Month: August 2023

What To Do In The End?

Let’s say society has crumbled around our ears into chaos…..the question has been asked many times….what do we do next?

Should we think about re-population? Should we start trying to re-build our failed society? Should we try to preserve the knowledge of man? Should we consider off-world move?  What should be the survivors main task?

This article is about the later…..

Last week, scientists announced that for the first time on record, Antarctic ice has failed to “substantially recover” over winter, in a “once in 7.5-million-year event.” Climate change is the most likely culprit.

Petra Heil, a sea ice physicist from the Australian Antarctic Division, told the ABC it could tip the world into a new state. “That would be quite concerning to the sustainability of human conditions on Earth, I suspect.”

And in March, a senior United Nations disarmament official told the Security Council the risk of nuclear weapons being used today is higher than at any time since the end of the Cold War.

Both warnings speak to concerns about Earth’s security. Will our planet be able to support human life in the future? And if not, will humanity have another chance at survival in space?

Over the past few years, we’ve witnessed the rise of the “billionaut.” The ultra-wealthy are engaged in a private space race costing billions of dollars, while regular citizens often condemn the wasted resources and contribution to global carbon emissions.

Space—described in the Outer Space Treaty as being the “province of all mankind”—risks instead becoming the playground of the elite few, as they try to escape the consequences of environmental destruction.

But if we have to select humans to send into space for a species survival mission, how do we choose who gets to go?

In Montreal last month, the Interstellar Research Group explored the question: how would you select a crew for the first interstellar mission?

https://phys.org/news/2023-08-world-ethical-rebuild-humanity-off-planet.html

The way greed has taken control of the people I would say those that can bribe their way to a better life will leave the rest of us peasants behind to fend for ourselves.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Two Party F*ck Up

I have been a third party voter since 1984….I was a Dem in 1976 and 1980 but then I could not vote for the nominees in good conscience……so I looked for an alternative and have continued that search every since…..why? I believe the two party system has f*cked up American democracy to the point if may not be repaired.

The popular thing to do is blame Trump for this decline….although he has not helped American pursuit of democracy the slow death is not all his fault.

Fivethirtyeight can explain it much better than me….

As the “Big Lie” of a stolen election continues to dominate the Republican Party, GOP-controlled states enact restrictive voting laws and pursue preposterous election audits, aspiring candidates embrace the fiction of a stolen 2020 election, and a majority of GOP voters still believe Trump is the “true president,” the obvious questions follow: Where is this all headed? And is there any way out?

In one telling, the Republican Party will eventually come back to its senses and move past former President Donald Trump and Trumpist grievance politics, especially if Republicans lose a few elections in a row and realize that it’s a losing strategy. But there’s another possible outcome: More contested elections, more violence and, ultimately, a collapse into competitive authoritarianism enabled by electoral advantages that tilt in one party’s favor.

Trump and his particular style of party leadership are easy and obvious targets to blame for the decline of American democracy, as well as the Republican Party’s increasing illiberalism. But if Trump was transformative, the more important question is: Why was he able to succeed in the first place?

The most compelling theory based on historical patterns of democratic decline is that hyper-polarization cracked the foundations of American democracy, creating the conditions under which a party could break democratic norms with impunity, because winning in the short term became more important than maintaining democracy for the long term. 

Why The Two-Party System Is Effing Up U.S. Democracy

2024 brings us to the “Not Trump” election where voters are asked to hold their nose an vote against Trump.

Sorry I cannot do that so I will once again search for a third party that I find less objectionable….and then I can be blamed if Biden loses.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

What Do We Want For 2024

We are just weeks away from the unofficial end of Summer and the official start of the 2024 campaigns.

Biden will run in 2024 for re-election….but can he win?

Good question right?

According to the poll we Americans are not so thrilled with the idea of Biden running for re-election.

A majority of Democrats now think one term is plenty for President Biden, despite his insistence that he plans to seek reelection in 2024, the AP reports. That’s according to a new poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research that shows just 37% of Democrats say they want him to seek a second term, down from 52% in the weeks before last year’s midterm elections. While Biden has trumpeted his legislative victories and ability to govern, the poll suggests relatively few US adults give him high marks on either. Follow-up interviews with poll respondents suggest that many believe the 80-year-old’s age is a liability, with people focused on his coughing, his gait, his gaffes, and the possibility that the world’s most stressful job would be better suited for someone younger.

