Guys - if you didn't care about "forever chemicals" before, here's why you should NOW

Pioneering Study Links Testicular Cancer Among Military Personnel to ‘Forever Chemicals’

Hannah Norman, KFF Health News and Patricia Kime

Gary Flook served in the Air Force for 37 years, as a firefighter at the now-closed Chanute Air Force Base in Illinois and the former Grissom Air Force Base in Indiana, where he regularly trained with aqueous film forming foam, or AFFF — a frothy white fire retardant that is highly effective but now known to be toxic.

Flook volunteered at his local fire department, where he also used the foam, unaware of the health risks it posed. In 2000, at age 45, he received devastating news: He had testicular cancer, which would require an orchiectomy followed by chemotherapy.

Hundreds of lawsuits, including one by Flook, have been filed against companies that make firefighting products and the chemicals used in them.

And multiple studies show that firefighters, both military and civilian, have been diagnosed with testicular cancer at higher rates than people in most other occupations, often pointing to the presence of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, in the foam.

But the link between PFAS and testicular cancer among service members was never directly proven — until now.

A new federal study for the first time shows a direct association between PFOS, a PFAS chemical, found in the blood of thousands of military personnel and testicular cancer.

DARPA funds study to find out if potentially world-ending artificial intelligence has a sense of humor

AI models don't get the joke

Cornell University

"Just kidding"

Large neural networks, a form of artificial intelligence, can generate thousands of jokes along the lines of "Why did the chicken cross the road?" But do they understand why they're funny?

Using hundreds of entries from the New Yorker magazine's Cartoon Caption Contest as a testbed, researchers challenged AI models and humans with three tasks: matching a joke to a cartoon; identifying a winning caption; and explaining why a winning caption is funny.

In all tasks, humans performed demonstrably better than machines, even as AI advances such as ChatGPT have closed the performance gap. So are machines beginning to "understand" humor? In short, they're making some progress, but aren't quite there yet.

Foolishness, hypocrisy, the GOP and the IRS

If you care about national debt, de-funding the IRS is the dumbest thing you can do 

By Gerald E. Scorse 

Take your pick from two definitions of modern-day Republicans: foolish hypocrites or hypocritical fools. When it comes to America’s $32 trillion federal deficit, each one is as fitting as the other. They’re hypocrites for saying one thing and doing another. They’re fools because the actions they take are driving the deficit ever higher.  

Let’s listen to the words Republicans mouth. Let’s look at the laws they pass and propose. Let’s zero in on their special ways of spending—and spurning—tax dollars.   

Off we go, into a world of debt created by the party that claims to be concerned about debt. 

Just a couple months back, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and the GOP created a debt ceiling crisis. McCarthy and President Biden ultimately forged an agreement to avoid a U.S. default, but it didn’t impress Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis. “After this deal,” DeSantis warned, “our country will still be careening toward bankruptcy.” 

Not two weeks later, the GOP-led House was doing everything it could to turn DeSantis into a prophet. With classic hypocrisy, it “released a plan that would slash taxes for corporations and the wealthy” and cost the government $240 billion over the next decade. With classic foolishness, it went all out to cut double-digit billions from Biden’s long-term funding for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Altogether, via three separate cuts, the GOP proposed slashing more than $21 billion from the IRS allocation. 

Surprise, surprise: Short-changing America’s tax collection agency won’t save a penny. In fact, it’ll likely cost about $120 billion. 

It’s simple arithmetic: In fiscal 2022, “the IRS collected $72.4 billion through enforcement programs, a return on investment (ROI) of about $6 to $1.” The real ROI is almost certain to be greater, since the $6 to $1 ratio doesn’t include the deterrence effect—the additional billions that come in because audit-fearing taxpayers file more honest returns. 

And now, the news

For more cartoons from Tom Tomorrow, CLICK HERE

Prison food will do wonders for his weight

 

How to wreck a good thing

Popularity of incentives for E-bikes, electric vehicles leads to cut in programs

By Rob Smith / ecoRI News staff

Citing a shortage of program funds, state officials recently announced they are cutting the incentives available to residents looking to buy electric bicycles or vehicles.

Effective Aug. 1, the state Office of Energy Resources (OER) cut the amount of rebates available to new and used electric car purchases by $500. 

Prior to the program’s pause on July 11, new electric cars were eligible for up to $2,500 in rebates from the state, and used cars were eligible for up to $1,500 in rebate money.

State officials also gave a haircut to Rhode Island’s e-bike rebate program. Named in honor of the late Associated Press reporter Erika Niedowski, the program at launch provided $400 in rebates for e-bike purchases, or 30% of the total price of the bicycle, whichever was cheaper. Low-income residents were eligible for a $1,000 rebate, or 75% of the purchase price, whichever was lower.

Got Bunnies?

Fencing, native plants best way to keep them out of your garden

By Bonnie Phillips / ecoRI News staff

Does it seem as though every time you look out into the backyard, or drive through a suburban neighborhood, you see a rabbit or two?

