Last year I wrote about possible world-wide financial troubles in “The Coming Bubble,” which is ready to pop, sending the U.S. in a slide worse that the Great Depression of the 1930s:

“USA Today published an article featuring a chart showing the internet bubble, the housing bubble, and an unnamed bubble labeled a ‘stock market bubble.’

While the article doesn’t say there is a stock market bubble occurring in the U.S., it does say, “the Fed’s monetary policies have caused stock prices to soar, doesn’t mean there’s a bubble.” It also says those same monetary policies will likely deflate as part of an overall correction of the market.”

Now ‘Google’ vice-president Vinton Cerf is warning we could lose all of our pictures, document and other data forever.  He says the images and records of our existence that we store on our computers will disappear as the ongoing digital revolution makes older hardware and software obsolete and old files inaccessible.

He adds, that since so much data is now kept in digital format, another problem will be future generations struggling to understand our society. That’s because more often than not, historians don’t realize how important a document is until centuries after the people who created it have died.

This may happen sooner than later — so it’s best to start planning for it.

President Barack Obama once again prove jus’ how out of touch he is with America. Recently he was shown on Buzzfeed allowing his full narcissism to be on display via a string of selfies.

The pictures (part of a video aimed to get people to sign up for Obamacare) were shot the same day the White House announced American hostage Kayla Mueller was dead. The selfies also came the day when ISIS/ISIL appeared on the doorsteps of one of the American bases in Iraq, where U.S. Marines are stationed.

Finally, it’s not enough he’s taking a selfie — he is being photographed while taking those selfies. And he hasn’t the sense to be embarrassed by this.

My friend Charles sent this joke to me — and while completely politically incorrect, I thought I’d share it.

Three strangers strike up a conversation in the airport lounge awaiting their flights.

One is an American Indian another is a cowboy. The third is a Radical Islamist.

Their discussion drifts to their diverse cultures. Soon, the two Westerners learn that the third man is a devout, radical Islamist and the conversation falls into an uneasy lull.

Finally, the American Indian clears his throat and softly speaks. “At one time here, my people were many, but sadly, now we are few.”

The Radical Islamist raises an eyebrow and leans forward, “Once my people were few,” he sneers, “and now we are many. Why do you suppose that is?”

The Montana cowboy shifts his toothpick to one side of his mouth, and says in a drawl, “That’s ’cause we ain’t played Cowboys and Radicals yet.”

It’s not often that I receive personal mail from the post office these days. Much of what I get comes via the Internet.

So when I went to the mail box and found a small package addressed to me from Lyn and Sean Schmitt of North Las Vegas, I was excited. Once I opened it, I was even more excited to after reading this note:

“There is a bit of a story that goes with this belt buckle. I thought you might like to know the story behind it.

Two years back, I was working the weekend shift at the power plant when we had some unexpected visitors. We were hesitant to let anyone on site on weekends, especially when they don’t have an appointment.

The driver of that truck at the gate said he had been on site before and was there to pickup scrap from our lay-down yard. Now this is VERY unusual as we have copper and other metals that can be quite valuable and have been target of thieves in the past.

I asked the person to come in the control room so we could talk.

The truck came on site and in through the door walked a man and a couple of younger men who were obviously Native American. They told me they were from the local Paiute tribe and that they ran a school to teach their young men a skill to get them off the reservation.

They owned a smelter and would melt down scrap metals to create jewelry and trinkets that could be sold. After hearing this and seeing some of their products, I agreed to let them go back and scavenge.

They took some of our old wire and aluminum as well as a few pallets. That was the last I expected to hear from them.

Last week, we were surprised to see that same old truck pull up to the gate of the power plant. The same man came in with another of his students.

He presented us with a beautiful dream catcher that they made into a plaque. They also gave some of the staff belt buckles, knives and copper bangles.

The buckle you have in your hands was made from scrap aluminum and formed in a hand-made sand mold. I hope you enjoy it even more so, knowing the story that comes with it.”

I plan to buy a shadow box and mount both the letter and the bucket in it together as it is artwork that deserves to be shown off.

While the media trumpets news about the ‘fall of the U.S. Embassy’ in Yemen — ISIS/ISIL has seized much of Ramadi, Iraq. The town is the location of al-Asad Air Base where 300 U.S. Marines are stationed.

Furthermore, Iraqi officials say they’ve lost contact with the base, while the pentagon says the terrorist were repelled. Reuters claims the heavy fighting in al-Baghdadi is much more significant than the Pentagon is letting on.

