TRUTH is What We Want It To Be

TRUTH is that which is true or in accordance with fact or reality.

FACT is a thing that is known or proved to be true.

REALITY is the state or quality of having existence or substance.

Truth can be proven and has existence or substance...  and, therefore one's truth does not have to be another's truth unless we are trying to convince more than two of our truth...  and, whether or not it is really true, as long as others believe it to be true as known or real, then it is truth.

The point that I am trying to make is that truth is not always true but what we chose to believe and whether or not it is actually true is rather irrelevant...  For instance, if I have a religious belief and for me, it is the truth by fact, evidence, existence, and substance but it is not the truth at all...  as long as I believe it to be true then it is truth.  And, what if an entire population believed something to be the truth when in reality it was not the truth at all...  then their truth would still be truth.  And, what if an entire world believed in a truth that was not the truth at all, would it still be the truth?  YES.

We currently live in a country that is divided politically between liberals and conservatives, and each of these two groups has its own truth that they believe is the only truth because it is supported by fact, evidence, and reality. But, both sides cannot possess the only truth.  One side has got to be incorrect...  and if that is the case then one side has to admit that their side is not the truth.  That will never happen.

At some point in our past, these two sides were willing to compromise because they understood that their beliefs were not completely the truth...  but, compromise is no longer an issue for either side as they believe the other side in UNTRUTH and their side is TRUTH.

If I believe that there are extraterrestrials living among us here on earth then my behavior is going to be governed by my truth even though I have no evidence, facts, or reality to support my truth.  My truth is what I want it to be...

So, what are your truths? 

Celebration

 

Searching for Meaning

Summary: Appreciating the beauty in the smaller things in everyday life can contribute to a more meaningful existence, a new study reports.

Source: Texas A&M

Appreciating the intrinsic beauty in life’s everyday moments can contribute to a more meaningful existence, according to new research.

In a paper recently published in Nature Human Behavior, Joshua Hicks, a professor in the Texas A&M University Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, says this may be a previously unaccounted for factor tied to perceptions of meaning.

“It might not relate to whether you matter in the grand scheme of things, but we’ve shown people who value the little things, like your cup of coffee in the morning or being mindful in conversations with others, tend to have a high sense of meaning in life,” he said.

Hicks studies existential psychology. Put simply, he aims to understand the “big questions” in life. He describes his main focus as the experience of life—studying people’s subjective feeling that their life has meaning.

Scholars like Hicks generally agree there are three main sources of a subjectively meaningful existence: coherence, or the feeling that one’s life “makes sense”; the possession of clear, long-term goals and sense of purpose; and existential mattering. This last factor, he says, is the belief that one’s actions matter to others.

What Hicks and his co-authors argue in their latest research is that appreciating and finding value in experiences, referred to as experiential appreciation, is a fourth fundamental pathway toward finding meaning in life.

Researchers measured this factor by asking study participants how strongly they identified with statements linked to finding beauty in life and appreciating a wide variety of experiences.

They were also asked to recall the most meaningful event of the past month, among other questions, with the goal of measuring experiential appreciation. Hicks described this series of experiments in a recent article he co-authored for Scientific American.

In each case, the results confirmed the original theory that appreciating small moments can make for a more meaningful life.  READ MORE...

Vollleyball

 

How To Be Happy Alone

True happiness comes from within.

And while you can always turn to others for a mood boost, there's nothing quite like being content with your own company. That said, can you really be happy alone?

Yes, but it's all about perspective.

The word "alone" sometimes carries a negative connotation since many equate it to being lonely and, well, sad. However, that is simply not the case as the two words have completely different meanings.

“Feeling lonely is actually completely different from being alone. Loneliness is a feeling while being alone in a situation," Dr. Nina Vasan, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Real told TODAY.

With the right techniques, you may be able to get past this feeling of loneliness, whether you're single, going through a breakup or simply miles away from the people you love. “For example, if you’re by yourself but connecting to others through good communication or activities like volunteering, you don’t feel lonely," she said.

In fact, the ability to enjoy the joys of quality alone time may just be the greatest act of self-love. Not to mention being alone — whether by choice or circumstance — gives you time to be "introspective, creative, or engaged through activities like journaling, painting, reading a book or building something for your house."

Read on for expert-backed tips and tricks on how to be happy alone. Implement one (or all) of these techniques into your everyday life to remind yourself the happiness should always start and end with you. Who knows, you may even find that you're a better friend, partner and colleague because of it.  READ MORE...

