In The NEWS

Black box recovered from site of fatal Air India plane crash.

Indian officials hope the device, which records flight data, will help determine why the London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed into a residential area less than a minute after takeoff Thursday afternoon local time. Of the 242 souls on board, only one—a 40-year-old British man in seat 11A—survived. The number of ground casualties is at least eight as of this writing, as officials use DNA from family members to identify victims. See our previous write-up on the tragedy here.



Protesters expected to take to the streets across the US today.

Millions of people in an estimated 2,000 US cities are expected to participate in "No Kings" protests today in response to the Trump administration's policies. Cities include Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, New York, Phoenix, and Philadelphia. No protests are planned for Washington, DC, as of this writing, where a military parade will be held to commemorate the US Army’s 250th anniversary (read previous write-up). See parade preparation photos here.



US House passes bill to claw back $9.4B in previously approved funding.

The House of Representatives narrowly passed the bill to rescind $9.4B in funding that Congress had already approved. The package revokes $8.3B in foreign aid and $1.1B allocated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports NPR and PBS. All but four Republicans voted in favor, with Democrats opposing. The bill now heads to the Senate, where only a simple majority is required to send it to President Donald Trump's desk for signing.



World's largest meatpacker debuts on the New York Stock Exchange.

Brazilian meat giant JBS began trading on the NYSE Friday, with shares opening at $13.65, valuing the company at roughly $30B. The market cap surpasses rival Tyson Foods, which is valued at close to $20B. The move is part of JBS' plan to access broader investment and comes after its parent company's corruption and bribery scandals. Last year, JBS made roughly $77B in revenue and $2B in net income.



Oilers and Panthers face off in Game 5 of Stanley Cup Final tonight.

The Edmonton Oilers host the Florida Panthers tonight (8 pm ET, TNT) after a comeback Thursday that tied the Stanley Cup Final series 2-2. Trailing by three goals after the first period, the scoreless Oilers rallied to win in overtime. Edmonton is the first Stanley Cup finalist in over 100 years to win after such a deficit, keeping it in the hunt to become the first Canadian team since 1993 to win the Cup. Both teams, which played in last year’s final, need two more wins to secure the 2025 title.



NASA researchers find link between Earth’s magnetic field and oxygen levels.

For the past 540 million years, the strength of the geomagnetic field has risen in tandem with the percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere. The newly discovered correlation may offer insights into the conditions necessary for life on other planets. However, it remains unclear which influences the other, or if both are governed by an outside factor, such as tectonic rearrangements caused by supercontinents like Pangaea. NASA researchers are exploring this question next.

SOURCE:  1440 NEWS

The Future

 

When I was in elementary school, as best as I can recall, I looked at the future in terms of holidays and summertime.

When I was in high school, my future was the weekends and what we were going to do, where we were going to do it, and with whom.

When I was in college, my future was either the end of the semester or graduation from college.

During my working career, my future was vacations and the next level of advancement.

At sixty, my future was retirement and once I retired my future was my next doctor's appointment.

Have you thought about YOUR FUTURE and what it might entail?

Let me help you with that...

1. There will be a change in social security that will not favor the retiree
2. Humanoid AI Robots will soon be replacing jobs as early as 2030 or sooner
3. There will be an end to the middle class and the millionaires and billionaires will increase in size
4. Wage/inflation spiral will continue to work against the middle class employee
5. China will become more powerful with a goal of controlling the global economy
6. The global economy will shift towards the east forever changing the US Economy
7. College degrees will be worthless, being replaced by certificates of knowledge competence
8. Obesity will continue to be a problem for Americans

My thoughts are that many of these predictions will really start to manifest themselves between 2025 and 2030.  My future ideas are predicated upon the articles I have been reading on Google News and watching the global news daily.

Most Americans do not think about the future, just what is directly in front of them and it is also true that many people just take life one day at a time, not giving much thought to the future unless it pertains to a vacation and being forced to book it in advance to make sure you get the week you want.

Somewhat Political

 

China’s humanoid robot masters chopsticks, cooks dumplings, pours wine

A Chinese firm has trained its humanoid robot to become the first to skillfully handle chopsticks, marking a major leap in robotic dexterity.  Being trained to master traditional Chinese culinary tasks, Robotera’s STAR1 can cook dumplings, steam buns, pour wine, and even clink glasses in a toast.

According to the Beijing-based firm, it will continue to train the robot in a growing range of Chinese cooking techniques, highlighting its expanding capabilities in the kitchen.

