Death to Democracy

"The word democracy itself means rule by the people. A democracy is a system where people can change their rulers in a peaceful manner and the government is given the right to rule because the people say it may."

Because we live in a Democracy, we are FREE to dissolve that Democracy as long as we have a majority of the people who want to do that...

Another way to eliminate or destroy our Democracy is to change the underlying rules that govern the Democracy like:

• Ending the Rule of Law
• Changing the Constitution
• Censoring Opposing Views
• Revolting and Rioting
• Defunding the Police
• Canceling the Culture

Personally, I don't give a damn what happens to this Democracy nor do I care about defunding the police, changing the Constitution, ending the rule of law...  because the only winners in this transformation will be the WEALTHY...  and, since this country is totally controlled by the WEALTHY, then nothing really is going to change at all other than more WEALTH.

The BLACKS population is only about 13-14% of the overall population in the US and I doubt if there was a physical revolt that resulted in violence that the BLACK population would be controlled by the National Guard...  however, I doubt there will be that kind of a revolution.

INSTEAD...  a gradual tearing down of our Democratic System is what is taking place and will continue, so the change will happen over time and will virtually be unnoticed and we will have no idea what happened until it is over.

Investing Basics

Introduction to Investing

Many people just like you turn to the markets to help buy a home, send children to college, or build a retirement nest egg. But unlike the banking world, where deposits are guaranteed by federal deposit insurance, the value of stocks, bonds, and other securities fluctuates with market conditions. No one can guarantee that you’ll make money from your investments, and they may lose value.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enforces the laws on how investments are offered and sold to you. Protecting investors is an important part of our mission. We cannot tell you what investments to make, but this website provides unbiased information to help you evaluate your choices and protect yourself against fraud.  READ MORE

Vaccine No Worky

FROM THE TIMES OF ISRAEL...


The South African variant of the coronavirus is notably more adept at “breaking through” the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine than other variants are, Israeli scientists have found, in a first-of-its-kind real-world study.

Israel has used the Pfizer vaccine almost exclusively to vaccinate millions of citizens, with a version by Moderna, based on similar innovative mRNA technology, used minimally.

A team from Tel Aviv University and the Clalit healthcare organization sequenced the swabs of 150 Israelis who tested positive for COVID-19 despite having been vaccinated.

In their study, the prevalence of the South African strain among vaccinated individuals who were infected despite their inoculation was eight times higher than its prevalence in the unvaccinated infected population. Though the number of such infections among the vaccinated was relatively small, the findings indicated that this variant was far more successful in getting through vaccinated individuals’ defenses than other strains.

“Based on patterns in the general population, we would have expected just one case of the South African variant, but we saw eight,” Prof. Adi Stern, who headed the research, told The Times of Israel. “Obviously, this result didn’t make me happy.”  READ MORE

https://www.timesofisrael.com/real-world-israeli-data-shows-south-african-variant-better-at-bypassing-vaccine/

An Angry Octopus

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A swim on holiday at a Western Australia beach has resulted in a painful octopus “whipping” - and a video of the encounter that has gone viral.

Geologist and author Lance Karlson was about to take a dip near the resort he and his family were staying at in Geographe Bay, on Australia’s southwest coast, when he spotted what he thought was the tail of a stingray emerging from the water and striking a seagull.

Upon walking closer with his two-year-old daughter, he discovered it was an octopus, and took a video, which shows the animal in shallow water take a sudden strike in Karlson’s direction with its tentacles.

“The octopus lashed out at us, which was a real shock,” Karlson said in emailed comments to Reuters.

After setting up a sun protection tent for his family on the beach, Karlston put on goggles and went in the water alone to explore a collection of crab shells, which he believed were left by dead sea creatures.

As he was swimming, he felt another whip across his arm - followed by a more forceful sting across his neck and upper back.

“My goggles became fogged, the water was suddenly murky and I remember being shocked and confused,” Karlson added in the email.

Karlson said he raced back to shore and saw raised imprints of tentacles across his arm, neck and upper back. Since he did not have vinegar, his preferred treatment for sea animal stings, he poured cola over the affected area, which worked well to stop the stinging.  READ MORE

We've Been Visited

I have taped and now watching the ANCIENT ALIENS series on cable and I find the evidence rather compelling that EARTH has been visited by extraterrestrials during our early existence by understanding that all of the buildings that were constructed thousands of years ago, could not have been built by the people who lived in those areas across the world because they just did not possess the technological abilities to do so...

