#lincoln property company

[wadegriffith]

The 17,423 square foot office of Arctos Sports Partners, located within the newly developed Weir’s Plaza in Dallas, Texas, was designed by SHM Architects and built by HRNCIR Construction. 

Founded in 2019, Arctos Sports Partners is a private equity platform dedicated to the professional sports industry and sports franchise owners.

© Wade Griffith Photography 2023

[rootrealty]

Root Realty

Website: https://www.rootrealty.com/ Address: 4237 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60618 Phone: (773) 348-8080 At Root Realty, we take pride in providing top-notch property management services for apartment buildings, mixed-use buildings, and development sites across Chicago and the Chicago suburbs. With years of experience in the real estate industry, our team of dedicated professionals is committed to maximizing the value of your investment and ensuring the success of your properties. Our real estate company manages investment property and rents apartments in Chicago. We offer a full suite of service to real estate owners and their residents. Our comprehensive property management solutions are tailored to meet the unique needs of each property, whether it's a small apartment building or a large mixed-use development.

[treason-and-plot]

Because it’s been so long since I focused on the Isla Paradiso gang, I’m first going to post a small series of recaps before plunging back into the story. I have shamelessly borrowed this recap style from one of my favourite Simblrs, @zosa95 who is a constant source of inspiration and entertainment! Recaps will be tagged IP_recaps. Feel free to follow...or block!

IP_recap 1

Raj, (with a lot of help from Cookie) discovered that Lincoln Porter, multi-millionaire property developer and the vice-president of the Isla Paradiso Chamber of Commerce, had bribed Government officials to have a theme park approved next to Hobart’s Hideaway. Lincoln had awarded one of his own building companies the contract to build the theme park, a deal that would have netted him many more millions. Warren Sandler, aka Warren the Whale Whisperer, had submitted the original application to build the theme park, but a three-month long investigation cleared him of any wrongdoing. Lincoln and several of his cohorts were jailed and Raj was once again offered a seat in the Chamber of Commerce, a move which Lincoln had previously vetoed. Raj and Cookie are now the toast of the town for the role they played in Lincoln Porter’s very public fall from grace, and Raj’s rebirthed whale watching business is booming. Life is sweet for Isla Paradiso’s newly-minted power couple…at least, on the surface....

[lulu2992]

Uncovering the unreleased Far Cry 5 in-game Encyclopedia

The almost complete but unused in-game encyclopedia, reconstructed thanks to the oasisstrings file.

Please note that it’s still cut content, so some information might not be relevant anymore.

You can read the oasisstrings file here. Pictures from this encyclopedia were also extracted and posted by @xbaebsae here.

Part 2: Locations - Holland Valley

Gardenview Packing Facility

The last facility added to the Hadlers' apple empire. They shipped their apples throughout Hope County and beyond. When the cult went red state, the Hadlers stopped their legal threats and resorted to violence.

Silver Lake Trailer Park

A community of people just trying to do their best.

Gardenview Orchards

A part of Doug and Debbie Hadler’s apple empire. After their ciderworks facility, they expanded to a second, larger orchard: Gardenview Orchards. Then they opened the Gardenview Packing Facility.

Rae-Rae's Pumpkin Farm

Fiery matriarch Rae-Rae Bouthillier cares about two things: Prize-winning pumpkins and her dog Boomer.

Gardenview Ciderworks

The first major facility owned by Doug and Debbie Hadler. Ten years ago, they had a dream: an empire made of apples. They nearly achieved it too, until the cult forcibly took over everything they had worked for.

Bridge of Tears

It was called the Mišihrew Bridge when the railroad was still active. It’s now a rickety old train bridge and John Seed's ideal location to send a warning message to all sinners.

Frobisher's Cave

In 1970, a cougar, named "Frobisher" by the locals, killed the star pitcher of a rival baseball team. The Hope County Silver Foxes won that year and changed their name to the Cougars in Frobisher's honor.

Howard Cabin

Home of Niesha Howard, an extreme rock climber from Canada who moved to Montana to be a prepper.

Copperhead Rail Yard

Copperhead Rail was created in the late 1800s by Emmet Reaves. It was shut down in the early 70s and a lot got left behind. It became a place for kids to get drunk or bums to find shelter, then the cult bought it.

Lincoln Lookout Tower

It’s the last working fire tower in the county. A man who worked here promised to help the Strickland family fight off the cult if ever their farm was under attack.

Sergey’s Place

A hobo historian calls this place home. Nobody's seen him in a while though.

Boyd Residence

Will Boyd lives here, or at least he did. No one in the valley talks about him. And for good reason.

Strickland Farm

Property owned by the Strickland family of farmers. No friends to Eden’s Gate.

U.S. Auto

A scrap yard containing trashed cars, broken farm equipment, and even a few busted planes. Eden's Gate uses the garage to build and maintain their convoys.

Doverspike Compound

Les Doverspike was a militia nut and he built himself a bunker. Nobody in the prepper community liked him. Despite that, he was anti-cult and pro-Resistance.

Harris Residence

Mike and Deb Harris were preppers with a cunning plan to keep themselves fed after the end of the world.

Reservoir Construction Yard

Deep North Water wanted to build a new reservoir for the Holland Valley. The company ran out of funding and was chased away by Eden’s Gate.

Dodd’s Dumps

Colin Dodd used to run garbage disposal for the whole Holland Valley, and his business lot shows it. The cult intimidated him into leaving but has yet to sort through all he left behind.

Davenport Farm

The remains of a run-down farm. Local farmers let their cows graze here. Can't let good land go to waste.

Hilgard Electric Power Station

The Holland Valley's power supply is reliant on this transformer station which is controlled by Eden's Gate.

Golden Valley Gas

Once the kind of gas station that gave out free bubble gum to kids, Golden Valley is now a strategic point of gasoline and auto maintenance for the Project at Eden's Gate.

Green-Busch Fertilizer Co.

Facing a decline in business, the Green-Busch family said “yes” and sold the place to John Seed on the condition that locals could keep their jobs and work alongside Eden's Gate.

St. Isidore School

Once a religious boarding school, it was forced to close its doors by Eden's Gate.

Dodd Residence

Home of Colin Dodd, hoarder and DIY enthusiast. He never throws anything out. His granddaughter Nadine's been known to lurk here.

Roberts Cabin

Home of Joe Roberts, a hunter. He's gone missing. He loved hunting deer above all else.

Hope County Clinic

Dr. Kim Patterson provides medical services to Hope County's farmers and low-income residents, many of whom would never receive care in such a remote area.

Holland Valley Station

In the days that it was up and running, Copperhead Rail used to stop here. Eden’s Gate uses this station to catch people who try to escape the region.

