Dog and Cows

Environmental Toxins - Protecting Your Family

Environmental toxins are cancer-causing chemicals and endocrine disruptors, both human-made and naturally occurring, that can harm our health by disrupting sensitive biological systems.

Here, we review what endocrine disruptors are, where they come from, and how to minimize exposure to help protect you and your family from their potentially dangerous effects.

What are environmental toxins?
Environmental toxins include naturally occurring compounds such as:

lead;
mercury;
radon;
formaldehyde;
benzene; and
cadmium.

They also include human-made chemicals like:

BPA;
phthalates; and
pesticides.

In toxic doses, all of these compounds can negatively affect human health. Many of them are known to:cause cancer (radon, formaldehyde, benzene); act as endocrine disruptors (BPA, pesticides, phthalates); and cause organ failure or developmental problems (lead, mercury, cadmium)

Lead toxicity is a well-known example. People are generally aware of potential sources of lead, such as old paint and old pipes.

Cadmium toxicity was first realized in the 50s and 60s, and policies now limit industrial exposure.  READ MORE...

Leaves a Falling

 

A History Lesson

 

Owl Friendly

 

Brittney Griner Declines Basketball

PHOENIX, ARIZONA - OCTOBER 10: Brittney Griner #42 of the Phoenix Mercury prepares for game 1 of the WNBA Finals at Footprint Center on October 10, 2021 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Mike Mattina/Getty Images)

Brittney Griner reportedly made a tough decision in prison.

The WNBA star has been sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison on drug charges. Griner, who was playing overseas in Russia, was arrested at the airport when drugs were allegedly found in her backpack.

While the United States government is attempting to bring her home via a prisoner trade, Russia does not appear to be anxious to get something done.

According to ESPN's T.J. Quinn, Griner's lawyers offered to bring her a basketball in prison, though she reportedly declined the offer.

"I asked Griner's lawyer if she's had an opportunity to play basketball since she was detained. She said the jail has a hoop, but no ball. When Griner's lawyers offered to bring one, BG declined, saying it was too painful to think about," he reported.  READ MORE...

Who Was That?

 

Pill Replicates Exercise

A drug has been identified by researchers at Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) that replicates the benefits of exercise on mice’s bones and muscles.

You can look and feel better by keeping up a regular exercise schedule, but did you know that exercise also supports bone and muscle health? Locomotor fragility, which affects people who are unable to exercise, causes the muscles and bones to deteriorate. Recently, Japanese researchers discovered a new drug that, by producing effects comparable to those of exercise, may help treat locomotor frailty.

Physical inactivity can result in a weakening of the muscles (known as sarcopenia) and bones (known as osteoporosis). Exercise dispels this frailty by boosting muscular strength and suppressing bone resorption while simultaneously promoting bone formation. 

Exercise therapy, however, cannot be used in every clinical situation. When patients have dementia, cerebrovascular disease, or are already bedridden, drug therapy may be very helpful for treating sarcopenia and osteoporosis. However, there is no one drug that targets both tissues at the same time.  READ MORE...

Tree Revenge

How The Great Pyramid Was Built

The Great Pyramid has evoked many theories about its construction. With the advent of drone photography, we get a closer look at the summit and can see amazing evidence for the methods used by builders to get megalithic blocks all the way to the top.

There is an opportunity for you to make the discovery for yourself! Watch and listen to the clues and see if you can figure it out before the reveal.

What's with the lone dark stone that stands out from the yellow limestone? Is it a different composition or was there granite used at the very top?

Do you miss the metal scaffolding that used to mark the original apex or does Khufu's pyramid look better without it?

Bear in Snow

 

TN Valley Living

 

There are seven regional areas in the state of Tennessee, and I am fortunate to live in the region that is referred to as East TN...  which revolves around the metropolitan area of Knoxville. the Cumberland Plateau, the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, 10 lakes, and 3 river systems:  the French Broad river, Holston river, and the Tennessee river.

RECREATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES ARE OUTSTANDING...

What makes TN an attractive state is there is NO STATE INCOME TAX...  and yet, the first two years of college is FREE to residents because of our lottery system.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory is located in east Tennessee and receives 80% of the Department of Energy's budget each year because of its research and development.

