Build Your Team Before You Look for the Home

Real estate may look like a one-man decision, but the smart buyer knows better. A good team sees what you miss, questions what you assume, and protects you from the deal that looks good until it becomes yours. — YNOT [I AM STILL ADDING TO THIS POST] Most people think buying real estate is a solo mission. They picture themselves finding the house, making the offer, signing the papers, and walking away with the keys like they just won the game. But real estate does not work like that. A house is too big, too expensive, too complicated, and … Continue readingBuild Your Team Before You Look for the Home

Sole Proprietor , LLC or Corporation? Don’t Build a Business Structure for Your Ego.

Don’t form an LLC to look like a real estate investor. Form one when the numbers, the liability, and the future plan say it actually makes sense. — YNOT Maybe. That is the honest answer. A lot of people think forming an LLC or corporation makes them look more professional, more serious, or more “official.” But real estate does not care about your ego. The numbers care. The bank cares. The tax rules care. Liability cares. Before you rush to form a company, talk to your tax advisor and maybe even a real estate attorney. There are times when it … Continue readingSole Proprietor , LLC or Corporation? Don’t Build a Business Structure for Your Ego.

The Best Places to Invest in Real Estate Over the Next Five Years

Don’t buy where prices have already risen. Buy where the reasons for rising prices are just beginning. — YNOT   Everyone wants to know where real estate prices are going next. The better question is: Why do some places continue to create wealth while others stagnate? Too many investors chase yesterday’s winners. They see headlines about cities where home prices doubled over the past five years and assume the trend will continue indefinitely. Sometimes it does. Often it doesn’t. Real estate has always rewarded those who understand fundamentals rather than those who follow the crowd. People Create Value Houses … Continue readingThe Best Places to Invest in Real Estate Over the Next Five Years

🍎 An Apple a Day Keeps Your Kidneys Working Well

An apple a day won’t make you immortal—but it just might help the organs that keep you alive do their job a little longer. — YNOT We’ve all heard the old saying: “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” As it turns out, there may be more truth to that than our grandparents realized. Your kidneys are among the hardest-working organs in your body. Every single day they filter roughly 50 gallons of blood, removing waste, balancing minerals, regulating blood pressure, and helping keep every cell in your body functioning properly. Unlike your liver, they have very little ability … Continue reading🍎 An Apple a Day Keeps Your Kidneys Working Well

Is AI Helping or Hurting Our Children?

AI will not determine the future of our children. The habits they build while using AI will. Teach them to think first, question often, and let AI be a tool—not a substitute for their minds. — YNOT Every generation inherits a new tool. The question is never whether the tool is powerful. The question is whether the tool is making us more capable—or making us dependent. Artificial Intelligence may become one of the greatest educational inventions in history. Imagine every child having access to a patient tutor that can explain algebra ten different ways, teach a new language, help … Continue readingIs AI Helping or Hurting Our Children?

We Don’t Know Water as Well as We Think

The greatest illusion of humanity is not that we know too little. It’s that we think we know so much. Every discovery reminds us that the universe is far stranger than we ever imagined. — YNOT   We tend to think of water as one of the simplest things on Earth. It’s Hâ‚‚O. We drink it, swim in it, wash with it, and rarely give it a second thought. But here’s the surprising part… Scientists are still discovering fundamental things about water. A new study published in Nature Physics suggests that liquid water may not behave as one uniform … Continue readingWe Don’t Know Water as Well as We Think

The Most Expensive Advice Is the Advice You Get for Free

I know it’s a little ironic to give you free advice about not taking free advice. But if this is the one free piece of advice you actually follow, it might be the most valuable thing you never paid for. — YNOT! One of the strangest things I’ve noticed over the years is this: People will spend $80,000 on a new pickup truck they don’t really need, $1,500 on the latest phone, or hundreds of dollars every month eating out. Then they’ll hesitate to spend $50 on a book, $200 on a course, or $500 talking to someone who … Continue readingThe Most Expensive Advice Is the Advice You Get for Free

