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Republicans Blast Canada for insanely responding to gun violence by banning guns. (Andy Borowitz)

Second amendment, coffee, autopay, Covid, Smallpox, Monkeypox, DNA, DuPont
(permalink)

Published Tuesday, May 31, 2022 @ 2:50 PM EDT

May 31 2022

Second Amendment
(Steve Cousineau)

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Canada moves to freeze handgun sales, buy back assault-style weapons. "We need only look south of the border to know that if we do not take action, firmly and rapidly, it gets worse and worse," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

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We clerked for Justices Scalia and Stevens. America is getting Heller wrong. In the summer of 2008, the Supreme Court decided District of Columbia v. Heller, in which the court held for the first time that the Second Amendment protected an individual right to gun ownership. Scalia's majority opinion expressly recognized "presumptively lawful" regulations such as "laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms," as well as bans on carrying weapons in "sensitive places," like schools, and it noted with approval the "historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of 'dangerous and unusual weapons.'" Heller also recognized the immense public interest in "prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill." (free New York Times article)

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The good for you/bad for you coin toss for this week involves coffee. Chinese researchers say a seven-year study suggests coffee drinkers are less likely to die of cancer and heart disease. As John Collins observes, "By substituting your morning coffee with green tea, you can reduce up to 88% of what little joy you had left."

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Nine bills you should never put on autopay. TL;DR: You really don't have much of a choice for some of them; part of the customer agreement requires automatic payment.

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You are going to get COVID again... and again... and again. ..."best guess for the future has the virus infiltrating each of us, on average, every three years or so." Also, the air at the gym may be more likely to spread COVID. Honestly, me catching COVID at a gym is something I never worry about. It's about as likely as me catching an STD from (insert name of currently reigning sex goddess).

Also, "That's just part of aging": Long COVID symptoms are often overlooked in seniors. Though it affects them at higher rates, older adults with long COVID have received little attention.

Some good(?) news:

The vaccine used to protect against monkeypox is the same used against smallpox, which was eradicated from the planet (except in government biowarfare labs) in 1980. Will the vaccine I received 60-some years ago protect me? Eh, maybe... Also, Britain urges people with monkeypox to abstain from sex as cases rise.

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Changing our DNA: 'The age of human therapeutic gene editing is here'

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DuPont: The most evil business in the world. Better living through chemistry? Teflon (polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)) is poisonous. (video) More info on PFOA, which persists indefinitely in the environment. Also, a report by John Oliver.

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Miscellany:

Random automotive trivia:

Only 18% of Americans can drive a stick shift, and just 5% of new cars have manual transmissions
Only 4% of a car's lifetime is spent driving
Whale oil was used in some car transmissions until 1973
A $1 million speeding fine was issued to a Mercedes SLS driver in Switzerland for doing 180 in a 70 zone. (Fines are proportional to the driver's income)
There are 1.446 billion cars on the planet, roughly 1 for every 5.5 people
A modern car contains about 30,000 parts
75% of all Rolls Royces ever made are still on the road
A car is stolen in the U.S. every 45 seconds
The best selling car of all time is the Toyota Corolla. 44 million have been sold, and a new one is sold every 40 seconds
In 1900, 38% of cars were electric, 40% were steam, and 22% were gasoline powered

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Birthdays: Clint Eastwood is 92; Brooke Shields is 57; Peter Yarrow (Peter, Paul, and Mary) is 84; Sharon Gless (Cagney & Lacey) is 79; Joe Namath is 79; and Leah Thompson (Back to the Future) is 61.

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On this date in:

1911, the RMS Titanic was launched in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
1971, in accordance with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1968, observation of Memorial Day occured on the last Monday in May for the first time, rather than on the traditional Memorial Day of May 30.
1977, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System was completed and everything's been hunky dory since then.
1985, 41 tornadoes hit Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario, leaving 76 dead. It remains largest and most intense tornado outbreak ever to hit this region, and the worst tornado outbreak in Pennsylvania history in terms of deaths and destruction.
2013, a record breaking 2.6 mile wide tornado with winds of 296 mph (476 km/h) struck El Reno, Oklahoma, causing eight fatalities and over 150 injuries.