It's A Revolt

 

"TURN ON" Gene Causes Cancer

Researchers found that hypomethylating agents, a medication commonly used to treat myelodysplastic syndrome, could “turn on” the gene that causes cancer,



Hypomethylating agents (HMA) are currently used as a first-line treatment for individuals with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a group of conditions where there is an inadequate generation of healthy mature blood cells in the bone marrow. However, the exact mechanism through which HMAs work is still unknown. Although this has not yet been completely proved, one possible concern is that they could activate a sleeping oncogene.

In a recent study, researchers from the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Cancer Science Institute of Singapore (CSI Singapore) in close cooperation with Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and Harvard Medical School (HMS) have shown that HMAs can and do activate the oncofetal protein SALL4.

The research was published in the academic journal New England Journal of Medicine and was also carried out in partnership with the University of Tor Vergata in Rome, Italy, and the Institute of Hematology and Blood Diseases Hospital in Tianjin, China.
Turning on the gene that causes cancer

SALL4 is a known oncogene, and the expression of SALL4 has been found to contribute to the development of MDS and leukemia. A study conducted by another research group in 2016 demonstrated that SALL4 activation in a liver cancer cell line was associated with hypomethylation.

Professor Daniel Tenen from CSI Singapore and his team demonstrated in 2021 that hepatitis B virus induced SALL4 demethylation in liver cancer through an RNA mediated mechanism. To examine possible upregulation of oncogenes in patients being treated with hypomethylating agents, Professor Tenen’s team collaborated with the other groups to study the association between HMA utilized and SALL4 activation, as well as the implications on survival outcomes.  READ MORE...

Juggling

 

We All Have Life to Live

LIFE is a magazine...  at least it was when I was growing up...  I am not sure if it is still around or not... but, when life is not a magazine, it is magnificent to behold as it is being lived...

• Life is blessed
• Life is horrible
• Life is adventurous
• Life is devastating
• Life is joy
• Life is pain

and...  after we live all that we can...  WE DIE...

and...   while some of us believe that there is an afterlife, many others do not...  as they believe that once you are dead, you are dead...  nothing more.

and...  neither side can prove that they are right nor can they prove the other side is wrong.

It is what one believes...  even though those who don't believe in an afterlife claim that they believe in nothing.

BUT...  whatever happens, after death happens...  my concern is LIFE...  and, how I live this life that I have been given...  even though I am not exactly sure who gave it to me...

I know that my parents gave me life (even though I did not ask them for it) but there is a bigger picture here...  who created the human race...  outside of it being attributed to the evolution of primates and a random mutation of their genes and DNA.

I guess the evolution of primates some of which developed the ability to talk is an unexpected leap that cannot really be explained.

BUT...  be that as it may... there is a LIFE that we all must live...  and that life is usually between 80 and 100 years...  and then we are done.

How well one lives that life is individual and influenced by a variety of factors, the least of which are preconceived ideas...  along with one's personality which I suppose can be modified slightly but not changed.

Some people want to earn as much money as they can, knowing that there is just so much that can be spent and more importantly that it will all be left behind to someone who will theoretically continue to remember them until they die.

But what about those who just want to sit around and THINK...  what would you think of them?  Are they losers?  What is the point of just thinking?  And, wouldn't you run out of ideas about which to think?

It also seems like a silly way to spend your time...  just thinking...

I suppose dreaming is really no different than thinking...  very little is accomplished other than the passing of time.  However, it does not cost anything to think or dream.

In The News

Every morning, I awake around 7:30 am unless I have an early morning appointment; I give the cats a treat, take my thyroid pill, make enough coffee to fill a YETI cup, then sit on the couch to drink coffee and watch the news.  I watch FOX News, and yes it is biased, but it reports the news that the other networks have decided is not worthy of reporting because it makes the Liberals look bad...

And every morning unless there is some sort of urgency with the news, the same ole shit is reported over and over again:

• Crime & Violence in larger cities
• Biden blames something else for his problems
• Thousands of illegal immigrants cross border
• Democrats claim the economy is improving
• Food prices continue to rise
• Biden's approval rating continues to decrease
• Global respect for Biden continues to decrease
• Liberal protest supreme court ruling on abortion
• Liberals continue to attack Trump
• Another police officer is shot in the line of duty
• Fentanyl deaths are increasing
• COVID masking is again required

We are only two years (almost) into the Biden Administration and we have these kinds of problems flourishing in this country...  a country that once respected the rule of law, and the importance of fossil fuel but the need to gradually go GREEN, and respect honor, integrity, truth, and justice...

