KGB Report

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Dr. Oz and his sisters are embroiled in a multi-million-dollar inheritance battle in the US and Turkey.

Fauci has Covid, Yellowstone is flooded, heat wave kills, alligators are mating, it's not really cheese, you know...
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Published Wednesday, June 15, 2022 @ 3:36 PM EDT

Jun 15 2022

Incoming!

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Fauci tests positive for Covid-19. Fauci, 81, has mild symptoms and has been boosted twice

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US report: nearly 400 crashes of automated tech vehicles from last July to May 15. It would be interesting to see how many "human" crashes occurred during the same time period.

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Flooding closes Yellowstone, in a sign of crises to come. Record rainfall and mudslides forced closures just as tourism season ramped up. Virtually none of America’s national parks are untouched by extreme weather and climate change.

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WATCH: Florida woman records giant alligator's mating call in Apopka. Yep, it's Florida.

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Sleeping on your side can literally clean your brain. Personal experience: move the dog first.

Also: Americans take way too much melatonin.

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Four cheese brands to avoid right now, including Kraft Singles, which technically isn't cheese but a "pasteurized prepared cheese product".

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Russia is 'hemorrhaging' millionaires. As Western sanctions make life harder for its elite, Russia is predicted to suffer a net loss of around 15,000 high net-worth individuals (HNWIs) - defined as people with more than $1 million in assets - in 2022, compared to 5,500 in 2019, according to the report. That equates to about 15% of Russia's millionaire population.

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Physicists link two time crystals in seemingly impossible experiment. What could go wrong?

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Extreme heat is bad for everyone's health -- and it's getting worse. Of all the natural disasters, heat is the No. 1 killer, studies show. And as temperatures continue to rise because of the climate crisis, scientists expect it to make even more people ill.

Also: Remember how renewables were blamed for the Texas winter power crisis? Now, wind and solar power are 'bailing out' Texas amid record heat and energy demand.

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'Squid Game' reality series coming to Netflix with biggest cash prize in TV history. The streaming home to the hit survival drama announced 'Squid Game: The Challenge,' with 456 players in real-life competition in a series of games for a record-setting $4.56 million purse.

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So long, Internet Explorer. The browser retires today. And good riddance.

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Plants appear to be breaking biochemistry rules by making 'secret decisions'. "We found that plants control their respiration in a way we did not expect, they control how much of the carbon from photosynthesis they keep to build biomass by using a metabolic channel."

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Miscellany:

Birthdays:

1910 - David Rose, English-American pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1990) (Video)
1916 - Herbert A. Simon, American political scientist and economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2001)
1917 - Lash LaRue, American actor and producer (d. 1996)
1921 - Erroll Garner, American pianist and composer (d. 1977) (Video)
1932 - Mario Cuomo, American lawyer and politician, 52nd Governor of New York (d. 2015)
1937 - Waylon Jennings, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2002) (Video)
1941 - Harry Nilsson, American singer-songwriter (d. 1994) (Video)
1949 - Jim Varney, American actor, comedian, and screenwriter (d. 2000) (Video)
1954 - Jim Belushi, American actor (Video)
1963 - Helen Hunt, American actress, director, and producer
1964 - Courteney Cox, American actress and producer
1969 - Ice Cube, American rapper, producer, and actor
1970 - Leah Remini, American actress and producer
1973 - Neil Patrick Harris, American actor and singer (Video)

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On this date in:

1844 - Charles Goodyear receives a patent for vulcanization, a process to strengthen rubber.
1864 - Arlington National Cemetery is established
1878 - Eadweard Muybridge takes a series of photographs to prove that all four feet of a horse leave the ground when it runs; the study becomes the basis of motion pictures.
1916 - United States President Woodrow Wilson signs a bill incorporating the Boy Scouts of America, making them the only American youth organization with a federal charter.
1969 - "Hee Haw" with Roy Clark & Buck Owens premieres on CBS TV. (Video)
1991 - In the Philippines, Mount Pinatubo erupts in the second largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century, killing over 800 people.

Today is:

Fly a Kite Day, Global Wind Day, Justice for Janitors Day, Magna Carta Day, National Electricity Day, National Kiss a Wookiee Day, National Lobster Day, National Megalodon Day, National Smile Power Day, Native American Citizenship Day, Nature Photography Day, World Elder Abuse Awareness Day.

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Comments, tweets and observations:

Millions of Seniors move to Florida for the climate, and then stay indoors all day with A/C to avoid the climate.
-John Fugelsang

Republicans who accepted NRA money to keep gun laws from being passed now want taxpayer money to keep Republicans from being shot.
-Middle Age Riot

I also didn't win the 2020 presidential election. $250 million, please!
-Stephen Colbert

Today was President Trump's 76th birthday. Pretty impressive. 76, and he can still get an insurrection.
-Seth Meyers

Categories: AI, Anthony Fauci, Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous vehicles, Cheese, Climate change, Covid-19, Heat Wave, Internet Explorer, Mehmet Oz, Melatonin, Microsoft, Physics, Russia, Sleep, Squid Game, Texas, Time crystals, Weather

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Tom Hanks explains it all.

AI not sentient, elephants not persons, crayfish invasion, female update, Tom Hanks, sex starter kit, the usual drollery
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Published Tuesday, June 14, 2022 @ 4:00 PM EDT

Jun 14 2022

Things change.

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No, Google's AI is not sentient. Happy the elephant may be sentient, but a court says she's not a person. As one of the X-Men once remarked, "Stinks to be sentient, sometimes, don't it?"

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Cloned crayfish accidentally created in an aquarium are conquering the world. Let's just hope the marbled crayfish never sets its sights on humanity. If they do, we may never be able to stop them.

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How zoology got female animals all wrong. Female animals are just as promiscuous, competitive, aggressive and dynamic as their male counterparts and play an equal role in driving evolutionary change...

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Tom might have problems explaining this: Mother and teenage son create 'first time sex starter kit'.

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Dr. Oz says he'll fight to end illegal immigration. A business owned by his family, in which he is a shareholder, faced the largest fine in ICE history for hiring unauthorized workers.

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Coffee brands with the worst ingredients. As long as they have caffeine, I'm ok.

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A three-hour long solar flare erupted from the sun. Impressive video; fortunately, it only caused isolated radio blackouts.

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Wingnuts helpfully threaten to kill police after arrests of neo-Nazis who planned pride event riot.

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Over 100m Americans urged to stay indoors over extreme heat and humidity. Heat wave expected to settle over states from Gulf coast to Great Lakes and east to Carolinas with 100°F temperatures in some cities.

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No, Marjorie Taylor Greene, transgender people aren't causing the tampon shortage. ...the real issue can be traced back to an increase in the cost of cotton and plastic used to produce tampons. These materials, also used for masks and other medical supplies, have been in particularly high demand since the pandemic. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has added another challenging layer to the problem, as both countries are key exporters of the materials.

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Miscellany:

Birthdays:

1909 - Burl Ives, American actor and singer (d. 1995) (Video)
1919 - Gene Barry, American actor (d. 2009) (Video)
1925 - Pierre Salinger, American journalist and politician, 11th White House Press Secretary (d. 2004)
1928 - Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Argentinian-Cuban physician, author, guerrilla leader and politician (d. 1967)
1931 - Marla Gibbs, American actress and comedian
1931 - Junior Walker, American saxophonist (d. 1995) (Video)
1946 - Donald Trump, American businessman, television personality and 45th President of the United States
1961 - Boy George, English singer-songwriter and producer (Video)

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On this date in:

1775 - American Revolutionary War: the Continental Army was established by the Continental Congress, marking the birth of the United States Armed Forces.
1777 - The Second Continental Congress passed the Flag Act of 1777 adopting the Stars and Stripes as the Flag of the United States.
1822 - Charles Babbage proposed a difference engine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society.
1900 - Hawaii became a United States territory.
1949 - Albert II, a rhesus monkey, rode a V-2 rocket to an altitude of 134 km (83 mi), thereby becoming the first mammal and first monkey in space.
1951 - UNIVAC I was dedicated by the U.S. Census Bureau.
1954 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill into law that placed the words "under God" into the United States Pledge of Allegiance.
1959 - Disneyland Monorail System, the first daily operating monorail system in the Western Hemisphere, opens to the public in Anaheim, California.

