
Titanic Iceberg Strikes Again, The Guy Had a F*ing Panzer Tank, ISS Spun 540?(That’s A Lot) … and More
04-August, 2021
Missouri governor pardons couple who brandished guns at protesters
Missouri Governor Mike Parson said on Tuesday he has granted pardons to Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple who drew international attention for brandishing guns at racial justice protesters last year. Last July, then-President Donald Trump, a Republican, said charging the couple was an abuse of power. In a live broadcast, the McCloskeys spoke from their home at the Republican National Convention in August. Mark McCloskey announced last month he was running for a U.S. Senate seat in Missouri as a Republican.
https://www.reuters.com
New York City to Require Proof of Vaccination for Indoor Dining and Gyms
New York City will become the first U.S. city to require proof of vaccination for a variety of activities for workers and customers — indoor dining, gyms and movie theaters — a move intended to put pressure on people to get vaccinated, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Tuesday. The restrictions, similar to mandates issued in France and Italy last month, represent the most aggressive response to lagging vaccination rates in the United States, and they come as the number of virus cases surge across the country. Mr. de Blasio said he hoped that other cities would implement similar measures.
https://www.nytimes.com
Amazon’s anti-union conduct made free election “impossible,” NLRB officer finds
Amazon interfered with a union-certification vote, and a second election should be held, a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) official wrote in a report released yesterday. Amazon's anti-union misconduct made a "free and fair election... impossible," the report said. A majority of Amazon workers at a fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama, voted against certifying a union in April. The Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union subsequently filed a complaint with the NLRB and was able to convince the hearing officer that Amazon interfered with the election. "The evidence demonstrates that the employer's conduct interfered with the laboratory conditions necessary to conduct a fair election."
https://arstechnica.com
German pensioner given hefty fine for WW2 tank in house
The defendant, 84, has been handed a suspended prison sentence of 14 months and has been ordered to pay a fine of €250,000. Officials found the tank and other World War Two-era military equipment at the defendant's house in the northern town of Heikendorf in 2015. The army had to help remove the items. On Monday, the court ordered that the defendant, who cannot be named under German privacy laws, must sell or donate the tank and an anti-aircraft cannon to a museum or collector within the next two years.
https://www.bbc.com
Three people hospitalised after iceberg wall collapses at Titanic Museum
Three people have been injured at a Titanic museum in Tennessee after an iceberg wall collapsed. They said it would take at least four weeks to rebuild the ice wall at the attraction which was opened by Cedar Bay Entertainment in 2010. Maintenance professionals will reevaluate their “quality and safety guidelines” to “proactively ensure the well-being of all who experience Titanic Museum Attraction”. At the museum visitors can see more than 400 Titanic artefacts, shovel “coal” in the boiler room and feel -2.2C water through self-guided tours, according to the attraction’s website.
https://www.independent.co.uk
Space station situation with Russian module misfire more serious than stated: report
Last week, a Russian module accidentally pushed the International Space Station out of place. Now, a NASA flight director has revealed that the event was more serious than NASA initially reported. On Thursday (July 29) morning, Russia's long-awaited research module Nauka docked with the space station. But a few hours later, the module accidentally fired its thrusters, briefly tilting the space station and causing it to lose what engineers call "attitude control." According to Scoville, the event has "been a little incorrectly reported." He said that after Nauka incorrectly fired up, the station "spun one-and-a-half revolutions — about 540 degrees — before coming to a stop upside down. The space station then did a 180-degree forward flip to get back to its original orientation," according to the report. Scoville also shared that this was the first time that he has ever declared a "spacecraft emergency."
https://www.space.com