The Beach

 

Thursday OpEd

 According to healthcare statistics, almost 72% of Americans over the age of 20 are overweight...  40% are obese...

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), someone who is overweight has a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 25...  someone who is obese has a BMI of 30...

BMI is calculated by taking one's weight and divided that number by the square of one's height...

There is very little difference between a BMI of 25 and a BMI of 30... so, I would say that 72% of Americans over the age of  20 have a weight problem...  and yet, most of our advertising revolves around getting people to eat more and more and more...

It is not illegal yet to sell fat creating food therefore there is no reason to stop advertising for people to eat fat creating food.  Like all other businesses, fat creating food companies continually want to increase their PROFITS...

The other part of of this issue is that it costs more to buy heathly food than it does to buy fat creating food...  so, if you are in a financial crunch, you are going to buy fat creating food.

I had a slim and trim body with a normal BMI until about the age of 60 when I was diagnosed with cancer and took steroids to prevent sickness with my treatments.  After 150 treatments, I had gained 50 pounds and it took me a year to lose 30 pounds by concentrating on not eating much each day.  Exercise does not take weight off...  it simply maintains the weight you have.

So, at 75, I am still 20 pounds overweight which might be considered obese...  I just have not looked at it in that detail.  My activity level has dropped and my eating level should have dropped as well but it hasn't.  Most of my eating is just having something to do, sometimes while I am doing something else and don't really need it.

It bothers me to be overweight but it bothers me even more to see people in their 20s more overweight than I am...  as they get older and older it is going to adversely impact their health.

That will cause healthcare costs to increase as more and more overweight people begin to have health problems.

There will be unintended consequences of overweight Americans in the future as the younger population ages...   like other issues, we will not be worried about that until those problems arrive...  by then, it will be too late for them but maybe help those who have yet to be born.

I have no idea why Americans are on this binge of not caring about being overweight or obese.

A New Life

 

Reassurance

 

Particles

 

The Einstein Tile

A 13-sided tile called “the hat” forms a pattern that covers an infinite plane yet it cannot repeat, making it a long-sought shape known as an “einstein.” A sample of that pattern is shown here.

D. SMITH, J.S. MYERS, C.S. KAPLAN AND C. GOODMAN-STRAUSS (CC BY 4.0)





A 13-sided shape known as “the hat” has mathematicians tipping their caps.

It’s the first true example of an “einstein,” a single shape that forms a special tiling of a plane: Like bathroom floor tile, it can cover an entire surface with no gaps or overlaps but only with a pattern that never repeats.

“Everybody is astonished and is delighted, both,” says mathematician Marjorie Senechal of Smith College in Northampton, Mass., who was not involved with the discovery. Mathematicians had been searching for such a shape for half a century. “It wasn’t even clear that such a thing could exist,” Senechal says.

Although the name “einstein” conjures up the iconic physicist, it comes from the German ein Stein, meaning “one stone,” referring to the single tile. The einstein sits in a weird purgatory between order and disorder. Though the tiles fit neatly together and can cover an infinite plane, they are aperiodic, meaning they can’t form a pattern that repeats.

With a periodic pattern, it’s possible to shift the tiles over and have them match up perfectly with their previous arrangement. An infinite checkerboard, for example, looks just the same if you slide the rows over by two. While it’s possible to arrange other single tiles in patterns that are not periodic, the hat is special because there’s no way it can create a periodic pattern.  READ MORE...

Turn Turn Turn

 

Rolling Stones

 

Guaranteed Recession in 2023

Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell testifies before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on 'The Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress', at Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday, July 17, 2018. Jose Luis Magana/AP

From the central bank's latest rate hike to new developments in the ongoing bank crisis, a lot has happened in my absence.

Jerome Powell and co. indicated Wednesday that, financial turmoil or not, more rate hikes could be coming this year.

Markets, on the other hand, expect something else entirely. Futures are pricing in a minimal chance that the Fed's target rate will be the same or higher by 2024, according to CME's FedWatch tool.

This means the Fed and investors are on dramatically different pages (and only one can be correct).

And all the while, Jerome Powell's favorite bond-market indicator is quietly telling us that a recession is all but guaranteed this year.

