Making the Internet Better

 

From THE VERGE

Engineers and major companies are pushing a technology called L4S that they say could make the web feel dramatically faster. But how?

Building for tomorrow
A few months ago, I downgraded my internet, going from a 900Mbps plan to a 200Mbps one. Now, I find that websites can sometimes take a painfully long time to load, that HD YouTube videos have to stop and buffer when I jump around in them, and that video calls can be annoyingly choppy.

In other words, pretty much nothing has changed. I had those exact same problems even when I had near-gigabit download service, and I’m probably not alone. I’m sure many of you have also had the experience of cursing a slow-loading website and growing even more confused when a “speed test” says that your internet should be able to play dozens of 4K Netflix streams at once. 

So what gives?  READ MORE...

Top Ten Tech Blogs

 

1. Wired

Founder: Louis Rossetto, Jane Metcalfe

Year Started: 1993

Domain Authority: 94 ⋅

2. TechCrunch

Founder: Michael Arrington, Keith Teare

Year Started: 2005

Domain Authority: 94

3. Recode

Founder: Kara Swisher

Year Started: 2014

Domain Authority: 93

4. Mashable

Founder: Pete Cashmoreg

Year Started: 2005

Domain Authority: 93

5. CNET

Founder: Halsey Minor, Shelby Bonnie

Year Started: 1994

Domain Authority: 93

6. The Verge

Founder: Joshua Topolsky, Jim Bankoff, Marty Moe

Year Started: 2011

Domain Authority: 92

7. Venturebeat

Founder: Matt Marshall

Year Started: 2006

Domain Authority: 92

8. Slashdot

Founder: Rob Malda, Jeff Bates

Year Started: 1997

Domain Authority: 90

9. Gizmodo

Founder: Pete Rojas

Year Started: 2001

Domain Authority: 90

10. Engadget

Founder: Pete Rojas

Year Started: 2004

Domain Authority: 90

Our Obese Society

 A year and a half ago, maybe two, I weighed somewhere between 250-260 on a 6'1" frame...  which put me into the category of being obese.

Last year, I had managed to reduce my weight down to 220-224 and that weight stayed around for a while, so I thought that was the best that I could do.

Today, my weight is between 212-214 and while I like the way I feel nowadays, I would like to get down to 205.

At 205, I will still be overweight but not obese.

Somewhere between the ages of 50-60, I stopped being as active as I had been but continued to eat.  I just did not care that much about the extra weight or how it made me free.

However, when I was diagnosed with cancer and started taking chemo, I was given steroids to prevent nausea and while that worked, it caused my weight to continue to increase.

A few years ago, I went from chemo to immunotherapy and as a result no longer needed to take steroids and it is then I consciously began focusing on my weight.

Exercise does not help one lose weight.  It maintains the weight that was lost by NOT EATING AS MUCH and eating the right things.

I no longer eat red meat, fried foods, sugars, or drink alcohol.  I eat fish, chicken, turkey, beans, and lots of vegetables.  I like Salmon, Cod, and Tuna and have gotten used to eating Turkey Hot Dogs and Turkey Burgers.

We have a problem of obesity in the USA and while I was not obese until way after age 60, I see children and teenagers that are already obese and I wonder about their health and if we have the resources to take care of a bunch of people who are FAT AND SICK.

When I was working at ITT Technical Institute, we had two instructors there who were extremely obese.  One was in his 40s and the other was in his 60s and they both died on the operating table due to complications from being obese.  Both had gone in for a routine operation.

I hope this article causes you to think about your weight if you are obese.  Now is the time to do something about it.

Check Out These Retirement Blogs

The Retirement Manifesto Blog

Mr. Money Mustache — Early Retirement through Badassity (mrmoneymustache.com)

Squared Away Blog – Center for Retirement Research (bc.edu)

A Future Ready Organization

INSTITUTE FOR THE FUTURE

Change is everywhere. Whether it’s artificial intelligence and the next technology revolution, rising temperatures and the climate crisis, the changing nature of work and economic uncertainty, or the breakdown of trust and the shocks to our sense of what is true and legitimate, change keeps coming at us from all directions. 

It’s really difficult to feel grounded in this world of constant and rapid change. Instead of anticipating the future, we react to change (often too late) or we give into uncertainty (and anxiety) and do nothing. There is another way forward: we can prepare and be ready.

