"You’ve heard all about how high cholesterol levels are causing ill health. More importantly, you’ve heard about how bad cholesterol is causing ill health. It affects your arteries and blood flow, putting your heart under more pressure to perform properly. Those with high cholesterol levels are more at risk of stroke, heart attacks, and heart disease.
Cholesterol has long been linked to the food we eat. There are certain foods that we’re recommended to stay away from and others that we should get more off to promote good cholesterol levels and help protect the arteries. Did you know that it’s not just food that affects the cholesterol levels? Stress has been linked to high cholesterol. In fact, some studies now show that stress is worse than the food we eat for cholesterol levels and ill health.
The problem is that stress is a silent killer. We don’t realize that our cortisol levels are up and causing these problems until it’s too late in some cases. It’s important to reduce our stress levels to keep our cholesterol levels down. Here’s a look at just how stress causes high cholesterol and what you can do about it.
What Exactly Is Cholesterol? Before you start looking at stress and how it affects to high cholesterol levels, you need to know more about it. What exactly is it and what does it do?
There are two types of cholesterol: good and bad. The bad cholesterol is known as LDL cholesterol, and you shouldn’t have any more than 100mg/dL of this type in your body. Good cholesterol is HDL, and you should have at least 60mg/dL. A good level of total cholesterol, according to physicians, is 200mg/dL and this can be made up of both good and bad. Considering you shouldn’t have more that 100mg/dL of the bad stuff, you want at least 100mg/dL of the good stuff. The more good cholesterol you have, the better it is for you. Good cholesterol can keep the bad stuff at bay and under control.
What exactly is cholesterol? It’s a fatty substance that is only found in animal products. It is naturally produced by your body, but can also be added to food. The body will make more cholesterol due to trans and saturated fats being added through food. Both types of cholesterol will enter the arteries and build up. The good stuff builds up as a lining to the arteries, protecting them from damage. The lining is soft and makes it easier for the blood to flow through the veins.
On the other hand, bad cholesterol blocks the arteries. It creates a friction layer that stops the blood flowing freely. The heart and brain don’t get the blood that they both need and clogs can appear in the arteries. You’re at a higher risk of suffering various health problems, including stroke and heart disease, because of your high bad cholesterol levels.
There are various types of people more at risk for having high cholesterol levels. There are certainly genetic factors involved, but there are also lifestyle factors. One of those is stress levels, especially in those who are overweight, smoke or have other health problems.
Stress and the Unhealthy Lifestyle: One of the reasons found for the stress and high cholesterol link is bad lifestyle habits. Those who are stressed are more likely to follow less healthy habits in other areas of their life. They’re less likely to exercise and more likely to eat bad food. After all, saturated and trans fat foods tend to be the comfort foods – those that people crave to try to boost their endorphin and serotonin levels.
People who are stressed will look for ways to counter their cortisol levels, and that is usually through unhealthy methods. People are more likely to drink or smoke, which puts other strains on their body. The body isn’t able to produce the good cholesterol and is encouraged to create bad cholesterol. This reason is highly common in men. It is men who tend to deal with stress the worst, possibly due to misconceptions that relaxation techniques are for women. They also tend to have higher stressful jobs than women, since many men are in higher positions of power and authority. Men tend to be in more leadership roles, which means more responsibility and decision making. It may not seem fair, but that’s just a common view.
How the Body Reacts to Stress Causes High Cholesterol Levels: Another study found that people who suffer from high levels of stress have higher bad cholesterol due to the high levels of triglycerides. The triglycerides are the components that encourage the boost of bad cholesterol levels, causing major health problems. It doesn’t matter what your diet is like, although the unhealthier diet will put you more at risk.
The study researchers considered the reasons for the higher triglycerides. While the exact reason isn’t known, the theory is that it is due to the stress hormone cortisol. This is common is people who suffer long term stress, and leads to the release of adrenaline in the body.
Adrenaline is the body’s “flight or fight” response and helps to deal with the stress levels. It pushes people into making decisions and keeps them alert and active when they desperately need to be. Many people in trauma incidents report that they don’t know how they kept going. The adrenaline pushed them forward until they were given a chance to relax. That was when their bodies shut down, and they had the chance to allow the trauma to affect them. Adrenaline can certainly have benefits, but it causes the increase in triglycerides. This then triggers the high levels of bad cholesterol, which can later affect the body in other ways.
