Israel, Hamas swap 16 hostages and 30 Palestinian prisoners in sixth and final day of temporary cease-fire deal amid talks over another possible extension (More) | See updates on the war (More)
Friday, December 1
Global Happenings
Israel, Hamas swap 16 hostages and 30 Palestinian prisoners in sixth and final day of temporary cease-fire deal amid talks over another possible extension (More) | See updates on the war (More)
My Hat's Off to December
This month also marks the end of 2023 and we have until the last day of the month to make deductions to charities or to IRAs to get a tax deduction. December also marks the end of the fourth quarter and when most businesses must count and report the value of their inventories.
I remember working at a company on December 31 until almost midnight helping them count their inventory and missed the New Year's Eve Party I had been invited to. This was good because I had stopped drinking years before and would have been ridiculed for not drinking. I remember someone telling me that you could not trust a man unless he was willing to have a drink or two or three or four.
December does not mean much to me, unless it is Christmas and I am not into institutionalized religion, nor am I into the Bible because there are so many discrepancies within that textbook it leads me to not to believe what else is in there.
The biggest discrepancy is the timeline and the Bible saying the world is only 6,000 year old. Elementary School Science classes prove that statement wrong. I have mentioned this to you before that if you tell me God and Jesus are extraterrestrials, then I might pay more attention to you.
Most of the people at Christmas time think more about buying and receiving presents than they do about the religious implications of Christmas. However, at my age of 76, there is just not much I want or need at Christmas, unless it is a Starbuck's Gift Card. Whenever I go to Starbuck's I get a Venti Vanilla Cappuccino. It was $3.50 and nowadays, it is $6.50... I will not spend my own money on Starbuck's coffee as it is a bad investment, but I will use a gift card.
For me, December is a month where not much happens especially outside. I usually have mowed/mulched up the leaves by now. The gutters have all been cleaned and there is no reason to go down into my small work and spend time categorizing and labeling. I will do that again when it warms up.
If I walk at all now, it will not be outside but at the community center for a dollar each day. Sixteen times around the upstairs track and you have completed a mile. It has heat as well and the cold from the downstairs entrance door does not filter up to the second floor. It is usually not crowded.
We have recycle and garbage pick up so I will go outside to put those cans on the side of the road and bring them back.
Other than that, December is usually the month that is spent inside, trying to find a decent movie or series to watch on Hulu, Netflix, or Prime. Most of the stuff is garage from my perspective and everything I try to watch, I done with trying in 10 minutes.
Observing Something Rare
Astronomers have observed a rare instance of a solar system inside the Milky Way whose planets orbit in sync around their host star, according to a study published yesterday. Researchers believe the motion of the planets has remained virtually unchanged since the system's formation roughly 4 billion years ago.
The four closest planets display what is known as 3:2 resonance—for every three orbits a planet makes around the host star, the next farthest planet completes two orbits. The next two planets display a similar 4:3 resonance. Typically, newborn systems are knocked out of balance by some disruptive event (for example, collisions with asteroids). Because the planets in question have maintained their original orbits, their study is expected to shed light on the early stages of star system formation.
The host star is also the brightest discovered to date to have more than four planets orbiting around it. Visualize the motion of the six planets here.
Thursday, November 30
Gender Identification
That was over 50 years ago and well before the LGBTQ+ movement.
So, could The Kinks see into the future?
NO...
Gender identification has been going on well before the birth of JESUS... in case you are wondering...
- Boys wanting to be girls
- Girls wanting to be boys
I think, deep down inside, there are thousands of males both married and single, who have fantasized more than once about being with individuals who have both male and female equipment.
And, it certainly is a TABOO subject because the general public does not want to talk about their desires in public.
Scientifically, it makes sense that the more babies that a society gives birth to, the higher the risks of having DNA variations and misassignments... which also includes babies being born with both genitalia.
I also believe that males should be able to marry males and females should be able to marry females. I also believe that boy can become girls and girls can become boys once they are old enough to be aware of the consequences of those decisions.
Therein lies the problem...
What age does that kind of awareness take place?
