Ice Skating; British Parliament on President Trump; The Holman Rule; Calvin Trillin Poem; "Watchbird" Organizations

Cool... with light snow. No accumulation.

Ice Skating

Sykesville, Maryland has laid down a plastic sheet, covered it with water, let it freeze... and now lots of happy kids are learning to ice skate.   Some of my best memories for the Winter.. are related to ice skating at the Buttonwood Pond in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

I was a poor kid, so my first skates were old fashioned tie-ons.  Very hard to skate in them, but it's all I had at the time.  However, soon, my Uncle Allen let me have his old skates.  A little large for me, but ok.  After lots of falls, I learned to do pretty well.  But not, of course, as good as my Uncle Allen, who could do lots of tricks on the ice.  He was good!

My high school gym teacher was another great ice skater.  Mr. Kelly could execute a perfect figure 8.

And... man... was it cold at the skating pond.  Luckily, they had a blazing fire always going in the warming house fireplace.  This was where you kept warm and also got acquainted with pretty girls.  I was very shy, so I met very few.

Question:  Why can't other Carroll County jurisdiction follow Sykesville's lead and lay down a large plastic sheet that could be covered with water and frozen.  The kids would love it.

Unfortunately, because of Global Warming, there are not that many days where the temperature is low enough to form thick enough ice.  The good thing about plastic sheets, is that it doesn't take much water to freeze them over.

More on our Crazy World!

Charles Lewis, the founder of the Center for Public Integrity and author of a book about -presidential deception.. was quoted in the New York Times:  "We've never seen anything this bizarre in our lifetimes, where up is down and down is up and everything is in question and nothing is real."

The Brits

I just listened to the British Parliamentarians discussing (yelling)  Mr. Trump's latest moves.  Even those who defended the U. S. partnership with the U.K., thought that the latest action of our President was ill-conceived and mean spirited.  His action has set back International Relations by many years.  Some of the M.P.s called Ms May... "the Great Appeaser", based on her action in the latest US/UK meeting.

Goodbye Government Employees!

The US House passed a funding package that reinstates the Holman Rule that gives legislators the power to reduce the salary of certain federal employee to $1.  This, in effect, fires them.

Patricia J. Williams, writing in the Nation magazine for February 6/13, 2017.. says: "As the Trump Administration gathers the names of those who believe in abortion rights or global warming or equal pay for women or aid to African nations, it is not unreasonable to fear a coming wave of ex-post-facto punishment, including salary retrenchments that might disable ... bureaus like the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, ... the Social Security Administration,... The Public Broadcasting system, the National Institutes of Health, the Kennedy Center, and the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American Art and Culture."

But there may be a Future

Calvin Trillin has a new poem about the so-called "Trump Era"

"Americans stressed by the thought
Of rule by this ignorant phony
May take some small comfort in this:
Italians survived Berlusconi"

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Organizations that may be aligned against President Trump on Constitutional Matters  
(according to the Nation Magazine)

If Mr. Trump continues to act irrationally these organizations will try to keep him from doing too much harm.

PEN .. worldwide association of poets, editors and novelists

City of Asylum ..  Pittsburgh-based organization that provides sanctuary to endangered writers

Alexia Foundation... Funds and champions social-justice photojournalism

Girls Write Now... Mentoring program for high-school girls

Global Parliament of Mayors

Local Progress.. Advancing public policy

Cities for Action...  support for immigrants

ACLU

CCR (Center for Constitutional Rights)

NAACP

Planned Parenthood

Public Citizen

Rootstrikers.. targets banks, corporations, super PACs, and other influence seekers.

May Day.us... fights corruption in government

Committee to Protect Journalists

Center for Investigative Reporting

Center for Public Integrity

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Mary Tyler Moore; President Trump's Wall; Crazy Junk Mail; Drug Overdoses in Westminster, Maryland: Hobby Horses; Rabbinical Works; Chip in a Chip; Naked Exercise; A Noted Raven

Cool and overcast... but still not as cold as it used to be.

Sadly, a great comic genius and women's rights advocate passed away this week.  Mary Tyler Moore was a wonderful role model for American girls and women.  She will be missed by all.

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Has the world gone mad?  

Yes, I'm afraid so.    For instance:

The Wall!

Mr. Trump has started the preliminary work to the erection of a wall between Mexico in the U.S.  The Mexican President canceled a trip to DC because of that... and of course, Mr. Trump is giving the appearance that he didn't want to meet with him anyway. (The Fox and the Grapes?)

Labled: Mr. Trump's Giant Erection:  The wall will keep those Mexican rapists out... right?

What do you think?  Look at this:

1.  A drone-like aircraft is already available that can carry 300 pounds of drugs (unmanned) into the US by flying over any wall.

2.  The Mexicans are good at building tunnels... for one million dollars, they will build a wonderful subway under the fence and then cover the cost with the first load of drugs to come across (under) the border.

3.  There is over 90,000 miles of unprotected coastline around the U.S.

I'm always reminded of one of my neighbors in Randallstown.  He was a German national but wanted to be an American citizen like his Hessian Mercenary ancestors.  So... what did he do to speed up his entry into the U.S.?  He took a trip to Canada and then just walked over the border at some unprotected spot.  Although an "undocumented alien"  he lived for 60 years as a hard-working, tax-paying model citizen of his adopted country.

More about my Crazy Mail

Yesterday, as usual, I got a lot of junk mail. Here is information about a couple of them:

1.  The envelope of this mailing says: "Donald Trump doesn't want you to open this letter."

Wait a minute!  I didn't know that the President knew who I was.  Maybe I should send him one of my "Joe Vaughan Fan Club" pens.... well, maybe not.. he might use it to sign one of his voluminous executive orders.