Stress Can Cause “Stickiness” in the Arteries: Another study has found that the arteries can be “sticky” due to high-stress levels. This may or may not be linked to high cholesterol levels. It could be a problem on its own that makes it look like someone has high cholesterol levels.
Stress makes the muscles spasm. This affects the arteries, which causes problems with the blood flow. The platelets in people with high-stress levels are commonly “sticky.” They cling to the artery walls and create bumps and friction for the blood flow. The blood is more likely to clog, and other health problems arise. The constriction of the arteries certainly doesn’t help things. When the arteries constrict, the area for the blood flow gets smaller, and it causes the blood flow to slow down. Mixed with the stickiness or high cholesterol problems, the blood gets stuck and clogs. It’s harder for the heart and brain to get the blood that they both need.
Stress causes many other health problems and affects the body in more ways that we currently know or understand. It is possible that stress isn’t just a factor for high cholesterol but makes high cholesterol worse for the health.
Reducing Stress to Prolong Life: Many scientists now recommend not focusing on reducing cholesterol as much as reducing stress. Cholesterol gained a bad rep for a long time, including good cholesterol. It’s taken time for the medical world to realize that not all cholesterol is bad and there are other factors that cause many of the same risks. One of those is the high-stress levels. It’s important to keep them to a minimum so the whole body can work effectively and we can prolong out lives.
The tricky thing is finding a way to reduce stress levels. Understandably reducing stress isn’t always easy and people can end up even more stressed because they’re trying to reduce it. Think about how you feel when you’re struggling to sleep because of stress. You get more worked up, which releases more cortisol and more adrenaline into the body. It’s harder to get to sleep, and this cycle continues until you find a way actually to reduce the stress.
Meditation and exercise are often considered the best ways to reduce stress. Yoga is a popular option since it combines the two together in many ways. You get to become one with yourself, focus on your breathing, and tone your body at the same time.
Both meditation and exercise help to release more happy hormones into your body. The right chemicals help to reduce the levels of cortisol in your body. You’ll have less adrenaline keeping you awake and fewer triglycerides causing your bad cholesterol production to increase.
It will be tempting to reach for a glass or two (or even a bottle) of wine to deal with stress. Smoking is tempting, along with binge watching a TV series while you struggle to sleep. You want to look for healthier ways to handle your stress. The negative ways will just cause more problems for your health.
Long Term vs. Short Term Stress and Cholesterol: If you have the odd day where you feel like you’re at the end of your tether, don’t worry about it too much. It’s not the short-term stress that causes the increase in cholesterol levels. The studies show that those who suffer long term stress are the ones who are most likely to see all the negative side effects.
Sure, stress isn’t good for you, but it is also a normal part of living. There are times that adrenaline and cortisol are needed. They can keep you going when you run out of energy or when going through trauma.
Those who suffer long term stress will have prolonged cortisol and adrenaline levels. Those hormones will be much higher than they need to be and in the body for much longer. They cause a range of health problems when around for long periods of time, including high blood pressure, insomnia, and even Type II diabetes. It shouldn’t be surprising that high cholesterol levels are also a problem.
Healthy eating is an important lifestyle choice. Not only will it help to reduce the foods that cause cholesterol production but it can also reduce the cortisol release. Healthy foods protect the body, supply energy, and help to boost the production of happy hormones, which help to reduce the stress hormones.
When you suffer from long term stress, you will want to look for ways to eliminate the reason for stress as much as possible. I know this isn’t always going to be easy. You may enjoy your career, but there will be times that you struggle to cope with all the demand your job throws at you. It’s not like you can just pick and choose. However, if there is a way that you can reduce the stuff you do that causes stress, such as delegation, then you want to do it where you can.
Long term high-stress levels may not cause immediate problems. There are links to issues years down the line because of the stress levels that you have felt at some point in your life. This issue is linked more with long term stress, but some bouts of short-term stress can also be a problem.
Stress Isn’t the Only Culprit: It is important to note that stress isn’t the only reason we suffer from high cholesterol levels. While it’s a silent killer and common, there are many other reasons your cholesterol levels could be high. Diet is certainly a factor, but so are genetics and other lifestyle choices that you make. The place you work or the chemicals that you inhale from where you live can also cause cholesterol levels to increase.
