Skynet is here; AI expert to medical/law students: don't bother; no parcels for you; we could run out of rubber: “You’re talking about a complete global societal meltdown.”
It's National Whiskey Sour Day!
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Knee Deep in the Hoopla
“I think what we’re going to be doing is first connecting a lot of these systems that otherwise would not have been talking to one another. We’re going to be making large numbers of cruise missiles, large numbers of fighter jets, large numbers of surface and sub-surface systems. I guess I would hope that Andúril is making most of the stuff that is being used on day nine, day ten, day eleven, day one hundred. I think a lot of that is going to be coming out of our factories after everything else is run dry.”- 60 Minutes interview (video) of Palmer Luckey, a co-founder of defense technology company Andúril Industries.
(Andúril (translation: Flame of the West) is the name of the sword wielded by Aragorn in the third age of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Google says the name reflects the sword's symbolism as a beacon of hope and a weapon against darkness, which aligns with the company's goal of developing advanced, AI-powered defense systems to protect national security.)
An artificial intelligence controlling a vast array of autonomous weapons systems? Hey, McFly! Ever heard of Skynet?The founder of Google's generative AI team says don't even bother getting a law or medical degree, because AI's going to destroy both those careers before you can even graduate. "Either get into something niche like AI for biology... or just don't get into anything at all."
Mail services around the world halt US deliveries ahead of de minimis end. Postal services across the world are cutting off parcel deliveries to the US as the fast-approaching end of a tariff exception for low-value packages sows chaos in global shipping.
Trump makes over the Rose Garden, Mar-a-Lago style. By Trump's telling, getting rid of the grass was a necessity, because it got too soggy for fine footwear.
"You see the women?" Trump said in a February interview with The Spectator magazine. "The grass was wet. Their heels are going through the grass, like, four inches deep."
Several news reports show the US/Mexico border wall being painted black in order to make it too hot to climb over. Problem is, they’ve painted the US side of the wall, not the Mexico side. Maybe the real aim is to keep Americans from fleeing. (As a comic pointed out, painting the wall black should be effective, as long as would-be illegals have never heard of gloves. Or night.)
Enslaved grandparent syndrome: “That capitalism thrives on the unpaid domestic labor of women isn’t exactly news, but the grandparental revolt is a new manifestation of it. Love shouldn’t come with a price, but the care work that comes with love: why shouldn’t it? Why should mostly older women be propping up insufficient childcare systems?”
Posts overestimate number of noncitizens living in US by tens of millions. Experts noted that the 55 million people with U.S. visas includes tens of millions who hold tourist visas, which can last up to 10 years, depending on one’s nationality. The State Department issued nearly 6.5 million tourist visas last year.
This is the natural disaster to worry about: “You’re talking about a complete global societal meltdown.” (Video)
Dallas police use cowboy hats to attract recruits. They obviously want only the best.
Keep scrolling down. Lots of interesting stuff in today’s daily features.
Quote of the Day:
To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time.
--Leonard Bernstein (Wikipedia link)
(More Leonard Bernstein quotes from the KGB Quotations Database)
Today’s holidays:
Aromantic Spectrum Visibility Day, Kiss and Make Up Day, Motorist Consideration Monday, National Banana Split Day, National Park Service Founders Day, National Second-hand Wardrobe Day, and National Whiskey Sour Day.
Astronomy Picture of the Day from NASA.
On This Day:
2017 – Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the United States since 2004.
2012 – Voyager 1 spacecraft entered interstellar space, becoming the first man-made object to do so.
2005 – Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Florida.
2003 – NASA successfully launched the Spitzer Space Telescope.
2001 – American singer Aaliyah and several members of her entourage were killed as their overloaded aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff from Marsh Harbour Airport, Bahamas.
1991 – Linus Torvalds announced the first version of what would become Linux.
1991 – Belarus gained its independence from the Soviet Union.
1989 – Voyager 2 spacecraft made its closest approach to Neptune, the last planet in the Solar System at the time, due to Pluto being within Neptune's orbit from 1979 to 1999.
1986 – Paul Simon's seventh solo studio album, "Graceland", was released. (Video)
1981 – Voyager 2 spacecraft made its closest approach to Saturn.
1979 – TV series "Hart to Hart" premiered on ABC. (Video)
1975 – Bruce Springsteen's third studio album, "Born To Run", was released. (Video)
1967 – George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party, was assassinated by a former member of his group.
1962 – Little Eva’s single, “The Loco-Motion”, written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King. hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. (Video)
1960 – The Games of the XVII Olympiad commenced in Rome, Italy.
