By the Grace of God

Upon further investigation, it appears that my Beethoven Fidelio DVD was ordered on Dec. 16 and shipped the 17th thereby falling not on Dec 23 but instead in the middle of Chanukah 2009.

Still further investigation leads me to suspect that Seinfeld is an apostate and that Festivus is an alien holiday that all good men should abjure. My right arm thus invigorated and skilled, I, with all other men good and true, shall endeavor to smite the alien impediments to the restoration of the Tabernacle of God.

High on the Hog interim snow depth report

As of 1 PM or so, our weather station in Ranson WV reports 15 inches, the Greenbelt station 11 7/8 inches, and the Southern Md station 12 inches.

More reports later. All stations report snow continuing to fall heavily.

Buy low, sell high

There is a hot new investment on the Somali stock exchange. Be careful about investing though. You might need to walk the plank.

No Sunspots for 13 days

Twice this year the Sun has made a feeble attempt to resume the solar cycle. Both times the sunspots fizzled. We now have had no sunspots for 13 days.

I predict we are going to have a cold, cold winter. This past October was said to have been one of the coldest on record. The recent snowfall in Louisiana is said to have been the season's earliest on record.

Buy some long underwear. Stock up on wood as a backup for your regular heat. Buy a generator in case an ice storm knocks out the power. Propane generators are best because of the storeability of the fuel. I have the generator, but haven't done the electrical hookup.

Jane Austen

There is an interesting discussion on the web about speculations as to the cause of Jane Austen's death. Even more interesting is the following quote from her at the end of the article:

"Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken."

She certainly had an amazing capacity for discourse, the like of which is seldom encountered in our modern authors.

The Dalai Lama

While surfing the net, I ran across an interesting set of quotes from the Dalai Lama:

“All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness ... the important thing is they should be part of our daily lives.”

“This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.”

Other philosophical traditions have similar ideas. Judaism has a tripartite concept of forgiveness:

1 mechilá, forgoing the other's indebtedness, the crime remains; only the debt is forgiven

2 selichá. It is an act of the heart. It is achieving an empathy for the troubledness of the other. Selicha, is simply reaching the conclusion that the offender, too, is human, frail, and deserving of sympathy.

3 kappará This is a total wiping away of all sinfulness. Kappara is the ultimate form of forgiveness, but it is only granted by God.

The terms and conditions for granting the first two forms forgiveness are a bit complex in that tradition but are entirely sensible.

Christianity's concept of forgiveness is embodied in several quotations of Jesus with a general emphasis on love, compassion and understanding toward failures of others.

All of these traditions have useful things to say.

The Pie Funnel

Just when I thought I had heard of everything, something new pops up. It seems that to make the perfect pie crust, you need something called a pie funnel. Basically, it is a piece of ceramic that vents steam from the pie while cooking, and also supports the top crust.

In general, the web site on which this appears, Interesting Thing of the Day, has many good and interesting articles. Read the archives.

The Orderly Universe

It is only natural that people like to make order out of their perceptions of the universe. It is this inborn trait of people that leads them to disbelieve things that are true but are strange. Sometimes true stories are falsely turned into mythical legends by those who want to make order of their universe. Such is the case of the legend of the alligators in New York sewers. It is actually true that it happened. Inevitably, the deniers started writing that it was an apocryphal legend. Eventually the alleged apocryphal legend turned into a "hoax" and "wholly false story" suitable for the gullible. As the link above shows, the legend is a true legend, not false.

There are other reasons for this strange human trait to refuse to examine the evidence. One of those reasons is that no one wants to be thought of as a fool. This is a consequence of possessing an ego. In order to not appear a fool, it is best to not believe the tall tales you hear.

On the other side of the coin, some people do indeed exaggerate or lie for the purpose of humor or monetary gain, so, disbelief also has a basis in human nature. In the end, there is no substitute for actually examining the evidence and making your own decision. In examining evidence, it is necessary not to rely on other peoples ridiculing opinions of the evidence. Only by a detailed examination of the evidence by yourself will do.

