Star Older Then Universe

The star HD 140283 has been called the "Methuselah star" for its extreme age. At an estimated over 14 billion years old, it’s the oldest star we know, at least within our galaxy. A star that old is certainly interesting, particularly when it is so close to us it can be seen with binoculars, however, that appears to put it older than the universe. How that can be? A closer examination reveals the star is special, but not that special.


The standard estimate of the time since the Big Bang is 13.79 billion years. The figure is derived from the rate of expansion of the universe using Einstein's relativity but has been validated through a variety of methods. However, that number is now facing at least three distinct challenges. As evidence, proponents point to the existence of stars estimated to be either older than 13.8 billion years, or so close to that age that there shouldn’t have been time for them to form.


Not surprisingly HD 140283 gets prime billing (helped by its catchy nickname derived from a Biblical ancestor of Noah said to have lived to 969) due to a 2013 study using Hubble data that estimated it is 14.46 billion years old, plus or minus 800 million years. That would make it potentially older than the universe.


The biggest claim regarding HD 140283 is that it disproves the Big Bang. After all, if there is even one star 14.5 billion years old then the explosion that started the universe couldn’t have happened less than 14 billion years ago. The Big Bang is now so central to our cosmology that were it to be disproved it would create a scientific revolution the like of which we have not seen for a long time.


A smaller, but still dramatic, change would be required to adapt to the recent claim that the Big Bang happened, but almost twice as long ago as most estimates put it, at 26.7 billion years ago.


Neither of these views has much support among astrophysicists, but some do suspect we’ve got our estimates of the timing of the Big Bang more modestly wrong, and the universe is really around 15 billion years old. Although such an estimate would raise a few questions about why our estimates for the universe’s expansion rate are out, if proven, accompanying changes to our thinking would be evolutionary not revolutionary.

In that context, it’s worth asking: if the universe was 26 billion years old, wouldn’t we expect to find 20 billion-year-old stars? It’s true we’ve only really looked across a small portion of the galaxy, but if the universe is that old, Methuselah looks suspiciously young. Then take that question a step further and ask what we might expect to see if the universe had no beginning and has always been here.  READ MORE...

Street Art

 

Goodbye Robbie Robinson - The Band

 

USA Down For The Count

 I have known for a long time that the US of America is FLAWED...  and, perhaps that is the wrong word...  being corrupt is not the right word either although most politicians are, in fact, corrupt...  if not with foreign countries then with lobbyists who want certain bills to be passed.

The word I am thinking about is more like intellectual arrogance coupled with greed.  It is almost like Americans were and still are of the opinion that they can do any damn thing they want to do because they know better than anyone else.

That philosophy and feeling is absolutely wrong.

1. We got involved with slavery because we thought it was the right thing to do at the time.
2. We took land away from Native Americans because we thought it was the right thing to do at the time.
3. We fought a war with Mexico over land at our southern border because we thought it was the right thing to do at the time.
4. We got involved in WWI and WWII because we thought it was the right thing to do at the time because, if we won, it would lead to us rebuilding the world.
5. We tried to promote our brand of Democracy in South America and Africa, the Middle East, and Europe because we thought it was the right thing to do at the time.

WE WERE WRONG IN EVERY SINGLE INSTANCE...

The US of America became WEALTHY at the expense of everyone else.  Now the rest of the world is no longer enamored with us.  

• South America dislikes us
• Africa dislikes us
• The Middle East dislikes us
• Russia dislikes us
• Asia dislikes us

Our economy is weak.

Our military is weak.

Our country is divided.

Our national debt is enormous.

Our education sucks.

Our politicians are corrupt.

Liberals try to censor conservatives.

We want to do away with fossil fuels.

Crime and violence are out of control

Illegal immigrants is now a crisis.

HOW LONG DO YOU THINK IT WILL BE BEFORE CHINA DECIDES WE ARE PERFECTLY VULNERABLE FOR AN ECONOMIC TAKEOVER?   Rhetorical question...

