Chet Raymo, “Very, Very, Very, Very, Very...”

“Very, Very, Very, Very, Very...”
by Chet Raymo

"In a short story that was published posthumously in the New Yorker, the inestimable Primo Levi meditated on the limits of language. The story was called “The Tranquil Star.” He writes "The star was very big and very hot, and its weight was enormous," and realizes immediately that the adjectives have failed him: “For a discussion of stars our language is inadequate and seems laughable, as if someone were trying to plow with a feather. It's a language that was born with us, suitable for describing objects more or less as large and long-lasting as we are; it has our dimensions, it's human. It doesn't go beyond what our senses tell us.

Until fairly recently in human history, there was nothing smaller than a scabies mite, writes Levi, and therefore no adjective to describe it. Nothing bigger than the sea or sky. Nothing hotter than fire. We can add modifiers: very big, very small, very hot. Or use adjectives of dubious superlativeness: enormous, colossal, extraordinary. But, really, these feeble stretchings of language don't take us very far in grasping the very, very, very extraordinarily diminutive or spectacularly colossal dimensions of atomic matter or cosmic space and time. We can overcome the limitations of language, Levi say, "only with a violent effort of the imagination."

I spent more than forty years trying to find ways to violently stretch the imaginations of my students (and myself) to accommodate the dimensions of the universe revealed by science. I would project onto a huge screen a photograph of a firestorm on the Sun, then superimpose a scale-sized Earth, which fit comfortably inside a loop of solar fire. I would take the class into the College Quad here near Boston, where I had set up a basketball to represent the Sun, then gathered 100 feet away with a pinhead Earth; we walked together with our pin in the great annual journey of the Earth, and looked through a telescope at the marble-sized Jupiter than I had previously installed at the other end of the long Quad (the next closest star system would have been a couple of basketballs in Hawaii). We walked geologic timelines that took us from one end of the campus to the other.

In one of my Globe essays I used this analogy: “Imagine the human DNA as a strand of sewing thread. On this scale, the DNA in the 23 pairs of chromosomes in a typical human cell would be about 150 miles long, with about 600 nucleotide pairs per inch. That is, the DNA in a single cell is equivalent to 1000 spools of sewing thread, representing two copies of the genetic code. Take all that thread - the 1000 spools worth - and crumple it into 46 wads (the chromosomes). Stuff the wads into a shoe box (the cell nucleus) along with - oh, say enough chicken soup to fill the box. Toss the shoe box into a steamer trunk (the cell), and fill the rest of the trunk with more soup. Take the steamer trunk with its contents and shrink it down to an invisibly small object, smaller than the point of a pin. Multiply that tiny object by a trillion and you have the trillion cells of the human body, each with its full complement of DNA.”

Or this description from 'Waking Zero': “The track of the Prime Meridian across England from Peace Haven in the south to the mouth of the River Humber in the north is nearly 200 miles. If that distance is taken to represent the 13.7 billion year history of the universe, as we understand it today, then all of recorded human history is less than a single step. The entire story I have told in this book, from the Alexandrian astronomers and geographers to the present-day astronomers who launch telescopes into space, would fit neatly into a single footprint. If the 200 miles of the meridian track is taken to represent the distance to the most distant objects we observe with our telescopes, then a couple of steps would take us across the Milky Way Galaxy. A mote of dust from my shoe is large enough to contain not only our own solar system but many neighboring stars.”

But as hard as one tries, the scale of these things escape us. If one could truly comprehend what we are seeing when we look, say, at the Hubble Ultra Deep Field Photo above, which I have done my best to convey to myself and others in a dozen ways, it would surely shake to the core some of our most cherished beliefs. Just as our language is contrived on a human scale, so too are our gods.”

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

95 Questions to Help You Find Meaning and Happiness”

“95 Questions to Help You Find Meaning and Happiness”

by Marc

“At the cusp of a new day, week, month or year, most of us take a little time to reflect on our lives by looking back over the past and ahead into the future.  We ponder the successes, failures and standout events that are slowly scripting our life’s story.  This process of self-reflection helps us maintain a conscious awareness of where we’ve been and where we intend to go.  It is pertinent to the organization and preservation of our long-term goals and happiness. The questions below will help you with this process, because when it comes to finding meaning in life, asking the right questions is the answer.

