July 31, 2016

Yesteryear
One year ago today: July 31, 2015, on robots, beaches, Tennessee.
Five years ago today: July 31, 2011, on bass solos.
Nine years ago today: July 31, 2007, CCTV vs Internet cams, which will win?
Random years ago today: July 31, 2013, because they will not STFU.

           It was another travel day, so you get another travelogue. There is no more Ig Nobel Prize feature, which is their fault, not mine. Maybe they ran out of stupid people to give the awards to? You see, to give an award, you are supposed to know more about the subject matter than the people receiving the prize, or you are not qualified to judge who the winner is. However, when you look at the other Nobel Prize committee, you realize that this is rarely the case. I mean, they gave a prize to Al Gore, is what I’m saying.
           Top picture of the day, bad as it is, shows the best photo I have of the newly notched joists. The three worst shaped specimens have now begun to relax, even so some of the curvatures shown here are the distortion from the iCool design-by-retards. Each of these cutouts is customized and there was up to 1-3/4 inches of deformation. The average over all seven joists was around 7/8ths of an inch.

           I made these cuts myself and took my sweet time to do it right. There was pressure to make the cuts identical, then return and trim any errors. None of these joists was that badly termite damaged, which was a relief. Soon as it is evident the joists are again resting on the girder plate, I will bolt in a reinforcing 2x4 down the length of each board, along with some diagonal bracing.

           [Author's note: what I'm saying above is that I realized the joists would not necessarily return to original shape after so long. If you peek, you can see that the joists are not yet resting right down on the girder plate. That is why I refused to try to trim the joists from the top. Trimming the next one could throw off the first one. Instead, I relied on very accurate chalk lines snapped between points of equal height at the walls. The joists show here have a few days to come to rest. At that point, they will be sistered up. I may lack construction experience, but I know how to think.]

           7:35AM I’m the only one awake, so I made coffee instead of tea. And listened to some Gospel radio, where they had a preacher full of bunk making wild claims. One example was his statement that the Bible is the best-selling book of all time. Guess he’s never heard of Harry Potter. Having compressor experience from once owning vending machines, I correctly surmised the repaired fridge would take 24 hours to really get cold. JZ finds this amazing, that I would use a fridge thermometer.
           The good news is, the fridge works perfectly. I set it to 37°F, achieving perfection without forming ice crystals. And indeed, it is an very nice appliance that will last for years. That’s another $1,000 savings for me. Yeah, JZ, when it hit 96°F out there this afternoon, I didn’t hear any complaints about how cold the root beer was.

           8:35AM I consider what we accomplished y’day, the leveling of the bedroom floor, to be sufficient to justify the whole weekend and trip, but JZ wants to stay the day. He’s learned to like the area, I told ya. So I planned the major trip of the day to get supplies and materials so I can work myself when he’s not around. That worked out to be a good plan. We got enough plywood to completely cover over all open spots on the floor. These plywood sheets are not yet fixed in place. Think ahead.

           9:35AM JZ is up and about so we drove to Burger King for breakfast. That’s two breakfasts for him and one for me. The man likes his food, but are French Toast sticks in corn syrup real food? I had the waffles and one of those horrid patties that BK calls sausage. They could improve their appeal awesomely if they switched to real sausage links.
           This was also a mini-celebration of that floor job. I emphasize to the reader that this floor was the result of a small series of early successes. Thus, it is not an indicator of what I will find when I get under the remainder of the building.

           10:35AM Instead of right back to work, I convinced JZ we should take a Sunday drive through the area. Take a look around. This found us on the old Eagle Lake Road on the way to Auburndale. We passed the “metropolis” of Gordonville. It’s your trailer park estates. No stores, no gas stations, but many acres of older mobile homes on their private little acreages. Yes, I would have bought something in there had I not stumbled across 509, the gold mine.

           11:35AM We got snagged for a toll. Somehow we got onto a road that was not marked toll and it channeled us to the pay booth with no option to turn around. You know how the toll roads usually have a small lane you can go back? Not the scumbag who designed this one. I hate tolls and will drive miles to avoid them, JZ just plan detests them. So they got me for 75 cents and took a picture of the license plate, which is part of what I really hate about tolls. They don’t photo the bad guys, the photo everybody. Whether or not you consider that legal is a good determinant of how kind you are to your fellow man.

           12:35PM It was in north Lakeland that we discovered the Amtrak and took the photos you saw last Friday. For the first time, we got through the town, which for reasons unknown JZ finds confusing, and we zeroed in on the Goodwill out on the Mulberry connector. JZ went hog wild buying new clothes, I picked up some reading material. And it was all we could do to not gawk at the gorgeous women. What is it with the particular Goodwill? I was looking for suspenders because I don’t like wearing belts when I’m working construction, but other than that, we spent an entire hour in the store just looking.

           1:35PM The Home Depot is just a few miles further, so we stopped there and bought $108.56 worth of lumber. This is enough for me to finish the flooring myself and frame in the new A/C ports. Right how the A/C units are mounted in the windows, which I consider very tacky. And in this instance, they also block the view of my shady yard. It’s not like these windows face the apartment next door type of thing.

           2:35PM Returning home, I completely rearranged the boxes inside in order of precedent. The least important boxes are now stacked eight feet high against the back of the kitchen wall, out of the way. There is now room to set up my saws inside and begin some serious reinforcement of the termite damage. Opening the bathroom floor again reveals the same pattern of termite damage. They eat along the top of the joist, where it joins the floor boards.
           I spent quite some time in the pit, raking out leaves and debris, until I found the tiny leak that is central to most termite infestations. It was merely a patch of damp sand, but that’s enough. This is where the damage seems to be the worst and the section that gives JZ nightmares.
           However, I looked closely under the beams and there is nothing especially difficult to repair. The bath tub has to be lifted the now-usual 1/8th of an inch and I can repair the joists and flooring from a convenient sitting position. The challenge will be the plumbing, but I have the advantage of being able to rough in and practically finish the new piping before cutting over. Once again, the power of superior planning ahead makes its mark. This is nothing new, I’ve been lecturing the world on this for half a century.

           3:35PM JZ finally got inspired and got into the pit, clearing out the foundation area of the new bathroom of two bags of leaves and dried bush twigs that had blown under there. He still cannot visualize how I am going to construct a header that shores up the existing structure before I make the wall cut-out for the new sink. And I want a double sink, and yes, I realize that is not necessary. At least not to men who have only been shacked up. I was married. And I will have a double his and hers separate sinks in the bathroom. To me it is as necessary as oxygen. Gosh, do I have to teach you everything?

