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The Twilight Zone

7/29/2024

The Twilight Zone ran on CBS from 1959 to 1964. Although we can look back now and think some of the programming was cheesy, it was very advanced for its time. Rolling Stone magazine ranked the show 7th of all-time favorite television shows. TV Guide ranks it the 26th best television show of all time. Just about any ranking has the show in the Top 10 of all science fiction television shows.

The show was Rod Sterling’s baby and besides narrating the show and being the show’s producer, he also wrote or co-wrote 92 of the show’s 156 episodes. He was 35 years old at the time. This is an extraordinary accomplishment in the world of science fiction although it went beyond science fiction and ran right into horror. The episode called: “To Serve Man,” was just about as scary as War of the Worlds but the horror set in with the last line of the show. Basically, aliens had visited the earth, they said in peace, but at the end of the show a man deciphered a book the aliens had brought with them and it was a cookbook with humans as the main ingredient. I probably saw the episode about 50 years ago and I still remember it. By the way, Sterling launched another scary show, this time on NBC, called Night Gallery in 1969 and it ran through 1973.

The Twilight Zone was loaded with future Hollywood stars like Anne Francis, Burt Reynolds, Claude Akins, Jack Klugman, Martin Landau, William Shatner (before Star Trek), Ron Howard, etc. There were very few shows at the time that were considered the place to perform in just one episode.

The Twilight Zone gained traction again with a successful movie in 1983 followed by a television show that ran from 1985 thru 1989. The theme song for the new show was by The Grateful Dead.

Unfortunately Rod Sterling didn’t see the relaunch of his Twilight Zone creation as he passed away in 1975 at the age of 50. Sterling didn’t just smoke while he narrated the show, he smoked about three packs of cigarettes a day. Although he didn’t get lung cancer, he began having heart attacks. After his second heart attack it was decided he’d have open heart surgery but unfortunately, he suffered a third attack on the operating table and he never made it out of the hospital. He was greatly missed by not only people in the business but also at Ithaca College where he’d been a professor for almost 15 years.

The Top Ten Movies

7/26/2024

Ranker is a popular website for finding out how a variety of things rank; in this case I'm going to cover movies because it's that time of the year where more people can sit down and watch a video or two. These are the Top 10 according to Ranker's Poll of over five million people: 1) The Godfather 2) Casablanca 3) Schindler's List 4) The Godfather II 5) Star Wars 6) Pulp Fiction 7) Forrest Gump 8) Citizen Kane 9) Titanic and 10) The Shawshank Redemption.

Hard to pick the top ten out of all the amazing movies but what really fascinates me is that so many were from decades ago; "Casablanca," and "Citizen Kane," were released to theaters in the early 40's. Evidence that some things truly are timeless.

California Taxes

7/25/2024

No state taxes its citizens as badly as Kamala's home state of California. It doesn't matter what it is (i.e. gas, hotels, property, rental cars, sales, income, etc.), California gouges those who live and visit there. What makes this even worse is what are the citizens of California getting for their money? Their infrastructure is in terrible shape. Gang-related crime is horrific with much of it involving illegals. They have a terrible homeless population.

So, what is all the tax money being spent on? Well, if you want to be wealthy in the state of California, work in the public sector. On average someone working for the state government makes approximate 28% more income than someone who doesn't. Add to this the high number of public sector employees in general because California is a socialist oriented state, and the costs begin to skyrocket. Even the cost of housing prisoners in California is more than twice that of an average state. Taxpayers are getting exploited by the outrageous costs of everything associated with the government.

The bottom line is if you live in a highly liberal state such as California, Illinois, New York, and Washington, the government owns you. You must work several months out of each year just to pay various state taxes. The sad part is that most of the citizens in these states continue to vote people in who continue to make them work harder and longer for the state. They take away even more of their discretionary income each year and for some strange reason, they're okay with it.

There's no question, because the data is readily available, that Democrats at every level of government increase the cost of living of their constituents more so than in Republican controlled districts. Just something to keep in mind if your financial livelihood is important to you.

Air Balloons

7/24/2024

A lot of people think that travelling on an air balloon sounds cool but when given an opportunity decide not to do it out of fear. A lot of people back out when they see the small basket that they'll stand in while rising into the sky. No doubt if anyone has a scare of heights, it’s not the ride to take.

