Hollywood is a place where actors make it or break it. If you are a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, chances are, you probably made it. Sebastian Stan has definitely found himself with fame and acclaim to his name. However, since the MCU is undergoing some changes now, Stan naturally took on other projects. […]
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Dragon Ball GT may be one of the most controversial sequels in the history of Shonen anime (even more so than Boruto: Naruto Next Generations). However, its main saving grace has always been the introduction of one of Goku’s coolest-looking transformations: Super Saiyan 4. The form is a fan favorite even amongst the hardcore, but […]
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The Uncharted series stands as a landmark in gaming and is known for its rich storytelling, cinematic visuals, and compelling characters. Behind this beloved franchise was Amy Hennig, a visionary writer and director who played a crucial role in shaping Nathan Drake’s adventures. Hennig’s work on the Uncharted titles set a high standard for narrative […]
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Helldivers 2’s community is being bashed for falling into elitist snobbery after many people have been claiming that the game is getting too easy for them. This has given rise to the toxicity amidst the community. However, this attitude towards the game should be called out and addressed duly to maintain a healthy relationship with […]
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Steve Martin is a legend in the world of comedy, film, and music, known for his sharp wit, unique performances, and versatility across many creative outlets. At 78, the star of “Only Murders in the Building” continues to entertain audiences with his effortless charm and unparalleled talent. Despite being in the spotlight for decades, there […]
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Jerry Seinfeld with his observational comedy has several accolades throughout his life. Not only this, but he’s also the genius behind the NBC hit sitcom Seinfeld and played a fictionalized version of himself. The show ran for a remarkable nine seasons and also brought the comedian a lot of acclaim. But along with this, he’s […]
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Zack “Asmongold” Hoyt, one of Twitch’s most popular streamers is in a precarious position. After making alleged racist comments about Palestinians during a livestream, Asmongold issued what many consider a half-hearted apology. The streamer also decided to step back from his leadership roles at One True King (OTK) and Starforge Systems. His alleged comments about […]
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A DAD has died from ‘triple E’ horse virus half a decade after he was bitten by an infected mosquito in his backyard.
Richard Pawulski, 49, passed away due to complications from eastern equine encephalitis (EEE), which he picked up five years ago.
Known as EEE or ‘triple E’, the virus got its name after first being spotted in horses.
The rare bug kills around a third of those it infects and often leaves survivors severely disabled.
This year, the US faced a large outbreak of the mosquito-borne virus, which led to the death of a man from New York State in August.
The surge in cases promoted curfew measures and warnings across several US states as experts feared the bug was making a resurgence.
So far this year, 16 people have tested positive for the virus, according to the latest CDC data.
It’s believed Richard, who lived in Connecticut, picked up the virus while clearing out his backyard in August 2019.
In the years that followed, he was plagued with several health complications, including brain damage.
“I’m not joking when I say your life can change in the blink of an eye, because that was what happened to us,” Richard’s grieving daughter Amellia Pawulski, 18, told the New York Post.
At first, the dad, originally from Poland, complained of intense headaches and began vomiting yellow bile before he was taken to hospital.
Doctors rushed Richard into emergency surgery to relieve the swelling in his brain, which left him in a coma for two months.
He was eventually diagnosed with EEE, after other cases started to crop up in Connecticut that year.
Amellia and her mother, Margaret were told Richard’s brain damage was extensive and that he would unlikely ever be the same again.
The two ultimately decided to take him off life support, believing it was what he would have wanted – when he suddenly woke up.
For the next five years, Richard bounced around hospitals and nursing homes.
He endured a traumatic brain injury, liver and kidney complications, seizures, and other severe illnesses, along with frequent bouts of pneumonia.
Some days, Richard wasn’t aware of what year it was or where he was, Amellia told the Post.
Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) is a virus spread to people from the bites of infected mosquitoes.
Although rare, EEE infections can be very serious.
Approximately 30 per cent of people who catch the virus die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Those who survive may continue to suffer from ongoing neurologic problems, it added.
Initial symptoms tend to show up three to 10 days after a bite from an infected mosquito, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH).
They include:
The virus can cause Inflammation and swelling of the brain, called encephalitis, a complication that can be dangerous.
“The disease gets worse quickly and some patients may go into a coma within a week,” the DPH noted.
According to the CDC and Cleveland Clinic, symptoms of a severe infection that causes brain inflammation may include:
The best way to protect yourself from the disease is to avoid getting bitten by mosquitoes.
Use insect repellents and wear long sleeves, long trousers and socks when outdoors will help keep mosquitoes away from your skin.
Keep mosquitoes out of your house by repairing any holes in your screens and making sure they are tightly attached to all your doors and windows.
Remove areas of standing water around your home.
You can also consider scheduling outdoor events to avoid the hours between dusk and dawn, when mosquitoes are most active.
Sources: CDC, DPH, Cleveland Clinic
Fortunately, he was lucid enough in his final days to tell his wife and daughter that he loved them.
Richard passed away on October 14
“None of this stuff would have come up if he didn’t get it[EEE],” Amellia said.
“He always tried to look at the positive,” she added.
“I remember people being like, ‘Oh, how’s your day?’ And he was like, ‘My day is great. I woke up. I can breathe on my own. I can talk on my own. I can go to the bathroom on my own. I have no reason to be upset.’”
The CDC says only a few cases of EEE are reported in the US each year, with most infections found in the eastern and Gulf Coast states.
Outbreaks of EEE usually occur in Massachusetts every 10 years and typically last two to three years.
