Resolutions

 

We are getting towards the end of the year when people decide to make New Year's Resolutions.

AI GENERATED:
Most New Year's resolutions involve health (exercise, diet, weight loss) or finances (saving money, paying debt), but a high percentage fail, with many giving up within the first few months, though success rates vary by study, with some showing under 10% success, while others note significant commitment from many, especially younger adults and Hispanic Americans. Common resolutions for 2025/2026 include saving money, improving fitness/exercise, eating healthier, and mental well-being, but dropout rates are high, often by February.

Popular Resolutions (Recent Years)

Health & Fitness: Losing weight, eating healthier, exercising more (often top goals).
Finances: Saving money, getting out of debt, improving financial health.
Well-being: Improving mental health, being happier, spending more time with family.
Other: Learning a new skill, reducing social media, quitting smoking.

Success & Failure Rates (Vary by Source)

High Failure: Many sources suggest less than 10% achieve their goals, with 23% quitting in the first week and 64% by the first month.
Duration: Average resolution lasts around 3-4 months, with many giving up by February.
Conflicting Success: A Pew Research study found 59% of adults who made resolutions kept them all, while other data shows much lower success.
Confidence vs. Reality: People are often very confident they will succeed (e.g., 90%+ for mental health/exercise), but reality often differs.

Demographics & Trends

Younger Adults: Under-30s are more likely to make resolutions than older groups.

Ethnicity: Hispanic Americans were more likely to make resolutions in a recent survey.
High Motivation: January sees a surge in gym memberships (up to 12%), but most quit within months.

Somewhat Political

 

Cream - Sunshine Of Your Love (Farewell Concert - Extended Edition) (1 o...

In The NEWS

US strikes Islamic State in Nigeria after Trump warned of attacks on Christians.

The Defense Department carried out the deadly strike Thursday in cooperation with Nigerian authorities. The attack hit Sokoto, a predominantly Muslim state in northwest Nigeria, where the Islamic State-affiliated Lakurawa group has strongholds. The US earlier this month said it would restrict visas for Nigerians involved in violence against Christians; Nigeria's government and analysts have previously said people of many faiths are potential victims of extremist groups.




Powerful storm system slams California, East and Midwest brace for snow.

Los Angeles saw its wettest Christmas in 54 years as atmospheric rivers brought rain and snow across California this week, killing at least three people. At least 32 million remained under flood watches Friday. Meanwhile, on the East Coast and in the Midwest, about 66 million people were under winter weather alerts Friday. New York City is expected to see its largest snow accumulation since January 2022.




Stimulant ADHD medications work differently than thought.

New research finds common stimulant ADHD medications like Ritalin and Adderall mainly act on the brain’s reward and wakefulness centers, not the attention networks traditionally thought to be their main target. The study suggests the medications make tasks feel more engaging rather than directly sharpening focus, and may also mimic the brain activity of good sleep, masking sleep deprivation in kids with ADHD.




DOJ finds over 1 million more Epstein-related files it needs to review.

The Justice Department said Wednesday it has received over 1 million new documents potentially tied to the Jeffrey Epstein case. Officials said it could take weeks to review these files produced by the FBI and a New York federal court. The trove is on top of the several hundred thousand files the DOJ said would be shared in the coming weeks. To date, the DOJ has released about 40,000 Epstein documents.




Trump-backed Asfura wins Honduras presidency after disputed election.

Honduras' electoral authority declared former Mayor Nasry Asfura the winner of the Nov. 30 vote, narrowly defeating sportscaster and four-time presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla. The official count shows Asfura of the conservative National Party winning by less than one percentage point over Nasralla of the conservative Liberal Party. Nasralla has alleged fraud, saying not all tally sheets were counted.




Arkansas Powerball lottery player wins second-largest US jackpot ever.

Someone who bought a lottery ticket at an Arkansas gas station on Christmas Eve won a $1.8B jackpot. The winner can choose between a lump sum payment of $834.9M or an annuitized payout of the full prize amount over about 30 years; both options are before taxes. The largest Powerball jackpot on record was more than $2B, won in California in 2022. The odds of hitting the jackpot are roughly one in 292.2 million.




China sanctions 20 US defense companies over Taiwan arms sale.

