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A single large tree can provide a cooling effect equivalent to 10 room-sized air conditioners operating for 20 hours per day, according to Forests News.

Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Will Klein has loose bone chips in his elbow, which would mean the end of his 2026 season.

This is what dreams are made of! During her Madison Square Garden tour stop, Hilary Duff surprised the audience with a performance of “The Anthem” with ex Joel Madden and his band Good Charlotte. The show may have been sold out, but her biggest fans were cheering her on backstage. The “Lizzie McGuire” alum gave...

This is what dreams are made of! During her Madison Square Garden tour stop, Hilary Duff surprised the audience with a performance of “The Anthem” with ex Joel Madden and his band Good Charlotte. The show may have been sold out, but her biggest fans were cheering her on backstage. The “Lizzie McGuire” alum gave...

As soon as El-Sayed was declared the winner, Newsom endorsed him.

DoorDash Wins Federal Approval To Fly Its Own Delivery Drones

Via American Greatness,

DoorDash has cleared a major federal hurdle in its push to put drones, not just drivers, in charge of getting dinner to your door.

The San Francisco-based delivery company announced July 29 that it received Federal Aviation Administration Part 135 air carrier certification, the same category of authorization commercial airlines must hold to legally transport other people’s property for pay. The certificate makes DoorDash the eighth drone operator to earn the designation and clears the way for its new in-house operation, DoorDash Air, to begin building a commercial drone delivery network in the United States.

The achievement did not come easily. Federal regulators put DoorDash through a five-phase review examining its aircraft, maintenance procedures and safety program before signing off. That kind of vetting is worth noting at a time when many Americans question whether Washington bureaucracies move too slowly to keep pace with private-sector innovation

DoorDash says the drone will be designed and built in the United States, with most of its components sourced domestically as well. Building the aircraft at home, rather than relying on foreign-made hardware, keeps DoorDash in step with a growing national push to reduce reliance on Chinese technology in critical infrastructure.

The company says the drones fix a real inefficiency. More than 20 percent of DoorDash orders in 2025 traveled between three and five miles, and those trips took nearly a quarter longer than shorter deliveries, largely because drivers prefer clusters of short trips near busy restaurants over a single long haul. DoorDash estimates its existing drone pilots completed deliveries in about 25 minutes on average and saw order volume climb roughly 30 percent in some locations. Those figures come from the company itself and have not been independently verified.

Human Dashers are not going anywhere. DoorDash says drivers will keep handling the overwhelming majority of deliveries, since a drone cannot climb an apartment stairwell or haul a large catering order. The company’s Autonomous Delivery Platform will instead assign each order to whichever method, a Dasher, a delivery robot or a drone, makes the most sense.

Federal certification does not mean drones will appear over American neighborhoods anytime soon. DoorDash still needs airspace authorization and likely additional waivers for flights beyond a pilot’s direct line of sight, and it has not announced its first markets or a launch date. Local zoning boards, noise concerns and community pushback could shape where the company is ultimately allowed to operate, regardless of what Washington has approved.

Still, DoorDash’s milestone reflects a private company willing to invest in American manufacturing and clear federal hurdles rather than wait for government to hand it a shortcut.

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/06/2026 - 17:00

Exactly how erotic is this "erotic thriller"?

Get it in gear.

Trump said the executive order would stop wealthy people from “buying their way” into citizenship with pregnant women traveling to the US birth an American baby.

Grieving families and survivors of a deadly Legionnaires’ disease outbreak linked to city-owned buildings in Harlem sued the Big Apple on Thursday — demanding Mayor Zohran Mamdani take action as he deals with a new deadly cluster. The trio of lawsuits unveiled by the Rev. Al Sharpton and civil rights attorney Ben Crump in Harlem...

This creepy discovery could leave you scratching your head.

Key pieces from the fashionable film are hitting the auction block this fall.

Key pieces from the fashionable film are hitting the auction block this fall.

Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott spoke of getting over adversity when asked about his broken engagement to ex-fiancée Sarah Jane Ramos.

Japan Marks Hiroshima Anniversary Without Naming US, While Shaming Russia

Russia is not happy with Japan's statements regarding the anniversary of the US military's dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima at the end of WWII. Thursday marks the 81st anniversary of the bombing which obliterated the densely-populated industrial city.

The Kremlin is accusing Japanese officials of intentionally dropping any mention of just who dropped the nuke which ultimately killed some 140,000 people, the vast majority of them civilians.

The city's mayor Kazumi Matsui at a ceremony held at the center of where the blast happened issued strong condemnation of nuclear weapons generally, but failed to identify that it was the United States behind it.

Tokyo and Washington have in recent years deepened their security ties, with an eye on China, and so Japanese leaders have long sought to avoid offending their powerful patron and ally. 

Astoundingly, not only did Mayor Matsui fail to mention the US and the B-29 Superfortress 'Enola Gay' bomber that actually dropped the bomb, a simple historical reality, but he went out of his way to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine in his Thursday speech.

