Question Everything:

How does this help me, knowing Apple and Google top the list, when I'm practically dying of thirst, and all I really want is tall cold Coca Cola Classic?
I love 'spin-doctors' because unspinning them makes a great hobby. And now, please excuse me, while I go to the supermarket for that Coca Cola Classic.
I really am thirsty, and I don't think sucking on an iPhone would satisfy me.

Religion: The view from the cheap seats...

How must it feel getting yourself appointed God's right-hand man on Earth? Do you find yourself wondering what God thinks of all that, or are you too busy deciding who else among your friends ought to accompany you to Heaven - assuming of course that any of you make it there when the time does come.
Do you ever wonder if you're being excessively presumptive in expectation of God's co-operation with all your devious little schemes, or are you simply too busy 'taking care of business' to give that a thought?

Religion, and God, and the various concepts thereof, predate the Catholic church by many millennia, and there's considerable evidence to suggest that Catholicism is simply a revision or update on the format and liturgy extant prior to its appearance on the scene.

The religion of the ancient Egyptians, for example, lasted much longer than this newer era has yet enjoyed, and I implied that the Catholics copied from it when they started Christianity. In Egypt, there were families of gods, such as Osiris, Isis, and their son Horus. Suddenly, we've got Joseph, Mary, and their son Jesus. In Egypt, each of the 42 nomes or districts or provinces had its chief god and its own traditions. Additionally, each city, town, and village had its own favorite god or goddess, and each individual household usually had its own home shrine to its favorite deity. Those big flashy temples whose remains still stand were the exclusive domain of the rich and powerful such as the Pharaoh and his court and their friends and relatives. The average Egyptian had to settle for worshipping his or her own deity or deities at home with their own little shrine, usually set up in the back room of their dwelling, away from the everyday hustle and bustle. So there were lots of gods and goddesses because preferences varied rather widely.

The Catholics came along, took a look at all that, and suddenly, we've got thousands of 'Saints' in place of all those regional, local, and household gods and goddesses.  What's the difference? Mostly semantics, it seems to me.
And I really want to know how any mere mortal convinces himself that he has the balls or the right to appoint himself or his pals as God's chosen few with the responsibility of deciding the eternal fate of the rest of us. Isn't that really usurping God's own authority and jurisdiction? It certainly looks that way to me from my vantage point of 80+ years of observation and study.

Like I mentioned above, God's older than the Catholic church - or any other, for that matter. God doesn't charge admission. You can communicate freely if you are in a suitably contrite, humble, and sincere frame of mind. No seat collection required. And gratitude is one of the most direct ways of contact, because God likes to hear us say 'Thanks' just as any of us would if we provided such gifts to
the unwashed masses. And that's my rant for today, Folks.... 

"The lights are on, but there's nobody home..."

Dear Uncle Sam:

...You cotton-pickin', chicken-pluckin', gun-totin', compromise-hatin', fossilized Old Fart - you're supposed to be a good example to the rest of us, NOT an embarrassment to our collective stupidity, so shame on you!!! Get on the goddamned ball or on the bus, because
time marches on, trampling everything under foot - especially including you. This is NOT a
good time for procrastination and fighting over whose ox gets gored, because that horn could end up in your own ass if you're still standing around when the bull gets to you.
And try to remember - the world is watching and some of us are wondering what the hell
you think you're doing.

Thought for the day:
Grandma's brain was dead, but her heart was still beating; it was the first time we ever had a Republican in the family...

Miley Update....

I'm just wondering.....

Meanwhile, back in Ancient Egypt...

Here's what hieroglyphs looked like and meant in real life....

This was their version of 'Live long and prosper'

 

Foods: How long can you keep stuff ?

Back in 1983, when we were all much younger, Nicole Parton, then at The Vancouver Sun newspaper, wrote a nice little book that tells us all about it -

and with her help, I can still tell you how long to keep stuff in the cupboards, the fridge, and the freezer, so please bear with me, and try to ignore my scribblings and highlighting on the following pages....this is still very useful information, which you may wish to save.

