10/4/22 – So Long And Thanks for All the Fish!
Today, on the drive to work while sitting at as stop light, I looked around felt and once again that I needed to take a breath, pause and just look around. Its been happening a lot lately; like this might be it. There is a need to be present and grateful of being on the planet. Maybe things will really escalate. It could be today.
Immediately the universe is humor and I thought well, so long and thanks for all the fish! (Do love my sardines!)
This below is the opening credits from the movie Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, which was also a book, a 1978 radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4, a 1981 TV series, a 1984 text-based computer game, etc.
I hope it puts a smile on your face today.
9/30/22 – Mahsa Amini
#sayhername
Mahsa Amini was an Iranian young woman, 22 years old, who was arrested by the Iranian morality police for “unsuitable attire” while visiting relatives in Tehran, Iran. She was grabbed off the street with her brother being told she was being taken to the police station for “re-education.” While her brother waited at the station, he saw an ambulance pull up and take his sister away. He was told by the police that she had a heart attack or stroke in custody, and was in a coma. She died on September 16. Her family say she was tortured. Eyewitnesses and other women who were detained said she was severely beaten. Her leaked medical scan showed cerebral hemorrhage and stroke.
Iranians and Iranian women especially aren’t buying the official story. There have been many demonstrations of outrage across the country since the death report came out. More than 40 cities have seen hijab protests in Iran. Almost 100 people have been killed protesting. It is being said that this is the largest show of opposition on Iranian streets since “Bloody November,” when citizens protested gasoline prices in 2019. Iran is now detaining journalists in a crackdown on the protesting which has been going on for two weeks.
Women are burning their headscarves and shaving or cutting their hair in public in protest, shouting “Woman, Life, Freedom.” The symbolism of the cutting off of their in public is that the hair is a sign of beauty, but decreed to be hidden by the Islamic Republic.
I’m so proud of these women. I respect them so much for their bravery, for doing what they can to stand up for their rights and condemn Ms. Amini’s killing, and putting their own lives on the line to do so. #sheros #sayhername
Her death and this situation have me feeling really grateful that I’m an American woman today. Even with our own second class status here, I don’t have to worry about leaving my house and getting beaten in the streets by my own government for what I choose to wear, or for any reason that they feel like.
….
Iranian Ex-President Hassan Rouhani released a report while president indicating that 49% of Iranians are against the compulsory veil, but he didn’t call for any reforms.
“This move is extremely strategic. On the surface it immediately appears that he’s waving the flag of women’s rights to choose to wear the veil or not, but when you think that this report signals half of the country is in favor of the law, it’s almost a back-handed way of lending support for the regime.”
As an Islamic cleric and sharia lawyer, I can’t image he would.
I have taken what some of you have shared to heart. I will endeavor – don’t hold me to it – to create a new post on Wednesdays and Sundays. That way you will know when the thread changes. If I miss a day, I’ll post that evening, or the following day. If I have anything I want to share between those times I will add to the current post as an addition. I’m thinking of color coding the sections so you know if something additional is on the post since it went up. Let’s see how it goes. Otherwise, I’ll be posting again on Sunday.
See what I did there? Notice the yellow line? I’m adding this bit below, after the initial post of this morning.
The Honorable Ketanji Brown Jackson cemented her place in history today as the first black woman to sit on America’s Supreme Court. She’ll be placed at the end of the judicial row.
Congratulations to Her Honor for claiming her seat at the table.
Thank you for reading today's post. Have an InterStellar Day! ~PrP
I just saw 33 deaths confirmed. Whether it holds or not the Navigator is recognized.
It is not the number of humans that perish in a designed disaster that matters, it is the lesson learned. Presently three countries,( C.hina, A.merica, R.ussia) have been notified that we intend to start the C.A.R. with a huge jump start. Each country has received notice that we want all our people returned and the devices they had upon demand. To show that we are serious, one of those countries will have 7 plus earthquake applied to its territory. The selection is being decided by a council weighting the offense made by those nations.
Note to CAR if you think that we will allow stolen technology to be used by you to gain a nuclear advantage when you launch, think again.
I’m for ARC
100 would be a good start. I would think Howie consider that to be a good start.
Howie is satisfied. About a dozen more would make him ecstatic.
How sad is it that in some countries women are fight to attain the right to control their own bodies whereas in America the women are willing to give up that same right?
So true
Did You Know?
The old wives’ tale of “storm babies”, babies born as a result of large storms, actually has some merit. A scientific review of delivery data and local barometric pressure found that sudden changes in barometric pressure increased the chances of rupture of the fetal membrane and the start of the delivery process.
Did You Know?
Boston’s Beacon Hill used to be 58 feet higher than it is today—back in the early 19th century, the hill was excavated to provide huge amounts of fill for the shoreline and bodies of water such as Mill Pond. The excavation of Beacon Hill and the subsequent “massive filling” increased Boston’s land mass by 150 percent.
