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Recently I saw an older gentleman being given a gift by his family. It looked like a telescoping aerial with a fork on the end. And the gift backing said it was because he was such a “freeloader.” Apparently the idea is that the fork could be used by this greedy old man to take food away from other people’s plates.
I am certain that the people who gave this older man the gift thought that this sort of put-down, humiliation humor was great fun. Apparently they thought that the old man would really appreciate being labeled as a freeloader.
It is a bit ironic really.
This same old “freeloader” has given a very expensive wrist watch to the dad, some money to the mother to help cover her travel expenses to Europe, an SUV to one of the nephews when his wife was in need of a car (which he proceeded to give away), a GPS satellite navigation system to another nephew, and a nice digital camera to one of the nieces when her camera died. When this same niece decided to take a trip to Europe the old man gave her a European ready PDA-cellphone, and he offered to help subsidize the cost of her trip.
After being given this gift and essentially being labelled as a gluttonous freeloader, the older man thought about it for several minutes before reacting.
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Then the old guy did his best to draw up what little dignity he had left, and in a calm tone of voice mentioned that he was a bit offended by being given this gift. His reaction seemed to come as a genuine surprise to some of the young people.
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One sees so much of this put-down-humor in American society today, that many people apparently are no longer even aware of how cruel and unkind it is.
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Monday, March 31, 2008
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Car Show
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There was a really great car show today in Las Cruces, New Mexico USA. I guess that is about a 55 minute drive from my house.
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There were some nice old cars for sure!
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My friend in The Netherlands, Jean Mazajchik, is looking to buy a 65 - 71 Mustang here in America. He plans to ship it over to Holland and restore it there. So when I saw all these nice old Mustangs it made me think of him.
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Friday, March 28, 2008
New Telescope
I got a new Celestron telescope. It is a refractor type, has a 90 mm objective lens making the light gathering aperture around 3-1/2 inches, and it has a 1,000 mm focal length. In 35 mm SLR film photography equivalents, this is like having a 1,500 mm lens. The Nikon D40 camera body was directly mounted to the telescope, instead of using an eyepiece. This is called prime focus astro photography. The telescope has counterweights, and it has a pretty sturdy tripod too.
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I have gotten a bit spoiled with the motorized and computer controlled altitude-azmiuth mount on the 90 mm iOptron cassegrain reflector. The only problem is that in telescopes this size and price range, a spy glass (refractor type telescope) provides a little better image of the moon and planets than a reflector telescope does.
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But manually adjusting the declination and right ascension is sure harder than pushing the buttons down on the motorized control. Especially when you are looking through the camera viewfinder. I used a 6 megapixel Nikon digital SLR to take these two pictures. I felt like a one armed helicopter pilot who needed to scratch his ass. Lots of hands moving around in the dark, trying not to bump anything like the telescope or camera.
This morning at around 4:00 a.m. there was a beautiful moon out here in the high desert of El Paso, Texas. The moon picture was taken at ISO 200 and a shutter speed of 1/125 second.
And the gas giant planet Jupiter was sure showing off her stuff, with her 4 biggest moons being very visible. Jupiter has a diameter eleven times bigger than earth. The mass of this one giant planet is two and one half times greater than the mass of all the other planets combined. It is a lot further away than the moon, so it is dimmer. Since Jupiter is so much dimmer the camera settings needed to be ISO 800 and with a shutter open time of one full second. During PP I used the levels command in photoshop to brighten it up a little.
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Thursday, March 27, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Obama Tagged With L-Word
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Liberal is a good word, not a four letter word. Liberals care about helping out less fortunate people. Liberals want racial justice. They are in favor of improving the environment.
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Conservatives, like Cheney and Bush, reduce taxes on the wealthy, remove regulations which protect people from abuse by the robber barons, and reduce environmental protections.
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Conservatives like Ronald Reagan and the George Bush dynasty spend, spend, spend on their buddies in the military industrial complex, and on warfare. And while they are spending like drunk sailors they substantially lower taxation. Especially on rich people. Both Reagan and the Bushes have almost bankrupted the American economy.
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Even the wife of ex-President Clinton is using the word in a negative manner to criticize her opponent. It just shows that she will say or do ANYTHING in order to retain power and be elected.
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Being a liberal is something one should be very proud of, not ashamed of.
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Liberal is a good word, not a four letter word. Liberals care about helping out less fortunate people. Liberals want racial justice. They are in favor of improving the environment.
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Conservatives, like Cheney and Bush, reduce taxes on the wealthy, remove regulations which protect people from abuse by the robber barons, and reduce environmental protections.
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Conservatives like Ronald Reagan and the George Bush dynasty spend, spend, spend on their buddies in the military industrial complex, and on warfare. And while they are spending like drunk sailors they substantially lower taxation. Especially on rich people. Both Reagan and the Bushes have almost bankrupted the American economy.
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Even the wife of ex-President Clinton is using the word in a negative manner to criticize her opponent. It just shows that she will say or do ANYTHING in order to retain power and be elected.
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Being a liberal is something one should be very proud of, not ashamed of.
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Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Oprah Winfrey
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In the supermarket check out line today I was reading the cover of a tabloid. The headlines said that Oprah's weight is up to 240 lbs. (108.9 kg). When I got home I looked it up on the internet, and her height is 5'5.5" (166.36 cm).
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My height is 5'10.75" (179.71 cm). My bathroom scale is calibrated in kilograms since I bought it in Europe. I weighed in at exactly 100 kg, which is 15.7 Stone, or 220.5 lbs. I'm not exactly a lightweight myself, but I've got a long way to go before I reach Oprah's body mass index.
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With my little doggie I walk out in the desert each day 2 miles (3.22 km). Sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. But I check the distance each day on the GPS, so the distance really is accurate. For a guy who has leukemia, which is a type of malignant cancer which affects the bone marrow and lowers the body's ability to fight disease, I think I'm doing pretty good.
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In the supermarket check out line today I was reading the cover of a tabloid. The headlines said that Oprah's weight is up to 240 lbs. (108.9 kg). When I got home I looked it up on the internet, and her height is 5'5.5" (166.36 cm).
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My height is 5'10.75" (179.71 cm). My bathroom scale is calibrated in kilograms since I bought it in Europe. I weighed in at exactly 100 kg, which is 15.7 Stone, or 220.5 lbs. I'm not exactly a lightweight myself, but I've got a long way to go before I reach Oprah's body mass index.
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With my little doggie I walk out in the desert each day 2 miles (3.22 km). Sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. But I check the distance each day on the GPS, so the distance really is accurate. For a guy who has leukemia, which is a type of malignant cancer which affects the bone marrow and lowers the body's ability to fight disease, I think I'm doing pretty good.
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Monday, March 24, 2008
Bill Richardson Endorses Obama
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Many Americans are tired of rudeness, discourtesy, and impoliteness. One of the reasons for John McCain's popularity, as well as that of Barack Obama and Bill Richardson is that they are all polite and courteous people.
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Over the weekend New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) said that the people around Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) practice "gutter" politics and that they feel entitled to the presidency.
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Well said Guv!
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Many Americans are tired of rudeness, discourtesy, and impoliteness. One of the reasons for John McCain's popularity, as well as that of Barack Obama and Bill Richardson is that they are all polite and courteous people.
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Over the weekend New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) said that the people around Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) practice "gutter" politics and that they feel entitled to the presidency.
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Well said Guv!
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Sunday, March 23, 2008
Partying Like It's 1929
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I took a lot of Economics both as an undergraduate at UTEP and in Graduate School from Ball State University. It is important that intelligent, well educated people understand what works and what doesn't in the national economy.
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Paul Krugman has written a short article for the New York Times which does a good job of describing how the economy got in the current mess. Krugman is an American economist, columnist, author, and intellectual. He is professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University, and is also a columnist for The New York Times, writing a twice-weekly op-ed for the newspaper.
