I haven't been to the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry since I was in grammar school. Oh the Griffin being former Chicago resident Ken Griffin, billionaire financier who gave a gift to this museum hence his name being attached to it.
I don't recall ever seeing this train, nor the WW2 German U-Boat though I may recall the airliner hanging from the ceiling. I do recall the model trainset which I have shared here that portrays the route of Amtrak's Empire Builder. Always thought that was cool.
This is one thing I want to see at that Museum when I go back in the near future, the Pioneer Zephyr was a great design for it's time. It served a non-stop route from Chicago to Denver making the trip in 13 hours.
Russel Sharp Train video's shows us the exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry. [VIDEO]
I had to attributed this to another YouTube channel - No Cap Fund - because I don't want to see this blog go on a Mr. Beat overload. He had talked about this in the past and have one video to show about it.
Mr. Beat wants to uncap the number of members in the US House of Representatives and he goes through the history of apportionment of representatives. Uncapping the number of representatives doesn't involve a constitutional amendment, it involves an act of Congress.
Mr. Beat has been attempting to get his congressman to take a stand on this issue although it appears a candidate for Congress is willing to take this issue on. And also it appears an Illinois Congresman Sean Casten seems ready to take on this issue as discussed in a live stream.
Here's the most recent video on this topic that Mr. Beat made [VIDEO]
My position on this is ambiguous.
I can believe as stated in this video that polarization is a very serious thing that's worth putting a damper on. Does this necessarily mean more representatives? Does this mean a far more ideologically diverse representatives?
I do like the idea of bringing down the number of people in each district. Say perhaps instead of the 800K population per district we instead create more districts that perhaps could be about half that or less.
Another thing noted is that if you mess with the number of representatives, you may also mess with the Electoral College count - now that's in the constitution (electoral votes are no. of representatives + Senators). Perhaps this means a recalcuation of the Electoral College math.
How could I sell this for say minority districts perhaps this might mean it would be easier in this state at least to create districts for Hispanics, Blacks, and others depending on where they may reside. I want to eliminate gerrymandering and who knows if this may address that. However, the states control drawing congressional maps more than the federal gov't does.
I think this is worth a discussion as opposed to killing this because reflexively we may decide there shouldn't be more politicians. Should we have more than 435 representatives? What do you think?
[VIDEO] This was sort discussed in a previous video shared here on this blog by Spectacles. The common thread is basically the unrest and the inequalities of wealth.
Do you agree or disagree with the assertions of Mr. Beat & Spectacles?
I found this video on Sunday, and before that I saw the collab with Mr. Beat. Well both videos are actually collabs, however, the Mr. Beat video will be shared here at a later time.
[VIDEO] The above video (duration 32 mins.) from the YouTube channel Spectacles talks about the parallels between the 1890s to the 2020s. The comparison between the business trusts of the late 19th to early 20th century to the multinational corporations of today.
When we talk about trusts think about for example Standard Oil - owned by John D. Rockefeller - which owned pretroleum production. That's not the only company or sector we need to be concerned about in this discussion, however, for the United States in the 19th & 20th century it's when a company or an industry grows larger than a state gov't and the federal gov't is enjoined from regulating large business interests.
In the 21st century, corporations are beginning to become bigger than national gov'ts. If one wants to regulate these corporations they have the option to moving to a more favorable environment.
And another issue that's being argued here in both time periods, the inequities become pronounced for workers & consumers.
Wow, I haven't posted here since November 2025. It's not January 2025.
I wanted to share this video from Mr. Beat talking about the potentially 7 party systems. We're living in the 7th party system which started with the 2016 race and the election of Donald Trump.
The six other party systems or political eras are established based on the issues of the day and the shifting positions of the major parties. And even then the actually parties sometimes haven't always been consistent.
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.
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]
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.
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.
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?
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?
Another great video on gerrymandering. While Geography King does look at Illinois' Congressional map and other states such as Kentucky & Louisiana to see how their maps appear to be drawn to insure political power.
Current Illinois Congressional Districts
One example he gives is looking at the neighboring state of Indiana. That state's congressional map is actually drawn by a computer. However, he uses this site https://davesredistricting.org/ to gerrymander Indiana's districts insuring that no Democrats can get elected to Congress.
I suppose that's the thing about gerrymandering. You have to know which areas will vote for whom. Cities generally will tilt Democrat while rural areas will generally tilt Republican. Indiana is basically a red state thought with blue or liberal enclaves such as Indianapolis in addition to areas like Gary, Lafayette, or even Bloomington - the latter two are college towns.
The trick is to dilute their strength and basically drown them out with those areas that are solidly Republican or conservative. And if nothing else create a district that is competitive where a Democrat would have to fight to win that district.
That's the thing about gerrymandering, as he puts it the politician chooses his voters and not the other way around.
