WTF-Beta

On Monday, Nov. 27, 1961, four Pitt students sat down to play a game of Monopoly. By the time they stopped, they had made a mark on the history of the iconic game that stands to this day.

The record for the longest Monopoly marathon ever played was set here at Pitt in 1961, when brothers from the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity played for five days straight.

On Wednesday, the game ran into trouble. As anyone who’s even brushed with Monopoly will be aware, a player receives $200 every time he or she passes the space “Go.” The Sigma Alpha Mu brothers had passed “Go” so many times by this point that their bank had run out of money. So naturally, the players wired Parker Brothers, the makers of Monopoly, to suggest a course of action.

As recorded in The Pitt News story about the debacle, the coverage of the game in the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity magazine, and the current directions to Monopoly itself, Parker Brothers did not let this stand. Upon receiving the message of the marathon gamers’ distress, Parker Brothers President Robert Barton wired them back.

“Refuse to let bank fail. Rushing one million Monopoly dollars to you by airmail — carry on.”

According to The Pitt News story from 1961, the brothers loaned back some of their Monopoly money to the bank so they could continue playing while the reserve funds were being flown to Pittsburgh International Airport.

The $1 million in Monopoly money was picked up at the airport by Brink’s Security armored trucks and driven to the fraternity house, arriving on Thursday night, by which time the brothers had broken the bank again.

At this point, the story was picked up by major news outlets across the country, including The Wall Street Journal. According to Leeds, the Journal thought the game was an excellent representation of inflation.

The story from the Sigma Alpha Mu magazine reported that, “Several economics professors suggested their students watch the game and see how the value of money can be deflated when too much of it is in circulation.”

“That’s how a story went viral in those days,” Leeds said.

https://pittnews.com/article/13293/archives/225-way-past-go-the-marathon-monopoly-game/

A Texas Cop Signed on to Help ICE Deport His Neighbors. It Tore the Town Apart.

Reporting Highlights

The Shadow Surge: In January 2025, President Donald Trump revived a troubled ICE program that deputizes cops as deportation officers. Over 29,000 local officers nationwide have enlisted.

After the Flood: Ingram, Texas, was rebuilding from a historic flood when its Police Department signed on with ICE. Within a year, cops would hand over the equivalent of 10% of the town.

Cop on the Ground: The local face of the national immigration crackdown became Officer Jaron Alexander. After suggesting ICE’s program to his chief, he grapples daily with the consequences.

https://www.propublica.org/article/deportations-ingram-texas-287g-jaron-alexander

@mark What a sweetie. Tibetan terrier, right?

Jared Kushner is pushing back on a report involving a hacked iPhone, international spies and billion-dollar transfers from foreign governments.

An upcoming book by journalist Matthew Cole claims Kushner, who is President Trump's son-in-law, had access to more than $2 billion in "slush money funds" from Middle Eastern leaders in an attempt to influence U.S. foreign policy.

An excerpt of the book released Thursday details allegations encompassing Kushner's time as a senior White House adviser during the first Trump administration, which included a lead role in U.S. policy in the Middle East. Kushner had a major hand in negotiating key foreign policy deals that involved Israel, the Gulf states, China and Russia during that period.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/kushner-pushes-back-report-involving-133251393.html

Here's the Vanity Fair excerpt from the book. Subscription required.

https://www.vanityfair.com/story/jared-kushner-hacked-phone-secret-negotiations

@CHAS said:

I expect the fight to begin November 4.

Maybe earlier.

President Donald Trump on Friday said he personally directed the Department of Justice to file a lawsuit seeking to prevent Alaska from certifying its Senate election results if Republicans lose.

“I’m the one that said do it,” the president told reporters shortly after landing in Florida.

The president’s admission comes a day after DOJ sued Alaska election officials, arguing that the presence of an independent candidate named Dan Sullivan in addition to the incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan on the ballot could confuse voters and cost the party the race against Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola. It’s one of a handful of races seen as key to maintaining GOP control of the Senate.

The lawsuit marks an extraordinary intervention by the federal government in a state election, with the administration seeking to delay certification of results if the incumbent loses by a margin small enough that votes cast for the independent Sullivan could have changed the outcome.

“Given the substantial likelihood that the inclusion of Daniel J. Sullivan will confuse or mislead voters looking to cast a vote for Senator Sullivan, and thus distort the will of Alaskan voters, there is a substantial likelihood that a certification of the election will reflect an electoral process that lacked integrity,” DOJ wrote in its complaint.

The Alaska Supreme Court in June ruled that the independent Sullivan could remain on the ballot, but Trump continued to rail against his candidacy and the state’s election rules.

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/10/23/im-the-one-trump-says-he-ordered-alaska-elections-lawsuit-01134040

No wonder he referred to them as "my DOJ" a couple of days ago....

Sweet!

Better hurry, @steve-miller ... says it's almost sold out....

Oh, wow! Stunning! Gorgeous! Magnificent!

I bet you bought some yarn....

DeWine has always been a decent guy.

