INSPIRATIONAL: Even “casual caring’ can be enough to help in a terrible situtation

Saturday, September 30, 2023

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/she-was-about-to-end-it-all-until-a-stranger-shed-never-meet-again-told-her-dont-jump/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_medium=weekly_mailout&utm_source=21-09-2023

She Was About to End it All, Until a Stranger She’d Never Meet Told Her ‘Don’t Jump’
By Andy Corbley – Sep 18, 2023 

*** begin quote ***

“I was sobbing and crying and working up the courage to just go through with it, because I knew at that moment that it was going to make everyone’s lives better.”

At that moment, a driver, whose face Belmont didn’t see, and whose hand she would never shake, passed over the bridge and hollered out of the window.

“Don’t jump,” they said.

It immediately clicked a lightbulb on in her head; that if a stranger could care enough to speak up, then suicide was not the answer.

*** end quote ***

Help is available call or text 988.

I’d have preferred if the driver stopped and talked her “down”.  But, maybe that would have had a worse effect?

I always thought that suicide for a young healthy persons was just FEAR (i.e., False Evidence Appearing Real).  And, the Bible tells us, as one Christian Brother to my class, that “leaving the game early is against the rules.  That’s why football has the ‘Hail Mary Pass.  There’s always hope.  Or in the case of the opponents of Notre Dame, the next game!”.  Maybe a little sacrilegious, but in a funny memorable way.  We all have to just put one foot in from to the other, day by day, until we reach the finish line.

I wrote in my Magnus Opus: “My love, were it in my power, I would sadly grant thee this boon. But, we have to continue to follow His Plan for us. Let’s go forth and speak no more of this. Who ever is last will be last. It will be His choice; not ours. We’re but humble custodians of His temple on earth. It’s not our place to trump His plan. Whatever that plan be, know that I will be with you to my last breath.” — character “John” in CHURCH 10●19●62 Volume 2 Page 399

And, I really believe that to be true.

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TECHNOLOGY: SafeStop allows members of the public to video chat with police

Friday, September 29, 2023

https://ktla.com/news/local-news/weho-drivers-able-to-video-chat-with-deputies-during-traffic-stops/

Local News
WeHo drivers able to video chat with deputies during traffic stops
by: Cameron Kiszla 
Posted: Sep 21, 2023 / 07:29 AM PDT 
Updated: Sep 21, 2023 / 07:32 AM PDT 

  • With traffic stops carrying potential life-and-death stakes, a pilot program using SafeStop intends to lower the temperature, allowing drivers and officers to communicate virtually before meeting face-to-face.

*** begin quote ***

A new smartphone app may do for law enforcement interactions what telemedicine has done for doctors.

The app, SafeStop, allows members of the public to video chat with Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies before the in-person traffic stop, which the app developers said will “de-escalate traffic stops and transform police-motorist interactions.”

Traffic stops in particular have become a point of contention in the ongoing cultural discussion around the role of police in American society.

Multiple deadly encounters between police and civilians began as simple traffic stops, including the high-profile killing of Philando Castile by Minnesota police.

*** end quote ***

I like the concept.

Perhaps if the app was always on, then it might be more useful and wiser friendly.

I’m thinking like Star Trek “open up a hailing frequency”.

I’m not sure I would want to be fumbling with my phone on a dark night when the police want to speak to me.  I was always taught to shut the car off, turn on the inside light, roll down the window, keep my hands at 10-2 on the steering window, and shut up.  

Still seems like the best advice.

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VOCABULARY: Samizdat – translates as: “We publish ourselves”

Thursday, September 28, 2023

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2023/09/21/american_pandemic_samizdat_149787.html

American Pandemic ‘Samizdat’
COMMENTARY
By Jay Bhattacharya
September 21, 2023

*** begin quote ***

    Censorship existed even before literature, say the Russians. And, we may add, censorship being older, literature has to be craftier. Hence, the new and remarkably viable underground press in the Soviet Union called samizdat.

    Samizdat – translates as: “We publish ourselves” – that is, not the state, but we, the people.

    Unlike the underground of Czarist times, today’s samizdat has no printing presses (with rare exceptions): The K.G.B., the secret police, is too efficient. It is the typewriter, each page produced with four to eight carbon copies, that does the job. By the thousands and tens of thousands of frail, smudged onionskin sheets, samizdat spreads across the land a mass of protests and petitions, secret court minutes, Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s banned novels, George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” and “1984,” Nicholas Berdyayev’s philosophical essays, all sorts of sharp political discourses and angry poetry.

