SeniorJunior

Stuck in the Middle With You Just seems like a fitting old song for what it's like to be a "moderate" these days.  Clowns to the left of me Jokers to the right. 1972 toe tapper.

Franco-German.    Wouldn't you know it? Look, Ma, no tail! It's a concept drawing, but I love it. It'll be on the market in a decade or so. Maybe. Read about it here.

You Know Olde Scooter (that would be me) Is Seriously Interested in the Human Microbiome** Thing is, every living thing on this wonderful planet has a microbiome. Plants, animals, bugs, birds, even microbes themselves. A new scientific discipline is studying all this wondrous mega-commensalism... * Let's share microbes! Why  Meta ge no mics ? Microbes run the world. It’s that simple. Although we can’t usually see them, microbes are essential for every part of human life—indeed all life on Earth. Every process in the biosphere is touched by the seemingly endless capacity of microbes to transform the world around them. The chemical cycles that convert the key elements of life—carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur—into biologically accessible forms are largely directed by and dependent on microbes. All plants and animals have closely associated microbial communities that make necessary nutrients, metals, and vitamins available to their hosts. Through fermentation an...

So a Friend Brought His Knife Sharpeners Over for Me to See.... ...and Alexa Listened In I HEAR you! I swear, affirm, affidare, this to be true: THERE WAS... NO shopping on line for sharpeners...    NO queries to Google or Bing or Yahoo for sharpener info... i.e.        ZERO ways the mighty marketers of the Internet could know... EXCEPT, all the sharpener talk (I sharpened three of our knives, and said "wow" a lot over how sharp they became) were within earshot of our Amazon Echo, home of the solicitous Alexa.  This morning, ads for knife sharpeners started showing up all over   my usual news sites, NYTimes, WaPost, Google News, etc. HOW DO IT KNOW? ( Punch line to old thermos joke)       .... Well, it must constantly listen to hear the activate command, "Alexa." Duh.  So you think Amazon is just going to ignore all that other stuff it hears all the time, or maybe, perhaps, possibly, USE that...

More Big Bucks for Longevity Quest  Pharma Newsletter: Longevity will eventually “dwarf the dotcom boom.” (Story in Big Pharma  newsletter ) Peter Diamandis’ right hand man Sergey Young wants to reverse aging via his $100M Longevity Vision Fund by  natalie grover —  on  February 4, 2019 09:00 AM EST I'm Young , and I'll pay to stay that way! Inspired by British billionaire Jim Mellon, chairman of anti-aging upstart biotech venture  Juvenescence , Sergey Young unveiled a $100 million fund on Monday to catalyze the development of a comprehensive solution to counteract the damaging consequences of aging. As you might suspect, this is a topic of interest to my 82 year-old self. Other posts: [Click 'em] Can You Buy Some Extra Years? Anti-aging Pills Aplenty More Longevity Stuff Senolytics! All In on Senolytics Now I need to work on the "Millionaire" part.

That's My Hometown Paper In   !! Talk about a media rush. I'm thumbing through The New Yorker , checking out the cartoons first as always, and ZOWEE! There is a picture of The Bonham Daily Favorite. Holy cats , etc.   The Daily Favorite is more to me than my home towner; I was once an employee. I was a "combo announcer" at KFYN, the 250 watt, 1420 kHz, AM daytimer station when it was owned by the Favorite. That was in 1952.*  Hey Olde Scooter, recognize me? It's in THIS edition. Jan 28, 2019 THRILLS COME IN THE DARNDEST WAYS. Bonham, Texas has about 10,000 souls now, 7000 in 1952. A growth market! update, UPDATE      I was so excited about seeing the picture of the Daily Fav, that I rushed to blog about it.   Then I read the piece. It's really an extraordinary,  15 pager by Pulitzer winning biographer Robert A. Caro on his experiences researching his massive The Years of Lyndon Johnson biography, five vol...

With Pain Still Fresh, Lawmakers Make Push to Outlaw Shutdowns+ Your can make your ideas clear here , dear. Never fear. ACT! Like our country depended on it. A government shutdown is the essence of shooting oneself in the foot. This is going to smart.

You Think the GREEN New Deal is Progressive? (I do, and I'm all for it, but why not go for the gold?) Over-The-Top New Deal      The central objective of any "OTT New Deal" should be to END "paycheck to paycheck" as a big American way of life. We are hearing  a lot about government employees, out of work because of Covid, with no cushion. People are in dire straits because they are living paycheck to paycheck. And you can believe most P2P people are not saving for their retirement. Even with totally dependable paychecks - as one previously assumed federal government work provided - that's still no way to run a workforce.       America is clearly leaving vast swaths of its population out in the cold. Full time jobs not paying a living wage. No benefits. No job security. No confidence that things will get better.       Security and confidence make people more productive as employees, more likely to becom...

ANOTHER NEW YORK TIMES "PICK" FOR OLDE SCOOTER ... And it's all on behalf of my "little crusade" to outlaw government shutdowns. Here's the offering to the "Comments" after the lead editorial in today's (Jan 8, 19) editorial. Here's that lead editorial: Opinion Borderline Insanity President Trump rained cruelties on immigrants and asylum seekers and now wants hundreds of millions of dollars to address the humanitarian crisis he caused. Read it all  here. For a guy who writes four or five "comments" a day in the NYTimes, The Washington Post, Breitbart and a  random  selection of others, it's fun to make the "pick" list. Since this comment directly plugged my "little crusade" to outlaw government shutdowns, this was doubly fun. My last "pick"

Let's Outlaw "Government Shut Downs!" They are stupid, cruel, arbitrary,  discriminatory and  financially chaotic Gotcha, me!! The Little Crusade (Only if you think Government should be immune to the tantrums of politicians not getting their way, of course...) WRITE:  Tweets, "Comments," Instagrams, Letters to the Editor, Blogs, Graffiti... SPEAK: Talk show call-ins, Speeches at your club/church/bridge party/golf game... Write things like this "comment" I made in the Washington Post: Outlaw government shutdowns! They are perversions of what government is meant to be. Allowing shutdowns to be negotiating pawns is ridiculous, not to mention humanly cruel, financially chaotic and wildly discriminatory in who they hurt. This nation cannot be hostage to itself. If it takes the tortuous path of a Constitutional amendment, get started. A journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step. If a bunch of us start getting this simple...

Definitely the Best Summary of All the Big Russian Election Interference I've seen so far. (As you may know, I've been off and on preoccupied with the subject . I'm glad it's all coming out. Opinion Yes, Russian Trolls Helped Elect Trump Social media lies have real-world consequences. By  Michelle Goldberg Opinion Columnist Dec. 17, 2018    LINK TO FULL STORY It's succinct and well written. More important, best I can see, it's accurate. You know, truthful. New York Times at its best. HERE'S ANOTHER EXCELLENT WRAP UP FROM WIRED MAGAZINE. Good as these are, I remain critical of most of the reporting on these huge new Congressional reports on Rooskie diddling with our national mind for one thing, "comments."  Nobody I've seen (tell me if you know of some) is paying attention to the "Comments" sections. I believe it's likely that they are seriously infested with Russians, Chinese, North Kor...

... By a person trying to spell out how it (Medium) is unique and different in these days when there is SO MUCH stuff on the Internet.     Anyway, I love it when ideas are communicated so clearly.  Like this: "Most of the internet treats anything that isn’t new like bad fruit." We would make fantastic apple sauce. If you care about, say, [Sex, drugs, rock and roll ... Anything!], the best thing you could read today was very unlikely to have been published in the last 48 hours.  So check out a "rotten apple," super old stuff by Internet standards. Might still be pertinent? Rotten apples credit