Read Me

Skip a year

2011-02-14T22:31:00.002-05:00

So I did not blog all of 2010. Facebook takes the place of blogs. The two companies have a rivalry going. Facebook thinks it can replace Google: You will just ask your friends for info. Right. And they will look it up on Google or Wikipedia.

Codes

2009-03-30T09:45:00.003-04:00

Geeky note: Do you sometimes see text that does not display correctly, like "&qte" or "Ã�Â£10"? Do you ever see text that does not flow correctly? It is crazy that after all these years, the codes used for characters are still not standardized. Actually they are but some programs do not follow the standard. The characters you see on your screen are really numbers.
http://www.tutorialspoint.com/html/ascii_table_lookup.htm
They date to the time of teletype machines. The number 65 is shown as "A". Yet the new line code is different on different kinds of computers. On Windows it is 10, 13, meaning "linefeed, carriage return". That means, go down a line, and go back to the beginning of the line. On Macs, they just use 13, and on Unix, they just use 10.
There are several sets of cahracters for the numbers from 128 to 255, but since they differ, in web pages they use special code sequences:
http://www.webmonkey.com/reference/Special_Characters

Photography

2009-02-17T11:49:00.000-05:00

I began photography when I was taking art in 8th grade.It was not part of the course. I just thought it would be nice to compose a picture and be done with it in a fraction of a second. I mostly drew straight reality. Sometimes a friend asks about tips for composition. There are some "rules" but I have my own way of looking at it.
1. Never center the subject. Unless you want to center it. Sometimes the symmetry is the point. But if there is even a little asymmetry, move to that side.
2. The rule of thirds: Make a grid of three sections vertical and three horizontal. Put major lines such as the horizon, on the grid and subject on an intersection. It works, but it can fail if your subject is not objects but large features.
3. My rule: Try to forget where you are. Only see through the viewfinder. You will find your eye moving to one edge. Move the camera until your eye stays in the frame. If you want to see something to the side, the composition is not best. It takes time to get good at this.
I have a pair of pictures taken at the same time that show how delicate all this is. I stood in the same spot, and the pictures are only slightly different, yet one is better.

A job

2008-11-11T22:07:00.003-05:00

I now have a job. I am working retail. I am on the floor at Best Buy. I am quickly becoming the guy to go to with questions, like, "What cable should I use for this?" or "How can I do this?" I like these questions. I would rather help people with small problems than to buy a big expensive item. I do whatever the customer needs, of course.
It is had to believe how shy I was when I was in my teens. Now I go up to people every chance I get. I saw a guy at the park Sunday looking at the map, and I asked him if he knew where he was. He did not. I showed him how to get back to his car.
I was at Dunn's BBQ last week, and a guy had too much to carry to his car. I got up and carried a bag for him. He was surprised. He said, "I know I am in Virginia now!" I don't know what he means. I don't see a lot of that kind of thing, but I am helping people at every chance now. It takes so little to help. Hold a door for someone, offer to lift something, or carry a bag to the car. If someone is having car trouble, offer them a jumpstart, or to call for help for them.

Green Light for Green Light, not Blue

2008-06-27T09:52:00.004-04:00

I had not replaced my Edison style incandescent light bulbs. The CFL bulbs were too blue, and they can disrupt your sleep cycle. Your melatonin is disrupted by light that is more blue than yellow. Google it.

Then I found a bulb with light the same color as incandescent bulbs. They are made by N-Vision, and sold at Home Depot. In Virginia the CFL bulbs sold at Home Depot are subsidized by the power company. They have 3 colors: Daylight, Bright White, and Soft White. This is misleading.

Science: The color temperature is a number that describes the color of light. It is based on the fact that as things get hotter, they glow, and the peak wavelength gets bluer with higher temperature. An object with no color of its own to distort the radiated light is called a black body radiator.

Normal incandescent bulbs produce light with a color temperature of around 3500° K. That means that a black body at a temperature of 3500° K (That is Celcius degrees but based on absolute zero) would make light with a similar proportion of wavelengths and therefore color.

The N-Vision bulbs are made to produce light at three different color temperatures. The Daylight type is around 5500°K (similar to noon sunlight), and the Soft White is at around 3500°K. The Bright White is around 4200°K.

So now my home is filled with these bulbs, saving lost of energy this summer. That is Green, the common term for ecologically friendly. The light is not green, nor blue, but slightly orange.

GRACE

2008-06-27T09:49:00.000-04:00

Just who is this "Amazing Grace" chick and what makes her so special?

Clouds

2008-06-12T18:15:00.002-04:00

The clouds we see are only the visible portion of much larger convection currents. It is like seeing a person's smiling head on the beach. You know there is a body under the sand. With clouds, the part we see is the part that has cooled to below the dew point. The cooling comes when the air rises to a higher altitude, at a lower pressure. The flat bottom to most clouds is that altitude where pressure is reduced, therefore temperature is reduced to the dew point. If the air is below the dew point all the way to the ground, we have fog.

Love

2008-05-30T10:13:00.002-04:00

Spoiler alert: If you are a hopeless romantic, or even a hopeful romantic, don't read this. I will expose the biochemical basis of love.

Sometimes you will see stories on popular media that say sex is pleasurable because it causes a release of dopamine in the brain. (That is not quite the right description. The dopamine release is the same as pleasure. It is like saying a building is tall because it has a lot of height.) They are only seeing a part of the story. Orgasm also causes the release of oxytocin (not to be confused with Oxycontin, a brand of time release oxycodone, a powerful pain reliever). Oxytocin is also released with nursing, intercourse, childbirth, and even hugging and touching.
Oxitocin has effects on the brain, causing feelings of trust, generosity, and bonding. In other words, love. The term "making love" is literally true! "Afterglow" may be the effect of oxitocin. If one partner withholds sex as a punishment, that could be very bad for the relationship. It might be better to have more sex.
For lots of technical details, and references, go to Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxytocin
or, the June 2008 issue of Scientific American.

Leap of faith

2008-02-29T09:45:00.002-05:00

Today is Leap day, February 29 of a leap year. That is an odd name for it, since we do not leap over it as we usually do. It should be called "sit day"?
But why do we do it?
The actual length of the year from one vernal equinox to the next is 365.2424 days. If we use 365 days a year, in 100 years we are behind by 24 days. So the seasons creep forward. Spring comes later. It does not come out even.
So every 4 years we add a day. That averages to 365.25 days.
That is close, but not perfect. So we add a new rule: Every century we skip the leap year. So, 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not leap years. That brings the average to 365.24. That is closer.
Every 400 years, (when the century is divisible by 400) we skip skipping the leap year. 2000 was a leap year. That adds in 1 day every 400 years, bringing the average to 356.2425. That is pretty close.
There is a proposal to put in a leap year in the year 4000, but it is not official, and there is little urgency to the idea.
Changes in the Earth's orbit and day length can make these adjustments tricky. About every 18 months, we have a leap second: We add 1 second to keep the stars lined up better.
With all of this, the location of the stars in the sky as the years go by will still drift a lot.
Why is it that the calendar is adjusted for the seasons, but not the stars? To keep Easter near the Vernal Equinox. That is the "faith" part of my title.
Take a look at the extensive article on Wikipedia on this subject. There is much more.

Symantics

2008-02-07T10:33:00.000-05:00

I once heard an anecdote about a hotel guest and a porter with a spare key. The porter was at the wrong door with the key, and he said, "a key?". The guest pointed at the correct door and said, "Aquí!". This went on for a while. The point of this silly bilingual pun is that words are simple symbols. They have no meaning except the meaning we assign.
There are many web sites that will tell you that Aspartame (Nutrisweet) is "poison". High fructose corn syrup is also "poison". The meaning most of us have for poison is something that if consumed in sufficient quantities will cause death. Obviously billions of people each day drink these two ingredients. (I mean billions. Think of all the people around the world. It seems like a reasonable guess.) I have never heard of one person dying from either of these.
I think the meaning of poison may be the problem. If a poison is a substance that causes negative health impact, maybe we could agree. There is some evidence that both Aspartame and high fructose corn syrup cause some problems in some people. I don't know a better word, but poison is not right. Toxin may be closer, but it is still synonymous with poison to most people.
So when people try to sound an alarm that things are bad for us, they should avoid poison or toxin and simply say what the effects are. Otherwise most people will ignore them.

Image

2008-01-15T09:59:00.000-05:00

It looks like the battle of the Hi-def disc is nearly over. Blu-ray is the probable winner.
I always knew it would win. The name is cool. Just imagine your choice: Blu-ray or HD-DVD. You want a new cool technology. HD-DVD is too many letters, hard to say, and sounds like DVD, the old technology. In reality the two are very similar, but the marketing makes the difference.

The same is true for presidential candidates. I suspect Obama will win the Democratic nomination. The choice is between a young articulate black man and an older white woman. I think most people will go for Obama. I does not matter what they say. I don't think people care much about words. They react at a deeper level. That is why the taller candidate usually wins. I suspect the one who talks faster and more clearly may have an advantage too.

