Wet Floor Rocket Ship Cone

(Credit Photo: Dannielle Blumenthal)

Wet Floor Rocket Ship Cone

Lets Save Israel Now

 

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "Lets Save Israel Now."

After 17 weeks of virulent protests and plenty of animosity, one has to question whether the hateful politics surrounding judicial reform are bringing us ever closer to a dangerous breaking point. Certainly, all this heart-wrenching conflict of Jew against Jew is leading us down a terrible road of divisiveness, hate, and hurt for our people, country, and future. It is high time to change course and instead work together to solve our problems, mend differences, and unite in our faith as the proud children of the Maccabees against our common enemies.

(Credit Photo: Cottonbro Studio via https://www.pexels.com/photo/bearded-man-folding-the-flag-of-israel-4033953/)

Lets Save Israel Now

If Pharaoh Had AI

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "If Pharaoh Had AI."

From manufacturing to customer service to law enforcement and defense, AI could one day be in the driver’s seat while we are off sunning on some remote beach in the Caribbean. As an example, just imagine a future military in which wars are fought by autonomous drones in the air and sea and killer robots on land, led by a master AI core at the Pentagon in control of all global operations, including our triad of nuclear warheads.

In short, the message for Passover isn’t just the tremendous potential of AI for the good or even the threat it poses of becoming too powerful to control, but what happens when the bad guys (dictators, despots, and megalomaniacs), like the Pharaoh of yesteryear, are dangerously using AI to enslave the world to their vision of hate and contempt for democracy, human rights, and freedom for us all?

(Credit Photo: Ilnur Dulyanov via https://pixabay.com/illustrations/square-soldier-green-red-angry-7871431/)

If Pharaoh Had AI

Tires Overload

Do you think there is room for maybe one or two more? ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Tires Overload

World Is Worse Today

With Russia invading Ukraine.

With China up next to invade Taiwan.

With Iran and North Korea just waiting for their chances at evil. 

With provocations, escalations, and threats of nuclear weapons.

The world is much worse today. 

Peace is shattered.

There is no telling when or how this will all end. 

(Credit Photo; Andy Blumenthal)

World Is Worse Today

Anyone Missing A Leg?

That's some museum exhibit!

Wonder if the owner of the leg is on the other side of that wall? 

What was this artist thinking?  

Hopefully just to sensitize us to people's health, disabilities, and plights, so we can be more compassionate and caring people!  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Anyone Missing A Leg?

U.S. Misses The Boat on Hypersonic Missiles

It's great to be able to fight the old conventional ways. 

But the U.S. spends more than the next top 11 countries combined on defense. 

Yet, we have failed miserably at the next BIG thing in defense: hypersonic weapons!

Both China and Russia have hypersonic weapons ready to use on us.

China even claims they can use they can use their hypersonic missiles with heat seeking technology to destroy our most advanced fighter aircraft the F-35 and F-22.  

Yet as recently as November, the 3rd of the U.S. Air Force's hypersonic missile tests failed!  

Now at best, the U.S. Navy is hoping to be able to perhaps deploy hypersonic weapons by 2025-2028.

In the meantime, the U.S. is vulnerable to its adversaries at a time when Russia and China are rearing their militaries for confrontations in Ukraine and Taiwan, respectively.

And that could be only the beginning, if we don't get our military R&D together and fast. 

How could this happen with all the money we spend on defense?

Eyes wide shut like Pearl Harbor and 9/11 all over again!  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

U.S. Misses The Boat on Hypersonic Missiles

A Perfect Biowarfare Attack!

**WARNING.  WARNING.  WARNING**

So how would you conduct a biowarfare attack?

You wouldn't want to release a full-scale deadly pathogen, because then you would endanger your own population as well as your adversary. 

But instead, you release a pathogen (like Coronavirus) that is just deadly and contagious enough to cause a worldwide panic, shutting down countries and economies and threatening to overwhelm hospitals and emergency responders.

Then you would watch patiently as vaccines are developed that everyone would need to get to resume their lives and jobs. Of course, the vaccines get rushed through development, approval, and distribution in order to calm the fearful and disenfranchised populace. 

