Astronauts say space smells like gunpowder and burnt steak.

It being a vacuum and all, space isn’t often thought of as having a scent of its own. And while no one has directly smelled outer space — exposure without a helmet would be fatal — many astronauts have reported that it smells like a mix of gunpowder and burnt steak. The odor is most noticeable after an astronaut returns to their spacecraft through the airlock and removes their helmet, at which point the lingering scent can be detected by both the astronaut who had been outside the ship and their crewmates who remained aboard.

It’s been theorized that the source of space’s scent is dying stars, which release molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons — a chemical compound also found in coal, oil, and food — as they near the end of their existence. There’s even a colognenamed “Eau de Space” based on the smell, which was originally synthesized by biochemist Steve Pearce at NASA’s behest to better prepare astronauts for every aspect of the job. Based on his interviews with astronauts who had been to space, Pearce described the aroma as “hot metal, burnt meat, burnt cakes, spent gunpowder, and welding of metal.”

Abraham Lincoln Created the Secret Service on the Day He Was Assassinated

On April 14, 1865, just hours before he was tragically shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation creating the Secret Service. At the time, however, the new department’s purpose was not to provide presidential protection — it was to combat counterfeit currency.
By the end of the Civil War, nearly one-third of the U.S. currency in circulation was forged; the Secret Service was founded as a bureau within the Treasury Department to rehabilitate and safeguard the country’s monetary system. The night of Lincoln’s assassination, just one local police officer was assigned to escort the President from the White House to the theater, but the officer’s whereabouts at the time of the shooting are unknown. It was not until after the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901, when Vice President Theodore Roosevelt took over, that the Secret Service’s mandate was expanded to include the protection of the President.

Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

An episode on a show depicted the finding of remains of a family group that killed, the person that had instigated this had also lost their life in the process. This was a find that reaches way back in time as it was determined that the female that was killed was homosapien and the male was neanderthal and they had a daughter. The other person in the mix was homosapien.
As near as can be determined from the evidence presented it was a hate crime. It is known through dna testing that there are people today that still carry both genes into their makeup, so this was not a one of crossing of species, but you have to wonder how many more of those ended in a similar way.
So today we are still seeing hate crimes because of racial bias. Add to that are the additional excuses of religion, lifestyle and even how we choose to see how life should be lived. We know for a fact in this country when slavery was in practice that it was common for slave owners to impregnate slave women. What better way to increase your slave population. The children were very seldom looked upon as anything but slaves.
The persons held in slavery once freed were still characterized as lesser persons. They are not white so that makes them lesser. Then because of a need for labor to build the railroads people from China came to the west coast. Even though they were not slaves they were considered lesser, again because they are not white. The native population also had this brand placed upon them.
We as a nation, have people that have come here from all over the world and many suffer that same fate because of the idea of some that if they are not white they are lesser. On top of that we have a political party that has, in addition to their disdain for all that are not white have decided that they must also subjugate women.
One of their top runners in the coming election has stated that if you are not producing children that you do not have a viable interest in the nation. Then the party of all things better than anyone else, denies access to in vitro fertilization. Does this make sense?
The other observation on this attitude is that if we were not supposed to cross pollinate why was the ability to do so built in? Populations that have been isolated either by circumstance or by design, such as royal families, tend to end up having some physical or mental health problems that come from inbreeding.
On that basis alone it may well be that ultimately we may need to have the cross pollination practice taking place. We are all supposed to have a common ancestor way back when and if that is true what was the cause of all the differences? Also do we know for certain which skin tone that ancestry had or how all the others came about. These are things to consider when the idea to denigrate others for a racial difference is brought up.
As to lifestyle choices this is a matter that is a personal choice and needs to remain just that. If it does not affect you in any other way than to say, that is not for me, then mind your own business and move on. No one told you who to love so don’t tell others who they should or shouldn’t love.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

The 12th Amendment of the Constitution names the vice president of the United States as the president of the Senate. In addition to serving as presiding officer, the vice president has the sole power to break a tie vote in the Senate and formally presides over the receiving and counting of electoral ballots cast in presidential elections.

