Unmasking ICE; too much/too little money; insane AI; your snot is your friend.
It's Capybara Appreciation Day!
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Knee Deep in the Hoopla
Take off the mask, ICE. The federal government should prohibit the wearing of masks by ICE agents and require them to properly identify themselves.
Pentagon provided $2.4 trillion to private arms firms to ‘fund war and weapons’, report finds. Most of the Defense Department’s discretionary spending from 2020 to 2024 went to military contractors.
FDA layoffs could compromise safety of medications made at foreign factories, inspectors say. Beyond staff cuts, the departures of some longtime investigators in recent months have left less experienced people tasked with rooting out dangerous manufacturing practices.
A decade of missed opportunities: Texas couldn’t find $1M for flood warning system near camps.
'Lives are at stake:' Deadly Texas storms put spotlight on Trump's weather agency cuts.
Elon Musk’s Grok is calling for a new Holocaust. The chatbot is also praising Hitler and attacking users with Jewish-sounding names.
CEO of Elon Musk’s X, Linda Yaccarino, resigns. Yaccarino did not give a reason for her decision to step down from the social media platform, which has become increasingly controversial since Musk bought it in 2022.
ChatGPT is pushing people towards mania, psychosis and death – and OpenAI doesn’t know how to stop it.
These people believe they made AI sentient... aka ChatGPT psychosis. (Video)
What your snot can reveal about your health. …the mucus in our nasal passages is arguably one of the wonders of the human body.
Florida man nominated for Nobel Peace Prize. His credentials include ending asylum protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants and bombing nuclear sites in Iran.
Quote of the Day:
Everything great in the world comes from neurotics. They alone have founded our religions and composed our masterpieces.
--Marcel Proust (Wikipedia link)
(More Marcel Proust quotes from the KGB Quotations Database)
Today’s holidays:
Black Women's Equal Pay Day, Capybara Appreciation Day, Chronic Disease Day, Clerihew Day, Don't Step on a Bee Day, National Kitten Day, National Piña Colada Day, Nikola Tesla Day, Pick Blueberries Day, and Teddy Bear Picnic Day.
Astronomy Picture of the Day from NASA.
On This Day:
2019 – The final Volkswagen Beetle rolled off the line in Puebla, Mexico; the last of 5,961 "Special Edition" cars will be exhibited in a museum.
2012 – The Episcopal Church USA allowed same-sex marriage.
1997 – Scientists reported the findings of the DNA analysis of a Neanderthal skeleton which supports the "out of Africa theory" of human evolution, placing an "African Eve" at 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.
1985 – The Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior was bombed and sunk in Auckland harbor by French DGSE agents, killing Fernando Pereira.
1962 – Telstar, the world's first communications satellite, was launched into orbit.
1962 – U.S. patent issued for three-point seatbelt.
1940 – World War II: The Vichy government was established in France.
1940 – The Battle of Britain began.
1938 – Howard Hughes began a 91-hour airplane flight around the world that will set a new record.
1925 – Scopes trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, the so-called "Monkey Trial" began of John T. Scopes, a young high school science teacher accused of teaching evolution in violation of the Butler Act.
1890 – Wyoming was admitted as the 44th U.S. state.
1850 – U.S. President Millard Fillmore was sworn in, a day after becoming president upon Zachary Taylor's death
1553 – Lady Jane Grey began her nine-day reign as Queen of England, the shortest stint for a British monarch in history. Her Catholic cousin Mary deposed her, tried her for treason and, after initially letting her live, had her beheaded.
1212 – The most severe of several early fires of London burns most of the city to the ground.
(For comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
Some Birthdays:
2024 – Moo Deng, Thai celebrity pygmy hippopotamus
1980 – Jessica Simpson, American singer-songwriter, actress, and fashion designer
1977 – Chiwetel Ejiofor, English actor
1974 – Brian Thompson, American insurance executive (died 2024)
1972 – SofÃa Vergara, Colombian-American actress and producer
1947 – Arlo Guthrie, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
1945 – Ron Glass, American actor (died 2016)
1943 – Arthur Ashe, American tennis player and journalist (died 1993)
1941 – Robert Pine, American actor and director
1939 – Mavis Staples, American singer
1934 – Jerry Nelson, American puppeteer and voice actor (died 2012)
1931 – Alice Munro, Canadian short story writer, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2024)
1931 – Jerry Herman, American composer and songwriter (died 2019)
1931 – Nick Adams, American actor and screenwriter (died 1968)
1929 – George Clayton Johnson, American author and screenwriter (died 2015)
1927 – David Dinkins, American soldier and politician, 106th Mayor of New York City (died 2020)
1926 – Fred Gwynne, American actor (died 1993)
1922 – Jake LaMotta, American boxer and actor (died 2017)
1922 – Jean Kerr, American author and playwright (died 2003)
1921 – Eunice Kennedy Shriver, American activist, co-founded the Special Olympics (died 2009)
1921 – Harvey Ball, American illustrator, created the Smiley (died 2001)
1920 – David Brinkley, American journalist (died 2003)
1917 – Don Herbert, American television host known as "Mr. Wizard" (died 2007)
1914 – Joe Shuster, Canadian-American illustrator, co-created Superman (died 1992)
1911 – Terry-Thomas, English comedian and character actor (died 1990)
1875 – Mary McLeod Bethune, American educator and activist (died 1955)
1871 – Marcel Proust, French novelist, critic, and essayist (died 1922)
1856 – Nikola Tesla, Serbian-American electrical and mechanical engineer (died 1943)
1839 – Adolphus Busch, German brewer, co-founded Anheuser-Busch (died 1913)
1509 – John Calvin, French pastor and theologian (died 1564)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
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