Taking What You Want

 

THREE INTO ONE

 According to Freudian psychology:

the id - is the primitive, basic, and fully unconscious part of personality. It contains all of the unconscious energy that is directed toward fulfilling a person's most basic needs.

the ego - is a person’s sense of self-esteem or self-importance.

the super ego - is to suppress entirely any urges or desires of the id that are considered wrong or socially unacceptable.

Not that I am as smart, clever, or as well-educated and experienced as Freud, but there are some issues with his analysis that have always bothered me.

It is easy to accept his definition of the ID and EGO as they both seem to be rather straightforward and do not require a whole of effort on the individual's part to display.

However, the SUPER EGO is not that straightforward as a person's definition of right and wrong and what is or is not socially acceptable is going to be different.   To me, this means that the super ego is going to be different in every person.  Now, if the super ego is different in every person then it should also stand to reason that the ID and the EGO would be different as well.

Another issue is with the ID.  In all babies, the ID operates the same...  it is not different, in that when a baby is hungry the baby cries.

As a child grows, the ID realizes that crying no longer works.  But, is that the ID or is it the EGO that is regulating the primitive conditions of the ID?

Freud's analysis has been so popular that we just accept it as being the way it is for everyone.  I am not sure if these three components of one's personality are real.

One's personality can change over time as one ages, but the primitive side of that individual is still there...  for example, when a wife learns her child or husband has been killed, she yells out like an animal.  Is that the super ego allowing the ID to control actions, or is that simple a grief response?

Constant pain can also cause someone's ID to take control over their personality and the super ego does not seem to care because it is allowed to happen.  So, why then did the super ego back off?

Personality is a complex issue that is influenced by factors both within as well as outside our ability to control.  

Another issue is how does the SUPER EGO know when something that was not socially acceptable becomes socially acceptable.  Who or what tells the super ego to change because society has changed?

What in the personality has changed that informs a man that he is now a woman instead of a man and that his EGO or self-esteem should change?

The Bermuda Triangle

 

Extinct 87 Years Ago

Researchers often think about how and when their results will be published. However, many research projects don’t see the light until decades (or even centuries) later, if at all.

This is the case of a high-resolution atlas of the Tasmanian tiger or thylacine brain. Carefully processed over 140 years ago, it is finally published recently in the journal PNAS.

SIMILAR, BUT NOT WOLVES
Thylacines were dingo-sized carnivorous marsupials that roamed through Australia and New Guinea prior to human occupation. They became confined to Tasmania around 3,000 years ago.

The arrival of European colonists and the introduction of farming, diseases, and hunting bounties quickly led to their extinction. The last known individual died on September 7, 1936, at Hobart’s Beaumaris Zoo. As a commemoration, September 7 became the National Threatened Species Day to raise conservation awareness in Australia.

Thylacines looked remarkably similar to wolves and dogs (that is, canids). This is a textbook example of a process known as evolutionary convergence: when the body shapes of animals are really similar, despite them coming from different lineages.

However, whether thylacine brains are also similar to wolves has been very hard to find out due to a lack of material available for microscopic studies. In the newly published study, my colleagues and I uploaded high-resolution images to a public repository and studied brain sections prepared for microscopy from a thylacine that died in the Berlin Zoo in 1880.  READ MORE...

Bound

 

Alternatives to College

Currently, our education system, K-12, although it does not really start being a problem until about the 7th grade, has been DESIGNED for all students to go to college.

Whoever designed that system is an arrogant IDIOT because not everyone has the mental capacity or desire to go to college...  so they MUST SUFFER THROUGH HIGH SCHOOL...  along with all the bad behavior associated with that suffering.

Most of the high school graduates that attend college, must borrow money to pay for the high cost of education.  Typically, it is somewhere around $50,000/year to attend college which includes tuition, books, meals, housing,  transportation, clothing, and misc expenses such as toiletries, cosmetics, and hair care.

Obviously, some of these college students live with their parents and commute each day but a vast majority of them do not.

Once the student graduates, they typically have $200,000 in debt that they must pay off...  providing they can find a job.

ALTERNATIVES:

1.  Go to a Community College for your first two years then transfer to University that your grades would not let you into as a freshman.

