Five Skills For Life

 There are five skills that you ought to have by age 30:

1.  You ought to be able to read through a ten-page summary, and be able a eight-line summary of value.  In simple terms....the simple facts.  

2.  You ought to have sense of seeing through chaos, and point the path to some positive outcome.

3.  You should sense the nature of those around you, and if they are 'nuts', or likely to lead you into trouble.

4.  You ought to be able comprehend matters enough.....to say this is false, and this is true.

5.  You ought to have enough wit about your daily affairs, that you aren't offended by some criticism.  If it's false criticism....you ought to be able to repel it upon the other party.

A Math Story

 I noticed this story coming up from San Francisco.

This revolves around fourth-graders who sat in a math class and were given this problem: If you have 14 stickers and desire to give three to each friend, how many friends will get stickers?

The kids were frustrated and didn't see any outcome.  

The true answer?  ONLY four friends would get stickers, and you'd have 2 stickers left in your hand at the end.

Now, my brother (the electrical engineer) would have answered....none of his friends care for some damn stickers.....so he'd just keep the stickers.  Maybe down the road, with enough stickers....he'd trade them for some magic beans at the local co-op.  

Others might have answered that they'd come to some agreement in selling the stickers for a nickel each, and made 70 cents.

Still others would have answered that the final two left-over stickers should be cut-up and given out as partial stickers.  

The purpose of this stupid math problem....a discussion in the distribution cycle...nothing more than that.  It's not really a defined end (x plus y must equal z).

It's a love-hate relationship with math.  You need some math skills to survive in life.  The majority of us probably need a max of 8th-grade math for the requirements in life.  A few us need Einstein-like skills.  

With word problems....the hate view outweighs the love view.  I had some 9th grade math instructor who gave out a 5 question quiz, all worked up in word problems.  He figured we'd all be done in 20 minutes.  Most were still working on this at the ring of the bell....sixty minutes later.  

Even now....two weeks after this stupid sticker problem, there's probably a dozen kids still have math-PTSD issues and worried that more intense sticker problems will be given to them in September.  

2024 Election Over, As Of Today?

 With the Key-Largo residence of Donald Trump raided by the FBI....it's done.  Trump will run, and will be elected in 2024.  

An intentional event by the FBI to guarantee this?  This is where I sit and pause over what this decision by the DoJ was about.

On the stupidity scale (1-10)....this ranks as a '12'.  They desperately want it to be Trump as the opposition. 

Nothing makes any sense about this.

So far, the White House says they knew nothing about this.  My belief in this?  Near zero.  

Amazing....just over two years away, and the election is wrapped up at this point, unless Trump's health fails. 

My Gut Feeling On Seven Things

 1.  This WNBA player, Brittney Griner, held in a Russian jail situation over arriving in the country with cannabis vape.

Years ago, I watched the 1978 movie.....Midnight Express.  Stupid American, trying to fly out of Turkey, drugs on him.  The movie impressed upon me.....once you visit a foreign country....you keep your act straight, and avoid drugs at all cost.  Evidentially, Griner never saw the movie.

2.  Busing illegals to NYC or Washington DC.

No one is forced onto the buses, and the ride cost nothing (food seems to be provided).  So, what's the big deal?  Lot of chatter about jobs in NYC being empty.

3.  The Russian spiral in the Ukraine.

At some point in the next two months....I expect a major part of the Russian front to collapse, and 10,000 Conscripts retreat in mass....getting clobbered every step of the way for 48 hours.  Those who survive?  They will never take orders from the Russian commanders again.  This war goes into maximum turbo decline at this point.

4.  DC schools say kids must be vaxed-up for the entry into school here in August, or be denied entry.

Just guessing here, but I might assume more than 2,000 kids and their parents don't comply.  At that point, schools might as well go and dismiss more 100 teachers.

5.  Just how much of a lame-duck is President Biden after the mid-term?

On a scale of one to ten.....probably a '8'.  For the party....he's of no value for 2023, and it'd be better if he just didn't appear that often in public.  

