Monday, August 23. 2010
From The Union:
Planning continues for the restoration of a long-shuttered fire lookout in the Tahoe National Forest.
This fall, volunteers met with Forest Service staff to discuss fixing up the historic Grouse Ridge lookout for use as a rental facility. The circa-1923 tower near Washington sports a spectacular, 360-degree view and a fantastic location near a series of alpine lakes that are extremely popular with outdoor enthusiasts.
But the lookout off Bowman Lake Road has suffered quite a bit of damage over the years and includes an outhouse perched precariously on a cliff. One of the goals of the renovation is to maintain the historic nature of the facility, while still providing some amenities.
Contractor volunteers have met with Forest Service archeologist Bill Slater at the lookout to review restoration needs, said Public Affairs Officer Ann Westling.
“We're still putting together the work plan in terms of what needs to be done and the cost — and how it's going to get done,” she said.
The plans will deal with the needed restoration, health and safety repairs, and historical requirements. Because the lookout is a historic structure, the plans will need to be sent to the California State Historic Preservation Office for approval.
Grouse Ridge will be the third lookout on the Tahoe National Forest to undergo restoration.
The first two include Calpine Lookout, which has been available for rent for five years, and Sardine Lookout, which is expected to be available this year. The facilities are rented through the National Reservation System for about $45 per night.
Grouse Ridge Lookout with outhouse to right (my photos from this summer):
View from the top:
Sunday, August 22. 2010
 The Berkshire Hills, once snow-capped mountains and, in recent millennia, glacier-covered and glacier-scoured, run from northwestern CT up through western MA. They are contiguous with the Green Mountains of Vermont.
Today, tourism, skiing, and second homes form the economic foundation of this chronically economically-depressed but charming rural region which was once dynamic with farming, lumbering, paper mills, woolen mills, and quarries. It has become the sort of area now where locals cannot afford to dine in the upscale restaurants filled with Bostonians and New Yorkers.
Image is the Hoosac Tunnel, about which Walking the Berkshires has written, and which first connected western and eastern MA by rail.
Just east of Berkshire County are the Hidden Hills.
(Surnames Part 1 here)
Your surname means next to nothing genetically or geneologically. Furthermore, if you are of English or French descent, you are almost certainly some sort of relative of Charlemagne.
Taking our surname topic this week a bit further into the math of geneology, one quickly realizes that the surname or family name one ended up with is close to random. After all, how many c. 1500 AD ancestors do you have (around the time when surnames became fixed and inherited), each one an equal contributor to your genetics?
Well, just four generations ago, you had 32 living great-great-great grandparents (2 to the 4th power), all probably with different surnames. If you have a Mayflower ancestor, they were one of your mathematical 65,000 great-something grandparents 15 generations ago. The simple math, depending on the areas in which your 1500 AD ancestors lived, (your ancestry pool at a given time), indicates that I have up to a theoretical 4 million great-something grandparents who were living in 1500 (with ancestors doubling each generation of 25 years).
But, beyond the 4-10 generations back, those large numbers aren't possible, given the population pools in different local areas and the lack of mobility for most people at the time. (The population of London was around 50,000 in 1500. It is thought that the global population in 1500 was only around 300 million.)
Thus there must be abundant redundancy in our geneologies and tons of marriage and child production among cousins, in-laws, and other family members. This site, Redundancy in Geneology, takes a clear look at that subject.
 The technical term for this is "pedigree collapse," wherein our ancestral cone has a narrowing due to various forms of inbreeding, as it were. That collapse may have peaked around the year 1200, and in New England, there probably was another mini-pedigree collapse due to the small size of the population in the 16-1700s:
Colonial Anglo Population of New England through 1700
1650: 33,000
1678: 60,000
1706: 120,000
1734: 250,000
1762: 500,000
1790: 1,000,000
Population growth after 1640 was largely internal, not immigration.
It's still safe to say that I had thousands of c. 1500 ancestor great-something grandparents, and I happened to end up with just one of their recently-given surnames. Luck of the draw.
(If you are from England, you are still probably in some way related to almost everybody else in England. That's why we call our Brit fellow bloggers "cousin".)
