casualrambles

twelve innocent citizens

2011-07-09T02:24:00.002-04:00

So, Casey Anthony has been set free and the death of her daughter, Caylee, will go down as unsolved. With all the post-trial analysis put forth to account for this acquittal, it is important to note yet another failing of the American Criminal Trial System that is not being discussed. This is the choosing of 12 jurors who represent the peers of the defendant. Think about that a moment. Look at the amount of effort made to choose a jury made up of people who did NOT think Casey Anthony was guilty. Since the average "peer" of Casey Anthony was the average citizen of central Florida and the average citizen of central Florida firmly believed she was guilty, the search for anyone who did not think she was guilty was long and difficult. Given the circumstantial character of the case, the defendant's long and careful silence and misdirection, and the intense "not guilty" jury selection, there could be only one of two outcome from the trial; either not guilty or a hung jury. This search for highly biased jurors seems to go against the very core of the original concept of trial by jury. This case should be presented to the Supreme Court by the state of Florida for compliance to the Constitution of the United States of America.

Intelligent Design extended

2010-02-11T09:19:00.002-05:00

The human species has an unexpected obligation; to seed the Universe with Life. The Great Design begins to unfold (or is "given" by the "one" god) and it is that we humans are so special that we are the chosen species to spread Life universally. According to Michael Mautner, Research Professor of Chemistry at Virginia Commonwealth University, seeding the universe with life is not just an option, it’s our moral obligation. Actually, not an unreasonable extension of Religious Principles.

A very thought-provoking scenario and one that Science Fiction writers have firm but differing opinions expressed in their stories. The fear of NASA of "contaminating" another planet surely must be somehow antichrist (anti- any religion/religious symbolism) in origin since by extension of Intelligent Design theory, expanding god's "CHOSEN" throughout the Universe is not only our moral obligation, it is clearly the next step in Religious Progression.

As we all know (now), the Earth must cease to support life of any kind whatsoever in the future. Yes, it might be billions of years before that happens (more or less) but we are on a dead-end road riding to doom. How can we NOT fulfill the obligation of spreading our god-given awareness of god to the Universe. How sinful is it to ride the Earth to it's doom without passing on Life and with that Life, the great god(s) of life, goodness, love, and so on. I can well imagine the anger of god as (she,it,he,them,or us) suddenly becomes aware we are passively allowing all knowledge of god (she,it,he,them,or us) to simply pass away into the tombstone of a frozen lump of planet floundering around a dead star.

Well, I for one volunteer my dna for extraterrestrial seeding. I'd like NASA to send it to a nice warm climate to match the nice warm climate I'll probably find myself in postmortem. Start your church now before the rush and sign up for your area of seeding.

More borrowed, more blue

2009-05-15T09:35:00.002-04:00

Like a bride, our government has now married itself to the industrial/financial world complete with exchange of symbolic rings. Even with a few first marital spats. For example, the spat oer bonuses, Chrysler not paying back the "loan," and much more to come. Now that the dowry of many trillions of dollars has been given, the "bride" has lost control of the marriage and the groom is off with the money and control of the relationship (ie: the government gave the money and the financial/industrial complex is in control). With Obama continuing the Bush policies seamlessly and even upping the ante such as in Afghanistan, the degradation of the American future continues. Sorry Obama, but smiling faces and sweet words don't make a new policy. Only a change we can trust (where did we hear that from?) will be change.

All that money in the hands of the citizens (where it came from anyway) would have rescued the American dream and future. Dividing up a few trillion dollars amongst all tax payers equally would have had the money moving quickly to industry and financial institutions in an appropriate manner. We the People would have "rescued" those worth saving and allowed the ones that need to fail to drop off the financial map. No committee is better equipped to know what is best for America than the American people. Bush forgot this and Obama has chosen to follow in George's footsteps, abandoning most of his campaign rhetoric. It is a mystery of the ages how people can believe one person knows better than the collective people of the state. No wonder there are so many dictatorships and when government fails the warlord system prevails. Obama needs to change the direction of the American government and trust in the people. We really do know best.

Trickle up-Not down

2008-11-22T05:47:00.002-05:00

Trickle down bail out is a waste of "magic" money. It just disappears down the maul of high paid executive officers and into the back rooms of banks and not much gets to the consumers who will have to pay for the cost of this waste of printing by the Feds. If the Congress, in it's elected wisdom, had simply given every American $3000.00 the crisis would be over by now. That's about the same amount as the bail out of nearly a trillion dollars. Begin to imagine!

A family of two would have gotten $6000.00 and a family of 10 would have gotten $30,000.00. What would this money do? Hide in a mattress? Not a bit. All of that money would have quickly "trickled up" and been in the hands of the banks, the manufacturers, the car companies, and the stock market. Ok, so you're single and live alone and only get $3000.00. So, send it back and don't spend it or use it to pay your mortgage or car bill or buy a new washer/dryer. Sure you will.

I suppose it's too simple and effective an idea to occur to the complex-thinking elected representatives of our democratic republic police state. All these people who are representing the wishes and needs of the people could think of was to dump money into the hands of those who already have millions. That was stupid and we see the results. Give the money to the people and the economy will prosper. The rich already have enough and it no longer "trickles down" to the ordinary people. If we must have a bail out, bail out the people, not the fat cats.

Are you a Libertarian?

2008-11-04T07:17:00.002-05:00

A large proportion of the population of the United States support the Libertarian Party but have no idea that it even exists or what form of government the Party endorses. Our country was founded and grown on some basic governing ideas which have been lost in the last 70 (more or less) years. The "Great Depression" allowed greatly increased personal limitations to be enforced by government and a greatly enhanced governmental power. That governing power over the people has grown until now we have more laws enacted than any other country in the world, more convicted criminals, more incarcerated criminals, and have entered into a Police State rather than a Free State system.

Without a revolution no government will reduce their powers over their people. A peaceful revolution is currently required and a great majority of the citizens are aware of that at some level. The expected election later today of Obama as President supports that statement of fact. Change, change, change is the byword and theme of nearly all our elections. But, do we get change? Well, yes, but just in the direction of more and more government and more laws taking from the people for support of more government, more laws, more taxes, less freedom, and more debt. At present, we are making magic money to support institutions now run by the government, fed by the taxpayers, and into the hands of the few. We must have change. Real change. The Libertarian Party supports real change. Investigate the party here: http://www.lp.org to see if you can find change that feels right for our country. Below is a short passage from the above site.

"Statement of Principles

We, the members of the Libertarian Party, challenge the cult of the omnipotent state and defend the rights of the individual.

We hold that all individuals have the right to exercise sole dominion over their own lives, and have the right to live in whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal right of others to live in whatever manner they choose.

Governments throughout history have regularly operated on the opposite principle, that the State has the right to dispose of the lives of individuals and the fruits of their labor. Even within the United States, all political parties other than our own grant to government the right to regulate the lives of individuals and seize the fruits of their labor without their consent.

We, on the contrary, deny the right of any government to do these things, and hold that where governments exist, they must not violate the rights of any individual: namely, (1) the right to life -- accordingly we support the prohibition of the initiation of physical force against others; (2) the right to liberty of speech and action -- accordingly we oppose all attempts by government to abridge the freedom of speech and press, as well as government censorship in any form; and (3) the right to property -- accordingly we oppose all government interference with private property, such as confiscation, nationalization, and eminent domain, and support the prohibition of robbery, trespass, fraud, and misrepresentation.

Since governments, when instituted, must not violate individual rights, we oppose all interference by government in the areas of voluntary and contractual relations among individuals. People should not be forced to sacrifice their lives and property for the benefit of others. They should be left free by government to deal with one another as free traders; and the resultant economic system, the only one compatible with the protection of individual rights, is the free market."

Crime rewarded-Voter Fraud

2008-11-02T09:47:00.002-05:00

Voter Fraud is one of those unique crimes in which the benefactor of the crime gets to keep the "booty." A fraudulent vote cast in an election is made valid as soon as it is cast. Only if caught prior to casting the vote is the vote not counted. Thus, if a large group of any candidates followers dedicate themselves to voter fraud, that candidate will benefit and get to keep the benefits of that crime. This is purported to have happened in the Kennedy/Nixon election in which Kennedy has been said to have actually won the presidency through voter fraud. This election McCain/Obama will very likely go down in history as the greatest voter fraud since Tamany Hall. This one, however, will be on a national level and the new president, whomever it is, will be rewarded by gaining the presidency through someone else's crimes. A curious crime indeed.

Remaking America

2008-10-04T02:38:00.002-04:00

What could be done with a trillion dollars? The creation of factories, refurbishing of existing factories, jobs, healthy economy, and much more. The government now "owns" the fannies and will run these institutions that own, at some level, most of the mortgages of homes in America. With such a level of Socialism, why not use the trillion dollars to "go to war" with our economy? Recall how America got out of the "Great" depression? We got into World War II. At great governmental expense we created factories, refurbished factories, built vehicles, ships, arms, and much more. We then took these highly expensive manufactured goods to far reaches of the world and destroyed most of them, abandoning the remainder to the countries they happened to be in at the end of the war. Instead of using a trillion dollars of magic money to enrich the banking and investment fat cats, why not use a trillion dollars to go to war with our own economy. We could use new factories, rebuild and bring up-to-date manufacturing facilities. We could then build some of our own appliances and goods. Why not build "liberty" ships or their equivalent again and start competing with world trade transportation again. Let the government own the factories, ships, or whatever and allow the workers to buy the factories, ships or whatever from the government. That way, everyone gains from the bottom up. People have jobs actually in America, actually producing items for sale to the world again. And, the money invested in vehicles, factories, roads, trains, and more is all inside America and all paid back to the government several times over through purchase of the factories, goods, ships, and so on and through taxes paid by the workers and sales of these same manufactured goods. That's how to get America back on it's feet with "magic" money. Throwing it at the Savings and Loan, Banks, and investment companies will not do anything except exacerbate the damage already done.

Magic money

2008-10-04T02:17:00.002-04:00

So, now we all pay for the planned and created crash of the banking and investment world through the use of bad housing loans. Do you really think the people who perpetrated this evil actually did it without foreknowledge of their actions? Banks are run and overseen by financial experts who are fully capable being aware of their actions in the larger financial world for years to come. Many "rogue" experts warned of exactly what was coming years ago and were dismissed by the other experts who were well aware of the accuracy of the warnings but wished to continue to become more rich at the expense of a one-day crash. Do you think these same people were not aware of the pathos they were creating (of people losing their homes) and that they would probably benefit doubly when the public supported a bailout of the same institutions that created the crisis? Do you think these same people were not aware of the bailout of the Savings and Loan institutions 20 or so years ago? We've all been "had" and now we have stupidly allowed these same evil financiers to continue and gain even more wealth.

Oh yes, I was wrong about the cost to the individual American. The bailout is now estimated to cost nearly 900 billion dollars. As we all know from past experience, this will expand quite a bit to reach well over a trillion dollars. At that level (more than $900,000,000,000.00) it will cost each American from baby to elderly more than $3000.00 or more than $12,000.00 for a family of 4. And the government thought we could "kick-start" the economy by giving each family $600.00 to a maximum of $1200.00 just a few months ago. Now, we must cough up more than 10 times that much to "kick-start" the banks that will take back the houses and resell them for a profit, giving the evil financiers more money at the public expense.

What could we, the public, have done with a trillion dollars? The mind boggles.

bailout costs for YOU!

2008-10-03T11:54:00.002-04:00

The population of the United States at present is about 350 million. With a bailout cost of at least $700 billion, the cost PER PERSON is $2000.00. Got an extra $2000.00 you'd like to GIVE to the fat cats who wrecked the banking system? Not me! Want to contribute a few thousand to the sink hole of those who bought homes way above their means and now want to have US bail them out? Not me! Nor will the banks bail more than a few out with the money given to them by each person. For a family of four that's $8000.00 and I'll bet nearly all family of fours are watching their budgets carefully. Now, we are supposed to hand over a lot of money to keep fat cats fat. Will it pass the second time, now that the Senate has "sweetened the pot" with more money for pork and fat cats? Hope not. Time to stop bailing out the Savings and Loan and now Banks that deal with unfair methods and operate in such a way to make the rich richer. Stop the bailout.

Unlimited dimensions

2007-05-26T19:33:00.000-04:00

According to the best science available, the universe is infinite in size and has infinite dimensions. If we take our view of the universe (called a Hubble Volume), we are able to see about 14 billion light years in all directions. We are, of course, in the center of that Hubble Volume since we are in one spot looking out. Taking into account the "big bang" theory, most simply assume we are seeing all of the universe there is. Were that true, then we are in the unique situation of occupying the exact spot the big bang happened. Since this is so unlikely as to be an impossiblity, then we are seeing a small portion of the material created and thrown out by the greater than cosmic explosion. Where we are is similar to being a tiny, tiny speck someplace in a large warehouse and we are seeing only a nearly infinitely small portion of the universe. This allows for an infinite number of Hubble Volumes we cannot see or even sense. In theory, somewhere in the universe, now termed "multiverse" there is an exact duplicate of you and I. In that multiverse Hubble Volume, somewhere out there, you stopped reading before getting this far. In another multiverse Hubble Volume, you're still reading along and giving it some thought. In the multiverse of Hubble Volumes there are Hubble Volumes containing every possiblity of you or I. Everything we could have been good and bad. All the best we could have attained and all the worst we could have become. I'm pretty happy with this Hubble Volume and who I am and have been. Hope you are too.

Then there are the Hilbert Dimensions. These are based on Quantum Theory and testing indicates these dimensions also exist. Hilbert Dimensions are infinite and are created constantly by every possiblility not taken. Where you are now is in the Hilbert Dimension of the string of possibilities you have actually taken. However, there are an infinite number of "you" in other dimensions where you took a different action. Testing shows that some, and possibly many, of these dimensions are very close and interact with this dimension at some level. One of the tests that purports to show this is based on firing one photon at a time at two slits and recording the interference pattern. When a great many photons are fired at a single slit, a pattern of a single bar is shown to occur. When a great many photons are fired at two slits, some go through one slit and some through another and a pattern of many bars is produced, similar to a wave action. This experiment originally was used to show that photons were made up of waves. However, a single photon should not act the same and when fired one at a time should have no interference pattern from other photons and should not produce multiple bars. To the surprise of the experimenters, the pattern produced by single photons was similar to the interference pattern produced by firing many photons at once. The only way this could happen is if photons from another dimension are creating interference with the single photon in this dimension. The idea is that some of the Hilbert Dimensions (quantum-produced dimensions) are so close to our dimension that they "cross over" and create the interference. Thus, our dimension "pulls" some of the other dimensions into ours to create the interference. Strange but appears to be true.

