Dismissive Journalistic Report of near-earth objects

So, the “tour bus sized” asteroid that zipped by earth on September 24, 2020 and missed us by 13,000 miles was dismissed in the paper as no big deal. Let’s look at that little old rock. The kinetic energy of a moving object is defined as ½ mass times velocity squared (1/2M times V squared). If the bus was 50 feet by 8 by 8, it had a volume of about 100 cubic meters (100M cubed). The mass of rock is about 3,000 kilograms per cubic meter (3,000Kg/cubic meter) that’s 300,000 kilograms for our “bus rock”. The velocity of sun orbiting asteroids varies but 15 kilometers per second (15,000 meters per second) is a good guess (15,000 KM/SEC). The exact velocity of this object is known so this calculation can be corrected if necessary. Multiplying ½ M times V squared we get about 3.4 X 10 to the 13th power (lottsa zeros) joules of energy. The bomb that the USA dropped on Hiroshima, Japan contained about 8 X 10 to the 13th joules. So, had this little rock hit Earth, it would be “only half of an atomic bomb”. Where it hits is kind of important. One smallish Abomb isn’t a big worry, but imagine if it had hit North Korea; what do you think wing nut extraordinaire, Kim Jung Un would have done?

Cutting Entitlements and defining the words you use

Two words need to be redefined in the minds of the American people; liberal and entitle (entitlement). From the dictionary: Liberal: 1) One who advocates greater FREEDOM of thought or action. One who has these principals. 2) Not narrow or bigoted; broad minded. 3) Free to give or bestow, generous. Entitle: To justly qualify a person or a claim; to give a right (as in; his labor ENTITLES him to his wages). So: Entitlement: That which is due to legitimate claimants of their just rewards. For the last 40 years republicans have argued that I should be able to keep my money and invest it in ways far better than the Social Security System (ala Ayn Rand). They, the republicans, have never delivered a policy based on this philosophy, even when they were in complete control of the White House, the Congress, the Senate and the Supreme Court as they are now. Now, they tell me that my Social Security “entitlement” isn’t mine. But the money that I have been forced to invest in the general fund of the USA (my taxes, the money THEY spend every penny of on their deficit causing short term pork-barrel pet projects), is theirs to give to billionaires in a cut to their taxes. I’m a “moocher” and don’t deserve my SS, or government services like good weather reporting by NOAA or important medical research. Those “entitlement expenditures” need to be trimmed. The best way to do that is to allow the richest man in the world decide how tax dollars are distributed. SO Sorry! He doesn’t have diabetes, He doesn't shop for food; his life is nothing like any other human being in America. I can’t do much about him stealing my tax dollars, but Social Secruity is my money. It’s even double money, matching funds from my employer (those private business guys that the republicans hold up just an inch below the statue of Ronald Reagan [the God]). It’s my money. I’m entitled to it, and if that’s a bad thing, then I’m a liberal and I’ll own that too.

If you are bothered by DMs of social media

I suggest that you respond by asking this question: "Why do fruit flies like bananas but time flies like the wind?" This is a Tunning Test question, designed to separate humans from AI. A human being might try to answer the question in a fashion that makes some sense to you... maybe like: "WFT? or, Why would you ask that? or What do you mean?" A robot or AI will have no clue what to respond and you get to identify it as something you needn't waste your time on. You're welcome.

The Parable of the Peruvian Condor Killers

Once apon a time, there were Peruvian farmers, sheep and lama husbaners, who were losing baby animals to predation by condors. They got together are hired a man to kill the condors, he was paid very well because sheep and lamas are valuable. There were a lot of farmers and a lot of condors and soon, there were a lot of condor killers. They had families and they spent the money they earned in the local economy and became a large part of the community. After a while they killed all the local condors and had to travel long distances to find more to kill; they even argued for extra pay to buy boats to pay for the increase in cost of doing “business”. The people didn’t want to pay for killing condors way far away but the condor killers said, “You can’t take our jobs away!” The condor killers got lobbyists and sent them to the government… they were also supported by the buggy-whip manufacturers and the incandescent lightbulb lobby…. Coming soon to the USA, sparkplug companies, automobile radiator companies, gas tank makers, antifreeze bottlers, and millions of people who make things needed for a gas powered internal combustion engine. Their jobs are going away… we’re not taking them, they just won’t be needed any more. Change is hard, there are always winners and losers. The losers never go quietly. Very often we continue to do things because we always did them “that way”. Now about those insurance companies and the middlemen in our for-profit health, liability, and property damage system… I guess we can’t take their jobs away… because congress. Oh, and how many lawyers can the economy support? Certainly not 100% of us.

Information from your mind to you hand to the page

The ability to record information, words that outlast the voice, is the most important revolution in the construction of civilization. Stewart, Cohen, and Pratchett* call it “extelligence”. I’m old, I graduated from high school in 1965. In class, I always took all my high school notes with a real fountain pen. I did the same in college and grad school. I even made my own ink when I took chemistry. Over the years, the availability of fountain pens was replaced with cartridge pens (I refilled those cartridge’s too), and then ball point pens. Ball points promote sloppy penman ship. The nib wanders over the page without a feel for grain or direction. Look at 18th century writing, not just official documents, but just everyday writing. It’s often beautiful… And now the debate is, should we teach penmanship? Not to mention should we teach cursive at all. I know that the keyboard will replace the word on the page. The demise of the United States Postal Service at the hands of the Republicans is imminent so keyboards and the internet will be the only way to use text. But I also know that AI voice-to-text will replace the keyboard (it’s already on a smart phone), and from the brain directly to text will replace that. So, we’re losing it, we’ve lost it, and it’s all going away. But studies show that taking notes by hand on paper is a superior learning tool. Try using a fountain pen to write something. It’s an education in the connection of your mind to your hand to the page. Let’s not lose that. The word “pen” comes from feather, a quill, from a goose, a “penknife” is a small knife you keep about you to sharpen your pen’s nib. I personally, feel naked without a penknife in my pocket. * The Science of Discworld is a 1999 book by novelist Terry Pratchett and popular science writers Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen. Three sequels, The Science of Discworld II: The Globe, The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch, and The Science of Discworld IV: Judgement Day continue their excellent explication of science and the human condition.

Garden hose and five-gallon buckets, Heloise

As you and I both know, Heloise, one can never have too many 5 gallon buckets. But of course, you and I don't buy them at Lowes or Walmart. We reuse the ones we accumulate from home projects or construction sites... and the good ones are the black ones, the UV ray resistant ones, they last almost forever. But the white handle grips break down way too soon. It’s aways one-damn-thing-after-another isn't it?

When the handle grips go bad and our fragile old hands protest the biting pain of skinny handles, we can be saved by the reuse of 5 inch pieces of old hose. So… those old garden hoses. Remember resistentialism? https://somelightsomeserious.blogspot.com/2015/03/so-you-dont-believe-in-resistentialism.html I used to fill the buckets up... not any more (unless it's with feathers).

Ask your Congressman If Nazis love him, why do you?

If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, has ducks waving flags and ducks declaring their love of it, and it is seen in the company of ducks; it is most likely a duck. We have all seen a lot of Rebel flags and Nazi flags among trump supporters. If they love him, why does my Republican Representative, Ben Cline love him? If you see Ben, please ask him. Oh! And you could ask the Republican senate candidate, Hung Cao the same question.