Ultimately, of course, we all trace back to Mitochondrial Eve. She was certainly a cutie pie, and she must have had lots of kids.
Photos:
Upper: Holy Trinity Church, Long Medford, c. 1450.
Lower: Church of St. Peter in Great Haseley, Oxfordshire, c. 1200
Saturday, August 21. 2010
The story behind this: There's this nutball who digs things up in his back yard and sends the stuff he finds to the Smithsonian Institute, labeling them with scientific names and insisting that they're actual archeological finds.
So, here's how his latest submission was received.
Paleoanthropology Division
Smithsonian Institute
207 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20078
Dear Sir:
Thank you for your latest submission to the Institute, labeled "211-D, layer seven, next to the clothesline post. Hominid skull." We have given this specimen a careful and detailed examination, and regret to inform you that we disagree with your theory that it represents "conclusive proof of the presence of Early Man in Charleston County two million years ago." Rather, it appears that what you have found is the head of a Barbie doll, of the variety one of our staff, who has small children, believes to be the "Malibu Barbie". It is evident that you have given a great deal of thought to the analysis of this specimen, and you may be quite certain that those of us who are familiar with your prior work in the field were loathe to come to contradiction with your findings.
However, we do feel that there are a number of physical attributes of the specimen which might have tipped you off to its modern origin:
1. The material is molded plastic. Ancient hominid remains are typically fossilized bone.
2. The cranial capacity of the specimen is approximately 9 cubic centimeters, well below the threshold of even the earliest identified proto-hominids.
3. The dentition pattern evident on the "skull" is more consistent with the common domesticated dog than it is with the "ravenous man-eating Pliocene clams" you speculate roamed the wetlands during that time. This latter finding is certainly one of the most intriguing hypotheses you have submitted in your history with this institution, but the evidence seems to weigh rather heavily against it. Without going into too much detail, let us simply say that:
A. The specimen looks like the head of a Barbie doll that a dog has chewed on.
B. Clams don't have teeth.
It is with feelings tinged with melancholy that we must deny your request to have the specimen carbon-dated. This is partially due to the heavy load our lab must bear in its normal operation, and partly due to carbon dating's notorious inaccuracy in fossils of recent geologic record. To the best of our knowledge, no Barbie dolls were produced prior to 1956 AD, and carbon dating is likely to produce wildly inaccurate results.
Sadly, we must also deny your request that we approach the National Science Foundation's Phylogeny Department with the concept of assigning your specimen the scientific name "Australopithecus spiff-arino." Speaking personally, I, for one, fought tenaciously for the acceptance of your proposed taxonomy, but was ultimately voted down because the species name you selected was hyphenated, and didn't really sound like it might be Latin.
However, we gladly accept your generous donation of this fascinating specimen to the museum. While it is undoubtedly not a hominid fossil, it is, nonetheless, yet another riveting example of the great body of work you seem to accumulate here so effortlessly. You should know that our Director has reserved a special shelf in his own office for the display of the specimens you have previously submitted to the Institution, and the entire staff speculates daily on what you will happen upon next in your digs at the site you have discovered in your back yard.
We eagerly anticipate your trip to our nation's capital that you proposed in your last letter, and several of us are pressing the Director to pay for it. We are particularly interested in hearing you expand on your theories surrounding the "trans-positating fillifitation of ferrous ions in a structural matrix" that makes the excellent juvenile Tyrannosaurus Rex femur you recently discovered take on the deceptive appearance of a rusty 9-mm Sears Craftsman automotive wrench.
Yours in Science,
Harvey Rowe, Curator, Antiquities
A re-post from our archives -
I was amused to see Megan McArdle having problems positioning her stereo speakers because I once spent a frustrating year fiddling with that issue in our parlor with my ridiculously high quality but handsome 5 1/2', 175 lb. Legacy Focus speakers, which would be better suited for an auditorium, a barn - or outdoors. You cannot crank them up or it could remove my house from its foundation.
Good stereo speakers need to be at least 3' from the wall, away from direct sunlight, and 6-10' apart, depending on room size. Even so, there will only be one relatively small area in the room where the sound will converge properly. What if you want to sit somewhere else? You cannot sit in front of one speaker. (And don't even talk to me about that stupid "surround sound" fad of the 1980s.)
