One Year Ago Today, Joe Biden, Who Was Totally Mentally Fit to be President, Dropped Out of the Presidential Race

From Ed Driscoll, posting at Instapundit.

Driscoll notes that NBC was still pushing the "cheap fakes" psyop just one month and one day earlier, on June 19, 2024.

And now?

Hunter Biden can't stop talking to the media (now that he has the one pardon actually signed by his vegetative-state criminal pederast father).

@stanleyFosha commented: "He's running!"

Posted by: Ace at 12:04 PM | Comments (389) | Trackbacks (Suck)

THE MORNING RANT - Artificial Intelligence Follies: Dave Barry Battles Google AI to Prove He’s Not Dead

I confess to being a bit of an AI skeptic. It’s not that I doubt it will someday be a widely adopted tool that is used as casually as spreadsheets and word processors are now used. It seems reasonable to expect that AI will be invaluable for mining data and organizing it much faster than any human could ever do, but nothing I’ve seen so far indicates that there is actual cognitive replacement of the human brain. So far, in fact, AI appears to be quite gullible about believing anything it reads on the internet.

I wrote about this a few weeks ago in a piece titled Revolution or Evolution? Maybe AI is Simply this Decade’s Microwave Oven or Calculator: “Most of these revolutionary new products simply turned out to be tools that were adapted into daily use. Microwaves are a tool in the kitchen, mainly used for re-heating. Word processors replaced typewriters. With “lane assist” and cruise control, my car has the ability to drive itself on highways without any inputs from me. These are all cool improvements, but they did not replace cooking, writing, or driving.”

Since I’m not normally a tech guy, our own Pixy Misa’s “Daily Tech News” hasn’t always been as interesting to me as the topics I write about. But now, however, I eagerly read his post every day because of Pixy’s mockery of how AI is being over-hyped, and especially how it being used to scam gullible investors. Keep it up, mate!

My own dabbling in AI has shown that it can sometimes produce cool pictures, but it struggles to even spell accurately in the pictures it produces for me. I quickly gave up on Bing’s AI picture-generator because most of my picture requests were prohibited by its woke programming.

It seems likely that much of the business reporting I read is AI-generated, because it is so illogical that I don’t want to believe any human journalist could have composed it. Revenue is conflated with profit, sales volume is conflated with production numbers, and results exceeding analysts’ predictions is conflated with actual growth.

Major corporations are fearful of being late to adopt AI, so they are aggressively rolling it out in some form or fashion to their employees, but it typically comes with a caveat - that although AI should be employed, it cannot be fully trusted. Therefore, employees are encouraged to verify what AI produces. Can you imagine using Excel while not trusting that it can accurately do calculations?

It was barely two weeks ago that Grok praised Hitler and accused Israel of being behind 9/11, “Elon Musk's AI chatbot, Grok, goes on antisemitic tirade; xAI team swiftly addressed Grok's posts with system improvements.” Why? Because it found that filth on the internet and regurgitated it. xAI (Twitter) had to do some quick “system improvements” (e.g. re-programming) to fix the problem. Chat GPT is also having a serious problem with its AI “hallucinating” incorrect information, “A.I. Is Getting More Powerful But Its Hallucinations Are Getting Worse.” But that’s what AI is – programming that mines the internet. Garbage in, garbage out. It’s not “intelligence.”

Just today I decided to check the denominational affiliation of two nearby Presbyterian churches. Google AI informed me that both of them were PCA churches (“Presbyterian Church in America”, but that turned out to be incorrect. I then visited those churches’ websites and learned that one is actually EPC (“Evangelical Presbyterian Church.”

I’ve read that what gives AI its “intelligence” is that it is interactive and “learns” as it interacts with users. Maybe, or maybe not. Humorist Dave Barry just published a piece at his Substack about his interaction with Google AI, which was reporting him as deceased. Mr. Barry sought to advise Google AI that he was not in fact deceased, and his accounting of all this is hilarious.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM | Comments (260) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

Current Disturbance
Mona Hatoum

Referencing both the human body and rigid systems of abstraction, the installation Current Disturbance 1996 is made from an immense grid of over 200 cages, light bulbs and the amplified sound of electric currents. As the bulbs light up and fade out at irregular intervals, they sporadically illuminate the surrounding gallery. Inside each of the cages rests a single lightbulb, all interconnected via a central convergence. Another single bulb is suspended inside the structure, illuminating the junction box at the centre. The grid of metal cages sets up a contrast between the sense of systematization and the chaos of randomised flashing lights and the mess of wiring covering the floor. The tension arising from this juxtaposition of elements serves to intensify the feeling of suspended energy and instability, inspiring a certain discomfort in the viewer.