2.  Go to a trade school and learn to be a carpenter, plumber, electrician, construction, mechanic, etc.

3.  Just go out and get a job with the idea in mind that you want to move up in the ranks and once that is proven to management, they will pay for you to go for more education related to your job or a potential job.

4.  Go to work in a restaurant as a waiter/waitress with the idea in mind that you want to manage the restaurant in a few years.

5.  Go into the military for 20 years...  18-38, then you have another 20 years to work for another company 38-58, based upon what you learned in the military.

6.  Start your own company.  While that is a little difficult to accomplish without any experience, it can be done.  A high school graduate started a swap shop where you could trade in an old music CD for a new music CD for a small fee.  Another high school graduate started a lawn care business.

One issue is for certain, this is your life, and no one really cares about your life except for YOU...

Smile

 

Fusion Energy is Really Possible

As Earth’s inhabitants suffer through what may wind up being the hottest year on record, there’s a Promethean spark of hope. Virtually unlimited fusion energy appears to be, if not right around the corner, at least within hailing distance.

Last December, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility finally succeeded in forcing the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium to undergo a self-sustained fusion reaction. It was an encouraging advancement, though not exactly a breakthrough. 

NIF’s small net energy gain didn’t factor in the energy it took to fire up the 192 ultraviolet lasers that initiated the reaction, which lasted “for the briefest blink of a moment,” as Dina Genkina reported for IEEE Spectrum. While there are lessons to be learned from NIF’s successes and failures, laser-based inertial confinement fusion doesn’t yet provide a practical path to commercial-scale power generation.

There’s also a lot to learn from Iter, the world’s largest fusion experiment, which is now being built in southern France. Since 1985, the project has brought together 35 countries and thousands of scientists and engineers. 

ITER’s magnetic-confinement fusion experiments will happen inside a giant doughnut-shaped device called a tokamak, where powerful superconducting magnets will force hydrogen isotopes to fuse.

Even if Iter succeeds in touching off a sustained fusion reaction, though, it will never harness the energy produced. That crucial engineering step will be accomplished by some other group. 

One team vying to take fusion energy to market is Commonwealth Fusion Systems, in Devens, Mass., whose six founders all did research at Iter. In “Tale of the Tape,” page 30, writer Tom Clynes takes us inside CFS’s Sparc pilot project to create a new kind of commercially viable, compact fusion reactor.  READ MORE...

Wild Animals

 

A Creature of Habits

Unless I have a doctor's appointment, I am unusually not awake and out of the bed until just before 9am.  

How can I be so precise? 

The first thing I do is pee, then make the bed, then take my thyroid pill, turn on the TV to FOX News, then make myself a cup of coffee.

I use McCafe coffee pods in my Keurig coffee pot, selecting the 12 oz amount, then add 3 spoonful's of sugar free cappuccino mix.

When I get back to my chair in the living room Bill Hemmer has just started so I know it is right around 9am.

I watch FOX News until 11am...  then I take the 9 pills that I am supposed to take for my cancer and my heart to keep everything balanced.

If there is anything to do around the house or outside, I typically do it then except for mowing the yard.  I wait until 7pm to do that.

My chores last a couple of hours and I make myself my first meal of the day.  Sometimes, it is a breakfast and sometimes it is a carton of something that I made a day or two ago.

If I have breakfast, it is usually a protein bar or a frozen waffle that I heat up in the microwave for 30 seconds and put strawberry on.

The afternoon is always set aside for either writing on my novel or taking a nap.  Before we moved house locations, I would have worked on my novel, but since we moved my novel interest is not there so I take a nap.

After my nap, I will either watch two episodes of a series I have been watching like Yellowstone, 1883, or a BBC detective show.  I have found that BBC series are better than American series.

After my nap and TV watching, I will usually make something for dinner that will last for 2-3 nights and then work on my blog.

If I take any kind of break while working on my blogs, it is usually to play solitaire or spades on my phone.

The last thing that I do before retiring to bed for the night is wash the dishes I used during the day and heat a cup of water.  This time the cup will contain only 10 oz. to which I add 6 heaping spoons of sugar free cappuccino mix.