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He argues very effectively that the stock market crash of 1929 wasn't the primary cause of the Great Depression, rather it was the run on the banks in 1930 and 1931. He says that "We chose to forget what happened in the 1930s — and having refused to learn from history, we’re repeating it."
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And that the problems in the American economy today are largely due to politicians allowing bankers and other top financiers to get out from under any form of regulation by governmental authorities. He doesn't say this, but the politicians he is talking about largely are the same type of greed driven free market types who believed in the mythical new economy (read Republicans).
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--------------------- De-Regulation is the problem, not the solution.
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His article in the New York Times is very well written. I highly recommend it. It won't take you five minutes to read this. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/opinion/21krugman.html?em&ex=1206417600&en=4f9f34d7a7f3fb32&ei=5087%0A
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In the highly respected German Magazine Der Spiegel Paul Krugman spells it out even more clearly. He goes into specificis about why McCain's economic policies would be bad for the economy, and how the Clintons were participants in getting us to where we are now.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,543074,00.html
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I took a lot of Economics both as an undergraduate at UTEP and in Graduate School from Ball State University. It is important that intelligent, well educated people understand what works and what doesn't in the national economy.
--
Paul Krugman has written a short article for the New York Times which does a good job of describing how the economy got in the current mess. Krugman is an American economist, columnist, author, and intellectual. He is professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University, and is also a columnist for The New York Times, writing a twice-weekly op-ed for the newspaper.
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He argues very effectively that the stock market crash of 1929 wasn't the primary cause of the Great Depression, rather it was the run on the banks in 1930 and 1931. He says that "We chose to forget what happened in the 1930s — and having refused to learn from history, we’re repeating it."
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And that the problems in the American economy today are largely due to politicians allowing bankers and other top financiers to get out from under any form of regulation by governmental authorities. He doesn't say this, but the politicians he is talking about largely are the same type of greed driven free market types who believed in the mythical new economy (read Republicans).
-
--------------------- De-Regulation is the problem, not the solution.
-
His article in the New York Times is very well written. I highly recommend it. It won't take you five minutes to read this. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/opinion/21krugman.html?em&ex=1206417600&en=4f9f34d7a7f3fb32&ei=5087%0A
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In the highly respected German Magazine Der Spiegel Paul Krugman spells it out even more clearly. He goes into specificis about why McCain's economic policies would be bad for the economy, and how the Clintons were participants in getting us to where we are now.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,543074,00.html
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Friday, March 21, 2008
Howl!
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In about 45 minutes the full moon will rise.
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And today is the birthday of Mexican dictator Benito Juarez, and also is the Spring Equinox. I have three tripods set up. Two with telescopes that I will mount to my Nikon SLR bodies. One is a 60mm refractor, the other is a computer controller motorized mount 90mm cassegrain, and then I have the 500mm Nikor mirror lens with a 2X teletender hooked up to it.
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Maybe I won't get even one decent full moon pic. But I doubt it with all this hardware.
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Later. Over 100 photos later I culled it down to this one. I am happy.
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------------------------ (CLICK ON IT AND IT WILL ENLARGE)
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Good Friday
Christians can believe whatever they want. Pretty much. As long as they don’t try to convert me to their religion, and they don’t go killing people over the issue of religion.
I was raised a Christian. I was baptized and then confirmed in the Episcopalian - Anglican church. I even wore the long black dress and helped the Padre out with Sunday services. I stood up on the stage just like him. I didn’t really have a very important job though. I was the douser. When the time came to put out the candles, using the little brass bell without a clanger in it, which was mounted on the end of a broom handle like stick, I would go around in my cute black dress and extinguish the candles. All a part of the ceremony. The light show, music show, and the rituals that get people all stirred up and filled with religious fervor before the collection plate is passed around.
Today is Good Friday. Now here is the story:
“It’s the day Christ died on the cross,” the Rev. Dee Sim, pastor of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Menasha, said of Good Friday. Christ died for our sins so we would have new life in him. It is similar to the whole idea of baptism, she said.
Can you figure this out? This Jewish guy was a good man. And he got executed in a horribly degrading manner because he opposed the Roman Empire’s power structure. I have never felt real comfortable about calling this day “Good Friday.”
The miracle of Christ’s Easter resurrection is the basis of Christianity. The Bible’s Romans 10:9 says the two things needed to go to heaven after death are confessing your sins and believing God raised his son from the dead.
And then there is the part about the unmarried young lady getting pregnant with God’s child even though she was still a virgin. Oh Yes, right. Of course she never had sex with a guy. You Bet.
And then after a couple of days the corpse, who was really completely dead and well rotten and putrid, comes back to life. Only his girlfriend sees him back alive and reborn. But she isn’t allowed to hug him or touch him in any way.
Does much of this ring true to you?
Easter is about Peter Rabbit and hunting colored hard boiled eggs. It is a nice fairy tale just like Santa Claus, Little Red Riding Hood, Alice In Wonderland, and the Tooth Fairy. And the stories about the Carpenter from Nazareth are good fairy tales too.
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Postscript: A good friend’s long time dog (best friend) died today. About 5 minutes before she died she came over to my friend and leaned up against him. Then Sheba proceeded to die. He got down on the floor with her and comforted her during the last minutes. She was a very nice dog. I really don’t feel one bit comfortable about calling today Good Friday.
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I was raised a Christian. I was baptized and then confirmed in the Episcopalian - Anglican church. I even wore the long black dress and helped the Padre out with Sunday services. I stood up on the stage just like him. I didn’t really have a very important job though. I was the douser. When the time came to put out the candles, using the little brass bell without a clanger in it, which was mounted on the end of a broom handle like stick, I would go around in my cute black dress and extinguish the candles. All a part of the ceremony. The light show, music show, and the rituals that get people all stirred up and filled with religious fervor before the collection plate is passed around.
Today is Good Friday. Now here is the story:
“It’s the day Christ died on the cross,” the Rev. Dee Sim, pastor of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Menasha, said of Good Friday. Christ died for our sins so we would have new life in him. It is similar to the whole idea of baptism, she said.
Can you figure this out? This Jewish guy was a good man. And he got executed in a horribly degrading manner because he opposed the Roman Empire’s power structure. I have never felt real comfortable about calling this day “Good Friday.”
The miracle of Christ’s Easter resurrection is the basis of Christianity. The Bible’s Romans 10:9 says the two things needed to go to heaven after death are confessing your sins and believing God raised his son from the dead.
And then there is the part about the unmarried young lady getting pregnant with God’s child even though she was still a virgin. Oh Yes, right. Of course she never had sex with a guy. You Bet.
And then after a couple of days the corpse, who was really completely dead and well rotten and putrid, comes back to life. Only his girlfriend sees him back alive and reborn. But she isn’t allowed to hug him or touch him in any way.
Does much of this ring true to you?
Easter is about Peter Rabbit and hunting colored hard boiled eggs. It is a nice fairy tale just like Santa Claus, Little Red Riding Hood, Alice In Wonderland, and the Tooth Fairy. And the stories about the Carpenter from Nazareth are good fairy tales too.
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Postscript: A good friend’s long time dog (best friend) died today. About 5 minutes before she died she came over to my friend and leaned up against him. Then Sheba proceeded to die. He got down on the floor with her and comforted her during the last minutes. She was a very nice dog. I really don’t feel one bit comfortable about calling today Good Friday.
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Thursday, March 20, 2008
The American Dream
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There is a new poll that was conducted by the Harvard University School of Public Health and Harris Interactive. It shows that there is a very clear distinction between the Democratic and Republican perceptions regarding healthcare in America.
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Republicans overwhelmingly think (68%) that America has the best health care system in the world, so in other words it doesn't require fixing. Of the people who consider themselves allied with the Democratic political party only 32% agree that the American health care system is the best in the world.
