Saturday, November 30
End of NOVEMBER
We say goodbye to November 2024, never to be seen again unless we are fortunate enough to live long enough to experience time travel.
For me, November 2024 brought THANKSGIVING as well as COLDER WEATHER, at least for East TN. Some of the country is COLDER, some of it is WARMER.
For all of us, November 2024 brought the Presidential election and 76 million American voters to the amazement of 74 million American voters, ELECTED DONALD TRUMP to a second term as POTUS.
Those who lost, cannot understand HOW THEY LOST and have been blaming others, instead of themselves, blatantly accusing the other side of being RACIST, FACIST, TOO IGNORANT TO UNDERSTAND POLITICS, or JUST PLAIN STUPID IN GENERAL.
To me, their response has been a little childish but expected considering what they believe or chose not to believe.
What is more scary, at least to me, is the fact that the USA IS NOT UNITED and it will be a long time before a LEADER comes along that will UNITE US ALL.
Until then we will just continue to fight among ourselves, and allowing ourselves to look foolish to the rest of the world, that we are TRYING TO IGNORE.
Questions About Death
Life and death are two sides of the same coin that have puzzled humans since the beginning of time. While science has made incredible progress in understanding how the body works and what happens during death from a biological perspective, there are deeper questions that remain beyond the reach of microscopes and lab experiments.
Everyone thinks about death at some point, and these thoughts often lead to profound questions about existence, consciousness, and what might happen after our final breath.
Friday, November 29
Black Friday
Possible Alien World
Possible alien world bubbling over with volcanoes detected deep in space
It’s thought that there is at least one planet for every star in the galaxy. That means that there are billions of planets in our galaxy alone, and many of these could be in Earth’s size range. So far, researchers think they have found 5,000. But now, one research team has possible evidence that they have found an exoplanet [meaning a planet outside the solar system] with a sulphur-rich atmosphere deep into space (Picture: Getty) READ MORE...
Thursday, November 28
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Disney settles $43M class-action lawsuit with 9,000 female workers alleging they were paid less than their male counterparts in comparable roles (More)
> Jim Abrahams, film director and writer best known for "Airplane!" and "Naked Gun" series, dies at age 80 (More) | French-Japanese TV series "Les Gouttes de Dieu (Drops of God)" wins best drama at 2024 International Emmy Awards (More)
> Former show host Wendy Williams reportedly "permanently disabled and legally incapacitated" amid dementia battle; Williams revealed her dementia diagnosis earlier this year (More)
Science & Technology
> Chipmaker Intel awarded close to $7.9B to support building and expansion of semiconductor manufacturing facilities in Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, and Ohio; funds come from the 2022 CHIPS Act (More)
> Cancer researchers discover how low glucose environments around tumors help cancer cells evade chemotherapy drugs; findings may lead to more effective treatments (More)
> Scientists transplant pig heart valve into a rodent with the assistance of human skin cells reprogrammed into heart valve cells; the procedure paves the way for similar organ transplants to humans, with roughly 30,000 Americans dying each year from aortic heart valve failure (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close higher (S&P 500 +0.6%, Dow +0.3%, Nasdaq +0.6%) following news of Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal (More) | Learn about the history of the US stock markets (More)
> Walmart rolls back diversity programs; changes include closing $100M equity racial center launched in 2020, phasing out the term "DEI," ending preference for suppliers majority owned by women, LGBTQ+ members, veterans, and others; ends sale of some transgender-linked products on Walmart.com (More)
> Federal Reserve minutes from meeting earlier this month suggest slower pace of interest rate cuts than previously indicated; next meeting is Dec. 17-18 (More) | Heard about the Fed, but don't know how it works? Sign up for 1440 Business & Finance, where we cover this topic and many more (Join here)
Politics & World Affairs
> Israel and Hezbollah agree to US- and France-led ceasefire, ending 14 months of rocket, missile exchanges; Israeli soldiers to withdraw, Lebanese army to repopulate country's south in the coming 60 days (More) | See previous write-up (More)
> President-elect Donald Trump signs memorandum of understanding with the Biden White House, clearing the stage for the next phase of the presidential transition (More) | How does a presidential transition work? (More)
> Thirty-three survivors rescued after Red Sea tourist boat with Egyptian crew sinks; seven people remain unaccounted for (More)
THANKSGIVING
Thanksgiving has always been a special day for me, especially when I was young.
Our family lived in Alexandria, Virginia until the summer of 1962. Every Thanksgiving, we would pack up the car and drive to NC, specifically Winston-Salem, the tobacco capital of the USA.
The trip lasted about 5-6 hours as I recall and as we got closer to Winston-Salem, when the windows of the car were rolled down, you could actually smell the tobacco in the air.
Thanksgiving in Winston-Salem was a real treat. We all sat at a long dining room table that held all the Thanksgiving dishes in the middle. One by one these dishes were passed around while my grandfather, my dad's father, cut the turkey.
We had everything that you could imagine in terms of side dishes to go with the turkey like casseroles, rice, mashed potatoes, gravy, biscuits, peas, lima beans, salad, sweet potatoes, etc.
The day after Thanksgiving, all our relatives would get together and rent a meeting hall in a nearby park and all the families would gather there and bring their leftovers.
While my memories are a little foggy, I would suspect that about 150 relatives would show up, most of whom I had no idea who they were. These relatives would represent both my mother's and father's side of the family.
It was a very memorable time that our entire family/relatives lost sight of as we all got older.
A Living World in Space
A generation ship is a hypothetical spacecraft designed for long-term interstellar travel, potentially lasting centuries. The concept involves an initial crew living, reproducing, and dying aboard the ship, with their descendants continuing the journey.
