The Russia/Ukranian War

 

It would appear that Vladamir Putin is an incredibly incompetent, leader, dictator, and war monger...

Of course, this is a personal opinion based upon what I see and hear on the reported news...  which may or may not be the truth...  as a viewer, I have no real way of knowing...  so, I must trust the source.

If I were the dictator/leader of China, I think I would be reassessing my relationship with this impotent leader...  if Putin cannot defeat Ukraine, then how would his soldiers respond to a potential war with:  France, Spain, Italy, or Portugal???

Maybe Putin would do better if he declared war on one of the Greek Islands...

Just like a typical LOSER, Putin is now claiming that he is going to use nuclear weapons...  what a spoiled rotten dictator...

Can you imagine what Russia would do if NATO decided it was going to support Ukraine???

Putin is a joke, supported by CHINA which leads us to reassess China's ability to pick good partners in their economic war against the USA...

HOWEVER, tough man Joe Biden will fly in on the wings of a dove and save the day...  who is scared of Biden and his democratic socialists?

Veteran's Day

 

Today is Veteran's Day...  so, what does that actually mean?

It means we celebrate our Veterans...  thanking them for serving and protecting our country.

How do we do that?  We typically buy a veteran a meal...  like lunch or dinner...  and, sometimes breakfast...  of course that is hardly showing much gratitude for those veterans who are disabled.

I served in the military from 1969 to 1975 and when I was in the airports wearing my military uniform, I was spit upon and had trash thrown at me.  My service was during the Vietnam War and most of the country was against the war and assumed that because you were in the military, you must be supporting the war.

By putting up with that shit, I received the GI bill for education and had college and grad school paid for...  NO STUDENT LOANS...

I would make that same decision again in a HEART BEAT or in a NEW YORK MINUTE.

All I can say about Veterans is that be thankful that this country does not still have the draft nor is the kind of country that mandates every citizen serve 2 years in the military...

What Americans no long understand or appreciate is that it is the military that allows you to live the life you do...  drinking your beers, fornicating, and smoking marijuana...  and cocaine for those who are wealthy or stupid.

Chill Out Bro...

RELAX 

and

ENJOY.... 

All the

INFLATION

PRICE INCREASES

REDUCED 401Ks

GASOLINE PRICES

FOOD PRICES

SUPPLY CHAIN ISSUES

CRIME AND VIOLENCE

RETIRING POLICE OFFICERS

SHORTAGES IN CRITICAL ITEMS

COVID MANDATES

GLOBAL LOSS OF RESPECT FOR USA

 

US of A Immigration

 

Most people in East TN don't give a rat's ass about legal or illegal immigration...  as migrants have been flocking into this area to work the farms for the last 30 years that I have been living here.  So much so, that many of the retail stores have directions in both English and Spanish and the local cable companies have numerous Spanish speaking stations.

You can always tell where the immigrants are living because the house has a dozen or more cars parked out in front of it...  the grass is seldom mowed...  there are no bushes, plants, or trees in the yards...  and, trash it littered all around the house...  

This is not to say that the inside of the house is just like the outside, but with all those cars out front, there is a good possibility that multiple families are living inside.  The water and sewer is not set up to handle that many occupants...  but, local law enforcement does not do anything...

Other than that, my wife and I very seldom see migrants except maybe inside Walmart...  but, they very seldom eat in any of the local restuarants that are not fast food places.

In addition to working the farms, immigrants work in the home construction industry and their primary focus is dywall, painting, brick or cinder block layers, roof installation and repair.  There are very few electricians, plumbers, or carpenters.

Outside of those observations, immigration is never on the minds of people in this area.  If they are here, they are ignored as they ignore us.

Everyone here that I have spoken with is against all the illegal immigration at our southern border, but since it is not in our back yards, we don't really give a shit about it.

We are concerned that these immigrants are bringing in diseases with them and probably none of them have had all the childhood shots that Americans are required to get...  but, until their is an outbreak of something, that is of no concern as well.

LIVE AND LET LIVE

Stay Positive

 

Going Through Memories

 

For the last couple of days, I have been going through our storage areas, tossing out what I have not needed for years and rearranging what is left...  

We have filled the back end and second seat of my Venza 5 times so far that we have taken to the land fill to be thrown away, not to mention the numerous trips we have made to the other side of our street laying out stuff for the county to pick up.  

We are not permitted to that area of the landfill were wood is tossed out, so we are forced to wait for the county to pick it up which could take weeks or months.

We started this cleaning under the guise that we were going to be looking for a smaller home that required less maintenance, so there was a need to downsize.  However, when we looked at the available homes, either the home was not suited to our needs or the price was too high.  It is looking increasingly doubtful that we will ever move.

