PEACE: Was it “necessary”?

Wednesday, August 6, 2025

FROM 1440 https://join1440.com/

80th Anniversary of Hiroshima

Today marks 80 years since the US dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The attack—the first military use of a nuclear bomb—precipitated the end of the US war with Japan and killed an estimated 140,000 people over several months (see photos).

On Aug. 6, 1945, US Col. Paul Tibbets flew a B-29 bomber from the island of Tinian to Hiroshima carrying a 9,700-pound uranium bomb nicknamed “Little Boy.” At about 8:15 am, the bomb detonated roughly 1,900 feet over the city center, sending surface temperatures above 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Then-President Harry Truman had agreed to bomb Hiroshima, which had a civilian population of 300,000 and about 43,000 soldiers, to convince Japan to surrender. See Tibbets’ reflections here (w/video). See survivors’ reflections here.

The US followed the Hiroshima bombing with an atomic bomb targeting Nagasaki three days later. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945. Learn more about the Manhattan Project via 1440 Topics here.

# – # – # – # – # 

I remember the Christian Brothers discussing in class about the “Just War” doctrine and the use of Atomic Bombs.  Of course, I brought the topic home.  Strangely, my war time uncles, both vets and essential civilian workers, were quiet or muted about how necessary it was, but my aunts were totally fine with it.  Freshly, “educated” by the “Just War” doctrine, I asked “what about the children?”.  That ended the topic discussion.  I think forever.  Or, at least forever, in my presence.

I ask the same question now for Gaza.  As I did for Kuwait, Afghanistan, the Holocaust, Cambodia, … … essentially any time I hear about “fighting”.  Makes me sad to think of the children in all the war zones.  As well as living in poverty around the USA and the world.

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.”  ― Dwight D. Eisenhower

I wonder how many Einsteins, Pasteurs, Bannings, Mozarts, and DaVincis have died never getting to make their contributions to humanity.

Sigh!

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TECHNOLOGY: Now DROPBOX introducted the “dropbox dustbin”

Wednesday, August 6, 2025

https://www.androidauthority.com/dropbox-password-manager-discontinued-3582689/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyauthority&utm_term=Daily%20Authority

Dropbox says it’s time to find a new password manager as it prepares to shut down service

  • Time to say goodbye to Dropbox Passwords.

By Ryan McNeal 21 hours ago
<< EDITOR ADDED DATE 2025-07-31>>

*** begin quote ***

  •     Dropbox Passwords users will no longer be able to add new passwords on August 28, 2025.
  •     The mobile app is scheduled to stop working on September 11, 2025.
  •     The password manager will be fully discontinued on October 28, 2025.

Dropbox Passwords users will soon have to find a new password manager to store their passwords, usernames, and other sensitive data. The company will be shutting down the service in the next couple of months.

Dropbox has announced that it is preparing to sunset its password manager. According to a help center document, the decision was made so that the company can “focus on enhancing other features in our core product.” The full service is scheduled to be discontinued on October 28, 2025, but the shutdown will be carried out in phases.

*** end quote ***

“Sunsetting”?  Argh!  Call it what it is “shrinkflation”.

Why they ever pursued it is beyond me.  

And, they don’t suggest BITWARDEN which is basically free.

Is OnePassword or Lastpass an affiliate link?

Argh!

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MEME: GOVERNMENT & MEDIA RIDICULE

Tuesday, August 5, 2025

MY FAVORITE (if this is TL;DR)

 

 

 

 

 

GOVERNMENT & MEDIA RIDICULE:

 

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DISCOURAGING: Whistle pet trackers to IoT graveyard

Tuesday, August 5, 2025

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/07/acquisition-sends-thousands-of-whistle-pet-trackers-to-iot-graveyard/

Acquisition sends thousands of Whistle pet trackers to IoT graveyard

  • Whistle pet monitors will stop working on August 31.

