Summer is Coming

 

I remember watching the Game of Thrones where the statement was made over and over again that WINTER WAS COMING...  it was supposed to be a ominous statement full of warnings and forebodings...  it was to set the stage for something bad to happen, designed to get us concerned and worried...

I am more worried about SUMMER IS COMING than I would be about hearing WINTER IS COMING.

While winter is associated with cold, wind, snow, and ice...  I would submit that summer is associated with heat, humidity, thunderstorms, tornadoes, riptides, sunburn, and hydroplaning. 

Then you have insects, mosquitos, wasps, hornets, snakes, foxes, bears, and wild dogs...  of course, a lot of this depends upon where one lives.

While we tend to get out of the house more in the summer, we still have to be careful when we do because of the heat and humidity, especially if we are older and already fighting a deadly disease.

Don't get me wrong, I much prefer summer over winter but just because that is my preference does not mean that summer is always ONE HUNDRED PERCENT WONDERFUL...

Oh...  did I forget to mention that the grass really loves summer, and it is going to need mowing once a week and everyone mows one also needs to weed eat.  

Nowadays, when I am outside mowing or weed eating, I have to wear long pants and a long sleeve shirt, otherwise I get all sorts of mosquito bites which are no fun at all.

I mowed yesterday and will continue to mow through October...  I remember when it just used to be May through September...

Somewhat Political

 

The James Webb Telescope Discovers a Flaw in Our Theory of the Universe – Nothing is as We Thought

Scientists using the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes have confirmed one of the biggest head-scratchers in modern physics—the universe isn’t expanding at a single, consistent rate. Instead, its growth seems to vary depending on which direction we observe.

A cosmic puzzle that won’t go away
This issue, called the Hubble Tension, could shake the very foundations of cosmology. In 2019, data from the Hubble Space Telescope proved this wasn’t just a fluke. Then, in 2023, even sharper measurements from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) sealed the deal, making it clear that something about our understanding of the cosmos isn’t quite adding up.

Now, after a thorough triple-check using both the James Webb and Hubble telescopes, scientists have ruled out any chance that this mismatch is just a measurement mistake. The study, published on February 6 in Astrophysical Journal Letters, points to a much bigger issue —our understanding of the universe might be seriously off track.

“As we’ve eliminated errors in measurement, what we’re left with is the thrilling and unsettling reality that we may have been interpreting the cosmos all wrong,” said Adam Riess, a professor of physics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins University and the study’s lead author.

READ MORE...

The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again (Live Aid 1985)

 

China Has Outer Space Superiority

China now has a 'kill mesh' in orbit, Space Force vice chief says

I Saw Today...

 

I saw today where celebrities in Hollywood, who are few months ago hated TRUMP FOR EVERYTHING HE STOOD FOR, now are courting him because they are hoping they will do something about AI stealing their images...

Now the A-listers will never admit they WANT OR NEED Trump's help, so they hide behind those who are not A-listers who don't mind swallowing their pride.  Now, to be fair there are some A-listers who are asking Trump for help but not many...

It really amazes me when I see this kind of behavior because very few of these so-called intelligent people even think it through far enough to reach UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES.

Celebrities are so liberal in their way of thinking because they perceive LIBERALISM as a sound methodology for evoking the MUSES that inspire them to act, paint, direct, write, perform, sing, play a musical instrument, sing, throw a pot/clay, carve a sculpture, etc.

I remember one of the best percussionists of the day was GENE KRUPA who perceived he had to be high on heroine to play his drum set the way he did.

Many oil painters throughout history have felt that way as well...

LET EXPRESSION GO WILD

NO RESTRICTIONS

IF I NEED TO EMBRACE MY SEXUALITY THEN I NEED TO BE ABLE TO DO THAT

Those kinds of expressions are not the same as:

• balancing a budget
• paying down debt
• maintaining low taxes
• taxing the wealthy
• maintaining a strong military

Believe it or not, YOU CAN HAVE BOTH, but Hollywood celebrities don't think so until they need something from a conservative...