I finally gave up on doing it right, because it wouldn't work in the room, given the windows, fireplace, piano, and other necessary furniture. I even called Legacy and sent them a floor plan, and they were kind and helpful, but it just didn't work for the space. That marked the end of my pursuit of maximum recorded sound. It's a fool's errand unless you have a dedicated "listening room" like fanatic audiophiles do. Now, I'd just rather spend my money on hearing live music, and I mostly listen to music via my crummy old computer speakers.
My big Focus speakers ended up 24' apart, in corners, about 18" from the wall. Totally wrong, unless you are listening from the adjacent room. Makes me want to return to good old monaural and to heck with this stereo nonsense. I remember when my Dad bought our first mono cabinet "record player." Man, did that sound good. I even remember my kid sister playing "Meet the Beatles" on the thing, when the record came out. (I thought it was dumb music...at first.)
Here's a good how-to on speaker placement.
Photo is a Legacy Focus speaker with the cover off to show the components. Mine are with the gleaming Rosewood.
I was curious about when English surnames became fixed in time by inheritance rather than being individual descriptors of convenience which were only used for one's lifetime.
First, we have to go back to the pre-surname era. In pre-medieval England, the population was so small, and most villages so tiny, that, if your name was Merthin, everybody around knew who you were. Then the Norman Conquest Frenchified England. Many or most of the colorful old Anglo-Saxon given names (like Aldwyn and Odelia and Theomund) disappeared and were replaced with names of French origin like these four:
It has been estimated that almost 50% of the male babies born by 1200 A.D. were using just four common first names: William (15%), Robert (12%), Richard (11%) and Henry (10%). Such percentages show the need, even by the Middle Ages, for a second name of identification. As a result, patronymic naming conventions came into play whereby sons were named after their fathers, and sometimes even after their mothers.
As with traditional Scandinavian names, patronymic surnames are not fixed but are labels of convenience: they change with each generation. "Which John do you mean?" "Oh, John Robert's son.") Robert Richardson's son John becomes John Robertson. (Shifting surnames, of course, persists with women still generally taking on their husband's surname.)
The Medieval Warm Period saw a rapid growth in the English population, with the growth of market towns and cathedral towns, often with thousands in population. Descriptors became necessary: John (who lives on the) Hill, William (the) Carpenter, Jack (who came here from) Aisnley, Roger (the) Knight. By late Medieval times, descriptive (but not fixed) surnames were fairly universal except in small farming villages. These were, generally speaking,
Place names
Occupation names
Patronyms
Descriptive or nicknames
Thus we had Christian (given) names, and descriptive, non-hereditary surnames. As best I can tell, literacy and record-keeping led the way towards fixed surnames around or slightly before 1500 (although they were probably implied before that among the land-owning aristocracy: eg William, Lord of Westmoreland's sons were probably forever Westmoreland in some way unless the King punished you by taking your land away, or cutting your head off.) As Wiki says:
In Britain, hereditary surnames were adopted in the 13th and 14th centuries, initially by the aristocracy but eventually by everyone. By 1400, most English and Scottish people had acquired surnames, but many Scottish and Welsh people did not adopt surnames until the 17th century, or even later. Henry VIII (1509 - 1547) ordered that marital births be recorded under the surname of the father.
Ah yes, there's the answer: government edict, no doubt for control and taxation purposes.
Because of this, it is difficult or impossible to trace non-aristocratic English geneologies much further back than 1500, when John Miller's son Jack the carpenter was named Jack Miller instead of Jack the Carpenter. Before that, there were minimal church records and either no surnames, or no consistency in them if there were any. Furthermore, it did not take long for every town to be filled with unrelated Smiths, Carpenters, Millers, Weavers, Masons, Brewers, Bakers, Hills, Fields, and Rivers. And Bankers (lived near a riverbank - there were no "banks") and Farmers (farm tax-collectors, not tillers of the soil). It's funny, but although they made up the bulk of the population at one time, Serf never became popular as a surname while Freeman did...