You’re not alone. Anecdotal evidence seems to indicate that this is a banner year for bunnies.

There could be a few reasons for that, according to Mary Gannon, a principal biologist and wildlife outreach coordinator for the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.

Rabbit populations “can certainly boom … due to natural absence or fewer predators and a subsidized abundance of food,” she said. In the case of rabbits, that hop-through restaurant is probably your beloved flower or vegetable garden.

“They particularly love beans, peas, and lettuce, and will munch on annual flower seedlings,” Gannon said. “Clover is a big favorite as well.”

What they don’t like, Gannon said, is plants in the mint family, milkweed, onions, and garlic — although she has seen young milkweed and allium stems nibbled by curious rabbits. And they have even taken a bite out of her native eastern prickly pear cactus, she said, “which made me wonder if they dare each other to sample certain plants.”

What threat does artificial intelligence pose to writers and actors?

A cinema scholar explains how AI is upending the movie and TV business

Holly Willis, University of Southern California

Hollywood writers picket in front of Warner Bros.
Studios. AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez

The bitter conflict between actors, writers and other creative professionals and the major movie and TV studios represents a flashpoint in the radical transformation roiling the entertainment industry. The ongoing strikes by the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild were sparked in part by artificial intelligence and its use in the movie industry.

Both actors and writers fear that the major studios, including Amazon/MGM, Apple, Disney/ABC/Fox, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount/CBS, Sony, Warner Bros. and HBO, will use generative AI to exploit them. Generative AI is a form of artificial intelligence that learns from text and images to automatically produce new written and visual works.

So what specifically are the writers and actors afraid of? I’m a professor of cinematic arts. I conducted a brief exercise that illustrates the answer.

I typed the following sentence into ChatGPT: Create a script for a 5-minute film featuring Barbie and Ken. In seconds, a script appeared.

Next, I asked for a shot list, a breakdown of every camera shot needed for the film. Again, a response appeared almost instantly, featuring not only a “montage of fun activities,” but also a fancy flashback sequence. The closing line suggested a wide shot showing “Barbie and Ken walking away from the beach together, hand in hand.”

Next, on a text-to-video platform, I typed these words into a box labeled “Prompt”: “Cinematic movie shot of Margot Robbie as Barbie walking near the beach, early morning light, pink sun rays illuminating the screen, tall green grass, photographic detail, film grain.”

About a minute later, a 3-second video appeared. It showed a svelte blond woman walking on the beach. Is it Margot Robbie? Is it Barbie? It’s hard to say. I decided to add my own face in place of Robbie’s just for fun, and in seconds, I’ve made the swap.

I now have a moving image clip on my desktop that I can add to the script and shot list, and I’m well on my way to crafting a short film starring someone sort of like Margot Robbie as Barbie.

After years of darkness in Charlestown

Open and Transparent Government in Charlestown

By Deborah Carney, Charlestown Town Council President

The Charlestown Town Council is committed to open and transparent government.  

Over the past several months we have held true to our election promises to make our town government more open and transparent.  We have affected positive change and created more access and more opportunity for all town residents to be heard and listened to.  

Our accomplishments, to date, include the following items which have improved transparency and open government:  

* Revised and improved formatting of Town Council meeting minutes to include information that is useful to the reader, including content of discussions.  The current format is transparent and informative. Meeting minutes are available on the town's website.  

*Returned a voice to the people of Charlestown.  The Charlestown Home Rule Charter, approved by voters in 1981 Is our town’s manual on governance of our town.  It is the primary means for voters to determine how Charlestown is governed. This Town Council amended the ordinance regarding the Charter Revision Advisory Committee, returning this committee to a “standing committee.”    

The people of Charlestown hold the power to amend the Charter.  This Committee is actively seeking input from residents, town employees, officers and elected officials.  This Committee is obligated to hold at least one public hearing before forwarding any proposals to the Council for consideration, further public hearing and ultimately, a town-wide vote.  Your vote! 

All Charter Revision Advisory Committee meetings are public.  Everyone is welcome to attend.   

*Established an Ordinance Review Ad Hoc Committee. Some of Charlestown’s ordinances are outdated, unconstitutional, or in violation of state law.  These need to be corrected. This advisory committee is made up of two Town Councilors, one member from each of the following: Planning Commission, Zoning Board of Review, Affordable Housing Commission, Economic Improvement Commission, and two members at large.  

The committee also includes a Charlestown police officer, the Interim Town Administrator, the Building/ Zoning Official, the Town Clerk, the Town Planner and the Town Solicitor. This is a broad range of representation. This process is long overdue.  The Town's ordinances have not been reviewed for compliance with state law in approximately 20 years. In addition to this committee reviewing the town's ordinances, the Town has enlisted the services of General Code to assist with the legal compliance component. 

Ordinance Review Ad Hoc Committee meetings are public. Everyone is welcome to attend. 