“Ninety percent of al-Baghdadi district has fallen under the control of the insurgents,” district manager Naji Arak told Reuters by phone.

Al-Baghdadi sits on the only real roadway in and out of al-Asad. And if its true that al-Bagdadi is under the control of ISIS/ISIL, the only way in out of al-Asad is by air.

I see another Khe Sanh on the horizon.

And where is President Obama today? He’s on his way to San Francisco, California for a private Democratic National Committee fundraiser.

Listen closely the next time you hear President Obama speak of the American wage-earner and you’ll realize he uses ‘worker,’ verses ‘employee,’ nearly every time. And while some may say it’s accidental or meaningless, it is interesting to note that ‘worker’ is used in the Marxist or leftist contexts to refer to the ‘working class.’

As Obama stated in February 2008, “Don’t tell me words don’t matter!”

• “I haven’t looked at Staples’ stock lately or what the compensation of the CEO is, but I suspect that they could well afford to treat their workers favorably and give them some basic financial security.”

• “That would put our workers and our businesses at a disadvantage.”

• “Today, we’re the only advanced country on Earth that doesn’t guarantee paid sick leave or paid maternity leave to our workers.”

• “The average minimum wage worker is 35 years old.”

• “I’ve shared the pain of families who’ve lost their homes, and the frustration of workers who’ve lost their jobs.”

• “Now you have a choice: we can give more tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, or we can start rewarding companies that open new plants and train new workers and create new jobs here, in the United States of America.”

• “Pass this jobs bill, and starting tomorrow, small businesses will get a tax cut if they hire new workers or raise workers’ wages.”

• “When CEOs are making more in ten minutes than the average worker earns in a year…”

• “But I’ve made a different bet on American workers.”

• “We got workers and automakers to settle their differences.”

• “We bet on American workers.”

• “That’s why we’ve kept on pushing trade deals, but trade deals that make sure that American workers are getting a good deal.”

• “But I guarantee you I don’t meet a single worker in Iowa who’s been laid off who says, ‘I wouldn’t rather pay a little bit more for sneakers at Wal-Mart but still have a job.’”

• “The troubles, the difficulties, the burdens of globalization are going to be placed on the backs of workers.”

• “The Earned Income Tax Credit provides low-wage workers with supplemental income through the tax code should be expanded and streamlined so more families can take advantage of it.”

Only once can I find Obama speaking of ‘employees:  “I will issue an Executive Order requiring federal contractors to pay their federally-funded employees a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour–because if you cook our troops’ meals or wash their dishes, you shouldn’t have to live in poverty.”

The first headline I saw came late Sunday evening, “Ukrainian government officials confirmed a nuclear blast was detected in Ukraine Sunday.”

Unfortunately, I didn’t stop to see where exactly it came from. So I ‘googled’ the sentence and found it being carried by every crack-pot with a website and Internet connection, concluding it wasn’t as big a deal as I first thought.

I turned in for the night.

Then Monday morning, I read, “A giant explosion which rocked the Ukrainian city of Donetsk sparked fears of a ‘tactical nuke’ after pro-government forces shelled a rebel-held chemical plant,” in the UK’s Daily Mail.

Did I miss something as I slept? Nope.

After viewing three videos uploaded to Youtube, I concluded it was a conventional explosion that illuminated the night sky.  A nuclear blast creates an electromagnetic pulse that will fry all electronics within the blast area and since the videos were on the Internet within minutes of the reported blast – it wasn’t a nuke that went off.

Russian media reports the epicenter of the explosion was in the Kuibyshev district of Donetsk, Ukraine, the site of the most intense fighting between Russian-backed rebels and the Western-backed Ukrainian government.  The media also said the explosion could be seen and felt for “tens of kilometers.”

The blast occurred at the military chemical plant DKZHI and coincides with 1,500 Russian troops and 300 units of military equipment arriving in Donetsk over the weekend.  Russia denies supplying the rebel’s with troops and weapons, claiming they are only providing “humanitarian convoys.”

It also came as the leaders of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine plan to sit down and discuss a peace plan for the region.

Three students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are murdered and their deaths used as propaganda.  The victims, all members of the Muslim faith, Deah Shaddy Barakat, his wife, Yusor Mohammad, and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, were shot and killed by Craig Hicks.

Although the shooter’s motive is unclear, the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a statement noting the possible connection between Hicks’s anti-religion statements and the religious affiliation of the victims.