For example:

1. How did they move 10 ton stone objects to a height 100 times their height?
2. How did they cut hard stone with precise angles, squared, and cut?
3. How did they come up with the ideas to draw and paint on stone walls?
4. Why do similar structures exist 10,000 miles away?
5. Why do similar stories/myths exist 10,000 miles away?

Today, we still have UFO's flying around that have been acknowledged do exist by our Governments across the world but no explanation can be derived as to why they are here...  yet, we know UFO's can only come here from another planet.

In all mythologies around the world there are stories of gods coming to earth and providing humans with knowledge and technology.

In all mythologies there is are stories of CREATION by gods or by a single entity including our own Christian God...  all these mythologies speak of a great floor that covered the earth and killed all living creatures.

How could all mythologies be so similar unless it were true?

GENESIS 1:26   26And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

So...   why use us in the sentence?  Especially if and when we are talking about only 1 God...  For a long time, I thought that this was reference to the TRINITY...  but now...  I am not so sure.

Wouldn't it be nice to finally get the real answer to these questions?

Some believe that our DNA was altered by aliens and as a result we are the creatures we are today...  and, there is a lot of truth to that belief or so it seems to me because I never really subscribed to the belief that HUMANS were products of EVOLUTION...  and, the reason I have never bought into this notion is the fact that HUMANS are simply too damn complicated on the inside to be mere byproducts of evolution...  does not make sense nor is it logical...  not when you look around and see the complexities of all life.

Since evolution is out the window...  that leaves us with CREATION...  and, this makes more sense to me...  and, if we were created by aliens from another planet in another solar system in another galaxy...  well...  that makes even more sense.

Why have we had some simply brilliant people, like:

• Da Vince
• Einstein
• Tesla
• von Braun

if it were not for aliens messing around with our DNA and/or visiting these people and giving them special abilities...

Changing Forecast

In just a day or two since last I looked, the weather forecast has changed from sunny all week to rain today and tomorrow and sunny for the rest of the week...  and, on the surface of it all...  that really does not bother me because all I want to do (especially before it gets too humid to do so) is sit on my screened-in back porch and write articles for my blogs and perhaps write down a poem or two as the mood strikes me...

Rain...  and depending upon how it falls will cause me to return to the insides of our home...  and, I know the commercials on television recently make a big deal about home...  being inside one's home is not the same as being outside in the fresh air...  I guess because we have been inside the home all winter and need to get outside.

The weather station is reporting a temperature of 65 degrees for our area and while that is good for T-shirts and sandals, I am sitting on my deck with a T-shirt covered with a sweatshirt hoody...  as it feels a lot damn colder than 65.

I was planning to mow the lawn later tonight but with the rain and the cool temps for the next 2 days, I doubt if I'll be able to mow it by late Thursday night...  which is not good because then I have a bunch of grass clippings that need to be disposed and that is extra work...  I don't mind work...  but extra work is BS.

I am on my second YETI mug of coffee...  each mug holds 3 cups, so when this one is gone, I will have consumed 6 cups of coffee and ordinarily, I would be wired...  but, my coffee intake these days is DECAF...  which takes like piss or what I might imagine piss to take like since I have not really tasted piss myself...  but, after several years of drinking DECAF, one gets used to it and now regular coffee does not taste right.

Here Comes The Drug Cartels...

 

Struggling with Covid

South Africa's once-thriving cultural scene is under threat because coronavirus restrictions have made it difficult to stage public events but some artists have found new ways to show off their creativity, as Mohammed Allie reports from Cape Town.

News of the closure of Cape Town's Fugard Theatre last month was greeted like the demise of an old friend.

"Another icon has fallen to Covid 19," John Kani, one of the country's most famous actors, tweeted.

In just a decade of existence the theatre, named after world-renowned playwright Athol Fugard, had become a much-loved venue that put on work by local writers as well as internationally known plays and musicals.

For the artist community, its closure came to symbolise the struggle that it is now facing more than a year after coronavirus measures came into place.  READ MORE

Psychological Torture

The project is called Deep Time. Right now, 15 people are sealed in a pitch-black cave in the south of France. They have zero access to watches, phones or any other means to monitor the passing of time. Forcibly cut off from the outside world, the volunteers have signed up for what will no doubt prove an extreme psychological challenge. The reason these eight men and seven women have subjected themselves to this bizarre ordeal is all part of a scientific experiment. The aim: to investigate the effects that losing all sense of time has on the human body and mind.

“Losing time is the greatest disorientation there is,” the group’s website explains. “It is this aspect that the mission Deep Time wants to understand better.”