And my sincere thanks and undying gratitude to Nicole, wherever she is now. And if she sees this, may I please request an updated version? This book is my Kitchen Bible and I'll fight the first guy who tries to take it away from me!

Expired foods....

Read the rest of this here.

Seniors and Driving

There are websites operated by your provincial or state governments these days that will let you practice for your driving tests, until you can meet or beat the 80% correct score required for a passing grade, but that's not what may cause you to fail to qualify to continue driving. 

This year for the first time, I turned 80, requiring me to pass a medical at my family doctor's ( cost: $150.00) to prove I'm healthy enough to play in the traffic like I always have. It had a few surprises I hadn't anticipated, like checking my eyesight, which usually is the responsibility of Dr. Debbie and her team at West Vancouver Optometry. And checking my balancing ability on one foot, and walking a line, like the cops do when checking your sobriety. I passed all that, but I'm not sure by how much. Before leaving, while putting my shirt back on, I asked the good doctor, "What percentage of us fail this test, and what is the main cause of the failure?" He replied: "The main cause of the failure is not being able to answer the memory test portion of it, and between 20% and 30% fail the test." 

So you not only need to review your driving skills and road signs recognition, but you also need to be able to remember what day and date today is, and perhaps the name of the leader of your province or state or country's government, or maybe what you had for breakfast yesterday. Tricky little questions designed to discover if you're suffering from dementia or memory loss. I have to wonder, though, why your family doctor wouldn't be aware of those kinds of problems already if you had them. So there's parts of that test which didn't seem all that logical to me. But it isn't supposed to be logical - it's supposed to get us old farts out of the gridlock and off the freeways that we've spent a lifetime paying for with our taxes. As Jim, my favorite Kawasaki bike mechanic used to say, "Ray, nobody promised you life would be fair, and if they did, then they were lying to you." I still miss him and his homespun advice.
 

Question Everything: How many of us is too many?

There's more....here's where to find it.

"We've found water on Mars!" - Not Exactly...

There's a big difference between water trapped in permafrost, and a hot bath or a tall cool glass of drinking water. And Mars' water wasn't lost, it was blown away in a monstrous almost unimaginable explosion about 3.5 billion years ago when a meteoroid between 100 and 200 Km in diameter came from deep space and hit it, puncturing its crust.  Try to imagine the kind of explosion that would create when such a frozen body hit the molten core of Mars.

Here's an excerpt from 'The Larousse Guide to Astronomy' on the subject of Mars' evolution:-
Volcanic plains and basins record the second phase of evolution. The basins were dug by impact from large bodies: the Hellas region displays a diameter of 2000 Km, testimony to a meteoroid between 100 - 200 Km in diameter puncturing the crust more than 3.5 x (10 to the 9th) years ago. ........
In one area of Mars, the Tharsis region, huge volcanic cones rise from an uplifted plateau. Olympus Mons is more than 600 Km across and 25 Km high with a caldera about 80 Km across. Vertical cliffs 2 Km high ring the periphery indicating atmospheric and dust erosion on a wide scale. A major tectonic event has rent the surface just south of the equator and produced a 5000 Km long canyon up to 140 Km wide and nearly 5 Km deep.
Most important, however, are the regions of polar and sedimentary modification. Several areas at mid-northern latitude contain sinuous channels identical to dried river beds which together with glacial scrape marks indicate a very different environment earlier in the planet's history.

Now then - let's assume for a moment that 5000 Km long 'canyon' mentioned is actually an old closed-up hole in the crust. If we took the sides of that 'canyon' and formed them into a circle, we could probably fit our Moon through the hole.
And it might have been a circular hole for a brief moment or two after the explosion inside the molten core caused by the puncturing of the crust due to the impact of that meteoroid mentioned in the text. That unimaginably huge explosion might momentarily have inflated the planet from the inside, causing it
to blow off its outer shell of hard surfaces and oceans into space, and something
(possibly our Moon) may have been expelled out the other side through what we now think of as that 5000 Km long 'canyon'. Why would I think that?