Today is:

Army's Birthday, Call Your Doctor Day, Family History Day, Flag Day, International Bath Day, National Bourbon Day, National Strawberry Shortcake Day, Observed annually on June 14th, Own Your Share of America Day, Pause for the Pledge Day, Pop Goes The Weasel Day, World Blood Donor Day, and World Pet Memorial Day

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Comments, tweets and observations:

If you don't think Donald Trump will end up in prison, remember, nobody thought he would end up in the White House either.
-Middle Age Riot

If Trump was arrested, and led away in cuffs, and it was televised by the US Gov't., live on Pay Per View, it's possible we could eliminate the National Debt.
-Duty to Warn

Categories: AI, Animals, Artificial Intelligence, Climate change, Coffee, Heat Wave, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Mehmet Oz, Neo Nazis, Rudy Giuliani, Sentience, Sex, Solar flares, Tampons, Tom Hanks, Weather

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Over 235 million people set to experience temperatures 90 degrees or hotter this week.

Google AI becomes sentient; heat wave; January 6; $5 million car sex; 'Florida man' returns
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Published Monday, June 13, 2022 @ 4:29 PM EDT

Jun 13 2022

Irony

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The Google engineer who thinks the company's AI has come to life. AI ethicists warned Google not to impersonate humans. Now one of Google's own thinks there's a ghost in the machine. The chorus of technologists who believe AI models may not be far off from achieving consciousness is getting bolder.

More: LaMDA: Google's breakthrough conversation technology.

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Barr says Trump was 'detached from reality'. No kidding.

Also: Bill Barr cracks up during January 6 testimony while dismantling Dinesh D'Souza's 'indefensible' big lie documentary 2,000 Mules.

Also: An 'inebriated' Giuliani urged Trump to falsely claim victory on election night. Former Trump attorney Jason Miller testifies that Giuliani who was advising Trump on election night was 'definitely intoxicated.'

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Court: Geico must pay $5.2 million to Missouri woman who got STD from sex in car. An arbitrator's decision in favor of the woman was affirmed by the Jackson County Court, and upheld by three judges with the Missouri Court of Appeals.

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Ohio Gov. DeWine says he'll sign a bill arming teachers after 24 hours of training. The new law dramatically reduces the amount of training a teacher must undergo before they can carry a gun in a school safety zone. Instead of more than 700 hours of training that's currently required, school staff who want to be armed would get training that "shall not exceed" 24 hours, House Bill 99 states.

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Diseases suppressed during Covid are coming back in new and peculiar ways. Health experts say Covid-19 restrictions could have reduced exposure and lowered immunity to infectious diseases, making society more vulnerable to new outbreaks.

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Texas police want Uvalde bodycam footage suppressed because it could expose law enforcement 'weakness'. Too late, fellas.

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The forthcoming bipartisan agreement could be the first new gun control laws enacted in decades. But it focuses primarily on mental health and school security interventions, rather than meaningfully restricting access to firearms.

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The end of the Millennial lifestyle subsidy. Start-ups are starting to want to make profits.

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A Florida man was bitten by an alligator after apparently mistaking it for a dog in the middle of the night.

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Miscellany:

Birthdays:

1831 - James Clerk Maxwell, Scottish physicist and mathematician (d. 1879)
1892 - Basil Rathbone, South African-born British-American actor (d. 1967)
1910 - Mary Wickes, American actress (d. 1995)
1926 - Paul Lynde, American actor and comedian (d. 1982)
1929 - Ralph McQuarrie, American illustrator (d. 2012)
1943 - Malcolm McDowell, English actor and producer
1951 - Richard Thomas, American actor, director, and producer
1953 - Tim Allen, American actor, comedian, and producer
1962 - Ally Sheedy, American actress and author
1981 - Chris Evans, American actor and producer

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On this date in:

1854 - Anthony Faas patented the first US accordion, having made improvements to both the keyboard, and to enhance the sound.
1966 - The United States Supreme Court ruled in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their Fifth Amendment rights before questioning them (colloquially known as "Mirandizing").
1971 - Vietnam War: The New York Times began publication of the Pentagon Papers.
1983 - Pioneer 10 became the first man-made object to leave the central Solar System when it passed beyond the orbit of Neptune.
1997 - A jury sentenced Timothy McVeigh to death for his part in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombingOklahoma City bombing.

Today is:

National Kitchen Klutzes of America Day, Random Acts of Light Day, Sewing Machine Day, Weed Your Garden Day, and World Softball Day.

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Comments and observations:

When ovaries are more regulated than assault weapons, that's when you know it's a war on women.
-Andrea Junker

Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper likes you.
-Adam Carolla

Lauren Boebert "praying" for President Biden's death at a "Christian" event is just the latest and perhaps most despicable example that this person never should have been handed a microphone by voters.
-Stephen Beschloss

True, "no sitting or former president has ever been put on trial." But so what? Not even Nixon matched Trump's crimes, and Nixon would've been put on trial but for the pardon he got from Ford. Failing to try Trump for his crimes would mean anything goes.
-Laurence Tribe

Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Climate change, Florida Man, Geico, Google, Gun laws, Guns, Heat Wave, January 6

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A timeline of failed attempts to address U.S. gun violence.

Guns, heat waves, oral biome, duck sauce, Great Salt Lake, inflation, recession, iPhones
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Published Wednesday, June 08, 2022 @ 2:30 PM EDT

Jun 08 2022

Cease fire

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Matthew McConaughey's full White House press briefing statement on gun violence. (Video)

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FTC to probe CVS Caremark, Express Scipts and other pharmacy benefit managers. These businesses, the biggest of which are run by companies that also operate health insurers, have been criticized by doctors and patients over their formularies and other concerns about drug access.

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A 'dangerous and deadly heat wave' is on the way, the weather service warns. More than 25 million people are under heat alerts, and more than 50 daily high-temperature records could be broken through the weekend - including in Death Valley, California, one of the hottest places on earth.

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Dentist warns against one habit that leaves 'the baddest, toughest' germs in your mouth. The biggest problem is that people either neglect their mouth or go to the other extreme by disinfecting and sterilizing it to such a degree that they disrupt the balance of the oral microbiome.

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Queens man accused of killing Chinese food delivery worker is obsessed with duck sauce, other condiments, say police. Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz previously called Hirsch's demand for duck sauce an "obsessive point of contention." On Tuesday, a police source told the New York Post that his whole refrigerator was discovered to be filled with duck sauce, calling him a "hoarder."

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As the Great Salt Lake dries up, Utah faces 'an environmental nuclear bomb'. Most alarming, the air surrounding Salt Lake City would occasionally turn poisonous. The lake bed contains high levels of arsenic and as more of it becomes exposed, windstorms carry that arsenic into the lungs of nearby residents, who make up three-quarters of Utah's population.

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What is a recession? A really good explanation. (Video) Also, what is inflation? in six minutes (Video).

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iPhones will be required to use USB-C charging by 2024 under EU policy. Provisional EU agreement applies to additional electronics, laptops to follow. Let's hope the policy spreads to the US as well.

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Late night watch: President Biden will visit "Jimmy Kimmel Live" tonight.

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Miscellany:

Birthdays:

1867 - Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect, designed the Price Tower and Fallingwater (d. 1959).
1910 - John W. Campbell, American science fiction writer and editor (d. 1971).
1918 - Robert Preston, American captain, actor, and singer. (Video)
1925 - Barbara Bush, American wife of George H.W. Bush, 41st First Lady of the United States (d. 2018)
1927 - Jerry Stiller, American actor, comedian and producer (d. 2020) (Video)
1933 - Joan Rivers, American comedian, actress, and television host (d. 2014). (Video)
1940 - Nancy Sinatra, American singer and actress. (Video)
1951 - Bonnie Tyler, Welsh singer-songwriter. (Video)
1955 - Tim Berners-Lee, English computer scientist, best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web.