Throwing away stuff that you no longer need or once used is like throwing away part of your life.  For 8 years I worked at this organization back in the late 70s early 80s and kept a scrapbook of my accomplishments.  Not sure why I did this unless it is just ego building.  Those 8 years will be thrown away tomorrow.  I did not look through it to remind me of anything as I just want that part of my life to be gone.

Then there is stuff my parents gave me or that I took from their home to remind me of them after they died, but that's been 10 years ago, and there is really no reason to hang onto that because when we die, it is all going to thrown away anyway.

It makes you wonder, why we spend to many years collecting shit when we are ultimately just going to throw it away.

It's Just China

 

Strictly Political

 

Artistic Black and White Photos

 

Old Woman/ Young Female

Brain Changes in Autism

According to new research, brain changes in autism are comprehensive throughout the cerebral cortex rather than just particular areas thought to affect social behavior and language




UCLA study is the most comprehensive effort ever to study how autism affects the brain at the molecular level.

Brain changes in autism are comprehensive throughout the cerebral cortex, not only confined to particular regions traditionally considered to affect language and social behavior. These are the findings of a new study, led by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), which substantially refines scientists’ understanding of how autism spectrum disorder (ASD) progresses at the molecular level.


Published on November 2 in the journal Nature, the study represents a comprehensive effort to characterize ASD at the molecular level. Although neurological disorders like Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease have well-defined pathologies, autism and other psychiatric disorders have had a lack of defining pathology. This had made it particularly difficult to develop more effective treatments.


The new study finds brain-wide changes in virtually all of the 11 cortical regions analyzed. This holds true regardless of whether they are higher critical association regions – those involved in functions such as reasoning, language, social cognition, and mental flexibility – or primary sensory regions.

“This work represents the culmination of more than a decade of work of many lab members, which was necessary to perform such a comprehensive analysis of the autism brain,” said study author Dr. Daniel Geschwind, the Gordon and Virginia MacDonald Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics, Neurology and Psychiatry at UCLA.  READ MORE...

Birds

 

Midterms

 

Artistic Black and White Photos

 

Figure or Vase?

Genetic Mutations Found

A woman developed 12 tumors — seven benign and five cancerous — before her 40th birthday. Medical researchers recently discovered why she's so prone to the abnormal growths: She carries a set of genetic mutations never seen before in humans.

The woman, now 36 years old, carries two mutant copies of a gene called MAD1L1, one from each parent, according to a new report, published Wednesday (Nov. 2) in the journal Science Advances(opens in new tab). The gene codes for a protein called MAD1, which fulfills a crucial role in cell division.

When one cell splits into two, it first duplicates all its DNA and then packages the genetic material into compact structures called chromosomes. The chromosomes then line up neatly along the cell's midline and get yanked in half; that way, when the mother cell splits in two, half of the DNA ends up in each daughter cell. 

The MAD1 protein helps ensure that the chromosomes line up correctly during this process, so all cells end up with the usual 23 pairs of chromosomes, according to UniProt(opens in new tab), a database of protein sequence and functional information.  READ MORE...

Lazy Animal

 

Changing America

The results of the midterms tells most of us if we are listening to THE PEOPLE, that the only concerns that we have right now are focused on:

• ABORTION
• DEMOCRACY...  from a socialistic point of view

It would appear that MOST AMERICANS DON"T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT:

• Illegal Immigration
• Increasing Prices
• Illegal Drugs - Fentanyl
• Inflation
• Non growing economy
• Crime and Violence
• Threats from China, Russia, North Korea

AMERICANS WANT TO KEEP THE 

STATUS QUO...

Happy Days

Making Do

Two eggs, two vege sausages, 1 bell pepper, 4 green onions, 10 mushrooms, 1/4 of instant grits, and 1/4 cup of shredded cheese...   when cooked the way I cook it...  everthing in an omelette then cheese into the grits and the grits poured on top, creating a pie in the round frying pan...  cut into fourths, gives me 4 meals.  The cost to me is well under $10...

If I mix mayo with shredded cheese, then I have non pimento pimento cheese at a much less cost than buying pimento cheese in a grocery store.  Pita bread has 5 pieces of bread inside each package.  Now, I have 5 meals for under $10.

If I cook a cup of dried beans in a pressure pot for 15 minutes, then add a cup of rice, a bell pepper, an onion, a tablespoon of garlic and cut up fresh veges...  all mixed together with chicken broth...   I have 4 meals for under $10 dollars.

So, that is $30 for 4 days of meals and there are an endless amount of variations to all three of these meals for about the same amount of money. A variety of meats can be subsituted for the beans and sandwiches.  And breakfast can just be eggs, pancakes, cereal, oatmeal, etc. for essentially the same price as well.

If we double our $30 to cover a week, it is now $60/week times 52 weeks which is $3,120 annually which is $260 monthly.