Future readiness is a journey
Future readiness is the state of being fully prepared for the future. Future-ready organizations anticipate systemic shifts in their environment and understand their long-term impacts. They envision alternative futures and invest in strategic foresight to manifest their preferred futures. They make sense of change by cultivating a futures mindset up and down and across their organization. 

Ultimately, future-ready organizations avoid being blindsided by change and are better able to transform valuable foresight into actionable insight by building and maintaining an anticipatory system (a network of resources including people, processes, methods, and tools dedicated to scanning the emerging future).  READ MORE...

Burning Down the House

 

Swinging

 

Family Unity Gone

We put up our Christmas tree and decorations today...  outside we have 3 boxes with lights that represent Christmas presents.  In the past, we have had a family of deer in our front yard but after several years, there was not much left to them, so they were put into the trash and hauled away to the landfill.

I look around my house and I see the Christmas tree lights and all the little figurines we have purchased over the years to sit around the house to create the Christmas mood...  but today, there is no mood...  no Christmas spirit.

Before our parents died, no matter where we lived, the three children would descend on Chapel Hill, NC to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day with them.  My sister lived next door, so she would just walk across.  My brother would fly in and out on Christmas day with him family and I would drive over with mine.

While we seldom agreed on anything that we discussed around the dinner table, we were all still with our parents and we WERE A LARGE FAMILY...

It has been several years since their deaths.  Our father died in 2001 and our mother about 12 years later.  It has been over 5 years since our mother has died and the three children have yet to come together for CHRISTMAS...  no one has even brought it up that this is something that we should do to honor the legacy of our parents.

Not coming together at Christmas HAS NOT RUINED Christmas for any of us...  but we just don't have the family closeness anymore that we had when our parents were alive.

I am 76.  My sister is 79.  My brother is 68.  My sister and I have remarried while our brother remains married with one child and one adopted.  My sister had one child and I had one child.  For all intents and purposes, we only communicate with each other at Christmas...  the rest of the time, we live our lives as if we were an only child.

I have no idea what my brother or sister thinks about Christmas and our parents but I feel we have let them down with our failure to remain close or even remain in touch more often.
 

Somewhat Political

 

Theory Unites Gravity and Quantum Mechanics

A radical theory that consistently unifies gravity and quantum mechanics while preserving Einstein's classical concept of spacetime has been announced in two papers published simultaneously by UCL (University College London) physicists.

Modern physics is founded upon two pillars: quantum theory on the one hand, which governs the smallest particles in the universe, and Einstein's theory of general relativity on the other, which explains gravity through the bending of spacetime. But these two theories are in contradiction with each other and a reconciliation has remained elusive for over a century.

The prevailing assumption has been that Einstein's theory of gravity must be modified, or "quantized," in order to fit within quantum theory. This is the approach of two leading candidates for a quantum theory of gravity, string theory and loop quantum gravity.   READ MORE...

Life Lessons

 

Putting Up the Christmas Tree

Regardless of your ethnic or religious affiliations, most everyone puts up a Christmas tree.  I have been told that Sadam Hussein put up a Christmas tree for his two sons, Uday and Qusay.

It appears that putting up the Christmas tree is a family tradition in most every household in the USA.  It certainly was for me growing up.

I cannot remember too much about my first marriage and that's probably why I am no longer married but my second marriage is a Christmas Tree putting up marriage.

Our tree goes up a week or two after Thanksgiving and it is an all-day spectacle.

First, we pull out our WalMart plastic containers that are full of all sorts of Christmas people and items, placing them all over the living room.  Some sit on the floor, others sit on tables or on shelves, while some sit on the fireplace mantel with the Christmas stockings

By the time we are finished, our family room looks like a Christmas store, and we only used half the items.

Next, we go out to the front porch and set up a family of deer (with lights) in the front yard, with a multi-colored rotating spotlight in front of them.  Around these deer are Christmas presents with bows and bells on top and lights on the inside.  Lights are spread across the front porch as well,

Obviously, there are multiple extension cords that congregate as a central location where there are other devices for plugins, but the whole point of all these cords is so that we only end up with one or two connections to plug in and unplug each night.

We can never put the decorations up outside when the weather is nice, we always have to wait until the temperature drops and we are wearing heavy coats, toboggans and gloves, making it a lot easier to handle these small plugs.

