KGB Report

As a teenager, I knew the moon landing was something spectacular because I had rarely seen Walter Cronkite rendered nearly speechless.

I don't think younger people can appreciate the impact Cronkite had in the country. Prior to his retirement in 1981, he was the news. Sure, the ABC and NBC networks had their own news broadcasts, but I always considered them to be secondary sources reinforcing Cronkite's primary coverage. At least in my house, at news time my grandparents always made certain the station was tuned to the local CBS affiliate, KDKA-TV2. (I still prefer KDKA, but- like most local news broadcasts- it's just a shadow of its former glory).

Cronkite was frequently cited as the most trusted man in America. At that time, prior to 24/7 cable news and the internet, everyone in the United States shared a more or less a singular existence. When Uncle Walter told you something, you knew it was true. "Fake news" was an unknown term. Television network news operations were viewed by their corporate bosses as a public trust, not a profit center.

That glorious Sunday afternoon 54 years ago was a time of optimism and enthusiasm. When Kennedy made his May 25, 1962 Congressional speech announcing the moon landing goal, NASA had no idea how to get there. Indeed, at that time only four Americans had even been launched into space, in tiny one-man Mercury capsules- and only two of those actually achieved orbit.

Yet in only seven years, one month and 26 days, Americans- 400,000 of them, working mostly in private businesses under NASA's direction- made it happen on July 20, 1969. Ideologically, it proved that the American capitalist system was superior. Spiritually, it proved the America could achieve almost anything if it had the will to accept the challenge.

It's that attitude I miss the most. As astronaut and Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell observed, "From now on, we live in a world where man has walked on the moon. And it's not a miracle, we just decided to go."

Our unsolvable problems are not unsolvable. We just have to decide to solve them.

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Categories: Apollo 11, James Lovell, Jim Lovell, NASA, Walter Cronkite

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We're off next week and will return on Monday, June 27.

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The latest on the January 6 hearings. I'm old enough to have watched the Watergate hearings live. While interesting, I'm waiting for the Alexander Butterfield moment.

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The leader of Trump's favorite 2020 election "audit" may be disbarred after courtroom meltdown.

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Long COVID could be a 'mass deterioration event.' A tidal wave of chronic illness could leave millions of people incrementally worse off.

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As if things aren't bad enough now, New data reveals extraordinary global heating in the Arctic. Temperatures in the Barents Sea region are 'off the scale' and may affect extreme weather in the US and Europe.

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Formula production at Abbott's Michigan plant delayed after flooding from severe storms. The shortage will continue...

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Bill Gates says crypto and NFTs are a sham. Who am I to disagree?

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New study finds catnip protects cats from mosquitoes. When cats chew and rub against the leaves, the plant releases a compound that repels insects like mosquitoes.

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'Moment of reckoning:' Federal official warns of Colorado River water supply cuts. "We are 150 feet from 25 million Americans losing access to the Colorado River, and the rate of decline is accelerating."

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Florida woman spots 'fire rainbow' in the sky.

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A 67-year-old who 'un-retired' shares the biggest retirement challenge 'that no one talks about'. Sing it, brother.

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Why Disney passed on Tim Allen in 'Lightyear': He's 'dumber' not 'castrated'. "Tim Allen is Buzz Lightyear the toy," "Lightyear" producer Galyn Susman stated, according to Yahoo. "We weren't making a 'Toy Story' movie. We're making Buzz Lightyear's movie."

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Mars Perseverance rover adopts pet rock. (Video)

Record-Breaking Voyager spacecraft begin to power down. The pioneering probes are still running after nearly 45 years in space, but they will soon lose some of their instruments.

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City of Langley dedicates trash can to Conan O'Brien.

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Why eggs cost 30% more than last year.

