“Daisy is, of course, not a real grandmother but an AI bot created by computer scientists to combat fraud. Her task is simply to waste the time of the people who are trying to scam her.”
“Stories of Resistance: Lessons from Across the Globe”.
“The scramble to save critical climate data from Trump’s war on DEI”.
“But the most shocking casting rule concerns location. While Bachelor welcomes applicants from both the U.S. and Canada, there’s one Canadian province that’s excluded – Quebec. Any applications from legal residents of Quebec are immediately rejected, even if the applicant is a Canadian citizen. When you consider the marginalization of French Canadians, and The Bachelor’s infamy for lack of diversity, it makes this casting rule even more problematic.”
“Because the Americans are a captive consumer for Canadian crude, one option for Canada in a trade war would be to put export taxes on oil and gas to ratchet the price for U.S. refineries to the point where it’s no longer profitable. In that scenario, the U.S. would be staring down the barrel of fuel shortages or companies forced to operate at a loss, creating enormous economic pressure on President Trump.”
RIP, Dick Jauron, former NFL coach of the Chicago Bears and Buffalo Bills.
RIP, Tom Robbins, iconic novelist best known for “Still Life With Woodpecker” and “Even Cowgirls Get The Blues”.
“There is reporting at other federal agencies indicating that DOGE members have performed unauthorized changes and locked civil servants out of the sensitive systems they gained access to. We further recommend that DOGE members be placed under insider threat monitoring and alerting after their access to payment systems is revoked. Continued access to any payment systems by DOGE members, even ‘read only,’ likely poses the single greatest insider threat risk the Bureau of the Fiscal Service has ever faced.”
“DOGE’s placement at the DOE even raises a truly bizarre-sounding possibility: that a pseudo-department named after a shiba inu could get actual access to nuclear weapons. Fortunately, despite Musk’s ever-expanding power over government systems, it would take far more than barging into the right office to do this. But at a moment where all kinds of governmental norms are in flux, it’s worth looking at what exactly separates someone like Musk from perhaps the greatest destructive force on the planet — and what other kinds of risks his access could pose.”
RIP, Cheyenne, the oldest orangutan at the Houston Zoo.
“A rare ring of light surrounding a galaxy nearly 590 million light-years away from Earth has been discovered by a space telescope that scientists hope will uncover more cosmic phenomena throughout the universe, the European Space Agency announced on Monday.”
“What does this mean for people outraged by Musk’s recent behavior? Take it out on Tesla by boycotting the company. Any further dip in Tesla sales would amplify growing calls for Musk’s ouster as CEO. Whatever time Musk spends doing damage control is time not spent dismantling federal agencies or elevating Europe’s far right. If you were considering buying a Tesla, don’t. If you’re renting a car, choose another brand. And if you own a Tesla, sell it. Yes, that would help: A deluge of used Teslas would lower their resale value, further depressing the new-car sales that the company depends upon.”
“Thomson Reuters has won the first major AI copyright case in the United States.”
“A letter signed by mayors and local leaders across 39 states is calling on Congress to protect all clean energy tax credits made available to state and local governments, which had been responsible for creating thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in investments before President Donald Trump froze the funds.”
“So think what this means. Adams isn’t off the hook. He’s essentially been given 10 months to perform for his freedom. Perform for Donald Trump. Indeed, Bove said explicitly that one of the reasons Adams shouldn’t have been charged is that being on trial takes Adams’ focus away from helping Donald Trump with mass deportations out of New York City. (Again, they’re refreshingly candid about why this is happening.)”
“Hackers have defaced select pages on the DOGE website. Reports indicate the database the page draws from can be easily accessed by outsiders.”
RIP, L. Clifford Davis, longtime Fort Worth attorney and civil rights activist who opened one of the first Black law firms in Tarrant County and was one of the county’s first Black judges.
Re: When you consider the marginalization of French Canadians …
Huh?
That’s a premise? How does that make any sense when they have their own province, actually the largest (with ca. 9 million population) and when Canada practices official bilingualism? The Québécois could have their own country and be economically viable, but that’s a different story. Meanwhile, as far as representation in the federal parliament, they have 78 of 338 house seats (23.1%) and 24 of 105 senate seats (22.9%).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec
Sometimes the marginalization discourse get marginally dimwitted and this appears to be one of those times.
While we are at it … many countries have more than one official language and other recognize minority languages. Switzerland has four (German, French, Italian, and Romash in Graubünden), but sometimes it’s easier to communicate in English because they all know that too. At least the younger generation. And the German Germans (from the Federal Republic) don’t even understand the German Swiss because of their Allemanic dialect variations. English works for all … at least in business. It’s the lingua franca all over Europe and beyond.
But (semi-scripted speed) dating for the gawking masses may be in a different category. Same first language between rooster and serial chicks may be thing to keep the interactions lively and not just nonverbal.