Michael Kosta dives into Trump’s busy schedule: hosting an IndyCar event, providing a totally legit medical explanation for how part of Lindsey Graham “blew up,” and reigniting the war in Iran over tolls for the Strait of Hormuz. Plus, Graham’s successor is confirmed, and although she's his sister, she might be America's most qualified senator.
KGB Report is published Monday through Thursday, is assembled by an aging human, and contains no intentional A.I. generated material.
Sorry I missed yesterday- I overslept. An inconvenient side-effect. Hopefully new meds later this week.
July 15 is the 196th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 169 days remain until the end of the year. As of this writing, 919 days remain in Trump’s term of office.
Knee-deep in the hoopla:
Who really controls the Strait of Hormuz? Since the war began, Iran has only expanded its power over the waterway. (The Atlantic gift article)
ICE tries to lower its profile after two fatal shootings in a week. They should try lowering their weapons. (The New Republic)
Make that three deaths in one week: Man fleeing immigration officers in Florida is struck and killed by tractor trailer, police say. (AP)
House backs making Daylight-Saving Time permanent. That means in some northern US cities, sunrise won’t arrive until after 8 am. I say set the clocks ahead by 30 minutes once and just split the difference.
(Wall Street Journal gift article)New Anthropic ad implies AI could kill us all. Somebody didn’t take Marketing 101. (Futurism)
Elon Musk could still face criminal charges for trying to bribe voters in Wisconsin. Wanna bet? (Gizmodo)
Coffee linked to significant new side effect, says massive study. TLDR: It increased the presence of good bacteria in the gut. (Newsweek via MSN)
What China understands about AI that the US doesn’t is surprisingly simple. The future of artificial intelligence will not be decided by better software alone. It will be decided by energy. While Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Meta compete to secure nuclear reactors and private power connections for their data centers, American households are being left with higher electricity bills and an increasingly strained public grid. (The Infographics Show Video)
Keep scrolling… lots of interesting stuff in Quote of the Day, Holidays, On This Day, Birthdays, and Deaths. I can pretty much guarantee you’ll learn something new.
History highlight:
1834 – The Spanish Inquisition was officially if unexpectedly disbanded after nearly 356 years.
Quote of the day:
Perhaps when distant people on other planets pick up some wave-length of ours all they hear is a continuous scream.
--Iris Murdoch (Wikipedia link)
(More Iris Murdoch quotes from the KGB Quotations Database)
Today’s holidays:
CASK Gene Awareness Day, Developmental Disability Professionals Day, Glioblastoma Awareness Day, I Love Horses Day, National Be a Dork Day, National Give Something Away Day, National Gummi Worm Day, National Hot Dog Day, National Pet Fire Safety Day, National Respect Canada Day, National Tapioca Pudding Day, Orange Chicken Day, Saint Swithin’s Day, Social Media Giving Day, Take Your Poet to Work Day, and World Youth Skills Day.
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On This Day:
2012 – South Korean rapper Psy released his hit single Gangnam Style. (Video)
2006 – Twitter, later one of the largest social media platforms in the world, was launched.
2003 – AOL Time Warner disbanded Netscape. The Mozilla Foundation was established on the same day.
1979 – U.S. president Jimmy Carter gave his “malaise speech“.
1975 – Apollo–Soyuz Test Project featured the dual launch of an Apollo spacecraft and a Soyuz spacecraft on the first Soviet-United States human-crewed flight. It was the last launch of both an Apollo spacecraft, and the Saturn family of rockets.
1971 – President Richard Nixon announced he would visit communist China.
1965 – The U.S. probe Mariner 4 made its closest approach to the Martian surface.
1964 – The Republican party nominated Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater for president.
1954 – The Boeing 367-80, the prototype for both the Boeing 707 and C-135 series, made its first flight.
1918 – World War I: The Second Battle of the Marne began near the River Marne with a German attack.
1916 – In Seattle, Washington, William Boeing and George Conrad Westervelt incorporated Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing).
1910 – In his book Clinical Psychiatry, Emil Kraepelin gave a name to Alzheimer’s disease, naming it after his colleague Alois Alzheimer.
1870 – Georgia became the last of the former Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union.
1849 – The first air raid in history: Austria launched pilotless balloons against the city of Venice.
1838 – Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered the Divinity School Address at Harvard Divinity School, discounting Biblical miracles and declaring Jesus a great man, but not God. The Protestant community reacted with outrage.
1834 – The Spanish Inquisition was officially if unexpectedly disbanded after nearly 356 years.
1806 – United States Army Lieutenant Zebulon Pike began an expedition from Fort Bellefontaine near St. Louis, Missouri, to explore the west.
1799 – The Rosetta Stone was found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon‘s Egyptian Campaign.
1789 – French Revolution: Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, was named by acclamation Colonel General of the new National Guard of Paris.
1741 – Aleksei Chirikov sighted land in Southeast Alaska. He sent men ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to visit Alaska.
1149 – The reconstructed Church of the Holy Sepulchre was consecrated in Jerusalem.
1099 – First Crusade: Christian soldiers take the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the final assault of a difficult siege.
(For more comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
Some Birthdays:
2008 – Iain Armitage, American actor
1994 – Mason Dye, American actor
1988 – Aimee Carrero, American actress
1986 – Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, American actor
1981 – Taylor Kinney, American actor
1979 – Travis Fimmel, Australian actor
1979 – Laura Benanti, American actress and singer
1977 – Lana Parrilla, American actress
1976 – Diane Kruger, German actress and model
1973 – Brian Austin Green, American actor
1972 – Scott Foley, American actor
1971 – Jim Rash, American actor, comedian, and filmmaker
1968 – Eddie Griffin, American comedian, actor, and producer
1967 – Adam Savage, American actor and special effects designer
1963 – Brigitte Nielsen, Danish-Italian actress
1961 – Forest Whitaker, American actor
1961 – Lolita Davidovich, Canadian actress
1952 – Terry O’Quinn, American actor
1951 – Jesse Ventura, American wrestler, actor, and politician, 38th Governor of Minnesota
1950 – Arianna Huffington, Greek-American journalist and publisher
1949 – Trevor Horn, English singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer
1946 – Linda Ronstadt, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
1944 – Jan-Michael Vincent, American actor (died 2019)
1942 – Vivian Malone Jones, American civil rights activist (died 2005)
1935 – Alex Karras, American football player, wrestler, and actor (died 2012)
1935 – Ken Kercheval, American actor and director (died 2019)
1927 – Carmen Zapata, American actress (died 2014)
1919 – Iris Murdoch, Anglo-Irish British novelist and philosopher (died 1999)
1905 – Dorothy Fields, American songwriter (died 1974)
1796 – Thomas Bulfinch, American mythologist (died 1867)
1779 – Clement Clarke Moore, American author, poet, and educator (died 1863)
1606 – Rembrandt, Dutch painter and etcher (died 1669)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2017 – Martin Landau, American film and television actor (born 1928)
2012 – Celeste Holm, American actress and singer (born 1917)
2006 – Robert H. Brooks, American businessman, founder of Hooters and Naturally Fresh, Inc. (born 1937)
1997 – Gianni Versace, Italian fashion designer, founded Versace (born 1946)
1991 – Bert Convy, American actor, singer, and game show host (born 1933)
1976 – Paul Gallico, American journalist and author (born 1897)
1948 – John J. Pershing, American general (born 1860)
1947 – Walter Donaldson, American soldier and songwriter (born 1893)
1904 – Anton Chekhov, Russian playwright and short story writer (born 1860)
1883 – General Tom Thumb, American circus performer (born 1838)
(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)
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