Wonderings 28

 Harvard scientists believe that Aliens are living among us now.

NASA believes that there are Alien relics on the Moon and Mars.

Archaeologists have found remnants of life that cannot be linked to human beings.

Our government for years denied the existence of UFOs.

Who are we?

Who created us?

What is our purpose?

Is there life after death?

Why does this universe have human beings only living on earth?

Why didn't the Bible/Koran share any of this with us?

Unfortunately,

all we can do is speculate, conjecture, and make educated guesses when answering these questions because no one knows FOR SURE!!!

However,

It is strongly believed by the educated as well as by the uneducated that death will reveal these answers to us.

Death will REVEAL...

Are you kidding me?

Death is death and therefore, there can be no revealing...  or can there be?

Maybe death does not mean death.

Maybe death means a transformation from one form to another...  Isn't that a law of physics?

MATTER CAN NEITHER BE CREATED NOR DESTROYED BUT IT CAN BE CHANGED FROM ONE FORM TO ANOTHER.

So...

we do not die...  but transform...   INTO WHAT?

Our bodies hold our essence...  our mind...  our soul...  whatever it actually is.

We weigh slightly less when we die, it is said.

Could those missing grams, but our essence?

IF SO...

we transform into spirits...  puffs of smoke, let's say.  Spirits without shape or form or substance, but with some sort of thought, strong enough, to perceive we have bodies....  perhaps.

Time Change

 

Halloween

 

Eating

VINCE

 

Solo

 

Bongino Report

 

Shannon Joy Show

 

Boats

Dinesh D'Souza

 

The White House

 

Gentle Stream

 

The Big MIG

 

TimcastIRL

 

Burgundy Rose

 

Headlines

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images




Federal judge “likely” to order the Trump admin to release SNAP funds. On Thursday, Judge Indira Talwani said during a hearing that a $5.5 billion contingency fund should be used to provide Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits after states run out of aid money due to the government shutdown—lapses that may begin as soon as tomorrow. “Congress has put money in an emergency fund, and it is hard for me to understand how this is not an emergency,” Talwani said. She also said the USDA should be figuring out how to allocate the $5.5 billion, even though it’s not enough money to fund an entire month of the program. She called the agency’s search for a reason not to disburse the money “lawyering” and said, “I want agency action, not lawyering.” The SNAP program provides food assistance to 42 million Americans.—HVL

Palantir says two former AI engineers stole company secrets. The company named after the object with which Pippin nearly gave away the secret that Frodo and Sam were carrying the One Ring to Mordor has accused two ex-employees of stealing its secrets. Palantir sued two former senior AI engineers, alleging that they stole information to launch a “copycat” company, Percepta, Bloomberg reported. According to the lawsuit, the employees lied about their plans to start a competitor when they resigned in November 2024 and February 2025, respectively. Palantir also claims one of them stole “highly confidential” documents the day before she resigned by sending them to herself on Slack. Percepta’s parent company declined to comment to Bloomberg.—AE

Taylor Sheridan is staying at Paramount (sorta) to write a Call of Duty movie. The move heard ’round Hollywood got even spicier yesterday when news broke that writer-producer Taylor Sheridan will in fact still co-write a Call of Duty movie for Paramount, just days after the highly coveted Yellowstone creator reportedly defected to rival NBCUniversal. Earlier this week, The Hollywood Reporter said Sheridan was moving his overall pact from Paramount to NBCU, where his film deal will start next year and his TV deal will kick in in 2028. But apparently not before penning a film adaptation of the US’ top-selling video game franchise. Call of Duty has sold more than 500 million copies and generated tens of billions of dollars in revenue.—AE

READ MORE...

At A Glance

(10/24/25) What it means if you see a blue stop sign.

(10/3/25) Why the kids are saying "6-7."

(10/14/25) Simple steps to help prevent dementia.

(10/14/25) Study finds the one trait that makes for a great manager.

(10/15/25) Practical tasks Americans can and cannot do.

(10/13/25) See where you fall in the newly released 2026 tax brackets.

(10/13/25) The funniest one-star reviews for national parks.

