A wide-ranging veterans policy bill that would bolster home caregiver programs and support for homeless veterans, among other areas, was approved by the House on Monday evening after election-season politics stalled the bill for months. read more
A Georgia appeals court on Monday canceled oral arguments that were scheduled for next month on the appeal of a lower court ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue to prosecute the election interference case she brought against President-elect Donald Trump. read more
In Alberta, in some situations, licensed pharmacists can modify a prescription or prescribe on their own, she explains. Meaning: you can take your child to a local pharmacy for an assessment and, if necessary, get a rapid strep test -- then get prescribed the necessary treatment on-site -- instead of struggling to find an available doctor ... read more
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), an agency charged with regulating US media and communications, is about to get a new boss: current commissioner Brendan Carr. read more
Standing on a podium in a Florida convention centre on the night of the election, a row of American flags behind him and a jubilant crowd looking on, Donald Trump declared: "Many people have told me that God spared my life for a reason, and that reason was to save our country and to restore America to greatness." read more
It looks to be Pres-elect Trump vs Mr Musk on this one.
Meanwhile, Pres-elect Trump is watching a SpaceX launch.
Trump, Musk watch SpaceX launch Starship, booster misses landing
www.reuters.com
... Elon Musk's SpaceX launched its giant Starship rocket to space from Texas on Tuesday, advancing the ship's spaceflight abilities but botching an attempt to bring its booster back to land as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump watched from the company's rocket facilities.
The roughly 400-foot-tall (122-meter-tall) rocket system, designed to land astronauts on the moon and ferry crews to Mars, lifted off at 4 p.m. CT (2200 GMT) from SpaceX's sprawling rocket development site in Boca Chica, Texas.
The rocket's 233-foot-tall (71-metre-tall) first stage booster, called Super Heavy, detached from its second stage, Starship, at roughly 40 miles (62 km) in altitude, sending the craft into space.
Super Heavy unexpectedly splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico instead of returning to land, where it was expected to fall into large mechanical arms attached to the tower it launched from.
The last-minute diversion to water indicated something went wrong. ...
Young Americans Rely on Social Media Influencers for News, Pew Says
www.bnnbloomberg.ca
... A significant number of young adults get their news from social media "news influencers" that generally don't have traditional journalism training or news experience, according to new data from Pew Research Center.
Nearly 40% of young adults under 30 rely on these news influencers to stay updated on current events and politics, Pew found. The vast majority of those influencers -- 77% -- aren't affiliated with a news organization or have never worked in the news industry.
The new data highlights a changing media landscape in which young people, in particular, are relying more and more on non-traditional news sources to learn about important topics like government, social issues and the economy.
The study, based on insight from 10,000 adults and 500 news influencers in the United States, comes in the wake of a contentious presidential election where candidates on both sides leaned heavily on social media creators to disseminate information and mobilize voters. ...
Half of Americans read at 6th grade level or below -- and it's crushing
northdenvertribune.com
... Is America's social, political and economic dysfunction driven by some as simple as low literacy?
The claim that half of Americans read below a 6th-grade level is supported by multiple sources. According to recent studies, approximately 54% of American adults aged 16-74 have literacy skills below a 6th-grade level[1][2][5]. This statistic highlights significant literacy challenges in the U.S., affecting about 130 million adults[6]. These low literacy levels have implications for personal and economic outcomes, as they can impact employment opportunities and income levels[1][2][5]. ...
@#93 ... I voted because he said "Promises made, Promises KEPT". No one else said that. ...
The biggest lie Trump tells is that he's kept his promises (2018)
www.vox.com
... A raft of populist pledges have been left on the cutting room floor.
President Donald Trump is such a hard-core liar that Wednesday morning on Twitter he quoted a Marc Thiessen column defending his honesty that literally contains the line, "Don't get me wrong, Trump lies all the time."
Thiessen downplays Trump's routine dishonesty with the dismissal that "in part, it's a New York thing " everything is the biggest and the best."
As a New Yorker, I have to say that it is not actually true that people in New York act like sociopathic liars (and imagine the uproar in conservative media if I sniffily dismissed complaints about Bill Clinton's dishonesty by saying he's from Arkansas).
But more to the point is Thiessen's argument " quoted by Trump " that he delivers on his promises. That's important since one big problem in politics with having a well-deserved reputation as a liar is that if a liar leads your political movement, you are liable to be betrayed. Thiessen, and Trump himself, wants to reassure supporters that even though Trump may be a huge liar, he won't break faith with them.
Trump fans are supposed to believe that they are in on the con and it's the rest of us who are the marks. Unfortunately, that's exactly how a well-run con works and the truth is Trump's record in office is littered with broken promises.
Trump has broken lots of promises
Thiessen, of course, can't actually deny that some of the things Trump promised as a candidate have not, in fact, happened. But he writes that "where Trump has failed to keep promises, such as building the wall or repealing Obamacare, it has not been for a lack of trying."