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Much more money per person is being spent on healthcare in America than in any other country. But in America there are almost 50 million people who do not have health insurance. And America is well below the top tier in terms of overall life span, and also well below the top in terms of child mortality rates.
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What can we deduce from this? In general Republicans are less concerned with helping out disadvantaged people. They can be described as being obsessed with profit and getting rich. So they are somewhat more willing to "step over" other people to get the money they crave. Greed. And apparently they find it easy to ignore the suffering of the downtrodden, thinking "This could never happen to me."
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This split between the greedy money grubbers and people who have a social conscience is nothing new. Two thousand years ago a Jewish carpenter turned prophet was outraged by the bankers setting up shop inside of the church. In the UK they have the same split between Tories and Labor. Germany has the same conflict between the Social Democrats and their greed driven opposition, the Christian Democrats. Think about Scrooge and Tiny Tim.
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After the great economic crisis caused by financial speculation occurred in 1929 President Franklin D. Roosevelt came to the conclusion that the free enterprise system, capitalism, and the free market economy was doomed unless the government implemented some essential regulations, laws, and controls on banks and investment houses. This from a man who was from the very most upper social class in America. The concept that one of the core duties of the federal government is to protect the ordinary people from the powerful and wealthy was new to America.
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Under the Republican administrations of the actor Ronald Reagan and the father and son team George Bush I and II, many of these regulations and controls protecting the American economy and normal middle class people have been scrapped. The free market and de-regulation has been the altar they have worshipped on. Their mantra.
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Because banks are no longer properly regulated, the home mortgage industry implemented the largest scam on home owners ever to ever take place anywhere in the world. And because they were no longer properly regulated they bundled these substandard loans and sold them off around the world.
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American Republican businessmen didn't want to implement child labor laws, environmental laws, or the minimum wage. They wanted to do whatever they felt like, with no oversight from the government regulators. So they donated large amount of money to help politicians get elected who would do what they wanted: Scrap these social conscience laws.
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To get around the minimum wage, child labor laws, and environmental laws a great many companies shut down their production facilities in America and had companies overseas begin making their products. They supported the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and other similar swindles which allowed them to get around these laws protecting the environment and the middle class, common working man.
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Because of this de-regulation the American economy has lost much of its manufacturing base. This devotion to free trade, and the tremendous amount of money that has been spent on waging wars in various countries around the world, has resulted in the unprecedented fall in value (devaluation) of the American Dollar.
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This is just the latest chapter in the same old story. One sees it all over the world. The Robber Barons versus the great majority of common working people.
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What can any of us do about this?
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No longer blindly follow the creed of the free market. Markets require a certain amount of government regulation or there will be a continuous cycle of boom and bust. Support (and vote for) politicians who oppose the Robber Barons. In general this means not voting for the Tories or the Republicans. The conflict between Senators Clinton and Obama is almost certain to destroy the chances of either being elected. So in the year that it was completely CERTAIN that there would no longer be a Republican president, America may well end up with another one.
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And when anyone who earns less than $150,000 per year begins extolling the virtues of reduced governmental regulation and supporting free trade, take the time to try and straighten them out.
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-
-
There is a new poll that was conducted by the Harvard University School of Public Health and Harris Interactive. It shows that there is a very clear distinction between the Democratic and Republican perceptions regarding healthcare in America.
-
Republicans overwhelmingly think (68%) that America has the best health care system in the world, so in other words it doesn't require fixing. Of the people who consider themselves allied with the Democratic political party only 32% agree that the American health care system is the best in the world.
-
Much more money per person is being spent on healthcare in America than in any other country. But in America there are almost 50 million people who do not have health insurance. And America is well below the top tier in terms of overall life span, and also well below the top in terms of child mortality rates.
-
What can we deduce from this? In general Republicans are less concerned with helping out disadvantaged people. They can be described as being obsessed with profit and getting rich. So they are somewhat more willing to "step over" other people to get the money they crave. Greed. And apparently they find it easy to ignore the suffering of the downtrodden, thinking "This could never happen to me."
-
This split between the greedy money grubbers and people who have a social conscience is nothing new. Two thousand years ago a Jewish carpenter turned prophet was outraged by the bankers setting up shop inside of the church. In the UK they have the same split between Tories and Labor. Germany has the same conflict between the Social Democrats and their greed driven opposition, the Christian Democrats. Think about Scrooge and Tiny Tim.
-
After the great economic crisis caused by financial speculation occurred in 1929 President Franklin D. Roosevelt came to the conclusion that the free enterprise system, capitalism, and the free market economy was doomed unless the government implemented some essential regulations, laws, and controls on banks and investment houses. This from a man who was from the very most upper social class in America. The concept that one of the core duties of the federal government is to protect the ordinary people from the powerful and wealthy was new to America.
-
Under the Republican administrations of the actor Ronald Reagan and the father and son team George Bush I and II, many of these regulations and controls protecting the American economy and normal middle class people have been scrapped. The free market and de-regulation has been the altar they have worshipped on. Their mantra.
-
Because banks are no longer properly regulated, the home mortgage industry implemented the largest scam on home owners ever to ever take place anywhere in the world. And because they were no longer properly regulated they bundled these substandard loans and sold them off around the world.
-
American Republican businessmen didn't want to implement child labor laws, environmental laws, or the minimum wage. They wanted to do whatever they felt like, with no oversight from the government regulators. So they donated large amount of money to help politicians get elected who would do what they wanted: Scrap these social conscience laws.
-
To get around the minimum wage, child labor laws, and environmental laws a great many companies shut down their production facilities in America and had companies overseas begin making their products. They supported the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and other similar swindles which allowed them to get around these laws protecting the environment and the middle class, common working man.
-
Because of this de-regulation the American economy has lost much of its manufacturing base. This devotion to free trade, and the tremendous amount of money that has been spent on waging wars in various countries around the world, has resulted in the unprecedented fall in value (devaluation) of the American Dollar.
-
This is just the latest chapter in the same old story. One sees it all over the world. The Robber Barons versus the great majority of common working people.
-
What can any of us do about this?
-
No longer blindly follow the creed of the free market. Markets require a certain amount of government regulation or there will be a continuous cycle of boom and bust. Support (and vote for) politicians who oppose the Robber Barons. In general this means not voting for the Tories or the Republicans. The conflict between Senators Clinton and Obama is almost certain to destroy the chances of either being elected. So in the year that it was completely CERTAIN that there would no longer be a Republican president, America may well end up with another one.
-
And when anyone who earns less than $150,000 per year begins extolling the virtues of reduced governmental regulation and supporting free trade, take the time to try and straighten them out.
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Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Star Gazing
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----------------------- (click on any of the pictures and they will enlarge)
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When I was living in Europe I had a nice motorized, computer controlled telescope. Before I moved back to America I gave it to my best friend. He has two boys, and I thought they would all enjoy it.
When the new J.C. Penny store opened nearby my house here in El Paso, Texas they had some really fine introductory/teaser prices. I bought a Meade RB-60 telescope there. It normally sells
for about $100 but right now it is on sale at Amazon.com for $40-. It is the traditional "spy glass" refractor design. Considering the price it is a good telescope.
It has a 60 mm diameter aperture (light gathering lens) and a focal length of 700 mm.
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It does have some problems though when you mount a relatively heavy Nikon D80 DSLR camera body on it. The brake keeping it pointed at the right elevation is made of plastic, and it broke to pieces under the burden of this much weight. So I had to make my own brake using some fine grit sandpaper/emery cloth. The Meade telescope has no counter weight, and with the camera body mounted it was very back heavy, so I added a home made counter weight using little stones that I have tumbled glossy in zip lock bags held on to the scope tube with duct tape. Ugly. Really very unattractive, but it works.