   1. In one sentence, who are you?

   2. Why do you matter?

   3. What is your life motto?

   4. What’s something you have that everyone wants?

   5. What is missing in your life?

   6. What’s been on your mind most lately?

   7. Happiness is a ________?

   8. What stands between you and happiness?

   9. What do you need most right now?

  10. What does the child inside you long for?

  11. What is one thing right now that you are totally sure of?

  12. What’s been bothering you lately?

  13. What are you scared of?

  14. What has fear of failure stopped you from doing?

  15. What will you never give up on?

  16. What do you want to remember forever?

  17. What makes you feel secure?

  18. Which activities make you lose track of time?

  19. What’s the most difficult decision you’ve ever made?

  20. What’s the best decision you’ve ever made?

  21. What are you most grateful for?

  22. What is worth the pain?

  23. In order of importance, how would you rank: happiness, money, love, health, fame?

  24. What is something you’ve always wanted, but don’t yet have?

  25. What was the most defining moment in your life during this past year?

  26. What’s the number one change you need to make in your life in the next twelve months?

  27. What’s the number one thing you want to achieve in the next five years?

  28. What is the biggest motivator in your life right now?

  29. What will you never do?

  30. What’s something you said you’d never do, but have since done?

  31. What’s something new you recently learned about yourself?

  32. What do you sometimes pretend to understand that you really do not?

  33. In one sentence, what do you wish for your future self?

  34. What worries you most about the future?

  35. When you look into the past, what do you miss most?

  36. What’s something from the past that you don’t miss at all?

  37. What recently reminded you of how fast time flies?

  38. What is the biggest challenge you face right now?

  39. In one word, how would you describe your personality?

  40. What never fails to frustrate you?

  41. What are you known for by your friends and family?

  42. What’s something most people don’t know about you?

  43. What’s a common misconception people have about you?

  44. What’s something a lot of people do that you disagree with?

  45. What’s a belief you hold with which many people disagree?

  46. What’s something that’s harder for you than it is for most people?

  47. What are the top three qualities you look for in a friend?

  48. If you had a friend who spoke to you in the same way that you sometimes speak to yourself, how long would you allow that person to be your friend?

  49. When you think of ‘home,’ what, specifically, do you think of?

  50. What’s the most valuable thing you own?

  51. If you had to move 3000 miles away, what would you miss most?

  52. What would make you smile right now?

  53. What do you do when nothing else seems to make you happy?

  54. What do you wish did not exist in your life?

  55. What should you avoid to improve your life?

  56. What is something you would hate to go without for a day?

  57. What’s the biggest lie you once believed was true?

  58. What’s something bad that happened to you that made you stronger?

  59. What’s something nobody could ever steal from you?

  60. What’s something you disliked when you were younger that you truly enjoy today?

  61. What are you glad you quit?

  62. What do you need to spend more time doing?

  63. What are you naturally good at?

  64. What have you been counting or keeping track of recently?

  65. What has the little voice inside your head been saying lately?

  66. What’s something you should always be careful with?

  67. What should always be taken seriously?

  68. What should never be taken seriously?

  69. What are three things you can’t get enough of?

  70. What would you do differently if you knew nobody would judge you?

  71. What fascinates you?

  72. What’s the difference between being alive and truly living?

  73. What’s something you would do every day if you could?

  74. At what time in your recent past have you felt most passionate and alive?

  75. Which is worse, failing or never trying?

  76. What makes you feel incomplete?

  77. When did you experience a major turning point in your life?

  78. What or who do you wish you lived closer to?

  79. If you had the opportunity to get a message across to a large group of people, what would your message be?

  80. What’s something you know you can count on?

  81. What makes you feel comfortable?

  82. What’s something about you that has never changed?

  83. What will be different about your life in exactly one year?

  84. What mistakes do you make over and over again?

  85. What do you have a hard time saying “no” to?

  86. Are you doing what you believe in, or are you settling for what you are doing?

  87. What’s something that used to scare you, but no longer does?

  88. What promise to yourself do you still need to fulfill?

  89. What do you appreciate most about your current situation?

  90. What’s something simple that makes you smile?

  91. So far, what has been the primary focus of your life?

  92. How do you know when it’s time to move on?

  93. What’s something you wish you could do one more time?

  94. When you’re 90-years-old, what will matter to you the most?

  95. What would you regret not fully doing, being, or having in your life?”

From the wonderful "Marc and Angel Hack Life" blog:
- http://www.marcandangel.com/

"The Cure For Boredom..."