           This was the busiest time of today, these pits and floor panels. For the record, I need you to closely examine this picture of the termite damage along the bathroom wall. Those are the old cast iron pipes to the sink. Clearly, they were attracting the pests. Now look closer. That damage is only along the top of the joist. The hammer test shows the bottom of the beam itself it still structurally sound. Hence, this repair is a candidate for sister joists, not complete replacements. This is the worst damaged spot, and it will be bypassed by the new 2x6 header beam I’ve designed for the new bathroom wall cutout.
           You can also see “the pit”, but what you look at here is the nice clean and raked pit, not the foot deep detritus that required major effort to haul out by hand. In this heat. But, it is all done now. This view of the bathroom floor joists is now covered over until I get to that part of the repair. You can use the bathroom, but please, no gymnastics. What? Gymnastics in a bathroom? What’s that all about? Oh, never mind, just remember I was once married to an actress.

           4:35PM The floor panels are down, the house is now secure again. The bedroom joists are settling fine under the new weight. One more easy cut there, and I’m happy. Gee, why did I leave one cut when I could have finished the job. Because, junior, I needed on place in the room to prop all the tools while in the pit and that required one joist left until I got the rest of the subflooring in place.
           Security is more important to JZ, I don’t sit up worried about break-ins. Not in that neighborhood. But yes, any time since what, 11 days ago, anybody could have crawled under the house and stood up inside. Now, the floorboards are loosely in place, held down by furniture. Look at the termite damage in the bathroom again, the area that will receive the most reinforcement and anti-bug treatment.

           5:35PM Satisfied with the progress and listening to Gospel, we shut everything down and locked up the sheds. No sense tempting fate. No doubt the whole street has already noticed the mass amount of building materials being hauled into the house. I’m planning a week here on my own, and planning to move permanently once the old place sells. Folks, you no longer want to live in or visit southeast Florida. Any resemblance of that place to a desirable holiday destination is a hoax.
           Other than the coast enclaves of condos and gated communities full of northern retirees suckered here by big promises, this is the last generation of productive, tax-paying citizens that will inhabit the area. What? There are lots of white people left there. Yes, but I said productive and tax-paying. You better open your eyes. The majority of the south Florida economy has always been under the table.

           6:35PM to 9:35PM On the road, the standard route back around Okeechobee. We stopped twice for cold drinks, otherwise the trip was uneventful. Light rain south of the Lake, we drove up to my old vacant hut, too tired to even stop for a cold one. You know, I’ve got all those forgotten little muscle aches you get from limbering up after a period of inactivity. I’m hardly inactive, but I don’t usually do construction work, either.
           The work was aerobic. For all the misconceptions about what that is, the easy way to think of it is when you do enough work or exercise than your body can product calories from digested food. You go aerobic at that point because the body needs more energy and the only place to get it is from stored body fat. Don’t quote me and I’m too tired to look it up, but I think it is around ten calories per minute. If your activity requires eleven calories, one comes from stored fat. Something like that.


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July 30, 2016

Yesteryear
One year ago today: July 30, 2015, only 32 people, ha!
Five years ago today: July 30, 2011, 500 arrests per year.
Nine years ago today: July 30, 2007, sacerdotal?
Random years ago today: July 30, 2004, mini-history lesson.

           You get the old blog-style travelogue format today. Enjoy. We made it out to 509 in the now-standard 3.5 hours with one stop for cold drinks. New readers should be advised that although JZ and I have been chums for 15 years, we have never worked on a big project together and 99% of what we did before involved chasing women or activities totally concerned with chasing women. So no, I did not know he got his lactose intolerance from his mother’s side of the family. And I did not know he cannot stand canned peas, which I happen to prefer for making home-made pot pies.

           We both have construction experience and you will never get two such types to agree on anything the first round. So we now argue more every day than total over any time in the past. The good news is, the work is progressing, and today, I just saved $1600 because in less than two hours of easy work. I leveled the floor without putting in a new footing.

           The long orange item on the floor is a bubble level. Here is JZ, staring and gaping in wonderment how I got that floor perfectly level on the first try. He knows I’ve done nothing of the kind before and he had stated it could not even be done. There’s your proof, gang. And I did it for $108.56 in materials. Plus one 12-ton jack that cost about $30. When used right, the jack proved very adequate, although I discovered that JZ, who has perfect eyesight, could not spot the slight gaps the jack caused that had to be minimized.
           But there’s your proof. That flooring he’s leaning on was part of the money spent. The joists will continue to settle for another 48 hours, so he is measuring the floor lengthwise. You see, he originally wanted to trim the joists from the top, a concept I rejected instantly. My plan was to custom notch every joist from the bottom. Then let it settle back into position when I removed the jack.

           So here is the travelogue. I stress that you understand I just gave a glowing report of a success, but it is a far cry from finishing the building. I chose the back bedroom to begin, which was the easiest room. No plumbing in the way, well lit, dust-free, and as you see, once those subfloor sheets are laid loose across the joists, we have a super-comfortable indoor work environment.

           7:31AM JZ arrives to find I only have one small truckload of tree limbs and leaves, which we haul to the dumpster toot sweet. The original plan was to move the scooter, but I nixed that because it would leave me without transportation before this place is sold. This delay throwing away trash that wasn’t mine delayed us an hour and we are already a day late.

           8:31AM I pointed out the Little Ceasar’s Pizza on Hallandale, it is remarkable in being so long overdue. It is by far the most popular joint overnight, doing a booming business that doesn’t seem to be petering out. It certainly has caused a vacuum in the area, which almost never are working to capacity. We drove up I-95 to exit 87B since on weekends only, it trims 20 minutes off the trip.

           9:31AM Passing through Okeechobee, the radio says it is going up to 96°. So hot we did not see a single bird on the trip. Over the years, I’ve got JZ to at least look at birds, something I always do on the motorcycle. We continued on to the crossroads, hoping to grab coffee in Lake Placid.

           10:31AM Cancel coffee, the town was packed with no parking all the way back to the highway. We didn’t stop although both of us would normally visit anything like a festival. My guess is the annual caladium days or caladium exhibition. Remember caladium? I thought it was a mineral. We carried on north to the Zolfo Springs road in surprisingly light traffic.

           11:31AM Naw, we could not make it all the way without a stop, so into Wachaula for cold drinks. Say what you want, auto air conditioning does not ever get cool enough even when you blast it so hard it makes your skin surface cold to the touch. This is Florida, so we stopped for twenty minutes in the cold McD’s interior. Look around, I told you months ago this Wachaula, which I’d never heard of before, is a booming little place.

           12:31PM Arrive at 509 to find the house plastered with Zyklon B notices, or whatever gas they used, something sulphate. JZ is still stunned at how safe and quiet the neighborhood is. In Miami, those signs would merely have tipped the street gangs off the property was vacant. The signs were up for ten days before we arrived. Immediately upon entering the premises it was apparent this treatment also cleared up a slightly musty odor that I had taken to be part of an older building. You know, the old-people smell. It is completely gone.

