Thursday, December 7
Wednesday, December 6
Israel Advances Further into Gaza
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli warplanes heavily bombarded an area around Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Monday as the military ordered mass evacuations from the town in the face of a widening ground offensive that is pushing Palestinians into a progressively shrinking portion of the besieged territory.
The expanded assault posed a deadly choice for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians — either stay in the path of Israeli forces or flee within the confines of southern Gaza with no guarantee of safety. Aid workers warned that the mass movement would worsen the already dire humanitarian catastrophe in the territory.
“Another wave of displacement is underway, and the humanitarian situation worsens by the hour,” the Gaza chief of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, Thomas White, said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. READ MORE...
TIPS for Cruising the High Seas
We have been on the following Cruise Lines:
- Carnival
- Celebrity
- Norwegian
- Royal Caribbean
Our list of cruises:
- East-West-South Caribbean
- Mediterranean Sea
- Alaska
- Hawaiian Islands
- Bermuda
Debarkation Ports:
- Baltimore
- Ft. Lauderdale
- Maimi
- Vancouver, Canada
OUR TIPS:
- Try to get on board as early as possible
- Have a day bag in case your luggage arrives late
- Confirm your restaurant reservations before lunch
- Familiarize yourself with the ship before ship leaves port
What to bring with you:
- 2-3 pairs of shoes (flip flops for pool, sandals for dinner, tennis shoes for visiting ports
- Sunglasses and hat
- bug spray
- suntan lotion & ChapStick
- sea sickness pills
- bring your passport and driver's license for ID.
- buy lanyard to carry your sea pass card.
- wash your hands often.
- bring large empty water bottle for port visits and fill up in cafeteria.
- most places will take any credit card but there are transaction fees and exchange rates
- bring packages of handwipes for port visits
- use your phone as an alarm clock if you have an inside cabin without a porthole.
- wear flip flops in shower
- keep valuables in safe
- bring zip lock bag for your phones.
- your medications (we use an AM/PM pill case and put it inside a sock to keep it from opening)
- Dress pants/knit shirt or slacks/blouse for dinner
- One bathing suit - difficult for most ladies
- underwear for each day
- 2 pairs of shorts only along with 3 tops for each pair
- magnetic hangers
- phone charger - can use your phone in ports but not on ship - make sure your provided knows where you are going and take out text messages to contact home if you need to - cheaper than making phone calls.
- use phones as camera and leave camera at home, heavy and bulky
- bring light weight back pack or tote for excursions
- at each port you are allowed to come back on ship with 1 liter soft drink per person
- bring cash and a fanny pouch to carry it in to prevent theft
- bring small power strips. we found a square one that had 4 plug ins and brought two
- we did not bring dress clothes for dinner as they ships never enforced the rule... they are claiming that they are going to
- bring small umbrella and plastic poncho
- bring two containers, one for coffee and one for juices... beverages in cafeteria are free all day long
- bring clamps to hold towels to chair on sea day... get up early to get chair you want but you cannot save for very long... this may require you eating meals one at a time while the other one saves the chairs.
- Beverage packages are expensive so the choice is yours
- Rooms are small so you don't want to bring large suitcases with all sorts of clothes and have them take up space
- we always got inside rooms on lower levels so we could spend more money on excursions... but when passengers were on ships that were locked down due to covid, they were forced to stay in those inside rooms... something to think about.
- oftentimes, you can arrange your own excursion with taxis that are half price of what the excursion charges but you need to be well prepared with what you want to see.
- we always went to the early dinner so we could see whatever entertainment there was after dinner.
- attend the free sessions that tell you about what to see at each port.
- be prepared to gain 5-10 pounds or follow the three to four bite rule. Just take 3-4 bites of everything you want to eat.
- we would put fruit and cereal boxes in the backpack for snacks when we visited the ports.
- Set a gambling limit each day and walk away. We used $20.
More Than 1,000 Qubits
One of IBM’s latest quantum processor has improved the reliability of its qubits. Credit: Ryan Lavine for IBM
IBM has unveiled the first quantum computer with more than 1,000 qubits — the equivalent of the digital bits in an ordinary computer. But the company says it will now shift gears and focus on making its machines more error-resistant rather than larger.