(10/7/25) What it costs to grow old in your home. (w/interactive)

(10/28/25) The income needed to be in your state's top 5%.

(10/3/25) How much alcohol do Americans drink?

In partnership: Scammers love Halloween too—here’s how to stay safe.*

Clickbait: The number of friends our brains can handle.

Historybook: English poet John Keats born (1795); Magician Harry Houdini dies (1926); Mount Rushmore National Memorial is completed (1941); Actor and comedian John Candy born (1950); First female prime minister of India Indira Gandhi is assassinated (1984).

Ina Garten's 5-Star Lentil Vegetable Soup | Barefoot Contessa | Food Net...

Quick Clips

 

In The NEWS

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Toronto Blue Jays lead World Series 3-2 after beating the Los Angeles Dodgers last night, teeing up potential for title-clinching win in Game 6 tomorrow at 8 pm ET (More)

> Paramount to lay off roughly 2,000 employees—about 10% of workforce—as it targets $2B in cost cuts following acquisition by Skydance in August (More)

> Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola auctions seven watches—including one valued at roughly $1M—after $120M film "Megalopolis" grosses $14.4M in box office (More)


Science & Technology
> Startup Character.AI to ban minors from engaging in open-ended chats with its chatbots next month after lawsuits from families over child safety (More)

> Researchers determine attention lapses caused by sleep deprivation coincide with fluid flushing from the brain, a process that typically occurs during sleep (More)

> Scientists discover age-related changes in T cells can trigger weaker vaccine responses in adults around age 65, suggesting older adults may need tailored vaccine formulations and treatment schedules (More)


Business & Markets
> US stock markets close mixed (S&P 500 -0.0%, Dow -0.2%, Nasdaq +0.6%) after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signals Fed may not cut rates again this year (More) | Fed lowers interest rates by 0.25 percentage points to 3.75%-4% (More)

> Starbucks reports same-store sales growth in September for first time in nearly two years (More) | Alphabet tops $100B quarterly revenue for first time (More)

> General Motors to permanently lay off 1,750 workers in Michigan and Ohio and temporarily lay off 1,550 in Ohio and Tennessee amid slowing EV demand (More)


Politics & World Affairs
> Hurricane Melissa weakens to a Category 1 storm en route to the Bahamas after killing at least 30 people across Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic (More) | See live updates (More)

> Sudanese rebel group Rapid Support Forces kills 460 patients at a hospital in el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur; the group, allegedly backed by the UAE, has reportedly killed over 2,000 people in the three days since capturing the city (More)

> Brazilian police raid on a drug gang in Rio de Janeiro Tuesday kills at least 119 people—the city's deadliest raid on record (More)

SOURCE:  1440 NEWS

Financially Selfish

 My wife and I live in East Tennessee; we own our home (no mortgage) and have no outstanding debt except for monthly expenses.  The data shows that the average monthly cost to live in East TN without a mortgage is $4,000/month.  This expense covers utilities, home maintenance, taxes, cell phones, health and car insurance, other medical expenses, dental, food, and wifi a couple of entertainment channels.

Right now, our combined monthly income which is basically Social Security is right around $3,000 leaving us about $1,000 that we have to take out of our savings each month or about $12,000 a year.  If we add in vacations and other purchases, then we are up to $18,000 or another $1500/month from savings or whatever investments we might have.

Currently, we are getting about $3,000/month from investments, so our income is $6,000 and our expenses are $5,500, leaving us with a positive amount of $500 which we put right back into savings.

Our investments are locked in for twenty-four months, so we are basically experiencing no financial issues perhaps until 2027/2028.  By then, I will be 80 years of age, and my wife will be 75.   Our life expectancies are not over 95 and quite possibly less, leaving us another 15-20 years to worry, if necessary, about our finances.

Our situation is better than most our age but not as good many our age.  The reason for this discrepancy is that we did not fully prepare ourselves for retirement and what we were able to save was just pure luck.  However, very few financial experts believe in luck.