Think about being one of the first to do it. If the balloon went up, would it come down? Where would it land? You wouldn’t want to launch one near the ocean. Would the balloon tear? At this point they didn’t even know there were different atmospheres with different temperatures. The first people to go up over 20,000 feet about froze to death and found out that their faculties were diminished with reduced oxygen. Another lesson learned. Meteorology made huge advancements when scientists began running tests using the balloons. These people were our first aviators, and they were as brave as any of the pioneers in the field.

The idea of using hydrogen to make a balloon rise into the sky occurred in the 1700's. Two brothers from France came up with the idea and in 1783, King Louis XVI commissioned the first flight with the idea of using criminals to go up, but a couple of nobles petitioned to be the first. They rose around 100 feet and travelled around five miles. This might not seem like much but think about accomplishing this back in the 1700's; it was a mind-blowing experience for those who took the risk.

The year 1785 in ballooning was very significant in that a balloon made it across the English Channel but unfortunately another crashed into a town and burned down around 100 homes. It was a public relations disaster for the new form of flight and was of course on record as being the first aviation disaster.

France was the first country to use an air balloon in battle, as they used it to observe troop movements during the French Revolutionary War. Britain flooded the skies with unmanned balloons to obstruct German fighter pilots. Unfortunately, they didn’t work too well at The Battle of Britain as German’s bombers unleashed a fury.

The record height an air balloon has reached occurred in 2005 by a man from India. With special life-saving equipment, he reached an altitude of 69,850 feet which is around twice as high as a passenger jet travels. Now there are huge balloon festivals around the country that are filled with beautiful colors. It’s amazing how close some of them fly to each other but the balloons tend to bump off each other so the baskets and ropes don’t typically become entwined. I’ve got to admit, when I was younger, I’d have no problem going up, but now it doesn’t seem like such a fun idea. 😊

Pink Floyd

7/22/2024

Pink Floyd is one of the most successful bands in U.S. history selling over 250 million records. Keep in mind, a musician only needs to sell a million albums to go platinum. Two of their albums: The Dark Side of the Moon, and The Wall, are a couple of the greatest selling albums of all time.

Roger Waters, Nick Mason, Richard Wright, and Syd Barrett were architectural students in London at the Polytechnic Institute in 1963, but their passion was music. They and some other friends put together a band and played at local venues. They practiced in the basement of one of the school buildings.

Band members came and went over a couple of years, one of their lead singers for a short period of time was with the Royal Airforce. Along with the personnel changes, the band’s name changed several times as well. They had settled on the name Tea Set in 1965 but realized that when they were going to perform at an event, another band had the same name, so they came up with the name Pink Floyd at the last minute. One of the band members was a huge fan of the famous blues singers, Pink Anderson and Floyd Mitchell, so they combined the names and went with it.

Their first album was released in 1967 and they began touring in Europe. They were putting out a new album every year, but nothing took off. Fortunately, they were keeping busy and making the record label money, so they were getting by. Then things went crazy because their new record label decided to record them on tour and then produce a few songs at Abby Road Studios in London. The sound engineer for the album was Alan Parsons. When he became a singer himself and launched Eye in The Sky, his music career took off. Pink Floyd's album was called: Dark Side of The Moon, and the songs’ philosophical lyrics along with psychedelic sounds, had fans going wild. It addressed conflict, greed, mental illness, the commodity of time, etc. It was a very intellectual album beyond the great sound.

One of the things that is mind-blowing about the album is that it was the first time they charted at number one on U.S. Billboards and when it comes to all music charts, they were in the top 200 for over 900 weeks. It had reached cult status so record sales kept going on and on. Many music professionals consider the album the greatest of all time because of the lyrics and unique sounds.

Five years later, in 1978, the band was in financial trouble as their manager hadn’t done a good job. They needed something big to get them back on track and they hit it big with the album: The Wall, with the song: Another Brick in The Wall, winning award after award. It was number one on the U.S.’s Billboard’s Top 100 for over three months.

I’d have to write a novel to cover this amazing band, but the bottom line is they were one of the most unique, intelligent/philosophical, bands of our time. They did things in the studio that other bands began copying. The use of a children’s choir in: Another Brick in The Wall, was amazing.

I think one of the best things about the band is that they weren’t in it for the money. They wanted to get by financially, but music was their passion. They weren’t a bunch of spoiled artists they worked their tails off every year on tour and in the studio. I’m so glad that the four founders of the band decided being architects wasn’t as good as being music artists because they sure made my life more enjoyable through their amazing music.

Should We Support Band?