Did You Know?
The rectangular area of a flag found in the upper left corner (top hoist corner) of the flag, such as the blue field and white stars on the United States flag or the Union Flag found in the upper corner of the Australian flag, is called a canton.
DID YOU KNOW THESE THINGS HAD NAMES?
1. The space between your eyebrows is called a glabella.
2. The way it smells after the rain is called petrichor.
3. The plastic or metallic coating at the end of your shoelaces is called an aglet.
4. The rumbling of the stomach is actually called a wamble.
5. The cry of a newborn baby is called a vagitus.
6. The prongs on a fork are called tines.
7. The sheen or light that you see when you close your eyes and press your hands on them is called phosphenes.
8. The tiny plastic table placed in the middle of a pizza box is called a box tent.
9. The day after tomorrow is called overmorrow.
10. Your tiny toe or finger is called minimus.
11. The wired cage that holds the cork in a bottle of champagne is called an agraffe.
12. The ‘na na na’ and ‘la la la’, which don’t really have any meaning in the lyrics of any song, are called vocables.
13. When you combine an exclamation mark with a question mark (like this ?!), it is referred to as an interrobang.
14. The space between your nostrils is called columella nasi.
15. The armhole in clothes, where the sleeves are sewn, is called armscye.
16. The condition of finding it difficult to get out of bed in the morning is called dysania.
17. Illegible handwriting is called griffonage.
18. The dot over an “i” or a “j” is called tittle.
19. That utterly sick feeling you get after eating or drinking too much is called crapulence.
20. The metallic device used to measure your feet at the shoe store is called Bannock device.
Did You Know?
Mushroom aficionados use wicker baskets or mesh bags to gather mushrooms in the field. Not only does the airflow around the mushrooms help keep them fresh but, more importantly, it allows the mushroom spores to disperse freely as they walk, “seeding” a new crop of mushrooms along the way home.
Your complaint is taken, but you will probably lose. The beings on W*/4 are much better equipped biologically to survive on Mercury than the inhabitants on Venus. Yes, those on Venus have been there for 50 odd years, but it is about 162 million miles from Earth’s Sun whereas Mercury is only about 51 million miles from Earth’s Sun. That would make the climate of Mercury at least twice as hot.
W*/4’s occupants can withstand that heat because their biology allows them to survive under even hotter conditions. Yes, both W & V use heat shock proteins to survive very hot temperatures. The important difference is that V’s biology produces those proteins automatically as a response to the heat after the fact, while W’s biology allows them to produce their heat protection proteins at will. Hence they can begin to prepare for extreme heat before they leave their vessel.
If I may add to your astute observation, we also have a technological advantage over Venus’s inhabitants. The material they use to reflect any Sun’s rays is cylindrical in shape. We use material with triangular prisms. They are far superior because they reflect more than 90% of a Sun’s rays.
I left that fact out because with some effort they could duplicate that technological achievement.
Accepted, but did you mean to leave out the biological factor that allows us to use that technology or any other more efficiently. To wit: We are biologically 48% faster than the Venus inhabitants. Our triangular prisms allow us to use that speed to accomplish tasks on a hot surface without prolong exposure to the elements of a very hot planet.
Noted.
The Venus inhabitants are biologically much closer to human anatomy than W*/4, all humans produce heat proteins that automatically respond to heat after the fact. Because of their similarity to humans, they can move between the two planets without the problems of detections those on W*/4 will encounter. Since one of the purposes is to mingle with earthlings, to discover the possibility of bringing them to planets with such extreme environments they should have the edge. However, if you feel the inhabitance of Mercury is the more desirable goal. I accept their decision.
There is NO interest in bring the cattle to other planets. They will soon soil theirs beyond safe use.
I’m okay with it. But if I may suggest something. The best way to explain their actions is to use the Earth’s Chaos Theory.
Since everyone is worried about a nuclear confrontation, I think this is apropos.
Who is the greatest person that history has forgotten? Stanislav Petrov.
He, with no hyperbole or exaggeration, saved the world.
Stanislav had the rather dull sounding job title of “deputy chief for combat algorithms at Sepukhov-15.” His job was to watch a computer and if a small red light went off on the computer to give the order to a very twitchy boss.
The light would indicate that a full scale nuclear attack had been launched on his country, the USSR, by the USA or any other foreign enemy.
On September 26th 1983, at just after midnight, the light blinked on.
The Soviet leadership at the time was on hair-trigger alert. The aging leadership of the USSR was sure that the US was about to launch a strike, as they had seen from the bellicose language of their president, Ronald Reagan. Only a few weeks earlier, a South Korean plane had flown into Soviet airspace just as if it was testing their defences. There was anger and fear; to many on both sides it seemed only a matter of time.
There was no time to check the computers for a bug, no time to check for a flaw in the system.
