Living in Tennessee

This morning, FOX News had a segment on the hundreds of people that were leaving Democratic-controlled states and moving to Tennessee, specifically NASHVILLE.  But, the state of Tennessee is not just about Nashville...

• When I think of Nashville, I think of the home of Country Music...
• When I think of Memphis, I think of the home of Elvis Presley...
• When I think of Bristol, I think of the home of NASCAR....
• When I think of Knoxville, I think of the home of Oak Ridge National Laboratories...
• When I think of Chattanooga, I think of  Glenn Miller's Chattanooga Choo Choo and the revitalized riverfront, similar to the riverfront in San Antonio, Texas...

Tennessee is also the home of Jack Daniels whiskey and has the nickname of "Volunteers" that dates back to the Alamo and Davy Crockett...

And, what is not mentioned often is the Great Smoky Mountains which is the NUMBER ONE TOURIST ATTRACTION in the entire US of A...   imagine that?

Tennessee has a HUGE system of LAKES thanks to the TVA and the public works projects of the 1920s that put people to work because of the Great Depression.  And, where I am currently living, I have access to two lakes on either side of me, Cherokee and Douglas...  I can get to either lake in about 10-15 minutes.

About 40-60 minutes (depending upon traffic) away from my location, there is:

• Pidgeon Forge
• Dollywood
• Gatlinburg

Each of these tourist attractions went from just being opened in the summer months (circa 1990s) to being open 12 months a year (circa 2000s)...

Oak Ridge National Laboratories just outside of Knoxville, receives 80% of the Department of Energy's budget each year to work on a variety of projects for the Federal Government...  Currently, ORNL works on protecting nuclear materials to secure the peaceful use of energy production, medical applications, and scientific discovery around the world...

I moved over to TN in 1990 and 32 years later not only am I still here but I have no desire to live anywhere else...  I wear a t-shirt from April through December...  that's 8 months out of the year...  not bad.

Do yourself a favor...  come to TN for a visit...  stay a week or two, maybe three...  spend your money, but don't stay!!!

Relax... Don't Worry...

Dan Bongino took Rush Limbaugh's spot on talk radio and moved from NYC to Florida and is a regular guest on FOX News...  Today he was interviewed on FOX News as a result of the FBI's raid of former President Trump's home in Florida...   claiming that Trump took classified documents when he left the Whitehouse, knowing that his defense would be, I declassified them before I left office...  but they did the deed anyway.

Dan was LIVID, to say the least and while he said that he was a conservative and therefore a Republican but not because of the current Republicans in Congress because they are a DO NOTHING group of politicians and need to immediately be removed.  Dan said the GOP now TALKS BOLD AND BIG but when it comes to action, they accomplish nothing.

Dan Bongino pretty much reflects my sentiments about all of the Congressional Republicans except for Lindsey Graham and a couple of others that FOX News interviews regularly...

The Democrats play dirty but piss, bitch, and moan when others play dirty against them...

The Democrats lie and really do not feel guilty about their lies as they continue to make these lies daily...

The Democrats are moving closer and closer to a Socialistic form of government where the government provides you with everything -- just like the movie/show STAR TREK...

The Democrats have mainstream media covering the ASSES, networks like CNN, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, PBR...

If this is the kind of government that you want...  then have it...  and, the reason that I say this is because HISTORICALLY all socialistic governments FAIL...

History always repeats itself whether we like it or not and regardless if this is what some of want or don't want...

In order to have a socialistic government, two things have to happen.

First - the government must insure that it can collect taxes from the WEALTHY in order to pay for the socialistic society...  USA millionaires and billionaires already have their money shelter away from taxes in the Grand Caymans.

Second - the government must insure that ALL BUSINESSES will be willing to pay their fair share of whatever...  or be taken over (OWNED) by the federal government...  then the government can manage the business any way they like.

Do you really think first or second will happen in the US of A?

Right now, about 70% of what we receive is considered to already be SOCIALISTIC in nature, such as:

• Public Education
• Public Transportation
• Public Parks and Recreation
• Social Security
• Medicare
• Unemployment Insurance

These programs already cost the country so much money that we are ASSHOLE deep in debt with CHINA owning ONE-THIRD of that debt...  can you imagine that China owns 1/3 of our debt?

What do we do when they DEMAND their money back?

What I do...

 I have been writing poetry since 1972, opinion articles since 2000, and novels since 2015...  but, I am not saying that any of my writing is actually any good because none of it has been published yet and I doubt that it ever will but that does not deter me from writing.

I have also had professional art classes at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington DC in: charcoal, oils, acrylics, and oils.  I also spent 8 years (4-5 hours a week) receiving training in photography from a professional photographer who had a studio connected to the building in which I was working.