For years, IBM has been following a quantum-computing road map that roughly doubled the number of qubits every year. The chip unveiled on 4 December, called Condor, has 1,121 superconducting qubits arranged in a honeycomb pattern. It follows on from its other record-setting, bird-named machines, including a 127-qubit chip in 2021 and a 433-qubit one last year.
Quantum computers promise to perform certain computations that are beyond the reach of classical computers. They will do so by exploiting uniquely quantum phenomena such as entanglement and superposition, which allow multiple qubits to exist in multiple collective states at once. READ MORE...
Tuesday, December 5
The Wealthy
- Are you wealthy?
- Do you know any wealthy people?
- Do you socialize with the wealthy?
- Do you want to be like the wealthy?
Only 5% of the population are wealthy and only 2% of population are really wealthy and only 1% of the population are super wealthy.
The odds are you will never be in that group if you ain't there already.
Is there something wrong with you if you are not wealthy?
Not really... but, the wealthy people think there is something wrong with you and look down their noses at you... tolerating you when they absolutely have to... most of the time, ignoring your existence altogether.
- For the wealthy, they think or perceive it is a badge of honor to live in a 15,000 square foot home.
- They think it is normal to own a $100,000 vehicle.
- They think it is AMERICAN to hide their money in off shore bank accounts to avoid taxes.
- They see themselves as special and elite for owning multiple homes and spending money on items they will hardly use.
- They boast about their success not through their comments but through their purchases.
- They have no empathy for anyone who is not them.
The wealthy are really no different...
- they have to eat
- they have to sleep
- they have to defecate
- they have to get sick
- they have to die
The wealthy are a necessary evil for our society just like mothers-in-laws... leaving behind their money, buildings with their names on them, and other legacies that are soon forgotten by the new generation who will ignore they even existed...
- The wealthy don't fight wars
- The wealthy pay others to work
- The wealthy use lawyers to fight their battles
- The wealthy use proxies when it is time to vote
- The wealthy pay very little in taxes
- The wealthy give nothing back to society but their arrogance
- The wealthy only give to charity because they need a tax deduction
DAMN DON'T YOU WISH YOU COULD BE LIKE THEM???
Around the World
Amazon to use rival SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets to deploy the first batch of its space-based internet satellites; SpaceX operates competitor Starlink, which already provides near-global coverage (More)
Israeli forces push south into Gaza amid US pressure to protect civilians; Palestinian death toll surpasses 15,000, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry (More)
Atmospheric river expected to drop month-worth of rain in Pacific Northwest over next few days; flood watches issued for portions of Washington state (More)
My Wisdom Implies Age
The USA is on the verge of a mental breakdown. It is similar to what Great Britain used to do to the Scots when an outlaw was finally captured. Tie a rope onto each arm and each leg and tie those four ends to a horse saddle on a horse that a Brit is riding. Order each animal to march forward simultaneously and the man is the middle is QUARTERED.
Right now, USA citizens are facing DISUNITY on several fronts:
- Racism
- Gender Inequality
- Wage Inequalities
- Humanoid Robots with AI
- Anti-Jewish
- Anti-Palestinian
- Police Brutality
- Chinese Threat
- Russian Threat
- BRICS Threat
- Nuclear Arms Race
- 2024 Election Candidates
- Fake News
- Liberal Censorship
- War on Fossil Fuels
- Inflation
- Illegal Immigration
- Increasing National Debt
- End of American Dream
- Credit Card Debt
If that is not enough, the current administration is trying to push ELECTRIC VEHICLES on us, forcing us to do away with gasoline vehicles.
- EVs are more expensive
- Cost more to recharge
- Not enough charging stations
- Replacement batteries are costly
- Resale value drops more than gasoline cars
WHAT TO DO... WHAT TO DO... WHAT TO DO???
As a compromise, there are many of us buying hybrid vehicles that do not require CHARGING... but there is still a large battery cost in 5-7 years.