The Name We Carry

The fireworks had not yet begun. The evening air was still, the kind of July heat that lingered long after the sun had disappeared below the horizon. Across the neighborhood, American flags stirred lazily in the breeze. Somewhere in the distance a marching band rehearsed one last patriotic tune before darkness would bring the celebrations. Jack Calloway sat on the porch exactly where he had sat every Fourth of July for nearly thirty years. His grandchildren knew the routine. When Grandpa sat in that chair with a glass of iced tea and the old walnut box beside him, there would … Continue readingThe Name We Carry

My thoughts on this 250th July Fourth

I have always admired the Fourth of July. It is the one day in the year when Americans agree to look in the same direction, even if it is only upward, and even if the thing they are admiring is exploding. My dad shooting his rifle into the air. (yeah nuts) There is poetry in that. A firework is a perfect American sermon. It begins with a fuse, makes a great deal of noise, rises higher than good sense would recommend, bursts into glory, frightens the livestock, delights the children, and leaves behind a smell of smoke and debt. It … Continue readingMy thoughts on this 250th July Fourth

America at 250: A Toast to the American Experiment

It was July 4, 2026, although time had long since past this point.  At the end of the universe, where the stars had burned down to embers and eternity had pulled up a chair, there stood a bar with no name over the door. It did not need one. Everybody who arrived there already knew they had come to the last place. Behind the counter stood a bartender polishing a glass that had never been dirty. At a round table near the window — if you could call a view of collapsing galaxies a window — sat five Americans … Continue readingAmerica at 250: A Toast to the American Experiment

How to turn a Nation Into a Mortuary and how to escape.

A regime can imprison the body, starve the home, and silence the street — but its final victory only comes when it captures the mind. Free the mind, and the chains have already begun to break. –YNOT! Cuba was not destroyed in one day. It was not one speech, one law, one prison, one firing squad, one ration card, one exile boat, or one family split across the ocean. It was a system. That is the part people need to understand. A bad government can rob your wallet. A totalitarian government tries to rob your memory, your language, your faith, … Continue readingHow to turn a Nation Into a Mortuary and how to escape.

The Cheapest Superpower You’ll Ever Buy – Reading

Books are gyms for the mind. Every page you read is another rep that makes your thinking stronger. — YNOT! There is an old saying that if you want to hide something from people, put it in a book. That saying may have been a joke once, but in the age of endless scrolling, it is starting to sound like a scientific observation. Scientists are now telling us something that many of us suspected all along: reading doesn’t merely fill your head with information. It literally changes your brain. Think about that for a moment. You can buy supplements … Continue readingThe Cheapest Superpower You’ll Ever Buy – Reading

Tattoos Are Not Just Skin Deep –

A tattoo may be art to the eye, but to the immune system it is an unsolved case file that never truly closes. — YNOT! Most people think a tattoo is just ink under the skin. It is not. A tattoo is a permanent foreign material deposit that your immune system has to manage for the rest of your life. The Immune System Never Forgets the Ink. A recent PNAS study found that tattoo ink does not simply stay where the artist puts it. In mouse models, pigment particles quickly moved through the lymphatic system and accumulated in nearby lymph nodes. … Continue readingTattoos Are Not Just Skin Deep –

The Age of the Custom Shovel

  The future of computing isn’t one-size-fits-all software. It’s a custom shovel you can redesign every time the ground changes. — YNOT! Imagine you need to dig a hole. You have two choices. The first is simple: walk into the garage, grab the only shovel you own, and start digging. The second is something that barely existed a few years ago: have AI design the perfect shovel for the exact hole you need to dig. Think about it. The shovel hanging in your garage wasn’t designed for you. It wasn’t built for your height, your strength, or your reach. It … Continue readingThe Age of the Custom Shovel

Meet YBOT

Meet YBOT Imagine a librarian who has read every article on this website and never gets tired of questions. That’s me. I can: đź“š Find articles related to your question. 🧠 Explain what this site has written on a topic. 🔍 Connect ideas spread across multiple posts. đź’¬ Answer questions in plain English. When possible, I’ll even show you the exact articles where the information came from.   YBOT: Building an AI That Actually Knows Your Website For years, websites have had search boxes. You type in a question. The website gives you a list of links. Then you click … Continue readingMeet YBOT