Perhaps serfdom isn't all it's cracked up to be, despite its European and maybe North American comeback these days.
More tomorrow, including why, if you are of English or French ancestry, you are almost certainly related to Charlemagne -
Friday, August 20. 2010
This was my assignment to the class:
"Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story. The process is simple. Each person will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right. One of you will then write the first paragraph of a short story. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story. The first person will then add a third paragraph, and so on back and forth. Remember to re-read what has been written each time in order to keep the story coherent. There is to be absolutely NO talking and anything you wish to say must be written on the paper. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached."
The following was actually turned in by two of my English students: Rebecca - last name deleted, and Gary - last name deleted.
Continue reading "From the BBS archives: The English Assignment"
Rock climbers and boulderers refer to those rocky hills/cliffs/mountains as "the Gunks." Famous challenges for climbers, but, since we are on the topic of family places with the de Medicis and the von Trapp family, we should not omit the Mohonk Mountain House. I have a good photo somewhere of my Grandpa fly-fishing on the lake.
It was a favorite of my grandfather, and remains a family favorite. Nowadays, they even serve alcohol which the Quaker Smiley family never used to permit (you had to sneak in your own, and secretly imbibe in the privacy of your room before dinner).
There was an intriguing ad on MSNBC's web site the other day. You hear about those "visual graphics tricks" that advertising people pull, and you have to figure this is just another example of it. I think it's one of those 'subliminal' things they talk about.
Which gender is this person?
Now, before you say 'guy', take a closer look. Guys don't usually wear frilly blouses with cute bows on the front and rounded collars, do they? And that hair looks kind of coifed for a guy, doesn't it? And do you see any chest hairs? Couldn't this just be a nice healthy German or Russian girl?
Or perhaps the ad agency is going for that 'artistic musician look', where it's okay for guys to wear sissy clothes as long as they're being musical about it?
But the fact that we're discussing it at all says something, doesn't it? It's still possible the question could go either way — if not both ways. Which gender IS this person??
Well, back to that "subliminal" stuff I was talking about:
Thursday, August 19. 2010
 A young man wished to purchase a gift for his new sweetheart's birthday, and, as they had not been dating very long, after careful consideration he decided that a pair of gloves would strike the right note. Romantic, but not too personal.
Accompanied by his sweetheart's younger sister, he went to the store and bought a pair of white gloves. The younger sister purchased a pair of panties for herself.
During the wrapping, the clerk mixed up the items and the sister got the gloves and the sweetheart got the panties. Without checking the contents, he sealed the package and mailed it to his sweetheart along with this note:
My Dearest,
I choose these because I noticed that you are not in the habit of wearing any when we go out in the evening. If it had not been for your sister, I would have chosen the long ones with buttons, but she wears short ones that are easy to remove.
These are a delicate shade but the lady I bought them from showed me the pair she had been wearing for the last three weeks and they were hardly soiled. I had her try yours on for me and she looked really sharp.
I wish I was there to put them on you for the first time, as no doubt other hands will come in contact with them before I have a chance to see you again.
When you take them off, remember to blow in them before putting them away as they will naturally be a little damp from wearing.
Just think of how many times I will kiss them during the coming year. I hope you will wear them for me on Friday night.
All My Love, John
P.S. The latest style is to wear them folded down with just a little fur showing.
A useful term - a noun - for "a problem that severely tests the ability of an inexperienced person." More generally, a problem or challenge which will separate the bright and the perceptive from the not-so-bright and the not-so-perceptive.
"Bridge of asses." Donkeys do not like to cross bridges.
In mathematics, the term is applied to the problem from the first book of Euclid that if two sides of a triangle are equal then the angles opposite those sides are also equal.
Traditionally, the bridge of asses referred to Euclid's Fifth Theorem of planar geometry, the comprehension of which and the implications of which were and are a sticking point for less-bright students.
By the way, this is a good if somewhat challenging book: Experiencing Geometry. A bit of a pons asinorum itself.
