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Since 1994, this is the 1648th issue of Randy Cassingham’s...
| 11 January 2026: Deep Trouble | Copyright ©2026 https://thisistrue.com |
True’s Web Sites Were Down as I was putting this issue together: a power outage at the data center. It came back after a couple of hours, so if you tried to visit and got no reply, that is why.
Other Good Reading: A fascinating article that delves into why A.I. is so often wrong: LLMs have a hard time understanding the difference between facts and beliefs, which affects how it comes up with answers even when multiple models collaborate. To go well with the Utah story in this issue (the timing is coincidental), this has particularly troubling implications in medical scenarios. AI’s WrongAnswers Are Bad. Its Wrong Reasoning Is Worse in IEEE Spectrum.
(As always you’re welcome to copy out that paragraph and forward/post it as desired; credit True if you care to — not required.)
Educational Malpractice: Multiple girls at Sixth Ward Middle School in Thibodaux, La., “begged” their school counselor — and when that failed, then the school’s deputy sheriff — for help: boys were using A.I. to create photos of them without clothes — and posting them online. Because the photos were posted to Snapchat, where they were quickly auto-deleted, school officials couldn’t find them, and Principal Danielle Coriell didn’t even believe such images were being posted because “Kidslie a lot.” For months they still circulated around the school, and the “teasing was relentless.” Finally, one of the victims — a 13-year-old eighth grader — saw boys showing a picture of her around on the school bus. “That’s when I got angry,” the unnamed girl said — at her discipline hearing. Yep, for “attacking” one of the boys, she was expelled and sent to an “alternative” school. The boy has not been disciplined — and the principal refused to comment on that. The Lafourche Parish Sheriff’sOffice was able to recover some of the images, proving the girls were telling the truth. Two boys are charged with crimes, and not the girl. The girl’s parents hired several attorneys to fight the school. (RC/AP) ...Since obviously, the school won’t fight for her.
Wish She Could Be Part of That World: Cops have to deal with a trespassing ...mermaid?! [Premium Only]
What Could Go Wrong? Here come the A.I. doctors, and you won’t believe what one state is already allowing. [Premium Only]
Ratted Off: Police claimed almost 200 kg of marijuana had been seized from an alleged drug trafficker on a highway in eastern India. The highway was a busy one, the court noted, and yet no independent bystanders were summoned to testify. Police witnesses did testify, but they contradicted each other on details such as the precise location of the bust. As for the vehicle from which the drugs were supposedly seized, the court observed, “No other paper of the vehicle has been broughtbefore the court which could show that the vehicle was in any way associated with the accused.” And the marijuana itself? Destroyed by rats, police testified. The principal accused was acquitted. (AC/London Independent) ...No marijuana in no car in no particular place seen by no one is no crime.
Unscheduled Layover: Illegal dumpers caught in a most amusing way. [Premium Only]
McMystery Meat: McDonald’s isfighting a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. According to the lawyers who filed on behalf of the four plaintiffs, “Despite its name and distinctive shape — its meat patty has been deliberately crafted to resemble a rack of pork ribs — the McRib does not contain any actual pork rib meat at all.” Instead, the suit claims, McDonald’s uses lower-grade parts, like “pork shoulder, heart, tripe, and scalded stomach” in the patties. The suit asks forMcDonald’s to be ordered “to desist from further deceptive naming, marketing and advertising practices with respect to the McRib.” The chain claims it isn’t being deceptive. “Our fan-favorite McRib sandwich is made with 100% pork sourced from farmers and suppliers across the U.S.,” they said in a statement. “We’ve always been transparent about our ingredients so guests can make the right choice for them.” (MS/USA Today) ...So, no rib.
Week 3 of No Ads: It takes ~5 upgrades (or equivalent contributions) to replace an ad, and there were 11(!) carried over from last week. Since then, pretty good support with 1 new upgrade plus 2 returning members. So: no ad this week, or next. Only you can keep that going indefinitely. Upgrade here and thanks much.
It’s the Law: Florida law wasn’t strong enough, so now Floridians can spend up to two months in jail for.... [Premium Only]
What Was He Trying to Do? Whatever it was, he screwed up royally. [Premium Only]
’Stangs for the Memory: “Buyer’s Remorse” the California Highway Patrol in Modesto suggested aftera traffic stop. “The Mustang was caught on radar at 139 MPH [224 kph] as its driver recklessly passed other motorists,” the CHP said. The driver on Highway 99 wasn’t merely ticketed, he was arrested — and his car impounded. That probably stung: the red Mustang was not merely brand new, but Leonardo Gonzalez, 20, had driven it off the lot only an hour before. (RC/Modesto Bee) ...And remember: car payments continue even if you never get it back.
Not Playing Around: A misrouted package returns with a letter from the U.S. Navy. [Premium Only]
Mauled: Shopping malls have enough financial difficulties that to do this is a great example of obliviocy. [Premium Only]
Down Under: Diver finds a sunken treasure, but it turned out to not be gold or jewels. [Premium Only]
Made for Walkin’: A ship’s cargo washes ashore, but there is a significant time warp involved. [Premium Only]
Resulting Police Report Was 27 Pages
Sex Toy Shoplifter Threatened Man with Leg of Lamb Before Swiping Money Box from Bus
Waikato (New Zealand) Times headline
Did You Find an Error? Check the Errata Page for updates.
