Fluorescent Minerals

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A few of my fluorescent mineral pictures from the website of the Flourescent Mineral Society:

http://uvminerals.org/gallery/v/members/hpgarland/

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Old Folks Voting Patterns

One of the reasons that the Democrats suffered such a big loss in the recent mid-term elections is because so many of the swing voters switched from the Democrats to the right wingers like the Republicans and the Tea Party.

If you look deeper into the numbers you find that the main group which made the switch were us old geezers; and old folks vote in large numbers. Seniors may no longer be able to do many things, but this generation of seniors still realizes the power they wield when they go into that polling place to vote.

This move to the right may be in the self interest of old people, or it may not. But in large numbers they became convinced that Obama and the liberals wanted to institute death panels and make cuts to sacred programs like social security, medicare, and medicaid. In fact as it turns out there have been some cuts made, and there is talk of even deeper cuts. Whether the right or the left has been responsible for these cuts is difficult to say. Generally speaking traditional Democrats supported social programs like social security. Over the last thirty years the Democrats have gradually shifted further to the right wing, so as not to alienate their large campaign contributors. It is now often to tell the difference between a Republican and a Democrat.

Even though old people are consistently high voters, they can easily be misled and actually end up voting for politicians who cut their favored programs once they get in office.

Defense, the military, and intelligence gathering have to see their funding cut substantially. On the order of 40% budget cuts. Once this is done there will be more than enough money to adequately fund the programs which help out seniors.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) has one purpose: Making certain that the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution stays alive and that no legislation is passed limiting the right of individual citizens to own and carry loaded guns. Primarily for self protection, but also for hunting. The focus of the NRA is extremely narrow. They are a single issue group, and they do not allow themselves to get weakened by branching off into other issues like abortion. This focus on one issue (pro-gun) and one group of constituents (gun owners) has helped make them the most effective lobbying group in Washington.

Old folks need this same kind of narrow focus, single issue group. I had hoped that the American Association of Retired People (AARP) or the Grey Panthers might become this sort of advocacy group. Instead both have become top heavy bureaucracies where most of their revenue comes from being an insurance sales agency. Survival and growth of the group has become the first priority, and supporting the political programs which help old people has gone far down their list of priorities.

Neither has been the slightest bit effective at communicating to old people the issues or politicians who want to cut their social security, medicaid, and medicare. Alerting old people to contact their senators or representatives regarding a particular bill, etc. The NRA does a great job of this day-to-day work. AARP doesn't even seem to care. As the demographics of our population and our society gradually gets older, this need will become even more urgent. There is a real void here that is not being properly filled, so the right wing weirdos are inserting themselves. The result has not been good for old people.

It is a pity to see old people voting in such really large numbers, but in their ignorance actually voting for issues or people which are harmful to old people. The internet can be helpful or it can lead people astray. What is essential is having a narrowly focused, single minded, effective group like the NRA which is strong and active in Washington, D.C.

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Blue Moon

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We had a full moon last night, and technically it was a blue moon. I took this picture by removing the lens from my Nikon D300s digital SLR camera, and using a Meade RB-60 telescope as the lens. This gives me an effective focal length of 1050 mm in 35 mm equivalents.

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The TSA is Out Of Control

In totalitarian states like North Korea, Iran, China, or the old USSR the government routinely abused its citizens in a variety of ways.

This is not the USSR. America is a Democracy, and our government is By The People and For The People. It is inexcusable that the TSA was allowed to get to this bad. We tolerated them because we sort of believed that maybe it was helping protect the country from Terrorists. No More.

These are just low paid, power mad little people showing us all that they can get away with this crap. In a representative Democracy our elected officials are supposed to protect us from this sort of overbearing abuse. But these jerks with the TSA are even doing the same stuff to our elected representatives.

Out of control. Yet President No Balls Obama says that we just have to put up with it. Sorry Pal, you lose.

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TSA Caves In to Pilots

The TSA has granted pilots an exemption from both getting scanned and getting felt up.

What about the waitresses, oops, stewardesses and stewards. They also might receive excessive radiation from all the constant scans, and is it really appropriate to have some fat dyke who works for TSA constantly feeling up their breasts and vaginas? I think this is borderline rape.

This whole TSA thing is B.S. anyway. They have never caught one single terrorist. And they should in fact be profiling. None of the terrorists have been white grandmothers or children. Most were males with dark skin in a certain age group, with a foreign sounding name like Mohamed. They all came in on international flights. The problem is not flights originating in America.

