It's the plumbers union…

 

…that dyes the Chicago River green every year for St. Patrick's Day.

Don't get me started on the Middle East

For a compelling example of the fecklessnes of government, one needs look no farther than the Great TikTok Debate as discussed by Julia Agwin in todays NYTimes:

It is truly stunning that lawmakers feel comfortable pushing a TikTok ban during a high-stakes election year. After all, one-third of U.S. adults say they use the site, and one-third of U.S. adults under 30 say they regularly get their news on TikTok. Even President Biden, despite saying he would sign the ban into law if it made it to his desk, just started a TikTok channel for his re-election campaign.

 [Emphasis mine.]

Meanwhile Charles Schumer, majority leader of the U.S. Senate, delivers what the Times calls a pointed speech declaring…

"Prime Minister Netanyahu has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel.”

Which is exactly what the current resident of the White House…

…there. See what you did? Got me started on the Middle East.

Two questions I can't answer

1. Why does the cost of living in big cities seem to be soaring while the cost of commercial real estate is dropping like a stone? [Market Watch]
2. Where are Fed Ex and UPS storing all those hundreds of packages they have for me but are unable to deliver until I answer all the messages in my spam folder? [Who knows?]

Now things get serious

Exclusive: African cocoa plants run out of beans as global chocolate crisis deepens

"We need massive demand destruction to catch up with the supply destruction," Tropical Research Services' Steve Wateridge, a world expert on cocoa, said.

Demand destruction? Really? Can you spell "fat chance"?

Happy Pi Day

 You'll never need more than half of them.

And more…from Wired:

You Can Count on Pi

By definition, it's the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle. It's not obvious why that should be special, but pi shows up in a bunch of cool places that seem to have nothing to do with circles.

Scary stuff in Davos-speak

"Carolina Klint, chief commercial officer in Europe for Marsh McLennan, said: “Artificial intelligence breakthroughs will radically disrupt the risk outlook for organisations* with many struggling to react to threats arising from misinformation, disintermediation and strategic miscalculation."

It goes on to mumble something about a "risk landscape" but I stopped reading before I got that far.

But it's even worse — the whole AI disinformation thing — we are told, than the entire now-famous Kate Middleton photo muddle: 2024 is a worldwide election year, and fakery is everywhere.

It's so bad that a bunch of big tech companies — including all the usual suspects like Meta, Google, TikTok, OpenAI, X, etc.. etc. — all the usual suspects — "to voluntarily adopt 'reasonable precautions' to prevent artificial intelligence tools from being used to disrupt democratic elections around the world."

Or in other words, we're on our own.

There's always a price and it's always a surprise

Solar-Powered Farming Is Quickly Depleting the World's Groundwater Supply

There is a solar-powered revolution going on in the fields of India. By 2026, more than 3 million farmers will be raising irrigation water from beneath their fields using solar-powered pumps. With effectively free water available in almost unlimited quantities to grow their crops, their lives could be transformed. Until the water runs out.

Of course, doing nothing is not a very reliable option either, so we sort of seem to be stuck with it. 

Californians find new way to shut down freeway

Toilet paper clogs traffic on 5 Freeway in Santa Clarita

Approximately three boxes of toilet paper fell from a vehicle onto the southbound lanes of the 5 Freeway in Newhall near the Calgrove Blvd. exit.

Three boxes? 

OK, what?

Dallas Seavey Wins Record Sixth Iditarod Despite Moose-Gutting Penalty

The ethics of the Iditarod race require that when a large animal like a moose or caribou is killed during the competition, its meat must be taken and distributed. So the sledder involved in the accident must stop and gut the animal.

Sure, that explains it, I guess. But what explains that? How does a moose (or a caribou)…? 

Maybe it's best not to ask.

Man does not bite dog

Trump and Biden Clinch Nominations, Setting Up November Rematch

Man Bites Dog, as the old saying makes clear, would be news. This is not.

One of them getting elected in November, however, just might be.

[No link, because you can surely read the same story in any newspaper you pick up this morning. Why waste the bandwidth?]

Congress has the power of the purse…

Pentagon will give Ukraine $300 million in weapons even as it lacks funds to replenish US stockpile

It’s the Pentagon’s first announced security package for Ukraine since December, when it acknowledged it was out of replenishment funds. It wasn’t until recent days that officials publicly acknowledged they weren’t just out of money to buy replacement weapons, they are $10 billion overdrawn.

…but the Executive branch, apparently, has the power of the overdraft. And a billion here, a billion there…pretty soon you're talking about real money.

In the scheme of things, the money's not as important as time. Even with all our manufacturing capacity ramped up to full speed, it'll take a long time to replace all that stuff. And time is something we could easily run out of, even if money's not.

It's going to be a dangerous year.

March Meowness (no kidding)

Cat pictures used as currency to forgive late fees at this Massachusetts library

For the month of March, locals can come into the library and present any cat picture — a photo of their own cat, someone else’s cat, a wild tiger … or even a drawing — and have their outstanding fees waved, according to the library’s website.

[H/T Catherine]

And counting

 

Sound familiar?

As Putin orchestrates his reelection, a resilient Russian economy is a key selling point

Massive Russian spending for military equipment and hefty payments to volunteer soldiers are giving a strong boost to the economy. Government-subsidized mortgages are supporting apartment buyers in a powerful kick to the booming construction sector, as evidenced by several mammoth high-rise developments going up on the banks of the Moscow River.

It's not all rainbows. There'll be a massive bill come due for the Russians (and for the U.S. too) somewhere down the line. But it seems to me — and I'm out of my depth here, I admit — it seems the attempt to restrain Russia's military adventure by imposing economic sanction is a flop.

Because where else

An AI-Altered Hitler Speech Is Going Viral On X

[The poster] Lucre, whose real name is Dominick McGee, has become a hugely influential figure in conspiracy circles, where he shares QAnon content and GOP commentary, much of it accompanied by images or videos that have been altered. His content is often shared by prominent lawmakers, including former president Donald Trump.

[SPOILER: He didn't say that.] 

Mariupol

Documentary fillmmaking (sorry, does anybody use film anymore?) is certainly a form of journalism but it's not often that video shot in the "breaking" moment winds up in the Oscar spotlight.

Last night, the AP/PBS production 20 Days in Mariupol did. 

You can watch it on the PBS web site, here, or in the PBS app.

But someday maybe

They Thought It Was an Interstellar Meteorite Strike. Turns Out It Was a Truck.

“The fireball location was actually very far away from where the oceanographic expedition went to retrieve these meteor fragments," he said. "Not only did they use the wrong signal, they were looking in the wrong place.”

Or…maybe…still not so maybe.