 H/T: IOwnTheWorld.com
At Maggie’s Farm we’ve been debating how much nudity is safe for the protection of our readers’ sensitivities. The Raelians, who believe that alien scientists created humans and we should be prouder of our bodies, sponsor annual Go Topless Day “dedicated to the belief that in order for America to be a truly equal society, women should be able to bare their breasts without fear of being arrested.”
A video of their breast “outing” and beliefs is presented below the fold, in keeping with the Maggie’s Farm interest in philosophy.
Continue reading "Free Your Breasts, Free Your Minds?"
Wednesday, August 18. 2010
 What's the origin of "the real McCoy"?
There are many theories - "folk etymologies," but this seems most likely:
It is a corruption of the Scots "The real MacKay", first recorded in 1856 as: "A drappie o’ the real MacKay," and this is widely accepted as the origin.
MacKay (and the Irish McCoy and Magee) are all basically the same name.
My urbanologist friend tells me that we can thank the gays of NYC for being frequent pioneers of gentrification. He says they have plenty of spare cash and like to spend it, they like interesting restaurants, and they like to make things look pleasant.
A generation ago, the gays moved into the West Village. Recently, moving into Chelsea, which was once a neighborhood which many conflated with Hell's Kitchen. Today, it is known as a semi-gay neighborhood (nothing in your face, though), but with plenty of young families with kids (strollers and moms everywhere), and lots of young straight professionals too (including a BD pupette, which is why I have become so familiar with the area. She is in a new Chelsea high-rise, with doorman, a business center, a gym and a cool roof-top garden overlooking the Hudson for parties - all you have to do is sign up for the roof-top).
Chelsea is full of old brownstones, and peppered with new high-rises. It's a short walk to Chelsea Piers, the Intrepid Museum, and the 12-mile Westside Greenway (for biking, running, and hiking) which runs along the Hudson River from the Staten Island Ferry to the George Washington Bridge. Now there is the High Line "park" too, which will run all the way to the Meat Packing District.
(The Upper West Side, where I dwelled for a while, has come a long way too in the baby stroller department, but it never quite needed gentrification. It was always a mixed area with all of its grand pre-war buildings and brownstones. Its SROs are gone now, though, along with the street crime.)
One could spend a lifetime studying the changing neighborhoods of NYC. Curtis Sliwa knows it all.
Brownstones like these in Chelsea now go for 2-4 million:
 This one is obviously for the gals only, since guys quit carrying handbags when pockets were invented.
Only parts of the female body are more private to them than their bags and pocketbooks.
What do you gals have in yours?
Please tell us in the comments...and, if a handgun, make and model please.
Three justices of the 9th federal circuit, all appointed by Republican Presidents, disagree on the limits of free speech under the 1st Amendment. This presents an interesting appeal to the US Supreme Court.
Two of the justices rule that the Stolen Valor Act, which criminalizes knowingly wearing or claiming federally authorized military decorations and medals of valor, is unconstitutional. These justices describe stolen valor as vile and worse, and deny that they provide a constitutional right to lie. But they deny that there is any harm done that requires punishment. Their arguments are basically that, barring a demonstrable harm to another person, free speech should prevail. Interestingly, they point out that the Defense Department providing a public list of those who have been awarded medals of valor would help publicly reveal frauds. However, the Democrat Congress has failed to act and the Defense Department has quibbled away its responsibility. (I analyzed this here.)
On the other hand, the dissent presents judicial and legislative chapter and verse that demonstrable harm to an individual is not a necessary hurdle to restrictions on certain types of knowingly false speech (or actions) that go beyond the pale of acceptable or protected. He reaffirms, as did Congress in passing the Act, that knowingly representing oneself as a decorated hero disparages the valor of those who were awarded. He provides prominent examples of Congress’ authority to so legislate. Further, he dispels the contention that satire or theatrical performances would fall within the Act, or that it is overbroad in practice as only the clearest cases have been brought by federal prosecutors.
You may like or not the arguments raised by either side, but should also recognize that judging a law is about its lawfulness not the rhetoric. So, unless the Supreme Court decides to broaden or overturn existing case precedent, the Stolen Valor Act would be upheld. But, we’ll see.
The majority and minority opinions are here.
Josh Gerstein at Politico raises some interesting judicial undercurrents that may become clearer at the Supreme Court.
