Friday, November 1, 2024

Random Thoughts: A Smidgen of Hope for the Planet

Mastodon

2024-10-01: "The UK Has No Coal-Fired Power Plants for the First Time in 142 Years" | WIRED.
Most of the time, I think our efforts to address climate change amount to too-little, too-late. But every once in a while there's a headline like this that gives me a smidgen of hope.
wired.com/story/uk-no-coal-fir...

2024-10-03: "11 damning details in Jack Smith’s new brief in the Trump election case" | POLITICO.
Damning? These Trump scandals have reached the point of having no effect on public opinion. Maybe they are even counter-productive. With every story, more voters might be moved to support Trump just to get these cases settled than moved to want him to lose to see the cases pursued for another four years. Depressing, but I think that's where we are.
politico.com/news/2024/10/02/j...

2024-10-04: "US economy added a whopping 254,000 jobs last month" | CNN Business.
Those are new jobs, in addition to all the jobs Americans had last month. Even if immigrants are taking some Americans' jobs, there are a "whopping" number of new ones to pick from.
cnn.com/business/live-news/us-...


2024-10-09: Tom Thumb has products shelved in alphabetical order. For example, "candy" is next to "canned vegetables." Genius. Who'd have guessed?

2024-10-09: Angie Chen "Button’s biggest donors in the latest fundraising period were Texans for Lawsuit Reform, or TLR, the influential tort reform group that is mostly backing GOP House candidates." -- The Texas Tribune.
For TLR, "lawsuit reform" means changing the laws to make it harder for individual Texans to obtain justice for wrongs in which they are harmed. That's not reform. It's regression.
texastribune.org/2024/10/09/te...

2024-10-14: I received an email with this subject: "2024-25 G League Player Onboarding Forms -Onno Steger".
So, I guess I can say I'm being recruited by the NBA. To which, all I can say is "Oh no." Or "Onno".

2024-10-14: One of the Richardson City Council's goals is "Enhance Cybersecurity best practices." On September 26, 2024, "an external party temporarily gained access to the City’s servers." Three weeks later, the city still can't say all services have been restored. My guess is that the City should first adopt "best practices," then set a goal to "enhance" them.

2024-10-15: I'm old enough to remember when Indiana Jones fighting the Nazis would elicit cheers in the movie theaters. Today? Swastikas are proudly shown at Trump rallies.

2024-10-15: I had read that attendance at the National Cricket League tournament at UT-Dallas in Richardson was disappointing. So I was very pleased to read this Facebook complaint by a nearby Richardson homeowner: "It honestly sounded like the folks across the alley were throwing a rager!" ;-)

2024-10-18: CNBC: "Tesla faces NHTSA investigation of ‘Full Self-Driving’ after fatal collision."
In other news, Elon Musk has donated $75 million to elect Donald Trump president. Coincidence?
cnbc.com/2024/10/18/tesla-face...

2024-10-24: I do not understand why so many selfies that I see on social media have a mirror image. Do people not notice? Do they not know how to flip the image around? Or is this something cool that I am late to pick up on a new fashion?

2024-10-31: It's official. The Texas Rangers are no longer the reigning World Series champions. Congratulations to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 2024 World Series champions.


More random thoughts can be found on Mastodon.

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