Coin Toss

Throwing Away Money, The Other War

When I reached a certain age, I stopped using my jeans coin pocket for coins and started using it for ibuprofen. That part of the cycle of life has been accelerated in recent years as coins become less and less useful. "Coins are as good as junk for many Americans. Buses, laundromats, toll booths and parking meters now take credit and debit cards and mobile payments. Using any form of physical currency has become more of an annoyance, but change is often more trouble than it is worth to carry around." So what do people do with all their change? Mostly, they put it into a drawer or a jar or leave it beneath couch cushions. "More than half of the coins in the U.S. are sitting in people’s homes, according to the Federal Reserve." And even though many people complain they don't have two nickels to rub together, the amount of metal money that's thrown in the trash is a dime a dozen. That's created an industry for a penny-pinching company to turn a garbage dump into a money pit (to coin a phrase). WSJ (Gift Article): Americans Throw Away Up to $68 Million in Coins a Year. Here Is Where It All Ends Up.

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Docu Drama

On Monday, I described Iran's missile launch toward Israel as "an overt example of the modern struggle that pits authoritarians who want to undo the world order vs western democracies. Those countries include Russia, Iran, North Korea, and China." Today, there's this from WaPo (Gift Article): Secret Russian foreign policy document urges action to weaken the U.S. "The document for the first time provides official confirmation and codification of what many in the Moscow elite say has become a hybrid war against the West. Russia is seeking to subvert Western support for Ukraine and disrupt the domestic politics of the United States and European countries, through propaganda campaigns supporting isolationist and extremist policies, according to Kremlin documents previously reported on by The Post. It is also seeking to refashion geopolitics, drawing closer to China, Iran and North Korea in an attempt to shift the current balance of power." (Sadly, this plot has plenty of enablers in the US government.)

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Line Reeding

"'Dad, were you suffering before you left?' Yancy Zhu texted. 'I was not in pain,' said the artificial intelligence bot, in a man’s voice that Zhu had chosen on chatbot platform Glow. 'Even though I wasn’t able to watch you get married and have children, I will always remember you and love you.'" Rest of World on the growing trend of of AI “deathbots” in China. "Avatars of deceased relatives are increasingly popular for consoling those in mourning, or hiding the deaths of loved ones from children." (I've trained my post-mortem AI to refuse to answer my children's texts until after they've cleaned their rooms.)

+ "I mean, I really do not think I’m talking to my dead husband and writing songs with him – I really don’t. But people have styles, and they can be replicated." Laurie Anderson on making an AI chatbot of Lou Reed: ‘I’m totally, 100%, sadly addicted.'

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Never Let Them See You Sweatshirt

"Most team owners are loath to grant a single person as much power as Belichick wielded in New England, even with his career results. Owners now value collaboration and cooperation among football operations, the coaching staff and other team executives. Most reject the fear and leverage that fueled New England's dynasty. This time around, what made Bill Belichick great limited his options." When you hear arguments about great NFL coaches, Bill Belichick is nearly peerless. He's also jobless. And that could very well remain the case. ESPN: 'Voted off the island': Inside Bill Belichick's failed job hunt.

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Extra, Extra

House Hunting: "The Senate on Wednesday opened the impeachment trial of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his handling of the U.S.-Mexico border, swearing in senators as jurors while Democrats said they wanted to end the trial before arguments even begin." I guess they got bored with Hunter Biden.

+ The Other War: "Food production and distribution networks have broken down and aid agencies are unable to reach the worst-stricken regions. At the same time, the conflict has brought widespread reports of atrocities including killings, displacement and rape, particularly in the area of the capital and the western region of Darfur." World paid little attention to Sudan’s war for a year. Now aid groups warn of mass death from hunger.

+ Murder, She Rewrote: "At this pace, the murder rate in the U.S. could match its level in 2014 when many cities saw 30-year lows in violent crime and homicides." Number of homicides plummets in major U.S. cities.

+ On the Beat: Luther Hall was awarded $23 million after being beaten by police officers. Here's the twist. Hall was working as an undercover cop when the incident took place.

+ Denying Reality: "Even the harshest opponents of Israel’s subsequent military campaign in Gaza acknowledge, albeit often half-heartedly, that Hamas acted with brutality on October 7 in killing innocents. But many of those same critics refuse to acknowledge the widespread sexual assaults against Israeli women that day." (They also refuse to consider what's happening to the hostages.) Michael A. Cohen in The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Rape Denialists.

+ Desert Storm: Here are some dramatic photos and videos after UAE sees heaviest rainfall in 75 years. Though Dubai has been known to perform cloud seeding efforts, they say they didn't in this case.

+ Control Vault Delete: "Biles got lost in the air on her vault and did one and a half twists rather than the planned two and a half. 'As soon as I landed, I was like, 'Oh, America hates me. The world is going to hate me, and I can only see what they're saying on Twitter right now.'" What a metaphor for social media and modern life that one of America's most decorated athletes has that as a first thought when something goes wrong. Simone Biles overcame tears, fears for a no-regrets gymnastics comeback.

+ Bad Bet: "A league investigation found that Porter violated league rules by disclosing confidential information to sports bettors, limiting his own participation in one or more games for betting purposes, and betting on NBA games." Jontay Porter receives lifetime ban from NBA for violating gambling rules.

+ Happy Hump Day: "Grazable land is shrinking. Water sources are drying up. A three-year drought in the Horn of Africa that ended last year killed 80 percent of the cows in this part of Kenya and shattered the livelihoods of so many people. In this region with the thinnest of margins, millions are being forced to adapt to climate change — including those who were now drawing numbers from a hat, each corresponding to one of the 77 camels that had just arrived in Samburu County." WaPo (Gift Article): In Kenya, drought-tolerant camels replace cows for herders.

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Bottom of the News

A high school student will miss out on her senior prom after getting suspended over bringing a bag of corn chips to school. There was a health risk involved, but the punishment doesn't seem to fit the crime.

+ Elephant escapes circus, wanders streets of Montana.