"Curiosity is the essence of human existence. 

'Who are we? Where are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?'

I don't know. I don't have any answers to those questions.

I don't know what's over there around the corner. But I want to find out."

- Eugene Cernan

'You Pretend..."

"That life. This life. It looks as if you can have both. I mean, they're both right there, one on top of the other, and it looks as if they'll blend. But they never will. So, you take this thing. You take this thing you want, and you put it in a box and you close the lid. You can let your fingers trace the cracks, the places where the light gets in, the dark gets out, but the lid stays on. You don't look inside. You don't look at this thing you want so much, because you Can. Not. Have. It. So there's this box, you know, with the thing inside, and you could throw it away or shoot it into space; you could set it on fire and watch it burn to ashes, but really, none of that would make a difference, because you cannot destroy what you want. It only makes you want it more. So. You take this thing you want and you put it in a box and you close the lid. And you hold the box close to your heart, which is where it wants to go, and you pretend it doesn't kill you every time you feel yourself breathe."

- Megan Hart

"We Are All Like Elephants"

"We Are All Like Elephants" 

by Marc Chernoff

"In many ways, our past experiences have conditioned us to believe that we are less capable than we are. All too often we let the rejections of our past dictate every move we make. We literally do not know ourselves to be any better than what some opinionated person or narrow circumstance once told us was true. Of course, an old rejection doesn't mean we aren't good enough; it just means some person or circumstance from our past failed to align with what we had to offer at the time. But somehow we don't see it that way - we hit a mental barricade that stops us in our tracks.

This is one of the most common and damaging thought patterns we as human beings succumb to. Even though we intellectually know that we're gradually growing stronger than we were in the past, our subconscious mind often forgets that our capabilities have grown. Let me give you a quick metaphorical example.

Zookeepers typically strap a thin metal chain to a grown elephants leg and then attach the other end to a small wooden peg that's hammered into the ground. The 10-foot tall, 10,000-pound elephant could easily snap the chain, uproot the wooden peg and escape to freedom with minimal effort. But it doesn't. In fact the elephant never even tries. The worlds most powerful land animal, which can uproot a big tree as easily as you could break a toothpick, remains defeated by a small wooden peg and a flimsy chain.

Why? Because when the elephant was a baby, its trainers used the exact same methods to domesticate it. A thin chain was strapped around its leg and the other end of the chain was tied to a wooden peg in the ground. At the time, the chain and peg were strong enough to restrain the baby elephant. When it tried to break away, the metal chain would pull it back. Sometimes, tempted by the world it could see in the distance, the elephant would pull harder. But the chain would not budge, and soon the baby elephant realized trying to escape was not possible. So it stopped trying.

And now that the elephant is all grown up, it sees the chain and the peg and it remembers what it learned as a baby - the chain and peg are impossible to escape. Of course this is no longer true, but it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that the 200-pound baby is now a 10,000-pound powerhouse. The elephants self-limiting thoughts and beliefs prevail.

If you think about it, we are all like elephants. We all have incredible power inside us. And certainly, we have our own chains and pegs - the self-limiting thoughts and beliefs that hold us back. Sometimes it's a childhood experience or an old failure. Sometimes it's something we were told when we were a little younger. The key thing to realize here is this: We need to learn from the past, but be ready to update what we learned based on how our circumstances have changed (as they constantly do)." 

- http://www.marcandangel.com/

“I Pity You, Too.”

“Said a philosopher to a street sweeper, “I pity you. Yours is a hard and dirty task.” And the street sweeper said, “Thank you, sir. But tell me, what is your task?” And the philosopher answered saying, “I study man’s mind, his deeds and his desires.” Then the street sweeper went on with his sweeping and said with a smile, “I pity you, too.”

- Kahlil Gibran

Gregory Mannarino, "#TheREALSteal PLUS! Useful Idiots, The Markets, Bitcoin, The Fed"

Gregory Mannarino,

"#TheREALSteal PLUS! Useful Idiots, The Markets, Bitcoin, The Fed"

- https://traderschoice.net/

"Future Imperfect"

"Future Imperfect"

By Bill Bonner

WEST RIVER, MARYLAND – "Yes, Dear Reader, 2021 is going to be a doozy. America’s money supply (M1) rose 70% last year. And it looks like the combination of the increasing supply of money and the anticipation of the damage to be done by a Democrat-controlled government might have finally turned the bond market around.