Since there are infinite dimensions, whether Hubble Volumes or Hilbert Dimensions, there must be an infinite of possiblities. One side effect of this may be that all the gods ever thought of and created by our dimension and all other dimensions probably do exist. Since a belief in a god (of some kind) is pretty much a universal human trait, the god business is pretty large and going strong. There may even be a set of dimensions where Micky Mouse is alive and well and humans are the cartoon characters. Maybe we are in that one and will never know. Whatever you can think of will be in some dimension and functioning. Fun to have as a daydream sort of recreation, knowing you are creating worlds beyond measure with your strange thoughts. Better even than the best Science Fiction novels.

So, get out there and create a few more gods, dimensions, or whatever. Just keep this one as good as you can.

European gun conflict

2007-04-17T02:25:00.000-04:00

The worst school massacre in USA history created the usual storm of criticism from Europe. What makes this dichotomy of intellectual blindness curious is the European attitude towards gun control and the fact of the multitude of European deaths over the last 100 years from weapons of all types used by Europeans to kill Europeans. How many Europeans died in World War One? About 100 million? Perhaps more? And how many Europeans died in World War Two? About 100 million? Perhaps more? Cast a blind eye on how these humans were killed and you can criticise the US and it's gun death history. More Americans were killed by weapons in Europe during the era from 1900 to 1950 than were killed by weapons in the US. Most of those Americans were killed defending the liberty of our most vocal critic: France.

The history of gun control in Europe has been a vivid example of failure. War and extensive genicide continue to this moment and will continue far into the future in Europe. Only the most heavily armed of all the European countries has avoided the problem of multiple deaths from weapons that has plagued all of the rest of Europe. Switzerland has maintained it's peace and security through a combination of topography, attitude, and the fact that the majority of it's citizens are armed and trained in the use of weapons. Yes, it was convenient to have a "neutral" state in the midst of all the "armed" conflict in Europe and yes, it would have been inconvenient to climb the Alps to conquer this small country, and yes, it would have been even more difficult to conquer a citizenry with every one a member of the military and all of it's citizens armed. So, even though Switzerland was a thorn in the side of the belligerants of Europe, their freedom was tolerated because of the difficulty of controlling a citizen state that is fully armed. Have you notice how difficult it is in Iraq?

France has riots in the streets with more deaths from civil disturbance per capita than the US has from gun deaths per capita. Just because the citizens don't have guns doesn't mean they will be peaceful. In France, the burning of cars is a nightly pastime that only gets in the news when the volume of burnt cars is unusually high. The Balkans are another example of European gun control gone wild. With a bit of thought and some awareness of history and current events, it is clear that the Europeans need to look homeward and remember to give thanks to the US for the freedom they have today. It was, afterall, the Americans who came with guns to stop the killing in Europe and bring some measure of uneasy peace to the area. Europeans don't seem to be able to control their own passion for killing each other if history is any guide.

So, go ahead and criticize. Tell the world how blind you are to your own history. Speak out France. Look down on the US and forget the fact that it was Americans who gave you your freedom again and again. At least we, here in the US have not forgotten that France aided us in our drive for freedom from the British. Shame on France for their lapse of memory.

Dark, Dark, Dark

2007-01-08T07:52:00.000-05:00

Add Dark Energy, Dark Matter, and now Dark Force to your physics plate and the world as you knew it returns to the mysterious "dark ages." Recent and on-going speculation of a scientific and imaginative nature seem to indicate the whole palette of cosmic flavors exist from anti-matter to dark matter to ....... whatever.

What does this mean for us earth-bound trolls? Not much on a daily basis. However, just as the first satellites around the earth meant not much for us earth-bound trolls, we now use satellites in many ways and would not like to return to the non-space age. It is entirely possible that "dark" physics will bring forth many new inventions and methods to benefit humans (and those portions of nature we think we want to keep) along with the typical new inventions and methods for killing each other. Yes, we have the unfortunate propensity to cruelty to each other and certainly cannot be termed "humane" when dealing with our territorial instincts. Prometheus brought fire and was punished (well, still is punished) for the great hazard to mankind and the "giant leap" toward godhood fire represented. I bet the first thing "man" did after getting warm was to seduce the females with promises of "warm" and then torture (with that same fire) those who didn't fall into the "warm" bed properly. Reminds me of the invention of the camera. First make sure it works and then bring up Betty the Maid to take off her clothes for a photograph. Makes one wonder what use we will make of dark physics. Will Betty the maid get a new opportunity? The satellites are doing their job. Much of the internet is bounced off them and much of the internet is filled with modern "Betty the maid" photos. I wonder what a nude in dark matter would look like?

Much as with electricity, dark matter might require a proverbial kite in a dark matter storm to show it's proper existence. Once found and "cornered" dark physics will take off like the man who ran out of the bar, jumped on his horse and rode off in all directions. Just as with the speed of light in a vacuum, much of dark physics will be "constant" and difficult to work with. Well, the speed of light in a vacuum is constant IF you don't subject it to unusual electromagnetic fields, high gravitational fields, and a lot of other variables. I suspect the "speed of light" is much like the freezing point of water which must be defined with many variables, one of the simplest being pressure. We will find this dark physics and bring it to the light of day. For now, we're like Ben Franklin, flying kites in a storm and wondering what will come of it.

Global Warming. Why only bad?

2007-01-07T07:27:00.000-05:00

Doom and Gloom. That's the whole story on global warming. In fact there's so much doom and gloom it got me to thinking. Always ends in weird ways. In this case, I wondered why there's no benefit from global warming. Why is it all bad?

I recall the Russians lamenting about the great expanses of the Siberian north and wishing to raise crops but unable to sustain a farming environment. Global warming should open up vast areas for sustainable farming to enrich the food supply of the world. All the northern countries should gain arable land from global warming, especially Russia and Canada but also Finland, Norway, Sweden, and even much of Europe will be able to change their farming to a new and possibly better (or at least more diverse) crop with increased yields. Sounds like a benefit to me. Even the mid-latitude areas such as the United States should see benefit and be able to grow more tropicals and sub-tropicals farther north along with year-round crops in much larger areas than at present. We might even be able to grow our own crops in the winter and not have to import them from Mexico. Anyway, there's probably not many workers left there to harvest the crops so we need to keep our own Mexicans busy.

So, the storms will be larger and more dangerous. Ok, then stop spending money on war and spend money on Coastal improvement. Spend money on infrastructure like better roads, cheaper electricity, more complete communication systems (complete and free cell coverage, free wireless, and more), less jail time and more community service with tracking devices to substitute for the jail experience, and the list goes on with the money we could put to good use rather than to killing others.

Yes, but, the weather inland will also be more severe. Same story. Stop sending money to every other country in the world and start sending it to our own people. Story is the same as with coastal improvement. Why fix Iraq? Why not fix ourselves? Oh, yeah, forgot again. Iraq is a threat and collapsing economy at home is not. Uh huh. President Johnson tried that and said of 'Nam that we could have guns and butter. Didn't work then and won't work now. (Isn't working now).

The ocean will rise and all coastal cities will be destroyed. Yup, might happen and probably a good thing. Called urban renewal and just in time. Well, that's a bit cynical but not all bad. So the ocean rises and some coastline is now in a new place. When New York City moves up river to "Next York City" it is an opportunity to rebuild in a more convenient and safer place with a city that didn't just happen but was planned and constructed around it's inhabitants, not the way the present cities are. Lots of areas will have improved ports and many will be in better locations. We will adapt and end up thinking it was better than before.

We will lose nearly all our coastal wetlands. A very strange misdirection. Of course we'd lose the coastal wetlands from where they are. We'd just have new areas of coastal wetlands. How silly. What do they think would happen if the ocean level went down? We'd lose all our wetlands and they'd be replaced by new areas of coastal wetlands. We'd even lose nearly all our coastal cities and ports and need new ports. Sounds just like the problem of rising sea level. Hmmmmm.

If status quo is the only good, then the world is in for bad because standing still and not changing is not the way of the world and will never be the way things are. Yes, I know those beavers of the Corps of Engineers have harnessed the Mississippi River and are doing all they can to keep in right where it is no matter how "unnatural" that is. The ocean is a bit too big for such taming. Even the Mississippi will finally get her way and go where she pleases. The only "status quo" we can work with is to change with the natural changes and stop trying to force everything to our will.

If a desert increases, something else will have traded places and become arable. If the weather changes we can adapt and make it a good thing. If the ocean rises or falls, we can also adapt and use it to good effect. If we, the people, caused these changes we can be responsible and change as needed.

The bottom line is that I'm still not convinced about human responsibility for global warming. Between 9000 and 10000 years ago the earth underwent a global warming that was quite similar in character. We didn't cause that. Then, there's the Carbon dioxide volcano in (I think) Nigeria that puts out more carbon dioxide each year than all other sources (including people) put together. Volcanic activity beats us all hollow on "bad" emissions. There's so much we don't know in spite of the bits and pieces we do know that it is impossible to assign blame and be totally certain. I recall the time we were told by authorities that the brown pelican was extinct and it was caused by ddt. Dumb and dumber.

So what happens if we actually are responsible for global warming and if we actually decide to stop the warming? Ice age? Dropping sea level? Uninhabitable northern areas? Disastrous hurricanes hitting Europe? A long list of even more but you can tell that warm might bring problems but cool might bring even more. Change will happen. Let's see the bad and the good and get ready to adapt.

Googled again

2006-12-17T10:03:00.000-05:00

By now most know that Google has googled up blogger.com as an appetizer to it's voracious feeding frenzy. This has all come as a surprise to me. Yep, a surprise. I recall the early days of Yahoo and Google. When I found Yahoo and they offered to supply all the news and weather "right here in one place" and even an email account, all for free, I wondered, "Now why would I want to do that? I already have a "nerdmail" account and know where the news is." On top of that, I know what the origin of the word "yahoo" is (from Johnathon Swift in "Gullivers Travels") and the name isn't referring to any thing nice (a sub-human animal)." However, little by little they became more attractive, adding maps, groups, a larger email box, good web presence, lots of news sources, and variety, variety, variety. Soon, it became the place my web surfing began and I really had a "personalized" site to check news, sports, weather, and much more.

Then, Google came along and there wasn't much reason to use it. After all, there were lots of search engines and another was pretty redundant (do you still remember the one named "dogpile?" But, then, Google got really good at finding any site I put up. If I looked for a search, Google always found my sites. Just try that with dogpile. Or many of the others that have faded away. Soon, google became an important place to go to search and to make sure your web pages were listed. Now, their "have all your news and weather in one place" is even better than Yahoo and it's my surfing start page. Add their docs and spreadsheets, calendar, maps, and so much more, and now blogger; and the web is gradually becoming "googlized." Makes me wonder just what little nerdy site promising odd stuff is wriggling into our lives in such a way that we will be surprised again when we suddenly find it wrapped around our surfing.

Any ideas on this? If you (any of you) have seen the next generation of surfing "can't do without" sites, please comment and let us know. Maybe this time I won't be surprised.

Quid Pro Quo

2006-12-17T08:14:00.000-05:00

So much talk about legal and especially illegal immigration and immigrants in the United States. What do we do, what to do, when to do it, how to respond. It all seems simple to me. Treat all immigrants equally according to the manner in which their "home" country treats citizens of the United States. Thus, we in America treat Mexicans in the same manner and rule of law that their home country of Mexico treats (by rule of law and exercise of custom) those citizens of the United States who visit legally or illegally. We would do the same with citizens of Saudi Arabia, France, South Africa, Dubai, Russia, and so on.

Thus, all visiting citizens of foreign countries would know well in advance just what kind of treatment they would be honored with upon visiting the US. All they'd have to do is look around at how Americans are treated, what kind of laws their country has concerning American visitors of all kinds, just how the average citizen honors these laws, and how the visitors are treated by the citizens of their own country. No education required by the United States. No new laws required, we just follow their laws. All we need to do is show our citizens the laws and custom of treatment of the visitors countries and our citizens and law enforcement groups will easily take on the task of showing our visitors just what Quid Pro Quo means and what it means to be treated in return as we are treated. Could be that a few years of this treatment and a lot of laws would be changed in a lot of countries. Might even improve our image quite a bit when other countries find we don't put up with unequal treatment. Right now, everyone sees the American as an arrogant patsy. A target for punishment and mistreatment. Time for a change. Let's be humble and allow the other peoples of our world to tell us how to treat them.

2006-07-02T08:38:00.000-04:00

1,099,511,627,776

Now, that's a large number. No, it's not the daily national debt, it's the number of ancestors you have in 40 generations. At 25 years per generation you'd have that many "grandparents" in 1000 years. Since the number above (which represents 2 times 2 and that number times 2 for a total of 40 cycles) is more than all humans alive, ever alive, and probably ever to be alive, there is either a lot of incest going on or the average years between generations is more like 60. Since we know that the average age of child bearing has been less than 25 years over our the history of humans, something is amiss. Yet, we have just been told that the "original ancestor" has been genetically located and is at least 2000 years in our past and possibly as much as 5000 years back. If we try to find how many ancestors we would have had in 2000 years at a 25 year birth cycle, the number is totally impracticable and must be bogus somehow. Considering a lower birth cycle, each of us will have more than 2 trillion "grandparents" over the last 1000 years. The only way to tighten this up to real terms is to inbreed at a very high level. Sounds like Abraham and Sarah (she was reported as his half sister) is not an unreasonable hint about the breeding system of our past. To marry someone reasonably unrelated to you it might be required that you marry a Bushman (or woman) from an isolated tribe in Africa. Even then.....

To have a "family pedigree" hanging on the wall that shows you have great thinkers, leaders, kings, queens, or even notorious criminals in your past seems simple. Just go back about 800 or so years, choose whomever you wish and you'll be grabbing an ancestor. That is unless inbreeding, incest, and so on has been the norm. As I suppose it must be. It's either that or there were a few trillion people running amock on the planet that we are unaware of and it's possible that this was true and aliens simply have been feeding on the excess and covering up the evidence. Hmmmmm.

According to the "science" of the reports on our ancestors, if you go back a few thousand years, the first person you would meet (no matter who or where) would be an ancestor. So, I'm a relative of all those people that Moses lead out of Egypt as well as all of the people of Egypt at the time. This would make those fleeing related to those chasing (and ultimately drowned in the Red Sea). Family problems don't seem to have been any better then than now.