Boeing’s defense unit and Northrop Grumman are among the sanctioned companies, as well as 10 executives, after the US announced new weapons sales to Taiwan. The move freezes any assets the companies and executives hold in China and restricts business with Chinese entities. The impact is mostly symbolic, as US defense contractors generally conduct little business in China.




Hawaii cruise passengers to face new climate change‑related tax.

A federal judge cleared the way for Hawaii’s new tourist tax, which includes an 11% levy on cruise ship passenger fares, prorated for days spent in port. The tax is the first of its kind in the US and will take effect in early 2026 to help fund climate resilience efforts like shoreline protection and wildfire mitigation. Officials estimate the tax will bring in $100M annually.

Christmas/Birthday

 

Is December 25 really the birthday of Jesus?

AI RESPONSE:

No, December 25th isn't definitively Jesus' actual birthday; the Bible doesn't state the date, but scholars suggest spring/fall, with the December date likely chosen by 4th-century Christians to coincide with pagan winter solstice festivals (like Sol Invictus) for easier cultural adoption, symbolizing the "birth" of the "Son of Light" as days lengthen. While shepherds tending flocks might suggest warmer months, the specific date remains unknown, and it's a tradition, not a biblical fact.

WTF???

Are you kidding me???

4th century Christians wanted to align with the pagan winter solstice....

And, shepherds tending their flocks might suggest warmer months?

AGAIN...  WTF???

As a religious scholar would you not want accuracy, if for no other reason than to establish credibility?

We just finished celebrating this birthday, yet, we are really not sure that its the right birthday and we've know this for centuries but we're committed to this date anyway...

No wonder Christianity is losing members.

So, I guess one's faith is more important than the TRUTH...  

Did you ever think HEAVEN might be the same issue as the birthday?

Or, that this so-called heaven does not exist at all.

Somewhat Political

Serene

 

Headlines

Scene from the Apple TV+ show ‘Severance’


The weather outside is frightful, but the bingeing options inside are delightful. This year was full of new media as industries from Hollywood to gaming seemed to finally get projects out post-pandemic.
Music

Before Bad Bunny hops onto the Super Bowl Halftime Show stage in 2026, he became Spotify’s most-listened-to artist of the year for the fourth time. Joining him in the 2025 global rankings are Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, Drake, and Billie Eilish.Spotify’s top artists, songs, and more
Pitchfork’s 50 Best Albums of 2025
NPR’s 125 Best Songs of the Year
The New York Times’s Best Songs
The Guardian’s Best Music of 2025
TV

It was a satisfying year for long-awaited second seasons, with Season 2 of Severance remaining mysterious and important, The Last of Us once again scaring the world with fungus-zombies, and The Rehearsal showing Nathan Fielder trying to solve air safety.The New York Times’s Best TV Shows
Rolling Stone’s Top 10
The best shows according to industry insiders at Variety and The Hollywood Reporter
AV Club’s Top 25 TV Series
Movies

Paul Thomas Anderson stans will notice that One Battle After Another seemed to make every top-movie ranking. But 2025 was also the year of slaying scary creatures, with KPop Demon Hunters and Sinners both earning acclaim.The New York Times’s Best Movies
The Rotten Tomatoes Awards Leaderboard
The Washington Post’s Top 10
Rolling Stone’s 10 Best Horror Movies
Podcasts

The Rest is History got everyone chatting about historical events like they just happened yesterday. At the same time, millions of people continued to listen to grisly true-crime pods while shopping at Trader Joe’s.Vulture’s Best Podcasts
The New Yorker’s Top 10
The top shows on Apple and Spotify
LitHub’s favorite literary podcasts
Video games

Indie games dominated a year with few blockbuster releases (still waiting on Grand Theft Auto VI), featuring quirky heroes like a bug that battles with a needle and a daughter of Hades and Persephone.GameSpot’s Best Reviewed Games
RTE’s 10 Best Video Games
The Washington Post’s Top 10 Video Games
Metacritic’s top-scored games
Winners of the annual Game Awards                —JW

READ MORE...

Robert Reich

A Salute to New York’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani
He takes office Thursday. Here’s my interview with him before the election.





Friends,

The headlines will proclaim that he’s New York’s youngest, first Muslim, and first African-born mayor. He’s also the first avowed Democratic Socialist to fill the job. But if you really want to understand him and why he won — he will take office Thursday — you may want to watch the following interview.