And our timid, "don't kick sand in my face, please" president, Barack Obama, just says we have to put up with this crap. I have been a liberal Democrat for more than 40 years now, but I mean it when I say that if Obama ends up being a single term president that is probably all for the best.

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Boner

Emotionally unstable.

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War With China?

War with China? Just get in line behind Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and Iran.

They used to try and hide their enormous egos and arrogance, and at least pretend. But the pretense of courtesy and international diplomacy is gradually being dropped. Whether it is artificially manipulating the value of their currency, restricting the importation of competing foreign goods, human rights, taking a no prisoners approach with the Japanese over rare earth metals, the disputed islands between their two countries, internet censorship within China, exporting very hazardous children's toys, or briefly taking over the world wide internet on two different occasions.

I am not a Catholic, so I shouldn't care that China's state-backed Catholic church has challenged the Vatican by ordaining a bishop without papal approval. This is a clear indication of their excessive pride and high handedness.

The Chinese have been behaving like poorly raised teenaged boys, constantly testing the limits of what they can get away with. Pushing further and further.

Lets hope that internal dissension by the Chinese people solves this problem before it becomes necessary for the Western powers to take the Chinese leaders down and notch or two. One sure wouldn't want to go into something like this with a weak and timid leader like the U.S. Has at the moment.

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Coal

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BBC's article today about the coal mine explosion in New Zealand has a graphic showing the coal seams in the area. It intrigued me. It made me wonder, how was coal formed, and why is it found in just in these thin seams?

I say thin, but looking at the Brunner seam in the Pike River mine it shows that the coal seam is 7 meters (23 feet) thick. That is thick enough to be significant and easily workable with heavy machinery. Twenty three feet of compacted, fossiled ferns is one hell of a lot of ancient plant life.

“Coal begins as layers of plant matter accumulate at the bottom of a body of water. For the process to continue the plant matter must be protected from biodegradation and oxidization, usually by mud or acidic water. The wide shallow seas of the Carboniferous period provided such conditions. This trapped atmospheric carbon in the ground in immense peat bogs that eventually were covered over and deeply buried by sediments under which they metamorphosed into coal. Over time, the chemical and physical properties of the plant remains (believed to mainly have been fern-like species antedating more modern plant and tree species) were changed by geological action to create a solid material.” - According to the Wikipedia article on coal.

I have been to several coal mining museums over the years, and it is indeed rather common to find fossilized ferns embedded in the coal.

There is a lot of coal around the world. It is really a shame that the term “clean coal” is just marketing hype and spin. No such thing exists at this time.

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CLL Symptoms

I am not a doctor or any kind of medical professional; I am merely a patient who is doing his best to be well informed. CLL seems to wax and wane, but over time gradually gets worse.
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I have had chronic lymphocytic leukemia for at least eight years now. No telling what caused it, but I did spill massive amounts of the weed killed 2,4-D on myself twice during the year or so before I was diagnosed. The symptoms I have experienced have changed and evolved over time, but pretty much they all are the ones described in the literature and research on CLL.

The first symptom was massive night sweats. I was in England the first time this occurred. Now these night sweats are no longer quite as severe, but they take place most nights.

Itching is another symptom. Severe itching, so bad that sometimes people scratch themselves bloody. Normally I don't draw blood, but I admit that I have occasionally.

Swollen lymph nodes are another common symptom. Especially around your neck, under your arms, your abdomen or groin, etc. Mine have grown absolutely massive...like grapefruit. At first they are soft, then they turn hard. They do get really quite painful at times. Some people get massive swelling of the spleen and/or liver.

Tiredness and an extreme lack of stamina is a frequently mentioned symptom.

Of course a gradual decrease in the effectiveness of the body's immune system is almost normal with CLL. This suppression of the immune system causes more pneumonia and upper respiratory problems, and surprisingly tooth decay becomes a genuine problem. Healing of common cuts and scrapes takes much longer than before.

