Life in 2025

 

I remember when Trump lost the election in 2020. my brother sent my sister and I and email that was stated very simply:  OUR NATIONAL NIGHTMARE IS FINALLY OVER...

I did not respond to his email, but I have waited for four years so that I could respond by sending him a similar email.

Joe Biden has probably been one of the worst Presidents in our nation's history outside of Jimmy Carter.

• Illegal Immigration
• Inflation
• National Debt
• Global distrust of USA
• WOKE, BLM, CRT
• Racism
• A divided country
• Slow growing economy
• Crime and violence
• Increase in Illegal Drugs

However, sending my brother that email might be a TAD PREMATURE if Kamala Harris wins the election, especially since she is on record as having saying:  THAT SHE WOULD NOT CHANGE A THING...

This election, in my opinion, marks a crossroads in not just American Politics, but in the culture and quality of life here in America.

If Harris wins and she claims she will not change anything, then the following will happen:

• Continued government spending
• Continued inflation
• Continued illegal immigration
• Increased K-12 education cost
• A divided country continues
• A potential WWIII 
• China taking over global leadership from USA
• The huge cost of going green
• The end of gasoline and natural gas
• A enormous strain on our power grid
• A really slow growing economy
• Americans fighting illegal immigrants

I am not joking or speculating...  this is what will happen because Kamala Harris says she will not change anything from Biden's previous 4 years.

MORE OF THE SAME...

Perfect LIPS

 

Visit to SAMS

 Every other month, sometimes longer, sometimes shorter, my wife and I travel to SAMS in Knoxville.  It takes about 45 minutes to get there, depending upon traffic of course.  Walmart is right besides, so we sometimes shop at both.

Today, it was just SAMS and what we look for are bulk items which at usually, but not always, cheaper.  Our trip consisted of toilet paper, paper towels, Kleenex, McCafe pods, Mountain Trail Mix, cans of chicken and tuna, Olive Oil spray, toothpaste, and some salads...  There were a few items that we could not find.

Once we finish shopping, we purchase two hotdogs and 32oz drinks for $1.25 each.  The hotdogs are all beef and remind me of the hotdogs I used to buy at baseball games when I went to see the Washington Senators.

So, we paid $2.50 plus tax for our lunch that was delicious and filling.

Some of the items were on sale and the $15 in savings was offset by the $15 in tax.

Each box of coffee pods lasts me about 30-33 days, I had just opened my last box, so I will be in need of a trip to SAMS in about 2 months.

BTW -  we pay attention to prices of bulk items and sometimes it is still cheaper to buy the individual items at WalMart.  I have no idea if other shoppers make those price comparisons or not or just assume bulk is always better.

Atlas Goes Hands On

Term Limits

 

Chocolate

 

Guns

 

Replacement

 

Reagan

 

Black Cat

 

In The NEWS

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Soccer's European governing body UEFA pledges $1B over the next six years to develop women's soccer across Europe (More) | Actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney sell minority stake in Welsh soccer club Wrexham to New York family (More)

> Morgan Wallen's "Love Somebody" ends Shaboozey's “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” nearly four-month reign atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart (More) | Grammy Awards to be simulcast across ABC, Hulu, and Disney+ beginning in 2027; CBS has hosted the awards show since 1973 (More)

> Federal grand jury in New York is hearing new evidence in Sean "Diddy" Combs' racketeering and sex trafficking case (More)


Science & Technology
> Study finds autism diagnoses in the US rose by 175% between 2011 and 2022, with people aged 26 to 34 seeing a 450% increase; researchers attribute rise to improved screening and other unidentified factors (More)

> Deep sleep helps recovery from heart attacks, researchers discover; immune cells that stimulate sleep neurons are released following heart attacks, which in turn reduces inflammation in the heart (More)

> Researchers create ultra-precise 3D tumor maps of kidney, colon, breast, and other types of cancers; "tumor atlases" reveal of the cancers evolve with single-cell resolution (More)


Business & Markets
> US stock markets close lower (S&P 500 -0.3%, Dow -0.2%, Nasdaq -0.6%) after report shows US economy grew slower-than-expected in Q3 at a 2.8% annual rate (More) | Super Micro Computer shares close down 33% after auditor resigns (More) | Reddit shares close up 42% after reporting first-ever profit a day before (More)