Grain Elevator

As the farmlands started to collapse, the grain elevator was the first casualty. Too expensive to maintain.

Henbane River Rail Bridge

Copperhead Rail was created in the 1880s during a mining boom, and shut down in the early 70s after the industry collapsed.

Flatiron Stockyards

Bobby Budell established the stock yards in 1946, and has proudly provided farm and ranch auction services since. The economic and community base employed over 25 people at its height.

Fillmore Residence

Home of Doug Fillmore. Not much is known about him.

Dupree Residence

Home of Tommy Dupree, an idiot who used to work at Green-Busch Fertilizer Co. He got fired by Eden's Gate because he was as dumb as the crap he bagged.

Catamount Mines

Fall’s End owes its existence to the gold Orville Fall discovered here in 1865. The mine brought a generation of prosperity to the region until a suspicious accident entombed 100 men within it, forcing its closure in 1912.

Sunrise Farm

Sunrise Farm was going under, so owners Mike and Chandra Dunagan reluctantly sold it to Eden's Gate. Big mistake.

Deep North Irrigation Reservoir

Originally designed to irrigate farms, the reservoir became a liability when the cult began putting Bliss in the water supply. The Resistance sealed it up to buy themselves time.

Red’s Farm Supply

The Redler family has run this place for 4 generations, and earned a reputation for honest business. Wendell did his best to keep it out of cult hands.

Purpletop Telecom Tower

In the 1950s, Purpletop Telecom built this tower, blessing people with the wonders of AM radio. As time and technology marched forward, they were also given the American splendor of a local TV station.

Woodson Pig Farm

This place has been in the Woodson family since 1943. Current owners Andrew and Frances Woodson used their wealth to try to stand up to John Seed and fight him in court. They lost, and joined the Resistance.

Sawyer Residence

Don Sawyer came from out of town to join the Project at Eden's Gate. He restores canoes, but isn't very good at it. Visitors have sworn they've heard him swearing in Russian over those boats.

Hyde Barn

Kenny Hyde's a poor man in Holland Valley, but that doesn't stop him from loving deep fried balls. He's the proud keeper of Fall’s End Testy Festy decorations, stashing them at his barn until they're needed.

Kupka Ranch

Zip Kupka's the only one who really knows what's going on in the Holland Valley.

John’s Gate

A missile silo long decommissioned and abandoned. The locals used to call it "Area 68." Eden's Gate bought it in secret and turned it into a bunker that is in John Seed's safekeeping until the Collapse.

Security Gate

Formerly the entrance to the missile silo, it's now the gateway to John Seed's bunker. Everything taken in the Reaping passes through this checkpoint.

Steele Farm

The Steele family managed to get their kids out of Hope County, but stayed behind to try and defend their home from Eden's Gate.

Lamb of God Church

A Lutheran church. Its elderly priest was overshadowed by Pastor Jerome’s charismatic sermons. John once asked the priest to say “yes.” Not a chance. Then, the priest was gone. He had taken a “long vacation.”

Lamb of God Sacristy

The Project at Eden's Gate has turned the Lamb of God Church's sacristy into a holding place for everything they need to baptize people at the water's edge.

Armstrong Residence

The Project at Eden's Gate targeted the Armstrong family early, burning their home to the ground when Grace Armstrong refused to devote her sharpshooting skills to the Father's cause.

Bradbury Tractor Shed

A shed for tractors.

Hope County Jail Bus

Prisoners hijacked this bus but were run off the road. The wreck was left to rot in the woods. When Eden's Gate brought prohibition to Hope County, some enterprising moonshiners set up shop behind the cult’s back.

Parker Laboratories

Home and workshop of Dr. Laurence Parker, and the origin of many mysterious noise complaints.

Seed Ranch

The power of yes gave John Seed this dream ranch overlooking the Holland Valley. it has commanding views, a private air strip, and secluded soundproofed rooms for his most invigorating religious pursuits.

Bradbury Farm

The home of the Bradbury family, hay farmers for generations. The strange pattern of dead hay in the field does not impact the quality of the final product. That's the Bradbury guarantee.

Bradbury Hay Field

Bradbury Farm's hay is baled and stored here before being sold to clients looking to feed their livestock with quality hay.

Laurel Residence

Laurel family honey was a local market favorite until their bee colony collapsed and jeopardized the business. It also spooked the Laurels who sunk money into a bunker and became preppers overnight.

Eden’s Gate Greenhouse

Bliss plants are found throughout the Henbane River, but they're also found here. John Seed takes the flowers he receives by boat from the east and plants them in his greenhouse.

Seed Boat Launch

Once a favorite spot for summer frolickers, this boat launch is used by John Seed for receiving shipments of Bliss and other supplies from elsewhere in Hope County.

Rye & Sons Aviation

This plot of land was first settled in 1920 by Willard Rye. He started a crop dusting business. His sons inherited both and it now belongs to the current generation of Ryes: Nick & Kim.

Kellett Cattle Co.

The Kellett family supplied beef for 3 generations. These proud Republicans thought they recognized the American spirit in Eden’s Gate, but when John Seed asked them to serve the Project, they said “no.”

Fall’s End

After prospector Orville Fall struck gold, his small mining camp quickly grew. Decades later, his rival, rail baron Emmett Reaves, shot him dead in the streets, giving the town its official name.

Old Silo

Welcome to the middle of it.

Kay-Nine Kennels

The owner, Kay Wheeler, loved her dogs more than life itself. She bred and trained hunting and guard dogs. When Eden’s Gate showed up, the local demand for guard dogs tripled. John Seed noticed and took action.

Sunrise Threshing

A silo and shed complex attached to Sunrise Farm. Rumor has it that Mike Dunagan's stashed a lot of cool shit around here somewhere.

Redler Residence

Home of Wendell Redler, local businessman and Vietnam veteran.

Adams Ranch

Jules Adams lost her husband in an "accident" after saying no to John Seed. Her family's struggled to keep the cattle ranch out of cult hands ever since.

Miller Residence

Despite financial hardship, the Miller family refused the cult’s invitations, prepping for doomsday all on their own. When the reaping came, Jerry Miller was out working.

Wellington Residence

The Wellington family mine is an urban legend, supposedly stuffed with gold, explosives, or both depending who you ask. Generations of Wellingtons (possibly inbred) have tried and failed to strike it rich here.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil’s gangsters have been getting into politics

They want friendly officials to help them launder money

At last, justice came. On October 31st two former policemen were sentenced to a combined 138 years in prison for murdering Marielle Franco, a councillor they killed in Rio de Janeiro in 2018. A gay black woman from a favela, Ms Franco was an icon of Brazil’s left. She had made it her mission to expose links between local politicians and militias in Rio. The assassination shocked a nation inured to violence. She may have been killed for denouncing attempts by militia members to seize public land illegally and build on it.