1. Powell's preferred Treasury indicator is the spread between the yield on three-month Treasury bills and their expected yield in 18 months' time.

On Thursday, the spread inverted by a record 134 basis points. That's steeper than the previous record set in January 2001, two months before a recession struck, Bloomberg reports.

Talk of basis points, yield spreads, and other market jargon is obscuring the key message here: Markets think a recession is guaranteed in 2023.

Remember, an inverted yield curve suggests investors see more risk in the near term. It's a classic warning for a downturn.

Here's how Powell described the indicator last year:

"Frankly, there's good research by staff in the Federal Reserve system that really says to look at the short — the first 18 months — of the yield curve. That's really what has 100% of the explanatory power of the yield curve. It makes sense. Because if it's inverted, that means the Fed's going to cut, which means the economy is weak."  READ MORE...

Crossdressing

 

Cute

 

Truth

 

Living in a UTOPIA

 UTOPIA means an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect.

PERFECT means conforming absolutely to an ideal type.

Based upon those two definitions, a UTOPIA will never exist but we can imagine

My UTOPIA would include the following:

1.  Everyone would live disease free wit hthe body of a 60 year old for 150 years

2.  Everyone would have all the food, shelter, transportation,  clothing and vacations they ever whether they worked or not

3. Since work is optional, there would be no need for education except for the pleasure of pursuing knowledge

4.  There would be no wars - no agression or terrorism of anykind

5.  What would we do all day?

• fornicate
• eat
• drink
• walk around
• take photographs
• paint pictures
• sail in boats
• spend time at a beach
• write
• play with animals
• grow flowers
• hunt wild animals
• travel around the world
• worship
• exercise

6.  Anything that you ever wanted to do or own would be free

7.  No taxes would be collected

8. Suicide would be outlawed

9.  If you commited a crime, your freedoms and all privileges would be taken away

10.  There would be no competition of any sort as no one likes to lose

11.  There would be no need for marriage and if children were born, the the government would take care of them, if the couple having children did not want them

12.  If you wanted to get a home bigger than your current needs, then you would need to get married and have children or work

13.  The need for greed would be satisfied with work

14.  The need for power and control would be satisfied with work

15.  If one worked, they worked as long as they wanted and then they could leave

16.  Work would be considered a form of slavery as someone would always be working for someone else

17.  No one could take another person's property

18.  All laws could be challenged in court

19.  There would be no governments nor would there be any countries

20.  You could not disrupt another person's happiness or pursuit of happiness without breaking the law

Music

 

Native American

 

Starseed

 

Hummoid Robots

Humanoid robots are advanced robots that are designed to look and move like humans. They are often equipped with sensors and cameras that allow them to recognize human faces and emotions, respond to voice commands and carry out conversations. Humanoid robots can be programmed to perform a wide range of tasks, such as assisting humans in daily activities, working in manufacturing plants, providing healthcare services, and performing search and rescue operations in hazardous environments.

Compared to conventional robots, humanoid robots provide a number of benefits. One of their main advantages is that they can communicate with people in a more intuitive and natural way. They are, therefore, ideal for fields like education, healthcare and customer service, where human interaction is crucial.

Humanoid robots have a lot of potential, but they are still in the early phases of development and have many obstacles to overcome. One of the biggest issues is their high price, which prevents many businesses and individuals from using them. Furthermore, the creation of humanoid robots demands highly developed engineering abilities as well as expertise in a variety of disciplines, including robotics, artificial intelligence and materials science.

Here are advanced humanoid robots in the world to know.

Atlas
Developed by Boston Dynamics, Atlas is a 1.8-meter-tall humanoid robot designed to perform tasks in rough terrain. It is capable of walking on uneven surfaces and can lift heavy weights. Its advanced capabilities enable it to navigate through difficult terrains and debris to locate and rescue people.

The Atlas robot is appropriate for use in industrial settings since it can move large objects and carry out jobs that are hazardous for people. It is capable of performing precise and accurate assembly lines, welding and painting jobs.

Asimo
Developed by Honda, Asimo is a humanoid robot that is designed to perform tasks like running, walking and climbing stairs. It has advanced sensors that allow it to navigate through complex environments.

