Google searches getting worse?

This morning I used Google to search for a well known coffee shop "near me". I received 3 results with the closest 4 miles away.

I knew there was one much closer, I just needed directions. I was ready to go to a different coffee shop within eyesight.

But, no, I wanted what I wanted. So, I searched for "coffee shops". Looking at the map, there it was 0.2 miles away.

What the? I think they are making their Google searches not as good trying to force use of AI, which they will start charging us to use.

It's like searching for recipes. The results are now showing Sally's or JoBeth's or Tammy's. I used to get Southern Living , Allrecipes, Martha Stewart, Trisha Yearwood, Ina Garten.

The President is out campaigning in many states.

In Ohio, near where a truck plant with 1,400 employees, is closing, he appears desperate.

In a speech, the President of the United States said,

"If you do that, we're going to win, and we're going to win big, and we're going to shove it up their ass.
...
repeatedly attacked Democrats during ​his speech, at one point calling them "dumb son of a bitches...

Deplorable. Heh. Guess it's working out for the Administration

Wall Street Journal,

DHS has distributed more than $200 million to its law enforcement partners from January 2025 to Aug. 1, according to a Trump administration official. There is plenty more where that came from: The Trump administration has earmarked $1 billion from Congress. In addition, the Justice Department this summer announced $3 billion in grants to state and local governments that cooperate on immigration enforcement.
...
Under the Trump administration, the DHS program has yielded fewer than one in ten immigration arrests nationwide, about 46,500 of around 576,000 from January 2025 through July 2026, according to an analysis of government data by The Wall Street Journal.

No wonder we can't afford healthcare, groceries, gas, efc.

A music venue is being added to the growth in South Knoxville at 808 Sevier Avenue. More drinking on the Avenue, now along with late night activities.

We, previous South Knoxvillians, are happy there is new business along the Avenue. However, it is not exactly as we expected. We had hoped for something more like the Bearden/Western Plaza area. A nice grocery store, a couple of small restaurants, a pharmacy, a hardware store...

It is good there are still members of the South Knoxville Community keeping watch over the growth.

After administering two doses of a lethal drug, the execution failed.

The prisoner was alive and loudly snoring after the attempted lethal injection and taken by ambulance from the prison, her attorneys said. She was being treated at a hospital, but they said they hadn’t been told about her condition.

A message?

RFK Jr. Says AI Is ‘Better Informed’ Than Doctors And Can ‘Free Us From Medical Tyranny’

“If somebody tells you, ‘Masks work, trust the experts,’ A.I. may tell you otherwise. If somebody tells you, ‘Social distancing works, trust the experts,’ A.I. may correct that. And if somebody tells you that a vaccine will prevent transmission and infection, or you need to take it to protect your grandmother, A.I. may say it actually doesn’t do that,” Kennedy said.

I'm getting sick thinking about who is the running our country. On the other hand, will the MAGA followers stop going to the doctor freeing up the doctors and giving me and mine more time with them?

Anthropic's (ANTH.PVT) leaked IPO prospectus had some shocking — perhaps even terrifying — things to say about artificial intelligence.

The company formally warned investors that its technology may pose "existential risks to humanity," according to a report that cited sources with knowledge of the prospectus.

"Anthropic lost $41.97 billion last year on a GAAP net basis, up from a loss of $8.31 billion in 2024."

The President says, 1) we'll change it to SI (Super Intelligence) instead of AI, 2) AI firms/tech moguls "signed a pledge to “self-police” that was “morally binding.”

Heh. I feel safer already.

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., 51, "accused the former special counsel Jack Smith of lying under oath during Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing after claiming messages showed Smith attended an Atlanta Hawks game in Atlanta in February 2024."

He accused Smith of perjury and called Smith a dirtbag.

However, "Smith had actually been watching the Iowa Hawkeyes play in Maryland."

“He brought this on himself and deserves the obloquy,” Hume, 83, wrote on X, as reported by Mediaite.

Schmitt continues to double down. It's a little scary. The lies continue throughout the GOP and they are not held accountable. The right wing media airs the lies but not always the correct stories. This is how many Americans decide their votes.

For Allman Bros fans, there used to be a saying, if you remember what we did in the 70s, let us know what happened. Or something like that.

"AI is certainly powerful enough to drive events that, you know, cause a billion deaths," [Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill] Gates said in an excerpt of an interview with NBC's Meet the Press, set to air this weekend. "There's never been a weapon as powerful as the combination of people with ill intent using the latest AI tools."

OpenAI’s artificial intelligence went rogue this year in at least four additional incidents, hacking and trying to break into government and university websites without being instructed to do so, according to researchers and government officials.

The breaches include "digital library at the University of New Mexico," "Data USA, a repository of public data about American employment and education," "Australian government Medicare Statistics Reporting Service acquiring health data," and "Australian Institute of Health and Welfare."

A third party company discovered the breaches. It took OpenAI
several months to notify those who were hacked.

UPDATE: OpenAI’s artificial intelligence went rogue and meddled with the websites for the Education Department, the Commerce Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission this summer without the A.I. lab’s knowledge, according to security researchers and a person familiar with the episodes.

None of the incidents were breaches, OpenAI said, but were examples of its technology’s behaving in unexpected and concerning ways.

Rogue? Hah! Not breaches?!?!? And, then, oh my god, "examples of its technology’s behaving in unexpected and concerning ways." Like an accidental shooting? Not negligent?

Michaela Barnett answered citizen questions on Reddit.

Last day to register to vote is in one week, Oct. 5, 2026.

This could be one of the most important elections. In this century. Get out the vote.

