MY WRITING JOURNAL

Monday, August 16

Taliban Law

As the incompetent Joe Biden sends 3,000 troops to Afghanistan to provide security for the evacuation of the American Embassy in Kabul, Americans are left wondering what will happen to the innocent women and children left to fend for themselves against an evil terror group that has no respect for women or children?

CNN, who failed to mention the disappearance of the Taliban and ISIS under President Trump’s leadership, sent a female correspondent to Afghanistan where she embedded herself with the Taliban to report back, apparently, on the Islamic terror group’s future humanitarian efforts.

CNN is so deep into pushing the radical Democrat Party agenda they don’t even see how foolish their repulsive propaganda appears to the everyday American.

In what can only be described as an either incredibly stupid or utterly naive moment, CNN’s Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward, who is dressed from head to toe in a black burqa and headscarf, actually asked a Taliban leader in Afghanistan about the terror group’s plans to protect women’s rights, now that they’ve re-established control of most of Afghanistan (only 9 months into the Biden regime’s takeover of the White House).

Watch the incredible moment at the 4:24 mark: “A lot of people are concerned that if the Taliban takes power again, women’s rights will move backwards. How can you guarantee that women’s rights will be protected?” CNN’s Clarissa Ward asks. READ MORE

Always Friends

Milky Way Streaking

In 2017, astronomers noticed a star streaking out of the Milky Way at nearly 2 million mph (3.2 million km/h) — roughly four times faster than our sun orbits — and flying against the direction in which most stars trek around the galactic center.

It's also made of completely different star stuff, mostly heavy, "metallic" atoms rather than the usual light elements.

LP 40-365, as it was called, was as eye-catching as a wooden car barreling up the interstate against traffic at hundreds of miles per hour.

"It is exceptionally weird in a lot of different ways," said study lead author J.J. Hermes, an astronomer at Boston University.

The star moves so quickly that it's headed out of our galaxy for good, which astronomers have taken as evidence that the metallic explorer was launched here by a cosmic catastrophe — a supernova.

But they couldn't tell how the supernova had sent it flying. Was LP 40-365 a piece of the exploded star itself? Or was it a partner star flung clear by the shockwave associated with star explosions?

A new analysis of old data finds that the star — called a white dwarf — spins about its axis at a leisurely pace — a hint that it is indeed a piece of stellar debris (not a partner star) that managed to survive one of the galaxy's most violent and mysterious events.

"We can now connect this star to the shrapnel from an exploded white dwarf with a lot more confidence," said Hermes. READ MORE

Masks

Quantum Physics and Consciousness

One of the most important open questions in science is how our consciousness is established.

In the 1990s, long before winning the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics for his prediction of black holes, physicist Roger Penrose teamed up with anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff to propose an ambitious answer.

They claimed that the brain’s neuronal system forms an intricate network and that the consciousness this produces should obey the rules of quantum mechanics – the theory that determines how tiny particles like electrons move around.

This, they argue, could explain the mysterious complexity of human consciousness.

Penrose and Hameroff were met with incredulity. Quantum mechanical laws are usually only found to apply at very low temperatures.

Quantum computers, for example, currently operate at around -272°C. At higher temperatures, classical mechanics takes over. Since our body works at room temperature, you would expect it to be governed by the classical laws of physics.

For this reason, the quantum consciousness theory has been dismissed outright by many scientists – though others are persuaded supporters.

Instead of entering into this debate, I decided to join forces with colleagues from China, led by Professor Xian-Min Jin at Shanghai Jiaotong University, to test some of the principles underpinning the quantum theory of consciousness. READ MORE

I've Been Expecting You

Sunday, August 15

Populist Press

Sunday Morning Juxtaposed

Sunday mornings have traditionally been a day of peace and surrender from the anxieties and animosities of the world...

I say this because East TN like all other areas of Tennessee as well as every other State in the USA is not immune from the politics of our global world and its environment...

Every month, I calculate my finances to make sure that there will be sufficient monies available to my wife and I until we both live until 95/96 years of age... and, so far, we have sufficient funds but like everything else that could change in a heartbeat as inflation grows...

The wealthy need to protect the rest of us because without us there will be nobody around to do their dirty work...

Maybe that is why they do not have any problems with illegal immigration...

In my little world here in East TN, I am blind (as long as I want to be) to the rest of the world and can continue to live my life as I am currently living it, without the slightest concerns for what happens in the rest of the world...

Afghanistan does not really bother me
The Olympics does not really bother me
Socialism does not really bother me
Defunding police does not really bother me
CRT theory does not really bother me
Racism does not really bother me
A divided America does not really bother me
A growing CHINA does not really bother me
Islam wanting to control the world does not really bother me
My dysfunctiuonal family does not really bother me
An increase in violence does not really bother me

I am bothered or rather annoyed by hackers who break into my Facebook and LinkedIn Accounts and take them over... but, in the grand scheme of things neither one of these social media forums is a necessary thing for me... right now they are simply a diversion.

