Sep.01.2008 (yikes, did i write "Sep"?)

yesterday had breakfast with mike and explained all my political viewpoints .... he of course was enthralled. then he talked me into buying a car buffer machine for Deb .... he said it was a thoughtful, even romantic gift, so i did so.

then went home and me and Deb washed and waxed and buff-polished my car .... and truth be told, it was a romantic experience, but i'm not sure Deb saw it like that.

today, we went for a great walk, despite D's wounded knee, then i cleaned the gutters, did school work (class starts saturday, 2 students enrolled !.... probably an on-line course), cooked some stuff and now i'm on the porch.

the US political world is turbulent with rumors and flame wars regarding a host of issues that insult us all. i'm trying hard to keep it all out of my notes here.

my little eeepc with ubuntu (as loaded by my sysadmin, M) is too perfect, except for the keypad and buttons which utterly suck, but the machine overall is great for a retired, porch-bound engineer.

Sep.02.2008

Rumors are surfacing of a grass roots initiative for a new presidential candidate. People who know are speaking of a groundswell of support for a political newcomer, whose face we've seen many times over the years in various entertainment venues.

Only rumors so far, and no names have been mentioned for VP, yet. Insiders say, an official announcement is imminent, along with a matrix of policy statements that are sure to galvanize the new candidacy.

Sep.03.2008 / It's official, he's off and running

My First Car: California, 1967

From the internet:

The Jaguar MKII is the most characteristic Jaguar "Sport-sedan" in history. Almost everybody knows and recognizes the car as a Jaguar.

The MKII was a car with two faces: on the one hand, it was a very fast sport-sedan, which made the car favorite of British crooks as well as the police (a fact which was made full use of in many films and television series; think of Get Carter, featuring Michael Caine, and more recently, Inspector Morse). On the other hand, it was a very comfortable acceptable business car in which the "upper class" would happily present themselves.

The MKII derived its power and speed from the famous Jaguar XK engine with which Jaguar had been able to win in Le Mans in 1951 and in 1953 (3.4-litre version). The XK engine in the MKII was available in three different cylinder capacities, namely 2483 cc/120 horsepower, 3442 cc/190 horsepower and 3781cc/220 horsepower respectively. The 3.8 version had a top speed of no less than 120.5 miles per hour (about 201 km/h). The Jaguar MKII was built until 1967.

Nowadays, the Jaguar MKII is a very popular classic. The MKII is very suitable for daily (business) use and will give the lucky owner much driving pleasure as well as a distinct image concerning the choice of car.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My 1960 3.8MkII was a wonderful (and very fast) car when it ran, but it was incredibly tempermental (the British had no respect whatever for electronic stuff). For example, on a whim, the fuel pump would just stop, the engine would die and I'd get out, open the trunk and hit the pump with a mallet a few times, and she was up and running again. Most often, the ignition switch would also start the windshield wipers.

It was extremely comfortable to drive going very fast .... but it looked very sedate and conservative sitting still.

And, unfortunately, one day whilst trying to set a San Diego Freeway speed record, it blew a freeze plug on me, drained all the coolant (the needle was pegged at 120mph) and melted the engine before I could reach the ignition switch to shut it down.

The new engine cost me 4 months net salary.

Ahhhh...... youth.

Bikes

Deb's been after me all summer to clean up the bikes so we can ride (havent been on them in 4-5 years!!.)

well, summer is over, so i decided to clean them up today, actually because i dont feel like doing anything else.

the red one is mine, purchased in 1983 .... a selfish purchase at the time , but my life was going badly and i needed it.... no excuses, just explanation.

i met Deb in april 1986 on a bike ride at the ymca. that summer ..... this is a debbie story .... the two of us took a long bike ride. we headed up the 12 mile upward stretch called rindge road - paved, but pretty much woods the whole second half..... uphill every stinking inch of the way..... but i was superman in those days and pushed on.

well .... the "pushing" wore thin and wore Deb out and she started mumbling and i kept pushing and she kept mumbling.... then ....

she got off her bike, picked it up and threw it at least 15 feet into the woods.

"oh" (dave thinks to himself) "i think there's a message for me."

yes, dave, there is message for you ..... it's lying approximately 15 feet into the woods.

we strolled (downhill) all the way to town.

Deb at Work

i brought D a sandwich as she is alone all day and cant get lunch. she knows the customers by name and chats endlessly with them about everything, and knows much about them ..... she sparkles with panache in the company of others and has a attractive personality.... hmmmmm.

i'm sensing here a groundswell of grassroots support for Al's VP nomination .... oh.... yes, i can sense the momentum on the floor...

Sarah Palin, you're 15 minutes of fame has come and gone..... Ms. Debbie's in town.

