ U.S. government vendor whose surveillance products are not publicly advertised has been marketing hidden cameras disguised as seemingly ordinary objects — vacuum cleaners, tree stumps, and tombstones — to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, among other law enforcement agencies, and the military, in addition to, ahem, ‘select clients.’ The vendor, Special Services Group (SSG), was apparently none too pleased when Motherboard revealed that it planned to publish photographs and descriptions of the company’s surveillance toys.”
1 Billion Animals Have Reportedly Died in Australia’s Wildfires (Chris)
The author writes, “Chris Dickman, an ecologist at the University of Sydney, explained to HuffPost that the estimate of 480 million animal deaths previously reported was conservative, only applied to the state of New South Wales, and excluded populations about which less data has been collected. ‘The original figure … was based on mammals, birds, and reptiles for which we do have densities, and that figure is now a bit out of date. It’s over 800 million given the extent of the fires now — in New South Wales alone.’ Dickman added that if one were to factor in bats, frogs, and invertebrates as well, the number of deaths would ‘without any doubt at all’ exceed 1 billion.”
Most Wanted Couple to Be Extradited to Belgium After 23 Years on the Run (Chris)
From the Brussels Times: “The only Belgian woman to top Europol’s Most Wanted list will be extradited into Belgium with her French partner, after the couple’s recent arrest ended more than two decades they spent on the run. Hilde Van Acker and her partner and Jean-Claude Lacote were arrested in late 2019 in the Ivory Coast and are set to be handed to Belgium, Van Acker’s lawyer said, according to De Morgen. Arrested in Belgium over the 1996 murder of a British businessman, the pair fled to South Africa after they were conditionally released due to lack of evidence.”
The Dark Side of Harry and Meghan’s Fairy-Tale Escape (Russ)
The author writes, “Those of us on the outside might sigh over the decor and imagine what we might do with 20 million pounds a year (about $26 million). But I’m not sure most of us could name the actual salary we’d like to be paid for surrendering our personalities, performing an endless array of ceremonial but crushingly dull appearances, and doing it all while submitting to pantyhose (the female royals) and exhaustingly personal media criticism (both genders, but it’s worse for the women) every day.”
Tea Drinkers Live Longer (Mili)
The author writes, “Drinking tea at least three times a week is linked with a longer and healthier life, according to a study published … in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).”