The problem is that we are electing a manager, not a host.

Goodbye 100 Watt Bulbs

2007-12-24T19:55:00.000-05:00

The energy bill just passed bans sale of 100W bulbs in 2012. Assuming this is a good idea, why wait?
Is it a good idea? They say that these bulbs save energy, and thereby reduce carbon emissions. Maybe.
If you use a bulb in the winter, the heat produced helps keep your house warm. If your house is heated with oil or gas, things get complicated. If you use fewer watts of electricity, you will have to use more oil to keep the house warm. So far, you might assume we are still equal overall, but in my state 38% of electricity is made by nuclear power, with no carbon emissions. So in the winter, with oil heat, you may be doing the environment a favor by using incandescent lights (if they are used indoors. Outdoor Christmas light displays waste power.)
But...
In the summer, the situation is opposite. If you air conditioner has an EER of 8, it takes 40 Watts of power to remove the heat made by a 100 Watt bulb.
There is also the question of how much of your electricity is made by carbon burning, and how much power is lost in transmission.
It is not as simple as it looks.
Other important things could be done. Set national standards for building codes that mandate a certain level of insulation.

Global Warming

2007-12-19T11:42:00.000-05:00

It seems to be quite fashionable to say that human-caused rises in greenhouse gases is causing global warming. (obviously there is global warming. The only question is the causes.) Take a look at this link. It is not so certain that we did it. It explains the science very thoroughly, and the conclusions are not too bad.

The total warming since measurements have been attempted is thought to be about 0.6 degrees Centigrade. At least half of the estimated temperature increment occurred before 1950, prior to significant change in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Assuming the unlikely case that all the natural drivers of planetary temperature change ceased to operate at the time of measured atmospheric change then a 30% increment in atmospheric carbon dioxide caused about one-third of one degree temperature increment since and thus provides empirical support for less than one degree increment due to a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

I am confused by the supposed consensus of scientists who agree with the pessimistic view. But then before Einstein, the Ether was a "scientific fact." (It had to be real, because light was a wave, and a wave had to be waving in some medium. The ether was the medium, but it was massless and undetectable.)

PS: I found out that Junkscience .com is a deceptive, politically conservative site. Read this criticism:
http://skepdic.com/refuge/junkscience.html

It seems like the future is never as bad or good as the predictions. (Where is my flying car?) I bet we will get by.

Anything for a buck

2007-12-14T22:39:00.000-05:00

Anything legal for 6 minutes for a buck. I will take any job for $10 an hour.
The worst part is trying to find something to apply for, and sitting here alone all day. I can't go hang around with people who are working. And I need to study for some certifications. I am almost certifiable, but not in a good way. I am not going "postal" but I am a bit depressed by it all.

Digital

2007-12-14T22:24:00.000-05:00

There are some people who do strange things to increase the quality of their sound or picture. There are $300 HDMI cables. Some people use a black marker around the edge of their CD's. They just don't get it. Digital technology is based on numbers, encoded in binary form, on and off. The great thing about binary is that there is no gray area. The signal is above a high threshold, it is a 1. If it is below a low threshold, it is a 0. It is not the same threshold. For example, in the system known as TTL, a 1 is above 2V, and a 0 is below .8V. There is a gap between these, and that prevents errors. So a bit of noise on a signal will not be able to cause a bit to switch.
If you want to test this, you must use scientific methods. People tend to see and hear what they expect. You need to have someone else switch the signal. It would be best if they did not know what you are doing, so they could not be able to inadvertently tip you off.

North vs. South

2007-12-14T17:44:00.001-05:00

There is a stereotype that New York City is unfriendly and rude. It is not. It is efficient. There is less idle polite chatter, but people are friendly and helpful. They are also in a hurry. There is a correlation between a city's population and the average walking speed on its sidewalks.
(New York Times, Feb. 29, 1976, p. 46)
I visited New York City last summer, and Columbus, Mississippi last week. I found people friendly in both. I did notice that people seemed more willing to talk in the south. They just seemed less inclined to end a conversation. If you want to talk, they will listen.

Web bugs

2007-12-14T17:15:00.000-05:00

After all these years, the Internet is still a mess. For example, search for "smoke rings" and you might get several types of results. Some are for the meaning "daydreams" and others are about vortex rings. Some search engines try to help resolve the categories on the side, but the real solution is to have the site label its content with some kind of codes based on the subject. It sounds like a huge, dificult project to create such a subject code, but it already exists: The Dewey Decimal System. Most libraries in the US use it. It is copyrighted by Online Computer Library Center. There are other systems, and it is not important which one is used, but some system could be used to help people classify the information in their sites. In many cases, multiple codes would be used. It can be as simple as a standard tag: . Search engines would use the DDC tag number to split search results to help the user get to the kind of results he is looking for.
Another annoying detail on the web is that the autofill feature of some browsers can't understand some forms. The problem is that the forms do not use consistent names for the form fields. Somebody please standardize this! And allow the autofill to work with the pop-up for State.

Mensa

2007-09-19T08:30:00.000-04:00

I still don't have a job, so I went looking for some mental stimulation. I found the Mensa workout, a set of 30 questions to be done in 30 minutes. As usual with Mensa quizes, the math questions were pretty easy, and the word problems are hard. I guess that is just my kind of intelligence, but I really think math is more useful than being able to unscramble letters of a word. The funny thng about it was on the scoring page. It said, "That is a very good score, you would have a good chance of passing the Mensa test." I am happy to hear that, but notice that this is a grammatical error called a comma splice, two sentences are connected by a comma. A semicolon is the correct punctuation, or a period and two separate sentences.
I have never been interested in Mensa because I have met one person who was a member, and she was an insufferable snob about it. I hope I have met many members, but they don't brag about it.
Apparently they get together and play games. You could say that smart people like to play games, but maybe people who like to play games get smart.
I am not talking about video games, even the new IQ booster games like Brain Age. I have heard that users of these games did not improve their scores on other similar games, which suggests that users are not improving their brain function, but just getting good at specific game tasks. So playing Sudoku may not help you in your daily life unless you do it professionally. It might be better to learn Poker.
I don't know if games will make you smarter, but my brain could use some stimulation. I can't watch TV like I did when I was working. At the end of a long day, some mindless entertainment is a good thing. Now I need more. I am looking for a chat room for smart people, or games for smart people.
Trivial Pursuit is not for smart people. It is for Liberal Arts majors. They ask, "What was the name of Earnest Hemingway's favorite cat?" and then in the "science and technology" category, they ask, "What did King Gillette invent?" Can you guess? (What a name. I have heard dogs called Prince, but never a kid named King. Queen Latifah's real name is Dana Elaine Owens.) (Whoopee Goldberg's real name is Karen Johnson. Some people need a stage name.)
Enough. I am going to go for a walk and photograph hairy caterpillars.

Mystery Rocks

2007-09-02T22:54:00.000-04:00

No, that is not a sentence. I still have no job, so I have no excuse to keep me from getting some exercise. One day I found these odd rocks in the woods, where some gravel had been dumped.
They are roughly conical, but some have a more triangular shape, but one side is rounded. When broken, it is not crystalline, but a fine grain. It looks like quartz, but it can be scratched with a sharp knife. It will burn, but not melt. There is no smell when it burns, but there is a black soot above the flame. See more pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/durvin/sets/72157601824875474/
What are they?

We know better

2007-08-22T21:17:00.000-04:00

On about this date, August 24, 79 (not 1979, just 79) the volcano Vesuvius erupted, killing thousands. Pompeii was buried, and the entombed remains preserved in the ash show us the tragic deaths of those people.
We feel sorry for those poor people who could not know what was coming. Now we understand volcanoes and other natural phenomena, so we can avoid such tragedies.

But we don't. Around the world, we have cities built on or near volcanoes. We have New Orleans built at slightly below sea level in a hurricane zone. We have huge cities in California built on huge faults. Mount Ranier looms above Seattle, ready to send lahars (hot mud slides on steroids) into developed areas. We have huge resort areas built on barrier islands. Some of our fastest growing cities are in the desert southwest US, where there is not enough water. (It is a desert. That means not much rain. Is that hard to understand?) We burn fossil fuel at an ever increasing rate worldwide, causing global warming that will melt the icecaps and raise sea level, flooding major cities. (Skeptics: There is no doubt or argument among any scientist that the Earth is warming. The doubt is that humans are causing it. Maybe, maybe not. Do you want to play Russian Roulette?)
When insurance companies get it wrong and get caught with a disaster that they did not expect, they either refuse to pay, or raise our rates. It is their job to expect disasters, and bet on when they will happen. When they lose the bet, they make us pay.
Democratic governments will tell us what we want to hear, and pay for fixing New Orleans, and allow growth in risky places. Their goal is to be elected. The future is not their problem. They treat us like children, and we let them. don't do it. Be responsible for your own life. Check the risk. Does it make sense to take a 30 year mortgage on the Outer Banks (barrier islands in North Carolina) if sea level will cover them in 20 years?
(Train of thought jumps track) People with high risk mortgages are now going bankrupt, and whining that the bank approved the loan, so it is their fault. So, the buyer loses, the bank loses, and the banks holding company loses. The stock holders lose. The pension fund loses. We lose. Idiots!
You don't have to be a genius to see ahead. Just do your own thinking.