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But the tripod is just not up to this much weight, with the camera and the counter weights, so in the slightest little very light breeze it shakes badly. Still, it has allowed me to take some great moon pictures like this one on the left.
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Fortunately we are in the digital age, so even if 2/3 of the pictures are blurry due to camera/telescope shake it is no big deal.
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My new telescope came in yesterday evening. I assembled it before going to bed. And at about 3:00 a.m. this morning I got up to try it out in the dark.
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Rather than the spy glass/refractor design, this is variation on the reflector type design.-It is a more modern variation on the reflector telescope design called a cassegrain. And then there is an extra lens on the front, a full diameter meniscus lens (commonly called a "corrector plate") to correct the problems of off-axis aberrations such as coma found in reflecting telescopes while avoiding chromatic aberration.
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This turns it into a Maksutov-Cassegrai
n.
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It has a 90 mm diameter aperture (light gathering capacity), and even though the telescope is very short physically, it has a focal length of 1,200 mm. Going from a tube 60 mm in diameter to one 90 mm in diameter doesn't seem like that big a deal, but do the math and compute the area. Pi time radius squared. One finds that a 90 mm lens compared with a 60 mm lens means that it gathers 2-1/2 times are much light. You don't need this if you are only going to look at the craters on the moon, but when you want to view dimmer objects, like nebulas or distant glaxies, it really is helpful.
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LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maksutov_telescope
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It has a built in GPS so it knows exactly where it is located, and it has separate motors to control the rotation and the elevation. So it can automatically track the apparent movement of astronomical objects as the earth turns. This is essential for any long exposure astro photography.
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There is a USB plug so that you can control the telescope with your laptop if you wish, which I do not. Once you get the telescope oriented, which is not terribly hard at all, then it can automatically go to lots of different neat and wonderful things out in space that are stored in its data base.
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----------------------- (click on any of the pictures and they will enlarge)
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When I was living in Europe I had a nice motorized, computer controlled telescope. Before I moved back to America I gave it to my best friend. He has two boys, and I thought they would all enjoy it.
When the new J.C. Penny store opened nearby my house here in El Paso, Texas they had some really fine introductory/teaser prices. I bought a Meade RB-60 telescope there. It normally sells
for about $100 but right now it is on sale at Amazon.com for $40-. It is the traditional "spy glass" refractor design. Considering the price it is a good telescope.It has a 60 mm diameter aperture (light gathering lens) and a focal length of 700 mm.
-
It does have some problems though when you mount a relatively heavy Nikon D80 DSLR camera body on it. The brake keeping it pointed at the right elevation is made of plastic, and it broke to pieces under the burden of this much weight. So I had to make my own brake using some fine grit sandpaper/emery cloth. The Meade telescope has no counter weight, and with the camera body mounted it was very back heavy, so I added a home made counter weight using little stones that I have tumbled glossy in zip lock bags held on to the scope tube with duct tape. Ugly. Really very unattractive, but it works.
0
But the tripod is just not up to this much weight, with the camera and the counter weights, so in the slightest little very light breeze it shakes badly. Still, it has allowed me to take some great moon pictures like this one on the left.-
Fortunately we are in the digital age, so even if 2/3 of the pictures are blurry due to camera/telescope shake it is no big deal.
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My new telescope came in yesterday evening. I assembled it before going to bed. And at about 3:00 a.m. this morning I got up to try it out in the dark.
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Rather than the spy glass/refractor design, this is variation on the reflector type design.-It is a more modern variation on the reflector telescope design called a cassegrain. And then there is an extra lens on the front, a full diameter meniscus lens (commonly called a "corrector plate") to correct the problems of off-axis aberrations such as coma found in reflecting telescopes while avoiding chromatic aberration.
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This turns it into a Maksutov-Cassegrai
n.-
It has a 90 mm diameter aperture (light gathering capacity), and even though the telescope is very short physically, it has a focal length of 1,200 mm. Going from a tube 60 mm in diameter to one 90 mm in diameter doesn't seem like that big a deal, but do the math and compute the area. Pi time radius squared. One finds that a 90 mm lens compared with a 60 mm lens means that it gathers 2-1/2 times are much light. You don't need this if you are only going to look at the craters on the moon, but when you want to view dimmer objects, like nebulas or distant glaxies, it really is helpful.
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LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maksutov_telescope-
It has a built in GPS so it knows exactly where it is located, and it has separate motors to control the rotation and the elevation. So it can automatically track the apparent movement of astronomical objects as the earth turns. This is essential for any long exposure astro photography.
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There is a USB plug so that you can control the telescope with your laptop if you wish, which I do not. Once you get the telescope oriented, which is not terribly hard at all, then it can automatically go to lots of different neat and wonderful things out in space that are stored in its data base.
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Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Arthur C. Clarke
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I just read that he has died at age 90.
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What a wonderful scientist and writer. The concept of geostationary satellites (like are used for satellite TV) was his idea. Years ago.
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Really a true gentleman.
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Ordinary Everyday Murderers
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The excellent German publication Der Spiegel published an article today of such extraordinary importance that I have copied it in its entirety below. My Aunt was a delightful, wonderful lady. She was a medical student in Germany when WWII broke out. She told me on several occasions that the normal people had no idea what was happening to the Jews.
-
-
--------------- Nazi Atrocities, Committed by Ordinary People
--------------------------------------------- By Georg Bönisch and Klaus Wiegrefe
-
From doctors to opera singers, teachers to truant schoolchildren, the extermination of European Jews was the work of roughly 200,000 ordinary Germans and their helpers. Years of research -- not yet complete -- reveal how sane members of a modern society committed murder for an evil regime.
-
Walter Mattner, a police secretary from Vienna, was there in October 1941 when 2,273 Jews were shot to death in Mogilyov in Belarus. He later wrote to his wife: "My hand was shaking a bit with the first cars. By the tenth car, I was aiming calmly and shooting dependably at the many women, children and babies. Bearing in mind that I have two babies at home, I knew that they would suffer exactly the same treatment, if not ten times as bad, at the hands of these hordes." After World War II, it was obvious to most observers that such acts could only have been committed by sadists and psychopaths, under orders from a handful of principal war criminals surrounding Adolf Hitler. It was a comforting way of looking at things, because it meant that ordinary people were not the real perpetrators.
-
But the horrifying results of an opinion poll that the Americans conducted in their occupation zone in October 1945 could have raised doubts even then about the version of the story that blames everything on a few pathological criminals. Twenty percent of the respondents "agreed with Hitler's treatment of the Jews." Another 19 percent said that although they felt that his policies toward Jews were exaggerated, they were fundamentally correct.
-
It took until the 1990s before historians and other experts embarked on a large-scale search for those men (and women) who carried out the Holocaust. The research isn't complete yet, but the results available to date are shocking.
-
The researchers found that the perpetrators included both committed Nazis and people who had nothing to do with the Nazis. The murderers and their assistants included Catholics and Protestants, the old and the young, people with double doctorates and poorly educated members of the working class. And the percentage of psychopaths was not higher than the average in society as a whole.
-
The number of perpetrators is now estimated at 200,000 Germans (and Austrians). They were police officers like Walter Mattner, concentration-camp personnel, members of the SS, or administrators. Another 200,000 Estonians, Ukrainians, Lithuanians and other foreigners also helped kill Jews, some because they were forced to do so and others voluntarily.
-
Crimes of Conviction, Crimes of Excess
Like Satan in the Old Testament, evil had many faces. There were those who committed crimes out of conviction, the dedicated Nazis in the police force -- members of the SS and the military who, like Hitler, were convinced that the Jews were the root of all evil. Some committed their first murders in the 1920s and 1930s. There were also those who committed crimes of excess, taking advantage of the Jews' lack of rights in Eastern Europe to rape and steal. In Western Galicia, for example, members of the occupation police force would spend their free time shooting Jews in the ghetto or blackmailing them for their jewelry.
