I get a bit into bitcoin today to reflect how volatile it can be. Yesterday,  President Donald Trump threatened new 100% tariffs on China. The  U.S. stock market tumbled , with the Dow Jones Industrial dropping 879 points, or 1.9%.  The broader S&P dropped 2.71%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slid 3.56%. Gold rose 1.5%.   Read my posting of yesterday on how just this commodity could trigger a collapse of the USA and World . In particular,  cryptocurrencies Bitcoin ( almost a 10% decline ), Ether ( 14.2% ) and Solana ( 20% ) led the sinking , bringing total liquidations to $14.28 billion, the largest in crypto history.  One of Trump's executive order to allow digital assets to be included in 401(k) plans led to  Bitcoin  soaring to a record high of $124,000 last week.   When to capitalize (b)itcoin?  When referring to the protocol, technology or network.  But lowercase bitcoin is used as a unit of currency....

Yesterday, I posted on  CAN YOU CHAT WITH AN AI GOD ?       That seems somewhat frivolous in the world of Artificial Intelligence when there are more serious existential threats. Ongoing is a race for  Artificial General Intelligence  ( AGI ) that is beginning to impact on the geopolitical world as  First Strike  and the resultant  Nuclear Winter  did during the late Cold War in the mid-1980s. It is debatable whether AGI has attained an operable state, but countries and companies are taking this quite seriously, as a prelude to ASI, or Artificial Super Intelligence, when machines surpass human capabilities on cognitive tasks, when we are outperformed across every domain by a wide margin. When?   The timing of AGI ranges from very soon to the late 2020s to mid century to never. The uncomfortable fear is that AGI represents an existential risk. AI has already surpassed humans on a variety of language, understanding and visual ben...

Donald Trump signed his Big, Beautiful Bill on July 4.  Here are some details. Wikipedia  calls it the  One Big Beautiful Bill Act.   For purposes of this posting, I'll call it BBB. Has several hundred provisions. Permanently extends the individual tax rates Trump signed into law in 2017, which were set to expire at the end of 2025. Raises the cap on the state and local tax deductions to $40,000 for taxpayers making less than $500,00/year, but will drop to $10,000 after five years. Temporary tax deductions for tips, and overtime pay. Allows car buyers to deduct up to $10,000/year in auto loan interest for cars assembled in the U.S. and purchased between 2025 and 2028. Creates something called Trump Accounts, allowing parents to create tax-deferred accounts for the benefit of their children, which will expire in 2028.  In short, the U.S. government deposits $1000/birth of a child born between 2025 and 2028.  Then parents may contibute up to $5,000/year, with...

Before I get into baseball, a further look at the fractious Epstein matter.   First some history : March 2005:  Police in Palm Beach Florida begin investigating Jeffrey Epstein after the family of a 14-year old girl reported she was molested at this mansion. He bought the place in 1990. Two miles south is Mar-a-Lago, which Donald Trump has owned since 1985. Epstein's home was razed  soon after it was sold in 2019. May 2006:  Palm Beach police charge Epstein with multiple counts of unlawful sex with a minor. June 2006:  Clearly, Epstein influenced State Attorney Barry Krischer, who sent the case to a grand jury that heard from only one accuser, so the only judgement was to charge Epstein with one count of solicitation of prostitution. July 2006:  FBI becomes suspicious and opens investigations into Epstein's activities not only in Florida, but also New York and elsewhere. 2007:  Federal prosecutors prepare an indictment against Epstein. June 2008:...