Founded by former policemen, Rio’s militias gained prominence in the 1990s by hunting down drug traffickers, winning the support of terrified residents and forging links with local politicians. Yet today they extract a security tax in areas they control and charge residents for access to gas, internet, transport services and electricity. More recently, they have started trafficking the drugs themselves. Brazil’s criminal groups are walking the militias’ path in reverse. Gangs are increasingly funding politicians, paying off local prosecutors and bureaucrats, and laundering their assets through the legal economy.

Take São Paulo, the country’s financial heartland. Unlike Rio, where the homicide rate runs at about 21 per 100,000, mainly because of turf wars between gangs and militias, São Paulo has long been relatively peaceful. That is because it is controlled by a single gang, the First Capital Command (PCC). Founded by inmates as a mutual-defence organisation after a prison massacre in 1992, the PCC expanded as Brazil’s incarceration rate ballooned in the 2000s. Today it is South America’s largest gang, counting 40,000 members and 60,000 affiliates. It is increasingly involved in politics and white-collar crime. “Brazil is experiencing what Italy experienced in the 1990s,” says Lincoln Gakiya, the lead prosecutor against the PCC in São Paulo, as his 24-hour bodyguards stand nearby.

In April the city government took over two private bus operators, which carry more than 16m passengers a month, after an investigation led by Mr Gakiya found that the companies were being used to launder money for the PCC. The gang is also suspected of controlling petrol stations across the country and of getting involved in public health-care services, property, illegal gold-mining and rubbish collection. In 2004, when Mr Gakiya began investigating, he reckoned it was making less than $2m a year. By 2020, it was thought to be netting $1bn annually. Most of that comes from outside Brazil, as the gang’s drug-trafficking operations have expanded around the world.

Continue reading.

[scotianostra]

On July 1st 1884 Allan Pinkerton, the Scottish-born detective, died.

Not all Scots that I post about should be looked upon as good people, we do have to acknowledge this in our history, scratch beneath the subject in most cases and you will find fault, this is certainly true of Pinkerton.

Born in Glasgow, on the 25th of August 1819 his father was a sergeant of the Glasgow municipal police and died in 1828 of injuries received from a prisoner in his custody.

In 1842 Allan emigrated to Chicago, Illinois, before moving to Dundee, Kane County, Illinois, where he established a cooperage business. Here he ran down a gang of counterfeiters, and he was appointed a Deputy Sheriff of Kane County in 1846 and immediately afterwards of Cook County, with headquarters in Chicago.

In Chicago he organized a force of detectives to capture thieves who were stealing railway property, and this organization developed in 1852 into Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency, of which he took sole charge in 1853. He was especially successful in capturing thieves who stole large amounts from express companies. In 1866 his agency captured the principals in the theft of $700,000 from Adams Express Company safes on a train of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railway, and recovered all but $12,000 of the stolen money.

In February 1861 Pinkerton found evidence of a plot to assassinate President-elect Abraham Lincoln upon his arrival in Baltimore on his way to Washington; as a result, Lincoln passed through Baltimore at an early hour in the morning without stopping. In April 1861 Pinkerton, on the suggestion of General George B. McClellan, organized a system of obtaining military information in the Southern states. From this system he developed the US Secret Service, of which he was in charge throughout the war, under the assumed name of Major E. J. Allen.

Pinkerton was not without controversy, one of his detectives, James McParlan, in 1873-76 lived among the Molly Maguires in Pennsylvania and secured evidence which led to the breaking up of what was considered a criminal organization. His detectives were also used to escort strike breakers during the era.

In 1869 Pinkerton suffered a partial stroke of paralysis, and thereafter the management of the detective agency devolved chiefly upon his sons, William Allan and Robert. He died in Chicago on the 1st of July 1884. He published The Molly Maguires and the Detectives , The Spy of the Rebellion, in which he gave his version of President-elect Lincoln’s journey to Washington; and a memoir, Thirty Years a Detective. The Pinkerton National Detective Agency continues to trade in the US to this day.

Pics are of Pinkerton, on horseback then with, President Abraham Lincoln, and Major General John Alexander McClernand. Pinkerton was the head of Union Intelligence Services at the time. He also, allegedly, foiled an assassination attempt against Lincoln. His wartime work was critical in Pinkerton’s development, which he later used to pioneer his agency. Other pics include the firms logo old and new.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

April 7, 2024 (Sunday)

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

APR 08, 2024

In August 1870 a U.S. exploring expedition headed out from Montana toward the Yellowstone River into land the U.S. government had recognized as belonging to different Indigenous tribes.

By October the men had reached the Yellowstone, where they reported they had “found abundance of game and trout, hot springs of five or six different kinds…basaltic columns of enormous size” and a waterfall that must, they wrote, “be in form, color and surroundings one of the most glorious objects on the American Continent.” On the strength of their widely reprinted reports, the secretary of the interior sent out an official surveying team under geologist Ferdinand V. Hayden. With it went photographer William Henry Jackson and fine artist Thomas Moran.

Banker and railroad baron Jay Cooke had arranged for Moran to join the expedition. In 1871 the popular Scribner’s Monthly published the surveyor’s report along with Moran’s drawings and a promise that Cooke’s Northern Pacific Railroad would soon lay tracks to enable tourists to see the great natural wonders of the West.

But by 1871, Americans had begun to turn against the railroads, seeing them as big businesses monopolizing American resources at the expense of ordinary Americans. When Hayden called on Congress to pass a law setting the area around Yellowstone aside as a public park, two Republicans—Senator Samuel Pomeroy of Kansas and Delegate William H. Clagett of Montana—introduced bills to protect Yellowstone in a natural state and provide against “wanton destruction of the fish and game…or destruction for the purposes of merchandise or profit.”

The House Committee on Public Lands praised Yellowstone Valley’s beauty and warned that “persons are now waiting for the spring…to enter in and take possession of these remarkable curiosities, to make merchandise of these bountiful specimens, to fence in these rare wonders so as to charge visitors a fee, as is now done at Niagara Falls, for the sight of that which ought to be as free as the air or water.” It warned that “the vandals who are now waiting to enter into this wonderland will, in a single season, despoil, beyond recovery, these remarkable curiosities which have required all the cunning skill of nature thousands of years to prepare.”

The New York Times got behind the idea that saving Yellowstone for the people was the responsibility of the federal government, saying that if businesses “should be strictly shut out, it will remain a place which we can proudly show to the benighted European as a proof of what nature—under a republican form of government—can accomplish in the great West.”

On March 1, 1872, President U. S. Grant, a Republican, signed the bill making Yellowstone a national park.

