KGB Report

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

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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

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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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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 Hanks explains it all.

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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

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

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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

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

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

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

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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

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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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