Another view

Michael Lind: Why Tariffs Are Good 

In 2023 China produced roughly half of the world’s crude steel. China is the world’s largest automobile maker, accounting for a third of the global total. China’s state-backed aerospace company, the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), threatens to take global market share from America’s Boeing and Europe’s Airbus. China is also the world’s largest commercial shipbuilder, responsible for more than half of all shipbuilding. America’s share of the global shipbuilding market is 0.10 percent. …During the Covid pandemic, Americans were shocked to learn how dependent the U.S. is on medical supplies from China, which provides around 30 percent of active pharmaceutical ingredients used in drugs by value and 78 percent of the vitamins in the U.S. A single Chinese company, DJI, controls 90 percent of the American drone market, including 90 percent of the drones used by American police departments and first responders.

"Like the Hunger Games"

Cockroaches and working in a closet: Inside Trump's return-to-office order

Reuters also viewed three back-to-work memos sent to staff, informing some of them that they won't have a workspace or internet access when they return. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration told staff this week it cannot guarantee desks or parking spots for the roughly 18,000 employees expected to report to offices on Monday.

OK, I confess I didn't see the movie. Not the whole thing. I quit after about 20 minutes. But I take the comment (from the linked Reuters article) to mean pretty messed up.

If that's not what it means, it should. 

There'll always be an England

How to Fix a Pothole the British Way: Public Shaming

Teenager Ben Thornbury designed a putt-putt golf course around the potholes in his hometown of Malmesbury, with a sign that read “High Street Crazy Potholes Golf: Now Open.” A month after a British tabloid did a story on the “cheeky” teen, the road was fixed. When more appeared, he set up roadside pothole fishing.

Also there'll always be a teenager, but that's a whole different thing. 

Don't mess with them, eh

Canada has ‘nuclear weapon’ in trade war — ban Pornhub in US

“If they take away my access to Pornhub, I’m moving out of the US,” one concerned Manhattan user told The Post.

And you thought they're "nice."

What's going on?

Could Fog Harvesting Solve California's Water Shortages?

Fog harvesting is the practice of capturing tiny water droplets from fog with specialized mesh nets.

I'm pretty sure I heard, just the other day, Trump say he broke in ("broke in" is what he said) to the water in California and now it's running down. "Running down" is what he said. They have more than they know what to do with, is what he said.

And now they're wanting to use nets to catch fog?

O brave new world.

It's not just drugs any more

Eggs Are So Expensive People Are Smuggling Them In From Mexico

First-time offenders get a $300 fine—equivalent to roughly 50 dozen U.S. eggs (or 150 in Mexico).

 Meanwhile, U.S. is importing eggs from Turkey. But they're not (this is confusing) turkey eggs.

Not enough shame to go around

Amazon forest felled to build road for climate summit

Along the partially built road, lush rainforest towers on either side - a reminder of what was once there. Logs are piled high in the cleared land which stretches more than 13km (8 miles) through the rainforest into Belém.

These guys don't have any, it seems.

 

Happy Pi Day

What Is Pi, and How Did It Originate?

By the start of the 20th century, about 500 digits of pi were known. With computation advances, thanks to computers, we now know more than the first six billion digits of pi.

(One million are here,) 

If Twinkies go, we are lost

Shoppers Are Skimping on Cigarettes, Doritos and Twinkies

Hershey is trying to boost sales across at least 40% of its convenience store customers with its so-called “gold standard planogram,” which uses data to determine details like the best mix of king- and standard-size candy bars on shelves in a given store. The company is also boosting marketing for core convenience-store brands like Heath, Almond Joy and Mounds, Hershey said.

They may insist on bringing measles back. And, you know, nuclear war. But a world without Twinkies is a horror to great to bear.

Polution*

EPA Chief Says 31 Actions Being Taken to Roll Back Environmental Regulations

“Today is the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen,” Zeldin said. “We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate-change religion.”

*The lyrics. 

It's dangerous out there

A Swiss politician was fined for buying pink water pistols online

Prosecutors ordered him to pay a fine totaling 6,500 francs ($7,390) for a violation of weapons law, arguing that it applied even though the pistols were imitations “because they could be confused for real firearms due to their appearance” — despite the pink color.

Trouble in paradise so soon?

MAGA already calling on Trump to fire AG Pam Bondi. Here’s why

"I don’t think we can trust Blondi [sic],” says self-described free thinking investigative journalist Laura Loomer.

Why stop there?

Emphasis on "person"

The Civil War started and ended on the same person’s property

An interesing tidbit. (And that's the U.S. civil war, of course.)

Reminds me of a hymn*

Live updates: Trump says he hates to ‘predict things like that’ when asked if he expects a recession

A long-ago political mentor told me in the early 1960's when the Democrats are in power they always get us into a war, and the Republicans always screw up the economy. The two parties have almost entirely switched sides since then, except apparently on this one thing.

*Christ, Jesus, forever the same.

Nothing even artificially intelligent about this

War heroes and military firsts are among 26,000 images flagged for removal in Pentagon’s DEI purge

In some cases, photos seemed to be flagged for removal simply because their file included the word ”gay,” including service members with that last name and an image of the B-29 aircraft Enola Gay, which dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II.

Authentically stupid is more like it.

Something I know nothing about happens in a place I do

The Problem With Hosting ‘Love Is Blind’ in Minnesota: Everything

“Leave it to Minnesotans to be too stable and even-tempered to deprive us of the early train wrecks that have been so satisfying in previous seasons,” Laura Yuen, a columnist for the Minnesota Star Tribune, wrote last month.

I don't do reality TV. Not even TV news, which is, in the end, still TV. If you've ever been on a TV location shoot, or in a TV editing suite, you know how unreal reality can be.  

But I did all my most important growing-up years in Minnesota, so that.

Some train wrecks take a lot longer than others, is all. Maybe it's the cold.

Where is the second shoe?

Elon Musk to be let inside Fort Knox depository to inspect gold reserves

Elon and his Dogies are worried about the gold stored on a heavily guarded military post in Kentucky, but no concern yet — none that I can find, anyway — for a Trumpian plan…

Trump signs order to establish strategic bitcoin reserve

…to bury a "strategic reserve" of pretend money in a pretend hole — maybe a make-believe abandoned salt mine — in some pretend U.S. location. Iowa? Who knows?

Which may not be the craziest thing to have emerged from the seemingly endless 47 days since the last Presidential inauguration — confusing "transgenic" and "transgender" is still in the running — but it's close.

