« 2017-06-05
Home Page
2017-05-31 »

CNN, Heimlich, Einstein's beets, Hitchcock's eggs, scandal scorecard, GOP voicemail spam, Wonder Woman
(permalink)

Published Thursday, June 01, 2017 @ 2:08 AM EDT
Jun 01 2017

Today is Thursday, June 1, the 152nd day of 2017 in the Gregorian calendar, with 213 days remaining. Donald Trump has been President of the United States for 133 days. There are 1,330 days remaining in his term, assuming he doesn't resign or is otherwise removed from office.

-----

The New York Times' On This Day for today.

-----

On this day in 1980, CNN was launched. It was the first television channel to provide 24-hour news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States.

-----

Among other things, today is also National Heimlich Maneuver Day.

-----

A Florida man must serve 180 days in jail for refusing to give up his iPhone password to police, the latest salvo in intensifying legal battles over law-enforcement access to smart phones.

-----

Quote of the day:

"I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky; and all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by."
-John Masefield
(June 1, 1878 - May 12, 1967)
More quotes.

-----

Einstein hated beets. Hitchcock wouldn't eat eggs. The Anatomy of Finickiness: On Alexander Theroux's "Einstein's Beets: An Examination of Food Phobias". Maybe we are what we don't eat.

-----

You can't keep track of all the major investigations of the Trump campaign's possible ties to Russia without a scorecard. Fortunately, the Washington Post provides one.

-----

Republicans want to let robocallers spam your voicemail. The Republican National Committee is backing a petition that would allow political campaigns and businesses to leave automated messages on your voicemail, without your phone having to ring. (Washington Post).

-----

Does a spider use its web like you use your smartphone? There's a debate over whether an arachnid's web is actually a part of its mind. (The Atlantic)

-----

Big pension funds seek to unseat Mylan directors over executive pay, ethics. Over the past year, Mylan became a poster child for pharmaceutical greed over the price of its EpiPen device and a preliminary $465 million settlement with federal authorities for failing to pay sufficient Medicaid rebates. These episodes prompted various government investigations and lawsuits, which caused "significant reputational and financial harm" to the company, the investors wrote. (Stat)

-----

Amazon is refunding $70M of kids' unauthorized in-app purchases. In the meantime, I'm stuck with a case of cat food I ordered by mistake. (Ars Technica)

-----

A study of monogamous mammals shows having a romantic partner changes your brain chemistry. So does a six-pack of Bud. (Quartz)

-----

The New Yorker's John Cassidy on six reasons why the Trump reset won't work. Hint: Trump has something to do with it.

-----

'Something fishy' is going on with Trump's Twitter account, researchers say. A strangely large percentage of Trump's followers- and especially his newest followers- that have only the most rudimentary account information, with no profile picture, few followers and little sign that they have ever tweeted. These are so-called "egg followers" because instead of a profile photo they traditionally carried the image of a blank egg on Twitter account pages. And that, say some researchers, is odd. (Washington Post)

-----

Good reviews continue. The New York Times calls Wonder Woman "a blockbuster that lets itself have fun." The film's director avoided an R rating so little girls could it. (AV Club) And Gizmodo recalls, the first time Batman and Superman met Wonder Woman was downright adorable. (Gizmodo)

-----

The state of Ohio has sued five major drug manufacturers for their role in the opioid epidemic. Named in the suit are Purdue Pharma, Endo Health Solutions, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and subsidiary Cephalon, Johnson & Johnson and subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals, and Allergan. (NPR)

And Express Scripts, the nation's largest pharmacy benefits manager, is suing Kaléo, the manufacturer of Evzio, the injectable overdose treatmentwhose price quintupled last year, drawing widespread outrage and inquiries from members of Congress. Express Scripts claims it is owed more than $14.5 million in fees and rebates related to Evzio, and it has dropped the drug from its preferred list. (New York Times)

-----

Astronomers at The University of Texas at Austin and Harvard University have put a basic principle of black holes to the test, showing that matter completely vanishes when pulled in. Their results constitute another successful test for Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.

-----

Touching the Sun: NASA mission renamed 'Parker Solar Probe'. (Space.com) As my buddy Zay N. Smith notes, "It's OK... We're going at night."

-----

If a nuclear bomb explodes nearby, here's why you should never, ever get in a car. And it isn't Uber surge pricing. (Business Insider)

-----

Megyn Kelly's debut on NBC is likely to be an interview with Vladimir Putin. (The Week)

-----

This weekend marks the 35th anniversary of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, a film most still consider to be the best in the franchise. In an interview, director Nicholas Meyer reflects upon why the movie has endured. (Trekmovie.com)

-----

Seeking to avoid any "character" test in a merger licensing review, CBS tells the FCC that Stephen Colbert's Trump jokes weren't indecent nor obscene. (Hollywood Reporter)

Actions have consequences. Kathy Griffin's posting of a tasteless photo showing her holding a bloody head resembling Donald Trump has prompted her firing by CNN. Griffin and Anderson Cooper had been the network's New Years Eve team since 2007, a bizarre but successful pairing in which the object seemed to be Griffin's outrageous behavior ending the career of the silver-haired newsman. Stupid move, Griffin. Next New Years Eve I'm just going to go to bed.

-----

The A.V. Club recalls Night Court was the black sheep of NBC's 80s sitcom dynasty. It also was frequently the funniest show of the night. Who can forget the pre-Star Trek Brent Spiner (Data) as perpetually down-on-his-luck Bob Wheeler, the "Yugoslavian/West Virginian recidivist knucklehead."

-----

The Covfefe Kerfuffle Compendium:


"Covfefe, when the walls fell."
(Too obscure? See here.
(Jason Togyer on Facebook).

What makes me saddest is that I know I'll never write anything funnier than #covfefe.
-Jimmy Kimmel

Covfefe (n.) When you want to say "coverage" but your hands are too small to hit all the letters on your keyboard.
-Urban Dictionary

If you cannot afford Covfefe, AstraZeneca may be able to help.
-Gin and Tacos

"Covfefe" is a Yiddish term for "I gotta go to bed now."
-Al Franken

Can't sleep. Covfefe will eat me.
-Rose Auerbach

White House reporters burst into laughter as Sean Spicer insists Trump's 'covfefe' tweet was intentional. "The President and a small group of people know exactly what he meant."

And so... How the White House press secretary turned "covfefe" into a covfspiracy. (The Atlantic)

-----

As you see, KGB Report is now a daily effort, and I'd appreciate it if you can share us with your friends and, perhaps, click on the link below and become a patron, or send a donation to me here in the KGB Kave at 1512 Annette Avenue, South Park, PA 15129. Aside from some consulting work, KGB Report, other writing efforts and partial Social Security retirement benefits are looking more and more like my main source of income. So if you like us, chip in a buck or ten every month to keep us on the air. Becoming a patron will also get you free copies of any books we publish on Amazon or Kindle in the coming year. Thanks for your support!


Categories: The Daily KGB Report


Home  

KGB Stuff   Commentwear   E-Mail KGB


Donate via PayPal


Older entries, Archives and Categories       Top of page

« 2017-06-05
Home Page
2017-05-31 »