What the F'what?

Ah rural, farm life...

The fresh smell of manure wafted from the inside of our barn... It was milking time. The heffers were waiting to be hooked-up to the milking machines - having been out in the pastures grazing all-day. Naturally, some of the cows needed to relieve themselves. Soon enough, a huge pile had plopped out onto the floor, right behind one of the cows. That aromatic poo caught the nose of a very hungry horse-fly. Within a few moments, the fly had flown through the barn’s open door and seated himself atop the steamy pie. He began eating.

The cow-pie was especially tasty. The fly kept eating and eating until he was just about to burst. Now FULL, the fly decided that it was time to leave.

But, the fly was SO full, that when he flapped his wings [loud buzzing], he went nowhere. Frustrated, he tried again [louder buzzing]. Even MORE frustrated, the fly looked around the barn, trying to figure out how he’d be able to get to a sunny place to sleep-off his full belly. The fly spotted a pitchfork standing up against a wall, right by a sunlit window. He mused, "I'll just amble over there, then climb to the top of that pitchfork." ...thinking, "I'll use the handle as my launch-pad, and then -- I'll surely be able to fly-off, to sun myself."

Overburdened, it was an arduous walk, but the fly managed to remove himself from the dung-pile. The fly got across the floor to the pitchfork, then slowly made his way to the top. He flapped his wings [more loud buzzing], then he pushed-off and into the air! But alas, he was still too heavy ...and FELL straight-down, to the floor...

All of the heffers flinched, upon hearing the [loud] SPLAT !!!

The horse-fly was dead (squashed, his fly-body spread across the floor, in poo)...

The Moral of the Story? (click-on & read "comments")...

Hillbilly (farm) "PlayStation"
(Grab the fly-swatter!)

Sinning Obliges...

Wall Street and the Big Banks will NEVER "self-regulate".

They're in it for the "G-R-E-E-D". Are we being taken for fools? Let's impose rigid rules (LAWS); mandatory (public) AUDITS; huge FINES to "compensate" misbehavior; JAIL-TIME for CEO's whose "wages" violate the rudiments of "common sense". How about adding the DEATH PENALTY for those who've "made off" with BILLION$ that had been "entrusted" to them?

While we're at it, let's cut the CRAP (much of which is muddling-up the topic of Healthcare) and let's FORCE the "pharma" companies to speak the TRUTH. Come now, does anyone really need to, "Ask/talk to your doctor..." every time a blue pill gets popped? Let's get real - it's about "legaleeze" and "money". Your family physician would be the one sued (while those Pharma companies avoid stepping-up to the plate - whenever their "better living through Chemistry" goes haywire)!

Cute, but seriously, this is serious B.S.

Next, just ask yourself ...how many "subscriptions" have been shoved "up yours" (e.g. Internet, Cable, Satellite, Cellphone, Telephone, Home Security, etc.)? How many of those companies are now "plugged-in" to your bank account (usually, for a period of YEARS without a fair-play "opt-out")?

Has your Credit Card provider RAISED their interest rate to something EXHORBITANT of late? Or were they asleep at the wheel (while exploiting tax-payer dollars and "sense" to benefit themselves)?

Have YOU been CHASE'd yet?

Care to "switch" to a different auto insurance company? EVERY offer "claims" to save money for anyone dumb enough to have "switched" (on average) ...meaningless statistics.

What about "in-store rebates"? Three foot-long receipts and fine print that will cause your eyes to ache ... i.e. your money into their pockets 'now', your money back in your pocket 'later' (if ever). Like it, or lump it?

Scams, scams, and more scams!

When a "service" isn't; when a so-called "savings" isn't; when a great "offer" isn't; when a "product" isn't - then what is it?

Demand TRUTH in ADVERTISING!

The people who impose all of this nonsense are cheaters and liars. Worse, the legal profession helped to make it so. Can anyone (honestly) disagree? Take note of just how many of the law-makers, are lawyers? Honest, straight-talkers - trustworthy folks?

This feeding-frenzy began a long time ago - "pork" anyone?

Has EVERY facet of "money-making" been transformed into a scam? Is it not "high-time" to roll-out the guillotines (see next entry)?
Me Thinks

Don't lose your head (take the 5th)!

Ever notice? How certain people (you know the ones)... "go silent" because they're well-aware of their GUILT! Moreover, those same individuals (usually) don't give a rat's ass about anything (nor anyone), but themselves.

Me thinks that France had it RIGHT all those years ago. Let's roll-out a "guillotine" for use at public executions...

" Vive le pays de Napoléon Bonaparte !!! "

SCIENCE

Science: it's what one must do - to know the Truth.