Scharon Harding – Jul 29, 2025 1:38 PM |

*** begin quote ***

Whistle pet trackers are headed to the Internet of Things (IoT) graveyard. After releasing its first product in 2013, the Seattle-based Whistle has just been acquired by a competitor that has decided to brick all of Whistle’s smart GPS and activity monitors.

Tractive, an Austrian company that has also been selling Internet-connected GPS trackers for pets since 2013, on Monday announced its acquisition of Whistle from Mars Petcare, as spotted by The Verge. Mars Petcare is the pet food subsidiary of Mars Inc (which also makes candies like M&M’s), and it acquired Whistle in 2016 for $117 million.

*** end quote ***

Where is the “consumer protection”?  I won’t be buying M&M’s anytime soon.  This is a complete betrayal of loyal customers.  

Wonder if we will see any litigation as a result? 

Anyone wonder what the Gooferment at any level is stepping up to enforce Customer’s interests?

If not, why are they there?

Argh!

Google Graveyard, AT&T Ashcan, Amazon depreciation, … … or <synonym for the act of procreation> you! … … shrinkflation.

As they say on Wall Street, there is always a “counter party risk”.  Or in layman’s terms: “Life time guarantee  —  but whose lifetime?”

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POLITICAL: 1994 IVF miracle: World’s ‘oldest baby’ born in US from embryo frozen for 30 years

Monday, August 4, 2025

1994 IVF miracle: World’s ‘oldest baby’ born in US from embryo frozen for 30 years:

A baby boy has been born in the U.S. from an embryo frozen for over three decades, setting a new record for the longest-stored embryo to result in a successful live birth.

Thaddeus Daniel Pierce, a baby boy born on July 26, 2025, to parents Lindsey (35) and Tim Pierce (34) in Ohio, is being called the world’s “oldest baby.”

According to the MIT Technology Review, the embryo that he was born from was created via in vitro fertilization (IVF) in 1994 and cryopreserved for 30 years.

The parents adopted the embryo from US-based Linda Archerd (now aged 62).

# – # – # – # – # 

This will stimulate a lot of “legal” questions: 

  • How old is the child?
  • Is there child support issues?
  • Are there health implications or developmental concerns?
  • Is this “moral”?

And that’s just off the top of my head.

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TECHNOLOGY: Why can’t I control my tv from my phone?

Monday, August 4, 2025

I was thinking the other night, when the local TV and Comcast weren’t “speaking” to each other, why can’t I just use an app on my phone to debug the problem?

Everything was on the same LAN.  We had the TV remote and the Cable remote.

But wasn’t that completely unnecessary?

… … 

Also I’ve been a sports bars where the patrons were forced to watch whatever was on at the time, when voting to change the channel could have easily been accommodated by a common app.

And, how about putting on the closed caption feature for those of us who need it. Rather than forcing us to buy an expensive hearing aid.

… …

Seems like technology is letting us all down.

Argh!

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MEME: The Fourth Monkey has emerged

Sunday, August 3, 2025

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POLITICAL: Why does the USA fund the Israeli Gaza extermination?

Sunday, August 3, 2025

https://tuckercarlson.com/john-aguilar-highlights-2

Firsthand Witness: They Shoot Into Crowds Of Unarmed Starving Civilians, Highlights
Premiered 1 day ago•13 mins

<< EDITOR ADDED DATE 2025-08-02>>

*** begin quote ***

Tucker and Tony Aguilar discuss the horrific animal-like treatment of civilians in Gaza at the hands of Benjamin Netanyahu.

*** end quote ***

Ok here’s a post that will probably offend about ½ the country, get me kicked off Social Media sites again, and get a lot of <synonym for excrement> from family, friends, and strangers.

BUT, (and there is always a BIG butt), here goes!

I am moved to almost tears  — and I’ve only cried real tears a few times in my life  — I’m not a “crier” or a “Karen” about most everything.  I try an emulate The Buddha, WWJD, and be the pessimistic optimistic (i.e. plan for the worst and be pleasantly surprised when it turns out better than expected) I think I am.  On most things, I figure “small stuff” “this too will pass” and “it could be a lot worse”.  I sit at my keyboard nearing the end of my adventure and “Face Life”.  Just like this blog’s title “Reinke Faces Life”.  