The Council, in addition to the above committees, has reached out to Town staff and the chairs of boards, committees and commissions, and to all residents through the town's Pipeline, to solicit input on the Charter, the ordinances, and the Comprehensive Plan. We want to hear from all town residents regarding these issues.    

*Utilized the Town Council Ordinance which provides for a second monthly meeting on the fourth Monday of the month when warranted and necessary. This allows for two meetings of reasonable length, which is conducive to more public engagement and rationed decision making.

*Guaranteed all Councilors will be treated equally, and all have the right to place items on the meeting agenda that are of interest to our town. 

As always, we encourage residents to attend Town Council meetings, or view them via the town's website www.Charlestownri.gov.

You could do that, or....

For more cartoons by Jen Sorenson, Click HERE.

Tick check

 

There are better ways to manage waste other than recycling

Decades of public messages about recycling created false expectations

Michaela Barnett, University of Virginia; Leidy Klotz, University of Virginia; Patrick I. Hancock, University of Virginia, and Shahzeen Attari, Indiana University

A worker sorts cardboard at a recycling center in Newark,
N.J. Jeff Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

You’ve just finished a cup of coffee at your favorite cafe. Now you’re facing a trash bin, a recycling bin and a compost bin. What’s the most planet-friendly thing to do with your cup?

Many of us would opt for the recycling bin – but that’s often the wrong choice. 

In order to hold liquids, most paper coffee cups are made with a thin plastic lining, which makes separating these materials and recycling them difficult.

In fact, the most sustainable option isn’t available at the trash bin. It happens earlier, before you’re handed a disposable cup in the first place.

In our research on waste behavior, sustainability, engineering design and decision making, we examine what U.S. residents understand about the efficacy of different waste management strategies and which of those strategies they prefer. 

In two nationwide surveys in the U.S. that we conducted in October 2019 and March 2022, we found that people overlook waste reduction and reuse in favor of recycling. We call this tendency recycling bias and reduction neglect.

Our results show that a decades long effort to educate the U.S. public about recycling has succeeded in some ways but failed in others. These efforts have made recycling an option that consumers see as important – but to the detriment of more sustainable options. And it has not made people more effective recyclers.

Recycling rules vary widely across the U.S., leaving consumers to figure out what to do.

Moderna is safest, most effective mRNA vaccine against COVID-19 for older adults, study shows

Low risk, high effectiveness according to Brown researchers

Brown University

While mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 have been found to be safe and effective for the general population, in-depth evidence about safety and effectiveness for older adults and individuals with chronic health conditions is more limited.

To address that gap, a team led by Brown University researchers conducted the largest head-to-head comparison study of the two mRNA vaccines approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. The results, published in JAMA Network Open, showed that for older adults, the Moderna vaccine was associated with a slightly lower risk of adverse events than the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

The business of witches

As witchcraft becomes a multibillion-dollar business, practitioners’ connection to the natural world is changing

Helen A. Berger, Brandeis University

The natural world is an important part of Pagan practice.
 Louise OLIGNY/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Witches, Wiccans and other contemporary Pagans see divinity in trees, streams, plants and animals. Most Pagans view the Earth as the Goddess, with a body that humans must care for, and from which they gain emotional, spiritual and physical sustenance.

Paganism is an umbrella term that includes religions that view their practices as returning to those of pre-Christian societies, in which they believe the Goddess was worshipped along with the gods and the land was seen as sacred. Wicca focuses specifically on the practice of the British Isles.

Witchcraft has also become a multibillion-dollar business. As a sociologist who has been researching this religion for more than 30 years, I have witnessed this growing commercialization: Witch kits are sold by large companies and in stores – something unheard of when I began my research in 1986.

This surge in popularity has changed these communities in some subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Groups called covens were the norm when I began my research, but as my own research shows, most Pagans now are solitary practitioners. Even while the Goddess continues to be revered, the practitioners’ connection to the natural world, at least for many, is also changing.

With the change in cannabis laws, drug testing policies must change too

Adults who drink alcohol legally outside work aren’t penalized. It should be no different for marijuana. 

By Paul Armentano 

Voters and politicians are reshaping America’s marijuana laws for the better. The possession and use of cannabis is now legal for medical purposes in 38 states and legal for adult recreational use in 23 of those. 

Unfortunately, antiquated and discriminatory drug testing policies often haven’t kept up with these changes.

It’s reasonable for employers to expect sobriety on the job. But requiring would-be hires and employees to undergo urine screens for past cannabis exposure are invasive and ineffective. They neither identify workers who may be under the influence nor contribute to a safe work environment.

That’s because conventional urine tests only identify the presence of non-psychoactive “metabolites” — by-products that linger in the body’s blood and urine well after a substance’s mood-altering effects have ended. 

Even the U.S. Department of Justice acknowledges: “A positive test result, even when confirmed, only indicates that a particular substance is present in the test subject’s body tissue. It does not indicate abuse or addiction; recency, frequency, or amount of use; or impairment.”