The whole thing is such a mess when the numbers are taken into account. I'm not ready to believe that the original ancestor was from the China/Malasia area any more than I'm ready to believe I've got about 2 trillion "grandparents" a thousand years ago. I'll just consider this work on ancestors a "work in progress" and wait for more reasonable information.

Leaglize Drugs, PLEASE

2006-04-24T11:50:00.000-04:00

Legalize Drugs PLEASE

One would have thought the United States of America have learned the lesson of making any recreational drug illegal after the debacle over Prohibition. It was clear from that horrible episode that prohibiting alcohol simply expanded the criminal gang element and put money in the pockets of such as Al Capone. Organized Crime reaped a bonus of unimaginable income and power that has never gone away since. While many of these crime gangs have evolved into semi-legitimate business such as banking, these organized crime businesses are still making huge amounts of income from laws that make even a (formerly) common weed an illegal substance.

Currently, drugs pour hundreds of billions or trillions of dollars into the economy of the underworld and a number of countries who are either not friendly or are being torn internally by the Drug Lords and their economic status which in some cases rivals the very economy of the government of their country.

To this economic ruin to our culture and society let us add the economic price we pay for trying (very, very unsuccessfully) to enforce these ridiculous drug laws. But wait! There's more! The economic ruin brought about by the courts doing what they must do with any law, penalizing wrong-doers, in this case, our fellow humans caught using, selling, transporting, growing, making, and so on, a large number of recreational and addictive drugs. Does this remind us of the days of "bathtub gin" and country whisky stills? Is alcohol any less addictive than these drugs? Is alcohol any less dangerous to our society?

Yes, drugs of the recreational and addictive type are dangerous to the individual. Yes, alcohol use and abuse costs our economy billions. With alcohol we have a heavy tax which returns a sufficient amount to defray the cost to our economy. That is, if it were actually used to help defray the problems alcohol causes. The government, however, simply sucks up the tax money from alcohol and tobacco without returning it in a proper manner to alleviate alcohol and tobacco harm. Money from such taxes is used for many other programs and most particularly to pay government salaries, government benefits to government employees, and many other government needs. Not the needs of the people, the needs of governing. A cycle shown from virtually all tax, fee, or other monetary sources the government can access. Remember Social Security? Absolutely sacrosanct and untouchable? You bet!

Legalize drugs and sell them in a manner similar to alcohol. Lots of taxes to feed the Fat Cats of our government, lots of people hired to inspect, control, and collect on the drugs sold. Safe drugs. Yes I know that sounds like an Oxymoron but certainly safer than the old country stills were when whisky was a backyard business and safer than the Columbian Gold being sold and grown under who knows what circumstances and chemicals. Safer than the "garage meth" currently all over the streets of America. Control? What a joke. Drugs grown under proper supervision, reasonably tested for impurities and graded for strength, drugs produced in clean, inspected laboratories, drugs sold and taxed with the money going to the American People rather than Columbian drug lords is what we need. And NEED is the appropriate word. Let us get this mess under control, release those imprisoned for use of drugs, reduce the sentence for sale of drugs, and get this blight on our society into a cultural controlled situation.

No one needs to lose their job. The current "enforcement" people can be retrained to supervise the production, growth, and sale of these drugs. Some drugs will probably always be so dangerous that they will need license for purchase and that's a good thing. However to try to eradicate a common weed and spend a countries life blood over such a thing must stop.

2006-02-08T07:58:00.000-05:00

Education Abuse

I have said for a long time: "The worst thing we do to our children is send them to public school." That is more true now than when I said it years ago. Public school education is governed by the government (pun intended) and at the whim of the various directing bodies which tell the teachers what they are allowed to teach and what books they are allowed to present to the student. The learning process has joined the 1984-style governing actions of the American Police State.

We are pretty much aware that there is an abundance of knowledge available to teach children and even adults. After all, it is mostly adults attending University classes. There is far too much knowledge available to begin to teach all of it even in the "normal" 16 years we are expected to attend formal schooling. By the time we have finished schooling we are each expected to be an "expert" in some segment of the knowledge pool.

In order to reach a reasonable level of awareness of the world around us and our role in that world, we need a well-balanced education that gives us a basis for the continuing education that extends throughout our lives. Children are not getting that balanced education at present and the educational processes throughout the world appear to be increasingly ethnocentral and restricted, representing a polarization of cultures and a rewriting of history to suit the various governmental agencies in charge of educating the children of our world.

Polarizing one culture from another brings a level of de-humanizing of any opposing culture, leading invariably to separation, antipathy, violence, and war. Just what we need, as if we don't have enough already. Given an education containing a cultural bias that is strong enough, the adult cannot make "educated" decisions involving world affairs. Just what the government needs; citizens that are stupid and will believe what the government says is true. Such as, for example, the Iraqi government has weapons of mass destruction and is planning to use them on the United States and other countries that are not strong enough to take care of themselves and that it is all the fault of one man, Sadam Hussien. Well, did the American public believe that sufficiently to allow the war in Iraq to begin? The answer is certainly. Not all the public but enough. There are many examples of such polarity creating false causes for war, violence, and more.

The school environment is totally unrealistic and supports levels of separation that begin the de-humanizing of other humans and the violence becomes possible. Gangs are the common character of public schools. These are divided into the jocks, the geeks, the popular, the academic, the nerds, and more. There are no classes on the value of each human, the value of community involvement, the value of other cultures, the value of kindness and so on. The strict emphasis is on teaching the government line and rewarding the children representing the school in sports: Rah, Rah, go Tigers.

Once this harm has been done to our children and the gang levels have pushed each child into a niche, the elitist move into higher schooling to become the, so-called, leaders of the communities while the lesser lights look for jobs and continue their educations "on-the-job" and usually closer to home. And that's an imteresting point. Most of the "elite" move to higher degrees and another community. Few of the "elite" stay home. Most of the "lesser lights" stay home and are the real leaders of the community. The child that is poor in math and not a good reader will be the one making $65 dollars an hour fixing your Beamer or Caddie. The child that couldn't become popular and didn't have the money to get to a university will become the factory foreman running the production of the very goods you will use in your expensive home. Some will fall by the wayside and be lost, homeless, miserable and not usually still in the community they grew up in. These will have migrated to a larger or different community to dive into drugs, alcohol, or just plain poverty. The actual community will be mostly made up of the "average" guy/gal from the local schools. The "hotshots" and the "notshots" will be gone.

What do these "average" humans bring to the community? A warped vision of the world around them and a fostering of continued warping of our educational system. The United States of America was built on an educational system that was pretty loose and involved people leading our growth with as little as no education (such as my grandfather) to those with far too much education. In nearly all cases, the education was provided by the community and did not require government restrictions. The community was the arbiter and actually allowed a more varied educational experience, a more practical educational experience than our government directed education. Very few of those leaders of our growth learned their ABC's in gigantic centers of babysitting that we now call "schools."

Thanks to a basic law of governing, we are less safe with more laws than ever before. The basic law involved is: "A government either governs by consent or by law." When a government is run by consent and cooperation, there is little need for law. When a government rules by law, there is more and more need for police, law enforcement, and laws. This also applies to education. The more government regulates the educational process, the more need for policing the education and enforcement of the education given our children. There is only one way this can end; in a 1984-style governing of the citizens by an increasingly dictatorial government.

What do I suggest? It's simple: Legislate don't Educate. The government should not be in charge of education. The government is in charge of governing. The act of governing involves creating laws that keep the citizens safe and allow the reasonable function of the country. With that in mind, we need "sunset" coverage on all our laws. All laws should require renewal every 5 to 8 years or the law ceases to have validity. In the educational area, we need to shut down all the babysitting "schools" and require parents to educate their own children. Simply set up a testing for all children at ages 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18 to ensure education in general subjects (the three 'r' of classic education, reading, 'riting, and 'rithmatic). If a child flunks the test, the parents are given 6 months to bring the child up to the test level. If the child flunks again, the parents will pay for tuition of the child by outside educational contractors. If the parents cannot pay, they can do community service to the equivalent level of the taxpayers burden. Problem solved and each child has an education the parents can be proud of and the community will benefit in every way. The money saved the taxpayers can be used to support and supply health care for all.

Let's get our children out of government education and indoctrination (brain-washing, really) and into the home environment where children belong. Yes, some will use it as an excuse for religious education but that will happen no matter there is public school or not. With children back in the home and away from the gang environment schools foster, we can regain our position in the world as a progressive, educated society. One we no longer have.

2006-02-07T08:14:00.000-05:00

Super commercials

From the Super Bowl 40 (egad, and I saw the first one), the ads were fair to excellent. Not any really bad ones although the 5-blade cutter came close. My personal best? It was the Bud Light office hidden beer. Totally zany and fun. Next was the "magic fridge" which I'd seen the first part in previews but the last part made me laugh out loud with the surprise. After that it's some toss-ups: The Clydesdale colt, the Airplane Ooops, the inventive burger king strange. Maybe the Diet Pepsi ad was the worst. Got no satisfaction from that.

Speaking of "no satisfaction" I really didn't get much from the "Stones" or the, so-called, half time "entertainment." Mick was off-key all too often with horrible voice. No amount of prancing made up for that and the lead guitar was about as unimaginitive as I could imagine. Totally worthless and didn't qualify for "entertainment."

The game? The best team lost. That happens a lot and it's just the way it goes on a given day. On the subject of controversial calls, I have to agree with the referee in most cases. For example, the football did cross the white line by, maybe an inch. That's all it takes. Other calls were a bit more touchy. Speaking of touchy, the call that said "no fumble" was strange to me. Ok the player was touched (although probably not enough to cause the fall) but what in the world does it take to call a fumble? From the interpretation, I assume the ball must come loose before any part of the ball carrier touches the ground, except, perhaps the feet and I'm not so sure of that.

Over all, a poor showing for both teams and the halftime. Now the three and a half hour pre-game-show just might have been the best of the whole episode.

Diplomatic reasons for Lee invading North?

2006-02-02T05:55:00.000-05:00

Diplomatic reasons for Lee invading north?

So, you say that Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee hatched a scheme to invade the north and win recognition from England and/or France, and/or any other country. Is that how you'd go about it? Not likely.

To win recognition you must win a battle, take a city, occupy territory. The easy way to get noticed is to take a city. In this case Harrisburg would have been a real plum ripe for the taking. You can see the headlines, "Confederacy occupies Pennsylvania capital." Or "Lee takes Harrisburg - - - State assembly flees." Or many other headlines. All it would have taken was a day or two and move west to, say Pittsburgh and grab the steel mills, then into western Virginia (now West Virginia) and back home, with the Army of the Potomic panting along behind the whole way like a bunch of Keystone Cops (pun intended).

A fast move on Baltimore as another example might have gotten a quick and easy occupation, crippling the nation's capital by cutting it's communications and supply. All Lee had to do was keep moving, avoid major battle, and occupy a few major cities, strew destruction behind his army and make the Army of the Potomic and the federal government look incapable of confining the confederacy. Start thinking and you'll find many more examples of what could have been done with the Army of Northern Virginia to help gain recognition for the confederacy.

Instead, Lee did none of the above, and split the army in enemy territory, avoided a needed occupation (how would Meade have gotten him out of Harrisburg?), and finally threw the army away in totally inept generalship.

Yes, Lee was on the side of Union. How can one think otherwise.

Robert E. Lee Choose the Union @ Gettysburg

2006-02-02T05:43:00.000-05:00

Robert E. Lee choose the Union side at Gettysburg.

The opportunity arose for Robert E. Lee to reunite the United States of America at Gettysburg. In an egregious act of poor generalship, Lee sent fifteen thousand doomed men against an impossible, entrenched position. How do we know this to be the case? The amazing list of facts Lee was aware of at the time make it clear that Lee chose this time to try to sacrifice his army for the cause of reunion. While Lee had attempted to destroy the Confederacy many times prior to Gettysburg, the opposing generals were too inept to take advantage of the opportunities Lee presented. At Gettysburg, Lee finally found the situation he needed to create the win for the Federal army required to end the war. In fact, it appears Lee intended to have the whole of the Army of Northern Virginia destroyed, creating a much quicker end to the war than actually happened. Let's review a bit.

Lee has taken the Army of Northern Virginia into a Union State, Pennsylvania. This was not a long journey, Virginia and Pennsylvania are separated by only a few miles of Maryland at present and, in fact were border states in 1861 when Virginia seceeded from the Union. Lee had made this effort before, even arranging to have a complete set of his plans found by the Army of the Potomic (I wonder how many other sets were planted to be found). That effort resulted in the battle at Sharpsburg, Maryland (Antietam) and a subsequent tie rather than the defeat he had planned. The great battle of Antietam was interpreted by the North as a victory even though it wasn't simply because it was the first time Lee had been stopped, or seemed to have been stopped, from accomplishing his goals and the Federal army was not totally beaten. With the full plans of Lee in his hands, McClelland should have easily defeated Lee but was unable to because of the poor quality of the generalship involved. Further opportunities were given each general who succeeded McClelland and each in his turn failed to take advantage of the openings provided by Lee to be defeated by the Federal army. Ultimately Lee seemed to be the greatest general alive simply because his efforts to be defeated looked like daring genius. Astounding when you look at it.

So, what is the situation leading up to Gettysburg? Lee has recently fought a major battle against Hooker at Chanclersville, one he should have lost and tried desperately to lose. Lee has lost his right hand general, Jackson and has not appreciably damaged the Federal army. Hooker is still in charge of the Army of the Potomac and, while he has had his nose bloodied, is still the dangerous "fighting Joe" Hooker. Lee now abandons Richmond, uses J.E.B. Stuart to screen a move north, something that only lets Hooker know that Lee is moving north and Hooker follows, keeping on the inside of the circle, between Washington D.C. and the Army of Northern Virginia as is appropriate.

Now, things get interesting. As Lee enters Federal territory, Pennsylvania and Maryland, he allows his cavalry screen to wander off with orders to disrupt the supply areas of the Federal army, ostensibly causing the Federal army to move slowly and allowing Lee to resupply his army from the riches of south central Pennsylvania. With little cavalry, Lee will not know the situation of the Federal army and can be surprised, defeated piecemeal on Northern land, and the South will not rise again (so to speak). However, the Federal army now changes leaders and the impetuous "Fighting Joe" Hooker, the general Lee could count on to attack, attack, attack is no longer in charge. The more cautious but more competent general Meade is now in charge. Lee knows Meade will be more difficult to draw into a major battle than Hooker so Lee split up his army even more, discounts all cavalry reports on Federal army positons and continues with the separation of the Confederate army into resupply groups in south central Pennsylvania. Rapid movement at this time by Meade would totally defeat the Confederate army piece by piece. In spite of his bloodied nose, Hooker may have done exactly that. Meade, however is much more cautious and the Federal army is "screening" Washington D.C. for no good reason. The defenses of Washington D.C. are such that it is inpregnable to an army the size of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. More than 400,000 troops are on hand nearly constantly around Washington D.C. with entrenched positions, an inside line of movement and reinforcement, abundant supplies and weapons. If these troops had been released to the field army, the Army of Northern Virginia would have been quickly overwhelmed by sheer numbers in spite of poor generalship.

