Mindconnection eNL, 2026-10-18

Home

In this issue:
Good News | Product Highlight | Brainpower | Finance | Security | Health/Fitness | Factoid | Thought for the Day

1. Any time you go into brain fart mode and feel stupid, just watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LK5pi4feeM
   
   
2. Check this out (a good read, but it will take you a few minutes): https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/the-rise-of-democratic-socialism/
   
   
3. Wonderful news: https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/rfk-jr-announces-new-clinic-for-people-injured-by-vaccines-6101171
   
   
4. The Woke Disney Company continues to lay people off. I have an interesting idea, why not make their offerings family-friendly instead of so blatantly offensive?
   
   
5. "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Wednesday it would be proposing “in the coming days” the abolition of a Biden-era rule on methane leaks from oil and gas wells, which it said would save $45 billion." [The Epoch Times]
   
   The communists and other morons running the show while Brainless pretended to be POTUS missed an important point. Gas is, by far, the least carbon-producing energy source we have (yes, that includes wind and solar). But you are going to get some leaks on gas wells, that's just how it is. They essentially threw out the baby with the bath water by imposing unrealistic requirements and thus forcing a shift toward more damaging energy sources. That is, even with the leaks at the well (which the well owners see as a revenue loss and try to reduce), gas is a lower carbon source than any of the alternatives. The EPA is moving toward a reality-based approach and that is long overdue good news.
   
   
6. "Fourteen years behind bars for trying to defraud programs that serve our seniors, service members, and veterans. An Oklahoma medical supply company owner was sentenced this week after submitting more than $30 million in fraudulent claims for medical equipment patients didn’t need. Dr. Mark Loftis and his co-conspirators billed for braces, glucose monitors, and other medical equipment that patients did not need or want, collecting more than $8 million in fraudulent payments. Loftis was also ordered to pay more than $8 million in restitution and forfeit over $560,000." [ Senator Roger Marshall, A Doctor's Note 09OCT2026]
   
   This action against stealing from the Medicare Fund is what Elizabeth Moron calls "Denying people their health care." She really needs to shut up.
   
   
7. Russia has agreed to supply the USA with diesel fuel, shipping immediately. Think of the implications, there. This bodes well for world peace.
   
   
8. Moronic socialists (there is no other kind) won't leave our "awful" country for one that is socialist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWU0PvIH1Qs
   

• LIFE-CHANGING: The Rocket Pen will help your child read independently in just days. This is the reading pen most often chosen by teachers and recommended for dyslexia support.
• 6-IN-1 READING TUTOR SYSTEM: Go beyond basic text-to-speech with spelling, syllabication (Orton-Gillingham inspired), phrasal verb lookup, idiom definitions, color-coded dictionary fields, and real-time word highlighting—designed to improve decoding, comprehension, and fluency.
   
• READS ANY SURFACE. Scans what you actually read from: phone, tablet, PC, other screens - not just paper. We could not find a single other reading pen that can do this. But the Rocket Pen can.
   
• READER PEN: You scan, it reads aloud individual words and even multiple lines of text in natural voice. Helps those with dyslexia or other reading-challenges gain reading independence. Earbuds automatically mute the built-in speaker to avoid classroom stigma. Select different voices for playback, lefthand or righthand use, left or right scan direction.
• REALLY BIG DICTIONARIES: A reader pen's word recognition capability depends on the depth of its onboard dictionary references. The Rocket Pen has the New Oxford American Dictionary with over twice the entries of the best competing reading pens, plus the Oxford American Children’s Dictionary. It also has the Oxford Thesaurus of English and Oxford American Children’s Thesaurus. All of these are Americanized. The Rocket Pen scans English and French only, but contains an English to Spanish dictionary and a French definitions dictionary (French to French).
• COMES COMPLETE. Self-contained, no computer, tablet, phone, or Wi-Fi required. Kit includes Rocket Pen reading tutor, USB charging cable, Quick Start Guide, earphones, and case. Meets FCC, ROHS, and CE standards, and conquers illiteracy.
• BACKED BY EXPERIENCE. The lead developers of the Rocket Pen Reading Tutor each have over 25 years of experience in reading assistive devices, and yet the Rocket Pen is the newest and most advanced reading pen on the market. And the only one with reading tutor functions

In our Amazon store you will see more offerings, including:

Disability Products:

(We are the sole Amazon seller for these)

