The New KING

The new KING of Great Britain and the UK is 74 years old, the father of William and Harry, and the former husband of Diana...

What are the odds that he will reign more than 20/25 years?

How much respect will his lover, Camilla Parker Bowles, Queen Consort, have among the British people?

KING CHARLES III - our newest King

>>>Long Live the King<<<

The King is the UK head of state. However, his powers are symbolic and ceremonial, and he remains politically neutral. He will receive daily dispatches from the government in a red leather box, such as briefings ahead of important meetings, or documents needing his signature.

The ROYAL FAMILY receives about 40 million pounds from the national treasury and this amount increases each year.  But, the real question is does the British really need to have a Royal Family that does nothing for the most part except be seen by the public.  What else can that money that is paid to the Royal Family be used for?  

Adding Value

 

As a result of my 45 year career, on of the most important things that I have learned is that EMPLOYERS only hire those people who they believe and/or perceive will add value to their company...

So what is adding value?

Adding value is more than just being present at work and providing a service.

If you are production worker...  then adding value might be:

• exceeding production quotas
• producing a quality product
• keeping defects below the minimum
• problem solving quickly

If you are an office worker...  then  adding value might be:

• increasing your daily output
• maintaining quality of the service
• always being positive and proactive
• achieving results

In all jobs what we see is:

• Production Output
• Quality of Work
• Achieving Results
• Solving Problems

Can you provide these services?

Do you have the mental skills?

Do you have the physical skills?

Do you have the knowledge skills?

If you get hired and then over the months receive lower than average pay raises....   or,

If you get hired and your annual performance appraisal is only average...  or, 

If you remain at the same task/job and are not offered more challenging work...  then,

YOU ARE NOT ADDING VALUE and will be the first one to get LAID OFF when the economy slows...

There is nothing personally against you...  it is just the reality of life in the USA these days...  and, as the international competition worsens, then ADDING VALUE and ACHIEVING RESULTS will become more critical...   and, just because you are an American, no longer means you will be the first person hired...

Dog & Wave

 

Triple Decker Aircraft

WITH a huge bulbous cabin, massive sweeping wings and enough space for 755 passengers - it's clear to see why this concept plane is dubbed the "Sky Whale".

Boarding the aircraft ahead of a long haul flight, you would find three huge decks with up to five rows of seats - including a lavish top floor business class complete with "sky view" roof windows.

And when it comes time to take off, long gone are the days of waiting to taxi down the long runways at airports like Gatwick and Heathrow.

Instead, the enormous AWWA Sky Whale lumbers itself into position before its massive engines pivot at a 45 degree angle like a Harrier jump jet fighter plane.

It then begins to move and the swivelled engines boost forward, allowing the mammoth machine to take off at a near vertical climb.

And this incredible feature allows to Sky Whale to not be restricted to big airports, with it only need enough space for its 288 foot wingspan and 252 foot length.  READ MORE...

Crutches

Physics Could Predict Genetic Mutations

The researchers believe that they can exploit this new physics law and find the probability of 

mutations before they take place.

A University of Portsmouth research team has found a potential way to predict genetic mutations before they occur.

According to a University of Portsmouth study, a new physics law could allow for the early prediction of genetic mutations.

The study discovers that the second law of information dynamics, or “infodynamics,” behaves differently from the second law of thermodynamics. This finding might have major implications for how genomic research, evolutionary biology, computing, big data, physics, and cosmology develop in the future.

Lead author Dr. Melvin Vopson is from the University’s School of Mathematics and Physics. He states “In physics, there are laws that govern everything that happens in the universe, for example how objects move, how energy flows, and so on. 

Everything is based on the laws of physics. One of the most powerful laws is the second law of thermodynamics, which establishes that entropy – a measure of disorder in an isolated system – can only increase or stay the same, but it will never decrease.”

This is an undisputed law relating to the arrow of time, which demonstrates that time only moves in one direction. It can only flow in one direction and cannot travel backward.

He explains, “Imagine two transparent glass boxes. In the left side, you have red gas molecules, which you can see, like red smoke. In the right side, you have blue smoke, and in between them is a barrier. If you remove the barrier, the two gases will start mixing and the color will change. 

