The upgraded service will launch this October, according to internal memos. read more
Americans, driven by a Democratic surge, are the most enthusiastic about the presidential election in 24 years of Gallup polling. read more
If there is one time of year to break out the bug spray, it's Labor Day weekend. "This is the prime time -- the last week of August and the first week of September -- when West Nile usually peaks nationally," said Dr. Erin Staples, a mosquito expert and medical epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "People need to be using their insect repellent right now." read more
The brain-machine interface race is on. While Elon Musk's Neuralink has garnered most of the headlines in this field, a new small and thin chip out of Switzerland makes it look downright clunky by comparison. It also works impressively well.
The GOP nominee has landed in hot water on abortion again after criticizing Florida's six-week ban and declining to take a stance on a state ballot measure. read more
Apparently, Amazon needs to do something, and quickly, to make Alexa profitable.
Amazon Alexa is a "colossal failure," on pace to lose $10 billion this year (2022)
arstechnica.com
... Layoffs reportedly hit the Alexa team hard as the company's biggest money loser.
Amazon is going through the biggest layoffs in the company's history right now, with a plan to eliminate some 10,000 jobs. One of the areas hit hardest is the Amazon Alexa voice assistant unit, which is apparently falling out of favor at the e-commerce giant. That's according to a report from Business Insider, which details "the swift downfall of the voice assistant and Amazon's larger hardware division."
Alexa has been around for 10 years and has been a trailblazing voice assistant that was copied quite a bit by Google and Apple. Alexa never managed to create an ongoing revenue stream, though, so Alexa doesn't really make any money. The Alexa division is part of the "Worldwide Digital" group along with Amazon Prime video, and Business Insider says that division lost $3 billion in just the first quarter of 2022, with "the vast majority" of the losses blamed on Alexa. That is apparently double the losses of any other division, and the report says the hardware team is on pace to lose $10 billion this year. It sounds like Amazon is tired of burning through all that cash.
A division in crisis
The BI report spoke with "a dozen current and former employees on the company's hardware team," who described "a division in crisis." ...
Elon Musk's X revenue has officially plummeted, new documents show (June 2024)
mashable.com
... By now, you've probably heard about Elon Musk's grand plan to turn X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, into an "everything app." One of the major pillars of Musk's reimagining of X includes a payment platform much like PayPal or Venmo.
New documents obtained by Bloomberg shed new light, not only into Musk's financial service vision for X, but also into just how much the company has struggled financially since he acquired it in October 2022.
These new documents are prepared by X and have been submitted to state regulators as Musk's company looks to receive money transmitter licenses " a requirement for anyone looking to provide financial services of this kind. These documents also give the public its first official peek into the company since Musk took X private.
X's revenue has plunged
Now that X is no longer publicly traded, there's a lot we no longer know about the company. Most reports regarding X's revenue troubles, for example, have come from internal leaks.
However, these new documents make it official: According to X, the company's revenue has plummeted since Musk took over. ...
Camper Van Beethoven - Good Guys & Bad Guys (1986)
www.youtube.com
Lyrics excerpt...
...
Well there are good guys and there are bad guys
And there are crooks and criminals
There are doctors and there are lawyers
And there are folks like you and me
So let's get high while the radio's on
Just relax and sing a song
Drive your car up on the lawn
Let me play your guitar
Well, this here verse is for the people in russia
Though it is a long long ways away
They couldn't hear this song in russia
But couldn't understand the words anyway
...
Joanna Connor - Playing In The Dirt (1989)
www.youtube.com
An excellent cover of the Robert Cray tune.
I saw Ms Connor in concert one evening at the Night Shift Cafe on Rubber Avenue in Naugatuck, CT.
My friend and I got there early, so we were sipping our beers at our table. Then this lady started walking around the cafe, talking to the people. She was great to talk with. I thought she might be the owner of the cafe.
Then she walked up on the stage, picked up a guitar and started playing.
Wow, just friggin' wow.
Listen to the tune above, and you will get a sample of what I heard that evening.
It turned out to be an amazing concert.
Fun tune... (and a fun B-grade movie)...
Dickies - Killer Klowns (1988)
www.youtube.com
(OK, more likely, a C-grade movie. But I laughed.....)
Related? I don't know ...
CT August primary voter turnout: low overall, better among Dems
ctmirror.org
... Democrats in Connecticut were more active this year in down-ballot primary elections than they were in the presidential primary election in April, marking a departure from typical voting behavior among Americans.
Due to "down-ballot roll-off," voters across the nation are more likely to cast votes for races that are usually at the top of a ballot -- like president -- and less likely to vote in races further down the ballot, like those for state and local office, according to the Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy, a nonpartisan organization that aims to strengthen transparency at all levels of government. ...
Mosquito spraying coming to more NYC neighborhoods amid West Nile scare: What to know
www.nbcnewyork.com
... As part of New York City's continued efforts to reduce the spread of West Nile virus, more neighborhoods in the five boroughs will getting sprayed with treatments to cut down on the number of mosquitoes.
Just as was done earlier in the week, trucks will go to neighborhoods during the overnight hours during the first week of September in order to treat areas where mosquitoes could breed, the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said Wednesday.
Starting during the evening of Sept. 3, city trucks will spray pesticides in sections of Queens. Spraying will start around 8:30 p.m. and last until 6 a.m. the following morning. If it rains that night, the spraying will be done the following night, on Sept. 4.
Parts of the following neighborhoods will see spraying: ...
