DOUBLE JEOPARDY = Damned if you Do or Don't!!

In what sounds like the opening line to a very bad wellness retreat horror story, DermaRite Industries — a supplier of medical hygiene products to hospitals, nursing homes and care facilities — has expanded a July hand-soap recall to include a bonanza of other toiletries: hand sanitizer, deodorant, shampoo, lotion, wound care gels and more. The Food and Drug Administration and the company say the step is being taken out of an abundance of caution after potential contamination with Burkholderia cepacia, a bacteria that can cause serious infections in vulnerable people. Yes, that means your humble bottle of foaming soap may now be the villain in a David Lynch–level domestic drama.  And no, this is not the sort of plot twist you want in your personal care aisle. What Happened (short version) DermaRite expanded the recall after concerns that multiple product lots might have been contaminated with Burkholderia cepacia, a group of bacteria commonly found in soil and water that can ca...

If we’re keeping score in the country’s ongoing reality show of outrage, Salt Lake City just hosted a disturbing — and depressingly predictable — new episode.  Authorities say two men were arrested after an incendiary device was found under a news media vehicle in downtown Salt Lake City.  Miraculously, it didn’t explode.  Politically, culturally and climactically, that should be the end of the story.  Instead, it’s another reminder that rhetorical extremism is graduating into real-world danger, and our collective tolerance for violent spectacle has curdled into something poisonous. Here’s what we know: police and fire bomb squads were called after a suspicious device was discovered under a news van parked near an occupied building.  Court records cited by local CBS affiliate KUTV state the bomb “had been lit but failed to function as designed.”  The FBI identified two suspects and, executing a search warrant at a home in Magna — west of downtown — arrest...

Imagine telling your neighbor you’re moving — and then watching their jaw drop when you explain your new HOA is an international maritime crew and your property tax bill arrives by satellite.  That, dear readers, is the promise of MS The World: the floating condo complex for people who got tired of landscaping and wanted to upgrade to longitude-and-latitude living. The World isn’t a cruise ship in the “two-week getaway” sense.  It’s literally a residential building afloat.  Instead of renting a weekend cabin, residents buy apartments — and then the building circumnavigates the globe on an itinerary that spends an average of three days in each port and visits more than 100 destinations a year.  Purchase prices on the resale market typically range from roughly $2.5 million to $15 million , with hefty annual fees — often around 10% of the purchase price — to keep the engines running, the crew paid, the restaurants staffed, and the yoga instructors smiling while navig...

Move over, solar panels and noisy diesel generators — German engineers have quietly invented something that sounds like the perfect gadget for doomsday influencers, eco-minded tiny-home owners and anyone who’s ever thought, “I wish my creek could charge my phone.”  The HydroCase is a suitcase-sized micro-hydro unit that generates electricity from small streams, potentially powering up to 12 homes by converting the kinetic energy of flowing water into usable power — and it does so without building dams, digging canals or upsetting salmon therapists. Yes, really.  The idea is gloriously simple: put the HydroCase in a stream, let the current turn the turbine, and get kilowatts without the whole Hoover Dam drama.  Think of it as a hydropower plant you can carry with one hand and wheel through customs with the other (probably check local regulations first — airports don’t always appreciate impromptu power plants at the gate). Suitcase to Substation: What It Actually Does ...

Hurricane season runs until November 30 — which means the Atlantic is open for business and meteorologists are dusting off their dramatic voice-overs.  If you’re going to survive the next few months without turning your living room into an indoor slip-n-slide, it helps to know the words forecasters will throw around like confetti: tropical disturbance, invest, potential tropical cyclone.  Sounds kind of fancy.  Mostly, it’s code for “pay attention.” Think of this as your crash course in tropical terminology — mixed with a bit of satire, some common-sense prep, and official guidance from the folks who actually manage the water when it rains hard: the South Florida Water Management District (the “District”). Tropical weather terms (quiz yourself — no grading) Meteorologists don’t enjoy scaring people. They prefer to terrify us with textbook precision. Here are the terms you’ll likely hear — in plain English. Tropical Disturbance: A moody weather system from the trop...

Remember when products were built to last—like your grandma’s Tupperware that survived three kitchen fires?  Today, items fall apart faster than TikTok fame.  Airplane seats now double as medieval torture devices, T‑shirts turn into lint factories after two washes, and customer service is handled by robots that can’t even pronounce “escalate.”  Welcome to the Age of Declining Quality, where everything smells faintly of burnt plastic and broken promises. “We’re Not Getting Worse—We’re Just Bitter” In 1976, researcher E. Scott Maynes argued that quality is subjective: a 2003 Nokia’s indestructibility might trump an iPhone 15’s bells and whistles.  Yet today, even the sturdiest phone case snaps like a stale pretzel. Javier Carbonell , deputy director of Future Policy Lab, blames a “pervasive pessimism” tied to capitalism’s broken promises. “The social elevator has broken down,” he says. With job security and homeownership dreams evaporating, we’re left parsing ...