This is something that scientists are still trying to understand. We have come a long way since believing that all cholesterol was bad. Now we know that some cholesterol is good, and we want it to our bodies, but we need to make sure that it is good. While stress isn’t the only culprit, it is one of the main reasons for high cholesterol levels and other health problems. It’s best to keep the stress levels at bay as much as possible.”
"Beautiful relaxing music for stress relief, composed by Peder B. Helland. This instrumental music ("The Hidden Valley") works well as sleep music, ambient study music, meditation music or relaxation music."
"That's where it all begins. That's where we all get screwed big time as we grow up. They tell us to think, but they don't really mean it. They only want us to think within the boundaries they define. The moment you start thinking for yourself - really thinking - so many things stop making any sense. And if you keep thinking, the whole world just falls apart. Nothing makes sense anymore. All rules, traditions, expectations - they all start looking so fake, so made up. You want to just get rid of all this stuff and make things right. But the moment you say it, they tell you to shut up and be respectful. And eventually you understand that nobody wants you to really think for yourself."
"If you were hoping that the United States would become a lawless society, you have now gotten your wish. Some of the numbers that I am about to share with you are just mind blowing. For example, I had no idea that police in New York City were injured by criminals thousands of times last year. All over the nation, law enforcement is losing control and violent criminals are getting the upper hand. We have never seen anything quite like this before, and I am entirely convinced that this crime wave is only going to get worse as economic conditions deteriorate. Even in our capital city, crime is completely and utterly out of control. If you can believe it, the number of carjackings in Washington D.C. was up 97.9 percent last year…
"Residents of the District of Columbia paid the sixth-highest amount on car insurance when compared to the 50 states in 2023 with an average annual full-coverage rate of $2,756 last year – which amounts to nearly $230 a month, according to a report by Insurify. The report found that Washington, D.C., residents’ car insurance premiums were 37% higher than the national average, which was $2,019 for a full-coverage policy, as national auto insurance rates increased by 24% last year.
Police data show carjackings in the nation’s capital spiked by 97.9% in 2023 with 958 reported carjackings last year compared to 484 in 2022, with motor vehicle theft up 82% from 3,756 in 2022 to 6,829 in 2023. Vehicle theft in the greater Washington-Maryland-Virginia area also rose by 68% last year, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau."
Vehicle theft is even worse in some areas along the west coast. In Oakland, approximately one out of every 30 residents had a vehicle stolen from them in 2023…"Robberies grew 38% last year in Oakland, according to police data. Burglaries increased 23%. Motor vehicle theft jumped 44%. Roughly one of every 30 Oakland residents had a car stolen last year, according to a San Francisco Chronicle analysis."
On Tuesday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he was taking action, deploying 120 California Highway Patrol officers to Oakland and the surrounding area to conduct a law enforcement surge operation. The aim: to crack down on crime, including vehicle theft, retail theft and violent crime. Gavin Newsom wants to run for president at some point, and so he doesn’t want to look soft on crime. Unfortunately for him, it is way too late for that.
Other west coast cities are also experiencing unprecedented crime waves. In Seattle, one restaurant has actually been broken into five times in the last six months…"The sound of crashing glass has become too familiar at Sandia, a Mexican restaurant in Seattle’s Laurelhurst neighborhood on NE 45th Street. “As of today, now we have been broken into five times,” said Nathan Yeager, the owner. In the surveillance video provided to KING 5, you can see criminals break the front door with a crowbar, climb over the counter, steal money from the till, and then sneak around while looking in every door for something to take."
There is no way that I would open a small business in Seattle. Or Portland. Or Oakland. Or San Francisco. Or Los Angeles. Of course I could say the exact same thing about many cities on the east coast as well. In New York City, police officers “are getting beaten at a record-setting pace”…"City cops are getting beaten at a record-setting pace - a disturbing and dangerous trend fueled by radical protests, an influx of criminal migrants, bail reform, anti-cop rhetoric and soft-on-crime prosecutors, experts told The Post. The number of cops hurt by suspects surged 20% in 2022, when 4,724 uniformed officers suffered injuries in attacks, compared to 3,933 in 2021. But the law enforcement nightmare grew worse last year, when 4,077 cops were hurt by suspects in just the first nine months of 2023 - on pace for a record-breaking 5,436 injuries, the latest NYPD stats show."