-
There were those who just carried out orders from above, like Major Trapp of Reserve Police Battalion 101. According to witness testimony, Major Trapp was in tears when he ordered the shooting of 1,500 women, children and elderly Jews near Warsaw, all the while saying: "An order is an order!" In July 1942, his men drove the victims out of their houses, loaded them into trucks and took them to a remote clearing to be executed. They shot them in the head or in the back of the neck, and in the evenings the soldiers' uniforms were covered with bone fragments, brain matter and bloodstains.
-
Just as there is usually more than one perpetrator, there is a host of reasons why perfectly normal men turn to murder: years of indoctrination, blind faith in leaders, a sense of duty and obedience, peer pressure, the downplaying of violence as a result of wartime experiences, not to mention the lust for Jewish property.
-
One man who seemed to have no trouble switching from his desk to the massacres in the East was Dortmund native Walter Blume, born in 1906, the son of a teacher and a lawyer who completed the German equivalent of the bar examination with a poor grade of "adequate." Nevertheless, in 1932 Blume got a job as an assistant judge on the district court in his hometown.
-
Blume's career in the Hitler regime started on March 1, 1933, shortly after the Nazis came to power. His first position was as head of the political division at the police headquarters in Dortmund. After joining the Nazi Party and the Storm Troopers (SA), he became head of the Nazi secret police, or Gestapo, in the eastern city of Halle, in Hannover and later in the capital Berlin. The main purpose of rapid rotation in high-ranking positions, typical of the Gestapo, was to provide opportunities to gather repressive experience.
-
Starting on March 1, 1941, Blume headed the personnel department in Division I of the so-called Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Main Office, or RSHA). His first assignment was to assemble suitable personnel for one of the murder commandos of the so-called Einsatzgruppen (Special Action Groups), a force consisting of roughly 3,000 men, known as the "Gestapo on Wheels." This group followed Hitler's army as it marched eastward and was charged with the immediate liquidation of "Jewish Bolshevism" and the "excision of radical elements."
-
Blume himself led a unit known as Special Commando 7a, which was part of Einsatzgruppe B. According to Blume's own records, his unit killed roughly 24,000 people in Belarus and Russia between June and September 1941. A short time later, Blume returned to the RSHA, where he was promoted to the position of division head and SS banner leader. In August 1943, he went to Athens, where he and two associates of Adolf Eichmann organized the deportation of Greek Jews to the Auschwitz extermination camp.
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Blume was placed on trial in Nuremberg in September 1947, together with 22 other men, whose regular occupations qualified them as members of upper-class civil society. They included a dentist, a professor, an opera singer, a Protestant pastor, a teacher -- and a few journalists. Fourteen were sentenced to death, but only in four cases was the sentence carried out. US High Commissioner John McCloy pardoned the rest, including Blume, and they were gradually released from prison over the years. Blume went on to become a businessman.
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Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
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LINK: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,542245,00.html
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The excellent German publication Der Spiegel published an article today of such extraordinary importance that I have copied it in its entirety below. My Aunt was a delightful, wonderful lady. She was a medical student in Germany when WWII broke out. She told me on several occasions that the normal people had no idea what was happening to the Jews.
-
-
--------------- Nazi Atrocities, Committed by Ordinary People
--------------------------------------------- By Georg Bönisch and Klaus Wiegrefe
-
From doctors to opera singers, teachers to truant schoolchildren, the extermination of European Jews was the work of roughly 200,000 ordinary Germans and their helpers. Years of research -- not yet complete -- reveal how sane members of a modern society committed murder for an evil regime.
-
Walter Mattner, a police secretary from Vienna, was there in October 1941 when 2,273 Jews were shot to death in Mogilyov in Belarus. He later wrote to his wife: "My hand was shaking a bit with the first cars. By the tenth car, I was aiming calmly and shooting dependably at the many women, children and babies. Bearing in mind that I have two babies at home, I knew that they would suffer exactly the same treatment, if not ten times as bad, at the hands of these hordes." After World War II, it was obvious to most observers that such acts could only have been committed by sadists and psychopaths, under orders from a handful of principal war criminals surrounding Adolf Hitler. It was a comforting way of looking at things, because it meant that ordinary people were not the real perpetrators.
-
But the horrifying results of an opinion poll that the Americans conducted in their occupation zone in October 1945 could have raised doubts even then about the version of the story that blames everything on a few pathological criminals. Twenty percent of the respondents "agreed with Hitler's treatment of the Jews." Another 19 percent said that although they felt that his policies toward Jews were exaggerated, they were fundamentally correct.
-
It took until the 1990s before historians and other experts embarked on a large-scale search for those men (and women) who carried out the Holocaust. The research isn't complete yet, but the results available to date are shocking.
-
The researchers found that the perpetrators included both committed Nazis and people who had nothing to do with the Nazis. The murderers and their assistants included Catholics and Protestants, the old and the young, people with double doctorates and poorly educated members of the working class. And the percentage of psychopaths was not higher than the average in society as a whole.
-
The number of perpetrators is now estimated at 200,000 Germans (and Austrians). They were police officers like Walter Mattner, concentration-camp personnel, members of the SS, or administrators. Another 200,000 Estonians, Ukrainians, Lithuanians and other foreigners also helped kill Jews, some because they were forced to do so and others voluntarily.
-
Crimes of Conviction, Crimes of Excess
Like Satan in the Old Testament, evil had many faces. There were those who committed crimes out of conviction, the dedicated Nazis in the police force -- members of the SS and the military who, like Hitler, were convinced that the Jews were the root of all evil. Some committed their first murders in the 1920s and 1930s. There were also those who committed crimes of excess, taking advantage of the Jews' lack of rights in Eastern Europe to rape and steal. In Western Galicia, for example, members of the occupation police force would spend their free time shooting Jews in the ghetto or blackmailing them for their jewelry.
-
There were those who just carried out orders from above, like Major Trapp of Reserve Police Battalion 101. According to witness testimony, Major Trapp was in tears when he ordered the shooting of 1,500 women, children and elderly Jews near Warsaw, all the while saying: "An order is an order!" In July 1942, his men drove the victims out of their houses, loaded them into trucks and took them to a remote clearing to be executed. They shot them in the head or in the back of the neck, and in the evenings the soldiers' uniforms were covered with bone fragments, brain matter and bloodstains.
-
Just as there is usually more than one perpetrator, there is a host of reasons why perfectly normal men turn to murder: years of indoctrination, blind faith in leaders, a sense of duty and obedience, peer pressure, the downplaying of violence as a result of wartime experiences, not to mention the lust for Jewish property.
-
One man who seemed to have no trouble switching from his desk to the massacres in the East was Dortmund native Walter Blume, born in 1906, the son of a teacher and a lawyer who completed the German equivalent of the bar examination with a poor grade of "adequate." Nevertheless, in 1932 Blume got a job as an assistant judge on the district court in his hometown.
-
Blume's career in the Hitler regime started on March 1, 1933, shortly after the Nazis came to power. His first position was as head of the political division at the police headquarters in Dortmund. After joining the Nazi Party and the Storm Troopers (SA), he became head of the Nazi secret police, or Gestapo, in the eastern city of Halle, in Hannover and later in the capital Berlin. The main purpose of rapid rotation in high-ranking positions, typical of the Gestapo, was to provide opportunities to gather repressive experience.
-
Starting on March 1, 1941, Blume headed the personnel department in Division I of the so-called Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Main Office, or RSHA). His first assignment was to assemble suitable personnel for one of the murder commandos of the so-called Einsatzgruppen (Special Action Groups), a force consisting of roughly 3,000 men, known as the "Gestapo on Wheels." This group followed Hitler's army as it marched eastward and was charged with the immediate liquidation of "Jewish Bolshevism" and the "excision of radical elements."