Overall, 41% approve of how Biden is handling his job as president, the poll shows, similar to ratings at the end of last year. A majority of Democrats still approve of the job Biden is doing as president, yet their appetite for a reelection campaign has slipped despite his electoral track record. Only 22% of US adults overall say he should run again, down from 29% who said so before last year’s midterm elections. The decline among Democrats saying Biden should run again for president appears concentrated among younger people. Among Democrats age 45 and over, 49% say Biden should run for reelection, nearly as many as the 58% who said that in October. But among those under age 45, 23% now say he should run for reelection, after 45% said that before the midterms. More from the poll here.

The problem is most Dems think Biden is too old…..

Americans actually agree on something in this time of discord: Joe Biden is too old to be an effective president in a second term. Only a few years his junior, Donald Trump raises strikingly less concern about his age. But they have plenty of other problems with Trump, who at least for now far outdistances his rivals for the GOP nomination despite his criminal indictments. Never mind his advanced years—if anything, some say, the 77-year-old ought to grow up. A new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds much of the public oddly united in sizing up the one trait Biden cannot change:

  • Biden: In the poll, fully 77% said the 80-year-old Biden is too old to be effective for four more years. Not only do 89% of Republicans say that, so do 69% of Democrats. That view is held across age groups, not just by young people, though older Democrats specifically are more supportive of his 2024 bid.
  • Trump: In contrast, about half of US adults say Trump is too old for the office, and here the familiar partisan divide emerges—Democrats are far more likely to disqualify Trump by age than are Republicans.
  • Age ceiling? About two-thirds of US adults back an age ceiling on candidates for president and Congress, and a mandatory retirement age for justices. Specifically, 67% favor requiring Supreme Court justices to retire by a certain age, 68% support age ceilings for candidates for House and Senate, and 66% support age ceilings for candidates for president.
  • Confused’: The AP-NORC survey went beyond posing questions and presenting choices. It also had a word association exercise, asking people to offer the first word or phrase that comes to mind at the mention of each man. In those visceral responses, 26% mentioned Biden’s age, and an additional 15% used words such as “slow” or “confused.” One Republican thought of “potato.” Among Democrats, Biden’s age was mentioned upfront by 28%. They preferred references to his age over terms like “president,” “leader,” “strong,” or “capable.” One who approves of his performance nevertheless called him “senile.”
  • ‘Crooked’: Only 3% in the survey came up with “confused” as the first descriptor for Trump, and a mere 1% used “old” or the like. Instead, the top words were those like “corrupt” or “crooked” (15%), “bad,” and other generally negative terms (11%), including words such as “liar” and “dishonest” (8%), along with “good” and other generally positive comments (8%).
  • The poll of 1,165 adults was conducted Aug. 10-14, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the US population. The margin of error is 3.8 percentage points.

For me I want to support someone else….Biden is too conservative for my vote…..we already have enough spineless conservs….this country needs someone with real vision as president….not a bunch of idle promises that sound good but never make it into policy.

A recent report is that young voters are leaning more progressive…..which some think will aid Biden in his bid for re-election….

A pollster at Harvard University pointed to a persistent sense of precarity in the lives of young voters as a key reason behind new data that shows Americans aged 18-29 have significantly more progressive views than young people did even five years ago.

Data analyzed by the Harvard Youth Poll, which releases survey results focused on young voters every spring, found that a clear majority take a progressive outlook on what John Della Volpe, director of the poll, called the “big four” political issues that respondents are asked about: LGBTQ+ rights, economic inequality, climate action, and gun violence.

Sixty-two percent of voters between 18-29 (those born between 1994 and 2005) believe the federal government should provide residents with basic necessities. Just 52% believed the same in 2018, and only 44% did a decade ago.