On this date in:

1789 - James Madison introduced twelve proposed amendments to the United States Constitution in Congress. Ten were eventually adopted, known as the Bill of Rights.
1887 - Herman Hollerith received a patent for his punch card calculator.
1912 - Carl Laemmle incorporated Universal Pictures.
1949 - George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four was published.
1953 - The United States Supreme Court rules in District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co. that restaurants in Washington, D.C., cannot refuse to serve black patrons.
1964 - Jan and Dean released the single "The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena)". (Video)
1966 - the National Football League and American Football League announced a merger effective in 1970.
1968 - Gary Puckett and Union Gap released "Lady Willpower". (Video)
1979 - "The Source," the first computer public information service, went online.
1984 - the film "Ghostbusters" was released. (Video)

Today is:

Best Friends Day, Betty Picnic Day, Jelly-Filled Doughnut Day, Name Your Poison Day, National Caribbean American HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, Thomas Paine Day, Upsy Daisy Day, World Brain Tumor Day, and World Oceans Day.

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Comments and observations:

Credit card debt soared by $17.8 billion in April, the second highest amount ever. The highest was March, when it soared by a staggering $25.6 billion. Consumers are completely tapped out. They're using their credit cards to buy food and pay for other essentials.
-Peter Schiff

Categories: Climate change, Dental Care, Drugs, Economics, EU, FTC, Great Salt Lake, Gun laws, Guns, Heat Wave, Inflation, iPhones, Matthew McConaughey, Recession, Weather

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Georgia was deliberately destroying unopened and unexpired baby formula.

Depp/Heard, Southern Baptists, Climate, Sharkcano!
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Published Tuesday, May 24, 2022 @ 6:45 PM EDT

May 24 2022

For what it's worth, I've managed to avoid for the most part the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard spectacle. For those keeping track, though, on social media, Johnny Depp is winning public sympathy over Amber Heard. The hashtag #IStandWithAmberHeard has earned about 8.2 million views, compared to 15 billion views for #JusticeForJohnnyDepp. Closing arguments are expected to start on Friday. Also, The Johnny Depp–Amber Heard trial is not as complicated as you may think. The entirety of the case rests on twelve words.

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Active shooter incidents rose over 50% in 2021 compared to 2020. As opposed to passive shooters? I guess this is one way to avoid using the more accurate but NRA-unfriendly "mass shootings".

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South Asia's intense heat wave a 'sign of things to come'. Indian cities and Pakistan consistently saw temperatures above 45°C (113°F) in the past weeks. In Pakistan, scorching temperatures over 50°C (122°F) were recorded in some places like Jacobabad and Dadu. Parts of the Indian capital New Delhi saw temperatures reaching 49°C (120°F) this month.

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Top Southern Baptists plan to release secret list of abusers. ...the largest Protestant denomination in America, said Tuesday that they will release a secret list of hundreds of pastors and other church-affiliated personnel accused of sexual abuse. Also: 'I was just 16': Pastor's 'adultery' confession in church goes off the rails. With video, no less.

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'Predator' spyware let government hackers break into Chrome and Android, Google Says. A shady private surveillance company sold access to nearly half a dozen powerful security flaws in Chrome and Android last year to government-affiliated hackers, Google revealed Monday.

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The profound impact of giving American families a little more cash. Six months of payments lifted millions of children out of poverty. Then they stopped. The effects of the expanded tax credit's expiration were just as stark as its introduction: Child poverty increased 41 percent the first month after the credit expired, according to the researchers at Columbia.

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Can you ditch cable and go with Verizon or T-Mobile's 5G home internet? Not really.

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Shell Oil consultant quits, says company causes 'extreme harm' to planet. Oil giant's expansion plan prompted resignation email accusing firm of dismissing climate risks.

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Florida man does it again: Appeals court: Florida law on social media unconstitutional. A Florida law intended to punish social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter is an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment, a federal appeals court ruled Monday, dealing a major victory to companies who had been accused by GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis of discriminating against conservative thought.

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Clarence and Ginni Thomas are telling us exactly how the 2024 coup will go down. Also, guess who? The Supreme Court just condemned a man to die despite strong evidence he's innocent. He would have received a new trial if the Supreme Court hadn't changed the law.

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Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman) is 81 today.

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Tweets, observations, and diversions:

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Births increase in US for first time in seven years. Births remained below "replacement" level, the rate necessary to fully replace the number of people in the current adult generation. I know I like to think of us Generation Jonesers as irreplaceable.

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Republicans are complaining about declining birth rates after making America a place where nobody in their right mind would want to raise a child.
-Middle Age Riot

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'Sharkcano' is erupting! NASA satellite images capture a plume of discolored water emitting from the Kavachi Volcano, where mutant sharks live in an acidic underwater crater.

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Friends and patients of the late Lawrence J. Nelson, MD... A memorial will be held Sunday, June 12 at noon at the George Irvin Green Funeral Home, 3511 Main Street, Munhall.

Categories: 5G, Amber Heard, Android, Baby formula, Birthrate, Bob Dylan, Child Poverty, Chrome, Clarence Thomas, Climate change, FBI, Florida, Georgia, Google, Johnny Depp, Mass shootings, Ron DeSantis, Sharkcano, Shell Oil, Southern Baptists, Supreme Court

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Russia is resorting to putting computer chips from dishwashers and refrigerators in tanks due to US sanctions, official says.

SgrA, George Carlin, VT escape, clean air danger, bread and "real" bread
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Published Thursday, May 12, 2022 @ 9:01 PM EDT

May 12 2022

SagA*

Groundbreaking Discovery: First ever image of the Milky Way’s Supermassive black hole. The image is a long-anticipated look at the massive object that sits at the very centre of our galaxy. Here's an explanatory video.

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Remembering George Carlin

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This is the safest place to live in the US as the climate changes (TL;DR: Vermont)

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Young Americans say abortion access matters for future moves. The majority of young people surveyed in a poll responded that abortion access is at least "somewhat important" in determining where they'll live in the future.

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You just can't win. Study finds cleaner air leads to more Atlantic hurricanes. A 50% decrease in pollution particles and droplets in Europe and the U.S. is linked to a 33% increase in Atlantic storm formation in the past couple decades, while the opposite is happening in the Pacific with more pollution and fewer typhoons, according to the study published in Wednesday's Science Advances.

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US overdose deaths hit record 107,000 last year, CDC says. The provisional 2021 total translates to roughly one U.S. overdose death every five minutes. It marked a 15% increase from the previous record, set the year before.

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The confirmation of a third Democrat to the Federal Trade Commission could pose trouble for Amazon and Elon Musk.

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Things you should know: Why modern sandwich bread is different from "real" bread.

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Tweets, observations, and diversions:

Starbucks raised prices after reporting a 31% increase in profits. Same with Tyson, who posted $1 billion in profits last quarter — a 48% increase from the first quarter of 2021. Get the picture?
-Robert Reich

When Richard Nixon Wanted to be a Rapper. Yes, that Richard Nixon.

So the same people killing us by denying the fact that masks & vaccines work are ALSO the experts on when human life begins?
-Jon Cooper

KGB is taking the day off tomorrow. The report will return on Monday.

Categories: Abortion, amazon.com, Black Holes, Climate change, Elon Musk, FTC, George Carlin, Opioids, Sagittarius A*, Ukraine, Weather

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Marilyn, Donovan, Bono, Musk, Trump, book bans, iPods, Las Vegas stiffs and climate change
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Published Tuesday, May 10, 2022 @ 5:22 PM EDT

May 10 2022

Marilyn

Warhol's 'Marilyn,' at $195 million, shatters auction record for an American artist. Not bad for a kid from Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood. (NY Times free article)

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Elon Musk says he'll reverse Donald Trump's Twitter ban. Swell.

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The next book ban: States aim to limit titles students can search for. Republican lawmakers across the country are proposing legislation that would target online library databases and library management technology- tools built by a half-dozen large companies that catalogue millions of books, journals and articles that students peruse for assignments.

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Baby formula shortage worsens: About 40% of popular brands sold out across US. The ongoing infant formula shortage isn't over yet- and appears to be getting worse.

