And 'Pi day' is always followed by the 'Ides of March'.

OCU

I posted on another board and here that perhaps the House Democrats may gain the majority BEFORE the November elections, and as time goes by that comment may prove yet to have been prescient...

OCU

I suspect that 20-years from now, historians and economists will be writing about how the economic baselines had all been reset to new norms in the post-pandemic era. If 20-years ago, someone had provided a list of economic stats, like unemployment, inflation, stock market levels, value of the dollar versus foreign currencies, etc, which matched today's numbers, and asked the leading economists to comment on them, I suspect that they would claim that they were irreconcilable with one another, that they couldn't possibly represent factual data as numbers like that just couldn't all be right at the same time.

OCU

Also speaking of 'Pi', here's a video where a math instructor in London, and his students, calculated, by hand, 'Pi' to a record number of digits, 528, a record which had stood since 1870:

Speaking of pizza, there's a lot of Pizza parlors around the country with 'Pi Day' specials including Pizza Hut, Round Table Pizza, Papa Murphy's as well as a few others.

OCU

Didn't I already post this a couple of days ago:

And now it's being reported that House Speaker Mike Johnson was caught totally flatfooted by this 'surprise' announcement. The Speaker implied that he perhaps should have a conversation with Congressman Buck about this before he leaves town.

If this keeps up, House Democrats may gain the majority back BEFORE the November elections.

OCU

I wonder if Putin will be included in the section on modern dictators, as well perhaps some others who have recently been seen visiting the state?

OCU

Note that it appears that Santos has moved as he's running for a different Congressional seat than the one he was originally elected to and from which he was removed from office. I guess he figures that the people in this new district have no idea who he is so he can recycle the lies and scams that helped him win the first time around, in that other district.

OCU

And keep in mind, if there was no Social Security, corporations would no longer have to match their employee's payroll taxes which goes to Social Security. Many people are not aware that the payroll taxes, which comes out of an employee's paycheck each week, that this is only HALF the amount that goes into the Social Security 'trust fund', the other half comes from their employer. Note that employers do NOT match that portion of the payroll tax that goes to Medicare, only the portion earmarked for Social Security itself.

This Social Security matching is what corporations would like to get rid of, and this is also why they don't want the ceiling raised on tha amount of income which is subject to the Social Security payroll tax. Note that the Medicare payroll tax has no ceiling, employees pay that tax on all of their income, but since corporations don't have to match the Medicare payroll tazes, they don't care that there's no ceiling, but if that were also to apply to Social Security payroll taxes, then corporations would be on the hook for their matching amount. So that's why Republicans are always objecting to raising or eliminating the Social Security wage ceiling. They would rather raise the retirement age, as that means that people would have to pay in for more years and they would also be getting benefits for a lesser number of years before they die.

OCU

It appears that Chesebro is claiming that because Pence followed the law and did what the Constitution required of him, that this is what led Trump's supporters to invade the Capital.

OCU

How many nuclear secrets is the bankruptcy-prone orange pedo going to sell this week?

#1 | Posted by reinheitsgebot

Don't laugh, once Trump is the official Republican nominee, he'll once again start to get regular intelligence briefings.

OCU

I guess we'll now see Matt Gaetz and his horde of nutcases out for Mike Johnson's head. After all, he had the temerity to think that his job was to legislate while taking the welfare of the nation and its citizens into consideration.

Note that Gaetz has been bragging as of late as to how many 'notches' he's carved these past few months, starting with Kevin McCarthy and most recently claiming responsibility for getting Ronna (Romney) McDaniel removed as the RNC chair as well as helping to force Mitch McConnell to step down from his Senate leadership position, all in the name of helping Donald Trump solidify his hold on the Republican party.

OCU

Already get heart valves from pigs, so why not?

#1 | Posted by LegallyYourDead

That's not quite true, and I know as I have an artificial heart valve, although mine is 'bovine', not 'porcine'.

The artificial heart valves, which are generally aortic valves, are just that 'artificial'. They are what's known as a 'tissue valve' as opposed to a 'mechanical valve' which are generally used to replace mitral valves and requires open-heart surgery, whereas aortic valves can be replaced using what's called a 'TAVR' method, for 'Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement'. The valve is placed in the heart using a catheter, inserted through the artery in your groin. It's all done in just a few minutes, with only a small scar near your groin. The material used to make a 'tissue valve' has nothing to do with either a pig or a cows heart valve, but rather the material which makes up the pericardium, a sack around the heart of a pig or cow (they use material from either, in my case from a cow). The material which makes up the pericardium is some of the most durable material that you can find, and when harvested from a pig or a cow, is processed and then three pieces of the material, which makes-up the tri-cuspid valves, are hand-sewn into an expanded metal tube, which looks like a large 'stint', which is collapsed until it's inserted into the heart, through an artery and then expanded over the old damaged aortic valve. It was a simple procedure and the only reason I was in the hospital for five-days was because I needed a pacemaker, a common situation in about 25% of TAVR procedures, but they had problems getting the leads to stay in the heart muscles and so they had to implant them a second time after one of the leads came loose, which caused no end of 'excitement' at the time, and was an experience I would have just as well have wished had never happened (I know what it feels like when your heart stops for 15 seconds or so).

