Opposition

 

WORLD COUNTRIES

The First World consisted of the U.S., Western Europe and their allies. 

The Second World was the so-called Communist Bloc: the Soviet Union, China, Cuba and friends. 

The remaining nations, which aligned with neither group, were assigned to the Third World. The Third World has always had blurred lines....

What is “Third World”? The modern definition of “Third World” is used to classify countries that are poor or developing. Countries that are part of the “third world” are generally characterized by:

(1) high rates of poverty

(2) economic and/or political instability

(3) high mortality rates

My concern(s) that align with the concern(s) of others is the fact that the United States of America is moving in the direction of becoming a THRID WORLD COUNTRY because of of but not necessarily limited to the influx of illegal immigrants but that we creating a situation where a majority of the general public is placed in a situation where they are encouraged to live off the government...

When you bring in thousands and millions of people who have no source of income, then they are foirced to live in the same dwelling whether that be an appartment or a house or in a tent...  These people typically don't work...  they don't want to work...  and they just walk around or sit around all day doing nothing.  Sometimes, these people get involved with drugs and alcohol...  wherver they live, those areas turn into slums and others who live nearby typical move to another area of town...

Over time, these slum like areas grow and push out to other areas of the city or the county or the state...  certain populated areas prosper and grow but for the most part, the entire country has been brought down to their lowest common denominator...  and, this is what could possibly happen to the USA and Americans...

Weekend Warrior

Being a weekend warrior does not always pertain to being in the reserves of one of our militaries and going for training one weekend every month...  weekend warriors are also those individuals who work Monday through Friday and use the weekends to get project done around the house...

For 45 years, I was one of those weekend warriors when I was married and living in North Carolina and again during my second marriage in Tennessee...

These weekend projects do not necessarily pertain to mowing the lawn or weed eating or planting flowers or trimming trees and bushes as those are things that normally need to be done and can be done during the warm months before the sun goes down in the evenings...

Weekend warrior projects are:

• backyard deck
• remodeling the bathroom
• remodeling the kitchen
• adding a carport
• building a patio
• replacing the roof
• adding a room to the house
• putting down hardwood floors
• finishing an unfinished basement
• screening in a porch

When I was in North Carolina, I purchased a tiller and created a garden in our distant back yard that was 1/4 of the size of a football field...  in which I planted:  corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, mellons, potatoes, zucchini, herbs, lettuce, collards, and strawberries....

In the fall, and since our house was nestled in the middle of numerous trees...  I would rake up those leaves and layer them on the tilled up ground all winter...  then I will till up those rotting leaves and mix them with the dirt...  after 3-5 years, I had some of the richest soil that one could ever imagine...  

These are weekend warrior projects and whether you are married or not, we are all guilty of having these types of projects in our minds that we work on during the weekends after working all week, rather than just sitting around the house doing nothing and drinking beer and eating fattening foods...

Hunter Biden

At some point in the coming weeks, hundreds of thousands of dollars will be funneled to the son of the sitting American president—and none of us will know anything about who sent the money, or where it originally came from, or why anyone chose to send it in the first place.


The transactions will nominally center on artwork created by Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son. After spending years working alongside post-Soviet oligarchs—work that complicated his father’s anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine—Hunter has tossed on a new hat as an emerging “artist.” CNN has reported that his debut shows—one in Los Angeles, another in New York—will be held in late September, though the dates haven’t been announced (which may be because of the scrutiny the sales have received). 

Whenever they happen, Hunter will make the transition from unqualified oil-and-gas adviser to budding Basquiat—and will offer his artwork to the highest bidders his gallery can attract. The sales have raised concerns that buyers will purchase the art to curry favor with the president, creating an ethics minefield for the White House.
Hunter’s artwork isn’t bad, per se. A certain base-level skill is evident in the paintings. Sebastian Smee, the Pulitzer Prize–winning art critic for The Washington Post, told CNN that Biden was comparable to “a cafe painter. By which I mean, you see a certain kind of art in coffee shops, and some of it is OK and a lot of it is bad, and sometimes it’s surprisingly good. But you wouldn’t, unless you were related to the artist, spend more than $1,000 on it.”


