I thought Impossible Meat, Beyond Meat, and the other vegetable-based simulated meats were the ultimate in processed foods. They contain excessive amounts of salt plus chemical flavorings. However, lab-grown meat exceeds them all.

Doctors warn us to avoid eating processed foods. Real meats from steers, pigs, lambs, chickens, et cetera are far less processed than meat simulations.

My brother once asked: "If we are not supposed to eat animals, why are they made out of meat?"

A single point of failure killed 911 service in three states. Why was there such a centralized system for 911? Critical services should be DECENTRALIZED!

When my wife was pregnant with our first child, I bought a combination of term life insurance (relative low cost) and whole life insurance (high cost). I wanted my wife to have a financial cushion if I died, where she would not have to work full time. After the baby was born, I bought a combination of whole and term insurance on my wife, to help pay the cost of child care and housekeeping if my wife died. I repeated all this with our second child.

Later, when I was earning a good income, I converted all the term insurance to whole life insurance. I had the dividends applied to buying more insurance.

When interest rates jumped, I borrowed from the policies at low interest and invested the money in high-paying utility bonds (but NOT junk bonds). As interest rates fell, I sold the bonds at a profit and repaid the policy loans. Through all that, I did not have to tap my own savings.

Much later, I was laid off. I looked at the policies and the dividends they were earning. The combined annual dividends exceeded the combined annual premiums. I contacted my insurance agent and had the premiums applied to paying the premiums with the excess dividends still buying more insurance.

Today, I could cash in the policies; but my retirement investment portfolio is sufficient that I do not need the extra cash. Our heirs will collect the benefits tax-free, which they cannot do with our IRAs.

The U.S. has over 200 land-based wind farms rated at over 67,000 megawatts. California has over 3,900 MW, including the Alta Wind Energy Center (also known as Mojave Wind Farm) commissioned in 2010 and rated at 1548 MW, and the Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm completed in 2016 and rated at 710 MW. Texas has wind farms rated at over 18,200 MW including the Los Vientos Wind Farm commissioned in 2016 and rated at 912 MW.

Last year, Scientific American reported that the "break through" did not really generate more power than it consumed. The surge of power lasted only seconds and destroyed the equipment that generated it. More important, the power released was far less than the power required to create that equipment.

For those of you who avoid processed food, you should avoid any "meat" grown in a vat.

Even earlier -- when white screens with black text and black screens with white or green text were equally common -- the question was raised: which is best for proof-reading text. A report found that white and black screens were about the same but that printed hardcopy was better. This was reported in an ACM publication, possibly 25 or more years ago.

Yes, this was in use on U.S. military satellites -- many different ones -- at least by 1980. I know because back then I tested the software used to control that feature. I hope Airbus does not plan to patent this. If they do, they are in for an expensive surprise.

I have always avoided all-in-one devices. My Internet modem and router are two separate devices made by two different companies. I have an HP printer that only prints. I have a separate scanner that is not HP. For the rare occasions when I need to send a fax, I use a fax application on my PC that connects to my land-line phone. Having Windows on my PC I never use Microsoft's Outlook or Edge. My anti-virus is AVG, but I use something else (two somethings else) for firewalls and something even different to protect me while Web browsing.

When one vital function of an all-in-one device fails, you either have to replace the entire device or buy a single-function replacement. In the end, it is more efficient and less costly to buy single-function devices in the first place.

In southern California, long commutes are common as workers live significant distances from their jobs. Those distances result from the fact that many cannot afford housing close to work.

There was a time when I was commuting 60 miles a day round-trip to work. Then the company moved, and I was commuting "only" 40 miles a day. That job finally ended. I got a new job with the "commute from Hell", where I was commuting 84 miles a day round-trip at an average speed of less than 20 miles per hour. No, I could not afford to move closer to work.

Now, I am retired. I no longer commute. I charge my new Leaf SV Plus about once every three days. I charge in the morning while I am eating breakfast and getting dressed. With a solar-electric system that was sized in anticipation of buying an electric car, that means I am NOT paying Southern California Edison to charge my car.

