LAW 1: No matter how bad your last shot was, the worst is yet to come. This law does not expire on the 18th hole, since it has the supernatural tendency to extend over the course of a tournament, a summer and, eventually, a lifetime.
LAW 2: Your best round of golf will be followed almost immediately by your worst round ever. The probability of the latter increases with the number of people you tell about the former.
LAW 3: Brand new golf balls are water-magnetic. Though this cannot be proven in the lab, it is a known fact that the more expensive the golf ball, the greater its attraction to water.
LAW 4: Golf balls never bounce off of trees back into play. If one does, the tree is breaking a law of the universe and should be cut down.
LAW 5: No matter what causes a golfer to muff a shot, all his playing partners must solemnly chant "You looked up," or invoke the wrath of the universe.
LAW 6: The higher a golfer's handicap, the more qualified he deems himself as an instructor.
LAW 7: Every par-three hole in the world has a secret desire to humiliate golfers. The shorter the hole, the greater its desire.
LAW 8: Topping a 3-iron is the most painful torture known to man.
LAW 9: Palm trees eat golf balls.
LAW 10: Sand is alive. If it isn't, how do you explain the way it works against you?
LAW 11: Golf carts always run out of juice at the farthest point from the clubhouse.
LAW 12: A golfer hitting into your group will always be bigger than anyone in your group. Likewise, a group you accidentally hit into will consist of a football player, a professional wrestler, a convicted murderer and an IRS agent -- or some similar combination.
LAW 13: All 3-woods are demon-possessed.
LAW 14: Golf balls from the same "sleeve" tend to follow one another, particularly out of bounds or into the water (See Law three).
LAW 15: A severe slice is a thing of awesome power and beauty.
LAW 16: "Nice lag" can usually be translated to "lousy putt." Similarly, "tough break" can usually be translated "way to miss an easy one, sucker."
LAW 17: The person you would most hate to lose to will always be the one who beats you.
LAW 18: The last three holes of a round will automatically adjust your score to what it really should be.
LAW 19: Golf should be given up at least twice per month.
LAW 20: All vows taken on a golf course shall be valid only until the sunset.The real laws of Golf
At some point in late 2022, the eight billionth human being will enter the world, ushering in a new milestone for humanity.
In just 48 years, the world population has doubled in size, jumping from four to eight billion.
Of course, as Visual Capitalist's Nick Routley and Avery Koop detail below, humans are not equally spread throughout the planet, and countries take all shapes and sizes. The visualizations in this article aim to build context on how the eight billion people are distributed around the world.
Now, here’s a look at each country’s population as of September 2022:
Below are regional breakdowns of population.
Africa’s Population by Country
As of 2022, Africa’s total population stands at 1.4 billion people. Many of the countries with the fastest growth rates are located in Africa and by 2050, the population of the continent is expected to jump to 2.5 billion.
Quote:More than half of the projected increase in global population up to 2050 will be concentrated in just eight countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and the United Republic of Tanzania. Disparate growth rates among the world’s largest countries will re-order their ranking by size.
Europe and Northern America is projected to reach its peak population size and to begin experiencing population decline in the late 2030s due to sustained low levels of fertility, which has been below 2 births per woman since the mid-1970s and, in some countries, high emigration rates.
Europe and Northern America had the oldest population in 2022, with almost 19 per cent aged 65 or over, followed by Australia and New Zealand (16.6 per cent). Both regions are continuing to age further. Projections indicate that by 2050 one in every four persons in Europe and Northern America could be aged 65 years or over.
Percentage of population aged 65 years or over for the world, SDG regions, and selected groups of countries, 2022, 2030 and 2050, according to the medium scenario:
Nigeria population is expected to surpass the USA by 2050. Poverty capital of the world Or Africa's super power by 2050?
According to the World Bank Nigeria had the 31st largest GDP in 2018. It is the world’s 21st largest economy and has experienced recent rapid growth. According to the United Nations, it has the 7th largest population in the world. Nigeria is the 13th largest producer of oil according to the US Energy Information Administration.
Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, is a thriving ‘world city’, with a strong financial and economic base.
Nigeria has the second-largest film industry in the world, ahead of the United States and behind India. Nigerian cinema is known as “Nollywood”.