So...  what all did this do for me?

Not much of anything actually...  although, I have something to do each day that I have been retired and continue to be retired.

I suppose that the more I write the better I get at communicating both orally and written...   and, I am sure that has helped me in my career and personal life...  but, other than that, I don't suppose it has made any difference at all...  still, I am obsessed with writing every day.  

Do I think having an ability to write is important?

YES!

But....  verbal communications is much more important...  as when one speaks, one can motivate or demotivate people...  using the wrong word can send the wrong signals.  I remember a northern plant manager came down here to the south and made some comment about his employees being "rednecks" because he thought that was an appropriate word to use...  and, 1,500 people held that against him for over a year.

This plant manager did not know his audience...

When you get to be my age you have all kinds of stories to tell based upon one's experiences...  these stories can be learning experiences if the listener is open-minded and willing to learn.

All Around Me

 

Dead at the age of 73...  is Olivia Newton-John...  only one year younger than me...

I saw a video clip online today of a middle-aged woman holding a sand crab in her hand that started to walk up her arm...

Another photo of a younger female laying on a tree limb twice as big as she was with both arms wrapped around hugging it...

An advertisement flashed on my monitor screen that I could rent a two-bedroom, 800-1000 square feet for about $1,000 in Knoxville, TN...  based upon the location because the range of prices for the same basic apartment went from $800 to over $1,500...

Life is operating all around me...  the good...  the bad...  and the indifferent...  and, I can see it if I want to look for it...

I went to therapy for my left hip area today and was told that I have bursitis...  I was shown an exercise to do that immediately helped me walk up steps...   I was impressed...

How often do we take for granted that which we have all around us?  And, why is it, do you suppose, that we do this?  Are we just too busy to see?  Do we not care about life around us, instead focusing on ourselves?

It seems, at least to me, that all we care about these days is:

• getting out of school
• finding somewhere to work not necessarily a career
• finding a spouse and having children
• drinking alcohol and having sex
• watching sports of all kinds
• owning a pickup truck or SUV
• having fun when not working
• not worrying about getting a serious disease
• not thinking about one's future nor really planning (or caring) about retirement

And, when one really thinks about it, that is really not a bad list to have...  unless you are financially well off, really wealthy, or a billionaire...  then your priorities are a hell of a lot different, but even then you don't really appreciate the life that is all around you...  because you are ABSORBED IN AND WITH SELF...

Did you know?

• millions of people around the world live in poverty
• millions of people around the world do not have enough to eat daily
• millions of people around the world are homeless
• millions of people around the world have had no education

I betcha none of these millions are worried about climate control or going green or that the polar ice caps are melting...

WHY DOES IT TAKE GROWING OLD TO CHANGE ONE'S CARING ABOUT LIFE AROUND THEM?

Moving Sculpture

 

Americans Relocating to Europe

With rising interest rates, the COVID-19 pandemic that gave many a new perspective on life and the sting of inflation, more Americans are now looking to Europe for a more relaxed lifestyle.

Countries such as Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece are luring in overseas buyers seeking more of the calm, sun-filled beach days, according to a report by Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices.

The rising interest in moving to these countries can be contributed to many workers who are still working remotely since the onset of the pandemic.

“We don’t expect activity to be near the levels we saw in 2021 or the first part of 2022, but the Spanish market has been very resilient,” Ugo Bagration, head of business expansion at the agency’s office in Marbella, said in the report. “It’s proving to be a hub and destination for foreign investment within the real estate market.”

Spain has seen an influx of buyers from North America due its affordability, Bagration explained. That being said, because of the high property taxes in the country, others are opting for countries with less of a burden, such as Italy.

Rome in particular, is seeing more high-net-worth families investing in property, as many residences have been updated in recent years, according to Marcus Benussi, managing partner at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices.  READ MORE...

Well Prepared

 

We Were Ocean Dwellers in Early Life

By studying the genetic tree of life, scientists have determined that the first life on Earth may have lived underwater, where it would be shielded from harmful ultraviolet light from the sun.

The origin of life on Earth remains a mystery, but scientists are slowly putting together genetic puzzle pieces to learn more about how the first life on Earth lived, between 2.5 and 4 billion years ago. Now, scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of California, Riverside, have used machine learning to trace the evolutionary development of a protein-based molecule called rhodopsin back to some of the most ancient microbial life-forms to have existed on Earth. The results may also inform the search for life beyond Earth, the scientists argue.

"It's like taking the DNA of many grandchildren to reproduce the DNA of their grandparents," astrobiologist Edward Schwieterman of the University of California Riverside, a co-author on the new research, said in a statement(opens in new tab).