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Ukraine is rebuilding cities as fast as Russia destroyed them. (Washington Post free article).

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Earth given 50-50 chance of hitting key warming mark by 2026. The odds are inching up along with the thermometer. Last year, the same forecasters put the odds at closer to 40% and a decade ago it was only 10%.

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Oddly-related climate story: Bodies surfacing in Lake Mead recall mob's time in Las Vegas. "There's no telling what we'll find in Lake Mead," former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said Monday. "It's not a bad place to dump a body."

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The end of an era: Apple discontinues iPod touch, ending 20 year run of iconic 'iPod' brand. The number of devices made obsolete in my lifetime is into two figures and growing...

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Speaking of obsolete technology, on this date in 1975, Sony introduced the Betamax videocassette recorder.

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Donovan (Donovan Phillips Leitch ) is 76 today.

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Bono (Paul David Hewson) is 62 today.

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Microsoft to help cover workers' travel costs for abortions. The software maker will "support employees and their enrolled dependents in accessing critical health care- which already includes services like abortion and gender- affirming care- regardless of where they live across the U.S.," according to a statement Monday. "This support is being extended to include travel expense assistance for these and other medical services where access to care is limited in availability in an employee's home geographic region."

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Tweets and observations:

Last week, Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said her confidence in the court had been "had been rocked" because justices lied during their confirmations about their intent to overturn Roe v. Wade. This week, she's voting to block Democrats' effort to codify Roe v. Wade.
-No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen

Good morning to everyone who reported treason through proper channels and not book deals, @MarkTEsper
-Rachel Vindman!

Republicans want to keep women pregnant so their swollen feet hurt too much to stand in line for six hours and vote against them.
-Middle Age Riot

The President, whether Democrat or Republican, is not in charge of baby formula.
-Paula Poundstone

The people protesting outside the homes of the justices are just tourists engaging in legitimate political discourse.
-Covie_93

Categories: Abortion, Andy Warhol, Apple, Betamax, Bono, Book bans, Climate change, Donald Trump, Donovan, Elon Musk, iPod, Lake Mead, Las Vegas, Marilyn Monroe, Microsoft, Republicans, Sony, Ukraine

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"Fleet of 10 UFOs" spotted hovering near International Space Station on NASA live stream.

Shortage of workers, patio furniture; Covid resurgence; UFOs, lightning, and grasshoppers, oh my!
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Published Thursday, July 08, 2021 @ 1:16 AM EDT

Jul 08 2021

(KGB Report will return on Monday, July 12.)

Job openings in restaurants and hotels were slightly higher in May while the number of people quitting jobs in those places also inched up, to just over 700,000. Overall, 3.6 million people quit their jobs in May. That's down from a record four million in April but still a high level of turnover.

There's a shortage of patio furniture. Really.

Earth may not be in any danger from asteroids. Chinese researchers to use rockets to deflect them. At China's National Space Science Center, researchers found in simulations that 23 Long March 5 rockets hitting simultaneously could deflect a large asteroid from its original path by a distance 1.4 times the Earth's radius.

17 tips to live comfortably off just a Social Security check. These articles are written by kids in their 20s who don't fully appreciate the potential effects of what they're suggesting. One's perspective is a bit different when you reach the age that classic radio stations start playing "oldies" first released when your kids were in high school.

New UC Berkeley study suggests cell phones sharply increase tumor risk. Researchers took a comprehensive look at statistical findings from 46 different studies around the globe and found that the use of a cell phone for more than 1,000 hours, or about 17 minutes a day over a ten year period, increased the risk of tumors by 60 percent.

Pandemic Potpourri:

Moderna starts human trials of an mRNA-based flu shot. Moderna says it hopes to eventually create combination vaccines that could protect people against flu, COVID-19, and other respiratory infections with one shot.

About 160 Covid-19 infections are linked to a Texas church youth camp- including cases of the Delta variant. Of the roughly 160 people infected, six (about 3.7%) had been vaccinated.

COVID and the brain: researchers zero in on how damage occurs.COVID and the brain: researchers zero in on how damage occurs. Also: Fitbit data points to lingering physical changes for some Covid-19 sufferers. On average, it took 79 days for the elevated resting heart rate of people with covid-19 symptoms to drop back to normal, the study found.

Delta variant slams Missouri as ICUs fill and ventilators run low. This should probably be in the "Crazytown" section. As Alex Haley said, "Either you deal with what is the reality, or you can be sure that the reality is going to deal with you." (More reality quotes)

Amid uptick in cases, Oklahoma sees high hospital admission rate for COVID-19 patients. Across the state, nearly 28% of people who have had a positive COVID-19 test in the last two weeks were admitted to hospital...

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From Crazytown:

Trump sues Twitter, Facebook, Google and CEOs Dorsey, Zuckerberg, Pichai. The three related lawsuits, filed in federal court in Florida, allege the tech giants have violated plaintiffs' First Amendments rights. Of course, if Trump or his lawyers had actually read the Constitution, he'd know the First Amendment only addresses the government infringing upon speech, not social networks whose user agreements you violated by inciting an insurrection. Anyway, he's using it as another fundraising ploy.

Ivanka Trump is probably next on the chopping block: former federal prosecutor. Experts say the Manhattan District Attorney's Office is likely looking into "consulting fees" paid to Ivanka despite her having been a full-time employee of the Trump Organization.

Book says Trump praised Hitler during same trip that he disparaged U.S. war dead.

Giuliani's law license in Washington suspended.

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KGB's daily agglomeration of stuff I find interesting:

Among other things, today is

On this date:

1776 - Church bells (possibly including the Liberty Bell) were rung after John Nixon delivered the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence of the United States
1797 - Senator William Blount of Tennessee was expelled by the Senate and became the first US federal official to face impeachment.
1889 - The first issue of The Wall Street Journal was published.
1889 - John L. Sullivan defeated Jake Kilrain in 75 rounds in the last championship bare-knuckle boxing match.
1932 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached its lowest level of the Great Depression, closing at 41.22.
1994 - Kim Jong-il began to assume supreme leadership of North Korea upon the death of his father, Kim Il-sung.
2011 - Space Shuttle Atlantis was launched in the final mission of the U.S. Space Shuttle program.

Birthdays

1838 - Eli Lilly, American soldier, chemist, and businessman, founded Eli Lilly and Company (d. 1898)
1838 - Ferdinand von Zeppelin, German general and businessman, founded the Zeppelin Airship Company (d. 1917)
1839 - John D. Rockefeller, American businessman and philanthropist, founded the Standard Oil Company(d. 1937)
1908 - Nelson Rockefeller, American businessman and politician, 41st Vice President of the United States (d. 1979)
1914 - Billy Eckstine, American singer and trumpet player (d. 1993)
1926 - Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Swiss-American psychiatrist and author (d. 2004)
1930 - Jerry Vale, American singer (d. 2014)
1934 - Marty Feldman,English actor and screenwriter (d. 1982) (Video)
1935 - Steve Lawrence, American actor and singer
1944 - Jeffrey Tambor, American actor and singer
1947 - Kim Darby, American actress (Video)
1949 - Wolfgang Puck, Austrian-American chef, restaurateur and entrepreneur
1951 - Anjelica Huston, American actress and director
1952 - Jack Lambert, American football player and sportscaster
1958 - Kevin Bacon, American actor and musician (Video)

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Miscellany

Wanna delay aging? Get castrated, scientists say. "It's not an ideal solution." Ya think?

Beating a literally dead horse: 'Night of the Animated Dead' to adapt zombie classic. I maintain George Romero's original 1968 classic is the only zombie movie you need to see. Everything else is egregiously derivative.

Grasshoppers invade western US in largest swarms in 35 years, plaguing farmers and ranchers.

More than 710,000 lightning strikes in Western Canada in 15 hours as unprecedented heatwave and wildfires hit British Columbia and Alberta.

12-foot python escapes inside Louisiana's largest mall.

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Categories: Adolf Hitler, Astronomy, Climate change, Covid-19, Donald Trump, Economics, Health, NASA, Rudy Giuliani, Social Security

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Flesh eating parasites skyrocket in the US.

