After years of controversy, the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board assured the public in the fall that eating California crops grown with oil field wastewater “creates no identifiable increased health risks,” based on studies commissioned as part of an extensive Food Safety Project. Yet a review of the science and interviews with a public health scientist affiliated with the project and other experts show that there is scant evidence to support the board’s safety claims. The “neutral, third-party consultant” the board retained to conduct the studies, GSI Environmental, has regularly worked for the oil industry. That work includes marshaling evidence to help Chevron, Kern County’s biggest provider of produced water, and other oil giants defend their interests in high-stakes lawsuits around the country and globe. GSI did not tell water board officials about its ties to the oil industry, which shared the roughly $3.4 million in costs for the firm’s studies and related work with the water districts that benefit from the distribution of wastewater from oil extraction, known as “produced water.” One member of the board’s Food Safety Expert Panel that reviewed GSI’s studies was nominated by Chevron and initially paid by the oil industry, and a second panel member worked as a consultant for an oil company selling produced water. Still, the expert panel’s own review concluded that GSI’s studies could not answer fundamental safety questions about irrigating crops with produced water.

Simply shouting "this sucks" isn't criticism, it's just an opinion, and the Razzies are nothing but negative opinions. In order to vote for the Razzies, one simply must pay a $40 fee, so any person with a grudge can make their voice heard. It's not funny, it's just kind of sad.

Independent publisher and crowdfunding pioneer C. Spike Trotman has raised over $2.5 million for 30 successful projects on Kickstarter since 2009, but for her newest title, The Poorcraft Cookbook, she is leaving the platform and seeking to raise the $6000 to publish the book through her own website. At issue is Kickstarter’s announcement that it would be implementing blockchain technology as part of its growth strategy in the future. Her decision puts a spotlight on how toxic the entire concept of blockchain has become in certain corners of fandom.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s near-mythical first album All Lights Fucked On The Hairy Amp Drooling, which was reportedly released on cassette in December 1994 and limited to just 33 copies, may have just leaked online in full for the first time.

The tech billionaire, who has been on the board of the company formerly known as Facebook since 2005, is backing numerous politicians in the midterm elections.

Oh yeah the Olympics are on by the way

Great Moments in Losing Your Snowmobile

In a speech on Monday, the first lady acknowledged that her signature legislative initiative is “no longer” in the Democrats’ spending bill.

Two full years and five or six waves, or surges, or spikes — whatever your preferred terminology — into the Covid-19 pandemic, with more than 850,000 dead and millions more lives, families, and communities still staggering under the weight of the loss of life and the prospects of lifelong debilitating illness for many who survived the disease, America’s editorialists, Chambers of Commerce, armchair epidemiologists, and much of our political class have determined that the country, at last, faces a truly grave crisis. Too many Americans are calling off sick. They are actually taking their sick days, or even taking unpaid time off, to care for themselves and for their families, which they are not supposed to do. These cashiers and pre-K teachers, dental assistants and chicken packers, call-center employees and delivery drivers are violating one of the core principles of American capitalism: your time, your health, and your life are not your own.

Israel Police used NSO's Pegasus spyware to hack the phones of public figures, including protest leaders, journalists, government employees and associates of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a report by Calcalist on Monday. According to the report, the hacking tool was used without a court order and against Netanyahu's son, Avner Netanyahu, co-defendant in his criminal trial Iris Elovitch, leaders of disability rights protests, journalists at Walla news website, businessman Rami Levy, mayors and senior officials in the Finance Ministry. Netanyahu's media advisers, Topaz Luk and Yonatan Urich have also been targeted, alongside Head of Workers' Union Yair Katz. The phones of former Finance Ministry Director General Shai Babad, former Justice Ministry Director General Emi Palmor and former Transportation Ministry Director General Karen Terner were also reportedly hacked.

“I decided on a whale because someone who owns 1,000 bitcoins is called a whale,” Ahmed told The Post. He learned about NFTs when a friend of his father, who is a programmer for the London stock exchange, bought a Rare Pepe image for $27,000. “It sounded ridiculously expensive at the time, but my dad’s friend sold his NFT just a few months later for half a million dollars,” Ahmed said, “I became fascinated that someone was willing to pay this much for a jpeg!”

Officials tried to label the incident and ended up calling it inexplicable in a post Saturday evening

A police officer who once was fired for his role in the seizure of cellphones during a raid but later reinstated has been placed in charge of all training for Minneapolis police. David Garman was also sued by a family for his part in a raid by the city's now-defunct Metro Gang Strike Force that led to a city payout of $16,000. Garman, a former Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) Officer of the Year, is among several officers with blemished records who were recently elevated to leadership positions by interim Police Chief Amelia Huffman. Their promotions were listed in an internal e-mail circulated within the department.

Inside Randall Emmett’s direct-to-video empire, where many of Hollywood’s most bankable stars have found lucrative early retirement.

“There is a constituency within the US that is beginning to look at this and see this opportunity,” Hanage said. “A lot of that comes down to: how much illness and death will people accept?” Those who are interested in limiting public health regulations “are looking at this and thinking, whoa, a significant fraction of the population is fine with 900,000 deaths”.

Where do celebrities even hear about “bored apes”? Who is recommending that they buy one? Is this really the best thing any of them can think to do with their money and fame?

The podcast host Joe Rogan has offered “sincere and humble apologies” after footage emerged of him repeatedly using the N-word on his hit show. The comedian, 54, who has a lucrative deal with the streaming giant Spotify, said it was the “most regretful and shameful thing” he has ever had to speak about, but stressed the clips were “taken out of context”.

Jeff Bezos' new megayacht is being built in the Netherlands, where it may require a historic bridge be dismantled so it can sail through. Some Dutch residents definitely won't be egging him on but will instead be chucking eggs at his yacht when it passes. Rotterdam locals have taken to Facebook to plan an event called "Throwing eggs at Jeff Bezos' superyacht" in protest. "Calling all Rotterdammers, take a box of rotten eggs with you and let's throw them en masse at Jeff's superyacht when it sails through the Hef in Rotterdam," the event description reads. "Rotterdam was built from the rubble by the people of Rotterdam, and we don't just take that apart for the phallic symbol of a megalomaniac billionaire. Not without a fight!" As of this writing, roughly 1,200 people have marked themselves going to the event, and 4,900 people are interested in it. The event is slated for June 1.

Once, singing in te reo Māori could trigger a backlash – now New Zealand’s indigenous language is at the heart of its music scene

Name, image and likeness (NIL) laws and an increased focus on football have NCAA coaches, executives and administrators all scrambling to protect their Olympic sports programs. Nearly 80% of U.S. athletes at the Tokyo Olympics shared a common attribute (beside their insane athleticism): They all starred on NCAA teams first. But there’s concern that recent changes within college athletics could lead to widespread cuts to programs that train future Olympians but aren’t as self-sustaining as football or basketball, typically the only programs that generate profits.