Saturday, October 5
A Daily LOOKSEE
BUY AMERICAN
As I have mentioned numerous times before, I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican; I am both liberal and conservative and somewhat socialistic. But... and with that said, I am totally against BUYING AMERICAN.
I am, however, for buying the CHEAPEST PRODUCT WITH THE HIGHEST QUALITY.
Unfortunately, American made products do not always fit into either of those criteria.
Since the mid 1980s when I was an organizational development consultant, I would teach business and industry how to reduce the variation in the manufacturing process to produce a high-quality product at a cheap cost.
I was paid to teach their employees this concept and once the training was over, the management team would not let their employees used what they had learned.
Sounds unbelievable but I was paid either $100/hour and $2,500/day plus expenses to do this. I made a rather lot of money in the process.
Knowing this, I will very seldom buy American made products unless they meet my already mentioned criteria.
Second, because the American labor force keeps demanding higher wages and more benefits, American products are now some of the most expensive products in the marketplace.
Not knowing your purchasing habits, let me say that I refuse to throw my money away simply because it is American made. I spend my money wisely and with frugality.
I stopped buying American cars in the 1980s and started buying Japanese cars because of the quality, the longevity, and the high resale value towards my next Japanese car.
Sadly, I have to buy American made homes and whether the homes that I have purchased are new or old, I find that I am constantly pouring money into refurbishing because the original structure was not built with quality and long-lasting durability in mind.
If foreign countries can make the products, I need cheaper and with higher quality then those are the products that I am buying. The current inflation problem that we have had in the USA for the last four years, has just encouraged me to buy less and less American made products.
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> "Rust" world premiere set for next month's Camerimage festival in Poland, three years after the on-set shooting death of the film's cinematographer Halyna Hutchins (More)
> Country music star Garth Brooks accused in lawsuit of 2019 sexual assault and battery by former employee (More)
> Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark wins 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year (More) | MLB Division Series begins tomorrow; see playoff bracket and schedule (More)
Science & Technology
> Harvard students hack Meta's new AI-powered smart glass to instantaneously reveal people's personal information just by looking at their face; pair connected the glasses to the facial search engine PimEyes (More) | What is PimEyes? (More)
> Engineers demonstrate microchip-sized tractor beam capable of picking up and moving tiny particles using only light (More)
> Bacteria implanted into fungus can recreate the basic features of cells, offering a potential source for the origin of complex life, study suggests (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close lower (S&P 500 -0.2%, Dow -0.4%, Nasdaq -0.0%); investors await latest jobs report data today (More) | Dockworkers' union suspends strike until Jan. 15 to allow for negotiations (More)
> PayPal completes first business transaction using its PYUSD stablecoin, which the financial company launched last year (More) | OpenAI receives $4B revolving credit line, bringing total liquidity to more than $10B (More) | Tesla recalls 27,000 Cybertrucks over rearview camera delay in fifth recall since its launch (More)
> Elon Musk ($244B), Jeff Bezos ($197B), Mark Zuckerberg ($181B) top Forbes 400 list of America’s richest people; newcomers include Raising Cane's founder Todd Graves ($9.5B) and Jersey Mike’s Subs founder Peter Cancro ($5.6B) (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> Israel continues strikes in Beirut as its forces order evacuation of more than 20 villages and towns in southern Lebanon; nearly 2,000 people killed in Lebanon so far in almost a year of conflict, per Lebanese health ministry (More) | See war updates (More)
> US Justice Department, Microsoft seize over 100 online domains allegedly used by Russian intelligence agents to hack into government agencies, including the Pentagon and State Department (More)
> Biden administration's student loan forgiveness program to move forward after a Georgia judge lets temporary restraining order expire (More) | Three Memphis officers involved in 2023 death of Tyre Nichols convicted of witness tampering, one officer convicted of civil rights violations (More)
Downside of Passing Age 70
One morning, I wake up, get out of bed, and when I try to stand up my left leg gives out. I hobble to the bathroom for my traditional morning pee, then out to the kitchen to give the cats their morning treat.
For two days, I am able to walk around but with a slight limp but on the third day, my knee is so weak that the only way I can walk is with a cane or some kind of counter support.
A visit to the clinic reveals that there is nothing wrong with my knee and that the pain is coming from just below the knee but there is nothing swollen around that area. By the process of elimination, it must be a tendon below the knee that is either bruised or torn.
In a few days, I will have an ultrasound perform so see if that can reveal anything to prevent me from having to go through an MRI. I have been placing cold packs on that area several times a day for 20-30 minutes and that seems to be helping.
I have a regular appointment scheduled with an Orthopedic doctor in a couple of weeks, and I will ask him to look at it then as well. But again, if it is torn or bruised, there is nothing I can do short of surgery other than cold packs, elevation, and rest.
It could take several weeks for my knee area to get back to normal.