Trump chose a scowl for his official portrait. Mamdani’s smile is its opposite. While Trump has brought anger, hate, and cruelty to America, Mamdani is likely to bring kindness, thoughtfulness, and empathy to New York.

Mr. Mayor-elect Mamdani, we wish you the best of luck.

At A Glance

Bookkeeping
> 42: Consecutive hours a British sandwich shop owner spent singing Christmas songs, a new world record.
> 8: How many people it takes to perform an annual checkup on a 140-pound stingray.

Browse
> What Americans think is the best decade of life.
> Can you name the 20 objects that defined culture in 2025?
> ... and how well do you know baby boomer pop culture?
> A subjective list of the year's worst movies.
> ... and eight movies turning 50 next year.

Listen
> The economics of Christmas lights.

Watch
> Shrinking cardboard sales could signal a recession.
> Why we haven't domesticated monkeys.
> Build-A-Bear Workshop shares grew 1,150% in five years. Here's how.

Long Read
> Why the concept of zero matters, according to neuroscience.
> Welcome to Sommarøy, the village that doesn't obey the clock.

Most Clicked This Week: Power outage sets US clock back 4.8 microseconds.

Historybook: Chemist Louis Pasteur born (1822); Actress and singer Marlene Dietrich born (1901); Radio City Music Hall opens in New York City (1932); Pakistan politician Benazir Bhutto assassinated (2007); Carrie Fisher dies (2016).

How To Start the Mediterranean Diet? Top 3 Tips from a Doctor

Quick Clips

 

Accuracy

 

In 1990 I moved from NC to TN because I left my job at a community college in NC to work for a community college in TN because the President wanted me to start a Center for Quality and Productivity Training in his service area.  My main focus was TQM or Total Quality Management and specifically Team Oriented Problem Solving using SPC or Statistical Process Control.

The TQM movement was started in Ohio and revolved around the teachings of Dr. Edwards W. Deming, a statistician who taught this same program to the Japanese in 1950 because their economy had been totally destroyed during WWII and he was sent there by our government to help them rebuild it.

Executives from the Ford Motor Company saw an NBC White Paper entitled:  IF JAPAN CAN WHY CAN'T WE.  So, it was Ford that brought Deming's teachings back to the US and I was one of a select few who had been trained by Drs.  Deming and Joiner in the late 1980s.

During my SPC training, I became aware of SIX SIGMA versus THREE SIGMA.  See chart below for a comparison.

Comparing 99.7% Accuracy to Six Sigma

Category	99.7% Accuracy (3 Sigma)	Six Sigma (6 Sigma)
Babies	12 given to wrong parents daily	1 baby given to wrong parents every 230 years.
Mail	20,000 lost pieces per hour	35 lost pieces per year.
Airlines	2 unsafe landings daily (O'Hare)	1 unsafe landing every 10 years.
Prescriptions	20,000 wrong drugs per year	1 wrong drug every 25 years.
Checks	22,000 wrong deductions per hour	1.3 wrong deductions per year.
Electricity	7 hours of outages per month	2 minutes of outages per year.
Surgery	500 incorrect surgeries per week	1 incorrect surgery every 20 years.

You can clearly see the impact of moving from 3 sigma to 6 sigma and yet many of our major companies refused to do this because of the money it would cost to get there...  Go Figure?

Somewhat Political

 

Flying cars take off

The sky’s no longer a limit for automobiles.

Alef Aeronautics is turning sci-fi into reality by beginning production on the world’s first flying car, the Alef Model A Ultralight, which will likely be available to customers by early 2026.

“We are happy to report that production of the first flying car has started on schedule,” Jim Dukhovny, CEO of the California-based startup, said in a statement. “We’re finally able to get production off the ground.”

Manufactured at Alef’s Silicon Valley facility, the veritable electric Pegasus will take several months to complete.

READ MORE...

Buddy Holly & The Crickets - Not Fade Away [1957] Undubbed.

CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYs

 

Christmas Morning

Christmas Eve

 

EASIEST GUIDE for BEGINNERS MEDITERRANEAN DIET! You Need to Watch this V...