Unfortunately for the White House, the people about to profit from Hunter’s foray into the art world are anticipating far higher returns—and suddenly presenting the Biden administration with a new Hunter-related headache. Hunter’s gallerist, Georges Bergès, has said he’s expecting as much as $500,000 for some of the paintings. 

That’s a pricing echelon that would put Hunter, a person with no formal artistic training, “in the very top tier of emerging artists,” according to Artnet. (“The whole thing is very, very weird,” added Artnet’s Ben Davis, not least because the Bergès Gallery’s previous best-known client was Sylvester Stallone.) For his part, Hunter has been clear about what he’d say to those questioning the propriety of his shows: “Other than fuck ’em?”

As of now, the Biden administration appears caught between the appearance of something wildly untoward and the reality that there’s not a whole lot it can do about the situation. Hunter remains a private citizen and is allowed to sell his scribblings to whomever he’d like, regardless of the provenance of the funds and the buyer’s motivation. Attempting to untangle this Gordian knot of ethical concerns, the White House and the gallerist struck a deal in July. 

Although the full details haven’t been revealed, both CNN and CBS have reported a number of particulars. Per the agreement, Hunter will supposedly never know the identity of the buyers, or even of the underbidders. If you squint, you could see how such a deal would address the ethical concerns. After all, if Hunter doesn’t know who’s showering him with hundreds of thousands of dollars for his paintings, how could they ever get in his good graces?  READ MORE

Dreaming

Reversing Heart Attacks and Strokes

Cysteamine reduced existing atherosclerosis in low‐density lipoprotein receptor–deficient mice. A, Representative images to show atherosclerotic lesions in the aorta of baseline, control, and mice treated with cysteamine (2.2 mmol/L in drinking water) stained with Oil Red O. Bar=500 μm. 

Data points show lesion areas in individual mice in each group in the aortic arch (B) and the rest of the thoracic plus abdominal aorta (C) of baseline, control, and cysteamine‐treated mice. Representative images to show atherosclerotic lesions in the aortic root (D) and lesion areas in individual mice (E). 

There were 17 to 20 mice in each group, and the horizontal line shows the group mean±SEM. Data were analyzed by ANOVA, followed by the Tukey post hoc test. *P<0.05, **P<0.01, ***P<0.001. Credit: DOI: 10.1161/JAHA.120.017524

An antioxidant drug reverses atherosclerosis and could be used to prevent heart attacks and strokes due to clots, according to research funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and published today in JAHA: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Atherosclerosis is the build-up of fatty deposits in the arteries. When a type of fat called LDL cholesterol becomes oxidized and builds up to form plaques in the artery walls, inflammation and damage increase which can cause the plaques to rupture and cause blood to clot.

These clots can block vital arteries that allow blood to flow to the heart, causing a heart attack, or to the brain causing a stroke.

Previously, researchers at the University of Reading discovered that LDL cholesterol can be oxidized in acidic small 'bags' called lysosomes in immune cells within the artery wall.

Now, Professor David Leake and his team have found that the antioxidant drug, cysteamine, has the power to switch off, and even reverse, this damaging process.

Cysteamine works by accumulating in the lysosomes and stops the oxidation of LDL cholesterol. It is already known to be safe in humans where it's used to treat a rare lysosomal disease called cystinosis.  READ MORE

Tag Along

 

Old Supernova

 

Two Hubble images show the galaxy cluster MACS J0138. In the 2016 image, light from the ancient Supernova Requiem appears in three different spots simultaneously on the edge of the cluster (circled in white). In the 2019 image, they are gone.  (Image credit: NASA/ Joseph DePasquale)

The universe is an endless expanse of mystery, majesty and mind-blowing spectacle. So why, a few years from now, is the cosmos airing a "rerun" of a supernova explosion that we already watched in 2016?

Known as Supernova Requiem, the faint glint of an ancient, 10 billion-year-old explosion is expected to reappear in the sky sometime around the year 2037 — even after the same light source already smiled for NASA's Hubble Space Telescope three times in 2016.