Every Day

2007-08-22T21:03:00.000-04:00

I know blogs are supposed to be every day, but I go for quality over quantity. You would not want to read what I think about every day. I would, but I don't know anyone like me.

Random item:
Dynamite is not the same as TNT. TNT is trinitrotoluene. (tri-nitro-toluene). Dynamite is Alfred Nobel's invention. It is Fullers Earth with nitroglycerin. Fullers Earth is a kind of diatomaceous earth: the fine silica (silicon dioxide) sand like material composed of the skeletons of diatoms: microscopic plankton that live in the ocean. It can soak up a lot of nitroglycerin, and it makes it pretty stable. Both are really good at blowing stuff up, but they are not the same.

Nothing Personal

2007-07-24T12:42:00.000-04:00

I have lost my job. No, that is wrong. I have had my job taken from me. I was the victim of a reduction in force layoff.
Occasionally, employers ask that you be loyal to the company. Don't discuss work with friends at the competition.
Then when they have a layoff, they say, "It is nothing personal." When they take your job, it is very personal.
I was not short of work. I was busy and working overtime every day, doing tech support and helping users. My real problem was my age. Nearly every person laid off was over 50. Now, I could sue, but to get a new job, that might cause trouble.
I feel disconnected, unimportant. I need a purpose, and I need to be around people. I am skilled at database design, but only in FileMaker Pro. I am a good computer systems administrator, but I don't have the certifications. I am working on a nice resumé, but there has to be a job here in Richmond to fit me. What can I do?
If I was an electrician, it would be different. There are lots of electricians, but there are lots of jobs for them. I have special abilities, but they are best suited for my old job.
I can learn any technical subject quickly, but I don't know what I could learn that would do me any good with no experience. I would love to try something new and different, but I need some reasonable pay. Any ideas, folks?

Rude New York

2007-07-05T22:00:00.000-04:00

I just spent a week in New York city: Amazing. The reputation New York has for being full of rude people is wrong. They are efficient. Millions of people, (26,000 per square mile) interact all day, and there is seldom any conflict. People almost collide at every corner, but it is not a problem. People getting off subway trains go around people getting on, but it works. People crossing streets do so at the corner, and they wait for the light, mostly. Cars stop for red lights, and go as soon as it turns green. It is like a giant ant colony, complete with tunnels. We asked for directions, and people helped. One young lady, on the way home to see her dog at lunch, stopped and walked us back to the corner to show us where we should go.
Some professionals were a bit abrupt. There was a line. That is fair.
If I am at a traffic light, and you are in front of me, and the light changes to green, and you don't go, I will honk my horn at you. Here in Richmond, I get nasty looks, as if I am being rude. They are being rude by stopping me, and all the people behind me. People stop in the middle of the road to chat with people. People here seem self-centered, but New Yorkers seem to respect each other. They don't have a lot of fake polite rituals. They just treat you with respect. That is better.

Words

2007-06-19T21:34:00.000-04:00

Words are not exact descriptions of ideas. One word can mean many things, and many words can describe an idea. When we hear or read words, they generate a communication of ideas that may not be what the source intended. Our own experience shapes the meaning we derive from the words.

Another Way To Sound Stupid

2007-06-19T21:25:00.000-04:00

"When he heard, he literally exploded!"
That must have been messy.
Literally means the words are exactly true. It is not a figure of speech. In this case, he imitated a suicide bomber. It does not mean he was angry.

Growing Stuff

2007-06-19T20:36:00.000-04:00

I am not sure how I can be two such different people: I am a geek; I love technology, gadgets, the very man-made world. I am also a nature lover. I love to spend time in the woods, away from any man-made sound. I also grow plants.
My father grew up on a farm, hunting, fishing, and trapping. I remember him growing a vegetable garden, beautiful azaleas, dutch iris, peach trees, and a nice overall landscape design. I was not interested.
My older brother grew unusual house plants, things I have never seen since. He was an English major. My younger brother grows things too, some herbs, flowers, etc.

I have a yard full of plants. I have a collection of milkweeds (Genus Asclepias) like butterfly weed (A. tuberosa), South American butterfly weed (A. curasavica), purple milkweed (A. pupurea), swamp milkweed (A. incarnata), and A. physocarpa. There are more I hope to get (A. cordifolia).
I also have lemon balm, pineapple sage, spearmint, peppermint, anise sage "Black and Blue". I have lots of Black Eyed Susan, Bee Balm, bog sage, daylilies, and other lovable weeds.

I expect my children will grow things too when the time comes. It is in our blood. I love to spend a little time planting and then seeing the growth and beauty for years.

I am not always successful. It seems like I grow two kinds of plants: Those that die in a year or two, and those that take over. I am now ripping out stuff I paid good money for. I am looking for a way to keep things under control, like a section of barrel sunken into the ground.

It's the Amps That Get You

2007-06-16T10:51:00.000-04:00

Electricity runs our world. It is amazing how ignorant most people are about it. It can be dangerous, but not always. People say, "It's the amps that kill you." That is true, but it is very misleading. It is like saying, if you get hit by a vehicle, "It is the weight that kills you".
Volts are the pressure of the electrical current. Amps are the unit of the amount of current. A good analogy is water: Water pressure is like voltage, and water flow is like current or amperage. Just remember, current is a term used for water and electricity.
So, back to the car accident analogy, if you got hit by a bus, it would be worse that being hit by a bicycle, right? Sure, unless the bus was only moving 2 miles an hour, and the bicycle was going 50. (I am getting sidetracked here, but the energy in a moving object is the mass X speed X speed. Twice as fast means 4 times the energy. That is not like electricity. )
If you come into the path of electricity, it will flow through you. How much it flows depends on the voltage, and your resistance. It is a simple formula. Amps=volts/ohms (resistance). Life is like that: the action is the push divided by the resistance.
Your resistance is variable, depending on your water intake, salts, and size. From one hand to the other, it might be about one million ohms. How much voltage does it take to feel a shock? If your skin is dry, maybe 30 volts; You will not feel anything from car battery, even though it can heat a wrench red hot if you bridge the terminals. A car battery can supply hundreds of amps, but not through a hgh resistance. Also, a car uses a coil and some electronics to boost the voltage to around 35,000 volts at the spark plugs. You will feel that!
Here is another discussion, but I find problems with his numbers. The section on currents says men can perceive a tingle with AC (60Hz house current) at about .4MA, or .0004 amp. If the resistnace is 1,000,000 ohms, that means a man should feel a tingle at 400 volts. Wrong!
http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_1/chpt_3/4.html

Grammer Police

2007-06-16T08:41:00.000-04:00

I don't want anyone to think I am the grammar police, but you need to know that bad grammar makes you sound stupid.
Many people have started saying, "I feel badly." This is probably wrong, unless they have some anti-social mental disorder. The difference is like saying, "I smell badly." when you have a cold, and saying, "I smell bad." when you are sweaty. "Badly" is an adverb describing "feel" to say you don't have trouble feeling. What people mean is that they are feeling, and what they feel is "bad".
Then there are the misspelled words, or rather correctly spelled homonyms. Spell Check catches the spelling, but not if it is the wrong word. The common culprits:
Sight, site
I often see web sight. You might see a sight on a site. A sight is something seen, but the right term is "web site" for a place on the web.
There, they're, their
There is not here. (Not hear. They're loud over there. You can hear them over here.)
They're is a contraction for "they are".
Their is not yours. It belongs to them. If we had a consistent, logical language, it would be they's. In common "black english" or Ebonics, they use they. "They music ain't loud. I cain't hear it over here."
To, too, two
Two is 2
too is also
to is the other one. It is one of those words we use that is very hard to define. It is used in helping verbs. Just learn the other two, and that one will make sense too.
I am not being the grammar police. I just want you to know that some people notice this, and they can't help feeling that you are less intelligent when you make these simple mistakes.

Play Dead!

2007-06-07T21:29:00.000-04:00

It is summer now. The flies are getting in, and being pests. For such a small brain, they have some very interesting behaviors.

It seems like they can recognize flyswatters. When I pull my swatter out, the flies a hard to find. Then when I do find them, they can feel the air rushing as I swat, and they fly away.
If I hit one, it will sometimes play dead. If I wait more than about 10 seconds, the fly often seems to come back to life and fly away.
They have a fondness for black lights. I used to let them get on a black light, and then use a cigarette lighter to burn their wings. They would just buzz in circles on the floor. OK, that was cruel. I don't do that anymore. I just smash them.

Another great way to get a fly is with a vacuum cleaner. They try to take off, and go right in the nozzle.
Maybe later they wake up and come back out.

