Don't Count Your Chickens Before the Barn Door Closes

 

Your love is like  standing in just-poured road tar for a bit

• Couple in India sue son for not giving them a grandchild
• might be a good idea to stay out of India. For so many reasons. 

Today I identify as  a homicidal black Asian Jew whose weapon is a lawnmower

NSA Says ‘No Backdoor’ for Spies in New US Encryption Scheme

Would we lie to you? No, really, we're telling the truth. Even WE can't break it. Please believe us. Things will be different this time. 

• MindMed Collaborators Announce Positive Topline Data from Phase 2 Trial Evaluating LSD in Anxiety Disorders
• That should be interesting, especially when they drive cars. [Chong voice] Hey - why don't they keep those purple dragons off the road, man?
• How is your anxiety going to be treated when you see the house trying to eat you?
• Above all - don't eat the brown acid

Your Government at Work  

E.U. Proposes New Rules for Tech Companies to Combat Online Child Sexual Abuse

• it's for the children 
• no politician will be seen voting against a child abuse bill, no matter how invasive or wrong it is
• courts have ruled you have no expectation of privacy in public - now you have no expectation of privacy in encrypted messaging, definitely including WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram. And all others.
•  this is how the Patriot Act and many other laws were put into effect

F.B.I. Told Israel It Wanted Pegasus Hacking Tool for Investigations

see above 

• US secretly issued subpoena to access Guardian reporter’s phone records
• we make the rules, we break the rules... go on home... nothing to see here...

• San Francisco Police Are Using Driverless Cars as Mobile Surveillance Cameras
• Surveillance State. Make fun of Alex Jones, but he predicted this.

• ICE 'now operates as a domestic surveillance agency,' think tank says
• We sure have a lot of these, in our Surveillance State. The *I* stands for immigration. Why are they surveilling citizens? They also enforce copyrights. I've seen film of them arresting a flea market vendor for counterfeit goods (NFL).

If you're a Grindr user, there's a bit of a problem. The ad companies got all your information through Grinder. This is actually a normal thing.

Don't worry, they won't out you. They'll just advertise to you, which may be worse.

Ukraine conflict: Russian soldiers seen shooting dead unarmed civilians

Lieutenant: SHOOT THEM!

Private: why?

Lieutenant: BECAUSE I SAID SO!

Private: But Comrade, they're already dead.

Lieutenant: AND THIS IS A PROBLEM WHY?

Private: Sir, they can't hurt us.

Lieutenant: WHAT IF THEY'RE FAKING IT?

Private: Sir, most of them are without limbs or have their heads blown off.

Lieutenant: THEY COULD BE NOT COMPLETELY DEAD, PRIVATE

Private: Even if they were, they have no guns or knives.

Lieutenant: YOU NEVER KNOW. THEY COULD HAVE GRENADES OR BOMBS 

SECRETED ABOUT THEIR PERSONS.

Private: Sir, there's very little left of their persons.

Lieutenant: THEY COULD HAVE GRENADES

Private: Where?

Lieutenant: THESE BODIES ARE TRICKY. MAYBE THEY HAVE BOMBS IN THEIR ORIFICES.

Private: There are few orifices left, after the officers got to them.

Lieutenant: THEY COULD BE POISONED.

Private: if they were poisoned, they would have been poisoned then shot.

Lieutenant: NO, YOU IDIOT, THEY COULD HAVE POISONED PARTS, LIKE SKIN, SO WHOEVER COMES IN CONTACT GETS IT.

Private: Sir, there is precious little skin left after we Swiss cheesed them.

Lieutenant: LOOK - I HAVE TO SHOOT SOMEBODY. WHAT WAS YEARS OF  TRAINING FOR?

Private: I think the Kremlin will have our heads for using too much ammunition. You know what happens then....

Lieutenant: WHAT?

Private: they shoot us.

• speaking of which, McDonald's is pulling out of Russia for good after 30 years
• Russia has pretty much ground to a halt, trying to figure out whether this is a bad thing or a good thing.

