This is where the current political situation in the States all started folks!!!

 Biden was on TV tonight, and he warned us how "Oligarchs" were taking over the country, kids!

Well, let me tell ya something... bunky!

This "shit show" started a looooooong time ago folks:

BUT... JOE DID WARN US ABOUT THE "TECH-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX" THIS TIME AROUND!

(What goes around... comes around...eh?)

UNSTUCK!

 Ever since I became UNSTUCK in time... every new day has been an adventure... until today!

This morning, I woke up as a 76-year-old man with two artificial hips and a bad knee!

I would say this REALLY sucks... if it wasn't for the alternative!

Let's hear it for the Band!

 It's been a long time since we told everyone just how much we appreciate all the members of the Perspective Research Department... so I think it's rather fitting that we recognize them once again for all the great work they do! (Instead of that raise they all keep wanting!)

               Nancy                Wanda             Jim        My neighbour George!

This will probably be REALLY boring... but when ya gotta write... ya gotta write!

I posed a question to my A.I. computer "HAL 9000" 

Q. "When life first arose on this planet how many different elemental life forms originated from this?"

A. HAL 9000 said!

1. Single Origin Hypothesis

• Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA): Evidence suggests that all life on Earth shares a common ancestor. LUCA likely arose from a single or small group of primordial systems that were biochemically similar.
• This suggests that there was one elemental "life form" that successfully adapted and became the progenitor of all known life.

2. Prebiotic Chemistry

• Before LUCA, Earth's environment may have supported multiple self-replicating molecular systems (e.g., RNA or other biopolymers). These systems might have competed, with only one (or a few) evolving into what we now recognize as life.
• These early systems could be thought of as protolife forms, but they lacked the complexity of modern life.

3. Elemental Composition

• All life as we know it is based on a few key elements: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur (CHONPS). While the combinations and molecular structures could have varied, there is no evidence for fundamentally different elemental life forms arising independently.

4. Hypothetical Alternative Life Forms

• If we speculate about multiple "elemental life forms" (e.g., silicon-based instead of carbon-based), there’s no direct evidence that such systems arose on early Earth. Earth’s conditions strongly favored carbon-based life due to its chemical versatility and abundance.

Conclusion

The origin of life likely involved the emergence of one or very few types of biochemical systems capable of self-replication and evolution. While different molecular experiments might have occurred in the prebiotic soup, only one lineage—LUCA's—survived and diversified into all the life forms we see today.

YOU THEN SAID:

You talk about "one elemental life form" and yet I understand that there are at least two... one that produced humans... and the other produced bacteria!

HAL 9000 said:

Your understanding highlights a key distinction, but it’s based on a misunderstanding of the evolutionary relationships between humans and bacteria. 

Let me clarify:

Humans and Bacteria Share a Common Ancestor

• Both humans (eukaryotes) and bacteria (prokaryotes) evolved from the same Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA).
• LUCA was not a fully modern cell but likely a primitive, single-celled organism that already had the genetic and biochemical machinery shared by all life today (e.g., DNA, RNA, proteins, and a lipid membrane).

Divergence After LUCA

• After LUCA, life diverged into three main domains:
  1. Bacteria: Single-celled organisms with simple structures and no nucleus.
  2. Archaea: Single-celled organisms similar to bacteria but with different biochemistry.
  3. Eukaryotes: Organisms with more complex cells that include a nucleus and microtubules, which eventually gave rise to humans, plants, fungi, and many other forms of life.

This means humans and bacteria represent two different branches of the tree of life, but both ultimately come from the same "elemental life form" — LUCA.

Why It Might Seem Like Two Origins

You might think of bacteria and humans as arising from separate origins because of how vastly different they are today. However:

• The apparent "two forms" you refer to are better explained as the result of evolutionary divergence over billions of years.
• Bacteria represent a lineage that remained relatively simple, while humans are part of a lineage that evolved greater complexity.

Alternative Hypotheses

It’s worth noting:

• Some scientists speculate that there might have been multiple proto-life systems on early Earth. While LUCA's lineage succeeded, other potential forms of life (based on different biochemistries) may have failed and left no descendants.
• This is not the same as suggesting bacteria and humans arose independently. Both are part of the same evolutionary story.