What I am opposed to is biological males playing females sports and biological females playing male sports.
Society has gone too far.
However,
what about TRANS SPORTS?
Paradigms
A paradigm is a standard, perspective, or set of ideas. A paradigm is a way of looking at something. The word paradigm comes up a lot in the academic, scientific, and business worlds. A new paradigm in business could mean a new way of reaching customers and making money.
This is exactly what is happening in the USA... we are in disharmony because we have different paradigms.
We simply see things differently.
When two people see things differently, it is difficult to reach a compromise.
If it is difficult to make a compromise, then very little gets accomplished and there is NO PROGRESS MADE.
Progress only takes place by those who:
- ARE IN POWER
- ARE EXTREMELY WEALTHY
In these two situations you don't need a compromise and you are betting that you were right all along...
But, what if you are wrong?
Examples of Paradigms
- Permitting Illegal Immigration
- Defunding the police
- Ending reliance on fossil fuels
- Raising taxes
- Believing China is not a threat
- Anti-Jewish movement
- Believing Trump is a Fascist
Ordinarily, there is nothing wrong with Paradigms as long as you are willing to step outside of what you perceive and allow yourself to see things a little differently...
This used to happen but no longer...
Paradigms is why we have a 50% divorce rate in the the USA.
And, why this rate has remained at 50% for over 3 decades.
Paradigms is what prevents people from solving problems and designing or creating new inventions.
They just cannot see what is right in front of them.
BUT HOW DO YOU STOP PEOPLE FROM HAVING PARADIGMS?
Unpacking Politics
- Large government
- High Taxes
- Few states rights
- Government handouts
- Management is the enemy
Conservatives believe in:
- Small government
- Low taxes
- Lots of states rights
- Few government handouts
- Labor is the enemy
However, it is not that CUT & DRY, but this is basically their differences.
The liberals believe that government knows what is best for the people while the conservatives believe the people know what's best for themselves as long as you give them a little help.
CAPITALISM - is an economic theory that revolves around the free-market enterprise system and the invisible hand concept. This theory has the supply and demand model as the main component of the system around which decisions are made.
How much to produced based upon what the consumer wants to buy or is demanding.
Sometimes, decisions are wrong and the companies lose money, but for the most part, the system allows for the businesses to THRIVE and the workers to MAKE DO - or keep their heads above water.
It is at this point in time that the liberal's step in to balance the scales so that more and more of the wealth is shared with the worker either through the willing company or through taxes or through government programs for the workers.
The invisible hand theory says businesses will self-regulate and will not do something that harms them or causes their destruction.
The liberals do not believe that this will happen or is happening.
HOWEVER, since congress does not move very fast, the wealthy are able to HIDE most of their money away from taxes... so, whenever the liberals want to raise taxes, it does not bother them that much. And, the government NEVER gets what it really needs through that form of taxation.
ANSWER: borrow money or print money- neither solution is good for the economy.
BUT - politics does not care because one of the reasons that congress moves slowly is because they care more about re-election than they do about helping the American General Public.
CURRENTLY - the liberals are in a bind because they need capitalism to fund their liberal agendas of offering more programs so those people will vote for them.
At some point in time POLITICS is going to have to pay off the NATIONAL DEBT... otherwise, the USA will go bankrupt which is hard to believe that will ever happen.
One of the quickest ways to solve this problem is to stop the WEALTHY FROM HIDING THEIR MONEY FROM TAXES...
Dark Matter Hiding in Collider's Particle Jets
A new search for dark matter has turned up empty handed — but, in a silver lining, the effort provided important limits that will help future experiments narrow down the hunt for this elusive substance.
Most astronomers believe that dark matter accounts for 85 percent of all mass in the universe, and that its existence would explain the apparent extra gravity detectable around galaxies and within huge galaxy clusters. However, so far, no one has been able to identify what dark matter is made of. READ MORE...
We Give Away
In my first marriage that lasted for 23 years, I was never in a position to give anything away because everything we purchased stayed with us until we divorced although like our parents we would trade in our old vehicles for new ones.