The group entered the Lombrives cave in Ariège on March 15, and will remain entombed for 40 days, until they taste sunlight again on April 22. They have four tons of supplies to physically sustain them and access to a pedal-powered dynamo to provide light in cases of emergency. Each volunteer is also wired up with sensors so that scientists can chart how they physically adapt to life underground.  READ MORE

Crime Data in the USA

According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention  whites commit more crime than any other ethnic group.  Of the approximately 10,000 crimes committed in 2019, 7,000 were committed by whites, 2,500  by blacks, 250 by Native Americans, and 150 by Asians.  This data reflects both juvenile and adult offenders...

According to the HAMILTON PROJECT:  Black and white Americans sell and use drugs at similar rates, but black Americans are 2.7 times as likely to be arrested for drug-related offenses.

The article goes on to say...  The disparate criminal justice experience of black Americans has played an important role in reform discussions. Differences in incarceration rates are stark: in 2007 a black man between the ages of 18 and 25 without a high school diploma was more than three times more likely to be incarcerated than a non-Hispanic white man of the same age and education level (Raphael 2011).

However, it is challenging to relate rates of criminal activity to differences in punishment. Data limitations make it helpful to focus on one type of criminal activity—drug-related crimes—and to allow for comparison by race between reported rates of selling and using illicit drugs to drug-related arrests, sentences, and incarceration.

Being a white male, I have a problem with this data because it clearly denotes an ARREST BIAS in law enforcement...  and all arrests should be made equally or else the law abandons it purpose to serve and protect the people...  and, if I was a black person and came in contact with this information, I would be OFFENDED.

WAKE UP AMERICA...

On Opposite Sides We Stand... or sit...

For as many years as I can remember, citizens of the United States have divided on just about every issue that one can imagine...  from race to education to wealth to religion to sports teams concerning which team should win and why...  oftentimes relying on personal opinions rather than on actual facts.  It did not matter if who was right as long as both sides had an equal opportunity to express their opinions...  and, it got to the point where the following was stated:  "opinions are like assholes...  everybody's got one."

TODAY... that is not being allowed to play out unfortunately as our CANCEL CULTURE friends and neighbors only want their opinions to be heard and believed as actual fact...  If you disagree we (the CC) will destroy you and quite possibly your family members as well like a HIT SQUAD for the Mafia.

Needless to say...  this closed minded opinion PISSES ME OFF and should PISS OFF most Americans who take pride in and honor our FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS...

HOWEVER...  if you want to rewrite our US Constitution and eliminate our FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS then since we live in a Democracy you are free and welcome to do so...  although, I strongly believe that you are going to encounter some resistance from many Americans.

RACISM is one of those issues that DIVIDES AMERICANS...  right now, Racism mainly pertains to the ethnic struggles between  whites and blacks as a result of SLAVERY and the fact that most of people who settled and founded the United States of America owned slaves...  and, many blacks today believe that our country is still controlled by whites who have found a new and different way to enslave blacks....

This enslavement happens in the following areas:

• black communities in the cities
• black educational opportunities
• black work opportunities
• black wealth opportunities
• black political opportunities

What I personally find amusing is the fact that there are many blacks who have been successful and become wealthy in spite of all the whites that are supposedly working against them...  even though they had to work harder than whites in order to get where they got...

The government cannot really change people's opinions and beliefs but what they can do is force people to do what they do not want to do...  that is to say...

• hire blacks whether they want to or not
• educate blacks whether they want to or not
• promote blacks whether they want to or not

But, that practice will not stop the question of:  HOW'D YOU GET YOUR JOB?

But, there is also racism between the:

• light blacks and dark blacks
• African blacks and European blacks
• American blacks and Jamaican blacks
• blacks/whites and Mexicans
• blacks/whites and Hispanics
• blacks/whites and Asians

And...  this racism had nothing to do with slavery and everything to do with immigration and their ability to want to work and not receive handouts and welfare from the Federal Government.

UNFORTUNATELY, no government will be able to stop or suppress differences of opinions...

NOR WILL THEY BE ABLE TO STOP

• Athletic abilities
• Musical abilities
• Artistic abilities
• Physical abilities
• Mental abilities
• Motivational abilities
• Determination abilities
• Personality abilities
• Speaking abilities

Good Morning America

 A HEARTY WELCOME TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS...  

GLAD YOU ARE HERE...

• Learn to speak ENGLISH
• Get yourselves a drivers license
• Get yourselves a work permit
• Get yourselves free food
• Get yourselves COVID vaccinated
• Get yourselves Medicare
• Get yourselves unemployment insurance
• Get yourselves free daycare for children
  
• Get yourselves an apartment or home
• Get yourselves an education
• Get yourselves a car

WE... THE PEOPLE WILL PAY FOR IT ALL WITH OUR TAXES...  SO...  NOT TO WORRY...

