Monday, May 8
REPARATIONS
The government of the United States, my government, our government, has treated groups of people horribly throughout the years.
For instance:
- Native Americans
- Slavery of Blacks
- Japanese Americans
- Chinese Americans
Because of what we did to our Native Americans, we gave them the opportunity to build casinos and recoup their loses (financially)... while it was a poor subsitute for all the death we caused... MONEY does seem to make those that we oppressed FEEL BETTER ABOUT THEMSELVES.
I would like to propose the same for BLACKS... let them have casinos. I would even support our tax dollars building those casinos. But, to give them reparations for what our ANCESTORS did is WRONG... I am not responsible for what my ancestors did... and, to give them reparations would only cause our RACISM PROBLEM TO WORSEN...
Blacks are now randomly shooting whites because they are white...
What happens if whites start to randomly shoot blacks in retaliation???
DO WE WANT RACE WARS IN THE USA?
12% blacks
60% whites
Since there are more whites than blacks, everything will favor whites unless we intentionally force everyone to deal with blacks before they deal with whites.
For instance:
- Hire blacks before whites regardless of qualifications
- Restaurants serving blacks before whites
- Hospitals treating blacks before whites regardless of triage
- Educators giving blacks better grades than whites even though their scores are lower
- The military deploying whites before blacks if they are to be sent into a war zone
- Prosecuting more whites than blacks to equalize the racial balance in jails
- Selling homes to blacks before whites
- The IRS taxing whites at a higher rate than whites
- Restricting earnings potential of white millionaires
- Allowing blacks to sell illegal drugs to whites but not vice versa
- Limiting the number of white professional athletes to always favor blacks
- Hollywood hiring more black actors than whites
- More black movies produced than white movies
- Hiring more black educators than white educators
- Only allowing black candidates to run for political office
- Selling tickets blacks on commercial aircraft before whites, making sure the ratio favors blacks
- Forcing cruise ships to fill cabins with blacks first and make sure the onboard ratio favors blacks
- Having social security to pay higher benefits to blacks than to whites regardless of quarters worked
NOW... if we do this, then we should assume that they WHITES will not retaliate somehow...
GOOD LUCK WITH THAT!!!
Years Ago Human Brains Changed Forever
Like treasured recipes passed down from generation to generation, there are just some regions of DNA that evolution doesn't dare tweak. Mammals far and wide share a variety of such encoded sequences, for example, which have remained untouched for millions of years.
Humans are a strange exception to this club. For some reason, recipes long preserved by our ancient ancestors were suddenly 'spiced up' within a short evolutionary period of time.
Because we're the only species in which these regions have been rewritten so rapidly, they are called 'human accelerated regions' (or HARs). What's more, scientists think at least some HARs could be behind many of the qualities that set humans apart from their close relatives, like chimpanzees and bonobos.
Led by computational biologist Katie Pollard, director of the Gladstone Institute of Data Science and Biotechnology in the US, a team of researchers identified HARs nearly two decades ago while comparing human and chimpanzee genomes.
In a new study, Pollard's team found the 3D folding of human DNA in the nucleus is a key factor in this pivotal moment for our species.
Imagine a length of DNA from our last common ancestor with chimpanzees as a long scarf wrapped around your neck, with stripes of various colors running across its weave down its entire length.
Now picture someone tried to make the exact same scarf, but they didn't quite follow the original pattern. Some of the stripes are narrower, some are wider, and some feature colors in a different order than the original. READ MORE...
Sunday, May 7
My Ongoing Battle With Cancer
HEADS UP FOR THOSE IN A SIMILIAR SITUATION
My cancer journey began in 2007 when I was 60 years old. Prior to that I was never sick (after typical childhood illnesses), not even with a cold or the flu. I exercised regularly, lifted weight, 80% active, and ate healthy. I had also stopped smoking and stopped drinking alcohol 20 years earlier.
My first diagnosis was non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (SLL) and went on a monthy infusion regimen of Rituxan (infusion lasted 6 hours). No side effects. A few years later, I woked in Northern KY (came home on the weekends) and that Oncologist put me on a regimen of Rituxan, Cytoxin, and Fludara (over two days). Side effects were extreme and I ended up in the ER two days later to stop cronic vomiting.
HINT: ask for 2 different kinds of nausea meds with 4-6 hour intervals. That way, you can take a nausea pill every 2 hours.
HINT: start taking nausea meds two hours after the end of your infusion... DO NOT WAIT UNTIL YOU FEEL SICK... TOO LATE...
