Wednesday, October 22
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Toronto Blue Jays clinch ALCS title with 4-3 win over the Seattle Mariners in Game 7, setting up World Series matchup against the Los Angeles Dodgers beginning Friday (More)
> Police say former NFL running back Doug Martin, 36, died after a struggle with officers attempting to detain him during a home break-in Saturday in Oakland, California; no other details were released (More)
> Broadway actors reach tentative labor deal with commercial producers; musicians' union still negotiating to avert strike (More) | Ticketmaster to ban multiple accounts and shutter resale software in response to federal lawsuit alleging collusion with brokers (More)
Science & Technology
> Federal regulators launch probe into Waymo robotaxis following reports one of the Alphabet-owned company's autonomous vehicles drove around a stopped school bus in Atlanta (More)
> Researchers develop chip implant and glasses that partially restored vision to patients with advanced age-related macular degeneration—first eye prosthesis to give functional sight to those with incurable vision loss (More)
> Scientists discover blood marker of multiple sclerosis present years before symptoms appear, potentially enabling earlier diagnosis and treatment (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close higher (S&P 500 +1.1%, Dow +1.1%, Nasdaq +1.4%) (More) | Apple shares close at record after iPhone 17 series outsell iPhone 16 in the US and China within first 10 days of availability (More)
> The US and Australia sign critical mineral deal that includes plans for up to $8.5B in projects (More) | What are critical minerals? (1440 Topics)
> OpenEvidence—3-year-old startup likened to ChatGPT for doctors—raises $200M at a $6B valuation; now reports 15 million consultations per month (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> Colombia recalls its ambassador to the US amid ongoing tensions over drug trafficking allegations and US military strikes (More) | Bolivia elects centrist as president, ending 20 years of socialist government (More)
> At least six universities reject Education Department compact offering preferential access to federal funding in exchange for adhering to list of commitments, including on international student enrollment, transgender participation in sports (More)
> Supreme Court agrees to consider whether people who regularly smoke marijuana can legally own a firearm (More)
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
Simpliification
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Being retired, limits the amount of money you can spend, because you have substantially less money coming in than you did while working... UNLESS, you have a shitload of money saved or invested and you can add dividends to your income.
My wife and I have been retired for ten years, will soon be entering our eleventh year and have had no problems with our incoming and outgoing money because we CHANGED OUR LIFESTYLE before we retired.
Our Changed Lifestyle
ONE - No Debt... been debt free for over 15 years
TWO - buy year old vehicles that have been leased with low mileage
THREE - buy ONLY what you need, not what you want
FOUR - save as much money as you can all the time
FIVE - shop for deals which includes vacations... M-F is cheaper than staying through the weekend.
SIX - don't be greedy, includes one's eating habits
SEVEN - eat healthy and exercise to prevent medical issues
EIGHT - downsize your living accommodations to save money
NINE - live simply but with class
TEN - pay off credit cards before interest is due
One of the issues that many Americans deal with is having the discipline to stop buying toys that you don't really need but think that it makes you look good to your neighbors.
When we downsized our home, we literally threw away or gave away to Habitat for Humanity over HALF of our household belongings that included clothes.
We've not missed anything, in fact, we still think we are holding onto more than we really need.
CONTROL YOUR GREED AND SIMPLIFY
NASA and India unveil the first images from the most powerful radar satellite ever built
The most advanced Earth radar satellite ever launched, NISAR’s first test images are already showing how it could transform the way we monitor the planet, from tracking crop health to spotting earthquake risks.
And it hasn’t even kicked into full science mode yet.
Built through a rare U.S.-India partnership, this spacecraft is packed with new radar technology that can scan deep into forests, farmlands, and even under layers of ice.
Its main job is to watch how Earth changes over time – and give scientists and decision-makers the data they need to act.
Tuesday, October 21
Wonderings 18
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Does our universe have a fabric that is to say... what is in between all the asteroids, planets, stars, and moons?
For instance, the air around us that is unseen is still there... can we call it a fabric, or is it a veil of some sort?
Some believe that all that stuff up there and out there is either dark matter or dark energy or a combination of both.
Dark energy is a mysterious force that causes the universe to expand at an accelerating rate
Dark matter is a hypothetical, invisible form of matter that makes up about 85% of the matter in the universe, with its existence inferred from its gravitational effects on visible matter.
Some believe that neither dark energy nor dark matter exist, while at the same time they do not have an explanation for what all that stuff is that surrounds the planets, asteroids, stars, and moons, etc.
So...
that leaves a bit of a mystery, to say the least, and leaves some of wondering...
We know that there is something that surrounds us here on earth that we breathe and call it AIR or ATMOSPHERE but none of are really sure if that is all it is... or, if it is something more of which we know nothing or very little.
