Number 6. NBC News. Canada and Mexico tariffs will be delayed one month.
Last Saturday, President Trump signed yet another executive order (that would be maybe 20,000 of them now… just kidding), this one establishing a 25% tariff on all items entering the US from Canada and Mexico. It also called for a 10% tariff on Chinese goods.
The following Monday, both Trudeau (Canada) and Sheinbaum (Mexico) had placed telephone calls to Trump basically asking him, “Whaddaya want, Mr. President?”
One might be tempted to think that we have wrung our hands in anguish over unbridled immigration for several years without concrete movement, and here in the space of 2 days we suddenly have verbal international agreements in place.
Is it really this easy?
The prospect of such huge tariffs would substantially raise the price of goods for US consumers, which would be bad for us, and would virtually destroy the economies of both Mexico and Canada, which would be catastrophic for them.
What Trump wanted was to stop the inward flow of both immigrants and fentanyl. While Trump has essentially closed the US border to incoming immigration, he expressed the desire (requirement, order, demand) for Canada and Mexico to take similar steps on their sides of the border.
Within 48 hours of Trump’s initial announcement, the conversations had occurred and the US president had reduced his action from an order to a mere threat. Canada and Mexico have 30 days to comply with his demands, or face the imposition of the tariffs.
It is almost like we are seeing rational strategic negotiation rather than clumsy economic warfare.
Check back here in a month and we’ll see what’s up. While President Sheinbaum of Mexico promised to add 10,000 Mexican troops to her northern border to stop immigration and intercept fentanyl, it remains to be seen what effect that will have. I can understand stopping the immigrant, but finding the fentanyl might be a little more problematic. Will Trump hold to his tariff threat if the flow of fentanyl remains at current levels?
It is a possibility.
It is not easy finding current statistics on US fentanyl deaths. In 2022 and 2023 there were about 75,000 each year (roughly 3/4 of the total drug overdose deaths in this country). 2024 seems to show an increase of maybe 15%.
Whichever, it’s too many. That number is about 4X the number of traffic deaths and 2X the number of gun deaths (including both suicides and gang activity) in the US.
Number 5. Fox News. Funding pulled for condoms in Gaza.
Newly minted Secretary of State Marco Rubio froze a great deal of, but maybe not all of, foreign aid payments last weekend while he took stock of where exactly the money is going.
Turns out some big chunks of it are going to projects that would cause most of us to feel something akin to outrage.
Karoline Leavitt, that new White House Press Secretary, announced that $50 million had gone to Gaza to purchase condoms. Whether that is an annual figure or a one-time buy is not indicated in the article.
In a not-unrelated development, the Jerusalem Post reported that stretchy balloon-like objects had been inflated and floated north from Gaza over southern portions of Israel carrying incendiary explosives. Thousands of acres of Israeli agricultural land were set afire.
This is not exactly neighborly. But they may get points for creativity, and it’s even better when someone else pays for the balloons.
Now… was it really $50 million? Snopes, CNN, Aljazeera and Reuters all say the administration presented no evidence for the claim… which is not exactly the same thing as saying there is no evidence for the claim. Considering the leftward tilt of those alleged fact-checkers, I might be persuaded to think they doth protest too much.
Meanwhile, the Washington Free Beacon helpfully pointed out that US condom purchases for the Taliban in Afghanistan last year only amounted to a mere $15 million.
Okay. I feel much better now.
Number 4. Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice. Trends of prediabetes in US adolescents.
Okay, let’s move on to more domestic concerns. It’s still bad news, but at least it’s closer to home.
A year-old article in this journal studied 7,000 Americans each year, over a 20-year period. Between 1999 and 2020, they examined how susceptible adolescents of these ages were to diabetes.
Turns out, the condition of prediabetes started bad and got very much worse.
(What is prediabetes? Per the Mayo clinic, it means your blood sugar level is higher than normal. It is not yet diabetes but shows a high risk for developing Type 2 diabetes without substantial lifestyle changes. It all has to do with the pancreas and insulin levels, but basically revolves around how much soda pop and Snickers bars a teenager lives on.)
The study data is presented in 4-year increments. The group test that ended in 2002 (the first group) showed that 11% of them demonstrated prediabetes.
For the group in 2020, that figure was 36%, an increase of more than 3 times.
So, how does this compare with adolescent prediabetes in, say, 1980? We don’t know, because we didn’t measure it in 1980.
We did, however, measure actual adult diabetes. In 1980, Type 2 diabetes affected about 3% of the adult population. That means that a maximum of 3% of adolescents would have shown prediabetes in, say, 1970.
In the 50 years from 1970 to 2020, diabetes grew from an uncommon, though not exactly rare, condition to more than a third of the population diagnosed.
Extend the trendline. Without some serious evaluation and intervention, most Americans will be diabetic 20 years from now. Because diabetes is closely related to obesity, it is easy to observe American movement in that direction.
I strongly suspect it’s all in the food; mostly the additives. Somebody really needs to get control of this.
Number 3. R&D World. Paralyzed man flies virtual drone with thought control.
Be careful when you casually say, “What’ll they think of next?” It may really surprise you.
