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Since 1994, this is the 1688th issue of Randy Cassingham’s...
| 18 October 2026: Craig is Innocent | Copyright ©2026 https://thisistrue.com |
Other Good Reading: This one’s oldish, but not circulated much outside journalism circles. The popular thought is that by starting CraigsList in 1995, Craig Newmark destroyed the newspaper business by making classified ads free (not to mention much more effective). The interesting thing isn’t that this is a myth, but rather who published a fairly in-depth article disproving the contention: the Poynter Institute, a non-profit journalism schooland news industry research institute. Did Craigslist decimate newspapers? Legend meets reality. from July 2025. It includes details on what Craig’s doing now: giving his money away. (Full disclosure: Craig is an old friend of mine. I’m sure I’m on a list somewhere.)
(As always you’re welcome to copy out that paragraph and forward/post it as desired; credit True if you care to — not required.)
Revenge Tactic: Police department takes the low road, and triumphantly announces they have the high road. [Premium Only]
Surprising No Real Women, Anywhere: Researchers at the University of Limerick, Ireland, published a study with workers in a virtual office. The test subjects were told to complete tasks with the aid of four A.I. agents: a text-based chatbot, a desk robot, and two human-like assistants named Johan and Johanna. They were then asked to rate the agents’ work, and to allocate real money to each agent for their work. Participants consistently rated Johan and Johanna higher than the chatbotor robot, and paid the human-like agents more. “Having Johanna next to me made me more prone to credit her more again because I felt there was a person, a colleague sitting next to me that I had a conversation with and that was giving me her own input,” one participant said. The difference in ranked ability between Johan and Johanna is statistically insignificant, but the subjects paid Johan, the male agent, 10 percent more on average than Johanna, the female agent. (MS/Euronews) ...They’reactually doing better than real humans.
Just Like Real Men: Cologne, Germany, police are investigating an alleged harassment incidentafter a 16-year-old girl was inappropriately touched. The suspect: a 120-centimeter (3 foot, 11 inch) tall robot. An Internet video shows two males, aged 16 and 19, accompanying the robot near a fast-food restaurant when it made the contact, then made thrusting movements toward the alleged victim. Police responded and found the robot in a vehicle’s trunk. Police shared an image of the red and gold bot, sporting a fake mustache and wearing a large gold chain. The teens haven’t been charged, butare considered suspects while investigators decide if the robot’s actions were preprogrammed, or happened in real time. “We have not been aware of this phenomenon so far,” police spokesman Christoph Bermel said, adding that it’s “new territory for us.” (MS/AP) ...It’s exactly as funny when a robot does it as when a human does.
Who Needs a Back Door? The bone-headed security screwup of the month, and of course innocent civilians are the biggest victims. [Premium Only]
Votes Matter: Finally, someone admits they threw an election. Just not who you might think. [Premium Only]
I Have to Get This Issue Ready Early because we are again sailing into “no satellite Internet” territory (political, not technical, issue). We are thinking of getting a hotel room when we get there — that would help, but would be too late for this to be on time. Still, even by Wednesday as I am setting this up, there was enough support (5 upgrades/returning members, or equivalent contributions) that there is no need to resort toan ad. Thanks much for making that happen! Upgrade here if you can to keep this free edition ad-free, and to get all the stories every week. Thanks!
Nigh, Again: The surprising results from some old research. [Premium Only]
Casting Call of Horrors: School district stuck between two federal laws, so how to decide? Target the young girl, of course! [Premium Only]
Captain’s Log: Researchers from the Archaeological Legacy Institute and Purdue University headed to Nikumaroro, a coral atoll in thePhoenix Islands of Kiribati to check out the “Taraia Object”, a submerged airplane-shaped object spotted by a satellite in 2020 which they think is wreckage of Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10-E airplane. Earhart has been missing since 1937 while attempting an around-the-world flight. The $900,000 mission is daunting in part because the island is inhabited by coconut crabs, which have a 1m (3 ft) leg span, eat mammals and birds, and can lift up to 28kg (62 lbs); it is thought that the crabsate Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan. Other researchers say the object in the water is probably a tree; ALI released a photo showing a long skinny “fuselage” and “wings”, which don’t at all resemble the stout outline of the Electra. “Finding Amelia Earhart’s Electra aircraft would be the discovery of a lifetime,” said expedition leader Richard Pettigrew. (RC/BBC, Reuters) ...And spending $900,000 to find a tree would be the boondoggle of a career.
