Somewhat Political

 

Dysfunctional America

 

Whether RIGHT or WRONG, this is what America looks like to me...

America is being inundated with ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS some of which are criminals, pedophiles, terrorists, spies, and those who want a better life.

It is estimated that there are 10-15 million ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS in the USA and what are the odds that they will continue to break our laws.

Americans are being hurt by inflation while at the same time are being helped by all of Biden's spending that will eventually explode in our faces because of all the debt we are creating.

Instead of building up our military for defense, the present administration is building up social welfare programs instead that ultimately force people to depend more and more on the government.

Blacks was reparations and/or put in a situation where they pay no taxes causing the white population to be forced to take care of them.  At the same time, Blacks are pushing CRT and DEI with the understanding that ALL WHITES are supremacists and will continue to suppress the black population.

In my opinion, this is creating RACISM is escalate...

America's educational system is declining BIG TIME and our education knowledge is being diluted and watered down so more and more unqualified college students can graduate.

America's poor education will only allow other countries who have intensified their educational process to leap above Americans intellectually.

America's politicians care more about their own re-election than they do about doing what is right for the American people.  Not getting anything accomplished each year because of each side not wanting to compromise will eventually bite us in the ass.

Not only is SOCIALISM coming to America which is right now being financed by a declining capitalistic society, but humanoid robots with AI will soon be replacing jobs.  However, there is the claim that robots will create more jobs than they replace.  DO YOU BELIEVE THAT???

Russia is fighting in Ukraine, Israel is fighting in Gaza, and IRAN is vowing DEATH TO AMERICANS and will continue fighting us until all Americans are destroyed.  Meanwhile, China is eyeballing Taiwan for take-over and many strategists believe that we are now closer to WWIII than we have ever been before.

American LIBERALS want to destroy American CONSERVATIVE so that they never have a majority in congress again - creating a ONE PARTY government in the USA...  A one party government is no longer a democracy and freedom of speech will no longer be a part of American life.

At 76 years of age, this change in America will not influence me much or these last few years that I am alive....  BUT, it will impact all of the rest of you and if you wait too long, it will be too late to stop the change.  We may have passed that point already.

YOU DON'T MISS WHAT YOU HAD UNTIL IT IS GONE... 

Whales

 

Liquid Circuits and Brain Computers

Liquid circuits that mimic synapses in the brain can for the first time perform the kind of logical operations underlying modern computers, a new study finds. 

Near-term applications for these devices may include tasks such as image recognition, as well as the kinds of calculations underlying most artificial intelligence systems.

Just as biological neurons both compute and store data, brain-imitating neuromorphic technology often combines both operations. These devices may greatly reduce the energy and time lost in conventional microchips shuttling data back and forth between processors and memory. 

They may also prove ideal for implementing neural networks—AI systems increasingly finding use in applications such as analyzing medical scans and controlling autonomous vehicles.   READ MORE...

U-2 Planes for Secret Missions

 

In The NEWS

US issues travel warning for Israel as Iran attack believed to be imminent.
Iran has vowed to retaliate after Israel's airstrike on an Iranian embassy complex in Syria earlier this month that killed three senior military officials and wounded four others. The US State Department has restricted its employees from traveling to parts of Israel and has reportedly sent more US troops to the Middle East.



US House passes bill renewing contentious surveillance program.
The House approved the reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, by a vote of 273-147, ahead of an April 19 deadline. The bill extends the act for two years, down from a previous proposal for a five-year extension. FISA's provisions (see overview) include allowing the US government to collect the communications of non-Americans located outside of the country without a warrant. A separate vote on an amendment to require a warrant failed with a tie.



At least one dead after semitrailer crashes into Texas public safety office.
A stolen 18-wheeler crashed into the Texas Department of Public Safety office Friday, killing at least one person and injuring 13 others. The driver, identified as 42-year-old Clenard Parker, was taken into custody. The office had rejected Parker's renewal for a commercial driver's license a day earlier.