WATER

Astronomers discover cosmic water source 140 trillion times larger than Earth’s oceans combined

A "WALL" is Found At The EDGE Of Our Solar System

Lara Logan

 

The Amber May Show

 

Moon landings are back, baby!

$1-2 million per kilogram. That’s approximately what you can expect to pay to transport cargo to the Moon. Firefly Aerospace is working to make lunar missions as cost-efficient as possible. Their Blue Ghost lander just nailed a soft, upright landing on the Moon, completing the first “fully successful” commercial mission on the lunar surface. Freethink’s Hard Reset team recently visited Firefly to get an up-close look at their technology — and what it will take to establish a lunar settlement.

WATCH NOW...

Our Laws

 

Lara Trump

 

Diamond & Silk

 

The Big THINK

 

Anxiety always lies: Martha Beck on overcoming fear and finding purpose

VINCE

 

Old Fashioned

 

Favorites

 

Who Has Time for Hobbies?

One of the bigger lessons I got from reading Cal Newport’s recent book, Digital Minimalism, was the importance of scheduling your leisure time.

Scheduling time for hobbies may sound unnecessary. Aren’t those the things you do for fun?

Yet, I would wager that most of us have activities we’d like to do on the side but never seem to have time for:

• Learning a language
• Art
• Sports and activities
• Reading for fun
• Creating something

A common way to look at this state of affairs is to argue that we don’t have time for these things because we’re too busy. We want to relax at the end of a hard day, with whatever meager hours are left over.

This idea assumes we mostly use our time wisely, and if there isn’t time for something at the end of the day, it must be because there wasn’t time for it to begin with.

Where Does Your Free Time Really Go?
The view put forth by Newport in his book is that we tend to invest a lot of our time on various, low-value leisure activities that neither give us meaning or much enjoyment. Think television, Netflix, video games, social media and web surfing.

These activities often don’t provide much value, but they have really low barriers to get started. That combined with carefully engineered reward mechanisms keep them occupying our attention for many hours in the day.

READ MORE...

Robert Reich - Is the Muskrat working for China? (Is Trump working for Putin?)

The fact we don't know and can't know is itself a problem







Friends,

There are two huge national security questions at the heart of the Trump regime.

The first is whether Elon Musk is working, at least in part, for China’s Xi Jinping. Consider:

(1) China is the location of Musk’s largest Tesla factory in the world in which China invested $2.8 billion. The state-of-the-art facility was built in Shanghai with special permission from the Chinese government, and now accounts for more than half of Tesla’s global deliveries.

(2) China is the world’s biggest market for Teslas and is the only electronic vehicle market where Tesla sales are continuing to grow.

(3) Chinese investors have been funneling money into Musk’s other businesses.

(4) China is a hotbed of other technologies that Musk would like to get his hands on.

(5) In 2022, Musk told The Financial Times that China should be given some control over Taiwan by making a “special administrative zone for Taiwan that is reasonably palatable.”

(6) In 2023, at a tech conference, he called Taiwan “an integral part of China that is arbitrarily not part of China,” and compared the Taiwan-China situation to Hawaii and the United States.

(7) On X, the social platform he owns, Musk has long used his account to praise China, encouraging more people to visit the country.

(8) One of the Pentagon’s biggest worries is that China has developed a suite of weapons capable of attacking U.S. military and non-military satellites.

READ MORE...

At A Glance

Octopus hitches ride on a shark's back. (w/video)

How head hair is different from body hair.

What causes powerful winds that fuel extreme weather?

Charting the decline of US drug-overdose deaths.

Finland tops world's happiest countries (again).

A bizarre minivan concept from 1992.

Ancient Roman and Greek statues once smelled nice.

Whiff of penguin poo strikes fear in krill.

Clickbait: The French guide to surviving major world crises.