The researchers suspect that rhodopsin provided the battery power for early life, turning light from the sun into energy. On modern Earth, rhodopsin can absorb blue, green, yellow and orange light. (It is also tangentially related to the light-absorbing rods and cones that our eyes use to see the world.)

Schwieterman and his colleagues began by using machine learning to look for the genes that control rhodopsin in as wide a swathe of life on Earth as possible, then identifying those genes that had the longest lineages.

This analysis suggested that ancient rhodopsin absorbed just blue and green light. This reduced capability makes sense in a scenario in which early life may have originated in the ocean, where blue and green wavelengths of light penetrate deeper into a column of water than other optical wavelengths: Being able to absorb these wavelengths to derive energy would have been vitally important.  READ MORE...

Playful Cub

 

Room Temperature Superconductivity

Less than two years after shocking the science world with the discovery of a material capable of room-temperature superconductivity, a team of UNLV physicists has upped the ante once again by reproducing the feat at the lowest pressure ever recorded.

In other words, science is closer than it's ever been to a usable, replicable material that could one day revolutionize how energy is transported. UNLV physicist Ashkan Salamat and colleague Ranga Dias, a physicist with the University of Rochester, made international headlines in 2020 by reporting room-temperature superconductivity for the first time. To achieve the feat, the scientists chemically synthesized a mix of carbon, sulfur, and hydrogen first into a metallic state, and then even further into a room-temperature superconducting state using extreme pressure—267 gigapascals—conditions you'd only find in nature near the center of the Earth. Fast forward less than two years, and the team is now able to complete the feat at just 91 GPa—roughly one-third the pressure initially reported. The new findings were published this month as an advance article in the journal Chemical Communications.

A super discovery
Through a detailed tuning of the composition of carbon, sulfur, and hydrogen used in the original breakthrough, scientists are able to produce a material at a lower pressure that retains its state of superconductivity.

"These are pressures at a level difficult to comprehend and evaluate outside of the lab, but our current trajectory shows that it's possible achieve relatively high superconducting temperatures at consistently lower pressures—which is our ultimate goal," said study lead author Gregory Alexander Smith, a graduate student researcher with UNLV's Nevada Extreme Conditions Laboratory (NEXCL). "At the end of the day, if we want to make devices beneficial to societal needs, then we have to reduce the pressure needed to create them."  READ MORE...

Several Ideas

 

Elephants Walking Up a Creek

 

USA Makes Discovery Then Gives It To China

The former UniEnergy Technologies office in Mukilteo, Wash. Taxpayers spent $15 million on 

research to build a breakthrough battery. Then the U.S. government gave it to China

When a group of engineers and researchers gathered in a warehouse in Mukilteo, Wash., 10 years ago, they knew they were onto something big. They scrounged up tables and chairs, cleared out space in the parking lot for experiments and got to work.

They were building a battery — a vanadium redox flow battery — based on a design created by two dozen U.S. scientists at a government lab. The batteries were about the size of a refrigerator, held enough energy to power a house, and could be used for decades. 

The engineers pictured people plunking them down next to their air conditioners, attaching solar panels to them, and everyone living happily ever after off the grid.

"It was beyond promise," said Chris Howard, one of the engineers who worked there for a U.S. company called UniEnergy. "We were seeing it functioning as designed, as expected."

But that's not what happened. Instead of the batteries becoming the next great American success story, the warehouse is now shuttered and empty. All the employees who worked there were laid off. 

And more than 5,200 miles away, a Chinese company is hard at work making the batteries in Dalian, China.     READ MORE...

Our Universe

 

Restoring Cell & Organ Function After Death

Illustration of organ perfusion and cellular recovery with OrganEx technology. 

The cell-saving blood analog is delivered to vital organs one hour after death. 

Credit: Marin Balaic

Yale-developed technology restores cell and organ function in pigs after death, a potential organ transplant breakthrough.

Within just minutes of the final heartbeat, a cascade of biochemical events triggered by a lack of blood flow, nutrients, and oxygen begins to destroy a body’s cells and organs. However, a team of researchers at Yale University has discovered that massive and permanent cellular failure doesn’t have to happen so quickly.

Using a new technology the scientists developed that delivers a specially designed cell-protective fluid to organs and tissues, the team restored blood circulation and other cellular functions in pigs a full hour after their deaths. They report their findings in the August 3 edition of the journal Nature.

Their results may help extend the health of human organs during surgery and expand the availability of donor organs, the authors said.

“All cells do not die immediately, there is a more protracted series of events,” said David Andrijevic, associate research scientist in neuroscience at Yale School of Medicine and co-lead author of the study. “It is a process in which you can intervene, stop, and restore some cellular function.”  READ MORE...

Dogs in Snow

 

Ending Medicare

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has suggested that Social Security and Medicare be eliminated as federal entitlement programs, and that they should instead become programs approved by Congress on an annual basis as discretionary spending.