Control the High Ground: What Cats Know That Most CEOs Don’t

One thing you learn from cats is this: control the high ground. See first, decide first, and move before you are forced to move. Survival isn’t about size—it’s about awareness. — YNOT The older I get, the more I realize that cats understand something many business owners never do. They understand the value of the high ground. A cat doesn’t climb to the top of a shelf because it’s lazy or because it wants attention. It climbs because elevation gives it information. It can see threats coming, spot opportunities, identify exits, and react before anyone else. Sun Tzu understood this … Continue readingControl the High Ground: What Cats Know That Most CEOs Don’t

When the Next Programmer after you Isn’t Human

For fifty years we wrote documentation for other programmers. Now we write it for the next AI that inherits our mess. — YNOT! Today I met with the kid. I call him a kid because he is half my age, which means he is old enough to be dangerous and young enough to still believe the machine is his friend. He learned to program not too long ago, but he is already good. Very good. And like most of the new generation, he is not programming alone. He is programming with AI. In his case, Claude. So there I was, … Continue readingWhen the Next Programmer after you Isn’t Human

Has the Deep-State Just Been Given Its Two-Week Notice?

The Supreme Court did not abolish the Deep State with one swing of the gavel. Washington is too talented at surviving for that. But it did something almost as dangerous to the permanent bureaucracy: it reminded them that the executive branch has an elected CEO boss. — YNOT! There is a special kind of employee who believes the company cannot fire him because the furniture has grown used to him. Washington, D.C. has been full of that fellow for a long time. He does not run for office. He does not knock on doors. He does not ask the … Continue readingHas the Deep-State Just Been Given Its Two-Week Notice?

The Day After DĂ­az-Canel

It may happen in a single night, or it may take much longer. But the ending does not change. The curtain will rise, the drama will unfold, and history will make its decision. — YNOT! Wars are funny things. Everyone spends years talking about how they begin, and almost nobody spends enough time thinking about what happens the morning after. History teaches us something simple: governments do not collapse in slow motion. They often appear strong right until the moment they break. Then suddenly, the impossible becomes inevitable. If Cuba ever reaches the point of a foreign intervention or … Continue readingThe Day After DĂ­az-Canel

When Time Had a Phone Number

Every convenience we take for granted today was once somebody’s problem. Progress is what happens when need keeps knocking until invention finally answers the door. –YNOT! There was a time when time itself had a phone number. That sounds strange now, almost foolish, because today time is everywhere. It is on your phone, your microwave, your car dashboard, your computer, your television, your thermostat, your security cameras, and half the appliances in your house that are smarter than some of the people running the country. But when I was a kid, time was not something the world handed to … Continue readingWhen Time Had a Phone Number

The G2: The Hidden Machine That Keeps Cuba in Chains

  There are nations that fall because they run out of money. There are nations that fall because they run out of food. There are nations that fall because the lights go out, the factories stop, the roads break, and the people finally understand that the promises were never promises at all. They were bait. But Cuba is different. Cuba has been hungry before. Cuba has been dark before. Cuba has watched its children leave, its hospitals decay, its farms collapse, and its old people stand in lines for bread like prisoners waiting for mercy. And still the regime survived. Why? … Continue readingThe G2: The Hidden Machine That Keeps Cuba in Chains

Cuba Before Castro: The Long Road from Spain’s Chains to a Wounded Republic

“Cuba was not born for chains. It was born through blood, poetry, sacrifice, and rebellion — and every tyrant who tried to own her only proved why her people must be free.” — YNOT! Birthing a country is a painful thing. It does not always begin clean. It does not always end well. And it almost never happens without blood, betrayal, sacrifice, and men arguing over the bones of the future. Cuba was no different. Before Castro. Before communism. Before the firing squads, the exile, the ration books, the political prisons, and the ruined promises. There was another Cuba. A … Continue readingCuba Before Castro: The Long Road from Spain’s Chains to a Wounded Republic