Because: Mass and volume are 0.107 and 0.15 times the Earth respectively, displaying a calculated mean density of 3.9 g/cubic cm. This is considerably lower than the other three terrestrial planets but similar to the Moon's.

So, back in the beginning, both Mars and Earth may have looked very similar,
and possibly might have been somewhat closer to the Sun, until that period of intense bombardment caused Mars to be hit, punctured, and virtually destroyed as a potentially habitable planet.  I speculate that they were closer to the Sun at earlier times, because during our dinosaur ages and before that, our planet seems to have been either tropical or semi-tropical all over - and that implies being closer to the heat source in our ecosphere. However, adding mass and therefore energy to our system during that bombardment may have created the same sort of situation as occurs when an atom is bombarded by a foreign particle and then becomes 'excited' with its electrons assuming slightly higher orbits around its nucleus.

And I hear you asking "So where did those hard surfaces and oceans from Mars go, after being blown into space?" Another postulation for you: dirt and rocks have a different relative density than water, so each would drift off in different directions. So take a look at the Asteroid Belt for the sand, gravel, rocks, and dirt, and take a look at the Comets for the oceans - and before you say I'm crazy, may I remind you that one or two recent comets have exhibited evidence of sodium (as in salt) in their tails, suggesting possibly a salt water source.
And it's very possible that I am crazy, but it's also just possible that truth is still stranger than fiction, and there's a reason for everything if we know where to look for it. So please! Prove that I'm full of shit. Hopefully before I die of old age. And in the process, you may discover that atoms and solar systems are governed by the same rules, all being part of the same universe by the same Creator. And I'm not going to get 'preachy'. Someone else can do that.

More from 'Oldest Living Babbler' - er, I mean 'Blogger'

This being the start of our rainy season in the coastal rainforest, it's a good time to have some interesting reading material handy, and I've got a small but interesting library in a former small linen closet, incongruously  located just inside the main entry of this apartment.

I'm currently re-reading

and I hasten to add that it's not one of those coffee table picture books - you have to actually read it, whether you move your lips as you do, or not. And it is interesting. She starts even before the days of Ug and Mug, those intrepid cavemen of old. She revisits the very Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve were happily doing their thing oblivious to the fact that they were as we say 'naturellement nu', until one day, Eve had a chat with a talking snake who convinced her that the forbidden fruit was actually quite delicious, and then all hell broke loose. God came along shortly after, and asked, "What's shakin', Baby? - and don't give me no guff about some talking snake, 'cause I know what you really mean, and I'm here to tell you the Honeymoon's over, Baby! So Fluff Up, Honey, and get your Hell out of my Garden, aussitôt if not sooner!" And that's partly why Genesis, Chapter 5, has a lot of begetting in it.

But there's a lot more to it than that, and she does cover the parts about Ug and Mug, those intrepid cavemen, and their ignorance of the fact that makin' whoopee made children who kept them awake at nights and didn't like dinosaur steaks nearly as much as mother's milk, which wasn't all that plentiful on such a limited diet. And how we're related to other bipedal primates, like your sister or brother, or The Pope, or chimpanzees. Yep - chimpanzees. Now you know why making a monkey of yourself is perfectly natural - so read the book!

'Question Everything' - Which would you rather see?

...an 84 year old prima donna?

- or a hot young 28?

More from Miley...(and me.)

* The best drug on earth is the one the Cardiologist ordered the nurse to include in my I.V. while bringing me back to consciousness from a nearly-fatal heart attack brought on by a lifetime of stupid choices of other drugs. I don't even know the name of it, but I wouldn't be telling you this if it hadn't worked perfectly.  And if you must do pot, don't ride a fast Kawasaki through downtown traffic after three joints of 'The Good Stuff'. The 'music' will be screeching brakes and blowing horns of the traffic all around you, and your survival will have everything to do with God's love of idiots on bikes, plus everyone else's quick reactions as you came by. Wanna see my Ph.D. in 'Stupid'? I'm lucky to be alive and telling you this. So try not to make my old mistakes - go make some new ones. Be original.

