NATO Countries Not Going Into Ukraine

France’s suggestion that Ukraine’s allies could potentially send ground troops into Ukraine has caused indignation and outrage in Russia, with officials warning it could provoke a direct conflict between Russia and NATO member states.

Eyebrows were raised Monday when French President Emmanuel Macron suggested that European heads of state and Western officials, who met in Paris on Monday, had talked about the possibility of sending ground troops into Ukraine.


“There is no consensus today to officially, openly, and with endorsement, send troops on the ground. But in terms of dynamics, nothing should be ruled out. We will do everything necessary to ensure that Russia cannot win this war,” Macron said at a news conference Monday evening. READ MORE...

Silly kitten

 

In The NEWS

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Chris Mortensen, longtime NFL journalist for ESPN, dies at 72 (More) | Brit Turner, founding member of Southern rock band Blackberry Smoke, dies of cancer at 57 (More)

> Six-time NFL All-Pro center Jason Kelce retires after 13 seasons (More) | Denver Broncos to release nine-time Pro Bowl QB Russell Wilson after just two seasons with the team (More)

> Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, tapped to headline South by Southwest opening day panel; SXSW kicks off this Friday from Austin (More)


Science & Technology
> Google-backed Gravity Mobility opens the fastest electric vehicle charging stations in the US for public use; New York City stations can provide a 200-mile charge in five minutes (More) | AI startup Anthropic releases Claude 3, saying its new chatbot is more powerful than OpenAI's ChatGPT (More)

> Scientists grow organoids—miniature, three-dimensional structures that mimic key functions of different organs—from stem cells derived from the amniotic fluid of active pregnancies (More)

> Engineers create the world's smallest QR code; embedded pattern/, with feature sizes close to one-thousandth of a millimeter, is only readable using infrared light (More)


Business & Markets
In partnership with Sidebar

> US stock markets close lower (S&P 500 -0.1%, Dow -0.3%, Nasdaq -0.4%) ahead of jobs report this week (More) | Tesla shares fall 7% amid declining sales in China (More)

> Apple fined nearly $2B by the European Commission, which sided with Spotify in finding the App Store restricted competition for music-streaming apps; Apple expected to appeal fine, which represents 0.5% of its global annual revenue (More)

> Elon Musk sued by former Twitter executives for $128M in total unpaid severance, claiming Musk didn't have cause to fire them after his 2022 takeover (More) | Boeing sued for $1B in damages by Alaska Airlines passengers who experienced door blowout in January, citing the incident caused PTSD and physical injuries (More)

SOURCE:  1440 News

Looking Through Older Eyes - Part I

The older I get the more I become impatient and prejudice towards others around me or about whom I read.

Today, I read where a Hollywood actor who is a multimillionaire, does not think he should pay taxes because he is a descendant of slaves.  He believes it is immoral to ask a slave descendant to pay taxes.

I am a 76 year old white man and I don't give a damn about what happened hundreds of years ago because I was not personally involved...   so why should I have to pay more taxes because of slavery.

Our country is divided over this issue...  I would say it is pretty much 50/50...  and if more and more gets made available to the blacks at the expense of the whites, I would pretty much believe that the white are going to find someway to PUSH BACK.

Blacks only represent 12% of the population, whites represent 60% - five times as many...  and with all the illegal immigrants coming into this country without skills or education, monies are going to have to be set aside for them.

We cannot take care of both blacks and Hispanics at the same time.  And, since there are now an even greater percentage of Hispanics, I would say the black are going to be pushed farther down the economic ladder.

And there is no telling what will happen 6 years from now when humanoid robots start replacing jobs...

I believe the descendants of slaves will not be asked to pay taxes if they have NO INCOME.

Fly Fishing

 

Boiling Tap Water Can Remove Microplastics

Boiling tap water before use can remove at least 80 per cent of the tiny, potentially harmful plastic particles it contains.

Nano and microplastics (NMPs) are pieces of plastics like polystyrene, polythene and polypropylene that range from between 0.001 to 5 millimetres in diameter. Their impact on health is still being studied, but researchers suspect they are damaging to humans.


Eddy Zeng at Jinan University in China and his colleagues took samples of tap water and measured their levels of NMPs, finding an average concentration of 1 milligram per litre. They then boiled the samples for 5 minutes, before allowing them to cool. The levels of NMPs were then remeasured and found to have reduced by more than 80 per cent.  READ  MORE...