We believe because we have been told by our teachers that the universe is VOID of air... and yet, intuitively we know something must be out there.
We also know that our universe continues to expand and that our universe has a temperature which indicates that our universe is subject to ENTROPY... that means it will eventually self-destruct for lack of a better word.
If our universe self-destructs because of ENTROPY what happens to HEAVEN???
Headlines
Saul Loeb/Getty Images
US and Australia make rare earths deal to counter China. With China clamping down on the export of rare earth minerals needed to make electronics amid the trade war, President Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed an agreement—which the White House described as a “framework”—with plans for projects worth up to $8.5 billion combined. It calls for each country to invest $1 billion in some of those projects within the next six months. But China still dominates, currently controlling 70% of rare earths mining and 90% of the processing, and access to them will likely be a big part of the discussion when Trump meets with China’s Xi Jinping next week.
Trump can send the National Guard to Portland, appeals court rules. Overturning a lower court’s ruling barring the president from deploying National Guard troops to Portland, OR, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a 2-1 ruling yesterday that the president had likely “lawfully exercised his statutory authority.” The lower court judge had found that President Trump’s justification that Portland was like a war zone, so troops needed to be sent to quell protests at an ICE facility, was “untethered to the facts,” but the appeals court majority said that the administration’s view was entitled to more deference. The dissenting judge, however, called that both “absurd” and unconstitutional. However, a second lower court order continues to prevent Trump from sending troops for now.
Disney streamer unsubscribes doubled amid Kimmel suspension. The numbers are out, and it looks like Disney+ and Hulu took a big hit in September when Disney yanked Jimmy Kimmel off the air over comments he made about Charlie Kirk’s murder. Subscription-analytics company Antenna found that Disney+ cancellations doubled in September to 8% from 4% in August, while Hulu defections spiked to 10% from 5%—with some 3 million subscribers ditching Disney+ and 4.1 million cancelling Hulu. That’s an unusually big change for streaming services, whose cancellation rates are usually pretty steady. Ratings for Jimmy Kimmel Live! have been up since the host’s return.—AR
Robert Reich
What comes next, after No Kings 2.0
Friends,
No Kings 2.0 was a huge success. More than 7 million (by some estimates, more than 8 million) showed up. We were peaceful. We were patriotic (many of us waved American flags). We stuck to one message: that we refuse to live under a dictator. We had fun (the costumes and signs were fabulous). We felt powerful in our solidarity.
And we are powerful.
What’s next? How do we use that power? What should we do now? I’ll leave to others bigger or more dramatic suggestions. Mine boil down to a dozen simple ones:
1. Organize for the 2026 midterms.
Millions of us just participated in one of the largest demonstrations in American history. The most important thing we do with that power is wrest back control of Congress from zombie Republicans who are rubber-stamping whatever Trump wants. Otherwise, we will continue to lose our democracy and rule of law to this tyrant. We must:
Our KING
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The Democrats and all those who HATE TRUMP, are now calling him a KING... primarily because he is sending in the NATIONAL GUARD into those Democrat controlled cities that have a crime problem for the sole purpose of PROTECTING FEDERAL BUILDINGS...
The Democrats are claiming that TRUMP does not have the power to do that and therefore are now referring to him as a KING.
HOWEVER...
If Trump were in fact a KING, the Chuck Schumer would not have been able to shut down the government.
If Trump were in fact a KING, why do the Democrats have the power to try and stop Trump through our Judicial System?
The argument of Trump being a KING is predicated upon a false premise that our DEMOCRACY allows KINGS to exist, which is especially denounced in our Constitution by our Founding Fathers who primary purpose for starting the USA was to get away from KINGS.
Do the Democrats not fully appreciate the subtle ignorance of their approach?
It would lead an outsider to wonder...
Trump's response to the statement of him being a KING, revolved around the notion that if he were, in fact, a KING, then he would have been able to accomplish a lot more than he already has accomplished.
When we think about Trump's response it holds more water than the statement by the Democrats that he is a KING.
Of course, I am neither a Democrat or a Republican, so this little scenario SNAFU means little to nothing to me...
How about you???
Monday, October 20
Wonderings 17
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I am who I'm supposed to be...
I am who I never intended to be...
Rather interesting.
Yes___ No___
At the end of this month, I will be 78 years old which means I have lived almost 8 decades.
- My first dream was to be an Architect
- Then it was a percussionist
- Then it was an Artist Painter
- Then it was a writer
- Then a businessman
I graduated with a BA in English and an MBA with a concentration in small business management and strategic planning.
My 45-year career consisted primarily of me being a Trainer-Professor-Course Writer-Curriculum Designer-Dean-Consultant.