During my second marriage, I never purchased a new vehicle only vehicles that were a year old and had been leased. While families around us had yard sells to make money off of items they were replacing or no longer using or needed, my wife and I gave those items away and never sold anything.
Although my wife did participate in yard sales but the items she brought for sale, if all were purchased, she would make less than $10. She was there mainly for the conversation of being with friends and neighbors.
We have given away living room suites, kitchen tables, refrigerators, stoves, microwaves, riding lawn mowers, 50 inch televisions, and dish washers to name a few either to people we knew that had a need or we called Habitat for Humanity and gave it to them.
Did we need the money? Not really...
Could we have used the extra money? Yes...
We just thought it was better to help people that were worse off than us. And with that said, my wife and I for the last 30 years of being together have been in the lower middle class... which means we are well off but not that well off.
When we give it away are we trying to be GOOD CHRISTIANS? No... not really...
We are trying to be good neighbors...
Are we expecting to get paid back somehow some way? No...
We are not against people having yard sells we just see our purpose in this life a little differently.
Breakthrough Known as Q*
In today’s column, I am going to walk you through a prominent AI-mystery that has caused quite a stir leading to an incessant buzz across much of social media and garnering outsized headlines in the mass media. This is going to be quite a Sherlock Holmes adventure and sleuth detective-exemplifying journey that I will be taking you on.
Please put on your thinking cap and get yourself a soothing glass of wine.
The roots of the circumstance involve the recent organizational gyrations and notable business crisis drama associated with the AI maker OpenAI, including the off and on-again firing and then rehiring of the CEO Sam Altman, along with a plethora of related carry-ons. My focus will not particularly be the comings and goings of the parties involved. I instead seek to leverage those reported facts primarily as telltale clues associated with the AI-mystery that some believe sits at the core of the organizational earthquake. READ MORE...
Wednesday, November 29
The Unusual
BBC | Zaria Gorvett. Tyrian purple was the most valuable color in the world for hundreds of years until its recipe vanished. Using ancient clues, one man embarked on a 16-year quest to resurrect this legendary dye. (Read)
Atavist | Lily Hyde. The story of three Ukrainian women from two generations of the same family who all became pregnant a few weeks apart, before a war came between them. (Read)
What's A Coming?
New Year's Eve is the final day of December 2023 and most of us will get SHIT FACED DRUNK either at home or by attending a party. That is the one night that I do not go out for any reason after dark. In fact, most of the time, I am in bed sleeping long before midnight comes a calling.
The month of December can be a chilly to cold month or it can be a chilly to warm month. I remember back in the late 1980s when I lived in North Carolina, my wife (now ex-wife) and I hosted our parents for a Christmas Day Lunch and we ate that lunch outside on our back porch, because it was so warm.
Not much business is conducted between Thanksgiving and Christmas and if you are trying to solicit donations from companies in your area, you are typically SOL... because their budgets for that year have already been allocated and more than likely, they have already gotten next year's budget approved by management or the Board depending upon whether they are a public or private company.
This is also true for sales, so the workforce is building inventory for the next year rather than filling orders for the remainder of this year.
Once we get these two holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas and our hangovers from New Years Eve, we put BALLS TO THE WALL as we want to make the first quarter financials of the new year look better than expected. This not always happens but that's management's game plan.
What will 2024 look like?
- We have a Presidential election
- Donald Trump will be spending a lot of time in court
- Russia will still be fighting in Ukraine
- Israel will still be fighting in the Gaza Strip
- China will still be contemplating invading Taiwan
- Illegal immigrants will still be flowing over the border
- Crime and violence will still continue in our big cities
- WOKENESS will still be cancelling non believers
- Transwomen will still be invading female sports
- Blacks will still hate white and will start hating all the Mexican coming into the USA
- Liberal will still push for the end of fossil fuels
- Joe Biden will still be investigated for corruption
- Gasoline prices will fluctuate again
- Inflation will remain above pre-Biden levels
- FOX News will report the news while the other networks continue to censor whatever hurts liberals
- Our military will continue to deteriorate as will our infrastructure
- Our National Debt will continue to increase
- College students will continue to memorize for the grade and retain nothing or very littlE
HUMANOID ROBOTS WITH AI WILL CONTINUE TO EVOLVE FASTER THAN ANTICIPATED LEAVING CONGRESS WITH THEIR HEADS UP THEIR ASSES NOT REALIZING THEY NEED TO PASS LEGISLATION TO REGULATE...