Check out his almost hour long presentation [VIDEO]
Gerrymandering has been in the news lately. Texas recently approved a mid-decade redistricting plan thought not without controversy and states like Illinois and California are looking at creating their own plan. The ongoing controversy is partisan in practice with Republicans assuring they remain in control of the house while Democrats want to insure their own political power.
With this said when you watch the video below, consider this video I posted last year from Mr. Beat where there is an argument to expand the US House of Representatives. Let's add to this the possibility of using proportional representation that insures minority parties doesn't get shut out.
Most other nations on the globe either elect their legislatures this way or at least form their governments via proportional representation. And with this to work to determine members of the US House of Representatives what might help this along is expanding the members of the House as Mr. Beat discusses.
IMHO, I think we do need to expand the number of Congresspersons (hey I like that better than Alderperson). I'm not entirely sold on proportional representation, but let's talk about it. We could expand this to state legislatures or even city councils (mostly big cities).
However, let's bear in mind this video is starting off talking about gerrymandering. The question is about creating fair maps.
Iowa is showing creating maps that largely considers county boundaries. Also why is there gerrymandering? These are districts drawn with political considerations and from what I know about redistricting in Illinois for example, it's to ensure that politicians get to retain their seats or more accurately to ensure politicians get to maintain their constituencies.
That means sometimes in other states outside of Iowa, cities might get split up between different districts. An example of Massachusetts the point was made that to ensure there is a Republican district there is to create a heavily gerrymandered map to elect one Republican there to Congress. Massachusetts was said to have voted 36% for Republican Donald Trump in 2024 for President, however, all Congresspersons elected from there are Democrats.
Has this video educated you on gerrymandering? Do you think we need to change how we draw our districts?
Thomas Jefferson was one of America's Founding Fathers and our 3rd P.O.T.U.S. As you see in this recent Mr. Beat video he was a man of contradictions. Let's start with his apparent opposition to slavery and yet he held slaves.
What's mentioned here is his relationship with one of his slaves Sally Hemmings - with whom he had many children. Because he was her owner this fact should be very shocking and as Mr. Beat points out we don't fully know if this "relationship" was consensual.
At his death, he still didn't free Ms. Sally, his daughter had to free her - well emancipate her.
Still, his many ideas aside from that main contradiction provide the philosophical basis for the American Republic. And one thing noted in this video was in 1800 he chose to wear his regular clothes to his inauguration. He was the first President to attempt to connect with the common man in America. Even though the first president to be elected by the common man was another controversial President Andrew Jackson.
Also it should be noted that Mr. Beat filmed this video at Jefferson's country estate, Monticello. It's now a museum which is available for tours outside of Charlottesville, Virginia.
This video below was posted to the White House YouTube channel this morning. I see there are similar videos also produced by this outfit known as Prager U and focused often on American history. We're seeing a brand new day under the 47th POTUS Donald Trump.
As you might see in the header on YouTube - America is back. The renewed focus on Making America Great Again and just think in 2026 it will have been 250 years since the Declaration of Independence - essentially the birth of the United States of America.
I never heard of Robert Treat Paine. In this video he talks through his portrait about his role in prosecuting the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre. The person who defended those British soldiers was our 2nd POTUS John Adams. Just as Adams he too signed the aforementioned Declaration of Independence.
My next question becomes I wonder who's curating content for The White House on YouTube. Often when I see content here it's often the President speaking to the press or some public appearance such was events for the 4th of July. So I found this brief video discussing history very interesting.
I really like this video and wanted to share this with you all.
Let's start with he might be ragging on certain jobs that include retail, fast food, or security. His point isn't just to say that you're just stuck in these positions. His point is try to make the most of it and don't allow yourself to be stuck in these positions.
Primarily either work to get promoted or apply whatever skills you've acquired in these positions to pursue other positions. Let's say for security, he would suggest you attempt to go into positions such as law enforcement or whatever allows you to help people the most. Though to be honest what I've observed about security is that many of them are doing it because it's a job.
Anyway if it seems like he's "hating" I would say take some of the good with the "bad". Just because you got a sales clerk job or a regular security guard or you flip burgers doesn't necessarily mean you're going to stay there. What else can you get out of these positions.
Watch the video below and let me know what you think? [VIDEO]
What the YouTube channel Useful Charts does is interesting. They not only look at his family tree, but they look at his "episcopal" lineage also. They look at his connection to other prominent Catholic cardinals, bishops or even other popes.
In the news it has come out that Pope Leo's lineage may include ancestors of African descent. As they discuss here his lineage includes Louisiana Creole who are often mixed race. He is of Italian descent on both sides of his family, and Popes have typically been of Italian descent.
Bear in mind when I say this, Pope John Paul II & Pope Benedict XVI were not of Italian descent. They were Polish and German respectively. Pope Francis was of Italian descent, however, he was born in the Latin American country of Argentina.