You may think that education in east TN is lacking but the University of TN hires a majority of its professors from the IVY LEAGUE Schools up North because of the cheaper cost of living...   The same holds true for a majority of the doctors that work at UT's Medical Center which is now privately owned and operated.  And, Tyson-McGhee airport has become so popular that there are many non-stop flights to major cities and it takes only 30 minutes to fly to Atlanta which connects to everywhere.

East TN is inbetween Nashville (2 hours - the home of country music) and Bristol (2 hours - NASCAR) and Cherokee, NC (2 hours - Gambling).

If you want expensive dining, go to NYC, Washington, DC, Chicago, Boston, or LA...  but don't get pissed if you spend a lot of time in traffic trying to get where you want to go...

Life in USA -- End of 2022

1. 
    Inflation
2. High Gasoline Prices
3. High Food Prices
4. Higher Prices at Restaurants
5. Crime Increasing
6. Violence Increasing
7. Illegal Immigration Increasing
8. Illegal Drugs Increasing (Fentanyl from China)
9. Racism Increasing
10. Media Outlets Censoring News
11. Fake News
12. CRT Taught in Public Schools
13. Higher Taxes
14. Higher Interest Rates
15. Electric Vehicles Only for Wealthy
16. COVID Lingering Around
17. Supply Chain Shortage Lingering
18. National Debt Increasing
19. Economy Slowing Down
20. Possible Recession

The Democrats are worried that Donald Trump is going to run for President again and they are doing everything in their power to try and stop that from happening...  and overlooking our southern border and what is being brought into this country...

Meanwhile Hunter Biden and Hillary Clinton are being protected by the FBI and the mainstream media that includes:  CNN, MSNBC, ABC, and CBS...  so, why does our liberal media not want to publish the TRUTH???

I am not a Republican nor a Democrat nor am I a Liberal, but I am an a conservative who believes in a balanced budget and no debt as my wife and I have been debt free for over 15 years.  My college education was paid for by the GI Bill because I was in the military during the Vietnam War and was willing to serve my country...  and, this was when the military was HATED by the general public.

A woman should be allowed to do whatever the hell she wants to do to her body just like a man and we have a right to own guns, although I will never purchase a firearm myself.

Blacks only represent 12% of the American population and whites represent 60%, five times the voting power and yet we cater to the blacks because they cry racism and use slavery as an excuse for not being successful...  claiming it is a white privileged world...

Well...  I am white and had NO PRIVILEGE other than being born in the USA and being born in the South which is LOOKED DOWN UPON BY NORTHERNERS....

White privilege don't shit to me and never will.

I don't like the media telling me what news they are going to share with me and what news they are not going to share.

I HAVE A RIGHT TO HEAR BOTH SIDES and then use what little intelligence I have to figure out what I want to believe and what I don't want to believe...

YOU ARE TAKING AWAY MT RIGHT...  and that pisses me off.

These are my concerns and will form the foundation for how I vote in the midterms...  I am so sick and tired of Biden telling me our economy is healthy as hell which I know damn well it is not...  STOP LYING to me!!!

Slip Sliding Through

 

The Race to Space

The race to provide high-speed internet from satellites is well underway – but another, more ambitious competition, to connect directly from space to devices like smartphones, began in earnest earlier this year.

The potential untapped market — which hinges on, but extends beyond, sending a text via space — is spurring a tale of two strategies: Those putting specialized antennae in phones, versus those putting high-powered antennae on the satellites themselves. For some companies, it means billions spent on what could end up being a losing approach.

“The satellite industry is really niche and – if they can tap into connecting billions of smartphones – they can start talking about market sizes that are way greater than they’ve ever been able to address before. Everything before has been in the millions,” Caleb Henry, senior analyst at boutique research firm Quilty Analytics, told CNBC.  READ MORE...

Wild Flowers

China Leads USA in STEM Research

Forty years ago, China sent huge cohorts of students off to study abroad.

Then, Chinese paramount leader Deng Xiaoping argued this wasn’t a flight for human capital, but rather an investment that would eventually return to make the country more educated and innovative.

“We need to send tens of thousands,” Deng said. “This is one of the key ways of…improving our level of scientific education.”