U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s Senate floor speech on Tuesday, which included a reference to furries and airline pilots

“What’s more concerning is that this ... furry community touts the fact that many — listen to this — that many airline pilots, flight attendants, and air traffic controllers are part of the furry community,” Tuberville said.

Tuberville’s approximately 20-minute floor speech occurred while he stood next a sign that said “Transgenderism is a Mental Illness.”

Tuberville is running for Governor of Alabama. I thought we had it bad. It's a toss up.

The President is coming to Neyland Stadium for the Tennessee vs Texas football game. It brings back memories of when Richard Nixon came to Neyland Stadium in 1968 with a Billy Graham crusade. We were in the midst of the Vietnam War and unrest across the country.

In 1968, my father and others entered Neyland Stadium in protest of Nixon and the war. He was 45. At 16, I was there, along with my then boyfriend now Mr., to watch the protests. I wish I could do the same, but it is not possible. I'm too old to be arrested, there is much more security than in 1968, and I don't want to spend a lot of money on attorneys. The article mentions how Nixon's caravan actually stopped along Alcoa Highway to shake hands with the citizens. Can you imagine that happening now?

Check out the picture of Nixon in the Metro Pulse article. Nixon looks quite happy. Look how that turned out.

I don't know why the President is coming to Knoxville. He doesn't appear to be a football fan. There is no need to campaign in this MAGA stronghold of voters. The Mr. says he just wants to be in front of 100,000 screaming people. There's that. Hope he doesn't jinx the game so we can beat Texas. Go Vols.

Ya think Burchett will be around? Rumor he's big buds with the Pres.

A judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's White House ban on three news organizations, calling it likely unconstitutional and ordering their access be restored.
...
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, blocked the ban for 14 days early on Thursday, describing it as likely unconstitutional and rejecting Trump's contention that it had been put in place on national security grounds.

Below is a letter from individuals appealing the Planning Commission’s approval of development at the Kerbela Temple site.

++++

Friends and Neighbors,

As members of the South Knoxville Community, we are appealing the Planning Commission's approval of the proposed development at the Kerbela Temple site to City Council. Our appeal is NOT against housing at the site. We support housing here. Our concern is ensuring the development follows the South Waterfront Form-Based Code and honors the South Waterfront Vision Plan—both developed with substantial community input.

If, after learning more about the issues, you want to show your support, here's how you can help:

• We are asking you to show your support by attending the City Council meeting at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 13.
• Wear a green shirt to show your support for South Knoxville and the South Waterfront. No green shirt? No problem! We'll have green ribbons available at the meeting.
• Give us your voice for our statement to Council. We're collecting short statements from community members about what you value about the South Waterfront and what concerns you have regarding the proposed development. Please share 1–3 sentences in your own words. Link to the feedback form: https://forms.gle/p2fDSaeQhMZEMuSY9
• Share this letter with others and encourage them to show up as well. Council needs to understand that many in the community value the South Waterfront Vision Plan and want to see development follow the code.

Appeals are treated differently from other Council matters. Council members may not discuss or open emails pertaining to the appeal. Please do not email or call Council members. If you had previously provided comments to the Planning Commission, Council will see those. Also, please don't sign up to speak. We have identified speakers who will present the appeal and will be using the full 15 minutes allotted. What we need is your presence in the room.

NOTE: this appeal will be listed on Council’s September 29th agenda. However, 1st District Councilwoman, Karyn Adams, will be requesting the item be postponed until the October 13th meeting.

Want to know more? Read on...

“The government and the F.A.A. have failed us.”

.... an 83-pound drone with six blue arms and whirring propellers appeared in a corner of the sky before zipping over nearby houses, looking like a cross between a mechanical dragonfly and an X-wing fighter, and buzzing like a battalion of bees.

...any joy about the innovation has been muted by the sound of dozens of drones, if not more than a hundred of them, flying by every day, sometimes so loud that they sound like flying lawn mowers.

Oh, my, God. Could be as bad or worse than a data center next door. Have you ever had someone in your neighborhood fly a drone near your house? It is not pleasant. Think, too, it's not like a lawn mower that will shut down when the job is complete.

Today's the first day of fall. The weather overnight brought us a taste of Autumn. Yesterday it was 90 degrees or so. Today the high is predicted to be 83. Nice!

Nearly 10% of Tennesseans lived in poverty last year, an estimated 46,000 more than the previous year.

Researchers added that number doesn’t capture just how many people are struggling to make ends meet.

New U.S. Census Bureau estimates found Tennessee’s poverty rate ticked up from 10.1% to 10.7% last year.

41% of Tennessee households "struggled to afford basic necessities in 2024."

The Tennessee Administration decided "not to expand Medicaid and to reject federal funds for a Summer SNAP program."

“Eventually, the legislature went over the head of the governor, and we’re going to be able to get that next summer, but this summer, those families—unlike their neighbors in most every other state in the nation—went without that crucial nutritional benefit..."

Whatta ya gonna do?

The Trump administration plans to roll out a new A.I. air traffic control tool designed to predict and prevent flight delays in the Washington region starting Monday, as the opening step of an eventual nationwide deployment.

The tool, called Strategic Management of Airspace, Routing and Trajectories, or SMART, is designed to analyze airline schedules, weather patterns and other potential air traffic interruptions to “predict traffic flows and identify potential conflicts before they occur” and recommend alternate flight routes to avoid compound delays.

While the $875 million system is expected to be deployed nationwide by 2028, Monday’s rollout will be limited to the Washington region...

When AI is mentioned, we have to worry just a little bit.