2.  The inside of this mailing says: "Congratulations.. Joe Vaughan, as an identified leader in your field, we would like to extend to you a special offer.  Receive ............. magazine at your executive rate of just.........

Wait another minute! Who identified me?  The President (see above)?  And what is my "field" these days?  Writing blog entries?  Doing crossword puzzles?  Meeting with Doctors and Dentists?


Drug Problems in Westminster Maryland!

In just two hours yesterday, 7 people went to the Emergency Room because of drug overdoses.  I mentioned the latest problem before in this blog.  Fentenal is being laced into heroin and addicts can't handle the extra potency.

I hear an unsubstantiated rumor that the Trump Administration is trying to get the names of drug addicts from U.S. Health Agencies.

If true... this sounds like the first activity of the Nazis when then took charge of Germany.  They wanted to find out about all of the physically and mentally disabled people who should be included in "health cleaning" activity... read: genocide... then they pushed to find out who had Jewish blood.  At first, they wanted anyone with a Jewish grandfather to be considered a Jew.  Later, after citizen uproar, they settled on considering anyone with "more than one" Jewish grandparent to be a Jew.  So, if you had only one Jewish grandparent, you could be considered an "Aryan"  and you would avoid the poison gas shower that your grandparent probably had.

I know, I got a little "carried away."  However....I wish that everyone would take the time to reread Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel: It Can't Happen Here."

Get Happier with This Week's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!

They always open with a question or joke about Mr. Trump:  Check this one out:

"The President has been in office only one week and he has already kept a promise, and has kept one Mexican from coming into the United States."


Horsing Around in Finland

Young girls in Finland have found a new "hobby"... yes.. they groom and ride sticks with horse's heads in competitions.  The word "hobby" comes from Middle English and means "horse."  So these young ladies are having fun riding their "hobby horses."

Books by a Noted Rabbi

I thought the titles of these books by Shmuley Boteach interesting:

Dating Secrets of the Ten Commandments

Kosher Sex

Shmuley has written a lot of other books and apparently is well-known in Orthodox circles.


Non-Kosher Shoes?

Speaking of Orthodox Jewery, an Eastern Rabbi has outlawed the wearing of "KROCS" during Yom Kippur, because they are too comfortable.

A Chip in A Chip?

Tostitos has developed a test for drunkenness within a bag of chips.  Breathing on one of the chips allows an APP to tell if you have had too much to drink.  It may even have the ability to call Uber for a ride if necessary.

Now... do you think this is true?

Just Like the Ancient Greeks?

In the United Kingdom, you can now enroll in a naked body-building exercise class.

"Nevermore!"

Somebody's camera in Yellow Knife, Canada, captured this event.  A raven spotted a parking ticket held by a car's windshield wiper.  It swooped down, clamped its beak on the ticket, chewed and swallowed it.  Naturally, the car owner did not see any ticket, so he did not pay it.  But, when he went to court for not paying... the photographer showed up and let everyone see what the naughty bird did.

Even after seeing the evidence, the mean judge made the car owner pay his fine.



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Mr. Trump: My Opinion; Peter Wehner's Opinion; John McWhorter's Opinion

Fifty degrees... not much of a Winter so far.

El Presidente (Opinion by me .. usually an independent)

I didn't want to keep blogging about President Trump... but he won't stop tweeting and writing Presidential memos.  For instance:  today, he:

Warned Chicago that he would bring National troops in to quell the gun violence.

Warned "Safe" Cities that they would lose government funds if they continue helping illegal aliens.

Warned EPA folks that they would no longer be allowed to publish,  ...   including researchers.

Warned EPA researchers that all of their work would have to be reviewed and cleared first by the Trump Administration.

Started work on the "wall."  

Meanwhile, an expert on drug trafficing talked to NPR today, and said that no matter how tall the wall, pilotless aircraft will be able to fly over it.  This aircraft can carry up to 300 pounds of heroin.

Also, for one million dollars, Mexicans can build a state-of-the art tunnel under the wall, and one trip through the tunnel with dope, can net the one million dollars to cover the construction.

As I read more about the "Hitler Empire" and review a six disc audio course on that subject ... I am struck and disheartened by the similarities between Hitler's takeover and Mr. Trump's takeover.  That is not to say that I think Trump is a maniacal bigot like Hitler, just that his tactics appear to me to be similar.  Time will tell a lot about Mr. Trump's presidency.

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Opinion by Peter Wehner (Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.. a loyal Republican.)

Some Trump supporters make the following argument:

Mr. Trump is preferable to Hillary Clinton.

His cabinet appointments have been "reassuring."

The nominee to replace Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court is certain to be more of an originalist than a Clinton appointment would be.

The Republicans are in charge, and they can control Mr. Trump.

But......"Mr. Trump has continued to demonstrate impulsivity and narcissism.... Trump is a transgressive personality.  he thrives on creating disorder, in violating rule, in provoking outrage.  He is a 'shock jock.'".

Peter also says in conclusion: "...Donald Trump has given us many reasons to worry.  A man with illiberal tendencies, a volatile personality and no internal checks is now president.  This isn't going to end well."

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Opinion by John McWhorter, famous Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia .. and expert on the English Language

Some of Trump's phrases:

"America is totally unstoppable."

"We will bring back our borders."

The "very sad depletion of our military."

John says that Trump talks the way some people would talk over drinks.  We have to realize that his talking style isn't as "exotically barbaric as it looks on the page."