You Really Got Me

 

ONLY 2% SUCCEED

 

China Obsessed with Sinking US Aircraft Carriers

Summary: The Third Taiwan Crisis in 1995-1996 exposed China to the strategic dominance of U.S. aircraft carriers, marking a turning point in Chinese military planning. Following Taiwan's democratic elections and the U.S.'s military support, China initiated military exercises as a form of intimidation, which included missile tests near Taiwan. 

The U.S. responded with a powerful carrier presence, highlighting China's military limitations. This event spurred China into expanding its naval capabilities, purchasing and refurbishing an unfinished Russian carrier into the Liaoning, and developing anti-ship ballistic missiles. Today, China aspires to a significant carrier fleet while innovating in carrier countermeasures.  READ MORE...

Somewhat Political

 

In The NEWS

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
In partnership with The Ascent

> Iowa's Caitlin Clark passes LSU's Pete Maravich's all-time, men's or women's, NCAA basketball scoring record (More) | LeBron James becomes first NBA player to top 40,000 points (More)

> "Dune: Part Two" hauls in $81.5M at the US domestic box office, the biggest film opening of 2024 (More) | Paolo Taviani, iconic Italian film director, dies at 92 (More)

> Singer-songwriter Raye wins top prizes of artist and album of the year at 2024 Brit Awards, the UK's highest profile music awards show (More)



Science & Technology
> Eleventh-century astronomical device reveals both Hebrew and Islamic inscriptions, making it one of the oldest examples of scientific exchange between the two cultures (More) | What is an astrolabe? (More)

> Researchers demonstrate AI-enabled computer virus capable of stealing personal data and hopping between different email clients by targeting generative AI programs (More)

> Solo killer whale observed preying on a juvenile great white shark without any companions; behavior was previously only seen in packs (More, w/video)



Business & Markets
> Markets surge Friday (Dow +0.2%, S&P 500 +0.8%, Nasdaq +1.1%) as money moves into tech stocks; Nasdaq notches all-time high during intraday trading, S&P 500 passes 5,100 for the first time (More)

> Saudi Arabia and Russia to extend oil supply cuts of a combined 1.5 million barrels per day through June; crude oil price currently around $80 per barrel, down from close to $120 in June 2022 (More)

> Lawyers who led successful case arguing a recent pay package for Tesla CEO Elon Musk should be voided ask presiding judge for $5.6B in company stock as compensation for legal fees (More)

SOURCE:  1440 News

Global Warming - Green Energy

There has been and will continue to be a HUGE push by the Democrats for the USA to GO GREEN and set the example for the rest of the world...

Honorable and Admirable...  but economic lunacy.

The Democrats want to STOP USING petroleum crude oil (gasoline) for automobiles and have everyone buy an EV...

• The average American cannot afford an EV
• There are not enough charging stations to support EVs from coast to coast
• EVs do not have good resale value
• There is a high cost of battery replacement

Now, there may be more people that buy hybrids because they are cheaper and you don't need a charging station, but the hybrid still needs GASOLINE.

BUT HERE IS THE KICKER...

China, Russia, India, Africa, the Middle East, and possibly South & Central America HAVE NO PLANS TO GO GREEN AND DO AWAY WITH GASOLINE.

How stupid are we in the USA???

We are no longer respected as the leader of the world and other countries no longer want to follow us.

Therefore, all our investments to GO GREEN will be wasted because it will not help the world as whole.

MEANWHILE...  as the economy of the USA grows slow because of our transition to EVs and going green, the other major countries like China, Russia, and India will be building their economies and using gasoline.

YES, but all these countries at the UN said they would go green....

THEY LIED -  telling everyone what they wanted to hear - politicians are basically stupid because they think they are the only ones that lie.

At their present rate of growth, China by 2030 will have a larger GDP than the USA.  China will have the largest population in the world followed by India.

China has announced they want to take the global leadership position away from the USA...

The USA does not believe that will ever happen...

The first country to dominate their economy with humanoid robots instead of human beings, will have a HUGE economic advantage because the biggest cost to a company is their LABOR COSTS...  why in the hell do you think we manufacture so much overseas...

DO YOU HAVE YOUR HEAD IN THE SAND???

Turtle

 

Alzheimer's Was Rare Thousands of Years Ago

Older people in ancient Greece and Rome may not have experienced severe memory problems like many who are aging today.

Researchers in California have combed through a slew of classical texts on human health written between the 8th century BCE and 3rd century CE, and found surprisingly few references to cognitive impairment in older folk.

