Feeling lucky?

Seven Lucky Gods
(Painting by Hokusai et al.)

Sometimes you just know…

Shortly before scoring bigtime with the North Carolina Education Lottery, Terry McCall was feeling like a winner.  He even assured his son that a “major windfall" was on its way.

Soon after that, McCall purchased a scratch-off ticket from a grocery store along his usual route.  It turned out to be worth $100,000 before taxes.

Back in December, McCall had won another $2,000.  Just  random luck… or perhaps really good karma?

Resources

https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2025/03/10/lotto-north-carolina-education-lottery-predicted win/7931741636521/

Huge Progress

6th-Century Ganesha 
(Photo by Ms Sarah Welch)  

Worshippers in certain parts of India have been thinking BIG for centuries.  Yet now it’s time for even broader ideas, such as replacing live ceremonial elephants with robotic ones.

Elephants are social intelligent beings that do not relish being traumatically imprisoned by well-meaning devotees.  When involuntarily “paraded through packed crowds with flashing lights, thumping drums and ear-splitting music,” some “panicked pachyderms” have been known to kill people.

Encouraged and somewhat funded by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), artisans have begun making elephant robots with eyes that roll, heads that nod, and tails that swish.  Each costs approximately $5,500. These are slowly becoming acceptable within Hindu rituals.

Because compassionate and non-violent ahimsa is such a core element of Hinduism, it seems only natural to thus ensure the well-being of devotees and their elephant companions.

Resources

https://news.yahoo.com/news/model-behaviour-indias-anti-cruelty-030951067.html

Leave it to Beavers

(Photo by Steve)

“Busy as a beaver” just doesn’t cut it with most people, who view these creatures as worth their weight in pelts rather than engineering.

Yet environmentalists have long heralded beavers “for their ability to protect against flooding, improve water quality and boost wildlife.”  Czech officials south of Prague were recently treated to a stellar example of all this. 

While bureaucrats hemmed and hawed over a “long-stalled dam” project, beavers got right to work.  Pretty soon the Klabava River was shielded from toxic flooding, a glorious wetland was created, and a proposed 1.2 million-dollar cost was averted.

Resources

https://news.yahoo.com/news/dam-fine-beavers-save-czech-180852747.html 

Garbage In, Garbage Out

Nara Park'
(Photo by Feri88)

It seems that Japan’s “leave no trace” norm has not caught on with the rest of the world. 

International tourists are leaving trails of trash behind.  This has been especially lethal at Nara Park, a Shinto site in which hundreds of deer roam freely.  “Tourists are only allowed to feed the deer special rice crackers,” but are littering the park with plastics. When plastics reach critical mass within a deer’s stomach, they can and do kill.

Public trash bins had been easily invaded by hungry animals, so other solutions were needed.  Nara officials recently set up solar-powered compactors with signage reading “Save the Nara deer from plastic waste.”  A volunteer clean-up squad also patrols the park.  All this will hopefully encourage visitors to clean up their act.

Resources

https://news.yahoo.com/news/squad-saving-deer-tourist-trash-021047201.html

In All the Wrong Places

(Fair Use)

Some look for love in strip clubs, others in brothels.  “Pretty Woman” aside, looking for love in all the wrong places seems rampant these days.

Meta put out a recent warning that Facebook friends might not be all that friendly.  In fact, they might not be all that human.  AI is being used more and more to scam Eleanor Rigby and her lonely doppelgangers into thinking they are cherished.

Thanks to freely available GenAI tools, scammers can now “change their faces and voices on video calls as they pretend to be someone they are not.”  Although we all project situational identities at times, AI brings such games people play to a whole new level.

Folks are therefore urged to be “politely paranoid” when dealing with online anonymity.  After all, delusion is often based upon illusion.

Resources

https://news.yahoo.com/news/scammers-using-ai-dupe-lonely-150733271.html 

To Marry and to Earn

(Public Domain)

Some local Chinese authorities have come up with a new twist on the First Corinthians warning, “It’s better to marry than to burn.”

