Today is Friday, June 20, 2025.
It is the 171st day of the year.
194 days remain.
WHAT’S ON TAP
NOTABLE & NOTEWORTHY: Some clarity on the short-term future on America’s role in the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict.
Another ruling in the “It Ends With Us” legal dispute and lots from the World of Football in SHOWBIZ.
“Jaws” star reveals which co-star she had a major crush on. Details in CASTING CALL.
PRINCE WILLIAM and an Aussie actress team up in ROYALS.
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An MIT research team has developed the first-ever brain scan study of people who outsource their thinking and writing to ChatGPT – and it’s grim.
– When tasked with writing an essay, 83.3% of people who used the chatbot to generate their response couldn’t quote anything that the program produced. They didn’t even read it or recognize the output they submitted. They just let the algorithm do all the work and trusted it completely.
– Participants who relied on ChatGPT were then prompted to write an essay without any help. Their results were worse than those who never used A.I. in the first place, as judged by English professors.
– Using ChatGPT led to completing writing tasks 60% faster than non-users, but those who used A.I. saw a 32% reduction in “germane cognitive load” – the brain’s process for understanding and maintaining new information. Put another way, the ChatGPT-reliant users were just one-third dumber. [via Alex Vacca]
MEANWHILE: In an address earlier this week, POPE “Father Bob” LEO XIV said to cardinals in the Vatican that artificial intelligence poses “challenges to human dignity, justice, and labor.”
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For the last two years, trail cams posted around Montmorency County, Michigan, in the northern part of the state, spotted a bear cub wandering around with a large plastic lid stuck around its neck, the kind that would cap a 55-gallon drum.
Such drums are often used to bait bears, which is legal in Michigan, though any holes must be smaller than 1” across.
DNR officials have attempted to approach the bear to remove it in recent months, but the cub always proved evasive – until now.
Late last month, the cub was spotted again, and the property owner alerted Michigan’s DNR, which successfully trapped and contained the cub, sedated it, and finally cut off the lid. Fortunately, an analysis showed the cub maintained a healthy weight and good health, except for scarring and abrasions on its neck.
A DNR official reminds hunters, “Container openings of a certain size can result in bears and other wildlife getting their heads or other body parts stuck in them, leading to injury or death. It’s important to remember that the opening diameter is more important than the size of the container.” [via WXYZ]
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Working remote and looking for a change of scenery? Paducah, Kentucky, wants you!
If you currently live at least 100 miles away, have a full-time job for a company that has no local office, and commit to living there for a year after their relocation program ends, you’re in luck.
Once approved, the city will reimburse moving expenses, waive your payroll taxes for a year, give you $70 a month to put toward internet, and gift over $1,000 worth of memberships to local museums and attractions.
Spots are limited, though: the city’s only set aside $100,000 for the initiative geared toward attracting new residents. [via New York Post]
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Spain’s anti-tourism bent continues, with a court upholding tight regulations that block nearly 66,000 AirBNB listings in the country.
AirBNB filed the suit last month after the government ordered the company to shut down 65,935 listings for various violations. Spain’s government requires hosts to get a license and specify whether the property is owned personally or through a company; the government contends the shuttered listings violate these terms, or posted incorrect data.
The European nation’s government has taken increasing action to curb the inflows of tourism after Spain registered 94 MILLION visitors from abroad in 2024 and is on track to exceed that number this year. As much as Spain’s economy thrives from tourism, its Consumer Rights minister says the government’s priority must be the “constitutional rights of the Spanish people.” [via AP News]
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DON’T TOUCH THE MANATEES: The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office wants Florida beachgoers to know that if they come across a clump of manatees gathered together just off the shore, they should not approach.
“If you see this … no, you didn’t” the sheriff’s office captioned a clip of the gathering on Instagram. “Don’t call us. They are more than fine. It’s mating season.”
They also reminded people that manatees are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 and the Endangered Species Act of 1973, which make it “illegal to harass, hunt, capture or kill any marine mammal.” Violations are punishable by up to $50,000 and/or one year in prison. [via @pinellasheriff]
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