Asimo has been used extensively in the fields of research, education and engineering to study human physiology, robotics engineering and human-robot interaction. Researchers now have a better understanding of how to create robots that interact with people in a more intuitive and natural way.  READ MORE...

Jimi Hendricks

 

Future Predictions with Michio Kaku

 

Born Southern White - Raised a Democrat

 Raleigh, North Carolina was my place of birth and 2-3 years later, the family moved to just outside of Alexandria, Virginia which was just outside of Washington, DC.

Our house was less than 1,000 square feet of space that included 1.5 bathrooms, 3 small bedrooms, a kitchen, dinning room/living area.  We had one vehicle that had no heating or air conditioning as my father said we could wear a coat or sweater if too cold and roll down the window if too hot.  We had heat in the house but no air conditioning.  My father caught a bus for the 8 mile ride to his job in Washington.  My mother operated off a very tight budget and each payday, my dad would put money in envelopes for my mother to use.  If there was not money in the envelope, then we did not buy anything from that envelope.  If we needed extra money for whatever, it was taken from the vacations envelope.

We had chores to do everyday that included making our beds.  My dad used his military training to test the quality of how well the bed was made.  We had to help clean the house and prepare for meals and in the summer, we had chores outside to do to keep the lawn properly manicured.  I sold tomatoes and cucumbers door-to-door in the summer for spending money but had to save half of what I earned.  We went to sunday school and church every sunday, even when we were on vacation.  This process contined until I graduated from high school.

Values of the Democratic Party were drilled into our heads during the dinner meal as we also talked local politics as well as world politics.  Our parents making sure we fully understood that the Democrats helped the middle class and poor class and the Republicans favored the business sector and the wealthy who lived off the hard work of the rest of us.

Oddly enough, my Democratic parents did not believe in a large government nor did they believe in government handouts.  They believe every person should have the courage to build himself up with hard work and persistence.  They were against socialism.

Their indoctrination stayed with me until 1982 when I graduated from Wake Forest University with an MBA.  I was 35 years old.

It was easy to realize based upon my new training that my parents were not totally correct in what they believed about business and wealthy people.  It was also about that same time that the Democratic Party was changing as they began giving out more and more entitlements and taking us closer to socialism.

Supply side economics was correct.  If you stimulate the supply side of the equation, the demand side will automatically respond in kind.  Stimulating the demand only creates inflation and a shortage of supply.  Increased wages will not cause businesses to produce more.  It will cause them to produce less in order to preserve profits.  Stockholders control the busnesses and stockholders are made up of people like you and me...

While I now gravitate towards the conservative points of view, I am not yet a Republican because some of their views I have yet to agree with.  In any event, Government should stay the hell out of our lives.  I am for a small government, a strong military for defense, and low taxes.  Government should not be telling me what I should or should not eat, if I should smoke cigarettes or not, if I should drink alcohol or not, or if I should have an abortion.  THOSE ARE MY DECISIONS and MINE ALONE...

Frustrated EV Owners

A recent study by JD Power found that EV owners have become increasingly frustrated with their home charging experience for several reasons, including higher electricity rates and charging speeds.
Declining home charging satisfaction among EV owners

Inflation (via the Consumer Price Index) rose at the fastest rate in roughly 40 years following the pandemic, with the prices of everything from lumber to eggs soaring.

Electricity rates were no safe haven. The latest Energy Information Administration data shows average residential rates rose in the US by nearly 10% in 2022 to 14.96 cents per kilowatt-hour from 13.72 in December 2021.

According to JD Power’s recently released US Electric Vehicle Experience Home Charging Study, rising electricity rates are a significant reason for dissatisfaction with home EV charging.

Perhaps, more importantly, the study also shows only 51% of EV owners had knowledge of their utility companies’ programs to assist with home charging. Adrian Chung, director of utility intelligence at JD Power, explains:

By increasing awareness of available rebates or incentives, EV owners will benefit. This can snowball into helping potential EV owners make a more informed purchase decision, as well as minimizing home charging concerns and supporting greater EV adoption.

Several utility companies offer incentives and rebates for purchasing and installing home EV charging infrastructure. For incentives in your area, you can check with your utility company, or ChargePoint has compiled a list by state.