This <synonym for excrement> in Gaza has got to stop.  Killing starving humans and inflicting savage trauma and death on little children has really gotten to my heart and soul.

While there is little I can do about it directly, other that sit and rant, I don’t intend to sit and let it go on without speaking up. Pastor Martin Niemöller spoke up when there was big price to pay. 

Now I am a gun-owning pro-life pro-choice little L libertarian and think that the “system” is the problem.  But this has gone on too far and for too long.

The President DJT4547 can stop this with a stroke of a pen but seems to be unable to muster up the moral fortitude to say to Israel: “Stop!  The USA is not giving you another dime until it stops.”   (He could do the same with Ukraine but that’s a topic for another day!)

I have never been a fan of the US foreign policy for as long as I can remember.  The Christian Brothers, all vets from WWII and Korea, made me anti-war.  I remember the pro-Israel propaganda back when I first recognized it in the movie “Cast A Giant Shadow”.  Bit I also remember the USS Liberty being attacked by Israel and the US Gooferment didn’t say “boo”!①

Yes, I remember the atrocity of October 7th.  It was horrific.  But, when you have humans in box and are torturing men, women, and children, don’t be surprised when the “worm turns … … into a snake” and bites you.  When you back men into a corner, they will attack with savagery and mercilessness that will stun you.  

“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? . . .” — Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Seems like Palestinians are a lot like the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.  

So starting today, I am going to annoy all the politicians and bureaucrats to stop funding Israel.

##

FOOTNOTE:

①  USS Liberty. https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/06/08/were-fed-it-survivors-of-uss-liberty-look-answers-55-years-later.html

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TECHNOLOGY: Microsoft is killing its ChromeOS competitor — “Microsoft Mothball”?

Saturday, August 2, 2025

Microsoft is killing its ChromeOS competitor:

Back in 2021, Microsoft announced Windows 11 SE as a lightweight platform to rival Google’s ChromeOS, but now, the company is pulling the plug on the offshoot.

more…

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TECHNOLOGY: Individuals should be able to maintain their own verified digital identity

Saturday, August 2, 2025

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2025/07/how-solid-protocol-restores-digital-agency.html

Schneier on Security

*** begin quote ***

How Solid Protocol Restores Digital Agency

The current state of digital identity is a mess. Your personal information is scattered across hundreds of locations: social media companies, IoT companies, government agencies, websites you have accounts on, and data brokers you’ve never heard of. These entities collect, store, and trade your data, often without your knowledge or consent. It’s both redundant and inconsistent. You have hundreds, maybe thousands, of fragmented digital profiles that often contain contradictory or logically impossible information. Each serves its own purpose, yet there is no central override and control to serve you—as the identity owner.

*** and ***

The economics of Web 2.0 pushed us toward centralized platforms and surveillance capitalism, but there has always been a better way. Solid brings different pieces together into a cohesive whole that enables the identity-first architecture we should have had all along. The protocol doesn’t just solve technical problems; it corrects the fundamental misalignment of incentives that has made the modern web increasingly hostile to both users and developers.

As we look to a future of increased digitization across all sectors of society, the need for this architectural shift becomes even more apparent. Individuals should be able to maintain and present their own verified digital identity and history, rather than being at the mercy of siloed institutional databases. The Solid protocol makes this future technically possible.

This essay was written with Davi Ottenheimer, and originally appeared on The Inrupt Blog①

*** end quote ***

Good luck wresting control of “digital identity” from the all-powerful omniscient Gooferment. Never mind the technology giants like Google, Facebook, and Apple. And, of course, the completely subservient “We, The Sheeple” who don’t know how they are getting <synonym for the past tense of the procreation act.>!

Argh!

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① https://www.inrupt.com/blog/

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