In March 2025, in a desert showdown in China, the 5.6-foot-tall flagship robot STAR1, wearing sneakers, outpaced its barefoot humanoid rival with a unique running style, reaching speeds of 8 mph (12.8 km/h) across rough terrain.

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Black Sabbath - "War Pigs" Live at Ozzfest 2005

We Are on Middle Eastern Time Now

 

Currently, we are living in a world that is on the verge of turning upside down...  that is to say, it is transitioning from a relatively peaceful environment to a more volatile, war-like environment that might just escalate into a WWIII...

The Ukraine is defeating Russia and Putin is smart enough not to retaliate with nuclear weapons...  unfortunately, that is not the case with whoever is in charge of IRAN.

SIMPLY PUT - Iran wants to completely destroy Israel, that is to say wipe all JEWS out of existence and believe that it is their sacred duty to accomplish that goal.  Next, they want to come after America for supporting Israel.  Iran foolishly thinks they can defeat one or both of us with nuclear weapons.

Did Israel make a tactical mistake by pre-emptively bombing on of Iran's nuclear sights???

We will be arguing that move for years to come but the fact remains, it was done.

Did Iran make a tactical mistake in its retaliation efforts to bomb population centers and civilians???

That too will be argued, some believing it too was justified.

HOWEVER, what Israel will now do in its retaliation efforts is yet to be seen, but the odds are that it will not be a sedative attack.

It will be that attack that vibrates throughout the world and will put America in a position of having to do something about it, if they can.

Both Iran and Israel are resolute about their intentions - neither one backing down - neither one seeking peace.

It is more than just Iran and Israel, Ukraine and Russia...

It is China, Great Britain, the European Union, NATO, and the global economy that will eventually (albeit sooner than later) become involved.

Wars are no longer between just two countries as most of us now take sides in some way or another.

The seriousness of a WWIII is upon us and egos, historical attitudes, promises, pledges, or whatever else we might have agreed to, is ALL OUT THE WINDOW.

No one seems to be backing down.

Garden Sidewalk

 

VINCE

 

On Break

 

Sarah Westall

 

Two Boats

 

Dinesh D'Souza

 

Water Rocks

 

The Shannon Joy Show

 

Poppy Field

 

Bongino Report

 

Cute House

 

Diamond & Silk

 

Forest

 

The Big MIG

 

Splash

 

The White House

 

Apartments

 

News Variable

 

Cat Bath

 

Thrivetime

 

Brookings Brief

One Big, Beautiful Bill complicates charitable giving

Advice from Kevin Smith: Be a little delusional

Transcript

The below is a true verbatim transcript taken directly from the video. It captures the conversation exactly as it happened.

The first to stand

I stand before you on Big Think as the first to stand. Kids, all my energy is delivered this way. So I asked the good folks. I was like, "Can I stand?" "Yeah?" And here we are. So let's go on the journey together on our feet.

A reasonable amount of unreasonability
I feel, in order to get to where you're going, requires a reasonable amount of unreasonability. Not like, "Hey, man. I'm going to jump off a building and fly without the aid of a jetpack." That's unreasonable unreasonability. Reasonable amount is just like, "You know, why not me?"

The Kevin Smith cinematic universe
Hey, kids. My name's Kevin Smith. Started in 1994 with a little motion picture named "Clerks," and that's how people came to know me was as a writer director. "Mallrats," "Chasing Amy," "Dogma," "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," "Jersey Girl," "Cop Out," "Red State," "Tusk." The list goes on, kids. I've got sixteen movies. I'm heading toward my seventeenth. So mostly, my career, I've been a filmmaker, but somewhere along the line, I decided to just become myself, for a living, professionally. So my real title is professional Kevin Smith.

Everybody, mostly everybody, except people who are born rich, everybody has had a sh**ty job, and that's what "Clerks" is about, having a job you hate so much that you do anything else at the job to forget about the fact that you're there to work.

"This guy is going through all the eggs. Look. This has been going on for twenty minutes now."

At the end of the day, there's always going to be some job you don't want that you can take. I'd rather die trying to do something I love doing and hope it works out than just kind of commit to that right away. So I always had a piece of me that felt like the risk's worth taking. Why not try to make your dreams come true?

Kevin’s origin story
I dreamt about movies. I'd seen a motion picture called "Slacker" written and directed by Richard Linklater, and he was a filmmaker working in Austin, Texas. I did not realize that Austin, Texas, where "Slacker" was made, was the capital of Texas. All I heard was this kid made a movie in Texas, in Nowheresville, Texas, and it worked out? Well, maybe I can make a movie in Nowheresville, New Jersey. I said, "What's the story I could tell? I have access to this convenience store. I work in it all the time. I've never seen a movie made in a convenience store before. Maybe that could be my thing."

