Modern life would be very difficult without the use of batteries. Over the years battery technology had changed greatly with more power and less weight. Consider how hearing aid technology fueled smaller devices, iPhone ear buds go for hours on a single charge.
Probably the least improvement is the automotive standard 'wet-cell' car battery. Heavy, but supplied lots of high current.
Lithium-Ion and lithium-polymer batteries appear to be everywhere powering all types of electronic devices... especially cellphones.
The problem is they are volatile if mishandled. Overcharging a Lithium battery can cause an explosion with the battery emitting toxic fumes. A while back I read a story about a girl who shipped her phone between the mattress and pillow. This insulated the heat dissipation while charging. She was lucky it only smoked the phone and pillow. Other devices actually explode.
I order lots of batteries and the packages have warning labels on the box.
Airlines have restrictions for traveling with batteries. New generation cellphones are sealed, so you cannot tamper with the battery, but proper charging care is essential.
It's been a few months since Kanye West made a fool of himself and lost the Adidas account, costing himself millions and millions in lost sales to Adidas. Kanye, who renamed himself Ye, had his model sneaker called Yeezy. This all happened before Christmas 2022 and sales dropped sharply. Currently, Yeezys are being unloaded to places like factory outlets, eBay StockX, etc. where they sell a prices equal to what they are actually worth... without the hype from Kanye.
It goes to show, people (read: kids) didn't buy them because of any advanced design or technology, they bought them (at any price) because of the influence Kanye had over them.
I check my blood pressure a few times a week, usually at rest in the morning. If I'm doing exercises, I sometimes check again right after to see the elevated pressure and the number of heartbeats per minute.
On average I'm seeing around 65bpm. 20 years ago, I had a cardiologist who insisted I take medicine that slowed my heart rate to 60 or below. The theory was less strain on my heart.
Over the years I've been on different hypertension medicines that each have their way of working. I remember one medicine made me light-headed when I did strenuous exercise like yard work for an hour. I had to take breaks often and wait for my heart-rate to go down. Testing, testing, testing I think the maximum was between 100-110 beats per minute.
Different doctor now, different medicines and I haven't checked under a stressful situation in a while.
I was in the main office yesterday and the installation supervisor returned from a clinic doing blood work. He's stressed out and that doesn't surprise me as it''s a suicidal position with nothing but pressure when you don't have enough good installers to keep up with the workload.
He showed me a new digital watch with a health monitor as his beats per minute were 115 when he's calmly walking around. He's a time bomb just waiting to go off!
When it gets to 120 beats per minute, the watch alerts him.
To me he's got the wrong medicines and... possibly the wrong cardiologist!
That isn't a good combination.
In a recent poll Florida governor Ron DeSantis is now leading Former president Donald Trump for the Republican front runner in the 2024 presidential election. I read today if that happens, there is a possibility Trump could split from the Republican party and form a party of his own.
Only time will tell on that.
I was shocked to see a recent photo of him and will always remember his vibrance of songs in the 1960's and beyond.
Burt Bacharach, the popular music composer is gone...
Whenever I go to the Asian market I try to get some bananas from Thailand.
They are short 'finger size' and have a thin skin. Typically, it's best to keep them in plastic and wait for the skin to split to indicate they are ripe.
Last night I see the local Publix grocery has finger bananas from Colombia that look like dwarfed bananas of the variety normally sold here that sell anywhere between 65 cents to 80 cents per pound. When fully ripened, the Manzanos are sweeter than normal bananas but cost prohibitive at $2 a pound.
The ones in the store are slightly distress and look nothing like the ones on Chiquita's website.
I went to high-school with a girl who was 'scary ugly' and we made cruel jokes about her looks "She was so ugly, her parent's had to tie a pork chop around her neck just to get the family dog to play with her"
Southern humor, I know.
Around the time we were in college she was driving a luxury sports car. Coming from a middle-class family, everyone took notice. Her looks changed, but not from the ugly duckling to a swan. She was still 'very unusual' and the story was she became a fashion model. That 'look' was marketable.
At that point any local guy who wanted to date her... didn't have a chance.
What defines beauty?
After a review of this body cam, Preston Hemphill gets fired from the Memphis Police Force having violated multiple department policies. Quick read: He was one of the first cops to confront Tyre Nichols and allegedly deployed his Taser during the confrontation.
The investigation is ongoing and I'm sure we will see updates as details are released.
Links:
I see Florida lawmakers are proposing a bill that prohibits continuous driving in the left lane. We already have slower traffic to be in the right lane, that would force most of the driving to be in the center lane. Trucks occupy that lane, so it doesn't sound like a good law as it restricts us to one lane creating congestion with blocked view maneuvering around trucks and slower traffic.
C'mon Florida lawmakers, take a ride on the Turnpike and you will see what I'm talking about.
I saw a headline today about the Koch brothers and thought... didn't one of them die? Yes, David passed away in 2019 with his cause of death listed as cancer. Charles is alive and I believe there is/was a 3rd brother. Anyway, the story goes on to say they are the most powerful machine in conservative politics and currently switched gears and not supporting Trump with a NeverTrump effort to deny him the republican party nomination for 2024 presidential election.
Knowing this, would Trump launch his own political party for the upcoming presidential election and if so, would he have a chance against Ron DeSantis who appears to be focused on the White House as his next stop?
For years, I've been reading about Amazon making deliveries by drone. For the record, it's not perfected yet. Good idea or not, something on a large scale must get the approval of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) which is the same government agency that hasn't allowed flying cars. Remember those?
I'm reading some drone companies have plane-like aircraft that drop their cargo from 10 to 12 feet and not land to release the package. Tell that to your Rolex vendor.
People who make flying cars often depict someone stuck in traffic and like a transformer, opening wings and taking to the sky. Read my lips: It ain't happening.
Airplanes (real or converted cars) have to get approval from a flight tower and have a prescribed flight plan... with the exception of a crop duster in Kansas, they all have to be 'on the radar' and takeoff and land from a runway. That includes manned drones.
While Amazon drones have great merit, you cannot fill the sky with drones dropping $200 Yeazy sneakers across town. What are they good for? In my opinion, special emergency authorization like a 20 minute direct flight transporting a heart (on ice) to a hospital 50 miles away where an ambulance transport could be more than one hour getting through one busy city to another busy city. Just like an ambulance helicopter transport, a designated heli-pad is where the package would be received. Logically, there would need to be a fast charge station for the return flight.
Drone on...
COVID hit and car buying changed. New cars were in short supply with no new inventory to replenish stock. Used car prices shot up where cars coming off a 3-year lease are selling for the same price is new.
One day I'm reading that's all going to change and another day I'm reading this inflated car prices isn't going away anytime soon.
I'm getting messages from the dealer where I bought a few years ago... they want to buy back my car. I'm just out of warrantee and have been toying with the idea of something slightly larger. In doing so, I'll miss having a car that gets around 35 miles per gallon.
I keep shopping, but nothing interesting has jumped out to get my attention...
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