Mr. McWhorter quotes a person who listened to bubbly Teddy Roosevelt as if listening to a  6 year old.But  McWhorter says:  "Linguistically, I listen to the man who is now president as if he were roughly 12 years old.  That way, he is always perfectly understandable."  (INSIGHT!)

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Enough!!

SLEEP! Inemuri; Consumer Reports;

Windy... 40 mph gusts.  Cold wave is probably coming in.  So far, the weather has been unseasonably warmish.... in the 50's and sometimes 60's.  As I mentioned before, our winters here in the mid-Atlantic region  seem to me to be like the weather in Spartanburg, South Carolina in the 1980's.  Soon, we'll be seeing palm trees growing all year along our sidewalks.

Sleeping on Duty

Normally, if an American is found sleeping during their work shift, they would be fired.  However, "in Japan, napping in the office is common and culturally accepted"  according to Bryant Rousseau, writing in the New York Times for January 8th, 2017.  Bryant says that napping in the office is sometimes seen as "diligence" ... that is, it shows that you are working very hard..  to the point of exhaustion.

 The Japanese have a word for this, "inemuri"  which translates loosely to "sleeping while present."

Mr. Rousseau says that "inemuri" has been practiced in Japan for at least one thousand  years and is not practiced just by people in their workplace.  "People may nap in department stores, cafes, restaurants or even a snug spot on a busy city sidewalk."

I doubt that "inemuri" will ever catch on in the United States.  I could even envision President Trump telling employers to "fire those sleeping losers!"

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Sleeping at Home

Consumer Reports (CR)  for February 2017 publishes an article with the title: "Secrets to a Great Night's Sleep"  They give a number of tips that I will try to put together in a list that I can more easily refer to when I'm grouchy from lack of sleep.

01.  Make sure you have a good mattress.

To help you, CR rates 74 of them. (A lot of brands I've never heard of.)

02.  Don't continue to sleep on lumpy mattresses with sharp points.

03.  Snack on the right food before bed.

My choice would be warm milk, but CR doubts its efficacy.   Better (per CR) would be Kiwi fruit, malted milk, or tart cherry juice. The article describes some conditions:  which I will fit into these tips:

a.  Eat two kiwi's one hour before bedtime... to help you fall asleep faster, and sleep longer.

b.  Drink malted milk  30 minutes before bedtime... to be less restless during sleep.

c.  Drink a cup of tart cherry juice in the morning and at night.. to slow down insomnia  and mid-night awakening.

(These results were not the results of scientific studies, so be wary.  But, why not give them a try.)

04. Buy yourself a "good" pillow.  ("sleep on a pillow for a week to know whether it's right for you")

Some pillows come with labels that let  you know if it is good for  your sleep position....side, back, or stomach.  (I vary those positions all night long.)

CR discusses the various types of pillows:

Down
Feather
Polyester microfibers
Memory foam
Latex Foam
Hypoallergenic fiber filled
Buckwheat hulls
Gel
Combinations

05.  Be wary about Over the Counter (OTC) Sleep Aids

There may be a lot of side effects, like constipation, dizziness, next-day drowsiness, hangover, impaired balance, etc.  Besides, if  you are not careful, they become habit-forming.

06.  If problems persist, see a doctor, who may prescribe CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) ... CBT therapists help you find out about habits that are keeping  you from getting a good night's sleep.


07.  Also, remember, if your partner requires a different mattress than  you do, and you still want to sleep together, consider the Sleep Number beds. 

PLEASANT DREAMS!
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Personal Boring Stuff on Inauguration Day; Arthritic Shoulder; Opiod Problems; The European Union and Brexit

Coolish and rainy... good weather for the inauguration though.

Yes, Mr. Donald J. Trump was inaugurated today.  The 45th President of the United States.

My last comment:  The fox is now in charge of the henhouse.

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Today, I had an adventure... trying to reach the doctor that I hoped would fix my aching left shoulder.

A lady called me with directions to the Doctor's office... she told me to go to the Carroll Hospital Center back entrance.  When I got there... they had never heard of my doctor.  However, they thought that it might be another place that they directed me to.  No.. not there either.

In a panic, I went into the local Target store and asked if there was a telephone I could use.  No.

So, still in a panic, I stopped the first customer I saw.. a nice lady who looked kind.   I asked her if she had a cell phone.  She did.   I asked if I could use it to call the doctor's office.  She said yes.

The person in the doctor's office was not sure where the office was, but just advised me to drive around until I saw a "Medstar" sign.  Which I did.. I drove for a while and suddenly I saw the sign.. and guess what,  the doctor's office was suite 200 in a building in which suite 100 is my dentist and suite 300 is my arthritis doctor.  Amazing.

I ended up only 5 minutes late.  My blood pressure was up a bit but other than that all went ok.. my doctor told me that because of my weight-lifting activity for years, my shoulder had worn out.

Solution:  Surgery.. new shoulder.  (No No... not for me)

Solution:  Rehab.  (Maybe)  But it probably won;'t help.

Solution:  Corteson Shot:  (Yes)  Hopefully, it will work for close to six months.  Then... I'll get another.


Yes, I know... boring!
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Medical/Police Opiod Problem in our County

At my TRIAD/SALT meeting yesterday, we were pleased to have a well-known police sargeant in attendance.  He told us about the Opiod problems current in our County.  For instance, last week, 5 overdose cases were reported, one was fatal.  The problem is Fentenal added to Heroin.  Some felons released after serving their sentences, buy some heroin... but, what they don't realize is that it is not the same heroin they used before they were arrested.  It is much more potent... with that fantastic chemical Fenteanal included.  (In fact, the sargeant mentioned that two officers confiscated a bag of drugs and when they opened it, the Fentenal fumes knocked them out.)

