Bits and Pieces 

The End of the World As We Know It 

On December 17, I gave you my two cents on one of 2021’s hottest topics – the Metaverse. I said it’s real. It’s hugely important. And it’s already in motion.

Battles will be fought. Fortunes will be made. The world as we know it will be transformed. And a surprising amount of this will happen in the next 10 years.

Since it is something that is changing our lives, I am going to bring you bits and pieces of news on the Metaverse when I come across them. Here are a few:

* TikTok, the 2016 Chinese app, became the world’s most visited social media platform in 2021, according to Cloudfire. Shockingly, it surpassed even Alphabet’s Google.  Click here.

* TikTok was already huge in China when it caught fire in the US in 2020, thanks to mindlessly entertaining videos, such as Idaho resident Nathan Apodaca skateboarding and drinking Ocean Spray cranberry juice while listening to Fleetwood Mac. Click here.

 

 Seems Like Tilted Justice 

On a brief rabbit hole dive last week, I happened upon two stories about justice that seemed equally out of step with my expectations.

In one case, a truck driver was given a 110-year jail sentence for a deadly accident.

In another case, a bodybuilder on a steroid rage got only 14 years for brutally beating and stabbing his girlfriend.

 

No, It’s Not Covid…

Fentanyl-related drug overdoses became the top killer in adults aged 18 to 45, overtaking suicides, vehicle accidents, and gun violence, according to an analysis of CDC data by the nonprofit group Families Against Fentanyl.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that can be 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. It is highly addictive, and increasingly deadly. The reason it’s so deadly is that it’s used in all sorts of illegal drugs (most commonly pain killers like Oxycodone), and users are often unaware that their drug of choice has been laced with it.

According to the DEA, most fentanyl is manufactured in Mexico using chemicals supplied from China and trafficked across the southern border by Mexican drug cartels.

You can learn more about fentanyl use by going to Families Against Fentanyl.

 

Did Fauci Torture Beagles? 

 You may have heard that the agency headed by Dr. Fauci (the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) is in the business of torturing dogs. Or you may have heard that this story was fake news. And have you ever heard of meta-myths?

Click here to read a brilliant report on the heights and depths of bias in news reporting today.

 

Pedophiles Deserve Respect Too! 

The latest from the super-Woke is a campaign to wake up America to the fact that pedophiles are not – as some think – monsters. No. They are very ordinary people with the same hopes, dreams, and desires as the rest of us. They just happen to be attracted to children.

I’m not kidding. Click here.

 

The NFT Market Blew Up in 2021 

In 2020, NFTs were the new kid on the wealth-seeking block. Skeptical investors bet $100 million on them. In 2021 – spurred by the $69 million purchase of an NFT “created” by some crackpot named Beeple – that number skyrocketed to $22 billion.

That brought in the hedge-fund art crazies that bid heavily at auction houses that started offering more NFT sales. Soon thereafter, even respected museums were selling NFTs based on some of their best-known and most valuable pieces.

Also in on the craze: Hollywood celebrities (e.g.,  Jimmy Fallon, Keanu Reeves), sports figures, and even Melania Trump.

According to DappRadar, $4 billion worth of NFTs were sold in the first half of the year. In the second half, a remarkable $18 billion.

 

Female Athletes Begin to Speak Out Against Competing With Transgender Athletes 

Most female athletes being pushed out of competition by biologically born males (who are much stronger and faster) say nothing, even as records in women’s sports are being advanced far beyond what any woman will ever be able to reach.

But recently, a young athletes have started to spoken out:

 

 And a US swimming official has just quit over this issue:

 

On a Lighter Note in the Male vs. Female Sports Universe… 

Two Olympic-level female gymnasts watching men performing gymnastic routines typically done by women:

 

Carl Sagan Was Right 

Carl Sagan talking to Johnny Carson in 1995 about what the world would look like in 2021:

 

Master Ken Appears Again! 

Here’s Renato Tavares, one of my Brazilian Jiu Jitu professors, posing with Master Ken, my favorite martial arts comedian:

 

 The Holiday Suicide Myth 

It’s a myth that suicides spike around the holidays. So says my friend and colleague Dr. David Eifrig.

The truth, he says, is that November and December see the fewest suicides.

What does increase during the holidays?

Depression, he says. Depression rates rise around the winter holidays for a simple reason – stress. And since stress is a major contributor to mental and physical health problems, there’s an increase in all death rates in January and February.

 

Urban Violence Update 

On December 20, ,  I reported on the increase in violent crime in just about every large American city. Mayors of those cities, who once advocated defunding the police, are talking tough. Still, the violence continues. Here are a few recent stories that are especially embarrassing for said mayors:

* Congresswoman carjacked in broad daylight in Philadelphia. Click here.

* Illinois state senator carjacked in suburban Chicago. Click here.

* Mayor Lightfoot pleads for federal help after having refused it from Trump. Click here.

 

Speaking of Violence…

By a wide margin, most violent crimes are committed by males between the ages of 16 and 40. But in researching the above urban-violence stories, I came across these rather bizarre acts of violence by and against women:

 * Woman who shot at car thought she was recorded urinating in parking lot. Click here.

* Female officer brutally attacked by suspect high on PCP. Click here.

* Pregnant librarian killed in alleged road rage shooting. Click here.

 

Worth Quoting: Writers on the Craft of Writing

* “The difference between good and great is often an extra round of revision. The person who looks things over a second time will appear smarter or more talented, but actually is just polishing things a bit more. Take the time to get it right. Revise it one extra time.” – James Clear

* “I thought of myself as like the jazz musician: someone who practices and practices and practices in order to be able to invent and to make his art look effortless and graceful. I was always conscious of the constructed aspect of the writing process, and that art appears natural and elegant only as a result of constant practice and awareness of its formal structures.” – Toni Morrison

 

Good and Bad Conversations 

These days, good, productive conversations between people with differing views have become practically extinct.

This is what a bad conversation sounds like – Trevor Noah being interviewed by a Woke journalist:

 

This is what a good conversation sounds like – Russell Brand and Jordan Peterson:

 

3 Words to Consider 

* Orotund – a word I’ve long misunderstood: Yes, it does mean “round and full,” but not in the sense of the human body. It comes from the Latin ore rotundo (“with rounded mouth”), and refers to sound. Example: “My own voice, orotund sweeping and final.” (Walt Whitman) 

* Adventitious – a word I keep forgetting: It means occurring by chance or in an unusual place or manner. You use it to talk about things that just kind of happen. Example: “The adventitious beauty of poetry may be felt in the greater delight with a verse given in a happy quotation than in the poem.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

* Absquatulate – a word I absolutely must work into a future conversation: According to vocabulary.com, absquatulate “is a deeply silly word that means to make off with something or someone. Why say a thief ran away with your money when it’s much more fun to say he absquatulated with it? It came out of an odd fad in America in the 1830s for making playful words that sounded vaguely Latin. Bloviate and discombobulate are two other pseudo-Latin coinages from that era.”

 

Readers Write: Recent Letters to Moi 

 Comments on the holiday party advice article: 

“I almost choked laughing at the tips for holiday Christmas parties.” – MF

“I am guilty of at least three of the bad behaviors you warn against, including taking the after party to a karaoke bar!” – FL

 

Comments on the Old Man Humor issue: 

“I’m not an old man, but I thought some of those old man cartoons were hysterically funny!” – FC

 “Sounds like your Myrtle Beach group is a lot of fun. Thanks for the laughs.” – GP

“Yes, you and your friends are in need of humor repair intervention.” – AS