Big Blue Huddle

Not a Charles Atlas thread, but real guns

We've had a thread going about the 16" caliber cannons aboard our Iowa class battleships. The Japanese battleship Yamato had 46 cm (18.1") cannons in the same layout as our battle ships...i.e., three cannons each on three turrets

However, they were not the biggest guns (cannons) ever used in war. The largest cannon ever built during WW II was the German Schwerer Gustav mounted on a bed that was moved along rail lines. It only had one cannon, but it shot 31.5" caliber shells that weighed over 2 tons (roughly 15,000 lbs) and accuracy over 30 miles



The Russians built their own cannons called Maxim Gorky I and Maxim Gorky I and were similar to battleships on turrets with three cannons that shot 12" shells. They were called "fortresses" and were built deep into the ground for a crew of about 80 soldiers delivering ammo to the guys in the turrets. The fortress had concrete barriers lined with iron

On June 17th, 1942 the Schwerer Gustav obliterated Maxim Gorky 1 and knocked Maxim Gorky II out of commission with only 5 shots fired

Here's a cutaway view of Maxim Gorky I and II



The result

As a kid, I watched Warner Bros. cartoons - mainly Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, Tweetie, etc. I occasionally watched Hanna-Barbera productions like Dudley Do-Right, Huckleberry Hound, etc. As a kid, I loved them.

How things have changed in the animation world and can still entertain adults as well as children - some (like "Archer") are NOT for children of course and there's quite a few others that are pretty much adult only...BTW, I love watching Archer, absolutely hilarious!

Regardless, besides the quality of animation, they have come a long way into having an actual plot and story. Take "Shrek" for example (still one of my favorite movies), which is quite something considering I'm an old man now. But there are a lot of them like the "Minion" movies, "The Incredibles", "Lego Batman Movie" (which gets a lot of laughs out of me for their depiction of Batman with an oversized ego who is overly petty). BTW, my girlfriend has small children so when they are here, those shows are on and I see bits and pieces of them.

I am astounded at the quality and story telling of cartoons in the 21st Century compared to the cartoons I watched as a kid. Of course there was "Bambi", but not great graphics...but better than "Tom Terrific" or "Gumby" (which were a joke in themselves...LOL)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eisKxhjBnZ0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4noiCRJRoE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGQUKzSDhrg

A little background: When the DeLorean car company went belly up, one of the mechanics who worked for DeLorean got the legal rights to produce spare parts and hence, had part ownership of a defunct company specializing in OEM parts. He then started reproducing parts in a new design and built a functional car that is fully electric. His thought, if Tesla can do it, so can he...at least he has a recognizable name. Even so, I wouldn't invest my nest egg in it's future, but is an interesting story and it is a beautiful vehicle. I don't know if its body parts are stainless steel like the original or if it's not 










https://delorean.com/

One of the most irritating grammar blunders to me is "ambiguous reference", which I see a lot in everyday writing, even from professionals.

Here's an example I just read on Fandom, "...the starting point guard will come down to Torrence and Mintz, who was tremendous during his senior season for the Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Va"

Who was tremendous at Oak Hill???? Torrence or Mintz? I suppose the author meant Torrence, but we'll never know 

A more humorous example I recently heard is from a joke (might have been here...can't remember), but the response took advantage of the original statement:

Police: "we have been informed that your dogs are chasing kids on bikes"
Guy: "that's impossible officer, my dogs don't know how to ride bikes"

Another thing I hear often (especially in music where I guess "literary license" holds true) when the singer or writer uses "don't" instead of "doesn't". One country song I can't listen to because it is so grammatically wrong goes, "She don't love me no more"...WTF. If the song writer had a high school education, it'd be "She doesn't love me any more". There are a lot of examples in song that bastardize the English language and it's just my pet peeve

Regardless, I find it often and I find it irritating    And I'm not one to play grammar police and I just let it all fly without comment, but just had to get this off my chest after reading that article

Okay, I get to NYC about once every 2 or 3 years, but it's always by plane or bus so I don't have to worry about parking a car. Anyway, my grandson has to go to Harlem tomorrow to drop something off and wants me to ride along. I've promised him for years that I'd get him a NYC hot pastrami on rye the way the sandwich is supposed to be made. So here's my problem. We would have a vehicle 

My goal - should I go with him - is to take him to Ben's Deli in Manhattan on 209 W. 38th Street. How can I go there and park my grandson's pickup truck somewhere??