So, Lee baited Meade to move quickly to smash the Confederate army. Lincoln urges Meade to do exactly that. Meade is in a tough spot. He has just taken over the Army of the Potomac and is well aware of the level of incompetent generalship available. He must have thought the Confederate army was larger and more concentrated than Lee was making available. Pinkerton seems to have kept their job as information specialists by exaggerating the enemy situation to frighten the generals into keeping them on a "just in case they're right" basis and it worked. The Union generals constantly got exaggerated reports of enemy size, weapons, and potential. This alone had created defeats in the past and surely slowed Meade at this point along with the reorganization Meade was required to do "on the fly" so to speak, as the army was following Lee.

At the same time Lee is baiting Meade to attack and win, Lee further separated his army, further ignores his advisors, and has the Army of Northern Virginia spread out over more than a hundred miles. He is on the outside of the supply line, has crossed a major river that could easily flood to impede passage, trapping him in the north, the Army of the Potomac could block passage to the south, trapping the Army of Northern Virginia to the death, he is in hostile territory, on less well known territory, and cannot be resupplied or reinforced from Richmond or any other southern area. Lee has deliberately walked into a trap and it only takes a small effort on the Union generalship to close the door on him. Was Lee trusting in the stupidity of northern generals to ignore the facts? Not likely. Lee was too aware of the potential the huge army the Federal had available to think he could just set this trap and not have it close. Incredibly, even at this level, the Federal leaders did not close the trap he so carefully set and he had to make an obvious error to "create" a defeat. Good grief!! Lee might as well have sent a written message to the newspapers saying "come and get me, I'm available" and all these signals were, and still are, ignored.

Now, knowing he is greatly outnumbered by the closing Federal army, Lee continues his separation of the Confederate army and will wait to be trapped. When this does not happen, he moves even further north along the Susquehanna river, creating a better trap. Just let the Federal army entrench south of Lee and remove the ability to return south. Then, close on the Confederate army and keep them in position, much as Grant did later starting with the Wilderness and ending at Appomatox Court House. Lee continues to wait. The ostensible argument for being in the north is that he will resupply his army with shoes and other consumer goods. Very few weapons are available for resupply here in south central Pennsylvania but there is food and shoes. Kind of a weak arguement isn't it. The other arguement was that he would draw Hooker (and later Meade) into a battle on Lee's choice of ground. Yet when the battle began, he threw this away and took what Meade and circumstances offered even when it was certain the Confederate position was not as strong as the Federal defensive position. Longstreet confronted Lee over and over on this and Lee changed the reason from finding a strong point to defeat the Federal army to the opinion that "they are there and I will attack them" as if that were a good reason. You have to remember, that the Federal army was "there" any time Lee wanted. He always knew where the Federal army was even though at Gettysburg, he could pretend he did not know. Stuart did not have all the cavalry with him and Lee had sufficient to know where the Federal army was and what it was doing. He pretended to have no confidence in the reports in order to continue with his plan of a defeat.

This time, Lee could not play the game of "lost plans" and was required to reach new levels of seeming arrogance and "ability" to create his defeat. Waiting patiently for the Federal army to close, Lee spread his army. When the clash finally came, Lee allowed the Federal army and circumstances to create the battlefield. Unfortunately for a lot of lives to be lost in the next year and a half, the Federal generals also allowed circumstances to create the battlefield. Even the most rudimentary evaluation of Lee's position shows the trap he has offered. Ultimately, he had to play a trump card of stupidity to create the win for the Federals he was working on.

Of course, it was important that Lee not appear to be actually causing a defeat. Once the battle began to be joined, he had to follow with what he had created. Cavalry off to the west someplace, disjointed units up the river and roving the countryside for forage, and a large, very large Federal army to the south, almost but not quite blocking a return to Virginia. Try playing that card for a win. Pretending Lee is a masterful tactician falls apart at this point. Pretending to go into Pennsylvania to gain a great win, destroy the Federal army, and occupy Washington or Baltimore disregards all reason and the facts of manpower and entrenched weaponry. Lee has set a trap alright, but it is for the Confederacy, not the Federal army. However, now Lee began to pull in the Army of Northern Virginia for the fight. A fight that should clearly have been the finish of Lee's army.

Once the armies are heavily engaged and positions solidified, Lee can see now that the Federal army is not going to take the bait and close the trap on the Army of Northern Virginia. Now, he creates disjointed attacks from first one side then another side, supposedly coordinated but actually handled in such a manner as to create nothing more than threats with much ammunition expenditure and loss of units available for fighting. As Lee gradually weakens the Confederate forces, he is faced with the problem of a major section of the Army of Northern Virginia that is fully intact, fully armed, and relatively unbloodied. A dangerous core of the Confederate army that he cannot keep available or the Federals will not be able to finish the job of destroying the Army of Northern Virginia. In order to destroy this solid core of his army, Lee came up with a plan that even the lowliest privates knew could not succeed. Lee took this flower of the Confederate army, 15,000 strong and sent them across one mile of open field and fences, uphill, directly in the face of the center of the Federal army which was well entrenched behind stone fences, had short interior lines of reinforcement, and were fully ready for the attack. Even a first year student at West Point would understand in advance the results of such an endeavor. When all else failed to get the Federals to destroy his army, Lee choose to destroy the Confederate army himself.

Now, trapped against a swollen river, out of ammunition for the big guns, deeply wounded and weakened, Lee is finally in the trap he has arranged. Lee now leaves the field slowly, taking his time, waiting at the Potomac until it can safely be crossed, not putting his army in battle array, simply stringing them our for destruction. A strong move by the Federal army will end the Army of Northern Virginia. Not without a fight, of course, but an end it will be. Casually, Lee waited for the final blow, arranging for it to be as painless as possible, given the circumstances of battles as bloody as they were then. Lee virtually offered the neck of his army to the sword. Meade, however, sat in place and allowed Lee to go back to Virginia. The next opponent Lee will face is Grant, a general of a different stripe. Grant would never have allowed Lee back to Virginia. Possibly even Hooker would have followed up and had blocked the way south. But Grant! Allow Lee to walk back slowly to Virginia? Not likely.

Nonetheless, Lee got his "high water mark" and the defeat needed to end the Confederacy. And it was close. The north was ready for one more loss to allow the south to go their way. There was a lot of sympathy with ending the war for a great many reasons. The south was a poor agrarian society, riddled with slavery (and the majority of the northern population cared not a whit for the plight of the slaves or blacks at all), the north was now experiencing great abundance, increased trade with the world, even increased trade with the Confederate States. There were many more reasons to let the southern states go their way and, after so much bloodshed, difficult to see that it was worth the continuation of such misery for such small stakes. However, Lee provided the impetus to bring on the end of the war and the reunion of the states. Gotta give him credit as the father of the rebirth of the Union.

2006-01-16T08:16:00.000-05:00

Save Money, track Criminals.

With simple GPS technology known as V-TRAC the criminal system could save huge amounts of money, need many fewer Law Enforcement Officers, and keep better track on the many criminals harvesting money, goods, harm, and lives from our society. ZDNET newsletter of January 16, 2006 includes an article on "Where's my trash now?" Here's an exerpt:

Where's my trash now?

And you thought the hydraulic arms that picked up the trash cans were high-tech. Garbage collection in San Diego's Environmental Services Department (ESD) can now track trucks and manage the fleet using a GPS technology called V-TRAC, reports Government Technology.

Along with GPS technology, V-TRAC has server-side vehicle management/fleet tracking software, database management, and Automated Refuse Tonnage System (ARTS), designed in-house and used daily by supervisors to assign drivers to routes. By employing V-TRAC the city saves an estimated $1 million per year.

Source

If the city of San Diego can save a million dollars a year with such a system, imagine the savings to the criminal justice system, to say nothing about the savings in lives, property, and stress to our society. Come on people, let us stop hiring more police and have more efficiency.

2006-01-11T07:36:00.000-05:00

One in a million.

If someone or something has a "one in a million" chance of happening today, then it will happen about 400 times today in the United States alone and about 6,000 times world wide. How about a "one in a billion" chance. That would happen about 6 times today in the world. One in a Trillion? Probably happen 2 or 3 times this year. So, why do we blame god for unusual happenings or call them miracles?

Perhaps it is comforting to have some one else in charge of our lives, of our fate. Maybe we find it difficult to think these unusual occurances might be in the control of a "god of probablilities." Or, it's possible we just don't want to take responsibility for our actions or for the random level of many outside influences. In any event, what it comes down to is that "If it can happen, it will."

Will the bird flu jump to humans? Yes. That one is really a no-brainer. It has jumped to humans several or many times already but either not in the mode required to replicate or in such a way as to be isolated and allowed to die without infecting other humans. With the many, many trillions of opportunity for human infection with the proper mutation, there is little chance of such a jump not happening. The best we can hope for is that the jump is done by a mutated virus that is less deadly than the original strain. This may already have happened and we haven't noticed simply because people get sick and recover in a similar manner to any other "ordinary" flu.

There is some thought that something similar may have happened with the 1918 bird flu. Studies seem to show the 1918 bird flu popping up nearly simultaneously in areas that it is nearly impossible to allow for human transportation of the virus. The idea is that the flu was a "two stage" flu. In this manner, many people caught a lower level of flu, something which most survived but, similar to the chicken pox/shingles virus, the flu virus of this strain may have sat around in the body and, like an alarm clock set to a certain time, erupted almost at the same moment all over the world.

As a side note, this could be used to bolster the "Intelligent Design" argument in that we have computer virus that are similar and are timed to erupt on certain dates or within a number of days of the original infection and the "intelligent Design" supporters may say that the medical virus (1918 flu) was "designed" to do the same by some, perhaps not-so-benign god but one intelligent enough to design such a virus. I bet it could be done by humans right now.

If it's a one in a many trillion chance the deadly form of the bird flu (OK, AVIAN flu for those picky ones), no matter the many trillion chance, the deadly form of the bird flu will make the jump if you do the statistics. Just ask youself how many individual virus are out there, how many individuals are carrying about a hundred billion of these individual virus right now (count all the pretty birds), how much interface between these infected individuals and all the ways each individual virus can have an opportunity to reach a human, and the results are mind boggling.

Of course, you can use the idea of a "one in a million" chance happening as an opportunity for good. After all, someone actually does win the lottery. Someone does actually buy an acre or so of waste land for next to nothing only to find it was the last piece of property needed for a new, up-scale shopping mall and is suddenly worth a few million and the developers are begging to give those millions to you. It does happen. You might also remember that there are some airplanes flying right now that have peoples names written across their nose and those planes will somehow, some way seek out those people to kill. One in a million? Happens all the time.

2006-01-07T06:55:00.000-05:00

UFO trends

After looking at all the photos on www.ufocasebook.com/bestufopictures1 to 7, an interesting trend shows. The early photos, when photography was actually easy to manipulate (in spite of the web owner's comments) tended to be detailed and sharp, showing a lot of focus. As time trended, and the web owner has been good enough to time-list the photos, the photos moved into more light-emission and finally into principally fuzzy dots. While this trend is not as simple as that and I haven't run a statistical compilation, the trend from detailed UFO's to energy-emitting UFO's into fuzzy UFO's is pretty obvious.

If you ever wanted a quick look at a time span of UFO photo's and a pretty nice job of commenting, give http://www.ufocasebook.com/ a look.

Now, what would cause such an interesting trend, given that there are many more cameras with many more features and better lenses and film (or image capture methods, if you will). Well, better lenses might be an exaggeration given the new throw-away plastic lenses but in general better is appropriate. I believe the trend is caused by a move from faked photos to real photos. Of course a died-in-the-wool UFOlogist will say it's because the UFO operators have gotten cautious and more aware of cameras (probably a tool they never developed---puzzle that on out on your own) or because of changing technology of the UFO society, bringing better UFO vehicles to earth.

Is there a reason UFO's would be interested in Earth? Are we edible? Potentially a bio-crop? Was Douglas Adams right and we're an experimental computer and the rats are running the maze, not the scientists? Hmmmm. I don't see any reason for the UFO's "buzzing" the planet that is a good one. Mostly it seems they would help us stop the mess if they were friends. Since they are not giving us direct aid (and I don't see any sign of indirect aid, either) then they simply are not friends and can "bugger off."

Faith

2005-11-01T06:12:00.000-05:00

If faith were all it takes, our puppy would have walked across the goldfish pond. Perhaps there is a problem with the separation of faith and physics. I will admit it was glorious to watch the absolute faith the little guy demonstrated as he confidently stepped out onto the water. After we pulled out the puzzled puppy, dried him off, and put him down again, he went back and looked at the water with much less faith and more understanding. Carefully placing a paw or two on the top of the water, he began to learn about the characteristics of water. Now, the faith is gone (didn't work anyway) and knowledge has taken over. Water is something you drink, watch goldfish swim in, and don't walk on.

Big Oil: Big Sneak

2005-10-31T07:33:00.000-05:00

Exxon has just announced profits of nearly 10 billion dollars in a quarter. That's roughly 40 billion dollars in a year if extended to the year. The other big oil companies have also ripped off the public in a similar manner, raising prices on the pretense of natural disaster, not enough refinery ability, rising crude prices, and many more excuses. It's clear that none of these excuses can be considered legitimate.

First, let's consider the problem of not enough refinery ability. You might recall that a few years ago, Exxon was allowed to buy Mobile. The first thing Exxon did with Mobile was to close down the Mobile refineries stating that they were "not profitable" and this wasn't even commented on by news, congress, watchdogs, or much of anyone. If I hadn't been watching, I wouldn't have ever known. Of course, now we can see it as a set up for future price increases and excuses for those increases. Not enough refinery production? Then why close them in advance? Clearly to gain the enormous profit already in the bank.

