Jelllyfish

 

Colder Than Expected

The latest Winter season 2021/2022 forecast update shows a stronger influence of the now mature La Nina phase. It will modify the jet stream pattern over North America and the Pacific Ocean, extending its reach also to the rest of the world. 

The final Winter forecast from major weather models captures the changing jet stream position during winter, showing us the most likely weather outcome this season.

To try and understand the Winter season and its forecast, we must realize that there are many “drivers” when it comes to weather. Global weather is a very complex system, with many large-scale and small-scale climate influencers. 

We will first look at what this La Nina really is and how it will influence the Winter season of 2021/2022.

Below we have an example of a pressure pattern in a perfect winter scenario for both the United States and Europe. A blocking high-pressure over Greenland and North Pacific, with low pressure and colder air for the United States and Europe. 

This is what every winter fan in Europe and the United States hopes for every winter. But we will see if we can find anything similar in the final Winter 2021/2022 forecast.  READ MORE...

The Gift

 

Ancient Fishing

Ancient fishing is one of the hardest human activities to study. Since many of the materials used, such as plant fibres and wood, are perishable, much of the physical evidence has been lost to time. However, one of the largest ever collections of early fishing technology has given researchers an unparalleled insight into the ancient techniques used.

The team, led by Antonella Pedergnana of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Archaeological research institute in Germany, studied 19 bone fish hooks and six grooved stones.These were found in the Jordan River Dureijay (JRD) in the Hula Valley, northern Israel.

Researchers believe that the grooved stones were used as weights for the rods.  The groundbreaking research study was explored in BBC Science Focus magazine.

Archaeology: Researchers found the ancient fishing tools in Hula Lake, Israel 

(Image: GETTY/BBC Science Focus )

Ancient humans: Humans have fished for thousands of years (Image: GETTY)


Here, Professor Gonen Sharon of Tel Hai College, Israel, told the publication: "The hooks are amazingly similar to modern hooks – in size, in features (like barbs) and in dexterity of making.

"Moreover, the hooks present features that are rarely found in modern-day hooks – for example, an outer lower barb aiming to function as a ‘point of no return’ to prevent the fish from escaping the hook."The sophisticated methods are believed to have risen during a seismic shift in human history.  READ MORE...

Crime Scene Investigation

 

Healthcare Happiness

I am the only member of our parent's family that is dealing with serious health issues and while one could say that it is my fault...  I would tend to agree with that in part because I did not know how to manage my stress...  and, it is not managing my stress that caused me to have a heart attack about 13/4 yeras ago.  

Prior to my heart attack, I had stopped smoking, stopped drinking alcohol, stopped eating red meat, sugars, and fried food s decade before my heart attack actually took place.  Additionally, my blood pressure was low, my cholesteral was low, no family member with heart issues...  so NO TYPICAL MARKERS that underscore a heart attack...

Therefore it must have been stress...

About this same time frame, I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's "B" Cell Lymphoma and five years after that I was diagnosed with Melanoma that spread from my foot to my groin to my neck.  I am currently being treated for 2 cancers simultaneously and the meds do not seem to be fighting each other which is a good sign.

My healthcare costs are somewhere between $500,000 and $750,000 depending upon the various tests that I have to see if my cancers have spread.  These tests are typically a CT or a PET scan that I received quarterly.  I also have quarterly tests for my heart as well and since my PSA results are high, I have been seeing a Urologist and have had a biopsy of my prostate.  Since my nuclear stress test for my heart showed a blockage, I have had a recent heart cath that actually revealed NO PROBLEMS at all...  but, these tests are expensive.

My health is STABLE and that is why I have healthcare happiness...

Holiday Humor

 

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, and Liberia. It began as a day of giving thanks and sacrifice for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. 

Similarly named festival holidays occur in Germany and Japan. Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and around the same part of the year in other places. 

Although Thanksgiving has historical roots in religious and cultural traditions, it has long been celebrated as a secular holiday as well.  SOURCE:  Wikipedia

AUTHOR'S NOTE:  I grew up in Alexandria, Virginia and every Thanksgiving and every Christmas we would pack up the car and my father would drive the family down to Winston-Salem, NC to spend the holiday with my grandfather.  The Thanksgiving table was just like in the photograph above...  these were obviously pleasant memories.

After I got married, we still celebrated Thanksgiving with a large meal and always a turkey, but the amount of food was not as much as I recall having in NC...  although, those could just be a child's memory.  

At 74 years of age, I am still very much thankful for all that I have and while I don't just wait for Thanksgiving to roll around to celebrate my gratitude, I quietly celebrate it every day.

I am also mindful of the millions of people, especially in the United States who do not have the financial means to celebrate Thanksgiving in the same way that the rest of us celebrate it, but they celebrate it nonetheless with their limited abilities.

It is not the wealthy that make Thanksgiving memorable...

