Blog Heap of Links for the day 27 May 2015

Relying as Snopes as a final arbiter of truth is like letting George Stephanopoulos and Candy Crowley moderate presidential debates.

…they never seem to have the capacity to realize the problems are a direct result of their own actions.…

Health officials say an Oklahoma resident has been diagnosed with a rare tick borne disease. …a Payne County resident tested positive for Bourbon virus. This case is the first detected in Oklahoma and only the second case in the United States.…

Police officer 'dragged into the woods to be killed by three men' saved when his K-9 chases after him and sends the attackers running

Researchers say the key to making new friends is all in the mouth. Show your shiny whites, and friendships are easier to come by. The reason smiling is key to new and healthy relationships is that people are more attune to positive emotions when they’re forming new relationships.…

…While our discovery of a memorial to the victims of the Haifa Bus 37 suicide bombing and our visit to Ziv Hospital in Safed, and its Syrian patients, were unexpected, our visit to the Moshav was even more emotional and full of surprises – Revenge and Reunion.…

"Every day is a challenge as to how to start this post. Then I realized yesterday was The Duke’s birthday. He’d be 105 if he were still with us. …"

At least 55 Iraqi soldiers were killed today in three suicide bombings in al-Anbar Province. The deadly attacks came as the Iraqi military attempted to recapture Ramadi from the Islamic State.

In other news, an unexploded WW2 bomb was safely detonated in Cologne after the largest postwar evacuation in the city cleared the area of 20,000 people.

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…On this day in 1941 the German battleship Bismarck was sunk in the North Atlantic killing almost 2,100 men and sparking the later song "Gotta Sink The Bismark" by Johnny Horton.