Reservoir Hills family startled as black mamba 'knocks', enters home through front door

 

South Africa: Reservoir Hills family startled as black mamba 'knocks', enters home through front door

DURBAN - A Reservoir Hills family got the shock of their lives after a massive black mamba slithered into their home this week.

The snake, measuring a whopping 2.72metres, literally entered the family home through the front door.

Durban snake catcher, Nick Evans, said the family was in the kitchen when they heard a noise at the front door.

"They look up and saw a massive black mamba entering the house. I'd imagine this is a worst nightmare for many people," Evans said.

He said the snake slithered past the family, without realising they were there.

"I think something outside may have scared it so it sought refuge inside the home," Evans said.

The homeowner was stressed and picked up a chair to defend his family but Evans said the snake would not have attacked them.

He said when the snake saw the man, it raised its head off the ground and flared a narrow hood.

Evans said the snake was frightened off by the defence tactic and slithered on.

The snake continued through the house, along the passage and passed the bathroom.

"The family realised that a child was in the bathroom but the snake slithered on past and into a room," he said.

When he arrived at the property, he said was "it was a really big mamba".

"Everyone says that and I was expected an average sized snake, around 2.2m. As I approached the door, I could hear the snake moving on the floor. It sounded big. I opened the door and sprawled out across the wooden floor, was this massive black mamba! It was such a weird, crazy sight. I took a pic and it saw me and dashed under the bed," Evans said.

He said he managed to pull the snake out and it was a powerful beast.

Evans said along with the team from Dangerous Creatures, he was able to collect data from the snake that measured in at 2.72m and 2.85kg.

"I couldn't believe what happened here. I have had a few cases similar to this where the mamba wandered through the house, but this just seemed particularly crazy. I'd rather have this as an intruder, even though it's a highly venomous snake, than an armed human intruder. At least a snake does not want to harm you. One must remember that this snake was more terrified than the family was. If it wasn't, and they were the evil monsters that they are often made out to be, it would have bitten at least one resident," Evans said.

https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/reservoir-hills-family-startled-as-black-mamba-knocks-enters-home-through-front-door-90592da3-f6f0-48ed-9826-94fa4c2345bf

Kelloggs Partners With Gay Lobby Teaches Kids To Choose New Pronouns On Cereal Boxes

 https://nationalfile.com/kelloggs-partners-with-gay-lobby-teaches-kids-to-choose-new-pronouns-on-cereal-boxes/

The Kellogg’s Company has partnered with militant gay lobby group GLAAD to celebrate June as “pride month,” prominently featuring the rainbow flag on products aimed at children and even including a game on the back of cereal boxes that teaches kids to choose new pronouns for themselves.

The cereal, a heart-shaped version of Froot Loops outfitted with edible glitter and re-branded as Together With Pride, has already started hitting stores. Out of each box purchased, Kellogg’s will donate $3 to the far-left gay lobby group GLAAD, which has been at the forefront of promoting homosexuality to children in media, pop culture, and consumer industries.

“Leave the boxes for cereal, you’re too awesome to fit into a box,” Kellogg’s wrote in a tweet advertising the new marketing and child sexualization scheme. Featured on the box depicted in the Tweet are several Kellogg’s cereal mascots, including Tony the Tiger and the Smack ‘Ems frog, leading social media users to speculate as to whether Kellogg’s and their marketing team will follow others in the commercial and entertainment industries by soon revealing that one of the animated characters has “come out” as gay.

Pronoun selection plays a large role as part of the new cereal boxes, with a special space on top of the box that looks much like a name tag, designed for kids to write down their preferred pronouns before digging into the cereal. For those who haven’t yet decided what their pronouns are, a game is featured on one side of the box to teach children to select their own, much like someone claiming to suffer from gender dysphoria would.

“Too amazing to put into a box,” a caption above an image of Tucan Sam reads before prompting kids to choose from the pronouns he/him, she/her, and they/them, or to come up with their own. “Boxes are for cereal, not people,” reads a caption atop rainbow colors beneath the game.

Source – Facebook

Though mainstream media reporting on the move by Kellogg’s has been virtually nonexistent outside of LGBT publications who have taken several victory laps on the matter, the parental response on social media has been that of disgust with the cereal maker, a company that has made several forays into far-left politics in recent years.  In 2016, as reported by Breitbart, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which maintains strong ties to the Kellogg Company, donated nearly $1 million dollars to Black Lives Matter, when the far-left militant group was still in its infancy.

DR CONGO CITY EMPTIES OVER FEARS VOLCANO COULD ERUPT AGAIN

 

DR CONGO CITY EMPTIES OVER FEARS VOLCANO COULD ERUPT AGAIN

Goma, located on the shore of Lake Kivu, has been gripped by fear since Africa's most active volcano erupted on Saturday, leaving 32 people dead.

