Ed note: I can remember watching with numbing disbelief as the 2nd plane plowed into the south tower of the World Trade Center –the north tower already aflame from the 1st hit. Please, if you have time, watch the 60 minute segment below. It’s tough to watch, but it reminds us of the heroism of so many that day.
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/september-11-fdny-world-trade-center-60-minutes-video-2024-09-08
Ed note: How can voters, in good conscience, cast their ballot for a man who no longer makes sense, demonstrates paranoia and megalomania, and rambles suggesting that violence and bloodshed it needed for the MAGA movement to succeed?
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Ed Note: Please read about the first artist in residence at the nearby Memory Hub
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From The Fragile Species: “Florida Scott Maxwell, a successful British actress, a scholar, and always a writer, wrote: ‘Age puzzles me. I thought it was a quite time. My seventies were interesting and serene, but my eighties were passionate. I grow more intense with age. To my own surprise, I burst out in hot conviction. I have to calm down. I am too frail to indulge in moral fervor.’ Living alone in a London flat after the departure of her grandchildren for Australia and nearing her nineties, she wrote: ‘We who are old know that age is more than a disability. It is an intense and varied experience almost beyond our capacity at times but something to be carried high. If it is a long defeat, it is also a victory, meaningful for the initiates of time, if not for those who have come less far.’ She also wrote: ‘When a new disability arrives, I look about me to see if death has come, and I call quietly, ‘Death, is that you? Are you there?’ and so far the disability has answered, ‘Don’t be silly. It’s me.'”
The respected first responders of Colorado’s fire departments are skilled at saving lives and combating wildfires, but once a year, they approach things a bit differently: by turning up the heat.
The annual Fire Rescue Dogs Calendar, created by a number of Denver Metro firefighters, features 18 male firefighters who have stepped out of their protective gear to model alongside some very special guests: Adoptable puppies.
Calendars sell like hotcakes at $20 a pop, all benefitting Lifeline Puppy Rescue, a no-kill shelter based in the Rocky Mountain region.
“It’s our biggest fundraiser for Lifeline Puppy Rescue,” Amy VanDerbroek, the calendar’s project manager, told 9NEWS Denver.
“It’s raised over $950,000 over the past ten years. Our goal this year is to raise another $200,000.” (continued)
Thanks to our inhouse expert, Dr. Ed M. Ed note: Please see the recommended timing is toward the end of October (in order to cover the peak of the flu season).
The CDC’s ACIP recommended annual trivalent flu vaccines for 2024-25, with specific guidance for older adults, immunosuppressed patients, and pregnant individuals, based on data showing substantial reductions in influenza-related illnesses, medical visits, hospitalizations and deaths.
By Kerri Miller
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) released updated recommendations for prevention and control of seasonal influenza with vaccines for the 2024-2025 season. The committee recommended annual influenza vaccination for all persons ≥6 months without contraindications.
Key Updates for 2024-2025:
Vaccine composition:
For adults ≥65 years, high-dose (HD-IIV3), recombinant (RIV3), or adjuvanted (aIIV3) vaccines were recommended preferentially. Any age-appropriate vaccine should be used if none are available.
Expected vaccines included standard-dose inactivated (IIV3), cell culture-based (ccIIV3), high-dose (HD-IIV3), adjuvanted (aIIV3), recombinant (RIV3), and live attenuated (LAIV3) options.
Vaccination timing: The end of October is recommended but should continue while viruses circulate, and unexpired vaccine remains. Children 6 months–8 years may require 1 or 2 doses depending on prior vaccination. Those needing two doses should receive the first dose as soon as possible, including during July and August.
Egg allergy: Persons with egg allergy of any severity can receive any licensed, recommended influenza vaccine appropriate for their age and health status.
Contraindications and precautions: LAIV3 is contraindicated in immunocompromised persons and pregnant women. Specific timing recommendations exist for LAIV3 administration in relation to antiviral use. (continued)
Thanks to Mike C.
Yes, Nate Silver has recently taken on an advisory role with a company that has connections to Peter Thiel. Here are the key details:
Nate Silver’s New Role
Nate Silver, the well-known statistician and election forecaster, has been appointed as an advisor to Polymarket, a blockchain-based prediction market platform.
Polymarket’s Connection to Peter Thiel
Polymarket has received significant backing from investors, including Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. Peter Thiel is a prominent venture capitalist and entrepreneur known for his investments in technology companies and his involvement in conservative politics.
Context and Implications
Broader Perspective
Silver’s association with a company backed by Thiel has led to some criticism and skepticism, particularly from those who view it as potentially compromising his objectivity in election forecasting. However, Silver maintains that his work remains unbiased and that his track record of accurate predictions speaks for itself.It’s important to note that while there is a connection between Silver and a Thiel-backed company, this does not necessarily imply any direct collaboration between Silver and Thiel themselves.