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Miscellany:

Birthdays:

• 1829 - Geronimo, prominent leader and medicine man from the Bedonkohe band of the Ndendahe Apache people
• 1890 - Stan Laurel, English actor and comedian (d. 1965)
• 1907 - Jack Albertson, American actor (d. 1981)
• 1917 - Katharine Graham, American publisher (d. 2001)[
• 1938 - Joyce Carol Oates, American novelist, short story writer, critic, and poet
• 1941 - Lamont Dozier, American songwriter and producer (Video)
• 1952 - Gino Vannelli, Canadian singer-songwriter (Video)
• 1955 - Laurie Metcalf, American actress (Video)

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On this date in:

• 1858 - Abraham Lincoln delivered his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois.
• 1884 - The first purpose-built roller coaster, LaMarcus Adna Thompson's "Switchback Railway", opened in New York's Coney Island amusement park.
• 1903 - The Ford Motor Company was incorporated.
• 1904 - Irish author James Joyce began a relationship with Nora Barnacle and subsequently used the date to set the actions for his novel Ulysses; this date is now traditionally called "Bloomsday".
• 1911 - IBM founded as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in Endicott, New York
• 1960 - "Psycho" opened in New York City. (Video)
• 1963 - Soviet Space Program: Vostok 6 mission: Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space.
• 1967 - The Monterey International Pop Festival began. (Video)
• 1978 - The motion picture Grease premiered. (Video)
• 2015 - Donald Trump announced his campaign to run for President of the United States.

Today is:

Bloomsday, Corpus Christi, Fresh Veggies Day, International Day of the African Child, Ladies' Initiated in Baseball Day, National Career Nursing Assistants' Day, National Dump the Pump Day, National Fudge Day, National Vinegar Day, No Orange Clothes Day, Recess at Work Day, Wish Fulfillment Day, and World Sea Turtle Day.

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Comments, tweets and observations:

The best thing Trump ever did was make it obvious which of your Facebook friends would've signed on as a prison guard at a concentration camp.
-Liam Nissan™

If you're the kind of person who takes their sick child to the doctor instead of the village idiot, listen to Dr. Fauci instead of Rand Paul.
-Middle Age Riot

The only thing scarier than Mike Pence saving democracy is Dan Quayle instructing Mike Pence on saving democracy.
-John Fugelsang

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Categories: Baby formula, Bill Gates, Buzz Lightyear, Cats, Climate change, Conan O'Brien, Covid-19, Cryptocurrency, Donald Trump, Drought, Florida Woman, Inflation, January 6, NASA, NFTs, Rainbows, Retirement, Tim Allen

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Facebook's ban on gun sales gives sellers ten strikes before booting them. But someone reports your harmless satirical cartoon, and you're off the platform.

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NASA joins the hunt for UFOs. In an interview with The Washington Post last year, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said he had seen the classified UAP report when he was serving in the Senate. "The hair stood up on the back of my neck,"" he said.

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'Shrinkflation' accelerates globally as manufacturers quietly shrink package sizes. A small box of Kleenex now has 60 tissues; a few months ago, it had 65.

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Did the assault weapons ban of 1994 bring down mass shootings? The risk of a person in the U.S. dying in a mass shooting was 70% lower during the period in which the assault weapons ban was active. The proportion of overall gun homicides resulting from mass shootings was also down.

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New York City is a lot safer than small-town America. Rising homicide rates don't tell the whole story. When you dig deeper into data on deaths, you'll find the more urban your surroundings, the less danger you face.

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NASA's James Webb telescope was hit by a micrometeroid. The event was significant enough for NASA to pick up a "marginally detectable effect in the data," but not enough to affect the telescope's performance.

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Oops. Microsoft has accidentally released Windows 11 for unsupported PCs. If you managed to install Windows 11 on an unsupported PC and were expecting only Release Preview updates for Windows 10, you should be able to rollback the unexpected upgrade in the settings section of Windows 11.

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Google Maps now helps you find fresh air. Just as wildfire season begins.

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Michigan GOP candidate Kelley charged for Capitol riot role. Ryan Kelley, one of five Republican candidates for Michigan governor and an ardent defender of former President Donald Trump, was charged with misdemeanors Thursday for his role in the 2021 postelection riot at the U.S. Capitol.