-
Blume himself led a unit known as Special Commando 7a, which was part of Einsatzgruppe B. According to Blume's own records, his unit killed roughly 24,000 people in Belarus and Russia between June and September 1941. A short time later, Blume returned to the RSHA, where he was promoted to the position of division head and SS banner leader. In August 1943, he went to Athens, where he and two associates of Adolf Eichmann organized the deportation of Greek Jews to the Auschwitz extermination camp.
-
Blume was placed on trial in Nuremberg in September 1947, together with 22 other men, whose regular occupations qualified them as members of upper-class civil society. They included a dentist, a professor, an opera singer, a Protestant pastor, a teacher -- and a few journalists. Fourteen were sentenced to death, but only in four cases was the sentence carried out. US High Commissioner John McCloy pardoned the rest, including Blume, and they were gradually released from prison over the years. Blume went on to become a businessman.
-
Most of the perpetrators were never punished. There have been 6,500 convictions to date, and only 1,200 of them were for murder or manslaughter.-
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Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
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LINK: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,542245,00.html
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Monday, March 17, 2008
Ultravolet Light
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Light can be described by the length of its sine wave, just like radio waves can. Typically the
human eye can see from 380 to 750 nanometers. Lots of other animals, reptiles, and insects can see perfectly well the colors that are beyond the range that humans can.
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Red is on the long wave part of the spectrum at approx 725 nm. And blue or purple is at the shorter wave length end of the spectrum around 400 nm.
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Beyond the blue or purple is the light which we cannot see (but lots of insects and animals can see). It is called ultraviolet light or UV. Some minerals have an interesting property: When they are illuminated with ultraviolet light (which is invisible to the human eye), they emit light in the part of the spectrum which is visible to humans. This is called fluorescence. If the visible light continues even after the UV light is shut off, this is known as phosphorescence.
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The cheap black lights that you can buy at Wal-Mart emit longwave UV light which has a wavelength of around 400 - 315 nm. This is also called UV-A. A good commercial light will typically emit light at 368 nm.
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You have to spend more to get a light which shines as shortwave UV about 280 - 100 nm. This is known as UV-C. It is germicidal and hazardous to your eyes. You need to wear glasses which stop the UV-C if you are going to be around it. 254 nm is the common wavelength of commercial lamps.
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Between LW and SW UV is UV-B or medium wave UV light. Many commercially available medium wave lights shine at 312 nm. It is so neat to look at minerals which fluoresce in 3 distinctly different colors when illuminated by each of the above colors of UV light. I now own two shortwave UV lamps made by Don Newsome of UV Systems. LINK: http://www.uvsystems.com/
I also have two Way Too Cool lamps made by William Gardner. LINK: http://www.fluorescents.com/uv.html
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The build quality is excellent from both manufacturers. I would recommend both. It has taken me about a year to come to this conclusion, but after using the lights from both companies under many different circumstances, I clearly think you get more for your money with the Way Too Cool lamps.
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Light can be described by the length of its sine wave, just like radio waves can. Typically the
human eye can see from 380 to 750 nanometers. Lots of other animals, reptiles, and insects can see perfectly well the colors that are beyond the range that humans can.-
Red is on the long wave part of the spectrum at approx 725 nm. And blue or purple is at the shorter wave length end of the spectrum around 400 nm.
-
Beyond the blue or purple is the light which we cannot see (but lots of insects and animals can see). It is called ultraviolet light or UV. Some minerals have an interesting property: When they are illuminated with ultraviolet light (which is invisible to the human eye), they emit light in the part of the spectrum which is visible to humans. This is called fluorescence. If the visible light continues even after the UV light is shut off, this is known as phosphorescence.
-
The cheap black lights that you can buy at Wal-Mart emit longwave UV light which has a wavelength of around 400 - 315 nm. This is also called UV-A. A good commercial light will typically emit light at 368 nm.-
You have to spend more to get a light which shines as shortwave UV about 280 - 100 nm. This is known as UV-C. It is germicidal and hazardous to your eyes. You need to wear glasses which stop the UV-C if you are going to be around it. 254 nm is the common wavelength of commercial lamps.
-
Between LW and SW UV is UV-B or medium wave UV light. Many commercially available medium wave lights shine at 312 nm. It is so neat to look at minerals which fluoresce in 3 distinctly different colors when illuminated by each of the above colors of UV light. I now own two shortwave UV lamps made by Don Newsome of UV Systems. LINK: http://www.uvsystems.com/
I also have two Way Too Cool lamps made by William Gardner. LINK: http://www.fluorescents.com/uv.html
-
The build quality is excellent from both manufacturers. I would recommend both. It has taken me about a year to come to this conclusion, but after using the lights from both companies under many different circumstances, I clearly think you get more for your money with the Way Too Cool lamps.
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Sunday, March 16, 2008
Gasoline Prices
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Americans are worried. Really worried. Because gasoline prices have now exceeded $3.00 per gallon. And there is talk they may go as high as $4.00 a gallon within a year. I grew up in America. In high school I remember paying $0.299 per gallon. Its' a good thing gasoline was cheap too, because my '56 Chevy had two four barrel carburetors. Fuel economy was not a high priority in the 1960's.
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During the last half century I have lived in Europe twice. During the 1970's I lived in Germany for a few years. I was in the U.S. Army sitting in an office at 3d Armored Division Headquarters in Frankurt on the Main. My goal was to avoid being killed in Vietnam. Then later in my life I was the General Manager of the European Division of an American food processing company for 15 years. I early retired and moved back to America just over one year ago.
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This morning I built a quickie spreadsheet to convert British Pounds per Liter of petrol to U.S. Dollars per American Gallon of gasoline. Thanks to the wonders of communication technology and the internet, it was easy to determine from the BBC that in England the average price of unleaded is now over $8.45 per gallon and is going up quickly.
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This upward price trend is going to continue. Crude oil is becoming more difficult to find and pump out of the ground. The demand for cars and gasoline among the two large population countries in the world, China and India, is suddenly growing at an accelerated rate. In America new refrinery capacity is not being added for various reasons - environmenmtal and regulatory issues, and a gradual shift to increasing amounts of ethanol.
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I don't especially feel the higher prices. In fact the prices here in America still seem pretty low to me. My Toyota Corolla normally gets 40 mpg, and my 250cc Honda scooter gets between 60 and 70 mpg.
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General Motors and Ford are beginning to see the consumer trend away from their heavy, 10-12 mpg cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks. Maybe the American consumer is in the early stages of catching on to the reality of the situation.
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My Toyota is quiet and comfortable to ride in. It has a great air conditioner and a nice sound system. And with the cruise control set I can drive all day long at 75 mph (120.7 km/hour). I see these fat ass fools driving their gas guzzlers, speeding up and slowing down erratically, and generally just pouring their fuel down the toilet. And it makes me wonder about the survivability skills of these bozos.
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Americans are worried. Really worried. Because gasoline prices have now exceeded $3.00 per gallon. And there is talk they may go as high as $4.00 a gallon within a year. I grew up in America. In high school I remember paying $0.299 per gallon. Its' a good thing gasoline was cheap too, because my '56 Chevy had two four barrel carburetors. Fuel economy was not a high priority in the 1960's.
-
During the last half century I have lived in Europe twice. During the 1970's I lived in Germany for a few years. I was in the U.S. Army sitting in an office at 3d Armored Division Headquarters in Frankurt on the Main. My goal was to avoid being killed in Vietnam. Then later in my life I was the General Manager of the European Division of an American food processing company for 15 years. I early retired and moved back to America just over one year ago.
-
This morning I built a quickie spreadsheet to convert British Pounds per Liter of petrol to U.S. Dollars per American Gallon of gasoline. Thanks to the wonders of communication technology and the internet, it was easy to determine from the BBC that in England the average price of unleaded is now over $8.45 per gallon and is going up quickly.
