Random Blogs (372)

Looking to make the move and live in a new place for a while? If you pick sensibly, you might just get paid to do it.

Smaller cities and towns in the US are offering relocation packages to lure new people to come and live in them.

Also referred to as worker relocation incentive programmes, these financial schemes can be found across America and all share a common goal: attract people with geographically flexible jobs by offering them money and other perks, such as free gym memberships, co-working spaces and even a sit-down meal with the mayor, reports CNN.

Wanna post a few songs.
In all these three videos the singer is not appearing in the video.
It just seems that way.

First this sweet dancer Simon Cowell found in a disco:

MYSTIC - Ritmo de la Noche - Simon Cowell

Trump's media company is scheduled to go public today. Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social is said to be worth billions. Last Friday, Shareholders in the shell company Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC) agreed Friday to merge into Trump Media. The new combined company will trade on the Nasdaq exchange under the stock symbol DJT.


Can you make a million over night?
The key word here is volatile.





Link:

Trump appealed to the District Court of Washington DC to dismiss Jack Smith's criminal suit against him.

The appeal was based upon three arguments previously rejected by the trial judge Tanya Chutkan:

1. The proposed DC criminal trial constitutes double jeopardy because Trump wasn't successfully impeached for his involvement in the January 6th riot/insurrection;

2. The president has immunity for acts performed within the outer perimeter of the scope of his/her office;&

3. The president has aboslute immunity for any criminal act, or from any civil liabilty during his/her period of office.

(I think there may have been something about absolute presidential immunity forevermore, but that's so bonkers I can't get my head round the mere suggestion.)

The appellate court consisting of a panel of three judges (Republican appointee Judge Henderson and Democrat appointees Judges Pan and Childs) affirmed Judge Chutkan's ruling per curium (all three agreed) that there is no legal, or constitutional basis for dismissing the case on those grounds and that Trump's right to defense is the same as any other US citizen.

The District Court also ruled that Trump has until the 12th February to request a stay of the order pending appeal to the Supreme Court. If they don't hear from him by then, the trial is back on.

23 year old conjoined sisters Carmen & Lupita have been in the news recently. Always asked lots of (stupid) questions, they did some social media videos. Two heads, separate brains sharing one body. Carmen has a boyfriend, Lupita doesn't date.

This brings up 34 year old former reality stars Abby Hensel and Brittany also conjoined twins. Abby married Josh.

I haven't seen anything mentioned about polygamy... after all is it really 2 women?


Links:

Like it or not, electric cars are here to stay. Every major manufacturer has at least one EV in their lineup. Do they sell? Yeah... kinda. Price incentives and options change all the time. More charging stations are being built and there is less fearmongering as there was a few years ago.
My memory says the same group of people who complained about 5G cellular technology are the ones who complained about electric vehicles. Battery fires, landfills of dead EV batteries and negative issues were regurgitated over and over.

I haven't personally witnessed an EV battery fire. I'm sure it's a spectacular explosion with zero time to escape. I have seen car fires of the gasoline version... That's a monthly event on highways. There was one in a residential community near me that scorched the tall trees along the roadway. It's been more than a year and the void in tree growth is still apparent.

I know a few people who are driving EV's and have no complaints about them.

A few weeks ago, I attended a swap meet for model aviation and one guy had a table with old lithium-polymer rechargeable batteries he was selling for a fraction of the price for new ones. As these batteries age, they become less efficient and gasses form inside the sealed jacket and they begin to swell, making it obvious the battery life has been shortened. I asked what he would do if they don't sell and he told me they would be dropped off at the recycling center.
Prior to this, we were told to drain the power to zero and leave the old batteries in a bucket of salt water as it will neutralize the volatile metals when exposed to air where they can be disposed of like normal garbage... probably in a landfill somewhere.
The guy told me advances have been made to reclaim the precious metals these batteries contain and the technology is improving all the time.

I did an internet search and found that EV batteries are being reprocessed and not ending up in landfills as originally feared.