What does this mean?

This means that a couple can live relatively inexpensively when it comes to food, with just a little bit of thinking...   

Dried beans are cheaper than canned beans and are healthier for you as well...  however, without a pressure cooker, it takes a long time to cook.

Making pimento cheese is cheaper than buying and not that difficult.

Fresh veges are cheaper than frozen or canned veges, but they require preparation and cooking.

Artistic Black and White Photos

 

Nne Faces

Mars is Alive

Color-coded topographic view shows the relative heights of features in Cerberus Fossae: reds and whites are relatively higher than blues and purples. The image is based on a digital terrain model of the region, from which the topography of the landscape can be derived. Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Until now, Mars has generally been considered a geologically dead planet. An international team of scientists now reports that seismic signals indicate vulcanism still plays an active role in shaping the Martian surface.

Ever since the NASA InSight Mission deployed the SEIS seismometer on the surface of Mars in 2018, seismologists and geophysicists at ETH Zurich have been listening to the seismic pings of more than 1,300 marsquakes. 

Again and again, the researchers registered smaller and larger Mars quakes. A detailed analysis of the quakes’ location and spectral character eventually brought a surprise. With epicenters originating in the vicinity of the Cerberus Fossae — a region consisting of a series of rifts or graben — these quakes tell a new story. 

A story that suggests an active role is still played by vulcanism in shaping the Martian surface.

Mars shows signs of geological life
Led by ETH Zurich, an international team of researchers analyzed a cluster of more than 20 recent marsquakes that originated in the Cerberus Fossae graben system. From the seismic data, scientists concluded that the low-frequency quakes indicate a potentially warm source that could be explained by present-day molten lava, i.e., magma at that depth, and volcanic activity on Mars. Specifically, they found that the quakes are located mostly in the innermost part of Cerberus Fossae.  READ MORE...

Best Friends

 

Wishful Thinking

The high temps today will be in the low 70s...  not as cold as up north nor as warm as down in the deep south...

The sun is out and there is a gentle breeze...

My daily walk will start in a few minutes as I give my breakfast a little time to settle...  I try to walk a mile or more each day which takes me over 20 minutes but less than 30 minutes now...  my back surgery was 5 months ago so I am walking a little better but not like I was or want to...

My task today is to work on the basement, looking for stuff we don't need anymore to take to the dump, find stuff that we don't want and can be put in a yard sell, and then rearrange what is left so that it is more conveniently found and labeled...

I work on this task about 60-90 minutes...  not because I get tired or bored with the task, but to stretch it out so that I will have this focus for several days...  it is also healthy to move around and do stuff, especially as we get older...

We are cleaning up our home in the event that we can find an alternative house that has what we want, for a similar price that is also smaller in size with minimal land to maintain...  actually no land would be ideal...  but with that said, we don't want to pay HOA fees...  so, it is doubtful we will find what we want...

Final thought:  our three cats likes the two levels as they can go to the lower level and go outside into an enclosure that is fenced in with chicken wire or they can dart upstairs and go out into the screened in porch and look down on whatever it is that is below them...  it is doubtful they will have that arrangement if we move.

Midterm Election Day

 

I stopped voting sometime between 1990 and 2000 and I cannot remember anything more specific than that in the sense of did I stop cold turkey or gradually.

I do know why I stopped and it is because NOTHING EVER CHANGED regardless of whether a Democratic won or a Republican won...

If nothing changed, why did I need to vote?

My involvement with politics began in the 1960 with John F. Kennedy and the same issues that we had back then, we still have in 2022...  WHY?

We have had plenty of Demcrats in power and plenty of Republicans in power so that these issues could be resolved and yet NOTHING CHANGES...

We still have:

1. Racism
2. Crime and Violence
3. Increasing Drugs
4. Higher Prices
5. Wage Issues
6. Sheltering Income
7. National Debt Increasing
8. Loss of Global Respect
9. Wealthy versus Poor
10. Double Standards
11. Not Caring about Veterans
12. Problems with Education
13. Loss of Morals
14. Loss of Integrity

Again, for the last 50+ years, the problems have not been resolved...  it feels like none of the politicians actually want to solve the problems...

The only things that have changed are  TECHNOLOGY and the VALUE OF THE DOLLAR...

Why don't the Republicans solve our problems?

Why don't the Democrats solve our problems?

I am 75 years old....  born in 1947, so I am not speculating...   I have actually lived in the 1960s and am currently living in the 2000s.

Politics in the USA is PATHETIC...

Perspective

Fifteen years ago, I was diagnosed with Lymphoma and discovered that I had experienced a heart attack while walking on the treadmill.  Ten years ago, I was diagnosed with a second cancer, Melanoma, and the two cancers were treated simultaneously.  Because I had 2 cancers I was not eligible to participate in any clinical trials.