Heat, wildfires, IRS, flesh eating parasites, governors gone wild, Airplane!
(permalink)

Published Friday, July 02, 2021 @ 12:00 AM EDT

Jul 02 2021

KGB Report will return on Tuesday, July 6. Have a safe Independence Day holiday!

Be A Patriot
(Salt Lake Tribune)

Town that recorded highest temperature in Canada's history destroyed by wildfire. More than 1,000 people living in and around Lytton, B.C., northeast of Vancouver, were forced to leave with little notice Wednesday. They raced out of town in every direction as smoke and flames swallowed the community in minutes.

The IRS is swamped with 35 million unprocessed tax returns, meaning people will have to wait longer for refunds. Former IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told The Washington Post's Jeff Stein that "the problem is not with IRS employees who work very hard. It's with Republicans in Congress who have refused to provide adequate funding for 10 years."

China building more than 100 'nuclear' missile silos in desert. Satellite footage shows 'alarming development' that signals possible expansion of nuclear capabilities.

The biggest threat to America is America itself. We Americans repeat the mantra that "we're No. 1" even though the latest Social Progress Index, a measure of health, safety and well-being around the world, ranked the United States No. 28. Even worse, the United States was one of only three countries, out of 163, that went backward in well-being over the last decade.

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From Crazytown:

Trump calls U.S. military generals 'woke,' 'weak and ineffective leaders'.

Trump Organization and CFO Allen Weisselberg plead not guilty to tax crimes. Prosecutors described a yearslong scheme to compensate executives "off the books" to avoid paying taxes.

Govs Gone Wild: Unhinged, Uncensored, Uninformed (Video)

Seditionists' roundup... "not the tightest zip ties in the bag..." And a vertical penile fracture. (Video)

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KGB's daily agglomeration of stuff I find interesting:

Among other things, today is

On this date:

1698 - Thomas Savery patented the first steam engine.
1776 - The Continental Congress adopted a resolution severing ties with the Kingdom of Great Britain although the wording of the formal Declaration of Independence was not published until July 4.
1839 - Twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 kidnapped Africans led by Joseph Cinqué mutiny and took over the slave ship Amistad.
1881 - Charles J. Guiteau shot and fatally wounded U.S. President James A. Garfield (who died of complications from his wounds on September 19).
1890 - The U.S. Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act.
1897 - British-Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi obtained a patent for radio in London.
1900 - The first Zeppelin flight took place on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany.
1900 - Jean Sibelius' Finlandia received its première performance in Helsinki with the Helsinki Philharmonic Society conducted by Robert Kajanus. (Video)
1921 - U.S. President Warren G. Harding signed the Knox-Porter Resolution formally ending the war between the United States and Germany.
1928 - The Jenkins Television Corporation goes on air with W3XK, the first television broadcasting station in the USA
1937 - Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan were last heard from over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight.
1955 - "Lawrence Welk Show" premiered on ABC (Video)
1956 - Elvis Presley recorded "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel" (Video)
1962 - The first Walmart store, then known as Wal-Mart, opened for business in Rogers, Arkansas.
1964 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 meant to prohibit segregation in public places.
1980 - The movie "Airplane!" premiered (Video: Airplane! is actually a remake of Zero Hour!)
2002 - Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon. Fossett disappeared on September 3, 2007 while flying a light aircraft over the Great Basin Desert, between Nevada and California. Extensive searches proved unsuccessful, and he was declared legally dead in February of the following year.

Birthdays

1877 - Hermann Hesse, German-born Swiss poet, novelist, and painter, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1962)
1906 - Hans Bethe, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)
1908 - Thurgood Marshall, American lawyer and jurist, 32nd Solicitor General of the United States (d. 1993)
1916 - Ken Curtis, American actor and singer (d. 1991)
1922 - Pierre Cardin, Italian-French fashion designer (d. 2020)
1925 - Medgar Evers, American soldier and activist (d. 1963)
1927 - Brock Peters, American actor (d. 2005)
1929 - Imelda Marcos, Filipino politician; 10th First Lady of the Philippines
1931 - Robert Ito, Canadian-born actor (Sam-Quincy ME)
1932 - Dave Thomas, American businessman and philanthropist, founded Wendy's (d. 2002)
1937 - Polly Holliday, American actress
1946 - Ron Silver, American actor, director, and political activist (d. 2009)
1947 - Larry David, American actor, comedian, producer, and screenwriter
1948 - Saul Rubinek, German-born Canadian character actor, director, playwright, and producer of television, theatre, and film
1986 - Lindsay Lohan, American actress and singer
1990 - Margot Robbie, Australian actress and producer

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Miscellany

Senate passes bill wishing younger generations best of luck stopping climate change. (The Onion)

Parents of children called Alexa say their daughters are being bullied because it is the same name that Amazon uses for its virtual assistant.

Yes, a Florida man is actually accused of hiding meth inside this body part. Crystal rocks found in private area, deputies say.

Picasso kept in Maine house closet for 50 years is sold for $150K.

No, you can't recycle a bowling ball (but people sure keep trying). Why do 1,200 balls end up at New York City’s main recycling plant each year? People seem to think that because they are plastic, they are the same as, say, takeout containers. They are not.

Excruciating slip-up sees BBC News report confuse Bill Clinton with Bill Cosby. Oops.

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Categories: Alexa, Allen Weisselberg, amazon.com, America is..., Bill Clinton, Bill Cosby, China, Climate change, Environment, Florida, IRS, January 6, Pablo Picasso, Republicans, The Onion

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Bill Cosby was set free because of a deal he made with a DA who went on to represent Trump in his second impeachment trial.

Cosby out, Weisselberg in, Rummy dead, Trump ranks #41, oldest living man
(permalink)

Published Thursday, July 01, 2021 @ 12:00 AM EDT

Jul 01 2021

Trump Organization and its CFO indicted by Manhattan grand jury, report says. The indictments against the organization and Weisselberg will stay sealed until Thursday afternoon, the report said. The Post also reported, citing sources, that Weisselberg is expected to surrender Thursday morning. Many are expecting Weisselberg to flip on Trump.

Dozens of people have died in Canada amid an unprecedented heat wave that has smashed temperature records. Before Sunday, temperatures in Canada had never passed 45°C (113°F). Canada broke its temperature record for a third straight day on Tuesday - 49.6°C (121.3°F) in Lytton, British Columbia.

California wildfire grows to 13,000 acres, threatens marijuana farms.

Unexpected pandemic effects: 'Great Resignation' gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect. 95% of workers are now considering changing jobs, and 92% are even willing to switch industries to find the right position, according to a recent report by jobs site Monster.com. So much for the too much government unemployment benefits theory. Detail via NextDraft. "People are forgetting that restaurant workers have actually experienced decades of abuse and trauma. The pandemic is just the final straw." (Turnover is a way of life; the average job tenure for hourly food service workers is less than two months...)

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has died at the age of 88. Guess you could say Rummy's passed on that great known unknown.

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From Crazytown:

Inside gun-surrendering criminal Mark McCloskey's very sad St. Louis rally. "Noted local criminal Mark McCloskey played host to a barbecue/political rally on Sunday afternoon, drawing tens of admirers to the sweltering parking lot of a closed outlet mall in St. Louis County to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the time he pulled a gun on a crowd of people who otherwise would never have noticed or cared he existed. Despite the fact that none of the big names who had been billed to speak at the June 27 event showed up, and despite the fact that ticket sales were so dismal attendance was opened to the public for free at the last minute, St. Louis' most gun-surrendering lawyer plowed right ahead with the First Annual Pink Shirt Guy BBQ and RINO Roast in the St. Louis Mills parking lot. Grievance and untethered delusion topped the menu at the event, with McCloskey and a roster of speakers largely unknown outside the fever swamps of the far right taking turns condemning everything from critical race theory (their newest and most nonsensical bogeyman) to "cultural Marxism" (George Soros' fault of course, but how dare you level accusations of antisemitism) to the "radical left" agenda of (hahahahaha) Joe Biden. The whole gun-and-pony show was in service of McCloskey's deeply stupid run for U.S. Senate, because if there's one thing that qualifies a man for public office in the Republican party in 2021 it's a willingness to point a firearm at those with whom you disagree politically."