What kind of damage will the ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS do when they cannot find:
- Jobs
- Housing
- Healthcare
- Buy Food
- Buy Transportation
HOW FAST WILL HUMANOID ROBOTS WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCES START REPLACING US IN JOBS???
- 2025?
- 2027?
- 2030?
NOTE: China and Elon Musk are mass producing humanoid robots with AI in 2024/2025...
ARE YOU BENDING OVER???
In The News
Gravitational waves from the aftereffects of the most powerful merger of two black holes observed to date detected by researchers; "ringing" effect comes from new black hole assuming a spherical shape (More) | General relativity 101 (More, w/video)
Google delays launch of Gemini, a large language model expected to compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT-4, until January; reports say the model has trouble with some non-English prompts (More)
Ancient redwood trees can recover from severe fire damage by tapping long-buried buds, which have laid dormant under their bark for centuries (More)
Monday, December 4
US Ship Attacked
Above, te guided missile destroyer USS Carney patrols the waters of the Gulf in support of Operation Southern Watch. The Pentagon said on Sunday that the USS Carney had come under attack in the Red Sea. © FELIX GARZA/US NAVY/AFP via Getty Images
The Pentagon on Sunday announced that attacks had been carried out on a United States warship as well as commercial vessels stationed in the Middle East, which could be a significant escalation in the ongoing war in the region.
"We're aware of reports regarding attacks on the USS Carney and commercial vessels in the Red Sea and will provide information as it becomes available," the Pentagon told Newsweek. The news was first reported by the Associated Press.
The U.S. has strongly backed its longtime ally Israel in the aftermath of an October 7 attack carried out by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which left some 1,200 dead.
Israel's government declared war on Hamas, which is backed by Iran, and has bombarded Gaza, which the group governs, while also cutting off fuel, food and electricity to the densely populated area. More than 15,000 Palestinians have died since the bombing began. READ MORE...
The American DREAM
Our new American Dream is go to college, get married, maybe buy a home, raise a family, and pay off college debt. The same maybe buy a home with the technical/crafts skills training but no college debt.
The key here is BUYING A HOME... that is no longer part of the American Dream...
College debt is increasing regardless of buying a home or not.
I have said for over TWENTY YEARS that going to college is NO LONGER NECESSARY to have a quality life...
HOWEVER, owning a home is CONTINGENT upon where one lives and what one is willing to o to buy that home...
Let me explain...
Buying a home down in the southeastern USA is lot cheaper that a majority of other locations. A $150,000 home in East TN will cost you $300,000 in Nashville, TN for instance and between $300,000 and $500,000 in the Research Triangle Park of North Carolina.
However, the wages are also lower in East TN as well... so obviously, there is a tradeoff.
Here is a scenario that many people fail to see...
You buy the cheapest home you can find that is livable, does not meet your needs, and does not require too much renovation and is in a fairly respectable part of town.
THIS AIN'T POSSIBLE YOU SAY...
Yes, it is if you are patient and keep looking.
Stay in that house for 3-5 years and renovate the kitchen and the bathrooms.
Sell the house and use the profits to buy a $200,000 house.
Real Estate will increase in value similar to the inflation growth rate which is typically about 2-3% each year.
Do the same with your $200,000 and in 3-5 years, you sell and buy a $300,000.
In 3-5 years, sell the $300,000 and buy at $400,000 house.
So far, it has been about 15 years and you have at least doubled the value of your original home...
If you did this at age 20, you are now 35....
If you do this for another 15 years, you will be 50 years old and own a home valued between $500,000 to $600,000.
DOWNSIDE: you will have to move several times which is a hassle and you will have to stay focused on constantly looking for a new home and constantly making sure your current home is not damaged.
While many people say the American Dream is dead, I believe they are wrong because just like other dreams, it takes time to get there, you just don't jump into the American Dream...
To see this any other way, leaves me thinking you are lazy, need immediate satisfaction, or just plain dumb and ignorant.
Pyramid NOT MADE by Humans
Last month, a study published in Archaeological Prospection garnered a lot of media attention (including from IFLScience) for its extraordinary claim that a mountain in Indonesia is actually the world's oldest pyramid built by ancient humans. But reactions from archaeologists since have raised skepticism about its bold conclusions.