Originally conceived by US rocket pioneer Robert H. Goddard, this enormous space ark is an enclosed, self-sustaining world with its own ecosystem, designed to meet all the needs of its crew as they travel for centuries or even millennia to their destination.
Equipped with agriculture, habitation, and life-support systems, these ships are intended to ensure survival across multiple generations.
Project Hyperion is part of a study aimed at assessing the feasibility of crewed interstellar flight using current and near-future technologies and hoping to guide future research and technology development while educating the public on the logistics and potential of interstellar travel. READ MORE...
Wednesday, November 27
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> General Motors to join Formula 1 as its 11th team beginning in 2026 under GM's Cadillac brand (More)
> Rapper Drake accuses Universal Music Group and Spotify of conspiring to artificially inflate the streaming numbers for Kendrick Lamar's diss track song "Not Like Us" (More)
> Elton John loses eyesight in his right eye for last four months due to an infection (More) | Barbara Taylor Bradford, romance novelist best known for "A Woman of Substance," dies at age 91 (More)
Science & Technology
> Chipmaker Nvidia debuts Fugatto, an AI model that creates audio from text prompts and can modify existing songs (More) | How generative AI works in simple terms (More, w/video)
> Neuroscientists pinpoint brain circuit responsible for the rejection of mating partners by female mammals (More) | Elon Musk's Neuralink to launch feasibility study of brain implant that can control robotic arms (More)
> Researchers unearth the oldest firearm in the US, a bronze cannon used during a 16th-century Spanish expedition into the southwest (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close higher (S&P 500 +0.3%, Dow +1.0%, Nasdaq +0.3%) following news President-elect Donald Trump selects hedge fund manager Scott Bessent to lead the Treasury Department (More)
> Macy's delays reporting Q3 earnings after discovering an employee hid as much as $154M in delivery expenses over the past three years; figures expected Dec. 11 (More) | Kohl's CEO to be replaced by Michaels CEO in January; transition marks company's third leadership change since 2018 (More)
> Blackstone invests $3.5B in US natural gas company EQT, gaining minority stakes in Mid-Atlantic pipelines expected to see a surge in demand amid expected growth of data centers powering AI (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> Charlotte airport workers strike, calling for higher wages ahead of record holiday travel season; airport is a hub for American Airlines (More)
> Los Angeles judge delays hearing on Menendez brothers resentencing to January 2025, allowing for incoming district attorney to weigh in on the case (More) | See previous write-up (More)
> Uruguay's presidential election won by center-left opposition candidate Yamandú Orsi, continuing global trend of incumbents being voted from office
Worried Democrats
Women Innovators
Aramco’s R&D work focuses on innovations that aim to help future generations to continue to have access to reliable energy
Dr. Nadrah Alawani, Dr. Amani Musharah and Maryam Altaher have led and worked on innovations that have raised the bars in their respective fields and the energy sector as a whole
From gaining new understanding of hydrocarbons, to formulating better performing fuels that could help lower emissions, women innovators at Aramco continue to break new scientific ground
Aramco’s research and development work focuses on innovations that aim to help future generations to continue to have access to the benefits of a more secure, more sustainable energy supply.
Three leading female scientists based at our Research and Development Center in Dhahran explain how their innovative work in fuel analysis, catalysis and petroleomics is raising standards in fuel performance, efficiency and emissions reduction across the Company’s operations, and across the oil and gas industry. READ MORE...
Tuesday, November 26
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Orlando Pride top Washington Spirit 1-0 to win their first National Women's Soccer League championship (More) | MLS Cup Playoffs conference final matchups set; see bracket and schedule (More)
> Rapper Kendrick Lamar releases surprise album "GNX" (More) | Singer-songwriter Khalid comes out as gay after being outed on social media (More)
> Chuck Woolery, longtime TV game show host best known for "Love Connection," dies at age 83 (More) | Rico Carty, former MLB All-Star and NL batting champion, dies at age 85 (More)
Science & Technology
> Astronomers capture aftermath of a galaxy collision, including one galaxy traveling at an estimated 2 million miles per hour (More) | What is Stephan's Quintet? (More)
> Archaeologists discover network of 4,000-year-old canals in Belize; structures believed to have been used for fishing by the civilization predating the Maya (More)
> Brain study suggests overthinking social situations is governed by interactions with the amygdala, part of the "lizard brain," responsible for fear and assessing risk (More) | Lizard brain 101 (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close higher Friday (S&P 500 +0.4%, Dow +1.0%, Nasdaq +0.2%), with Dow closing at all-time high (More)
> Cantor Fitzgerald—whose CEO is President-elect Donald Trump's pick for commerce secretary—is reportedly in talks with lead stablecoin company Tether for project lending clients $2B against bitcoin (More) | What is a stablecoin? (More)
> Social media platform Bluesky surpasses 21 million users, up from 13 million last month; COO says the 20-person team running the company, which spun off from then-Twitter in 2021, is racing to get more servers (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> Storms forecast this week amid record Thanksgiving travel, with East Coast predicted to be most impacted by storms on Thanksgiving and Black Friday (More)
> Hezbollah fires 250 rockets and other projectiles into northern, central Israel; barrage comes after Israel strikes Beirut, killing 29 people (More) | See war updates (More) | UAE arrests three suspects in killing of Moldovan-Israeli rabbi (More) | Russia reportedly recruits Houthi-linked Yemeni citizens to fight in Ukraine (More)
> Romanians vote in first round of presidential elections, with right-wing Calin Georgescu and left-wing Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu leading list of 13 candidates; vote now heads to a Dec. 8 runoff (More)