Essentially the VP is a place holder but everyone wants to complain about what the VP has or hasn’t accomplished, well at least with Harris, no one cared what Pence did, what Cheney did (although he did a lot of damage ) no one asked Biden what he accomplished as Obamas VP. Anyone remember any VPs or could you name VPs that accented to the Presidency? In more recent history the only 2 VPs elected to the presidency were Bush Senior and Nixon all the other VPs that became the President were due to assassination of death of the sitting President.

My proposal is that the VP actually presides as the President of the Senate, they set the agenda and can actually push the Presidents mission that way as voters we can literally see what the VP has or hasn’t accomplished. If Biden had been acting as President of the Senate much more of Obama agenda would have come to a vote, conversely if Pence was in that role more of Trumps agenda would have been seen, (although Trumps only agenda was to fleece the government)… Good or bad if the VP wasn’t just a place holder ceremonial role the sitting administration would be able to accomplish more of their promises.

Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

This election is becoming exhausting. The polls that are being run, always looking for the edge to be on your side. The ever present blurbs from Trump claiming how good he is and how bad everyone that is not on his team is. Our nation is in the worst shape it has ever been in, and so on because he is not running it. When did we become a one man show?
Democracy is in trouble because of this one man. Somehow he has convinced members of one political party that he is the savior of the nation. His real role is to destroy the nation for personal gain. He has assistance from some elected people that continue to spout crap about this and that and do little else that they were elected to do. They must be totally brain dead and those closest to them must fear for their lives if they point out that being an idiot will get you nowhere.
The need to pull back from the edge of disaster is the action we need to take today. The direction that the right is attempting to steer us will not be beneficial to the majority of the people, and probably not too good for the promoters either. All the issues from censuring what books to read to individual health matters are on the table for the righteous to tell us all how we must live. After all they are the holders of the keys to salvation and the order and we don’t what to offend these self appointed deities, now do we?.
The answer to that is quite bluntly, yes we do. No one gives them, no matter how rich or holy they feel they have no right to interfere in everyone else’s lives. The high and mighty like to believe they have been endowed with super knowledge that allows them to make decisions for the rest of us and that we are to humbly follow.
Another star on the pole of people that should butt out is the Pope. He is claiming that we have only two issues to consider to make our selection for President. His advice is to pick the lesser of the evil and go with that. His issues, abortion, and immigration, nothing else matters as this is the teachings of the church, and we know we cannot go against the teachings. What a bunch of bull shit, the issues go much further than his narrow view. We have a felon running for office. A man with no moral character. He is a fraud and a liar, as well as a thief and a rapist, just because he is against immigration is what makes him bad in the eyes of the church. The other candidate is female, strikes one for being in charge, and she is in favor of abortion, which goes against the church’s doctrine.
Although he did not mention the female portion in his comment it is well known that the Catholic Church does not promote women being leaders at any level. So what are we to do with the advice, ignore it as that man, as important as he thinks he is, is just another man with access to the media to voice his opinion.
If we are to base everything we do on the directions given by religious groups then we might as well go back to living in caves and herding sheep. Every moment of your life and every ounce of your energy is supposed to be directed to the glory of God, Allah or whomever has the title of deity. That is not a step forward, it leaps backwards into subservience and poverty as all your efforts will go to building more spectacular places of worship.
Let’s move forward in democracy and put our wellbeing and that of our neighbors ahead of secondary causes.

Captain Morgan was a real person.

Today Captain Morgan is one of the world’s most well-known buccaneers — not for the Welshman’s very real 17th-century exploits (of which there were many), but because of the spiced rum bottles that bear his name. History knows him as Sir Henry Morgan, lieutenant governor of Jamaica and arguably the most infamous buccaneer who ever lived. In the 17th and 18th centuries, buccaneers were a distinct flavor of privateer (sort of a legal pirate), usually bankrolled by the English, who harassed the Spanish Empire in the Caribbean. 