I am already dealing with two torn and retracted tendons in both shoulders and now my knee. Torn or bruised, my knee will continue to give me problems once it has started.
The only part that really bothers me is the fact that I may not be able to weed eat the outside yard as I was doing, unless I can find some way to incorporate these injuries into that process.
Proven With Electromagnetic Waves
Physicists at the University of Southampton have successfully tested and confirmed a 50-year-old theory for the first time using electromagnetic waves.
Their experiments demonstrated that the energy of waves can be amplified by bouncing ‘twisted waves’—waves with angular momentum—off a rotating object under specific conditions.
This is known as the ‘Zel’dovich effect’, named after Soviet physicist Yakov Zel’dovich who developed a theory based on this idea in the 1970s. Until now, it was believed to be unobservable with electromagnetic fields. READ MORE...
Friday, October 4
Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs)
The first known UFO encounter in America was recorded in 1639 by pious Puritan and prolific journal-keeper John Winthrop. He is a foundational figure in the national pantheon and leader of the Massachusetts Bay Colony as it settled Boston.
The Nuclear Option
Many of us have the FALSE BELIEF that our world will not attempt to use the nuclear option to settle our territorial disputes and disagreements.
While many of us also believe that ISLAMIC TERRORISTS are so obsessed with completely destroying ISRAEL that they are blinded to the fact that using nuclear weapons on the JEWS will also destroy them and their quest for after life VIRGINS.
As of January 2024, the following countries have nuclear weapons:
- United States
- Russia
- China
- United Kingdom
- France
- India
- Pakistan
- Israel
- North Korea.
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> British rock band Pink Floyd sells entire music catalog and name and likeness rights to Sony Music for $400M (More) | Vice presidential debate pulls in 43 million viewers, a 25% decline from the 2020 debate (More)
> Michael Jordan-owned 23XI racing team sues NASCAR over alleged anticompetitive practices (More)
> Olivia Rodrigo concert film tapped for Oct. 29 release on Netflix (More) | Live-action "Rugrats" film in the works at Paramount (More)
Science & Technology
> Largest brain map ever created for any organism developed by scientists; fruit fly study reveals more than 54 million nerve cell connections, thousands of new types of neural cells (More) | Explore project (More)
> Researchers discover the vast majority of thunderstorms emit high-energy gamma rays; study carried out with a retrofitted U2 spy plane, findings shed light on the formation of lightning (More)
> Engineered fabric automatically adjusts to body temperature to passively cool or warm the body; material was inspired by color-changing squid skin (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets rise slightly (S&P 500 +0.0%, Dow +0.1%, Nasdaq +0.1%) as investors appear wary amid widening Middle East conflict (More)
> Tesla shares close down 3.5% after Q3 electric vehicle deliveries miss analyst expectations (More) | Humana shares close down nearly 12% to lowest level since 2020 after Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services downgraded health insurer's Medicare star ratings (More) | Medicare star ratings 101 (More)
> General Motors CEO Mary Barra, CVS Health CEO Karen Lynch, and Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser top Fortune's annual list of 100 most powerful women in business (More) | See original list (More, free w/email)
Politics & World Affairs
> Judge unseals Special Counsel Jack Smith's filing in former President Donald Trump's federal 2020 election interference case; redacted brief details argument why Trump's actions shouldn't be immune from criminal charges (More) | Read the brief (More)
> President Joe Biden deploys up to 1,000 soldiers to aid in Hurricane Helene relief efforts as death toll surpasses 181 people (More) | Search efforts are ongoing; see live updates (More)
> Undetected World War II-era bomb explodes on the runway at Japan's Miyazaki Airport, causing 80 flight cancellations but no injuries; the 500-pound US-made bomb left a 23-foot-wide crater at the area once used as a kamikaze airfield (More)
What About, What IFs?
I have said it many times before that opinions are like butt holes, everybody has got one, but that does not make opinions any less valid.
Many people understand but do not fully accept that the consequences of their actions are always as bad as people claim they might be. Whether or not this is true, does not prevent me from voicing my concerns about a couple of WHAT IF SCENARIOS.
What If, Trump loses the election in November?
I believe that the USA will experience FOUR YEARS of unrecognizable hardships.
- Inflation will continue
- Illegal immigration will continue
- Crime and violence will continue
- Worker strikes will continue
- Taxes will increase on Americans
- US economy will continue to weaken
- Russia will intensify its war in Ukraine
- China will invade Taiwan
- Iran will declare war on Israel
- Trump will be sent to prison where he will remain while his lawyers appeal
- NYC will seize his assets for failure to pay restitution
- The Trump Real Estate Empire will file bankruptcy
- Trump supporters will retaliate
- Terrorists already inside USA will commit activities
- Criminals already inside USA will escalate their activities
- Illegal immigrants will begin to substantially draw down medical and other resources
- Americans and Illegals will begin to fight each other