7.23.2022

"Drop it," said the cop

Man Busted For Battering Cop With Hot Dog

“The defendant was asked to put the hot dog down as he continued his attempt to sell it,” reported Officer Anthony Bragano. When directed to drop the hot dog, Stoll reportedly became “extremely upset” and threw the item--which is not a sandwich--at Sergeant Michael Karayianes.

Saturday


 

No place to hide

High-Tech Smell Sensors Aim to Sniff Out Disease, Explosives—and Even Moods

“It’s absolutely a growing field,” says Andreas Mershin, an odor-sensor researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “We’re recognizing that there’s a whole world of molecules we’re blind to.” He calls the field an “unexplored goldmine.”

"Goldmine" is the key word there.

And then someone will develop a whole range of anti-smell smells, and we'll be off. 

An artist at work


The Pentagon “is making some preliminary explorations into the feasibility of potentially providing fighter aircraft to the Ukrainians,” said John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications. “But it’s not something that they’re going to be able to execute immediately or even in the short term.”
Saying nothing in as many words as possible.

7.22.2022

"The $4 trillion health care industry"

Amazon might own your doctor’s office after latest acquisition

He predicted that patients in the future would be so used to telehealth and other new conveniences that they'll think that things like long wait times and delays between in-person visits commonly experienced today are actually "insane."

Everybody WILL love it. 

vi·cis·si·tude | vəˈsisəˌto͞od |

 There was a time I could run a mile in under 10 minutes wearing combat boots.

Now, after a couple of weeks careful metering by an activity tracker, I discover it takes me half an hour just to walk that far. And even that's a wee cheat.

Given that some number of guys my age are already dead, I'll take what I can get.

And, really, it's not all that bad to lead a slower life, once you get the hang of it.

7.21.2022

If you're trying to make me crazy you might as well know…

Biden must 'stop the fall in gasoline prices,’ set $5 gallon minimum to combat climate change: Bloomberg op-ed


…it's working.

Met walking

 


Meanwhile, in New England news

Chicken hitches ride, ends up in Vermont’s largest city

The chicken is now home. Because of her adventurous spirit, the family changed her name from Bug to Amelia after Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean.

Cat on the lam: Pet caught after weeks on the run at airport

Rowdy’s time on the lam began June 24, as Sahli and her husband, Rich, returned to the U.S. from 15 years in Germany with the Army. When their Lufthansa flight landed, the 4-year-old black cat with green eyes escaped her cage, in pursuit of some birds.

Burning it

Futures have climbed 48% in July as power plants guzzle the fuel to keep air conditioners humming

Coal, like gas, is in high demand from power producers struggling to generate enough electricity to run air conditioners. 

Now, consider this. The tiny state of Massachusetts has 2 million registered automobiles. If just half were electric, that'd be a million cars to recharge at least a couple times a week in addition to all that AC. 

California has 14 million registered autos. 

(All the states here.)

7.20.2022

Let it be noted here…

 …that this heat-related advice…

In New York, state leaders urged residents to stay indoors in the coming days…

…and similar injunctions from across the land apply only to those who can afford to stay indoors and not to those essential workers…yes, those same essential workers…who deliver the take-out to the suitably cooled. 

And keep the air conditioners running. As well as everything else.

Or, in other words, work.

Industry in a connected world

Amazon's New Weapon Against Fake Reviews: A Lawsuit Aimed at Thousands of Facebook Groups

Amazon’s new legal filing comes on the heels of renewed governmental efforts to quell the widespread fake reviews industry, which influenced around $152 billion in global spending last year, according to a report from the World Economic Forum.

Note these fake reviews are more likely to be fake good reviews than bad reviews, but fake bad reviews do exist, as well.  

Just any kind of information would be nice

ABC News, in a recent article regarding the erstwhile disinformation board at the Department of Homeland Secutity, describes it as

"a board to address privacy concerns that arise with disinformation campaigns when information is shared between departments, as well as to ensure it's done appropriately."

That's uninformation.

7.18.2022

And all generated by burning coal

Elizabeth Warren, Congressional Dems are coming for crypto miners

Just seven Bitcoin miners will use up the same amount of electricity as the entire city of Houston

Politics aside, this is the centuries-old all-American industrial story: The cost of that electricity may be set by the market but the public gets stuck with the effulent — in this case, all that carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere. 

Regulating the monetary aspect of cryptocurrency is one thing; taxing carbon emissions is another.