           1:31PM Once again, after arguing priorities, I informed JZ my intention was to immediately repair or replace that fridge. That’s the one that the freezer worked, but the bottom was not getting cold. While we both knew it was the fan, I refused to allow either of us to go in there and start it. Why? Because neither of us had experience and that fridge (which came with the house) is pretty darn new. I brought in an appliance repairman who confirmed it was the fan and zapped me $55 for the house call.
           This is the typical point where JZ and I would argue. He says I wasted the $55, but I say I now have an excellent fridge that sells in the $800 range. I had a plan, that if the repair was over $80, I would junk it. So from my point of view, I save $25 by coming in under budget.

           2:31PM Again at my insistence, we went to the grocery and picked up $37 worth of cold drinks, including root beer, clamato juice, orange juice, grapefruit juice, milk, Pepsi, and some energy drink JZ loves but I won’t touch. I refuse to work indoors in this heat without adequate hydration, even though the room is fully air conditioned and circulated by two large fans. Work is work. I had a hard time convincing him I only intended to cut one joist in case the work or my theory proved wrong.

           3:31PM Here is the first joist notch. It’s blurry, but you can view all the elements we worked with. The joists are stripped to the basics and the saws-all blade is pointing right at the notch, which has not been knocked out yet. This was the schwerpunkt of the operation. My entire investment was lost if the house fell down as JZ constantly reminded me.
           Just behind the saw, you can make out the small bottle jack under a piece of 2x4. It raised that joist, the worst one of the lot, up 1/8th of an inch, just enough to stop the saw blade from binding. At this point, we, or at least I, began to notice the termites had attached only the top edge of the joists. Is this normal?

           4:31PM Success. The beam moaned a little but sank to the level of a chalk line I had stipulated earlier. JZ had never seen the dozen nights I was up to 3:00AM working over every aspect of the problem, for instance why I wanted to start on the worst joist instead of at one side and work along. Because, the worst joist will be the one contributing the least support to the structure. And yes, I realized this meant every joist would have to be custom cut. This was more work, but it was a better foretoken that the floor would be level the first time.
           At this point most of our old Ryobi 18V batteries failed. Rather than waste time trying to charge them, we drove all the way across town to the Home Depot on Mulberry road. Will somebody please dispell the old rumor that you can buy Ryobi parts anywhere except Home Depot? It took me twenty minutes and a wasted trip to Lowe's convince JZ of this fact. Ryobi is a Home Depot brand.

           5:31PM The joist did not sink all the way, but it was plainly so workable solution that I cut the remaining five notches in about an hour. It was eerie to hear the beams returning to shape from the pylon pressure. I would liken the sound to a very rusty door hinge. The only surprise was that in a few spots, the pylons rose up a little. That usually doesn’t happen to something buried in the ground.

           6:31PM These are representative photos only. There are nearly 4,000 photos already taken of this project. It means these are not necessarily a plan you can follow, but just pictures. And this one shows the first sheet of subfloor about ready to be dropped onto the joists. This sheet will not be attached until it is determined the surface is level and the beams have settled. The subfloor is merely to provide weight and a work floor as we progress.

           7:31PM If you are really sharp-eyed, you can see the same bad joist, with the top layer falling off from termite damage. There will be a sister joist placed along each, but for now, the floor is wonderfully level east to west. It is still settling north to south. We placed around a thousand pounds of weight to help it along. Make no mistake about it, if this works, I have creating my own little mini-mansion cottage in Florida that most people only dream about.

           8:31PM We reviewed the day and all I gotta say is that the photos are misleading because it looks like JZ is the one doing the all the work. Wrong, it only shows that JZ is not any good at taking photos of me at work. Let’s be very clear I am not working JZ to death under any theory. Sadly, some people have formed that wrong impression. I do about 70% of the work myself, including all that is shown in these pictures and including most of the heavy lifting. The one major project JZ undertook on his own was trimming the tree limbs away from the roof, and he insisted on that. Said it would take 20 minutes, took nearly two hours.
           Other than cutting the limbs away from the roof, JZ has not worked on his own on this project. What’s more, I have provided a nearly ideal work environment. That includes the thousand-dollar fumigation, JZ has not been bitten at all this time around. I was bitten once, on the shin. Fumigation seems to work, let's see how long that holds true.

           9:31PM You’ve got two dusty but not very tired crew members heading downtown for some well-earned libation. We arrived to a completely empty pub. I told you this was not a party town, you have to drive to the north part of town for that. I did haul out the mini-guitar and play a set to the empty room. Later, another guy came along and played a few tunes. But gee, he didn’t offer to buy the mini-guitar. I would gladly have sold it to him, you know.

           10:31PM Everybody is tired, me mostly from what was today a pretty good workout. JZ wanted some Circle K cuisine. I offered a full meal, but it was late and we did put in a fairly long day. As soon as we got in, JZ got into the room and jumped on the joists. Pretty solid. But I was so damn tired I took his word for it and slept seven hours. For the first time in years, I felt those slight aches and pains that let you know you ain't getting any younger.


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July 29, 2016

Yesteryear
One year ago today: July 29, 2015, that horrid Whoopi Goldberg.
Five years ago today: July 29, 2011, on political correctitude.
Nine years ago today: July 29, 2007, Cool Whip and ether.
Random years ago today: July 29, 2014, my "going nowhere fast" band.

MORNING
           How does a pile of scrap lumber get top billing? It’s 111° out there, that’s how. I told how the office decided to cut down my back yard shade tree right after I listed the place for sale. Well, this morning they informed me the mess they left in my back yard was my responsibility. I can’t really counter-argue that I had other plans or they would just find some excuse to hang around all day to see who shows up or what time I leave. I’ve told you before about these people.

           Thus, if we decide to leave for the weekend to Lakeland, it will mean stopping all over town first because I spent the morning raking leaves and hauling lumber instead of packing. And I’m pissed off, and that is why lumber gets a picture. So there.

           True, this blog reads quiet sometimes, but that’s the stealth part of learning. You always know something more than before when the day is done. And today, it is the information that everybody in the State of Florida who lives in a trailer park gets free legal services. This is not well-known, except to trailer park owners, who go out of their way to keep it a secret.
           Nothing actionable has happened, but today the park turned down another buyer because his credit was not so great. My point is, how often can they turn down my offers before things get unreasonable? Should they make the mistake of being to demanding, I’d quickly make the phone call. I’d argue for the price I’m asking, them taking two months to decide is hardly good faith.

