Auld Lang Syne in Ireland

Scientific activities in 2021

2020 wants to stay around

Courtesy of a Duncaster resident

The numbers of your life

Our Florida correspondent likes to look at statistics of his life. Click here to look at statistics for your life.

This has been a very long time

 

Courtesy of a Duncater resident

They're getting older in Japan

In 1963 there were only 153 Japanese who were at least 100 years old. Twenty-five years later there were 10,000. Now there are 80,000+, or about 1 in 1,500 people in Japan. Most (88%) of these centenarians are women.

Comparable figures for the U.S. are in the same range; 82,000+ in 2016. But there are 126,000,000 Japanese or about a third of our population of 326,000,000.


br>From our Florida correspondent

Celebrating Christmas in the pandemic

Climate Change and Covid

White House pets

Gifts for Christmas 2020

A dancing couple

https://www.pennlive.com/life/2020/12/mail-carrier-and-adorable-toddler-girls-daily-dance-party-goes-viral-on-tiktok.html

White Christmas - the most popular song

Santa and Covid

Have some chocolates

A Messiah for 2020

Stay out of the octopus' way

Bocelli and Silent Night

A Christmas carol from a hospital's staff and patients

A fairy tale comes alive

Christmas greetings

A foggy day in Bloomfield, Ct

December 21, 2020, the first day of winter

Determining what is true

Where you can buy marijuana

A 21st century toilet

Rudolf, our old friend

Courtesy of a childhood friend

Glenn Gould at 22 in 1954

Remember the Arab Spring

Listen to trees in the forests

This post is just a pointer to the "music" in forests around the world. It can be quite calming and beautiful. Click here to start the trail.

Thanks to our Florida correspondent.

We should be okay by January 2022

Youyang Gu does not appear to be someone who does not know what he is talking about. He holds a masters degree fom MIT and his site has been cited by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help inform public health decision making. This is one of his charts.

Remember the blizzard of 1978?

As usual, the media is talking about tonight's storm as being the end of the world. This was another end-of-world storm:



Relax! This too will pass.

Is the OCC about to break the law?

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has received a proposal from Figure Bank, N.A., part of the blockchain startup, Figure Technologies. The proposal would grant Figure Bank a bank charter that would allow it, as a national bank, to accept and hold deposits that lack federal deposit insurance. And, it was this lack of federal deposit insurance that triggered the bank runs and banks collapses that played a key role in ushering in the Great Depression.

Major banking organizations, such as the American Bankers Association, have petitioned the OCC to reject the petition. The organizations argue that Section 2 of the Federal Reserve Act does not permit national banks to offer uninsured deposits; to wit

“Every national bank in any State shall, upon commencing business or within ninety days after admission into the Union of the State in which it is located, become a member bank of the Federal Reserve System by subscribing and paying for stock in the Federal Reserve bank of its district in accordance with the provisions of this chapter and shall thereupon be an insured bank under the Federal Deposit Insurance Act [12 U.S.C. § 1811 et seq.], and failure to do so shall subject such bank to the penalty provided by section 501a of this title.”

Dealing with racism in Ireland

Communicating with kangaroos

 

"SIX LITTLE STORIES"

{1} Once all villagers decided to pray for rain.  On the day of prayer the people gathered, but only one boy came with an umbrella. That's FAITH. 

 (2} When you throw babies in the air, they laugh because they know you will catch them. That's TRUST. 

{3} Every night we go to bed without any assurance of being alive the next morning, but still we set the alarms to wake up. That's HOPE. 

{4} We plan big things for tomorrow in spite of zero knowledge of the future. That's CONFIDENCE. 

{5} We see the world suffering, but still we get married and have children. That's LOVE. 

{6} On an old man's shirt was written a sentence 'I am not 80 years old; I am sweet 16 with 64 years of experience.' That's ATTITUDE. 

 Have a happy day and live your life like the six stories. When I was a child, I thought nap time was punishment. Now it's like a mini-vacation. 

GOOD FRIENDS ARE THE RARE JEWELS OF LIFE. DIFFICULT TO FIND AND IMPOSSIBLE TO REPLACE!

The above was sent by a childhood friend. It may seem a little corny to some. But there is a level of wisdom there.

Judy Garland at Christmas

I would answer "yes"

Prejudice in Canada

20th Century Clowns

Stronger typhoons

Aren't these strange gifts?

 

What in the world do leaping lords, French hens, swimming swans, and especially the partridge who won't come out of the pear tree have to do with Christmas?

A childhood friend thinks this is the answer to that question: 

From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics. It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember:

-The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ. 

 -Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments. 

 -Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.

 -The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John. 

-The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament. 

 -The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation. 

-Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit--Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy. 

-The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.

 -Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit--Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control. 

The Rich get richer

A study by Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies that appeared in Forbes recently showed that the 651 richest billionaires have increased their wealth by a trillion dollars since the start of the pandemic in March. The stock market surge has had a lot to do with it. 

The richest people are familiar - Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Bill Gates of Microsoft, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Elon Musk of Tesla. They are now being called “centi-billionaires” as they are now worth over $100 billion each. And this is a time when a lot of people are having a very hard time just trying to survive each day.