Revolutionary Roads?

Not all who wander, are lost.

Freedom comes to she and/or he who, rethink(s) the thunk...
Me Thinks

Into a BLACK HOLE (the value of the US Dollar)?

Friday, the 30-stock Dow Jones industrial average finished higher by 78.07 points, or 0.80%, at 9,864.94 - the highest closing level in a year...

The broad Standard & Poor's 500-stock index was up 6.01 points, or 0.56%, at 1,071.49. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index gained 15.35 points, or 0.72%, to 2,139.28. On the New York Stock Exchange, 18 stocks were higher in price for every 11 that declined. Breadth on the Nasdaq was 18-8 positive. Market players were looking to next week's earnings reports and retail sales and industrial production data - to see if a recovery will be picking up steam - to justify strong gains since March. The stock market will be open on the Columbus Day holiday while the bond market will be closed. Treasuries plunged Friday as Bernanke acknowledged that the Fed will eventually have to hike rates. The battered dollar index was higher on Bernanke's comments. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the biggest story in the world economy is the continuing fall of the U.S. dollar (or at least it is - everywhere outside of Washington, D.C.)...

Me Thinks

Easy as Apple Pie, let's eat within Euclidean space!

When the diameter of a CIRCLE equals one, its circumference is "Pi", i.e.
Binary 11.00100100001111110110…
Decimal 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288…
Hexadecimal 3.243F6A8885A308D31319…

Did you know that Aristarchus was the FIRST to recognize that the Earth rotates around the Sun? No, it wasn't Copernicus (his reference to Aristarchus was suppressed in his final work on the subject). The plagerism of heliocentric cosmology ? Yes, indeed.

And THAT too, is perfectly "irrational".
Me Thinks

Living ONE HUNDRED years...

Today, mother began her 100th year of life (her 99th birthday), thus 99 years of living are behind her...

So, what are the odds of living to 100?

Mankind has come a long way. In the recent past, the odds of becoming a centenarian were about 1-in-20 million, but today those odds can be as great as: 1-in-50. A world fact: in developed countries - girls, who were the first born, to caucasian mothers, aged to 25 years (or younger) are the most likely to live to 100...

Here's an approximate summary of the progression of global (historical) Average Life Expectancy:

Stone Age = 20 years
Bronze Age = 18
Early Rome = 28
Medieval Times = 33
End of 19th Century = 37
Early 20th Century = 50
1940's = 65
Present (circa 2009) = 77-81 years.

Quite naturally, the major factor in determining life expectancy is always, Genetics.

But other factors well within a person's control will also have an influence. It has a lot to do with Common Sense and the maintenance of a healthy lifestyle - by keeping fit; good diet; conscientious hygiene; the preservation of balanced mental health; and stress management. It's a complex matrix and difficult to quantify just how much each of those play a part. What is certain, is that substance abuse shortens one's life dramatically (smoking, for example has a very significant negative impact because of the inreased risk of both heart failure and cancer).

A truism?

By the time an individual arrives at 90, he or she has gotten past a lot of the things that have already killed most of their contemporaries. It's an irony, but those statistics may become rather irrelevant in the next 20-30 years - as medical technologies advance (including genetic engineering, stem-cell therapy, bionics, nanotechnology, and rejuvenation therapy). Indeed, the human lifespan could be pushed out to 150, 200, 300 or more years (assuming you can afford the price tag).

I for one, would love to live to 100!

What an achievement to have lived for an entire century! And to have witnessed so many varied world events, and seen so many innovations come to be, or pass into obsolesence.

Yes, I would love to live to 100 (provided that I don't become a burden for my loved ones), and provided that I still have "all my marbles". I think that living to 100 would be marvellous!

By the way, my (Me Thinks) calculated life expectancy is 98!

Mother has always said, "I shall grow old, gracefully." To that, I would add, "A great life is not to be counted as the number of years we survive, rather - it's all about HOW we live them." I cannot recall ever seeing her angry, nor hearing her pronounce a foul word, or saying anything unpleasant about another person... She knows inner calm. She is also the most "other-centered" and genuinely "giving" and loving person I've even known.

May EVERYONE "love to 100" and live to set an example for others ...as my mother has done for almost a CENTURY.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

P.S. Our "record holder", was one of mother's STREMMEL relatives - a gal who lived to the ripe old age of, 105. Another, reached 103. Two of her sisters made it to 94 and 92. Mom was her mother's 5th-born child - when Mary was 37.