To Petrov it seemed however unlikely that this was a full scale American attack; it only consisted of 5 missiles; they would need thousands to eliminate the entire Soviet weapon stockpile.
So he told his superiors, ready to launch a nuclear strike, that it was a flaw in the system. There was no Soviet retaliation to what was eventually revealed to be a computer bug.
If it had been a different man on duty, if he had decided to just follow orders, then within a few days half a billion people would be dead.
He did not.
He saved us all.
After this, very little came of the incident. His competence was noted by his superiors, who promised him a reward, which never materialised. He left the Soviet army a few months later on health grounds and suffered a nervous breakdown. He has since been given several small (in proportion to what he did) awards, such as a world’s citizen award from the UN and a Dresden Prize from Germany.
A military train that belongs to the forces responsible for Russia’s nuclear arsenal has been spotted moving toward the front lines in Ukraine, while Moscow was said to have deployed the world’s biggest submarine — dubbed a “city killer” — in the Arctic Circle.
These latest maneuvers could signal an increasingly desperate Vladimir Putin’s willingness to escalate the war following a series of embarrassing defeats on the battlefield, including the loss of a key city in Donetsk and the most recent setbacks in the Kherson region.
We will sink the “city killer” if it pollutes with its oil leaks.
Black History:
History they didn’t teach you in school
“Slavery days was hell. I was growed up when de War come, and I was a mother before it closed. Babies was snatched from dere mother’s breast and sold to speculators. Chillens was separated from sisters and brothers and never saw each other again. ‘Course dey cry. You think they not cry when dey was sold like cattle? I could tell you about it all day, but even den you couldn’t guess de awfulness of it. It’s bad to belong to folks dat own you soul and body, dat can tie you up to a tree, with yo’ face to d’ tree and yo’ arms fastened tight around it, who take a long curling’ whip and cut de blood every lick. Folks a mile away could hear dem awful whippings. Dey was a terrible part of livin’…
Massa Garlic had two boys in de War. When dey went off de massa and mistis cried, but it made us glad to see dem cry. Dey made us cry so much…”
— Delia Garlic, interviewed in Montgomery, Alabama, by Margaret Fowler, of the Federal Writer’s Project in the late 1930s and who insisted to Ms. Fowler that she was “at least” 100 years old. Born in Powhatan, Virginia in the 1830s and one of 14 children, and enslaved in Louisiana, Alabama and Virginia.
On this day (July 2nd) …..
“146 years ago, on this day, the Lakota/Dakota/Nakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho defeated General George Armstrong Custer along with the U.S. 7th Calvary, June 25, 1876 at the Battle of Greasy Grass/Big Horn, MT. After General Custer found gold in the Black Hills, SD, he tried to use the 7th Calvary to help force our ancestors out of the Black Hills and onto reservations and overtake the Paha Sapa (Black Hills).
Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Inkpa Duta and our Oceti Sakowin warriors, joined with Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho Warriors to defeated General Custer and the 7th Calvary, saving the lives of many women and children…and to this day, we have never sold the Black Hills.
Happy Victory Day relatives!” – Native American DNA
JOKE:
This little old lady goes to the doctor and says…
This little old lady goes to the doctor and says, “Doctor I have this problem with passing gas, but it really doesn’t bother me too much. It never smells and it’s always silent. As a matter of fact, I’ve passed gas at least 20 times since I’ve been here in your office. You didn’t know I was passing gas because it doesn’t smell and it’s silent.”
The doctor says “I see. Take these pills and come back to see me next week.”
The next week the lady goes back. “Doctor,” she says, “I don’t know what you gave me, but now my passing gas… although still silent, it stinks terribly.”
“Good”, the doctor said, “now that we’ve cleared up your sinuses, we’ll start to work on your hearing.”
An old geezer, who had been a retired farmer for a long time became very bored and decided to open a medical clinic.
An old geezer, who had been a retired farmer for a long time became very bored and decided to open a medical clinic.
He put a sign up outside that said: “Get your treatment for $500 – if not cured get back $1,000.”
Doctor “Young,” who was positive that this old geezer didn’t know beans about medicine, thought this would be a great opportunity to get $1,000.
He went to Dr. Geezer’s clinic and this is what happened.
Dr. Young: “Dr. Geezer, I have lost all taste in my mouth. Can you please help me?
Dr. Geezer: “Nurse, please bring medicine from box 22 and put 3 drops in Dr. Young’s mouth.”
Dr. Young: “Aaagh! This is Gasoline!”
Dr. Geezer: “Congratulations! You’ve got your taste back. That will be $500.”
Dr. Young gets annoyed and goes back after a couple of days figuring to recover his money.
Dr Young: “I have lost my memory, I cannot remember anything.”
Dr. Geezer: “Nurse, please bring medicine from box 22 and put 3 drops in the patient’s mouth.”