So getting back to your comment, while there are heart valves made from material harvested from pigs and cows, it not the actual heart valves themselves, but rather the pericardium, from which artificial 'tissue valves' are manufactured.

Being an engineer, when I was told that they were going to replace my faulty heart valve, I had to do some research to see how it was done and how the valves were manufactured. It's some pretty cool technology when you think about it. Note that my surgery was seven-years ago, and I'm doing fine, despite having problems with the pacemaker. I've had to have it reprogrammed twice in the last 18-months. I'll be getting a replacement in about three-years, when the battery wears out.

OCU

Incorrect Ocuser, Mitch will serve out the rest of his term. He just will not be the leader of the GOP in the Senate.

#17 | Posted by Bluewaffles

You're correct. I misunderstood the headline and didn't read far enough to where that was made clear. Of course, there are still two more years left in his term, so this may still become an issue before it's over.

OCU

I can see a Constitutional crisis coming in Kentucky...

With Mitch McConnell leaving office before his term ends, this will now create a situation in Kentucky which may have to go to the Supreme Court to resolve. The Republican-controlled state legislature has passed a law which requires the Governor to appoint a Republican to replace McConnell, should he die or leave office before his term ends. The Democrat Governor, Andy Beshear, has already stated that he feels that the law is unconstitutional, but that he deferred taking any action until it became relevant. Well, that's now the case. Let's see what happens in November after McConnell steps down.

OCU

Our middle son has a bachelors degree in Psychology, but he's currently working as a production manager at a commercial bakery.

I have a bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering and I retired eight-years ago after a 49+ year career in engineering, and for nearly 40 of those years, I was a Registered Professional Engineer.

OCU

And on Fox News, while reporting on the results of the survey, they mentioned that Joe Biden was ranked at #14, but when it came to Trump, they only stated that he had a lower rank. While this was factually accurate, what they failed to mention was that the social scientists and history scholars, who responded to the survey, had placed Trump in the very last spot on the list.

OCU

It is the defendant who has the right to speedy trial, not the prosecution. The defendant nearly always waives that right, and can employ a variety of tactics to delay proceedings, if it is to their benefit to do so. The court wil usually indulge defendants requests to prevent avenues for mistrial or appeal...

#22 | Posted by Miranda7

I believe that the courts have ruled that the 'Speedy Trial Act of 1974', while the primary purpose was to codify the provisions of the 6th Amendment, which guarantees a defendant to the speedy trial, that this act also affords a right to the state (i.e. prosecution) to a speedy trial since it's in the best interest of the people that trials not be dragged-out unnecessarily.

And to that point, some states, such as California, has enacted laws which explicitly states the people (i.e. the citizens of the state) also deserve a speedy trial as it's in their best interest that judicial issues be adjudicated quickly.

OCU

"for every week that this judgement is not paid, an additional $1 million in interest is incurred"

Close, but not quite. It's about $614,400.

Math: ($355M *.09) / 52

#14 | Posted by Danforth

They've already added interest and it's compounded. The current amount that Trump owes is $453 million. Still not quite a million a week, but it's getting closer.

OCU

BTW, for every week that this judgement is not paid, an additional $1 million in interest is incurred, which I assume is compound interest.

And being such a brilliant businessman, Trump should know how this works.

OCU

This kind of says it all:

"Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological. They are accused only of inflating asset values to make more money. The documents prove this over and over again. This is a venial sin, not a mortal sin. Defendants did not commit murder or arson. They did not rob a bank at gunpoint. Donald Trump is not Bernard Madoff. Yet, defendants are incapable of admitting the error of their ways," Engoron wrote.

OCU

I guess it's now even more important that Lara Trump be given a leadership position at the RNC...

OCU

I was in Moscow in 1994, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and I found Moscow to be one of the most gray, dull and dreariest large cities that I've ever visited, and considering that I've been to 33 countries and all 50 states (plus Puerto Rico), that's saying a lot. Now the people there were very warm and friendly and interesting to talk to, and there were many famous places to see and visit, but that did not change the impression one got when walking around the city or coming from, and going to, the airport.

OCU

The real problem is that it would appear that many people have no idea that there's a low-beam setting.

Now in the case of my 2021 GMC Terrain, the low-beams are well behaved, with a very distinct cut-off, well below the height of most automobile front windshields. Also, my car has an automatic high/low beam control system, which works very well, at least as good as I would be able to manually control the high/low beams.

OCU