Saturday, January 23, 2016

Brain transplant, anyone?

Just saw an article on NextBigFuture that was about a head transplant on a monkey.  If it is successful, there will be an attempt on a human next year.

Hello!

Isn't that weird?  But that leaves a Frankenstein type of zipper neck that is most unsightly.  Perhaps it would be better to take out the brain and install it into another body sans brain.  One of these days, one's own body could be duplicated, except the brain, and your own brain would be transplanted into your reconstituted body.  Hmm.  How would that work out?

You could go into surgery with an 80 year body, and come back out with a 20 year body.  The brain will still be old, but the body will be young.

No zipper necks either.  The hair can be regrown over the places where the skull had to opened up.

The whole thing seems kinda freaky though.

Be sure that "Eyegore" uses the right brain.


The Powers That Be Have Lost Control: “Everything Is Falling Apart Everywhere”

The Powers That Be Have Lost Control: “Everything Is Falling Apart Everywhere”



Yep, and everybody seems to know it but the American people.  What does that tell ya?




Friday, January 22, 2016

A couple impressions of the recent Spacex's failed landing attempt on barge of the first stage

The official line seems to be that one of the lock out things didn't lock out because of ice.  However, after watching this a few times, it looks like the stage wasn't really leveled off properly, either.  Therefore, it was coming down at an angle that wasn't perpendicular to the drone ship.

That's one thing.  Another thing is that these attempts seem to be coming in pretty hot, meaning fast.  Is that a factor here?  Evidently, the Spacex people don't seem to think so.

It may be smart to push the envelope a bit in order to find out what the limits are.  Coming in fast may be one of those.  It seems to be that some of these problems could be anticipated, like icing.

Don't want to be critical though.  This was really close to another success at something that is more difficult than a landing on the ground.


A mass of contradictions am I

Two recent posts seem to run counter to each other.  In one, I am cocky, the other not so sure of myself.  Which is more true?

They are both true.  But experience has taught me not to be so sure.  Things have a way of going wrong, and in a big way too.

Nevertheless, I think I have been right about things a lot.  Yet, it doesn't seem to help me.  Reminds me of something that I read somewhere on the net-  being right isn't enough.

Won't do you much good to be right when you can't do anything about it.

What are the things I am right about?

I've advocated an Article V convention to curb national power.  That's gaining traction.
I've advocated nuclear power and space colonization.  That's gaining traction, too.
I've hailed Donald Trump as the eventual GOP nominee.  He is going to win.   Good or bad, he's the next president.
I've long predicted a stock market collapse.  It appears to be on the horizon.  They cannot keep this bubble inflated forever.

Those are the things I remember.  None of these will actually help me personally.  Maybe the stock market thing will, but on the other hand, the system could be so corrupt that you never see that money.

So, I can be right, and be a real badass in that respect, but at home, things are not going well.


Thursday, January 21, 2016

I'm so badass that it is embarrassing

Everything that I said looks to be coming true, or will come true shortly.

But I'm not bragging on myself.  Not really.  snicker, snicker

I could take the year off, and just watch this stuff.


Scooter Libby v. Hillary Clinton

A comparison.

Scooter Libby was accused of blowing Valerie Plame's cover.  If her cover was blown, he didn't do it.  The newpaper guy did it.  He admitted doing it.  Libby was convicted anyway, because the left needed a scalp.  He wasn't convicted of what he was accused of doing, he was convicted of a process crime.

Valerie Plame's identity was said to be "classified information".  It is the same kind of information that is at the heart of the problem with Hillary.

Now, let's compare the treatment of Libby to that of Hillary.  There is more to convict her of the process crimes that Libby was convicted of, if anything, she is guilty as sin of at least perjury before you even get to the main accusations.  Is there really any doubt that she did this?  It's the FBI saying this stuff.  It isn't originating from the RNC, despite what the Clintonoids say.  They already have enough to convict, so why the hesitation?

Is it because Clinton is a Democrat, and Libby is a Republican?

Naah!!!  Nothing like that!

/sarc

Just for funsies, does anybody remember Susan McDougal?  She was testifying about another of the endless Clinton scandals, the Whitewater affair.  As the "G" man, G. Gordon Liddy, pointed out on his radio show, she couldn't answer any more questions under oath without implicating the Clintons.  Rather than do this, she decided to take the fall herself.  She was charged with contempt with refusal to answer the questions put to her.

The Clintons have been demonstrably guilty for the longest time.  It's high time to end this and hustle them out of the public square.  They are an embarrassment.  If the government is going to be corrupt, they should at least be more discreet about it.


Wednesday, January 20, 2016

The faster I run, the behinder I get

Seems that way.  Staying busy all the time, but not seeming to be making progress.  Try harder, but it is almost as if my feet are in quicksand, like in some nightmare scenes from horror flicks.

