Of a Certain Age cmdviola

08/29/2025

cool! very cool

12/12/2024

SOUNDS FAKE but there are recordings in the article..plants making " popping" sounds.. ..

Scientists recorded the popping noises that plants make in response to stresses like dehydration or a cut.

10/11/2024

love this sentence: In The Baltimore Sun, Dan Rodricks quipped: “Donald Trump saying he won’t debate Kamala Harris a second time is like the Thanksgiving turkey saying he won’t be available for Christmas dinner.” (Barbara Sale, Baltimore)

10/09/2024

THIS FINALLY MAKES SENSE TO ME HOW THE WIND SHEAR TRANSLATES TO A TORNADO! ..................Generally, as long as the hurricane remains over water, no tornadoes will form, said Jana Houser, an associate professor of meteorology at Ohio University. That is because the surface of the water is relatively smooth, and in the formation of tornadoes, “the biggest culprit is surface friction,” she said.

Once the rain bands reach land, surface friction greatly increases. That slows the storm’s winds close to the ground.

“You suddenly create a situation where you have a change in wind speed and often direction” compared with winds higher aloft, Dr. Houser said. This is called wind shear, and it can cause the air to spin.

At first this creates a spinning cylinder of air that is parallel to the ground. But, as with any thunderstorm, those in a hurricane create strong updrafts. These can tilt the spinning air column upright, and a tornado is born.

If the updraft is very strong, the spinning air will be packed more tightly, with a smaller diameter. When this occurs, the tornado can intensify, like a figure skater pulling her arms in to increase her rate of spin.

10/09/2024

An explanation of how tornadoes form - I never knew this! FROM THE NEWS ABOUT HURRIV=CANE MILTON IN THE NYTIMESN: Generally, as long as the hurricane remains over water, no tornadoes will form, said Jana Houser, an associate professor of meteorology at Ohio University. That is because the surface of the water is relatively smooth, and in the formation of tornadoes, “the biggest culprit is surface friction,” she said.

Once the rain bands reach land, surface friction greatly increases. That slows the storm’s winds close to the ground.

“You suddenly create a situation where you have a change in wind speed and often direction” compared with winds higher aloft, Dr. Houser said. This is called wind shear, and it can cause the air to spin.

At first this creates a spinning cylinder of air that is parallel to the ground. But, as with any thunderstorm, those in a hurricane create strong updrafts. These can tilt the spinning air column upright, and a tornado is born.

If the updraft is very strong, the spinning air will be packed more tightly, with a smaller diameter. When this occurs, the tornado can intensify, like a figure skater pulling her arms in to increase her rate of spin.

10/08/2024

Holy cow:

LiveUpdated Oct. 7, 2024, 11:17 p.m. ETMilton Live Updates: ‘Get Out,’ Tampa Mayor Warns Ahead of Powerful StormThe Category 5 hurricane was on track to hit the Florida coast Wednesday as a major hurricane.Share full article Source: National Hurricane Center All times on the map are Eastern. Map...

09/20/2024

an old article but a great idea......Keep your smell - ability & train or retrain your nose! “The olfactory system is the only sensory system that has a direct superhighway projection into the memory centers and the emotional centers of your brain,” Dr. Leon said.

Experts say a loss of smell can negatively impact mental health. But training your nose can fight off the decline.

09/19/2024

news: · Tech giant Meta is banning Russian state media outlets such as RT from its platforms. The announcement comes days after the United States imposed sanctions on RT’s parent companies and accused them of acting as an arm of Moscow’s intelligence operations.

09/16/2024

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/09/11/opinion/thepoint/parenting-costs-usa?smid=url-sharei9 I am more and more convinced that we SHOULD have " Medicare for all " or similar ....

If American parents didn’t have to sweat, they might have the time and mental space to attend to child-rearing’s ordinary challenges.

09/13/2024

So Robert Reich reposted this assessment of THE debate written by ( of all people die hard republican) Karl Rove.: A Catastrophic Debate for Trump

Karl Rove

Tuesday’s debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump was a train wreck for him, far worse than anything Team Trump could have imagined.

