WTF-Beta

I hadn’t been following what has been happening at CBS. What a cluster.

Scott Pelley, one of the most well-known and respected journalists in broadcast journalism, has been fired by CBS News after clashing with network brass over last week’s severe round of cuts at 60 Minutes, the show he has worked on since 2004, the Guardian confirmed.

While changes were long expected at 60 Minutes, CBS News management shocked staffers last week by firing the network’s executive producer, executive editor and two correspondents, Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi, without giving a specific reason for their terminations.

During an extremely heated meeting on Monday morning with the show’s newly appointed executive editor Nick Bilton, along with another CBS News executive, Pelley rebuked Bari Weiss, the longtime opinion commentator who joined the network in October as editor-in-chief.

“She’s murdering 60 Minutes,” Pelley said, as first reported by the Guardian. “She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that.”

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jun/02/scott-pelley-60-minutes-cbs-news

@AdagioM said:

@wtg This sounds good, but some measurements might be helpful!

The pastina?

Here it is:

https://chefayeshanurdjaja.substack.com/p/pastina

Here in Chicago.

Federal agents chased and detained a man Tuesday morning in Albany Park, crashing into a woman’s car during the pursuit and threatening residents who gathered at a chaotic scene.

A Sun-Times reporter witnessed the scene and its aftermath.

The arrest comes amid a continued effort by federal immigration authorities to carry out arrests in the Chicago area, months after the end of Operation Midway Blitz — the Trump administration’s pummeling deportation campaign that led to thousands of arrests.

Tuesday’s incident started at 8:07 a.m., when a black Nissan SUV carrying one agent turned east onto Lawrence Avenue from Kedzie Avenue, chasing a shirtless man. A second black Nissan SUV carrying more agents then pulled out of a nearby parking lot and hit a woman’s car in an apparent effort to block the man from running.

The agents were wearing Department of Homeland Security badges and patches associated with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Three agents ultimately wrestled the man to the ground as he screamed for help, asking agents to get off him as he was held under the front bumper of one of the SUVs. One agent then shocked him with a Taser.

The agent also aimed the weapon at bystanders and a journalist. Another agent pulled out a can of pepper spray and pointed it at the crowd as he waved away passing vehicles.

During the scuffle, an agent dropped a fully loaded bullet magazine onto the street. A supervisor picked it up minutes later, after other agents had left.

As the man was being detained, agents threatened to arrest the woman whose car had been struck. She had been stopped at a red light.

A few dozen people showed up and faced off with the seven federal agents who arrived in five unmarked vehicles equipped with emergency lights. Onlookers filmed on their cellphones, blew whistles and screamed at the agents.

One agent had a Jerusalem cross sticker on the back of his phone, a Christian symbol dating to the Crusades that more recently has gained popularity among the far-right and white supremacist groups. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was criticized for having a chest tattoo of a Jerusalem cross in the weeks before President Donald Trump’s second inauguration. He countered with a since-deleted post on X, saying, “Anti-Christian bigotry in the media on full display.”

Chicago police officers who arrived minutes after the arrest spoke to witnesses and made a report. An officer and said detectives would take over the investigation if the crash was deemed a hit-and-run.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/2026/06/02/federal-agents-crash-into-car-while-detaining-man-in-albany-park

Big Boy is in our area.

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/here-he-comes-million-pound-steam-locomotive-big-boy-rolls-into-chicago-area-this-week/3943201/

@steve-miller - Coming your way very soon!

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2026/06/big-boy-no-4014s-northeast-ohio-route-is-set-see-the-towns-it-will-roll-through.html

@Mik said:

That’s pretty high if it’s generic.

From a comparison of pitavastatin to other statins:

Pitavastatin offers several advantages, including minimal drug interactions, potent LDL cholesterol reduction, and a favorable effect on HDL cholesterol. However, it tends to be more expensive than generic statins like atorvastatin or rosuvastatin

https://www.droracle.ai/articles/80439/what-is-the-comparison-between-pitavastatin-pitavastatin-and-other

A much deeper dive comparing pitavastatin to other statins:

https://www.actapharmsci.com/uploads/pdf/pdf_722.pdf

sidebar:

A nonprofit called the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Fund Inc. was set up in December 2024, after ABC News agreed to donate $15 million toward a future presidential library as part of its defamation lawsuit settlement with then-candidate Trump. Over the next year, that fund got an influx of cash from various legal settlements with Meta, X and Paramount.

