WTF-Beta

@Amanda

Yes, an interesting story. Thanks for posting it. I dug around a little and found this interview: Guy was a colorful character, to say the least.

https://www.wtj.com/articles/gabaldon/

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado for her work "promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela" and her push to move the country from dictatorship to democracy.

Jorgen Watne Frydens, the Nobel Committee chair, spoke broadly about the advance of authoritarian regimes in the world and retreat of democracy in the announcementt

https://abcnews.go.com/International/nobel-peace-prize-awarded-maria-corina-machado/story?id=126355178

@Steve-Miller said in Breakfast Cereals:

If you’re interested in such things you might like the book I just finished.

“Ultra Processed People”. Chris Van Tulleken.

I'm about a quarter of the way through it and finding it very interesting. Thanks for the recommendation!

Origami Patterns Solve a Major Physics Riddle

The amplituhedron, a shape at the heart of particle physics, appears to be deeply connected to the mathematics of paper folding.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/origami-patterns-solve-a-major-physics-riddle-20251006/

https://people.com/golden-retriever-gives-baby-koala-a-piggyback-ride-11822542?utm_placement=newsletter&user_id=66c4c06e5d78644b3aab4472

ChatGPT Is Blowing Up Marriages as Spouses Use AI to Attack Their Partners

https://futurism.com/chatgpt-marriages-divorces?user_id=66c4c06e5d78644b3aab4472

I'm seeing this kind of interaction, not necessarily just between spouses, but between individuals online. They use chatbots to generate their arguments and then fling them at each other.

Reminds me of this toy:

One Vigilante, 22 Cell Tower Fires, and a World of Conspiracies

Inside the mind of the most prolific anti-5G arsonist in the world—and the incoherent, very online political violence of our era.

https://www.wired.com/story/22-cell-towers-one-vigilante-world-of-conspiracies/

The first three victims were residents of the town we live in. We were living here at the time and remember the panic when the poisonings happened.

WTTW, our local PBS station, just aired a documentary about the incident and the subsequent investigations. I never knew the details about the prime suspect.

Chicago Stories - Inside the Tylenol Murders

https://www.pbs.org/video/inside-the-tylenol-murders-9osm7y/

‘Dumbphones’ are getting smarter and more premium. Are they the solution for disillusioned phone addicts?

https://www.cnn.com/world/dumphones-feature-phones-spc

The state of Illinois and the city of Chicago have filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration over its effort to deploy National Guard troops to the state.

The parties are asking a judge to block the Trump administration from federalizing the Illinois National Guard and from sending to Illinois any guard members from other states, including Texas.

"The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military, particularly not simply because their city or state leadership has fallen out of a president's favor," Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul wrote in the complaint.

https://www.npr.org/2025/10/06/nx-s1-5563882/illinois-and-chicago-sue-the-trump-administration-over-national-guard-deployment

Ernest Shackleton knew ‘Endurance’ had shortcomings, new study says

Issues with the ship's hull, deck beams, and more show the ship was no match for Antarctic sea ice.

https://www.popsci.com/science/shackleton-endurance-ship-problems/

@Qaanaaq-Qaalaaq said in Sunlight exposure - risks vs. benefits:

By the way, I haven’t seen pianojuggler, the first person to respond to the linked topic, post anything here for a long time. pianojuggler was one of the former WTF forum’s moderators. Anyone hear from him?

@pj and I have been keeping in touch. He is doing well...gardening (we were just exchanging potato growing tips), volunteering, and still juggling!!

That plum torte recipe is great. I've made it with and without the cornmeal and we prefer the no-cornmeal version.

I have an abundance of potatoes, green beans, and tomatoes from my garden. So I made potato, green bean, and tomato salad!

Here's the recipe:

https://www.imamother.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=574890

I used some Fishwife anchovies...they are delish!!

aside: It's October. I don't ever remember picking green beans in October. It's been in the 80s for the last several weeks...

An Arkansas man, who was detained for a month by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) after authorities mistook his bottle of perfume for opium, is seeking to have his visa status restored after the charges were dropped.

Kapil Raghu, an Indian national married to an American woman and working towards American citizenship, was detained on 3 May after police officers in Benton, a suburb of Little Rock, pulled him over for having a non-moving traffic violation, according to his attorney, Mike Laux.

During the traffic stop, police found a small perfume bottle in his car labeled “Opium” and arrested Raghu for possessing narcotics, even though he told them the bottle contained perfume and the word “opium” referred to the scent. The bodycam video obtained by local network THV11 shows police accusing Raghu of having an illegal substance in his vehicle.

“You got a vial of opium that was in your center console,” an officer told Raghu. “Go and take a seat.”

“I was not doing anything wrong when he pulled me over. I was following all regulations,” said Raghu, who told the Saline Courier that he was making a food delivery when he was stopped.

Ashley Mays, Raghu’s wife, arrived at the scene and said: “I’m confused on why he’s going to jail.”

The Arkansas State Crime Lab concluded that the substance in the bottle was perfume, not opium, but still Raghu spent three days in the Saline county jail, where authorities found an “administrative/legal error” showing his visa status had expired, according to his attorney.

Ice officers took Raghu into custody and sent him to a federal immigration facility in Louisiana, where he was detained for 30 days.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/03/arkansas-arrest-ysl-opium-perfume-immigration-visa

@Rontuner said in Just when you think it can’t get any more absurd:

And illegal

Could well be.

Living people are rarely featured on U.S. money. Congress has imposed various restrictions on the ability of Treasury to feature living people and living presidents on currency. It’s not clear whether the latest Trump coin envisioned by the Treasury Department would run afoul of those laws.

But this administration don't need no stinkin' laws...

Alan Turing and John von Neumann saw it early: the logic of life and the logic of code may be one and the same.

https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/is-life-a-form-of-computation/

A team of international researchers has discovered that inhaled heparin, an inexpensive and widely available drug, dramatically improves outcomes for severely ill COVID-19 patients.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/09/250928095616.htm

Read it and weep.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/03/treasury-department-trump-dollar-coin-00593368

But we're so much safer now that the city has been rid of this dangerous tamale vendor.

https://abc7chicago.com/post/ice-chicago-operation-midway-blitz-community-rallies-sell-tamales-vendor-arrested-home-depot-sw-side/17886928/