Snowflake's Forum

The biblical warrior Goliath may not have been so giant after all The width of his home city’s walls were possibly used to metaphorically represent the champion’s height The biblical warrior Goliath is best known for losing a fight with the underdog David. MASHUK/DIGITALVISION VECTORS/GETTY IMAGES  Versions of the Bible describe Goliath — an ancient Philistine warrior best known as the loser of a fight with the future King David — as a giant whose height in ancient terms reached four cubits and a span. But don’t take that measurement literally, new research suggests. Archaeological findings at biblical-era sites including Goliath’s home city, a prominent  Philistine settlement called Gath , indicate that those ancient measurements work out to 2.38 meters, or 7 feet, 10 inches. That’s equal to the width of walls forming a gateway into Gath that were unearthed in 2019, according to archaeologist Jeffrey Chadwick of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Rather than standing ta...

  Wanna talk about it?   Your problems, I mean?   Health, financial, family, social, psychological, other?   Sometimes it helps to get it off your chest; find a sounding board, rather than keeping it all in. Your virtual friends are here for you, (hopefully) without judgment or criticism.   You'll still remain anonymous for the most part.  You may even get some good "coping" advice. 😊 Any takers??  Let 'er rip! (by Just_Susan)

 Opinion by  Michael Goldsmith As liberals turn their focus away from soon to be ex-President Donald Trump, it’s only a matter of time before they go back to doing what they’re best at: attacking each other using Republican talking points, alienating potential allies, and taking their eyes off the prize of effecting substantive and lasting political change.  While Democrats managed to take back the White House, they lost numerous races in the House of Representatives just two years after their 40-seat “Blue Tsunami” of 2018. They also dramatically underperformed in key Senate races across the country, with the two Georgia runoff elections being their last hope of regaining a majority. How was it that Democratic congressional candidates across the country did so poorly, while President-elect Joe Biden easily coasted to victory by turning traditionally red states like Georgia and Arizona blue?  Part of it’s simple — because Biden represented what most Americans want, a...

 Ah, the holiday of big eating is over.  Just a dim memory and piles of left-overs in the fridge.  Now, at last, comes the Pandemic Solstice, known as Christmas to some, Chanukkah to others, and basically as "gimme, gimme, gimme" to the young'uns. So, it's early yet, so let's put aside the inevitable Imaginary War on Christmas and leave these guys to fight it out.   What I want to talk about is Chanukkahs and Christmasses past and the utter crap I've sometimes gotten --and sometimes given!-- as gifts. First there's that oddly useful item, bathroom books . I have gotten many of those.  Eventually, they get dropped into the sink (if you're lucky) and thrown away. Then there are the gag gifts.   The stupid hats and the ugly sweaters Remember the miniature tool kits we all got for our dads? The "Rube Goldberg style" games we played three or four times, but then lost eniough pieces that they never worked again? I could go on for hours, but then...

Smart Bomb: The completely unnecessary news analysis By   Christopher Smart November 11, 2020   ( A bit dated but never too late) Sean Hannity was found drunk in his underpants sprawled near his desk babbling something about the end of the greatest presidency in history and lost investments in Trump Hotels. Laura Ingraham was pacing around the TV studios with a tire iron yelling, "Where is that little f-ker, James Murdoch. I'm gunna kill that turncoat pinko." And Tucker Carlson phoned into Howard Stern's shock radio program demanding a recount. "The liberal Democrats have stolen the election!" he screamed. "They hate America." Eighty nine-year-old media mogul Rupert Murdoch was tucked safely away in his London penthouse with his 27-year-old wife watching CNN. He tweeted that Fox News—the American answer to Chanel One Russia—would change its name to Eagle America and would replace Trump mouthpieces Hannity, Ingraham and Carlson with the Jonas Brothe...

  Trump gave his Thanksgiving press conference from a tiny desk that looks like a throwback to a 2017 'SNL' skit:  A composite image showing President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday and, inset, a 2017 "Saturday Night Live" sketch showing Alec Baldwin playing Trump behind a similarly small desk.  AP/NBC/Business Insider The topic seemed to rile the president, who  in a tweet accused  the platform of fabricating "totally false 'Trends' that have absolutely nothing to do with what is really trending in the world." Others noticed uncanny similarities between Thursday's press conference and a 2017 "Saturday Night Live" sketch that used a tiny desk as a punch line. In the skit, Alec Baldwin played a Trump who was relegated to a child's desk to play with a toy while Steve Bannon (then Trump's influential chief strategist, depicted on "SNL" as the Grim Reaper) worked from the Resolute Desk. Read Full Business Insi...

 THANKSGIVING A time of year to give thanks, supposedly. I know it is more about family gatherings, eating turkey, drinking booze, but HEY, why quibble? Surely, this time of year there are things to be THANKFUL about, right? Trump defeated, Covid 19 vaccine on the horizon, the end of Global Warming (ok, never mind that one) People, generally speaking, so don't take offense, are pessimistic rather than optimistic, so are more likely to say "Thanks for NOT something happening", like Trump NOT winning, or NOT getting Covid 19, or being thankful nothing bad happened to you or your loved ones. Rather than being THANKFUL for something that DID happen, like a sunny day, a happy announcement, a warm hug, a pain-free day, a good movie or a good book, or your favorite football team winning. SO at this time of year I am reminded of the lyrics of one of my favorite hippie songs, goes like this: And the sign said, "Everybody welcome. Come in, kneel down and pray" But when th...

 Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Hope this Thanksgiving everyone has SOMETHING to be thankful for. I made my first Pumpkin Roll this year and it turned out pretty good! Needs a little twerking on how the filling lays, but it is very tasty. Has anyone else tried something new this year? CAM

  Public health experts have been warning for months that Thanksgiving dinner is the perfect place for the coronavirus to spread, and suggesting people limit their feasts, just for this year, to single-household affairs. Still, more than a third of Americans surveyed by Insider said they're not changing anything at all about how they run Thanksgiving 2020, despite the looming virus threat. Many said they are traveling, and most said they are going to be mixing households without wearing masks or opening up windows. By next year, vaccines will be widely available, making it very wise to hold off until Thanksgiving 2021 to do a big spread. Still, it's difficult to blame Americans for doing the holidays-as-usual this year, given the utter failure of the country's leaders to rally together and get the virus under control in any way at all yet. That is why, while empathetic to our  innate desires to mingle , leading public health experts like  Dr. Anthony Fauci  have said...

A massive chunk of metal was found sitting in a remote area of Utah. Nobody knows how the monolith got there, or its purpose, but theories are running wild. The two leading theories are that it was placed by either aliens… or artists. Anyone who has seen Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey knows that a large, still object appearing out of nowhere can be a sign of something big. So, when the Utah Department of Public Safety  accidentally discovered what appears to be a large, perfectly proportioned chunk of metal  sitting in a remote area of the state’s Red Rock Country, they were curious as to its origins. Unfortunately for state officials, there appears to be no readily-available explanation. The monolith was spotted by helicopter as officials were observing sheep that are native to the region. The shiny glare of the metal caught their eye, and they decided to investigate. What they found was a curious metal beam with a triangular shape sticking 10-or-so feet out of the r...