One of the characteristics of successful people is a belief in free will. Basically, that you are in control of your destiny.
A characteristic of all of the people I've met that never seem to get their shit together is a very strong belief in a spiritual being/force or "Universal Energy" that has great influence on their lives.
I now understand that they have been unsuccessful because they believe this other-worldly power needs to be placated, and they believe they are failing to do so.

When you have no moral bearing, logic will take you into many dark places.
If you know that you have no moral bearing, recognize that you may also lack discernment about the information you are using in your logic.

Are there any free, online relational databases out there that I can trust?
I'm about to re-architect my COVID dashboard for San Francisco off of Google docs. This isn't a commercial venture, just a labor of love. It's going to be pretty small, with very little utilization as I'll be caching the results elsewhere.

If the 3.8B years that life existed on Earth were compressed to 24 hours, flowers would only have appeared at 11:10pm.

What if a government used AI to mold a society that has empathy and a morality that supports the peaceful progress of the community? This could be the more optimal governing policy than democracy. Plenty of pitfalls, though.

What is right?
What is wrong?

Without a common moral standard there is no means to discuss the topic.

Those that lack empathy will not comprehend many morally-wrong issues.

It's not worth starting down that path until you first, explicitly, recognize the lack of empathy.

That might be the only common ground achieved during the argument.

Ask yourself when viewing the output from media: Does this show have a moral foundation, or are they feeding off of your primal fears?

Ask yourself when arguing with family members this holiday season: Are they starting from a position of compassion or empathy?

"Discipline" trumps "intelligence" as an influence on success.

There are plenty of successful people that are stupid yet disciplined.

There are plenty of unsuccessful people that are intelligent yet undisciplined.

And, those that are both intelligent and disciplined have the tools to do extraordinary things.

If there is a universal ethic in the universe, I wonder if humanity deserves its terrifying fate because it caused climate change.

Or, will an offshoot species - one that is less aggressive and less prone to stupidity - be the one to survive and propagate off-planet centuries from now?

Here is one of my projects being announced: https://www.wraltechwire.com/2021/11/15/wireless-research-center-advanced-mobility-collective-launch-foresttech-center/

The wine snobs in Los Olivos seem a lot different from those in Napa. (Damn if I can't figure out how to turn the photo 90 degrees)

Hysterical, yet informative: https://youtu.be/mlChFvmmSQM

I guess we're still being ruled by half-wits that are trying to placate a sky fairy and avoid a subterranean fire troll by railroading their magic beliefs onto our society.

2 hours into my Moderna Booster.
Is this supposed to feel like I had a martini?
The migraine is subsiding and now I'm getting tired.

Freedom without maturity and discernment will not help the species progress.

Say goodbye to Mars. It's slipping behind the Sun tomorrow for a couple of weeks!
https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/01/world/mars-solar-conjunction-2021-scn/index.html

Hiding behind her "religion" to not seek vaccination (no cogent argument provided), and now fired from her teaching job: https://www.cnn.com/videos/health/2021/10/01/new-york-city-teachers-vaccine-mandate-unvaccinated-nr-vpx.cnn