Grandparents' Day 2009

"Any attempt at alienating a child from the other parent (or from a child's Grandparents) should be seen as a direct and willful violation of one of the prime duties of parenthood..." -Florida Bar Association

Ask your legislative representative(s) to enact provisions that will GUARANTEE a Grandparent's access to their grandchildren! In most U.S. States, there are no laws to ensure that children have unfettered access to those whom they love, and who love them...

U.S. Census Bureau Report: "The Bush Years"

Read the US Census Bureau Report. The "Bush Years" did not leave behind a legacy of "greatness" (far from it). In fact, on every major measurement, the Census Bureau report shows that the country lost ground during Bush's two terms. While G.W. was in office, some poignant examples:

- Median household income, declined.
- Poverty, increased.
- Childhood poverty increased, (even more).
- Number of Americans without health insurance, spiked.

By contrast, the country's condition improved on each of those Census Bureau measures during the two terms while (Democrat) Bill Clinton was in the White House (often substantially). What an irony, that many of those who voted Republican during the last election (or for Bush during the preceeding two) are absolutely enraged by the possibility of any change...

Your thoughts?

H-u-m-i-l-i-t-y

Humility makes one great, and honorable twice (it directs our best thoughts to favor others, in lieu of one's self).

Hovering under a Halo of Hubris?

Hubris (/hjuːbrɪs/) (ancient Greek ὕβρις): overweening; arrogance; an outrageous act or exhibition of pride, or a disregard for basic morals, ethics, and law.

"The three chief anti-virtues of a Marketeer are: self-promotion, incompetence, and hubris."

"Don't own the personal hubris to assume that the book you're writing is going to get published."

"The antidote to hubris - to superciliousness - is (irony), that capacity to discover and systematize ideas. Or, as Emerson insisted, the development of: Consciousness, consciousness, consciousness."

"Our environmental problems originate in the hubris of imagining ourselves as the central nervous system (the brain) of nature. We're not the brain, we're the cancer."

"It's only hubris, if I fail." -Julius Caesar

Mass Extinction (underway)...

An undercover agent from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service displays endangered "Ornithoptera Alexandrae" butterflies - seized during a 'sting' (the male butterfly is at the top). Also known as "Queen Alexandra's Birdwing", the specie is among the largest and rarest in the world.



This insect has a wingspan up to one foot and can be found flying high above the rainforest in Papua New Guinea. A pair sells for more than $10,000 on the black market. Exotic living things are still being killed, to be sold to the highest bidder...

Where is this old world headed?

FREEDOM!

NORTH KOREA: a round of applause, for former U.S. President, William Jefferson Clinton!

As for you Kim Jung-il (dictator, tyrant, and criminal), most of the planet awaits your demise with great impatience. Should one of your sons (or son-in-law) perpetuate your legacy of crimes against humanity, he too shall become the bain of FREE peoples, everywhere.

A lengthy "burn" in HELL (your own) is assured...

Getting NOTHING, for something...

Ah yes, the United States of America. For the People, by the People? Country First? Good luck. Let FREEDOM ring, but Me Thinks that the time has come, to RENAME this ailing land.

Something along the lines of:

The US of E. - "The United States of Entertainment" (Vive Blueray!)
The US of G. - "The United States of Greed" (Not God?)
The US of O. - "The United States of Obama" (Wannabe god.)

That's right, E+G+O - "The U.S. of Ego" ...that of Corporate "Healthcare" America!

What with all the 'tweet' about Healthcare, seems that everyone has forgotten that those businesses are all about making MONEY (aka, "profits"). Logically, are those "operations" [pun] about "PREVENTIVE" medicine, or about "CURATIVE" medicine"? Seems to me, that having lots of unhealthy (sick) "customers" would be one heck of a lot more PROFITABLE (more so, than helping folks to "prevent" themselves from becoming ill). Or (perish the thought), by having "customers" who succeed at living within "wellness", by maintaining and enjoying, consistent Good Health!

Our grandparents had no bona fide Healthcare companies to "care" for them. (Obviously, one doesn't "miss" what one never knew.) Grandma and Grandpa had no "concerned" money makers to "share" their paycheck (during those days gone by)... You'd think that our ancestors (recent past, to ancient past) were always sickly (dropping like flies). Goodness sakes! Call a Law firm. You (might) have Mesothelioma! (Get some money for nothing, and your kicks for free?)

Geeze, "Living" itself must have been HELL for Grandma 'N Grandpa (unhealthy all the time)?

Nah. Bullscheist! Pure propoganda! Corporate America (The U.S. of Ego) has CREATED that perception of need (while the balance of Corporate America supplied "healthy" JUNK-FOOD to get the "sick people" ball, rolling). Just, drop-by for FAST-FOOD, anywhere. Then, "Ask your doctor" (for a pill to cure whatever ails you)! We've been brainwashed onto mindless pathways that lead towards POOR HEALTH. We wanted it. We suckered for it. We pay for it.

