Tuesday, October 15
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> New York Liberty defeats Minnesota Lynx 80-66 to even up WNBA Finals series 1-1 (More) | Kenya's Ruth Chepngetich becomes first woman to run marathon in under 2 hours and 10 minutes, winning 2024 Chicago Marathon (More)
> Kanye West accused of drugging and sexually assaulting ex-assistant as part of a wrongful termination lawsuit (More)
> Army and Navy both ranked in college football AP Top 25 poll for first time since 1960 (More) | MLB League Championship Series is underway; see preview of National and American League matchups (More)
Science & Technology
> Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences to be awarded this morning at 5:45 am ET; see selection here (More) | See previous write-up on Friday's Peace Prize, awarded to anti-nuclear weapon advocates (More)
> Scientists observe "real-time" evolution in generations of marine snails over three decades; organisms were introduced to a handful of Swedish islands in 1992 following a devastating algae bloom (More) | What is convergent evolution? (More)
> DNA analysis of hair found in teeth of the Tsavo man-eating lions reveals prey included giraffe, human, oryx, waterbuck, wildebeest, and zebra; the two lions infamously killed at least 35 construction workers in Kenya in the late 1800s (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close higher Friday (S&P 500 +0.6%, Dow +1.0%, Nasdaq +0.3%) amid third-quarter earnings season (More)
> Boeing lays off 17,000 employees—10% of its workforce—amid ongoing production workers' strike; company will also delay development of 777X aircraft, halt production on future 767 orders (More)
> Jeep and Chrysler parent company, Stellantis, announces CEO will retire in early 2026 at the end of his contract amid broader management shake-up; announcement comes amid stagnating US sales, with shares down around 40% this year (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> President Joe Biden announces $612M in federal assistance to regions affected by Hurricanes Milton and Helene; funding—via six Department of Energy projects—includes efforts to build electric grid resilience (More)
> Sudan's army conducts airstrikes on a market in southern Khartoum, killing at least 23 people and wounding over 40 others (More) | See previous write-up (More)
> Lithuania's center-left Social Democrats lead in yesterday's parliamentary elections, will attempt to form coalition (More, free w/email)
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
Witchcraft and Faith
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The Bell Witch
This is a well-documented American ghost story about a family in Robertson County, Tennessee who were haunted by an invisible, shapeshifting entity from 1817 to 1821. The Bell Witch was said to be able to speak, affect the environment, and move with superhuman speed. The Bell Witch Cave and the Bell Family Farm are located near Adams, Tennessee, and are considered to be one of the most haunted places in the United States.
Now...
do you believe in witches or witchcraft?
Witchcraft is the practice of using magic or supernatural powers to harm others, or to communicate with demons or evil spirits. It can also refer to a religion or tradition that involves these practices.I find it interesting that witchcraft can be seen as a religion... because when one thinks of religion one thinks of Christianity or Islam or Buddhism. And what is interesting about Christianity is that there are six main groups:
The Church of the East
Oriental Orthodoxy
Eastern Orthodoxy
Roman Catholicism
Protestantism
Restoration
Oriental Orthodoxy
Eastern Orthodoxy
Roman Catholicism
Protestantism
Restoration
But we don't stop there.
Protestantism is broken down into the following groups
In short there are TWENTY-FOUR (24) different variations of Protestant Christianity.
I was raised a United Methodist which is different from a regular Methodist but not counted in the above list... and, when I moved from NC to TN, I came into contact with the BAPTISTS and SOUTHERN BAPTISTS (also not in the list above) and their main doctrine is if you are not a Baptist then you are practicing FALSE CHRISTIANITY...
Southern Baptists do not believe in WITCHCRAFT or WITCHES and have ordered their congregations not to watch HARRY POTTER, at least the church I attended did.
HOWEVER...
witchcraft is part of our heritage and was quite a big deal in SALEM.
But my question is this:
HOW OPEN ARE YOUR BELIEFS???
Our Universe's Beginning
One of the biggest and also the toughest questions in modern astronomy is the origins of the universe. How did it come into existence? How did it evolve into what we know today? Though there’s still a lot that scientists don’t know, they do have a general idea of how energy, matter, stars, and galaxies were formed.
In the first half of the 20th century, physicists and astronomers fiercely debated the idea that there was no true “beginning” to the universe — that it had always existed. While this assumption hasn’t been definitively disproven, it has since become more of a fringe theory.
Instead, science presents a completely different picture of the universe’s birth and early evolution, and we’re eager to explore it with you. READ MORE...