Doctor Young: “Oh no you don’t, that’s Gasoline!”
Dr. Geezer: “Congratulations! You’ve got your memory back. That will be $500.”
Dr. Young (after having lost $1000) leaves angrily and comes back after several more days.
Dr. Young: “My eyesight has become weak I can hardly see!”
Dr. Geezer: “Well, I don’t have any medicine for that so. Here’s your $1000 back.”
Dr. Young: “But this is only $500…”
Dr. Geezer: “Congratulations! You got your vision back! That will be $500.”
Moral of the story: Just because you’re “Young” doesn’t mean that you can outsmart an old “Geezer “
JOKE:
A teacher said to her class
A teacher said to her class, “Right, I’m going to hold something under the desk and i want you to guess it.
This one is round and red.”
Little Johnny’s hand shot up, but he was ignored.
“It’s a plum miss,” said a girl.
“no it’s an apple, but I like your thinking.
The next one is oval-shaped and green.”
The teacher ignored Little Johnny again and a boy said, “It’s a kiwi miss.”
No, it’s a guava, but I like your thinking.”
Little Johnny said, ” I got one miss, its stiff, about an inch long, and with a red nib.”
“Johny, that’s disgusting!” shouted the teacher. ” no it’s a match, but I like your thinking.”
Said Little Johnny.
JOKE:
Two Marines boarded a quick shuttle flight out of Dallas, headed for Houston.
Two Marines boarded a quick shuttle flight out of Dallas, headed for Houston.
One sat in the window seat, the other sat in the middle seat.
Just before take-off, an Army soldier got on and took the aisle seat next to the two Marines.
The Soldier kicked off his shoes, wiggled his toes and was settling in when the Marine in the window seat said, “I think I’ll get up and get a coke.”
“No problem,” said the Soldier, “I’ll get it for you.”
While he was gone, the Marine picked up the Soldier’s shoe and spit in it.
When the Soldier returned with the coke, the Marine in the middle seat said, “That looks good, I think I’ll have one too.”
Again, the Soldier obligingly went to fetch it and while he was gone, the Marine picked up the soldier’s other shoe and spit in it.
The Soldier returned and they all sat back and enjoyed the rest of the short flight to Houston.
As the plane was landing, the Soldier slipped his feet into his shoes and knew immediately what had happened.
“How long must this go on?” the Soldier asked.
“This fighting between our services?
This hatred?
This animosity?
This spitting in shoes and peeing in cokes?”
JOKE:
A blonde was speeding in a 35-mile-per-hour zone when a local police officer pulled her over and walked up to the car.
The officer also happened to be a blonde and she asked for the blonde’s driver’s license.
The driver searched frantically in her purse for a while and finally said to the blonde policewoman, “What does a driver’s license look like?”
Irritated, the blonde cop said, “You dummy, it’s got your picture on it!”
The blonde driver frantically searched her purse again and found a small, rectangular mirror down at the bottom.
She held it up to her face and said, “Aha!
This must be my driver’s license” and handed it to the blonde policewoman.
The blonde cop looked in the mirror, handed it back to the driver and said,
“You’re free to go.
And, if I had known you were a police officer too, we could have avoided all of this.”
We the People have this to say about the arrival of the white man to our shores.
They arrived.
They had the Bible and we had the land.
And they said to us, “Close your eyes and pray.” And when we opened our eyes they had the land and we had the Bible.
1. – THEY SAID THOU SHALL NOT KILL… But they murdered over 12 million of our brothers.
2. – THEY SAID YOU SHALL NOT STEAL… But they stole our land, riches, gold, silver, our people’s lives.
3. – THEY SAID THOU SHALL NOT LUST FOR THY NEIGHBOR’S WIFE, But they raped married women, teenagers and girls.
4. – THEY SAID YOU SHOULDN’T LIE… But they cheated with the cross in their hand.
This was NOT a joke. Why did you place it here>
Just as Pence didn’t trust the Secret Service, and Biden doesn’t fully trust his Secret Service because they can be easily bought or persuaded by ideological commitments. Perhaps Kennedy shouldn’t have trusted his:
Are JFK’s final words, “My God, I’m hit,” a clue to the assassination?
Secret Service Chief Roy Kellerman was sitting in the passenger front seat of the limo, stating he heard JFK cry out, “My God, I’m hit!” after the first shot.
All WCR readers have seen this, yet none consider that JFK couldn’t have said this with a wounded throat. So, is there an explanation?
Howard Donahue was a Baltimore gunsmith, who had become recognized as firearms specialist, and had testified as an expert witness in multiple shooting cases. Donahue was also a well-known marksman. This resulted in in CBS News asking him to take part in an a reenactment of the JFK assassination using a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle similar to the one Oswald used in 1963.
