That’s me, all suited up for Mountain Sidecar Trek 2012. (What color are my blue, blue eyes?) Now this is me higher than I’ve ever been, except on an airplane that is. The pass I drove went right over the top of the mountain, not around it. The entire day trip, one of the most fascinating of my life (thanks to the sidecar) cost roughly $49. And taught me I have finally become unacclimatized to cold weather. Good, I’m okay thinking that 60 F degrees is plenty cool enough.
Nano is the word for 2013. Despite the cautions that the factories will be too expensive, I see those who take the risk will be able to patent and protect the hell out of their creations. Unlike software, it is easy to detect a nano clone, hey, these things operate at the molecular level. I’ve completed my study on, if you’ll excuse my choice of words, the big picture of nanoscience.Driving gave me time to think, and my conclusion is that nano manufacturing is the best hope for recapturing the American leadership of the world, although that too will eventually be squandered by liberal thinking. Here is how I see it. We know from experience that giving people a factory or a modern harbor does not turn them into capitalists. Do-gooders who give away these things to other countries are overlooking that it requires the “American Way” to successfully operate them at a profit.
For the third world, this means they will get nowhere until they revamp their entire legal, military, educational, and political systems, which they are loathe to do. For the most part, they feel their culture is superior, an odd contradiction since they covet our money and resources. True, America has lost millions of jobs, but those were the jobs most easily lost. Such jobs were not dependent on the worker doing things the American Way. I call them soccer-mom jobs, but that term encompases any job that can be done by someone who has not read a textbook since they got out of school.
This is why I’m not too concerned about any technological “leadership” of Japan or Russia. They’ve been outspending the USA on raw research for lifetimes already, so like where are the results? Their piddling successes are firmly traceable to stolen Yankee technology. Even if they outpace us here and there, it took them what, fifty years to manage even that. Possible exception, Germany, but they are surrounded by a continent of arthritic mentalities and their investment climate totally sucks wind.
Any further study of the nano subject will be item-specific. And nano is one complicated topic. This time, I’ll invest a fixed amount in every startup, never knowing which one will head for the stars. Did you know I didn’t invest in Google because of the name? I was one of the few people who knew what the word meant, and it was impossible to know which of a dozen search engines would eventually dominate.
Trivia. What does the term “able seaman” mean? Apparently it means the sailor can handle the rigging, load and fire the cannons, and if required, is “able” to take over the helm. I found this reading more of N. Carr, the expert on communication and information. He noted how the iPod changed music into something that streams by. When I listen to indie schlock, that’s a good way to describe it.
He is an opponent of 23andMe, Google’s $400 genetic testing kit. The consumers buying it don’t seem aware that Google is selling at a loss to build a database of DNA. Google has been caught too many times phishing data and manipulating it without the subject’s consent. Google holds the kits out to be a test for certain genetic medical conditions, but people are complaining already of “targeted advertising” after what they assumed was a personal and private procedure.
We all hate it when it happens, but I’ve forgotten the bass riff to “Lovin’ Her Was Easier”, a tune covered by Dick Frost last week. At one time I had that down pat, but I had my full bass rig to do it. Somehow I lose it when I can’t hear it, and forget trying to find the popular version by Roger Miller on line. I hope I don’t make them into crybabies, but too many dorks online don’t know that a chord chart is not the same thing as a tab. I’ll figure the notes out again, but like dating divorcees; it is never as good the second time around.
For some reason, this picture is hard to see. Too many things in view, I suspect. This is one of several abandoned mines along the foothills. These are some of the buildings that process the ore, all at the base of a very steep hill. This is just outside Blackhawk, causing me to wonder why the mine went under, no pun intended.As proof that envious malcontents can find fault with anything, they invented a word for someone who “reads too much”. (The quality of what is being read isn’t considered.) That’s a bibliobibuli. Bibliophobia is a fear of books. There you go, stupidity is now a medical condition and here I thought they were just a bunch of dumb bunnies. Then there is a biliophagist, a person who eats books. Then there’s the Gang of Three who thought they were smarter than me. I hate to disappoint them, but no, there is no word yet for people who shove books up their, what, their nostrils.
I’m starting a new book, “Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea”. Other than a deep-water salvage operation, I have no idea of the plot, so check back. I got it for a dollar at the Goodwill, where the book section is uninhabited until I start browsing in non-fiction. Abruptly, the least attractive women in the entire vicinity develop a brisk interest in history, computers, calculus, weaponry, electronics, and lately it seems, nanotechnology. Not only that, but in exactly the same shelf so I have to move out of their way.
I’ll wager some of you think I’m kidding, but I’ll tell you a secret. Twice now, I pulled out a book as if I was interested, then put it back like I was going to buy it later. Each book was gone when I returned. One book was a study of giraffe necks, the other was a drill bit sharpening manual. I’m not kidding when I say the intelligence of most women fascinates me.
I am more than displeased with how NASA is portraying the Mars rover as a massive publicity stunt. They advertise a video, and all you see are black & white stills. The only moving pictures are of some creep talking like a know-it-all. Go to their site and just try to locate some hard information. They’re into the “inspire children” crap, never having heard that the 1% of children who become successes don’t need external input, particularly from adults. The other 99% are a waste of resources, Mr. and Mrs. Modern-Parent. They are only pretending to be interested so you’ll go away.
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