This past year, I underwent surgery to fuse 5 lumbar disks together and have spent the last five months learning how to walk again and walk up a flight of stairs both of which were unanticipated.

At 75 years old, these last 15 years has, needless to say, been interesting.

Sickness after treatment has stopped ever since I switched from chemo to immunotherapies for my two cancers, that I have been told I will have for the rest of my life.

In another 15 years, I will be 90 and I am sure that my physical abilities will be limited, even if I continue to walk a mile each day, which is what I am doing now, except on Sundays.

My perspective on life is no doubt different than your perspectives...   that is not to say that our different perspectives are right or wrong, just different.

I intentionally try to stay away from stressful situations and if I do find myself in one of those situations, then I try to maintain a "I don't give a shit" attitude.

As I write this piece, I am watching FOX News and the whole show is focused on the midterms...  while I am a reformed Democrat but not a full fledged Republican yet I lean in a conservative direction, I really don't care about what happens...

If the lack of gasoline forces my wife and I to purchase an electric car, then we will buy the cheapest car we can and simply stop driving as much...  just where we have to go...  by the time this change actually happens to us, we will be well over the age of 80...  how many places do you think we will want to drive to at that age???  I mean really???

If our economy gets better or worse, it just will not bother us as we will adjust our purchases and our needs...  We will simply survive and BLAME NO ONE...

This is a stress free perspective...

Mysteries of King Tut

It is one of the most iconic discoveries in all of archaeology—the treasure-filled tomb of the young Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun, better known as King Tut. One hundred years ago today British archaeologist Howard Carter and an Egyptian excavation team found the boy king’s final resting place. Scholars have been studying the royal tomb and its owner ever since. 

From this work the broad outlines of the life and times of Tut have emerged. Many mysteries remain, however, including how the young pharaoh was related to Queen Nefertiti (herself a subject of debate), how influential he was as a ruler and how he died. Now new findings are emerging that could fill in some of the missing details. But as ever, debates rage over how to interpret them.

The key to Tut’s discovery was dogged perseverance. By November 4, 1922, Carter and his team had spent five futile years searching for an undiscovered royal tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. The prevailing wisdom said that everything the valley had to offer had already been found. Carter decided to spend what was to be his final field season digging beneath a group of huts that housed the ancient tomb builders. 

“We had almost made up our minds that we were beaten...,” he and archaeologist Arthur Cruttenden Mace wrote in The Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamen, their account of the expedition. “Hardly had we set hoe to ground in our last despairing effort than we made a discovery beyond our wildest dreams.”

Beneath those huts, the excavation team uncovered a step cut into the rock. Within days the team had dug out a steep staircase and a 30-foot-long passageway that ended in a door sealed with plaster and stamped with the royal necropolis seal. Carter waited to open the door until his benefactor George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, fifth earl of Carnarvon, who had funded his work in the valley for all those years, could travel to the site. 

The next day the team dug out a steep staircase and a door sealed with plaster and stamped with the royal necropolis seal. Carter waited to open the door until his benefactor George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, fifth earl of Carnarvon, who had funded his work in the valley for all those years, could travel to the site. On November 24, 1922, it was cleared to reveal a corridor, followed by a 30-foot-long passageway that ended in another door. On November 26, 1922, Carter broke open a small hole in the door and stuck a candle through, casting the first light into the chamber in nearly 3,300 years. 

The sight held him speechless as his eyes adjusted. “Details of the room emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues, and gold—everywhere the glint of gold,” Carter wrote in The Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamen. He was looking into the antechamber of the tomb of Tutankhamun, a ruler who sat his throne for only around 10 years but did so at a pivotal time in Egyptian history.  READ MORE...

An Army

 

Ignorance is Bliss

What this means is...  if you don't know something then you don't worry about it...

CNN, MSNBC, ABC, and NBC do not report all the news so that you, the viewer, will be ignorant and not worry about...

1. Many Dems dont think we have an immigration problem because the Republicans invented it...
2. Many Dems don't think that we have an inflation problem because the Republicans invented it...
3. Many Dems don't think we have a crime and violence problem because the Republicans invented it...
4. Many Dems don't think we have a fentanyl problem because the Republicans invented it...
5. Many Dems think our economy is perfect because Joe Biden claims that it is healthy as hell...

THESE ARE FIVE EXAMPLES OF IGNORANCE...

It amazes me how 50% of the people think the Reblicans are the ones who caused all the problems that don't really exist...  and, that it actually comes from Donald Trump although he has not been in office for over 2 years...  his actions caused all of this...

Many Democrats still think Trump colluded with Russia even though the Democratic DOJ cleared him of all wrong doing...   these idiots still believe what they heard on CNN, MSNBC, ABC, and CBS...

Do you now see how ignorance is bliss works???

W