 

BEGINNERS GUIDE TO HEALTHY EATING | 15 healthy eating tips

Quick Clips

 

In The NEWS

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> March Madness kicks off in earnest today with the first round of the men's tournament; see complete tourney preview (More) | ... and the women's "First Four" matchups wrap up tonight (More)

> Trump administration suspends $175M in federal funding for the University of Pennsylvania over the participation of a transgender athlete on Penn's swim team (More) | Columbia University faces deadline today to make a wide range of policy changes or lose $400M in federal funding (More)

> Global music streaming revenue topped $20B in 2024, a 7% increase over 2023; Taylor Swift was biggest-selling global artist for third straight year (More)


Science & Technology
> Federal appeals court rules copyright can only be granted to artworks originally created by humans; case centered on a dispute over AI-generated, "Star Trek"-themed poetry (More)

> Humans and parrots share common brain circuitry for complex vocalizations, new study finds; species known as budgerigars are the only animals known to share the trait (More)

> Genetic study suggests modern humans descended from two separate populations that split around 1.5 million years ago, but intermixed again roughly 300,000 years ago (More)


Business & Markets
> European regulators announce antitrust charges against Google, warn Apple of violations under the Digital Markets Act (More)

> Yum Brands partners with chipmaker Nvidia to accelerate its use of AI in operations; parent company is owner of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC, among others (More)

> Nissan to cut 20% of top managerial positions; timing coincides with arrival of new CEO Ivan Espinosa (More)


Politics & World Affairs
> US Institute of Peace sues to block efforts by Department of Government Efficiency; DOGE staff required local police to enter property earlier this week, IOP officials argue the group is an independent nonprofit (More)

> President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hold hourlong call on plan toward ending Russia's war in Ukraine; discussion comes one day after a separate call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin (More)

> Historians begin to examine new trove of roughly 63,000 pages of documents related to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, released by President Donald Trump Tuesday (More)

SOURCE:  1440 NEWS

Novel Writing

 

Ever since my wife and I have retired, I have taken up the hobby of writing novels which has focused on science fiction, spies, crime & violence, and general interest.  I am in my tenth year of retirement and have completed eleven novels and started five more.

I have ten pages more to write to complete my twelfth novel, leaving four unfinished to completed.  Two of the six start but not finished novels were 70% so it did not take me long to finish.  However, the other four are only 20% finished or less, so I am planning on a couple of months for each one.

With persistence, I should have the remaining four completed by the end of 2025 or the end of my tenth year of retirement.  So, it took me ten years to write 16 novels.

Bear in mind that each novel is over 100,000 words in length or about 200, 8X10 pages.  The general rule of thumb is to divide by 20 and multiply that answer by 30...  however, what it really depends upon is the type and font size and the margins that are being used.

With 11 novels written all of which are over 100,000 words, for those 11 novels, I have written over a million and a half words.  For me that is quite a lot of words.

I use Grammarly to check my spelling and sentence structure, although sometimes I have to override the corrections because I want to use slang expressions in my dialogues.

I also have Microsoft 365 which comes with CoPilot and this service can be used to rewrite your entire novel.  However, it is only good at rewritten a page at a time.  You might as well depend on adding a week to your time if you decided to use CoPilot at the end.

I have not used CoPilot yet, but if I do, it will be used from the very beginning where I write a page or two, then use CoPilot to rewrite.  I usually take my time and write 3-5 pages each day.

Somewhat Political

 

China achieves quantum supremacy

 

T

he latest iteration of Zuchongzhi includes 105 transmon qubits — devices made from metals like tantalum, niobium, and aluminum that have reduced sensitivity to noise. (Image credit: D. Gao et al.



Researchers in China have developed a quantum processing unit (QPU) that is 1 quadrillion (10¹⁵) times faster than the best supercomputers on the planet.


The new prototype 105-qubit chip, dubbed "Zuchongzhi 3.0," which uses superconducting qubits, represents a significant step forward for quantum computing, scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Hefei said.


It rivals the benchmarking results set by Google's latest Willow QPU in December 2024 that allowed scientists to stake a claim for quantum supremacy — where quantum computers are more capable than the fastest supercomputers — in lab-based benchmarking.

READ MORE...

Los Lobos - La Bamba - 11/26/1989 - Watsonville High School Football Fie...