Tuesday, August 1, 2023

We'll Blow Up that Bridge When We Come to It


Your love is like  a Tesla fire


Google’s new security pilot program will ban employee Internet access

Google also discovered that driving trucks is dangerous, so delivery people will now carry all boxes to their destination.


  • Hey Mom - what do I put for Father on the birth certificate?


Robert Kennedy Jr is moving fast with his presidential campaign. Strangely, he's getting a lot of support from republican politicians. Considering the success rate of people named Kennedy, he's either incredibly brave or incomprehensively stupid. Or simply suicidal.

Just recently he said he wants to back the dollar with Bitcoin.
Completely unrelated, John F. Kennedy wanted to go back to the gold standard for money. President Kennedy was beyond compare in making really powerful enemies.

Yup - suicidal.



AT&T says lead cables in Lake Tahoe “pose no danger” and should stay in place

AT&T maintains that the 200,000 miles of lead-covered cable is every bit as harmless as lead paint.



Surveillance World

This AI Watches Millions Of Cars Daily And Tells Cops If You’re Driving Like A Criminal

All conspiracy theorists told you this was coming. Every last one. And here it is... AI that can monitor your license plate, car, route, and manner in which the car is driven. Just think of all the possibilities! The fines! The monitoring! Selling your information to marketers (FB, Amazon). You ain't seen nothin' yet....


Here's a brief intro to the Surveillance State - the source and collectors of your data


Phone  --> cell provider --> marketing  --> police/FBI  (with or without warrant) --> NSA (semi-secret rooms that collect everything from carrier)

Vehicle --> every function recorded locally  --> sent to manufacturer  --> marketing  --> police/FBI  (with or without warrant)

Vehicle emergency system (On-Star) --> can listen as well as transmit --> emergency services -->  marketing --> police/FBI  (with or without warrant)

Remote Surveillance --> drones, planes, helicopters, plate readers, neighborhood cameras, doorbell cameras --> AI -->  police/FBI  (with or without warrant)

Social Media  --> your provider --> marketing --> FB/Amazon --> FB/Amazon marketing --> FB/Amazon selling your info --> data scrapers --> police/FBI  (with or without warrant) --> stored overseas so CIA can use loophole of not spying on Americans, as can other countries --> NSA -just assume it all winds up here - email, text, phone, fax, airline tickets, Real ID, etc.



IRS Moves Forward With a New Free-File Tax Return System

This will speed up taking your house



Police in Australia, frustrated by the lack of handgun crime, tazed a 95 year old dementia patient in a facility. She hit the floor, fractured her skull, and died of head trauma. The police said her treatment was 'grossly disproportionate.'

After we get done laughing at the threat posed to the police by a 95 year old lady with a walker and a knife, we should take a moment to look into this further. The lady refused to put down her 2 knives. She continued toward the police. First of all, the lady was obviously not in control of her faculties. Dementia does this to you. So how do you stop a 95 year old? I'd have to agree that tazing is a bit much, as are guns and rubber bullets, but police have to do something. These people are dangerous because they don't always live in the same world we do... she could perceive her housemates as a threat to her, hence the knives. This is a function of dementia. Police could have come up behind her, perhaps, and disarmed her. My friend's father was about 6'2", a gentle giant and a man of few words. Unfortunately he had to be institutionalized with dementia. At the facility, he picked up a person by their throat and had to go to a different facility. There was another patient who used to be a policeman, and people suffered at his hands.

The question is now twofold: how to subdue someone with Alzheimers who feels threatened and how to TREAT Alzheimers. There are now two drugs that show real promise, but my understanding is that all they do is slow the progress of the disease, and they have nasty side effects. We are so behind on dementia.


RIP Anthony Benedetto, aka Tony Bennett.

Frank Sinatra said he was the best. While I'm not crazy about the music, the man was a great singer. He appealed to many generations, moreso than any singer.