The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond – the I-beam of the entire capital structure – has gone up 20% in the last week. It’s still preposterously low – at 1.17%. (But remember, the real yield is adjusted for inflation. So if the nominal yield is 3%, and inflation is at 2%, the real yield is just 1%. Inflation is currently 1.81%. So the current real yield on the 10-year bond is -0.64%.) And it’s still too early to know if the downward trend in yields has come to an end.

But just to be clear about it, rising yields in an economy with $80 trillion of debt is a sign of impending doom. It becomes ever more expensive to finance and refinance the debt… requiring more and more infusions of fake money. The locomotive goes faster and faster… until it flies off the tracks.

Democrats in Control: And now, Democrats control both houses of Congress and the White House. Since the time of FDR, Democrats have always tried to get the government to do more – more welfare, more laws, more spending, more debt, and more regulation. They recognize that the more they spend, the more powerful they become. They regulate they control; they subsidize this and bail out that. And then, even the rich and powerful are forced to come before them on their knees – bearing campaign contributions, speaking fees, and sinecures – and beg them for help.

Of course, Republicans know the game, too. When they’re in power, they are insufferable… even bigger spenders than the Democrats (perhaps because there is no longer anyone holding them back). But when they are out of power, they become more philosophical and poetic. You will soon hear them fret that the Democrats are spending like drunken sailors… and the nation’s finances are going to Hell in a handcart.

Unfortunately, the Republican Party is now so powerless, and so brainless… it cannot act as much of a brake on the runaway Democratic train. Does this, too, signal a major change of direction? Again, we don’t know. But we will offer you a little reflection on the value of real conservatives.

Give and Take: Every society needs its forward-thinkers… and its foot draggers. Some people want to bring the Trojan Horse within the city walls. Others think it might be a trick. A society needs both. It needs those who want progress and are sure the greenest pasture is just around the corner. But it also needs people who hold onto their old Studebakers (Why not? They run great.) and think America’s last great president was Jefferson Davis.

It is the polite give and take… between new and old… looking ahead but with respect for the past… that makes a healthy, balanced community. The forward-looking world improvers always think they have solutions (mostly to the problems caused by their last solutions). True conservatives listen carefully. At first, they are uncertain. But then, after hearing the argument, they are not so sure.

Richer and Better: Many intelligent people, for example, are convinced that new technology will make our lives richer and better. The technophiles go on and on about how this or that breakthrough will “change our lives.” And yet, we eat the same food, more or less. We live in the same houses. We exchange lovesick glances… and howl at the moon, occasionally, just as we did when we still walked on all fours.

It’s been more than 20 years since the great internet-led tech breakthrough. The “dot-com revolution” was, of course, supposed to make us all richer and happier. But we can’t think of a single person who – thanks to the wonders of Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, or the worldwide web itself – was made happier by the digital advance (though many were made richer… including your editor).

Tesla founder Elon Musk recently became the richest man on the planet. (Yesterday, he fell to #2… the poor sap.) His shares in Tesla are valued at nearly $195 billion (the company is worth about as much as the GDP of Turkey). And what does Tesla do? It produces electric cars. But battery-powered cars are not new. The first one was driven through the streets of Paris by Gustave Trouvé in 1881. Now, 140 years later, everyone is sure that cars and trucks powered by internal combustion engines will soon go the way of lightbulbs powered by hamster wheels.

Then, too, people who know a lot more than we do insist that bitcoin is a superior form of money. It will soon make the other forms – including gold itself – as obsolete as the gas-powered auto, they say. Is that so?

As for face masks… keeping the grandchildren at a six-foot distance… and taking the vaccine as soon as it is available to us… is it only the QAnon people who doubt it?

Done Deal: And who doesn’t know that more “stimulus” will help jump-start the economy? “We should be investing in deficit spending in order to generate economic growth,” says Joe Biden. Borrowing money can help you create a profitable new business. But what are the odds that government boondoggles – carefully dressed by lobbyists and masquerading as capital investment – will yield a positive rate of return?