> Microsoft earnings top expectations, with revenue up 16% year-over-year thanks to cloud business (More) | Meta beats earnings expectations, posts lower-than-expected daily active users (More) | Russia fines Google $20 decillion over channel bans on YouTube; figure exceeds world's total GDP (More)

> Estée Lauder appoints longtime senior executive Stéphane de la Faverie as CEO (More) | Dropbox to lay off 528 people—about 20% of workforce (More)


Politics & World Affairs
> Pentagon says North Korean troops in Russian uniforms are headed toward Russia's Kursk region, where Ukraine has launched a counter-offensive; number of troops estimated to be between 3,000 and 11,000 people (More)

> Taliban bars Afghan women from praying loudly, reciting prayers in front of other women in latest ruling (More)

> McDonald's E. coli outbreak spreads to 90 people across 13 states; CDC says slivered onions are the likely source (More)

SOURCE:  1440 NEWS

Always Having Somewhere To Go

 

A couple of days ago, I early voted and since my vote is private, I am not going to share it with you.  

Yesterday, I went to see my orthopedic doctor to discuss the results of my knee MRI and discuss my path forward.  Since that is also personal, there is no need to share that either, except to say, it's a bitch getting old.

Today, I went to Fastop, a mile from the house, to get a couple of cups of vanilla cappuccino and receive my free gift for each drink purchased on a Friday.  Two, snicker's bars one of which was shared with my wife, who also enjoys snickers.

For the next THREE WEEKS, there is absolutely nowhere that I have to go nor is there anywhere that I need to be.  So, I am staying at home, and I may or may not shower and shave for a while.

It is somewhat of an irony that as soon as I retired, I could not wait to start going on vacations each month and my wife and I did, in fact, go somewhere every other month from 2016 until 2020 when COVID hit.

Not only did COVID slow us down, but it changed our mindset of wanting to go SOMEWHERE.  The last thing that my wife and I now want to do, is go somewhere.  We enjoy staying at home and not having to get cleaned up for anything.

However, doctor visits and appts have ruined that goal as it seems that some weeks, we have to go somewhere every day.

Somewhat Political

 

Light Travels in Both Time and Space

A groundbreaking achievement by physicists from Imperial College London has brought new insights into quantum physics by recreating the famous double-slit experiment in the dimension of time. 

Led by Professor Riccardo Sapienza from the Department of Physics, this research team explored how light interacts with a material whose optical properties can change within a few femtoseconds, revealing more about the fundamental nature of light.

The original double-slit experiment, first performed in 1801 by Thomas Young, showed that light behaves as a wave. Later experiments demonstrated that light also behaves as particles, revealing its quantum nature. 

In this classic experiment, light was passed through two physical slits, creating an interference pattern that displayed light’s wave properties. This experiment became crucial in understanding not just light but also the quantum behavior of particles like electrons and atoms.     READ MORE...

BTS "BTS Special 2018 KBS Song Festival" Reaction - So much talent in 1 ...

Simple Halloween

 

End of October in East Tennessee

 

Obviously, this is the last day of October 2024 and obviously, this is Halloween, but what is not obvious is that I am sitting on my back deck in shorts and a short-sleeve shirt because it is EIGHTY (80) degrees outside at 4:00pm.

I am sitting in the shade because the sun is on the other side of the house, and I am drinking Vanilla Cappuccino coffee that I purchased at Weigel's Convenience store, a mile from the house.

In point-of-fact, I purchased two large cups (24 oz) and when I finished with one, I simply heated up the other one in the microwave for a minute and I am again good-to-go.

The weather is supposed to dip down into the 60s tomorrow with rain but for the next 5 days, our temps will again be in the mid to high 70s.

Not trying to BRAG...  well, maybe I am just a tad, East TN weather is damn near perfect, and we still have four seasons albeit some of them short.

I moved here in 1990, and I am glad that I did.  I am also glad that I am retiring in this area because even though the rest of the country are experiencing inflation and high prices, it is not bothering us too much here.

However...  bear in mind, that my wife and I have had no debt for over 15 years and our lifestyle is simple and plain...  We buy only what we need, not what we want as a general rule.

Halloween Pumpkin

 

It's the Aging Process

 My birthday is today, and I am now 77 years of age.  I don't feel any different today than I did yesterday at 67.  But there is nothing I can do about time.  It is not that bad being 77 because I only feel like I am 80.   lol

I went to the Orthopedic doctor this morning about my left knee and both shoulders and was reminded that my problems revolve around ARTHRITIS that was brought about and exacerbated by EXERCISE and BEING ACTIVE.