By the way, the owner's manual for my Leaf says that frequent use of fast charging (Level3) will shorten the lifespan of the car's battery. My home charger is Level 2.

We are told that healthy eating requires avoiding processed foods. Lab-grown chicken has to be the ultimate in processed food, just like Impossible Meat and its like.

My brother once asked: "If we are not supposed to eat animals, why are they made out of meat?"

Late last year, I had a solar electric system installed on my roof. This was NOT to reduce my electric bill. This was because Southern California Edison (SoCalEd) is unreliable. Any time of the year and in any kind of weather, SoCalEd will fail in my community for 5 minutes, 5 hours, or longer. To protect against a nighttime outage, my system includes a 12-hour backup battery.

Early this year, I replaced my 14-year-old VW Jetta with an all electric Nissan Leaf.and had a level 2 charger installed in my garage. No, I do not charge at night. I charge in the morning when the solar electric system -- not SoCalEd -- supplies the power. (No, I do not commute to work. I am retired.)

Yes, here in southern California, we are experiencing "gray May" and "June gloom". The skies are often completely overcast, and we might go a week or more without enough sunshine to cast shadows. Nevertheless, I am exporting more electricity to SoCalEd than I am importing from SoCalEd. Charging my Nissan Leaf at home has not reversed that situation.

The answer is not to expand the power grid, which moves electricity from where it is generated to where it is used. The answer is to encourage property owners -- not just homes but also apartment buildings, factories, shopping centers, schools, sports stadiums -- to install solar electric systems. This would localize the generation of electricity to where it is used without straining long distance grids. Excess generation could be stored in batteries for nighttime use (as is already happening at my house and in a large area of Australia).

On 2 October 2022, I downloaded the freeware Memtest86 (without the +) from PassMark at https://www.memtest86.com/. I set it up on a USB thumb drive. When I booted from the thumb drive, Memtest86 said it is version 10.0. The components -- including a "MemTest86 User Manual Version 10.0" -- are dated 28 September 2022. Previously, I was using Memtest86 v9.0 from 2021. Before then, I used even earlier versions. I do not remember what was the first version I used.

The "MemTest86 User Manual" contains appendix "C.Change Log". It cites Memtest86+ v2.11 in describing the changes for v3.5 (3 Jan 2008). Starting with that version, descriptions of Memtest86 in the "Change Log" omit the +.

Given that Memtest86 v10 (without the +) is freeware for home users and was updated last month, what is the big deal about Memtest+ v6.0?

Late evacuation orders and a failure to identify where to evacuate are common in local and state governments. They are just not prepared for emergencies.

In 2018, the Woolsey Fire burned through southern California from the Santa Susana Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. The Woolsey Fire scorched over 98,000 acres in Ventura and Los Angeles Counties. Between those two counties, over 295,000 persons were displaced by evacuation orders. At least three people died, and about 1,500 homes and businesses were destroyed, including 17 homes in our small community.

My wife and I had to evacuate, during which several problems arose. The Ventura County Emergency Services sent us to an evacuation center that was closed because it was much too close to the fire. The Ventura County Sheriff deputies who ordered us out of that location did not know where a valid evacuation center was located. The Red Cross was not communicating with the Salvation Army; thus a full evacuation center staffed by the Red Cross did not know another center staffed by the Salvation Army had available space for us.

Details are at http://www.rossde.com/fire.htm....

I retired 19 years ago, I no longer have a boss.

My interest in accurate time-keeping arose during my career as a software tester, testing the software used by the U.S. military to fly its earth-orbiting space satellites. Time and the earth's rotation are strongly related. The missions of those satellites required that time on the ground and in space be accurate to 1 millisecond and that the position of a satellite relative to the rotating earth -- the suborbital point on the earth's surface -- be accurate to about 10 meters. I found all this to be interesting. Eventually, I became the "go to guy" for issues of time and earth rotation.