And what’s ahead for the stock market? Every thirty-something RobinHoodie is absolutely convinced that the Dow is headed for 50,000… thanks to tech breakthroughs and the feds’ support. They’ve priced stocks today as if the future were a done deal… as if Tesla had sold a car – at a profit – to everyone on the planet with a driver’s license.

Worth Listening To: And now, in the latest step towards a glorious future, the owners of America’s most important communication channels – Facebook, Twitter, et al. – have decided to exclude the president of the United States. For all his obvious faults and failings, Donald Trump nevertheless speaks for a sizable portion of the U.S. population. Will the silencing of the Trumpistas by a few Silicon Valley billionaires really lead to peace, harmony, and prosperity? And what other “bad” ideas should be censored?

We bring this up just to remind readers that, sometimes, people you don’t want to listen to – the Cassandras in the story of the Trojan Horse – are worth hearing out. Sometimes, there really are Greeks hiding in the Trojan’s horse. Sometimes, the wonders of the future – like the flying cars we imagined in 1960 – never show up. Stock markets go down as well as up… all paper money eventually goes back to its intrinsic value (zero)… and all empires decline, sooner or later. And sometimes, you need the old-school, grumpy-pants conservatives to remind you. We suspect that this is one of those times."

- www.rogueeconomics.com

The Daily "Near You?"

Waconia, Minnesota, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

The Poet: Derek Mahon, "Everything Is Going to Be All Right"

"Everything Is Going to Be All Right"

"How should I not be glad to contemplate

the clouds clearing beyond the dormer window

and a high tide reflected on the ceiling?

There will be dying, there will be dying,

but there is no need to go into that.

The poems flow from the hand unbidden

and the hidden source is the watchful heart.

The sun rises in spite of everything

and the far cities are beautiful and bright.

I lie here in a riot of sunlight

watching the day break and the clouds flying.

Everything is going to be all right."

~ Derek Mahon,

"Collected Poems"

"The Courage To Continue..."

 

"Without Freedom Of Speech, What Is Going To Happen To America?"

"Without Freedom Of Speech, 

What Is Going To Happen To America?"

by Michael Snyder

"It is quite ironic that many of those that are always telling us that we need “diversity” in our society are also some of the strongest voices against a “diversity of viewpoints” on social media. The founders of this nation wanted to make sure that nobody would ever take the right to freedom of speech away from us, and that is why it was enshrined in the Bill of Rights. Unfortunately, courts have greatly eroded that right over the last several decades, and now we are facing an all-out assault on freedom of speech that is unlike anything that we have ever seen before. And once freedom of speech is completely gone, all of our other rights will soon follow, because there will no longer be any way to defend them.

When the United States was established, government was really the only major threat to free speech. In early America, corporations were severely limited in size and scope, and that is because our founders were determined not to let them get too big or too powerful. Our founders knew that enormous concentrations of money and power would be great threats to freedom, and that has definitely turned out to be the case.

In the old days, if you wanted to express yourself you could grab a soapbox and head down to a local street corner. The reason why we use the term “marketplace of ideas” today is because people literally used to gather in marketplaces and town squares and exchange ideas with one another.

In our time, the Internet has become the place where we all gather to exchange ideas, but unfortunately control of all of the most important gathering spaces is in the hands of a very small group of colossal tech corporations. When Facebook, Twitter and others were first growing, they generally allowed people to say pretty much what they wanted to say, and information flowed pretty freely. But censorship has escalated dramatically over the past four years, and it reached a crescendo the other day when Twitter announced that it would be permanently suspending President Trump’s account.

How would our founders feel about that? Tech giants such as Facebook and Twitter now have more money than many entire countries do, and in many ways they also have the same level of power that many national governments possess. Just think about this – President Trump could never take away your ability to express yourself, but Facebook and Twitter can.

Of course big corporations dominate just about every other aspect of our society as well. These collectivist institutions have become extremely dangerous, and they are really starting to throw their weight around. Until the power of the big corporations is addressed, we will never have a truly free society again. Just like leftist governments, big corporations seek to gather as much money and as much power under a single umbrella as possible.

Our founders wanted to empower the individual, and that is why they wanted to limit the size of government and that is why they also wanted to limit the size of corporations.