Another reason for the falling satisfaction is charging speed. Satisfaction improved significantly when moving from a Level 1 to a Level 2 charger.

Although over two-thirds of EV owners use a Level 2 charger, this year’s study found that 2022 and 2023 EV owners are less satisfied than 2021 and 2020 owners.  READ MORE...

Gardening

 

The Majority

 

Dog Saves Cat

 

Saving My Money

The Biden Administration has not just waged a war on gasoline and natural gas, but they are trying to push the entire country into green energy too quickly.

This push is hurting our economy and keeping it from bouncing back after COVID.

Interestingly, while the USA, Canada, and parts of Europe are pushing to go GREEN...  the rest of the world is not just hesitant but refusing to follow our lead,

These non supporting countries are CHINA, RUSSIA, INDIA, SOUTH AMERICA, AFRICA, and the MIDDLE EAST...

Surely the Biden Administration can see that the opposition is larger than the PRO GREEN SUPPORTERS...   which means our efforts are offset by their efforts to resist.

CONSEQUENTLY...

the last thing that I am going to do is buy an EV or a HYBRID and throw away my gas stove.

THEREFORE...

I will be saving money while you are spending your money.

Additionally...  it is widely believed that the Republicans will win the White House and both seats in Congress in 2024...

IF THEY DO...

gasoline will be coming back and the XL Pipeline will continued to be pursued...

This is not to say, that we should not move into green energy...  What half of the USA is saying is...  DON'T MOVE SO FAST.

• Set up the infrastructure for EVs and Hyrids
• Set up the electric grid for more power consumption
• Stop buying EV batteries from China

 

Until we find an alternative, all of our military aircraft and commercial aircraft MUST USE JET FUEL which comes from PETROLEUM CRUDE OIL...

OIL and NATURAL GAS are not disappearing...  We will always need both.

In 5 years, the EV market will no doubt be perfected which means it will be more sophisticated than it is today in 2023...

In 5 years, I will be 80 years old and my driving will be reduced to a minimum.

It would be cheaper for me to buy an upscale golf cart and use it to drive the mile to the grocery store than spend $60,000+ on an EV.  When I need to go to Knoxville for a doctor's appt., then I can hire an UBER.

Even if the UBER costs me $50 for a round trip and I go once a month, that is $600 per year.  Simple math tells me that I can hire an UBER for 100 years before reaching $60,000...

If my UBER costs doubled then I would be looking at 50 years.  If my monthly visits doubled along with the increased UBER costs, then I am looking at 25 years.

80+25 is 105...  I doubt that I will live that long, but one never knows...

Still, why spend the money???

Energy

 

Drag

 

McDonalds

 

Quantum Information Between Technologies

A niobium superconducting cavity. The holes lead to tunnels which intersect to trap light and atoms. Credit: Aishwarya Kumar

Researchers have discovered a way to "translate" quantum information between different kinds of quantum technologies, with significant implications for quantum computing, communication, and networking.

The research was published in the journal Nature on Wednesday. It represents a new way to convert quantum information from the format used by quantum computers to the format needed for quantum communication.

Photons—particles of light—are essential for quantum information technologies, but different technologies use them at different frequencies. For example, some of the most common quantum computing technology is based on superconducting qubits, such as those used by tech giants Google and IBM; these qubits store quantum information in photons that move at microwave frequencies.

But if you want to build a quantum network, or connect quantum computers, you can't send around microwave photons because their grip on their quantum information is too weak to survive the trip.

"A lot of the technologies that we use for classical communication—cell phones, Wi-Fi, GPS and things like that—all use microwave frequencies of light," said Aishwarya Kumar, a postdoc at the James Franck Institute at University of Chicago and lead author on the paper. "But you can't do that for quantum communication because the quantum information you need is in a single photon. And at microwave frequencies, that information will get buried in thermal noise."

The solution is to transfer the quantum information to a higher-frequency photon, called an optical photon, which is much more resilient against ambient noise. 

But the information can't be transferred directly from photon to photon; instead, we need intermediary matter. Some experiments design solid state devices for this purpose, but Kumar's experiment aimed for something more fundamental: atoms.  READ MORE...

Career Choice