We’re publishing Tuesday-Friday this week. I apologize for the inconvenience.
KGB Report is published Monday through Thursday (usually), is assembled by an aging human, and contains no intentional A.I. generated material.
(Most) everything you need to know for today:
August 11 is the 223rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 142 days remain until the end of the year. As of this writing, 892 days remain in Trump’s term of office.
Knee-deep in the hoopla:
The moron who said this is now spouting discredited medical advice for your children. (The New Republic)
The watchdogs are barking themselves hoarse. The scandals of the president’s first term now seem quaint. (The Atlantic gift article)
Stop the nutjob takeover. The call of the normal is going unheeded by more and more office-seekers. Victor Marx, who a few weeks ago won the Republican nomination for governor in Colorado, said that as a minister he had freed many people from demonic possession, sometimes over the phone, though he calls the process different from exorcism. And that was his least bizarre claim.
(Wall Street Journal gift article)Farmer trusted AI after it gave good advice, then it helped wipe out 25 acres of his crops. Another man asked ChatGPT about substances that could replace salt. One of its suggestions was sodium bromide, which can be true for certain applications, such as cleaning, but certainly not for food. His new diet gave him bromism, a.k.a. chronic bromide poisoning, a psychiatric disorder not commonly seen since the 19th century.
Mark Zuckerberg’s AI manifesto is exactly why people don’t like AI. Even as Zuckerberg tries to paint a picture of the wonderful future abundant superintelligence will bring, he keeps reminding us of all the ways it’s likely to go wrong. (TechCrunch)
For years, AI companies treated the internet like an unlimited source of free training material. Now creators are turning that assumption against them. If the scrapers keep scraping, they may start poisoning themselves. Researchers have shown that just a small number of poisoned images can corrupt individual concepts, causing models to generate distorted animals, confuse objects, and eventually degrade the quality of their own output. A similar approach can poison AI voice cloning. (The Infographics Show Video)
NOAA says contiguous U.S. set record in July for hottest month ever. July averaged 76.89°F in the lower 48 states, eclipsing the Dust Bowl's July 1936 by an eighth of a degree. Nighttime lows, which are crucial for people and agriculture to recover from hot days, smashed the old record for hottest minimums by 0.7°F, NOAA said. (PBS)
Flesh-eating bacteria kill at least seven along Gulf Coast. Here’s how to protect yourself. (Stay away from Gulf beaches?) (CBS News)
Headline of the day: Pete Hegseth haunted by weird germ theory after cameras catch him wiping snot in his hair. "A little dab'll do ya," Scott Greenfield, a criminal justice lawyer, posted on X. (Raw Story via MSN)
How Steve Allen accidentally invented the late-night monologue. Today it might seem absurd to consider a late-night show without some form of a monologue, but the traditional leadoff segment began as a fluke. (LateNighter)
Harry Potter fans divert undersea power cable to avoid Dobby’s memorial in Wales. The construction of a multimillion-dollar electricity connection project between Ireland and the U.K. was slightly diverted after “Harry Potter” fans complained the infrastructure would disturb a memorial for Dobby, the fictional elf in the popular book series. (CBS News)
Discovered Nintendo cartridges in Wisconsin could be worth millions. There is currently no established market value for the newly documented variant, but collectors will soon determine just how much these Wisconsin discoveries are worth at auction. (NewsNation)
Brad Pitt says he’s drinking again after seven years of sobriety. Hey, Brad. Join the club.
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:
1942 – Actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil received a patent for a frequency-hopping spread spectrum communication system that later became the basis for modern technologies in wireless telephones, two-way radio communications, and Wi-Fi.
Quote of the day:
Stupidity always accompanies evil. Or evil, stupidity.
--Louise Bogan (Wikipedia link)
(One of 52,772 quotations from the searchable KGB Quotations Database.)
Click here for more Louise Bogan quotes
Today’s holidays:
Annual Medical Checkup Day, Global Kinetic Sand Day, Hip Hop Celebration Day, Ingersoll Day, International Fufu Day, National Align Your Teeth Day, National Face Mask Day, National Panini Day, National Raspberry Bombe Day, National Raspberry Tart Day, National Son and Daughter Day, Presidential Joke Day, and World Steelpan Day.
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On This Day:
2014 – Oscar-winning actor/comedian Robin Williams died at 63. (Video)
1992 – The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota opened. At the time the largest shopping mall in the United States.