The fund was dissolved by the state in September 2025 — just days before the trustees' vote — after it failed to file a mandatory annual report. It is not clear how much money was in the fund, but a trio of federal Democratic lawmakers pursuing the issue says it could have held up to $63 million in settlement money.

Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, along with Rep. Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, wrote to ABC, Meta, X and Paramount earlier in March to ask for more detailed explanations on the original terms, conditions and amounts of their settlement deals.

"The Fund is now gone, and the public has no clarity about the current location or purpose of the funds provided by ABC or any other source," the lawmakers wrote.

NPR has reached out to the White House for comment about the status of the settlement money.

The Trump family opened a similarly named library foundation in May 2025, which is the entity that now owns the Miami property.

https://www.npr.org/2026/03/31/nx-s1-5768094/trump-presidential-library-renderings-miami

And the future DJT library:

More renderings here:

https://abcnews.com/Politics/trump-unveils-plans-presidential-library-including-gifted-air/story?id=131589343

There is a promotional video on Truth Soc but I refuse to include the link here....

I wondered what the other presidential libraries look like. Someone has put together a list of them with links to the individual library websites.

https://www.roadtripsandcoffee.com/presidential-libraries/#george-washington-presidential-library

(begin thread drift)

@Steve-Miller said:

but the article reads like AI to me

Interesting bit in Atlantic:

The Biggest Tell That Something Was Written by AI

Look closely and you’ll see that every part of the text is not quite right.

https://archive.is/YJsGK

The Maryland woman arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in December and held for 25 days despite offering proof of citizenship has been issued a U.S. passport and removal proceedings against her in immigration court have been halted, her lawyers said in a statement Monday.

The issuance of a U.S. passport to Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales “is the most definitive proof that she, or indeed anyone, can produce to show the reality of their citizenship. And yet, this document is only verification of the truth. She was a citizen before receiving the passport, and she will remain a citizen thereafter,” Gunther Sanabria, president of the law firm representing Diaz Morales, said.

Sanabria said the Department of Homeland Security filed a request last week for dismissal before the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) in the removal proceedings. But, he added, Diaz Morales’s freedom “has an asterisk attached.”

“Given that the government only agreed to closing Dulce’s case ‘without prejudice’ it indicates they maintain the position that they can resume these proceedings against her at any time,” Sanabria wrote.

Lawyers for Diaz Morales said she would not comment at this time on being issued a passport or DHS’s decision to halt removal proceedings.

DHS did not immediately respond to a request from The Post to questions on why it requested to halt removal proceedings or whether it planned to renew removal efforts at a later date.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/nation/2026/06/02/woman-held-by-ice-25-days-despite-citizenship-claim-gets-us-passport/90370184007/

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters “we don’t need a weaponized” director of national intelligence when asked about President Trump’s appointment of Bill Pulte, the homebuilder and director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), to serve as acting head of the nation’s intelligence services.

Thune pointed out that Pulte, who has come under sharp criticism from Democrats for pulling up mortgage information to investigate Trump’s political opponents, would have to undergo the Senate confirmation process to permanently take over as director.

“If they nominate him to take the position permanently, he’ll have to go through a confirmation process and hearings and everything else, so we’ll see,” Thune told reporters.

When asked whether he has concerns that Pulte would “weaponize” the position given the role he has played during Trump’s second term in plumbing mortgage records to see whether Trump’s political adversaries have committed fraud, Thune said: “We don’t need a weaponized DNI; we need professionals there.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5905615-senate-thune-pulte-dni/

For years, Saturn appeared to be doing something impossible.

Measurements suggested the giant planet's rotation rate was changing over time, as if Saturn were somehow speeding up or slowing down. That puzzling result left scientists searching for answers. Now, researchers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) say they have finally solved the mystery.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/05/260529043658.htm

Why the US population boom became a bust

And how immigration policies could strain the safety net

https://www.reuters.com/graphics/USA-POPULATION/AGING/gdpzaomqyvw/

Deep within a vault, where tangled cobwebs cling to the ceiling and a musky sweetness hangs in the air, a remarkable wine collection once owned by Josef Stalin has been unsealed for the first time this week.