Due to declining marriage rates, many places are now offering cash incentives for citizens to tie the proverbial knot.  In Luliang, a total of 1,500 yuans (the equivalent of a rural monthly wage) is being offered to those who would pledge their precious lives to one another. 

If babies follow, so do payouts.  The first such child would yield the besotted couple another 2,000 yuan, the second 5,000, and the third 8,000.  Never mind that raising kids costs far more than that.

And yet, humans often think short-term over long-term.  Those who live paycheck to paycheck are especially vulnerable to dangling bait.  Since New Year’s Day, hundreds of Luliang couples have grabbed the gold rings.

Women over 35 are not among the chosen ones.  They must either marry on their own terms, or perhaps burn with the righteous anger that accompanies injustice.

Resources

https://news.yahoo.com/news/chinese-authorities-play-cash-giving-021307335.html

Just when you think you've got it down pat

Hey there!
(Photo by Bigmacthealmanac)

We tend to think that we know our parents, our kids, our spouses - to name a few.  Heck, we often think that we know ourselves.  The truth is, we haven’t even figured out what squirrels do behind our backs.

Never mind that these furry rodents are practically ubiquitous.  Just because we see them chomping away on bounty from the nearest tree doesn’t mean that there’s no rest-of-the-story.  Turns out that some of these innocent-looking creatures are munching on voles. 

Just as big fish eat little fish, bigger rodents eat smaller rodents.  Sometimes it’s a dog-eat-dog world, literally as well as figuratively.

Resources

https://news.yahoo.com/news/researchers-stunned-shocking-behavior-ground-110034099.html 

 

Panda trumps Pander

Give peace a chance!
(Public Domain)

Washington, D.C. has long been known for pandering to those who see things as either black or white.  It’s time for a change, and the symbol of such change has recently arrived.

China has loaned two giant pandas named Bao Li and Qing Bao to the Washington Zoo for the next ten years.  These “soft-power” furry “ambassadors” not only represent diplomacy between the two nations, but also personify the both/and possibilities of black-and-white mergers.

Many are wishing for these ambassadors to be fruitful and multiply.  Baby pandas would be wonderful, as would peace between the nations that nurture them.

Resources

https://news.yahoo.com/news/pandas-trump-back-washington-171512377.html

Testing the God Hypothesis

Dr. Stephen Meyer
(Public Domain)

Although belief in God has fallen out of favor within certain circles, Dr. Stephen Meyer is harkening back to the hypothesis that an intelligent Creator indeed exists.

During an 2021 Hoover Institution interview, Meyer declared, “We can judge the merits of a metaphysical hypothesis of a worldview by looking at the world around us, to see if it matches the expectations, what we think should follow if that hypothesis were true.”

Meyer has dedicated a huge chunk of his life to checking the God Hypothesis against the world around us.  After noting the profound intricacy of even a single human cell, he concludes that Richard Dawkins’ theory of a “blind pitiless” and fundamentally indifferent Universe seems out of kilter.

Meyer points out that the Big Bang had a beginning point, commonly called the Singularity.  He wonders what came before that... Did the Universe just suddenly and randomly arise out of sheer nothingness?

Meyer finds that to be highly unlikely, and questions the notion of nothingness itself.  He also notes that Darwin had no solid explanation for the origin of life, and no solid explanation for the complex evolutionary leaps that go far beyond mere adaptations and variations.  Meyer claims that intelligent design seems a much better theoretical match for such observations than does natural selection.

Resources

https://www.hoover.org/research/stephen-meyer-intelligent-design-and-return-god-hypothesis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISUynYz93zY

A penny saved is a penny burned

Public Domain

 

It’s kind of fitting that Lincoln is portrayed on the humble penny because he was kind of a humble president.  Today’s leaders do not seem to favor humility, and the penny might soon be extinct.