The impulse to protect natural resources from those who would plunder them for profit expanded 18 years later, when the federal government stepped in to protect Yosemite. In June 1864, Congress had passed and President Abraham Lincoln signed a law giving to the state of California the Yosemite Valley and nearby Mariposa Big Tree Grove “upon the express conditions that the premises shall be held for public use, resort and recreation.”

But by 1890 it was clear that under state management the property had been largely turned over to timber companies, sheep-herding enterprises, and tourist businesses with state contracts. Naturalist John Muir warned in the Century magazine: “Ax and plow, hogs and horses, have long been and are still busy in Yosemite’s gardens and groves. All that is accessible and destructible is rapidly being destroyed.” Congress passed a law making the land around the state property in Yosemite a national park area, and the United States military began to manage the area.

The next year, in March 1891, Congress gave the president power to “set apart and reserve…as public reservations” land that bore at least some timber, whether or not that timber was of any commercial value. Under this General Revision Act, also known as the Forest Reserve Act, Republican president Benjamin Harrison set aside timber land adjacent to Yellowstone National Park and south of Yosemite National Park. By September 1893, about 17 million acres of land had been put into forest reserves. Those who objected to this policy, according to Century, were “men [who] wish to get at it and make it earn something for them.” 

Presidents of both parties continued to protect American lands, but in the late nineteenth century it was New York Republican politician Theodore Roosevelt who most dramatically expanded the effort to keep western lands from the hands of those who wanted only their timber and minerals. 

Roosevelt was concerned that moneygrubbing was eroding the character of the nation, and he believed that western land nurtured the independence and community that he worried was disappearing in the East. During his presidency, which stretched from 1901 to 1909, Roosevelt protected 141 million acres of forest and established five new national parks. 

More powerfully, he used the 1906 Antiquities Act, which Congress had passed to stop the looting and sale of Indigenous objects and sites, to protect land. The Antiquities Act allowed presidents to protect areas of historic, cultural, or scientific interest. Before the law was a year old, Roosevelt had created four national monuments: Devils Tower in Wyoming, El Morro in New Mexico, and Montezuma Castle and Petrified Forest in Arizona.

In 1908, Roosevelt used the Antiquities Act to protect the Grand Canyon.

Since then, presidents of both parties have protected American lands. President Jimmy Carter rivaled Roosevelt’s protection of land when he protected more than 100 million acres in Alaska from oil development. Carter’s secretary of the interior, Cecil D. Andrus, saw himself as a practical man trying to balance the needs of business and environmental needs but seemed to think business interests had become too powerful: “The domination of the department by mining, oil, timber, grazing and other interests is over.”

In fact, the fight over the public lands was not ending; it was entering a new phase. Since the 1980s, Republicans have pushed to reopen public lands to resource development, maintaining even today that Democrats have hampered oil production although it is currently, under President Joe Biden, at an all-time high. 

The push to return public lands to private hands got stronger under former president Donald Trump. On April 26, 2017, Trump signed an executive order—Executive Order 13792—directing his secretary of the interior, Ryan Zinke, to review designations of 22 national monuments greater than 100,000 acres, made since 1996. He then ordered the largest national monument reduction in U.S. history, slashing the size of Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument by 85%—a goal of uranium-mining interests—and that of Utah’s Escalante–Grand Staircase by about half, favoring coal interests.

“No one better values the splendor of Utah more than you do,” Trump told cheering supporters. “And no one knows better how to use it.”

In March 2021, shortly after he took office, President Biden announced a new initiative to protect 30% of U.S. land, fresh water, and oceans areas by 2030, a plan popularly known as 30 by 30. Also in March 2021, Supreme Court chief justice John Roberts urged opponents of land protection to push back against the Antiquities Act, saying the broad protection of lands presidents have established under it is an abuse of power.

In October 2021, President Biden restored Bears Ears and Escalante–Grand Staircase to their original size. “Today’s announcement is not just about national monuments,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico, said at the ceremony. “It’s about this administration centering the voices of Indigenous people and affirming the shared stewardship of this landscape with tribal nations.”

In 2022, nearly 312 million people visited the country’s national parks and monuments, supporting 378,400 jobs and spending $23.9 billion in communities within 60 miles of a park. This amounted to a $50.3 billion benefit to the nation’s economy. 

But the struggle over the use of public lands continues, and now the Republicans are standing on the opposite side from their position of a century ago. Project 2025, the blueprint for a second Trump presidency, demands significant increases in drilling for oil and gas. That will require removing land from federal protection and opening it to private development. As Roberts urged, Project 2025 promises to seek a Supreme Court ruling to permit the president to reduce the size of national monuments. But it takes that advice even further. 

It says a second Trump administration “must seek repeal of the Antiquities Act of 1906.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[beardedmrbean]

A Nebraska lawmaker whose north Omaha district has struggled for years with a housing shortage is pushing a bill that, if passed, could make Nebraska the first in the country to forbid out-of-state hedge funds and other corporate entities from buying up single-family properties.

Sen. Justin Wayne’s bill echoes legislative efforts in other states and in Congress to curtail corporate amassing of single-family homes, which critics say has helped cause the price of homes, rent and real estate taxes to soar in recent years. Wayne said that has been the case in his district, where an Ohio corporation has bought more than 150 single-family homes in recent years — often pushing out individual homebuyers with all-cash offers. The company then rents out the homes.

Experts say the scarcity of homes for purchase can be blamed on a multitude of factors, including sky-high mortgage interest rates and years of underbuilding modest homes.

RISING RENT PRICES PUSH RECORD NUMBER OF AMERICANS TOWARD HOUSING CRISIS, PROMPTING LEGISLATIVE ACTION

Wayne's bill offers few specifics. It consists of a single sentence that says a corporation, hedge fund or other business may not buy single-family housing in Nebraska unless it's located in and its principal members live in Nebraska.

"The aim of this is to preserve Nebraska's limited existing housing stock for Nebraskans," Wayne said this week at a committee hearing where he presented the bill. "If we did this, we would be the first state in the country to take this issue seriously and address the problem."

A 14-page bill dubbed the End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act has been introduced in both chambers of Congress and would impose a 10-year deadline for hedge funds to sell off the single-family homes they own and, until they do, would saddle those investment trusts with hefty taxes. In turn, those tax penalties would be used to help people put down payments on the divested homes.

Democratic lawmakers in a number of other states have introduced similar bills, including in Minnesota, Indiana, North Carolina and Texas, but those bills have either stalled or failed.

The housing squeeze coming from out-of-state corporate interests isn't just an Omaha problem, said Wayne Mortensen, director of a Lincoln-based affordable housing developer called NeighborWorks Lincoln.

Mortensen said the recession of 2008 and, more recently, the economic downturn driven by the COVID-19 pandemic made single-family housing a more attractive corporate investment than bond markets.

