My Email Problem Seems to That Thunderbird No Longer Works

 Outlook sends but I cannot get it to read from my IMAP server. There are days that I feel so stupid.

Web Host Service Recommendations?

 Hostrocket has no idea how to get my outgoing emails working. This is frustrating. I have been hosting my webpage and email with them a couple decades.

Projection As the Best Way to Understand Progressive Thought

 5/21/25 Columbia Journalism Review:

Wesley Lowery—the winner of a Pulitzer Prize and a George Polk Award, and whose work in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, chronicled the organizing power of Black Lives Matter—is, at thirty-four, one of the most recognized journalists in America. He has reported for the Washington Post and CBS News. He is the author of two books: They Can’t Kill Us All (2016), about unarmed Black men killed by police, and American Whitelash (2023), a history of violent white resistance to people of color. Among young reporters, he is perhaps best known for questioning traditional journalistic objectivity, noting its failures to reckon with racism.

But for some women in journalism, his standing is more complicated. Imani Moise, a Wall Street Journal reporter, remembers that when she met up with him at a bar, in December of 2018, for what she thought would be a professional conversation, he’d ordered her a cocktail before she arrived. Olivia Messer—a journalist who is now the editor in chief of the Barbed Wire, an independent outlet focused on Texas—recalled that, in January of 2020, at a happy hour with Lowery, he was ready with more alcohol every time she returned to the table. In the spring of 2022, after two drinks, a journalist with whom Lowery matched on Bumble said that she had reached her limit, and he entreated her to get a third. (This journalist spoke on the condition of anonymity, because even a first name would make her easily identifiable, and she feared how her family would react.) A writer and researcher noticed that, in February of 2024, when she and Lowery went to a bar, he had a drink waiting for her whenever she got up to use the bathroom. (This woman, too, did not want to be named, because of the toll she said the experience has taken on her mental health.) In each case, these women wound up leaving with Lowery, who they said then sexually assaulted  them.

"I Will Unleash Angry Kittens On You": No, Not an SNL or Monty Python Skit

2/20/26 TWZ:

A group of Block 52 F-16CJ Vipers belonging to the South Carolina Air National Guard was recently spotted heading east across the Atlantic as part of a huge build-up of U.S. forces ahead of potential strikes on Iran. Each of the Vipers was notably seen carrying an Angry Kitten pod, a new electronic warfare system that helps defend against anti-air threats, and that may now be headed for its first use in real combat. Angry Kitten also has a very unique genesis, which we will dive into in a moment. These particular F-16s are primarily tasked with the Wild Weasel mission and are optimized for neutralizing enemy air defenses, something that would be crucial in any future operation aimed at the regime in Tehran. They can fulfill many other types of missions, as well.

The 12 F-16CJs arrived at Lajes on the island of Terceira in the Azores, a Portuguese archipelago in the mid-Atlantic, on February 17 and left the next day. The Vipers are readily identifiable as ones assigned to the South Carolina Air National Guard’s 169th Fighter Wing by the “South Carolina” emblazoned on many of their tails, as well as distinctive markings reflecting the wing’s nickname, the “Swamp Foxes.” They were accompanied by at least one KC-46A Pegasus tanker. A substantial U.S. Air Force tanker force is now also forward-deployed in Lajes to support the ongoing build-up.

They Chose Poorly: I Hope They Do Better Next Time

2/21/26 Wall Street Journal:

 Months before Jesse Van Rootselaar became the suspect in the mass shooting that devastated a rural town in British Columbia, Canada, OpenAI considered alerting law enforcement about her interactions with its ChatGPT chatbot, the company said.

While using ChatGPT last June, Van Rootselaar described scenarios involving gun violence over the course of several days, according to people familiar with the matter.

Her posts, flagged by an automated review system, alarmed employees at OpenAI. Internally, about a dozen staffers debated whether to take action on Van Rootselaar’s posts. Some employees interpreted Van Rootselaar’s writings as an indication of potential real-world violence, and urged leaders to alert Canadian law enforcement about her behavior, the people familiar with the matter said. 

OpenAI leaders ultimately decided not to contact authorities.

A spokeswoman for OpenAI said the company banned Van Rootselaar’s account but determined that her activity didn’t meet the criteria for reporting to law enforcement, which would have required that it constituted a credible and imminent risk of serious physical harm to others.

I would not want the Department of Pre-Crime making decisions about gun rights, but certainly a mental evaluation could be justified. 

When NPR Reports It...

2/21/26 NPR:

Researchers analyzed health data on 460,000 teenagers in the Kaiser Permanente Health System in Northern California. The teens were followed until they were 25 years old. The data included annual screenings for substance use and any mental health diagnoses from the health records. Researchers excluded the adolescents who had symptoms of mental illnesses before using cannabis.

"We looked at kids using cannabis before they had any evidence of these psychiatric conditions and then followed them to understand if they were more likely or less likely to develop them," says Dr. Lynn Silver, a pediatrician and researcher at the Public Health Institute, and an author of the new study.

They found that the teens who reported using cannabis in the past year were at a higher risk of being diagnosed with several mental health conditions a few years later, compared to teens who didn't use cannabis.

Teens who reported using cannabis had twice the risk of developing two serious mental illnesses: bipolar, which manifests as alternating episodes of depression and mania, and psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia which involve a break with reality.

Now, only a small fraction — nearly 4,000 — of all teens in the study were diagnosed with each of these two disorders. Both bipolar and psychotic disorders are among the most serious and disabling of mental illnesses....

Silver points out these illnesses are expensive to treat and come at a high cost to society. The U.S. cannabis market is an industry with a value in the tens-of-billions — but the societal cost of schizophrenia has been calculated to be $350 billion a year. 

The Christchurch study also controlled for prodomal symptoms of mental illness (was this person showing signs that this was there first?) as well. While only "a small fraction" became mentally ill, these illnesses, especially schizophrenia, are terribly destructive to a society, along with the afflicted individuals. Hence, George Soros' funding of legalizing marijuana.

I Have Been Sending Emails From firstname @ firstnamelastname.com Which Do Not Seem to be Arriving

 If I have been unresponsive to an email, this is why.