Author Benjamin Myers on the crop-circle makers who 'blew people's minds'

Wow, a book on two perfect geniuses pulling a stunt that was already proved disingenuous. They went into fields and created circles. The debunkers immediately said this was how all crop circles were created. Sure, people from ancient times on have been creating their own crop circles. 

• I am by no means a crop circle expert
• Legitimate crop circles were studied under a microscope. There is a bulge where the crop was bent, indicating great heat. No so in human circles. It has been present for quite a while before Doug and Dave, and will be there after. It's science, folks. Even better than Fauci Science.

• why is my phone upside down every time I reach for it? I go to push a power button that isn't there.

Elon Musk puts Twitter deal on hold over fake account details

This doesn't pass the smell test.

Flying AIDS News

House panel alleges cover-up by contract vaccine maker

Here’s the latest good and bad news about COVID-19 drugs

Switch to Moderna booster after Pfizer shots better against omicron in 60+

Life-threatening inflammation is turning COVID-19 into a chronic disease

BA.2.12.1 poised to become dominant in US, raising concern for future vaccines

Covid hospitalisation may affect thinking similar to 20 years of ageing

My good friends at Microsoft put out the Xbox S, which has no disc drive.

Sheer genius.

Now that it's out, they're looking for ways to validate discs and get them to the box. Good timing, guys. 

Hey, I know the answer: put a friggin disc drive in it. It will make it 1.25" taller, unless it's shoehorned into the side.

Btw, earlier units had the microphone on permanently. This probably does too. I don't know why people buy these, unless they snip the mic wires....

• It's not that I'm stupid - I prefer to think of myself as smart after the fact....

You know that I hate mowing. It has become worse lately, due to the constant rain, which causes constant growth of the mostly green stuff in the ground. The funny, almost personal fact is that last year, Mrs. lefty used weed and feed, or something like that, which got rid of the weeds. It got rid of the weeds so well, there are now new and better weeds. At last count, there were three or four blades of actual grass; the rest were weeds. I know the authorities are going to come after me, as they have every time I used the flamethrower. I can't afford the cost of a landscaper to remove the weeds and go with sand or rocks or lizards.

The new and better weeds are so strong, they grow in clumps and when the dog's line gets wound around them, she gets stuck. They also have a strange effect on the mower. Every time I use it, I get a small portion done, then the battery is discharged. Like my car. So after defeating every safety feature built into the mower so it would operate, now the battery's shot. Or the new and better weeds are sucking out the power in the battery. It's not enough that I have to have the entire 12 horse brigade drag me from my beloved couch to mow, now I can only mow so much before the battery gives up its last. It was especially important because of the impending rainstorm. I don't hear about this stuff, but apparently everyone else had. Rain, sleet, Santa, hail, and falling elephants. The local schools sent the kids home early. There were other storms all though the state. So I stayed dry and the grass stayed largely unmowed. And everything except grass will grown at a nuclear pace, further frightening the mower. We apparently need a new one. I don't know where they come from... perhaps the stork. They just tend to appear. I suspect Wife has something to do with it. Anything large and expensive usually has her fingerprints on it.

• Someone also flipped the Ant Switch. One day, no ants. Next day, rather a lot of ants.

An Arm CPU ran on electricity generated by algae for over 6 months

an AMD Ryzen CPU ran on electricity generated by nose-picking for 3 months

a current Intel chip ran on electricity generated by whale poop for 9 months

an RISC chip ran for 12 months on actual electricity, then burnt up

• Bosses using AI to hire candidates risk discriminating against disabled applicants
• Has anybody ever considered interviewing candidates? You can easily get past the discrimination....

AI networks are less than 5 years away.

Great, now your network will discriminate against black people and disabled people.

Some state lawmakers are introducing bans on everything abortion, down to contraception. These people have gone completely insane in their attempt to control everything. To the best of my knowledge, contraception is only a problem with Catholics. We may assume these legislators are Catholic. If they're not Catholic, their excuse is that abortion kills. Contraception prevents what they describe as life, but is not life itself. Can you imagine if sperm were life? Contraception would be a holocaust. Masturbation unthinkable. Will there be people stationed in every male's bedroom in case of nocturnal emissions? These people really need to calm down a bit and think this through, not that this ever stopped them before.