Wiki picture of the day.
Nappy.
NOON
           No way. I could not clean up the back yard myself. JZ called, but I need him driving, not sweeping and raking. The work is heavy because the leaves got wet. Anyway, I don’t like the way JZ works, which is full blast until the job is done. I doubt he’s ever taken a siesta in his life. Hence, I blocked his idea of zipping over here this afternoon. He’d see the yard and launch into it. I can’t stall him forever so I have to get that mess cleaned up before he gets here. And you know how I love yard work.

           My A/C limit is 102° and the index is always over 110°, so I’m drenching in my own house. Plus, that missing shade tree in the back now means my bedroom unit is inadequate. The good news is I’ve discovered that Lakeland does, after all, have an Amtrak station. This got overlooked for an easy reason to understand. It is a spur line that connects to the station at Winter Haven. I would not have paid attention because some of these links are served by Amtrak bus, and I like to ride the train.

           The station makes Winter Haven look like a skid shack. The edifice, and you can just make out JZ in the shadow under the archway, shows that at some point, Lakeland was a major travel stop. There were five people in the spotless station with shiny floors. It was comical in a sad way, because JZ asked the staff if there was daily service and they almost pounced on him to buy a ticket.
           This became the butt of jokes all afternoon, that Amtrak put their agents on sales commission. Or the guy was told if he didn’t sell more tickets his job was on the line. Or they told the station to cough up more business or the rails would be sold to the scrap dealer. Ha, anyway, it is daily service and closer to my place in the southeast end than Winter Haven by a few miles anyway.

           Here’s a photo of me pointing to the rails to show JZ it was daily service. See, the rails ar enot rusty. It’s also a rare station in that it is in the very nicest part of town, across from that beautiful lake east of downtown. It is surrounded by walkways, parks, and fountains. I am still miffed about Amtrak’s policy on not allowing single men to take window seats, so next week I’ll see if the strongly worded letter I sent them a year ago has made any difference. Remember that? Where even if the train is empty, the conductors no longer let you choose your own seat “in case a family gets on”.
           Stop right here. I ride the train to see the scenery and the only system in America that is acceptable is first come, first serve. Otherwise that is a reservation, and the family has to make and possibly pay for reservations. I did not say the system was right or ideal or fair, merely that it is the only one acceptable.

+++ Ig Nobel Prize Winners +++
           Dr. Robert J. Genco: Economics, 1996. For his pioneering discovery that people who don’t have enough money to go see a dentist very often, very often don’t go see a dentist very often. It’s a mouthful just saying it, you might say. But, but Bob, are you sure you are getting to the root of the problem? +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++
NIGHT
           Two more buyers came along, but we have a problem. The year this unit was built, the height requirement was only six feet tall. And in here, it is a scant six feet due to interior trim. I’ll change the ad. The people that looked all wanted a place to live that was more economical that the outrageous rents being charged in this town. The real estate bust stopped most new construction, so now there is a housing shortage. Rent for a room in a house is over $1,000 these days.
           Do you recall the 1975 newspaper found in the new place. I have retrieved it and begun to peel open the brittle pages. Alas, it is too far gone, but I will attempt to scan the more notable articles although the scanning process will crush the pages like thin eggshell.

           The advertisements are revealing. A price only had to stay the same since 1975 to go down because of inflation. I will try to salvage the 1975 ad for those identical fans, those five-blade box fans they sell at Wal*Mart for $18.88. Using the most heavily manipulated of all government data, the consumer price index, you can verify the same fan sells today for the same price. But $18.88 in 1975 means today the fan should be priced at $74.77. Or looking at the other way, the same fan in today’s money sells for $4.21
           I’ve peeked ahead and can just peel back a section of the stock quotes, it appears to be the “D” stocks. If I succeed in working with that, let’s see if we find any surprixes.


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July 28, 2016

Yesteryear
One year ago today: July 28, 2015, the Lanai Kai Tunnel.
Five years ago today: July 28, 2011, a generic day.
Nine years ago today: July 28, 2007, a nothing day.
Random years ago today: July 28, 2008, Hummer golf cart.

MORNING
           I’m no fan of sitting around, so how about I cook up more nonsense about the silver market? My goal here is prove I’m just as qualified as the experts to explain what is going on over there. Like all self-styled pundits, I have to point out only those times where I’ve taken reasonably close guesses in the past. And my pet theory is that the crooked New York bankers and stock people are desperately manipulating the price by flooding the reporting system with fake low-price trading. Why should I pay $20 for silver when millions of ounces are trading at $18?

           My primary piece of “evidence” is the way silver prices normally drop the same time the NYMEX exchange is open. And pointing out how that technique has been getting weaker for months now. Well, look at today’s report. I added the yellow arrows. The fact that I’m making this up and have no idea what I’m talking about should not deter the reader from the pure logic being applied.

           See how the price was soaring until the NYMEX opened, but this time they could not plunge the price. They held it steady with their paper trading to just under $20 per ounce until closing time. But as soon as they quit and real silver started moving again, the price rose 50 cents an ounce. And my grand theory states that banks cannot sustain their silver certificate scam at prices above $17 per ounce.

           You see, in certificate form, the banks have already sold all the silver in the world several times over, including the silver that has not been taken out of the ground yet. If even a fraction of those certificate holders asked for their metal, the banks would have to start buying it, and the price would soar to (another guess) $200 per ounce in a few days and $2,000 per ounce in a month or two. Let’s see, where would I stand if silver was $2,000 per ounce? Probably somewhere in east Texas overlooking my estate.

           [Author’s note: while my silver story-line is pure fantasy, I point out that the underlying facts are entirely true. The banks have over-sold any amounts of silver they possess in the vaults. They expect to buy silver at the market rate should any significant number of investors attempt to redeem their certificates for real metal. The banks know that is only as likely to happen as, say, the bankruptcy of some southern European tin-hat country, a collapse of the dollar, or somebody they can’t buy getting into the White House. The banks are banking that those things never happen.]

Wiki picture of the day.
Walnuts.
NOON
           I revamped the ad for this place, stressing that I had a studio in here, and a small workshop, sort of the entrepreneur angle. There’s got to be someone out there who recognizes the advantage of this place as a place to operate out of. I’ll even counsel them on how to keep it a secret from the management, who have a policy against any home business, even if there is no way to tell from the outside. Like they didn’t like it when my buddies and I jammed music outside.
           It’s a scorcher, I’m headed to the movies. Later, don’t bother with the movie, “The Kind Words”. The title is meaningless, the movie is gloomy throughout. Much of the movie is senseless to those who lack an unusually firm grip on Jewish customs. The whole production is droll and promotes the notion that Jewish suffering is much more acute. Because, as we’re recursively tutored from birth, they’ve done so, so much more of it.