The Georgian government, now the custodian of this extraordinary repository in Tbilisi, plans to auction off the roughly 40,000 French and Georgian rarities.

Some bottles in the collection date back to the early 19th century.

Proceeds from the sale are earmarked to establish a new wine education school in Georgia

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/europe/stalin-wine-cellar-georgia-auction-b2985906.html

The Trump administration signaled Monday it is backing off on the creation of a $1.8 billion fund announced by the Justice Department that could send money to allies of President Donald Trump deemed to be “victims of lawfare and weaponization.”

It comes after a fierce and rare backlash from Senate Republicans, who threatened to team up with Democrats to block the fund. About half the Republican conference appeared ready to vote with Democrats to restrict or kill it, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said last week.

In a statement, the Justice Department cited a Friday ruling by a federal judge that blocked the fund on a temporary basis, saying it “disagrees strongly” but “will abide by the Court’s ruling.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/trump-administration-appears-back-18-billion-anti-weaponization-fund-r-rcna347884

Cool beans.

A new study is changing the way we think about fog.

Turns out it's not just an amorphous blob of water droplets: "We found that millions of bacteria inhabit ... fog droplets," study co-author Ferran Garcia-Pichel of Arizona State University, said in an email to USA TODAY.

In fact, the research team found that bacteria floating in tiny fog droplets are alive, growing and breaking down pollutants in the air.

"Not only are they there, they are actively consuming atmospheric pollutants, and likely also growing in them. Fog is a habitat," he said.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/weather/2026/05/31/fog-contains-millions-of-bacteria-study-finds/90276073007/?tbref=hp

One more.

US President Donald Trump has said musical performances celebrating the country's 250th birthday should be called off after several artists dropped out, citing the event's affiliation with the White House.

"Cancel it," he said in a post on Truth Social, calling the slated performers "overpriced" and "boring".

As of Sunday, only a few musical acts were still scheduled to perform out of nine featured artists originally announced on Wednesday. Martina McBride, The Commodores, Young MC and Bret Michaels dropped out.

Vanilla Ice and Milli Vanilli are still on for 26 June, as is Flo Rida on 2 July. Trump said he is now considering replacing the event with a "Make America Great Again rally".

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy2z23122zo

Sitting in his dorm room at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Benjamin Brundage was closing in on a mystery that had even seasoned internet investigators baffled. A cat meme helped him crack the case.

A growing network of hacked devices was launching the biggest cyberattacks ever seen on the internet. It had become the most powerful cyberweapon ever assembled, large enough to knock a state or even a small country offline. Investigators didn’t know exactly who had built it—or how.

Brundage had been following the attacks, too—and, in between classes, was conducting his own investigation. In September, the college senior started messaging online with an anonymous user who seemed to have insider knowledge.

As they chatted on Discord, a platform favored by videogamers, Brundage was eager to get more information, but he didn’t want to come off as too serious and shut down the conversation. So every now and then he’d send a funny GIF to lighten the mood. Brundage was fluent in the memes, jokes and technical jargon popular with young gamers and hackers who are extremely online.

“It was a bit of just asking over and over again and then like being a bit unserious,” said Brundage.

At one point, he asked for some technical details. He followed up with the cat meme: a six-second clip that showed a hand adjusting a necktie on a fluffy gray cat.

Brundage didn’t expect it to work, but he got the information. “It took me by surprise,” he said.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/the-college-student-and-his-cat-meme-who-hunted-the-world-s-biggest-cyberweapon/ar-AA202UX8

Take his name off the Kennedy Center? Doesn't want to have anything to do with the Center anymore and plans to give it to Congress to deal with.

Then today:

President Donald Trump on Monday shrugged off the possible collapse of peace negotiations with Iran, telling CNBC, “I don’t care if they’re over, honestly.”

“I really don’t care. I couldn’t care less,” Trump told CNBC’s Eamon Javers in a phone interview midday Monday, saying he thought the protracted talks “started to get very boring.”

Trump had been asked about reporting that Iranian negotiators will stop communications with the U.S., and that Tehran will move to “completely block” the Strait of Hormuz, due to Israel’s military operations in Lebanon against the Iran-backed militia Hezbollah.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/01/trump-iran-war-negotiations-oil-israel-interview.html

It installs malware.

https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/threat-intel/2026/05/fake-chatgpt-download-site-infects-windows-and-mac-users-with-malware