A recent working paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research proved the politician right. China now accounts for about 23 percent of scientific publications in the international journals indexed by Scopus, adjusted for the Chinese share of addresses or names on publications. This means the nation is now the “largest contributor to global science”.  READ MORE...

Changing

NO Television for Trump Testimony

WASHINGTON (AP) — Raising the stakes on its extraordinary subpoena to Donald Trump, the House committee investigating the Capitol riot indicated Sunday it would not consider letting the former president testify live on television about the direct role that congressional investigators say he played in trying to overturn the 2020 election.

The committee is demanding Trump’s testimony under oath next month as well as records relevant to its investigation. To avoid a complicated and protracted legal battle, Trump reportedly had told associates he might consider complying with the subpoena if he could answer questions during live testimony.

But Rep. Liz Cheney, the committee’s vice chair, on Sunday rejected the possibility. She said the committee, which makes its major decisions with unanimous consent, would not allow Trump’s testimony to turn into a “food fight” on TV and she warned that the committee will take action if he does not comply with the subpoena.  READ MORE...

Pomegranite

 

Strings of Time

 

Strings of Time is a series of novels, the number of which is yet to be determined written in the Science Fiction Genre.  The first book is entitled A Place in Time and will be about three Guardians fighting the Dark Lord Ji' Ji' Ki who has taken over two continents on the planet Kona Tre located in the Zeta Quadrant of the Dah Rat Solar System.  This them of good versus evil is nothing new and has been used by writers for hundreds of years.

However, what is new is this concept of Strings as it relates to String Theory.  

String theory proposes that the fundamental constituents of the universe are one-dimensional “strings” rather than point-like particles. What we perceive as particles are actually vibrations in loops of string, each with its own characteristic frequency.

String theory originated as an attempt to describe the interactions of particles such as protons. It has since developed into something much more ambitious: an approach to the construction of a complete unified theory of all fundamental particles and forces.

Previous attempts to unify physics have had trouble incorporating gravity with the other forces. String theory not only embraces gravity but requires it. String theory also requires six or seven extra dimensions of space, and it contains ways of relating large extra dimensions to small ones. The study of string theory has also led to the concept of supersymmetry, which would double the number of elementary particles.

The Guardians learn to use the power of the strings to form the basis of their powers that revovle around the natural forces of a pretty much any planet that can sustain life.  Using the power of the strings, the Guardians can travel from one dimension to another and from one universe to another.  But first, they must defeat the Dark Lord.

And, therein lies their problem because the Dark Lord is actually a former Guardian who somehow discovered the evil side of the strings.

Using a concept from the Bible that states the human race was brought about by Adam and Eve.  Logically, the only way that this can happen was for Adam and Eve to have mated with their children.

Only a special female can mate with a Guardian and each time that female mates with her son and then her grandson and great grandson, the resulting Guardian is more powerful than the previous one.  The Dark Lord is the result of a third generation mating.

I just started writing this series and I left a couple of novels unfinished to at least begin the first book of this series.  So far, I am on Chapter 3 of an anticipated 12 Chapter length.

Time Decades

One way to look at our lives is in a decade of years...

1. 1 - 10
2. 11 - 20
3. 21 - 30
4. 31 - 40
5. 41 - 50
6. 51 - 60
7. 61 - 70
8. 71 - 80
9. 81 - 90
10. 91 - 100

 And, the milestones associated with each decade...  like:

• starting school
• graduating from high school
• old enough to drink alcohol
• serving in the military
• going to college
• getting married
• having children
• children graduating from high school
• children getting married
• having grand childrens
• retiring
• DEATH

As one moves through these time decades, and one ages, one begins to realize that there becomes fewer and fewer time decades to experience...  in other words, we all get old...  we all experience aging differently but likely than not, your body and its ability to do things will change and you will be doing less and less.

As one ages one experiences pain, agony, and disappointments that influence one's mental outlook and personality.  Youth never or hardly ever comes into contact with these life changing events...  such as:

• getting a speeding ticket
• crashing a car
• being shot at
• going to war
• becoming disabled
• losing one's job
• relocation
• death of a child
• death of a spouse
• death of a friend
• death of parents
• going bankrupct
• divorce
• heart attack
• retirement
• living paycheck to paycheck
• having a serious disease

Most of the time, we hardly ever think of the negative aspects of life...  only the good times and having fun...  drinking alcohol and acting foolish...  smoking marijuana and feeling high and floating...  dancing with one's lover...  making loving all morning...  cutting class...  skinny dipping...  or maybe eating a great meal and never gaining weight.