The network wanted to know if Lee Harvey Oswald’s Italian military-surplus, bolt-action rifle really could have been fired three times with two hits on a moving target in less than six seconds. Donahue proved that it could. Of the 11 shooters participating in the experiment, only Donahue exceeded Oswald’s performance by scoring three hits in 4.8 seconds, well under the 5.6-second maximum.
The result of Donahue partaking of this CBS shooting test, sparked a strong desire for him to dig into the Kennedy assassination. Knowing ballistics, Donahue questioned how the Carcano military bullet could explode in JFK’s head. So he went to the National Archives and looked at the two major fragments recovered from the limo’s front seat. He was amazed that these bullet parts didn’t have any hair, bone, blood, or tissue matter imbedded in them under magnification. Also, one of the fragments had a sharp edge on it, something that only happens upon hitting a very hard surface.
There was one other concern Donahue had, an entry wound in the back of JFK’s head, smaller than a 6.5 bullet, used by Oswald. This lead to Donahue supporting that a SS agent in the follow up car shot JFK, exploiting his head.
But what about the 6.5 bullet fragments found on the front seat, with no signs of JFK body parts on it? Many witnesses reported a bullet struck the pavement behind the limo. This would have explained the sharp edge, as well as the bullet fragmenting and entering the limo, shards embedding in the back of JFK’s head. Hearing the rifle shot and feeling bullet shards, calls out, “My God, I’m hit!”
Oswald’s rifle was in serious need of adjustment according to the FBI, needing three shims to adjust it. This would explain away the overshot that injured James Tague down by the underpass, and the bullet that hit the pavement behind the limo.
A writer heard of Donahue and his theories and the two wrote “Mortal Error” where SS Agent George Hickey Jr. shoots JFK accidently with his rifle. This I don’t buy as Dave Powers, one of JFK’s aides and close friend, was only one foot away, and didn’t heard the Hickey Jr.’s rifle go off.
What is known of the headshot bullet that struck JFK and why did his head explode since the other bullet just passed right through?
Different bullets passed through JFK’s head, (2) both from the front. One shattered from the back, not exiting.
The full metal jacket bullet was never found on Kennedy or Connally, and never positively traced backed to the hospital floor. There isn’t any solid proof that a Carcano fired bullet hit either JFK or the Governor.
Different loads, different bullets. The frontal bullet was explosive.
Had a FMJ bullet hit JFK in the head from the back, it would have exited his face.
In the wake of the recent scandal, what are your thoughts on the revelation that some of the US Secret Service agents are retaining counsel?
As well they should. It’s starting to appear Biden was right in not accepting the initial batch of USSS agents assigned to him and his family. And Pence was correct in not getting into the limo on Jan, 6th, 21.
There’s something going on when there’s an active effort to destroy evidence by law enforcement in the largest criminal investigation ever. Also the worst attack on our democracy in over 100 years. Could there be any other reason for erasures? I can’t think of a single legitimate one, only concealing evidence. A crime. And for that you need a lawyer
Edit: And today it was revealed that the coverup extended into the Trump appointed OIG office of DHS.
CNN: Exclusive: DHS inspector general knew of missing Secret Service texts months earlier than previously known.
Washington (CNN) – The embattled inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security first learned of missing Secret Service text messages in May 2021 — months earlier than previously known and more than a year before he alerted the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, that potentially crucial information may have been erased, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
Washington (CNN) – The embattled inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security first learned of missing Secret Service text messages in May 2021 — months earlier than previously known and more than a year before he alerted the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, that potentially crucial information may have been erased, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
Why do people buy Mercedes and BMWs when cars like Honda and Toyota are cheaper and more reliable?
Honda’s Honda’s and ToyotasToyota’s do not drive like BMW and Mercedes. For starters, every single Honda or Toyota sedan, without exception, is front wheel drive. It is cheaper to build a car that way. It is lighter and it results in more interior room. This is why they do it. Also, they have perfected these designs generation after generation. They know how to do it, on a large scale, better than anyone else. The downside, is that compared to a rear wheel drive car, they handle like garbage. The front wheels are both propelling AND steering the car; double duty. Maybe you have heard the term “torque steer”, this is when the torque from the motor is pulling the car to the right, or left, depending which wheel has grip, as you accelerate. It’s not a lot of fun having a powerful motor in a front wheel drive car. Slam on the gas, the torque pulls you into the curb. What works better, mechanically, is for the rear wheels to propel the car and the only job the front wheels have is to steer the car. A rear wheel drive car has been, and remains, the standard in a true “drivers car”. Through clever engineering, Honda does make the Civic Type R which is front wheel driver but by all accounts, is pretty awesome. However, this is the exception and not the norm. Mind you it’s as expensive as a comparable BMW.