Crude oil prices? The crude oil prices are not out of line with the normal level of inflation and production costs. Oh, the crude prices are well into enormous profits, yes, that's true. However, since most of the oil of the world just happens to be elsewhere, we might have to pay the price. That doesn't make the actual pump price go up double in a year as we've seen. Just because crude oil costs twice as much to buy as last year, doesn't mean pump prices are doubled. It's not the same as lettuce. Oil is refined and the refining costs are actually a small portion of the final pricing (or were before this latest cost rip off).

Then there are the "highway taxes" in which we pay a dollar or so per gallon to fix our highways. At the cost of a few million per hundred feet of highway, someone is getting very, very rich. Yes, there's a lot to do to get a highway properly built. Talk to any good landscaper and they'll tell you it's essentially a landscaping job. Shape the ground, put in a good base, and the proper top material, dress it up, and open it to the public. Yet, every time I go past a road building job, there are twenty people standing around, two driving something or other, and one using a shovel. Hmmmmm. This needs rethinking.

Not enough oil? And, the Artic will only give us a year of supply even when totally sucked out? None of that is very believable. We have many sources of fossil fuel within the control of the United States of America. Natural gas in great abundance, oil shale, coal, oil sands, actual oil fields, off shore oil, north slope oil, gas, and even methane off shore in such abundance we don't have any idea how much is really there. There's a huge source of energy in the Yellowstone area and other hot underground areas of the west. There's wind, solar, tidal, wave, and so much more energy going to waste.

Nuclear power for all our electrical needs is safe and there needs be no problem with safely keeping the nuclear waste products for future use. Put the nuclear waste in glass and store it in old salt mines. That will give us a few million years to decide if there is some use to that energy we are setting aside in the salt.

Alternative energy patents have been gobbled up by big oil. Now they are just sitting on those patents with the excuse of "the price is still too low for economical use" and they can keep making huge profits from oil sales. It's not so much that there should be a cap on profits as that there should be more competition. We really have a Sun Oil-style lock on prices and production. Did any one see BP (British Petroleum) keeping prices down to attract customers and build loyalty? Or Shell (Dutch company) holding prices down and beating the others with higher sales? Were any of these companies responsible enough to stockpile supplies in case of a natural disaster that might keep refineries from production? Any of these companies care about anything but profit? No wonder they get nationalized. Maybe Mexico has it right.

This is a subject that can be written about for ever and ever, amen. More for later.

Flock: Web Browser delux.

2005-10-23T08:55:00.000-04:00

Well, I couldn't resist it. A "WW2" web browser with lots of extras, under development, might not work, might crash your system, definitely an alpha, use at your own risk, and so on. Just had to try it. After a few hours of surfing and rustling through it's features, it really looks good. Flock is a clone of Firefox and is trying not to be a "branch" so that it will remain open source and compatable with Firefox users. But, oh my, the features.

Here's a list of thirteen things you really should try with Flock. We're bragging, of course, but at the end of the list you'll also find a few warnings about things we're still working on.

Flock

This blog and the above quote and link were made using Flock. While there's not really a lot of extra features, there are some really unique features and they work. Most of all, it connects with YOUR blog and YOUR del.icio.us accounts, makes remembering where you've been on the net easier, makes favorites and bookmarking a snap (well, actually a click), and keeping up with rss easily is right up front.

All in all, this is one alpha product I'd advise giving a try. Right now I'm using it on a Debian Sarge, Linux-only computer. It is fast and acts like it was designed for my system. Go get it here: http://www.flock.com/developer/

2005-10-17T05:57:00.000-04:00

Wind Power Problems.

It seems wind power is actually under attack by environmentalists. Believe it or no, wind power has been shut down in at least one case by environmental concerns. You ask; "How can wind power cause environmental problems?" The blades kill birds. That's it in an egg shell.

At Altamont Pass, east of San Francisco, there are thousands of wind generators. Many of these are older, fast-spinning blade types. These tend to be deadly to birds. Environmentalists have objected and the company has decided to shut down a portion of the field during peak migration and plans to replace the older units with newer, safer to birds units.

Environmental groups have blocked a wind power project in the Mojave Desert, objected to one in Nantucket Sound, and noted the death of bats from blades in the Appalachians and are encouraging increased care in selection of sites and use of bird-safe blades.

While more than a million and a half homes are powered by electricity generated by wind power in the United States, it makes one wonder what environmental concerns will come up as we try to protect the environment by getting off fossil fuel.

2005-10-17T05:35:00.000-04:00

Bleach power in your fuel tank!

Hydrogen from sodium chlorate manufacture? Yup. Canada has begun an investment in this byproduct of manufacturing sodium chlorate (link from: Vancouver, B.C.) Here's the salient quote:

"The project will develop and demonstrate clean energy solutions that make use of an existing but untapped source of hydrogen fuel: hydrogen emitted as a byproduct of a sodium chlorate manufacturing plant in the North Vancouver area. Through this project, purified hydrogen could be used to fuel a fleet of up to 20,000 vehicles in the Vancouver area, greatly reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the use of fossil fuels."

While there's more, that's the crux of the project. Sodium Chlorate is used in the manufacture of bleach and herbiicides, among much more. By some estimates there could be enough hydrogen generated as a waste byproduct from sodium chlorate manufacture to fuel up to half a million vehicles in North America. That might be a very low estimate. I wonder how many manufacturing processes generate hydrogen as a byproduct or could easily produce hydrogen with a small or easily installed addition to their manufacturing plant. Here's a link to sodium chlorate manufacturer's in North America for comparison.

It's time to wake up and use our resources. I could add so much more to that but what more is there to say? Let's get out and talk about using our resources wisely until the governing powers begin to notice and take appropriate action.

2005-10-13T09:19:00.000-04:00

OK, NOW is Alternative energy in the price range?

Alternative energy wasn't possible at .37 cents a gallon of gas. It wasn't feasable at 78 cents a gallon and just not quite worth doing at $1.47 a gallon of gas. Now, guys. Take a look. Gas is more than $3.00 a gallon. So, bring out the alternate energy sources. Come on. Where are these wonderful, gas-saving, energy-crisis rescue resources? Ooops! We didn't get them going, did we?

That's right folks. We had a chance to get ready for the energy crunch and what did we do? We built SUV's, we advertised SUV's, we made owing an SUV a status symbol, we bought SUV's at an incredible rate. Even Lincoln and Cadillac built SUV's and then there was the Hummer. Instead of getting ready for the energy crunch everyone knew was going to happen, we dived off the deep end of the oil patch and sucked up the energy as though there was no end in sight. Talk about grasshoppers when we should have been ants.

So now there's no alternative. Now there's no refineries converting potatoes or corn to methane. Now there's no natural gas (no matter the amazing abundance of it in the ground and being wasted). Now, there's no alternate energy resource sitting in the closet ready to ease the crunch. Are we really that stupid as a nation? Looks like it.

We could be converting natural gas to methane. Yes, we lose 30 or 40 percent of the energy in doing so but we are getting a useable resource at a needed time. We didn't get any refinery set up for that. Even though we are pushing cubic miles of natural gas back into the ground in the Alaskan North Slope and using a lot of energy to do so, we still won't (didn't) take the foresight to prepare for the actual use of the natural gas. We could use that natural gas to alleviate the heating costs of those in the northern US this winter. Won't happen, we didn't do it.

We could simply open up the strategic resource stockpile of methane (you remember that, it works like gasoline) that we SHOULD have been producing over the last 20 years to make sure we could weather an oil price hike or an Arab boycott without crashing our economy. The farmers would have profited, more jobs would have been produced, and we wouldn't have to fret over the Islamic-governed oil of the Middle East. We don't have the methane, we didn't do it.

We could have spent billions on battery storage capacity to provide battery power for vehicles that actually work and are low cost for any replacement. Nah! Why bother? We have all this gasoline. Let's buy another SUV. It's difficult to believe we can improve computer storage at the expanding rate we are doing but cannot improve battery storage at a similar rate - - - if we wanted to. Well, folks, we didn't want to. We don't have battery power that is cheap and effective. We didn't even try.

Hydrogen powered vehicles? It was mentioned. George the Second actually made a pitch for it. I guess we can quit blaming him for all our ills. We've made our own ills and now we can't stand up for what we've done to ourselves and have to blame someone else. Ok, George II has been blamed for everything else so go ahead. The real problem has been the American People. We didn't get ready. We didn't even try. Now, our whole economy may crash and we'll make George Bush a new Hoover. It wasn't him, it was all of us.

2005-10-12T07:42:00.000-04:00

Dream teams.

Clinton/McCain and Rice/Powell would get voters out and moving. I've been voting since John F. Kennedy was president (Wow! Talk about OLD!) and have never voted for anyone that actually got elected. As a registered Libertarian, my votes tend to go as protest rather than mainstream. Once, I voted for a main party representative (Hubert Humphrey) again, mostly as a protest against Richard Milhouse Nixon. Egad! What a crook yet what a good foreign representative as a president. A real mix of good and bad was Mr. Nixon.

Clinton has been a "marked" candidate for the Democratic Party since First Lady days. Yes, it's my (not so humble) opinion given here. However, for those that actually paid attention to the second presidential candidacy of (again) President George Bush the second, you would have noticed that Kerry had little or no help from prominent Democrats. It was too soon to put "our Lady" forward and she has had to wait these four years and set up her Senatorial leadership and presence before going in as a presidential candidate. The Democratic Party really wants to be known as the party of the people by bringing the first woman president to the people.

Not a bad idea at all, Ms. Clinton as president. A real shark, that lady. Capable, self-serving, works within the rules, plays the Good Ole Boy network like a Good Ole Boy, and is smart enough to listen to those who wield the power. Not bad qualifications for the supreme leader position. A real question of electability will stand with her choice of running mate. If John McCain ever wants to be president, it's his best chance of getting close to the position. It's hard to conceive of a better set of "tough guys" running for election. Well, maybe not. There's Rice and Powell.

Rice is tough as nails and smarter than a whole bunch of sticks put together. Powell is smart and nice. While Clinton/McCain would be tough/tough and cunning/smart, the Rice/Powell duo would be tough/compassionate and genius/pleasant. A nicer man than Powell would be hard to find. If you were looking for a "man of the people" who still was capable of functioning at higher governing levels, General Powell would be the one to fill that bill. If you wanted the country run by smart, tough, capable, experienced, determined, and the list goes on, then Ms. Rice fills that bill. I only hope the Republican Party has leaders smart enough to put that combination together for the people.

The Democratic Party has shown it's accumen in grooming Ms. Clinton for the presidency. An election combining only women presidential candidates from the two major parties (why not jump in Libertarians?) would assure a woman president. About time, too. Ok, so I'm a male, even an alpha type, and, obviously old. That doesn't equate with stupid (at least not in every case) and it certainly is time for more representation "at the top" and that includes women and minorities (of which minorities I'm now a member, too).

Yes, it's a dream election year I see. One of the presidential candidates will certainly be Ms. Clinton. Please, please, Republicans get Ms. Rice to be the other. The people of America need something better than the same thing over and over. We made it to a great nation by our diversity. Let's keep it going. John McCain, get together with Hillary and "make a deal" and Collin Powell get together with Condoliza and "make a deal" also. I have to tell you that I'd vote for someone that might actually be elected for the first time as might a lot of other discouraged voters.

2005-10-06T08:29:00.000-04:00

Changing fuels.

Calculations show there is abundant fossil fuel for the world for many decades or even longer. Calculations also show that the world will run out of fossil fuel and that fossil fuel supplies will become both more difficult to recover and much more expensive to use. In addition, we are damaging our environment by the massive use of these fossil fuels. It's time to change fuels.

There are abundant, even a plethora, of options for alternative fuels. The Governor of Florida recently stated approval for returning to building and using nuclear power plants to generate electricity. He noted that nuclear power generation is the safest, cheapest, most environmentally friendly method of producing electricity known (other than natural hydro-electric, or wind, or solar, or.....). For the massive generation of electricity, nuclear power is, indeed a safe method. Three Mile Island showed the actual safety of these light water plants rather than the danger. A bunch of bozo's doing everything possible wrong still couldn't contaminate the State Capital. Pretty good safety drill.

Electric power generation for homes aside, what about the electric power generation for vehicles? Using hydrogen is nice but it takes electric power to create the hydrogen in the first place. Why the secondary method with all the attendant losses? Iinstead of working on methods to use hydrogen why not work on methods to use electricity directly. Batteries have become smaller, last longer, and have more storage capacity than ever before. Break throughs occur at least weekly on battery storage and usefulness. It seems that would be a much better way to go than to use the electricity to generate hydrogen and lose so much of it on the way.

Then there's home heating methods. Wood stoves are certainly not the answer (no matter that I'm using one) in that they pollute more than you'd believe. Our wood stove smokes and smokes and smokes. I can just imagine every other home in the area smoking away on a cold morning. Talk about pollution! But, wood aside, there are many methods of storing heat and generating heat that avoids using fuel oil or natural gas. All right, that's got me. Natural gas is one of the fossil fuels I do approve of to some extent. There is an abundance of natural gas in our world and the gas only damages our environment and the world when released. Burning natural gas improves it. On the north slope of Alaska, the oil producers are using many large jet engines to pump the abundant natural gas back into the earth to avoid the pollution created if they just let it into the atmosphere. We could use that natural gas either as the gas or as a methane additive to the fossil fuel we are using so prolifically. Why are we paying to pump it back into the earth? Also, under the Escalante Wilderness is cubic miles of natural gas. Now, it can't be gotten because of Wilderness rules. It isn't difficult to get natural gas out of the ground and any damage to the area would be offset by the lives saved with abundant natural gas for heating. Since when does a rock come ahead of a human?

Other methods of producing electric power include wind (kills birds), solar (have to polish them mirrors, costly), tide (but who has an ocean nearby?), and zero-point energy (yeah, sure, "free" energy) among many potential methods.

The point is that there are many methods and opportunities for producing energy to heat/cool homes, generate electricity, motivate our vehicles, and more but we keep moving in "traditional" directions. We don't look carefully or deeply at electric for the vehicles because we want hydrogen to "burn" in our engines so they can rotate and go up and down and "putt putt" as we are used to hearing. Also, we want to have a "0 to 60" single digit second statistic for bragging rights. Time to grow up. As Tom Wolfe said "Look Homeward, Angel" and it's time to look at what we have and make it work.

2005-10-01T08:28:00.000-04:00

People are Pack Animals

We seem to have descended from some sort of pack animal and have genetically increased that tendency greatly. We don't call our groups "packs" any more. We call our packs, neighborhoods, cities, states, countries, and so on. But, it's still a pack. I suppose that's why people are always looking to be lead and begging for a leader. We even take leadership from those we know to be bad leaders and often re-elect that same bad leader to more of our misery. Can you think of an example? Hmmmmm.