Summary

There weren’t two separate "elemental life forms" that originated to produce humans and bacteria. Both humans and bacteria are descendants of LUCA, a single origin for life as we know it. The diversity we see today is a result of billions of years of evolution from that common starting point.

***

Well folks... the corollary of this story is that even if HAL 9000 doesn't share any of our "Divine" human attributes like joy, sadness, love of music, awe and wonder, beauty, instinct and intuition, hunches, those "eureka" moments... and on and on... but... WHAT IT DID HERE IS PRETTY DAMNED IMPRESSIVE!

Allan

P.S. If ANYONE was interested enough to read all the way down to HERE... for God's sake please let me know!!!!!!

More Letters!

 We got this question in the mail today:

Is Donald Trump overplaying his hand, with Canada? Canada is the US' largest trading partner, and has a population of 40 million people... Is it really wise for Trump to be playing confrontational power games with Canada... that will hurt us both?

To which Barbara Hunter replied: 

No but he is not known as the brightest light bulb in the chandelier. Ontario’s premiere, Doug Ford, has already promised if Trump goes ahead with the tariffs he will order all electricity to over millions of Americans turned off immediately. (Ever heard of Niagara Falls? The power plants are on OUR side; not to mention all the power generation coming from the province of Quebec, our next door provincial neighbour.)

I am not a fan of our premier... but on this issue... I applaud him. Stay tuned. Canadians are so fed up with Trump`s bullshit about annexing Canada, calling us the 51st state, and disrespecting our Prime Minister by calling him “Governor” and not “Mr. Prime Minister”…. we have had enough!

I can’t wait when Prime Minister Trudeau calls for tariffs on our softwood lumber exports to the States (that`s what most of your homes are built with - Canadian softwood lumber); oil for manufacturing plants to operate and oh yeah, gasoline to run your cars. 

Trump has invited the biggest shit show to happen since we burned down your White House in 1814 when the American powers that be thought they could easily take over Canada. 

What an eye-opener that was! 

I think Trump forgets that we are a NATO country and a member of the Commonwealth of Nations; both groups of countries who would jump right in there to support us.

It is very, very sad.  

Barbara Hunter.

***

Well, remember this, Barbara...

Politicians tried to have Drumpf declared NUTS the last time around! (25th Amendment!)

This time, they might have a better case!!!!!!!!

You Americans are CRAZY!

 Do I have to remind you that the last time you elected that asshole Drumpf.. there were people in the Government who were seriously looking for ways to implement that clause in the U.S. Constitution for removing a President who is CRAZY!

Well, here it is, the beginning of January... (and Donald isn't even the President yet) but, so far, he's threatened to invade Greenland and Panama... AND... annex Canada! 

PLUS: He wants to get out of NATO and any climate deals the U.S. has made... he wants to let the Ukrainians sink... he might want war with Iran... and he wants to retreat from world trade!

Get ready for the shit to hit the fan folks!

WINTER!!!!!

So far here in London Ontario... we have been rather lucky about the bad weather we got this year! 

However! Over the past few days... most of N.E. North America has been reminded what WINTER is all about!!!!!     (Our neighbourhood!)

Sunday Morning Funnies! Dumb Blonde Joke!

Two workmen had been sent to measure the height of a flagpole, but it was too high for their ladder. A blonde Swedish guy passed them and asked what the problem was... and thought he could help. 

Using an adjusting spanner (wrench/ crescent??) from his toolbox, he loosened a nut and removed a bolt, and they lowered the pole until it was horizontal. 

He then produced a tape measure and told them it was 32 ft 6 ins. 

After the pole was upright and the bolt replaced he left. 

Typical blonde grumbled one of the men. 

We need the height and he gives us the length!

Just so ya know!

 If you want to know just what sort of assholes the Republicans really are: HAVE A GANDER AT THIS!!!!!

SUNDAY MORNING "NOT SO FUNNY!"

 O.K. kids, let's get things 'back into perspective' here! (God I love that word!) 