There's a bunch of stores nearby, arranged in a strange order, like almost 2 city blocks you walk around. Naturally they had to put up signs, so people could figure out what stores were there.
Yesterday I saw a sign that said "Shop Here, Live Here."  They built apartments on top of the shopping blocks. Yes, I need to live close to Sephora, so I can spend all my time there. I wonder what type of person lives in these apartments. It looks way more upscale than the surrounding neighborhood. Maybe the apartments are temporary housing for shoppers who have flown in expressly for the privilege of shopping there. I don't even know if it has a name....  Hey Honey, we're moving to Starbucks Plaza! 

I saw an article on greatest/largest malls in the country. Number 1 was the King of Prussia Mall, 45 minutes from Thermionic Mansion. They had to move entire Turnpike exits and state highways to go around it and handle the traffic. Around Christmas, the traffic backs up to the Turnpike exit! You have to wait 30 minutes in line before you pay the toll, no less figuring out where the mall is. There are signs, but just listen for the sound of cash registers. I had friends in that hood long ago.. I think it was a small, decrepit strip of shops. They turned it into King of Prussia Plaza, which was your basic mall. Then they added KofP Court. It had many of the same stores as the Plaza, but more snooty stores too. You had to cross a walking bridge over parking traffic to travel from one to the other. The really fun part was that the Plaza was not set up in any way that resembled reality. While a normal mall would be in an "I" or "H" shape, this was in a triple "Q" shape, with a couple of lines sticking out here and there. Basically you were lost the moment you entered the mall. Their 'maps' were printed up by Ikea, so your guesses were about as accurate as you were likely to get. And there were 2 floors, each with a different shape.

Nobody consulted me, but they did away with the 2 building getting lost concept and just built one humongous space, in which several football fields and landing strips for the new Boeing 888 plane fit. In fact, one can fly directly to the mall from most states. Philadelphia's airport code is PHL. The mall's code is 'LOST'. We were going to see the place one day, so I brought up a map online. This was the wrong thing to do, as it just proved that we were better going there and getting lost in-person, as opposed to getting lost with an online map. But it shur wuz pretty. It told you which stores were where, and let you rotate it to find stores you couldn't afford to even walk by. It never mentioned parking, but we figured it would be like the Plaza, where you circled the 1,200' lot for a few hours, until someone left, then there was a huge battle over who got the spot; fist fights, water hoses, and KY jelly were always involved. 

So you could find the names of the stores but as it turned out, not what they carried. "Bruce's" was one. Apparently you're supposed to guess what Bruce sells. Or just repeat the oft-used maxim: 'if you have to ask, you can't afford it.' I didn't recognize 3/4 of the stores, which means I couldn't afford their wares and shouldn't be allowed to purchase a ticket to let me into the mall (after the $50 parking fee - they think they're a football stadium). The names were all foo-foo, even if they didn't clue us into what they sold. There were probably stores that sold soap for the right half of your body, with the left side stores only in the Planet of California. Business bags made from the finest endangered species. Ladies' nose waxing. Only black shoes. Only green clothes. Custom furniture so expensive there were no samples in the store. Shoe stores entirely for one brand that your wife could never hope of affording, which turns out to be a good thing because they make your feet turn left at the arch. You realize that you can't even afford one of the shoes, and you'd require a 3rd mortgage for a pair. 

There were approximately three floors, except when there were four. There was also a parachute jumping range, but it looked a little low. This was borne out by the ambulance parked at the entrance to the store and all the broken pieces of people being carried out. When there was a ladies clothing store, it occupied all 3 floors, only there were no elevators or stairs. They still had a men's department; it was located in a sub-basement, just past the janitorial supplies, taking up about 4 square feet. This way it looked just like every other department store. Women have an entire aisle for fuzzy slippers, men have an end table for underwear (and pants).  Naturally there were several Apple stores. I have to avoid these because if I pass too close to one, my skin starts to burn, which in turn sets off the mall's smoke detectors, after which we play Water Hose Games with the kids. We don't have kids, so we had to go to the kiosk to rent some. I had no idea kids were that expensive.

If they had apartments on top of this mall, I have nieces who would immediately move there. I suspect one of them already lives in the mall, but nobody knows where. If I were to guess, I'd try the shoe stores. No, wait... those horribly expensive pocketbooks - what's it called... Roach!

Strangely, we decided to stay home.
I think it was a wise choice.






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