As the amount of defective cancerous white blood cells increases dramatically, both the platelets (which help clotting) and the hemoglobin containing red blood cells start decreasing. So blood clotting becomes a big problem, and as the red blood cells decrease one gets to the point where insufficient oxygen reaches important organs like the body's major organs and muscles such as the heart, the brain, the digestive process, the arms and legs, etc. This anemia has a simple name, but it really is quite devastating and debilitating. With this poor oxygen supply comes an urge to dose off. If one is driving at the time this is problematic.
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A few days ago just lifting up my digital SLR camera (with a long telephoto lens) to my eye to try and get a nice moon shot required so much oxygen that I honestly thought I was having a heart attack. This phenomenon occurs every week or so, or pretty much whenever I forget that I need to move very slowly and take things really easy. The dog barking and thinking there might be a night time intruder (getting my loaded pistol out, etc.) with all the adrenalin is another example; or just the effort of hooking up the little utility trailer to the car.

Nocturnal leg cramps are frequently associated with CLL, and I have dealt with this problem for several years. It now is a several times nightly occurrence. The muscles in my lower legs have become so stiff that it is now very difficult for me to walk. My fingers now cramp and involuntarily contract also. All of this falls under the medical terms myopathy and tetany.
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There are other unpleasant symptoms, but I'm not certain if they are caused by the CLL, are actually as a result of various diseases I have acquired because of the weakened immune system; or might be side effects of the various antibiotics I have had to take: One's hands and feet become quite numb and are mostly unable to perform normal tasks. I have now completely lost all sense of smell, which of course greatly affects one's ability to taste. Very significant loss of hearing, although this seems to be gradually improving.
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At first this disease is not really a big deal, but as one gets to an advanced stage CLL is an unpleasant experience indeed. Some people even begin to question their quality of life. If this disease is not curable, and things are gradually going to get more and more unpleasant, does one reach a point where it no longer makes sense to keep beating one's head against the wall?

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Civilian Guantanamo Trial

Everywhere I see people who seem profoundly disappointed that a civilian jury found Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani guilty of only one of more than 280 charges levied against him by the U.S. Government, various secret intelligence agencies, and the U.S. military.

I think many people, especially the right-wingers, wanted vengeance. These fat, lazy Republicans, most of whom never even served in the military, were like members of a Roman crowd 2,000 years ago watching the Christians and the lions. They mostly just wanted to see blood, suffering, and watch who they thought was the bad guy get convicted and punished.

In the current political climate no one wants to be perceived as disloyal or as un-American. You can be sure that the prosecutors used their finest team of lawyers. The jury was not made up of socialist radical college students from San Francisco.

The fact that a jury only found him guilty of one charge is certainly not an indictment of President Obama or any of the current team of government workers. It is a clear cut proof that what Cheney, Bush, and Rumsfeld did was in harsh violation of America's constitution and laws. How many other dark skinned, poorly educated men spent years and years in Guantanamo, some being openly tortured, when they were in fact clearly not guilty?

But Mr. Obama does not have clean hands either. Now that the American military has figured out how rigorous the American system of jurisprudence is, they have changed their tactics. They no longer take prisoners, it is just too much hassle. They simply kill anyone they think is a bad guy using an unmanned drone. Him, his family, friends, and everyone around him. All without the benefit (or silly waste of time) of a judge, jury, or antiquated rules like the American Constitution.

We are watching the guilty until proven innocent crowd gone wild.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/nyregion/19detainees.html


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New Cellphone

I ordered a new cellphone, and it arrived today by FedEx. It is made by Nokia.

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Nokia is a Scandinavian company headquartered out of Helsinki, Finland. They are by far the world's largest manufacturer of cellphones. I have been to the city of Helsinki, and I find it to be a very nice place.

I was a bit surprised by what I saw on the back of the packaging. But just a bit. Everything is so tied in and international now.

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The Failing European Common Currency

First it was Greece. Now Ireland, then probably Portugal. Next Spain or Italy? It really is a terrible shame, but the Euro common currency is doomed. It has been from the very beginning.

The men who set it all up were politicians, not economists. They were good, decent men who had gone through world war II and knew first hand how terrible warfare is. The idea was to bring the countries in Europe together so closely (financially and most other ways) that they would talk to each other rather than fighting wars with each other.

Very admirable and lofty goals for sure, but these bozo politicians got the math part of it all completely wrong.

You can see the same sort of gross ignorance today among most of the American politicians. Instead of focusing on the political policy goals of job creation, a reduction in poverty, and improving life for the middle class they all mistakenly think they have now suddenly been transformed into economists...even though they have problems balancing their own personal check books. So in their arrogance they are doing exactly the complete opposite of what they should be doing. The consequences are going to be disastrous.