A Little Science
UK-based Oxford Quantum Circuits announces the world's first cloud-based quantum computing platform for use in commercial enterprise applications (More) | Quantum computing 101 (More)
Tuesday, November 28
New Science
Scientists identify almost 200 new CRISPR molecules after searching through databases of rare and unusual bacterial systems; may open new types of gene editing applications in mammals (More) |CRISPR 101 (More)
Study finds bladder-like cells on resilient plants like quinoa fend off insects and disease, are not used to store water for droughts; findings overturn a century-old theory in plant biology (More)
Astronomers detect second-most energetic cosmic ray on record; origins of the subatomic particle traveling near the speed of light remain a mystery (More)
Just About Me
- Born in 1947
- Begin working in 1969
- Married twice
- One child - daughter
- Lived: Virginia, Cairo, Egypt, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky
- Played football, baseball, basketball, volleyball, and track (discus, shot put, javelin) in high school
- I am spiritual but not religious
- Hobbies: Writing, Oil/Acrylic Painting, Photography, listening to books on tape
- Banned from LinkedIn and Facebook
- President of Quest Training, Inc.
- Became debt free in 2000
- Retired in 2015
- Education: BA, MBA, MCSE, Certifications
- Worked: 45 years - not including part-time work
- Positions: waiter, construction worker, textile worker, customer service rep, sailor, reservist, computer technician, instructor, professor, department chair, assist dean, dean, salesperson, director, executive director, corporate director, adjunct, consultant, course writer, curriculum developer, auditor, and company president.
If I had the chance to live my life all over again, I would not change a frigging thing that I did.
WHY???
Because everything I did was specifically and carefully designed by someone greater than me to have me become the person I am today and will be tomorrow as my life keeps evolving.
Changing any of that would change who I am, and I like who I am today.
I possess no technical skills like auto mechanics, electrical, carpentry, plumbing, brick mason, or house building.
My driving skills are less now than they were when I retired.
I have lost part of my hearing, and my eyesight is worsening.
I am not a democrat nor a republican, but I am a liberal conservative who is not in favor of socialism or a high national debt.
I will never buy an electric vehicle nor a hybrid until the cost of battery replacement declines.
I have traveled all over the world, before I retired but much more since I retired and I like going to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina the best.
My wife and I have been on twelve 7–10-day cruises, including the Mediterranean, Hawaii, and Alaska.
I am very fond of Salmon, Cod, and Tuna.
I have not eaten red meat for over twenty years except an occasional hamburger once or twice a year or a steak once a year. I prefer chicken and turkey.
I stopped smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol at the age of 40... and did so COLD TURKEY with no aids except my own personal discipline and determination.
I am NOT WEALTHY and glad of it because I would not know what to spend all that money on because I believe in buying only what you need not what you want.
I am opinionated and sarcastic and not very diplomatic when it comes to telling the truth.
It is not easy getting to know me or becoming my friend.
World's Largest Iceberg
The world's largest iceberg is drifting from the Antarctic Circle toward the Southern Ocean, scientists confirmed late last week. The floating mass sheared from the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in 1986 but became stuck on the floor of the Weddell Sea.
Labeled A23a, the iceberg is roughly 1,500 square miles in size (five times the land area of New York City) and about 1,300 feet thick (taller than the Empire State Building). Satellite imagery suggested the block had begun moving in 2020 before becoming fully adrift in recent months.
As A23a melts, its effect on sea level increase will be minimal—floating objects displace their own weight in water (see 101), with small differences due to salinity—though researchers say it may threaten wildlife if it runs aground at the nearby island of South Georgia.
Read more about the iceberg's trajectory here.
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