Ms. Harris was often on offense, leaving Mr. Trump visibly rattled as she launched rocket after rocket at him. A New York Times analysis found she spent 46% of her time on the attack while Mr. Trump devoted 29% of his time to going after her. Debates aren’t won on defense.

Ms. Harris pressed Mr. Trump on the economy, the Ukraine war, foreign policy, healthcare, the Jan. 6 attack and especially abortion, leaving him flustered and often incoherent. In return, he criticized her on border security, climate change and the Israel-Hamas war.

Mr. Trump had to know the vice president would try to get him to lose his cool. She did. She went after him on his multiple indictments. She called him “weak” and belittled him as a six-time bankrupt, spoiled inheritor of wealth. She said his former national security adviser thought him, in her words, “dangerous and unfit” for the Oval Office.

As is frequently the case with Mr. Trump, he let his emotions get the better of him. He took the bait almost every time she put it on the hook, offering a pained smile as she did. Rather than dismissing her attacks and launching his strongest counterarguments against her, Mr. Trump got furious. As her attacks continued, his voice rose. He gripped the podium more often and more firmly. He grimaced and shook his head, at times responding with wild and fanciful rhetoric. Short, deft replies and counterpunches would have been effective. He didn’t deliver them.

Mr. Trump did a terrible job at his most important task—tying her to President Biden’s failed policies. He did an even worse job prosecuting the argument that she’s a far-left politician out of sync with America’s values. The Trump campaign’s mid-debate fact-check bulletins that flooded email inboxes were far more substantive and effective than his responses at the podium.

Mr. Trump’s failure wasn’t for a lack of material. He had plenty in the Biden-Harris administration’s record to work with, especially on inflation and the crisis at the border. In one of his strongest moments, he hit hard on the botched Afghan withdrawal. Even then, he got sucked into an argument about his administration’s negotiations with the Taliban.

There was no sustained, specific indictment of her record on almost any issue. Mr. Trump offered angry responses, pursed lips and eyes darting mostly down, seldom looking at her. And what was it with his makeup that left white circles around his eyes? This was his most important opportunity to make an impression of strength and relative stability.

Both candidates made significant misstatements. Ms. Harris said her opponent “left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression” and Mr. Trump declared inflation under Biden-Harris “probably the worst in our nation’s history.” But his false statements far outnumbered hers by my count.

Mr. Trump had a great comeback to Ms. Harris’s agenda for change. She’s had 3½ years as vice president, he said, so “why hasn’t she done it?” But that was in his closing statement. It should have been the attack he started with, continually repeated, and closed with, undercutting every new policy proposal she offered.

It matters how debating candidates carry themselves. There, it was no contest. Ms. Harris came across as calm, confident, strong and focused on the future. Mr. Trump came across as hot, angry and fixated on the past, especially his own. She mastered the split screen, projecting confidence and wordlessly undercutting him by smiling while shaking her head as he spoke.

Many undecided and swing voters will make up their minds less on any single issue than on their visceral reactions to the candidates. Ms. Harris did herself much good with that crowd Tuesday. Mr. Trump didn’t.

Even more voters wanted to learn something new and reassuring about the candidates in the debate. She provided them plenty, while he didn’t.

Trump enthusiasts will be upset that the ABC interviewers fact-checked the former president far more than they did Ms. Harris. Then again, he gave them plenty of material to work with—such as repeating the bizarre claim that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating the pets of local residents. That was probably Team Trump’s lowest moment.

Will this debate have an effect? Yes, though perhaps not as much as Team Harris hopes or as much as Team Trump might fear. But there’s no putting lipstick on this pig. Mr. Trump was crushed by a woman he previously dismissed as “dumb as a rock.” Which raises the question: What does that make him?

***

09/02/2024

This is from an opinion piece in the NYTimes. It is just this little gem that struck me as a very nice turn of a phrase; speaking of ( guess who?) :"....... a man who, to borrow from an old joke, could commit su***de by leaping from his ego to his I.Q." :)
put your answer in the comments :)