The New Coffee Room

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/24/hegseth-chief-of-staff-pentagon-leaving-00308721

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s controversial chief of staff, who played a central role in a power struggle that gripped the Pentagon, will exit the agency today.

Joe Kasper was originally expected to transition to another role within the Defense Department, but is now planning to go back to government relations and consulting, he said in an interview.

He will continue to support and advise the Pentagon, he said, but as a special government employee. This will limit him to performing temporary jobs for just 130 days a year.

A former longtime chief of staff to indicted Rep. Duncan Hunter, Kasper was a leading figure in the firings of senior adviser Dan Caldwell, Hegseth deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll, the chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg. The trio were ousted last week in a leak investigation.

Some officials saw the wave of firings as a bid by Kasper to consolidate power.

“Kasper did not like that those guys had the secretary’s ear,” a person familiar with the dynamic said. “He did not like that they had walk-in and hanging-out privileges in the office. He wanted them out. It was a knife fight.”

The price of Donald Trump's cryptocurrency has soared after the US president promised to host two special events for its top investors.

The website for the $Trump meme coin says its 220 biggest holders will be invited to a private gala dinner with the president on 22 May, describing it as the "most EXCLUSIVE INVITATION in the world."

According to crypto trading platform Coinbase, $Trump jumped by more than 70% after the announcement. But it remains well below the record high of more than $74 (£42.40) reached shortly after its launch in January.

The digital currency is one of several crypto-related ventures launched by businesses linked to Trump, who has called himself the "crypto president".

As well as the gala dinner, which will be held at the Trump National Golf Club in Washington DC, there will be "an ultra-exclusive private VIP reception with the President" for the top 25 coin holders, the coin's website said.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce8g2kpzx0go

@Mik said in Make America Globalist Again:

too much demand.

Agree.

We talked a bit about it before, but telling a poor farmer not to plant opium poppies is not going to work when the choice for them comes down to being able to eat or not eat. Yes, you can try and limit the supply, but for something like drugs, I think that limiting demand is more effective.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-2028-apparel-sale-trump-organizations-online-store-rcna202856

The Trump Organization has begun selling red hats online with the slogan "Trump 2028" embroidered in bright white along the front, as well as T-shirts with the slogan.

The hats were listed for $50 with the description: "The future looks bright! Rewrite the rules with the Trump 2028 high crown hat. Fully embroidered with a snap closure in the back, this will become your new go-to hat."

I am much more of a "globalist" than an "isolationist"

Indian Kashmir and Jammu are majority Islam religion. When UK separated India into India and Pakistan, they also divided Kashmir/Jamnu. A lot (most?) of the residents in the India part of the region believe that they should be part of Pakistan.

So, there has been a "truce" in place for a long time.

As @jon-nyc says, in recent, there is a "separtist" group that killed a number of Indians in a meadow in Kashmir. India claims the group is controlled by Pakistan. Pakistan says no. Probably the truth is somewhere in the middle.

Fun fact #1, the only ski resort in India is in Kashmir, called Gumilir.

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2025-04-23/two-decades-ago-youtube-uploaded-its-first-video-now-its-a-tv-juggernaut

The grainy 19-second YouTube video that started it all hardly had the makings of a viral sensation.

Shot at the San Diego Zoo, the primitive video clip showed Jawed Karim, the platform’s co-founder, complimenting the elephants in the frame behind him. “The cool thing about these guys is they have really, really, really long trunks,” Karim said.

The clip, titled “Me at the zoo,” was the first video uploaded onto YouTube 20 years ago, opening the door to a new medium of television.

and

When YouTube first started in San Mateo, its founders weren’t thinking they would take on the television industry.

They envisioned it as a dating site where people would upload videos and score them. When that didn’t work, the founders decided to open up the platform for all sorts of videos. Users drove traffic to YouTube by sharing videos on MySpace.

@Horace said in Energy Drinks: Are They Worth the Heart Risk?:

For some reason I am all but afraid to try an energy drink. I guess I never will.

Same!!!