Vaccine Suspended

CUMMING, Ga. — The Georgia Department of Public Health has paused distributing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at one state vaccination site after several people had adverse reactions after getting the shot on the same day this week.

Georgia is now the fourth state this week to pause the J&J vaccine due to similar problems.

Channel 2′s Steve Gehlbach was at the Cumming Fairgrounds, where health officials have suspended distributing the vaccine after eight people experienced adverse reactions after getting the shots on Wednesday. One person was taken to the hospital but was released. Others were monitored at the site and sent home.

“It was a fainting issue,” Dave Palmer, North Georgia Health District spokesperson, told Gehlbach. “We don’t think it’s anything with the vaccine. It’s probably more environmental factors.”  READ MORE

Weapons of War

In ancient India, the Brahmastra and its variants, the Brahmashirsha astra and the Brahmanda astra were supernatural weapons used in the war of Mahabharata and are collectively called Brahma weapons. The Brahmashirsha astra was a weapon that was said to be able to destroy the world, capable of destroying creation and vanquishing all beings. It is one of the most destructive, powerful and irresistible weapons mentioned in Hinduism. These weapons are all created by Lord Brahma, except for brahmanda-astra.

It is termed as a fiery weapon that creates a fierce fireball, blazing up with terrible flames and countless horrendous thunder flashes. When discharged, all nature including trees, oceans, and animals tremble, and the sky surrounds with flame, glaciers melt and mountains shatter with copious noise all around.

When used, the Brahmastra can destroy every useful resource in a given area and prevent even a single blade of grass from ever growing in that area again. There will be no rainfall for 12 Brahma years (1 Brahma year = 3,110,400,000,000 Human years and climate condition will worsen. The strike of the Brahmastra will eventually destroy everything.

The Brahmashira Astra (Brahma's head weapon), manifests with four heads of brahma at the front and is four times stronger than the normal brahmastra. Brahmanda Astra is a weapon that manifests with the fifth head of Brahma at the front. It is a weapon that was capable of destroying the world. Arjuna and Ashwatthama almost used the astra against each other near the end of the Kurukshetra War, however both were stopped by Narada and Vyasa to prevent the destruction of the world.

There are numerous instances within Sanskrit theological scriptures where the Brahmastra is used or its use is threatened, including:
Maharaja Kaushika (who later became Brahmarshi Vishvamitra) used it against Maharishi Vasishta, but the Brahmastra was swallowed by Vasishta's Brahmadanda Astra.

Indrajit used the nagasthira against the army of Rama in the Ramayana. Lakhsmana was injured by this weapon only. Only the Sanjeevani herbs brought by Hanuman managed to save the brothers and their army from death. Also, Indrajit used the Brahmastra against Hanuman, but Hanuman survived because of the boon previously given to him by Lord Brahma.

In the Ramayana, a Brahmastra is used by Shri Rama several times: once against Jayanta when he hurt Sita, against Mareecha in their last encounter, and finally the Brahmastra was used in the last battle with the Asura emperor Ravana.[6] According to the Ramayana, the weapon was also aimed at Varuna to carve a path out of the sea such that Rama's army could march towards the island of Lanka.

However, as Rama loaded the weapon, Varuna appeared and offered to assist the king in crossing the ocean. But once invoked, the Brahmastra must be discharged, and hence it was instead aimed towards Dhrumatulya, falling at of modern-day Rajasthan, causing it to become a desert for eons to come. This incident is mentioned in Yuddha Kanda 22 Sarga, Verse 31.

Komic Korner Kartoons

 

Back Porch Adventures

About 2-3 years ago, my wife and I decided to close in our back deck and turn it into a screened in porch.  We were hesitant of the expense of it all and had postponed our decision for years...  actually, I was the one that wanted to do this, but would not move forward unless my wife agreed as well.

My original plans was to have a glassed-in back porch but that turned out to be cost prohibitive, so we settled for a screened-in back porch instead.  The roof for the back porch was slanted into the existing roof rather than building an "A" frame to match the existing roof since it saved us a "ton" of money.

Obviously, our screened-in back porch gets little use during the 2-3 months of cold weather that we have here in the Valley but from April through December, it is used by me quite extensively...  My wife goes out to our deck and sits under a gazebo most of the day when the weather is warm enough to do so.

