Good Wednesday morning.
I am not one of those people who is overly enamored of Disney World. Yet somehow, I have visited it – as well as Epcot and MGM Studios and even the much maligned Sea World, which is not, as some people mistakenly believe, in the Disney family – on more than one occasion.
My paternal grandfather retired to Florida, and though he wasn’t all that terribly close to Orlando, we did manage to make a family pilgrimage to Disney on at least one occasion. I also ran the Disney marathon for Team in Training – one of the first full marathons I ever did. (Little did I know where that would lead).
Maybe I don’t love Disney because I don’t like crowds or standing on long lines or amusement park rides terribly much. I don’t particularly enjoy being startled, which is part of the “fun” of a number of the old-school rides at the park – including the Jungle Cruise.
The Jungle Cruise, if you haven’t had the pleasure, is located in Adventure Land, and is a 10-minute “boat” ride through four continents (yes, there’s water, but the boat doesn’t float, but rather cruises along pre-set tracks).
As an aside, apparently this ride was considered extremely outdated and even a little offensive, which is why it has undergone a number of evolutions and upgrades.
Even with these changes, a big focus of the Jungle Cruise remains animatronic hippos (there are no real animals or people in Disney rides, generally speaking, except for the ride operators, who sometimes double as tour guides). These hippos wiggle their ears, spit water, and pop up from their submerged lairs to surprise unsuspecting ride attendees.
Like I said, I’m not big on surprises – especially surprises that can weigh anywhere from 3,500 to almost 10,000 pounds and are (the real, in-the-flesh version, this is) some of the most deadly land mammals on earth.
Yep. Hippos. Are. Deadly. Full stop. Happy National Hippo Day.
You must have heard this one before, right? Hippos, which are often mistaken for being sort of cute and lumbering, are actually territorial, unpredictable, and aggressive and responsible for somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 human deaths annually. You should also avoid letting them bite you, if you can help it.
For the record, they only eat plants (grass, river vegetation, the occasional whole watermelon – if they can get it). They eat about 80 POUNDS of grass every night. And yeah, they’re more active after the sun goes down.
After elephants and rhinos – also both deadly in their own right, by the way – hippos (formally Hippopotamus amphibius, also known as one hippopotamus and two or more hippopotamuses or hippopotami) are large semiaquatic mammals native to sub-Saharan Africa.
There are two kinds of hippos. The most widely-known species is the common hippopotamus, (these are our amphibious friends mentioned above), which measure 6 to 16 feet long. The pygmy hippo, Choeropsis liberiensis, is smaller, usually about 5 feet long.
The name “hippopotamus” comes from the ancient Greek term for “river horse”. They look kind of like pigs, but don’t let that fool you. They’re actually more closely related to whales, dolphins, and porpoises.
Also, this is one of those “looks can really be deceiving” cases, because despite their ungainly appearance, with stocky bodies and short legs, hippos are actually capable of running 30 km/h (19 mph) over short distances.
And here’s another cool fact about hippos: They generate their own sunscreen, which is very handy when you live in an extremely hot place and like to hang out in the water where there isn’t a lot of shade.
There aren’t all that many hippos left in the world – less than 150,000 and declining due largely to poaching and encroachment by humans on their natural habitat. The common hippo is considered vulnerable, while the pygmy, with only 2,000 to 3,000 estimated to be living worldwide, is endangered.
Today we will see not quite hippo-approved weather, (as mentioned earlier, they like it HOT), but it will continue to be unseasonably warm.
For the record, the average temperature in these parts for mid-February would be somewhere in the neighborhood of a high of 32 degrees and a low of 15 degrees. Today, the mercury will flirt with 60. SIXTY DEGREES PEOPLE! And we’ll see a mix of sun and clouds.
Break out the bikinis and the board shorts.
In the headlines…
Air India will buy more than 200 Boeing aircraft, President Joe Biden announced, in what the White House is calling a historic agreement between the two companies.
Biden underscored how the deal will support over one million American jobs across 44 states, and help Air India meet growing demands for air transportation in India.
Support among the American public for providing Ukraine weaponry and direct economic assistance has softened as the Russian invasion nears a grim one-year milestone, according to a new poll from The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Forty-eight percent say they favor the U.S. providing weapons to Ukraine, with 29% opposed and 22% neither in favor nor opposed. In May 2022, less than three months into the war, 60% of U.S. adults said they were in favor of sending Ukraine weapons.
The State Department withdrew the nomination of an Ivy League professor who called then-candidate Joe Biden a “senile gaffe machine” and criticized other officials for their pro-Israel views.