1958 – The world's first publicly marketed instant noodles, Chikin Ramen, were introduced by Taiwanese-Japanese businessman Momofuku Ando.
1950 – To avert a threatened strike during the Korean War, President Truman ordered Secretary of the Army Frank Pace to seize control of the nation's railroads.
1948 – The House Un-American Activities Committee held the first-ever televised congressional hearing: "Confrontation Day" between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss.
1945 – Ten days after World War II ended with Japan announcing its surrender, armed supporters of the Chinese Communist Party killed U.S. intelligence officer John Birch, regarded by some of the American right as the first victim of the Cold War.
1944 – World War II: Paris was liberated by the Allies.
1939 – The film “The Wizard of Oz” was released in the United States. (Video)
1916 – The United States National Park Service was created.
1894 – Kitasato Shibasaburō discovered the infectious agent of the bubonic plague and published his findings in The Lancet.
1875 – Captain Matthew Webb became the first person to swim across the English Channel, traveling from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in 21 hours and 45 minutes.
1835 – The first Great Moon Hoax article was published in The New York Sun, announcing the discovery of life and civilization on the Moon.
1814 – War of 1812: On the second day of the Burning of Washington, British troops torched the Library of Congress, United States Treasury, Department of War, and other public buildings.
1609 – Galileo Galilei demonstrated his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.
(For comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
Some Birthdays:
1987 – Blake Lively, American model and actress
1976 – Alexander Skarsgård, Swedish actor
1970 – Claudia Schiffer, German model and fashion designer
1968 – Rachael Ray, American chef, author, and television host
1964 – Blair Underwood, American actor
1962 – Theresa Andrews, American competition swimmer and Olympic champion
1961 – Ally Walker, American actress
1961 – Billy Ray Cyrus, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
1958 – Tim Burton, American director, producer, and screenwriter
1958 – Christian LeBlanc, American actor
1954 – Elvis Costello, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1949 – John Savage, American actor and producer
1949 – Gene Simmons, Israeli-American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
1949 – Martin Amis, British novelist (died 2023)
1945 – Hannah Louise Shearer, American screenwriter and producer
1939 – John Badham, English-American actor, director, and producer
1939 – Marshall Brickman, Brazilian-American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2024)
1933 – Tom Skerritt, American actor
1931 – Regis Philbin, American actor and television host (died 2020) (Video)
1930 – Sean Connery, Scottish actor and producer (died 2020) (Video)
1921 – Monty Hall, Canadian television personality and game show host (died 2017) (Video)
1919 – George Wallace, American lawyer, and politician, 45th Governor of Alabama (died 1998)
1918 – Leonard Bernstein, American pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1990) (Video)
1917 – Mel Ferrer, American actor, director, and producer (died 2008)
1916 – Van Johnson, American actor (died 2008)
1913 – Don DeFore, American actor (died 1993)
1913 – Walt Kelly, American illustrator and animator, creator of Pogo (died 1973)
1909 – Michael Rennie, English actor and producer (died 1971) (Video)
1909 – Ruby Keeler, Canadian-American actress, singer, and dancer (died 1993) (Video)
1530 – Ivan the Terrible, Russian ruler (died 1584)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2018 – John McCain, American politician (born 1936)
2012 – Neil Armstrong, American pilot, engineer, and astronaut (born 1930) (Video)
2009 – Ted Kennedy, American politician (born 1932)
2001 – Aaliyah, American singer and actress (born 1979)
2000 – Carl Barks, American author and illustrator (born 1901) (Video)
1988 – Art Rooney, American businessman, founded the Pittsburgh Steelers (born 1901)
1984 – Truman Capote, American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter (born 1924)
1980 – Gower Champion, American dancer and choreographer (born 1919)
1979 – Stan Kenton, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (born 1911)
1967 – Paul Muni, Ukrainian-born American actor (born 1895)
1965 – Moonlight Graham, American baseball player and physician (born 1879)
1956 – Alfred Kinsey, American biologist and academic (born 1894)
1945 – John Birch, American soldier and missionary (born 1918)
1908 – Henri Becquerel, French physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1852)
1900 – Friedrich Nietzsche, German philologist, philosopher, and critic (born 1844)
1867 – Michael Faraday, English physicist and chemist (born 1791)
1822 – William Herschel, German-English astronomer and composer (born 1738)
1819 – James Watt, Scottish engineer and instrument maker (born 1736)
79 – Pliny the Elder, Roman commander and philosopher (born 23)
(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)
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