Happy Halloween

In honor of the holiday, I thought I'd post my favorite youtube flick of all time

Mystery of the pyramids solved.

I thought you all would find this interesting, I sure did.

On beards, shaving and haircuts

My beard seems to be getting tougher or maybe the razors are going down in quality. I have a Quadratrac, but it clogs. The Bic disposables went down in quality for a while, but are improving again. I'm thinking about returning to a straight razor. Jon once gave me a DoubleDuck, a quality variety of straight razor. I must find it and try it again. But then I will need to find the strop. The strop is a piece of leather used for working off the wire burr at the very tip of a recently sharpened straight edge. As any metallurgist knows, it is impossible to cut metal without leaving a burr somewhere.

The option of doing nothing doesn't work either because my beard itches. Maybe I could try shaving every day, then it would not get so long as to clog the razors. What a novel idea.

I solved the problem of haircuts. I just grab a bunch of hair and cut it. The appearance is not so great but it works.

Disheartening

Today's news on CNN Money included "Leaders from both parties expressed concern Wednesday that a taxpayer-funded bailout of the financial industry will be used to pad the pockets of executives rather than get the economy rolling again".
Does any have the heart to do the sums below (found in comments on CalculatedRisk) and divide by the US population of 300,000,000 to see what our per person debt is adding up to? I sure don't:
$700 Billion – Treasury to purchase toxic mortgages and other non-performing assets from financial institutions.
$50 Billion – To guarantee principal in money market mutual funds.
$10 Billion+ – Treasury purchases of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) in September. More to come.
$144 Billion – In additional MBS purchases by FNM and FRE. Limit $850 billion. FNM’s portfolio currently holds $758.1 billion and FRE holds $798.2 billion.
$85 Billion – AIG bridge loan giving the Fed a 79.9% controlling stake in the firm.
$87 Billion – Repayments to JP Morgan (JPM) for providing financing to underpin trades with the now bankrupt Lehman Brothers. In response to the Fed & Treasury’s stand against providing public funds to consummate a deal.
$200 Billion – $100 billion capital infusion for FNM and FRE by the Treasury.
$300 Billion – Provided to the FHA to refinance failing mortgages into new, reduced principal loans with a federal guarantee as part of the housing bill.
$4 Billion – Provided to local communities to purchase and repair abandoned homes due to foreclosure.
$29 Billion – Financing for JPM’s takeover of Bear Sterns. The Fed takes $30 billion in non-performing assets as collateral.
$200 Billion – Currently outstanding loans to banks through the Fed’s Term Auction Facility. Recently updated to allow loans of 84 days in addition to the original 28-day!
$150 billion stimulus checks

End of tunnel

So I spoke with the state of WV today. They said the $3000 penalty was just for not including my W-2! I swear I did anyway. But it sounds like it I just need to send them a copies and this will go away. Also Brian is coming home from Malta in a few hours. I have to work on adjusting my mood from mopey to happy before he gets here.

Just found out about this

i know your minds are made up, but i would just like to post the only third party presidential debate that i know of. it was aired on c-span and included Chuck Baldwin and Ralph Nader. (don't be hatin, i mean no offense to anyone)

http://www.dailypaul.com/node/70476

lol, i think it is funny that it is on a ron paul website when he isnt even running for president anymore.

I might die if you actually see this video

i received this video from my friend a day ago. it made laugh cry angry all at the same time. if it were to actually happen though....i don't know...it wouldn't be very good for my health...

put these in the url thing one after another--it should work.i have to do this cause the link spills past the post.

(first half) http://www.cnnbcvideo.com/index.html?nid=4wPOD5mLmT

(second half) tzwUV2XHTxLDEzOTA3NTk-&referred_by=11489371-z6Qt.Ex

(my friend didn't know that i had already voted.)

Diary flashbacks

For a long time, Lona and I have occasionally made entries in a joint diary since March 4, 1978. With a long ago view to climate change, I often recorded leaf emergence in the Spring and leaf fall in the Fall season. Today Oct. 27, 2008, it is still mostly green in the forest with some yellow leaves. Oct. 1, 2006 most had already turned yellow and would soon fall. Someday I will extract all entries and summarize them somewhere as a record of climate change.

Here is a random entry from Dec. 1, 1978:

It is really quite pleasant sitting amongst family (Soren & Lona) here at our apartment looking out at the night view of lights. Soren is happy, Lona is happy, I am happy. All is well. Just had spinach quiche washed down with tonic water ... Ahhh.

Ken LaCapria stopped by to pick up a buckle order. We talked about old times. Soren is sitting on Lona's shoulders pulling her hair. Great fun for Soren. We hope to hear from our builder soon about a price estimate.

Quote by John Archibald Wheeler: "... the past exists only as it is recorded in the present..."

The reference to an apartment, was in Oxon Hill, across from Sunnybrook and Henson Creek. Lona was still in the belt buckle business. We never did use the builder's services and instead built our house ourselves as project managers with John Greene's help on framing. I evidently recorded the quote from Wheeler as a remainder of the diary process itself. Wheeler specialized in general relativity and thus often thought about the passage of time.

Hrumph

I have not been in much of a blogging mood as of late. I haven't been up to much. Everything seems so dull when Brian is away for a while that I've just been sitting in bed petting puppies and buying junk on ebay. I got a letter in the mail saying I owe $2,750 additional on my 2007 WV state income tax and I better pay up before November 15. There was NO explanation along with this bill. I am pissed off. I used turbo tax, didn't take any wacko deductions, and even got a $180 refund from the state. Now they think they can squeeze another $3000 from me without even telling me why! Obviously I need to get a tax accountant to help me.