Some day this might be funny

DOGE website offers error-filled window into Musk's government overhaul

"Anyone can put numbers and words on a website," Gimbel said in an interview. "In order to be transparent, the numbers and words have to be accurate. They've already been shown not to be accurate so why should I trust it?"

Someday this might be funny, maybe material for a Broadway show like The Music Man or a movie like Tin Men. Who knows?

But it's not funny now.

"Game" may not be the best word here

Putin Played a Long Game. It’s Starting to Pay Off.

Even Putin’s most hawkish advisers have been surprised by the speed with which the tone coming from the White House has changed in recent weeks, according to people who travel to Moscow and speak with Russian officials.

But otherwise… 

A modest proposal

Democrats disrupt, protest and wear pained expressions for Trump’s speech

If we're going to right this ship, we need to send some grownups to Congress. Not a bunch of petulant six year olds.

The Kennedy calls it "poison"

RFK Jr. and His Allies Target Trump’s Beloved Soda

At both state and federal levels, the Kennedy-led Make America Healthy Again movement is backing efforts to prevent people from spending food-aid benefits on sugary, carbonated beverages. Now, they are gaining momentum with an administration led by a man who enjoys soda so much that he had a red button installed on his desk for a valet to bring him a Diet Coke.

"Beverage companies are nervous," reports WSJ. 

OK, maybe Diet Cokes are only diet poison.

Peace through surrender

U.S. Pauses All Military Aid to Ukraine

“The president has been clear that he is focused on peace. We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well. We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution,” a White House official said in a statement.

 In 1938 then English Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain flew to Munich to discuss with Adolph Hitler a plan Adolf had to annex just a little part of Czechoslovakia. 

Hey, Hitler said, they already speak German there. They ought to be part of Germany. That's all we want to do, really, just bring them home.

Well, OK, said Chamberlain. If that's all you want to do, we won't stand in your way,

That's all I want to do, Hitler replied. Trust me.

So Chamberlain flew home and, landing in London, announced that he had achieved. "peace in our time"

What followed is what we came to call World War II.

2025 Florida Man Games

(AP video shot by Daniel Kozin)

When the inmates are running the asylum

Trump layoffs hit key 'air traffic control for space' unit

Roughly a third of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's 25-person Office of Space Commerce, a little-known body relied heavily upon by the space industry, were given a few hours' notice of their termination on Thursday by acting NOAA chief Nancy Hann and were forced out of the office by the end of the day, two of the sources said.

Also booted, maintainence people who keep the weather radars running, 

When does tornado season start?

Is it too much to ask, really?

Donald Trump Freezes Credit Cards of Federal Workers: What To Know

DOGE has got its math wrong before. For example, this week it said it had saved $8 billion from slashing a contract with ICE. That contract was actually $8 million.

Counting zeros is a simple skill. 

 

Exactly so

How Donald Trump Is Bending America's News Media

"This is not just a Trump problem. It's a media problem."

When the press covers events by sitting in a stuffy room while the current government spox instructs them the day has been lost and ignorance spreads.

Can't wait to see his plan for Ukraine

Trump shares AI video of his vision for Gaza — featuring giant gold statue and him lounging poolside with Netanyahu

Scenes of destruction suddenly morph into a sunny beach resort destination, as a lively dance track with the lyrics “Donald Trump will set you free, bringing the life for all to see, no more tunnels, no more fear, Trump Gaza is finally here” starts to play.

Dancing in the streets. And more. 

Forget the payroll, we want the shoes?

Thieves targeting freight trains in California and Arizona deserts make off with $2M worth of Nikes

It was one of at least 10 heists targeting BNSF trains in remote areas of the Mojave Desert since last March that authorities are investigating, the Los Angeles Timesreported. All but one resulted in the theft of Nike sneakers, according to investigators.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid would be ashamed. 

It was a lot more fun to blow the door off the safe in the mail car than to purloin a passel of Air Jordan 11 Retro Legend Blue sneakers.

Moreover, who'd want to watch the movie?

Meanwhile in the fun house

Trump Selects Dan Bongino as Deputy FBI Director

The announcement sent shock waves through the FBI, whose new director Kash Patel had offered Republican senators private assurances that he would name a special agent with bureau experience to be his deputy, rather than a political outsider. Patel was sworn in at the White House on Friday.

The new guy, Bongino, has never worked for the FBI, although he has worked for the NYPD and the Secret Service and is a…wait for it…podcaster. Who once proclaimed, “my entire life right now is about owning the libs.”

Retirement living in Cyprus

Retired hens revitalise Cyprus olive groves

"We provide them with an old hens' home, they come here and retire," said Christoforos, surrounded by clucking chickens while emptying bins of food waste donated by schoolchildren.

Let's try to write a headline nobody will understand

Walmart drops bag of fear into trolley of greed

Good one, Reuters.

On springing up and falling back

Daylight saving time 2025: These states are trying to ‘lock the clocks’

Some people seem to hate it, some people seem to love it, and me, I don't care. Daylight Saving Time. It starts on March 9.

In the US it's established – the springing up and falling back – by federal law. States can opt out of the plan but they can't change it. It's either do it or don't.

Some states do want to opt out – stay on Standard Time year round, no more springing up. California is one. California claims it's healthier. Massachusetts is another, but only "if two or more of the following states: New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York or Maine" agree. The state that claims to have started the American revolution is not going it alone this time.

Some states want to stay on DST and never fall back again, but can only do that if Congress approves. 

I don't care. I have spent my entire life unhealthy springing up and falling back annually, and sometimes day by day – living in a place in one time zone, working in another zone, and driving through a state that couldn't make up its mind – looking at you, Indiana. I have never so much as noticed that extra hour of sleep one is supposed to get at one end or the other, nor felt deprived by the hour I was supposed to miss.

I do enjoy those long, summer evenings, though.

You could cut your household expense by unscrewing one of those light bulbs

DOGE Claims It Has Saved Billions. See Where.

More than a quarter of the contracts listed by DOGE were actually already paid, the Journal found, saving no money. For instance, DOGE listed $168,000 in savings for terminating a contract with HHS for an Anthony Fauci museum exhibit. It had already been fully paid.

Or where not.

Some of these saving are difficult to evaluate. One hundred thousand dollars for subscriptions to the Wall Street Journal, for instance — the newspaper cited above — is an almost invisibly small share of the federal budget but probably enough for the paper to sit up and take notice of. Similar amounts have been going to subscribe to other newspapers. [See details of this and a lot of other stuff here.]

But most of it doesn't seem to be about saving money at all. It seems to be about cutting things that somebody — not naming names here — just doesn't like.