I am annoyed by my Cable Company who continues to provide piss poor service while raising their rates, but I have found alternatives and will be done with CABLE by the end of this month.

I don't give a SHIT about the rising prices of beef because I stopped eating beef 30 years ago... I have switched to chicken, fish, beans, and vegetables... all of which are healthier for you anyway...

Time is illusive and on-going and always moves forward... getting old is inevitable... and once at an older age, one can always change their minds and their viewpoints but by then it is almost too late to influence the rest of the world... which is why one has no choice but to accept it.

Life in East TN will always be juxtaposed with the rest of the world... one will never be alone...

Screw the AFGHANS

Falling Down

A Summer Cartoon

The Metaverse

Silicon Valley has been anticipating virtual reality for more than three decades, and keeps running into the same problem: people mostly like actual reality

Maybe this will be my Paul Krugman moment. The Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist was famously the winner of a study to establish which op-ed commentator was most consistently correct.

In 1998, he also famously claimed, “By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s.”

I am not nearly so storied in accomplishments as Krugman. But I do make my living offering predictions and forecasts.

So I might as well say it: I predict that the metaverse won’t happen.

The “metaverse,” for those who don’t know, is a still-mostly-hypothetical virtual world accessed by special virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technology.

The idea is to create a sort of next-level Internet overlaid on our physical world. People plugged into the metaverse exist in our physical world like everyone else but can see and interact with things that others can’t.

Think The Matrix or the Star Trek Holodeck or the Fortnite-esque brandscapes of Ready Player One. READ MORE

Dog and Fox

Serious About Climate

Is Biden serious about climate?

His 2,000 drilling and fracking permits suggest not

Just when we must be rejecting new drilling, fracking and pipeline infrastructure, Biden isn’t just tolerating fossil fuels – he’s uplifting them

The latest report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change paints a stark and sobering picture: a global future of extreme weather events that are guaranteed to become more frequent and more intense over coming decades.

The horrific flooding that has recently shocked Europe will become more common. The unrelenting fires that have engulfed the western United States and Canada will intensify and widen.

And some island nations, it seems, may already be doomed to eradication by inevitable sea level rise.

The only glimmer of hope offered in the IPCC report is that immediate, aggressive action by world leaders could still prevent a future of assured climate chaos from being even worse. As devastating as a 1.5C global temperature increase will be, a 2.5C increase would be unfathomable.

Being the historical top emitter of climate-killing greenhouse gases, the United States has a clear obligation to help lead the world in rapidly reducing emissions and transitioning the planet to clean, renewable energy.

Yet every indication thus far from the Biden administration suggests that this critical, urgent action won’t be coming. READ MORE

Raising Bridges

Classic Sunday Newspaper Comics

Only in California

California may legalize human composting, a process in which the body breaks down into soil over the course of about 30 days

Is there a greener way to honor those who have died?

Humans have caused unprecedented and irreversible changes to the climate in our time on Earth – pollution that continues even in death. But, across the US, some are posing an alternative: human composting.

Traditional after-death options such as burial and cremation can be tough on the environment, either by taking up land and emitting chemicals into the ground or by using fossil fuels and gas.

That’s why California lawmakers are considering legislation that would allow for human composting, or the natural organic reduction of human remains to soil.

It’s not the first state to do so. Washington state legalized natural organic reduction in 2020, allowing the human soil to be used in a forest as well as given to families.

Colorado has enacted similar legislation – restricting the soil from being used to grow crops that people will eat – as has Oregon. Delaware, Hawaii and Vermont are considering natural organic reduction bills.

Recompose, a Seattle-based company, was the first company in the US to get into the human composting business. READ MORE

What a Voice

Biden's Blue Hydrogen

Infrastructure bill includes $8bn to develop ‘clean hydrogen’ but study finds large emissions from production of ‘blue’ hydrogen

The large infrastructure bill passed by the US Senate and hailed by Joe Biden as a key tool to tackle the climate crisis includes billions of dollars to support a supposedly clean fuel that is potentially even more polluting than coal, new research has found.

The $1tn infrastructure package, which passed with bipartisan support on Tuesday, includes $8bn to develop “clean hydrogen” via the creation of four new regional hubs.

The White House has said the bill advances Biden’s climate agenda and proponents of hydrogen have touted it as a low-emissions alternative to fuel shipping, trucking, aviation and even home heating.

But a new study has found surprisingly large emissions from the production of so-called “blue” hydrogen, a variant being enthusiastically pushed by the fossil fuel industry and probably falling under the definition of clean hydrogen in the Senate bill. READ MORE