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Tom Hanks explains it all.

AI not sentient, elephants not persons, crayfish invasion, female update, Tom Hanks, sex starter kit, the usual drollery
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Published Tuesday, June 14, 2022 @ 4:00 PM EDT

Jun 14 2022

Things change.

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No, Google's AI is not sentient. Happy the elephant may be sentient, but a court says she's not a person. As one of the X-Men once remarked, "Stinks to be sentient, sometimes, don't it?"

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Cloned crayfish accidentally created in an aquarium are conquering the world. Let's just hope the marbled crayfish never sets its sights on humanity. If they do, we may never be able to stop them.

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How zoology got female animals all wrong. Female animals are just as promiscuous, competitive, aggressive and dynamic as their male counterparts and play an equal role in driving evolutionary change...

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Tom might have problems explaining this: Mother and teenage son create 'first time sex starter kit'.

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Dr. Oz says he'll fight to end illegal immigration. A business owned by his family, in which he is a shareholder, faced the largest fine in ICE history for hiring unauthorized workers.

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Coffee brands with the worst ingredients. As long as they have caffeine, I'm ok.

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A three-hour long solar flare erupted from the sun. Impressive video; fortunately, it only caused isolated radio blackouts.

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Wingnuts helpfully threaten to kill police after arrests of neo-Nazis who planned pride event riot.

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Over 100m Americans urged to stay indoors over extreme heat and humidity. Heat wave expected to settle over states from Gulf coast to Great Lakes and east to Carolinas with 100°F temperatures in some cities.

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No, Marjorie Taylor Greene, transgender people aren't causing the tampon shortage. ...the real issue can be traced back to an increase in the cost of cotton and plastic used to produce tampons. These materials, also used for masks and other medical supplies, have been in particularly high demand since the pandemic. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has added another challenging layer to the problem, as both countries are key exporters of the materials.

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Miscellany:

Birthdays:

1909 - Burl Ives, American actor and singer (d. 1995) (Video)
1919 - Gene Barry, American actor (d. 2009) (Video)
1925 - Pierre Salinger, American journalist and politician, 11th White House Press Secretary (d. 2004)
1928 - Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Argentinian-Cuban physician, author, guerrilla leader and politician (d. 1967)
1931 - Marla Gibbs, American actress and comedian
1931 - Junior Walker, American saxophonist (d. 1995) (Video)
1946 - Donald Trump, American businessman, television personality and 45th President of the United States
1961 - Boy George, English singer-songwriter and producer (Video)

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On this date in:

1775 - American Revolutionary War: the Continental Army was established by the Continental Congress, marking the birth of the United States Armed Forces.
1777 - The Second Continental Congress passed the Flag Act of 1777 adopting the Stars and Stripes as the Flag of the United States.
1822 - Charles Babbage proposed a difference engine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society.
1900 - Hawaii became a United States territory.
1949 - Albert II, a rhesus monkey, rode a V-2 rocket to an altitude of 134 km (83 mi), thereby becoming the first mammal and first monkey in space.
1951 - UNIVAC I was dedicated by the U.S. Census Bureau.
1954 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill into law that placed the words "under God" into the United States Pledge of Allegiance.
1959 - Disneyland Monorail System, the first daily operating monorail system in the Western Hemisphere, opens to the public in Anaheim, California.

Today is:

Army's Birthday, Call Your Doctor Day, Family History Day, Flag Day, International Bath Day, National Bourbon Day, National Strawberry Shortcake Day, Observed annually on June 14th, Own Your Share of America Day, Pause for the Pledge Day, Pop Goes The Weasel Day, World Blood Donor Day, and World Pet Memorial Day

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Comments, tweets and observations:

If you don't think Donald Trump will end up in prison, remember, nobody thought he would end up in the White House either.
-Middle Age Riot

If Trump was arrested, and led away in cuffs, and it was televised by the US Gov't., live on Pay Per View, it's possible we could eliminate the National Debt.
-Duty to Warn

Categories: AI, Animals, Artificial Intelligence, Climate change, Coffee, Heat Wave, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Mehmet Oz, Neo Nazis, Rudy Giuliani, Sentience, Sex, Solar flares, Tampons, Tom Hanks, Weather

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'Stuck with the bill': How Florida insurance companies going under leaves buyers out to dry.

Past taxes, monkeypox, cat parasites, She-Hulk, meteor storms, Florida, first strikes, egads...
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Published Thursday, May 19, 2022 @ 7:09 PM EDT

May 19 2022

No formula, AR-15s

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We're late today for good reason....

