Monday, September 16. 2013
Why do they send these people to college? Is College the New Junior High School?
If you can't handle calculus, write a good essay quickly, or discuss Kant in a civilized manner, you do not belong in any liberal arts college.
Three years ago, I was playing tennis during the final weekend of summer. The previous two weeks, I'd had some calf pain, nothing significant, I just kept stretching to keep it loose. Suddenly, while chasing a shot down the line, I collapsed with a sharp pain in my calf. At first, it felt like a hot stone had hit my calf. This feeling matched the description my brother had given me of tearing his Achilles, so naturally I was concerned. However, I was able to stand and walk, although stiff and in pain.
This past Friday, while on a golf outing with a client, I was walking down from the first tee when I was hit by the same 'stone' in my other leg. Luckily, this time I knew what the issue was and completed the round, though I used my clubs for support at times.
I suffered, both times, from a tear or strain of the Plantaris tendon. The Plantaris is a vestigial muscle in the calf, often harvested for repair work because it has a tendon which runs from the heel almost up to the knee, attaching a very small muscle. It's length and relatively low capacity makes it attractive for harvest when the need arises. The tricky part is that about 7-10% of all people don't even have this tendon.
Even though the injury is the result of an indirect mechanism, subjectively the patient may describe direct trauma to the calf region – often the athlete feels as though they were struck on the calf by an object such as a ball or piece of equipment.
Tennis players often suffer strains and tears of the Plantaris. My guess is this is due to less attention being paid to the calves by most workouts. At the gym I rarely see people stretching or even working out their calves. But the calves require more attention than they typically get. I'm resting it now and avoiding my usual leg workout at the gym.
The problem with the audio coming out of computers is that there simply isn't very much power, mainly because they're only designed for those little computer speakers. If you want to play a song or movie on the computer and have it sound decent, you need to use a couple of normal room speakers.
The hitch there is that normal speakers need a lot more power to get moving than a computer can provide. So the answer is to use something like this:
That's an AudioSource AMP-100 Stereo Power Amplifier, $103 on Amazon.
It's important to note when shopping for amplifiers that there are two different power ratings; RMS, the real amount of power, and 'peak power', the peak it can hit for a millisecond, which is basically worthless. If you search around Amazon for "speaker amplifier", you'll see a number of ads for a cheaper brand called 'Pyle', which cheats by advertising the peak power. Their "100-watt" unit is actually 10 watts of RMS power — which isn't much more than the computer has. So you have to be careful differentiating between the two. The AudioSource unit, above, is 100 watts RMS, or 50 watts a channel.
The speakers, themselves, also make a difference. Some older 4'-high monsters might not be near as 'efficient' as a smaller, newer 'bookshelf' model, and are going to require more power to get them to a loud level without distortion.
Along the same lines, how loud you plan on playing them enters the picture. For just your average speaker played at an average room level, 100 watts should be fine, but if you're planning on cranking them up, you'd better think in terms of 200 watts or higher. That'll also require much bigger bucks.
In all honesty, I can't officially recommend any brand over another, simply because I haven't bought one of these in decades, but the above info should get you going if you want to search around, and don't forget the user reviews at the bottom of the page.
And speaking of user reviews, there's an important point to be made if you're buying the above unit. Apparently, the 'Line 1' input has some kind of goofy feature that automatically mutes the volume if it doesn't sense any input, so use 'Line 2', which operates normally. The user reviews loved the unit but hated that feature, with a number of them bitching and moaning because they hadn't bothered to read the manual and thus didn't know that 'Line 2' doesn't use the feature.
The one other piece of equipment you'll need is this rascal:
The stereo 'mini-pin' plug on the left goes into the 'Audio Out' jack on the back of the tower and the two 'RCA cup jacks' plug into the back of the amp. Hook the speakers up to the amp and you should be good to go.
Update: Reader 'rhhardin' suggested a Radio Shack Ground Loop Isolator, so keep that in mind if you get any humming out of the speakers. It sometimes occurs when two power supplies are involved, in this case the computer and the amp.