Keystone

Speaking as a Canadian, may I say that I would much rather share our resources with our friends and major trading partners in the U.S.A. than have those resources exported to places like Asia, which differs from us politically, linguistically, economically, and philosophically. Americans to us are 'family' and we ought to take care of our own first. Let's do it, shall we?

Building collapses in India...

बिल्डिंग कोड के नियम - This is what 'Building Code Regulations' looks like in Hindi, and it evidently hasn't reached India yet. I wonder why not? There must be a reason...

The U.N. presents the news of 25 years ago...

They aren't as keenly aware of recent events as you or I, because it's taking most of them a while to get comfortable appearing in public wearing shoes, and without a bone through their noses and a feather-adorned spear in one hand...

And we're getting large doses of 'The Mushroom Philosophy' ('Keep 'em in the dark and feed 'em horseshit!') because, as the old Turkish proverb goes, "He who tells the truth is chased out of nine villages."

Global warming is a natural consequence of having too many flatulent polluting not-always-housebroken humans on the planet. Old news. No new solutions in yet...but stay tuned, please.

The NRA and Hindsight being 20/20...

Whenever I see a picture of Wayne LaPierre with his mouth open like this, I get an almost overpowering urge to stuff an unwashed turnip in it to shut him up.

Instead of lobbying for the gun industry, this misguided old fart should use the influence of his considerable membership in a cause that actually might get those maniacs he talks about into some kind of humane and effective treatment. He could start by carefully reading this article from last December about the chaotic condition of the mental health care in Second Amendment Land, and then maybe getting off his pompous ass and doing something productive about fixing that problem, so there'd be a better chance of getting some results, rather than just grabbing face time in the media promoting yet more and better firearms. Sit down and shut up, Wayne! You're an insult to my stupidity.

Playboy? - You're kidding, right?

Playboy is 60 next month. You can imagine how old its founder, Hugh Hefner is - and this means that at least half those Bunnies are now retired grandmothers, and the other half are probably trying to support three kids and a useless husband while paying off the mortgage on one of those foreclosure specials being flogged recently. And what do they know about education anyway?  Playboy thinks Manual Labor is a Mexican Obstetrician, and Old Hef has never let his schooling interfere with his experiments with Viagra and groping in the Grotto. Playboy is a nostalgic stroll down Memory Lane, Kiddies and you can learn a lot more about all that stuff from the Internet for free these days, in case you haven't already. And none of you needs any encouragement to party!

USA Today....Today's five things to know

When I was 15, I was worth about $1.98 in paper route profits. Google is now 15 and worth about $200-billion. I'm still worth about $1.98 and I'm now 80.
That's the difference between the futures of a high school dropout and guys who stayed in school and got Ph. D.s in Snooping. Google cautions us frequently to beware of 'phishing schemes'. That's because they don't like competition as the world's greatest 'phishing firm'. They're so busy lately sweating the big stuff that they can't be bothered fixing old mistakes, like why do I have to re-select the font I've chosen every time I pause to add an image to my blog, for example. Does anybody give a shit how annoying that is? Apparently not. They're too busy spending that $200-billion. I probably would be too.

The Senate votes to avert a government shutdown. It's déjà vu all over again, and this is looking like another trip down Memory Lane. Don't any of you guys know how to play this damned game? Are you stupid, or what? Here's an idea - sell the country to Google! They know how to make money from it.

Bill Clinton: Chelsea would make a good President. Sure she would! So would Miley Cyrus, but neither of them has the clout just yet, and the odds are against them getting it any time soon, because there's too many Good Old Boys running the show. I was going to add 'for fun and profit' but then I remembered you're over $16-trillions in debt, aren't you? But you're armed to the teeth, and you'll shoot the first son of a bitch that bad-mouths you, right? If China lends you the money for the ammo, that is.... Gawd, it's good to be 'Mericans, isn't it?

300 sandwiches for an engagement ring: define 'underemployed'.

