Warren Buffett, one of the most successful investors in the world, has a reputation for his simple yet profound financial wisdom.
POOR PEOPLE WASTE THEIR MONEY ON THE FOLLOWING:
Neglecting Personal Development According to Buffett, the best investment one can make is in oneself. Enhancing skills and education can boost earning potential significantly. Knowledge and abilities are assets that no one can take away from you.
Relying on Credit Cards Credit cards can be convenient, but high interest rates can quickly overshadow any benefits if you don’t pay the full balance monthly. Buffett advises against needless spending that could lead to credit card debt.
Frequenting Bars and Pubs Spending on social activities like drinking at bars can add up. Opting for more affordable social gatherings, like home get-togethers, can help save significantly.
Chasing the Latest Technology New gadgets may be tempting, but often, last year’s model serves just as well. Buffett himself has a history of sticking to functional rather than flashy tech. It’s important to assess if the latest upgrades genuinely provide added value for the price.
Overspending on Clothes Buffett, along with other billionaires, leans towards simplicity in his wardrobe. Choosing classic, durable clothes over flashy, expensive brands can result in significant savings.
Buying New Cars Cars are notorious for their rapid depreciation. Buffett recommends buying pre-owned cars and holding onto them for as long as they’re reliable, instead of falling for the allure of the new models.
Unused Gym Memberships Buffett promotes an active lifestyle but cautions against unused gym memberships. Free or low-cost fitness routines can be just as effective if regularly practiced.
Unnecessary Subscription Services Subscription services, if not carefully monitored, can become a financial drain. Review these regularly and cancel those that don’t provide value.
For those of you who do not follow me on a regular basis, when I was 60, I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and had a triple bypass type of heart attack. Five years later, I was diagnosed with Melanoma as well and in 2022, I had 5 lower back disks fused as a result of old age, I was told.
In 2007, my weight was 205 lbs and in 2017 it was 250 lbs because of the steroids. Due to meticulously counting my calories, I reduced my weight down to 220 lbs by 2022. In the last year, my weight has reduced from 220lbs to 208 lbs as a result of my cancer (but not the melanoma) growing. However, we are not sure how the Lymphoma has transformed and have sent off a biopsy to be genetically sequenced for treatment.
I will not be in a position to find out the results and start a new treatment regimen for another two weeks. Partly because the lab is overworked, partly because my Oncologist is on vacation, and partly because my medical center only has ONE PET SCANNER.
All of this should have been started last week, so I am about 2-3 weeks behind.
I am hoping that this delay does not make it more difficult to treat the cancer than if we started 3 weeks ago. But, that's water over the dam right now.
In the meantime, I am simply trying to maintain my weight, not loose anymore and not gain anymore.
However, because the cancer inside my body is growing, I am experiencing nausea almost every day as well as extreme fatigue. Before all of this started, I was walking a mile three times a week and was planning to increase it to 5 times a week. It is difficult to walk when you wake up from sleeping the night before and feel like you need to go back to bed and continue sleeping. This is after sleeping for 8 hours.
Stents were put into 3 arteries instead of doing a bypass and those stents are still pristine. Therefore, I am not worried about my heart. I take meds for blood pressure, blood thinners, and for cholesterol. I continue to take pills for Lymphoma even though they are not working and continue to have monthly infusions with Opdivo for my Melanoma.
My lower back is all fused together, and my mobility is somewhat limited as is my bending over, but walking is supposed to help make that a little better. It bothers me that I have been unable to walk but again, there is nothing I can do about it except try not to spend so much time sitting.
It is an uncomfortable position in which to be, but it is one that is not as bad as what others may be going through with their health. I am thankful to still be alive after having cancer(s) for 15/10 years. My new treatment protocol is probably going to incorporate some wicked chemo which I am not looking forward to because I have already gone through that for 6 months and it is no fun.
Dr. Brett Osborn, a board-certified neurosurgeon in West Palm Beach, Florida, is also the founder of a preventative health care and anti-aging facility, Senolytix.
He works with patients to help them achieve a healthy weight, adopt better wellness habits and reduce their risk of chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes.
1. Assume responsibility for your own health While it’s important to consult with a health care professional as needed, Osborn emphasized that people should listen to their own bodies and identify potential risks.
2. Take these 6 blood tests — and take them seriously The best way to prolong your life is to lower the risk of heart attack and stroke, according to Osborn — and the first step in doing so is identifying the risk factors.
3. Embrace these 10 supplements Although supplements are not to be used as primary treatments for ailments, Osborn said, they can be used as a complement to a well-rounded diet and exercise regimen.
4. Work your brain Although it’s not a muscle, Osborn emphasized that the brain benefits from exercise, both mentally and physically.
5. Know your food’s glycemic index Measuring your food’s glycemic index (GI) is a way of rating the impact it has on blood sugar and insulin, Osborn explained.
Most of us interpret this French phrase to mean that when we go to a place that we've never been to before that we have an eerie feeling that we have been there before.
My use of this phrase is slightly different.
Let me explain.
Look at the wheel below.
For the sake of this article, let's assume that the circle in the middle of the wheel represents earth. And, the larger wheel represents the universe. One can easily see that the inner circle/wheel that represents earth must make several complete revolutions before the outer wheel makes one complete revolution.
Let's make the further assumption that once the larger wheel makes a complete revolution, 100 years has passed on earth. One hundred years pretty much takes into consideration one's complete lifetime.
