We are just over two weeks out from having a new President. But, it’s looking more and more like another Trump Casino as the crucial vote on Mike Johnson comes up today. A preview in Could Trump face another early setback in House speaker’s race? Sets the tone. Or you could roll with Mike Johnson’s speakership to be put to another test in 1st vote of new Congress and get to similar conclusions.
Markets Are a Gamble, Too
Early Futures were calling for an up opening (Dow futures up 56, for example). But as our Aggregate Index view of life offers, yesterdays pre-opening hype was a Bust, so we’re not putting much stock in today’s session, either.
We could – based on some screaming news hype later today – potentially make it back up to one more kiss of the trend line, but not exactly holding our breath. It’s a long way to Monday.
No particular clues from BTC prides; holding around $96,680 when checked a while back. No shortage of hype, though. And with options coming due (Bitcoin & Ethereum Price Outlook Amid $2.6 Billion Options Expiry) someone’s you-know-what’s will be in the vise – which is the whole point, we suppose.
Worth Knowing
Football marches on: New Orleans Preps for Sugar Bowl with Super Bowl-Level Security After Tragedy [WATCH] No surprises in Army Colonel: No Doubt There are Sleeper Cells in USA, to speak of.
Inquiring Pilots want to know: What kind of home-built plane was it? Plane Crash in Fullerton, California, Kills 2 and Injures 19 – The New York Times. The AP was reporting it was a Vans RV-10 which in our view is a solid plane, After looking at Aviation Safety Network > > ASN Aviation Safety Database results RV-10, they still look good. But as with any single engine, maintenance and recurrent pilot training is always key to safe operation.
Everyone has their own Truth, we assume: Truthbombs of 2024: Media Is Over, Antisemitism Is Cool, DEI Is Kaput.
We may have to rethink being hermits: Social connections may boost immunity and reduce disease risk.
The Climate histrionics never end, do they? Already stung by reduced crop estimate, Florida citrus industry now faces polar vortex – UPI.com. We prefer PolarTec, thanks. Out here in the Outback of East Texas there is a mention of snow showers next week about this time. But we don’t call it a voertex. To sane people, it’s “winter.”
Research Points
We’ll bet you were up all night wondering “Why was there Global Cooling in 1831?” Fear not, fellow Inquisitors: Has The Cause of the 1831 Global Cooling Event Been Found?.
Another Alzheimer’s suspect front-and-center? The Link Between Herpes and Alzheimer’s Disease Uncovered. Wait, didn’t we read somewhere:
“A study published in 2021 suggests vitamin B12 deficiency may increase the risk of reactivating the herpes virus in certain cases. B12, one of eight B vitamins, may boost your immune system to keep the herpes virus at bay. It also supports healthy cell growth, which is essential for healing during an active flare-up.”
Might this drive a future change to views in the paper https://www.aging-us.com/article/205788/pdf and similar? Should we be paying attention there?
At the Ranch: On the Two Meanings of AoPR
Here’s a little gift for you – one I didn’t have time to jot down over the holidays.
What is AoPR?
There are two definitions:
- The Art of Personal Routine
- and The Art of Personal Research
Ideally, they should be designed to compliment one-another.
Why a Personal Routine?
We have – as a species – largely detached from Nature’s clocks. The two big ones – Sun and Moon – don’t figure into much of anyone’s life, anymore. Instead, we exist as animals trying to “live to numbers.” Digits; on clocks.
People are often forced by Life to “burn the candle at both ends.” Lack of sleep is a major social ill. Weakens the mind and makes us all less-able to engage in critical thinking. We need about eight-hours of sleep. But because blue light pollution is not under control, we often sail past normal bedtime just to finish watching some streaming program, or other. Which cuts down sleep and continues the marginal sleep-deprivation behavior cluster.
