SeniorJunior

I Have a (Conspiracy) Theory! Conspiracy theories make some people salivate. Goody goody! Here's how I will SEE, in a blinding flash of creative writing... a conspiracy. 1. Identify an unexplained situation. (or make one up!) 2. Totally invent some possible explanations , say three. 3. Pick the one I like best. The self serving one, typically. 4. Mix in some actual data, facts and the like. 5. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat. Deep breath and Repeat some more. 6. Here goes. THE  UNEXPLAINED  SITUATION 1. This olde SeniorJunior blog has a good number of foreign country "readers." 2. The ferners view random pages, all over the 400+ posts. No pattern emerges. 3. Three "viewing" countries  (plus 'unknown')  are notorious for hacker cultures (in RED below). THE DATA (actual facts) Pageviews: 30 days, August 3 - September 2, 2018   From Blogger. United States 761 Canada 157 Russia 106 France 71 Ukra

Big Cutback Announcement I've Avoided Most of "The News" for Days I feel very guilty, but greatly de-stressed.  Ahhhhh. Oh, them golden skippers... NO NEWS IS GOOD. PERIOD. (Just for a short break when you need it.) I know I'm ignoring frightening threats. I'm skipping my civic duty, and ghosts of conscience chase me down the street, howling, "It's your RESPONSIBILITY to suffer through the awful diet of daily downers." Well, no it's not. I have walked away from TV newscasts as they become too irritating  I have been reading Science News instead of Salon, Phys.org instead of the Washington Post, which is a hearse full of frights every day. (I do sneak back and look at Toles and Telnaes.) I've been listening to audiobooks (Iain M. Banks; Frank Herbert) instead of news podcasts.    There is balm in tweetless days. Oh the relief.   I have gone for hours avoiding media of any kind ( Gasp! ) Just wanted you

Everything is Relative July, 2006 In a four year drought, and rains came. August, 2018 and the rains have come again. Just not so much. I was ecstatic. This is what I wrote in 2006... with a few follow up comments from 2018. White text = 2006 Yellow text = 2018 The Great New Mexico Drought [What did I know about "great" re droughts?] is cracked.   Not broken, mind you, just cracked. [So I guess this year the current drought is just bent.] Here in this marvelous little microclimate called “The East Mountains”  - the east side of the mountains  east  of Albuquerque; actually the Sandias, Manzanitas and Manzanos - and especially in this valley where I live, in the Manzanitas close to the north boundary of the Isleta Reservation, we have caught a break.  The rains have come and come and come [2018: They come just once at a time mostly this year, short, intense thundershowers. Not much of that closely packed storms stuff.]     ]  In the last three weeks

How Your Brain Tricks You Into Believing Fake News TIME Magazine does a very nice piece of scientfic reporting on the "fake news" susceptibility we all share - somewhere deep in our brain boxes.  [As ye faithful SrJr readers know, it's been a hot topic with me.    There's: Folks Prefer Lies                       Why We Believe Conspiracy Theories                       Crazy as a Q    ... and a bunch more. Cruise through me humble blog .] So thanks, Time Magazine.  Here's your payoff: Helluva deal.

Our Loveable Pharma CEOs are All In  I've been a bit concerned as China slips into the passing lane on many American leadership positions. No such concern, apparently, by Big Pharma. Endpoint News is a Pharma newsletter operation, and their vision is clear: "Looks like a chance for big bucks to me," pretty much sums it up.  No concern, no fear for loss of intellectual property, just more chances for giant profits.   SOooo, does Big Pharma see this Chinese incursion as a threat or an opportunity? The Clear Me$$age... Is that the Pharmaceutical industry sees its central drive as economic.  "Invent great medicines" is seen through the filter, "Big profits?"  A really great medicine would be a new antibiotic that would save us from the mercies of MRSA.  But, "Hey," they say, "Low profits that way."   So Endpoints is doing its part: This is a bucks biz, buddy! Endpoints:  "Over the past year we’ve seen

GUT 4.0 WINS BOOK AWARD "Over the Line"   "Well, it's kind of newsworthy." "You have a strange mind, Duff." "I hear the biome has a lot of control over your sex drive." "Gross." "Well, it's a big medical discovery, all that." "I'm going to talk to mine like you talk to a baby in your belly." (Some comments from early readers who could actually think of something to say.) It's in the bookstores ( Amazon , that is)!  It's published, available, for sale. At long, darn last. GO STRAIGHT TO AMAZON HERE Get it?  Science Fiction has no fear. It treads on subjects you might think odd to be trod. But I am just super impressed with the tidal wave of discoveries about MICROBIOMES. Everybody and pretty much every living thing has a microbiome. They are vital to healthy life... heck, to life itself! A lot of people I talk to completely underestimate the human microbiome. There's a c

There's This - and So Much More The Chinese version of "winning"  (No sign they're 'Sick and Tired' of it.) China successfully tests first hypersonic aircraft that can carry atomic warheads You should see what's hiding under that fairing.Speedy Gonzales himself! China is doing all sorts of amazing stuff, building entirely new cities  around  science themes, recruiting brilliant scientists from all over the world, buying vast agricultural rights in Africa, building the Asia-spanning "Silk Road" highway and rail   corridor.  So OK... good on them, working to be better all the time. But the "unstoppable missile" gives one pause. Say in a shouting match, threats-flying kind of an international incident, knowing your anti-missile system was bound to miss a bunch of these, I for one would be somewhat intimidated. When WE have proven hypersonic missiles (any year now), we can get back to the comfort of MUTUALLY a