-
This upward price trend is going to continue. Crude oil is becoming more difficult to find and pump out of the ground. The demand for cars and gasoline among the two large population countries in the world, China and India, is suddenly growing at an accelerated rate. In America new refrinery capacity is not being added for various reasons - environmenmtal and regulatory issues, and a gradual shift to increasing amounts of ethanol.
-
I don't especially feel the higher prices. In fact the prices here in America still seem pretty low to me. My Toyota Corolla normally gets 40 mpg, and my 250cc Honda scooter gets between 60 and 70 mpg.
-
General Motors and Ford are beginning to see the consumer trend away from their heavy, 10-12 mpg cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks. Maybe the American consumer is in the early stages of catching on to the reality of the situation.
-
My Toyota is quiet and comfortable to ride in. It has a great air conditioner and a nice sound system. And with the cruise control set I can drive all day long at 75 mph (120.7 km/hour). I see these fat ass fools driving their gas guzzlers, speeding up and slowing down erratically, and generally just pouring their fuel down the toilet. And it makes me wonder about the survivability skills of these bozos.
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Friday, March 14, 2008
3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510.....
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Happy π Day. - More commonly called Pi day. - Not to be confused with Pie Town in Catron County, New Mexico which got its name from the edible variety of pies.
March 14-- or --3.14
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Pi or π is is one of the most important mathematical constants. It represents the ratio of any circle's circumference to its diameter in Euclidean geometry, which is the same as the ratio of a circle's area to the square of its radius. Many formulas from mathematics, science, and engineering include π.
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Happy π Day. - More commonly called Pi day. - Not to be confused with Pie Town in Catron County, New Mexico which got its name from the edible variety of pies.
March 14-- or --3.14
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Pi or π is is one of the most important mathematical constants. It represents the ratio of any circle's circumference to its diameter in Euclidean geometry, which is the same as the ratio of a circle's area to the square of its radius. Many formulas from mathematics, science, and engineering include π.
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Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Quarter of teen girls have sex-related disease
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Reuters reported today that one quarter of all teen girls have a sex-related disease, and that the rate is higher among black girls. This seems so high that it is hard to believe.
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They got the information from the the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention so maybe is right. Good grief. This is not good.
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Too many years of the Christian Right and the Republicans preaching abstinence. Their policy of guilt, lying, and ignoring is unwise. Kafkaesk. We have got to get all this out in the open.
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LINK: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1157399920080311
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Reuters reported today that one quarter of all teen girls have a sex-related disease, and that the rate is higher among black girls. This seems so high that it is hard to believe.
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They got the information from the the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention so maybe is right. Good grief. This is not good.
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Too many years of the Christian Right and the Republicans preaching abstinence. Their policy of guilt, lying, and ignoring is unwise. Kafkaesk. We have got to get all this out in the open.
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LINK: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1157399920080311
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Drain The Bottom Of Your Hot Water Heater
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---------------------------------------------(--- (click on the picture and it will enlarge)cl
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Twelve months ago I hooked up a garden hose to the faucet on the bottom of the water heater, and I drained out the calcium/magnesium that had settled out. Doing this is important because it takes much more energy to heat the water through this coating on the bottom of your hot water heater tank. A lot of white gunk came out when I did it 12 months ago.
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By draining out the bottom regularly you save money on natural gas.
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Today I did it again. I was really shocked at how much white stuff came out. After only one year. I'll bet that many people NEVER drain the bottom of their water heater.
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---------------------------------------------(--- (click on the picture and it will enlarge)cl
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Twelve months ago I hooked up a garden hose to the faucet on the bottom of the water heater, and I drained out the calcium/magnesium that had settled out. Doing this is important because it takes much more energy to heat the water through this coating on the bottom of your hot water heater tank. A lot of white gunk came out when I did it 12 months ago.
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By draining out the bottom regularly you save money on natural gas.
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Today I did it again. I was really shocked at how much white stuff came out. After only one year. I'll bet that many people NEVER drain the bottom of their water heater.
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Monday, March 10, 2008
New Sins
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Over the weekend Catholic Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti, the Vatican's number two man in the sometimes murky area of sins and penance, spoke of modern evils. He said that causing envionmental blight is now a sin. In recent months, Pope Benedict has made several strong appeals for the protection of the environment, saying issues such as climate change had become gravely important for the entire human race.
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The people who drive around with only one person in these 12 miles per gallon pickup trucks and SUVs have already been directly linked to supporting terrorism and the bankrupting of the American economy by sending so much of the country's money to Saudia Arabia. Now the Catholic church says they are sinners because of their air pollution and their contribution to global warming.
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Not to mention that they are just plain stupid and wasteful. When there are millions of poor people in American who cannot afford health insurance, for these dumb jerks to be driving around in their tanks, many of which are financed on 72 month loans, goes far beyond dumb.
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These same people probably don't read books either. Just like their President George W.
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LINK: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL109602320080310
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Over the weekend Catholic Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti, the Vatican's number two man in the sometimes murky area of sins and penance, spoke of modern evils. He said that causing envionmental blight is now a sin. In recent months, Pope Benedict has made several strong appeals for the protection of the environment, saying issues such as climate change had become gravely important for the entire human race.
-
The people who drive around with only one person in these 12 miles per gallon pickup trucks and SUVs have already been directly linked to supporting terrorism and the bankrupting of the American economy by sending so much of the country's money to Saudia Arabia. Now the Catholic church says they are sinners because of their air pollution and their contribution to global warming.
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Not to mention that they are just plain stupid and wasteful. When there are millions of poor people in American who cannot afford health insurance, for these dumb jerks to be driving around in their tanks, many of which are financed on 72 month loans, goes far beyond dumb.
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These same people probably don't read books either. Just like their President George W.
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LINK: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL109602320080310
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Saturday, March 08, 2008
She Is A Monster
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Samantha Power - a Harvard professor who has advised Mr Obama on foreign policy - resigned on Friday.
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She had told the Scotsman newspaper, "She is a monster, too - that is off the record - she is stooping to anything."
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Seems like an accurate description to me.
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Samantha Power - a Harvard professor who has advised Mr Obama on foreign policy - resigned on Friday.
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She had told the Scotsman newspaper, "She is a monster, too - that is off the record - she is stooping to anything."
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Seems like an accurate description to me.
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In Wyoming Obama absolutely overwhelmed her with 59% versus 40% for the Monster.
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"Especially in the intermountain West, people are hungry for something different, people are hungry for someone who's a uniter, who can bring together a coalition of change," said Gabe Cohen, Obama's state director in Wyoming.
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Steve's Internet Radio Station
Through the Flickr Nikon D80 photography group I have had a gentleman name me as a contact. In looking at his profile he seems to be a very interesting guy.
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Among many other things he runs an internet radio station out of Seattle. It is worth checking this out:
LINK: http://community.loudcity.com/stations/steve-fm/files/show/listen.html
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Among many other things he runs an internet radio station out of Seattle. It is worth checking this out:
LINK: http://community.loudcity.com/stations/steve-fm/files/show/listen.html
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Thursday, March 06, 2008
Senator John McCain
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Yesterday Big Mac and his wife had a private lunch with President Bush, then they held a photo opportunity where they each kissed each other's asses. McCain said how much he admired Bush.
Link: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/03/06/bush_says_mccain_will_stay_the_course_in_iraq/
McCain said he had "great admiration, respect, and affection" for Bush and welcomed the president's help both in fund-raising and on the campaign trail.
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McCain said he wanted to have as many campaign events together with Bush as "the president's heavy schedule" allowed. "And I look forward to that opportunity," he added.