Politically-speaking....2023 looks pretty crappy for the Democratic Party, unless you get AOC or Newsom out in front daily....making speeches.

6.  San Bernardino County (what is everything between Riverside and Bullhead City, AZ.....is having a vote this November to succeed from California?

Yeah.  Not that it's really legal or resolved via the Constitution....but they say that they want their fair share of 'funds' from the state, and they aren't getting them.

How big is the county?  Roughly half the size of the state of Alabama.  But I should state this....25-percent of the county is Fort Irwin (the Army post), and another 35-odd percent is fed desert land.  Five-percent is national forest land. 

Who would they flip to?  In their fantasy....either Arizona or Nevada.

From the state leadership....no one takes this serious.  It would be an interesting thing to entertain.

7.  Iowa not being first for the 2024 primary?

Rumor started up....the head of the Democratic Party wants either Nevada or New Hampshire to be first.....or to have all four on the same day.

Why?  I don't think Newsom can win in Iowa, and they need some kind of 'protection' to get him to the convention.  Newsom in Nevada, SC or NH?  Well....he might have 60-percent odds in Nevada, but less than 30-percent in Iowa, SC or NH.  

What Happened To The Batgirl Movie?

 The studio says.....can it.  It will never be shown in theaters, or via DVDs, or via cable TV.  What's said now....around $70-million was spent, and will be considered just a tax-write-off.

What I suspect?  Three things:

1.  I think they went with a two-star concept, and just thinking anything DC....would sell.  Somewhere near the end of production, the big-boys of the studio then realized there was no real focus.....no hero status....nothing to get people into the theater.

2.  The script?  Maybe it was a marginal script.  No one talks much about it.

3.  It was a no-name actress (Leslie Grace) who got the nod to play the part.  There's always a risk when you do this....people thinking it'll pan out, and sometimes....it does work.  

If they take the tax loss?  Then the whole thing will be shredded and never viewed.  Hard to believe they'd go to the length.  

Things Are So Bad....

 It's reached a point here in the past year, where the US government more or less....admitted that UFOs do actually exist, and frankly....no one cares.

I sat and thought about this statement here this morning.

I would offer three reasons for the 'do-not-care' business:

1.  No one really believes anything that comes from the government today.  It's been that way for twenty-odd years.  

2.  People have seen enough UFO movies, to readily believe in aliens already.

3.  Between wokeness, Covid, gender-crap, pronoun-BS, the Trump era, the Biden era, the murder rate in Baltimore, the Russians in the Ukraine, the recession, and social media crapping all over the place.....no one has any appreciation of the UFO business.

I'll even go this far...to say this.  If aliens did arrive and offered any chance to leave the Earth....for any remote oddball planet....probably more than half would accept the chance to pack up and move. 

This Idea Of Pumping Mississippi River Water To the Colorado River And Arizona?

 I noticed this story posted this week....because of lessening river waters to Nevada, Arizona and California....there's talk of some 'pipe' to bring Mississippi River water to the west.  Matter of how it'd work?  Unknown.

For reference....the Colorado River officially starts at Lake La Poudre Pass....about 30 miles west of Fort Collins.  

So the idea is...you'd build some canal or 'pipe' to bring Mississippi water to the 'foot' of the Rocky Mountains.

How I would imagine this working?  I'd go to two states....Iowa and Nebraska and offer up some deal for the purchase of five or six areas where huge reservoirs would be built (probably in the 2,000 acre-range each and thirty feet deep), which I would allow some locals to get irrigation off of.

Then I'd pump the Mississippi water through each reservoir, and reach the point at Fort Collins where you'd require a fair amount of pumping to reach the Long Draw Reservoir (which leads into the Colorado River).  

Inch by inch....I'd start to raise the water flow into the Colorado....probably reach two to three feet  above where it is today.  

Cost factor?  Oh, its to be into the 100-billion range, and easily take a decade to accomplish.  

Selling this idea?  It helps to have Nebraska and Iowa attached....then you bring up the topic of flood control for those who've suffered from sprig floods on the Mississippi.