It is not the amount of food that makes Thanksgiving memorable...

It is not being with family that makes Thanksgiving memorable...

It is the concept that you are THANKFUL for all that you have regardless of how much or how little that is...

Thena

 

Warren Buffet's Two Letter Word

Billionaire Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, learned a long time ago that the greatest commodity of all is time. That's why he is religiously protective of his own time by setting strict boundaries for himself.

This leads to a Buffett-ism that has garnered a lot of debate over the years since he said it. It's a quote about the difference between successful people and really successful people.

The mega-mogul said: "The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything."

No to almost everything?
That's a tall order. Most ambitious people are driven by results and doing more, not less. If you're an entrepreneur like me, you are relentless in your pursuit of capitalizing on every opportunity presented to you if it means growing your business and income. 

It could mean, in your own mind, having to meet as many people as you can to get there. That also means saying a lot more yeses than no's. But is it sustainable?  READ MORE...

Saudi Artist

 

It's Just a Rock

In 2015, David Hole was prospecting in Maryborough Regional Park near Melbourne, Australia.

Armed with a metal detector, he discovered something out of the ordinary – a very heavy, reddish rock resting in some yellow clay.

He took it home and tried everything to open it, sure that there was a gold nugget inside the rock – after all, Maryborough is in the Goldfields region, where the Australian gold rush peaked in the 19th century.

To break open his find, Hole tried a rock saw, an angle grinder, a drill, even dousing the thing in acid. However, not even a sledgehammer could make a crack. That's because what he was trying so hard to open was no gold nugget. As he found out years later, it was a rare meteorite.

"It had this sculpted, dimpled look to it," Melbourne museum geologist Dermot Henry told The Sydney Morning Herald.

"That's formed when they come through the atmosphere, they are melting on the outside, and the atmosphere sculpts them."

Unable to open the 'rock', but still intrigued, Hole took the nugget to the Melbourne Museum for identification.

"I've looked at a lot of rocks that people think are meteorites," Henry told Channel 10 News.

In fact, after 37 years of working at the museum and examining thousands of rocks, Henry explains only two of the offerings have ever turned out to be real meteorites.

This was one of the two.  TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS ROCK, CLICK HERE...

Dancing

 

Removing Toxins

At one period, Dennis started distancing himself from the office and our team. He suffered from severe stress and anxiety, and the signs were showing — he started having grey hairs, developing acne breakouts, and experiencing back pain. He was successful, but the side effects of working long hours were catching up.

Now, Dennis is a close friend of mine, so we kept in touch. He knew the problem was in his lifestyle. He switched careers to a more relaxed position in a local publishing house, started doing yoga, eating healthy. But his problems didn’t stop.

Dennis spent two months trying to get back to his old self, but it was all the same — grey hairs, acne breakouts, and back pain. After much he decided he had enough and started visiting various doctors.

Some doctors tried doing tests, C-Scans, and biopsies, but not one could pinpoint why Dennis was experiencing his symptoms.

Nothing seemed to work. But Dennis always had an interest in traditional traditional wisdom. And he decided to give an alternative approach a try by going to Japan.

One morning in Hokkaido, talking to a farmer in a local market, he expressed his concerns for his wellness.

“You must go to this hidden Ryokan (a spiritual retreat) where many famous Japanese go to find solutions to their problems.” The farmer said.

And so Dennis did — he went to this hidden spiritual retreat for a week.

For a week, Dennis learned from the local monks — he cleaned the common spaces with the monks, picked natural food, did yoga, and he started feeling a bit better.  READ MORE...

Letting Go

 

Compare FOX News to others...

What is the highest rated news channel?

Fox News
In prime time, Fox News led the cable news networks with an average total audience of 2.3 million viewers, followed by MSNBC (2.203 million viewers) and CNN (661,000 viewers). Viewership for all three networks was down compared to the same month one year ago, with CNN's decline the largest, down 73%.Nov 2, 2021

What is the number 1 news network?
Fox News
As of June 2020, Fox News was the most-watched cable news network in the United States and continues to do well in terms of its primetime audience, with around 3.97 million primetime viewers in that month. News consumption was high among U.S. audiences as viewers turned to their preferred networks for updates on the ...Nov 10, 2021

What is the highest rated cable news program?

• These Are the Top-Rated Cable News Shows for Oct. 2021
• Fox News | 7 p.m. / Fox News Primetime: 2,080,000 / 25 telecato sts.
• Fox News | 11 p.m./Gutfeld!: 1,854,000 / 25 telecasts.
• Fox News | 12 p.m./Outnumbered: 1,750,000 / 24 telecasts.
• Fox News | 9-10 a.m., 10-11 a.m. / America's Newsroom: 1,697,000 / 48 telecasts.