Sadly, Vance and Trump are piling up the disgusting points....

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/22/ramaswamy-attack-ad-ohio-dewine

@Mik said:

OK. I was going to chime in with "If you have an old Maytag, repair it if possible. Even if it's near the cost of new you'll likely get more use out of it.".

Cost me $250 to have it fixed. Definitely less that a new one.

And the diagnoses are in....the freezer is a seized compressor, so it's a goner.

Dryer is suffering from arthritis of the rollers and an ancient belt. Worth repairing; he has those parts on the truck. We don't want one of those newfangled electronic wifi dryers....

edit: He didn't charge for diagnosing the dead freezer; it only took him five minutes.

For more than a decade, serious flaws had gone undetected in the technology underpinning much of the internet.

It took AI to bring them to light and caused a global cyber-security alert.

The vulnerabilities lie within a programming language called PHP, which has been used internationally since the 2000s to build websites.

Governments and cyber-security agencies around the world are scrambling to contain the fallout of the discovery on Wednesday, and have urged website operators to install a new emergency fix or consider taking their platforms offline.

Cyber-security firm Wiz - one of the companies whose researchers uncovered the vulnerabilities - described the flaws as the "most severe" ever detected by AI.

OpenAI, whose technology was used to find the flaws, called the discovery "one of the most impactful security issues in recent memory".

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3qjnwye0ep5o

@Mik said:

I find the same thing. I used to love going on cold winter hikes. Janet was always cold and I was always hot. We've completely reversed.

Same here. In his much younger youth Mr wtg wore a t-shirt and shorts in the middle of winter and I was bundled in wool sweaters. As reverse puberty hit me I shed the sweaters and he switched to sweat pants. There was a point when we were in our late 40s/early 50s when a single thermostat setting met both our needs. Our winter setting is 70; summer setting is 76. We used to let the nighttime setting for the furnace drop to 68, but since his stroke Mr wtg tends to get cold at night so we just leave it at 70.

PIcked up this variety pack of olives a couple of weeks ago at my third place.

Tried one of them (the olives and pickled vegetables) and it got the wtg seal of approval. Looking forward to trying the rest. Mr wtg isn't a fan of truffles or blue cheese, so I'll get to eat all of those....

Stealing that to share with some doodle-owning friends...

Oh man, the AP story is even worse. Ramaswamy, swimming with the scum.

High-profile Republicans who back Ramaswamy — including Donald Trump Jr. and influencer Laura Loomer — elevated the video in online posts.

https://apnews.com/article/election-2026-ohio-governor-acton-mother-ramaswamy-dc59bd5f0c47f9e06f37022e2ba2cce5

@steve-miller

Great minds think alike. See:

https://wtf.coffee-room.com/topic/4177/chicago-toy-town

The ad.

Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign for Ohio governor is pouring $4 million into a bombshell ad in which his opponent's estranged mother attacks her daughter — doubling down on the message despite fierce bipartisan backlash, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: Ramaswamy is gambling that the deeply personal attack by Amy Acton's mother — who Acton has said sided with her stepfather after he sexually assaulted Acton when she was 12 — will resonate with voters.

After the ad began appearing Tuesday on social media, many fellow Republicans urged Ramaswamy to distance his campaign from it.

They warned it could backfire at a time when the controversy over the Epstein files has elevated the sexual abuse of children as a national campaign issue.

Driving the news: Ramaswamy's campaign confirmed to Axios that it produced the ad, which began circulating on social media late Monday without language identifying its sponsor.

https://www.axios.com/2026/10/21/ramaswamy-ad-acton-mother-ohio

WTTW (Chicago PBS station) has a series called Chicago Stories. This episode is about how Chicago was the center for toy design.

Beanie Babies, Tinkertoys, Radio Flyer Wagons, Operation, Lite-Brite, and Lincoln Logs. These beloved children’s toys have one thing in common: They were all invented in Chicago. Toys revolutionized playtime for children around the world and ballooned into a billion-dollar business. Chicago’s own Marvin Glass and Associates created such classics as Lite-Brite, Operation, and Simon. And then there’s Beanie Babies, which became a cultural phenomenon. Explore how Chicago became the global epicenter of toy design for a time, sparking innovation, business battles, and a cultural legacy that reached around the world.

https://www.wttw.com/chicago-stories/toy-town

Check out the other episodes of Chicago Stories; the one on skyscrapers is pretty cool.

I totally missed this story when it originally happened.

As South Vietnam collapsed under the onslaught of communist forces, one South Vietnamese pilot made a brave and daring escape in a tiny aircraft, miraculously finding a place to land it out at sea, saving himself and his family.

https://theaviationist.com/2025/03/14/major-buang-lys-great-escape/

For me, everything to this point hasn't been an argument at all, simply an exchange of information and opinions.

You did say that you were unconvinced by the AI answer after you said you'd reconsider, so I provided additional background on what its answer was based on. As I said, you're welcome to investigate those links if you have the time and inclination. If you don't, no prob.

Later, gator.