Nigeria has one of the largest river systems in the world, including the Niger Delta, the third largest delta on Earth.
I am probably over thinking this, but this whole thing has my spidey senses humming.
Quote: JUST IN: DeSantis Says 'We're Working With Elon Musk' Post-Hurricane Ian, Details Recovery Steps
Never let a good crisis go to waste.
I guess I should add for those that don't know. Folk out in some of the more remote areas, we don't have wi-fi, cable, or wired telecom services. Cell coverage is hit or miss. Most of us have satellite dishes, and many still have landlines, but landlines are disappearing because the telephone company service out in the woods, is abysmal. Satellite is not cheap, so to see the government paying for a broadcasting device for the everyday, poor, common folk, has me more than a bit suspicious.
I am sure there is more in it for them, than it is for us.
I suggest watching this video when you have time to sit back and really put your heart, mind, and soul into it.
I re-watched this video after running across it by accident almost a year ago. I posted about it on another site.
The first time I saw it, I processed it more from a scientific level. This time I processed it more from a spiritual level. Either way you process it, I think you will find it extremely interesting.
Quote:
One of the most amazing stories in the natural world -- a tale of intrigue and drama, set against grand Africa and its wildlife. The fig tree and fig wasp differ in size a billion times over, but neither could exist without the other.
Their extraordinary relationship underpins a complex web of dependency that supports animals from ants to elephants. Each fig is a microcosm -- a stage set for birth, sex and death. One of the most amazing stories in the natural world -- a tale of intrigue and drama, set against grand Africa and its wildlife.
I learn that Microsoft is launching a new analytics platform that will collect the data reported by both scientists and earth observing satellites.
Up to here, I'm like dayum...
I keep on reading and it then says that this new platform will be built on the Microsoft Planetary Computer where the data will be analysed, worldwide and that the Computer a;ready uses AI and is already processing, analysing, accessing data from multiple sources.
Err...say what?
I click on the link for the Microsoft Planetary Computer and get to this website:
Quote:A Planetary Computer for a Sustainable Future
The aim: to build a global environmental network.
OK. I like the sound of that, seems like it could be a good idea.
BUT
My brain says nice, my gut says WTF... Data is data. Global is global. Two sides of a coin, always. Get where I'm going with this?
One Super Planetary Computer. There are no ends to collecting data. I'm not thinking Skynet here but control just the same.
If they can influence scientists and governments on environmental issues, with the help of AI, what keeps these same scientists and governments of using the data to influence how we live, how we go on our day to day ethics?
What keeps them within limited boundaries?
What keeps them from taking decisions, based on accumulated data from around the world, that makes our lives a living hell?
Using different frequencies to heal the body; sounds like a bunch of New Age crystal rubbing B.S. maybe to some, but "what if" there is something to this .
The claims are anything between 40 Hz and 500+hertz frequencies all have different effects on the human body for healing.... There are several YT videos about this stuff which I have not watched however this particular video will give you enough information to see if you are interested.. Now, if true that certain frequencies are beneficial, then there may also be harmful frequencies too....Hummmm ??
Quote:A famous Navy Seal Team Member - Really impressive Facts: Was born on September 14, 1978, in Jacksonville, Florida. [1] He is of Italian descent. [2] His family moved to Orlando, Florida, before relocating to Dunedin, Florida, when he was six years old. [3] In 1991, he was a member of the Little League team from Dunedin National that made it to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
(4] After graduating from Dunedin High School in 1997, he attended Yale University. He was Captain of Yale's varsity baseball team and joined the Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity.
[5] On the Yale baseball team, he was an outfielder; as a senior in 2001, he had the team's best batting average at .336.
[6] He graduated from Yale in 2001 with a B.A. Magna Cum Laude in History.
[7] He then spent a year as a History Teacher at the Darlington School.
[8] He attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 2005 with a Juris Doctor Cum Laude.
[9] He received his Reserve Naval Officer's commission and assignment to the Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAG) in 2004 at the U.S. Naval Reserve Center in Dallas, Texas, while still a student at Harvard Law School.
[10] He completed Naval Justice School in 2005.
[11] Later that year, he received orders to the JAG Trial Service Office Command South East at Naval Station Mayport, Florida, as a Prosecutor.