Here Lies Spanky, and Skippy, and Stinky: No really: the slug makes sense once you read the story, but this process every week makes me tear the guts out of every issue (sigh!) Really: you miss a lot without an upgrade. 🙁 [Premium Only]
Hot Couture: It took around 65 firefighters to get a house fire under control in Germantown, Md., which started under an elevatedrear deck. The roof collapsed shortly after firefighters arrived since the fire had spread directly to the attic, not giving installed fire sprinklers a chance to do their work. Firefighters’ work was also complicated by the lack of fire hydrants in the area. The Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service estimated the loss was $1.6 million for the structure, not counting its contents — around $8 million worth of designer clothing, and $3 million worth of boots. The agency noted the home was arental. (RC/WDCW Washington DC) ...Good god! No hats?!
A Heavy Fine: When a small government chooses to victimize a smaller government. [Premium Only]
No No No, It’s Pronounced ‘BISS-ter’: I also hated tearing this story out, based on British dry wit over a language screw-up. [Premium Only]
Policing is a Dirty Job
Wanted Felon Captured with Hidden Handcuff Key in Underwear
WOFL Orlando (Fla.) headline
Did You Find an Error? Check the Errata Page for updates.
This Week’s Contributors: MS-Mike Straw, RC-Randy Cassingham.
Stories This Week were Written/Edited in Pattaya (“pa-ta-yah”), Thailand, home of the Sanctuary of Truth, a very large and still-under-construction wooden sanctuary being built without nails. Kit hired a driver to go see it when I was in the hospital; I haven’t had the energy to go myself.
About Mike’s Story about the human-acting male A.I. agent being “paid” 10 percent more than the human-acting female A.I. agent, he said in the tagline that “They’re actually doing better than real humans.” He based that on a fairly recent (March 2025) Pew Research study that the gender pay gap in the U.S. had narrowed a bit: to “only” 15 percent average for allage groups.
Rebecca in North Carolina added this to her upgrade order: “I pay a small monthly subscription fee for a wonderful meditation app which has seen me through some tough times over the years. It occurred to me that humor and incredulity have also been a big part of my life philosophy of ‘practical whimsy,’ and having been a Free subscriber for many, many years (possibly nearing decades now), the incongruity of not upgrading hit me this morning asI was keyed up about tasks on today’s agenda, and noticed I was much calmer — and smiling — after reading the Free edition from a couple days ago. If I can pay for a meditation app, I can certainly support the other half of my psychological well-being medicine cabinet and do my part to make sure others continue to have access to this wonderful newsletter as well. Thank you, Randy. I should have done this years ago, but here I am now. Take my money. Please. :)”
That was in 2021. She’s still reading, and obviously still very psychologically healthy. 🙂
Gary in Maryland upgraded this week with the comment, “The weekly dose of sanity is worth it.” He set his subscription amount to be $75, explaining, “The extra $15 is for your wife who I’m sure deserves a cut of the action.” Now that’s funny! She is in fact on the payroll since she’s a good editor who helps reduce my error rate.
Story Update: Remember* the guy exposing himself inside a TJ Maxx store, and multiple witnesses got photos and videos of him to help police? (Issue #1680, 23 August.) He was identified, and managed to escape a jail sentence. The story and update: Multigenerational. Thanks much to a couple of readers who sent update links.
*You won’t unless you were on Premium that week, since it didn’t make it into the free edition. Now is your chance to read it. 🙂
Ten Years Ago in True: Here’s to Him Getting What He Deserves (and he did!)
This Week’s Story of the Week, about the expensive house fire, is available to share from Telegram, Mastodon, Instagram, Bluesky, Threads, and/or Facebook, or grab from any of those to post elsewhere.
This Week’s Sunday Reading: What happens in a country that has NO “Good Samaritan” laws? It’s not pretty. In my blog from 2011. Honorary Unsubscribe: Yueyue.
The Honorary Unsubscribe is still on hold while I recover from my cancer treatment. While it seems even to me that this has been going on for a long time, the calendar says my last treatment was only a bit more than two weeks ago. Time both flies and crawls.
- This Week’s “Interesting in the H.U. Archive”: Durward Kirby, a TV sidekick who may be more remembered than the stars. From 12 March 2000.
- Honorary Unsubscribe Archive.
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Copyright ©2026 by Randy Cassingham, All Rights Reserved. All broadcast, publication, retransmission to email lists, web site or social media posting, or any other copying or storage, in any medium, online or not, is strictly prohibited without prior written permission from the author. Manual forwarding by email to friends is allowed if 1) the text is forwarded in its entirety from the “Since 1994” line on top through the end of this paragraph and 2) No fee is charged. I request that you forward no more than three copies to any one person — after that, they should get their own free subscription. I appreciate people who report violations of my copyright.
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