A $27,575 mistake?
After I made the flick, right, I make "Clerks," and I make it on credit cards, twenty-seven thousand five hundred and seventy-five bucks, and I was steamrolling toward this one event, not Sundance. It is called the IFFM, the Independent Feature Film Marketplace. The idea of the marketplace is you fill it with as many potential buyers or press as possible to see the movie. It's not a film festival. It's a marketplace, about sales. We go, and the only people in the audience at the Angelika Film Center are me and the cast and crew. So ten of us, and we all worked on the movie.

And the first ten minutes of watching my movie on the big screen, this was the thought process. My god. Why did I do this? Why is everyone, look so terrible? This movie looks like it was shot through a glass of milk. Why won't they stop cursing? What was I thinking? I had a kind of breakdown, in the moment, in the theater.

A cognitive reframe
About fifteen minutes into the movie, I cognitively reframed it. And I was like, you know what? Two and a half years ago, you were sitting in this movie theater watching Richard Linklater's "Slacker," and you had no vision of being a filmmaker. And here you are two and a half years later, and you're watching your own movie in this theater. And, yeah, it didn't fill up the way you hoped, but you did it.

So this costs money that you don't have. So this is what you're going to do. You're going to go get another job. And if you have to, you're going to get a third job. You'll get another job, another job if you have to, so you pay off this credit card debt. And then when you pay off that debt, you're going to do this one more time before you leave this world because did you know who you were for the first time in your life when you were standing on that set? You knew exactly who you were supposed to be. Your whole life prior to that has been a mystery. And then bam, just like that, everything became crystal clear. Don't sell out on this just because it didn't work the way you wanted it to. Remember that feeling of finally knowing who you are, and get back to that feeling one day. It may cost time, and it may cost money, but get back to that. That was the most gratifying thing you've ever felt in this lifetime.
From an empty theater to Sundance

Mercifully, somebody said, "You should take this movie to Sundance." And we submitted it. It got picked up for Sundance, one of sixteen movies of four hundred that were submitted. Miramax bought it. Suddenly, I went from being a guy who worked in a convenience store and made a movie to having a career in film. I got to pay off that debt. I didn't have to worry about that. That was thirty-one years ago.

My parents, when I was heading toward film, they were like, "What's your backup?" You know, because parents care and they feel like the field that I was heading toward was one that success was never going to be guaranteed, and in the case of their idiot son, probably wasn't even going to happen. But having a reasonable amount of unreasonability allowed me to be like, well, I understand reasonably speaking that a lot of people don't bet on themselves and make a movie even though they've never made one before. But I got a reasonable amount of unreasonability here.

And so I pursued a career of extended adolescence because I'll be honest with you kids, one day you die screaming like my father did. You might as well go for it. You might as well do the thing that you dream about doing for heaven's sake.

Windy

 

Headlines

Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

Military parade and protests planned for today. It’s likely to be a busy day on America’s streets. More than 6,000 troops are scheduled to march on parade through Washington today to celebrate the Army’s 250th anniversary, which also coincides with President Trump’s birthday. About 200,000 people are expected to attend, and the event is expected to cost up to $45 million—but there’s a chance thunderstorms could dampen the festivities. Meanwhile, activists who object to the president’s policies are planning to hold “No Kings” protests across the US at the same time. Tensions are running high amid demonstrations against federal immigration raids in LA that President Trump deployed the National Guard and Marines to stop this week.

Consumers aren’t so worried about tariffs any more. American consumers have decided to look on the bright side this month. The University of Michigan released its high-profile preliminary index of consumer sentiment for June, and the data showed the first increase in shoppers’ attitudes since December. “Consumers appear to have settled somewhat from the shock of the extremely high tariffs announced in April and the policy volatility seen in the weeks that followed,” Joanne Hsu, the survey’s director said, though she noted consumers are still wary about the economy and potential inflation.

You can now buy shares in the world’s largest meatpacker. Brazil’s JBS debuted on the New York Stock Exchange through a direct listing yesterday after delisting its stock from Brazil’s São Paulo Stock Exchange, where it had traded since 2007. The meat packing company, which opened at a price that valued the company at ~$30 billion, has been looking to access the US market since 2009, but it faced delays and regulatory hurdles—in part because of accusations of corruption and bribery in Brazil.—AR

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