A partnership with The Associated Press and Northeastern University USA TODAY – Thanks to Bob P.
Ed Note: Click here to read the full article which should (must) be a call to action.
Thanks to Diane S.
What gives you a sense of awe? You might imagine standing on a wide-open plain with a storm approaching, or holding the tiny finger of a newborn baby. That word, awe – the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your understanding of the world – is often associated with the extraordinary. But you don’t need remarkable circumstances to encounter awe. You can find it every day, often in the humblest places. Staring up at a starry sky; looking at a sculpture that makes you shudder; listening to a medley of instruments joining into one complex, spine-tingling melody – those experiences remind us that we’re part of something that will exist long after us. Luckily, we don’t need to wait until we stumble upon it – we can seek it out. Awe is all around us. With a little intentionality, we can reclaim our sense of wonder in the everyday, ordinary moments of life. Perhaps awe, while an ordinary response to the extraordinary, is also an extraordinary response to the ordinary. Featuring Dot Fisher-Smith. Filmed in Ashland, Oregon, USA.
Thanks to Pam P.
By James Carville in the NYT
Mr. Carville is a veteran of Democratic presidential campaigns, leading Bill Clinton’s in 1992. He is a consultant to American Bridge, a Democratic super PAC, and a co-host of the “Politics War Room” podcast.
I hate to say it, but Donald Trump remains the singular most recognized name in the United States. Since he moseyed down that golden escalator in 2015, he has dominated the American airwaves and algorithms. Whether they hate him or love him, people know exactly what Mr. Trump’s shtick is.
This is why, despite every terrible consequence of his presidency, Mr. Trump’s approval rating has never much strayed from the mid- to low 40s for nearly a decade. No matter his divisive policies, Covid, the indictments, who his No. 2 was or whatever bile he spewed on social media, the jury of public opinion on Donald Trump is settled.
This is precisely Vice President Kamala Harris’s greatest political advantage in the next two months.
Since the early 1990s, political history has shown us that when a popular incumbent president is not on the ballot, we have a de facto change election. If Bill Clinton prevailed in 1992 on a message of change versus more of the same, if Barack Obama won in 2008 on the audacity of hope and even if Mr. Trump eked it out in 2016 on a blank promise to revive a relic of America, 2024 will be won by who is fresh and who is rotten. It’s quite simple: The shepherd of tomorrow wins the sheep.
But what’s not simple: We have an incumbent vice president running against a former president in a change election. From Labor Day to Election Day, to clinch victory and drive a nail into Mr. Trump’s political career, there are three imperatives Ms. Harris must pursue successfully to become the certified fresh candidate at the ballot box in November.
1. Help Mr. Trump hurt himself in the debate(s).
If there’s one thing Americans love, it’s a train wreck. That’s why we’re addicted to “Dance Moms” and the “Real Housewives” franchise. Just over two months ago, we witnessed one in real time, and it led to the humane revolt against a sitting president’s re-election campaign by his own party. I guarantee a lot of voters are salivating for a second round. Only this time, Mr. Trump must be the train wreck, and it’s on Ms. Harris to lay the tracks.
I’ve always believed that one good joke is worth 100 fact-checks. By and large, Ms. Harris is diverging from the normal fear-provoking way of going about Mr. Trump; instead of building him up as a threat to America, she’s getting voters chuckling and nodding by saying of the former president and his crew, “They are out of their minds.” People smile when they think a politician has her opponent’s number, and they like that she’s calling him weird and unserious and painting a broader picture of Mr. Trump as a tired old tapestry. And we already have some indication her team is prepping her to do just this.
In the Sept. 10 debate, Ms. Harris must enable exactly what his campaign is scared to death of: letting Trump be Trump. She should let him talk over her. Not just let him but goad him into spouting insane conspiracy theories about the previous election. She should use her sense of humor at key moments to get under his skin and show he’s not getting to her. And she should welcome the personal attacks as a badge of honor. And each time, no matter how many times he does it, respond with this refrain: It’s the same old tired playbook, and I’m focused on a new way forward.
2. Break from President Biden on policy.
Mr. Biden has been one of the most consequential presidents in U.S. history, pulling us back from the fangs of inflation and proliferating disease, enacting bounds of legislative progress even in political gridlock. But Mr. Biden’s not in the race. To be the certified fresh candidate, Ms. Harris must clearly and decisively break from Mr. Biden on a set of policy priorities she believes would define her presidency.