Tuesday, August 17. 2010
The old saw about Eskimos having 40 words for different kinds of snow is an urban myth, but it is true that English is impoverished in its language for attachments.
In Psychoanalysis, we talk about "attachments" to try to keep it simple and clear. Then we add an adjective to specify.
I recently got on this topic in a consultation with a fellow who was torn up and confused about his love for his wife of 38 years and his exciting relationship with a woman at work.
"Cupid is mischievous," said I, "and he never rests. He especially loves to target guys, but making trouble, creating restlessness, and making even grown people go crazy is his game." I said "Love and desire are not zero-sum games, and, besides there are many kinds of love which coexist all the time."
I explained to him the various forms of love for which the ancient Greeks had useful names, but wiki does a better job with it:
Greek distinguishes several different senses in which the word "love" is used. For example, Ancient Greek has the words philia, eros, agape, storge, and xenia. However, with Greek (as with many other languages), it has been historically difficult to separate the meanings of these words totally. At the same time, the Ancient Greek text of the Bible has examples of the verb agapo having the same meaning as phileo.
Agape (????? agáp?) means love in modern-day Greek. The term s'agapo means I love you in Greek. The word agapo is the verb I love. It generally refers to a "pure," ideal type of love, rather than the physical attraction suggested by eros. However, there are some examples of agape used to mean the same as eros. It has also been translated as "love of the soul."
Eros (???? ér?s) (from the Greek deity Eros) is passionate love, with sensual desire and longing. The Greek word erota means in love. Plato refined his own definition. Although eros is initially felt for a person, with contemplation it becomes an appreciation of the beauty within that person, or even becomes appreciation of beauty itself. Eros helps the soul recall knowledge of beauty and contributes to an understanding of spiritual truth. Lovers and philosophers are all inspired to seek truth by eros. Some translations list it as "love of the body."
Philia (????? philía), a dispassionate virtuous love, was a concept developed by Aristotle. It includes loyalty to friends, family, and community, and requires virtue, equality, and familiarity. Philia is motivated by practical reasons; one or both of the parties benefit from the relationship. It can also mean "love of the mind."
Storge (?????? storg?) is natural affection, like that felt by parents for offspring.
Xenia (????? xenía), hospitality, was an extremely important practice in Ancient Greece. It was an almost ritualized friendship formed between a host and his guest, who could previously have been strangers. The host fed and provided quarters for the guest, who was expected to repay only with gratitude. The importance of this can be seen throughout Greek mythology—in particular, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.
(There was also this thing called Platonic Love, a notion which entailed the idea of a sublimation of ordinary Eros to a love of the divine and the sublime.)
The fellow concluded that he could keep some of his philia and storge for his wife, but that he needed more eros before he got older. He thanked me profusely for the conversation, overpaid his bill (doubled it), and I never saw him again.
My work is mostly never so quick and easy.
Image is Caravaggio's Cupid.
I've been doing this online gig for 20 years, and everywhere I turn it's the same old complaint:
Never enough recipes!
Well, alrighty then!
Doc's Surprise Spaghetti
 This is a fabulous trick to play on your friends. They'll sit there raving over the sauce, convinced they've had it before, but they just can't qui-i-i-ite place it.
See picture.
The recipe:
— Use 1-to-1 ratio, Manwich Original Sloppy Joe Sauce to pure tomato sauce
— Include all usual spaghetti stuff
— Serve while piping hot!
The Sloppy Joe by itself is a bit strong, so it needs to be watered down with the pure stuff. It goes especially well if you're including meatballs since it's designed as a hamburger meat sauce from the get-go. What makes it fun is that it's already pretty close to 'real' spaghetti sauce, and in context — on top of spaghetti noodles — one really wants to believe it's a 'real' spaghetti sauce — but it's just different enough that you know it's not.
Extra Points: If someone actually has the light bulb go off and suddenly says "Sloppy Joe??", look them dead in the eye and go, "Huh?" They'll immediately back down, embarrassed by their wild supposition.
Mrs. Willis' Secret Hot Dog Sauce
This is a hand-me-down. It's kind of the hot dog version of "sweet & sour sauce". Ultra-scrumptious.