This is no longer the case...  and, it is rather unfortunate...

• I don't like guns but we have them and we need to control their use.
• I believe that a female (or whatever name she wants to go by) has the right to choose what to do with her body, but it is not the government's responsibility to finance that decision.
• I believe in strong internal law enforcement and a strong military to protect us against our enemies.
• I don't believe in illegal immigration under any circumstances.
• I don't believe in SOCIALISM nor do I believe in PURE CAPITALISM or the free market enterprise system that goes with it because the worker is at a disadvantage and can easily be manipulated.
• I don't believe in censorship of any kind.
• I believe that all progress should have gradually.
• I believe that we should do what we have to do to sustain positive economic growth.
• I believe the government should take care of its veterans, especially the disabled.
• I believe people should earn what they want or have rather than have it given to them.
• I believe that EVERYONE should pay a flat tax with no exemptions

BUT...  what the hell do I know about anything...  I am not wealthy...  I am not powerful...  I am not influential...  I am not an expert in anything not even in retirement as it manages me rather than me managing it...  I just know what I feel and what seems to be logical...  I don't think the liberals or the progressives or the democrats are being very logical right now...  I think they are being influenced by the 1% wealthy who have agendas that they do not want to share with everyone for fear of PUSHBACK...

Underwater Fish

 

Ending Global Poverty

Poverty entails more than the lack of income and productive resources to ensure sustainable livelihoods. Its manifestations include hunger and malnutrition, limited access to education and other basic services, social discrimination and exclusion, as well as the lack of participation in decision-making. In 2015, more than 736 million people lived below the international poverty line. 

Around 10 per cent of the world population (pre-pandemic) was living in extreme poverty and struggling to fulfil the most basic needs like health, education, and access to water and sanitation, to name a few. There were 122 women aged 25 to 34 living in poverty for every 100 men of the same age group, and more than 160 million children were at risk of continuing to live in extreme poverty by 2030.

Poverty facts and figures

• According to the most recent estimates, in 2015, 10 percent of the world’s population or 734 million people lived on less than $1.90 a day.
• Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are expected to see the largest increases in extreme poverty, with an additional 32 million and 26 million people, respectively, living below the international poverty line as a result of the pandemic.
• The share of the world’s workers living in extreme poverty fell by half over the last decade: from 14.3 per cent in 2010 to 7.1 per cent in 2019.
• Even before COVID-19, baseline projections suggested that 6 per cent of the global population would still be living in extreme poverty in 2030, missing the target of ending poverty. The fallout from the pandemic threatens to push over 70 million people into extreme poverty.
• One out of five children live in extreme poverty, and the negative effects of poverty and deprivation in the early years have ramifications that can last a lifetime.
• In 2016, 55 per cent of the world’s population – about 4 billion people – did not benefit from any form of social protection.

Poverty and the Sustainable Development Goals

Ending poverty in all its forms is the first of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The SDGs’ main reference to combatting poverty is made in target 1.A: “Ensure significant mobilization of resources from a variety of sources, including through enhanced development cooperation, in order to provide adequate and predictable means for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, to implement programmes and policies to end poverty in all its dimensions.”

The SDGs also aim to create sound policy frameworks at national and regional levels, based on pro-poor and gender-sensitive development strategies to ensure that by 2030 all men and women have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance.  READ MORE...

Buffalo

 

Global Hunger

UNITED NATIONS — The spike in food, fuel and fertilizer prices sparked by the war in Ukraine is threatening to push countries around the world into famine, bringing "global destabilization, starvation and mass migration on an unprecedented scale," a top U.N. official warned Wednesday.

David Beasley, head of the U.N. World Food Program, said its latest analysis shows that "a record 345 million acutely hungry people are marching to the brink of starvation" — a 25% increase from 276 million at the start of 2022 before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. The number stood at 135 million before the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.

"There's a real danger it will climb even higher in the months ahead," he said. "Even more worrying is that when this group is broken down, a staggering 50 million people in 45 countries are just one step away from famine."

Beasley spoke at a high-level U.N. meeting for the release of the latest report on global hunger by the World Food Program and four other U.N. agencies that paints a grim picture.

The report, "The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World," says world hunger rose in 2021, with around 2.3 billion people facing moderate or severe difficulty obtaining enough to eat. The number facing severe food insecurity increased to about 924 million.

The prevalence of "undernourishment" — when food consumption is insufficient to maintain an active and healthy life — is used to measure hunger, and it continued to rise in 2021. The report estimates that between 702 million and 828 million people faced hunger last year.  READ MORE...