Today is:

National Autonomous Vehicle Day, National Macaroon Day, National Meditation Day, National Smile Day, Necrotizing Fasciitis Awareness Day, Save Your Hearing Day, Speak in Complete Sentences Day, What You Think Upon Grows Day, World No Tobacco Day, and World Parrot Day.

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Comments and observations:

"Do you wonder about the people who think COVID vaccines are useless but that single-door schools are effective?"
-Preet Bharara

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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: Andy Borowitz, Canada, Coffee, Covid-19, DNA, DuPont, Gene Editing, Justin Trudeau, Monkeypox, SCOTUS, Second Amendment, Smallpox, Supreme Court, Teflon

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No shirts, pants or undies needed on bike ride, just a mask.

Manchin madness, McDonald's AI, caffeine danger, lab leak theory
(permalink)

Published Tuesday, June 08, 2021 @ 12:00 AM EDT

Jun 08 2021

Manchin's opposition clouds future of Dems' elections bill. "Voting and election reform that is done in a partisan manner will all but ensure partisan divisions continue to deepen," Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia wrote. But how can you have bipartisan support when one of the parties has dedicated itself to subverting the democratic process?

CO₂ concentration levels hit record high, show no impact from pandemic. Although carbon emissions fell 17 percent globally in spring 2020, they were on the rise again by September, with research from the World Meteorological Organization indicating they fell only a net 6.4 percent last year.

McDonald's is testing Siri-style AI technology at drive-thrus. Reminds me of the joke Jay Leno made when the chain announced it would start using robots in their kitchens: "You just know these were the robots that weren't smart enough to work for NASA."

Five ways to keep your brain sharp as you age. I'm certain one of them should be avoiding cable news.

Fact check: Video falsely presents joke as confession to QAnon blood-harvesting conspiracy theory. I'm no longer wondering - a large portion of our population is insane.

I just want to point out that "Who is the President of the United States?" is a question they ask people to tell if they are sane.
-Paula Poundstone

Warning: high caffeine consumption may increase risk of blinding eye disease. It works out to about three or four cups of coffee per day. Swell.

Frozen in siberian permafrost for 24,000 years, microscopic animal comes back to life. Gee, what could go wrong?

The Lab-Leak Theory: Inside the fight to uncover Covid-19's origins. State Department investigators say they were repeatedly advised not to open a "Pandora's box."

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KGB's daily agglomeration of stuff I find interesting:

Among other things, today is

On this date:

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.
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)
1988 - Nippon Airways announced that painting eyeballs on jets cut bird collisions by 20%.

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.

Miscellany

UK commandos fly over the sea with new jet pack. It's the 21st century. This is way overdue.

Putin says he has no intention of reinstating Trump. "I think if I were planning to put Trump back in power, I would know about it,"" the visibly annoyed Putin said. (Andy Borowitz)

The average home goes through 2,184 pounds of laundry a year — the weight of an adult black rhinoceros. Kids may be a large part of the reason why. The average child goes through three outfits on a typical day.

Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Caffeine, Coffee, Covid-19, Environment, Joe Manchin, McDonald's, QAnon, Voting

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Why America's gas pipelines are an easy target for hackers. (Video)

UFOs: can't rule out aliens; F. Lee Bailey; caffeine and your brain
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Published Friday, June 04, 2021 @ 1:22 AM EDT

Jun 04 2021

I want to believe

U.S. finds no evidence of alien technology in flying objects, but can’t rule it out, either. The report determines that a vast majority of more than 120 incidents over the past two decades did not originate from any American military or other advanced U.S. government technology, the officials said. That determination would appear to eliminate the possibility that Navy pilots who reported seeing unexplained aircraft might have encountered programs the government meant to keep secret. But that is about the only conclusive finding in the classified intelligence report, the officials said. And while a forthcoming unclassified version, expected to be released to Congress by June 25, will present few other firm conclusions, senior officials briefed on the intelligence conceded that the very ambiguity of the findings meant the government could not definitively rule out theories that the phenomena observed by military pilots might be alien spacecraft.

Whistleblower threatens run for Congress if Pentagon UFO report watered down. The hotly anticipated Pentagon report on UFOs may be nothing but space junk, warns a former Department of Defense employee.

