Israel Advances Further into Gaza

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli warplanes heavily bombarded an area around Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Monday as the military ordered mass evacuations from the town in the face of a widening ground offensive that is pushing Palestinians into a progressively shrinking portion of the besieged territory.

The expanded assault posed a deadly choice for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians — either stay in the path of Israeli forces or flee within the confines of southern Gaza with no guarantee of safety. Aid workers warned that the mass movement would worsen the already dire humanitarian catastrophe in the territory.

“Another wave of displacement is underway, and the humanitarian situation worsens by the hour,” the Gaza chief of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, Thomas White, said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.   READ MORE...

Female Dancers

 

TIPS for Cruising the High Seas

 My wife and I have been on TWELVE (12) ocean cruises of 7 days or longer since 2015.

We have been on the following Cruise Lines:

• Carnival
• Celebrity
• Norwegian
• Royal Caribbean

Our list of cruises:

• East-West-South Caribbean
• Mediterranean Sea
• Alaska
• Hawaiian Islands
• Bermuda

Debarkation Ports:

• Baltimore
• Ft. Lauderdale
• Maimi
• Vancouver, Canada

OUR TIPS:

1. Try to get on board as early as possible
2. Have a day bag in case your luggage arrives late
3. Confirm your restaurant reservations before lunch
4. Familiarize yourself with the ship before ship leaves port

What to bring with you:

1. 2-3 pairs of shoes (flip flops for pool, sandals for dinner, tennis shoes for visiting ports
2. Sunglasses and hat
3. bug spray 
4. suntan lotion & ChapStick
5. sea sickness pills
6. bring your passport and driver's license for ID.
7. buy lanyard to carry your sea pass card.
8. wash your hands often.
9. bring large empty water bottle for port visits and fill up in cafeteria.
10. most places will take any credit card but there are transaction fees and exchange rates
11. bring packages of handwipes for port visits
12. use your phone as an alarm clock if you have an inside cabin without a porthole.
13. wear flip flops in shower
14. keep valuables in safe
15. bring zip lock bag for your phones.
16. your medications (we use an AM/PM pill case and put it inside a sock to keep it from opening)
17. Dress pants/knit shirt or slacks/blouse for dinner
18. One bathing suit - difficult for most ladies
19. underwear for each day
20. 2 pairs of shorts only along with 3 tops for each pair
21. magnetic hangers
22. phone charger - can use your phone in ports but not on ship - make sure your provided knows where you are going and take out text messages to contact home if you need to - cheaper than making phone calls.
23. use phones as camera and leave camera at home, heavy and bulky
24. bring light weight back pack or tote for excursions
25. at each port you are allowed to come back on ship with 1 liter soft drink per person
26. bring cash and a fanny pouch to carry it in to prevent theft
27. bring small power strips.  we found a square one that had 4 plug ins and brought two
28. we did not bring dress clothes for dinner as they ships never enforced the rule...  they are claiming that they are going to
29. bring small umbrella and plastic poncho
30. bring two containers, one for coffee and one for juices...  beverages in cafeteria are free all day long
31. bring clamps to hold towels to chair on sea day...  get up early to get chair you want but you cannot save for very long...  this may require you eating meals one at a time while the other one saves the chairs.
32. Beverage packages are expensive so the choice is yours
33. Rooms are small so you don't want to bring large suitcases with all sorts of clothes and have them take up space
34. we always got inside rooms on lower levels so we could spend more money on excursions...  but when passengers were on ships that were locked down due to covid, they were forced to stay in those inside rooms...  something to think about.
35. oftentimes, you can arrange your own excursion with taxis that are half price of what the excursion charges but you need to be well prepared with what you want to see.
36. we always went to the early dinner so we could see whatever entertainment there was after dinner.
37. attend the free sessions that tell you about what to see at each port.
38. be prepared to gain 5-10 pounds or follow the three to four bite rule.  Just take 3-4 bites of everything you want to eat.
39. we would put fruit and cereal boxes in the backpack for snacks when we visited the ports.
40. Set a gambling limit each day and walk away.  We used $20.

Somewhat Political

 

More Than 1,000 Qubits

One of IBM’s latest quantum processor has improved the reliability of its qubits. Credit: Ryan Lavine for IBM



IBM has unveiled the first quantum computer with more than 1,000 qubits — the equivalent of the digital bits in an ordinary computer. But the company says it will now shift gears and focus on making its machines more error-resistant rather than larger.

For years, IBM has been following a quantum-computing road map that roughly doubled the number of qubits every year. The chip unveiled on 4 December, called Condor, has 1,121 superconducting qubits arranged in a honeycomb pattern. It follows on from its other record-setting, bird-named machines, including a 127-qubit chip in 2021 and a 433-qubit one last year.