My usage of the screened-in back porch is limited when the humidity is high or when rain comes in at an angle, otherwise I am out there often...  which in my opinion justifies the spending of the money.

From my perch, I can see the front and back yards of our neighbors directly behind us sitting on either side of the road that divides them.  Six houses are easily seen but are a good hundred yards away which is not the case of the two neighbors on either side of us.  There is a road and an open field on the front side but no neighbors will ever build in front of us.

None of our neighbors spend time outside unless it is to mow their yards or let their dogs back into the house...  even when the weather is warm or hot and humid, they remain inside their homes with the air on as I do...  

Our neighborhood is a great place to live and is especially enjoyable for retirees who have no desire to listen to a bunch of noise from people and children playing outside as if they were in a park.

Morning With Coffee

Saturday morning in the Valley is beginning with a cool breeze and a clarity of sight that comes from an infusion of decaf coffee laced with two spoons of sugar free Cappuccino Mix that has been stirred to perfection and poured into a YETI cup with a mail ordered handle that sits with me wherever I go...

I am the proud owner of 2 YETI cups...  one is used for water and a varieties of cold teas and one is used for coffee and Cappuccino Mix.  My wife has 2 YETI cups as well that she uses for water and Diet Pepsi...

We both have found that we prefer the taste of Pepsi of Coke and have performed our taste taste several times when we are in restaurants or other establishments that do not serve Pepsi products.

In fact, after several years of drink Diet Pepsi, drinking a regular Pepsi actually tastes terrible to me as it is oftentimes seen as TOO SWEET.

However, I became a fan of Pepsi when I was in the Navy and we were crossing the Atlantic on our way to a 6 month MED CRUISE and the rocking of the boat was making a bunch of us sailors nauseous...  a seasoned naval veteran suggested that I drink a soft drink and eat some saltine crackers... I followed his advice and it worked...  the only available soft drink was Pepsi.

I don't drink any kind of soft drink anymore as I read somewhere that there is an ingredient in soft drinks that prevents the body from losing weight...  and, ever since I stopped smoking cigarettes at the age of 40, I have had to be conscious of my weight.

So much for memories...

A Selfish Link

 FROM RICE UNIVERSITY...

One of nature's most prolific cannibals could be hiding in your pantry, and biologists have used it to show how social structure affects the evolution of selfish behavior.

Researchers revealed that less selfish behavior evolved under living conditions that forced individuals to interact more frequently with siblings. While the finding was verified with insect experiments, Rice University biologist Volker Rudolf said the evolutionary principle could be applied to study any species, including humans.

In a study published online this week in Ecology Letters, Rudolf, longtime collaborator Mike Boots of the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues showed they could drive the evolution of cannibalism in Indian meal moth caterpillars with simple changes to their habitats.

Also known as weevil moths and pantry moths, Indian meal moths are common pantry pests that lay eggs in cereals, flour and other packaged foods. As larvae, they're vegetarian caterpillars with one exception: They sometimes eat one another, including their own broodmates.

In laboratory tests, researchers showed they could predictably increase or decrease rates of cannibalism in Indian meal moths by decreasing how far individuals could roam from one another, and thus increasing the likelihood of "local" interactions between sibling larvae. In habitats where caterpillars were forced to interact more often with siblings, less selfish behavior evolved within 10 generations.

Rudolf, a professor of biosciences at Rice, said increased local interactions stack the deck against the evolution of selfish behaviors like cannibalism.  READ MORE

What Don't You Know?

There are two ways to look at this question...

First... one could say, "I don't know what I don't know..."  and that would be the end of it...  however, that is an arrogant answer and belies the fact that the person does not want to have to think about the question.

Second...  one could say, "there are a lot of things that I don't know even though I know that I don't know them..."  and this second answer is more like what the question was intended for in the first place.

The whole point of this exercise is INTROSPECTION and if you are not willing to introspect then you are not willing to understand all of the complexities that exist within your mind and it beleaguered personality that does not really change throughout one's lifetime.

• What changes is one's thoughts and actions...
• What changes is one's values and morals...
• What changes is one's ethics and integrity... 

I have been a conservative liberal all of my life and no matter what I do or do not do, that focus will never change.  My liberal views are pretty much in line with other liberals in that...

1. I favor a woman's right to choose an abortion or not
2. I favor the legalization of marijuana and other illegal drugs
3. I favor a space program and believe in extraterrestrials
4. I favor everyone spending two years in the military
5. I favor the elimination of tax loopholes
6. I favor a flat tax with no exemptions and no sheltered money
7. I favor a strong military
8. I favor no speed limits on interstate highways
9. I favor no out-of-pocket medical expenses
10. I favor an increase in Social Security payouts
11. I favor having an valid ID for voting
12. I favor rewriting the US Constitution

It seems rather OBVIOUS to me that our FOUNDING FATHERS had no idea what society would or might be like in 2021...  even though they created some governmental concepts that are timeless like the 3 branches of government.