This Week’s Contributors: MS-Mike Straw, AC-Alexander Cohen, RC-Randy Cassingham.
Stories This Week were Written/Edited in Rangiroa, another atoll in French Polynesia. (Photo by an unnamed Space Shuttle astronaut on mission STS-51-I in 1985. Why doesit have a thin white outline, more visible when you click on it to see larger? That’s beach sand!)
I’ve Put The Schoolgirl Story in My Blog. I’m guessing some of you will want to comment about the 13-year-old girl being abused by her schoolmates, and the utter outrage of her being disciplined — but not the boys.
This stuff makes me so angry, as I presume you can tell from the story itself. The story, and extensive additional commentary, including just how much legal trouble the boys are in, are in my blog: Deepfake Education.
March 5, 2023: That’s when the minimum price for Premium went to $40/year. The “pay what you want” (with a minimum) was introduced in June 2021: hard to believe that’s coming up on 5 years already!
For many years I’ve been looking for expenses to cut; the “big” one more recently was switching out True’s web server from “managed” (backed up by an experienced sysadmin on the other end of a support ticket) to “unmanaged” (I’m now the sysadmin, mostly now backed up by an A.I. bot, which has helped me fix some perplexing little issues). This not only saves a bundle, it allows True to afford a much more powerful machine, improving site speed and stability.
Plus, problems get fixed much faster!
So there’s nothing left to cut, and in fact around the time I upgraded the server I also gave contributing writers Mike and Alexander a 25 percent raise: they’re impacted by inflation too, which marches merrily on.
But in general, costs are up, including an increase in the server charges, so I’ll be increasing the minimum to $44, with semi-annual and quarterly autorenewals being slightly higher because of the extra trouble (and more fees taken off the top).
I’m Not (Not!) Raising what current autorenewals are set to, and nearly 70 percent of Premium subscribers use the autorenewal option. If I do decide I need to kick them up later, I’ll give plenty of warning. But for new upgrades and manual renewals, the set minimum will go up on March 5.
The question remains, what should I do about the $52 “suggested” price? A survey is running for Premium subscribers to weigh in, and while there is a very clear trend, I will wait for the final tally on Monday.
Randolph in Canada must’ve received quite the shock when he went to skim through the news and wasconfronted with a large photo of me and Kit looking back at him. We were featured in the Sunday Times of London this weekend, though it came out online a few days before that.
It’s about life aboard ship, of course: it was written by the paper’s very pleasant Senior Money Reporter, Megan Harwood-Baynes, so I knew how to give her the quotes she needed for her beat, such as “‘I’m not coming off this ship alive,’ said Randy Cassingham.” She continued that “Several digital nomads work on the ship, including Randy, who runs a news commentary website that helps to cover the couple’s monthly costs. He has a pension, but has not needed to spend it yet.”
It’s a bit eye-rolling that the Times, unlike most large newspapers, just won’t link out to a source’s web site so interested readers can find them. At least one reader was intrigued enough that he searched and found the True site and subscribed. How many more would have checked it out if there was a link? Lots. And that’s after I helped her find several other Residents to interview.
The quotes continued, wrapped around a second photo of us: “Living here is not truly a huge expense. It almost certainly costs less to live here than a flat in London,” he said. “We don’t have a car to pay for. We don’t have a mortgage, property taxes, maintenance, or insurance. We don’t have to shop for groceries. No bills for utilities or internet. We have a predictable monthly expense to be here, another for health insurance, and toiletries and my phone. A little bit if we choose to go onside trips in the countries we go to. So many other expenses are simply gone.”
I’m more generous than the Times’ editor: to read it, please try first at their site, so it gets clicks to show interest: London Times. If you’re paywalled out, I found it is also available through a free archive.
I’ll also be more generous than U.K.’s LADbible, which rewrote the Times’ story to feature only Kit and me (no crime there), yet not only also didn’t link to True (rude), but took the time to find our Residential Cruising site to steal a copyrighted photo from there to illustrate it, which is a crime under U.K. law, according to my contact at the Times. They should know better, as well as (as anonline site) providing links. What’s worse? They clipped a tiny bit of a photo of us on CBS News, and labeled that as the credited “featured image” rather than the giant photo of us at the top of the page. When I complained, they removed my photo and put up a pic of a generic cruise ship to replace it. Despite those egregious lapses, I know some of you want to see it anyway, and the right thing to do is provide the link:Couple sold all possessions to live on cruise full time because ‘it’s cheaper than London’.
That’s how it’s done, LADjerks!
All of this is written up on my Residential Cruising site, including more about the LADs, and why I complained to them.
The Ask Me Anything video series is on hiatus.
Ten Years Ago in True: Safety First.
This Week’s Story of the Week (you’re welcome to share it), about the Mustang driver, is posted on Telegram, Mastodon, BlueSky, Instagram, Threads, and/or Facebook, or grab from any of those to post elsewhere.
This Week’s Sunday Reading: A little ‘incident’ when I met another early Internet content pioneer reflects how I approach life’s little bobbles. A short blog entry from 1998. Virtual Friends.
No Time for the Honorary Unsubscribe this week: I decided my time was better spent on my blog post.
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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 forwardingby email to friends is allowed if 1) the text is forwarded in its entirety from the “Since 1994” line on topthrough the end of this paragraph and 2) No fee is charged. I request that you forward no more than three copies to any oneperson — after that, they should get their own free subscription. I appreciate people who report violations of my copyright.
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