As for there being four speaker jacks, while you could probably play four smallish bookshelf speakers at a normal volume without distortion, I wouldn't plan on anything bigger. If you don't mind snipping off the jacks of your existing computer speakers, you could wire them into the 'Speaker A' slot and put the room speakers on 'B', then switch back and forth as needs be.
Sunday, September 15. 2013
Italian Food Before Columbus: History of Italian Food (h/t reader). A good piece (would I link it if it were not?)
Dear Readers: It takes me a bit of time and effort to size and post travelogue pics. Please given them a glance. No need to comment, but I would not post them if I did not think they might be interesting...
We have spent time on the Italian lakes (both Maggiore and Como) in the past but Lake Garda was sort-of on our route up into the Italian Alps and the Dolomites, so we stopped by to stay for a couple of days at a superb B&B about halfway up the western side of the lake in Gardone Riviera at (Thanks again, Karen Brown and Trip Advisor) - Dimora Balsone.
Our gracious host Rafael, a semi-retired lawyer, rebuilt a dilapidated 500 year-old farmhouse and is gradually rebuilding the farm - mostly olive groves with some fig trees and Peach trees. You can tell he loves the place and is investing a lot into it.
View from our tiny rooftop balcony:
More pics of food, the Lake, and side trips to Sola and Sirmione below the fold -
Continue reading "Northern Italy 2013, #3: Gardone Riviera on Lake Garda"
"In the end, can mankind stave off the powerful and dark forces of utopian tyranny?" Mark Levin discusses: My Answer to Harry Reid's Claim That Conservatives and Tea Party Activists Are 'Anarchists'
Mead uses the case of Syria to discuss approaches to foreign policy: The President Falls Through the Ice
Psalm 14
14:1 Fools say in their hearts, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is no one who does good.
14:2 The LORD looks down from heaven on humankind to see if there are any who are wise, who seek after God.
14:3 They have all gone astray, they are all alike perverse; there is no one who does good, no, not one.
14:4 Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon the LORD?
14:5 There they shall be in great terror, for God is with the company of the righteous.
14:6 You would confound the plans of the poor, but the LORD is their refuge.
14:7 O that deliverance for Israel would come from Zion! When the LORD restores the fortunes of his people, Jacob will rejoice; Israel will be glad.
Saturday, September 14. 2013
Right now is the perfect time to plug or aerate your lawn and/or fields, in the northern US.
Heavily used or walked-on lawns need it once a year. Do it now, then spread some fall lawn fertilizer on it, and over-seed where needed. You can rent the aeration or plugging machines for cheap, for a day or two, from any tool rental place, or Home Depot. Plugging is better than aeration, but either one is better than nothing.
When Spring comes, you'll see a big difference. Remember that lawns are not natural. They are grass gardens - or sheep meadows. If you want them green all the time, try astroturf or write a big check for lawn irrigation. My lawns are too large to afford that.
One of the main 'proofs' the Intelligent Design people cite is that the eye is simply too complex for evolution to have developed on its own.
My personal feeling is, if nature can create this...
...then it can create pretty much anything.
Furthermore, we-
"Oh, Doc, that's such bullshit! Evolution, create the eye? Get serious! What's next, interlocking gears?"
Well, uh, actually, yes.
Creature with interlocking gears on legs discovered
Gears are ubiquitous in the man-made world, found in items ranging from wristwatches to car engines, but it seems that nature invented them first.
A species of plant-hopping insect, Issus coleoptratus, is the first living creature known to possess functional gears, a new study finds. The two interlocking gears on the insect's hind legs help synchronize the legs when the animal jumps.
Burrows and a colleague captured the gears' motion using high-speed video. As the young bug prepares to leap, it meshes the gear teeth of one leg with those of the other, like cocking a gun. Then, the insect releases its legs in one smooth, explosive motion.
Learn somethin' new every day.
Bite me, Darwinists!
Of course, not everyone might agree. My own post on the 'How we got here' question is here.
River-Mates
I'll be an otter, and I'll let you swim
A mate beside me; we will venture down
A deep, dark river, when the sky above
Is shut of the sun; spoilers are we,
Thick-coated; no dog's tooth can bite at our veins
With eyes and ears of poachers; deep-earthed ones
Turned hunters; let him slip past
The little vole; my teeth are on an edge
For the King-fish of the River!