There's more at this link, but even I am not cruel enough to subject you to it.

This would be a mildly amusing installation if it were not taken so seriously. The description is laughable, using the post-modern technique of obfuscation by vocabulary. None of those descriptors make any sense in the real art world of evocation of beauty and emotion!

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (293) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 7/21/25

Good morning kids. Hopefully you all had a nice, relaxing weekend and that none of you were adversely or otherwise affected by that Alaska Airlines IT glitch that shut down the airline for a brief time last night. Considering what's been going on in the world and what has been flooding in across our borders for years, and not just to pick lettuce and mow our lawns, but to spy on us, commit terrorism and sabotage in the name of Islam and the PRC, I hope the powers that be are on the case. Of course, in years past, the powers that be were focused on preserving, protecting and defending their and their party's hold on power and generational drive to dismantle America as founded, by any and every means necessary.

With that out of the way let's dive right in, shall we. As we are fond of saying in righteous indignation to the depredations that have been visited upon us, that there aren't enough lamp posts, yards of rope and pitchforks to deal with the criminals, tyrants and criminal tyrants who openly hate and despise us. Then again, I think we have an abundance of all of the above, but what we are sorely lacking in, are the stones to use them, figuratively speaking, despite the fact that our mortal enemies have proven time and again that they indeed have no compunction in using direct violent action (in the form of their street thugs, corrupt law enforcement officers and intelligence agents) or the power of the state via a corrupt judicial system and bureaucracy to wield power as punishment via process.

The Department of Justice under former [so-called quote-unquote] President Joe Biden actively sought a “federal hook” to justify sending federal law enforcement after parents it labeled “domestic terrorists” because they were concerned about their children’s education.

Documents obtained by America First Legal (AFL) show that prior to the infamous Oct. 4, 2021, “domestic terrorist” memo from former Attorney General Merrick Garland, staff were looking for any possible way to go after parents concerned with coronavirus mandates, critical race theory, and “transgender” policies.

“We’re aware; the challenge here is finding a federal hook. But WH has been in touch about whether we can assist in some form or fashion,” Kevin Chambers, then an associate deputy attorney general, wrote in an Oct. 1 email, trying to manufacture a way to respond to a teed-up letter sent by the National School Boards Association (NSBA). Career staff at the time were even concerned, saying there was no authority or legal basis for going after parents speaking out at school board meetings, particularly since they were protected by the First Amendment.

And so, for me the entire l'affaire Epstein is bullshit in light of the fact that, what we all knew for years is at long last being revealed to a wider and wider audience. That is, all of the above and of course what was done to candidate and then ultimately President Donald Trump.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced this week that John Brennan is under investigation, and with good reason. Brennan is the most corrupt former CIA director ever. His transgressions against the U.S., coming to light more succinctly with each passing week, portray an individual who should have never been in government service, let alone CIA director. Now is the time to nail him. . . Russiagate was a complete fabricated lie and yet Brennan, still serving as Obama’s CIA director, put in place a surveillance system to monitor at least two dozen Trump campaign staffers and advisors. Brennan wiretapped and eavesdropped on the conversations of Donald Trump’s most prominent political supporters. . .

When Trump ran in 2020, Brennan, as a private citizen, continued his despicable tactics. He was prominent among the 51 former intelligence agents who proclaimed that Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop was a product of Russian disinformation. Brennan knew this assertion was false from the get-go and that the fake stream media would run with it for months.
. . . Brennan believes that he had, and still has, a sacred duty to determine who should lead our nation. Deluded over many decades, he cares nothing about American voters, the will of the people, or democratic processes. He readily lied and deceived the populace to demonize Donald Trump and all others who he deems to be unworthy.

I've asked this before and I still don't understand it. How does someone get a job at the CIA in 1980 who four years earlier voted for the CPUSA presidential ticket of Gus Hall and Angela Davis. I take it back, I totally get it. It means the anti-American rot that permeated much and still permeates quite a bit of our governmental bureaucracy including areas we long thought, or prayed, immune to it, that is our law enforcement and intelligence agencies tasked with preserving our liberties and physical security and safety, must have been corrupt going back well before John Brennan slithered into Langley for a job interview.

And so, our current Director of National Intelligence, DNI Tulsi Gabbard had this to say . .

