The Year 2023 I read a very strange news article the other day. It was about Great Britain sending its aircraft carrier to the arctic on some sort of secret mission and here is the really weird part, it claimed it was also being supported by Russia. On the face of it, it sounds like false news, especially with the British supporting Ukraine with weapons and such, but who knows, sometimes crazy things happen. NATO is supporting the operation also and it has something to do with a cargo plane according to the news. It is claimed the carrier will be used if the cargo plane has to land. Tempting as this story was it finished by suggesting the plane was really Santa’s sled and the carrier would be there with cookies and milk if it had to make an emergency landing. Every year lists come out at the end of the year listing the most important events of the year. They come out for scientific discoveries, archaeology and almost anything else. I would like to start out with something mundane like the companies who sold the most Vehicles. Since the year is not quite finished yet when I am writing this, there could be a small increase in the number this year. Here are the company’s sales for vehicles worldwide in 2023, but there are still a few weeks to go until the end of the year: For those of you who are interested in the stock market, the DOW closed at 33,147 on December 30, 2022 and closed at 37,385 on December 22, 2023 the date of this article. Scientists found out this year something very strange about our galaxy. It is true space is a very strange place, but as we learn more about it, it becomes even stranger. A star was found in the center of our galaxy. It is different than any of the others found. What makes it so different is the fact it seems to have come from outside our galaxy, at least that is what is believed by many scientists. How could it have gotten there? There is a process which creates Rogue stars, planets and moons. This happens when one of them are knocked out of their orbits and they travel alone in space. This star was probably a rogue star at one time and wondered into the galaxy and was captured by gravity when it got near the center. One of the things we have found a lot of this year are organic compounds that could be the precursor to life. We have picked out our next targets in space based on this. We are also finding out certain types of life can exist in space even thought we never though this was possible just a couple of years ago. Enceladus, a moon of Saturn was in the news a lot this year and is believed to contain oceans and might have the seeds of life, since organic compounds have been found in water spraying out from the moon. 2023 is almost over and the Russians are still fighting in Ukraine a war they started in the beginning of 2022 and thought would end in a few days. I guess they underrated the determination of the Ukrainian people and the will of NATO to provide weapons to the Ukrainians. The year has also seen an attack on Israel, Israel fighting back, and a ground swell of support for their enemies, something which surprised many of us. There are a lot of things which will be remembered about this year and some of them seem to be political. The year saw a former president and presidential candidate get indicted and also sued. It also saw several states trying to knock him off the ballot. It showed the current president’s investigation by the House of Representatives reaching a crescendo which seems to be very bad news for him and his family. It saw an impeachment inquiry being started against him. Every year has something to be remembered for and I think this year will be the year remembered for the most vicious politics. We have also seen incredible numbers of illegal aliens flowing over the border and everyday seems to be a new record amount. We have reached a point where the throngs coming in is bigger than the population of many states. It is suggested we have reached ten million when the get aways are counted. Most people believe it is only a matter of time before there is an internal attack on this country by some of these people. Last year it was said 12.8 percent of households experienced food insecurity and this year it is said to be higher. CNBC reports in 2023 the percentage is almost 13 percent and is significantly higher than the year before. Crime reached an all time high in 2023 while less crimes seem to have been reported and far less criminals going to jail for their crimes. One jail I know of usually had about 2,000 prisoners awaiting trial but now that number is down to less than 500. On the flip side of the coin there are far less replacements of retired officers so overtime is rampant. 2023 saw shipping being attacked again and the western navies trying to protect the traffic not only from pirates, but from drone attacks on tankers. The drones are coming from Yemen and the pirates come from Somalia and Yemen. On the good side, there seems to be a lot less Covid this year than last. There have been however, a batch of emerging diseases according to medical authorities and the Emerging diseases include HIV infections, SARS, Lyme disease, Escherichia coli O157:H7 (E. coli), hantavirus, dengue fever, West Nile virus, and the Zika virus. As the year ends I can’t help but think of all the events of the year and when I do, I can’t help but realize it was not a good year for America and for some other countries. I have to wonder how exactly this year will be written about in the history books. I just don’t think it will be considered one of the good ones.
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