Innocence is great while it lasts...  but, it does not last long and we need to respect those who have been through more shit than we have...

Rotation and Time

 

Earth is one of several planets in our solar system that revolves (rotates) around the sun.  The orbit around the sun takes 365 days and while earth makes that orbit, it is spinning around every 24 hours...  two simultaneous rotations.

What would happen if those two rotations increased or decreased?

Human beings on average live about 80 years +/-.  If the rotations increased we would reach our 80 years quicker (appearing to have a shorter life) and if our rotations decreased it would take longer to reach our 80 years (appearing to have a longer life.

Our solar system is one of many solar systems in our Milky Way Galaxy and each solar system has planets that are revolving around something like a sun or a moon.  Each of these planets in each of these solar system in the Milky Way Galaxy are revolving around as they move along the arc of their orbits...  and the same logic around increasing/decreasing the spin is applicable.

Our Galaxy is one of many Galaxies in the Universe in which the same thing is happening with their various solar systems and with their various planets.

This spin/rotating orbits of planets, solar systems, and galaxies have a direct corelation with not just gravity but with TIME.   And, while we do not have any scientific proof that there is life on all these planets, then we cannot say that there is a direct correlation with LIFE except on the planet earth.

If we stopped spinning and rotation in our solar system and on the planet earth as well, THEN TIME WOULD STOP...  There would be no past-present-future construct or concept of time.  We would not age and if we did age, there would be no way we could measure that aging process.

If the spinning rotation (orbiting) stopped would there still be LIFE???

Is life contingent upon TIME?

We could speculate as to what might happen but we do not know for sure...   and, if we do know, then no one talks about it...  

Would the laws of physics still apply if there was no TIME?

Would we still have spacetime?

Or, for that matter the speed of light?

Drivers Looking

 

California's Economy Declining

California officials are sounding the alarm after recent statistics showed that fewer corporate and start-up activity in the state was leading to a decline in tax revenue, according to a report by Bloomberg News.

This year, just nine companies based in the state had held initial public offerings (IPOs), which is when a company first lists shares for sale on the stock market – considered a milestone in its growth after strong activity and high valuation, the report revealed. 

In 2021, California – whose start-up ecosystem in ‘Silicon Valley’ is considered the most prodigious in the world – saw 81 companies conduct IPOs, making 2022 a year of a nine-fold decrease.

Moreover, the value of these IPOs was far lower than in the past, raising merely $177 million, or 2% of the total amount of money raised by U.S. companies that went public in 2022. 

By contrast, in 2021, California’s share of the revenue generated by IPOs was 39%, by far the largest of any state.  READ MORE...

Classic Sunday Morning Newspaper Cartoons

 

Student Absent in Virginia

A Virginia high school canceled all activities this weekend after almost half of its students called in absent this week due to a flu-like illness.

“Due to the high number of student and staff illnesses reported this week, all Stafford High School activities and athletics scheduled through Sunday, October 23, are canceled,” wrote Stafford High’s official Facebook account on Friday.

The school said that it would follow up on illness levels over the weekend and reassess conditions on Monday.

The Hill has reached out to the Stafford County Public Schools office for comment.

NBC 4 Washington reported on Friday that about 1,000 students were absent from Stafford High School, which is located just outside Fredericksburg, Va.  READ MORE...

The Great Escape

MidTerm Rankings

A little more than two weeks stand between now and Election Day, and it’s likely going to come down to the wire as Republicans and Democrats duke it out for Senate supremacy.

The two sides are fresh off of third-quarter fundraising releases and squarely in the middle of debate season, with Republicans starting to feel that the economic tide has turned in their favor at exactly the right moment.

On the Democratic side, abortion remains the hallmark issue that candidates are messaging on far and wide in order to help keep control of the upper chamber.

Here’s a look at the seven Senate seats most likely to flip next month:

Click Here...  to see those results...

Ice Breaker