ANOTHER MASS SHOOTING

Hate to on this Sunday feature killings, but the USA had another mass shooting yesterday, in Birmingham, Alabama.

Four were killed and more than 20 injured.

Authorities are not sure who or how many were responsible.
No suspects yet.
You can be pardoned for not even knowing this happened, for something similar occurs all the time.
There have been more than 400 mass shootings in the U.S. this year.
The FBI defines mass shooting as an event in which one or more individuals are actively engaged in killing or attempting kill people in a populated area. Implicit is the use of firearm. Usually needs to have at last three deaths.

ONE THIRD of all the world's public mass shootings between 1966 and 2012 occurred in the U.S. Size of circle indicates relative number of shootings.
Not sure why that period ended more than twelve years ago, but that was from Wikipedia, and until 2012 there have been 4,011 mass shootings in the U.S.
Highest rate in Washington, DC, followed by Louisiana.
Perpetrator demographics vary by type of mass shooting, though in almost all cases they are male. Contributing factors include easy access to guns, perpetrator suicidality and early childhood trauma, as well as various sociocultural factors including online media reporting of mass shootings. In one study, 44% of mass shooters had leaked their plans prior to committing the act.
There was a period when mass shooting deaths remained lower, from 1994 to 2004 during the period of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban.

Do we need better gun control?

Who are to blame? National Rifle Association, Republican Party, second amendment to the Constitution,...the list goes on and on.
Should this be a presidential campaign issue of importance? Only in tenth place at a 4% concern level.

Here are the facts and trends.

One-third of U.S. adults say they personally own a gun. Including Kamala Harris. But the breakdown is 45% Republicans and 20% Democrats.
Donald Trump owns two hand guns, but now as a convicted criminal, might have them taken away.
I was expert with an M1 rifle (that was a long time ago), .45 caliber pistol and machine gun when was in the U.S. Army, but have never owned one.
The U.S. surgeon general has declared gun violence to be a public health crisis.
Of those who do, 72% own one for personal protection.
58% of adults favor stricter gun laws.

Another Taylor Swift sighting.

Yesterday I featured From Russia with Lev. MSNBC again replays this 1 hour 32 minute documentary tonight at 9PM EDT. Don't confuse this with the 1963 James Bond From Russia With Love, which got 97/84 scores from Rotten Tomatoes, which you can stream. Title song was sung by Matt Monro.

Yesterday, I also said that my Apple 16 Pro iPhone arrived in the mail. My first photo, which is a view of downtown Honolulu and the Pacific Ocean from my seat at my iMac.

It is a beautiful day.

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These a...

OSAKA EXPO: Day One

Well, the day finally came for us to go to the Osaka Expo. We were told ahead of time that the long walks would be fearful, giant lines will need to be tolerated just to get into the Expo, with those ocean breezes, it would really be cold, and so forth. Maybe it was pure luck, but we avoided all the above warnings We had a grand day, and are looking forward to Sunday, our second day at the Expo. So come along for an enjoyable ride. Our hotel is adjacent to the Tennoji Station, a very large one with several lines. We upgraded our Suica card and caught the Misosuji red line towards Umeda. Transferred to the Chuo green line at the Hommachi Station. This Osaka Metro train took us to the Yumeshima Station at the Expo site. It was a very large mob leaving the train and heading to the entrance. Took only a few minutes to get to the entrance. This mob was multiplied by at least a factor of ten of those already waiting to enter. However...

WHY YOU SHOULD CONVERT TO A JAPANESE HIGH TECH TOILET

Did you know that Oktoberfest in Germany is mostly in September? The very first day of Oktoberfest 2021 was supposed to be today, September 18, extending into October 3. Well, as in 2020, Oktoberfest was cancelled. So why is it called by that month when it is held mostly in September? The first celebration in 1810 was in October. Did you also know that Oktoberfest is held only in Munich? These days seven million drink more than a liter ( about three typical cans ) of beer each, costing around $11. Except for my wife and I when we followed the crowd to board the S-Bahn to the fairgrounds near Old Town. It was drizzling a bit. We bought a large pretzel outside of a typical barn where beer is served. We did not know that you needed to get this inside the hall. So no one came to serve us beer. After a while we decided to have lunch, and the restaurant we settled on only served wine. Thus, we might have been the ...

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