Some basics of climate change

Virus droplets

It's not too late to earn your doctorate

Saving the Great Barrier Reef

A Zoom Funeral

Secretary General on the emissions gap

Where the money is

He doesn't want to talk

Courtesy of a childhood friend.

Follow a traveling nurse

Meet the pygmy possum

Some questions about the Covid vaccine in England

Vaccine info

 

How it's distributed


And now a question
Why didn't Operation Warp Speed (OWS) accept Pfizer's offer to purchase 200 million doses last summer? OWS signed up for 100 million doses. Now, Pfizer can't offer us more until the summer as they've sold them to foreign countries

A quote from Utah Senator Mike Lee, chair of the Joint Economic Committee and member of the Judiciary Committee

 

“Democracy isn’t the objective; liberty, peace, and prosperity are. We want the human condition to flourish. Rank democracy can thwart that.” A Twitter posting on October 8.

Circles in Space

An Australian beach is changing

 

The Faded Silver Ball

I wrote this in what now seems prehistoric times - 2004.

It’s just a ball of rolled up gum wrappers. It’s not very big. Nowhere near the huge balls of aluminum foil we rolled during World War II. But, every time I pick it up I recall the first stages of my life. Since Pearl Harbor is my very first memory, the war was really the beginning of time for me.

World War II was a totally different war than all we have fought since. First of all, everyone knew, really knew, in their innermost selves that we were at war – and knew it virtually every waking moment. There was no way to avoid it; the newspapers, magazines, radio, movies were full of it (think of CNN on steroids). We all used ration books and, most importantly, we all had brothers, uncles or cousins in the armed forces.

For a kid removed from any possible physical danger the war was an exciting time. The movies, which included newsreels that reported the US view of the war, were filled with gallant Americans fighting the evil enemy. Movie stars were dragooned into the war; some saw combat, many sold war bonds. Daily entertainment was largely over the radio. “The FBI in Peace and War” and similar programs warned us constantly of the chicanery of the enemy. Posters, such as the famous “Loose lips sink ships”, appeared in many places. But thoughts of death and mutilation were far from my mind until the brothers of kids down the street came home damaged or dead. Still the excitement remained. They were not family. I was not close to them.

Even the newspapers were exciting: the huge headlines, the maps of places with exotic names, photos and stories of the heroes in combat. My reading skills and knowledge of geography improved considerably during the war.

What could be more exciting to a little kid than an air raid drill? The sirens blaring, the closing of the curtains, the dowsing of the lights. But, maybe because you were a kid, you knew it was only a drill. It couldn’t be real; the enemy was very far away. Wasn’t he? Whether he was or not, when the horns blew, my father, an air raid warden, put on his helmet, picked up his flashlight and went to check that there were no lights shining from any homes or businesses in the neighborhood.
My little faded silver ball most immediately recalls the long summer days my cousins and I spent rolling the aluminum foil into a giant ball. Where this ball went I know not, but it was a patriotic thing to do. As it was patriotic for my sisters to knit sweaters and assemble bandages.

Despite our being 3000 miles from the front, the war was our life then. It was our constant companion. It so captured America’s imagination, thoughts, fears and dreams that even kids did their bit to help. It united America as little has since. As I roll the ball slowly in my hand, I dream of a day when our country will be similarly united in a peaceful cause as equally just and right as the bellicose cause history calls World War II.

The Unemployed

It's time for some Dave Brubeck

What's happening to department stores

Did the police do the right thing?

A new material for clothing

A different kind of adoption

Have you heard of the National Embryo Donation Center (NEDC)? It is a non-profit in Knoxville that stores frozen embryos that in vitro fertilization patients decided not to use and chose to donate instead. There are an estimated one million frozen human embryos stored in the US right now, according to the NEDC. It has been doing this since 2003, and has facilitated more than 1,000 embryo adoptions and births. It now conducts around 200 transfers each year. Similar to a traditional adoption process, couples can decide if they would like a "closed" embryo adoption or an "open" one - allowing for some form of contact with the donor family.

Embryos can stay frozen for a long time. When Molly Gibson was born in October of this year. Her embryo was frozen in October 1992, and stayed that way until February 2020, when she was adopted. The NEDC believes that Molly set a new record for the longest-frozen embryo to have resulted in a birth, breaking a record set by her older sister, Emma.

The cost of electricity

Penguins on the go

 

Group travel

There are thousands in this flock of starlings. There are various reasons why these flocks are so large. Some contend that they do this to ward off and confuse predators, adopting a “safety in numbers” strategy. Others believe that starlings engage in this behavior to stay warm. Still another theory states that the birds could be coming together to share information on roosting sites.



Courtesy of a Duncaster resident

The virus among the poor

Giving Tuesday

Did you know that today Tuesday — the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving - is Giving Tuesday? It is a world-wide event as the day to contribute to charity. It was started by the 92nd Street Y in New York and the United Nations Foundation in 2012. 

This Tuesday was chosen as its special day because the founders hoped that the interest in Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which generated big sales and rampant consumption, would also lead to interest in giving back. 

And, they were right. #Giving Tuesday went viral almost immediately. Last year it generated $511 million in online giving. Note that you do not donate to Giving Tuesday itself; you donate to your favorite charity. 

The day is becoming more popular. In one survey Giving Tuesday is recognized by 54 percent of consumers, up 17 percent from 2019.

Does this happen to you?