Trump ordered that the term Homo sapiens be changed to Hetero sapiens. In history books and on websites, the airplane from which the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima will no longer be identified as the Enola Gay, but rather the Enola Straight. Trump also ordered billionaire Mark Cuban, who supported Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, to change his name to Mark American. If he does not do so, he will be charged with terrorism.   read more

The day before the election, a state Judge ruled Martin’s candidacy invalid because he did not live in the district, but election workers did not have time to post signs that Martin could not run and he won by nearly 1,300 votes. Although there is little doubt as to where Martin resides, his Republican opponent, Kelly Hurst, has dropped his challenge because it would be heard by the Nevada General Assembly, where Democrats outnumber the GOP 27-15.   read more

U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller, an appointee of President Barack Obama, rejected a petition from four counselors, two families, a professional therapists organization and a Christian therapists group to block the law. She cited research by 10 groups that conversion therapy “can pose critical health risks” to patients. Mueller said there was no constitutional right for people to choose a course of treatment that has reasonably been found by the state to be harmful.   read more

From 1993 to 2000, the Army Corps of Engineers released more water than planned from the Clearwater Dam in Missouri. But federal attorneys claimed other factors may have caused the trees to die off. The ruling clears the way for the Arkansas commission to be reimbursed for the flood damage.   read more

Known as Pe’ Sla, the land is considered sacred by the Sioux, who objected to the owners, Leonard and Margaret Reynolds, selling off the 1,942 acres to another private party. The public outrage convinced the Reynolds to cancel the auction and sell the land back to the Sioux tribes for $9 million. The U.S. government seized the Black Hills in 1877 following battles between the Sioux and the American cavalry.   read more

Spaun can perform up to eight different tasks, including drawing images, counting numbers and performing fluid reasoning, which is the capacity to think logically. The next goal is to provide Spaun with adaptive plasticity, which would allow it rewire its own neurons and learn new tasks through performance instead of just programming.   read more

Keene, New Hampshire (population: 23,000), which has experienced three homicides in the last thirteen years, used $285,933 in federal funds to buy a Lenco BearCat armored vehicle, which it took possession of on November 20. Keene Police Captain Brian Costa defended the acquisition by saying, “It’s an armored vehicle, not an armed vehicle and there's a big difference.”   read more

Companies like Medtronic, which make defibrillator implants for adjusting a person’s heartbeat, provide information collected from these devices to doctors, but not to patients. The only way a patient can obtain the data about their own heart functions is through their physician. Medtronic is considering selling the aggregate data collected from the implants to health systems or insurance companies.   read more

In a notice to industry, the State Department recently solicited bids from companies to help the agency operate its fleet of more than 400 aircraft. Among the duties that a contractor will have to perform are providing pilots and support “for drug interdiction missions such as crop spraying, and the transport of personnel and cargo,” according to the State Department’s announcement.   read more

The No. 1 most looked up word on Merriam-Webster.com was socialism. No. 2 on the list was capitalism. The rest of the list consisted of touché, bigot, marriage, democracy, professionalism, globalization, malarkey, schadenfreude and meme.   read more

Kaitlyn Samuels, 15, was born with a rare neurological disorder similar to cerebral palsy that, without effective physical therapy, will eventually result in her own body crushing her internal organs, resulting in death. Spending twice a week atop a horse proved effective for Kaitlyn, as the riding helped stretch her muscles and straighten her spine. Hippotherapy is covered by Medicaid.   read more

The U.S. Senate this week took up the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a United Nations treaty that was inspired by the Americans with Disabilities Act, a landmark law adopted in 1990. But in order to ratify the convention, 67 senators were needed to vote for it. Only 61 did, after a block of Republicans refused to endorse the treaty that they claimed would jeopardize American sovereignty.   read more

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism also reported that 1,168 armed drone strikes, which the Pentagon refers to as “kinetic events,” were launched during the last five years in Afghanistan, Libya and Iraq combined. Meanwhile, the CIA has launched 338 drone attacks in Pakistan. Although the United Kingdom releases the details of non-combatants killed by its drone strikes, the United States does not.   read more

"Iraq accounts for about a third of all terrorist deaths over the last decade, and Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan account for over 50 percent of fatalities,” Killelea added. International terrorists have caused fatal attacks in 29 countries. The United States is not included in this total because all of the deadly terrorist attacks committed inside the country since 2001 have been carried out by Americans.   read more

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania studied 400 healthy people and did not find a single person whose body was resistant to aspirin. But they did find that the coating on the pills that is meant to help protect the stomach might interfere with the body’s ability to absorb the aspirin.   read more

“Still, it is important to note that the 33% of all employed Americans preferring to work for government is nearly double the 17% who currently do work for government,” according to Lydia Saad at Gallup.   read more

Following this year’s election, Public Policy Polling (PPP) asked voters if the controversial group ACORN stole the election from Mitt Romney. Among Republicans, 49% said “yes.” What’s most remarkable about this opinion is that ACORN, which stands for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, filed for bankruptcy and disbanded in 2010 after GOP lawmakers in the U.S. House voted to end all federal support for the group.   read more