[12] In 2006, he was promoted from Lieutenant, Junior Grade to Lieutenant. He worked for the Commander of Joint Task Force-Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO), working directly with detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Joint Detention Facility.
13] In 2007, he reported to the Naval Special Warfare Command Group in Coronado, California, where he was assigned to SEAL Team One and deployed to Iraq with the Troop surge as the Legal Advisor to the SEAL Commander, Special Operations Task Force-West in Fallujah.
[14] He returned to the U.S. in April 2008, at which time he was reassigned to the Naval Region Southeast Legal Service.
[15] The U.S. Department of Justice appointed him to serve as an Assistant U.S. Attorney at the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Middle District of Florida.
[16] He was assigned as a Trial Defense Counsel until his honorable discharge from active duty in February 2010.
[17] He concurrently accepted a reserve commission as a Lieutenant Commander in the Judge Advocate General's Corps of the US Navy Reserve.
[18] He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and the Iraq Campaign Medal.
[19 He represented Florida's 6th Congressional District in the US House of Representatives from 2013 to 2018.
Oh, by the way, the former Navy Lt., is Ron DeSantis, Gov. of Florida.
While skeptics doubt the prospects for de-extinction, the CIA’s venture capital firm deems powerful genetic manipulation tools worth the money.
As a rapidly advancing climate emergency turns the planet ever hotter, the Dallas-based biotechnology company Colossal Biosciences has a vision: “To see the Woolly Mammoth thunder upon the tundra once again.” Founders George Church and Ben Lamm have already racked up an impressive list of high-profile funders and investors, including Peter Thiel, Tony Robbins, Paris Hilton, Winklevoss Capital — and, according to the public portfolio its venture capital arm released this month, the CIA.
Colossal says it hopes to use advanced genetic sequencing to resurrect two extinct mammals — not just the giant, ice age mammoth, but also a mid-sized marsupial known as the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, that died out less than a century ago. On its website, the company vows: “Combining the science of genetics with the business of discovery, we endeavor to jumpstart nature’s ancestral heartbeat.”
...
Colossal uses CRISPR gene editing, a method of genetic engineering based on a naturally occurring type of DNA sequence. CRISPR sequences present on their own in some bacterial cells and act as an immune defense system, allowing the cell to detect and excise viral material that tries to invade. The eponymous gene editing technique was developed to function the same way, allowing users to snip unwanted genes and program a more ideal version of the genetic code.
“We can clone all kinds of mammals, so it’s very likely that we could clone a human,” Church said. “Why shouldn’t we be able to do so?” When the interviewer reminded him of a ban on human cloning, Church said, “And laws can change, by the way.”
Whoa! Alot to unpack in that article and they wrapped in Biden's BioEconomy DARPA-HARPA under your skin. These beasts will help out in the coming war in Siberia. History is very clear "Don't invade Russia in the winter... not without woolly mammoths."
Despite having better DNA sources, the Russian team — like all of the researchers in this field — still has the actual cloning part to figure out. Everyone seems to get stuck on figuring out how to actually express the engineered elephant-mammoth genes in modern elephant eggs, buying us time to mentally prepare for the terrifying prospect of Putin’s real-life Jurassic World.
Quoting whole article since I thought it's a good read.
Quote:Wallabies and Wallpaper
Sylvia Shawcross
Is anybody else as worried as I am? THEY are not saying it anymore. They drove us crazy for at least a year when Covid arrived. There are internet composites of leaders all over the world saying the same thing. Every. Single. Speech.
“Build back better.”
It was becoming utterly annoying and a bit strange to see them all using the same phrase as if they were little electronic toys with the same voice chips.
Most of us had no idea what the hades they were talking about anyway. We rarely do.
The thing is… now that we’re starting to understand it, and dare I say it even appreciate a small part of “some” of it, they’re not saying it anymore. And this, my friends, may not be a good thing.
They’ve certainly appeared to have arrived at the “let’s tear down the world” stage so they can in fact have something to build back. They now seem to have lost the plot and are surprised that the greater public is not exactly buying wholeheartedly into the Reset.
So what is next, I ask? They have yet to replace the phrase with anything that I can tell. May I be helpful and suggest some such as “WE will own everything and be happy” or “Build back eventually” or “Two weeks to unflatten the old Utopia” or “Eating Bugs is Beautiful” or “Global is Good for You” or “Cancel Cows and Natural Gas” or something?