3D Photography

2007-06-07T20:55:00.000-04:00

I like to make the unseen and un-noticed visible. I have been taking 3D pictures for years, but I just started something new: time exposure.
The picture above is a set for viewing as 3D. The left two images can be viewed by the cross-eyed method, or the right two images can be viewed by the wall-eyed method, like those "Magic Eye" books. (The center image is in both of thse pairs.)
For the cross eyed method, look at the left two pictures, and start to cross your eyes. When they cross just the right amount, your eyes may try to lock on where elements are the same in the two pictures. That is the right amount. Now stare for a while, and your eyes should focus. Once they do, you will see the image in 3D. Part of the fire actually comes out of the screen a little.
This was a 1 second exposure, taken with a pair of Canon A80 cameras mounted on a board about 6 inches apart. The cameras were tripped manually at the same time. I am surprised it worked so well.
The subjects were fire dancing. They spin small pots of fuel around at high speed with twists and create 3D sculptures of fire in the air. This was taken outside Gallery 5 in Richmond, Virginia, at this group's monthly performance. They call themselves River City Burners:
http://www.rivercityburners.com/index.html

Fermi Effect and the Moon

2007-06-04T19:51:00.001-04:00

To recap:
The latest Hubble Deep Field picture: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1996/01
shows a close view of one tiny spot of sky where there seemed to be nothing.
It is filled with galaxies, and each galaxy has billions of stars. Somewhere there should be some life like us. There is an equation describing the likelihood of life outside Earth, the Drake equation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_Equation
It just takes all the fractions involved and puts them together. The chance of there being intelligent life out there is the fraction of stars with planets times the fraction of those planets with life times the fraction of those planets with inteleigent life.
So Fermi's question was simply, "So where are they?"
There are several possibilities.

They are here. UFO's are real aliens.
They are not here, because travel across space is impractical and not worth the trip. What could we have worth traveling on a trip so long it would take a generation between star systems?
They are not here because we are the first.
They are not here because they just are not interested in us.
They are not here because natural disasters always destroy them before they become able to travel this far.
They are not here because technological disasters always destroy them before they become able to travel this far.

Another factor needs to be added to the Drake equation: our moon. Scientists believe our moon was created when the Earth was young, about 4.6 billion years ago, by the impact of a mars-sized object. Since then the interaction of the two has slowed the day on Earth, as well as the moon, whose day is no the same as its "year", the time it takes to go around the Earth. That is why it always keeps the same side towards the earth. Because of the angle of its orbit, it stabilizes the axis of the earth at about 23 degrees, giving us seasons. These factors make life easier on Earth.
Simple explanation:
http://burro.cwru.edu/Academics/Astr221/SolarSys/earthmoon.html
Complete explanation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_acceleration

Output Mode

2007-06-04T19:39:00.000-04:00

My mind goes through phases. Sometimes, I am not satisfied unless I am making something. Sometimes I want to learn something. Once in a while, I get into output mode, and that is when I come here. I suppose some people would say it is related to astrology, but that is too woo for my taste.
"Woo" is a new word that means supernatural, non-science, unprovable, etc. Maybe it came from "woooo-eeeee-woooo" as in a Theramin in an old sci-fi flick. Here is the best description I can find:
http://www.watchingyou.com/woowoo.html
But I digress. That is what the Internet is for. So now I will end this small pointless entry, and talk about another subject.

Truth is realer than fiction

2007-03-27T21:39:00.000-04:00

Teachers of literature are fond of saying that books can teach us about human nature. Wrong. They teach us about the writer's culture. Only true stories can teach us about real human nature. That is why "truth is stranger than fiction." We have a cultural ideal of people in our culture that conflicts with reality.
The best example of this I have found is the fiction of the 1940's. Women are weak, unassertive, and easily seduced. Was that true? Ask your mother if she is still around. Men had the power on the outside world, but women often had a nearly equal vote. Men were the editors, so the image was preserved.

Go Metric

2007-03-26T20:42:00.000-04:00

Most Americans use the old traditional system of feet, pounds, and ounces. We are in the small club consisting of the US, Liberia, and Myanmar. With a little experience, it is easier to use. If someone says the metric system is just too complicated, ask them how many ounces are in a gallon. I will tell you later.
Back in the late 70's, there was an attempt to convert us to the Metric system. It failed. There were educational commercials to explain the system. They concentrated their efforts on conversion factors. If you use the system, you don't use conversions. Just give someone a recipe in metric units, and a metric only measuring cup, and he will get the idea. They talked about a kilogram is about 2.2 pounds, and a cup is about 250 milliliters, and a liter is about 33.9 ounces. It does not matter. It helps to have an approximate idea, but then you just get familiar with it. About 1980, the Reagan administration killed it.
I like the Celsius temperature scale for the simple reason that it relates to human experience:
30 to 40C = 85 to 104 F, Hot
40 to 50C = 104 to 122F, dangerously hot
above 50C = 122F, Deadly
20 to 30C = 68 to 85F Mild, nice
10 to 20C = 50 to 68F, cool
0 to 10C = 32 to 50F, chilly
-10 to 0C = 24 to 32F, cold
I am out of fine distinctions for cold, but you can feel it. 77F is 25C, and it just above average for home thermostats. The only problem I see is the negatives are too common. I can give you the temperature in Celsius within a few degrees by feel.
By the way, our average body temperature is not exactly 98.6F. That was a conversion from 37C, but it varies from person to person, and that was the rough value. It was not 37.0C. Note the lack of a "significant digit". In scientific writing, 37 means "36.5 to 37.5" but 37.0 means "36.95 to 37.05."
One thing that might convince folks about the value of the metric system is that it never uses fractions. If you need the next size wrench, it is easier to look for the 12mm, than to think about how the next size from 7/16" is 1/2", or maybe 15/32".
NASA lost a $125 million Mars Orbiter because one contractor used pounds, and the other used Newtons.
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.metric/
Today we sue 2 Liter bottles, cars are made in many countries, and we are somewhat familiar with Metric. It is time we switched. Maybe we should start with the schools. Do all science in metric.

Blue Flash

2007-03-24T23:10:00.000-04:00

http://www.alibaba.com/manufacturer/14433291/Buy_Bluetooth_Portable_Storage_Flash_Drive_OEM.html

I predicted it, and it looks like they are ready to make it: a flash drive with Bluetooth. Just get near your computer and it connects.

Sunshine

2007-03-24T22:57:00.000-04:00

They have now prove that sun on your skin causes endorphins to be released into your system, and people addicted to sunbathing are (in a way) addicts.
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?article_id=218392323&cat=1_7
Sun also produces vitamin D in your skin, and it has just been found to be very good for you.
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20041009/bob8.asp
I spent a long time today pulling weeds. This is the only time of the year I do it. The good plants are not big, so I can get to the weeds. Next week will be too late. The sun had me feeling relaxed, and the weeds were everywhere. I wanted to stop, but there was always one more I needed to get. So I got lots of vitamin D.

Pandora

2007-03-24T22:20:00.000-04:00

I am listening to Pandora. Just go to the web site, and sign up. Enter an artist you like, and it will play music from that artist, and others that are similar. You will find a lot of new music, unless you like the stuff on the radio. Here is an example of some interesting and unusual music: The Ditty Bops. Two girls (young women: I am old enough to be their father or even grandfather, so they are very young in my eyes.) singing close harmony backup up with Western style guitar. Anna Nalick: Interesting melodies, good lyrics (with metaphors and stuff) that rhyme.

Zen Spam

2006-06-18T12:58:00.000-04:00

I am getting lots of the latest kind of spam; the subject is usually two random words, and the body is a GIF of the message. They can't be scanned for content, so they get through many spam filters. If you can set your spam filter to mark any message with just a GIF for content, that would do it. Gmail is doing it well.
The cool part is that some of the subjects are very strange:
stove baggage
couch mantra
aromatic aircraft carrier
hick disbelieve
unreserved sanitize
incubate unmarried
irreconcilable possessive
obstacle motherboard
seminar ewe
Some of these words may have never been together in all of history.

Big babies

2006-06-14T21:35:00.000-04:00

I mean that literally. Literally means, "exactly as it says", not "metaphorically", even though metaphors are common literary devices.
We must be having a lot of very large babies, because everyone who has a baby has a minivan or an SUV. Maybe it is to carry the SUV sized strollers. If you have four kids, sure you need a big car, but for 1 or 2, a four-door car will do the job, and you can save money on gas.
I keep seeing people in SUVs and minivans in the parking lot with the motor running. If it is cold and cloudy, that makes some sense. If it is hot and sunny, it makes some sense. It makes more sense to go into the store or library with the other person.
If you want to save money, decrease our dependence on foreign oil, reduce greenhouse gases, get a small car and turn it off when you stop. If you don't care, I hope you flip your SUV. You are causing problems for the rest of us.