Since there is no caffeine, the warm liquid helps me to fall asleep rather quickly each night.

There is always time during midday when I am doing something outside to talk with the neighbors if they are out and about.

Sometimes, I will go grocery shopping with my wife and every once in a while, we will do this shopping around 3pm and have an early dinner.

If we go out to breakfast, it is usually on Sunday morning to either IHOP for scrambled eggs, sausage, and waffles or the PERKINS for an omelet, breakfast potatoes, and pancakes.

If PERKINS is the choice, I bring half the omelet and breakfast potatoes homes along with the 3 pancakes to eat other mornings.

I will heat up the pancakes and put peanut butter or jelly on them, but never both at the same time, although I am not sure why I don't do this.

This is pretty much my retired routine and as you can see, I am a creature of habit.  There is NOTHING that I feel like I am missing with my life.

Hello

Lady Justice Hides

The RULE OF LAW has gone on an indefinite leave of absence in an effort to avoid retribution, retaliation, and extinction...

The Department of Justice is now the handmaiden of the Biden Administration and has been weaponized against any and all conservatives that pose a threat to their BRAND OF DEMOCRACY...  somewhere between progressive democracy and socialism.

The progressives would rather have a society of entitlements rather than a society that is protected by a strong global military presence.

To achieve their Machiavellian results, they have opened all US borders and embraced ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION in the strongest of terms.  These liberals know exactly the chaos that will be unleashed against the current American society.

These ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS bring with them:

1. uneducated minds
2. unskilled labor
3. unvaccinated children
4. potential disease
5. potential criminals
6. potential terrorists

These ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS have no family here in the USA to take care of them.  They have no prospect of jobs or any means of earning a living.  They cannot pay for housing, food, medicine, or clothing.  The slums that they lived in before they came here, they will bring with them by default.

How much money will the USA spend on taking care of these ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS?

How much crime will these ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS create in order to pay for normal living expenses?

These ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS and their uncanny desire to have babies will eventually turn the USA into a THIRD WORLD COUNTRY because of all the resources that they will consume without returning anything to the USA and her legal citizens.

In the meantime, high tech companies have BALLS TO THE WALL in AI/Robot research and development that will replace AMERICAN JOBS in the next couple of years.

How will the USA deal with not only ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS who are unemployed but with AMERICAN CITIZENS that are unemployed as well?

If you are an ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT and you know that you came into the USA ILLEGALLY how much respect do you think these ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS will have for our Rule of Law?

America's National Debt is increasing and there are no signs that anything will change any time soon.  Our bond rating has been down graded because of our National Debt.  BRICS and Saudi Arabia and numerous other countries are no longer using the US dollar in their trade negotiations.   The rest of the world DOES NOT LIKE THE USA because of all of our global transgressions trying to get the rest of the world to be like us.

AMERICA WHERE ARE YOU NOW???

Muscle Girl

The Present Does Not Last Long

Fortunately, or unfortunately, mankind is forced to live in the present. We are aware of the past, especially the immediate past, because we just lived through it.  The distant past is a little more of a problem, but we have photos to help remind us of what we did...  although in some cases photos still don't help us remember.

The future is another story altogether because it has not yet happened, even the immediate future which is sometimes rather obvious.  However, if we look further into the future, it is more difficult to predict even with historical data on which to base our predictions and forecasts.

However strange that it might seem, when the future gets here it is only momentarily in the present before it flows into the past.  It is even more difficult to state how long the present actually lasts...  it is a second?  or, a nanosecond?  or, even faster than that?

The other issue that I see as problematic is how long is the past and how long is the future.  If we measure both of those relative to ourselves, then it is simply how long we live.  However, if we measure the past and future relative to the beginning and ending of time itself, then it is a little more difficult to develop an accurate number.

The obvious first question here is WHY?

And, the obvious answer is that we do not know exactly when time began, nor do we know when time will end.