The speech focused on the "inhumanity of nuclear weapons" and how "use of force to pursue one's own prosperity" must be condemned and abolished, but then he gratuitously invoked Russia while giving the stories of survivors who have since suffered debilitating illnesses:

Another woman, exposed to the bomb at age 3, suffered through the years from a series of illnesses, then leukemia at age 55. Having been diagnosed with A-bomb disease, she lived in constant fear. Where would it strike next?

A man who was 9, in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has claimed the lives of many civilians, begs us to overcome our internal conflicts and embrace each other's perspectives to build a world without violent conflict. He urges our youth, in particular, to begin by thinking deeply about their daily lives.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi was in attendance at the ceremony, a first since entering office, and she too failed to identify the US as the country which dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese people. She merely called for "realistic and practical" efforts toward a world without nuclear weapons. Top officials from dozens of countries were present, including from Russia, the US, and Iran.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quick to highlight the glaring omission in statements to the press later the same day.

On the atomic bombing's anniversary, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted that Hiroshima's Mayor failed to specify the United States as responsible for the city's destruction through the atomic bomb that killed civilians. pic.twitter.com/wdyN6ecIoP

— HatsOff (@HatsOffff) August 6, 2026

"On the anniversary of the atomic bombing, Hiroshima's mayor once again failed to mention the country responsible for the suffering of his city — the United States. Instead, he used the occasion to attack Russia over Ukraine," Zakharova said.

"The crooked mirror of Western narratives distorts not only the reflection but also the consciousness of those who look into it," she stressed.

She went to point out that the mayor "repeats this false mantra year after year, zombifying the Japanese with Russophobic incantations" - and noted that Russia has always remembered the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and appropriately presents the tragedy as an example of "unacceptable cruelty" by American forces. 

"Amid the suffering caused by Japanese aggression in the Far East, our people never forgot the victims of those two cities," she concluded.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi speaks during a memorial at the Peace Memorial Ceremony, via VCG

Russia's TASS is busy highlighting the fact that the UN Chief, who addressed the ceremony too, also failed to so much as mention the United States:

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres once again did not mention that the United States was the country that carried out the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in his message marking its 81st anniversary.

UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu traditionally read out the message.

The report went on: "In previous years, Guterres also never directly named the United States as the country that carried out the atomic bombings in similar messages commemorating the anniversaries of the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/06/2026 - 16:40

The hitmakers will own the Jets and Giants home field on Aug. 7-8.

The San Francisco 49ers wide receiver room is already banged up just over a month before the 2026 NFL season begins. But the team finally received good news about one of their wide receivers at Thursday’s training camp practice. Rookie wide receiver De’Zhaun Stribling had a hot start to training camp, which caught the eye...

Malik Chandler, 31, was charged with felony assault and using a weapon “under disability” after allegedly shooting Diego Montoya Gonzalez, 20, during a bloody confrontation last month.

The COVID Lockdowns Gave America A Glimpse Of Socialism

Authored by Mark Gianniny via RealClearMarkets,

The next time a candidate promises that greater government control will make life safer, fairer and more secure, Americans should remember 2020. They should remember the closed schools, shuttered businesses, restricted churches, isolated families, arbitrary mandates and government checks intended to compensate people for livelihoods government had interrupted.

COVID was not socialism in the strict textbook sense. Government did not nationalize most businesses or formally abolish private property. But the pandemic gave Americans a revealing glimpse of the governing instinct behind socialism: Central authorities replaced millions of individual decisions with government orders, restricted private activity in the name of the collective good and made citizens dependent on public assistance to endure the restrictions government itself imposed.

During the frightening opening weeks, temporary precautions were understandable. We faced an unfamiliar virus, hospitals feared being overwhelmed and officials had limited information. Most Americans accepted extraordinary restrictions because they were told the measures were necessary and temporary.

The problem was how quickly temporary precautions became a system of control and how slowly government surrendered that control.

Officials decided who could work and which businesses were "essential." They determined whether children could enter their classrooms, congregations could enter their churches and families could visit elderly relatives. Restaurants, gyms, salons, theaters and neighborhood stores were closed or severely restricted. Weddings, funerals, worship services and private gatherings were regulated by executive order.

To a governor or public-health official, a restaurant or gym might have appeared nonessential. To its owner, it was income, retirement savings, personal identity and perhaps a business intended for the next generation. There was nothing nonessential about it.

Private ownership means less when government decides whether the owner may open the doors, employ workers or serve customers. The deed may remain in private hands, but practical control has shifted to the state.

The same pattern reached schools. Parents did not individually decide whether remote instruction was best for their children. Government agencies, teachers unions and school systems made that decision for them. Students and families bore the consequences through lost learning, social isolation and enormous strain on working parents.

Government also intruded on religious worship. Churches, synagogues and mosques were closed or severely restricted, sometimes while liquor stores and large retailers remained open. Americans were told when they could worship, how many could attend and even whether they could sing.

The First Amendment does not say religious liberty applies only when public officials consider it convenient. Yet during COVID, constitutional freedoms were treated as privileges that government could suspend and later restore.