7/22/2024

Some high schools across the country have eliminated band because of the expense. Of course band members have had to work extremely hard raising funds over the years for a variety of purposes including travelling to competitions. Anyone who knows someone in band, understands how hard they work, the commitment it takes. It's not an activity you dabble in.

I wasn't in band, I played sports instead. If it weren't for dating a band member, I would've thought they were all geeks. I'm sure that some people wonder why someone would presumably waste their time playing in band because what will it do for their future? How many will end up teaching band or playing professionally somewhere for a symphony orchestra? The odds of making it are probably as bad as someone trying to play college or professional sports but there's a huge reason to support band. It's not that it's necessarily going to be a great career path for your son or daughter, but that it's character building. The life skills they learn will help them achieve other goals in life.

I certainly don't know the statistics in this case, but it's my guess that less than 1% of the prison population has ever participated in band. Is this a coincidence? Part of it is cultural but even in some disadvantaged school districts, band has survived the cut. Poor students in band in poor school districts do better than other students. Once again I ask, is this a coincidence?

Band members graduate high school. Band members make good grades. Band members aren't often seen in detention. Band members hang out with other band members giving parents more peace of mind that they're children are a bit safer when they go out. Band members are disciplined. A higher percentage of band members get advanced educations compared to other groups. There are exceptions I know. You see it's not the instruments they play that will add value to their future and ours, it's who they become playing them.

Please support band in whatever way you can because the program is producing some awesome young adults. A shoutout to a special band member in high school, she sure turned out awesome!

Global Warming

7/20/2024

First, I’d like to remind everyone the fear mongers in the 1970’s were scaring people with Global Cooling. What’s funny is they blamed carbon dioxide just like they’re doing today with Global Warming. Their study included CO2 levels from the 1850’s to the 1970’s. Does anyone believe they were tracking this back in the 1800’s? I believe there’s some global warming, but it has more to do with uncontrollable variables which I’ll explain shortly.

I don’t trust very much of what I hear because of researchers and fundraisers (Al Gore) misrepresenting data and imagery associated with their global warming initiative. Let me start with something that really upsets me and that’s the showing of glaciers melting into the ocean. This has been shown in movies like Al Gore’s: “Inconvenient Truth” and in a lot of other presentations throughout the country. The fact is ice melts each season and in the An-Arctic it reduces to half its size during the warmer months. So, glaciers breaking apart and falling into the ocean is a common occurrence. People like Al Gore are running around scaring people with something that’s part of the normal seasonal cycle. Keep in mind Al Gore became rich after he left office; any guesses on where most of his money came from? He’d sometimes spend $10,000 on fuel in his private jet to give a presentation on the negative effects of carbon dioxide. Apparently, he’s not walking the talk.

When’s the last time you heard a bunch of news regarding a large hole in our ozone layer? According to research we would burn up in a few years. We haven’t heard these scare tactics in a while because scientific data around the world wasn’t supporting some of this research.

Something to think about if we did have a large hole in our ozone layer is that it can allow more heat in but at the same time it allows more heat out. A good example of this is when you go outside at night and the temperature is around 50 degrees (colder than usual) and you look up in the sky and see a bunch of stars because it’s really clear out. Then the next night you go outside and it’s closer to 60 degrees and you notice the sky is overcast. Very easy to explain of course as the warming of the ground that took place during the day gets captured more when there’s a layer of clouds in the sky. But on a clear night the heat rises quickly so it cools down faster. Welcome to one of the real ozone affects these researchers don’t want us to know about.

Now let’s talk about how the auto industry was attacked for auto emissions (carbon dioxide) and told they had to change the way cars were made. I definitely don’t mind aggressively pushing for less dependence on foreign oil but the attacks on car emissions were more of a scare tactic and there are reasons for this which I’ll sum up at the end of this blog. Researchers know that methane gas is 23 times worse on the ozone than auto emissions. This equates to having to drive 12,500 miles in your vehicle to match the methane gas (harmful to the ozone layer) one cow releases each year. There’re over a billion cows on earth; so instead of sharing the truth that driving electric cars and reducing emissions would only put a dent in Global Warming they pushed to make automakers make major changes. The real inconvenient truth (not mentioned in Al Gore’s movie) is that to really address the ozone problem we need to give up hamburgers and steaks. FYI: I’m not on board with this!