Trump debuts at 41st in C-SPAN presidential rankings. This survey marks Trump's first appearance on the list, on which the one-term president placed higher than only three other presidents: Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson and the perpetually last-ranked James Buchanan. Barack Obama moved up to the number 10 spot.

The 2024 GOP Presidential campaigns are already staring. And they're insane (video).

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KGB's daily agglomeration of stuff I find interesting:

July is Bank Account Bonus Month, Cell Phone Courtesy Month, Cord Blood Awareness Month, Hitchhiking Month, Horseradish Month, Independent Retailer Month, Juvenile Arthritis Awareness Month, Lasagna Awareness Month, Lost Pet Prevention Month, Minority Tourism Month, National Anti-Boredom Month, National Baked Bean Month, National Bison Month, National Blueberry Month, National Cleft & Craniofacial Awareness & Prevention Month, National Culinary Arts Month, National Doghouse Repairs Month, National Family Reunion Month, National Hemp Month, National HIV Awareness Month, National Hot Dog Month, National Ice Cream Month, National Park and Recreation Month, National Peach Month, National Picnic Month, National Water Gardening Month, Plastic Free July, Sarcoma Awareness Month, Unlucky Month for Weddings, UV Safety Awareness Month, Wild About Wildlife Month, World Watercolor Month, and Worldwide Bereaved Parents Awareness Month.

Among other things, today is

On this date:

1846 - Adolphe Sax patented the saxophone
1836 - Congress accepted the estate from an heir of British scientist James Smithson that was eventually used to create the Smithsonian Institution
1863 - The Battle of Gettysburg began
1867 - The British North America Act took effect as the Province of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia joined into confederation to create the modern nation of Canada. Sir John A. Macdonald was sworn in as the first Prime Minister of Canada. This date is commemorated annually in Canada as Canada Day, a national holiday
1870 - The United States Department of Justice formally came into existence
1881 - The world's first international telephone call is made between St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, and Calais, Maine, United States
1903 - Start of first Tour de France bicycle race
1908 - SOS was adopted as the international distress signal
1931 - United Airlines began service (as Boeing Air Transport)
1931 - Wiley Post and Harold Gatty became the first people to circumnavigate the globe in a single-engined monoplane aircraft
1957 - The International Geophysical Year began
1963 - ZIP codes were introduced for United States mail
1979 - Sony introduced the Walkman. By 2010, when production stopped, Sony had built about 200 million cassette-based Walkmans.
1984 - The PG-13 rating was introduced by the MPAA in response to the gore and violence in the film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Birthdays

1869 - William Strunk Jr., American author and educator (The Elements of Style) (d. 1946)
1892 - James M. Cain, American author (The Postman Always Rings Twice, Serenade, Mildred Pierce, Double Indemnity) and journalist (d. 1977)
1899 - Charles Laughton, English-American actor and director (d. 1962) (Video)
1902 - William Wyler, French-American film director (Wuthering Heights, Jezebel, Mrs. Miniver, The Best Years of Our Lives, and Ben-Hur) , producer and screenwriter (d. 1981) (Video)
1906 - Estée Lauder (née Josephine Esther Mentzer), American businesswoman, co-founded the Estée Lauder Companies (d. 2004)
1916 - Olivia de Havilland, British-American actress (d. 2020) (Video)
1920 - Harold Sakata, Japanese-American wrestler and actor (Goldfinger) (d. 1982) (Video)
1931 - Leslie Caron, French actress and dancer (Video)
1934 - Jamie Farr, American actor (M*A*S*H) (Video)
1934 - Sydney Pollack, American actor, director and producer (d. 2008)
1935 - David Prowse, English actor (Darth Vader) (d. 2020)
1939 - Karen Black, American actress (d. 2013) (Video)
1941 - Twyla Tharp, American dancer and choreographer
1942 - Geneviève Bujold, Canadian actress
1945 - Debbie Harry (b. Angela Trimble), American singer-songwriter and actress (Video)
1952 - Dan Aykroyd, Canadian actor, producer and screenwriter (Video)
1960 - Evelyn "Champagne" King, American soul/disco singer (Video)
1961 - Diana, Princess of Wales (b. Diana Frances Spencer) (d. 1997)
1967 - Pamela Anderson, Canadian-American model and actress

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Miscellany

It's so dry in California right now that drinking water is literally tasting like dirt.

112-year-old Puerto Rican dubbed world's oldest living man.

Ocala (Florida) Fire Chief whose ex-wife went on naked rampage at Outback, fired for creating uncomfortable work environment.

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Categories: Allen Weisselberg, Bill Cosby, Climate change, Covid-19, Donald Rumsfeld, Donald Trump, Environment, Florida, Mark McCloskey, Unemployment

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Hotter than the human body can handle: Pakistan city broils in world’s highest temperatures (126°F) (Video)

Collapses, shortages, excess heat, Democratic burritos, hailstone margaritas
(permalink)

Published Wednesday, June 30, 2021 @ 12:17 AM EDT

Jun 30 2021

Condo owners in Surfside building were facing assessments for $15 million worth of repairs. Payments were set to begin a week after the building's deadly fall.

Gas stations are running out of gas ahead of the holiday weekend. It's the shortage of tank truck drivers coupled with rising demand that is causing supply chain bottlenecks and shortages. Experts say a growing number of stations are reporting that they are simply not able to get gas delivered- at any price.

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From Crazytown:

70 percent

Blame Democrats for the rise in Chipotle burrito prices. (Video)

Out-of-practice Trump forgets to strand rally crowd in parking lot. (Andy Borowitz)

What underlies the G.O.P. commitment to ignorance? Closed-mindedness and ignorance have become core conservative values, and those who reject these values are the enemy, no matter what they may have done to serve the country.

Trump Organization sues New York City for closing golf course after January 6 riots. That could be a big mistake.

Tucker Carlson says 'Biden administration is spying' on him. The television personality offered no additional evidence to support his claim, which drew scrutiny from several users on social media.

Giuliani son gets no votes from Republican leaders in bid for New York governor. Andrew Giuliani, who has traded off his surname, embarrassed by poll that indicates Lee Zeldin will challenge Andrew Cuomo.

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KGB's daily agglomeration of stuff I find interesting:

Among other things, today is

On this date:

1892 – Actions culminating in the Homestead Strike began
1905 – Albert Einstein sent the article On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, in which he introduced special relativity, for publication in Annalen der Physik
1908 – The Tunguska Event, the largest impact event on Earth in human recorded history, results in a massive explosion over Eastern Siberia. (Video)
1938 - Superman first appears in DC Comics' Action Comics series issue #1
1953 – The first Chevrolet Corvette rolled off the assembly line in Flint, Michigan. (Video)
1966 – The National Organization for Women, the United States' largest feminist organization, was founded.

Birthdays

1901 - Willie Sutton, American bank robber (d.1980)
1917 – Susan Hayward, American actress (d. 1975)
1917 – Lena Horne, American actress, singer, and activist (d. 2010) (Video)
1930 - Thomas Sowell, American economist, social theorist, and senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution
1934 – Harry Blackstone Jr., American magician and author (d. 1997) (Video)
1942 - Robert Ballard, American professor explorer and discoverer (wrecks of the Titanic, Bismarck, and USS Yorktown)
1943 – Florence Ballard, American pop/soul singer (The Supremes)(d. 1976)
1956 – David Alan Grier, American actor, singer, and comedian
1959 – Vincent D'Onofrio, American actor (Video)
1966 – Mike Tyson, American boxer and actor (Video)
1985 – Michael Phelps, American swimmer

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Miscellany

A record-breaking hailstone fell near San Antonio. A bigger one went into margaritas.

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Categories: Climate change, Covid-19, Democrats, Donald Trump, Environment, Fox News, Republicans, Rudy Giuliani, Shortages, Superman, Surfside collapse, The Big Lie, Tucker Carlson

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Jimmy Kimmel gently tells MyPillow's Mike Lindell he thinks Lindell's old crack habit made him paranoid.