The same thing happened back at the beginning of the European common currency. Decent men who were good salesmen but lousy economists. It is not difficult to see how this is going to play out. At some point Germany, Austria, Finland and other northern Europeans will get tired of supporting the dishonesty and irresponsibility of their mostly dark skinned southern European colleagues. Portugal, Spain, Greece, Italy, etc. The Germans will set up impossible conditions for these economically failing countries. The Euro currency will cease to exist, and along with it the whole idea for the European Union may fail too.

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Democracy in El Paso

In America we mostly practice representative democracy, although occasionally the voters directly decide things by voting, which is called direct democracy.

In many different elections over the past 2 or 3 years, the voters in America have been asked whether they want to authorize things like gay marriage or taxpayer paid health insurance benefits for partners of gay and lesbian government workers. In the vast majority of cases the voters have clearly rejected any sort of approval or affirmation of the homosexual, lesbian, and gay lifestyle.

The city council in El Paso, Texas authorized health insurance benefits to the partners of gay city employees. The voters got this issue put on the ballot, and they rejected the idea. Now several elected officials want to find some tricky way to go ahead and do it anyway. Regardless of what the voters want.

To some people this is a religious issue. Other voters say, “Private industry doesn't offer these benefits to live in partners of our homosexual employees, why should my tax dollars go to fund this outrageously generous employee benefit for city workers?” For some it is just fiscal responsibility.

One thing is clear. The city council did something the voters didn't like. Once it was placed on the ballot the voters reaffirmed that this was not their desire. There are now almost half of the members of the city council who are perfectly happy to blow off the wishes of the voters and implement it anyway.

This feels like arrogance. Opposing democracy in a high handed and blatant way like this is dangerous to their future political careers. This feels like the city council telling the voters just how its going to be, when in fact things need to go the other way around. The voters tell our representatives what to do. Or the bums are voted out of office.

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Deflation or a Seriously Undervalued Chinese Currency?

I was at Wal-Mart this morning buying groceries, and I happened to see this. A made in China, solar powered calculator, which Wal-Mart sells at a normal price of $1.11

There is enough profit all along the supply chain to make this work, and it sells at this incredibly low price. Inflation is certainly not the problem right now.

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Terlingua Type Calcite

Axel Emmerman in Belgium is one of the nicest and funniest guys I have ever known. Probably the smartest too.

If you have any interest in fluorescent minerals or calcite fluorescing under UV lights, this link is invaluable:
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LINK TO AXEL EMMERMAN ON TERLINGUA TYPE CALCITE: http://users.telenet.be/axel.emmerman/FiatLux/TerlinguaexperimentEN.html#top

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The Disaster Called Barack Obama

I am not some tea partier fanatic. I am not an ignorant, racist Republican. I am a life long, active, Liberal Democrat.

Mr. Obama really is terribly way far out in space. The latest issues he is caving on are tax cuts for the rich and beginning to leave Afghanistan in 2011. Has he no dignity or self respect at all? No principles? Apparently not.

Please take a moment to open this link and read what Paul Krugman is saying today. He is far more articulate than I am.

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LINK TO KRUGMAN: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/15/opinion/15krugman.html?

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Alien Invaders

Our neighborhood has been invaded by aliens.
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And I don't mean the good kind of alien that does construction, picks vegetables and fruit, cleans your house, and does your laundry.
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I'm talking about scary little UFO type extra-terrestrial guys, masquerading as scarecrows.
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I haven't seen any rusty tin men or scraggly yappy dogs yet.
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Worldwide Oil Supplies

The demand for oil continues to grow, and this growth shows no signs of abating or slowing. Just look at all the Chinese and Indians who are beginning to use automobiles.

The world's supply of economically recoverable oil is past its peak and is declining. People who think there is an unlimited supply of economically recoverable oil are just poorly informed or not very bright. Why do you think oil companies have been forced to begin hazardous deep water drilling? Or fracking for natural gas? It is simple reality that the earth's supplies of oil, water, and clean air are not unlimited.