Biden administration to forgive $7.4B in student debt.
The Biden administration announced it would be canceling student debt of more than 277,000 borrowers as part of its latest action geared toward income-driven repayment plans. The White House claims the latest effort brings the total amount of student loan forgiveness to $153B under the current administration.



Oil and gas companies to pay more to drill on public US lands.
Energy companies will need to pay 16.67% in federal royalty fees, up from 12.5%, for drilling on public lands, per final rules issued Friday by the US government. The new fee will last until August 2032. Other measures include requiring companies to pay $150K per lease on federal lands, up from $10K, which was established in 1960.



Robert MacNeil, creator of 'PBS NewsHour,' dies at 93.
In 1975, MacNeil, along with the late Jim Lehrer, launched a half-hour nightly news program that later became America's first hourlong evening broadcast. The show won a plethora of awards, including an Emmy for its live coverage of the Senate Watergate hearings. MacNeil left the show in 1995 to focus on writing; Lehrer took over until 2009 and died in 2020. MacNeil died Friday due to natural causes.



Roberto Cavalli, Italian fashion designer, dies at 83.
Cavalli launched his namesake fashion brand in the 1970s and was known for bold animal prints and "stretch jeans," which he pioneered by adding Lycra (a synthetic elastic fiber) to denim. His designs have been worn by celebrities, including Taylor Swift, Madonna, and Zendaya. The cause of his death was not announced.



James Webb detects origins of brightest cosmic blast since Big Bang.
In 2022, researchers discovered the brightest gamma-ray burst ever recorded, dubbed the "BOAT" for the "brightest of all time." The event is now known to have come from the explosion of a giant star. Such explosions, known as supernovas, have been theorized to produce heavy elements like gold and platinum. However, no such metals were found from the BOAT, leaving researchers to question how these metals are produced.

SOURCE:  1440 News

Diversity - Equity - Inclusion

 A few weeks ago, I read an article where some high school was no longer offering advanced courses for gifted and talented students because it made all the other students FEEL BAD.

First of all, human beings are not EQUAL.  They are born with different mental, artistic, and athletic skills and there is nothing that we can do to change that phenomenon.

Diversity is an important issue as well as many of us should appreciate different points of view.  If fact, I went to high school in Cairo, Egypt and there were 28 students in my graduating class from 18 different countries.  Diversity in high school was the best thing that ever happened to me.

BUT...  you cannot force diversity on people in general if they do not want it.  If you were to visit some of these larger cities in the USA, you would see that each ethnic group lives in their own little section of the city - they do not live together nor do they intermingle with each other.  If the government tried to force this upon them, it would not be well accepted and eventually the ethnic groups would move out of the city.

The same situation will take place with this concept of inclusion.  

Can you imagine telling black folks that they have to start attending white churches in the spirit of inclusion.  Of course, the same resistance would take place if you told the white folks they had to start attending black churches.

Our government is trying to FORCE DEI into education and into the workforce and all they are doing is creating more animosity among the different races.  Mainly they are trying to put blacks into primarily white schools and businesses in an effort to fight against WHITE SUPREMACY.

As long as the white population of the USA is the predominate population, the blacks will say there is WHITE SUPREMACY. 

Somewhat Political

 

Our Consciousness

How Vast Is Consciousness?

Recent neuroscience recognizes two basic forms of consciousness. It all starts with the divisions we make: "Two broad types of consciousness must be distinguished" based on the neurobiological domain (LeDoux, 2023, 219). Creature consciousness is attributed to all organisms with a nervous system. 

The other form of consciousness, associated with more complex nervous systems, is mental state consciousness. It is "the ability to experience the world and one's relationship to it" (LeDoux, 219).

Recently, another category of consciousness has been added: existential consciousness. (Reber, Baluska and Miller, 2024). Here, consciousness is rooted in cellular intelligence as an expression of a living, self-organizing order.