F. Lee Bailey dies at 87.

Regular caffeine consumption – from coffee, cola, or energy drinks – affects brain structure."Our results do not necessarily mean that caffeine consumption has a negative impact on the brain, but daily caffeine consumption evidently affects our cognitive hardware, which in itself should give rise to further studies."

"SpongeBob" and "Transformers" cost u.s. taxpayers $4 billion, study says. A new report details ViacomCBS's use of a labyrinthine tax shelter to sell rights to its shows and films overseas.

The ugly truth behind your fancy rewards credit card. America’s poor foot much of the bill for credit card points, miles, and cash back. "The American payment system has evolved into a reverse Robin Hood whereby middle-class and working-class Americans who pay with a debit card, prepaid card, or cash are subsidizing the wealthy, who pay less for everything..."

Cartoon: shortest life spans
Dave Whamond | Copyright 2021 Cagle Cartoons

Donald Trump is getting worse. The former President is only listening to "the bottom of the bottom of the crazies in the barrel."

Science fiction for the demented: QAnon grifter tells followers she can time travel — and says Trump will be "reinstated".

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KGB's daily agglomeration of stuff I find interesting:

Among other things, today is Audacity to Hope Day, Hug an Atheist Day, Hug your Cat Day, International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression, National Cheese Day, National Cognac Day, National Doughnut Day, National Gun Violence Awareness Day, National SAFE Day, and Old Maid's Day.

On this day in 1411, Charles VI granted a monopoly for the ripening of Roquefort cheese to the people of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon.

On this day in 1940, Winston Churchill delivered his "We shall fight on the beaches" speech to the UK Parliament's House of Commons.

On this day in 1974, the Cleveland Indians held a Ten Cent Beer Night promotion. A ninth inning drunken fan riot interrupted the game, which the Indians forfeited. Another Ten Cent Beer Night was held on July 18, but with a two cup limit.

On this day in 1982, "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" was released in the US. Its first day box office gross set a world record.

Birthdays

1907 – Rosalind Russell, American actress
1924 – Dennis Weaver, American actor and director
1928 – Ruth Westheimer, German-American sex therapist and author
1936 – Bruce Dern, American actor
1937 – Freddy Fender, American singer and guitarist (d. 2006)
1937 - Gorilla Monsoon, American professional wrestler, play-by-play commentator, and booker
1944 - Michelle Phillips, American singer, songwriter, actress, and former model
1961 – El DeBarge, American singer-songwriter and producer
1971 – Noah Wyle, American actor and producer
1975 – Russell Brand, English comedian and actor
1975 – Angelina Jolie, American actress, filmmaker, humanitarian, and activist

Categories: Caffeine, Coffee, Credit Cards, Donald Trump, F. Lee Bailey, QAnon, Ransomware, Taxes, UFOs

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25+ best memes about jumping off a cliff

Zero tolerance, zero brains; Bob Dylan; solar storms; spermageddon; canine-spread coronavirus
(permalink)

Published Monday, May 24, 2021 @ 12:00 AM EDT

May 24 2021

One of the problems associated with being thrown into Facebook jail is ignorance of the alleged offense.

The announcement states that your post has violated Facebook's "Community Standards," a dense, 27-page litany of offenses that will get you kicked off the platform.

I found the section which I believe addresses my post:

"We care deeply about the safety of the people who use our apps. We regularly consult with experts in suicide and self-injury to help inform our policies and enforcement, and work with organizations around the world to provide assistance to people in distress.

"While we do not allow people to intentionally or unintentionally celebrate or promote suicide or self-injury, we do allow people to discuss these topics because we want Facebook to be a space where people can share their experiences, raise awareness about these issues, and seek support from one another."

"We define self-injury as the intentional and direct injuring of the body, including self-mutilation and eating disorders. We remove any content that encourages suicide or self-injury, including fictional content such as memes or illustrations and any self-injury content which is graphic, regardless of context."

Here's the offending cartoon:

I maintain this isn't a cartoon about suicide- it's a cartoon addressing the power of social media to influence otherwise sane people to do insane things. If anything, it's an anti-suicide cartoon.