Will work for food

2006-06-14T21:20:00.000-04:00

Amazing. Six to twelve million wetbacks have entered the country for jobs, crossing the Rio Grande and the deadly desert, but there is a guy on the corner with a sign that says, "Will work for food". I doubt it. The sign should say "Will take your money." If one person every ten munutes gives him 1$, that is $6 per hour, more than minimum wage. No boss, no schedule, no taxes, no duties. If you have the right spot, you could do pretty well.
There was a guy in the 17th Street farmer's market years ago who would spend a week being friendly before he would ask for spare change. He also told war stories to passing tourists of how he lost his foot in Vietnam, but could not get veterans benefits. The truth was he got frostbyte sleeping in a truck on a cold night with his feet out the window. He was drunk, and it was not his truck. Visitors to the bottom were there to see quaint and rustic, and he fit right in.

Star Trek is Gone

2006-05-30T20:28:00.000-04:00

It is sad that one of the longest running franchises ever is now dead. No movies or series are expected. It was inevitable. They forgot what made the original series fun: ideas. The last few years have had action, plot twists, and lots of drama, but not so much fun. Was there ever a funny episdoe of Enterprise? I don't know. I lost interest when they had a gratuitous nearly nude scene a male and a female crew member had to rub some salve on each other. It had nothing to do with the plot. As much as we make fun of William...............Shatner, he could entertain. Scott Bakula was boring. He has no charisma. Picard was stiff, and too formal for fun.
Captain Kirk was always breaking the rules for what is right, and that is the stuff of American mythology. Brer Rabbit, Robin Hood, even some rappers show the attitude of rebelious rightousness.

Almost every show had a prologue with a predictable joke. There was always an interplay of Freudian aspects of the main officers. In the later series, there was a temporal anomaly in every other episode. There were attempts to sound scientific, like when Data says the output of a phaser rifle is 1.06 megaJoules per second. A joule per second is a Watt. That is the definition. In one episode of The Next Generation (TNG) they said everything in space emits radiation at a wavelength of 21 cm. Not everything, just ionized hydrogen! Don't explain stuff. It is one of Clark's laws: "Technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic."

Star Trek was created by Gene Roddenberry from the inspiration of Gullivers Travels. The closest thing to it recently was Star Gate. they explored strange new worlds using a realy big transporter. After a few years, half the cast left, and most of the writers too: It just is not fun anymore. I wonder if they hired former Star Trek writers?

Happy Republicans

2006-05-30T19:55:00.000-04:00

A new report from the Pew memorial trusts says, "

Republicans Happier than Democrats, Independents

I guess it is easier to be happy when you believe that people get what they deserve, and it is not your problem.
Also, take a look at this one:
http://pewresearch.org/social/chart.php?ChartID=38
and this one:
http://pewresearch.org/social/chart.php?ChartID=2
Money does buy happiness. Or at least people with more money tend to be happier.

Politically correct

2005-12-08T15:18:00.000-05:00

I wrote this before Christmas, but I never posted it.

This nation was not founded on the principle of not offending anyone. In
fact many of its first colonists had been deeply offensive to some group in
Europe, usually the religious establishment, which often meant the government. Now we are expected to worry about offending someone with our holiday calibrations, as if they were
obscene. I find sweat pants on fat people obscene, but nobody seems to care.
Yet saying Merry Christmas is supposed to be risky. The odd part is that the
only people who complain are not personally offended. They just don't want
some other person to be offended. I will say Merry Christmas to anyone and
everyone, and if they don't celebrate Christmas, I will just have to say,
"Have a quiet lonely Christmas." Christmas is coming. It is on the calendar,
like it or not. Stores will be closed. Be merry or don't.

Google Me!

2005-10-31T19:16:00.000-05:00

I finally got indexed by Google. I posted my URL on a site they indexed, and that got me noticed. Now that site is gone, but mine wil still come up. Fi you search for a family member's name, or "Durvin Family History", somewhere down the list you wil find it:
http://mysite.verizon.net/kent.durvin/index.htm
Now that people can find it, I will add more to it.

Stuble

2005-10-31T19:12:00.000-05:00

How do guys keep a week old beard all the time? I can see shaving, and I don't mind a beard, but fuzz makes a man look like a bum. If you make a living pan-handeling, fine, but otherwise, shave. Or grow a beard. make up your mind.
Apparently some women like the bad boy look. But how can they complain about him leaving the seat up, if he can't be bothered to shave?

Chinglish

2005-07-28T21:43:00.000-04:00

I have package from a yo-yo made in China. Everything here is typed exactly as it is on the package. It says:

Magic Return
Jumbo
Yo Yo
Superpower 2000
Auto Return, High Speed,
High Performance
THIS SPORTING YO-YO BRINGS YOU HAPPY TIME!

Inside are directions:
Jumbo Yo Yo
*Follow instructions and tie
the rope firmly into your
middle finger

B)Wait for a while to put the YO-YO
back up or let the YO-YO
stay down and swing back
and forth

[pictures]

1 SHORT SPIN
a)Hold the YO-YO
In Your
hand and throw down

[pictures]

2DOGGY WALK
Place the fast-spinning YO-YO
on thefloor and it will walk back
and forth automaticalty
the doggr

3BRAINICO
Hold the rope to form a triangle
and hang the YO-YO in the
middle of the triangle to
swing like a branch

4RISE ON FALL
Throw the YO-YO straight forward
and put it upward to from
a three-forth circle them put the
YO-YO straight up

At the bottom in a box are the warnings:
WARNING
Follow instructions to play it safely
•Don't decompose the YO-YO or throw the YO-YO with out aiming
•Replace the rope wile necessary
•Don't tongle the tope on your neck

Cats and Dogs

2005-07-05T10:29:00.000-04:00

Some people are cat people, and some people are dog people. I am both. If you like apples, you can't like oranges? Dogs are great friends, and I like them too much to own one. A dog should have constant companionship. Cats are good too, but it is not the same relationship. Cats are great entertainement.

Art

2005-06-26T18:44:00.000-04:00

The term "Art" seems to be hard to define. Artists especialy dislike definitions of the term. If you read what artists have to say about art, theirs and others' art, yousee that they understand the concept in a pretty universal way. At one site, an artist says, "Art is the only means by which one soul may touch another."
I have a definition that I think works well: Art is anything intended to communicate emotion. That covers every kind of art, including performing arts, music, visual arts, dance, and even performance art. The intent part means that art, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
There are some in the art world, mostly amateurs, who seems to think that anything can be art if it is strange enough. If it does not make the viewer feel something, it will not be good. I wonder if the reason visual artists do not like my definition is that art is a non-verbal experience. The verbal part of their brain is not talking to the artistic visual part. That is an idea that fits with the book, "Drawing with the Right Side of the Brain". Take a look at the web site.

The Loud Guy

2005-06-20T21:21:00.000-04:00

There is a guy doing ads on TV who seems to be yelling all the time. He is currently doing Oxy-Clean. He should work for Shout.
Commercials are often louder than the program. They seem to think they will get your attention, or maybe they want to help you hear the ad from the kitchen. It backfires. We mute the ad.

Windows Sucks

2005-06-17T09:22:00.000-04:00

PC’s don’t read USB natively. It has to be done by a driver in Windows. That means that if you use a USB keyboard, you can’t press F2 or other special keys during startup when you have a problem.
Error messages are often misleading. “Login incorrect” may mean your network is not connected. “No valid files” may mean you don’t have login privileges.
The registry is a massive central place for all programs and the OS to store preferences. If one application corrupts it, you may have to reformat and start fresh with all applications.
If you need a "wizard" to help you do something, that is a sure sign the interface is not intuitive.
Viruses and spyware and other hacks.

Somebody comment!

2005-06-15T22:19:00.000-04:00

I feel like I am talking to myself.

Election Time

2005-06-15T21:59:00.000-04:00

I am tired of politics. I voted yesterday, although I admit I was not as informed as I would like. The problem is getting the information. The papers report on what the candidates say, but seldom add any real information. I don't want to trust the cadidates to tell the truth.
Here is my answer: A printed debate in the newspaper. (Live debates are good if you want to elect a member of Parliament, or a talk show host. We need content, not flash and charisma.)

1. A panel of neutral parties, like the newspaper editors, the League of Women Voters, or even a survey create a list of issues. Each candidate on the ballot would be able to add issues.
2. Each candidate states their position on the issues. No criticism of the opponents would be allowed. The newspaper would check facts and voting history, if any, of the candidate on the issue. This would all be published in the newspaper.
3. Rebuttal and criticism of opponents specific statements, with fact checking again.
4. Questions from the editors or others, and answers from the candidates.

Thsi would sell a lot of papers, and yield a lot of good information to the voters. I think it would be good for democracy.

Monopoly

2005-06-06T20:02:00.000-04:00

There is a lot of discussion in recent yeas about deregulation of public utilities, specificaly telephone, internet, and electric power. These are all monopolies because there is too much infrastructure for competition to be feasible. But when they are deregulated, to allow competition, the existing companies own the wires, and they have to charge the new competitors to distribute against them. The result is either that they are not allowed by law to charge a fair price, or they don't allow the competition access on a fair and equal basis.
I have a solution. The only part of the business that needs to be a monopoly is the wires. All the wires should be owned by one company, and they should charge all service providers by the same rates. It might be megabyte-miles for data, and kilowatt-miles for power. This wire company would want to innovate to cut costs, and for example they would work with service providers to move telephone service to cable, or fiber optic in the near future. There are companies developing technology to transmit broadband signals over power lines.
That is another reason to combine all the wires into one company. Now we have phone, cable, and power on seperate wires. Virginia Power owns most of the poles in my area, and they lease them to the others.

