While it was a year that tested me in many ways it was really nice to get all the birthday wishes here, on the social media sites and even donations to the site and phone calls and so on…Thank You guys, it really is nice to get those.
Y’all are the best!
Around the end of the year I always start thinking about the things I have seen in my lifetime. I was born in 1957 heres: some facts about 1957:
Average Cost of new house $12,220.00
Average Monthly Rent $90.00
Average Yearly Wages $4.550.00
Cost of a gallon of Gas 24 cents
Asian Flu pandemic World wide the death toll thought to be in excess of 1 million
USSR launches Sputnik 1 on inaugurating the Space Age and the Space Race
The House for Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) convicts a number of writers and playwright’s for Un-American Activities / Communist party membership
US President was Dwight D. Eisenhower
Elvis Presley purchases a mansion in Memphis, Tennessee and calls it Graceland
The Cavern Club opens in Liverpool ( Where the Beetle’s started )
The Film Jailhouse Rock premiers with Elvis Presley
“American Bandstand” the teenagers chart music show makes its network debut on ABC
Popular Films
The Ten Commandments
Around the World in Eighty Days
12 Angry men
Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley
The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Three Faces of Eve
Popular Books
The Cat in the Hat – Dr. Seuss
From Russia with Love – Ian Fleming
The Guns of Navarone – Alistair MacLean
Even in high school in the mid 70s I could never have imagined what we call the internet, or CD’s or DVD’s.
So I was thinking tonight that with technology at the pace that it is it is very likely that the first person who will live to be 200 years old has already been born and given that and the advancements in medicine and healthcare that will happen, so has the first person who will live to be 1000 years old. That’s pretty heavy but in the grand scheme of things it is probably necessary for our survival. If we can extend our lives that long then space travel becomes more feasible, we may actually be able to populate another planet or planets in another solar system well before our sun dies.
I like thinking about things like this, although I won’t be around to see it I think us humans have a very promising long term future, we have proven to be very prolific problem solvers (and creators) and I take an optimistic view of our long term future…anyway back to the topic…Thanks Y’all!
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Thank You To Everyone https://t.co/JD45WbxYV8
RT @MikeSouth1226: Thank You To Everyone https://t.co/JD45WbxYV8
Living to 200 or a 1000 is heavy. Easy to see space travel needed to head off extinction via overpopulation but I’m not wrapping head around longevity as necessary for species survival. IDK might have head stuck in China reversing one child policy come Jan 1st. Citing gender inbalances and need for more workers to support aging population like they didn’t see that coming 40 years ago when they duked out the policy?
Today is youngest’s birthday. She was born in 1989 the year Intel introduced the 486 microprocessor, Microsoft introduced Office with excel spreadsheets and the Artic Blast brought snow to Altamonte Mall (central) Florida. Sims was introduced for Mac.
Thought it would be fun to compare 1957 to 1989
New house…..12,220 vs 125,200
Rent……90 vs 420
Annual wages. 4,550 vs 27,450
Gal gas. 24 vs 97 cents
US 1st Class letter postage 3 vs 25 cents
Some other 1957 prices
Jiffy cake mix 10 cents
Ground Beef 3lb for 89 cents
Campbell’s tomato soup 10 cents
Kellogs Shredded Wheat 18 cents
Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls 23 cents
Loaf of bread 19 cents
One more interesting tidbit….today’s ECONOMY sizes are smaller than the standard size then for lots of stuff including dish soap. Mike knows what color the 48oz Octogon dish soap was 😉
Prices have really went up, especially during the high inflation days of the Ford and (especially) Carter and early Reagan administrations. My father bought a new Dodge 3/4 ton single-cab truck in late 1979 or early 1980 for $5K. By 1985 a similarly equipped truck was $12K (and the dealers used to just about faint when people paid with a cashier’s check written for the full price for a new vehicle back then, the finance department managers at car dealers used to hate me for that as most of a dealership’s and finance manager’s revenue was and still is loan origination fees and extended warranties). Now it rings up at $40K!
I wonder if us humans really have much longer on the planet. Species die out all the time. When scientists warn about global warming they’re usually referencing the rise in CO2, which is an invisible greenhouse gas. About ten years ago there was a documentary titled “The Dimming of the Sun” and it suggested the other stuff in the air, the dirty particles, was keeping Global warming at bay because dirty particles in the air keeps a lot of the solar energy from striking the ground. The doc had many examples of where a few decades ago there was more sunlight reaching us and now it’s not..depending on where you are on the planet.
Now get this, it’s possible that if we actually clean the dirty stuff out of the air the sunlight will finally get through to the ground and that, combined with the high amount of CO2 trapping the reflective heat, will COOK THE FREAKING PLANET!
Oh, by the way about 30 years ago before global warming was discussed much I read an article in Newsweek or Time about the burning of the Amazon forests and I got depressed because I felt that was the end of the world. I still believe it.
Finally just to freak you out have you ever seen the graph where the earth cooled during World War 2? I think that kind of proves how much humankind affects the planet because people couldn’t do shit due to shortages during WW2 so they and the world chilled out. How come nobody ever mentions this?
@MikeSouth1226 Oh no! I missed your birthday! Happy belated birthday Mike. ????????????????