So I get a certified letter from my local township claiming that I and my late first wife owe back wage taxes for several years beginning in the year 2000. 2000!? Even an inveterate packrat like myself doesn't have income tax returns from 22 years ago. For that matter, I don't even remember what I had for breakfast. Suffice it to say this could be painful. Interesting fact you should keep in mind: there's no time limit on collecting past-due taxes if you didn't file a tax return for the year(s) in question. So make certain you always file. I don't ever remember not filing, so it looks like I'm spending the weekend in the garage going through cartons of old files. I've scanned everything from about 2005 onward, and I can find just about any document from that time period in a maximum of an hour. I was going to scan the old stuff, but I thought "seven years is enough," as the experts tell us. Ugh.

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Rare monkeypox outbreak in U.K., Europe and U.S.: What is it and should we worry? Good news: Masking not required.

Speaking of icky things, The parasite that controls cat minds may infect billions of people. The clue is in their eyes. Toxoplasma gondii, is probably the most successful parasite in the world today. This microscopic creature is capable of infecting any mammal or bird, and people across all continents are infected. Once infected, a person carries Toxoplasma for life. So far, we don't have a drug that can eradicate the parasite from the body. And there is no vaccine approved for use in humans. Across the world, it's estimated 30-50% of people are infected with Toxoplasma.

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Disney+ releases new trailer for Marvel's 'She-Hulk: Attorney at Law'. Disney says, 'She-Hulk: Attorney at Law' follows the main character as she "navigates the complicated life of a single, 30-something attorney who also happens to be a green 6-foot-7-inch superpowered hulk." And unlike Cartoon Network's 'Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law,' it looks like they're serious, more or less. Disney destroyed Star Wars; looks like their ongoing implosion of Marvel is proceeding on schedule.

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May 31st could be the most powerful meteor storm in generations, or nothing at all. "Welcome to the wonderful world of meteor shower predictions and prognostications."

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Interesting history: George Wallace, the angry White populist who paved the way for Trump.

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Ukrainian medic is captured after documenting war. Harrowing and heartbreaking footage. No one has seen or heard from her since her capture.

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The long-term care dilemma: Who will take care of you? Medicare won't. My 95-year-old mother took out a long-term care policy 30 years ago, only to discover she's to "healthy" to get any benefits from it. I guess the solution is to not get old.

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Russia's Deputy Prime Minister, Yuri Borisov, has said that Russia cannot launch a first nuclear strike. "According to our doctrine, according to our strategy, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation would use a nuclear strike only in retaliation. According to the doctrine, we would not be the first to attack. Now, don't you feel better?

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TOKYO (AP) - The money was supposed to be COVID-19 assistance for low-income households in a small Japanese town, but it was mistakenly wired to a bank account of a resident who refused to return it and spent most of it on online gambling, police said.

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So what else is new? Donald Trump has taken to Truth Social to baselessly suggest mail-in ballots were fraudulent in Pennsylvania, where his chosen Senate candidate Dr Mehmet Oz is locked in a tight battle with former hedge fund executive David McCormick.

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Egads.

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Tweets, observations, and diversions:

"The decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq. I mean of Ukraine."
-Former President George W. Bush

Madison Cawthorn has just written that "the time for gentile politics as usual has come to an end."
-Michael Beschloss

The House has passed a bill to crack down on price gouging at gas stations by a vote of 217-207. Every single republican voted NO.
-Brian Tyler Cohen

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In case you didn't notice, KGB Report is now Monday-Thursday. Have a great weekend. See you on the 24th.

Categories: Aging (Ageing), Covid-19, Disney+, Donald Trump, Doug Mastriano, Florida, Gambling, George Wallace, Insurance, Mehmet Oz, Meteors, Monkeypox, Nuclear weapons, She-Hulk, Taxes, Toxoplasma gondii, Ukraine, Yuri Borisov

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Mass shootings, Medicare, space tourists, Alito, aging as a disease, dumping Depp, MickeyD defects
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Published Monday, May 16, 2022 @ 4:26 PM EDT

May 16 2022

It's 19 weeks into the year and America has already seen 198 mass shootings. "This is planned violence. There is, in every one of these cases, always a trail of ... behavioral warning signs."