Now we're REALLY going to pay...

Hell no! I would prefer my own (independent) private Physician, one who still does housecalls (and who knows me by name). Someone who KNOWS my medical history and gives a damn.

But no, THAT would be COMMON SENSE. Alas, things are getting crazier and less sensible (less sensitive) by the day.

What is the PRICETAG on life (to remain alive)?
What is the PRICETAG on the quality (of that life)?
What is the PRICETAG of curative (vs. preventive)?

Consider this: The United States spends US$ 7,290 on health care per person, per year - while the average spent by the 30 most developed countries is US$ 2,960. It is unacceptable that we have so much more of our money tied up in health care, yet we are not delivering demonstrably better health care than many of these countries. Studies show that the U.S. ranks below average on major health indicators, including infant mortality and life expectancy, when compared with the rest of the world. We currently rank 44th in infant mortality and 30th in life expectancy, with the average American living to 78 years of age. By comparison, Japan spends $2,550 on health care per person each year - just over a third of what the U.S. spends - and boasts a life expectancy of 83 years.

Sarcasm: how in the world did our ancestors "get by" without ANY of the "Ask your Doctor" medications - before BIG pharma companies (for PROFIT), and BIG healthcare (for PROFIT) came along? The whole SCAM of health and medicine in America (The US of Ego) is a sham (there shall be no "premature exhaltation" coming [pun] from this horny old man). What does "USFDA" stand for (really)... ? Is it similar to, "FUBAR"?

For-profit healthcare will NEVER place WELLNESS or WELL-BEING of a patient first.

The current delivery system has built-in incentives to create and maintain a General Public in a POOR state of health - not prevention, not cures! Such organizations should be rewarded (paid), and allowed to innovate (profit) - but ONLY when a patient is "cured" (or kept healthy). Why should any organization be "rewarded" for failure?

Or am I crazy?

The "politics" of Healthcare, has everything to do with the "money-making" motives of Healthcare". Let's make sure that the ONLY priority is "health success". Let us ensure that profitability is NEVER allowed to be the engine that empowers a Health (Wellness) system.

As a footnote, one cannot set goals that aren't attainable. As they say in French, "La Fontaine ne peut grimper qu'à l'hauteur de sa source." (A fountain cannot surge higher than its spring.) If a Government-run Healthcare plan is to be based upon corporate profits (without the guarantees of sustainability, motivated by health-success - by placing the personal HEALTH of every INDIVIDUAL first), I'll be the first to say, "Lick my buttons!" and "Kiss my axe!"

You know, this whole process resembles a bankruptcy - that of a "Psychic-Readings" studio. Whenever one of those fails, shouldn't the resident "prognosticator" have been able to predict their own collapse, so as to have prevented the event?

Such rationale doesn't exactly instill confidence, does it?

Working hard at play? Playing hard at work?

A child's "play", is their "work". The trick in life - is to become an adult for whom, one's work IS play!

Me Thinks

Vive la France! Bastille Day!

Bonne Anniversaire la Belle France!

(My daughters are 1/2 French.)

On Time & Relativity - Part 1

The Theory of Relativity provides a sense of fascination for most thinkers, Me Thinks.

But similarly, it is often regarded as abstract, and difficult to understand. Part of that challenge is due to the fact that relativistic effects contradict everyone's, everyday experience.

When an object (of mass) moves at a velocity approaching the speed of light, it's inherent properties are changed in surprising ways. There are three relativistic effects that occur on objects with mass. These are:

1. length contraction
2. time dilation
3. mass increase

Relativistic effects occur on any object (moving at any speed), but these effects are infinitesimally insignificant (largely, very small - giggle) unless the object is moving at a noticeable fraction of the speed of light (approximately 3.0 X 10^8 m/s).

AKA: Any mass, in motion.

It's our most familiar process - one that we all know "from experience". Motion (as we "experience" it) is comprised of neither time dilation nor length contraction. A displacement at half the speed of light could correct this misjudgment (but it's not on offer just yet, I shall let you know).

Q. What is the minimum speed for relativistic effects?
A. There is no minimum speed for relativistic effects.

(Imagine that an Indy car is your 'time machine'. Your subjective elapsed time is shorter in a fast loop around the track, than it would have been if you had remained at the starting line. The catch is that at such speeds, the effect is very small - your relativistic clock would read [perhaps] slower by a couple of trillionths of a second. Eureka! Must one specify the degree of the desired relativistic effect? Yes.)