Things need to get better around here.

Update:

This update will go up instead of a new post, as the topic is pretty much the same.  I've been thinking a lot about my western move lately.  The numbers aren't looking good at the moment.  I'm not sure about this Uber idea to make the extra bucks I need.  Looks like the leeway gets a lot better when I get the "cheese".  But until then, things will be tight in terms of dough.  Running through the simulations is not inspiring.

On another subject, I have a doctor appointment tomorrow.  New doctor, as plans had to change cuz of higher insurance costs.  Money, money, money.  Always money.

The hell of it is, for the now, things are relatively good.  Wait till something happens.  Stuff is always happening.


Hillary Emails: "Should I Stay or Should I Go?"

If I had the time, I do a mash up of the song by the Clash and Hillary.  Here's the best I can do for now, a pic and a link to the song:

Should I Stay, or Should I Go?
Really don't know how she sticks around.  Any other public figure with this much dirt on her would have been gone a long time ago.

Is Obama pushing her out so that Biden can jump in?  Now, there's a thought.  But that looks bad for Obama to have his high ranking cabinet member be in so much trouble.

Does that make Sanders a shoe-in?  What does a Sanders candidacy mean for the Dems in November?  They need a White Knight, and it isn't Sanders, nor is it Biden.  Somebody who's been out of it for awhile.  I know!  Algore.


Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong: Dream A Little Dream Of Me

In the mood for music, are we?  Not really.  Just doing some comparisons between modern music and music in the past.

What distinguishes now from then?  Not a whole lot.  Music isn't subject to improvement, but more likely, a debasement if the forms aren't respected.  Sort of like culture.  Not to knock the more modern version of the song, but it does seem like they were trying to make MUSIC back then.  Don't know exactly what they are doing these days.





Leon Redbone- Polly Wolly Doodle

Silly song for the silly season, which is about to begin.

Iowa is just around the corner.  Will we ever survive it?



Nothing dumber than an ignoramus who teaches

One thing that I keep running into is this notion that somehow the colored people's problems is all the fault of the white man.  Lo and behold, here it is again.  There is no racism worth mentioning anymore.  There is no Jim Crow, there is no slavery.  Why, a white guy who says the word "nigger" is likely to be in a world of hurt.  White people can't do much of anything these days that doesn't get slammed for being racist.  No, if there is any racism, it has been absolutely suppressed.

But they go in search of their bogeyman anyway.  It is like if this:  if they could just cure whitey of his "problem", the country could reach utopia.

The bogeyman of racism is a fiction that is peddled so that the racial hustlers can keep on race hustling.  It gives them a job to do.  It makes them feel worthwhile.  The only trouble is that the job is done, time to move on to some other utopian "problem".  Let's say AGW?

The Utopians have to work harder to find a problem they can nag us with.  This one has been fixed.


Monday, January 18, 2016

The demand for civility is just another way of saying shut up.

Long timers here, if there are any, may recall the video with Klavan, who spoke about the Liberal argument of Shut Up.  There are so many variants of this tactic that it sometimes may surprise you where the next one comes from.  It seems that Juan Williams has gotten into the act.  In an op-ed, Williams blames the GOP for the "breakdown in civility".

What about this so-called breakdown?  Besides, why is it so important to have "civility" anyway?  Not if by civility that you demand that the other side to always agree with you.  That seems to be the way with the snowflakes on the left.  Williams and his snowflake buddies in their safe zones just can't take it, they have to shut you up, or shut you down.

Perhaps Williams is talking about Trump?  It's a good thing to have someone who isn't intimidated into silence or passivity.  I don't blame the left for being sorry that the so-called right isn't content anymore to roll over and play dead whenever the left wants them to.  Playing politics with the GOP isn't as fun as it used to be.

Maybe Williams could use a better sense of humor.  This one struck me as funny:

Trump blasted back saying that Haley was “weak on illegal immigration.” Conservative writer Ann Coulter, a fervent Trump supporter, tweeted that Trump should deport Haley when he becomes president

Gee, it isn't fun to listen to them either, if they are going to get huffy about somebody that isn't even a Democrat.

Throwing out Boner was described as "temper tantrum".  Really?  So, where's the way the party holds someone accountable?  Williams cites this as "white rage".  Oh.  Assuming he is right about the rage, then so what?   If your not being represented properly, why not be angry about it?  Williams just wants everyone not a liberal like himself to just sit down, don't move, and be quiet.  Maybe just play dead.  Most of the GOP seems to be willing to play along and play dead.  As Paul Krugman said, like the good old days when Ike was president.

What happened to democracy being described as a "messy" process?  Democracy is supposed to be rough and tumble.  A person can read about it in Texas history, where the insults got downright nasty.  Sam Houston called his opponent "Wetumpka", which in Cherokee means "hog thief".  He was being civil for the times.  Back then, Houston was being challenged for duels continually.  Today is pretty tame in comparison.  Maybe too tame.

