SOME OF THEM WERE REALLY 'GOOD OLD DAYS'.

There are a rare times when 'the good old days' fill me with longing.  Yesterday was one of them.  The TV I watch when I am at the computer died, still in what should have been the prime of its life.  This necessitated an immediate replacement which offered some pleasant opportunities. " Should I get a flat panel?  Of course, am I out of my mind?"  I read up on LED vs LCD and finally decided on a 40" Led/LCD, thinking I would have had to mortgage my house a few years ago to buy one of these.but since I view it from at least a 20 feet distance, it works much better for these old eyes.

Here is where the 'gold old days' come to mind.  Before cable, FIOS, and all this 'good' stuff, one would have come home from the TV store with a guy (it would have been my husband then) carrying this monstrously large box.  The TV had to be removed carefully from the box and plugged into the wall for AC power and connected to an outside antenna and that was it!!!

Not in this new and improved world of technology!.  The manual was 48 pages long and that was a 'plug and play' tutorial about the TV only, not to do with cable..  It offered all the goodies (none of which I want nor have) that can be attached to it  Having finally rid myself of the VHS tapes I had made over the past many years because I didn't have time to watch when the program was aired, I found I never had time thereafter, either.  Creativity being so lean in today's world, if you miss a program , you can count on re-runs (or catch it on the computer) because everyone who has produced something worthwhile is going to squeeze out every cent that can me made.

However, the greater problem in buying a new TV is knowing how to make the proper connections and getting it to work on all channels, even the HDTV channels.  I had to remind myself that it was, in fact, easier and less messy than training a puppy off the newspapers.  Where there were once 4 or 5 channels, there are now hundreds  Just allowing it to program itself to the channels took an hour!  Getting Verizon to communicate with it was a bit more complicated but, those of you who may remember my ranting negatively 3 years ago about Verizon might be pleased to hear that the gentleman who walked through how to set up the remote was polite, tolerant, patient, and a good teacher.  He was thanked profusely and sounded quite surprised by it.  His directions were followed and worked immediately.  And just think of it; the whole process only took about four hours and a trip to the Verizon store to pick up an HDMI cable and an HDTV box to deliver the channels I have chosen.

Recalling that the first TV I had to watch had a 2" screen and, in only 60 years, it has now grown to 40".!

DONALD TRUMP AS SEEN BY AL JAZEERA

Donald Trump is seen outside the US quite differently than he is pictured by many in today's media locally.  Al Jazeera has an interesting article about him today.  Since many of you may not read it, click here to see how he is seen elsewhere.  The article is written by Cliff Schecter.  ""Little Donnie Trump, the dumbest kid in the class." This only somewhat facetious refrain was proffered on a day when Trump had said something particularly insane, by a friend of my parents who attended school with The Donald when they were just boys." wrote Schecter.

"That Trump has taken to promote this silliness should not be surprising. No, because it betrays what Donald Trump is: the living embodiment of every degrading aspect of American culture.
Trump is a guy who is famous for spinning a false resume - as a supposedly intelligent businessman - into fame and additional fortune. Much like with our national political conversation, the truth is incidental. Even when one's tall tales can be empirically proven to be as fake as the synthetic turf grass on Trump's noggin. It is of no matter"

How is it that people outside the US have a clearer vision of truth than those in the US who allow themselves to be brainwashed with lies?  That the man can capitalize on the lie that Obama is not a citizen is so anti-American it is difficult for me to believe so many people.(polled to be mostly
Republicans) have so little intelligence that  they cannot do the logic and check for themselves the sources which prove he was born in Hawaii when it was legally a State of the US.

THE PRICE OF LIVES IN WAR IS HIGH

Usually referred to as collateral damage are those who didn't sign up as military.  They far outnumber the ones who serve in our armed forces.  Recently the toll has risen among journalists and photographers.

Today is a video of pictures taken by Chris Hondros, killed in Misurata, Libya while taking pictures for Getty.

We will mourn the daring of this man and others to tryh to make us aware of what is happening in the world.    Click here.  One has to ask if it was worth his life for us to see these pictures.  I would rather have him alive and not feel amidst the grim rebellion and Ghaddafi's counter.

TELLING TIME

Clocks can be useful tools when you want to know what time it is, how much more time you have, how late you are going to be, when it will be time to leave, when to take your next pill, and so much more.  People treat time very differently.  There are those of us who are 'always on time' and those who just say, 'let them wait'.

How people treat time also tells one a lot about their consideration for others (or lack of it, as it might be), and their respect for utilizing time to the maximum.  After all, we all have a finite time to live and most of us want to make the most of it.