Sadly, it wasn’t just President Trump that got booted off Twitter in recent days. Hordes of conservative accounts have been wiped out, and this has led many to use the word “purge” to describe what has been happening. On my Twitter account, I have literally lost more than a thousand followers in just a few days. Others have lost a lot more.

Many conservatives have been fleeing to Parler, but over the past several days the big tech giants teamed up to take that entire platform down… "Parler will likely go offline for “a while” Sunday evening given Amazon Web Services’ decision to suspend the upstart social media platform after Wednesday’s U.S. Capitol riot, executives said Sunday. “We are clearly being singled out,” Chief Policy Officer Amy Peikoff told “Fox & Friends Weekend” one day after Apple suspended Parler from its App Store even as it surged to the No. 1 spot in the free apps section earlier in the day."

I was absolutely stunned when I heard that had happened. These people are not playing games. For the moment, Gab.com is still up, and their traffic has surged more than 750 percent in just the last few days… "Gab.com, the free speech friendly social network, says traffic has increased by more than 750 percent in the past few days, following the blacklisting of President Donald Trump from most mainstream tech platforms. “Our traffic is up 753% in the past 24 hours. Tens of millions of visits,” said Gab in response to a question about slow loading speeds."

But how long will it be before Gab is taken down as well? The big tech companies don’t want diversity, they don’t want competition and they don’t want dissent. What they want is complete and total domination. Cancel culture is not good for our society. If everyone with viewpoints that are not “politically correct” is eventually “canceled” we will have a society that looks a whole lot like communist China. And I suppose that is precisely what a lot of people out there truly want.

It is not always easy to listen to viewpoints that you consider to be offensive. Personally, I do not like most of what my fellow citizens are saying in 2021. But in the United States we are not supposed to silence opposing viewpoints that we do not like. Instead, we are supposed to strive for victory in the marketplace of ideas by showing that our viewpoints are better.

Unfortunately, the big tech companies have decided that millions of Americans should no longer be allowed to participate in the marketplace of ideas because their viewpoints are just too offensive. Ironically, many of those that are doing the censoring have the most offensive and the most dangerous viewpoints of all.

Needless to say, if we stay on the path that we are currently on there is no future for America. Without free speech, the system of government that our founders established simply won’t work. What is the point of even having elections if we can only express one point of view?

In China, no dissent is allowed and one political party runs everything on a permanent basis. America appears to be heading in the same direction, and there are millions of people in this country that are actually quite thrilled that this is happening."

- http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

○

"Only Barbarians..."

“Only barbarians are not curious about where they come from, 

how they came to be where they are, where they appear to be going, 

whether they wish to go there, and if so, why, and if not, why not.”

- Isaiah Berlin

"Economic Market Snapshot PM 1/12/21"

"Economic Market Snapshot PM 1/12/21"

○

"Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will

do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone."

- John Maynard Keynes

○

"Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...

Only the consequences are real - to you!

○

Gregory Mannarino, AM 1/12/21:

"Important Updates:

 Market, Bitcoin, Crypto, Stocks, Plus a WARNING"

- https://traderschoice.net/

○

"The more I see of the monied classes, 

the better I understand the guillotine."

- George Bernard Shaw

○

MarketWatch Market Summary, Live Updates

- https://www.marketwatch.com/tools/marketsummary

CNN Market Data:

- https://money.cnn.com/data/markets/

CNN Fear And Greed Index:

- https://money.cnn.com/data/fear-and-greed/

○

A comprehensive, essential daily read.

- http://www.shadowstats.com/

Daily Updates, Jan 11th to 13th

○

Daily Job Cuts

- https://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

○

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

○

- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

○

- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

○

- https://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

○

- https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

○
Commentary, highly recommended:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

○

And now, the End Game...

"How It Really Is"

 

"The Worst Part..."

"People cry not because they're weak.

 It's because they've been strong too long." 

~ Johnny Depp

"For Many Great Deeds..."

"For many great deeds are accomplished in times of squalid struggle. There is a kind of stubborn, unrecognized courage which in the lowest depths tenaciously resists the pressures of necessity and ill-doing; there are noble and obscure triumphs observed by no one, unacclaimed by any fanfare. Hardship, loneliness, and penury are a battlefield which has its own heroes, sometimes greater than those lauded in history. Strong and rare characters are thus created; poverty nearly always a foster-mother, may become a true mother, distress may be the nursemaid of pride, and misfortune the milk that nourishes great spirits."