• BlindShell phones for the blind
• RealSAM Pocket, which is a voice operated Galaxy smart phone for the blind
• SmartPens4U Rocket Pen Reading Tutor Scanning Pen | Case Bundle Black | Case Bundle Lavender

Tools:

• AEM instruments
• Bahco tools
• Case tools
• CAT tools
• CPS tools
• Irwin saw blades
• Mayes tools
• Rigid Tools work lights and related
• Vessel tools
• Wera tools
• Wiha tools
• Williams tools

More:

• American Hard Bag aftermarket sound system parts for Harley Davidson motorcycles
• Centerpoint Archery devices
• Cold Steel knives
• Dead Downwind hunting products
• G5 hunting products
• Flexilla hose connectors
• Funko collectibles
• Liberty Monitors hidden camera gadgets
• Mike Holt Electrical Exam Preparation products
• Nagy's aftermarket sound system parts for Harley Davidson motorcycles
• Paraben Consumer data recovery sticks, porn detection sticks, and similar diagnostic/ IT tools
• ROK straps
• Rostra universal cruise control kits
• Shwacker archery products

In our eBay store, you will see a lot of radios and related gear:

Radios:

• Anytone 10 meter radios
• Connex 10 meter radios
• Dosy meters
• General (brand) radios
• Galaxy 10 meter and 11 meter (CB) radios
• President 10 and 11 meter radios
• Ranger 10 meter radios
• Texas Ranger radios (Chuck Norris not included, sorry)
• Uniden radios and scanners

Reducing interruptions will boost your effective brainpower. We all need time to focus, to load our "RAM" with information and process it, to visualize, and to "chew the mental cud". Scattered moments of five minutes here and five minutes there won't do the trick. But also, while we are "in the flow" mentally we need to stay there for a while. A single interruption can send us back to Square One.

During the Communist Occupation, which had as one of its goals to wipe out small businesses because we are by definition capitalists, unscrupulous "lenders" began popping up like dandelions on an unmowed lawn. They used deceptive tactics to ensnare troubled businesses in "you can never pay it off" loans. At one point, I was getting over 80 calls per day from these sociopaths--and of course I was not answering my phone. I was also getting hundreds of e-mails from them per day, in addition to a few dead trees per month in solicitations sent via USPS.

On top of this, as I approached 65 my doorbell was ringing several times per day with scammers wanting to "educate" me on Medicare (notice, it is not called "health"icare). And that was not all. Despite the fact I have beautiful Andersen windows, Alaskan shingles on my roof, premium gutters, and beautiful siding, I was clocking in about 10 door to door sales people per week hawking these things instead of simply seeing the obvious and passing me by. Lawncare people, insect chemical spreaders, vacuum sales people, and many others seemed to be extremely attracted to my doorbell.

I reduced all of these interruptions by over 98%. I had to. Because I need my brainpower and because my purpose in life is not to entertain scammers or give them my hard-earned dollars.

Before I provide some tips on reducing interruptions, it's important to clarify a few things:

• You can't stop all interruptions, and some interruptions are desirable.
• If your child interrupts you, don't act annoyed. There will come a day when you miss having him around.
• If your cat or dog interrupts you, it is most likely because you didn't do your job. Before you sit down to work out that gnarly problem, have you fed the cat, walked the dog, cleaned the litter box, or tossed the ball for a few minutes?
• If your boss or customer interrupts you, perhaps you are spending too much time on less important things.
• When I worked in management (plant engineer, maintenance manager, maintenance supervisor, project engineer), an interruption for a safety or environmental issue did not get a "let me finish this and I'll be with you in a bit". Nothing else I was doing could possibly outrank such a concern.
• If a neighbor needs me, a friend I haven't heard from calls me, or there is a similar interruption, that's part of being a social creature.
• Sometimes I see my city or the police department on Caller ID; I always pick up.
• If it's a call from Senator Rand Paul, I always pick up--and he does call here periodically.
  

• At the door:
  I have two cameras, one that gives an audio announcement. This scares away most of the retards. I also have a sign on my door listing various services I do not want, and stating I charge $250 an hour to discuss them and to have your credit card ready when you reach for the door.
  
• Landline:
  I can block numbers. Currently, I am maxxed out at 500 numbers. I asked an AI what to do. The answer was to record the three bleeps for "this number is disconnected" on my outgoing message. This gets my number removed from various databases, over time. It's a miracle! Those calls dropped dramatically after a few days. If you do something similar but pick up your phone anyhow and say "Hello" do NOT say anything after that. More than one "Hello" will mark your number as a valid target.
  