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration upgrades Tesla Autopilot safety probe, step before possible recall. The auto safety agency in August opened a preliminary evaluation to assess the performance of the system in 765,000 vehicles after a series of crashes in which Tesla vehicles struck stopped emergency vehicles.

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Vladimir Putin mysteriously postpones marathon TV phone-in for first time in 18 years. Vladimir Putin has postponed his annual TV Q&A session amid rumours over his health and in the wake of his invasion of Ukraine that is widely perceived to have been a military failure.

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Kremlin Receives Almost 42,000 Complaints on Missing Ukraine Soldiers. The Russian government has not released any official figures on its Ukraine death toll since March 25, when it said that 1,351 men had died during the conflict.

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An experimental cancer drug had a 100% success rate. A tiny group of people with rectal cancer just experienced something of a scientific miracle: their cancer simply vanished after an experimental treatment.

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Miscellany:

Birthdays:

• 1672 - Peter the Great, Russian emperor (d. 1725)
• 1891 - Cole Porter, American composer and songwriter (d. 1964) (Video)
• 1910 - Robert Cummings, American actor, singer, and director (d. 1990) (Video)
• 1915 - Les Paul, American guitarist and songwriter (d. 2009) (Video)
• 1916 - Robert McNamara, American businessman and politician, eighth United States Secretary of Defense (d. 2009)
• 1922 - John Gillespie Magee, Jr., Anglo-American pilot and poet (d. 1941); author of the poem "High Flight."
• 1930 - Marvin Kalb, American educator and newscaster (CBS/NBC, Meet the Press)
• 1931 - Jackie Mason, American comedian, actor, and screenwriter
• 1934 - Jackie Wilson, American singer-songwriter (d. 1984) (Video)
• 1961 - Michael J. Fox, Canadian-American actor, producer, and author
• 1961 - Aaron Sorkin, American screenwriter, producer, and playwright
• 1963 - Johnny Depp, American actor
• 1981 - Natalie Portman, Israeli-American actress

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On this date in:

• 68 - Roman emperor Nero committed suicide, after quoting Vergil's Aeneid, thus ending the Julio-Claudian dynasty and starting the civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors.
• 1856 - Five hundred Mormons left Iowa City, Iowa for the Mormon Trail.
• 1934 - first appearance of Donald Duck in the cartoon, "The Wise Little Hen".
• 1954 - Joseph Welch, special counsel for the United States Army, lashed out at Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Army-McCarthy hearings, giving McCarthy the famous rebuke, "You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" (Video)
• 1958 - "The Purple People Eater" by Sheb Wooley hit #1 in the U.S. (Video)
• 1959 - The USS George Washington was launched, the first nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine. (Video)
• 1973 - Secretariat (March 30, 1970 - October 4, 1989) won the U.S. Triple Crown. He still holds the fastest speed records in all three races.
• 1980 - Comedian Richard Pryor suffered burns from freebasing cocaine. (NSFW Video)
• 1989 - "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" premiered in USA. This was the one directed by Shatner. The less said the better.

Today is:

Donald Duck Day, National Earl Day, National Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie Day, World APS Day, and Writers' Rights Day.

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Comments and observations:

Ultra-conservative theocratic men running everything is called Sharia Law over there and Scalia Law over here.
-John Fugelsang

I hear people say that Republicans are afraid of Donald Trump - no, they're not. They are him, they are sticking with the guy who gives them permission to be their worst selves.
-Mary Trump

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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.

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Categories: Crime, Drugs, Economics, Facebook, Google, Guns, James Webb Telescope, Mass shootings, Microsoft, NASA, Ryan Kelley, Shrinkflation, Tesla, UAPs, UFOs, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, Windows

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(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.

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

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

• Be a Kid Again Day
• Math 2.0 Day
• National Freezer Pop Day
• National Ice Cream Sundae Day
• National Milk Chocolate with Almonds Day
• SCUD Day

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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"Earthrise" is a photograph of Earth and some of the Moon's surface that was taken from lunar orbit by astronaut William Anders on December 24, 1968, during the Apollo 8 mission. Nature photographer Galen Rowell declared it "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken". Many claim its publishing inspired the beginning of the environmental movement. Fifty years to the day after taking the photo, William Anders observed, "We set out to explore the moon and instead discovered the Earth."