FBI says the Navy Yard shooter had no specific target. Yes, he did. Anything that moved. Mental illness is non-discriminatory. We're all its enemy once the voices and hallucinations take over. So we have to find ways to separate the crazies from their firepower, preferably before they shoot us. Get the picture?

ICYMI: Oracle team comeback: the Americas Cup. One bunch of millionaire sportsmen looks pretty-much like any other to me down here with the poor folk.
But if it pacifies you flag-wavers and keeps you out of the '15 items or less' line at the supermarket when I'm in it, then I'm all for it. Enjoy your day, Folks!

Miley and her new video...

Miley must have one of the best ever publicists - she's been in USA Today almost daily lately....

And that new vid of hers? Have a look....

In a bathroom, awaiting her turn for a stall, I think.... her peeps are using them all, maybe. Or maybe not - it's hard to say...

And here's the little darling, all twerked out, just taking a break...

 But here's my favorite. She has lovely eyes.
And don't let your peeps steal the show, Darling!

Famous but not First...

This couple picked up the ball and ran with it, but it was Alfred Kinsey who wrote the rules of the game and quarterbacked it through the first half....

His famous Heterosexual-Homosexual Rating Scale is still quite a reliable indicator of where you stand among your sexually active peers....

On this scale, I'm a '2', wishing I might have had what it takes to make '3'! Try it yourself.

Dr. Drew, we have to talk...

Dr. Drew says that his prostate was removed in July, but his sex life is still normal and everything's pretty-much OK. Bullshit!

I'm a prostate cancer survivor myself, having had a brachytherapy procedure in April of 2010, and the experts I've been going to tell me that all men, if they live long enough and have any kind of normal sex life during all that will eventually develop prostate cancer. My prostate wasn't removed, but the cancerous portions were effectively burnt out from the inside by the radiation from about 150 tiny little radioactive pellets targeted at the cancerous spots.

For those unfamiliar with the mechanics involved, the prostate is about the size of a walnut, and it completely surrounds the drain tube coming down from the bladder. That drain runs though the center of it like the core in an apple, so if something irritates that prostate, or kills a lot of what's in there, like the cancerous portions, then that drain tube is going to be irritated, and it may try to shut down due to swelling, etc. so there will be problems with urination, most of which is relievable with drugs like 'Flomax'.

Your sex life will NOT be normal, however, because about 98% of whatever happens during a climax comes from the prostate's production of fluids, and that process has now been severely impaired or eliminated entirely, especially if the prostate was physically removed by surgery as in Dr. Drew's case. Your erectile dysfunction has nothing to do with your prostate, and everything to do with normal aging - it comes with the territory as we get older, and it's God's way of telling us it's time to forget about procreation because you're probably too old to perform all the years of parenting your offspring will need if you had any just then.

So don't tell me that 'everything's normal' or 'everything's OK' - just tell me the truth instead of a bunch of damned lies, and let's both be thankful that we've survived something that frequently kills others who aren't paying attention to their Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) test results, or may not even be getting those tests regularly. If you must talk about this, then tell people what they ought to be watching for, and what to do about it - don't just tell us what a nice guy you are and how you've miraculously preserved functions that can't possibly be 'normal' without your prostate being present and functioning normally.

What 'revamp' at Sears?

What 'revamp' at Sears? At their Capilano Mall outlet down the street, you can grow a beard waiting to be served, and their shoe department looks like a yard sale after everyone went on with the rest of their lives and left half a pair of shoes here, and another half a pair somewhere else, and wrappers strewn all over and the clerks avoiding that section like the plague. You call that a revamp?
I call it "Let's get the hell out of here and go where they know how to spell 'service'!" This is NOT the Sears we used to know and love in the old days, for damned sure. About that 'revamp' - Back to the Drawing Board, Kids! Quickly!
Before it's Bankruptcy Sale Time, 'Special, Today Only' and all like that....

Let's play 'Connect The Dots' for a moment...

First, the schools are being turned into prisons....

What psychological effect is this having on the impressionable young minds who attend these minimum-security detention centers?

