Just in Case it Matters to You
Weekly Report 22-56
- “CURRENTLY, ALGORITHMS AND SIMILAR BEHIND-THE-SCENES AUTOMATION determine everything we see online – from content on social media, to which websites we find on search engines, to which ads are displayed when surfing the web – but major internet companies cannot be sued over their content algorithms, based on current federal Appeals Court decisions.” A case now being heard by the Supreme Court may reverse that protection, after people killed during the ISIS Terrorist massacres in Paris in 2015, contend that “radicalized videos inciting violence and recruiting potential supporters to YouTube (owned by Google) incited their actions, exceeding both 1st Amendment and Communications Decency Act Section 230 immunity protection for tech companies… In an ideal world, Congress would step in to write a new law that threads this needle, striking a sensible balance between ensuring that important websites continue to function, while also maybe including some safeguards against the promotion of illegal content, but likelihood probably isn’t very high.” [VOX.COM – 10/6/22]
- RATS LOVE LOS ANGELES! A couple years ago, LA County was epicenter of a typhus epidemic as fleas that had been bitten by ill rats spread across the U.S. This year, L.A. finished 2nd Place in Orkin’s annual ‘Top 50 Rattiest Cities’ listing – only behind Chicago (seven-times winner), but ahead of New York City, Washington DC, and San Francisco. Principal cause of the infestations has been pandemic closing of restaurants which sent rodents to residential neighborhoods & homeless encampments, particularly in areas overrun by garbage, cluttered, and close to business districts. “Once settled, rat populations surge and, with oversized front teeth, can gnaw a variety of items including electrical wires, water pipes and gas lines, as well as contaminating food through pathogens that can cause food poisoning and spread diseases.” Tips to prevent: (1) Keep food stored away in sealed metal or glass containers; (2) Clear out clutter, especially cardboard which rats chew & use for nests; (3) Minimize tall grass & woodpiles where they habitat; (4) Seal any cracks & holes, use weatherstripping under doors and entryways; (5) Watch for rodent droppings, burrows or rub marks along baseboards & walls. [ORKIN.com]
- THE FEDERAL ‘HELP AMERICA VOTE ACT’ (HAVA) was legislated by Congress in 2002, after concerns raised by the 2000 election, mandating voter registration to include last four digits of Social Security or Driver’s License number. However, the law has been effectively ignored by local & state voting officials, with subsequent complaints & litigation from watchdog groups ignored by Courts and by Dep’t of Justice. Now, a month before America’s possibly most critical election in a century, the Public Interest Legal Foundation is trying again – filing lawsuits over duplicate registrants (over 500 in six Minnesota counties alone), missing personal identification info (including over three million New Yorkers), with examples including registrants living in a mental hospital and convicted child sex offenders. As the Party-in-Power battles to stay in power, the likelihood for any meaningful timely outcome is regrettably remote. [RED STATE – 10/9/22]
- AVERAGE AMERICANS SPEND OVER FOUR HOURS WEEKLY WATCHING LIVE SPORTS ON TV, with four-in-ten viewing up to five games. The latest 1000+ survey found: (1) double the number of hours spent by men (5.8), who prefer to watch alone, and who say they’ve used sports as an excuse to get out of something; (2) three-quarters demand live TV, but 20% who can’t get to set in time will record for later viewing; (3) four-in-ten admit to watching while working, and same proportion claim their biggest reason is being a Fan of the team; (4) Only 9% of men like watching with their ‘significant other’ versus 34% of women; (5) While baseball is “colloquially known as America’s favorite pastime,” only 10% say it’s their favorite, versus 35% preferring Football and 15% Basketball. [TIME TO PLAY.COM]
- THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK: A stupefying ‘magic’ performance: https://biggeekdad.com/2018/09/emotional-magic-act/
The newest Electric Vehicle obstacle and challenge became evident from Hurricane Ian in Florida. According to FEMA, combustion engines which occasionally ignite burn around 1,500 degrees, but EV batteries (which corrode from water damage) are starting engine fires three times as hot, burning up to 4,900 degrees and requiring over 1,500 gallons of water to extinguish, proving difficult for rescue workers to manage. [TOWNHALL]
“REALITY is and always shall be a function of our consciousness, based on collective agreements about the way that the physical state of things actually exist, as distinguished from how they are conceptualized or imagined in our minds… According to the most prominent scientists of our time (Einstein, Heisenberg, Schopenhauer), all concepts, even those closest to experience, are from the point of view of logic, freely chosen conventions, structures of pure thought, with intellect and matter being the same thing considered from opposite points of view… It’s also possible that the world we know and observe through our five senses could be just a projection – a holograph mimicking that transcendent space beyond our reach.” [EPOCH TIMES]
For parents of kids: An outstanding video “the Danger & Fun of Growing Up in the Past.” How kids as young as five grew up without helicopter sheltering, yet astonishingly survived! https://biggeekdad.com/2022/09/parents-today-might-be-horrified/