The Electoral College and Your Vote

mike started this over at his place, and i dumped o so much of my wisdom there, so i'll tie up my last loose ends here:

Matthew

it's not easy to pick out Matthew in this photo, but here he is on the ball field.

he's the new homeplate umpire for Grand Prairie Little League

and, furthermore ....

i don't think barrack obama is the best possible person we could choose to be the next president .... unfortunately, i really don't know who is the best possible person. and i hope he wins the election, as i see him to be the only possible ray of light in the dark future.

i generally will not vote for a person who doesn't deserve the job, simply because he's the better of two imbeciles ..... i deserve, and expect to be offered a better choice than that.

and obama voted (along with just about every other politician) to allow the government to wiretap and scan e-mail and internet pages, faxes, phone calls and US mail of American citizens, at its discretion without a court order ... that to me is more than an outrage.... and we might as well live in .... well, wherever....

however, i want obama to win because he is probably acceptable (maybe actually good) for the job, and the other candidate (McCain) has evolved into the quintessential politician, he is a puppet of wealthy people and powerful companies, who in turn manipulates the fears of stupid people (that's us) to get votes.

postscript: i don't imply that people who vote for McCain are categorically stupid. what i said is that (to get elected) he preys on the fears of a group of Americans who will trade anything (their votes and their Constitutional freedoms) for the feeling of security. that (preying on stupidity to get votes) is disgusting.

well ... all that aside, i have decide to cast a vote this election for the somewhat imperfect barrack obama.

Sep.10.2008

The Large Hadron Collider gets fired up today and is being livecast on the web to remove people's fears of doomdsay.

There is much discussion, speculation, fantasizing that it will create a black hole that will swallow the collider, then grow and ultimately swallow Earth and our solar system..... mostly fanciful amusings I think.

Nonetheless.... here is the live broadcast screen (and, yes I did click the RUN button).

so .... before it gets to me .... dear God, i'm sorry for ......

update:

and I quote .... " the U.K.'s Astronomer Royal put the odds of destroying the world at 1 in 50 million..."

whew ! .... i was worried there for a while ....

The New Hunt for Osama bin Laden

With the US election only weeks away, the Bush administration has suddenly come to realize that Osama bin Laden is not now, nor was he ever, in Iraq (where we have a war going on to wipe out ..... something, I forgot ). Bin Laden is, and has been for 7 years, "hiding" along the Afgan-Pakistan border (big news flash), so Bush is now intensifying our military commando attacks there to try to get him, dead or alive, before the November election.

How late is this? Ummm.... it's about.... let me see.... 7 years, 1 bad war, 4000 dead US soldiers, 10000 US wounded veterans (that will need a lifetime of compensation), 90000 dead Iraqis and about $3,000,000,000,000 too late .... that's how late it is for commando raids.

Osama bin Laden destroyed the US with 2 airplanes he didn't even own.

Posted some funny images of the kids a few years back.

Sep.13.2008

my heat transfer course was in turbulence yesterday ...... on-line? live? my fee? # of students? ... but it settled out after a few e-mails and phone calls. i now have 4 students and we are doing it live and i am getting paid more (a plus indeed).

because i am going on vacation for the next 2 classes, this morning i stuffed three 3-hour lectures into 3 hours, but i had typed it all up, made javascripts and posted it all on the web page, plus the students are sharp (had them before) and they will make it work.

then we spent an extra 30 minutes talking about life, careers (sp? .... i have to write a spell checker someday .... wait, me writing a spell checker ! ! ) and stuff.

came home, drove D to work, then fell asleep on the porch (old people do that). cooked a dinner, fed the pond fish, checked the plants etc.

i'm in a no-computer mood today.

thanks, God, for today ..... wherever you may be.

(i am imagining now what God's blog must read like ..... think about that .... what would God tell the blogosphere ? )

God's Weblog ("blog")

uh .... bad day today .... two galaxies collided unexpectedly and wiped out a hundred bzillion life forms ..... i definitely gotta work on those gravitational equations .... that fourth differential term has been driving me nuts for a hundred billion years.

some lost soul somewhere sent me a prayer to give him a promotion to VP ... sure buddy, i'll stop what i'm doing (saving a star from exploding) to get you a job.

some little kids on Earth prayed for food .....
okay .... i got time for that .... let me torch some bad-ass jerks and make that happen.

some parents prayed for their sick kid
..... i can't stop what's going to happen there and it's breaking my heart.

people expect a lot from me .... i do the best i can.

from Loretta...
Rachel brought this stuffed animal for show and
tell to sonshine club and told the class it was her special
doll because she got it at the mall with
Grandpa Dave and Debbie.