Elon Musk allegedly threatened to fire Twitter’s engineers after his tweets during the Super Bowl attracted less engagement than Biden’s.
California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein announced she won’t seek re-election, making official a retirement that was long assumed by her colleagues, who had grown concerned about her memory issues.
Feinstein, who at 89 is the oldest sitting U.S. senator and the longest-serving senator from her state, said she intends to “accomplish as much for California as I can through the end of next year when my term ends.”
Feinstein needed to be corrected by a staffer that her office had put out a statement announcing her decision to retire from her Senate seat.
Feinstein recently faced pushback from progressives in Washington and California over some of her more centrist leanings, and concerns over her cognitive faculties became an open secret on Capitol Hill.
Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, a 62-year-old Democrat, underwent surgery for prostate cancer yesterday afternoon and “should not require further treatment,” his office said in a statement.
Casey, who is in his third term, said in early January that he had prostate cancer but expected to make a full recovery. His office said that he looked forward “to getting back to a normal schedule after a period of rest and recovery,” but didn’t say when.
The suspected Michigan State gunman, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, had no apparent connection to the university, the police said, and was carrying a note threatening schools in New Jersey.
The three students killed in the shooting all went to high school in the Detroit suburbs: a 19-year-old who planned to become the first doctor in her family, a “quiet leader” who modeled poise and humility, and the chapter president of his fraternity.
Federal prosecutors overseeing the investigation into former President Trump’s handling of classified documents are seeking to pierce assertions of attorney-client privilege and compel one of his lawyers to answer more questions before a grand jury.
The special counsel investigating Trump’s handling of classified documents is seeking to compel a lawyer for the former president to testify before a grand jury, a source familiar with the matter said.
The Biden administration has agreed to brief top congressional leaders at the end of this month about the classified documents that were improperly in the custody of Trump, President Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence.
Trump is “not above the law”, New York AG Tish James said, celebrating an appeals court ruling which said the former president must pay a $110,000 fine for refusing to comply with subpoenas in a fraud investigation of his company and financial affairs.
In a brief decision, a panel of three judges said the financial sanction “was a proper exercise of the court’s discretionary power and was not excessive or otherwise improper, under the particular circumstances.”
The panel also said the fine of $10,000 per day “was not excessive or otherwise improper, under the particular circumstances.”
A new report from Rolling Stone alleges Trump has begun polling his advisers on whether he should bring back firing squads, hangings, and even the guillotine should he win in 2024.
Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley kicked off her campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, challenging her former boss Trump, who holds a strong lead in a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Haley framed herself as a moderate candidate relative to Trump who can win in a general election, noting that she does “not put up with bullies” while refraining from referencing the former president directly.
Shortly after Haley announced her campaign for president yesterday, footage was released showing the Republican former South Carolina governor saying states have the right to secede from the union.
China is posting the steepest drop in Covid deaths among more than 20 places hit hardest by omicron, reviving questions about its virus data and the true impact of the reopening wave as Beijing works to move on from the pandemic.
Chinese provinces spent at least 352 billion yuan ($51.6 billion) on COVID-19 containment in 2022, according to annual budget reports from local governments, adding strains to provincial finances in a year when economic growth slowed.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has quietly shelved the second phase of its much-anticipated scientific investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, citing ongoing challenges over attempts to conduct crucial studies in China.
People who’ve had Covid-19 have a higher risk of developing diabetes, and that link seems to have persisted into the Omicron era, a new study finds.
More than half of long COVID patients suffer from organ damage a year after their initial symptoms, a study suggests.
For older Americans, the pandemic still poses significant dangers. About three-quarters of Covid deaths have occurred in people over 65, with the greatest losses concentrated among those over 75.
New York state has dropped the mask mandate for health care settings but many hospitals continue to implement the rule.
More than 10,000 New York state employees will be eligible for 12 weeks of fully paid parental leave starting yesterday under a new policy from Gov. Kathy Hochul.
The policy covers nonunionized state employees, including managers and administrative support workers. And it covers parents of adopted and foster children, according to the Hochul administration.
Hochul’s ambitious new housing plan, which proposes to loosen restrictions on development, is less a homegrown innovation and more a combination of strategies collected and refined from across the United States.
A bill that would create a statewide housing voucher program in New York cleared a key Assembly panel yesterday as a debate over how to expand access to housing continues in Albany.
Experts say Hochul’s proposal to fix the MTA is a good start, but they highlighted other areas that need to be addressed.
State officials sought to tame flames of misinformation about Hochul’s plans to address climate change during a budget hearing centered on New York’s environmental initiatives.
Hochul visited Innovation Square, formerly known as Xerox Tower, in Rochester this week to highlight what her proposed budget has in store for the region.