Brooklyn Adventures

Megabus got into NYC about a half hour late, which isn't too bad. My bus back to DC was right on time, in fact, we got to Baltimore half and hour early (but I guess DC traffic slowed us down).
On Saturday I went with my friend Jen and some of her friends from Pratt to this Score Swap.. Basically you paid $3 and donated a couple things and then you could take whatever you want. The swap was hosted by Bust and Nylon magazines. There were people there taking pictures. We all got a bunch of stuff, mostly clothes, but Jen got some 45s and I found a Polaroid camera...now I just need to find some film for it!

Home Arthritis Cure

Today I had some time on my hands so I decided to cure a persistant ache in my thumb joint. The picture shows the cure in progress and the medium of the cure is a bee sting. I have had great success with this on other body parts (knees, neck) and after about a week of trying to get relief with Capsaicin cream I decided to go for a better cure for my thumb problem. I got a jar and punched some holes in the lid. I drove over to Uncle Jon's and had a look at his bee hives. Bees are scarcer this time of year but I spotted a couple on the outside of the hive. I quickly put the jar over them and slid a piece of paper under the jar opening to lift it off, trapping 2 bees. Then I slipped out the paper after putting the lid in position. If you will want to keep the bees alive for a length of time, you should add a bit of wet paper towel to the jar. When I got home I numbed the area of my thumb with an ice cube, then grabbed bee number one with some tweezers, setting her bottom on the base of my thumb. I didn't have to command her to sting; bee instinct takes care of that. The stinger will keep pumping venom after initial contact so you can control the dose. I did the same with the second bee and now have only to await the cure. My hand is a little more swollen than expected, so I guess one bee would have been enough. One theory about how this works is that it works by stimulating the body's own immune system to localize in a problem area. You can see by the photo that that is what happened. I expect when the swelling goes down to have no more pain in my thumb. My father has also used this technique to get rid of warts.
Warning - Some people are severly allergic to bee stings and the safest way to do intentional stinging is to get a doctor's prescription for a Bee Sting kit to have on hand in case of a severe adverse reaction.
A side note - I've heard that there is a repetitive stress injury that young people are getting in their thumbs from too much texting that I imagine this would also be good for.

More on the Climate Debate

This October is said to have been the third coldest October on record. I can't verify this, I just read it somewhere. Here is an interesting presentation:

Deconstructing Global Warming
Richard S. Lindzen Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Sciences Massachusetts Institute of Technology
CEI October 26, 2009

Megabus Adventures

*$8 to New York City. yes!
*Free WiFi!
*Green lights
*Outlets!
*On time (only left 3 minutes late!)
*Double-decker

Lets hope I don't jinx the rest of the ride...

Edit: Things to do with free WiFi
*Blog
*Read historical tweets
*play sporcle
*of course, Facebook

The wit and wisdom of Jon V. Powell

Doubt

Politicians, Lawyers, Talk show hosts,
works of some master poet ?
Rorschachs upon my arse-wipe,
to the lee I throw it.

D.I.Y. Why ?

Once inside my junkyard dreary
as I hammered weak and weary,
on many a dud munition of Days of Yore,
There came
water heater, your thermal embrace,
intimate calorie giver.
But your elements Fail. You jilt me now,
by thus & such I shiver,
but, cometh the plumber, with tradesman skill,
and so, our love renewed,
yet by him, not you, with Sum and Bill,
am I consumately screwed.

After writing these, Jon commented: I should cut back on my caffeine.

Vitamin D deficiency is linked to depression and heart disease

Here is a comprehensive article on the importance of Vitamin D to mental health and cardiovascular health. This is well worth reading.

Vitamin D might prevent H1N1 flu

There is evidence from a private physician in Georgia that high dose Vitamin D supplementation seems to prevent H1N1 swine flu. This makes sense since it has also been observed elsewhere that Mexicans seem to be more susceptible to the flu than light skinned Americans. Vitamin D is synthesized in the skin and lighter skin permits more synthesis of the vitamin. Nonetheless, because many light skinned people don't get enough sun, it probably makes sense for everyone to supplement.