It all started when [Matt] Austin posted a totally innocuous photo with his two daughters before their [high school homecoming] dance — they’re wearing pretty normal dresses and heels for this day and age, and their dad is beaming with pride. He captioned the photo, “My daughters look a little too good on homecoming night. Believe it or not, they’re even more beautiful on the inside.”So sweet.The response, though, was surprising, as dozens of comments rolled in from people who thought the girls looked inappropriate.“Those outfits are not prom appropriate, those are what women wear to the club when they're looking for some action. ... So sad that parents send their young ladies out with everything showing,” wrote one.“I don’t think I’d be dressed like that around my father,” another wrote. “Those girls are too young to be dressing provocatively they should have respect for themselves.”Austin’s response came in hot, and he left no prisoners."One thing that has always pissed me off as a father of girls is when people say things like 'oh these girls need to dress so they don't distract the boys' or even worse 'they're dressing in a way in which they're asking for it’,” he begins.“Let’s get something clear: It’s not my daughter’s job to make sure your son is focused in school. Also not her job to dress hideous enough to where your son doesn’t assault her. It’s your job to not raise a pervert with no self-control."While his first emotion was definitely “anger,” he also kept his sense of humor about the whole thing.“Let’s be clear — those are not the outfits that I’d choose for my daughters to leave the house. If it were up to me, it would be 24/7 Snuggies,” he joked.“But if I start dictating what my daughters wear, it’s going to teach them three things,” he continued. “A: they’ll start to hate me for arbitrary rules, B, they’ll start to lie to me, or C, which is even worse: that it’s OK for a man to tell them what to wear because they look too good. And that ain't happening, Karen."
An online petition has begun seeking support to change Woodford County High School's 11-year-old dress code...Last year the students at the school created a 33-minute video about their grievances.
Wednesday was the first day of classes for students. One Facebook post said there was "a group of female students standing in the office" because they were not complying with the dress code.
Another post said, "This is ridiculous! Parents are being called away from important jobs and students are missing important class time because they are showing their collarbones!"...
Among the criteria in the Woodford County High dress code is that students must wear a rounded crewneck shirt or a button-down shirt that may have only the top button open. Shirts must not expose the collarbone. Shorts and skirts must be knee-length or longer.
K. K. Finseth died, of Kenyon, an old gentleman of 83 years, was badly injured on the 30th by getting his foot caught in the gearing of a threshing machine. He died from the effects on Thursday, Oct. 2, night last. He was the father of state senator A. K. Finseth.
Check the gravestone for cracking, flaking, or chipping before you begin cleaning. If the grave has any of these problems, it's not safe to clean.... Clean a gravestone if there's biological growth like algae, lichen, or fungi because these trap moisture and they're acidic, which can damage the stone... Pour water over the stone to soak it thoroughly... Scrape off lichen, moss, and fungi with a plastic scraper. Press the scraper onto the surface gravestone and gently scrape from the top to the bottom. You don't have to press very hard to get the biological growth to fall away. To get lichen or moss out from carved letters or images on the stone, take a wooden popsicle stick or a bamboo skewer and scrape the material out... gently scrub near the bottom of the gravestone to loosen the grime. If you're cleaning marble or limestone, use a sponge that's even gentler than a soft bristle brush... It might seem counterintuitive to clean from bottom to top, but working this way prevents limescale from forming... Apply a non-ionic cleanser like D/2 to remove tough stains... Clean a gravestone every 4 to 6 years to prevent excess wear...
In the past couple of decades, the most frequently encountered counterfeit stamp was the Flag stamp. Sellers, typically through online outlets, would sell bulk quantities of these stamps at a significant discount from face value... But in July [2021], the first counterfeit of a recent commemorative stamp surfaced. Some security features were even faked, but not the one item that triggers cancellation machines at processing centers... Based on inquiries I have received, the unsuspecting buyers are often offices looking for a deal on postage. Many counterfeit stamps I have found are on mail sent by coin dealers, many who use discount postage when sending their mail.
As of the publishing of this article, Linn’s has counted approximately 40 new counterfeit issues (180 stamp designs)... When compared to the authentic stamps, the counterfeits appear shinier. This is likely because of the lack of a taggant coating that sometimes mutes a stamp design...The other new twist is the use of a special glossy coating that provides texture to the counterfeit stamps. Examples of these have been reported for two issues: the eight 2017 Sports Balls forever stamps (Scott 5203-5210) and the 10 2021 Star Wars Droids forever stamps (5573-5582). The gloss on both counterfeits seems thicker than that on the authentic stamps. Also, the offset printing of the counterfeits has a grainier appearance.
Most of these counterfeits are being offered in bulk sales to owners of small businesses, or involve high-denomination stamps. Be wary of someone offering to sell recent stamps at significant discounts to the face value.
"Researchers made the discovery when they used a powerful radio telescope facility — the Very Large Array in New Mexico – to check in on some two dozen black holes where stars had been shredded after coming too close to them. That is, the material in the star was pulled apart, or "spaghettified." Such happenings are called tidal disruption events, or TDEs... the best estimate we have is about two years after the star got eaten by this black hole is when this outflow began — and that's really exciting. That's never been seen before... In other words, the star got close enough to the black hole to get shredded – but not to fall into that point of no return."
More information at NPR.
Small red dots on the edges of the pillars are baby stars—only a few hundred thousand years old, according to the Webb team. The red, lava-like streaks in the clouds are ejections from stars being formed. These nascent gas balls send off jets of material that strike the gas in the pillars, causing energetic hydrogen molecules in the system to glow...The pillars—brown and turbid in Hubble’s view—appear luminous and orange to Webb. The backdrop of gas and deep space turns from an opaque turquoise to a bedazzlement of stars, shining through a sea of lapis lazuli gas. That’s because Webb’s image highlights the hydrogen atoms in the gas, which shine in blue light. The Webb telescope’s infrared eye also penetrates through dense clouds of dust and gas, allowing it to see previously unknown regions of star formation.
More at Gizmodo.
