WEC Articles

 Lithuanian man arrested for faking heart attack 20 times to avoid paying bill at restaurants Aidas J., a Lithuanian man living in Spain was arrested for faking a heart attack in an attempt to get out of paying his restaurant tab. Aidas J., a Lithuanian man living in Spain was arrested for faking a heart attack in an attempt to get out of paying his restaurant tab. A con man living in Spain has been arrested for faking heart attacks on 20 different occasions to get out of paying for his meals at various restaurants. The 50-year-old man, a Lithuanian national identified as Aidas J., lives in the southeastern port city of Alicante and has acted like a “typical Russian tourist” while he ordered several items off the menu before refusing to pay the bill. Aidas was first arrested for his scams in Nov. 2022 and his most recent encounter with the law was on Sept. 19, according to Spain’s EFE news agency. In his latest target, the shameless scammer visited the El Buen Comer in the historic...

 I kept hearing clicking and rustling in my ear — doctors found a spider Along came a spider who sat down inside her. A 64-year-old woman in Taiwan experienced every arachnophobe’s worst nightmare in April when doctors found a spider scuttling about in her ear canal. A case study detailing her eight-legged auditory invader was published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. According to the report, the woman recognized all was not hunky-dory when she noticed “incessant clicking and rustling sounds” in her left ear. After struggling to sleep for four nights, she visited the ear, nose and throat clinic, where X-rays revealed the spine-tingling source of her discomfort. A small spider was moving about in her ear, and a discarded exoskeleton was nearby, as seen in alarming footage from the inner-ear exam. A 64-year-old woman in Taiwan experienced every arachnophobe’s worst nightmare in April when doctors found a spider scuttling about in her ear canal. New England Journal o...

  Absconding tortoise caught 5 miles from home three and a half years later. "Unusual tortoise" found in Florida identified as "escape artist" pet that went missing in 2020. The Putnam County Sheriff's office posted about the animal on Facebook on Saturday, saying deputies spotted the "unusual tortoise" in Interlachen. African sulcata tortoises, which are native to the Sahara Desert, are "escape artists," as they can dig out of enclosures, the sheriff's department said. They said the tortoise definitely seemed like someone's pet, since the turtle "likes people and head pats." Florida's Wildest Animal Refuge took in the tortoise as they searched for a possible owner. An African sulcata tortoise that went missing in 2020 has been recovered, authortities said. Putnam County Sheriff's Office Little did he they know at the time, the tortoise was someone's pet – and was last seen three and a half years ago. Social medi...

 America’s ally is nervous about waging war to defend Taiwan 1 The roar of the Japanese f-35 fighter jets above Misawa, in northern Japan, is formidable. At the base, which houses Japanese and American forces, pilots from the two countries practise flying together.  The risk of war with China over Taiwan has made those preparations ever more urgent. Japan plans to raise its defence budget by two-thirds by 2027 and acquire long-range missiles to make its Self-Defence Forces (sdf) fiercer. But it has not fired a shot in battle since 1945. Will Japan fight? 2 Geography puts Japan on the front line: its westernmost island sits 111km from Taiwan. Conflict is probably less likely if China believes Japan would join the fray. If war does break out, keeping Taiwan from falling may hinge on Japanese support and firepower. At a minimum, America would need to use its bases in Japan. And if Japan’s forces engaged in combat, success would be far more likely. 3 If a crisis around Taiwan...

1) Many people say that the best time to learn a language is when you're a young child. While there are many benefits to learning a language at a time when a child learns to speak, there are actually several disadvantages of learning a second language in elementary school, particularly kindergarten.  2) Before enrolling your child in a foreign language course or pushing for your school district to include foreign language at the kindergarten level, there are several factors to consider. Two Languages Can Be Difficult in Kindergarten 3) When children start kindergarten, they are expected to learn many things in just one year. They will begin learning phonemic and phonological awareness, which involves listening to different sounds in a word and eventually how to identify those sounds when reading.  4) Students in kindergarten will learn the basics of writing and reading fluency, learn how to write their name, read consonant-vowel-consonant words, answer questions about a story ...

  Middle East Problem Politically, the Middle East problem refers to the conflict between the Arab States (Palestine included) and Israel, and is also called Arab-Israeli conflict. It is historically the product of power struggles and has lasted for over half a century, which makes it the most enduring hot spot in today's world. The core issue of the Middle East Problem is the Palestine Problem.  I. A brief review of history  Palestine was called Canaan in ancient times. It covered the present Israel, Gaza, West Bank and Jordan. The original inhabitants in Palestine were Canaanites. About 4000 years ago, Hebrews and Philistines migrated from the Euphrates-Tigris and the coastal area along the Aegean to Palestine. Amid continuous fighting with Canaanites and Philistines, the Hebrew people established the first Hebrew kingdom in 1020 BC. From the 8th century to the beginning of the 20th century, Palestine suffered under the invasion, occupation and struggles by big powers. ...