Twelve (12) months later, I returned to TN, and my original Oncologist put me on a regimen of a monthly infusion of Triandra (2-3 hours).
Three years later, I was diagnosed with Melanoma which some experts say was actually caused by the repeated use of Cytoxin and Fludara. However, malpractice would have never been proved.
My melanoma started in my foot, moved to my groin, then moved to my neck. The movement took place 4 years after, a surgeon removed the melanoma from my foot with clean margins.
NOTE: bear in mind, that my Oncologist had to deal with two cancers simulataneously (and still does) both of which had turned aggressive and surgery was out of the question. What worked for me was Odivo/Yervoy combination for a few months, then Opdivo and Radiation. The radiation supercharges the Opdivo. For me, it worked....
Whenever you are given chemotherapy or immunotherapy you will be given steroid to reduce the risk of nausea plus other meds as well. These steroids will make you gain weight. I gain 50 pounds in 10 years and manged to lose 30 pounds.
NOTE: the way I lost weight, which may not work for everyone, is counting my calories. I focused on eating 1,500 to 1,800 but not over 2,000. I also ate small meals five times a day and my focus was on SOUPS.
I am now in my 15th year of being treated for cancer and in my 12th year of being treated for 2 cancers simultaneously.
Here is what I constantly live with:
1. Low white blood count (no immune system)
2. Low red blood count (anemia)
3. Low Platelet count (blood clotting issuse)
4. Constant fatigue (mild to severe - varies)
5. Loss of taste
6. Thyroid problems
7. Lymphodemo (moderate)
8. Depression (mild to moderate)
9. Weight gain
10. Diarrhea/Constipation (mild to moderate)
11. Mouth Sores (mild to moderate)
12. Must avoid direct sunlight exposure (UV Clothing)
13. COVID might have killed me so I was very careful!!!
14. Must avoid being in large crowds in closed in areas
15. Must maintain a strict diet
NOTE: My cancer(s) are made worse by a triple bypass heart attack that I had also when 60 years old. Plus, a five level lower back fusion.
Retirement Downsizing
My wife and I retired in 2015, about 7 years ago and for the first 5 years did an enormous amount of traveling... so much so that we got the traveling bug out of our systems. COVID hit and stopped our traveling for two years. It was COVID that helped us mentally curtail our desires to travel.
Our home that we purchased over 20 years ago has a full basement and an acre of land. We loved the space and took advantage of all the land we had. We put in a pool, deck, gazebo, hot tub, and had areas behind that area where we grew vegetables each summer.
After twenty years, we are tired of going up and down the stairs as well as taking care of the outside yard. While it only takes us a few of hours each week to take of our yard, but our 70 year old bodies do not respond well to that physical trauma on our bodies.
This week we found a house that is about the same size as our home but with no basement. Our yard reduces down from an acre to just a small plot that would take 30 minutes to mow. The outside yard is the biggest problem for our age along with the stairs, so we eliminated both concerns.
Fortunately, the house is in the same neighborhood so we are in the perfect community we want to be in.
The purchase of this new house was not contingent upon the sale of our current home, so we can take our time moving our stuff from one house to the other. Then when everything is moved, we will have a yard sale with the items we don't want to take. When that is done, we will put our house up for sale and see what happens.
Sometime between the middle of June and the middle of July, everything should be resolved...
Our last twenty years will not be as stressful worrying about taking care of a larger house...
AI and ChatGPT Threaten Humanity
As tech experts warn that the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence could threaten humanity, OpenAI's ChatGPT weighed in with its own predictions on how humanity could be wiped off the face of the Earth.
Fox News Digital asked the chatbot to weigh in on the apocalypse, and it shared four possible scenarios how humanity could ultimately be wiped out.
"It's important to note that predicting the end of the world is a difficult and highly speculative task, and any predictions in this regard should be viewed with skepticism," the bot responded. "However, there are several trends and potential developments that could significantly impact the trajectory of humanity and potentially contribute to its downfall."
Fears that AI could spell the end of humanity has for years been fodder for fiction but has become a legitimate talking point among experts as tech rapidly evolves – with British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking issuing a dire warning back in 2014
"The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race," he said then. Hawking died in 2018.
The sentiment has only intensified among some experts nearly a decade later, with tech giant Elon Musk saying this year that the tech "has the potential of civilizational destruction." READ MORE...
Saturday, May 6
One Year After 5-Level Back Fusion Surgery
The surgery itself lasted about 3 hours and I stayed two nights in the hospital because I had excessive bleeding with no other complications.