Back inside, we assemble our three-part tree that we purchased from Big Lots or WalMart depending upon the price.  The trees come with lights, but we also put on all sorts of hanging decorations so that after the tree has been properly dressed, you hardly can tell it's a tree other than it triangle shape.

A snowman with a red tophat always sits on the very top...  even when the tree does not have the strength to hold it up.  PVC pipe is inserted inside it's head and tied to the tree's center with electrical ties.   It's in the back so it cannot be seen.

This all day tradition is executed by my wife and I with me getting down everything and her deciding where everything goes.   I assemble the tree but then she puts everything around.  She does this because I don't have the same creative eyes that she does.

She also decides where the family of deer are going to live which is fine but like the inside decorations, the deer get relocated at least six times before she decides their locations are satisfactory.

I wouldn't change a thing about my putting up the Christmas tree experiences.

Saturday Morning

It is raining in the valley this morning as it is along most of the east coast today.  According to the forecast, it is supposed to rain today and tomorrow with highs in the low 60s today and low 50s tomorrow.

We were going to put up some outside cameras today but it looks like that is going to have to wait.

FOX News reports SOS... (same ole shit)...  so, nothing has really changed.

• Trump faces 91 felony charges and is going to trial
• DOJ/FBI continue to protect President Biden
• Hunter Biden charged with tax evasion
• War continues in Ukraine
• War continues in Israels
• Global hatred of JEWS continues
• Prices are coming down a little
• American Families keeping heads above water
• War against fossil fuel continues
• Illegal Immigration continues to increase

Personally, I feel like the LEFT is trying to destroy the economy/culture that made them successful, and the LEFT believes that the RIGHT is also trying to destroy democracy...

• Both cannot be right
• Both cannot be wrong

My wife and I have been retired since 2015 and we do not feel the financial pinch that other Americans say they are experiencing...  and this is coming from people who are working... LEADS ME TO BELIEVE - they are living above their means, or they are in an area with an unusually high cost of living.

East TN has a low cost of living...  but my wife and I have no debt and do not purchase anything that we don't need.  We also don't smoke cigarettes, nor do we drink alcohol which saves us a lot each month.

It would appear, based upon the news, that life in America is not really going to change much, if at all, in the next few days, next few weeks, or next few months.

My concern is not so much about inflation, war on fossil fuels, the 2024 election, or the two wars that are going on...  no, my concern is about all the terrorists that have entered the US as a byproduct of our illegal immigration policies and the terrorism that they plan to conduct in the next few months.

I doubt very seriously that terrorists have entered the USA for a holiday.

Christmas Joke

Three men died on Christmas Eve and were met by Saint Peter at the pearly gates.

'In honor of this holy season' Saint Peter said, 'You must each possess something that symbolizes Christmas to get into heaven.'

The man from Nova Scotia fumbled through his pockets and pulled out a lighter. He flicked it on. 'It represents a candle', he said.

'You may pass through the pearly gates' Saint Peter said.

The man from Saskatchewan reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys he shook them and said, 'They're bells.'

Saint Peter said 'You may pass through the pearly gates'.

The Newfoundlander started searching desperately through his pockets and finally pulled out a pair of women's panties.

St. Peter looked at the man with a raised eyebrow and asked, 'And just what do those symbolize?'

The Newfie replied, 'These are Carols.'

And So The Christmas Season Begins......

Our Upcoming Holiday Season

At the end of each year, we always celebrate TWO EVENTS:  Christmas and New Years Eve.  At one point in time, we referred to these days as the Christmas Holidays, but that offended people who were not religious, and it was referred to as THE HOLIDAY PERIOD...  in which some of us were off from work while most schools closed down to celebrate the NON-RELIGIOUS HOLIDAY SEASON. 

What I have always thought as interesting was the fact that these people who claimed to be non-religious still put-up Christmas Trees and still purchased presents and pretended to their young ones they were brought by Santa Claus from the North Pole.

These non-religious people want the Christmas Celebration they just don't want the religious aspect of the Christmas celebration.

Gift-giving has its roots in pagan rituals held during the winter. When Christianity folded these rituals into Christmas, the justification for bearing gifts was redirected to the Three Wise Men, the Magi, who gave gifts to the infant Jesus. But in early modern Europe, it also had its roots in Christmas begging.   Source: Weston Nurseries

It really is a wonder that the RELIGIOUS CHRISTMAS has lasted as long as it has...  especially with students in school learning science that completely contradicts most of the teachings of the Bible.