*** end quote ***

Had the experience in typing school

— My sainted Mother’s idea to keep the “idle hands” from being the Devil’s workshop one summer when I was to young to get a real job and too old to be left alone without getting into trouble. It included: business accounting, shorthand, composition, and letter writing.  Argh!  And you wonder why I hate schools?)  — were we had timed typing tests with only three pages of onion skin and carbon paper.  If we corrected a mistake, the carbon copy made it obvious.  I still remember minus five points for a mistake on the original and minus one for a correction.  When I complained, my Mom sat down at an old manual we had at home a pounded out the test page at an amazing WPM without a single mistake.  Then she turned to me and asked: “Now want to complain about shorthand?”  I knew to shut my mouth because she had her secretarial school medals in her “hope chest” when she was best of class in various disciplines.  Guess the genes failed because I never was as good as her in those skills. Sigh! Sadly  — 

Have to admire the dedication to the produce the manuscripts.  Like the Irish monks duplicating texts by hand during the Dark Ages. 

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INSPIRATIONAL: Making lenonaid from lemons

Wednesday, September 27, 2023

https://nypost.com/2023/09/21/my-90-minute-american-airlines-flight-turned-into-9-hour-hell/

 My 90-minute American Airlines flight turned into a 9-hour hell — but a miracle happened

By Jane Herz 

Published Sep. 21, 2023, 9:27 a.m. ET

*** begin quote ***

American Airlines flight 5085 was scheduled to depart at 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 18. But when Conley looked at his phone and saw that the time was 6:30 p.m. — about a half hour after the plane was originally supposed to land at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) — he knew something was awry.

That’s when the pilot told passengers that the plane was diverted to a small airport in Wichita Falls, Texas, due to a severe impending storm, as DFW was not allowing landings or takeoffs.

Rather than disembarking upon landing at 6:45 p.m. at Wichita Falls Regional Airport, Conley and his fellow passengers got stuck on the tarmac for over two hours because airport employees weren’t allowed outside due to the lightning.

But what should have been the flight from hell was really something that turned into a beautiful, human experience, Conley, 38, said.

*** and ***

The man Conley was sitting next to, Joshua Chandler, even put on a pretend duck tour for the young kids, as he had been on one earlier that day, blowing the yellow duck whistle around his neck.

*** end quote ***

What a great inspirational story.  We hear all about the “Karens” and “Kens”, drunken idiots, or some “un housebroken” slobs on planes.  But we rarely hear of the times that humans all come together under duress and make the best of some unfortunate coincidences.

I’d like to think that I could be like them  — charitable, kind, and considerate of my neighbors.

And, BTW, where does one go for a “duck tour” and why. Laugh!

Of course, I’ll never ever fly into, out of, or through DFW.  One thunderstorm ride there back in the 70’s was enough for me. (And that’s where IBM lost its PC team when Esteridge’s place went down. All the corporate travel departments created the “only a few employees on any one flight” rule as few weeks later. So sad.)

Great story of humanity’s possibilities.

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ADHOC: Stoping shoplifting

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12561125/cvs-pharmacy-shutting-stores-2024.html

should change to a Horn & Hardart (google it) format ! Insert card and dispense product. Like a Japanese vending machine!

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POLITICAL: Political theater designed to distract “We, The Sheeple”

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/09/20/how-garland-answered-and-didnt-answer-questions-on-hunter-biden-the-capitol-riot-targeting-catholics/?utm_source=TDS_Email

7 Takeaways From Garland’s Testimony to House Judiciary Committee
Fred Lucas / @FredLucasWH / September 20, 2023 

*** begin quote ***

Attorney General Merrick Garland declined to answer questions on a wide range of matters Wednesday in sworn testimony before the House Judiciary Committee. 

Garland testified that he couldn’t remember whether he talked to FBI personnel about the investigation of first son Hunter Biden and didn’t know how many confidential informants entered the Capitol during the riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

The attorney general, appointed by President Joe Biden, also hesitated to answer whether Catholics are “violent extremists,” as an infamous FBI memo said.

*** end quote ***

Stonewalling waste of time. Argh!  I’m a defund the FBI fanboy.  As well as a whole host of the TLAs (Three Letter Agencies)!