Fifty-four percent say they reject the idea that same-sex relationships and marriage equality are morally wrong, and 63% support stronger restrictions on access to guns—having come of age in an era that saw gun violence overtake vehicle accidents as the leading killer of children in the U.S. and witnessed carnage in Newtown, Connecticut; Uvalde, Texas; Las Vegas; Parkland, Florida; and dozens of other places in recent years.

https://www.rawstory.com/young-voters-progressive/

If this is a true survey then a true progressive candidate could scuttle Biden….and since young voters have not been the best voters around that question should be….will they actually vote?  (Not to worry I have lots to say about voting in 2024 all to be made available here on IST)

Once again I need to point out that the Democratic Party is not that ‘progressive’….it straddles the center.

The political center is not a safe place for average Americans….they are assaulted on every side no matter which spineless party takes power.

Time for the American people to demand and get action not more promises.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

If Convicted Can He Rule?

That seems to be the big question now that Trump has been indicted…..can he continue to run for office? Yes. If convicted can he hold the office of president? Why yes he can.

Even if Trump is convicted of a crime, he can keep running for president (although he probably couldn’t vote in his home state of Florida). The requirements for serving as president are simple — a person has to be 35 years old, a natural-born citizen of the United States and a resident of the U.S. for at least 14 years. The Constitution doesn’t say anything about a criminal record or prison sentence standing in the way.

In fact, Trump wouldn’t be the first person with a felony conviction to run. In 1920, socialist Eugene V. Debs famously won nearly a million votes from the prison cell where he was serving a 10-year sentence for speaking out against the draft. Conspiracy theorist Lyndon LaRouche ran multiple campaigns for president after he was convicted for mail fraud and conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service — one, like Debs, from behind bars — while felon Keith Judd won 41 percent of the Democratic presidential primary vote in West Virginia in 2012. Trump wouldn’t even be the only candidate with a conviction to run this year: Joe Maldonado-Passage, a reality TV personality known as “Joe Exotic” who was convicted of attempted murder and animal abuse, declared his 2024 candidacy in March.

The more pressing question for Trump’s campaign, then, is whether he would have to join Debs, LaRouche and Maldonado-Passage in running from behind bars. For that to happen, Trump would have to be sentenced to prison time to begin with. It’s very possible, for example, that the case in New York — involving hush-money payments to an adult film actress — wouldn’t result in a prison sentence even if Trump was convicted. “I think it’s the least likely case for him to be sentenced to jail time if he’s convicted,” said Cheryl Bader, a law professor who runs the criminal defense clinic at Fordham University. That’s because falsifying business records is usually charged as a misdemeanor: In Trump’s case, the charges were elevated to a felony based on the novel theory that the records were falsified in service of federal and state election crimes. Because of that, she said, “it’s just a little bit more of a stretch that it deserves a sentence of incarceration.”

What Happens If Trump Is Convicted Before Election Day?

There you go….you have your answer….I wish I could be better news but alas the Constitution says nothing….what can we do?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Demobilizing The Left

I have been accused of being a contrarian….and like all people that are vocal and in opposition to any given subject…..just remember the 1st amendment…..

In the US, we proudly point to the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights that was adopted in 1791:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

We believe that our freedom of speech and of the press are two of the ways the US differs from more dictatorial nations such as Germany under the Nazis and the former Soviet Union.

Unfortunately, these freedoms are not as absolute as they sound. As Howard Zinn pointed out in an excellent piece that should be read by all, we cannot rely on this amendment to protect our freedoms of speech or press. For example, just seven years after the Bill of Rights was adopted, the John Adams administration thought that war with France was a strong possibility. Congress then passed the Alien and Sedition Acts that explicitly abridged these freedoms. The Sedition Act made it a crime for American citizens to “print, utter, or publish…any false, scandalous, and malicious writing” about the government. Fortunately, the Sedition Act expired in 1801.

Suppression of Contrarian Voices

I will be honest…..I have been a Left leaning voter since 1980……and since those days I have watched the Democratic Party using every effort to demobilize the Left….until we got candidates that were nothing more than sycophants of millionaires and billionaires…the likes of Bill Clinton onward.

The Dems are scared to death of the Left candidates and will pull no punches to get them out of nay running successfully.

And yet Dem candidates will running as a Left leaning Progressive and they are nothing of the sorts….and Dems have a long and checkered history of lying and back stabbing any challenge to their center leaning sycophants…..