One Word Description - EDUCATION
Irony: I avoided public speaking classes in college because I did not like getting up in front of people - it made me very nervous to the point I would start sweating just thinking about it.
My personality has always been INTJ - and over the course of my 45 year career, it never changed regardless of what decisions I made.
Speaking of decisions - countless decision have been made by me; some were made because I wanted to go in the opposite direction that someone else wanted me to go in; others were made because I had become greedy, and some were made because I simply did not know what else to do.
Regardless of those decisions, and the directions I took, I still ended up becoming the person I am today.
In other words: I AM WHO I AM or who I was supposed to become from the very beginning but did not realize.
In my retirement, I am writing novels... as a writer...
DO YOU WONDER ABOUT WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BECOME?
It really does not matter because you will become that which you were supposed to become from the very beginning, but you have to live most of your life to find out what that is...
You never become who you really are until your life is almost over...
And yet... there are some that believe our creator knows exactly who we are and who we are to become...
Is there really a creator?
In The NEWS
Atmospheric Conditions
Climatology, explained
Climatology is the science of climate, or the study of long-term atmospheric conditions across Earth. Unlike meteorology, which uses data to predict weather over several days, climate science focuses on identifying patterns across 55 essential climate variables over periods of 30 or more years. These patterns help climatologists better understand the interactions between Earth’s systems and refine computational models to predict future phenomena.
Climate variable data, including temperature via the thermometer and air pressure via the barometer, have been directly collected and recorded since the 1600s. Data from before this instrumentation was invented can be obtained by analyzing climate proxies—materials that preserve past climate conditions.
This data is used to test the accuracy of climate models—created by applying the laws of physics to Earth's systems—before they are run on supercomputers to project future conditions.
... Read our full explainer on climatology here.
Also, check out ...
> Earth has shifted between extreme warming and cooling periods for 500 million years. (More)
> Climate models have predicted sea level change almost perfectly for 30 years. (More)
> Layers in Earth's sediment hold clues to Earth's climate. (More)
Streamer-in-Chief
Netflix, 101
Netflix is the dominant streaming platform today, with more than 300 million subscribers. It pioneered the "bingeable" format after starting as a DVD rental company and now produces and releases hundreds of original shows and movies each year.
The company was founded by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph and spent its first decade oscillating between survival and growth. It survived the dot-com bubble, went public in 2002, and emerged victorious in fierce competition with Blockbuster. As high-speed internet became pervasive, the company began streaming content directly to subscribers, letting them watch movies and TV shows instantly instead of waiting for DVDs by mail.
The company began offering original content in 2013, and launched its first prestige drama with “House of Cards.” Hit franchises that followed included “Stranger Things” and “The Crown,” among many others.
... Read our full write-up on the streamer here.
Also, check out ...
> How binge-watching was the result of a competition. (More)
> The complex infrastructure initiated by pressing "play" on Netflix. (More)
> Why Netflix's movies seem so similar. (More)
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
Time For Purposes
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Ecclesiastes 3
Personally, I don't think there is a heaven, but I do agree with there being a time for every purpose...
- There is a time for being a child, a teenager, an adult, a student, a soldier, a husband, father, senior citizen, and deceased.
- There is a time for love and hate, a time for war and one for peace, a time for destruction and for rebuilding, a time to remember and a time to forget.
Everything in our lives occurs at precisely the time it was supposed to occur - never before or never after - but at the right time.
With that understood and/or accepted, we should prepare for another CIVIL WAR. This war will not the North against the South or the East against the West.
It will not be the wealthy against the poor although I think there is a revolt between these two factions on the horizon.
This CIVIL WAR will be between the LIBERALS and the CONSERVATIVES.
The USA has gotten itself into a position where the Democrats have morphed or will soon morph into socialists and in some cases hard line socialists where they want the government to be in control of everything.
These socialists, liberals, progressive democrats, whatever you want to call them, have resorted to violence to get their message across.
- The killing of the health insurance CEO
- The killing of Charlie Kirk
- The attempted assassination of Donald Trump
- The violence against Jews on college campuses
- The violence against ICE officers
- The violence against police officers
- Candidate of office wishing someone would kill their opponent
The time is RIPE for a CIVIL WAR and it really does not matter which side starts it...
Beneath Tibet, alarms blink — Data suggests the continent is pulling apart live
At first glance, the Himalayas appear immutable; we see snow-capped peaks, majestic mountain ranges, and valleys that tell millions of years of history. However, beneath this epic landscape, a process is underway that could redefine how we understand Earth itself.
Something invisible to our eyes, but which sends clear signals to those who know where to look. What’s happening beneath Tibet is, in short, unsettling. This is because scientists are beginning to see that the story isn’t just one of slowly rising mountains, but of a continent that may be, quite literally, tearing itself apart before our eyes.
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