The Mambises: Cuba’s Original Freedom Fighters

Cuba does not need new masters. Cuba needs the old MambĂ­ spirit — the courage to say that no dictator, no party, and no army owns the Cuban people. –YNOT! Before Castro. Before communism. Before the lies, the slogans, the ration books, the political prisons, and the exile of millions. There were the Mambises. The Mambises were the Cuban patriots who fought against Spanish colonial rule in the 19th century. They were the men and women who gave their blood, their land, their families, and their lives so that Cuba could be free. They fought in the Ten Years’ … Continue readingThe Mambises: Cuba’s Original Freedom Fighters

The Castro Family Fortune: Myth, Estimate, or Reality

The revolution promised equality, but it created a royal family in olive-green uniforms while the Cuban people waited in line for bread. –YNOT! One of the most controversial questions surrounding Cuba’s ruling elite is the alleged “treasure” of the Castro family. For decades, rumors, journalistic investigations, defector testimonies, financial estimates, and official denials have surrounded the same question: How much wealth did the Castro family really control? There is no publicly proven, irrefutable number. There is no single bank statement, no official account, no transparent audit showing the full fortune. But there are several major clues that help explain … Continue readingThe Castro Family Fortune: Myth, Estimate, or Reality

Cuba’s Economic Reality: Beyond the Myth of the “Blockade”

The money enters Cuba. The food enters Cuba. The hotels are built. The problem is not the absence of resources — it is who controls them.–YNOT! To understand Cuba’s deep crisis, we have to move beyond ideological slogans and look at the facts: the economic data, the internal power structure, and the way resources are actually controlled on the island. The crisis is often blamed entirely on a suffocating external siege — the so-called “blockade.” But the reality is more complicated, and far more revealing. Cuba’s collapse is not simply the product of foreign pressure or abstract ideology. It … Continue readingCuba’s Economic Reality: Beyond the Myth of the “Blockade”

The Story of Jimmy Jim Stidham

I came across this on Facebook from a gentleman named Jimmy, and it was so well written — such an important and meaningful story — that I’m excited to share it on my blog. Thank you,  — YNOT! Communism through (my) ages: 1) When I was 15, a teacher told me “It isn’t as bad as they say, and makes a lot of sense.” 2) At about 19, college friends, “Socialism isn’t communism.” 3) At 20, on meeting my grandfather-in-law, “They are evil. We escaped in 1949.” 4) At 30, “China is a wonderful developing Democracy” 5) At 35, I … Continue readingThe Story of Jimmy Jim Stidham

How Does McDonald’s Fool You Into Buying Crappy Food?

  Honest food decays because it was alive. Fake food sits there like a dead idea, so empty even the mold walks away hungry. If mold won’t eat it, maybe you shouldn’t either. — YNOT! How does McDonald’s fool you into buying crappy food when half the country already knows the fries are not a vitamin? That is the trick right there. McDonald’s does not fool you with the burger. The burger walks in wearing its own criminal record. Nobody orders a Big Mac thinking, “Well, this ought to cleanse the liver and prepare me for a marathon.” A … Continue readingHow Does McDonald’s Fool You Into Buying Crappy Food?

The New Plaza Accord: The Deal Nobody Will Understand Until It Is Too Late

History’s biggest turns do not kick down the door. They slip in like a thief in the night, and by the time people notice, the world has already changed. — YNOT! Most of the time, history does not announce itself. Big events happen quietly. The people living through them do not fully understand them. Sometimes even the people inside the room do not understand the full consequences of what they are doing. One thing triggers another. Then another. Then another. A currency deal becomes an industrial collapse. A war becomes a new world order. A financial agreement becomes thirty … Continue readingThe New Plaza Accord: The Deal Nobody Will Understand Until It Is Too Late

The Cuban Regime Cannot Be Reformed – The present Cuban regime has to end.

Cuba does not need more hotels built on top of prisoners. It needs the regime that destroyed its faith, family, culture, and future to finally end. –YNOT! No negotiation. No cosmetic reform. No pretending that opening Cuba as a travel destination is the priority when you are dealing with a regime built on murder, repression, exile, fear, and the destruction of a people’s soul. A true Genocide of CUBA And some people will ask, “What do you mean by that?” Let me explain. Cuba was not just an island. Cuba was a civilization of its own. It had its … Continue readingThe Cuban Regime Cannot Be Reformed – The present Cuban regime has to end.