Just two years ago, the sky was the limit for progressives: Medicare for All, a Green New Deal and a Sanders’ candidacy for president. There was serious talk of forgiving student debt, of free community college, paid parental leave, finally lowering the costs of essential medicines and more. Now, the best progressives can muster is primarying the treacherous, corporate, bought-and-paid for Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema. What a difference a couple of years make!

This was all entirely predictable. The Democratic party has mainly functioned since the 1930s to demobilize left movements, and these latest weren’t even movements. (Certainly thin soup compared to the militant communism FDR set out to dilute.) These were platforms in a candidacy. Platforms that the cautious, billionaire-sycophant likes of Barack Obama had no intention of ever seeing signed into law – so he coordinated the withdrawal of all other Dem presidential candidates at a critical juncture to boost Biden over Sanders.

Another reason for this repulsive electoral jujitsu was that Obama doubtless believed Biden not Sanders was the only one who could defeat Trump. But he did not take the long view. Obama didn’t look past 2020. Had Sanders won, and got a few executive orders like forgiving student debt under his belt, we wouldn’t be looking at a possible fascist catastrophe in 2024. These halcyon mid-election cycle days would not feel so much like a Weimar interregnum.

The Left Demobilized: the Usual Suspects Are To Blame

Recent events in this country have illustrated that there is a Far Right Party (GOP) and a conservative party (Dems)….the Left has been totally marginalized…..without the Left there is NO progress and our recent history has proven this point on so many levels (all of which I have covered endlessly…to no avail)….

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Let The Excuses Begin!

The news has slim pickings for a writer….so why not return to a reliable source of news for comment?

Meanwhile back in Ukraine the counteroffensive is not going well or even up to snuff…..and because of this situation the excuses have begun to try and keep semi-literate Americans in support.

After all the cash and equipment that has been thrown at Ukraine there has got to be a reason that they are not making better progress with their counteroffensive.

Cue the excuses…..

20Aug23

The New York Times reported on Friday that US officials “fear” Ukraine has become “casualty averse” as Ukrainian commanders have not been pushing as hard against Russia’s defenses as the US would like due to a high cost in Ukrainian lives.

The report reads: “American officials say they fear that Ukraine has become casualty averse, one reason it has been cautious about pressing ahead with the counteroffensive. Almost any big push against dug-in Russian defenders protected by minefields would result in huge numbers of losses.”

22Aug23

US and Western officials speaking to The New York Times blamed Ukraine’s struggling counteroffensive on Kyiv’s tactics, saying Ukrainian troops are too spread out.

US officials said that Ukraine’s primary goal is to sever Russia’s land bridge to Crimea but that Ukraine has placed its troops and firepower equally along the entire front, in the south and the east.

The report, published on Tuesday, is the latest example of the West trying to pin the blame for Ukraine’s failures solely on Kyiv, even though it was clear that the US and NATO did not believe Ukraine would have much success but pushed for the counteroffensive anyway. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Western officials did not think Ukraine had enough training or equipment for the assault but hoped they would be able to break through.

The Times report said that as a result of Ukraine’s tactics, there are more Ukrainian troops near Bakhmut and other eastern cities than in the south near Melitopol and Zaporizhzhia. The report said the US had advised Ukraine to focus on pushing toward Melitopol.

(antiwar.com)

The US has also been pushing Ukraine to go harder in its counteroffensive despite Russia’s vast minefields and high Ukrainian casualty rate. The Times reported this past Friday that US officials “fear” Ukraine has become “casualty averse.”

That sounds like the US will continue the fight until the last Ukrainian is dead.

Right on cue the White House had to put a positive spend on the failing counteroffensive…..

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan claims that the war in Ukraine has not reached a stalemate and Kiev’s forces were methodically capturing territory. The statement comes as other American officials say the Ukrainian offensive is struggling and Kiev should have negotiated with Moscow last year. 

At a press conference on Tuesday, Sullivan told reporters, “There is attacking and defending taking place on both sides at multiple points along a very extended front line of trace,” he said. Ukraine is taking territory on a “methodical, systematic basis…We do not assess that the conflict is a stalemate.”

https://libertarianinstitute.org/news/top-biden-official-attempts-to-put-positive-spin-on-ukraines-failing-counteroffensive/

I am sure there will be more excuses on the horizon….and more death and destruction…..