 Salutations ladies, I just thought it might be a good idea if you would like to comment below with you're suggestions for new topics to keep our conversations interesting, So comment and let's see if we can come up ideas. Regards, Barry

Tackling signs in Japan that you’re not welcome “MOTHER F——- KISS MY ANUS. F—- OFF Mother F——-… foreigner. Sneaking PHOTO.” A hand-written sign bearing these words is among several decorated with similar insults that greet shoppers outside a fashion store that sells rock-style clothing in Tokyo. The sign sits among shirts emblazoned with designs featuring overseas rock bands such as Iron Maiden, Children Of Bodom and Marilyn Manson in the fashion and kawaii culture mecca of Harajuku’s Takeshita Street in Shibuya Ward. The Japan Times visited the shop after being approached by a foreign resident who was disgusted to see the signs while he was with his young daughter. “The shop is absolutely covered in these messages,” wrote the reader. “I walk past this place from time to time. The thing that annoys me most is that Harajuku is such an anything-goes area full of all kinds of subcultures and minorities, not least of all foreigners, so this place is like a nasty litt...

Japan has been gearing up to attract more foreign workers to address its severe labor shortage, with its cabinet approving a plan to expand the number of industries covered by the blue-collar skilled worker visa that effectively grants permanent residency. But the country faces headwinds as an attractive workplace amid a weakening yen and competition from other Asian locations such as Taiwan and South Korea with fewer visa requirements. Weng Fei, an employee of the construction company in Gifu Prefecture in central Japan, obtained the Specified Skilled Worker No. 2 visa in April last year as the first person in Japan to do so. As the visa allows holders to bring in family members and has no limit on the number of times they can renew their visa, the 36-year-old has been reunited with his wife from China and now seeks to work longer in his company, where he leads a group of employees made up of Japanese and foreign workers. I trust him enough to make him responsible as a foreman; said T...

The roar of the Japanese f-35 fighter jets above Misawa, in northern Japan, is formidable. At the base, which houses Japanese and American forces, pilots from the two countries practise flying together. ⇒ The risk of war with China over Taiwan has made those preparations ever more urgent. Japan plans to raise its defence budget by two-thirds by 2027 and acquire long-range missiles to make its Self-Defence Forces (sdf) fiercer. But it has not fired a shot in battle since 1945. Will Japan fight? Geography puts Japan on the front line: its westernmost island sits 111km from Taiwan. Conflict is probably less likely if China believes Japan would join the fray. If war does break out, keeping Taiwan from falling may hinge on Japanese support and firepower. At a minimum, America would need to use its bases in Japan. And if Japan’s forces engaged in combat, success would be far more likely.  If a crisis around Taiwan were to occur, “there’s no way Japan won’t be involved,” says a lawmaker w...

 1. Stadiums are among the oldest forms of urban architecture: vast stadiums where the public could  watch sporting events were at the centre of western city life as far back as the ancient Greek and Roman Empires, well before the construction of the great medieval cathedrals and the grand 19th- and 20th-century railway stations which dominated urban skylines in later eras. 2. Today, however, stadiums are regarded with growing 1 scepticism. Construction costs can soar above £1 billion, and stadiums finished for major events such as the Olympic Games or the FIFA World Cup have notably fallen into disuse and disrepair. 3. But this need not be the case. History shows that stadiums can drive urban development and adapt to the culture of every age. Even today, architects and planners are finding new ways to adapt the mono-functional sports arenas which became emblematic of modernization during the 20th century. 4. The amphitheatre of Arles in...

1. You may have seen photographs that suggest otherwise, but former president Donald Trump wasn’t arrested last week, and the pope didn’t wear a stylish, brilliant white puffer coat. These recent viral hits were the fruits of artificial intelligence systems that process a user’s textual prompt to create images. They demonstrate how these programs have become very good very quickly—and are now convincing enough to fool an unwitting observer. 2. So how can skeptical viewers spot images that may have been generated by an artificial intelligence system such as DALL-E, Midjourney or Stable Diffusion? Each AI image generator—and each image from any given generator—varies in how convincing it may be and in what telltale signs might give its algorithm away. For instance, AI systems have historically struggled to mimic human hands and have produced mangled appendages with too many digits. As the technology improves, however, systems such as Midjourney V5 seem to have cracked the problem—at leas...

 1. If you’ve ever eaten a piece of fruit, a vegetable, or a packaged food made with corn or soy, it’s likely that you’ve eaten a genetically modified organism (GMO). These are foods that have been changed in a laboratory to have specific traits, like being pest-resistant or being able to grow in certain conditions. 2. Though GMOs have been around for a few decades, people are sometimes concerned about whether or not they’re safe to eat. So far, studies don’t show any health risks associated with eating genetically modified foods, but there are still unknowns and concerns about their safety. Here, we’ll review what GMOs are used for, some common concerns about them, and what the research says so far. 3. What are GMOs? GMOs are living beings that have had their DNA (genetic material) changed. This is done in a lab through a process called genetic engineering. With this process, scientists can move desirable genes from one plant, animal, or microorganism...