And here is where you would have your adversaries by their you know what, because if your agents can then infiltrate the vulnerabilities of the overwhelmed and unprepared, civilian pharmaceutical companies, their supply chains, or distribution networks during the emergency, and contaminate the vaccines with a really lethal pathogen, you would ensure that all your adversaries are eliminated (from their leadership on down to the blue collar workers in society), while your own population (which wouldn't get those vaccines from abroad) would be absolutely fine. 

Maybe even the first dose is intentionally passed through okay to lull the population and its leadership into the trap, but then the follow-on doses are tainted once the flies are already in the spider's web. 

Your adversaries are now sick and/or dead, but their countries and infrastructure are fully functioning and in place for you to take as spoils. 

World domination, it can happen as plain and simple as this.

Look around you at what's happening in our times. Mad men or genius, but this is more than any science fiction could offer.  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Pixabay)

A Perfect Biowarfare Attack!

Watch Where You Stick Your Nose

This was an interesting sign:

We love it when you stick you nose in our business...

Gee, I sure hope this isn't referring to a manure business.  LOL

In short, be careful into what stink you stick you nose in or know when to mind your own business!  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Watch Where You Stick Your Nose

Wash Hands, Don't Touch Face

Everyone seems to be talking and concerned about the coronavirus.

Today, one of the people that clean the office told me to be careful and said:

Wash hands. Don't touch face!

Someone also questioned where fundamentally did this new killer virus come from:

Is this new virus really from eating exotic animals like they say or is it really something that escaped from a Chinese biological laboratory?

Since we are dealing with an origin of the virus that is from a Communist county that represses freedom of information, the Wall Street Journal raised doubts about the information we are getting:

As the outbreak was already under way, the local government did what Communist governments always do: cover up...[and even] China's president cannot trust the information he is getting. The lack of trust mean he must make decisions in the dark. No institution can function effectively this way.

With coronavirus more contagious than even SARS or MERS, perhaps the most important immediate questions is how far and deep will it spread?

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Wash Hands, Don't Touch Face

Growing Fears Of Coronavirus

As the coronavirus continues to infect more and more people, the fear is continuing to grow.

Today, Apple announced that the outbreak will imagine their sales. 

And I read yesterday that airlines, even Israeli El Al, is warning of the impact. 

But how you know that the people, as individuals, are getting seriously worried are by the level of precautions they are starting to take.

These include: canceling travel arrangements, wearing (antiviral) face masks and latex gloves, and ever more frequent hand-washing and use of hand sanitizers. 

The picture here shows a couple of ladies waiting on line for some gelato at the airport, and they have masks over their faces and this is in the Holy Land, and not even where the outbreak is in China!

I hear official figures of 70,000+ infected and 1,800 dead, but on the street people are saying these are grossly understated. 

Let us pray that this virus is brought speedily under control, that a cure is found, and that no more people are sickened or killed by it. 

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Growing Fears Of Coronavirus

The Value of Pain

Three notables on the value of pain:

1) Pain is a warning of dangerous threats and helps safeguard us.

2) Pain that doesn't kill us makes us stronger!

3) Pain lets you know you ain't dead yet.

Then again, nothing wrong with a little pain relief. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

The Value of Pain

Things Look Different Up Close

So this was interesting. 

I was coming up the highway. 

In the distance, there looked like there was a large tractor-trailer heading towards me.

I had to take a double take, because this truck was on my side of the divider...Oh shit!

It was only as I got closer that I could see that the truck was really being towed in reverse by a tow truck. 

Yes, "seeing is believing!"

This is a lesson in life:

Things may look one way from a distance, and very different up close. 

Sometimes, my wife tells me:

"Andy, don't look too close!" lol

But the truth is that you may not really see what you heading towards until it's right in front of your eyes.

So it's important to look out over the horizon and study what is coming your way. 

But don't take your eye off the ball (or Mack Truck as it may be). 

Things can change your perspective the closer you get to it. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Things Look Different Up Close

Fight or Flight

So I learned this interesting thing about the Fight or Flight response.

Fight or flight is not just physically fighting or fleeing, but it has a much more diverse set of responses involved to perceived life-threatening events. 