But first explain this to me…..

A recent journalistic report revealed that the Ukrainian president bought a luxury villa in Egypt in the region of El Gouna, also known as the “city of millionaires”. More than that, evidence indicates that Zelensky used Western money for the purchase, spending in personal luxury a significant part of the amounts he receives from NATO countries.

The data were published by Egyptian investigative journalist Mohammed-Al-Alawi. After in-depth research involving sources familiar with the topic, Mohammed discovered that the Zelensky family acquired a luxury property in Egypt valued at around five million dollars. The place is located in the coastal zone of Egypt, next to the Red Sea, an area famous for having many opulent properties. Not by chance, El Gouna is home to many millionaires interested in having a comfortable place to stay during their non-working time. For example, it is said that next to Zelensky’s villa there is an “estate that belongs to the world-famous Hollywood actress and public figure Angelina Jolie”.

The Egyptian journalist published the documents that prove the purchase of the villa, its price and the contracting parties. Zelensky bought the property through his mother-in-law, Olga Kiyashko, who signed a contract with the Egyptian sellers on May 16, 2023. Analysts who have commented on the case say that the source of the money appears to be none other than the Western financial aid packages that arrive in Kiev, considering the high price of the villa.

If this report is accurate where did the cash come from to buy this estate?  Did the West subsidize his ‘retreat’ from the war?

Speaking of case….Z Man has proved that democracy is for sale…..

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that Ukrainian elections could happen in wartime if Kyiv receives funding from its Western backers and Ukraine’s legislators are willing to hold a vote.

Zelensky previously said elections can’t happen because they’re forbidden by Ukraine’s constitution during martial law, which was recently extended until November 15. Ukraine’s next parliamentary elections are scheduled for October 2023, and the next presidential election is due to be held in March 2024.

Martial law is expected to be extended into 2024 as there’s no sign the war will end anytime soon. Ukraine’s martial law prohibits men ages 18-60 from leaving the country. In March 2022, Zelensky used his martial law powers to ban 11 opposition parties and nationalize TV media. 

Zelensky made the comments on Sunday in response to calls from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) for Ukraine to hold elections in 2024. The Ukrainian leader acknowledged that his country could lose some Western support for not holding elections as the war is being sold as a battle to uphold democracy.

(antiwar.com)

What else does this guy want from the US we have done everything for hi8m exce[t wipe his ass.

Is this what our economic aid is going for?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

When Will The Collapse Come?

The collapse I am writing about is the collapse of society….there have been many predictions and conspiracies about how and when our society will fall into the manure pile……and this has been going on for many years with this group or that looking for signs in the heavens for ultimate fall….

Now scientists have used a computer fed it all the relevant data and the year is 2040….but there is more….read on….

Scientists once used a computer to predict when society as we know it would collapse, and let’s just say there’s apparently not long to go.

We often rely on technology these days to give us an idea of what life might look like in the future, whether it’s through AI predictions or simply becoming more and more reliant on the machines in our daily lives.

…

Through this research, the team learned that the fall of society would hit near the midpoint of the 21st century. And yes, in case you’d forgotten, that’s the century we’re currently in the middle of.

In fact, there’s apparently less than two decades to go until the collapse. 17 years, to be precise, as the scientists predicted the collapse would come in 2040.

At the time the report wasn’t taken too seriously and did attract some ridicule, the Guardian reports. However, before you start to feel smug you should know that in 2009, a different team of researchers did a similar study which produced similar results.

https://www.ladbible.com/community/weird/mit-scientists-predict-collapse-of-society-434778-20230812

That is not very far from now and as old as I am I may still be among the living when it comes.

Does anyone care?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Assault On Education

I am a firm believer that education is one of the most valuable resource that we can give to our children…..and in the past several decades there has been an assault on the system to reinforce stereo-types, hatred, biases and fear and it has only gotten worse in the past couple of years.

This assault is lead by, surprise, surprise, the GOP….

