This is serious: tariffs will cause pandemic-like toilet paper shortage.
It's Dog Farting Awareness Day!
Observations by and for the vaguely disenchanted; information, essential and otherwise, for the day ahead.
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Knee Deep in the Hoopla
The Trump/Musk firehose of folly continues, and it’s impossible to review all but the most egregious outrages here. The Associated Press, NBC, Aljazeera, and The Guardian are my picks for keeping up to date. Check out one or two, take a look, and come back here when you’ve had enough.
Time to stock up: the U.S. could face pandemic-like toilet paper shortages and price hikes. Higher tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber by the Trump administration may disrupt the supply of northern bleached softwood kraft pulp, crucial for making toilet paper. This could lead to shortages and increased prices, reminiscent of the 2020 panic buying. Experts warn of the potential for reduced output and temporary shutdowns at sawmills.
Jon Stewart on Trump's botched tariff rollout and the stock market's meltdown. (Video)
The formula used by the Trump administration to levy reciprocal tariffs contains a serious math error that over-inflates the impact by about a factor of four, economists at the American Enterprise Institute said.
Newspapers across America minimized one of the largest demonstrations since Trump’s return to power. “Please turn to page 18.”
Turns out Bitcoin really isn’t independent from the rest of the market.
AI proves that fingerprints are not unique, upending the legal system.
Dire wolf revived through biotech company's de-extinction process. Dire wolves, which went extinct more than 10,000 years old, are much larger than gray wolves, their closest living relatives today. What could go wrong?
Your body fat may be shaped by the month you were conceived.
Trump planning military parade through DC for 79th birthday.
Shirt of the day (click on image)
KGB Quote of the Day:
"I have this sort of heuristic view that journalism, we possibly offer hope because the world is clearly run by total nincompoops more than ever... Not that journalism is always wonderful- it's not- but at least we offer some way out, some integrity."
--Seymour Hersh (Wikipedia link)
(More Seymour Hersh quotes from the KGB Quotations Database)
Among other things, today is- in no particular order of importance-
KGB REPORT STUFF! (Click on link) On This Day:
1093 – The new Winchester Cathedral was dedicated by bishop Walkelin in Winchester, England.
1730 – Shearith Israel, the first synagogue in continental North America, was dedicated.
1783 – Catherine II of Russia annexed the Crimea.
1796 – Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician, proved the quadratic reciprocity law.
1802 – French Protestant church became state-supported and controlled.
1820 – The Venus de Milo was discovered on the Aegean island of Milos.
1838 – The steamship "Great Western" made its maiden voyage from Bristol, England, to New York.
1869 – The American Museum of Natural History was established.
1904 – British mystic Aleister Crowley transcribed the first chapter of The Book of the Law.
1904 – New York City changed the name of Longacre Square to Times Square,
1904 – Entente Cordiale agreements signed between Britain and France.
1913 – 17th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified by Congress, providing for election of senators by popular vote.
1935 – Works Progress Administration was established by Congress as part of FDR’s “New Deal”.
1943 – U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, in an attempt to check inflation, issued an executive order which froze wages and prices, prohibited workers from changing jobs unless the war effort would be aided thereby, and barred rate increases to common carriers and public utilities.
1952 – U.S. President Harry Truman issued Executive Order 10340 to seize control of the steel industries to avert a strike.
1964 – Unmanned Gemini 1, the first mission in NASA's Gemini program, was launched.
1966 – OAO 1 was launched, the first orbiting astronomical observatory.
1966 – Time published its "Is God Dead" issue - its first issue without a cover image.
1970 U.S. Senate rejects President Nixon's nomination of Judge G. Harrold Carswell to US Supreme Court.
1971 – First legal off-track betting system began (OTB-New York).
1974 – Hank Aaron passed Babe Ruth as the all-time leader in career home runs by hitting his 715th home run off of Al Downing at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. (Video)
1974 – Paul McCartney and Wings released the single "Band on the Run" in the U.S. (Video)
1979 – 205th and final episode of "All in the Family" aired on CBS. (Video)
1983 – In front of a live audience of 20 tourists, David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty “disappear”. (Video) (Video: How he did it.)
1990 – "Twin Peaks" created by David Lynch and starring Kyle MacLachlan premiered on ABC-TV. (Video)
1990 – 18-year-old hemophiliac Ryan White died of pneumonia due to having contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion.
1994 – Rock musician Kurt Cobain was found dead in his home in Seattle, a victim of suicide.
2013 – Margaret Thatcher, 87, the first prime minister of the United Kingdom, died from a stroke.
2022 – First all-private space flight, Axiom-1 launched to the International Space Station .
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Check out the KGB Quotation Database: over 52,000 searchable quotations!
Check out the KGB Quotation Database: over 52,000 searchable quotations!
Quotes by or about persons born on this date (Click on link after name for quotes):
1918 – Betty Ford, American wife of Gerald Ford, 40th First Lady of the United States (d. 2011)
1929 – Jacques Brel, Belgian singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1978)
Other birthdays:
1892 – Mary Pickford, Canadian-American actress, producer, screenwriter and co-founder of United Artists (d. 1979)
1896 – Yip Harburg, American composer (d. 1981) (Video)
1912 – Sonja Henie, Norwegian-American figure skater and actress (d. 1969) (Video)
1920 – Carmen McRae, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actress (d. 1994) (Video)
1923 – Edward Mulhare, Irish-American actor (d. 1997) (Video)
1926 – Shecky Greene, American comedian (d. 2023) (Video)
1931 – John Gavin, American actor and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Mexico (d. 2018) (Video)
1942 – Douglas Trumbull, American director, producer, and special effects artist (d. 2022) (Video)
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