Who has more viewers CNN or Fox?
In the key demographic of viewers 25-54, Fox News led with 988,000 viewers, followed by CNN (413,000 viewers) and MSNBC (259,000 viewers).Nov 3, 2021

Soho Girls

 

ISS Takes Evasive Action

The United States denounced Russia on Monday for conducting a "dangerous and irresponsible" missile strike that blew up one of its own satellites, creating a debris cloud that forced the International Space Station's crew to take evasive action.

Washington wasn't informed in advance about the test, only the fourth ever to hit a spacecraft from the ground, and will talk to allies about how to respond, said officials.

The move reignites concerns about the growing space arms race, encompassing everything from the development of satellites capable of shunting others out of orbit to laser weapons.

"On November 15, 2021, the Russian Federation recklessly conducted a destructive test of a direct-ascent anti-satellite missile against one of its own satellites," said Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in a statement.

He added the test had generated over 1,500 pieces of trackable orbital debris and will likely create hundreds of thousands of pieces of smaller orbital debris.

The crew aboard the orbital outpost – currently four Americans, a German and two Russians – had to take shelter in their return ships, the standard "safe haven" alarm procedure in the event of an emergency that might force evacuation.

The station later returned to a "green" alert level, tweeted Russian space agency Roscosmos.

But in his strongly-worded remarks, Blinken said the danger was far from over.  READ MORE...

The Gift

 

First Autonomous Electric Cargo Ship

OSLO (Reuters) - The world's first fully electric and self-steering container ship, owned by fertiliser maker Yara, is preparing to navigate Norway's southern coast and play its part in the country's plans to clean-up its industry.

The Yara Birkeland, an 80-metre-long (87 yards) so-called feeder, is set to replace lorry haulage between Yara's plant in Porsgrunn in southern Norway and its export port in Brevik, about 14 km (8.7 miles) away by road, starting next year.

OSLO (Reuters) - The world's first fully electric and self-steering container ship, owned by fertiliser maker Yara, is preparing to navigate Norway's southern coast and play its part in the country's plans to clean-up its industry.

The Yara Birkeland, an 80-metre-long (87 yards) so-called feeder, is set to replace lorry haulage between Yara's plant in Porsgrunn in southern Norway and its export port in Brevik, about 14 km (8.7 miles) away by road, starting next year.

It will cut 1,000 tonnes of carbon emissions per year, equivalent to 40,000 diesel-powered journeys by road, and is expected to be fully autonomous in two years.

For Yara it means reducing CO2 emissions at its plant in Porsgrunn, one of Norway's single largest sources of CO2, Chief Executive Svein Tore Holsether said.

"Now we have taken this technological leap to show it is possible, and I'm thinking there are so many routes in the world where it is possible to implement the same type of ship," he told Reuters.

Built by Vard Norway, Kongsberg provided key technology including the sensors and integration required for remote and autonomous operations.

"This isn't about replacing the sailors, it's replacing the truck drivers," Yara's Jostein Braaten, project manager for the ship, said at the ship's bridge, which will be removed when the vessel is running at full automation.

The ship will load and offload its cargo, recharge its batteries and also navigate without human involvement.

Sensors will be able to quickly detect and understand objects like kayaks in the water so the ship can decide what action to take to avoid hitting anything, Braaten said.

The system should be an improvement over having a manual system, he added.  READ MORE...

Six Pack

 

Fast Spectrum Salt Reactor

Southern Company and the US Department of Energy (DOE) have signed an agreement to design, construct and operate the Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment (MCRE) - a proof-of-concept critical fast-spectrum salt reactor. Southern will lead a collaborative effort to build the MCRE - which it says will be the world's first fast-spectrum salt reactor to achieve criticality - at Idaho National Laboratory (INL).

An rendering of the MCRE (Image: Southern Company)

Collaborators in the MCRE project are TerraPower, INL, Core Power, Orano Federal Services, the Electric Power Research Institute and 3M Company. The project is supported through the DOE's Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) under a five-year, USD170 million cost-shared funding agreement. It will provide crucial operational data to support the future development of TerraPower's Molten Chloride Fast Reactor (MCFR), informing the design, licensing and operation of a demonstration reactor.

Mark Berry, Southern Company's vice president of R&D described the MCRE as "groundbreaking". Advancing next-generation nuclear is part of Southern's comprehensive strategy to deliver clean, safe, reliable, affordable energy, he said, adding: "The Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment will support the commercialisation of a revolutionary technology on a timescale that addresses climate change benchmarks and delivers on Southern Company's goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050."

TerraPower's MCFR technology uses molten chloride salt as both reactor coolant and fuel, allowing for so-called fast spectrum operation which the company says makes the fission reaction more efficient. It operates at higher temperatures than conventional reactors, generating electricity more efficiently, and also offers potential for process heat applications and thermal storage. An iteration of the MCFR - known as the m-MSR - intended for marine use is being developed.

