Today's Tids Issue 5,128
Beyond madness:
Happy Equinox Day everybody. Go out and skip a rock across a shimmer be peaceful pond.
Add Franz Liszt’s Les Preludes to the list of greatest rousing wake-up-in-the-morning music.
Crime in the street is really starting to bother me. Your basic thug these days doesn’t worry about extra penalties for mugging a geezer like me.
China Is making as big oil deal with Saudi Arabia and it appears the money exchange will be in Yuáns and not traditional dollars. You see, China is at war with the US all the time, on the economic front. In its quest for world economic dominance, the SA oil deal could set the precedent for a more aggressive China movement to replace global dollar reliance with the Yuan. It would be rather easy for China to do it in Africa. Also, as inflation in the US rages dollar replacement with a less vulnerable currency like the yuan becomes a distinct probability. A weakened dollar also dilutes the USA political dominance in the world. Inflation isn’t just about the high price of organic lettuce, it is about our position as a leader in the economic world. After all, when all is said and done, everything is about money.
The Question:
The New list of Happiest countries is out. Name the five happiest and five least happy. Bonus: Name the Noble (Inert) Gasses. Extra Bonus: What is the significance of the 1952 Moondog Coronation Ball in Cleveland?
The Headlines:
--Energy Prices Move Up, Stocks Back Down; Investors Still Digesting Rate Increase; Fed Says Slowing Inflation Is Main Objective, Economy Looks Basically Solid.
--Ukraine Says No To Surrendering Mariupol; Bombs Falling Every Ten Minutes in Beleaguered City. Ukraine Fleeing Refugees Up To 3.5 Million.
--China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737 Crashes Killing 132; Boeing Shares Drop.
--Biden SC Nominee Jackson Facing Congress; Repubs Will Grill On Her Apparent Softness on Crime; McConnell Says She Will be Treated With Dignity Unlike Dems Attacks On Kavanaugh.
--Biden On Way to Poland This Week.
--Russia Names Meta (Facebook) An “Extremist Organization”.
The Sweet 16 is set and low and behold, there are 10 conferences represented. And without significant domination by any single major conference. This year played out as a season where more teams were capable of winning at any given moment. The Big 12 has 3 – Kansas Iowa State, Texas Tech; The ACC 3 – NC, Duke and Miami; the Big 10 has 2 – Mich and Perdue; the Big East 2 – Providence and Villanova; and the Pac 12 – Arizona and UCLA. The mighty SEC only has Arkansas. The rest of the one team leagues are MAAC with the Cinderella St. Peters, AAC –Houston and the West Coast – Gonzaga. Yay for Parity. Fans love parity; big donors love dominance.
The top five favorites to win it all are Gonzaga, Arizona, Kansas, Texas Tech and Duke.
Why wouldn't they have moved the clocks ahead on equinox day instead of one week earlier? That doesn’t seem to make sense. Just another head scratcher watching the government at work!
Today’s culture probably began in 1931 when Nevada Governor Fred Balzer signed a bill legalizing gambling and thus everything that goes with it.
According to “Wallet Hub Surveys, Rhode Island comes up 51 out of 50 states in the Best States for Physicians to Work survey. It’s has been a problem for years. I try to be nice to my doctors, so they won’t leave. State leaders think that businesses and key professions like doctors will come and be happy here because our coastline is pretty. But the state regulations that include controlling Doc income, are not pretty at all.
It us much cheaper and with much less anxiety to clean your glasses before rushing to a doctor due to blurred vision.
On Friday the Congress of the USA Federal government passed a bill that forbids discrimination by hair. Are you kidding me? Does this mean a mugged geezer can’t describe his assailant by their type of hair? The Feds are telling us how to react to people by hair styles. Shoot me! Its old “give em’ an inch and before you know it they will have circumnavigated the globe twice” people squashing ploy!
I think some Dem senators are increasingly perplexed over the madness in the House.
We are in a state of “Skimpflaton” as I speak. It is not new to the USA but it is new oto many service industries. For instance, for years candy makers charged higher prices for packages that looked the same but contained smaller candy bars. And now you may pay the same for a hotel room but your bed will never be made each day and your room won’t be cleaned util you leave. Restaurant service is slower as far fewer people try to do the same thing. And there just aren’t as many people as possible at airlines to accommodate every passenger need, real or imagined. And the list goes on. So while the employer and employee had to struggle together to survive during the pandemic, it appears many of them like the idea of providing less service at the same or higher prices. “Skimpflation” will reign until people stop paying way too much for less.
After I wrote the Inert gas Q, I was curious about how a tasteless, odorless, colorless gas may have been found in the first place. I asked Google, “How and where do you find noble gases. Google answered, “Go into Estey!”
Commercialism over facts always comes up first.
Every once in a while, I just stop and give thanks to all of the supermarkets and grocery stores who still provide plastic bags.
Environmentalists are warning of the hotter days that have brought the water levels of great man-made lakes like Powell and Mead to record low levels. But they never mention that mushrooming cities a like Las Vegas are using more and more water every day. And it takes a lot of water to green up golf courses in a desert! Everybody always forgets potential underling causes in all arguments.
During America’s growth heyday called the "Industrial Revolution” towns flourished around a successful factory or two. And the companies would build housing for workers. Now today I see where Amazon is going to spend $120 million for affordable housing because the same problem persists, workers still have to be able to afford the rent or mortgage. Nothing really changes in a world inhabited by humans, just the descriptions and the technology.
Towns totally relying on tourism face even tougher problems finding affordable housing for fairly low paid workers. Tourist havens are a typically sought-after high priced second home paradise.
The Answer:
The happiest countries are Finland (Again), Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland and Netherlands. Afghan people are at the bottom of the list. The other four unhappiest are Lebanon, Botswana, Rwanda and Zimbabwe. Bonus: Helium is the second most abundant element in the world, after hydrogen. The others are Argon Neon, Xenon, Radon, Krypton and probably Organesson. Extra Bonus: Moondog Coronation Ball was the first ever Rock and Roll concert. Alan Freed (In association with Leo Mintz) spearheaded the huge event. 20-25,000 tickets were sold for the 10,000 seat Cleveland Arena and you can imagine that that didn't work out too well. Can you say mass riot? But it was the first RnR concert ever. Freed became the biggest thing in in NYC and that is where I heard him. But this is why the Rock and Roll Hall of fame is in Beautiful Cleveland by the lake. Buffalo on the same lake could use a good Hall of Fame too.
Alan Freed was my guru as a Kid going through high School. I would listen to the great raw music as I labored away doing homework, And I would often hear my parents shouting up, “How can you listen to that junk. Just as we might feel today about our kids. Every generation wants their own personal junk.
If the Noble Gases are odorless, tasteless and colorless, how did they ever find them in the first place?
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