I have brought some Thai Red Bull back to the US for people to try. They say it is more bitter and not as "sweet" as the US version. It is also 5-10x cheaper in Thailand. LOL

Interesting!!

I actually did not know the background. Wikipedia to the rescue!!

Red Bull was derived from a similar drink called Krating Daeng which originated in Thailand and was introduced by the pharmacist Chaleo Yoovidhya. While doing business in Thailand, Austrian entrepreneur Dietrich Mateschitz purchased a can of Krating Daeng and claimed it cured his jet lag. Mateschitz sought to create a partnership with Yoovidhya and formulated a product that would suit the tastes of Westerners, such as by carbonating the drink.[18] In 1984, the two founded Red Bull GmbH in Fuschl am See, Salzburg, Austria.[19] When branding their new product, Mateschitz referenced Krating Daeng's name: in Thai, daeng means red, and a krating (known in English as a gaur) is a large species of wild bovine native to the Indian subcontinent. Red Bull and Krating Daeng use the same red bull on yellow sun logo while continuing to market their drinks separately in the Thai and Western markets.

https://www.smartertravel.com/the-most-chaotic-airports-in-the-u-s/

Miserable airport experiences are becoming more commonplace, but a new study from Casino of the Kings reveals that some airports really are actually more chaotic than others. The study analyzed data including average daily delays and cancellations, passenger satisfaction scores, on-time performance, mishandled baggage claims and more, the study ranked U.S. airports based on levels of operational disruption and travel inefficiency.

At the top of the list is Tampa International Airport, which scored a perfect 100 on the chaos meter. Over half of its flights—53%—are delayed, and more than 8% of scheduled flights are canceled due to logistical challenges.

Newark Liberty isn’t far behind, with a disruption score of 90. On any given day, 41% of flights run late, and it racks up two mishandled bags per 100,000 passengers. If you’ve lost a suitcase here, you're not alone.

At number three is Orlando International. It may be home to the happiest place on Earth, but the airport is certainly not that. With 46% delays and 5% cancellations, it also holds the lowest passenger satisfaction score of all airports surveyed: a brutal seven.

Dallas Fort Worth, one of the busiest airports in the U.S., ranks fourth. It has seen a staggering 189 flights canceled a day—10% of its daily traffic.

Rounding out the top five is NYC’s JFK, where 35% of flights are delayed and baggage chaos reigns supreme, averaging 3 lost bags per 100,000 travelers.

Tampa International Airport
Newark Liberty International Airport
Orlando International Airport
Dallas Fort Worth International Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport
Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport
O'Hare International Airport
Harry Reid International Airport
Logan International Airport
Miami International Airport

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/23/ive-woken-up-with-them-on-my-face-portuguese-millipede-infestation-horrifies-wellington

At a visitor centre on the south coast of New Zealand’s capital, the blustery, briny wind is no match for the smell of thousands of decaying millipedes, which reek like decomposing vermin and rotting fish.

Along the streets of Wellington’s Ōwhiro Bay, dead curled up millipedes are piled up on the footpath, as live ones march along the street. One resident says her neighbours collected five rubbish bags worth of the creatures in a week from around their home.

“You’re constantly on guard. These things are everywhere,” Georgia Osborne says. “There have been times I’ve woken up with a millipede on my face.”

The infestation of Portuguese millipedes in the southern suburbs of Wellington has now become so bad that people are likening it to a “horror movie”, as they are forced to sweep away hundreds of the putrid-smelling critters from their homes and gardens each day.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2025-04-22/unpacking-catl-s-five-minute-ev-charging-video

Today, both CATL and BYD claim to have batteries that can charge electric vehicles in as little as five minutes. However, CATL raised the stakes earlier this week in Shanghai when it revealed that the 320-mile range of its new Shenxing battery is around 70 miles longer than BYD’s claimed 250-mile range, and it can charge that range in 5 minutes. By contrast, Tesla's Superchargers are only capable of providing 200 miles of range in around 15 minutes.

