Path Less Taken

 Sometimes...  walking through a wooded area on a seldom used path can be invigorating as it reduces one's stress comuning with nature...  but, then there are the spiders...  the ticks...  the bees...  and the snakes that one may have to contend with...  and, the experience becomes not enjoyable at all...

THIS IS THE ROAD LESS TAKEN...

When I left high school, one of the lessons that he shared with me (and there were many) revolved around learning from those who came before you...  and, while that does make a lot of sense, it negates a lot of valuable experience on which you might miss out.

And, while I did learn a lot of valuable experience, my decision put me a good 10 years behind my peers who decided that they would get very little from those experiences...  looking back...  perhaps they were right...  but, I am still glad that I did what I did.

I don't know if you have heard this lesson or not but it's kinda like the turtle and the rabbit.  

Most days when I am in the car and going through a city, whether urban or rural, there is always a driver who has to take off fast from the red light...  so, he can get green on the next one and maybe green on the next one, but on the third one he catches the red.  

Interestingly, I am right there with him...  maybe a few cars behind...  but, I did not jump off the red light quickly, nor did I exceed the speed limit...  yet, I always catch up with them...  when going through a city.

It is humorous to watch these drivers because they never see me and know that I am right behind them and THEY HAVE GAINED NOTHING...

The same issue is present between me and my peers because even though I am 10 years behind them, I always catch up with them, and oftentimes surpass them...  sometime around half way through their careers.

It's true that I worked a little harder because I was behind, but that working harder is normal work for me...  at least during my career...  I am not that same kind of person now that I am retired.

My retirement is a little better or maybe the same as my peers because during the last 15 years of my career, I started planning for my retirement.  I planned for my retirement because that was one of the lessons that I learned when I took THE PATH LESS TAKEN.

What makes the photo at the beginning of this article a good one is not so much the subject matter but the use of light and dark to create contrast and depth of field...  this is what I learned from the path less taken.

Tug-of-War

 

Unleashing Nuclear Fusion

LASERS ARE useful for a lot of things. They made CDs work (when they were still a thing). They also provide hours of entertainment for cats (and their humans). 

But they can also create magnetic conditions similar to the surface of the Sun in a lab, according to new research by scientists at Osaka University. And that might help a wide range of other scientific disciplines, ranging from solar astronomy to fusion.

The experiment used a high-power laser, known as Gekko XII, at the Institute of Laser Engineering at Osaka University. Originally designed for fusion experiments, this laser is powerful enough to vaporize a piece of plastic if it is focused on it. 

Or, more accurately, it is powerful enough to turn it into plasma.

That is just what the researchers did. They zapped a small piece of plastic with Gekko XII that sat on top of a magnet emitting a weak magnetic field. 

The laser blast, which only lasted for about 500 picoseconds, created a high-energy plasma that distorts an already weak magnetic field over the sample. 

That combination of a weak magnetic field and plasma created a situation known as a “pure electron outflow.”  READ MORE...

Watercolors

 

More From the Webb Telescope

We previewed our uncrewed Artemis I mission to the Moon during a pair of briefings. On August 3, agency officials at our NASA Headquarters and at other NASA centers provided a “big picture overview” of the mission.

“Artemis I shows that we can do big things. Things that unite people, things that benefit humanity. Things like Apollo that inspire the world.” — Bill Nelson, NASA Administrator

That was followed two days later with a deeper dive into the mission’s timeline and operations from our Johnson Space Center. 

The agency is currently targeting no earlier than Monday, August 29, for the launch of the Space Launch System rocket to send the Orion spacecraft around the Moon and back to Earth. 

Artemis I will take place over the course of about six weeks to check out systems before astronauts fly aboard the spacecraft on Artemis II.

This image of the Cartwheel and its companion galaxies is a composite from Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), which reveals details that are difficult to see in the individual images alone.

This galaxy formed as the result of a high-speed collision that occurred about 400 million years ago. The Cartwheel is composed of two rings, a bright inner ring, and a colorful outer ring. 

Both rings expand outward from the center of the collision like shockwaves. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team.  READ MORE...

Waves at Sunrise

 

Common Viruses and Alzheimer's

Varicella zoster virus (VZV), which commonly causes chickenpox and shingles, activates herpes simplex virus (HSV) from dormancy in neural tissue grown in vitro, which then leads to an increase in plaque deposits and decrease in neural signaling — hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease. Credit: Tufts University

Shingles infection may awaken dormant neurological herpes viruses, causing inflammation and accumulation of Alzheimer’s associated proteins in the brain.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia in older adults and the 7th leading cause of death in the United States, according to the National Institute on Aging. 

It is a debilitating progressive illness that slowly destroys cognitive function and memory.

It can begin almost imperceptibly, often masquerading in the early months or years as forgetfulness that is very common in older age. What causes Alzheimer’s disease remains largely a mystery.

But researchers using a three-dimensional human tissue culture model mimicking the brain, have shown that varicella zoster virus (VZV), which commonly causes chickenpox and shingles, may activate herpes simplex (HSV), another common virus, to set in motion the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. 

The study was conducted by scientists at Tufts University and the University of Oxford.  READ MORE...

Catch & Release

 

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