Next, there's obvious problems with health care, aside from the fact that Big Bad Bill can't seem to keep his mouth shut for very long...(Get a haircut, Bill!)

Some of the problems are, as that nitwit from the NRA pointed out recently, there's too many crazies out there running loose with loaded weapons. But also it's too expensive, and doesn't cover many of those who really need it...

And speaking of guns.....

Camouflage on a firearm? On the brim of an international-orange hat? While wearing a flame-red vest so you don't get shot yourself by another keen-eyed hunter? You guys are all crazy! A moose doesn't give a shit whether or not you look ridiculous and too highly visible in that Hollywood Hunter getup. A moose detects you by your smell, movement, and the noise you make crashing through the underbrush. And it usually knows when you're there, because that's its home and it's quite familiar with what's supposed to be in it. The same goes for those other critters out there. But don't let me ruin a good marketing campaign.
Just know that me and the animals all think you're nuts. And most of you couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a shovel full of buckshot from a stone's throw away.  And the most endangered species out there in hunting season is YOU because you nitwits shoot at sounds even when you can't see what's making that sound. And you think that's smart. Until you get shot. So this year, why not stay home and watch it on the Outdoor Life Channel? It's a hell of a lot safer, and you don't have to skin or pack home anything. You can relax with a tall cold one and watch the other guys getting shot for a change.

The Man From Iran...

Here's part of his bio from Wikipedia - you should read it all.....


Hassan Rouhani (Persian: حسن روحانی‎; born on 12 November 1948)^[1] is the 7th and current President of Iran and also a Muslim cleric^[2] (with the status of a Shia Mujtahid),^[3] lawyer,^[4] academic and former diplomat. He has been a member of the Assembly of Experts since 1999,^[5] member of the Expediency Council since 1991,^[6] member of the Supreme National Security Council since 1989,^[7] and head of the Center for Strategic Research since 1992.^[8]
Rouhani was also deputy speaker of the 4th and 5th terms of the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majlis - Iranian Parliament) and secretary of the Supreme National Security Council from 1989 to 2005.^[8] In the later capacity, he also headed Iran's former nuclear negotiating team and was the country's top negotiator with the EU three – UK, France, and Germany – on Iran's nuclear program.^[9]:138
On 7 May 2013, Rouhani registered for the presidential election that was held on 14 June 2013.^[10] He said that, if elected, he would prepare a "civil rights charter", restore the economy and improve rocky relations with Western nations.^[11][12] Rouhani is viewed as politically moderate.^[13] As early vote counts began coming in, he took a large lead.^[14] He was elected as President of Iran on 15 June, defeating Tehran mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and four other candidates.^[13][15][16] He took office on 3 August 2013.<sup>[17]

This charmer has been involved in the Islamic Revolution since before there was one, and his story goes back to before the Shah was given the boot, so don't be fooled by all the perfume and flowers, Kiddies. And remember what Dear Old Granny said: 'Never mix politics and religion - that's like letting kids play with dynamite.'  Would I buy a used car from this guy? Hell, No! I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him. Have I got something against Iranians? No, I don't. This residential highrise complex where I live has a significant percentage of Iranian immigrants, and those include my nearby neighbors down the hall. There's also a couple of very nice Persian markets nearby, where they import fresh dates and other produce direct from Iran, and you haven't tasted fresh dates unless you've tasted theirs - trust me - they're wonderful. But I digress - forgive me - the point is, these nice neighbors of mine didn't leave their homeland because it was a lovely place to raise their kids or run their businesses. They left because of the repressive and dictatorial nature of the administration which some of them have described as being 'totally insane'. But don't take my word for it - do your own homework, please.</sup> 

Blackberry: 'Going....Going.... '

'ET - Call Home!'

While you still can...

Guns, gun laws, and gun owners...

For a moment or two, let's put aside the semantics, and the Second Amendment (which couldn't anticipate today's world) and the hackneyed rants about rights, and security, and protection and all of the rest of that bafflegab, and just for a moment or two, let's look at the differences between those with guns and those without guns.

