Tuesday, August 23
Monday, August 22
Sleeping Giant in Our Oceans
Red medusa found just off the bottom of the deep sea in Alaska.
Credit: Hidden Ocean 2005/NOAA
A previously overlooked factor — the position of continents — helps fill Earth’s oceans with life-supporting oxygen. Continental movement could ultimately have the opposite effect, killing the majority of deep ocean creatures.
“Continental drift seems so slow, like nothing drastic could come from it, but when the ocean is primed, even a seemingly tiny event could trigger the widespread death of marine life,” said Andy Ridgwell, University of California, Riverside geologist. Ridgwell is co-author of a new study on forces affecting oceanic oxygen.
As the water at the ocean’s surface approaches the north or south pole, it becomes colder and denser and then sinks. When the water sinks, it transports oxygen pulled from Earth’s atmosphere down to the ocean floor.
Eventually, a return flow brings nutrients released from sunken organic matter back to the ocean’s surface, where it fuels the growth of plankton. Today’s oceans feature an incredible diversity of fish and other animals that are supported by both the uninterrupted supply of oxygen to lower depths and organic matter produced at the surface.
New research has found that this circulation of oxygen and nutrients can end quite suddenly. Using complex computer models, the scientists investigated whether the locations of continental plates affect how the ocean moves oxygen around. They were surprised to find that it does.
This finding led by researchers based at UC Riverside is detailed in the journal Nature. It was published today (August 17, 2022). READ MORE...
Arrow Found in Melting Ice
Image Credit : Glacier Archaeology Program
ARCHAEOLOGISTS FROM THE GLACIER ARCHAEOLOGY PROGRAM HAVE FOUND AN ARROW IN THE MELTING ICE DURING A RESEARCH PROJECT IN THE NORWEGIAN MOUNTAINS.
The project is focusing on a melted ice patch in the Jotunheimen mountain range, where the team has found a preserved arrow with an intact iron arrowhead, shortly after arriving at their base camp 1750 metres above sea level.
The arrow dates from around 1,500 years ago during the Norwegian Iron Age, discovered in a collection of broken rock fragments between larger stones on the lower edge of the icefield.
The team believes that the arrow was lost and deposited downslope by meltwater, and has since been exposed several times over the centuries with the melting ice.
This is indicated by the lack of fletching, the fin-shaped aerodynamic stabilisation normally made from feathers or bark. Evidence of sinew and tar has also been identified, but this survives in a poor state of preservation.
The arrow is tapered towards the end and the nock has been thickened for engaging with a bowstring. The remains of the tar would have glued the fletching to the shaft, while imprints of the thread securing the fletching is still visible. READ MORE...
Telescopes Uses Ripples in TIME
The first JWST image of Earendel, the most distant star known in our universe,
lensed and magnified ... NASA, ESA, CSA, STSCI
Scientists using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have imaged the most distant star ever observed thanks to a a ripple in spacetime that creates extreme magnification.
It’s currently 28 billion light-years away and its light has traveled 12.9 billion years into JWST’s optics. It existed just 900 million years after the big bang in a galaxy astronomers have nicknamed the Sunrise Arc.
The image of WHL0137-LS, above, was produced from over three hours of observations last weekend—but it’s not the star you think! Ignore the spiky star and instead go to the lower right-hand side (see below).
The ancient star is estimated to have a mass greater than 50 times the mass of the Sun.
Better known as “Earendel,” which means “morning star” or “rising light” in old English—was gravitationally lensed and magnified by a massive galaxy cluster called WHL0137–08 (a.k.a. “Sunrise Arc”) in the foreground. READ MORE...
It’s currently 28 billion light-years away and its light has traveled 12.9 billion years into JWST’s optics. It existed just 900 million years after the big bang in a galaxy astronomers have nicknamed the Sunrise Arc.
The image of WHL0137-LS, above, was produced from over three hours of observations last weekend—but it’s not the star you think! Ignore the spiky star and instead go to the lower right-hand side (see below).
The ancient star is estimated to have a mass greater than 50 times the mass of the Sun.
Better known as “Earendel,” which means “morning star” or “rising light” in old English—was gravitationally lensed and magnified by a massive galaxy cluster called WHL0137–08 (a.k.a. “Sunrise Arc”) in the foreground. READ MORE...
Sunday, August 21
Going on Vacation
After walking each day for over 7 days straight, I have decided to take a break today...