On the other hand, the Electoral College was established because our Founding Fathers did not trust the general public to educate themselves about politics.  And, while that may have been the case through the 1900's, it is no longer TRUE or VALID today.

Our Founding Fathers for the most part were RACISTS and created a RACIST CULTURE and a RACIST Constitution that is not reflective of the cultural or ethnic dynamics of the United States in 2021.

SO...

while I do not know what a NEW CONSTITUTION should include, I do know that the old constitution needs refurbishing.

Not To Worry Man

Proud Mary  by CCR 

"And I never lost one minute of sleepin',

Worryin' 'bout the way things might have been..."

My entire life and my entire working career of 45 years, was spent following those lyrics and not because those lyrics meant something to me but because that was just my personality at the time and still is.

I don't care if you like the way I am dressed, the way I look, what I say, or how I act and I certainly don't wish that I had done something else during my life of 73 years.  Now, I have recollected how my life might have evolved had I done this or not and/or not done this or that but I never wished that I had done something else with my life.

I am not wealthy and I don't care that I am not wealthy.  I look at what the wealthy do and their actions and behaviors don't impress me...  even riding on a private jet with no one but yourself...  I can just imagine how enjoyable that is...  especially since you don't have to go through security and stand in line until your ZONE is called.

I know a person who has a 12,000 square foot home and I often wonder how much time he spends in each of the rooms in his house or if there are rooms he has never been in since it was built.

I have a house with a garage, a kitchen, a porch, a living room/dining room, a bedroom, and a bathroom, and another room that is used for our 3 cats that I guess you might say could be seen as a bedroom.  I helped a friend of mine build the deck that we have out back that surrounds our ABOVE GROUND POOL (much cheaper than an inground pool and the maintenance is less) and our Hot Tub.  Both the pool and the Hot Tub are 12 years old and will probably last another 10 years because we take care of the damn things.

I don't need nor do I want a pool into which I can dive...  who gives a shit.  I get in the pool to cool off and exercise using the water as resistance and I get into the Hot Tub to relax my muscles, my mind, and my attitude.

When I replaced some of my decking last summer, I simply used my sander and removed about 1/8 of an inch or so of the rotten wood and put the same decking back where in the place from which I had removed it.  Decking is a good 3/4 inch thick and there is no reason to waste wood...  or to have someone else do it for me...

AND...  IF I WAS WEALTHY I WOULD STILL WANT TO DO IT MYSELF BECAUSE THAT IS THE WAY MY PARENTS RAISED ME.

Just Chillin'

I recently found an online radio station that play CLASSIC ROCK 1964 to 1971 and it reminds me of my transition from High School in Cairo, Egypt to College in North Carolina to the US Navy in Norfolk, VA all of this during the peak of the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Woman's Liberation Movement where everyone spent a lot of time and energy burning bras, drinking a little wine, and smoking a little weed.  My time in the military did little for me except allowed me to buy stereo and camera equipment at wholesale prices and burned into my mind that NOT WANTING TO BE IN COLLEGE had been a monumental mistake.  However, the time I did spend in the military provided me with the GI BILL and I finished my BA and MBA degrees without costing me ONE DAMN CENT except my time spent in class and studying and driving to and from campus.

I remember arguing with my College Advisor about my Senior Thesis (yes...  back in the 60's seniors had to write a thesis in order to graduate and receive a BA degree) and how he thought there was not enough substance with my idea.  I had wanted to take the following groups:  The Beatles, The Doors, Simon & Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, Credence Clearwater Revival, The Byrds, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, and The Band and taking ALL THEIR SONG LYRICS analyze them using all the approaches that my English Degree had taught me to use when analyzing the great works of literature including prose and poetry.

This might have been the main reason why I left college and enlisted in the Navy...  I cut off my nose to spite my face...  it seems.

And...  when I returned to that same college, a senior thesis was no longer required...  PISSER...

My English degree did very little for me except open the door to management positions because I had earned a 4 year degree.  My first position was DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT EFFICACY FOR A MICROBIOLOGICAL MEDIA MANUFACTURER...  WTF...  but, a job is a job.

It's a frigging FLAAAAASHBACK....  The Doors...  Light My Fire...