"When that became the case, housing was commoditized and became just like trading any stock," he said. "Those outside investors are solely interested in how much value they can extract from the Lincoln housing market."

Those corporations often invest no upkeep in the homes, he said.

"And as a result of that, we're seeing incredible dilapidation and housing decline in many of our neighborhoods because of these absentee landlords that have no accountability to the local communities," Mortensen said.

Currently, about 13% of single-family homes in Lincoln are owned by out-of-state corporate firms, he said.

As in other states, Wayne's bill likely faces an uphill slog in the deep red state of Nebraska. At Monday's hearing before the Banking, Insurance and Commerce Committee, several Republican lawmakers acknowledged a statewide housing shortage, but they cast doubt on Wayne's solution.

"You know, you can set up shell companies, you set up different layers of ownership. You can move your domicile base. There's just a ton of workarounds here," Omaha Sen. Brad von Gillern said. "I also — as just as a pure capitalist — fundamentally oppose the idea."

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from the Chicago Tribune:

Reid Thompson, a fourth-generation farmer in central Illinois, is in the middle of planting season. Weather permitting, he tends to the fields in the morning, walks home for lunch with his wife and newborn, and then returns to his tractor until sundown. He’ll harvest his corn in early fall, sell it to a nearby ethanol plant, and eventually it will make its way to a car’s gas tank. That’s the routine, at least for now.

Nearly all U.S. gasoline contains ethanol to reduce emissions, and nearly all of that ethanol is made from corn starch. But, electric and hybrid vehicles offer even further emissions reductions. This poses a threat to corn demand that could be devastating for a state such as Illinois, the second-largest corn producer in the country.

The resulting decline in the value of Midwestern farmland and corn prices will hurt farmers and have ripple effects across rural communities, predict University of Nebraska at Lincoln agricultural economists Jeffrey Stokes and Jim Jansen. Rural businesses that cater to the agriculture sector could go under, property taxes that fund local schools will likely plummet and farmers could be forced to default on debts to community lenders, the economists forecast. This would come after farmers have been hit by a series of misfortunes over the last five years: the pandemic, trade wars, inflation and excess supply.

Corn could be the key to solving another clean energy dilemma, though. Unlike cars and trucks, planes are difficult to electrify, and some fuel companies believe the answer to cleaning up aviation lies in America’s heartland.

“(Corn is) the cheapest, most sustainable, most scalable feedstock (raw material),” said Patrick Gruber, CEO of Gevo, one of the companies with plans to turn corn ethanol into aviation fuel.

Thompson and other corn farmers are eager to seize this opportunity in sustainable aviation fuel, another term for jet fuel made without fossil fuels.

But, before corn ethanol-to-jet fuel can be a viable alternative to conventional jet fuel, the emissions associated with corn ethanol production must come down. This will require farmers to change their practices on the field and ethanol plants to implement controversial technologies like carbon sequestration.

Since 2005, the federal government has required transportation fuels to be blended with increasing amounts of renewable fuels such as corn ethanol to reduce air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on foreign oil. The mandate transformed rural economies across the Midwest. Between 2008 and 2016, corn prices rose by 30%, and 26% more land was converted to cropland than would have been otherwise, according to a 2022 study published by the National Academy of Sciences.

Ethanol plants quickly sprang up around corn fields, due largely to investments from farmers eager for the new market to succeed.

The Biden administration established a “Grand Challenge” to produce 3 billion gallons of sustainable aviation fuel — defined as jet fuel with 50% less emissions than conventional jet fuel — annually by 2030. The ultimate goal is to make enough of this fuel to meet all national demand — estimated to be 35 billion gallons — by 2050.

Airlines are on board. United and Delta have both signed advance purchase agreements with numerous aspiring sustainable aviation fuel producers. Currently, however, sustainable fuel only accounts for 0.1% of the jet fuel used by major U.S. airlines, according to the latest federal government data.

The challenge is that creating sustainable aviation fuel costs three to five times more than conventional jet fuel and securing biomasses at scale is challenging. Most of the 24.5 million gallons produced last year were created with discarded cooking oil and animal fat, which are available in limited quantities.

[the-larxist-manifesto]

The larxist manifesto ~ Greetings!

Welcome to my blog!! If you are reading this, you are probably one of my friends that I've linked to my new Tumblr blog. Blogging is a very new concept to me, so please bear with me as I find my voice and figure out formatting >w<

For as long as I can remember at this point, I've been typing long-winded rants on my computer about the random topics that are on my mind—from linguistics to video game reviews to venting about everyday annoyances. Until now, those were only available to myself in the form of my private journal. But after many Discord info dumps that I put way too much effort into, only to be scrolled off the screen in about five seconds of chatting, I've decided I wanted a more permanent and creative way of sharing my thoughts and interests with those I care about! So basically, if you've enjoyed me rambling on about random stuff in the past, you will probably like this blog :}

Oh, you're wondering about the banner and profile picture? The pfp is based on the box art from a game called Doga de puzzle da Puppkupu, an obscure PS1 game by a now-defunct game company called Argent. This company and the mystery around its existence has been a deep fascination of mine for years now. I've created a lot of stuff based on their properties, like my original character (OC) named Taizen Asobi. He's a Nintendo DS game case with eyeballs :3

My banner image relates to Argent as well—a welcome image from the old home page for the company, which also developed one of my favorite DS games of all time, Clubhouse Games. Don't worry, I'll explain all the lore more thoroughly at a later time.

As of right now, one of the main focuses of this blog will be the project mentioned in the previous post: GameGirl28. This challenge kicked off the whole idea of me blogging in general. I play a lot of video games. I love them as an art form, a social activity to connect people, and a fun pastime. Often, I will step away from playing a game and find my head absolutely swimming with commentary and criticism and highlights and funny moments to reflect on. Until now, I usually did all this reflection alone. But now, I have an outlet to share it all with my loved ones! Since this challenge is driven by a specific purpose and will indeed challenge me a lot, it's the perfect way to kick off my little internet journal here.

Also, I hope this will be a way to chat more with folks about stuff I'm interested in! So if you're particularly curious about the topics or what I have to say about them, always feel free to reach out to me! Anything from a Lincoln-Douglass style debate to hyper fangirling over shared media interests, I'm down for it!!

Get ready to crack open the manifesto! Flip through the pages of my deranged mind that the world wasn't quite prepared to witness... until just now. You are no longer safe from the influence of larxism. You will convert.

<3

[wytfut]

“Have you read the news today? Oh boy!” ... Beatles

I know I’m set in my ways ... and this makes me appear as an old curmudgeon.

But by golly, I enjoy a good news paper (actual paper), sitting down with breakfast or coffee and catching up on the world. 