On this week’s broadcast on FNC’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said former President Barack Obama directed a “treasonous conspiracy” against President Donald Trump during his first term. Gabbard said, “The implications of this are, frankly, nothing short of historic. Over 100 documents that we released on Friday really detail and provide evidence of how this treasonous conspiracy was directed by President Obama if just weeks before he was due to leave office after President Trump had already gotten elected. This is not a Democrat or Republican issue — this is an issue that is so, so serious, it should concern every single American because it has to do with the integrity of our democratic republic.”

That's her talking, not me. Treason is a hell of a word to toss out there. She surely understands the ramifications of Treason, that is what the appropriate/potential punishment is for those who are convicted of it.

Again for me Epstein is bullshit. Obama, Biden, Hillary should swing alongside, Brennan, Comey, Clapper and all of their underlings/henchman who engineered the plot against Trump and all of the crimes against the citizenry of the United States of America. Be nice if she developed a case against all of the above and Malig-Nancy Pelosi for engineering the fake J-6 Reichstag Fire/Weenie Roast.

Then again, it's probably not a stretch to connect the dots between Epstein and the aforementioned vis a vis the plots against Trump.

The Rot is Ugly Dark and Deep. It's going to take at least 100 years of Trumps and Trumpian presidents to get to the bottom of it all and begin the process of restoring not just the Republic but the public's trust in it.

And lastly, a quick shout-out and thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.

Have a great day!

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• “At approximately 8 p.m. Pacific on July 20, we experienced an IT outage that resulted in a temporary, system-wide ground stop for Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air flights,” the airline wrote in a statement on X. As of 11 p.m. Pacific, the ground stop has been lifted, and our operations have resumed. As we reposition our aircraft and crews, there will most likely be residual impacts to our flights.”
  Alaska Airlines grounds all flights after IT outage disrupts systems
  * * * * *

• Victor Davis Hanson: The cure may be painful, but it’s the cancer—unchecked borders, foreign appeasement, DEI overreach, and green delusions—that’s killing the patient.
  The War Between Trump’s Chemotherapy and the Biden Cancer
  
• Daniel Greenfield: The globalist fantasy of global stability.
  Why Trump Should Embrace World Chaos

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:39 AM | Comments (330) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 21 July 2025

Top Story

• Microsoft has announced it is no longer using engineers from China to work on Department of Defense computer systems. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  The Department of Defense when contacted responded, and I quote, They did WHAT?
  
  Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth expanded:

  Foreign engineers - from any country, including of course China - should NEVER be allowed to maintain or access DoD systems.

  I expect the emails have been pretty toasty since this one dropped.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (210) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Overnight Open Thread - July 13, 2025 [Doof]

Howdy Hordelings! Thanks for stopping by the ONT to close out your Sunday and weekend. What's going on in your world? Any lurkers out there ready to jump into the commenting pool? C'mon in - the water's fine!

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (347) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gun Thread: Late Middle July Edition!

Howdy, Y'all! Welcome to the wondrously fabulous Gun Thread! As always, I want to thank all of our regulars for being here week in and week out, and also offer a bigly Gun Thread welcome to any newcomers who may be joining us tonight. Howdy and thank you for stopping by! I hope you find our wacky conversation on the subject of guns 'n shooting both enjoyable and informative. You are always welcome to lurk in the shadows of shame, but I'd like to invite you to jump into the conversation, say howdy, and tell us what kind of shooting you like to do!

Holy Shitballs! How in the ever-loving Hell did it get to be late middle July? I've been working on some long neglected projects around the house before WW divorces me, including fixing the smashed back fence from the storm a couple months ago. Having said that, retirement is going so well I might need to hire an assistant!

With that, step into the dojo and let's get to the gun stuff below, shall we?

Posted by: Weasel at 07:00 PM | Comments (239) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Food Thread: Pork Ribs Smoked In A Wide Spot On The Road, And What's Up With Beef?

That is JackStraw's new smoker! I'm surprised it fits in Rhode Island!

His first cook will be pork ribs, which is an excellent choice, because they are quite forgiving, and pretty inexpensive. I wonder what his second cook will be?

That is a pellet grill, which have become quite popular, and are certainly easy! I know that the traditionalists swear that if you aren't cutting your own hardwood, slaughtering and butchering your own animals, and sailing to the South Seas to harvest the pepper, then you are inauthentic and should slink away.

But sometimes convenience is a powerful thing. I would rather be inauthentic and eat good smoked meat than be overwhelmed by the insanity of some so-called experts, and never make it at home.