Thus speaketh Elon Musk, who claims that it costs three cents to produce every one-cent coin.  Translated into DOGEse, doing away with pennies could mean a governmental savings of almost $200 million per year.  

What then would happen with a purchase of, say, $4.51?  Theoretically, the shopkeeper would round it down to $4.50.  However, we’re talking human nature here.  Rounding up to the nearest nickel could easily become the norm.  In that case, consumers would likely be paying for the governmental savings.

It was Ben Franklin who originally claimed that a penny saved is a penny earned.  His monetary portrayal will likely last way longer than Lincoln’s since $100 bills are still coveted by the powers that be.

Resources

https://www.barrons.com/articles/eliminate-penny-elon-musk-doge-462b003b

 

One and Done?

(Fair Use)

Although cats are said to have nine lives, cat women may only have one.  It might therefore behoove them to utilize that singular gift wisely by focusing upon inner beauty.

That doesn’t seem to be what Jocelyne Wildenstein prioritized.  Also known as “Catwoman” due to the feline-looking results of her multiple cosmetic surgeries, Wildenstein recently died on New Year's Eve.  She had been napping in anticipation of dinner out on the Parisian town, then never woke up.

At age 79 and counting, her death was deemed “unexpected.”  Perhaps if death had been a bit more expected - or even anticipated - a profound inner life may have prevailed.

Resources

https://news.yahoo.com/news/entertainment/cosmetic-surgery-aficionado-jocelyne-wildenstein-190942270.html

 

Oh, HENRY!

Don't bite off more than you can chew...
(Public Domain)

As long as we’ve come up with stereotypical  Karens, we might as well add some HENRYs to the mix.

Whereas “Karen” is a caricature, HENRY is actually an acronym for “High Earners, Not Rich Yet.”  Although their annual salaries generally range from $250,000 to $500,000, this does not translate into substantial savings.

Considered to be “asset-poor,” HENRYs are often overwhelmed by locked-in debts and taxes.  Their keeping-up-with-the-Joneses lifestyle is by no means cheap.

So what’s a HENRY to do?  Can a simpler path be followed?  Perhaps not easily and perhaps not immediately, yet some movement toward economic and egoic downsizing might greatly help.

Resources

https://news.yahoo.com/news/finance/news/6-figure-salary-still-don-190220885.html

Dogged Resistance

Portraits of
Deceased Chernobyl Liquidators
(Photo by MHM55) 

There’s something to be said for dogged resilience, especially when coupled with dogged resistance to radioactivity.

Stray dogs have continued to inhabit the Chernobyl “radioactive wasteland” ever since the 1986 disaster.  Generations of them have passed, yet they continue to thrive. 

Scientific research has indicated that these canines have somehow developed a genetic resistance to toxic radiation.  And they are not the only ones…  “Mutant wolves” within that same locale “were reported to have developed cancer resistance,” and neighboring frogs had developed protective “darker skin.”

This could bode well for the chances of human survival under such deadly conditions.  Yet why tempt nuclear proliferation with this seemingly positive prediction?

Resources

https://www.ynetnews.com/health_science/article/bya8vodvyl

 

Brown Snow

Look out, Frosty!
(Fair Use)

You don’t want to be playing around in yellow snow, and brown snow sounds worse yet.

The latter recently plagued folks living in Rumford, Maine.  As the nearby mill began spewing black liquor, “a byproduct of paper production,” the snow began turning tannish-brown. 

Although town officials claimed this byproduct to be “non-toxic,” they also warned about “skin irritation,” “touching the snow,” plus keeping “children and pets away from it.”  So why the concern if all is merry and bright?

Not to worry…  Subsequent rains will likely wash the stuff down river.  One region’s relief will then be another region’s concern.

Resources

https://www.iheart.com/content/2024-12-11-residents-outraged-after-town-covered-in-brown-snow/?mid=1399727&rid=98364581&sc=email&pname=newsletter&cid=NATIONAL&keyid=National%20iHeart%20Daily%20NewsTalk&campid=headline5_readmore