A few newsworthy topics of the day before COVID-19. In Apalachee High School, around an hour outside of Atlanta, 14-year old  Colt Gray  ( photo was taken in 2022 ), yesterday killed four and injured 9 with an AR rifle.  Why?  To come.  Political advantage?  To Harris/Walz. Ceasefire and hostage return in the Gaza Strip?   Two problems .  Netanyahu and the Hamas.  When will Iran take revenge?  Political advantage to Trump/Vance. The  Department of Justice indicted two Russians  accused of attempting to influence the November 5 election against Harris/Walz.  This is just the proverbial  tip of the iceberg .  Of course, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva are in Russia and can't be arrested.  Advantage to Harris/Walz. Barron Trump enrolled this week at New York University.  Where will he live?  Advantage to Trump/Vance. Guess who will be in Kansas City for the opening NFL game at 8:20 ED...

Today is Memorial Day, a national holiday to remember those who died in our wars, since the Revolutionary War, nearly 1.2 million military personnel.   Nearly half from the Civil War .  In comparison, those Covid-19 deaths passed 1.1 million in four years.  This day is a good time for you to reflect on their ultimate sacrifice as we continue to fight for freedom and justice around the world.  This not a happy day, but a meaningful one. From  Time  magazine : After the Civil war, was called Decoration Day to honor the graves of fallen Union soldiers at the end of May because of springtime blossoms. The holiday only became official in 1968. The day has shifted from solemnity to celebration, with American flags at half-mast and a moment of silence at 3PM. Finally, the price of freedom is expensive.   The USA spends more on defense than the next 9 countries, combined . There will be ceremonies at military graveyards, parades, barbecues and the li...

What to do about the elderly is an age-old question, yes, a pun.  However, when Yale assistant professor,  Yusuke Narita , remarked that elderly Japanese residents should essentially commit seppuku ( the honorable method for dishonored samurai to commit suicide-- I had a dream  about this a long time ago which became a  Huffington Post  article ), he outraged the world. He is 37 years old with an economics PhD from MIT, previously taught at Stanford, and is obviously of Japanese ethnicity, so the issue has relevance and ire.  This euthanasia discussion actually had first occurred with a group of students two years ago about a scene from the Swedish film,  Midsommar , in which a cult sent out one of its oldest members to jump off a cliff.  He then said: Whether that's a good thing or not, that's a more difficult question to answer.  So if you think that's good, then maybe you can work hard creating a society like that. Narita in the past also ...

This week will feature a lot more science, with a nostalgic entry tomorrow, but focusing on the latest issue of  Scientific American  from Wednesday: What was the worst day ever for Planet Earth?  Which could well have been the best for us, as mammals began to develop. What was the worst event for Humanity? World War II? 70,000 years ago when  Homo sapiens  almost became extinct . Our biggest killer, heart disease, explained. First contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. A cosmic mystery is a fast radio burst.  The brand new Chinese 500-meter Tianyan "Eye of Heaven" detected 1,652 independent bursts from just one source over a period of 47 days.  So what?  Well, in a few thousandths of a second ( this is a tiny period of time much shorter than one second ), one burst produces as much energy as our Sun does in a whole month. The Ukraine War, if we survive, will spur more serious talks about total nuclear disarmament. On to the stories of the da...