There is no process that this system can undergo to separate by itself blue and red again. In other words, you cannot lower the entropy or organize the system to how it was before without energy expense, because the entropy only stays constant or increases over time.”  READ MORE...

Moving Up

Prehistoric Hunting in Desert

Aerial photo of a typical kite from eastern Jordan. Credit: APAAME

Archaeologists at the University of Oxford's School of Archaeology have used satellite imagery to identify and map more than 350 monumental hunting structures known as "kites" across northern Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq—most of which had never been previously documented.

Led by Dr. Michael Fradley, a team of researchers in the Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa (EAMENA) project used a range of open-source satellite imagery to carefully study the region around the eastern Nafud desert, an area little studied in the past. The surprising results, published in the journal The Holocene, have the potential to change our understanding of prehistoric connections and climate change across the Middle East.

Termed kites by early aircraft pilots, these structures consist of low stone walls making up a head enclosure and a number of guiding walls, sometimes kilometers long. They are believed to have been used to guide game such as gazelles into an area where they could be captured or killed. There is evidence that these structures may date back as far as 8,000 BCE in the Neolithic period.

Kites cannot be observed easily from the ground, however the advent of commercial satellite imagery and platforms such as Google Earth have enabled recent discoveries of new distributions. While these structures were already well-known from eastern Jordan and adjoining areas in southern Syria, these latest results take the known distribution over 400km further east across northern Saudi Arabia, with some also identified in southern Iraq for the first time.  READ MORE...

Sanford & Sons Takeoff

 

Brass Duo

 

Preventing Heart Attack & Stroke

The majority of heart attacks and strokes worldwide are ischemic, meaning that a clot or accumulation of plaque in an artery stops oxygen-rich blood from getting to the cells in the heart or brain. When blocked for too long, tissues die.

But an increasing number of studies suggest that brief, repeated periods of reduced circulation using a blood pressure cuff may help minimize tissue damage and avoid the worst consequences of heart attacks and strokes, similar to how exercising helps muscles adapt to more rigorous workouts. According to the research, the straightforward, noninvasive surgery may improve heart and vascular function, slightly decrease blood pressure, and lessen the workload of the heart.

In a recent review study that was published in the Journal of Physiology, James Lang, an assistant professor of kinesiology at Iowa State University, compiled the results of roughly 100 studies, some of which were his own. He said that “remote ischemic preconditioning” (RIPC) typically comprises five minutes of high pressure on a person’s arm followed by five minutes of relaxation, repeated three to four times.

Numerous studies have demonstrated that a single RIPC session creates a protective window that peaks 48 hours later, but research from Lang’s team and other scientists has shown that preconditioning several days in a row may enhance the protection and support additional health benefits.  READ MORE...

Avatar

 

Raining Diamonds Across the Universe

Uranus and Neptune, ice giants where scientists believe diamond rain falls below the surface.

It could be raining diamonds on planets throughout the universe, scientists suggested Friday, after using common plastic to recreate the strange precipitation believed to form deep inside Uranus and Neptune.

Scientists had previously theorized that extremely high pressure and temperatures turn hydrogen and carbon into solid diamonds thousands of kilometers below the surface of the ice giants.

Now new research, published in Science Advances, inserted oxygen into the mix, finding that "diamond rain" could be more common than thought.

Ice giants like Neptune and Uranus are thought to be the most common form of planet outside our Solar System, which means diamond rain could be occurring across the universe.

Dominik Kraus, a physicist at Germany's HZDR research lab and one of the study's authors, said that diamond precipitation was quite different to rain on Earth.

Under the surface of the planets is believed to be a "hot, dense liquid", where the diamonds form and slowly sink down to the rocky, potentially Earth-size cores more than 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles) below, he said.

There fallen diamonds could form vast layers that span "hundreds of kilometers or even more", Kraus told AFP.

While these diamonds might not be shiny and cut like a "a nice gem on a ring", he said they were formed via similar forces as on Earth.

Aiming to replicate the process, the research team found the necessary mix of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen in a readily available source—PET plastic, which is used for everyday food packaging and bottles.