I have never been a fan of roller coasters

Delta offers $30,000 to each passenger on jet that flipped in Toronto

Remarkably, all 80 people on board survived. As of Wednesday morning, one passenger remained in the hospital, the airline said. Delta said 21 passengers were brought to hospitals with injuries after the crash.

Or horror movies. I don't crave being scared and I don't see any point in paying for it. There are plenty of scary things that can happen in one's life for free.

Rarely, however, does a scary thing pay you.

[From the Washington Post via Apple News.]

The last voyage

Luxury liner SS United States departs South Philadelphia Wednesday afternoon

Among its esteemed passengers were comedian Bob Hope, actor John Wayne, Princess Grace of Monaco, artist Salvadore Dali, actress Rita Hayworth, former President Harry Truman, jazz composer and pianist Duke Ellington and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

And me. I sailed to Europe on this ship in 1958. Didn't meet any of those guys and never got near the luxury deck but it was still quite an adventure for the teenager I was then.

The SS United States then held — and still holds — the record for fastest passenger ship crossing of the Atlantic ocean, in both directions. Now it'll become the largest artificial reef in the world. So, at the end, still something special.

There's a web site about the ship — with lots of pictures — here.

No shoes are above the law

Can sandals be art? Birkenstock says yes, but a German court says no

The appeals court said it was unable to establish any artistic achievement in the wide-strapped sandals with the big buckle.

That buckle is no big deal. Just pointing out. 

The bounty hunters

Philippine village battles dengue by offering bounties for mosquitos — dead or alive

As the campaign began, about a dozen mosquito hunters showed up at the village office. Miguel Labag, a 64-year-old scavenger, handed a jug with 45 dark mosquito larvas squirming in some water and received a reward of nine pesos (15 U.S. cents).

In Florida, a python brings a bounty of $50 and a feral hog in Texas goes for $5 plus 40 cents per pound. Other bounties in the U.S. include racoons, wolves, coyotes, bears, skunks, and, in the Pacific Northwest, a fish called the Northern Pikeminnow.

 

From the No-Conflicts-of-Interest department

Exclusive: FDA staff reviewing Musk’s Neuralink were included in DOGE employee firings, sources say

The cuts included about 20 people in the FDA’s office of neurological and physical medicine devices, several of whom worked on Neuralink, according to the two sources, who asked not to be identified because of fear of professional repercussions. That division includes reviewers overseeing clinical-trial applications by Neuralink and other companies making so-called brain-computer interface devices, the sources said.

Maybe if you're not planning to get your brain implanted it's no big deal.

 

You can almost see this coming, can't you?

FEMA's flood insurance program to borrow billions to pay 2024 post-Hurricane claims

FEMA's flood program has been reauthorized 32 times; its current reauthorization expires March 14.

 Pi Day, I mean. March 14 is Pi Day.

Ooops

Trump Administration Struggling to Find Fired Nuclear Safety Staff: Report

These layoffs were part of broader reductions at the Department of Energy, but officials allegedly did not seem to realize that this agency oversees the U.S. stockpile of nuclear weapons, CNN reported.

Energy department mouthpiece Ben Dietderich objects, says it's only a handful (50) and they were newbies anyway. But still. Nuclear stockpile?

Problem is, nobody seems to know how to get in touch with them, now that they've been axed. Maybe they fired the personnel records department too.

If you know where any of these guys are, please contact the National Nuclear Security Administration. 

[You'd think the name of the agency might have been a clue.]

The Brits give it a go

How to stop the government splurging our cash

Inspired by [Elon Musk's] example, we at The Spectator are launching our own war on wasteful spending. We’ve established a search engine to help Spectator readers join us in hunting down areas that are in need of the axe. Where the US has Doge, we can have the Spectator Project Against Frivolous Funding (Spaff).

Americans and British are one people separated by a common language, Churchill famously observed. And united, it appears, by certain wasteful ways.

[H/T Shawn]

In search of the two-minute clean

The Quest to Make the Perfect Toothbrush

Blue is the most popular toothbrush color. Some people don’t brush on weekends. Even though dental hygienists recommend smaller brush heads, Americans usually choose the biggest one. And they’re always after something new.

 Everybody has a dream.

An exploding market

The Hottest Job in a World at War: Gun-for-Hire

Soldiers of fortune were common across Europe from the fall of the Roman Empire to the rise of the modern nation-state around the 1600s.

Itinerant fighters’ ranks shrank in the modern era and were largely replaced by conscripts and career soldiers. But they never disappeared. Some fought for ideology in the Spanish Civil War. Most were ex-soldiers seeking a paycheck during the Cold War. WatchGuard International, among the first private military companies, was formed by British special forces veterans in 1965. Now, proliferating conflicts have stoked demand for hired guns.

 Old ways compound new dangers.

Promises, promises

Discovered on X (what they call Twitter now):

TRUMP: "We won't let Elon Musk do anything where there is a conflict of interest. I am personally checking to make sure there is no conflict."

Feel better now?

An easy answer

Why Do AI Chatbots Have Such a Hard Time Admitting ‘I Don’t Know’?

Wrong answers [from AI bots] are known as hallucinations because AI apps like ChatGPT and Gemini express them with total confidence. As AI is integrated into our workplaces, schools and personal lives, they pose increasing risks for the people who use the technology. Researchers who once dismissed hallucinations as a relatively minor problem are now working on numerous potential fixes.

Why? Because the geeks who design them can't admit they don't know.

Believe me. I've spent a lot of years working around geeks — professional geeks, even geekier than I am (I know that's a stretch but hear me out) — and almost (note that ungeeky word) all have an unshakable belief they're right about everything (no backing down on that). 

You can see that playing out right now on the national stage. Hallucinations everywhere. 

You might see it as kind of cute — precocious — in a six year-old.

Until they figure out a way to fix that it's up to the rest of us to do the knowing.

Can't wait for the movie

A New Spy Unit Is Leading Russia’s Shadow War Against the West

Known as the Department of Special Tasks, it is based in the Russian military-intelligence headquarters, a sprawling glass-and-steel complex on the outskirts of Moscow known as the aquarium. Its operations, which haven’t been previously reported, have included attempted killings, sabotage and a plot to put incendiary devices on planes.

 Who'd stand in line for a movie named DOGE?

When you set out to burn it down you might burn it down

Trump funding freeze halts wildfire prevention work

Feb 14 (Reuters) - The Trump administration has halted funding for federal programs to reduce wildfire risk in western U.S. states and has frozen hiring of seasonal firefighters as part of broad cuts to government spending, according to organizations impacted by the moves.