On the other hand, I have made smoked chicken, and while it was good, the skin was...eh...and the breast was a bit dry every time. So maybe I should embrace authenticity and start harvesting my own salt and pepper and making my own chili powder and grow my own garlic and onions and mustard seed and chopping my own wood and....

Yeah...maybe not.

I have a Weber R2D2 smoker, and while it works well, temperature regulation is a bit of an art, and for long cooks it is a pain in the ass. So a pellet smoker sounds positively decadent.

For those of you who don't obsess over this sort of stuff; most pellet smokers have electrically-driven feeds that drop pelletized fuel into the fire, and the rate is adjusted with a thermostat. So dialing in your preferred temperature is straightforward.

Posted by: CBD at 04:00 PM | Comments (261) | Trackbacks (Suck)

First World Problems...

Oh yes....one more example of the inherent superiority of America over Europe!

That is a bottle of Vodka. Generic vodka from France, with a supposed Russian pedigree. It's produced (as far as I can tell, and I don't care) in France, for the European market, and is bottled at a pathetic, effeminate, better for teenagers 75 proof. And before you suggest that I shop around; this is a big brand, but the other ones are also bottled at that anemic strength.

For F*ck's Sake! Man up!

Luckily, I don't drink that sh*t, and prefer American whiskey, which is imported at its normal proof. Oddly, some are stupidly expensive (Jack Daniel's for $40? No thanks). But some are reasonably priced, which is why I am drinking Bulleit 10-Year! And yes, I caved, and bought a bottle of Weller 12-Year-Old. And no, it wasn't reasonably priced, but I have never seen it anywhere in the United States, so I had to buy a bottle.

The worst part about it? The damned stuff is delicious.

Posted by: CBD at 02:00 PM | Comments (230) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Damage Done By The Biden/Obama Junta Will Not Be Repaired Quickly

Their foul paws were in everything, from child mutilation disguised as medical care; to payoffs to their political cronies; to multi-billion dollar boondoggles in "green energy; to the destruction of our border defenses; to making the armed forces an LGBTQ+ lunatic asylum; to the weaponization of our legal system; to the evisceration of the Constitution, beginning with the 2nd Amendment; and much, much more.

Here is an example of a shockingly craven political act that will take a huge amount of money, and a long time to repair.

Biden drained the nation's energy stockpiles, but 'Big Beautiful Bill' allocation won't refill it

Upon taking office in January, President Donald Trump proclaimed that “We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again right to the top, and export American energy all over the world.” The statement referred to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), the nation’s energy stockpile. It wasn’t the only time Trump stated his administration would replenish the stockpile.

However, the Big Beautiful Bill allocated only $171 million for petroleum acquisitions toward that goal. To get back to where it was when former President Joe Biden took office, the federal government needs to purchase approximately 236 million barrels of oil. At current oil prices, which have been hovering around $65 per barrel for the past few weeks, the $171 million Congress allocated will only add a few million barrels to the reserve.

Sure, we can pile on and criticize the Trump administration for not going full-steam ahead and refilling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). After all, it is an important part of our national security, and something that seems relatively straightforward to do. Except.... we need Congress to appropriate about $20 billion to get it done, and that will be a political fight that in light of other issues, might not be realistic.

A more optimistic view of our national security needs should probably recognize that the United States is now the world's largest petroleum producer, and that is far different than in 1975 when the SPR was created. A far more pressing issue is our refining capacity that is concentrated in just a few facilities.

We have about 125 petroleum refineries in the United States, and the top 10 produce about 5,000,000 barrels/day. So an attack on just those 10 would decrease our refining capacity by 25%. Five are in Texas, and three are in Louisiana, so the attack wouldn't even have to cover most of America.

Of course, the most significant damage the traitorous Biden/Obama junta may have done is opened the border to many thousands of military-age Chinese, rabid Islamists, and others. Is it beyond the realm of possibility that some of them are here for the express purpose of industrial sabotage in the event of a conflict? Or even just garden-variety Muslim terrorism?

The Big Beautiful Bill funded an additional 10,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

Maybe that isn't enough.

Posted by: CBD at 12:00 PM | Comments (301) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Morning Book Thread - 7-20-2025 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

(Click for larger image)

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading. Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants...(you know Ace lounges around in these on Sunday mornings...)

