Big Oil’s Big Lie, A Car Parts Ban, & AI Really Can’t Cook

September 24, 2024

Hello, readers – happy Tuesday! Today, we’ll be talking about the Middle East, a Big Oil conspiracy, car parts, a Russian jet, violent crime (it’s going down!), Hurricane Helene, and AI being bad in the kitchen.

Here’s some good news: Arizona announced that nearly 100,000 people who registered to vote over the last 20 years will keep the right to vote after a computer glitch led to their citizenship being called into question. Also, the largest known population of night parrots, one of Australia’s rarest birds, has been found living in Western Australia’s Great Sandy Desert.

“The best measure of a man’s honesty isn’t his income tax return. It’s the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.” – Arthur C. Clarke

Summer’s Over, War’s Just Starting

(Israel bombs Lebanon by Kawnat Haju via Getty Images)

We’ll just rip the bandaid off – that wider conflict looming over the Middle East? Yeah, it looks like it’s getting worse. Last week, Israel unleashed massive attacks against Lebanon by detonating explosives in communications devices. The attacks killed a total of 37 people (including two children) and injured hundreds more. Yesterday, Israel followed up by dropping waves of bombs on 1,300 “terrorist targets” across Lebanon.

According to one IDF spokesperson, many of those targets were private homes – he alleged that Hezbollah was storing weapons in people’s homes. While the dust is still settling across the country, Lebanon’s health ministry says that the Israeli airstrikes killed almost 500 people, including 35 children, and injured over 1,600 others.

While Israel is expanding its conflict with Lebanon to the north, it’s also looking inward. No, Bibi hasn’t taken up meditation and journaling – instead, he’s considering a plan to push Palestinian citizens out of northern Gaza and unleash the IDF on the area. One lawmaker from Netanyahu’s Likud party said that “after they will evacuate [sic], the IDF will assume that only the terrorists will remain.” The Biden administration claims it’s working on (undisclosed) ways to de-escalate the conflict, and the Pentagon has shifted more U.S. troops to the Middle East “out of an abundance of caution.”

They Fooled Us Twice (Allegedly)

A big oil company has lied to the public. We all know they hid evidence about fossil fuels affecting global warming, but they lied about something else, too. On Monday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit against Exxon Mobil, alleging that the oil giant conducted a “decades-long campaign of deception” to convince the public that recycling was a good way to get rid of plastics.

Plastic is actually made out of fossil fuels, and Exxon Mobil is one of the biggest plastic producers among oil companies. The company (allegedly) pushed the “myth” of plastic being recyclable to make its products seem more eco-friendly than they were, making it more palatable for consumers to buy them. “For decades…ExxonMobil lied to further its record-breaking profits at the expense of our planet and possibly jeopardizing our health,” said Bonta.

His case asks the San Francisco County Superior Court to make Exxon “end its deceptive practices that threaten the environment and the public” and make the firm pay civil penalties and other fines. The fossil fuel giant said that regulators “failed to act, and now they seek to blame others. Instead of suing us, they could have worked with us to fix the problem and keep plastic out of landfills.”

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Reheating Cold War Narratives

(U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo by Jim Watson via Getty Images)

Yesterday, the U.S. Commerce Department served up a reheated plate of Red Scare-era legislation, proposing a ban on pieces of Chinese or Russian technology used in cars. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said that the bill was based on fears that someday “a foreign adversary could shut down or take control of all their vehicles operating in the United States, all at the same time, causing crashes (or) blocking roads.”
The ban would apply to all “connected vehicles” in America, which includes any vehicle that can connect to outside networks for things like roadside assistance or satellite communications. It would ban the sale of any cars using Chinese or Russian-made software as early as model year 2027, and bans Chinese or Russian hardware in 2030.

Flares Scare The Eyes In The Sky

While the White House was busy shadowboxing the possibility of a hostile car takeover event, Japan’s air force was busy fending off a real-life flyover by a Russian recon plane. Yesterday, Tokyo scrambled multiple warplanes in response to a Soviet-era Russian plane flying over northern Japanese airspace. An undisclosed number of Japan-owned F-15 and F-35 fighter jets fired flares at the Russian Il-38 plane as it flew over Japanese territory to warn it away.
Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara told reporters that the encounter took place just north of Hokkaido (Japan’s northernmost island), and described the airspace violation as “extremely regrettable.” He added that Tokyo had “strongly protested” to Moscow via diplomatic channels, and warned that Japan would use flares to ward off further airspace violations “without hesitation.”

More Mixed Nuts

A Bad Year For The Bad Guys

We’re going to talk about violent crimes, but we’re going to make it happy. How? By telling you it’s gone down. New data released by the FBI yesterday in its “Summary of Crime in the Nation” report revealed that violent crime was down about 3% from 2022 to 2023, and property crime was down about 2.4%.
Murder and non-negligent manslaughter were down an estimated 11.6%, marking the largest single-year decline in two decades. Rape also decreased by an estimated 9.4%. While the numbers for this year are, obviously, not complete, early numbers have shown that the trend is likely to continue for 2024 as well.

Storm Clouds Over The Sunshine State

Another day, another promise of extreme weather. A collection of thunderstorms in the Caribbean is expected to develop into Hurricane Helene, which will intensify before hitting the Gulf Coast later this week. As of writing the National Hurricane Center is calling it Potential Tropical Cyclone Nine.
Mexico and Cuba are already under hurricane and tropical storm watches, but landfall in Florida isn’t expected until Thursday evening. That hasn’t slowed down preparations in the Sunshine State, though – Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency yesterday for 41 counties.

More Nuts In America

You’re Telling Me An AI Fried This Rice?

AI is slowly becoming more and more integrated into our lives. AI-assisted search results are already being pushed to the top of Google, Apple has brought AI into its new Notes app, and you’ve probably been tricked by a handful of AI-generated images already. In those examples, AI getting something wrong isn’t a huge deal. But in some contexts, AI can actually put users in physical danger. How? Recipes, duh.
As things stand, AI recipes can range from mediocre to downright dangerous. Most recipes written by humans taste better than AI recipes because, well, humans can taste, while AI can only construct its own recipes based on common ingredients and techniques posted online. But with a lack of common sense, AI can also suggest some dangerous dishes. Last year, Forbes found that one AI recipe generator – when asked to make a dish out of water, bleach, and ammonia – suggested that users combine all three ingredients to create an “aromatic water mix.” Combining those three ingredients actually produces deadly chlorine gas. So…don’t do that.

More Loose Nuts