@taiwan_girl said in Energy Drinks: Are They Worth the Heart Risk?:

Red Bull started in Thailand. THey still sell the original recipe here. I think in the US, a can goes for about $2-3? In Thailand, the original comes in a small bottle and sells for about $0.35.

I have never tried neither, so have no idea why the big difference in price (or how much difference in taste)

I think I mentioned this before, maybe on the old board, but there has been a long ongoing story about the grandson of the guy who started Red Bull ran over a police man in a hit and run. He eventually left the country to avoid trial, etc. Lots of accusing of corruption, payoffs to the police, etc. Anyways, the latest

https://www.nationthailand.com/news/general/40049090

Two former senior public prosecutors were jailed by the Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases on Tuesday after being found guilty of helping Vorayuth "Boss" Yoovidhya, heir to the Red Bull fortune, initially escape prosecution in a 2012 fatal hit-and-run case.

and

As of April 2025, Vorayuth Yoovidhya remains a fugitive. The only remaining charge against him is reckless driving causing death, which carries a statute of limitations until 2027.

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/story/private-jet-plane-crashes

Interesting article about the (relative) lack of safety if you fly on private jets.

Fancy fliers are creating a huge boom in private-jet travel, no longer the exclusive province of Fortune 500 companies, Donald Trump, or Taylor Swift. Yet for all the allure of flying private, it’s a rather dangerous luxury.

@Axtremus LOL

I always think of @jon-nyc and his statement about trying to sensibly talk with someone who has conspiracies.

He can relay it better than I, but basically, every time you give a logical counter argument to one of the conspiracies, the answer is yes, but......... Eventually, you are putting together table of melt points of various ANSI steels. LOL

https://fortune.com/article/pope-francis-vatican-finances-reform/

Even on his deathbed, Pope Francis didn’t pause from pursuing a dogged campaign that distinguished his reign: reforming the Vatican’s infamously troubled finances. On February 27, the pontiff’s 13th day at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital suffering from exhaustion and bronchitis, the pontiff unveiled the formation of a high-level commission assigned to raise donations for helping plug chronic budget deficits. Francis launched the fund-raising enterprise as a gambit aimed at blunting demands by top officials in the Curia, his vast administrative arm, that the leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics halt his drive for deep spending cuts. The bureaucrats bristled at the Pope’s recent draconian moves: Since 2021, he’d slashed salaries for the Church’s 250-odd cardinals three times. In 2023, he nixed the rich housing subsidies for elite staff, and last September for the first time in decades demanded that the Vatican set a rigorous timeline for achieving a “zero deficit” regime.

Quite an interesting story on the finance reforms that Pope Francis tried (and partially succeeded) with the Catholic Church

@jon-nyc said in Tesla to Bud Light: hold my beer!:

cyber truck down 24%

https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/hybrid-electric/a64516018/cybertruck-sales-bad/

1 Million People Reserved a Tesla Cybertruck. In the End, Only 5% Actually Meant It.

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/thailand-unveils-robocop-style-ai-police-cyborg-1-0-officer-to-enhance-songkran-safety

The Royal Thai Police (RTP) on April 16 shared photos of the country’s first AI police robot deployed in Nakhon Pathom province during the Songkran festival.

The robot, dubbed “AI police cyborg 1.0”, is a Robocop-style robot officer equipped with smart 360-degree AI cameras. It is jointly developed by the Provincial Police Region 7, Nakhon Pathom Provincial Police, and Nakhon Pathom Municipality.

This AI police cyborg integrates live footage from CCTV cameras in and around the event area, as well as from drone surveillance, and processes them using AI technology built into the cyborg’s system.

The cyborg’s own cameras are enhanced with video analytics capabilities and linked directly to the province’s Command and Control Centre to efficiently manage public safety during public events.

Using facial recognition technology, the cyborg is able to identify and notify officers if wanted or high-risk individuals are detected. Individuals can be searched and identified through their facial features, clothing, body type, and gender.

The cyborg can also track and monitor suspects across the event, detecting potentially violent or disruptive behaviours, such as fighting or physical assault.

It is also able to detect potential weapons including knives and wooden sticks, while excluding water guns from detection.