Throughout most of June, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will stretch across the sky like a string of pearls appearing in the dawn hours before sunrise.

Sky & Telescope Magazine is calling it a

1. During all police investigations, it will be necessary to visit at least one strip club.
2. All telephone numbers in America begin with the digits 555.
3. If being chased through town, you can usually take cover in a passing St. Patrick's Day parade - at any time of the year.
4. All beds have special odd-shaped sheets which reach up to the armpit level on a woman but only to waist level on the man lying beside her.
5. All grocery shopping bags contain at least one stick of French Bread.
6. It's easy for anyone to land a plane providing there is someone in the control tower to talk you through it.
7.The ventilation system of any building is the perfect hiding place. No one will ever think of looking for you in there and you can travel to any other part of the building you want without difficulty.
8. You rarely need to reload your gun, and if you do, there will always be more ammunition on you - even if you haven't been carrying any before now.
9. You're very likely to survive any dire situation unless you make the mistake of showing someone a picture of your wife or child back home.
10. The Eiffel Tower can be seen from any window in Paris.
11. A man will show no pain while taking the most ferocious beating but will wince and squirm when a woman tries to clean his wounds.
12. If a large pane of glass is visible, someone will be thrown through it before long.
13. When paying for a taxi, don't look at your wallet or the cash in your pocket as you take out a bill at random and hand it to the driver. It will always be the exact fare.
14. If staying in a haunted house, women should investigate any strange noises in their most revealing underwear.
15. When being chased always climb to the top of the highest building from whence there is no escape.
16. Mothers routinely cook eggs, bacon, and waffles for their family every morning even though their husbands and children never have time to eat it.
17. Cars that crash will most likely blow up and burst into flames.
18. The Chief of Police will always suspend his star detective.
19. It is always possible to shoot door locks or padlocks off without the ricochet killing you or your companion
20. Any person waking from a nightmare will bolt upright in a sitting position and pant.
21. It is not necessary to say hello or goodbye when beginning or ending phone conversations.
22. All bombs are fitted with electronic timing devices with large red readouts so you know exactly when they're going to go off.
23. It is always possible to park directly outside any building you are visiting.
24. A detective can only solve a case once he has been suspended from duty.
25. A black guy will usually be the first to die.
26. Girlfriends tend to be 9

From https://triviatoday.com/blog/featured.asp?a=430DE2

5 Shocking Facts You Didn't Know About D-Day ...title should probably say, "shocking facts to many as the old timers know a lot of this"

"On June 6, 1944, Allied troops landed at Normandy in northern France, in a massive assault that became known as D-Day. Here are 5 shocking facts you didn

I've been thinking of changing my avatar, but wondering what my fellow posters think. Using an interesting site called "New Profile Pic", it takes any picture you have of a face and turns it into a profile picture or avatar. I've always kind of liked the one I use, but playing around I've come up with a few options and was hoping for some input...maybe I should have made this a poll. Anyway, here's four options that I came up with using the new website. As you can see, it distorts your face (usually in a positive way making you appear younger and better looking than you really are - at least in my case...LOL) and there are several options that can be used for creative coloring, backgrounds, wave effects, etc. So with no further adieu, what do you guys think?

     

Should I just stick with my old one or update my avatar for the new software coming? If anyone wants to try this method for an avatar, go to: https://newprofilepic.com/ I don't know why it says, "come back a week later for new effects..." because when I've used it there are plenty of effects immediately. Maybe they mean they are adding new effects all the time. Anyway, it seems to work pretty good for avatars on message boards

Washington Commanders getting a new stadium
Buffalo Bills getting a new stadium

Here's a rendition of the Commanders' proposed stadium



Here's a rendition of the proposed Bills' stadium




Then check out this multi-billion brainchild of the Giants and Jets...dreaming big 



With all the money that the Giants have and New York being the financial center of the world...why don't we just give this stadium to the Jets and build a great stadium for just the Giants....before the Jets do it first!!!

Number one: There is no Yankee thread nor even a hint that there is a Yankee fan among us. They are having a hell of a great start to the season, especially with their pitching and Nestor "Nasty" Cortese is becomming a cult hero....and man-o-freakin-man did anyone see that incredible walk off three run home run in the upper deck by Judge last night???? That sent chills up my spine. Where are you guys?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eITEbLbDfRg

Number two: nary a word about the most exciting horse race since Seabiscuit (I wasn't alive, but I've watched the movie) and one of the biggest upsets in the history of the Kentucky Derby. I have never seen anything in horse racing in which the horse with the greatest odds and a last minute throw in after a couple of horses were scratched, comes from behind to win the race. And it was small money vs. unlimited rich guy's in the race. Rich Strike cost the owner 30,000 and was going up against horses with millions invested.

