What Just Happened?

My friend Tracy and me at the Democratic Watch Party in Little Rock last night. 

   I had trouble sleeping last night. I considered cancelling my classes today. Instead, I came to work dressed in solid black. One of my co-workers came to my office and asked me if I was okay. Not really. I stayed up late in Little Rock at the Democratic Watch Party last night. It was packed full of bright and interesting people. I saw wigs and pearls, Hillary t-shirts, business suits, glitter and heels. I saw a few men dressed in drag, and someone who looked like Bernie Sanders. I sat outside with my friends Tracy and Audrey around 10:00 pm, and a lady in a white dress jacket came out and said, "How the hell did we pass marijuana, but we can't carry a damn democrat in the state?" Interesting point. Arkansas continues to be a political enigma. 

   One of my friends from Germany texted me early this morning. She said she thought the news of Trump winning the election was a joke, and then she offered me a place to stay. She was serious.  

   I cannot see how a person who exemplifies male toxicity by intimidating and belittling women has won a democratic election over another person, who, by ANY account, is simply THE MOST QUALIFIED, THE MOST EXPERIENCED, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE in the HISTORY OF THE WORLD. And the part that turns my stomach is the fact that THE MOST QUALIFIED, MOST EXPERIENCED, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD just happened to be a woman.

   What the $%@# is going on here?? 

Funniest Saturday Night Live Skit EVER - The Second Presidential Debate

    As hard as it was to watch the real second Presidential Debate, the SNL skit that followed was pure gold. Thanks to my friend Nathan for showing it to me. 

Hillary Cleans Trump's Clock For The Third Time

   The third and final Presidential Debate was arguably the best one between candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, largely due to Chris Wallace's mastery at being a tenacious and well-prepared moderator. I was nervous about the debate, considering how tense and unprofessional the second debate had been. When Donald Trump becomes unglued, he appears to be capable of nearly anything. His physical lurking behind Hillary at the second debate was unnerving and inappropriate on all levels. Near the end of the final debate last night, Hillary once again showed the world how very capable she is at staying calm and measured in the face of a brutal storm. Trump, who was apparently aware that Hillary had cleaned his clock for the third time in a row, called her "such a nasty woman" after she jabbed him rather craftily in her statement about taxes and social security. I'm sure Trump's last handful of fans cheered loudly when he said that, and Hillary gained a new following of "nasty" women!

You're Scaring The Women And Children, Donald Trump

Trump and Hillary Clinton at the second Presidential Debate. Photo credit: The Chicago Tribune

    This debate was hard to watch. It was tense, unsettling, and frightening. I noticed people in the audience, including Trump's wife and daughter, looked scared at times. 
   Trump was in full-attack mode, which has probably always served him well in the past. I am surprised Hillary managed to hold herself together as well as she did. She definitely took the "high road" most of the night. 
   In light of Trump's most recently uncovered bad behavior, debate moderator Anderson Cooper minced no words when he asked Trump if he was really bragging about sexual assault when he said on tape years ago, "Grab them by the p___y." Trump repeatedly stated that it was just "locker room talk" and then he started talking about how horrible ISIS is.  (Seriously?)
   Trump attacked Bill Clinton, who looked kind of sad sitting up in the balcony. Some of the Clintons' ghosts from the past even sat together at the debate (Kathleen Willey, Juanita Broadderick, and Kathy Shelton), presumably to show support for Trump. 
   Clinton stayed impressively calm throughout the 90-minute "scorched-earth debate", as CNN called it. Trump's body language was aggressive enough I wondered if he'd actually hit Hillary.
   Trump is losing and he knows it. His gloves were off, and he went for Hillary and Bill's throats. He reminds me a little of the Hulk. When things aren't going the way he wants them to, Trump gets mad and TRUMP SMASH!!!! TRUMP SMASH HILLARY!!!

Image credit: King & McGaw

   

Did We Already Find Life On Mars?

Gilbert Levin describes the results from NASA's Viking Mars missions (1970s). 

Why Aren't We Looking For Life On Mars?

"It is unfortunate that the Mars 2020 rover currently being developed by NASA has no experiments designed to detect living organisms on the Red Planet. It will be looking only for "signs of past life." Gilbert Levin's Labeled Release (LR) Experimental Data was indicative of active metabolism in the Martian regolith during the Viking I and Viking 2 Lander missions in the 1970s. The Viking LR data was dismissed as due to unexplained "alien chemistry" rather than biology. Even though all efforts to replicate the Viking LR data by abiotic means have failed, not a single subsequent NASA mission to Mars has searched for living microbes or evidence for ancient life. Subsequent NASA, ESA and Russian missions have established that there are vast amounts of near surface water ice and permafrost even at mid-latitudes on Mars. It is now known that on Earth microorganisms do live and grow in polar ice and permafrost. Hence there is no valid scientific reason to dismiss the Viking LR results. In consideration of Planetary Protection Protocols it is of profound importance that experiments designed to search for indigenous life on Mars be carried out before the Red Planet is hopelessly contaminated by a manned mission."


                      -Astrobiologist Richard B. Hoover
                                        August 29, 2016

Dinner With Doctors (the Ph.D. kind)

"Balanced meals 

are a bitch."

-Dr. Paula P.

"I would think one could live quite nicely on oatmeal cookies."

-Dr. Bill B.