Rivalries

 

Work

 

City

 

Never

 

GIRLS

 

In The NEWS

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Oregon, Texas, Penn State, and Notre Dame top final College Football Playoff rankings before conference championship week; see complete 12-team bracket (More) | Israel Vázquez, three-time boxing world champion, dies of cancer at age 46 (More)

> Georgia's longest-ever criminal trial, which involved Grammy-winning rapper Young Thug and 28 total codefendants, ends as two codefendants found not guilty of racketeering charges (More)

> "A Different Man" wins best feature at Gotham Awards for independent films (More) | Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, and Drake top Billboard's list of the 21st century's greatest pop stars (More)


Science & Technology
> Amazon reportedly partnering with AI startup Anthropic to build an AI supercomputer; "Ultracluster" will combine hundreds of thousands of Amazon's in-house Trainium chips (More)

> Theoretical study suggests evidence for primordial black holes—hypothetical objects made right after the Big Bang that could be microscopic in size—may be found in hollowed planetoids (More) | Heard about black holes but don't know how they work? Click here (More)

> Researchers discover gene involved in photosynthesis that can boost poplar tree height by about 30% in the field, 200% in a greenhouse; gene also increases the biomass of other plant species (More)

Business & Markets
> US stock markets close mixed (S&P 500 +0.1%, Dow -0.2%, Nasdaq +0.4%), with S&P 500, Nasdaq closing at record highs (More) | US job openings rose to 7.7 million in October, beating analyst expectations; the figure is up 372,000 jobs from September's 3.5-year low (More)

> Walmart buys TV maker Vizio for $2.3B in all-cash deal; the acquisition, first announced in February, enables Walmart to expand its advertising business and collect data on customers' viewing, shopping habits to serve targeted ads (More) | BlackRock to buy credit manager HPS Investment Partners for $12B (More)

> Food production giant Cargill, the US' largest privately held company, says it will lay off 5% of its global workforce, or an estimated 8,000 employees, amid dropping food prices following the COVID-19 pandemic (More)


Politics & World Affairs
> US Supreme Court to hear oral arguments today in US v. Skrmetti, a case surrounding a Tennessee law banning puberty blockers, hormones for minors; decision expected by June (More) | See map of 25 states with similar ban (More)

> Florida Sheriff Chad Chronister withdraws as President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration (More) | Trump says he will block Japanese Nippon Steel's $14.9B acquisition of US Steel (More)

> Bangladesh summons India's top envoy after an attack on a consulate in India sparks protests in Bangladesh's capital; tensions between the two countries have been elevated as India refuses to extradite former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in August (More)

SOURCE:  1440 NEWS

Workforce LAMBS

 

Billionaires, and multi-millionaires have a good life as long as you are in the TOP 10% of the population.  

Most of these people made their money by 90% of the population buying their product or service.  

The workforce NEVER participates in the real profits of the company other than keeping their job from one year to the next and the closer they get to a certain age, the more expendable they are for younger employees.

This is Capitalism at its worst, but it is the best system around because it is associated with the Democratic Republic government of the USA.

NO GOVERNMENT will ever destroy the wealthy...

And the wealthy will never share their money with the general public.

I find it rather humorous that the general public is larger in numbers and has decided not to do anything about this situation.

The general public bitches, understands computers, smart phones, and the internet but never wants to have anymore that what they already have.

Those of us who are older have played the game and survived and in some cases survived well which is a relative term - suffice it to say, better than most.

LUCK FAVORS THE PREPARED

Somewhat Political

 

A Quirk in SPACE-TIME

Gravitational lensing of galaxy cluster Abell 2390. (ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi)



The fabric of space and time is not exempt from the effects of gravity. Plop in a mass and space-time curves around it, not dissimilar to what happens when you put a bowling ball on a trampoline.


This dimple in space-time is the result of what we call a gravity well, and it was first described over 100 years ago by Albert Einstein's field equations in his theory of general relativity. To this day, those equations have held up. We'd love to know what Einstein was putting in his soup. Whatever it was, general relativity has remained pretty solid.


One of the ways we know this is because when light travels along that curved space-time, it curves along with it. This results in light that reaches us all warped and stretched and replicated and magnified, a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing. This quirk of space-time is not only observable and measurable, it's an excellent tool for understanding the Universe.         READ MORE...

The Moody Blues perform "Nights in White Satin" and "Late Lament" at the...

Meltdown

 

I have been flip-flopping back and forth between "X", Truth Social, and BLUESKY and what I have found on BLUESKY defies one's imagination.

BLUESKY Liberals are making the following claims:

• All conservatives are MAGAs
• All Magas are:
• racists 
• felons
• white supremacists
• ignorant
• fascists
• stupid
• rapists
• wealthy
• Superior
• Elites
• liars
• all Magas will destroy democracy
• put certain Americans in jail
• change the constitution
• will destroy the environment

The more I chat with them and try to explain their errors, I am told that I am too stupid to live and the only way to deal with MAGAS is through violence.