People and countries who plan ahead will be able to maintain a decent quality of life complete with good cars, flush toilets, and air conditioning. The way to do this is to become far more efficient – stop foolishly wasting so much energy. Those who are unable to adapt and are afraid of change are indeed going to suffer badly.
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LINK: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/is-peak-oil-behind-us/?src=twt&twt=nytimesscience

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P.S. My second Toyota Prius is now a year old. I drove my first Prius all over western Europe. Over its entire life so far, good days and bad, I have averaged 55 mpg with this latest Prius. This includes more than once/week leaving it and my dog in the parking lot of the supermarket with the airconditioning running...if I didn't do that the average would be above 60 mpg.

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Economic Austerity

The debate regarding the American economy is talking about the wrong issues. The discussion should not be about additional fiscal stimulation versus radical budget cutting and fiscal austerity. These are merely short term issues.

The real issue is that all the good manufacturing jobs have been going overseas for years. This was mostly to help American companies evade rules regarding the environment, workplace safety, and providing decent livable wages for the workers. If you have children in China or Thailand doing the labor of making your tennis shoes, it allows you to increase your profits. Greed.

The jobs that have been created in America at the same time that we have been losing these good manufacturing jobs are in no way comparable. They are low pay, low benefits, low security jobs working at McDonalds, Wal-Mart, or in a bank or mortgage company.

I doubt that America will have the strength of character to solve this problem. Honest. My best assessment is that our decline will continue, and we will gradually go out with a whimper. I am quite sincere about this.

But if we are to solve the problem of the decline of America, then we have to: Stop worrying about Wall Street or Markets. The goal must be to be effective in having much of the manufacturing return to American soil. If we get all hung up about free trade or the WTO then we will just see more of the same. Free trade is what has caused our problems...it is the problem not the solution.

We must impose significant import duties on most manufactured items coming into the country. These import duties will be to balance the playing field, making things a bit more equal. What is the cost of requiring companies to not pollute the air and the water too much? Child labor, workplace safety, job security, decent livable wages and benefits like fully company-paid health insurance, and genuine pensions. Food safety, product safety, proper disposal of hazardous waste, and consumer protection in general.

I don't know what the amount of these import duties will need to be, but it certainly won't be something on the order of 5% or 10%. Just plucking a number out of the air, I think that we are probably looking at something more like 35% to 65% import duties, depending upon the item and the individual circumstances. If the country in question prevents our goods from entering their country, then maybe the number will have to be more like 85%.

The American tax regulations currently encourage companies to move overseas. This has to end immediately; no phase in. To reign in all the money we are sending to people who hate us in the middle east for oil, we need to significantly increase gasoline prices and taxes on vehicles averaging less than 40 miles per gallon.

Government spending on the military, intelligence, and everything that President Eisenhower called the “military industrial complex” needs to be cut deeply. On the order of 35% initially, with a 5 year plan of taking it down 50% to 65%. This foolish and wasteful spending on warfare is bankrupting America.

Of course large import duties can't just be imposed suddenly and overnight. This could possibly cause a world wide economic slow down. So these import duties need to be phased in over a two to three year period. This will give American companies the opportunity to ramp up domestic production.

This program is simple, and it will work. Will the America politicians and elected officials have the strength of character to implement this? No, of course not. Corruption will stop them. Too many of the powerful senators and congressmen (most actually) have simply been bought and paid for by big business. They call it campaign contributions, the proper words are bribery and corruption.

Unless and until genuine campaign finance reform happens (which it won't because all the bribery and corruption among elected officials will prevent reform) America is doomed to continue its decline.

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Joan Walsh on Tavis Smiley

Recently Tavis Smiley did a truly outstanding interview of Joan Walsh on PBS. I had recorded it on my DVR and just watched it last night. She is a 50'ish, very intelligent, sensible, and moderate sounding lady. I recommend highly that everyone watch this interview.

One of the points that she made during the interview is that during the last 30 years the Democrats have been forced to move closer to big business in order to get the funding they needed to get candidates elected. Inevitably this has meant that the Democratic party's position on a great many issues has gradually moved much closer to that of the Republicans. Sometimes it has become difficult to tell the difference between the two political parties.

She contends that this is one of the factors that caused the Democrat's stunning defeat. I would add that the conservative Democrats (Blue Dogs) suffered far more electoral losses than the liberal and progressive Democrats.
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LINK TO PBS TV SHOW: http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/201011/20101108.html

LINK TO WIKI ARTICLE ON JOAN WALSH: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Walsh

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http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/joan_walsh/politics/2010/11/07/2010_elections/index.html
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