Argh!

I guess he never kept notes or prepared for his testimony.

What a waste of space.

Sorry, but I find politicians and bureaucrats singularly useless drones.  Parasites sucking off “We, The Sheeple”

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INTERESTING: Dogs can id identical twins by scent

Monday, September 25, 2023

https://theconversation.com/your-unique-body-odor-could-identify-who-you-are-and-provide-insights-into-your-health-all-from-the-touch-of-a-hand-210231

Your unique body odor could identify who you are and provide insights into your health – all from the touch of a hand

Published: September 20, 2023 8.26am EDT

Authors

  •     Chantrell Frazier Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Food Science, Framingham State University
  •     Kenneth G. Furton     Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Florida International University
  •     Vidia A. Gokool     Postdoctoral Researcher, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

*** begin quote ***

Researchers have been studying the discriminating potential of human scent for over three decades. A 1988 experiment demonstrated that a dog could distinguish identical twins living apart and exposed to different environmental conditions by their scent alone. This is a feat that could not be accomplished using DNA evidence, as identical twins share the same genetic code.

*** end quote ***

Wow. 

Now all we have to do is have a scent capturing device for crime scenes and we don’t need DNA if it’s not available.

Fascinating stuff, imho.

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U.S. Army Hospital in Germany Is Treating Americans Hurt Fighting in Ukraine – DNyuz

Sunday, September 24, 2023

The Biden administration vowed at the start of the war that it would not put American troops on the ground in Ukraine, and it warned Americans not to get involved. Now it finds itself treating those it told to stay away.
— Read on dnyuz.com/2023/09/23/u-s-army-hospital-in-germany-is-treating-americans-hurt-fighting-in-ukraine/

What a shit show way for the USA to get into WW3

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VETERANS: More than 3,400 people were killed at Midway

Sunday, September 24, 2023

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wwii-shipwrecks-battle-of-midway-japanese-imperial-navy-akagi-kaga-uss-yorktown/?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter

Unprecedented images of WWII shipwrecks from Battle of Midway reveal clues about aircraft carriers’ “final moments”

By Stephen Smith

September 18, 2023 / 11:31 AM / CBS News 

*** begin quote ***

Each dive ended with protocol ceremonies to honor all who lost their lives in the battle.

More than 3,400 people were killed at Midway, and the vast majority of casualties were Japanese service members, according to the National WWII Museum. About 362 U.S. troops were among the dead. Japan lost four aircraft carriers, one cruiser, and hundreds of aircraft, while the U.S. lost one carrier, one destroyer and 144 aircraft during the battle.

*** and ***

“On this occasion, we meet on those same Pacific waters in which Japan and the U.S. once met in battle, but this time as allies and fellow researchers,” said Embassy of Japan Minister Kosei Nomura. “We are reminded that today’s peace and tomorrow’s discoveries are built on the sacrifices of war, and so in my view, it is meaningful that Japan and the U.S. are now deepening their cooperation at Midway, utilizing such cutting-edge technology.”

*** end quote ***

And, let’s learn a lesson about war.  Young men die!  Unnecessarily!

Best way to honor vets is to not make more of them. 

Anyone listening in the “District of Corruption”?

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INTERESTING: A new brain cell: demonstrates (again) about how little we know

Saturday, September 23, 2023

https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/new-type-brain-cell-astrocyte/

Scientists discover a new type of brain cell

  • There are hints that it could lead to new treatments for Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and other brain disorders.
  • An image of a neuron with a blue light coming out of it.
  • Most of the cells in the brain are either neurons or glial cells. The former send messages, while the latter protect the former. Astrocytes are a type of glial cell found near synapses. Researchers believe they have discovered a new type of astrocyte that actively participates in neurotransmission, making them a sort of hybrid between neurons and glial cells. 

Kristin Houser

*** begin quote ***

A new brain cell: Researchers at the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering and the University of Lausanne believe they’ve definitively proven that some astrocytes do actively participate in neurotransmission, making them a sort of hybrid of neurons and glial cells.

According to the researchers, this third type of brain cell, which they call a “glutamatergic astrocyte,” could offer a way to treat Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other disorders of the nervous system.

“Its discovery opens up immense research prospects,” said study co-director Andrea Volterra.

*** end quote ***

Once again demonstrating how little we really know about anything.

Hope this research leads to new treatments for brain disorders before I need them.

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