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 ...a Fierce Frown and Huge Rock Paws & Claws Good thing for you I'm locked in stone. On his back, glaring up from a sweeping bend in the Rio Chubut in the Province of Chubut in central Argentina, this guy looks quite unhappy.  Note his cat ears, his mono-nostril and his formidable claws. He was about 2500 feet tall when he fell back into the molten lava half a million years ago.  Only his glowing eyes did not petrify. OK, I have a bad case of  face pareidolia, and I can't help blogging about what I see: Monster in the PVC Tough Guy with Cigar Eye in the desert Small Head; Big Beard Holy Bird! Pix credit - Google Maps/Satellite "Chubut" pronounced chew-boot, NOT chew butt!

 The Leader of the Free World Refuses to Honor Many World Treaties Well, OK, we did sign this one. The mass murderer Putin clearly needs to be convicted of war crimes.  However, the USA "rejects" and "isn't a party to" the International Criminal Court where such a conviction would happen.  The problem is that any prosecution of U.S. crimes would “unacceptably threaten American sovereignty and U.S. national security interests.” There you go.  At least there you go until a criminal like Putin needs prosecuting . Here's a list of the international treaties we have stiff-armed: Year Treaty Depositary U.S. status 1930 Forced Labour Convention International Labour Organization signed, not ratified 1948 Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention International Labour Organization not signed 1949 Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 International Labour Organization not signed 1950 Convention for the Suppression...

What's to Become of Us?  An America of Cheech & Chong? Or  of Steve Jobs, Willie Nelson, Bill Gates and Carl Sagan?* -18 states have legalized recreational weed. -38 states have legalized medical cannabis.  -17 "overlap" - both recreational and medical So this is one big sociological experiment. Precendents? Perhaps when Prohibition ended, and drinking went from bootleggers back to bars and package stores, it was sort of like this. Perhaps many folks who really wanted to drink a bit were encouraged to have a few pops after years of abstinence. Perhaps that's happening now with weed.  What Prohibition lacks as an analogue is that booze didn't sneak up from 90 proof to 120 proof, unless you moved right up to Everclear, and everyone knew what that would do.  With Cannabis, the "proof" is rising, and everyone is unclear on what that will do.  There are some worrying indications: Recently, there have been concerns surrounding the increased levels of THC f...

 OK, ok, Meta ... ...MAYBE  (So far it's an aspiration) As an established superfan of A.I., I see the UT (universal translator) as a PA (providential application) of mankind's new supertool.  Emancipating, it would be for us mono-linguistic types.  I see me in, say, Costa Rica talking to my great new dentist, perfect Costa Rican Spanish going into his earbuds and perfect English translation into mine as we discuss implants and crowns.  Then I would chat with his Ukrainian tech. Be still my heart. A.I. is getting better by the minute -- on its way to S.I., superintelligence -- and I really have no doubt the Universal Translator is coming soon.  Meta has the bucks and the motivation to make it happen, so for once I am cheering for Mark Zuckerberg. I will cheer even louder when I can download the App. BTW, notice Zuck's new hairdo? What next, a hat? Read the piece on Babelfish. - - - - - - - - - CLICK HERE for   My newest Sci-Fi Novel. Guess what... ...

              Poland to buy 250 M1 Abrams tanks from US             General Dynamics Gets the Biz Heavy, I am. 62 metric tons And mean? Man, I'm mean. The State Department just approved the $6 billion sale, because of the "deteriorating situation" in Poland's neighbor Ukraine. No wonder the stock market is ambivalent about the costs of war. A long read on the Abrams ON THE "PRODUCTIVITY" OF MILITARY GEAR PURCHASES.

...WORKforce, That Is   The American workforce is our mightiest infrastructure element!  Whether a member thereof is a nurse, a truck driver, a Python coder, an agriculture stoop laborer, a cop, a teacher.... on and on... they are part of the vast human asset we call The Workforce.   For top productivity, inventiveness, diligence at work, i.e. world competitiveness , our Workforce should be a great one:   Healthy, educated, motivated, confident, honest, dedicated, and patriotic. It has high morale. It works hard and is productive.  It is creative and great at solving problems. It works together effectively as teams, large and small, and as individuals. Show me a national workforce that meets those definitions, and I will show you a nation enjoying success, progress, and prosperity. Now look at the American workforce. Some of it fits that "great" definition; much does not. Truth is, it MUST to be great enough for the huge competition facing us with China. We...

  Talk about accurate futurism! Thumbing through the Sept 1934 issue of Popular Science (don't ask), I found this: "Television May Add to the Power of Telescope." Without ever hearing about "pixel count" the inventive professor suggested the  light gathering power might reach that of a "2000 inch reflector," when the largest telescope on earth had a 100 inch mirror! The futurist foresaw pixel count saying, "a mosaic of tiny photoelectric cells at the focus of the telescope." 88 years ago! Wow. The James Webb has 8 million "tiny photoelectric cells!" ... and they see Infra-red! I'm sure even the far-seeing Dr. Francois Henroteau* (Canadian, dontcha know) would have been blown away.  I sure am, both by his prescience and by the JWST itself.   THAT FUTURE JUST KEEPS THUNDERING DOWN THE TIME TRACK. * A NYTime piece on Francois