Yes.  Triskaidekaphobia fans, this is one of those rare “Friday the 13th days in Retrograde.”

The F-13 part  of our headline arises from (pick your fave) from the Wiki dope:

[Where the term dope refers to good/useful/cool data, not a drooler.]

Which gets to the Retrograde part:

“Yes, Mercury is in retrograde from November 25, 2024 to December 15, 2024…”

After Sunday, the next Retrograde will begin March 14th – a Friday. So, if you need to figure when your next F-13R will happen, figure out how to structure your own damn A.I. query.

Is it somehow significant? Other than if you’re into Templar-related fraternal organizations, or like me you hit “personal retrograde effects” about three weeks in advance of nominals,  No, probably not. But, people are fascinated with speculation. Have fun.

Bifurcated Skies

Further to our report Thursday, attempting to stitch many aspects of sky clutter into a holistic view, we can add more wood to those fires today.

If you want to believe that drones are “all a government deal” there’s a bit of support for this as recent events popping on YouTube, like this video of a submersible drone, has led to more recent speculation such as purported efforts to build an “underwater drone carrier.”

Reader Ray’s comments on which ammo to use to subdue a drone (to determine its ‘parentage’) aside from being illegal (to fire on an aircraft) the bifurcation reference relates to the latest from our SME (subject matter expert):

“Forwarded without much comment, except… OMG!

Extraterrestrial Life in the Thermosphere: Plasmas, UAP, Pre-Life, Fourth State of Matter

“Incidentally, I was totally unaware that there are such things as extraterrestrial amino acids: “Seventy-three extraterrestrial and nineteen terrestrial amino acids have so far been in identified in carbonaceous chondrites [60] [61] [62] .” [SME Comment: Carbonaceous chondrites being the material of organic meteorites…”It’s life, Jim, but not as we know it…”]

OK, the possibilities of “transmedium life forms” is out there, for sure. But, for those of us who have worked on the UFO problem for more than half a century now, let’s not forget that lore includes a lot of references to the “rods” which have been captured on high-speed cameras.

Nope. Not kidding: Air rods or rods are described as flying living organisms that showed up in photographs. Eventually analysis showed that rods were the result of an optical illusion and were usually just bugs. Despite this, some people still claim to have seen them flying- even without a camera. : r/Cryptozoology.

Which kinda makes my head hurt. Because what if these are organisms that are transmediumistic ( they are in a breeding cycle?

Ah, but enough fun for the week. Though if you felt something strange on your leg just now, was that me, pulling it? Um…not really.

Because as Experts try to solve the NJ drone mystery as anxious residents debate who — or what — is responsible for the Aircrafts, we see our core belief that Everything is a Business Model strikes Truth again: UFOHub.org Launches New Platform for UFO Research and Documentation.

And the beat goes on.

But while it does, it’s not particularly reassuring that the FBI, White House find no evidence of security threat in New Jersey drone sightings.  These were the same people unable to find the owner of the bag of blow at the White House, if I remember.  And that, what with DNA and all, should have been a slam dunk.

The Financial Beat

We ought to begin with the markets which seem to have run into “shared overhead resistance” as the week draws to an end.  As BTC remains mired in the $100,000 range, we also sense our Aggregate Index has run into a problem reaching “escape velocity”…

As should be coming clear, the market could continue on up (into early January) before the right-most of our “trading boxes” runs into the upside minimal goal (this is not trading advice, by the way).  Because as everyone knows, the markets can fail at any moment, and fifth wave failures in technical analysis is a regular-enough “thing” that it has some history and study behind it.

Instead of “going deep” on that, arguably more a Peoplenomics topic, anyway – how about we move on to:

Trade Dope

Dang it!  There’s that word “dope” again.  But this time it’s not good news.  It’s a value judgment of the wisdom of American greedsters who took too much of our manufacturing overseas to least-cost-labor-centers. Where it’s hard to beat the labor rates paid to Chinese prison workers, right?

Prices for U.S. imports increased 0.1 percent for the second consecutive month in November, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Higher fuel prices led the November advance. U.S. export prices were unchanged in November following a 1.0-percent rise the previous month.

The Big Shake was in?

Fuel Imports: Import fuel prices advanced 1.0 percent in November following a 0.8-percent decline the previous month. Higher prices for natural gas and petroleum in November contributed to the increase in
import fuel prices. Despite the November rise, prices for import fuel declined 8.6 percent over the past 12 months. Import petroleum prices advanced 0.4 percent in November, after decreasing 11.6 percent from July to October. Prices for import petroleum fell 7.6 percent for the year ended in November.