Neither my wife nor I trust the STOCK MARKET nor do we trust investment brokers who claim they only have your best interests in mind.  That is BOLOX as the British say...  America is all about GREED and MAKING MONEY...  companies will say anything to get you to invest with them.

We have our money in Credit Union CDs and while the interest rate is below the Stock Market, our money is relatively safe...

Plus, as long as the CD rate is above the annual inflation rate, we are keeping our heads above water.

When the economy is BAD, like under Biden, the Credit Union CD rates were higher than when the economy was good under Trump.

Therefore, we are hoping that another Democrat wins the Presidency in 2028 and ruins the economy again.

GUESS THAT MEANS WE ARE SELFISH...

Somewhat Political

 

Norway succeeds in producing energy floating above the water

Norway has always been committed to sustainable development initiatives, but now Norway has succeeded in producing energy floating above the water. Norway is no longer focused on traditional solar panels anymore or on energy generated atop the mountains or from the deep fjords, thanks to Norwegian startup, Alotta. Alotta is focusing on hybrid floating solar power systems that amalgamate solar panels with battery storage potential. This innovation floating above the water is surely making waves.

READ MORE...

Foghat - Sweet Home Chicago

Wonderings 27

 Why was I born to white middle class parents who lived in the USA and specifically in North Carolina?

Why was I not born in another country to altogether different parents where the opportunities before me were limited?

Why was I not given a choice of parents, birth locations, and ethnic heritage?

In looking at these questions, none of us have been given a choice as to whether we wanted to be born or not.

So...

our lives begin without the choice of FREE WILL and yet, if you are a Christian, you are taught that God gives you free will, but again, wants you to give up that free will to follow HIS WILL.

IF...

We do not have a say so in our own birth, do you really think we have a say so in how the rest of our lives are lived or for that matter how we live for the rest of ETERNITY???

• We did not create life
• We did not create the universe
• We did not create spacetime
• We were forced to accept our own birth
• We were forced to live in this world
• We were forced into a certain ethnic group
• We were forced into living a privileged or non-privileged life

Most of us could care less about what we might have been forced to be or become...

Living our lives as best as we can without goals or ambitions...

Living and dying because that is what we are supposed to do...

An Opinion

 

Let me start by saying that opinions are like assholes, everybody has got one...

FOCUS:  I would like to say a word or two about the mayor race in NYC.

Personally, I support the STAR TREK concept which is predicated upon pure socialism, but it is too far in our future to grasp as far as reality is concerned.

The USA already has an abundance of socialism...  anything labelled public is considered socialism.

I am all in on taxing the wealthy, eliminating tax shelters but that depends on action from Congress that I do not believe will ever happen.

Mamdani is a socialist, not a Democratic Socialist but a full-fledged socialist.  Part of me wants him to lose and part of me wants him to win.  

My winning side is winning because I want New Yorkers and the rest of the US to see once and for all, if socialism by Mamdani will work!!!

I don't think it will, but I am just a nobody with an opinion...  therefore, let's give Mamdani a chance to prove himself right or wrong, so we can finally put to bed this idea that socialism is better than capitalism because it helps the people more.

HALLOWEEN EVE

 

VINCE

 

Lara Trump

 

Hungry

 

Amber May Show

 

Sarah Westall

 

Classic

 

Dinesh D'Souza

 

Bongino Report

 

Diamond & Silk

 

The Altar

 

The White House

 

The Big MIG

 

TimcastIRL

 

Morning

 

Brookings Brief

Stablecoins: Issues for regulators as they implement GENIUS Act

The Big Think

Inside the emerging world of anesthesia “dream therapy”

Bird on Boat

 

Headlines

Saul Loeb, Anadolu/Getty Images



Trump lowers tariffs on China, which agreed to pull back some rare earth restrictions. The developments came as the president concluded his trip to Asia with a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a military base in Busan, South Korea. President Trump told reporters on board Air Force One that he halved the 20% tariffs levied on China due to its role in fentanyl production, bringing the overall tariff rate on Chinese goods to 47% from 57%. Following the meeting, China’s commerce ministry said it would enact a one-year suspension of some rare earth export controls, but did not mention dropping its requirement for export licenses for seven kinds of rare earth minerals and the magnets made from them, which have been snarling manufacturing in the US and Europe. A comprehensive trade deal between the US and China was not announced. Earlier in the day, Trump said a trade deal between the US and South Korea was “pretty much finalized.”—HVL