Here’s an idea: Do it one day in a swing state, just a hair after the debate. Hold a rally. Put out a broad list of “new way forward” policies that detail why she is breaking from the sitting president on the given issues and what change would deliver to the American people. And after that rally, do a news conference on it, so media organizations stop cranking their clamshells about a lack of access. Don’t run from your differences with the president. Embrace them, respectfully and honestly.
For Ms. Harris to break from Mr. Biden more explicitly than she has done so far would not be an insult to his legacy, just as Mr. Biden’s objectively more progressive policy agenda was not an insult to Mr. Obama’s. Rather, it shows even more sharply that she is passionate about her own ideas and represents change rather than more of the same.
3. Display a clear growth mind-set from the 2020 Democratic primaries.
Ms. Harris’s political dance will grow more complicated before Election Day. At the same time she must break from Mr. Biden on some policy measures, she has one lingering liability she will not be able to outrun: the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination campaign, in which she and a gaggle of candidates favored more exotic positions within the Democratic Party. As last week’s CNN interview with Ms. Harris showed, this will be a consistent plotline deployed at her throughout this campaign. It’s vital that she give the same answer every time to these attacks. The retort can be simple: I learned from my time governing in the White House. These are my positions. Take it or leave it.
The good news is, by doing just this, Ms. Harris would be demonstrating a capacity that Mr. Trump lacks: a growth mind-set. (He just committed a blaring flip-flop on Florida’s abortion referendum — just the latest in his many reversals on reproductive freedom.) Mr. Clinton famously said, “When people are feeling insecure, they’d rather have someone who is strong and wrong rather than somebody who is weak and right.” After nearly a decade of dealing with a man who views himself as perfect in every way, a leader who can openly admit a change in her understanding would feel like a breath of spring air for a lot of voters.
Throughout my nearly 40 years in the campaign war rooms, through every election loss and victory, one thing has remained consistent: The most thunderous sound in politics is the boom of a single page as it turns from one chapter to the next. This November, will we drag ourselves back again, succumbing to politics of fear and anger, or instead do the most audacious thing we can and once more turn the page to a new chapter in American life? I know that Kamala Harris represents that next chapter. If she stays fresh, soon the American people will, too.
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from the Cottage Newsletter (thanks to Pam P)
From 1,000 year old words from the mystical poet Ibn Arabi:
There was a time I would reject those
who were not of my faith.
But now, my heart has grown capable
of taking on all forms.
It is a pasture for gazelles,
An abbey for monks.
A table for the Torah,
Kaaba for the pilgrim.
My religion is love.
Whichever the route love’s caravan shall take,
That shall be the path of my faith.
By All That’s Interesting | Edited By John Kuroski
This now iconic image of Marxist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara depicts him at the March 5, 1960 funeral for the victims of the La Coubre explosion. Guevara believed that the destruction of the French freighter in Havana harbor and the 75-100 resulting deaths were a deliberate act of sabotage on the part of the U.S. because of Cuba’s new communist government following the revolution the year before.
Guevara helped carry out that revolution before attempting to foment similar uprisings elsewhere around the world, which helped make him an enemy of the U.S. Eventually, in 1967, C.I.A.-assisted Bolivian forces captured Guevara in Bolivia and executed him.Alberto Korda/Wikimedia Commons
A dancer, decorated in fluorescent body paint and with feathers in her hair, attends an event at San Francisco’s Avalon Ballroom. 1967.Ted Streshinsky/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images
Martin Luther King Jr. speaks at a rally for the Chicago Freedom Movement at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois on July 10, 1966. The movement, the largest civil rights campaign in the North, sought fair housing, healthcare, transportation, and so on for African-Americans.Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images (continued)
From Techspot – thanks to Bob P.
In a nutshell: Solar and battery storage are having an absolute field day this year in the US. According to fresh numbers from the Energy Information Administration, the two sources accounted for a staggering 80% of all new electricity capacity added in the first half of 2024.
Solar alone made up 60% of the 20.2 gigawatts of fresh capacity that went online from January through June. A large chunk of this can be attributed to two plants – a 600+ megawatt installation in Texas and another in Nevada. These two states were also leading the solar charge, which doesn’t come as a surprise given their sunny dispositions.
At the same time, battery installations also saw a major surge, clocking in at 4.2 GW for over 20% of total additions. California took the crown here with over a third of the nation’s deployments, but Texas, Arizona, and Nevada also contributed heftily. The massive 380 MW Gemini installation in Nevada and Arizona’s 300 MW Eleven Mile solar-plus-storage project were the largest projects in this category that came online in 2024. (continued)
Thanks to Dan S.