I've appealed prior suspensions and won, because it was obvious the artificially intelligent bot or stressed human outside contractor didn't grasp the concepts of satire, parody, or irony and made a bad call. Most of the time Facebook admitted it was in error and unhid the post. But I don't think it's going to work in this instance, because self-injury is one of those categories of which Facebook seems to have a zero tolerance policy. There is no way to contact any human at Facebook to offer a defense. And a small potatoes page administrator with a mere 10,134 followers really can't create enough media outrage to get Facebook executives involved.

I suspect Facebook adopted this policy to aggregate a number it can use in its "we're doing our best, but we can't catch everything" defense. They can point to their mountain of context-free suspensions and say, "Look, we suspended n accounts in the last month for violating our policy against self-injury."

Supplementary viewing/reading:

Little evidence supports the claimed effectiveness of zero-tolerance policies.

"The whole principle is wrong (censorship); it's like demanding that grown men live on skim milk because the baby can't eat steak."
-Robert A. Heinlein

"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

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"The first way to answer the questions in the song ('Blowin' in the Wind') is by asking them. But lots of people first have to find the wind."
-Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman. He's 80 today.)

Actor Gary Burghoff is 78 today. The video above is the 1984 pilot episode of a M*A*S*H spinoff that wasn't picked up.

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The first text message: On this day in 1844, Samuel Morse sent the message "What hath God wrought" (a biblical quotation, Numbers 23:23) from a committee room in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland, to inaugurate a commercial telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington D.C.

On this day in 1940, Igor Sikorsky performed the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.

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NOT REAL NEWS: a look at what didn't happen last week.

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Pentagon's UFO footage- and Obama's curiosity- ratchet up expectations for a big reveal. When Congress passed the $2.3 trillion omnibus appropriations bill in December, it included a requirement that the Pentagon and a number of intelligence agencies prepare a report laying out what they know about UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena), which is the new military-speak for UFOs. The report is expected to be delivered as early as June 1, and at least part of it will be made available to the public.

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Good news for a Monday morning: "...greater coffee consumption is associated with a decreased risk of all-cause mortality."

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Liz Cheney's GOP primary challenger admits to impregnating 14-year-old when he was 18. Liz Cheney's GOP primary challenger admits to impregnating 14-year-old when he was 18. The Facebook video he released, called "Senator Bouchard takes on the fake news media," claimed "I was young" and "you've heard those stories before. She was a little younger than me, so it's like the Romeo and Juliet story," he said, neglecting several glaring differences like the Shakespearean characters were fictional and neither was running for Congress in the so-called "family values" party.

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Can the news be fixed? The fix is already in. Oh, you mean like repaired.

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The Great Amazon Purge... "About three weeks ago, several major Amazon brands were suddenly kicked out. Most people were unaware of the names of more than 12 disappearing Chinese companies, such as Mpow and Aukey. However, these two sell a number of electronic devices, such as phone chargers and external batteries for smartphones. If you click "Buy" on Amazon's first phone charger or wireless headphones, it could be from one of the sellers currently suspended."

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Alabama will now allow yoga in its public schools (but students can't say 'namaste'). But on the other hand, Alabama becomes latest state to legalize medical marijuana.

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Life as we know it:

Solar storms are back, threatening life as we know it on Earth.

A massive heat dome is about to make the Southeast sweat. "Temperatures starting on Monday will run between 10-15 degrees above normal, and border on record maximum temperatures, both for daily highs and lows."

Spermageddon: Could men be infertile by 2045? One word: parthenogenesis.

New coronavirus discovered- and dogs are spreading it. It could be the eighth coronavirus known to cause illnesses in humans.

Categories: Alabama, amazon.com, Anthony Bouchard, Bob Dylan, Coffee, Covert Comic, Dogs, Drugs, Facebook, Fact check, Gary Burghoff, Helicopters, Igor Sikorsky, James Thurber, January 6, Liz Cheney, M*A*S*H, News Media, Republicans, Robert A. Heinlein, Romeo and Juliet, Samuel Morse, Self-injury, Spermageddon, Suicide, Telegraph, The Sun, Weather, William Shakespeare

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