WTF-Beta

Worked out perfectly! We had a nice chat with Larry and his wife (she's charming) and got to meet their two daughters.

@dougg Do you do video or audio calls?

Google's doing crap like that, too.

https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-opt-out-of-google-search-new-ai-data-training/

WhatsApp noob here trying to understand how this pup works...I've used Facetime, though not a lot, so not sure what the underlying architectures are of these apps.

I am setting up WhatsApp so we can video call with Mr wtg's friend in Ireland. I installed the app on my Windows laptop and on my Android phone, so I'm connected to a WhatsApp account. I have successfully sent and received chats.

When you have multiple devices associated with an account, will every device get a notification when there is an incoming call? And can I just pick up the call on my device of choice?

...Japan?? Who knew?

President Donald Trump mistakenly said the "Islamic Republic of Japan" fired 111 missiles at a U.S. aircraft carrier "a few months ago."

He made the comments July 8 while speaking to the press alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.

"We have an aircraft carrier which is one of the most beautiful in the world, it's one of the biggest, the (USS) Abraham Lincoln," Trump said. "And a few months ago, we had, I told this story yesterday, we had 111 missiles shot by the Islamic Republic of Japan."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2026/07/08/trump-islamic-republic-of-japan-nato-remarks/90850675007/

@AdagioM said:

That’s unusual. Did you feel the earth move?

I did not. And I'm less than 30 miles away from the epicenter.

We've had a number of quakes during my lifetime. Usually they're in central/southern IL, and people in the Chicago area have reported that they could feel them, but I wasn't one of them. Our golden retriever Maggie, OTOH, went crazy one afternoon some years back. We later learned that an earthquake had occurred in central IL right at the time she got goofy. Dogs are amazing.

Nothing like smiling doggy faces to greet you when you come home!

Inside the Ludicrous, Deadly Serious Plan to Take Over Greenland
“We want Greenland,” Trump said. Four men sprang into action to make fantasy a reality.

From Atlantic:

https://archive.is/1oRqb

2.9-magnitude earthquake recorded in Lake Michigan near Illinois-Wisconsin border, officials say

https://abc7chicago.com/post/29-magnitude-earthquake-recorded-lake-michigan-illinois-wisconsin-border-united-states-geological-survey-officials-say/19470991/

No tsunami warning for the lake....

@ShiroKuro said:

How did you find this site?

One of those daily news/interesting stuff newsletters. I don't subscribe to the newsletter anymore but happened to check their site a few days ago and this was one of the sites they featured on that day.

RetroTv is a major rabbit hole....I just showed it to Mr wtg. I think he may surface in a couple of days...

https://ippawards.com/winners/showcase

My personal fave:

The freedom to choose your work hours has been a game changer for many white-collar workers. Now, it has quietly become an option for some blue-collar workers as well.

With U.S. manufacturers struggling to staff up, a handful are opening the doors to people who may not be seeking a traditional career in the industry or even a 40-hour workweek.

It's a change that manufacturers including Stanley Black & Decker and Georgia-Pacific are embracing. And it has also taken hold in rural northwest Georgia.

Ruth Ransom calls it the best thing she has ever heard.

"I wasn't interested in working full time," says the 68-year-old grandmother, who considered herself retired when she learned of the opportunity to pick up shifts at the Roper Corp., a kitchen appliance plant owned by GE Appliances. "I was just wanting to work part time, maybe two days a week somewhere. You know, just to get out of the house."

Today, Ransom is part of a pool of more than 900 workers who sign up for shifts via an app. Not only do workers make their own schedules, deciding how many four-hour shifts to pick up each week, but they also choose what kind of work they want to do. Assembly line jobs are fast-paced and physically demanding, so Ransom often opts for quality control, which she finds less taxing.

"It's your choice," she says. "I love it."

https://www.npr.org/2026/07/08/nx-s1-5876084/manufacturing-flexible-part-time-work

A homegrown catnip lotion has proven “just as effective as Deet” as a mosquito repellant in trials carried out in Uganda.

Catnip, or Nepeta cataria, is a common herb from the mint family. The chemical in the plant that causes feline euphoria – nepetalactone – also has insect-repelling properties but this has not previously been commercialised.

New tools are vital in the fight against malaria, the disease spread by mosquitoes that infects about 282 million people a year and killed 610,000 in 2024 – the majority of them young children in African countries. There are concerns about rising resistance to insecticides, as well as the frontline drugs used to treat the disease.

In a study presented at the Society for Experimental Biology conference in Florence on Tuesday, a team working between Uganda and Wales found mosquitoes seeking a blood meal were less likely to land on people wearing lotions made from catnip.

Dr Simon Scofield, a senior lecturer at Cardiff University, said: “We found that a 6% catnip oil was just as effective as Deet, and the 2% catnip oil was only marginally less effective than that.

“Deet is out of the price bracket for most rural Ugandan subsistence farmers, so buying commercially available mosquito repellents is just not practicable.

“We wanted to make a repellent, which is highly efficacious, but also allows local people to be involved in the production cycle so that it costs a minimal amount of money,” he said.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jul/07/catnip-lotion-as-effective-as-deet-at-repelling-mosquitoes-study-finds

Man, I'm feeling left out. Mitch is burning up the phone lines but he hasn't called me yet. Thune, Barasso, Scott Jennings...

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/07/mitch-mcconnell-health-senate-gop.html

nest

I thought they are just converting the building from office to residential and that they are modifying structure to do the conversion. I missed that they are adding stories to it.

The Fire Department of New York said it received reports of bricks falling at around 8 a.m. from the 37-story tower. Officials found two columns had buckled on the 21st and 22nd floors and that floors were sagging between the 21st and 26th floors.

The office-to-residential conversion has been billed as the largest in the city’s history, according to Gensler, the architectural firm leading the project. The planned complex with more than 1,600 units includes adding more than a dozen stories atop the building’s original tower while also redesigning an adjoining tower.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/07/nyc-high-rise-unstable-columns-evacuations.html

Midtown Manhattan buildings evacuated after beams found buckling at high-rise construction site

At least 9 buildings have been evacuated in Midtown, including a school and a hotel.

https://abc7ny.com/post/midtown-east-buildings-evacuated-construction-workers-find-buckling-beams-21st-floor-nyc/19463640/

Who