I don't even know how to spell Fentenal.  However, as I've mentioned before in these blogs, the pain from my leg problems was in the 9 and 10 level.  Oxycodone did not kill the pain, so Hopkins doctors had me combine those pills with a fentenal patch.  Even that did not work at first.. only after I had the strongest dosage did the pain abate.  After healing, I had to go to a pain clinic and get weaned off of the fentenal and oxycodone.   Luckily, I did not become addicted.... that is because the medication took care of pain and did not give me any of the "joys" of using opiods.

Yes, I know.. boring!

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Opiod Problem in the Country

The New York Times for January 8th, 2017 has an article with the title:  Opioid Tide From Coast to Coast.

Public health officials report that 33,000 people died from the opiod epidemic in 2015.  For the first time in  history, opiod deaths surpassed gun homicides.  What can be done about it?  I don't know, and neither do public health officials.

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Great Decisions

On last Thursday, the Great Decisions program began again in the place where I live.  Around 120 people signed up to hear experts talk about world problems, followed by a video and discussion.  The first program concerned The European Union, its history, its goals, its future after Brexit.

I think that I learned a lot from the presentation.  One surprising outcome for me was to learn that most of the European countries consider Andrea Merkel of Germany as the leader of the free world... and not our new President Trump.  For one thing, she is a person that shows compassion for refugees and immigrants, while many leaders in other European countries are following xenophobic rantings... just as, I'm afraid, Mr. Trump has engaged in.

As Britain takes steps to leave the European Union and France may follow... the breakup of the alliance may be coming... that is too bad, because, for almost 75 years there has been peace in Europe because of one Country's ties to its neighbors.  I hope that the French do not succumb to Le Penn's rhetoric.

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Enough... let's all be nice.

Those who Passed in 2016: Part One; Janet Reno; Edgar Mitchell; William A. Del Monte

Not too cold at all today.

May They  Rest In Peace

The New York Times magazine for Christmas Day, 2016, had a wonderful feature.  They had articles about famous people (mostly) who had passed away during the year.  Some of these people were unfamiliar to me, but all of their stories were interesting to me... and I think I learned a lot from reading about their lives.  In case you do not have access to the NYT magazine, let me give you the names of these people, what they were famous for, and (whether you care or not), my observations.

Janet Reno (1938-2016)   (Article by Michael Paterniti)

A "larger than life" (over 6 feet tall) tough lady who served as Bill Clinton's Attorney General for eight years.  Even though she was involved in many contentious situations, she did not have many bodyguards, if any.  Some of her most famous "situations:"

o  The 51-day standoff with the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas.  She told the FBI to storm the compound.

o  She ordered the seizure of 6-year old Cuban boy named Elian Gonzales.

o  She assigned a special prosecutor to investigate "Watergate".. and we all know how that eventually introduced us to Monica Lewinsky.

o  She successfully prosecuted Ted Kaczynski, the Unibomber.

o  She successfully prosecuted the Oklahoma bombers, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols.

She was a victim of Parkinson's and talked about herself  as "...  an old woman who shakes."

Janet sure packed a lot of living in her 78 years of life.

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Edgar Mitchell (1930-2016)  (Article by Charles Homans)

When Edgar was 16 years old, a mysterious aircraft crashed near the Roswell, New Mexico ranch where he lived.  This triggered a lust for exploration, which culminated in his becoming the "6th man to walk on the moon."  On the flight back from the moon,  Edgar had an epiphany.  He said: "I realized that the molecules of my body and the molecules of the spacecraft had been manufactured in an ancient generation of stars."

His "discovery of the oneness of all things" led him to found the Institute of Noetic Sciences.  He felt that exploration of the universe would have to be done outside of the boundaries of religion and science, and he elicited wisdom from shamans and Vodou priests.

I would have liked to  have known Mr. Mitchell and had a chance to argue with him during a Mensa meeting.  I wonder what he felt about Mufon?

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William A. Del Monte  (1906-2016)  (Article by Jon Gertner)

On April 28th, 1906, William A. Del Monte was a baby whose mother kept him safe when San Francisco suffered a series of earthquakes and the disastrous fires that followed.  He was the very last survivor of that catastrophe.

Some good came out of the disaster, for instance:  San Francisco built a much better system of fire-pumping stations and California adopted building codes so that future construction could withstand another earthquake.

Mr. Del Monte was an active participant in quake memorial programs.  He wanted his fellow San Franciscans to remember what happened there.

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I''ll enter some more folks in future blogs.

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Junk Mail University

Not too cool.  Raining in the PM.

Junk Mail

As I've mentioned earlier in this blog, I love junk mail, and I get a lot of it.  I get some nice things out of my daily load.  For instance, almost every day, I get a nickel enclosed with a request for money.  Sometimes I get a dime or a quarter.  So, check your junk mail, you may be throwing away a fortune!

I learn a lot from my junk mail, for instance, here is what I've learned from four unasked for and unsolicited pieces of mail:

1.  Offer for The Good Life Magazine -  Doctor OZ sez:

o  If you work in front of a computer all day, you should let your eyes rest once every 20 minutes.

o  To test to see if you have bad breath, run floss through your back teeth and sniff.

o  You might experience these symptoms hours before you experience a migraine headache.

     Mood changes.
     Visual disturbances
     A sense of heaviness

o  If you eat eggs, that might help prevent dry skin on your face or scalp.

o  If you walk a mile in 20 minutes, you only burn 85 calories. (Discouraging?)

o  Eating dark chocolate  may reduce your risk of heart disease and help prevent blood clots. (I think that is true of red wine as well.)

o  Drink coffee if you want to improve your memory.