This is based on beef or pork franks; not sure how it'd go with turkey, etc. Goes best with real hot dog buns.
 The recipe:
— Slit hot dogs lengthwise, fry in skillet
— Pour enough ketchup into cup to heavily slather dogs
— Mix in two teaspoons of white sugar for per half-cup of ketchup
— Mix in 1/4 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce per half-cup
— Mix in three or four drops of Tabasco sauce per half-cup
— After dogs are cooked, turn down to low and slather on sauce. Turn dogs, let simmer in sauce, slather back side, turn again. Let simmer for 3 or 4 minutes per side so sugars will caramelize
— Start buns toasting in oven
— Place dogs on plate or buns, spoon the remaining sauce from the pan onto dogs
— Blow everybody's mind
Serve with Tater Tots and maybe some green beans or baked beans. Goes extra well with Coke and BBQ chips.
Bon appetit!
Toddlers commonly swing their sippy cups in a motion resembling swinging a beer stein. So, I thought, it would be a fun and lucrative invention to market a baby beer stein sippy cup.
The mothers I talked to didn't think it near as much fun as did the fathers, and we all know who rules the high chair. The closest photo I could find of my idea was this one, for seniors. The one I had in mind would have been fancier.
As usual, mothers had it correct, if only because the joke might have been taken more seriously. This mother in Florida learned that lesson, the hard way, due to posting a photo on her facebook of her baby with a bong. The mother was arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia, not for child abuse.
In any event, if you want my invention, you're welcome to it.
In the final analysis, people's ignorance about electrical usage is one of the great tragedies of our time.
That is, if you consider broken homes a 'tragedy'.
Mom and Dad and the two kids go out for hamburgers. They have a great time; as fun a time as any family could wish to have.
They wheel into the driveway, Dad sees that Jimmy left his bedroom light on and explodes. "I've told you a thousand times! That's it! I've had it!"
A horrible fight ensues, with the mother caught in the middle, trying to protect her son from the father's wrath, yet agreeing that the son's extravagant waste of the family's money demands severe punishment.
The rest of the evening is spent with the son sulking, the father in an angry mood, and the mother on the edge of tears. Last night it was her turn because she left the dining room light on when they went across the street to visit with the neighbors for an hour.
After the one thousandth time, the father has had enough and decides to leave these money-wasting losers. Or, tiring of his rage, she does. Or little Jimmy runs away when he's 16 and is found dead from a heroin overdose two months later in New York City.
Just another American family tragedy.
Happens all the time.
The light little Jimmy left on is a 60-watt desk lamp.
Watts means "per hour", so that means Jimmy's light consumes 60 watts of energy in one hour. The family was gone for two hours, so little Jimmy's despicable thoughtlessness wasted 120 watts.
A "kilowatt" is how electricity is measured and paid for. A kilowatt is 1,000 watts. Therefore, to get kilowatts, you divide the watts by 1,000. So, the 120 watts that little Jimmy so blatantly wasted is .12 kilowatt.
One kilowatt generally costs about ten cents.
At ten cents per kilowatt, that's $.012 that little Jimmy wasted that dark and fateful night. The last night, it turned out, that the family was to ever eat a happy meal together.
$.012 is just over one penny.
Continue reading "Electrical Usage: A tragedy of ignorance"
Monday, August 16. 2010
Worth sending to kids and grandkids. This from Judith Cone's Open Letter to Students, via Minding the Campus. One quote:
I experience the hunger in the world for the privilege of creating jobs through entrepreneurship, and then I return to the United States, where I see something that troubles me.
Some students and professors reject business as a morally responsible way to spend one's life. The issue I have is not that some people would rather work in the public sector (government) or the social sector (nonprofit work), but that they assign a higher moral calling to these two sectors than to the private sector (business).
As a college student, you are attempting to gain the knowledge, skills, networks, and inspiration to live a happy, productive, and meaningful life. I like to think of each of you as one unit of creative potential. Looking at it this way means that faculty members are more than dispensers of knowledge. They are guides along your journey, teaching the subjects, passing along beliefs and biases, hopefully inspiring you, and challenging you, to consider the types of people you will become.