At this stage in our societal collapse, the criminals are not even afraid to attack the cops. It is so difficult to be a police officer these days. They literally put their lives on the line for us every single day. Of course the Biden administration has made the national crime wave significantly worse by allowing millions upon millions of migrants to come pouring over the southern border. In fact, we just learned that police in the Big Apple have arrested a “very, very violent” migrant that shot a tourist in the leg “after opening fire in Times Square”…"A teenager gunman burst into tears as he was hauled away in handcuffs for allegedly shooting a tourist in the leg after opening fire in Times Square. Jesus Alejandro Rivas-Figueroa, 15, a migrant from Venezuela, was arrested by US Marshals in Yonkers after a nearly day-long manhunt. NYPD Deputy Chief of Detectives Jason Savino called him a ‘very, very violent’ suspect who recklessly fired a ‘very large’ .45 caliber handgun in a crowded area of New York City."
Needless to say, our wide open borders have also made it easy for cartels to transport drugs all over the country. Earlier today, I came across an article that explained that drugs that are produced in Mexico have been flooding the state of Montana…"Illegal drugs have long flowed from Mexico to the more remote parts of the U.S. But with the rise of fentanyl, cartel associates have pushed more aggressively into Montana, where pills can be sold for 20 times the price they get in urban centers closer to the border, state and federal law enforcement officials said.
Cartels have been particularly focusing on Indian reservations throughout Montana, and one state lawmaker says that it seems like “fentanyl is raining on our reservation”…"On some reservations, cartel associates have formed relationships with Indigenous women as a way of establishing themselves within communities to sell drugs, law enforcement officials and tribal leaders said. More frequently, traffickers lure Native Americans into becoming dealers by giving away an initial supply of drugs and turning them into addicts indebted to the cartels. “Right now it’s as if fentanyl is raining on our reservation,” said Marvin Weatherwax, Jr., who serves on the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council and represents the 15th district in the Montana House of Representatives."
There is nowhere that you can go in the U.S. to completely escape all of this. From coast to coast, our society is literally coming apart at the seams. In Alabama, thieves recently stole an entire 200-foot tall radio tower…"A landscaper in Jasper, Alabama, was doing a property cleanup when the crew discovered that a 200-foot radio tower was missing. Brett Elmore, general manager of WJLX, said that every piece of equipment at the radio tower’s site had been stolen and the wires cut out.
“This is going to get out eventually, so I might as well make it public before it does,” Elmore wrote on Facebook. “I have heard of thieves in this area stealing anything, but this one takes the cake. This morning, my bush hog crew went down to a tower site we have … when [they] arrived, he called and notified me that not only was my building vandalized, but my TWO HUNDRED FOOT TOWER WAS GONE!” the radio manager wrote."
If things are this bad now, what will our society look like once millions upon millions of people in this country become extremely desperate? You might want to think about that, because we really are right on the brink of an extremely apocalyptic chapter in human history. But most people don’t want to think about such things. Most people just want to stick their heads in the sand and pretend that everything is okay.
It can be so easy to ignore what is really going on in the world and tune in to the alternate reality that television creates for us. Did you know that a 30 second commercial during this year’s Super Bowl cost 7 million dollars? After sitting in front of the television for a few hours, you may be tempted to buy into the fictional reality that they are trying to sell you. But the truth is that life in America is not good right now, and the crime in our streets is only going to intensify during the months and years ahead."
All across Europe the natives are getting restless...
by Bill Bonner
Paris, France - "The natives are getting restless. Driving through France, you see road signs turned upside down. We didn’t know what to make of it. “That’s the farmers,” a friend informed us. “They’re turning the signs upside down because they say the whole system of farm regulations isupside down.”
Bloomberg: "Farmers’ Revolt Threatens Election Year Upsets Around the World." "Eric Foucault is driving his hulking green tractor more slowly than he can walk. Shouting into his mobile phone above the cacophony of engines and horns, the farmer from south of Paris is one of 200 others clogging up the highway into the French capital. Foucault and his fellow protesters are restless, their list of grievances long: soaring costs, increasing bureaucracy, new European Union regulations in its Green Deal and imports diluting their markets. “He who sows misery reaps anger,” says one of their placards."
France isn’t the only country where the feds are planting misery. The Guardian: "Thousands of tractors block Berlin…An estimated 30,000 protesters, including farmers supported by a wide range of representatives from other industries from fishing to gastronomy to logistics, blocked the streets around the government quarter on Monday with their vehicles, including lorries and forklift trucks, and even children’s toy tractors."