This view of the cellular basis of cognition offers a promising new perspective on the vastness of consciousness in life. Is it necessary to stop seeing the possibility of consciousness as a form of sentience based on the presence of a nervous system?  READ MORE...

Roy Orbison

 

In The NEWS

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> The 2023-24 NBA regular season wraps up this weekend; see latest standings and playoff picture (More) | US federal investigators accuse MLB star Shohei Ohtani's former interpreter of stealing $16M from Ohtani (More)

> Taro Akebono, American-born sumo wrestling icon, dies at 54 (More) | DJ Mister Cee, longtime radio host and hip-hop pioneer, dies at 57 (More)

> The 2024 Cannes Film Festival (May 14-25) lineup announced, headlined by films from Francis Ford Coppola and Paul Schrader; see full festival lineup (More)


Science & Technology
In partnership with Qualia Mind

> AI startup Humane releases its widely anticipated Ai Pin, a wearable badge that doubles as an AI-powered smart device (More) | Study suggests some peer reviewers of academic papers may be using chatbots to provide feedback (More)

> Scientists pinpoint how cells untangle overwound strands of DNA, avoiding potential errors in copying and reading its genetic information; applications include treatments for bacterial infections and new anticancer drugs (More)

> Google's DeepMind unveils robots capable of playing soccer after being trained on the rules via a type of machine learning known as deep reinforcement learning (More, w/video)


Business & Markets
> US stock markets close mixed (S&P 500 +0.7%, Dow -0.0%, Nasdaq +1.7%); Nasdaq closes at record high as technology shares climb, rebounding from earlier concerns over inflation (More) | Apple shares rise 4% in best day since May 2023 (More)

> Investment bank Morgan Stanley's shares close down more than 5% on report that multiple federal regulators are investigating its wealth management unit (More)

> Sam Bankman-Fried, former cryptocurrency mogul, appeals fraud conviction for crimes connected to the collapse of his now-defunct trading platform FTX (More) | See previous write-up (More)


Politics & World Affairs
> Russian airstrikes destroy major power plant in Kyiv, Ukraine, and damage power infrastructures in Lviv and Odesa (More) | Ukrainian parliament passes military mobilization law; measures include tightening registration rules and introducing penalties for evading service (More) | Alexei Navalny's posthumous memoir to be published in October (More)

> Sen. Bob Menendez's (D-NJ) bribery trial to be separated from his wife's, federal judge rules; Menendez's trial over obstruction, bribery charges to begin May 6, while his wife's trial tentatively pushed to July (More)

> Harvard reinstates standized test scores for candidates seeking admission to the school, following other Ivy Leagues in rolling back pandemic-era policy (More) | See previous write-up (More)

SOURCE:  1440 News

American Freedoms

What does Sharia law say about woman?

Shariah leaves considerable room for interpretation. When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan in the past, they imposed a strict one, barring women from working outside the home or leaving the house without a male guardian, eliminating schooling for girls, and publicly flogging people who violated the group's morality code.    Aug 30, 2021                       SOURCE:  The New York Times

Most Americans, I would suspect, would object to living under Shariah law, especially American women; however, I cannot speak for them other than in general terms.

In 1776, we gained our independence from Great Britain and wrote our own constitution that was ratified by all the states a couple of years later.  The first 10 amendments to that constitution were called the Bill of Rights, and the very FIRST AMENDMENT addressed freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

By the year 2,000 many Americans, I would also suspect, do not really appreciate what freedom of speech really means nor do they understand what life would be like without our freedom of speech.

Until a child graduates from high school, he or she lives under the influence and control of their parents with the understanding that most of these children cannot really speak their mind in the presence of their parents.

However, when they graduate, they can and usually do say whatever they damn well please and quite often their comments land them in hot water with their superiors, if they work or with their teachers if they attend college.

It is several years before these high school graduates finally realize the power of the first amendment and how precious it is to be careful what you say and how you say it - even though their comments are protected...

What is not protected is how those comments may be interpreted by others and how that interpretation can influence and change relationships.

