JUST SOME POSTS

 Today is June 24th 2022, This day will be remembered as the day the Supreme Court of the United States overturned Roe v Wade. I will start out by stating my personal feelings on abortion to clear the air. I have no problem with abortion on demand, even as birth control, in the first trimester (which was what Roe said, fyi). The age of viability (that age where a fetus is more likely to survive than die if delivered) is 24 week currently. The youngest baby to survive was 21 weeks and 5 days old. That is why I have no issue with first trimester (@13 weeks) abortions are fine for any reason. I also have no issue with an abortion at any stage (with some caveats) in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother. I think that decision should be up to the mother, her family - to the extent she wants them involved -, her doctor, and whatever higher power she may beleive in. So, this is not my cheer for the end of abortion!  In case this is being read in some distant future...

  Age is just a number. You are only as old as you feel. Ageing is just another word for living. It's not how old you are, it's how you are old. You probably have heard most if not all of those statements. Depending on your age when you heard them, you may have chuckled, or you may have just ignored them. What is old? Age IS a number. We use it to have a measure of someone's maturity, although it is not a very good indicator of this. As for how old one may feel, I cannot speak for others but for me that means there are days I have one foot in the grave and others that I should join in a T-ball game.  To a 4 year old, a 10 year old is - old! In fact, I have a formula - if you are from 5 to 15 in age - someone that is half-again older than you - rounded up to the next whole year, is old (for clarity - I am not talking "ancient", just old). For example, a 6 year old would consider a 9 year old - old. They can stay up later. Instead of being in first grade, they are i...

 I have been studying the potential effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the response by the rest of the world on the economy. Some facts on Russia and its economy – Russia has a very large supply of certain minerals and natural resources, and they constitute a large percentage of the world’s supply. For example: Russia provides 10% of the world’s petroleum. Of that, they supply 40% of Europe’s natural gas. As a reference, 25% of all energy consumed in Europe is from natural gas. Russia is the top supplier in the world of grain – mostly wheat, of fertilizer products, and of nickel. Nickel is necessary and critical for production of stainless steel, and of lithium-ion batteries. They are also the top producer of palladium. This rare metal is used in electronics, catalytic converters, and many other industrial uses – like the batteries mentioned above. Russia is the #2 producer of platinum and aluminum. Both critical construction components in high-tech devices. T...

  I just looked at the date of my last post and saw it was four months ago! I did not realize it has been that long. As I have mentioned here a few times after a pause like that - I don't not write due to a lack of inspiration or ideas, I don't write due to too much inspiration and too many ideas. I have four or five ideas for a post almost all the time. I cannot decide which to do, or I feel I have done a similar post in the past, or whatever reason - and I just don't do the post. Well, here I am again. Speaking of doing similar posts, I decided this would not be about the pandemic or the vaccines (although I do still have a LOT of thoughts on that subject), I also decided not to do politics/political commentary, at least not directly. There are some that will consider this post political commentary - and maybe it is. On with the show... I was looking through my Facebook feed just now and came across a couple of posts showing "the way we were" or nostalgia/nostal...

  This is a continuation and supplement to the previous post. If you have not read that one, I highly recommend you do so as they connect and augment each other. After I published the previous post - after almost 2 hours of writing while reviewing notes and doing additional research - I realized that I had left out quite a bit of information that I had intended to include. This post is to remedy that. First, in the previous post I referenced being "fully-vaccinated" and said I would address it later. That was referring to another of the moving goalposts that the CDC/NIH has set-up concerning this illness. Fully vaccinated against Covid-19 was defined as a shot of either Moderna or Pfizer with a follow-up at a later date - typically 3 or 4 weeks after the first depending on which vaccine you had. It also referred to a single shot of the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vaccine. I do not think it has been officially changed at this writing, but the head of the CDC said last week t...

I had hoped not to do another Covid-19 post, but here I am - doing one! As I noted in a previous post, I have been amazed at the sheer panicked response to this virus. I guess since I do not watch any TV news, nor ever watched a press conference by anyone concerning the virus, maybe I have missed some of the worst hyperbole. Maybe since I actively work on my health and especially my immune system regularly I have not been as affected by it. I am not sure. Let me start out by saying I am not an anti-vax'er, at least by my standards. I do have and get the DPT and MMR vaccines. I have been vaccinated against polio and smallpox. I have also had the Covid-19 vaccine, and am what is still referred to today as "fully vaccinated" with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. (more in a moment on that). In the spirit of disclosure, I have never gotten a seasonal influenza shot, and at this time I cannot ever see myself getting one. Currently I am also not planning on getting a Covid-19 ...

  The amount of fear being spread about the current viral pandemic - Covid-19 - amazes me. Yes, this virus has killed many, many people. Any unnecessary death is tragic. Any premature death is tragic. I understand that. My heart goes out to any family that lost a loved one due to this disease. What I don't understand is the sheer terror that seems to have affected people, especially those that are younger. I reported last summer (on this EXACT date!! I just noticed!) about how deaths were concentrated among the portion of the population that is over 60. If you want to see those numbers and my comments, go here:  https://justsomeposts.blogspot.com/2020/08/covid-19-for-ages.html I got the numbers again today and here they are: You can see that less than 3% of the total deaths to this point have been in people under 45 years old! The danger if you are under 45 is very low. Even if you are 64 or younger, less than 21% of the total deaths are in those age groups.  One thi...