Category: Knowledge and News

You probably have a vague recollection – something about pipe bombs placed outside the DNC and RNC on the evening of January 5. Although it happened the previous day, the media discussed it as part of the January 6th riots, and brought it up frequently.

And then people just stopped talking about it.

Well, that’s because the investigators don’t know much more than you do. There is still no suspect, and nobody even knows whether it was related to the storming of the Capitol or was just a separate act of terrorism. None of the people involved in the mob that day seem to know anything about it. There is a $100,000 reward for worthwhile info, but nobody has been awarded any portion of it, and nobody is close to claiming it.

“The only confirmed details about the suspect’s appearance, according to the FBI website, is that they were masked, carrying a backpack, had gloves and glasses, and were wearing a gray hoodie and Nike Air Max Speed Turfs with a yellow Nike symbol. The FBI has released multiple videos of the suspect walking around the night of the pipe bomb placements, along with a map of the suspected route they took.”

Man, those Indiana Jones movies are getting desperate for ideas.

No, it’s not a Harrison Ford movie, and it’s not even a video game, although it sounds like it would be a good one.

Webb’s image reveals thousands of galaxies in just a miniscule sliver of the universe.

And much more to come this week. The full suite will be released tomorrow, July 12, beginning at 10:30 a.m. EDT. Downloads will be available here.

“Soaring high in skies around planet Earth, bright planet Saturn was a star of June’s morning planet parade. But very briefly on June 24 it posed with a bright object in low Earth orbit, the International Space Station. On that date from a school parking lot in Temecula, California the ringed-planet and International Space Station were both caught in this single high-speed video frame.”

“20% of Americans now say the Bible is the literal word of God, half of what it was at its high point in 1984.”

What if it IS the word of God verbatim, but God was speaking figuratively? Or maybe God was kidding. He’s known for his humor.

Humor was his main weapon. Well humor and smiting were his two main weapons. Wait. Humor, smiting and … never mind. I’ll come in again.

Kidding aside, does it seem that fundamentalism is declining?

But Twitter tells Musk that he’s buying it whether he wants to or not.

“‘Twitter is likely to ask the court for two things in its litigation against Musk,’ said Brian Quinn, a law professor at Boston College. ‘Twitter is expected to seek a ruling that it has not violated its contract with Musk, and it will likely seek a judicial order requiring Musk to complete the acquisition.'”

I believe that Musk is probably correct when he says that Twitter has far more bots and false accounts than they have always claimed. When I had a Twitter account, I knew that many of my followers were bogus. The counterfeits were kind of obvious, because my account would muddle along for weeks with a certain number of followers, more or less unchanged, then one day the number would double for no apparent reason. My account may have been unusual, and I’m not claiming that Twitter’s overall numbers are like that, but I suppose this had to have happened to many accounts, not just mine. I assume the holders of those accounts just accepted it, as I did, because the number of followers is a matter of pride. Who’s going to write to Twitter to complain about having too many followers?

Twitter is an unusual business phenomenon. It is not especially large or profitable, but it exercises a powerful impact on the public, in both discourse and action, in the USA and elsewhere. That impact is far disproportionate to its financial success. Twitter’s annual revenues are only about $5 billion – about the same size as Harley Davidson, DoorDash or Abercrombie and Fitch. But DoorDash doesn’t have the power to get Presidents elected, or foment revolutions. Moreover, Twitter’s revenues are minimal compared to those of the other big internet powerhouses and it has only a tiny fraction of Facebook’s user numbers. It seems that Twitter could be much more if the company could find (1) the route to better user numbers, and/or (2) the right business model. Elon Musk is obviously no dummy. He can see that. But he’s not happy with what he’s seeing, or not seeing, so far in Twitter’s data. Twitter claims that the number of spam accounts and bots is now “well under” 5% of its users. Musk seems skeptical, to say the least.

Or maybe he just got buyer’s remorse and is using the data as his pretext, or just as a negotiation ploy. That is also possible. As of this moment, he is stuck with a bid of $54 a share for a company trading at $37. (It was trading at about $52 in late April). He can’t be that thrilled with the situation.

Bloomberg did a thorough (and surprisingly funny) analysis of the issue.

“General Flynn, do you believe in the peaceful transition of power in the United States of America?”

“The Fifth”

Note that he took the Fifth, exercising his right to avoid self-incrimination, in response to a yes or no question. There are only two possible answers, and a “yes” answer would not incriminate him, so …

While his invocation of the fifth is not legally equivalent to a “no,” and can’t be used against him in a criminal proceeding, invoking the fifth and a “no” answer are exactly identical outside of courtroom formalities. Since he would not be incriminating himself with a “yes” answer, the only possible logical conclusion is that he does not believe in the peaceful transfer of power.

Also, I think his invocation of the Fifth in this instance might be used against him in a civil proceeding. In some civil cases, judges may advise jurors that they can draw an “adverse inference” against a witness who claims the Fifth in this kind of questioning. Of course that isn’t always true. Many times a witness will invoke the Fifth in response to a very broad, open question, and no logical inference can be drawn. He may be avoiding self-incrimination on a wholly different matter, for example, from the matter considered in that trial.

In this case, however, Flynn was asked a yes or no question, and only a no answer was self-incriminating, so … infer away.

She was sentenced to 20 years in the hoosegow

Her lawyers asked for a reduction, making the preposterous argument that there are harsh conditions in the jail where she had been held without bail. The prosecution countered with the obvious fact that if disliking time in the ol’ calaboose were a valid excuse to get out, every criminal would be released early.

After this ruling (Dobbs v. Jackson), about half of the states will enact near-total bans of abortion.

For example:

The Texas attorney general says abortion is now illegal in the state. He has given his staff the day off to celebrate and has declared June 24 an annual holiday for his office.

Fortunately, Texas has no other problems, allowing the police to spend all of their time arresting physicians and pregnant women.