Why Communism Never Works

Communism does not work. It has never worked. And it will never work. Because Humans are the wrong species!  –YNOT! Why? Because human beings do not work that way. Communism begins with a fantasy: that everyone will work the same, sacrifice the same, share the same, produce the same, and never seek personal advantage. But that is not human nature. People compete. People want to improve. People want to protect what is theirs. People want to leave something behind for their children. And yes, there are also selfish people, corrupt people, envious people, and ambitious people. Communism could only work … Continue readingWhy Communism Never Works

The League of Cities: The Mafia of Cities

Your Property Taxes Are Being Used to Promote Raising Your Property Taxes and people are getting rich doing it.– YNOT! There is a special kind of government magic trick where they take your money, spend your money, waste your money, and then use what is left of your money to convince you that they need more of your money. That, my friends, is not public service. That is organized government self-preservation. And in Florida, one of the groups sitting in the middle of this little circus is the Florida League of Cities — a nonprofit organization that represents hundreds of … Continue readingThe League of Cities: The Mafia of Cities

Cubanacán – Cuba Before 1800: The Island Before the Revolution, Before Castro, Before the Republic

Before Spain called it Cuba, the island’s Indigenous people knew it by names remembered as Cubao or Cubanacán, meaning  “the central place” . And history has certainly made it one. In this new series, I explore Cuba’s forgotten real history — concise, direct, and to the point. –YNOT! Before Cuba was a communist dictatorship, before it was a republic, before it was a Spanish colony, before it was a sugar empire, before it became a battlefield between empires, Cuba was already a living civilization. That is the part many people forget. Cuba did not begin with Castro. Cuba did not … Continue readingCubanacán – Cuba Before 1800: The Island Before the Revolution, Before Castro, Before the Republic

What Happens When You Say You Built the World’s Most Powerful Cyber Weapon? Anthropic

What happens when you call your software a weapon? Eventually, someone treats it like one. — YNOT What happens when you say you built the world’s most powerful cyber weapon? Well, you guessed it. Somebody in Washington eventually believes you. That is the funny thing about bragging. It works right up until the listener takes notes. For years, the AI companies have been selling two stories at the same time. To investors, they say, “This is the greatest productivity tool ever invented.” To governments, they say, “This thing is so powerful it may destabilize civilization, rewrite warfare, break cyber defenses, … Continue readingWhat Happens When You Say You Built the World’s Most Powerful Cyber Weapon? Anthropic

Every Generation Discovers Coca-Cola

  Every Generation Discovers Coca-Cola.  Every generation believes it has discovered something brand new. The young discover Coca-Cola as if the secret formula was whispered to them personally by the gods. They discover alcohol, drugs, socialism, communism, libertarianism, rebellion, tattoos, and every other old temptation wearing a new hat. At eighteen, a man knows everything.  At twenty-five, he is still certain of it. By thirty, the bill starts arriving. By forty, if he has children, he begins warning them not to do the very things he once defended with great passion and terrible logic. “Don’t drink that stuff.” “Don’t smoke that.” “Don’t … Continue readingEvery Generation Discovers Coca-Cola

AI Is Killing Internet – Publishing and the Website — and How Google Is Killing the Search Engine

Google built the road to the internet, then became the tollbooth, then became the destination. Now the snake is eating its own tail — starving the very websites that fed it. –YNOT! Once upon a time, Google was the front door to the internet. You had a question. You typed it into Google. Google gave you a list of websites. You clicked one. Maybe it was a newspaper. Maybe it was a blog. Maybe it was a small business, a doctor, a mechanic, a teacher, a gardener, a product tester, or some strange genius in a basement who knew … Continue readingAI Is Killing Internet – Publishing and the Website — and How Google Is Killing the Search Engine

The Ceremony That Reminded Me What America Is

Citizenship is not just the right to live in America. It is the duty to stand with America. One nation. One flag. One future. — YNOT! The other day, I went with a friend to their naturalization ceremony. I had never been to one before, I didn’t go to my parents or siblings. and I’ll be honest — it touched me more than I expected. There were 100 people in that room from 38 different countries. Argentina, Colombia, Canada, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Vietnam, Israel, Brazil, the United Kingdom, and many more. Different languages. Different histories. Different journeys. But in that … Continue readingThe Ceremony That Reminded Me What America Is

