"" Running Rabbit
DEDICATED TO THE PROPOSITION THAT A BLOG CAN EXIST WITHOUT TRAFFIC, AND PROOF THAT SUCH CONCEPT IS WORKABLE, IS IN THE WORKS HERE, AND SHALL CONTINUE ON IN OBSCURITY FOR PERPETUITY.

Sunday, March 3, 2024

Still Alive

I am still out here, just doing my commentary in other places. 

At times, not very often, but, at times I think about making this blog a regular activity. Maybe later. After I am retired and I have a good handle on all of the projects for my home under control. As if, right?

Sunday, October 1, 2023

Irving Finkel

 I recently discovered a series of YouTube videos by a curator at the British Museum. Fascinating stuff.

And, this being October, I refer you to find the one about the first written mention of ghosts.

A  search page showing a number of these videos

Sunday, May 14, 2023

A Rough Period.

 I am in my last year of my seventh decade on this Earth. And, I learned in the first week of May that I can not tolerate a bad diet as well as I once did. A client reminded me it was Cinco de Mayo, and I wasn't going to eat Mexican food to celebrate until I realized I had a box of frozen jalapeno poppers in the freezer. 

Because I have not yet changed my ways when it comes to eating massive volumes, I ate the entire box, (less three poppers). I was in such distress that I spent the next three days sick, mostly tired and I had a pain in my neck where I have a wounded disc, My body was exhausted trying to pass that load, and my muscles cramped leading to the neck pain. Or, so I explain it.

On the third day I was able to go for a walk, which did wonders to relieve, correct my malady. A laxative did wonders too.

I still don't feel 100%, but, I healed enough to be able to work a nine hour day on Tuesday, followed by six hour and four hour days on Wednesday and Thursday. 

Age is taking a tolll, but, in many respects my diminished skills and fragile body are due more to bad decisions than old age. Still hanging in there.

Monday, April 24, 2023

Florida Unclaimed Property

 So, mea culpa. I was warned. And, failed to act in time.

I have, or had, IRAs at two institutions. Both Traditional. One is with a local Credit Union, the other from another region of the State which I rarely have visited in recent times. My last wife came from there, and she got me in that CU when we got married, long ago. So, it became an account I no longer contributed to, all my contributions went to the local one, just let it be there hopefully accruing interest. (that is another subject).

Anyway, for some reason, because I had not been active toward that account for five years, they sent the money to the State as abandoned, "unclaimed". I came to know this when my monthly statement arrived and my balance was zero. I called that CU and they gave me the number for the Florida Unclaimed Property Division, saying, the CU no longer has the money, the State has it. 

Well, that is not true, yet. It seems, after two calls to each I have learned that it will take no less than a month (three to six?) for my funds to arrive at Unclaimed Property, but they are not at the CU either? So, they are in some form of bureaucratic purgatory. And Unclaimed Property does have any record of them coming or my name in their files. 

So, beginning next week, I can call back to see if they have arrived.  I am having to set up a schedule on my calendar to remind myself to keep calling Unclaimed Property until they have my money. And, then, who knows how many hoops will be presented for me to jump through to get it back.

Well, it is a relatively small amount of money. The initial contributions were not large, and the interest paid was minuscule. But, money is money. So, I will make the effort. 

 The awful part in the interim, mea culpa, the CU where I am active warned me this could happen. I was hoping to pull the money after my next birthday which I now know was too far away. I should have made a small contribution in the meantime and avoided all this hassle. If I had acted as they advised me to act, immediately, it would still be with that CU waiting for me to redeem it in a few months.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

I called this past Monday, 5/8. They now have my money. But, it hasn't been uploaded, so I was unable to put in a claim.

She said call back in three to four weeks. No promise that it will be uploaded by then.

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Tuesday, November 22, 2022

Expanding Your World

 "We had always thought polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were primarily formed in the atmospheres of dying stars," said Brett McGuire, Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Project Principal Investigator for GOTHAM, or Green Bank Telescope (GBT) Observations of TMC-1: Hunting Aromatic Molecules. "In this study, we found them in cold, dark clouds where stars haven't even started forming yet."

Societal disciplines seem to get all the attention. Don't they? I am including entertainment and celebrity....

Okay, clumsy intro. My real point is how uttering fascinating  are the discoveries of science. Not that I am capable of following every term and concept, but there is so much we don't understand. Getting even a reflection of the advances and discoveries into your world is a good thing.

Scientists uncover

In 1868 We Still Cared For Civil Protections

 Posse Comitatus Of 1868

A search result page, just links about an important measure taken to ensure the military does not rule the people.

Roger Kimbal Discusses The Merits and Foibles of a Reality Czar

 To the sane people I know the idea causes a sense of relief until they think about it the wrong hands. Then they become stressed. Because, who among us is at once wise enough and impartial enough to act as the arbiter of truth from fiction? I am sure you think about yourself in this moment, can you honestly say to yourself in those quiet moments that you have the qualifications. Of course, we all, each of us, rely upon our own judgement ultimately. But, are we always fair? Could the presence of an attractive person influence a decision, could a benefit sway a choice? Before I get too far afield, let me introduce Mr. Kimbal's take.

Not for the first time, I found myself wondering why it was that a certain species of progressive regarded books such as “1984” and “Brave New World” as how-to manuals.

Inspired by the NYT