Now, the issue, at least in my mind, that complicates this analysis is the notion that time IS or IS NOT connected with the creation of the universe.  That is to say, could the universe have been created before time existed?  Or, was time created in the same instant that the universe was created in?

Again, we have no definitive answer...  just a lot of speculation and conjecture.

Some people, and this is beyond my comprehension, believe that the universe was created out of nothing rather than created out of something.

I've always had a problem with the universe being created out of something....  BECAUSE where did that SOMETHING COME FROM?

While creation out of nothing makes more sense, it also seems illogical...

Pineapples

 

Kim Jong Un - Weapons Factory

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un toured the country’s key weapons factories, including those producing artillery systems and launch vehicles for nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, and pledged to speed up efforts to advance his military’s arms and war readiness, state media said Sunday.


Kim’s three-day inspections through Saturday came as the United States and South Korea prepared for their next round of combined military exercises planned for later this month to counter the growing North Korean threat.


Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest level in years as the pace of North Korea’s missile tests and the joint U.S.-South Korea military drills, which Kim portrays as invasion rehearsals, have both intensified in a tit-for-tat cycle.


Some experts say Kim’s tour of the weapons factories could also be related to possible military cooperation with Moscow that may involve North Korean supplies of artillery and other ammunition as Russian President Vladimir Putin reaches out to other countries for support in the war in Ukraine. 

Koo Byoungsam, spokesperson of South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said Friday that Kim’s staged visits to the arms factories are possibly aimed at both demonstrating North Korea’s military might in the face of U.S.-South Korean drills and also communicating an intent to export weapons.  READ MORE...

Somewhat Political

 

Predicting 2030

 Obviously, no one can predict the future...  all they can do is anticipate what the future will be like based upon what the world looks like today and a few trends taking place in:  technology, economics, politics, science, and defense.

It is predicted that by 2030 (6.5 years from now) that the following is likely to happen:

1.  China will have the biggest economy

2.  China will have the biggest military

3.  India will have the biggest population

4.  The center of commerce will be ASIA

5.  The USA will be a superpower only because of all its nuclear weapons

8.  80% of all global jobs will be replaced by AI/Robots

9.  All education will be online and will be competency based predicated upon certification exams

10.  English will no longer be the universal language

11.  The US dollar will no longer be the international currency of trade

12.  Thanks to AI most all disease will be eliminated

13.  Most all emerging nations/countries will have nuclear weapons

14.  Spaceships will be heading to Mars for potential colonization

15.  Everyone will have wrist implants for identification and banking

16.  Because of AI and AI/robots and technology, there will be no middle class...  only wealthy and poor.

17.  Because of AI and AI/robots, there will be no need for actors, actresses, singers or musicians, or any professional athletes

18.  All militaries will be 80% AI/Robots

19.  There will only be one universal currency that will be online based, like having a credit of a certain value

20.  Marriages and having children will be pointless

Finally Justice

 

Link Between Math & Genes

Researchers have discovered an unexpected link between number theory in mathematics and genetics, providing critical insight into the nature of neutral mutations and the evolution of organisms. The team found the maximal robustness of mutations—mutations that can occur without changing an organism’s characteristics—is proportional to the logarithm of all possible sequences that map to a phenotype, with a correction provided by the sums-of-digits function from number theory.


An interdisciplinary team of mathematicians, engineers, physicists, and medical scientists has discovered a surprising connection between pure mathematics and genetics. ThAnd yet, again and again, number theory finds unexpected applications in science and engineering, from leaf angles that (almost) universally follow the Fibonacci sequence, to modern encryption techniques based on factoring prime numbers. Now, researchers have demonstrated an unexpected link between number theory and evolutionary genetics.

Specifically, the team of researchers (from Oxford, Harvard, Cambridge, GUST, MIT, Imperial, and the Alan Turing Institute) have discovered a deep connection between the sums-of-digits function from number theory and a key quantity in genetics, the phenotype mutational robustness. This quality is defined as the average probability that a point mutation does not change a phenotype (a characteristic of an organism).