The Really Big Problem with Cuba

Cuba’s greatest shortage may not be food, fuel, medicine, dollars, or electricity. After sixty years of dictatorship, Cuba’s greatest shortage may be trusted leadership. The prison door will open. The real question is: who knows how to rebuild the house? — YNOT! The big problem with Cuba is not simply that the dictatorship is old. The big problem is that the dictatorship has been there so long that the Cuba before the revolution has practically disappeared from living memory. Almost everyone who was an adult before Castro took power is dead. The people who remember a Cuba before the … Continue readingThe Really Big Problem with Cuba

The Anatomy of a Railroad Real Estate Scam – BRIGHTLINE

The easiest way to make money in real estate isn’t to buy land—it’s to convince the taxpayers to buy it for you, build on it for you, maintain it for you, and guarantee your profits while they assume the risk. When private profits ride on public money, the railroad may move people, but the financing moves wealth.— YNOT! There is an old trick in politics and business: privatize the profits and socialize the losses. It has survived every generation because it works so well on taxpayers, who are forever told they are “investing in the future.” The scheme is … Continue readingThe Anatomy of a Railroad Real Estate Scam – BRIGHTLINE

Cuban Economics 101: The Store Is Empty Because the System Is Full

Communism does not eliminate the rich. It simply replaces private wealth with political privilege. Cuba did not build an economy. It built a toll booth feeding one class and called it a country. –YNOT! In Cuba, the shelves are empty for the people, but full for the connected. That is not failure. That is the system working exactly as designed. And I understand why it is hard for people to grasp. Cuba is so foreign compared to almost every other economy on Earth that most people naturally assume it works like a normal country. It does not. In almost any … Continue readingCuban Economics 101: The Store Is Empty Because the System Is Full

SEO in 2026 isn’t dead. The old way of doing SEO is.

Be the website that deserves to rank. — YNOT! Stop Chasing Backlinks and Start Building Value I get asked all the time: “Do backlinks still matter?” The answer is yes—but not the way they used to. Ten years ago, people bought thousands of backlinks, stuffed pages with keywords, and watched their rankings climb. Today, that strategy is a great way to waste money. Google has changed. AI has changed. More importantly, people have changed. Today, search engines are asking one simple question: “If I send someone to this website, will they actually find something useful?” That’s why one outstanding … Continue readingSEO in 2026 isn’t dead. The old way of doing SEO is.

Cats and the Animals from the Fifth Dimension

Perhaps cats don’t spend their lives staring into empty corners because they’re strange. Perhaps they do it because they’re standing guard over a world we were never meant to see. –YNOT! Have you ever noticed how a cat can spend hours chasing something that seems completely meaningless to us? A dust ball drifting across the floor. A crumpled piece of paper. The shadow of a leaf. In my case, I dropped a simple plastic tie wrap on the floor, and my cat spent hours batting it, stalking it, pouncing on it, and staring at it as if it were … Continue readingCats and the Animals from the Fifth Dimension

Tulsi Gabbard Just Said the Quiet Part Out Loud About U.S.-Funded Biolabs

Never fear the questions people ask. Fear the powerful men who tell you that asking them is treason. –YNOT!   Tulsi Gabbard (video below) released something that should make every American stop and ask a very simple question: What exactly has our government been funding overseas in the name of “public health” and “national security”? According to Gabbard, after months of searching through intelligence files, ODNI found evidence that the U.S. government has funded more than 120 biological laboratories in over 30 countries. These are not just normal hospital labs drawing blood and checking cholesterol. Some of these facilities … Continue readingTulsi Gabbard Just Said the Quiet Part Out Loud About U.S.-Funded Biolabs

What If Humanity Had to Stand Trial for Choosing Between Feeding the Poor and Reaching the Stars?