The United States of America is the biggest... baddest... military power the world has ever seen!

Russia is - at best- a regional power!

***

Except for the fact that they have nuclear weapons... which Putin isn't crazy enough to use...  kids... they should be told that the war is over... and get out of Ukrainian territory! NOW!

OR ELSE!

Let me set you straight!

I came into the living room... just as my wife was watching the "daily TV mass," so... for want of something better to do... I sat down and listened to the homily!

After a couple of minutes 'The Mrs. Herself' had to go check on something on the stove... and seeing a good opportunity... I switched the TV to the news channel! 

***

Lo and behold... there was Trump... and he acted EXACTLY like the priest that had been doing his Catholic Mass thing!

Now I don't mean that what they SAID... was similar... what I mean is that "the way they said it" was exactly the same!

Makes ya kind of wonder...eh?

(For best results... listen with the sound OFF!)

Happy New Year...! (Except for the women in Afghanistan!)

 The Taliban have banned windows in residential buildings to stop women from being seen while they are at home in Afghanistan.

Hibatullah Akhundzada, the leader of the Taliban, ordered that buildings should not have windows looking into places where a woman could be sitting or standing.

The order applies to both new buildings and existing ones, according to a four-clause decree posted on social media site X (formerly Twitter) late on Saturday.

The decree, posted by government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid on X, states that new buildings should not have windows where you can see “the courtyard, kitchen, neighbour’s well and other places usually used by women”, AFP reports.

“Seeing women working in kitchens, in courtyards or collecting water from wells can lead to obscene acts.”

Heather Barr, the interim deputy director of women’s rights at Human Rights Watch, told The Independent: “People have talked about the Taliban metaphorically erasing women, but increasingly, it is not metaphorical at all.

“They have already ordered that women’s voices shouldn’t be heard in public, and now they are essentially stopping women from even looking out of the window.

“They are stopping women from being seen. They are stopping women from seeing the world. It’s a total annihilation of women’s personhood and it is clearly ongoing. We don’t have any idea where this will end.”

The Taliban, a hardline Islamist group that previously ruled Afghanistan, has blocked women from the workplace, education and public spaces, as well as barring them from taking part in all sports, since seizing power after US and British forces withdrew in 2021.

THE STATE OF THE UNION!

 When my parents brought me to Canada from war-torn Europe... the first thing my dad did was to find out what his OBLIGATIONS were in our newly adopted country!

Today... when immigrants get here from wherever... the first thing they want to know is what their "RIGHTS" are!

Maybe that's why we're having all this trouble now!

Guess what THIS is selling?

 See this picture?

Quick... without thinking... what are they trying to sell?

NO... not tits!

WIGS!

That's right, kids... they just put those breasts in there to get people (men) to subliminally look at the ad!!!!

(AND.... did ya notice where the guy's left hand is?)

Tsk tsk!

VIVA CANADA!

 

Wake Up Woke!

 My political leanings are Democrats in the States... and Conservatives in Canada! (They are both about the same!)

Just because I'm a Democrat down south... that does not mean I like anything about the WOKE movement that is sweeping America!

HERE IS ONE OF THE BEST EXAMPLES OF WHY: 

"Expert Claims Parents Should Ask Babies For Consent... Before Changing Their Diapers..."

I rest my case!

Saturday Morning Confusion: What life is all about!!!!!

I am in the last stages of writing my book about the "Meaning of Life..." but rather than go through a bunch of philosophical bullshit and complex explanations... I thought I would make this simple for you!
 

 By The Way, if you're wondering how I came up with the title "Saturday Morning Confusion" for the weekend blogs... it stems from this song by Bobby Russell!

 

12 pictures of the sun, each month, same place, same time!

 

Post Christmas!

 Santa didn't just use his sleigh to deliver presents to kids this year...

AND:

Here's a picture of Santa today... (boxing day...) relaxing at the North Pole!

Hey kids... wanna see how we celebrate Christmas in London, Ontario?

Actually, no one else in London has ANY lights on their house... because we took them all... and used them for this one display!!!!!

Not bad... eh?