WWW it appears has ruined all of this. Lots of folks believe everything they read... and www is most likely the worst place to do this. 

Unreliable sources... that mimmick “old school” news. I think I found a source on www, .... ABC.news .... not sure. It wasn’t really ABC. Because they added the “.”, they got away from the copyright issues. And that news was horrible at best.  Something to the tune of the rags they used to sell at the grocery store cash registers, ie, National Enquirer. It wasn’t ABC, it was some other company who loop holed the copy right by adding a “.”???  Well it wasn’t ABC. 

Paper newspaper got too expensive for us..... $68/month. And we went “e”. The journal start “e” is now jumping to almost $30/month. Several pages of this is from the day before reprinted. WHAT?? Why at $30/month do I want to reread part of yesterday’s news? Most of the time, its rewrite, of some article that doesn’t pertain to nothing,.... more of a self help article...    

With no sources of news being completely reliable, it makes a guy gun shy about coughing up any money. From where I sit, does anyone back up what they are reporting anymore? 

long side story:

I was a paper boy. I hand delivered papers daily on my sting ray schwinn. Foul weather and all. In the beginning it was $1.10/month (not sunday). From there it went to $2.20 including sunday. And about the time I done with my career, it had jumped to $4.40. Folks thought that was outrageous. 

Sunday and Wednesday papers were ass kickers .... sometimes 2 loads to deliver, as I couldn’t get them all in my “paper bags”.  Sunday was delivered in the morning before sun up. And the rest before 5:30 pm. I subbed before all of this the Lincoln Star (before journal star became one), which was a morning paper, for about a year. . (humor sidenote, both printed same building, just different names, representing different time delivered). . 

I remember some of my customers being total jerks about paying for the paper... and would go months without paying. Those days the paperboy would have to go to their home to collect the monthly payments. One customer owed me 4 months (getting close to $10...). Pop decided to help out, and tagged along in Uniform. 

They leaped out of their comfy chair and immediately paid. I still chuckle with that memory. 

I’d pick up my papers at the S W corner of Cotner and Adams. One sunday morning before sun up, a car come flying down Cotner, and couldn’t make the curve (too fast). The Cekja house was right there at the apex of the curve. The car lost it, and rolled a couple of times and crashed into a huge old Elm tree on the Cekja property. 

Me being pretty young was totally terrified.... grabbed my bundle of papers and hi tailed it home. Scared shitless no less.

I heard as soon as the car had quit moving, the driver try and start it back up. Got it started, and moved on down Cotner.  

About the same time I got into the house, I saw the car coming down 68th. I was positive the driver was looking for me (get rid of the witnesses). So I turned off all the lites in the house, and hid on the floor. Sure as shit the car came around to our side of the “ditch” heading right for our home. 

Car was running horribly, flat tire or 2, steel grinding some wheres..... and putted on by our house, and stopped at the neighbors. 

Turned out, it was the neighbor. All drunked up, missed the turn on Adams. But got his car home and stumbled into the house. ... 

We are going to give up on the journal star.... and I’m looking around for a good news source that is within my budget....

Cuz Jorika suggests NPR and/or Nebraska Public Media “app”. Alexa has failed me miserably, as well as Amazon. 

I listen to a lot of podcasts.... mostly when I’m pedaling “no where”. Really like “democracy now” but no local news. 

Thanx Jo.... I’ll give your idea a go. 

[lboogie1906]

Haywood Knowles Nelson Jr. (born March 25, 1960) is an actor. He is known for having portrayed Dwayne Nelson on What's Happening!! from 1976–1979, and its spin-off series What's Happening Now!! 1985–1988. He grew up in Garden City Park, Long Island. He has been a member of the entertainment community for over forty years. Born in New York, he began his career at the age of six with numerous principal on-camera and voice-over national commercials, including Lavoris, Campbell's Soup, Libby's, Polaroid, Hot Wheels, Rock'em Sock'em Robots, Johnny Lightening, Aurora AFX, Kodak, Duncan Hines, Milk, Burger King, and Dean Witter. He appeared as a co-star in several feature films, including If You Give a Dance, You Gotta Pay the Band, Mixed Company, This Property Is Condemned, and a featuring role in Evilspeak. He spent a two-year run on Broadway in Thieves. He guest starred on Kojak in the episode "The Godson" as Bobby Moore. At the age of 14, he went on to guest star in the television series Sanford and Son as the grandson of Grady then acted in the series of the same name, Grady in 1975. The next year, in 1976, at the age of 16, Haywood soon landed the role of "Dwayne" in the television series "Cooley High," which became "What's Happening!" As a "teenage heartthrob" on a popular television series, he was one of the first African American teen idols. After three seasons he went on to a short run on The White Shadow for MTM Enterprises. He had his studies in Architectural Design and Electronics Engineering interrupted when the cast of What's Happening!! was re-united for three seasons of syndication in the series continuation What's Happening Now!! for Columbia Pictures Television where he observed as Technical Director. He appeared in an urban dramatic Broadway production at New York's Lincoln Center Alice Tully Hall, appeared As Himself in Dickie Roberts, and a role on The Parkers. He is a devout Scientologist. He married Sheryl Piland (1981–1984), Diana Ramos (1987–1998), and Khnadya Skye (2014-2020). #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence https://www.instagram.com/p/CqOF6yzLHou/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[rootrealty]

Root Realty

[jcmarchi]

MIT affiliates receive 2025 IEEE honors

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/mit-affiliates-receive-2025-ieee-honors/

MIT affiliates receive 2025 IEEE honors

The IEEE recently announced the winners of their 2025 prestigious medals, technical awards, and fellowships. Four MIT faculty members, one staff member, and five alumni were recognized.

Regina Barzilay, the School of Engineering Distinguished Professor for AI and Health within the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at MIT, received the IEEE Frances E. Allen Medal for “innovative machine learning algorithms that have led to advances in human language technology and demonstrated impact on the field of medicine.” Barzilay focuses on machine learning algorithms for modeling molecular properties in the context of drug design, with the goal of elucidating disease biochemistry and accelerating the development of new therapeutics. In the field of clinical AI, she focuses on algorithms for early cancer diagnostics. She is also the AI faculty lead within the MIT Abdul Latif Jameel Clinic for Machine Learning in Health and an affiliate of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, and Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. Barzilay is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has earned the MacArthur Fellowship, MIT’s Jamieson Award for excellence in teaching, and the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence’s $1 million Squirrel AI Award for Artificial Intelligence for the Benefit of Humanity. Barzilay is a fellow of AAAI, ACL, and AIMBE.