           Three Jewish kids discover their father is infertile and set out to find the inseminator, only to discover that, horrors, the guy is an Arab. All actors are as stereotyped as cinematically permissible and there are no attractive Caucasians shown in the entire footage, even in the distant backgrounds. I stayed for the air conditioning right to the semi-conclusive ending. In Hebrew with English sub-titles.
           The fourth person you see in this photo and all the movie advertising is playing the role of the female star’s husband. This is so none of you Gentiles would ever think a nice Jewish girl would go out on her own to Paris or Marseilles. Or into a disco or stay in a hotel. The monolithic virtue of Jewish womanhood does not lapse in this movie.

+++ Ig Nobel Prize Winners +++Note: This feature ceases here on July 31, 2016. There is not enough new material to sustain it.

           Shigeru Watanabe: Psychology, 1995. Shiggy taught pigeons how to tell paintings by Picasso and Monet apart. Or was it the other way around? Seriously, honeybees have been taught the same.
           Um, the tests also revealed that if Picasso paintings were hung upside down, a thorny real-life problem, the birds could still discriminate. But not so the Monets.
+++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++
NIGHT
           Too hot, I went to the Panera, a place I don’t care for. Noisy old men, crying babies, people yelling in Spanish, shouting into cell phones. But they’ve moved in two extra portable air conditioners and that was enough to get me in there. I had zipped across the road for some light groceries and spotted a tool, an apple corer. On the package, it also said it would core pears and tomatoes. Tomatoes? I’ve not seen that one before. I asked around and a little blonde cutie convinced me that tomatoes do have cores and her mother didn’t like them.

           That does it, I bought the corer, some apples, pears, and tomatoes and plunked them down in front of Steve, the guy who always carries a knife, or a blade of some description. I watched as indeed, the tomatoes were cored, something I would have considered the outside fringe of what spoiled rich kids would imagine. I mean lah-dee-dah.
           It not only works, the resulting tomato slices are better looking. They even looked easier to slice. I give in and now would like my tomatoes without the innards. It actually works pretty neat. We sliced up the lot and fed everybody. It’s the most healthy meal ever served in that club. Shown here are apples, pears and a cored tomato. You can just make out me holding the corer in the foreground.

           I left when the overhead started covering a political convention, but not right away. You see, for the first hour, I did not spot it as a political event. It was a stream of preachers and police, and grieving parents, so much that I thought it was a benefit for those cops killed in Dallas. There was no pitch for politics, except that I picked up that these people were bashing Trump far more than they were promoting anything positive or offering any alternatives. Instead, I noticed that this was a production by somebody who had learned the effectiveness that Trump gained by inviting the families of victims.
           Well, now I know it was the Democrat National Convention, of which I understand zero. But I sure know a staged circus when I see one. Some butchy broad up there getting people to sing clips of songs taken out of context and one bozo comparing Trump to Reagan, saying Reagan said tear down the wall. Yes, but that wall was built by the other side, you numbskull. In all, I saw a “convention” that was not pro-Hillary or pro-Democrat, but a jamboree designed to prey on people who knew only the media-generated anti-Trump version of everything.

ADDENDUM
           The situation of two motorcycles here is potentially solved. The obvious solution was to load the scooter into the truck and follow JZ up there on the sidecar, but is there an alternative? I think so and in fact, I’ll spell out why I think so. The new place, 509, is 5-1/4 miles from the Winter Haven train station. Next week, I drive the batbike with trailer up there and park it. Then, I hitch a ride to the station and catch the 2:00 o’clock southbound back to Hollywood. From there, it is a city bus to my old front door. where my old red scooter is waiting.
           The only unknown is getting from 509 to the station. After that, anyone who thinks I cannot navigate the Amtrak from Winter Haven to Hollywood has seriously not been paying attention since what, 2013? Nobody knows this, but my second choice after Lakeland was Perth, Australia. I mean, what have I got going for me here? And if Trump doesn’t get in, this place is a sewer and Miami is a worse sewer that it is already. I’m not being metaphorical by that much, Miami really is a human cesspool, the next Detroit. Don’t believe the newspapers, there are street gangs everywhere in full assimilation mode.
           Before you ever travel to south Florida, you should know it is nothing but a tourist trap. Any sight-seeing other than sitting on a boat is hours away through city traffic. As for entertainment, like I said, it is touristy. Even then, make sure you are the sort of tourist who likes only to drink, over-eat, watch TV, and not much else. For tourist men, there are incredibly expensive stripper bars, for women, incredibly expensive shopping concourses. Sorry for anybody else who might have aspirations beyond that. Florida is an awful lot like America’s cousin Eddie. It just kind of sits there all day long scratching its belly with both hands.


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July 27, 2016

Yesteryear
One year ago today: July 27, 2015, Trump vs. the media.
Five years ago today: July 27, 2011, scooters, Italians, ants.
Nine years ago today: July 27, 2007, Jay-Jay, “Sports Doctor”.
Random years ago today: July 27, 2006, a day at the shop.
MORNING
           Dear reader, the Ig Nobel Prize feature draws to a close at the end of this month. It was always an experimental feature and there is not enough source material. I’ll search for a replacement since the feature never was worth the extra effort to include it. Same with the Wiki picture. Yes, to research and format everything in this blog has to compete with my time for other projects. It would be silly to think the only thing I do every day is blog.

           To those who think they can legislate their way into $15 per hour jobs, take a look at this video. I reviewed some Australian material on Asian immigration. They are watching the city of Vancouver, Canada, as an example of what happens when you let the Chinese millionaires pour in. Canada had a policy that the immigrants had to have a net worth of $1.6 million, but forgot that is not much money and forgot to investigate where the Chinese got that kind of money. One doesn’t up and move to Canada and leave a profitable factory behind, nomsayn?

           This is similar to how the US turns a blind eye on the millions in South American drug money that pours into Dade and Broward every year. The locals who make places like Miami and Vancouver into desirable places to live are never consulted. Result, the Chinese have all but ghettoized Vancouver and refuse to assimilate.
           Ottawa has since begun to stipulate (or so I’ve heard) that the immigrants must now settle in Quebec. Hmmm, doesn’t that sound so much like the theory proposed by this blog so long ago, that immigrants must settle in small towns? But when I said it, there was backlash. Yeah, well just you remember my more radical theory of immigration is still considered outrageous, but nobody has ever shown that it would not work. That’s my “Young Females Only” immigration policy. It requires so much deep thought that everyone rejects it until they think it through.
           I’m saying, think of an immigration problem. Give me five minutes and I can explain how my policy solves the problem—but only if you have the capacity to follow along. Try me. Drugs? Crime? These things disappear in societies with a surplus of single women. See, I told you everybody who hasn’t thought it through will hate the concept until they do.