So, if a person was sitting at the outer wheel and had the ability to see what was going on in the smaller wheel, then that person would be able to see a person's entire lifetime before it actually unfolded for the person living on the inner wheel.
To put it another way, the inner wheels spins much much faster than the outer wheel.
Therefore, DEJA VU takes place at the larger wheel.
If the person living on the outer wheel can, in fact, see this, then they must also have the ability to change events that would change the life course of any individual living on the smaller wheel. Those people living on the smaller wheel would not be aware that their life had been changed, thinking that this is the way it is supposed to be.
If our entire life is seen before it happens to us, then one could argue that we, as individuals, do not have FREE WILL even though we believe that we do. Our lives end up the way someone else wants them to end up, not the way we may have wanted them to end up.
In other words, all our choices have already been made for us.
Why is this important for you to know? Because Taco Bell has a brand-new taco — and it's the best menu item the chain has released in years.
Trust me, I'm an expert.
For the first time, Taco Bell fans can try the chain's new slow-braised shredded beef. Taco Bell has spent two years perfecting the recipe, which I first got to try when I visited its test kitchen in October.
Liz Matthews, Taco Bell's chief food innovation officer, said the rich and spicy flavors traditionally found in birria were "a major point of inspiration" for the Grilled Cheese Dipping Taco.
"By combining slow-braised shredded beef with the two dipping sauces, our fans can enjoy a new range of flavors they may have never had from Taco Bell before," Matthews said in a statement sent to Insider. "This Mexican-inspired dish represents an evolution of what fans typically expect from Taco Bell." READ MORE...
By definition, it would seem that random variation is unpredictable. Variation is how one item differs from another and random means that it is not consistent.
If we look at the above image, we see a device that has a funnel at the top. In the middle are a bunch of pegs. Black balls have been dropped into the funnel and the black balls hit these pegs and bounce down until they get to the bottom. They have dropped into cylinders and appears to have formed a pyramid shape.
This pyramid shape is what we call a BELL SHAPED curve. This bell shaped curve will ALWAYS be form if enough black balls are dropped even though, one cannot predict which peg or how many pegs each ball will hit on its way down.
Randomness over time will always form a bell shaped curve and once we have a bell shaped curve, we can predict with 99.99997% accuracy into which cylinder the next black ball will land.
In manufacturing or in LIFE, you want your variation to be random... random variation is predictable. When you do not have random variation, you have chaos... when there is chaos, one cannot predict the future.
One can measure damn near anything and everything in life and determine if it is random or not.
Some (but not all) items that can be measured;
lost articles of mail
short/long landings at an airport
incorrect surgical operations
medicines delivered to the wrong floor
on time arrivals
daily intact of calories or fat grams
time it takes to drive to work
closing the books at the end of the month
time it take to make a determination on insurance claims
number on monthly speeding tickets issued
time spent in the grocery store
time it takes to walk a mile
time it takes to mow the lawn
babies accidentally dropped by doctors/nurses
hospital admissions wait time
time it takes to change a flat tire
wait time at the dentist office
measuring the same dimensions of an item
calibrating scales for weigh stations
measuring the density of paint on a car after painting
But our new research, carried out by researchers in a variety of countries and published in Nature, suggests that diamonds may be a sign of break up too – of Earth's tectonic plates, that is. It may even provide clues to where is best to go looking for them.
Diamonds, being the hardest naturally-occurring stones, require intense pressures and temperatures to form. These conditions are only achieved deep within the Earth. So how do they get from deep within the Earth, up to the surface?
Diamonds are carried up in molten rocks, or magmas, called kimberlites. Until now, we didn't know what process caused kimberlites to suddenly shoot through the Earth's crust having spent millions, or even billions, of years stowed away under the continents.
Supercontinent cycles
Most geologists agree that the explosive eruptions that unleash diamonds happen in sync with the supercontinent cycle: a recurring pattern of landmass formation and fragmentation that has defined billions of years of Earth's history.
However, the exact mechanisms underlying this relationship are debated. Two main theories have emerged. READ MORE...
When I was younger (before high school), I got involved with lifting weights and wanted to be a bodybuilder. I am glad I did not go in that direction but because of my interest, I began living a very active and physical life. Mowing lawns, running around a track, calisthenics, felling trees, splitting wood, etc.
It was not until I was 40 years old that I realized (and did something about it) smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol and my diet were negatively countering my physical activity. So, I stopped... COLD TURKEY so to speak.
I also stopped eating red meat, fried foods, fast foods, and sugars... instead, I ate lots of chicken, fish, vegetables, and beans. I occasionally ate the bad stuff, but it was like only once a month.
Ironically, I still had a heart attack and I still got cancer and I still had five lower back vertebrae that had to be fused together because of arthritis and a narrowing of the spinal column.
At first, I was pissed and complained because of all the exercise I had done and my diet... the doctor smiled and said, your condition would have been WORSE had you not done that...
OLD FRIGGING AGE is what got me and there is absolutely nothing you can do to stop it... you may be able to slow it down, but it will eventually happen to all of us.
I tell you this only so that you will have the knowledge to start doing something for yourself now because the alternative will be horrible as you age. The aging process is NEVER KIND.
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...
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.
We got involved with slavery because we thought it was the right thing to do at the time.
We took land away from Native Americans because we thought it was the right thing to do at the time.
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.
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.
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...
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?
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...
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...
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...