The discovery may have important implications for evolutionary genetics. Many genetic mutations are neutral, meaning that they can slowly accumulate over time without affecting the viability of the phenotype. These neutral mutations cause genome sequences to change at a steady rate over time. Because this rate is known, scientists can compare the percentage difference in the sequence between two organisms and infer when their latest common ancestor lived.is connection sheds light on the structure of neutral mutations and the evolution of organisms.

Number theory, the study of the properties of positive integers, is perhaps the purest form of mathematics. At first sight, it may seem far too abstract to apply to the natural world. In fact, the influential American number theorist Leonard Dickson wrote “Thank God that number theory is unsullied by any application.”     READ MORE...

Largest Cruise Ship

 

The Need for Alcohol

My father used to come home from work every night and stand by the kitchen sink with a bottle of Bourbon and a glass.  He would pour the glass half full of Bourbon and drink it down, then fill the glass with water and drink all of that down.  Sometimes, he would stand there for 10 minutes before doing it again, and sometimes once was enough.

After watching my dad do that every night, I decided I would never put myself in a position where I felt like I had to do that.

I am still amazed when I talk to people who feel the need to drink alcohol every night after work.  To me, it seems like something is wrong with them or something is wrong with work.

This one guy I talked with said he drank a six pack of beer every night except Friday nights.  On Friday night, he would get himself a pint of whiskey and a steak.  Once the steak was cooked, he would drink the pint of whiskey while eating the steak.  After 20 years of doing this, he ended up becoming a very obese individual.  A routine operation killed him because he was so overweight.

I am not sure what has caused so many people to drink alcohol daily...  but, what I notice when watching TV or some kind of series, those characters drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes all the time as if it were a normal part of life.

People who let themselves get influenced by actors on the screen must have weak personalities that continue to influence their bad or inappropriate behavior.

I am not opposed to drinking and I drink beer, wine, and usually vodka and tonic or gin an lime.  But, I don't drink because I am stressed out.  I don't drink because I am angry or in some kind of emotional pain.  I drink because it is relaxing, somewhat enjoyable once in a while, and only have 1-2 drinks and no more.

In 2015, I would have 1-2 drinks a month and now it is probably 1-2 drinks a year.  There are other ways for me to relax I have found plus the cost of alcohol is rather high and does not seem like a good way to spend one's money.

 

Retired in East TN Blues

I am so frigging happy that I do not have to drive in the traffic of a big city.  

I am so frigging happy that I do not live in area where there is a high level of crime.

I am so frigging happy that I do not live in an area where BLM and CRT and WOKE dominates the local politics.

I am so frigging happy that there are two large recreational lakes on either side of my location.

I am so frigging happy that the East TN Valley is protected from bad weather by the Smoky Mtns on one side and the Cumberland Plateau on the other side.

I am so frigging happy that I have a back yard that is large enough for me to have a small vegetable garden.

I am so frigging happy that I live in a community where the neighbors all around me are thoroughly enjoyable and pleasant.

I am so frigging happy that I live in a community where I can walk around the community day or night without the fear of being mugged.

I am so frigging happy that the restaurants that are around me are not just cheap but provide quality food with which I am totally satisfied.

I am so frigging happy that I do not have to wait in line to charge an electric vehicle because my car only works on gasoline.

Life in the south is GOOD.

Life in the south is REWARDING.

Life in the south is PEACEFUL.

Life in the south caters to OLD PEOPLE.

Life in the south in INEXPENSIVE.

Critical Race Theory

What is Critical Race Theory? 

Critical Race Theory, or CRT, is an academic and legal framework that denotes that systematic racism is part of American society — from education and housing to employment and healthcare. Critical Race Theory recognizes that racism is more than the result of individual bias and prejudice.

What is Racism?

prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism by an individual, community, or institution against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.  It is the belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another.

Here is the problem with CRT...

Because CRT uses the phrase systematic racism, it can no longer pertain to just American Blacks or Blacks in America because systematic racism by its own definition includes ALL MINORITIES.  This means that CRT MUST INCLUDE:  Native Americans, Jews, Irish, Native Alaskans, Native Hawaiians, Hispanics, and Asians.

Why do I make this claim?