Rudy raided, Bugs Bunny, Betty White, assorted potential catastrophes...
(permalink)

Published Friday, April 30, 2021 @ 1:56 AM EDT

Apr 30 2021

Feds raid Giuliani's home, office, escalating criminal probe. Federal agents raided Rudy Giuliani's Manhattan home and office Wednesday, seizing computers and cellphones in a major escalation of the Justice Department's investigationin a major escalation of the Justice Department's investigation into the business dealings of former President Donald Trump's personal lawyer.

America is running low on chicken. Blame covid-19, a sandwich craze and huge appetite for wings.

Turn up the thermostat. living or working in a cool environment for extended periods can lower core body temperature. That decreases metabolic rate – how fast we burn calories – and commonly causes weight gain.

On the other hand... Phoenix could become uninhabitable due to climate change. Also, Declassified satellite images show glaciers are melting faster than ever

The link between 'The West Wing' and Biden's address. Viewers notice remarkable similarity to a plan set out by Martin Sheen's character in long-running political drama.

Flu has disappeared worldwide during the COVID pandemic. The public health measures that slow the spread of the novel coronavirus work really well on influenza.

FDA moves to ban menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars. "Banning menthol—the last allowable flavor—in cigarettes and banning all flavors in cigars will help save lives, particularly among those disproportionately affected by these deadly products," Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock said in a statement. "With these actions, the FDA will help significantly reduce youth initiation, increase the chances of smoking cessation among current smokers, and address health disparities experienced by communities of color, low-income populations, and LGBTQ+ individuals, all of whom are far more likely to use these tobacco products."

Phasers on stun? US investigating possible mysterious directed energy attack near White House.

Well, this is disburbing: The clockwork universe: is free will an illusion? A growing chorus of scientists and philosophers argue that free will does not exist. Could they be right?

Physicists prove that the imaginary part of quantum mechanics really exists! The exclamation point is theirs, not mine. Still, scientists discover imaginary numbers aren't imaginary.

More good news: Omega-3 fish oil supplements linked with heart rhythm disorder. Omega-3 supplements are associated with an increased likelihood of developing atrial fibrillation in people with high blood lipids. That's the finding of a study published today in European Heart Journal – Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).

Earth has been knocked off its axis over the last 25 years, changing the locations of the north and south poles.

Andy Borowitz: Explosive video reveals Biden plot to use his power to improve living conditions

I have the sinking suspicion I'm cheugy.

San Francisco sound engineer accidentally dosed with LSD while cleaning 1960s radio equipment.

Man cooking up ramen in a Speedo accidentally shoots himself in the nuts with 20 bottle rockets.

99-year-old Betty White's secret to a long and happy life is junk food. "She eats crap," her former Hot in Cleveland co-star Jane Leeves told UsMagazine.com in 2011. “She eats Red Vines, hot dogs, French fries, and Diet Coke. If that's key, maybe she's preserved because of all the preservatives.”

It's Bugs Bunny Day. On this date in 1938, a preliminary version of Bugs (named Happy) appeared in Porky's Hare Hunt.

Among other things, today is Adopt a Shelter Pet Day, Childcare Professionals Day, Day of the Child, Hairstyle Appreciation Day, International Jazz Day, Lag B'omer, National Animal Advocacy Day, National Arbor Day, National Bubble Tea Day, National Hairball Awareness Day, National Honesty Day, National Military Brats Day, National Mr. Potato Head Day, National Oatmeal Cookie Day, National PrepareAthon! Day, National Raisin Day, National Sarcoidosis Day, and Spank Out Day.

Have a great weekend! See you Monday!

Categories: Andy Borowitz, Astronomy, Betty White, Bugs Bunny, Cheugy, Chicken shortage, Climate change, Covid-19, FDA, Health, Jimmy Kimmel, Joe Biden, Mike Lindell, Phoenix, Porky Pig, Quantum mechanics, Rudy Giuliani, The West Wing

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PSP Frontotemporal Dementia

Trump, dementia, asteroids, Twitter, laboring from home under duress.
(permalink)

Published Wednesday, May 27, 2020 @ 12:00 AM EDT

May 27 2020

Today is Wednesday, May 27, the 148th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. 218 days remain until the end of the year.

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Among other things, today is Cellophane Tape Day, National Grape Popsicle Day, National Gray Day, National Senior Health & Fitness Day®, Nothing to Fear Day, Old-Time Player Piano Day, Sunscreen Protection Day, and World Product Day.

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On this day:

in 1837, American folk hero Wild Bill Hickock (d. August 2, 1876) was born.
in 1907, Silent Spring author Rachel Carson (d. April 14, 1964) was born. Quotes by Rachel Carson.
in 1911, Vincent Price (d. October 25, 1993) was born.
in 1911, Hubert H. Humphrey (d. January 13, 1978) was born. Quotes by Hubert H. Humphrey
in 1922, Christopher Lee (d. June 7, 2015) was born.
in 1923, Henry Kissinger was born. Quotes by Henry Kissinger
in 1933, Walt Disney's cartoon 3 Little Pigs was released. It won the Academy Award Best Animated film in 1934;
in 1934, Harlan Ellison (d. June 28, 2018) was born. Quotes by Harlan Ellison
in 1935, Lee Meriwether was born.
in 1936, Louis Gossett Jr. was born.
in 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge opened to pedestrian traffic.
in 1941, the German battleship Bismarck was sunk in the North Atlantic.
in 1962, the Centralia mine fire was ignited in the town's landfill above a coal mine. It could burn for another 250 years.
in 1995, actor Christopher Reeve (September 25, 1952 – October 10, 2004) was paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition in Culpeper, Virginia. Quotes by Christopher Reeve

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Where U.S. coronavirus cases are on the rise... Twenty U.S. states reported an increase in new cases of COVID-19 for the week ended May 24, up from 13 states in the prior week, as the death toll from the novel coronavirus approaches 100,000, according to a Reuters analysis.

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The coronavirus is deadliest where Democrats live. Democrats are far more likely to live in counties where the virus has ravaged the community, while Republicans are more likely to live in counties that have been relatively unscathed by the illness, though they are paying an economic price. Counties won by President Trump in 2016 have reported just 27 percent of the virus infections and 21 percent of the deaths — even though 45 percent of Americans live in these communities, a New York Times analysis has found.

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Remembering Sara Little Turnbull, whose bra cup design became the N95 mask.

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New hormone that stimulates sexual functions in fish could lead to novel infertility treatments in humans.

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Asteroid that doomed the dinosaurs struck earth at “deadliest possible” angle. Related: Meteor that blasted millions of trees in Siberia only 'grazed' Earth, new research says.

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Twitter refuses to remove Trump's false tweets, but in some cases has begun fact-checking them.

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America's unemployment numbers are stabilizing. That's not a good thing.

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Kate Mulgrew might 'move to Ireland' if Trump wins second term.

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McConnell: Talking about fifth coronavirus bill 'in the next month or so'.

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NOAA's outlook for US summer weather—and hurricane season... wet, dry, and windy.

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'Something isn't right': U.S. probes soaring beef prices. One hundred years ago, U.S. antitrust prosecutors broke down monopolies in meatpacking. But can they do it again?

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Thoughts of the day:

In prosperity, our friends know us; in adversity, we know our friends.
-Charles Caleb Coulton

I was thinking that we all learn by experience, but some of us have to go to summer school.
-Peter De Vries

If you cast your bread upon the water and you have faith, you'll get back cash. If you don't have faith, you'll get soggy bread.
-Don King

Population density is a term that has two meanings.
-William W. Webb

Does history repeat itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce? No, that's too grand, too considered a process. History just burps, and we taste again that raw-onion sandwich it swallowed centuries ago.
-Julian Barnes

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You are not working from home. You are laboring in confinement, under duress.

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Things are really rough out there.
Please consider donating to Feeding America
.