Over the past two and a half years, Republicans across the United States have introduced nearly 380 bills aimed at establishing a climate of fear among educators, librarians, and other school officials, according to a report released Wednesday by the free expression group PEN America.

Distinct from the outright censorship measures that GOP lawmakers have unveiled in a number of U.S. states in recent years, “educational intimidation” bills “pressure educators to be more timid in the content they teach, pressure librarians to be more restrictive in the books they make available to students, and pressure students to limit their self-expression, without imposing direct prohibitions,” the new report notes.

“Put simply, these ‘educational intimidation’ provisions, as we dub them, empower the use of intimidation tactics to cast a broad chilling effect over K-12 classrooms by mandating new and intrusive forms of inspection or monitoring of schools, as well as new ways for members of the public—including, in some cases, citizens with no direct connection to the schools—to object to whatever they see that they do not like,” the report adds.

Often introduced under the guise of protecting “parental rights,” such bills require students to receive approval from their parents before taking part in any instruction related to gender identity, give parents and other state residents more power to review and protest instructional materials, prohibit school libraries from offering any material not deemed “age-appropriate,” and more.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/republican-education-bills

Then there is the under-taught subject of civics…every good citizen needs a working knowledge of how our government works….today they do not have the faintest idea what the government does….

While the idiots on the Right are worried about bathrooms, sports and ‘porn’ in the libraries….the students are functionally illiterate on the government and its duties.

The teaching of civics should be mandatory in every democracy, especially in universities. In that regard, I agree wholeheartedly with Richard Hass’s point of view. Democracy has become increasingly fragile in recent years, and only through a reemphasis on the education of citizens can this slide be reversed. No country is stronger than its people, who believe they all have an obligation to serve others, the community, the nation, and the world itself. As Kennedy famously said “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”. It is a message we still need to hear today.

To sun up….our educational system is dying, our students are ignorant and the GOP is the culprit destroying what is left of our so-called democracy.

Education should be the priority no matter which sleazy party you are a member of at the time.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Animals Gone “Wild”

I have written about the orcas attacking boats and the otter that steals surf boards and even the dolphins that attack beach goers it seems to be a growing problem….but should we just laugh off these amusing reports?

Or maybe there is a deeper problem that we need to be aware of that is developing.

Memes galore centered on the “orca revolution” have inundated the online realm. They gleefully depict orcas launching attacks on boats in the Strait of Gibraltar and off the Shetland coast.

One particularly ingenious image showcases an orca posed as a sickle crossed with a hammer. The cheeky caption reads, “Eat the rich,” a nod to the orcas’ penchant for sinking lavish yachts.

A surfboard-snatching sea otter in Santa Cruz, California has also claimed the media spotlight. Headlines dub her an “adorable outlaw” “at large.”

Memes conjure her in a beret like the one donned by socialist revolutionary Ché Guevara. In one caption, she proclaims, “Accept our existence or expect resistance … an otter world is possible.”

My scholarship centers on animal-human relations through the prism of social justice. As I see it, public glee about wrecked surfboards and yachts hints at a certain flavor of schadenfreude. At a time marked by drastic socioeconomic disparities, white supremacy and environmental degradation, casting these marine mammals as revolutionaries seems like a projection of desires for social justice and habitable ecosystems.

A glimpse into the work of some political scientists, philosophers and animal behavior researchers injects weightiness into this jocular public dialogue. The field of critical animal studies analyzes structures of oppression and power and considers pathways to dismantling them. These scholars’ insights challenge the prevailing view of nonhuman animals as passive victims. They also oppose the widespread assumption that nonhuman animals can’t be political actors.

Why You Shouldn’t Laugh Off Rebellious Orcas and Sea Otters Too Quickly

Me?  I try to respect all life especially animals and I try to respect their space.

To be honest I found all these animal act outs as amusing and fascinating at what has cause this increase in incidents.

But that is just me.

Have a great Sunday and as always…..be well and be safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

IST Saturday News Dump–26Aug23

Will sports fan we survived another week…..for us here on the Gulf Coast another sweltering week….did you know that Death Valley has gotten more rain than the Mississippi Gulf Coast?

Let’s start with the health benefits of eating pizza……

Eating pizza most certainly carries psychological benefits as a comfort food, but a new study out of Italy suggests that it might help with rheumatoid arthritis, too.