2. Offer from the National Parks Conservation Association

o  The highest concentration of prehistoric human dwellings in North America is in Alaska's "untamed" Katmai National Park.  (6,000 years ago these dwellings were built)

o  In 1838, the U.S. Government forcibly removed more than 16,000 Cherokee Indians from Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Georgia, and sent them to the Oklahoma Indian Territory. This horrible act became known as the Trail of Tears.

o Twelve million people entered our nation from the Ellis Island Immigration station between 1892 and 1954. (If you have relatives who came in through that station, you will be able to find their names at the site.  I found relatives of the man who I thought was my father.)

3.  Offer from the Center for Science in the Public Interest

o  Eat one of Stouffer's Chicken Pot Pie and consume over a thousand calories and a day's worth of salt. (But.. Damn! it tastes good!)

o  Enjoy the contents of a can of Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup and consume 2,000 milligrams of sodium... more that a day's supply.  (Even so, it's good medicine.  However, if you have a garlic allergy like Elaine has, you should not try it.)

o  If you like to feast  on Starbuck's  Venti White Chocolate Mocha with 2% milk and whipped cream, you are consuming 580 calories, 14 grams of saturated fat, and 12 teaspoons of added sugar.  (You would have to walk 6 1/2 miles to use up that many calories.)  (Why not try Starbucks' Mocha Light... tastes good and only has 100 calories!  Then you'll only have to walk a little over one mile.)

4.  Offer from Tufts University for their Health and Nutrition Letter

o  Remember that grapefruit can interact with many prescription medications.

o  Longevity and the Mediterranean Diet may be linked, so:

     Drink alcohol in moderation
     Eat less meat and meat products
     Eat more veggies, fruit, legumes and nuts
     Try olive oil
     Eat less butter
     Eat more fish

o  Habits to get into to protect your heart:

     Try for 30 minutes of physical activity, 5 time a week
     Get cholesterol lower that 200 mg.dL.
     Eat deeply colored fruit and vegetables.
     Eat whole-wheat bread.
     Eat Fish twice a  week
     Forget about the salt-shaker.
     Get blood pressure lower than 120/80 mm Hg (debatable for seniors!)
     Lose some weight
     Reduce blood sugar to below 100
     Stop smoking!

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Now... aren't you smarter?  And that's just a little bit gleaned from four pieces of junk mail.

Ain't life great!

Loving Gold; Vacuuming; Drinking Beer; Jumping Rope; Promoting a Penguin; Becoming a Superager

It's 32 degrees and raining.  I just went out in the car and had to scrape ice off the windshield.  Best not to be driving tonight.

Family

Great news for my family.

MyHeritage told me about a cousin I did not know I had.  On my biological father's side.

Tomorrow we learn the gender of my soon to be grand child.

How about some "rambling?"

Today's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me!

I always learn something from this show.  Today was special because Tom Hanks served as the emcee.  Yes, the same Tom Hanks of cinematic fame. (Remember, you need to consider that what I am writing may turn out to be "false news"..  be careful.)

Trump's Gold  Fetish

I think there was a reference to hacked emails that talked about Mr. Trump's love of gold and gold toilet bows was mentioned.  This caused someone to echo something said during confirmation hearing on Mr. Pompeo.  Supposedly he said: "I take these leaks seriously."

Great Invention

Someone in Norway or Sweden has invented "Vacuum Shoes."  Why not?  Elaine likes the idea that you can walk around the  house, getting exercise, while scooping up cat hair.

Beer-lovers' Boon

The Pang Pang Brewery in Sweden has developed beer to drink while you take a shower.  Be careful though, because it has a 10% alcohol content, and could make you slip on your soap.

Jumping Rope

I'm not sure of this, but I think someone mentioned that a bakery somewhere made a video of bakery employees stretching out bread dough and using it to play "Jump Rope."

Lost and Found

A taxi driver in Scotland told police that he drove a depressed man to the edge of the sea and left him off.  He was afraid that the man may have committed suicide by drowning.  The Coast Guard went into immediate alert mode and spent a few hectic hours searching the sea for the man.  After the fog came in, they had to give up their search, so they went to the local pub for chips and ale.  Guess who they bumped into at the pub?

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Penguin Promotion

My German newspaper reported this.  A penguin named Sir Nils Olav was recently promoted to "Brigadegeneral" at the Edinburgh, Scotland zoo.  Nils Olav was knighted in 2008.  He is a mascot for the "King's Guard"..  and takes part in the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

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Superagers

Lisa Feldman Barrett wrote about "Superagers" in the New York Times edition for New Years Day 2017.

Neurologist Marsel Mesulam coined the term "Superagers" for those senior citizens whose memory and attention is on a par with healthy, active twenty-five-year-olds.

How do you become a "Superager?" Work hard at something, physical or mental.   Critical brain regions increase when persons engage in difficult tasks.   Lisa says: "You can ....help keep these (brain) regions thick and health through vigorous exercise and bouts of strenuous mental effort."

Lisa also says that "The Marine Corps has a motto that embodies this principal: 'Pain is weakness leaving the body.' That is, the discomfort of exertion means you're building  muscle and discipline. Superagers are like Marines."

She suggests that we make New Year's Resolutions to take up challenging activities, like learning a foreign language, taking an online college course, or mastering a musical instrument.

Work that brain! Become a Superager, regardless of your calendar age!

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Saturday Evening Post: Gasoline Alley; Teeth; Hot air: Hitchcock; Battleships

69 degrees!  Now what is going on?

What I learned from the January/February 2017 Saturday Evening Post:

Gasoline Alley!

