Here is the shoulder causing all the fuss. This is a scan showing the spur of bone (in yellow oval) that the x-rays say is not attached. It is quite attached, though I bow to the surgeon’s expert opinion. Is that dark area what concerns them? You can make out the entire shoulder socket, this angle is taken with me facing 45 degrees forward to the right of the scene, so whatever it is, that is [almost] behind my shoulder. I say if it was really broken, I would not be able to raise my arm full upright, and I can. Hurts a bit, though.
Shrimp soup, the cream of version. It’s not for me. I’ve fallen into my old bachelor habits when I have no date on the weekend. I spend the same money I saved on trying something new, usually the most expensive items I can find. Call it my version of comfort food. Hence, organic shrimp soup. Maybe if you are only having soup, but the flavor is so mild a sip of tea made it tasteless. Let me rephrase that. The soup base was organic, the shrimp I don’t know. It was missing something. Taste?Nanotubes in focus again. SciTech reports a new membrane that produces electricity when fresh river water flows through it and contacts salt water. We all want to hear of the nanotube that produces fresh water from the sea, but this is still news. I have long since given up trying to understand nanotechnology. It is enough for me to recognize the more momentous discoveries as they arrive.
Nor have I forgotten 3D printing. This video of making plastic filament won’t win any awards, but it has tremendous implications. The cost of a 3D printer is hugely related to the plastic supply, and filament costs ten times as much as plastic beads. This video shows an invention that turns beads into filament and lets you hear the opening strains of “Moonlight Sonata”, though not quite a emotionally addictive as I used to render the piece. It is an incorrigible fool who ignores anything about this new form of printing.
Also, we are beginning to see the first arrests for files stored on the cloud. It is difficult to believe anyone thinks they can store personal material on somebody else’s computer and keep it private. Some files may be illegal, but that’s not any business of the storage facility and if they look, that is invasion of privacy. Why are these companies are allowed to state the files are private when that is a fraudulent? (Such "evidence" should be automatically inadmissible, as it was attained without a warrant based on probable cause. Snooping never meets that standard.)
Mark my words, if you have a computer that works fine on old software, keep it forever. You’re going to need it, or your grandkids are going to need it. Cloud computing is a good idea for programs. But storing files there is a conspiracy to snag the suckers by any standard. Whoever came up with that one must be giggling and rubbing their hands together. Don’t be a sheeple.
When evidence obtained by a warrantless search is deemed admissible, every last one of us is in jeopardy. If there is no crime, there is now nothing to stop them from inventing one. Computer loss of freedom always follows the known path. First, innocent data collection “for our files”, then the networking of the data, then the abuse of the data for purposes far beyond what anyone originally agreed to.
First loss is anonymity, next is privacy, last is secrecy. Some people never learn. And we are already approaching the last stage. Did you know it is already illegal to state a false age on Facebook? (The law makes it illegal to break Terms of Usage agreements.) All the men between 5-9 and 5-11, the group that most consistently lie about their height, could be locked up. Of course, what does Joe S. Average (S for "schmuck") care that others out there desperately want to know how much toilet paper he uses per day. It's only ass-wipe, at least in his version of thinking.
Now the weather! Which do we prefer? Hot weather and high adventure, or cold weather and more progress? I just spent eight hours studying the electronic latch, a type of basic memory circuit. That time includes lunch, tea, playing a few tunes, so it’s not like I knock myself out. I passed the voluntary exam at the end. The music I played was an old but super tune by Los Lobos (The Wolves), called “Black Is Black”. My type of tune, because very few bassists would even attempt to sing and play such a beat. If you think it's easy, try to tap the bass beat with your hand while humming the melody. I can do it.
How do you like those people already complaining that the Israelis have instituted separate buses for Jews and Palestinians? It must be racist, it has to be, making suicide bombers ride with their own. Who cares if they are not all radicals, it only takes one and that's too many. They need to learn that between themselves. What gets me is the opposition on such juvenile grounds, but I have considerable experience with people who will never cease doing wrong until you make them stew in their own juice. Until then, such types thrive on constant trouble and don’t want a solution. We have the same crowd here who say building a border fence would offend the illegals.
I’m for doing a Reagan on the complainers. If people who over-borrowed lose their houses, so what? If the uneducated complain when you cut off welfare, let them. If civil over-paid servants lose benefits, ignore them. Hands off, like Ronnie. What do I care for a politician who doesn’t get re-elected or aging strippers who get fired? Let them complain, by the millions. It is what they do. President Reagan never listened to those who did nothing but complain, and that should be the policy.
And that’s all the controversy I can cook up on such short notice.
ADDENDUM
I welcome all the new readers I see showing up, now on a daily basis. If you’ve noticed this blog is not like other blogs, I accept that as a compliment. The original premise of this daily log was something to chat about over morning coffee break, an alternative to sports and “tv talk”. I realize there are slow days and not every blog can inspire every person every time. But I’d like the opportunity to point out a few features. (Regular readers, this is repetition, so you can skip it although I’ve been told the repetition here is often as interesting as the previous versions as it reveals the evolution of the only life I know—my own.)
A quiet day here does not imply that nothing happened. There are no such days. The blog rules I report the most unusual, or best, or worst, or wildest, of what went on during that period. If some dullness rears up, it never means the day was a write-off, rather more likely nothing blog-worthy occurred. You see, over time, minimum standards develop. I get more readers if I describe a mosquito bite or a sore thumb that when I do a report on who’s pregnant. There are more hits when I describe Oprah than if I comment on the content of her program.Besides, everybody knows one day some media giant is going to contact me and offer me $500 per day plus expenses to syndicate this blog.
So, would you like to see what did not make today’s post? Sure, why not. You’ve been nice if you read this far. The picture on top is the difference between SWP and SWR. That’s shopping while poor and shopping while rich. On the left, kay-dee, on the right at four times the price, the same thing organic. The difference in taste is nil, but there is a definite difference in quality I would have a tough time describing. Maybe it’s like wine-tasting, but the expense brand really does taste better.
That doesn’t go for drinks. The pricey coffee at Starbucks is bitter and leaves an unpleasant aftertaste. This van is tricky to read, but it is advertising a drink called “Sexdrive”. It’s like there aren’t enough men out there on the make already, we need to sell them love potions.
Last, we see that sharp-dressed man about town finally locating the elusive soup of yesteryear. There you have it, the only brand of tomato soup I like with anything in it except the tomato soup. On this shopping trip I also bought a new windbreaker. I paid an extra $40 because this one was fashionable. That’s a clear indication that things are getting better around here. Like I told some people not so long ago and they didn’t believe me.
If you occasionally read something that seems out of context, the cause is this blog is meant for long-term casual readership. Each day doesn’t have a snappy ending. Over time, the topics here flow with the same speed as they occur in Nature. I hope you enjoyed this explanation concerning the topics shown here that didn’t make the grade. They may have on a different day been the top story. But no, one cannot subscribe to my trash can.
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