Kraus said that while the researchers used very clean PET plastic, "in principle the experiment should work with Coca-Cola bottles".  READ MORE...

Running Horse & Rider

 

Pain Killers Without Side Effects

A promising new non-opioid painkiller (analgesic) has been discovered, with potentially fewer side effects than other potent painkillers.

A team of researchers led by scientists from the University of Warwick’s School of Life Sciences has analyzed a compound known as BnOCPA (benzyloxy-cyclopentyladenosine) which was discovered to be a powerful and selective analgesic that is non-addictive in test model systems. BnOCPA also has a unique mode of action, which could provide a new path for the creation of analgesic drugs.

The study, conducted by the Warwick team in collaboration with researchers from the University of Bern, University of Cambridge, Coventry University, Monash University, and industrial organizations, was recently published in in the journal Nature Communications.

In the UK, between a third and a half of the population report having chronic pain that is either moderately or severely disabling. Such pain negatively affects the quality of life, and many of the often prescribed painkillers have side effects. Opioids, such as morphine and oxycodone, can cause addiction and are dangerous when used in excess. There is thus an unmet need for new, powerful painkillers.

Many drug works by activating adapter molecules known as G proteins on the cell surface. The activation of G proteins can cause a variety of cellular effects. Because just one kind of G protein is activated by BnOCPA, its actions are very selective, minimizing the possibility of negative side effects.

Dr. Mark Wall, from the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick, who led the research stated: “The selectivity and potency of BnOCPA make it truly unique and we hope that with further research it will be possible to generate potent painkillers to help patients cope with chronic pain.”  READ MORE...

Creative Painting

 

GREAT TRUISMS

1. In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm,
and three or more is a congress. -- John Adams


2. If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are
misinformed. -- Mark Twain


3. Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But then I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain


4. I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and
trying to lift himself up by the handle. -- Winston Churchill


5. A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. -- George
Bernard Shaw


6. A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money. -- G. Gordon Liddy


7. Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. -- James Bovard , Civil  Libertarian (1994)


8. Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. -- Douglas Case , Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University .


9. Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
-- P.J. O'Rourke , Civil Libertarian


10. Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else. -- Frederic Bastiat , French economist(1801-1850)


11. Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.  -- Ronald Reagan (1986)


12. I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. -- Will Rogers


13. If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free! -- P. J. O'Rourke


14. In general, the art of government consists of taking as muchmoney as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other. -- Voltaire (1764)


15. Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest
in you! -- Pericles (430 B.C.)


16. No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.  -- Mark Twain (1866)


17. Talk is cheap, except when Congress does it. -- Anonymous


18. The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. -- Ronald Reagan


19. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. -- Winston Churchill


20. The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.
-- Mark Twain


21. The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
-- Herbert Spencer , English Philosopher (1820-1903)


22. There is no distinctly Native American criminal class, save Congress. -- Mark Twain


23. What this country needs are more unemployed politicians -- Edward Langley , Artist (1928-1995)


24. A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything
you have. -- Thomas Jefferson


25. We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. -- Aesop


FIVE BEST SENTENCES

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity, by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.


2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.


3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.


4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.


5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work, because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work, because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the
beginning of the end of any nation!

Good Grief

So, I am at Walmart self-scanning and bagging my almost $300 worth of groceries while an employee monitors my activities from her "podium". And then this happened.
Her - Why are you double-bagging all of your groceries?
Me - Excuse me?
Her - You are wasting our bags?
Me - If you don't like the way I'm bagging the groceries, feel free to come on over here and bag them yourself.
Her - That's not my job!
Me - Okay, then I will bag my groceries how I please if that's alright with you.
Her - Why are you using two bags?
Me - Because the bags are weak and I don't want the handles to break or the bottoms to rip out.
Her - Well, that's because you are putting too much stuff in the bag. If you took half of that stuff out and put it in a different bag then you wouldn't need to double bag.

(10 seconds of me just staring at her)

Me - So you want me to split these items in half and put half of them in a different bag so that I don't have to double bag.
Her - Exactly.
Me - So I would still be using two bags to hold the same number of items.
Her - No, because you wouldn't be double-bagging.