I have a CT Scan tomorrow at &:45 so I should be home by 9:00 am which is about the time that I usually walk so I will be to return to my schedule...
In 3 weeks, my wife and I are traveling to Myrtle Beach to spend a week there. While I will be spending all of my time at the beach under an umbrella, I am also hoping that I will not have that much trouble getting into and out of those low situated beach chairs.
For less than $2,000 we can spend a week at Myrtle Beach that includes all our gasoline, food, and motel accomodations. Our motel condo directly faces the Atlantic Ocean rather than being on the side. We have a balcony, a living room kitchen and eating area, a large bathroom, and a bedroom in the back with a door.
There are plenty of restaurants from which to choose and there are plenty of attractions we can visit should we choose to do so... however, without fail we will stop at least one night at COLD STONE ice cream and purchase a medium or large cup of custom-made ice cream with all sorts of items included. I always get the apple pie concoction.
At our age, we no longer get into the water above the waist and typically we only get into the water to cool off. We walk along the coastline but mainly we sit under the umbrella and watch the people or read. In my case I listen to an audible book or write in my journal.
Are vacations necessary?
Probably not... but, even though we are retired, we enjoying having a change of scenery at least once or twice during the year.
BUT... more importantly, it is the FREEDOM to be able to leave your home and travel to another location and enjoy what that location has to offer before returning. As one gets older, FREEDOM and MOBILITY are two important concepts that we appreciate that we still have and will have for at least another decade or two.
Do You Save Money?
Since I was still honest at that age, I did not lie about the money I was earning, so HALF was indeed saved and the other half was kept in the top shelf of my dresser.
With my half, I purchased a:
- Television set
- Set of Weights
- A complete drum set
The mindset that was instilled in me when I was young stayed with me all my life and while I did not always save half of my earnings, I did continue to save money if and when there was extra money to save.
At the time, I DID NOT KNOW THIS but if I had saved $2.50 each day and at the end of the month deposited that money into a mutual fund and continued that process for 40 years, I would have SAVED $500,000.
Now think about that for a moment...
Let's say you start this at age 18 so 40 years later you would be 58... and, you would have $500,000.
A general rule of thumb is that for every $100,000 you should be able to earn $400 each month. So, that $500,000 at age 58 would start giving you $2,000 each month. In addition to whatever salary you might be making at the time.
$2.50 each month is $75 every 30 days... so, what could you spend $75 on instead of saving? And, how come most people don't think of saving any money at all until they are in their late 50s or early 60s?
If you are not educated then you need to THINK SMART...
The Common Person
Some of us go to Church on Sundays and some of go out to lunch on Sundays and some of us do both and some of us do neither... it is a day where just about anything goes as far as the common person is concerned... and no doubt the same holds true for the uncommon person as well.
- Who is this uncommon person?
- Well, who is this common person?
- If we know one, then the opposite is true for the other one...
For me, I would say that the common person is the person who is married and both spouses only have a high school education with maybe some technical training or a certificate of completion for some skill.
This couple receives an hourly wages as both work. They live in a 1200 square foot house or less or maybe they live in a double-wide or even a single-wide trailer or a 1-2 bedroom apartment depending upon how many children they have. They drive cars that are over 10 years old or they have newer vehicles on which they are making payments.
Their combined income is less than $100,000 and a range could extend up to $150,000, but that would be unusual unless only one spouse is working with a high paycheck... for instance, long haul 18 Wheeler drivers probably earn about $150,000/year +/- but most of that income is going to pay for the truck they are leasing or buying.
This would be the common person. Basically living paycheck to paycheck...
And, while that description is misleading, it can also apply to millionaires who spend exactly what they earn leaving them without savings just a bunch of expensive assets that they don't completely own yet.
The common man is both liberal and conservative and one cannot say which side has the most as the liberals like government handouts because they are poor while the conservatives don't want any help at all because of their ego and pride. So, there are poor people on both sides.
So, who are you?
And, what kind of person are you when it comes to want handouts or not?
Personally, I can see family helping out, or the church, or local community, but I cannot see that it is the role of government to provide us with handouts.
I think lazy people want handouts.
Are you lazy?
The Resume of DeSantis
60 Minutes had a hit piece on Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis, but failed to disclose these facts:
Ronald Dion DeSantis was born on September 14, 1978, in Jacksonville, Florida, the son of Karen (née Rogers) and Ronald DeSantis. He is of Italian descent.