Communities are useful. The group stays better fed, better protected (well, I might amend that one), have better communications, indeed, a networking of humans working together to create a supportive environment for survival and better living. Not a bad genetic code to bring along or so it seems.

Now, about that "better protected" thing. That might be so when talking about wild animals or even wild weather such as the cold winters. However, any group of humans instantly seems to be an envious target of opportunity by any other group(s) of humans who will slaughter every man, woman, and child simply to gain better survival opportunity and better living for themselves (until the next group slaughters them for the same reasons). So, this pack thing might have some downer to it. Also, it's not always healthier to be in a pack. The Aztec civilizatons may have had immense problems with disease in such cities as Tikal when overcrowding created unsanitary conditions. Of course, catching the Spanish Zealots disease did the rest of the job as the Conquistador disease robbed the natives of all ability to continue their civilization and they were infected with the "church flu" to their great loss (and ours too).

Being a pack animal, people have extended that to the god level. I am not totally conversant with wolves but I don't think they consciously have created a god. We have. Many times over, and over, and over. I used to wonder why we needed a god to tell us what to do, to pet us and say we're OK, to keep bad things away from us, and to "take us home" when bad things don't stay away. Why so many gods? Why such angry and jealous gods? "Retribution is mine, saith the Lord" and so on. My god is bigger and better than your god and my god will beat your god up and give me everything you own, give me you for a slave to be sold, your wife to be used and sold, and your daughters to be used and kept (that is if the sheep . . . . ).

Pretty strong stuff and unfortunately quite real. For those of us humans who can't quite stomach the idea of one of these privately owned gods destroying others who worship the wrong privately owned gods, there are Aliens. Now Aliens seem a good idea and we can blame it all on them. They genetically altered the pre-human race (but, according to ancient writing, we "screwed" that up and made them mad), they have visited and given advice, they have shown high-tech vehicles and equipment to the locals (now and then, and only to those no one is likely to believe), and are on the way back to do more (when we can be trusted to . . . . well, I don't know what).

And, that's the problem I see with the Aliens as a form of god. If they do exist and are visiting and did alter us genetically, and so on, they are certainly not our friends. No friend would let a friend drive a planet like this. Any "alien" who has the technological skill to visit this planet from nearly 40 light years away (more or less) also has the technological skill to assist in lowering the pack animal lust for killing that currently exists. Certainly, if we were genetically altered by aliens, they did a poor job and should come on back and do the job right. If the aliens are buzzing about, examining how we're doing, it's not to a good purpose. It might be that the aliens are watching to see just how badly their genetic alteration turns out and to "write a learned paper" about why not to do that again or maybe to show that the latest planet cleanser really works (gets queen, eggs, and all). Meanwhile, we sit here in our anger, vindictiveness, in our "my god is better than your god" and kill, kill, kill, in the name of god, country, home, and environmentally protected species (at least). We seem to have been infected with some kind of colony virus that makes us build giant colonies that actually kill us off. Are we just a test zone? I say to the Aliens (if they're there and if they're listening) "bugger off, if you can't fix or help, get our of our space and stay out until you're willing to show yourself and help properly." Take THAT you bug-eyed-monsters.

2005-09-23T19:49:00.000-04:00

San Andreas Wriggling

In all the depth of news about hurricanes for the second year in a row, most have missed taking note of the small earthquakes along the San Andreas fault line in southern California. Several in the Central Valley, Salton Sea area and at least one small one noticed in Los Angeles have been recorded lately. Possibly precursors to a "big one."

Would the USGS seismic center be on top of this? Certainly. Would they announce these small (4.5 magnitude and below) earthquakes as possible precursors? Not likely. It is most likely they would document these and plan a "paper" to be presented after the large earthquake. It's touchy business predicting a major disaster when dealing with so much unknown. Not like a hurricane which you can see coming days ahead. Earthquakes can be even more devastating and much less predictable. It still might be precursors to the "big one" and worth keeping watch.

2005-09-21T07:18:00.000-04:00

Big Bang - - - I wonder.

Musing again, this time about a collapsing universe falling into a dimensionless singularity and exploding into the present universe that we are, at least partially, aware of. I began to envision the collapse, not the "bang." It seems to me the mechanics of the collapse are difficult at best and improbable at least.

What happens as all this matter begins to get close and jostle for room? Well, first off, heat. So much heat that the whole thing stands the risk of never collapsing. There was once an argument put forth that the heat from our sun is created by the collapse of solar matter upon itself. I'm not certain this has been totally disproven. While much of the heat of the sun comes from the fusion process, I wonder if there actually is a portion of the heat formed by collapse and shrinking of the sun. Measurements of the solar disk have been made at Greenwich observatory for a couple of centuries. That is not enough time to determing solar radius changes. It's like trying to determine if a child's temperature is falling by taking their temperature ten seconds after you first determine they have a temperature. Solar events may have a rate that is not very easy to determine in human time spans.

So, the sun may have a portion of it's heat produced by shrinking. Certainly the shrinking universe would and it would be a lot of heat. Heat, as we all know, produces expansion and would delay and even prevent further collapse. Then, assuming we get past the heat of collapse, there is the heat formed by the chemical interaction of this molecular soup being squeezed tighter and tighter. In addition, there would be the heat formed by further fusion reactions from the masses of hydrogen and other light elements, creating one super nova after another and recreating a universe repeatedly, even if smaller than the one we now think we know. I'm sure others may come up with even more "events" on the way to a big bang if such a bang were even possible.

Where did all this matter come from? Dunno. Does it really show that it all comes from a single point? Hmmmm. Tricky. Are there other options? Too many to count and the mind boggles at just trying to think that matter even exists in the first place.

Now, I have doubts about the methodology of the "big bang' and the thinking that goes along with it. I'm not happy with "Divine intervention" either. Or with Aliens. Or with some kind of random event. However, the matter is there and must be explained (if you like to know, and I do). Where ever it all came from and however it was created, I'll be happy to have it not get a second universe created anytime soon or anywhere near where I'm at (that is if it's a Divine or random event). Afterall, if the Divinity could kill off all but a handful of humans simply because that Divinity had "regrets" over creating humans in the first place, perhaps the same Divinity might decide to "have regrets" and start over. If it's random then who knows if it might just break out all over again, pouring super-heated matter all over our poor little solar system and even more importantly, you and I. Maybe we'd better start being nice to each other to avoid Divine intervention, at least.

2005-09-13T07:48:00.000-04:00

What did I say?

Remember when I said our electrical system is totally vulnerable and easily disrupted? So, now a single worker accidentally cuts a single wrong line and half of Los Angeles loses power. Can you imagine a dedicated effort? Even by one person? Blackout city!

And, electric is not the only soft spot. Pipelines, communication towers, highway overpasses, water supplies, bridges, you-name-it, and it's all there, wide open. Look around you and THINK.

I certainly don't want to end any of the small list of freedoms we have left, not even those we have not yet realized we've already lost but keep our rose-colored glasses on to avoid knowing. However, there's a rule of life that applies: "The guys with the swords always win." Ok, Ok, I don't want to fight over that. You might have the bigger sword. It's just the way it has always been and still is.

You can sit in your home and ooooHHHHMMMM all you want while a couple of gang members trash your possessions, rape and murder your spouse and children, and, when they turn on you, of course your ohm'ing will protect you. I suggest that if you believe in that kind of fairey tale, you remember that the Bible explicitly states that "Faith without works is dead."

If we don't do something, our joy of an open society (however messed up it might be, it's still better than...), our very joy of being able to cross bridges, have electricity, park openly at a public lot, walk down town, that and more might be not only lost but become both a hazard and a distant memory. We are not prepared for the few hundred dedicated-to-death and misguided religious fanatics willing to do anything to disrupt society. And, it's not just the United States, no country is prepared for such an attack.

Chairman Mao told them and showed them how to take over any country, society, culture, group of people, and so on. We can be thankful that, at present, the fanatics have been more interested in converting their own countries and mostly attack Americans as targets of opportunity. The troops in Iraq are "targets of opportunity" and a chance to practice and train for increased prowess in following the methods outlined by Chairman Mao in his "Little Red Book."

So long as these activist-fanatics are more interested in taking over their own countries and societies, our homeland will be less threatened. What would happen if all of the Islamic countries (and that includes those countries with more than 30 percent Islamic) united under the power of these fanatics? Would the present Islamic move to take over all of Africa increase and the pace quicken? Certainly. Would the move to take over areas with significant Muslim (but less than 30 percent) population quicken. Would force be used to accomplish this? Most definitely. Would WE be victims of increased violence from religious fanatics? Beyond doubt.

As we watch our world continue to move into more and more disarray and polarity, one of the keys to keeping our country safe from such fanatic attacks is to keep them interested in a different target and watching, watching, watching for them to have a safe harbor such as a group of Islamic countries ruled by the fanatics which would be a certain sign of trouble ahead. Is Bush right in pushing for Democratic reforms in Islamic countries? Couldn't be more right. Democratic style reforms will help keep not only us safe but those citizens of the Islamic countries safer and better economically than under fanatics.

Keeping an army in Iraq doesn't suit me at all. BUT!!! There are options. We could let fanatics take over, gain a safe harbor, and become targets in our own homes. I feel for the army targets we have sent to Iraq in order to be safer in our own homes. I especially feel for them because we don't seem to understand what they are doing for us there. Without them (our boys in Iraq) my electric might be a victim of fanatics, my water supply lost, I might not want to go to the store or flea market or football game or, or,or.

The guys we've sent to Iraq are the visible targets for the fanatics to gather and attack. Not the Sears Tower, not the Empire State building, not our electrical, water, communications and more, systems. Nope, we go to our dinner tables without a thought that we might not have any of those without those guys at risk in the front line at Iraq and Afghanistan or elsewhere. So, next time you drive safely to work, have lunch, buy groceries, watch TV, and go to bed in safety, thank those guys who do none of those things safely over there, in the front lines.

2005-09-12T08:38:00.000-04:00

Greatest assets

New Orleans greatest assets are it's people. Now they are gone. The quickest way to return the city to any level of "normal" (if that could ever have been said of Carnival Town) is to get those people back.

Remember the scenes from WW2 of the Germans cleaning up totally devastated cities? Even if you're not as old as that, you've seen the pictures. The people who lived there were the asset required to bring those cities back. Did they evacuate the cities and wait to find all the bodies? Or remove the toxins dropped from the sky or the toxins blasted throughout the cities? Nope. Didn't have the resources.

For New Orleans to begin recovery quickly, the Mayor should post a notice in all possible ways of the addresses "cleared" and get those people back. FEMA can support this by paying a bit for the locals to repair and finish the cleaning job. What do you want to bet the people are eager to return and clean up. As soon as the water is down and people won't drown, allow the people back. If you have to have them sign a "release" of liability, fine. Just get the people back quickly.

2005-09-07T11:06:00.000-04:00

Tropical Depression

I'm inundated with bad news and can't do anything about it except shut off the outside world and pretend it isn't happening. Talk about depression. New Orleans is all about bad. The city wasn't ready, the people weren't ready, FEMA wasn't ready, nothing was ready, nothing was right, and it's all a depressing disaster.

Now, it's the blame game. Our (soon to be) first Female President wants it all changed and "corrected." Egad, I suppose it will be as "corrected" as her vision of how to fix the health care system was. Everyone else is jumping in too, so it's not fair to stop with the former First Lady. Heads are rolling from top to bottom to get out from under the axe. Probably the sacrifical goat will be the FEMA director, whether or not he did or didn't (fill in a blank or hundred blanks here).

Now, as of this moment of writing, there's Ophelia about 100 miles away from this keyboard. Nothing bad at present, just rain and breezy. Of course we can now predict weather activity with considerable accuracy. The "computer models" are all in agreement or should I say disagreement. In fact, the computer models are all over the map with one sending Ophelia southwest, two of them sending Ophelia generally northwest, and one sending Ophelia north east, 180 degrees away from the first mentioned and 90 degrees away from the other two.

But wait! Don't buy yet! There's more!

Just about everyone in the United States watched Katrina grow in the Gulf of Mexico. I, too, watched and said, "That's perfect storm condition." Then, when Katrina turned into the perfect storm it was clear where it was going. The strike zone might have varied within a few miles and the intensity (if they were lucky---and they were) might drop some, but, for a full 24 hours even I could see the disaster on the way. I'm sure that was the case for virtually everyone in America or anywhere the weather system was available and shown for all to see. Where were the needed agencies at this time of obvious impending disaster? They make the big bucks, let them perform.

We saw with the Great Tsunami that education of the public would have saved many lives. Did we not learn from that? Obviously not. Was there any "real" preparation? Obviously not. The list goes on. You're welcome to add to it.

How smug we in America were with our attitude toward the "backward" countries that allowed a Tsunami to kill hundreds of thousands. WE are above that sort of thing. Oh yeah, sure. Was the lesson long in coming? Less than a year and we are on the list of stupid, backward, third world, disaster areas. How smug do we Americans feel now?

Earlier I thought it would take 30 or 40 billion to repair the mess. Now, it looks like even 100 billion won't do it and we are dealing with a trillian dollar disaster. Perhaps even more when the total economic stress to the system is resolved. Then there is the loss of life, lives in disarray, people who owned much now owning less, people who owned some now with little and people who owned little now with nothing. The disarry has spread from the Katrina strike area outward like ripples in water.

Much as when a rock is dropped in a pool of water, some water immediately splashes all about, even far away. Then, the ripples begin to spread. Such is the case with the Katrina disaster. The immediate splash sent gas prices soaring. The area under the rock has been squashed and made unliveable. Just outside the strike zone, there is damage and repair underway. Further out, the ripples have brought refugees, shortages, and there will be crime reported soon. What else can some of these refugees do? As the looters said, "You gotta stay alive." Well, at least the ones who took food and clothing, not the ones taking out the gocart and other expensive but usless "stuff" that didn't support life.

Now, the vision of the rock drop continues with the water rushing back to the drop zone. We had that immediately with the drowning of New Orleans, the ultimate removal of the refugees, and now the final removal of even the holdouts. An astounding vision of destruction and "tropical depression."

Is there a fix? Certainly. If the people of the United States can afford to spend a few hundred billion here and there (Iraq, Katrina, foreign aid, you name it), then we can afford to stop that sort of idiocy and spend the trillion dollars taking care of OUR citizens, OUR cities, OUR welfare. If a city or area is at risk to a "natural" disaster, flood, wind, earthquake, snow, ice, whatever, then spend the money up front to make it actually ready.