Movie Reviews

2005-05-27T23:04:00.000-04:00

Who cares what some over-educated english major thinks of a movie?
They should survey people coming out of the movie. Those are people who thought they would like it. Ask them to rate it on this scale:

5. I will buy the DVD and watch it over and over
4. I will see it again in the theatre
3. It was worth seeing
2. I should have waited to rent it later on DVD
1. Save you time and money

That is all you need to know.

Movies

2005-05-27T21:22:00.000-04:00

Movie reviewers are a jaded bunch. I saw a review of the third Start Trek movie once that said, "More of the same...". The people who went to see it were saying, "Wow, more of the same!"
They are looking for deep, compelling, etc. I am looking for entertainment. I have enough drama in my life. I don't need to worry about someone else’s problems. I only watch comedy, science fiction, and fantasy. The best movies are a mix of all three. Fantasy is best when magic is treated as a form of science. (Arthur C. Clark said, "Sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic." More on his laws another time.)
I just saw Robots. I liked it. It was fun to watch, and I want to see it agin to see what I missed. There were funny signs everywhere, like an ice cream cart labeled, "Auntie Freeze's Ice Cream". In early computer animation, smooth objects were just smooth and perfect. In Robots, some surfaces were like fiberglass boats, with slight ripples, and some were rusty, or dirty, or patches of dirt over a shiny surface. Reviews said it had no story and no heart. Wrong. It had a predictable plot with corny sentiment. So what? Kids are not so familiar with the predictable plot, and there is nothing wrong with a movie that has the good guys staying good, and winning in the end. It felt like a movie from the 30's. There were little jokes all through it for adults, like when a damaged robot sings "Daisy" in slowed down audio (HAL in "2001, A Space Odyssey") I guess Robots won't be a great classic, but it is worth seeing.

Anachronisms

2005-05-22T13:15:00.000-04:00

Why do we still do things the way they have always been done?
When I go to the books store, why can't I buy books that are out of print? Or music, or movies?
Look on the shelves, and you will see the answer: stock. In the whole country, there are many thousands of copies of each book, CD, and movie sitting on shelves or in warehouses waiting to be sold. They can't do that with anything not likely to sell.
I have found a book series I like, and I want to start at the beginning. The early books were published in the 1980's, so I can't get them. I should be able to order a copy, and either have it printed by laser printer at the store, or even have it printed by the publisher and sent to the store.
The only reason I can see that they don't do it this way is fear of illegal copies. The files at the store could be encrypted, and the system could require access to the publisher's server to unlock them. Actualy, the files would be around 100K, so a new copy could be downloaded each time.
I have the same problem with movies. I want to see The Cisco Kid, (with Gene Wilder as a rabbi in the old west) but it is not available. Why can't I get a copy burned at the local store?
Years ago, book publishers had a rule that a manuscript had to be submitted on 8 1/2 X 11 paper, doublespaced, etc. An important author sent a publisher a disk instead and told them to deal with it. They have come around.
They still will not get into electronic publishing, because, I guess, they are afraid of illegal copying. They need to move into the 90's and set up a standard DRM (Digital Rights Management) system. Apple has done it for music. Someone needs to do it for books. Apple already owns the name iBook.
They still sell to libraries, where they have many copies of new popular books. When the interest dies down, those books are returned to the leasing company, and they are sold for $3 retail at stores like Books-a-Million. People still pass around books. If you could own a book you like for $3 in electronic form, would you buy it and keep it? I would. And they could sell all the old books they ever published, with very little cost to them. They would make money on this.

Selling Selling

2005-05-19T21:36:00.000-04:00

Comercials for Hardee's are strange. Their slogan is, "Without us, some guys would starve." I don't understand. They have good biscuits, but they imply that they ar the place to go if you are stupid. I am smarter than those guys, so I should eat elsewhere.
There are many commercials that entertain, but don't mention the product. Others are just annoying. They eventualy get over it. Old Navy has finaly gotten away from campy with has-beens or never-were actors, and they have some almost entertaining ads. Arby's has dumped the overn mitt. Wrigleys gum has started to change its ads after too many years of tired gimmicks like the doublemint twins.
I believe ad agecies are best at selling themselves, hence the title of this entry. After a while the sales number come in, and they have nowhere to hide. The ads must improve.
I wish they would concentrate on the product. Old Navy ads show lots of happy pretty people dancing in their many styles of clothes, and it works. Hardees also has huge burgers, and they show them, and that works, if you want a huge burger. Now Wendy's is showing the oldest oversize burger, their triple. It is about time.

Salesman Syndrome

2005-05-09T19:45:00.000-04:00

Last year I read an interesting article in Wired about Aspergers Syndrome. It is a milder relative of autism, characterized by poor social skills and an obsession with one subject, to the exclusion of all else. It is a serious problem, but some people have a mild undiagnosed form. My son is not one of these, but he is in an advanced high school program called the International Baccalaureate Program. I asked him if any of his classmates had very poor social skills but an obsessive knowledge of one particular topic, and he immediately thought of three people. For example, one can tell you everything about airplanes, all airplanes since they were invented.
In the past, these people might have become your weird uncle who lives alone but can tell you everything about stamps. Today they might be your weird uncle who is a programmer for Google, and codes without a reference book. And he is quite wealthy.
Consider that this seems to be a range of behavior, and some people are just too far along the scale to function, while others are just nerdy. The stereotypical nerd is a guy with poor fashion sense, no friends, lives with his parents, and knows everything about computers.
Another characteristic is the ability to work in a system of rules. Some people with Aspergers have been trained in social skills. Just teach them the rules they don't know intuitively, and they can pass for normal.
What is at the other end of the range? People who can read people, but can't follow procedures, can't deal with details. Salesmen. I have more trouble with salesmen than anyone else. They forget passwords, they forget how to get connected. So maybe they have the opposite of Asperger's, and maybe some extreme cases are those people with genuine charisma.

Despair

2005-05-04T21:43:00.000-04:00

Who knew despair could be so funny?
Take a look at Despair.com. They make calendars, posters, mugs, and other typical office stuff that at first glance appears to be that inspirational crap. Look closer and see reality in a slightly cynical light. Examples (all copyrighted by Despair.com):
"Get to Work You aren't being paid to believe in the power of your dreams."
"Cluelessness There are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots."
"Motivation If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job...the kind robots will be doing soon."
They have a mug with a line halfway down that says "This mug is now half empty."
They have conversation hearts that say, "SETTLE 4LESS", "TABLE FOR 1", and my favorite, "U C MY BLOG?"
Their current hot item is a book by the boss that seems to be serious. Read the excerpts. He actually suggests that employees are not motivated by "increasing shareholder value" but by purely selfish reasons. Management heresy!

Baby Logic

2005-04-23T07:26:00.000-04:00

Being a parent is an interesting job. It can be an intense job, too, especialy the first few years. There are some things about the early development that are not widely understood.

Scientists tried for years to find out why some children were smarter than others. It is the Nature versus Nurture debate. They could see that there was more difference than could be easily explained by genetics. They found it. Children were smarter if their mothers talked to them. Read this link. Watch mothers at a store with kids in the cart, and notice the difference. Some mothers will not talk or even respond to their child. Others play and talk about what they are doing.

Children feel powerless. They are told what to do all day. You would not like it. You can make life seem more pleasant by giving them some control over things that are not critical. You can say, "It is time for bed." and get an argument. But if you immediatly give them a choice of books to read, they have some control again. It helps.

When it is time to leave some fun activity, give them a warning, like 5 more times o the slide, or 5 more minutes, and then maybe a choice, like "Should we go to the grocery store first, or the drugstore?"

When you tell a young child "If you don't do this, you will get in trouble!", they will think, "I am going to do it, so I will be in trouble." They will cry. The problem is that they can't deduce the inverse of the statement: "If I do this, I won't get in trouble." The solution is simple. Say "You can either do this or you can be in trouble." Even better, say, "You can either get in trouble or you can do this." (For some reason they usualy prefer the second choice.) The difference is subtle to us. It is "A or B", rather than "If A then B, and the deduced If not A then not B". Two year old children have literally been beaten to death over this by parents who wanted to make their child behave.

When a baby learns to walk, who teaches him? Nobody is surprised that they learn it on their own. There is an instinctive progression of behaviors that leads them to walking. They pull up, they stand on thir toes to build foot and leg muscles, they cruise (walk while holding on to things) then they walk. So why do people think they can toilet train a baby? If you watch them they reach a point where they know they are about to "go", and then it is time. Before that, there is no point because it is not ssomething they can control. It can take about a week to get them into the habit, and then there will be accidents. They have very little warning, and not much control. Don't be mad, be prepared with a spare set of clothes in the car.