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Manhattan to stop prosecuting prostitution and unlicensed massage. But you'll still get arrested.

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Your mailman's been giving you the evil eye lately? The Postal Service is running a 'covert operations program' that monitors Americans' social media posts. Maybe it's not a good idea to put the word "covert" in the name of the program.

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LeVar Burton has landed a guest host gig on 'Jeopardy!' after more than 246,000 fans signed an online petition.
A: Reversing the polarity.
Q: What does LeVar Burton's character spend most of his time doing on Star Trek: The Next Generation?

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Thought of the day: "If the reason for climbing Mt. Everest is that it's hard to do, why does everyone go up the easy side?"-George Carlin

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Among other things, today is "In God We Trust" Day, April Showers Day, Chemists Celebrate the Earth Day, Earth Day, Girl Scout Leader Day, International Mother Earth Day, Love Your Thighs Day, National Jelly Bean Day, National Teach Children to Save Day, and Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day.

Remembering Glen Campbell (April 22, 1936 – August 8, 2017)

Jack Nicholson is 84 today. (Video has NSFW language. What did you expect?)

Catherine Mary Stewart is 62 today. (Granny in the clip is Meg Wyllie, one of the Talosians in the Star Trek original pilot.)

Hey, Facebook...

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Categories: Anubis, Apollo 8, Catherine Mary Stewart, Earth Day, George Carlin, Glen Campbell, Jack Nicholson, Jeopardy!, Joseph Stalin, LeVar Burton, NASA, Post Office, Sex

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Note: KGB Report will return on Tuesday, May 26. The Memorial Day weekend is when we traditionally clean up, reconfigure, and re-wire the office. And it's been a tough year...

Today is Tuesday, May 21st, the 142nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. 224 days remain until the end of the year.

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Among other things, today is American Red Cross Founder's Day, Ascension, Brown Bag It Thursday, Global Accessibility Awareness Day, Hummus Day, I Need a Patch for That Day, National Apéritif Day, National Memo Day, National Notebook Day, National Strawberries and Cream Day, National Waiters and Waitresses Day, Rapture Party Day, Sister Maria Hummel Day, and World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development.

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Mr. T is 68 today. (Video)

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On this day in 1980, The Empire Strikes Back was released. (Video)

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The last episode of Newhart aired on this day in 1990. (Video)

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'We've been muzzled': CDC sources say White House putting politics ahead of science.

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GOP fronts 'pro-Trump' doctors to prescribe rapid reopening.

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Two dam breaches in central Michigan force mass evacuations. (Video)

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Uh oh. Study shows 70% of consumers would rather watch new movies at home. 13% say they are more likely to watch at a local cinema (with 17% not sure).

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Trump threatens to withhold aid to two states over expanded voting by mail. President Trump on Wednesday threatened to halt federal funding to Michigan and Nevada over the distribution of absentee ballots in those states amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak that has left more than 90,000 Americans dead.

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NASA's head of human spaceflight abruptly resigns, citing 'mistake'. The source familiar with the reason for Loverro's departure said the issue centered on contracts that were awarded earlier this year for development of lunar landers, or vehicles that can carry astronauts to the moon's surface.

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Trump announces executive order 'suspending' regulations impeding US economy. The order is about "instructing federal agencies to use any and all authority to waive, suspend and eliminate unnecessary regulations that impede economic recovery," Mr Trump said before signing it with a large black felt pen.

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Windows 10 warning: anger at Microsoft rises with serious new failure. Microsoft’s new KB4556799 Windows 10 update is causing a myriad of problems for users, including Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) crashes, deleted data, performance issues, broken audio and more. And users are not happy.