In many countries throughout the world if citizens say negative comments about the actions of their government, they are thrown in jail for several years in the hopes that they will eventually learn to keep their mouth shut.

However, that does not happen in the USA.  Nor does Shariah law because it restricts the freedoms of people, especially women.  And that freedom is something that we honor and take quite seriously, especially if you have had that freedom curtailed.

Somewhat Political

 

India Challenges China on Technology

For years, China has been Asia’s technology powerhouse.

It is home to what once were some of the world’s most valuable companies, from Tencent to Alibaba. It is where most of the world’s iPhones and other electronics products are produced. And it is now a serious player in electric vehicles.

But a shift appears to be underway, with other countries in Asia trying to take China’s crown.

India is one of these contenders. New Delhi has sought to woo foreign tech companies and has been increasingly successful, with giants like Apple increasing their presence in the country.

India is looking to boost areas such as high-tech electronics and semiconductor manufacturing, as well as support its burgeoning yet challenged startup scene.     READ MORE...

Gloria

 

The Cream

 

Groundbreaking Blended-Wing

(CNN) The basic design of commercial airplanes hasn’t changed much in the past 60 years. Modern airliners like the Boeing 787 and the Airbus A350 have the same general shape as the Boeing 707 and the Douglas DC-8, which were built in the late 1950s and solidified the “tube and wing” form factor that is still in use today.

This is because commercial aviation prioritizes safety, favoring tried-and-tested solutions, and because other developments — in materials and engines, for example — mean the traditional design is still relevant.

However, a seismic shake-up is about to take place. An entirely new aircraft shape has been cleared to take off into California skies. At the end of last month, Long Beach-based JetZero announced that Pathfinder, its 1:8 scale “blended wing body” demonstrator plane, has been granted an FAA Airworthiness certificate and test flights are imminent.  READ MORE...

Somewhat Political

 

In The NEWS

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
In partnership with Public Rec

> The 2024 Masters—one of four major championships in men's golf—begins today (3 pm ET, ESPN) from Augusta, Georgia; 2022 winner Scottie Scheffler enters as favorite to win (More)

> "Monopoly" live-action film based on the board game in the works to be produced by Lionsgate and Margot Robbie's production company LuckyChap (More)

> Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers will kick off 2024 NFL season in the league's first-ever game in Brazil (More) | World track and field governing body will be the first international sports federation to award prize money at the Olympics (More)

Science & Technology
> AI startup Anthropic says its flagship chatbot, Claude 3 Opus, matches humans' ability to present persuasive arguments (More) | US regulators to require most internet service providers to publish information on its fees, speeds, and more, similar to nutrition labels on food (More)

> Mathematician Avi Wigderson wins the 2024 Turing Award for his work in randomness in computation; award is considered to be the Nobel Prize of computer science (More)

> Researchers demonstrate adding a protein found in stem cells to engineered immune cells used in some immunotherapies boosts and extends their ability to fight cancer (More) | How CAR-T works (More)


Business & Markets
> US stock markets close lower (Dow -1.1%, S&P 500 -1.0%, Nasdaq -0.8%) on news inflation rose 3.5% year-over-year in March, and expectations that a rate cut will not come in June (More)

> Fitch downgrades China's credit rating outlook from stable to negative amid concerns over local and national government's reliance on China's property industry but keeps sovereign debt rating at A+ (More)

> Auditor KPMG fined $25M by accounting oversight board over allegations it failed to prevent cheating on training exams; settlement marks the regulator's largest-ever penalty (More)


Politics & World Affairs
> Arizona Legislature blocks effort to roll back 1864 law banning nearly all abortions, with lawmakers motioning for recess to avoid vote; state Supreme Court ruled the Civil War-era law enforceable Tuesday (More) | See overview of law (More)

> House blocks procedural vote on bill renewing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act ahead of April 19 deadline (More) | What is FISA? (More) | Biden administration reportedly considering executive order to significantly restrict asylum applications at the US-Mexico border (More)

> Six Mississippi police officers sentenced to between 15 and 45 years in prison for the torture of two Black men during the course of a warrantless home search in 2023 (More)

SOURCE:  1440 News

TIME is NOT on our Side

 At 76 years of age, my life is not going to last much longer.  However, it is my hope that I have at least another twenty years.  My declining heath may not allow me to live that long but it is what it is.