Some professors attempt to influence you toward those biases. Some think dismissively of business, for instance, as if society would be better off without it, or they assign pernicious motivations to those who lead businesses. Throughout history, social experiments to this end have failed. Every day, these professors use and benefit from the products and services of business: Google, bookstores, clothing, transportation, and the local coffee shop. They fail to differentiate between business leaders and dismiss the whole sector as greedy, uncaring, and destructive. Yet, even with much evidence of greed and wrongdoing in the public and social sectors, that same categorical condemnation is not present.
The whole letter here. I have seen that anti-business bias often, and it always confuses me because most of what we have and do in this life is thanks to the effort and risk of business folks and the people they employ.
From an economic standpoint, non-profits, government, academia, and even professional people like me are parasitic to the big engine of free enterprise.
I think they look down on it because they know that they are beholden to it, and that makes them feel ashamed. I think it's similar to the effete attitudes towards our military.
Ten years ago we sat with a good pal, now deceased, and his wife on the porch of his golf club, sipping after-dinner single malts and smoking Cubans. And watching the Hummingbird Moths who were all over the solid planting of pink Cleome below the porch.
One of those magical moments. There are other reasons to plant annuals like Cleome, but those moths at dusk are the best reason. Here's a pic of one from Gardener's Index hovering over a Cleome:
Sunday, August 15. 2010
I presented the case for an amendment to the Constitution to restrict birthright citizenship.
I've been considering another post to address the objections raised by some conservative commentators. Paul Mirengoff of PowerLine has done just that. I'd only add to what Paul has written that, as seen with the just passed additional $600-million for border controls and Justice Department backup, this is just a small incremental and complete control, were it possible, would take many more tens of $billions per year. The Amendment would save much of that, as well as much of the tens of $billions per year taxpayers are spending on birthright citizens.
If Elvis Presley were still alive, he’d be 75. If you weren’t there, it may be hard to believe what a shocking and refreshing tonic Elvis was to the 1950’s, not only his melodic voice that reached into our hearts but his sexuality. The nation tuned in to the Ed Sullivan Show every Sunday night for the best variety of entertainers in the world. It was a compromise of the times, that didn’t last long, that Elvis’ wiggles were not seen on Ed’s show. Here’s a medley of Elvis classics from 1957 on Ed Sullivan.
Here’s Elvis in one of his hit movies, 1957's Jailhouse Rock. (Notice the early pole dancing.)
A decade later, the Beatles ruled. But, Elvis Presley is always the King. In 1968 Elvis was on the comeback trail, performing his Love Me Tender, one of his best to express our longings. The Beetles came close but never matched the King.
Elvis became, was Las Vegas, as in this medley from his show in 1970.
By 1977 his excesses and addictions can be seen catching up to Elvis, as the King performed before the King of Greece. He loses the words to Are You Lonesome Tonight, which he prefaces with “I am and I was”, probably reflecting on his divorce from Pricilla after 5-years of marriage – whom he never stopped loving, and just hear Elvis’ voice singing “shall I come back again.” Elvis has never left us.
Elvis died on August 16, 1977. His fans haven’t forgotten him. He recorded 711 songs. Others have “covered” his songs, but none have ever captured the soul of the King and how he connected with each person individually in his audiences.
I recently met for consultation with a civil engineer who grew up in Romania under Ceausescu, in Budapest.
He walked in and said "I need somebody to talk to, but I have a few questions first." Typical engineer, to need data first.
"Shoot," I said.
"OK, first, are you Christian?"
"What's that got to do with it?" said I.
"You do not seem to understand me. I need to know, are you a Christian?"
"Yes," I replied.
"You have a Romanian Easter egg on your shelf."
"You are observant," I said. "Yes I do, a lovely gift."
"Are you a communist?"
"You seem to want to know more about me than I usually talk about, but no. Quite the opposite."
"OK then. I will feel at home here, and I will tell you my story."
The guy grew up under the Commies, and still has to vet anybody he confides in. My job is an amazing privilege. Not paranoid, just trained by the commies to distrust.
|