James J. Collins, the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering and Science, professor of biological engineering at MIT, and member of the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology faculty, earned the 2025 IEEE Medal for Innovations in Healthcare Technology for his work in “synthetic gene circuits and programmable cells, launching the field of synthetic biology, and impacting healthcare applications.” He is a core founding faculty member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and an Institute Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Collins is known as a pioneer in synthetic biology, and currently focuses on employing engineering principles to model, design, and build synthetic gene circuits and programmable cells to create novel classes of diagnostics and therapeutics. His patented technologies have been licensed by over 25 biotech, pharma, and medical device companies, and he has co-founded several companies, including Synlogic, Senti Biosciences, Sherlock Biosciences, Cellarity, and the nonprofit Phare Bio. Collins’ many accolades are the MacArthur “Genius” Award, the Dickson Prize in Medicine, and election to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Roozbeh Jafari, principal staff member in MIT Lincoln Laboratory’s Biotechnology and Human Systems Division, was elected IEEE Fellow for his “contributions to sensors and systems for digital health paradigms.” Jafari seeks to establish impactful and highly collaborative programs between Lincoln Laboratory, MIT campus, and other U.S. academic entities to promote health and wellness for national security and public health. His research interests are wearable-computer design, sensors, systems, and AI for digital health, most recently focusing on digital twins for precision health. He has published more than 200 refereed papers and served as general chair and technical program committee chair for several flagship conferences focused on wearable computers. Jafari has received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award (2012), the IEEE Real-Time and Embedded Technology and Applications Symposium Best Paper Award (2011), the IEEE Andrew P. Sage Best Transactions Paper Award (2014), and the Association for Computing Machinery Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems Best Paper Award (2019), among other honors.

William Oliver, the Henry Ellis Warren (1894) Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and professor of physics at MIT, was elected an IEEE Fellow for his “contributions to superconductive quantum computing technology and its teaching.” Director of the MIT Center for Quantum Engineering and associate director of the MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics, Oliver leads the Engineering Quantum Systems (EQuS) group at MIT. His research focuses on superconducting qubits, their use in small-scale quantum processors, and the development of cryogenic packaging and control electronics. The EQuS group closely collaborates with the Quantum Information and Integrated Nanosystems Group at Lincoln Laboratory, where Oliver was previously a staff member and a Laboratory Fellow from 2017 to 2023. Through MIT xPRO, Oliver created four online professional development courses addressing the fundamentals and practical realities of quantum computing. He is member of the National Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee and has published more than 130 journal articles and seven book chapters. Inventor or co-inventor on more than 10 patents, he is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society; serves on the U.S. Committee for Superconducting Electronics; and is a lead editor for the IEEE Applied Superconductivity Conference.

Daniela Rus, director of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory,  MIT Schwarzman College of Computing deputy dean of research, and the Andrew (1956) and Erna Viterbi Professor within the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, was awarded the IEEE Edison Medal for “sustained leadership and pioneering contributions in modern robotics.” Rus’ research in robotics, artificial intelligence, and data science focuses primarily on developing the science and engineering of autonomy, where she envisions groups of robots interacting with each other and with people to support humans with cognitive and physical tasks. Rus is a Class of 2002 MacArthur Fellow, a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery, of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and of IEEE, and a member of the National Academy of Engineers and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Five MIT alumni were also recognized.

Steve Mann PhD ’97, a graduate of the Program in Media Arts and Sciences, received the Masaru Ibuka Consumer Technology Award “for contributions to the advancement of wearable computing and high dynamic range imaging.” He founded the MIT Wearable Computing Project and is currently professor of computer engineering at the University of Toronto as well as an IEEE Fellow.

Thomas Louis Marzetta ’72 PhD ’78, a graduate of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, received the Eric E. Sumner Award “for originating the Massive MIMO technology in wireless communications.” Marzetta is a distinguished industry professor at New York University’s (NYU) Tandon School of Engineering and is director of NYU Wireless, an academic research center within the department. He is also an IEEE Life Fellow.

Michael Menzel ’81, a graduate of the Department of Physics, was awarded the Simon Ramo Medal “for development of the James Webb Space Telescope [JWST], first deployed to see the earliest galaxies in the universe,” along with Bill Ochs, JWST project manager at NASA, and Scott Willoughby, vice president and program manager for the JWST program at Northrop Grumman. Menzel is a mission systems engineer at NASA and a member of the American Astronomical Society.

Jose Manuel Fonseca Moura ’73, SM ’73, ScD ’75, a graduate of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, received the Haraden Pratt Award “for sustained leadership and outstanding contributions to the IEEE in education, technical activities, awards, and global connections.” Currently, Moura is the Philip L. and Marsha Dowd University Professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He is also a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineers, fellow of the U.S. National Academy of Inventors, a member of the Portugal Academy of Science, an IEEE Fellow, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Marc Raibert PhD ’77, a graduate of the former Department of Psychology, now a part of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, received the Robotics and Automation Award “for pioneering and leading the field of dynamic legged locomotion.” He is founder of Boston Dynamics, an MIT spinoff and robotics company, and The AI Institute, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he also serves as the executive director. Raibert is an IEEE Member.

[rodsager]

Waterfront Gateway may not have office component

Last month the CCRA (City Center Redevelopment Authority) met with the Waterfront Gateway Master Developer, Lincoln Property Company (LPC) to discuss some changes to the master plan. LPC indicated that the office market has really cooled off and now that the Zoom Info building is up and leasing we are a little fat on space locally. I am not convinced that the CCRA realizes just how big that…

[lifechanyuan]

The Unity of Opposites Is the Image of The Universe, Not Its Essence

Success and failure: There are no successes or failures in life. There are only different life trajectories. Success and failure are just the concepts of the laity. In the eyes of the laity, success is rank promoted, fortune made, and ancestors glorified. While failure is losing one’s official position, losing money, being laid off, and being divorced. But from the perspective of the ultimate goal of LIFE, only the eight immortals in the "eight immortals crossing the sea, each showing their magical powers" are the winners.

Looking back at thousands of years of recorded human history, who was the winner? The Egyptian Pharaoh? Alexander? Caesar? Constantine? Charlemagne? Napoleon? King Arthur? Gregorian? Henry? Genghis Khan? Peter the Great? Washington? Lincoln? Hitler? Stalin? Gandhi? Mao Zedong? Bush? The heads of each state? Aristotle? Bacon? Dante? Columbus? Confucius? Martin Luther? Rousseau? Montesquieu? Voltaire? Marx? Darwin? Shakespeare? Newton? Einstein? Planck? Watson? Rockefeller? Bill Gates?

If these people are successful, then are the others losers? If the dispossessed, homeless beggars along the street are defined as losers, then are the rest winners?

Who is the winner? Who is the loser? Is there really a successful life? If there is no successful life, are all people failures?