Quantum computers promise to perform certain computations that are beyond the reach of classical computers. They will do so by exploiting uniquely quantum phenomena such as entanglement and superposition, which allow multiple qubits to exist in multiple collective states at once.  READ MORE...

St. Jude Hospital for Children

 

The Wealthy

 Ask yourself...

• Are you wealthy?
• Do you know any wealthy people?
• Do you socialize with the wealthy?
• Do you want to be like the wealthy?

Only 5% of the population are wealthy and only 2% of population are really wealthy and only 1% of the population are super wealthy.

The odds are you will never be in that group if you ain't there already.

Is there something wrong with you if you are not wealthy?

Not really...  but, the wealthy people think there is something wrong with you and look down their noses at you...  tolerating you when they absolutely have to...  most of the time, ignoring your existence altogether.

• For the wealthy, they think or perceive it is a badge of honor to live in a 15,000 square foot home.
• They think it is normal to own a $100,000 vehicle.
• They think it is AMERICAN to hide their money in off shore bank accounts to avoid taxes.
• They see themselves as special and elite for owning multiple homes and spending money on items they will hardly use.
• They boast about their success not through their comments but through their purchases.
• They have no empathy for anyone who is not them.

The wealthy are really no different...

1. they have to eat
2. they have to sleep
3. they have to defecate
4. they have to get sick
5. they have to die

The wealthy are a necessary evil for our society just like mothers-in-laws...  leaving behind their money, buildings with their names on them, and other legacies that are soon forgotten by the new generation who will ignore they even existed...

• The wealthy don't fight wars
• The wealthy pay others to work
• The wealthy use lawyers to fight their battles
• The wealthy use proxies when it is time to vote
• The wealthy pay very little in taxes
• The wealthy give nothing back to society but their arrogance
• The wealthy only give to charity because they need a tax deduction

DAMN DON'T YOU WISH YOU COULD BE LIKE THEM???

Janis Joplin

 

Around the World

Amazon to use rival SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets to deploy the first batch of its space-based internet satellites; SpaceX operates competitor Starlink, which already provides near-global coverage (More)

Israeli forces push south into Gaza amid US pressure to protect civilians; Palestinian death toll surpasses 15,000, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry (More)

Atmospheric river expected to drop month-worth of rain in Pacific Northwest over next few days; flood watches issued for portions of Washington state (More)

Hungry

 

My Wisdom Implies Age

Stand up straight facing something of which you are really fond.  Place your legs a little wider that shoulder length apart. Bend over and put your head between your legs, pucker up, and kiss your young ass GOODBYE.

The USA is on the verge of a mental breakdown.  It is similar to what Great Britain used to do to the Scots when an outlaw was finally captured.  Tie a rope onto each arm and each leg and tie those four ends to a horse saddle on a horse that a Brit is riding.  Order each animal to march forward simultaneously and the man is the middle is QUARTERED.

Right now, USA citizens are facing DISUNITY on several fronts:

1. Racism
2. Gender Inequality
3. Wage Inequalities
4. Humanoid Robots with AI
5. Anti-Jewish
6. Anti-Palestinian
7. Police Brutality
8. Chinese Threat
9. Russian Threat
10. BRICS Threat
11. Nuclear Arms Race
12. 2024 Election Candidates
13. Fake News
14. Liberal Censorship
15. War on Fossil Fuels
16. Inflation
17. Illegal Immigration
18. Increasing National Debt
19. End of American Dream
20. Credit Card Debt

If that is not enough, the current administration is trying to push ELECTRIC VEHICLES on us, forcing us to do away with gasoline vehicles.

• EVs are more expensive
• Cost more to recharge
• Not enough charging stations
• Replacement batteries are costly
• Resale value drops more than gasoline cars

WHAT TO DO...   WHAT TO DO...   WHAT TO DO???

As a compromise, there are many of us buying hybrid vehicles that do not require CHARGING...  but there is still a large battery cost in 5-7 years.

What kind of damage will the ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS do when they cannot find:

• Jobs
• Housing
• Healthcare
• Buy Food
• Buy Transportation

HOW FAST WILL HUMANOID ROBOTS WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCES START REPLACING US IN JOBS???

• 2025?
• 2027?
• 2030?

NOTE:  China and Elon Musk are mass producing humanoid robots with AI in 2024/2025...

ARE YOU BENDING OVER???