Microwave

 

What Worries The Entire World

According to IPSOS.

the top global concerns are:

1. Covid-19 (33%), 
2. Poverty/social inequality (31%), 
3. Unemployment (29%), 
4. Financial/political corruption (27%), 
5. Crime and violence (26%).

Ipsos Group S.A. is a multinational market research and consulting firm with headquarters in Paris, France. The company was founded in 1975 by Didier Truchot, Chairman of the company, and has been publicly traded on the Paris Stock Exchange since July 1, 1999. Wikipedia

BUT,

According to Human Rights Careers,

the top global concerns are:

1. poverty
2. climate change
3. food insecurity
4. refugee rights
5. Covid 19

NOTE:  What are the most pressing issues in the world today? What will demand the most attention in the next 5, 10, and 20+ years? In this article, which frequently refers to the World Economic Forum’s 17th Edition of the Global Risks Report, we’ll highlight 20 current global issues we must address, including issues related to climate change, COVID-19, social rights, and more. While it’s hardly a comprehensive discussion, it’s a solid introduction to the kinds of concerns facing our world today.  To Read More About this, CLICK HERE...

According to the World Economic Forum 2022...

Here’s a look at the WEF’s Top 10 Global Risks by Severity:

1. Climate action failure
2. Extreme weather
3. Biodiversity loss
4. Social cohesion erosion
5. Livelihood crises
6. Infectious diseases
7. Human environmental damage
8. Natural resource crises
9. Debt crises
10. Geoeconomic confrontation

To read more about what the WEF thinks, CLICK HERE...

SIDEBAR:

The meeting (WEF) brings together some 3,000 paying members and selected participants – among whom are investors, business leaders, political leaders, economists, celebrities and journalists – for up to five days to discuss global issues across 500 sessions.

Now, I don't attend the WEF and will never attend the WEF, but there seems to be a disconnect between what our global leaders think is important and what our global citizens know is important...

Happy Dog

 

PROGRESS by John Rich

 

Remembering Economics

Dr. Peter Peacock was my Economics Professor in Grad School and while that name seems fitting for the classes he taught, I still remember a couple of his lessons...

The first lesson he taught me was that there was no such concept as a FREE LUNCH...  

Now that I think about it, Dr. Peacock was a conservative and was really taking a political stand in the classroom...  he was opposed to people using the word FREE because the word was misleading...   while the student got a free lunch, someone else had to pay for it, and more than likely it was the taxpayer through the collection of taxes...  but, the Democrats were trying to convince everyone that the lunch was FREE...

At the time, my parents were Democrats as I was but for some reason, I never saw the lesson as a political statement...  and, looking back, I am glad I didn't.

The second lesson was a little more difficult for me to swallow (excuse the pun) but it dealt with LAST CALL at a bar...  

It was Dr. Peacock's contention that when LAST CALL was announced and everyone purchased their last beer of the evening, the beer did not really have to be consumed.

My parents taught me that if you ordered food, you ate all you ordered... so that same logic should apply to drinking.

Therefore, you ordered it you drink it.

"No!" stated Dr. Peacock.  "You don't need to drink it.  You paid the money for it whether you drink it or not is up to you.  If you don't drink it, you don't save any money."

At first, it was a little difficult, going against my parent's philosophy but the more I thought about it, the more I understood that Dr. Peacock was correct in his assessment...

Maybe that is why he was a Dr. and I was a student.

Why Should I Care?

This is going to sound either sarcastic or egotistical or perhaps both...  but, why should I care about all the starving people in the world today since they are not in my country?  OR...  why should I care about all the poverty in the world today, since I have all the money that I need to take care of my wife and me?

I mean for Christ's sake, I live in the world's greatest country and those who are hungry or live in poverty DON'T LIVE HERE...

AND...  if they did live here, I probably would not want to do anything to help them out, because it is not my place to help out the rest of the world...  even if I am a Christian...  besides, I cannot possibly help everyone....

What you are asking is like...  what if we asked all the wealthy people in America, the millionaires and billionaires to help out all those people in America who were not wealthy and living on minimum wage and on the verge of poverty...

What do you think all those wealthy Americans might say???

GO SCREW YOURSELF...

We are who we are because of who we are and we don't think it is our place to take care of the rest of the world...  however, we don't mind sending our military overseas to have strangers and foreigners fight their wars...  but, that is a different story because wars actually help strengthen our economy....

Helping poverty and hunger does not really help our economy...  it drains our economy...

Statistically, poverty and hunger will always be around...  it's just part of life...