I hold him up
The glittering salmon that smells of the sea;
I hold him high and whistle!
Now we go
Back to our earths; we will tear and eat
Sea-smelling salmon; you will tell the cubs
I am the Booty-bringer, I am the Lord
Of the River; the deep, dark, full and flowing River.
You can read about Irish writer Colum (aka Patrick Collumb) here.
View from our balcony in the hamlet of Bulla, outside Ortesei (down there in the valley) in the Val Gardena. Before I get to talking about the Alps, though, I need to complete my Lake Garda post (maybe tomorrow). Add to this pic the tinkling of sheep bells and the bongs of the tiny local Roman Catholic Church with its burial ground in front.
Up here, German is the dominant language. Road signs are in German, Italian, and Ladin. Food a mix of German and Italian. Best veal I've ever eaten in my life, but spaetzl is something I can live without.
Serious German hikers and mountain bikers all over the mountains. A few died climbing while we were there, but risk is what adds the zest to rock climbing. We called these vigorous Germans the Hitler Youth, and the Aryan gals the Rhine Maidens. It's only a few hours south of Munich, through the Brenner Pass. Europe is small.
Up in these mountains, one can barely imagine the rigorous WW 1 winter Alpine fighting that occurred here. Mark Helprin's masterpiece (I think) included a lot of that. Read it, if you haven't. The outcome, of course, was that this part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire ended up as part of Italy.
Friday, September 13. 2013
The constant fuss about prescribed pain meds is puzzling to me. To Cut Abuse, F.D.A. Is Altering Painkiller Label Rules. I believe that pain relief is one of the best things doctors have to offer the suffering, so I believe in generous opioid use when needed.
Here's what I have learned, over time:
- Abusers of precribed narcotics are a trivial social problem
- Habit-forming opioids can make a lot of people functional
- The biggest social problems with narcotics are their illegality
- Addiction is a psycho-social-spiritual challenge for the individual
What are you views?
I am medically self-insured, to an extent. I am responsible for a $20,000 two-year deductible on all medical expenses, and after that my quite inexpensive major medical (aka "catastrophic") insurance kicks in.
Much to my surprise, it turns out that many both large and small businesses use this same model, as do many large unions. In most of those cases, however, the business or union covers the costs of the deductible, and brand-name insurance companies administer the policies for a fee.
From this article: The Attack on Self-Insurance - Liberals want to rewrite Erisa to save ObamaCare:
Today a record 61% of covered workers are in a self-insured plan,
according to the Kaiser Family Foundation's 2013 survey, up from 49% in
2000.
Democrats clearly want, as a step towards single-payer, one-size-fits-all medical insurance controlled by them. As usual, they want control "for our own good", of course.
My approach would be to deregulate medical insurance, and to let a million flowers bloom.
 The first of these is a location story, the second is the ol' online-vs-retail story. Both make the same point while coming at it from different angles.
About five years ago I needed a tire for my Firebird. The guy who owned it before me apparently wasn't a very good parallel parker and the right-front was all chewed up.
Being on a Firebird, it was a pretty hefty piece of meat, so I knew it was going to be a little pricey.
I first called a Cuban buddy of mine up in Miami and asked him if he had any buds in the biz, which he did. I gave him the size, he did some inquiring, and his buddy's best price was $135. Given that the local Goodyear place wanted $168, that sounded like a winner.
But then I figured I should probably call the local tire shops and ask them if they had any 'specials' going on. You never can tell. I called two of them.
"Hi, got any specials going on?"
"Nope."
"Okay, thanks, bye."
Then I noticed some tiny place called something like "Bill's Tires". This time I didn't ask about any specials, just explained what I needed. Ol' Bill fumbled around in the catalog for a minute.
$89.
The shop was a block away.
Bought the tire, it looked just the others, worked perfectly.
When it all began, I would have bet you that $89 that (1) the most expensive quote I'd get would be here in our exclusive little tropical island paradise hideaway, and (2) my buddy's buddy, who owned a tire shop up in Cubantown, would have the cheapest.
$89 instead of $135. One block away.
It pays to shop around.