Here were the odds:

1) Mo Donegal 8-1
2) Happy Jack 21-1
3) Epicenter 5-1
4) Summer Is Tomorrow 33-1
5) Smile Happy 14-1
6) Messier 6-1
7) Crown Pride (JPN) 18-1
8) Charge It 13-1
9) Tiz the Bomb 26-1
10) Zandon 7-1
11) Pioneer of Medina 49-1
12) Taiba 5-1
13) Simplification 42-1
14) Barber Road 47-1
15) White Abarrio 12-1
16) Cyberknife 12-1
17) Classic Causeway 80-1
18) Tawny Port 76-1
19) Zozos 44-1
20) Ethereal Road SCR
21) Rich Strike 99-1
22) Rattle N Roll SCR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8DcIxZrxH0

Okay - I'm bored. Need to take my mind off the draft so time slips by a little faster

There's a thousand funny lines in Chevy Chase's Vacation movies, but this one always makes me laugh

Worst salesman in the world, "Sure you hate it now, but wait til you drive it" 



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"You know, Lloyd, just when I think you couldn't possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this... and totally redeem yourself!"



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"Oh, You Can Milk Just About Anything With Nipples."



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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLwD60hPK4I

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"Remember boys, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas...well, except herpes, that sh!t'll come back with you"



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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFFC11Olhx0

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm6NygR95MA

I woke up yesterday morning to a little over a foot of snow. Very wet snow, so really heavy. I almost grabbed my camera because of the beauty of the trees so laden with sticky snow that it was stunning...but I didn't. The beautiful sight was also the cause of hundreds of trees going down and taking electrical wires with them. Almost all secondary roads were closed with trees across them. It was a mess.

I knew the day was going to be bad because of the many storm warnings. My phone went off at 5:15 AM to announce that the grandkids school was closed. I thought, "hmmm...must be bad already". No sooner than that and my fan quit and the electricity shut off and there's no going back to sleep when there is nothing but eerie silence. I figured, "well...it'll be back shortly as it always does"....NOT. No morning coffee, no early morning Wordle, no spending the first hour of the day reading news...just sitting in the dark

To make a long story short - I had no power until about 10:00 pm last night. And I'm lucky because a lot of friends of mine in Binghamton still have no power. They got over 14 inches. I dug my car out and realized just how heavy the snow was and that I'd probably have a heart attack if I tried to shovel my driveway so I called my brother to come over with his tractor and scoop to dig the driveway out. I finally got out and took a drive to Cortland to hopefully find a cup of coffee. Everything was closed except a McDonalds running on a generator and the line was so long the cars were backed up to the highway so it was a 20 minute wait (so I got two cups!) It is horrible to not have coffee first thing in the morning. I make a pot of coffee before going to bed so that as I walk to the bathroom in the morning with my eyes still half closed all I have to do is hit the button and it starts brewing so within minutes of getting out of bed, I have hot coffee waiting for me. And I'm pretty much worthless without my first cup of coffee!

It was a frustrating day. I wanted to get on the internet and see what was going on with this storm, to do my morning Wordle, and to get caught up on what's going on in the world. I was forced to use my phone which is okay I guess if you have the eyes of a hawk. I went to this site, but couldn't sign on because I can't remember my own password and I keep my passwords on my computer. It eventually became to frustrating to use my cell phone so I gave it up

By noon, my mother (90+ yrs old) was in near tears because she was so cold her teeth were chattering. So I wrapped her up with extra clothes, blankets, and put one of my ski caps on her head, got her to bed and put several more blankets on her before heading out to find a way to heat her house without using electricity or using something that would create carbon monoxide. Finally borrowed a propane heater, but my tank of propane was empty. Back on the road, but the places that would normally fill it couldn't because they needed electricity to run their pumps. Finally went north to Lowes for a swap out. It was evening by the time I got it hooked up and it was a pain because the tank had to be outside and the heater inside. My brother stopped over and said that he called NYSEG and we wouldn't have electricity back until tomorrow night. My friends in Binghamton said they'd be out of electricity for three days. Anyway, I stayed with my mother until the house started to get into the 60's. Meanwhile, I emptied her refrigerator into big plastic storage boxes and took them outside in the snow

Anyway, I got her into bed after 9:30 and just as I was about to leave, all the lights came on. Never such a beautiful sound as hearing the furnace kick in and actually be able to see what I was doing without flashlights. What a horribly frustrating day! So much for the long story short - sorry



[url=https://postimg.cc/ppV7L7K4]

I love how technology develops and some engineers really do think outside the box. A technology firm "SpinLaunch" has developed a catapult system to launch satellites into space without the use of fuel.