According to the paper, the Gunung Padang – which translates to “Mountain of Enlightenment” – was not formed naturally but "meticulously sculpted" into its current shape between 25,000 and 14,000 years ago. If this were true, it would be considerably older than the world's oldest pyramids, with the team writing that it “suggests that advanced construction practices were already present when agriculture had, perhaps, not yet been invented.”
Among other bold claims was that there are "hidden cavities or chambers" at the site, and that the site itself appeared to have been buried several times “possibly to conceal its true identity for preservation purposes”.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and other archaeologists are far from convinced that the team has provided this, especially given how it would rewrite the history of human development. Lutfi Yondri, an archaeologist at BRIN in Bandung, Indonesia, told Nature that his work showed people in the area lived in caves between 12,000 and 6,000 years ago, and left no evidence of having the “remarkable masonry capabilities” supposedly employed by people of the area thousands of years before them to build the "pyramid". READ MORE...
Sunday, December 3
ROBOTS are our FUTURE
I have seen the enemy and it is US...
In the next couple of years or EARLIER, humanoid robots with AI will start being mass produced all over the world.
This is not speculation, this is FACT.
These humanoid robots with AI will get smarter and smarter as the human race gets older and older. Technology is boundless in its ability to grow, achieve, and excel.
Humanoid Robots with AI can simply process more information than a human being can process and soon these robots will be designed to design themselves because of that processing ability.
Not only will humanoid robots with AI replace our jobs, but they will become soldiers, air force pilots, and crews flying into outer space. These humanoid robots will build colonies for humans on distant planets. These humanoid robots will fight our wars of aggression on each other.
These humanoid robots with AI will:
- be our doctors and surgeons
- be our classroom teachers
- build the products we will buy
- plant and harvest crops
- pilot our commercial aircraft
- operate our factories and machines
- become our law enforcement and fire protection
- secure our borders
- build our roads and bridges and buildings
Right now, we feel like we will be able to manage the growth of humanoid robots with AI... but, our technology leaders are moving faster than are the laws being created to regulate them. Soon, the law for robots will no longer be applicable because of the grandfather clause.
We will wished we had move faster but it will be too late... besides...
WHO WILL REGULATE CHINA, OR RUSSIA, OR INDIA, OR NORTH KOREA, OR IRAN, OR SAUDI ARABIA???
Our once respected country, is no longer respected by the rest of the world... and, the only reason to fear us is because of our nuclear weapons... however, the rest of the world knows the USA will never use its nuclear weapons again...
THAT MAKES US DAMN NEAR IMPOTENT...
The South DOES NOT NEED to Rise Again
For what purpose?
The Civil War was not fought over slavery, it was fought because President Lincoln did not want to lose revenue from the southern states... as money was needed to build our nation. Our new nation would not have grown strong without TAXES from the south.
And since we all know that slavery was wrong... what would be the purpose for the south to rise up again???
There would be no purpose...
PLUS THE FACT THAT IT IS NO LONGER NECESSARY...
Why do I say this?
Put simply...
Would you rather live in the NORTH or in the SOUTH?
- Warmer Weather
- Less Taxes
- Less Crime
- Lower Cost of Living
- People are Friendlier
- Less Traffic Congestion
- Laid Back Lifestyle
- More Recreation
- Country Music
- Great Smoky Mountains
- Southern Cooking
- Southern Hospitality
- Adequate Restaurants
- Excellent Healthcare
Wars and Rumors of Wars
Be it known to all those who read this that the WEALTHY ELITE, our LEADERS (Business and Political), our EDUCATORS, our CLERGY, and our ELDERLY... DO NOT FIGHT WARS... Those who fight wars are the uneducated and the ignorant...
Does that seem wrong to you?
It does to me but that's the way it has been for thousands of years.
AND YET...
those who fight wars outnumber the ones who don't fight wars.
Go figure?
What brought this to my attention?
For years, our leaders here in the USA have tried to IMPOSE our way of life, our form of government, our democracy onto countries that DONT WANT TO BE LIKE THE USA... and yet, we did it all the same...