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Will government mandate COVID-19 vaccinations? The Congressional Research Service says the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that "The states' general police power to promote public health and safety encompasses the authority to require mandatory vaccinations."" And states have all exercised that authority for children, usually allowing for some exceptions. CRS also says, "Congress, as a result of various enumerated powers in the Constitution, likewise has some authority over public health matters, including regulation of vaccination."

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Chuck E. Cheese tricks Grubhub customers with sneaky new name.

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Borowitz:

Trump Fears Painting of Obama at White House would spy on him.

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Thoughts of the day:

Any government which made the welfare of men depend on the character of their governors was an illusion.
-Daniel J. Boorstin

The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don't have to waste your time voting.
-Charles Bukowski

I try to avoid experience if I can. Most experience is bad.
-E.L. Doctorow

All scientifically possible technology and social change predicted in science fiction will come to pass, but none of it will work properly.
-Neil Gaiman

You have more to do than you can possibly do. You just need to feel good about your choices.
-David Allen

Distraction! (Video)

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Things are really rough out there.
Please consider donating to Feeding America
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Categories: Andy Borowitz, Bob Newhart, CDC, Chuck E. Cheese, Covid-19, Donald Trump, Microsoft, Mr. T, NASA, Star Wars, Vaccines, Windows

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

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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)

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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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So the Cheeto in Chief wants himself a Space Force! I say give it to him, mainly because one already kinda exists.

The purpose of such an entity, one assumes, would be to defend the good ol' US of A, which is conveniently situated on the planet Earth. And wouldn't you know it, the aforementioned USA already has something called the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO), which is nowhere near as cool as Space Force!, but I'm sure changing the name wouldn't be a big deal.

Located within NASA’s Planetary Science Division, the purpose of PDCO Space Force! is to lead the coordination of interagency and intergovernmental efforts to plan responses to potential impact threats. Throw a little more money their way, though, and point them toward the defense industry folk at the Pentagon, and I'm certain they'll develop phasers and photon torpedos and deflectors and tractor beams and whatnot to handily dispose of any incoming meteors or comets or- nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more- ballistic missiles.

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The Fermi paradox, or Fermi's paradox, named after physicist Enrico Fermi, is the apparent contradiction between the lack of evidence and high probability estimates for the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations.

Where are the Vulcans and the other friendly beings of the would-be United Federation of Planets? A scout expedition performed a thorough survey of the Terran system recently, including its culture and politics, and came to several reasoned observations:

Terran civilization still hasn't mastered solar power, nuclear fusion, or faster-than-light travel. And it probably never will, because:

Terran civilization has the ability to develop technology to prevent the destruction of its atmosphere by a runaway greenhouse effect they themselves caused.

Terran civilization has the ability to develop technology to detect, prevent, or mitigate collisions with asteroids, meteors, comets and other celestrial objects capable of producing extinction-level events.

However-

Terran civilization refuses to dedicate the resources- or as the natives say, "spend the bucks"- to accomplish these tasks, even though they are essential for the ongoing survival of not only their species, but potentially all multi-cellular animal life on the planet.

Do we really want to associate ourselves with a race as self-absorbed as the Catullans and as ethically challenged as the Iotians? Screw 'em, we say. We hear the Alpha Centauri system has three stars, a bunch of life-supporting planets, and is just 7.34 Terran Solar Days away at warp six.

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Categories: Alpha Centauri, Fermi paradox, NASA, Planetary Defense Coordination Office, Space Force, Star Trek, The Daily KGB Report

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I can communicate through a series of short & long groans & sighs. It's called 'morose code'.
-Robb Allen, @ItsRobbAllen (h/t David Kifer, alt.quotations)

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Somewhat alarmed to discover some teens don't recognize "Uncle Sam," I checked with my daughter about my soon to be 11 year old granddaughter's status:

KGB: Does Lea know who Uncle Sam is?

Sara: Oh, I think she would.

KGB: Ask her when convenient.

Sara: She said yes, it's the guy pointing and saying "I want you."

KGB: Excellent. Our nation is in good hands.

Sara: She said "Yes. Yes, it is."