Not too long ago, I was talking with a high school friend of mine (a Canadian) and we shared what stories we could remember from that period of time that our lives merged together.  The time was 1962-1966.

I could not remember some of his stories and he could not remember some of my stories...

This is not supposed to be a SAD commentary of our memories but help to share how quickly time passes us all by, and when it does there are very few things that we can recall.  That is what time does to us all.

We were 16 then and now are 76...  60 years has passed in the blink of an eye and most of those memories are beyond our ability to retain...  unless we have kept photographs...  which may or may not happen.

We value youth and view older people with contempt because they are no longer macho and no doubt never lived wild and free like the youth of the day are living.  This is where youth is ignorant and naive because those who were teenagers in the 1960s lived life more wildly than any other generation in the history of the USA.

I suggest you research WOODSTOCK...

Time moves by quickly and the sooner you understand that concept, the better off you will be.  I say this because each day should be a powerful day - a day that you are blessed to live - a day that you are blessed to enjoy.

These days should not just be lived to their fullest but should be lived with the future in mind - that is to say, how do I want to live when I am 76 years old and when I can finally retire? 

The title says it all.  Live your life for today but also live it for tomorrow.

Dolphins Playing

 

Nuclear Energy CANNOT Lead Global Energy

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is seen in the background, in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan on August 24, 2023 [File: Franck Robichon/EPA]

On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake and a subsequent 15-metre tsunami struck Japan, which triggered a nuclear disaster at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Three of the six plant’s reactors were affected, resulting in meltdowns and the release of a significant amount of radioactive material into the environment.

Today, 13 years later, Japan is still experiencing the impacts of this disaster. Immediately after the earthquake struck, more than 160,000 people were evacuated. Of them, nearly 29,000 still remain displaced.   READ MORE...

Janis Joplin

 

An Ancient Computer

 

Dark Energy Used to Map Universe

With 5,000 tiny robots in a mountaintop telescope, researchers can look 11 billion years into the past. The light from far-flung objects in space is just now reaching the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), enabling us to map our cosmos as it was in its youth and trace its growth to what we see today.


Understanding how our universe has evolved is tied to how it ends, and to one of the biggest mysteries in physics: dark energy, the unknown ingredient causing our universe to expand faster and faster.

To study dark energy's effects over the past 11 billion years, DESI has created the largest 3D map of our cosmos ever constructed, with the most precise measurements to date. This is the first time scientists have measured the expansion history of the young universe with a precision better than 1%, giving us our best view yet of how the universe evolved.  READ MORE...

Somewhat Political

 

In The NEWS

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> First leg of the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals kick off, with more matches today; see full schedule and results (More)

> NCAA men's basketball championship game brings in nearly 15 million viewers, a 4% increase from last year but behind the nearly 19 million who viewed Sunday's women's championship game (More)

> YouTube stars Dude Perfect, known for their trick shot videos, get $100M investment from Highmount Capital to expand outside traditional video content (More)


Science & Technology
In partnership with EnergyX

> Google Cloud announces new custom-built processor as part of effort to meet rising AI demand, says chip is 30% more efficient than comparable products from Amazon Web Services and Microsoft (More)

> New platform allows study of factors influencing dendritic translation, a key process involved in the formation of new memories (More) | How memories are created (More)

> Scientists discover bristle worm species with eyesight on par with mice, which may be able to detect ultraviolet light; complex vision comes despite the animals having rudimentary nervous systems (More)


Business & Markets
> US stock markets close mixed (S&P 500 +0.1%, Dow -0.0%, Nasdaq +0.3%) ahead of today's March inflation data; economists predict consumer price index report to show growth of 0.3% month-over-month and 3.4% year-over-year (More)