Kids

2005-04-20T21:39:00.000-04:00

Other peoples' kids will drive you nuts. Your own kids will too, but it's different.
My kids are turning out great, so I think I can give some advice. Here are some tips:
Parents train their kids to be brats. If they cry for something, and they get it, the parent has taught them to cry for what they want. To avoid this mess:
1. Decide, and never back down. Never reward bad behavior, even if the kid is asking for something good. (It could happen. Really.)
This leads to rule 2.
2. Think before you say yes or no. Always consider the question, "What is the worst that could happen?". Kids and clothes can be washed. Dirt is seldom a reason to say no. Safety is always a reason. Get the facts. If the facts are found to be wrong the answer can change. Make that a condition. (For example, "You said an adult would be with you. That is not true, so now you can't go."
3. Encourage rational discussion, persuasion, and negotiation. Those are valuable skills. Explain your decision. It is not good to say, "Because I say so." It is good to say, "These are the reasons for my decision. You don't have to agree, but unless you can show me that I am wrong in logic or facts, the decision stands."
My son at fours years old asked why we grabbed him and did not let him run into the street. I said, "Because I don't want you to get squashed by a car. " He got a shocked look on his face. He was more careful after that.
We used timeouts, but there were a few times it did not work when they were very young. My son was throwing things in his room. He got a quick swat on the bottom. No belt, no anger, no real pain, just enough to get his attention. At 3 or 4 years old, that is enough. It only took once or twice. If they get away with bad behavior much longer, it will take more. Eventually it takes jail time. It is better to start early.
After a while, when he got angry and would have thrown a tantrum, he went to his room. He would come out in a few minutes and he would say, "I feel better now." That is what growing up is about: learning to control your emotions.
Talk to your children. Even when they are very small. After years of trying to find the parenting behavior that made some kids smarter than others, they found something: Their mothers talked to them.
Another trick for young children: One finger touch. Tell them that things are easy to break, and so he can only touch them with one finger. They experience the world through touch. Telling a kid not to touch anything is tough. One finger touch is usually safe and satisfying. It does not apply to live wires or fire, but there are times when it can help.
Give a warning of the end of any fun activity can make leaving much easier. Five more minutes (with a countdown each minute), or five more times (with a countdown), can even help little ones learn to count. They don't like being out of control. Who does? Time to adjust helps them cope.
Young children up to about 4 years can't trace their thoughts. If you ask them why they did something, the answer may refer to information they did not have, or a situation that was not true at that time. It is not a lie. They just can't do that.
They also can't comprehend that other minds do not know what they know.
Children under about 3 can't do logic like we can: If I say If A then B, you infer, If not A then Not B. They can't do that. If you say, "If you do this you will be in trouble", they might cry, because they have decided to do it, and they don't want to be in trouble. If instead you say, "Do this or you will be in trouble", there is a simple A or B choice. They can choose.

See who?

2005-04-16T16:38:00.000-04:00

At the end of most news and talk shows, the host ends with "See you tomorrow!" I may see him tomorrow, but I hope he won't see me. My grandmother refused to have the TV on if she was not properly dressed. She was not stupid, but it just seemed wrong to be undressed in front of a man.
She also had a problem with wrong numbers. Not people calling her, but her wrong numbers. She would say, "I did not dial wrong. What are you doing in that house answering her phone?"

Chololate

2005-04-16T12:49:00.000-04:00

I love chocolate. I like chocolate so well that I want the intese rich flavor you only find in dark choclate. Hershey's is know for choclate, but their Special Dark Chocolate is not good. It is hard. The best easily available dark choclate is Dove Dark. It can be found in many drug stores.
That is appropriate, because I find it to be a good mild anti-depressant. I have a tendancy to be a bit gloomy and worry about things. A bar of dark chocolate every few days keeps me feeling positive.
Another brand I like is Choco-Love. I get the 65% cocoa kind. More than that, and the bitter flavor starts to be too much for me. It has a description on the wrapper that sounds like a wine bottle, about smooth, cocoa flavor notes, african and carribean blend, and so on. (Flavor notes are the brief flashes of flavor that you taste in a sequence when you eat good food.)
Chcoclate contains antioxidants. It is about half fat and half sugar, yet it keeps a long time without going rancid. That is becasue of the antioxidants. They are good for people too.
M&M just started making DArk Chcolate M&Ms, and they are good. Twix Dark is good. Midnight Milkyway is not. The dark chocolate does not blend with the other flavors as well as the usual milk chocolate.
I was surprised by how little I like Lindt dark chocolate. It has a strange chemical taste. They have some miniature bars that are good, but they don't make that in the bigger bars.
Here in Richmond, we have a store called "For the Love of Chocolate" off Cary Street near the Byrd Theatre. There may be a similar store in your town. Try some sample pieces of various chocolates, and don't feel guilty.

Logical

2005-04-02T17:20:00.000-05:00

Is the glass half empty or half full? Yes. Level = .5 max.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? That depends:
If you are a creationist, God (or "the designer" if you are ashamed of God) would have made a chicken, not an egg. It would have been eaten by the first racoon.
Evolution producs new animals slowly, and at some point in the past, something that we would arbitrarily say is not a chicken would have an offspring that we would say is a chicken.

What happens when an irresistable force acts upon an immovable object? Only one of them can exist at the same time. If the object is immovable, the force is not irresistable. If the force is irresistable the object is not immovable. There can only be one winner.

If you are flying through space at the speed of light, and you turn your lights on, what happens?
First, you can't be at the speed of light, but you could be close. Your lights would act the same as ever. Read about it here.

Amazing Grace

2005-03-20T10:57:00.000-05:00

So who is this Amazing Grace, and what makes her so special?

Digital Sundial

2005-03-19T22:16:00.000-05:00

It sounds like a joke: A digital sundial. It works with only sunlight, just like any sundial. Clever masks let light through to show numbers. I would not have believed it.

Danger!

2005-03-15T19:51:00.000-05:00

There are warning messages on everything today. There is even a warning on soda bottles about pointing the top at people. There is a warning on the towel dispensers that have the loop of fabric towel underneath saying not to put your head in the loop. Here is a nice collection.
The problem with these warnings is that they are written by lawyers. Lawyers are not known for clarity or brevity. For example, on space heaters, the warning says:
WARNING: Source of possible combustion. Keep away from flammable materials.
It says this heater can be a source of something that may be a fire. What are flammable materials? Explain that to a four year old child.
These things are dangerous. I think the label should be simplified so as to readable by anyone, and only as hard to read as needed to get the message across:
DANGER: HOT! This can start a fire! Keep it away from things that can burn!
A picture would be nice too. Something like a bed on fire might be appropriate.
Notice the words this and it. There is no need to omit words and sound like Charlie Chan. My version is shorter and easier to understand.

The Real Thing

2005-03-14T19:36:00.000-05:00

I have a book called The Big Book of Big Secrets by William Poundstone. It was a bargain book at Barnes and Noble. It has a section on cola. It turns out that cola flavor has nothing to do with cola nuts. It is a "fantasia flavor" meaning a new flavor the arises from a mixture of othe flavors such that the original flavors can't be identified. In cola, the flavors are vanilla, cinnamon, and citrus oil. The oil is bitter, so sugar is needed to tone it down.
The exact citrus oil varies, We have had Lemon Pepsi, so it seems likely that in Pepsi the oil is lemon. Lemon Coke has been sold, but it did not taste right. Now there is Lime Coke, and it is good.
There are vanilla colas, and a few normal non-name-brands that have a bit more vanilla.
Pepsi had a Holiday Spice Pepsi, with a bit of extra cinnamon, plus some other spices, I think.
I want to make my own sodas, but carbonation is not simple. I need a regulator and a tank of CO2. Or I could use yeast to do the job like in home brew beer. You just refrigetrate after 12 hours to stop the fermentation.
Another way to do it is dry ice, or solid CO2. It should be food grade dry ice.
Carbon has an atomic weight of 12, oxygen is 16. 12+16+16=44. One gram mole of CO2 is 44 grams. A gram mole of a gas has a volume of 22.4 Liters at STP, which means standard temperature and pressure, 20 degress C, 30 CM mercury barometric pressure. So 1/2 liter of CO2 gas is about 1 gram. Dry ice has a density of about 1.6 grams per cubic centimeter, so a piece of dry ice about 1/4 inch has enough gas for a standard size soda. (The volume of gas in soda is about equal to the volume of liquid. Water can hold a lot of CO2.) Put in the liquid, put in a small piece of dry ice, and close the lid. Agitate. Refrigerate. Do not point the lid at anyone, in case the pressure builds before the water can soak it up.