Mercedes and BMW, without exception (until just recently on the cheapest entry level cars) are rear wheel drive. Once you experience this, it is very hard to go back. I’m not eloquent enough to give you a satisfactory explanation, you are going to have to care about how the car drives in the first place, then go experience it for yourself. It’s better. A lot better. No torque steer, you can light up the rear tires on a turn causing it to do a controlled slide etc. It’s more composed and controlled…..it’s a ton of fun!
Honda and Toyota over-engineer and under-power their motors. They do this so that they run 200,000 miles or more (the thing you so admire). However, they are not nearly as powerful as the German cars engines are. Even the four cylinders. Who wants a powerful front wheel drive car anyway? With all that torque steer…..yuck. For mass produced, economy cars, it’s great. The market for this is huge. Obviously. However, you get these benefits at the expense of the power train and handling of the car.
The Japanese cars are less concerned about the suspension, weight distribution and cornering grip. Those are secondary considerations to economy, reliability and functionality. The opposite is true for the German cars, especially BMW. It’s cheaper to build a less complex, yet reliable car, if you don’t have to engineer structural reinforcement (for stability) and an even weight distribution. Simple, mass produced, reliable. That’s the name of the game for the Japanese.
Luxury. Do I really need to say anything? You don’t buy a Merc or a Bimmer with cloth seats. Most Honda’s and Toyota’s are sold with cloth seats, basic amenities and such. You can buy one with leather seats, a naturally aspirated V6 that’s decent and with some options. Even then, you are only dipping your toe into the water of what a German car would be. Especially Mercedes in this regard.
Technology. The Germans, especially Mercedes, are going to decimate the Japanese cars, period, and especially the ones you mentioned, in this regard. Most of the new Mercedes models can park themselves for crying out loud. Tons of tech.
Prestige. Driving a BMW or Mercedes is making a statement. Just like being well dressed, you are saying that you have achieved some level of competency and status. I experienced this much more in the Mercedes I owned than in my BMW. For whatever reason, Mercedes is perceived as being more “I have money” than BMW. I didn’t care for that aspect of owning it after a potential client said “I hope I’m not paying for that”, when I pulled into her driveway. Or when I pulled into a referral source and one of the girls was asking “oooh who is that pulling up in a mercedes”. I’m married, I don’t need those kinds of problems. The BMW is more of a sweet spot I think. It says “I know what I’m doing, but I’m not rubbing it in your face.” I haven’t had any negative comments from possible clients since I owned it or gold-diggers sniffing around.
So there you go. That’s why, even though the Honda’s and Toyota’s are good reliable cars, they don’t cost as much as BMW and Mercedes. They are mass produced, econo-box cars. That’s how they drive, look and handle. There is nothing wrong with that at all. In fact, I admire them immensely. I sold tons of them when I was a car salesman and felt good about the product. I slept like a baby. It’s not easy to reliably mass produce cars of that quality, affordably. It’s an art unto itself and truly a marvel. I sold a retiree a new Toyota and he told me that he was buying it because his son was a higher up at Sikorsky Helicopters and they were adopting Toyota’s production principles. These lowly Japanese car companies revolutionized the world over the last 60 years or so. If you like them, keep buying them. A few hours ago I left a retired Chief Surgeons house. The dude can buy whatever he wants. He has a 14 year Camry XLE in his driveway. Why? Because it’s a damn fine car and there is nothing wrong with it!
What did the Kremlin leaked documents reveal?
Well, to put it in a nutshell it revealed the following:
A description of Trump being unbalanced, impulsive, mentally unstable and had a inferiority complex.
The Kremlin had compromising material on Trump, but did not say what it was.
The Kremlin supported Trump because having him in the White House would push the U.S. into “social turmoil” and weaken the United States.
The accident occurred because water from 6^/7’s habit was brought up with them. Water there is compressed to around 94% of its sea-level volume. The container that it was brought up in wasn’t able to withstand 1100 atmospheres of pressure, or flexible enough to expand to 107% of its original volume when it is on the surface.
Vladimir Putin knew that Russia would face economic consequences for invading Ukraine. Why would he gamble with the destiny of his country?
For the same reason Hitler did. First, he believed that victory would d be swift and demonstrate the might of the Russian military.
Second, he believed like Hitler that leaders in Europe and the US were weak and would not take any action so as not to provoke him.
Third, he believed his ace in the hole was China who would respond if necessary and come to his aid if necessary. Hitler’s ace in the hole was the Soviet Union who helped and supplied him in his earlier invasions.
Hitler was wrong and so is Putin. Even if he eventually wins what is his gain. A country destroyed by war? His economy will be in ruins. He will be isolated from the world. Surrounding countries not members of NATO will apply.
He has everything to lose and nothing to gain. The only reason for this gamble is ego, vanity and hubris.
My neighbor has hidden cameras pointed at my bedroom windows and backyard and front yard. I can’t see them but I feel I am being watched. What can I do? I feel violated. What legal actions can I take?