Fighting (turning towards the threat)
1. Physical fighting (Protect yourself with force)
2. Non-physical aggression
- Criticism (e.g. Attacking personality or character)
- Contempt (e.g. Attacking sense of self-worth with sarcasm, shaming, insults, eye-rolling, and sneering)

Flight (turning away from danger)
1. Physical fleeing (e.g. Run/hide)
2. Non-physical withdrawal
- Defensiveness (e.g. Deflecting the attack with excuses, disagreement, counter-arguments, or blaming)
- Stonewalling (e.g. Conveying disapproval or disconnection, stop participating, change the subject, or giving the cold shoulder or silent treatment)

When you recognize that not all issues are life-threatening, then you can lower the intensity of the "Amygdala Hijack" in terms of fight or flight and instead work towards developing mutual understanding, trust, respect, and shared goals and solutions. 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal and attribution of content to Dr. Britt Andreatta)

Fight or Flight

Hammer and Nail

Often, we have a one size fits all orientation to life. 

"To a hammer, everything looks like a nail."

We try to solve fresh daily problems, yet everything we are going through is seen through our preset filters and mindsets. 

In many cases, we are simply and undeniably biased, mistakenly believing that what worked in the past or for particular challenges will always work in the future and for all our problems. 

We stereotype people and races and see them as either "the good guys" or "the bad guys"--but there's no grey in there to further differentiate.  

Also, we work in a comfortable zone of blind routine thinking that we wish it's all as simple as wash, rinse, and repeat.

But while some die-hard habits and lessons learned in life are very valuable and should be mentally recorded and referenced, seeing life through a single, or even a few handy-dandy, filters can prove disastrous when things or times change. 

For example, one big criticism of our dealing in Washington is that:

"Politicians, like generals, have a tendency to fight the last war."

Instead, if we evaluate the nuances of each person and particular situation, we can work to get a more detailed evaluation, and potentially be able to fine-tune approaches for what needs to be done, and how, with each and every one, accordingly. 

Chucking a batman belt approach to just using whatever tools are immediately available, can facilitate a broader and more creative approach to problem-solving. 

Sure, to a certain degree, we are creatures of habit--and we intuitively rely on what's worked in the past, and reject and shun what hasn't--but past experiences do not necessarily foretell future successes. 

If we don't stay agile and resilient, we can easily get blown away by the situation or the competition. 

There is always a new challenge to test us and someone coming up who may be better, faster, or stronger that wants to try and take us on or down. 

A shotgun approach, in lieu of a more precise surgical strike, can result in a lot of collateral damage and maybe even missing the mark altogether. 

Think, think, think. 

Focus on what needs to get done--apply lessons learned as applicable, but also look for new sources and methods to build a bigger and more versatile tool chest.

In the walking dead, a hammer to the head works fairly well on all Zombies, but sometimes there are too many zombies in the hoard or even more dangerous living people and situations to attend to. ;-)

(Source Photo: here with attribution to stevepb)

Hammer and Nail

We Broke The Weather

So my friend who lives in FL and recently experienced the crazy hurricanes down there said something very interesting to me. 

This was during the series of numerous recent hurricanes in just a few weeks period of time, including Harvey, IRMA, and Maria that devastated Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico.

He said to me:

"We broke the weather!"

And after decades of warning about the impact of global warming--maybe he is right.

This last September was the most active month for Atlantic hurricanes ever on record. 

Further, we are seeing simultaneously the deadliest wildfires raging in California in its history. 

This only 13 years after the deadliest Tsunami from the Indian Ocean in recorded times killing about a quarter million people!

And only 28 years after the deadliest Tornado occurred in Bangladesh in 1989 that killed 1,300 people.

All these as if the increasing threats of nukes and other weapons of mass destruction and cyberattack weren't enough to keep you up at night.

As we get more sophisticated and technologically dependent, incredible manmade and natural disasters are threatening us superbig time. 

And over and over again, it is being reported that a well-placed EMP explosion over the United States would kill 90% of the population within a year--talk about a extinction level event!

As we experience temperatures15 degree above normal this fall, even the trees are behaving abnormally as the leaves are not changing to colors of yellows and oranges and reds and purples that we expect and enjoy. 

Nature is messed up by our abuse of the planet and nurture is messed up by megalomaniacs with the weapons to do us in. 