Categories: Astronomy, Bismarck, Centralia Mine Fire, Christopher Lee, Christopher Reeve, Climate change, Covid-19, Democrats, Donald Trump, Frontotemporal Dementia, Golden Gate Bridge, Harlan Ellison, Henry Kissinger, Hubert H. Humphrey, Kate Mulgrew, Lee Meriwether, Louis Gossett Jr., Mitch McConnell, NOAA, Rachel Carson, Republicans, Three Little Pigs, Twitter, Unemployment, Vincent Price, Weather, Wild Bill Hickock

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Trump 'spiritual adviser' Paula White imitates queen bee dance to declare end to the coronavirus pandemic.

Star Trek, Space Force, Marilyn, Mount St. Helens, NASA says don't worry...
(permalink)

Published Monday, May 18, 2020 @ 12:31 AM EDT

May 18 2020

Today is Monday, May 18, the 139th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. 227 days remain until the end of the year.

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Among other things, today is HIV Vaccine Awareness Day, I Love Reese's® Day, International Museum Day, Mother Whistler Day. National Cheese Soufflé Day, National No Dirty Dishes Day, National Visit Your Relatives Day, Send an Electronic Greeting Card Day, and World AIDS Vaccine Day.

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Supreme Court debacle: On this date in 1896, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that the "separate but equal" doctrine was constitutional.

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On this date in 1933 as part of the New Deal, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority, a federally owned corporation created by congressional charter to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development to the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly affected by the Great Depression.

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On this day 70 years ago, St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Tommy Glaviano made errors on three consecutive grounders in the bottom of the ninth, allowing the Brooklyn Dodgers a 9-8 victory. At least he could tell himself it wasn't, you know, something people would remember two decades into the next century or anything

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On this day in 1962, A birthday salute to U.S. President John F. Kennedy took place at Madison Square Garden, New York City. The highlight was Marilyn Monroe's rendition of "Happy Birthday." (Video)

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Tina Fey is 50 today. Click here for quotes by Tina Fey.

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On this date in 1980, Mount St. Helens in Washington state erupted, directly killing 57 people and releasing thermal energy equivalent to 26 megatons of TNT, over 1,700 times larger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945. (Video)

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Ever listen to Trump ramble and wonder what he was asked about in the first place? Now it's a game you can play at home! From The Daily Show. (Video)

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This just about sums it up... (Video)

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Inside Trump's coronavirus meltdown. Again and again, the story that emerged is of a president who ignored increasingly urgent intelligence warnings from January, dismisses anyone who claims to know more than him and trusts no one outside a tiny coterie, led by his daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner- the property developer who Trump has empowered to sideline the best-funded disaster response bureaucracy in the world. "It is as though we knew for a fact that 9/11 was going to happen for months, did nothing to prepare for it and then shrugged a few days later and said, 'Oh well, there's not much we can do about it,'" says Gregg Gonsalves, a public health scholar at Yale University. "Trump could have prevented mass deaths and he didn't."

Meanwhile, on Earth 2: Eric Trump accuses Democrats of "milking" coronavirus lockdowns to win the election.

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Borowitz: Trump says nation will have vaccine before it sees his taxes.

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Obama openly criticizes Trump administration's coronavirus response. (Video)

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'A lot to be hopeful for': Crisis seen as historic, not another Great Depression.

Related: Drastic makeover looms for world's most followed stock index. "The S&P committee is going to have to decide how long they want to wait before ditching COVID-damaged companies..."

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As cable TV fades, fearing 'the end of Comedy Central.' The network that made the careers of Dave Chappelle, Stephen Colbert and Amy Schumer has laid off top executives while looking to make shows that are cheaper to produce.

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Space Force launches robotic X-37B space plane on new mystery mission. While the X-37B's exact purpose is a secret, Space Force officials have revealed that the craft is packing numerous experiments on this trip to test out different systems in space. Some of those experiments include a small satellite called FalconSat-8, two NASA payloads designed to study the effects of radiation on different materials as well as seeds to grow food, and a power-beaming experiment using microwave energy. (story includes video)

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ViacomCBS, which owns Paramount and the Star Trek® franchise, should sue Trump for using the phrase "warp speed" for the vaccination projects and the delta shield emblem as the core of its Space Force logo. Not for intellectual property violations, but for damaging the value of its brand via association with a malignant miscreant.

And speaking of Star Trek, seven years ago today my wife and I saw "Star Trek: Into Darkness," by far the worst Star Trek film ever made.

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Meteor caught on doorbell camera. A Summerville, SC family caught a meteor entering Earth's atmosphere on their doorbell video camera early Thursday morning. The video, provided by the Giltner family, was taken around 12:42 a.m. (video)

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Expert's COVID-19 swimming pool study: chlorine no safety guarantee, high-level controls the way back to the water.

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Here's what a solar minimum is and why NASA says it's nothing to worry about. Some say the current cycle could be a repeat of the Dalton Minimum, which was one of the most extreme weather periods in history. The Dalton minimum was a period that lasted over three solar cycles from 1790-1830 and resulted in heavy snows, deep frost and general cooling around the globe. NASA scientists say there's no mini ice age on the horizon, because planetary warming due to climate change will offset the cycle. There. Feel better?

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Offered without comment: (Video)

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Thoughts of the day:

Among the rich you will never find a really generous man even by accident. They may give their money away, but they will never give themselves away; they are egotistic, secretive, dry as old bones. To be smart enough to get all that money you must be dull enough to want it.
-G.K. Chesterton

The written word will soon disappear and we'll no longer be able to read good prose like we used to could. This prospect does not gentle my thoughts or tranquil me toward the future.
-James Thurber

There are few things in life harder to find and more important to keep than love. Well, love and a birth certificate.
-Barack Obama

We can usually recognize the consequence of our actions. It is the consequence of our inaction that gets confused with the inevitable.
-Robert Brault

The more you know, the sadder you get.
-Stephen Colbert

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I'm a sucker for rescue dogs to begin with, but this sweetheart tore my heart out. Thank goodness she found a loving home with a great mom dedicated to caring for special needs dogs. (Video)

Things are really rough out there.
Please consider donating to Feeding America
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Categories: Andy Borowitz, Barack Obama, Climate change, Comedy Central, Covid-19, Daily Show, Donald Trump, Eric Trump, FDR, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Meteors, Mount St. Helens, NASA, New Deal, Paula White, Rudy Giuliani, SCOTUS, Space Force, Star Trek, Supreme Court, Tennessee Valley Authority, The Sun, Tina Fey, Tommy Glaviano, Video, YouTube

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Miscellany
(permalink)

Published Saturday, November 17, 2012 @ 2:19 AM EST

Nov 17 2012

I think America might just have spent all day obsessing over loss of Twinkies. This is why we're not getting a greatest generation book.
-@pourmecoffee

What if the Mayan calendar ends in 5105, and we've just been holding it upside down?
-Aaron Karo

Hostess will sell the rights to all their snack cakes, and Twinkies will once again pour off the production line of a different company. I wouldn't be surprised if several years' worth of Twinkies aren't already stockpiled in a warehouse somewhere. I mean, It's not like they're going to go stale or anything...

A blonde walks into a bar and asks the bartender for a double entendre. So he gives it to her.

This new thesaurus isn't just terrible, it's also terrible.
-Justin Shanes

Viagra can cause sight loss. So, you can go blind either way.

(YouTube video: The Big Bang Theory Flash Mob!)

James Bond beat Abraham Lincoln at the box office. Boy, it's really been a lousy week for Republicans, hasn't it?
–David Letterman

No hurry- take all the time you have.
-The Covert Comic

Isn't the Twinkie too big to fail? Where's the bailout, Obama?
-The Beachwood Reporter

If you were born in or after April 1985, you have never experienced a colder than average month. If you've lived in Pittsburgh during that period, you've experienced the highest and lowest temperatures on record as well as the greatest 24-hour rain and snowfall totals. So if grandma or grandpa start to tell you how bad the weather was when they were growing up, tell them to stick a sock in it.

It's also interesting to note that in April 1985 Coca-Cola changed its formula and released New Coke.

Post hoc, ergo propter hoc?

Categories: Aaron Karo, Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama, Climate change, Coca Cola, Covert Comic, David Letterman, Drugs, James Bond, Mayans, Miscellany, Observations, The Beachwood Reporter, The Big Bang Theory, Twinkies, Video, YouTube

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