A possible alternative to an actual relativistic experience is simulation: i.e. cinematographic imagery (virtual reality). It allows us to conceptualize relativistic flight, gravitational collapse, compact objects (collapsed stars, for example) and other extreme conditions. Extreme?

Well yes, extreme to-the-extreme (very small, but large? giggle)!

The general Theory of Relativity is also a theory of gravitation. Its peculiar predictions (like the deflection of light) are not part of our everyday life (the gravity of the earth is simply too weak to impress mere mortals). Nope, there's nothing THAT extreme happening anywhere nearby, albiet our Sun does a nicer job of it. Let us look into Space. That's where the everyday experiences of even mortal men will reach those extremes. And in no time (pun).

I've yet to provide my readers (as promised) with "time words" - redefined or invented. Patience (is going to be one of them)...

At the beginning of the 20th century, the theory of relativity was considered to be one of the most difficult and abstract theories in science. This is expressed (e. g.) in Herr Einstein's famous question, "Why is it that nobody understands me and everybody likes me?" Or, in the anecdote on Sir Arthur Eddington, who (when someone remarked that he probably was "one of the three men in the world who really understood relativity theory") replied, "I do not know who might be the third."

I suspect that there are a few more than three today. Were it that everyone be so enabled, alas. Onwards. Why does time appear to run slower near a gravitational field?

General Relativity. The geometric theory of gravitation developed by Albert Einstein, incorporating and extending the theory of special relativity to accelerated frames of reference and introducing the principle that gravitational and inertial forces are equivalent. The theory has consequences for the bending of light by massive objects (the nature of Black Holes) and indeed, the fabric of space and time.

General Relativity. It predicts that time should pass more slowly when near a massive body. This is because there is a relation between the energy of light and its frequency: the greater the energy, the higher the frequency. As light travels upward in a gravitational field, it loses energy and so its frequency goes down. This means that the length of time between one wave crest and the next goes up. To an observer high up, it would appear that everything below was taking longer to happen. (This prediction was first tested in 1962 using a pair of very accurate clocks mounted at the top and bottom of a water tower. The clock at the bottom, i.e. nearer the Earth, was found to run slower, in exact agreement with General Relativity.)

Life for folks in New York (when compared to) life for folks at Denver - is INDEED a march to the beat of a different drummer! Let us not compare the "Big Apple" to the "Mile High" city, but rather to a somewhat smaller, Orange...

Do citrus trees grow in Colorado?

Did you know (relatively speaking), that the surface of the Earth (proportionately scaled) is far (FAR) smoother than the most convoluted wrinkles of an Orange peal?

And so it is...

Never give up, Never give up, Never give up!

Happy Father's Day!
To all the Dads
(And other unsung heros AKA, meritorious Step-Dads)...

See [link]:
Every Day is Father's Day

WI State Governor underwrites "Me Thinks", thinking.
See [links]:

2009 Wisconsin State Fatherhood Week

Official Gubernatorial Proclamation

From the White House, about Responsible Parenthood...
See [link]:

On the 100th anniversary of Father's Day.

Every day is Father's Day - yes, it takes a MAN to be a Dad!

Yerkes Observatory (Williams Bay, Wisconsin USA)

My son and I revisited Yerkes Observatory yesterday (yet again). It's a shrine (of sorts) to knowledge itself, Me Thinks. To maintain a father-son "tradition", we always breathe deep, and take-in an extra breath (or two), for good measure - just in case a few molecules of the air once-inhaled by Albert Einstein, yet linger...

Upon arrival in America, the celebrated German scientist was asked about his plans, to which Einstein responded, "I want to go to The Observatory!" He did quite exactly, that...

Links:

1) Yerkes Observatory (World's largest refractory telescope).
2) Albert (During his Geneva Lake visit of May 6, 1921.)
3) Theory of Relativity (casual reading for the reading casual).
After all, I did tell you (dear readers) that we would eventually engage a dicussion of, "Time" (it's being prepared, and shall be published in "due course" [pun]... ).
The same photo (of the Yerkes star-studded [pun] group) hangs on the wall of my dining room, under a clock, whereupon it is written (most suitably), "Tempus Fugit".

R.I.P. (Requiescant In Pace)

P.S. In that cherished photo, find: Herr Albert, Mr. Charles. T. Yerkes, astronomer Geo. E. Hale, and others... I am offering a prize to whomever can name EVERYONE who figures in that ever-so-historical shot. The original is preserved as a glass-plate negative (part of the archives of the University of Chicago). My copy was produced directly from that negative ...by the curator (bragging is obliged and allowed here).