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| DATE: AUGUST 2024 DEAL: NEW COMMUNITY ZIEGLER’S ROLE: UNDERWRITER |
| ZIEGLER CLOSES $62,420,000 FINANCING FOR PARKSHORE JUANITA BAY (WA) CHICAGO, IL – AUGUST 29, 2024 – Ziegler, a specialty investment bank, is pleased to announce the successful closing of the Parkshore Juanita Bay $62,420,000 Series 2024 Bonds (the “Bonds”) through the Washington State Housing Finance Commission. Parkshore Juanita Bay (PSJB) is a Washington nonprofit corporation that was originally founded in 1932 to provide housing and care for German seniors. In 1977, the organization constructed an assisted living retirement home known as The Gardens at Juanita Bay in Kirkland’s historic Juanita Bay neighborhood on the shores of Lake Washington. In December 2018, PSJB affiliated with Presbyterian Retirement Communities Northwest dba Transforming Age. In 2021, management announced plans to develop and convert the existing The Gardens at Juanita Bay into a new 50-unit independent living community to be named Parkshore Juanita Bay. PSJB represents a bold new concept as a satellite community consisting solely of independent living, services and amenities on site with residents receiving a healthcare benefit through the broader Transforming Age network of communities or another community of their choosing. (continued) The Series 2024 Bonds (the “Bonds”) were issued through the Washington State Housing Finance Commission and are comprised of 3 series: 2024A, 2024B-1, and 2024B-2. The 2024A Bonds consist of long-term tax-exempt fixed interest rate term bonds achieving level debt service with a 35-year final maturity (January 1, 2059) and the 2024B Bonds consist of TEMPS-85SM (2024B-1) and TEMPS-65SM (2024B-2) expected to be repaid with initial entrance fees. The proceeds of the Bonds will be used primarily to (i) pay or reimburse the Borrower for the costs of the acquisition, development, construction, improvement and equipping of a continuing care retirement community with 50 independent living units to be known as Parkshore Juanita Bay (the “Community”) and to be located in Kirkland, Washington (the “Series 2024 Project”), (b) pay a portion of the interest on the Bonds during the construction of the Community, (c) fund debt service reserve funds for the benefit of the Bonds, and (d) pay certain costs of issuing the Bonds. Michael Connell, Treasurer and CFO for Transforming Age stated, “The Ziegler team has been assisting Transforming Age for years on this exciting Parkshore Juanita Bay project and have been a true partner. Transforming Age is very pleased with the results of this financing as we continue to transform the perception of aging and what senior living communities can be. The Ziegler team’s expertise and experience was vital in the successful marketing of these bonds and securing financing that provides flexibility for Parkshore Juanita Bay’s future.” Sarkis Garabedian, Managing Director, Ziegler Senior Living Finance added, “This project has been six years in the making with our long-standing client, Transforming Age. We are excited for this addition to the Transforming Age network, executing on their vision of a hub-and-spoke strategy to increase speed to market and mitigate certain risks of large-scale new campus locations. The PSJB development plan was well received by investors helping Ziegler press the max yield below 6% despite an aggressive 5-year par call feature; a strong result for a nonrecourse project.” Ziegler is the nation’s leading underwriter of financing for not-for-profit senior living providers. Ziegler offers creative, tailored solutions to its senior living clientele, including investment banking, financial risk management, merger and acquisition services, seed capital, FHA/HUD, capital and strategic planning as well as senior living research, education, and communication. For more information about Ziegler, please visit us at www.Ziegler.com. About Ziegler: Ziegler is a privately held investment bank, capital markets and proprietary investments firm. Specializing in the healthcare, senior living and education sectors, as well as general municipal and structured finance, enables Ziegler to generate a positive impact on the clients and communities it serves. Headquartered in Chicago with regional and branch offices throughout the United States, Ziegler provides its clients with capital raising, strategic advisory services, equity and fixed income sales & trading and research. To learn more, visit www.ziegler.com. Certain comments in this news release represent forward-looking statements made pursuant to the provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This client’s experience may not be representative of the experience of other clients, nor is it indicative of future performance or success. The forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, in particular, the overall financial health of the securities industry, the strength of the healthcare sector of the U.S. economy and the municipal securities marketplace, the ability of the Company to underwrite and distribute securities, the market value of mutual fund portfolios and separate account portfolios advised by the Company, the volume of sales by its retail brokers, the outcome of pending litigation, and the ability to attract and retain qualified employees. |
| Learn more about Ziegler’s senior living finance practice. GET STARTED |
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Thanks to Mike C.
Common Estimate: The widely cited odds of finding a blue lobster are approximately 1 in 2 million.
Comparison to Other Rare Colors
Interestingly, blue lobsters are not the rarest color variation:
| Color | Estimated Odds |
| Red (uncooked) | 1 in 10 million |
| Yellow | 1 in 30 million |
| Calico | 1 in 30 million |
| Albino/Crystal | 1 in 100 million |
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