AI dystopia; Feds in DC; town hall tumult; Canada is killing itself; Perrier "water"-gate; unhinged Florida man
It's National Vinyl Record Day!
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Knee Deep in the Hoopla
Trump's DC press conference fact-checked live by CNN; Trump confuses Alaska and Russia: A Closer Look. (Video)
Trump’s Farcical D.C. Crackdown. His law-enforcement surge is a show of weakness, not power.
Constituents erupt at turbulent town hall over Big Beautiful Bill cuts. (Video)
Former Trump surgeon general says "people are going to die" after RFK Jr. halts some mRNA vaccine research.
The world will enter a 15-year AI dystopia in 2027, former Google exec says.
‘All technology ever created magnifies existing human abilities and values, and the biggest value set of humanity currently is capitalism.” So, we’re doomed.
The real reason you haven’t been replaced by AI yet. TLDR: No CEO wants to be the first one to face the political firestorm.
Elon Musk can’t control his AI. Just weeks after praising Hitler, Elon Musk's AI chatbot was briefly suspended for new violations, the latest in a string of embarrassing and dangerous failures for the platform's supposed verification tool.
Release of ChatGPT-5 'Beginning of a new era for humanity'.
Canada gave its citizens the right to die. Doctors are struggling to keep up with demand. Assisted suicide now accounts for about one in 20 deaths in Canada—more than Alzheimer’s and diabetes combined—surpassing countries where assisted dying has been legal for far longer.
The Supreme Court is determined to turn voting into a limited privilege. In the United States, our ability to vote is supposed to be protected by law. But on the Voting Rights Act’s 60th anniversary, that law is being eviscerated to stop voters and their lawyers from defending that freedom in court.
Tell me about it: ‘The job market is trash if you are 50+,’ Laid-off Accenture manager can’t find a job, recruiters say he is ‘expensive’. Or, you become a victim of the three percent curse… after 20 years with a company, those modest annual 3% raises makes you a prime target for consultants who cut costs by doing a descending sort on the payroll spreadsheet and targeting those whose salaries are “excessive for the position” they’re in.
Speaking of things that still work but are getting the boot: AOL to discontinue its dial-up internet service after 30 years. At its peak in the late 1990s and early 2000s, AOL had over 23 million subscribers in the US, making it the dominant internet service provider at the time.
Is Perrier as pure as it claims? The bottled water scandal gripping France.
Unhinged Florida man arrested for threatening to use a machete to ‘kill everyone’ on pedophile Epstein’s ‘client list’.
Quote of the Day:
You just can't be good in bed any more. You have to be good at the keyboard too.
-Xaviera Hollander (Wikipedia link)
Today’s holidays:
Baseball Fans Day, IBM PC Day, International Youth Day, National Julienne Fries Day, National Middle Child Day, National Sewing Machine Day, National Vinyl Record Day, Truck Driver Day, and World Elephant Day.
Astronomy Picture of the Day from NASA.
On This Day:
2017 - The Unite the Right rally occured in Charlottesville, Virginia, leading to the deaths of 3 and injuring nearly 50 more.
2015 – At least two massive explosions killed 173 people and injured nearly 800 more in Tianjin, China. (Video)
2000 – The Russian Navy submarine Kursk exploded and sank in the Barents Sea during a military exercise, killing her entire 118-man crew.
1994 – Major League Baseball players went on strike, eventually forcing the cancellation of the 1994 World Series.
1992 – Canada, Mexico and the United States announced completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
1990 – Sue, the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton found to date, was discovered by Sue Hendrickson in South Dakota.
1981 – The IBM Personal Computer was released.
1977 – The first free flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise.
1960 – Echo 1A, NASA's first successful communications satellite, was launched.
1953 – First thermonuclear bomb test: The Soviet atomic bomb project continued with the detonation of "RDS-6s" (Joe 4) using a "layered" scheme.
1914 – World War I: The United Kingdom and the British Empire declared war on Austria-Hungary.
1898 – The Hawaiian flag was lowered from ʻIolani Palace in an elaborate annexation ceremony and replaced with the flag of the United States to signify the transfer of sovereignty from the Republic of Hawaii to the United States where it was formally recognized as Hawaii.
1883 – The last quagga died at the Natura Artis Magistra, a zoo in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
1865 – Joseph Lister, British surgeon and scientist, performed the first antiseptic surgery.
1851 – Isaac Singer was granted a patent for his sewing machine.
1492 – Christopher Columbus arrived in the Canary Islands on his first voyage to the New World.
(For comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
Some Birthdays:
1975 – Casey Affleck, American actor
1971 – Michael Ian Black, American comedian, actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1965 – Peter Krause, American actor
1956 – Bruce Greenwood, Canadian actor and producer
1954 – Sam J. Jones, American actor
1939 – George Hamilton, American actor
1935 – John Cazale, American actor (died 1978)
1932 – Charlie O'Donnell, American radio and television announcer (died 2010)
1931 – William Goldman, American author, playwright, and screenwriter (died 2018)
1930 – George Soros, Hungarian-American businessman and investor
1929 – Buck Owens, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2006)
1928 – Dan Curtis, American director and producer (died 2006)
1927 – Porter Wagoner, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2007)
1926 – John Derek, American actor, director, and cinematographer (died 1998)
1925 – Norris McWhirter, Scottish publisher and activist, co-founded the Guinness World Records (died 2004)
1925 – Ross McWhirter, Scottish publisher and activist, co-founded the Guinness World Records (died 1975)
1917 – Oliver Crawford, American screenwriter and author (died 2008)
1910 – Jane Wyatt, American actress (died 2006)
1907 – Joe Besser, American actor (died 1988)
1906 – Tedd Pierce, American animator, producer, and screenwriter (died 1972)
1887 – Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1961)
1881 – Cecil B. DeMille, American director and producer (died 1959)
1859 – Katharine Lee Bates, American poet and author, wrote “America the Beautiful” (died 1929)
1856 – Diamond Jim Brady, American businessman and philanthropist (died 1917)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2014 – Lauren Bacall, American model, actress, and singer (born 1924)
2009 – Les Paul, American guitarist and songwriter (born 1915)
2007 – Merv Griffin, American actor, singer, and producer, created Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune (born 1925) (His epitaph reads, "I will not be right back after this message")
2000 – Loretta Young, American actress (born 1913)
1989 – William Shockley, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1910)
1982 – Henry Fonda, American actor (born 1905)
1964 – Ian Fleming, English spy, journalist, and author (born 1908)
1944 – Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., American lieutenant and pilot (born 1915)
30 BC – Cleopatra, Egyptian queen (born 69 BC)
(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)
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