But they’re giving us nothing…
Well, there is a rather hopeful phrase: “aimed at improving the state of the world” on the WEF website. But that’s a bit tame. And rather feeble compared to their original slogan if that’s meant to be the new slogan.
The question is: for whom are they improving the global world? Right now it appears failed diplomacy by ALL countries concerned means they’re walking us all into world famine if not a world war. So whom on this little green planet does THAT serve?
Why are we all paying these diplomats and politicians so much money anyway as they fly around the world on their private jets to confer with each other and ignore the voters?
Mind you, it was nice to see the Queen’s funeral involving a nod to the environment wherein all world leaders were asked to fly on public airlines and share buses travelling to the funeral. Not for the environment actually but for airport and traffic congestion.
Just the image of world leaders lined up for a bus makes me smile! (That reminds me of that song: “What if God was one of us, just a slob like one of us, just a stranger on the bus trying to make His way home?” You now have this ear worm. You’re welcome.)
The truth is, I think these people, all these world leaders, need to be brought back to the shop and refurbished. They’re saying and doing outrageous things out of step with each other now and are apparently malfunctioning and are in serious need of a new unifying slogan.
And how are we supposed to know if any of this new utopian world is even starting to be built back better? Where’s our chart with the progress report? We need timelines! If we’re going to give up cars, farms, cash, meat, little local shops, or fry or freeze in our homes, die from unknown causes and support faraway wars we’ll need to know precisely that these are in fact covered under the global plan.
We need charts! (Well, one big chart—let’s not complicate things with a bewildering array of reports and papers and graphs and expert opinions and projections and interpretations. Just the facts please.)
How many cows have we killed for their carbon emissions? How many trees have we saved? How many truckers and farmers have “green energy” jobs now? How many solar-powered incontinental missiles have we built? How much do we all owe to the IMF?
That sort of thing. And we really want to know if there is a Plan B, or C… or D… Well, you get the picture.
But never mind all that.
I’m looking forward to the Greater Depression. Not the suffering part of course. That’s always a bit of a downer—but the wallpaper. The original stuff… the stuff that is put on physical walls to decorate your house. [Not that computer background stuff. You’d think that countries that can come up with 75 different gender names could invent another word for computer wallpaper! I mean, is there anything new that is original really? (Unless it involves technology for the military industrial complex. Maybe I shouldn’t ask that question. The answers might scare us all to death… Yeah… I don’t want to know.)]
For those of us who may still own a roof and four walls after this Great Regret, I mean Reset, the times will be joyous indeed. We will finally stop having to paint our walls grey to be trendy.
Quite frankly, I’ve been getting very tired of explaining to people that by painting their walls grey, they are in effect metaphorically bringing the pavement into the house and it is soul-destroying and depressing and bleakly urbanistic. This is only to be told that it’s not grey, it’s “Cornforth White No. 228” or “Icecube Silver” or “Grey Owl” or “November Rain.” Really. I mean Really!
For heaven’s sake people! There are rich lovely bright and happy colours out there. There’s greens and blues and purples and yellows. You know…. Other colours that make you want to sing opera in the morning or dance a jig when evening comes.
Is it because everything we decorate with is imported from China and is always black or white or grey because it is cost-effective to manufacture? Is that it? Matchy matchy? Really!
I mean why on earth do I have to go on about this anyway! We are not herds of colourblind lemmings rushing out of the paint store with grey paint chips in our hairy little paws because everyone else is doing it are we? Break free! Live a little!
(Sorry…. It’s a thing for me as an artist. We all have those things right? I mean these days you could give someone a Faberge egg and they’d paint it Icecube Silver I’m sure. And cars! They’re all black, white or grey and very occasionally look-at-me-red. WHY? Why are they bleak-ing us? Isn’t the world grey enough for heaven’s sake!)
Sigh.
Maybe I’m wrong about all this of course. Who am I to judge? Perhaps in truth all this grey on walls was really predictive—many of us are going to be living in cars, parents’ basements or micro-housing that we don’t own, surrounded by grey pavement, grey skies and grey-haired baby boomers by the looks of it anyway.
