"Essential workers" becoming just machines

"Unlawful dental acts"

Hoverboarding dentist gets 12 years in prison for fraud, unlawful dental acts

And if you don't think that's scary you just haven't seen the movie, Marathon Man.

A day to remember

Sept. 18 is National Cheeseburger Day and restaurants are celebrating the made-up food holiday with discounts and free burgers. And unlike some other food days, this one isn't canceled by the coronavirus pandemic.

Who cares if it's "made-up"? You can still eat it, can't you?

Following up

 Tickets for Qantas flight to nowhere sell out in minutes

Management by muddling around

As schools spend big on temperature check tech, experts warn: It won't work

That has not stopped companies, many newly formed or with little track record in temperature detection technology, to join in the rush to pitch lucrative contracts to schools, offering fever checks, contact tracing and other safety services.

Ooops, a little late there, Mac

A little photo editing advice from an old (but not me) newspaper guy

And how many kids hack the schools that do not hack themselves?

How an Epic Series of Tech Errors Hobbled Miami’s Schools

On the morning of August 31, the first day of school, the 345,000 students in Miami-Dade County’s public schools fired up their computers expecting to see the faces of their teachers and classmates. Instead a scruffy little dog in banana-print pajamas appeared on their screens, alongside an error message. “Oh bananas!” read one message from the district’s online learning platform. “Too many people are online right now.”

Newsguard

 "The Internet Trust Tool"

I don't sell stuff here nor (almost never) recommend products but here's one you definitely should take a look at.  Newsguard provides browser extensions and free-standing iOS and Android apps that help evaluate the trustworthiness of internet news sources, with a detailed explanation of how each site is rated. 

It's smart.

Well, this is a little underwhelming

 From a Washington Post newsletter:

Kim Kardashian West and more than two dozen other prominent celebrities are participating in an “Instagram freeze” to protest the social network’s handling of hate speech and its policies on disinformation headed into the 2020 election.

The "freeze" will last one day. Which is, apparently, this one. So we will all just have to suffer through it, but not forever.

Confused no more

How to vote in your state

Get on it.

Bonkers is the new normal

 Trump ad asks people to support the troops. But it uses a picture of Russian jets.

A moment

Head for the cellar, Maude

Federal Judge Rules Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s COVID-19 Shutdown Order Unconstitutional

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A federal judge on Monday struck down Gov. Tom Wolf’s pandemic restrictions that required people to stay at home, placed size limits on gatherings and ordered “non-life-sustaining” businesses to shut down, calling them unconstitutional.

Why not rods?

 I'm no stranger to metric measurements. Science classes I took in the 1950s used metric values…the Army was just converting to metric in the 1960s, when I was there…we've all been talking about megabytes and gigabytes for a long time now.

Meanwhile, most Americans drive in miles and play football in yards.

It seems fair to assume that people who insist on using metric measurements exclusively have long since grown adept at making conversion when they need them.

In any event, if one insists on posting a sign like the one above, they ought to at the very least be accurate. Six feet equals 1.83 meters, not two. Or it's 0.36 rods.

Is it real or…

…is it the Onion? 

PepsiCo to launch drink to aid sleep as consumers struggle with stress

(Hard to tell these days, but this time it's real.)

Speaking of California

 A report from our Pacific Rim bureau:

"One good piece of news is there have been no earthquakes reported in the last 24 hours. So, there's that...."

Onward. 

The Florida of 2000…

…"hanging chads' and all the rest of it…is liable to happen 50 times this year. Start stocking up on popcorn now.

Mismatched signatures prompt tossed absentee ballots and legal fights ahead of November election

"With voting already underway in two states, Democrats and Republicans are drawing battle lines across the country over voter signatures for mail-in ballots, with lawsuits over how signatures are evaluated and whether voters can fix ballots that get tossed. President Donald Trump and Republicans are arguing for strict matches, while Democrats are pushing for easier rules letting people prove they are who they say they are, even if their John Hancocks have changed a bit."

From sea to shining sea

The Gun-Toting, Millennial Restaurant Owner Trying to Ride the Covid Backlash to Congress

The owner of a gun-themed restaurant called Shooters Grill in the town of Rifle [Colorado]…