WTF-Beta

I ran into a neighbor just now and told her about the hawk-flicker encounter. She said she saw two hawks tag-teaming a squirrel last winter.

The squirrel was not as fortunate as the flicker....

Just saved a life. And deprived someone of dinner.

Went outside and heard a bird screeching. Looked over to my neighbor's front lawn and saw a Cooper's hawk on the lawn. Looked like it was holding something down with its talons. I walked towards it and it took off to the south. A now-free Northern flicker took off to the north.

Human messing with nature.

WiFi signals can measure heart rate—no wearables needed

Engineers prove their technique is effective even with the lowest-cost WiFi devices

https://news.ucsc.edu/2025/09/pulse-fi-wifi-heart-rate/

I lost my list of birthdays and am working from memory…which puts me on very shaky turf…

@AdagioM - is yours on the 5th? I thought you were on the 6th.

As @Steve-Miller said recently…What fresh hell is this???

The birthday boy had some great weather to celebrate today. Perfect Chicago day!

Be prepared, fellow geezers.

Some older Americans on Medicare are facing an unexpected problem: The updated Covid shots — approved last month by the Food and Drug Administration for all adults 65 and up — aren’t being covered, forcing them to decide whether to pay out of pocket.

Allison Engel, 74, said she visited her CVS in Pasadena, California, on Tuesday, where she was told the shot would cost $225 out of pocket.

“They typed everything in, and handed me a rejection letter,” Engel said. “They told me it wasn’t in the Medicare system yet and I should come back in two weeks.”

Engel didn’t want to wait, so she paid out of pocket, and hopes Medicare will reimburse her.

Brant Mittler, 78, of San Antonio, said he and his wife stopped by their CVS pharmacy on Monday where they ran into the same issue.

“The pharmacist tells my wife, ‘We’ve had Medicare patients coming in all day, and everybody’s upset because we can’t give it,’” he said. Mittler said they got their Covid shots Thursday after the pharmacist said Medicare had updated the system there..

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/-medicare-isnt-covering-updated-covid-shots-yet-rcna229338

Pentagon officials grappled Friday with the Herculean task of fulfilling President Donald Trump’s executive order to remold the enormous, global agency into the Department of War.
Many expressed frustration, anger and downright confusion at the effort, which could cost billions of dollars for a cosmetic change that would do little to tackle the military’s most pressing challenges — such as countering a more aggressive alliance of authoritarian nations.

The details of the order Trump signed Friday are still vague, but officials may need to change Defense Department seals on more than 700,000 facilities in 40 countries and all 50 states. This includes everything from letterhead for six military branches and dozens more agencies down to embossed napkins in chow halls, embroidered jackets for Senate-confirmed officials and the keychains and tchotchkes in the Pentagon store.

“This is purely for domestic political audiences,” said a former defense official. “Not only will this cost millions of dollars, it will have absolutely zero impact on Chinese or Russian calculations. Worse, it will be used by our enemies to portray the United States as warmongering and a threat to international stability.”

This article is based on interviews with more than half a dozen current and former defense officials, many of whom have insight into the broader sentiment in the department. The people were granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/05/pentagon-officials-department-of-war-anger-confusion-00548367

@Mik - Consider this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/aww/comments/v7x39u/man_stops_to_rescue_kitten_gets_ambushed_by/?embed_host_url=https://cheezburger.com/42218757/were-gonna-need-a-bigger-box-guy-pulls-over-to-rescue-lonely-kitten-gets-ambushed-by-a-litter-of-12

The trip home:

https://imgur.com/a/aftermath-u-jediwithanm4-dk0VMgc

Looks like Farage has crawled out of the woodwork. Heard him throwing his two pence in at a conference...

It would likely cost billions of dollars to change the names of hundreds of Pentagon agencies, their stationary, emblems, plaques and other signage at the Defense Department, along with bases around the world. The expense could put a serious dent into the administration’s efforts to slash Pentagon spending and waste.

Trump has brought up the change several times since taking office, including with allies during his press conference at the June NATO summit in The Hague. His push to change the agency’s name has only intensified.

“As Department of War, we won everything. We won everything,” Trump said last month, referencing the two world wars. “We’re going to have to go back to that.”

Hegseth, in a Wednesday interview on Fox News, echoed Trump’s line. “We won World War I, and we won World War II, not with the Department of Defense, but with a War Department, with the Department of War,” he said. “As the president has said, we’re not just defense, we’re offense.”

Trump has said he thinks Congress would go along with him. “Defense is too defensive,” he said last month. “And we want to be defensive, but we want to be offensive too if we have to be. So, it just sounded to me like a better name.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/04/white-house-pentagon-department-of-war-00545673

I must be stupid. I thought we were trying to reduce the cost of government. And if you're going to spend billions, why not put it into something that will help the average person?

Dominating the programming on BBC News.

Faced with an almighty mess PM opts for big shake-up

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn4lz331gxdo

A link between autism and Tylenol use during pregnancy?

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/05/rfk-tylenol-autism-kenvue-stock-for-url.html

From Harvard:

https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/using-acetaminophen-during-pregnancy-may-increase-childrens-autism-and-adhd-risk/

The last few years have been a whirlwind for Americans’ finances, with inflation, fluctuating unemployment, public health crises and natural disasters making it hard for people across the country to pay their bills. Ultimately, many people have ended up in financial distress, which WalletHub defines as having a credit account that is in forbearance or has its payments deferred, meaning the account holder is temporarily allowed to not make payments due to financial difficulty.

In order to shed light on the financial troubles experienced by people across the U.S., and to show where those difficulties are most pronounced, WalletHub compared the 50 states across nine key metrics. Our data set includes factors like the average credit score, the change in the number of bankruptcy filings between March 2024 and March 2025, and the share of people with accounts in distress.

https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-the-most-people-in-financial-distress/130790

Hawkeye

How a Top Secret SEAL Team 6 Mission Into North Korea Fell Apart

The 2019 operation, greenlit by President Trump, sought a strategic edge. It left unarmed North Koreans dead.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/us/navy-seal-north-korea-trump-2019.html?unlocked_article_code=1.jk8.hF-Z.CC2MsPBmUyK2

Who gets fired today?

Employers in the US added just 22,000 jobs in August, while the unemployment rate crept up to 4.3%

Economists hadn't had high hopes that hiring would get back on track - but that's even fewer than expected.

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c5yk8n869g1t

Wishing you all the best!!