• Cell phone:
  I use the Report Spam feature for every spam text or spam call.
  
• Paper mail:
  I toss these in the recycle, unless it is from a company I already do business with. And sometimes even then.
  
• e-mail:
  Because of my business, I don't use a standard commercial account such as gmail for most e-mail. I lease space on a server and have access to the mail server settings. I collect spam e-mails in a folder for a while, then every so often I go onto the server and create a global autofilter to block ones that have X in the From or Y in the message. This cut my e-mail spam from over 800 messages a day to less than ten.
  

Do you see the pattern, here? If it's a physical approach you want to appear hostile. If it's an electronic one, you want to appear gone. A year ago, I dreaded the sound of my doorbell. Now when it rings, I am excited. Is that Dave bringing over a fat slice of his wife's amazing sourdough rye right out of the oven? It could be any of a dozen people I am absolutely delighted to see. It is never some kid trying to sell me something I don't want.

Because I have so much more time than before and what time I do have is so much more productive, stopping unwanted interruptions has not only made me smarter. It's also made me happier.

1. Using an old blade to make new cuts. Before I start a project, I consider what types of cuts I will make and I buy a new blade for the purpose unless I have a barely used one. This costs a lot less than spending an hour measuring and cutting, only to mess the piece up on the last operation and have to start all over.
   
2. Keeping worn screwdrivers. Every so often, I go through all of my screwdrivers and toss any that are chipped or worn. This means I greatly reduce my chances of slipping and hurting myself or damaging the work piece or fastener head.
   
3. Using cheap parafin oil instead of synthetic oil. There is no comparison. If you use full synthetic, you will get back in fuel savings much more than the price difference. Engine wear, cold weather starting, effectiveness of "dirt flush" during oil changes, and helping the environment are other advantages.
   
   
4. Using throwaway paper air filters in your car. I use K&N permanent filters for engine and cabin. This saves me hundreds of dollars, improves my gas mileage, and reduces the waste stream.
   
5.  Finely filtering cat littler to avoid as little waste of clean litter as possible. No, nope, and hell no. Scoop around the nugget and take some clean litter with you. This way, you don't contaminate the box with hundreds of little dirty pieces that broke off the clump. The litter is not expensive, don't forget the purpose of it.
6. Drying paper towels and re-using them. Considering that paper towels are the epitome of wasting money in the first place, this makes no sense. You can cut old tee shirts into washable towels, you can buy a "rag bag" of cheap scraps you can use as towels and rewash, or you can buy rewashable towels made for this purpose (kitchen towels, as opposed to shop towels). I have a stainless steel inner pot left over from an Instapot knockoff (trust me, the Instapot is infinitely better, that's what I have now) and I toss the used kitchen rags into that and then later empty that into the hamper.|
   
   
7. "Stretching" garbage bags by using them until they are full. Nope. Take the garbage out every night. If you really want to save money here, buy a small kitchen wastebasket and use plastic grocery bags as liners. Keeping garbage in your kitchen until the bag is full means you will have a filthy kitchen. You  prepare food there, don't make yourself sick to save a few bucks a year on garbage bags.
8. Using discount coupons before they expire. Some people just cannot bring themselves to waste a coupon. The smart thing is to go ahead and waste it, unless you really need the item. I got a 15% coupon as a reward for buying that climbing harness. I don't need anything else, so I'm letting that coupon expire.
9. Taking advantage of the "free" dinners offered for senior investment seminars, estate planning seminars, funeral home planning seminars, etc. My first objection is to the food (I call restaurants "cancer acqusition centers" for a reason). But let's say you don't care about that. You're going to sit there for a couple of hours being hammered away with a sales pitch that is well-designed. You have very little chance of not falling for the con. Even if you don't fall for the con, you provided them your name, telephone number, and maybe other information (age, address, income bracket) so that you could get the "free" meal. They sell your info to a data broker, and now the pain really begins.
10. Not taking that trip your spouse has often talked about. My gosh, that would be four grand! I don't mean to suggest you should routinely go on expensive trips, but you have only this one life to live and it's not a very long one. Think of all the sacrifice you have made, all the pain you have endured, and all the work you have done just to get to this point. You deserve something memorable. Maybe not a trip, but in this example let's say it is. So your spouse dies and two years later, what memories do you have of that trip you never took? It's not just money, but also time. I suggest listening to "The Cat's in the Cradle" if you have not done so in a while.