Big Tech had a big earnings day. Meta, Microsoft, and Google’s parent company Alphabet all reported earnings yesterday, with investors watching to see whether their massive AI expenditures are paying off. Meta’s stock slumped in after-hours trading, despite it reporting record revenue for Q3, as it revealed expectations that AI infrastructure spending would grow significantly next year, plus a significant one-time tax hit. Microsoft unveiled plans to spend big to double its data center capacity, and it also fell in extended trading. But Alphabet’s stock rose, even though it too upped its anticipated capital expenditures. The company raked in more than $100 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time, and its cloud unit’s revenue grew 34% year over year. Amazon and Apple will announce their earnings today.—AR

Microsoft suffered a cloud outage. As if reporting earnings didn’t make for a stressful enough day at Microsoft HQ yesterday, starting at about noon ET, Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing service experienced an hourslong outage that impacted workplace productivity software Microsoft 365 and workplace distractions Xbox and Minecraft. The company said the outage—which caused disruptions to businesses globally, including Alaska Airlines and Vodafone—was likely triggered by an “inadvertent configuration change.” Azure is the second-place player with about 23% of the cloud infrastructure market. It trails Amazon Web Services (32%), which had its own major outage last week.—AR

READ MORE...

Robert Reich

The Five Ingredients of Zohran’s Secret Sauce
Anyone who wants to lead America out of the Trumpian darkness can do so with these


Zohran Mamdani and Bernie Sanders — two of the most popular politicians in America




Friends,

Rather than belabor you today with the latest Trump outrages, I want to share with you conclusions I’ve drawn from my conversation yesterday with Zohran Mamdani (you can find it here) about why he has a very good chance of being elected mayor of New York City on Tuesday.

He has five qualities that I believe are likely to succeed in almost any political race across America today. If a 34-year-old state assemblyman representing Astoria, Queens, who was born in Uganda and calls himself a democratic socialist, can get this far and likely win, others can as well — but they have to understand and be capable of utilizing his secret sauce.

Here are the five ingredients:

READ MORE...

At A Glance

Dictionary.com names “6-7” the 2025 Word of the Year.

Police warn of dangerous look-alike candy ahead of Halloween.

… and visualizing America’s Halloween sweet tooth.

The science behind the terrifying experience of sleep paralysis.

... and in case you missed it, check out our new podcast episode on ghosts (Apple | Spotify | YouTube)

The 10 most haunted states in the US.

WWI message in a bottle washes ashore over a century later.

Why pumpkins can grow big, but other fruits can’t.

How US billionaires compare to the rest of the world.

Clickbait: A Spanish town banning black cat adoptions for Halloween.

Historybook: President John Adams born (1735); Orson Welles broadcasts "The War of the Worlds" radio hoax, causing mass panic in US (1938); Muhammad Ali defeats George Foreman in historic Rumble in the Jungle (1974); Ivanka Trump born (1981).

In The NEWS

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Toronto Blue Jays defeat Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 4, tying World Series 2-2 ahead of Game 5 tonight at 8 pm ET (More)

> Seven-foundation coalition launches $50M literary arts fund, citing chronic underfunding of independent publishers and creative writing initiatives (More) | ABC releases 2026 midseason schedule, revealing "Scrubs" series reboot Feb. 25 (More)

> Prunella Scales, British actress who played Sybil Fawlty in 1970s television sitcom "Fawlty Towers," dies at age 93 (More)


Science & Technology
> US startup Substrate, backed by investor Peter Thiel, raises over $100M for technology aimed at revamping microchip production within three years (More)

> New observations of colliding black holes suggest black holes formed in dense regions where they repeatedly merge (More) | All the best resources we've found on black holes (1440 Topics)