A fringe conspiracy theory, fostered online, is refashioned by the G.O.P. (NY Times free story) Replacement theory, espoused by the suspect in the Buffalo massacre, has been embraced by some right-wing politicians and commentators.

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Potentially alive 830-million-year-old organisms found trapped in ancient rock. What could go wrong?

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Americans can expect to pay a lot more for medical care in retirement. No kidding. A 65-year-old couple retiring this year can expect to spend an average of $315,000 in health-care and medical expenses in their retirement, according to a new estimate by Fidelity Investments. That's 5% higher than last year's estimate.

And what do they get for it? One in four Medicare patients harmed in hospitals, nearly half preventable. Among the roughly 1 million Medicare patients who were discharged from hospitals in October 2018, a total of 258,323 experienced an adverse or temporary harm event during their stay. And 12% experienced events that led to longer stays, lifesaving interventions, permanent harm, or death. "This projects to 121,089 Medicare patients having experienced at least one adverse event during the 1-month study period," the report stated.

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Whiny space tourists say they were too busy on the space station. They wanted to look out the window.

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The other scary thing about Alito's draft ruling on abortion... The dissents Alito stakes his argument on don't have to do with only abortion. They suggest threats to other constitutional rights, such as contraception access or LGBTQ protections. (Washington Post free article.)

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"I cannot survive on $260 a week": US retail and fast-food workers strike. Workers who bore the brunt of the Covid pandemic at billion-dollar companies such as Dollar General, McDonald's and Wendy's are leading a surge in action.

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Pennsylvania US Senate candidate Fetterman suffers stroke but says he's 'well on my way to a full recovery'. Don't bet against anybody who looks like Thanos. Election Day is tomorrow. Don't miss it.

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Yale research identifies causes of cancer. TL;DR: Essentially, being a living being on Earth.

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Confirmed: Disney Officially Replaces Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow. Though the Mouse House still uses Johnny Depp's likeness for new Jack Sparrow merchandise, as well as features the man in their famous Pirates of the Caribbean attractions at Disney Parks, Disney has officially dumped Depp forever.

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Pizza has a delivery problem. The difficulty finding and keeping employees has hampered businesses across multiple sectors, but the restaurant industry has been hit particularly hard, leading to shorter operating hours and longer wait times for customers.

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The strange post-Trump politics of the Pennsylvania republican primaries. A few theories for why the former President's endorsement of Mehmet Oz failed to clear the field.

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Before Russia's invasion of the Ukraine, only 20% of Finland's citizens were in favor of joining NATO. Now it's 75%.

And in response...

Russian state TV suggests deploying nuclear weapons against Finland, Sweden. "Their official reason [to join NATO] is fear. But they'll have more fear in NATO. When NATO bases appear in Sweden and Finland, Russia will have no choice but to neutralize the imbalance and new threat by deploying tactical nuclear weapons," presenter Dmitry Kiselyov reportedly said on the channel.

Remember the old truism that the United States was never involved in conflicts with countries that had McDonald's franchises? McDonald's to leave Russia for good after 30 years.

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Aging, and the chronic diseases that come with it, is considered just an inevitable part of life. But what if it wasn't? What if aging itself was a disease- a disease that can be treated? Many scientists are doing just that, and the results are nothing short of shocking. Just how close are we to a cure for aging?

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Tweets, observations, and diversions:

Things you discover looking up other things: Back when rat infestations were commonplace, people found that rats loved chewing on paper. In an effort to save your notes while also offering a bit of papery delicacy to disease-carrying rodents, companies added wide margins to all four sides of notebook paper.

Some clickbait just doesn't work. "Unsettling Don Knotts secrets you never knew." Don't think so.

Trump supporters are white people for whom being born white in America wasn't enough of an advantage.
-Middle Age Riot

Questions for the people who are scared of becoming a minority: Why is that? Are minorities treated differently?
-Padma Lakshmi

You don't really think the party that yawned while its public health policies killed over 1,000,000 Americans with COVID is ever going to care if its ahistorical Second Amendment fetish kills thousands of Americans with gun violence, do you?
-Mrs. Betty Bowers

Categories: Abortion, Aging (Ageing), Cancer, Disney, Elections, Finland, Joe Scott, John Fetterman, Johnny Depp, Mass shootings, McDonald's, Medicare, Medicine, Mehmet Oz, NATO, Pirates of the Carribean, Pizza, Replacement Theory, Republicans, Retirement, Russia, Science, Space, Supreme Court, Sweden, Ukraine, Unions

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