Seems it was a bad idea to let the kiddies have the matches.

A penny here, a penny there

The Donald, as you no doubt know, has instructed the mint to quit manufacturing pennies. But not to worry. It appears there are hundreds of billions of them already in circulation. A couple thousand of them, maybe more, are in a bowl on my chest of drawers. And I am willing to sell them, if you are running out, for a mere three cents apiece. They cost 3.75 cents each to mint, apparently, so that's a bargain. You're welcome.

In other cost-saving news, Elon's hit squad has a web site now. Gaze upon it and feel enriched.

It's here.

(How it winds up with a .gov URL I can not say.

(But I can guess.)

A cautionary tale

A humpback whale briefly swallows kayaker in Chilean Patagonia — and it’s all captured on camera

“I thought I was dead,” Adrián told The Associated Press. “I thought it had eaten me, that it had swallowed me.”

Try not to get too tasty. 

The last (possibly very last) word on common cents

Is Trump’s order to the U.S. Mint penny-wise or pound-foolish?

Tracking Trump

 Somebody's gotta do it.

Actually, a lot of organizations are.

Here's one.

Starting to seem a little James Bondy here

Why Dealers Are Flying Gold Bars by Plane From London to New York

Security firms shuttle bullion to the airport in London in high-strength vans. Comex contracts require a different size of bar, so traders need to send gold to Swiss refiners to recast it before flying on to the U.S. Sometimes, they cut out the first European leg by handing the refiner gold in London in exchange for the right size of bar, or flying bullion in from Australia instead.

And a few molecules might wind up in your next smartphone.

When everything else is out of control, this seems ho-hum

Mewing, Beta Maxing, Gigachad, Baddie: Parents Are Drowning in New Lingo

Parents have taken to wearing noise-cancelling headphones to drown out what they consider nonsense chatter. Others simply wish they could decipher whether they’re being insulted. The bravest among them have taken an “if you can’t beat ’em join ’em” approach, diligently researching the latest vernacular and becoming fluent in young-people speak.

This too shall pass. Groovy, right? 

 

Meanwhile, in culinary news

How Dave’s Hot Chicken Beat Rising Labor Costs

For customers seeking cheaper eats, Dave’s started selling bites of chicken starting around $6.99.

Rising costs for whom? 

Trump tariffs aluminum and steel; EU fights back with hogs, pants, and peanut butter

EU vows countermeasures to US tariffs; bourbon, jeans, peanut butter, motorcycles easy targets

Well, also booze.

Nobody seems to know where all this will end. It's not clear, even, if anybody wants to find out.

Worth remembering…

Inside Trump’s hectic day-to-day schedule

Musk is leading a team of young high-IQ whiz kids at the new Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE.

…the last time we had whiz kids transfoming the government.

 Guess who:

History mostly knows him as the disgraced architect of the Vietnam War, but McNamara first made his mark in the corporate world with his mastery of numbers before it was as fashionable as it is today.

Yep, this guy.

Going steady ain't what it used to be

I Can’t Track You? We’ll Have to Break Up

Mihika Nagpal broke up with a boyfriend three months ago because he didn’t want to share his location. They had been dating for four months.

How did it used to be? It used to be you can wear my class ring. Or my letter sweater, if it's really big-time serious.

It is a special world…

Jayden Daniels Wins 2024-25 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Award over Nabers, Nix

…where being named an offensive rookie is a compliment. And being cited as also pretty offensive, but not the absolute most, is worth at least a laudatory mention.

The first-year passer received Offensive Rookie of the Year honors over fellow contenders including New York Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers, Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowers, Jacksonville Jaguars receiver Brian Thomas Jr. and Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix.

 It may (or may not) be worth pointing out that there were no offensive Chicago Bears.

On the eyebrows of Hollywood

The Oscars Hit an Antiwoke Land Mine, Karla Sofía Gascón

The star of ‘Emilia Pérez’ hasn’t been signaling much virtue.

A search on X.com (formerly Twitter) turned up such eyebrow-raising comments as this one, from 2020, originally written in Spanish: “I’m sorry, is it just my impression or are there more Muslims in Spain? Every time I go to pick up my daughter from school there are more women with their hair covered and their skirts down to their heels. Next year instead of English we’ll have to teach Arabic.”

 Given the general tenor of news in the recent week, this red-carpet crisis seems refreshing. 

Elon making problems go away

Disappearing Data:
Trump Administration Removing Climate Information from Government Websites

And also any claim to credibility.

Washington, D.C., February 6, 2025 - In the first two weeks of President Donald Trump’s second term, the administration has begun to scrub critical environmental resources and datasets from federal agency websites. To combat this effort to suppress and censor public data, the National Security Archive’s Climate Change Transparency Project today publishes a selection of materials on climate change and environmental justice that have been deleted from agency web pages and spotlights the environmental and archivist organizations working to identify, scrape, and preserve these critical data.

America First lasted 16 days

Trump’s Gaza Takeover Proposal Splinters MAGA Base

And getting right into the spirit of things…

Pro-Trump Arab American group changing name after Gaza remarks

“He won, so we needed movement on the momentum on what we have done, and we finally decided to change the name to Arab Americans for Peace,” Bahbah said. “Some in the press tried to tie what the president has said to our changing the name. In fact, it is connected and it’s not.” [Emphasis mine.]

What could be more Trumpian than "maybe it is, maybe it isn't"?

Except maybe today, maybe not tomorrow. 

Smash

The Super Bowl Has Never Seen Anything Like These Five Gigantic Humans

Offensive linemen are typically the largest players in football, but even by those standards, the Eagles are positively ginormous. Their five starting linemen, on average, stand at 6-foot-6 and weigh 338 pounds. By comparison, they’re more than an inch taller, and 26 pounds heavier, than their counterparts on the Kansas City Chiefs.

Opposing this fearsome five will be a guy named Steve Spagnuolo, who is the Chiefs' defensive coordinator and reputed to be one of the best in the game. And some other guys who, although a little shorter and a little lighter, are pretty big too.

Might be a good game to watch.

The 54th state?

Trump Campaigned on Ending Foreign Entanglements. Now He Wants to Own Gaza.

Well, after East Canada, West Canada, and Greenland. 

The Trumps and the Kushners (we are imagining a new reality show called America's Peskiest Inlaws) are now calling Gaza valuable beachfront property.

We are earnestly hoping this whole thing is as silly as it sounds.