It is also surprising because of all the UFO sightings that we have had, further indicating that there is life out there in the universe other than human beings....   and, if that is the case which it seems to be, why didn't the BIBLE speak about that???

More questions than answers but clearly RELIGION as we knew it or know it to be is in error with reporting TRUTH.   And, if religion is our truth, and we are wrong, then the creator and his son must be extraterrestrials...  not HUMANS.

• If that is the case, do we still have religion?
• Do we still have a creator?
• Do we still have his son who died on the cross for our sins?
• How does an extraterrestrial know about our sins?

Somewhat Political

 

Individual Molecules Entangled

For the first time, a team of Princeton physicists have been able to link together individual molecules into special states that are quantum mechanically "entangled." In these bizarre states, the molecules remain correlated with each other—and can interact simultaneously—even if they are miles apart, or indeed, even if they occupy opposite ends of the universe. This research was recently published in the journal Science.  READ MORE...

Walk the Line

 

A Retirement Story

I have a friend who lives in Canada and who worked for P&G for 25 years and was offered early retirement at the age of 47.  The retirement package was so beneficial to him that he accepted.  When I retired at 67, he had already been retired for 20 years.  P&G gave him a lump sum that he invested along with a month allowance similar to our Social Security that included 100% medical benefits.

Who would not have wanted to retire, especially when one could be paid in retirement what you were making by working full time.  However, he got no raises in retirement and position increases which could have jumped his annual salary up tremendously.

Like me, he is 76 years old (or almost) and is enjoying the life of retirement...  being retired almost as long as he had worked.   And, all he had was a Bachelor's degree from a small 4 year university in NYC.

The home he purchased 30 years ago for $250,000 is now worth 1.5 million...  So, he could always sell his home and move into an apartment if he ever needed money.

He never had any student debt because his parents paid for his education...  however, he went to college from 1966-1970, so the tuition was about $1,500/year... His entire tuition was about $6,000...  and, he did not pay room and board because he lived with his parents, so my guess is that his entire tuition was closer to just $5,000.

Nowadays, it is about $40,000 per year to attend college which does not always include room and board.   And, there is a question if the education today is as good as the education in 1966...

Of course, living in Canada is not always all smiles especially as we get older.  The cost of living in Canada is more than in the USA.  The quality of life is about the same as living in the USA.  However, in the winter it is colder than a witch's tit in a brass bra...   age does not do well in the cold.

You might be saying to yourself that life in the 1960s is not the same as life in the 2020s and I would agree with you.  The options to a successful life are still there...  one just has to look around and not wait on the government to take care of them all the time.
 

Landed on the Moon

There are FOUR COUNTRIES that have successfully landed spacecrafts on the MOON:

• USA
• Russia
• China 
• India

Interestingly, three of these countries, DO NOT LIKE THE UNITED STATES... and are members of BRICS, the consortium that wants to end the global dominance of the US dollar.

The USA stands alone against TWO POWERHOUSES...  and, if this was a street fight, which it is not, the USA would LOSE.

Unfortunately, the USA has burned its bridges, when it tried to FORCE USA DEMOCRACY on the rest of the world...  The USA did this especially in South America and is one of the reasons why Brazil is a member of BRICS...  The USA also did this in the Middle East which is one of the reasons why most of the Middle Eastern countries are against the USA.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, the USA had tried to dominate the world and in so doing, has tried to spread American Arrogance throughout the world.  It is this arrogance, similar to wealthy arrogance, that the rest of the world (which is not financially well off) that angers the world against the USA.

NOW... WE ARE IN SPACE...  and are competing against THREE ENEMIES:  Russia, China, & India.  While Russia is struggling in Ukraine, and India is struggling with economic growth and global acceptance, CHINA is second to us globally and could pass us in the next few years.

The reason China could pass us economically, is that we are pushing a green energy agenda and in so doing, has weakened our economy.  Our national debt does not help either.  And, the wealthy shelter their money away from taxes, so the government always falls short of their financial expectations.

Whoever controls the MOON, will control SPACE EXPLORATION, especially if China weaponizes a space station before we do...