If you lived in Florida last year and you lost your home, roof, or other portion of your house, FEMA "gave" you money to fix it. Why not GIVE that money for needed upgrade so there wouldn't be a lose of home and security? As it was, FEMA handed out money to individuals with little or no control. Where that money went and if it went to home repair is unknown. Get the people, train them, hire the workers and supervise the upgrade so there won't be a need for FEMA to throw money off the back end of a "natural" disaster. Doesn't "preparedness" actually mean something in FEMA?

2005-09-01T08:09:00.000-04:00

N.O. NEW.

New Orleans has an opportunity few cities have ever had in recent times. The city can be rebuilt to future standards and it can become the "future city" of this century. No more above-ground wires, the best waste and waste water removal, citizen facilities modernized and fully available, total broadband access, public transportation that actually functions and keeps the automobile away from the city, and so much that can be done.

Yes, it's a disaster. Yes, it's an opportunity. The bad did it's job well, now let's hope the good does even better. Please take this opportunity to become the finest city in the world and show the world what good can accomplish.

In a city just waiting for a disaster to come to town, there seems to have been little actual preparation for the disaster everyone said would come sooner or later. Is YOUR city safe? Yes, New Orleans is a city living below sea level, in a swamp, surrounded by water higher than the city streets, protected by the work of humans, dependent on the vagaries of nature to "not happen," and they were not ready. Is San Francisco ready for a 1906 level earthquake? Or Memphis if the New Madrid earthquake zone repeats it's 1812 event? Or Charleston, South Carolina if the earthquake of 1876 repeats? Not only do I doubt it, I'm certain they are not. Is any Gulf Coast or East Coast city ready for a category 5 direct hit from a hurricane? The answer here is a resounding NO. Can a city be prepared for such an event? Yes and New Orleans can show us the way.

How much would it have cost to get New Orleans and the other devastated cities and towns ready for a catageory 5 hurricane. Speaking here of minimizing loss of life first, continuation or return of public services second, and property protection third. There's more and you can make a long list of preparation requirements. How much would such "real" preparation have cost? Twenty Billion??? Maybe more? Ok, how much is this lack of preparation costing? Thirty or forty billion??? Certainly is and the actual cost will certainly be much higher in human values such as loss of life, injury, economic stress, you name it.

With that in mind, let's get busy and fix our cities. the benefits are enormous. Jobs, economic development, better living conditions under normal circumstances, protection during extreme conditions, and a use of FEMA money about to be thrown from the stern of the great ship Katrina. Imagine what that money would have done over the last five years if applied to protecting these same areas.

Well; the well that signifies the ending, it seems we never will learn. Perhaps it's cheaper to just throw money from the back end of a "natural" disaster than to prepare to make "natural" not a disaster.

2005-08-28T08:10:00.000-04:00

Spinning cores.

Finally earth scientists have announced that the earth's core is spinning at a different rate (faster) than the rest of the earth. That's a "duh." With an intense electromagnetic field that changes polarity and intensity with time, it simply had to have an "engine" and that engine has to be the (partially) liquid, iron core. Intuitively, we know that the magnetic field would be very stable if the core simply rotated at the same rate as the rest of the earth. Another intuitive awareness is that if the core is "liquid" (and we may have to redefine "liquid" for this intense heat and pressure zone), if the core is liquid, it is not "affixed" to the rest of the earth and might spin at the rate the earth once was spinning, or some measure of that spin. In earth science geo-speak, there once was a "big drop" of a lot of the iron in the molten ball now called "earth" and that group of heavy, molten metal (mostly iron), "fell" to the center and has remained molten. Since the geo-speak scientists generally agree the earth was once spinning faster than now, it stands to reason that the engine at the core is spinning faster than the outer shell. As I said, "duh."

It reminds me of the story of moon exploration. In the Kennedy years of "we're number two, Oh My Gawd" the dedicated race to beat the Russians at "something" produced a lot of moon debate. One of the big questions was whether the astronauts would be safe from moonquakes and some sort of moonquake might not knock over the lunar lander, preventing the people from a safe return. A large number of earth and astro scientists were gathered for a conference on this point at great expense to NASA. As learned papers were being delivered and much though given to moonquakes and possible fault zones on the moon, a not well known earth scientist from the back asked a simple question that was also an observation: "If there were fault lines on the moon creating moonquakes, wouldn't we see displacement of the pretty circles caused by meteor impact?" The learned group of scientists went silent for a moment and then began to laugh at the obvious that had been totally overlooked. Afterall, the moon would act similarily to the earth and an earthquake zone is accompanied by a fault line that displaces the surface, in some cases by many hundreds of miles. Any moonquake would also have such a surface feature and we would readily notice any displacement of those circles caused by meteor impact on the moon. It was one of those "duh" moments. Question answered, conference dissolved.

The next big scientific discovery about the earth core spin will be that the spin axis is not the same as the outer earth spin axis. That's another one of those "duh" moments. Of course we already know that. The magnetic pole is not at the spin pole. Gee, guess what that means. It means the object creating the magnetic field (the molten core) has a slightly different axis than the rest of the earth. Also, the fact of the reasonably regular flip flop of polarity would indicate a precession of spin/axis that slowly (in human terms) moves the polarity from north to south and back again.

Another "discovery" will be that the molten core represents a "fossil" energy. The spin is what the earth once was spinning at but our old earth has changed it's rate with time. So has the core, but the core responds slower to rotation changes. That gives us some evidence that the earth was once spinning faster than it is now and had a different spin axis orientation. Interesting. Using the data on core spin and axis, we can backtrack to see conditions relating to earth spin and axis in the past. I wonder how conditions on earth might have been with the faster spin and different axis. This fossil energy might even help us understand ancient events that helped form the earth and moon, even the solar system.

There are so many "scientific discoveries" that we already intuitively know. Many more than these few examples. Think. Don't believe only scientists know these things, you already know more than you pay attention to or realize.

2005-08-19T07:56:00.000-04:00

Chairman Mao knew.

Musing a bit over Iraq and other areas of conflict. Sadly most of these are Islam vrs. anyone and the conflicted areas grow apace.

A newscast from Iraq displayed an older woman dressed in severe black (hmmm, isn't it HOT there?) who said the government, actually the government that hasn't quite begun yet, she said that the government wasn't protecting people and so she didn't see any reason to support the new government. Chairman Mao said that this is exactly what the people would believe when a few dedicated people kept "pinpricking" the population and showing that the government could not stop atrocities from the "opposition."

Chairman Mao clearly understood the technique of oppressing a large population with a small group of highly dedicated people. Not just killers. He used teachers, brought food, supplied medical care, aided the very population that had been damaged and deprived by his group with the "other hand" and by this method took over the country with the largest population in the world and kept it under control using harsh and violent methods, applied rapidly and expansively. Hamas has learned this method and applied it with great success.

The technique worked in Viet Nam. The small group of "Charlie" working to unite with North Viet Nam and institute communist-style government were able to "pinprick" the population and force them to support communist unification or suffer and even die. Since the government couldn't (and none can) put a soldier with each family (and even that wouldn't have worked), the population was, and always will be, at risk and readily available to a fringe of dedicated opposition willing to pay the ultimate price to discredit the current government.

Where does that leave the Iraq situation? In a never-ending fight that cannot be won by any conventional means or by any means so far attempted by a government under such "Chairman Mao-style" pressure.

It is not possible to "win the hearts and minds" of the opposition (in this case, radical Islamists). It was not possible to win over and change the idealism of Chairman Mao's dedicated "freedom" fighters. It is not possible to "bring them in" to take part in the existing government any more than it would have been possible to bring the dedicated fighters of "Charley" in Viet Nam into the existing, U.S. supported government of the time. It's just mixing fire and gasoline and expecting no explosion; won't work. It's not possible to incorporate the dedicated, radical, "I'll die first," fighters for radical Islam into any government that has any hint of democracy in it. It's not possible for the population of Iraq to support any democratic government so long as the radical Islamists are able to "pinprick" the population. It's not possible to stop the ability of the radical Islamists to continue to "pinprick" the population.

Basic services to the population of Iraq cannot be made secure or, in some cases, even made available. The actions of the radical Islamists easily break the electrical, water, and communications network at will. This can happen in any country. Our electrical network is readily available and visible. How simple to disrupt such a system. Ours is disrupted several times each year from ordinary thunderstorms or the occasional hurricane. Farther north, the winter storms disrupt the electrical service all too commonly. Imagine what a few dedicated "freedom" fighters could do. In Iraq, it is even easier to get such a job done and the population quickly has learned that no one can keep their needed electric, water, communication, transportation, and so on services going. Only getting the radical Islamists to stop will work.

Under what condidtions will the radical Islamists stop the attacks on the population? The same condidtions outlined by Chairman Mao; total victory. In order for the population to get the attacks to stop, they must support the radical Islamists as the new government. After some time of these attacks and attacks and attacks, supporting the radical Islamists and their restrictive style of Islamic governance will seem the lesser of two evils.

Under what condidtion can the present government and the U.S. gain a level of security against the radical Islamic guerrilla dedicated fighters? Probably cannot be done. It would require some equally radical and dedicated method staffed by equally dedicated, ready to die for the cause, people. Possibly a new "invasion" by about a half a million dedicated "peace" fighters carrying food, water, tools, and the willing spirit to work WITH every Iraqi family and swarm over all the service connections to fix the electric, sanitation, and so on. These peace fighters would need to be ready to die and they would, in great numbers. The world would need to be ready to sacrifice another half million of our burgeoning population for peace and send unarmed and unprotected, dedicated people to their doom over and over until the radical Islamists simply wear down or get old and a bit more mellow. Other than that method, I suppose the radical Islamists could be reduced greatly in numbers by using Chairman Mao's methods of absolute brutality and not worrying about "collateral damage." All of the "inbetween" methods will probably fail. By "inbetween" I mean any method other than total brutal force and total brutal peace. Every other method seems doomed before begun.

Well, it's difficult to sort out the ups and downs of such highly charged political, social, religious, and so on, situations. Only by invoking some historical vision, some realistic appreciation, and looking without rose-colored glasses can we begin to see the truth. How far back in history to you want to go to see truth? How many Mongols did it take to conquer most of Asia and much of Europe? How large was the population these few dedicated Mongols controlled? How many Vandals invaded and conquered Rome? How large was the population of Rome at the time? Keep looking and come to your own conclusions, I did.

2005-08-04T07:02:00.000-04:00

Red Light - - Red Light

From personal observation, 100 percent of the people who run red lights get away with it. With many years of driving experience in every condition from metro to off-road, I've observed many, many red light runners. Never have I seen one red light runner cause a law enforcement vehicle alarm or even the slightest activity. Not often, but sometimes even when such law enforcement vehicle was at the light that was violated.

There must be a set of conditions required for someone to get a ticket for running a red light that I'm not aware of and it would be nice to know what they are so I, too, can run red lights with impunity. I have this suspicion, however, that as soon as I begin to run or even squeeze the red lights I'll get to see someone stopped and given a ticket for the first time.

Red light squeezing and outright running seems to be increasing in frequency lately. Especially those in the left turn lane who push the red arrow to the point that green light traffic actually has to wait for the crossing traffic to stop running the red arrow. I suppose a red arrow doesn't have the same power to hold people back as does a full round disk. I've watched people honk, push their cars forward in a threatening manner, yell out the windows, gesture in an obvious angry way, all to try to get the right of way and stop the left turn red light runners. To no avail except in the case of a woman who must have felt threatened enough to stop half way through the red light running process, completely blocking the right of way, green light traffic until someone began to get out of their car (probably to help push her car to the side, thinking it was stalled) when she took off like a shot and disappeared down the road.

I am aware that even law enforcement personell are also aware of this as a problem, a growing problem. Efforts to educate the public, to label this as "aggressive driving" (at least), to put up cameras and send tickets to the license plate owners, and more efforts have and are being made even as I write. It probably is just me. I don't attract law enforcement but do attract law breakers. The cops should follow me around. Traffic laws are broken in plain sight all about me. Yup, it must be me. I bet it doesn't happen to anyone else.????

2005-07-31T19:32:00.000-04:00

The nonviolent terrorist

Now it seems one of the London bombers is "not a violent person" and "only wanted to terrorize" and didn't want to kill. I don't know about you but nonviolence is not going to terrorize me very much. Perhaps he should have simply boycotted the public transportations system, carried a sign denouncing public transportation and advising that this was a terrorist act (carrying a sign) so please be terrorized and run screaming, Thank you.

Not much of a terror impact. Non-functional explosives simply cause delays and annoyances. Kind of like a gawkers block on the freeway caused by terrorists putting nude females out at random. Just angry commuters, not terrorized commuters.

If Islam wants to rule the world for Allah, terror is not the way. Nor is nonviolent terror. It would seem to me best to present a benevolent (not violent), kind, forgiving, teaching, and so on god if you want people to believe in and follow the precepts of the god you are putting forth for consideration. The jealous, "gonna getcha if you don't watch out," punishing god (such as Jehovah is represented in the bible and Allah is represented in the Koran), such an angry god simply will wind up with rebelious followers who will destroy the god and move on to another, less angry god. Come on Islam, show us a loving, kind, forgiving god that treats men and women equally. Bet you can't do it.

2005-07-29T17:38:00.000-04:00

Killer Whales and sex offenders

They do it to Orca, why not to sex offenders. Tag them and trace their location the same as wildlife scientists do with wolves, orca, for God's sake, even rattlesnakes. What's the problem here? We can spend untold amounts of money on protecting pup fish in some desert area where they are going extinct naturally but we can't spend a similar amount on protecting these sex offenders from themselves, to say nothing of the prey these predators devour.

If the Catholic Church wants to grovel and show sincere remorse for similar sins, fund a program to get sex offenders traced (start at home, daddy pope) on a permanent basis. I'm sure other concerned churches would want to support and donate to such a desirable project. Sure, you bet.

Hate to be cynical but doing good seems to be a "divine" right and is more of a one-way, do good to my church, feed my god, serve my servants, and so on. Doing good does not mean to impoverish the church for the good of people. Oh no, doing good means to impoverish the people for the good of the church. Bah, humbug.

Get these sex offenders permanently located and it will not only protect our children but the offenders themselves. What's the delay?

2005-07-12T20:43:00.000-04:00

Using Linux

The system crashed and the hard drive became totally unstable. After getting some (s-o-m-e) of the data off it, the hard drive erased itself and reformatted. Now, it became an empty computer. A computer that would no longer accept windows operating systems. However, it would work with a Knoppix CD system and the hard drive cooperated. With that as a start, I began to load in Linux operating system, starting with the Knoppix and then moving to the Debian Sarge release that just happened to coincide with the need.

