As the head of Alphabet's AI-powered robotics moonshot, I came to believe many things. For one, robots can't come soon enough. For another, they shouldn't look like us. read more
More rivers in central Europe spilled their banks on Monday in flooding that has killed at least 10 people from Poland to Romania and left many towns submerged or hit by gushing, debris-filled waters after days of heavy rainfalls. read more
It's a monumental moment that has given some survivors hope for change, nearly 12 years after 26 first graders and educators were killed in the shooting. read more
Former US President Donald Trump has been found liable to pay damages to London singer and songwriter Eddy Grant for using his song Electric Avenue without permission. read more
American women are having fewer babies, and that's become a political issue for many conservative advocates and lawmakers -- Elon Musk called the falling birth rate "the biggest danger civilization faces." read more
@#100 ... If accurate, why would the Republican nominee for President cart her around on his plane? ...
He says he does not know what she has said, but she likes him.
Trump says he doesn't control far-right agitator Laura Loomer, calls her a free spirit'
www.cnn.com
... Former President Donald Trump said Friday that he doesn't control far-right agitator Laura Loomer, whom he described as a "free spirit" and "supporter."
"Laura's been a supporter of mine, just like a lot of people are supporters, and she's been a supporter of mine. She speaks very positively of the campaign. I'm not sure why you asked that question, but Laura is a supporter. I don't control Laura. Laura has to say what she wants. She's a free spirit," Trump said at a news conference in Southern California in response to a question from CNN's Kristen Holmes about his allies expressing concern about their close relationship in recent days. ...
Yet, fmr Pres trump welcomes her onto his plane, and has her (where is his wife?) accompany him to solemn events like the 9/11 memorial.
@#4 ... You like to pretend Trump didn't mean the Neo-Nazis were "very fine people." ...
Yeah, similar to fmr Pres trump and the "Central Park 5."
5 Exonerated in Central Park Jogger Case Agree to Settle Suit for $40 Million (2014)
www.nytimes.com
... The five men whose convictions in the brutal 1989 beating and rape of a female jogger in Central Park were later overturned have agreed to a settlement of about $40 million from New York City to resolve a bitterly fought civil rights lawsuit over their arrests and imprisonment in the sensational crime. ...
Speaking of the Central Park 5 ...
Exonerated 'Central Park 5' member Yusef Salaam wins New York City Council seat (2023)
www.pbs.org
... Exonerated "Central Park Five" member Yusef Salaam won a seat Tuesday on the New York City Council, marking a stunning reversal of fortune for a political newcomer who was wrongly imprisoned as a teenager in the infamous rape case.
Salaam, a Democrat, will represent a central Harlem district on the City Council, having run unopposed for the seat in one of many local elections happening across New York state on Tuesday. He won his primary election in a landslide.
The victory comes more than two decades after DNA evidence was used to overturn the convictions of Salaam and four other Black and Latino men in the 1989 rape and beating of a white jogger in Central Park. Salaam was imprisoned for almost seven years. ...
And this...
Trump confronted by Central Park Five' member he called to be executed in debate spin room
www.yahoo.com
... You can bet Donald Trump wasn't prepared for this particular showdown.
On the sidelines of his first and possibly only debate against Kamala Harris in Philadelphia, the former president on Tuesday found himself face-to-face with none other than Yusef Salaam.
Salaam is a member of the "Central Park Five" -- a group of Black and Hispanic youths Trump once called to be executed for a crime they were later they later exonerated of.
The confrontation unfolded in the wake of Trump's debate against Harris on Tuesday night, when the former president made a surprise appearance in the spin room at the Pennsylvania Convention Center -- a room where his and Harris's assembled surrogates were making the case for why their respective candidates were the rightful victor of the debate.
Likely expecting to be fielding another question from a reporter, Trump instead found himself facing Salaam, now an elected member of New York City's council, who had joined the scrum of reporters surrounding the former president. Salaam, a Democrat, was one of the many Harris campaign allies marked for interviews with press after the debate.
As the former president turned towards Salaam, he was asked by several reporters including NBC's Peter Alexander whether he would apologize or say anything at all to Salaam. ...
My next question...
Should Sen Vance and/or fmr Pres Trump happen to hear a song by, say. Total Coelo, will they go off the rails again with their rhetoric?
Toto (Total) Coelo - I Eat Cannibals (Extended 12 Inch Mix, 1982)
www.youtube.com
The strange part, to me, is that I am even asking such a question of candidates for the White House.
But, there it is.