Don't know all the details, but it blows my mind that this is even possible. Here's the scoop: https://nypost.com/2022/04/15/giant-space-slingshot-set-to-launch-nasa-craft-in-2022-revealed/

These are main characters - name the author of the books

I'll start with easy peasy ones and then get a little tougher

Dirk Pitt

Jack Reacher

Stone Barrington

Jack Ryan

Jason Bourne

Alex Cross

Kay Scarpetta

Lincoln Rhyme

Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch

Aloysius Pendergast

Gabriel Allon

John Corey

General William "Billy" Starkey

Cormoran Strike

Amos Decker

Dave Robicheaux

My first Tomahawk Ribeye. Too big to sous vide so doing it the old way, reverse sear (275 deg in oven until internal reaches 125-130, then sear in cast iron for a minute on each side)

Bruce Willis used to be one of my favorite tough guy actors. The last few films he has done he looks as if he's just mailing it in for the money and the only reason he is cast is because of the draw of his name.

Well - now we know. He has been diagnosed with a disease known as "aphasia". I looked it up and the definition is: "loss of ability to understand or express speech, caused by brain damage"

In his last couple of films he was unable to remember his lines. Apparently, everyone in Hollywood was aware of this, hence minor roles where actual acting is not required.

Because of this, Willis has stepped down and will no longer take on any roles and will retire surrounded by his loving family 

After running a typical "upgrade" on my browser, I lost tons of information. I had to redo many dozens of passwords and rebuild my main board favorites. Took me most of the day and I wasn't a happy camper.

Anyway, I just noticed that I can finally "like" other people's comments. I would have clicked "like" a thousand times in the last couple of years but couldn't. I tried everything to fix it and nothing worked. So anyway, there are so, so many comments that I wanted to "like", but couldn't. Hopefully, I don't lose that feature again.

To get a perspective on the size of Earth compared to our neighbors, this picture shows planets as fruit



Jupiter is so large that it's gravitational pull effects Earth's orbit around the sun. Unlike Earth that takes one year to orbit the Sun, Jupiter takes 12 years. Earth is not always directly between the Sun and Jupiter



But on August 20 of this year, it will be...for the first time in hundreds of years



Compared to planet Earth, the Sun is enormous. In fact, we could put 1.3 million Earths inside of the Sun. We could put 1,300 Earths inside of Jupiter.





The Sun is an amazing star, but it's "moody" like my ex. The mood can change from day to day...from moment to moment for that case 



While trying to get a grip on just our solar system and Sun, keep in mind that everything in the Universe is moving and we are adrift caused by forces for which we have no control



Just as we kind of get a grip on the sheer size of our Sun, keep in mind that it is not even close to being "large" in astronomical terms. A sister star called Antares (also known as Alpha Scorpii) in our Milky Way can be seen in the constellation "Scorpion"



Putting things in perspective:



In its journey around the galaxy, our Sun moves toward the star Vega in the constellation Lyra the Harp. It will eventually crash into Vega...but not to worry, we won't be around



The point toward which we move is called the

He is dancing like a young man and can even do the hip swivel. Dang, he must have done something right to be in that kind of shape at 96. Haven't heard a thing about him in ages. I didn't know he was still alive. He's always been funny, but his brother Jerry used to keep me stitches. Jerry was hillarious! 

https://nypost.com/2022/02/17/dick-van-dyke-96-dances-in-video-with-much-younger-wife/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3NhX6-5mO0

Been waiting a long time for this and it's finally here. Season 4 (the final season) of Ozark debuts tonight on Netflix. I haven't (and won't) read the spoilers, but the headlines say a lot of people die...which is about par for the course in Ozark. I would expect nothing less...lol

Best show in a long while. Anyone who hasn't watched it is missing one of the greatest series of all time on Netflix. If you are just getting started, I suggest starting with season 1 and working your way through. Very intense - dark - brutal at times - even humorous sometimes - incredible story with incredible actors/actresses.

