2024-09-15

FBI: Trump target of apparent assassination attempt in Florida | AP News

Why The US South Is Insanely Religious

2024 Pennsylvania: Trump vs. Harris | RealClearPolling

I have been saying that Pennsylvania will decide the election.  Most of the other states are solid enough that it is going to come down to Pennsylvania, which is super close.  

The vast majority have already made up their minds, so a small percentage in one state could decide the national election.  The result may depend upon turnout.


The Bloomberg poll appears to be an outlier from the other polls.  It appears to exaggerate the Democrat advantage and was way off in the last two elections.  If I were to cut the Bloomberg margin for Harris in half, I get an average poll result of 0.1% for Trump.  Otherwise, Harris is ahead by 0.1%.  The bottom line is that the state is too close to call.  (Rumor has it that the Harris campaign is worried about Pennsylvania, but the Trump campaign should be worried too.)

Early voting in Pennsylvania was supposed to start tomorrow but has been delayed by court challenges by 3rd party candidates.

Why Japanese People Are Not Obese Like People In The US?


I assume that it is not just "healthy" food but the quantity of food that people like to eat.  Americans love to overeat.  I think that eating out is the cause of obesity because it is not only junk food but the large portion sizes.

I wonder if buffets are an American-only phenomenon?

Watch "Lithium is dangerous"

On Sun, Sep 15, 2024 at 12:10 AM Albert wrote:
When these batteries die, get rid of them immediately, Here's why.



I knew pure sodium is super reactive with just about everything, especially water, and can explode.  I didn't know that about Lithium.  They both produce hydrogen gas when they react with water.  Lithium, Sodium, and Potassium are all on the first column of the period table, meaning they have similar chemical properties.

Sodium Chloride and Potassium Chloride are very safe.  I buy "Lite Salt" which has 50% of each.

Most batteries you would buy in the store are alkaline, containing potassium hydroxide, which is not so reactive but corrosive.

Rechargeable batteries use Lithium-ion.  

Lithium carbonate in small quantities can be used as an anti-depressant.

How I See Germany After Living in the USA for 8 Years

2024-09-14

The London Tidal Wave

My Unthinkable Mission on 9/11 To Bring Down Flight 93

Churchill

Lately, I have been seeing people who are Hitler Apologists, claiming that Hitler didn't want war with Britain and that Winston Churchill was a warmonger who started World War II by declaring war on Germany.   A YouTuber, "Zoomer Historian" has made many videos with this distorted view of history.

Had Hitler only invaded Austria, which Germany might have had a historic claim to, he might have been just a footnote in history.  But then he invaded Czechoslovakia claiming that he only wanted a part of the country, the Sudetenland, which was ethnically German.  Hitler made an agreement with Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister, that he would renounce any claim to the rest of Czechoslovakia.  However, Hitler violated the agreement and took the rest of Czechoslovakia.  Had Hitler stopped there, he once again might have been just a footnote in history.  However, he invaded Poland, claiming that he only wanted one city that was ethnically German.  He took the whole country anyway.  Britain and France had made promises to Poland to help protect the country.  They warned Hitler that if he invaded Poland they would declare war, but Hitler didn't believe them.  After the invasion they declared war and World War II started.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGTnXcBPnn0&t=1484s

Trump is winning. October Surprise.

2024-09-10

Reasons Why American Breakfasts Are the Way They Are

HISTORICAL PHOTOS

Surprising Facts You Didn't Realize

Bet NO ONE told you this about Canola Oil

The actual science of the "industrial seed oil" panic

Is salt actually bad for you? Why do some people like salt way more than others do?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy2ncip_ILA&t=4599s

The first hour of this video gets deep into the science and is also interesting.

What is sugar? 'Added' sugar? 'Natural' sugar?

The Asterisk on Kamala Harris’s Poll Numbers - The Atlantic

How did the polls get worse from 2016 to 2020, with everyone watching? In the aftermath of Trump's surprise 2016 victory, the public-opinion-research industry concluded that the problem was educational polarization. If pollsters had made a point of including enough white people without college degrees in their samples, they wouldn't have underestimated Trump so badly. During the 2020 cycle, they focused on correcting that mistake.


