Some puzzling numbers, UPI

New firearm regulations are also coming into effect after more than 500 people died in more than 500 mass shootings in the United States in 2024.

–United Press International 

If the number of people killed in mass shootings is about the same as the number of mass shootings then not all of the shootings could have been mass, could they?

Accurate numbers are a little difficult to come by here due to inconsistencies in reporting protocols.

From Pew Research:

Though they tend to get less public attention than gun-related murders, suicides have long accounted for the majority of U.S. gun deaths. In 2021, 54% of all gun-related deaths in the U.S. were suicides (26,328), while 43% were murders (20,958), according to the CDC. The remaining gun deaths that year were accidental (549), involved law enforcement (537) or had undetermined circumstances (458).

Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy

Jimmy Carter: A Declassified Obituary

Washington, D.C., December 29, 2024 – The late President Jimmy Carter, contrary to the views of some critics, was typically focused, knowledgeable, and strong-willed on matters of foreign policy,…

Sometimes I imagine I'm the only person living who voted for Jimmy twice. That's likely not true, but probably close. 

Jimmy Carter was a better President than he's generally given credit for being. Also he was, for a while at least, radioactive. He won a Nobel prize. And took up carpentry.

He lived for a century, and made it better.

Pants or no pants, the game goes on

Chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen returns to a tournament after a dispute over jeans is resolved

An official fined Carlsen $200 and asked him to change pants, but he refused and wasn’t paired for a ninth-round game, the federation said at the time. The organization noted that another grandmaster, Ian Nepomniachtchi, was fined earlier in the day for wearing sports shoes, changed and continued to play.

Collector or serial killer?

The butterfly collector with more than 4.2 million insects seeks a safe haven

He captures and preserves them in glass covered frames…

Is California cheating?

Map Reveals Mega Millions Winners Across US

Newsweek is on the case.

[Wait. One?]

Exposure. Sure.

2 Oregon men die from exposure in a forest after they went out to look for Sasquatch

The 59-year-old and 37-year-old appear to have died from exposure, the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office said via Facebook. The weather and the men’s lack of preparedness led the office to draw that conclusion, it said.

 

Bananas

Dave Barry’s year in review: 2024 was just bananas

How stupid was 2024?

Let’s start with the art world, which over the centuries has given humanity so many beautiful, timeless masterpieces. This year, the biggest story involving art, by far, was that a cryptocurrency businessman paid $6.2 million at a Sotheby’s auction for . . .

A banana.

Which he ate.

“It’s much better than other bananas,” he told the press.…