Up the upside, the same day Brian got a letter from the WV attorney general saying he can now conceal carry in 13 new states. yeeeeeeeeeeeeeee haaaaaaawww

Drill Doctor

I bought a "Drill Doctor" out of necessity. I had ruined a very expensive 5/8" bit through improper use and it needed sharpening for an important generator project. I also have lots of other dull bits lying around that need work. So does Jon.

It took a bit of doing to figure out how it works. I misconstrued the instructions to think that their reference to a chuck mean any old chuck I had laying around. Wrong. They mean the plastic thing supplied in the kit. There were two holes in the case for chucks. Only one was filled. I don't know whether someone swiped the other one before I bought DD or whether they mean for you to buy it as a supplemental. The one in there was for big bits and that was my immediate job, so I eventually figured out that was what was needed and used it.

DD works pretty well, the sharpening went along rapidly and apparently correctly. I finished the important holes that needed drilling. One problem was when I went to close the DD box, it wouldn't close. It took a really long time to figure out that the chuck needed to be screwed "in" to shorten it before the box would close.

Optimism about the Future

Despite the immediate cares of the world, there is also plenty of reason for longer term optimism. As usual, this mostly centers around the improved living made possible by improved technology.

In health care, many and profound discoveries are being made about the origins of disease and aging. Inevitably this has resulted, and will result in advanced medications that pinpoint target the origins of medical problems. Sadly, soon to be instituted proposals to limit profits from pharmaceuticals have already resulted in disinvestment in pharmaceuticals in anticipation of a new political world order. Eventually new meds will find their way to market in other countries, but later than necessary in the good old USA. In any event, the wealthy or desperate will be able to travel to find advanced medications.

Imagine a world where cancer, obesity, and aging are conquered. It will be great for the individual. The resulting overcrowding of the world population will lead to very regrettable means of limiting population, but that can be solved by war, pestilence, famine and suicide. Whoops ... I forget that pestilence will be fixed, and, that is reason for optimism.

It has long been a truism of science and technology that advances in materials result in advances in engineering and in science. Those advances, in turn, feed back to create still further advances in materials. It is a virtuous cycle of advancement. New materials such as nanotube paper, biologically inspired catalysts, and electrochemical batteries will all have immediate application to real world living.

The late Julian Simon, an economist at the University of Maryland, is famous for his predictions that the costs of all products, over the long term, become less due to advances in technology. So far he has proven to be correct. When a raw material such as copper becomes costly, someone finds a different way to provide the same function in the final product. Alternatively, someone invents a more economical way to extract a product such as copper from abundant low grade ores hitherto ignored.

Predictions about the next administration

Under the present economic conditions the loser of the election will be whoever wins the election. If that seems like a strange statement, consider the following. Both candidates promise to cut taxes and raise expenditures. In the best of times a universal health plan is mostly unaffordable. I have long advocated health care for immunizations, trauma and obstetrics, I also think that complete care is an economic impossibility.

Both candidates plan to give hell to the Taliban, and rightly so. Both are predicted by pundits to start a war with Iran on the expectation that Iran will almost certainly give nukes to terrorists. All this adds up to increased expenditures with decreased revenues in an economic situation where stimulus isn't going to help much. The economic situation is basically a worldwide crisis of confidence.

Something has to give, and, I know what it will be. All the promises about health care will not be kept. Taxes will go up. The predicted wars will be made more economical by use of nukes. The loser of the election will be whoever wins the election.

Myopia and My Mother

In recent comments on eyesight my children have mentioned how their eyesight is so much better than mine. I am very nearsighted. It is a condition known partly to be environmental (i.e. reading a lot) and partly inherited. If inherited, why is it that I am myopic but my children are not? A remarkable article recently published shows that myopia is more inherited from the mother. It derives from interaction of chromosome 3 (inherited from both parents) with the mitochondria (inherited solely from the mother). Thus it is more Lona's contribution that has influenced my children's eyesight than mine. Lona is nearsighted but not severely so. She read a lot so it is only natural that her eyesight might not be the very best.

I must have some good eyesight genes though, considering that Jon has such good eyesight. Those passed on by me interacted with Lona's to produce my kids good eyesight.

Pumpkin Idea

A friend sent me this link today, and I thought I should share it with my more artistic relatives:

http://yeswecarve.com/

I was also trying to think of a good Gordonesque set of labels, but find that my creativity is lacking...

Locavore Update - Green Tomatoes

Our growing season is officially over. Last weekend, Guy picked our basil, hot peppers and green tomatoes, and composted the plants. In previous years, I have not had much luck ripening the tomatoes inside, so tonight we tried out two green tomato recipes. We were not impressed with the fried green tomatoes (too sour), and the feta-topped green tomatoes were a bit better (feta, white wine vinegar, and oregano do a lot to help the taste) but I don't really want to eat that many of them. Does anyone have any ideas, aside from compost? Only 1 of the 11 tomatoes we have left, shows signs of ripening.

We have a two gallons of chopped broccoli in the freezer, keeping our gallon of green beans and gallon of corn company. Guy strung up our hot peppers and basil to dry. There is only one more week for the farmer's market. We plan to stock up on apples and potatoes, we already have enough honey, soap and pumpkins to last a while. There is still a lot of food available, but I can't think of much more that I want to store or preserve, any suggestions?