Just because there are records still to be broken

Chinese chef makes world's thinnest handmade noodle

Enhai successfully took the record with a noodle measuring just .18 millimeters thick.

China places a tariff on U.S. coal

China announces measures against Google, other US firms, as trade tensions escalate

Well, coal among other things. Quite a few other things, in fact. But coal?

Remember coal? Turns out the U.S. is the world's forth largest producer of coal at a little over 500 million short tons per year (although well behind China, at around 4,700 million tons, India, at 1,000 million, and Indonesia, 775 million). 

About 90% of U.S. coal production is used to produce electricity. This map from National Geographic shows the location of coal-fired power plants, mostly in midwestern and southeastern states.

Strangely, there seems to be a dearth of rodent news

Yesterday was Groundhog Day, at least as far as my calendar is concerned. And I haven't seen a word about it in the news. Maybe you have…but just in case:

It is 6.4287 weeks until Spring.

A bridge way, way too far

Top Security Officials at Aid Agency Put on Leave After Denying Access to Musk Team

The employees working for Mr. Musk’s task force who clashed with Mr. Voorhees were seeking to enter a secure area of the agency’s offices to get at classified material, two U.S. officials with knowledge of the incident said.

The U.S. agency involved was USAID. I don't know much about USAID but I do know something about handling classified information and this incident as reported by NYTimes, above, and Reuters, here, is way beyond the pale. 

When they talk about an enormous market for computing power…

AI Needs a Lot of Computing Power. Is a Market for ‘Compute’ the Next Big Thing?

…and when they say that, what they mean is an enormous market for electricity. Because the only way to run all those computers is with electricity.* And that in turn means an enormous market for natural gas and oil. Because burning those fuels is the only viable way we have to generate the electricity.**

Unless we get back to nukes.

*In the 19th Century a guy named Charles Babbage designed a computer that ran on steam. The steam would have been generated by burning coal. 

It's February that's the cruelest month

And here we're marking the beginning of this one with ice.

All. Over. Everything.

And because we have a clear sky today and it's sunny, it's wet ice too.

But not to worry. It's going to warm some by midweek. And rain. And then snow again.

It's a short month. But it already seems long.

For $35 you can watch a movie you don't care about

Or maybe you do care. That's on you.

Either way…

The Sundance Film Festival goes online this week. Here’s how to watch the films

Today and tomorrow. (February 1 and 2.)

Another argument for the Oxford comma

 

The Oxford comma is also drearily called a serial comma.

And Sunday is Goundhog Day

Donald Trump Impeachment Petition Gets 100,000 Signatures

Or you could just watch the movie.

While conspiracy theories swirl

Washington’s Jam-Packed Airspace Has Prompted Warnings for Years

The last mid-air collision involving a commercial airliner in the U.S. occurred in San Diego in 1978. The last in Washington, DC, was in 1945.

And not even peanuts

US military deportation flight likely cost more than first class

More than five times the $853 cost of a one-way first class ticket on American Airlines from El Paso, Texas, the departure point for the flight, according to a review of publicly available airfares.

But it's so.much more fun to play with the big toys.

Greenland is the ice one*

The West’s Arctic Defenses Rely On Some Sled Dogs and Aging Ships in Greenland

Trump isn’t the first U.S. president to express an interest in Greenland. During World War II, when Denmark was invaded by the Nazis, Greenland became a de facto U.S. protectorate. President Harry S. Truman offered to buy the island from Denmark for $100 million in 1946. The Danes declined the U.S. offer but signed the security pact that gives the U.S. the right to build military installations there.

 It's also critical to defending the Atlantic, explains this piece from the Wall Street Journal.

*It's also the world's biggest island. Australia, about triple Greenland's size and also seemingly an island is classified, instead, as a continental landmass.

A lot of sweeping going on

Trump signs sweeping executive orders that overhaul U.S. education system

However, critics swiftly condemned the executive orders as being an attack on LGBTQ students and on the accurate teaching of U.S. history, specifically concerning slavery and racial injustice.

The Donald is doing a lot of sweeping these days. Hard to tell how swept things will remain. Some have been unswept already. (Unswopen?)

This sort of procedure is also known as flailing around.

Just remember, it's only been ten days.

The search for hot drones

‘We’re all having to catch up’: NATO scrambles for drones that can survive the Arctic

COPENHAGEN, Jan 30 (Reuters) - In 2023, Mads Petersen, owner of Greenland-based startup Arctic Unmanned, sat in a car to keep warm while he tested a small drone at minus 43 degrees Celsius (minus 45 degrees Fahrenheit).…

"The battery only lasted for three minutes," he said.

Or warm drones at least. Warmish.

This, of course, is a somewhat exaggerated case of a phenomenon which also affects electric automobiles and trucks. Or any other thing that operates on a battery, in fact. Battery is do not work as well in cold temperatures as in warm. At least, the batteries we know how to make don't.

The U.S. Department of Education was created in 1979

American Kids Are Getting Even Worse at Reading

The 67% of eighth-graders who scored at a basic or better reading level in 2024 was the lowest share since testing began in 1992, results from a closely watched federal exam show. Only 60% of fourth-graders hit that benchmark, nearing record lows.

 More from Perplexity.ai:

In summary, while U.S. students rank relatively well in international assessments like PISA regarding reading skills, domestic assessments such as NAEP reveal alarming declines in proficiency levels. The disparities among different demographic groups further complicate the picture, underscoring the need for targeted interventions to improve literacy rates across the nation. As educational authorities work to address these challenges, ongoing monitoring and reform will be essential to ensure that all students can achieve their full potential in reading and literacy.

 

Another ho-hum day? Try this instead

Two daredevils walk slackline suspended between hot air balloons

Friedi Kühne and Lukas Irmler took to the skies over Riedering and walked across a slackline 8,202 feet over the ground, breaking the Guinness World Record for highest slackline walk in the process.

The Undeterred

‘Emilia Pérez’ and the Curse of Oscar Bait

Last week, the nominees for the 2025 Academy Awards were announced. The leading contender with 13 total nominations? Emilia Pérez, a French-produced Spanish-language musical about a transgender Mexican drug lord and her underappreciated girlboss defense attorney. The film lost around $15 million at the box office on a relatively modest $26 million budget, so if you haven’t seen it, you likely aren’t alone and shouldn’t feel bad—it wasn’t made for you anyway.

 

Do not disturb

NATO is deploying eyes in the sky and on the Baltic Sea to protect vital cables.