They claim that Liberals are in the USA for the sole reason of putting MAGA conservatives in their place.

When I suggest they should introspect and change what did not work, I am told that they will change nothing because all the voters WERE WRONG and their vote should not be trusted.

They believe that the Supreme Court is controlled by MAGAs and that its rulings should be ignored.

They believe that even though all the charges were dismissed against Trump that he is still guilty of INSURRECTION.  If the Court of Appeals overturns his felony convictions that they will still see him as a CONVICTED FELON who ignorant people voted to be President.

It is easy to see why they lost.

Technology

 

Dismissed

 

Quiet on the Set Please

 

Cold

 

Lies

 

In The NEWS

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Kendrick Lamar's "GNX" album tops Billboard 200 chart, his fifth consecutive album atop the charts; "Wicked" film soundtrack debuts at No. 2 (More)

> Fifty-six people die in southeast Guinea from violence and crowd surge following a controversial call made by a referee at a soccer match (More)

> Ted Danson tapped to receive Carol Burnett Award at 2025 Golden Globes (Jan. 5) (More) | "Moana 2" officially breaks all-time five-day Thanksgiving Day weekend US domestic box office record, hauling in $225M in its debut (More)


Science & Technology
> Paralyzed patients regain control of their leg muscles and ability to walk after scientists apply deep brain stimulation to the lateral hypothalamus; brain region is not typically associated with motor control (More)

> Researchers demonstrate photonic processor—computer chips using light to process information—for potential use in AI applications; would allow ultrafast, high-efficiency AI calculations (More)

> Scientists begin study of remains of a spade-toothed whale in New Zealand; animal is world's rarest whale species, with only seven documented since 1880 (More)


Business & Markets
> US stock markets close mixed (S&P 500 +0.2%, Dow -0.3%, Nasdaq +1.0%); S&P 500, Nasdaq rise to new intraday highs and close at new records (More)

> Stellantis shares close down over 6% after CEO Carlos Tavares resigns following board dispute amid stagnating US sales (More) | Volkswagen workers in Germany strike in largest walkout since 2018 as company plans to shutter three plants (More) | Tesla CEO Elon Musk loses legal challenge to reinstate $56B pay package (More)

> Super Micro Computer shares close up nearly 29% after independent review finds no evidence of accounting fraud; review recommends installing new chief financial officer, chief compliance officer, and general counsel (More)


Politics & World Affairs
> Israel and Hezbollah militants reportedly trade fire at disputed border zone despite US- and French-brokered ceasefire that began last week (More) | Israeli American soldier thought to have been taken hostage in Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack now presumed dead, per Israel's military (More) | See war updates (More)

> Iranian-backed Iraqi militias enter Syria to assist the Assad government's counteroffensive against rebels who have taken control of Syria's largest city of Aleppo (More) | See previous write-up (More)

> Jury deliberations to begin today in trial of Daniel Penny, a former Marine charged in the May 2023 death of Jordan Neely on a New York City subway train (More)

SOURCE:  1440 NEWS

Product Differentiation

 

This is an easy concept to understand.  Say you want to buy a car, so you look at an American car and a Japanese car, do a little research and find out the Japanese car has minimal maintenance, cheaper maintenance, a higher resale value, and longer durability.

So, you buy the Japanese car or look at all Japanese cars and find out which one is better.

Product Differentiation.

BUT, suppose you were applying for employment and were in competition with 100 other applicants.  How would you differentiate yourself from them?

• The name of your college might help
• Who you know might help
• Your high grades WILL NOT help

So, what else will help?

• Your ability to communicate (written & verbal)
• Your ability to work in a team
• Your ability to problem solves
• Your ability to drill down

But, what if everyone else has those same skills?  What then?

• Your experience
• Your ability to get results
• Your ability to cut costs

SO, everyone has those same skills as well.  What then?

Specific knowledge, skills, abilities

MORE EXPERIENCE

Regardless of the employer, you have got to set yourself aside from the rest of the applicants.

If you cannot differentiate yourself from another applicant, you will never get that special job unless your dad owns the company, or you are the spouse of one of their children.

Most of the time it is experience, then achieving results which is adding value.

Somewhat Political

 

Lost Military Base Under Ice

NASA has shared an image of a defunct Cold War-era military base hidden deep underneath the frigid Greenland Ice Sheet.

As NASA cryospheric scientist Chad Greene flew over the Arctic plateau in April 2024, around 150 miles east of Pituffik Space Base in northern Greenland, he snapped an image from the window of the Gulfstream III aircraft.

At the same time, the plane's radar instrument picked up a ping from deep below the ice, which turned out to be the remains of Camp Century, a Cold War base buried 100 feet below the surface of the frozen island.

"We were looking for the bed of the ice and out pops Camp Century," Alex Gardner, also a cryospheric scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), said in a statement.     READ MORE...