Just wondering if any of you guys play this game. It's very addicting and a lot of fun and makes you have to think hard for a few seconds

Every morning I play a variety of games to exercise my brain. I play a lot of Sudoku and play against a timer. I can tell if my brain is functioning well when I am in the top 100 of the thousands of people who play the daily game on the same site. I also play games of chess, checkers, hearts, and spider and in the evening do the crossword and crypt-o-quote. I feel it is necessary to regularly exercise my brain and keep dementia from creeping in as I am no spring chicken anymore

With all that said, there is a new mental exercise that is very addicting and I've jumped into playing it regularly and some are calling it the "Game Fad of 2022" and has taken the world by storm. It's called "Wordle"

The problem with it, is that you are only allowed to play one game a day and it only takes a few minutes to solve (assuming you can solve it) then you have to wait until the next day for the next puzzle. However, I have found a site that allows you to play it as often as you like and I'll share that link.

Here's how to play:

You start with any 5 letter word. I usually pick a word with "s" 't" "r" and a couple vowels, but any word works like "horse", "giant", etc.

If you get any letters right, the blocks will turn yellow or green. Wrong letters turn gray. Yellow means the letter is in the word to be solved but in the wrong order. Green means the letter is part of the solution and also in the correct spot of the mystery word. You have an onscreen keyboard to pick your letters and it must be a real word. You get six tries.

Here's a tutorial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnWPXZ6vQB8

Here's Jimmy Fallon who really, really sucks at it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcZWd75Ph4Q

Here's a link to the daily puzzle: https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle/

Here's a link if you want to play it more than once a day: http://hellowordl.net/

I hate TV commercials. But I always love to watch Allstate's ads with Dean Winters. They quit making mayhem commercials a couple of years ago, but I've noticed over the weekend that they are back. Always good for some laughs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2vzNgEzrH8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLYY7GEdgPE

Oldies but Goodies:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCgCLa5j6wk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR9M0eOcZhw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtP-S9OS0o0&list=PLCdsPe_JoPq7ywuOAmvFJWd_4oQfwASU4

Omicron - love the name - sounds like a warrior group out of Star Wars or a secret energy source the galaxies are fighting over.

Some people have huddled down in fear, while others go about business as usual. Me...it's business as usual. I got my J&J booster shot last week and haven't even had a cold in a few years now (knock on wood). The biggest problem I have with it is that it caused my portfolio to crash 4.9% last Friday as the market is made up of an awful lot of skittish folks - any negative news and BAM...sell, sell, sell. 

Luckily, today's market has recovered most of my losses from Friday's selloff so I think the scare is over

Anyone worried about this latest COVID variation/mutation? 

This could go down as one of the top 10 list of the yearly "Darwin Awards", but doesn't qualify because no one died or whose last words were, "watch this". There should be a secondary award to stupid people when they don't die...like the guy who used a .22 bullet in lieu of a fuse in his pickup and ended up shot in the leg as he drove away or the guy in a lawn chair and dozens of of helium balloons and a BB gun to shoot them one at a time to come back to earth, but was jettisoned so quickly when the tether was cut that it made him drop his BB gun.

Anyway, any of you who have (or have had) a handgun with laser sights know that to activate the laser, you press the back of the grip with the palm of your hand. You never have your finger on the trigger (obviously) because you are squeezing your hand that is holding the gun and the squeezing motion will inadvertently cause you to also put pressure on the trigger.

The story: A guy left his loaded handgun at his apartment. While away, his girlfriend who had stopped by, picked it up and realized it had a laser site when the handgun grip was squeezed. So she decided to use the laser to play with the cat and get it to chase the uncatchable red dot - something we've all done with a 5 dollar laser pen - not a thousand dollar handgun. Her boyfriend came home and stepped into the room and apparently, she decided it would be funny (if not hilarious) to make the cat chase the red dot onto his crotch. You guessed...she had her hand on the trigger while squeezing the grip and shot the sorry dude in the groin. He lived. They are no longer together.

Storal of the morey: lock up your handguns and don't let your girlfriend get her hands on it unless you are at a gun range teaching her the proper way to handle and shoot a handgun! Even better advice: never let anyone touch your handgun period!

There is a scam going on right now that is nerve wracking. You get an email and it looks like this:



If you're like me, you go "whaaaatt??? I didn't order that".

So if you call the number to say you didn't want that so why am I getting it, you are told, "no problem, here's what you do to cancel"

You are told (in barely audible English) "Hold the windows key (bottom left hand corner) and the "R" key at the same time". A pop up comes on screen and the guy tells you to type a line of code. This is where you tell him to do whatever you want to himself. Regardless, DON'T follow his instructions and hang up.

