August 25, 2020

Play with photobooth here:

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/

Scroll down mid page

I don't have any you-know-who photos saved, but YOU know what to do!

Give it your best shot and post it here, hehehe!

August 21, 2020

Cliff collapses in Grand Canyon revealing 313 million-year-old footprints, park says

https://www.yahoo.com/news/cliff-collapses-grand-canyon-revealing-170013155.html

Maddie Capron
Miami Herald•August 20, 2020

A geology professor hiking in the Grand Canyon made a “surprising discovery” — the oldest recorded tracks of their kind.

After a cliff collapsed in Grand Canyon National Park, a boulder with fossilized tracks was revealed, park officials said in a Thursday news release. The fossil footprints are about 313 million years old, according to researchers.

“These are by far the oldest vertebrate tracks in Grand Canyon, which is known for its abundant fossil tracks” Stephen Rowland, a paleontologist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said in the news release. “More significantly, they are among the oldest tracks on Earth of shelled-egg-laying animals, such as reptiles, and the earliest evidence of vertebrate animals walking in sand dunes.”

The tracks were in plain view for many hikers, but weren’t discovered until Allan Krill, a Norwegian geology professor, was hiking with students and saw a boulder containing “conspicuous fossil footprints,” park officials said....snip

August 20, 2020

Banks start to buy home loans at below-market prices - Bloomberg

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3607489-banks-start-to-buy-home-loans-below-market-prices-bloomberg?utm_medium=email&utm_source=seeking_alpha&mail_subject=usb-banks-start-to-buy-home-loans-at-below-market-prices-bloomberg&utm_campaign=rta-stock-news&utm_content=link-3

The halt on foreclosures of homes financed by government-backed mortgages implemented in March has an unintended consequence.

It's allowing banks and other lenders to buy mortgages out of bonds for less than their current market value, and, in the process, burn investors, Bloomberg reports.

Wells Fargo (WFC -1.6%) and U.S. Bancorp (USB -1.3%) have started buying, leading bond holders to eat the losses.

At the center of the transactions is Ginnie Mae, a government-owned corporation that guarantees the payment of principal and interest on bonds containing mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs, and other government agencies.

Under Ginnie rules, banks and other lenders can buy loans out of mortgage...snip

In light of this snip from: https://www.barrons.com/articles/federal-reserve-tells-big-banks-how-much-a-capital-buffer-they-must-have-51597080906:

Big Banks Are Told How Much a Capital Buffer They Must Have. What It Means for Investors.

"The banks have until Oct. 1 to meet the requirement if they have not already done so. The Fed says it supports banks using their capital buffers to lend to businesses and households in a “safe and sound manner.” More at link.

August 17, 2020

Reading/watching too much sci-fi?

Apparently, another type of over-population is on its way...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8615541/Number-digital-bits-overtake-number-atoms-Earth-2170.html

The number of digital bits will overtake the number of atoms on Earth within 150 years, according to a new study that warns of an impending 'information catastrophe'.

By 2170, the world will be 'mostly computer simulated and dominated by digital bits and computer code', the study claims.

There will be 133 quindecillion (133 followed by 48 zeroes) bits in existence – the same as the estimated number of atoms on the planet.

However, the power needed to support information transfer will equal all the power currently produced on Earth, leading to ethical and environmental concerns.
snip
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Do we need to make plans NOW for a literally "out-of-this-world" expandable/retrievable library/achive/depository?

August 16, 2020

Well, maybe it's the time of the year, or, maybe, it's the time of man...

https://www.astrology.com/astrology-101/planets/uranus

URANUS: THE PLANET OF REBELLION
Uranus wasn’t discovered until 1781. As one of the outermost planets, it moves rather slowly through the zodiac. The result is that its effect is felt more generationally than individually.

snip

It takes Uranus 84 years to complete its trip around the zodiac. It is an androgynous energy and rules Aquarius and the Eleventh House. Uranus is considered to be the higher octave of Mercury and the first of the transcendental planets.


https://www.astrology.com/article/uranus-retrograde-in-2020/

Uranus will station retrograde on August 15, 2020 at 10°41? Taurus, and will station direct on January 14, 2021 at 6°43? Taurus.

Uranus is an electrifying planet in transit that correlates with rapid innovation, unexpected change, and liberation from restrictive circumstances. While its impact by transit is unpredictable, Uranus consistently incites us to live authentically and embrace whatever makes us inspired. Uranus spends five months in retrograde motion, backtracking over the same zodiacal degrees that it activated during the previous seven months and intensifying our desire to deepen more fully into processes of change underway.

snip

(Generally) URANUS RETROGRADE EFFECTS
Most intense for Taurus
Uranus retrograde will be most intense for Taurus (especially for those with placements in the first 15 degrees of Taurus), as volatile Uranus will reshape the fixed earth of a sign that can stubbornly resist change.

Most challenging for Scorpio, Leo, and Aquarius
Uranus retrograde will be most challenging for Scorpio, since it will form an opposition, and will also be challenging for Leo and Aquarius due to forming a square aspect with them.

Most beneficial for Capricorn and Virgo
Uranus retrograde will be most beneficial for Capricorn and Virgo, as it will form a flowing trine aspect that can aid in making substantial innovations.

HOROSCOPES FOR URANUS RETROGRADE 2020

snip( Check your sign or the signs of others here)

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Any other thoughts or prospectives?

August 7, 2020

Christian 'Risks-Be-Damned' Hassell: Pushing Dangerous, Taxpayer-Funded Genetic Engineering and Gain

Interesting and pretty decent writing at an unusual site for this type of information including a rehash of the "unsolved" Ameritrax attack.

https://www.organicconsumers.org/blog/christian-hassell-pushing-dangerous-taxpayer-funded-genetic-engineering-and-gain-of-function-research?utm_medium=email&utm_source=engagingnetworks&utm_campaign=OB+670&utm_content=OB+670

Any scientific lab work that involves making pathogens more lethal, contagious, infectious, or resistant to disease—even when done, ostensibly, for defensive purposes or medical countermeasures development—is really too risky to do at all.

Especially when you consider that 30 years’ worth of gain-of-function research has produced no vaccine, and no cure for a pandemic.

But perhaps an even better reason to stop experiments that could be used to create biological weapons, or the next pandemic, is the large number of high-profile—some accidental, some nefarious—releases of deadly pathogens from U.S. labs.

One U.S. government scientist who’s been linked, at least indirectly, with at least one gain-of-function research lab failure is Dr. Christian Hassell. (snip)

August 4, 2020

Our complex's lawn maintenance was here today.

The guy using the weedwhacker whacked my whole row of herbs inside our patio fence! I'm now in mourning my fresh herbs. Guess he did know what a tomato was on the other side of the fence. Just damn! the last of my lush mint, rosemary, basil, sage, dill, cilantro, and stevia - all gone!