Southern Company and TerraPower were in 2015 awarded some USD40 million of DOE funding to build integrated infrastructure necessary to support early development of MCFR technology. The MCRE will continue this momentum toward commercialisation of the MCFR, the partners said today.  READ MORE...

Mojave

 

Wrestling

Hunter Biden Helps Chinese

An investment firm founded by Hunter Biden assisted a Chinese company in purchasing one of the world's richest cobalt mines from an American company for $3.8 billion - helping the conglomerate gain a massive share of the key metal used to make electric car batteries.

The president's son was one of three Americans who joined Chinese partners in establishing the Bohai Harvest RST Equity Investment Fund Management Company, or BHR, in 2013.

The Americans controlled 30 percent of the company and made successful investments that culminated in aiding China Molybdenum purchase the Tenke Fungurume cobalt mine in the Congo from the American company Freeport-McMoRan in 2016, the New York Times reported.

The news comes after President Joe Biden had warned that China could use its dominance of mined cobalt to disrupt America's development of electric vehicles.

It also adds to the scrutiny Biden and his father have faced for his dealings with Chines and Ukrainian companies while Joe was vice president and later running for president.  READ MORE...

Big Dog

 

Common Pain Relief Drugs

One of the most consumed drugs in the US – and the most commonly taken analgesic worldwide – could be doing a lot more than simply taking the edge off your headache, according to scientists.

Acetaminophen, also known as paracetamol and sold widely under the brand names Tylenol and Panadol, also increases risk-taking, according to a study published in 2020 that measured changes in people's behavior when under the influence of the common over-the-counter medication.

"Acetaminophen seems to make people feel less negative emotion when they consider risky activities – they just don't feel as scared," neuroscientist Baldwin Way from The Ohio State University explained last year.

"With nearly 25 percent of the population in the US taking acetaminophen each week, reduced risk perceptions and increased risk-taking could have important effects on society."

The findings add to a recent body of research suggesting that acetaminophen's effects on pain reduction also extend to various psychological processes, lowering people's receptivity to hurt feelings, experiencing reduced empathy, and even blunting cognitive functions.

Similarly, Way's study suggests people's affective ability to perceive and evaluate risks can be impaired when they take acetaminophen. While the effects might be slight, they're definitely worth noting, given acetaminophen is the most common drug ingredient in America, found in over 600 different kinds of over-the-counter and prescription medicines.  READ MORE...

Making a Sandwich

 

Getaways

You’ll find this underrated little town where Route 46, which traverses some seriously majestic Steinbeck country, meets Highway 1. It’s technically in San Louis Obispo county, but situated almost right at the border with Monterey, so puts you in striking distance of San Simeon (gorgeous walking beaches, sea lion breeding sites and, of course, Hearst Castle) and, beyond, the lower reaches of Big Sur. Not that Cambria’s own surrounds won’t provide the nature hits: long, flat, wind-whipped Moonstone Beach has a mile-long boardwalk, and Fiscalini Ranch Preserve has 430 acres of rare Monterey pine woods, meadows, and high oceanside bluffs for exploring (wildflower season in April and May can be a proper spectacle here). Cambria, long a retreat for artists and LA and San Francisco escapees, evinces a bit of Carmel’s weird Tudor-twee aesthetic in its shops, cafés and galleries; but more of it is Old California hitching-post style, which is what you want. Stay at White Water Cambria on Moonstone Beach, whose 25 lovely rooms are the work of Nina Freudenberger, an interiors and book editor (see Surf Shack: Laid-Back Living by the Water, Bibliostyle: How We Live at Home with Books), who aptly describes the vibe she’s created here as “Danish seaside”. whitewatercambria.com, from $329

The Outer Cape, and specifically Wellfleet, has long been a semi-secret retreat for New Yorkers – writers, artists and museum directors, a disproportionate number of psychoanalysts – who eschew the social obligations of more famous Eastern Seaboard summer destinations in favour of solitude and nature (Francesca Amfitheatrof, Louis Vuitton’s artistic director of watches and jewellery and an Outer Cape regular, once described it in HTSI as “the most extraordinary time warp”). As part of the 44,600-acre Cape Cod National Seashore (its singular light may be familiar from the works of Edward Hopper, who used to paint here), the landscape is totally protected. Wellfleet’s flea markets, coffee shops and lobster shacks are the anti-Hamptons. The holiday draw is the collection of four 20th-century modern houses available to let through the Cape Cod Modern House Trust (which come up all too rarely, so book in advance, or off season). They look out onto woods, beaches or one of the 20 or so kettle ponds across the seashore, and are totally dreamy, right down to the last vintage Fiestaware bowl. Just note the “slow to decent internet” designations. ccmht.org

TO READ ABOUT THE OTHER GETAWAYS, CLICK HERE...

Water