The Cost of Government: As we saw yesterday, ‘inflation’ takes several forms. There’s monetary inflation, fiscal inflation, and regulatory inflation. Choose your poison. Either way, the ‘inflation’ is a cost of government; prices are higher than they would be otherwise because of some government policy. The more policies, the higher the prices.
Joseph Tainter proposes that the rise and fall of civilizations traces an arc of inflation. Inevitably, a society faces challenges. Its elites find solutions…which inevitably lead to more wealth and power for the elite themselves. Each ‘solution’ imposes some form of cost, aka inflation – via taxes, regulations, controls, government spending or money-printing. Finally, the costs become so great that the society sinks into ‘the swamp.’
This implies that the cost of government is actually a lot higher than you think – and eventually, fatal. And you can’t measure it only by adding up consumer prices and taxes. Look at countries that have had large, ambitious governments – the Soviet Union, North Korea, or Hitlerian Germany. (In 1945, nearly half of Germany’s entire GDP was devoted to its military and firepower industries.) People in these countries do not necessarily suffer from rising consumer prices; prices are typically controlled, along with everything else. But they always suffer. And usually from a form of state-imposed shrinkflation, where the availability and quality of goods and services shrinks…until there is little left. And then, it is just a matter of time (perhaps a long time) before the system fails completely.
Pretending to Pay: In the Soviet Union people used to say ‘we pretend to work and they pretend to pay us.’ The ‘work’ – directed as it was by the deciders – was largely useless. Taxi drivers, for example, were paid on the basis of how many miles they drove each day. They soon developed a scam…jacking up the rear of the taxi, they idled the motor as the wheels turned and the odometer spun around. Then, they took the ration of gas that they hadn’t used, by not picking up passengers and not taking them where they wanted to go, and sold it on the black market. But when they got paid, they discovered that other parts of the economy had been similarly corrupted; there was nothing much to buy.
To reduce this to a memorable axiom: the larger the government, the poorer the people. And it’s not just the farmers who are up in arms. Here’s the latest from France. The Western Journal: "Nationalist and populist movements are making great strides across Europe – even in France, where the once-thought-powerless right-wing National Rally party is surging in the polls. While the next presidential election in France is still three years away, a new poll shows National Rally's Marine Le Pen is leading and could win the 2027 race."
In Pakistan, voters just sent the political establishment a warning: “It is now evident that there is much anger against the establishment’s open and constant interference in civilian matters - interference which has only grown over the years because there has been no firm political consensus against it,” Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper wrote in a post-election editorial.
In Argentina, Mr. Milei, the most audacious of the reformers, tries to undo 70 years of policy mistakes. The OCRegister: "As Milei proved in Argentina, far-left status quos can’t last forever and can be defeated."
Straw Poll: In America, voters face a grim choice – between a geriatric hack…and a political grifter; what can they do? Dan Denning reports: Watched the Super Bowl last night with family and friends...the ads are always a big deal. The three ads everyone remembered:
1. A State Farm ad with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
2. An ad about Jesus ...showing people who are traditionally enemies/adversaries washing one another's feet.
3. And RFK, Jr. for President as an Independent using the theme song and images from JFK's campaign (evocative of all the Camelot nostalgia).
Quick straw poll of a traditionally conservative family had three members saying they'd vote for RFK, Jr. over either Trump or Biden. What’s next? Will someone really ‘drain the swamp?’ Or, will we drown in it?"
"Political disintegration is a persistent feature of world history. "The Collapse of Complex Societies," though written by an archaeologist, will therefore strike a chord throughout the social sciences. Any explanation of societal collapse carries lessons not just for the study of ancient societies, but for the members of all such societies in both the present and future. Dr. Tainter describes nearly two dozen cases of collapse and reviews more than 2000 years of explanations. He then develops a new and far-reaching theory that accounts for collapse among diverse kinds of societies, evaluating his model and clarifying the processes of disintegration by detailed studies of the Roman, Mayan and Chacoan collapses."
Freely download “The Collapse of Complex Societies” here;
Excerpt: "A Global Monetary & Commodity Inferno Of Nuclear Proportions: When the sh-t hits the global fan, it often does it at the optimal time for the maximum amount of damage and with the worst kind of sh-t to soil the world. For years I have been clear that the world is reaching the end of an economic, financial and monetary era which will affect mankind catastrophically for decades.