It didn't work. Even though polls in 2020 included more white non-college-educated voters, they turned out to be disproportionately the white non-college-educated voters who preferred Biden. The new consensus is that Republican voters are less likely to respond to polls in the first place.

The plot to stop Donald Trump thickens


In vino veritas.

Public Polling Has It All Wrong (Again) - by Mark Harris | ColdSpark

With Kamala Harris as the nominee, politically engaged, wealthy, educated, white voters are taking up too many spots in the Democratic quotas, pushing out downscale, lower-turnout Democrats who are much more likely to be undecided or Trump voters. Whereas a college-educated Democrat might be 95% for Harris, a non-college one might be 88%. That seven-point gap matters and is not reflected in public polling. 

Don't take just my word for it. POLITICO reported that even Democratic pollsters are admitting their internal (read expensive) surveys are much less optimistic than public polling, and they are also worried about this blue mirage.

Why Americans Eat Dessert for Breakfast

2024-09-07

Does the Erucic Acid Level Make Canola Oil Unsafe?

I have looked at many articles. The vast majority say that Canola Oil is safe in moderation.

Most of the oils in Canola Oil are healthy, but Canola Oil also contains Erucic Acid.   Erucic Acid is toxic (to heart health) so it seems to me that it would be better not to consume any.  However, the exact amount of Erucic Acid in Canola Oil is unclear.  Almost all sources claim that the Euric Acid level is 2% or less by law, although the article below says that it is barely detectable, only around 0.01% in Canadian-made Canola Oil.
 
Although the government classifies Canola Oil as safe, the recommended safe level of Erucic Acid is about 7 mg per kilogram of body weight.  For me, that would be about 3/4 of a gram.

"For reference, 1 tablespoon of canola oil can contain a maximum of 280 mg of erucic acid. This means a person who weighs 80 kg can have around 2 tbsp of canola oil per day. "

https://www.goodrx.com/well-being/diet-nutrition/is-rapeseed-oil-healthy

The problem is that we don't know if it actually has that much Erucic Acid.  

The same article mentions that Canola Oil has a tiny amount of trans fat.

Two tablespoons isn't that much.  I used to cook popcorn with 2 ounces of Canola Oil.  That is about 4 tablespoons, so I could have exceeded the recommended level of Erucic Acid.

According to this page, the Erucic Acid level in Canola Oil is not 2% but 0.2%.  So that should make Canola Oil safe in moderation.

https://extension.okstate.edu/fact-sheets/canola-oil-properties.html

For several months, I have been using Extra Virgin Olive Oil instead.  It is at least five times more expensive than Canola Oil, but I only use it 2 or 3 times per week.  The cost is not a big issue.

Olive Oil is a key component of the Mediterranean Diet.  Many sources claim that Olive Oil does not have any trans fat.

According to at least a couple of sources, you can use Olive Oil for frying if you don't get it too hot.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PIEamGRnVQ

The smoke point of Canola Oil is 399 degrees Fahrenheit.  Because of this, it is considered heat resistant and good for frying.  The smoke point of Olive Oil varies from 350 to 430 degrees.

If I am being honest, other things in my diet are riskier than Canola Oil.  I need to work on those as well.

2024-09-04

Baking the Original Brownie - The History of Brownies



@john2001plus
7 hours ago
I heard that during medieval times, around holidays like Christmas, parents would make sweet treats they would leave out for their children.  When the children would ask where the treats came from, the parents would respond, "Brownies", which were elves.

12 replies

@atlas4698
6 hours ago
I'm gonna do this if I have kids.


@firstlast1047
6 hours ago
Not a Brownie fan...Too much chocolate. But, thanks for the coherent recipe. I'm not adverse to baking brownies for others.


@user-po3ir2tx5z
5 hours ago (edited)
Interesting... is this the source of Madison Ave's idea for the Keebler Elves?

Timeline of Gaza | 3500 BCE to October 7th, 2023


His conclusions are in my opinion a bit biased.  The Palestinians have had multiple good offers for peace since 1948 and have refused all of them.