Another very important thing to think about is that we aren’t the industrialized nation we used to be so we couldn’t positively impact Global Warming as much as other countries like China and Taiwan. Because these environmental researchers have scared highly developed countries (like the members of the G-8), there has been a major push for emission standards in manufacturing plants. The problem is that the U.S. follows the uniform standards which cost our manufacturers more money to produce products but countries like China aren’t playing by the same rules so their costs in producing products are lower. Of course this is exactly what we don’t need. I think we all know that no one is going to go to China and demand they follow the global policy.

Now one thing I do agree with researchers on is that chopping down trees in places like the Rain Forest definitely increases global warming. This is easy to back up. Think about when you go under a shade tree how much cooler it feels; it’s not a small difference it’s a huge difference especially if there’s a breeze. The tree absorbs the sun’s rays, and you get to enjoy the cooler temperature it provides. Not only are you cooler, but the ground is also cooler as well. This means that while asphalt and areas without the shade of trees are sending the heat back up into our atmosphere, the trees and the ground underneath them have very little heat to send back up into the sky.

A couple of interesting side notes here is that we absorb heat as well and we don’t send it back into the atmosphere. Also, polar bears have dark fur under their beautiful white coats so they can absorb the sun’s rays and stay warmer longer. Lastly, our roads are terrible for their impact on global warming. Asphalt pretty much sends all of the sun’s heat/radiation right back up into the sky. This is why we can see the heat rising off of it. There are days that you could get away with laying on your paved driveway, but you’d get terrible burns if you walked out and tried to lie down in the street. Asphalt is a significant contributor to global warming.

There are so many more areas I could discuss but I know you get the big picture and I never like for my blogs to be too long. My hope is that you’ll take these research studies with a grain of salt. It’s always a matter of “follow the money” and we need to keep in mind that biases come into play when the issue these research firms are addressing is their livelihood. Numbers can be manipulated, and people get caught doing it all the time.

Once again, I feel that Global Warming does exist, but it isn’t to the level that some of these research companies (including universities) are sharing. I can’t say they purposefully misrepresent the data but even if they don’t, they should be embarrassed as to the accuracy of their reports. And it really does upset me when people like Al Gore are out pandering for money and using visual images (like the ice melting into the ocean) that are completely misleading. I’ve never heard him say the An-Arctic melts to half its size each year and then freezes over again to its full size. Sometimes it’s not always what someone says but what he or she doesn’t say, that gives insight into their character.

Daniel Boone (1734 - 1820)

7/19/2024

Daniel Boone was an extraordinary character of the frontier. His life story is absolutely amazing. One of the things he was really great at was telling stories and he was one of those guys who wouldn't let the truth get in the way of a good one.

One time he had a group of people mesmerized by a story he was telling which included fighting Indians and then trying to get away on foot through the woods. Everyone was at the edge of their seats listening to him. He then went on to say that while he was running through the woods, he wasn't paying attention and he ran into a grizzly bear with a couple of cubs. Then he stopped talking, letting the wild imaginations from the crowd run wild. Then someone yelled out: "What happened?!" To which Daniel replied: "Well, she killed me." Then he just smiled at the crowd. It took them a minute but then the place erupted with laughter. That was the sense of humor of Daniel Boone.

I'm actually a descendent of Daniel's which my family didn't know until my niece did some data diving in Ancestory.com. I was excited at first but being a numbers guy, I started checking it out and he had around 11 siblings. They all had around ten children a piece and so on and so on. From a statistical perspective, with the exponential growth of additional family, I figured half the people in the U.S. are probably descendants of his so I'm nothing special. I'll have to send back the Coon Skin Cap that I ordered on Amazon. 😉

Some Great Quotes

7/19/2024

"Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” - President Grover Cleveland

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas A. Edison

“When we’re young we sneak out of our homes to go to parties, when we get older, we sneak out of parties to get home.” - Unknown

"Somebody needs to open an investigation into the Democratic Party to see if they have any ties to America," - Laura Ingraham

"The world is filled with suffering not because there are bad people who do bad things, but because of good people who do nothing." - Napoleon Bonaparte

"The man who does not read, but can, has no advantage over someone who cannot read." - Mark Twain

"I've been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened." - Mark Twain

"In the natural order of the world, suffering is random. Bad things happen to good people just about as often as they happen to bad people. We have not been given a shield protecting us from misfortune, but there is within all of us, waiting to be discovered, the strength to deal with misfortune, to overcome it, and to learn from it so we can find love, laughter, and joy despite it." - Michael Josephson

Author: John Mann

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