Quick Clips

 

In The NEWS

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Four teams advance to join the four top seeds in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals; see preview of the matchups, scheduled to begin Dec. 31 (More)

> Bowen Yang ends run at "Saturday Night Live," bidding farewell to the show midseason (More) | Third "Avatar" installment earns $88M at the domestic box office, $345M globally (More)

> Boxer and influencer Jake Paul loses to former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in Netflix match Friday, confirms jaw broken in two places (More)


Science & Technology
> Self-driving company Waymo temporarily suspends service in San Francisco after widespread blackout knocks out traffic lights, leaving cars unable to function safely (More) | See our favorite insights on autonomous cars (1440 Topics)

> Commerce Department reportedly cancels five-year, $285M contract with the public-private SMART Institute; consortium focused on using digital replicas to speed up chip manufacturing (More)

> Evolutionary study suggests ant species with weaker individual exoskeletons free up nutritional resources to create more worker ants, tending to lead to more successful colonies (More)


Business & Markets
> US stock markets close up Friday (S&P 500 +0.9%, Dow +0.4%, Nasdaq +1.3%), driven by a rebound in AI stocks; Oracle rises 6.6% on news of impending TikTok sale (More)

> Analysis shows a record $61B flowed into data center construction deals in 2025, with roughly 75% made in the US and Canada (More)

> Delaware Supreme Court reinstates Tesla CEO Elon Musk's $56B bonus package from 2018, which was rescinded by a lower court last year; Musk becomes first person to surpass $700B in net wealth (More)


Politics & World Affairs
> Gunmen kill at least nine people, wound 10 others in mass shooting in Bekkersdal, South Africa (More)

> Files released by the Justice Department Friday include copy of the earliest known complaint against sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, submitted to the FBI in 1996; the government did not bring charges until more than a decade later (More)

> French authorities arrest three employees at the Élysée Palace on suspicion of stealing thousands of dollars' worth of silverware (More)

SOURCE:  1440 NEWS

My Writing (1972 to present)

 

I started writing seriously in 1972, right after I received an honorable discharge from the US Navy and returned to college to finish my degree.

What I started writing was poems...  not sure why I began with poetry but I did.  What I would do is go to McDonalds and get a large cup of coffee (free refills), sit in a corner with a little notebook and begin writing about my thoughts putting it into a poetic rhythm, not trying to rhyme.  At th end of each month, I would put those pages in an envelope, label the month-year-amount.  

I gradually stopped doing this in 2009 when I started my blog and completed stopped doing this in 2012 when I started posting a poem each day.  Interestingly, when I thought about halting my morning writing routine, I had amassed over 42,000 poems.

In the 1970's I joined a local writer's club and began writing short stories along with my poems but my journey into short stories did not last long as I only wrote about 10/12 of them.

Around the 1980s, I joined LinkedIn and began posting essays and opinion articles.  When I left LinkedIn in the late 1990s earlier 2000s, I had managed to publish right around 1500 of these essays.  This achievement seemed rather important to me but I really did not do anything about it.

In 2015, my wife and I retired and I started writing novels.  By the end of this month, or ten years later, I have written 22 novels, each of which is over 100,000 words.  Totaling the word count, I have written over 2.200,000 words which is rather a remarkable achievement.

My Writing Totals:

42.000+ poems

1500 essays/opinion articles

22 Novels at 2,200,000+ words

Somewhat Political

 

Plasma Turbulence Is Doing Surprising Things Inside Fusion Reactors

The interiors of fusion reactors can get seriously chaotic. But for obvious reasons—like extreme temperatures and pressures—researchers aren’t typically able to peek directly inside a reactor. Some physicists have found workarounds, and when they do, the results appear to contradict conventional theory on what scientists think should be happening inside.

READ MORE....

Lovin` Spoonful 1965 Live. Do You Believe In Magic TNT Show + Lyrics

At A Glance

See the world's first beer vaccine.

How Earth's atmosphere sheds onto the moon.

Denmark's postal service to end service after 400 years.

The ultra-efficient power of the human brain. (w/video)

Thousands gather to see winter solstice sunrise at Stonehenge.

... and words for winter from around the world.

A roundup of good news stories from 2025.

Everything you need to know to play white elephant.

Clickbait: Is swearing good for us?

... and want to see something cool? Surprise me.

Historybook: Beethoven’s "Fifth Symphony" premieres (1808); Former first lady Lady Bird Johnson born (1912); Maurice and Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees born (1949); Colo becomes first gorilla born in captivity (1956); “Don’t ask, don’t tell” military policy repealed (2010).

Be Prepared

 

Sarah Westall

 

TimcastIRL