Goma residents are seen leaving after an evacuation order was given on 27 May 2021. The authorities in Goma, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), ordered the evacuation of part of the city because of the risk of eruption of the Nyiragongo volcano, immediately causing the exodus of tens of thousands of people. Picture: Guerchom NDEB/AFP

GOMA - The eastern DR Congo city of Goma was eerily deserted on Friday, a day after tens of thousands of residents fled after warnings that the nearby Mount Nyiragongo volcano may erupt again.

Goma, located on the shore of Lake Kivu, has been gripped by fear since Africa's most active volcano erupted on Saturday, leaving 32 people dead.

Scientists monitoring the volcano have warned of a potentially catastrophic scenario - a "limnic eruption" that could smother the area with suffocating carbon dioxide.

Goma was bizarrely quiet early on Friday after the authorities ordered a "preventative" evacuation, triggering an exodus that choked roads out of the city.

All the shops were closed and just a handful of people and some motorcycle taxis were on the streets.

Security guards were deployed around the local mansions, their windows shuttered, on the shore of the lake.

A few families were seen leaving the city on foot, bags of belongings on their heads, with their children holding hands. There was no special deployment of police or military personnel.

QUIETER NIGHT

Local volcanologists recorded hundreds of aftershocks after Nyiragongo, which lies just a dozen kilometres from Goma, roared back to life last Saturday.

But tremors eased overnight, both in numbers and intensity, an AFP journalist said.

Experts have been carrying out a risk assessment at the volcano's summit, the government says.

General Constant Ndima, the military governor of North Kivu province, ordered the evacuation of districts that potentially applies to nearly 400,000 out of Goma's 600,000 residents, according to an estimate by the UN humanitarian agency OCHA.

The wider Goma area has a population of around two million people.

"Right now we can't rule out an eruption on land or under the lake, which could happen very soon and without warning," Ndima said.

The authorities arranged transport towards Sake, around 25 kilometres west of Goma, he added.

Tens of thousands of people had fled Goma after Nyiragongo kicked into life on Saturday night but many then returned when the eruption ended the following day.

The volcano spewed out two rivers of molten rock, one of which came to halt on the edge of Goma after obliterating villages in its wake.

OCHA said more than 4,500 homes were destroyed, affecting some 20,000 people.

'LIMNIC' RISK

The worst-case scenario is of an eruption occurring both from the flanks of the volcano and under the floor of Lake Kivu.

An eruption under the lake could release hundreds of thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) that are currently dissolved in the water's depths.

This gas would rise to the surface of the lake, forming a huge invisible cloud that would displace oxygen, asphyxiating life.

In 1986, one of these so-called limnic eruptions killed more than 1,700 people and thousands of cattle at Lake Nyos in western Cameroon.

A so-called strato-volcano nearly 3,500 metres high, Nyiragongo straddles the East African Rift tectonic divide.

Its last major eruption, in 2002, claimed around 100 lives.

The deadliest eruption on record killed more than 600 people in 1977.

TROUBLED REGION

The latest episode adds to the many woes in the east of the vast Democratic Republic of Congo, a country the size of the continental western Europe.

Scores of armed groups roam the east, many of them a legacy of two regional wars that ran from 1996 to 2003.

At least 26 people were killed earlier this week in the Beni region in an attack attributed to the notorious Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which the US says is linked to the so-called Islamic State group.

https://ewn.co.za/2021/05/28/dr-congo-city-empties-over-fears-volcano-could-erupt-again

Almost a quarter of Republicans believe Satan-worshiping pedophiles control the US government, media, and financial sector

 https://www.yahoo.com/news/almost-quarter-republicans-believe-satan-162343445.html

• About a quarter of Republicans believe in the major tenets of the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory.

• Overall, between 15 and 20% of Americans say they completely or mostly agree with QAnon.

• Right-wing news consumption is the strongest predictor of belief in QAnon.

• See more stories on Insider's business page.

Nearly a quarter of Republicans say they believe that the US government, media, and financial sector are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation, according to new polling from the non-partisan Public Religion Research Institute.

This belief is a core tenet of the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory, which continues to dominate far-right thinking months after former President Donald Trump left office. An even larger share of Republicans -- 28% -- believe in two other tenets of QAnon: that a coming "storm" will oust powerful elites and restore the country's rightful leaders, and that "patriots" may have to use violence to save the US.

Overall, between 15 and 20% of Americans say they completely or mostly agree with the three tenets of QAnon. The polling found that a host of factors, including political orientation, news consumption, religious beliefs, and socioeconomic and demographic profile, correlate with belief in the conspiracy theory. Republicans are significantly more likely than Independents and Democrats to believe in QAnon.

Right-wing news consumption is the strongest predictor of belief in QAnon. Those who say they trust far-right media the most are nearly nine times more likely to believe in QAnon than those who most trust broadcast networks including ABC, CBS, and NBC.