If we don't correct the dangerous path we are on polluting our planet and over-relying on technology then soon we could be turning horrible colors even if the leaves just fall to the ground or turn to ash. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

We Broke The Weather

Nuke Fear Turning To Action?

What sane person would not be afraid of the incredibly destructive power of nukes (and other weapons of mass destruction)?

Currently, there are about 15,000 nukes either stockpiled or poised to strike around the world. 

Enough deadly weapons to kill the entire planet!

After a frightening series of 5 nukes tests since 2006 plus 18 technologically progressive ballistic missiles tests over the last 6 months, things are escalating after new sanctions imposed to try to contain the threat--with North Korea rattling it's nuclear arsenal with a shrill threat of attack moving to "physical action" and the U.S. shooting back "fire and fury," 

As to further North Korean mad progress, it was reported that they are developing a powerful new H-bomb with immense destructive power, especially towards our density killing fields:

- If such a weapon would strike, G-d forbid, Washington D.C., it could mean 500,000 dead and another 900,000 injured--let alone what this would mean in terms of a destructive decapitation to the very functioning and continuity of our government and country. 

- Even worse fatalities would occur should it strike our financial capital, New York City, with estimates of 1.7 million dead. 

Hence, the news that this is no joking matter anymore (as if it really ever was). 

Fears typically first get expressed in rhetoric, but then with greater and ever potent means for them to become reality, the risks increase for them to actually make the horrific leap. 

What happens next with the ever menacing dangers from rogue Axis of Evil nations, North Korea and Iran--and will we ever feel and be safe again, absent any meaningful social progress while they continue to absolutely and speedily advance their ever more deadly weapons programs and the means to deliver them, first class. ;-0

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Nuke Fear Turning To Action?

What A Nuclear War Looks Like

Wow, wow, wow!

Great job Hashem Al-Ghaili on this video depicting the implicit horror of nuclear war.

16,000 nuclear weapons...2,000 ready to launch at a moment's notice. 

Wake up world!

It just takes one numbskull to kill it for everybody.

"Few people laughed. 

Few people cried. 

Most people were silent. 

Now I am become death.

The destroyer of worlds." 

We need to pray to G-d and do everything to protect this amazing world and our people for the future. 

There has got to be a tomorrow! ;-)

What A Nuclear War Looks Like

Driverless Cars - New Beginning or Part of The End

Driverless cars are exciting to so many.

But doesn't it also seem so boring?

There is a lot to be said for being the driver and doing the driving. 

We control the destination, trajectory, speed, etc.

Occasionally, there is even time to stop and enjoy the view. 

We've given up on doing or even knowing how to do so many basic things.

Probably 90% plus of us would fail at any sort of basic survival test. 

You can't hunt, you don't know how anything really works, and you don't even have a green thumb.

You'd be dead in under a week or max three. 

The only thing you do know how to do is sit at a desk, push papers, go to meetings, and post endless nonsense on social media--congratulations you're an imbecile!

When Axis of Evil North Korea, Iran, or Russia decide to hit us with an ICBM, EMP, or a massive cyber attack your gonna wish you knew something (anything) real, let alone how to drive a simple automatic. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Driverless Cars - New Beginning or Part of The End

What A Climb!

So I bought one these climbers--this one very colorful--to hang on one of my walls. 

I like the image of climbing and overcoming--with G-d's help--whatever obstacle is in our path.

It's not easy to climb and keep climbing, because the higher you go, the thinner the air, the more tired you get, and the further you have to fall!

But what I also realized about the image of the climber is that if you turn it on it's side, then the same person who is climbing...is now crawling. 

What at times in life can be a beautiful climb up, at other times can be any of us on all fours. 

There is no easy path straight up, although there is definitely one that can go straight down!

Sometimes, we are vertical--living and working hard trying to achieve something. 

And other times, we are horizontal--resting, asleep, or even in a hospital bed fighting for our lives just to survive another moment or day.

When we climb, we may literally be trying to conquer mountains.

But when you crawl, you may literally be on the ground begging for mercy.

Climbing and crawling are really not that far apart in terms about 90 degrees and how quickly change can happen and a person goes from an upward trajectory to a more devastating one. 

Some things to keep in mind...anchor your feet solidly and hold on to that rope tightly and even for dear life. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

What A Climb!