Power and communications cables and gas pipelines stitch together the nine countries with shores on the Baltic, a relatively shallow and nearly landlocked sea. A few examples are the 152-kilometer (94-mile) Balticconnector pipeline that carries gas between Finland and Estonia, the high-voltage Baltic Cable connecting the power grids of Sweden and Germany[*]. and the 1,173-kilometer (729-mile) C-Lion1 telecommunications cable between Finland and Germany.

*I hope they have a really good fuse panel on that one.

I used to have a chunk of an undersea telephone cable (but not from the Baltic). I didn't cut it out myself; I got it from the factory where it was made. I lost it somewhere along the way, But, as this story notes, it was about the size of a garden hose. Six or eight inches of garden hose, to be precise. 

For a regular price…

…you get your sardines in or maybe, if you're lucky, packed in…

 …but for an extra buck or so you can have them…

…served in.

Today we are being served.

I like Perplexity…

Perplexity AI proposes to merge with Tiktok, with US government getting half, source says

… but this is an horrifically bad idea.

Giving the government, and especially the present administration, a piece of the action here is just plain dumb. And, incidentally, also wrong.

Chickens gotta roost

Trump revokes Biden executive order on addressing AI risks

The order also directed agencies to set standards for that testing and address related chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and cybersecurity risks. Biden's order came as U.S. lawmakers have failed to pass legislation setting guardrails for AI development.…

The 2024 Republican Party platform vowed to repeal the order that it said hinders AI innovation and added "Republicans support AI development rooted in free speech and human flourishing."

Wait until these come home,

AI doesn't worry me, but people who believe in it do.

I don't know about this.

Can the US trust AI in nuclear command, control and communications?

It sounds pretty scary.

But maybe artificial intelligence would be better than no intelligence at all.

Just a thought.

Welcome to the Doomsday Ritz

Luxury 'Doomsday Bunker' for Ultrarich Unveiled by US Firm

Each facility features AI-powered medical suites, gourmet dining, and wellness programs, which will blend protection and luxury."

A mere $25 million could set you up for life.

Or whatever. 

An exercise in AI (Surprise!)

I've been pretty reluctant to entertain the idea AI could do a satisfactory job at English composition. But when I recently read a post on X (Twitter) by Alaska's Senator Lisa Murkowski complaining about a Trumpian plan to re-re-rename a certain mountain in her home state I decided maybe AI deserved a chance, after all.

This is Murkowski's tweet (xeet?):

I strongly disagree with the President’s decision on Denali. Our nation’s tallest mountain, which has been called Denali for thousands of years, must continue to be known by the rightful name bestowed by Alaska’s Koyukon Athabascans, who have stewarded the land since time immemorial.

And this is how Apple's AI rewrote it:

I vehemently oppose the President’s decision to rename Denali. Our nation’s tallest mountain, revered by Alaska’s Koyukon Athabascans for millennia, must retain its rightful name, bestowed upon it by these indigenous people who have been the land’s guardians for countless generations.

I think the AI said it best. 

Saying goodbye to celebrity food

Trump announces purge of over 1,000 Biden appointees: ‘YOU’RE FIRED!’

President Trump started purging more than 1,000 appointees from former President Joe Biden’s administration overnight – starting with celebrity chef Jose Andres…

Will Ronald McDonald return? 

A rose by any other name

The Gulf of Whatnow? Mapmakers grapple with Trump’s geographic renaming plans

In discussion on social media, one thread noted that the Sears Tower in Chicago was renamed the Willis Tower in 2009, though it’s still commonly known by its original moniker. Pennsylvania’s capital, Harrisburg, renamed its Market Street to Martin Luther King Boulevard and then switched back to Market Street several years later — with loud complaints both times. In 2017, New York’s Tappan Zee Bridge was renamed for the late Gov. Mario Cuomo to great controversy. The new name appears on maps, but “no one calls it that,” noted another user.

And then there's the Rio Grande…

Trump's dream

Trump’s dream TikTok deal could set a blueprint for doing business with China

With President Donald Trump back in office, his idea for a TikTok joint venture could set a precedent for how he expects all Chinese companies to operate in the US.

On Sunday evening, he posted on Truth Social: “I would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture. By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to [stay] up.”

Whatever it is, it's OK as long as he or one of his pals gets a piece of the action.

A footnote on. the Trumps' meme coins

According to Perplexity AI…

The highest price ever paid for a bubble-gum baseball card is $12.6 million for a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card. This sale occurred in August 2022 and set a new record for the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia ever sold.

I'm betting that was a far better investment than either $TRUMP or $MELANIA will ever be. Especially since the Mickey Mantle card came free with a stick of bubble gum. And in the 50's. even the gum didn't cost much.

In other words, they're souvenirs

$TRUMP Is Already Worth Billions. What to Know About the Meme Coin.

In the case of the president’s token, the meme is a picture of him holding his fist in the air with the words “fight, fight, fight” in the background, a phrase he mouthed after being shot in the upper right ear during a rally in Butler, Pa., last summer. The first lady’s meme is an image of her smiling while clasping her hands in a prayer.

"Dubbed $TRUMP and $MELANIA, the tokens are a type of cryptocurrency that doesn’t serve any economic purpose and whose value is based largely on the popularity of internet memes."

Getting right in on the pardon action

Trump pardons Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht for online drug scheme

His [Ulbricht's] arrest brought to an end what prosecutors described as a global, black market bazaar that for two years starting in 2011 was used by more than 100,000 people to buy and sell $214 million worth of illegal drugs and other illicit services.

OK, so the guy was actually convicted of something, unlike so many others.

Also something about cryptocurrency.  

 

The last word in cubicle attire

Twelve Dudes and a Hype Tunnel: Scenes from the ‘Super Bowl for Excel Nerds’

The championship — which has several corporate sponsors, including Microsoft — was held in person for the first time last year. [It featured] shortened rounds, eliminations, commentators and pregame “hype tunnel”…to raise tension and lure spectators.

The winner was awarded a wrestling-style world championship belt.

Amazon has a base in Davos

Davos climate activists paint Amazon base green, disrupt helicopters

No mention of what this base is for, but it's temporary and on the main street, according to this Reuters story, 

Davos, Switzerland, is the site of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting, which begins about now.

And…

"So far we have blocked 10-20 helicopters in one and a half hours. Over the course of the day we are expecting around a hundred helicopters arriving here," Greenpeace activist Clara Thompson told Reuters.

One of the meeting's main concerns — its theme this year is "Safeguarding the Planet" — is burning too to much helicopter fuel.