A new clock has been built for Cambridge College in England.  It has no hands.  It takes a bit of a learning curve to figure out how to read it.  To see this in action, click here and watch the short film.  Be patient through the short ad.

binary clock

One of my clocks, more as a 'what-is-it' kind of thing actually  works.  The two columns on the left are for seconds, the two in the middle are for minutes, and the two on the left are hours.  o read time, one must start from the left of the two columns and read upwards.




 





Clocks have always fascinated me and I have lots of them in the house.  One of my favorites, however, comes from the 30s or 40s and is the Westclox Big Ben.  The only sad thing about it is that it had to be wound every 24 hours, otherwise we would still be using it today...well, I do still, anyway.

Time does march on, sometimes at the speed of grass growing; at others faster than Superman.

THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD

The Congressional Record,  I naively thought, was an actual record of what went on in the House and Senate.  However, I was wrong.  In 2007, an online ability to change the record was set in place to make those changes more easily than before..  This allowed Senator Kyl to change what he had lied about by saying the Planned Parenthood did more than 90% of their work as abortions. 

The Congressional Record is a 'substantially verbatim' report.  Legislators are permitted to correct their facts and grammar or revise what they wished they had said rather than what they may have actually said.  Something doesn't seem right about that unless it is made clear what was said and then the revision is clearly marked...but it does not seem that is how it works.

For that reason, Senator Kyl was able to change what he said about Planned Parenthood to 'you can get an abortion at Planned Parenthood because that is what they do.'  He dropped the more than 90% of what they do are abortions but did not bother to mention the other more than 98% of their functions. 

I'm happy I am not an Arizonan where he is a Republican Senator.  He is a poor excuse of a man, with his lack of integrity and honesty.  I believe the legislators abandoned the dignity and desirability of the office have lowered the caliber of candidate.  Who with pride and values would even want to run for the job.  Even if such a person would run, the electorate would not vote for them because they wouldn't lie enough during their campaign to get the backing of the voters.

PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE

The World Bank President predicts we are one shock away from crisis.  He, Robert Zoellick, "cited rising food prices as the main threat to poor nations who risk "losing a generation".".  Ten months ago, The Economist quoted Reed Abelson of the NY Times as saying:  "Health insurers, Mr Abelson reports, are experimenting with paying the salaries of extra nurses in doctors' offices assigned to manage chronic medical cases and avoid acute episodes. This can prevent patients with chronic conditions from having to go to the hospital, which can save the insurers more money than the nurses' salaries cost."

 Prevention does not pay the insurers sufficiently but illness does. That ought to make people want to turn to a one payer system without a profit motive, but it doesn't seem to strike enough people as making sense.  Too many people are too quick to believe propaganda.  It reminded me of the time a woman refused to believe that a Bishop in the Catholic church had sired a baby out of wedlock even though he personally admitted to it on TV.  A woman in the audience said she didn't believe it because he was a man of God and had taken an oath.  With naivete like that, why do we need people who can take facts and interpret them accurately?

Read the best answer chosen regarding this issue by clicking here.

Of course, it is too much to hope that people will acquaint themselves with healthy habits, diet and  good hygiene.  They will continue to smoke though the Surgeon General has cautioned them for over thirty years on the physical dangers involved.  Women continue to smoke, lose the collagen in their face, and spend a fortune on worthless products to replace the collagen by oral intake.

There is no way we can make people take care of themselves and they aren't bright enough to see that the government has been doing the best job of it with seniors through Medicare.  Some day more will understand that if the legislators are trying to get rid of something it is because it works and is a threat to profit seekers.

HOW LONG WILL RELIGIOUS ZEALOTS BE ALLOWED TO MAKE DECISIONS FOR ALL OF US?

Our American society has become a hostile place for the average American.  Pro-Life is a euphemism which really means, "Ladies, we will control your uterus and all the rest of your life, other than the health and education of the children we force you to bring into the world by denying abortion.

Andrea Grimes has written a touching article about her need for the services of Planned Parenthood.    She needs regular pap smears to keep tabs on her high risk HPV (Human papillomavirus)  Human papillomavirus (pap-ah-LO-mah-VYE-rus) (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted virus in the United States. At least 50% of sexually active people will have genital HPV at some time in their lives.  -report from CDC.

The Holier-Than-Thou Republicans are now blatantly lying to the public with facts and statistics, possibly unaware of the technology era in which we live and how quickly their facts can be checked.  Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart and other late night comedians have been having a field day with Sen Kyl's faux pas (if one is putting it kindly), or out and out lie if one is being realistic.  Be sure to watch the clip of the Daily Show and Jon Stewart's comments on it.

Lastly,  Ed Schultz featured the Kyl blooper on his segment, Psycho Talk.  Click here.