Russian Cosmism

Russian cosmism is a philosophical and cultural movement that emerged in Russia at the turn of the 19th century, and again, at the beginning of the 20th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, there was a burst of scientific investigation into interplanetary travel, largely driven by fiction writers such as Jules Verne and Herbert Wells as well as philosophical movements like the Russian cosmism.

Cosmism entailed a broad theory of natural philosophy, combining elements of religion and ethics with a history and philosophy of the origin, evolution, and future existence of the cosmos and humankind. It combined elements from both Eastern and Western philosophic traditions as well as from the Russian Orthodox Church.

Cosmism was one of the influences on Proletkult, and after the October Revolution, the term came to be applied to "...the poetry of such writers as Mikhail Gerasimov and Vladimir Kirillov...: emotional paeans to physical labor, machines, and the collective of industrial workers ... organized around the image of the universal 'Proletarian', who strides forth from the earth to conquer planets and stars."  This form of cosmism, along with the writings of Nikolai Fyodorov, was a strong influence on Andrei Platonov.

Many ideas of the Russian cosmists were later developed by those in the transhumanist movement.  Victor Skumin argues that the Culture of Health will play an important role in the creation of a human spiritual society into the Solar System.

The Culture of Health is the basic science about Spiritual Humanity. It studies the perspectives of harmonious development of "Spiritual man" and "Spiritual ethnos" as a conscious creator of the State of Light into the territory of the Solar System" (by Skumin).

Who Are Our Ancestors?

According to Mike Wall who writes for SPACE.com, we may all be Martians.

Evidence is building that Earth life originated on Mars and was brought to this planet aboard a meteorite, said biochemist Steven Benner of The Westheimer Institute for Science and Technology in Florida.

An oxidized form of the element molybdenum, which may have been crucial to the origin of life, was likely available on the Red Planet's surface long ago, but unavailable on Earth, said Benner, who presented his findings today (Aug. 28; Aug. 29 local time) at the annual Goldschmidt geochemistry conference in Florence, Italy.

"It’s only when molybdenum becomes highly oxidized that it is able to influence how early life formed," Benner said in a statement. "This form of molybdenum couldn’t have been available on Earth at the time life first began, because 3 billion years ago, the surface of the Earth had very little oxygen, but Mars did. It’s yet another piece of evidence which makes it more likely life came to Earth on a Martian meteorite, rather than starting on this planet."

Organic compounds are the building blocks of life, but they need a little help to make things happen. Simply adding energy such as heat or light turns a soup of organic molecules into a tarlike substance, Benner said.

That's where oxidized molybdenum comes in. Inserting it or boron, another element, into the mix would help organics make the leap to life, Benner added.

"Analysis of a Martian meteorite recently showed that there was boron on Mars; we now believe that the oxidized form of molybdenum was there, too," he said.  READ MORE

Monkeys Have Conscious Experiences Too

 FROM YALE UNIVERSITY...

When humans look out at a visual landscape like a sunset or a beautiful overlook, we experience something — we have a conscious awareness of what that scene looks like. This awareness of the visual world around us is central to our everyday existence, but are humans the only species that experiences the world consciously? Or do other non-human animals have the same sort of conscious experience we do?

Scientists and philosophers have asked versions of this question for millennia, yet finding answers — or even appropriate ways to ask the question — has proved elusive. But a team of Yale researchers recently devised an ingenious way to try to solve this riddle.


Writing on March 29 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they make the case that one non-human species — the rhesus macaque — also has a conscious awareness of the world around it.

“People have wondered for a long time whether animals experience the world the way we do, but it’s been difficult to figure out a good way to test this question empirically,” said Moshe Shay Ben-Haim, a postdoctoral fellow at Yale and first author of the paper.

Researchers have known for a long time that people can be influenced by unconscious subliminal cues — visual stimuli presented just outside of our threshold for conscious awareness, said Laurie Santos, a professor of psychology at Yale who is co-senior author of the study along with her colleague Steve Chang, associate professor of psychology and of neuroscience, and Ran Hassin of Hebrew University.

“We tend to show different patterns of learning when presented with subliminal stimuli than we do for consciously experienced, or supraliminal stimuli,” she said.

If monkeys show the same “double dissociation” pattern that humans do, it would mean that monkeys probably experience the supraliminally presented stimuli in the same way as people do — as a conscious visual experience.

Ben-Haim, Santos, and their team thought of a novel way to explore whether macaques also exhibit a difference in learning when stimuli are experienced consciously versus non-consciously.

