Michael Jackson and Dr. Murray

The long time readers of this blog will recall my previous post concerning the possibility that the desperately addicted Michael Jackson might have supplemented Dr. Murray's propofonol with an additional injection by himself (Jackson).

I wrote to the Texas legal team concerning this possibility. I don't know whether they paid attention or not to specifically me, but now there is a news report that Dr. Murray's legal team is considering using exactly the defense I proposed.

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.

Horology 101

Last month I bought a 400 day torsion pendulum clock at an antique store. They are more commonly known as an "anniversary clock." After setting it up at home, it would not tick more than a few times. After a bit of investigation on horology web sites, I measured the timing of the ticks on either side of neutral point when it is doing nothing. It turned out that the swing on one side was much greater than on the other side. Making the swing equal is known as setting the beat, and, is essential for making the clock to run accurately or even to run at all.

It turns out that none of the web sites show how to set the beat. Finally I figured out that the thing from which the pendulum torsion wire is suspended can be made to rotate by first loosening an adjacent screw. I turned it until the tick swing was about equal to the tock swing. Now it runs and now you know how to get an anniversary clock running.

Sometimes someone starts an anniversary clock with too much swing and this kinks the torsion wire. In a case like that the wire must be replaced, and that is expensive. My clock did not require a wire replacement and all it needed was to set the beat. It now runs fine, and, I am now in the process of adjusting its timing.

Setting the beat on a swing pendulum clock is similar to setting the beat on the torsion pendulum. Make the tick equal to the tock by tilting the clock. Then adjust the setting so it will do that while level. Move the setting toward the high side of the tilted clock.

Y2K bug strikes 9 years later

It seems that some of the alleged global warming can be attributed to a Y2K bug in software of sensors that gathered data circa 2000. Here is a link to this bizarre basis for a multi-trillion dollar policy decision based on a computer programming bug.

This is not to say there might not be other data that support global warming. It might exist.

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.