As a part of Hochul’s proposed executive budget, the Finger Lakes Region will receive funding to grow jobs and boost the region’s economy.
If Hochul has her way, New York State’s minimum wage will rise to more than $16.39 between now and 2026 and remain indexed to the rate of inflation or 3%, whichever is less. But progressives want to see that go even higher.
“The constitution allows us to make our own rules — and our rules were followed,” Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said when asked about a GOP-led lawsuit challenging the chamber’s ability to block a full floor vote on the governor’s nomination.
Stewart-Cousins said Senate Democrats are trying to look past the suit and ongoing controversy surrounding Hector LaSalle’s nomination to lead the Court of Appeals as they prepare for budget negotiations with the governor.
There is a possibility the state Senate will hold a floor vote to consider LaSalle’s nomination after Stewart-Cousins softened her stance at a time her conference faces a lawsuit filed by Republicans that seeks to force the matter.
“The reality has not changed and unfortunately this nominee does not have the votes,” the majority leader said at a news conference with reporters. “We’ve got lots and lots of work to do. We’ve got a $227 billion budget.”
The union that represents faculty and staff at the State University of New York system urged state lawmakers and Hochul to back $175 million for the state’s three teaching hospitals in order to bolster their finances.
A coalition of labor organizations and business groups this week is launching a month-long digital ad campaign to highlight an effort to add more than $1 billion in spending for local infrastructure in the state.
Mayor Eric Adams’s zealous efforts to overturn two rat-related summonses targeting his Brooklyn rental property ended with a split decision, as a judge this week upheld one of them and ordered him to pay a $300 fine.
A city hearing officer denied Adams’s appeal on one of two tickets he received in December after a health inspector found evidence of a rodent infestation at his Bedford-Stuyvesant townhouse, which he’s renting out while he resides at Gracie Mansion.
The hearing officer said that Adams’ claims that he’d consulted with the Department of Sanitation about his proper disposal of recycling and added a recycling receptacle after the violation was issued were not “a valid defense.”
City Hall is surveying city agencies to see whether they could make remote work an option, Adams said, marking a major shift in his stance toward hybrid work.
Adams said maintaining a fair playing field for city employees continues to be a concern for him, but he also suggested there might be a compromise.
Adams heads to Albany today for the legislative budget hearing known as “Tin Cup Day” joined by Diane Savino, a former state senator, and Camille Joseph Varlack, an attorney who worked for ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
The New York City Housing Authority says it’s short $447 million on rent. And unlike private landlords, the public housing authority didn’t get emergency funds to cover tenants who couldn’t pay during the pandemic.
Police charged a man with murder in the second degree and seven counts of attempted murder after he allegedly sped through Brooklyn in a U-Haul on Monday, fatally striking one person and injuring several others.
Eight people — on foot, bikes, mo-peds and electric bikes — were struck by the driver during the hour he drove through Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights, leaving devastation in his wake. A police officer was also injured.
One Vanderbilt, in the heart of New York City, is built to be especially climate friendly. But the design landscape and city rules have changed quickly, and it’s already out of date.
Sixteen children were killed in traffic incidents in 2022, making it the deadliest year for children since the city’s Vision Zero program to eradicate motor vehicle deaths began in 2014.
An NYPD investigation sparked by the fatal shooting of an innocent churchgoing Queens mother resulted in the indictments of 23 alleged gang members and 16 arrests, prosecutors announced.
Jujamcyn Theaters, the smallest of the three big Broadway landlords, is combining its operations with a large British company, the Ambassador Theater Group, or A.T.G.
Flaco the owl, who had been loose from the Central Park Zoo for over a week, is learning to hunt for his meals and to survive outside captivity.
University at Albany athletic director Mark Benson is no longer a defendant in the suit brought by former men’s basketball player Luke Fizulich over a pregame incident from November 2021.
GlobalFoundries reported that it brought in $2.1 billion in revenue during the fourth quarter of 2022, a 14 percent increase over the same period in 2021.
Lark Street Mercantile, a retail space curated with locally made products, will be closing its doors in downtown Albany after three years in business.
Mavis Discount Tire will try to convince the justices of the Appellate Division that the national auto repair chain should be dropped as a defendant in the civil lawsuits filed against it by the families of the victims of the 2018 Schoharie limousine crash.
Black Girls RUN!, whose Albany chapter has participated in the Freihofer’s Run for Women for several years, is promoting the event to its national membership for this year’s edition of the 5-kilometer road race on June 3 in Albany.
As of yesterday, Microsoft has officially disabled Internet Explorer for desktops, the tech company announced.