Those of us living in cars will visit or otherwise 3D tele-transport each other and explain how the red fire hydrant is actually painted a Plumrose Claret colour and the graffiti is actually the new Picasso and how all those used needles are simply urban kitsch banal decorative. Perhaps that was what it was all about—culture preceding reality or something. I dunno. I only know it is all very dark right now.
And I know that at least during the last Depression they used happy little colours and wild flowered wallpaper and lacy napkins. Like a colour revolution of a different sort than what’s been happening in the world. We can have a Reset of OUR own making. It could be OUR colour rebellion.
Just for the record, I for one, will not be putting out the lacy napkins on the hood of the car for dinner just to serve grasshopper granola and roasted contraband wallaby. Nope. Not a chance.
Well, that’s all I really wanted to say about the grasshopper and wallaby.
Start picking out your wallpaper. Don’t you believe it when “they” say there’s a paper shortage. We can always make wallpaper out of the fourteen million trees they’re cutting down in Scotland to put in solar panel fields.***
It’ll all work out. Things always have a way of working out in the end, don’t you find? Of course they do.
Wasn't really sure where to put this thread, so I'll put it here for now, and if someone feels it needs to be moved to a more appropriate place then please feel free to do so.
Just curious if anyone here is into Radio Controlled (RC) hobbies? (i.e. cars, trucks, aircraft, drones, etc.)
I suspect many of us may be into drones in one fashion or another, but this post is really more about the 'hobby' aspect of RC'ing...(more so than about using drones for things like photography, etc.). I kind of view the drone thing more as a 'utility' now, as opposed to a 'hobby' (FPV racing being a big exception). Anyway, enough about drones as they weren't my point for the OP.
Recently, I sort of stumbled into RC Rock Crawlers (off-road type vehicles which climb rocks and terrain like the real thing). I've never really been into RC'ing really. I did dabble in RC helicopters for a while (but that was before drones). Anyway, some of these RC rock crawlers are fantastically capable, surprisingly so! As a lifelong off-road enthusiast for real, I never thought I would get into anything like scale models doing the same thing. Then, (as noted) I sort of stumbled into the world of RC rock crawlers. The first thing which struck me was how just about everything you do translates directly into real life rock crawling, AND much of the same "what if" experimentation can be applied directly to real life (RL) vehicles...except failures are a whole lot less expensive!!
There are two main scales used in the hobby, 1:10 and 1:24. There are other scales, but those are the two main ones where the majority of aftermarket parts are available. For those unfamiliar, a 1:24 (or "24 scale" as it is termed) vehicle is about 8" +/- long, 4" wide and 4-5" tall, and they weigh about a pound (give or take). A '10 scale' vehicle is considerably larger at about 16" long, 8" wide and roughly 8" tall, and these generally weigh several pounds (3-5 lbs). Prices scale accordingly. As a general rule, the 10 scale models are best suited for outdoor use, and the 24 scale models can be used both indoors and outdoors.
Not knowing if I'd really be interested in the hobby, I initially chose to purchase a 24 scale vehicle (primarily for cost reasons.) OMG! I am just stunned at how fun these things are! They are a total blast! And, the realism factor is just off the rails! Without going into a whole lot of detail, I initially purchased a 1967 Chevy shortbed pickup from Axial (brand). On day #1, right out of the box, I was having fun. Now, just a few weeks later, and with some very minor tweaks, my skills and capabilities have gone absolutely exponential. Plus (possibly 'worse'), now I'm already in the process of building custom 'ground-up' builds.
From a purely "hobby" perspective, the RC crawler hobby is 10/10 on the fun-meter. It's technical (something I very much am, and like). It can be as complex as you want to make it. It's very realistic, almost shockingly so (I took a close-up video and it's very difficult to tell it from the real thing).
Anyway, I just thought I'd check and see if any other members here are into this kind of thing.
P.S. When I say 'realistic', here's some of the things I mean... Tire sidewalls wrinkling and buckling over obstacles exactly like the do on a real 4 wheeler, beadlock rims to keep tires on the wheels at very low pressures, body rocking motions at exactly the same rates you'd expect, spring bounce at the same rates, suspension flexing, very realistic slow movement (no crazy bouncing and flipping around). It's definitely not 'kids stuff' with these things.
![[Image: gvNPXq8.png]](https://i.imgur.com/gvNPXq8.png)