When I was a gun owner, I didn't have to be particularly nice to those whom I considered to be 'assholes' because I knew that with one controlled squeeze of my trigger finger, I could blow that bastard away forever. I didn't have to take any shit unless I wanted to, because I had the ultimate solution handy.  Never mind that I would likely spend the rest of my life behind bars if I used that solution; the fact is, when we lose our temper and just want someone gone, we often don't stop to consider the consequences until too late. Luckily, I never went that far, but I did succeed in mouthing off a lot, and proving myself to be
that very kind of 'asshole' that I myself so despised.

After I came to my senses, so to speak, with a little help from a couple of friendly neighborhood policemen, and got rid of my well-oiled Walther, and my treasured Browning and some rifles including one with a scope that was deadly
at 200 yards, it wasn't very long until I suddenly realized I had to re-learn all about interpersonal relationships if I intended to interact with the rest of society
in the usual everyday ways. I couldn't rely on my trigger finger and a well-oiled handgun to protect me if my big mouth got me into serious trouble. So I had to learn to play nice, and get more familiar with the meaning of compromise and
diplomacy and tact. Concepts that were quite foreign to me until then.

It worked out very well, and nobody got killed, or arrested, or even really angry
because by using a more intelligent approach, matters never came to that. And
I'm not going to lecture on the subject of what's wrong with guns, or any of that. Guns are fine if you're in a war zone, but otherwise, intelligent people don't need them in everyday experiences if we learn to use our heads instead of our tongues or fingers, and avoid situations likely to provoke violent confrontations. But you won't learn to walk unassisted until you throw away those crutches, and take a deep breath, and stand on your own hind legs, and mind your mouth, and try to respect the other person's right to a point of view which may differ from yours. In other words, change your psychology from being gun-oriented to being people-oriented. It worked for me.

From USA Today (my editing)

If everyone in America with a mental disorder was hospitalized, you couldn't afford the facilities or their operations, according to these statistics, so perhaps another solution might be more affordable yet just as effective. Try getting rid of the guns instead of the people. People pay taxes, guns don't. Get the picture?

More Quantum Entanglement

Wikipedia, bless its heart, has a delicious article about this, and it involves mystery, suspense, Uncle Albert, and even old man Schrodinger of 'Schrodinger's Cat' fame, and all you wannabe physicists can find it here! The rest of us can find it there too, and it's practically guaranteed to get the cobwebs out of your brain.
Would a nice old guy like me lie to a sweet young thing like you? Check it out! 

Here's what I meant by 'delicious' above... here's a quote from the article:

In a 2013 experiment, entanglement swapping has been used to create entanglement between photons that never coexisted in time, thus demonstrating that "the nonlocality of quantum mechanics, as manifested by entanglement, does not apply only to particles with spacelike separation, but also to particles with timelike [i.e., temporal] separation".<sup>[29]

Is this going in the direction it seems to be suggesting? If these guys connect all the dots here, could we eventually end up with time travel? And with instantaneous long distance communications as a preliminary result?  Days like this, I wish I'd stayed in school longer - much longer! It might have been fun.

 I mentioned Schrodinger's Cat..... so it's time for a video:</sup>

If I had a daughter like Miley....

I'd be enjoying my retirement on a beach in Tahiti!

Autumn.... Isn't it wonderful?

Autumn leaves in a driving rain.... welcome to the monsoon season, Folks!

A little 'food for thought'....

Maybe, the 'spiritual' realm and the physical are more connected than we have thought. I stumbled onto this because I was asking Google if atoms can communicate. What prompted that question was some thinking about stars or 'suns' and their various kinds or wavelengths of emitted radiation, which quite possibly may be received by others of their kind. In other words, do stars also communicate? And if so, is this the secret to life, or perhaps I should say one of the secrets to life? I'm sure there's more than one. Likely a whole complicated range of them. And if atoms and stars/solar systems communicate, then is our universe actually a portion of some unimaginably huge living entity, perhaps even our Creator, or God? 

And that's my 'Question Everything' for today, Kiddies. Enjoy your Sunday.