I responded with "this is a scam buddy and I have a record of this going straight to the FBI" and hung up.

I called my bank and they said they have gotten a lot of calls about people saying they were charged for Norton 360...and it is a straight up scam. As long as you don't follow their instructions or give any information, then they can't get into your bank account.

Years ago my company rewarded me for coming up with a seemingly impossible solution to a process they had struggled with for years before they hired me. I was rewarded with a dinner for two at any restaurant I could find and told "find the finest restaurant you can find and cost is no issue".

I always wanted to try a 5-star restaurant and the only one within a half hour of where I lived was in Ithaca, NY called L'Auberge Du Cochon Rouge (no longer in business).

As I pondered over the menu with my wife, I noticed a couple next to me who had ordered Escargot. The presentation was beautiful as it was served in bright red, yellow, and white ornamental sea shells. So I thought to myself, "hey, the company is picking up the tab and they told me to go all out so why not experiment?"

So I ordered them and lo and behold it tasted exactly like eating slugs from the back yard cooked with butter and spices. It was horrendous - nearly made me want to puke. Never again.

Eating that crap put a pause in my enthusiasm to trying "everything once". I have a niece who tells me that sea urchin is delicious and I must try it. I told her, "Liatt, I will NEVER EVER try it and you can't trick me into trying it".  Anyway...

Anyone here ever try Escargot and like it?

Anyone here ever eat something they wish they hadn't?

I don't pretend to actually understand the entire ins and outs of crypto and do not have a crypto wallet, but I like to follow what's going on. I refuse to invest in stock in crypto-mining (MARA) or blockchain (RIOT) companies until I see where things are headed with regulations.

The question I have (for any of the cryptocurrency gurus) is:

Last month sophisticated hackers (presumably from Russia) executed a ransomware attack on a major fuel pipeline (Colonial Pipe Line) that negatively effected millions of people in the southeast. Eventually, the company paid the ransom in cryptocurrency to get it up and operating again. I know, old news. However, the part that I struggle with is that the U.S. was able to recover (in unbelievably record time) the ransom which is supposed to be impossible - that is, unless they know far more than they claim. So here's the dilemma: Crypto is popular because there is "no way to trace crypto exchanges or know the individual who owns crypto" thanks to blockchain algorithms that are for all purposes, impossible to break.

The question to any experts on here: "How on earth was the U.S. government able to track the crypto to the hackers to recover the losses if it is impossible to do?" Secondly, the reason Congress and the executive branch is so anxious to regulate cryptocurrency is because they say it's impossible to track and therefore, impossible to tax those who hide their wealth in crypto...but it appears they can track it. So why the need to regulate?

Last, but not least. I understand that it takes banks of mainframe computers to mine crypto, but why does it require more electrical energy to operate than a small city?

The polarization in this country seems to get worse and worse by the day. So much hostility and hatred towards those who don't share their rigid and demanding opinions. Overly sensitive people who fail to grasp a bigger picture are so wrapped up in their points of view that they've shut down open thought and constructive debate. It's worrisome. I listened to a pundit the other day who made a lot of sense. Basically she said there is an intrinsic need for religion in people's lives (even if they don't know it), but because traditional religion has been deteriorating at such a rapid pace, a hole is left in people. Churches are shutting down or attendance so low that chapels are mostly empty on Sunday mornings, etc. Partly to blame because of scandals galore, but also because of a level of comfort to people in this day of technology and easy living. But because there is an innate need in people to have religion, the "hole in their soul" gets filled with a new type of religion to a very large audience: "politics". Those who have shunned traditional religion in favor of the "new" (yet ancient) religion of separating people into groups similar to caste systems of old, have the same fervor as the most religious zealot. Hatred abounds between castes for whatever reason (mostly low IQ IMO, but I digress). Regardless, it seems this once great country is becoming polarized to the point that people utterly despise and hate others simply because they don't share the beliefs of their political group of choice. Political pundits have become "evangelists" and "fire and brimstone preachers". Colleges and Universities have become the new churches of choice and are filled with religious zealots ready to spread the good word and will go to any length to convert "non-believers" including rioting, shaming, and open humiliation. The embers of hatred have been spread across the land and fanned into deadly flames. Welcome to our new America.

Read a great article from a woman (Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a research fellow at Stanford University