Certain groups of Christians are also much more likely to believe in QAnon. Hispanic Catholics and Hispanic Protestants are almost three times as likely as non-religious Americans to believe in the conspiracy theory. White Catholics, evangelical Protestants, and mainline Protestants are about twice as likely as to subscribe to QAnon.

About a quarter of white evangelical Protestants believe in all three tenets of QAnon, while 24% of Hispanic Protestants believe in the Satan-worshiping cabal, 29% believe in the coming storm, and 12% believe Americans might have to resort to violence.

Just over 20% of white evangelical Protestants, Hispanic Protestants, and Mormons believe in QAnon. Jewish Americans and Americans who don't associate with a religion are the least likely to believe in QAnon.

QAnon believers are also much more likely than other Americans to believe in various other conspiracy theories. Nearly three-quarters of QAnon believers also believe that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump.

Overall, 29% of Americans believe Trump's lie that the election was stolen.

The PRRI poll surveyed 5,625 adults in all 50 states between March 8 and 30 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.5 percentage points.

Farm attack, woman overpowered, assaulted, robbed in her home, Alldays

 

South Africa: Farm attack, woman overpowered, assaulted, robbed in her home, Alldays

Oorgrens veiligheid

May 27, 2021

Farm attack, woman overpowered, assaulted, robbed in her home, Alldays

A farm attack took place on 26 May 2021, at 13:30, on the farm Hardekoolrant, in Alldays, in the Limpopo province of South Africa. A suspect was noticed inside the house by Daan van Rensburg’s daughter, who was then overpowered and assaulted.

The attacker demanded cash and firearms.

The daughter handed over R6000 cash and an old cell phone and struggled with the attacker who then fled.

During the assault the daughter only sustained light injuries.

No firearms were taken.

SAPS and Rural Safety were activated and tracks were followed until dark. The attacker was wearing blue and white sneakers, blue denim pants, and a pink shirt.

There were no arrests. There is no other information available at this stage.

Read about more farm attacks here

Information supplied by Oorgrens veiligheid

South Africa Today – South Africa News

https://southafricatoday.net/south-africa-news/limpopo/farm-attack-woman-overpowered-assaulted-robbed-in-her-home-alldays/

Farm attack, man brutalized by 4 attackers, smallholding raided, Naauwpoort

 

South Africa: Farm attack, man brutalized by 4 attackers, smallholding raided, Naauwpoort

Oorgrens veiligheid

May 28, 2021

Farm attack, man brutalized by 4 attackers, smallholding raided, Naauwpoort

A farm attack took place on Monday 24 May 2021, at 13:00, on a smallholding in Naauwpoort, South of Witbank, in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. A man, Dionne van Rensburg (69) was overpowered and assaulted by four attackers who beat and strangled him whilst demanding money and firearms.

The attackers forced the man to open the safe and stole three hunting rifles, two pellet guns, ammunition and cash.

The home and workshop was also ransacked and numerous items, including a welder, generator and tools were loaded onto the man’s double cab bakkie that the attackers fled in.

The vehicle was later found abandoned.

The value of the stolen equipment alone is in excess of R200k. Dionne van Rensburg said that he was seriously brutalised by the attackers and that he is lucky to be alive.

Police are investigating but there have been no arrests.

There is no other information available at this stage.

Read about more farm attacks here

Information supplied by Oorgrens veiligheid

South Africa Today – South Africa News

https://southafricatoday.net/south-africa-news/mpumalanga/farm-attack-man-brutalized-by-4-attackers-smallholding-raided-naauwpoort/

SARS-CoV-2 infection induces long-lived bone marrow plasma cells in humans

 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03647-4

Long-lived bone marrow plasma cells (BMPCs) are a persistent and essential source of protective antibodies^1–7. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) convalescent individuals have a significantly lower risk of reinfection^8–10. Nonetheless, it has been reported that anti-SARS-CoV-2 serum antibodies experience rapid decay in the first few months after infection, raising concerns that long-lived BMPCs may not be generated and humoral immunity against this virus may be short-lived^11–13. Here we demonstrate that in patients who experienced mild infections (n=77), serum anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) antibodies decline rapidly in the first 4 months after infection and then more gradually over the following 7 months, remaining detectable at least 11 months after infection. Anti-S antibody titers correlated with the frequency of S-specific BMPCs obtained from bone marrow aspirates of 18 SARS-CoV-2 convalescent patients 7 to 8 months after infection. S-specific BMPCs were not detected in aspirates from 11 healthy subjects with no history of SARS-CoV-2 infection. We demonstrate that S-binding BMPCs are quiescent, indicating that they are part of a long-lived compartment. Consistently, circulating resting memory B cells directed against the S protein were detected in the convalescent individuals. Overall, we show that SARS-CoV-2 infection induces a robust antigen-specific, long-lived humoral immune response in humans.