> Biologists find nutritional value of marine prey can vary greatly within single species, complicating estimations of predators' daily food requirements (More)


Business & Markets
> US stock markets close higher (S&P 500 +0.2%, Dow +0.3%, Nasdaq +0.8%) ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest rate cut decision today (More) | Nokia shares rise nearly 23% after Nvidia takes $1B stake in the company (More)

> Amazon lays off 14,000 corporate workers (More) | UPS regulatory filings show package deliverer cut 48,000 jobs since last year as part of turnaround (More)

> Trump Media partners with Crypto.com to add prediction markets to Truth Social, enabling users to bet on elections, sports games, and other events (More)


Politics & World Affairs
> US military strikes four alleged drug boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean in three separate attacks, killing 14 people with one survivor (More)

> Democratic-led states sue the Agriculture Department, alleging it is obligated to continue food stamp benefits amid the federal government shutdown (More)

> Israeli military strikes Gaza, killing at least seven people, after accusing Hamas of violating the ceasefire agreement and failing to return hostage remains (More)

SOURCE:  1440 NEWS

Insurance

Are you insurance poor??

Types

• Car insurance
• Health insurance
• Home insurance
• Life insurance
• Vacation insurance
• Car Repair insurance
• Property insurance
• Education insurance
• Mortgage insurance

I am sure there are other types of insurance that I have overlooked.

Life Insurance

When you take out life insurance, you are betting that you are going to die earlier than later.  However, if you die early, the insurance is only valid after a probationary period.

Average costs for $250,000 over 40 years

• Male - $25/month - $300/yr for 40 Yrs = $12,000
• Female - $20/month - $240/yr for 40 Yrs = $9,600

Now, if you put that same $25/month into a mutual fund for 40 years at 8% which is the normal ROI, at the end of those forty years, you will have $87,000.

So, there is a tradeoff.

You can give someone else $12,000 for a potential $250,000 if you were to die during the next 40 years or you can pay yourself and invest in a mutual fund over forty years and have $87,000 in your own pocket.

ALSO...

You can save $2.50/each day and at the end of the month put that money ($75) in a mutual fund at the end of the month and keep doing that for 40 years at 8% and end up with $500,000.

If you and your spouse did this, you would have ONE MILLION DOLLARS...  You would not need life insurance nor would you need any kind of special retirement fund to supplement Social Security.

With Artificial Intelligence at your disposal, you can ask AI what is best for you to do...

• get life insurance
• invest in a mutual fund

It is your life...  you need to be smart as to how to live it.

• 
  

Somewhat Political

 

Thurs Post

Thurs Vid

Wonderings 26

 DEATH

Death is considered to be, by most of us, the end to life...

However,

there are some who believe that we live again in Heaven with God & Jesus, providing we agree to certain conditions.

And,

there are some who believe that in addition to a specific afterlife somewhere that we are reborn in the body of another person and live this life again which could happen several times.

Interestingly,

each of these beliefs PRESUPPOSES there is some sort of creator dictating a specific path for us to take once we are deceased, and this path is determined or pre-determined by how we are living our current life.

Aside from these beliefs, one fact remains perfectly clear, that HUMAN BEINGS are or have been given life for a certain number of years (80-100+) and that life will eventually END...

Now,

compare 80-100+ years to the eternity of the universe and it simply does not make sense why Human Beings were given that short of a lifespan.

Not only does it not make sense to have that brief life span, but what if there is life after death, what will it look like???

• We will not have human bodies
• We might have consciousness
• We will not be subject to disease
• We will not need to sleep or eat
• We will not be subject to spacetime
• We will not be limited to one dimension
• We will have a spirit that floats around

Point/Purpose

• Will that spirit that floats around be able to imagine having a body that functions as we want it to function?
• What was the point of having a human being body?
• What is the point of living like a spirit?

Pumpkins

 

VINCE

 

Shannon Joy Show

 

The Smile

 

Dinesh D'Souza

 

The White House

 

Lanterns

 

The Big MIG

 

TimcastIRL

 

Desert Fog

 

The Big Think

 

Why your best ideas come after your worst