Thinking people (which we’ll include you in) will note this is a land mine for interest rate policies of the Fed,.  Which uses “inflation less food and energy” as their benchmark for interest rate decisions. Like Powell’s recent (and suspiciously-timed) rate reductions.  Which we have been jumping up and down and yelling “No!” about since it happened.

Other than this?  There is not too much for the resta-triska:  The Baker Hughes rig count this afternoon and some Japanese machinery sales this evening, which we just know you’ve been on the edge of your chair waiting for.

Well fine, sit there. The rest of class is going to…

Run News Film Strips

Move over Diddy time?  Israeli-American real estate giants charged with sex trafficking, sexual assault in New York court.

Might as well do all the Israeli real estate stories as a group, then: UN General Assembly approves resolutions demanding Gaza ceasefire, more aid to Palestinian refugees. Are we the only ones to remember possession is 99 percent of the outcome?

As we have previously cast, Israel’s real estate ambitions are running up the coast, too: UN Chief Warns of Israel’s Syria Invasion and Land Seizures.

But just because Russian warships are heading to Syria, — Defense Intelligence, don’t let that ruin the weekend for you. WW III may wait until after Christmas.

Or not: Updated outage schedules issued for Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Odesa oblasts after Russian strikes.

And looks to us like they call it the “bleeding edge” of tech for a reason: Russia’s Kh-69 cruise missile developer shot dead near Moscow .

Need some “dot-connecting” lessons?  See if you scan find a possible link between Belarus admits over 128,000 Ukrainian citizens since 2024 year-start and this other story: At least 10 Shahed-type drones veer into Belarus during overnight attack on Ukraine, monitoring group says.

No WW III would be complete without China.  So, while the massive naval drills seem to be winding down, there’s still high tension over those new Chinese “keep out zones” as US reconnaissance aircraft reported transiting Taiwan Strait.  We’re on “incident watch” there.

American-Made Madness

Free speech is in trouble as Congress May Empower Internet Censorship With New Bill.

After the wild swing past far left, the young may be regaining some sense: The New Cool: A Global “Vibe Shift”.  We’re not holding our breath, but where there’s hope…

Here’s another one for armchair detectives: FBI Informant Pleads Guilty to False Testimony in Biden-Burisma Bribery Case.

And who says “crime doesn’t pay?”  Board Votes to Give Indicted Democratic Former Apache County Attorney a $5,700 Monthly Pension. We’ll make a note to watch for the disposition of the indictment.

At the Ranch:  Io-diet?

After our consigliere’s Thanksgiving visit, the “stand-on, digital liar” (bathroom scale) insisted that I’d put on 5-pounds.

The monkey mind screamed “Gotta be a lie!”

Since I had been feeling sluggish lately, I decided to put a kelp pill back in my morning stack.

Didn’t happen overnight, the the combination of kelp (high in natural iodine) and cutting out most carbs every other day, seems to have dropped five pounds in a week.

It helps to understand that there are some nutrients – especially those which drive metabolic rates like iodine and DHEA – which have very distinct “sweet spots” – vary by person.

A quick AI of iodine supplementation lays it out:

Iodine deficiency:
Occurs when not enough iodine is consumed through diet.
Can lead to hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) due to the inability to produce sufficient thyroid hormone.
Symptoms may include fatigue, sensitivity to cold, weight gain, and a swollen thyroid gland (goiter).
Particularly harmful during pregnancy and early development, impacting fetal brain development.
Iodine excess:
Caused by consuming too much iodine, often through supplements or iodine-rich foods like seaweed.
Can also lead to thyroid dysfunction, including hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid) in some cases.
In certain situations, excessive iodine can paradoxically cause hypothyroidism, particularly in individuals with a history of iodine deficiency.
Symptoms may include similar issues to iodine deficiency like goiter, alongside symptoms of hyperthyroidism like anxiety, rapid heartbeat, and weight loss.

Whether my putting kelp back in the diet has a role in the weight loss isn’t clear.  And it takes almost a week for any effects to show up.  There are dilutions and absorption rates (not to mention giving the gut biomed time to adjust to changes) that simply take time.

I found a useful (2021) discussion at Nutritional iodine status and obesity – PMC you might find of interest.

Do remember, though, like DHEA (which can trigger tumors and other nasties at excessively high doses, at least in the literature) iodine is not to be trifled with.

Still, if poundage and age-age are on your convo list with your PCP, remember that older adults can be more susceptible to iodine deficiency or excess.  So it’s one very inexpensive lever to pull in order to optimize your health.

Write when you get rich,

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