Those who work in the United States pay Social Security and Medicare taxes that go into federal trust funds. 

Upon retirement, based on a person’s lifetime earnings and other factors, a retiree is eligible to receive monthly Social Security payments. 

Similarly, Medicare is the federal health insurance program that kicks in for people 65 and older, or for others who have disabilities.

In an interview that aired Tuesday on “The Regular Joe Show” podcast, Johnson, who is seeking a third term in the Senate, lamented that the Social Security and Medicare programs automatically grant benefits to those who meet the qualifications — that is, to those who had been paying into the system over their working life.  READ MORE...

Needing to Stand

 

Anatomy of a Marriage

 

Before you start feeling too comfortable in your marriage, you ought to give it the once over...  or maybe the twice over...  actually, you better start paying attention to what is taking place before it is too late...

Whether you want to admit it or not, IN EVERY MARRIAGE, one spouse is always more dominant...  and I don't mean that in a sexual way but in a controlling way...

In other words, one spouse needs the other spouse more than the other spouse needs the one spouse.

It does not matter who this controlling person is as it can be either MALE or FEMALE...  it just depends on their personality.

If you are in a marriage where only the male is working as was the case with my parents...  then that male is usually the controlling one...  consequently, the wife needs the husband more than the husband needs the wife.

If both the male and the female are working, then the female is usually the controlling one, especially if she has fashion model beauty.  Another area that you should look at if the wife has incredible beauty is...  does she take sexual intercourse for granted...  in that does she try to screw your eyeballs out, or just lay there without doing much of anything...

I can just about guarantee that the female is dominant and controlling if she has to get on top of the male in order to orgasm...  that claim or assertion is simply not true, and she gets on top to show who is boss.  However, this is not true, if the male asks her to get on top.

A sure sign of dominance happens when the female says:  IF MOMMA AINT HAPPY THEN NOBODY IS HAPPY...

It is simply impossible for there to be two BOSSES in a marriage...  only one is boss...  and, once you have determined that...  then you can assume that the BOSS needs you less than you need the BOSS...  the BOSS may not articulate that sentiment, but that sentiment is inside their head and part of their personality and will surface if their position comes under scrutiny or if they feel threatened.

Make sure that everything that you own is JOINT PROPERTY regardless of whose name appears on the title or the legal documents.  JOINT PROPERTY is owned 50/50 in the eyes of the law.

In the past, this dominant person has been the MALE but with so many females entering the workforce and receiving a college education, and not having children, they are beginning to show their dominant sides, and believe me, they can get down in the gutter and be really dirty to protect their identities and power.

Especially dangerous are females who have been sexually abused and no longer trust any male, even the one they eventually marry.   Most of these women will not share their experiences with their spouses...

Sunday Morning

This is the first Sunday in August and we have 3 more of them just like this one...  but is Sunday the beginning or the ending of the week?  I guess it depends on one's upbringing...  my upbringing had Sundays ending the week but most of the Baptists here in East TN, see Sunday as the beginning of the week...  All in all, I am not sure if it really makes any difference at all, especially if you are retired like I am.

June and July went by really quickly so I am assuming August will follow suit and before long we'll be shoveling snow instead of shit like most of us do at work.

I know that Sundays should not be a day of worry especially since some of us have already turned over that task to God...  but, God cannot help us with China and China has got me really worried.

Their army is bigger than our army and they do not accept trans into the army.  Their navy is bigger than our navy and they are trying to build up their air force and supply of nuclear weapons...  however, I really don't think any leader is really going to use nuclear weapons unless it is Kim Jong Un in North Korea or what's his name in Iran.

Despite what you have heard or perhaps not heard, there are people in this country who believe that some of us can survive a nuclear attack.  That ability to survive will take place underground, and our government has already decided that only the ELITE AND SMART will be saved.

What that means is...  if you ever hear on the news that a nuclear bomb is headed towards the USA, then you better smoke your last joint because very shortly your ass and others are going to be blown to hell...  if you are not in that zone, then you have a few weeks before the radiation kills you...  and that death will not be pleasant.

But yes...  China worries me...  I guess that began when I heard that Xi Jinping wants to conquer the world before he dies...  He wants to conquer all the militaries and all the economies...  but, I think that first, he is going to dick around with Taiwan...  and, he will do this before the election in 2024 while Joe Biden is still President...  

I believe that Xi Jinping believes that Biden won't do shit if he starts dicking around with Taiwan.  I am not sure if its because Biden has connections with businesses in China...  but, I am sure it's because Biden is perceived as being a weak leader.

I am too old to learn Mandarin Chinese but I believe that you better look into it because if Xi Jinping takes over the USA, he ain't gonna want to speak English...