Blondie - "Rapture" (1980)
https://youtube.com/watch?v=pHCdS7O248g



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/29/2023 07:24AM by anybody.

Yup. Happy New Year to you, anybody, one of my favourite posters. Have a good one. After all, the end of the world is just around the corner, but you get used to it. best wishes for a great 2024 in the US. You all know what I mean :-D

Slyly done, Sr. Tom.

Best wishes to you too, and prayers that 2024 proves even better than that record-setting 2023!

Maybe we will get lucky by advanced life showing up and going to our leaders. They will then realize that we need serious help, kick out the weak links (most of them), and initiate real solutions that benefit all in the long term.

Hmmmm.....time to go write a new science fiction novel.

The Q15 get taken to Kolob. The sealed portion of the Golden Plates isn't what they expected.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Zvno6f7F6Rw

We're getting a new year. But, it seems to be the wrong one. Once again there is a mix-up!

Sounds like y'all need some good news. I follow a website that does a "This Week in Freudenfreude", a word they coined for happiness at happy news. To close out this year they did a list of things that have gone well in 2023.

======================
For the last freudenfreude of the year, we thought we'd do a rundown of some of the good news that 2023 brought, around the globe. And so:

Pandemic I: COVID-19 is still with us, but the worst is in the rearview mirror. There are both vaccines and medications that are generally effective, the World Health Organization has declared it is no longer a global emergency, and the Global Happiness Index is back to where it was before the pandemic hit.

Pandemic II: Medicines that treat those individuals affected with AIDS, and that block transmission to new carriers, raise the very real possibility that the disease will be effectively eradicated by 2030.

Begone!: Individual countries have also had success with vanquishing epidemic diseases. Bangladesh became the first country to eliminate visceral leishmaniasis, Iraq became the seventeenth to eliminate trachoma, and Belize has banished malaria from its borders.

Golden Age of Medicine: In addition to the above advances, 2023 saw the introduction of promising new cancer treatments based on mRNA, dramatic progress toward cracking the code on Alzheimer's Disease, the promulgation of a new cost-effective malaria vaccine, the release of the first RSV vaccine, the creation of two new treatments for sickle cell disease, and the development of a new pill that targets postpartum depression.

Fossil Fuels I: Nearly 200 nations signed an agreement at COP28 to "transition away from fossil fuels." It's not the end for fossil-fuel-based energy, obviously, but it's a big first step. Also on that front, global carbon emissions and emissions from China both dropped for the first time ever, thanks primarily to increased adoption of wind, solar and hydroelectric power. Worldwide, for every $1 invested in fossil fuel extraction in 2023, $1.80 was invested in renewables. This year also saw the launch of the world's largest solar farm (in the United Arab Emirates) and the world's largest wind farm (in the United Kingdom).

1.21 Gigawatts: Scientists are also getting closer to making nuclear fusion a reality, potentially unlocking a major source of power that is much more eco-friendly than fission-based energy.

Electric Vehicles: Industrialized countries around the world saw record sales of electric vehicles. In the U.S., EVs now account for 8% of all new vehicle purchases.

Gay Pride, Worldwide: Four nations began allowing same-sex partnerships in 2023: South Korea, Peru, Latvia and Nepal.

Wage Gap: Women workers in the U.S. still earn less than men, but the aggregate gap is as narrow as it has ever been, with the ratio for full-time workers now standing at 84 cents (women) for every dollar (men).

Votes for Women: The final holdout in the world, Vatican City, granted suffrage to women in 2023. Women now have the legal right to vote everywhere, even if their rights are not always observed (ahem, Afghanistan).

We narrowed it down to 10, to make things manageable, but this is not an exhaustive accounting by any means. The world is getting better, in many ways, even if most of the stuff we hear about is how it's getting worse.

Have a good weekend, all! (Z)

https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2023/Items/Dec29-9.html


And good news on female economic powerhouses front:
Janet Yellen rode herd on wrestling inflation down. She has held all three major economic jobs in the federal government - Treasury Secretary, Chair of Federal Reserve, Chair of Council of Economic advisors. Pretty good résumé.

Barbie/Margot Robbie/Greta Gerwig had the highest grossing movie of the year, domestic and worldwide. Barbie, fergodssake. Not a Marvel superhero, not Napoleon, not John Wick or any other shoot-em-up. Barbie.

Taylor Swift had a concert tour that besides being the highest grossing concert tour ever, by a wide margin, had such a large economic impact that it showed up as a significant item on some nations', cities' and states' balance sheets.

So 2023? Interesting year.

I've been discussing hearing aids with my brother and a community member over the course of the last month or so. When my mom had hearing aids 25 years ago, they were expensive and ineffective. They cost her at least $5K. My brother now has hearing aids that cost $2K and are highly effective. He controls them from his smart phone. Same for the community member. He got his for $1,600 through Costco, which was recommended to him. I couldn't even see them. He had zero problem with hearing me (I have a high-pitched voice that is often difficult to hear for those with hearing loss.) He said that they are so unobtrusive and comfortable that he's fallen asleep while wearing them, and even once stepped into the shower with them (and quickly exited.) His audiologist said that the technology will be even better five years from now.

So yay for better and less expensive solutions for hearing loss! This is huge for many people. My brother went from being sometimes cranky about his hearing loss to being his normal, pleasant self.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2023 10:43AM by summer.

They believe it because they want to believe it. It is a psychological construct- and, like all psychological constructs, it reflects their fondest hopes. For most people, that includes endless leisure, adoration of all of humanity, eternal twenty-something-hood, and all the rest. Many include cosmic authorization to be in charge of everybody else. For most people it represents a reversion to the innocence and freedom of childhood, when life had no consequences and everybody took care of your every need. So yeah, I want that too. The difference is that some of us are able to break out of the mold and grow up. We are the minority.

  
    

Thank heaven Mr. Dagny has paper-clipped her eyelids open.

Sorry, I've turned that over to Musk and Rogan while I take a nap.

zap



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2023 01:20AM by Lot's Wife.

I've never understood the mentality of those who look forward to or seek the end of the world. Are things so bad for them that they want to blow everything up? Death comes to us all, what's the hurry? It seems like a mentally unhealthy outlook to me.

300 pounds of wheat, wheat grinder, which we used to make bread, and all sorts of stuff.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2023 11:14AM by lousyleper.

There was a time when that was the expectation in Mormon circles -- that you would have a two year supply of food. A number of people here can tell you about emptying out their parents' or grandparents' rotted out supplies of wheat and other items. My own supply would probably go 2-3 months, which I think is about right.

My niece in New Orleans lost everything in Hurricane Katrina. Even her pots and pans were unusable. When there was a huge hurricane in my area, we had no electricity for a week, and we lost everything in our fridge and freezer. So sometimes even the best planning cannot help you.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2023 11:20AM by summer.

It's the religious who talk about the end of the world and what they want is for God/Jesus and sometimes Joseph to swoop down with his heavenly hosts and destroy everyone else with fire and brimstone all while proclaiming them to be his favorites, the big winners, the ones who get the big prize ha ha everyone else!

The Bible verse--the first shall be last and the last shall be first--is what they are all counting on. And they all claim themselves to be the under-dogs who will win the Celestial Lottery in the end. Everybody claims that one.

Not any of this celestial kingdom crap. If only Mormons weren't elitest. I was that way, because of the stuff I did. But it amazes me how I thought I could be in the highest heaven, while my family burned in hell
.
What a mindwarp.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2023 02:21PM by lousyleper.