The world will obviously blame Putin for the catastrophe which will hit every corner of our planet. But we must remember that neither Putin nor Covid is the reason for the economic cataclysm that we are now approaching. These events are catalysts which will have a major effect because they are hitting a gigantic debt bubble of a magnitude that has never been seen before in history. And it obviously takes very little to prick this epic bubble.
What is unequivocal is that all currencies will finish the 100+ year fall to ZERO in the next few years. It is also crystal clear that all the asset bubbles – stocks, bonds and property – will implode at the same time leading to a long and deep depression.
We had the warning in 2006-9 but central banks ignored it and just added new worthless debt to existing worthless debt to create worthless debt squared – an obvious recipe for disaster. So as is often typical for the end of an economic era, the catalyst is totally unexpected and worse than anyone could have forecast."
"Egon von Greyerz (EvG) stores gold for clients at the biggest private gold vault in the world buried deep in the Swiss Alps. EvG is a financial and precious metals expert. EvG is a former Swiss banker and an expert in risk. He says the risk in the global markets has never been this high.
EvG explains, “Credit has increased dramatically through derivatives. All instruments being issued now by banks, pension funds, stock funds, it’s all synthetic. There is no real underlying payments in anything almost. Therefore, my estimate for derivatives would be at least $2 quadrillion, and I think that is probably conservative. Then, we have debt on top of that of $300 trillion, and we also have a couple hundred trillion dollars of unfunded liabilities. So, we are talking about $2.5 quadrillion, and that’s with a global GDP of $80 trillion. So, there is a disaster waiting to happen, and especially because all this created money has created no value whatsoever. I always knew this would collapse, and it’s taken longer than I expected, but I think we are at the end of a major era.
These derivatives, at some point in the coming few years, will actually turn into debt. Central banks will have to cover all the outstanding liabilities of the commercial banks as we are seeing now with Credit Suisse, Bank of England and etc. This is going to happen across the board. Whether it’s called derivatives or called debt, as far as I am concerned, it’s the same thing. It will have the same effect on the world financial system, which will be disastrous, of course.”
EvG says the derivative markets were simply a way for financial institutions to carry debt and not show it on their balance sheets. In the end, everything will balance out. EvG goes on to say, “Nobody can repay the debt, and they can’t even pay interest. So, therefore, when the debt implodes, so will the assets that were financed by this debt. So, both sides of the balance sheet have to come down. Whether it comes down by 50%, 75% or 90%, I don’t know. All I think about is risk, and the financial system will not survive in its present form. Central banks only use one kind of medicine, and that is more printed money. Now, you are getting negative returns on printed money. So, that is not going to save anything.
Sadly we are looking at a situation when this system will start to implode. The rich are still rich, but the poor are really poor. Overall in the UK, Germany and most European countries, people don’t have enough money to live. This is a human disaster already. With food costs going up 25% and energy going up the same and gasoline, interest rates and rents, people don’t have enough money, and that is happening now. It’s a human disaster of mega proportions. It’s so sad, and governments will have no chance of doing anything about it. The risk is increasing exponentially, and it is going to get worse.” There is much more in the 43-minute interview.
"We are seeing seniors that are becoming homeless, because they have been paid too much Social Security. It is making people homeless to where they cannot pay for essentials."
Living In A Shed/Tiny House Is The American Dream"
"Living in a shed or tiny house is now becoming a charming dream for so many Americans that have been priced out of the market and who now have to work multiple hospitality jobs just to get by. The brain dead were spending $60 for nachos at the super bowl as the NFL price gouged their fans."
“Large, dusty, spiral galaxy NGC 4945 is seen edge-on near the center of this rich telescopic image. The field of view spans nearly 2 degrees, or about 4 times the width of the Full Moon, toward the expansive southern constellation Centaurus.
Click image for larger size.
About 13 million light-years distant, NGC 4945 is almost the size of our own Milky Way Galaxy. But X-ray and infrared observations reveal even more high energy emission and star formation in the core of NGC 4945. The other prominent galaxy in the field, NGC 4976, is an elliptical galaxy. Left of center, NGC 4976 is much farther away, at a distance of about 35 million light-years, and not physically associated with NGC 4945.”