There’s no need on our tree farm to “get up with the Sun.” No need to “slop the pines” or, for that matter “lead the cedars out to pasture.” We aren’t milking chickens, anymore, either. But that doesn’t stop a fierce loyalty to “The Schedule.” Which for me begins at 4 AM daily.
There’s an hour before “reporting to the Chair” in my office, which ticks over at 5 Am. The time is mostly event-driven: first reliable market futures pop at 5 AM Central. Updated weather models are being published. Early editions of the major papers are out, and it’s easy to look at the daily “news budgets” and begin to set expectations about how Humankind will burn the latest Sun cycle. Which will be along shortly.
Our slavish devoting to Time may seem a bit silly as we sneak up on 76-82. I mean, isn’t retirement about “f*ck the clock”, right?
Well, no.
In our moderately fact-based world, Aging and Circadian Rhythms – PMC are tightly correlated. And even night lights can screw up the body’s hormonal cycling and feed into diseases like cancer. A starting point might be Melatonin and cancer risk: does light at night compromise physiologic cancer protection by lowering serum melatonin levels? – PMC.
If you are trying to “live life based on data” there’s a reason to set an alarm clock. Training of self (that incorrigible child) is difficult. But try to remember who the adult is in your personal drama of Life. (Elaine’s mine, lol.)
AoPR II
The second meaning of AoPR is the Art of Personal Research.
That opening hour of Personal Routine is actually jam-packed with getting physical George ready for the daily game. You know I use a combination of “subtle energy light medicine” (The Light Crown and also IR/NIR as part of Thymus recovery, plus eye treatment, foot and hand massages and so forth.)
Thing is, this doesn’t give the Mind much to do other than deep relaxation and a dose of meditation. The closer it gets to Starting Time, the more the mind begins to Question the World. It’s a period where (in a relaxed state) you can ask questions that are normally trashed by the schedule and activities of middle-of-day thought. Noise over-ride effects.
Today, for example, I found myself pondering not just whether plants feel pain (they do, of course). But also, if there has been much research into helping plants cope better with pain and thus prepare to nourish us humans better. Crazy, right?
Well EXCEPT, it’s already known that plants respond to music. But whether the effect is energetic (responding to beats and harmonics) or more closely related to physical vibration is something you’ll perhaps have insights into after a scan of Fact or Myth: Does Music Affect Plant Growth? – Bloomscape.
But this “pain of plants” line of inquiry? Gee, would adding aspirin (diluted, of course) be beneficial to plants? The A.I. answer to this was useful:
“Yes, aspirin can help plants grow:
- Germination: Watering seeds with an aspirin solution can speed up germination and make seedlings stronger and more resistant to disease.
- Plant size and yield: Regular aspirin treatments can help plants grow faster and produce more fruit or vegetables.
- Disease resistance: Aspirin can help plants develop an immune response to disease and pests.
- Cut flower longevity: Adding aspirin to a vase of water can help keep cut flowers fresh.
Aspirin’s active ingredient is acetylsalicylic acid, which is derived from salicylic acid. Plants naturally produce small amounts of salicylic acid when they’re stressed by disease, insect attacks, or lack of water. Aspirin can help plants cope with these stresses by:
- Triggering a plant’s natural defenses against disease
- Causing plants to open pores in their leaves
- Leaking nutrients from their roots
- Growing leaves and sometimes flowers
You can use aspirin to treat plants by:
- Watering seeds with an aspirin solution every three weeks
- Spraying plants with aspirin and then drenching the soil with aspirin”
And this all gets to a final “thought of the week” here.
Putting an aspirin solution (very weak) on plants was something I’d never “gone deep” on before. But with a thoughtful Personal Routine there should always be time to make a note to follow up on any nagging Personal Research questions that enter a relaxed state of mind.
“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got” a dear friend once told me. And so it is with people.
If you expect to have a widely productive life, then you need to “fertilize the noggin” with widely differing information. Failure to do so stunts personal growth.