Philip Lieberma n says tht the longest American comic strip still in production  is Gasoline Alley.  That strip began in 1918!  It is available on GoComics.com.  That strip was one of those that I looked forward to when I was seven years old.  I would copy it and then put it into a folder with its like.

However, today, the strip is kind of jazzed up and doesn't look like I remember from when I was a kid.

But, you have to visit GoComics.com.  It is a fantastic place.  All... and I mean all... of the comic strips you look at every day are there, plus others that you will really like.  I think that the site owners will ask you for a few dollars donation, but it is worth it if you like comics.

Teeth

Philip Gulley writes about his friend, Jerry.  Jerry had a slight overbite  that fit perfectly under the knurled edges of the bottle cap.  This allowed him to open coke bottles with his teeth.

Hot Air

Way back in 1899, a bicyclist noticed that one of his tires was going flat. He turned in at a repair shop and mentioned his problem.  The repairman pumped up the tire and then asked for 5 cents. The bicycle owner did not have any money, so he promised to bring the 5 cents in the next day.

The repairman insisted on immediate payment.   The bicycle owner told the repairman to take his old air back, but not a hair more, or he would sic the law on him.  Irked, the repairman poked a hole in the tire and all of the air flew out.

The next day, court convened.  The bicycle owner sued the repairman for damages in the amount of 5 cents.  The repairman sued for the same amount.  Each had brought a lawyer.

After a lot of evidence was submitted about the nature of air, the judge ruled.  5 cents damages for the bicycle owner and 5 cents damages for the repairman.  Each lawyer earned $10.

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Quote

Alfred Hitchcock:  "The television set now is like the toaster in American homes.  You press a button and the same thing pops up almost every time."

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Battleships

In 1898, the battleship USS Maine exploded and sank in Havana harbor.  The battleship was made out of steel.  Debate raged about whether in the future such ships should be made out of wood or steel.  The Saturday Evening Post editor felt that since steel ships sink like stones, in the future, all such ships should be made of wood.


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Now, do you see why I like this gentle magazine?  You can read it quickly and the topics are not such that will stir your juices.  It also has lots of pictures by Norman Rockwell, like this classic..

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Sugar!

Not so cold, but a bit windy.  Two days from now it is supposed to be 60 degrees.

"When my sugar goes down the street, all the little birdies go "Tweet, Tweet, Tweet."

Sugar

Definitions:

sugar: money easy to obtain
sugar-coat:  make bad stuff sound good
sugar: money available to be spent on pleasure
heavy sugar:  lots of money
sugar daddy:  male moneybags sweethearts
sugar head: moonshine whiskey
sugar: that sweet stuff that helps us become diabetics

Sugar in our foods: (per serving, according to the New York Times)

Coca Cola  65 grams
Maple Syrup  53 grams
Frappoccino  46 grams
Applesauce  25 grams
Tang  20 grams
Mandarin Oranges 20 grams
Raisin Bran  18 grams
Campbells Soup 6 grams
Wonder Bread  5 grams
Wheat Thins  4 grams
Feta Cheese 0 grams
Triscuit  0 grams

The Week magazine for August 14, 2015, says that drinking just one sugar soda a day increases the risk for type 2 diabetes, even if you are not obese.

Fumiaki Imamura, University of Cambridge researcher says:  "... if Americans broke their daily sugary drink habit, two million new cases of diabetes could be prevented  over the next five years."

Bloomberg.com says that health officials advise that daily calories from added sugar should not exceed 10% of total calories.

New York Times reporter, Anahad O'Connor writes that the sugar industry paid scientists in the 1960's to "play down" the link between sugar and heart disease "... and promote saturated fat as the culprit, instead, newly released historical documents show"

The author also says:  "The Associated Press reported that candy makers were funding studies that claimed that children who eat candy tend to weigh less than those who do not."

The author gives facts and names names.  The article was included in the Sunday New York Times for New Years Day 2017.  It is very depressing to me to learn that executives were getting scientists to "sugar-coat"  their findings, so that these sleeze-ball executives could make some more "heavy sugar"..  it's that same old story, who cares about the health of consumers, as long as the "sugar-daddies"  get more "sugar!"  Give me another slug of that good old fashioned "sugar head!"

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And besides diabetes... it makes us fat!

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Cold and Windy; Florida Desire; Dolly; Cups Miscounted; A Billion Earths; Religious Questions from Finland

Bitter cold and windy.  In the teens. To hell with this, I'm moving to Florida. (I say that every year, but never do so. ) I still remember, a number of years ago, it was very cold in Baltimore and snowing a blizzard, but our plane took off and we flew to Saint Petersburg, Florida.  When we exited that plane, it was a balmy 75 degrees.  Within a half hour we were attending a cookout.  It was as though we had died and gone to heaven.

We visited our friends and relatives in Florida... and then.... the big hurricane came and wiped them out!

Here are the main reasons that we do not migrate to Florida:

Violent hurricanes.

Boa Constrictors.

Mosquitoes.

Alligators.

Heat Stroke.

Sun Burn.


Some Stuff:

Quotes:

Dolly Parton:  "The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain."

Arnold Mckinnon (CEO Norfolk Southern): "Be a contrarian.  If everybody says it, you might want to question it."

Miscounted!

According to the New Yorker:  "Every election year since 2004, the Monogram Shop... has kept a careful tally of its sales of three-dollar reusable plastic cups emblazoned with the candidates' names and logos... For the past three elections, whichever candidate's cup has sold best has become President"

So, just before Election Day, the Clinton cup sales were way ahead of Trump's.  But.. look what happened?  Just goes to prove the old saying:  "Don't count your cups until they runneth over."

Counted!