Debian loaded the hard drive and began to function. Not very well at first because using Linux is a learning and growth effort. At first, there was a screen and a bunch of strange names and usages that needed the simple level of doing and then doing some more. So, I messed up the system and then reloaded and messed up the reload and reloaded and messed up the system and reloaded and really, really screwed up the reload and started over and then got a system that lasted longer but had no sound and no internet (among a lot of other no's). Pretty soon, I found the "Synaptic Package Manager" and messed up the system all over again. More reloads, more progress and more screwing up. Meanwhile, seaching the internet from an old '98 computer with all of it's nine lives well used up and lots of Linux help, most of it too "geeky" for use. Don't those guys remember their first attempts??? They write like a professor I had at Chapel Hill who taught "THE" calculus and would write these gawd-awful formulae on the board and simply take shortcuts the students couldn't have any precognition or other awareness of and we would all be totally lost in the fog of "THE" calculus. (Thanks a lot, Newton). Oh, yeah, incase any one remembers, the professor was M.A.Hill and I knew I was in trouble the first day when half the class walked out to "drop/add" when he walked in. Oh well.

Anyway, a few more times of screwing up the system and reloading - - - Oh, did I tell you that the Debian Sarge comes in 14 cd'd and takes about 2 hours to do the basic load??? It does. A few more times of loading and experimenting and searching the internet and the whole Linux thing is beginning to come together. Now, to put in an older external modem. After all, now-a-days a computer is virtually worthless without an internet connection. An Actiontec 56k external and wvdial and "BINGO" it's connected. Whoopie!

Now, the sound. The computer has a Sound Blaster 24 bit sound card. Possibly the worst choice for Linux there could be. It also had a "winmodem" that works only on windows and that's why the external was needed. So, now the sound card won't work. I gave it up. Then, a few days later I thought, "Hey, the motherboard has a built in sound device." Sure enough, a Via 83xx and Linux loves it. Now to make it work. Now, there's no way to get it to a device and satisfy the desire for tunes. Alsa? Oh yeah. Not simple by any means.

There's a technique that can be used but it can be hazardous to the system and there may be a reload in the near future. The technique is called the "shotgun" and involves loading in all the sound "stuff" you can find in the long, long list of "applications" to use a Linuxism. Interestingly enough, the first effort at shotgunning the sound (the Via 83xx) brought in the sound. Now, there's a Linux system with internet connection, tunes, more software than I can believe, and a whole new problem.

FLAVORS (another Linuxism). It turns out Linux is kind of like a box of mixed chocolates. You can't just take one and think you've gotten the best one in the box. You have to go back and get more (Brach's knows this trick quite well and boxes chocolates in just this way). There are many, many different types of Linux (flavors). Now, I've gotten Slackware samples, Knoppix (mentioned earlier), Mandriva (seems to be the heir to Mandrake), Ubuntu, dynebolic, and several more. Even more are on the way, and likely will not be the end of "sampling" the chocolate box of Linux.

So, now I need a computer dedicated to just testing Linux "flavors" and possibly several more, all with known modem and sound card characteristics. You don't need a lot of hard drive to do this, a 20 gig drive is plenty for testing but for your permanent (well, as permanent as the "flavors" will allow) drive you'll want a lot of space. At least 120 gigs and more if you can. As I said, there's a lot of software and more coming every day.

Well, I'm testing a blog entry "app" that I fell across during the shotgunning for the sound. It has actually found my blog and says it will post this without messing about on the blog. If it's a mess, you'll know why. If it works like the rest of my Linux experience, it will be just great after I work out the learning process and get me to work along with the great software.

Losing Domain

2005-06-24T06:23:00.000-04:00

In a split decision of 5 to 4, the Supreme Court of the United States of America or rather the Police States of America, took away nearly all your home owner rights. Here's a quote from the news article:

WASHINGTON - Cities may bulldoze people's homes to make way for shopping
malls or other private development, a divided Supreme Court ruled
Thursday, giving local governments broad power to seize private property
to generate tax revenue."power to seize private property to generate tax revenue"If There were ever an "Oh my God" sentence written about the American society, this one has to be it. Local government now has the power to take away your home simply to generate tax revenue. Think of the many ways any local government can generate tax revenue by taking your home. Use it as a rental? Certainly. Yes, I know, there will be "checks and balances" and a "close watch" on such condemnations for increased tax revenue. Or for more jobs. And, the definition relys on "local government" and we're back to "community standards" where everything the local government does is ok so long as it's someone else.

New London, Connecticut shall suffer for this day as will the rest of us. This invasion of personal property and right to the pursuit of happiness must be stopped. The reasonable sanctity of your home simply must be respected. As of today, it (respect for your home) no longer exists. Between "code" and this new right to take away your home simply to increase tax revenue, provide jobs, and whatever the local government wants, you no longer have any rights to or in your home.

If you've read this far, your mind is already filled with the many ramifications of the legal ability for the commonly corrupt local government to take away homes simply for tax revenue. Tax revenue that pays the fat salaries of the local government functionaries who make the decision to increase tax revenue so they can increase their already bloated salaries, benefits, and retirements.

Balance

2005-06-04T07:14:00.000-04:00

It's big news if the Koran (Quran) is abused in any manner by any non-Muslim and back page news (now, since we've accepted this amazing situation) if a non-Muslim has their head cut off by a Muslim. It's big news if a few bad eggs in the U.N. peacekeeping troops rape or even have consential sex with the population and back page news of the genocide and rape of whole populations by Islamic groups, Sudan, for example. It's no news at all if Islamic states and countries have laws restricting Christian practice of religion but big news if a country (France for example) writes any law which restricts all religions and thereby restricts any public display of Islam. Such a list of out-of-balance situations could go on and on. Take a look at Africa and the, so-called, insurgents that are causing turmoil in, for example, Ivory Coast or Nigeria. These "rebels" or "insurgents" are Islamic, principally moving in from the north and taking over one country after another. Fifty years ago there were only about 5 African Islamic countries. Now there are nearly 20 all taken over by force and with Islamic, non-democratic (Sharia), law enforced. This has not even been news and where it has, the "insurgents" have rarely been identified as Islamic. What would the "balance" be if a Christian group moved into a predominately Islamic country and used the same techniques of violence and subjucation to first reduce the population to misery and despair and then to overthrow the government and set up a Christian Law country? Would that be supported by world news? Would that go "under the radar" as so much of the Islamic violence is right now? Would the world "wring its hands" in worry and do nothing much as in, for example, the Sudan? Give warnings about "trafficking in humans" as in, for example, Saudi Arabia and do nothing?

Now the real questions. Why is Islam on a collision course with the rest of the world? Why the continued confrontations rather than cooperation? Take a careful look at the laws of Saudi Arabia and do some thinking. What would the response of the Islamic world be if any western country wrote similar laws restricting all religions but Christian or if any African country wrote similar laws restricting all religions but animistic? Why is Islam spreading by violence? Why is Islam holding it's members hostage by violence? Why is Islam holding countries hostage by violence? Where is this going? What is the end result? Why is this allowed, even encouraged by the rest of the world? I don't understand. I can see the imbalance but the why escapes me (oh sure, World Domination. But that's so silly I can't accept it.). I don't understand why so few see the imbalance or if they do see the situation, decide to "not" see. What in the hell is going on?

accepting the unacceptable

2005-05-26T09:32:00.000-04:00

acceptingtheunacceptable

Well, here we are, just about the summer season. No "twin towers" disaster to lead us into the holidays, no new war, no "homeland" disasters or even big threats (as of May 25, 2005, that is). However, reading the news each day, we have gradually begun to accept the horrors the same way we now accept highway mayhem. What's a few more bombings here and there so long as it's Not In My BackYard. You remember the NIMBY attitude? Do what you want, just NIMBY.

Well, the world is now a backyard to everyone. What happens in your backyard is happening in my backyard. It's one world afterall. The NIMBY attitude protested so strongly in the '60's is not supportable. Now, less than ever. Tribalism is nice so long as it accepts other tribes as having equal importance and deserving of equal respect.

We would not accept religious laws instituting a "State" religion yet turn a "blind eye" to countries that do so. I recall the (politically and morally correct) outcry against apartheid in South Africa. Where is the outcry about Saudi Arabia where there are so many laws restricting religions other than Islam? Religious Apartheid is morally correct??? Oh, yes, I know it's politically correct. We do want that oil. So, we accept the unacceptable.

Or the "rebels" in so many of the African countries that are the "blessings" of Islam moving south by force of arms. Killing and enslaving blacks worse than the South African apartheid ever did. Because it's Islam, that makes it acceptable? What if Christians acted in the same manner as Islam? Would that be acceptable? NIMBY!

2005-05-22T15:09:00.000-04:00

Purple Salvia about 5 feet high. A good winter and spring plant here in Florida. The heat of the summer will turn it brown.

2005-05-22T15:00:00.000-04:00

Ala and Ken Shin the Hooded Rat. They were close pals until Ken Shin died of old age and now has an honored burial in the garden edge.

2005-05-22T14:54:00.000-04:00

A little more detail. All was from cast-off material. The "pond" itself is from a broken car-top carrier the hurricanes munched. The top still held water so..... the rest is from old sidewalks, broken tile, and so on. A bit of flower power and it looks great.

2005-05-22T14:51:00.000-04:00

The new fountain in the park designed by Ala and built by Dave. Cooperation pays off.

2005-05-22T14:48:00.000-04:00

The last of the black Mulberry. You must get there early or the birds get the black ones. Not so good to eat until they turn black. Red is SOUR!

2005-05-22T14:41:00.000-04:00

Ala with Cinnamon, the ferret. It's either play time or sleep time for ferrets.

2005-05-22T14:38:00.000-04:00

Shasta Daisy in Florida. A rare sight.

time for fruit

2005-05-22T09:18:00.000-04:00

time for fruit
It's mid-May. The purple plum tree is just about through and has been eaten. The peach trees are now ripening and the first tree is producing wonderful, fresh, tasty peaches about the size of a baseball. What a treat to get up, walk out into the soft Florida morning, pick a peach and revel in it's marvelous flavor. Yesterday we had strawberries, peaches, plums, and eggs from our little (almost an) acre of Florida. Today, the same. Later, there will be nectarines, apples (yes, even the apple tree has fruit this year for the first time), figs (little and green right now), guava (strawberry,tropical, and pineapple), muscadine grapes, pomegranates, and so much more. The black mulberry tree is now about 20 feet high and the birds get them if I don't get out early. The mulberries are about through until next year and only a few are left on the tree.

We had a bag of potatoes that sprouted quite enough so we hesitated to eat them. We planted them and they are growing like weeds. Yes, potatoes are cheap but it seemed silly to waste them when we could plant them, then seed radish and mustard over them. That way we get two crops. Oh, I forgot. We also planted watermelon with them so we really get three crops. Let you know how it turns out.

The early sunflower crop is over and the seed heads are turned up to dry. Some are already out at the feeders being nibbled on by the Cardinal family. We won't plant any more sunflower this summer but will have many volunteers, so many we'll need to weed some of them.

The Confederate Jasmine has been in full bloom for the past 3 weeks. It's like living in an incense shop. Now, the night-blooming Jasmine is full of blossoms and the night is so redolent with the perfume it nearly chokes you when it hits at full strength. During the day, the Tea Olive adds to the mix. I don't know about at night, the night-blooming Jasmine wins the odor battle, hands-down. The lovely little night-blooming Four-O-Clocks have a nice, delicate odor but they are totally submerged in the Jasmine odor.

We have just a small place in central Florida about 35 miles north of Orlando but you sure can get a lot of garden into it here in Florida. We can have citrus and apples at the same time. However, the northern fruit trees don't always do well because it doesn't get cold enough and the citrus sometimes does poorly because it gets too cold. We're right on the edge of both cycles. Makes for hectic and uncertain gardening.

More later (and there really is a lot more on the plants, alone).

casualnotesandrambles

2005-05-22T08:57:00.000-04:00

casualnotesandrambles

Well, it's a new day and the "Pacific" (really not a very peaceful ocean, actually) hurricane has withered to a few rowdy showers in the Caribbean and is no longer a threat. Just a reminder of a summer that awaits.

Was picking up in the back yard area yesterday and found that I was picking up last years hurricane damage every now and then. Still more to go. I might get the previous year damage cleaned up in time for a new year of damage. As "trucker" noted in a comment, there isn't any way to estimate how much it costs in time, money, emotion, and so on to prep for a hurricane, go through a hurricane, and recover from a hurricane. The prep and going through part can be pretty quick but the recover part is long, long, indeed. Actually, the prep can seem very long. As we watched the progress of Ivan last year and felt the threat it represented (after three hurricanes, even a thunderstorm began to feel threatening), we went through long, anxious days until it attacked somewhere else. Then, our joy at being missed was tempered by the awareness of the pain others were suffereing. Are we glad California has earthquakes? No. Are we glad we don't have earthquakes? YES, YES. You get the idea.

starters

2005-05-20T08:13:00.000-04:00

It's Florida and it's the start of summer. After the horror of the summer of hurricanes, a hurricane in the Pacific trying to cross into the Caribbean two weeks before the season even begins is ominous indeed. We cannot imagine going through anything like that again.

To be smart about getting ready for a hurricane, we have a list of things to do. It's fairly long and tedious. After the hurricane, the "setting things right" is also long and tedious. Here is a portion of that list:

Indoors.
Double bag all books, papers, and photos.
Double bag all clothing.
Bag computers (everything is double bagged)
Bag all electroic equipment
Bag audio speakers
Bag pillow, cushions, small stuffed toys
Bag all bedding (sheets, blankets)
Plastic sheet covers for bed and furniture.
Fill many, many containers with water.
The list goes on and on.

Outside.
Pick up and secure anything that can be picked up by a 200 lb man. If you don't the hurricane will.

Hurricane clip privacy (wooden) fence (we have about 700 feet)
Prop from both sides with 2x4 each section of privacy fence.
Tie down things you can't pick up.
Move vehicles to "safe" place (be sure one is in a "getaway" spot).
Tape windows (you'll hate this when it's time to take the tape off)
Get animals secured.
Tie down young fruit trees.
Check neighbor's yard for hazards!!!!
Look for trees or limbs that can reach the house.
The outside is never done well enough.

That's some idea of the effort it takes to prep for a hurricane.
Now, think about doing that 3 or 4 times in a few months.
And, think about putting it all back.

more later