I’m going to sidestep the paranoia angle. I agree, I just feel like everyone else has covered it.
But hey, it’s not my place to fail to answer your question simply because you asked it out of paranoia.
Here’s the best thing you can do to stop them: install one of these bad boys in your bedroom window.
Tendelux 200ft Long Range IR Illuminator | BI18 90° LED Outdoor IR Flood Light for Security Camera (w/Power Adapter)
(Note that this is just an option of an IR floodlight that I found on Amazon for a reasonable price; you can use any IR floodlight to solve the problem. And for those of you wondering, this is not an affiliate link, it’s an AmazonSmile link. Look it up.)
This floodlight does not produce visible light. It produces infrared illumination. So for a solid 200 feet around this unit, the dark of night will look like daylight to a camera.
And for any cameras pointed at this unit, it will look like they are staring into the sun.
Complete privacy, no visible light. Congratulations, you’ve just defeated any camera trying to look in to that window.
“I believe that scientific knowledge has fractal properties, that no matter how much we learn, what remains, however small it may seem, is as infinitely complex as the whole was at the beginning. That, I believe, is the secret of the Universe.”
– Isaac Asimov
Simpler put, The GODS are being entertained so we learn what they want us to learn at the pace they intend.
If we are a product of their imagination for their entertainment, how do we know if we have ceased to exist only to return exactly as we were or not. Also for their entertainment or not.
In 1976, Shavarsh Karapetyan, an Armenian Olympic swimmer, had just completed a 12-mile run with his brother when they saw a trolley bus crash into a dam reservoir. The trolley bus sank 80 feet offshore at a depth of 33 feet. Shavarsh immediately dove in and swam to the bus and despite zero visibility, managed to kick in the back window, injuring himself in the process. He proceeded to save twenty people trapped in the bus, one at a time, for hours.
The combined effect of the cold water and his inquiries from breaking the glass window led to his hospitalization for 45 days after the incident, during which time he developed pneumonia, sepsis, and lung damage which ended his athletic career.
For years, his story wasn’t known, until an article about the event identified him by name in 1982. In 1985, he happened to pass by a burning building and rushed inside, again saving people trapped inside one at a time until he collapsed. He was again hospitalized with severe burns and lung damage.
He’s still kicking it at 66. Just an awesome person I learned about today and thought I’d share.
That’s amazing.
https://twitter.com/michaelrlowry/status/1574967469906984960?s=46&t=vWUQhsHtdfurLDhRPBWRBw
We did what we did because your country decided they need not heed our warning not to bother Howie. Perhaps, the major quake we are going to send will not need to be in the US., But as of now, the decision as to which country needs to have the demonstration given, hasn’t been decided.
” I didn’t fall for him. His third leg tripped me. “
‘It’s turned around’
The Covid mass vaccination program in the U.S. began on Dec. 14, 2020, when a nurse at a hospital in Queens, N.Y., received a shot on live television.
But more than two months later, a major health clinic based in North Birmingham, Ala. — which focused on lower-income, Black and Latino residents — still had not given a single vaccine dose. The clinic, Alabama Regional Medical Services, was not able to give shots because it had not received any from the state supply.
The reasons were a matter of dispute. Alabama officials insisted that other Birmingham clinics had signed up first, exhausting the initial supply. Some officials in North Birmingham, however, believed that the state’s white, Republican leadership was ignoring heavily nonwhite, Democratic neighborhoods.
“The long and short of it,” Chris Mosley, who oversaw outreach for the clinic, told me, “was that the Black neighborhoods didn’t have vaccines and the white areas did.”
Birmingham may have been an extreme case, but it was also part of a pattern. Around the U.S., many Black and Latino communities had limited early access to the Covid vaccines. That lack of access — combined with greater vaccine hesitancy among some people of color — contributed to racial gaps in vaccination and, by extension, large racial gaps in Covid death rates.
In today’s newsletter, I want to tell you the story of what ended up happening in Birmingham, as a way of revisiting the larger issue of Covid and race.
‘Can we get some?’
By late February 2021, Mosley was able to use his political contacts to alert the Biden administration to his clinic’s lack of vaccines. His plea for help arrived when White House aides, then in their first weeks in office, were looking for ways to narrow the racial gap in vaccinations. “The natural social history of many diseases is that they tend toward inequality, unless you intentionally combat it,” said Dr. Cameron Webb, a pandemic adviser in the Biden administration.
The Trump administration had seemed uninterested in combating those inequities, leaving it up to states. President Biden made closing the gaps a priority. “We built our Covid response with equity at the heart of it,” Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff, told me.
The administration diverted some vaccine doses from state stockpiles directly to community health clinics. It created a working group across agencies to spread successful ideas. It put federal clinics in Black and Latino neighborhoods. It also helped local organizations set up clinics at churches, barbershops and beauty salons. “In more affluent communities,” Webb said, “people had choices about where they felt confident getting vaccinated.”
