Maybe It Can Be Questioned

 "If science can't be questioned, it's not science."

-- Aaron Rogers (Quarterback)

I paused over the quote that he made in the last day or two.  He made the statement in relation to Covid and the vaccination business.

When you go back to Roger Bacon, de Vinci, Gesner, Galileo, Isaac Newton, James Hutton, Alexander von Humboldt, Richard Owen, Pasteur, Huxley, and Einstein.....they were all questioned extensively and often ridiculed. 

In their minds....science was never truly 'finished'.  Discoveries simply led onto more questions, and acceptance was hard to imagine.  

We live in an odd time where 'science is settled', and the deeper into this process we venture.....the reality is that we don't need anymore scientists....if things are settled.  We might as well block off the college departments and tell people to venture into some other field of study.

The funny thing here, is that we needed an NFL quarterback to bring us back to reality.

Oh, and just a reminder.....there's more than a thousand scientists walking around today, who aren't completely convinced that Einstein was 'right'.  Yet no one seems to want to stop their thought process.  

Reflecting Over 'Silent Sea'

 Netflix produced a South Korean series that was released in the past week....called 'Silent Sea'.  I'll describe it as a Sci-Fi series, around eight episodes (45 minutes each).  Observations:

1. On script....I'd give it five stars and suggest that it ranks up there with 'Forbidden Planet' (1956).  It's actually a great story.

2.  Landscape (moon surface)?  Fairly realistic and I'd have to give them plus points there.

3.  Acting?  Some great moments....some marginal moments..

4.  The suggestion of corruption?  Drilled down, and about every 15 minutes.....you get another dose on why you can't trust the government.  

So I recommend a viewing via Netflix and would suggest it's probably one of the five best South Korean series of the past decade, and I'd suggest it in the top ten of US-made Sci-Fi productions.  

My only negative?  The last ten minutes is confusing, and needs a make-over.  I won't go into details, but will just say I had to watch that segment four times, and still don't get it.  

New York Story

 A number of NY sites are now reporting this and I'll try to simplify the whole episode.

The New York State Department of Health issued new guidance on how you dispense the Covid oral antibody and monoclonal antibody treatments.  In the midst of this....they admit....there's this shortage, so NOT everyone gets doses.

So here's the deal....because of 'systemic racism' (don't ask how they arrived at this)....they say that the way you dispense this out....has to give the 'non-white' society and the Hispanic culture folks....priority because of risk factors.  

Yes, if you were plain-white....with Covid and your doctor said that you had a bad case....getting the Monoclonal antibody treatment won't happen within the state of New York.  You'd basically have to drive just beyond the border, and get your prescription filled in another state.  

Illegal?  I'm guessing that come Monday....this will be taken into court to be challenged.  You can't make a case that one ethnic group over another....gets benefits.

But this also might be the time that people start to self-identify as American Indians....just for the hell of it, and just 'fake' it.

This also drives home the situation....why continue living in NY state?  

Show Chatter

 I noticed this story over the weekend, and spent some time reviewing what people had said.

So, there's this show on American TV....called "The View".  The best description of the show is that it slices up politics and American trends, then does the best to draw you the viewer (usually females) to a left solution/position.

About seven months ago....their top (maybe the only) conserative figure on the show (Meghan McCain, who'd I consider marginally conservative), packed up and left the show. 

From what most folks said....she'd done this enough....was fed-up with the rest of the crew, and wanted something new.

So the producers for the past seven months.....have been out looking for a replacement.  Various people have come....for a week or two.....then left.  No one has gotten a contract deal.  It also appears that those who did come and serve a while....weren't up to the argument level required (at least some on social media suggest that).

The fact that the 'other' left crowd on the show....don't want a professional conservative on the show?  Well....that dynamic does fit into the whole discussion.  A Candace Owens type person.....would blast the liberal ladies daily and swing the arguments in a different direction.

So they need a loser-type conservative gal, who does a marginal job on political arguments.  For the producers?  The recruitment drive just isn't working.  

It's almost a comedy now with this show.    

What is the Greater Idaho Concept?

 Well....first, there are two states that have a fundamental difference between themselves....Idaho and Oregon.

Oregon, with a population of 4.29-million people....of which, the bulk reside in the vicenty of Portland, Eugene, Albany, and Salem area (roughly a 50 by 100 mile area on the NW side of the state).  If you did the numbers....around two-thirds of the entire state live in that 50 by 100 mile area....which means the rest of the state (mostly rural areas and small towns) is fairly unpopulated.

Here's the significance of this....urbanized Portland/Salem votes heavily Democrat and the rest of the state has little influence over the laws or political direction of the state.

So this group (roughly 80-percent of the state land mass) wants 'out', and they think that they can establish some 'path' that leads to adding their mass to Idaho.  

Odds of this?  Well....it's never been done.

If this were to occur?  Greater Idaho would rank in size after Texas and Alaska.....just on square miles.  

On voting aspects?  If you lived in what remained in new Oregon?  It'd be a 90-percent Democratic vote state, which no one really argues much about.  For Idaho?  It'd probably guarantee them as a Republican state for eternity.

Here's the thing....once you open this door....what hinders things from occurring in other states?  Could one-third of Alabama vote to move itself to Florida?  Could the city of Chicago be edged out and made into a state by itself?  Could California be broken up into five states?  

I doubt seriously that anyone in Washington DC wants this to play out because it creates a mass 'unknown'.

Observations

 1.  President Biden took for the Christmas holidays, and went to Delaware....to his beach house.  So, he and his wife.....fully vaxed and boostered....were seen out on the beach walking around....masked-up.  

I read through the piece....probably no one else but Secret Service for at least half-a-mile, yet wearing masks.

2.  Home prices in 2021, went up on average of 18-plus percent.  In a bubble like 2008?  I would suggest that.

3.  Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) did an interview and said that the Democratic Party is searching for some way to reform the filibuster process.  It'll probably be discussed in 2022, and some new phrase/word will be invented, but I seriously doubt that it goes away.  

Explaining NFT's In Simple Terms

 NFT (non-fungible token).

So you go out to Ford, and ask them to design a totally unique digital Mustang (it's not real, just digital), and it has a digital V8/1,600 HP, with a size that is one-third longer-thicker than the normal Mustang.  

They agree, and produce one-hundred of these digital Mustangs, which they promise never to produce these again.  You buy the hundred for $1.5-million.  

You store them on Blockchain (a digital 'bank').  Five years pass, and you start to sell your digital Mustangs to Meta (Facebook) people, who drive them in this virtual  world.  

You sell the first ten for $50,000 each.  

A year passes and demand creeps up, and the value is now $100k per digital Mustang, so you sell another ten.

Another year passes....higher demand, and the value is assessed at $150k per digital mustang.  You sell another ten.

At this point, you've made $3-million off your original investment of $1.5-million. Then finally in the tenth year of ownership, you dump the digital Mustangs on the market for $200k each (seventy of them).  

You would argue (logically) that a digital item is worthless (like digital swords, digital horses, etc).  Yet in this crazy world we live in....some idiot is willing to spend $50k on a totally ultra-modern and well-designed fantasy Mustang.  

Digital artwork, digital houses, digital girlfriends, and digital actors?  All coming within twenty years?  Probably. 

You will be able to design your movie....with various fantasy characters, and probably go out to buy some digital actress as some NFT product.  

Nothing makes sense, if you ask me about this whole way of living.