A Follow-Up Book Note
Routine is also a huge part of our health practices. And one we have been on for a long time now is the addition of a small amount of lithium orotate four times weekly. I covered this in several of my books (not as medical advise, more a Personal Research topic). I’m sure some people thought I was nuts because I came to this after overlaying maps of lithium concentrations in ground water maps of the country and discovered there was an inverse correlation to vascular dementia/Alzheimer’s in the data.
Both Elaine and I carry the APOE-4 genetic allele so our battle plans to maintain mental integrity have been evolving ever since we did the 23andme.com genetics test and found our “holes below the waterline” that we might want to do some patching on in advance.
Longish intro, but it all leads to a “Thank you!” to Reader Hank out on the Big Island at Volcano Ranch for flagging this which floated up to the top of the worth-sharing list today: Make Lithium Great Again: Peer-Reviewed Study Reveals Whole-Body Benefits Of Supplementation | ZeroHedge. The underlying paper (2023 – Beyond its Psychiatric Use: The Benefits of Low-dose Lithium Supplementation – PMC) is a bit dated by our standards.
BUT we are reminded of two things here. The first being that great discernment must be used when tinkering with even low dose levels of lithium orotate. Human brain 7Li-MRI following low-dose lithium dietary supplementation in healthy participants – PubMed.
The second is to give consideration – if you haven’t – to adding trace minerals into your vitamin and supplementation plans (if any). The reason has everything to do with soil depletion and the way we are burning through the invisible (and often unmeasured) declining nutritional values in human foodstuffs.
When you get into it, you may find (as we did) that broad declines in trace elements within soils – including lithium salts – can reduce longevity. Another to keep an eye on is Boron. Effect of dietary boron on the aging process – PMC. Yep, right there in a 1994 fruit fly study is the potential for a 9.5 percent increase in lifespan.
The takeaway from today’s Personal Research is simple. It’s becoming clear that with many of the trace elements, a little (often very, very little) can do great things. But there’s risk for the medically unaware of overdoing things. I talked about why we dropped our DHEA use dramatically, after seeing the risk research on too much of a good thing.
You can set a sense of this optimization curve in that Boron paper, too. This part – emphasis added:
“Newly emerged flies contained 35.5 ppm boron. During the adult stage the boron concentration increased by 52% by 9 weeks of age. Adding excess dietary boron during the adult stage decreased the median life span by 69% at 0.01 M sodium borate and by 21% at 0.001 M sodium borate. Lower concentrations gave small but significant increases in life span. Supplementing a very low boron diet with 0.00025 M sodium borate improved life span by 9.5%.”
Those are very low levels, and while the effects may not translate directly to humans, it’s worth considering the foods high in boron naturally. Avocados, raisins, and apples would be a good start.
None of this is medical advice, of course. Just a few things piling up on my “Research to mention that might be useful list” that I hope you will find useful in attempting to live your Optimized Life, as well.
Ham Radio Help Sought
Help? Ure? Extra class ham and broadcast engineer child Ure?
Yep. Need some help on a research project.
I am looking to build a T2FD antenna. Short for “tilted, terminated, folded dipole” antenna. The reason for the help shout-out is that these antennas typically employ a non-inductive “terminating resistor” opposite the feedpoint.
HOWEVER I found some references to some UK hams who have replaced the non-inductivbe resistor with one (or more) inductors (coils). Does anyone have any additional information on what this net was comprised of? My interest is that this seems to be a clever work-around for the 35 percent rule for terminator resistor power-sizing. Big (read: expensive) noninductive terminating resistors at the 500+ watt level ain’t free – and they are heavy and bulky.
So any help would be appreciated. Question arises because of the G3RKF post at Yaesu YA-30 Folded Dipole review on eHam. “Update 2022. Replaced the terminating resistor with inductors. Still a decent vswr and better QSOs on the low bands. Now using an FTdx10 barefoot – great combination.” But, no details of the specific values involved.
Inquiring minds want to know!
Write when you get rich,
Read the full article here