           One laugh has got to be how many Canadian sites ask if Chinese women are easy. What a dork question. They’re all easy, all women are easy. The fact that certain strains of men even have to ask is what is difficult. Have you heard the old joke that on Chinese women, it’s on there sideways? Pause for a visual, then say, “That’s how I learned to play harmonica.”

Wiki picture of the day.
Portugal.
NOON
           It looks like the old camera is still in service. The nice one I got from the club, well, the first thing I did was lose or mis-pack the proprietary charger. And the replacement is half the price of the camera, so it kind of goes on the back burner a while. I went up to Best Buy but as usual, they and Target will not stock a good Argus-grade camera in the $40 range. I had the honor of showing the male staff that my old Argus takes perfectly adequate pictures, as this photo demonstrates. The female staff think my camera makes the subjects look too skinny.

           The cheapest cameras remain [at Best Buy] the Sony, Nikon, & Canon models starting at over $100. Every one of these manufacturers leaves out some combination of important features that fit the ideal of a good low-end consumer product. Sony, with its insane button menu and disruptive software, Nikon with its fragile battery cover and slow reaction time, Canon with its lack of viewfinder and slow charging time. All are deficient over internal memory, default to ridiculous setting like the flash on, have no 640x480 jpeg format, and tend to forget your settings when you shut the thing off or change the battery.

           Xfinity is on a blitz to convince people they are honest, but anyone who has ever signed up for one of their intro packages is not about to listen to fat kids loitering around the TV aisles with a clipboard. I was up in Aventura to do some grocery shopping, since I’m living with a fridge and microwave these days. The nice touch is the market has free coffee and a dining area so you can buy lunch in the store and chow down right there. This, of course, would not be a good idea in places like Miami, you cn figure that out for yourself.
           I was there two hours and I don’t think there will be much agreement with JZ and I over the floor. I doubt enough of the original oak hardwood will be recyclable to finish a single room and even then, I would have to invest in a planer. JZ does not think the floor is worth insulating where I consider it vital to the job. And why doesn’t somebody design a better looking fire extinguisher if they want people to actually put one in each room of the house?

           We also talked about annuities because he is leaning toward having one established. However, over the past year I’ve been reading some disturbing news about the annuity market, in particular that it has been taken over by life insurance companies. And we know who owns those. My point being that if annuities have been infiltrated by insurance people, you had better get a lawyer to read the fine print. Insurance companies don’t make any money being clean and honest.
           I advise anyone to never put more than maybe a third of your nestegg in an annuity and even then consider it to be a defensive posture. And it will always disqualify you from ever getting any social benefits from the government should the entire economy do another 2006. In fact, I personally don’t think JZ is ever really going to see any meaningful Social Security benefits.

           Wait, I have some trivia. I saw a video of a lady scrubbing a shower curtain liner clean. Duh. You can throw those things in the wash, you know, gentle cycle. They come out like new. The odd one may tear, but they are so cheap I’m astonished anyone would clean one by hand. fun part was speculating about the shed in the new back yard. There is no way I can finish the interior to a housing standard. I grew up in a house that had bare good-one-side plywood on the walls and pull-chain lights. That I can afford but the real discussion was whether the place could potentially be adequate for long-term living, should rental income become necessary. I say certainly, and if the finishing was minimal, it would be very price-competitive indeed.

           Here is one of those video cams with no viewscreen. It uses your smartphone. I consider ideas like this to be a retrograde design step. These modular ideas come and go. Ask yourself why you never see anything like this still on the market a year or two later. This Sony cam is priced at nearly $200, so the wise shopper will spend the same money on something that can stand alone.

           I have company. The mice have found out I’m moving and one of them, their leader, is getting really nervy. Right in my trash can and found the bread I left on top of the stove last night. Chewed right through the package and hollowed out a little cave. Alas, he is doomed by this evening. He also got into my wild bird seed.
           You can’t buy a mousetrap any more. You have to buy the package of usually four. Hint, if you only need one, and like me you always wind up misplacing the other three, try this. Remove the latch and bait hook. Then the spring loaded wire can easily be slightly bent into a handy clip for blueprints, spray painting small articles, and an ingenious trip-wire system to let you know someone has walked in the room while you are wearing noise muffs.

+++ Ig Nobel Prize Winners +++
           Joseph Keller: Physics, 1999. For inventing a tea pot spout that does not drip. “This has implications,” says Joe.
+++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++
NIGHT
           What’s with my craving for a tuna melt? I don’t eat tuna. I don’t like the way they catch it and it doesn’t, to me, taste like fish. Do they even still sell a tuna melt? And if so, why hasn’t McD’s picked up on that one? That’s tonight’s top story unless I can dig you up some trivia. I’m still living in the empty shell of the old trailer. Did I ever tell you my second least favorite fish? Herring. I don’t care for herring unless it is smoked, and like oysters, they only smoke the product that is just on the verge of going bad.

           I had occasion to watch the police in action against a variety of “sovereign citizens”. It is clear the authorities have extended police power to bust heads over the issue. What got me, however, is that 100% of the instances involved the police initially pulling over a vehicle first, and that is something I most certainly have an opinion about. The single biggest thing America could do to restore the natural rights of citizens is to prevent the police from using traffic stops to overstep the Constitution. For instance, the Constitution says you have a right to travel. It is the police that say you need a driver’s license to do so in a car.
           The entire motor vehicle system accomplishes little but to strip citizens of the presumption of innocence. Think about it. Whether or not you have insurance should never have been a concern of the police. It is there mainly because the police want access to the information which would otherwise compel them to get a search warrant. Nor should it be the police’s business when you were born or where you live. In a strict interpretation, you should never tell strangers that information.
           Alas, the system is not going to change from the bottom up. Mr. Trump, make history and cancel the DMV except as a service that tells whether or not a person has passed a driving test, nothing more. No ID, no background info, no such thing as an expiration date. Pass that test once and the license is good for life. If they want ID, that is a separate matter.


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July 26, 2016

Yesteryear
One year ago today: July 26, 2015, lunch at the Lanai Kai.
Five years ago today: July 26, 2011, in broad daylight.
Nine years ago today: July 26, 2007, 800,000 dead.
Random years ago today: July 26, 2013, skinny me, 1977.

MORNING
           Let’s talk about budgets, and tie that in with sexy secretaries. Don’t assume you know what I’m talking about. Don’t assume I have a number of dollars from which expenses are deducted to see if there is enough left over. If you can’t explain a price variance or efficiency variance, you are about four years of tough study behind in the race. So far, on the new property, every variance has been unfavorable, yet I am still within budget. This is because I had to buy more direct materials than required for the immediate tasks. One cannot buy half a bale of insulation.