- Victor Hugo

Musical Interlude: Peder B. Helland, "Dance of Life"

  

Peder B. Helland, "Dance of Life"

Fantasy music for relaxation and meditation.

Absolutely beautiful!

Be kind to yourself, relax, and savor this at full screen!

"A Stock Market Crash Of 80% This Year?"

"A Stock Market Crash Of 80% This Year?"

by Epic Economist

"The entire U.S. economy is crumbling, but stock markets are still recording a frenetic bull run led by investors' euphoria surrounding tech stocks. However, massively overvalued tech stock prices are forming a bubble much like the dot-com bubble of the 1990s, and we all know how things ended up back then. Several experts are alerting to the unsustainability of the markets, especially since these extraordinary prices are backed on delusional projections for the upcoming performance of our struggling economy. A stock market crash is looming, and strategists say stocks might be headed to a crash of crash of 65-80% by the end of this year, a collapse just as sharp as the previous housing bubble burst. That's what we're going to investigate in this video.

In all of our history stock prices have never been so disassociated from our economy. The year just started and the Russell 2000 index already went up over 6%. The only other year it rose more than 6% only at the beginning of January was in 1987. Then, it skyrocketed an additional 23%, and it crashed a little later in the year. We could easily witness a massive crash in 2021. However, it's even more likely that we wee this happen in the Nasdaq 100 than the small cap index due to high large cap growth valuations. 

The Oxford Economics recovery tracker index has taken a turn for the worse in the past few weeks with the Pacific registering the lowest performance. The stimulus money for unemployment benefits is expected to last for 11 weeks, but roughly 12 million Americans are still out of their jobs and it's highly unlikely all of them will find work by the end of this period. Therefore, another stimulus bill will be necessary to assist these people again, that is to say, soon enough more artificial money will be launched into the system.

Meanwhile, completely disregarding what is coming next for the economy, the Nasdaq 100 is being flooded by investor euphoria, particularly on the large cap growth segment of tech stocks. But the names that are mentioned the most are from money losing tech firms. That's why the strategists affirm that now is possibly one of the worst times ever to be searching for the next great tech stock. There's over $1 trillion worth of tech stocks with negative earnings. 

But investors seem to keep ignoring the real data and falling into the mainstream media trap of an untouchable market led by a fresh set of hot stocks. A burning news everyone seems to be talking about is the fact that Elon Musk became the richest man in the world, surpassing Jeff Bezos of Amazon. But what many fail to understand is that usually, when these types of landmarks happen, it’s a sign that speculation in the markets has gone way too far.

Another landmark was that Tesla stocks went almost vertical and its market cap surpassed Facebook’s, which made Tesla the 5th largest company in the United States. During the peak of the 1990s dot-com bubble, in March 2000, Cisco had a market cap of $569 billion. Adjusting this figure according to the current inflation, Cisco’s market cap peak in today’s dollars would be approximately $864.9 billion. This indicates that at $836.5 billion, Tesla is closing in on Cisco’s peak. 

These are very similar bubbles, and keeping in mind that the health crisis doesn't have a clear end in sight, and as long as the economy remains impaired more stimulus relief will be issued to boost it, this time around, the bubble can get even larger, which means the crash would be much deeper.  Worried about a downfall with similar proportions to the previous housing bubble burst, Michael Burry, the investor whose billion-dollar bet against the US housing market was immortalized in Michael Lewis' book "The Big Short," is warning that Tesla stocks might crash in the same fashion. "Well, my last Big Short got bigger and bigger and BIGGER too," Burry tweeted last Thursday. 

Likewise, macro strategist David Hunter is predicting a massive melt-up in financial assets. Hunter's perception is remarkably aggressive, he forecasts that a 65-80% crash in prices may happen by the end of the year. However extreme it may seem, historic patterns and current evidences seem to be on his side. 

Every time excessive debt has enabled market assets to distort to unsustainably excessive heights, a dramatic correction to clear out the bad debt and malinvestment has always occurred. In short, we are moving towards the most dramatic correction ever recorded. And when this stock market bubble finally bursts, it will be catastrophic."