Monday, October 14
The Day is Upon Us
The title of this posting is a phrase spoken in the Lord of the Rings and in a commercial by some motel chain. It is a phrase that I am sure was used often back when we had KIGHTS OF THE RHELM... and everyone lived in a KEEP.
However, it is doubtful that William Shakespeare used that phrase in any of his plays.
At sunrise the day begins (the presence of light) and at sunset the day ends (the absence of light). Light therefore denotes the day.... when it starts and when it ends.
So, if the day is upon us, then one can rightfully assume that it is past sunrise but before sunset... also implied is that the appearance of the day is closer to sunrise than to sunset.
What if the "DAY" is symbolic for something else... something bigger... like LIFE ITSELF?
OUR LIFE IS UPON US...
We currently live, for the most part, but NOT ON AVERAGE, to between 80 and 100 years old. Some live more than 100 but not that much more and some die early because of accidents or health... all of which is inside the hand of cards we have been dealt.
One could ask, is our life random or has it been planned?
There was a 50/50 chance of being:
- male/female
- tall/short
- smart/stupid
- talented/no talent
- pretty/ugly
so forth and so on...
Our life is upon us means what to us?
Hard to say because it is going to mean something different at 8 years old, 13 years old, 18 years old, 21 years old, 25 years old, 40 years old... etc.
Could we say that CARPE DIEM is similar or the same as OUR LIFE IS UPON US or THE DAY IS UPON US?
Each individual must answer these questions by themselves, but it is obvious that the phrase have been internalized differently by:
- Michael Jordan
- Bill Clinton
- Oprah Winfrey
- Mickey Mantel
- Denzel Washington
- Sam Walton
- Elon Musk
HOWEVER...
obviously, my examples pertain to those who have been financially very successful... but there are only 20% (AT MOST) of the general population that are going to be successful. What about the others?
What does THE DAY IS UPON US mean to YOU?
How do YOU define SUCCESS?
I would think based upon what I see around me that OUR SOCIETY here in the USA defines success from a FINANCIAL perspective.
Any person that has HALF A BRAIN soon learns that NO MANY OF US will ever be financially successful without some form of TALENT or SKILL that others do not really possess.
THAT REALIZATION for many of us is also DEPRESSING... to say the least... as well as frustrating...
Is your day upon you? Is your life upon you?
Our Electoral College
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How did we get the Electoral College?
The Founding Fathers established the Electoral College in the Constitution, in part, as a compromise between the election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens. However, the term “electoral college” does not appear in the Constitution. Article II of the Constitution and the 12th Amendment refer to “electors,” but not to the “electoral college.”
Since the Electoral College process is part of the original design of the U.S. Constitution it would be necessary to pass a Constitutional amendment to change this system.
So...
when the general public votes for a Presidential candidate, the electoral college vote for that President is the only VOTE THAT COUNTS...
Why did our Founding Fathers do this?
Nobody is 100% sure why but there is a good bet that our Founding Fathers did not trust the general public.
WHY?
Quite possibly because the general public was uneducated and could be easily influenced by corrupt politicians.
It is entirely possible for a President to be elected by the ELECTORAL COLLEGE that DID NOT WIN the Popular Vote from the general public.
The Democrats want to eliminate the ELECTORAL COLLEGE because they believe that they can control the general public vote.
Most Americans do not know about and if they did know about the electoral college, do not understand how it works, and yet, the classes they should have taken in high school, would have explained all this to them.
Either, the general public did not pay attention in high school, or they were selective with their learning. If this is the case, then it would appear that our Founding Fathers had a pretty good insight into the lack of knowledge by the general public.
A Spacecraft that Twists Space
The concept of faster-than-light travel has existed and is common in the realm of science fiction for decades now. However, the idea of wrap drives interstellar journeys has captured the imagination of many, especially in the series called Star Trek. Which of these ideas and concepts were more than just fiction and imagination? It seems like the new development of science theory is slowly becoming a subject of interest.
Twisting space to travel faster than light is the idea behind the warp drive
Science fiction is often associated with warp drives, which have the potential to accelerate spacecraft faster than the speed of light. The prospect of twisting or bending space-time to enable faster-than-light travel without violating the fundamental principles of physics lies at the heart of the warp drive concept. A warp drive would presumably compress space in front of the vehicle and expand it behind, producing a kind of bubble.
This bubble would enable the ship to travel great distances swiftly rather than speeding it to the speed of light. The space surrounding the spacecraft would move, enabling it to travel farther than the speed of light, rather than the spacecraft itself moving through space at an impossibly rapid rate. Miguel Alcubierre, a physicist laid this foundation in 1994 and spoke about the mathematical model for a warp drive. READ MORE...
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