We did the same thing to our NATIVE AMERICANS.
We did the same thing to the slaves we purchased from Africa.
ARROGANT AMERICANS WHO BELIEVED WE KNEW WHAT WAS BEST FOR THE REST OF THE WORLD...
This same arrogance permeates our society in 2023... with our WEALTHY ELITE telling us that they know what is best for us... and know when the time is right to send us to fight their wars...
Most of us don't have the BALLS to stand up to the WEALTHY ELITE... consequently, we do what they say, so we can keep our jobs and support our family.... all done while the WEALTHY ELITE laugh at us for being so easily controlled.
Until we stand up for ourselves, the uneducated and ignorant will continue to be sent to war to fight the battles that these WEALTHY ELITES started.
Humpty Dumpty America
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.
Do you think my analogy fits?
Look at the division in this country of ours...
- Racially divided
- Illegal Immigration divided
- Politically divided
- Censorship divided
- Educationally divided
- Legal Justice divided
- Opportunities divided
- Financially divided
- Religiously divided
- Anti-Israel divided
- Geographically divided
- Gender divided
- WOKE divided
- Police Brutality divided
- Militarily divided
- Globally divided
- Economically divided
- Cost of Living divided
UNITED WE STAND - DIVIDED WE FALL
People who are a lot smarter than me will tell you that a country does not survive very long, if its people are as divided as we are here in the US of A...
What will happen to Humpty Dumpty America?
- A gradual deterioration from within
- Opposing views prevent forward movement
- Our enemies can take advantage of our weakness
- We will be treated like BOILING FROGS (look it up)
- Congress will remain fighting against each other
- People will emulate their leaders
- Only the wealthy remain untouched
- Life gets progressively worse
- Robots replace jobs
- Misinformation become more widespread - leaving people not knowing what to believe
- More of our privacy is taken away by technology
- THE USA BECOMES JUST LIKE ALL THE OTHER COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD... No longer special... no longer the leader... no longer a place where people want to come...
- The global economy shifts to the FAR EAST... America is ignored!!!
The USA is Our Home Not Yours
I am an American. I was born an American. Do I think I am better than you? NO. Do I think I am different than you? YES. Do I think you are different than me? YES.
If you want to come to MY COUNTRY, then do so LEGALLY... as soon as you break the law to enter my country, I don't want you here... You are trespassing...
If you are willing to break the law to enter my country then you are willing to break more laws after you are here. Your presence will HURT not HELP my country.
Here's the deal...
- Leave this country and enter the correct way
- Learn to speak English
- Go to school and get training
- Get your green card
- Apply for citizenship
- Pay your taxes
- Don't send money back to your old country
- Be aware that humanoid robots will replace your job
- Be aware that the USA is moving towards SOCIALISM
- Be aware that the liberals want to destroy the conservative voice
- Be aware that it will cost more to live here
- Be aware that other Americans will resent your presence here
LIFE in the US of A
We have thousands of illegal immigrants coming into this country and why do you think they are doing that?
Because they perceive that life in the USA is better than life in the country they left...
Perhaps it is...
BUT, they are in for a rude awakening because life in America is no longer like it used to be...
We have a war on fossil fuels which means that gasoline vehicles will soon be obsolete...
Americans will not be able to afford these gasless vehicles...
Will the illegal immigrants be able to afford them???
- Americans can no longer afford owning homes
- Americans can no longer find security in their employment
- Americans can no longer voice their opinions if they are conservative
- Americans are controlled by the WOKE movement
- Americans are confronted by crime and violence in the big cities
- Americans are paying higher taxes and receiving less from the government
- Americans are moving towards SOCIALISM
- American education is no longer the best in the world
- Americans no longer have freedom of speech because they will be canceled if they speak their mind
- America is a divided country and is more concerned with fighting each other than the rest of the world
- Americans NO LONGER WANT illegal immigrants in this country
IS THIS THE COUNTRY THAT YOU WANT TO MOVE TO???
BETTER THINK TWICE BEFORE YOU ACT...
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