No more penny...

 The time has come. The penny has been retired and production has ceased at the US Mint. The penny costs a lot to produce in recent years thanks to inflation so that helped with the decision of the Trump administration to end the production of the penny.

Here's an IG post on it.

Community meeting: Former Shedd Elementary School - TONIGHT

Cross-posted from Ninth Ward Chicago

Just saw this today via Concerned Citizens of Chatham. How many you already know about this? This meeting is with regards to the shuttered Shedd School property.

This meeting is happening tonight at Harlan Community Academy High School - 9652 S. Michigan between 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM.

 

How to make a 100% home grown bread

 I've subscribed to Shawn Woods on YouTube for many years now. He has identified as something of a survivalist and lives in a rural part of Oregon - which explains how he harvested salt from the Pacific Ocean.

Either way I see this project of producing his own bread with his own wheat and his own salt is a fascinating project to share on here. His point with this exercise is to show us how easy it is to produce your own bread and making it with your own ingredients. 

You don't have to go to the store!

Alas there isn't a body of saltwater near Chicago. And I don't know too many people who harvest wheat in their backyard in a major metropolitan area. And of course to further harvest wheat to produce flower that seems like a time consuming process although resources are available to make that work.

Would you be willing to experiment with this process? [VIDEO]

Steven Bartlett: Why We'll Never Go To Mars & The Terrifying Truth Of Black Holes

 I know politics have been the focus of this blog as of late, however, sometimes it's OK to delve into science. Lately space or the universe has been a topic of interest for me. 

I really like this discussion between physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, PhD and podcaster Steven Bartlett. [VIDEO]

Somehow I missed the pivot from going to Mars to them talking about Black Holes.

Black Holes seem terrifying if you get caught in one, especially when you reach a point where escape isn't possible then you get the spaghettification effect. You get stretched out, I imagine that as painful, however, we're not going to find out about that anytime soon.

Though of course if Dr. Tyson tells it we might be fine at a certain distance it's not like it'll just suck everything in. And it's interesting how he talks about Black Holes - one can be created if a star wants to explode, however, gravity keeps that from happening.

And also Mars. Elon Musk wants to go to Mars, he's talked about it. Of course what's the economic incentive? Trillions of dollars to make this a reality?

And how did we wind up on the moon by 1969, well more of a geopolitical incentive. Certainly the United States of America had to show the technical superiority to our superpower rivals the Soviet Union. The U.S. has rivals of course in the current world, but there's no Soviet Union - Russia still hasn't matched the power and influence of the superpower it ultimately replaced.

However as the title postulates, "We'll never go to Mars", I hope we do in my lifetime. Besides I just missed the Apollo missions of the late 1960s to earlyer 70s that did land on the moon.

Secretary Hegseth's 'TedTalk'

Yesterday was a big day, there was news in the press that the Secretary of Defense War Pete Hegseth had called all US flag officers - Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, Generals & Admirals - to a meeting at Quantico which is a Marine Base in Virginia.

I'm sure his 45 minute speech to these Generals & Admirals was very jarring, but I wonder if it's appreciated that he's setting a new direction for the armed services. He's right about the military, they are in the business of life and death and anyone who's in the service needs to act accordingly. He definitely emphasize the importance of physical fitness of all servicemembers.

He also emphasizes the meritocracy and no more D.E.I. initiatives. Secretary of War Hegseth wants to insure that no one will get promoted based on their race and gender or some other characteristic. What matters most is how they perform in their roles.

If I wasn't already over the age limit I'd sign up right now just to see if I could make it with these new rigid standards.

Here's his speech. Reminds me of a TedTalk. [VIDEO]

A lot of people who analyzed Secretary Hegseth's speech sort of compared it to the opening scene of Patton with the flag in the background and Patton played by George C. Scott giving his own speech. That would be a very iconic scene that many evoked here.

Also note that Patton is one of the historic generals that the Secretary of War noted in his speech. Some military analysts have noted we no longer have that swashbuckling generals that get the job done these days. Patton was one, MacArthur, Grant, and there are others surely.

Anyone have any thoughts on this. Any currently service military personnel or even veterans have any thoughts on this?

 

Mr. Beat: This Time Capsule Video Took 50 Years to Make

 I saw a YouTube short with Mr. Beat where he shows himself returning to his old high school to open his own time capsule dating to his senior year. And it was amazing to see the look on his face, when he found the time capsule and all the things him and his classmates put into it.

Then I got to thinking what would I have put in my own time capsule. Well my own senior year of high school had long passed so I can only speculate. Assuming no other classmates were involved with this, I'm sure I'd leave in it stuff that I was most interested in.

Mostly popular culture I was into such as music, TV, movies, etc. Perhaps a written note (ideally printed from a computer certainly written by hand too). Perhaps a floppy disk as Mr. Beat left one in his time capsule - what would be on it would be a good question and who knew diskettes were on the way out a decade later. That would be the start but I don't want it to be as unwieldy as the one opened in Seward, Nebraska as you see depicted in Mr. Beat's video below. [VIDEO]

Very fascinating. Time capsules that we know about in all history. The one by Paul Revere and Samuel Adams and then some we know about are older than that. And then this one just opened in Nebraska this past July 4th.

Mr. Beat has a time capsule which he even schedule a video to be shared in 2075. We don't know what the world will be in yet another 50 years. Will YouTube even be around? Would even the Internet Archive?

The next question is that if you left a time capsule of your own, what would be in it?

Gov. Jim Edgar R.I.P.

Via JimEdgar.com

Jim Edgar was this state's 38th Governor. He died on Sunday, earlier this year he had announced that he had prostate cancer. He was undergoing treatment and a press release from him family stated that he had passed away from complications related to treatment.

Edgar was Governor from 1991 to 1999. He had succeeded the late Jim Thompson and was succeeded by the late George Ryan.

From what I recalled Gov. Edgar was the last statewide Republican candidate to win Cook County which he had done in 1994 and that proved to be a wave year. He benefited from the discord out of Washington, as it turned out in 1994 the Republicans were destined to take control of both houses of Congress.

Here's an example of his political ads which were show as part of Edgar's oral history [VIDEO]