Florida’s gun-news cycle just flipped from “mildly headline-grabbing” to “someone get the holster stylist.”  Two days after Gov. Ron DeSantis again urged lawmakers to let people stroll Main Street with their hardware on proud display, a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal declared Florida’s ban on open carry unconstitutional — and promptly kicked the hornet’s nest. “History confirms that the right to bear arms in public necessarily includes the right to do so openly,” Judge Stephanie Ray wrote in a 20-page opinion joined by Judges Lori Rowe and M. Kemmerly Thomas.  “That is not to say that open carry is absolute or immune from reasonable regulation. But what the state may not do is extinguish the right altogether for ordinary, law-abiding, adult citizens.” Translation: If you’re legally allowed to own a gun, the court says you probably can also walk around with it visible — though the court left the door open for “reasonable regulation” (so don’t start plann...

If international incidents were an Olympic sport, the southern Caribbean just finished hosting a dramatic mixed-discipline event: amphibious maneuvering, destroyer diplomacy, surveillance flyovers, submarine skullduggery and a satellite cameo.  The European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite confirmed on Sept. 3, 2025, that the U.S. Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) was tooling along the central Caribbean Sea — roughly 340 miles off Venezuela, according to imagery shared on X by @SADefensa — and the resulting tableau read like a modern naval thriller written by a very nationalistic travel agent. At the center of the parade was the USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7), the Wasp-class amphib that can disgorge Marines, MV-22 Ospreys and landing craft the way a magician pulls scarves out of a hat.  Flanking it were two San Antonio–class LPDs and an Arleigh Burke–class guided-missile destroyer, with other notable American guests including the USS Jason Dunham (DDG 109), USS Gravely (DDG 107...

Who among us hasn't felt a thrill at finding an unexpected package on the porch?  It’s the grown-up version of waking up to presents — except now the present might be a tiny paper rectangle with a QR code that wants to be your new best friend.  The FBI, however, is not amused.  In a written statement, the agency warned about an alarming new twist on the classic “brushing scam”: unsolicited parcels that encourage recipients to scan QR codes which then push them toward fraud or malware. What used to be a murky corner of online retail — shady sellers sending goods to random addresses to post fake positive reviews — now comes with a side of cyber trickery.  “In this variation, scam actors have incorporated the use of QR codes on packages to facilitate financial fraud activities,” the FBI said.  Translation: someone ships you a mystery tchotchke, puts a QR on it that screams “scan me,” and your phone becomes a slightly embarrassed accomplice. How the scam works (s...

“When Fiction and Tragedy Collide: The Killing of Charlie Kirk and a Stark Reminder to Turn Down the Heat” The nation woke to a jolt of grief and disbelief when news broke that Charlie Kirk had been killed.  Regardless of political allegiance, the killing of a public figure — and the human life behind the public persona — demands a moment of sober reflection about the atmosphere of public discourse that currently surrounds us.  The headlines and social feeds are full of anger, speculation and, all too often, calls for retribution.  But the death itself should be a catalyst not for escalation, but for urgent introspection about how violent rhetoric, real-world extremism, and performative outrage can combine with deadly consequences. In an eerie cultural echo, the South Park season 27, episode 2 — which recently aired and put Clyde Donovan in the role of a right-wing conservative debater like Charlie Kirk — has been cursorily seized upon by some folks on both sides as ...

Florida has never been shy about a sale.  Sunshine, theme parks, and now: premium-priced firearms with the sales tax politely knocked off the tag.  Governor Ron DeSantis announced on Sept. 8 that Florida will host its first-ever “Second Amendment Sales Tax Holiday,” running from Monday, Sept. 8 through Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025 — an autumn-to-winter clearance event where the state politely declares: let freedom ring, and let bullets be tax-free. “We’re committed to helping Floridians keep more of their hard-earned money, and the Second Amendment Sales Tax Holiday is one way to do that,” Governor DeSantis said. “Florida is a great state for outdoor adventure and exercising your Second Amendment rights, and we’re working to keep it that way.”  Plainly, the state has decided that if you’re going to exercise a constitutional right, you might as well do it with a discount. Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins leaned into the Americana-marketing angle: "Florida leads the nation in...