the "Headline That Caught My Attention or the WTF" thread

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/steven-spielberg-own-theory-those-190737681.html[/URL]

[HEADING=2]Steven Spielberg Has His Own Theory About Those UFOs: ‘What If It’s Us, 500,000 Years in the Future?’[/HEADING]

In recent weeks, American skies have been filled with various balloons and other unidentified flying objects that the U.S. military has been forced to shoot down. The lack of information provided has led many curious Americans to draw their own conclusions about the mysterious objects — including [Steven Spielberg]('https://www.indiewire.com/t/steven-spielberg/'). In a career-spanning interview on [“The Late Show with Steven Colbert,”]('

“I’ve never seen a UFO,” Spielberg said. “I wish I had! I’ve never seen anything I can’t explain. But I believe certain people who have seen things that they can’t explain. I think what has been coming up recently is fascinating, absolutely fascinating. And I think the secrecy that is shrouding all of these sightings and the lack of transparency… I think there is something going on that just needs extraordinary due diligence.”

He continued: “I don’t believe we’re alone in the universe. I think it’s mathematically impossible that we are the only intelligent species in the cosmos. I think that’s totally impossible. At the same time, it also seems impossible that someone would visit us from 400 million lightyears from here — except in the movies, of course — unless it figures out some way of jumping the shark, so to speak, and getting here through [wormholes]('https://www.indiewire.com/2014/11/how-the-interstellar-vfx-team-built-wormholes-black-holes-and-alien-planets-190162/').”

But while Spielberg isn’t convinced that anyone in the universe has figured out faster-than-light travel, he’s more open to the idea that humans may have figured out time travel. He presented Colbert with his own theory that the UFOs we’re seeing are actually humans visiting us from the future.

“The most optimistic thing I feel about these things we see in the skies, that the Army and Navy and Air Force are recording on their gun cameras, is that what if they’re not from an advanced civilization 300 million lightyears from here?,” he said. “What if it’s us, 500,000 years in the future, that is coming back to document the second half of the 20th century and into the 21st century because they’re anthropologists? And they know something we don’t quite know yet that has occurred, and they’re trying to track the last hundred years of our history.”

When Colbert joked that Spielberg’s theory means that humanity would have survived 500,000 years, the [famously optimistic]('https://www.indiewire.com/2023/01/john-williams-not-retiring-steven-spielberg-1234799615/') Spielberg replied with a joke of his own.

“Yes, we survive,” he said. “Or at least a certain percentage of us survives that allows future generations to flourish.”

:oops:

[URL unfurl="true"]https://abc7ny.com/long-island-plane-crash-lindenhurst-suffolk-county/12917429/[/URL]

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.foxnews.com/media/illegal-migrants-accused-shooting-bald-eagle-nebraska-sheriff-says-community-uproar[/URL]

taste like pollo Senor

Ex-NYPD chief Kelly says settlement disgraceful

[NYC settles with protesters for 6M]('https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/ex-nypd-boss-ray-kelly-nyc-s-6m-settlement-with-protestors-is-disgraceful/ar-AA18fyOe?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=829ad5d7f1534d5182cb2e4147e3c98d&ei=26')

Mercury developing diesel outboards for the military:

[URL unfurl="true"]https://engineprofessional.com/articles/EPQ320_38-42.pdf[/URL]

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.foxnews.com/media/illegal-migrants-accused-shooting-bald-eagle-nebraska-sheriff-says-community-uproar[/URL]

Could be tasty with some Spotted Owl sauce.

Could be tasty with some Spotted Owl sauce.

Can't be true, that means they use fossil fuels!!!!

Someone has been making a diesel outboard for many years, but weight is the key problem.
[OXE Diesels]('https://www.oxemarine.com/oxe-outboards/oxe-diesel-models/') They even have a hybrid w/diesel!!

Of course if the Welfare Motor corporation starts making them, their penchant for under engineering things and using aluminum or plastic where steel is needed, means they'll be a viable candidate to join the rest of Mercury's Disposable Outboard product lineup...

All outboards are pretty much disposable.

To funny, what will the vegetarians do, but more importantly the entire world do when they're are edicts decreasing the consumption of RICE????

[HEADING=2][SIZE=7]The way humans eat may add nearly 1 degree of climate warming by 2100[/SIZE][/HEADING]
[pressherald.com/2023/03/06/the-way-humans-eat-may-add-nearly-1-degree-of-climate-warming-by-2100/]('https://www.pressherald.com/2023/03/06/the-way-humans-eat-may-add-nearly-1-degree-of-climate-warming-by-2100/')

BY DREW COSTLEY March 6, 2023

Greenhouse gas emissions from the way humans consume food could add nearly 1 degree of warming to the Earth’s climate by 2100, according to a new study.

