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At 2:20 Eastern Daylight Time today, FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) will be conducting an test of the wireless emergency system over the cellphones and TV's across America. This way, when there's an actual emergency, you will be notified.

It will happen across time zones:
2:20 p.m. EDT
1:20 p.m. CDT
12:20 p.m. MDT
11:20 a.m. PDT
10:20 a.m. ADT
8:20 a.m. HST

When I was a kid, we had 'duck & cover' tests in school. This is the modern version.

Crouching down and putting your head between your legs is optional!






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My blog today is about vinyl LP's. It's been 40 years since digital CD's hit the market. I remember they professed it would be the kiss of death to vinyl LP's. CD's are the best and the worst in the music industry all in the same breath. When first released around 1982, people were forced to switch gears and buy new players. People weren't happy. They went through upgrades in 8-track tapes, cassettes and digital cassettes.

The good thing about CD's is you could fit more music on a CD than an LP. I knew a DJ who used to carry boxes and boxes of LP's to his gigs. When he switched to CD's it was only 2 cases.
Play a CD a thousand times and have no loss of quality. No scratching, no skipping. Physically, taking less space for storage, easy to send in the mail. Yet some people hated them.

CD's were easy to rip and download to a hard disk or digital storage. Now, DJ's only need a portable drive... or an iPhone with extended memory for hundreds of songs in their library.
Oh, if you don't have that special request, you can easily down load it from an online library through your cellphone data plan!

All these great things about CD's, but the 2 major drawbacks (that I can think of) is all the visual media is now compressed from 12" to 5" so albums selling merely because they have a cool looking cover has diminished and that warm analog sound of vinyl was replaced by a cold sterile digital representation.
Some people can hear the difference between the same music on an LP compared to a CD. For the most part, it's not important to 95% of the music listeners, so it is what it is.

That said, some artists actually have a small number of vinyl albums pressed and available for the music purists.

I know rap DJ's have CD digital turntables and emulate the 'scratch' sounds they popularized using old turntables.

I had forgotten about vinyl records for a while. Moving storage boxes last weekend I found my collection and oddly while walking through Walmart today, I found a rack of vinyl LP's as proof... vinyl ain't dead!

By definition, a Touron is a derogatory term combining the words "Tourist" with "Moron" to describe any person who, while on vacation, commits an act of pure stupidity.
There are several websites with videos documenting such activity.

Hot spring geysers can reach temperatures over 300 degrees Fahrenheit, but that doesn't stop some curious tourists from going over the safety railings to actually touch the boiling waters making them tourons...




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My story of the nightmare I have experienced since I met a man online in 2009. I didn't know he was very rich until 2016. I didn't know he was a narcissist until 2022. I suggest every one learn the signs of a narcissist because they are dangerous.

A few weeks ago someone commented on a forum post about the dangers of consuming artificial sweeteners and suggested using Stevia as it was derived from natural plant sources. Perhaps, but I see an article that stated Erythritol, an ingredient in Stevia, linked to heart attack and stroke.

I stopped drinking fruit juice, Coke & Pepsi and sometimes take a diet drink mixed 50/50 with seltzer water or flavored for the slightly sweet taste. By doing that, I dropped a few pounds. It's difficult eliminating sugar from my diet. Walmart has some baked goods with no added sugar. Also, I've found only one company who has tomato sauce without added sugar and one company who has mayonnaise made without sugar.

Here's a link to the story about the ingredient Erythritol and while this blog is to call out the awareness of the possible dangers to consuming Stevia, it's not to be taken as medical advice.

Scott Hall, one of 19 defendants charged in the 2020 election interference case in Georgia, reached a plea agreement with prosecutors Friday, making him the first defendant in the case to do so.
Since his charges were a misdemeanor, his plea deal requires him to serve five years of probation, pay a fine of $5,000 and serve 200 hours of community service. A condition of the plea deal requires Hall to testify in any future proceedings.








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The saying when I was a school boy was told: Cheaters never prosper. As I got older, I found it to be the opposite. If you want to get ahead in business, cut corners and cheat.
Depending on how greedy you are there comes a time when you can no longer hide shady dealings.

This afternoon in the news, I read:

Judge Arthur Engoron, ruling in a civil lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, found that Trump and his company deceived banks, insurers and others by massively overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing loans.

The Trump Organization had been under investigation for more than a decade, but Trump while president was under a veil of protection. The veil is gone.

So it appears that cheaters can prosper until they get audited.
"Judge rules Trump inflated net worth, committed fraud, overvalued assets"


You knew this was coming... right?






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According to Diogenes Laërtius’ third-century Lives and Opinions of the Eminent Philosophers, Plato was applauded for his definition of man as a featherless biped, so Diogenes the Cynic “plucked the feathers from a c*ck, brought it to Plato’s school, and said, ‘Here is Plato’s man.’?” When asked about the origin of his epithet, cynic deriving from the Greek word for dog, Diogenes replied that it was given to him because he “fawns upon those who give him anything and barks at those who give him nothing.”

In the news today, jazz fusion guitarist, Al Di Meola, suffered a heart attack while performing a show in Bucharest Wednesday evening.
The hospital released a statement that Di Meola was sent to the cardiology ward and treated for a segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).

Al stated he is postponing live performances until next year.

Oddly, I was talking with a coworker yesterday about music and how Miami is a mecca and great place for touring musicians. This guy is Brazilian and told me Al is booked to play at the Rio Montreux Jazz Festival in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil next month.
Make that Al 'was' booked to play in Brazil.


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