NASA astronomers have now projected a figure of one billion as the number of possible "earths" existing in the Milky Way, which is only one galaxy among billions of galaxies.  So far, 4,696 of these earth-like planets have been identified.  One of them, Kepler-452b seems to be the most earth-like so far.  Unfortunately, it is 1,400 light years away.

One year at Kepler-452b lasts 385 days.  Like earth, it orbits in the so-called Goldilocks Zone, the region where conditions are "just right."

Questions:

Mensan Heikki Kauppinen, from Finland, asked these questions in the Mensa Bulletin for June 1977:

01.  Because of entropy.. why wouldn't the universe, if it has lasted forever.. be all leveled out?

02.  Could there be some factor that started the creation of the universe?  Some "super intelligence?"

03.  Do you think it would be impossible for such a "super intelligence" to create everything.. atoms to stars?

04.  Do you think that a "super intelligence" created Earth?

05.  If there were such a "super intelligence," why would there have to be "evolution?"

06. "... how many different species of animal are there in the world?  More than a million.  so there are more than a million steps in the chain of evolution.  If every step is an accident, each one demanding possibly thousands of failed mutations for several being able to breed, then where are all the billions of remainders of those failed mutants?"

07.  Why are there two sexes? Wouldn't it be simpler if only one existed?

Heikki finally says: "Why think of life as a complicated sum of accidents, each of them representing almost zero probability?  Why not (to) find the easiest way - believing only that everything has been planned and built by "Super Intelligence" whose wisdom and skill is much above our knowledge and technology?  So thinking, it is easy to understand how the first cell developed and how life became more and more complex.  And, when the world was ready for him, how Man was finally created as his Creator's own picture."

(What do you think of Heikki's questions and final statement?)

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Passing of a Friend; Life Goes On; Nation Cryptic and Mr. Trump

Cold... 3 inches of snow overnight..  some nice persons shoveled it off of the sidewalks.

Life!

Today I ran the AARP Chapter meeting at the Westminster American Legion Hall.  A local lawyer talked to us about Advance Directives and Wills.  The Italian meal was delicious... lots of garlic, so Elaine would not have been able to eat any of it if she had been able to attend.  Because of the snow she could not... wheelchairs do not go very well in snow.. and besides, Winter is the time when Elaine likes to hibernate.

It was a nice meeting with lots of humor and social activity.  Jim Hamilton was there without his wife, who was not feeling well.  Jim told us lots of his famous stories.

Jim was once a master cake maker.  He created a beautiful cake shaped like my car, and even had cutout pictures of me and Elaine inside, with me steering..  a masterpiece, in my opinion.

 Last year, Jim was written up in a couple of local newspapers because of his amazing ability to grow 11 feet tall tomato plants in clay soil.

Jim and his wife live in a Continuing Care Retirement Community.  Jim told us today that almost everybody who lives there is a widow.

After socializing, Jim prepared a meal and wrapped it to take to his wife.  Jim helped Louise M. into her car.  Said "Goodbye."  Drove off, had a heart attack, swerved over an embankment, hit a tree, and died.

Rest In Peace, old friend.


Life Goes On!

Giovanni Papini:  "Breathing is the greatest pleasure in life."

Marcus Aurelius:  "When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love."

Enjoy the Simple Life!

Humphrey Bogart:  "A hot dog at the ball game beats roast beef at the Ritz!"

Cryptic Trump

I love to do the cryptic puzzles in the Nation Magazine.  Usually, the setters put a few current affairs clews into the mix, but not many.  However, the puzzle for January 16/23, 2017, is quite topical.  For instance, many of the puzzle answers are "parts" of the Nation's answer to Mr. Trump, for instance:

Dreamers

Black Lives Matter

Planned Parenthood

Fight for Fifteen

Three Fifty dot org

There are several more clever entries that brought a smile to my lips, especially this one:

"Sounds like extreme anger: His admirers love Trump."  ... the cryptic answer was "fuehrer."

Bravo, Nation!

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Computer Virus and Trojan Stuff; Pension Decrease; Stuff we may have learned in 2016

Getting colder.

Computer Stuff

Quite a last few days!  Because I keep getting "virus alerts" and requests to dial 800 numbers, I figured that these "alerts" were scams, especially since the requests came from"Microsoft" one day, and "Google" another, and also when I read one of the popups that said: "You has a virus."

So, I purchased the old "tried and true" virus protection from McAFEE.  When I tried to install it, I was unable to do so.  I called "support" and after they did some fancy scanning work, they found what looked like thousands of virus and trojan files on my computer.  I gave them permission to fix my PC and get rid of these nuisances.  It took about 5 hours until Max and Sam (actually Indians) got every thing fixed up on my main PC... now I will do the same on my other computers.  It cost me $299, but it is supposed to get me protection "forever."  Actually, it is probably only for one year.  We'll see.

Even though things are supposed to be fixed, I just experienced another "Microsoft Virus Pop Up" when I tried to get to this site using Explorer.  Finally, I just used Chrome instead.  Oy!

Pension Increase?

Wow!  A .003% increase.  (that's not three %).. To offset that small increase, Medicare costs increased over $100 a month... and for January, the pension folks tagged me for almost $900 because I apparently didn't pay enough each month in 2016.  I wonder where the "poor house" is in Carroll County.  ..... But, seriously, what do poor people do?

Brain Expansion?

The New Years edition of the New York Times listed 45 things that you might have learned from them during 2016.  Here are the ones that "grabbed" me:

01.  "One minute of all-out exercise may provide the benefits of 45 minutes of moderate exertion."

(Will this revolutionize the way we keep in shape?)