Continuing the dietary patterns of today will push the planet past the 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit limit of warming sought under the Paris climate agreement to avoid the worst effects of climate change, according to the study published Monday in Nature Climate Change, and will approach the agreement’s limit of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

The modeling study found that the majority of greenhouse gas emissions come from three major sources: meat from animals like cows, sheep, and goats; dairy; and rice. Those three sources account for at least 19% each of food’s contribution to a warming planet, according to the study, with meat contributing the most, at 33%.

All emit large amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas with more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide, in the way they are currently farmed. The researchers calculated that methane will account for 75% of food’s share of warming by 2030, with carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide accounting for most of the rest.

“I think the biggest takeaway that I would want (policymakers) to have is the fact that methane emissions are dominating the future warming associated with the food sector,” said Catherine C. Ivanovich, a climate scientist at Columbia University and the study’s lead author.

Ivanovich and colleagues from the University of Florida and Environmental Defense Fund calculated the three major gases produced by each type of food over its lifetime based on current consumption patterns. Then they scaled the annual emissions over time by gas based on five different population projections.

And then they used a climate model frequently used by the United Nations panel on climate change to model the effects of those emissions on surface air temperature change.

Stanford University climate scientist Chris Field, who wasn’t involved in the study, said it used well-established methods and datasets “to produce a novel, sobering conclusion.”

“The study highlights that food is critical to hitting our Paris Agreement climate targets – failure to consider food is failure to meet our climate targets globally,” said Meredith Niles, a food systems scientist at the University of Vermont who was not involved in the study.

The study offered some ways to change global food production and consumption that could limit warming.

Many of these changes are already being called for or adopted. U.S. President Biden touted the climate benefits of planting cover crops that can draw down carbon from the atmosphere in an April 2021 address to Congress. Multiple recent studies and reports have recommended eating less meat to reduce greenhouse gas creation by animals raised for consumption. And California started a mandatory food waste recycling program in 2021 to reduce the emissions created by decaying food.

But reducing methane may be the most important goal of all. Although methane is far more potent than carbon, it also is much shorter-lived – meaning cuts in methane emissions can have a quick benefit, Ivanovich said.

“So that’s going to help us stay under the dangerous warming target,” she said, “as well as give us some time to build up resilience and adaptation to climate change in the meantime.”

A major question that remains is whether food producers and consumers can change their behavior to achieve the reductions in greenhouse gases laid out in the study. There’s a roadmap, but will it be followed?

“Changing behavior, especially when we are bombarded with constant media extolling the benefits of everything from Coke to french fries, from pizza to burgers, is pretty damned difficult,” Columbia University plant physiologist Lew Ziska in an email to the AP. “So, overall, while we need to change, whether we can change is …. problematic.”

WOW!!!

Is the end nigh?

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.yahoo.com/news/photographer-captures-lightning-strike-on-christ-the-redeemer-like-a-dream-come-true-231316819.html[/URL]

[HEADING=2]Photographer captures lightning strike on Christ the Redeemer: 'Like a dream come true'[/HEADING]

Not everyone can look outside their window and have a direct view of a wonder of the world. But that’s the reality for Rio de Janeiro resident Fernando Braga.

The Brazilian lives with his wife and kids and a direct view of the nearly 100-foot Christ the Redeemer structure, which portrays Jesus Christ with his arms open wide.

But Braga’s view isn’t the reason he went viral a month ago. It was his determination as a photographer, capturing a stunning time-lapse video and screenshots of lightning striking the sculpture, after more than 30 attempts.

The end is nigh.

Chatbot Fail...

[HEADING=2][SIZE=7]A New ‘MAS*H’ Scene: Written by ChatGPT, Read by Hawkeye and B.J.[/SIZE][/HEADING]
Alan Alda, the star of the long-running sitcom, asked the artificial intelligence software to create a script for him and his former co-star Mike Farrell to read.

For the first time in more than 40 years, [Alan Alda]('https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/16/arts/television/alan-alda-mash-anniversary.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur') and Mike Farrell sat down for a table read of a new scene of “MAS*H,” stepping into their old roles of Hawkeye Pierce and B.J. Hunnicutt, two bantering doctors in a Korean War mobile surgical unit.

But the script wasn’t by Larry Gelbart or any of the other writers who shaped the television show over more than a decade — it was the work of [ChatGPT]('https://www.nytimes.com/spotlight/chat-gpt'), the artificial intelligence software that has become a global phenomenon in recent months.

Alda, who hosts a podcast called “Clear+Vivid,” had decided to ask the tool to write a scene for “MAS*H” in which Hawkeye accuses B.J., his right hand man and fellow prankster, of stealing his boxer shorts.