Fishing

 

In The News

Gravitational waves from the aftereffects of the most powerful merger of two black holes observed to date detected by researchers; "ringing" effect comes from new black hole assuming a spherical shape (More) | General relativity 101 (More, w/video)

Google delays launch of Gemini, a large language model expected to compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT-4, until January; reports say the model has trouble with some non-English prompts (More)

Ancient redwood trees can recover from severe fire damage by tapping long-buried buds, which have laid dormant under their bark for centuries (More)

 

Born to be Wild

 

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

 

US Ship Attacked

Above, te guided missile destroyer USS Carney patrols the waters of the Gulf in support of Operation Southern Watch. The Pentagon said on Sunday that the USS Carney had come under attack in the Red Sea.   © FELIX GARZA/US NAVY/AFP via Getty Images


The Pentagon on Sunday announced that attacks had been carried out on a United States warship as well as commercial vessels stationed in the Middle East, which could be a significant escalation in the ongoing war in the region.

"We're aware of reports regarding attacks on the USS Carney and commercial vessels in the Red Sea and will provide information as it becomes available," the Pentagon told Newsweek. The news was first reported by the Associated Press.

The U.S. has strongly backed its longtime ally Israel in the aftermath of an October 7 attack carried out by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which left some 1,200 dead. 

Israel's government declared war on Hamas, which is backed by Iran, and has bombarded Gaza, which the group governs, while also cutting off fuel, food and electricity to the densely populated area. More than 15,000 Palestinians have died since the bombing began.  READ MORE...

Octopus

 

The American DREAM

 In the past, the American Dream was go to college, get married, buy a home, and raise a family...  secondary to that main dream was the American Dream of don't go to college, get technical/crafts skills training, get married, buy a home, and raise a family...

Our new American Dream is go to college, get married, maybe buy a home, raise a family, and pay off college debt.  The same maybe buy a home with the technical/crafts skills training but no college debt.

The key here is BUYING A HOME...  that is no longer part of the American Dream...

College debt is increasing regardless of buying a home or not.

I have said for over TWENTY YEARS that going to college is NO LONGER NECESSARY to have a quality life...

HOWEVER, owning a home is CONTINGENT upon where one lives and what one is willing to o to buy that home...

Let me explain...

Buying a home down in the southeastern USA is lot cheaper that a majority of other locations.  A $150,000 home in East TN will cost you $300,000 in Nashville, TN for instance and between $300,000 and $500,000 in the Research Triangle Park of North Carolina.

However, the wages are also lower in East TN as well...  so obviously, there is a tradeoff.

Here is a scenario that many people fail to see...  

You buy the cheapest home you can find that is livable, does not meet your needs, and does not require too much renovation and is in a fairly respectable part of town.

THIS AIN'T POSSIBLE YOU SAY...

Yes, it is if you are patient and keep looking.

Stay in that house for 3-5 years and renovate the kitchen and the bathrooms.

Sell the house and use the profits to buy a $200,000 house.

Real Estate will increase in value similar to the inflation growth rate which is typically about 2-3% each year.

Do the same with your $200,000 and in 3-5 years, you sell and buy a $300,000.

In 3-5 years, sell the $300,000 and buy at $400,000 house.

So far, it has been about 15 years and you have at least doubled the value of your original home...

If you did this at age 20, you are now 35....

If you do this for another 15 years, you will be 50 years old and own a home valued between $500,000 to $600,000.

DOWNSIDE:  you will have to move several times which is a hassle and you will have to stay focused on constantly looking for a new home and constantly making sure your current home is not damaged.

While many people say the American Dream is dead, I believe they are wrong because just like other dreams, it takes time to get there, you just don't jump into the American Dream...

To see this any other way, leaves me thinking you are lazy, need immediate satisfaction, or just plain dumb and ignorant.

Eagle Flight

 

Pyramid NOT MADE by Humans

Last month, a study published in Archaeological Prospection garnered a lot of media attention (including from IFLScience) for its extraordinary claim that a mountain in Indonesia is actually the world's oldest pyramid built by ancient humans. But reactions from archaeologists since have raised skepticism about its bold conclusions.

According to the paper, the Gunung Padang – which translates to “Mountain of Enlightenment” – was not formed naturally but "meticulously sculpted" into its current shape between 25,000 and 14,000 years ago. If this were true, it would be considerably older than the world's oldest pyramids, with the team writing that it “suggests that advanced construction practices were already present when agriculture had, perhaps, not yet been invented.”

Among other bold claims was that there are "hidden cavities or chambers" at the site, and that the site itself appeared to have been buried several times “possibly to conceal its true identity for preservation purposes”.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and other archaeologists are far from convinced that the team has provided this, especially given how it would rewrite the history of human development. Lutfi Yondri, an archaeologist at BRIN in Bandung, Indonesia, told Nature that his work showed people in the area lived in caves between 12,000 and 6,000 years ago, and left no evidence of having the “remarkable masonry capabilities” supposedly employed by people of the area thousands of years before them to build the "pyramid".  READ MORE...