A 69-year-old man paralyzed from the neck down (due to a C4 spinal cord injury) has virtually no capability for independent movement beyond minor muscle twitching. Thanks to Stanford University’s BrainGate2 clinical program, he has now successfully piloted a drone through hoops in a basketball court.
The drone is virtual and the hoops are virtual, but the neurological pathways from his brain to his fingers are apparently quite real, and have allowed him to fly the machine on his own. His brain commands his fingers to move in ways that manage a control knob for the aircraft.
His fingers do not obey, because they cannot. But never mind that. Microelectrodes (whatever those are) were surgically implanted in his left precentral gyrus (whatever that is) and essentially replicated an artificial network of nerve endings to respond to the brain commands.
Arthur C. Clark famously said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
After some experimentation, the patient, formerly an accomplished aviator, learned to navigate the drone copter. He was eventually able to fly a pattern through 18 rings in 4 minutes.
Having myself been for a short time in an Intensive Care Unit without speech, mobility or the use of my hands, I can appreciate the vast sense of accomplishment this must have brought about.
Incredible! May his tribe increase!
Starlink, that intelligent Subaru system that lets you call for roadside assistance, plan your trips, unlock your doors and probably many other things hidden in the owner’s manual, is easily hacked. What a shock!
A pair of self-proclaimed white hat hackers — but who really knows; they are hackers, after all — discovered vulnerabilities in all late model Subarus by means of accessing the MySubaru app. Gaining access to the administrator control panel, they were able to reset an owner’s password without his knowledge. Once they discovered his email address, they could then bypass the rest of the built-in security.
Gaining data from the car required knowing the vehicle identification number, which was easily obtained by looking up public registration records based on the license tag number.
I just love a digital, interconnected society.
Once inside the administrative console, the white hats could read location data and determine where the car had been in the last year. They could also unlock the doors in real time.
Of course, there is still the matter of an ignition key and a transmission lock. But give it time. Because Jalopnik thoughtfully published this article (and here I am propagating it) I am confident other not-so-white-hat hackers are already on the job.
If Subaru has this vulnerability, what of Hyundai, Kia, or Toyota?
Number 1. The Akron Beacon Journal. 100-year-old predictions about 2025.
The writers’ staff at the Akron Beacon Journal, while the news cycle is suddenly supercharged by a new US presidential administration, apparently have nothing better to do than look up century-old newspaper clippings. But I can’t really blame them. Trying to keep up with the news is exhausting.
Thanks to the ABJ writers, we have these jewels from last century’s Roaring Twenties.
Here are predictions about 2025, made in 1925:
Aging. Sir Ronald Ross, 1902 recipient of the Nobel Prize in medicine: “Miraculous medicine will not stop. Perhaps we will all be immortal. No one can say how long we may live when we are free from the ravages of germs.”
(Actually, God can. “A man’s days shall be 120 years.” Genesis 6:3. “Our days may be 70-80 years, if our strength endures.” Psalm 90:10.)
Governments. H. G. Wells, author: “There will not be numerous nations, but only three great masses of people — the United States of America, the United States of Europe and China.”
(Almost. Actually there are 195 nations today.)
Global government. E. E. Fournier d’Albe, Irish physicist: “The earth will be under one government, and one language will be written and understood... Travel and commerce will be free and unfettered, and calamities and dangers met by the united forces of all mankind.”
(I guess he missed Genesis 11 and the Tower of Babel discussion. And the whole one-world-government, end-times Antichrist and Beast thing, Daniel 9 and Revelation 13.)
No more over-sleeping. Archibald M. Low, British scientist: “Signals will be sent out at frequent intervals [to radio alarm clocks] on different wavelengths, say, between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. every morning… to catch the signal at the desired time… Watches will be synchronized by signals sent several times daily...”
(Not so far off, really. But who needs an alarm clock at 10:00 AM??)
Communications. Dr. A.R. Wentz, seminary professor: “People would use a pocket-sized apparatus for communications to see and hear each other without being in the same room.”
(Dick Tracy would be proud.)
dicktracy.fandom.com The end of poverty. Sophie Irene Loeb, Child Welfare Committee: Juvenile poverty will be eliminated, then the next step will be to address adult poverty.
(Not quite. Jesus: “The poor you will always have with you.” Matthew 26:11.)
And this commentary on Automobiles: “Horse-drawn vehicles are fast disappearing from our streets, but jackass-driven automobiles will still be with us 100 years from now.”
Model T Ford
And thanks for joining The Alligator News Roundup for Friday, February 7, 2025. Try to keep up with new developments as the United States makes moves toward the Panama Canal, Canada and Greenland; Elon Musk’s DOGE dismantles USAID; Marco Rubio’s State Department stops foreign payments; Sean Duffy’s Dept of Transportation cleans out the FAA; Tom Homan’s Border Patrol arrests every newcomer who ever skipped a court appearance; and Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon recruits thousands of teenagers suddenly anxious to wear the uniform.
Maybe by the time you read this, RFK’s Health & Human Services will have outlawed the breakfast cereal aisle. You can have steak and eggs with your choice of oatmeal or grits (without sugar), and some fruit on the side.
Have a good week! Don’t forget to share!
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