Gotta do better than this

Trump administration canceling flights for nearly 1,660 Afghan refugees, say U.S official, advocate

WASHINGTON, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Nearly 1,660 Afghans cleared by the U.S. government to resettle in the U.S., including family members of active duty U.S. military personnel, are having their flights canceled under President Donald Trump's order suspending U.S. refugee programs, a U.S. official and a leading refugee resettlement advocate said on Monday.

A whole lot better.

We're not even one whole day in and already… 

Only two months until spring

 It wasn't as much as they predicted. I take that as a good thing.

Saving money is not encouraged

China's frugal young adults accelerate saving, raising economic risks

BEIJING, Jan 20 (Reuters) - The frugal trend that began in China during the economic disruption of the pandemic and deepened amid the crisis in the property market is intensifying as Gen Z shuns government calls to spend, spend, spend and doubles down on saving.

This, I guess, is something like Georgie W's urging Americans to keep shopping after 9/11.

I would point out that I, myself, have heroically supported a growing economy at every turn. 

They're gonna just have to be content with Greenland

Indiana would like to redraw border with Illinois

Huston, R-Fishers, said he decided to draft the bill after he learned that in November seven Illinois counties — Iroquois, Calhoun, Clinton, Greene, Jersey, Madison and Perry counties — voted to secede from the state. Each of those counties besides Iroquois County either border Indiana or are near Missouri.

–Chicago Tribune 

Is there something acquisitional in the air?

Stand by for TicTok withdrawal, say shrinks

What will happen to your body when TikTok is banned — experts warn of serious withdrawal among serial scrollers

“The universal symptoms of withdrawal from any addictive substance are extreme anxiety, irritability, insomnia, depression and cravings – and people who are addicted to TikTok, if they stop using it abruptly, may experience any or all of these symptoms,” said Stanford psychiatrist Dr. Anna Lembke.

Now that everything else is at an end there's only TikTok left to worry about. 

Better stock up on candies right away

TikTok's purveyors of creams and candies under threat from US ban

TikTok says its U.S. site generates billions for businesses selling candies, beauty products, clothes and other consumer goods. But now, that economy is under threat. The Supreme Court on Friday unanimously upheld the law banning TikTok in the United States on national security grounds ahead of a blackout this weekend.

–Reuters

For the record (this furnished by an AI called Perplexity)…

As of January 2025, six countries have fully banned TikTok: Afghanistan, India, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, and Somalia. The largest among them is India, which imposed a permanent ban in 2020 due to national security concerns following a border clash with China. Additionally, over 30 countries, including the United States, European Union nations, and Australia, have implemented partial bans or restrictions, primarily on government devices, citing data privacy and security concerns.

Biden's warning

From an AP article entitled:

Progressives are frustrated by Biden’s final-days warning of billionaire influence

“Eisenhower’s military-industrial complex warning gave language to an idea that has been referenced ever since,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “Biden’s warning about oligarchs, calling on Americans to stand guard, is a call to action that will be felt for years.”

Eisenhower warned about the military-industrial complex in his farewell address, in January, 1961. No need to reach for your calculator — that was 64 years ago.

His warning language has yielded political talking points for a couple of generations now but in that same time the U.S. has become the world's largest exporter of arms and related services in the world, a business averaging some $50 billion per year. Meanwhile, for fiscal year 2025, the U.S. military requests $167.5 billion for weapons procurement and $142.2 billion for research and development of weapons. 

The military-industrial complex is doing pretty well, warning or no.

One wonders if the billionaires will feel much pinch.

Inauguration? What inauguration?

The Ohio State vs. Notre Dame National Title Game Has Michigan Fans Hoping for a Meteor

“Most people would probably prefer a meteor,” said Ben Freedman, a die-hard fan raised by two Michigan professors in Ann Arbor. Alternative outcomes he’s seen suggested online include infinite overtimes or mass toilet malfunction at the stadium.

Something about an inauguration on Monday will not be the most important event of the day. Everybody knows how the inauguration will turn out (well, probably). This one, however, is still very much in doubt.

Blew up

Uncrewed SpaceX Starship explodes minutes after launch from Texas

In a statement later Thursday, SpaceX said initial data indicates a fire occurred in the rocket, "leading to a rapid unscheduled disassembly."

More evidence we're all still stuck in high school

Kamala Harris signs ceremonial vice president's desk ahead of leaving office

In the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Harris signed the drawer of a desk that has been used by each subsequent vice president since Lloyd B. Johnson in the 1960s, though the tradition goes back to the 1940s.

Many tried, but no one ever escaped. 

A minor rant about congressional hearings and Pete Hegseth

I didn't watch them. The hearings. So all I know is what I read in the newspapers. And random video clips on the net.

And what concerned me was not what I heard or read, but what I didn't.

What I didn't read was anything about:

• Recruiting shortfalls
• Drones
• Shipbuilding 
• Manufacturing capacity
• Cyber Command
• The role of the Space Force

Or much of anything else except a lot of garble about culture war stuff and “lethality,” whatever that means. And auditing.

In other words, just a coven of politicians arguing among themselves about what makes them feel important, themselves.

For the record, I am much underwhelmed by Mr. Hegseth's qualifications to be SecDef.

But what you don't ask you don't know. And may or may not get.

Life in the blue dots

 Turns out I've spent 98% of my life living in blue dots.

At least, according to this precinct-level map of the 2024 election appearing in today's New York Times.

What have I been missing?

PS. My subscription to the Times expires tomorrow, and seeing I don't expect anything newsworthy to happen in the next few years </snark> I do not plan to renew. 

There are 535 voting members of the U.S. Congress

 "[A] study, published Monday in Nature Medicine, found that adults over 55 had a 42 percent lifetime risk of developing dementia."

– New York Times

So the question arises, how many of them are over 55?

And how soon can we pass a term limits amendment? Or law? Or rule, even?

Before we forget all this.

Not easy to sort all this out…

Los Angeles Is Still Burning. Where Are the Leaders?

…but here's a piece by a Los Angeles screenwriter in the NYTimes.

"Trump" and "charm"…

Trump charms GOP rebels at Mar-a-Lago, with Musk in tow

…seems like a difficult matter to parse, somehow. But Politico manages. Even cites one attendee who mentioned "team building."

Whether this counts as another flash of ring-kissing (looking at you, Zuck) is yet to be determined. But there seems to be a trend.

Yes it does

Palisades Fire leaves residents devastated as homes, neighborhoods burn: "It looks like a war zone"

Exactly. That's what a war zone looks like. Right there.

Pay attention.

Atlanta snow

Powerful winter storm that dumped snow in US South maintains its icy grip

In Atlanta, Mikayla Johnson, 12, was making snow angels and snow figures.