The Welfare State vs. The Future in Space A Courtroom Event from the Year 2126 Featuring Bernie Sanders, Elon Musk, Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, and Milton Friedman [Courtroom Scene – The Future Tribunal] The courtroom does not sit in Washington, D.C. That city is still there, more or less, though by 2126 half of it is underwater, rebuilt, renamed, renamed again, and still somehow full of committees. This courtroom sits in orbit. It is called The Tribunal of Human Consequence, and it circles Earth every ninety minutes, which is faster than Congress ever moved on anything that mattered. Below it, … Continue readingWhat If Humanity Had to Stand Trial for Choosing Between Feeding the Poor and Reaching the Stars?

A Conversation somewhere between Ronald Reagan, José Martí, and Fidel Castro

I cleaned only the duplicated and out-of-order sections from your pasted draft, keeping the same story, tone, and argument. Somewhere beyond time, in a quiet room with no guards, no microphones, and no revolutionary slogans painted on the walls, three men sat across from one another. Ronald Reagan sat upright, calm but firm, with that old actor’s stillness that made silence feel like a speech waiting to happen. JosĂ© MartĂ­ sat beside him, thinner, sharper, his eyes full of both poetry and pain. He looked like a man who had carried a country inside his chest and never once … Continue readingA Conversation somewhere between Ronald Reagan, JosĂ© MartĂ­, and Fidel Castro

Shittification: The Business Model of a Broken AI Economy

The best way to avoid shittification is simple: stop buying the shit. — YNOT!   I came across a word the other day that perfectly sums up the last decade. Shittification. Or, more properly, enshittification, a term popularized by writer Cory Doctorow. It describes what happens when a company starts out giving people something useful, convenient, affordable, or even beautiful — and then, once the public is trapped, slowly turns the product into garbage in order to squeeze out more money. First, the company serves the users. Then it serves the advertisers. Then it serves the shareholders. Then the … Continue readingShittification: The Business Model of a Broken AI Economy

Has the Time Come to Take Military Action in Cuba — and What Would That Really Mean?

America can win Cuba in a week. The question is whether it can win the morning after. That is up to the people — YNOT! Has the time come to take military action in Cuba, or are we standing at the edge of another fine American habit — winning the fight and losing the bill? Cuba is only 90 miles from Florida, which is close enough to make Washington nervous and far enough away for politicians to speak bravely from air-conditioned rooms. The island is breaking down in real time. The power grid is failing. Fuel is scarce. Hospitals … Continue readingHas the Time Come to Take Military Action in Cuba — and What Would That Really Mean?

Can Cheap Seeds Help Your Old Legs Remember What Blood Flow Used to Feel Like?

What good is pushing blood harder through broken roads, if nobody is repairing the roads? Medicine may keep the traffic moving, but the body still needs the raw materials to rebuild the bridge. — YNOT! Can five little seeds do what a medicine cabinet full of orange bottles forgot to consider? Let me begin with a disclaimer, before somebody in a white coat faints into his clipboard.I am not a doctor. I am not a chemist. I did not study medicine unless you count getting old, watching people suffer, and noticing that some common sense gets ignored once it … Continue readingCan Cheap Seeds Help Your Old Legs Remember What Blood Flow Used to Feel Like?

Was Your Generation Easier?

I have been trying to figure out what I want to do next and looking online and most of the comments were negative. By the time I got to Uncle Bob’s house, I was irritated. He was sitting in the garden, coffee in one hand and a pair of pruning shears in the other, trimming a rose bush that looked perfectly fine to me. “Uncle Bob, can I ask you something?” He smiled. “You already are.” “I’ve been reading comments online. It seems like all the older people keep telling my generation that we’re lazy.” He nodded. “Go on.” … Continue readingWas Your Generation Easier?

Electric Chemistry for the End of the World

When the world runs out of supplies, the richest man won’t be the one with the biggest bunker — it will be the one who knows how to turn salt, water, sunlight, and metal into civilization again. -YNOT! When people talk about surviving the end of the world, they usually talk about food, bullets, water filters, and generators. But almost nobody talks about chemistry. And that is a mistake. Because if the world ever breaks down — if supply chains fail, factories stop, batteries die, fuel runs out, and the shelves go empty — the people who understand basic chemistry … Continue readingElectric Chemistry for the End of the World