1991 – Nickelodeon‘s first line of “Nicktoons“ (Doug, Rugrats & Ren & Stimpy) premiered on the channel.
1988 – A meeting between Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif, Osama bin Laden, Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, and leaders of Egyptian Islamic Jihad in Afghanistan culminated in the formation of Al-Qaeda.
1984 – “We begin bombing in five minutes“: United States President Ronald Reagan, while running for re-election, joked while preparing to make his weekly Saturday address on National Public Radio.
1973 – At the 1520 Sedgwick Avenue apartment building in The Bronx, New York, DJ Kool Herc hosted a house party widely considered to mark the birthplace of hip-hop culture and music. DJ Kool Herc demonstrated a new technique of beat juggling and Coke La Rock performed a new style of vocal performance called rapping.
1973 – The film “American Graffiti” was released. (Video)
1972 – Last U.S. ground combat unit deactivated in South Vietnam.
1965 – The Watts Riots began in the Watts area of Los Angeles, California.
1965 – The Beatles’ film “Help!” was released in the U.S. (Video)
1952 – Hussein bin Talal was proclaimed King of Jordan.
1951 – WCBS in New York broadcast the first major league baseball game in color.
1942 – Actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil received a patent for a frequency-hopping spread spectrum communication system that later became the basis for modern technologies in wireless telephones, two-way radio communications, and Wi-Fi.
1934 – The first civilian prisoners arrived at the Federal prison on Alcatraz Island.
1929 – Babe Ruth became the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs in his career with a home run at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio.
1919 – Germany’s Weimar Constitution was signed into law.
(For more comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
Some Birthdays:
1993 – Alyson Stoner, American actor, singer, and dancer
1992 – Tomi Lahren, American conservative political commentator
1983 – Chris Hemsworth, Australian actor
1976 – Will Friedle, American actor and screenwriter
1974 – Carolyn Murphy, American model and actress
1968 – Sophie Okonedo, British actress
1968 – Anna Gunn, American actress
1967 – Joe Rogan, American actor, comedian, and television host
1965 – Viola Davis, American actress
1965 – Embeth Davidtz, American actress
1954 – Bryan Bassett, American guitarist
1953 – Hulk Hogan, American professional wrestler (died 2025)
1950 – Steve Wozniak, American computer scientist and programmer, co-founded Apple Inc.
1949 – Ian Charleson, Scottish-English actor and singer (died 1990)
1949 – Eric Carmen, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2024)
1946 – Marilyn vos Savant, American journalist and author
1944 – Ian McDiarmid, Scottish actor
1944 – Frederick W. Smith, American businessman, founded FedEx (died 2025)
1933 – Jerry Falwell, American minister and television host (died 2007)
1925 – Arlene Dahl, American actress, businesswoman and writer (died 2021)
1921 – Alex Haley, American historian and author (died 1992)
1920 – Mike Douglas, American singer and talk show host (died 2006)
1902 – Lloyd Nolan, American actor (died 1985)
1897 – Louise Bogan, American poet and critic (died 1970)
1833 – Robert G. Ingersoll, American soldier, lawyer, and politician (died 1899)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2025 – Danielle Spencer, American actress (born 1965)
2024 – Ángel Salazar, Cuban-American comedian and actor (born 1956)
2022 – Anne Heche, American actress (born 1969)
2020 – Trini Lopez, American singer and guitarist (born 1937) (Video)
2020 – Sumner Redstone, American billionaire businessman (born 1923)
2014 – Robin Williams, American actor and comedian (born 1951) (Video)
2009 – Eunice Kennedy Shriver, American activist, founded the Special Olympics (born 1921)
2006 – Mike Douglas, American singer and talk show host (born 1920)
1995 – Phil Harris, American singer-songwriter and actor (born 1904)
1994 – Peter Cushing, English actor (born 1913)
1988 – Anne Ramsey, American actress (born 1929)
1984 – Alfred A. Knopf Sr., American publisher, founded Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. (born 1892)
1982 – Tom Drake, American actor and singer (born 1918)
1956 – Jackson Pollock, American painter (born 1912)
1937 – Edith Wharton, American novelist and short story writer (born 1862)
1919 – Andrew Carnegie, Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist, founded the Carnegie Steel Company and Carnegie Hall (born 1835)
1596 – Hamnet Shakespeare, son of William Shakespeare (born 1585)
(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)
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