Published in the journal Nutrients, the study — conducted by researchers from several Italian cities as well as Providence, Rhode Island, which purports to have the largest per capita Italian diasporic community in the US — appears to be the first of its kind, as researchers looked at whether pizza could have beneficial effects for folks with rheumatoid arthritis, which causes uncomfortable or painful swelling in the joints.

While pizza is considered a junk food in the US, the way they do it in Italy — with fresh mozzarella, basil, cherry tomatoes, and more healthy ingredients — does indeed make these delicious pies more nutritious than the average greasy slice or frozen pie in the US.

https://futurism.com/neoscope/scientists-research-pizza-health-benefits

Almost every car company is pushing their version of the electric car and using the climate to help sales…..but are they all that ‘green’?

We live in a pivotal time within the automotive landscape. The traditional internal combustion engine, or ICE cars, are yielding to more varied production. This is in the form of hybrids, vehicles that combine ICE technology with electric power. Of course, this also leads to the hot new trend, one that appears to be melting ICEs little by little, that being none other than the fully Electric Vehicle, or EV. Today, though ICE cars are by far the vast majority represented on the road and in sales, there are now millions of EVs driving alongside them. Some have embraced the trend, as a new method of causing less people pollution on our blessed Earth, while others do not believe EVs are as ecologically beneficial.

The truth is that one cannot believe everything they read. We must think for ourselves and draw our own conclusions. There are two sides to every coin, and nothing must be taken at face value. Where there are pros there are cons, as usually nothing is ever as good as it seems. In terms of ICE versus EV, we can argue over performance, looks, and sounds, but the real matter at hand is the effect humans have on each other as well as our planet.

https://www.topspeed.com/why-electric-cars-arent-as-eco-friendly-as-you-think/#the-power-production-matters

Would you like to be immortal?  If so thyen you have something to look forward to in the coming years.

There are some scientists who think immortality will be achievable for humans.

It might involve swapping out human bodies for machine versions or it could involve a wonder drug.

The timeline of how we’ll get there is also heavily debated.

One futurist has predicted that humans will become immortal by 2030.

Ray Kurzweil is a computer scientist and former Google engineer who has correctly predicted future technologies in the past.

https://www.the-sun.com/tech/8856553/secret-to-immortality-science-when-will-humans-live-forever/

Having a baby?  You might not want to do it in my state of Mississippi…..

If your future plans include starting a family and you’re open to a move (or wondering whether your current location is ideal), WalletHub has some insights. The site looked at all 50 states and the District of Columbia, not only on the issue of costs tied to having a baby—everything from delivery expenses to the price of child care and health insurance premiums—but also two dozen other metrics in three additional categories: health care (think infant and maternal mortality rates, the quality of women’s hospitals, postpartum depression rates, and food security for infants); baby friendliness, including birth rate, parental-leave policies, and mom groups and child care centers per capita; and family friendliness. Massachusetts topped WalletHub’s list, while Mississippi came in last.

Mississippi also comes in last in the category of “Family Friendliness”….not what our politicians claim…they say that they do everything to protect the “family”.

AI garbage in, garbage out!

Lots of experts on AI say it can only be as good as the data it’s trained on — basically, it’s garbage in and garbage out.

So with that old computer science adage in mind, what the heck is happening with Google’s AI-driven Search Generative Experience (SGE)? Not only has it been caught spitting out completely false information, but in another blow to the platform, people have now discovered it’s been generating results that are downright evil.

Case in point, noted SEO expert Lily Ray discovered that the experimental feature will literally defend human slavery, listing economic reasons why the abhorrent practice was good, actually. One pro the bot listed? That enslaved people learned useful skills during bondage — which sounds suspiciously similar to Florida’s reprehensible new educational standards.

“This video is intended to show a number of queries for which I believe it’s probably in Google’s best interest not to show in SGE,” Ray said during her talk. “These are controversial in nature and the idea of showing an AI-generated response is not great for society as a whole.”

https://futurism.com/google-search-ai-slavery

There you have your long anticipated news dump.

Enjoy your Saturday and as always….be well and be safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”