> Gold prices hit record, surpassing $2,300 per ounce (More) | Costco selling as much as $200M in gold bars per month, Wells Fargo estimates; Costco began selling gold bars in August, reporting $100M in sales in its first quarter (More)

> Boeing reports Q1 passenger plane deliveries fell to 83—the lowest level since mid-2021—amid scrutiny following door plug blowout in January (More) | Federal Aviation Administration investigating whistleblower complaint over safety and quality concerns at Boeing (More)


Politics & World Affairs
> Arizona's Supreme Court rules 1864 near-total abortion ban is enforceable, superseding 15-week abortion ban passed in 2022, effective in two weeks; signatures being gathered for potential ballot measure allowing abortions up to 24th week of pregnancy (More) | Read the opinion (More)

> US House members to deliver articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate next week; Democrats expected to vote to dismiss charges (More) | See previous write-up (More)

> The Environmental Protection Agency issues ruling requiring over 200 chemical plants to reduce toxic emissions, claims cancer cases near plants expected to fall by 60% (More) | Norfolk Southern agrees to pay $600M to settle class-action suit over 2023 train derailment in eastern Ohio that released toxic chemicals (More)

SOURCE:  1440 News

East Tennessee

 

I have lived in Alexandria, Virginia, Burlington, North Carolina, East Tennessee, and North Kentucky over my 76 years of life.  Thirty-four of these years have been spent in East Tennessee, almost half of my life.

As a North Carolinian by birth, one would expect that my allegiance would be to that state but it is to Tennessee instead, specifically the Tennessee Valley of East Tennessee.

Many people think that Tennessee is backwards, uneducated, and full of rednecks that marry their cousins.  I assure you that this is a misconception and could not be father from the truth; although. there are undesirables living in all states I suppose.

What makes East Tennessee so attractive?

• Its close proximity to the Smoky Mountains
• Its abundance of land and beauty
• Its parks and recreation opportunities
• Its low cost of living that includes no state taxes
• Its friendliness of community and neighbors
• Its mild winter climate and warm summers
• Its lack of crime and violence and drugs
• Its support and trust of law enforcement
• Its availability of competent doctors and medical facilities
• Its availability of fine cuisine and numerous restaurants
• Its free community college education
• Its geographical location
• UT Medical has the ability to perform stem cell transplants

What I especially like about East TN is that there is not much automobile traffic except at RUSH HOUR and not many people that cause you to have to wait in long lines in retail stores and restaurants.

• We are four hours from Atlanta
• We are four hours from Nashville
• We are an 90 minutes from the Great Smoky Mountain
• We are 2 hours from Cherokee Gambling
• We are an hour from McGhee Tyson Airport

What I also like about this area of East TN is that I can purchase a 1,500 square foot home (not including an acre of land) for HALF of what I would have paid in North Carolina on average.  The acre land just makes the opportunity more attractive.

East TN is not perfect - we have crime and violence and drugs in our schools and we have illegal immigrants living in certain areas as well.  The issue is that WE DON'T HAVE THE SAME LEVEL OF THESE PROBLEMS AS ONE MIGHT FIND IN OTHER STATES...

Sling Shot

 

Predicting Everything

A breakthrough in theoretical physics is an important step toward predicting the behavior of the fundamental matter of which our world is built. It can be used to calculate systems of enormous quantities of quantum particles, a feat thought impossible before.


The new University of Copenhagen research may prove of great importance for the design of quantum computers and could even be a map to superconductors that function at room temperature. The paper is published in the journal Physical Review X.

On the fringes of theoretical physics, Berislav Buca investigates the nearly impossible by way of "exotic" mathematics. His latest theory is no exception. By making it possible to calculate the dynamics, i.e., movements and interactions, of systems with enormous quantities of quantum particles, it has delivered something that had been written off in physics. An impossibility made possible.  READ MORE...