Batteries that were originally mined and manufactured in China get recycled in America, the new batteries are now considered to be made in America. The plus side of that equation is we didn't have to strip mine land in America to make these products.

A few years ago, I bought an attractive IKEA bed frame that matched the dressers, also from IKEA. The mattresses were to sit on supports that comprised of a few dozen pieces of flexible slats. They were purchased as optional supports, made for that style of bed. I opened one box, read the instructions, packed them up and returned for credit. Instead, I went to Home Depot, bought 2 plywood pieces (cut to size) and installed them as platforms.

The mattress height on this Scandinavian style is very low and I later bought some box-spring units to raise everything so getting in and out of the bed was more of the height of conventional beds sold in America.

Not long after, the bed developed a creaking sound that annoyed me for months. To fix it required removal of the mattresses, box springs, plywood and tighten the inner support brackets, then reinstall everything.

I did the maintenance and a few months later, the creaking returned. Thinking the problem was the plywood, I installed some wood supports around the perimeter. It helped some but the creaking was still there.

Soon... like many of my projects, it will have to wait.



Photo from the IKEA catalog:

POCONG is a term used in Indonesian folklore to refer to the ghost of a deceased person who is trapped in a burial shroud. It is believed that the soul of the deceased cannot fully move on to the afterlife and remains trapped in the shroud, resulting in a manifestation of a ghostly figure. The pocong is often depicted as wrapped in white cloth with its arms and legs bound. It is known to hop or float, rather than walking, and is believed to bring bad luck or cause harm to those who encounter it.(https://www.definitions.net/definition/POCONG)

It happened last week. In my previous blog, I wrote about the storeroom at my work place. So far I have never really seen one upclose. TOUCH WOOD. I don't intend to encounter one. I am a teacher in a primary school. As I was passing by this Year 1 class(7 year olds pupils), a few of them called me:

Pupils 1 : Teacher, teacher there's a pocong.(ghost)
Me : What? Where?
Pupil 2 : (Pointing to the storeroom. The storeroom was not far from the classroom)
Me : (I was tempted to turn and look at the storeroom but I was too scared to do that. Who knows, that
thing might appear and let me have 3rd eye) Oh ok.
Me : How does it look like? ( I asked one of the girls that saw 'pocong')
Pupil 1 : The face is black.
Me : What did the 'pocong' wear? Did it has hair?
Pupil 1 : Not wearing anything. Just white cloth.
Me : Oh. Ok, don't worry. Next time don't look at the storeroom (I further asked the same questions to
the second girl)
Pupil 2 : (She gave the same answer as the first girl but added ...) I saw it at the storeroom and behind the canteen. ( the class is near the canteen too)
Me : You mean, there are two of them?
Pupil 2 : No, only 1. It hops.
Pupil 3( a boy) : I saw too. It has red eyes.
Me : Duh....( I began to feel scared. I believed them but I couldn't tell them what they saw was real. )
Me : ( I asked the girls) Are you scare?
The 2 girls: No.
Me : Don't be scared. Next time don't look at the storeroom.

PS: Before this incident, I have heard about the sighting of 'pocong' in the storeroom by a teacher. She has third eye. The descriptions are the same. She even saw it in her classroom. That happened last year. Sigh....I hope and pray it does not show itself in front of me. I have 2 more years before my retirement. Let me retire peacefully. Amen.

According to NASA, the Lyrids are one of the oldest meteor showers. They typically peak during late April. Best seen in the Northern Hemisphere after the moon sets and before dawn.
The shower was most active Sunday night through Monday morning and I was out a 2am checking, but I'm in the city and the streetlights made it impossible to view the night sky.

April's full moon, known as the "pink moon," will crest at its full phase Tuesday at 4:49 p.m. Pacific.

I was able to zoom in on the moon from the parking lot. Not a clear shot, but something I couldn't photograph at all with my previous phone/camera.




Lyrid meteor showers...