1. It it's important, it's probably not urgent. Take your time to consider something, don't allow false urgency to decide for you.
2. It it's too good to be true, well you know the rest of that one. Live it.
3. There's no olive oil trick, honey trick, or other trick that cures an illness or condition.
4. Nobody is sitting at home making thousands per week using "an Amazon secret". Besides, if they are telling you about it then it's not a secret.
5. Successful people don't put on training courses or seminars on how to do this or that business. They are making money in that business, and they have zero interest in creating hundreds of competitors.
6. Some stock market guru you've never heard of does not have a crystal ball.
7. There's no shortcut in life, there's no getting around basic economics, and there's no free lunch.
8. Just because you keep hearing it doesn't mean it's true.
9. Pay attention to steep discounts if you act now, limited seating, limited supply, and other red flags.
10. If somebody really has figured out a massive profit machine, why would they want to share it with strangers and why would they pitch it on YouTube in the first place?

6. Health tip/Fitness tip

Age 66 in these photos

Suppose you wanted to reduce the number on your bathroom scale by twenty or thirty pounds by tomorrow morning. There is an absolute, foolproof way to achieve that goal instantly: visit a surgeon and have one of your legs amputated.

It sounds absurd, of course. No sane person would agree to that trade. Yet every single day, millions of well-intentioned people make a version of that exact mistake in pursuit of their health and fitness goals. They confuse an arbitrary measurement with actual outcomes, and in doing so, they mistake the superficial proxy for the underlying reality.
When someone says they want "weight loss," what they almost always mean in plain English is fat loss—specifically, reducing body fat while keeping or building lean muscle tissue, maintaining energy, and improving structural integrity. But because we fixate on the scale, an entire multi-billion-dollar industry has stepped in to sell us shortcuts, magic powders, and bottled promises that target the proxy instead of the system.

This isn’t unique to body composition. Look at why most people buy dietary supplements today:

• Muscle Building & Strength: Powders, single amino acid isolates, and recovery concoctions pitched to bypass hard work or speed up tissue repair.
• Hormonal Optimization: "Testosterone boosters," herbal extracts, and exotic blends framed as a fountain of youth for vigor and strength.
• Cognitive Support & Anti-Dementia: Nootropic stacks, memory pills, and rare botanical extracts sold as insurance against brain fog and age-related decline.
• Anti-Aging & Longevity: Synthetic compounds and antioxidant megadoses promising to rewrite cellular timelines.
• Cancer Prevention & Cellular Protection: High-dose isolated vitamins, berry powders, and "superfood" concentrates claimed to neutralize disease.
• Energy & Stress Management: High-potency stimulant blends and adaptogen cocktails designed to mask chronic fatigue and cortisol overload.

Each of these goals reflects a legitimate human desire: to be strong, sharp, resilient, and long-lived. The problem isn't the ambition; it's the mechanism.

Modern supplement marketing relies on a fundamental misunderstanding of biological systems. It treats the human body like a simple machine where you can pour a specific chemical into a specific valve to force a specific result. But biology does not work in isolated levers. Your physiology is an intricate, highly-integrated network. When you try to bypass foundational signaling—the raw inputs of genuine nutrition, physical demand, and systemic recovery—by throwing high-dose isolated compounds at a symptom (imaginary or not), you are attempting to paint a house that doesn't have a roof yet.

Over the next few issues, I will tear down this "pill-first" illusion layer by layer.

In the next two or three editions, I will dissect what is actually being hawked for each of these major categories. We will look at why these isolated compounds fail to deliver on their grand promises, where the marketing misleads you, and why taking chemical shortcuts often backfires on your physiology.

After I dismantle the supplement myths, we will pivot to what actually works: the true foundation. I will map out the whole-food nutritional principles that genuinely drive cellular repair, metabolic efficiency, and recovery. Finally, I will cover the core physical and training principles that force your body to adapt, rebuild, and stay resilient for the long haul.

Before reaching for another bottle or looking for a modern shortcut, it helps to ask a basic question: is the foundation actually in place, or am I just trying to polish the scaffolding?

In the next issue, we will start by unpacking the multi-billion-dollar promises behind muscle-building supplements and testosterone boosters.