“My first thought was, ‘Wow!’” said Mikayla, who was outdoors with her father, Nate. “We haven’t had snow since I was, like, 4 — good snow, at least. So I was really happy.”

 Photo, Associated Press

Pretty impressive snowman person. Otherwise…

Am I being a snow snob here?

Drag the vertical lines left and right

Before-and-After Satellite Images Reveal Destruction of California Wildfires

The tok ticks down

TikTok Is Facing Legal Backlash Around the World

TikTok is challenging a possible ban or forced sale to new owners in the United States, but has for several years been waging other fights in at least 20 countries.

 Somehow Be Like Albania is not the battlecry I expected to hear.

Texas gets a snow day

Schools cancel classes across the Southern US as another burst of winter storms move in

Texas schools canceled classes for more than 1 million students in anticipation of [?] icy and potentially dangerous conditions that could last into Friday. (Closures also kept students home in Kansas City and Arkansas’ capital, Little Rock, while Virginia’s capital, Richmond, remained under a weather-related boil advisory.)

Boston native Gina Eaton, now living in Dallas, said “Even if there is ice, I’m very comfortable driving in it. It’s just other people that scare me.”

We have now arrived in kindergarten

He started it.

Now…

Mexican president suggests renaming the United States after Trump’s Gulf of America threat

[Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum] showed off a 1607 map with the Gulf of Mexico being identified as such and North America labeled as Mexican America.

Canadian Politician Shades Trump With New Plan to Take Three U.S.States

“Donald, think about it. You could get rid of all these states that always vote Democrat,” [Elizabeth May, leader of Canada's Green Party] said. “You know what else? We’ll take Bernie Sanders off your hands.”

 Wasn't there anything in the rules about adults?

Off to a slow (fast) start in Chicago

Despite mayor’s call for fewer than 500 homicides this year, 2025 opens with familiar violence

About a week into the new year, violence in Chicago ticked up slightly, and Mayor Brandon Johnson and Police Department leaders already face headwinds in their efforts to keep the city’s annual homicide total under 500 with the historically violent summer months still to come.

Shaping up to be a fun-filled four years

NASA Will Let Trump Decide How to Bring Mars Rocks to Earth

First, a new robotic spacecraft would land near the Perseverance rover, which would then hand over about 30 of its rock samples to launch into orbit around Mars. Yet another spacecraft, from the European Space Agency, would retrieve those samples, take them back to Earth and drop them off within a small disk-shaped vehicle that would land in a Utah desert.

It's a bargain at $8 billion.

And no doubt Trump will make Mars pay for it. 

Wait til he finds out there's also a South America

Trump says he will change the name of the Gulf of Mexico. Can he do that?

It’s his latest suggestion to redraw the map of the Western Hemisphere. Trump has repeatedly referred to Canada as the “51st State,” demanded that Denmark consider ceding Greenland, and called for Panama to return the Panama Canal.

He probably can, if he insists, call it the Gulf of America. But nobody else has to follow suit.

Imagine the schoolbooks and the maps.

Still, it's not the first time.

In 2012, a member of the Mississippi Legislature proposed a bill to rename portions of the gulf that touch that state’s beaches “Gulf of America,” a move the bill author later referred to as a “joke.”

Who's laughing now? 

Who needs facts when they have the internet?

Meta Ends Fact-Checking on Facebook, Instagram in Free-Speech Pitch

He said Meta is getting rid of fact-checkers and, starting in the U.S., replacing them with a so-called Community Notes system similar to that on Elon Musk’s X platform in which users flag posts they think need more context.

Making stuff up is now "mainstream discourse", the Zuck says. 

Joy is greatly overrated

OK, maybe you've already figured that out. But if last year's experience with joy wasn't enough to do it, here's more.

In freezing temperatures, swimmers in China plunge into a river for health and joy

They first had to carve out a pool in the Songhua River, thawing the 10-centimeter (4-inch) thick ice that froze overnight. Then they stripped down and, one by one, plunged into the bone-chilling waters of the pool about 10 meters (33 feet) long. 

Some said their limbs were already numb when the air temperature fell to minus 13 degrees Celsius (8 degrees Fahrenheit).

See what I mean?

Anyway, why dive into an icy river when all you have to do is win Duke's Mayo Bowl?

Imagine having 5 gallons of mayonnaise dumped over your head.

Or you could try out to be a dumper. That sounds like fun.

Sporting news from around the globe

Stuntman stops electric fans with his tongue to earn world record

Jan. 3 (UPI) -- An Indian stuntman earned a Guinness World Record by stopping 57 electric fans in one minute using his tongue.…

We may need to hire a sports editor soon. 

Our nomination for Understatement of the Year (and it's only January 6)

"Not everyone is convinced that 3,000 kilometers of underwater construction will be as easy as it sounds."

Manhattan inaugurates congestion toll…

Congestion toll chaos will push commuters to ditch their cars in northern Manhattan, outer boroughs: ‘New park-and-ride’

…while meanwhile…

There’s a Traffic Jam Forming at U.S. Rocket Launchpads

And by the way, if you're already in the U.P. rocketing into space seems sort of superfluous, doesn't it?

What to do without football

You Can’t Just Rely on Football to Get Through the Winter—Can You?

The end of another season looms.

 (I'll settle for the cookies.)

Better late than never

It’s Christmas for the elephants as unsold trees are fed to the animals at Berlin Zoo

“The animals can fight with them, they can rub themselves against them, they can throw themselves over them and do various other things with these fir trees,” he added. “And so we enrich the animals’ everyday lives, which they are very happy about.”

And giraffes. 

And a timely warning from the New York Times

Cold Snap Is Forecast to Grip Much of the United States

It could be cold in January. In Duluth, MN, it may even get below 0ºF a couple of times. 

This Arctic outbreak is expected to bring a sustained period of cold weather across the northern Plains, Great Lakes, Midwest and East Coast as well.

Break out your warm socks and a good pair of mittens. Mind your ears. 

Hope for snow.

Cleaning up matters from the old year

Missiles Are Now the Biggest Killer of Airline Passengers

The [recent crash] of an Azerbaijan Airlines jetliner in Kazakhstan, if officially confirmed as a shootdown, would be the third major fatal downing of a passenger jet linked to armed conflict since 2014, according to the Flight Safety Foundation’s Aviation Safety Network, a global database of accidents and incidents. The tally would bring to more than 500 the number of deaths from such attacks during that period. 

So if you're making travel plans for the coming year, try to route around the coming wars.