(Me pressing two fingers to my left eye in an attempt to make it stop twitching.)

Me - Okay. So here I have a jug of milk and a bottle of juice double-bagged. If I take the milk out and remove the double bagging and just put the milk in the single bag and the juice in that single bag, I'm still using two bags for these two items.
Her - No, because you are not double-bagging them so it's not the same number of bags.

(Me looking around at about 10 other customers who at this point are enjoying the show.)

Me - Is this like that Common Core math stuff I keep hearing about?
Her - Never mind. You just don't get it.
And with that she went back to her little podium so she could continue texting or playing games on her phone or whatever it was she was doing before she decided to come over and critique my bagging skills.

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My husband and I went through the McDonald's drive thru window and I gave the cashier a $5 bill. Our total was $4.25, so I also handed her 25c.

She said, 'You gave me too much money.'

I said, 'Yes I know, but this way you can just give me a dollar back.'

She sighed and went to get the manager who asked me to repeat my request.

I did so, and he handed me back the 25 cents, and said 'We're sorry but we don't do that kind of thing.'

The cashier then proceeded to give me back 75 cents in change.

Tip: Do not confuse the people at McD's.

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We had to have the garage door repaired.

The repairman told us that one of our problems was that we did not have a 'large' enough motor on the opener.

I thought for a minute, and said that we had the largest one made at that time, a 1/2 horsepower.

He shook his head and said, 'You need a 1/4 horsepower'.

I responded that 1/2 was larger than 1/4 and he said, 'NOOO, it's not. Four is larger than two.'

We haven't used that repairman since.


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I live in a semi-rural area.

We recently had a new neighbour call the local city council office to request the removal of the DEER CROSSING sign on our road.

The reason: 'Too many deer are being hit by cars out here! I don't think this is a good place for them to be crossing anymore.'


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IDIOT SIGHTING IN FOOD SERVICE.

My daughter went to a Mexican fast food and ordered a taco. She asked the person behind the counter for 'minimal lettuce.'He said he was sorry, but they only had iceberg lettuce

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I was at the airport, checking in at the gate when an airport employee asked, 'Has anyone put anything in your baggage without your knowledge?'To which I replied, 'If it was without my knowledge, how would I know?'He smiled knowingly and nodded, 'That's why we ask.'


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The pedestrian light on the corner beeps when it's safe to cross the street.

I was crossing with an 'intellectually challenged' coworker of mine.

She asked if I knew what the beeper was for.

I explained that it signals blind people when the light is red.

Appalled, she responded, 'What on earth are blind people doing driving?'

She is a government employee


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When my wife and I arrived at a car dealership to pick up our car after a service, we were told the keys had been locked in it. We went to the service department and found a mechanic working feverishly to unlock the driver's side door.

As I watched from the passenger side, I instinctively tried the door handle and discovered that it was unlocked.

'Hey,' I announced to the technician, 'it's open!'

His reply, 'I know. I already did that side.'


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Public education at it's best

STAY ALERT! They walk among us...

 

Lessons Learned Along the Way

In less than 2 months, I will turn 75 years old... which represents that 3/4 of my life is gone, providing I live to the age of 100...  there are many people older than me but there are a ton of people younger...

What have I learned?

1.  No matter how hard you try or how many choices you make, you always become that which you were intended to become form the very beginning.

NOTE:  this one requires a little bit of thinking to fully grasp its importance.

2.  The only person you can trust and count on is YOURSELF...  this includes:  brothers, sisters, parents, sons, daughters, spouse, and close friends.

3.  Being healthy is much better than not being healthy but it's no guarantee that it prevents you from getting terribly sick.

4.  Get out of debt as quick as you can and start saving for retirement as fast as you can.

5.  Having something is not always as pleasant as wanting something.

6.  Be frugal in everything that you do.

7.  You must believe in a creator rather than believing your intricate human body just evolved over the years.

8.  Being handicapped never stopped an animal from living its life to the fullest.

9.  Take responsibility for everything that you do rather than blaming someone else.

10.  You are the only one that can motivate yourself and achievement only comes from those were are disciplined and determined.

Lava Overflow