February 10, 2014

           Things I didn’t know. The Trans-Siberian railway cost the equivalent of $50 billion in today’s money. The same source, a BBC documentary, points out that is twice the cost of landing on the moon. The video compares the project to the American railroads, how the Russian rails weighed 49 pounds per yard against the standard 90 pounds. And most of the route was never surveyed. A line was drawn on a map and the convicts went to work. Convicts? They had a day taken off their sentence for each day worked on the railroad.

           Here’s a combination pizza, Florida style. Of course, I’m kidding, this is a posed photograph. Can you tell I was cooped up in the house all day? It was a warm one out there. I didn’t even go out for coffee. It was diet ginger ale and a good book, the one on QBASIC. I’ve nailed it, but I’m going back over the sections on sound and graphics.
           It has always disgusted me, these men addicted to video games, what do they call them, “gamers”? More like lamers. Give some men a computer and they only thing they can do is play games with it. But don’t read me wrong here, it is not the game, it is the isolation in which they operate. I like to occasionally spend an afternoon in a video arcade. But on-line games, to me it is like drinking beer at home. Which I don’t do.
           I’ve talked with Marion again to find out she requires special transportation and the place she is in does not provide it. The good news is she may relocated to a place with people her own age instead of twice her age. Alas, her traveling days are over and that means we won’t be visiting any more. She’s cheerful, which is nice. It turns out the letters I send her are a huge hit, like I didn’t know that. Hint, I write them so they can be shared, sort of along the lines of “Neener, I get letters and you don’t.”
           No, not e-mail, real letters in the mail. I’m on to that and always include pictures. Don't you hate it when others get fan mail and read it to you, just to make you jealous? If you are that kind of person, good, then make friends with me. I'm the enabler. I will always assist to let others know where they stand the minute they shut their big fat mouths.
           Other than that, this is a quiet stretch. Those cross-country trips are expensive and I’m retired. Come to think of it, ten years retired this May. That was back ’04 when I decided to practice retirement for two years. You could say I’m ready for the real thing. Many are not, I mean, I was in the grocery store last day to see the $10 jar of honey and corn at $1 per cob. A lot of folks are really going to be struggling with how those food prices go, and they are still climbing. What? I’m okay. I planned ahead. I’m more worried about the distribution system which is more likely to fail than the food supply.
           Y’day I mentioned the band Simple Minds and today I learned on of their big hits, “Don’t You Forget About Me”. Another winner for me, because it has a very monotonous keyboarded bass line. The gimps who play those things always revert to the “1-and-a-2” beat because they lack imagination. At the other extreme, I have a whole bag of tricks to add zing to the notes. Turns out that song is pretty much ideal to apply them. Let me explain. You see, I play best when watching my left hand on the fretboard. I’ve never had a natural sense for the correct positions. But synthesized bass tends to be rapid-fire root notes. Then I can look up. I will go so far as to alter my timing when I see somebody dancing a bit off. I know how to made friends with an audience.
           When Collin, my inventor pal, is on the computer, we often have chat-like e-mail exchanges. He is a guitarist, very part time mind you. He listens to music, which I don’t often do. What? That’s correct, I rarely listen to music, and I certainly don’t put on an album or a CD and sit there through the whole side. I tend to find a song I like and learn to play it. The enjoyment factor goes up five times when you can play along. Not for everybody, but for me. Collin mentioned the band R.E.M. I’ve heard of them but could not name one tune or even what style they play. But if I heard one of their hits, I might recognize it.

           I’ve narrowed down part of the browser problem, the one where it chews up all your CPU power. Is this a virus or a defect? Don’t know, but if it is a virus, everybody’s got it and it cannot be detected. The fact that all known browsers are doing this is a telltale sign that the next generation of computers will obviously contain software that feeds back everything you are doing. There are a number of reasons I think that, and one is that in Vista, there is a field in your music files that cannot be deleted, called “contributing artist”. I’m already looking closely at how to get rid of it. But a file attribute that helps itself to my computer is automatically suspect. And I ain’t been wrong yet about computer spyware.
           Early this AM found me reading more on the Black Swan, the treasure ship that Spain was able to claim by whining that the treasure-hunters who did all the work of locating and salvaging the wreck didn’t “consult them”. Why they would do that over a shipwreck located nowhere near Spain? Enter Steven D. Merryday, who hails from Palatka, Florida, where apparently they don't teach children the concept of finders-keepers. The Black Swan has been in this blog before, where if I was the treasure hunter, I would have dumped the gold back in the ocean and told those Spanish bastards to go get it themselves.

           Getting back to "Judge" Merryday, who handily beat that drunk driving charge back in ’94, we have a openly political judge in it for the notoriety. He’s one of the rare birds who has succeeded in keeping all photographs of himself off the Internet, including the law society and watchdog sites. Well, almost. I'm not going to ask where they find people like Merryday, as in a moment I'll suggest an answer. He’s plainly jockeying for a federal appointment. My ruling is that the wreck was located nearly 200 miles off the coast of Portugal in international waters and therefore taking it from the salvage company is an act of piracy.
           Hence, the searchers will, in the night, melt down all coins and jewelry to prevent identification and history will suffer. But declaring something that’s been on the ocean floor for 200 years to belong to anyone but the finder is complete ivory tower mugwamp stupidity. My emotional take is that this discourages other companies from searching for legitimate treasure, and will do nothing but force the activities underground. I believe this to be a somewhat dated photo of Merryday, who if he didn’t want his picture published, might consider championing the civil liberties of others who don’t want the same.
           I don’t find it unusual that this particular service, Unemployed Professors is based in Canada. Pay up, and they will write your term papers and essays for you. Their works passes the software plagiarism tests because it is original. The Canadian university system is based on the English model, where the rich use the campus as a playground. It was a minor step from paying other students to do the work up to paying a professor to do it. The professors justify things by saying it is the academic system itself which is corrupt. I agree and I’ve seen it firsthand.
           There is no connection between this service and people like Merryday. At least I don’t think there is. As for the gold, I see in his disclosure he dabbles in the stock market, category L (which indicates between $50,000 - $100,000 per trade), so for all we know was "he vass only following orders".
           Did I say playground? It is not unusual in Canada to find 40 and 50 year old couples raising families while living in government subsidized “married student quarters” on the university grounds. They have no intention of ever graduating or having productive careers, they should live so long. They scoop up grant and scholarship money unavailable to poorer students without the right family connections. The one that most got my goat was reserved chairs in the lecture halls for “underprivileged foreign students”. Where do honestly underprivileged students in Africa and Asia get plane tickets in the first place?
           But I can tell you something else. If you attend a quality Canadian college and do the work yourself, you get a far superior degree and far more bang for the buck than in most US schools. You see, in Canada, the post-secondaries are to a degree dependent on government subsidization. This makes them more keen to produce quality graduates and pay less attention to their sports teams. And they are less overtly money-hungry as they are virtually guaranteed by tax dollars not to ever go bankrupt. Their counselors aren’t hawking student loans. They don’t try to sign you up for the most expensive program they can and then ignore you. Did you get that, Broward Community College? If not, I can change the big words for you, so even Leshawna down at reception can follow along.
           Mugwamp means to be educated beyond one’s intellect, Steve.