           This is not to give the impression I was an accountant at my old company. I was a satellite technician. I was not in management and my income wassignificantly greater than if I had been. To me, work is all about money. I used the company course reimbursement program to train for another career, having seen the writing on the wall some twelve years before anyone else. Here’s more information.
           My area of accounting expertise was cost allocations. Once every contract negotiation time, the company would herd us in for a meeting to moan how badly they were losing money. What they meant was that revenues were down—because they had foolishly decided not to get into the cell phone business. There was no money in it, they said. Note, I was the first person in the company to have a cell phone.

           Where is this leading? Well, you see, during those sessions, everyone quickly found I was regularly more highly-educated than management, who took great stock in “talking down” to the employees. Their unstated goal was to get the rank and file to vote for a low wage increase. But I would point out they were making [at one point] over $2,000,000 profit per employee per year. Try to imagine the question period with someone like me in the room.

           The company argument was high costs, but I could be a real expert on pointing out how the company often liked to reallocate cost over-runs back to participating departments based on some whacky methods such as the dreaded “perceived ability to pay”. Hence, a high-value area like mine, where the company billed customers $962 per hour, would get socked a huge chunk for obscure “services” like traffic support, where they had to keep 14 women on payroll so 6 would show up for work.

           That’s correct. The other 8 would perpetually be on vacation, ATO, maternity leave, or call in sick. Of all the wonderful “employee benefits” you hear of at the phone company, the bulk of it was never available to the single men who worked there. Those “departments of women” chewed up close to 9/10ths of the benefit pool so don’t hand me any donkey about wage equality. Naw-uh, Sparky. You give me a fair increase first, then we can talk about closing the gap—at your expense, not mine. Over the years they tried lots of women in satellite repair. Not one of them ever learned the job properly.
           How do I know? Because despite the company reluctance to allow for different employee skill sets, they always wound up sending the women to work with me to get them up to at least a minimum level of competence. The problem was, they still expected me to do 100% of my own job while conducting this training. Yes, I scored a lot, but that isn’t the point.

           And how do you like the pathetic Hillary supporters trying the lowest possible appeal, that she’s the first woman. C’mon all you uncommitted types, last time you got your first darkie, now be first with a woman. To hell with the issues, cute is more important. Like I said, pathetic. Remember, dear reader, I am not anti-Hillary. I am anti-corruption. The current administration has become an entrenched political class that is entirely on the take. When is the last time one of them went to jail?

Wiki picture of the day.
Norwegian church.
NOON
           Who remembers the Honda 250 Rebel a few years back? How somebody came in and bought it the day before I could show up with the money? Guess what? Today the same thing happened with the Keeway motorcycle I had carefully picked out and tested. And negotiated and planned into my system. Yep, it’s gone. If you think that’s a coincidence, there’s more. It was at the exact same motorcycle shop and the price was the same.
           It’s disappointing but not a disaster. The main difference, if you ask me, between the rich and the poor is that the rich have a cash reserve. That’s what has always allowed me to live better than people with far higher incomes than myself, with one qualification—that I have a cash reserve and they do not. For clarity, I’m not comparing myself to the rich with a reserve. That’s a comfort zone most of us will never know.
           And you know, I had a cash reserve. So, what happened to it? Why didn’t I scoop the Keeway last month? I can answer that. You see, houses costs money. That sort of took care of any spare money around here since the middle of May, both my money and everyone else’s where I had any say. Plus each trip up there costs $57 per day and there have been six trips.

           I stayed in another day, dealing with prospective buyers on the old. It’s the usual bunch of bottom-feeders. This one guy kept e-mailing that he had “$2,000 in cash as we speak”. I finally sent him a reply telling him how much cash I had “as we speak” and have not heard from him since. I spent the day watching news reports out of Afghanistan, the forgotten war. The graveyard of empires. My position is the USA [and Britain] pull out of the area entirely and let it return to its medieval mental state. The whole damn area is not worth the life of a single soldier.
           One recurring theme is how the Pakistanis keep saying they have to let the terrorists stay due to the custom of Pashtunwali. There are actually two codes of honor that apply, Melmastia and Nanawatei. Melmastia is hospitality to strangers who enter your house and Nanawatei is offering asylum in the form of refuge and shelter. This forms the biggest part of the excuses given by Pakistan for harboring the Taliban.

           The hilarious part is how the Pakistanis then don’t understand why the world considers them hypocrites. For openers, the majority, including the leader at the time, were not Pashtuns. Next, Melmastia applies only to strangers, and the armored compounds of Taliban living with their relatives hardly qualifies as strangers. Nanawatei names six cities where sanctuary is extended to a person who has killed someone. Quetta is not one of those cities. (The significance is that the code mainly applies to rural areas and the Taliban are hiding in cities.)
           Even then, the code does not say it is permissible to harbor a fugitive indefinitely, but only until the situation is clarified. That is, once it is clarified these people are wanted terrorists, they are to be handed over. But the biggest lie, the one that really puts the Pakistanis into perspective, is why the code does not force them to take in the coalition troops and protect them, as well. Gotcha!
           The Pakistani Prime Minister is the only known person in the world to have gone on major television networks and denied the Taliban and Al Qaeda are hiding in Pakistan, stating “only westerners” would believe such a thing.

+++ Ig Nobel Prize Winners +++
           Jaques Beneviste: Chemistry, 1998. Jack proposed that not only does water have a memory, it can be transmitted across the Atlantic Ocean by Internet. Jack lost his funding over that one. Water? Memory? Insert wet dream joke here.
+++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++
NIGHT
           Having overslept my own siesta, I investigated everything from shed kits to recent drone developments. Drones are human piloted for now, but as far as the question will they ever replace humans, the answer is absolutely. It is only a matter of time. The drones are faster, cheaper, expendable, and they’ve been surgically picking off bad guys for years now. As far as the human method of picking which targets to hit, meh. Let the drones hit them all. Like I said, cheap.

           Drone trivia. The drone as shown in this picture travels only 84 mph on average. It uses only 10% as much fuel as a jet fighter. The downward tail fins are to keep the propeller off the ground.

           I know that designing a remote control device is only a few percent of the cost of a robot, so most drones are still pilot controled. I also think the current practice of letting one soldier control one drone will be discontinued. The drones can hover around long enough to let a single operator take over just the terminal guidance phase. It will not be long before the drones are used domestically. Maybe to take out fleeing bank robbers or hostage takers.