DOH-Hillsborough County Issues Mosquito-Borne Illness Alert
hillsborough.floridahealth.gov
... The Florida Department of Health in Hillsborough County (DOH-Hillsborough) is informing residents of a third confirmed human case of locally-acquired Dengue Fever. As such, the county will continue to be under a mosquito-borne illness alert. The current case is unrelated to the previous cases based on dengue serotyping. DOH-Hillsborough and Hillsborough County Mosquito Control are coordinating surveillance and prevention efforts by conducting arial spraying. ...
Related...
What to know about the mosquito virus spreading through New England
thehill.com
... A rare and dangerous mosquito-borne illness is spreading through New England, putting states on high alert with one death already confirmed following an infection.
Cases of eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) have been detected in at least five states this year: Massachusetts, Vermont, Wisconsin, New Jersey and New Hampshire.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health warned last weekend that 10 communities in the state are at high or critical risk for the EEE virus. A New Hampshire resident was confirmed to have died this week after testing positive for EEE.
EEE, or "triple E," is spread through the bite of infected mosquitoes. There are no vaccines or treatments available for the virus. The mosquito-borne disease occurs rarely in the U.S., but it can be deadly.
Here's what we know. ...
@#26 ... X is becoming as laughable as Faux News...
Yes and no.
Yes, about the lies.
But no, Fox News seems to be able to hold on to its advertising revenue so far.
X, well, that's a different story.
Elon Musk's X has a major advertising problem
qz.com
... The social media platform's estimated ad revenue dropped $238 million in 2024 so far
Elon Musk's repeated attempts to convince companies to take out advertisements on his social media site appear to have fallen flat, according to new data.
Advertisers apparently spent almost $744 million on X, formerly known as Twitter, during the first six months of 2024. That's about 24% lower than the more than $982 million advertisers dropped on the platform in the first half of 2023, according to ad-tracking company MediaRadar.
That data backs up what has already been clear for more than a year -- X has a revenue problem. ...
@#10 ... Putin is going there even as he has a warrant on his head, because it's so important. ...
Background...
Putin will visit Mongolia -- a country that's supposed to arrest him when he lands. But it probably won't, an expert says.
www.yahoo.com
... Vladimir Putin plans to visit Mongolia next week despite an ICC arrest warrant out in his name.
- - - The International Criminal Court issued it last year over the deportation of Ukrainian children.
- - - Even so, Mongolia, an ICC member, is unlikely to arrest Putin, an international-law expert told BI.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to visit Mongolia next week for the first time in a decade.
The Kremlin said the visit is at the invitation of Mongolian President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh "to participate in the ceremonial events dedicated to the 85th anniversary of the joint victory of the Soviet and Mongolian armed forces over the Japanese militarists on the Khalkhin Gol River."
It's seen as a strategic visit for the longtime allies, but there is one small problem: In March 2023, the International Criminal Court put out a warrant for Putin's arrest on charges of unlawful deportation and transfer of children during the war in Ukraine.
As a signatory of the Rome Statute " the founding treaty of the ICC " Mongolia is required to detain people on its soil if they have an arrest warrant out in their name. (Russia also signed the Rome Statute in 2000 but withdrew its signature in 2016 and never became a member of the ICC.)
This is Putin's first visit to an ICC member country since the warrant was issued.
So what will Mongolia do?
"Mongolia is never going to arrest him, of course," said Talita Dias, a research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict.
Dias said that while Mongolia is obligated to arrest Putin, there would probably be no major consequences if it didn't.
Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow had "no worries" about the upcoming trip. "We have a wonderful dialogue with our friends from Mongolia," he said. ...
Interesting. Mongolia's flaunting of the international law it had agreed to uphold.
@#5 ... That's like calling stevie wonder an expert sniper. ...
Hey, don't you go dis'ing Stevie Wonder. :)
Stevie Wonder - Living for the City (1973)
www.youtube.com
The lyrics in that version have not been sanitized for today's audiences.
@#2 ... So, where is the recording? ...
OK, so I read the article and followed a link in the article that said...
... The liberal watchdog Media Matters had previously flagged the broadcast. ...
OK, that link to Media matters placed me here:
On podcast for Project 2025 partner, JD Vance attacked journalists for being "miserable and unhappy" because their biological clocks have run out (July 2024)
www.mediamatters.org
... "One of the weird lies the elites have been told is that it's very easy to start a family when you're 45," Vance claimed. "God says otherwise." ...
Vance was appearing on the September 20, 2021, edition of the Moment of Truth podcast, which is run by the conservative organization American Moment. Around the time of the podcast, Vance was a member of the group's board of advisors. He is currently a board member emeritus for the group. ...
OK, the word "edition" above has a link to this:
The Hillbilly Has A Moment (feat. J.D. Vance)
www.youtube.com
The video is like an hour and 15 minutes long, so I did not watch it.
The MediaMatters link above has a lot of quotes from the video, though.
Have fun!
Yeah #5 was intended to be funny. :)
Here's another for ye...
Ideology - Billy Bragg (1986)
www.youtube.com
Lyrics excerpt...
...
When one voice rules the nation
Just because they're on top of the pile
Doesn't mean their vision is the clearest
The voices of the people
Are falling on deaf ears
Our politicians all become careerists
They must declare their interests
But not their company cars
Is there more to a seat in parliament
Then sitting on your arse
And the best of all this bad bunch
Are shouting to be heard
Above the sound of ideologies clashing
Outside the patient millions
Who put them into power
Expect a little more back for their taxes
Like school books, beds in hospitals
And peace in our bloody time
All they get is old men grinding axes
Who've built their private fortunes
...
@#39 ... Are COVID vaccines still a thing? ...
Yes.
They updated vaccines have been mentioned a lot in local media.
This may be helpful...
Where to find the new COVID vaccine booster shots
www.axios.com