“We annihilated 40,000 enemy troops; we succeeded!” Did you succeed because you killed 40,000 LIVES?

“I frustrated all the competitors, I succeeded!” Does it count as success by frustrating others?

“Dude, congratulations! We successfully robbed the Reserve Bank.”

“It's so comfortable! I succeeded in swindling him out of all his money.”

“You are so smart that you successfully transferred the company's property to your private account abroad.”

“We successfully blew up the World Trade Center.”

“We successfully released the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.”

“I successfully spread the SARS virus."

“I successfully cloned people, so that people don't know whose father he is or whose son he is.”

“We successfully discharged waste water into the river.” And so on.

Are these all successes?

The well-known Napoleon Hill wrote a book "the Law of Success". His book has been sold in more than 30 countries and more than 20 million copies in more than 20 languages. He himself is called "the creator of millionaires”.

Great! It's really great! But someone once said: "walk along an impeccable line of reasoning, everything is normal, but at the end you suddenly find yourself caught in a dilemma." I wonder if Mr. Hill has come to the end and found himself in a dilemma.

“The Law of Success” teaches people how to succeed, so does it mean that people who have not read "the Law of Success" are losers? At what level is one considered successful? How much wealth does one need to have to be counted as successful? How many bank robberies does it take to be considered a success? How many times can piracy be considered a success? How many rivers should one pollute to be considered a success? How much money should one embezzle to be considered as a success? How many children should one have to be considered as successful? How many multinational group companies does one need to establish to be considered as successful?

If one side of a piece of paper is success and the other side is failure, then if this piece of paper is turned into a "Mobius strip", how do we distinguish between success and failure?

Gains and losses: gaining is losing; losing is gaining. The more you gain, the more you lose; the less you gain, the less you lose. Without losing, you will gain nothing; without gaining, you will lose nothing.

From middle school textbooks, we know the "Theorem of Indestructibility of Matter". Strictly speaking, it is not called the "Theorem of Indestructibility of Matter". It should be called the "Theorem of Indestructibility of Energy." Matter has birth and death, while energy is eternal in the universe.

Energy is conserved, that is, the energy in the universe is a definite number. Energy will neither increase nor decrease. As the energy on the earth increases, the energy on the sun decreases, the temperature of water increases, and the amount of fuel is reduced. The more one experiences in life, the shorter one’s life becomes; the more wisdom one has gotten, the whiter one’s hair will be.

Energy is a definite number, so what else is a definite number in the universe?

Within the current range of the solar system, the time sequence is a fixed number. The twenty-four solar terms of the lunar calendar set by Chinese sages: Beginning of Spring, Rain, Awakening of Insects, Spring Equinox, Qingming, Grain Rain, Start of Summer, Lesser Fullness, Grain in Ear, Summer Solstice, minor Heat, major heat, start of Autumn, End of Heat, White Dew, Autumn Equinox, Cold dew, Frost's Descent, Start of Winter, light snow, heavy snow, winter Solstice are fixed numbers; the five elements (metal, wood, water, fire and earth) and heavenly stems and earthly branches (Jia Yi Bing Ding Wu Ji Geng Xin Ren Kui, and Zi Chou Yin MAO Chen Si Wu Wei Shen You Xu Hai) and the Twelve Animal signs (Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Chicken, Dog and Pig) corresponding to each year, month, day, and hour are all definite numbers. The method of choosing the day of good fortune and bad fortune in The Art of Becoming Invisible -- Daoist magic, which was calculated from the primordial eight trigrams by Wenwang of the Zhou Dynasty and was later used by Jiang Ziya, Zhang Liang, and Zhuge Liang is a definite number.

The earth’s moving trajectory and rotation speed are fixed numbers, the waxing and waning of the moon is a fixed number, the ocean’s ebb and flow is a fixed number, women’s menstrual cycles are a fixed number, and the lifespan of animals and plants is a fixed number (an elephant will not live 300 years, a poplar tree will not grow for three hundred years). The dry and rainy seasons in Zimbabwe are fixed numbers. The mineral resources and water volume on the earth are fixed numbers. The number of hairs a person can grow is a fixed number. The ratio of height to the maximum distance between the two middle fingers is a fixed number. The number of legs and the number of heads a human has is a fixed number.

Springs have an elastic limit, steel has a fatigue limit, various objects have a limit of motion, animals and plants have a growth limit, and all artificial products have a maximum service life. No matter how good the car is, after running for a certain number of kilometers, it is bound to be eliminated and scrapped.

Within a certain altitude, the temperature at which water boils is a fixed number, and the temperature at which it freezes is also a fixed number, the ignition point of various substances is a fixed number, the saturation of various compounds is a fixed number, the composition ratio of various colors is a fixed number, the travelling speed of sound is a fixed number, and the frequency of the sound that humans can hear and the wavelength of the light that human eyes can see are fixed numbers.

Everything within the range of rational numbers is a definite number. The amount of money, the length of life, the height of rank, the size of influence, etc. are all within the range of rational numbers, so they are all fixed numbers. Everything about humans is within the range of rational numbers, so everything about humans is definite. Everything that changes with time and space is within the range of rational numbers and is definite.

Is everything in the range of irrational numbers not definite? The most famous irrational number is Pi, Pi=3141592653589......, the other is the golden ratio Phi, Phi=1.61803398874989484821...... These are two of the infinite mysteries of the universe that ordinary people know, but where is their ending? Are they also limited by time and space?

As a Chinese Taoist saying goes, "Heaven's secrets should never be revealed." Secular people use this sentence to keep secrets. In fact, the essence of this sentence refers to the development trend and definite number of things within the scope of irrational numbers.

Long-term unconventional thinking can lead to one's spiritual transcendence. After transcending the regular ethics, one can realize many "heavenly secrets". Heavenly secrets can be leaked, the key is to whom should they be leaked? Jesus taught us: "Do not give that which is holy to the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the hogs." The "Yellow Emperor's Hidden Talisman Classic" says: "After realizing the heavenly secret, virtuous people will settle down and practice it, while the villains will get carried away and act rashly and even ruin their destinies. The Tao Te Ching said: "the Main path (Tao, Heavenly Secrets) is easy to walk on, yet people love the small by-paths." " He who knows does not speak; he who speaks does not know." Those who understand the secrets of Heaven know the art of non-action, but if they reveal these secrets to ordinary people, it will lead to the downfall of “unwise individuals who act recklessly and perish prematurely”. - Chuang Tzu. Shakyamuni once said to Subhuti: " The Tathagata expounds it to those initiated into the Mahayana and the Supreme Yana." “Those who take delight in the Hinayana (Theravada) and hold the view of an ego, a personality, a being and a life, cannot listen to, receive, hold (in mind), read and recite this sutra and explain it to others."

to be continued