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM | Comments (309) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 20 July 2025

Top Story

• If you gaze long into an LLM, the LLM also gazes into you: Geoff Lewis is managing partner and co-founder of Bedrock Capital (no, you're thinking of Blackrock) and guided his firm to be an early investor in OpenAI. He used ChatGPT to help him in his work on a daily basis.
  
  He went stark raving mad. (Futurism)
  
  There is a website called the SCP Foundation that documents the work of a secretive organisation that finds, catalogues, and if possible imprisons various kinds of cosmic horror and more innocuous but equally strange entities. It's a work of collaborative fiction organised as a wiki, and has been running for more than 15 years.
  
  It's all online where tools like ChatGPT can scan it and incorporate it into their hallucinations, which is exactly what it fed to Geoff Lewis, providing the perfect reinforcement loop to drive him into psychosis.
  
  Which in a strange form of recursion, layering reality upon fiction, makes ChatGPT into precisely the kind of psychic terror that the SCP Foundation pretends to investigate.
  
  (Hat tip to commenter Blonde Morticia.)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:40 AM | Comments (155) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Night "Club ONT" July 19, 2025 [The 3 Ds]

Welcome to Club ONT! A collaboration of your Sunday through Wednesday ONT Crew - The Disco, The Doggo, and The Dino. Feel free to interrupt - particularly if you are saying it better.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (382) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Evening Movie Thread - 7/19/2025

Yasujiro Ozu

Hyperbole has the opposite intended effect most of the time. We live in a saturated information age where anyone has a voice, and every voice wants to be heard. You don't get attention by saying something is pretty good. You have to be loud, and saying things are the greatest or worst things ever becomes ever-present, making each successive declaration less convincing than the last. So, when someone with a (tiny) voice discovers something they genuinely think may be one of the best ever, one must be careful, especially if that thing is fairly far removed from the audience's expectations.

When considering the top-most tier of talent behind the camera of film history, one is met with titans. Akira Kurosawa. Charlie Chaplin. Martin Scorsese. Federico Fellini. Ingmar Bergman. Steven Spielberg. John Ford. Men who shaped the medium, made great art, and entertained millions. But sometimes, you encounter someone quieter, less assuming, and more refined (I use that word very specifically), and you realize that perhaps the greatest of them is someone fewer people take notice of.

Yasujiro Ozu was one of the earliest of Japanese feature filmmakers, beginning his filmmaking directing career in 1927 (in the American context, I would consider him second generation like Howard Hawks). By the time Akira Kurosawa was a young director, Ozu was a titan in the Japanese filmmaking world, able to override Imperial censorship objections of Kurosawa's The Men Who Tread on Tiger's Tails through simple praise of the work at the censorship meeting as recounted by Kurosawa in his (something like an) autobiography. He'd dominated the Japanese film world artistically for years, winning the Japanese equivalent of the Best Picture Oscar (the Kinema Junpo Award) a total of six times, including three years in a row (1932-1934).

And yet, his films are deceptively simple. Once he gained as full control as one can in the industry, roughly the mid-30s, he made, almost exclusively, quiet family dramas with little obvious visual flair. It was these kinds of movies that moved him from critical darling to box office champion in Japan. This was happening concurrently while the aforementioned Kurosawa was bringing Western filmmaking technique (and advancing it on his own) to action movies in the same country with movies like The Hidden Fortress and Yojimbo. And yet, Ozu's films were just as popular in Japan.

Now, books have been written about Ozu, his Zen influences, and his technique. One major reason I decided to dig into Ozu's work, of which I was passingly familiar beforehand, was reading Paul Schrader's Transcendental Style in Film, a largely academic work he wrote in his twenties that features Ozu prominently. I'm not going to dig into that stuff in any significant manner in this essay (though, I imagine an unwritten book to be had would be about the use of clothing). This is more of an introduction, an effort to get people unfamiliar with even his name to check him out. I think, though, that it's going to be a challenge.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at 07:45 PM | Comments (162) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Hobby Thread - July 19, 2025 [TRex]

Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread. We gave the Ace of Spades Wheel of Hobbies(TM) a spin and it came up with birds.

Birds? Yes. Birds. Quack, quack.

You might be tempted to say "I'm not really into birds as a hobby." Dig around in the content and soak in the comments. You might find that you're really into birds and didn't know it or you might find reasons to get into birds. Either way, glad you're here.

[Top photo: Kingfisher by polynikes]

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:30 PM | Comments (146) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ace of Spades Pet Thread, July 19

* * *

Good afternoon and welcome to the almost world famous Ace of Spades Pet Thread. Thanks for stopping by. Kick back and enjoy the world of animals.