His family moved to Orlando, Florida, before relocating to Dunedin, Florida when he was six years old.
In 1991, he was a member of the Little League team from Dunedin National that made it to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
After graduating from Dunedin High School in 1997, DeSantis attended Yale University.
He was captain of Yale's varsity baseball team and joined the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. On the Yale baseball team, DeSantis was an outfielder; as a senior in 2001, he had the team's best batting average at .336.
He graduated from Yale in 2001 with a B.A. magna cum laude in history. He then spent a year as a history teacher at the Darlington School.
DeSantis then attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 2005 with a Juris Doctor cum laude.
DeSantis received his Reserve Naval officer's commission and assignment to the Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAG) in 2004 at the US Naval Reserve Center in Dallas Texas, while still a student at Harvard Law School.
He completed Naval Justice School in 2005. Later that year, he received orders to the JAG Trial Service Office Command South East at Naval Station Mayport, Florida, as a prosecutor. In 2006, he was promoted from lieutenant junior grade, to lieutenant.
He worked for the commander of Joint Task Force-Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO), working directly with detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Joint Detention Facility.
In 2007, DeSantis reported to the Naval Special Warfare Command Group in Coronado, California, where he was assigned to SEAL Team One and deployed to Iraq with the troop surge as the Legal Advisor to the SEAL Commander, Special Operations Task Force-West in Fallujah.
DeSantis returned to the U.S. in April 2008, at which time he was reassigned to the Naval Region Southeast Legal Service.
The U.S. Department of Justice appointed him to serve as an Assistant U.S. Attorney at the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Middle District of Florida. DeSantis was assigned as a trial defense counsel until his honorable discharge from active duty in February 2010.
He concurrently accepted a reserve commission as a Lieutenant Commander in the Judge Advocate General's Corps of the US Navy Reserve.
He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and the Iraq Campaign Medal. He represented Florida's 6th Congressional District in the US House of Representatives from 2013 to 2018.
Obviously, with these qualifications, he is NOT qualified to be a Democrat, or serve in a senior political position in our nation’s capital when one considers and compares the credentials of Pelosi, Schumer, Harris or Biden.
He has kept Florida free of the grip of a tyrannical federal government while our State of Florida still prospers, which is why more people have moved to Florida than any other state for the last couple years.
So, for anyone who criticizes him, now you have the facts.
Deploying Discriminating Radar
The US Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) is winding up tests of its new Long-Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR) as part of a significant defense upgrade against inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) to fend off a potential nuclear attack on mainland US from North Korea.
Brig. Gen. Joey Lestorti, head of the US Northern Command’s Operations Directorate/J3, said that the LRDR will be operational within months, reported Breaking Defense.
“We are literally months away from being able to plug in the Long Range Discrimination Radar, LRDR, in the missile defense operational architecture.
From the testing so far, we are seeing positive results for what this radar can do for us, discriminating threats to the continental US to make ground-based interceptor engagements more lethal,” Lestorti told the annual Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Ala., on August 10. READ MORE...
"Angry Kitten" System to be Used in Combat
South of Death Valley this spring, the Air Force experimented with electronic warfare. In tests that took place in April at China Lake, California, fighter jets flew 30 training missions, testing the efficacy of an electronic warfare training device called “Angry Kitten.” In an August 3 announcement, the Air Force recommended using Angry Kitten for actual combat.
“Given the success of the pod in training and demonstrated ability to be reprogrammed, Air Combat Command recommended four pods be converted into combat pods to provide attack capabilities against enemy radio frequency threat systems, instead of simulating them,” reads the announcement.
Electronic warfare is a crucial part of modern armed conflict. It involves, broadly, the transmission and obstruction of signals along the electromagnetic spectrum, primarily but not exclusively in the domain of radio waves. These signals are used for communication between pilots; with radar to perceive the location of enemies beyond visual sight; and for weapons guidance. If one side can block the signals of the other side, it can potentially prevent their pilots from communicating, their radar from perceiving, and their weapons from following radar guidance.
The Angry Kitten was developed by the Georgia Tech Research Institute to simulate the electronic warfare devices of other country’s aircraft, the kind that the Air Force might encounter in the sky. It is a system that incorporates a software-defined radio, meaning its signal and frequencies can be changed by code. This is in contrast to traditional hardware-defined radio, which is limited by what frequencies the physical components can produce and receive. READ MORE...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)