Happy 4th of July!
[Posted Saturday, July 4, 2026 7/4/26 7:45 am]
Happy Sesquicentennial! There's a lot of exciting events happening around Los Angeles today.
The Los Angeles Coliseum is hosting the America250 July 4 Concert featuring Chris Stapleton and the Smashing Pumpkins. The Tom Petty tribute band Petty Or Not is performing at Dodgers stadium, followed by a game with our Southern California rivals the San Diego Padres. And the Beach Boys with John Stamos are performing at the Hollywood Bowl. All of the events are to be followed by fireworks spectaculars.
Please leave shooting off the fireworks to the professionals, and have a safe 4th of July!
Breaking fast
[Posted Wednesday, July 1, 2026 7/1/26 7:15 am]
Leftover pizza from Domino's. Do you like it zapped in the microwave or cold straight from the fridge?
I like mine either way. Cold pizza from last night is the best breakfast ever!
Only problem is it lasting until breakfast. It frequently gets gobbled up as a late-night snack!
Uplifting random act of kindness
[Posted Sunday, June 28, 2026 6/28/26 10:25 am]
I was out for my daily walk just now, which takes me past a Los Angeles Metro Line bus station, and saw this sitting all by itself on one of the bus benches:
Inside the bag were some canned goods and a few boxes of things like pasta.
In these hard days of wars around the world, highly emotional political disagreement at home, and homeless people on our streets, it feels for me like this beautiful random act of kindness has lifted the black cloud hanging over us, if just for a moment.
Thank you, to whoever did this wonderful thing. I wonder if you'll ever know you helped more than one person today.
Global Beatles Day
[Posted Thursday, June 25, 2026 6/25/26 9:00 am]
Today we celebrate Global Beatles Day which honors the profound cultural, musical, and social impact of the legendary Fab Four, and marks the 59th anniversary of the worldwide "Our World" TV broadcast which took place on June 25, 1967.
Originally shot in black and white, the Beatles are celebrating Global Beatles Day today by releasing an official colorized version of the All You Need Is Love broadcast on YouTube.
"Our World" was the first live, international satellite television broadcast, reaching over 400 million people worldwide, and the Beatles' appearance established the band's message of peace and unity as a universal anthem.
(Click here for more of the story about the Our World broadcast.)
Celebrating Global Beatles Day brings together generations of fans through shared multimedia experiences and community events around the world, such as listening parties, cover band concerts, and trivia nights.
I hope you're having a Fab Global Beatles Day!
He's in the Honor Group of the Day
[Posted Wednesday, June 24, 2026 6/24/26 9:04 am]
Easily the most famous disc jockey in the history of American radio, we remember Dan Ingram today who passed away on this day, Jun 24, 2018.
Dan spun discs at a few stations in the late fifties, most prominently KBOX in Dallas, before landing the gig that made him famous, WABC in New York, on July 3, 1961. He held court at WABC for more than twenty years, his last show was May 10, 1982, when WABC switched to an all talk format.
His quirky sense of humor, unbelievably quick wit and a voice that always sounded like he was your best friend, made him unlike any Top-40 disc jockey before or since.
He was great at making fun of the records he played, he once introduced the Chords' "Sh-Boom" by saying, "And now, the song of the exploding librarian." He called Elton John's song "Someone Shaved My Wife Tonight," and he called Paul Simon's hit "50 Ways To Relieve Your Liver."
Dan had several running features he did every day in his show, including Word of the Day, which included words like Gestetner and Amanuenses, and Honor Group of the Day, which sometimes included people that had hacked him off, like people who made him late for work, but more often than not, people he admired, like New York City's firemen.
Thanks, Dan. You were New York radio for me when I was a kid growing up on Long Island. We'll never forget you.
You are in the Honor Group of the Day.
The future is now
[Posted Monday, June 22, 2026 6/22/26 7:45 am]
This is a real picture and headline from Google News:
Don't these people read books? This is very scary to me, because this kind of thing is exactly the dark future foretold by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov in his robot stories, especially his novel The Caves of Steel.
 | | First edition of The Caves of Steel |
Originally published in 1954, and still in print, The Caves of Steel takes place on a future Earth where humans have gone off to colonize other planets. While still shunned and feared on Earth, humanoid robots are common on the "Spacer" worlds.
An important aspect of the story is what is now called Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, which were hard-coded into the programming of all humanoid robots. They are:
- A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
- A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
- A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law
In the course of the story (this isn't a spoiler, you've had since 1954 to read the book!) an Earth detective, "Lije" Baley, figures out that his own boss, Chief of Police Enderby, had done something unthinkable and gotten around the Three Laws in a very ingenious way to use a Spacer robot to kill a Spacer.
The Three Laws and the breaking thereof is a recurring theme of Asimov's work and much of the science fiction which followed him, including, especially, Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and Colossus: The Forbin Project, stories of intelligent computers taking over the world or otherwise causing dangerous havoc, because of their mis-use or mis-treatment by humans.
In real life, computers and AI are getting smarter all the time. And now, we have the use of robots in China to kill people. And the three laws protecting us humans are nowhere to be seen.
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Adam Forrest: 