Don't shut up.  Speak up.


Political discussion

Just saw on the Dick Morris website that Trump has run into a brick wall with respect to Cruz in terms of bullying.  Hello!  I do not think that Trump is a bully.  He is being bullied, as a matter of fact, and he stands up for himself.  Morris must have an Establishment streak in him.  He repeats a lot of the conventional wisdom that is not wisdom in my view.

If Trump is perceived in the way Morris perceives him, then the likelihood is that Cruz will take over the lead.  If Cruz takes over because of bullying of Trump, then it is a mistake.

I am beginning to be a bit suspicious of Cruz.  The claim is that he is a real conservative, but what has he really done?  If you judge according to accomplishments, then the only thing Cruz has done is to make himself known.

Trump has accomplishments in business.  Cruz is a politician.  There is the difference.  I think you may get more of the same if you go with Cruz.  Perhaps that is what is meant by conservative these days, just keep everything the same way as before.  But the same old same old is not working anymore.  Has not been working for a long time.

George Will had something to say about Trump being out of the mainstream of conservative thought.  But what is conservative thought if you cannot get rid of the leftist drift of this society?   What conservatives do is whine about how they lose the country, but fail again and again to do anything about it.

Do people really want to break with the past, or do they want a new direction?  Cruz in a sense is really no different from Obama.  Obama was really no different than Bush, in many ways.  The differences are not big enough to make a difference.   We may need a difference maker.  Trump may be that kind of guy.


Sunday, January 17, 2016

Water collection idea, part 2

In part 1, I got the idea to make water condense on the outside of a container, like one can so often see on humid days here in Houston.  However, after running an experiment like that, I found that the water does not necessarily condense the way you want to.

It is necessary to lower the temperature of the air to the dew point where condensation will take place.  On the days that I tried this, humidity must have been low, which prevented the condensation to work the way that I had anticipated.

What if the air was more humid?  I was thinking to recycle the air that I exhale, and run it through a dehumidifier, which is nothing more than a condenser.  The water that comes out of the air is then kept, so I have always liked that idea for water collection, but the energy to run it is too high of a price.  What if I were to lower the price somehow?  Number one, I figured on trucking in some ice for my freezer, which I cannot really use out there, but it could be useful to use as an "icebox".  The "icebox" will keep perishables cold for a few days.  Why not use that ice for climate control, too?

But wait.  Shouldn't the water be cooler if it comes out of a dehumidifier?  If it were cool enough, the air could be directed over it and have a better chance at condensing since it is full of humidity from my nostrils.

Run the air by a heat exchanger before exhausting the air, and hopefully, the water in my breath will condense and can be collected.

The "dehumidifier" can use melted water from the freezer, which should be near freezing.  Air runs through some heat exchanger, and causes condensation.  ( I hope )  Perhaps the water could recirculate until it is too warm for cooling.  Each 18 lb bag of ice has the energy equivalent of 200 watt hours of heat energy.  Instead of paying for the dehumidifier, why not try using this energy instead?  That's a lot of energy to use for no other purpose than to keep food cold.  Let's make it work harder.

At the end of the day, I could have some condensed water, and the use of the ice for food preservation, climate control to boot.

This one goes into the water subseries of the off-the-grid main series of posts.

Prev    Next






Current events don't make much sense

Why lift sanctions on Iran when they capture US sailors?  Why lift sanctions on Iran when they act belligerently?  Why lift sanctions on Iran when the additional oil on the market will depress prices still further?  Why support US oil production with super low interest rates?  I tell you, I can't make a lick of sense out of any of this.

First of all, what's the military angle?  You give Iran nukes?  What's the advantage to our side from the military point of view?  It makes no sense.

Also, why send the military into the area and then allow them to be captured?  What's the point of that?  Do they want peace or war?  "They" means our side.  It makes no sense.

What's the economic angle?  Prices are low, why drive them lower?  Does this government want US production to be bankrupted?  Does this government want to bankrupt then nation's finances with super low interest rates, and more loans that cannot be repaid?  What's the point?

That's just Iran and the Persian Gulf.  You could go on with a number of other events as well.  The standoff in Oregon, for one.  A number of these protest movements make no sense to me.  Both on the so-called right and the left.  What do these people want?

Even on the personal side, there's this guy with Uber who got attacked and it was on video.  The guy confessed to what is already obvious, and supposedly apologized for attacking the Uber guy.  Now he is suing the Uber guy for making the video.

Maybe you cannot explain the insanity without appearing insane yourself.

Why make the post then?  I dunno.  Maybe to warn people that the goblins are loose.  Things are getting a bit nutty out there.