Sun.Sep.14.2008

had breakfast with M at the Family Diner (our sunday morning ritual), then a quick visit to rocky's hardware then home. drove D to work and i am on the porch and got the eeepc camera to work to talk pix and movies; then surfed around looking for some internet forum that could benefit from my priceless wisdom..... no luck, everyone already knows what i know.

disneyworld starts next weekend and this little eeepc is definitely coming with us, and my little $200 panasonic camera (the $2000 leica is still in the shop).

We simply can't drill our way out the energy crisis...

According to the US Energy Information Administration, oil production from drilling offshore in the outer continental shelf wouldn't begin until around the year 2017. Once begun, it wouldn't reach peak production until about 2030 when it would produce only 200,000 barrels of oil per day (in yellow above). This would supply a meager 1.2% of total US annual oil consumption (just 0.6% of total US energy consumption). And, the offshore oil would be sold back to the US at the international rate, which today is $106 a barrel. So, the oil produced by offshore drilling would not only be a "drop in the bucket", it would be expensive, which translates to "no relief at the pump".

NASA / JPL Earthwatch Website

A neat website with hardcore, objective data (no politicized issues). Check out the "interactives" on the right side of the page and play with the sliders.

People need to understand that a temperature change of only 2F (from 31F to 33F) turns ice to water ..... so all the ice in the world that was at 31F yesterday becomes more ocean water today (coastal flooding, weather changes, higher storm surges , etc etc.) .... all for 2F.

However .... I am personally on a plan to handle political, religious and environmental information more intelligently, as indicated in the figure on the right.

Canon Announces
Dave's Christmas Present

Jumping ahead of Leica and Panasonic (their new cameras just don't cut it), Canon announces the new G10 that delivers all the hot features for $500.

oh .... the irony....

(book title = "Angle of Repose")

Heating oil is at $3.80 / gal locally, which says I am screwed to the tune of (4.65-3.80)*700 = $595 for the upcoming winter..... got screwed and didn't even get kissed.

There's a Mouse in My Immediate Future....

Sep.23.2008 .... Disney 2008 web page

Remember The Savings and Loan Collapse and Scandal - 1990 !!

(..... yeh, that's the guy ..... second from the left.)

We, the People have been here before .... and some of the same players are still in the game ....

The U.S. Savings and Loan crisis of the 1980s and early 1990s was the failure of 747 savings and loan associations (S&Ls) in the United States. The ultimate cost of the crisis is estimated to have totaled around $160.1 billion, about $124.6 billion of which was directly paid for by the U.S. taxpayer. (That's $225 billion in today's money.)

The core allegation of the Keating Five affair is that Keating had made contributions of about $1.3 million to various U.S. Senators, and he called on those Senators to help him resist regulators. The regulators backed off, to later disastrous consequences.

The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The five senators, Alan Cranston (D-CA), Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ), John Glenn (D-OH), John McCain (R-AZ), and Donald W. Riegle (D-MI), were accused of improperly aiding Charles H. Keating, Jr., chairman of the failed Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which was the target of an investigation by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB).

After a lengthy investigation, the Senate Ethics Committee determined in 1991 that Alan Cranston, Dennis DeConcini, and Donald Riegle had substantially and improperly interfered with the FHLBB in its investigation of Lincoln Savings. Senators John Glenn and John McCain were cleared of having acted improperly but were criticized for having exercised "poor judgment".

And if that doesn't get your vote, check out the legs .... sorry ..... I meant "credentials" on the VP candidate.

While other women leaders in business and politics wasted years studying management, foreign policy, political science, fiscal leadership, law, ethics, etc etc, Sarah was shooting moose(es?), having 5 kids and strutting those cute legs at the state fair for blue ribbons and rhinsetone tiaras.

Sep.30.2008

yesterday the house of representatives voted down a very complex and expensive (to taxpayers) bill to "save" the financial system from the wreckage caused by marketplace greed. i am 70% (upgraded to) 90% confident in my own opinion that they did the right thing in not approving this particular version of the bill. i felt it put way too much unchecked power in the hands of a few people at the head of the treasury dept. and the Fed. if there were more checks and balances on those powers, i would say sign up to the bill.

so... the bill to dump $700B of the taxpayers money into the financial marketplace was voted down.

so today, the head of the Federal Reserve Bank took it upon himself and .... from the NYTimes:

so, let's see .... $150B + $330B + $250B = $730B (which is $30B more than the bill that the House rejected).

This action is taken by one or two men who have unchecked power over the financial system in the US..... no-one can, will or has stopped them from doing what they desire in the face of what congress or the people vote for.

God save America.

I'm Alfred E. Newman...

It's Your Country,
Choose Wisely.

Other places to visit....

• Global Voices
• Christian Science Monitor
• The Brookings Institute
• The Guardian / World
• Rueters
• Postsecret
• Kyodai Mahjongg, X-Mahjongg, and Mohave.
• The Constitution Source Project
• Cornell Constitution Page

The Names of 4000 Dead US Soldiers