My other experiences staying over night were with non-profit hospitals but this one was a for-profit hospital and when they said they were going to discharge me first thing the next morning, I was sitting in a wheel chair waiting for my wife to arrive by 8:15 am. These people did not fool around.
I never took any pain pills after my surgery and on my first night (in the hospital) I was sleeping on my back, without any pain at all.
However, my movement was severly restricted and had to force myself to walk for 5-10-15-20-30 minutes the first couple of months. After about 6 weeks or so, I was walking a mile a day. That first mile took me 58 minutes and I had to stop twice for 2-3 minutes to rest.
There was difficulty with walking up hill and up stairs. However, this gradually got easier as time passed but I still have problems with both of those even after 12 months.
Limitation: I can walk fine... maybe there is a slight limp with one leg... but, I cannot walk fast.
I am walking a mile in about 20/21 minutes and while I am walking only every other day, I will soon walk twice a day every other day or walk every day. I am pretty sure that walking twice is better than walking more often or longer or faster. My stride is long which is good and walking up hills has gotten a "tad" easier.
All the research that I have done has given me the impression that it could take 12-18 months before returning to normal... it looks like I am going to be on the 18 month side of that range.
I have no problems bending over or lifting, although I am still careful about lifting too much. Also, I am sure if I was younger, it would have been easier for me walk more. Since I have retired, 2015, I spend more time sitting than walking around because my hobby is blogging and writing.
While there are many articles on the web regarding WHY NOT to do fusions greater than 3 levels, I was fortunate enough not to have any problems. I think that was due to my surgeon's experience but also the fact that I maintained a well-exercised body until the age of 60-65. If I was over-weight, it may have been much worse.
Spacetime - Is It Real?
An illustration of heavily curved spacetime, outside the event horizon of a black hole. As you get closer and closer to the mass’s location, space becomes more severely curved, eventually leading to a location from within which even light cannot escape: the event horizon. At large distances, the spatial curvature is indistinguishable for equal mass black holes, neutron stars, white dwarfs, or any other comparably massed object. Credit: JohnsonMartin/Pixabay
When most of us think about the Universe, we think about the material objects that are out there across the great cosmic distances. Matter collapses under its own gravity to form cosmic structures like galaxies, while gas clouds contract to form stars and planets. Stars then emit light by burning their fuel through nuclear fusion, and then that light travels throughout the Universe, illuminating anything it comes into contact with.
But there’s more to the Universe than the objects within it. There’s also the fabric of spacetime, which has its own set of rules that it plays by: General Relativity. The fabric of spacetime is curved by the presence of matter and energy, and curved spacetime itself tells matter and energy how to move through it.
But what, exactly, is the physical nature of spacetime? Is it a real, physical thing, like atoms are, or is it merely a calculational tool that we use to give the right answers for the motion and behavior of the matter within the Universe?
It’s an excellent question and a tough one to wrap your head around. Moreover, before Einstein came along, our conception of the Universe was very different from the one we have today. Let’s go way back to the Universe before we even had the concept of spacetime, and then come forward to where we are today.
But what, exactly, is the physical nature of spacetime? Is it a real, physical thing, like atoms are, or is it merely a calculational tool that we use to give the right answers for the motion and behavior of the matter within the Universe?
It’s an excellent question and a tough one to wrap your head around. Moreover, before Einstein came along, our conception of the Universe was very different from the one we have today. Let’s go way back to the Universe before we even had the concept of spacetime, and then come forward to where we are today.
The journey from macroscopic scales down to subatomic ones spans many orders of magnitude, but going down in small steps can make each new one more accessible from the previous one. Humans are made of organs, cells, organelles, molecules, atoms, then electrons and nuclei, then protons and neutrons, and then quarks and gluons inside of them. This is the limit to how far we’ve ever probed nature.Credit: Magdalena Kowalska/CERN/ISOLDE team
At a fundamental level, we had long supposed that if you took everything that was in the Universe and cut it up into smaller and smaller constituents, you’d eventually reach something that was indivisible. Quite literally, that’s what the word “atom” means: from the Greek ἄτομος: not able to be cut.
The first record we have of this idea goes back some 2400 years to Democritus of Abdera, but it’s plausible that it may go back even farther. These “uncuttable” entities do exist; each one is known as a quantum particle. Despite the fact that we took the name “atom” for the elements of the periodic table, it’s actually subatomic particles like quarks, gluons, and electrons (as well as particles that aren’t found in atoms at all) that are truly indivisible. READ MORE...
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