Morgan first arrived in the Caribbean around 1654, and became captain of a privateer vessel eight years later. Soon, he was plundering Spanish colonies in the Caribbean with support from the English crown. Morgan proved so adept at the trade that he amassed a great fortune, established sugar plantations in Jamaica, and by the decade’s end, had 36 ships and around 1,800 men under his command. Then, in 1671, Morgan attacked Spanish-held Panama City, not knowing that England had signed a treaty with Spain a year earlier. To appease the enraged Spanish, England arrested Morgan and sent him to London, but he received a hero’s welcome there, with King Charles II knighting him in 1674. Morgan soon returned to Jamaica, where he lived out the rest of his days. Even before his death in 1688, published stories detailed Morgan’s buccaneering career. Around 250 years later, in 1944, a distiller named Seagram’s bought a spiced rum recipe from a Jamaican pharmacy. The infamous Captain Morgan seemed a fitting namesake for the Caribbean-born liquor.

Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

The people that foretell the future are on the hot seat to tell us how this election is going to turn out. I am pleased that most of what I hear is that Trump loses, and that is a good thing. Have not heard what the pundits think will happen in that event. Have seen that the base is already primed to storm his highness back into the White House. With luck it will be the big house instead along with those that are stupid enough to get sucked into such a confrontation.
There may be a fair number of people that will vote for Trump, but of those what percent will willingly take up arms to fight for him? The best analogy I have of that fight is the flee with a hardon climbing the elephants leg with rape on his mind. It just does not make sense to get into that kind of situation. The possibility of being wounded or killed, or later going to prison for a cause that will not succeed. No matter what happens Trump will not accept responsibility if it fails and should it be successful he will take all the credit. The people that fought for him will still not count.
If this should result in a civil war, when it is over and the result is a major loss for Trump, there should be a reckoning for all those that have incited and supported this effort. The money men should have their assets seized and broken up. The first Civil War cost Robert E Lee his home and lands, and he was not the only one that ended the war with nothing. That may sound punitive but when a collective of like minded people conspire to change things to suit themselves and they lose, they lose everything. It is usually called a gang and we are not usually friendly to gangs.
This effort to put Trump back in the WH is just that kind of effort, the very wealthy and the very righteous, neither of which gives a crap about anything but their own point of view. As I stated before’ these groups think they are going to control the puppet they are currently running and they are not taking into account that the people he admires most are the worst of the current leaders of other nations. They are already in control of the puppet and he will do as they wish so that he can receive favor from them, never mind the local talent of conspirators.
Does this mean that we should all rush out and buy guns? That would please the NRA and the 2nd Amendment advocates, but it will only make matters worse. This country already has too many people carrying guns, as proof of all the shootings that occur at least weekly. How will the war be managed? If it is anything like everything else Donnie does, it will not be managed, it will be chaos as usual. The battle will be held where they are supporting him and that will be the size of it.
If those that are supportive in name only start to feel like they are being backed into a corner, then most will probably decide that being singled out is not where they want to be. Bitching is one thing, ending up in fights is something else.

Four days of the week are named after Norse gods.

WORLD HISTORY

E ach week, whether we know it or not, we pay a small tribute to several gods from the ancient Norse pantheon. In fact, four days of the week are named after deities from Norse mythology. Tuesday comes from Tyr, the Norse god of war, while Wednesday is named after Odin , a powerful deity who was the father of many other Norse gods and ruled over Valhalla, the hall of slain warriors (the name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word “Wodnesdaeg,” meaning “Woden’s day”). Thursday’s namesake is Thor, the Norse god of Thunder, and Friday is named for Frigg, the wife of Odin and the Norse goddess of marriage and fertility.

The presence of Norse mythology in our days of the week is due to the historical connection between the English and Old Norse languages. In the eighth century CE, the British Isles were invaded by Viking tribes from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, all of whom spoke Old Norse. As a result, many words in the English language are descended from Old Norse. The Vikings adopted the Roman custom of naming the days of the week after gods, but replaced the Latin deities with gods from their own mythology. The Old Norse names of Tyr, Odin, Thor, and Frigg evolved over time to become the weekdays we use in modern English today.