In a series of experiments, they had monkeys and humans guess whether a target image would appear on the left or right side of a screen. Before the target appeared, participants received a visual cue — a small star— on the side opposite of where the target would subsequently appear. The researchers varied whether the cue was presented supraliminally or subliminally. 

When the cue was presented for a few seconds, human participants successfully learned that the target would appear in the opposite location from the cue. But when the cue was presented subliminally — quickly enough that it escaped people’s conscious perception — participants showed a different pattern of performance; they continued to choose the side that was subliminally cued, failing to learn the rule that the cue predicted the opposite side.          READ MORE

Rainy Day Blues

A light rain fell from the sky in the Tennessee Valley for most of the day, keeping most of us inside instead of doing necessary chores outside.  The forecast for the Valley for the rest of the week including the weekend calls for rain the next three days and given previous forecasts this amount of rain may or may not happen.  But, as the day winds down and people begin the rush hour drive from work back to home, the sun is out and if it continues to remain out, then around 7:00 pm or so, I should be able to mow the back side of our lawn which grows the fastest and is the largest section.  With a riding mower, it only takes about an hour.

However...  in our neighborhood no one has been outside at all today, even when the sun appeared...  which is normal for our neighbors as the 20 years we have lived here, very few people venture outside when the weather is nice, unless it is a holiday and they are entertaining family and/or friends.  My wife and I like it that way because we spend as much time as we can outside when the weather is nice with the understanding that she will spend more time than me, especially when it is humid.

AND...  as I have mentioned before...  I much prefer living out in the rural areas of East TN rather than in any kind of city proper location.  It is just too crowded for me in cities, even when the cities are small...  it seems like everyone like to roam around cities just looking at shit...  maybe hoping to run into friends or maybe not...  but, they got to BE AROUND OTHER PEOPLE in order to live a fulfilling life.  I don't need that kind of companionship...  outside of having a spouse and/or children who visit.

Our Divided Country

The 2020 US Presidential Election was so close that it virtually divided this country right down the middle with 50% being Democrats and 50% being Republicans.  Consequently, the elected President clearly DID NOT HAVE A MANDATE from the American People.  The Congress of the US is also closely divided...  with the Senate 50 to 50 and only the Vice President can break the tie and the House has a Democratic majority of THREE SEATS.

HOWEVER,

each party claims that they speak for a MAJORITY OF AMERICANS...

The Democrats say a majority of Americans favor what they are doing

The Republicans say a majority of Americans favor what they are doing

BOTH POLITICAL PARTIES ARE LYING TO AMERICANS...

It is for this reason that I DON'T TRUST POLITICANS and have not trusted them for a long time...

The Republicans say we have an immigration crisis at our southern border

The Democrats say we have immigration concerns at our southern border

The Republicans say we are spending too much money

The Democrats say we are not spending enough money

The Republicans are saying that China is our economic/military enemy

The Democrats are saying that China is our economic/military friend

The Republicans are saying we should not raise taxes

The Democrats are saying we should raise taxes

Oil and Gas Shut Downs

FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS...

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — President Joe Biden shut down oil and gas lease sales from the nation’s vast public lands and waters in his first days in office, citing worries about climate change. Now his administration has to figure out what do with the multibillion-dollar program without crushing a significant sector of the U.S. economy — and while fending off sharp criticism from congressional Republicans and the oil industry.

The leasing ban is only temporary, although officials have declined to say how long it will last. And it’s unclear how much legal authority the government has to stop drilling on about 23 million acres (9 million hectares) previously leased to energy companies.

Here are some questions hanging over Biden’s Interior Department as it launches a months-long review of the government’s petroleum sales with a virtual forum Thursday.

WHY IS BIDEN TARGETING OIL AND GAS LEASE SALES?

Burning of oil, gas and coal from government-owned lands and waters is a top source of U.S. emissions, accounting for 24% of the nation’s greenhouse gases. Oil and gas account for the biggest chunk of human-caused fossil fuel emissions from federal lands following a drilling surge under former President Donald Trump.

Emission reductions from a permanent leasing ban would be relatively small -- about 100 million tons (91 million metric tons) annually, or less than 1% of global fossil fuel emissions, according to a study by a nonprofit research group.

But environmentalists and others who want more aggressive action against climate change say a ban would nudge the economy in a new direction. Biden wants to substitute fossil fuel production and consumption with policies that promote renewable energy on public lands, such as wind and solar power.

“The federal government is a huge player here. The government has market power,” said attorney Max Sarinsky with New York University Law School’s Institute for Policy Integrity. “If you restrict the supply (of oil and gas), you alter the market and you create a better environment for more sustainable fuels.”         READ MORE