Also, another important this about the former Cardinal Louis Prevost is that he is the first U.S.A (or American if you prefer) born Pope in history. His immediate predecessor of course Pope Francis was born in Argentina so he was the first non-European born pontiff.
Pope Leo is also known as a Chicago-boy and a White Sox fan and there are photos of him at a World Series game in 2005 - which the White Sox swept the Houston Astros to win it all. He was said to have lived in the Roseland neighborhood though his childhood was spent in suburban Dolton, Illinois.
His childhood parish is located on the City Limits between Dolton and Chicago known as St. Mary of the Assumption. Both his childhood home and this church could become historic landmarks and that would be cool.
Anyway, here's the Useful Charts video if you want to look at his family and episcopal connections [VIDEO]
Allow me to start by saying the video you're about to see is only about the history of the Roman Catholic Church. I'm in no way equipped to even think I can discuss Catholicism in a theological way. That's really not the point of this post.
With this said earlier this month a new Pope of the Catholic Church was installed in Leo XIV. Not only is the Pope the visible head of the 2000+ year old church he's also a head of state - the microstate of Vatican City which is only 109 acres. It's an enclave of the Italian capital city of Rome.
And just bear in mind why is it the Roman Catholic Church because it's history started with the Roman Empire and guess where is the capital city of the Roman Empire - Rome. Either way we see that the Catholic Church and the Pope had significant influence throughout Europe. The Pope was said to be able to crown Emperors & Kings in addition to being involved with diplomatic disputes.
Let's also add that the Pope used to own more significant territory than Vatican City - which was established as an independent state thanks to the Lateran Treaty of 1929. The so-called Papal States was about the size of West Virginia and then in 1870 Italy eventually annexed the Papal States.
Up until 1929, the Pope considered himself a prisoner in the small area we now call Vatican City as a result of the loss of the Papal States.
The video below by GeoBro discusses how the Vatican lost 99% of it's land (the Papal States). I gave you the gist, the territory gave the Pope a lot of influence. Of course as we know thanks to the number of Catholics in the world the Pope still has a lot of influence [VIDEO]
In light of the historic events of the month of May 2025 I wanted to do a quick recap of what lead to the ascension of Leo XIV to the papacy. Who gets to select the new pope and what exactly is his role? And what is the history of the papacy. Hopefully I'll give myself the time to do that soon.
When I started this post I didn't know there were four other parts. This was part. 5 from the YouTube Channel - The Perteets. Anyone interested in seeing these other parts?
[VIDEO] When I was a child this was something that was of interest. To be a CTA motorman or a CTA conductor.
Well those used to be two different positions, however, by the 1990s the conductor positions were eliminated making CTA trains one person train operations. The man you see here gives us his job title, rapid transit operator. The title of what I used to call the motorman back in the day.
He talks about his experience, how he started on CTA and the routes he regularly worked before he started working the CTA blue line - which once used to be the Congress (Forest Park)-Douglas (54/Cermak)-O'Hare. Though these days it's just O'Hare-Forest Park.
My understanding of how CTA works and whoever works for the Chicago Transit Authority can correct me if I'm wrong is that before they let you have the control of the train, you have to be a flagger. I think you'd have to work on the tracks for a time before you can get promoted to operator. Don't quote me the comments are open for those who knows what it takes to eventually become a motorman/operator.
Anyone interested in becoming a rapid transit operator? Write a comment.
[VIDEO] Wait until you get to at least the last three cities. And some cities such as St. Louis and Detroit had experienced some form of population decline.
Many cities had some form of geographic advantage. Such as Chicago which historically had a geographic advantage, a hub for transportation, being on the Great Lakes, and being on a river which is connected to other important rivers.
People may emphasize here in this state that Chicago is losing population, however, Mr. Beat state's that that the Windy City is always reinventing itself.
Chicago is a great city, but which of these 25 cities would you choose to live?
The people of this state cast 165,602 votes for the current state flag. As our Secretary of State says in a video below this flag got more votes than five of the other designs combined.
Drum roll please…🥁 After receiving 385,000 votes, we have a DECISIVE winner in the state flag redesign contest! The Illinois Flag Commission will now report the results to the General Assembly who will vote on whether to adopt a new flag or keep the current one. pic.twitter.com/CS3RMesLH6
— Secretary Alexi Giannoulias (@ILSecOfState) March 6, 2025
You can see how many votes was cast for each flag here. Only wo of my favored designs in the ten submitted for a new state flag came in the top five votes. That includes the one that had a blue and red stripe on each side of the state seal coming in at #4.
Though I should note feedback on these chosen designs weren't very good. These results will be submitted to the general assembly and who knows the state legislature may still decide to come up with a design for a new state flag.
Though I would still say we could keep the current state flag for the governor. A few states have standards for a state's governor. An Illinois governor has no standard.
