The Weekly Notes 2007

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Weekly Notes:

May 7, 2007:

The American Revolution:

I have read many books about it. There were some remarkable victories and some stunning defeats. Through it all, Washington managed to keep his army in the field and deny the British the decisive victory they needed to subdue the colonies and end the war. It took a long time, but he finally wore the British down. He did the same thing to the Brits that Castro did to Batista, that Bosnia did to Russia, that the Al-Qaeda is doing to Bush.

Person of Interest:

What the heck is wrong with our law enforcement people? They seem to be afraid to use the word suspect. What is the difference between a person of interest and a suspect? It’s just embroidery. Did this come about because of all the times the cops tried to railroad an innocent person and got caught? Remember the Atlanta bomb thing where they ruined the life of that harmless little fat guy? I don’t think they ever did apologize for that. Do the feds ever apologize?

Poor Memory:

Many people complain they have a poor memory, but they do not do anything about it. That makes it an excuse instead of an affliction. I have about the poorest memory a human can have and still function. However, I do something about it. I have a cassette tape recorder that I carry with me everywhere I go. Even when I am in bed it is on the counter where I can reach it. I record pretty much everything I think of or see. Later, I can sort and transcribe the stuff. If you took my recorder away, it would be a crippling blow. It would be similar to taking away a teenager’s Blackberry. I would become dysfunctional.

The Egg Trick:

Here is something I found in an old German cookbook. It was news to me, but it does work. You can prevent that irksome problem where the shell sometimes sticks to the egg and you end up losing half of the egg when you peel it. Just put the eggs in a pan as always and cover with cold water as always. Put on the cover, put the pan on a burner, and turn on the heat. When the water boils, turn off the heat and let the eggs sit in the hot water covered for 12 minutes. Then, dump the hot water and fill the pot with cold water. The shells will come off clean every time.

Solar Panels:

Nova on PBS did a one-hour show about these devices. I think they were trying to convince us that solar panels are the wave of the future. I was not convinced. To be viable, solar panels would need two things. First, to be economically competitive the panels would need to be about ten times more efficient than they are. I suppose that is possible. The other thing they need is a way of storing the energy they produce so it could be used when the sun don’t shine. That too would affect the economic competitiveness of a system that used them. This is similar to the reason fuel cells are not viable. Fuel cells have unacceptable latency. That’s why fuel cell cars need that big man killer battery. The biggest weakness of electricity is we have no way to store it in large quantities.

Salery.com:

They have this bologna about how much a homemaker woman is worth and they create a bogus yearly housewife salary based on that. They include things like preparing meals and caring for their children to come up with a whopping 91.7 hour workweek. I say this. If you are going to count the things you do out of caring and love as work, you don’t belong on this planet with me. Go to another planet.

Dangerous:

If it is not too dangerous to send the Cockney from the streets of London to Iraq, it is not too dangerous to send the Prince. He is an overly privileged snot. I abhor hereditary privilege, always have, and always will. That is how we got emperors like Nero and kings like Henry VIII. Duh!

The Queen:

Speaking of privilege, the queen has arrived in the USA. She is visiting Jamestown and such. I suppose we are supposed to honor her. Why not, I’m game. “Here’s to the Queen. Long live dumpy frumpy.” The person I really honor is the one who made sure there would never be such childish pompous pretense and notions of privilege here, George Washington.

You Are Not Allowed:

Now the government is trying to tell us we cannot drink raw milk if we wish to. They have some kind of law. We cannot have transfats, we cannot have raw milk, we cannot smoke, and we cannot have free choice. Freedom of choice is gone from America. I think our government has gone way beyond the pale in deciding for us what we are not allowed to do. It has become a form of Nader type, do-gooder, government insanity. I would like to see all of the fanatics boiled in raw milk and transfats. Get out of my life you buffoons!

Did you Know?

Cinco de Mayo is a Latin American holiday that is celebrated each year on May 5 by Mexican communities in Latin America and Mexican-American communities in the United States. The celebration commemorates the 1862 defeat of French troops at the Battle of Puebla. In that battle, General Ignacio Zaragoza of Mexico stomped the allegedly superior French forces of Napoleon III. It was a great day for Mexico. Unfortunately, the Imperialist French did not give up. They came back with a much larger army and took Mexico in 1863. That occupation lasted until 1867. That’s a lot of fighting and killing for a four year term. It makes an American presidential race look tame.

The Michigan Legislature:

Those cowards are abdication. Michigan has a budget deficit of about 700 million bucks, more or less. It may be a billion. It depends on who you listen to. Regardless, they are to lazy, stupid, and uncreative to resolve the problem so they are going to dump it on the voters. They are going to put a bunch of options on a ballot and let the voters decide how they want to be raped. Of course they left off the real option. If they were to cut the wallowing bureaucracy by 25%, including their salaries, Michigan would have a surplus.

A Puzzle:

Find out about Edward Witten. Who is he? Why is he important? I’ll give you one clue. It’s not about X-lax. Write a two-page essay and submit it to your mother or your spouse. Don’t send it to me. I already know the answers.

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