On the wall, however, it's not just that Trump hasn't persuaded Congress to appropriate the staggering amount of money his pointless border wall would cost.
The thing he promised as a candidate was to make Mexico pay for the wall " i.e., to brush aside the fiscal concerns that have in fact made wall-building impossible by asserting that there was a way to get the wall for free. This idea was so mind-bogglingly ridiculous that it's probably for the best that Trump hasn't actually tried to do it. But he definitely hasn't tried, and he's not going to be able to deliver on his promise because the promise was fundamentally dishonest. ...
Related?
Bees are sentient': inside the stunning brains of nature's hardest workers (2023)
www.theguardian.com
... This March, Buchmann released a book that unpacks just how varied and powerful a bee's mind really is. The book, What a Bee Knows: Exploring the Thoughts, Memories and Personalities of Bees, draws from his own research and dozens of other studies to paint a remarkable picture of bee behavior and psychology.
It argues that bees can demonstrate sophisticated emotions resembling optimism, frustration, playfulness and fear, traits more commonly associated with mammals. Experiments have shown bees can experience PTSD-like symptoms, recognize different human faces, process long-term memories while sleeping, and maybe even dream.
Buchmann is part of a small but growing group of scientists doing what he calls "fringe" research seeking to understand the full emotional capacity of bees. His research has radically changed the way he relates to the insects " not only does he now avoid killing them in his house, he has also significantly reduced lethal and insensitive treatment of specimens for his research.
"Two decades ago, I might have treated a bee differently," Buchmann says. ...
@#36 ... NATO was the cause of this War. It was an Aggressive Preventive War.
Russia saw a developing situation and preemptively Attacked to prevent an inevitable later War. ...
Preemptively attacked?
An unprovoked invasion of a sovereign country is now tried to be characterized as a preemptive attack?
For starters, there is the word "attack" in that assertion.
What is the justification of that attack?
Please be specific.
That aside...
I have suggested to your current alias previously.
And I will suggest it once again ...
Your current alias needs better talking points.
I mean really.
What else yer got beside apparent pres Putin propaganda?
"There is no Ukraine": Fact-Checking the Kremlin's Version of Ukrainian History (2020)
blogs.lse.ac.uk
... The notion that Ukraine is not a country, but a historical part of Russia, appears to be deeply ingrained in the minds of Russian leadership. ...
@#40
What Free Speech? Trump Ramps Up Threats To Sue Publishers Over Their Speech
www.techdirt.com
... We just warned folks that Donald Trump would be one of the most anti-free speech Presidents in history, and he seems to have no qualms living down to that reputation.
Donald Trump's history of frivolous lawsuits against media outlets shows his disdain for free speech, and he shows no signs of stopping. The Columbia Journalism Review has an article exploring a bunch of other legal threats Trump and those around him have been flinging at news and book publishers over their speech. ...
[as the norm for that site, lots of links in that article]
@#28 ... What actions did they take to provoke a war? ...
Worthy of note...
Finland and Sweden asked to join NATO and were granted membership.
Countries ask to join NATO.
Why did they ask to join NATO?
Because of Pres Putin's unprovoked invasion of a sovereign country.
How many countries have asked to join Russia's defense alliance, Collective Security Treaty Organization? And how many have withdrawn from that alliance?
Former member states of CST and CSTO
en.wikipedia.org
A requirement to be nominated for the Trump 2.0 Cabinet?
Exude - Boys Just Want To Have Sex (1984)
www.youtube.com
Do I really need to supply the lyrics for this one?
@#2 ... It will also directly affect WayMo. ...
It will directly affect all self-driving efforts.
But one of those efforts seems to benefit significantly more than the others, the one that has been promising full-self-driving but unable to deliver.
Indeed WayMo Driver seems to be quite ahead of Tesla's FSD efforts, and may not need this relaxation of the FSD regulations as much as Tesla seems to.
On self driving, Waymo is playing chess while Tesla plays checkers (May 2024)
www.understandingai.org
... During a late March trip to San Francisco, I had a chance to try the latest self-driving technology from both Tesla and Google's Waymo.
During a 45-minute test drive in a Tesla Model X, I had to intervene twice to correct mistakes by the FSD software. In contrast, I rode in driverless Waymo vehicles for more than two hours and didn't notice a single mistake.
So while Tesla's FSD version 12.3 seems like a significant improvement over previous versions of FSD, it still lags behind Waymo's technology. ...
@#6 ... Where has VP-elect JD Vance been since election day? ...
OK, I found this, fwiw, considering the source ....
VP-elect JD Vance to hold meetings between Gaetz, Hegseth and 'key' GOP senators
www.foxnews.com
Yeah, that's dated today.
Election Day was a couple weeks ago.
What happened to VP-elect Vance?