Philip Armstrong, chief scientist at the Center for Vector Biology & Zoonotic Diseases at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, said the clusters this year are cause for vigilance.
“This is one of the more active years,” he told Stateline.
“I would say, about every four or five years, we see these sort of regional outbreaks that occur.”
In a 2019 outbreak, there were six deaths among 12 confirmed cases in Massachusetts.
The outbreak continued the following year with five more cases and another death.
Symptoms of EEE include fever, headache, vomiting, diarrhoea and seizures.
People who survive are often permanently disabled, and few completely recover, Massachusetts authorities said.
The disease is prevalent in birds, and although humans and some other mammals can catch EEE, they don’t spread the disease.
SOCIAL media giant Instagram has announced new guardrails in an effort to halt abuse against young users on the platform.
The move by Meta, the parent company of Instagram, comes as the company faces US state lawsuits and mounting backlash from families and parents of teens and children using the platform.
As part of a slew of new features being implemented on Instagram, the platform will prevent people from screenshotting or screen recording images or videos sent via private message.
As an extra layer of protection, if the sender enables replays of the image or video, Instagram will block people from opening the content on the web.
However, the new feature will not stop perps from capturing the image or video by recording it with another device.
The new screenshot and screen recording features will also be enforced on Facebook’s Messenger.
Meta said it’s rolling out several new features to protect teens and children against sextortion, a type of blackmail that uses sexual images or conversations to pressure victims into paying money.
Beginning Thursday, Instagram will relay specific indicators, like how new an account is and any suspicious activity, to users on the app.
The platform will also prevent scam accounts from sending follow-up requests to teens by blocking their requests or moving them to the teen’s spam folder.
The company said a new nudity-protection feature will be enabled for all Instagram users under 18.
If a nude image is sent to a young user, Instagram will blur the photo and send a warning message about the content before the person can open the picture or video.
The latest efforts come after Meta debuted its new Teen Accounts in September to protect young users further and allow more account visibility to parents.
Teen Accounts will be private by default, and private messages will be restricted, so teens can only receive them from people they follow or are already connected to.
Meta will also clamp down on teenagers who lie about their age when creating a profile and are asked to verify their date of birth.
The social media giant said it is building new technology that proactively finds teen accounts pretending to be adults and automatically places them under the restricted teen version.
Meta, the parent company of Instagram, has announced new changes to its video and photo sharing platform to shield young users.
Five changes Instagram is making to protect teenagers:
Meta’s enhanced teen protection efforts come as a federal judge in California ruled on Tuesday that the social media company must face several lawsuits filed in various US states.
The suit, which involved more than 30 states, accuses Meta of fueling the mental health crisis among children and young teens.
The plaintiffs accuse Meta of making Facebook and Instagram addictive, which leads to anxiety, depression, and body image issues among adolescents.
An Oakland judge rejected Meta’s efforts to try and toss the lawsuit, which was filed in 2023.
“Meta needs to be held accountable for the very real harm it has inflicted on children here in California and across the country,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said.
The states, which include Florida and New York, accuse Meta of conducting illegal business practices as plaintiffs seek an undisclosed amount in damages.
Meta said it disagreed with the judge’s ruling, citing the new developments made on Facebook and Instagram that seek to protect young users.
“We developed numerous tools to support parents and teens, and we recently announced that we’re significantly changing the Instagram experience for tens of millions of teens with new Teen Accounts, a protected experience for teens that automatically limits who can contact them and the content they see,” a Meta spokesperson told Bloomberg.
“We believe the evidence will demonstrate our commitment to supporting young people.”
THE HUNTER’S Moon is here and it’s a supermoon too.
This is the brightest supermoon of the year, according to Nasa.
The lunar disk will appear up to 14 per cent brighter and 30 per cent bigger than when the Moon is at its dimmest.
It follows the Harvest Moon in September, which was accompanied by a partial lunar eclipse.
The Hunter’s Moon, also known as the Sanguine or Blood Moon, gets its name from the time of year it takes place.
Mid-October is when tribes used to come together to gather meat for the long winter ahead, according to the Farmer’s Almanac.
Though it is also characterised by occasionally appearing red or orange in colour.
The earliest written use of the term Hunter’s Moon is from a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary, dating back to 1710.
However, the Moon symbolises many different things for other cultures.
For example, for Buddhists, this Moon marks the end of Vassa, a three-month period of fasting for monks that is tied to the monsoons.
While in Myanmar, the October supermoon commences with the three-day Thadingyut Festival of Lights.
The Moon appearing bigger and brighter at this time is not an illusion.
The lunar disk will actually be closer to Earth than it is normally.
The Moon travels around Earth in an elliptical orbit – an orbit that is oval shaped.
This means that there are points where the Moon appears closer to Earth, and further away.
“Each month, the moon passes through the point closest to Earth (perigee) and the point farthest from Earth (apogee),” Nasa explains.
“When the moon is at or near its closest point to Earth at the same time as it is full, it is called a “supermoon.””
The Hunter’s Moon started today (October 17) at 12:26pm (7:26am EDT) exactly, according to the Royal Greenwich Observatory.
This is when it peaked as the Moon passes below the horizon – but it’ll be big and bright into the evening.
Around this time, the Moon will look especially full for roughly three days – from Tuesday evening to Friday morning.
From Friday morning, the Moon will start to dim again, returning to its usual size.
However, while it will retract into a waning gibbous, its moonshine does risk obscuring the view of the Orionids meteor shower.
The annual meteor shower will peak in visibility between 21 and 22 October.
The Orionids are the rocky debris from Comet Halley, and will cast up to 25 shooting stars per hour in the night sky.