The reason for this cosmic rerun doesn't have anything to do with the supernova itself, research published Sept. 13 in the journal Nature Astronomy suggests, but with the gargantuan cluster of galaxies that the nova's light has to pass by on its way to Earth.

"Whenever some light passes near a very massive object, like a galaxy or galaxy cluster, the warping of space-time that Einstein's theory of general relativity tells us is present for any mass, delays the travel of light around that mass," lead study author Steve Rodney, an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, said in a statement.

This phenomenon is called gravitational lensing. The effect occurs when a gravitationally massive object warps or lenses the light of distant stars and galaxies behind it — sometimes magnifying the light of distant objects, and sometimes distorting it. In the case of Supernova Requiem, the large galaxy cluster MACS J0138 is causing the stellar explosion's light to brighten, multiply and split into several different images, seemingly appearing at different points in the sky at different times, the researchers said.  READ MORE

Wooded Area

 

Flawed Research on Calories

According to a 2018 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about half of Americans are trying to lose weight at any one time. 

The majority say exercise and eating less are the primary means of their attempted weight loss. Sadly, a majority of individuals trying to lose weight will fail at their attempts, gaining all or more weight back over time.

Now, a new review of our understanding of weight gain indicates that people are not necessarily failing at diets, it’s the diet message of moving more and eating less that doomed their efforts from the start. 

Oversimplification of the calories-in-versus-calories-out message, the authors argue, has led to a nation where almost more than 1 in 3 adults (roughly 42%) are considered to have obesity and the numbers are only getting worse.

Hormonal changes are the primary driver of excess fat storage
The paper, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition offers an alternative model to the eat-less-move-more message and argues that success in weight loss, as well as weight-loss maintenance, is more about what you eat and less about how much you eat.

Weight loss, the study found, is all about our hormonal response to certain macronutrients. Study authors include several of the most prominent nutrition scientists in the country.  READ MORE

Rose

 

Freedom

 

Americans take their freedoms for granted because they have never been in a position where they have had their freedoms taken away except for by their parents, their school teachers and their places of employment...  and, in each and every case where their freedoms have been taken away, and especially as they get older, PEOPLE HAVE A TENDENCY TO GET PISSED OFF...  and REBEL...  they rebel in a variety of ways:

As far as their parents are concerned, they argue with them, run away from home, get into trouble to pay them back, or leave home for good.

As far as their teachers are concerned, they disturb the class, talk back to the teacher, avoid going to the class, get expelled from school, or quit school altogether.

As far as their places of employment are concerned, they slow down their productivity, destroy the product, come late to work, miss work days for a variety of reasons, talk back to their supervisor, poison the minds of other workers, get fired, or quit.

Some Americans have spent time in the military which loves to take away freedoms especially in BOOT CAMP so that you will learn to obey a person of higher rank.  After boot camp, this loss of freedom is totally contingent upon rank...  as one receives more freedoms back, the higher the rank that they attain.

Some Americans have gone to war to protect the freedoms that we have in this country and many lost their lives or were critically wounded and returned home disabled.

Those Americans who have not served in the military do not understand why some Americans are willing to go to war to protect our freedoms.

If you are a conservative American, your freedom of speech is in question and is being supressed because the other side...  the liberals...  do not want your opinion to be heard...  they only want their opinions to be heard...

FIRST OF ALL...  censoring opinions that you do not agree with is taking away someone else's freedom...  we must be allowed to hear ALL OPPOSING VIEWS so that we can intelligently make up our minds...  however, the liberals, do not think that the conservatives can intelligently make up their minds and it is up to the liberals to help them do that...

THIS IS NOT A DEMOCRACY...  when shit like this happens...

A Couple of Laughs

 

Biden Blew His Own Green New Deal

 

Butt Tag

Chinese Have Found Flaws in US Drone

Chinese aviation engineers have reportedly found a flaw in the United States’ new Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie combat drone, asserting that the experimental system may not be effective in combat.