Would you like a treat?

Let's relax a little with the animals and leave the world of politics and current events outside today.

Posted by: K.T. at 03:39 PM | Comments (60) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, July 19

Above, spring azaleas from 40 Miles North. Below, flowers in complementary colors:

Posted by: K.T. at 01:32 PM | Comments (69) | Trackbacks (Suck)

NPR provides community and emergency information to Rural Americans?

Have you got a transistor radio so you can listen to
NPR in emergencies?

Yesterday, Ace's post on removing federal funding from NPR and PBS actually cited NPR, perhaps for one last time.

"Public funding has enabled the flourishing of a uniquely American system of unparalleled cultural, informational, and educational programming, and ensured access to vital emergency alerting and reporting in times of crisis -- all for about $1.60 per American, every year. Parents and children, senior citizens and students, tribal and rural communities -- all will bear the harm of this vote," Maher said.

North Carolina Rep. Alma Adams was among the Democrats who rose to defend public broadcasting. "When Hurricane Helene devastated western North Carolina last year, public broadcasting was there when traditional communications failed," she said. "Widespread power, cellular and internet outages meant that for thousands of North Carolinians, public radio was how they received their news."

The House vote on Thursday means CPB will lose $1.1 billion meant to fund it through the next two years, while the bill also cuts $7.9 billion in other programs. CPB acts as a conduit for federal money to NPR, PBS and their member stations. Although NPR, which produces news programs such as Morning Edition and All Things Considered, relies on direct federal funds for only a small portion of its budget, its approximately 1,000 member stations get a heftier portion of their operating revenue through CPB.

The network has warned that many of those stations -- especially those broadcasting to rural areas or to underserved audiences, such as Native Americans -- could be forced to shut down as a result of the funding rollback.

Read Ace's entire piece (don't comment on old threads) and prepare for more from him in the future. The video at the end of the post, where the head of NPR has to comment on her own words, is a switch from a couple of years ago, when the management was facing DEI-type unrest from some of its own staff.

Over the past few years, I have reported on some of my brief NPR-listening experiences (so you didn't have to listen). Credit where credit is due: I DID appreciate being able to find transcripts of some programs of which I had heard brief snippets. Not sure if transcripts are available for local stories, or for how long. Would a local newspaper be more valuable?

I also became interested in the story of Uri Berliner's challenge from within to the leftist news coverage at NPR (April 2024), which led to scrutiny of the new CEO (take a deeper look at Wikipedia, too?), as well as scrutiny of the entire organization.

Adam Schiff is not a reliable muse for news.

Today, I wanted to go a little deeper on the "rural station" thing and touch on other forms of communication available to citizens, including those in rural areas.

Posted by: K.T. at 11:15 AM | Comments (289) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Classical Saturday Morning Coffee Break & Prayer Revival

It's true and you know it deep down in your heart.

Anyway......Good morning boys and girls and everything in between. Before we enter the Prayer Revival just a few housekeeping matters to go over. (Rulz for those of you in Viola)

1) This is an open thread. Feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate or a trifecta.
2) Be kind. Be nice. And FHS no impaling the trolls.
3) No. Don't. Even. Think. About. It! No running with sharp objects
4) Have a nice weekend!

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 07:44 AM | Comments (454) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 19 July 2025

Top Story

• Since Rockchip launched the RK3588 CPU in 2020 it has started showing up everywhere. With four Arm A76 cores (and four low power A55 cores), it gets the job done without breaking the bank or your power budget, whether you're designing a single-board computer, a low-end NAS, or a high-end router.
  
  What's Rockchip planning for an encore? How about the RK3688? (Liliputing)
  
  It will have eight Arm A730 cores - not Arm's high-end family now, but still seven generations newer than the A76 - and four A530 cores, a similar upgrade over the A55.
  
  Plus a numeric processor that's five times as fast, great for signal processing or image recognition in robotics projects. And it will support the new LPDDR6 standard for memory bandwidth up to 200GBps - twice as fast as the typical Windows PC using DDR5 - completely overhauling the old 64-bit memory bus on the RK3588.
  
  Plus Rockchip is shrinking the die from 8nm to 4nm, so it should be far more power efficient. And there will be a smaller, slower, cheaper ten core RK3668 to accompany the faster model.
  
  Radxa - makers of the Rock Pi 5 single-board computer - already announced on Twitter that it is working on a Rock Pi 6.
  
  No prices or dates as yet.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (154) | Trackbacks (Suck)