And, given what we've seen in past online-vs-retail stories, this next one is a little bizarre.
Continue reading "It pays to shop around"
A reader found this: About a Boy - Transgender surgery at sixteen.
McArdle on Harvard's Gender Bender
AFL-CIO Looks to Turn All of America Into Detroit
Democratic Strategist: Syria 'One of the Most Humiliating Episodes in Presidential History'
Does America's Shrinking Private Sector Signal Capitalism's Unmaking?
NYC: Cost of Living Blues
The Obama Doctrine has officially collapsed -- Putin is now in charge
"So far this year there have been 848,000 new jobs. Of those, 813,000 are part time jobs...."
Time Notices That Warmist Hurricane Hysteria Has Failed
Vatican Official Opens Door to New Debate Over Celibacy for Priests
...the California coastal corridor still resembles Germany, while much of the interior is becoming Greece.
Medicare recipents get $3 back for every $1 they put in
The Gun Control Moment Passes
US Companies: You Must Pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform So We
Have the Workers to Fill the Jobs Whose Former Holders We Laid Off
Emails show IRS’ Lois Lerner specifically targeted tea party
Obama Wants Your Sexual History
Wisconsin’s third-largest school district says no thanks to union representation
"... there are those who will never forgive Mr. Bush for not losing a war they had all declared unwinnable.”
Pope Francis Praises Jews for Having ‘Kept Their Faith in God
Child Abuse Changes the Brain
One
reason that many Americans believe Medicare does not contribute to the
deficit is that the majority thinks Medicare recipients pay or have
prepaid the cost of their health care. Medicare beneficiaries on average
pay about $1 for every $3 in benefits they receive…However, about
two-thirds of the public believe that most Medicare recipients get
benefits worth about the same (27%) or less (41%) than what they have
paid in payroll taxes during their working lives and in premiums for
their current coverage. - See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/09/the-problem-2.html#sthash.4KIgRJ0U.dpuf
Medicare
beneficiaries on average pay about $1 for every $3 in benefits they
receive - See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/09/the-problem-2.html#sthash.4KIgRJ0U.dpuf
Thursday, September 12. 2013
More from the lunatics who have taken over the asylum: The anti-male craziness at Yale
The Anti-Male Craziness at Yale
The Anti-Male Craziness at Yale
There are some things in life which are observable, and conform to rules which we may be capable of determining. There are other things which are observable, don't necessarily conform to rules, but often are postulated to be rules.
Empirical evidence often suggests certain actions may yield desired results, because a rule exists supporting this action. We were told the stimulus would yield, at a minimum, $1.25 for every dollar spent. This multiplier has been seen before, is measurable (to a degree) and conforms to Keynes' prediction of a multiplier. Many people claimed the return on stimulus would be much higher - upwards of $1.75! But Keynes' 'rule' of a multiplier, just because it was observed, isn't necessarily a rule.
The truth is, we spent far more than we gained in GDP over the last 5 years. There is a reason for this. While a multiplier may exist, and probably does, the factor may vary. More importantly, it is likely to take place if stimulus is focused on productive activity, not consumption. We have spent the last 4 years pushing consumption, telling people to buy homes, cars, food or anything at all. Keep the access to money cheap and available, provide support ot everyone. But here are the results. It's true this data is for the G-7, but a quick review of data in the US shows just as bad a return on dollars spent.
In the 20 years prior to Bush's final year and Obama, the average deficit was roughly $253 billion. In the last 5 years it was $1,215 billion. Over 5 years, we spent $6 trillion more than we collected in taxes to generate....$800 billion in GDP growth. That's a return of 13 cents on every dollar of deficit. In the previous 20 years, GDP grew by $5.57 trillion compared to $5.069 trillion in deficit for a return of $1.10 on each dollar of deficit. At some point, the Keynesians have to admit defeat.
Some economists predicted a slow economic recovery. Even Krugman did. But sometimes you can be wrong, even when you are absolutely right. It's all in the context. Krugman is great at twisting context to suit his needs.
(It's worth noting the link to the Money article may go some way toward explaining why it's so easy to get food stamps these days. But then again, there are many different ways to look at poverty, which means how we address it needs to improve.)
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Sky Fall: 