The result, after plenty of behind-the-keyboard prompting from Alda, was a brief, slightly stilted scene between the two men, [recorded for the podcast]('https://www.stitcher.com/show/clear-vivid-with-alan-alda/episode/alan-chats-with-the-bots-300278533') while the actors were on opposite coasts.

Did it work? Not quite, Alda acknowledged. While “MAS*H” was known for its snappy humor and lively dialogue, ChatGPT’s effort was hollow and its jokes leaden at best. But it was the first time the two characters interacted since the 1983 series finale, which aired almost exactly 40 years ago and remains the most watched non-Super Bowl program ever broadcast on American TV.

Hawkeye: Where are they? My shorts.
B.J.: Your what?
Hawkeye: My shorts — the ones I wear every time I have important surgery. I know you took them.
B.J.: I wouldn’t be caught dead in your underwear.
Hawkeye: They’re not just underwear; they’re comfortable and I like wearing them and they’re missing.

Alda — who, like much of the world, has become “obsessed” with artificial intelligence technology — said in an interview that he had decided to record the scene to test whether ChatGPT was capable of writing a “playable” television scene. As the software has grown into a cultural fixation, many users have tested its ability to compose stories, which it attempts to do by referencing its vast repository of digital information, including books, Wikipedia articles and other online writing.

On the podcast, Farrell said the resulting script and the idea that artificial intelligence could one day supplant human TV writers had unnerved him. Alda seemed less concerned, noting that when he commanded ChatGPT to “make it funny,” it came up with “some really stupid stuff.” The technology also had a tendency to get sappy, leading him to direct it to “stop being sentimental.”

B.J.: Oh, you mean your lucky shorts?

Hawkeye: They’re not lucky. I don’t believe in that nonsense.

B.J.: Like the time you insisted on wearing the same pair of socks for a week because you won a game of poker in them?

Hawkeye: I am not superstitious! Those are just my normal, everyday shorts.

B.J.: Right, just like the time you made everyone walk backward around the O.R. to ward off bad luck.

Hawkeye: That was a joke — I can’t believe you’re taking that seriously. I am not superstitious. And those are just my normal everyday shorts. I wear them because they inspire me and they remind me of my grandmother.

“It has a terrible sense of humor,” Alda said. (Before he removed this joke, ChatGPT wrote Hawkeye a nonsensical line in which he said the boxer shorts reminded him of his grandmother, because “she once bet on a horse that turned out to be a cow and still managed to make a profit.”)

So, should this exchange between B.J. and Hawkeye about the boxer shorts be considered canon? Or mere fan fiction?

“That’s for future generations to determine,” Alda said.

Told you guys. We Just Want To Get Married turned into We Want Your Kids. In East Meadow again.

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.projectveritas.com/news/new-york-assistant-superintendent-covertly-pushing-dei-agenda-within-school/[/URL]

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.yahoo.com/news/new-cockroach-species-in-singapore-named-after-the-pokemon-pheromosa-155733645.html[/URL]

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.yahoo.com/news/81-old-man-trapped-major-155820407.html[/URL]

Told you guys. We Just Want To Get Married turned into We Want Your Kids. In East Meadow again.

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.projectveritas.com/news/new-york-assistant-superintendent-covertly-pushing-dei-agenda-within-school/[/URL]

Casamento said he tries to weed out potential conservative candidates who apply for a teaching position in his district.

So, when it's their systemic discrimination it's okay. And as usual with these Marxist PsOS their ideas don't sell on their own merits, so they have to use force or coercion to accomplish their agenda. Nothing wrong with that because their morals and ideals are better and anyone who opposes them is just stupid and evil. The ends justify the means again.

Casamento said he tries to weed out potential conservative candidates who apply for a teaching position in his district.

So, when it's their systemic discrimination it's okay. And as usual with these Marxist PsOS their ideas don't sell on their own merits, so they have to use force or coercion to accomplish their agenda. Nothing wrong with that because their morals and ideals are better and anyone who opposes them is just stupid and evil. The ends justify the means again.

You should have heard the leader of LGBTQ rights Monday (stop using the term Mom and Dad in school). That riled up the crowd.
Casamento is setting himself up to get Merked. The parents are starting to show a lot and are sick of this BS. The wins this year are up, the past few years were loses.

Casamento said he tries to weed out potential conservative candidates who apply for a teaching position in his district.

So, when it's their systemic discrimination it's okay. And as usual with these Marxist PsOS their ideas don't sell on their own merits, so they have to use force or coercion to accomplish their agenda. Nothing wrong with that because their morals and ideals are better and anyone who opposes them is just stupid and evil. The ends justify the means again.

This is what this country is right now.....too far right and left

This is what this country is right now.....too far right and left

and probably most of us are in the middle - you know "The Silent Majority"