- https://www.youtube.com/

“Something Evil This Way Comes; You Can Run But You Won’t Hide; This Ends Badly; Wealth Destruction”

Jeremiah Babe,

“Something Evil This Way Comes; You Can Run But You Won’t Hide;

This Ends Badly; Wealth Destruction”

"What Leftists Think About Free Speech"

JP Sears,

"What Leftists Think About Free Speech"

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"The Social Reward for Being Afraid is High. 

But Bravery Please!"

by JP Sears

"WOW! When the world is on fire, what do you do? Probably start with staying out of the fire. (Great obvious advice, isn't it?) I don't know about you, but the past few days I've felt every emotion there is to feel. I think my body even invented some new ones and felt those.

What has my being engaged the most is the unprecedented assault on free speech being carried out by big tech. In my humble opinion, contrary to what the rage mob says and how the media spins it, I believe free speech is not a political issue. It is a human issue.

I freaking love humanity. I love hearing what people have to say. When I don't like what people have to say, I still love that they have the right to say it. And I also love that I have the right to turn the other way and stop listening without silencing them by taking away their rights.

Here's something you might not know about me. I don't align with any particular political party. And my only hard fast political view is this: Freedom is good. (And the Earth is awesome.) The past 10 months my comedy has largely morphed into a mission of upholding freedom. I'm deeply humbled to say I've never received so much support, love, and appreciation from around the world.

And something else you might not know, but probably won't surprise you, is I've never been attacked more. Angry comments online don't phase me in the slightest. Yet things have been taken further.

My family and I have received death threats.

Sponsors have dropped me (on private phone calls they share that they love the messaging, yet don't wanna deal with the rage mobs attacking them because they're associated with me).

There are organized rage mobs actively trying to get the rest of my sponsors to drop me.

Facebook has demonetized me.

I'm still monetized on YouTube, yet you never know when the next upload could get me demonetized or deplatformed.

But with all these symptoms of people being in an angry state of mind (because they're ultimately scared inside), here is my commitment to you. I WILL NOT STOP serving the mission of upholding freedom. Because I think you and I and our children deserve to live in a world where we can have free speech and all other God given freedoms.

Each day I'm putting everything on the line. I'm putting the living I make for my family on the line, simply because it's worth it. I would much rather risk losing everything while serving truth and freedom and have to figure out how to feed my family by picking up cans on the side of the highway than to bow down out of fear and silence myself in order to keep what I've achieved.

I'm not willing to live in the poverty of fear. I'm only willing to live in the riches of bravery. While I'm not perfect, I do my best to be brave every single day during a time when there's never been more social "reward" for succumbing to fear. And I'm guessing bravery speaks to you more than fear does or else you wouldn't be here as an Awakened Warrior insider.

So I deeply want to thank you for standing with me and for something that's greater than all of us put together. Freedom. Alright my Awakened Warrior friend! You'll be hearing from me soon. In the mean time, just know I really appreciate you being connected with me and standing with me. And I hope you do something to make yourself laugh today!"

"Stay weird,"

JP

- https://www.youtube.com/

Podcast: On my latest podcast episode my guest Elliott Hulse and I discuss How to Outsmart the Communist Takeover. If you love communism, don't listen to this episode. Otherwise, you can listen here:

- https://podcasts.apple.com/

Musical Interlude: Ludovico Einaudi, "Lady Labyrinth & Nightbook"

Ludovico Einaudi, "Lady Labyrinth & Nightbook"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"NGC 253 is one of the brightest spiral galaxies visible, but also one of the dustiest. Dubbed the Silver Coin for its appearance in smalltelescopes, it is more formally known as the Sculptor Galaxy for its location within the boundaries of the southern constellation Sculptor. Discovered in 1783 by mathematician and astronomer Caroline Herschel, the dusty island universe lies a mere 10 million light-years away. 

About 70 thousand light-years across, NGC 253, pictured, is the largest member of the Sculptor Group of Galaxies, the nearest to our own Local Group of galaxies. In addition to its spiral dust lanes, tendrils of dust seem to be rising from a galactic disk laced with young star clusters and star forming regions in this sharp color image. The high dust content accompanies frantic star formation, earning NGC 253 the designation of a starburst galaxy. NGC 253 is also known to be a strong source of high-energy x-rays and gamma rays, likely due to massive black holes near the galaxy's center. Take a trip through extragalactic space in this short video flyby of NGC 253."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200414.html