Make

2005-03-08T20:48:00.000-05:00

If you take things apart, or you put things together, get Make magazine from O'Reily.com
Great stuff! Kite arial photography, magnetic stripe reader, backyard monorail, lots more.
While we are on the subject of magazines, I&T is another of my favorites. It was called American Heritage Invention and Technology. I has stories about the development of inventions and engineering. My favorite feature is "They're Still Here" about old machines still being used, like the machine that made all the metal kazoo's you have ever seen. They also have articles on newer inventions, some complex, some simple, like the helmet.
I also get Science News, a weekly. I often see stories in the newspaper that were in Science News a month before. I like that they ask someone in the field about each news item to get their comments.

America

2005-03-05T16:53:00.000-05:00

In this country we are proud of our economic system, our justice system, and out political system.
And we make nasty jokes about salesmen, lawyers, and politicians, the poeple who drive those systems. Maybe it is because they drive it even when we would rather let it walk.

Lawyers work to defend the innocent, or fight wrong by starting class action suits against big companies who make bad products. They get a lot of money for their work. They sued Nitendo for price fixing, and when they won, the customers got a $5 coupon on new purchases.
Examples
If I get in trouble, I will call a lawyer. I was once hit by a drunk driver. It was amazing to see what a good lawyer could do do make sure I got a good settlement. Being right is not always enough. Yet I think it is because of lawyers and complex laws written by lawyers that we need them. In a Henlien book, The Number of the Beast, there was a place where they had a simple law based on "An eye for and eye, a tooth for a tooth." A hit and run driver would regret his actions.

Salesmen push us to buy what we don't need with money we don't have. People filing for bankruptcy still get offers for new credit cards. Commercials take up over a third of TV shows.

Politicians want power, fame and celebrity, and to serve the people. I don't know how those motives are proportioned, and I doubt many of the politicians know. I wonder how a politician would feel if he were pulled out of his job and made an aide. He could still serve, but in the shadows. In Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the president of the galaxy had one important qualification: He could not want the job.

Half Glass

2005-03-05T16:14:00.000-05:00

People argue about meanings all the time. Is someone a conservative, or a liberal, or a moderate? Is it cold, or just cool? What people do not appreciate is that words are just tokens. A token is a substitue, a stand-in for some other thing. In the case of words, it is an idea, a concept. If I say "dog", you might think of canis domesticus the common pet. If you are a carpenter, you might think of a device used to secure wood on the workbench. It depends on the context. That just means we have already established a bias toward one of the several possible meanings of a word. In other situations, the context is releated to our life, our experiences. But each of us gets a different life.
I heard two people arguing about human nature. One said human nature is base and primitive, but we strive for the good and devine. The other said the opposite, that we are born good, but we fall into disgrace. It seems to me that they both said the same thing, except the term "human nature" was used differently. We have two sides, one instinct, the other holy. Both are human nature. The words get in the way of the meaning.
Is the glass half empty or half full? Bill Cosby got an interesting answer from his grandmother: That depends on whether you're drinking or pouring. I have a simpler answer: Yes. Both.

Laughter

2005-02-24T21:17:00.000-05:00

Great minds have struggled to explain humor and laughter. There are many views, some dark, some not, mostly involving release of tension or agression. For example:
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/kincaid2/intro2.html
I disagree. Maybe none of these eggheads had kids. Kids are funny, sometimes hilarious. If an adult did the goofy things a kid does, we would not always laugh. We would more likely grin and mutter, "Idiot." My simple theory is that humor is in us as a way to protect children from negative feelings when they do or say things that show a poor understanding of the world. All humor involves some kind of mistake or missed meaning, something almost but not quite understood. That is what children do in the face of a complex language and a complex world.

"Doctor, am I going to die?"
"Thats the last thing you're going to do."

How do you make a bandstand?
Take away their chairs.

A mushroom walks into a bar, and the bartender says, "No mushrooms. Get out" The mushroom says, "Hey what's wrong? I'm a fun guy."

Why don't Amish people water-ski?
The horses would drown.

Now for a true story:
I was in a grocery store, and in the frozen food section, at one of those open top freezers, a child was leaning in, scraping the frost off the top of the ice cream. I heard her say, "Boy are my hands cold!" Then she looked up at me and said, "I'm not talking to you. I'm not supposed to talk to strangers."

Not hilarious, but similar to a joke: Words create meanings that bang together to make us laugh.

The Fermi Paradox

2005-02-20T22:00:00.000-05:00

Enrico Fermi was a great scientist, and I want to read a biography if I can find one.
The latest Hubble Deep Field picture: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/2004/07/
shows a close view of one tiny spot of sky where there seemed to be nothing.
It is filled with galaxies, and each glaxy has billions of stars. Somewhere there should be some life like us. There is an equation describing the liklihood of life outside Earth, the Drake equation:
http://www.homoexcelsior.com/omega.db/datum/extraterrestrial_life/drake's_equation/8525
So Fermi's question was simply, "So where are they?"
I wonder if the lack of alien life could be a warning that we are headed for disaster.

Tax and Spend

2005-02-19T08:28:00.000-05:00

The only thing worse than "tax and spend Democrats" is "tax cut and spend more Republicans".

Make your own petrified wood!

2005-02-14T21:55:00.000-05:00

Some scientists have made petrified wood in the lab. They soak the wood in acid, then a silica solution. Then they bake it in a 1400 C oven filled with argon gas for 2 hours. OK, it was sounding pretty simple up until the "argon". Imagine art done this way: a wood carving turned to stone! They plan to use it as a way of making porus materials for filters or reaction substrates.

Smoke Rings

2005-02-12T00:26:00.000-05:00

Smoke rings are much more than an amusement of nicotine addicts. The October issue of New Scientist had a nice article on what are properly called vortex rings. There are people trying to make thrusters with them. They could be efficient and simple. At last there was a bit of math on the subject: for the most powerful ring, the length of the cylinder should be 4 times the diameter.
An old issue of Invention and Technology magazine had an article on them In World War II, there was a plan to make a giant machine to toss around planes in formation. It never was built, but the guy later sold a small version to a toy company. They did build a small version with a ring about three feet across that traveled at several hundred miles an hour and made an eerie screaming noise.
Smoke rings have fascinated me since I was a kid at the New York Worlds Fair in 1964. We never knew why, but giant smoke rings would occasionally shoot up into the sky. I think they wee being used to send cooking smoke out of the area.
There is a new toy called the Zero Blaster, and it uses fog machine fluid to make nice rings.
There is also a larger device, the Airzooka, sometimes sold at Spencer's Gifts.
I built a large box once. It was a four-foot cube, with a two-foot hole. It could make leaves and hair jump at 30 yards. The slightest obstacle would break the ring. They unravel. I want to rebuild it and use a fog machine to fill it.
Mount Etna, the volcano in Italy, blew smoke rings in July 2000:
http://www.decadevolcano.net/photos/smokerings.htm

That is better.

2005-02-11T23:45:00.000-05:00

The title means: I have so much useless junk in my brain, I am deleting stuff to make room. I had to throw out long division last week. They say the average person has a capacity about equal to a Phd. I want to know what that means and how they figured it out. Do Phds often have a problem with their memory of new things? Do they no longer learn? I doubt it.
I seem to remember more than most people. I can usually explain stuff to college grads that they should have learned. (I don't bother with trivia. I don't even want to know what movies Kevin Bacon has been in, and I especialy don't want to see any of them.)
When I was a kid, I would read the World Book Encyclopedia. It is written at an easy level. I also read Isaac Asimov's books of science. I try to write like he did, when he explained complex science in simple language.
Why do we have the word "utilize"? It means "use". English is a great language with subtle shades of meaning between words of similar basic meaning, but sometimes people could be more precise, and consise. "At this point in time" means "now".
So now I like to explain the world, and show the world to people, and teach people how things work. I should be a teacher, but I don't have the papers. I do it anyway, and people actually do say, "Ask Kent. He'll know!" I also know what I know, and if I don't know, I say so. I don't know literature, music, Windows, accounting, law, and loads of other stuff, but if there is a question, I can find it on the internet.
If I make a mistake of fact, I want to know. I want to learn. I hope to learn something new every day until the day I die. Here I go.

Cat whiskers

2005-02-11T20:57:00.000-05:00

I don't want to experiment on my own cats, but I have a theory that cat whiskers are partially for the reception of low frequency sound. I am planning to build a low frequency oscillator circuit connected to a speaker to see how low they can detect. They should be very interested in sounds under a piece of carpet. They rest of the experiment would be to cut the whiskers on one side or both and test the cat's ability to locate the speaker.

Our wonderful system

2005-02-11T20:52:00.000-05:00

Isn't it ironic: The things we are most proud of in this country are our justice system, our democratic government, and our capitalist economic system.

And the lowest forms of life are lawyers, politicians, and salesmen.

I need a brain upgrade.

2005-02-11T19:47:00.000-05:00

The stuff filling my head amazes me. There is no way to delete stuff, and I feel like I am running out of room. At least, that's my excuse for forgetting stuff. I decided I need a way to disperse my crazy ideas to the world. That would be you. I have some ideas that seem to original, and I think, interesting. I need to finish setting up this page, so hold on a few minutes...