Many rules imposed under the banner of science were actually emergency judgments supported by limited evidence. The six-foot distancing rule reduced business capacity and complicated school reopenings, yet Anthony Fauci later said he could not recall how that exact distance had been selected. It "sort of just appeared."

Masking policies often showed the same lack of discrimination, treating crowded indoor settings much like solitary outdoor activity. California authorities even pursued and arrested a lone paddleboarder during a beach closure. Such episodes revealed what happens when officials become so certain of their authority that questioning a rule is treated as rejecting science.

Public-health experts were qualified to explain medical risks. They were not uniquely qualified to decide how much education, economic independence, religious liberty and personal freedom should be sacrificed. Those were political and moral decisions that belonged to elected representatives and the public.

Yet "following the science" became a way to avoid that debate. Science could help estimate the risk of infection. It could not decide whether a child should lose a year in the classroom, whether a family business should be destroyed or whether a dying person should be separated from loved ones.

Those decisions required balancing competing risks and values. Instead, one objective, reducing the spread of the virus, was often allowed to overwhelm nearly every other consideration.

The economic response reinforced the same pattern of centralized control.

Government restricted private commerce and prevented millions of people from earning income. It then stepped in with forgivable loans, enhanced unemployment benefits, stimulus checks and other assistance.

Some support was necessary. Government could not prevent people from working and then simply abandon them. But the arrangement exposed the deeper danger: Government first displaced private economic activity and then made citizens and businesses dependent on public money to survive the restrictions it had imposed.

That is the governing instinct behind socialism. Decisions move away from individuals, employers and markets and toward political officials who determine which activities may continue, who qualifies for assistance and how resources will be distributed.

The government that closed the business became the government offering to save it. The government that interrupted the paycheck became the government mailing the check. Dependence was not an accidental side effect of the restrictions. It was their predictable result.

Socialism is commonly sold as a promise of security. Government will protect people from illness, unemployment, high prices, inadequate housing and economic uncertainty. But protection requires authority. The more responsibility citizens surrender to the state, the more power the state claims to direct their choices.

COVID gave Americans a practical demonstration of that bargain. Officials promised safety and claimed the authority to regulate work, education, worship, travel, medical decisions and private gatherings. Every restriction was described as temporary, necessary and imposed for the common good.

That is how centralized control usually advances. It does not arrive by announcing that freedom is being abolished. It arrives through promises of safety, fairness, expertise and temporary necessity. Each expansion appears reasonable when viewed alone. Together, they transfer control of everyday life from citizens to the state.

This was not solely a Democratic failure. Officials in both parties expanded government power during COVID, which is precisely why the danger is larger than any one party or politician.

The lesson is especially important today because democratic socialism is gaining influence within the Democratic Party. The Democratic Socialists of America is not formally the Democratic Party, but its candidates generally seek office through Democratic primaries, and several have defeated incumbent Democrats.

The movement is candid about its objectives. Its constitution calls for "popular control of resources and production" and "economic planning." Its national endorsement standards expect candidates to identify publicly as socialists, support the organization's platform and view themselves as socialist organizers first and legislators second.

Americans should take those declarations seriously. COVID showed what centralized direction can look like before government formally owns private property. Officials may leave the deed in an owner's hands while deciding whether the business may open, whom it may employ and whom it may serve. They may leave churches and schools nominally independent while determining whether people may enter them.

Not every Democrat is a socialist, and not every government program is socialism. But a movement seeking to transfer more economic and personal decisions from individuals, families, businesses and communities to government is no longer operating only at the political margins. It is winning elections and attempting to reshape one of America's two major parties.

The Constitution was designed because the Founders understood that concentrated power, even when accumulated for supposedly benevolent purposes, threatens liberty. Separation of powers, federalism, property rights, religious freedom and due process are not outdated obstacles preventing government from helping people. They are protections against officials who are certain they know what is best for everyone else.

Liberty is more than the freedom to do what government experts recommend. It includes the right to operate a lawful business, educate one's children, worship, own property, question authority and accept reasonable risks without first obtaining government permission.

Socialism promises security through collective action and centralized direction. The pandemic revealed the other side of that bargain: A government that assumes responsibility for protecting every part of life will eventually claim the authority to control every part of life.

Today, candidates are again promising that greater government control will make life safer, fairer and more secure. Before accepting that promise, Americans should remember 2020.

They should remember who was permitted to work, which businesses were declared essential, whether children could enter their classrooms, whether congregations could enter their churches and whether families could visit their loved ones.

They should remember how private independence was replaced by government permission and public assistance.

Above all, they should remember the lesson of 2020: Government power surrendered during an emergency is easily expanded, rarely exercised with humility and never returned as quickly as promised. Liberty is safest when citizens refuse to surrender it in the first place.

Mark Gianniny is a real estate developer and property manager in Rochester, NY.

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/06/2026 - 16:20

Wednesday night’s Mariners game had a wild twist. Fans at T-Mobile Park celebrated local raccoon celebrity Jimothy at the M’s game against the Tigers — and those who purchased tickets with a special promotional offer were given Jimothy shirts. The first 20,000 fans at the game received Jimothy trading cards with his stats, including his...