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I think his support of the most ineffective president in the history of the nation will come back to haunt him. So will his statement that if we have to stay in Iraq 100 years, he supported us continuing the war until we are victorious. On the other hand neither Obama nor Clinton has said that they will pull all the troops out of Iraq. Hillary talks about "beginning" the withdrawal.
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The chairman of the Democratic party, Governor Howard Dean was quoted at length on NPR yesterday afternoon. In a very reasonable sounding tone of voice he said that McCain is not at all what he appears on the surface. That although McCain has supported high standards of ethics, many times apparently he felt that these standards did not apply to himself. So the general election campaign is going to get down and dirty.
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At this stage I still think that if the choice is Senator Clinton versus Senator McCain, even though I am a dyed in the wool Democrat, I would either have to vote for McCain or maybe just stay home and not vote at all.
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Sorry Mrs. Rodham-Cinton. It doesn't matter how smart you are, or how evil and mean a gutter fighter you are with your bloody fangs showing, you do not have the skills to unite all sides of the political spectrum. In fact large parts of the population want to gag and retch every time you come on TV.
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Yesterday Big Mac and his wife had a private lunch with President Bush, then they held a photo opportunity where they each kissed each other's asses. McCain said how much he admired Bush.
Link: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/03/06/bush_says_mccain_will_stay_the_course_in_iraq/
McCain said he had "great admiration, respect, and affection" for Bush and welcomed the president's help both in fund-raising and on the campaign trail.
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McCain said he wanted to have as many campaign events together with Bush as "the president's heavy schedule" allowed. "And I look forward to that opportunity," he added.
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I think his support of the most ineffective president in the history of the nation will come back to haunt him. So will his statement that if we have to stay in Iraq 100 years, he supported us continuing the war until we are victorious. On the other hand neither Obama nor Clinton has said that they will pull all the troops out of Iraq. Hillary talks about "beginning" the withdrawal.
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The chairman of the Democratic party, Governor Howard Dean was quoted at length on NPR yesterday afternoon. In a very reasonable sounding tone of voice he said that McCain is not at all what he appears on the surface. That although McCain has supported high standards of ethics, many times apparently he felt that these standards did not apply to himself. So the general election campaign is going to get down and dirty.
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At this stage I still think that if the choice is Senator Clinton versus Senator McCain, even though I am a dyed in the wool Democrat, I would either have to vote for McCain or maybe just stay home and not vote at all.
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Sorry Mrs. Rodham-Cinton. It doesn't matter how smart you are, or how evil and mean a gutter fighter you are with your bloody fangs showing, you do not have the skills to unite all sides of the political spectrum. In fact large parts of the population want to gag and retch every time you come on TV.
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Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Homophobia
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I don't care in the least what two gay men do in the privacy of their own home. Same with two lesbians. I'm just not at all interested as long as they don't try to shove it in my face. If they are rude and do so, then I will be happy to shove my sexuality in their face. Rhetorically or literally.
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Right now in Calfornia the court system is trying to deal with the question of what is the definition of Marriage. Really simple.
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Normally you live together. Or not. -- And have sex with each other. Or not. -- But if you decide to make a baby, then you get married to legitimize the kid. -- Simple.
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Marriage is what a Man and Woman do. And there really is not much point in doing it unless you are going to have a kid.
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I don't care in the least what two gay men do in the privacy of their own home. Same with two lesbians. I'm just not at all interested as long as they don't try to shove it in my face. If they are rude and do so, then I will be happy to shove my sexuality in their face. Rhetorically or literally.
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Right now in Calfornia the court system is trying to deal with the question of what is the definition of Marriage. Really simple.
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Normally you live together. Or not. -- And have sex with each other. Or not. -- But if you decide to make a baby, then you get married to legitimize the kid. -- Simple.
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Marriage is what a Man and Woman do. And there really is not much point in doing it unless you are going to have a kid.
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Vermont towns vote to arrest Bush and Cheney
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According to Reuters, Voters in two Vermont towns on Tuesday approved a measure that would instruct police to arrest President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for "crimes against our Constitution," local media reported.
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------------------------- Very Good!
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United States Presidential Election
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March 4, 2008 was an interesting day with primary elections in the big states of Ohio and Texas and also two smaller primaries.
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I worked the polls in support of Obama.
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According to National Public Radio this is the situation this morning:
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Obama had a total of 1,477 delegates, including separately chosen party and elected officials known as superdelegates, according to the Associated Press count. He picked up three superdelegate endorsements Tuesday.
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Clinton had 1,391 delegates. It takes 2,025 to win the nomination.
Clinton had 1,391 delegates. It takes 2,025 to win the nomination.
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Wyoming offers 12 delegates in caucuses Saturday; Mississippi has 33 at stake next week. The biggest remaining prize is Pennsylvania, with 158 delegates, April 22.
Wyoming offers 12 delegates in caucuses Saturday; Mississippi has 33 at stake next week. The biggest remaining prize is Pennsylvania, with 158 delegates, April 22.
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Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Smithsonite
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This mineral was named after James Smithson (1754-1829) the British chemist and mineralogist, a founder of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., who distinguished the mineral from calamine (hemimorphite).
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Sometimes it fluoresces. This little piece I have does light up brightly when illyuminated with ultraviolet light.
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Monday, March 03, 2008
Immigrants
The movie Border by Chris Burgard is an award winning classic.
My copy of it finally came in. It is really great. LINK: http://www.bordermovie.com/
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There is a quote in the movie from John F. Kennedy dated March 29, 1961.
Today we need a nation of minutemen citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life, and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom.
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Sunday, March 02, 2008
Men Are Men and Women Are Cattle
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This is the motto in the Islamic religion. Especially in Saudia Arabia.
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Take the time to watch this video. It is good.
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------------ Link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=mHh0NdR5Jh0
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----------------------------- Link: http://www.dotsub.com/films/moredemands/index.php?autostart=true&language_setting=en_1618
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Decision Making For Dummies
I saw this picture on Flickr and really liked it. Do we want a tough bitch who has good ideas, or a gracious gentleman who has a bit less experience and fewer political insider contacts?
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Saturday, March 01, 2008
A Return To Civility
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I don't think I'm alone or special in wanting a return to civility.
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The more negative stuff Hillary and Bill do and say about Obama, the more repulsed I am by Senator Clinton.
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John McCain is also a civil gentleman. Its not just a coincidence that he and Obama are the ones who are being chosen by the American people.
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I don't think I'm alone or special in wanting a return to civility.
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The more negative stuff Hillary and Bill do and say about Obama, the more repulsed I am by Senator Clinton.
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John McCain is also a civil gentleman. Its not just a coincidence that he and Obama are the ones who are being chosen by the American people.
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El Paso Mineral and Gem Society
-------------------------------------- (click on the picture and it will enlarge)
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The speaker for the meeting this month was great. He was the assistant principal at Canutillo High School. He spoke on the geology of the Organ Mountains just east of Las Cruces, New Mexico.
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He was a good speaker, and he really knew what he was talking about.
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Through him I met a Freshman at Canutillo High. He and his dad run a small business importing minerals from Mexico. I went over to their place yesterday evening.
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I was really pleased. They had a good selection of fluorescent calcite and aragonite (polymorphs) which both have the chemical formula of calcium carbonate but different crystal lattice structures. This is a close up picture of some calcite crystals from Chihuahua which have phantoms in them.
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The speaker for the meeting this month was great. He was the assistant principal at Canutillo High School. He spoke on the geology of the Organ Mountains just east of Las Cruces, New Mexico.
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He was a good speaker, and he really knew what he was talking about.
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Through him I met a Freshman at Canutillo High. He and his dad run a small business importing minerals from Mexico. I went over to their place yesterday evening.
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I was really pleased. They had a good selection of fluorescent calcite and aragonite (polymorphs) which both have the chemical formula of calcium carbonate but different crystal lattice structures. This is a close up picture of some calcite crystals from Chihuahua which have phantoms in them.
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