Citing Chinese publication Aircraft Design, South China Morning Post reported that engineer analysis of the Valkyrie design and implied functions shows it sacrifices maneuverability for firepower and fuel efficiency.

Engineers based the analysis on publicly available photos of the drone analyzed through reverse engineering technology.

One of the major flaws they pointed out was that the combat drone can only withstand a pull of 1.7 times the force of gravity. Usually, a combat aircraft should withstand a braking force of at least seven times the force of gravity or even higher.

Although they cited a weakness in the Valkyrie, the analysts admitted that several aspects may give it an advantage.

The US Air Force and drone manufacturer Kratos have yet to comment on the analysis.

The XQ-58A Valkyrie
The Valkyrie combat drone is an experimental stealth drone that is the result of a collaboration between defense company Kratos and the US Air Force Low Cost Attritable Strike Demonstrator program.

The first Valkyrie completed its maiden test flight in March, undergoing a total of seven test flights. According to data released by the air force, the recorded top speed of the Valkyrie is Mach 0.95 (728.6 mph).

China is also developing high-speed drones that it claims can attain speeds of up to Mach 5 (3,836.3 mph).

Underwater

 

Synchronous Fireflies

Great Smoky Mountains National Park has had the market cornered on synchronous fireflies for years. But thanks to a relatively recent discovery, the Blue Ridge Mountains just might give it a run for its money.


The Photinus carolinus is a species of firefly that each year, typically in the spring, put on a synchronous light display in order to find a mate. They are the only species in America whose individuals can synchronize their flashing light patterns.

CREDIT: JIM MAGRUDER

For decades, it was believed that the Smokies had the only population of synchronous fireflies in U.S. And while synchronous fireflies were eventually identified in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and in two other parts of Tennessee, the Smokies have always gotten the glory. In fact, the annual viewing event at the Elkmont Campground in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, is so popular that the National Park Service instituted a lottery system for tickets.

So, you can imagine how surprised Dr. Clyde Sorenson, a professor of entomology at N.C. State University, was by what he saw when he spent the night on Grandfather Mountain in June 2019.

"I noticed them immediately by their flash pattern—they were synchronous. By 10 p.m. there were hundreds of them. I walked up and down the roads and they were all through the woods. It thrilled me to death," Sorenson told the Asheville Citizen-Times.  TO READ MORE ABOUT THESE FIREFLIES, CLICK HERE...

Making Art

 

What's the Worst That Couild Happen?

How bad could climate change get?

Humans have already warmed the planet by at least 1 degree Celsius by burning fossil fuels that spew heat-trapping gases into the sky. The oceans are rising, and deadly disasters like wildfires, heat waves, and flooding are becoming more destructive. Almost every part of the world is experiencing the effects of climate change.

That much is “unequivocal,” according to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an international team of scientists convened by the United Nations.

What’s far less certain is just how bleak the future of our planet will be.

This critical question reaches beyond physical sciences into economics, sociology, and even psychology. Humans still have the power to slow the climate crisis — though with each day that goes by without sweeping societal changes to slash emissions, the outlook grows more grim.

The first installment of the IPCC’s sixth assessment report, which focuses on the physical science behind climate change, considers five scenarios that game out how humanity will respond, or not, to the specter of warming. They reveal that some of the more extreme projections of the past are less likely to come to fruition. But every scenario in the report also overshoots one of the targets of the 2015 Paris climate agreement. A best-case scenario now requires drastically more climate action than the world has achieved to date, and the window for action is closing.

However, “Scenarios are not predictions,” the report says. “Instead, they provide a ‘what-if’ investigation of the implications of various developments and actions.”

In short, these scenarios show how scientists are grappling with the capriciousness of human behavior. What happens if more countries are taken over by nationalists? Or if clean technology makes a radical leap forward? Or if countries and corporations actually start to buckle down and throttle emissions?

Our planet has many possible futures that depend on human decisions. These visions of tomorrow emphasize that we have profoundly and irreversibly changed the world, but also that much of the potential warming is still in our hands.  READ MORE