As Mosley said, “People would call me and say, ‘I hear you’ve got vaccines over there. Can we get some?’” He added, “It’s turned around in a major way.”
In the spring of 2021, several months into the mass vaccination program, white Americans were significantly more likely to have been vaccinated than Black or Latino Americans. By late 2021, the Hispanic rate was higher than the white rate, and the Black rate was almost as high as the white rate, according to the C.D.C. As a result, the racial gap in death rates has also disappeared.
Data is from Jan. 4, 2020 to Sept. 3, 2022. | Sources: C.D.C.; U.S. Census Bureau
That disappearance is arguably one of Biden’s biggest accomplishments — one that would not have happened, to be clear, without passionate advocacy and hard work by many community health officials. In a country with deep racial inequities, where Covid was initially another tragic example, the virus is no longer disproportionately harming Black and Hispanic Americans.
Yet this accomplishment continues to receive relatively little attention. Why is that?
Two different measures
I first wrote about the reversal of the racial gaps in June, and that newsletter upset some health care experts. They believed I had made a mistake by focusing on overall death rates rather than age-adjusted rates. And there is a fair debate about when to emphasize each one.
Overall death rates are the primary way that many organizations (including The Times, on its Covid dashboards, and the C.D.C., in its annual mortality report) describe a disease’s toll. This rate offers a census of who’s dying. If one group’s death rate is higher than another’s, it means the victims of that disease come disproportionately from the first of the two groups.
But an age-adjusted rate also has advantages. It effectively compares a disease’s toll with its expected toll based on the age profile of different groups. For that reason, the C.D.C.’s mortality report also includes age-adjusted tables — just after the overall tables — for each cause of death. Because white Americans are older than Black or Latino Americans on average and because most diseases affect the old more than the young, age-adjusted rates tend show larger racial gaps.
If this statistical detail is making your head hurt, I have some good news: It doesn’t affect the main conclusions about Covid and race. By both the overall and age-adjusted measures, the Covid death rates for Black and Latino Americans were higher than the white rate in the early stages of the pandemic, and they remain higher cumulatively. Recently, though, the patterns have changed, and the Black and Latino rates are no longer higher.
The overall Black and Latino rates have been generally lower than the white rate for more than a year:
Data is from Jan. 4, 2020 to Sept. 3, 2022. | Sources: C.D.C.; U.S. Census Bureau
The age-adjusted gap lasted longer, before narrowing early this year and eventually flipping. Since April, the Latino age-adjusted rate has been about 15 percent lower than the white rate. The age-adjusted Black rate has been nearly identical to the white rate — with the Black rate about 1 percent lower — during the same period. (The Asian rate has been lowest for much longer.)
Data is from Jan. 4, 2020 to Sept. 3, 2022. | Sources: C.D.C.; U.S. Census Bureau
One reason is that the remaining pool of unvaccinated Americans is disproportionately Republican, and Republicans are disproportionately white.
“The inequities have largely dissipated in recent weeks and months, even after adjusting for age,” Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist who writes a popular newsletter, told me. “This is absolutely a success story about public health: Targeted, local outreach and stakeholder engagement and investment can overcome decades of health inequities.”
Good news, ignored
If you listen to much of the public discussion about Covid, however, you still might not know about the change in the racial gaps. You might be unaware of a public health success story, with potential lessons for reducing the country’s other stark racial inequities — in incomes, housing, education, criminal justice, the medical system and many other realms.
There are even lessons for future Covid policy. Absent a continued effort, racial gaps could open in booster rates or access to Paxlovid, a drug that reduces Covid symptoms.
There seem to be multiple reasons that the Covid story has been mostly overlooked. In our polarized country, many conservatives are reluctant to call attention to any accomplishment of Biden’s. Many liberals, meanwhile, feel uncomfortable calling attention to any decline in racial or economic inequity, because they worry it minimizes those problems. Some liberals have also been hesitant to talk about positive Covid news, believing that the country is still too blasé about the virus.
But it should be possible to acknowledge the full picture. For all of the misery that Covid has brought, it has also become a case study that should remind us racial injustice can sometimes be overcome.
We agree Elon Musk must be made to pay for his arrogance towards Y]8. He loves the power his money gives him. Let’s take a lot. Reduce the value of all of his stock holdings immediately. Give every electric company the extra technology to compete with him. His violation of loyalty to America has consequences that he must learn we will not accept.
Y]8 has completed his AAR on his encounter with Musk satisfactorily. He violated the reason we gave him the superior technology to give him the lead in electric cars, space travel, and robotics. His meddling in politics contrarily to agreements, can not be tolerated. His continual attempts to transfer alien genes to human offspring of his unions with earth females must be stopped. Use of the nano technology given to him was not intended for human gene manipulation in that direction. Further technology in that field will be given to his competitors.