“Based on the brutal nature of this crime, the past anti-religion statements of the alleged perpetrator, the religious attire of two of the victims, and the rising anti-Muslim rhetoric in American society, we urge state and federal law enforcement authorities to quickly address speculation of a possible bias motive in this case,” the statement read.

Their deaths also gave rise to the hashtag #MuslimLivesMatter and #chapelhillshooting.

A Facebook post alleged to belong to Hicks has been widely shared online, including: “When it comes to insults, your religion started this, not me. If your religion kept its big mouth shut, so would I.”

Hicks is reportedly a member of groups including “Friends of Freedom from Religion Foundation,” “Atheism on Youtube,” and a fan of renown atheist Richard Dawkins’ book, “The God Delusion.”

Again — no one has been able to confirm the authenticity of the post or his Facebook page. Meanwhile, police have charged Hicks with three counts of first-degree murder, but have yet to confirm the shooting as a hate crime.

Police spokesman Lt. Joshua Mecimore said a preliminary investigation indicates the crime was “motivated by an ongoing neighbor dispute over parking” and that Hicks is cooperating with investigators.

However, bowing to pressure, Chapel Hill Police Chief Chris Blue added in a press release, “Our investigators are exploring what could have motivated Mr. Hicks to commit such a senseless and tragic act. We understand the concerns about the possibility that this was hate-motivated and we will exhaust every lead to determine if that is the case.”

Samsung’s Smart TV appears to be too smart for our own good. The boilerplate language in its instruction booklet seems blasé, until:

“Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third-party through your use of Voice Recognition.”

The warning’s adding fuel to the debate over how much control humans are willing to give up to automation for the sake of convenience. Artificial intelligence is an increasingly hot topic, with guys like Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates warning about the unintended consequences of unchecked ‘smart technology.’

This isn’t anything new as smart meters are gathering unencrypted data that can, among other details, show when a homeowner is away from their residence for long periods of time. The electric wattage readings can even decipher what type of activities a customer’s engaged in, such as watching TV, using a computer or even how long someone spends cooking.

It’s also well-known that smart-phones are collecting information for marketing purposes. However less known is that some gathered data is not only being sent to the federal government, but overseas to countries like China.

Add to this the knowledge that thermostats, refrigerators, automobiles and even some toilets are now designed to interact with human beings. They can, through their computerized systems, collected data that’s designed to ‘make life better,’ for people.

Recently, my wife’s former roommate’s husband, Dan Kaufman appeared on ’60-Minutes.’  Known as ‘DARPA Dan,’ he’s the head of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Information Innovation Office.

“So the fear is as everything becomes networked, right– so first, maybe they can mess with the refrigerator,” Kaufman told Lesley Stahl. “You think, “Well, that’s bad. It’s not that horrible.””

“But that refrigerator, of course, as everything becomes networked, well maybe that also happens to talk to your garage door,” he adds.

“There’s always a dark side and it’s something we wrestle with tremendously,” Kaufman finally warns.

Now, back to Samsung’s Smart TV — you can disable the TV’s voice feature. But as the TV learns, it’s possible it could ‘learn’ to enable that same feature even after it’s been turned off.

Until then jus’ don’t say or do anything around it you wouldn’t want heard or seen by “Big Brother.”

He died December 22, 2014 after being struck by two vehicles as he was walking on a crosswalk in front of the Bonanza Casino in Reno, Nevada. Vincent Yowell was only 54-years-old.

A woman driving the first car pulled over and called for help before the second car ran over him. The second driver told detectives he thought he had hit an animal.

Vincent was born and grew up in Elko and graduated from Reno High School. He enjoyed walking for exercise, tribal pow-wows and rodeos where he would greet everyone with a smile and a hug.

He was known to me on two fronts; first as a driver for the local para-transit outfit and then as a radio jock. His death really hit the local broadcasting community hard as he was always at our local events.

Vince is one of a dozen people killed in the past 15-years trying to cross the dark, wide stretch of North Virginia Street between McCarran and Panther. Five of those people, including Vince,  died crossing in front of the Bonanza Casino.

Finally, the state is going to do something about this dangerous stretch of roadway by installing a traffic signal where he died. The decision came after Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, who also knew Vince, reprimanded Nevada Department of Transportation for not acting sooner.

Sandoval personally knew Vince.

As one person wrote in the Reno Gazette-Journal, “Vincent, I hope you get your ‘Awful-Awful’s’ wherever you are.” I couldn’t agree more.