Whites comprise 60% of the American population, THEREFORE, all races less than 60% are considered minority races and must be included in the definition of RACISM.

My impression of what CRT is supposed to accomplish is to attack the white population of the USA because their ancestors at one time practiced SLAVERY.

The BLACKS that are promoting CRT are not including all the other minorities because they do not want to include all the other minorities because they are only interested in punishing the white people because of slavery.  Blacks and CRT could care less about all the other minorities since they were not involved in slavery.

Without all those other minorities, it will be difficult to prove that systematic racism exists in the US of America.

However, as a WHITE MALE, I would have to say that there is a negative attitude towards BLACKS which could be construed as a prejudice, but I don't think the prejudice is actually a byproduct of slavery.

Whites prejudicial attitude towards the BLACKS is predicated upon the behavior of blacks in a given area, location, or state.

I went to high school (overseas), college, and was in the military with BLACKS and had no problem with them nor they with me.  Not only did we learn or work together but we socialized as well.

I had no problems with BLACKS during my entire working career of 45 years in the southern states of NC, VA, KY, SC, and TN.  I had no problems with BLACKS when I went on vacations on the east coast, the Caribbean, Europe, Hawaii, Alaska, or Mexico.

All negative interactions with BLACKS came in the big cities of Atlanta, Washington DC, Baltimore, Chicago, and NYC.

As far as minorities are concerned, I have had very little interaction with Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, Native Alaskans, or Native Hawaiians.

As far as SYSTEMATIC RACISM existing in the US of America, I don't see it and I don't believe it exists at all.  HOWEVER, there is a growing HATRED in both the BLACK and WHITE communities for each other.  This HATRED is perpetuated on both sides.  It is not just the WHITES.

Whatever is going on between the WHITES and BLACKS is REAL and it does EXIST and it is getting WORSE...  but, it is not RACISM...  give it another word if you will, but RACISM does not apply.

Reflections of a Lifetime

When I was in high school, I was very active and playing the following sports:  football, basketball, baseball, softball, track and field, and volleyball.

  

When I was in high school, I was not a very good student and made "B's" without spending too much time studying. 

When I was in high school, I enjoyed racing cars on the highway, tried to hide from police, and could not resist going to a party.

 

When I was in college, I was bored by my professors as the classes we were taking were designed to FLUNK US OUT.  These classes were like being back in high school all over again except they went into a little more depth and detail, expecting you to memorize what you would never use again.

From that standpoint, college seemed like a total WASTE OF TIME for both me and the professor.

While in college, I played no sports nor was I very interested in attending any of the games that were being played on campus.  I pretty much stayed to myself.

After two and a half years of college, I quit and enlisted in the US Navy to avoid being drafted into the Army or Marines and sent to Vietnam.  I knew that I did not like war nor did I believe in war and wanted to avoid it as best as I could.

Two years later, I returned to college, finished my degree and began my career.  Five years later, I enrolled in grad school to pursue an MBA.  It was a solid degree and there were not many of us around the workplace.

I spent 60 hours in grad school and today I can get than same degree and only spend 30 hours.  I question their level of knowledge and competence after only spending 30 hours in training.

I worked in a variety of jobs that revolved around education for 45 years before I retired at age 67.  After retirement, I continued to teach business classes at night for five years, just to have something to do.

Many people my age and younger have decided never to retire and to work in some capacity until they die.  And, while that is fine for them, I had no desire to do that.

If I had continued to work, I would have had more money which is a good thing, but towards the end of my career, I began running into incompetent bosses who simply wanted you to kiss their asses and I refused to do that.

When I was a boss, I never had any desire for any of my subordinates to kiss my ass...  although a few tried and I got rid of them.

I enjoy being retired as does my wife.  I still shave every other day but I wear no coat and tie.  Mostly I wear old clothes unless we are visiting people, going out to dinner, or on vacation.

It seems odd to go on vacation when one is not working but it is nice to get away from routine, even if there really is no routine.

Fortunately, we managed to save enough money for retirement that we can pretty much do what we want.  Oddly, there is really not that much that we want to do.

The Race