“Here’s a question every angry man and woman needs to consider: How long are you going to allow people you don’t even like – people who are no longer in your life, maybe even people who aren’t even alive anymore – to control your life? How long?” - Andy Stanley
“That goes for old wounds, too, you know. I really wish we’d had the chance to talk before this,” he says, cracking the window so the smoke can escape. “There’s a Longfellow quote I have stuck on my bulletin board at the church office – ‘There is no grief like the grief that does not speak’ – and it’s true. I’ve found that keeping pain inside doesn’t give it a chance to heal, but bringing it out into the light, holding it right there in your hands and trusting that you’re strong enough to make it through, not hating the pain, not loving it, just seeing it for what it really is can change how you go on from there. Time alone doesn’t heal emotional wounds, and you don’t want to live the rest of your life bottled up with anger and guilt and bitterness. That’s how people self-destruct.” - Laura Wiess
"Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time;
it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable."
"One of Seneca's (Dead Roman Philosopher Dude) most famous quotes is, "It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it." What surprises me is that Seneca wrote this before Twitter® existed. But even back in the time of Rome, there were ways to waste time. I’m thinking Facebook® might be that old.
Regardless, his message is timeless: every moment that we’re breathing here on Earth is precious. We may not always get a choice as to how we spend our time (Ted Kaczynski seems to be booked every day) but the true crime is to waste time. Oh, and blowing people up.
I have been as guilty as anyone of wasting time. And one of the biggest wastes of time is to become consumed by negative thoughts and emotions. In reality, most of the time (most) the things that irritate me are small. How small? So small that if I pack up my emotions, and really assess as to why I’m mad, it just looks silly. When Hillary reflects on why she’s mad, well, she calls the Suicide Hotline and places an order.
But that reflection is crucial. It’s called self-control, and although it appears to be unfashionable in certain locations (Chicago, I’m looking at you) it is the only way to be successful. If I threw a temper tantrum when (spins wheel) I drop a sock on the floor, I think there’s a simple word for that in the English language: Leftist feminist the ATF unstable.
No, when I’m upset I stop. I take a deep breath. I ask myself, “Does it matter?” Most of the time, it doesn’t. At all. Very few of the things that have irritated me matter at all over any rational timeframe. The old two rules apply: 1. Don’t sweat the small stuff. 2. It’s all small stuff.
The second question is, can I control whatever the situation is or influence it? If the answer is no, then that’s like being mad that the Sun is coming up in the morning. Even if it’s my mistake, it’s sillier than being angry over the English coal minimum price subsidy in the 1800s or...anything that happened in 1619.
One concept I’ve come across recently is "amor fati," which is Latin for “put armor on fat people”. Oh, wait, my translator was wrong. It really means, "love your fate." I think I first heard a variation of this when I was a kid: “You get what you get, and you’ll like it, and grease up the fat people so we can put plate mail on them.”
The reality of amor fati is this, though: I am where I am, and I have a choice. I can get up every morning and be mad, or I can be happy where I am. Does that mean I’m content? No. Does that mean I’m not going to fight like hell? No. Does that mean I’m not going to try to change certain things with the fire of a thousand suns? No.
It does mean that if life sucks, I can still find meaning, still find purpose, and still try to create the change that I seek to create. It’s not complacency. Heck, Seneca himself was one of the richest dudes in all of Rome. That didn’t just happen. He didn’t just wake up one morning, and say, “Holy crap, I have an amazing amount of money. How did that happen?” Seneca embraced what he had, and tried to better himself, and change himself. He did okay.
Our choices are our choices, but even more than that, we always have the choice how we feel, even Ted Kaczynski. We may have lost everything else, but we always retain that. We should not be overcome by fear or despair. To be clear – those are just about the most negative things we can let into our lives, unless you know one of the women on 'The View.'
The only proper way to deal with tough times is to face into them. Our obstacles make us stronger. Each obstacle we face with virtue and excellence improves us. Except for bullets. Those sound like they really suck.