According to Caleb Finch, who studies the mechanisms of aging at the University of Southern California, and historian Stanley Burstein from California State University, severe memory loss may have been an extremely rare outcome of growing old more than 2,000 years ago.   READ MORE...

Another Brick in the Wall

 

On Being Retired

 In 2014, I turned 67 years old and in January of 2015, my wife and I had retired.  I retired with full benefits, she retired with reduced benefits at 62 and as not eligible for Medicare until age 65.  Cobra Health Insurance was available but very expensive.

During the last three year of my working career, I worked for a local university and intentionally set aside money during those three years in the exact amount that I needed to pay for Cobra insurance so that she could retire early.

With health insurance covered, our house mortgage paid for and since we had no other debt, all we needed was enough money to pay our monthly expenses.

Combined our Social Security was $3,000 and our monthly expenses were $2,500 so there was plenty of money left over about $5,000 to cover the cost of two weeks at Myrtle Beach.

Also, during our last three years before retirement, we installed an 24-foot round above ground swimming pool, build a huge deck around the pool, had a large gazebo built, and brought in a hot tub.  We created our own little vacation area in case we did not have the money to go anywhere.

My wife had purchased a cancer insurance policy for $10/month and when I got cancer at the age of 60 and she contracted cancer about 4 years later, we received $20,000 each to pay for initial expenses and then as long as we received treatment, we got another $10,000 each year.

I am 76 now, and have been receiving $10,000 each year for 15 years.  According to the cancer that I have, I will continue to receive treatments until I die as it never goes away.

From 2015 until around 2020 when COVID hit, my wife and I travelled all over from Hawaii, Alaska, Mexico, the USA, to Europe, including taking 8 cruises covering the Caribbean and Mediterranean.

We travelled so much that now we don't really want to go anywhere except Myrtle Beach.  

When I turn 80 my wife will be 75 and I doubt we will even go to Myrtle Beach.

• We have been retired for 10 years now and have loved every minute of it.
• We wake up whenever we want to or whenever the cats decide we need to be up, unless we have an early morning doctor's appointment.
• We both have hobbies and have something to keep us busy and entertained all the time.
• We exercise daily and eat a healthy diet that includes no red meat, no alcohol, plenty of fruits and vegetables and in my case plenty of beans and lentils.
• We go out to eat once a week and purchase pretty much anything that we want or need although, we have OUTGROWN WANTING STUFF,
• We have been saving money, looking deals, and using coupons for the 30 years we have been married, so it is just natural for us to continue the process in retirement.
• We planned for our retirement - it just did not happen.

Mississippi Queen

 

Longest Range Hydrogen Car

Hydrogen automotive technology has long been a vision for a green future in cars. The modern basis of fuel cell technology was invented all the way back in 1932, and the discovery that hydrogen could generate electricity at all happened in the 1800s. In 1966, Chevrolet introduced the Electrovan, the world's first hydrogen fuel cell-powered motor vehicle.


It was originally designed to be a Corvair, but the engineers realized the hydrogen storage system would be too massive to fit into a sedan, and instead opted to use a Chevy Handivan to hold the tanks and fuel cell. Chevy never released the Electrovan as a production car, as the technology was simply impractical in terms of efficiency and in terms of hydrogen fuel infrastructure. Hydrogen cars lay dormant for nearly 30 years afterward, until Toyota began its now-massive hydrogen program in 1992.     READ MORE...

Connected

 

Change in the USA

 Life in the United States is changing and while some believe it is for the better, others believe it is for the worse.

What do I believe?

I don't believe either way...  because change is inevitable, and it does not matter if that change is good or bad because it will change again...

The thing about change is that it is always SHORT TERM...  change never really lasts that long, especially when all younger generations REJECT the societies that their parents created.

Look at marriage in the USA...  for the last 10 years, the divorce rate has remained at 50% which means both MALES & FEMALES wanted change...  I say that because not all divorces are initiated by the female because their husbands cheated...  wives are cheating as well.

After WWII, the USA wanted to build a strong military so that it could take care of the rest of the world...  and, because other countries did not appreciate what the USA was trying to do, they rebelled.

Now we have generation that does not want to build a strong military.  Their reasons for this are varied but basically, they do not want to go to war and do not want to send money to countries who are engaged in war.  Instead, they want to spend that money on social programs here at home.

There was a recent study conducted by someone whose results yielded the fact that a majority of Americans 18-35 years old, do not believe in DEMOCRACY and want to change into SOCIALISM.

These people will soon hold positions of leadership if they are not there already.

The USA will change again.