My first thought was:  PISSER...

Hard to believe that trying to be HEALTHY would eventually bite me in the ASS.

On the other side of the coin, when I was 60 years old, I had a triple bypass-level heart attack and the cardiologist said had I not been as healthy as I was, the heart attack would have killed me.

Of course, this was 16 years earlier...  I am sure that a decade and a half made a lot of difference.

I will eventually have to have hip and shoulder replacements, but the orthopedic surgeon said he will not do those until I BEG FOR THEM TO BE DONE.

I still believe that I will live into my 90s but I wonder what my physical body will be like almost twenty years from now.

Haunted House

 

Halloween

 

VOTED

 

Cheating

Attempt

 

Working With

 

Cemetary

 

Blaming

In The NEWS

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> New York Yankees top Los Angeles Dodgers 11-4 in Game 4 to avoid World Series sweep; Game 5 is set for tonight (8 pm ET, Fox) (More)

> Teri Garr, Oscar- and BAFTA-nominated actress best known for starring roles in "Tootsie" and "Young Frankenstein," dies at age 79 (More)

> "Anora" leads 2024 Gotham Awards nominations for independent films with four nods (More) | Netflix and Universal renew animated movie licensing deal, will add live-action films to Netflix's offering beginning in 2027 (More)


Science & Technology
> LinkedIn launches Hiring Assistant, an AI-powered agent built to take on a number of tasks involved in employee recruitment (More)

> Ocean scientists observe the largest predation event on record; millions of capelin—small anchovy-like fish—formed a miles long group while being fed on by cod (More)

> Astronomers discover one of the fastest spinning stars to date; located in the Sagittarius constellation near the center of the Milky Way, the neutron star rotates more than 700 times per second (More) | What are neutron stars? (More)


Business & Markets
> US stock markets close mixed (S&P 500 +0.2%, Dow -0.4%, Nasdaq +0.8%) with Nasdaq closing at record high (More)

> Alphabet earnings beat expectations, fueled by cloud business; shares rise 6% in after-hours trading (More) | Snap shares rise 10% in after-hours trading after beating earnings expectations (More) | Starbucks warns remote corporate employees to return to office at least three days per week or face getting fired (More)

> Zhang Yiming, founder of TikTok-owner ByteDance, ranked China's richest person, worth $49.3B, in country's annual Hurun Rich List (More) | Number of dollar billionaires falls by one-third in China as country's stock market and economy slow (More)


Politics & World Affairs
> Jailed man who attacked husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, CA-11) sentenced to life in prison without parole on state charges of kidnapping, burglary, and false imprisonment (More)

> UK teenager accused of killing three girls at Taylor Swift-themed dance class in July owned al-Qaida terror manual, produced deadly poison ricin, per police (More)

> UN mission finds UAE-backed Rapid Support Forces in Sudan committed widespread acts of sexual violence amid civil war; the 80-page report includes interviews with victims and family members (More)

SOURCE:  1440 NEWS

Somewhat Political

 

Samhain Festival: The Origins of HALLOWEEN

Halloween's origins can be traced back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, which was a pagan celebration to mark the end of summer and the beginning of winter:



The festival
The Celts believed that on the night of Samhain, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. They celebrated by:

Lighting bonfires: To guide souls to the afterlife and to frighten away evil spirits


Wearing costumes: To avoid being recognized by ghosts and to confuse spirits


Dancing around bonfires: To keep evil spirits away


Divination: To seek answers about marriage, health, and death


Setting out favorite foods for the dead: To welcome departed loved ones


The name
The word "Halloween" is thought to be a combination of the word "Hallow", which originally meant "saint", and "een", an abbreviation of "eve" or night before.


The date
The Celts celebrated Samhain on October 31, the night before the new year, which they celebrated on November 1.


The location
The Celts lived in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France.


The cave
According to a National Geographic article, the cave where Halloween originated is Oweynagat, which means "cave of the cats".


The popularity
The popularity of Halloween skyrocketed in the 20th century.


The traditions
Over the centuries, Halloween has evolved into a day of parties, costumes, jack-o-lanterns, and trick-or-treating.

SOURCE:  AI Generated