Can't argue with that...>

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"I give them a year."
-Ray Bloch, musical director for "The Ed Sullivan Show," on the Beatles, when they made their first live appearance on American television 50 years ago.

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"Ah, hell. Let's call Froot Loops what they really are: Gay Cheerios."
-Bill Maher

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Those who feel that humans are essentially good and altruistic have never read the comment sections on YouTube.

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I actually used to date a girl named Christie Benghazi, so it's funny for me now when I flip between those two channels.
-John Fugelsang

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The Star Trek Facepalm collection, although I don't think Spock actually qualifies.

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“If we came from monkeys then why are there still monkeys?”

Let me ask you this: If you came from parents, why are there still parents?

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"Fortunes have been lost underestimating Jay Leno."
-Lorne Michaels

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Categories: Cartoons, Cleaning off the desktop, Harrison Ford, Jay Leno, KGB Family, KGB Opinion, Linked In, Michael Collins, Miscellany, NASA, Star Trek, YouTube

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The Science Is Awesome page on Facebook noted in a post that the Curiosity rover has been on Mars for one year. It's measured radiation there, found dried up stream beds which shows Mars once had flowing water, became the first machine to drill into the surface of another planet, and has discovered some of the elements that are essential for life.

Meanwhile on Earth, the US House of Representatives has voted 40 times to repeal Obamacare.

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Categories: KGB Opinion, NASA, Observations, Politics

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Tampa Bay, Florida waterspout, by Joey Mole
(From NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day)

We get an occasional heatwave, a tornado or two, some flash flooding and snow. According to NASA, the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida is arguably the most active area in the world for waterspouts, with hundreds forming each year. Some people speculate that waterspouts are responsible for some of the losses recorded in the Bermuda Triangle.

Most disappearances in our area can be attributed to PennDOT.

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Categories: NASA, Weather

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The first Canadian commander of the International Space Station, Chris Hadfield, is scheduled to return to earth this evening with U.S. astronaut Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko.

Hadfield's been in orbit for 148 days, and during that time he's not only done whatever it this they do on the ISS, he's maintained constant contact with the people of this strange little blue ball via Twitter and other media. But he obviously saved the best for last.

(YouTube video: "A Space Oddity," from the ISS.

Godspeed, guys. May you have a safe and uneventful landing.

And eat your heart out, William Shatner.

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Categories: Chris Hadfield, ISS, Music, NASA, Video, YouTube

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News Headline: “NASA slams spending cuts that put Earth at risk of undetected killer asteroids.”

Let’s not panic, shall we?

It has been more than two weeks since the last undetected asteroid passed between Earth and the moon.

And it was only the third one this month.

-Zay N. Smith, Quick Takes

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Categories: NASA, Zay N. Smith - Quick Takes

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Pittsburgh's three rivers are visible from space, even at night. Photo by Commander Chris Hadfield on the International Space Station."

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Categories: NASA, Photo of the day, Pittsburgh

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Categories: Cartoons, NASA, Rich Tennant, The 5th Wave

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Categories: NASA, Neil Armstrong, Twitter

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Stuff that caught my eye this week:

Of course, the new Eastwood meme:

Other politics:

Family:

My son Doug and my daughter-in-law Angela

Cute animals:

Family and cute animals::

Bella keeps a stiff upper lip as she prepares to watch my granddaughter Leanna depart for the first day of fourth grade.

Miscellany:

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory Curiosity Mars Lander Team visits the cast of The Big Bang Theory:

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Categories: Animals, Barack Obama, Clint Eastwood, Dogs, Hypocrisy, KGB Family, Mitt Romney, NASA, Politics, WTF?

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A nighttime view of Hurricane Isaac with city lights visible through the storm; from NASA's Suomi NPP satellite yesterday.

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Categories: NASA, Photo of the day, Weather

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Neil Armstrong - August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012

"For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink."
-Official Armstrong family statement.

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Categories: NASA, Neil Armstrong

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Categories: NASA, Observations, Olympics

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