02,  A new building on Manhattan's Upper West Side pipes a perfume called Ocean Mist through its ductwork.

(Now we have Musak for the nostrils.)

03. "Deep in our solar system's outer reaches, there could be a hidden planet."

(See, I told you so!)

04.   "Death from gun homicide in the U.S. is as common as dying in a car accident.  In Japan, it's as rare as a fatal lightning strike."

(Elaine says that the Government should ration and control ammunition.)

05.  "Meditation can change  your brain."

(Why do I want to change my brain?  I'm a Mensan, for goodness sakes..)

By the way, remember what fellow Mensan, Isaac Asimov said: "Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to us who do."

06.  Giraffes are four species, not one.

("How can you tell?" asks Paula Poundstone)

07.  "The Greenland shark lives at least 272 years, and it could live as long as 512 years."

What about Loan Sharks?


08.  The Bramble Cay melomys is the first mammal to go extinct because of human-caused climate change."

(Are you listening, Mr. Trump?)

09.  "No one really knows what's buried under the streets of New York until it's time to dig."

(I recently purchased two books about the hidden world under the streets of a couple of big cities.. namely New York and Boston.  The Boston book was wonderful.  It chronicled the Boston Subway.  The New York book was horrible.  It just showed pictures of graffiti painted on the walls of abandoned Subway tunnels.)

Now... are you smarter?
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Happy New Year! and The Brain

Happy New Year 2017!  We watched Times Square last night but did not see the ball drop.  I'm sure it did, because my Sunday New York Times front page says January 1st, 2017.  Boy... 2016 was one hell of a year!  Can we take it back and start over?

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Song for New Year's Eve

I hope you were able to listen to Dan Fogelberg's 1980 hit: "Same Old Lang Syne."   The New York Times Magazine speaks of the song:  "The year 1980 brought us the greatest holiday song of all time:  one that finds beauty in the shabbiness of life."  So, if you think you'd like to hear about romance blossoming in the super market checkout line, or six-pack beer drinking in your car, then, by all means, check this out.  I'm told that Dan performs everything on the disk except for a saxophone rendition of the real "Old Lang Syne."  So, don't believe the liner quotes with names of performers such as Donny Trout.. or other cuties, blame it all on Dan.. except that Dan died of prostate cancer a few years ago.

The Future Brain

The New York Times magazine for December 18, 2016 has a book-length article about the "Brain" project of the Google folks.  This is an attempt to make AI ("artificial intelligence") more "real."  In the past, AI has taken an adult approach to learning.  That is, like an adult, the computer brain would have access to encyclopedic databases, from which it would fill its available spaces like someone in school tries to do.

The new, and revolutionary, approach is to treat the computer brain as if it were a one year or younger child.  A bottom-up approach, instead of a top-down approach.

(Of course, this is my reading of the article, and my tired old Mensan mind may have read into the article things that are not there.  So, be careful and read it for yourself.)

Look at this quote from the article:  "An average brain has something on the order of 100-billion neurons.  Each neuron is connected to up to 10,000 other neurons, which means that the number of synapses is between 100 trillion and 1,000 trillion.  For a simple artificial neural network of the sort proposed in the 40's, the attempt to ever try this was unimaginable.  We're still far from the construction of a network of that size, but Google Brain's investment allow(s) for the creation of artificial networks comparable to the brains of mice."

(Many years ago, Datamation magazine published some articles about AI.  I copied some of the code that was printed in the magazine and developed from it a program that learned from input given in response to questions.  But, of course, working with less than 80,000 bytes of program and data storage, I could only go so far.   However, some branches of the code gave me some ideas about how to create a cross-reference file for computer code, something that IBM said at the time that they were not able to do.

I showed the code to George Orange, one of Social Security's hotshot programmers, and he, and later, John Taylor developed it into a useful tool for COBOL programmers, without dropping a little addition from me, because even today, I'm told, if there is a need to somehow utilize old fashioned cross-reference listings, one might find, under the tag "genius"..  the name "Joe Vaughan"...  toot!  toot!   toot!)

More Brain Stuff

The Reader's Digest for December 15, 2016  has an article by Simon Parkin from BBC.Com Future. The title is "Forever Memory."

The article mentions Eternime, which is a Web service that attempts to preserve a prerson's memories after death.  How?  Well, before you die, you grant Eternime access to your Facebook, Twitter, and EMAIL accounts, as well as the other stuff that you have uploaded, like photographs.

To quote the article: "The data are collected and analyzed before being transferred to an artificial intelligence avatar that tries to emulate your looks and personality... with the aim of better reflecting you after you're gone."  (Surely, a boon for genealogists and progeny.)

The article then asks: "What if, rather than picking and choosing what we want to capture in digital form, it were possible to record the contents of a mind in their entirety?"  (Would that we were able to do that.)

Some references mentioned in the article.: 

The BRAIN Initiative.

The Human Brain Project in Europe

The Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University

Anders Sandberg's Oxford paper published in 2008, titled "Whole Brain Emulation, A Roadmap", in which he says:  "Memories are not neatly stored like files on a computer to create a searchable index. Memory consists of networks of associations that are activated when we remember.  A brain emulation would require a copy of them all."

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I predict.. within the next 20 years, cancer will be cured and brain "uploads" will become commonplace. 

If I'm wrong, sue me.

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Even More Brain Stuff

Brain Box: the caboose of a freight train.

Brain Child:  a product of one's intellect, a plan

Brain Picker:  somebody who profits from stealing  your ideas

Brain Wave: Brain Storm:  a brilliant idea

Brain Tablet:  a cigarette

Brainwash:  to change one's opinions and thoughts

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das ist genug!

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