Regardless of all of that, the first point is still the most important: our lives aren’t too short – our lives are exactly as long as they are. Deal with it. Love it. Use your time – every minute. Every second you waste? It’s wasting your life. Now, go make something happen."
the giant debt iceberg and creeping ‘inflation normative'...
by Bill Bonner
Paris, France - "Last week brought more evidence that America’s captain is losing his mind. CBS Boston: When President Joe Biden's memory was called into question this week, it touched off a debate about whether an 81-year-old is mentally fit to run the country. "My memory is fine," said Biden, defending himself at a news conference Thursday. He went on to talk about tensions in Gaza and mistakenly referred to the leader of Egypt as the president of Mexico. No matter. The system is set up so that the chief executive can be a complete moron; it won’t make any difference. The ship stays on course. Unfortunately, it is on course for its own destruction. That is, it is headed to more inflation and debt.
Fortune: "Jamie Dimon says Washington is facing a global market "rebellion" because of the tab it is racking up, while Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan believes it's time to stop admiring the problem and instead do something about it. Elsewhere "The Black Swan" author Nassim Taleb says the economy is in a "death spiral", while Fed chairman Jerome Powell says it's past time to have an "adult conversation" about fiscal responsibility. A debt crisis is the ‘most predictable crisis in US history.’ We all see it coming. And yet, according to former House Speaker Paul Ryan, it’s not “yet on top of the political agenda.”
Iceberg Ahead! Meanwhile, ‘The Hill,’ calls it the ‘biggest cause of America’s decline’: "Uncontrollable U.S. Debt: The U.S. Debt Clock displays the inevitability of American decline -a “ticking time bomb” of data and financial evidence - especially the following three. The U.S. government’s total unfunded liabilities - the combined amount of payments promised without funds to recipients of Social Security, Medicare, federal employee pensions, veterans’ benefits and federal debt held by the public - stand at $212 trillion, and are rapidly increasing. For context, that number was just $122 trillion as recently as 2019 and is projected by the Debt Clock to reach $288.9 trillion by 2028.
But how did the iceberg get so big? And why is it getting bigger? It is the most obvious danger in the North Atlantic; why are we heading straight for it? Let’s look more closely at ‘inflation.’ There, we may find an answer. There’s more than one cause. Here’s how they work:
Monetary inflation is simple. The feds ‘print’ up money to fund their boondoggles and reward their cronies. The extra cash and credit increase the money supply and raise prices. But the government doesn’t just hand out franklins and jacksons on the street corners. They borrow the money from the big banks, thereby increasing the nation’s debt.
Fiscal inflation is another way to increase prices. The politicians spend more than they raise in taxes. Again, the idea is to redistribute wealth, from the people who earned it to those groups favored by the political caste. The extra spending gives people cash to spend. Prices rise. And again, the government borrows money to cover the spending; debt goes up.
Crooks and Cronies: Many economists claim that government borrowing doesn’t actually cause inflation, because it merely takes ‘liquidity’ from savers and transfers it to spenders. The amount of ‘liquidity,’ remains the same. But what really happens is that while the amount of money may remain constant, the volume of useful goods and services goes down. Savers might otherwise support new factories and new businesses, thereby increasing output. Instead, the money goes to fund the feds’ fantasies and boondoggles, lowering real output. Prices rise.
And this is a good place to introduce a new concept, what the French call ‘inflation normative.’ There are ‘normes,’ regulations promulgated by the deciders in Paris or Brussels (home of the European Union bureaucracy.) These rules add up, year after year, benefiting specific groups, at the expense of everyone else. Some favored cronies and special interests get more of what they want. The rest of the population is hassled and hampered by pettifogging rules…and ultimately pays more for the goods and services it wants.
Give Up, Drop Out: For example, we are putting a wood stove in a little apartment that we are building in an outbuilding at the farm. Left to our own devices, we would connect it to an existing chimney. “You can’t do that…” says the plumber. “Why not?” “It’s not up to the ‘normes.’ All wood stoves need to be connected to a stainless steel tube in the center of the chimney.” “Well…okay…I’ll drop a tube down the chimney.” “No, you can’t do that. It has to be done by a licensed plumber.”
Just this week, a new rule increased the parking fees in Paris, for us, by 200%. We have an old, diesel-burning SUV. Henceforth, we will pay three times the regular parking fees – if it is allowed into the city at all. These are minor things – for us. For others, the inflation of regulations makes life not only more expensive, but almost impossible. The old give up and retire. The young drop out.
Complying with government ‘normes’ – like government spending itself – is counted in GDP. And people who apply them and enforce them are counted as gainfully employed. But ‘inflation normative’ gives us a false picture; real output goes down…and the debt becomes harder than ever to pay. More to come…"