           Anyway, last day I said there was no apparent camouflage against the seekers, but I got to thinking about that. I once watched how the Japanese had put of screens matching the scenery to march their troops down a mountain. Why would not sheets of ordinary tinfoil shield the infrared signature of a soldier enough at least to defeat the sensor? A few bright infrared flares every few seconds, like the aircraft spew, would those not reflect off the tinfoil and work even better?
           Once I figured this out, I was able to search and find sites that describe such methods.

ADDENDUM
           It’s official. The Miami Herald sucks even worse. On weekends, for $2, you used to get 3 crosswords, 2 Sudokus, 2 KenKens, 2 Jumbles, and 1 anacrostic. Now, for $3, you get one of each, and they just lost another customer. Don’t bother with the Sun. It doesn’t even have an index. My budget does not allow for $3 newspapers.


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July 25, 2016

Yesteryear
One year ago today: July 25, 2015, first house inspection, Florida.
Five years ago today: July 25, 2011, I expended massive brainpower.
Nine years ago today: July 25, 2007, this is Dixie Highway.
Random years ago today: July 25, 2008, quite the day.

MORNING
           Have you ever heard of an air curtain? Not me, so here is a link. I’ve walked through similar open doorways mentioned in the video, but it seems to me there would have to be a massive downrush of air to make these things work. I did not notice anything except the transition to cool. I’ll watch for one in action next time I visit the mall. I wonder if the make them for porches? The literature says they keep out insects. You learn something every day. Well, I do anyway.

           Later, I learned they do come in six-foot lengths for patios. If they work for patios, they will work for porches. Wouldn’t that be unique, a screenless air conditioned porch? I would only need six units. As usual, whenever I find something new to me, there are no real sources of information. I can’t find a single adequate demo video of the air curtain, just sales pitches.

           Once the insulation is complete, the new kitchen is going to consume 77% of the electricity in the new place. During the renovations, I’ve decided to pay the extra few cents per dollar to make the place less dependent on the grid. Small concessions, like if I put in skylights, leaving enough space between [design components] for your standard size voltaic panels. Instead of converting to propane, I’m thinking more along covering the bases instead by having a small area in the proposed shed that is equipped for power outages. Newcomers be informed that propane is no longer cheap.
           If I didn’t say, the back yard is huge enough for a 34’ shed combination garage. I’m waiting today on a buyer, so maybe I’ll check the prices of propane appliances. Last time I looked a propane refrigerator was $2,500 but I did not shop around. And that was a full-size fridge, which I may not need. Seems I recall a propane specialty store in Nevada. Return later, I’m heading out for a store-bought breakfast.

           Ta-da, I completed the NYT weekend crossword. Including the usual names of people I’d never heard of. The Miami Herald has cheaped out. The weekend price is up to $3 and they’ve removed the Sunday local puzzle page. Raising prices and cutting features is not the cause of their weakening revenues. It is their constant pro-Cuban anti-American stance. A year later they still run articles based on half-truths and debunked accusations. Samples: Trump is racist (he isn’t) and Trump called Mexicans rapists (he didn’t) and that Trump will wreck the system—as if it isn’t already broken and the other candidates cannot possibly fix it no how.
           Soon, I hope to find another paper for my daily puzzle fix. You know, I missed it, but I’d rather watch Mrs. Trump plagiarize any speech than watch Hillary squint at the teleprompter for the most original material in the universe. And that plastic-faced Ted Cruz bozo just does not know when to quit. I’ve never heard any of his speeches; his slick manner puts me off after a couple of sentences. If not for Trump, I would not know the guy is alive. My interest remains economics, not politics.

Wiki picture of the day.
Hong Kong
(The stars are permanently invisible.)
NOON
           The movie I watch last day, “The Guilty” gets another recommendation. The category is: movie with the most plot twists that is still easy to follow. I’d say there are around 30 because every major character in the story is somehow related to or knows each other. I would have considered the story complete without the surprise ending.

           I found the store in Nevada and reviewed their merchandise. It’s called Ben’s. You know, since the propane fridge is more of an emergency backup, I was drawn to the smaller units, which are quite reasonably priced. This photo is a small propane fridge. Note set of controls along the bottom panel. For now, these appliances are luxuries and I have zero plans to actually buy one. Hey, that’s two things I learned today.

           You bet, there is still some hokus-pokus going on with the silver market. The big players are manipulating to the hilt but cannot get the price back down below the critical $17 per ounce. It continues to float back to just below $20 no matter what. Personally, I think the European Union is toast. The over-privileged ruling class is too corrupt for anyone’s sensibilities. Watch for a revolution to be downplayed in the newscasts as right-wing neo-Nazi movements composed of ordinary people in the streets.

+++ Ig Nobel Prize Winners +++
           Callum F.G. Ormonde, Colin L. Raston, Tom Z. Yuan, Stephan T. Kudlacek, Sameeran Kunche, Joshua N. Smith, William A. Brown, Kaitlin M. Pugliese, Tivoli J. Olsen, Mariam Iftikhar, and Gregory A. Weiss, : Chemistry, 2015. This is the team working on a chemical method of unboiling an egg. For practice, they put their names in a bucket, shake it, and try unscrambling that.
+++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++
NIGHT
           I turned in early only to be awakened by a sound that has become unfamiliar. Rain on the roof of an empty building. The old place is empty except for the Spartan bed, table, and chair needed while I sell the place. Hence the rain on the roof creates a hollow echo inside that woke me up repeatedly. Okay, all you budding poets and songwriters, there’s a theme for a better country song than what’s out there.
           So I read some material on what’s happening in the army with camouflage. I can understand they are not telling us the good stuff, but I can’t understand why far more extensive use is not made of infrared detection. The best sensors can detect a quarter of a degree temperature difference and see through smoke, dark, and foilage. I thought maybe it is too expensive, but that’s wrong considering how the Pentagon wastes money. Want to make millions? Invent some kind of dummy that looks like the infrared signature of a soldier. Right now, the only way is to take hostages along.
           I also conclude the army is not or purposely not using infrared detection to seal off areas of enemy activity. The detectors are cheap, you can make one by removing the red filter off any old digital camera. It is ludicrous to watch some military type standing beside some mountains in Asia saying they can’t find the enemy. When, in fact, they can spot every fart and muzzle flash within twenty miles. Like Viet Nam, they seem more interested in continuing the war than winning it.

ADDENDUM
           Germany again. How many more have to die before they get over their guilt trip? My guess is only a couple hundred. The Germans have considerable experience dealing with religious and political fanatics in their midst. You have to love the way the media says there are not terrorist ties when they mean the police have not looked deeply enough yet. Merkel is a traitor, a completely indoctrinated traitor, pitiless on her own countrymen. War-like nations like China have proven for two millennia that the Liberal idealistic “homogenous population” is no a cure for violent aggression. Integration, my eye.


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