Behind the Trump Crypto Project Is a Self-Described Dirtbag of the Internet'
www.bnnbloomberg.ca
... Chase Herro has sold a lot of things in his career. Weed. Weight-loss "colon cleanses." A $149-a-month get-rich-quick class. Now he's adding another line to his resume: the Trump family's crypto guru.
Herro is the dealmaker behind World Liberty Financial, the crypto project that Donald Trump and his two older sons have been promoting on social media in recent weeks, according to two people involved with the project. Herro's long-time business partner Zachary Folkman is also playing a key role. While few details about World Liberty have been released, Eric Trump said that the startup will promote "financial independence" and Donald Trump Jr. said it will "make finance great again."
Former President Trump himself posted a video saying he'd announce the details on Sept. 16. "We're embracing the future with crypto and leaving the slow and outdated big banks behind," Trump said. ...
... and then there is this ...
An Unidentified Seismic Object' Shook Earth for Nine Days -- Now We Know What It Was
www.scientificamerican.com
... To put the tsunami in context, that 200-metre wave was double the height of the tower that houses Big Ben in London and many times higher than anything recorded after massive undersea earthquakes in Indonesia in 2004 (the Boxing Day tsunami) or Japan in 2011 (the tsunami which hit Fukushima nuclear plant).
It was perhaps the tallest wave anywhere on Earth since 1980. ...
Being a Doctor Who' fan means learning how to love and lose and love again (May 2024)
www.latimes.com
... I'm four episodes into the reign of Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor ... well, five if you count the "Doctor Who Special 4" in which he met his companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) ... well, five and a half if you also count the "Doctor Who Special 3" in which he emerged, via the world's first bi-regeneration, from the side of the Tenth-turned-Fourteenth Doctor (David Tennant).
In any case, I'm burrowed into this season of "Doctor Who" and as per regenerative usual, I'm feeling conflicted. ...
@#5 ... Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Rove says the former president's performance was "far worse than anything Team Trump could have imagined" and Trump was "visibly rattled" ...
Yeah, that "visibly rattled" reminded me of a prior event with fmr Pres Trump. foreignpolicy.com
I mean that photo of fmr Pres Trump after his Helsinki meeting with Pres Putin looks quite similar to the images of fmr Pres Trump during the debate with VP Harris.
... Despite all the polling and commentary to the contrary, Donald Trump snarled at ABC on Saturday morning that he was the true winner of Tuesday's debate ...
Republican Karl Rove says Trump got crushed by a woman he called dumb as a rock' during train wreck' debate
www.independent.co.uk
... Karl Rove, the Republican political consultant and deputy chief of staff in the George W Bush administration, has pulled no punches in an op-ed saying that Donald Trump's debate against Kamala Harris was a "train wreck" for him.
Calling Trump's debate performance "catastrophic", he goes as far as to say that he was "crushed by a woman he previously dismissed as dumb as a rock'."
Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Rove says the former president's performance was "far worse than anything Team Trump could have imagined" and Trump was "visibly rattled" as Harris "launched rocket after rocket at him." ...
@#12 ... Does he also hate Martha Steward? ...
Follow-up...
Martha Stewart makes her endorsement in the 2024 presidential race
www.independent.co.uk
... While all the talk of campaign endorsements revolved around Taylor Swift this week, earlier on Tuesday, before the presidential debate, home and hospitality magnate Martha Stewart made her choice.
In an onstage interview with Joanna Coles, chief creative and content officer for the Daily Beast, at the 2024 Retail Influencer CEO Forum, Stewart said she would absolutely be tuning in to the debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
"Oh, you bet," she said, before revealing her choice of candidate.
"Kamala," she stated, emphasizing the correct pronunciation.
Stewart explained that she supports the vice president because she wants a president "who doesn't hate New York" and "doesn't hate democracy." ...
Related...
Days of preparation and one final warning. How Kamala Harris got ready for her big debate moment
apnews.com
... It was almost time for the presidential debate, but Kamala Harris' staff thought there was one more thing she needed to know. So less than an hour before the vice president left her Philadelphia hotel, two communications aides got her on the phone for one of the strangest briefings of her political career.
They told her that Donald Trump had been posting on social media about a false and racist rumor that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating people's pets. The former president might mention it during the debate, they said.
The warning, described by two people with knowledge of the conversation, proved spot on.
While answering a question about immigration policy, Trump said migrants in Springfield were "eating the dogs" and "they're eating the cats." Harris laughed, shook her head and stared at her Republican opponent in amazement. "Talk about extreme," she said, and then moved on. ...
@#2 ... "create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do." ...
Apparently he also thinks it is OK to make up stories, even when those stories provoke threats and possible violence against those the story is about.